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A MODERN HISTORY 

OF 

NEW LONDON COUNTY 

CONNECTICUT 



EDITOK-IN-CHIEF 

BENJAMIN TINKHAM MAKSHALL, A.M., D.D. 

PRESIDENT OF CONNECTICUT COLLEGE, NEW LONIX^N 




VOLUME I 

1922 
LEWIS HISTOKICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

NEW YOKK CITY 



.1^7 ^13 



OOPT RIGHT 

LEWIS HaSTORICAL PUBLISHXNG COMPANY 

1922 



I 

JUL 27 1925^ 
)C1ASG4023 'N 



FOREWORD 

The early history of New London County has been well covered by 
Miss Caulkins' histories of Norwich, and of New London, in various local 
addresses on special occasions, and in more formal articles prepared for the 
20oth anniversary of the founding of Norwich. Notable amongst these was 
the historical address of Daniel Coit Gilman, delivered at Norwich on Sep- 
tember 7, 1859. To enumerate the special papers delivered at the meetings 
of the New London County Historical Society, at the dedication of monu- 
ments and public buildings of the county, on patriotic occasions, on the 250th 
anniversary of the town of Norwich (1909). and in almost countless addresses 
on special topics given before interested audiences in churches and halls, 
not to mention the many excellent contributions of the press, would in itself 
be an arduous task, interesting though it might be. 

Very few parts of our country are more filled with historical associations. 
Indian legends, mingled with a vast amount of verifiable Indian history; 
Revolutionary stories, with a record of honorable action surpassed nowhere ; 
loyal patriotism in the days of the Civil War, under the leadership of Governor 
Buckingham, himself a resident of Norwich, all these offer a wealth of 
material to the investigator. Out of the great mass of historical writings 
inspired by such a splendid past there looms up a background, a heritage 
of memories, that should urge on every citizen of New London County today 
to better citizenship, to more devoted public service. 

From some of these records and addresses we have quoted— they were 
written bv men and women who were near the events described— for we 
believe that true patriotism is a deep sentiment toward one's native land, 
not simply a series of outward acts. This abiding sentiment of affection 
and unselfishness in a people, as in an individual, is rooted in memory. By 
the memory of earlier days, by knowledge of the sacrifices of earlier patriots 
who made liberty possible for us, will the true spirit of Americanism be best 
nourished. Nor is the Indian history without value. Even if, in the light of 
history, "the noble red man" of Cooper's novels seems a somewhat idealized 
figure, surely nowhere else in America may be found a better typical picture 
of the early' relations of the white settler and the aborigine. We see them 
both at their best and at their worst. We have the grim picture of John 
Mason as he leads his resolute forces on to the utter destruction of the Pe- 
quots, and we have the picture of Uncas in all things, "Wauregan," living 
in unbroken amity with the Norwich colonists ; we learn of Samson Occum, 
the Mohican who visited England and brought back ten thousand pounds to 
Dartmouth College. The present work, then, aims to emphasize only such 
features of the early history of our country as are helpful to the modern 
reader in visualizing the days of occupation, of settlement, and colonial devel- 
opment, the essential background by which to emphasize modern conditions. 
Our history for the last fifty years, inasmuch as this has not been printed 
in any one volume, will be described with greater minuteness. It is hoped 



thit this portion of the work may be helpful for some years to come as x 
storehouse of information. 

Among the well informed persons who have labored in this under- 
taking, the principal place is to be given to Professor Henry A. Tirrell, 
Principal of the Norwich Free Academy, as the author of the exhaustive chap- 
ter on Education, and writer on other topics. Other more important papers 
and of enduring value arc those on "Church History," by Rev. Henry W. 
Hulbcrt, D.D., Pastor of the First Church of Christ, Groton ; on "Medicine, 
Physicians and Surgeons," by Charles B. Graves, M.D., former President 
Connecticut State Medical Society ; on "Insurance," by Walter F. Lester, 
President New London County Mutual Fire Insurance Company; on "Vol- 
unteer and Paid Fire Departments," by Howard L. Stanton, Chief Norwich 
Fire Department, and on "Old Families and Old Homes of Norwich" and 
kindred topics," by Mrs. Edna Miner Rogers, Regent of Faith Trumbull 
Chapter, D. A. R. 

The publishers of the History, The Lewis Historical Publishing Com- 
pany, through its agents, editors and official staff, has secured and arranged 
all the genealogical and biographical matter proper, which appears in the 
work, and for this material the Editor-in-Chief bears no responsibility. 




CONTENTS 

Chapter I— General Facts About New London County— Naming and 
Earliest Settlement of the Twenty-one Towns— Scenery— Geography 
—The Aborigines— Uncas and the Mohegans— John Mason— Mian- 
tonomah— Early Government— Customs of Settlers— Journal of 
Madam Sarah Knight— Religious Conditions . - - - i 
Chapter II— The Beginnings of Education— General Definition of Edu- 
cation—Outline of Educational Development in Connecticut— Early 
Schools in Norwich— Early Schools in New London— The "Norwich 
Tests"— The District System— Supervision— Trade Schools— Model 
Schools— Normal Schools— Education of Indians in Early Days- 
Founding of Dartmouth— Samson Occum— Dr. Nott's Sermon- 
Music Vale Seminary ---------31 

Chapter III— An Era of Unrest— Revolutionary War— Nathan Hale- 
Battle of Groton Heights— Rathbun's Narrative— Account of Rufus 
Avery — Of Stephen Hempstead— AUyn's Account of Death of Col, 
Ledyard— The War of 181 2— Early New London Whalers— Early 

Manufactures— Life of Daniel W. Coit " 5' 

Chapter IV— Little Known Facts About New London County— Begin- 
nings of Railroads and Telegraphs— Shipbuilding— Adams Express 
Company— Donald G. Mitchell's "Looking Back at Boyhood"— 
Ancestors of Six Presidents— Father of Oliver and Matthew Perry 

Wolves in Early Days— Shaw Mansion — Celebrated Sons and 

Daughters of New London County 81 

Chapter V— The City of New London— "Edelwiss"— John Winthrop 
the Younger— Natal Day— Bride Brook— Home Lots— Will of Mary 
Harries— Estate of Governor Winthrop— Anecdotes of Revolutionary 
War— Arnold's Account of the Expedition Against New London- 
Whale Fisheries at New London and Stonington— Stephen Decatur — 
Voyage of the "Savannah"— The Early Press— Poem on the Old Mill 97 
Chapter VI_The City of Norwich— Stedman's "Inland City"— Deed of 
Norwich— First Proprietors— Settlement from Saybrook— Life of 
Capt. Mason— The Early Press— Visits of Eminent Men— Effects 
of War— Benedict Arnold— Anecdotes of Early Times— Early Indus- 
tries—Early Physicians— Lincoln at Norwich— Data About Founders 
and Interesting Spots --------- 123 

Chapter VII— Other Towns of New London County— Colchester— East 
Lyme— Franklin— Griswold — Groton — Lebanon — Eminent M e n — 
The War Office— "Brother Jonathan"— Early Settlers— Lisbon— 
Lyme and Old Lyme— Salem— Sprague— Stonington— Voluntown— 

Waterford »77 

Chapter VIII— New London County Today— Its Population— Improve- 
ments— Scenery— Historic Relics— Public Buildings— Industries— 



vi NEW LONDOX COUXTY 

Grand Lists — Index of Manufactures — Anniversary Celebrations at 
New London and Norwich - - - 2II 

Chapter IX — Miscellaneous Information — Resources of the County — 
Character of Industry in Each Town — Assets — Changing Population 
— Financial Statistics — Lists of Public Officials — Significant dates 
— Representatives and Senators (State) .-.--. 227 

Chapter X — Educational Institutions — Connecticut College— Norwich 
Free Academy- — Bacon Academy — The Bulkeley School — Williams 
Memorial Institute — New London Vocational High School — Mystic 
Oral School for the Deaf — The Wheeler School . - - 243 

C+iapter XI — Religion in New London County — Early Conditions — 
Various Types of Churches — Theological Differences — Foreign 
Service — Connection Between Church and School — The Colonial 
State Church — Preaching to the Indians — "Rogerenes" — "Half-Way 
Covenant" — Parishes and Towns — The Congregational Denomina- 
tion — Baptist Churches in the County — The Episcopal Church — 
Methodism — Various Religious Bodies — Roman Catholic Churches 
— Universalists - 271 

Chapter XII — Counts and Lawyers in N'cw London County— New Lon- 
don District — Norwich District — Bozrah District — Colchester Dis- 
trict — East Lyme District — Groton District — Lebanon District 
— Ledyard District — Lyme District — Montville District — North 
Stonington District — Old Lyme District — Salem District — Stoning- 
ton District — Lawyers of Note — Members of County Bar — Memorial 
Addresses — County Court House — Eulogies - - - . ^23 

Chapter XIII — Medicine and Medical Men — Early Life of the Pioneers — 
Primitive Conditions of Medical Practice — Epidemic Diseases — 
Cholera — Medical Organization — Early Physicians — References 363 

Chapter XIV — New London County Press — New London Day — Nor- 
wich Bulletin — Cooley's Weekly — Editors and Manaprers - - 401 

Chapter XV — Banks — Early Banking — Famous Banks — National Bank 
System— Union Trust and Bank Company— New London City 
National Bank — Merchants' National Bank of Norwich — Norwich 
Savings Society— Thames National Bank, Norwich — Savings Bank 
of New London— National Whaling Bank — Mystic River National 
Bank— First National Bank of Stonington— National Bank of Com- 
merce of New London — Uncas National Bank — Groton Savings Bank 
— Chelsea Savings Bank — Mariners Savings Bank — Dime Savings 
Bank— Jewett City Savings Bank— Jewett City Trust Company- 
Bankers Trust Company— Pawcatuck Bank and Trust Company — 
Wintlirop Trust Company -------- 423 

Chapter XVI— Fire Insurance in New London County— A Primitive 
Necessity — First American Companies— Mutual Assurance Company 
of the City of Norwich— Last of Eighteenth and First of Nineteenth 
Century — The Norwich Fire Insurance Company— A New London 
Company — Other Early Companies in Connecticut — New London 



CONTENTS vii 

County Mutual Fire Insurance Company — Fire Insurance Agents in 
the County — List of Agencies in the County - - - - 457 

Chapter XVII — Norwich Fire Department — Early Days — Serious Fires 
— Actions of Common Council — Norwich Companies at Boston Fire 
in 1872 — Various Ordinances Regulating the Fire Department — 
Statistics of Alarms "Rung In" — Pension Fund — Equipment - 475 

Chapter XVIII — New London Fire Department — Early History — First 

Companies — Chiefs and Other Officers — Groton Fire Company - 489 

Chapter XIX — Community Activities — History of Various Firms — 

Manufacturing — Taftville — Civic Spirit ----- ^g^ 

Chapter XX — Fraternal Brotherhoods — Masonic — Odd Fellows — Other 
Orders — Fourteen Lodges of New London County — First Building 
in the World erected by Masons exclusively for Masonry — Elks 507 

Chapter XXI — Patrons of Husbandry — History of the Grange — Oliver 

H. Kellcy — Granges in New London County — Picture of the Grange 521 

Chapter XXII — The Red Cross — The Four Chapters of New London 
County — Work of Norwich Chapter — New London Chapter — Vari- 
ous Activities ..- 529 

Chapter XXIII — Notable Places and Homes — Washington's Visits to the 
County — Stage Coach and Tavern Days — Various Famous Taverns 
— Potteries of Norwich — Silversmiths of New London County — Pine- 
hurst — The Barrel House ........ 533 

Chapter XXIV— Military History— Civil War— Spanish War— World 

War — Muster Roll of Spanish W^ar — Honor Roll of Various Towns 581 

Addenda — Mary Lydia Bolles Branch — Benedict Arnold — The Groton 

Massacre — Fire Insurance — Norwich Fire Department - - 617 





LIGllTHOUi 



CHAPTER I 

GENERAL FACTS ABOUT NEW LONDON COUNTY 

The Early Towns— Natural Features of the Region— The Indian Occupants— First 
White Settlers — Illuminating Documents from the Past. 

New London County, occupying the southeastern part of Connecticut, 
is bounded on the east by the State of Rhode Island, on the south by Long 
Island Sound, on the west by Middlesex and Tolland counties, and on the 
north by Hartford, Tolland and Windham counties. 

The county, with an area of approximately seven hundred square miles, 
is composed of twenty-one towns, Bozrah, Colchester, East Lyme, Franklin, 
Griswold, Groton, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Lyme, Montville, New London, 
North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Preston, Salem, Sprague, Stoning- 
ton, Voluntown, Waterford ; and has a population (census of 1920) of 155,311. 

This county was one of the first four counties of the State, organized 
in 1666, and originally included a considerable part of the present Middle- 
sex county, extending as far west as Clinton. Of the five first cities of 
Connecticut chartered in 1784, New London county had two. New London 
and Norwich. Of the twenty-one towns of the county: 

New London was settled as "Pequot" in 1646; named from London, 
England, and authorized as a town in 1658. 

Stonington was settled in 1649 ^"d named Stonington in 1666. 

Norwich, named from Norwich, England, in 1659, was settled by a Say- 
brook colony in 1660. 

Lyme, named from Lyme Regis, England, in 1667, was set ofT from 
Saybrook in 1665. 

Colchester was settled and named from Colchester, England, in 1699. 

Preston was named in 1687 from Preston, England. 

Lebanon, named from Lebanon in Sxria, was incorporated in 1700. 

Groton, set off from New London in 1704. was named from the English 
home of Governor John Winthrop in 1705. 

Voluntown, "Volunteers Town," named in 1708, was settled in 1719. 

Bozrah, with Biblical name, was set off from Norwich in 1786. 

Franklin, set off from Norwich, in 1786, was named for Benjamin 
Franklin. 

Lisbon, set off from Norwich in 1786, was named from Lisbon, Portugal. 

Montville, set off from New London in 1786, took the French name of 
"Mount Ville." 

Waterford, set off from New London in 1801, took a name descriptive 
of its nature. 

North Stonington was set off from Stonington in 1807. 

Griswold, named from Governor Roger Griswold, was set off from 
Preston in 1815. 
N.L.— 1-1 



2 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Salem, named from Salem, Massachusetts, was set off from Colchester, 
Lyme, and Montville in 1879. 

Ledyard, named from Colonel William Ledyard of Fort Griswold fame, 
was set off from Groton in 1836. 

East Lyme was set off from Lyme and Waterford in 1839. 

Old Lyme was set off from Lyme in 1855, and named Old Lyme in 1857. 

Sprague, named from its founder, William Sprague, was set off from 
Lisbon and Franklin in 1861. 

The following note is prefixed to the list of Connecticut towns printed 
in the Connecticut Register and Manual (1920). 

Until 1700, almost the only official action of the colonial government (General 
Court) in regard to town organization, was to authorize the town name, usually 
chosen by its leading man, from his home in England. In October, 1700, we find 
implied or quasi incorporation, such as exists to this day, in the records: "This assem- 
bly doth grant to the inhabitants of the town of Lebanon all such immunities, privi- 
ledges and powers, as generally other townes within this Colonie have and doe enjoy." 
The authoritative legal definition of a town in England, contemporary with the earliest 
Connecticut settlements, is given in the first edition of "Coke's Commentaries upon 
Littleton," published 1628; "It can not be a town in law, unless it hath, or in past time 
hath had, a church, and celebration of Divine services, sacraments and burials." The 
church bodies which moved bodily with their pastors from Massachusetts to Con- 
necticut, proceeded to exercise the secular powers which we regard as those of the 
town, but the English township is known by its ecclesiastical name of parish. Several 
of our towns were first set ofT as parishes, from great town tracts; yet the town in 
Connecticut colony essentially separated church and state in government, in that 
it never restricted political suffrage to church-members. As to dates, the official 
colonial records are followed, as soon as they begin, 163C. 

For the beauty and variety of its natural scenery. New London county 
is excelled by very few regions of equal area. Its southern shore, from the 
broad sweep of the Connecticut river eastward along a coast of singular 
charm, with its jutting points and its alluring inlets; by Niantic bay, which 
Governor Winthrop, as he looked off from the heights above, called one of 
the most beautiful spots he had ever seen, outward to the majestic estuary 
of the Thames with its noble harbor; still eastward by the beautiful islets 
of Noank and Mystic till that point is reached where the States of Rhode 
Island, New York and Connecticut meet near the harbor of Stonington, is 
as wonderful today as when the Indians gazed upon its beauties. 

And the scenery of the coast is matched by the wooded hills, the rushing 
streams, the placid lakes, the rich valleys, farther inland. The summer 
visitor today is found in all parts of the county, not only in the summer 
colonies built up near the coast, but in many a broad estate whose owner 
is content to preserve the forest, the rockbound glens, the rich verdure that 
Nature has so generously supplied. 

The chief waters of the county besides its large ponds and lakes are the 
Connecticut, Thames, Shetucket, Quinnebaug, Yantic, Pawcatuck, Mystic, 
Poquonock, and Niantic rivers, all flowing in a general southerly course to 



GENERAL FACTS 3 

the Sound. Its navigable waters and its abounding water power have con- 
tributed largely to its economic development, from the early days when 
extensive commerce sprang up with all quarters of the globe, to the later 
times when manufacturing founded the fortunes of many of its citizens. With 
such natural advantages Connecticut enterprise and ingenuity have made 
possible a growth far beyond the expectations of the men of even fifty years 
ago. One part of this history will be devoted to this remarkable expansion 
of recent years. 

No true conception of the growth of the county is possible without an 
understanding of the character and customs of the early settlers, the diffi- 
culties they had to overcome, their relations with the Indians, their participa- 
tion in the broader colonial interests, in the Revolutionary War, in the affairs 
of the State and Nation. 

The first settlers, many of them of Pilgrim stock and practically all of 
them of Puritan origin, had the same deep religious convictions and the 
same stamina that other New England colonists had. They had inherited 
from their Anglo-Saxon ancestors a genius for self-government, which, 
checked by the Stuart despotism in England, burst into bloom in the new 
life of a New World. Hardships were endured and overcome. Yet in the 
midst of a severe struggle for existence, they never lost sight of the great 
things of life. Religion, education, and morality were the strong supports 
of local governments founded on law and order. Difficulties strengthened 
their characters both individually and collectively. It may well be said 
that the menace of hostile Indians was one of the main incentives to co- 
operation amongst the early settlers of New England. 

The Pequot War was undoubtedly the first step toward the settlement 
of New London county, for it was not until that tribe had been virtually 
annihilated that it was safe for colonists to settle in this region. Of the many 
anecdotes connected with the war, some will be given in the histories of 
separate towns. We print a general survey from Kurd's "History of New 
London County": 

The territory was preoccupied by the Pequots. a powerful tribe of 
Indians belonging to the widespread Algonquin or Delaware race. This 
powerful tribe had by their cruelty become the dread of the whites far and 
near. Rendered bold by numbers, and jealous of every encroachment, they 
had resolved upon nothing less than the utter extermination of the whites, 
and shrank from no means, however appalling, which might conduce to the 
accomplishment of their bloody purpose. Massachusetts had in 1634, with 
much effort, induced them to allow the peaceable settlement of certain por- 
tions of their domain, and to offer satisfaction for former outrages. But the 
natives were slow to fulfill the conditions of this treaty, and Captain Endicott 
was sent out by the Massachusetts colony, at the head of ninety men, to 
enforce the treaty and to chastise them for their past offenses. 

This ill-advised expedition failed utterly of its objects, and only tended 
to exasperate the Pequots, who during the succeeding fall and winter were 
untiring in their attempts to league the other Indians with them in a war 
of extermination against the whites, and redoubled their own efforts to rid 



4 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

themselves of the noxious strangers. Savages lurked in every covert, and 
there was no safety for life or property. The colonists could not travel 
abroad, or even cultivate their fields, but at the peril of their lives. Their 
cattle were driven ofif, their houses burned, the navigation of the river was 
seriously impeded, and even the fort at Saybrook was in a state of constant 
siege. By spring the situation had become critical in the extreme. Nearly 
thirty murders had been committed, and utter ruin threatened the colony 
unless decisive measures should at once be taken. In this emergency a 
General Court was convened at Hartford on the nth of May, 1637, at which 
it was decided to proceed at once to an offensive war against the Pequots, 
and for the first campaign to send out a force of ninety men under Capt. John 
Mason, then in command of the fort at Saybrook. 

About this time. Mason and the warrior Uncas met and formed a 
temporary alliance, which was, however, destined to continue without serious 
interruption for a long series of years, and prove of great and lasting benefit 
to the settlements. Uncas was related both by birth and marriage to the 
Pequot royal family, but .soon after his marriage he became involved in diffi- 
culties, the nature of which is not exactly known, which resulted in his 
banishment to the Narragansett country. He was afterwards permitted to 
return, but a recurrence of the same troubles led to his banishment for a 
second and even a third time. He thus at length became permanently exiled 
from his own people, and we find him upon the Connecticut river, near the 
infant settlements of Hartford and Windsor, in the spring of 1637, at the head 
of about seventy warriors. Both Mason and Uncas were eminently fitted to 
be military leaders, each of his own race. Mason possessed marked military 
tastes which had been developed and trained in the wars of the Netherland 
under Lord Fairfax; while Uncas, by nature brave and shrewd, had, as a 
member of the royal family of a strong and warlike nation, abundant oppor- 
tunity to acquire a thorough knowledge of the methods of Indian warfare. 
An alliance of two such representative men of the two races then competing 
upon American soil could not fail to make an impress upon their peculiar 
surroundings. Uncas agreed to join the expedition with his warriors, and 
the united forces embarked at Hartford on the 20th of May of the same year 
and proceeded to drop down the river. In the course of the voyage the 
Indians had opportunity to demonstrate their fidelity, which had been unjustly 
suspected by some. As the water in the river was low and the passage tedious, 
the Indians were at their own request allowed to disembark and proceed 
along the bank. When near Saybrook, they met and defeated a party of 
Pequots, killing seven and taking one prisoner. After their arrival at Say- 
brook, the commandant of the fort, still distrustful of Uncas. addressed the 
sachem as follows: "You say you will help Captain Mason, but I will first 
see it ; therefore send twenty men to Bass river, for there went last night 
six Indians there in a canoe; fetch them, dead or alive, and you shall go with 
Mason, or you shall not." Uncas did as he was required. His warriors 
found the enemy, killed four of them, and took another prisoner. This exploit 
of the sachem was regarded by Lieutenant Gardiner as a sure pledge of his 
fidelity. 

Captain Mason had received instructions to land at Pequot Harbor, but 
his military judgment led him to sail direct to the Narragansett country and 
make his attack upon the enemy from a point whence they would least expect 
it. He accordingly proceeded thither, and on Saturday, May 30th, towards 
evening, dropped anchor off the shores of the Narragansett. As there was a 
strong northwest wind, they remained on shipboard until Tuesday, when 
Mason landed and marched directly to the residence of Canonicus, the Nar- 



GENERAL FACTS 



ragansett chief, and informed him of his design of attacking the Pequots in 
their strongholds, and demanded a free passage through the Narragansett 
country. The request was readily granted, and Miantonomoh, nephew of 
Canonicus, suggested that the numbers of the English and Mohegans were 
too small for an invasion of the Pequot country, and volunteered to send two 
hundred of his braves with the expedition, though he did not himself ofTer 
to accompany them. 

On the following morning the vessels were manned with a small force, 
as a larger could not be spared, and were ordered to sail for the mouth of 
Pequot river. The land force, consisting of seventy Englishmen, and sixty 
Mohegan warriors under Uncas, with tlie addition of two hundred Narra- 
gansett volunteers, commenced its march westward. After proceeding about 
twenty miles through a rough country, with only a narrow Indian foot-path 
for their passageway, they arrived at a place called Nehantic, where they 
remained overnight. When the English resumed their march on the follow- 
ing morning they were overtaken by others of the Narragansett people, so 
that they were followed, as they supposed, by near five hundred warriors. 
As the day was warm and the way rough, several of the men fainted from 
exposure and want of food. After a march of about twelve miles they reached 
a ford in the Pawcatuck river, where a halt was made for rest and refresh- 
ment. It had been ascertained that the majority of the Pequot warriors were 
in two forts or inclosures of palisades, one of which was commanded by 
Sassacus in person, and both regarded by the Indians as within and without 
impregnable. Mason had originall}- designed to divide his forces and attack 
both places simultaneously, but from information received during the halt 
upon the Pawcatuck he learned that the forts were situated at too great a 
distance apart to allow of a division of his force, and he decided to advance 
at once upon the fort on Pequot Hill. The Narragansetts, on learning of 
his design to attack Sassacus in his stronghold, were smitten with deadly 
fear. "Sassacus," they said, "was all one god, and could not be killed." So 
great was their trepidation that a hundred of their number beat a precipitate 
retreat, and reported in the Providence plantation that the English had all 
fallen. 

At this time ^lason called Uncas to him, and asked him what he thought 
the Indians would do. "The Narragansetts," replied this brave sachem, "will 
all leave us," "but as for himself 'he would never leave us'; and so it 
proved, for which expression I shall never forget him. Indeed, he was a 
great friend, and did great service." The Pawcatuck was the last boundary 
before the country of the Pequots, and as the Narragansetts found them- 
selves nearing the strongholds of their dreaded rivals, their timidity increased 
and all but a handful turned back. The Mohegans, however, encouraged by 
their chief, mustered the courage to proceed. The small army advanced 
cautiously till towards evening, when they came to a little swamp between 
two hills, near what are now called Porter's Rocks, where they halted for 
the night. Rising at an early hour on the following morning, they reached 
the fortress a little before daybreak. The plan of attack had been so 
arranged that Mason was to approach the enemy through the main entrance 
on the northeast side with one division, while Underbill was to make an 
attack on the southwestern entrance with his division. Uncas with his 
force was to form an outer line to act as circumstances might indicate. When 
within a rod or two of the fort a dog barked, and the alarm was given. The 
troops rushed on, discharging their muskets through the palisades, and then 
forced an entrance. Mason, with his part3^ drove the Indians along the main 
avenue of their fortress towards the west till they were met by Underbill 



6 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

and his division, \vho had effected an entrance upon that side, when, finding 
themselves between two fires, they were forced to retreat to their wigwams, 
where a desperate resistance was made. For a few moments the conflict 
seemed doubtful, when Mason, realizing the gravity of the situation, hit 
upon the expedient of burning out the foe, and snatching a brand from the 
fire applied it to the dry matting of a wigwam. The fire spread with great 
rapidity, and the whole seventy wigwams were soon in flames. The English 
retired without the wigwams, and Uncas and his followers formed a circular 
line close in the rear of the English. The consternation of the Pequots was 
so great that but few attempted to escape. About six or seven were made 
prisoners by the English, eighteen were captured by the Mohegans, and 
seven only made their escape. It so happened that one hundred and fifty 
warriors from the other fortress were this night in the fort upon Pequot Hill, 
which made the victory still more complete. 

This famous encounter occurred on Friday, June 5th. The same day. at 
an early hour, the small fleet entered Pequot Harbor. As Mason's force was 
about to move in the direction of the vessels, a party of Indian warriors 
approached them from the other fort, but one or two volleys from their trusty 
weapons served to keep them at a safe distance. The few Narragansetts that 
hung upon the rear of the little column as it moved steadily up the hill were 
not slow in making their appearance when the contest was decided, evincing 
all the courage of tried veterans. They finally accompanied Captain Mason 
to the harbor, and afiforded some assistance to those who conveyed the 
wounded. The total loss on the part of the English was two killed and 
twenty wounded. 

Sassacus at this critical period was in the fortress on Fort Hill, where 
he was loudly denounced by his warriors as the procuring cause of their late 
disaster at the other fort. The Pequots at this fort were also greatly exas- 
perated at the course of Uncas and his followers, and caused all of their near 
relatives to be slain, except seven who made their escape. 

On the day after the battle, a council of the Pequot nation was held to 
decide upon their future course of action, and after a hasty deliberation they 
resolved to leave their country, but not till they had destroyed their fortress 
and wigwams and such remaining property as could not be carried away. 
The principal band, headed by Sassacus in person, fled westward and did not 
make any considerable halt till they had reached a large swamp in Saco, the 
present township of Fairfield. Thither they were pursued by Captain Mason 
and his faithful ally Uncas. Captain Stoughton also accompanied the expe- 
dition in command of a company from Massachusetts. The fugitives were 
discovered in their new quarters, and were without difficulty routed and 
utterly dispersed. Sassacus did not risk a halt at the swamp, but with a few 
of his followers fled directly to the Mohawk country for a safe retreat, but 
was there slain by the nation, and his scalp was sent to Connecticut as a 
trophy. As a result of the swamp fight and the death of their late chieftain, 
the Pequot nation became nearly extinct. Although powerless for harm, the 
few remaining fugitives were i)ursued with unrelenting malignitv by the 
English. Even the surrounding tribes were not permitted to harbor them 
with impunity, but were required by treaty and otherwise to effect, if possible, 
their utter annihilation. The Pequots were not allowed to dwell in their 
old homes, to visit the graves of their fathers, or to be called Pequots any 
more. Lastly, the conquered territory was not to be claimed by the sachems, 
but to be considered as the propert}-' of the English of Connecticut, as their 
own by right of conquest. 

The expedition against the Pequots is the most remarkable recorded in 




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^ ins. ^A^ 'tl}A^ {^*^ '^ <.^^r^^ ^'^ ^/M 



GENERAL FACTS 7 

American history, and one which for boldness of plan and brilliancy of 
execution may well claim a place among the most daring exploits of universal 
history. The Pequots outnumbered Mason's forces ten to one, and the day 
might have been lost had it not been for the faithful service of Uncas and 
his followers. 

Uncas, as lineal descendant of the royal family, laid claim to the sov- 
ereignty of the conquered territory, and while by the terms of the treaty 
the portion upon the Sound was given up, his claim to the remainder of the 
Pequot country was admitted by the English, and he was acknowledged as 
the lawful sachem of a territory embracing the northern half of New London 
and the southern half of Windham and Tolland counties. Some of the sur- 
viving Pequots had been assigned him by the terms of the treaty, and many 
former tributaries of the vanquished tribe yielded their allegiance to him, 
and added to his power, but his greatest source of strength lay in the favor 
of the English, which he had fairly won. 

His rapid rise and growing favor greatly excited the envy of surrounding 
chieftains, especially of those of the Narragansetts and their allies, the Con- 
necticut River Indians, and they were untiring in their efforts to effect his 
overthrow. At first they endeavored to cause a rupture between Uncas and 
the English, but failing in this scheme they next attempted to take his life by 
assassination. Several fruitless endeavors of this kind were made, but in 
these diabolic attempts upon his life he was more than a match for them; 
their calumnies and their murderous designs were made to recoil upon their 
own heads. Failing in their secret plotting, their enmity ripened into open 
warfare. In the summer of 1643, only six years after the rout at Mystic 
Fort, Miantonomoh, at the head of six or seven hundred warriors, suddenly 
appeared in the very heart of the Mohegan country by a succession of rapid 
marches. He moved proudly to the contest, doubtless with the assurance 
that his numerical superiority and the suddenness of his irruption would 
secure for him an easy victory over his foe and rival. But Uncas was not 
to be overcome by a surprise. He hastily collected a band of about three 
hundred warriors and met the invaders upon his own territory, on the Great 
Plain, probably in the vicinity of the present Fair Grounds in Norwich. He 
felt the necessity, however, of resorting to strategy in his present emergency, 
and hence proposed a parley, which was accepted, and the two chieftains met 
on the plain between their respective armies. Uncas then proposed that the 
fortunes of the day should be decided by themselves in a single combat, and 
the lives of their warriors spared, saying, "If you kill me, my men shall be 
yours : but if I kill you, your men shall be mine." 

Miantonomoh disdainfully replied, "My men came to fight, and they shall 
fight." Uncas on this immediately gave a preconcerted signal to his followers 
by falling flat upon the ground. At that instant a shower of arrows were 
discharged upon the enemy, and, raising the war-cry, the Mohegans rushed 
forward with Uncas at their head, dashing so unexpectedly upon the invading 
column of warriors that a widespread panic ensued, resulting in their pre- 
cipitous and headlong flight without even a show of resistance. The retreat- 
ing force was pursued in its flight to Sachem's Plain, in the direction of the 
fords of the Shetucket, at which place Miantonomoh became the prisoner of 
Uncas. About thirty of the Narragansetts were slain, and among the pris- 
oners were a brother of Miantonomoh and two sons of Canonicus. Uncas 
kindly treated his royal prisoner, and without any unnecessary delay took 
him to Hartford and surrendered him into the hands of the English. His 
case was laid before commissioners of the United Colonies at their meeting 
in Boston in September, and the question was there debated whether it was 



8 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

right and proper to put the prisoner to death. As the commissioners were 
unable to agree, the question was by them referred to an ecclesiastical council, 
which gave its verdict in favor of his execution. It was further decided that 
the sentence should be carried into effect by Uncas, but without torture. 
After furnishing a sufficient force to prevent the recapture of the prisoner, 
Miantonomoh was surrendered into the hands of Uncas, who took him to 
the place of capture, where he was stricken down by Waweequa, a brother 
of Uncas. A monument now marks the site of this tragical event. The 
Narragansetts at several different times invaded the Mohegan country, im- 
patient to avenge the death of their late chief, but Uncas and his followers 
were uninjured on account of the aid of the English, which was always 
extended. 

It is noteworthy that the first settlements in the county, at New London 
and Norwich, were made under the leadership of some of the most influential 
men of New England. John Winthrop, the younger, who received a grant 
at Fisher's Island, given first by Massachusetts in 1640, confirmed by Con- 
necticut in 1641, and by New York in 1668, received from Massachusetts in 
1644 a grant of a "plantation at or near Pequot." Here he lived from 1646 
till he was chosen governor of the Colony of Connecticut in 1657. He it was 
who secured in 1662 that famous charter from Charles II which was saved 
from Sir Edmond Andros by hiding it in "The Charter Oak." John Mason, 
of whom we shall have more to say, was one of the early leaders of the 
Norwich settlement. 

Under such stalwart leaders as these, the young communities grew and 
flourished, till by the end of the seventeenth century towns were found at 
New London, Stonington, Norwich. Lyme, Preston, Colchester, and Lebanon. 
From these towns were set off the other fourteen towns as stated above. 

The story of the Charter has been told by Mr. Daniel Howard in a 
document on Connecticut history issued by the State Board of Education: 

At the time when Connecticut was settled and when her infant settle- 
ments formed their first written constitution, the king of England paid very 
little attention to what was being done in this new State. On the other hand, 
the people of Connecticut paid very little attention to their connection with 
England. They did not even mention England or the king in the constitu- 
tion that they drew up in 1639. 

England at that time was very poorly governed. Her king was a tyrant 
who tried to rule by illegal methods. The people would not submit to such 
a rule, and in 1639 they put their king to death. No one wonders under such 
conditions wh}' Connecticut made no mention of the fact that she belonged 
to England. No wonder also that the king paid little attention to Connecticut, 
for he had troubles enough at home. From 1649 to 1660 England had no 
king. The people who were at the head of the English government had so 
many troubles on their side of the ocean, however, that they, too, paid little 
attention to Connecticut. 

In 1660 a great change in affairs took place. In that year a new king, 
Charles II, came to the English throne. With him came peace and order 
in England. The new government had time to look abroad and it was sure 
to give its attention to what was going on in America. Connecticut thought 
it was wise for her to maintain friendly relations with the new king. She 



GENERAL FACTS 9 

must have his permission to carry on her government, and she might need 
his protection to shield her from the Indians, the Dutch, and other enemies. 
Accordingly, in 1661 the Connecticut people took the necessary steps to win 
the king's favor. They declared that their settlements were English, and 
that they themselves being the king's faithful subjects owed allegiance to 
the English crown. 

The next step was to send Governor Winthrop to England with a petition 
for a charter. The king was a good-natured man, fond of honors and atten- 
tions, and at the same time desirous of adding to his wealth and revenue. 
So when Governor Winthrop presented him with the ring that the king's 
father had given to the governor's grandfather, his heart was touched with 
gratitude and affection. When the governor told him that the land which 
the settlers had bought of the Indians and fought for at the peril of their 
lives was now a fertile and populous territory capable of adding much to 
the wealth and income of his kingdom, he was favorably impressed. Lord 
Say, Lord Seal, and other friends, aided Governor Winthrop in persuading 
the king to grant the charter and in 1662 it received the royal signature. 
Governor Winthrop received two copies of the charter. One of these he 
sent to America immediately. The other copy he kept in his possession and 
brought it to Hartford himself. How the people at Hartford, Windsor and 
Wethersfield rejoiced ! New Haven at first objected to being united to the 
three river towns, for she had hoped to remain a separate colony. Soon, 
however, she accepted the situation, and all the Connecticut towns were 
happily united under one government. 

Under this liberal charter the colony grew and prospered for the next 
twenty-five years. The form of government was popular, for the people 
were required simply to make no laws contrary to those of England. The 
charter guaranteed to the colony substantially the same rights and privileges 
that the people had claimed for themselves when they made the constitution 
of 1639. It was the people's ideal of what a charter ought to be, for it granted 
all they had asked and even wished for. No wonder they regarded it as 
a priceless blessing. 

Neither is it any wonder that the people were filled with anxiety and 
distress when a new king, James II. came to the throne of England and tried 
to take from them this precious charter. The new king believed that it would 
be a good thing to unite all the New England settlements into one strong 
colony under an able English governor. In this way they would be better 
prepared to defend themselves against their Dutch, French, and Indian 
neighbors. 

The king did not stop to inquire whether this change in government 
would please the people of New England or not. In 1686 he sent Sir Edmund 
Andros to Boston as governor, with instructions to seize the charters of 
Rhode Island and Connecticut and annex those colonies to Massachusetts 
and the rest of New England. From Boston the new governor sent to 
Governor Treat at Hartford asking that the charter of Connecticut should 
be sent to him. 

Failing to obtain the charter in this way. Governor Andros determined 
to go to Hartford himself and demand it. Attended by several members of 
his council, two trumpeters, and a body-guard of red-coated soldiers, he left 
Boston. Traveling on horseback, they reached the Connecticut river at a 
point opposite Wethersfield in the afternoon of October 31, 1687. The ferry 
boat took them to the other side of the river, where a troop of Hartford 
soldiers met them and escorted them to Hartford with all the pomp and 
dignity befitting the reception of a royal governor. At Hartford, Governor 



lo NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Treat, his assistants, and the members of the General Assembly, received 
them with courtesy and respect. In the evening the General Assembly was 
in session to hear what Governor Andros had to say. He was escorted to 
the governor's seat and the Assembly listened to his message. He demanded 
that the Charter of Connecticut should be given to him and that it should 
no longer be a separate colony. 

Governor Treat made an eloquent and touching plea in reply. He 
pictured the toil, the hardship, and the sufferings of the early settlers. He 
told how they had fought with tribes of murderous savages, how they had 
turned the wilderness into a land of happy homes, how they had obtained 
their cherished charter, growing and prospering under its protection until 
relinquishing it would be like giving up life itself. 

Still Governor Andros insisted that the charter must be surrendered. 
There it lay upon the table around which they were sitting. How could the 
charter be saved? Suddenly the candles were extinguished. There were no 
matches in those days, and it took some time to relight the candles. When 
this was done the charter was missing. 

What had become of it? Governor Andros never knew, but we know 
that good friends of Connecticut carried it away and hid it. Andros had no 
right to demand it, and the Connecticut Assembly were determined that he 
should not obtain it. 

Captain Joseph Wadsworth was the man who carried it away. Believing 
that the English governor would try to find it. he tried to think of a safe place 
in which to hide it. He hid it finallv in the hollow trunk of a large oak tree 
standing near the home of Samuel Wyllys. 

Equally interesting is Mr. Howard's account of Colonial life at that time : 

For us to go back to the old colonial days and visit the people who then 
lived in Connecticut is, of course, impossible, yet we must go back at least in 
imagination if we are to understand the kind of life they lived. 

Let us suppose that we are on a journey through Connecticut a few 
years before the time when Governor Andros tried to deprive the people of 
their charter. How strange it seems that everybody travels either on horse- 
back or afoot. We see neither steam nor electric cars nor automobiles, and 
the people do not even own carriages or wagons. How poor the roads are ! 
They are little better than beaten paths through the woods and fields. Men 
are at work on their farms, harvesting their crops, and cutting down trees 
in order to clear new land to plant next year. The homes are mostly grouped 
in villages and look very much alike. 

In the center of almost every house is a great stone chimney ten or twelve 
feet square from the floor of the cellar up to the floor of the second story, 
above which it decreases in size as it approaches the roof. In the center of 
the front of the house is a door opening into a hall from which a stairway 
leads to the second story. On the right and left are doors opening from the 
hall into large rooms on each side of the chimney. In the rear of the chimney 
is another large room. One of these rooms is the kitchen, which in most 
cases is also the living room of the family. The other large rooms are used 
for parlors or guest rooms, and the smaller sleeping rooms are up stairs. 

We see no stoves, but on three sides of the chimney are huge fireplaces. 
In the kitchen fireplace is an iron crane on which hang two great kettles. 
The oven is built into one side of the fireplace. The sides of the rooms are 
plastered, but the joists and floor overhead are not covered, and nails are 
driven into the joists to serve as hooks on which to hang small articles. The 



GENERAL FACTS ii 

windows have small diamond-shaped panes of glass set in frames of lead. 
The floors have no carpets. The furniture is plain and useful rather than 
ornamental. In one room is a spinning wheel and a hand loom on which the 
farmer's wife and daughters spin the wool that has been cut from the backs 
of the sheep, and weave it into cloth from which to make garments for the 
family. 

After the evening meal, eaten from pewter and wooden dishes by the 
light of tallow candles in the great kitchen, we enjoy listening to the stories 
told by farmers and their neighbors as they sit about the great fireplace, 
some of them cracking nuts and others making brooms and various useful 
articles. We hear strange news of what has happened during the day. A 
man has been arrested for swearing and has had to stand in the pillory one 
hour and then receive a whipping. Another man has had to sit for hours in 
the stocks to punish him for drunkenness. 

Last night farmer Jones had five sheep killed by a wolf, and today he 
and his sons have been hunting for the beast that did the damage. Tomorrow 
farmer Smith is to begin building a barn and his neighbors are going to the 
"raising" to help erect the framework, for it is their custom to be friendly 
and give their services to a neighbor on such occasions. On the morrow we 
go to the "raising," and late in the afternoon, when the framework of the 
barn has all been put in place and securely pinned together, we sit down at 
the great tables and enjoy the feast prepared by Mrs. Smith and her daughters. 
All go home early, for tomorrow is Sunday, and in Connecticut the observance 
of the Sabbath begins on Saturday at sunset. Family worship is followed by 
religious instruction given to the children and to the servants. 

On Sunday morning a drum beats and everyone goes to church. The 
minister and the congregation all carry their muskets. Why? Because hostile 
Indians are liable to attack them at any minute. Sentinels and guards watch 
outside the door during the sermon, which lasts two hours. After luncheon, 
the congregation returns for another long sermon. The tithingman with his 
long rod tipped at one end with brass and at the other with a rabbit's foot, 
prevents anj^one who is weary from going to sleep. An old man becomes 
drowsy. He is gently touched upon the head with the brass end of the rod 
and awakes with a start. In another pew a lady is awakened by having her 
face brushed by the rabbit's foot. Though these good people could not help 
becoming tired and sleepy, they had a high regard for their pastor's teaching, 
for it was to him that they went for advice and counsel not only for their 
religious life but for almost every question that arose regarding what was 
right and proper in their social life and customs. 

The life of these early settlers was quiet, healthful, and happy. They 
labored industriously and contentedly on their farms and in the forests. All 
that they earned was their own to use and enjoy. They made their own 
system of government and laws, and enjoved the justice and liberty that these 
gave them. They believed in education for themselves and for their children. 
Their moral and religious character made them trust and respect one another 
and earned them the respect and esteem of people in other colonies. 

What sort of people these early settlers were may be judged by a love 
letter sent in 1674 by Rev. Edward Taylor, of Massachusetts, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Fitch, daughter of Rev. James Fitch, the first clergyman settled in 
Norwich : 

Wethersfield, Mass., 8th day of the 7th month, 1674. 

My Dove : — I send you not my heart, for that I hope is sent to Heaven 



12 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

long since, and unless it has awfully deceived me it hath not taken up its 
lodgings in any one's bosom on this side the royal city of the Great King; 
but yet the most of it that is allowed to be laved out upon any creature doth 
safely and singly fall to vour share. So much my post pigeon presents you 
with here in these lines. Look not (I entreat you) on it as one of love's hyper- 
boles. If I borrow the beams of some sparkling metaphor to illustrate my 
respects unto thyself by, for you having made my breast the cabinet of your, 
affections as I yours mine, I know not how to ofifer a fitter comparison to' 
set out my love by, than to compare it unto a golden ball of pure fire rolling 
up and down my breast, from which there flies now and then a spark like a 
glorious beam from the body of the flaming sun. But alas! striving to catch 
these sparks into a love letter unto yourself, and to gild it with them as with 
a sun beam, and, that by what time they have fallen through my pen upon 
paper, they have lost their shine and fall only like a little smoke thereon 
instead of gilding them. Wherefore, finding myself so much deceived, I am 
ready to begrudge my instruments, for though my love within my breast is 
so large that my heart is not sufficient to contain it, yet they can make it 
no more room to ride into, than to squeeze it up betwixt my black ink and 
white paper. But know that it is the coarsest part that is couchant there, 
for the finest is too fine to clothe in any linguist and huswifry, or to be 
expressed in words, and though this letter bears but the coarsest part to you, 
yet the purest is improved for you. But now, my dear love, lest my letter 
should be judged the lavish language of a lover's pen, I shall endeavor to show 
that conjugal love ought to exceed all other love. 1st, appears from that 
which it represents, viz: The respect there is betwixt Christ and his church, 
Eph. 5th, 25th. although it difl^ers from that in kind; for that is spiritual and 
this human, and in degree, that is boundless and transcendent, this limited 
and subordinate; yet it holds out that this should be cordial and with respect 
to all other transcendent. 2d. Because conjugal love is the ground of conjugal 
union, or conjugal sharing the effects of this love, is also a ground of this 
union. 3d, From those Christian duties which are incumbent on persons in 
this state as not only a serving God together, a praying together, a joining 
in the ruling and instructing their family together, which could not be carried 
on as it should be without a great degree of true love, and also a mutual 
giving each other to each other, a mutual succoring each other in all states, 
ails, grievances; and how can this be when there is not a love exceeding all 
other love to anv creature? And hereby if persons in this state have not 
love exceeding all love, it's with them for the most part as with the strings 
of an instrument not tuned up, when struck upon makes but a jarring, harsh 
sound. But when we get the wires of an instrument equally drawn up, and 
rightlv struck upon, sound together, make sweet music whose harmony doth 
enravish the ear; so when the golden strings of true affection are struck up 
into a right conjugal love, thus sweetly doth this state then harmonize to 
the comfort of each other and to the glorv of God when sanctified. But yet, 
the conjugal love most exceed all other, yet it must be kept within bounds, 
for it must be subordinate to God's glory: the which that mine may be so, it 
having got you in its heart, doth offer my heart with you in it as a more rich 
sacrifice into God through Christ, and so it subscribeth me. 

Your true love till deatli. 

Edward T.wlor. 

This for my friend and only beloved. Miss Elizabeth Fitch, 
at her father's house in Norwich. 



GENERAL FACTS 13 

No more interesting description of Colonial life at this time can be found 
than "The Journal of Madame Sarah Knight," the record of a journey from 
Boston to New York in 1704. Inasmuch as Madame Knight was a resident 
of Norwich and New London for many years, we print the journal entire: 

Monday, Octb'r. ye second, 1704. About three o'clock afternoon, I begun 
my Journey from Boston to New Haven ; being about two Hundred Mile. My 
Kinsman, Capt. Robert Luist, waited on me as farr as Dedham, where I was 
to meet ye Western post. 

I visitted the Reverd. Mr. Belcher, ye Minister of ye town, and tarried 
there till evening, in hopes ye post would come along. But he not coming, 
I resolved to go to Billingses where he used to lodg. being 12 miles further. 
But being ignorant of the way, Madm Billings, seeing no persuasions of her 
good spouses or hers could prevail with me to Lodg there that night. Very 
kindly went wyth me to ye Tavern, where I hoped to get my guide. And 
desired the Hostess to inquire of her guests whether any of them would 
go with mee. But they being tyed by the Lipps to a pewter engine, scarcely 
allowed themselves time to say what clownish — (Here half a page of the 
MS. is gone.)— Pieces of eight, I told her no, I would not be accessary to 
such extortion. 

Then John shan't go, sais shee. No, indeed, shan't hee; And held forth 
at that rate a long time, that I began to fear I was got among the Quaking 
tribe, beleeving not a Limbertong'd sister among them could out do Madm. 
Hostes. Upon this, to my no small surprise, son John arrose, and gravely 
demanded what I would give him to go with me? Give you, sais I, are you 
John? Yes, says he, for want of a Better; And behold! this John look't as 
old as my Host, and perhaps had bin a man in the last Century. Well, Mr. 
John, sais I, make your demands. 

Why. half a pss. of eight and a dram, sais John. I agreed, and gave him 
a Dram (now) in hand to bind the bargain. My hostess catechis'd John for 
going so cheap, saying his poor wife would break her heart — (Here another 
half page of the MS. is gone).— His shade on his Hors resembled a Globe 
on a Gate post. His habit, Hors and furniture, its looks and goings Incom- 
parably answered the rest. 

Thus Jogging on with an easy pace, my Guide telling mee it was 
dangero's to Ride hard in the Night, '(which his horse had the sence to avoid) 
Hee' entertained me with the Adventurs he had passed by late Rideing, and 
eminent Dangers he had escaped, so that, Rembring the Hero's in Parismus 
and the Knight of the Oracle, I did'nt know but I had mett wth a Prince 
disguis'd. When we had Ridd about an how'r, wee come into a thick swamp, 
wch. bv Reason of a great fogg, very much startled mee, it being now very 
Dark. ' But nothing dismay'd John : Hee had encountered a thousand and a 
thousand such Swamps, having a Universal Knowledge in the woods; and 
readily Answered all my inquiries wch. were not a few. 

In about an how'r, or something more, after we left the Swamp, we come 
to Billinges, where I was to Lodg. My Guide dismounted and very Com- 
plasantly help't me down and shewd the door, signing to me wth his hand 
to Go in; wch I Gladly did— But had not gone many steps into the Room, 
ere I was Interogated by a young Lady I understood afterwards was the 
Eldest daughter of the family, with these, or words to this purpose, (viz.) 
Law for mee— what in the world brings You here at this time a night?— I 
never see a woman on the Rode so DreadfuU late, in all the days of my 
versall life. Who are You? Where are You going? I'm scar'd out of my 



14 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

witts — with much now of the same Kind. I stood aghast, Prepareing to reply, 
when in comes my Guide — to him Madam turn'd, Roreing out : Lawfull heart, 
John, is it You? — how do do! Where in the world are you going with this 
woman? Who is she? John made no Ansr. but sat down in the corner, 
fumbled out his black Junk, and saluted that instead of Debb ; she then 
turned agen to mee and fell anew into her silly questions, without askmg 
me to sitt down. 

I told her she treated me very Rudely, and I did not think it my duty 
to answer her unmannerly Questions. But to get ridd of them, I told her 
I come there to have the post's company with me to-morrow on my Journey, 
&c. Miss star'd awhile, drew a chair, bid me sitt. And then run up stairs 
and putts on two or three Rings, (or else I had not seen them before,) and 
returning, sett herself just before me, showing the way to Reding, that I 
might see her Ornaments, perhaps to gain the more respect. But her 
Granam's new Rung sow, had it api)eared, would afifectcd me as much. I 
paid honest John wth money and dram according to contract, and Dismist 
him, and pray'd Miss to shew me where I must Lodg. Shee conducted me 
to a parlour in a little back Lento, wch w'as almost fill'd wth the bedstead, 
wch was so high that I was forced to climb on a chair to gitt up to ye wretched 
bed that lay on it ; on wch having Strecht my tired Limbs, and lay'd my 
head on a Sad-colourd pillow, I began to think on the transactions of ye 
past day. 

Tuesday, October ye third, about 8 in the morning, I with the Post 
proceeded forward without observing any thing remarkable ; And about two, 
afternoon. Arrived at the Post's second stage, where the western Post mett 
him and exchanged Letters. Here, having called for something to eat, ye 
woman bro't in a Twisted thing like a cable, but something whiter; and 
laying it on the bord, tugg'd for life to bring it into a capacity to spread ; wch 
having wth great pains accomplished, shee serv'd in a dish of Pork and 
Cabbage, I suppose the remains of Dinner. The sause was of a deep Purple, 
wch I tho't was boil'd in her dye Kettle; the bread was Indian, and every 
thing on the Table service Agreeable to these. L being hungry, gott a little 
down ; but my stomach was soon cloy'd and what cabbage I swallowed serv'd 
me for a Cudd the whole day after. 

Having here discharged the Ordnary for self and Guide, (as I understood 
was the custom,) About Three afternoon went on with my Third Guide, who 
Rode very hard ; and having crossed Providence Ferry, we come to a River 
wch they Generally Ride thro'. But I dare not venture ; -so the Po.st got a 
Ladd and Cannoo to carry me to tother side, and hee rode thro' and Led my 
hors. The Cannoo was very small and shallow, so that when we were in .she 
seem'd redy to take in water, which greatly terrified mee. and caused me to 
be very circunspect, sitting with my hands fast on each side, my eyes stedy, 
not daring so much as to lodg my tongue a hair's breadth more on one side 
of my mouth then totjier, nor so much as think on Lott"s wife, for a wry 
thought would have overestt our wherey : But was soon put out of this pain, 
by feeling the Cannoo on shore, wch I as soon almost saluted with my feet : 
and Rewarding my sculler, again mounted and made the best of our way 
forwards. The Rode here was very even and ye dav pleasant, it being now 
near Sunsett. But the Post told rnee we had neer 14 miles to Ride to the 
next Stage, (where we were to Lodg.) I askt him of the rest of the Rode, 
forseeing wee must travail in the night. Hee told mee there was a bad River 
we were to Ride thro', wch was so very firce a hors could sometimes hardly 
stem it : But it was but narrow, and wee should soon be over. I cannot 
expre.ss The concern of mind this relation sett me in: no thought but those 



GENERAL FACTS 15 

of the dans^'ro;; River could entertain my Imagination, and they were as 
formidable as varios. still Tormenting me with blackest Ideas of my Ap- 
proaching fate— Sometimes seing my self drowning, otherwhiles drowned, 
and at the best like a holy Sister Just come out of a Spiritual Bath n- drip- 
ping Garments. 

Now was the Glorious Luminary, wth his swift Coursers arrived at his 
Stage, leaving poor me wth the rest of this part of the lower world in dark- 
ness, with which wee were soon Surrounded. The only Glimmering we now 
had was from the spangled Skies, Whose Imperfect Reflections rendered 
every Object formidable. Each lifeless Trunk, with its shatter'd Limbs, 
appear'd an Armed Enymie ; and every little stump like a Ravenous de- 
vourer. Nor could I so much as discern my Guide, when at any distance, 
which added to the terror. 

Thus, absolutely lost in Thought, and dying with the very thoughts of 
drowning, I come up wth the post, who I did not see till even with his Hors : 
he told mee he stopt for mee ; and wee Rode on Very deliberately a few 
paces, when we entered a Thickett of Trees and Shrubbs. and I perceived by 
the Hors's going, we were on the descent of a Hill, wch, as wee come neerer 
the bottom," 'twas totaly dark wth the Trees that surrounded it. But I knew 
by the Going of the Hors wee had entred the water, wch my Guide told mee 
was the hazardos River he had told me off; and hee. Riding up close to my 
Side, Bid me not fear — we should be over Imediatly. I now ralyed all the 
Courage I was mistriss of. Knowing that I must either Venture my fate of 
drowning, or be left like ye Children in the wood. So, as the Post bid me, 
I gave Reins to my Nagg; and sitting as Stedy as Just before in the Cannoo, 
in a few minutes got safe to the other side, which hee told mee was the 
Narragansett country. 

Here We found great difficulty in Travailing, the way bemg very narrow, 
and on each side the Trees and bushes gave us very unpleasant welcomes 
with their Branches and bow's, wch wee could not avoid, it being so exceed- 
ing dark. My Guide, as before so now, putt on harder than I, wth my weary 
bones, could 'follow ; so left mee and the way behind him. Now Returned 
my distressed apprehensions of the place where I was : the dolesome woods, 
mv Company next to none. Going I knew not whither, and encompassed wth 
Terrifying darkness ; The least of which was enough to startle a more Mas- 
culine' courage. Added to which the Reflections, as in the afternoon of ye 
day that my Call was very Questionable, wch till then I had not so Prudently 
as'l ought considered. Now,, coming to ye foot of a hill, I found great diffi- 
culty in ascending; But being got to the Top, was there amply recompenced 
with the friendly Appearance of the Kind Conductress of the night. Just then 
Advancing above the Horisontall Line. The Raptures wch the Sight of that 
fair Planett produced in mee, caus'd mee, for the Moment to forgett my 
present wearvness and past toils, and Inspir'd me for most of the remaining 
way with very diverting tho'ts, some of which, with the other Occurances of 
the day, I reserved to note down when I should come to my Stage. My 
tho'ts on the sight of the moon were to this purpose : 

Fair QTithia. all the Homage that I may 

Unto a Creature, unto thee I pay; 

In Lonesome woods to meet so kind a guide. 

To Mee's more worth than all the world beside. 

Some Tov I felt just now. when =afe got o're 

Yon Surlv River to this Rugged =hore. 

Deeming Rough welcomes from these clownish Trees, 

Better than Lodgings wth Nereidees. 

Yet swelling fears surprise ; all dark appears— 



i6 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Nothing but Light can disipate those fears. 
My fainting vitals can't lend strength to say, 
But softly whisper, O I wish 'twere day. 
The murmur hardly warm'd the Ambient air, 
E're thy Bright Aspect rescues from dispair: 
Makes the old Hagg her sable mantle loose. 
And a Bright Joy do's through my Soul diffuse. 
The Boistero's Trees now Lend a Passage Free, 
And pleasant prospects thou giv'st light to see. 

From hence wee kept on, with more ease yn before ; the way being 
smooth and even, the night warm and serene, and the Tall and thick Trees 
at a distance, especially wn the moon glar'd light through the branches, fill'd 
my Imagination wth the pleasant delusion of a Sumteous citty, fill'd wth 
famous Buildings and churches, wth their spiring steeples, Balconies, Gal- 
leries, and I know not what: Grandeurs wch I had heard of, and wch the 
stories of foreign countries had given me the Idea of. 

Here stood a Lofty church — there is a steeple. 
And there the Grand Parade — O see the people ! 
That Famouse Castle there, were I but nigh. 
To see the mote and Bridg and walls so high— 
They'r very fine ! sais my deluded eye. 

Being thus agreeably entertain'd without a thou't of any thing but 
thoughts themselves, I on a suden was Rous'd from these pleasing Imagina- 
tions, by the Post's sounding his horn, which assured mee he was arrived at 
the Stage, where we were to Lodg: and that musick was then most musickall 
and agreeable to mee. 

Being come to mr. Havens', I was very civilly Received, and courteously 
entertained, in a clean comfortable House; and the Good woman was very 
active in helping ofif my Riding clothes, and then ask't what I would eat. I 
told her I had some Chocolett, if shee would prepare it; which with the help 
of some Milk, and a little clean brass Kettle, she soon effected to my satis- 
faction. I then betook me to my Apartment, wch was a little Room parted 
from the Kitchen by a single bord partition ; where, after I had noted the 
Occurances of the past day, I went to bed, which, tho' pretty hard, Yet neet 
and handsome. But I could get no sleep, because of the Clamor of some of 
the Town tope-ers in next Room, Who were entred into a strong debate 
concernign ye Signifycation of the name of their Country, (viz.) Narra- 
ganset. One said it was named so by ye Indians, because there grew a 
Brier there, of a prodigious Highth and bigness, the like hardly ever known, 
called by the Indians Narragansett ; And quotes an Indian of so Barberous 
a name for his Author, that I could not write it. His Antagonist Replycd 
no — It was from a Spring it had its name, wch hee well knew where it was, 
which was extreem cold in summer, and as Hott as could be imagined in the 
winter, which was much resorted too by the natives, and by them called 
Narragansett, (Hot and Cold,) and that was the originall of their places name 
— with a thousand Impertinances not worth notice, wch He utter'd with such 
a Roreing voice and Thundering blows with the fist of wickedness on the 
Tabic, that it pierced my very head. I fretted, and wish't 'um tongue 
tyed ; but wth as little succes as a friend of mine once, who was (as she said) 
kept a whole night awake, on a Jorny, by a country Left, and a Sergent. 
Insigne and a Deacon, contriving how to bring a triangle into a Square. They 
kept calling for tother Gill, wch while they were swallowing, was some Inter- 
mission ; But presently, like Oyle to fire, eiicreased the flame. It set my Candle 



GENERAL FACTS 17 

on a Chest by the bed side, and setting up, fell to my old way of composing 
my Resentments, in the following manner: 

I ask thy Aid, O Potent Rum! 

To Charm these wrangling Topers Dum. 

Thou hast their Giddy Brains possest — 

The man confounded wth the iBeast — 

And I, poor I, can get no rest. 

Intoxicate them with thy fumes: 

O still their Tongues till morning comes! 

And I know not but my wishes took effect ; for the dispute soon ended wth 
'tother Dram; and so Good night! 

Wednesday, Octob'r 4th. About four in the morning, we set out for 
Kingston (for so was the Town called) with a french Docter in our company. 
Hee and ye Post put on very furiously, so that I could not keep up with 
them, only as now and then they'd stop till they see me. This Rode was 
poorly furnished wth accommodations for Travellers, so that we were forced 
to ride 22 miles by the post's account, but neerer thirty by mine, before wee 
could bait so much as our Horses, wch I exceedingly complained of. But the 
post encourag'd mee, by saying wee should be well accommodated anon at 
mr. Devills, a few miles further. But I questioned whether we ought to go 
to the Devil to be helpt out of affliction. However, like the rest of Deluded 
souls that post to ye Infernal denn. Wee made all posible speed to this Devil's 
Habitation; where alliting, in full assurance of good accommodation, wee 
were going in. But meeting his two daughters, as I suposed twins, they so 
ncerly resembled each other, both in features and habit, and look't as old as 
the Divel himselfe, and quite as Ugly, We desired entertainm't, but could 
hardly get a word out of 'um, till with our Importunity, telling them our 
necesity, &c. they call'd the old Sophister, who was as sparing of his words 
as his daughters had bin, and no. or none, was the reply's hee made us to our 
demands. Hee differed only in this from the old fellow in to'ther Country: 
hee let us depart. However, I thought it proper to warn poor Travailers to 
endeavour to Avoid falling into circumstances like ours, wch at our next Stage 
I sat down and did as followeth: 

May all that dread the cruel feind of night 
Keep on, and not at this curs't Mansion light. 
'Tiss Hell: 'tis Hell! and Devills here do dwell: 
Here dwells the Devill— surely this's Hell. 
Nothing but Wants: a drop to cool yo'r Tongue 
Cant be procur'd these cruel Feinds among. 
Plenty of horrid Grins and looks sevear. 
Hunger and thirst. But pitty's hanish'd here — 
The Right hand keep, if Hell on Earth you fear! 

Thus leaving this habitation of cruelty, we went forward ; and arriving at an 
Ordinary about two mile further, found tollerable accommodation. But our 
Hostes, being a pretty full mouth'd old creature, entertain'd our fellow trav- 
ailer, ye french Docter, wth Inumirable complaints of her bodily infirmities; 
and whisperd to him so lou'd, that all ye House had as full a hearing as hee; 
which was very divirting to he company, (of which there was a great many,) 
as one might see by their sneering. But poor weary I slipt out to enter my 
mind in my Jornal, and left my Great Landly with her Talkative Guests to 
themselves. 

From hence we proceeded (about ten forenoon) through the Narragan- 
sett country, pretty Leisurely ; and about one afternoon come to Paukataug 
River, wch was about two hundred paces over, and now very high, and no 
N.I..— 1-2 



i8 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

waj' over to to'ther side but this. I darid not venture to Ride thro, my courage 
at best in such cases but small, And now at the Lowest Ebb, by reason of 
my weary, very weary, hungry, and uneasy Circumstances. So takeing leave 
of my company, tho' wth no little Reluctance, that I could not proceed wth 
them on my Jorny, Stop at a little cottage Just by the River, to wait the 
Waters falling, wch the old man that lived there said would be in a little 
time, and he would conduct me safe over. This little Hutt was one of the 
wretchedest I ever saw a habitation for human creatures. It was supported 
with shores enclosed with Clapbords, laid on Lengthways, and so much 
asunded, that the Lig:ht come throu' every where; the doore tyed on wth a 
cord in ye place of hinges ; The floor the bear earth ; no windows but such 
as the thin covering afforded, nor any furniture but a Bedd wth a glass Bottle 
hanging at ye head on't ; an earthan cupp, a small pewter Bason, A Bord wth 
sticks to stand on, instead of a table, and a block or two in ye corner instead 
of chairs. The family were the old man, his wife and two Children ; all and 
e\ery i^art being the picture of poverty. Notwithstanding both the Hutt and 
its Inhabance were very clean and tydee : to the crossing the Old Proverb, 
that bare walls make giddy hows-wifes. I Blest myselfe that I was not one 
of this misserable crew ; and the Impressions their wretchedness formed in 
me cauesd mee on ye very Spott to say : 

Tho' III at ease, A stranger and alone. 
All my fatigu's shall not extort a grone. 
These Indigents have hunger wth their ease ; 
Their best is wors behalfe then my disease. 
Their Misirable hutt wch Heat and Cold 
Alternately without Repulse do hold; 
Their Lodgings thyn and hard, their Indian fare. 
The mean Apparel which the wretches wear. 
And their ten thousand ills wch can't be told, 
Makes nature cr'e 'tis midle age look old. 
When I reflect, my late fatigues do seem 
Only a notion or forgotten Dreem. 

I had scarce done thinking, when an Indian-like Animal come to the door, 
on a creature very much like himselfe, in mien and features, as well as Ragged 
cloathing; and having 'litt, makes an Awkerd Scratch wth his Indian shoo, 
and a Nodd, sitts on ye block, fumbles out his black Junk, dipps it in ye 
Ashes, and presents it piping hott to his muscheeto's, and fell to sucking 
like a calf, without speaking, for near a quarter of an hower. At length the 
old man said how do's Sarah do? who I understood was the wretches wife, 
and Daughter to ye old man: he Replyed, — as well as can be expected, &c. 
So I remembred the old say, and suposed I knew Sarah's case. Butt hee 
being, as I understood, going over the River, as ugly as hee was, I was glad 
to ask him to show me ye way to Saxtons, at Stoningtown ; wch he promising, 
I ventur'd over wth the old mans assistance ; who having rewarded to content, 
with my Tattertailed guide, I Ridd on very slowly thro' Stoningtown, where 
the Rode was very stony and uneven. I asked the fellow, as we went, divers 
questions of the place and way, &c. I being arrived at my country Saxtons, 
at Stonington, was very well accommodated both as to victuals and Lodging, 
the only Good of both I had found since my setting out. Here I heard there 
was an old man and his Daughter to come that way, bound to N. London ; 
and being now destitute of a Guide, gladly waited for them, being in so good 
a harbour, and accordingly, Thirsday, Octobr ye 5th, about 3 in the after- 
noon, I sat forward with neighbor Polly and Jemima, a Girl about 18 Years 
old, who hee said he had been to fetch out of the Narragansetts. and said 
they had Rode thirty miles that day, on a sory lean jade, wth only a Bagg 



GENERAL FACTS 19 

under her for a pillion, which the poor Girl often complain'd was very uneasy. 

Wee made Good speed along, wch made poor Jemima make many a 
sow'r face, the mare being a very hard trotter ; and after many a hearty and 
bitter Oh, she at length Low'd out: Lawful Heart father! this bare mare 
hurts mee Dingeely, I'me direfull sore I vow; with many words to that pur- 
pose ; poor Child sais Gafifer — she us't to serve your mother so. I don't care 
how mother us't to do, quoth Jemima, in a pasionate tone. At which the old 
man Laught, and kik't his Jade o' the side, which made her Jolt ten times 
harder. 

About seven that Evening, we come to New London Ferry : here, by 
reason of a very high wind, we mett with great difficulty in getting over — 
the Boat tos't exceedingly, and our Horses capper'd at a very surprizing 
Rate, and set us all in a fright ; especially poor Jemima, who desired her 
father to say 'so jack' to the Jade, to make her stand. But the careless parent, 
taking no notice of her repeated desires. She Rored out in a Passionate 
manner: Pray suth father. Are you deaf? Say 'so Jack' to the Jade, I tell 
you. The Dutiful Parent obey's ; saying 'so Jack,' 'so Jack,' as gravely as if 
hee'd bin to saying Catechise after Young Miss, who with her fright look't 
of all coulers in ye Rain Bow. 

Being safely arrived at the house of Mrs. Prentices in N. London, I 
treated neighbour Polly and daughter for their divirting company, and bid 
them farewell ; and between nine and ten at night waited on the Revd Mr. 
Gurdon Saltonstall, minister of the town, who kindly Invited me to Stay 
that night at his house, where I was very handsomely and plentifully treated 
and Lodg'd ; and made good the Great Character I had before heard concern- 
ing him ; viz. that hee was the most afifable, courteous, Genero's and best 
of men. 

Friday, October 6th. I got up very early, in Order to hire somebody to 
go with mee to New Haven, being in Great perplexity at the thoughts of 
proceeding alone ; which my most hospitable entertainer observing, himself 
went, and soon return'd wth a young Gentleman of the town, who he could 
confide in to Go with mee ; and about eight this morning, wth Mr. Joshua 
Wheeler my new Guide, takeing leave of this worthy Gentleman, Wee ad- 
vanced on towards Seabrook. The Rodes all along this way are very bad. 
Incumbered wth Rocks and mountainous passages, wch were very disagree- 
able to my tired carcass ; but we went on with a moderate pace wch made 
ye Journy more pleasent. But after about eight miles Rideing, in going over 
a Bridge under wch the River Run very swift, my hors stumbled, and very 
narrowly 'scaped falling over into the water ; wch extreemly frightened mee. 
But through God's Goodness I met with no harm, and mounting agen, in 
about half a miles Rideing, come to an ordinary, were well entertained by a 
woman of about seventy and vantage, but of as Sound Intellectuals as one of 
seventeen. Shee entertain'd Mr. Wheeler wth some passages of a Wedding 
awhile ago at a place hard by, the Brides-Groom being about her Age or 
something above. Saying his Children was dreadfully against their fathers 
marrying, wch shee condemned them extreemly for. 

From hence wee went pretty briskly forward, and arriv'd at Saybrook 
ferry about two of the Clock afternoon ; and crossing it, wee call'd at an Inn 
to Bait, (foreseeing we should not have such another Opportunity till we 
come to Killingsworth.) Landlady comes in, with her hair about her ears, 
and hands at full pav scratching. Shee told us shee had some mutton wch 
shee would broil, wch I was glad to hear; But I supose forgot to wash her 
scratchers; in a little time shee brot it in; but it being pickeld, and my Guide 
said it smelt strong of head sause, we left it, and pd sixpence a piece for our 



20 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Dinners, wch was only smell. So wee putt forward with al speed, and about 
seven at night come to Killingsworth, and were tollerably well with Travillers 
fare, and Lodgd there that night. 

Saturday, Oct. 7th, we sett out early in the Morning, and being something 
unaquainted wth the way, having ask't it of some wee mett, they told us wee 
must Ride a mile or two and turne down a Lane on the Right hand ; and by 
their Direction wee Rode on but not Yet comeing to ye turning, we mett a 
Young fellow and ask't him how farr it was to the Lane which turn'd down 
towards Guilford. Hee said wee must Ride a little further, and turn down 
by the Corner of uncle Sams Lott. My Guide vented his Spleen at the 
Lubber; and we soon after came into the Rhode, and keeping still on, without 
any thing further Remarkabell, about two a clock afternoon we arrived at 
New Haven, where I was received with all Possible Respects and civility. 
Here I discharged Mr. Wheeler with a reward to his satisfaction, and took 
some time to rest after so long and toilsome a Journey; And Inform'd myselfe 
of the manners and customs of the place, and at the same time employed 
myselfe in the affair I went there upon. 

They are Govern'd by the same Laws as wee in Boston, (or little differ- 
ing,) thr'out this whole Colony of Connecticot, And much the same way of 
Church Government, and many of them good. Sociable people, and I hope 
Religious too: but a little too much Independant in their principalis, and, as 
I have been told, were formerly in their Zeal very Riggid in their Admin- 
istrations towards such as their Lawes made Offenders, even to a harmless 
Kiss or Innocent merriment among Young people. Whipping being frequent 
and counted an easy Punishment, about wch as other Crimes, the Judges were 
absolute in their Sentances. They told mee a pleasant story about a pair of 
Justices in thoes parts, wch I may not omit the relation of. 

A negro Slave belonging to a man in ye Town, stole a hogs head from 
his master, and gave or sold it to an Indian, native of the place. The Indian 
sold it in the neighbourhood, and so the theft was found out. Thereupon the 
Heathen was Seized, and carried to the Justices House to be Eramined. But 
his worship (it seems) was gone into the field, with a Brother in office, to 
gather in his Pompions. Whither the malefactor is hurried, And Complaint 
made, and satisfaction in the name of Justice demanded. Their Worships 
can't proceed in form without a Bench: whereupon they Order one to be 
Imediately erected, which, for want of fitter materials, they made with 
pompions — which being finished, down setts their Worships, and the Male- 
factor call'd, and by the Senior Justice Interrogated after the following man- 
ner. You Indian why did You steal from this man? You sho'dn't do so — it's 
a Grandy wicked thing to steal. Hol't Hol't, cryes Justice Junr, Brother, 
You speak negro to him. I'le ask him. You sirrah, why did You steal this 
man's Hoggshead? Hoggshead? (replys the Indian,) me no stomany. No? 
says his Worship; and pulling off his hatt. Patted his own head with his 
hand, sais, Tatapa — You, Tatapa — you; all one this. Hoggshead all one this. 
Hah ! says Netop, now me stomanv that. Whereupon the Company fell into 
a great fitt of Laughter, even to Roreing. Silence is co-manded, but to no 
effect: for they continued perfectly Shouting. Nay, sais his worship, in an 
angry tone, if it be so, take mee off the Bench. 

Their Diversions in this part of the Country are on Lecture days and 
Training days mostly; on the former there is Riding from town to town. 
And on training dayes The Youth divert themselves by Shooting at the 
Target, as they call it, (but it very much resembles a pillory,) where bee 
that hitts neerest the white has some yards of Red Ribbin presented him, 
wch being tied to his hattband, the two ends streaming down his back, he 



GENERAL FACTS 21 

is Led away in Triumph, wth great applause, as the winners of the Olympiack 
Games. They generally marry very young: the males oftener as I am told 
under twentie than above; they generally make public wcdings, and have a 
way something singular (as they say) in some of them, viz. Just before Joyn^ 
ing hands the Bridegroom quitts the place, who is soon followed by the 
Bridesmen, and as it were, dragg'd back to duty — being the reverse to ye 
former practice among us, to steal ms Pride. 

There are great plenty of Oysters all along by the sea side, as farr as I 
Rode in the Collony, and those very good. And they Generally lived very 
well and comfortably in their famelies. But too Indulgent (especially ye 
farmers) to their slaves : sufering too great familiarity from them, permitting 
ym to sit at Table and eat with them, (as they say to save time,) and into 
the dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand. They told me that 
there was a farmer lived nere the Town where I lodgd who had some differ- 
ence wth his slave, concerning something the master had promised him and 
did not punctualy perform ; wch caused some hard words between them ; 
But at length they put the matter to Arbitration and Bound themselves to 
stand to the award of such as they named — wch done, the Arbitrators Hav- 
ing heard the Allegations of both parties. Order the master to pay 40s to 
black face, and acknowledge his fault. And so the matter ended: the poor 
master very honestly standing to the award. 

There are every where in the Towns as I passed, a Number of Indians 
the Natives of the Country, and are the most salvage of all the salvages of 
that kind that I had ever Seen : little or no care taken (as I heard upon en- 
quir}-) to make them otherwise. They have in some places Landes of their 
owne, and Govern'd by Law's of their own making; — they marry many wives 
and at pleasure put them away, and on the ye least dislike or fickle humour, 
on either side, saying "stand away" to one another is a sufficient Divorce. 
And indeed those uncomely Stand aways are too much in Vougue among the 
English in this (Indulgent Colony) as their Records plentifully prove, and 
that on very trivial matters, of which some have been told me, but are not 
proper to be Related by a Female pen, tho some of that foolish sex have had 
too large a share in the story. 

If the natives committ any crime on their own precincts among them- 
selves, ye English takes no Cognezens of. But if on the English ground, 
they are punishable by our Laws. They mourn for their Dead by blacking 
their faces, and cutting their hair, after an Awkcrd and frightful! manner; 
But can't bear You should mention the names of their dead Relations to 
them: they trade most for Rum, for wch thcyd hazzard their very lives; and 
the English fit them Generally as well, b)^ seasoning it plentifully with water. 

They give the title of merchant to every trader; who Rate their Goods 
according to the time and spetia they pay in : viz. Pay, mony. Pay as mony, 
and trusting. Pay is G'-ain, Pork, Beef, &c. at the prices sett by the General 
Gourt that Year; mrny is pieces of Eight, Ryalls, or Boston or Bay shillings 
(as they call them,) or Good hard money, as sometimes silver coin is termed 
by them ; also Wampom, vizt. Indian beads wch serves for change. Pay as 
mony is provisions, as aforesd one Third cheaper then as the Assembly or 
Genel Court sets it; and Trust as they and the mercht agree for time 

Now, when the buyer comes to ask for a comodity, sometimes before the 
merchant answers that he has it, he sais, is Your pay redy? Perhaps the 
Chap Reply's Yes: what do You pay in? says the merchant. The buyer 
having answered, then the price is set ; as suppose he wants a sixpenny knife, 
in pay it is I2d — in pay as money eight pence, and hard money its own price. 



22 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

viz. 6d. It seems a very Intricate way of trade and what Lex Mercatoria 
had not thought of. 

Being at a merchants house, in comes a tall country fellow with his 
alfogeos full of Tobacco ; for they seldom Loose their Cudd, but keep Chewing 
and Spitting as long as they'r eyes are open, — he advanc't to the midle of the 
Room, makes an Awkward Nodd, and spitting a Large deal of Aromatick 
Tincture, he gave a scrape with his shovel like shoo, leaving a small shovel 
full of dirt on the floor, made a full stop, Hugging his own pretty Body with 
his hands under his arms. Stood staring rown'd him, like a Catt let out of a 
Baskett. At last, like the creature Balaam Rode on, he opened his mouth 
and said: have You any Ribinen for Hatbands to sell I pray? The Questions 
and Answers about the pay being past, the Ribin is bro't and opened. Bump- 
kin .Simpers, cryes "its confounded Gay I vow" ; and beckning to the door, 
in comes Jone Tawdry dropping about 50 curtsees, and stands by him : hee 
shows her the Ribin. "Law, You," sais shee, "its right Gent, do You, take 
it, tis dreadfull pretty." Then she enquires, "have You any hood silk I pray?" 
wch being brought and bought, "Have You any thred silk to sew it wth" 
says shee, wch being accomodated wth they Departed. They Generaly stand 
after they come in a great while speachless. and sometimes dont say a word 
till they are askt what they want, which I impute to the Awe they stand 
in of the merchants, who they are constantly almost Indebted too ; and must 
take what they bring without Liberty to choose for themselves ; but they 
serve them as well, making the merchants stay long enough for their pay. 

We may Observe here the great necessity and bennifitt both of Education 
and Conversation ; for these people have as Large a portion of mother witt, 
and sometimes a Larger, than those who have bin brought up in Cities ; But 
for want of emprovements. Render themselves almost Ridicules, as above. 
I should be glad if they would leave such follies, and am sure all that Love 
Clean Houses (at least) would be glad on't too. They are generaly very 
plain in their dress, throuout all ye Colony, as I saw, and follow one another 
in their modes ; that You may know where they belong, especially the women, 
meet them where you will. 

Their Cheif Red Letter day is St. Election, wch is annually Observed 
according to Charter, to choose their Govenr: a blessing they can never be 
thankfull enough for, as they will find, if ever it be their hard fortune to 
loose it. The present Governor in Connecticott is the Honble John Win- 
throp Esq. A Gentleman of an Ancient and Honourable Family, whose Father 
was Govenor here sometime before, and his Grand father had bin Govr of 
the Massachusetts. This gentleman is a very curteous and afable person, 
much Given to Hospitality, and has b^- his Good services Gain'd the affections 
of the people as much as any who had bin before him in that post. 

Deer. 6th. Being by this time well Recruited and rested after my Journy, 
my business lying unfinished by some concerns at New York depending 
thereupon, my Kinsman. Mr. Thomas Trowbridge of New Haven, must needs 
take a Journy there before it could be accomplished, I resolved to go there 
in company wth him, and a man of the town wch I engaged to wait on me 
there. Accordingly, Dec. 6th we set out from New Haven, and about 11 
same morning came to Stratford ferry; wch crossing, about two miles on 
the other side Baited our horses and would have eat a morsell ourselves. But 
the Pumpkin and Indian mixt Bred had such an Aspect, and the Bare-legg'd 
Punch so awkerd or rather Awfull a sound, that we left both, and proceeded 
forward, and about seven at night come to Fairfield, where we met with good 
entertainment and Lodg'd ; and early next morning set forward to Norowalk, 
from its halfe Indian name North-walk, when about 12 at noon we arrived, 



GENERAL FACTS 23 

and Had a Dinner of Fryed Venison, very savoury. Landlady wanting some 
pepper in the seasoning, bid the Girl hand her the spice in the little Gay 
cupp on ye shelfe. From hence we Hasted towards Rye, walking and Lead- 
ing our Horses neer a mile together, up a prodigies high Hill ; and so Riding 
till about nine at night, and there arived and took up our Lodgings at an 
ordinary, wch a I'rench family kept. Here being very hungry, I desired a 
fricasee, wch the Frenchman undertakeing, managed so contrary to my notion 
of Cookery, that I hastened to Bed superless; And being shewd the way up a 
pair of stairs wch had such a narrow passage that I had almost stopt by the 
Bulk of my Body ; But arriving at my apartment found it to be a little Lento 
Chamber furnisht amongst other Rubbish with a High Bedd and a Low one, 
a Long Table, a Bench and a Bottomless chair, — Little Miss went to scratch 
up my Kennell wch Russelled as if shee'd bin in the Barn amongst the Husks, 
and supose such was the contents of the tickin- — nevertheless being exceeding 
weary, down I laid my poor Carkes (never more tired) and found my Cover- 
ing as scanty as my Bed was hard. Anon I heard another Russelling noise 
in Ye Room — called to know the matter — Little miss said shee was making 
a bed for the men ; who, when they were in Bed, complained their leggs lay 
out of it by reason of its shortness — my poor bones complained bitterly not 
Deing used to such Lodgings, and so did the man who was with us ; and poor 
I made but one Grone, which was from the time I went to bed to the time I 
Riss. which was about three in the morning, Setting up by the Fire till Light, 
and having discharged our ordinary wch was as dear as if we had had far 
Better fare — wee took our leave of Monsier and about seven in the morn 
come to New Rochell a french town, where we had a good Breakfast. And 
in the strength of that about and how'r before sunsett got to York. Here 
I applyd myeslf to Mr. Burroughs, a merchant to whom I was recommended 
by my Kinsman Capt. Prout, and received great Civilities from him and his 
spouse, who were now both Deaf but very agreeable in their Conversation, 
Diverting me with pleasant stories of their knowledge in Brittan from whence 
they both come, one of which was above the rest very pleasant to me viz. my 
Lord Darcy had a very extravagant Brother who had mortgaged what Estate 
hee could not sell, and in good time dyed leaving only one son. Him his 
Lordship (having none of his own) took and made him Heir of his whole 
Estate, which he was to receive at the death of his Aunt. He and his Aunt 
in her widowhood held a right understanding and lived as become such Rela- 
tions, shee being a discreet Gentlewoman and he an Ingenios Young man. 
One day Hee fell into some Companv though far his inferiors, very freely 
told him of the 111 circumstances his fathers Estate lay under, and the many 
Debts he left unpaid to the wrong of poor people with whom he had dealt. 
The Young gentleman was put out of countenance — no way hee could think 
of to Redress himeslf — his whole dependance being on the Lady his Aunt, 
and how to speak to her he knew not — Hee went home, sat down to dinner 
and as usual sometimes with her when the Chaplain was absent, she desired 
him to say Grace, wch he did after this manner : 

Pray God in Mercy take my Lady Darcy 

Unto his Heavenly Throne; 
That Little John may live like a man, 
And pay every man his own. 

The prudent Lady took no present notice. But finishd dinner, after wch 
having sat and talk't awhile (as Customary) He Riss, took his Hatt and 
Going out she desired him to give her leave to speak to him in her Clossett, 
Where being come she desired to know why hee prayed for her Death in 



24 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

the manner aforesaid, and what part of her deportment towards him merritted 
such desires. Ilee Reply'd, none at all, But he was under such disadvan- 
tages that nothing but that could do him service, and told her how he had 
been affronted as above, and what Impressions it had made upon him. The 
Lady made him a gentle reprimand that he had not informed her after 
another manner, Bid him see what his father owed and he should have money 
to pay it to a penny, And always to lett her know his wants and he should 
have a redy supply. The Young Gentleman charm'd with his Aunts Discrete 
management, Beggd her pardon and accepted her kind offer and retrieved his 
fathers Estate, <.K:c. and said Hee hoped his Aunt would never dye. for shee 
had done better by him than hee could have done for himself. — Mr. Burroughs 
went with me to Vendue where I bought about lOO Rheem of paper wch was 
retaken in a fly-boat from Holland and sold very Reasonably here — some ten, 
some Eight shillings per Rheem by the Lott wch was ten Rheem in a Lott. 
And at the Vendue I made a great many acquaintances amongst the good 
women of the town, who curteosly invited me to their houses and generously 
entertained me. 

The Cittie of New York is a pleasant, well compacted place, situated on 
a Commodius River wch is a fine harbour for shipping. The Buildings Brick 
Generaly, very stately and high, though not altogether like ours in Boston. 
The Bricks in some of the Houess are of divers Coullers and laid in Checkers, 
being glazed look very agreeable. The inside of them are neat to admiration, 
the wooden work, for only the walls are plasterd, and the Sumers and Gist 
are plained and kept very white scovvr'd as so is all the partitions if made 
of Bords. The fire places have no Jambs (as ours have) But the Backs run 
flush with the walls, and the Hearth is of Tyles and is as farr out into the 
Room at the Ends as before the fire, w'ch is Generally Five foot in the Low'r 
rooms, and the peice over where the mantle tree should be is made as ours 
with Joyncrs work, and as I supose is fasten'd to iron rodds inside. The 
House where the Vendue was, had Chimney Corners like ours, and they and 
the hf-arths were laid wth the finest tile that I ever see, and the stair cases 
laid all with white tile which is ever clean, and so are the walls of the 
Kitchen wch had a Brick floor. They were making Great preparations to 
Receive their Govenor, Lord Cornbury from the Jerseys, and for that End 
raised the militia to Gard him on shore to the fort. 

They are Generaly of the Church of England and have a New England 
Gentleman for their minister, and a very fine church set out with all Cus- 
tomary requsites. There are also a Dutch and Divers Conventicles as they 
call them, viz. Baptist, Quakers, &c. They are not strict in keeping the 
Sabbath as in Boston and other places where I had bin. But seem to deal 
with great exactness as farr as I see or Dcall with. They are sociable to 
one another and Curteos and Civill to strangers and fare well in their houses. 
The English go very fasheonable in their dress. But the Dutch, especially 
the middling sort, differ from our women, in their habitt go loose, were 
French muches wch are like a Capp and a head band in one, leaving their 
ears bare, which are sett out with Jewells of a large size and many in 
number. And their fingers hoop't with Rings, some with large stones in 
them of many Coullers as were their pendants in their ears, which You 
should see very old women wear as well as Young. 

They have Vendues very frequently and make their Earnings verv well 
by them for they treat with good Liquor Liberally, and the Customers Drink 
as Liberally and Generally pay for't as well, by paying for that which they 
Bid up Briskly for. after the sack has gone plentifullv about, tho' sometimes 
good penny worths are got there. Their Diversions in the Winter is 



GENERAL FACTS 25 

Riding Sleys about three or four Miles out of town, where they have Houses 
of entertainment at a place called the Bowery, and some go to friends Houses 
who handsomely treat them. Air. Burroughs cary'd his spouse and Daughter 
and myeslf out to one Madame Dowes, a Gentlewoman that lived at a farm 
House, who gave us a handsome Entertainment of five or six Dishes and 
choice Beer and metheglin. Cyder, &c. all which she said was the prciduce 
of her farm. I believe we mett 50 or 60 slays that day — they fly with great 
swiftness and some are so furious that they'le turn out of the path for none 
except a Loaden Cart. Nor do they spare for any diversion the place affords, 
and sociable to a degree, they'r Tables being as free to their Naybours as to 
themselves. 

Having here transacted the affair I went upon and some other that fell 
in the way, after about a fortnight's stay there I left New-York with no 
Little regrett, and Thursday, Dec. 21, set out for New Haven with my 
Kinsman, Trowbridge, and the man that waited on me about one afternoon, 
and about three come to half-way house about ten miles out of town, where 
we Baited and went forward, and about 5 come to Spiting Devil, Else Kings 
bridge, where they pay three pence for passing over with a horse, which the 
man that keeps the Gate set up at the end of the Bridge receives. 

We hoped to reach the french town and Lodg there that night, but 
unhapily lost our way about four miles short, and being overtaken by a great 
storm of wind and snow which set full in our faces about dark, we were very 
uneasy. But meeting one Gardner who lived in a Cottage thereabout, offered 
us his fire to set by, having but one poor Bedd, and his wife not well, &c. or 
he would go to a House with us, where he thought we might be better 
accommodated — thither we went, But a surly old shee Creature, not worthy 
the name of woman, who would hardly let us go into her Door, though the 
weather was so stormy none but shee would have turnd out a Dogg. But 
her son whose name was Gallop, who lived Just by Invited us to his house 
and shewed me two pair of stairs, viz. one up the loft and tother up the 
Redd, wch was as hard as it was high, and warmed it with a hott stone ?'■ 
the feet. I lay verj' uncomfortably, insomuch that I was so very cold and 
sick I was forced to call them up to give me something to warm me. They 
had nothing but milk in the house, wch they Boild, and to make it better 
sweetened wth molasses, which I not knowing or thinking oft till it was down 
and coming up agen wch it did in so plentiful! a manner that my host was 
soon paid double for his portion, and that in specia. But I believe it did me 
service in Cleering my stomach. So after this sick and weary night at East 
Chester, fa very miserable poor place,) the weather being now fair, Friday 
the 22d Dec. we set out for New Rochell, where being come we had good 
Entertainment and Recruited ourselves very well. This is a very pretty 
place well compact, and good handsome houses, Clean, good and passable 
Rodes. and situated on a Navigable River, abundance of land well fined and 
Cleerd all along as wee passed, which caused in me a Love to the place, wch 
I could have been content to live in it. Here wee Ridd over a Bridge made of 
one entire stone of such a Breadth that a cart might pass with safety, and 
to spare — it lay over a passage cutt through a Rock to convey water to a 
mill not farr off. Here are three fine Taverns within call of each other, very 
good provision for Travailers. 

Thence we travailed through Merrinak, a neet, though little place, wth 
a navigable River before it, one of the pleasantest I ever see — Here were good 
Buildings, Espccialy one. a verv fine seat, wch they told mc wasCol.Hethcoats, 
who I had heard was a very fine Gentleman. From hence we come to Hors 
Neck, where wee Baited, and they told me that one Church of England parson 



26 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

officiated in all these three towns once every Sunday in turns throughout the 
Year ; and that they all could but poorly maintaine him, which they grudg'd 
to do, being a poor and quarelsome crew as I understand by our Host; their 
Quarelling about their choice of Minister, they chose to have none — But 
caused the Government to send this Gentleman to them. Here wee took leave 
of York Government, and Descending the IMountainos passage that almost 
broke my heart in ascending before, we come to Stamford, a well compact 
Town, but miserable meeting house, wch we passed, and thro' many and 
great difficulties, as Bridges which were exceeding high and very tottering 
and of vast Length, steep and Rocky Hills and precipices, (Buggbears to a 
fearful female travailer.) About nine at night we come to Norrwalk, having 
crept over a timber of a Broken Bridge about thirty foot long, and perhaps 
fifty to ye water. I was exceeding tired and cold when we come to our Inn, 
and could get nothing there but poor entertainment, and the Impertinant 
Bable of one of the worst of men, among many others of which our Host 
made one. who, had he bin one degree Impudenter, would have outdone his 
Grandfather. And this I think is the most perplexed night I have yet had. 
From hence, Saturday, Dec. 23, a very cold and windy day. after an Intoler- 
able night's Lodging, wee hastened forward only observing in our way the 
Town to be situated on a Navigable river wth indifcrent Buildings and people 
more refind than in some of the Country towns wee had passed, tho' vicious 
enough, the Church and Tavern being next neighbours. Having Ridd thro 
a difficult River wee come to Fairfield where wee Baited and were much 
refreshed as well with the Good things wch gratified our appetites as the 
time took to rest our wearied Limbs, wch Latter I employed in enquiring 
concerning the Town and manners of the people, <S:c. This is a considerable 
town, and filld as they say with wealthy people — have a spacious meeting 
house and good Buildings. But the Inhabitants are Litigious, nor do they 
well agree with their minister, who (they say) is a very worthy Gentleman. 
Thev have aboundance of sheep, whose very Dung brings them great 
gain, with part of which they pay their Parsons sallery. And they Grudg that, 
preferring their Dung before their minister. They Lett out their sheep at 
so much as they agree upon for a night; the highest Bidder alwavs caries 
them. And they will sufficiently Dung a Large quantity of Land before morn- 
ing. But were once Bitt by a sharper who had them a night and sheared 
them all before morning — from hence we went to Stratford, the next Town, 
in which I observed but few houses, and those not very good ones. But the 
people that I conversed with were civill and good natured. Here we staid 
till late at night, being to cross a Dangerous River ferry, the River at that 
time full of Ice ; but after about four hours waiting with great difficulty wee 
got over. My fears and fatigues prevented my here taking any particular 
observation. Being got to Milford, it being late in the night. I could go no 
further ; my fellow travailer going forward, I was invited to Lodg at Mrs. 

, a very kind and civill Gentlewoman, by whom I was handsomelv 

and kindly entertained till the next night. The people here go very plain in 
their apparel (more plain than I had observed in the towns I had passed) 
and seem to be very grave and serious. They told me there was a singing 
Quaker lived there, or at least had a strong inclination to be so. His Spouse 
not at all affected that way. Some of the singing Crew come there one dav 
to visit him, who being then abroad, they sat down (to the woman's no small 
vexation) Humming and singing and groneing after their conjuring way — • 
Says the woman are you singing quakers? Yea says They — Then take my 
squalling Brat of a child here and sing to it says she for I have almost split 
my throat wth singing to him and cant get the Rogue to sleep. They took 



GENERAL FACTS 27 

this as a great Indignity, and mediately departed. Shaking the dust from 
their Heels left the good woman and her child among the number of the 
wicked. This is a Seaport place and accommodated with a Good Harbour, 
But I had not opportunity to make particular obesrvations because it was 
Sabbath day — This Evening. 

December 24. I set out with the Gentlewomans son who she very civilly 
offered to go with me when she see no parswasions would cause me to stay 
while she pressingly desired, and crossing a ferry having but nine miles to 
New Haven, in ashort time arrived there and was Kindly received and well 
accommodated amongst my Friends and Relations. 

The Government of Connecticut Collony begins westward towards York 
at Stamford (as I am Told) and so runs Eastward towards Boston (I mean 
in my range, because I dont intend to extend my description beyond my 
own travails) and ends that way at Stonington — And has a great many Large 
towns Iving more northerly. It is a plentiful Country for provisions of all 
sorts and its Generally Healthy . No one that can and will be dilligent in 
this place need fear poverty nor the want of food and Rayment. 

January 6th. Being now well Recruited and fitt for business I discoursed 
the persons I was concerned with, that we might finish in order to my return 
to Boston. They delayd as they had hitherto done hoping to tire my Patience. 
But I was resolute to stay and see an End of the matter let it be never so 
much to my disadvantage— So January 9th they come again and promise the 
Wednesday following to go through with the distribution of the Estate 
which they delayed till Thursday and then come with new amusements. 
But at length by the mediation of that holy good Gentleman, the Rev. Mr. 
James Pierpont, the minister of New Haven, and with the advice and assist- 
ance of other our Good friends we come to an accommodation and distribu- 
tion, which having finished though not till February, the man that waited on 
me to York taking the charge of me I sit out for Boston. We went from 
New Haven upon the ice (the ferry being not passable thereby) and the 
Rev. Mr. Pierpont wth Madam Prout Cuzin Trowbridge and divers others 
were taking leave wee went onward without any thing Remarkabl till wee 
come to New London and Lodged again at Mr. Saltonstalls — and here I 
dismist my Guide, and my Generos entertainer provided me Mr. Samuel 
Rogers of that place to go home with me — I stayed a day here Longer than 
I intended by the Commands of the Honble Govenor Winthrop to stay and 
take a supper with him whose wonderful civility I may not omitt. The 
next morning I Crossed ye Ferry to Groton, having had the Honor of the 
Company, of Madam Livingston (who is the Govenors Daughter) and Mary 
Christophers and divers others to the boat — And that night Lodgd at 
Stonington and had Rost Beef and pumpkin sause for supper. The next 
night at Haven's and had Rost fowle, an the next day wee come to a river 
which by Reason of Ye Freshetts coming down was swell'd so high wee 
feard it impassable and the rapid stream was very terryfying — However we 
must over and that in a small Cannoo. Mr. Rogers assuring me of his good 
Conduct, I after a stay of near an how'r on the shore for consultation went 
into the Cannoo. and Mr. Rogers paddled about 100 yards up the Creek by 
the shore side, turned into the swift stream and dexterously steering her in 
a moment wee come to the other side as swiftly passing as an arrow shott out 
of the Bow by a strong arm . I staid on ye shore till Hee returned to fetch 
our horses, which he caused to swim over himself bringing the furniture in 
the Cannoo. But it is past my skill to express the Exceeding fright all their 
transactions formed in me. Wee were now in the colony of the Massachusetts 
and taking Lodgings at the first Inn we come to had a pretty difficult passage 



28 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

the next day which was the second of March by reason of the sloughy ways 
then thawed by the Sunn. Here I mett Capt. John Richards of Boston who 
was going home, So being very glad of his Company we Rode something 
harder than hitherto, and missing my way in going up a very steep Hill, 
my hors dropt down under me as Dead; this new surprize no little hurt me 
meeting it Just at the Entrance into Dedham from whence we intended to 
reach home that night. But was now obliged to gett another Hors there and 
leave my own, resolving for Boston that night if possible. But in going over 
the Causeway at Dedham the Bridge benig overflowed by the high waters 
comming down I very narrowly escaped falling over into the river Hors 
and all wch twas almost a miracle I did not — now it grew late in the after- 
noon and the people having very much discouraged us about the sloughy 
way wch they said wee should find very difficult and hazardous it so wrought 
on mee being tired and dispirited and disapointed of my desires of going home 
that I agreed to Lodg there that night wch wee did at the house of one 
Draper, and the next day being March 3d wee got safe home to Boston, where 
I found my aged and tender mother and my Dear and only Child in good 
health with open arms redy to receive me, and my Kind relations and friends 
flocking in to welcome mee and hear the story of my transactions and 
travails I having this day bin five months from home and now I cannot fully 
express my Joy and Satisfaction. But desire sincearly to adore my Great 
Benefactor for thus graciously carying forth and returning in safety his un- 
worthy handmaid. 

The country sufi'ered little from the ravages of King Philip's War, new 
settlers continued to arrive, the population grew, the new generation took 
up the tasks of clearing the land, tilling the soil, and carrying on the various 
crafts needed in a small community. 

A list of the names of the original families of these towns will include 
many names familiar to students of American History — names prominent in 
the Colonial period, in the Revolutionary War, and in the development of our 
whole country as the pioneers spread westward to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 
ultimately on to the Pacific. Under the history of each town will be found 
the names of early settlers. 

Before 1710 New London county had furnished for Connecticut three 
Governors, and two Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. 

Though the founders were closely allied, there seems to have been much 
rivalry between New London and Norwich in early days. The first and only 
magistrate of the county during his lifetime was John Mason, of Norwich, 
and he usually held his court at home. After his death, a New London man 
was appointed. There was for many years an effort on the part of Norwich 
to have sessions of the Superior Court held in Norwich half the time. The 
first county court house was located in New London in 1724. After the 
burning of New London in 1781. a new one was erected at the head of State 
street. Norwich became a "half-shire" town in 1734, and soon erected a jail 
with whipping post and pillory near by. Its court house of 1829 was burned 
in 1865. and replaced soon after by the present court house at the "Landing." 

It is hard for the present generation to realize how closely knit were 
Church and State in these colonial days. Dr. Daniel Coit Oilman, later 



GENERAL FACTS 29 

president of Johns Hopkins, at that time librarian of Yale College, delivered 
at Norwich in September, 1859, at the celebration of the 200th anniversary 
of Norwich, an address which is a mine of information on matters pertaining 
to the early history of New London county. We quote his words regarding 
religious conditions at the close of the seventeenth century: 

I have already said that the first manuscript records of the church have 
perished. One curious printed document has lately been discovered, bearing 
date 1675, which is interesting in its bearing on the history of these times. 
The only complete copy with which I am acquainted belongs to Mr. George 
Brinley, of Hartford, who has kindly permitted me to bring it before you. 
It is an old fashioned duodecimo of 133 pages, printed in 1683, bearing on 
its title page the autographs of Increase Mather and of Mather Byles. It 
contains three distinct treatises; the first, "An explanation of the solemn 
advice, recommended by the council in Connecticut colony to the inhabitants 
in that jurisdiction"; and the third, "A brief discourse proving that the first 
day of the week is the Christian Sabbath." Both of these are attributed to 
Mr. Fitch. Appended to the former is "The Covenant, which was solemnly 
renewed by the church in Norwich, in Connecticut colony, in New England, 
March 22, 1675." The volume is introduced by a letter from Increase Mather, 
"to the reader," in which he says that "the reverend and worthy author had 
no thought of publishing these brief and nervous discourses until such time 
as others did importune him thereunto," and proceeds to comment on their 
scope and character. 

The circumstances which attended this "renewal" are worthy of mention. 
The war with King Philip was then raging. Norwich, though much exposed 
by its situation on the frontier, had freely contributed more than its quota 
to the active army; so freely, indeed, that the Cieneral Court sent on from 
Hartford ten men, from New Haven eight, and from Fairfield eight, "to lye 
in garrison at Norwich," as a guard to the inhabitants. So great was the 
danger in those days that the watch in each plantation was ordered "at least 
an hour before day, to call up the inhabitants, who should forthwith rise and 
arm themselves, march to the fort, and stand guard against any assault of 
the enemy until the sun be half an hour high in the morning." Under these 
circumstances, on the 13th of March. Mr. Fitch writes to the council in Hart- 
ford. After acknowledging the receipt of a letter from the council, with their 
orders for a fast day, he continues : 

"Blessed be the Lord who hath moved your hearts in so necessarie and 
seasonable worke. We intend. God willing, to take that very daye, solemnly 
to renew our covenant in our church state, according to the example in Ezra's 
time, and as was sometimes practised in Hartford congregation by Mr. Stone, 
not long after Mr. Hooker's death. If other churches doe not see cause to 
doe the same, yet wee hope it will not bee offensive ; but doe verily conclude 
if y be rule for y practise, this is a time wherein the Providence of God does 
in a knocking and terrible manner call for it." 

The covenant evinces the same spirit, and to some extent it employs the 
same phrases as this letter. After a general recognition of the displeasure of 
God, as displayed "by blasting the fruits of the earth and cutting off the 
lives of many by the sword, laying waste some plantations and threatening 
ruin to the whole," the covenant is renewed in seven particulars, which may 
be condensed as follows: 



30 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

1. All the males who are eight or nine years of age shall be presented 
before the Lord in his congregation every Lord's day to be catechised, until 
they be about thirteen in age. 

2. Those who are about thirteen years of age, both male and female, 
shall frequent the meetings appointed in private for their instruction, while 
they continue under family government or until they are received to full 
communion in the church. 

3. Adults who do not endeavor to take hold of the covenant shall be 
excommunicated. 

4. Brethren shall be appointed to admonish those parents who are negli- 
gent of their children. 

5. The Lord's supper shall be celebrated once in every six weeks. 

6. Erring brethren are to be rebuked. 

7. Finally, "seeing we feel by woful experience how prone we are soon 
to forget the works of the Lord, and our own vows ; we do agree and deter- 
mine, that this writing or contents of it, shall be once in every year read in 
a day of fasting and prayer before the Lord, and his congregation; and shall 
leave it with our children, that the}' do the same in their solemn days of 
mourning before the Lord, that they may never forget how their fathers, 
ready to perish in a strange land, and with sore grief and trembling of heart, 
and yet hope in the tender mercy, and good will of him, who dwelt in the 
burning bush, did thus solemnly renew their covenant with God : and that 
our children after us, may not provoke the Lord and be cast off as a degen- 
erate off-spring, but may tremble at the commandment of God, and learn to 
place their hope in him, who although he hath given us a cup of astonish- 
ment to drink, yet will display his banner over them, who fear him. 

Speaking of the religious awakening that took place in New London 
county in the earlier part of the eighteenth century. Rev. Mr. Northrop says : 

The awakening took deep root in New London county, where the 
Separatist movement was pronounced, and the knell of dis-establishment 
began to be sounded. . . . New religious ideas come in, and the estab- 
lished Congregational Church of Connecticut undergoes dissolution and gives 
place to the rights of free worship. And with the freer and wider thinking 
begins a better thought of the outside world. Some of the most fruitful be- 
ginnings of the great modern missionary movement had their origin right 
here on this soil, and so it has come to pass that New London county has 
the distinction of having given more for the evangelization of the world than 
any other county in the United States. 




CHAPTER II 

THE BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 

Education Recognized as a First Necessity — First Free School— Oth-r Schoo's and 
Early Teachers — Contrasts Between the Old and New Syst;ms of Education — The 
Norwich Tests — School Legislation — Provision for the Indians. 

In view of the great importance of education in the development of New 
England as a whole, no less in our county than elsewhere, we interrupt our 
narrative history to insert a review of educational progress in New London 
county. In order that we may discuss this subject in a broad sense, we prefix 
a brief definition of education from the standpoint of history. 

Education is the process by which an individual comes into possession 
of some part of human progress and thus fits himself to take part in the life 
of his own generation. This process, in a normal person, is taking place most 
of the time from birth to death. 

We are all creatures of the past ; in physical appearance, in traits of body 
and mind, in desires, and in powers, we are the "heirs of all the ages" of 
human evolution. As there is abundant evidence that man has improved 
from his original condition, we may fairly say that the inheritance of each 
generation from the preceding one has steadily increased in value as human 
experience has covered new fields of action. Each generation progresses, 
first by acquiring the gains of former generations, then by new experiences 
of its own. 

Somewhat after the beginning of written language the accumulation of 
records of the past became so great that specially trained men were needed 
to preserve and interpret these records. And so great has been the increase 
in the amount and complexity of human progress, that great institutions have 
arisen to secure for humanity the perpetual possession of its most valuable 
gains. 

These gains may be grouped under two heads: first, gains in aims; 
secondly, gains in powers. Under these two topics may be grouped, I be- 
lieve, all the progress of every epoch of history as well as that of every 
individual in any epoch. Let us then briefly subdivide human aims and 
human powers. 

In so far as man's aims are affected by a belief in the supernatural, we 
group them under the name of Religion. In so far as his aims affect his 
dealings with his fellow men we may group them under the head of Morality. 
The moral code has on the one side the sanction of the institution of Religion, 
and on the other side the support of the institution of Government. 

Human powers may be subdivided into knowledge, or power in under- 
standing; efficiency, or power in action; emotion, or power to feel and ap- 
preciate. It is evident then that the great institutions of mankind exist for 
the purpose of educating man in these aims and powers. The progress of 



32 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

humanity is the aggregate gain of individuals in spiritual inspiration, in 
moral desires, in respect for law, in power to enjoy what is best, in sym- 
pathy for others, in the virtues and habits that promote efficiency, in the 
understanding necessary to direct one's efforts intelligently. 

The School is that institution which exists primarily for the distribution 
of knowledge. Now the mass of human knowledge has become so great that 
no one can hope to put into practice more than a very small part of it. It is 
necessary therefore that the individual choose a time when he will begin to 
put his attention on the details of his life work rather than on the broader 
understanding of human progress. This point of time marks the division 
between his liberal culture and his technical training. 

When shall technical training begin? No one knows. The answer will 
vary with the individual's powers and opportunities. It is fair to say that 
liberal culture should be prolonged until its further continuance would inter- 
fere with the technical efficiency of the individual. 

But even technical information will be of little use to an individual unless 
he has the personal virtues that make him efficient. Strength of will, tact, 
good habits, and many other qualities, are to be ranked even higher than 
understanding. In modern times, therefore, the school has become in minia- 
ture a world of itself, in which the right minded pupil may learn lessons of 
morality, lessons of personal power, as well as lessons in understanding and 
appreciation. 

Besides the four great institutions there are other tremendous forces at 
work moulding the lives of individuals and communities; Literature, Paint- 
ing, Music, the Press, and too many other forces to mention have today a 
greater influence than ever before in the history of the world. 

A full definition of education, then, in its broadest sense, would be some- 
thing like this:— Education is the process whereby the individual, through 
the Home, the Church, the State, the School, and through all the remainder 
of his environment, learns his own noblest capabilities, learns to obey moral 
law, gains power to do. and understanding to direct that power. 

In treating those facts which it is most advisable that a man entering 
into life should accurately know, Ruskin says: 

I believe that he ought to know three things: First, Where he is; sec- 
ondly. Where he is going; thirdly. What he had best do, under those cir- 
cumstances. 

First : Where he is. — That is to say, what sort of a world he has got into ; 
how large it is; what kind of creatures live in it, and how; what it is made 
of, and what may be made of it. 

Secondly : Where he is going. — That is to say, what chances or reports 
there are of any other world besides this; what seems to be the nature of 
that other world. . 

Thirdly : What he had best do under the circumstances. — That is to say. 
what kind of faculties he possesses ; what are the present state and wants of 
mankind; what is his place in society; and what are the readiest means in 
his power of attaining happiness and diffusing it. The man who knows these 
things, and who has had his will so subdued in the learning them, that he 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 33 

is ready to do what he knows he oujjht, I should call educated ; and the man 
who knows them not, uneducated — though he could talk all the tongues of 
Babel. 

The men who settled Connecticut believed that every one should be able 
to read the word of God. Every church therefore had its teacher as well 
as its preacher. In advance of any Colonial legislation relating to common 
schools, almost every settlement had its teacher for part of the year at the 
most. The first laws did little more than guarantee the practice common 
in most towns. The settlers realized that the system of government dimly 
outlined in the "Mayflower Compact" of 1619, expanded in the Fundamental 
Orders of 1639, which to us of today stands forth as the "first written con- 
stitution known to history" and the foundation for republican form of gov- 
ernment, made universal education essential to self-preservation. 

Connecticut was the first State in the Union to set apart and establish 
a fund for the support of common schools. This was done after the sale 
of the "Western Reserve" lands in 1795 for $1,200,000. By the Constitution 
of 1818, Article 8, Par. 2, this fund is forever set apart for public schools : 

§ 2 The fund, called the "School Fund," shall remain a perpetual fund, 
the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated to the support and 
encouragement of the public or common schools throughout the state, and 
for the equal benefit of all the people thereof. The value and amount of said 
fund shall, as soon as practicable, be ascertained in such manner as the Gen- 
eral Assembly may prescribe, published and recorded in the Comptroller's 
office ; and no law shall ever be made authorizing said fund to be diverted 
to any other use than the encouragement and support of public or common 
schools, among the several school societies, as justice and equity shall require. 

The first law relating to common schools in Connecticut was enacted 
by the town of New Haven in 1641, and provided for a free school to be sup- 
'ported out of "the Common Stock." The next law was passed in Hartford 
in 1643. providing a free school for the poor children, with tuition charge for 
those able to pay. In 1646 a compilation of laws of the colony shows that 
every township of fifty families should maintain a school, and any town of 
one hundred families a grammar school. After the union of New Haven 
and Connecticut under the charter of 1662. many acts were passed relating 
to common schools. In 1700. every town of seventy families was required 
to maintain constantly a schoolmaster able to teach reading and writing. 
Towns of smaller size had to keep a school half the year. A grammar school 
was required in every shire town. The rate for school expenses was fixed 
at a minimum of forty shillings for every 1,000 in the county lists, and, if 
insufficient, was to be further secured by joint levy on inhabitants and parents 
of children. School committees, as distinct from other town officers, are 
first mentioned in 1708. 

Parishes were recognized as school districts, though under general control 
of the towns. The close connection between churches and schools was pos- 
sible because the population was homogeneous. But gradually came about 
N.L.— 1-3 



34 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



a sjstem of the separation of the church and school. By 1798, schools were 
managed by themselves as school societies or districts. The gradual return 
to town management by the consolidation of school districts followed the 
change of school laws in 1856. The types of schools of course changed as 
school laws became better adjusted to the needs of growing communities. 
In the various communities grew up private schools alongside the common 
elementary school. As types of such schools may be mentioned those de- 
scribed by Miss Caulkins in her "History of Norwich": 

The schools in Norwich were neither intermitted or neglected during 
the Revolutionary War. An institution of higher grade than elementary 
was sustained in the town-plot through all the distractions of the country. 
It called in many boarders from abroad, and at one period, with Mr. Goodrich 
for its principal, acquired considerable popularity. This school is endorsed 
by its committee, Andrew Huntington and Dudley Woodbridge, in 1783, as 
furnishing instruction to "young gentlemen and ladies, lads and misses, in 
every branch of literature, viz., reading, writing, arithmetic, the learned lan- 
guages, logic, geography, mathematics," <S:c. Charles White, teacher. 

The exhibitions of the school were commonly enlivened with scenic 
representations and interludes of music. A taste for such entertainments 
was prevalent. The j'oung people, even after their emancipation from schools, 
would sometimes take part in theatrical representations. We learn from the 
town newspaper that in February, 1792. a select company of young ladies 
and gentlemen performed the tragedy of "Gustavus" and "The ^Mistakes of 
a Night" at the court-house. 

The school-ma'am of former times, with her swarming hive of pupils, was 
an institution of which no sample remains at the present day. She was a 
life-long incumbent, never going out of one round of performance: always 
teaching little girls and boys to sit up straight and treat their elders with 
respect; to conquer the spelling-book, repeat the catechism, never throw 
stones, never tell a lie ; the boys to write copies, and the girls to work 
samplers. If they sought higher education than this, they passed out of 
her domain into finishing schools. Almost every neighborhood had its school- 
ma'am, and the memory is still fresh of Miss Sally Smith at the Landing, and 
Miss Molly Grover of the Town-plot. 

Dancing-schools were peculiarly nomadic in their character; the instruc- 
tor (generally a Frenchman) circulating through a wide district and giving 
lessons for a few weeks at particular points. Reels, jigs and contra-dances 
were most in vogue: the hornpipe and rigadoon were attempted by only a 
select few; cotillions were growing in favor; the minuet much admired. In 
October, 1787, Griffith's dancing-school was opened at the house of Mrs. 
Billings in the town-plot. He taught five different minuets, one of them a 
duo, and another a cotillion-minuet. His lessons were given in the morning, 
with a scholars' ball once a fortnight. Ten years later, J. C. Devereux was 
a popular teacher of the dance. He had large classes for several seasons at 
the court-house, and at Kinney's hotel in Chelsea. 

In 1799, a school for young ladies was opened in the house of Major 
Whiting upon the Little Plain, by Mrs. Brooks, who devoted herself espe- 
ciallv to feminine accomplishments, such as tambour, embroidery, painting 
in water-colors, instrumental music, and the French language. She had at 
first a large number of pupils from this and the neighboring towns, but the 
attendance soon declined, and the school was relinquished. In general the 
young ladies at such schools only remained long enough to practice a few 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 



35 



tunes on the g:uitar, to tambour a muslin shawl and apron, or embroider a 
scripture scene, and this gave the finishing stroke to their education. 

It was common then, as it is now, for parents with liberal means to send 
both their sons and daughters from home to obtain greater educational ad- 
vantages. Young ladies from Norwich often went to Boston to finish their 
education, and now and then one was placed under the guardian care and 
instruction of the Moravian sisterhood in their seminary at Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania. 

In 1782 an academical association was formed in the western part of 
the town-plot, consisting of forty-one subscribers and one hundred shares 
of rights. The old meeting-house of the Separatists was purchased and re- 
paired for the use of this institution. The first principal was Samuel Austin, 
and the range of studies included Latin and Greek, navigation and the mathe- 
matics. Two popular school-books then just issued were introduced by 
Mr. Austin into this school — Webster's "Grammatical Institutes," and "Geog- 
raphy Made Easy," by Jedidiah Morse. Mr. Morse was himself subsequently 
a teacher in this institution, which was continued with varying degrees of 
prosperity for thirty years or more. Alexander Macdonald, author of a school- 
book called "The Youth's Assistant," was one of its teachers. He died May 4, 
1792, aged forty. Newcomb Kinney was at one time the principal, and had 
for his usher John Russ of Hartford, afterward member of Congress from 
1819 to 1823. In 1800, Sebastian C. Cabot was the chief instructor. This 
school was kept in operation about thirty years. After it ceased, the lower, 
part of the building was occupied by the public school, and the upper part, 
being suitably prepared, was in use for nearly twenty years as a Methodist 
chapel. 

Dr. Daniel Lathrop, who died in 1782, left a legacy of £500 to the town 
for the support of a free grammar school, upon certain conditions, one of 
which was that the school should be kept during eleven months of each year. 
A school upon this foundation was opened in 1787, and continued for about 
fifty years. The brick school-house upon the green was built for its accom- 
modation. Its first teacher was Ebenezcr Punderson. But the most noted 
of its preceptors and the one who longest held his place was Mr. William 
Baldwin, an excellent instructor, faithful and apt to teach, but a rigid dis- 
ciplinarian, and consequently more respected than beloved by his pupils, until 
after-life led them to reverse the decisions of earlier days. The young have 
seldom judgment and generosity sufficient to make them love those who 
control them for their good. 

In 1843 the Lathrop donation was relinquished, with the consent of the 
legislature, to the heirs-at-law of Thomas Coit, a nephew of Dr. Lathrop, to 
whom by the provision of the testator's will it was in such case to revert. 
The investment had depreciated in value, and the restrictions with which 
the legacy was incumbered made it, in the advanced state of educational 
institutions, more of a hindrance than a help. The school had been for many 
years a great advantage to the town, but having accomplished its mission, 
it quietly ceased to be. 

Evening schools of short duration, devoted to some special study, were 
not uncommon. The object was usually of a practical nature, and the stu- 
dents above childhood. The evening school of Consider Sterry, in 1798, 
covered, according to his program, the following range of instruction: "Book- 
keeping in the Italian. American and English methods, mathematics, sur- 
veying and plotting of lands; price is. 6d. per week. Navigation and the 
method of finding longitude by lunar observations and latitude by the sun's 
altitude, one dollar for the complete knowledge." 



36 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Few men are gifted by nature with such an aptitude for scientific research 
as Consider Sterry. His attainments were all self-acquired under great dis- 
advantages. Besides a work on lunar observations, he and his brother pre- 
pared an arithmetic for schools, and in company with Nathan DaboU, an- 
other self-taught scientific genius, he arranged and edited a system of prac- 
tical navigation, entitled "The Seaman's Universal Daily Assistant," a work 
of nearly three hundred pages. He also published several small treatises, 
wrote political articles for the papers, and took a profound interest in free- 
masonry. 

In June, 1800, a school was inaugurated at the brick house on the Little 
Plain, with Mr. William Woodbridge for the principal. The assembly room 
was fitted up with desks and benches for an academical hall ; both sexes were 
admitted, and the whole was under the supervision of a board of four citi- 
zens — Joseph Howland, Samuel Woodbridge, Thomas Fanning, Thomas 
Lathrop. But the situation was too remote from the centers of population, 
and after a trial of two or three years this school was relinquished for want 
of patronage 

A select school for young persons of both sexes was long sustained in 
the town-plot, but with varying tides of prosperity and decline. After a void 
of two or three years, it was revived in 1803 by Pelatiah Perit, who had just 
then graduated from Yale College, and was only eighteen years of age. Lydia 
Huntley, afterwards Mrs. Sigourney, was one of his pupils. 

Among other teachers of the town-plot, who were subesquently hon- 
orable and noted in their several callings, the following are well remembered: 
Daniel Haskell, president of the Vermont University; Henry Strong, LL.D., 
eminent in the law ; John Hyde, judge of county court, judge of probate, etc. ; 
Dr. Peter Allen, a physician in Ohio; Rev. Joshua L. Williams, of Middle- 
town ; J. Bates Murdock, afterwards an officer of the Second War with Great 
Britain; Phineas L. Tracy, who from 1827 to 1833 was Member of Congress 
from Genesee county, New York. 

A proprietary school was established at the Landing in 1797, by twenty- 
seven heads of families. The school-house was built on the slope of the hill 
above Church street, and the school was assembled and organized by the 
Rev. Walter King. David L. Dodge was the first regular teacher. In 1802, 
the Rev. Thomas Williams was the'preceptor. He was noted for his assiduous 
attention to the health and morals as well as the studies of his pupils. He 
drilled them thoroughly in the "Assembly's Catechism," anl used with his 
younger classes a favorite manual called "The Catechism of Nature." Other 
teachers of this school were Mr. Scarborough, Ebenezer Witter, John Lord 
(president of Dartmouth College), George Hill, and others. But no one 
retained the office for so long a term as Dyar T. Hinckley, of Windham, & 
man of earnest zeal in his profession, who was master of desk and bench in 
Norwich for twenty years or more, yet never removed his family or obtained 
a regular home in the place. He was a schoolmaster of the old New Eng- 
land type, devoted to his profession as an ulterior pursuit, and expending 
his best energies in the performance of its duties. 

Schools at that period consisted uniformly of two sessions a day, of 
three hours each, with a half-holiday on Saturday. Mr. Hinckley, in addition 
to this, had sometimes an evening or morning school, or both, of two hours 
each, for pupils not belonging to the day-school. The morning hours were 
devoted to young ladies, and from an advertisement of May, 1816, giving notice 
of a new term, we ascertain the precise time when the class assembled: 
"Hours from 5 o'clock to 7 A. M." Let no one hastily assume that this early 
summons wotild be neglected. Living witnesses remain to testify that it 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 37 

drew a o;oodly number of young aspirants who came out, fresh and vigorous, 
at sunrise or a little later, to pursue their studies. 

Another institution that made its mark upon society was the Chelsea 
Grammar School, organized in 1806, but not incorporated till 1821, when it 
was impowered to hold real estate to the value of $20,000. The school-house 
was on the side-hill opposite the Little Park, in Union street. This institution 
continued in operation, with some vacant intervals, about forty years, secur- 
ing for its patrons the benefits of an academical education for their children 
without sending them homo. Many prominent citizens of Norwich here 
received their first introduction to the classics, the sons in numerous instances 
taking possession of seats once occupied by their fathers. 

No complete list of the preceptors has been obtained; but among the 
remembered names are several that have since been distinguished in literary 
and professional pursuits — Dr. Jonathan Knight, of New Haven; Charles 
Griswold, of Lyme; Jonathan Barnes, Wyllis Warner, Roswell C. Smith, 
Rev. Horace Bushnell, D.D., and Rev. William Adams, D.D. These men were 
all young at the time. The preceptors of most schools, here and elsewhere, 
at that period, were college graduates, accepting the office for a year, or at 
most for two or three years, between taking their degree and entering upon 
some other profession. But teachers to whom the vocation is but a stepping- 
stone to something beyond on which the mind is fixed, however faithful and 
earnest in their present duties, can never raise an institution to any per- 
manent standard of excellence. It is well therefore that these temporary 
undertakings should give way to public schools more thoroughly system- 
atized and conducted by persons who make teaching a profession. 

In Chelsea, beginning about 1825, a series of expedients for enlarging 
the bounds of knowledge afford pleasing evidence of the gradual expansion 
of intellect and enterprise. A lyceum, a circulating library, a reading club, 
a society for mutual improvement, and a mechanics' association, were suc- 
cessively started, and though most of them were of brief duration, they were 
cheering tokens of an advance in the right path. 

The Norwich Female Academy was incorporated in 1828. This insti- 
tution was greatly indebted for its origin to the persevering exertion of 
Mr. Thomas Robinson, who was the principal agent of the corporation. The 
brick hall erected for its accommodation stood on the hill facing the river, 
higher than any other building then on the declivity. Neither cfwrt-house 
nor jail had gained a foothold on the height, which was well forested, and 
toward the north surmounted by a fine prospect station, overtopping the 
woods, and known as Rockwell's Tower. The academy had the rugged hill 
for its background, but on other sides the view was varied and extensive; 
and when at recess the fair young pupils spread in joyous freedom over the 
height, often returning with wild flowers and oak-leaf garlands from the 
neighboring groves, neither poetry nor romance could exaggerate the interest 
of the scene. 

The most prosperous year of this academy was 1833, when the number 
of pupils amounted to nearly ninety, many of them boarders from other 
places. But the exposed situation of the building, and the rough, steep ascent 
by which only it could be reached, were adverse to the prosperity of a female 
academy, and it soon became extinct — disbanded by wintry blasts and icy 
foot-paths. 

In her "History of New London," Miss Caulkins thus covers the early 
history of public education in New London : 

The town school located on this spot was the free grammar-school, which 



38 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

had for its main support the Bartlet and other public revenues, and had been 
originall)' established further up the hill, on Hempstead street, but had 
descended from thence about 1750. It was now removed a few rods to the 
north, and placed in the highway fronting the Erving lot (Church street in 
that part not having been opened), with no wall or inclosure around it, 
these not being deemed at that time necessary. The dwelling houses in this 
part of the town were few, and the neighboring hills and fields were the play- 
ground of the boys. In the rear was the Hallam lot, extending from Broad 
street to the old meeting-house square, with but one building upon it, and 
that in its north-east corner. A little more distant, in the rear of the court- 
house, was the Coit "hollow-lot," shaded by large trees, and enriched with 
a rivulet of pure water (where Cottage street now runs). Still further back 
was a vacant upland lot (known as Fosdick's or Melally's lot), containing 
here and there a choice apple-tree, well known to schoolboys ; this is now 
the second burial ground. 

We have heard aged people revert to these scenes, the days when they 
were pupils of the free grammar-school, under the sway of "Master Owen"; 
when a house of worship had not given name and beauty to Zion's Hill, 
and only a cellar and a garden, tokens of former residence of one of the 
early settlers of the town, were to be seen on the spot where the Trott man- 
sion now stands. (This is supposed to have been the place where stood the 
house on Charles Hill, fortified in the time of the Indian war. The present 
house was built by Samuel Fosdick, at the head of Niantic river, but taken 
apart, brought into town, and erected in 1786. It has been occupied by J- P- 
Trott, its present owner, more than half a centurj'.) Later than this (about 
1796) General Huntington broke ground upon the hillside and erected his 
house (now Hurlbutt's), in the style called cottage ornee. Beyond this, on 
the present Coit property, was a gushing spring, where the eager schoolboy 
slaked his thirst and cooled his heated brow; and not a quarter of a century 
has elapsed since the space now occupied by the Williams mansion and 
grounds was an open, irregular hillside over whose rugged surface troops 
of children, as they issued from the school-room, were seen to scatter in 
their various sports, like flocks of sheep spreading over the hills. 

In the year 1795, the old school-house, a low, red building of one room, 
with a garret above, entered by a flight of stairs and a trap door, where 
refractory pupils were committed for punishment ; and with desks and benches, 
which, though made of solid oak, were desperately marred by ink and knife; 
was abandoned, and the school removed to a larger building of brick, erected 
for its accommodation in the highway, south of the court house, where it 
fulfilled another period of its history, of nearly forty years. Here the chair 
of instruction, or more properly the throne (for the government was despotic), 
was occupied after 1800 by Dr. Dow, the number of whose subjects usually 
amounted to about 150, though sometimes rising to 200. 

In 1833, 3 ^^'^ ^""^ much superior edifice was erected for the grammar 
school on a lot south of the Second Congregational Church, chiefly through 
the exertion and liberality of Joseph Hurlbut, to whom a vote of thanks was 
rendered by the town, October 9th, 1833. In this building the Bartlet or 
grammar school is still continued under the care of the town, but the fund 
is inadequate to its support and the pupils are taxed to supply the deficiency. 

The most noted teachers of this school since 1750, those whose ofifice 
covered the longest term of years, were John Owen (the remains of "Master 
Owen." were laid in the second burial ground, but no memorial stone marks 
the spot. If a sufficient number of his old pupils are yet upon the stage of 
life to undertake the charge, it would be a creditable enterprise for them 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 39 

to unite and raise some simple but iitting monument to his memory. He 
was for many years both town and city clerk) — and Ulysses Dow; both were 
peculiar characters, and each remained in office nearly forty years. The 
former died in 1801, aged sixty-five; the latter in 1844, aged seventy-eight. 
The Union School was an establishment incorporated by the General 
Assembly in October, 1774. The petition for the act was signed by twelve 
proprietors, who state that they had "built a commodious school house, and 
for several years past hired and supported a school-master." The original 
proprietors were Richard Law, Jeremiah Miller, Duncan Stewart, Silas Church, 
Thomas Allen, John Richards, Robinson Mumford, Joseph Cristophers, Mar- 
vin Wait, Nathaniel Shaw, Jr., Roger Gibson, Thomas Mumford. 

This school was intended to furnish facilities for a thorough English 
education and the classical preparation necessary for entering college. The 
school-house stood on State street, and by the subsequent opening of Union 
street was made a corner lot. This was a noted school in its early days, 
yielding a larger income than ordinary schools, and the station of preceptor 
was regarded as a post of honor. It has been heretofore stated that Nathan 
Hale held that office in 1775, and that he left the school to enter the army. 
He was the first preceptor after the act of incorporation. A few only of his 
successors can be named. Seth Williston, a graduate of Dartmouth College 
and since known as a divine of considerable eminence, was in charge for 
two years. Jacob B. Gurley, from the same seminary, succeeded Williston 
in May, 17Q4, and was the principal for three years. (Mr. Gurley is a native 
of Mansfield, Connecticut, but since 1794 a resident of New London, where 
he began to practice as an attorney in 1797.) Ebenezer Learned, a native 
of the town, and a graduate of Yale College, filled the chair of instruction 
in 1799. Knight, of the Medical College of New Haven, Olmstead of Yale, 
Mitchell of the University of North Carolina, and many other names of note, 
are among the teachers after 1800. 

The school house was taken down and the land sold after 1830, and in 
1833 a reorganization took place, a new charter was obtained, and a bricK 
school house flourished for a few years, but could not be long sustained. 
The Bartlet and common schools gathered in the great mass of pupils; the 
number wishing to pursue a more extensive system of education was small, 
and the Union School, an old and venerated establishment, was discontinued. 
In 1851 the building was sold to the Bethel Society, by whom it has been 
converted into a commodious house of worship. 

No provision seems to have been made for the education of females in 
anything but needle-work, reading, writing, and the first principles of arith- 
metic, until the year 1799. A female academy was then built by a company 
of proprietors, in Green street, and incorporated by the legislature. It con- 
tinued in operation, with some intervals of recess, about thirty years. The 
property was then sold and the company dissolved in 1834. A new female 
academy was built the same \ear on Broad street, and the system of instruc- 
tion commenced by Rev. Daniel Huntington. This institution has hitherto 
met with fair encouragement. Since 1841 it has been in charge of H. P. 
Farnsworth. principal. The pupils are arranged in two departments, and for 
a few years past the average number has been about eighty. 

Private schools of similar nature were found in other towns of the county, 
and will be mentioned in the town histories. Higher education was sought 
by many leading men. Miss Caulkins gives a list of eighty-six names of 
men native to New London who had received a college education up to the 
year 1850. A similar list for Norwich may be found in the "Norwich Jubilee 



40 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Voluine," and includes over 130 names. Beginning with the middle of the 
nineteenth century have come steady advances in educational methods and 
equipment. The legislation of the State has promoted this by State aid and 
by compulsory school laws. To describe adequately the progress made in 
education in New London county for the past fifty years would involve a 
discussion of educational progress in all civilized lands, and especially in the 
LTnited States. The laws relating to the schools in Connecticut fill over 
200 pages of printed matter. New statutes are enacted with each new legis- 
lature. In general, it must suffice to say that Connecticut aims to keep pace 
with country-wide educational progress, but is far less centralized in policy 
than many States. Consequently there have survived in our county an 
unusual number of schools that are the products of local initiative rather 
than of State patronage or State control. The word "Progress" covers the 
history of education in New London county for the past seventy-five years. 
In answer to some people who feel that the new "frills" have been brought 
into our grammar schools at the expense of the "Three R's," the following 
paper was prepared and printed in the "School Review": 

THE NORWICH TESTS, 1862-1909 

In spite of the conclusive evidence of the well-known "Springfield tests"* 
of four years ago, one still hears not infrequently a lament that "the good old 
days" are gone. It may not be amiss, therefore, for me to submit to the 
readers of the "School Review" a brief account of another series of tests 
recently given in a Connecticut community, covering a period of about 
fifteen years later than that covered by the Massachusetts inquiry. 

In 1906, shortly after the preliminary report of the Springfield tests, we 
decided to try some of our old examination papers on present-day pupils of 
Norwich, Connnecticut. An arithmetic paper of 1856 was set before an 
eighth-grade division of the Broadway Grammar School of this city. Since 
we had the original papers of fifty years ago, we were able to make an exact 
comparison of results. The eighth-grade pupils of 1906 had still more than 
a year's work in grammar school before taking our regular entrance exam- 
inations. The results were as follows: 

1856 1906 

Pupils examined 73 27 

Members attaining loo per cent 3 4 

Lowest mark 40 per cent 10 percent 

Average mark 75 percent 88 per cent 

Average age 15^ tyA 

In other words, the pupils of 1906 though two years younger than the pupils 
of 1856 did much better work on the very examination for which the pupils 
of 1856 had been prepared. A result so surprising led us to doubt our own 
tests. It was thought that possibly the division of pupils of 1906 was a 
picked division, or that possibly the school did not represent the average 
of our gramiTiar schools ; for, still retaining the antiquated system of district 
management, we have no such uniformity of grammar school work as is found 
in many communities. We resolved accordingly to make another test that 
should better represent our whole community and our average pupils. Wc 
sent out to three of our largest districts papers in arithmetic, geography, 
history, and grammar, given as entrance examinations in 1862 and 1863. 



BEGINNINUS OF EDUCATION 41 

These examinations were given in February, 1909, without previous 
warning or preparation, and under supervision of school principals, who, in 
making^' their returns, were ignorant of the results of 1862-63, and likewise 
of each others results. It was declared by each principal independently that 
his own pupils would have done much better if the tests had been taken 
later in the year, after reviews had been completed. The papers given were 
as follows: 



* See The Spnnt}ficM Tests, issued by the Holden Book Cover Co., Springfield, Mass. 

ARITHMETIC 

1. A man bought a house for $4,000, and paid $250 for repairs, and sold it so as to gain 
loVi per cent on his investment. For how much did he sell it? 

2. How much is 3/4x2/3x7/9 divided by 2/5x8/11x5/8. , , , 

3 Required, the simple interest on $9036 for 3 years 6 months 12 days, at 6 per cent. 

4 If six vards of cloth cost £4 I3f. what will 11 yards cost? _ 

5. Find the amount of $.304.56 for four years, at 7 per cent, simple mterest. 
t. Subtract 3x4 7/8 from 9x5 2/3. , . j • , u , 

7 What is the sum of 5 1/2, 6 2/3. and 7 1/4 m decimal numbers.' 

8. Reduce 0.425 to a vulgar fraction in lowest terms. r . 1 „ ,„^ ,a 

9. How many yards of carpeting Vi yard wide will cover a floor 27 feet long and 16 

*'*io.'A'load of hay weighs 2,625 lbs. What is it worth at $15 per ton? 
GEOGRAPHY 

1 Where is Chicago situated? Cairo? Memphis? Pensacola? Richmond? 
2. Where is Pike's Peak. 

3 On what waters would vnu sail from Norwich to Baltimore.' 

4. What separates the Red Sea from the Mediterranean? 

c;. What is the length of a degree of longitude? , xt / n -ir- • • 5 

6. What are the principal ports of the United States, south of Norfolk, Virginia? 

7. Name the principal mountain ranges of Europe. 

8. Praw a map of Virginia. r,- a 1 
g. Through what State does the Connecticut River flow? 

10. When it is noon at Norwich, what time is it 15 east of this place? 

HISTORY 
T. What were the motives which induced the colonists of Virginia and of New England 
to form settlements in America? 

2 What did Penn make the basis of his institutions? 

3 What was the cause of the Revolutionary War? ^ „ , . , 

4 What foreign assistance had the Americans during the Revolution.' 
5' When was the battle of Bunker Hill fought? 

% f:!;^ whaT Je^so'nT wif :" r^'Ked by the United States against Great Britain 

'" 's'^In whose administration was Louisiana annexed to the United States, and from 
whom purchased? 

q What was the Missouri Compromise? _ 

10. Which of the States is called the Old Dommion? 

GR.\MMAR 
,, Give the principal parts of the verb lo love, and write out the inflection of the tenses 
of the indicative mode. 

^3 '^Vr!ira'sttencTconce"rninrGeneral Lyon, ...ich shall contain a relative clause. 
4.' Is the following sentence correct? If no,, make ,t so: ^''°"«,/*:,'; J'"' ^ "^"jf ^„ 
\ "I intended to have been there." Is this setjtence correct? If not, make it so. 
6. In the following stanza parse the words in italics: 

The muse, disgusted at an age, and clime 

Barren of every glorious theme. 
In distant lands now waits a better time. 
Producing subjects worthy fame. 



42 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

7. Analyze the stanza. 

8. Compare Good, had, little, and strong. 

9. Give the principal parts of go, strike, run, rise, and sit. 
10. Name and define tenses. 

It will be noted that in the fourth question of the arithmetic paper the 
table of English money is involved. Since we no longer require this in our 
entrance tests it is not usually taught in our grammar schools. Again in 
the eighth question the term "vulgar" fraction is used, a term superseded by 
"common" fraction in most of our textbooks. In history likewise the tenth 
question involves a term no longer taught in our schools. In one of the 
schools a substitute question was given instead of the fourth, and the word 
"common" instead of "vulgar." No suggestion was made, however, as to 
the tenth question in history. In the other two schools no comment whatever 
was made on any of the questions, and many pupils registered a flat failure 
on questions that they would have answered if worded in today's terms. The 
results of the tests may be tabulated as follows : 

School I II III Total Total 

1909 1862-63 

Number 31 25 35 91 88 

Age 14 14 14 14 15 

Arithmetic gsVo 90% 85% 90% 54% 

Geography 85% 80% 70% 7^7c 66% 

History 777" 82% 71% 76% 57% 

Grammar 85% 74% 75% 78% 63% 

Combined Average 8o7o 60% 

I cannot say that the results were at all surprising in view of the previous 
tests of iqo6. But that the average pupil of Norwich grammar schools today, 
at the age of fourteen, is better fitted in all subjects than was the average 
pupil of fifteen forty odd years ago, shows most clearly that modern fads have 
not brought with them a loss of the much-praised disciplinary studies of 
former times. 

Even without the formal tests, a comparison of the old examinations 
with those set today for entrance to our school is sufficient to show the 
greater advancement of modern pupils. I do not submit for this brief sketch 
any samples of our present papers, but have taken pains to collect such 
samples from a number of the best high schools of New England. In every 
case the examinations of today are more difficult than those of forty or fifty 
years ago. 

But someone may ask — as Cicero has it — "Did not the teachers of an 
earlier day. even if they were not so well trained or so skillful as those of 
today, did they not, after all, succeed in giving the pupil a stimulus to effort, 
a spirit of ambition, that modern teachers fail to give? See the great men 
that have come from those schools." 

The reply must be that only time can tell what sort of men will come 
from the schools of today. Doubtless it has always been true, and always 
will be true, that men of great natural ability and energy will rise to prom- 
inence, whether schools be good or bad. The only pertinent question is 
whether the greatness of our leaders of today can be traced to the excellence 
of their grammar school training. Have we any evidence that their teachers 
roused them to power of thought? 

A survey of the entrance records of those alumni of this school who have 
shown great intellectual power fails to suggest any such power at the end 
of their grammar school training. A few, out of many, examples must suffice 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 43 

for illustration. One of the greatest oriental scholars of this country was 
able to secure only 65 in geography and 62 in grammar on such examinations 
as are printed above. Another alumnus, who stood among the very leaders 
of his college class and has risen to a position of prominence in many public 
affairs, secured marks of 55 in grammar. 60 in arithmetic, and 65 in geography. 
A professor of history in one of our greatest universities was marked 39 in 
grammar, and 60 in arithmetic, though he showed even then his natural bent 
for history by getting a mark of 90. A well-known editor received 62 in 
grammar. A prominent judge secured 60 in history. But further examples 
are needless to show that the grammar schools of their day did not rouse 
such men to intellectual achievements. 

Another lesson is easily learned from the perusal of old records — it is 
unsafe to estimate a child's mental capacity by the casual blunders he may 
make, even if they seem to us colossal. To conclude that because a boy 
cannot locate the Nile River he is therefore entirely ignorant of geography 
is as unsafe as it is common today in the writings of critics of our schools. 
To infer that because a boy makes some stupid blunders in judgment in his 
examinations he is therefore unable to reason at all, is equally unwise. What 
can be said of the intelligence of a boy who could make the following answers 
in history? 

1. When was the battle of Bunker Hill fought? Ans.: 1402. 

2. When was the Constitution adopted? Ans.: The same year. 

3. For what reasons was war declared by the United States against Great Britain in 
1812? Ans.: Admission of Texas into the United States. 

Yet in other studies, and in general intelligence, this boy seemed to be 
above the average of his class. 

One suspects that much so-called disciplinary study was of a wooden 
and mechanical sort. Those were the days when pupils memorized geometry 
propositions by number, recited history verbatim, and memorized in Latin 
grammar exceptions that the}' would never meet in their reading of Latin. 
The only argument in defense of the older grammar school training that 
seems sound may be stated sornewhat as follows: All efifort that ends in 
success has a strengthening effect on character. The grammar schools of 
bygone days made learning difficult. Therefore they built up character. 

For the few boys or girls who won the fight, surmounted the difficulties 
of poor instruction, and worked out their own salvation, undoubtedly the 
process was a strengthening one, but for the mass of the pupils the process 
was not worthy of comparison with that of our modern schools. 

On the whole the tests show us, not that we are perfect, for our imper- 
fections are glaring and discouraging, but that we must look for aid to the 
best educational thought of the present and future in our own land and 
abroad, rather than to a past system on which we have made many im- 
provements. 

Speaking in broad terms, the progress since 1856 might be grouped under 
the following heads: Better trained teachers, better text books, better school 
buildings and equipment, better supervision, better teaching methods, com- 
pulsory attendance laws, graded schools, evening schools, continuation 
schools, trade schools, high schools, medical inspection, better financial sup- 
port of schools, education of the deaf, care of the defective and the orphaned 
and destitute, restriction of child labor, and many forms of welfare work 
closely connected with education. These improvements are of course not 



44 XEW LOX^DON COUNTY 

peculiar to our county, but have been worked out in many cases with a view 
to the special needs of a given community. 

New London county, too, has a history rich in private generosity. An 
unusual number of institutions have been started by private bequests. As a 
part of our outline of education we take pleasure in tracing the history of 
some of these foundations. It is well for us to remember, however, that, 
with all the modern devices for making education and life itself an easy 
process, there is grave danger that in many cases the young people of today 
fail to attain the strength of character and mind that comes through over- 
coming difficulties and hardships. 

The summary given below, based on a report of the State Board of Edu- 
cation, shows the course of legislation since 1700, a period of 215 years. Most 
of this legislation deals with support and maintenance. 

Support of Public Schools. — The system of public instruction in Con- 
necticut in 1700 embraced the following: 

1. A tax of "forty shillings on every thousand pounds of the lists of 
estates." was collected in every town with the annual tax of the Colony, and 
payable proportionately to those towns only which should keep their schools 
according to law; 

2. A school in everv town having over seventy families, kept eleven 
months in the year, and in every town with less than seventy families, kept 
for at least six months in the year ; 

3. A grammar school in each of the four "head county towns" to fit youth 
for college, two of which grammar schools must be free; 

4. A collegiate school, toward which the general court made an annual 
appropriation of £120. 

In 1773 an act was passed granting all the moneys that should arise from 
the sale of seven townships, in what is now Litchfield county (viz. : Norfolk, 
Goshen, Canaan. Cornwall, Kent, Salisbury and Sharon), to the towns of the 
colony then settled for the support of schools, "to be divided in proportion 
to the number of their polls and ratable estate." The amount realized from 
the sale of all these townships cannot now be determined. Norfolk was 
sold for £6,824 los. ; Kent for £1,225 ^9^- I" the revised statutes published 
in 1750, the "Act for educating and governing children" remains nearly the 
same as it was in 1650 with the addition made in 1670. The "Act for appoint- 
ing, encouraging, and supporting Schools" was the same as in 1700, with the 
additions mentioned above. In 1754 the amount to be paid from the treasury 
was reduced to los. on each £1,000; in 1766 it was raised to 20s.; and in 
1767 it was restored to 40s., where it remained till 1820. 

In May, 1766, the selectmen in each town were authorized to collect any 
sums which remained unpaid at that date for excise on liquors, tea, etc., and 
pay the same to the school committee in the several towns and societies, to 
be set apart as a fund to be improved for the encouragement of schools. And 
at the October session, 1774, the treasurer of the colony is directed to pay 
out to the several towns the principal sums paid in by them as excise money, 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 45 

together with the interest due at the time of payment, "which moneys shall 
be appropriated to the use of schools." The money received from this source, 
with that received from the sale of the townships in Litchfield county, con- 
stituted the principal part of the so-called School Society funds. 

By the Charter of 1662, given by Charles II., Connecticut was bounded 
on the north by the Massachusetts line, and on the south by the "sea" (Long 
Island sound), and extended from Narragansett bay to the "South sea" 
(Pacific ocean). The parts of this territory covered by the grants already 
made to New York and New Jersey were never claimed by Connecticut; 
and the part covered by Pennsylvania was given up to the claims of that 
State; the remaining portion was held by Connecticut till after the Rx^volu- 
tionary War, when it was all ceded to the United States, except about 3,300,- 
000 acres in what is now the northwestern part of Ohio. The territory was 
known as the "Western Reserve," or the "Lands west of Pennsylvania." In 
May, 1795, an act was passed appropriating the interest on the moneys which 
should be received on the sale of these lands to the support of schools, "to 
be paid over to the said societies in their capacity of school societies according 
to the lists of polls and ratable estate of such societies respectively." The 
societies here referred to were formerly known only as parishes or societies, 
and later as ecclesiastical societies. This act recognizes them in a distinct 
capacity and denominates them school societies. 

The "lands west of Pennsylvania" were sold August, 1795, for $1,200,000, 
by a committee appointed for that purpose, and their report was accepted 
by the legislature in October of the same year. 

The first apportionment of the income of the school fund was made in 
1779. In March, 1800, the dividends were $23,651. Up to this time the fund 
was managed by the committee that negotiated the sale. In 1800, three 
persons, with the treasurer, were appointed "managers" of this fund. In 1810 
Hon. James Hilhouse was appointed commissioner of the school fund. Dur- 
ing the fifteen years of his administration the annual dividend averaged 
$52,061.35, and the capital was increased to $1,719,434.24. 

In 1810 the expense of keeping a district school above the amount of 
public money, was apportioned according to the number of days of attend- 
ance of each person at school; in 181 1 this was so altered as to authorize the 
apportionment according to the number of persons attending. 

In 1820 an act was passed providing that the appropriation of $2 upon 
every $1,000 (40s. on every £1,000) in the list of each school society should 
not be paid whenever the income of the school fund equalled or exceeded 
$62,000, which it did the next year. From this date the income of the fund 
was apportioned to the several school societies and districts according to 
the number of persons over four and under sixteen in each, on the first Mon- 
day of August in each year. 

In 1836 the United States revenue was in excess of the expenditures, and 
Congress directed all the surplus except $5,000,000, to be divided and depos- 
ited with the several States, according to their representation in Congress. 



46 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

The amount thus appropriated was $37,468,859.97, but owing to the financial 
revulsions only three-fourths of this amount was paid to the States. This 
State received as its share $764,670.60. At the session of the legislature the 
same year an act was passed requiring this money to be distributed among 
the several towns in the State in proportion to their population, and that one- 
half at least of the entire income received from such funds should be annually 
appropriated for the promotion of education in the common schools. This 
is denominated the "Town deposit fund." The amount actually distributed 
to the several towns was $763,661.83. 

In 1841 an act authorized the school societies to divide the public money 
either according to the number of persons in the districts between four and 
sixteen, or according to the number who had attended the school ; but no 
district was to receive less than $50; and dividends from the school fund were 
not to be paid to any district unless its school had been kept at least four 
months of the year. It was also provided that "two or more adjoining school 
districts might associate together and form a union district with power to 
maintain a union school, to be kept for the benefit of the older and more 
advanced children of such united district." In 1842 the act constituting a 
board of commissioners was repealed. 

In 1846, the act passed in 1841 requiring the school societies to appro- 
priate to each district at least $50 was amended, making the amount $35, pro- 
vided there were not less than twelve children in the district. 

In 1854, each town was required "annually to raise by taxation a sum 
equal to one cent on the dollar on their grand list (as made up at that time) 
for the support of schools," and the whole amount to be annually distributed 
to the several school societies within each town, under the direction of the 
selectmen and town treasurer. When the amount of public money received 
by any district was less than thirty-five dollars, it was to be increased to that 
amount from the money raised by the town for the purposes of education, 
and the year for school purposes was to end on the 28th of February. 

In 1858, school districts were authorized to fix a "rate of tuition" not 
exceeding two dollars for any term ; but they might exempt therefrom all 
persons whom they considered unable to pay the same, and the town was 
to pay the amount abated. In 1862 this was raised to six dollars a year, and 
to twelve dollars for high schools. 

In i860 the amount to be raised by the town for schools was fixed at 
not less than three-tenths of a mill on the dollar, which is about the same 
as the amount fixed in 1854. In 1866 this was raised to four-tenths. In 1861 
an act provided that the amount raised by towns for school and the income 
of the town deposit fund should be distributed under the direction of tht. 
selectmen and school visitors ; but that no district should receive less than 
thirty-five dollars of the public moneys. 

In 1868 the amount to be raised by the town was "such sums as each 
town may find necessary to make the schools free, not less than six-tenths 
of a mill on the dollar," and in addition to four-tenths of a mill before 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 47 

required ; and the public money, with the exception of so much as was neces- 
sary to make the amount to each district fifty dollars, was to be divided 
"according to average daily attendance." 

In 1869 the amount to be raised by the towns was fixed at not less than 
one mill on the dollar; sixty dollars to be apportioned to each district, and the 
balance of the public money to be "divided according to aggregate attendance." 

In 1871 an annual appropriation was made from the State treasury of a 
sum equal to fifty cents for each person between four and sixteen years of 
age, to be paid to the several towns with the dividends of the school fund. 

In 1872 the legislature voted an appropriation to schools from the State 
treasury "equal in dollars to one-half the number of persons between four 
and sixteen years of age." In 1872 the sum of $1.50 for every person between 
the age of four and sixteen was voted. 

In 1893 an act was passed providing that when the income of the school 
fund did not warrant the payment of seventy-five cents per enumerated 
scholar, making with $1.50 a grant of $2.25 to the towns for each enumerated 
child, the deficiency should be paid from the State treasury. In 1897 it was 
directed that the income of the school fund be covered into the treasury, and 
that $2.25 be paid to the towns for each enumerated child. 

In 1903, an act was passed giving towns having grand lists of less than 
$500,000, a grant from the State treasury upon the basis of average attend- 
ance in addition to the grant of $2.25 per child enumerated to enable them 
to make an expenditure of $25.00 per child in average attendance for support 
of schools. Each of these towns was required to expend the proceeds of a 
four-mill tax for the support of the schools. This act was amended in 1907 
so that all towns having grand lists of less than $1,000,000 could obtain the 
grant. In 1909 this law was further amended so that all towns having grand 
lists of less than $1,750,000 could obtain the grant. The tax rate for towns 
having lists under $500,000 was reduced to three mills; those having lists 
over $500,000 and less than $1,000,000, three and one-half mills; those having 
lists over $1,000,000 and less than $1,250,000, four mills ; and those having lists 
over $1,250,000 and under $1,750,000, six mills. In 191 1 this law was again 
amended so that all towns having grand lists under $2,500,000 could obtain 
the grant. Those having lists under $500,000 were required to expend two 
and one-half mills; those having lists over $500,000 and less than $1,000,000, 
three mills; those having lists over $1,000,000 and less than $1,500,000, three 
and one-half mills; those having lists over $1,500,000 and less than $2,000,000, 
four and one-half mills ; and those having lists over $2,000,000 and under 
$2,500,000, six mills. 

District System. — In May, 1717, the obligation heretofore imposed on 
towns of seventy families to maintain a school for eleven months, was ex- 
tended to parishes or ecclesiastical societies having that number of families; 
and parishes having less than seventy families were to maintain a school 



48 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

for half the year; and the majority of householders in any parish were author- 
ized to lay taxes for the support of the school. 

In October, 1766, a law was passed authorizing each town and society 
to "divide themselves into proper and necessary districts for keeping their 
schools, and to alter and regulate the same from time to time, as they shall 
have occasion ; which districts shall draw their equal proportion of all public 
moneys belonging to such towns or societies, according to the list of each 
respective district therein." In his report of 1853, Dr. Henry Barnard says 
that "this act, with the operation of other acts transferring to school societies 
the direction and control of schools, which should have been confined to towns, 
has resulted in distributing the means of education most unequally over the 
state, and lowering the standard of education." 

In 1794 school districts were authorized "by vote of two-thirds of all the 
qualified voters, passed at a meeting called for that purpose, to lay a tax to 
build a schoolhouse, and to locate the same, and to choose a collector." 

In May, 1798, the school societies were invested with the powers, and 
subjected to the duties, which the former laws had given to and required of 
towns and ecclesiastical societies relative to the same objects, and from this 
date they are known in law as school societies — with territorial limits some- 
times co-extensive with a town, or in some cases a part of a town, and in 
other cases parts of two or more towns. These school societies not only had 
the control of schools, but generally of the burying grounds within their 
limits. In the revision of the laws respecting schools made in 1799, these 
societies are required to appoint "overseers or visitors," whose duties were 
nearly the same as those now required of school visitors. School societies 
were authorized to form school districts, and these districts to tax themselves 
for the purpose of building and repairing school houses, to appoint a clerk, 
a treasurer, and a collector; but the "committee to employ teachers and 
manage the prudentials" was appointed by the school societies. School soci- 
eties were authorized to institute and support schools of higher order. The 
law did not specify how long a time in each year the schools should be kept 
open. 

In 1886, towns were authorized to direct their school visitors to purchase 
at the expense of the town the text books and other school supplies used in 
the public schools. This act provided that the books and supplies should 
be loaned to the pupils of the public schools free of charge. 

In 1886 the employment of children under thirteen in mechanical, mer- 
cantile, and manufacturing establishments was forbidden, and the State Boarc^ 
of Education was authorized to enforce the law. In 1895 the age was changed 
to fourteen. Under this law children under fourteen and unemployed children 
between fourteen and sixteen are sent to school by the agents of the State 
Board of Education. 

In 1889, towns were authorized to discontinue small schools, and in 1893, 
school visitors were authorized to provide transportation for children wher- 
ever any school was discontinued. 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 



49 



In 1893, \vomen were given the right to vote for school officers, and also 
to vote upon any matter relating to education or to schools. In the same year 
women were made eligible to serve on the board of directors of any public 
library or on the Connecticut Public Library Committee. 

In 1893, the State Board of Education was directed to appoint a com- 
mittee to be known as the "Connecticut Public Library Committee," and in 
1895 acts were passed providing for the expenses of said committee and for 
annual appropriations for public libraries. 

In 1897 it was enacted that children residing in towns whose grand list 
was less than $900,000 might, with the consent of the school visitors, attend 
a non-local high school, and that a tuition fee not exceeding two-thirds of 
$30 should be paid from the State treasury. In 1899 the $900,000 limit was 
removed so that all towns might receive the State grant for scholars attending 
non-local high schools. 

In 1903, the State was authorized to pay one-half the expense of con- 
veying children to and from non-local high schools, provided that not more 
than twenty dollars be paid by the State for each scholar conveyed. 

In 1921 the sum to be refunded towns for high school tuition was in- 
creased to $50. 

In 1899 it was provided that the eyesight of the pupils in the public 
schools should be tested annually, and in 1901 this law was modified so that 
after 1904 the test should be made triennially. 

Supervision. — In 1903, the supervision of schools was authorized. Two 
or more towns together employing not less than twenty-five nor more than 
fifty teachers were authorized to form a supervision district which should 
continue for three years at least, and employ a superintendent of schools. The 
State was required to pay one-half of the annual salary of the superintendent 
provided that one-half did not exceed $800. This act also provided that upon 
the petition of the school board of any town employing not more than ten 
teachers, the State Board of Education should appoint an agent who should 
discharge the duties of superintendent of schools in said town Any town for 
which a superintendent was appointed under this act was required to pay 
one-quarter of the salary of the superintendent, and the State was required 
to pay three-quarters. In 1907, this act was so amended that any town 
having not more than twenty teachers could petition the State Board of 
Education to appoint an agent to discharge the duties of superintendent, the 
town to pay one-quarter of the salary and the State three-quarters A further 
amendment to this act was made in 1909 so that towns having over twenty 
and not more than thirty teachers could appoint a superintendent of schools 
and obtain one-half of the salary of said superintendent from the State, pro- 
vided the half should not exceed $800 per year. Another amendment pro- 
vided that the State should pay the entire salary of superintendents appointed 
for towns having not more than twenty teachers. 

Trade Schools. — In 1907, the establishment of free public schools for 

N.I..— 1-4 



50 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

instruction in the principles and practice of trades was authorized. The State 
Board of Education was authorized to expend a sum not to exceed $50,000 
for the support and maintenance of not more than two schools. No action 
was taken under the provisions of this law, and it was repealed in 1909, when 
an act authorized the State Board of Education to establish two schools, and 
providing an annual appropriation of $50,000 for their support. 

In 1913, the act of 1909 was amended so that town school committees 
and district boards of education could establish and maintain schools or 
courses of instruction in distinct trades, useful occupations and avocations, 
and obtain from the State annually a grant not to exceed fifty dollars per 
pupil in average attendance. This amendment also provided that the sum 
of $125,000 should be appropriated for the maintenance of such schools. 

Model Schools. — In 191 3, the State Board of Education was authorized 
to organize one school in each town having twenty teachers or less as a model 
school for observation and instruction of training classes conducted by 
the supervisor, and it was provided that the board might pay the teacher 
not to exceed three dollars per week, provided that the town in which the 
model school is located should pay not less than ten dollars a week or not 
less than the wage which was paid for teaching in said school during the 
previous year. 

In "An Act concerning schools," passed in 1839, a school district is for 
the first time declared to be a "body corporate, so far as to be able to purchase, 
receive, hold, and convey any estate, real or personal, for the support of 
schooling in the same, and to prosecute and defend in all actions relating to 
the property and affairs of the district." This act also empowered school 
districts to appoint their committees. It named the branches (the same as 
those now required) which a person must be found qualified to teach before 
he could receive a certificate from the school visitors. This act also provided 
that any school society might "apportion the public money among the dis- 
tricts, either according to the number of persons between four and sixteen, 
or according to the amount of attendance for a period of six months in each 
year." It was also provided that school districts might tax themselves to 
the amount of $30 the first year and $10 each year afterwards for school 
libraries; and that two or more districts might associate for supporting a 
high school. In 1856, school societies were abolished, and their property and 
their obligations transferred to towns. 

In 1865 towns were authorized to consolidate their school districts; and 
the act constituting the State Board of Education was enacted. The act 
making the principal of the normal school ex-officio superintendent of common 
schools was repealed. 

In 1870 the time schools must be kept in each year was made at least 
thirty weeks in districts in which there were twenty-four or more persons 
between four and sixteen years of age; and twenty-four weeks, at least, in 
other districts; and the appropriation of funds was to be made under the 
direction of the school visitors and selectmen. 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 51 

In 1888 the towns were required to maintain schools thirty-six weeks 
in each year in districts numbering one hundred or more children, and twenty- 
four weeks in other districts. In 1889 this was changed to thirty-six weeks 
for districts enumerating fifty or more, and thirty weeks for other districts. 
In 1895 thirty-six weeks was prescribed for all schools. 

In 1909, the district system was abolished in fifty-seven towns. Ninety- 
one towns had voluntarily consolidated their districts previous to the passage 
of this act and several had obtained special legislation under which con- 
solidation in part had been established. 

Normal Schools. — In 1849, the State Normal School was established at 
New Britain. In 1889, a second normal school was established at Willimantic. 
In 1893, normal schools were authorized at New Haven and Bridgeport. In 
1895 so much of this act as provided for a normal school at Bridgeport was 
repealed. In 1903, a normal school at Danbury was established. 

In 1909, an act was passed providing that the State Board of Education 
may at all times maintain, in any of the normal schools, one student, selected 
on the basis of scholarship and general fitness, from each town in the State 
having a valuation of less than one and one-half million dollars. The board 
was authorized to pay the living expenses of each student, not to exceed $150 
in any one year. Each student was required to enter into an agreement with 
the State Board of Education to teach in one of the towns from which such 
students are nominated or appointed for a period of three years after gradu- 
ation unless excused by the State Board of Education. 

In 1882 was enacted a law requiring "instruction concerning the effect of 
intoxicating beverages" if "twelve persons of adult years" petitioned the 
school visitors therefor. If the visitors did not grant the petition, an appeal 
to town meeting was provided. In 1886 physiology and hygiene relating 
especially to the effect of alcohol on the human system were made obligatory 
subjects and put on the same plane as reading and writing; school officers 
were required to examine teachers in these subjects. In the same year the 
State Board of Education was authorized to prescribe the books and to pre- 
pare a text-book and charts to be distributed to schools without charge. 
Under the law about forty thousand copies of a text-book were distributed. 
In 1893 the "nature of alcoholic drinks and narcotics" became an obligatory 
study. Graded text-books must be used in every school and studied by all 
pupils. In the lower grades one-fifth of each book must be devoted to "the 
nature and effects" of alcohol and narcotics; in higher grades the books must 
contain at least twenty pages relating to the subject. Massing these pages 
at the end of a book is not compliance with the law. Teachers must have an 
examination as to the "effects and nature of alcoholic drinks upon the human 
system." Failure to comply with the provisions of the law is "sufficient 
cause" for forfeiture of public money. 

In 1884, the State Board of Education was authorized to grant certificates 
of qualification to teach in any public school in the State and to revoke the 



52 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

same. In 1895, an act provided that certificates granted by the State Board 
of Education should be accepted by local boards in lieu of any other ex- 
amination. 

In 1885, the establishment of evening schools was provided for by law. 
Provision was made thereby for the instruction of persons over fourteen years 
of age in spelling, reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, and such other 
Studies as might be prescribed by the board of school visitors. A grant of 
$1.50 per child in average attendance was fixed by this act to be paid from 
the treasury of the State. In 1893, this law was amended so that it was com- 
pulsory on every town and school district having ten thousand or more in- 
habitants to establish and maintain evening schools. It was provided that 
no person over fourteen and under sixteen years of age should be employed 
in any manufacturing, mercantile, or mechanical occupation in any town where 
evening schools were established, unless he had attended an evening school 
twenty consecutive evenings in the current school year and was a regular 
attendant. The State grant was increased to $3 per pupil in average attend- 
ance. One hundred sessions of a school was required as a conditon of obtain- 
ing the State grant. 

In 1895, the law was amended so that only seventy-five sessions were 
required to obtain the grant, and the grant was reduced from $3 per child 
in average attendance to $2.25. A further amendment of the law was made 
in 1909 so that on petition of at least twenty persons over fourteen years of 
age, instruction in any study usually taught in a high school might be in- 
troduced. The last legislation in Connecticut (1921) has been compiled by 
the State Board of Education and the report may be secured by application 
to the Commissioner of Education. It is too voluminous for us to print in 
this chapter. 

We have spoken of the importance placed on education by the early 
settlers, and have enumerated many such schools in New London and Nor- 
which. The settlers also felt a responsibility for the welfare of the Indians. 
Many of these aborigines were suffering from drunkenness and ignorance, 
and it was not easy to get them to take an interest in a higher life. The 
pastors in New London and Norwich did their best. We submit a curious 
document, signed by the Mohegan Chief, Uncas. 

When King Charles the First sent his red-faced well-beloved cousin "a 
Bible to show him the way to heaven, and a sword to defend him from his 
enemies," Uncas valued the latter gift much more than he did the former. 
But I am happy to bring forward one new fact to show that he w^s not at all 
times indifferent to the other present. It has often been stated that Uncas 
uniformly opposed the introduction of Christianity among the people of his 
tribe. Within a few days past an original document has come to light which 
bears important testimony on this interesting question. It is nothing less 
than a bond in which, under his own signature, the sachem promises to 
attend the ministrations of the Rev. Mr. Fitch, whensoever and wheresoever 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 53 

he ma}' choose to appoint. This paper is so remarkable that I shall take the 
liberty of reading it in full. If we cannot call it the sachem's creed or con- 
fession of faith, it is at least his covenant : 

Be it known to all men and in special to the Authority of The Colony of 
Conecticott That I Uncas sachim of the Munheags, now resident in Pame- 
chaug doe by these presents firmly engage and binde my selfe, that I will 
from time to time and at all times hereafter, in a constant way and manner 
attend up j\Ir. James Fitch Minister of Norwich, at all such seasons as he 
shall appoint for preaching and to praying with the Indians either at my now 
residence, or wheresoever els he shall appoint for that hoh' service, and 
further I doe faithfully promis to Command all my people to attend the same, 
in a constant way and solemn manner at all such times as shall be sett by the 
sayd Mr. James Fitch minister, alsoe I promis that I will not by any wayes 
or meanes what soe ever, either privatly or openly use any plots or contrive- 
ances by words or actions to affright or discourage any of my people or others, 
from attending the Good work aforesayd, upon penalty of suffering the most 
grevious punishment that can be inflicted upon me, and Lastly I promis to 
encourage all my people by all Good wayes and meanes I can, in the due 
observance of such directions and instructions, as shall be presented to them 
by the sayd !Mr. James Fitch aforesayd, and to the truth hereof this seaventh 
day of June in the year one thousand six hundred seventy and three I have 
hereunto set my hand or mark. 

Wittnesed by us mark 

John Talcott The * of Uncass 

Tho: Stanton. Ser. 
Samuell Mason. 

Let us look with charity, my friends, upon this promise, remembering 
that every man, red face and pale face alike, is accepted "according to that 
which he hath, and not according to that which he hath not." 

Of interest in education on the part of New London county citizens, the 
following is a proof, quoted from Dr Gilman's address: 

Yale College is even more indebted to Norwich. Before it was char- 
tered by the State, Major James Fitch (another son of Reverend James) gave 
to the new collegiate school a farm of 637 acres of land, and offered the glass 
and nails for a house. The following is his proposal : 

Majr. Fitch's Generosity Proposed 1701. — In that it hath pleased y Lord 
our God as a token for Good To us and children after us to put it into the 
hearts of his faithfull ministers: to take soe great paines, and be at soe con- 
siderable charge for setting up a coledgeat schoole amongst us and now for 
farther promoating, of this God pleasing worke I humbly, freely and heartily 
offer, on demand to provid glass for a house and if people doe not come up 
to offer what is reasonable and needfull that I will than provid nails of all 
sorts: to be used in building a houes and hall: 2iy I give a farme, 637 Acrs 
of land and when I come home I will send ye draft and laying out to Mr. 
Danl. Taylor that he may make such a Deed proper in such a case the farme 
of value at 150 f I will alsoe take some pains to put it in a way of yearely 
profitt 30 i charge I hope will bring 20 £ p ycare in a little time. 

Newhaven October 16 1701 James Fitch. 



54 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

It was this noble gift which insured at that time the establishment of the 
now venerable institution. Not many years after. Dr. Daniel Lathrop, beside 
a large donation to the public school of his native place, gave £500 to the 
college without limitations ; and within the memory of most of those now 
present, Dr. Alfred E. Perkins, impressed with the thought that "a true 
university in these da}S is a collection of books," gave a fund of $10,000 to 
the college library in New Haven, thus perpetuating his name in grateful 
remembrance, and exerting an influence which will increase till the college 
and the country are no more. Three citizens of Norwich, "to the manner 
born," have thus given to Yale College the largest donations which, at each 
successive time, its treasury had received from any individual, and their 
example has been followed by many others, giving in proportion to their 
means. 

The most remarkable of the attempts to civilize the Indians is doubtless 
that of Rev. Eleazer Wheelock of Lebanon. The remarkable results of his 
effort with Samson Occum is shown in the following account of the origin 
of Dartmouth College, taken from Kurd's "History of New London County, 
Connecticut": 

In 1735, Eleazer Wheelock, a clergyman of fine talents, of earnest char- 
acter, and of devoted piety, was settled over the Second Congregational 
Church, in the north part of the town of Lebanon. Like many other ministers 
of the day and afterwards, he had several young men in his family, whom he 
taught the higher branches of English and in the classics. 

In December, 1743, a young Mohegan Indian, about twenty years of age, 
Samson Occom, whose name has since become more famous than that of any 
other of the tribe, unless perhaps the first Uncas, applied to Mr. Wheelock 
for admission among his scholars. Occom was born in 1723, at Mohegan, 
and grew up in the pagan faith and the rude and savage customs of his tribe. 
During the great religious awakening of 1739-40 he had become convinced 
of the truth of Christianity, and deeply alarmed for his own lost condition. 
For six months he groaned in the gloom of his darkness, but then light broke 
into his soul, and he was seized with an irresistible impulse to carry this great 
light to his benighted race, and to become a teacher to his lost brethren, and 
with his heart swelling with this impulse he now stood before Wheelock, 
asking to be instructed for this great work. 

It was not in the heart of Wheelock to resist this appeal, and he at once 
admitted him to his school and family with open arms, and in the spirit of his 
mission. Occom had already learned the letters of the alphabet, and could 
spell out a few words, and such was his zeal and devotion to study that in 
four years he was fitted to enter college; but his health had been so impaired 
b)' intense application, and lacking also the means, he never entered. Leav- 
ing school, he returned to his tribe, preaching and teaching salvation through 
Christ alone, with power and effect, supporting himself meantime, like the 
rest of his tribe, by hunting and fishing, and the rude Indian arts of making 
baskets and other Indian utensils, and occasional!}' teaching small Indian 
schools, but during all this time still pursuing his own studies in theology 
and Bible literature. , 

In this mission he visited other tribes. In 1748 he went over to Long 
Island and spent several years there among the Montauk, the Shcnecock, and 
other tribes, preaching and teaching with great success. At one time a great 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 55 

revival occurred under his labors there, during which many Indians were 
converted. August 29, 1759, he was ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery of 
Long Island, and was ever after regarded as a regular member of that ecclesi- 
astical body. 

The case of Occom and its instructive results attracted wide attention 
from the first start, and Mr. Wheelock determined to open his school to other 
Indian youths who desired to engage in and be fitted for the same work, 
and in a short time it became exclusively an "Indian School" for missionary 
purposes, so that by 1762 he had more than twenty Indian students^ preparing 
for the conversion of their countrymen. 

This new movement attracted the earnest attention of the leading clergy- 
men and Christian philanthropists throughout all New England and the 
Northern colonies. To all who looked with anxiety for the conversion and 
civilization of the aborigines of this part of North America, this school was 
long considered the brightest and most promising ground of hope. Notes of 
encouragement came pouring in from various sources throughout all the New 
England colonies, from ministers' councils, from churches, and from eminent 
leaders and philanthropists, with money contributions, cheering on the move- 
ment, and all aiming to increase the numbers in training, and to give to the 
school a wider sweep in its influence. Probably no school in this or any other 
land or age ever awakened so widespread and intense an interest or seemed 
freighted with such a precious and hopeful mission as did then this little 
parochial school, kept in the obscure parsonage of a countr}' minister. 

In 1765 a general conference of the friends of the school was held, at 
which it was. determined to send Samson Occom to England to show to our 
English brethren there what Christianity had done for him, and what it could 
do for the natives of North America, and that Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, of 
Norwich, should go with him, to enlist co-operation in the cause and to 
solicit contributions in its aid. Occom was then forty-three years old, well 
educated, and spoke English clearly and fluently. His features and com- 
plexion bore every mark of his race, but he was easy and natural in social 
manners, frank and cordial, but modest in conversation, and his deportment 
in the pulpit was such as to command deep attention and respect. He could 
preach extemporaneously and well, but usually wrote his sermons. Such, 
then, was this son of the forest, and such his sublime mission to the English 
mother-land — to convert the natives of a pagan continent to Christianity 
and civilization through the ministry of pagan converts of their own race. 

His appearance in England produced an extraordinary sensation, and he 
preached with great applause in London and other principal cities of Great 
Britain and Scotland to crowded audiences. From the i6th of February, 1766, 
to the 22d of July, 1767, he delivered between three and four hundred sermons, 
many of them in the presence of the king and the roj'al family and the great 
nobles of the land. Large contributions were taken up after each of thess 
discourses ; the king himself gave £200, and in the whole enterprise £700 
sterling were collected in England and about £300 in Scotland. 

This success resulted in transferring Wheelock's Indian School to New 
Hampshire, which it was thought would be a better place for an Indian sem- 
inary, as being more retired and less exposed to disturbing influences than 
the more thickly settled colony of Connecticut. It was then incorporated as 
Dartmouth College (taking its name from the pious and noble Earl of Dart- 
mouth, whom Occom's mission in England had warmly enlisted in the cause), 
for the special object and purpose of educating and training Indian ^-ouths 
for the ministrv and missionary work of their race; but after the death of 
Eleazer Wheelock. its founder and president, and especially after the death 



56 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

of his son, John Whcelock, who succeeded him as president, its original and 
distinctive character as an Indian seminary gradually changed until it became, 
as it still remains, assimilated in character and purpose with the other colleges 
of the country ; and so the glowing dream, the fervid zeal, and the sanguine 
hopes and expectations of its great-souled founders faded away. 

In 1771, a Mohegan Indian, named Aloses Paul, was tried at New London 
and condemned to death for the murder, in a drunken brawl, of Moses Clark. 
A large assembly of English and Indians collected to witness the execution. 
At the recjuest of the prisoner, Samson Occom was appointed by the authori- 
ties to preach a funeral sermon in the presence of the poor wretch, as was the 
custom of the time, just before he was launched into eternity. Upon his own 
coffin, in front of the pulpit, sat the doomed man. Next around him were 
seated his brethren of the Mohegan tribe, the audience filling the rest of the 
church, a great crowd surrounding it, and a military company acting as guard. 

The sermon is still preserved in the library of the Connecticut Historical 
Society at Hartford (Pamphlet No. 225) ; the text from Romans vi. 23: "For 
the wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." It is not eloquent, it is not grand oratory, but it is some- 
thing higher than eloquence, and in its sad and solemn moaning over the 
degraded and lost condition of his race, in their pagan darkness, their wicked- 
ness, the awful consequences of drunkenness, their besetting sin, it has all the 
moving power and pathos of a Hebrew wail. 

The first part of the discourse dwells at length upon the peculiar mean- 
ing and significance of the term "death," as used in the text, its endless char- 
acter, and was addressed to the audience at large, and rising with the vast- 
ness of the idea, he exclaimed, "Eternitv ! O Eternity! Who can measure itl* 
Who can count the years thereof? Arithmetic fails, the thoughts of men and 
angels are drowned in it. How shall we describe eternity? To what shall 
we compare it? Were a fly to carry off one particle of this globe to such a 
distance that it would take ten thousand years to go and return for another, 
and so continue till he had carried off. particle by particle, once in ten thou- 
sand years, the whole of this globe and placed it in that distant space, just 
as it is now here, after all this, eternity would remain the same unexhausted 
duration ! And this eternal death must be th.e certain portion of all impeni- 
tent sinners, be they who they may. Negroes. Indians. English, or what nation 
soever ; honorable or ignoble, great or small, rich or poor, bond or free, all 
who die in their sins must go to hell together, 'for the wages of sin is death.' " 

He next addressed the doomed prisoner upon his coffin, pointed out to 
him the enormity of his crime, and how by drunkenness, and by despising 
the warnings and counsels of Christian teachers, he had been led to it; ex- 
plained to him the wav of salvation, urging him with pathos and earnest 
energy at once to accept it, and like the dying thief upon the cross beside 
the crucified Saviour, to throw himself upon the mercy of that same Saviour, 
and so, even at the eleventh hour, escape eternal death. 

PIc then turned to the Mohegans present: "My poor kindred!" he ex- 
claimed, "you see the woful consequences of sin by seeing this, our poor, 
miserable countryman, now before us, who is to die for his sins and his great 
crime, and it was especially the sin of drunkenness that brought this destruc- 
tion and untimely death upon him. There is a dreadful woe denounced from 
the Almightv against drunkards; and it is this sin, this abominable, this 
beastly sin of drunkenness that has stript us of every desirable comfort in 
this life. By this sin we have no name or credit in the world ; for this sin we 
are despised, and it is right and just, for we despise ourselves. By this sin 
we have no comfortable houses, nor anything comfortable in our houses. 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION 57 

neither food, nor raiment, nor decent utensils; we go about with ragged and 
dirty clothing and almost naked, most of the time half starved, and obliged 
to pick up and eat such food as we can find ; and our poor children suffering 
every day, often crying for food, and we have nothing for them, and in the 
cold winter shivering and crying, pinched with cold. All this comes from the 
love of strong drink. And this is not all the misery and evil we bring upon 
ourselves by "this sin. for when we are intoxicated with strong drink we drown 
our rational powers, by which we are distinguished from the brute creation ; 
we unman ourselves, and sink not only to a level with the beasts of the field, 
but seven degrees beneath them ; yea, we bring ourselves to a level with the 
devils : and I don't know but we make ourselves worse than the devils, for I 
never heard of a drunken devil." 

He closed his discourse with a fervid exhortation to his IVIohegan brethren 
to break ofT from their sins, and especially from their besetting sin of drunk- 
enness, by a gospel repentance; to "take warning by the doleful sight now 
before us," and from the dreadful judgments that have befallen poor drunk- 
ards. "You that have been careless all your dav now awake to righteousness 
and be concerned for your never-dying souls." Fight against all sin, and espe- 
cially against your besetting sin, "and above all things believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and you shall have eternal life, and when you come to die your 
souls will be received into hea-\-en, there to be with the Lord Jesus and all the 
saints in glory, which God in His infinite mercy grant, through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord. Amen." 

In 1786 he gathered a few Mohegans and several other Indians from other 
tribes in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Long Island, and went with them to 
Oneida county. New York, and there formed the nucleus of the clan after- 
wards known as the Brothertown tribe among the Six Nations. He con- 
tinued as their minister, actin? also as a missionarv among the Six Nations, 
until his death, which occurred in July, 1792. more than three hundred Indians 
following him mournfully and tearfulh- to the grave. 

Another young Mohegan. Joseph Johnson, educated in Wheelock's school, 
became also a preacher of great power and influence. He was sent early as 
a missionary to the Six Nations of New York, and afterwards co-operated 
with Occom in the establishment there of the Brothertown clan. At the 
breaking out of the war of the Revolution the Six Nations, a powerful and 
warlike Indian confederacy, were at first much inclined to favor the English 
side and to become the allies of the British forces of Canada, and to this 
end were strongU' tempted by the insidious wiles of British emissaries, backed 
by the glittering display and lavish use of British gold. 

Against this danger both Johnson and Occom exerted the whole weight 
of their great moral powers and their wide influence, the former especially 
appealing for help, in averting this impending danger, to Governor Trumbull 
and other friends here, and to the Assembly. His zeal and patriotic efforts 
attracted the attention of Gen. Washington, and while at Cambridge, direct- 
ing the siecre of Boston, he wrote him a letter with his own hand, dated Feb. 
20, 1776, thanking him for his patriotic and important services, and in closing 
he says. "Tell the Indians that we do not ask them to take up the hatchet for 
us unless they choose it, we only desire that they will not fight against us. 
We want that the chain of friendship should always remain bright between 
our friends, the Six Nations, and us. We recommend you to them, and hope 
by spreading the truths of the gospel among them it will always keep the 
chain bright." 

Another remarkable illustration of the importance of education to our 



58 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

forefathers is found in a sermon of Rev. Dr. Nott, pastor of the Franklin 
church from 1782 till 1852. This pastorate of seventy years, linked with 
those of Rev. Benjamin Lord and Rev. Dr. .Strong of Norwich, forms a note- 
worthy chain of human lives. Together they served their parishes 187 years! 
One succeeded another in turn in such a manner that these three men, each 
well acquainted with the successor in the ministry though not in the same 
parish, covered, and might well have conveyed by word of mouth, the history 
of New London county from 1717 to 1852! The sermon referred to was 
delivered on the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Nott's settlement at Franklin. 
He says: 

That I have contributed to the general improvement of my people in knowledge, par- 
ticularly the children and youth — as I have statedly visited the schools twice, usually three 
times a year, and likewise taught many of the young men Arithmetic, English Grammar, 
and Geography — I presume none will question. In the mean time, I trust I have con- 
tributed, in a degree, to the improvement of many others. More than forty young men. ir» 
whole or in part, have fitted for college under my direction ; twenty belonged to this 
town. A considerable number of the whole entered quite advanced in standing. About 
half a dozen of the scholars, who belonged to different colleges, have likewise spent con- 
siderable time with me ; some of them a term or two. .About the same number of young 
gentlemen have studied theology with me. A large number of school-masters, and some 
persons who have studied physic, made merchants, mechanics, and farmers, I have aided, 
more or less, in their education. I would be far from saying: "By the strength of my 
hand I have done it, and by my wisdom " I would, with the most lively gratitude, say, 
I have done it by the strength of that Almighty Being! "Who raiseth up the poor out 
of the dust, and lif teth the beggar out of the dunghill : and I mention it in this public 
manner that he may have the glory. (Since I began to fit for college, April, 1774, I have 
contributed something towards the education, as nearly as I can recollect, of between two 
and three hundred gentlemen, ladies, or children.) As a little wheel in mechanism sometimes 
puts in motion one much larger, I have been instrumental, in the hand of Divine Providence, 
of bringing forward into public life some persons who have given a far wider spread to 
knowledge than I was ever able to do ; and some, who now hold in society, and in the Church 
of Christ, a respectable standing. A wheel in the middle of a wheel. O, the depths of the 
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments, 
and his ways past finding out. 

The first music school in this country was founded by Mr. Oramel Whit- 
tlesey at Salem, in 1835, under the name of Music Vale Seminary, and was 
maintained with great success for over forty years. Here were educated in 
music many hundred young women from different parts of the country. 

At the time when public high schools were starting in Massachusetts 
under the leadership of Horace Mann and others, public-spirited citizens in 
New London county had founded or soon afterwards founded private insti- 
tutions of high school grade. As time has passed, these institutions have 
survived, doing their work under private management, partly by means of 
their original funds and partly by funds given by the public for the secondary 
education of boys and girls. It is a curious fact that of the seven private 
schools recognized by the State of Connecticut as doing satisfactorily the 
work of a public high school, five are found in New London county. A brief 
statement about each school has been prepared by the principal or by a 
trustee of each and will be found elsewhere in this work. 



CHAPTER HI 
AN ERA OF UNREST 

The War for Independence — The Battle of Groton Heights — Narratives of Jonathan 
Rathbun, Rufus Avery and Stephen Hempstead — The British Fleet off New London 
— The War Marks the Beginning o£ Manufacture and Whaling. 

Much of the detail of local history will be found under the separate his- 
tories of various towns. New London county sent its full quota and more for 
every colonial enterprise. It was a large partaker in all the efforts that make 
Connecticut history glorious. We quote from Mr. Daniel Howard : 

In the days of the Revolution, "Brother Jonathan" of Lebanon was Wash- 
ington's right hand man. It used to be the custom to call the United States 
"Brother Jonathan," just as we now call the country by the nickname of 
"Uncle Sam." We do not know who was the first man to apply the name to 
our country, but it was George Washington who caused the name to be 
adopted. 

When the Revolutionary War broke out in the thirteen colonies there 
was one governor and only one who joined the patriots in their struggle 
against the British king and his tyranny. That Governor was Jonathan Trum- 
bull of Connecticut. When we read of what he did to help Washington and 
his army, we can realize why Washington loved him, trusted him, and looked 
to him for help and advice whenever he was in trouble. 

The War for Independence began in 1775, and Governor Trumbull was 
among the first men to encourage volunteers to go to Boston and Cambridge 
in order to help form the American army. The next year, when Washington's 
army went to New York, more than half of his 17,000 men were from Con- 
necticut. Throughout the six years of the war, Washington depended upon 
Jonathan Trumbull more than he did upon any other man to help him collect 
troops, provide food, clothing, and ammunition, write letters to committees 
of safety for their advice and assistance in carying on the war, and to do 
everything that was necessary to keep the soldiers and the patriots united 
and loyal to the army and its commander-in-chief. Washington soon formed 
the habit of saying whenever he needed advice or assistance, "Let us consult 
Brother Jonathan." "Brother Jonathan" seemed to represent the whole coun- 
try, and in time public speakers, poets, authors, newspaper men, in fact every- 
body, came to use "Brother Jonathan" as a nickname for the United States. 

Nathan Hale's name will be honored as long as America endures. It was 
April 20, 1775, in the Union Grammar School at New London, about thirty 
boys were busy with their lessons. We can imagine how diligentl}^ they were 
working, for many of them were anxious to enter college, win honors, and 
eventually become as popular and highly esteemed as was their young teacher, 
whom they idolized. This teacher was Nathan Hale. 

Young Hale, although not quite twenty years of age, had already won 
high reputation as a scholar, a teacher, a thinker, and a leader among the 
people. He was born in the town of Coventry, June 6, 1775. He grew up 
in a typical Connecticut home. Having been prepared for college by his good 
pastor, he was graduated from Yale University in 1773 with the highest 
honors. The first year after his graduation he taught in the little red school 
house at East Haddam. His success there led to his engagement the next 



6o NEW LONDON COUNTY 

year as teacher of the fine new grammar school at New London. He was 
tall, broad-shouldered, graceful. Intelligence beamed from his large blue 
eyes, and noble, good-natured face. A leader in athletics among the boys, a 
leader in the discussion of public questions among the men, it was no wonder 
that everybody loved him. 

The political troubles between the American Colonies and England had 
made him a bold and outspoken patriot, and often since the day he entered 
college his eloquent words had roused his hearers to the highest enthusiasm 
in defense of their rights and liberties. On this particular morning his 
thoughts were with his pupils and their schoolroom discussions. Suddenly 
there was heard the sound of excited voices in the street. One window was 
open, and the boys caught some words that filled them with excitement. 
The teacher counseled them not to let their thoughts wander from their 
lessons. 

The noise and excitement outside the building continued. The boys were 
too much disturbed to work, and the teacher himself found that he was 
as anxious as the bo}'S to know what was happening. He closed his school, 
and with his boys rushed toward the crowd that had surrounded the statue 
of King George. A man on horseback was speaking, but Llale was too far 
away to hear what he was saying. When the speech was finished, the crowd 
sent up a great shout. "What is it all about " asked Hale. "Haven't you 
heard? It is a message from Lexington, where the British have fallen on our 
brothers and sought to cut them to pieces. Yesterday there was a battle." 
"Has it come to that?" asked Hale in astonishment. "Hush! Hark! he is 
going to speak again. No, he is falling from his horse. This way!! Bring 
him into the tavern. Give him something to revive him. No wonder after 
such a ride!" Another man addressed the crowd: "Let all who wish to form 
some plan to help Massachusetts, meet me tonight at Miner's Tavern." 

Hale went to his lodgings. He was so absorbed with the terrible news 
that had come from Lexington that he thought no more of school. In the 
evening he joined the throng of serious, thoughtful men. assembled at Miner's 
Tavern. After listening to an earnest speech by the Hon. Richard Law. Hale 
asked permission to speak. He ascended the platform and began to talk. As 
they listened to his eloquence and observed his manly bearing, his hearers 
forgot all else in their desire to seize their muskets and swords and march to 
the aid of their countrymen in Massachusetts. Hale closed with these words: 
"Let us not lay down our arms until we have gained our Independence!" 
Independence! That was a new thought. But it was a thought that would 
soon be in thousands of minds. 

That night Hale made arrangements to go with the two companies of 
soldiers who were to be sent to Cambridge. The following morning they 
left New London at sunrise. At Cambridge, Hale became a favorite with the 
officers and men. For months he worked hard to train and exercise his com- 
pany of soldiers, and his bravery, daring and resourcefulness won compli- 
ments from his commander-in-chief, Washington. 

The next year, 1776, Washington's army moved from Boston to New 
York and fought the British at Long Island. The British won the battle, 
and the Americans were forced to retreat to Harlem Heights, leaving New 
York City in the hands of the enemy. Washington was in great distress. 
If he onlv knew the plans of the British, he might prepare his armj^ to meet 
them. If he could learn just how the city was fortified and guarded, he 
might then capture it. There was only one way to get the needed information. 
He must send a spy into the British camp. That spy must be no ordinary 
soldier. He must be skilled in military affairs, able to make drawings and 



AN ERA OF UXREST 6i 

descriptions of the fortifications, capable of understanding and reporting 
everything he saw, and above all else fearless and willing to risk his life. 

Washington asked Colonel Knowlton to endeavor to find such a man 
among the officers. Colonel Knowlton called the officers together and asked 
for a volunteer to undertake the dangerous task. No one responded. It was 
the disgrace of being a spy that held them back. The Colonel pleaded elo- 
quently for someone to undertake the work on which the fate of the whole 
army might depend. Still, no answer. Nathan Hale, who had just risen 
from a sick bed, was seen approaching. He asked, "What is going on?" 
They told him. Without a moment's hesitation, he exclaimed: "I will under- 
take it." 

Captain Hull, his friend and former classmate in college, exclaimed, "You 
do not know what you say. You a spy !" Another of the officers cried out, 
"There is someone other than you for such service." "Who?" asked Hale. 
There was no answer. 

Hale repeated his offer, saying, "I wish to be useful, and every kind of 
service for the public becomes honorable by being necessary." His brother 
officers said no more. That afternoon Hale reported to Washington and 
received his instructions. With a friend he left the room and walked from 
Harlem Heights to Norwalk, fifty miles up the Sound on the Connecticut 
shore. There he disguised himself as a Tory schoolmaster, and alone boarded 
a sloop that took him to Huntington, Long Island. Having landed near the 
Widow Chichester's tavern, and knowing this to be a resort for Tories and 
friends of the British, he passed by and made his first stop at the home of 
William Johnson, about a mile from his landing place. After resting a few 
hours and obtaining such information as he could about the journey he wished 
to make, he set out for the British camp, claiming to be looking for a position 
to teach. He visited the British camp on Long Island, and crossed over to 
New York City, where the British had taken full possession since he left 
Washington's headquarters. Here he spent some days visiting with the 
soldiers. .A.11 this time he was studying the plans of the fortifications, and 
whenever he had an opportunity to be alone he drew sketches and wrote out 
in Latin descriptions of what he had seen. 

When he could learn no more, with these maps and sketches concealed 
in his shoes, he started on his homeward journey. In safety he found his 
way back to Huntington, where he arrived in the morning, and expecting a 
boat to meet him. It was very early when he arrived, and seeing no boat he 
decided to go to the Tory tavern for breakfast. At the tavern he talked with 
the Tories, but he did not notice that one of them left the room after he 
entered. Several hours later a boat was seen approaching. The Tories at 
once scattered, fearing the boat might contain Connecticut Yankees, whom 
they did not wish to meet. Hale assured them that the Yankees would not 
hurt a poor schoolmaster, and offered to go and see what they wanted. 

We can imagine how eagerly he hastened to the edge of the water, ex- 
pecting to meet his friends, but alas! what a disappointment! W'hen he was 
within range of the boat's crew a dozen men leveled their guns at him and 
cried. "Surrender or die!" He was trapped. 

The man who had left the tavern was a Tory relative who had recognized 
him and sent word to a British ship. The commander of this ship had sent 
the boat to capture Hale. He was at once rowed to the guardship, "Halifax." 
"Are you a captain in the Continental army?" asked the commander. "I am," 
replied Hale. "Why are you disguised?" was the next question. There was 
no answer. "Search him," ordered the commander. The papers and drawings 
were found in his shoes. That settled it. He was a spy. 



62 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Hale was sent at once to the headquarters of General Howe in New 
York City. Howe was dumbfounded. "Why did you, a man of learning and 
fine appearance, attempt this sort of work?" Hale answered, "I am serving 
my country, and for that reason I will do any service that my country de- 
mands." Howe admired his spirit, and this thought came into his head, 
"What a gain if this man would serve us. Surely ambition and place can 
tempt him." "I will grant you full pardon, if you will join the British army, 
and you shall be speedily promoted to a high position." Hale answered, 
"Nothing so increases my loyalty to my country as this temptation to for- 
sake her." "Then you must die for her," was the grim response of General 
Howe. 

Turning to his desk, he wrote out the commitment, which directed 
William Cunningham to receive Nathan Hale, keep him in custody until 
morning, and then see that he was hanged by the neck until dead. A British 
officer then conducted Hale to the quarters of Cunningham, the provost mar- 
shal. This cruel and brutal man was in the habit of treating his prisoners 
most shamefully. He would insult them, kick them, and parade them up 
and down the corridors, with Richmond, his negro hangman, carrying a coil 
of rope behind them. Many were hanged in the yard back of the jail and 
their bodies left to dangle for hours where other prisoners would see them 
and shudder at the sight. 

This man questioned Hale as to his age and history, and read the death 
warrant telling him that he was to die at daybreak. Every minute of that 
time would be needed to saj' good-bye to his father, brothers, and sisters, and 
to write a last loving letter to Alice Adams Ripley, the young lady who 
waited in her Connecticut home, longing and hoping for the time when he 
would return from the war and make her his wife. He asked that his hands 
might be untied and that he might have a light and some writing materials. 
The heartless Cunningham refused his request. Hale asked for a Bible. 
Again he was refused with jeers and insults. He was placed in his cell, and 
after Cunningham had fallen into a drunken stupor, a kind-hearted British 
officer who was his guard furnished him materials and a light. The hours 
of that sad night were passed in writing his last letters to the dear ones 
at home. 

At daybreak the provost came. The prisoner had not slept, but was ready. 
He handed his letters to Cunningham, who opened them, read them, tore 
them into fragments, and stamped upon them, saying the rebels should never 
see such letters. No one should ever know that a man died with such cour- 
age. Oh, the anguish that pierced the soul of Nathan Hale! Yet he gave 
no sign of his feelings. 

He was ordered to prepare for the death march. He asked for a clergy- 
man, but his request was refused. The line of march took him through a 
vast crowd of men and women to the place of execution in Colonel Rutger's 
apple orchard. Hale, clothed in white, with his arms bound behind him, was 
preceded by a file of soldiers. The soldiers formed a hollow square, with 
an apple tree in the center. Underneath the tree the grave had been dug. 
The hangman placed his ladder against a limb of the tree and adjusted the 
rope. Four negroes placed the coffin beneath the hanging noose. Hale was 
ordered to stand upon the coffin. While the final preparations were being 
made, he stood with his manly form erect and his beautiful face illuminated 
with the glow of courage and heroism. Even the hardest of the soldiers were 
awed by the sight. Cunningham hoped to destroy the impression produced 
by the sublime spectacle and called to Hale to make his last confession. 

The martyr, whose face had been turned upward in prayer, after casting 



AN ERA OF UNREST 63 

upon Cunnin!2:ham a look of unutterable contempt, turned his eyes to the 
spectators. The women were sobbinfj and the men had turned away their 
faces. All became silent and his voice, strong, full, and ringing with the 
energy of courage and patriotism, uttered these immortal words: "I only 
regret that I have but one life to lose for my Country!" The provost was 
stunned. His rage almost choked him. As soon as he could collect himself 
he roared, "Swing the rebel ofiF!" 

Noble, heroic death ! Thus passed away the martyred patriot spy, but 
his name will live forever and furnish us with an inspiration for great and 
noble deeds. 

The battle of Groton Heights has often been described. But the account 
found below, by Jonathan Rathbun, has been out of print for fifty years: 

I was born in Colchester, Connecticut, in 1765. When 16 years of age, 
I joined as a volunteer a company of militia, belonging to my native town, 
and marched to the relief of New London, intelligence having just reached 
us of an attack on that place by the British under the conduct of the traitor 
Benedict Arnold. We left home to the number of about one hundred men 
early in the morning of the 7th of September, 1781, the day after the battle. 
Oo our arrival in New London we witnessed a scene of suffering and horror 
which surpasses description. The enemy were not to be found, but they had 
left behind them the marks of their barbarism and cruelty. The city was in 
ashes. More than one hundred and thirty naked chimneys were standing in 
the midst of the smoking ruins of stores and dwelling houses. Very little 
property had escaped the conflagration except a part of the shipping which, 
on the first alarm, was sent up the river. But though the city was destroyed, 
it was far from being deserted. Numerous companies of militia from the 
neighborhood were pouring into the town ; and the inhabitants, who had fled 
from their burning dwellings, were returning to gaze with anguish on the 
worthless remains of their property. Women were seen walking with con- 
sternation and despair depicted in their countenances, leading or carrying 
in their arms their fatherless and houseless babes, who in a few short hours 
had been bereaved of all that was dear on earth. Their homes, their pro- 
visions and even their apparel, were the spoils of the enemy or lay in ashes 
at their feet. Some were inquiring with the deepest distress for the mangled 
bodies of their friends, while others were seen following the carts which bore 
their murdered fathers, husbands or brothers to the grave. More than forty 
widows were made on that fatal day. Never can I forget the tears, the sobs, 
the shrieks of woe which fell from the kindred of our brave countrymen who 
then gave their lives to achieve our national independence. It was my melan- 
choly duty to assist in the burial of the dead, which brought me directly into 
the midst of these heart-rending scenes where the wife first recognized her 
husband, the mother her son, the sister her brother, in the body of a mangled 
soldier, so disfigured with wounds and clotted with blood and dust as to be 
scarcely known ! Often on my visits to New London have I walked near the 
spot where I helped to inter my slaughtered countrymen ; and, though many 
years have since rolled away, the recollection is still fresh in my mind, awak- 
ening anew the strong feelings of sympathy I then felt, and rousing into 
activity the love of my country. 

I recollect several interesting facts connected with the capture of Fort 
Griswold and the burning of New London, which I believe are not mentioned 
in the narratives of Messrs. Avery and Hempstead. 

After the capture of the fort and the massacre which followed, the enemy 



64 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

laid a line of powder from the magazine of the fort to the sea, intending to 
blow up the fort, and complete the destruction of the wounded within and 
around it. Stillman Hotman, who lay not far distant, wounded by three 
strokes of the bayonet in his body, proposed to a wounded man near him to 
crawl to this line and saturate the powder with their blood, and thus save 
the magazine and fort, and perhaps the lives of some of their comrades not 
mortally wounded. He alone succeeded in reaching the line, where he was 
found dead lying on the powder, which was completely wet with his blood. 
I do not find his name among the killed in the list of Mr. Avery. 

Another fact of a different character was currently reported at the time 
and deserves to be recorded to the deeper disgrace of the infamous Arnold. 
He had a sister living in New London, with whom he dined on the day of 
the battle, and whose house was set fire to, as is supposed, by his orders, im"- 
mediately afterwards. Perhaps he found her too much of a patriot for his 
taste, and took this step in revenge. 

The next year, 1782, I was led by the spirit which the scenes I had wit- 
nessed in New London had fanned into a flame, to leave my father's house 
and the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, and to enlist as a private in the 
Connecticut State troops. Never shall I forget the impressive circumstances 
under which I took the soldier's oath. With five others of my townsmen who 
enlisted with me, I was marched into the meeting house on the first Monday 
in April, it being Freeman's Day, and there in the presence of a large con- 
course of people we swore to discharge our duty faithfull}-. We were ordered 
to Fort Stanwich, in Stamford. Connecticut, where I remained during all but 
the last month of my term of service. Here I was subjected to the usual 
hardships of military life. Many a time have I been out for several days on 
scouting parties, sometimes to the distance of twenty-five miles. These 
were not only attended with fatigue, cold and hunger, but with no little peril 
of life. On one occasion a rifle ball passed through my hat and cut away the 
hair of my head, but a kind Providence protected me. 

A party of fourteen men under Lewis Smith were surprised by a body 
of mounted troops to the number of sixty, by whom they were ordered to 
surrender. Lewis Smith, perceiving the hopelessness of resistance against 
such an overwhelming force, inquired of the British officer in command 
whether if they should surrender they would be treated as prisoners of war. 
The answer was, "Yes," but no sooner had they lowered their muskets thart 
the enemy shot them down. 

As a specimen of the hardships to which the private soldier in time of 
war is constantly liable, I may mention the following: One evening the 
orderly sergeants passed around among the men and with a whisper com- 
manded us to equip ourselves without noise; and then we were marched out 
of the fort to a woods two miles distant and ordered to lie down on the frozen 
ground, where we passed a bitter cold night with only a single blanket and 
our overcoats to protect us. We afterwards learned that this step was taken 
to avoid the enemy, who it was reported were that night to attack the fort 
with an overwhelming force. From such exposures and hardships as these 
my constitution received a shock from which I have never recovered. The 
sickness of my father was considered a sufficient reason for giving me a dis- 
charge ; and after eleven months' service I left Stamford for Colchester. On 
reaching home I was immediately taken sick, and for six months was unable 
to do any business. From that time mingled mercies and misfortunes have 
attended' me. The infirmities thus contracted in the service of my country 
disabled me from arduous manual labor, and much of my life has therefore 
been spent in trade and other light employments. My heaviest misfortune, 



AN ERA OF UNREST 65 

however, has been the sickness of my excellent wife, who for forty years has 
been confined to her bed, and for whose medication and comfort, with the 
other expenses of my family, the earnings of my industry have proved in- 
sufficient, especially since the infirmities of old age have come upon me. But 
of none cf these things do I complain. They are wisely appointed, and 
have been greatly alleviated by the kindness of a generous community. I 
mention them for the sole object of interesting my countrymen in my present 
effort to supply my wants through this little book. 

The following narrative by Rufus Avery, orderly sergeant under Captain 
William Latham, containing an account of the transactions at New London 
and Groton on the 6th of September, 1781, is in. his own words: 

I had charge of the garrison the night previous to the attack. The enemy 
had not yet appeared near us, nor did we expect them at this time more than 
ever ; but it is true "we know not what shall be on the morrow." About 3 
o'clock in the morning, as soon as daylight appeared, so as I could look off, 
I saw the fleet in the harbor, a little distance below the light house; it con- 
sisted of thirty-two in number — ships, brigs, schooners and sloops. It may 
well be imagined that a shock of consternation and a thrill of dread appre- 
hension flashed over me. I immediately sent for Capt. William Latham, who 
was captain of said fort, and who was near by. He came and saw the fleet, 
and sent notice to Colonel Ledyard, who was commander of the harbor, and 
also of Forts Griswold and Trumbull. He ordered two large guns to be loaded 
with heavy charges of good powder, &c. Captain William Latham took 
charge of the one which was to be discharged from the northeast part of the 
fort, and I had to attend the other on the west side, and thus we as speedily 
as possible prepared to give alarm to the vicinity, as was to be expected in 
case of danger, two guns being the specified signal for alarm in distress. But 
a difficulty now arose from having all our plans communicated by a traitor! 
The enemy understood our signal was two regular guns, and they fired a 
third, which broke our alarm, and caused it to signify good news or a prize, 
and thus it was understood by our troops, and several companies which were 
lying back ready to come to our assistance in case of necessity were by this 
measure deterred from coming. The reader may well suppose, though time 
would not permit us to consider or anticipate long, that the sense of our 
helplessness without additional strength and arms was dreadful ; but the try- 
ing events of the few coming hours we had not known ! Colonel Ledyard 
now sent expresses from both forts, to call on every militia captain to hurry 
with their companies to the forts. But few came ; their excuse was that it 
was but a false alarm, or for some trifling alarm. The enemy's boats now 
approached and landed eight hundred officers and men, some horses, car- 
riages and cannon, on the Groton side of the river, about 8 o'clock in the 
morning; and another division on the New London side, below the light 
house, consisting of about seven hundred officers and men. The army on 
Groton banks was divided into two divisions. Colonel Ayres took command 
of the division southeast of the forts, consisting of about half, sheltering them 
behind a ledge of rocks about one hundred and thirty rods back ; Major 
Montgomery, with his division about one hundred and fifty rods from the 
fort, behind a high hill. The army on New London side of the river had 
better and more accommodating land to march on than that on Groton side. 
As soon as their army had got opposite Fort Trumbull, they divided, and 
one part proceeded to the city of New London, plundered and set fire to the 
shipping and buildings, the rest marched down to Fort Trumbull. Captain 



66 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Adam Shapley, who commanded, seeing that he was likely to be overpowered 
by the enemy, spiked his cannon and embarked on board the boats which 
had been prepared for him in case of necessity; but the enemy were so 
quick upon him that before he and his little handful of men could get out of 
the reach of their guns, seven men were badly wounded in the boats. The 
remaining ones reached Fort Griswold, where, poor fellows, they met a 
mortal blow. 

Ayres and Montgomery got their army stationed about 9 o'clock in the 
morning. When they appeared in sight, we threw a number of shots among 
them, but they would immediately contrive to disappear behind their hills. 
About 10 o'clock they sent a flag of truce to demand the surrender of the fort. 
When the flag was within about forty rods from the fort, we sent a musket 
ball in front of them, and brought them to a stand. Col. Ledyard called a 
council of war to ascertain the minds of his officers and friends about what 
was best to be done in this momentous hour, when every moment indicated a 
bloody anrl decisive battle. They all agreed in council to send a flag to them. 
They did so, choosing Capt. Elijah Avery, Capt. Amos Staunton, and Capt. 
John Williams, who went immediately to meet the British flag and receive 
their demand, which was to give up the Fort to them. The council was then 
inquired of what was to be done, and the answer returned to the British 
flag was that "the Fort would not be given up to the British." The flag then 
returned to their division commanded by Ayres, but soon returned to us 
again ; when about a proper distance our flag met them and attended to 
their summons, and came back to inform Col. Ledyard that the enemy 
declared that "if they were obliged to take it by storm, they should put the 
Martial Law in full force," that is, "what they did not kill by ball, they should 
put to death by sword and bayonet!" Col. Ledyard sent back the decisive 
answer that "we should not give up the Fort to them, let the consequences 
be what they would." 

While these flags were passing and repassing, we were exchanging shots 
with the British at Fort Trumbull, as they had got possession of it before 
the battle commenced in action at Fort Cjriswold. We could throw our shot 
into Fort Trumbull without any difUculty, but the British could not cause 
theirs to enter Fort Griswold, because they could not aim high enough. They 
had got possession and in use some of our best pieces and ammunition, which 
were left in Fort Trumbull, when Captain Shapley left it and retreated. About 
II o'clock in the morning, when they perceived what we were about to do, 
they started with both their divisions. Colonel Ayres advancing with his in 
solid columns. As soon as they reached the level ground and in a proper 
range, we saluted them with an eighteen-pounder, then loaded with two bags 
of grape shot. Capt. Elias H. Halsey was the one who directed the guns, and 
took aim at the enemy. lie had long practiced on board a privateer, and 
manifested his skill at this time. I was at the gun with others when it was 
discharged into the British ranks, and it cleared a very wide space in their 
solid columns. It has been reported by good authority that about twenty 
were killed and wounded by that one discharge of grape shot. As soon as 
the column was broken by loss of men and officers, they were seen to scatter 
and trail arms, coming on with a quick step towards the fort, inclining to 
the west. We continued firing, but they advanced upon the south and west 
sides of the fort. Colonel Ayres was mortally wounded. Major Montgomery 
now advanced with his division, coming on in solid columns, bearing around 
to the north, until they got east of the redoubt or battery, which was east 
of the fort, then marching with a quick step into the battery. Here we sent 
among them large and repeated charges of grape shot which destroyed a 



AN ERA OF UNREST 67 

number, as we could perceive them thinned and broken. Then they started 
for the fort, a part of them in platoons, discharging their guns; and some of 
the officers and men scattering, they came around on the cast and north 
side of the fort. Here Major Montgomery fell, near the northeast part of 
the fort. We might suppose the loss of their commanders might have dis- 
ma3'ed them, but they had proceeded so far, and the excitement and deter- 
mination on slaughter was so great, they could not be prevented. As soofr 
as their army had entirely surrounded the garrison, a man attempted to open 
the gates ; but he lost his life in a moment, before he could succeed. There 
was hard fighting and shocking slaughter, and much blood spilt before another 
attempt was made to open the gates, which was at this time successful ; for 
our little number, which was only one hundred and fifty-five, officers and 
pri%-ates (the most of them volunteers), were by this time overpowered. There 
was then no block house on the parade as there is now, so that the enemy 
had every chance to wound and kill every man. When they had overpowered 
us and driven us from our station at the breastwork into the fort, and Colonel 
Ledyard saw how few men he had remaining to fight with, he ceased resist- 
ance. They all left their posts and went on to the open parade in the fort, 
where the enemy had a fair opportunity to massacre us, as there were only 
six of us to an hundred of them ! This, this was a moment of indescribable 
misery! We can fight with good hearts while hope and prospects of victory 
aid us; but, after we have fought and bled, and availed nothing, to yield to 
be massacred by the boasting enemy "tries men's hearts !" Our ground was 
drenched w-ith human gore, our wounded and dying could not have any 
attendance, while each man was almost hopeless of his own preservation; 
but our country's danger caused the most acute anxiety. Now I saw the 
enemy mount the parapets like so many madmen, all at once, seemingly. 
They swung their hats around, and then discharged their guns into the fort, 
and those who had not fallen by ball they began to massacre with sword and 
bayonet. I was on the west side of the fort, with Capt. Edward Latham and 
Mr. C. Latham, standing on the platform, and had a full view of the enemy's 
conduct. I had then a hole through my clothes by a ball, and a bayonet 
rent through my coat to the flesh. The enemy approached us, knocked down 
the two men I mentioned, with the britch (breech) of their guns, and I 
expected had ended their lives, but they did not. By this time that division 
which had been commanded by Montgomery, now under charge of Bloom- 
field, unbolted the other gates, marched into the Fort, and formed into a 
solid column. I at this moment left my station and went across the parade 
towards the south end of the barracks. I noticed Col. William Ledyard on 
the parade stepping towards the enemy and Bloomfield, gently raising and 
lowering his sword" as a token of bowing and submission; he was about six 
feet from them when I turned my eyes off from him, and went up to the 
door of the barracks and looked at the enemy, who were discharging their 
guns through the windows. It was but a moment that I had turned my 
eyes from Col. L. and saw him alive, and now I saw him weltering in his 
gore! Oh, the hellish spite and madness of a man that will murder a reason- 
able and noble-hearted officer, in the act of submitting and surrendering! I 
can assure my countrymen that I felt the thrill of such a horrid deed more 
than the honorable arid martial-like war of months ! We are informed that 
the wretch who murdered him exclaimed as he came near, "Who commands 
this fort?" Ledyard handsomely replied, "I did, but you do now." at the same 
moment handing him his sword, which the unfeeling villain buried in his 
breast! The column continued marching towards the south end of the 
parade, and I could do no better than to go across the parade before them, 



68 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

amid their fire. They discharged three platoons, as I crossed before them 
at this time. I believe there were not less than five or six hundred of the 
British on the parade, and in the Fort. They killed and wounded every man 
they possibly could, and it was all done in less than two minutes! I had 
nothing to expect but to drop with the rest; one mad looking fellow put his 
bayonet to my side, swearing, "by Jesus he would skipper me !" I looked him 
earnestly in the face and eyes, and begged him to have mercy and spare my 
life! I must say, I believe God prevented him from killing me, for he put his 
bayonet three times into me, and I seemed to be in his power, as well as 
Lieut. Enoch Staunton, who was stabbed to the heart and fell at my feet ali 
this time. I think no scene ever exceeded this for continued and barbarous 
massacre after surrender. There were two large doors to the Magazine, 
whick made a space wide enough to admit ten men to stand in one rank. 
There marched up a platoon of ten men just by where I stood, and at once 
discharged their guns into the Magazine among our killed and wounded, 
and also among those who had escaped uninjured, and as soon as these 
had fired, another platoon was ready, and immediately took their place when 
they fell back. At this moment Bloomfield came swiftly around the corner 
of the building, and raising his sword with exceeding quickness, exclaimed, 
"stop firing! or you will send us all to Hell together!" I was very near him 
when he spoke. He knew there must be much powder deposited and scat- 
tered about the Magazine, and if they continued throwing in fire we should 
all be blown up. I think it must, before this, have been the case, had not 
the ground and everything been wet with human blood. We trod in blood ! 
We trampled under feet the limbs of our Countrymen, our neighbors and 
dear kindred. Our ears were filled with the groans of the dying, when the 
more stunning sound of the artillery would give place to the death shrieks. 
After this they ceased killing and went to stripping, not only the dead, but 
the wounded and those who were not wounded. They then ordered us all 
who were able to march, to the N. E. part of the parade, and those who 
could walk to help those who were wounded so bad as not to go of them- 
selves. Mr. Samuel Edgcomb Jr. and myself were ordered to carry out 
Ensign Charles Eldridge, who was shot through the knee joints; he was a 
very large, heavy man, and with our fasting and violent exercises of the day, 
we were but ill able to do it. or more than to sustain our own weight; but 
we had to submit. We with all the prisoners were taken out upon the 
parade, about two rods from the Fort, and ordered to sit down immediately, 
or they would put their bayonets into us. The battle was now ended. It 
was about i o'clock in the afternoon, and since the hour of eight in the 
morning, what a scene of carnage, of anxiety, and of loss had we experienced ! 
The enemy now began to take care of their dead and wounded. They 
took off si.x of the outer doors of the barracks, and with four men at each 
door, thev brought in one man at a time. There were twenty-four men thus 
employed for two hours, as fast as they could walk. They deposited them 
on the west side of the parade, in the Fort, where it was the most com- 
fortable place, and screened from the hot sun which was pouring down upon 
us, aggravating our wounds, and causing many to faint and die who might 
have lived with good care. By my side lay two most worthy and excellent 
officers, Capt. Youngs Ledyard, and Capt. N. Moore, in the agonies of death. 
Their heads rested on my thighs, as I sat or lay there. They had their 
reason well and spoke. They asked for water. I could give them none, as 
I was to be thrust through if I got up. I asked the enemy, who were passing 
by us, to give us some water for my dying friends and for m}self. As the 
well was near they granted this request; but even then I feared they would 



AN ERA OF UNREST 69 

put something poison into it, that they might get us out of the way the 
sooner; and they had said, repeatedly, that the last of us should die before 
the sun set! Oh what revenge and inhumanity pervaded their steeled hearts! 
They effected what was threatened in the summons, sent by the flag in the 
morning, to Colonel Ledyard, "That those who were not killed by the musket, 
should be by the sword," &c. But I must think they became tired of human 
butchery, and so let us live. They kept us on the ground, the garrison 
charged, till about two hours had been spent in taking care of their men; 
and then came and ordered every man of us that could walk, to "rise up." 
Sentries were placed around with guns loaded, and bayonets fixed, and orders 
given that ever}' one who would not, in a moment, obey commands, should 
be shot dead or run through ! I had to leave the two dying men who were 
resting on me, dropping their heads on the cold and hard ground, giving them 
one last and pitying look. Oh God, this was hard work. They both died 
that night. We marched down to the bank of the river so as to be ready 
to embark on board the British vessels. There were about thirty of us sur- 
rounded by sentries. Captain Bloomficld then came and took down the names 
of the prisoners who were able to march down with us. Where I sat, I had 
a fair view of their movements. They were setting fire to the buildings and 
bringing the plunder and laying it down near us. The sun was about half 
an hour high. I can never forget the whole appearance of all about me. New 
London was in flames! The inhabitants deserted their habitations to save 
life, which was more highly prized. Above and around us were our unburied 
dead, and our dying friends. None to appeal to for sustenance in our ex- 
hausted state but a maddened enemy — not allowed to move a step or make 
any resistance, but with loss of life — and sitting to see the property of our 
neighbors consumed by fire, or the spoils of a triumphing enemy! 

Reader, but little can be described, while much is felt. There were still 
remaining, near the fort, a great number of the British who were getting 
ready to leave. They loaded up our large ammunition wagon that belonged 
to the fort with the wounded men that could not walk, and about twenty of 
the enem}^ drew it from the fort to the brow of the hill which leads down to 
the river. The declivity is very steep for the distance of thirty rods to the 
river. As soon as the wagon began to move down the hill, it pressed so hard 
against them that they found they were unable to hold it back, and jumped 
away from it as quickly as possible, leaving it to thrash along down the hill 
with great speed, till the shafts struck a large apple tree stump, with a most 
violent crash, hurting the poor dying, and wounded men in it, in a most 
inhuman manner. Some of the wounded fell out and fainted away; then a 
part of the company where I sat, ran and brought the men and the wagon 
along. They by some means got the prisoners who were wounded badly 
into a house nearby belonging to Ensign Ebenezer Avery, who was one of 
the wounded in the wagon. Before the prisoners were brought to the house 
the soldiers had set fire to it, but others put it out, and made use of it for 
this purpose. Captain Bloomfield paroled, to be left at home here, these 
wounded prisoners, and took Ebenezer Ledyard, Esq., as hostage for them, 
to see them forthcoming when called for. 

Now the boats had come for us who could go on board the fleet. The 
officer spoke with a doleful and menacing tone, "Come, you rebels, go on 
board." This was a consummation of all I had seen or endured through the 
day. This wounded mv feelings in a thrilling manner. After all my suffer- 
ings and toil, to add the pang of leaving my native land, my wife, my good 
neighbors, and probably to sufTcr still more with cold and hunger, for already 
I had learned that I was with a cruel enemy. But I was in the hands of a 



70 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

hig^her power — over which no human being could hold superior control — : 
and by God's preservation I am still alive, through all the hardships and 
dangers of the war, while almost every one about me, who shared the same, 
has met either a natural or an unnatural death. When we, the prisoners, went 
down to the shore to the boats, they would not bring them near, but kept 
them off where the water was knee deep to us, obliging us, weak and worn 
as we were, to wade to them. We were marched down in two ranks, one 
on each side of the boat. The officer spoke very harshly to us, to "get aboard 
immediately." They rowed us down to an armed sloop, commanded by one 
Captain Thomas, as they called him, a refugee tory, and he lay with his 
vessel within the fleet. As soon as we were on board, they hurried us down 
into the hold of the sloop, where were their fires for cooking, and besides 
being very hot, it was filled with smoke. The hatch-way was closed tight, 
so that we were near suffocating for want of air to breathe. We begged them 
to spare our lives, so they gave us some relief, by opening the hatch-way and 
permitting us to come up on deck, by two or three at a time, but not without 
sentries watching us with gun and bayonet. We were now extremely 
exhausted and faint for want of food ; when after being on board twenty-four 
hours, they gave us a mess of hogs brains ; the hogs which they took on 
Groton banks when they plundered there. 

After being on board Thomas's sloop nearly three days, with nothing 
to eat or drink that we could swallow, we began to feel as if a struggle must 
be made, in some way, to prolong our existence, which, after all our escapes 
seemed still to be depending. In such a time, we can know, for a reality, how 
strong is the love of life. In the room where we were confined were a great 
many weapons of war, and some of the prisoners whispered that we might 
make a prize of the sloop. This in some way was overheard, and got to the 
officer's ears, and now we were immediately put in a stronger place in the 
hold of the vessel ; and they appeared so enraged that I was almost sure we 
should share a decisive fate, or suffer severely. Soon they commenced calling 
us, one by one, on deck. As I went up they seized me, tied my hands behind 
me with a strong rope-yarn, and drew it so tight that my shoulder-bones 
cracked and almost touched each other. Then a boat came from a fourteen- 
gun brig, commanded b}' one Steele. Into this boat I was ordered to get, 
without the use of my hands, over the sloop's bulwarks, which were all of 
three feet high, and then from these I had to fall, or throw myself into the 
boat. My distress of body and agitated feelings I cannot describe; and no 
relief could be anticipated, but only forebodings of a more severe fate. A 
prisoner with an enemy, an enraged and revengeful enemy, is a place where 
I pray my reader may never come. Thev made us all lie down under the 
seats on which the man sat to row, and so we were conveyed to the. brig; 
going on board, we were ordered to stand in one rank by the gunwale, and 
in front of us was placed a spar, within about a foot of each man. Here we 
stood, with a sentry to each of us, having orders to shoot or bayonet us if 
we attempted to stir out of our place. All this time we had nothing to eat 
or drink, and it rained and was very cold. We were detained in this position 
about two hours, when we had liberty to go about the main deck. Night 
approached, and we had no supper, nor anything to lie upon but the wet deck. 
We were on board this brig about four days, and then were removed on board 
a ship commanded by Capt. Scott, who was very kind to the prisoners. He 
took me on to the quarter deck with him, and appeared to have the heart of 
a man. I should think he was about sixty years of age. I remained with 
him until I was exchanged. Capt. Nathaniel Shaw came down to N. York 
with the American flag, after me and four others, who were prisoners with 



AN ERA OF UNREST 71 

me, and belonged to Fort Griswold, and who were brave, and fine young men. 
Gen. Mifflin went with the British flag to meet this American flag. I sailed 
with him about twenty miles. He asked me many question.s, all of which I 
took caution how I answered, and gave him no information. I told him I was 
very sorry that he should come to destroy so many, many brave men, burn 
their property, distress so many families, and make such desolation. I did 
not think they could be said to be honorable in so doing. He said "we might 
thank our own countrymen for it." I told him I had no thanks for him. I 
then asked the Gen. if I might ask him a few questions. "As many as you 
please." I asked him how many of the army who made the attack upon New 
London and Groton were missing? As you, sir, are the commissary of the 
British army, I suppose you can tell. He replied "that by the returns, there 
were two hundred and twenty odd missing, but what had become of them he 
knew not." We advanced, and the flags met and I was exchanged and per- 
mitted to return home. Here I close my narrative; for, as I was requested 
I have given a jjarticular and unexaggerated account of that which I saw 
with mine own eyes. 

The author of the following narrative of events, Stephen Hempstead, 
entered the service of his country in 1775, and arrived in Boston on the day 
of the battle of Bunker Hill. He was at Dorchester Point; was on Long 
Island at the time of the retreat of the American army ; and was also a volun- 
teer in the first ships that were to destroy the "Asia," 84-gun ship, and a 
frigate lying above Fort Washington. In this attempt they were unsuccessful, 
although grappled to the enemy's vessel twenty minutes. For the bravery 
displayed by them they received the particular thanks of the commanding 
officer in person and in general orders, and forty dollars were ordered to be 
paid to each person engaged. He was afterwards wounded by a grapeshot 
while defending the lines at Harlem Heights, which broke two of his ribs. He 
continued in the service, and was again wounded on the 6th of September, 
1781. He formerly resided in New London. He enjoyed the reception of 
General LaFayette in that place during his last visit to this country, and 
within a few years wrote this account in full, for publication : 

On the morning of the 6th of September, 1781, twenty-four sail of the 
enemy's shipping appeared to the westward of New London harbor. The 
enemy landed in two divisions, of about 800 men each, commanded by that 
infamous traitor to his country, Benedict Arnold, who headed the division that 
landed on the New London side, near Brown's farms; the other division, 
commanded by Col. Ayres, landed on Groton Point, nearly opposite. I was 
first sergeant of Capt. Adam Shapley's company of State troops, and was 
stationed with him at the time, with about 23 men, at Fort Trumbull, on the 
New London side. This was a mere breastwork or water battery, open 
from behind, and the enemy coming on us from that quarter, we spiked our 
cannon, and commenced a retreat across the river to Fort Griswold in three 
boats. The enemy was so near that they overshot us with their muskets, and 
succeeded in capturing one boat with six men commanded by Josiah Smith, 
a private. They afterwards proceeded to New London and burnt the town. 
We were received by the garrison with enthusiasm, being considered experi- 
enced artillerists, whom they much needed ; and we were immediately assigned 
to our stations. The Fort was an oblong square, with bastions at opposite 
angles, its longest side fronting the river in a N. W. and S. E. direction. Its 



72 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

walls were of stone, and were lo or :2 feet high on the lower side and sur- 
rounded by a ditch. On the wall were pickets, projecting over 12 feet; above 
this was a parapet with embrasures, and within a platform for the cannon, 
and a step to mount upon, to shoot over the parapet with small arms. In the 
S. \V. bastion was a flag-staff, and in the side near the opposite angle was 
the gate, in front of which was a triangular breastwork to protect the gate; 
and to the right of this was a redoubt with a three-pounder in it, which was 
about 120 yards from the gate. Between the Fort and the river was another 
battery, with a covered way. but which could not be used in this attack, as 
the enemy appeared in a different quarter. The garrison with the volunteer;^ 
consisted of about i6a men. Soon after our arrival, the enemy appeared in 
force in some woods about half a mile S. E. of the Fort, from whence they 
sent a flag of truce, which was met by Capt. Shapley, demanding an uncon- 
ditional surrender, threatening at the same time to storm the F"ort instantly 
if the terms were not accepted. A council of war was held, and it was the 
unanimous voice that the garrison were unable to defend themselves against 
so superior a force. But a militia Colonel who was then in the Fort and 
had a body of men in the immediate vicinity said he would reinforce them 
with 2 or 300 men in fifteen minutes, if they would hold out; Col. Ledyard 
agreed to send back a defiance, upon the most solemn assurance of immediate 

succor. For this purpose, Col. started, his men being then in sight; 

but he was no more seen, nor did he even attempt a diversion in our favor. 
When the answer to their demand had been rettirned by Capt. Shapley, the 
enemy were soon in motion, and marched with great rapidity, in a solid 
column, to within a short distance of the ?"ort, where, dividing the column, 
they rushed furiously and simultaneously to the assault of the S. W. bastion 
and the opposite sides. They were, however, repulsed with great slaughter, 
their commander mortally wounded, and Major Montgomery, next in rank, 
killed, having been thrust through the body whilst in the act of scaling the 
walls at the S. W. bastion, by Capt. Shapley. The command then devolved 
on Col. Beckwith, a refugee from New Jersey, who commanded a corps of 
that description. The enemy rallied and returned the attack with great vigor, 
but were received and repulsed with equal firmness. During the attack a 
shot cut the halyards of the flag, and it fell to the ground, but was instantly 
remounted on a pike pole. This accident proved fatal to us. as the enemy 
supposed it had been struck by its defenders, rallied again, and rushing with 
redoubled impetuosity, carried the S. W. bastion by storm. Until this mo- 
ment, our loss was trifling in number, being 6 or 7 killed, and 18 or 20 
wounded. Never was a post more bravely defended, nor a garrison more 
barbarously butchered. We fought with all kinds of weapons, and at all 
places with a courage that deserved a better fate. Many of the enemy were 
killed under the walls by throwing simple shot over them, and never would 
we have relinquished our arms, had we had the least idea that such a catas- 
trophe would have followed. To describe this scene I must be permitted to 
go back a little in my narrative. I commanded an i8-pounder on the south 
side of the gate, and while in the act of sighting my gun, a ball passed through 
the embrasure, struck me a little above the right ear, grazing the skull, and 
cutting ofif the veins, which bled profusely. A handkerchief was tied around 
it and I continued at my duty. Discovering some little time after that a 
British soldier had broken a picket at the bastion on my left, and was forcing 
himself through the hole, whilst the men stationed there were gazing at the 
battle which raged opposite to them, cried, "my brave fellows," the enemy 
are breaking in behind you," and raised my pike to despatch the intruder, 
when a ball struck my left arm at the elbow, and my pike fell to the ground. 



AN ERA OF UNREST 73 

Nevertheless I grasped it with my right hand, and with the men, who turned 
and fought manfully, cleared the breach. The enemy, however, soon after 
forced the S. \V. bastion, where Capt. Shapely, Capt. Peter Richards, Lieut. 
Richard Chapman and several other men of distinction, and volunteers, had 
fought with unconquerable courage, and were all either killed or mortally 
wounded, and which had sustained the brunt of every attack. Capt. P. Rich- 
ards, Lieut. Chapman and several others were killed in the bastion ; Capt. 
Shapely and others wounded. He died of his wounds in January following. 

Col. Ledyard, seeing the cnemj' within the fort, gave orders to cease 
firing, and to throw down our arms as the Fort had surrendered. We did 
so, but they continued firing upon us, crossed the fort and opened the gate, 
when they marched in, firing in platoons upon those who were retreating to 
the magazine and barrack rooms for safety. At this moment the renegade 
Colonel B. commanding, cried out, who commands this garrison? Col. Led- 
yard, who was standing near me, answered, "I did sir, but you do now," at 
the same time stepping forward, handed him his sword with the point towards 
himself. At this instant I perceived a soldier in the act of bayoneting me 
from behind. I turned suddenl}' round and grasped his bayonet, endeavoring 
to unship it, and knock off the thrust — but in vain. Having but one hand, 
he succeeded in forcing it into my right hip, above the joint, and just below 
the abdomen, and crushed me to the ground. The first person I saw after- 
wards was my brave commander, a corpse by my side, having been run 
through the body with his own sword by the savage renegade. Never was 
a scene of more brutal wanton carnage witnessed than now took place. The 
enemy were still firing upon us in platoons, and in the barrack rooms, which 
were continued for some minutes, when they discovered they were in danger 
of being blown up, by communicating fire to the powder scattered at the 
mouth of the magazine, while delivering our cartridges; nor did it then 
cease in the rooms for some minutes longer. All this time the bavonct was 
"freely used," even on those who were helplessly wounded and in the agonies 
of death. I recollect Capt. Wm. Seymour, a volunteer from Hartford, had 
13 bayonet wounds, although his knee had previously been shattered by a 
ball, so much so that it was obliged to be amputated the next day. But I 
need not mention particular cases. I have already said that we had 6 killed 
and 18 wounded previous to their storming our lines; 85 were killed in all, 35 
mortally and dangerously wounded, and 40 taken prisoners to New York, 
most of them slightly hurt. 

After the massacre, they plundered us of everything we had, and left 
us literally naked. When they commenced gathering us up together with 
their own wounded, they put theirs under the shade of the platform, and 
exposed us to the sun, in front of the barracks, where we remained over an 
hour. Those that could stand were then paraded, and ordered to the landing, 
while those that could not (of which number I was one) were put in one 
of our ammunition wagons, and taken to the brow of the hill (which was very 
steep, and at least 100 rods in descent), from whence it was permitted to run 
down by itself, but was arrested in its course, near the river, by an apple tree. 
The pain and anguish we all endured in this rapid descent, as the wagon 
jumped and jostled over rocks and holes is inconceivable; and the jar in its 
arrest was like bursting the cords of life asunder, and caused us to shriek 
with almost supernatural force. Our cries were distinctly heard and noticed 
on the opposite side of the river (which is a mile wide), amidst all the con- 
fusion which raged in burning and sacking the town. We remained in the 
wagon more than an hour, before our humane conquerers hunted us up, when 
we were again paraded and laid on the beach, preparatory to embarkation. 



74 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

But by the interposition of Ebenezer Ledyard (brother to Col. L.), who 
humanely represent our deplorable situation, and the impossibility of our 
bein^ able to reach New York, 35 of us were paroled in the usual form, beinjj 
near the house of Ebenezer Avery, who was also one of our number, we were 
taken into it. Here we had not long remained before a marauding party set 
fire to every room, evidently intending to burn us up with the house. The 
party soon left it, when it was with difficulty extinguished and we were thus 
saved from the flames. Ebenezer Ledyard again interfered and obtained a 
sentinel to remain and guard us until the last of the enemy embarked, about 
II o'clock at night. None of our own people came to us till near daylight the 
next morning, not knowing previous to that time that the enemy had departed. 

Such a night of distress and anguish was scarcely ever passed by mortal. 
Thirty-five of us were lying on the bare floor — stifT, mangled, and wounded 
in every manner, exhausted with pain, fatigue and loss of blood, without 
clothes or anything to cover us, trembling with cold and spasms of extreme 
anguish, without fire or light, parched with excruciating thirst, not a wound 
dressed nor a soul to administer to one of our wants, nor an assisting hand 
to turn us during these long tedious hours of the night; nothing but groans 
and unavailing sighs were heard, and two of our number did not live to see 
the light of the morning, which brought with it some ministering angels to 
our relief. The first was in the person of Miss Fanny Ledyard, of Southold, 
L. L, then on a visit to her uncle, our murdered commander, who held to my 
lips a cup of warm chocolate, and soon after returned with wine and other 
refreshments, which revived us a little. For these kindnesses she has never 
ceased to receive my most grateful thanks and fervent prayers for her felicity. 

The cruelty of our enemy cannot be conceived ; and our renegade country- 
men surpassed in this respect, if possible, our British foes. We were at least 
an hour after the battle, within a few steps of a pump in the garrison, well 
supplied with water, and, although we were suffering with thirst, they would 
not permit us to take one drop of it, nor give us any themselves. Some of 
our number, who were not disabled from going to the pump, were repulsed 
with the bayonet, and not one drop did I taste after the action commenced, 
although begging for it after I was wounded, of all who came near me, until 
relieved by Miss Ledvard. We were a horrible sight at this time. Our own 
friends did not know us — even my own wife came in the room in search of 
me, and did not recognize me, and as I did not see her, she left the room to 
seek for me among the slain, who had been collected under a large elm tree 
near the house. It was with the utmost difficulty that many of them could 
be identified, and we were frequently called upon to assist their friends in 
distinguishing them, by remembering particular wounds, &-c. Being myself 
taken out by two men for this purpose, I met my wife and brother, who, after 
my wounds were dressed by Dr. Downer, from Preston, took me — not to my 
own home, for that was in ashes, as also every article of my property, fur- 
niture and clothing — but to my brother's where I lay eleven months as help- 
less as a child, and to this day I feel the effects of it severely. 

Such was the battle of Groton Heights; and such, as far as my imperfect 
manner and language can describe, a part of the sufferings which we endured. 
Never, for a moment, have I regretted the share I had in it ; I would for an 
equal degree of honor, and the prosperity which has resulted to my country 
from the Revolution, be willing, if possible, to suffer it again. 

Stephen Hempstead. 
The following note in Allen's history of the "Battle of Groton Heights" 



AN ERA OF UNREST 75 

shows that even today there is considerable doubt as to just how Colonel 
Ledyard was killed. Mr. All}n's subscript to the note of Harris indicatec 
again the lack of conclusive evidence on this point : 

Since this transaction there has ever existed in the public mind great 
uncertainty as to who was the murderer of Colonel Ledyard, the odium being 
divided between Major Bromficld, who succeeded Major Montgomery in 
command of the British troops on that occasion, and Captain Beckwith, of 
the 54th regiment. No person who actually witnessed the deed survived the 
battle,* or if any did they left no account of it behind them; and therefore 
the version of the manner of Ledyard's death commonly received as the cor- 
rect one is but merely a conjecture, at the most. By this, the deed is ascribed 
to the officer who received Ledyard's surrender of the fort, supposed by the 
greater number to have been Major Bromfield ; others at the time, and for 
a long time subsequent, laid the infamous transaction to the charge of Captain 
Beckwith, supposing him to have been the officer who met Ledyard and 
demanded the surrender. 

Let us consider the matter a little, and see if we be able to reconcile the 
known facts and strong probabilities in the case, with this generally received 
opinion. Upon the entry of the British officer to the fort, and at his demand 
of who commanded it. Colonel Ledyard advanced to answer, "I did," etc., at 
the same time tendering him the hilt of his sword in token of submission. 
It is obvious that in this action Colonel Ledyard must have presented the 
front of his person to that officer. Now, had the latter, in taking the sur- 
rendered sword, instantly (as all accounts charge him with having done) 
plunged it into him, is it not also evident that it must have entered in front 
and passed out of the back of his person? The vest and shirt worn that day 
by Colonel Ledyard, preserved in the Wadsworth Athenaeum at Hartford, 
upon examination reveal two rough, jagged openings, one on either side, a 
little before and in a line with the lower edge of the arm-holes of the vest. 
The larger of these apertures is upon the left side; the difference in size 
between it and that on the right corresponds with the taper of a sabre blade 
from hilt to point, showing conclusively that the weapon entered from the 
left and passed out at the right, and that the person by whom the wound was 
inflicted must have stood upon the left side of the wearer when the plunge 
was made. These holes are marked : that on the left as "where the sword 
entered," and that on the right as "where the sword came out" — so marked, 
doubtless, by the person who presented these memorials to the society, a near 
relative of Colonel Ledyard, and who considered them as the marks of the 
fatal wound. These are the only marks visible upon the garment. It is a 
reasonable supposition that when the British officer entered and thundered 
his demand he carried his drawn sword in his right hand ; for we can scarcely 
imagine an officer rushing unarmed into a place of such danger and demand- 
ing a surrender. Now. in case he did so carry his sword, he must necessarily 

• Mr. Harris is in error here. I believe, as I myself have heard this action described 
by three people whose fathers saw the murder, and often told of it to their children 
(see notes on Andrew Gallup and Caleb Avery). This being the case, most of the 
ground for Mr. Harris's argument is taken away. The argument, though ingenious, is 
not conclusive, since no one can by reasoning be certain what positions would be 
taken in moments of such excitement. The most natural positions are those which 
agree with the popularly received account, as men of military experience and educa- 
tion, I think, will agree. — A. 



76 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

cither have sheathed, dropped, or changed it to his left hand, in order to 
receive Ledyard's with the right ; and this hardly seems possible. We must 
therefore suppose that he received it in his left hand; and if so, does it not 
appear as most unreasonable that, having a sword in either hand, he would 
have used that in his left with which to make the thrust? Yet he must have 
done so if it was by his own sword that Ledyard met his death. Neither does 
it appear possible that in the heat and excitement of the engagement, coolly 
calculating the chances, he would have passed around to the left of his victim 
for the purpose of making the wound more surely fatal — the only reason for 
which we can suppose it to have been done. 

We have seen from the position occupied by the parties that the wound, 
if inflicted instantly on the surrender of the sword, must have been given 
in front ; the marks in the vest conclusively prove it to have been given in the 
left side. We have seen the awkward position of the officer with his own 
sword in his right and Ledyard's in his left hand — a situation almost pre- 
cluding the idea of his making the stab with the latter. We have also seen 
that no person who witnessed it left any testimony regarding the affair, and 
that all the commonly received version of it is based upon is really but 
the surmises of a people wrought almost to desperation by their losses and 
wrongs, who in the first moments of exasperation would naturally attribute 
an act of such enormity to the commander as the representative of the enemy. 
Now, after considering all these facts and probabilities, is it not a more 
rational conclusion that the wound was given by a by-standing ofificer — a 
subaltern or aid, perhaps — than that it was inflicted by the officer to whom 
Ledj'ard offered his sword? It certainly so appears to us. But in case that, 
despite all these reasons for believing that officer innocent of the crime, he 
was really guiltv of the two to whom it has been charged, against but one 
is there any evidence to sustain the charge, and this is purely circumstantial. 
Captain Beckwith acted as aid to Lieutenant-Colonel Ayres on the dav of the 
battle, and was the officer sent to demand the surrender of the fort. He, with 
Lord Dalrymple, was sent by Arnold as bearer of despatches to Sir Henry 
Clinton, and in all probability furnished the account of the battle for Riving- 
ton's Gazette, which appeared in that paper before the remainder of the 
expedition had reached New York. In this account, in which the details of 
the conference regarding the surrender are given with a minuteness with 
which only an eye-witness could give them, personal malice toward Colonel 
Ledyard is a salient feature, which the most unobservant reader cannot fail 
to notice. The writer appears to have considered the flag and the officers 
bearing it insulted in the conference; and in his reference to the garrison, 
and to Colonel Ledyard in particular, he expresses himself in the most con- 
temptuous and bitter terms. 

If he was the officer to whom the surrender was made, it is possible that 
on beholding the man who he fancied had insulted him he allowed his rage 
to supplant his manhood, and. forgetting his military honor, plunged his 
sword into his vanquished enemy. From Miss Caulkins' "History of New 
London" we learn that he afterward passed through New York on his way 
to Barbadoes. While there he was charged by the newspapers of that city 
with the murder, which he indignantly denied. A correspondence was opened 
between him and a relative of Colonel Ledyard in reference to the question, 
when he produced documents which exculpated him. In view of this, how- 
ever, as between him and Major Bromfield. circumstantial evidence is strongly 
in favor of the latter, who doubtless could have furnished as full documentary 
proof of his innocence, had he been called upon for it. — H. 



AN ERA OF UNREST 

The population of New London county had grown by 1800 to about 
40,000, Stonington at that time being its largest town. Commerce was carried 
on extensively with the West Indies and with South America and Europe. 
The war between England and France was at that time a source of much 
profit to New England, but with the Embargo Act of 1807 the shipping 
interests of the county were hard hit. It is small wonder that the Federalists 
opposed Jefferson's policy. 

One wonders, of course, why New England, in spite of impressment of 
our seamen by the Mother Country and her renunciation of a well settled 
shipping rule, was so luke-warm in its animosity against her and so hostile 
to France. The reasons are three: In the first place, the French privateers 
of the West Indies and their depredations on New England commerce; sec- 
ondly, Jefferson was at the same time a French adherent, and author of a 
commercial policy the stupidest conceivable from our standpoint. He had 
called a halt in navy making and had forced on the country the embargo and 
non-intercourse acts. But the third reason was by far the most important, 
viz.: The feeling in every real New England man that Great Britain was 
fighting the battle of Christendom against Bonaparte. "Suppose England 
has changed her maritime rules," our fathers said, "let us in at the game, no 
matter what rule she makes. Give us seaway, and give us a port ahead — we 
will find our way in. Never mind the cruising frigates or the blockade, actual 
or on paper. If we are caught, ours the loss." 

The thought that, after all, Old England might not win hung like a cloud 
over every New England hamlet. Open the limp sheets of those old Con- 
necticut journals. Even in our actual fighting days from 1812 to 1815, clip- 
pings from the English papers that slipped in via Halifax were what people 
wanted most to read — not news of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. Wellington 
and Napoleon were the real figures on the world's stage. And our grand- 
fathers judged rightly. 

.Such were the feelings that gave birth to the Hartford Convention. Have 
we in Connecticut anything to apologize for in that gathering? If so, it 
doesn't appear in its journal— and Theodore Dwight was an honest man. 
Do we wish it had never met? If that page were taken from New England 
history, we should always miss something— a rare sample of her sober courage, 
her four-square view of things as they are. If other events— the treaty, and 
Jackson at New Orleans— had not come near at the time of its adjournment, 
its name would never have been spoken with a sneer or written with nullifica- 
tion in the context. 

But with the end of the war of 1812 came the dying out of the Federalist 
party and a new era for industrial New England. The New England of 
commercial prosperity soon took up manufacturing on a large scale. New 
London and Stonington still had their thriving fleets of merchantmen and 
whalers, concerning which we quote from an article by Miss Charlotte M. 
Holloway, in the "Connecticut Quarterly": 



78 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

The first ship fitted out from New London was the "Rising Sun," Squire, 
captain, 1784; but the voyage was not a long nor eventful one, and to the ship 
"Commerce," rather, which cleared from New London February 6, 1794, is 
due the honor of having been the pioneer of the New London whaling fishery, 
and the first to make for southern latitudes, and after a cruise of fifteen months 
it returned July 6, 1798, with a full cargo of oil. It would have been inter- 
esting to know more than the meagre record of the name of the captain. 
Ransom, but the "Commerce" after another voyage was put into the West 
Indian trade, and was lost of? Cape Henry, December 25, 1799. Gen. William 
Williams, of the Williams family noted for benefactions to the city, had also 
sent out the "Criterion," which was successful, but for some reason, though 
endeavor was made to form a comjjany in New London to prosecute whaling, 
the published call in "Green's Gazette" met with insufficient response, and 
the project languished till 1805, when Dr. Samuel H. P. Lee purchased the 
"Dauphin." built by Joseph Barber, at Pawkatuck Bridge, especially for whal- 
ing. Dr. Lee organized a whaling company, but it is not alone through 
service to her commerce that New London is debtor to this noble man, for 
in the terrible yellow fever epidemic of 1798 which decimated the population, 
he remained at his post working day and night to save life and stimulating 
others to heroism and endurance. Soon three ships were in commission — the 
"Daphne," "Leonidas" and "Lydia" — and their catches were sufficient to war- 
rant the company in continuing; but there came the deterrents of the Em- 
bargo and the War of 1812. So that the real birth of the whale fishing in 
New London can be dated from 1819, when Thomas W. Williams fitted out 
the "Mary" (Captain Davis), Daniel Dcshon and others the "Carrier," Doug- 
las, and the "Mary Ann," Inglis ; in 1820, the "Pizarro," Elias Coit ; 1821, the 
brig "Thames" and the ships "Commodore Perry" and "Stonington," the 
latter so large that it was made a stock enterprise, divided into shares of one 
thirty-second each. Both ships sailed the same year around the Horn, and 
after an absence of twenty-eight months brought back, the "Carrier" 2,100 
and the "Stonington" 1,550 barrels. By 1827 there were six ships fitted out 
by T. W. Williams, and N. and W. W. Billings had three — the "Commodore 
Perrv," which was the first copper-bottomed whaler sent from this port, and 
the "Superior" and the "Phoenix." The "Commodore Perry" made seventeen 
voyages and the "Stonington" thirteen before they were broken up in 1848. 
The "Neptune," which T. W. Williams bought in 1824, was built in 1808, and 
had returned from an unsuccessful voyage when it was purchased from its 
New Bedford owner for $1,650. After its addition to the New London fleet 
it made more than twenty voyages. It was in the "Neptune," 1829, that Capt. 
Samuel Green, the oldest living whaling captain in New London, made his 
first voyage. His last was in the "Trident," in 1871, and so frightful was his 
experience that he determined, should he escape, never again to risk his life 
in the fatal trap which had caught so many good men and ships. In Sep- 
tember the fleet of 34 vessels was gathered in a narrow strip from two hund- 
red yards to half a mile in width, from Point Belcher to two or three miles 
south of Wainright Inlet. The whaling had been fairly good, and despite the 
warnings of the Esquimaux, who told them the ice was closing in, they 
remained until the wind changed and the ice floes were driven upon them; 
the vessels were crushed, the crews abandoned them, glad to save their lives, 
and after untold hardships, from the 29th of .August to the 14th of September, 
when they abandoned the vessels, the devoted masters and crews started to 
reach the "Arctic" and another vessel which was free of the ice. 

From this firm and New London the first steam whaler was sent to the 
whaling grounds, and the first steam sealer. In the whaler "Pioneer," Capt. 



AN ERA OF UNREST 79 

Ebenezer Morgan, better known as '"Rattler" Morgan, was made the best 
whaling voyage on record; sailing June 4, 1864, for Hudson's Bay, she 
returned September 18, 1865, with 1,391 barrels of whale oil, and 22,650 
pounds of whalebone, a cargo worth $150,000, while the outlay for vessel 
and fitting was but $35,800. This was the best whaling voyage' ever made. 
The principle on which whaling was conducted was co-operative, the owners 
furnishing ship, outfit, and providing for the honoring of the captain's drafts; 
the captain was quite often a part or whole owner. Capital had two-thirds of 
the gain and the other third was divided proportionately among the officers 
and men. There being no wages settled, every incentive was furnished for 
diligence, and somtimes a bonus was offered to the first man who sighted a 
whale. There were very many daring and successful whalers from New 
London ; indeed, the solid comfort and foundation of many of her homes came 
from the splendid fortitude and perseverance of these heroes of the sea. There 
were no more brave and successful captains than the three brothers Smith — 
Capt. Robert Smith, who was killed on his sixth voyage, in 1828, while captur- 
ing a whale; Capt. Frank Smith, in seven successive voyages, in 1831-37, 
brought home 17,301 barrels of oil; and Capt. James Smith, the third brother, 
made fame and fortune, but left whaling for commander of a packet between 
Honolulu and San Francisco. Capt. "Jim" Smith, of the "Manhansett," who 
is really known wherever a college boy goes for his skill and urbanity, is the) 
youngest ex-whaler in New London. The names of Morgan, Smith, Blyden- 
iDurgh. Davis, Chapell, Green, Ward, Tinker, Buddington, Hempstead, Baker, 
Brown. Allyn, Spicer, Fuller, Rice, Benjamin, Tyson, Pendleton, Fish, and 
others are sure to be thought of when whaling is mentioned. Today there 
is very little done, save for the obtaining of whalebone, and whaling is 
practically a past industry as far as New London is concerned. 

The water power of the county soon began to turn the wheels of cotton 
mills. The race of merchants still continued to thrive, but the cotton industry 
added to population more rapidly. In 1840 Norwich was the largest town of 
the county. During the early part of the nineteenth century many a man left 
the county to engage in foreign trade and return with his "pile." 

In the interesting life of Daniel Wadsworth Coit, edited by his nephew, 
Mr. William C. Oilman, may be found a very interesting proof that the Pil- 
grim blood still ran in the veins of their descendants. The indenture, signed 
and sealed by all the parties to it, bound his employers to teach him "the 
trade, art, and mystery of a merchant" ; he on his part, and his father for him, 
agreeing that "he shalf of his own free will and accord his master faithfully 
serve, his secrets keep, and his lawful commands everywhere readily obey; 
shall not contract matrimony; shall refrain from vice, and from business on 
his owm account; and in all things shall behave himself as a faithful apprentice 
ought to do during his term of service." His only compensation was to be 
his board and washing. The theory was that the employer stood in the place 
of a parent to the apprentice, was interested in his welfare, gave him special 
opportunities for advancement and improvement, with a commercial educa- 
tion that was a full equivalent for his services. By this system, now almost 
obsolete, except as it may be suggested by the youthful experience of Admiral 
Sir Joseph Porter in "Pinafore," he received a training that was invaluable 
in the important and complicated transactions in which he was concerned in 



8o NEW LONDON COUNTY 

later years. The art of writing a faultless business letter, acquired early in 
life, was an accomplishment not to be despised, in which he excelled. 

The particular duties of the youngest clerk, as he describes them, were 
"to open the store at an early hour, to sweep and dust the floors, to make fires 
throughout the winter, and not infrequently to roll empty hogsheads and 
barrels through the streets for packing, and to shoulder and carry goods from 
one part of the city to another." If the hours were no more than sixty minutes 
long there were more working hours in twenty-four than there are now, and 
that work was often carried well into the night, appears by letters to his 
parents, written when he was "so sleepy he could hardly keep his eyes open." 
His career is embodied to some degree in the "Notes of Daniel Wadsworth 
Coit," as follows: 

1787 — November 29. Born, Norwich, Conn. 

1803 — Apprenticed to merchants in New York. 

1808 — Began business on his own account. 

1818— September 27. Sailed from New York for Peru. 

1819 — January 14. Arrived at Lima. 

1820 — April. Sailed from Guayaquil for Gibraltar. 

1820 — September 27. Arrived at Gibraltar. 

1820-22 — Traveled in Spain, France, and England. 

1822— June. Sailed from London for South America. 

1822 — October. Arrived at Buenos Ayres. 

1822— December. Crossed the Andes to Valparaiso. 

1823 — December. Arrived at Lima. 

1828 — June. Sailed from Lima for New York. 

1829 — May. Sailed from New York for England. 

1829-32 — Traveled in Europe. 

1832 — June. Returned to Norwich. 

1833 — October. Visited Grand Rapids. 

1834 — September i. Married Harriet Frances Coit. 

1834-41 — Lived in New York and New Rochelle. 

1841-47 — Lived in Norwich. 

1848 — January. To Mexico for Howland and Aspinwall. 

1849 — March. From Mexico to San Francisco. 

1849-52 — In business in San Francisco. 

i8s2 — Tune. Returned to his home in Norwich. 

1876— July 18. Died. Norwich. 

From the above it can be seen that he left home in 1818 to be gone ten 
years! That he left again in 1829 to be gone three years; traveled; lived in 
Norwich, 1841-1847; left home for four years, and returned to remain twenty- 
four years, dying at the age of eighty-nine ! 




CHAPTER IV 
LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT NEW LONDON COUNTY 

The Beginnings of Railroads and Telegraphs — Old-Time School Reminiscences — Celeb- 
rities in All Walks of Life. 

The history of New London County in education has been touched upon. 
Its history in banking, in the professions, in public improvements, in religious 
affairs, in industrial development, and in various other aspects of community 
life, will be discussed in special articles. It is fair to say that the county has 
been progressive in its activities. 

As early as 1800 was built the turnpike between Norwich and New 
London, "the first turnpike built in the United States," states Dr. Dwight in 
his "Travels." Adams Express Company was started as an enterprise in 
Norwich and New London. Regular steamship connection with New York 
started as early as 1816. The tunnel on the Norwich & Worcester railroad, 
just outside of Norwich, is the first railroad tunnel constructed in the United 
States. The Norwich & Worcester railroad was one of the earliest in the 
country. As early as 1847 a telegraph company was started by citizens of 
New London and Norwch. The railroad from New London to New Haven 
(1849-52) completed the first railroad connection between Boston and New 
York. The New London, Willimantic & Springfield railroad was built 
by 1850. In whaling and seal fisheries the hardy navigators of New London 
and Stonington were pioneers in southern waters. The Rogers Brothers were 
captain and sailing master of the "Savannah," the first steamship to cross the 
ocean. The abundant water power of the county gave it an early start in 
manufacturing, especially in the paper and cotton industries. The two largest 
steamships ever built in America, "The Minnesota" and "The Dakota," each 
of 3.300 tons, were built in Groton. 

In the Civil War the county was the home of the Connecticut War Gov- 
ernor, and sent far more men than its quota. In the period of reconstruction 
after the war. New London county throve in wealth and population. To 
recount the new enterprises started, the patents granted to men of the county, 
the public improvements made, would be beyond the scope of this outline 
history of the county. Suf^fice it to say that by 1910 the population had 
increased to 91,253. 

The effects of steam transportation by land and sea were soon felt in 
the prosperity of the county. Before 1850, the Norwich & Worcester, the 
New London Northern, the New York, Providence & Boston railroad, the 
Shore Line, had been chartered, and regular steamboat service established 
with New York. The age of steam brought prosperity and increasing popu- 
lation. The census of i860 shows a population of over 60,000 in the county. 
Schools had been built generally, college training had become not unusual, 
the press had developed. New London county still continued to furnish men 



82 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

of influence in the nation. Before 1850 the county had sent eight men to be 
governors of Connecticut, five men to be chief justices of the Supreme Court 
of the State, and three United States Senators, and twelve members of Con- 
gress. From the old home had gone forth men who made their mark in 
other parts of the Union. 

What life was at that time may be seen by a letter sent to Norwich by 
Donald G. Mitchell, "Ik Marvel," called "Looking Back at Boyhood": 

I pity those young folks who pass their early years without having any 
home knowledge of gardens or orchards. City schools and city pavements 
are all very well ; but I think if my childish feet had not known of every-day 
trampings through garden alleys or on wood walks, and of climbings in 
hay-lofts or among apple boughs when fruit began to turn, half of the joys 
of boyhood, as I look back at them, would be plucked away. 

So it happens, that when I am asked for some reminiscences of those 
early days, gone for sixty years or more, the great trees that sheltered my 
first home stir their branches again. Again I see the showers of dancing 
petals from the May bloom of apple or peach trees strewing the grass, or the 
brown garden mold, with a little of that old exultation of feeling which is 
almost as good as a prayer — in way of thanksgiving. 

I think I could find my way now through all the involvements of new 
buildings and new plantings on ground that I have not visited for fifty years, 
to the spot where the blood peach grew, and where the mulberry stood and 
the greengage loaded with fruit in its harvest time, and the delightful white- 
blooming crab, lifting its odors into the near window of the "boys' room." 

Then there was a curiouslj' misshapen apple tree in the far orchard, 
with trunk almost prone upon the ground, as if Providence had designed it 
for children to clamber upon. What a tree it was to climb ! There many a 
time we toddlers used to sit, pondering on our future, when the young robins 
in the nest overhead would be fully fledged, catching glimpses, too, before 
yet leaves were fully out, of the brown hermitage or study upon the near 
wooded hillside, where my father, who was a clergyman, wrought at his 
sermons. 

It is only a dim image of him that I can conjure up as he strode at 
noontime down the hill. Catching up the youngest of us with a joyous, 
proud laugh, he led the toddling party — the nurse bringing up the rear — in 
a rollicking procession homeward. 

A more distinct yet less home-like image of this clergyman I have in 
mind as he leaned over the pulpit of a Sunday, with a solemnity of manner 
that put one in awe, and with an earnestness of speech that made the Bible 
stories he expounded seem very real. 

But the sermons of those davs were very long for children. It must 
have been, usually, before the middle of the discourse that I went foraging 
about the square pew, visiting an aunt who almost always had peppermints 
in her bag. or in lack of this diversion I could toy with the foot-stove under 
my mother's gown, or build fortifications with the hymn-books. 

The "lesser" Westminster Catechism also, with which we had wrestlings, 
was somewhat heavy and intellectually remote. But it was pleasantly tem- 
pered by the play of the parlor fire, or the benignly approving smiles when 
answerings were prompt. In summer weather the song of a cat-bird or 
brown-thrasher in the near tulip-tree chased away all the tedium of the West-' 
minster divines, or perhaps lifted it into a celestial atmosphere. 

The Bible stories, though, as they tripped from my mother's tongue, were 



LITTLE KNOWX FACTS 83 

always delightful. I thought then, and still think — at sixty-nine! — that her 
ways of religious teaching were by many odds better than that of the West- 
minster divines. And there were some of her readings from the hymn-book 
that tingle in my ears today. 

That compulsory Bible-reading, chapter after chapter, and day by day, 
so common in well-regulated families of those times, has for me a good many 
ungrateful memories. Wrathful, unwholesome burnings were kindled by this 
enforced rote reading of a book wherefrom gladsome and hopeful spfendors 
ought to shine. 

Of other earliest reading I remember with distinctness that great budget 
of travel and adventure, good for week-days or Sunday, called "The Pilgrim's 
Progress." Mercy, and Great-heart, and Christian, and Giant Despair, too. 
were of our family. Nor can I cease to call to mind gratefullv the good 
woman (Maria Edgeworth) who in the earliest days of our listening to 
stories made us acquainted with the "Basket-maker's" children who scotched 
the carriage wheels, and with "Lazy Lawrence" and "Eton Montem." 

At what precise age I went to my first school I cannot say. It may have 
been five or six. A roundabout blue jacket with bell buttons I know I had, 
and a proud tramp past the neighbors' houses. 

The mistress was an excellent woman, everybody said, with a red ruler 
and discipline, and spectacles. A tap from her spectacle-case was a sum- 
mons every morning to listen to her reading, in quiet monotone, of a chapter 
in the Bible; after which, in the same murmurous way, she said a prayer. 

She taught arithmetic out of Colburn, I think, and Woodbridge's Geog- 
raphy to the older ones ; but her prime force was lavished upon spelling. We 
had field-days in that, for which we were marshalled by companies, toeing 
a crack in the oaken floor. What an admiring gaze I lifted up upon the 
tall fellows who went with a wondrous glibness through the intricacies of 
such words as "im-prac-ti-ca-bil-i-ty" ! 

The mistress had her own curious methods of punishment ; and I dimly 
remember how an obstreperous boy was once shut under the lid of the big 
writing-desk — not for very long, I suspect. But the recollection of it, and 
of his sharp wail of protest, gave a very lively emphasis to my reading, years 
after, of Roger's story of the Italian bride Ginevra who closed the lid of a 
Venetian chest upon herself in some remote loft where her skeleton, and 
her yellowed laces, were found years afterwards by accident. 

Another of the mistress's methods of subduing masculine revolt was in 
tying a girl's bonnet upon a boy's head. I have a lingering sense now of 
some such early chastisement, and of the wearisome pasteboard stiffness, and 
odors of the bonnet ! 

Of associates on those school benches. I remember with most distinctness 
a tallish boy, my senior by two years or so, who befriended me in many 
skirmishes, decoyed me often into his leafy dooryard. half-way to my home, 
where luscious cherries grew, and by a hundred kindly offices during many 
succeeding years cemented a friendship of which I have been always proud. 
A photograph of his emaciated, but noble face, as he lay upon his death- 
bed in Paris, is before me as I write. 

Another first school which I knew as privileged pupil — not esteeming the 
privilege largely — was in the old town of Wethersfield, where I went on 
visits to my grandfather. I remember his great shock of snowy white hair, 
and how he was bowed with age. He wore most times long gray hose, with 
knee buckles, and a huge coat like those in Franklin pictures, whose pockets 
were often bulged out with a biscuit or an ear of corn. With these he loved 
to pamper his white pony, or other favorite beast. 



84 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

The school to which the old gentleman introduced me solemnly was near 
by, and of the Lancastrian order. Mr. Joseph Lancaster had come over 
from England not many years before to indoctrinate America. 

There was great drill of limbs and voices ; but what specially impressed me 
was a long tray or trough of moistened sand, where we were taught to print 
letters. I think I came there to a trick of making printed letters which was 
never lost. 

There was a quiet dignity about Wethersfield streets in that day. There 
were great quiet houses before which mighty trees grew — houses of the 
Welles, of the Chesters, of the Webbs — in some of which Washington had 
lodged in his comings or goings. 

It was through that quiet Wethersfield street, and by way of the "Stage" 
office at Slocomb's Hotel in Hartford, that I must have traveled first to Judge 
Hall's Ellington school. There for six ensuing years, off and on, I wrestled 
with arithmetic and declamation, and Latin and Greek. It was a huge build- 
ing — every vestige gone now — upon a gentle eminence overlooking a peace- 
ful valley town. I am sure some glimpses of the life there must have found 
their way into some little books which I have had the temerity to publish. 

The principal, a kindly, dignified old gentleman, lived apart, in a house 
amongst gardens and orchards ; but the superintendent, the English master, 
the matron and the monitors, were all housed with us, and looked sharply 
after discipline. 

When I hear boys of near kith complaining of the hardships they endure, 
I love to set before them a picture of the cold chambers opening upon the 
corridors in that huge building. 

We dressed there by the dim light coming through ventilators over the 
doors, from lamps swinging in the hall. After this it was needful to take a 
swift rush out of doors, in all weathers, for a plunge into the washroom door, 
where we made our ablutions. Another outside rush followed for the doors 
opening upon the dining-hall, where morning prayers were said. Then an 
hour of study in a room reeking with the fumes of whale-oil lamps went 
before the summons to breakfast. 

There were two schoolrooms. The larger was always presided over by 
a teacher who was nothing if not watchful. The smaller was allotted to a 
higher range of boys, and here the superintendent appeared at intervals to 
hear recititations. 

I shall never forget the pride and joy with which I heard the superin- 
tendent — I think it was Judge Taft, thereafter Attorney General, and Minister 
to Russia-^announce, once upon a time, my promotion to the south school- 
room. Frank Blair, the general of Chickamauga, was a bench-mate with 
me there. Once upon a "composition" day we were pitted against each other ; 
but who won the better marks I really cannot say. 

Teacher Taft was an athlete. He could whip with enormous vigor (some 
boys said), but I have onlv the kindest recollections of him. I used to look 
on with amazed gratification as he lifted six "fifty-sixes," strung upon a 
pole, in the little grocery shop past which we walked on our way to swim 
in Snipsic Lake. 

What a beautiful sheet of water it was in those days ! Its old shores are 
now all submerged and blotted out by manufacturers' dams. What a joyous, 
rollicking progress we made homeward, of a Saturday afternoon, with the 
cupola and the great bulk of building lifting in our front against the west- 
ern sky! 

The strong point of the teaching at Ellington was, I think, Latin. I am 
certain that before half my time there was up, I could repeat all the rules 
in Adams' Latin Grammar verbatim, backward or for^vard. 



LITTLE KNOWN FACTS 85 

As for longs and shorts and results and quantities and the makeup of 
a proper hexameter, these were driven into my brain and riveted. Even 
now I am dimly conscious on uneasy nights, of the Quadrupcdante putretn 
sonitu making its way through my dreams with the old schoolboy gallop. 

I could stretch this screed farther, but the types forbid. The home, with 
a glimpse of which I began the paper, had been broken up a long time before 
the high school experience came to an end. Later, in the spring of 1837, the 
shattered, invalid remnant of its flock was sailing homeward from a winter 
in Santa Cruz. In July of the same year I set off from Ellington, by the 
"Hartford, Ware and Keene Dispatch Line" of stages, seated beside the 
driver, with twenty dollars in my pocket and my trunk on the roof of the 
coach, to enter Yale College. 

The military history of the county will be given elsewhere. The great 
"war governor," William A. Buckingham, was a resident of Norwich, born 
at Lebanon. 

Since Civil War days, the county has grown in population to over 155,000 
in 1920. The remarkable feature in the growth of population of the country 
for the past fifty years has been the influx of foreign born. This county, 
like the rest of New England, has been engaged in absorbing a mixed foreign 
population into the institutions with which they are unfamiliar. The great 
instrument for doing this has been the public school system, which will be 
treated of in a special chapter on education. 

The county history is very rich in biography. Sketches of the lives of 
many famous individuals are inserted hereinafter. The list is by no means 
exhaustive, for it is safe to say that no equal area and population in our 
country is richer in ties of relationship with the makers of American history. 

Alexander Von Humboldt once wrote that, "judged by the number of 
centenarians," a semicircular region with New London as its center and a 
radius of fifteen miles was "the most healthful spot on the globe." 

The first railroad tunnel in America was made in this county. 

From New London county have come ancestors of at least six Presidents: 
Fillmore, Grant, Garfield, Hayes, Cleveland, and Harding. 

The father of Oliver Perry, of Lake Erie fame, and of Matthew Perry, 
who made the historic voyage opening up Japan to western civilization, kept 
a store in Norwich. 

The two largest vessels ever built in America, the "Minnesota" and 
"Dakota," said to be each of 3,300 tons burden, were built at Groton. 

Dartmouth College was founded in what was then Lebanon, now the 
town of Columbia, in Windham county. 

The oldest burial ground in the county is in New London, dating 
from 1653. 

Wolves were once so abundant in the county that the early settlers 
paid a bounty of twenty shillings for each one killed. 

The commerce of New London was at one time excelled by only two 
ports in the country — Boston and New York. 

The Shaw mansion in New London was constructed by Acadians driven 



86 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

from home at the time described by Longfellow in "Evangeline." 

The first Naval Expedition sent out by the Continental Congress left 
New London in January, 1776. 

The "Savannah," officered by the Rogers Brothers of New London, was 
the first vessel to "steam" across the Atlantic. 

Silas Deane, who was appointed one of the Peace Commission at the 
end of the Revolutionary War, came from Preston. 

In early days in this county, as elsewhere, churches were often founded 
by lotteries, and the expenses of installing clergymen frequently included a 
considerable item for "liquor." 

Stephen Whitney, one of the promoters of the Great Pacific railway, 
came from this county, as did President Tuttle, of the Boston & Maine rail- 
road. 

Andrew Jackson visited Norwich at the dedication of the Un-cas Monu- 
ment. He pronounced the parade one of the longest he had seen in a place 
of the size (the boys circled around behind him and rejoined the procession 
in a well nigh endless chain). 

The two leading men of the colony of Connecticut, John Winthrop, the 
younger, and John Mason, were long residents of this county. 

This county contains two of the five oldest cities in the State, and is one 
of the four original counties in Connecticut. 

In 1799 New London was almost depopulated by yellow fever. 

Three citizens of Norwich have given to Yale College the largest dona- 
tions which, at each successive time, its treasury had received from any indi- 
vidual. These men were Major James Fitch, Dr. Daniel Lathrop, and Dr. 
Alfred E. Perkins. 

Norwich has an unpleasant distinction in one instance in being the 
birthplace of Benedict Arnold. There is nothing to be added. 

Avery Waitstill, a native of Groton, removed to North Carolina, where 
in 1775 he became a member of the Mecklenburg Convention, and as such 
was one of the signers of the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. 

James Cook Ayer, the father of the "patent medicine" business, was born 
in Groton. He established a medicine factory in Lowell, and accumulated a 
fortune estimated at $20,000,000. For years he published and distributed free 
five million copies of "Ayer's Almanac," largely devoted to advertising his 
goods. For some years before his death, he was confined in an asylum, his 
brain having become affected. 

Isaac Backus, a Baptist minister, was born in Norwich, 1724. He led in 
the "Separatist" movement, for years held to open communion, but at length 
abandoned it. He was a voluminous writer on historical as well as religious 
subjects. For thirty-four years he was a trustee of Rhode Island College, 
now Brown University. 

Anna Warner Bailey, born in Groton, 1758, and died there in 1850, wife 
of Captain Elijah Bailey, of that place, witnessed the massacre by the British 



LITTLE KNOWN FACTS 87 

at Fort Griswold, September 6. 1781. The next clay she visited the spot, 
searching for an uncle, whom she found fatally wounded, and to whom she 
brought his wife and child. When the British were threatening New London 
in July, 1813, "Mother Bailey," as she was known, aided the patriots by 
tearing up garments for cartridge making. 

Edward Sheffield Bartholomew, born in Colchester, 1822, died in Italy, 
1858, a sculptor of great ability, performed his work in Rome during his 
later years. Many of his productions are in the Wadsworth Gallery, Hartford. 

Dr. Timothy Dwight, twelfth president of Yale College, was a native 
of Norwich, son of James Dwight, and grandson of Timothy Dwight, the 
third president of the institution. It was under the presidency of him whose 
name heads this paragraph, that the college received the legal title of Uni- 
versity. President Dwight was highly successful in extending the curriculum 
of the institution, and in advancing its material interests. He was a member 
of the American committee for the revision of the English version of the 
Bible from 1872 to its completion in 1885. He was the author of several 
volumes, notably one on "The True Ideal of an American University," which 
appeared serially in 1871-72 in "The New Englander," of which he was then 
editor, and which had much to do in efTecting the transition of Yale from a 
collegiate to a university status. 

Daniel Coit Oilman, first president of Johns Hopkins University, was 
born in Norwich, July 6, 1831. 

Frederick Stuart Church, famous as a painter and etcher, was a resi- 
dent here. 

Jedidiah Huntington, soldier of the Revolution and one of the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence, was born in Norwich, August 4, 1743, and 
died in New London, September 25, 1818. Jabez Huntington, his father, was 
a wealthy merchant and a patriot leader; he served three years in the Revo- 
lutionary army, and only leaving it on account of failing health. The son, a 
Harvard graduate, entered the army as a captain in April, 1775, two years 
later was made a brigadier-general, and served in New York and Pennsylvania 
until the close of the war, and was breveted major-general. He was a mem- 
ber of two courts-martial — that which tried General Charles Lee, and that 
which convicted Major Andre. He was sheriff of New London county, State 
treasurer of Connecticut, and collector of customs at New London. He was 
one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati, and a man of deep piety 
and charitable disposition. 

The famous explorer, John Led\ard, was a native of Groton, born in 
1751, son of John and Mary (Hempstead) Ledyard, his father a ship captain. 
Young Ledyard w-as a mere child when his father died, and he was brought 
up in the home of his grandfather. At the age of eighteen, his benefactor 
having died, Ledyard entered Dartmouth College as a divinity student, with 
a desire to fit himself for missionary work among the Indians, to whom he 
was so drawn that he soon abandoned his studies and made his abode among 
them. This was the beginning of his venturesome career. Making a canoe 



88 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

voyage down the Connecticut river to Hartford, he went on to New London, 
where he shipped as a common sailor in a vessel bound for Gibraltar. There 
he enlisted in the British army, and after his discharge therefrom voyaged 
to the West Indies and thence to New York and London. In the latter place 
he fell in company with Captain Cook, who was preparing for his third and 
what was destined to be his last great voyage. The two were mutually 
pleased with each other, and the younger man became the commander's most 
trusted lieutenant, and was by his side when Captain Cook was killed on 
one of the Hawaiian Islands, February 14, 1779. Returning with the expedi- 
tion to England by way of Kamtchatka, the British authorities in accordance 
with its naval rules took from Ledyard his notes of the expedition. For two 
years Ledyard remained in the British navy, leaving it at the outbreak of the 
Revolution rather than do battle against his countrymen. In 1784 he con- 
ceived an idea of fitting out an expedition to explore the northwestern Amer- 
ican coast, and visited Spain and France in hopes of securing necessary means, 
but without success. Finally, at London, he found friendly scientists who 
furthered his purpose, and he voyaged to Finland and thence to St. Peters- 
burg, where he started for Siberia, but under suspicion of being a spy was 
harried out of Russia into Poland. Returning to London, an expedition was 
outfitted for him to explore the interior of Africa, and he sailed in June, 1788, 
but at Cairo sickened and died, January 17, 1789. His notes of travel were 
of value, and to this day his narrative of Captain Cook's voyage is famed for 
its vividness and brilliance. He was a nephew of William Ledyard, who was 
brutally murdered by the Tory Major Bromficld, at Fort Griswold, Groton 
Heights, Connecticut, after its surrender, in 1781. 

Isaac H. Bromley, whom Chauncey M. Depew spoke of as "a most con- 
scientious journalist, and with whom no personal relations interfered with 
what he felt was a public duty," was born at Norwich, March 6, 1833, and 
died there, August 11, 1898; his parents were Isaac and Mary (Hill) Bromley. 
He was also married in Norwich, to Adelaide, daughter of Jabez and Clarissa 
T. Roath. He was admitted to the bar, but journalism claimed the greater 
part of his life work. During the Civil War he was a captain in the i8th 
Connecticut Regiment. In 1858 he established the Norwich "Morning Bulle- 
tin," and conducted it until 1868, when he left it to become editor and part 
owner of the Hartford "Evening Post." After leaving the paper last named 
he served in turn on the editorial staff of the New York "Sun" and "Tribune," 
and after ten years on the latter paper became editor of the "Commercial 
Advertiser," a position which he relinquished to accept appointment as a 
government director of the Union Pacific railroad, serving as such until 1884, 
when he took the editorial management of the Rochester "Post-Express." In 
October, 1891, he returned to the New York "Tribune," with which he was 
associated until a few months before his death. He was one of the organizing 
members of Sedgwick Post, G. A. R., of Norwich. 

Charles Harold Davis, one of America's foremost landscape painters, a 
native of Massachusetts, following ten years' professional studies in France 



LITTLE KNOWN FACTS 89 

and other art centers, for five years resided continually at Mystic, winter as 
well as summer, painting directly from nature. His fame is world-wide. 

Samson Occum is a name famous in association with what became Dart- 
mouth College. He was a Mohegan Indian living in New London county, 
who was converted and educated by Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of the 
above named institution. Occum came to fame as a preacher, and was a 
valuable aid to his instructor in his educational work and in laying the founda- 
tions of schools and academies. In 1766 Occum and Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, 
of Norwich, visited Great Britain and raised nearly £12,000 (a large sum in 
those days) for these purposes. 

Rev. Lyman Abbott, famous as divine and author, and especially as an 
exponent of the so-called liberal theology, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 
was fitted for college in Norwich. 

Bela Lyon Pratt, the well-known sculptor, was a native of Norwich, a 
son of George and Sarah Victoria (Whittlesey) Pratt, his father one of the 
most accomplished lawyers in Connecticut. Young Pratt began drawing and 
modeling at home while but a child, and received his technical training in the 
School of Fine Arts of Yale University, in the Art Students' League of New 
York City under St. Gaudens, and in Paris under Chapin and Falguiere, 
finally entering the Ecole des Beaux Arts at the head of his class and winning 
three medals and two prizes. He was soon afterward made instructor in 
modeling in the Muesum of Fine Arts, Boston. Among his many fine works 
are some of great local interest — the Avery bust, "the Puritan," at Groton, 
and the bronze statue of John Winthrop at New London. 

Christopher R. Perry, who served with credit in both the American army 
and navy during the Revolution, was for a time a resident of Norwich, where 
he conducted a store. Two of his sons are among the most conspicuous 
figures of their day — Oliver Hazard Perry, the "Don't give up the ship" hero 
of Lake Erie during the war with Great Britain in 1812-14; and Matthew 
Galbraith Perry, who crowned a notable naval career with the opening up 
of Japan *to the commerce of the world. 

The brilliant Commodore Stephen Decatur, of Tripoli fame, and captor 
of the British frigate "Macedonian," was for a long period during the war of 
1812-14 an enforced sojourner in the Thames river, the mouth of which was 
blockaded by a squadron of the enemy. His fall in the duel with Commodore 
Barron is one of the pitiful tragedies of our naval history. 

Henry Ward Beecher was a frequent visitor to our county, and scenes 
and reminiscences of Norwich figure throughout his famous "Star Papers." 
Lebanon was the home of the famous Trumbull family, which had as 
one of its most distinguished representatives Colonel John Trumbull, of 
Revolutionary fame, but more famous as the historical painter of that stupen- 
dous period, most of which are in the Art Gallery at Yale University. 

Dr. William Thompson Lusk, one of the world's greatest physicians, 
and a distinguished professional instructor and author, was born in Norwich, 
May 23, 1838, and died June 12, 1897, son of Sylvester Graham and Elizabeth 



90 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Freeman (Adams) Lusk. His father was a well-known merchant, senior 
member of the Norwich firm of Lusk, Lathrop & Co. The son received his 
elementary education in the city of his birth, but on account of an eye 
affection was obliged to leave college in his freshman year. Going to Switzer- 
land for treatment, and experiencing benefit, he studied medicine in Heidel- 
berg and Berlin. Returning home he entered the army shortly after the 
outbreak of the Civil War, and served about two years, rising to a captaincy. 
At Bull Run, under fire, he carried his wounded captain from the field. He 
completed his professional studies at Bellevue Medical College, New York 
City, and graduated valedictorian of his class. He then pursued post-graduate 
studies in Edinburgh, Paris, Vienna and Prague. On his return home he 
engaged in practice in Bridgeport, Connecticut, later locating in New York 
City, where he held first rank as an operator and instructor. He was the 
first in America to successfully perform the Caesarian section, which he re- 
peated on several occasions with a very small percentage of mortality. He 
was a prolific professional writer, and one of his principal works, "Science and 
Art of Midwifery," was translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic and 
other languages. 

The village of Lyme was the birthplace of the distinguished lawyer and 
jurist, Morrison R. Waite. who succeeded Salmon P. Chase as Chief Justice 
of the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President Grant. 

Governor William Alfred Buckingham, famous as one of the "War Gov- 
ernors" of the Civil War period, and one of the most trusted of President 
Lincoln's supporters, was born May 28, 1804, in Lebanon, New London 
county. He was educated in the local schools and at Bacon Academy, Col- 
chester. He taught school for a time, afterward serving as clerk in a store 
in Norwich. After similar service for a short time in New York City, he 
returned to Norwich, and established a drygoods business, afterward becom- 
ing a large and successful manufacturer of ingrain carpets, and then of rubber 
shoes. He was mayor of the city for four terms ; and in 1858 was elected 
governor, to which office he was returned for eight consecutive terms. At 
the opening if the Civil War, he was the first governor to send to the front 
a completely equipped regiment, pledging his personal credit to cover the 
expense until the legislature could be assembled. The successive quotas of 
troops were always more than filled, and under his leadership the State 
contributed to the army and navy almost one-half of her able-bodied popu- 
lation. President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton held him in the 
highest esteem. The war having ended. Governor Buckingham declined 
further service as such, and was elected to the United States Senate, in which 
he served with conspicuous ability until his death, February 5, 1875, a short 
time before the end of his senatorial term. He was one of the founders of the 
Broadway Congregational Church of Norwich and of the Norwich Free 
Academy, and was devoted to religious and charitable work. His home in 
Norwich was purchased by Sedgwick Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
and is known as the Buckingham Memorial. 



LITTLE KNOWN FACTS 91 

Donald Grant Mitchell, who as "Ik Marvel" gave untold delight to readers 
of a generation now well nigh passed away, with his "Dream Life" and 
"Reveries of a Bachelor," was a native of Norwich, born April 12, 1822, son 
of Pastor Mitchell, of the Second Congregational Church in Norwich, and 
grandson of the distinguished Judge Stephen M. Mitchell, of Western Re- 
serve fame. After graduating from Yale, finding his health somewhat im- 
paired, he passed three years on the farm of his grandfather, in Salem, where 
he undoubtedly received impressions of rural beauties and pleasures which 
he later pictured so beautifully in his writings. He traveled on foot in Eng- 
land for more than a year, and out of his observations wrote his "Fresh 
Gleanings; a New Sheaf from Old Fields." Meantime he had taken up law 
studies, but unable to bear office confinement, made another voyage to Europe, 
and was in Paris during the revolution of 1848. Returning home, he engaged 
in literary work, as founder and editor of "The Lorgnette," a weekly; and 
then producing in turn the two volumes entitled above, and for which he is 
most famous. In 1854 President Pierce appointed him Consul to Venice, 
and where he collected material of which he made good use in volumes and 
magazine contributions written later. His earlier works were published under 
his nom de plume of "Ik Marvel," but when he came to "My Farm of Edge- 
wood" and "Rural Studies," and others, he assumed his proper name. All his 
writings were characterized by tender yet manly sentiment, and his descrip- 
tions of rural life were enlightening and* inspiring. 

The name of Oliver Wendell Holmes awakens a pathetic interest in con- 
nection with that of Abraham Lincoln. About the time that gem of American 
literature. Dr. Holmes' "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," was appearing 
serially in "The Atlantic Monthly," then in its second year, the delightful 
essayist and poet wrote "The Last Leaf." one stanza of which appealed so 
deeply to the martyred President that he frequently repeated it: 

"The mossy marbles rest 
On the lips that he has pressed 

In their bloom; 
And the names he loved to hear 
Have been caned for many a year 
On their tomb." 

Dr. Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and finished his 
literary education at Harvard. His grandfather, a resident of Woodstock, 
wrote as follows in his diary under date of August 4, 1803, as quoted in the 
"Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes," by John More, Jr. : "Mrs. Temperance 
Holmes, my much honored and beloved mother (she was therefore Oliver 
Wendell Holmes' grandmother), was born at Norwich in Connecticut, A. D. 
1733. . . . My mother was an admirer of learning, though she received 
her education in a part of the town of Norwich (Newcnt parish) which did 
not probably furnish her any signal advantages at school, yet she had a 
mother who was at once a school and library to her." It is worthy of note 
that Holmes, in his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," speaks of the "Coit 
Elms" of Norwich. 



92 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Edmund Clarence Stedman, who ranked very high as a poet and essayist, 
lived in Norwich during all his boyhood. He was born in Hartford, son of 
Edmund Stedman, a merchant of that city; his mother was Elizabeth C. 
Dodge, the poetess. His father died when he was but two years old, and 
he was sent to his great-uncle, James Stedman, at Norwich, and where he 
began and continued his education until his sixteenth year, when he entered 
Yale College. An incident of his literary career was his service as a corre- 
spondent of the "New York World," from the Army of the Potomac, during 
the Civil War. He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and 
much of his most excellent literary work was accomplished during the hours 
that most busy men give to recreation. During his later years he gave him- 
self entirely to literary work. 

Lydia Sigourney, an author and poet who has been called "the American 
Hemans," was a native of Norwich, born September I, 1791, only daughter 
of Ezekiel and Sophia (Wcntworth) Huntley. She was an ardent student 
from her very youth, and became proficient in Latin and Greek. In associa- 
tion with Miss Ann M. H}de, she opened a select school for young ladies, 
and made it so much of a success that after four years, at the earnest solicita- 
tion of leading families in Hartford, she removed her school to that city. 
When about twenty-four, on the suggestion of a friend, she published "Moral 
Pieces in Prose and Verse," a collection of her occasional writings. The 
volume was well received, and paved the way for her life occupation. In 
1819 she gave up her school, and became the wife of Charles Sigourney, a 
merchant of Hartford. Her husband, a most congenial mate, failed in both 
health and business, and out of necessity she gave herself unreservedly to 
pen work, becoming one of the most voluminous writers of her day, her 
published volumes numbering nearly sixty, and her contributions to maga- 
zines and periodicals some two thousand. Much of her verse work was on 
the solicitation of friends, on special occasions, and generally unrecompensed. 
She was a graceful writer, and all that she produced was marked with lofty 
sentiment. She was a devoted friend of the sorrowing and afflicted, and in 
Hartford her memory is held as highly in honor for her charitable work as 
for her literary talent. She lived many years in widowhood, and died at 
Hartford, June 10, 1865, in her seventy-fifth year. 

Captain Samuel Chester Reid, one of the most brilliant officers of the 
old American Navy, was born in Norwich, August 25, 1783. His father, 
Lieut. John Reid, of the British Navy, was taken prisoner at New London 
on a night in October, 1778, while in command of a night boat expedition 
sent out from the British squadron. While in custody, he resigned his com- 
mission, and on being exchanged took sides with the Americans. In 1781 
he married Rebecca Chester, a descendant in the fourth generation of Captain 
Samuel Chester, of the British Navy, who settled in New London. Her 
father, John Chester, was among the American soldiers at Bunker Hill, and 
afterward a member of the Connecticut convention which ratified the Con- 
stitution of the United States. Such was the parentage of Samuel Chester 





imO.NCK OK W 1 1,1^1 AM 



LITTLE KNOWN FACTS 93 

Reid. Following in the footsteps of the father, he took to the sea at the 
age of eleven, but was soon among the prisoners taken during the difficulties 
between France and the United States. Later he served under Commodore 
Truxton. In the war of 1812 he held the rank of captain, and as commander 
of the brig "General Armstrong" performed one of the most notable feats 
in naval annals, off Fayal, fighting with his nine guns and ninety men a 
British squadron of three vessels with 130 guns and 200 men, finally scuttling 
his ship rather than surrender. Swimming ashore, he was taken into custody 
by the Portuguese authorities, who refused to surrender him to the British, 
and out of which refusal grew an extended diplomatic discussion which was 
finally settled by Louis Napoleon as arbitrator, who decided against the 
American claim as to neutral rights. The gun with which Reid sank his 
vessel was presented to the United States by the King of Portugal. In peace 
times Captain Reid performed services of the highest usefulness — the inven- 
tion and construction of the signal telegraph at the Battery in New York 
and the Narrows between the upper and lower bays; and the perfecting of 
the pilot boat system at Sandy Hook. He designed the American flag as it 
is today — the thirteen stripes representing the original States, and a star for 
each of all. The flag of his designing was first raised over the National Hall of 
Representatives in Washington City on April 13, 1818. Captain Reid mar- 
ried Mary, daughter of Captain Nathan Jennings, of Willington, Connecticut, 
who fought at Lexington, crossed the Delaware with Washington, and was 
commended for gallantry at Trenton. 

Mrs. Leland Stanford, wife of the late Senator Stanford of California, was 
a member of the Lathrop family of Norwich. In memory of a son who died 
at the age of sixteen, named for the father. Senator and Mrs. Stanford founded 
the Leland Stanford University, contributing for the purpose an eighty- 
three thousand acre tract of land, valued at eight millions of dollars. 

Francis Hopkinson Smith, a most talented artist, excelling in water 
color landscapes, also successful as an author and platform lecturer, added 
to his varied accomplishments surpassing skill as a mechanical engineer, his 
most famous piece of work in that line being the foundation and pedestal of 
the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. He was the designer and builder 
of the Race lighthouse off New London, a task which occupied him for six 
years. He was a native of Marv'land. 

Richard Mansfield lived in New London some years before his death. 
His widow, whose stage name was Beatrice Cameron, continues to make it 
her legal residence. 

David Ames Wells, an economist of the highest rank, a native of Massa- 
chusetts, was for many years identified with Norwich, which was his place 
of residence for over twenty years, and where he died, November 5, 1898. He 
was known as a high-class mechanician and inventor before coming into the 
field in which he attained international repute; one of his inventions was 
the machine for folding book and newspaper sheets, and which is practically 
the same as used at the present time. Giving his attention to taxation prob- 



94 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

lems, he produced his economic work, "Our Burden and Our Strength" (1864), 
which was an important factor in the restoration of the government credit, 
which had been seriously inspired during the Civil War. This led to his being 
appointed chairman of a congressional commission to devise a revenue taxa- 
tion system, and which eventuated in the creation of a special Commissioner 
of the Revenue, and his appointment as such official. Among his important 
public services were the redrafting and perfecting of the internal revenue 
laws, the introduction of the stamp system for taxes on tobacco, liquors, etc. ; 
and the organization of the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treas- 
ury Department. From a Protectionist, he became a Free Trader, and to 
this was due his failure of reappointment to his revenue commissionership, 
in 1870. However, that year he was called to the chairmanship of a com- 
mission on the New York State tax laws, for which he prepared two elab- 
orate reports and a revised code. In 1872 he became a lecturer on economics 
in Yale Universit}'. The remainder of his life was passed in railroad arbitra- 
tions and railroad and canal taxation questions, and in writing various vol- 
umes on these and similar topics. 

The Rev. Horace Bushnell. a divine of the loftiest spirituality and a 
graceful author, in young manhood was a school teacher in Norwich. His 
"Nature and the Supernatural," published in 1858, daring in its time, became 
profoundly suggestive in the vast field now illumined by the revelations of 
evolution. This was but one of several fine volumes from his pen. His 
clerical life was passed with the North Congregational Church in Hartford, 
but he was frequently heard in public addresses in principal eastern cities. 
In 1855, his health being seriously impaired, he visited California, and was 
there tendered the presidency of the State University, which he declined, 
fn 1859 he resigned his pastorate in Hartford, and devoted himself to literary 
labors. He died in Hartford, February 17, 1876. 

John Fox Slater, a liberal contributor to educational and other philan- 
thropic objects, was a native of Rhode Island, but his life was principally 
passed in Norwich. He was a principal figure in manufacturing enterprises, 
displaying therein a capacity similar to that of his distinguished uncle, Samuel 
Slater, "the father of American manufactures." He was chiefly instrumental 
in the establishment of the Free Academy in Norwich, for which as a tribute 
to his memory, two years after his death in Norwich, May 7, 1884, his son, 
William Albert Slater, erected a memorial building. Mr. Slater's greatest 
benefaction was his gift of a million dollars in 1882 as a fund for industrial 
education of the freedmen — the blacks emancipated during the Civil War 
by President Lincoln. 

Joseph Lemuel Chester, antiquarian, born in Norwich, 1821, after some 
years devoted to journalism in Philadelphia, went to England and died in 
London, May 28, 1882. He took up his residence there in order to search out 
the genealogical history of early New Englanders, and among his works was 
"Marriage, Baptismal and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church or 



LITTLE KNOWN FACTS 95 

Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster," in which edifice a tablet to his memory 
was placed after his death. 

Thomas Winthrop Coit, Episcopal clergyman, was born in New London, 
June 28, 1803, and died in Middletown in 1885. After occupying several 
important rectorates and college lectureships, he became a professor in the 
Divinity School at Middletown. He made many contributions to church lit- 
erature, and was regarded as one of the best scholars and ablest writers of 
his denomination. 

John Lee Comstock (1789-1858), born in Lyme, was an industrious 
writer of te.xt-books on the natural sciences, and a skilled draughtsman, mak- 
ing most of the illustrations for his books. His "Mineralogy" was used at the 
\\'cst Point Military Academy, and his "Natural Philosophy," which was 
republished in London and Edinburgh, had a sale of nearly nine thousand 
copies. 

Erastus Corning (1794-1872), born in Norwich, became one of the leading 
ironmasters and bankers of his day. His master work was in the development 
of the railroad system of the State of New York and of Hudson river trans- 
portation. He held various public offices, including several terms in Congress. 

John Gardiner Calkins Brainard, of New London (1796-1828), studied 
for the bar, but forsook it for journalism. He wrote much verse which 
brought him a certain celebrity. His brother. Dr. Dyar Throop Brainard, a 
physician (1810-1863), was a chemist, and an eminent botanist. 

Mary Lydia (Holies) Branch, her husband a lawyer in New York, 
beginning in 1865 wrote much for periodicals, principally stories and verse 
for young people. 

John Newton Brown (1803-1868), born in New London, Baptist clergy- 
man, held pastorates in Providence, in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and 
Virginia. In Boston he edited the "Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge," 
which was republished in England. He was afterward editor of the "Chris- 
tian Chronicle" and the "National Baptist," and was editorial secretary of 
the Baptist Publication Society. 

Asa Burton (1752-1836), was born in Stonington and passed his child- 
hood there and in Preston. He became a Congregational minister, was noted 
as a theological teacher, and prepared some sixty young men for the ministry. 
He published a volume on "First Principles of Metaphysics, Ethics, and 
Theology." 

George Deshon, born in New London (1823), was a West Point graduate, 
a room-mate of Gen. U. S. Grant. He was converted to Catholicism, and 
resigned from the army to enter the Order of Redemptorists, and was one of 
its most efficient missioners. 

The Daboll family of Groton was remarkable for three generations of 
most useful men. Nathan Daboll (1750-1818), was a famous teacher, and 
instructed as many as fifteen hundred persons in navigation. His treatise 
on arithmetic, published at New London in 1799, was long a standard text- 
book, as was also his "Practical Navigator." In 1773 he began the publication 



96 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

of the "Connecticut Almanac." His son Nathan (1782-1863) was a State 
legislator; he aided his father compiling his "Arithmetic," and published the 
"Almanac" from the death of the father and until his own. His son, of the 
same name, was also a State legislator, aided his father in both of the works 
before named, and also continued the "Almanac." Celadon Leeds Daboll, 
another son of the second Nathan, was an inventor and was father of the 
application of the principle of the clarionet to the construction of the fog- 
horn as a coast signal. This device was perfected by his brother, Charles 
Miner Daboll, in the steam fog-horn. 

James Deane, Indian missionary (1748-1823), born in Groton, during the 
Revolutionary War was an Indian interpreter at Fort Stanwix, and later was 
employed by Congress to pacify the northern Indians. He wrote an essay 
on Indian mythology, which has been lost. 

Charles Wheeler Denison (1809-1881), born in New London, edited a 
newspaper there before he was of age. He became a minister, and edited 
"The Emancipator," the first anti-slavery paper published in New York City. 
He was a potent advocate of the Union during the Civil War, before the 
cotton operatives in England. 




'i.> 



CHAPTER V 
THE CITY OF NEW LONDON 

Its Founding — First House Lot Ov/ncrs — The Winthrops — Dealings with th; Indians 

During the Revolutionary War— Development of Whaling — Some Remarkable Voy- 
ages — The War of 1812 — Steam Navigation — Early Newspapers — Manwaring Hill. 

From "The Edelwiss," a poem by John G. Belles, the following extract 
is taken, illustrative of the river Thames, and of incidents in the history of 
New London and vicinity : 

But I do love my own fair Thames, 

E'er fed by living fountains 
And noble streams of Indian name 

Upspringing in the mountains. 

All gliding through the valleys sweet 

To that delightful river. 
By airy wing of zephyr touched, 

I've seen its waters quiver. 
While jauntily upon its breast 
My little skiff would rock and rest; 
And I have seen its quiet depths 

Reflecting cloud and sky, 
And gazed along its winding course 

Far as could reach the eye, 
Where, nestled 'mid the distant hills. 

Its cradled waters lie. 
I ne'er beheld a lovelisr scene, 
Or skies more bright, or hills more green, 
Or blissful morning more serene. 
While islands in the distance rest 
A-S emeralds on the water's breast. 
The traveler, with admiring eyes, 
E.xclaims, "Can this be Paradise?" 

There towers that lofty monument 

On Groton's tragic height, 
To mark the spot where martyrs fell 

Undaunted in the fight. 

There Ledyard sleeps, and many a score 

Of heroes each renowned. 
Who midst the battle's wildest roar 

Were firm and foremost found. 

Amid the storm of fire they sang 

"Columbia sha'il be free," 
And every whizzing bullet rang 

For honor, liberty. 



98 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Allyns and Edgecombs left their plow 

To win immortal fame, 
And glory sets on many a brow 

I need not call by name. 

Let Hempstead's memory be bright 

Who wrote the battle's story, 
Wounded and bruised and down the steep 

Hurled in that wagon gory; 

And left for dead among the dead 

Till, touched by gentle hands, 
He saw his wife and rose again 

To live long in the land. 

'Twas there Decatur with his fleet 

Held hostile ships at bay, 
And guarded well the sacred place 

Where patriot ashes lay. 

The town of New London is at once the oldest and the smallest in area 
of New London county. Its boundaries are the same as those of the city 
of New London, namely : On the north, the town of Waterford ; on the east, 
the town of Groton, from which it is separated by the estuary of the Thames 
river, forming beautiful New London harbor; on the south by Long Island 
Sound; on the west by Waterford. 

Its founder, John Winthrop the younger, was the son of the John Win- 
throp who, leading the second Puritan emigration from England, became 
governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The son John, born in 1606, 
spent the years 1622 to 1625 at the LTniversity of Dublin. At the age of 
twenty-one (1627) he served under the Duke of Buckingham in France, was 
married in 163 1, and the saine }ear arrived in Massachusetts. After the 
death of his first wife in 1634, he returned to England, married again in 
1635, and returned to take charge of the settlement at Saybrook in 1636; 
from Massachusetts he obtained a grant of Fisher's Island in 1640, confirmed 
by Connecticut in 1641, and later by New York in 1668. In 1644, shortly 
after his first settlement on Fisher's Island, he obtained from Connecticut a 
grant of a plantation "at or near Pequod." This grant he began to occupy 
in 1645. 

The Natal Day of New London is thus described by Miss Caulkins: 

At a General Court held at Boston, 6th of May, 1646. Whereas Mr. 
John Winthrop, Jun., and soine others, have by allowance of this Court 
begun a plantation in the Pequot country, which appertains to this juris- 
diction, as part of our proportion of the conquered country, and whereas this 
Court is informed that some Indians who are now planted upon the place, 
where the said plantation is begun, are willing to remove from their planting 
ground for the more quiet and convenient place appointed — it is therefore 
ordered that Mr. John Winthrop may appoint unto such Indians as are 
willing to remove, their lands on the other side, that is, on the east side of 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 99 

the Great River of the Pequot country, or some other place for their con- 
venient plantinf^ and subsistence, which may be to the good liking and 
satisfaction of the said Indians, and likewise to such of the Pequot Indians 
as shall desire to live there, submitting themselves to the English govern- 
ment, &c. 

And whereas Mr. Thomas Peters is intended to inhabit in the said 
plantation, — this Court doth think fit to join him to assist the said Mr. 
Winthrop, for the better carrying on the work of said plantation. A true 
copy, &c. — (New London Records, Book VI.) 

The elder Winthrop records the commencement of the plantation under 
date of June, 1646: 

A plantation was this year begun at Pequod river by Mr. Winthrop, 
Jun., (and) Mr. Thomas Peter, a minister, (brother to Mr. Peter, of Salem,) 
and (at) this Court, power was given to them two for ordering and govern- 
ing the plantation, till further order, although it was uncertain whether it 
would fall within our jurisdiction or not, because they of Connecticut chal- 
lenged it by virtue of a patent from the king, which was never showed us. 
It mattered not much to which jurisdiction it did belong, seeing the con- 
federation made all as one; but it was of great concernment to have it planted, 
to be a curb to the Indians. 

The uncertainty with respect to jurisdiction hung at first like a cloud 
over the plantation. The subject was discussed at the meeting of the com- 
missioners at New Haven in September, 1646. Massachusetts claimed by 
conquest, Connecticut by patent, purchase and conquest. The record says: 

It was remembered that in a treaty betwixt them at Cambridge, in 1638. 
not perfected, a proposition was made that Pequot river, in reference to the 
conquest, should be the bounds betwixt them, but Mr. Fenwick was not then 
there to plead the patent, neither had Connecticut then any title to those 
lands by purchase or deed of gift from Uncas. 

The decision at this time was, that unless hereafter, Massachusetts should 
show better title, the jurisdiction should belong to Connecticut. This issue 
did not settle the controversy. It was again agitated at the Commissioners' 
Court, held at Boston, in July, 1647, at which time Mr. Winthrop, who had 
been supposed to favor the claims of Massachusetts, expressed himself as 
"more indifferent," but affirmed that some members of the plantation, who 
had settled there in reference to the government of Massachustts and in 
expectation of large privileges from that colony, would be much disappointed 
if it should be assigned to any other jurisdiction. 

The majority again gave their voice in favor of Connecticut, assigning 
this reason — "Jurisdiction goeth constantly with the Patent." 

Massachusetts made repeated exceptions to this decision. The argument 
was in truth weak, inasmuch as the Warwick Patent seems never to have 
been transferred to Connecticut, the colony being for many years without 
even a copy of that instrument. The right from conquest was the only valid 
foundation on which she could rest her claim, and here her position was 
impregnable. 



loo NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Mr. Peters appears to have been from the first associated with Winthrop 
in the projected settlement, having a co-ordinate authority and manifesting 
an equal degree of zeal and energy in the undertaking. But his continuance 
in the country, and all his plans in regard to the new town, were cut short 
by a summons from home inviting him to return to the guidance of his 
ancient flock in Cornwall. He left Pequot, never to see it again, in the 
autumn of 1646. In November he was in Boston preparing to embark. 

Mr. Winthrop removed his family from Boston in October, 1646; his 
brother, Deane Winthrop, accompanied him. They came by sea, encounter- 
ing a violent tempest on the passage, and dwelt during the first winter on 
Fisher's Island. Some of the children were left behind in Boston, but joined 
their parents the next summer, at which time Mr. Winthrop, having built a 
house, removed his family to the town plot. Mrs. Lake returned to the 
plantation in 1647, and was regarded as an inhabitant, having a home lot 
assigned to her and sharing in grants and divisions of land as other settlers, 
though she was not a householder. She resided in the family of Winthrop 
until after he was chosen governor of the colony, and removed to Hartford. 
The latter part of her life was spent at Ipswich. 

Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, regarded the new plantation with 
great interest. As a patriot, a statesman and a father, his mind expatiated 
upon it with hope and solicitude. A few days after the departure from 
Boston of his son, with his family, he wrote to him: "The blessing of the 
Lord be upon you, and He protect and guide you in this great undertaking. 
I commend you and my good daughter, and your children, and 
Deane, and all your company in your plantation (whom I desire to salute,) 
to the gracious protection and blessing of the Lord." 

To this chapter may properly be added the relation of a romantic incident 
that occurred at an early period of the settlement, and which had an important 
bearing on the western boundary question that subsequently threw the town 
into a belligerent attitude toward Lyme. 

In March, 1672, when the controversy in respect to bounds between New 
London and Lyme was carried before the legislature, Mr. Winthrop, then 
governor of the colony, being called on for his testimony, gave it in a narra- 
tive form, his object being to show explicitly that the little stream known 
as Bride Brook was originally regarded as the boundary between the two 
plantations. The preamble of his deposition is in substance as follows: 

When we began the plantation in the Pequot country, now called New 
London, I had a commission from the Massachusetts government, and the 
ordering of matters was left to myself. Not finding meadow sufficient for 
even a small plantation, unless the meadows and marshes west of Nahantic 
river were adjoined, I determined that the bounds of the plantation should 
be to the brook, now called Bride Brook, which was looked upon as certainly 
without .Saybrook bounds. This was an encouragement to proceed with the 
plantation, which otherwise could not have gone on, there being no suitable 
accommodation near the place. 



CITY OF NEW LONDON loi 

In corroboration of this fact, and to show that the people of Saybrook 
at first acquiesced in this boundary line, the governor related an incident 
which he says "fell out the first winter of our settling- there." This must have 
been the winter of 1646-47, which was the first spent by him in the plantation. 
The main points of the story were these: 

A young couple in Saybrook were to be married ; the groom was Jonathan 
Rudd. The governor does not give the name of the bride, and unfortunately 
the omission is not supplied by either record or tradition. The wedding day 
was fixed, and a magistrate from one of the upper towns on the river was 
engaged to perform the rite : for there was not, it seems, any person in Say- 
brook duly qualified to officiate on such an occasion. But, "there falling out 
at that time a great snow," the paths were obliterated, traveling obstructed, 
and intercourse with the interior interrupted ; so that "the magistrate in- 
tended to go down thither was hindered by the depth of the snow." On the 
seaboard there is usually a less weight of snow, and the courses can be more 
readily ascertained. The nuptials must not be delayed without inevitable 
necessity. Application was therefore made to Mr. Winthrop to come to 
Saybrook and unite the parties. But he, deriving his authority from Massa- 
chusetts, could not legally officiate in Connecticut. "I saw it necessary (he 
observes) to deny them in that way, but told them for an expedient for their 
accommodation, if they come to the plantation it might be done. But that 
being too difficult for them, it was agreed that they should come to that place, 
which is now called Bride Brook, as being a place within the bounds of that 
authority whereby I then acted ; otherwise I had exceeded the limits of my 
commission." 

This proposition was accepted. On the brink of this little stream, the 
boundary between the two colonies, the parties met Winthrop and his friends 
from Pequot, and the bridal train from Saybrook. Here the ceremony was 
performed, under the shelter of no roof, by no hospitable fireside; without any 
accommodations but those furnished by the snow-covered earth, the over- 
arching heaven, and perchance the sheltering side of a forest of pines or 
cedars. Romantic lovers have sometimes pledged their faith by joining 
hands over a narrow streamlet; but never, perhaps, before or since, was the 
legal rite performed in a situation so wild and solitary and under circum- 
stances so interesting and peculiar. 

We are not told how the parties traveled, whether on horseback, or on 
sleds or snow-shoes; nor what cheer they brought with them, whether cakes 
or fruit, the juice of the orchard or vineyard, or the fiery extract of the cane. 
We only know that at that time conveniences and comforts were few, and 
luxuries unknown. Yet simple and homely as the accompaniments must have 
been, a glow of hallowed beauty will ever rest upon the scene. We fancy 
that we hear the foot tramp upon the crisp snow ; the ice crack as they 
cross the frozen stream; the wind sighs through the leafless forest; and the 
clear voice of Winthrop swells upon the ear like a devout strain of music, 
now low, and then rising high to heaven, as it passes through the varied 



I02 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

accents of tender admonition, legal decision and solemn prayer. The im- 
pressive group stand around, wrapped in their frosty mantles, with heads 
reverently bowed down, and at the given sign the two plighted hands come 
forth from among the furs and are clasped together in token of a lifelong, 
affectionate trust. The scene ends in a general burst of hearty hilarity. 

Bride Brook issues from a beautiful sheet of water known as Bride Lake 
or Pond, and runs into the Sound about a mile west of Giant's Cove. In a 
straight line it is not more than two miles west of Niantic Bay. The Indian 
name of the pond, or brook, or of both, was Sunk-i-paug, or Sunkipaug-suck. 

The names of those who first received house lots in the new settlement 
numbered thirty-six: John Gager, Cary Latham, Samuel Lathrop, John Steb- 
bins, Isaac Willey, Thomas Miner, William Bordman, William Morton, Wil- 
liam Nicholls, Robert Hemstead, Thomas Skidmore, John Lewis, Richard 
Post, Robert Bedeel, John Robinson, Deane Winthrop, William Bartlett, 
Nathaniel Watson, John Austin, William Forbes, Edward Higbie, Jarvis 
Mudge, Andrew Longdon, William Hallett, Giles Smith, Peter Beesbran, 
James Bemis, John Fossecar, Consider Wood, George Chappell. Of these 
grants not all were taken up ; apparently Watson, Austin, Higbie, Hallett, 
Smith, Busbraw, Fossecar, and Wood did not settle in the town. Mudge and 
Chappell came a little late, as did Jonathan Brewster, Thomas Wells, Peter 
Blatchford, Nathaniel Masters, all by 1650. The location of the lots may be 
found in Miss Caulkins' "History of New London." A considerable colony 
of people came with Rev. Mr. Blinman from Gloucester. Other settlers came 
in from time to time, and by the end of 1651 the settlers from Cape Ann 
had received house lots. The original town plot is thus described by Miss 
Caulkins : 

The first home lots were laid out chieflj' at the two extremities of the 
semicircular projection which formed the site of the town. Between these 
were thick swamps, waving woods, ledges of rock, and ponds of water. The 
oldest communication from one to the other was from Mill Brook over Post 
Hill, so called from Richard Post, whose house lot was on this hill, through 
what is now William street to Manwaring's Hill, and down Blackball street 
to Truman street was the harbor's north road. Main street was opened, and 
from thence a cut over the hill westward was made (now Richards and 
Granite streets). Bank street was laid out on the very brink of the upland, 
above the sandy shore, and a space (now Coit street) was carried around 
the head of Beacon Cove to Truman street, completing the circuit of the 
town plot. No names were given to any of the streets for at least a century 
after the settlement, save that Main street was uniformly called the Town 
street, and Bank street the Bank. Hempstead street was one of the first 
laid out, and a pathway coincident with the present State street led from the 
end of the Town street west and northwest to meet it. Such appears to 
have been the original plan of the town. The cove at the north was Mill 
Cove; the two coves at the south, Bream and Close. Water street was the 
beach, and the head of it at the entrance of Mill Cove, now Sandy Point. 

In 1657 Mr. Winthrop removed to Hartford, as governor of the Colony. 

The patent of New London issued by Deputy Governor Robert Treat 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 103 

gives the names of seventy-seven men, but Miss Caulkins is of the opinion 
that at that time (1704) there must have been approximately one hundred 
and sixty full-grown men in the town. 

It is not the purpose of this volume to enter into the full details of early 
history, which have been so admirably compiled for New London and Nor- 
wich by Miss Caulkins. We print such selections rather to give a general 
picture of this period of county history. The names found on the rate lists, 
in the town records, and in various public places, are names famous in the 
history of New England, and indeed of the United States as a whole. The 
descendants of these settlers have been the builders of America. From Kurd's 
"History of New London County" we print the will of Mary Harris, "one 
of the oldest wills extant in the county" : 

The last Will and Testament of Mary Harries, taken from her owne 
mouth this 19th of Jan., 1655. 

I give to my eldest daughter, Sarah Lane, the bigest brass pan, and to 
her daughter Mary, a silver spoone. And to her daughter Sarah, the bigest 
pewter dish and one silken riben. Likewise I give to her daughter Mary, a 
pewter candlesticke. 

I give to my daughter, Mary Lawrence, my blew mohere peticote and 
my straw hatt and a fether boulster. And to her eldest Sonne I give a silver 
spoone. To her second sonne a silver whissle. I give more to my daughter 
Mary, my next brasst pann and a thrum cushion. And to her youngest sonne 
I give a pewter bassen. 

I give to my youngest daughter, Elizabeth Weekes, a peece of red broad 
cloth, loeing about two yards, alsoe a damask livery cloth, a gold ring, a silver 
spoone, a fether bed and a boulster. Alsoc, I give to my daughter, Elizabeth, 
my best hatt, my gowne, a brass kettle, and a woolen jacket for her husband. 
Alsoe, I give to my daughter Elizabeth, thirty shillings, alsoe a red whittle, 
a white apron, and a new white neck-cloth. Alsoe, I give to my three daugh- 
ters aforesaid, a quarter part to each of them, of the dyaper table-cloth and 
tenn shillings apeece. 

I give to my sister Migges, a red peticoat, a cloth jacket, a silke hud, a 
quoife, a cross-cloth, and a neck-cloth. 

I give to my cosen Calib Rawlyns ten shillinges. 

I give to my two cosens, Mary and Elizabeth ffry, each of them five 
shillings. 

I give to Mary Barnet a red stufif wascote. 

I give to my daughter, Elizabeth, my great chest. To my daughter, 
Mary, a ciffer and a white neck-cloth. To my sister, Hannah Rawlin, my 
best cross-cloth. To my brother, Rawlin, a lased band. To my two kins- 
women. Elizabeth Hubbard and Hilary Steevens, five shillinges apeece. 

I give to my brother, Migges, his three youngest children, two shillinges 
sixe pence apeece. 

I give to my sonne Thomas, ten shillinges, if he doe come home or be 
alive. 

I give to Rebekah Bruen, a pynt pott of pewter, a new petticoate, and 
wascote wch she is to spin herselfe; alsoe an old byble, and -a hatt wch was 
my sonn Thomas his hatt. 

I give to my sonne Gabriell, my house, land, cattle, and swine, with all 
other goodes reall and psonall in Pequet or any other place, and doe make 



I04 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

him my sole executor to this my will. Witness my hand. 

The mark X of Mary Harries. 
Witness hearunto: John Winthrop, Obadiah Bruen, Willm Nyccolls. 

An account of the estate left by John Winthrop, Jr., will show how wide 
were the interests of these early settlers : 

John Winthrop, Esq.. the patron and founder of New London, and gov- 
ernor of Connecticut for nearly eighteen years, died in Boston, April 5th, 1676. 
He had been called to Boston to attend the meeting of the commissioners, to 
which he was the delegate from Connecticut. His remains were deposited 
in the tomb of his father, in the cemetery of King's Chapel, where afterward 
his two sons were gathered to his side. His wife, who deceased not long 
before him, is supposed to have been buried in Hartford. 

Governor Winthrop's family consisted of the two sons so often men- 
tioned, Fitz-John and Wait-Still, and five daughters. The sons were residents 
in New London at the time of their father's decease. Wait-Still succeeded 
his brother as major of the county regiment, but at a period ten or twelve 
years later, removed to Boston. Lucy, the second daughter, the wife of 
Edward Palmes, belongs to New London ; but her death is not on record, 
neither is there any stone to her memory in the old burial-ground, by the side 
of her husband. It is therefore probable that she died abroad, and from 
other circumstances it is inferred that this event took place in Boston, after 
the death of her father, in 1676. She left a daughter Lucy, who was her only 
child, and this daughter, though twice married, left no issue. Her line is 
therefore extinct. 

The very extensive landed estate of Governor Winthrop, which fell to 
his two sons, was possessed by them conjointly, and undivided during their 
lives. Fitz-John, having no sons, it was understood between the brothers 
that the principal part of the land grants should be kept in the name, and 
to this end be reserved for John, the only son of Wait Winthrop. These 
possessions, briefly enumerated, were Winthrop's Neck, 200 acres ; Mill-pond 
farm, 300; land north of the town of Alewife Brook and in its vicinity, 1,500; 
land at Pequonuck (Groton), 6,000; Little-cove farm, half a mile square, on 
the east side of the river — these were within the bounds of New London. 
On Mystic river, five or six hundred acres ; at Lanthorn Hill and its vicinity, 
3,000; and on the coast, Fisher's Island and its Hommocks, and Goat Island. 
Governor Winthrop had also an undisputed title from court grants to large 
tracts in Voluntown, Plainfield, Canterbury, Woodstock and Saybrook, 
amounting to ten or twelve thousand acres. He also claimed the whole of 
what was called Black-lead-mine Hill in the province of Massachusetts Bay, 
computed to be ten miles in circumference. Magnificent as was this estate 
in point of extent, the value, in regard to present income, was moderate. By 
the provision of his will, his daughters were to have half as much estate as 
his sons, and he mentions that Lucy and Elizabeth had already been por- 
tioned with farms. The above sketch of his landed property comprises only 
that which remained inviolate as it passed through the hands of his sons, and 
his grandson John, the son of Wait, and was bequeathed by the latter to his 
son, John, John Still Winthrop, in 1747. 

Reference has already been made to the relations of Uncas and the early 
.settlers of the county. After the destruction of the Pequot power, the few 
survivors of the tribe, having been distributed amongst the Narragansetts 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 



105 



and the Mohegans, were settled, some in what is now Westerly, some in 
what is now Waterford and New London, under the name "Nameaugs." 
These remnants of a once powerful tribe sufifered under the severe treatment 
meted out to them by Uncas, who disliked Governor Winthrop for his pro- 
tection of the "Nameaugs," 

The jealousy of Uncas precipitated several conflicts with the settlers at 
New London. When the commissioners of the United Colonies (noteworthy 
as a step toward the Albany Congress and toward later confederation) were 
asked by Governor Winthrop to free the Pequots from the control of Uncas, 
they refused to do so, but reprimanded and fined Uncas for misdeeds. 

Until the settlement of Norwich, Uncas led an unsettled life, evading the 
attacks of his Indian foes and disputing with his white neighbors regarding 
his rights. The commissioners, after many attempts at settling Indian affairs, 
made certain awards of lands to the surviving Pequots, which awards were 
never carried out by the towns concerned. After the charter of 1662, whereby 
Stonington became a part of Connecticut, the settlement of Indian affairs 
became subject to the General Court of Connecticut. The records of the 
General Court show a long list of petitions and awards pertaining to the 
Indian affairs of New London county, extending over a period from 1662 
to Revolutionary times. The early history of Groton and Stonington shows 
that the Pequots were provided with reservations and treated as wards of 
the State. 

The Mohegans, for their fidelity at all times, were more generously 
treated by the State, admitted to full citizenship finally (1873), ^nd granted 
absolute ownership of certain lands, much of the rest of the tribal domain 
being sold from time to time to settlers of New London, Norwich, and adjoin- 
ing towns. 

Of the primitive life of the settlers we get many glimpses, by the votes 
of town meetings, wills, and diaries. We find in the town records the follow- 
ing entry : 

Memorandum : that upon the i6th day of January, 1709-10, being a very 
cold day, upon the report of a kennel of wolves, mortal enemies to our sheep 
and all our other creatures, was lodged and lay in ambuscade in the Cedar 
Swamp, waiting there for an opportunity to devour the harmless sheep; 
upon information whereof, about thirty of our valiant men, well disciplined 
in arms and special conduct, assembled themselves and with great courage 
beset and surrounded the enemies in the said swamp, and shot down three 
of the brutish enemies, and brought their heads through the town in great 
triumph. 

The same day a wolfe in sheepe's cloathing designed to throw an innocent 
man into the frozen water, where he might have perished, but was timely 
prevented, and the person at that time delivered frome that danger. 

As the subject of wolves is thus again introduced, we may observe that 
at this period and for thirty years afterward a wolf-hunt was a customary 
autumnal sport. From ten to forty persons usually engaged in it, who sur- 
rounded and beat up some swamp in the neighborhood. Mill-pond Swamp 



io6 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

and Cedar Swamp were frequently scoured for wolves in November or the 
latter part of October. George, son of John Richards, had a bounty of ill 
for wolves killed during the year 1717; these were probably insnared. The 
bounty had been raised to twenty shillings per head. The bounty for killing 
a wildcat was three shillings. 

The settlement at New London prospered, till at the outbreak of the 
Revolutionary War it numbered approximately 6,000. New London's part 
in that struggle has been fully set forth elsewhere. The Shaw Mansion, the 
Nathan Hale School, Fort Trumbull, the many anecdotes of local happenings, 
are rich in historic interest. Miss Caulkins remarks: 

So many of the inhabitants of New London had been trained as fisher- 
men, coasters, and mariners, that no one is surprised to find them, when the 
trying time came, bold, hardy, and daring in the cause of freedom. In all 
the southern towns of the county — Stonington, Groton, New London, Lyme — 
the common mass of the people were an adventurous class, and exploits of 
stratagem, strength, and valor, by land and sea, performed during the war 
of independence by persons nurtured on this coast, might still be recovered 
sufificient to form a volume of picturesque adventure and exciting interest. 
At the same time many individuals in this part of the country, and some, too, 
of high respectability, took a different view of the great political question and 
sided with the Parliament and the king. In various instances families were 
divided ; members of the same fireside adopted opposite opinions and became 
as strangers to each other ; nor was it an unknown misery for parents to 
have children ranged on different sides of the battle-field. At one time a 
gallant young officer of the army, on his return from the camp, where he 
had signalized himself by his bravery, was escorted to his home by a grateful 
populace that surrounded the house and filled the air with their applausive 
huzzas, while at the same time his half-brother, the son of the mother who 
clasped him to her bosom, stigmatized as a Tory, convicted of trade with the 
enemy, and threatened with the wooden horse, lay concealed amid the hay 
of the barn, where he was fed by stealth for many days. 

This anecdote is but an example of many that might be told of a similar 
character. 

The position of New London was such that it was easily blockaded, and 
constantly threatened with destruction. Many fleets of hostile ships sailed by. 
Many a privateer slipped out of the harbor in spite of the blockade. "So 
great, however, was the vigilance of the British squadron on the coast that 
not a single prize was brought into the harbor of New London from 1776 
to 1778." Of the famous attack of Arnold on the town, Miss Caulkins says: 

Although New London had been repeatedly threatened, no direct attack 
was made upon the town till near the close of the war in 1781. General 
Arnold, on his return from a predatory descent upon the coasts of Virginia, 
was ordered to conduct a similar expedition against his native State. A large 
quantity of West India goods and European merchandise brought in by 
various privateers was at this time collected in New London; the quantity 
of shipping in port was also very considerable, and among the prizes recently 
taken was the "Hannah" (Captain Watson), a rich merchant ship from Lon- 
don bound to New York, which had been captured a little south of Long 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 107 

Island by Capt. Dudley Saltonstall, of the "Minerva." privateer. The loss 
of this ship, whose cargo was said to be the most valuable brou}.?ht into 
America during the war. had exasperated the British, and more than any other 
single circumstance is thought to have led to the expedition. At no other 
period of the war could they have done so much mischief, at no other had 
the inhabitants so much to lose. 

The expedition was fitted out from New York, the headquarters of Sir 
Henry Clinton and the British army. The plan was well conceived. Arnold 
designed to enter the harbor secretly in the night, and to destroy the shipping, 
public ofifices, stores, merchandise, and the fortifications on both sides of 
the river, with such expedition as to be able to depart before any considerable 
force could be collected against him. Candor in judging forbids the supposi- 
tion that the burning of the town and the massacre at Groton fort entered 
into his original design, though at the time such cruelty of purpose was 
charged upon him and currently believed. As flowing from his measures and 
taking place under his command, they stand to his account, and this responsi- 
bility is heavy enough without adding to it the criminal forethought. 

The official report by Arnold reads as follows: 

Sound, off Plumb Island, 8th Sept., 1781. 

Sir, — I have the honor to inform }our Excellency that the transports 
with the detachment of troops under my orders anchored on the Long Island 
shore on the 5th instant, at two o'clock P. M., about ten leagues from New 
London, and having made some necessary arrangements, weighed anchor at 
seven o'clock P. M. and stood for New London with a fair wind. At one 
o'clock the next morning we arrived off the harbor, when the wind suddenly 
shifted to the northward, and it was nine o'clock before the transports could 
beat in. At ten o'clock the troops in two divisions, and in four debarkations, 
were landed, one on each side of the harbor, about three miles from New 
London, that on the Groton side, consisting of the Fortieth and Fifty-fourth 
Regiments and the Third Battery of New Jersey volunteers, with a detach- 
ment of yagers and artillery, were under the command of Lieut. -Col. Eyre. 
The division on the New London side consisted of the Thirty-eighth Regi- 
ment, the Loyal Americans, the American Legion, refugees, and a detach- 
ment of sixty yagers, who were immediately on their landing put in motion, 
and at eleven o'clock, being within half a mile of Fort Trumbull, which 
commands New London Harbor, I detached Capt. Millett, with four com- 
panies of the Thirty-eighth Regiment, to attack the fort, who was joined on 
his march by Capt. Frink with one company of the American Legion. At 
the same time I advanced with the remainder of the division west of Fort 
Trumbull, on the road to the town, to attack a redoubt which had kept up a 
brisk fire upon us for some time, but which the enemy evacuated on our 
approach. In this work we found six pieces of cannon mounted and two 
dismounted. Soon after I had the pleasure to see Capt. Millett march into 
Fort Trumbull, under a shower of grape-shot from a number of cannon which 
the enemy had turned upon him; and I have the pleasure to inform your 
Excellency that by the sudden attack and determined bravery of the troops 
the fort w'as carried with the loss of only four or five men killed and wounded. 
Capt. Millett had orders to leave one company in Fort Trumbull, to detach 
one to the redoubt we had taken, and join me with the other companies. 
No time was lost on my part in gaining the town of New London. We 
were opposed by a small body of the enemy, with one field-piece, who were 
so hard pressed that they were obliged to leave the piece, which, being iron, 
was spiked and left. 



io8 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

As soon as the enemy were alarmed in the morning we could perceive 
they were busily engaged in bending sails and endeavoring to get their pri- 
vateers and other ships up Norwich River out of our reach, but the wind 
being small and the tide against them they were obliged to anchor again. 
From information I received before and after my landing, I had reason to 
believe that Fort Griswold, on Groton side, was very incomplete, and I was 
assured by friends to government, after my landing, that there were only 
twenty or thirty men in the fort, the inhabitants in general being on board 
their ships and busy in saving their property. 

On taking possession of Fort Trumbull, I found the enemy's ships would 
escape unless we could possess ourselves of Fort Griswold. I therefore dis- 
patched an officer to Lieut. -Col. Eyre with the intelligence I had received, 
and requested him to make an attack upon the fort as soon as possible, at 
which time I expected the howitzer was up and would have been made use of. 
On my gaining a height of ground in the rear of New London, from which I 
had a good prospect of Fort Griswold, I found it much more formidable than 
I expected, or than I had formed an idea of, from the information I had before 
received. I observed at the same time that the men who had escaped from 
Fort Trumbull had crossed in boats and thrown themselves into Fort Gris- 
wold, and a favorable wind springing up about this time, the enemy's ships 
were escaping up the river, notwithstanding the fire from Fort Trumbull and 
a six-pounder which I had with me. I immediately dispatched a boat with 
an officer to Lieut. -Col. Eyre to countermand my first order to attack the fort, 
but the officer arrived a few minutes too late. Lieut. -Col. Eyre had sent Capt. 
Beckwith with a flag to demand a surrender of the fort, which was per- 
emptorily refused, and the attack had commenced. After a most obstinate 
defense of near fortv minutes, the fort was carried by the superior bravery 
and perseverance of the assailants. On this occasion I have to regret the loss 
of Maj. Montgomery, who was killed by a spear in entering the enemy's 
works ; also of Ensign Whitlock, of the Fortieth Regiment, who was killed 
in the attack. Three other officers of the same regiment were wounded. 
Lieut. -Col. Eyre, and three other officers of the Fifty-fourth Regiment, were 
also wounded, but I have the satisfaction to inform your Excellency that they 
are all in a fair w^ay to recover. 

Lieut.-Col. Eyre, who behaved with great gallantry, having received his 
wound near the works, and Maj. Montgomery being killed immediately after, 
the command devolved on Maj. Bromfield, whose behavior on this occasion 
does him great honor. Lieut.-Col. Buskirk, with the New Jersey volunteers 
and artillery, being the second debarkation, came up soon after the work was 
carried, having been retarded by the roughness of the country. I am much 
obliged to this gentleman for his exertions, although the artillery did not 
arrive in time. 

I have enclosed a return of the killed and wounded, by which your Ex- 
cellency will observe that our loss, though very considerable, is short of the 
enemy's, who lost most of their officers, among whom was their commander, 
Col. Ledyard. Eighty-five men were found dead in Fort Griswold and sixty 
wounded, most of them mortally; their loss on the opposite side must have 
been considerable, but cannot be ascertained. I believe we have about seventy 
prisoners, besides the wounded who were left paroled. 

Ten or twelve ships were burned, among them three or four armed vessels, 
and one loaded with naval stores; an immense quantity of European and 
West India poods were found in the stores, among the former cargo of the 
"Hannah," Capt. Watson, from London, lately captured by the enemy, the 




jirxnciPAL ni' 



CITY COlMtT HOl'SE (17S 



CITY OF NEW LOXDOX 109 

whole of which was burnt with the stores, which proved to contain a large 
quantity of powder unknown to us. The explosion of the powder and change 
of wind, soon after the stores were fired, communicated the flames to part 
of the town, which was, notwithstanding every efTort to prevent it, unfor- 
tunately destroyed. 

After the Revolution, New London developed its fisheries and commerce 
and became a famous whaling center. With its shipbuilding and coasting 
trade, New London became a center of trade for merchants further inland. 
Trade with the West Indies sprang up and flourished. One hundred and 
fifty sail of merchant vessels entered and cleared at the port of New London. 
The first collector of the port was Gen. Jedediah Huntington, of Revolu- 
tionary fame. The war of 181 2 greatly interfered with this commerce, but 
at the close of the war commerce again revived. In 1816 was made the first 
trip from New York to New London by steam. The time, tt^'enty-one hours, 
was considered remarkable. Two natives of New London, Capt. Moses 
Rogers and Capt. Stevens Rogers, were the first to navigate a steam vessel 
across the Atlantic. The "Savannah" made the trip to Liverpool in twenty- 
one days, starting May 26, 1819. 

To Miss Caulkins' History we are indebted for an outline of the whaling 
industry: 

In tracing the whale fishery, so far as it has been prosecuted by the 
people of Connecticut, back to its rise, we come to the following resolve of 
the General Court at Hartford, May 25th, 1647: "If Mr. Whiting with others 
shall make trial and prosecute a design for the taking of whale, within these 
liberties, and if upon trial within the term of two years, they shall like to go 
on, no others shall be suffered to interrupt them for the term of seven years." 

The granting of monopolies and exclusive privileges was the customary 
mode of encouraging trade and manufactures in that day. Of Mr. Whiting's 
project nothing further is known. Whales in the early years of the colony 
were often seen in the Sound ; and if one chanced to be stranded on the 
shore, or to get embayed in a creek, the news was soon spread, and the fisher- 
men and farmers from the nearest settlements would turn out, armed with 
such implements as they possessd, guns, pikes, pitchforks, or spears, and rush 
to the encounter. Such adventures, however, belong more particularly to 
the south side of Long Island than to the Connecticut shore. 

A whale boat is mentioned in an enumeration of goods before the end 
of the seventeenth century, and this implies that excursions were sometimes 
made in pursuit of whales, but probably they were not extended much beyond 
Montauk. Even at the present day a whale sometimes makes its appearance 
in the eastern part of the Sound. 

We have no statistics to show that the whale fishery was on except in 
this small way, from any part of the Connecticut coast, before the Revolu- 
tionary War. At Sag Harbor, on the opposite coast of the Sound, something 
more had been done. It is said that as far back as 1760, sloops from that place 
went to Disco Island in pursuit of whales ; but of these voyages no record has 
been preserved. The progress of whaling from the American coast appears 
to have been pursued in the following order : 

1st. Whales were killed on or near the coast, and in all instances cut up 
and dried upon land. Boats only used. 



no NEW LONDON COUNTY 

2nd. Small sloops were fitted out for a cruise of five or six weeks, and 
went as far as the Great Banks of Newfoundland. 

3rd. Longer voyages of a few months were made to the Western Islands, 
Cape Verde, West Indies and Gulf of Mexico. 

4th. After 1745. voyages were made to Davis' Straits, Baffin's Bay, and 
as far south as the coast of Guinea. 

5th. After 1770, voyages were made to the Brazil Banks, and before 1775 
vessels both from Nantucket and Newport had been to the Falkland Islands. 
Nantucket alone had at that time 150 vessels and 2,000 men employed in the 
whaling business. Some of the vessels were brigs of considerable burden. 

The war totally destroyed the whale fishery, and the depression of busi- 
ness after the war prevented it from being immediately resumed. In Nan- 
tucket it revived in 1785, under legislative encouragement. This brings tis 
to the period when the first whaling expedition into south latitude was fitted 
out from Long Island Sound. 

In the year 1784 we find the following notice in the "New London 
Gazette": "May 20. Sailed from this port, sloop 'Rising Sun,' Squire, on a 
whaling voyage." Of this voyage there is no further record ; it was probably 
of the short description. At Sag Harbor a more extended expedition was 
undertaken the same year. Nathaniel Gardiner and brother fitted out both 
a ship and a brig on a whaling adventure. They were both unsuccessful, but 
this is supposed to have been the first expedition after whales from Long 
Island Sound into south latitudes. In 1785, Messrs. Stephen Howell and 
Benjamin Hunting, of Sag Harbor, purchased the brig "Lucy," of Elijah 
Hubbard, of Middletown, Connecticut, and sent her out on a whaling voyage, 
George McKay, master. The same season the brig "America," Daniel 
Havens, master, was fitted out from the same place. Both went to the Brazil 
Banks. 

1785. — The "Lucy" returned May 15th, with 360 barrels. The "America" 
returned June 4th, with 300 barrels. These arrivals were announced in the 
"New London Gazette," in the marine list kept by Thomas Allen, who there- 
upon breaks forth: "Now, my horse jockeys, beat your horses and cattle into 
spears, lances, harpoons and whaling gear, and let us all strike out ; many 
spouts ahead ! Whales plenty, you have them for the catching." 

The first vessel sailing from New London on a whaling voyage to a 
southern latitude was the ship "Commerce," which was owned and fitted out 
at East Haddam, in Connecticut river, but cleared from New London Feb- 
ruary 6th, 1794. An attempt was made to form a whaling company in New 
London in 1795, and a meeting called at Miner's tavern for that purpose, 
but it led to no result. Norwich next came forward, and sent out on a whaling 
voyage a small new ship built in the Thames river, below Norwich, and 
called the "Miantinomoh." She sailed from New London September 5th, 1800 
(Captain Swain), and passing round Cape Horn, was reported at Massafuero 
August 9th, 1801. She spent another year on the South .American coast, but 
in April, 1802, was seized at Valparaiso by the Spanish authorities and con- 
demned, the ship "Tryal," Coffin, of Nantucket, sharing the same fate. 

In 1802, the ship "Despatch," Howard, was fitted out at New London, 
to cruise in the south seas after whales ; but the voyage was not repeated. 
The year 1805 mav therefore be considered as the period when the whaling 
business actually commenced in the place, and the ship "Dauphin" the pioneer 
in the trade. This vessel was built by Capt. John Barber, at Pawkatuck 
Bridge, with express reference to the whale fishery. Her burden was two 
hundred and forty tons, and when completed she was filled with wood and 
sent to New York for sale. Not meeting with a purchaser, she returned and 



CITY OF NEW LONDON in 

came into New London Harbor in the autumn of 1804. Here a company was 
formed, chieflv through the exertions of Dr. S. H. P. Lee, the first mover 
in the enterprise, who bought the ship and fitted her for whaling. 

The "Dauphin." Capt. Laban Williams, sailed for the Brazil Banks Sep- 
tember 6th, 1805. and arrived with her cargo June 14th, 1806. Dr. Lee then 
bought the ship "Leonidas," in New York, and fitted her also for whaling. 
Both ships sailed in August; Williams in the "Leonidas," and Alexander 
Douglas in the "Dauphin." The "Dauphin" arrived in April, 1807, full. The 
"Leonidas" arrived in June, 1807, 1,050 barrels. 

In 1807 the ship "Lydia" was bought in New York, and put into the 
business. The three ships went to the coast of Patagonia. The "Lydia" 
(Douglas) arrived June 9th, 1808, 1,000 barrels. The "Dauphin" (Savre) 
arrived June 13th, 1808, 900 barrels. The "Leonidas" (Wm. Barnes) arrived 
June 23d, 1808, 1,200 barrels. The "Leonidas" left six of her crew on the 
uninhabited island of Trinidad ; they had landed for refreshment, and the 
weather becoming very boisterous, the wind blowing ofif from the island 
and so continuing for many days, the vessel sailed without them. In July, 
the schooner "Experiment" (S. P. Fitch) was sent to bring them away. The 
"Leonidas" (Douglas) sailed again August 31st, 1808. 

The embargo, non-intercourse and war, following close upon each other 
from this period, entirely broke up this, as well as every other species of 
commerce. The West India trade, which in former times had been the 
source of so much wealth and prosperitj^ to the town, was never again ex- 
tensively revived. After the conclusion of peace, only a few vessels were 
engaged in that traffic, and everv year diminished the number. The whale 
fishery seemed to ofTcr itself to fill the void of this declining trade. 

In 1819 the whaling business was commenced anew by T. W. Williams 
and Daniel Deshon ; the first officers employed consisted principally of per- 
sons who had gained some experience in the former short period of the busi- 
ness between 1805 and 1808. The brig "Mary" (James Davis) was sent out 
by Williams; the brig "Mary Ann" (Inglis) and the ship "Carrier" (Alex- 
ander Douglas) by Deshon. The "Mary" came in the next season, June 7th, 
and brought the first results of the new enterprise. She was out ten months 
and twenty days, and brought in 744 barrels of whale-oil and 78 of sperm. 
The "Carrier" brought 028 barrels of whale ; the "IMary Ann" only 59. 

In 1820, the brig "Pizarro" (Elias L. Coit) was added to the fleet, and 
in 1821 the brig "Thames" (Bernard) and the ship "Commodore Perry" 
(Davis). The last-named vessel was built in 1815, at East Greenwich. Rhode 
Island, but coppered in New London, after she was engaged in the whaling 
business. It was the first time that this operation was performed in the 
place, and the "Commodore Perry" was the first copper-bottomed whaling 
vessel sent from the port. On her first voyage she was out eigKr months and 
four days, and brought in 1,544 barrels of whale oil and 81 of sperm. 

The "Carrier" (O. Swain), 340 tons burden, was the first vessel from the 
port that went out on the long voyage for sperm whale. She sailed for the 
Pacific Ocean February 20th. 1821. and arrived July 12th, 1823, with 2,074 
barrels. In November, 1821, sailed also for the Pacific the new ship "Ston- 
ineton" (Ray), built at Stonington. but sent from New London. In 1822 the 
ships "Connecticut." "Ann Maria" and "Jones" were added to the fleet, and 
in 1824 the "Neptune." The four brigs and the ship "Carrier," after making 
three and four voyages each, were withdrawn from the business; and as no 
other vessels were added till 1827, at the commencement of that year the 
whaling list of the port consisted of six ships only — three of them right whale 
and three sperm cruisers. Of these, five were fitted out by T. W^ Williams, 



112 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

and the "Commodore Perry" by N. and W. W. Billings, who were then just 
launching into the business, and who purchased the same year the "Superior" 
and the "Phenix." 

A fine ship that has for many years braved the storms of ocean cannot 
be regarded with indifference. She has a history which, if it could be written, 
would be full of interest. A few brief notes respecting the older ships belong- 
ing to the port may therefore be acceptable. 

The "Commodore Perry" made seventeen voyages, and the "Stonington" 
thirteen. They both gave out. and were broken up in 1848. The "Con- 
necticut" was condemned in a foreign port in 1848, was sold, and is still 
afloat in the Pacific Ocean. The "Ann Maria" was run down by a French 
whaler in the Indian Ocean in 1842. The "Jones" made sixteen voyages, and 
was condemned in 1842. The "Neptune" and "Superior," two ships that 
belonged to the whaling fleet of New London in 1852, were both built in 1808. 
The "Superior" was built in Philadelphia, and purchased by N. and W. W. 
Billings in 1827; the "Neptune" in New Bedford, and purchased by T. W. 
Williams in 1824, for $1650. She had just returned from an unsuccessful 
whaling voyage, fitted out from New York, and, being sixteen years old, the 
sum paid for her was considered fully equal to her value. She sailed on her 
first voyage from New London, June 7th, 1824, has made eighteen voyages, 
and is now absent (1852) on her nineteenth, having been forty-four years 
afloat. She has been more than once during that period rebuilt, but has not 
lost her identity; her keel, stern-post and some of her floor-timbers belong 
to the original frame. 

No other service admits of such rapid promotion as whaling. In 1821, 
Robert B. Smith went captain of the "Mary." His experience in the business 
had been gained in two voyages only, but he proved to be one of the most 
successful and enterprising masters in the trade. He was the first to reach 
the amount of 2,000 barrels in one voyage, which he did in the "Ann Maria" 
in 1823, the second time that he went out commander. He was absent eight 
months and twenty-two days, and brought in 1.919 barrels of whale and 145 
of sperm. In his sixth voyage he was unfortunately drowned in the Pacific 
Ocean, being drawn overboard by a whale, to which he had just made fast 
with his harpoon and line, December 28th, 1828. Captain Smith's four 
brothers pursued the same line of enterprise. 

Capt. James Smith made ten voyages as captain, and several of them 
were eminently successful. In three successive voyages in the "Columbia," 
made to the island of Desolation, from which he returned in 1840, 1842, and 
1844, he brought in each time more than 4,000 barrels of oil. 

Capt. Franklin Smith, another of the brothers, made the most successful 
series of voyages to be found in the whaling annals of the port and probably 
of the world I In seven voyages to the South Atlantic, in the employ of N. 
and W. W. Billings, and accomplished in seven successive years, from 1831 
to 1837, inclusive^ — one in the "Flora," one in the "Julius Cesar," and five in 
the "Tuscarora" — he brought home 16,154 barrels of whale, 1,147 o^ sperm. 
This may be regarded as a brilliant exhibiiton of combined good fortune and 
skill. Two subsequent voyages made by him in the "Chelsea" were also 
crowned with signal success. These nine voyages were accomplished between 
June. 1830. and August, 1841. 

Capt. John Rice was one of the crew of the brig "Mary" in 1819, and 
sailed commander of the "Pizarro," June 9th, 1822. He is still in the service 
(1852), in date of commission the oldest whaling captain of the port. 

The single voyage that perhaps before any other merits special notice 
is that of the "Clematis" (Capt. Benjamin), fitted out by Williams and Barnes, 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 113 

and arriving July 4th, 1841. She was out ten months and twenty-nine days; 
went round the world, and brought home 2,548 barrels of oil. This voyage, 
when the time, the distance sailed, and the quantity of oil brought home are 
considered in connection, merits to be ranked among remarkable achieve- 
ments. 

There is no associated line of business in which the profits are more 
equitably divided among those engaged in it than in the whale fishery. The 
owners, agents, officers and crew are all partners in the voyage, and each has 
his proportionate share of the results. Its operation, therefore, is to enlarge 
the means and multiply the comforts of the many, as well as to add to the 
wealth of the wealthy. The old West India trade, which preceded it, was 
destructive in a remarkable degree to human life and health, and engendered 
habits of dissipation, turbulence, and reckless extravagance. The whaling 
business is a great advance upon this, not only as it regards life, but also in 
its relation to order, happiness and morality. The mass of the people, the 
public, gained by the exchange. 

In 1845, the whaling business reached its maximum ; seven vessels were 
added that year to the fleet, which then consisted of seventy-one ships and 
barks, one brig, and five schooners. In January, 1846, the "McLellan," of 
336 tons, was purchased by Perkins and Smith, with thf design of making 
an experiment in the Greenland fishery. This made the seventy-eighth vessel 
sailing from New London in pursuit of whales, and ranked the place more 
than 1,000 tons before Nantucket in the trade. New Bedford was still far 
ahead, but no other port in the world stood between. 

The "McLellan" has made six voyages to Davis' Straits; but the seasons 
have been peculiarly unfavorable, and she has met with little success. She 
is now absent (1852) on her seventh voyage. 

Employed in the whale fishery from New London: 1820, one ship, three 
brigs, 950 tons. 1846, seventy-one ships and barks, one brig, six schooners, 
26,200 tons; capital embarked, nearly $2,000,000. In 1847, the tide began 
to ebb ; the trade had been extended beyond what it would bear, and was 
followed by a depression of the market and a scarcity of whale. The fleet 
was that year reduced to fifty-nine ships and barks, one brig and six schoon- 
•rs: total, sixty-six; tonnage, 22,625. I" 1850, about fifty vessels were em- 
ployed, or 17,000 tons, and the capital about $1,200,000. In 1849 and 1850, 
twenty-five whaling captains abandoned the business and went to California. 
Value' of imports from the whale fishery, as exhibited by the custom-house 
returns: 1850, $618,055; 1851, $1,109,410. 

The following table of imports of whale and sperm oil into the port of 
New London, from 1820 to 1851, inclusive, and most of the statistics of the 
whale fishery since 1820, are taken from the Whaling Record of Henry P. 
Haven, which exhibits the date, length, and results of every whaling voyage 
made from New London since that period : 





Ships and 




Schooners 


Barrels of 


Barrels of 


Year 


Barks 


Brigs 


and Sloops 


Whale Oil 


Sperm Oil 


1820 


I 


2 





1. 731 


78 


1821 





3 





2,323 


105 


T822 


I 


4 





4,528 


194 


1823 


4 


2 





6,712 


2.318 


1824 


3 


2 





4,996 


1.924 


1825 


4 








5483 


'•'2^ 


1826 


2 








2,804 


88 


1827 


5 








3.375 


6.166 


1828 


3 








5435 


168 


1829 


9 








11.325 


2,20s 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



1S30 


u 


I83I 


14 


1832 


12 


1833 


17 


1834 


9 


183s 


13 


1836 


12 


1837 


17 


1838 


15 


1839 


IS 


1840 


17 


I84I 


IS 


1842 


16 


184a 


20 


1844 


18 


184s 


21 


1846 


13 


1847 


35 


1848 


20 


1849 


17 


1850 


17 


I85I 


26 



15,248 


9.792 


19,402 


5,487 


21,375 


703 


22,395 


8,503 


12,930 
14,041 


,ti§ 


18,663 


3,198 


26,774 


8,469 


25.523 


3,426 


26,278 


4,094 


32,038 


4,110 


26,893 


3.920 


28,165 


4,055 


34,677 


3,598 


39,816 


2,296 


52,576 


1,411 


27,441 


1,306 


76,287 


4,765 


54,115 


3,606 


38.030 


1,949 


36,545 


1,603 


67,508 


2,914 



Shortest voyage, ship "Manchester Packet," 1832; seven months and 
nineteen days (not including voyages of the "McLellan" to Davis' Straits). 
Longest voyage, ship "William C. Nye," arrived February loth, 1851 ; out 
fifty-seven months and eleven days. Largest quantity of oil in one voyage, 
ship "Robert Bowne," 1848, 4,850 barrels. Largest quantity of whale-oil in 
one voyage, ship "Atlantic, 1848, 4,720 barrels. Largest quantity of sperm- 
oil in one voyage, ship "Phoenix," 1833, 2,971 barrels. Largest quantity of 
oil imported in any one ship, ship "Neptune," 27,845 whale, 2,710 sperm. 

In 1847, the number of vessels employed from New London in freighting, 
coasting and home fisheries was 171, viz., nine ships and barks, three brigs, 
fifty-six schooners, 103 sloops and smacks ; whole burden, 12,300 tons.* The 
number of seamen employed in the whale fishery and domestic trade was 
about 3,000. 

The year 1849 was distinguished by the general rush for California; 
nineteen vessels sailed for that coast from New London, but of these one 
schooner was fitted in Norwich, and two or three others were in part made 
up from adjoining towns. The statistics of the business with California for 
two years have been estimated as follows ("New London Democrat") : Sent 
in 1849, four ships, three barks, twelve schooners; 3,745 tons. Passengers, 
152; seamen, 186. Value of goods: merchandise, $3,->28; domestic products, 
$70,418; domestic manufactures, $45,520. 

Sent in 1850, one ship, one brig, three schooners ; 803 tons. Passengers. 
15; seamen, 53. Value of merchandise, $1,905; domestic products, $19,598; 
domestic manufactures, $10,524. 

About fifty persons from New London went in steamers or vessels from 
other ports. (Nine or ten vessels sailed for California from Mystic.) The 
whole number that went from the place to California in those two years, as 



* From statistics furnished the Harbor and River Convention, at Chicago, 
1S47, by T. W. Williams. 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 115 

seamen and passengers, could not have been less than 450. 

Of the effect of the war of 1812 on New London, Miss Caulkins tells 
many interesting anecdotes. One instance must serve: 

Varied and numerous were the events of the town and neighborhood 
during these three successive years of constant rigorous blockade. The slooj) 
"Juno," Captain John Howard, continued to pi}- back and forth between New 
London and New York during the whole war with but a single serious acci- 
dent ; that was the loss of her mast b}' a shot of the enemy after being driven 
into Saybrook Harbor. Her enterprising commander was well acquainted 
with the Sound, made his trips during the darkest nights and in severest 
storms, guided often by the lantern lights of the enemy's ships as he repeat- 
edly ran through their blockading squadron. He was narrowly watched and 
several times pursued by their boats and barges, but always eluded capture. 
Sometimes when too closely pursued, a spirited fire from his cannon, four 
pieces of which he always carried on deck, only to be used in defense, would 
drive away his pursuers and secure his little craft from further molestation. 
The fact that the enemy were fully apprised of his times of departure and 
expected arrival, and in fact all his movements, through the newspapers, 
which they could easily obtain, renders it the more remarkable that she 
escaped their vigilance. 

It is remarkable that during the whole war not a man in Connecticut 
was killed, notwithstanding the long and vigorous blockade and the many 
encounters between detachments of the enemy and the inhabitants. One 
person only, a Mr. Dolph, lost his life on the waters of the coast, ofif Say- 
brook, while engaged with others in recovering two prizes taken by the 
enemy. Such a fact appears almost miraculous. 

Commodore Decatur entertained the hope that some opportunity would 
offer for his escape with his vessels during the winter, and watched for an 
opportunity favorable to his design. His vessel dropped down and remained 
at anchor opposite the town, and quietly remained waiting for some remiss- 
ness of vigilance on the part of the enemy. At length the favorable time 
seemed to have arrived. A dark night, a favorable wind, and fair tide, all 
gave every expectation of success. But just as the little fleet were about 
to start, "blue-lights" appeared on both sides of the river. Such an unusual 
occurrence gave strong suspicions that these were concerted signals to the 
enemy, and notwithstanding every preparation had been made with the most 
profound secrecy, the commodore considered himself betrayed, and relin- 
quished his intentions, making no further effort to run the blockade. Al- 
though he was firm in his belief that his intentions were thus signaled to 
the enemy, it was indignantly denied by the citizens that any traitorous 
designs existed, and that the lights were accidental, or that those who 
reported them to the commodore were mistaken. He, however, removed his 
two large vessels up the river, where they were dismantled and only a guard 
left on board. The "Hornet" remained at New London, and subsequently 
slipped out of the harbor, and, eluding capture, reached New York in safety. 
The restoration of peace in 1815 was an occasion of general rejoicing. 
Our enemies became friends, and receptions, balls, and public rejoicings sig- 



ii6 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

nalized the event, in which the officers of the British squadron cordially par- 
ticipated, and who were as cordially received by the citizens of the town. 
Such was the close of the war of 1812. 

We extract from Miss Caulkins' history the following accounts of early 
e»terprise : 

The first regular line of steamboats from New York to New London was 
established in 1816. On the 28th of September in that year, the "Connecticut" 
(Bunker) arrived from New York in twenty-one hours, which was regarded 
as a signal triumph of steam, the wind and a swell of the tide being against 
her. In October the regular line commenced, making two trips per week to 
New Haven. The "Fulton" (Captain Law) was running at the same time 
between New York and New Haven. The price of passage was five dollars 
to New Haven, and from thence to New York, four dollars. Steam pro- 
pellers, carrying principally freight, but some passengers, commenced navi- 
gating the Sound in 1844. The first was the "Quinebaug." 

In one respect New London stands in honorable connection with the 
history of steam navigation. Capt. Moses Rogers, the commander of the 
steamship "Savannah," the first steam vessel that ever crossed the Atlantic, 
and Capt. Stevens Rogers, sailing-master of the same and brother-in-law of 
the captain, were both natives of New London. The "Savannah" was built 
in New York, under the direction of Captain Rogers, for a company in 
Savannah, and was a full-rigged ship of about 350 tons burden, and fur- 
nished with an engine of eighty or ninety horse-power, by which she made 
about eight knots to the hour. She sailed for Savannah, May 26th, 1819, for 
the sole purpose of making the grand experiment of ocean steam navigation. 
Mr. Scarborough, of Savannah, one of the company that owned the steamer, 
asserted that they had no other object in view; that anticipating the use of 
steam-enginery in that line, and having a surplusage of profit on hand from 
some successful operations of the company, instead of dividing it, they built 
and fitted out the "Savannah," in order to give to America the honor of 
making the first attempt to navigate the Atlantic by steam. 

The passage to Liverpool was made in twenty-two days, fourteen by 
steam and eight by sails, the latter being used solely through the prudence 
of the captain to save the consumption of fuel, lest some emergency might 
occur and the supply be exhausted. From Liverpool the steamer proceeded 
to Copenhagen, and from thence to Stockholm and to St. Petersburg. At 
these ports she excited universal admiration and interest. Lying at anchor 
like a public vessel, with no business to accomplish, no port charges to defray, 
no cargo to take on board, her stay was a continued reception of visitors, and 
her whole passage through the Baltic might be likened to a triumphant pro- 
cession. Bernadotte, King of Sweden, and the Emperor of Russia, with their 
nobles and public officers, not only came on board to examine the wonderful 
American steamer, but tested her performance by short excursions in the 
neighboring waters. On the return home, the last place left in Europe was 
Arendel, in Norway, from whence the passage to Savannah was made in 
twenty-five days, nineteen by steam and six by sails. 

Capt. Moses Rogers gained his experience as a steam engineer on the 
Hudson river, where he had been engaged in some of the earliest experiments 
in propelling vessels by steam. After his return from the voyage in the 
"Savannah," he took command of a steamboat running on the Great Pedee 
river, and died suddenly at Cheraw, South Carolina, September 15th, 1822, 
at the age of forty-two years. 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 117 

Capt. Stevens Rogers is now an officer of the customs in New London, 
and from him the foregoing account of the first voyage by steam across the 
Atlantic is derived. He has in his possession a massive gold snuff-box pre- 
sented to him by Lord Lyndock, an English nobleman who took passage in 
the steamer from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, through an arrangement made 
for him by Mr. Hughes, the American Minister at the Swedish court. On the 
inside of the lid is the following inscription: "Presented by Sir Thomas 
Graham, Lord Lyndock, to Stevens Rogers, sailing-master of the steam-ship 
'Savannah,' at St. Petersburg, October loth, 1819." 

Capt. Moses Rogers, among other costly presents, received from the 
Emperor of Russia an elegant silver tea-urn. The log-book kept during this 
voyage is deposited in the National Institute at Washington. 

The development of New London county since the Civil War days has 
been mostly along the lines of manufacturing, though many of our smaller 
towns are still chiefly agricultural in their interests. Special articles have 
been prepared on many topics, but in general it may be said that our enter- 
prises are characterized by their variety. The main industries are cotton 
and woolen manufactures, with many others of great importance, among 
them the making of quilts, of leather goods, of paper, of bleaching and 
printing, of shipbuilding, the making of engines, of velvet, of machinery of 
many sorts, of cutlery, of guns, of hardware, of birch and witch hazel oils, 
of menhaden oil, of silk, of soap, of lace, and many other articles too numerous 
to mention. The inventive genius of the Connecticut Yankee has been re- 
vealed in our county as clearly as in the rest of the State. 

The account of early newspapers is likewise of interest. The first news- 
paper of the town bore the following title: "The New London Summary, or 
The Weekly Advertiser, With the Freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestic." 

At the close of the paper was the notification, "Printed by Timothy 
Green." It was a folio sheet ; the size of the page about twelve inches by 
eight, with two columns of print. The heading was adorned with an orna- 
mented cut of the colony seal, with the escutcheon of the town added by 
way of crest, viz., a ship in full sail. The first number was issued August 
8th, 1758. The editor died August 3d, 1763, and the paper was discontinued. 

2. "The New London Gazette," with a stamp of the king's arms, appeared 
in November, 1763. The size was considerably increased, the print arranged 
in three columns, and the price 6s. per annum, one-half to be paid on the 
delivery of the first number. This was in fact the same paper under another 
name, being a continuation by Timothy Green, nephew and assistant of the 
former publisher; but as the numerical series of the summary was not con- 
tinued, the numbers being commenced anew, it may be classed as another 
paper. It was soon enlarged in size, and the name changed in the course of 
a few years to "The Connecticut Gazette." This had been the title of the 
first newspaper in the colony, established in New Haven, 1755, by James 
Parker and Co., John Holt, editor, but discontinued in 1767, and there being 
then no paper in the colony bearing that title, it was adopted by the pro- 



ii8 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

prietor of the New London paper. In 1789 Mr. Green took his son Samuel 
into partnership with him, and the "Gazette" was issued by Timothy Green 
and Son to 1794, when Samuel Green assumed the whole business. In 1805 
he retired a while from the paper, and it was issued by Cady and Eells (Eben- 
ezer P. Cady and Nathaniel Eells). In May. 1808, it was resumed by Green, 
and continued to January, 1838, when it passed for two years into the hands 
of John J. Hyde, who was both editor and publisher. In 1840 it reverted to 
the former proprietor, or to his son, S. H. Green, and was conducted by the 
latter to July, 1841. The next editor was A. G. Seaman, by whom it was 
continued about three years, after which the existence of the "Gazette" en- 
tirely ceased. It had been issued regularly under the name of the "Gazette" 
for more than eighty years. 

We would here notice that the Spooner family, which is connected with 
the history of newspapers in this country, was linked both by marriage and 
occupation with the Greens. Judah P. Spooner and Alden Spooner, early 
printers in Vermont, were sons of Thomas Spooner (who came to New- 
London from Newport in 1753), and brothers-in-law of Timothy Green. 
Alden Spooner (2d), son of the first-named of the brothers, was a native of 
New London. He is known as the editor of the "Suffolk Gazette," published 
at Sag Harbor from 1804 to 181 1, and of the "Long Island Star," which he 
conducted from i8il to his death, a period of about thirty-five years. 

Charles Miner, long a noted printer in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 
obtained his knowledge of the business in the "Gazette" office at New London. 
He was for a number of years a member of Congress, and has left an endur- 
ing memorial of his talents and research in the "History of Wyoming," of 
which he is the author. 

Green's "Connecticut Register" was first published in 1785, and again 
in 1786; it was then intermitted for one year, but has regularly appeared every 
year since, making, inclusive of 1852, seventy-six volumes.* 

After the year 1750, the Greens annually printed an "Almanac or Astro- 
nomical Diary." The first numbers were prepared by James Davis, and 
calculated for the meridian of New London. Next to the series of Davis, 
they reprinted the "Boston Almanac" of Nathaniel Ames, until 1766, when 
Clark Elliott, a mathematician and instrument maker who had settled in 
New London, commenced an independent series of almanacs which were at 
first published with his own name but afterward with the assumed one of 
Edmund Freebetter. This change is said to have been caused by a mistake 
which Elliott made in one of his astronomical calculations, which so much 
disconcerted him that he refused ever after to affix his name to the almanac. 
He died in 1793, and Nathan Daboll, of Groton, began his series of almanacs 
with that year, which were continued by him during his life, and have been 



* Col. Samuel Green, for so many years editor and proprietor of the "Gazette," though 
no longer a resident in New London, is still living (1852), eighty-four, realizing that happy 
enjoyment of health, cheerfulness and prosperity which is designated as a green old age. 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 119 

prepared by successors of the same name and family to the present year, 1852. 
Nathan Daboll was a self-taught mathematician. He compiled an arith- 
metic which was extensively used in the schools of New England, and a 
system of practical navigation that was also highly esteemed. He opened a 
school in New London for the common and higher branches of mathematics, 
and the principles of navigation. He died in Groton, March 9th, 1918, aged 
sixty-eight. 

3. "The Weekly Oracle, printed and published by James Springer, oppo- 
site the Market," was the title of a newspaper commenced at New London in 
October, 1796, and continued four years. 

4. "The Bee, printed and published by Charles Holt." This paper was 
commenced June 14th, 1797, and discontinued June 30th, 1802. The editor 
immediately issued proposals for publishing a paper with the same title at 
Hudson, New York. "The Bee" may therefore be considered as transferred 
to that place. This paper was a prominent organ of the Democratic party, 
and under the administration of the elder Adams the editor was arrested for 
a libel, tried by the United States Court then sitting at New Haven, and 
under the provisions of the sedition law condemned to six months' imprison- 
me;it and to pay a fine of $200. Charles Holt was a native of New London ; 
he died in Jersey City, opposite New York, in August, 1852, aged seventy- 
eight. 

5. "The Republican Advocate," established in February, 1818, continued 
about ten years. It was first issued by Clapp and Francis (Joshua B. Clapp 
and Simeon Francis), but after four or five years the partnership dissolved. 
Francis removed to the west, and for a number of years published a news- 
paper in Springfield, Illinois. Clapp continued the "Advocate" alone until 
about the close of the year 1828, when he sold the establishment to John 
Eldridge. The latter changed the name to "The Connecticut Sentinel," but 
the publication was not long continued. 

6. "The People's Advocate, and New London County Republican." This 
paper was commenced August 26, 1840, with the immediate object in view 
of promoting the election of William Henry Harrison to the presidency. The 
proprietor was Benjamin P. Bissell. The editor for 1840, John Jay Hyde; 
for 1841, Thomas P. Trott. Bissell then took the whole charge of the paper 
till his death, September 3d, 1842. In 1843, J. G. Dolbeare and W. D. Man- 
ning appeared as associate editors and proprietors, but the next year Dol- 
beare assumed the sole editorship. In November, 1844, he commenced the 
first daily paper published in New London; it was a folio sheet, the page 
twelve inches by nine, and called "The Morning News." In April, 1848, the 
"Advocate" and the "News" were merged in the "Weekly and Daily Chron- 
icle," which, commencing a new series of numbers and bearing a different 
name, must be considered as altogether a new undertaking. 

7. "The New London Democrat" was commenced March 22d, 1845, by 
J. M. Scofield and S. D. Macdonald ; but the second editor retired with the 
publication of the forty-fourth number. January ist, 1848, Scofield, in con- 



I20 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

nection with the "Democrat," commenced a daily paper entitled "The Morn- 
ing Star." He has since emigrated to California, having assigned his whole 
printing establishment, January ist, 1849, to D. S. Ruddock, the present editor 
and proprietor of the "Star and Democrat." 

8. "The New London Weekly and Daily Chronicle" were first issued in 
May, 1848, by C. F. Daniels and F. H. Bacon, an association which continued 
for three years. Since August, 1851, C. F. Daniels has been sole editor and 
proprietor. 

The above are all the serial publications of the town that have been 
continued long enough to count their existence by years. Transient under- 
takings for a special purpose, and some occasional papers not issued at regular 
intervals have been omitted. 

The following passage is selected from an article by Miss Charlotte M. 
Holloway, written in 1897: 

New I,ondon fairly teems with well authenticated anecdotes of the Revo- 
lution, and it is hard to pass through the older part of the town without find- 
ing objects of interest ; but the Revolutionary part of local history has been 
so thoroughly covered that but passing mention can be made of the houses 
which stood in that period. 

On Main street are the Guy Richards, corner Main and Richards streets; 
the Red Fox Tavern, where Washington stopped in 1756; the Episcopal par- 
sonage, the home of Mather Byles; and the Burbeck house, all between Fed- 
eral and Masonic streets. The latter was the home of Maj.-Gen. Henry 
Burbeck, brevet brigadier-general of the United States army, the founder of 
the United States Military Academy, and second chief of artillery, and the 
man who did so much to bring that branch of service to its splendid rank. 
He served with distinction in the Revolution, was a personal friend of Wash- 
ington, served with great distinction as chief of artillery to General Wayne 
in the war with the Miamis, was thanked in general orders, and in 1800 was 
in military command of all the Atlantic seaboard and Eastern and Middle 
States, with his headquarters at Washington, and in 1801 began the Academy 
at West Point. After a faithful, continuous service in the most useful and 
arduous labor for the advancement of the army, he was retired, and devoted 
himself to his home in New London. On July 4, 1846, he was made president 
of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. He died in October, 1848, 
and the Cincinnati erected the fine shaft to his memory in Cedar Grove. The 
town had a taste of his quality. It had decreed that the three elms which 
stand before the house should fall. The General determined they should not, 
and when he placed himself before them, gun in hand, and swore to shoot 
the first who touched them, he persuaded the selectmen that he was right. 
Within the old house now dwell his sons, William Henry, a member of the 
Cincinnati and the Sons of the American Revolution ; John ; and Charlotte, 
who is nearing one hundred years, an honorary member of the Lucretia Shaw 
Chapter, D. A. R., which has three daughters of Revolutionary soldiers on 
its list. 

The Hempstead house, built and fortified in 1678, is the third oldest in 
the State. It was the home of Sheriff Hempstead, famous for his skill and 
courage, and of the Joshua whose diary is such a mine of gossip and informa- 
tion. It is preserved faithfully, as it was known to generations of Hemp- 
stead, its quaint interior unmarred by modern touch by its owner, the well- 



CITY OF NEW LONDON 121 

known author, Mary Bolles Branch, a descendant of Hempsteads. The old 
stone house wreathed with ivy, its neighbor, was built by Huguenots, in 1697. 
On the plateau of Manwaring Hill, commanding a magnificent view of 
the Sound, a site of surpassing beauty, stands the old Manwaring manor. 
Since 1660 the land has been in possession of the family. No one has read 
Miss Caulkins' "History of New London" without being impressed with the 
limpid clearness of her style and the pleasant humor which made her digress 
occasionally from the dry-as-dust pathway of fact to pluck some of the fra- 
grant flowers of tradition. Frances Manwaring Caulkins was born in New 
London, April 26, 1795, and died here, February 3, 1869. Through her father 
she was a descendant of Hugh Caulkins, who came with Richard Blinman, 
the first minister of the colony. On her mother's side her ancestry was noted 
in early English history, Sir Ranulphus de Manwaring being justice of Ches- 
ter in 1189-99; another, Sir William, was killed in the streets of Chester, 
defending Charles L, October 9, 1644. For thirty generations the Manwarings 
held Over Peover, the family seat. Her father died before she was born, and 
her uncle, Christopher Manwaring, a gentleman noted for generosity, culture 
and literary tastes, was exceedingly fond of his talented niece, aiding her with 
his library, and for seven years she dwelt with him. When she desired tij 
teach, he set apart a room, still called her schoolroom. He married for his 
second wife Mary Wolcott, a noted beauty, and daughter of the famous Wol- 
cott family. The widow of his son. Dr. Robert Alexander Manwaring, Ellen 
Barber Manwaring (daughter of Noyes Barber, for eighteen years Congress- 
man from this district, the friend of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and William 
Henry Harrison, who was to have had him in his cabinet), occupies the 
mansion with her only son, Wolcott B. Manwaring. 

No landmark in New London is more interesting than its old mill. The 
following poem by M. G. Brainard, in the "New London Day," is rich in 
suggestion : 

THE OLD MILL AT NEW LONDON 

The same old mill that Winthrop built; 

Few were the men that saw it rise ; 
Today it passes on their life, 

Transmitted through the centuries. 

In quietude this lowly house 

Has stood beside the peaceful glen. 
And seen the busy years go by, 

Full of the toils of busy men. 

Has stood through revolution's blood 

Recorded Arnold's guilty raid, 
And looked on England's ships of war, 

From out its oft secluded shade; 

Has seen our churches and our schools 

With tower and spire rise one by one; 
Has heard the chimes of Sabbath bells 

Ring out their call from sire to son. 

Has heard the rising city's din. 

The railroad's shriek, the steamboat's call. 
Yet never through the tumult lost 

The dash of its own waterfall. 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 

And men have rome and men have gone, 
Houses been built and homes laid low; 

And now, the same old mill-stone turns 
E'en as two centuries ago. 

How many through this wild ravine 
Have wandered in their youthful day, 

And where the water rushed between, 

Have skipped from rock to rock their way. 

Then, from the miller's humbler door, 
With borrowed cup, have rushed in haste 

To where the ever-flowing trough 
Poured for each thirsty lip a taste. 

How many by the placid pond. 
The little wharf, the dainty bridge. 

Have watched the willows as they dipped 
Their fringes in the water's edge. 

Or, lingering near this quiet spot 
In the soft moonlight pale and still, 

Have listened to the water's gush 
And drank the peace of the old mill. 

Some changes — 'tis not all the same; 

The years could never leave us all ; 
Time's footsteps make their impress felt, 

However silent be their fall. 

Some little, low, deserted room, 
With lacy cobwebs hanging o'er 

Some widening rifts among the laths 
Show what was once that is no more. 

And still the water wends its way 
With rush and gush of happy sound, 

And throws its arch of sparkling spray. 
And pushes the big wheel around. 

Long may the ancient mill-stone grind ! 

Long may the ancient mill be seen ! 
Long wave the trees, long flow the pond ! 

Long rest the rocks in their ravine! 

Long, through the narrow, open door 
And little window o'er the wheel, 

May sunshine gleam upon the floor 
O'er golden heaps and bags of meal. 

Soft be the touch of rushing time, 
Swift as they need the prompt repairs ; 

Reverent the care shall pass thee on 
As thou hast been, to waitmg years. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CITY OF NORWICH 

Its Founding — First Settlers— Development of th: Town— During the Revolution- 
Reminiscent Letters from Former Residents — Beginnings of Manufacturing— Early 
Newspapers — The Jubilee of 1859 — Abraham Lincoln Visits the City — Roll of Noted 
People — Description of the Town by Henry Ward Beecher. 

The following is from the pen of Edmund Clarence Stedman: 
THE INLAND CITY (1851) 

Guarded by circling streams and wooded mountains 

Like sentinels round a queen, 
Dotted with groves and musical with fountains, 

The city lies serene. 

Not far away the Atlantic tide diverges, 

And, up the southern shore 
Of gray New England, rolls in shortened surges, 

That murmur evermore. 

The fairy city ! not for frowning castle 

Do I extol her name; 
Not for the gardens and the domes palatial 

Of Oriental fame; 

Yet if there be one man who will not rally, 

One man, who sayeth not 
That of all cities in the Eastern valley 

Ours is the fairest spot; 

Then let him roam beneath those elms gigantic, 

Or idly wander where 
Shetucket flows meandering, where Yantic 

Leaps through the cloven air, 

Gleaming from rock to rock with sunlit motion, 

Then slumbering in the cove ; 
So sinks the soul from Passion's wild devotion, 

To the deep calm of love. . 

And journey with me to the village olden. 

Among whose devious ways 
Are mossy mansions, rich with legends golden 

Of early forest days; 

Elysian time ! when by the rippling water. 

Or in the woodland groves. 
The Indian warrior and the Sachem's daughter 

Whispered their artless loves; 



124 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Legends of fords, where Uncas made his transit. 

Fierce for the border war, 
And drove all day the alien Narragansett 

Back to his haunts afar; 

Tales of the after time, when scant and humble 

Grew the Mohegan band. 
And Tracy, Griswold, Huntington and Trumbull, 

Were judges in the land. 

So let the caviler feast on old tradition, 

And then at sunset climb 
Up yon green hill, where, on his broadened vision 
May burst the view sublime 1 

The city spires, with stately power impelling 

The sou] to look above. 
And peaceful homes, in many a rural dwelling. 

Lit up with flames of love;— 

And then confess, nor longer idly dally, 

While sinks the lingering sun. 
That of all cities in the Eastern valley 

Ours is the fairest one. 

The town of Norwich is bounded on the north by Sprague and Franklin, 
on the east by Lisbon and Preston, on the south by Preston and Montville, 
and on the west by Bozrah and Franklin. The original town of nine miles 
square has lost its area by the setting off of Bozrah, Franklin and Lisbon in 
1786, and by the loss of a portion of the present Preston in 1687. The deed 
of the town land was executed by Uncas, Owaneco, and Attawanhood June 
6, 1659, and reads as follows : 

Deed of Norwich. 
Know all men that Onkos, Owaneco, Attawanhood, Sachems of Mohegan 
have Bargined, sold, and passed over, and doe by these presents sell and pass 
over unto the Towne and Inhabitants of Norwich nine miles square of land 
lying and being at Moheagan and the parts thereunto adjoyneing, with all 
ponds, rivers, woods, quarries, mines, with all royalties, privileges, and appur- 
tenances thereunto belonging, to them the said inhabitants of Norwich, theire 
heirs and successors forever — the said lands are to be bounded as followeth. 
(viz.) to the southward on the west side of the Great River, ye line is to begin 
at the brooke falling into the head of Trading Cove, and soc to run west 
norwest seven miles — from thence the line to run nor north east nine miles, 
and on the East side the afores'd river to the southward the line is to joyne 
with New London bounds as it is now laid out and soe to run east two miles 
from the foresd river, nor norwest nine miles to meet with the western line. 

In consideration whereof the sd Onkos. Owaneco and Attawanhood doe 

acknowledge to have received of the parties aforesd the full and juste sum 
of seventy pounds and doe promise and engage ourselves, heirs and succes- 
sors, to warrant the sd bargain and sale to the aforesd parties, their heirs and 
successors, and them to defend from all claimes and molestations from any 



CITY OF NORWICH 125 

whatsoever. — In witness whereof we have hereunto set to our hands this 6th 
of June, Anno 1659. 

Unkos 

OWANECO 

Attawanhood 
Witness hereunto, John Mason, Thomas Tracy. 

This deed is recorded in the Country Booke, August 20th, 1663: as attests 
John Allyn, secretary. The bounds of this tract, as more particularly de- 
scribed in the first volume of the Proprietors' Records, were as follows: 

The line commenced at the mouth of Trading Cove, where the brook falls 
into the cove ; thence W. N. W. seven miles to a Great Pond (now in the 
corner of Bozrah and Colchester), the limit in this direction being denoted 
by a black oak marked N that stood near the outlet of "Great Brook that runs 
out of the pond to Norwich river," thence N. N. E. nine miles to a black oak 
standing on the south side of the river (Shetucket), "a little above Maw-mi- 
ag-waug"; thence S. S. E. nine miles, crossing the Shetucket and the Quine- 
baug, and passing through "a Seader Swamp called Catantaquck," to a white 
oak tree, marked N. thirteen rods beyond a brook called Quo-qui-qua-soug, 
the space from the Quinebaug to this tree being just one mile and fifty-eight 
rods; thence S. S. W. nine miles to a white oak marked N. near the dwelling- 
houses of Robert Allyn and Thomas Rose, where Norwich and New London 
bounds join ; thence west on the New London bounds, crossing the southern 
part of Mr. Brewster's land, two miles to Mohegan river, opposite the mouth 
of Trading Cove brook where the first bounds began. 

Such were the bounds, as reviewed and renewed in October, 1685, by an 
authorized committee, accompanied by the two sachems and some of the 
chief men of Mohegan. The former deed of 1659, with the boundaries thus 
described and explained, was then ratified and confirmed by "Owaneca, 
sachem of Mohegan, son and heire unto Vnchas deceased," and "Josiah, son 
and heire unto Owaneca," in a new deed, signed by them October 5th, 1685, 
witnessed by John Arnold and Stephen GifTord, and acknowledged before 
James Fitch, assistant. 

The southern boundary line, it will be observed, is nine miles in length, 
two east of the river, and seven west, without counting the breadth of the 
Thames, and the length of Trading Cove to the mouth of the brook, which 
would make this line nearly ten miles long. This is explained in the deed to 
be designed as a compensation for "the benefit and liberty of the waters and 
river for fishing and other occasions," reserved to the Indians. 

Of the original so-called "thirty-five proprietors," Miss Caulkins writes 
as follows : 

Who were the original proprietors of Norwich? The current statement 
that they were just thirty-five in number is based upon the authority of his- 
torians writing more than a century after the settlement. Dr. Trumbull in 
his "History of Connecticut" gives this number, relying, it is supposed, upon 
a list furnished in 1767 by the Rev. Dr. Lord, pastor of the First Church of 
Norwich. Dr. Lord's manuscript is extant. He says: "The town of Norwich 
was settled in the spring of 1660: the Purchase of sd Town was made in ye 
month of June, 1659, by 35 men." 



126 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

He then gives a list of the names, which includes several who were 
minors at that time, and one at least (John Elderkin) whose earliest grant 
at Norwich was in 1667. 

Laying aside, therefore, all subsequent statements and recurring to the 
oldest records remaining at Norwich from which these abstracts must have 
been derived, it is found that the original records were very deficient in giving 
dates to the early grants. Resolutions passed at different periods in the 
town meetings refer to this defect. 

In 1672 a new record of lands was made under direction of the town 
authorities, by James Fitch, Jr. It was commenced May ist of that year, 
and the book contains a registry of the town lands and grants, "so far as 
copies of said lands were brought in by the inhabitants." The number of 
land-owners recorded is seventy-eight, three or four of whom were non- 
residents. In 1681 the inhabitants declaring themselves sensible of a defi- 
ciency in their original records, appointed three of the first-comers, Thomas 
Leffingwell, Thomas Adgate, and John Post, to search for the original dates 
of former acts and grants, but nothing appears to have been done under this 
commission. 

May 3d, 1684, Christopher Huntington, recorder, at the request of John 
Olmstead, who, he says, "desireth to have the primitive date set to his record 
of land, which hath not been done heretofore for the want of an orderly dating 
by the first recorder, Mr. Birchard," ascertains the true date, and affixes it 
under his signature — "which date we find out of an antient wrighting which 
respects our purchase interest, and right, to be in the yeare of our Lord upon 
the 30th day of June 1659." Again, December i8th, 1694, the town, after 
adverting to their former negligence in the record of proprietary lands, 
nominated a committee of six men "to search out and do the best they can 
to find the names of first purchasers, and what estate each of them put in, 
and report to the town." 

The striking fact is here disclosed that in little more than thirty years 
after the settlement, the number of the first proprietors, the amount of each 
one's subscription, and the names of all the purchasers, were not generally 
known and could not be determined without some difficulty. 

No report of the last commission is recorded. Not long afterwards, 
Capt. James Fitch was employed in the same business. He began a new 
registry of lands, copying original records where he could find them, stating 
bounds as they then existed, and affixing dates as nearly accurate as could 
be ascertained. It is from this registry that the various lists of the thirty-five 
proprietors have been gathered. Home lots, that seem to have constituted 
original grants, not having been alienated or purchased, were m general dated 
November, 1659. But the whole number that appears to be included under 
this date, either expressly or by implication, is thirty-eight, and it is difficult 
to decide which of these should be rejected, so as to leave the number just 
thirty-five. 

The following list comprises those against whom not only nothing is 
found to militate against their being ranked as first proprietors, but, on the 
contrary, the records either prove conclusively, or favor the idea, that they 
belonged to that class: Rev. James Fitch, Major John Mason, Thomas Adgate, 
Robert Alhn, William Backus, William Backus, Jr., John Baldwin, John 
Birchard, Thomas Bliss. Morgan Bowers. Hugh Calkins^ John Calkins, Rich- 
ard Edgerton, Francis Griswold, Christopher Huntington, Simon Huntington, 
William Hyde, Samuel Hyde. Thomas Leffingwell, John Olmstead, John 
Pease, John Post. Thomas Post, John Reynolds, Jonathan Royce, Nehemiah 
Smith, Thomas Tracy, Robert Wade. 




A 



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if-j^'.rj 



\n OF THr C REDN NOP\MCH IM IS I 
W \S THE OLD COURT HOI SE AFTER\\ \ 
TH \r ON THF roRNEI A TAVI F N THE 

THi MFrriNc Housr of thp rocK 

IN THI SI TTLFMFNT 




CITY OF NORWICH 127 

Others having original home-lots and all the privileges of first pro- 
prietors were: Thomas IBingham, John Bradford, John Gager, Stephen Giflord, 
Richard Hendv. Thomas Howard, Thomas Waterman, John Tracy, Josiah 
Reed. Richard "Wallis. 

Of this second class, Bingham, GifTord, Howard, Reed, Tracy and Water- 
man, were probably minors when the plantation commenced. They were all 
married between 1666 and 1670. inclusive, and were all living, except Howard) 
in 1702, when a roll of the inhabitants was made in reference to a division of 
land which distinguished the surviving first proprietors from the list of ac- 
cepted inhabitants. Bingham, GifFord, Reed, Tracy and Waterman were 
enrolled with the latter, which would seem to settle the point that they were 
not original proprietors. 

Most of these names, however, are necessary in order to make up the 
charmed number thirty-five. From the position these young men took, and 
the prominence of their descendants in the history of the town, they seem to 
have a higher claim to be ranked as proprietors than some of the earlier class. 
Hendy and Wallis, for instance, of whom we know little more than their 
names, and, accepting the six minors, we are brought back to the time-honored 
prescriptive number, thirty-five. Stephen Backus, another minor, became a 
proprietor in the right of his father, William Backus, who died soon after 
the settlement. 

The Town-plot was laid out in a winding vale, which followed the course 
of the rapid, circuitous Yantic, and was sheltered for the greater part of the 
way, on either side, by abrupt and rocky but well-wooded hills. A broad 
street or highway was opened through this valley, on each side of which the 
home-lots were arranged. A pathway was likewise cleared from the center 
of the settlement to the Indian landing place below the Falls of the Yantic. 
near the head of the Cove, following the old Indian trail from Ox-hill to 
Yantic ford. This path, called by the settlers Mill-Lane, was the most eligible 
route by which the effects of the planters could be conveyed. In some places 
the forests had been thinned of their undergrowth by fires, to afford scope 
for the Indians in their passionate love of the chase, and the beaver had done 
his part towards clearing the lowlands and banks of the rivers. A few wig- 
wams were scattered here and there, the occasional abodes of wandering 
families of Indians at certain seasons of the year, who came hither for sup- 
plies of fish, fruit, or game; and the summits of some of the hills were 
crowned with disorderly heaps of stones, showing where some rude defense 
had been constructed in the course of their wars. But in every other respect 
the land was in its natural wild state. It was a laborious task to cut down 
trees, to burn the underbrush, to mark out roads and pathways, to throw 
temporary bridges over the runs of water, and to collect materials for 
building. 

The home-lots comprised each a block of several acres, and were in 
general river-lands, favorable for mowing, pasture and tillage. Here lay the 
prime advantage to be gained by a change of residence, the first proprietors 
being, with scarcely a single exception, agriculturists and farmers. 

Of the coming of the settlers from Saybrook, no better description has 



128 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

been given than that of Rev. Dr. Lewellyn Pratt, delivered at the two hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the founding. He says : 

I presume that I have been selected to speak this opening word in the 
public services of this 250th anniversary, as a native and representative of the 
old town of Saybrook. I am to remind you of "the rock whence ye were 
hewn and the hole of the pit whence ye were digged." 

As we all know, the band of pilgrims who came here in 1659-60 came for 
the most part from Saybrook. An independent colony had been established 
there under the leadership of Gov. John Winthrop the younger. It was a 
colony animated by great expectations. The importance of the location at 
the mouth of the great river, the prospect and the purpose of building there a 
large city, and the hope that many prominent men would soon follow, made 
it an attractive spot to enterprising souls. That settlement was begun in 
1635, the same year that Hooker brought his colony through the wilderness 
to Hartford. Lion Gardiner, an engineer who had seen service under the 
Prince of Orange in the Netherlands, was induced by Governor Winthrop 
to come to fortify the place, to lay out the ground for a city, and to "make 
preparation for the reception of men of quality" who were soon to follow 
from England. He remained four years and was succeeded by Col. George 
Fenwick, and he in turn by Maj. John Mason. During the first years, trouble- 
some years of defence aj^ainst the frequent assaults of the Indians, the settle- 
ment had for its center and principal feature the fort which Gardiner had 
built at the first. About this were clustered the houses, and in this, in the 
Great Hall, was the gathering place for defense, for transaction of business, 
and for worship. No church was formed at first, for it was principally a 
military post, and the chaplain of the post. Rev. John Higginson, was the 
spiritual guide of the colony. Col. George Fenwick, after the failure of "the 
men of quality" who were expected to join him in the enterprise, transferred 
his colony, in 1644, to Connecticut, and soon after, saddened by the death of 
his wife, Lady Alice, returned with his children to England, and Maj. John 
Mason was persuaded to receive the investment and to make Saybrook his 
home. There he remained as leader for twelve years. 

Under his administration the colony thrived, and a more extended settle- 
ment was made north, east and west. In 1646 a church was formed, and the 
Rev. James Fitch, who had studied with the Rev. Thomas Hooker and who 
was recommended by him, became pastor, and Thomas Adgate deacon. Mr. 
Fitch's ministry, whom Trumbull speaks of as a "famous young gentleman" 
(he was in his twenty-fourth year when he was settled), proved to be a very 
happy and successful one. Notwithstanding the hostility of the Dutch and 
the Indians, the plantation grew by the moving in of choice families, some 
of them from Windsor and Hartford, attracted in part by the popularity of 
the young preacher. We have meager records of that period, but it seems 
to have been one that promised well for the settlement, which was now 
assuming the consequence of a real plantation and becoming something more 
than a military post. 

After a lapse of fourteen or fifteen years, however, we find that a check 
is to be given to this progress, the intimation of which is clearly marked by 
this order of the General Court of Connecticut, dated May 20, 1659: "This 
court having considered the petition presented by the inhabitants of Seabrook, 
doe declare yt they approve and consent to what is desired by ye petitioners 
respecting Mohegin, provided yt within ye space of three years they doe effect 
a Plantation in ye place prpounded." 

We would like to know more of his petition and of the list of names 



CITY OF NORWICH 



129 



signed to it, but no copy has been preserved. The order speaks of the "in- 
habitants of Seabrook," which seems to imply that a majority proposed to 
remove ; and the fact that Mr. Fitch, their pastor, decided to come with them, 
also lends color to that view. It is doubtful, however, if the majority actually 
came. Mr. Fitch may have recognized the greater need of those who were 
to go into new conditions and who would require his experience and counsel 
in the organizations they must effect. Apparently, it was not regarded as 
the removal of the church, although its pastor and deacon came— Saybrook 
has always dated the organization of its church in 1646, and Norwich 1660 — 
but in all probability the younger and more enterprising of the colony came, 
and the loss to Saybrook was most seriously felt. For several years, till 1665, 
the colony and church that were left behind were in a disheartened state. 

Many reasons have been surmised for the removal, some of them too 
frivolous to be accepted, as that which has been so often repeated — that these 
Norwich pioneers, with Major Mason and James Fitch at their head, were 
"driven out by the crows and blackbirds that destroyed their corn." We 
may imagine many reasons ; among them, perhaps, was the disappointment 
that the men who had planned to settle at Saybrook and who would have 
given peculiar character and standing to that colony had failed to come ; and 
even their representative. Colonel Fenwick, had lost heart in the enterprise 
and abandoned it. Then, there were the inducements which the friendly 
Indians here held out and the offer of a large tract of land for settlement. 

The peculiar beauty of this section, with its wooded hills, its fertile plains 
and running brooks, attracted them. The pioneer spirit appealed to them, 
was in their blood, as in all the colonies at that time. They must go some- 
where. So Hooker had come to Hartford, Pynchon to Springfield, Roger 
Williams to Rhode Island, Jonathan Brewster to Windsor and Brewster's 
Neck. Probably this Norwich colony had as reasons for the removal some 
like those given by Hooker's companv in their petition for permission for 
removal to Flartford, which were: i. "Want of room where we are." 2. "The 
fruitfulness and commodiousness of Connecticut and the danger of having 
it possessed by others." 3. "The strong bent of our spirit to remove thither." 
Probably the "bent of their spirit" was the motive more potent than either 
of the others of them or both of them together. 

The act of the General Court of May. 1659, which I have quoted, made 
as its condition that the settlement must be made within the three years there- 
after. Apparently no time was lost ; and the advance guard came in the sum- 
mer of 1659, followed by the remainder of the company the next year. 

It was a valiant and goodly band of well-to-do folk of good ancestry, 
that had been trained by strong leaders, such as Winthrop, Fenwick, Gardiner, 
Mason, Higginson and Fitch, had been inured to service in a new country, 
had already attained to a well ordered life under a constitutional government, 
and were united under the restraining and refining power of the Christian 
faith. This colony did not begin in a random way, like so many of the early 
settlements or like so many of the later frontier ventures, by receiving acces- 
sions of restless adventurers from this quarter and that till it gradually grew 
into stable form and condition : it came upon the ground a town and a church. 
The people were not a miscellaneous company thrown together by chance, 
needing to be trained and assimilated, but an association carrying their laws 
as well as their liberties with them; not strangers, each seeking his own 
advantage, staking out his own claim and defending it by arms ; but a band 
of God-fearing men and women united into a brotherhood each bound to act 
for the common good. They were not mere fortune hunters or buccaneers 
coming to wrest their speedy gain and then retire, but founders of a civilized 



I30 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

and Christian state in which they could establish homes, and which they could 
bequeath to their children as a priceless inheritance. They were looking 
forward to permanence and a future, and they knew that steady habits, manly 
toil and fine fraternity of feeling must enter into that to make it stable. All 
the enactments and procedings of those early days reveal a community in 
which good order, decorum of manners, self-respect and high ideals prevailed. 
The Christian church was the unifying bond and the guide of their lives. 
They were cheered and strengthened by the constant charm of its promises, 
and the rigor of the wilderness and the privations of frontier life were soft- 
ened by its hopes. I do not know how much they thought of the names they 
were to transmit. I think some of them would have smiled at the coat-of- 
arms and the kind of heraldic glory with which they have been crowned, 
and would have been incredulous of the "genuine" heirlooms that have been 
handed down ; but they did aim to lead honest and honorable lives and to 
make a community in which it would be safe and wholesome for their children 
to grow. 

It was sifted seed that was brought by Winthrop to his first settlement ; 
and it was sifted again when Fitch and Mason brought it here. Who they 
were, how they fared, what hostages they have given to history in the lines 
of noble descent, we are to hear in the days that are to follow. It is a goodly 
story — the orderly life of those early days; then, the patriotic spirit of the 
time when the nation was born; then, the enterprise of this later time. Nor- 
wich, proud of her ancestry, of the achievements of her sons and daughters, 
of her well-earned name, and of her lines running out to the ends of the earth, 
comes to her quarter millennium with devout gratitude to Him who brought 
us here and who has sustained us. And it surely is not amiss, while, standing 
by their graves, we honor the memories of those heroic men and women and 
congratulate ourselves on our heritage, to remind ourselves that 

"They that on glorious ancestors enlarge 
Produce their debt instead of their discharge," 

and, that though these have witnesses borne to them through their faith, 
"God has provided some better thing for us, that apart from us they should 
not be made perfect." 

Of the life of Captain John Mason, Miss Caulkins gives a full outline so 
far as it is known : 

Every memoir of Mason is obliged to take him up at the prime of life, 
for of his birth, parentage, and early vears. no certain information has been 
obtained. When he first appears in history, he is in the English army under 
Sir Thomas Fairfax, fighting in the Netherlands in behalf of the Dutch 
patriots, against the bigotry and tyranny of Spain. 

He is supposed to have emigrated to this country in 1630, with Mr. 
Warham's company that sailed from Plymouth, England, March 20th, and 
arrived at Nantasket May 30th of that year. But this cannot be stated with 
absolute certainty, as he has not been actually traced on this side of the 
ocean before December, 1632, when he was engaged in a cruise with John 
Gallop, under a commission from the Governor and Magistrates of Massa- 
chusetts to search for a pirate called Dixy Bull, who had for some time 
annoyed the coast with petty depredation. He was then called Lieutenant 
Mason, but soon afterward attained the rank of captain. In 1634 he was one 
of a committee appointed to plan the fortifications of Boston Harbor, and was 
specially employed in raising a battery upon Castle Island. 



CITY OF NORWICH 131 

In March, 1635, he was the representative of Dorchester to the General 
Court, but in the latter part of the same year or early in the next, removed 
with the major part of Mr. Warham's people to the Connecticut Valley. Here 
the emigrants planted themselves on the western bank of Connecticut river, 
above Hartford, and founded the pleasant and honorable town of Windsor. 

With the residence of Captain Mason at Windsor, all the stirring scenes 
of the Pequot war are connected. This was the great event of the early his- 
tory of Connecticut, and the overshadowing exploit of Mason's life. He was 
instrumental in originating the expedition, formed the plan, followed out its 
details, fought its battles, clinched, as it were with iron screws, its results, 
and wrote its history. This war was begun and ended when Connecticut had 
only 250 inhabitants, comprised principally in the three towns of Hartford, 
Wethersfield and Windsor. Out of these Mason gathered a band of seventy 
men, and, passing down Connecticut river, landed in the Narragansett coun- 
try, and being joined by a band of friendly Indians, marched directly into the 
heart of the hostile territory, assailed the Pequots in their strongest fortress, 
destroyed it, laid waste their dwellings, and killed nearly half of the whole 
nation. This expedition occupied three weeks and two days. The skill, 
prudence, firmness and active courage displayed by Mason in this exploit 
were such as to gain him a high standing among military commanders. From 
this period he became renowned as an Indian fighter, and stood forth a buckler 
of defence to the exposed colonists, but a trembling and a terror to the wild 
people of the wilderness. 

In 1637 he was appointed by the General Court the chief military officer 
of the colony, his duty being "to train the military men" of the several plan- 
tations ten days in every year: salary, forty pounds per annum. At a later 
period (1654) he was authorized to assemble all the train-bands of the colony 
once in two years for a general review. The office was equivalent to that of 
major-general. He retained it through the remainder of his life, thirty-five 
years, and during that time appears to have been the only person in the colony 
with the rank and title of major. 

When the fort at Saybrook was transferred by Colonel Fenwick to the 
jurisdiction of the colony, Mason was appointed to receive the investment, 
and at the special request of the inhabitants he removed to that place and 
was made commander of the station. Here he had his home for the next 
twelve years. 

The people of New Haven were not entirely satisfied with their location, 
and formed a design of removing to a tract of land which they had purchased 
on the Delaware river. In 1651 they proposed this matter to Captain Mason. 
urgently requesting him to remove with them, and take the management of 
the companv. This invitation is a proof of the high opinion his contempo- 
raries had formed both of his civil and military talents. The offers they 
made him were liberal, and he was on the point of accepting, when the 
Legislature of Connecticut interfered, entreating him not to leave the colony, 
and declaring that they could by no means consent to his removal. Finding 
that his presence was considered essential to the safety of Connecticut, h€ 
declined the offers of New Haven. If he went, there was no one left who could 
make his place good ; neither had New Haven any person in reserve, who 
could fill the station designed for him. and therefore the projected settlement 
never took place. The active disposition of Mason, however, never lacked 
employment. There was scarcely a year in which he was not obliged to go 
on some expedition among the Indian tribes, to negotiate, or to fight, or to 
pacifv their mutual quarrels. At one time, his faithful friend Uncas was in 
danger from a powerful league of the other tribes, but the seasonable prepara- 



132 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

tions of Mason for his relief frightened the foe into peace and submission. 
At another time he was sent with arms and men to the assistance of the 
Long Island Indians, against Ninigrate, the powerful sachem of the Nahan- 
ticks, who threatened them with extirpation. This service he gallantly per- 
formed ; but only two years afterwards was compelled to appear again on that 
Island with a band of soldiers in order to chastise the very Indians, mischiev- 
ous and ungrateful, whom he had before relieved. 

We find him, at the same time, and for several years in succession, hold- 
ing various public offices, all arduous and important. He was Indian agent, 
Indian umpire, and the counselor of the government in all Indian concerns ; 
captain of the fort, justice of the peace, and empowered to hold courts as a 
judge ; a member likewise of two deliberative bodies, the Connacticut Legis- 
lature and the Board of Commissioners of the United Colonies ; major-general 
of the militia at home, and the acting commander in all expeditions abroad. 
In 1660 he was chosen deputy governor, to which office he was annually 
re-elected for eight years, five under the old form and three under the king's 
charter, which united Connecticut with New Haven. The same year he was 
actively emploj^ed, in conjunction with Mr. Fitch and others, in effecting the 
settlement of Norwich, and also in purchasing of the Mohegans a large tract 
of land, in behalf of the colony. At this time, also, for nearly two years, he 
performed all the duties of the chief magistrate of the colony — Winthrop, the 
governor, being absent in England, engaged in negotiations respecting the 
charter. 

Thus the life of Mason on this continent may be distributed into four 
portions. The first was given to Dorchester, and the remainder in nearly 
equal parts to the three towns in Connecticut that he assisted in planting — 
lieutenant and captain at Dorchester, five and a half years; conqueror of the 
Pequots, magistrate and major at Windsor, twelve years : captain of the fort, 
and commissioner of the United Colonies at .Saybrook, twelve; Deputy Gov- 
ernor and Assistant at Norwich, twelve. He was not chosen Deputy Governor 
after 1668, but continued in duty as an Assistant, and was jircscnt for the 
last time at the election in May, 1671. 

Of the original band of Norwich purchasers. Mason was one of the 
earliest laid in the grave. He died January 30, 1671-72. According to Trum- 
bull, he was in the seventy-third year of his age. His last hours were cheered 
by the prayers and counsels of his beloved pastor and son-in-law, Mr. Fitch. 
Two years before, he had requested his fellow-citizens to excuse him from all 
further public services on account of his age and infirmity ; so that the close 
of his life, though overshadowed by suffering from an acute disease, was 
unharrassed by care and responsibilitv. There is no coeval record that points 
out his burial-place, but uniform tradition and current belief in the neighbor- 
hood from generation to generation leave no reason to doubt that he was 
interred where other inhabitants of that generation were laid, that is, in the 
Post and Gager burial ground, or first cemetery of Norwich. 

From early times, Norwich commerce prospered, since it was the natural 
outlet for a considerable farming region and, at the same time, had an excel- 
lent position at the head of the Thames. Live stock, provisions, lumber, were 
exchanged at the West Indies for sugar, molasses and rum. 

.Shortly after the Revolution, Norwich citizens owned over forty vessels 
engaged in commerce. From the "Norwich Packet" (editor Jonathan Trum- 
bull), we get some idea of the business in the town. The merchants com- 
bined shrewdness with industry. The adventurous spirit of the early settlers 



CITY OF NORWICH 133 

was not lacking. New industries were startinj^ up. The original settlers harl 
laid out their plots "up town," two miles from the "landing." But with the 
development of commerce and industry came an increase in the activity of 
the people of "Chelsea" (the landing). Business interests came to be stronger 
than the farming interests. The city of Norwich, with its center near the 
landing, had been incorporated in 1784 as a first step in this growth, and by 
the middle of the nineteenth century "Norwichtown" had become one of its 
suburbs. 

During the Revolutionary War, Norwich, while not subject to imme- 
diate danger, as was New London, was nevertheless very active in assisting 
the Revolutionary troops and in furnishing its own quota. As an interesting 
extract we quote from Miss Caulkins: 

Detachments from the Continental army frequently passed through Nor- 
wich. In 1778 a body of French troops, on the route from Providence to the 
South, halted there for ten or fifteen days, on account of sickness among 
them. They had their tents spread upon the plain, while the sick were 
quartered in the court-house. About twenty died and were buried each 
side of the lane that led into the old burying-yard. No stones were set up, 
and the ground was soon smoothed over so as to leave no trace of the narrow 
tenements below. 

General Washington passed through Norwich in June, 1775, on his way 
to Cambridge. It is probable that he came up the river in a packet-boat with 
his horses and attendants. He spent the night at the Landing, and the next 
day pursued his journey eastward. In April, 1776, after the evacuation of 
Boston by the enemy, the American troops being ordered to New York, came 
on in detachments by land, and crossing the Shetucket at the old fording- 
place below Greenville, embarked at Norwich and New London to finish the 
route bv water. General Washington accompanied one of the parties to 
Norwich and met Governor Trumbull by appointment at Col. Jedediah Hunt- 
ington's, where they dined together, and the general that evening resumed 
his route to New York, going down to New London by land. 

The inhabitants also had an opportunity of seeing Lafayette, Steuben, 
Pulaski, and other distinguished foreigners in our service. There was some 
who long remembered the appearance of the noble Lafayette, as he passed 
through the place on his way to Newport. He had been there before, and 
needed no guide: his aides and a small body-guard were with him, and he 
rode up to the door of his friend. Col. Jedediah Huntington, in a quick gallop. 
He wore a blue military coat, but no vest and no stockings; his boots being 
short, his leg was consequently left bare for a considerable space below the 
knee. The speed with which he was traveling and the great heat of the 
weather were sufficient excuse? for this negligence. He took some refresh- 
ment and hastened forward. 

At another period he passed through with a detachment of two thousand 
men under his command, and encamped them for one night upon the plain. 
In the morning, before their departure, he invited Mr. Strong, the pastor of 
the place, to pray with them, which he did, the troops being arranged in three 
sides of a hollow square. 

Nearly fifty years afterwards, -August 2T, 1824, the venerable Lafayette 
again passed through Norwich. Some old people, who remembered him, 
embraced him and wept; the general wept also. 

At one time during the war the Duke de Lauzun's regiment of hussars 



134 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

was quartered in Lebanon, ten miles from Norwich. Col. Jedediah Hunting- 
ton invited the officers to visit him, and prepared a handsome entertainment 
for them. They made a superb appearance as they drove into town, being 
young, tall, vivacious men, with handsome faces and a noble air, mounted 
upon horses bravely caparisoned. The two Dillons, brothers, one a major 
and the other a captain in the regiment, were particularly distinguished for 
their fine forms and expressive features. One or both of these Dillons suffered 
death from the guillotine during the French Revolution. 

Lauzun was one of the most accomplished but unprincipled noblemen of 
his time. He was celebrated for his handsome person, his liberality, wit, 
bravery, but more than all for his profligacy. He was born in 1747, inherited 
great wealth and high titles, and spent all his early years in alternate scenes 
of dissipation and traveling. He engaged in no public enterprise till he came 
to America and took part in the Revolutionary contest. The motives which 
actuated this voluptuous nobleman to this undertaking are not understood, 
very probably the thirst for adventure and personal friendship for Lafayette. 
He had run the career of pleasure to such an extent that he was perhaps 
willing tG pause awhile and restore the energy of his satiated taste. Certain 
it is that he embarked in the cause of the Americans with ardor, bore priva- 
tions with good temper, and made himself very popular by his hilarity and 
generous expenditure. 

After Lauzun returned to Europe he became intimate with Talleyrand, 
and accompanied him on a mission to England in 1792, where one of his 
familiar associates was the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. On the 
death of his uncle, the Duke de Biron, he succeeded to the title, quarreled with 
the court, and became a partisan of the Duke of Orleans. Afterwards he 
served against the Vendeans, but being accused of secretly favoring them, 
was condemned, and executed the last day of the year 1793. Such was the 
future stormy career of this celebrated nobleman, who as already mentioned, 
in the midst of friends and subordinates, enjoyed the banquet made for him 
by Colonel Huntington. After dinner the whole party went out into the yard 
in front of the house and made the air ring with huzzas for liberty. Numerous 
loungers had gathered around the fence to get a sight of these interesting 
foreigners, with whom they conversed in very good English, and exhorted 
to live free or die for liberty. 

As to the effects of the Revolution on Norwich, Miss Caulkins says: 
After recovering from the first stunning blow of the Revolution, the 
inhabitants of Norwich were not only alert in turning their attention to various 
industrial pursuits, but engaged also in the brilliant chance game of privateer- 
ing. The war, therefore, while it exhausted the strength and resources of 
neighboring towns that lay exposed upon the seacoast, acted like a spur to 
the enterprise of Norwich. New London, at the mouth of the river, was 
depressed in all her interests, kept in continual alarm, and finally, by the 
blazing torch of the enemy, almost swept from the face of the earth ; but 
Norwich, securely seated at the head of the river, defended by her hills and 
nourished by her valleys, planting and reaping without fear of invasion or 
loss, not only built new shops and dwelling-houses, and engaged with spirit 
and success in a variety of new manufactures, but entered into ship-building, 
and boldly sent out her vessels to bring in spoils from the ocean. 

In 1781 and 1782 the town was overflowing with merchandise, both trop- 
ical and European. New mercantile firms were established — Daniel Rodman, 
Samuel Woodbridge, Lynde McCurdy, and others— and lavish varieties of 
fancy texture, as well as the substantial products of almost every climate, were 



CITY OF NORWICH 135 

offered for sale. The shelves and counters of the fashionable class of shops 
displayed such articles as superfine broadcloths, men's silk hose, India silks, 
blonde lace, Damascus silks, taffetas, satins, Persians, and velvets, gauzes, 
and chintzes. These snoods were mostly obtained by successful privateering. 

Another class of merchandise, generally of a cheaper kind, and not dealt 
in by honorable traders, but covertly offered for sale in various places or 
distributed by pedlers, was obtained by secret and unlawful intercourse with 
the enemy. 

The coast of Connecticut being entirely girdled by Long Island and New 
York, and the British and Tories having these wholly under their control, 
it was very difficult to prevent the secret intercourse and traffic of the two 
parties through the Sound. In the latter years of the war especially, a corrupt, 
underhand, smuggling trade prevailed to a great extent, which was embold- 
ened by the indifference or connivance of the local authorities, and stimulated 
by the readiness of people to purchase cheap goods without asking from 
whence they came. Remittances for these goods must be made in coin, 
therefore they were sold only for cash, which, finding its way back to the 
enemy's lines, impoverished the country. Thus the traffic operated against 
agriculture and manufactures, against honest labor and lawful trade. More- 
over, it nullified the laws and brought them into contempt. 

Against this illicit traffic a strong association was formed at Norwich 
in July, 1782. The company bound themselves by solemn pledges of life, 
fortune and honor to support the civil authority ; to hold no intercourse, 
social or mercantile, with persons detected in evading the laws; to furnish 
men and boats for keeping watch in suspected places, and to search out and 
break up all deposits of smuggled goods; such goods to be seized, sold, and 
the avails devoted to charitable purposes. 

The vigorous manner in which this company began to carry out their 
principles caused great commotion in the ranks of the guilty parties. Sus- 
pected persons suddenly disappeared ; sales were postponed ; goods which 
before had been openly exposed withdrew into cellars and meal-chests, or 
were concealed in barns under the hay, and in hollow trees, thickets, and 
ravines. Several seizures were made during the season, but the treatv of 
peace soon put an end to this clandestine traffic, and the association had but 
a brief existence. Its object, however, was creditable to the patriotism and 
efficiency of the inhabitants, and a list of the signers gives us the names of 
sixty-eight prominent men who were on the stage of life at the close of the 
war, and all within the bounds of the present town. 

The following is a list of the members of the Association against Illicit 
Trade: Samuel Abbott, Elijah Backus, Ephriam Bill, Jonathan Boardman, 
John M. Breed, Shubael Breed, Samuel Capron, Eliphalet Carew, Joseph 
Carew. Simeon Carew, Thomas Coit, William Coit, John Crary, Jacob 
De Witt, Michael Dumont, Thomas Fanning, Jabez Fitch, Joseph Gale, 
Joseph Peck, Andrew Perkins, Jabez Perkins, Jabez Perkins, Jr., Joseph Per- 
kins, Joseph Perkins, Jr.. Erastus Perkins, Hezekiah Perkins, Levi Perkins. 
Daniel Rodman, Theophilus Rogers, Zabdiel Rogers, Ransford Rose. Joseph 
Rowland, Andrew Huntington. Eliphalet Huntington, Jonathan Huntington, 
Joshua Himtington, Levi Huntington, Simeon Huntington, William Hubbard, 
Russell Hubbard &• Son, Ebcnezer Jones, Joshua Lathrop, Rufus Lathrop, 
Christopher Leffingwell, Bcnajah Leffingwell, Jonathan Lester, Elihu Marven, 
John McCall, Lvnde McCurdy, Seth Miner, Thomas Mumford, Nathaniel 
Njles, Robert Niles, Timothy Parker. Asa Pcabody, Nathaniel P. Peabody, 
Andre Tracy, Jr.. Mundator Tracy, Samuel Tracy, Asa Waterman, Samuel 
Wheat, Joseph Whitmarsh, Benajah Williams, Joseph Williams, Jacob Witter, 



136 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Dudley Woodbridge, Samuel Woodbridge, Alexander Youngs. 

In Januar}', 1781, the inhabitants were divided into forty classes to raise 
forty soldiers, which was their quota for the Continental army; and again 
into twenty classes for a State quota to serve at Horseneck and elsewhere. 
A list of persons in each class was made out, and each taxed in due proportion 
for the pay and fitting out of one recruit, whom they were to procure; two 
shirts, two pairs of woolen stockings, shoes, and mittens were requisite for 
every soldier ; arms and uniforms were furnished by the State or country. 
Each soldier's family was in charge of a committee to see that they were 
supplied with the necessaries of life, for which the soldier's wages to a certain 
amount were pledged. The whole number of classes this year to produce 
clothing was sixty-six. In 1782 only thirty-three classes were required. 

In 1783, instructions were given to the representatives to use their influ- 
ence with the Assembly to obtain a remonstrance against the five years' pay 
granted by Congress to the officers of the Continental army. The manifesto 
of the town on this subject was fiery, dictatorial, and extravagant. A few 
paragraphs will show in strong relief the characteristics of the people — 
jealous of their rights, quick to take alarm and sensitively watchful over their 
cherished liberties: 

Where is the free son of America that ever had it in idea when adopting 
the Articles of Confederation to have pensions bestowed on those characters 
(if any such there be) whose virtue could not hold them in service without 
such rewards over and above the contract which first engaged them? 

For a free people, just rising out of a threatening slavery into free 
shining prospects of a most glorious peace and independence, now to be 
taxed without their consent to support and maintain a large number of 
gentlemen as pensioners in a time of universal peace is, in our view, uncon- 
stitutional and directly in opposition to the sentiment of the States at large, 
and was one great spoke in the wheel which moved at first our late struggle 
with our imperious and tyrannical foes. 

Further instructions were given at the same time to the representatives 
to urge upon the Assembly the necessity of keeping a watchful eye upon the 
proceedings of Congress, to see that they did not exceed the powers vested 
in them, and to appoint a committee at every session to take into consider- 
ation the journals of Congress, and approve or disapprove, applaud or censure 
the conduct of the delegates. 

Norwich has the questionable distinction of being the birthplace of 
Benedict Arnold. We quote from Dr. Kurd's History: 

The painful task now devolves upon the writer to chronicle some of the 
leading events in the career of one whose baseness has been unequaled since 
the day that his prototype betrayed his master for thirty pieces of silver. 
The faithful historian will be just to all; hence no attempt will be made to 
remove the stain which has long tarnished the history of this fair section 
of country. Benedict Arnold descended from an honorable Rhode Island 
family, where one of his ancestors, bearing the same name, held the office of 
Governor for fifteen years. Two brothers of this family, Benedict and Obver, 



CITY OF NORWICH j.^7 

removed from Newport to Norwich in 1730. The elder Benedict, the fathei- 
tf the traitor, soon became engaged in business, and not long after his arrival 
in Norwich, married Mrs. Hannah King, whose maiden name was Lathrop. 
Benedict, the subject of this sketch, was born in Norwich, January 3, 1741. 
Early in life he was apprenticed to Dr. Lathrop, a druggist in Norwich, with 
whom he remained during his minority. He subsequently embarked in the 
same business in New Haven, and while there became the captain of a com- 
pany of militia. After the battle at Lexington he made a hasty march to 
Cambridge at the head of his company, and volunteered his services to the 
Massachusetts Committee of Safety. With the rank of colonel in the Con- 
tinental army, he joined Ethan Allen and assisted in the taking of Ticon- 
deroga in May, 1775. In the expedition against Quebec, in the autumn and 
winter of 1775, he took a leading part. Having been wounded at Quebec 
and at Saratoga, his disability was of a character to render him unfit for 
active field service, and he was consequently, by Washington, placed in 
command at Philadelphia after the place had been evacuated by Clinton 
in 1778. He was at this date a major-general in the Continental army. While 
in Philadelphia he lived in a style far above his means, and his haughty 
and overbearing manner involved him in a quarrel with the authorities of 
Pennsylvania, who accused him before Congress of abusing his official posi- 
tion and misusing the public funds. After a long delay he was tried by a 
court-martial and was sentenced to be reprimanded by the commander-in- 
chief. Washington performed this disagreeable task as delicately as possible, 
but did not lose his confidence in Arnold. While in Philadelphia, Arnold 
married the daughter of Judge Shippen. a Tory, which connection enabled 
him to communicate without discovery with the British officers. He opened 
a correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, signing himself "Gustavus." 

In the meantime, at his earnest solicitation, he was appointed by Wash- 
ington, in August. 1780, to the command of West Point, the strongest and 
most important fortress in America. He sought this command with the 
deliberate intention of betraying the post into the hands of the enemy. In 
compliance with a previous understanding, Arnold and Major Andre met at 
Haverstraw, on the west bank of the Hudson. September 22, 1780, and arrange- 
ments were fully completed for an easy conquest of the fortress by the 
English. 

On his return to the city of New York, Andre was arrested as a spy at 
Tarrytown, was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to be executed by hang- 
ing. 'He suffered the penalty of his crime October 2, 1780. When it became 
known to Arnold that Andre had been arrested, he fled from West Point in 
the utmost haste, and in his flight took passage to New York City in the 
"Vulture," a British sloop-of-war. He was immediately made a brigadier- 
general in the British service, which rank he preserved throughout the war 
as a stipulated rew-ard for his treachery. 

Norwich had one signer of the Declaration of Independence, and many 
men famous in Revolutionary times. General Jedediah Huntington was a 
leader in the country. 

He was born. August 4. 1743, in Norwich, where he was prepared for a 
collegiate course, and graduated at Harvard College with distinguished honor 
in the class of 1763. The high social rank of his family is indicated by the 
order of his name on the college catalogue, it being the second in the list of 
his class, above that of John Ouincy. The master's degree was also con- 
ferred on him by Yale College in 1770. After leaving college he became asso- 



138 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

ciated with his father in commercial pursuits, and was engaged in this busi- 
ness when the Revolutionary cloud began to lower, and he soon became 
noted as a Son of Liberty, and an active captain of the militia. The bursting 
of the storm found him ready, and just one week from the firing of the first 
shot at Lexington he reported at Cambridge with a regiment under his com- 
mand, and was detailed to occupy Dorchester Heights. After the evacuation 
of Boston by the British he marched with his army to New York, and enter- 
tained the commander-in-chief on the way at Norwich. 

During the year 1776 he was at New York, Kingsbridge, Northcastle. 
Sidmun's Bridge, and other posts. In April of that year he assisted in repuls- 
ing the British at Danbury, Connecticut, assailing the enemy's rear, and effect- 
ing a junction with his fellow-townsman, Benedict Arnold. 

In July he joined General Putnam at Peekskill with all the Continental 
troops which he could collect, and in the following September was ordered 
to join the main army near Philadelphia, where he remained at headquarters, 
at Worcester, Whippin, Whitemarsh, Gulph Hills, etc. In November, on 
receiving information of the enemy's movement upon Red Bank, he was de- 
tached with his brigade, among other troops, to its relief, but Cornwallis had 
anticipated them. Having shared the hardships of his companions in arms 
at Valley Forge through the winter of 1777-78, he, together with Colonel 
Wigglesworth, was in March appointed by the commander-in-chief "to aid 
General McDougal in inquiring into the loss of Forts Montgomery and Clin- 
ton, in the State of New York, and into the conduct of the principal officers 
commanding these posts." In May he was ordered with his brigade to the 
North river, and was stationed successively at Camp Reading, Highlands, 
Neilson's Point, etc. In July he was a member of the court-martial which 
tried Gen. Charles Lee for misconduct at the battle of Monmouth, and in 
September he sat upon the court of inquiry to whom was referred the case 
of Major Andre. In December, 1780, his was the only Connecticut brigade 
that remained in the service. On the loth of May, 1783, at a meeting of 
officers, he was appointed one of a committee of four to draft a plan of organ- 
ization, which resulted in their reporting on the 13th the constitution of the 
famous Society of the Cincinnati. On the 24th of June, Washington writes 
that the army was "reduced to a competent garrison for West Point ; Patter- 
son, Huntington and Greaton being the only brigadiers now left with it, be- 
sides the adjutant-general." General Huntington was also one of the founders 
of West Point Academy. 

On returning from the army he resumed business in his native town, and 
was successively chosen sheriff of the county, State treasurer, and delegate 
to the State Convention which adopted the Constitution of the United States. 
In 1789 he was appointed by President Washington collector of customs at 
New London, then the port of entry for Eastern Connecticut and Connecticut 
River, which office he retained under four administrations, and resigned 
shortly before his death. 

Following the Revolutionary War. Norwich developed the West India 



CITY OF NORWICH 139 

Trade, but after the War of 1812 came more and more to develop its water 
power and went into manufacturing. For the Civil War it furnished over 
1,400 men. 

The following letters, sent for the 200th anniversary of the settlement of 
Norwich, give a vivid picture of life in Norwich in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century. 

(From Rev. Erastus Wentworth, Missionary to China.) 

Foo-Chow, China, June 15th, 1859. 

Gentlemen :— After looking forward with pleasurable anticipations for 
many years to personal participation in the celebration of the bi-centennial 
birthday of Norwich, the place associated with my earliest and dearest recol- 
lections, I find myself, on the eve of that event, sixteen thousand miles 
away, and effectually debarred from the intellectual treats and social festivi- 
ties promised by that occasion. It will be some compensation for the disap- 
pointment, and no slight gratification, if I may be allowed to contribute by 
letter a trifle to the interest of the family gathering. It will not, at such a 
time, be deemed egotistical in me to state that I spent the first eighteen years 
of my life in Norwich ; that my father was born there seventy years, and my 
grandfather a hundred and seven years ago; and that my family name, by 
no means an obscure one, in either English or American history, has stood 
on the town records for one hundred and eighty, out of the two hundred 
years you are now assembled to commemorate. 

Old Norwich ! — Who that has been a denizen of the place, especially in 
early youth, can ever forget its winding valleys and rugged hills; its stony 
pastures and green meadows, enameled with violets, and buttercups, and 
daisies, and goldened with cowslips and dandelions ; its spreading elms and 
sycamores ; its clear streams, alternating with babbling shallows and cool 
depths, overhung with willows and alders, and the favorite haunts of roach, 
trout and pickerel ; its gray precipices and romantic falls ; its striking contrasts 
of village quiet and country seat retirement, with commercial activity and city 
bustle. All these can never be forgotten. With me, neither the pellucid St. 
Lawrence or noble Mississippi, nor those floating seas of alluvion, mightiest 
of the brotherhood of rivers in the northern hemisphere, the Missouri and 
Yang-tse-keang, have ever served to obliterate, or even to dim the images 
of the Yantic, Shetucket and Thames. The mammoth tree growths of the 
prairie bottoms of the west, or the giant banians that greet my vision as I 
write, have never overshadowed the memory of Norwich sycamores and elms. 
The billowy seas of granitic elevations which stand, a wall of azure, about 
the valley of the Min, and roll away in endless undulations over the entire 
surface of the Fo-ke-cn province, are not so charming to me as the hills of 
New England. Society changes, but these natural features remain, and im- 
press themeslves upon the minds of successive generations. My earliest 
recollections of Norwich antedate steamboats and railroads, canals and tele- 
graphs, temperance and anti-slavery. The Yantic, was Backus's iron works ; 
the Falls, Hubbard's paper mills; Greenville, pastures on the banks of the 
Shetucket, in which curious antiquarians sought for the pile of stones that 
marked the grave of Miantinomoh. The first and second Congregational 
were the only edifices really worth the name of churches ; and I remember a 
Christmas pilgrimage on foot from Bean Hill to the Landing to hear the 
little organ, the only one in town, in the little wooden Episcopal church, that 
preceded the present elegant structure. Elder Sterry, Baptist, had a little 
wooden chapel at the Landing, where, as one of his sons said to me in our 



I40 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

schoolboy days. "He preached for nothing and furnished his own meeting 
house." Elder Bentley had a little church on the wharf bridge, which took 
a fancy to go to sea in the great freshet of 1815. Court house and jail were 
up town, and the stocks and whipping post still maintained their position at 
the corner of the old court house. I have seen a woman in jail for debt and 
heard my grandmother tell of the last woman who was taken to the whipping 
post, and how the people laughed at the sheriff for merely going through the 
forms of the law, actually flogging the fair culprit "with a tow string." 

In my youth. Strong and Goddard were at the head of the bar, and gentle 
parson Paddock, earnest parson Mitchell, and the solemn parson Strong, 
occupied the sacred desk. Through life, I have counted it no small privilege 
to have received the first rudiments of education in Norwich. I mean those 
initial lessons which preceded colleges and schools, and the rudimental train- 
ing of pedagogues Smith. Bliss, and Lester, of cruel memory. A child i."; 
educated by all those with whom he comes in contact, and the personal 
excellences, defects and peculiarities of his earliest acquaintances become his 
models and measuring rods for all the rest of mankind. Bonaparte said, "The 
world is governed by nicknames": and the nicknames of a community are a 
surer index of the character of the wearers than cognomens of illustrious 
descent or appellations bestowed by godfathers and godmothers. While a 
few of the nicknames which still cling to the memory of men long since 
passed from the stage of action, recall eccentricities, peculiarities, and in some 
instances the meannesses with which our humanity is afflicted, the .great 
majority of them revive the memory of nobleness and excellences worthy 
of remembrance and worthy of imitation. It is more blessed to be surrounded 
by good men than great men, by examples of worth than displays of wealth. 
My memory retains a whole gallerv of daguerreotypes of those whom I loved 
or hated, reverenced or despized, in the days of my youth. I would like to 
pay a passing tribute of respect to those who for eminent virtues commanded 
my most unqualified regard. I can only mention Parsons Strong and Austin, 
Judges Spalding, Shipman and Hude, Erastus Huntington, James Stedman, 
and Deacon Charles Lathrop, all of whom have gone to the land from which 
there is no return. It would be easy to extend the list, but my limits will 
not allow. I cannot refrain from a passing tribute to the memory of two of 
my schoolmates, recently deceased — Reverend Z. H. Mansfield and Honor- 
able Thomas L. Harris. I would like also to extend the compliments of the 
occasion to my old Norwich schoolmates, John T. Wait, J. G. Lamb. Rev. 
William Havens, Hon. H. P. Haven, Huntingtons, Tracys, and others whom 
I mav not here enumerate. I was in Shanghai last year, and on a rude wooden 
slab at the head of a recent grave I read. "Charles Bailey. Norwich, Con- 
necticut," son of the old uptown jail keeper, and seaman on one of our ships 
of war. In what part of the world do not the bones of the sons and daughters 
of Norwich repose! Black-eyed "Tom Leffingwell" lies with his father at 
the bottom of the ocean, and curly-headed "Bob Lee." slain by Comanches 
on the plains of Texas, while Ceylon embalms, with the fragrance of Paradise, 
the remains and memories of Harriet Joanna and Charlotte H. Lathrop. How 
brief the space over which the life of any one individual extends in the history 
of our beloved town. Perhaps not a single soul survives that saw its last cen- 
tennial. Will any single soul live to connect this centennial with that of 
1959? This occasion should not pass away without providing enduring 
monuments of itself for the use of coming generations. If the idea has not 
alreadv occurred, as I presume it has. I would suggest the erection of a cen- 
tennial hall of Norwich granite, fire proof, if possible, to contain a museum 
of town and State relics, and mementos of the past, of our fathers, of the 



CITY OF NORWICH . 141 

Indian tribes, and the present generation. In this way, 1859 may shake hands 
with iQ5g. especially if sealed boxes and coders containing: the sayings and 
doing-s, speeches and sentiments of this day, are secured there to be opened 
only on the occasion of the next centennial. Books, records, portraits, &c., 
would find their appropriate place there, and it would become the favorite 
resort of all those who reverence the past and desire to deduce from it useful 
lessons for the future. 

With a sigh for the Norwich that was, a greeting to the Norwich that is, 
and a hail of welcome for the Norwich that is to be, I remain, gentlemen, 

EuASTtrs Wentworth. 
(From Hon. Charles Miner, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.) 

Wilkes-Barre, July 17, 1859. 

Gentlemen of the Committee : — Your invitation to be present at the com- 
memoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Norwich 
was received by last evening's mail. You are pleased to add: "Should you, 
however, be unable to attend, will you favor us with a letter containing any 
facts of interest in your possession in relation to the town or its inhabitants?" 

I beg to return my most respectful acknowledgements. I can scarcely 
conceive anything left in life that would afford me so much pleasure. But 
the feebleness of near eighty years admonishes me that, not only is the 
visit hopeless, but that if I have anything to say, it should not be a moment 
delayed. 

Affection for Norwich is entwined with every fiber of my heart. Having 
emigrated to Pennsylvania while yet a boy, my time of observation is limited ; 
and my scene of observation, to little more than the old town or round the 
square, fitted, rather, to amuse the grandchildren, than impart instruction or 
pleasure to the present generation. 

Born February i, 1780; peace proclaimed 1784; consciousness of memory 
is first awakened to the shouts of triumph and the thundering of cannon, at 
the old Peck house (then, I think, doubtingly), kept by Mr. Trott (a fiery old 
patriot). I mention this as connecting me with the Revolutionary period, 
and to say, the drum, the fife, military display, was the pervading fashion. 
Almost all the older men had served in the French war. Ticonderoga was 
yet a familiar theme. Nearly the whole of the (then) present generation, 
moved by a common impulse, had been down to Boston. The talk was of 
Lexington and Bunker Hill. General Putnam is recorded as having stopped 
his plow in mid-furrow and started. So had it been in Norwich. An anecdote 
often told me shows the universal enthusiasm. My father, a house carpenter, 
and his journeyman, dropped their tools on the alarm. As the broad-axe 
rang, the journeyman said, "That is my death knell!" Breathing the common 
spirit, he hied away cheerfully, but returned no more. 

My father was on Dorchester heights, as orderly sergeant waiting on 
Mr. Huntington, afterwards general Jed. He used to relate that going the 
rounds, or reconnoitering, the British opened fire upon them from Boston. 
While ever and anon the balls would scatter the earth over them. General 
Huntington moved as unconcernedly as if at home in his own meadow. 

At the close of the war half the men on the square wore the title of cap- 
tain. .Starting on the south side of the green going down the road east, 
taking them in order, there were Captain Bela Peck, Captain Carew, Captain 
Nevins. Captain Simeon Huntington, all in sight and nearly adjoining. The 
British in possession of New York : the Sound and a hundred miles of the 
coast of Connecticut being subject to their invasion, Norwich may be said 



142 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

to have slept on their arms, liable every minute to be called out. Horse Neck, 
Rye, Seabrook, New London, were familiar to every man of them. To be 
sure, as I listened to their war stories, always with interest, sometimes with 
awe, occasionally with a smile, for they remembered the jokes of the camp, 
I do not recollect an imputation upon a single man present or absent as want- 
ing in courage or patriotism. It is a pleasure to record anew the assurance 
that Norwich did its whole duty. 

The plays of the boys were battles with the regulars. The charge — the 
ambuscade — the retreat — "The regulars are coming!" — "The regulars are com- 
ing !" Then the rally and renewed charge. Their songs : 

"Don't you hear your gen'ral say. 
Strike your tents and march away." 

But to the schools. The old brick school house at the bottom of the 
lane, below the spacious new jail, knew no recess. Among the earliest teach- 
ers within my recollection was Charles White, a young gentleman from 
Philadelphia, handsome and accomplished. Of his erudition I was too young 
to judge, but popular he certainly was among the ladies. Newcomb Kinney 
awakened a high degree of emulation, especially in writing. A sampler was 
pasted up before six or seven scholars, near the ceiling, qu fine paper, on a 
double arch sustained by Corinthian columns, the upper corners of each sheeti 
bearing a neatly painted quill, with the motto, "Vive la Plume." Within 
each half arch, near the upper part, in fine hand, a poetical quotation, as sug- 
gested by fancy, probably from Hannah Moore's "Search After Happiness," 
then highly popular. Beneath, in larger hand, successive lines in beautiful 
penmanship, filling the whole. The Piece painted in water colors — the pride 
of mothers — master and scholars. 

Mr. Hunt, a graduate of Yale, followed. Mr. Macdonald succeeded, and 
then Mr. Baldwin became the preceptor. The obedience fair — teachers capa- 
ble and attentive. Discipline preserved without undue severity. Plasant were 
our school hours. But school is let out. Boyish sports abound, 

"Some chase the rolling circle's speed. 
Or urge the flying ball." 

In winter the plain offered a capital opportunity for a trial of skill and 
courage. Sides were chosen. Each party built a semi-circular fort of vast 
snow balls, eight or ten rods apart. When the snow was soft and would 
adhere, all hands were summoned to the work. A line of balls as big as could 
be rolled was laid in a crescent ; outside that another as large. Then with 
skids a row on the top — then a third row large as could be raised on the 
submit to crown the work, making a formidable breastwork. Lockers were 
cut out in the inside to hold great quantities of balls made ready for action. 
When both sides were prepared, a proclamation was made, and then came the 
"tug of war." The sport was manly and exciting. 

Other plays were popular — most I have seen elsewhere — "Thornuary," 
nowhere else. Here the uptown and downtown boys were sometimes pitted 
against each other. There was among us an active fellow named Choate, 
"Jabe Choate" we called him. Not of Norwich, he was a down-easter. Froni 
Boston, I understood. In our little circle he was a Coriolanus, for "When 
he moved he moved like an engine" — and like our modern crinoline-clad 
ladies, swept all before him, yet a favorite, for he was brave and clever. I 
have wondered, if not the father, was he not, probably, the uncle of Rufus, 
the present idol of Boston? 

Mrs. Gildon kept a school a few rods below the plain for small children — 



CITY OF NORWICH 143 

she had a son Charles growing up to early manhood. I do not know theit 
fate. The name is rare. The good school mistress has often been brought 
to mind when reading Poe: 

"If hungry Gildon drew his venal quill, 
I wish the man a dinner and sit still." 

But Pope's shaft was no dishonor. So eminent an archer stooped to no 
ignoble game. 

Hark! The whole town is in commotion. A company of strolling play- 
ers have taken possession of the lower part of the court house, and it is con- 
verted into a commodious theater. Where slept our puritan thunder! The 
tragedy of George Barnwell drew many a tear, soon wiped away in smiles 
by the shrewd follies of Tony Lumpkin, in "The mistakes of a night." The 
grown-up beaux of Norwich, especially those who had visited New York 
and got their cue, were in high glee. I have a good mind to name seven or 
eight. The comic singer of the company displayed some tact — had a good 
voice, and sang, "Ye Bucks! have att — ye all." (Never having seen the song 
nor heard it since, I pretend to give only the sound.) 

Instead of the pit, the critic's place, the roaring boys had taken posses- 
sion of seats far back and high up in the amphitheater, and when he came 
with all the proper accompaniments of tone and gesture to 

"D n ye ! I know ye — 

Ye are of att ye all," 

It was a signal for a general cheer! And brought down the house with 
an "Encore." 

Several new songs were introduced by the company, and among them 
the many year popular "A rose tree in full bearing," which Miss Mary Nevins, 
the fairest rose that ever bloomed, used so sweetly to sing. Passingly — the 
songs of the period were mainly the hunting songs borrowed from England — 

"Bright Phoebus has mounted his chariot of day, 
With hounds and horns each jovial morn when Bucks a hunting go." 

But these were giving place to the more modern sailor songs of Dibdin. My 
intimate and ever dear friend, Gerard Carpenter, used to sing admirably — 

"To England when with fav'ring gale, 
Our gallant ship up channel steered." 

What noise is that, which makes the whole green ring again? Mr. 
Jones, the cooper, residing next to Captain Peck's on the south side of the 
plain, with his adz and double-driver, holding it in the middle and playing 
it rapidly on the empty barrel, as he drives the hoop, sounds a reveille to 
the whole neighborhood, regular as the strains of Memnon. 

A truce to these trifles. The Sabbath has come. Everybody went to 
meeting. It was the pleasantest day of the week. Manning is ringing the 
bell. Let us note the carriages as they come up. The chaise drawn by that 
bay. so sleek, he looks as if he had been varnished for the occasion, brings 
Captain Thomas Fanning and (pardon me, I was then a young man) his two 
charming daughters. I think he was the attendant of our uptown meeting 
who came from the nearest landing. That stout black in ? wider chaise brings 
T.ady Lathrop. attended by Mr. Huntley and his daughter, a pretty little girl 
of eight or nine, whoes poetic genius and sweet moral strains have shed a ray 
of glorv, not only on her native town (as Lydia ?Iuntley and Mrs. Sigourney), 
but over her whole country, and rendered her name a praise throughout the 



i^ NEW LONDON COUNTY 

republic of letters. Here drives up a double carriage, plain, yet neat. Those 
spanking- bavs are full of spirit, they move admirably. They bring the family 
of Mr. Thomas Lathrop, who occupies the very handsome white mansion on 
the southern hill bounding the square. 

(Note.— Manning has ceased ringing, and is tolling the bell. Mr. Strong 
will be here presently. He comes with his lady, drawn in a plain chaise by 
a stalwart brown horse, the favorite of many years.) 

Observe, as Mr. Strong ascends the steps numbers press round and hand 
him scraps of paper. They are received as matters of course— six— seven — 
or eight, as it may happen. We shall see directly what they are. _ While the 
psalm is being sung, which precedes the morning prayer, the minister's head 
is inclined forward as if reading. He rises and reads the slips of paper — one 
after another, running in this wise: "Z. D. being about to take a voyage to 
sea, asks the prayers of this congregation that he may be preserved anc' 
restored in safety to his family." 

Several desiring to return thanks for mercies received. I dare not allovv 
myself to state the variety of petitions, relating to ordinary circumstances in 
life. It would seem to have required long habit and a retentive memory to 
recall them, yet Mr. Strong would touch each, briefly, but appropriately, and 
with such earnestness and pathos, especially when praying for the sick, as by 
svmpathy swelling in every breast, and made the petition, the prayer indeed 
of the whole congregation. 

Of the church music. Roberts, the famed singing master, had been among 
the voices, and infused his own impassioned soul into the school. The front 
seats of the gallery — treble — counter — tenor — bass — were all full. "O, that 
I could describe them to you!" In the pews below were numbers who had 
caught the inspiration. Nay, more. Colonel Zack was among them, himself 
an organ full of melody and power. Did "The Pilgrims' Song" close the 
worship of the day, an hundred voices attuned to perfect harmony, joining 
to swell the strain, 

"Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings, 
To seats prepared above," 

The whole congregation rose to their feet— entranced. 

The life of Mr. Strong, the revered, the beloved, his precepts and exam- 
ple, however imperfectly regarded, have been with me through life. His influ- 
ence for good is yet felt among hundreds of the descendants of emigrants from 
Norwich. 

Monday has come and brings its usual busy throng and varying scenes. 

Two printing presses were in full operation, that of Mr. Trumbull had 
been long established, and his paper was always read with pleasure. Busy 
memory, clinging to everything with child-like delight that relates to Nor- 
wich, calls up the anecdote. The fashion of the day was for advertisers to 
close — "Inquire of the printer." The wit of the town was dying. Mr. Trum 
bull bent over him with his wonted kindness and asked softly, "Do you know 
me, Mr. Barney?" "If I don't I'll inquire of the printer." Samuel Trumbull, 
the oldest son, was a young man of a good deal of reading, and of ready wit. 
He wrote several essays under the head of "From the desk of Beri Hesden." 
The hint and the name of the essays— "From the desk of poor Robert 
the Scribe," I am sure I owed him. William Pitt Turner was the Aesop of 
the press, the poet and satirist, and lashed the foibles of the Bucks of "Att 
ye all," with no stinted measures. Young Trumbull, following in his wake, 
satirized the younger brood, and I came in, fairly enough, for my share, more 
proud of the notice than angry at the rod. 



CITY OF NORWICH 



145 



The recent member of the Assembly, Gurdon Trumbull, esq., it was 
my good fortune to form an intimate acuqaintance with, in 1839, at Hartford. 
(I hope he is with you.) I cannot deny myself the pleasure of adding, that 
I was subsequently indebted to his partial kindness for several favors done 
so considerately, and performed in a manner so delicate, as to demand a 
renewed and more open acknowledgement ; mentioned to show how naturally 
and kindly the heart of the Norwich boys "warm to the tartan." 

The other printing office was nearly opposite that of Mr. Trumbull's, 
close to Collier's brass foundry. The paper published by Bushnell & Hub- 
bard. Mr. Bushnell was afterwards appointed a purser in the navy, and died 
of yellow fever at sea. I mention the fact to add, that when in the West 
Indies, several gentlemen were inscribing the names of wives and sweethearts 
in a mountain grove — Bushnell declined to do so, lest the thoughtless should 
desecrate the place by obscene additions, but he wrote a poem addressed to 
his wife, it is said, of remarkable delicacy and beauty. A man of genius and 
learning, few were more capable. Has Norwich preserved it? 

The rival houses are at war. Small pox has broken out. There is not 
a moment to delay. Two establishments for inoculation start into existence 

on the Thames, in Mohegan. Dr. Tracy and Dr. preside over that 

at famed Massapeage. Dr. Marvin and Dr. Jewett over the other, at Adgate's. 
These were prominent points of interest in their day. 

"Friendship to everj' willing mind, 
Opens a heavenly treasure," 

From lady voices I still recollect as soothing to my feverish and restless 
spirits. In the main the remembrances were agreeable, redolent rather of 
frolic and fun than of pain. 

Do you see those strange looking men hawking pictures, in broken 
English? They are French emigrants, thus seeking to win their bread, 
exiled from home by the revolution, now raging. Listen: "Louis de 16 — 
madame Elizabet." They have pictures of the guillotine, with their execu- 
tioner, and the head of the king, all ghastly, streaming with blood, which he 
is holding up. Look again — what have they? Beautiful pictures, but so 
nearly immodest as to make me hesitate to bring to recollection, what was 
then familiar to everyone in open market. The revolutionists, to cast odium 
on the royal family, represented an intimacy between the infamous Duke of 
Orleans and the queen, Maria Antoinette. The polished verse runs thus: 

"Avaunt, rash hoy, while I my homage pay, 
Where joys are bred and nestling cupids play." 

Another — a sans-cullote sailor, with a red cap and shirt — emblems of 
liberty and courage. A French man-of-war has captured an English frigate. 
The sailor sings: 

"When e'er on French decks shouts of victory roar. 
Your crown's a red cap, and tyrants are no more." 

The winter assemblys demand special notice. Managed with such scru- 
pulous care, every lady who might desire it was not only invited, but provided 
with a carriage and agreeable escort. Mr. Lathrop had built an assembly 
room, with a spring floor, on purpose. There was no formal supper, but tea, 
coffee, tongue, ham, cakes, and every suitable refreshment in abundance. 
Collier, with his inimitable violin— Manning with his drum. Order, the most 
perfect, never for a moment, that I saw or heard of, infringed. Contra dances 

XL.— 1-10 



146 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

occupied the evening. The stately minuet had gone out of fashion, and the 
cotillion not yet introduced. The lines of a modern song express what was 
universally felt: 

"The reign of pleasure is restored, 
Of ease and gay delight." 

In their apology, if one be needed, let me add, Washington would have 
approved, and entered the pleasant occurrence in his journal. The musicians 
knew their hour, and at i the assembly closed. They did not escape the keen 
edge of satire. The poem of W. P. Turner could be repeated by many emi- 
grants to the Susquehanna, forty years afterward. 

The hum of industry is everywhere. Norwich uptown is a bee hive. 
Every mechanic, and there are few idlers, with every workman, was employed 
manufacturing hats, tin ware, pewter ware, boots, shoes, harness, coaches, 
chaises, small carriages, for slaves to draw the children — everything. The 
West Indies demanded many cargoes. Such was the prosperity of the country 
around, nearly every farmer would have his chaise. The fact that there were 
two coach and chaise manufactories in the town fully employed, showing 
the activity of one branch, will indicate that of others. 

Take your stand on the school house steps, and suppose a circulating 
panorama. Note that drove of horses dashing by. The driver is Lazelle, 
from the north. Twenty of the sixty are Canadian. They are for Howland's 
brig. Jesse Brown will see they are cared for a week, and send them to New 
London, when the brig is nearly ready to sail. A dozen vessels are preparing 
at the landing for cargoes, and droves are daily arriving. 

Such a demand for horses must create a demand for sires. Luckily, here 
they pass, each with his groom. That superlatively beautiful bright bay, 
fourteen hands high, is "Figure," belonging to Haynes, of New London. 
That monster dark bay following, seventeen hands high, is "Nimrod." The 
dark chestnut is a favorite Rhode Island pacer. "Count Pulaski" is the last. 

What mean those two covered carts with tinkling bells? They are our 
market. The single one, a daily, from Bean Hill. The double is from Wind- 
ham, a weekly, but loaded with mutton that would tempt an epicure. 

Note that dashing gentleman and lady on the fine pair of blacks. They 
have a foreign air. It is Jackson Brown, supposed to be an agent of the 
British commissary department. They do not stop to have the gate openedj 
but bound over it as if in pursuit of a fox. 

Note that splendid chariot, with servants in livery as out riders. There 
are two or three pairs of elegant English hunters. They are bounding away 
in pursuit of pleasure, to the Bozrah great pond, a fishing. It is the establish- 
ment of the noted English Lord Bellisais. 

Hark! There is music in the court house. An Irish gentleman of titled 
family, whom the war has embarrassed, with a noble spirit of independence, 
rather than sit down in indigence and despair, has opened a dancing school, 
not only here, but in Bozrah, Franklin, and two or three neighboring towns. 
Ordering his tim.e that he may attend here twice a vveek, and visit the others 
once a week, not a minute was wasted. 

John C. De Vereaux ; that is the gentleman in the open carriage with the 
hump-backed musician, Howell, by his side. The general prosperity rendered 
it easy for parents, all round to country, to gratify their children. Would any- 
one ask — "How did he succeed ?" Enquire who, forty years afterwards, was 
the wealthiest merchant in Utica, and president of the United States branch 
bank? The answer would be John C. De Vereaux. 

Evening approaches — Vvfhere are the stages? O! here they come up in 



CITY OF NORWICH 147 

style to Brown's hotel. That from the east, the horses all in a foam, has come 
all the way from Providence, since morning! 

The one from the west is from Hartford. What is that under the Hart- 
ford stage? It looks like the fore-top-sail of a brig. Lo ! it is a sail cloth, so 
nailed under the bottom as to hang loose and bring down salmon from Hart- 
ford, without being bruised, for Brown, like Lathrop, had a pride in setting 
a capital table, and it is lucky today, as President Adams has just arrived. 

Party, the twin sister of freedom, then prevailed, as it ever will, and the 
morning salute, confidently expected, was marred, as we black cockade federal 
boys charged, by the intentional failure of our opponents to — "keep their 
powder dry." 

Training day, especially regimental, or brigade, was a great event. The 
Matross company, commanded then by Roger Griswold, afterwards by Cap- 
tain Bailey paraded in front of the meeting house; the light infantry, in 
uniform, near the old Perit house; the common militia company, facing west) 
on the lower point of the green ; companies from the neighboring towns arriv- 
ing, where the adjutant assigned them their position. From an early hour 
the plain was thronged ; the line formed — mark that fine soldier-like bearing 
man on that stately war steed — that is General Marvin. Accompanied by his 
aides, in splendid uniform and nodding plumes, music filling the air, the line 
is passed, the salute given, the column formed; the march is down east and 
round the square. The band and the brigade of drums and fifes under Collier 
and Manning, alternating. Passing Governor Huntington's, the salute is 
repeated, and could not be paid to a worthier, unless Washington were him- 
self present. The windows all round are sparkling with beauty, and we little 
bo\ s were thrice happy to trudge round on foot, hear the music, and see the 
pageant. 

A marked incident in the exhibition was the assemblage of all Mohegans 
and Betty Uncas, their queen, with brooms, baskets, blankets, papooses with- 
out number. They lined the fence from Eli Lord's to Lathrop's. The military 
dismissed, still the plain is thronged. Here is Captain Griswold, with a dozen 
of the most active fellows, playing a game of cricket. Yonder is Captain 
Slocum and a party intent on a wrestling match. Each right hand hold of his 
opponent's right shoulder. It was a game of skill, rather than of strength — 
the trip and twitch — the steel trap quickness. The Zouaves could hardly beat 
them. An adroitness that would seem unrivaled. Let the unpracticed, how- 
ever strong and courageous, beware how he enters the lists, or he will find 
himself sprawling in mid-air, seeking a resting place on the green turf, flat 
on his back, amid the cheers of hundreds. 

Look ! There is a daring fellow climbing up to the ball on the steeple. 
It makes one's head dizzy to gaze on him. That is John Post — fearless and 
spry as a wild cat. 

Hark ! The sounds of revelry proceed from Lathrop's chamber windows. 
The officers have dined, and prefer punch, such as Lathrop only could make, 
to indifferent wine. The choicest Antigua, loaf sugar by the pail full, lemons, 
oranges, limes. Merrier fellows, within tempered mirth, never wore cockade 
or feather. 

So with "sports that wrinkled care derides," closed the day. The half 
is not said, yet I feel that I am abusing your patience. When did a native ever 
begin to talk of Norwich and know when to stop? 

From the time the Jewish maidens hung their harps on the willows, and 
sang of Jerusalem, to the lav of the sweetest modern minstrel, "Mv native 
land" has been a cherished theme. Thus with singular pleasure have T run 
over the scenes of mv childhood, and endeavored to sketch, with rapid pencil, 



148 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

"Norwich uptown, the plain, and round the square," as memory recalls it, 
seventy years ago, which, with cordial good wishes, is respectfully sub- 
mitted. 

From Miss Caulkins we quote the following account of the industrial 
growth of Norwich : 

The enterprise of the inhabitants in the line of manufactures has been 
frequently mentioned in the course of this history. But the subject will here 
be retraced, and various undertakings chronicled in their order, as far as data 
for this purpose have been obtained. 

Iron works were established in the parish of New Concord in 1750 by 
Captain Joshua Abell and Nehemiah Huntington. They contracted with 
Robert Martin, of Preston, to become the overseer or operator of their works, 
engaging him to make and refine iron into anconie, to be done workmanlike, 
and binding themselves to remunerate him with lOO lbs. of bar iron for every 
200 anconies he shall make. 

Elijah Backus commenced a similar work at Yantic nearly at the same 
time. These are supposed to have been the first forges erected in New 
London county. They manufactured blooming and bar iron for anchors, 
mills, and other uses. 

In the year 1766, cutlery as a business made its appearance, and various 
implements of husbandry, that had before been imported, were manufactured 
in the town. The Backus iron works obtained great repute, and during the 
Revolutionary war all kinds of iron work necessary for domestic use, and 
various instruments of warfare, were made and repaired at the Yantic forges. 
The same year a potterv for the manufacture of stone ware was established at 
Bean Hill, which continued in operation far into the present century, seldom, 
however, employing more than four or five hands. 

The making of linseed oil was commenced at Bean Hill in 1748 by 
Hezekiah Huntington. In October, 1778, Elijah and Sirr^on Lathrop gave 
notice in the "New London Gazette" that they had erected an oil-mill at 
Norwich Falls, and were ready to exchange a gallon of oil for a bushel o5 
well-cleaned flaxseed. In 1786, Silas Goodell set up another oil-mill near the 
falls. This was probably the same that in 1791 was owned by Joshua Hunt- 
ington. Lathrop's mill was destroyed by fire November 9, 1788. The loss 
was estimated at $1,500, a considerable quantity of oil and flaxseed being con- 
sumed. It was rebuilt the next year. In these mills flaxseed was used to 
produce the best kind of oil, but inferior kinds of seed were often substituted. 
The three mills together produced about 9,000 gallons annually, which sold 
at three or four shillings per gallon. 

During the Revolutionary war, iron wire and cards were made at the 
falls, under the supervision of Nathaniel Niles. Edmund Darrow established 
at the same period a nailery, which continued in operation nearly to the 
close of the century. 

The business of weaving stockings was begun in 1766, under the patron- 
age of Christopher Lefifingwell. William Russell, an Englishman, was the 
first operator. For many years it was a small concern. limited to two or 
three looms. But in 1791, Leffingwcll had nine looms in operation, produc- 
ing annually from 1,200 to 5,000 pair of hose, and employing in the manufac- 
ture worsted, cotton, linen, and silk. The silk hose ranged in value from 
I2S. to 20s. per pair. Gloves and purses were also woven at these mills, the 
whole business emplojnng only five operatives. At a later period the business 
was continued successively by Louis Baral, Leonard Beattie, and William 



CITY OF NORWICH 149 

Coxe. all foreijrners. and still later by Jeremiah Griffing, a native of New 
London. 

Stocking'-looms were not only employed here, but constructed. Before 
1790, looms that had been made in Norwich were set up at Hartford and 
Pou£2fhkeepsie — two at each place. Looms were in operation at that period 
in New Haven. Litchfield, and Wallingford, and it is not improbable that 
these also were made in Norwich. To accommodate his stocking-looms and 
other utilitarian projects. Colonel Leffingjwell built, after 1780, the range of 
shops called Leffingwell's row. In 1785. wool-cards were made by James 
Lincoln in Leffingwell's row. 

Paper. — In the early manufacture of this article in Norwich, Christopher 
Leffingwell stands pre-eminent. His mill upon the Yantic, near No-man*s 
Acre, was erected in 1766. This was the first paper-mill in Connecticut. Lef- 
fing^vel^s mill in a short period produced various kinds of paper for wrap- 
ping, writing, printing, cartridges, and sheathing. The quantity annually 
turned out was estimated at 1,300 reams, the prices varying from 4s. 6d. to 
45s. per ream. Ten or twelve hands were employed. At the outset of this 
undertaking, a small bounty was granted by the government, to continue for 
three years. It was not renewed. After the year 1790. Andrew Huntington 
engaged in the manufacture of paper, and erected a new mill upon the Yantic, 
either on the site of Leffingwell's oil mill, or very near it. Ebenezer Bushnell 
was for a few years his partner. 

Chocolate IMills. — Christopher Leffingwell was first in this department 
also. His chocolate-mill was in operation in 1770. Another was erected in 
1779 by Simon Lathrop. They were both moved by water-wheels, and 
could be tended each by a single workman. The chocolate made was of the 
best quality and the quantity produced was estimated at 4,000 and 5,000 
pounds annually. It sold in considerable quantities at I4d. per lb.; retail- 
ers asked i8d. 

Clocks and Watches. — This business was commenced in 1773 by Thomas 
Harland, a mechanician of great skill and efficiency. His watches were pro- 
nounced equal to the best English importations. In 1790 he had ten or 
twelve hands in constant employ, and it was stated that he made annually 
two hundred watches and forty clocks. His price for silver watches varied 
from £4 los. to £7 los. As at that period watches were far from being 
common, and it was even a mark of distinction to wear one, Mr. Harland's 
establishment was a center of the business for a considerable extent of 
country. Barzillai Davidson, 1775, N. Shipman, Sen., 1789, Eliphaz Hart on 
the Green by the court house, and Judah Hart at the Landing, in 1812, 
though not probably to any great extent manufacturers, were yet "workers 
in gold and silver," and offered for sale handsome assortments of jewelry and 
time-keepers. 

Between the years 1773 and 1780, four fulling-mills with alothicrs' 
shops and dye-houses went into operation — one in the parish of New Con^ 
cord, one in Franklin, a third at the falls, "near Starr and Leffingwell's works 
adjoining the Paper Mill," and a fourth on Bean Hill. 

In a statement made of the industrial pursuits of the town in 1791, in 
addition to several establishments already noticed, are the following items: 
Two nailleries. or machines for making nails, employing eight or ten hands. 
Fifteen blacksmiths, who make annually about 50 dozen scythes, 150 dozen 
hoes, 50 dozen axes, and other implements for domestic and agricultural use. 
Threedistilleries. Two tobacconists. Two braziers, and a bell-foundry. 

Cotton. — In 1790, Dr. Joshua Lathrop established a cotton factory in the 
town-plot. He began with five jennys, one carding-machine, and six looms. 



I50 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

This machinery was afterward increased, and a great variety of goods manu- 
factured, probably to the amount of 2,000 yards per year while the project was 
continued. In 1793. the firm was Lathrop & Eells. The following is one of 
their advertisements, March 19, 1793: 

Lathrop & Eells have just finished a variety of Cotton Goods, consisting of Royal Ribs, 
Ribdelures, Ribdurants, Ribdenims, Ribbets, Zebrays, Satinetts, Satin-Stripes, Satin Cords, 
Thick-setts, Corduroys, Stockinetts, Dimotys, Feathered Stripes, Birds-Eye, Denims, Jeans, 
Jeanetts, Fustians, Bed Tickings that will hold feathers. 

The above Goods are well finished, and for durability undoubtedly superior to European 
manufactured. Gentlemen, merchants, and others, who feel disposed to encourage home 
manufactures, are invited to call and see for themselves, and may be assured they shall be 
supplied as low as they can furnish themselves from any quarter. 

This business could not be made remunerative, and after a trial of eight 
or ten years was discontinued. 

The manufacturing spirit had been called into exercise to meet the ex- 
igencies of the Revolution. Before that time the country had been dependent 
upon England for all articles that required combination, capital and machi- 
nery for their production. When the intercourse with Europe was renewed, 
and commerce again brought the lavish results of foreign labor to our shores, 
the crude manufactures of the country declined, most of the imported articles 
being cheaper than those made at home. The spinningwheel and loom still 
kept their place in families, fulling-mills and carding-machines were patron- 
ized, ropes and nails were made: but as a general fact, the workshops and 
factories of the country were in Europe. The spirit and enterprise of Norwich 
had been wholly diverted into the channels of commerce, and future pros- 
perity seemed to be expected only from the ocean. 

At the commencement of the present century, the paper-mill at the falls 
was the only establishment of any kind in Norwich worthy the name of a 
factory. 

The Norwich Falls district, now so busy, bustling, and crowded with 
inhabitants, was then a wild, secluded hamlet, consisting of two or three 
old mills and the dwelling house of Elijah Lathrop. Beautiful was the place 
fur all the purposes of romance and lonely meditation — renowned for echoes 
and evergreens, the chosen resort of moonlight parties, curious travelers, and 
wandering lovers — but the Genius of Manufacture had only marked it for 
his own ; he had not yet erected his standard and marshaled his legions in 
the valley. In relation to manufactures, and in some respects it would apply 
to the whole business of the town, this was a period when old things passed 
away, and all things became new. 

Hemp. — In the year 1S03, Nathaniel Rowland & Co. erected a building 
at the falls for hemp-spinning. Mr. Timothy Lester was engaged as machin- 
ist; the best of hatcheled hemp was used, and the warps were spun by a 
recently improved machine. Looms were soon introduced, duck and canvas 
offered for sale in 1804. 

The Hov.'lands appear to have been stimulated to this undertaking by a 
visit from Mr. Baxter, a noted hemp-spinner from Great Britain, who was 
engaged in introducing the manufacture of cordage and duck, by machinery, 
into this country. He came to Norwich to survey the situation, and was 
satisfied with its facilities, but was not himself sufficiently encouraged to 
remain and conduct the experiment. 

Colonel Rowland's mill kept on its way for a few years, employing from 
twelve to twenty hands, and throwing a considerable quantity of hempen 
cloth into the market. He was encouraged in his operations by the govern- 
ment. Proffers were made to him to supply the navy upon cash advances. 



CITY OF NORWICH 151 

and a small bounty was granted by Congress for every bolt of duck pro- 
duced. But the business could not withstand the pressure of the times, and 
was overwhelmed in the general wreck of mercantile affairs, connected with 
the embargo and other commercial restrictions of that period. 

Manufactures at the Falls. — The rise of manufactures after this period 
is intimately connected with several prominent individuals who removed 
to the place from other parts of New England — Calvin Goddard in 1807, Wil- 
liam Williams in 1809, William C. Oilman in 1816. William P. Greene in 
1824. These all in their first coming to Norwich were connected with the 
manufacturing interest at the Falls. Though not natives, they are wholly 
identified with the place, and by their enterprise and their liberal and enlight- 
ened course as citizens, have contributed largely to its prosperity. 

Mr. Goddard was a lawyer and statesman, connected with the manufac- 
turing interest only as a proprietor and patron. Having projected an estab- 
lishment at the Falls, he purchased in 1800 the old Lathrop house and mill- 
seats of that district, the saw, grist and oil mills, with the ancient distillery 
and tannery lots and privileges, and formed a partnership with William 
Williams. Sen., of Stonington, and his sons (Wm., Jr., and Thos. W.), 
under the firm of William Williams, Jr., & Co., one of the younger partners 
taking the principal agency in the business. In common parlance, however, 
the firm was Goddard & Williams. 

This company set up the machinery necessary for grinding and bolting 
"Virginia wheat and Southern corn"; imported their grain, and obtained 
William Weller, an experienced miller from Pennsylvania, for their foreman. 
They kept two or three sloops in their employ, sailing to Norfolk, Peters- 
burg, Fredericksburg, and Richmond. In 1812, they fitted out the schooner 
"Ann and Mary," and sent her to Cadiz with flour. This was their only 
foreign adventure. The war with Great Britain throwing obstacles in the 
way of trade with the South, the flour business was broken up, and the com- 
pany turned their attention to the manufacture of cotton cloth. 

The Howland duck factory was changed by this company into a cotton 
mill, which began to run in December. 1813, preceding by a few months the 
cotton factories at Jewett City and Bozrahville. They began with carding 
and spinning, giving out the yarn from the factory to be woven in hand-looms, 
but after three^ or four years the power-loom was introduced, and they turned 
out mattresses, nankeens and shirtings in a completed state. 

This mill, though of small account in comparison with the gigantic opera- 
tions of modern times, and by no means a money-making experiment to the 
proprietors, merits notice as one of the first cotton mills successfully estab- 
lished in the country, and as leading the way to undertakings in the same 
line far more extensive and important. The title of this company was changed 
in 1819 to Williams Manufacturing Co. It continued only a few vears in 
active operation, but its affairs were not settled and the partnership "dissolved 
till 1833, when they sold out to Amos Cobb and others, agents of the Norwich 
and New York Manufacturing Co. 

In Mav, 1813, William C.'Cilman, "late of Boston," purchased a privilege 
at the Falls of Goddard S: Williams, and in connection with the Iron and 
Nail Co. established a nailerv. which went immediately into successful opera- 
tion. In this factory the nails were cut by a newly-invented machine with 
great rapiditv, and while the novelty lasted, visitors were attracted to the 
falls to hear the clink of the machine and view the continual dropping of the 
nails. 

The next company that was formed commenced business with promising 
aspects upon a large' capital. This was the Thames Manufacturing Com- 



152 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

panv, incorporated in June, 1823. It consisted of six members, viz., Wm. 
C. Oilman, Samuel, Henry and John Hubbard, Wm. P. and Benjamin Greene. 
Five of these partners were Boston men. to whose favorable notice the water 
privileges that lay unemployed at the falls had been forcibly presented by 
Mr. Oilman. 

This company purchased the naillery and several other water privileges 
at the falls, and erected a large cotton factory, preparing for a business of 
considerable extent and value. The corner-stone of the building was laid 
with interesting ceremonies, and Judge Goddard delivered an address, wel- 
coming the new company to that secluded seat. William P. Greene, one of 
the Boston partners, became a resident in Norwich, and for a few years Mr. 
Greene and William C. Oilman transacted together the business of the com- 
pany. Mr. Greene then resigned, and Mr. Oilman was afterward the sole 
agent of the concern. 

The Ouinebaug Company, for the manufacture of cotton and woolen 
goods, was chartered in 1826. The mill erected by this company on the 
Shetucket river was purchased by the Thames Company before it went into 
operation, and was considered by its new owners as the most valuable of 
their possessions. This mill was the beginning of Greenville. 

The Thames Company purchased likewise the mill at Bozrahville, built 
by Messrs. Dodge and Hyde in 1815, and in their best days had the three 
mills — in Bozrah, at the Falls, and on the Shetucket — in successful operation. 

Another company with similar objects and expectations, called the Nor- 
wich & New York Manufacturing Co., was incorporated in 1829. Some of 
the partners belonged also to the Thames Company, but they were distinct 
concerns. To this new incorporation the Thames Company sold the Falls 
mill. This company purchased also the mills and machinery of Huntington 
and Backus on Bean Hill. 

In 1833, a large cotton mill, two paper mills, an iron foundry, nail fac- 
tory and rolling mill were reported in successful operation at the Falls. 

But this prosperity was of short duration. Both the Thames Company 
and the Norwich and New York Company became involved in the mercantile 
disasters that so widely affected ihe business of the country, and went down 
in the financial crash of 1837. The two mills belonging to the Thames Com- 
jjan}' were purchased nominally by Mr. Oilman — the mortgages nearly equal- 
ing the value — and conveyed by him to other parties: the Ouinebaug mill to 
Mr. Caliph, and the mill at Bozrah to Mr. James Boorman of New York. A 
period of great depression and stagnation of business ensued. 

Fresh undertakings of a more enduring nature arose out of these reverses. 
Two new companies were formed under the auspices of Wm. P. Greene — the 
Shetucket Company and the Norwich Falls Company. Both went into pros- 
perous operation between 1838 and 1842. , 

The Shetucket Company purchased the misnamed Ouinebaug mill on 
the Shetucket. The building was burnt down in May, 1842, and the present 
mill, of far greater capacity, standing on the same spot, is called the She- 
tucket mill. It is the great cotton mill of Greeneville. 

The Falls Company purchased the mill at the Falls, which had formerly 
belonged to the Thames Company. This has since been enlarged to almost 
three times its former size and power, and has kept on from that time to 
the present, without any suspension of its acitvitv or check to its prosperity. 

These companies were established by Mr. Greene, chiefly upon his own 
credit, and were kept while he lived under his management and direction. 
The business has been gradually extending, and for several years each mill 
has had 15,000 spindles in operation. 



CITY OF NORWICH 153 

The manufacture of paper at the Falls has of late years been connected 
exclusively with the name of Hubbard. Amos H. Hubbard entered into the 
business in 1818. Paper was at that time made in the old way; not by 
machinery, but by hand, sheet by sheet. Mr. Hubbard very soon furnished 
his establishment with the modern improvements that diminish the amount 
of manual labor required. In 1830 he successfully introduced Fourdrinier's 
machine into his factory. This was the first paper-making machine used in 
Norwich. 

The brothers Russell and A. H. Hubbard were in partnership in this 
business for twenty years, but dissolved in 1857. They had two mills — the 
old wooden building erected by Messrs. Huntington and Bushnell in 1 790, 
and a modern one, built of brick and stone, both of which, with various lots, 
tenements and water-privileges, were sold by A. H. Hubbard in i860 to 
the Falls Company. Mr. Hubbard then removed his establishment to Greene- 
ville on the Shetucket. 

According to the census of i860, the great cotton mill at the Falls em- 
ployed 125 males and 375 females; producing annually six and a half million 
yards, valued at $450,000. 

The Falls Company has from time to time purchased the various privi- 
leges in its neighborhood, and now controls nearly the whole water power 
at Yantic Falls, and at the old paper-mill above the falls. The nailleries, 
foundries, pistol factories, the paper, flour and oil mills, have all disappeared, 
'.heir seats and privileges passed over to this company, and their various 
:rafts transferred to other localities. In this valley of the roaring waters, 
in i860, Cotton reigned the sole and undisputed king. 

This sovereignty has been recently invaded by the occupation of a 
hitherto unemployed mill-seat near the railroad bridge. Here a large brick 
building, erected by C. A. Converse in 1864, furnishes accommodation to a 
grist mill and the thriving cork factory of Messrs. J. H. Adams and James 
E. Learned. 

The cork-cutting business is one of the specialties of Norwich, this 
being the place where an ingenious machine for transforming sheets of 
bark into well-shaped corks was invented and set in operation, and where 
the business is prosecuted with a success that promises to make it one of 
the permanent industrial pursuits of the town. 

The corks used in this country had been mostly imported from Europe, 
where they were all made by hand. Vast quantities were required to supply 
the market, and a machine that would abridge the labor and cheapen the 
irticle was a desideratum. This furnished by the machines invented and 
patented by the brothers Crocker, of Norwich. 

William R. Crocker, the first inventor, after many experiments, brought 
his machine into successful operation, and procured a patent for it, bearing 
the date of October 30, 1855. "''his machine produced from twenty to thirty 
finished corks per minute, turning them out in better condition than those 
made bv hand. In 1859 the inventor went to Europe, accompanied by a 
j'oungcr brother, to dispose of rights in his patent. On their return in the 
steamer Hungarian, they both perished in the wreck of that vessel on the 
coast of Newfoundland, February 15, i860. 

But the business of cork-cutting, commenced by them in Norwich, has 
been continued by Messrs. Barnes & Spalding, the proprietors of their pat- 
ented machine. 

Another machine of different structure, but for the same purpose, was 
mvcnted by a third brother, John D. Crocker, and patented in 1862. This 
patent is the one employed in the factory at Yantic Falls. 



154 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Uncas j\Ii!I. — In the early part of the century, at Bean Hill, in a turn of 
the Yantic and on both sides of it, we find a grist mill of ancient date, the 
fulling mill and carding macliine of Erastus Huntington and Eber Backus, 
the stone ware factory of Armstrong & W'entworth, and the machine shop 
of James Burnham. Mr. Burnham constructed carding machines, looms, 
and other kinds of machinery, but died on the island of Madeira in 1813. 

The establishment of Huntington & Backus was purchased in 1828 for 
$9,000, by a company organized that year and called the Norwich Manufac- 
turing Company. This company established a woolen mill on the premises, 
since known as the Uncas Woolen Mill. The ownership has since been 
several times changed. In 1859, F. B. Loomis, proprietor, the census reported 
the annual produce 150,000 yards of doeskins, valued at $175,000. Mr. Loomis 
sold out in 1860 to Wm. Elting & Company. The Kiting Woolen Company 
has since been organized, with a capital of $150,000. 

Another woolen mill, at a lower point on the river in Norwich-Town, was 
run for several }e3rs by Peter Lanman. The site is now occupied by a mill 
of larger size and a group of neat tenements built by A. T. Sturtevant. 

Timothy Green, of New London, who was then printer to the colony, 
opened a printing office in this town early in 1773, and in company with 
Judah Paddock Spooner, his brother-in-law, prosecuted the business until 
1778. At that time the people of Vermont had just completed an independent 
State government, although they were in the asserted limits of the State of 
New York. Upon invitation of the government of the new State, Green and 
Spooner removed their office from Norwich to Westminster, Vermont, where 
they established the first newspaper printed in that State, under the title of 
"The Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post Boy." The motto of this 
paper was indicative of the spirit of the times: , 

"Pliant as reeds where streams of Freedom glide; 
Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide." 

The other printing office established in this town in 1773 was by a com- 
pany consisting of Alexander and James Robertson, who had emigrated from 
Scotland to Albany, and from Albany came here, and John Trumbull, a 
native of Charlestown, Mass. In the month of October, in that year, they 
issued the first number of "The Norwich Packet, and the Connecticut, Massa- 
chusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island Weekly Advertiser." "The 
Packet" was continued by this company until 1776, when the Robertsons, 
being Tories, were obliged to leave Norwich. They went to New York, and 
on the conclusion of the war took up their residence in the British province 
of Nova Scotia. Trumbull conducted the paper alone till his death in 1802. 
The title was then changed to the "Connecticut Centinel," and printed but 
a short time for the benefit of his widow, Lucy Trumbull. 

On the 29th of November, 1791, Ebenezer Bushnell issued the first num- 
ber of "The Weekly Register." In the issue of that paper of the 7th of 
June following, Bushnell announces that he has associated with himself 
Thomas Hubbard "In the Printing and Stocking Weaving business." This 
firm continued until October i, 1793, when Bushnell retired, leaving the busi- 
ness in the hands of Hubbard. In 1796, the office was removed from the 



CITY OF NORWICH 155 

Town to the Landing, then called Chelsea Landing, and the title of the 
paper changed to "The Chelsea Courier." On the 20th of November, 1805, 
Thomas Hubbard retired from the paper, leaving as his successor his son, 
Russell Hubbard, who soon changed the title to "The Norwich Courier," by 
which title it has ever since been known. In February, 1817, Mr. Hubbard 
formed a co-partnership with Theophilus R. Marvin, and under the firm of 
Hubbard & Marvin, the "Courier" was continued until 1819, when Marvin 
removed to Boston. In April, 1822, the paper was purchased by Thomas 
Robinson and John Dunham, and continued by them until March, 1825, 
when it passed into the hands of Dunham, who retained it until 1842. In 
September, 1842, Dorson E. Sykes assumed the control of the "Courier," 
and retained it until March, 1859, when he retired, and the paper was pur- 
chased by George B. Smith. In the August following. Smith's affairs were 
involved in bankruptcy, and the "Courier" was managed by his trustee. 

In 1803, John Sterry and Epaphras Porter issued the "True Republican," 
of which Consider Sterry was editor, and continued the same for about four 
years. 

In January, 1829, the "Norwich Republican," by Boardman & Faulkner, 
made its appearance. It soon passed into the possession of Adams & Faulk- 
ner; they retiring, it was published till April, 1835, by Melza Gardner. At 
that time it was purchased by Marcus B. Young, its political character was 
changed, and L. F. S. Foster assumed the editorial charge. The "Republican" 
was discontinued in 1838. 

In May. 1835, James Holbrook issued the first number of "The Norwich 
Aurora." He continued its publication till June, 1838, when Gad S. Gilbert 
purchased it and conducted it till March 24, 1841. From that time until 
August 8, 1844, it was successively conducted by William Trench and Trench 
& Conklin. 

From 1843 till 1848, "The Norwich News" was published by William 
Faulkner. 

Of the other newspapers which have had an ephemeral existence in 
Norwich, the following may be mentioned : 

"The Canal of Intelligence," by Levi Huntington Young, commenced 
in 1826. "The Norwich Spectator," by Park Benjamin and M. B. Young, 
commenced in November, 1829; revived in 1842 by John G. Cooley, and con- 
tinued for a short time. "The Norwich Free Press," by M. B. Young, 
February, 1830. "The Norwich Gleaner," by B. F. Taylor, in 1845. "The 
American Patriot," by the friends of General Taylor, 1848. "The Norwich 
Tribune," by Charles B. Piatt and Edmund C. Stedman. in 1852. "The Nor- 
wich Examiner," by Andrew Stark, in 1853. "The State Guard," by the same 
publisher, in 1855. 

In August, 1859, the press of Norwich was as follows: "The Norwich 
Courier." published by the trustee of the estate of George B. Smith. "The 
TCorwich Aurora," by John W. Stedman. "The Morning Bulletin," by Man- 
ning. Perry & Co., established in December, 1858. "The Weekly Reveille," 



156 NFAV LONDON COUNTY 

by Walter S. Robinson (suspended). "The Free Academy Journal," pub- 
lished by the students of the Free Academy. 

For the Norwich Jubilee in 1859 the following article was prepared by 
Ashbel Woodward, M.D., president of the Connecticut Medical Society: 

Of the physicians generally of the American colonial period, little is now 
known. As a class they were unambitious to participate in the deliberations 
of public councils, or take the lead in advocacy of popular measures, so that 
only few names became prominently identified with local or general history. 
Many devoted to the duties of their calling the undivided energies of long 
and laborious lives, reaping only a scanty pecuniary recompense for the 
present, and no place at all in the grateful recollection of posterity. Respected 
and loved by cotemporaries with that respect and love which strikes such 
deep root and blossoms so beautifully in the chamber of suffering, they were 
too frequently forgotten when their own generation had passed away. 

No systematic account of the early physicians of Norwich has hitherto 
been given. The materials for such a work are fragmentary, and collectible 
onlv with great difficulty and labor. Public records aftord little assistance, 
while the scanty aid they might otherwise render is still further impaired by 
the general absence of the titular appendage from the names. Another 
peculiar circumstance of the present case cuts us of? from one source of 
information, which, in many localities, is highly fruitful. During the early 
colonial period (as has almost always been true in the infancy of nations) 
the professions of theology and medicine frequently met in the hands of the 
same incumbent, the cure of fleshly ills being esteemed an incidental con- 
comitant to the cure of the more dangerous maladies of the soul. These 
clerical physicians, exercising their double vocation amid a people justly 
celebrated for affectionate attachment to the expounders of the divine oracles, 
were often minutely remembered and described for after time, in virtue of the 
popularity of the priestly office. But in Norwich, the two professions were 
kept entirely distinct from the beginning, so that ecclesiastical writings in al! 
the multifarious forms they then assumed, are wholly unavailing to the biog- 
rapher of her early doctors. 

Of some of these, almost the only memorials are the precarious inscrip- 
tions of moss-grown and neglected tomb stones. Others whose days of toil 
and nights of watching in alleviation of human pain were otherwise forgotten, 
still li\-e in the hearts of their descendants, and in traditions floating downward 
in the same current with their blood. The names of several enter largely 
into cotemporary records, whereby we may infer the prominency of their 
influence, though the various proceedings they shared in, and the trusts 
imposed upon them must here be passed in silence as too commonplace for 
exhumation in our brief tribute to their memory. Yet it should not be for- 
gotten that, as a citizen, one may be pre-eminently useful, and still perform 
few actions whose recital either interests the attention or quickens the pulses 
of postrity. 

The medical profession in ancient Norwich was more than respectable; 
was distinguished. As practitioners and teachers, several of its members 
had few superiors on the continent. As reformers of abuses and fearless 
advocates of salutary though unpopular changes, they held pace in the fore- 
most rank. In the year 1763, prior to any attempts at medical organization 
elsewhere on the continent. Thcophilus Rogers, with ten others, petitioned 
the colonial legislature for the charter of a medical society. This movement, 
made in advance of the age, was negatived in the lower house. Still it indi- 



CITY OF NORWICH 157 

cates one of the most important crises in the history of the profession. The 
presentation of that unpretending Norwich memorial was the initiative step 
in a series of efforts which have since resulted in the permanent establish-' 
ment of many flourishing State associations, and within a few years of the 
national society, which has contributed in a high degree to purify the ranks, 
elevate the aims and make a real unit and fraternity of the profession in 
America. In the attempt alluded to, it was not the object of the petitioners 
to secure any immunities or exclusive privileges for themselves, but to pro- 
tect the health of the community by additional securities. At that time there 
was no authority in the state legally qualified to confer degrees in a way 
to discriminate the man of solid acquirements from the ignorant pretender. 
Many, without either study or natural aptitude for the exercise of the calling, 
by shameless vauntings imposed upon a credulous populace, and by assuming 
their title brought discredit upon honorable men. Our Norwich memorialists 
wished to strike at the root of this disgusting and rampant empiricism. To 
shut down the flood gates through which their ranks were inundated by 
incessant streams of ignorance and charlatanry, to establish a standard of 
education by making a respectable amount of attainments an indispensable 
requisite to the acquirement of the title, they asked for the appointment of 
a committee legally authorized to examine and approve candidates, if found 
qualified. Thus Norwich, though unsuccessful in her first attempt, was the 
pioneer in the cause of American medical organization. 

As early as 1785, when there were but two medical schools in the whole 
country, Drs. Philip Turner and Philemon Tracy issued proposals for the 
delivery of a series of lectures to students on "Anatomy, Physic, Surgery, &c." 
As additional incentives to induce the "rising sons of ^sculapius" to improve 
the facilities proffered to them, they tendered the free use of a "complete 
library of ancient and modern authors," together with "the advantage of 
being present at capital operations, dissections, &c." The prospectus goes 
on to state, "Every attention will be paid by the subscribers to render their 
lectures both useful and pleasing, their constant endeavors will be to facilitate 
the instruction, direct with propriety the judgment, correct the errors, and 
increase the knowledge of the pupils in their study." 

Another interesting point in the history of Norwich was the long and 
bitter controversy between the advocates and opponents of inoculation for 
small pox. At that period this disease was the most formidable scourge of 
humanity. There was no place of refuge from its ravages, nor means of 
mitigating the fury of its poison. Inoculation having been practiced with suc- 
cess" in furkev, had recently, through Cotton Mather's influence, been intro- 
duced into the colonies. Commencing in 1760, for many years severalof the 
more prominent physicians of Norwich struggled assiduously to e.stablish the 
practice against the inveterate prejudices of the community. A popular vote 
authorized pest houses, passed after the lapse of a third of a century, shows 
how obstinately the public contended before yielding to the superior argu- 
ments of the profession. 

The following account of Lincoln's visit to Norwich, prepared by Mr. 
Francis T. Leavens, has never been published : 

One morning in March, i860, I was standing with three or four of iny 
classmates of the junior class in the Norwich Free Academy when one of the 
older boys of the senior class came up to us and said, "Boys, if vou want to 
hear a regular western stump speaker, go down to the Town Hall tomorrow 
night." "Who is he?" we asked, and the answer came, "A man from Illmois 
named Lincoln, and they say he is great." 



158 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

A man from Illinois named Lincoln meant nothing- to us. \\"e had never 
heard of him, but we had heard of stump speakers, though we had not seen 
or heard one. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show had not begun to make its 
annual visits to New Eng-land, and none of us had been west. "Stump speaker" 
sounded good to us and we decided to go. 

Boys are not apt to be late at anything likely to interest them, and four 
of us were among the earliest arrivals at the Town Hall. We seated our- 
selves on the front bench, and when Mr. Lincoln took his place behind the 
bar that ran along the front of the platform he was not six feet away from 
us. In fact, when he leaned forward and swung his long arms in gestures it 
seemed as if we were in danger of being struck. 

I will not attempt to describe his appearance; that has been done by 
many who were intimately associated with him, while artists and sculptors 
have faithfully portrayed his form and features. I remember that he was 
dressed in a black suit and that he wore a wide turnover collar and a black 
silk sailor's tie, both of which were striking and unusual in this region. 

At this distance of time I cannot undertake to report what he said, but 
we four boys sat on that front bench till ten o'clock, our eyes never leaving 
him, notwithstanding we had to keep our heads raised at an uncomfortable 
angle as he towered above us. I have heard many famous orators since, but 
never have I listened to one with such rapt attention, and no one ever made 
such a deep and lasting impression upon me. 

His speech was richly illustrated with stories and was frequently inter- 
rupted by vigorous applause. One story I remember was about a young 
farmer who in some way opened up a nest of large and active black snakes, 
and as Mr. Lincoln described the terrible combat that followed his body 
swayed, his long black arms and his fingers were writhing and twisting till 
even the Laocoon itself was not more realistic. That picture is as plain in 
my mind's eye today as it was fifty-seven j'cars ago. 

The next morning two of us on our way to school reached a cross street 
and looking down saw two other bo' s approaching who had also been there. 
In an instant, without a word, four pairs of arms were writhing in the air 
and any stranger who had seen us would have surely thought us crazy. All 
that day, and for many days, those writhing arms were the countersign, and 
"snakes" the password for the boys who had heard Abraham Lincoln. 

After the meeting was over a large number of citizens adjourned to the 
Wauregan House where Mr. Lincoln was entertained, and had a most enjoy- 
able after meeting with refreshments and more stories from Lincoln. About 
midnight, as it was known that Mr. Lincoln had to leave for New Haven at 
six the next morning, the company reluctantly broke up and bid him good 
night. 

There was left, however, one gentleman, Mr. John F. Trumbull, of 
.Stonington, who had come some distance to attend the meeting and was spend- 
ing the night at the Wauregan. Mr. Trumbull had a very considerable repu- 
tation as a political speaker and story teller, and after the others were gone 
he and Mr. Lincoln sat and talked for an hour in the parlor and then went 
up stairs together. When they reached the door of Mr. Lincoln's room some- 
thing interesting was unfinished, so Trumbull went in and they talked on 
till the town clock in the Baptist church nearby struck two, when Mr. Trum- 
bull apologized and went out. Mr. Lincoln had removed his coat, vest, 
collar and shoes and was rapidly preparing for bed when there was a knock 
on the door and there stood Trumbull. "Oh !" he said. "I have just thought 
of one more story I must tell you." And they sat down beside each other on 
the bed and swapped stories for three-quarters of an hour more. It was 



CITY OF NORWICH 159 

nearly three when tlie final adjournment took place, and Lincoln was called 
at five to make ready for New Haven. 

This latter part of the stor}- was told me years after by my friend, Col. 
H. H. Osgood, who was a member of Governor Buckingham's military staff. 
The Connecticut State elections at that time were held in April, and Lincoln's 
speeches in our State were part of the campaign for Governor Buckingham's) 
re-election. 

It was through the efforts of Colonel Osgood that Mr. Lincoln came to 
Norwich. He had heard of the wonderful impression made by the Cooper 
Union speech, and, as Hartford was one of his first assignments in New 
England, Colonel Osgood went there and heard him, then, procuring an intro- 
duction, invited him to come to Norwich. Mr. Lincoln was pleased with the 
invitation, but said that it was absolutely impossible, as his route had been 
carefully laid out and there was no possibility of taking on another engage- 
ment. At that time railroad trains were very few and very slow, but Colonel 
Osgood was familiar with time tables, and he looked over the speaker's 
schedules and at last said, "You can do it. You can come between Providence 
and New Haven." "Young man," said Mr. Lincoln, "demonstrate it." So 
thoroughly did Colonel Osgood demonstrate it that Mr. Lincoln promised to 
come, and he did come. I shall never cease to be thankful that I was per- 
mitted to see and hear him. 

Once again I saw him. It was in the spring of 1864, during my vacation 
from college. I was making a visit with relatives in Baltimore and they 
took me for a day in Washington. We went, of course, to the White House, 
and while looking about in the East Room, which is always open to the 
public, the usher stationed in the hall came to me and said, "The President 
is just coming in from the War Department. If you would like to see him, 
just come and stand in the doorway of this room." It was at a dark period 
of the war, heavy fighting had been going on for several days, but without 
any satisfactory results. The porch door was opened and the President 
came in, but oh ! how changed. His step was slow, his shoulders were bent, 
and his face told most plainly the story of the great burden that he was 
carrying. He started slowly up the broad staircase, when a small man who 
had been standing in thje hall ran quickly up behind him and spoke to him as 
he reached the broad stair, introducing himself as a professor in some fresh 
water college in Ohio. I could not hear much that he said, and I think that 
the President heard none of it, for he stood there very quiet, but with such a 
faraway weary look in his burdened face that I felt his thoughts were with 
the boys in blue and the boys in gray fighting the battle of the Wilderness, 

while the little man's tongue babbled on. Why is it that there are some 

who will rush in where angels dare not tread? 

A year later, during my spring vacation, the dreadful news of the assas- 
sination came one Saturday morning. It was like a national stroke of par- 
alysis, men stopped whatever they were doing and little business was resumed 
that daj'. That Saturday night, three other members of the Broadway 
Church, "with myself, having secured several pieces of black cloth, by working 
till midnight, managed to drape the interior of the church, and Sunday morn- 
ing Rev. John P. Gulliver, who always rose to a great occasion, preached a 
masterful discourse on the text, "It must needs be that otifences come, but 
woe unto him by whom the offence cometh."* 

The following data covering the founders of Norwich were compiled from 
various sources for the quarter-millenial celebration in 1909: 

I. Deacon Thomas Adgate, 1649. Born about 1620; died 1707. One of 



i6o NEW LONDON COUNTY 

those appointed to "dignify the pues." His house was on north end of 
Lowthrope Meadows. 

2. Robert Allyn, 1659. "First constable in the Town." Died 1683, at 
Allyn's Point. 

3. Wm. Backus, 1659. Died soon after the settlement. His home-lot 
was next north of Thomas Bliss, from Washington street to the river. Father 
of Stephen Backus. 

4. Lieut. Wm. Backus, Jr., 16.^9. He styled himself "yeoman," but was 
known successively as sergeant, ensign and lieutenant. 

5. John Baldwin. 1659. Constable in 1696. Ancestor of Judge Simeon 
E. Baldwin of New Haven. Home-lot on West Town street, near the river. 

6. Deacon Thomas Bingham, 1659. Born 1642; died 1730. Home-lot on 
West Town street above Thomas Waterman and extending to the river. 

7. John Birchard, 1659. Born 1628; died 1702. First schoolmaster. 
Home-lot on West Town street, opposite Samuel and William Hyde. 

8. Thomas Bliss, 1659. Died 1688. Home-lot on Washington street 
adjoining John Reynolds. His house is still standing. 

9. Morgan Bowers, 1659. Home-lot on West Town street adjoining 
John Post. 

10. John Bradford, 1659. Son of Governor Bradford, of Plymouth. 
Townsman in 1671. Home-lot on East Town street west of Huntington lane. 

11. Deacon Hugh Caulkins, 1659. Born 1600; died 1690. One of the most 
useful men of his time. Home-lot on West Town street. 

I. John Caulkins, 1659. Born 1634; died 1703. Active in town affairs. 
Home-lot on W^est Town street. 

13. Richard Edgerton, 1659. Died in 1692. Townsman and constable. 

14. Rev. James Fitch, 1659. Born 1622; died 1702. First pastor of 
r'irst Church in Norwich; held the ofSce fifty-six years. Called by Cotton 
Mather, "the holy, acute and learned Mr. Fitch." Home-lot from Simon 
Huntington to the river. 

15. John Gager, 1659. Died 1703. Constable in 1674 and 1688. He was 
son of William Gager, "a right godly man and skillful chyrurgeon." 

16. Lieut Francis Griswold, 1659. Born 1622; died 167.'. Representer' 
the town in the General Court in eleven sessions. Home-lot on West Towft 
street. 

17. Christopher Huntington, 1659. First townsman. Died 1691. One 
of the most useful of the pioneers. Home-lot on Washington street corner 
of East Town street. 

18. Deacon Simon Huntington, 1659. Born 1629; died 1706. Townsman 
in 1690 and 1696. Home-lot on south side of East Town street west of Lieut. 
Thomas Tracy. 

19. Samuel Hyde, 1659. Died 1677. Home-lot on north side of West 
Town street above the rocks. 

20. Wm. Hyde, 1659. Died 1682. Townsman in 1673 and 1679. Home- 
'ot on West Town street. 

21. Thomas Howard, 1659. .Slain at the Narragansett fort fight in 1673. 
Home-lot on north side of West Town street below Bean Hill church. 

22. Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell. Born about 1622 : died after 1714. Home- 
lot located on the corner of the present Washington street and Harland road. 
House occupied by D. H. Torosian in 1909. Leffingwell was famous for 
bringing relief to Uncas when he was besieged by the Narragansetts. Rep- 

* There is to be found in Holland's "Life of Lincoln" a brief account of the New England 
trip, including the visit to Norwich, and also an interview between Mr. Lincoln and Dr 
Gulliver that took place on the train to New Haven the morning after his speech in Norwich 



CITY OF NORWICH i6i 

resented the town in fifty-six sessions of the General Court. 

23. Major John Mason, 1659. Born in England ; died in Norwich, 1672. 
Deputy Governor of Colony of Connecticut. Distinguished among the 
Founders of Norwich. In his hand the sword of the Lord was mighty against 
the savage Pequots. Firm friend of Uncas and the Mohegans. Valiant 
soldier ; wise counsellor. Home-lot corner of Town street and New London 
turnpike. 

24. Dr. John Olmstead, 1659. Born about 1626; died 1686. The first 
doctor in the town. Home-lot where the Oilman family live, at 380 Wash- 
ington street. 

25. John Pease, 1659. "A sea faring man." Home-lot the last on West 
Town street at the river crossing. 

26. John Post, 1659. "A sea faring man." Home-lot the last on West 
street next above Thomas Bingham. 

27. Thomas Post, 1659. Died 1701. Constable. Home-lot on West 
Town street, adjoining John Gager. 

28. Josiah Read, 1659. Died 1717. Constable. Home-lot on Washington 
street east of the Coit Elms. 

29. John Reynolds, 1659. Died 1702. His dwelling, on Washington 
street, is one of the oldest in Norwich. Home-lot included Backus Hospital 
grounds. 

30. Jonathan Royce, 1659. Died 1689. Home-lot on West Town street 
between Allyn and J. Tracy. 

31. Rev. Nehemiah Smith. 1659. Born about 1605; died 1686. Home-lot 
on West Town street north side opposite T. Post. 

32. Sergeant John Tracy, 1639. Died 1702. Home-lot on south side of 
West Town street between John Baldwin and John Pease. 

33. Lieut. Thomas Tracy, 1659. Born about 1610; died 1685. Home-lot 
on East Town street adjoining Christopher Huntington. One of the most 
distinguished of the Founders of Norwich. He and John Mason were wit- 
nesses of the deed of Unkos. Owaneco, and Attawanhood, granting nine miles 
square to the inhabitants of Norwich, for the sum of seventy pounds. First 
representative to the General Court. 

34. Robert Wade. 1659. Date of birth and death unknown. Home-lot 
south side of West Town street between John Birchard and John Gager. 

35. Sergeant Thomas Waterman, 1659. Born 1644; died 1708. Home-lot 
on West Town street adjoining John Mason. Youngest of the Founders, 
sixteen years of age. He represented the town in the General Court in 1679. 

OTHER EARLY SETTLERS 

36. Caleb Abell, died August 7, 1731. Three of this name are found at 
an early period among the inhabitants of Norwich — Caleb, Benjamin and 
Joshua.' Caleb married in July, 1669, Margaret, daughter of John Post. 
Robert Wade transferred to Caleb Abell his house lot. Town street. It was 
located between John Birchard and Morgan Bowers. He was chosen con- 
stable 1684: townsman i68g; appointed to keep tavern in 1694. Gen. Elijah 
Abell, a gallant officer in the Revolutionary War, born in Norwich, was a 
descendant of Caleb Abell. 

37. Richard Bushnell was born September, 1652; died 1727. Came to 
Norwich with his step-father, Thomas Adgate. In the earlier part of the 
eighteenth ccnturv, Richard Bushnell was one of the most noted and active 
men in Norwich.' He performed the duties of townsman, constable, school- 
master, poet, deacon, sergeant, lieutenant and captain, town agent, town 

N.L.— i-u 



i62 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

deputy, court clerk, and justice of the peace. His dwelling was on the Mont- 
ville road a mile south of the city. Married, in 1672, Elizabeth Adgate. 

38. Samuel Lathrop, died February 29, 1700. Was son of Rev. John 
Lathrop, of London ; came with his father to America in 1634 when about 
fourteen years of age. He married at Barnstable, Mass., November 28, 1644, 
Elizabeth Scudder. He was a house carpenter, and came to Norwich in 1668. 
He had nine children by his first wife. His second wife, Abigail Doane, sur- 
vived him and lived to the age of 103 years. 

39. John Elderkin, died June 23, 1687. Elderkin's earliest grant at Nor- 
wich was in 1667, and was conveyed in 1668 to Samuel Lathrop. The next 
was at the old landing place below the Falls, where he built a grist mill for 
the convenience of the town. Here for a long course of years stood the 
mill and the miller's house. Elderkin built the second meeting-house for the 
town. Of his first wife nothing is known. His second wife was Elizabeth, 
relict of William Gaylord, of Windsor. 

40. Stephen GifTord, born about 1641 ; died 1724. He was an early settler 
and is classed as a proprietor by Miss Caulkins. Constable in 1686. His 
home-lot extended from Mediterranean lane to the chapel of First Congre- 
gational church. 

41. Christopher Huntington, Junior, born 1660; died 1735. "The first 
born of males in Norwich." Son of Christopher Huntington the Founder. 
A man of the highest character, and a prominent contributor to the pros- 
perity of the most vital interests of the town. For near forty years he "used 
the office of a deacon well." Town Clerk 1678 to 1691. 

42. Elizabeth Hyde, born August, 1660; died at Lyme, 1736. Daughter 
of Samuel and Jane (Lee) Hyde, the first child of English parentage born 
in Norwich. Married, in 1682, Richard Lord, of Lyme. 

43. Col. Christopher LefTingwell, born 1734; died 1810. Pioneer paper 
manufacturer. Soldier and patriot in the Revolution. Prominent citizen. 

44. Major James Fitch, Jr.. born in Saybrook, 1647; died 1727; married 
(i) 1676, Elizabeth Mason; married (2) 1687, Mrs. Alice (Bradford) Adams. 
During his residence in Norwich "he took a leading part in all town affairs, 
and served as land-surveyor, registrar, captain of the train-band, and com- 
missioner of boundaries." In 1698-99 he sold his house and home-lot to 
Samuel and Simon Huntington, and later made his home in Canterbury. His 
home-lot was on the east side of the town Green, and his house probably stood 
south and near to the present residence of Wallace S. Allis. 

45. Governor Samuel Huntington, LI^.D., born 1731 ; died 1796. Repre- 
sentative in Legislature 1764, and Senator 1773; Associate Judge Supreme 
Court of Connecticut 1774; member of Congress 1775-1780 and member of 
the Marine Court; signer of the Declaration of Independence; President of 
Congress 1779-1781 and 1783; Chief Justice of Connecticut 1784; Lieutenant- 
Governor 1785; Doctor of Laws, Yale College, 1779; Governor 1786-96. 

46. Benjamin Huntington, LL.D., born 1736; died October 16, 1800. 
Graduated at Yale 1761 ; married daughter of Jabez Huntington, of Wind- 
ham ; State Counsellor during Revolutionary War; director of battery built 
on Waterman's Point 1775; agent of colony to purchase the "Spy," bought 
to watch British; superintended building of the "Defence" 14-gun brig, 1776; 
representative from Norwich 1775; member Continental Congress 1784 and of 
Constitutional Congress 1789; Judge Superior Court 1793; LL.B. from Dart- 
mouth College 1782; moved to Rome, N. Y., 1796. His body was brought to 
Norwich for burial. First Mayor of Norwich, 1784 to 1796. 

47. Benedict Arnold, born Norwich, 1741 ; died in London, 1801. Gen- 
eral in the Revolutionary army. Distinguished for his heroism at Quebec, 



CITY OF NORWICH 163 

Lake Champlain, Ridgefield, and Saratoga. Detested for his treason and for 
the burning of New London. The house where he was born, on east side of 
Washington street, below LaFayctte street, was destroyed sixty years ago. 

48. Aaron Cleveland. The Aaron Cleveland house is now standing on 
West Town street at Bean Hill next below the meeting-house. Here Aaron 
"carried on" the hat business, and at the same time wrote poems, essays, 
lectures, and sermons upon all subjects of the day, social, political and reli- 
gious. Aaron was great-grandfather of Grovcr Cleveland (see No. 78). 

49. William Cleveland, died in 1837. Rev. Benjamin Lord purchased a 
house on the site, next to the Johnson home. This was his residence. This 
property was held by the Lord heirs until 1830, when it was sold to William 
Cleveland, grandfather of the President. William built a shop east of the 
house where he carried on the business of gold or silversmith. This dwelling 
house was burned in 1852. (See No. 79.) 

50. Dr. Philip Turner, born in Norwich, 1740; died in New York in 181 5 
and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard. He was highly distinguished for 
his professional skill. 

51. Joseph Trumbull, the eldest son of Governor Trumbull, and the 
first Commissary General Continental Army; in 1778 bought the property 
between the present residence of A. W. Dickey and the house of Mrs. Kelley. 

52. Diah Manning. 1760-1815, drum-major of Washington's Body Guard. 
He carried to Major Andre his breakfast on the day of his execution, bringing 
it from the table of General Washington. House on Town street, corner Old 
Cemetery lane. 

53. R.ev. Benjamin Lord, D.D., was born at Saybrook, Conn., in 1694, 
and died at Norwich in 1784. For sixty-seven years pastor of the First Church 
in Norwich. He was graduated at Yale in 1714 and received the degree of 
D.D. in 1774. 

54. Dr. Solomon Tracy, born in 1650; died in 1732. He was a youth at 
the settlement of the town. In addition to the duties of his profession he 
served the town as representative in the General Assembly and as lieutenant 
in the train-band. 

55. Madam Knight (Mrs. Sarah Kemble Knight), born in Boston in 
1666, and died in New London in 1727. The greater part of her life was 
spent in New London and Norwich, where she stood high in social rank and 
was respected both in church and civil affairs. In 1717 the town of Norwich 
granted her liberty "to sitt in the pue where she use to sitt in ye meeting- 
house." A silver tankard which she presented to the church is still preserved. 
She was remarkable for her versatile gifts and is remembered by her journal 
of a journey alone on horseback from Boston to New York in 1704. 

56. General Andrew Huntington, born 174S; died 1824. John Elderkin 
sold "land on East Town street to Samuel Lothrop, who built a house upon 
it soon after 1668. Portions of his house were probably incorporated in the 
present building now owned by Mr. Fitch, which was constructed about 1740, 
by Joshua Huntington (1698-1745). (See No. 61.) Cornmissary General, 
judge and merchant. Lived in this house from 1766 until his death. 

57. Simon Huntington, Jr., born 1659; died 17^6. In 1688-89 Simon 
Huntington, the proprietor, granted land on East Town street to his son, 
Simon, who held many civil ofiRces. was deacon of the church from 1696 to 
1736. and in 1706 opened "a house of public entertainment." Captain Joseph 
Carew probably used parts of the house built by Simon Huntington, Jr., 
when he constructed in 1782-83 the house now occupied by Mr. Kelly. Joseph 



i64 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

and Eunice Carevv Huntington and their children occupied this house until 

1854- 

58. Hon. Jabez W. Huntington, born 1788; died 1847. United States 
Senator from 1840 to 1847, lived in the Simon Huntington house (see No. 57) 
after his marriage in 1833 to a daughter of Joseph Huntington. "A statesman 
of unbending integrity and unswerving fidelity to the interests of the Union." 

59. General Jedidiah Huntington, born 1743; died 1818. Fought at 
Bunker Hill and in many of the most important battles of the Revolution. 
He entertained both Washington and Lafayette in the house on the corner 
of East Town street and Huntington lane. He married, in 1766, Faith Trum- 
bull, the daughter of the famous war governor. After the war he held many 
important positions and in 1789 was appointed Collector of Customs at New 
London and held that office until his death. 

60. General Ebenezer Huntington, born 1754; died 1834. Was the half- 
brother of Jedidiah. After Jedidiah removed to New London his house was 
occupied by Ebenezer. He left Yale College when the war commenced and 
served until the troops were disbanded in 1783. In 1810 and in 1817 he was 
elected a member of Congress. Major General, Connecticut militia, over 
thirty years. His four unmarried daughters were "the Ladies Huntington." 

61. Colonel Joshua Huntington, born 1751 ; died 1821. Married, in 1771, 
Hannah, daughter of Col. Hezekiah Huntington. He was in business at the 
Landing, but at the call to arms he followed his brothers in giving himself 
to the service of his country. He was high sheriff of New London county 
and had charge of the first United States census (1709) in this region. He 
lived in the house on Huntington lane now owned by Mrs. Theodore F. 
McCurdy. 

62. General Jabez Huntington, born 1719; died 1786. Graduated at 
Vale College, 1741. "The house in the lane" is today practically unaltered 
from its condition when it was occupied by Gen. Jabez Huntington, who as 
the head of the Connecticut troops did much for American freedom. It 
surely includes a portion of the whole of the house of his father, the first 
Joshua Huntington, and may include the house built by the founder, John 
Bradford. General Jabez Huntington was the father of Jedidiah, Andrew, 
Joshua, Ebenezer and Zachariah. "If the annals of the Revolution record 
the name of any family that contributed more to that great struggle, I have 
yet to learn it." 

63. Colonel John Durkee, born in Windham, 1728; died May 29, 1782. 
Leader of 500 men who compelled Ingersoll to resign the office of stamp 
master for Connecticut. Colonel at Long Island, Harlem, White Plains, 
Trenton and Monmouth. He was in Sullivan's Indian expedition. Durkee's 
tavern at Bean Hill was "opposite the home-lot of Mr. Samuel Abell." He 
was known as "the Bold Bean Hiller." 

MEETING HOUSES AND BURYING GROUNDS 

64. The first meeting-house stood near the southeast corner of the 
Green, "with the open Common around it." Of its erection there is no record. 
It was probably built by a "general turn-out of the inhabitants." In 1668 a 
small rate was collected to pay Samuel Lathrop "for repairing the Meeting- 
house." It was in use only twelve or fourteen years. Opposite present 
Norwich Town post office. 

65. In 1673 the town contracted with John Elderkin to build "forthwith 
a new meeting-house." The building committee were Deacon Hugh Calkins, 



CITY OF NORWICH 165 

Ensiern Thomas Leffinsrwcll, Ensign Thoman Tracy, Simon Huntington and 
William Backus. It was completed in two years. Elderkin contracted to 
build it for £428. This building was repaired and a "leanto" added, in which 
several new pews were made. These improvements being completed in 
March, 169S. five of the oldest and most respected inhabitants were directed 
"to seat the people with due regard to rank." The site of this second meeting- 
house was on the summit of the hill. It was to serve as a watch-tower, and 
a garrison post, as well as a house of worship. 

66. December 6, 1709, a vote was passed to build a third meeting-house, 
the dimensions not to exceed 55 feet by 45, to be modeled by a committee of 
the church, and completed by March i, 1712. This building was on the 
rocks near the site of the second meeting-house. John Elderkin, 2d, son of 
the old church builder, was the architect. It was completed in December, 
1713. A vote was passed to sell the old edifice, which had lasted forty years. 

67. The site of the fourth meeting-house was at the corner of the Green, 
under the rocks, where the present church stands. It is said to have been 
a "square building, with a front porch or platform," with doors on three 
sides. It was voted for in 1748, but was not begun until 1753; it remained 
unfinished for several years. It was completed in 1770. On the 7th of Feb- 
ruary, 1 801, it was destroyed by fire, with several other buildings. The 
present building, the fifth meeting-house, was built partly by subscription 
and partly by a lottery. 

68. Post-Gager Burial Ground, 1661. In 1661 the town bought this land 
for a common burial-place. Many of the proprietors and early settlers were 
interred in this "regular oblong plot," 11 rods long and 7 wide. The last 
interment was in 1740. In 1872 the present monument was erected to the 
memory of Major John Mason and the other proprietors. It is on West 
Town street, half a mile above the Uptown Green. No traces of graves 
remain. 

69. Entrance to Old Burying Ground, 1699. At Norwich Town through 
Old Cemetery lane near the corner of Town street (the River road), and the 
Uptown Green; a portion of the home-lot of Rev. James Fitch. 

70. Entrance to the Old Burying Ground, 1796. On East Town street, 
adjacent to the Governor Huntington house, through the Hubbard gates, 
inscribed by Faith Trumbull Chapter, D. A. R., with names of soldiers of the 
Revolution buried within. A portion of the home-lot of Simon Huntington. 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS 

71. Court House, 1762. In 1735 the first court house was erected on the 
south side of the parsonage lot. In 1762 a new one was built on the Green 
near the present watering trough. This was moved across the street in 1798 
near the present school, used until 1S33, when courts were moved to the 
Landing, and then used as a school building until 1891. 

72. Town and Court House, 1829. Built on north side of Church street. 
Burned April 11, 1865. 

74. Jail. 181 5. A third location was chosen in 1815, when the Perit house 
on the opposite side of the Green was purchased for the county house, and a 
jail was built on the adjoining lot a short distance back of where the store now 
stands. This lasted until the courts were moved to the Landing, in 1833. 

73. Jail, 1759. First jail was at southeast corner of Green. About 1759 
a new one was built back of old brick schoolhouse. This was burned in 
1786 and rebuilt and used until 181 5. 



i66 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

75. Office of Town Clerks. The first town clerk was John Birchard. 
We have no record of his appointment. He was in office eighteen years. 
Christopher Huntington, appointed 1678, was in office until his death, 1691. 
Richard Bushnell, 1691, for seven years. Christopher Huntington, Jr., 1698, 
for four years. Richard Bushnell again in 1702, in office for twenty-four 
years. Isaac Huntington, 1726 till his death, 1764. Benj. Huntington, 1764, 
in office nearly two years. Benj. Huntington, son of Isaac, 1765, in office 
thirteen years. Samuel Tracy, 1778, in office one year. Benj. Huntington, 
1779, in office until his death, 1801. Philip Huntington, 1801, until his death 
in 1825, and his son, Benjamin, born 1798, was in office nearly continuously 
until 1830. 

76. Dudley Woodbridge's Store. Dudley Woodbridge, in 1774, pur- 
chased of Ebenezer Lord his house and shop on the Green, north and next 
to where the present chapel stands. He sold goods of every description, 
groceries, shoes, dress goods, hardware, etc. In 1782, the first post office was 
established in Norwich ; Dudley Woodbridge was the first postmaster, and 
held the office until 1789. The mails had previously been delivered by post 
riders. Mr. Woodbridge removed to Ohio in 1789 or 1790. 

In 1790 Gurdon Lathrop occupied this store, as a general trader. In 
1791 it was sold to Joseph Huntington and he formed a partnership with 
Joseph Carew. After October, 1800, the business was carried on by the firm 
of Joseph and Charles P. Huntington. On February 7th, 1801, this store and 
the meeting-house with several other buildings were burned. The Huntington 
Brothers moved their goods to the store "a few rods N. E. from the Court 
House." In August they moved to the large, new brick store, which they 
had had built on the site of the old Woodbridge shop. This building is now 
the chapel of First Congregational Church. 

"JJ. Tracy & Coit's Store. About 1780, Uriah Tracy and Joseph Coit 
leased from Thomas Leffingwell land upon which they built a shop 50x32, 
in which they carried on for many years an extensive business. It was a long, 
gambrel-roofed, one-story-and-half structure. Uriah Tracy bought in 1790 
the Benedict Arnold house, where he lived until his death. Tracy & Coit's 
Store was one of the representative stores of Norwich. 

78. Aaron Cleveland Shop. This building formerly stood the next but 
one below the meeting-house. Bean Hill. It was the shop of Aaron Cleveland, 
in which he carried on the business of hat making. It was moved across the 
road and is now known as "Adam's Tavern." President Cleveland was his 
great-grandson (see No. 48). 

79. William Cleveland Shop. This building was the one used by William 
Cleveland as a goldsmith shop, 1830-37. It stood between the sc'hoolhouse 
and the Johnson home facing the Green (see No. 49). 

80. Brick School House. On Norwich Town Green. Founded by 
Doctor Daniel Lathrop in 1783. Now occupied by the Noah Webster Lit- 
erarv Association. 

81. Brick School House. On Washington street. Built in 1789. THe 
first school attended by Lydia Huntley (Mrs. Sigourney). Now used by the 
School-house Club. 

82. Leffingwell Row. Sometimes called "the Long Shop," built by 
Christopher Leffingwell about 1780. was burned in 1882 with the red store 
adjoining. Its position near the fork of the roads opposite the residence of 
General Edward Harland made it a conspicuous landmark. It was occupied 
at different times by Leffingwell's stocking factory, various small shops, by 
the judge of probate and by the post office. 

83. The Teel House, "Sign of General Washington." Built for a hotel 



CITY OF NORWICH 167 

in 1789 on Chelsea Parade; afterwards occupied for a school by William 
Woodbridpe, now the parsonag;e of Park Church, for many years the resi- 
dence of General ^^^illiam Williams, who was distinguished for his benevo- 
lence and for his interest in the Mohegan Indians. He and his wife, Harriet 
Peck Williams, gave five acres now the grounds of the Norwich Free Acad- 
emy, and she founded the Peck Library, now in the Slater Memorial Building. 
He was born in 1788 and died in 1870. 

EARLY INDUSTRIES 

84. Stocking Weaving. The business of weaving stockings was begun 
in 1766 b>- Christopher Leffingwell with two or three looms. In 1791 nine 
looms were in operation producing 1.200 to 1,500 pairs of hose annually. 

85. Grist Mill. A grist mill built by John Elderkin at No Man's Acre 
about 1661 ; was removed about 1667 under agreement with the town, to 
the Yantic river below the Falls, and a large tract of land was granted to 
him as compensation in the vicinity of the Indian burying place on Sachem 
street. 

86. Iron Works. The first iron works were established at Yantic in 1750 
by Elijah Backus. He manufactured bloom and bar iron for anchors, mills 
and other uses. The Backus Iron Works obtained great repute and during 
the Revolutionary War all kinds of iron work for domestic uses and warfare 
were made and repaired here. 

87. Pottery. A pottery was established in 1766 at Bean Hill and con- 
tinued in operation far into the 19th century. Specimens of this pottery are 
among the treasured possessions of some of the old residents of Norwich. 

88. Linseed Oil Mills. The first linseed oil mill was established at Bean 
Hill, in 1748. by Hezekiah Huntington, and at a later period the manufacture 
was carried on extensively at the Falls. 

89. Cotton Mill. A cotton mill was established by Joshua Lathrop in 
1790 on Lowthorpe Meadows with one carding machine, five jennies and six 
looms. This machinery was gradually increased and a great variety of goods 
manufactured. In 1703 the firm was Lathrop & Eells. 

90. Chocolate Mill. The first chocolate mill was established in 1770 by 
Christopher Leffingwell on the Yantic flats below the Falls. In 1772 Simon 
Lathrop erected another. This industry was of considerable importance. 

91. Paper Mill. In 1766 Christopher Leffingwell began to manufacture 
paper at his mill on the west side of the Yantic above the Falls, near what 
are now called Paper Mill rocks. This was the first paper mill in Connecticut. 
The annual output was about 1,300 reams. 

02. Clocks and Watches. Clocks and watches were manufactured by 
Thomas Harland in 1773. He employed ten or twelve hands and made an- 
nually two hundred watches and forty clocks, which were pronounced equal 
to any imported from England. 

93. Fulling ]\lill. A fulling mill with clothier's shop and dye house went 
into operation near the present site of the Falls mill in 1773. 

TAVERN'S 

94. Caleb Abel, the third innkeeper of Norwich, probably came from 
Dedham : he bought the Wade lot in 1677; was constable in 1684, townsman 
in 1689, and often thereafter; enrolled among the dignitaries with title o£ 
Sergeant in 1702. married Margaret, daughter of John Post, 1669, and after 
her death married Mary Loomer; died August 7, 1731. He was appointed 



i68 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

innkeeper under the date of December i8. 1694, as follows: "The towne 
makes choise of caleb abell to keep ordinari or a house of entertainment for 
this yeare or till another be choosen." 

95. Deacon Simon Huntington, the first of four successive generations 
of deacons was the second innkeeper of Norwich. He was married to 
Sarah, daughter of Joseph Clarke, of Saybrook, in October. 1653; appointed 
innkeeper i6go; died 1706, leaving an estate valued at ^275, including a 
library of fourteen or fifteen volumes, of the value of about 30 shillings, which 
we are told was probably a fair library for a layman at that time. 

96. Joseph Reynolds, son of John Reynolds, the Founder, kept the 
ordinary in 1709. He was born in Norwich, March, i56o; married Sarah 
Edgerton, 1688. 

97. Thomas Waterman, born 1644, came to Norwich in 1659 with John 
Bradford, whose wife's nephew he was; only townsman in 1675, '81, '84; made 
a freeman in 1681 ; died June i, 1708; buried in Society Burial Ground. He 
was appointed innkeeper in 1679. "Agreed and voted by ye town yt Thomas 
Waterman is desired to keep the ordinary. And for his encouragement he 
is granted four akers of paster land where he can conveniently find it ny 
about the valley going from his house to the woods." 

98. Eleazer Lord's tavern on the corner of Town street and the New 
London turnpike was built about 1770 and for many years was frequented by 
the lawyers who came to Norwich to attend court. 

99. Joseph Peck's tavern on the east side of the Green, overshadowed 
by a large elm tree, among whose central boughs an arbor was formed and 
seats arranged, to which on public days friendly groups resorted and had 
refreshments served- -a plank gallery being extended from a window of the 
house to the bower as a means of access. 

100. Thomas Leffingv^'ell, the fourth innkeeper of Norwich, was given 
liberty to keep a "publique house of entertainment of strangers" in 1700. This 
tavern was continued for more than one hundred years, and was at the east 
end of the town plot, and was a noted place of resort in war times. Married 
Marv Bushnell, September, 1672; died March 5, 1723-24, leaving an estate of 
nearly iio.ooo. The interesting features of this quaint old house, within and 
without, are remarkably well preserved. 

loi. On the site of the present "Johnson home" was located Lathrop's 
tavern. Built in 1737 by Nathaniel Lathrop, its prosperity was maintained 
by his son. Azariah. From here was started the first stage coach to Provi- 
dence in 1768. In 1829 the property was sold to the Union Hotel Company, 
who erected the present building, which was later used for a boarding school. 

102. Jesse Brown's tavern was erected in 1790 and its proprietor estab- 
lished a stage route from Boston to New York via Norwich. On August i, 
1797, President John Adams and wife stopped over night here. In 1855 the 
property was purchased by Moses Pierce, who later gave it to the United 
Workers for the Rocknook Children's Home. 

103. It is said that Capt. Samuel Bailey was jailor about 1800, and the 
accommodations for the jail were on the second floor, and that on the first 
floor the captain kept what was called "Cross Keys Tavern." 

PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 

104. Millard Fillmore. Capt. John Fillmore, son of John Fillmore, "Mari- 
ner," of Ipswich, Mass., born Morch 18, 1702. He married, November 24, 1724. 
Mary Spiller, and removed to Norwich West Farms; died there February 
22, 1777. Captain John's grandson was Nathaniel, whose eldest son was Mil- 
lard, born January 7, 1800, in Summer Hill, N. Y. 



CITY OF NORWICH 169 

105. Ulysses S. Grant. On the site of the house of Herbert L. Yerrington 
stood the original Christopher Huntington homestead. After the death of the 
first Christopher this was inherited by his son, John (born 1666), who mar- 
ried, in 1686, Abigail, daughter of Samuel Lathrop. John had three daughters 
and two sons. One daughter, Martha, was married to Noah Grant, of Tolland, 
and became the ancestress of Ulysses S. Grant. 

Martha Huntington married, June 12, 1717, Noah Grant, born December 
16, 1693. Their son, Noah, Jr., born July 12, 1718, married Susannah Delano, 
November 5, 1746. Their son, Noah, 3rd, born June 20, 1748, married Rachel 
Kelly, March 4, 1792. Their son, Jesse, born January 23, 1794, married 
Hannah Simpson, June 24, 1821. Ulysses S. Grant was born April 27, 1822. 

106. Rutherford B. Hayes. George Hayes left Scotland in 1690 and set- 
tled at Windsor, Connecticut, 1682. His great-great-great-grandson, Ruther- 
ford Hayes, settled at Brattleboro, Vt., and married, in September, 1813, 
Sophia Birchard. Her ancestry on the male line is traced to John Birchard, 
one of the thirty-five founders of Norwich. Both of her grandfathers were 
soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Rutherford Hayes removed in 1817 to 
Delaware, Ohio, where he died five years later, leaving two children. On 
October 4, 1822, Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born three months after his 
father's death. 

107. James A. Garfield. Was the descendant of Major John Mason and 
Reverend James Fitch, who are recorded among the founders of Norwich 
(see Nos. 14 and 23). 

108. Grover Cleveland. William Hyde. Samuel Hyde married Jane Lee. 
John Hyde married Experience Abel. James Hyde married Sarah Marshall. 
Abiah Hyde married Rev. Aaron Cleveland. William Cleveland married 
Margaret Falley. Richard Falley Cleveland, born at Norwich, 19 June, 1805. 
He married Anne Neale, 10 September, 1820, of Baltimore. They removed 
to Holland Patent, New York, where he died i October, 1853. Grover Cleve- 
land was born at Holland Patent, 31 July, 1853 (see Nos. 48, 49, 78 and 79). 

109. Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. Edith Kermit Carow, born New York, 
August 6, 1862, daughter of Charles and Gertrude Elizabeth (Tyler) Carow. 
She was married at St. George's Church, Hanover square, London, England, 
1886. to Theodore Roosevelt. Her grandfather was General Daniel Tyler 
of Norwich. 

OTHER MEN OF DISTINCTION 

1 10. Rev. Hiram P. Arms, D.D., pastor and pastor emeritus First Congre- 
gational Church, 1836-82. Born in Sunderland, Mass.. 1799. Died at Nor- 
wich, 1882. 

111. Major-General Henry Warner Birge, born in Hartford, August 25, 
1825. Died in New York, July i, 1888. In the War for the Union he passed 
through the successive ranks from major to brevet major-general. He ren- 
dered distinguished services at Irish Bend, in the Red River campaign, and 
led the forlorn hope at Port ?Iudson, and was actively engaged in battles of 
Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. 

112. Isaac Hill Bromley, born in Norwich, March 6. 1833. Captain l8th 
Regiment Connecticut Volunteers; provost marshal. First editor "Norwich 
Bulletin"; journalist; humorist; chief editor New York "Tribune," 1891-98. 
Died at Norwich, August 11, 1898. 

113. Hon. William Alfred Buckingham, born in Lebanon, Connecticut, 
Mav 28, 1804; died in 1875. Mayor of Norwich 1849-50, 1856-57. Presidential 
elector. 1856. Governor of Connecticut, 1858-66. U. S. Senator, 1869-75. 



I70 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Merchant, manufacturer, philanthropist, generous benefactor of Yale Uni- 
versity, the Broadway Church and Norwich Free Academy. 

114. Thomas Fanning, born at Norwich, Conn., July 18, 1750; died 
May 24, 1812. Soldier in the Revolution. Merchant. One of the donors of 
Chelsea Parade, 1791. 

115. Lafayette Sabin Foster, LL.D., born in Franklin, Conn., November 
22, 1806; died in 1880. Graduated Brown University 1828. Mayor of Nor- 
wich, 1851-53. Speaker Connecticut House Representatives, 1847. United 
States Senator, 1854-66. After death of President Lincoln, acting Vice- 
President of the United States. Professor of Law at Yale 1868; judge 
Supreme Court of Connecticut 1870-76. Benefactor of Yale University, Free 
Academy and Otis Library. "Great citizen, incorruptible senator, wise coun- 
sellor, eloquent advocate, righteous judge." 

116. Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D., born in Norwich, July 6, 1831 ; died in 
Norwich, October 13, 1908. Graduated Yale 1852. Professo.r Yale College 
1856-72; president University of California 1872-75; president Johns Hopkins 
University 1875-1901 ; president Carnegie Institution 1901-04. Delivered his- 
torical address at Norwich bi-centennial celebration in 1859. 

117. William Charles Gilman, born in Exeter. N. H., 1795; died in New 
York 1863. Came to Norwich 1816. Established nail factory at the Falls. 
Extended cotton manufacture from the Falls to Greeneville and Bozrah. 
Identified for thirty years with the most important manufacturing, financial, 
educational and religious enterprises in the town. First president Norwich 
& Worcester railroad. Mayor in 1839. 

118. Hon. Calvin Goddard, born at Shrewsbury, Mass., 1768. Mayor 
of Norwich 1814-31. Judge Supreme Court, 1816. Member of Congress 
1801-05. Died in 1842. He lived on the corner of Washington and Sachem 
streets and owned several acres of land, including the Indian burying place, 
and mill property at the Falls. 

119. William Parkinson Greene, born in Boston, 1795; died in Norwich, 
1864. He was graduated at Harvard in 1814; removed to Norwich in 1824; 
became largely interested in manufactures at the Falls and Greeneville and 
in the Norwich Water Power Co. He was mayor in 1842; first president of 
Thames Bank ; original corporator Norwich & Worcester railroad ; second 
president and liberal benefactor of Norwich Free Academy. 

120. Rev. John Putnam Gulliver, D.D.. born in Boston in 1819; died at 
Andover. Mass., 1894. Yale University 1840; D.D. Iowa University. Presi- 
dent Knox College ; Professor Andover Theological Seminary. Twenty years 
pastor Broadway Congregational Church. Held in honored remembrance 
as chief promoter of the Norwich Free Academy. 

121. Russell Hubbard, born in Norwich, 1785; died 1857. Proprietor of 
Norwich "Courier." Paper manufacturer at Norwich Falls and Greeneville. 
A founder and vice-president of Norwich Savings Society. First president 
and generous benefactor of Norwich Free Academy. 

122. Thomas Sterry Hunt LL.D., born at Norwich in 1826; died Feb- 
ruary 12, 1892. Professor of chemistry at McGill University, 1862-68; pro- 
fessor of geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1872-78. Pre- 
sented with Cross of the Legion of Honor at Paris, 1855. Honorary member 
Royal Society of London, 1859. He invented a permanent green ink, first used 
for "greenbacks." 

123. Deacon Jabez Huntington, born in Lebanon, Connecticut, 1767; died 
in Norwich. 1848. He was president of the Norwich Bank and of the Nor- 
wich Savings Society. He and Hezekiah Perkins bought the land, now known 



CITY OF NORWICH 171 

as the "Little Plain," on Broadway in 181 1, and gave it to the city for a park. 
His house is now Mrs. H. H. Osgood's. 

124. Charles James Lanman, born in Norwich, June 14, 1795. Yale 
graduate, 1814. Receiver of public money for Michigan, 1823-1831. Founder 
of Tecumseh, Michigan. Mayor of Norwich, 1838. Died in New London, 
July 25. 1870. 

125. James Lanman, born in Norwich, June 14, 1769; died August 7, 
1841. Yale graduate, 1788. United States Senator, 1819-25. Judge Supreme 
Court of Connecticut. 

126. Doctor Daniel Lathrop, born in Norwich, 1712; died in Norwich, 
1782. Yale College, 1733; St. Thomas' Hospital, London, 1737. As an im- 
porter of drugs he and his brother Joshua built up a wide reputation and large 
estates for their da^^ He left £500 to Yale College, £500 to the First Church 
of Norwich, and £500 to establish a school on the Norwich Town Green. 
"Many were the amiables that composed his character." 

127. Daniel Lathrop, born in Norwich, 1769; died 1825. Yale College. 
1787. Was engaged in the drug business in Norwich. Son of Dr. Joshua 
Lathrop. 

128. Doctor Joshua Lathrop, born in Norwich, 1723; died Norwich, 1807. 
Yale College, 1743. Merchant; cotton manufacturer: public-spirited citizen; 
one of the donors of the Chelsea Parade to the inhabitants of Norwich, and 
contributed generously for improvement of highways. "He devised liberal 
things and did them." 

129. Donald Grant Mitchell (Ik Marvel), born in Norwich, in 1822, near 
present residence of the principal of the Norwich Free Academy. Died in 
New Haven, in 1908. Yale graduate and valedictorian, 1841. Distinguished 
author and landscape gardener. He delivered an oration at the bi-centennial 
celebration in 1859. 

130. Col. George L. Perkins, born in Norwich, August 5. 1788; died Sep- 
tember 5. 1888. Paymaster United States army. War of 1812. For fifty years 
treasurer of Norwich & Worcester railroad. A well-known and prominent 
citizen of Norwich. In his great age, one hundred years and one month, "his 
eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." 

131. Capt. Hezekiah Perkins, born in Norwich, 1751 : died 1822. He and 
Jabez' Huntington gave to the citv in 181 1 the land now known as the "Little 
Plain" for a park. He lived in the house now owned by Mrs. Charles Coit. 

132. Major Joseph Perkins. A soldier of the Revolution ; member of the 
Committee of Safety in 1814. Prominent merchant; public-spirited citizen. 
He with Thomas Fanning and Joshua Lathrop gave Chelsea Parade to the 
inhabitants of Norwich for a park. He built the stone-house on Rockwell 
street in 1825. 

133. Dr. Dwight Ripley, born in Windham, Connecticut, in 1767; died 
in Norwich, 1835. A descendant of Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth. 
He was actively engaged in business in Norwich for over forty years, and 
built up a large wdiolesale drug trade on present site of Lee & Osgood's store. 
He did much for the advancement of Norwich, and left a large family of 
sons and daughters who are held in honored remembrance. 

134. General Alfred Perkins Rockwell, born in Norwich, 1834; died in 
Boston. 1903. Yale College, 1855. Professor mining in Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology. Rendered 'distinguished services in the War for the 
Union, rising from the rank of captain to brevet brigadier-general, and serv- 
ing at James Island, Fort Darling, Bermuda Hundreds and Fort Fisher. 

135. Charles W. Rockwell, born in Norwich, 1799; died in 1866. During 



172 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

his residence in Norwich he was distinguished for his liberality and public 
spirit. In 1833 he built the mansion on Broadway afterwards owned by John 
F. Slater. He was interested in manufactures at Norwich Town; was four 
years mayor of the city; was three times elected to the State Legislature, 
and was for several years United States Commissioner of Customs at Wash- 
ington. 

The following description of Norwich by Henry Ward Beecher, published 
in "Star Papers" in 1851, and reprinted for the 250th anniversary of the set- 
tlement, is given entire: 

There are hundreds of villages in Connecticut that are beautiful in 
various degrees and by different methods; some by the width of prospect, 
some by their mountain scenery, some by their position on the water, and 
some, nestled away from all the world, find their chief attractions in their 
deep tranquility. But in every place the chief beauty must be in what nature 
has done, or in what man has done ntaurally. The rocks, hills, mountains; 
the innumerable forms of water in springs, rills, rivulets, streams, estuaries, 
lakes or ocean ; but above all the trees — these create beauty if it exist at all. 
It is rare that any place combines to a great degree the several specialties 
mentioned. A place that is inland, and yet on the seaboard — that has bold, 
precipitous rocks close at hand, and at the same time is spread out upon a 
champaign — that unites the refinements belonging to society in large towns 
with the freshness and quiet of a secluded village, imbosomed in trees, full 
of shaded yards and gardens, broad, park-like streets, soon opening out into 
romantic rural roads among pine woods along the rocky edges of dark 
streams — such a place, especially if its society is good, if its ministers, teach- 
ers, civilians, and principal citizens are intelligent and refined, and its his- 
torical associations abundant and rich — must be regarded as of all others the 
most desirable for residence. And such a place is Norwich, Connecticut. 

The river Thames is formed by the junction of the Yantic and the 
Shetucket. Upon the angle of these three streams stands the town. The 
Shetucket is a black water in all its course, and near to Norwich it has a bed 
hewed out of rocks, and cliffs for banks. The Yantic is a smaller stream, 
rolling also over a rocky channel, with a beautiful plunge, just above the 
town, of seventy-five feet. The Thames is not so much of a river as a narrow 
arm of the sea. thrust far up inland as if to search for tributary streams. 
These ribbon-like bays mark the whole northern coast of Long Island Sound. 
The Thames is navigable for large steamers to its point of formation. The 
conformation of the ground on which Norwich stands is entirely peculiar. 
Along the water it is comparatively low, affording a business plane and a 
space for railroad necessities. The whole ground then rises with sudden 
slope, lifting the residences far up out of the dust and noise of business into 
an altitude of quiet. But what is the most remarkable is, that a huge broad- 
backed granite cliff of rocks bulges up in the very midst of the city, cutting 
it in two, extending backward half a mile, and leaving the streets to sweep 
around on either side of it. This masterly old monarch looks down a hundred 
feet perpendicular, on the eastern side, upon the streets below, its bare rocks 
and massive ledges here and there half hid by evergreens, and in spots matted 
with grass and fringed with shrubs. On the western side the slope is gradual, 
and it is cut half way down to the Yantic by a broad street, nobly_ shaded 
with stalwart elms and filled with fine family residences. As one winds his 
way from the landing up the curving street, about the base of the rock on the 



CITY OF NORWICH 173 

eastern side, at evening especially, in twilight, or with a tender moonlight, 
this wild, uplifted cliff^in the very heart of a city, with forest trees rooted 
almost plumb above his head — has a strange and changeable uncertainty, at 
one moment shining out distinctly, and at the next dim and shadowy; now 
easily compassed by the eye, and then glancing away, if we have imagination 
enough, into vast mountain spaces. This singular rocky ridge trends toward 
the north, and gradually loses itself in the plain on which stands Norwich 
Old Town. There is thus brought together, within the space of a mile, the 
city, the country, and the wilderness. The residences are so separated from 
the business part of the town that one who comes first into the upper part 
of the city, and wanders about under its avenues of mighty elms, and among 
its simple old houses or its modern mansions, would take it to be a place of 
elegant repose, without life or business. But if he first lands below, amid 
stores and manufacturing shops, as for several years we did, he might go 
away thinking Norwich to be a mere hammering, rumbling place of business. 
Indeed, there are three towns in one. 

The streets skirting the water form a city of business; the streets upon 
the hill, a city of residences, a mile or two back is the old town, a veritable 
life-like picture of a secluded country village of the old New England days. 
What could one want better for a place of retirement? An hour's ride brings 
you to the seaside ; to boats, fishing, lounging, and looking, whether in storm 
or calm. You may go by cars to old New London, or by boat to Stonington, 
and then by yacht or other craft to Block Island, or anywhere else you please- 
There are places for fish — black fish, blue fish, speckled bass, porgies, weak- 
fish, etc. ; there are places for surf-bathing, with waves tempered to all degrees 
of violence and to every tone from whispering to thunder. If your mood 
does not take you seaward, half an hour will suffice to bear you inland, among 
bold and rocky hills, cleft with streams, full of precipitous ravines, and shaded 
with oaks and evergreens. Or, if you do not wish to roam, you may ascejid 
the intra-urban moimtain — the Tarpeian Rock of Norwich, or Mount Zion. 
whichever your associations prefer to call it — and from its pinnacle overlook 
the wide, circumajacent country. If j-ou happily own a house upon the 
western side of Washington street, or, better yet. if you own a friend who 
owns the house and feels lonesome without you, then you can have the joys 
of the breezy wilderness at home. For, if you will go back through the 
garden, and then through a little pet orchard, you shall find the forest-covered 
bank plunging one hundred feet down toward the Yantic ; and there, hidden 
among shrubs and wild flowers, oaks and elms, you hear no din of wheels or 
clink of shops, but only the waving of leaves and the sport of birds. 

But if there were none of these rare conjunctions of hill, rock, and plain, 
river and sea, Norwich would still be a beautiful place by virtue of its trees, 
and especially of those incomparably most magnificent of all earthly trees, 
elms ! A village shaded by thoroughly grown elms cannot but be handsome. 
Its houses may be huts ; its streets may be ribbed with rocks or channelled 
with ruts ; it niay be as dirty as New York and as frigid as Philadelphia ; and 
vet these vast, majestic tabernacles of the air would redeem it to beauty. 
These are temples indeed, living temples, neither waxing old nor shattered 
by Time, that cracks and shatters stone, but rooting wider with every genera- 
tion and casting a vaster round of grateful shadow with every summer. We 
had rather walk beneath an avenue of elms than inspect the noblest cathedral 
that art ever accomplished. What is it that brings one into such immediate 
personal and exhilarating sympathy with venerable trees! One instinctively 
uncovers as he comes beneath them ; he looks up with proud veneration into 



174 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



the receding and twilight recesses ; he breathes a thanksgiving to God every 
time his cool foot falls along their shadows. They waken the imagination 
and mingle the olden time with the present. Did any man of contemplative 
mood ever stand under an old oak or elm without thinking of other days — 
imagining the scenes that had transpired in their presence? These leaf- 
mountains seem to connect the past and the present to us as mountain ridges 
attract clouds from both sides of themselves. Norwich is remarkably enriched 
by these columnar glories, these mysterious domes of leaf and interlacing 
bough. No considerable street is destitute of them, and several streets are 
prolonged avenues of elms which might give a twinge of jealousy to old 
New Haven herself — elm-famous! 

Norwich Old Town, however, clearly has the pre-eminence. Its green 
is surrounded by old Revolutionary elms of the vastest stature and of every 
shape and delineation of grandeur. How a man can live there and ever get 
his eyes to the ground, I cannot imagine. One must needs walk with up- 
turned face, exploring these most substantial of all air castles. And when 
pausing underneath some monumental tree he looks afar up and sees the 
bird-population, that appears scarcely larger than humming-birds, dimly flit- 
ting about their secure heritage and sending down a chirp that loses itself 
half way down to a thin whistle, it seems as though there were two worlds — 
he in one and they in another. Nearly before the fine old-fashioned mansion 
where Lydia Huntley (Mrs. Sigourney) was brought up are two gigantic 
elms — very patriarchs, measuring at the base more than eighteen feet in 
circumference. An old man of a hundred years, a member of Dr. Bond's 
society, relates that his father selected these trees from the forest, and backed 
them into town and planted them here. His name should be written on a 
tablet and hung upon their breasts! 

The two elms next south from these, though not as aged as they, may, 
we think, be regarded as models of exquisite symmetry and beauty. One 
might sit by the hour and look upon them as upon a picture. 

No other tree is at all comparable to the elm. The ash is, when well 
grown, a fine tree, but clumpy ; the maple has the same character. The horse- 
chestnut, the linden, the mulberry, and poplars (save that tree-spire, the 
Lombardy poplar) are all of them plump, round, fat trees, not to be despised, 
.surelv, but representing single dendrological ideas. The oak is venerable by 
association, and occasionally a specimen is found possessing a kind of grim 
and ragged glory. But the elm alone, monarch of trees, combines in itself 
the elements of variety, size, strength, and grace, such as no other tree known 
to us can at all approach or remotely rival. It is the ideal of trees; the true 
Absolute Tree! Its main trunk shoots up, not round and smooth, like an 
over-fatted, lymphatic tree, but channelled and corrugated, as if its athletic 
muscles showed their proportions through the bark, like Hercules' limbs 
through his tunic. Then suddenly the whole idea of growth is changed, and 
multitudes of long, lithe branches radiate from the crotch of the tree, having 
the effect of straightness and strength, yet really diverging and curving, until 
the outermost portions droop over and give to the whole top the most fault- 
less grace. If one should at first say that the elm suggested ideas of strength 
and uprightness, on looking again he would correct himself, and say that 
it was majestic, uplifting beauty that it chiefly represented. But if he first 
had said that it was graceful and magnificent beauty, on a second look he 
would correct himself, and say that it was vast and rugged strength that it 
set forth. But at length he would say neither; he would say both; he would 
sav that it expressed a beauty of majestic strength and a grandeur of grace- 
ful beautj'. 



CITY OF NORWICH 



75 



Such domestic forest treasures are a legacy which but few places can 
boast. Wealth can build houses and smooth the soil ; it can fill up marshes 
and create lakes or artificial rivers; it can gather statues and paintings; but 
no wealth can buy or build elm trees— the floral glory of New England. Time 
is the only architect of such structures, and blessed are they for whom Time 
was pleased to fore-think! No care or expense should be counted too much 
to maintain the venerable elms of New England in all their regal glory! 

No other tree more enjoxs a rich loam and moist food. In summer 
droughts, if copious waterings were given to the finer elms, especially with 
diluted guano water, their pomp would be noticeably enhanced. But, except 
in moist places, or in fields where the plow has kept the surface stirred, we 
noticed that elms were turning yellow and thinning out their leaves. 




CHAPTER VII 

OTHER TOWNS OF NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Colchester — East Lyme — Franklin — Grisv/old — Groton — Lcbrnon — Lodyard — Lisbon— 
L3rme and Old Lyme — Salem — Sprague — Stonington — Voluntown — V/aterford. 

Colchester. — There can be but little doubt but that Nathaniel Foote could 
have justly claimed to be the father of Colchester. He was the grandson of 
Nathaniel Foote, who early in the seventeenth century emigrated from Col- 
chester, England, to the Colony of Connecticut. His grandson, Nathaniel 
Foote (3rd), in the latter part of the seventeenth century was a resident of 
Wethersfield, and while there obtained a grant from one Owaneco, a sachem 
of the Mohegan Indians, of a large tract of land including a large part if not 
the whole of the present town of Colchester. By the terms of this grant, 
Foote undertook to distribute the land, except fifty acres retained for himself, 
among the settlers thereon. He undoubtedly intended to settle himself upon 
this fifty-acre tract, but, his health having failed him, he never personally 
took possession. 

On October 13th, 1698, authority was granted by the General Court of 
the Colony to Captain Daniel Wetheral, Captain John Hamlin, Mr. William 
Pitkin, Captain John Chester, Mr. Robert Christophus and Captain Samuel 
Fosdick, to lay out a new town at the place called "Jeremiah's Farm," upon 
the road to New London, "beginning at the North bound of the Twenty Mile 
River and so to extend southward to a river called Deep River and to extend 
eastward from the bounds of Haddam seven miles." While these boundaries 
are very indefinite, they help to locate today what undoubtedly included the 
present town of Colchester and the Indian grant to Nathaniel Foote. On May 
nth, 1699, the General Court of the Colony specified by a statute the bounds 
of the town more closely, providing that "the north boundary of the town 
shall be as formerly at Twenty Mile River, and the south bounds to join 
the north bounds of Lyme and the west bounds to join the east bounds of 
Middletown and the east bounds of Haddam and the east and northeast 
bounds to run to the bounds of Lebanon and Norwich." The town as originally- 
laid out was included in the county of Hartford, but on October 13th, 1699, 
upon the application of Michael Taintor, Samuel Northam and Nathaniel 
Foote, it was transferred to the county of New London and received its 
name, Colchester. These men apparently were the representative men of 
the town at that time and, as Foote's ancestors came from Colchester, Eng- 
land, the strong presumption is that he is the one responsible for its name. 

About this time the Indians had begun to cause trouble to the settlers, 
and Captain Samuel Mason was appointed by the General Court to make a 
settlement with them, which he effected. During this year the first settlement 
appears to have been made in the town, unless the designation of "Jeremiah's 
Farm" means that there has been a prior settlement upon this territory. But 
of this there is no certainty. Foote had laid out his fifty acres, and in 1702 
built a home for himself and family, but his health broke down and he died 



178 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

in 1702, before he was able to occupy it. The building, however, was occupied 
almost immediately, in the same year, by his widow and a large family of 
children, from whom the Footes of today are direct descendants. The fifty 
acres thus laid out was located along the westerly side of what is now Broad- 
way, and the frame of the house built in 1702 still stands upon the premises 
now owned by A'Ir. Frederick G. Bock. In 1700 the first white child was born, 
a daughter (name not given) to John Skinner, and the next year, on Novem- 
ber 9th, 1701, was born Mary, a daughter of James Taylor. 

Up to about the year 1703, the land in the town, except the fifty acres of 
Foote's tract and possibly the "Jeremiah's Farm," was held in common by the 
settlers; but about that time steps were taken for its division among them, 
and shortly a town measurer was appointed to measure and set off allotments 
of land to the persons entitled to it. The first grants upon the record ap- 
peared to have been made at a town meeting, January nth, 1703, when a large 
number of grants were made by the town. The first to be recorded was the 
one allotted to Samuel Loomis and John Skinner, the latter the father of the 
first white child, but the description is so indefinite that it is impossible to 
locate it. Then followed the records of a large number of grants, but as the 
descriptions of none of them are more definite than this first one, it is impos- 
sible to locate them. It may be said, in passing, that one of the fields on the 
north side of Packwood lane was formerly known as the "Loomis lot." This 
may be the location of that first grant to Samuel Loomis. While these grants 
cannot be definitely located, it is certain that the first settlement in the town 
was made upon the property now owned by Mr. Hamilton Wallis. 

The first church was erected at or near the corner of Broadway and 
Packwood lane and, in clearing along the east side of Broadway, a number 
of old foundations, wells, and graves, have been discovered. There was also 
discovered what apparently was an old roadway running diagonally from 
Broadway, which at that time was the ordinary narrow country road, in the 
direction of the present Packwoodville. Michael Taintor was the first town 
clerk, and held that office for some thirty years. The first selectmen were 
chosen in 1706. and were Deacon Loomis, Joseph Chamberlain and Michael 
Taintor. 

During the early years of its history, the town and church were one, and 
therefore the history of the town during these years includes the history of 
the Congregational church. In 1702 a town meeting had authorized the 
employment of a minister for the church, and had fixed his salary at forty 
pounds per annum. In October, 1703, the General Court of the Colony had 
authorized the organization of a church in the town, and this organization 
had been effected December 20th of the same year. In 1725 the General 
Court established a new parish which included the southern part of Col- 
chester and the northern part of the town of Lyme, which they called Salem. 
This continued as a separate parish, but was not organized as a separate town 
until 1819. Again, in October, 1728, the General Court created another parish 
in the western part of the town, which was called Westchester, which still 
exists under that name and continues to be a part of the town of Colchester. 
Obviously, upon the creation of these new parishes, it was impossible to 



OTHER TOWNS 179 

call upon the inhabitants of the entire town to support these several parishes 
or to exercise control over them, and so there was created what were known 
as "Ecclesiastical Societies" having jurisdiction over ecclesiastical affairs, 
within the limits of the parishes. How these were supported is unknown ; 
whether by some system of taxation, as had been the case before, or by volun- 
tary contributions, cannot be definitely ascertained at this time. 

As has been stated, the first church was erected in 1706, at the corner of 
Broadway and Packvvood lane, and was forty feet square. The building 
was sold in 1709, but the congregation continued to occupy it until 1714, when 
they removed into a new building erected by authority of the town meeting. 
This building was thirty-six by forty feet. In the meantime the population 
of the town had moved from its original location to the site of the present 
village, possibly because the settlers had found the water supply of the first 
location inadequate. This second church was erected a little to the east of 
the present church building, in the middle of what is now the highway. The 
third church was erected near the last in 1771, and continued for seventy years, 
when it gave place to the present edifice. 

During its early history social lines were sharply drawn in the church. 
For at a town meeting held January 14th, 1715, it was provided as follows: 
"The pew next to the pulpit to be the first, second is designated for the second 
pew and the pews equal to the second, the third is designated for the third 
pew, fourth for the fourth pew, next the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth," the 
remaining seats were distributed among the remaining members according 
to their rating on the Assessment list. 

Methodism was introduced by circuit preachers in 1706, but the present 
building was not erected until 1843. The Baptist church was organized and the 
present building was erected in 1836. Calvary Church was organized in 1865, 
and the first church erected in 1867. The first Roman Catholic mass was said 
in 185 1 at the residence of John Murphy, and services were held for some 
time by a visiting priest once a month. In 1854 St. Andrew's Church building 
was erected, and since then it has had several additions. Within the last ten 
years a Jewish Synagogue has been constructed on Lebanon avenue. 

One of the first matters which engaged the attention of the settlers was 
the education of their children. Very early they required the selectmen to 
see to it that their children were "fitted for some lawful employment and not 
become crude and stubborn ; and that children and servants should be cate- 
chised once a week in the details and principles of their religion." They were 
required to submit to examinations on these points by any selectman. It is 
hard to imagine any of these gentlemen, who have for years composed our 
board of selectmen, holding up a 3'oungster on the street and examining him 
in the shorter catechism. Just when the schools were founded it is impos- 
sible to say, but more than one hundred years ago there was a school for 
colored children north of the old church, w^hich resulted in the influx of a 
large colored population. The other schools were generally represented by 
the rural district school of today, but their surroundings and furnishings were 
very much rougher. 

The celebrated educational institution of Colchcst.-r is ihc well known 



i8o NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Bacon Academ}'. It was founded through the generosity of Pierpont Bacon, 
a farmer from New London, who settled in the latter part of the eighteenth 
century upon a farm about three miles south of the church. By his will he 
bequeathed his estate to the First Ecclesiastical Society of Colchester for the 
establishment of a school for instruction in "reading, writing, English, in 
arithmetic, mathematics, and all such branches of learning for said inhabitants 
and such instruction to be free to children of the town." The present building 
was erected and school opened in 1802. It soon had a large student body, 
which after many years slowly decreased but has now begun to rise again. 
During its one hundred and thirteen years it has faithfully and successfully 
educated many men and women who have been successful in all the walks 
of life. Among those of national reputation are Senator Lyman Trumbull, 
of Illinois, William H. Buckingham, Governor of Connecticut, and Morrison 
R. Waite, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Beginning with 
an endowment of thirty-five thousand dollars, it has now more than sixty 
thousand besides its building and equipment. 

Another of the institutions of the town is the Cragin Memorial Library, 
which was erected by Dr. Edwin B. Cragin, a Colchester boy who has achieved 
a notable success as a physician in the great city of New York, the most diffi- 
cult of all places in which a young man can command a general recognition 
of his ability. It has on its shelves more than five thousand volumes. 

Colchester has borne its full share in the defense of the nation. When the 
news of Lexington was heard over the land, seventy of its sons rushed to the 
relief of Boston. Their names have been preserved, and among them are 
those of Foote, Jones, Ransom, Bigelow, Holmes, Chapman, Storrs, Rathbone, 
Taylor, Day, Brown, Higgins, Fuller, Allen. This is the only roster of 
soldiers of the Revolution giving the residences of the privates. The official 
roster maintained at the capitol gives the residences of the officers only, so 
that it has been impossible to determine who of the residents of Colchester 
rendered services to the country in any of its wars unless they happened to 
hold an official position, and the roster is so enormous and the names so 
numerous that it is impractical to go over it and pick out the names of the 
officers who were from Colchester. This town itself has maintained no list 
of the men who went from here to the defense of the country. 

Many years ago the town boasted of a bank, a savings bank, and was 
lighted bv gas, but all these things have passed away. In early times the only 
m.eans of transportation available to the inhabitants was the back of a horse. 
The inhabitants went to church on horseback, the farmer riding, and the wife 
on a pillion. The farmer carried his pork over the back of the horse and 
brought back from the market the groceries which the pork had purchased 
by the same conveyance. The first teaming was by oxen, of goods hauled 
from East Haddam landing on the Connecticut river, and the first public 
conveyance was a stage coach over this route. As railroads were constructed, 
a stage line was opened to Andover and a coach used there can still be seen 
back of Jonathan Clark's barn. At one time this route had become so impor- 
tant that it boasted of a three-seated coach drawn by six horses, and the coach 
itself hung on leather straps instead of springs. A coach line was run to 



OTHER TOWNS i8i 

Norwich, which had boat connection with New York. This coach was run 
by John Talcott, whose descendant ran the last coach out of Colchester. 
When the Air Line railroad was constructed, this route was discontinued, 
and the coach made its regular trips between the village and Turnerville. The 
Air Line railroad was completed in 1873, ^"d the Colchester branch in 1877, 
when the Turnerville stage was withdrawn. The principal source of freight 
during the history of the town has been the Hayward Rubber Company. Its 
freight business was for many years transacted by mule teams hauling large 
covered wagons over the Norwich road, to and from Norwich. The con- 
struction of the railroad, of course, put the mule teams out of commission. 
While the principal industry of Colchester has always been farming, its 
inhabitants, very early in its history, began to avail themeslves of the many 
water powers found within the town. In 1704 Nathaniel Kellogg and Samuel 
Gillett obtained the rights to erect and operate a sawmill on "Governors 
Brook," probably the present location of Elgart's mill. In 1706 J. Deming 
obtained the rights to establish a fulling mill. In 1708 J. Wright, Ebenezer 
Skinner and J. Deming were granted the right to operate "Iron Works" on 
"Jeremy's River," the present location of Norton's paper mill, and afterwards 
two tanneries were located upon the same stream. In 1720 rights were given 
to Nathan Kellogg and others for the establishment of a grist and saw mill 
on Kellogg's land. In 1725 Andrew Carrier and U. Skinner obtained the right 
to establish a grist mill at Comstock's bridge, and afterwards A. Comstock 
located a grist and saw mill near the same place. On "Stoney Brook" was 
also a factory for the manufacturing of nails, in those days hand made. 

The most important of all the manufacturing enterprises in Colchester 
was the Hayward Rubber Company, which was established in Colchester in 
1847 by Nathaniel Hayward, a joint inventor with Goodyear of vulcanized 
rubber. This enterprise, beginning in a small way, rapidly expanded until 
from a capital of $100,000 it grew, through capitalization of profits, to $500,000, 
and an output of $2,000,000 per annum. It was finally absorbed by the Rubber 
Trust and closed. The town had of late years supported a shoe factory and 
a creamery, both of which have been discontinued. Today the existing manu- 
factories are the feed, cider and vinegar mill of D. Elgart, and two paper 
mills, operated by H. C. Brown and C. H. Norton. 

The population has been a fluctuating one both in numbers and compo- 
sition. In 1756 it had 2,312 inhabitants. It had increased by 1782 to 3,865, 
which has been the largest population in its history. From this point the 
population gradually decreased until 1830, when it numbered 2,073. Then 
the tide rose again, and in 1870 it had 3,383 people. Another decline followed, 
and in 1900 the population reached the lowest point in its history, 1,991. 
The tide began to rise again, and the census of 1910 showed a population 
of something over 2,100. Originally it was peopled by the old New England 
stock. A list is still extant of the voters of the town in 1725. This list con- 
tains many names of residents whose descendants are still with us or have 
been recently. Among them we find Bigelow (spelled in old times Bigeloo), 
Gillette (Gillett), Kellogg, Williams, Brown, Clark, Fuller, Swan, Chapman, 
Taintor, Baker, Foote, Taylor, Strong, Chamberlain, Pomeroy, Hall, Otis, 



i82 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Palmer, Morgan, Worthington, Ransom, Huntley, Day, Carrier, Adams, Brain- 
erd, and Staples. But the introduction of manufacturing brought in a large 
foreign element, from whom are descended some of our most respected in- 
habitants. 

In 1821 John R. Watrous, Ralph Isham and David Deming conveyed to 
the trustees and proprietors of Bacon Academy one and one-half acres of 
land, said land being now the southerly end of the park. The borough of 
Colchester was incorporated in 1846. The town is bounded on the north by 
Hartford and Tolland counties and by Lebanon; on the east by Lebanon; 
on the south by Salem and Middlesex county ; and on the west by Middlesex 
county. 

East Lyme. — East Lyme is bounded on the north by Salem, on the east 
by Montville and Waterford, on the south by Long Island Sound, and on the 
west by Lyme and Old Lyme. It was originally part of Waterford and of 
Old Lyme. It was incorporated as a town in 1839. 

The well known story of the "Bride Brook Marriage" refers to a stream 
that empties into the Sound somewhat west of Niantic Bay. Miss Caulkins' 
poem is an interesting evidence of her ability in verse : 

When this fair town was Nameaug, — 
A bleak, rough waste of hill and bog,— 
In huts of sea-weed, thatch, and log, 

Our fathers few, but strong and cheery. 

Sat down amid these deserts dreary. 

'Twas all a wild, unchristian wood, 

A fearful, boisterous solitude, 

A harbor for the wild-fowl's brood. 

Where countless flocks of every pinion 

Held o'er the shores a bold dominion. 

The sea-hawk hung his cumbrous nest, 
Oak-propp'd on every highland crest : 
Cranes through the seedy marshes prest; 

The curlew, by the river lying, 

Looked on God's image, him defying. 

The eagle-king soared high and free, 
His shadow on the glassy sea 
A sudden ripple seemed to be; 

The sunlight in his pinions burning, 

Shrouded him from eyes upturning. 

They came, the weary-footed band; 

The paths they cleared, the streams they spanned, 

The woodland genius grew more bland ; 

In haste his tangled vines unweaving, 

Them and their hopes with joy receiving. 

Then beasts of every frightful name. 
And wild men with their hearts of flame. 
By night around them howling came ; 

No arms had they but care and caution. 

And trust in God was all their portion. 



OTHER TOWNS 183 



Firm as the rocky coast they stood, 

And earnest as the rushing flood, 

Disdaining fear, yet fearing God ; 
Each man was both a lamb and Hon, 
With heart of flesh, but nerves of iron. 

They yoked the eagle to the dove, 
They tamed the wilderness with love, 
Clear light within, clear light above ; 
By faith upheld, by foes undaunted, 
Home, freedom, country here they planted. 

Great hearts were those that hither came, — 

A Winthrop of undying fame, 

A Brewster of an honored name; 

Great hearts, the growth of three great nations, 
Laid deep for us these firm foundations. 

The angels as they glided by 
Some gleams of brightness lent the sky ; 
And earth's own angels, too, were nigh, — 
The choicest of fair England's daughters 
Came with them o'er the billowy waters. 

Now thanks to thee, O God of lands ! 

Who settlest lonely men in bands. 

That brought these angels to our strands ; 

The Rose of Eden, heavenly woman ! 

To gardens changed these wilds inhuman. 

See ! like the rose-tree's sudden bloom. 
Bright visions break the wintry gloom. 
The evergreens breathe forth perfume. 

Love's purple light the scene is flushing, 

A romance into life is rushing. 

A streamlet— Nameaug's western bound— 

A path by craggy hillsides found. 

Meandering to the distant Sound ; 

A slender stream, but clear and glowing, 
Down through umbrageous valleys flowing. 

Forth from a lovely lake it came, 
Sweet stream with an ungentle name : 
But now, ice-bound, snow-wreathed, and tame. 
No longer sparkling, prattling, leaping, 
The Naiad of the brook was sleeping. 

To this fair stream two sledgy trains. 
Grotesque and quaint as Lapland wains. 
Rushed swiftly o'er the dazzling plains : 

Vast earth before, behind all hoary, 

Embosomed in a shroud of glory. 

How still is all surrounding snow I 

How dead but for this diamond glow! 

The sun's exuberant overflow, 

Filling the air with quivering gladness. 
Relieves earth's spectre of its sadness. 



i84 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

No sounding bells waked nature's ear. 
Yet music, flowing sweet and clear, 
Rippled the sea of silence drear. 

Cheery they come, — men, maidens, singing. 

They meet : here noble Winthrop stands. 

Come forth, ye gladsome bridal bands. 

Ye snow-capt hills, clap all your hands ! 
Ye spicy cedars, green and towering. 
Draw round them all your screens embowering. 

The woven nets are lightly spread. 

The spruce boughs yield their fragrant aid, 

The white smoke o'er them curls a shade. 

And fruits and viands, choice and dainty. 

Flow from the ample horn of plenty. 

Her furry wrappings cast aside. 
As rosy skies when clouds divide. 
Forth steps the conscious, blushing bride, 

A trembling, serious, fadeless beauty. 

Commingling sweetness, love, and duty. 

She stood like Summer on the snow, — 
No morning dawn around could throw 
Such rosy light, so warm a glow, — 

And hovering clouds, with seraphs laden. 

Showered heavenly blessings on the maiden. 

She was a dame of fair degree ; 
Her lover, fearless, bold and free, 
Had suffered scaith by land and sea ; 

Their hearts long pledged by word and token. 

Now let their sacred rite be spoken. 

Then hands were clasped, and Winthrop prayed: 
The life-long covenant was made; 
High heaven a mute attention paid ; 

Winds, groves, and hills, with reverence lowly. 

Trembled around a scene so holy. 

"Now Sunk-i-paug is Bridal Lake : 

Flow, ever flow !" — thus Winthrop spake,^ 

'Round hearts and homes thy journey take; 

Love's streamlet out of Bride Lake welling, 

God lead a branch to every dwelling. 

Franklin. — The town of Franklin, set off in 1786 from Norwich, as were 
Bozrah and Lisbon the same year, was settled as early as 1710 by nearly fifty 
families. The people of this section of Norwich, known as "West Farms," 
were allowed to form their own ecclesiastical society in 1716. As settlers 
increased in number, other societies were formed. The original society lost 
in power as the others branched off, but recovered under the long and able 
leadership of Rev. Samuel Nott, whose remarkable service has been referred 
to in the general history of the county. 

The population increased to 2,358 in i860, but lost by the setting off of 



OTHER TOWNS 185 

Baltic as a part of the town of Sprague, incorporated in 1861. Its most famous 
son is perhaps the Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, United States Senator for many- 
years. 

The following names are on the World War honor roll of the town of 
Franklin : Ralph A. Armstrong, Frederic K. Armstrong, Ernest C. Ayer, Ray 
B. Beckwith, Harold B. Capshaw, Walter N. Chappell, John Alton Cox, 
Charles E. Davis, Clarence Howard Davis, Harold A. Duerr, Charles W. 
Frink, William C. Hanson, Herbert R. Hoffman, Alfred G. Mason, Edward 
W. Mason, James J. McCarthy, John N. Muckensturm, Thomas F. Murphy, 
Louis E. Nolan, Michael O'Hearn, Frederick H. Race, John C. Rother, An- 
thony Wisneske, Michael Yuschalk. 

Griswold. — The town of Griswold is bounded on the north by Windham 
county, on the east by Voluntown, on the south by North Stonington and 
Preston, and on the west by Preston and Lisbon. The first settler was Eleazer 
Jewett, from whom the borough of Jewett City (incorporated 1895) takes 
its name. His tombstone bears the following inscription: "In memory of 
Z^Ir. Eleazer Jewett, who died Dec. 7, 1817, in the 87th year of his age. In 
April, 1771, he began the settlement of this village, and from his persevering 
industry and active benevolence it has derived its present importance. Its 
name will perpetuate his memory." 

The town of Griswold was incorporated in 181 5, being taken from the 
town of Preston. Starting in with a small farm, Mr. Jewett developed a grist 
mill and a saw mill. Other settlers came and set up mills on the Pachaug 
river. An oil mill, a woolen mill, a cotton mill, soon followed, and added 
largely to the prosperity of the town. While the town of Griswold itself is 
largely agricultural, its water power has developed large manufacturing 
establishments, which include the Slater Mill, the Aspinook Company, and 
the Ashland Cotton Company. Its population in 1910 was 4,233. 

Groton. — Groton is bounded on the north by Ledyard, on the east by 
the Mystic river, which separates it from Stonington, on the south by Long 
Island Sound, and on the west by the Thames river. It comprised, originally, 
the part of New London lying between the Thames and Mystic rivers, but 
was lessened by the incorportaion of Ledyard in 1836. Groton was separated 
from New London in 1704, but the settlement was well started fully fifty 
years earlier. Mystic, Noank, and Groton are the main villages of the town. 
Its name was that of Governor Winthrop's English home in Suffolk county. 
Of one of its early settlers Miss Caulkins writes : 

In 1694, Davie (John Davie, who afterwards became Sir John Davie), 
was one of the landholders to whom the assembly granted letters patent 
enlarging the territory of the New London settlement, or colony. The same 
year he took a prominent part in building the second meeting house in New 
London, being one of the building committee, which shows the activity of the 
man in public affairs. He had been previously appointed rate-collector and 
selectman for the East Side. He took a prominent part in the measures which 
resulted in the agreement to let the East Side become a separate township, 
by a vote passed in town meeting, February 20, 1705; and at the assembly, 
the same year, an act of incorporation was passed. After Mr. Davie had 



iS6 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

been town clerk about two years, and was one day hoeing corn in Poquonnoc 
plains in company with John Packer, in the midst of a strife as to which of 
them should prove the faster, suddenly a messenger appeared at the end of 
the row and inquired of the barefooted men, with their trousers rolled up, 
which was named Davie, and, upon being told, he congratulated Davie in 
these words: "I salute you, Sir John Davie," . . . and tradition has it 
that the town clerk came out ahead of Packer, winning in the hoeing match, 
and that he did not deign to speak to the newcomer until he had won the 
wager. This same John Packer afterwards visited his old friend the baronet 
in England, and they had a good time together. ... Sir John Davie 
soon went to England and to his estates in Creedy, county of Devon, where 
he succeeded his uncle of the same name, but he never forgot his American 
relatives and friends, for he not only showed his beneficent feeling toward the 
school, the college and the church, but through Governor Saltonstall he made 
gifts, while living, to his relatives in various colonies. 

An interesting item in the early town records of Groton runs as follows : 

Whereas, ye money ye law allows for killing wolves is found by common 
experience to be too little, for commonly there are employed twenty or thirty 
men, who often spend two or three days about it, and then sometimes swamp 
them and do not kill them. Such things ye inhabitants of other places have 
considered, and added considerable money to what the law allows. 

Therefore, the inhabitants of this town are desired to add ten shillings for 
killing a wolf, and three shillings for swamping a wolf or wolves ; but six 
shillings if he be killed ; and three shillings for killing a grown fox or wild 
cat, or eighteen pence for a young one, and two pence a head for crows, and 
a half penny for black birds, which was voted. 

In another place we have described fully the Battle of Groton Heights, 
from which may be seen the patriotism of its citizens. We quote from the 
town records an interesting proof of the town's attitude: 

At a town meeting held June 20, 1774, the following action was taken: 
This town taking into serious consideration the dangerous situation of the 
British colonies in North America respecting sundry late acts of the Britsh 
Parliament, particularly those of shutting up the Port of Boston, the metropo- 
lis of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and abridging their chartered rights, 
&c., which if carried into execution not only deprives us all of our privileges, 
but renders life and property very precarious, and as we esteem the inhabi- 
tants of Boston, now suffering the tyranny of said acts of Parliament, and in 
the common cause of America; voted, that we will join with the other towns 
of this Colony in such reasonable measures as shall be judged best for the 
general good and most likely to obtain redress of our grievances. Voted, 
that we esteem a General Congress of all the colonies the only probable 
method to adopt a uniform plan for the preservation of the whole. 

Voted, that if it shall be judged best by said Congress to stop all exports 
to Great Britain and the West Indies, and all imports from them, we will 
most cheerfully acquiesce in their determinations, esteeming the benefits aris- 
ing therefrom mere trifles compared with the rights and privileges of America. 

In the War of 1812, Groton men did noble service in several sea fights. 
It is an interesting fact that during Decatur's enforced idleness in the Thames 
his midshipmen received instruction in mathematics from a Groton school 
teacher who became widely known as the originator of the famous "Daboll's 
Almanac." The father was aided by his son, Nathan Daboll, Jr. This 



OTHER TOWNS 187 

almanac has been published in New London for considerably over a century. 

Groton monument, erected in 1831. marks the spot of the famous Revo- 
lutionary fight, and many patriotic celebrations have been held at its fort. 
In the Civil War, Groton took a noble part, furnishing many volunteers and 
making liberal provision for the support of dependent families. 

In Groton is found the oldest Baptist church in Connecticut, dating 
from 1705. Bishop Seabury, the first bishop of the Episcopal church in the 
United States, was born in Groton in 1729. He was buried in New London. 
Over his grave was placed a tablet with this inscription: 

Here lieth the body of 

Samuel Seabury, D.D., 

Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island, 

Who departed from this transitory scene, 

February 25, 1796, 

In the sixty-eighth year of his age. 

Ingenious without pride, learned without pedantry, good without severity, 

He was duly qualified to discharge the duties of the Christian and the Bishop. 

In the pulpit, he enforced religion; in his conduct he exemplified it. 

The poor he assisted with his charity; the ignorant he blessed with his instruction. 

The friend of man, he ever desired their good. 

The enemy of vice, he ever opposed it. 

Christian! dost thou aspire to happiness? 

Seabury has shown the way that leads to it. 

His remains were later removed to St. James' Church, New London. 

In the town of Groton, on the east side of the Thames, and about three 
miles from its entrance, the United States Government established, in 1875, 
a navy yard, which grew to large proportions during the World War. 

Lebanon. — The town of Lebanon is bounded on the north by Columbia, 
a town of Tolland county, and by Windham, of Windham county ; on the east 
by Franklin and Bozrah; on the south by Bozrah and Colchester; on the 
west by Columbia, Hebron and Colchester. The town was originally some- 
what larger, including a part of Columbia and other territory. The back- 
ground of its history is laid in the settlement of the General Assembly, first 
with Uncas, then with his son, Owaneco, who sold to various proprietors a 
tract called the "Five-mile purchase," which, with several other tracts pur- 
chased from Indian chiefs, constituted the original territory of the town. 
The standard history of the earlier years is a historical address delivered 
by Rev. Orlo D. Hine, July 4, 1876. We quote freely from this address: 

The four proprietors — Mason, Stanton, Brewster and Birchard— evidently 
designed that the "Five-mile purchase" and "Mason & Fitche's mile" should 
form the main part of a plantation, and that this street, since called Town 
street, should be the center, and under their direction the street was laid out, 
and the land adjoining it allotted. Having in view the earliest establishment 
and most efficient maintenance of the worship of God and the means of 
education, the land along the street was divided into home-lots of forty-two 
acres each, and there were second and third lots lying back of these, and in 
other parts of the town. Every one taking a home-lot was entitled to a lot 
of the other divisions. In this they seem to have had in view this ridge, and 
the possession of meadow-land in the valleys. The second and third divisions, 



i88 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

taken from unoccupied land in other parts of the town, were assigned by lot. 
and hence were literally lots. 

This broad street and open common, which became so marked a feature 
of the place, seems to have been formed in this way: Originally it was a dense 
alder-swamp. When the settlers came to build their houses they would, of 
course, set them on the dryer ground of the edge of the slopes, extending back 
on each side. Thus between the lines of dwellings there was left some thirty 
rods of this swampy space. Of course it was owned by the original fifty-one 
proprietors of the "Five-mile purchase." 

They were organized, had their officers, meetings, and records. They 
performed acts of ownership of the land in this street, as of other common 
undivided land in the purchase; and in 1808 (by William Williams and the 
second Governor Trumbull, as their representatives) gave to Deacon Sam- 
uel Buckingham a deed of a portion of the common in front of his premises, 
and received of him forty dollars as the price. They had meetings at a still 
later date. 

The actual settlement of the plantation began in 1695, and its increase 
appears to have been rapid, the number of grants and allotments bearing date 
November that year being more than fifty. The "Five-mile purchase" evi- 
dently came then to be fully open for occupancy, and settlers rushed in. They 
came from different quarters, some from Norwich, others from Northampton, 
still others from other places in this colony and in that of Massachusetts. 

Lebanon has been spoken of as originally a dependence of Norwich. No 
part of its territory was ever embraced in the Nine-mile square, which con- 
stituted the territory of Norwich, or was ever under the jurisdiction of Nor- 
wich ; and there is no evidence that a majority of the early settlers came from 
that town — the Clarks, the Deweys, the Trumbulls, the Strongs, came from 
other places. 

The inhabitants held a meeting in 1698, and the earliest record of the 
town or settlement, as it was properly called, was then made. The \-ear 1707, 
Lebanon stands £5,179, and 135 taxable persons. For a few years the settle- 
ment of the town appears not to have been rapid. Privations and hardships 
must have been endured by those who came here ; their dwellings must have 
been log houses among the trees and bushes, with here and there a clearing, 
and all uncertainty as to the bounds and titles of lands had not ceased to 
perplex and embarrass. 

That there was a great amount of danger or annoyance from the Indians 
does not appear, the Indians of this section being friendly to the English, in 
league with them, and very much dependent on them. There is a tradition 
that some Indians of a tribe at war with the Mohegans — perhaps from a 
remnant of the Pequots. possibly from the Narraganestts, still farther east in 
Rhode Island — took a Mohegan child from the house of Mr. Brewster, who 
lived on the Brewster place, near where Hon. Edwin M. Dolbeare now resides. 
and killed it, dashing its head against the garden fence. This tradition comes 
reliably from one who lived near the time of the alleged event, and who spoke 
of it as a fact well known. There is also a tradition that the Abel house, which 
stood where Mr. Robert Peckham's house now stands, was a sort of fort 
(stockaded, I conclude), to which the inhabitants fled in times of danger. 

If the Indians did not seriously trouble the settlers the wild animals did. 
So late as 1730 the town offered a bounty of ten pounds for every full-grown 
wolf that should be killed. Col. James Clark, of Bunker Hill celebrity, who 
died December 29, 1826. ninety-six years of age, used to relate to his grand- 
children, who are now living, that in his boyhood, as. coming from Norwich 
in the evening, he reached the low ground near where Mr. Jeremiah Mason 
now lives, he drew his feet up upon the saddle to protect them from the 
wolves, which he often heard barking and howling in the thickets on each 



OTHER TOWNS 189 

side of the road. Deer and wild turkeys were abundant. The first settlers 
had common corn-lots, which they joined in clearing, fencing, and guarding. 
I have queried whether they had the fever and ague, and I am sure they had, 
and must have shaken soundly with it, but probably it did not frighten people 
away, for it must have prevailed in all the new settlements. 

After about 1707 the number of taxable persons ceased to be given in 
the public records, and only the property list is noted. The list continued 
steadily to increase, and to gain on the lists of other towns in the colony. 
In 1730 it was £19.972; i733,i23,8o3 and was in amount the eighth in the 
colony. In 1740 it was £31.709, and was the fifth among the forty-eight towns 
in the list, and more than that of Hartford or New London; in 1748, £35.570. 
From 1730 to 1760 Lebanon must have gained rapidly in population and 
wealth. The colony of Connecticut had greatly prospered. In 1730 the 
number of inhabitants, according to a census then taken, was 38,(X)0. and 
about 700 Indian and negro slaves and 1,600 Indians. In 1756, twenty-six 
years later, the population of the colony, consisting of seventy-nine towns and 
settlements, was 130.612, an increase of 90.312, and Lebanon then had a popu- 
lation of whites, 3,171, and blacks, 103; total, 3,274. Only five towns in the 
colony had a larger population, viz.: Middletown. the largest, 5,664; Norwich, 
5,540; New Haven, 5,085; Fairfield, 4,455; and Farmington, 3.707; Hartford 
had only 3,027. In 1774, the year before the battle of Lexington, theie were 
but seventy-six towns and settlements in the colony, some of the smaller 
settlements having been given up ; the population of the colony had increased 
to 198,010. The population of this town was then, whites, 3,841 ; blacks, 119; 
total. 3,960. the largest population the town has ever had. Only six towns 
in the colony then had a larger. In 1784 the population of the State had 
grown to 208,800, and Lebanon had, whites, 3,827. 4 less than ten years 
before ; blacks, 94, 25 less than sixty years before ; total loss, 29. Only eight 
towns then had a larger population. New Haven having the largest, 7,960. 
In 1775 only eight tov.-ns had a larger grand list than this town, it being 
then £41.600, equal to $130,300, the pound then being $3.33 1/3. The grand 
list in 1876 was $1,185,047. Though the population has diminished, the grand 
list has largely increased. The population of the town in 1870 was 2.21 1, an 
increase on that of the two preceding decades ; in 1804, Columbia, with a popu- 
lation of about 600, was set off from this town ; it now has a population of 
891 ; add this to the present population of the town, and the total is 3,162, 
showing a total diminution of 798 since 1774 within the territory then con- 
stituting Lebanon. 

As we have said, the thirtv-five or forty years previous to 1774 were a 
period of great prosperity to the town. Men of character and enterprise came 
in and grew up here. Capt. Joseph Trumbull came here from Sufficld about 
1.704. evidently without any considerable means, for when he bought the 
place which had been occupied by Rev. Joesph Parsons he mortgaged it for 
the sum of three hundred and forty pounds. He had vigorous traits, became a 
planter and trader, and at length had a ship which carried cargoes of his own, 
or belonging to his family. 

A fact which comes to us on good authority illustrates the temper of the 
man. His business often called him to Boston, and sometimes he went as a 
drover, and he would meet Rev. Mr. Wells, who had been pastor here, whose 
parishioner he had been, and who now lived in Boston. Mr. Wells was a little 
shv of him. and evidentlv avoided him now and then, in his plain and perhaps 
dustv attire, as not quite in trim to be familiarly recognized by a Boston 
gentleman. When Mr. Wells came here, where he still owned property, and 
(meeting Mr. Trumbull) accosted him as an old acquaintance, the latter 
refused to shake hands with him, and turned away, saying, "If you don't 
know me in Boston. I don't know vou in Lebanon." 



igo NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Trumbull's son, the future governor, after being graduated at Harvard 
College in 1727, went into business with his father and became a merchant, 
and engaged extensively in commerce, the War Office, now standing, being 
his store. He and the firms to which he belonged owned ships which traded 
with London and Bristol, England, Hamburg, Germany, and the West Indies, 
and took in their caroges at New London and Stonington, and at Haddam, on 
the Connecticut river. All the trades were carried on here, and it became an 
important business center. Cloth, leather, boots and shoes, saddles and 
harness, axes, scythes, and barrels were made here. Among the town officers 
appointed every year was an inspector of leather. 

The town appointed Jonathan Trumbull to obtain from the General 
Assembly leave to hold and regulate fairs and market-days, and they were 
held twice a year. These streets, now so quiet, were a place of concourse 
and bustle, of exhibition and traffic, which the people of surrounding towns 
frequented, and to which traders came from a distance, Trumbull being en- 
gaged in wide commerce and large business. 

After 1743 there was a renowned school here, which Trumbull was an 
active man in establishing, and it was controlled by twelve proprietors, and 
which was kept for thirty-seven years by Master Nathan Tisdale. It became 
so widely known that it had scholars from the West Indies, from North 
Carolina and South Carolina and Georgia, as well as from the more northern 
colonies. At one time it had students from nine of the thirteen colonies. 
Tisdale was a genius in his profession, and carried the school to the highest 
stage of prosperity which it ever reached. This helped the intelligence and 
high character, the activity and pecuniary thrift of the place. As a result of 
this and other agencies, this town had for many years some of its sons in 
courses of liberal education, and one hundred and twenty-two are known to 
have received college degrees. The strong interest in education which long 
prevailed here accounts for the fact that so many of its sons and daughters 
have risen to eminence. 

And from the first, Lebanon has been active in military enterprises. 
While this town was never directly menaced by the Indians, the frontier 
towns of this colony and of the Colony of Massachusetts were, and this town 
was required to aid' in the common defense. As early as 1709, Mr. Jedediah 
Strong, one of the original settlers, and an ancestor of the Strong family, 
which remained and still has representatives here, was killed in an expedition 
against the Indians near Albany. This colony sent troops to the defense of 
the county of Hampshire, Massachusetts, in which in 1704 the Deerfield 
massacre occurred, and which was exposed to the incursions of the French 
and Indians. In 1709, in an expedition against Canada, in Queen Ann's War, 
the proportion of troops from this colony was one hundred and forty-seven, 
and the quota of Lebanon eleven. 

In the wars in which the Mother Country was engaged at this period, 
the colonies were involved — in the Spanish War of 1739; in King George's 
War; a war with France 'n 1744 in which Louisburr, in Cape Breton, a very 
strong place, termed the Gibraltar of America, was taken; in the French and 
Indian War, which began in 1755 and ended in 1763 with the conquest of the 
whole of Canada. During these wars the seas were infested with hostile 
ships, and the colonists were exposed on every side. The colonies learned 
how to raise troops, to equip and supply them, and to tax themselves in order 
to pay them, and thus were in most important training for the crisis now just 
before them. The drums used at Bunker Hill were the same which had been 
used at the capture of Louisburg. 

Lebanon, as a town, was among the foremost in this colony in the part 
it bore in these enterprises and testings. In 1739, Jonathan Trumbull, then 



OTHER TOWNS 191 

young, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of a regiment raised for an expe- 
dition against Canada; he was afterwards colonel, and early had experience 
in recruiting, furnishing, and moving troops. The people of the town were 
patriotic and spirited. On the surrender of Quebec, in 1759, they observed 
the general thanksgiving, and Dr. Solomon Williams' jubilant sermon on 
the occasion of this was published. He says, "For more than seventy years 
our enemies have been designing our ruin, and formed and projected a settled 
design to encompass us, unobserved, with a string of forts from Canada to 
the Bay of Mexico." He regards "the conquest of Quebec, the capital of 
Canada, as of more importance than has ever been made by the English since 
England was a nation." He states his reasons, and calls upon the people 
triumphantly to praise Him who has given such success. 

Of course a people thus trained, in such a temper, and having such 
leaders as there were here in Jonathan Trumbull, William Williams, and 
others, were all ready, when the Mother Country began to encroach on the 
liberties of the colonies, to resist them and to maintain their rights. When, in 
October, 1765, Governor Fitch proposed to take the required oath to enforce 
the Stamp Act, and called upon his "assistants" to administer it to him, Trum- 
bull was among those who resisted and remonstrated. The governor urged that 
their allegiance to the king, the oath of their office, the safety of the charter 
of the colony, and their personal safety, demanded that thev administer the 
oath and aid in the execution of the act. Trumbull was ready with the reply 
that the act was in derogation of the rights of the colony, in violation of the 
common privileges of English subjects, and that they had also sworn "to 
promote the public good and peace of Connecticut, and to maintain all its 
lawful privileges," and these they would treacherously sacrifice by submitting 
to the demand now made upon them. 

When five (the requisite legal number out of the twelve) were found 
ready to administer the oath, Trumbull refused to be present to witness its 
administration, and taking his hat hastened from the chamber, leading the 
six other assistants who, with him, had stood firm. This, with other clear and 
courageous conduct, showed him to the colonists as fitted to be their first- 
magistrate, and to have their interest in his hands, and he was chosen gov- 
ernor in 1769. He already had large experience in public affairs. He had 
fourteen times represented his town as deputy to the General Assembly and 
had three times filled the office of speaker; had been chosen assistant for 
twenty-two years; had been for one year side judge, and for seventeen years 
chief judge of the County Court of Windham county ; had been for nineteen 
years judge of probate for the Windham district ; had been once elected an 
assistant judge, and four times chief justice of the Superior Court of the 
colony ; and for four years had been deputy governor. He held the office 
of governor fourteen years, and till within two years of his death. 

William Williams was more impulsive and ardent, and fitted to inspire 
others with enthusiasm. With tongue and pen and estate he gave himself 
to the cause of the colonies. During the gloomy winter of 1777 he sent beef, 
cattle, and gold to Valley Forge, saying, "If independence should be estab- 
lished he should get his pay; if not, the loss would be of no account to him." 
With such men active here, we are prepared to find on the town records 
resolutions like the following: At a town-meeting held 7th December, 1767, 
a letter received from the selectmen of Boston, as to the oppressive and 
ruinous duties laid on various articles, and calling for union in some common 
measures of relief: "Jonathan Trumbull, the selectmen, and others were 
appointed a committee by themselves, or in concert with committees from 
neighboring towns, to consider and devise such measures and means as may 
more effectually tend to promote and encourage industry, economy, and 
manufactures." Under these oppressions, bearing heavily on it as a port, 



192 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



Boston appealed to Lebanon, and this town came into full sympathy and 
concert with it. 

The number of men whom this town sent into the War of the Revolution 
it is now impossible to determine, so many of the rolls of companies are 
wanting. .Some who have given most attention to the papers existing and 
to all the evidence, estimate that there were periods when as many as five 
hundred were serving in the army at the same time. Some served for short 
terms — three months, six months ; some were minute-men, called out when 
the towns along the coast. New London and New Haven, were menaced or 
attacked. This would be one to about everv eight of the inhabitants at 
that time. The quota of this town for the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, was 
206; and the population in i860 being 2.174, this would be one to about every 
ten of the inhabitants. About one hundred actually went from this town, one 
to every twenty-one of the inhabitants. 

The town records furnish abundant evidence of the resolute effort made 
to meet the demands for men — which came year after year as the war went 
on, and tasked the resources and endurance of the colonics — and to provide 
for the families of those absent in the army. In the later stages of the war, 
when a given number of men was called for, the number capable of bearing 
arms had been reduced, and the enthusiasm, which in the beginning haa 
prompted men to enlist, had subsided, the able-bodied men of the town be- 
tween the ages of fifteen and fifty-five were divided into classes of the same 
number, ten, and each class was required to furnish a man. 

After the religious services on the Sabbaths, and on Thanksgiving and 
fast-days, especially in 1777, contributions for the suffering soldiers were 
received in the meeting-houses, w'hen jewelry and every article of clothing 
and provisions were presented, and the ladies, as individuals and in concert, 
with the discreet and earnest ]\Iadame Trumbull encouraging them and set- 
ting them an example, bore their part in these contributions. 

How impossible it is for us in quiet Lebanon, as it now is, to picture what 
Lebanon was and what transpired here during the years of the war, the 
governor of the State residing here, the counselor and friend and efficient 
helper of Washington; the Council of Safety, which aided the governor and 
wielded extensive powers in the conduct of the war in this State and in this 
part of the country, holding here nearlv all of its more than twelve hundred 
sessions held during the war; messengers from the army and from Washing- 
ton arriving at and leaving the War Office, bringing and carrying away 
dispatches; the governor, with the agencies he employed, engaged in pro- 
curing and forwarding provisions, clothing, and military supplies, and these 
streets often crowded with activity of this sort; for seven months at one 
period the Duke of Lauzun's legion of French cavalry here, some of them 
in barracks in a lot on the right of the Colchester road, called "Barracks lot," 
others of them on the Common, a little north of where we are assembled, 
where still can be seen remains of their ovens and camp utensils; the soldiers 
now and then stealing wood, and a sheep, a pig, and convicted and punished; 
a deserter shot ; the duke and higher officers having quarters in the house 
(on the corner), in its original form, now occupied by Asher P. Smith, and 
some of the officers at Alden's tavern, these gentlemanly officers in their 
leisure flirting with the fair maidens of the place; gay festivities, at which 
distinguished guests from abroad were present, frequently occurring; reviews 
of troops ; Washington repeatedly here to consult with the Governor ; Lafay- 
ette here, according to Stuart in his "Life of Trumbull"; General Knox, Dr. 
Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Adams. John Jav, Thomas Jefferson, and 
others. Lebanon was certainly then a center of dignity and influence, and 
was the military headquarters of this part of the countr}'. 

With its other important contributions to the War of Independence, this 



OTHER TOWNS 193 

town contributed in Jonathan Trumbull a laborious and efficient War Gov- 
ernor, at the beginning the only loyal governor to whom Washington gave 
distinguished confidence, on whom he relied in the most trying emergencies, 
a man discreet, far-seeing, inflexible in following his convictions, eminently 
God-fearing, and a true patriot; in William Williams, a member of the Con- 
tinental Congress in 1776-77 and again in 1783-84, a signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, ardent, self-sacrificing, passionate in his devotion to 
his country, who one hundred years ago today represented this State, repre- 
sented this town in that great proceeding in Independence Hall, Philadelphia; 
in T.oseph Trumbull, a commissary-general and the first commissary-general 
of the national armv, whose brilliant career was cut short by an early death, 
hastened by his strenuous devotion to his difficult duties in organising this 
department of the army: in John Trumbull, an aide-de-camp to Washington, 
an adjutant-general to General Gage, and a painter who acquired a distin- 
guished reputation from his delineation of national scenes and from his por- 
traits of distinguished men of the Revolutionary period; in Jonathan Trum- 
bull, Jr.. a paymaster to the northern department of the army, a first aide-de- 
camp and private secretary to W^ashington. a member of his family, and 
enjoying his high esteem. Capt. James Clark commanded a company in the 
battle of Bunker Hill, and was in" the battles of Harlem Heights and White 
Plains. Lieut. Andrew Fitch was in the battle of Bunker Hill, and in the 
service to the close of the war. John Wheelock. son of President Wheelock, 
of Dartmouth College, afterwards himself president, served as lieutenant- 
colonel in the Continental army, and was a member of the staff of General 

Lebanon has done well in the men whom in different periods it has 
furnished — six governors of States, five of them of this State, who held the 
office thirt^'-sevcn years, and one of them (William A. Buckingham) a second 
War Governor, and a worthy successor of the first ; resolute, indefatigable, 
large-hearted, vigorous, and upright in administration, and of a character to 
command universal esteem and affection: Trumbull and Buckingham! names 
that honor the town, honor the State, honor the nation. In all the list of 
honored men from the beginnings have there been abler, better governors 
than the Trumbulls, Bissel. and Buckinghams? Four senators in Congress; 
seven representatives in Congress, and one of them, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., 
speaker of the Second Congress ; five judges of higher courts, and two chief 
justices: a colored man in Prince Saunders, connected for a time with Dart- 
mouth College, who was minister from Hayti to Great Britain, and attorney- 
general of that government; and a large number of ministers of the gospel and 
other professional men. 

At the dedication of the War Office in 1891, several noteworthy addresses 
were made that bear on the history of the town. The account of the celebra- 
tion, edited by Mr. Jonathan Trumbull of Norwich, contains several inter- 
esting manuscripts discovered shortly before that date. We quote from the 
speech of H6n. N. B. Williams, made in presenting the War Office: 

Although Lebanon appears to have been exceeded in population by 
thirteen of the seventy-six towns enumerated in the census of 1774. the excess 
was in most cases slight, and the population, 3.060. is by no means an adequate 
measure of the importance of the town in the days of the Revolution. In 
the grand list of 1776, but ten towns showed a higher valuation of taxable 
property. But most significant of all is the fact that in the awards for 
services' in the Lexington Alarm, but two towns in the State, W^indham and 
Woodstock, were granted larger sums of money as their compensation. 

X.I..— m:'. 



194 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



The reasons for a service so largely in excess of any quota which Lebanon 
might have been called upon to furnish at this time seem evident. Here were 
the residence and home office of the only colonial governor who asserted the 
rights of his country as opposed to the oppressive measures of his king, which 
very fact must have given to that all-potent assemblage of the day, the town 
meeting, an inspiration and force which it might otherwise have lacked. 
Owing to the location of the town and the fact that the governor resided 
there. Lebanon must have been the place where the news from Boston was 
usually received in the exciting times which led up to the Revolution. 

Another point necessary in maintaining our independence was concert 
of action, and the War Office was the great center of attraction from which 
such an influence arose, and its associations in this respect are calculated to 
touch the heart of every patriot. It was in that building that George Wash- 
ington often met his bosom friend, our first War Governor, and the only one 
in thirteen colonies in whom he could place implicit confidence. In that 
office they matured plans for future action. It was there that important war 
measures originated, dispatches were sent to the army, reports returned, 
and the war council held over one thousand sessions. During some of the 
dark days of the Revolution, so dark as to be depressing to ordinary minds, 
it was the inspiring words that went forth from this council — who believed 
their cause was the cause of God — that gave hope and cheer to the army and 
renewed courage to trust in Him who overrules all events, to "keep their 
powder dry" and "fight on, to victory or to death." 

It was military headquarters for this part of the country, and its floors 
have been trodden by Washington, Trumbull, Adams (Samuel and John), 
Jefferson. Putnam, Franklin. Knox, and many others of note, both of this 
country and France. The War Office was the center of influence to keep 
the fires of the Revolution burning, and this vast assembly shows that it 
will take more than another century to kill out the fire that burned in the 
bosoms of the patriots of '76. 

I rejoice that there is a society called the "Sons of the American Revo- 
lution," formed for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of their fathers 
and preserving as memorials those relics that are connecting links with the 
Revolution, and it afifords me great pleasure, in behalf of Mrs. Wattles, the 
donor of the War Office, to present to the Society, through their president, 
Mr. Trumbull, the key of said office. I do not ask you to keep it in a state 
of preservation, for what you have already done, and the fact that the blood 
of the Revolutionary fathers flows in your veins, is sufficient guarantee for 
the future. 

Also a poem composed for the occasion by Mr. Thomas S. Collier: 



What is the soul of a nation? 

Lo, is it not deeds well done? 
Red blood poured out as libation? 

Hard toil till the end is won? 
Swift blows, when the smoke goes drifting 

From the cannon, hot with flame? 
And work, when the war clouds, lifting, 

Show the blazoning of fame? 
These hold that affluence golden, 

Bright fire of sword and pen. 
Which from the ages olden 

Has thrilled the hearts of men. 

Not where the trumpets bluster. 
And answering bugles sound, 
As mania! legions muster, 



Are all the heroes found ; 
But where the orchards blooming 

Foams white the hills along, 
And bees, with lazy booming. 

Wake the brown sparrow's song. 
By quiet hearths are beating 

The hearts that watch and wait. 
With thought each act completing. 

That conquers Time and Fate; 
Rounding with patient labor 

The work of those who died. 
Where sabre clashed with sabre 

Above war's sanguine tide. 

Here was no field of battle, 
These hills no echoes gave 



OTHER TOWNS 



195 



Of that fierce rush and rattle 

Whose harvest is the grave ; 
Yet v.-here the drums were calling, 

And where the fight was hot, 
And men were swiftly falling 

Before the whistling shot, 
No soul with hope was stronger 

Than that which blossomed here — 
No voice, as days grew longer. 

Was louder with its cheer. 

Ah, souls were bent and shaken 

As days grew into years. 
And saw no bright hope waken 

To gleam amid the tears — 
Heard no call, triumph sounding, 

From mountain side and gorge, 
Only the low graves rounding — 

The gloom of Valley Forge ; 
Yet here a strength unbroken 

Met all the storm-filled days, 
Rising sublime, a token 

Of faith, in weary ways. 

What built the power, unfolding 

Such glorious purpose, when 
War's carnival was holding 

High feast with homes and men? 
W'hen grew the thought, whose glory 

Burned like a sun supreme. 
Above the fields, all gory 

With battle's crimson stream? 
Where bloomed the manhood, keeping 

Such steadfast step and strong, 
When the red sword was reaping 

The harvesting of wrong? 

Here in the peace, and tender 

Warm light of heart and hearth. 
Was born that virile splendor 

Which filled the waiting earth,— 
That flame of Freedom, rising 

In broadening waves of light. 
The souls of men surprising, 

And lifting them from night: 
Here, and in kindred places. 

The fire that all could see 
Shone from determined faces. 

And taught men to be free. 

Why are we gathered together? 

The land is full of peace, 
And high in the halcyon weather 

The songs of labor increase. 
What makes the drums beat, ringing 

Their challenge to the hills? 
Why are the bugles flinging 

Swift calls to marts and mills? 
Because these walls have cherished 

A memory bright and high ; 
No name they knew has perished. 

For deeds can never die; 



And here, when hearts were beating, 

Half hoping, half in fear. 
Strong souls, in council meeting, 

Spoke firm, and loud, and clear. 

There was no weak denying. 

There was no backward glance. 
But where the flags were flying. 

And red shone sword and lance. 
Their words rang swift and cheerful. 

And skies grew bright again. 
For those whose hearts were fearful. 

For these were master men ; 
And one led, who unknowing 

Linked to the land his name. 
By earnest manhood showing 

How near we live to fame. 

Ours is the sunlit morning — 

Ours is the noontide's gold — 
And the radiant light adorning 

The paths once dark and cold; 
But the savor of our treasure 

Was the salt of toil, and tears, 
And want, that filled the measure 

Of long and bitter years ; 
We drink the wine of gladness, 

We reap the harvest sheaves, 
Whose seed was sown in sadness, 

And the drift of yellow leaves; 
With faith, and not with grieving, 

W'as built the mighty past; 
What good gift are we leaving 

To those w^ho follow fast? 
What thought, what deed, what glory 

Shall mark this epoch ours. 
And leave our names and story 

High set where grandeur towers? 

What thing shall make men cherish 

The memory of today? 
Ah, actions will not perish 

Though monuments decay. 
We sec, spread out before us, 

The fairest land of earth. 
Loud with the ringing chorus 

That only here has birth : 
Ours is the holy duty 

To build, with firmer hand. 
This heritage of beauty. 

That it may ever stand; 

Our deeds should make more lasting 

The freedom that has grown 
F'rom toil, and tears, and fasting. 

And strength of blood and bone. 
Then like the blossoms vernal 

That with the spring combine. 
Our age will shine eternal. 

To all mankind a sign ; 
A star serene, yet showing 

Near kindred to the sun. 
Whereon these names are glowing — 

Trumbull and Washington. 



196 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

We quote also from an address by Rev. Leonard W. Bacon: 

But a contrast as startling and intense as the canvas of history has ever 
exhibited was that v»'hich was exhibited here on Lebanon green when the 
French regiments lay cantoned here in winter quarters. Where, in American 
history at least, could such subjects be found for romance, or for the pencil 
of historical painter? These representatives of the gayest, most brilliant, 
most corrupt and vicious court in Europe, what kind of figure did they make 
in the midst of the severe simplicity of old Lebanon? We are not without 
some record of their impressions in the journal of the Count de Rochambeail 
and the travels of the Marquis de Chastellux. But the contrast between 
the foremost personage among the Frenchmen here, the gay Duke de Lauzun, 
who made his headquarters at the house of David Trumbull, and the serious, 
precise figure of the governor is drawn already to our hand by the graceful 
pencil of Donald Mitchell. 

And what a contrast it is — this gay nobleman, carved out, as it were, 
from the dissolute age of Louis XV., who had sauntered under the colonnades 
of the Trianon, and had kissed the hand of the Pompadour, now strutting 
among the staid dames of Norwich and Lebanon ! How they must have 
looked at him and his fine troopers from under their knitted hoods! You 
know, I suppose, his after history — how he went back to Paris, and among 
the wits there was wont to mimic the way in which the stifif old Connecticut 
governor had said grace at his table. Ah ! he did not know that in Governor 
Trumbull, and all such men, is the material to found an enduring state; and 
in himself, and all such men, only the inflammable material to burn one 
down. There is a life written of Governor Trumbull, and there is a life writ- 
ten of the Marquis (Duke) of Lauzun. The first is full of deeds of quiet 
heroism, ending with a tranquil and triumphant death ; the other is full of the 
rankest gallantries, and ends with a little spurt of blood under the knife of 
the guillotine upon the gay Place de la Concorde. 

There is another line of pedigree, too, down which the influence of the 
great names and examples of the Lebanon heroes has descended. It is a line 
not always as easy to be traced as that of natural genealogy, but it is some- 
times clear enough. There is the story, for instance, of the country boy who 
grew up in this old town some fourscore years ago, where, in the vast ampli- 
tude of the town street, he marked the traces of the old French camp, and 
where every house was inhabited with heroic memories and traditions. I 
love to imagine the handsome little fellow wandering thoughtfully among 
the gravestones in the old burying-ground, that tell of holy ministers, and 
brave soldiers, and upright citizens, and pausing to read the four inscriptions 
on the Trumbull monument, recording the career of one who, by the force 
and dignity of his character, rose from private station to be the foremost man 
in all the commonwealth, and, next to Washington himself, the chief pro- 
moter of his country's liberty. I love to imagine how that shining example 
of a Christian patriot dwelt in the young man's mind when he had removed 
from ancestral Lebanon to Norwich for the beginning of his fair career; 
and how, in the midst of daily duties in counting-room and church and 
municipal business, the lineaments of that heroic Puritan character uncon- 
sciously reproduced themselves in his mind : and as great events went on, 
and lifted him as by a rising tide into the highest station in the State, history 
for once consented to repeat itself, and to complete that impressive parallel 
on which later historians of Connecticut will delight to dwell, between the 
great War Governor of the AVar for Independence, and the great War Gov- 
ernor of the War for the Union and the Constitution. 

The following is an extract from a speech of Rev. Dr. Samuel Bucking- 
ham, a brother of the War Governor of Civil War time : 



OTHER TOWNS 197 

Sucli were some of the people \vho had the early guidance of affairs and 
the shaping- of public sentiment in this New England "town. And such were 
some of the moulding influences which made the State what it was, and 
shaped our general government; and wherever they have been carried by 
emigration, must have been a blessing, as they have been here. 

When I was a boy, emigration from this town was going on to " 'hio" 
— Ohio — "Genesee county," in and about Rochester, New York, and "up coun- 
try," which meant Vermont. Dartmouth College, under President Wheelock, 
then "Moore's Charity School" for the education of Indian youth, had been 
taken up almost bodily and transported from Columbia, then a part of this 
town, to Hanover, New Hampshire, just across the river. And so many of 
the settlers went with it from this vicinity that twenty or more of the neigh- 
boring towns in Vermont bear the name's of Connecticut towns from which 
the settlers came. Indeed, the State had so much of this sentiment in it that 
it was named "New Connecticut," and the name was only changed because 
there were other settlements of similar origin taking the same name— ^like 
the ''New Connecticut" in the Susquehanna Valley, and the "New Connec- 
ticut" of Northern Ohio, both of which distinctly show the characteristics of 
their origin. The springs where mountain streams take their rise, and flow 
down through fertile plains, and alongside of wealthy cities, to enrich the 
commerce of the world, and bless its countless inhabitants, are interesting 
spots to visit, and suggestive of what smaller towns may have done for the 
world and are likely to do in the future. 

The list of Governors which this town has furnished to the State is 
certainly remarkable, both in number and character, especially considering 
its population and business. Entirely an agricultural town, with never more 
than three thousand inhabitants, it has filled the chair of State with such 
men as these, and for such terms of office: Jonathan Trumbull. Sr., 1769 to 
1784; Jonathan Trumbull. Jr., 1798 to i8og; Clark Bissell, 1847 to 1849; 
Joseph Trumbull. 1849 t" 1850; William A. Buckingham, 1858 to 1866. ?Icre 
are five governors from the same town, holding the office by annual election 
for one-third of a century, and filling the office with becoming dignity and 
distinguished usefulness. We do not wonder at the pleasant boast of the 
people of the town: — "We supply Norwich with butter and cheese, and the 
State with governors, especially when they want good ones." 

The proclamation of Governor Jonathan Trumbull, dated June 18, 1776, 
is worthy of permanent record : 

The Race of Mankind was made in a State of Innocence and Freedom, 
subjected only to the Laws of God the Creator, and through his rich Goodness 
designed for virtuous liberty and Happiness, here and forever; and when 
moral Evil was introduced into the World, and Man had corrupted his Ways 
before God, Vice and Iniquity came in like a Flood and Mankind became 
exposed, and a prey to the Violence, Injustice and Oppression of one another. 
God in great Mercy inclined his People to form themselves into Society, and 
to set up and establish civil Government for the protection and security of 
their Lives and Properties from the Invasion of wicked men. But through 
Pride and ambition, the Kings and Princes of the World appointed by the 
People the Guardians of their lives and liberties, early and almost universally 
degenerated into Tyrants, and by Fraud or Force betrayed and wrested out 
of their hands the very Rights asd Properties they were appointed to protect 
and defend. But a small part of the Human Race maintained and enjoyed 
any tolerable Degree of Freedom. Among those happy few, the nation of 
Great Britain was distinguished by a Constitution of Government wisely 
framed and modelled to support the Dignity and Power of the Prince, for the 



igg NEW LONDON COUNTY 

protection of the Rights of the People, and under which that Country in long 
succession enjoyed great Tranquility and Peace, though not unattended with 
repeated and powerful efforts, by many of its haughty Kings, to destroy the 
Constitutional Rights of the People, and establish arbitrary Power and Do- 
minion. In one of those convulsive struggles our Forefathers, having suffered 
in that their native Country great and variety of Injustice and Oppression, 
left their dear Connections and Enjoyments, and fled to this then inhospitable 
land to secure a lasting retreat from civil and religious Tyranny. 

The God of Heaven favored and prospered this Undertaking — made room 
for their settlement — increased and multiplied them to a very numerous 
People and inclined succeeding Kings to indulge them and their children 
for many years the unmolested Enjoyment of the Freedom and Liberty they 
fled to inherit. But an unnatural King has risen up — violated his sacred 
Obligations and by the Advice of Evil Counsellors attempted to wrest from 
us, their children, the Sacred Rights we justly claim and which have been 
ratified and established by solemn Compact with, and recognized by his Pre- 
decessors and Fathers, Kings of Great Britain — laid upon us Burdens too 
heavy and grievous to be borne and issued many cruel and oppressive Edicts, 
depriving us of our natural, lawful and most important Rights, and subjecting 
us to the absolute Power and Control of himself and the British Legislature; 
against which we have sought Relief, by humble, earnest and dutiful Com- 
plaints and Petitions: But, instead of obtaining Redress our Petitions have 
been treated with Scorn and Contempt, and fresh Injuries heaped upon us 
while hostile armies and ships are sent to lay waste our Country. In this 
distressing Dilemma, having no Alternative but absolute Slavery or success- 
ful Resistance, this and the United American Colonies have been constrained 
by the overruling laws of Self Preservation to take up Arms for the Defence 
of all that is sacred and dear to Freemen, and make this solemn Appeal to 
Heaven for the Justice of their Cause, and resist Force by Force. 

God Almighty has been pleased of his infinite Mercy to succeed our 
Attempts, and to give us many Instances of signal Success and Deliverance. 
But the wrath of the King is still increasing, and not content with before 
employing all the Force which can be sent from his own Kingdom to execute 
his cruel Purposes, has procured, and is sending all the Mercenaries he can 
obtain from foreign countries to assist in extirpating the Rights of America, 
and with theirs almost all the liberty remaining among Mankind. 

In this most critical and alarming situation, this and all the Colonies are 
called upon and earnestly pressed by the Honorable Congress of the American 
Colonies united for mutual defence, to raise a large additional number of their 
militia and able men to be furnished and equipped with all possible Expedi- 
tion for defence against the soon expected attack and invasion of those who 
are our Enemies without a Cause. In cheerful compliance with which request, 
and urged by Motives, the most cogent and important that can affect the 
human Mind, the General Assembly of this Colon)' has freely and unani- 
mously agreed and resolved, that upwards of Seven Thousand able and 
effective Men be immediately raised, furnished and equipped for the great 
and interesting Purposes aforesaid. And not desirous that any should go to 
a warfare at their own charges (though equally interested with others) for 
defence of the great and all-important Cause in which we are engaged, have 
granted large and liberal Pay and Encouragements to all who shall volun- 
tarily undertake for the Defence of themselves and their country as by their 
acts may appear. I do therefore by and with the advice of the Counsel, and 
at the desire of the Representatives in General Court assembled, issue this 
Proclamation, and make the solemn Appeal to the Virtue and public Spirit 
of the good People of this Colony. Affairs are hastening fast to a Crisis, and 
the approaching Campaign will in all Probability determine forever the fate 



OTHER TOWNS 199 

of America. If this should be successful on our side, there is little to fear on 
account of any other. 

Be exhorted to rise therefore to superior exertions on this great Occasion, 
and let all the people that are able and necessary show themselves ready in 
Behalf of their injured and oppressed Country, and come forth to the help 
of the Lord against the Mighty, and convince the unrelenting Tyrant ot 
Britain that they are resolved to be Free. Let them step forth to defend their 
Wives, their little Ones, their Liberty, and everything they hold sacred and 
dear, to defend the Cause of their Country, their Religion, and their God. 
Let every one to the utmost of their Power lend a helping Hand, to promote 
and forward a design on which the salvation of America now evidently de- 
pends. Nor need any be dismayed : the Cause is certainly a just and a glorious 
one: God is able to save us in such way and manner as he pleases and to 
humble our proud Oppressors. The Cause is that of Truth and Justice ; he 
has already shown his Power in our Behalf, and for the Destruction of many 
of our Enemies. Our Fathers trusted in Him and were delivered. Let us all 
repent and thoroughly amend our Ways and turn to Him, put all our Trust 
and Confidence in Him — in his Name go forth, and in his Name set up our 
Banners, and he will save us with temporal and eternal salvation. And while 
our Armies are abroad jeoparding their lives in the high Places of the Field, 
let all who remain at Home, cry mightily to God for the Protection of his 
Providence to shield and defend their lives from Death, and to crown them 
with victory and success. 

And in the Name of the said General Assembly I do hereby earnestly 
recommend it to all, both Ministers and People frequently to meet together 
for social prayer to Almighty God for the outpouring of his blessed Spirit 
upon this guilty land — That he would awaken his People to Righteousness 
and Repentance, bless our Councils, prosper our Arms and succeed the Meas- 
ures using for our necessary self defence — disappoint the evil and cruel 
Devices of our Enemies — preserve our precious Rights and Liberties, lengthen 
out our Tranquility, and make us a People of his Praise, and the blessed of 
the Lord, as long as the Sun and Moon shall endure. 

And all the ministers of the Gospel in this Colony are directed and de- 
sired to publish this Proclamation in their several churches and congrega- 
tions, and to enforce the Exhortations thereof, by their own pious Example 
and public instructions. 

Given under my Hand at the Council Chamber in Hartford, the i8th day 
of June Anno Domini 1776. 

Jonathan Trumeull. 

There is a marked difference between Jefferson's Declaration of Inde- 
pendence of July 4, 1776, and that solemn proclamation of Governor Trum- 
bull of twenty days earlier, lately discovered by the keen eye of Mr. Hoadly, 
and characterized, perhaps with a strained use of the word, as "the Con- 
necticut Declaration of Independence." The one starts with an enumeration 
of self-evident truths, and with a doctrine of human rights, and is grounded 
on the principles of the Contrat Social of Jean Jacques Rousseau. The other 
begins with the creation and the fall of man, is grounded on the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and is the utterance throughout of a lofty and noble religious faith. 

Jefferson's Declaration, accepted as the voice of the American people, is 
famous thoroughout the world. The proclamation of Trumbull has only just 
now been rescued from its century of oblivion by the hand of the patient 
antiquary. But we may safely challenge the twentieth century to pronounce 



200 XFAV LONDON COUNTY 

between the two as to which is the nobler, more solemnly eloquent, document, 
and the worthier of the jjrcat theme which is common to them both. 

Ledyard. — Ledyard is bounded on the north by Preston, on the east by 
Stonington and North Stonington, on the south by Groton, and on the west 
by the Thames. From the article written by Captain William T. Cook, over 
forty years ago, we quote briefly: 

The Pcquot Indians were the aboriginal inhabitants of this section of the 
country. They were a warlike race, more savage than the surrounding tribes, 
and more unfriendly towards the whites, although there is no record of any 
Indian battle taking place within the limits of what is now known as the 
town of Ledyard. 

A favorite place of burial seems to have been on the farm now owned 
by Mr. William Fanning. An old gentleman who was present at the opening 
of one of these graves many years ago gives this description of it: A circular 
opening was dug in the earth, and the body placed in a sitting posture. A 
stake had been forced into the ground perpendicularly in front of it ; a nail 
was driven into the stake, on which was hung a looking-glass opposite the 
face of the dead, who was supposed to be a female. Two earthen bowls were 
also deposited in the grave ; these were supposed to contain the succotash 
to be used as food on the journey to the spirit-land. The finding of these 
articles in this grave shows that the body was placed there after the country 
was settled by the whites. The glass and bowds dropped in pieces on being 
exposed to the air. In the grave where another body was laid years after 
were buried a gun with seven pounds of powder and seven pounds of shot 
for the use of the hunter when he should arrive at the "happy hunting- 
grounds." A white man is said to have coveted these then precious articles 
and hired a man to rob the grave, but his courage failed before the time came 
for the attempt to be made, and the Indian is supposed to still retain his 
gun and ammunition. 

The last "Retreat" (so-called) of the Fequots is a portion of it situated 
in the northeast i>art of this town. This reservation, consisting originally of 
nine hundred acres, was called in the Indian dialect, Mashantucket. It is now 
known as "Indian Town." The tribe has been gradually dwindling away, 
and probably at this day there is not a pure blood left. 

Miss Caulkins gives the names of early settlers as follows: Christopher 
Avery, Robert Allyn, Philip Bell, Jonathan Brewster, William Chapman, 
Edward Culver, Silas Dean, Edmund Fanning, George Geer, John Hurlbutt, 
William Maynard, Benadam Gallup, James Morgan, Isaac Lamb. Robert 
Park, Peter Spicer, Ralph Stoddard, Ezekiel Turner, and William Williams. 
Other names were added afterwards. 

Jonathan Brewster, one of the early settlers, came to America in 1621 ; his 
wife Lucretia was one of the original "Mayflower" Pilgrims, and was the 
daughter-in-law of Elder William Brewster of Plymouth fame. Silas Dean, 
Jr., born in Ledyard, was graduated at Yale in 1758, and was one of the three 
commissioners appointed by Congress to urge France to acknowledge the 
independence of the United Colonies. Allyn's Point and Stoddard's Wharf 
still bear the name of the original settlers in these places. Gale's Ferry, as 
the name suggests, indicates the ocupation of a former proprietor. 

The original settlement, then a portion of Groton, soon obtained permis- 



OTHER TOWNS 201 

sion from the legislature to organize an ecclesiastical society. The parish 
was incorporated in 1724 as North Groton. The town of Ledyard was incor- 
porated January i, 1836, taking its name from Col. William Ledyard, of Fort 
Griswold fame. The town contained about 2,000 inhabitants. The popu- 
lation has since that day grown less. Farming constitutes the main occupa- 
tion of the people. Among the men who have gained national fame is Asa 
Whitney, the projector of the first Pacific railroad. 

Lisbon. — Lisbon is bounded on the north by Windham county, on the 
east by Griswold, on the south by Preston, on the west by Norwich and 
Sprague. Originally claimed by the town of Norwich, it was granted on 
certain conditions to the Mohegan chief Owaneco and his followers. An 
extract from Miss Caulkins' "History of Norwich" shows how difficult it 
was for the settlers to deal satisfactorily even with friendly Indians : 

On this grant the sachem gathered his special clan, probably some twenty 
or thirty families. An annual tribute of ten deerskins was at first demanded 
of them, but the scarcity of deer in the vicinity rendered that regulation a 
dead letter. Moreover, the village was soon broken up by the war with 
Philip, which called the sachem and his warriors to the field and scattered 
the women and children among their neighbors. When the conflict was over 
a part of this tract was assigned to the Indian fugitives, called Surrenderers, 
and in May, 1678, Mr. Fitch reported to the government that twenty-nine 
families of this class had settled upon it under the supervision of the English. 

By a deed of trust, December 22, 1680, Owaneco assigned to James Fitch, 
Jr., the care and disposition of all his lands on Quinnebaug river. A few 
years later, absolute deeds of sale of these and other tracts of land were 
executed by the sachem in favor of the same Captain Fitch. In 1695, Owaneco 
and Samuel Mason, who by his own choice and the authority of the govern- 
ment had been appointed his trustee, requested that a committee of the town 
should be empowered to survey the three-hundred-acre grant and fix its 
bounds. The next year Captain Fitch, being then proprietary clerk, recorded 
the whole grant to himself, as included in the large purchases he had made 
of Owaneco in 1684 and 1687. The town entered a formal protest against the' 
claims of Captain Fitch, particularly to the three hundred acres at Quinne- 
baug Falls, which had been guaranteed to the Indians with a proviso that it 
should not be alienated. The course of Captain Fitch in regard to these Indian 
purchases was distasteful to the town, and no clear account can be given of 
the basis upon which the difficulty was settled. Apparently the town, after 
some murmuring, acquiesced in the claim of Captain Fitch to what was called 
the eighteen-hundred-acre grant. 

Also: 

The settlement of Newent was for many years obstructed by the diversity 
of claims arising from a confusion of grants and conveyances. In 1723 a 
committee was appointed "to enquire into and gain as good an understanding 
as they can come at respecting the Indians land in the Crotch of Quinebaug 
and Showtuckct rivers." 

In 1725 the proprietors of the common and undivided land put an end 
to all controversy by giving a quit-claim deed to Cai)tain Jabez Perkins, Lieut. 
Samuel F.ishop, Mr. Joseph Perkins, and Mr. John Safford of all the Indian 
land in the crotch of the rivers, and of all contained in Major Fitch's eighteen- 
hundred-acre grant, for the sum of seventy-five pounds money in hand paid 
to said proprietors, provided that the Indians shall be allowed to remain and 



202 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

occupy the tract that had been secured to them. To these purchasers and 
to those who should claim under them the town confirmed the title of rever- 
sion. The Indians dwindled away, and in 1745 the descendants of Owaneco 
and other principal Mohegans, for the sum of one hundred and thirty-seven 
pounds, executed a quit-claim deed of the Indian reservation in favor of the 
English claimants. This instrument, which extinguished the last aboriginal 
claim to land in the Nine-mile square, was in substance as follows: 

Ann alias Cutoih, Betty Ancum widow, Wedemow daughter of Mahomet 
deceased, Ann otherwise voung Ben's wife, all of whom are descendants of 
Owaneco, late sachem of Mohegan, and the said young Ben of Ben Uncas Jr. 
and Daniel Panganeck, all of Mohegan, for the consideration of 137 pounds 
in bills of credit — to Captain Samuel Bishop, Joseph Perkins, Jacob Perkins, 
John SaflFord, Joseph Saflford, and Solomon Saflford, to all of them in propor- 
tion as they now possess — do now relinquish all right and title to the tract 
of 300 acres more or less in Newent, in the crotch of the rivers of Quinebaug 
and Showtucket, called the Indian Land, abutting southeasterly on the Quine- 
baug, April 9, 1745. 

Witnesses, Isa.\c Huntington, 

As.\ WORTHINGTON. 

Lyme and Old Lyme. — On the north the town of Lyme is bounded by 
East Haddam and Salem, on the east by East Lyme, on the south by Old 
Lyme, and on the west by the Connecticut river. This portion of the original 
town of Lyme is not the oldest portion, though it retains the original name. 
In 1665 the town of Lyme was set off from Saybrook. In 1816 a part of the 
town was set ofT with part of Waterford to form the town of East Lyme. 
In 185s another portion, as a matter of fact the oldest settled part, was set 
oflf to form Old Lyme. The original articles of agreement between Saybrook 
and Lyme were as follows : 

Whereas there hath been several propositions betwixt the inhabitants 
of east side of the River and the inhabitants on the West side of the River of 
the towne of Savbrok towards a Loving parting, the inhabitants on the east 
side of the River desiring to be a plantation by themselves; doe declare that 
they have a competency of Lands to entertaine thirty families. 

They declare that they will pay all arears of rates past and allrates due 
by the 2' of May next ensuing that belongs unto the towne and ministry, to 
be brought into the townsmen in the town plots, to wit; Richard Rayment 
and Abraham Post now in Place. At the request of thos on the east side of 
the River to abate them ther proportion belongin to the ministry from the 
furst of Mav to the latter end of January next ensuing, the towns doe consent 
ther unto, and in case they have not a minister selected amongst the, then 
they are to pay rates to the minister on the west side, as formerly, unless a 
minister be settled amongst them. 

In reference to the Lands of hamanasuk, they on the east side of the 
River doe fully and freelv Resign all their Rights, titles, and claims to all 
and every parcels of the Lands to the inhabitants of the West Side, engaging 
themselves to afford what help they have amongst them for the Recovery 
of those Lands, thev being Rcsonablv considered for their pains. That the 
Indians at Nehantick have the Land agreed upon by the covenant maid 
betwixt the inhabitants of Saybrook and them. 

The above laid articles being agreed upon by the comites chosen on both 
sides of the River, the inhabitants east side have Liberty to be a plantation 
of themselves. In witness whereof the comites on both sides have sett to 



OTHER TOWNS 203 

their hands. Signed by John Waldo, William Pratt. Robert Luze, William 
Parker, Zachariah Sanford, for the west side; Nathan Griswold, William 
Waller, Renald Marvin, John Luze, Sr., Richard Smith, John Comstock, for 

the east side. 

It would perhaps be fairer to speak of Lyme as North Lyme, for the his- 
toric interest of Old Lyme is much greater than that of Lyme itself. In 
spite of the legal separation of these towns, their history is one from the 
original settlement until 1855. Miss Martha Lamb, writing for "Harper's 
Magazine" in 1876, said of it: 

It was settled over two centuries ago (in 1666) by an active, sensible, 
resolute, and blue-blooded people, who gave it a moral and intellectual char- 
acter which it has never outgrown. Its climate is one of perfect health, and 
its people live to a great age. The salty, bracing atmosphere tends towards 
the increase of mental vigor as well as length of years, hence the results 
which we are about to chronicle. It is a town which has kept pace with the 
times. It has been near enough the metropolis to partake of its literary 
culture and many-sided opportunities, and sufficiently remote to escape its 
dissipating wastes, and it has always maintained a self-respecting inner life. 
It is exceptionally rich in family reminiscences, occupies in a certain sense 
historic ground, and possesses elements of national interest. Lyme-Regis 
is said to have been famous for its physicians. Lyme is, or ought to be, 
famous for its lawyers, as it has produced more than any other town of its 
size on this continent, or any other continent, and not only lawyers, "whose 
trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour," but 
eminent judges, senators, and governors, its latest and grandest achievement 
being a chief justice of the United States. 

Lyme was formerly a part of Saybrook, the settlement of which com- 
menced in 1635. The region was selected for the commencement of empire 
by Cromwell, Hampden, and several English noblemen who had become 
dissatisfied with the management of civil and religious affairs under Charles I., 
and fuUv determined to remove permanently to the wilds of America. They 
organized a company, and secured a patent for a large portion of Connecticut, 
and sent John Winthrop the younger to take posession and build a fort at 
the mouth of the Connecticut, and it was called Saybrook. in honor of Lord 
Say and Seal and Lord Brook, who vi^ere foremost in pushing the enterprise 
It was located on a peninsula, circular in form, and connected to the mainland 
by a narrow neck, over which the tide sometimes flowed, and was considered 
safe from any sudden incursion of the Indians. Two great handsome squares 
were laid out on the rolling land near the fort, designed as a building site for 
palatial residences. 

Colonel George Fenwick was the only one of the original patentees who 
came to abide in Saybrook. Cromwell and some others actually embarked 
in the Thames, but were stopped by an order from the king. Colonel Fen- 
wick was accompanied by his young, lovely, golden-haired, sunny-tempered 
wife, Lady Alice Boteler. She had been reared in the bosom of English 
luxury and refinement, but could, however, adapt herself to pioneer life, and 
made her rude home in the quaint fort bright with wild-flowers and merry 
with laughter. She brought with her a "shooting-gun," with which she used to 
practice, to the great diversion of her neighbors, and she had "pet rabbits," 
and a little garden which grew table delicacies. She was fond of out-of-door 
exercises, and was often seen cantering over the country on horseback. She 
had few associates: Mrs. John Winthrop, whose home during that period 
was on Fisher's Island; Mrs. Lake, a sister of Mrs. Winthrop; Mrs. Anna 



204 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Wolcott Ciriswold ; and Colonel Fenwick's two sisters (one of whom married 
Richard Ely), comprised about the whole list. She died after nine years of 
Savbrook life, and was buried within the embankment walls of the fort. 
Colonel Fenwick soon after returned to England, where he was one of the 
judges who tried the unhappy Charles I. He left his private affairs in this 
country in charge of Matthew Griswold, who erected the monument over 
Ladv Fenwick's grave, which for two and a quarter centuries was an object 
of sorrowful interest on the treeless, flowerless, desolate bluff which overlooks 
the flats and shallows of the mouth of the Connecticut river. It is. however, 
no longer there, but occupies a shady nook in the old Saybrook Cemetery. 
Four years since an enterprising railroad corporation found the world so 
narrow that it must needs plow directly through this sacred spot, and not only 
rob us of the last shovelful of earth which our heroic ancestors heaped to- 
gether, but heartlessly overturn the "quiet couch of clay" upon which Lady 
Fenwick had so long rested. Her remains were reinterred with imposing 
ceremonies. Her golden hair was found in a perfect condition, or nearly so, 
and a lock of it is preserved in an air-tight box in the Acton Library at 
Saybrook. 

Lvme. notwithstanding its uneven surface, has very little waste land. 
Agriculture and the raising of horses, mules, and horned cattle have been a 
great source of wealth to the inhabitants, particularly in former years. The 
shad-fisheries in the Connecticut have also yielded large profits, and shell and 
other fish have been taken plentifully from the Sound. The town has a thrifty, 
well-cared-for appearance, even to its remotest borders, and a quiet, uncon- 
scious aspect, as if the stormv world had rained only peace and contentment 
upon its legendary soil and historic homes. It is one of the loveliest nooks 
on the New England coast, and if its distinguished sons and daughters could 
all be gathered home, the world might vv^ell pause to exclaim, in figurative 
language, "However small a tree in the great orchard, Lyme is a matchless 
producer of fruit." 

Certainly no town of its size in America can boast a more wonderful list 
of sons and daughters than Lyme, not only as a "mother of lawyers," but 
as the progenitor of many famous men in other walks of life. Lyme has 
produced at least one author of note, Rev. E. F. Burr, for many years pastor 
of the Congregational church in Lyme, who wrote "Pater Mundi," "Ecce 
Coelum," and manv other well-known volumes. 

The beauty of the scenery of Lyme and the convenience of its location 
have made it a Mecca for artists. Here in recent years Henry Ranger, Louis 
Dessar, Childe Hassam, and a host of other well-known artists have lived in 
the summer colony. Lyme, more than any other town in New London county, 
is unspoiled by the bustle and uproar of our modern age. It still retains the 
calm and restful aspects of its earlier charms. 

The deed for the lands in the town of Preston was signed by the Mohegan 
chief Owaneco in 1687, and was given in payment for damages to the farms 
of white settlers by swine belonging to the Mohegans. The early settlers 
came from Norwich, the first being Greenfield Larrabee, according to Miss 
Caulkins. A complete list of these settlers may be found in h^r history of 
Norv.-ich. 

Salem. — Salem, incorporated in iSiq, was set ofl from Colchester, Lyme 
and Montville. It lies south of Colchester, west of Montville, and is bounded 
on the south by East Lyme and Lyme. Its western boundary is East Had- 



OTHER TOWNS 205 

dam, in Middlesex county. The whole region was claimed by the Mohegan 
Indians, who asserted that the purchase from Owaneco was illegal, inasmuch 
as that sachem had been intoxicated when he signed away the land. The 
case was long in the courts, being carried to England in the time of Queen 
Anne. Finally the Indians were made wards of John Mason of Stonington. 
The matter was really never settled so far as the courts went, but was 
decided by the event. As a local historian says : 

Up to this period in the history of the country the sound of the wood- 
man's axe was not heard, and the wild animals of the forest roamed undis- 
turbed by the white man. The feathered flocks filled the air, and the aquatic 
bird swam on the bosom of her many lakes in undisturbed quietude ; but 
gradually her hills and her valleys were occupied by the hardy pioneer from 
the Old World, where they one and all could enjoy the freedom of religious 
liberty, and be the humble possessors in fee simple of an heritage not imme- 
diately under the mandate of kings and potentates, but breath the air of 
liberty and freedom, and feel that they were lords of their own manors. 
Society began to shape itself by the stern reason of necessity. Laws were 
enacted and scrupulously kept, both religious and secular, and the preacher 
was regarded as a man of such superior mind and intelligence that his word 
was regarded as the highest authority. The presumption is strong in support 
of the theory that there were few or no settlers in this town prior to the year 
17CX), yet tradition says there was in that portion of Lyme now Salem, orig- 
inally embraced on the two-mile-wide section formerly known as the Lyme 
Indian hunting-ground. 

By various grants of the Connecticut legislature, by land, sales, and 
immigration, a considerable part of the region was occupied. Music Vale 
Seminary, founded in 1833, came to have a wide reputation, gaining pupils 
from widely remote points. It was the first Normal School of Music in the 
country. 

Four towns — Bozrah, Franklin, Lisbon, Montville— were set off in 1786. 
largely from the original town of Norwich (Montville came from New 
London). Their early history was linked with that of their parent towns. 
The Fitch family, the Bailey family, and the Hunt family, of Bozrah; the 
Kingsleys, the Huntingtons and other families of Franklin; the Hydes of 
Lisbon ; the Palmers, the Robertsons, the Jeromes, of Montville, were but a 
few of the many settlers who moved out from Norwich and New London, 
made a settlement, established a place of worship, and became independent 
of parental control. Wherever there was water power, they established mills, 
and where there was no manufacturing, they created prosperous farming 
communities. 

The detailed study of any one of these little settlements will reward the 
investigator who appreciates the Puritan virtues. 

The backbone of American liberty is found in such men and women as 
these. In all the greater enterprises of State and Nation they did their part. 
The Civil War found them ready to send their boys to save the Union, and 
the World War again revealed that same loyalty to the ideals of liberty 
which the founders of our republic had shown, as appears in the military 
chapter of this work. 



2o6 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

North Stonington was originally the North Society of Stonington. The 
situation of the meeting house was settled only after prolonged disagreement. 
The General Assembly of Connecticut as early as 1724 passed a vote "that 
the North Society of Stonington for the future be called by the name of North 
Stonington." Religious discussions led to a separate party even in this 
parish, and harmony was not restored till about 1824, when Rev. Joseph 
Ayer succeeded in reuniting the churches. The actual creation of a separate 
town took place in 1806, the Legislature insisting on the name North Ston- 
ington rather than "Jefferson, " the name for which the town meeting had 
voted. 

Sprague. — The town of Sprague was incorporated in 1861, from Lisbon 
and Franklin, taking its name from Governor Sprague of Rhode Islnad, who 
started a large cotton mill in what is now the village of Baltic. We quote 
a local historian: 

This town in the rapidity of its growth resembles the changes that often 
take place in western clearings. Lord's bridge, where the Shetucket was 
spanned to unite Lisbon and Franklin, and near which the Lord family 
dwelt in quiet agricultural pursuits for more than a century — father, son and 
grandson living and dying on the spot — was a secluded nook, without any 
foreshadowing of progress or visible germ of enterprise. A grist mill, a saw 
mill, coeval of the first planters, a respectable farm house, with its sign-post 
promising entertainment, and two or three smaller tenements, constituted 
the hamlet. Only the casual floods and the romantic wildness of the river 
banks interfered with the changeless repose of the scene. 

Suddenly the blasting of rock and the roar of machinery commenced; 
hills were upset, channels were dug, the river tortured out of its willfulness, 
and amid mountainous heaps of cotton bags the rural scene disappeared, and 
Baltic village leaped into existence. In the course of five years more than 
a hundred buildings, comprising neat and comfortable houses, several shops, 
a church and a school house, grouped around the largest mill on the Western 
Continent, had taken possession of the scene, the whole spreading like wings 
each side of the river and linking together two distinct towns. 

The town is bounded on the north by Windham county, on the east by 
Lisbon, on the south by Norwich, and on the west by Franklin. 

Stonington. — The town of Stonington was first settled under the leader- 
ship of William Chesebrough, who had come to visit John Winthrop's settle- 
ment at Pequot, but preferred the region further east. He built in 1649 
a house and settled with his family, supposing he was within the borders of 
Massachusetts. The General Court of Connecticut, however, claimed juris- 
diction of the region. In 1652, after considerable effort, he obtained a grant 
for himself and his sons. Other settlers came gradually, amongst whom 
were Thomas Stanton, Thomas Miner, Governor Haynes, Walter Palmer, 
Capt. George Denison, Capt. John Gallup, Robert Park, and their families. 
Being repeatedly refused incorporation as a separate town by the General 
Court of Connecticut, they made a similar request of the Massachusetts 
General Court. The disagreement between the courts of the two colonies was 
referred to the commissioner of the United Colonies. A full account of the 
documents sent and received may be found in the "History of Stonington," 
written by Mr. Richard A. Wheeler. 



OTHER TOWNS 207 

The commissioners in 1658 decided that the region east of the Mystic 
river belonged to Massachusetts, the portion between the Mystic river and 
Pawrcatuck river to be called Southerntown. Rev. William Thompson, vi'ho 
had come to the settlement in 1657, was for two years preacher to the settlers 
and to the nearby Indians, a remnant of the Pequot tribe which had been 
defeated by John Mason. The difficulties of the settlers were increased by 
the claims of certain men from Rhode Island who had secured a title from 
one of the Pequot chiefs. 

The Connecticut charter of 1662, however, fixed the eastern boundary of 
the colony at Pawcatuck river, which remains the boundary of Connecticut 
and Rhode Island today. Massachusetts yielded her claims, and the General 
Assembly of Connecticut issued a charter in 1662. In 1665 the name Southern- 
town was changed to Mystic, and in 1666 the name Mystic was changed to 
Stonington. In 1668, according to Mr. Wheeler, there were 43 inhabitants, 
viz.: Thomas Stanton, George Denison, Thomas Miner, John Gallup, Amos 
Richardson. Samuel Chesebrough. James Noyes, Elisha Chesebrough, Thomas 
Stanton, Jr., Ephriam Miner, Moses Palmer, James York, John Stanton, 
Thomas Wheeler, Samuel Mason, Joseph Miner, John Bennett, Isaac Wheeler, 
John Denison, Josiah Witter, Benjamin Palmer, Gershom Palmer, Thomas 
Bell, Joseph Stanton, John Fish, Thomas Shaw, John Gallup, Jr., John Frink, 
Edmund Fanning. James York, Jr., Nathaniel Beebe, John Reynolds. Robert 
Sterry, John Shaw, John Searls, Robert Fleming, Robert Holmes, Nathaniel 
Chesebrough for Mrs. Anna Chesebrough, his mother, Gershom Palmer for 
Mrs. Rebecca Palmer, his mother, Henry Stevens and Ezekiel Main. 

A home-lot was laid out for each inhabitant, and the title was obtained 
by lottery on the following conditions, namely: "If built upon within six 
months and inhabited the title would be complete, except that each proprietor 
must reside on his lot two years before he could sell it, and then he must first 
offer it to the town and be refused before he could sell the same to any person 
and give good title. How many of these home-lots were built upon by the 
then inhabitants cannot now be ascertained." 

The young settlement was in special danger at the time of King Philip's 
War, but kept the Pequots friendly to the English. Captain George Denison 
was provost-marshal of New London county during the war, and almost every 
able-bodied man of Stonington took part in it. After King Philip's War the 
town grew, but in 1720 a portion was set off as North Stonington. The 
general conditions of a settlement at Long Point, a part of the town of 
Stonington, are interestingly portrayed in a document from the Connecticut 
Archives, quoted by Mr. Wheeler: 

To the Honorable General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut to be 
held at Hartford on the second Thursday of May instant. The memorial 
of William Morgan, Benjamin Park, John Denison, 4th, Joseph Denison, 2d, 
Oliver Hilbard. Edward Hancox, Oliver Smith, and the rest of the subscribers 
hereto in behalf of themselves and the professors of the established Religion 
of the Colony, living at a place called Long Point in Stonington in the 
County of New London humbly sheweth, that they are scituate near four 
miles from any meeting house and that the inhabitants living at said Long 



2o8 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Point are generally poor they living principally by the whale and cod-fishery, 
there carried on, to the public advantage, by which means within a few 
years said place has increased to upwards of eighty families among which are 
twenty widows, seventeen of which have children as families there that the 
whole number of inhabitants are nigh to five hundred, that there is not among 
them more than one horse to ten families, so that but very few are able to 
attend meeting at the meeting-house except those that are robust hardy and 
used to travel on foot, which are very few, the greater number of said inhabi- 
tants consisting of women and children, that thereupon the society have for 
several years consented to have one sermon preached a said point every 
Sabbath by their Rev. Pastor, which he has performed and is still willing to 
continue, but their number has so increased that it is very inconvenient for 
those that do attempt public worship (as they have no where to convene but 
in a small school house or private houses) and many more than at present do 
attend would if there was room to accommodate them ; that for the want of 
a proper place to meet in for the celebrating divine service, many who means 
the Sabbaths are misspent and may be more and more misspent and pro- 
phancd, that those who would be glad to build a house and maintain preach- 
ing and good order among them have been and continue unable of themselves 
to bear the expense, by which the cause of religion much suffers there, and 
the good people among them greatly fear the increase of vice and irreligion. 
That the town of which your memorialists are a part, have lately paid and 
are liable to pay upwards of one thousand pounds for the deficiency of sev- 
eral collectors that have lately failed that your memorialists from great neces- 
sity, by their being very remote from any constant grist mill, have lately con- 
tributed about i/O as an incouragement to an undertaker to build a wind mill 
at said point, which with about the same sum lately subscribed by said in- 
habitants for a schoolhouse, with the great labour and expense they have 
been at to make roads and causeways to said point, all which with the poor 
success that attended the last years fishery, and the lowness of markets and 
the various and different sentiments in the religious denomination of chris- 
tians among them, viz.: First day Baptists, Seven day Baptists and the Quak- 
ers or those called Friends, are .such real grief and great discouragements to 
your memorialists, who are of the established Religion of this Colony, that 
they can no longer think of obtaining a meeting-laouse by subscription or 
any other ways among themselves. 

Wherefore they humbly pray that liberty may be granted to build a 
meeting house for public worship at said Long Point, and that your Hon- 
ours would in your great goodness grant them a Lottery for raising a sum 
sufficient for the purpose aforesaid or so much as your Honours shall think 
proper under such restrictions and regulations as your Honours shall think 
fit, and your memorialist as in duty bound shall ever pray. 

It was not at all uncommon for the General Assembly to grant permis- 
sion for churches to raise money by lottery in those days. Permission was 
twice granted to the Long Point settlers to raise £400 by lottery : 

At a general Assembly of the State of Connecticut holden at Hartford 
in said State on the second Thursday of May, being the 12th day of said 
month, and continued by adjournments until the ninth day of June next fol- 
lowing Anno Dom. 1785. Upon the memorial of Nathaniel Minor, John 
Denison 3d and Jocsph Denison 2nd, all of Long Point in Stonington, set- 
ting forth that they with others of the first Society in said Stonington were 
on the second Thursday of October 1774 appointed Managers of a Lottery 
granted by the Honorable General Assembly to your Memorialists William 
Morgan and others of the established Religion of the then Colony of Connec- 



OTHER TOWNS 209 

licut for the purpose of raising the sum of £400, to build a Meeting House 
at said Point. That said Managers proceeded by way of Lottery to raise said 
sum in Continental Bills toward the close of the summer of 1777, when your 
Memorialists for whom the Grant was made, not being apprehensive of the 
depreciation that would attend said Bills and considering the great scarcity 
and dearness of materials for building said House and the dangers they were 
then exposed to from the enemy who were then at New York, Newport and 
Long Island, thought best for the Grantess not then to proceed in building 
said House, since which the Bills in the Hands of your Memorialists have 
depreciated to almost nothing except a part which has been turned into Public 
Securities, Praying that a Judicious Committee may be appointed to examine 
into the matters of said Memorial and the true State and Circumstances of 
the money which they hold in trust, put a just value thereon, and that said 
Committee be enabled to direct said Managers, to raise on said Grant such 
Sums with what they already have as to make up the £400. Granted by your 
Honors as per memorial. 

Resolved, by this Assembly that said Nathaniel Minor, John Denison, and 
Joseph Denison 2d be continued as Managers of said Lottery with the addi- 
tion of James Rhodes and Elijah Palmer of said Stonington, and that the 
Honorable William Hillhouse and Benjamin Huntington Esqrs, and Elisha 
Lathrop Esq. be and they are hereby appointed a committee to enquire into 
the state and circumstances of said lottery and liquidate and settle the 
Accounts thereof, and ascertain the value of the avails thereof in the Hands 
of said Managers, and in case said Committee shall judge it to be reasonable, 
they may and they are hereby Authorized and impowered to direct that said 
Managers proceed to Issue and draw such further numbers of tickets in said 
Lottery as to raise such sum of money for the purpose of building a meeting 
House at said Point as shall be thought by said Committee to be proper, not 
exceeding £400, including what is already on hand as aforesaid and exclusive 
of the cost of said Lottery, said managers to be accountable to the General 
Assembly when requested for their Doings in the premises. 

James Abbott McNeil Whistler, the great artist, passed his boyhood in 
Stonington. 

Voluntown. — Situated in the northeastern part of the county, Voluntown 
is bounded on the north by Windham county, on the east by RJiode Island, 
on the south by North Stonington and on the west by Griswold. Its forty 
square miles of territory supports a population of less than one thousand 
people who are for the most part farmers. The name "Volunteers' Town" 
comes from the fact that the land was given in 17CX) to volunteers of the 
Narragansett War. The settlers came mostly from Norwich, New London 
and Stonington. In 1719 a strip of land to the north was granted in lieu 
of a portion to the east claimed by Rhode Island. 

The village of Pachaug grew up from cotton manufacture on the Pachaug 
river. The incorporation of the town took place in 1721, but lost the territory 
of the present town of Sterling in 1794. Voluntown, which till 1881 was in 
Windham county, was annexed to New London county at that date. 

Waterford.— Bounded on the north by Montville, on the east by the 
Thames and by New London, on the south by Long Island Sound, and on 
the west by East Lyme, Waterford was incorporated as a town in 1801, being 
taken from New London. Its forty square miles are devoted chiefly to agri- 
culture and quarrying, though there is some manufacture in the village of 
Flanders. 



CHAPTER VIII 

NEW LONDON COUNTY TODAY 

A General Review — 250th Anniversary Celebration — Tile Principal Manufacturing 
Establishments — National and State Officials — Recapitulation. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to make a general review of the recent 
developments of the county, showing how the present has grown from the 
past, and summarizing in statistical form many matters that have been 
discussed in special topics in foregoing chapters. 

Topographically, the area of seven hundred square miles is of as great 
interest to the modern business man as it is to the geologist. The glacial 
action that left the rocks in the fields, the wearing down of river beds that 
produced the water power of the county, the deep estuary of the Thames, 
which offers one of the best harbors on the Atlantic coast, have resulted not 
only in a wonderful variety of landscape, but also in a remarkable diversity 
of industries. A climate at once bracing and wholesome, yet not too severe 
for open air labor throughout the year, has conduced to the success of agri- 
culture and manufacturing. Yankee ingenuity and thrift, combined with a 
spirit of enterprise and progress, have taken advantage of natural advantages 
to develop remarkable prosperity. Education, in school and out, has helped 
to cultivate the best ideals of American citizenship. And while sixty per cent, 
of the population is either of foreign birth or foreign parentage, the loyalty 
to American ideals is as strong today in our county as it was fifty years ago. 
It will be interesting to note some of the public enterprises that have been 
carried out in recent years. 

If some fifty-year Rip Van Winkle were to visit us, the first thing he 
would note is, doubtless, the improvements in our roads. With State sub- 
sidies have been combined local grants to make a splendid network of road- 
ways that make the county at once smaller and stronger than ever before. 
The most encouraging thing about the situation is that the public is still 
unsatisfied, and is planning greater things for the future. 

Our Rip might not at first comprehend the horseless vehicles that have 
made good roads a necessity, any more than he could understand the thousand 
and one other marks of scientific advancement of the age; but he would 
undoubtedly note a great change for the better, and in a few hours could 
traverse a region that formerly required days of travel. Were he to come 
by train, he would be surprised that his train rushed over the Connecticut 
river and the Thames unimpeded by the need of delay for the ferry. New 
bridges, indeed, have replaced the former ones, one of which is now used as 
a highway between Groton and New London, while over the Connecticut is 
a splendid toll bridge built by the State. He could hardly avoid seeing the 
million dollar pier built by the State at New London, and, two miles upstream, 
the large naval base with its fleet of submarines and its wealth of equipment. 
If he were to ask, he would find that the channel of the Thames has been well 
dredged, so that ships of good size can sail to its head at Norwich. 



212 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

A drive up the military highway on the east side of the Thames would 
reveal Connecticut College on the heights of the western shore, would show 
him the State Hospitals, one on the east side and one on the west, near 
Norwich. The tall chimneys lining the river would remind him that in the 
last fifty years the county has entered more deeply than ever into manu- 
facturing. 

If he were to visit Norwich, New London, and Stonington, he would note 
with approval the many fine public buildings, the memorial tablets and monu- 
ments, the public parks, the reservoirs, the improved streets, and the splendid 
school buildings under construction or in use already. Other buildings for 
public use such as libraries, Y. M. C. A. buildings, hospitals and church 
edifices, would show great improvement over those of his day. 

All of the advances in modern science, such as the use of electricity for 
light and power, for the telephone and the street railway, would remind him 
that New London county with the rest of the world had entered upon a new 
era in the past fifty years. The points of historic interest to the tourist are 
well covered in several handbooks. A brief outline of these will serve to show 
why the tourist and summer visitor have made this county a rendezvous, 
combining as it does natural charm, healthful climate, and personal ties that 
reach out all over our land. The real history of New London county would 
follow its children in their westward migrations and would reveal the pioneer 
spirit of early days, expanding throughout the upbuilding of many other sec- 
tions of the United States. 

Starting with the western end of the county at the Connecticut river 
toll bridge, eighteen hundred feet long, one enters Old Lyme, opposite Say- 
brook, famous for its beauty, unspoiled by modern industry. The meeting 
house was rebuilt from the same plans as the former one of 1817 which was 
burned about ten years ago. The plan, said to be copied from the plans of 
Sir Christopher Wren, is well suited to the simple charm of the town, with 
its wide streets and overarching elms. In Old Lyme a notable gathering of 
eminent artists is found throughout the warmer months. Their annual exhibi- 
tion is a noteworthy event. For permanent exhibits an Art Gallery has been 
erected on Old Lyme street. The Griswold House (not to be confused with 
the Griswold Hotel at Groton) is famous for the artists it has entertained, 
and who have left specimens of the'r art in the decorations of the house. It 
is best known as the subject of W. L. Metcalf's "May Day," now in the 
Pittsburgh Art Gallery. To catalogue the artists who spend their summers 
in Old Lyme would be a long task. Many who came for a brief stay have 
built substantial homes on attractive sites. The home of the first minister of 
Lyme, Rev. Moses Noyes, is now occupied by his descendant, the eminent 
Judge Walter C. Noyes. 

North of Old Lyme is Lyme, with its growing artist colony at Hamburg 
Cove. Lords Cove, on the east of the main channel of the Connecticut, is a 
famous hunting resort when rail and ducks are in flight. 

The high hills with the picturesque ponds and "Eight Mile River" make 
Lyme a most attractive summer resort for many cottagers. In industry, the 



TODAY 213 

shad fisheries and agriculture furnish the main occupations of residents, though 
there are a witch hazel factory and small mill. 

If we go east from Old Lyme along the Sound, we pass through "Black 
Hall," settled by ]\Iatthew Griswold in 1645 and retained in the family for 
six generations. The many names of local significance such as Hawk's Nest, 
Giant's Neck and many others, indicate that the whole shore line has become 
one great summer resort. Just before reaching Bride Brook, whose story 
has been told at length in another part of our history, we pass the birthplace 
of Morrison Waite, former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 

The town of East Lyme, with its Black Point colony (this section was 
once the reservation of the Niantic Indians), its large settlement at Crescent 
Beach, and its inns and cottages in Niantic proper, gets much of its living 
from summer visitors, but has also a considerable business in fisheries, and 
there is considerable woolen manufacture in the northern part of the town 
near Flanders village. Here is to be found a camping ground much used by 
the State militia. The former toll bridge, which succeeded the old Rope 
Ferry, has been replaced by a handsome bridge constructed recently by 
the county. 

Crossing this bridge, we come into Waterford with its famous Millstone 
granite quarries. In Waterford was a settlement of the Rogerene Quakers 
whose adherents gave much trouble in New London in early times. New 
London, next to the east, will be described later. 

After crossing the Thames on the old railroad bridge, given to the 
adjacent towns by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad and con- 
verted into a highway bridge, we come to Groton. The industrial growth of 
Groton will be later described; its ancient history has already been touched 
upon. To the traveler the Groton of today has many points of interest. 

The Monument, not very tall in itself, but situated at the crest of Groton 
Heights, commemorates the place where Colonel Ledyard and his comrades 
fell in September, 1781. Near the Monument one may see the remains of 
the old fort, and close by the Bill Memorial Library, one of many beautiful 
buildings given for public use in our county. The Hotel Griswold at Eastern 
Point, Groton, is one of the finest hotels on the coast, and is one of the many 
improvements made by the late Morton F. Plant, whose estates in East 
Lyme and Groton are model establishments for the county at large. The 
shipbuilding village of Noank lies within the town limits. The fine military 
road from Groton to Norwich takes one up the east bank of the Thames by 
the Naval Station (Submarine Base), equipped to accommodate several 
thousand men, with splendid facilities for harborage and wharfage. 

The Mystic river, formerly the boundary between Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts, separates Groton from Stonington. In the bay adjacent to Ston- 
ington is a stone marking the coming together of three States — Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, and New York. In Mystic village much building has been 
done in times past. Here also are made Lathrop's engines, Packer's Tar Soap, 
and various parts of machinery. Here also, as at the mouth of the Con- 
necticut river, the artists have formed a colony. Stonington is in many 
respects the Stonington of early days, but the whaler is seen no more. Time 



214 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

was when its seafarers led the fleet in Antarctic voyages. Relics and memo- 
rials tell of those days. The steamship line that ran to New York has been 
abandoned. Its chief industries today are the manufacture of machinery, 
printing presses, woolens, velvets, and threads. Its population has grown 
in the last decade from 9,154 (iQio) to 10,236 (1920). Pawcatuck village, a 
part of Stonington, is, economically, a part of Westerly, Rhode Island, Paw- 
catuck river being the eastern boundary of New London county and of the 
State. 

The most remarkable topographical feature of North Stonington is Lan- 
tern Hill, famous for the view from its summit and for the silex that is 
mined from its sides. A new State road now passes through North Ston- 
ington village, connecting Norwich and Westerly. The Wheeler School and 
Library is a fine structure, one of the many memorials erected in the county 
by private generosity. The main industry is agriculture. It has the largest 
area of any town in the county, with a population of 1,144 (1920). Its 
prosperous farms add much to the variety of scenery in the county. 

To the north from North Stonington lies Voluntown, the least easily 
accessible town of the county. Its 656 inhabitants have, on an average, about 
four hundred acres apiece. Farming is the main industry, but the manu- 
facture of cotton goods is carried on successfully. Its hills and ponds make 
it a favorite resort for summer campers. 

To the north of Groton lies Ledyard, then Preston, then Griswold, in 
succession. Ledyard, rich in history and in hills, is crossed by the State 
highway in its north-eastern corner, and has easy access to the outside world 
by the railroad running up the eastern shore of the Thames river. This agri- 
cultural community is cut up into many hamlets by its rugged contour. On 
the river front we find Gales Ferry, for a month each year the home of 
Yale and Harvard oarsmen. Decatur Hill is the most conspicuous landmark 
for miles around ; Allen's Point, Stoddard's Wharf, Fort Point, and Poque- 
tonuck, bring to mind the Indian aborigines, the colonial settlers, and the 
days of Stephen Decatur. 

The town of Preston, today a suburb of Norwich, has within itself Preston 
City, a village that was once the metropolis of its farming population. Its 
name, like that of Jewett City in Griswold, reminds us that the West is not 
alone in place-names based on hopes rather than accomplishments. The 
Norwich Hospital for the Insane, at Brewster's Neck, marks the modern 
progress of State and county in social amelioration of the helpless. 

Griswold, once a farming village, has become the home of manufactures, 
which will be described when we consider the industries of the county. West 
of Griswold lie four children of Norwich— Lisbon, Sprague, Franklin and 
Bozrah. Their rich scenery and fertile fields have attracted many former 
residents who have returned to build up and occupy the ancestral farms. 
Their water power has built up thriving communities at Versailles and 
Occum (named for Samson Occum of Dartmouth College fame), at Baltic, 
and at Fitchville. 

Of Lebanon, much has already been written. On the Central Vermont 



TODAY 



215 



railroad, but somewhat isolated from modern industrial growth, she retains 
her earlier simplicity and charm. One who desires to revive his memories 
of earlier days can do no better than to visit the village, see the lortg common, 
characteristic of early New England settlements, inspect the old War Office, 
preserved as a historic memorial, survey the broad fields heavy with crops. 
As the people of the town say, "We supply Norwich with butter and cheese, 
and the State with Governors, especially when they want good ones." With 
never more than three thousand inhabitants, it has furnished five governors 
of the State, who served collectively for thirty-eight years. 

The central towns of the county, Norwich and New London, too, abound 
in monuments of supreme interest to the antiquarian. New London, with 
its splendid harbor, its State pier (costing over a million dollars), its railroad 
facilities, its natural beauty, and its successful industries, must become in 
time a metropolis for Eastern Connecticut. Its face is set toward the future, 
but its present beauty is enhanced by many an historic memorial. 

The Shaw Mansion of Acadian memories contains many relics of great 
interest; the old mill has already been referred to; the Nathan Hale school- 
house, kept as a museum of Revolutionary relics ; the Soldiers' and Sailors' 
Monument near the railroad station at the foot of State street — these and 
many more reminders are to be found. But even more impressive are the 
buildings of recent times, both public and private. 

The Y. M. C. A. building, the Public Library, the Club buildings, the 
Plant building, the Munsey building, the splendid school buildings, the hos- 
pitals, the stores, the parks, the remarkable villas of the summer colonists, 
combine to make New London a wide-awake, modern city, proud of its past, 
even prouder of its future. Of its industrial growth we shall soon speak. 

As one follows the road up the west side of the Thames, he sees the 
buildings of Connecticut College so beautifully situated on the hill ; he passes 
through Waterford and Montville, and comes to Norwich, the "Rose of New 
England." This is the route followed by the old "Mohegan Trail," with 
slight modifications. Uncasville (in Montville) is well named for the chief. 
Kitemaug, Mohegan Hill, and Trading Cove, remind us that in this region 
the Mohegans lingered longest ; do, in fact, linger to this day. Montville gets 
its living today chiefly from manufactures, though there is some farming. 

Norwich, on its hills, is at the head of the Thames, where the Shetucket 
and Yantic join. Rich in interesting memorials, it has many modern build- 
ings and public works of which to boast. In Norwich are a number of parks 
(the largest, Mohegan Park) aggregating four hundred acres. Norwich is 
the burial place of Uncas. of Miantonomoh, and of Captain John Mason. The 
Uncas monument was dedicated in 1833, the Miantonomoh monument in 1841, 
the John Mason monument in 1871. 

The most remarkable of the buildings of the last fifty years is the Slater 
Memorial building given in 1888 by Mr. William A. Slater, in honor of his 
father, John F. Slater, who gave one million dollars for the education of 
freedmen in the South. This building, with its museum and art collections, 
belongs to the Norwich Free Academy. 

The development of Norwich within the past fifty years has proceeded 



216 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

largely on industrial and commercial lines. The Bank buildings, the Shan- 
non buildings, the Otis Library, the Town Hall, the Thayer building, the 
Backus Hospital, one of the best plants of its size to be found anywhere, the 
Buckingham Memorial building (formerly the residence of Governor Buck- 
ingham, and now devoted to patriotic purpose, under the control of the Grand 
Army of the Republic and the members of the American Legion), are only a 
few of its notable structures. New buildings are planned for the immediate 
future — a new Y. M. C. A. building and a modern school building of splendid 
equipment on the West Side. The beautiful residences, the noble trees, the 
sightly streets and parks make Norwich well worthy of its title of the "Rose 
of New England." 

New London county history could be fairly estimated from its names, 
chiefly Indian, English, and Biblical. Certainly in Norwich these names 
are significant. Yantic, Shetucket, Ouinnebaug, Wauregan, Mohegan, Ce- 
cum, Wequonnoc, Ponemah, are a few names that will keep the Indian 
aborigines in mind for centuries to come. 

Judge Samuel O. Prentice, in his historical address delivered at the 
250th anniversary celebration in 1909, thus refers to the history of Norwich 
for the past fifty years: 

The limits of the city have been extended four times, and those of the 
town once. In 1874 the Greeneville section was added to the city, as were 
Laurel Hill and Boswellville in 1875. In 1901 the western portion of the 
town of Preston was taken into both the town and city, and in 1907 that 
portion of Mohegan park which lay without the city limits was included in 
them. In 1870 the completion of the city's fine water supply system, work 
upon which had been begun in 1867, was fittingly celebrated, and on July 4th 
President Grant honored the city with a visit, and received the enthusiastic 
welcome of its people. The same year the first street railway line was built. 
It extended from Greeneville to Bean Hill. It was electrified in 1892, and 
since that time radiating lines have been constructed furnishing direct and 
convenient communication with a large portion of Eastern Connecticut. In 
1904 the city became the owner of its lighting plant. The year 1873 saw the 
occupation of the combined court, town and city building, which during the 
last year or two has been undergoing the process of enlargement to meet the 
increasing demands upon it. The spring of this same year also witnessed 
the erection at the head of the Great Plain of the monument to the memory 
of the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. This theater was opened in 
1890. The following year the Otis Library was made free, and in 1892 
enlarged, and thus the way prepared for the invaluable work it is now doing. 
The year 1893 was made memorable by the completion of the William W. 
Backus Hospital, for whose beautiful location, admirable plant and ample 
endowment, Norwich owes an inestimable debt of gratitude to Mr. Backus, 
and to that most generous of her sons, William A. Slater. In 1894 the Masonic 
Temple was dedicated, and in 1905 the new Post Office was opened. 

Fifty years have passed. They have been eventful ones, and have wit- 
nessed great changes in the business, industrial and social life of this countrJ^ 
Material prosperity has abounded ; the spheres of business activity have won- 
derfully broadened ; industrial growth and expansion have been marvelous, 
and populations have multiplied and centralized as never before in our his- 
tory. Many centers of population have increased in numbers and been trans- 
formed in character so as to be scarcely recognizable. Riches have been 



TODAY 217 

amazing:ly multiplied, and have fallen to the lot of very many who had not 
been trained to their use. Extravagance and display have set their alluring 
examples in many quarters, making simple and unostentatious living harder 
and less common than it used to be. New standards of various sorts have 
come to supplant the old, and former ideals have given place to others. The 
changes which have taken place, however, have been by no means uniform. 
Cities have prospered and increased, where the country has not to the same 
extent, or not at all. Some cities have thriven and grown almost in spite of 
themselves, where others have had to plod their way to larger things. Some 
communities have found wealth dropping into their laps with the minimum 
of effort, while others have been obliged to win their achievements by. per- 
sistent endeavor. Nature's bounty has not been the same to all sections; 
the advantages of location have not been uniform ; and the facilities of trans- 
portation, which have played a large part in industrial and business history, 
have not been shared in equal measure. Norwich has not found itself the 
beneficiary of some great natural deposit of coal, iron ore, gas, copper or 
gold to contribute to the expansion of its industries, the increase of its 
population and its accumulation of wealth. It has not found itself the center 
of some great industrial development. It has not been favored by exceptional 
transportation facilities. The great lines of railway' passed it by on either 
hand. It has thus been left without those aids to growth which certain other 
places have in greater or less degree enjo\ed, and it has been compelled to 
rely for the most part upon the resources and energy of its people for what 
it has attained. The situation, however, has not been without its compensa- 
tions. Success won by effort is blessed in the winning. It is blessed in the 
character it develops, and in the t3'pe of manhood it creates. And there has 
been success. Of this there are evidences on every hand, and the fact that 
the population has practically doubled within the last fifty years amply 
attests it. But the conditions have not been such as to invite heterogeneous 
population of all sorts and kinds to the extent and of the character found 
in some other localities. Sudden wealth has not come to many, and to many 
unfit to use it. The new rich do not infest its streets and knock at the door 
of its society. What has come has been earned, and in the earning, the 
stability, the solidity and the strength of the old days has not been dissipated. 
The dignity of the simple life in its best sense has not been lost sight of, nor 
the standards and ideals of the former days forgotten. There has been 
retained a closer touch with the country than is common with cities. The 
ranks of its trade and its professions have been recruited very largely from 
the surrounding farms and villages, and that influence has been a constantly 
powerful and wholesome one. The best blood of the country round about, 
and the most of it the blood of a New England ancestry, has flowed to this 
center to invigorate its life. As a result of all these influences and condi- 
tions, Norwich, it seems to me, is today more truly representative of the old 
New England spirit, and better typifies the life and thought and sterling 
character of the fathers, than any other large and growing center of popula- 
tion of my acquaintance. 

We may sum up the charms of our county by saying that the only excuse 
one of our citizens finds for going away in summer is to avoid summer 
visitors ; the only excuse one can have for moving away is the anticipated 
pleasure of returning to dwell here after his fortune is made. 

It will be extremely difficult for the skeptic to find another region of 
like population that has received so many proofs of the generosity of its 
citizens in public bequests, as shown in charitable organizations, schools, 
libraries, and monuments. 



2i8 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

And, while all that makes for patriotism and culture has been retained, 
New London county has progressed in its business development in an im- 
pressive way. A brief survey of the main lines of industrial development is 
here presented. The banking system of the county is presented in a special 
article. 

Taking a large view of the county, we note its abundance of water 
power. The tributaries of the Yantic and the Shetucket, with numerous 
smaller streams flowing into the Thames, the Connecticut, and the Sound, 
are marked with mill settlements. The estuary of the Thames furnishes 
adequate transportation facilities for Norwich and New London. Stonington 
has a fine harbor of its own, and the railroad makes the county easy of 
access for more rapid transportation. One characteristic of the industries of 
the county is their diversity, so that no one industry determines the pros- 
perity of our communities. 

Farming is carried on to a considerable degree in every town but New 
London, where town and city limits coincide. Dairy farms and market 
gardens have good markets within easy reach. The farming classes are as a 
rule prosperous, progressive, and happy. With the good roads and motor 
vehicles they combine the advantages of country life and urban resources. 
In Colchester and Montville, considerable colonies of Jewish farmers have 
settled. Scattered through the county are numerous estates managed more 
for pleasure than for financial return. But the mass of the farming popu- 
lation is composed of the original independent stock that has been the real 
backbone of our country. 

The enlightened policy of the State makes it possible for every child of 
a rural community to get a high school education at no greater expense 
than the city child has to meet. Free public libraries abound, many of which 
were given by enlightened citizens. Traveling libraries are sent out by the 
State Library Committee. The telephone, the motor car. the morning news- 
paper, the church life, the grange meetings, the trolleys, universal education, 
and commerce, bind together the county with a solidarity unknown fifty 
years ago. 

Far more important, financially, than the farming, is the cotton industry 
of the county, which, in diverse forms, is undoubtedly the support of more 
people than any other form of manufacture. Numerous villages have sprung 
up around the factories in many places. These villages are many of them 
model settlements, in which the laborer is encouraged to live in comfort, 
amidst clean and sanitary surroundings, with play grounds, community cen- 
ters, social diversions, all of which tend to increase his individual progress 
and good citizenship. The chief centers of the cotton industry are Norwich, 
Jewett City (Griswold), Baltic (Sprague). The woolen mills at Hallville 
(Preston), Yantic (Norwich), and Thamesville (Norwich), do an extensive 
business. The making of bed quilts of many kinds is carried on in the mills 
of Palmer Brothers at New London, Uncasville (Montville), and Fitchville 
(Norwich). These mills have a capacity of many thousand quilts a day. The 
silk industry of the Brainerd & Armstrong Company (New London), and the 



TODAY 219 

J. B. Martin Company (Norwich), has reached large proportions. The ship- 
building industry follows the shore from Stonington to New London, and 
many forms of machinery, marine and of other sorts, are manufactured 
throughout the county. 

The paper industry has reached large proportions, one plant at Thames- 
ville turning out one hundred and twenty-five tons of strawboard daily. The 
manufacture of firearms, too, is a long-standing and prosperous business. The 
American Thermos Company has its chief factory in Norwich. To give some 
sense of the variety of products of our manufacturing districts we submit an 
outline by districts. 

New London manufactures ships and ship machinery, silk fabrics, motors, 
brass tubing, carpet lining, boilers, printing presses, quilts, paper boxes, elec- 
tric specialties, underwear, machine tools, vises, poultry feeders, heating ap- 
paratus, mattresses, hats and caps, clothing and many lesser products. 

Norwich manufactures pistols and other firearms, cutlery, plating, cotton 
and woolen goods, velvet, silk, paper, steam boilers, boxboard, carriages, pul- 
leys, electric supplies, leather and belting, machinery of many sorts. It is the 
seat of the largest plant of the United States Finishing Company. 

Stonington manufactures machinery, printing presses, woolen and velvet 

goods, threads, Packer's Tar Soap, cotton goods, and goods of less importance. 

Griswold's Mills are mostly cotton mills, but at Jewett City we find the 

Aspinook Company, one of the great bleaching and printing plants of the 

country. 

Groton builds ships, and engines for submarines. Its main industry is 
looking after summer visitors. 

Sprague makes cotton goods, woolens, paper, electricity, hospital supplies 
and novelties. 

Lyme makes undertakers' hardware, birch oil and witch hazel extracts. 
Waterford makes paper, bleaching and dyeing products, and has large in- 
terests invested in quarrying and monumental work. Montville makes quilts, 
cotton goods, paper boxes, paper, and electricity (Eastern Connecticut Power 
Company.) Preston with its cotton and woolen goods, Bozrah with bed 
quilts and shoddy, Voluntown w'ith cotton manufacture, Colchester with paper 
and leather goods, East Lyme with its granite quarries, menhaden fisheries, 
woolen goods, dyeing and bleaching, are mainly agricultural, as are the other 
towns of the county. 

The varied industries of the county have brought in many allied interests, 
banking and commercial, too numerous to mention. A list of the main busi- 
ness firms of the county is here attached. Many of them are of such propor- 
tions as to merit special articles, and some are referred to in other parts of 
the history. 

The grand list of the county, which does not include non-taxable prop- 
erty of religious, educational and charitable institutions, and public properties 
of great value, is over ninety-two millions, approximately six hundred dollars 
per head for each one of its 155,311 inhabitants. Its tremendous banking 
capital will be touched upon in another article. Among the main manufac- 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



turing concerns of the county are the following: 



American Pants Co., Norwich 
American Strawboard Co., Norwich 
American Thermos Bottle Co., Nor- 
wich 
Atlantic Container Products Co., 

Norwich 
Atlantic Carton Corp., Norwich 
Atlantic Products Co., Norwich 
Atlas Radiator Pedestal Co., Nor- 
wich 
Bard Union Co., Inc., Norwich 
Blue Star Overall Co., Norwich 
Brainerd & Armstrong Co., Norwich 
Carpenter Mfg. Co., Norwich. 
Cave Welding & Mfg. Co., Norwich 
Chelsea File Works, Norwich 
City of Norwich Gas & Electric 

Dept., Norwich 
Climax Specialty Co., Norwich 
Connecticut Cord Iron Corporation, 

Norwich 
Connecticut Pants and Knee Pants 

Co., Norwich 
Connecticut Popcorn Co., Norwich 
Coronet Knitting Co., Norwich 
Crescent Fire Arms Co., Norwich 
Crystal Spring Bottling Works, 

Norwich 
Davis Warner Arms Corp., Norwich 
Eastern Pants Co., Norwich 
Empire Skirt Co., Norwich 
Geisthardt's Steam Saw Mill, Nor- 
wich 
Glen Woolen Mills, Norwich 
Hammond Process Co., Norwich 
Hartford Mosaic Marble Co., Nor- 
wich 
Ideal Pants Co., Norwich 
Lang Dye Works, Norwich 
Lester & Wasley Co. (Machinery). 

Norwich 
J. B. Martin Co. (Velvets and Silks), 

Norwich 
New London-Norwich Sign Co., 

Norwich 
New York Mineral Water Co., 

Norwich 
Norwich Belt Mfg. Co., Norwich 
Norwich Marble & Granite Works, 

Norwich 
Norwich Overall & Skirt Co., Nor- 
wich 
Norwich Paper Box Co., Norwich 



Norwich Wood Working Co., Nor- 
wich 
Norwich Woolen Co., Norwich 
Norwich Woolen Mills, Norwich 
Oakdale Cordage Co., Norwich 
Parker, Preston & Co. (Paints), 

Norwich 
Pequot Brass Foundry, Norwich 
Pequot Rug Factory, Norwich 
Phoenix Fire Extinguisher Co., Nor- 
wich 
H. B. Porter & Son Co. (Woodwork- 
ing), Norwich 
Reliance Yarn Company. Norwich 
Richmond Radiator Company, Nor- 
wich 
Saxton Woolen Corp., Norwich 
Shetucket Harness Co., Norwich 
Thames Valley Mills (Woolen), 

Norwich 
Turner & Stanton Company (Cord- 
age and Small Wares), Norwich 
Ulmer Leather Co., Norwich 
United Metal Mfg. Co., Norwich 
United States Finishing Co., Nor- 
wich 
Vaughan Foundry Co., Norwich 
Wincht:^ter Woolen Co.. Norwich 
John T. Young Briler Co., Norwich 
Adm.-'re vVoolen Mills Co., Norwich 
Glen Wculen Mills, Norwich 
Massassoit Alfg. Co., Oakdale 
Totokett Mfg. Co., Versailles (Lis- 
bon) 
American Chemical Co., (Old Mys- 
tic) Groton 
Mvstic Woolen Co., Groton 
Old Mvstic Grist Mill. Groton 
Hallville Mills (Woolen), Preston 
American Thread Co., Stonington 
H. F. & A. J. Dawley (Lumber), 

Preston 
Airlee Mills, (Hanover) Sprague 
American Velvet Co.. Stonington 
Laper Fire Alarm Co., Stonington 
ATorrison Granite Co., Stonington 
Ship Construction & Trading Co., 

Stonington 
Venture Rock Bottlery Works, Ston- 
ington 
William Clark Mills, Stonington 
Ponemah Mills, (Taftville) Nor- 
wich 



TODAY 



Norwich Woolen Mills, Norwich 
.Federal Paper Board Co., (Ver- 
sailles) Lisbon 
Hygienic Paper Co., Lisbon 
Br'igg's Mfg. Co. (Cotton), Volun- 

town 
Voluntown Grist Mill, Yoluntown 
Booth Bros. & Hunicane Isle Gran- 
ite Co., Waterford 
Jordan Mill, Waterfurd 
Millstone Granite Quarries, Water- 
ford 
Norwich & Westerly Traction Co., 

Westerly 
Holmes Motor Co., (New Mystic) 

Groton 
Yantic Mills (Cotton), Norwich 
Baltic Mills (Cotton), Sprague 
Shetucket Worsted Mills, (Baltic) 

Sprague 
Federal Felling Co., (Clarke Falls) 

North Stonington 
Columbia Kid Hair Curler Mfg. Co., 

Colchester 
Hills Turning & Saw Mill, East 

Lyme 
Menhaden Oil & Guano Co., East 

Lyme 
Monumental Works, East Lyme 
American Thread Co., (Glasgo) 

Griswold 
Mutual Hair Goods Co., Groton 
Electric Boat Co., Groton 
General Ordnance Co., Groton 
Groton Iron Works, Groton 
Groton Marine Railways, Groton 
Lake Torpedo Boat Company, Groton 
New London Ship Engine Co., Groton 
Shay Fertilizer Co., Groton 
Vanadium Metal Co., Groton 
Glengarry Mills, (Hanover) Sprague 
Smith's Mills, Sprague 
Ashland Cotton Co., (Jewett City) 

Griswold 
Aspinook Co., (Jewett City) Gris- 
wold 
Blissville Mills, Griswold 
Jewett City Textile Novelty Co., 

(Jewett Citv) Griswold 
Slater Mills, (Jewett City) Griswold 
Ingalls Co. (Lumber), Norwich 
Royal Silver Co., Lyme 
Chagnon Huggard Co., Alontville 
Johnson & Co., Montville 



Palmer Bros. (Quilts), Montville 
Pequot Mills, Montville 
Eastern Conn. Power Co., Montville 
Robertson Co., Montville 
Standard Package Co., Montville 
Thames River Specialties Co., Mont- 
ville 
Uncasville Mfg. Co., Montville 
Allen Spool & Wood Turning Co., 

Stonington 
Clima.x Tube Co., Stonington 
Mystic Gas & Electric Co., Ston- 
ington 
Mystic Lace Mills Co., Stonington 
Mystic Marine Railway Co., Ston- 
ington 
Mystic Woolen Co., Groton 
Packer Mfg. Co. (Tar Soap), Ston- 
ington 
Robinson Silk Co., Stonington 
Rossie Velvet Co., Stonington 
Standard Machine Co., Stonington 
Sutton's Spar Yard, Stonington 
Anchor Knitting Mills, New London 
Babcock Printing Press Mfg. Co., 

New London 
Auto Radiator & Lamp Co., New 

London 
Bingham Paper Box Co., New Lon- 
don 
Brainerd & Armstrong (Silks), New 

London 
Casey Granite Works, New London 
Cedar Grove Monumental Works. 

Xew London 
Conn. Iron & Metal Co., New Lon- 
don 
Conn. Power Co., New London 
Conn. Turbine Mfg. Co., New Lon- 
don 
Hawthorne Sash & Door Co., New 

London 
Holland Skirts Mfg. Co., New Lon- 
don 
Lenox Shirt Factory, New London 
Long Island & Fisher's Island Brick 

Co., New London 
Mohegan Cotton Mills, New London 
New England Carpet Lining Co., 

New London 
New England Collapsible Tube Co., 

Nev.' London 
N. E. Dress Mfg. Co., New London 
N. E. Pants Co., New London 



222 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

New London Boiler Works, New Standard Ice Cream Cone Co., New 

London London 

New London Granite & Marble Submarine Boat Co., New London 

Works, New London Thames River Lumber Co., New 
New London Marine Iron Works London 

Co., New London Thames Sheet Metal Works, New 
New London Vise Works, New London 

London Thames Tow Boat Co., New London 

Automatic Feeder Co., New London DeWhiton Machine Co., New Lon- 
Putnam Furniture Mfg. Co., New don 

London Wilson Planing & Molding Mill, 
Reliable Skirt Mfg. Co., New Lon- New London 

don General Machine & Electric Co., 
Sheffield Dentifrice Co., New Lon- (Noank) Groton 

don Groton Iron Works (Noank Branch) 
Standard Brass & Copper Tube Co., 

New London 

The reader may learn from the preceding list, incomplete as it is, that a 
citizen of New London county has little need to go elsewhere for food, cloth- 
ing, or weapons. From cutlery to tombstones, the county is well-nigh self- 
sufficient. And the manufacturing establishments, as a rule, are placed so 
as to interfere very little with the beauty of residential sections. Even in 
mill villages, the prospect pleases. Many a worker is renting for two or 
three dollars a week a home that could cost four times as much in the city. 
Home gardens are allotted to all who seek them. Free hospital service, a 
complete system of health inspection by competent nurses, good schools, 
ample play grounds, all tend to protect young and old. Most of these 
improvements have come in the last three decades. 

In public affairs the county has continued to do its part for State and 
country. Out of twelve United States Senators who have served since i860, 
New London county has furnished three. Its list of Representatives has 
been an honorable one. It has furnished but one Governor since 1880, Hon. 
Thomas B. Waller, of New London. One Lieutenant-Governor, two Secre- 
taries of State, two State Treasurers, three Speakers of the House, have come 
in the last fifty years from this county. In the General Assembly New 
London county has three Senators and thirty Representatives. 

In this county are four boroughs — Stonington, 1801 ; Colchester, 1846; 
Jewett City, 1895 ; and Groton, 1903. Its population has increased over twenty 
per cent, in the last twenty years. Of the total population, approximately 
sixty per cent, is either foreign born or of foreign parentage. The process 
of Americanization is going on apace, largely through the influence of the 
public schools. In many cases these new-comers have a lively sense of the 
blessings of liberty. They are thrifty and industrious. They are acquiring 
property and therefore feel that they have a stake in the welfare of the 
community. Bolshevism does not thrive in New London county. In every 
Liberty Loan drive the county went far over its quota. For the Red Cross, 
as for distinctly local improvements, its people are generous contributors. 

The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of New London was celebrated 



TODAY 223 

on May 6th. 1896, when the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument was dedicated. 
Miss Charlotte Molyneux Holloway prepared the Historical Sketch of New 
London, which, with many splendid illustrations, was published by Messrs. 
G. C. Morgan. R. I. Waller and H. H. Morgan. In it may be found a detailed 
account of many of the gifts of generous citizens to the community. The 
programme of the celebration reads as follows: 

May 5th, i8g6. evening meeting at the Armory, of 3rd Regiment, Connecticut 

National Guard. 
Concert, 7.30 to 8 p. m., 3rd Regiment Band. 
Meeting called to order by His Honor James P. Johnston, Mayor of New 

London. 
Prayer, by Rev. John R. Stubbert, pastor of Huntington Street Baptist Church. 
Music, "Star Spangled Banner," by a choir of four hundred school girls. 
Address, "The Founding of the Town," by WaUer Learned. 
Hymn, "Speed Our Republic," chorus. 
Poem, "New London," George Parsons Lathrop, LL.D. 
Speeches by Hon. Charles A. Russell, Member of Congress; Hon. Orville H. 

Piatt, Senator; Hon. Thomas Weller, ex-Governor. 
Music, "America." 

May 6th, 10 a. m.— Laying of corner stone of a monument to John Winthrop 
the Younger, in Bulkeley Square. 

Introduction by Mr. Alfred H. Chappell, president Board of Trade. 

Prayer, Rev. James Bexler, Second Congregational Church. 

Address, "The Founder of the Town," Rev. S. Leroy Blake, D.D., First 
Church of Christ. 

Music, "Our Flag is There." 

Laying of corner store, Grand Master James H. Welsh, Grand Lodge of 
Connecticut Free and Accepted Masons. 

Music, "America." 

Benediction, Rev. Alfred P. Grint, St. James Episcopal Church. 

II a.m. — Dedication of Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, on the Parade, pre- 
sented by Sebastian D. Lawrence, Esq. 

Introduction, Mr. Alfred H. Chappell. 

Presentation of Monument by the Donor. 

Acceptance by the Mayor, Hon. James P. Johnston. 

Music, "Battle Hymn of the Republic." 

Address for the Army, Hon. Joseph R. Hawley, Senator. 

Address for the Navy, Rev. George W. Smith, president of Trinity College, 
Hartford. 

Music. 

2 p. m.. Grand Military' and Civic Procession. 

8 p. m., Grand display of fireworks. 

At this time was also published "A Brief History of New London," by 
Carl J. Viets, publisher. 



224 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

In 1909 was celebrated the 250th anniversary of the founding of Norwich. 
A complete account of this celebration, edited by Mr. William C. Oilman, 
was published in 1912. Its illuminating introduction of over fifty pages gives 
a full and inspiring statement of the growth of the town from 1859 (date 
of the two hundredth anniversary) to 1909. Wit, charm of style, and wis- 
dom, are combined in this account of the "Rose of New England." The 
celebration lasted three days; the official programme covers four full pages. 
The table of contents of the volume gives a skeleton only of a remarkable 
three-day "feast of reason and flow of soul." 

Foreword. 

Officers and Executive Committee. 

Introduction, Part I. 

Introduction, Part II ; Norwich, 1859-1909. 

The Quarter-Millennial Celebration. 

First Day Services at Up-Town. 

Burying Ground. 

Second Day — Reception of President Taft. 

Historical Pageant. 

The Precession. 

President Taft's Address on Chelsea Parade. 

Third Day — Presentation of Memorial Fountain. 

Literary Exercises at Broadway Theater. 

Financial Statement. 

Official Programme. 

Military and Civic Parade. 

Loan Exhibit at Converse Art Gallery. 

Sermons. 

Letters from Absentees. 

Notes on Persons and Places. 

Statistics and outlines, buildings and streets, are the superficial evidences 
of the prosperity of the county. The real county beneath all these outward 
forms may be seen only in the lives of its people. The moral tone of the 
citizens, their customs, their activities in a thousand ways, have to be seen 
to be appreciated. 

New London county needs a "Joe" Lincoln to set forth the real nature 
of its citizens. Only those who rise to fame are recorded in the pages of 
history, but the observant citizen of any of our towns sees going on every day 
before him a process of growth and struggle worthy to be described by a 
master hand. 

Difficulties are being surmounted, characters are being formed, generous 
deeds are being performed today, as in times past. Undoubtedly our com- 
munities have their peculiar traits, as do individuals. The heritage of the 
past and the present environments combine to give a special tone to the life 
of each community. New England reticence, Connecticut individualism, and 
local needs, have given to our county a character of its own. It is this 
intangible part of our assets that constitute our best possession. Mr. William 



TODAY 225 

C. Gilman, editor of the "Norwich Quarter Millennium," quotes Judge Na- 
thaniel Shipman's words about Norwich, "It is inexpedient for us to do any- 
thing more than simply to say we loved the town when we were boys, we love 
it now when we are men, and we want to say so." 

The same words and sentiments about every town in the county would 
show the charm that is felt by former residents. Our cities and towns have 
not been over-standardized. The same sort of individuality that makes 
people interesting, still imparts to many of our communities a local color 
easily perceived by the visitor. One hears in our towns but rarely the loud 
protestations of the western "booster," but finds a surprising number of men 
who, after great success in the competition of the large cities, are content to 
settle in the home of their boyhood days. They feel much like the Cape Cod 
captain who came back from voyaging the world over to settle near the tip 
of the Cape. Said he, "I've been 'round the world eight times. I've seen 
'most every country. But, I'm satisfied right here, and I don't care if I 
never go west of Barnstable again in my life." 




CHAPTER IX 

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION 

The Various Cities and Towns — Financial Condition of County — Officiary of New 
London and Norwich — Important Events. 

At various times local business organizations have issued pamphlets 
descriptive , of the commercial opportunities afforded by the county. We 
quote freely from one such prospectus printed seven years ago: 

On each side of the beautiful Thames river are twelve miles of available 
territory, suitable for factory sites. On the west side lie the tracks of the 
Central Vermont railway, on the east those of the N. Y., N. H. & H. railroad, 
and sufficient depth of water for wharfage purposes on any of its factory 
sites. There is not a sheet of inland water in the United States that gets the 
free advertising that comes to the Thames river every year when the great 
college regatta focuses the eyes of the whole civilized world and draws 
thousands of the youngest, fairest and best of humanity to this same fourteen 
miles of the Rose of New England. This of itself is an advertising asset 
of no small proportion. 

We quote right here the reason the president of one of our newest and 
largest industries gave for moving his plant from New York to Norwich-on- 
the-Thames: "We consider the property on both sides of the Thames river 
between Norwich and New London superior to any other property within 
the zone desired, and, for that matter, within the United States, for the fol- 
lowing reasons: First — You have more than thirty-eight million people 
within twelve hours' ride. Second — You have 144 cities of 10,000 people and 
over within the twelve hours' radius. Third — You have parts of sixteen 
states within twelve hours by rail and all of Eastern Canada and direct trunk 
line connections therewith. You have the cheapest hydro-electric power in 
all New England, which with your gas works and water plant (two large 
reservoirs) are owned and operated by your municipality. You have low cost 
of living, abundant labor, little, if any, labor troubles, favorable freight rates, 
both rail and water, splendid climate, and are surrounded by lands which, if 
properly cultivated, are rich in production. These are the advantages for 
manufacturing in Norwich that have convinced our board of directors that 
our removal from New York to your city is a move in the right direction and 
may be of interest to those who read these facts, as they are the reasons for 
inducing other manufacturing industries to locate here. Our company by 
its removal from Manhattan Island to your city has estimated that it will 
effect annual economies aggregating $44,000." 

Norwich, agriculturally, is not unlike the towns that bound it on the north, 
east, south and west, hence a general description will satisfy the reader who 
may take a deep interest in rural life. Opportunity awaits the man who 
engages in agricultural pursuits in any of the towns surrounding Norwich. 
Close proximity to a ready market, easy access to trolley lines, best of State 
and macadam highways, rural telephone service, rural free delivery and par- 
cel post, all go to make farm life hereabouts that of a country gentleman. 
Dairying and market gardening constitute today the real business being 
developed and nurtured on most of the farms in Eastern Connecticut. Stock 
raising and the fattening of beef for market, we believe, is one of the natural 



228 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

outcomes of the high cost of living, and he who early gets the habit will reap 
the greatest benefit. Salem, Bozrah, Lebanon and Franklin, towns to the 
west and north of Norwich, are devoted wholly to agricultural pursuits, the 
town of Lebanon perhaps being the more noted of the four for its fertile 
farms and their prosperous owners and well-kept buildings. Lebanon Green, 
a street three miles long, is one of the historic points of interest of the town, 
and was the home of Jonathan Trumbull. 

Preston, east and south of Norwich, has a small factory village known 
as Hallville. A good sized woolen mill is engaged in manufacturing high 
grade woolen cloth for men's suitings, etc. The property is known as the 
Hall Brothers' Woolen Mill. The land is fertile and many good farms are 
to be found in Preston. 

Sprague, eight miles north of Norwich, because of its being intersected 
by the Shetucket and Little rivers, has three thriving mill villages within its 
borders. Baltic, the largest, is a busy village of some 3,500 inhabitants and 
is the seat of town government. Located here is the model plant of the Baltic 
Mills Company, employing about 1,500 hands, engaged in the manufacture 
of a fine grade of cotton goods. There are also mills manufacturing woolen 
goods. Abundant power is furnished by the damming of the Shetucket river. 
Hanover, in the town of Sprague, has as its chief industry the Airlie Mills, 
employing 100 hands engaged in making ladies' woolen dress goods. The 
factory is located on the Little river, a tributary of the Shetucket, joining the 
latter at Versailles, where the third village has a factory engaged in making 
hospital supplies, employing 100 hands. Located on the eastern border of 
the town is the paper mill known as the Eastern Straw Board Company, 
making a coarse roofing and building paper. Power is taken from the 
Little river. 

Lisbon is a small town adjacent to Sprague, and lies northeast of Nor- 
wich. It has the distinction of not having a store, post office or factory within 
its limits. Agriculture is the principal occupation, and like many other towns 
\n Eastern Connecticut, a large revenue is derived from summer boarders, 
who come here every year in goodly numbers. 

Bozrah possesses many good farms, a charming recreation resort and 
some industries. Gardner's Lake, a pure body of crystal water three and one- 
half miles in length, one and one-quarter miles in width and sixty feet in 
depth, affords excellent fishing and boating, while its thickly wooded and 
grassy slopes offer many opportunities for summer homes. The largest indus- 
try in the town is the quilt mill of Palmer Bros, at Fitchville, a quaint and 
picturesque village, five miles from Norwich, on the Yantic river. 

Griswold lies east of Lisbon and eight miles from Norwich. Jewett City, 
the only village of any size in the town, has a borough form of government, 
Located here are the original Slater Cotton Mills, in operation continuously 
since late in the eighteenth century. The Aspinook Bleachery, employing 
many hundred people; the Jewett City Textile Novelty Company, engaged in 
finishing cotton goods, furnish employment to a large number of operatives. 
The Ashland Cotton Company, manufacturers of plain cotton cloths. The 
American Thread Company, making all kinds of thread, have a modern fac- 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION 229 

tory located at Glasgo, on the western border of the town. It is the only 
factory in the village and emplG3^s 150 hands. 

Voluntown is one of the most easterly towns of Connecticut, on the 
Rhode Island line. The only village in the town bears the same name. Lo- 
cated here are the cotton mills of the Briggs Manufacturmg Company, some 
three in number, furnishing the principal means of support of residents. 
Voluntown is twelve miles from Norwich and seven miles from the nearest 
railroad, all freight being delivered at Jewett City, on the Norwich & Worces- 
ter division of the N. Y., N. H. & H. railroad. Agriculturally, the town is 
not very progressive ; large farms can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. 

The great dairy prospects of this section of New England are most 
notable. Milk is being shipped to the ready markets of Boston and Providence 
in large quantities from nearly every farm, as all are within easy access to the 
railroad. The advent of the suburban trolley system has already doubled the 
amount of shipments. Milk cars are attached to all early trains and it is a 
most interesting sight to see from twenty-five to one hundred farmers, repre- 
senting as many farms, with their teams in the early morning delivering 
their cans of milk to the many receiving stations along the lines, leaving full 
cans and taking back empty ones for the next day. And don't think for a 
moment that the farmer is not posted on the news of the day. That theory 
has long since been exploded. With the four bright newspapers published in 
Norwich, two daily and two weekly, the farmer knows every day all that has 
happened throughout the world during the past twenty-four hours. 

Every town has its Grange, giving ample opportunity for social inter- 
course for the whole family, and a rare chance to gather knowledge. Nor- 
wich Grange is one of the most progressive of the State, having a member- 
ship of 125 active men and women, and during the winter lectures are given 
by professors from the State Agricultural College that prove not only enter- 
taining but highly instructive as well. We cannot paint the picture of the 
future farm life and its prospects, both in the town of Norwich and its 
environment, in too vivid colors. There is no better market garden outlet in 
any rural section of the United States than right here in any of the towns 
briefly referred to, while orchards consisting of apple, peach and pear trees 
are beginning to interest the thrifty husbandman of the soil. 

The greater the industrial development of a State, correspondingly 
greater and more valuable must become its agricultural output and land 
values, inseparable and useless each without the other. 

Come to Norwich, Connecticut, the Rose of New England, an Eastern 
city with Western progressiveness, "The Coming City of the East." 

New London's greatest asset is her harbor. Here is the natural entrance 
to the great coming of the North and West, but not only this: The increasing 
congestion of shipping trade at New York and the correspondingly increasing 
difficulty and expense of securing dockage at that port for new lines of steam- 
ers are as constantly attracting attention to the opportunities afforded at 
New London; when the docks are completed (they have since been com- 
pleted), a vessel destined for New York can discharge her passengers and 



230 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

freight at New London and deliver them in New York at greater economy 
of time and money than by proceeding along the slower channel to New York. 
The development of this million-dollar enterprise will inevitably greatly stimu- 
late local business and opportunity, not alone for a day but for years to come. 
History and observation abundantly illustrate the natural industrial and com- 
mercial development of great cities, with their development as great ports. 

Second to her harbor as an asset is New London's seashore. By this is 
meant not only her Ocean Beach and the Pequot estates and properties bor- 
dering the harbor, including the unsurpassed hotel site formerly occupied by 
the old Pequot House which was burned some years ago, but the entire ter- 
ritory between the Connecticut river and the Rhode Island State line and 
extending up the Thames river toward Norwich. 

Thousands are added to the summer population of this section during 
"the season," which, unfortunately, for visitors often must end when the 
schools for their children reopen at home. The proximity of river, harbor 
and sound makes it a favorite resort for yachtsmen and the owners of motor 
craft without lessening in any degree the usual attractions of the open 
country. Detailed notices of Crescent Beach, Niantic, Groton, Mystic and 
Stonington are included later in this sketch. 

First — To the large manufacturer: In these days of keen competition, 
every avoidable expense possible must be eliminated by the manufacturer; 
among these expenses are avoidable charges for transporting both raw 
material and finished product. Hence, accessibility to supplies and to mar- 
kets are of vital importance in selecting a location. Being a junction point 
of the New Haven railway system, and also that of the Grand Trunk of 
Canada, it is evident that New London's railway facilities cannot be sur- 
passed, and in addition it has opportunities for securing the waterway com- 
petition of the whole world; not only this, but in some cases raw material 
may be unloaded directly from the vessel to the factory on one side and the 
finished product reshipped by water, or it may be loaded onto cars on the 
other side of the factory. 

Second — To the employee and the smaller manufacturer: It should be 
remembered that the natural attractions of this region appeal with as much 
force to the intelligent, desirable employee as to the more exclusive, so-called, 
residential classes; as freely as their children, may his little ones enjoy the 
delights of the sea and the sands at Ocean Beach. 

Another thing to remember is that self-respecting, contented, cooperating 
employees are essential to the manufacturer and the city's welfare. Satisfy- 
ing suroundings secure satisfied citizens. New London's policy is to provide 
adequately for them ; not how great alone, but how well shall New London 
grow, is the principle of many citizens ; to make it a good city for all of us 
to live in. At the present time it is doubtful if any city in New England has 
a greater percentage of good streets and sidewalks or of thrifty public shade 
trees. 

Until recently the above considerations had little weight in determining 
the policy or location of manufacturing plants; today, however, in many 
progressive communities they have much weight in influencing city planning 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION 231 

for the future. It is believed that with the smaller manufacturer, particularly 
one who desired to assimilate with the best life of his new city, they should 
receive very favorable consideration. Such men with healthy enterprises 
will be most heartily welcomed to New London. Moderate rates for power 
and as favorable conditions as possible will be provided. Bear in mind the 
fact that goods shipped in the afternoon or evening, even heavy freight by 
boat, from New London, can be delivered in New York the following morn- 
ing; equally prompt shipments are received from New York. 

An opportunity to personally discuss local conditions and possibilities is 
solicited. A number of small water power privileges, one of considerable 
size and well equipped, are available in this vicinity. 

Groton, just opposite the city of New London, is one of the very few 
localities where valuable water transportation rights remain unabsorbed by 
railroad or other powerful corporations. Definite information regarding 
specific properties on Groton Bank or properties bordering the railroad will 
be supplied to interested parties on application to the Groton Board of Trade. 
The New Haven Railroad Company controls valuable properties both below 
and above the bridge. Manufacturers or others desiring to avail themselves 
of these privileges will receive very favorable consideration from the company. 

Mystic, a village in both the townships of Groton and Stonington, nat- 
urally blends the one with the other, thus completing the most splendid bit 
of shore line east of Thames river. Whether one seeks location for a factory, 
a recreation spot for summer, or a home site. Mystic offers peculiar advan- 
tages. Industries of world-wide reputation are already here; there is room 
for more. Artists of repute find in Mystic and environment permanent charm 
and inspiration for their talent: their recommendation brings others who 
become enthusiasts. City-jaded folk find in Mystic's beauty, quiet and sim- 
plicity, a panacea for tired bodies, weary minds. The sea, the country, the 
hills, the lowlands — all nature at her best is Mystic's glorious asset to offer 
the vacationist. Would you build yourself a home "far from the madding 
crowd," but within easy access, overlooking the sun-kissed waters of the 
Sound, or up the Mystic Valley? Would you buy some dear old farmhouse 
dating back to Colonial days, with the possibilities it would be a joy to 
develop acres surrounding it for the farm you have always planned to own ; 
the farm where you and the wife, the children and their children may get in 
tune with life? Has that time come yet? Then buy a ticket for Mystic on 
the Shore Line, about half-way between Boston and New York. Look up 
the secretary or president of the Men's Club; tell him your errand, and he 
will try to show you that Mystic, Connecticut, has all the characteristics of 
the ordinary New England village extraordinarily developed. 

Stonington offers unusual inducements as a place of summer residence. 
It is situated directly on the Atlantic Ocean ; indeed, it is the only town on 
the main line of the New Haven railroad between New York and Boston with 
an ocean frontage. It also lies between Stonington Harbor, a safe anchorage 
for yachts, protected by three Government breakwaters, and Little Narra- 
gansett Bay, a picturesque sheet of water on the farther side of which, three 
miles distant, is situated Watch Hill, one of the most famous summer resorts 



232 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

of New England. Between Stonington and Watch Hill a passenger steamer 
makes frequent trips during the summer season. 

This situation, on ocean, harbor and bay, gives Stonington remarkable 
advantages for sailing and other aquatic sports. The town is the headquarters 
for an extensive fishing industry, bluefish, cod and mackerel being among the 
varieties of edible fish that abound in the nearby waters. The ocean breezes 
reduce the temperature in the heated months, so that the mercury customarily 
registers from five to ten degrees below the temperature in neighboring com- 
munities, while in winter the nearness of the salt water tends to prevent the 
extreme cold experienced farther inland. 

In the last few years Stonington has taken on new life as a summer 
resort. Man)- city residents have purchased or built homes in the borough 
and vicinity, and a first-class sum.mer hotel, to which the name of the Ston- 
ington Manor Inn has been given, has been established on the outskirts of 
the borough, in the midst of a beautiful estate of field and forest, ninety acres 
in extent. There are also a number of inns and boarding houses within the 
settled portion of the town. 

The township of Stonington contains 10,000 inhabitants. Stonington 
borough has a population of 2,500, and is situated half-way between the 
eastern and western boundaries of the township. The town was settled in 
1649; the first house in what is now the borough was erected in 1752. In 
1814 the place was the scene of a three days' bombardment by n British 
squadron, which was marvelously repulsed by a handful of defenders with 
three small cannon. This event was elaborately celebrated, with the aid of 
State and town appropriations, on August 8-10, 19J4. 

Stonington has the quality of quaintness to an unusual degree. No 
nearby community possesses quite the same element of old-world charm. It 
has a free library with nearly 7,000 volumes and liberally endowed, an 
excellent union high school with over 200 students, five churches, express 
service to New York, Providence and Boston, trolley service to New London, 
Mystic and Westerly, improved automobile roads, and a delightful variety 
of back-country scenery within easy reach. Its Board of Trade would appre- 
ciate the opportunity of acquainting any interested persons still further with 
its advantages as a place of residence, either for the summer season or all 
the year round. 

The town of Montville is situated on the west side of the Thames river, 
midway between Norwich and New London. It is especially fortunate in 
its location, having a deep water front, best of steam and trolley service, as 
Avell as being intersected by the broad macadam boulevard that connects 
Norwich on the north and New London on the south. The Oxoboxo river 
furnishes power to many industries. 

Salem, a naturally very productive farming township, northwest of New 
London, has been comparatively isolated, and its prosperity retarded because 
of inferior roads, but now with the reconstruction of the Hartford Turnpike, 
largely by State aid, through Waterford, Montville, Salem, Colchester, Marl • 
borough, Glastonbury and Hartford, a new era for the town of Salem is 
assured. 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION 233 

Beautiful Niantic by the Sea! This village is situated on the Connecticut 
shore of Long Island Sound, seven miles west of New London, on the main 
line of the N. Y., N. H. & H. railroad midway between Boston and New 
York, and on the Lincoln highway running from California to Maine. It also 
connects with New London by trolley. 

The village derives its name from the Niantic Indians, who once occupied 
this stretch of the north shore, fishing upon the waters of sound, lake and 
rivers, and hunting in its woodlands. The village has a population of about 
800, with 1,900 inhabitants in the entire town of East Lyme, of which the 
village is a part. This village offers exceptional opportunities to manufac- 
turers and home-makers. For the most part the land is comparatively level, 
and many acres finely located could be secured at reasonable prices. 

Lake Niantic, a beautiful sheet of crystal water, is encircled by the village. 
This lake is principally fed by springs, covers about twenty-five acres, and is 
a never-failing reservoir. This body of water is available for manufacturing 
purposes. The one-quarter mile spur track of the railroad reaches to the 
lake, passing directly by Luce's factory, a three-story building formerly 
occupied by the Knickerbocker Typewriter Com.pany, now for rent. The 
Technical Equipment Company, engaged in the manufacture of brass valves 
and gauges, occupy the factory on the east side of the village. The streets 
are well kept and lighted by electricity. There are four churches — the 
Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, Congregational, and Episcopal. The Roman 
Catholic, at Crescent Beach, one-half mile away, is open during the summer 
season. 

Splendid farms adjoin the village. The soil for the most part is loam, 
with gravel subsoil, and especially adapted for the cultivation of fruit, vege- 
tables and grain. As means of enjoyment, the fishing, bathing, boating and 
hunting cannot be surpassed anywhere on the Atlantic seaboard. 

Crescent Beach, a summer resort, one-half mile away and connected with 
the village by steam and trolley, has a summer population of 1,500 people, 
while Pine Grove, the same distance from the center of the village, has one 
hundred cottages and is the summer home of about five hundred people. 
There are two good hotels, and an efficient livery stable. The train and trol- 
ley service meet every need both for travel and transportation. Everyone 
visiting the village for the first time is charmed with its location and general 
appearance, and expresses the wish to visit it again. During the summer 
season many visitors from all parts of the world visit the village and nearby 
beaches. Niantic is also the summer headquarters for the National Guard 
of the State, who, by their presence, each year attract many friends and 
visitors. 

Recently a Village Improvement Society has been formed for the pur- 
pose of rendering the town more attractive, and to promote its business 
interests. Any further information or description of the village, its con- 
ditions and the advantages which it offers, will be cheerfully given. 

The town of Ledyard, a quiet farming community, is situated on the 
east shore of the Thames river, directly across from Montville. Peach 
growing and strawberries furnish the big output from the farms. The only 



234 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

village in the town is Gales Ferry, on the N. Y., N. H. & H. railroad, noted 
for being the headquarters of the Yale and Harvard crews while training for 
the college regatta. 

The village is composed, in a large measure, of summer cottages. Boat- 
ing and fishing attract thousands to shores of the Thames, and shore prop- 
erty is steadily rising in value in all the towns that border on this beautiful 
stream. 

From an article in the "New England Magazine," written by Mr. Henry 
R. Palmer, we quote the following description of Stonington: 

When Longfellow wrote of "the beautiful town that is seated by the 
sea," he was thinking of Portland ; but his tender song applies to Stonington. 
If the town is not strictly beautiful, since it has no fine buildings and stately 
streets, still it is set in the midst of a pleasant country and the charm of the 
.sea wraps it about. A mile from the shore its roads wind their way through 
overhanging woods, and the traveler loses his sense of the ocean, except as 
its scent is borne to him on the breeze. But from every hilltop the sea is 
disclosed. It stretches in soft expanse as far as the eye can reach. On clear 
days the white clififs of Montauk and Block Island come into view. A dozen 
tall lighthouses cast their glow over the evening waters. There is salt in the 
air and in the speech of the fishermen. It is the sea that gives the town its 
distinctive note. 

Also a description of the whaling industry in its prime: 

Shortly after 1830, the whaling industry took the place of sealing as 
the chief maritime resource of Stonington. Captain Charles P. Williams fitted 
out, first and last, no less than twenty-eight whaling ships ; Charles Mallory 
of Mystic, on the western borders of the town, nineteen; John F. Trumbull, 
eleven ; and other individual owners or firms, half a dozen. The industry 
reached its climax in the forties, when fortunes were made in single voyages, 
and the Arctic and Antarctic seas were stripped of the profitable monsters. 
The whalemen sought the Southern Ocean first, and in their zeal sailed it 
from east to west, sometimes circling the world. When the whales became 
scarce in that portion of the globe, the intrepid venturers made their way 
north and found even greater prey in the waters of Alaska and Kamschatka. 
Their voyages lasted sometimes but a few months, at other times they ex- 
tended over four or five years. During this prosperous period, Stonington 
was a live commercial town. The fitting out of a whaleship required much 
time and industry, and the sorting of cargoes made the harbor front a busy 
and interesting place. Oil casks, anchors and rigging, lumber and spars, were 
strewn about. Sailors lounged at the corners or leaned over the bar at the 
taverns. They wore blue trousers and roundabout jackets and black ties 
knotted in sailor fashion. They were a jovial, happy-go-lucky lot and bent 
on rough-and-ready pastime when they got ashore. The taverns rang with 
the scrape of their fiddles and the clatter of their hornpipes ; and once when 
two ships sailed into port the same day, the rival crews, boasting of the 
prowess of their favorites, formed a ring on Water Street and held high fistic 
carnival. As fast as one contestant measured his length in the dust, another 
took his place, while a crowd of villagers packed the street and cheered the 
valiant. There was little brutality: when a man went down he was "out of 
the game." One young fellow of fine physique maintained his place in the 
ring against a large number of fresh comers. One blow of his fist was enough 
for each of them. A distinctive American artist like Mr. Pyle could make a 
lively picture of the scene. 



MISCELLANEOUS INEORMATION 235 

The annals of whaling are tinged with tragedy. A Stonington captain 
died at sea, and his wife, who had accompanied him on the voyage, brooded 
over his death till one morning her room was found empty, with the window 
at the stern of the vessel open. Accidents on shipboard were followed by 
rough but effective treatment in the absence of a doctor, as when an unfor- 
tunate colored seaman injured his leg so severely that amputation became 
imperative. The captain — a stern disciplinarian accustomed to strict meas- 
ures — consulted with his ship-keeper, and together, after the suffering man 
had been lashed to a ring in the deck, they sawed ofT the offending limb and 
seared the arteries with fire. 

The township of Stonington contains eight thousand people, only two 
thousand of whom live at Stonington borough. The remainder are divided 
between Pawcatuck, which is practically a part of Westerly and has about 
four thousand inhabitants; Mystic, at the western extremity of the town, 
with fifteen hundred more; Old Mystic, three miles to the north of Mystic, 
with a population of five hundred; and an extensive farming district. Paw- 
catuck is a busy community with manufactories of textile goods and printing 
presses. Mystic is a picturesque village set in a charming valley, with cotton 
and velvet mills. At the southwest corner of the town is Mason's Island, a 
part of the grant to Captain John Mason, the Indian fighter, and still in the 
possession of the Mason family: and just beyond it is Mystic Island, the 
extreme southwestern limit of Stonington authority. The town for the 
most part is rocky, and the superabundance of "stones" may account tor the 
name of "Stonington" received from the General Court in 1666. Regarding 
this name, ex-Judge Richard A. Wheeler, the "historian of the Pequot coun- 
try," writes in a recent letter: "I have searched as with lighted candles all 
of our New England records to learn the origin of the name of Stonington, 
but thus far have failed. I have two books entitled gazetteers of all the 
known civilized nations of the world, one published in London in 1782 and 
the other published in Philadelphia in 1806, in neither of which does the name 
of Stonington appear except as a place in Connecticut. So the name or word 
Stonington may have been coined, I think, by one or both of our representa- 
tives, viz., Thomas Stanton, Senior, or Samuel Cheesbrough." Be this as it 
may. it has taken firm root in American nomenclature, and been grafted on 
new communities in several States of the Union. To all of these old Stoning- 
ton sends greeting and best wishes on her two hundred and fifteenth birthday. 

From an article in the "Architectural Record," by Mr. M. W. Pentz, we 
quote regarding Stonington: 

There remains, as far as I know, only a single place which has preserved 
to any marked degree its Colonial atmosphere, and that is Stonington. Here 
progress has been asleep, its population has barely doubled in a hundred 
years; its old sea trade is dead beyond hope of recall. Grass grows in it* 
streets; its wharves are tenanted only by a few motor boats and unused 
steamers of the Sound lines ; its glory has departed. It is kept alive by a 
few textile factories and a great machine works, but its principal industry 
is summer boarders, fortunately not so numerous as to change its ancient 
tone. The resident population, aside from the descendants of its original 
settlers, is composed largely of Portuguese from the Azores Islands, descend- 
ants and relatives of the daring sailors who once formed the crews of its fish- 
ing vessels. Here they furnish the factories with labor and form an element 
both picturesque and useful. 

I suppose the trees have grown up, some houses have been reshingled, 
a few new shops have been built, but in the old portion of the town so little 
has been changed that the effect is precisely what it must have been a 



236 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

hundred years ago. The railroad station is on the neck of land which sep- 
arates the old town from the mainland, no trolley passes through the streets 
and only a couple of side tracks to the unused pier of the steamship company 
exist to change its appearance. Even these wabble around so unobtrusively 
through the back yards that they are almost invisible, and I have never seen 
a train upon them. I suppose to preserve the franchise they must occasionally 
run some cars, but it is probably done in the middle of the night, when every- 
body is asleep and there is nothing else to do. 

Immediately beyond the green is the south end of the point, a grassy, 
quiet place with a lovely view of the water on three sides, and the delightful 
old stone lighthouse in the center. This is a splendid place to sit and dream 
and if you try hard enough you can easily fancy Admiral Hardy's ships fight- 
ing away without doing any harm except for what a modern lawyer would 
term the damages for mental anguish of the inhabitants; who, after all, do 
not seem to have been much alarmed. In the harbor not far from the jioint 
is a monument which marks the corner between the States of Connecticut, 
Rhode Island and New York, and as a small boy I went out there and sat 
with my legs curled around it "in three states at once." 

Turning back from the green toward the square, on Main street, one 
passes more exquisite examples of the old work, of which the most charming 
is the house known to the youngsters as "Miss Katty's," and the Wayland 
residence, which in some ways is the show place of the town. Almost oppo- 
site the Wayland house is the old library, a typical house of the early times, 
when two-story houses were taxed by the King and when one-story houses 
went free. Still on Main street is the Second Congregational Church, an 
interesting example of church architecture of the early nineteenth century, 
although not in detail as good as the earlier work. Several cross streets 
connect Main and Water Streets and where there is width enough little side 
streets project like spurs from them, each lined with residences, quaint or 
dignified as the fancy of the owner dictated. The customs house still flies 
the flag of the Revenue Service, and I suppose the collector has occasionally 
something to do, yet looking through the window one sees only a couple of 
old gentlemen half asleep over the newspapers and a collection of dusty and 
mildewed leather-bound books. 

Peace and a certain sleepy dignity are the characteristics of the old town. 
It is unable to get much excited about anything; changes and advances in 
civilization are infrequent; the authorities there appreciate the loveliness of 
the place and are anxious to keep it as untouched as possible. 

The following figures give some idea of the financial situation of the 
county at present. The list shows the number of people in each town and 
city in New London county who paid the Federal tax on their incomes, and 
whether the tax was based on incomes over or under $5,000 a year: 

Over Under Over Under 

$5,000 $5,000 $5,000 $5,000 

Bozrah o 29 New London 256 2,732 

Colchester i 49 North Stonington i i 

East Lyme 9 7» Norwich 215 2,805 

Franklin I " Old Lyme 7 41 

Griswold 14 520 Preston o 4 

Groton 28 546 Salem o i 

Lebanon o 8 Sprague 8 318 

Ledyard o 30 Stonmgton 55 980 

Lisbon o o Voluntown 3 21 

Lyme 4 45 Waterford 7 132 

Montville 6 191 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION 



237 



The State Senators from the three Senatorial Districts, called Ninth, 
Tenth, and Eleventh, till 1906, and thereafter Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and 
Twentieth, have been as follows: 



Ninth District 

1890-92 
Stephen A. Gardner 

1892-94 
Stephen A. Gardner 

1894-96 
Benj. H. Lee 

1896-98 
Benj. H. Lee 

1898- I 900 
James Pendleton 

190002 
James Pendleton 

1902-04 
Thomas Hamilton 

Eighteenth District 

1904-06 
William J. Brennan 

1906-08 
Charles B. Waller 

1908-10 
Fredk. P. Latimer 

1910-12 
Bryan F. Mahan 

1912-14 
Alton T. Miner 

1914-16 
Lucius E. Whiton 

1916-18 
James R. May 

1918-20 
William C. Fox 

1920 
C. C. Costello 



Tenth District 

Charles F. Thayer 
S. Ashbell Crandall 
William H. Palmer, Jr. 
Lucius Brown 
John H. Barnes 
Wallace S. Allis 
Nelson J. Ayling 

Nineteenth District 
Reuben S. Bartlett 
Alonzo R. Oborn 
William L Allyn 
Charles S. Avery 
Charles S. Avery 
John H. Barnes 
John H. Barnes 
William B. Wilcox 
Allyn L. Brown 
The Mayors of Norwich have been as follows: 



Eleventh District 
Alex. C. Robertson 
Alex. C. Robertson 
Wm. F. Gates 
John N. Lewis 
Henry C. Burnham 
Frederick J. Brown 
Arthur M. Brown 

Twentieth District 
Austin I. Bush 
Harley P. Buell 
George H. Bradford 
Angus Park 
Frederick A. Johnson 
Benjamin H. Hewitt 
Frank H. Hinckley 
Elisha Waterman 
James Graham 



Benjamin Huntington, 1784-96; John McLaren Breed, 1796-98; Elisha 
Hyde, 1798-1813; Calvin (ioddard, 1814-31 (resigned). 

Since 183 1, elected annually — James Lanman, 1831-34; Francis Asher 
Perkins, 1834; Charles W. Rockwell, 1835, 1838, 1846; Charles J. Lanman, 
1838; William C. Gilman, 1839; John Breed, 1840-42; William P. Greeve, 
1842-43; Gurdon Chapman, 1843-45; John Breed, 1845; Charles W. Rockwell, 
1846; John Dunham, 1S47-49; William A. Buckingham, 1849-51; LaFayette 
S. Foster. 1S51-53: Erastus Williams, 1853-55; Wm. L. Brewer. 1855; Wm. 
A. Buckingham, 1856-58; Amos A. Prentice, 1858-60; James S. Carew, 1860- 
62; James Lloyd Greene, 1862-66; Lorenzo Blackstone, 1866-70; James A. 
Hovey, 1S70-71 ; James Lloyd Greene, 1871-75; Hugh H. Osgood. 1875-761 
Charles Osgood, 1S76-77; Hugh H. Osgood, '877-86; Increase W. Carpenter, 
1886-88; A. Ashbel Crandall, 1888-92; Calvin L. Harwood, 1892-96; Frederic 
L. Osgood, 1896-1900; Charles F. Thayer, 1900-08; Costello Lippett. 1908-10; 



238 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Charles F. Thayer, 1910-12; Timothy C. Murphy, 1912-16; Allyn L. Brown. 
1916-18; Jeremiah J. Desmond, 1918-20; Herbert M. Lerou, 1920-22. 
Mayors of New London: 

Richard Law, 1784-1806, 22 years; Jeremiah G. Brainerd, 1806-29, 23 
years; Elias Perkins, 1829-32; Coddinpton Billings, 1832-35; Noyes Billings, 
1835-37; Jirah Isham, 1837; Francis Allyn, 1838-41; George C. Wilson, 1841, 
died July 20, 1841 ; Caleb J. Allen, August 12, 1841, resigned June, 1843; An- 
drew M. Frink, 1843-45, resigned; J. P. C. Mather, 1845-50, resigned August; 
Andrew C. Lippett, 1850-53; Henry P. Haven, 1853-56; Jonathan N. Harris, 
1856-62; Hiram Wiley, 1862-65; Frederick L. Allen. 1865-71 ; Augustus Bran- 
degee, 1871-73; Thomas W. Waller, 1873-79; Robert Coit, 1879-82; George 
E.'Starr, 1882-85; C. A. Williams, 1885-88; George F. Tinker, 1888-91 ; George 
Williams, 1891, resigned in two weeks; Ralph Wheeler, 1891-93. resigned 
after two years; A. J. Bentley. 1893-94; James P. Johnston. 1894-97; Cyrus 
G. Beckwith, 1897-1900; M. Wilson Dart, 1900-03; Bryan F. Mahan, 1903-06; 
Alton T. Miner, acting Mayor five months in 1905; Benjamin L. Armstrong, 
1906-09; Bryan F. Mahan, 1909-15; Ernest E. Rogers, 191 5-18; E. Frank 
Morgan, 1918-21. 

The "New London Day" recently published an edition celebrating its 
fortieth anniversary, which contains much valuable information. Among 
other information, it printed the following chronological review: 

1880 — Population of New London, 10.537. 

1881 — Charter granted Smith Memorial Home, Masonic street. 

1882— Petition recorded from telephone company, asking permission to set 

poles through the street. 
1882 — State Armory land sold by Coit heirs to State of Connecticut, No- 
vember 9. 
1885 — Permission granted by common council to O. L. Livesey "for J. A. 

Jenny to erect poles for trying out the experiment of lighting the city 

by electricity without cost to the city." 
1885 — City meeting voted to install sewer system. 

1888 — Nameaug schoolhouse built. First of present modern structures. 
1889 — Thames river railroad bridge opened for the use of the New Haven and 

Boston and Providence railroads. 
1890 — Pequot Casino Association organized July 12. 
1890 — Lyceum Theater opened. First play, "The Wife," by the Frohman 

Company, April 7. 
1890 — Nathan Hale Grammar School erected. 
1891 — Williams Memorial Institute erected. 
1891 — Montauk avenue opened. First called the Boulevard. 
1892 — New London Street Railway began running cars. 
1893 — Ocean Beach and Lewis' woods sold by T. M. Waller to the city. 
1893 — Winthrop School erected. 
1894 — Saltonstall School erected. 
1894 — Shiloh Baptist Church, colored, organized. 
1896 — Post Office building erected. 
1896 — Mohican building erected. 
1896 — Brainard Lodge, F. & A. M., altered Universalist Church, Green street, 

into lodge room. 
1896- — Robert Bartlett School opened. 

1898 — First Church, Christian Scientist, organized, June 26. 
1898 — Police Station, Bradley street, erected. 
1899 — Norwich and Montville trolley road began operation. 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION 239 

1899 — St. Mary's Parochial School started. 

1905 — Thames Club destroyed by fire, rebuilt. 

1906 — John Winthrop Club organized. 

1906 — New London Vocational School erected. 

1907 — East Lyme and New London trolley line started. 

1907 — Harbor School erected. 

1908 — Pequot House destroyed by fire. 

1908 — Elks' Home built, corner-stone laid August 13. 

1908 — Swedish Congregational Church dedicated. 

1909 — All Souls' Church, Huntington street, building permit issued. 

1909 — St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Montauk avenue, corner stone 
laid May 30. 

1909 — Southwest Ledge light first turned on, November 10. 

1910 — Lawrence Free Hospital opened. 

1910 — Ship and Engine Company leased factory site in Groton from New 
Haven railroad. Purchased same in 191 1. 

1911 — Fund of $134,196.14 raised to secure location here of Connecticut Col- 
lege by popular subscription up to March i. 

1912 — Harbour Club building permit issued. 

1913 — Manwaring building erected. 

1914 — Union Lodge, A. F. and A. M., erected new building, Union street. 

1915 — Montauk Avenue Baptist Church rebuilt. 

1915 — Plant building erected. 

1916 — Y. M. C. A. building erected, Meridian street. 

The lists of Representatives from the various towns of the State have 
been as follows for thirty years: 

Bozrah — 1890-92, William F. Bogue; 1892-94, John J. Gager; 1894-96, 
William J. Way; 1896-98, E. Judson Miner; 1898-1900, William Kilroy ; 1900- 
02, William Kilroy; 1902-04, Wareham W. Bentley; 1904-06, Wareham W. 
Bentley; 1906-08, John S. Sullivan; 1908-10, John F. Fields; 1910-12, John F. 
Fields; 1912-14, John S. Sullivan; 1914-16, Nelson L. Stark; 1916-18, John J. 
Sweeney; 1918-20, John J. Sweeney; 1920, Elijah S. Abel. 

Colchester — 1890-92, James R. Button, Milton L. Loomis; 1892-94. Frank 
B. Taylor, Clarence H. Norton; 1894-96, Wm. E. Harvey, Howard C. Brown; 
1896-98, Edward M. Day, William Daudley; 1898-1900', Addison C. Taintor, 
Edward E. Brown ; 1900-02, Joseph E. Hall, Charles H. Daudley ; 1902-04, 
John R. Backus, Amatus R. Bigelow; 1904-06, David S. Day, Edward C. 
Snow; 1906-08, Samuel N. Morgan, Guy B. Clark; 1908-10, Edward T. Bun- 
yan, Samuel McDonald; 1910-12, Asa Brainard, Harry Elgart; 1912-14, Harry 
Elgart, Daniel T. Williams; 1914-16, Daniel W. Williiuns, Curtis P. Brown; 
1916-18, Edwin R. Gillette, Jacob J. Elgart; 1918-20, Samuel Gellert, William 
K. Raymond : 1920, Albert H. Foote, George Cutler. 

Griswold — 1890-92, James H. Finn ; 1892-94. Frederick H. Partridge ; 
1894-96, John Potter; 1896-98, Ira T. Lewis; 1898-1900, Samuel S. Edmond ; 
1900-02, Arthur M. Brown; 1902-04, Albert G. Brewster; 1904-06, Arba 
Browning; 1906-08, Jonas L. Herbert; 1908-10, John W. Payne; 1910-12, J. 
Byron Sweet; 1912-14, Alfred J. L'Heureux ; 1914-16, John Potter; 1916-18, 
John F. Hermon ; 1918-20, Wm. H. McNicol ; 1920, John T. Barry. 

Groton — 1S90-92, Charles H. Smith, Amos R. Chapman; 1892-94. William 
R. McGavhev. Everett L. Crane; 1894-96, Charles H. Smith, Judson F. Bailev ; 
1896-98, Robert P. Wilbur, Donald Gunn ; 1898-1900, Wm. H. Allen, Ralph 
H. Denison ; iQOO-02. Wm. H. .Mien, George A. Perkins; 1902-04, Benjamin 
F. Burrows. Albert E. Wheeler: 1904-06, Simeon G. Fish, Edward F. Spicer; 
1906-08, Frederick P. Latimer. Benj. F. Burrows; 1908-10, Charles H. Smith, 



240 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



Everett L. Crane; 1910-12, Percy H. Morgan, Edward E. Spicer ; 1912-14, 
Christopher L. Avery, Allen W. Rathbun ; 1914-16, Charles T. Crandall, 
Charles H. Kenyon : 1916-18, George R. Hempstead, Frank E. Williams; 
1918-20, Charles H. Smith, Irvin E. Crouch; 1920, Charles H. Smith, Howard 
A. Edgecomb. 

Lebanon — 1890-92, Isaac G. Avery, Frederic Gates; 1892-94, William C. 
Blanchard. Fred J. Brown; 1894-96, Hobart McCall. Robert E. Turner; 1896- 
98, George A. Mills, George A. Fuller; 1898-1900, Llewellyn P. Smith, Edw. 
H. McCall; 1900-02, Charles B. Strong, Charles H. Loomis; 1902-04, Charles 
S. Briggs, Charles B. Noyes ; 1904-06, William H. Geer, George H. Hewitt; 
1906-08" Charles A. Perkins, Fred'k O. Brown; 1908-10, Isaac G. Larkin, 
Elisha Waterman ; 1910-12, George H. Hoxie, Myron R. Abell ; 1912-14, Frank 
K. Noyes, Wm. A. Watson ; 1914-16, Frederick N. Taylor, James A. Thomas ; 
1916-18, Edward A. Hoxie, Wm. T. Curry; 1918-20, Karl F. Bishop, Edward 
W. Tones : 1920, Stanton L. Briggs, Arthur E. Hewitt. 

East Lyme — 1890-92, E. K. Beckwith ; 1892-94, Arthur B. Calkins ; 1894- 
96, George P. Hill; 1896-98, Arthur B. Calkins; 1898-1900, John F. Luce; 
1900-02, Arthur B. Calkins; 1902-04, James R. White; 1904-06, John T. Beck- 
with; 1906-08, Frederick A. Beckwith; 1908-10, Washington I. Gadbois; 1910- 
12, Clifford E. Chapman ; 1912-14, Jay V. Beckwith ; 1914-16, Marion R. Davis ; 
1916-18, Asahel R. DeWolf; 1918-20, Charles R. Tubbs; 1920, Julius T. 
Rogers. 

Franklin — 1890-92, John M. N. Lathrop ; 1892-94, Clifton Peck ; 1894-96, 
Clayton H. Lathrop; 1896-98, James H. Hyde; 1898-1900, Frank B. Greenslit; 
T900-02, Azel R. Race; 1902-04, Frederick S. Armstrong; 1904-06, Walter S. 
Vail; 1006-08, Atiial T. Browning; 1908-10. Frank A. Rockwood ; 1910-12, 
James H. H^de; 1912-14, Frederick W. Hoxie; 1914-16, C. Huntington Lath- 
rop; 1916-18, Frank I. Date; 1918-20, Herman A. Gager; 1920, Charles B. 
Davis. 

Ledyard — 1890-92, George W. Spicer; 1892-94, George W. Spicer; 1894- 
96, Charles A. Gray; 1896-98, Nathan S. Gallup; 1898-1900, Jacob Gallup; 
iQOO-02, Daniel W. Lamb; 1902-04, Daniel W. Lamb; 1904-06, William I. 
Allyn: iqo6-o8, William I. Allyn; 1908-10, Frank W. Brewster; 1910-12, Wil- 
liam I. Allyn; 1912-14, Isaac G. Geer; 1914-16, Joseph D. Austin; 1916-18, 
William I. Allyn; 1918-20, William I. Allyn; 1920, Henry W. Hurlbutt. 

Lisbon — 1890-92, John G. Bromley ; 1892-94, John G. Bromle>- ; 1894-96, 
Tames E. Roberts: 1896-98. Charles B. Bromley; 1898-1900, James B. Palmer; 
IQOO-1902. Frank E. Olds; 1902-04, Calvin D. Bromley; 1904-06, Harry L. 
Hull; igo6-o8. John M. Lee; 190S-10, Ira C. Wheeler; 1910-12, Herman E. 
Learned; 1912-14, James T. Shea: 1914-16, Francis H. Johnson; 1916-18, 
James Graham; 1918-20, James Graham; 1920. Henry J. Kendall. 

Lvme— 1890-92, Stephen P. Sterling, Robert M. Thompson; 1892-94, J. 
Ely Beebe, Ephriam O. Reynolds; 1894-96, Roswell P. LaPlace, J. Greffin 
Ely; 1896-98. James L. Lord, E. Hart Geer; 1898-iqoo, Samuel W. Jewett, J. 
Raymond Warren : 1900-02, James Daniels, James E. Beebe ; 1902-04. Lee L. 
Brockway. J. Raymond Warren; 1904-06, Frederick S. Fosdick. William 
Marvin; 1906-08, J. Raymond Warren, William Marvin; iqo8-io, Nehemiah 
Daniels, Tohn S. Hall; 1910-12, J- Warren Stark, Harold H. Reynolds; 1912-14, 
Charles W. Pierson, John S. Hall: 1914-16, John S. Hall, Charles W. Pierson ; 
1916-18, Ray L. Harding, J. Lawrence Raymond ; 1918-20, J. Lawrence Ray- 
mond, Hayden L. Reynolds; 1920, J. Warren Stark. Arthur G. Sweet. 

Montville- — 1890-92, Charles A. Chapman; 1892-94, John F. Freeland ; 
1894-96, George N. Wood; 1896-98, George N. Wood; 1898-1900, Moses Chap- 
man ; 1900-02, Joseph F. Killeen ; 1902-04, George H. Bradford ; 1904-06, Rob- 
ert C. Burchard ; 1906-08, Robert C. Burchard ; 1908-10, Dan D. Home ; 1910-12, 
Frederick A. Johnson ; 1912-14, C. Everett Chapman ; 1914-16, Matt A. Tinker; 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATIOX 241 

1916-18, George H. Bradford; 191S-20, Edwin F. Comstock ; 1920, Frank W. 
Browning. 

New London— 1890-92, George C. Strong, Walter Fitzmaiirice ; 1892-94, 
George C. Strong, Walter Fitzmaurice; 1894-96, Frederick H. Parmalee, 
Charles R. Boss; 1896-98, Robert Coit. Cyrus G. Beckwith ; 1898-1900, Frank 
B. Brandegee, Charles B. Whittlesey; 1900-02, Charles B. Whittlesey, William 
B. Coit; 1902-04, Henry Lambert, William B. Coit; 1904-06, Daniel M. 
Cronin. Charles B. Waller; 1906-08, Lucius E. Whiton, Carl J. Viets; 1908-10, 
Lucius E. Whiton, Daniel M. Cronin; 1910-12, Nathan Belcher, Lucius E. 
Whiton; 1912-14, Abel P. Tanner. James R. May; 1914-16, Frank Q. Cronin, 
Cyrus W. Brown ; 1916-18, William A. Holt, William C. Fox ; 1918-20, William 

A. Flolt ; George Goss ; 1920, Ernest E. Rogers, Morris B. Payne. 

North Stonington — 1890-92, Cyrus H. Stewart, George W. Edwards; 
1892-94, S. Curtis Eggleston, Latham Hull; 1894-96, Amasa W. Main, George 
F. Coats; 1896-98, Amasa W^ Main, Samuel Thompson; 1898-1900, William 

B. Cary, George F. Coats; 1900-02, George D. Thompson, E. Frank White; 
1902-04, George D. Thompson. E. Frank White; 1904-06, Calvin A. Snyder, 
Latham Hull; 1906-08, Calvin A. Snyder, Herbert Richardson; 1908-10, Frank 
H. Brown, Chester S. Maine; 1910-12, Richard B. Wheeler, Charles Lyman 
Stewart; 1912-14, Frank H. Brown, Thurman P. Maine; 1914-16, Clarence E. 
Palmer, Lyle C. Gray; 1916-18, George H. Stone, Horace G. Lewis; 1918-20, 
George H. Stone, Malcolm E. Thompson ; 1920, Irving R. Maine, N. Frank 
Maine. 

Norwich- — 1890-92. Gardiner Greene. Jr., George C. Raymond ; 1892-94, 
William C. Mowry, William H. Palmer, Jr. ; 1894-96, Gardiner Greene, Jr., 
Joseph Brewer; 1896-98, John H. Barnes. Currie Gilmour ; 1898-igoo. Currie 
Gilmour, Edwin W. Higgins; 1900-02, George Greenman, James H. Lathropj, 
1902-04. George Greenman, Frank T. Maples; 1904-06, Frank T. Maples, 
Herbert W. Hale; 1906-08, Tyler Cruttenden, Henry W. Tibbits ; 1908-10, 
Henry W. Tibbits, Charles B. Bushnell ; 1910-12, Frederick Dearing, John F. 
Cranev; 1912-14. John F. Craney. William T. Delaney; 1914-16, Albert J. 
Bailey, Joseph H. Henderson ; 1016-18, Albert J. Bailey, Joseph H. Henderson ; 
1918-20, Patrick T. Connell, Joseph F. Williams; 1920, George Thompson, 

C. W. Pendleton. 

Old Lvme — 1800-92, Lyman Chapman ; 1892-94, Henry Austin ; 1894-96, 
James T. Bugbee: 1896-98, John H. Noble; 1898-1900, FVank I. Saunders; 
1900-02, Joseph S. Huntington ; 1902-04, John H. Bradbury ; 1004-06, John H. 
Bradbury: IC06-08, Eugene D. Caulkins ; 1908-10. John H. Noble; 1910-12. 
John H. Noble; 1912-14, Thomas L. Haynes ; 1914-16, Joseph S. Huntington; 
1916-18, Harry G. Pierson ; 1918-20, Robert H. Noble; 1920, Harry T. Gris- 
wold. 

Preston — 1890-92, Frank W. Fitch, Charles W. Kingsley ; 1892-94, Henry 
E. Davis. William H. Burnett; 1804-06, Austin A. Chapman, Appleton Main; 
1896-98, Charles F. Boswell, Charles B. Chapman; 1898-1900, Daniel L. Jones, 
Gilbert S. Raymond; 1900-02, Adolphus D. Zabriskie. George iSI. Hvde: 1902- 
04. George A. Frink, John H. Davis; 1904-06, Edward P. Hollowell. John H. 
Davis: 1906-08, Luther C. Zabriskie, Alexander C. Harkncss; 1908-10, Arthur 
E. Shedd. James F. Thurston: 1910-12, Walter MacClisien, Hollis H. Palmer; 
1912-14, Henrv M. Betlerig, Allen B. Burdick; 1914-16, Eckford G. Pendleton, 
William B. Mitchell; 1916-18, James B. Bates. John P. Holowell ; 1918-20, 
John P. Holowell, Beriah E. Burdick; 1920, E. G. Pendleton, Joseph E. 
Carpenter. 

Salem — i8(-!O-02, Alvah Morgan; 1802-94, Edwin H. Harris: 1894-96, 
Alvah Morgan ; 1896-98, .Mbert Morgan :iS98-i900, Frank S. DcWolf ; 1900-02. 
Alvah Morgan: 1902-04, John H. Purccll ; 1904-06. Howard A. Rix; 1906-08, 
Sydney A. Dolbeare ; 1908-10. Elmer M. Chadwich ; 1910-12, Ernest L. I.ati- 



242 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



mer; 1912-14, Lewis Latimer; 1914-16, J. Frank Rogers; 1916-18, Carl H. 
Rogers; 1918-20, James Lane; 1920, William B. Kingsley. 

Sprague — 189092, William Ladd ; 1892-94, Thomas H. Allen; 1894-96, 
Thomas H. Allen; 1896-98, Ebenezer Allen; 1898-1900, Henry Buteau; 1900- 
02, Joseph Ouinn; 1902-04, Harold Lawton ; 1904-06, Angus Parker; 1906-08, 
Raymond J. Jodoin ; 1908-10, Raymond J- Jodoin ; 1910-12, John H. Brown; 
1912-14, Irenee L. Buteau; 1914-16, Irenee L. Buteau; 1916-18, Irenee L. 
Buteau ; 1918-20, Raymond J. Jodoin ; 1920, William G. Park. 

Stonington — 1890-92, Silas B. Wheeler, Warren W. Chase; 1892-94, 
George R. McKenna. Arthur G. Wheeler ; 1894-96, James Pendleton, Henry 
B. Noyes, Jr.; 1896-98, James Pendleton. Elias Williams; 1898-1900, Frank 
H. Hinckley, George H. Maxson ; 1900-02, Frank H. Hinckley, George H. 
Maxson ; 1902-04, William H. Smith. Charles F. Champlain ; 1904-06, Charles 
F. Champlain. Peter Bruggenam ; 1906-08, Eli Gledhill, William J. Lord; 
1908-10, William F. Broughton, Albert G. Martin; 1910-12, Joseph W. Chese- 
bro, John R. Babcock; 1912-14, Joseph W. Chesebro, Herman L. Holdridge; 
1914-16, Elias F. Wilcox. Bourdow A. Babcock; 1916-18, Elias F. Wilcox, 
Bourdow A. Babcock ; 1918-20, Nathaniel P. Noyes, Frederick Boulder ; 1920, 
Frederick Boulder, Nathaniel P. Noyes. 

Voluntown — 1890-92, John N. Lewis; 1892-94, Henry C. Gardner; 1894- 
96, George W. Rouse; 1896-98, Charles E. Maine; 1898-1900, Ezra Briggs: 
1900-02, Oregin S. Gallup; 1902-04, Edward A. Pratt; 1904-06, James W. 
Whitman; 1906-08, Elam A. Kinne; 1908-10, E. Byron Gallup; 1910-12, 
Azarias Grenier; 1912-14, William H. Dawley, Jr.; 1914-16, Stephen B. Sweet; 
1916-18, Constant W. Chatfield ; 1918-20, Constant W. Chatfield; 1920, Thomas 
A. Brown. 

Waterford— 1890-92, John L. Payne; 1892-94, James E. Beckwith; 1894- 
96, William C. Saunders; 1896-98, Frederick A. Jacobs; 1898-1900, Albert H. 
Lauphere ; 1900-02. Albert H. Lauphere ; 1902-04, Albert H. Lauphere ; 1904- 
06, Edward C. Hammond; 1906-08. Selden B. Manwaring; 1908-10, Frederic 
E. Comstock; 1910-12, Albert H. Lauphere; 1912-14, Albert H. Lauphere; 
1914-16, Stanley D. Morgan; 1916-18, John C. Geary; 1918-20, John C. Geary; 
1920, William Ellery Allyn. 








TBTIAUY, COXNEmCTIT COM.KOE FDR WOMICN. 



CHAPTER X 

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 

Connecticut College — Norwich Free Academy — Bacon Academy — Bulkeley School — 
Williams Memorial Institute — New London Vocational School — Mystic Oral 
School for the Deaf. 

The greater number of the following narratives of notable educational 
institutions are contributed by authorities of recognized knowledge and abil- 
ity. The first, relating to Connecticut College, is by President Benjamin T. 
Marshall, head of that institution. 

CONNECTICUT COLLEGE, NEW LONDON 

The foundations of Connecticut College were laid, not only in the fine 
purposes and industry of the incorporators, but also in the faith they held in 
women, and in their conviction that within the State of Connecticut there 
should be a modern, progressive college for women, that should provide these 
forms of higher education for women to which in recent years they have 
aspired in increasing numbers, and for the privileges of which they have now 
for many years demonstrated their indisputable qualification. 

But there is also the glow and ardor of romance in the story of the 
college, for how else shall we describe the experience of the young institution 
whose hand was sought by a score or more towns and cities, who also 
promised lavish gifts. Was it not romance, and was it not high gallantry, 
that moved New London to sue so ardently for the hand of the college and 
to present so promptly the gifts it promised, in the form of lands and funds? 

The college will never forget the splendid enthusiasm of New London, 
its corporate body, and its citizens, nor their significant and munificent gifts. 
The coming of the college afforded New London a chance to demonstrate a 
spirit of unity and of devotion to education which became in a real way the 
revival of a civic pride and spirit which has characterized the citv v-imic;- 
takably in these recent years. 

To serve and honor the city, which has served and honored it, will be 
always a dominant factor in the purpose and life of the college ; for it recog- 
nizes that by virtue of its character and purpose it should be the purveyor 
to the city of opportunities for culture through lectures, exhibitions, musical 
programs and conferences of various kinds, and seek to encourage the people 
of the city to avail themselves of its ever-widening and increasing privileges. 

The relations of city and college each to the other were begun under 
happiest auspices. May they never cease to be reciprocally joyous and profit- 
able. While the city goes about its daily business, the "College on the Hill" 
moves faithfully and eagerly forward in the prosecution of its program, in 
devotion to its distinctive ideal. 

What the college is and what it aims for, how it does its work, and in 
what spirit and with what results, the following paragraphs aim clearly to 
state. They are presented as the official statement of the college through its 
president. 

I. The need for more women's colleges. For many years there had been 



244 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

among educators and all persons interested in the higher education of women 
a recognition that more women's colleges of high grade were greatly needed, 
since the women's colleges already existing were either filled to capacity or 
over-crowded. 

Connecticut College came into existence to meet, so far as it was able, 
that well-defined need of more high-grade, centrally located colleges for 
women. It became, in fact, a necessity in this new era for women, which has 
given them the full rights of suffrage. Within the State the need was 
accentuated by the fact that Wesleyan had determined to be solely a man's 
college; and in the mind of Wesleyan Alumna, and in the minds of friends 
whom she had gathered about her, the idea and purpose to have a woman's 
college within the State of Connecticut took root, assumed form, and became 
an established fact. 

2. The Specific Need. There was further recognized the need of colleges 
specifically for women, which should definitely contemplate the tastes, talents, 
aptitudes, ambitions, potential service and possibilities of women in social, 
literary, educational, secretarial, business, professional and administrative 
positions; and should, coupled with the cultural and literary and scientific 
studies which serve as backgrounds and resources, those subjects and that 
training in them which give a vocational emphasis, and stimulate and equip 
the student to become in a sane, balanced and concrete fashion, both socially 
minded and socially efficient. 

Courses coming under this description may be cited as those of home 
economics, fine arts, music, economics and sociology, secretarial studies and 
office practice, library science, physical education. 

3. The Purpose and Ideal of the College. The effort to meet these needs 
generally and specifically is expressed in the purpose of Connecticut College, 
namely : 

To offer college work of grade and value second to none ; to offer technical 
w^ork worthy of college credit ; to prepare for professional work in all branches 
where women are needed. 

In short, to maintain, with high standards, and to conduct with highest 
efficiency, a curriculum prepared to develop each woman's peculiar talents 
toward her most effective life work. 

4. The Practical Fulfillment of Purpose. The practical operation and 
demonstration of this purpose and ideal is seen in the inclusion in the curri- 
culum of the familiar college subjects— the ancient and modern languages 
and literatures, mathematics, chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, history, 
political science, economics, sociology, philosophy, psychology, education, 
biblical history, and literature; and, with their specific technical, vocational, 
artistic, domestic and social values, the following: Music, fine arts (including 
drawing, painting, design, interior decoration, mechanical drawing and cer- 
amics) home economics (including foods, nutrition, household management, 
institutional management), library, science, secretarial studies and office 
practice, physical education (required of all students throughout their course). 

It should be noted that there are courses, in their respective departments, 
for the training of teachers in Latin, English, French, music, physical educ»- 




BRANFOUn HOUSE. 




EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 245 

tion, besides the courses in education ; courses in chemistry are, some of them, 
conducted with reference to their applications of that science, and a course 
in psychological chemistry, in its relation to home economics, is a particularly 
progressive and timely piece of work; that courses in mathematics, such as 
the theory of investment and statistics, have a direct practical value; that 
courses in economics and sociology are presented and prosecuted with sym- 
pathy toward, and understanding of. the instincts, interest and aptitudes and 
specific adaptability of women to social problems and social work. 

The work in fine arts and in music is not merely theoretical, which 
method would tend to superficiality, but is also technical, coordinated, ex- 
pressional. creative. Thus action and accomplishment are elevated to their 
rightful place in granting full credit to studio work; and action (creative 
work) is seen to be as essential to any worthy sort of appreciation in the 
realm of art as laboratory work is essential for the correct evaluation and 
esteem of any science. In this policy certain results are already unmistakably 
evident. There has come to be: (a) a respect for the use of the hand; (b) a 
higher grade of work in the studio; (c) greater enjoyment and satisfaction 
in the work; (d) a realization that education does not mean cessation from 
all work of the hand. 

5. Broad and Balanced Curriculum — Values and Results. Because of 
the breadth of opportunity in major subjects offered in the preceding list 
(the regularly accepted academic majors, complemented by a number of 
majors in technical courses we can demonstrate that : 

(a) There is a much larger percentage of students who find courses that 
lead to direct activity and expression, than in other colleges. 

(b) There is an appreciable increase in the educational value of the 
institution from the very distinct and varied types of mind and of person- 
ality that are attracted by a diversity of courses. 

(c) There is a more liberal and appreciative academic student, who has 
learned that arts are not superficial, but fundamental ; and a more cultured 
and better technical student, by reason of required courses in foreign lan- 
guage, English literature, science, history and social science. 

The trustees and faculty are united and enthusiastic in the loyal under- 
taking of this program. They are convinced of its soundness, practicability, 
and high value. Their confidence and enthusiasm are justified by the superior 
quality and large number of students who have sought admission, a number 
which every year has exceeded the capacity of the college. 

6. The college has attracted superior students in large numbers from 
several States. Students now enrolled in the college number approximately 
380; the largest number, we believe, ever known in an American College in 
its seventh year. Students come from twenty-one different States. Several 
students have transferred from other colleges, to find in Connecticut College 
more nearly what they wanted and needed, than they could find elsewhere, 
and several girls have entered Connecticut College attracted by its offerings, 
who, from their early years, had fully purposed to enter other and older 
women's colleges. The college has graduated three classes, the class of 
1919 with sixty-eight who received degrees, and the class of 1920 with sixty- 



246 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

nine who received degrees, and the class of 1921. We believe that no other 
college in America can cite such large figures for its first three classes. 

7. Complete Student Self-government. No argument attempting to jus- 
tify the existence and service of the college vi^ould be complete that did not 
stress the value and significance of the system of full student self-government, 
granted by the faculty to the student body from the first. The system pro- 
vides for a complete control of all the life and activity of the students, except 
in strictly academic matters. It is organized as a representative democracy, 
and functions with reality, efficiency, good judgment, and we believe, with 
increasing success. 

The counsel, suggestion, and experience of faculty and administration 
is always available, and is frequently sought, and in all more vital matters 
is always requested. 

In managing their own affairs as a real democracy, students are trained 
in responsibility, cooperation, initiative, in forming judgments, in making 
choices, in creating policies, in establishing tradition, and maintaining college 
morale, and in official duties and committee work learn valuable lessons in 
tact, appreciation, discrimination and in administration and execution. 

8. The Spirit of the College — Loyalty, Enthusiasm, Cooperation, Con- 
fidence. The undoubted effect of this organization of the students has been 
to develop a spirit of true democracy, without religious or social or class 
prejudices; to stimulate respect for work in all its forms, particularly with 
reference to students working their way through ; there is tolerance and good 
will and sympathy ; the bases of the organization are work, responsibility, 
liberty, solidarity, and a type of girl is being developed who is entirely free 
from pedantry and cant; she is open, sincere, unselfish and of sound judg- 
ment and initiative, able to deal with people and with situations, yet without 
conceit or assumption. 

Through all the activities of the college, both in its academic and social 
side, there breathes an intense spirit of loyalty and of enthusiasm. From 
the beginning the students were made, by the administration and the faculty, 
to realize how much the morale and spirit of the college were in their keeping, 
and they have grown in intensity of appreciation and responsibility for the 
highest character in college life. 

The spirit of cooperation is cultivated in the fact that the college does 
things together. It meets every day for Chapel, every Sunday for Vespers, 
every Tuesday for Convocation, as a college body, faculty and students merg- 
ing; and it undertakes an interest and a support of outside activities in 
college-wide fashion. When called upon to give, as for instance during the 
war, to the Students' Friendship War Fund, to the United War Campaign, 
and more recently in aid of the students and professors of the colleges in 
central Europe, it organizes its efforts as an all-college affair, pours its 
energy, its enthusiasm, its zeal, its gifts, into one common effort, and the 
result is issued with the seal and endorsement of the entire college upon it. 

There is in all the life of the college great confidence in the institution, a 
splendid satisfaction in its work, great happiness in its fellowship, and a fine 
sense of challenge in the richness, variety and wholesomeness of its entire 
comradeship, student and faculty alike. 




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EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 247 

The spirit of cooperation, understanding;, unanimity, which prevails, may 
be expressed when we say that in the four years of the present administration 
there has not been in the board of trustees a single divided vote ; and in the 
faculty, on no vital point, anything but practical unanimity. 

9. Favorable and appreciative attitude of educators and institutions to- 
ward Connecticut College. The attitude and favor and good-will, confidence 
and commendation on the part of educators and of presidents of other women's 
colleges has been very cheering. Without exception, the older colleges have 
welcomed Connecticut College into the sisterhood, have declared that it was 
greatly needed ; that the kind of work it is doing is essential and is well done, 
and that its future is bright and challenging. The comment of President 
MacCracken of Vassar is perhaps as significant as any, when, after speaking 
of several forward steps in the education of women in America in recent 
years, he says: 

Among these steps the most important is undoubtedly the founding of 
Connecticut College at New London, and all friends of higher education for 
women have welcomed its entrance into the field, because it is clear from the 
general trend of registration that women will in increasing numbers seek the 
college degree. 

Visitors to the campus, representing other colleges, presidents, deans, 
registrars, official committees of visitation with specific errands, have spoken 
uniformly of their pleasure in the visit, of the distinct impression of industry, 
vigor and worth in which the college work is done, and congratulated the 
college on its site, on its work, and on its prospects. Organizations, whose 
representatives have come to give counsel to the students with reference to 
future occupation, representatives of social organizations seeking superior 
material, for graduate study in schools of social service, have expressed them- 
selves in such language as this: 

"In conference, the students ask most intelligent questions." 
"Know what they want." 

"Have a knowledge of the factors in social and industrial situations more 
than students of other colleges visited." 

The college has freely been granted the counsel of the Russell Sage 
Foundation, whose aid in planning various lines of community work under 
the auspices of the sociology department has been offered. 

Graduates of the college have gone forth to social work or to advanced 
study on the basis of the work done here, and have been given practically a 
year's credit in advance over the graduates of other institutions, whether in 
graduate study or in active positions on the staff of charity or social organ- 
izations. 

10. Record of Graduates: Variety in activity and service, and gratifying 
success. All that precedes, which is an effort to justify the existence of the 
college, finds its concrete, and we believe unanswerable justification in the 
quality of the product of the college in its graduates and in the nature and 
qualitv of the service they are rendering in their present fields. 

There are 180 alumnae of the college, graduates in the first three classes. 



248 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

igig, 1920 and 1921. The director of the college appointment bureau reports 
that these graduates are largely engaged in the work toward which their 
major work in college particularly fitted them. 

The success and gratifying service of such graduates, from whom we 
have received definite returns, is due, not alone to the careful and able training 
by' a competent faculty, but also to that spirit of enthusiasm, of loyalty and 
cooperation which has characterized the college since its inception, a passion 
to do whatever they do worthily, and to count constructively by rendering 
a specific service to society. 

There is a profound confidence in the college on the part of the trustees, 
faculty, students and friends of the college alike. They take pride in its 
genuine, though modest accomplishment, and they feel confident of its future 
and hopeful and zealous of its maintenance and expansion along the lines 
projected from the beginning and faithfully followed to this moment, so far 
as years of war and relatively unincreased endowment have permitted. 

The preceding paragraphs, we trust, constitute a sufficient and genuine 
justification of the existence of the college. Our conviction is that the 
college was opened to meet both a general and a specific need, that it estab- 
lished for itself a splendid purpose and a high ideal, and it set itself vigorously 
and conscientiously to the practical fulfillment of that purpose. It has offered 
a broad and balanced curriculum of soundness, practicability, undoubted 
values and of high promise. It has summoned to itself superior students in 
large numbers from a wide area. It has cultivated in them a passion to do 
whatever they do worthily, and to count constructively, whether by helping 
to brighten a home and elevate the life of a family, or by rendering some 
more specific service to society at large. 

It has already developed a peculiar, significant and exalted spirit, which 
is recognized as distinctive, strong and exceptional. It has won from the 
beginning and in increasing measure, the welcome, the appreciation, the 
regard and commendation of its sister colleges, their leaders and all educators 
who have come to know it; and chiefly, and above all, it has contributed in 
its graduates a group of women who are undertaking specific tasks toward 
which the college unmistakably directed them, following their natural bent, 
ambition and equipment, and they are doing, each in her own place, the 
world's work in a way that is worthy, noble and commendable, to the credit 
of the college they love, to the honor of their own lives, and as a rare and 
distinctive contribution to the life of America. 

NORWICH FREE ACADEMY 
This historical sketch of the Norwich Free Academy is by Rev. Lewellyn 
Pratt, D.D., formerly president of the corporation. 

The next oldest of the private schools of the county is the Norwich Free 
Academy. The following account of its early days was delivered by Dr. 
Lewellyn Pratt, its president, in 1906, on the fiftieth anniversary of its 
opening: 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 249 

The story of the fifty years of the Norwich Free Academj' is very simple 
compared with that of Winchester, Eton, Rugby, Harrow and other great 
schools of Europe, with their five and six centuries of achievement, and yet 
the history of these fifty years, given in any fair completeness, would require 
more time than I can take today. I must content myeslf with a mere intro- 
duction to what is to follow in the addresses of these two days. 

For many years before 1856 the need of improvement in the schools of 
Norwich had been keenly felt, and various attempts had been made to bring 
them together into some system and to establish schools of a higher grade. 
The discussions that immediately preceded the organization of the Academy 
aroused much opposition, but they directed attention to the need and strength- 
ened the determination to find some way b}- which an advance could be made. 
The opposition was so decided that it did not seem feasible to wait for a vote 
of the town to make that advance, nor altogether safe to trust to that to 
maintain it. if by chance it could be made. Under the leadership of the Rev. 
John P. Gulliver — to whom as the organizer more credit is due than to any 
other one — the plan of an endowed academy, which should be so correlated 
with the grammar schools that it should take the place of the high schools, 
then being formed and developed in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and at 
the same time so independent of political control and free to accept all 
approved methods of education as to bring and keep it in close connection 
with the higher institutions of learning, was adopted. A group of men was 
found in Norwich far-sighted and public-spirited enough to grasp and wel- 
come the idea, and with singular generosity to furnish the means by which 
it could be realized. All honor to those men of faith and self-sacrifice who, 
without expectation of pecuniary return for themselves, gave freely of their 
wealth for that which the public would soon have been almost compelled to 
do by increased taxation, devised the plan which has stood the test of time 
and bestowed a benefaction which is to bless many generations ! 

Some of you may recall the verses with which Mrs. Sigourney celebrated 
the spirit of this benefaction, which were read at the opening of the school : 

.There's many kinds of stocks, they say, 

That tempt the speculators; 
But what is safest held, and best. 

Might tax the shrewdest natures. 
Sage Franklin said in earlier days, — 

And now the wisest bless him, — 
"Who pours his purse into his brains, 

No man can dispossess him." 

And so, the people ,of my love 

His theory have tested, 
•And for their children and themselves 

A glorious sum invested. — 
And by this dome, for knowledge rear'd. 

Which no dark mortgage fetters, 
Have nobly made a. race unborn 

Their everlasting debtors. 



250 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

And as in old historic times, 

Though exiled and unno'.ed, 
The Roman citizen with pride 

His honored birth-place quoted: 
So I, with quickened heart this day, 

Warm orisons addressing 
Ask, for these native rocks and dales 

Our Father's richest blessing. 

The aims of the founders, as set forth by them when they applied for 
their charter in 1854, were: i. To excite in the minds of parents, guardians 
and children a deeper interest in education. 2. To stimulate scholars in 
primary, intermediate and grammar schools to higher attainments in the 
elementary branches. 3. To elevate the standard of education in the town 
and vicinity. 4. To furnish the facilities for a higher education for our sons 
and daughters so cheaply that the poorest can enjoy them, and so amply that 
the richest shall be grateful for the privilege of receiving their benefits. 

The great aim of the plan was the betterment of all the schools, and its 
immediate result was the consolidation of two of the districts and the build- 
ing and equipment of larger and more commodious schoolhouses, and since 
that time there has been steady advance of the standard in the schools of the 
town and vicinity. Starting in 1856, a small school, we mark some tokens 
of steady growth. At its opening there were eighty scholars with five 
teachers. The present enrollment, including those in the Art and Domestic 
Science departments, is about four hundred and fifty, with twenty-three 
teachers. The original endowment was $50,000. with $36,000 more invested 
in building and equipment. In spite of the fears expressed that an endowed 
school would suffer by the decline of interest after the original donors should 
pass away, the endowment, through the same self-sacrifice and public spirit 
that characterized them animating their descendants, has increased to ten 
times the original amount, and the investment in lands and buildings and 
apparatus to more than eight times what it was at first. In the first years 
there were only the Classical and English departments. To these have been 
added the Art, the Manual Training and the Domestic Science departments, 
while the two original divisions have been enlarged and enriched, keeping 
pace on the one hand with the advanced requirements of our leading colleges 
and on the other with the need of more thorough scientific and practical 
courses for those who finish their school life in the Academy and enter upon 
the duties of domestic and business life. A notable part of the equipment, 
to which attention was called by speakers at the opening of the school, was 
the establishment of the Peck Library. This has been steadily increased by 
the income of its separate endowment till it now numbers thirteen thousand 
nine hundred and eighteen volumes of carefully selected books, which are in 
constant use by the school. A promising and most important department of 
Normal Training was projected and carried on for seven years, giving to the 
public schools a number of well trained teachers who have by their successful 
work and the high positions they have attained vindicated the plan that was 
proposed. This, because of difficulties of adjustment that were encountered, 
was abandoned in i8g6. During these fifty years there have been graduated 






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Ei': ACADEMY — AHOVE. AT I.IOFT. SIjATER HALL, LIBRARY AMI) JIUSKUM; WITH 
ART DEPARTllKXT IN REAR; IN CENTER. MAIN ACADEMY BUILDING. BELOW, 
REAR VIEW; AT LEFT, MANUAL TRAINING BUILDING; CENTER, MAIN ACAD 
EMY BUILDING; AT RIGHT, SLATER HALL, SHOWING ART BUILDING. 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 251 

from the academy 1,310, and from the normal department 81. As many more 
have taken a partial course in the school. These twenty-six or twenty-seven 
hundred are now scattered in almost every State of the Union, and many are 
in foreign countries. 

From the first the school has not been restricted to narrow town limits. 
The original donors, while primarily aiming to benefit the schools of the 
town, took a large view of the position of Norwich in its relation to the sur- 
rounding community, and, regarding it as a commercial center for the towns 
around, they planned that it might become an educational center for the vicin- 
ity, and on condition of a moderate payment opened its doors to those from 
other places who could successfully pass its examinations. One of the first 
scholarships established was specially designated by its giver as for the benefit 
of scholars from his native town, many miles distant. Later, when an addition 
of $50,000 was added to the endowment, one of the conditions made by the 
donors was that "the academy should be open to scholars from any quarter." 
And several of the scholarships given since were to be offered to out-of-town 
pupils on equal terms with those of the town. "Greater Norwich" — and 
Norwich once included greater territory — has been considered as sharing the 
benefit : and well has that expectation been justified not only by the numbers 
that have been attracted hither — some to become permanent residents — but 
by the character of those who came and the credit they have reflected upon 
the school. The amount received for tuition the last year from these out-of- 
town pupils was nearly equal to the whole income of the first year. As a 
high school for Norwich, the academy has been a great gift to the town, 
relieving it of a vast amount of taxation during these fifty years ; and as 
something more than a high school, an academy, it has been a great gift to 
Eastern Connecticut. In its present enrollment, seventy-five are from beyond 
the narrow limits of present Norwich. 

The school was fortunate in the large and liberal views of the founders 
and in their wise purpose to keep it free for all time from the contingencies 
of politics and to give it a stable character by placing its control in the hands 
of a self-perpetuating board of corporators who might be free to study its 
interests and make far-reaching plans without fear of sudden displacement 
or reversal. 

It w-as fortunate in its location in this beautiful spot in historic Norwich. 
Here, in the midst of homes of wealth and culture, it has found a wholesome 
atmosphere and congenial soil. The questioning of early days has given place 
to pride in its possession, and the generosity of its early friends has been well 
sustained by their successors. 

It has been specially fortunate in the character and ability and work of 
its chosen leaders to whom the great task of development has been committed. 

It has had four principals: 

I. Professor Elbridge Smith, a man trained in the best schools of Massa- 
chusetts at that time, from 1856 to 1865. The work of the beginning from 
almost chaos was in his hands. He proved himself a good organizer and 
disciplinarian, and amid the discouragement of the day of small things and 
of the period of formation, and then of almost disbanding because of the 



252 NEW T.OXDON COUNTY 

drafts made by the spirit of patriotism in the time of the Civil War (from 
the small numbers then connected with the school, fifty-six enlisted in the 
army), he carried the work through its early stages wisely and well. 

2. Professor William Hutchison, who succeeded him from 1865 to 1885, 
who brought to the school a large and inspiring spirit, and by his sympathetic 
relation with his pupils, his broad common sense and wide interest in all 
that concerned the town, gave to the school an acknowledged place in the 
affections of the people. What tributes were paid to his memory at our 
Fortieth Anniversary ! Any school is fortunate in such a memory. 

3. Professor Robert Porter Keep, who came in 1886 and whose term in 
office was next to the longest in its history, ending in 1903. Professor Keep 
was a scholar of great attainment, worthy of a place in university work, who 
with singular and untiring devotion gave himself to the cause of secondary 
education, and saw here opportunities for development and growth that had 
scarcely been dreamed of before. To him we owe in large measure the Art 
department, the Normal, the Manual Training and Domestic Science depart- 
ments, and a position among educational institutions recognized by scholars 
throughout the country. His rank among scholars, his acquaintance with 
the best schools of this country and Europe, and his belief in this school and 
its possibilities, were guarantees of its worth and constantly reflected credit 
upon its name. A large debt of gratitude is ever due to him from the Norwich 
Free Academy. 

4. It is not proper that I should speak here today as I would like of him 
who now holds the office of principal, Mr. Henry A. Tirrell. 

With these principals have been associated a long list of faithful teachers, 
who, for a longer or shorter time, have given their best work to the school 
and wrought themselves into the lives of the pupils. So well chosen have 
many of these been, that the academy has proved a favorite recruiting station 
for instructors and professors for many of our colleges and universities. 

The school has been fortunate, too, in its scholars. While, unlike some 
academies which draw their pupils from a wide field and who have largely 
those of wealth and position, we draw our pupils alsomst exclusively from 
the immediate neighborhood and offer its privileges alike to rich and poor, 
yet we claim for the academy that in good order, in the development of 
character, in training for life's work, in actual attainment, the graduates here 
will compare favorably with any school in the land, and in loyalty no high 
school can equal it, and few if any academies surpass it. The cabalistic 
"N. F. A." inspires many a heart and wins everywhere a loud acclaim. 

It was with sublime faith that the founders of this academy entered upon 
their great undertaking; and the work that was done by them, the extent 
of the grounds, the scale of the building, the endowment of the library, indi- 
cated that they were planning for a large future. Nobly has their confidence 
been justified and sustained. The academy has always held a high place in 
the thought and affection of the people of this city. Ministering to the growth 
and reputation of the town, it has been the constant recipient of gifts for its 
enlargement and expansion. Notable among these was the gift of this building 
with its Museum of Art, unsurpassed in the country except in the great cities, 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 253 

and the creation of the unique and excellent Art Department, through the 
filial love, the loyalty to his Alma Mater and the pride in native place of 
William A. Slater. Besides this, the bequests of Hon. Jeremiah Halsey, of 
Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, W. W. Backus and of Col. Charles A. Converse, 
with the special additions of $31,000 in 1867, of $50,000 in 1876, made by many 
of the most influential citizens of Norwich, and of $50,000 by an unnamed 
donor, with many other contributions of money, scholarships, prizes and col- 
lections, show the appreciation in which it has always been held. We believe 
that this interest does not flag, and that the committal of the academy in 
the opening address of 1856 to the future generations for their support will 
be honored by the residents of the city and the alumni of the school, and 
that the plans for enlargement now imperatively demanded by the success 
of the past and the increasing needs of the present will meet with hearty 
response. 

I close with the words of Dr. Gulliver in 1886 at the dedication of the 
Slater Memorial Building. He said, "I close, citizens of Norwich, by com- 
mending this noble school to your love, to your constant care, to your bene- 
factions, to the possession of your estates when you and yours have ceased 
to need them, and to your prayers for that Divine blessing in which the insti- 
tution began and with which it shall continue and increase until in the holy 
words oft uttered on this very spot, 'she sends out her boughs unto the sea 
and her branches unto the river, so that the hills are covered with the shadow 
of it and the branches thereof are like goodly cedars.' " 

The foregoing summary by Dr. Pratt takes the school to the year 1906. 
Since that date more than a thousand pupils have been graduated, making a 
total of about twenty-five hundred. More than twice that number have 
attended the school for a part of the regular four-year course. Although the 
academy is a local school, its graduates are found scattered over the world, 
only about a third of them now remaining in Norwich. The list of alumnae 
is slightly larger than the alumni list. Among the names are many honored 
for success in the professions, and many more who have become useful and 
influential citizens in other lines of work. During the Civil War 58 boys 
served the Union when the school numbered not more than 85 boys. In the 
World W'ar over three hundred graduates entered the service, of whom eleven 
made the Supreme Sacrifice. 

The school at present numbers over six hundred, and offers various 
academic courses, in addition to special courses in practical arts and in craft 
work. In its Slater Museum and Peck Library it has an equipment hardly 
equalled in any other secondary school. In addition to its valuable plant, 
the school has an endowment of about three-quarters of a million dollars, 
the income of which is available for the various needs of the academy. 

BACON ACADEMY 

The following narrative of this famous old school is by Mr. Samuel A. 
Willard, of Colchester: 

The beginnings of Bacon Academy were in the will of Pierpoint Bacon, 
signed April 17, 1800, by which upon Mr. Bacon's death, December 30, i8co, 



254 NEW LOxNDON COUNTY 

his estate, inventoried at $35,000, was left to the "Inhabitants of the First 
Society of Colchester for the purpose of supporting and maintaining a school 
in said First Society at such place as the Inhabitants of said First Society 
shall agree upon near the meeting house in said Society." 

The largest town in the State by the census of 1800 was Stonington, 
with a population of 5,347. Colchester had 3,163, of which perhaps rather 
more than one-half lived in the "First Society." Mr. Bacon's gift opened 
great opportunities to this small community, and at the same time placed 
upon it grave responsibilities. The first problem was how to manage the 
bequest, which was largely in lands, and to arrange for the development of 
the school. It was soon evident that the Society meeting was not the place 
to handle this business, and a committee was appointed to secure a charter 
from the General Assembly. For the purposes of caring for and administer- 
ing the fund and carrying on the school in accordance with the terms of the 
will, the inhabitants of the First Society were incorporated under the name 
of the Trustees and Proprietors of Bacon Academy. 

There were two unusual features in this charter which make the manage- 
ment of the school unique. They are well worth attention. The first was the 
composition of the board of trustees. There were to be twelve trustees, five 
of whom were to be non-resident in said Society, and by the charter and 
subsequent amendments the seven resident trustees were to hold ofSce for a 
term of four years, and at each election at least four of the seven must be 
persons who had served during the previous term. The second provision to 
be noted is the manner in which the trustees were to be chosen. The voters 
of the First Society in public meeting duly warned were to nominate the 
trustees; these nominations were to be sent to the State Senate; the Senate 
is to appoint and the Governor to approve. Some machinery, perhaps, but 
the procedure gave dignity and permanence to the governing body, and sep- 
arated the school from petty local influence. The school is and always has 
been a free public school, supported by endowment. The non-resident trus- 
tees on the first board as mentioned in the charter were "His Excellency 
Jonathan Trumbull, the Honorable Zepheniah Swift, the Honora;ble Roger 
Griswold, General Epaphroditus Champion, the Reverend Henry Channing." 
The resident trustees named were "The Reverend Salmon Cone, Colonel 
Daniel Watrous, Major Roger Bulkeley. Joseph Isham, John R. Watrous, 
Asa Bigelow and Ichabod Lord Skinner," all men of affairs and representative 
citizens of Colchester. This all shows "that men eminent for their services 
to the church and the state thought it not beneath them to manage the con- 
cerns and direct the interests of the school founded by Mr. Bacon's bequest." 
It has been of great assistance to the school that a part of the board was 
able to view matters detached from local interests. Some of the other non- 
resident trustees during these intervening years have been Eliphalet A. Bulke- 
ley, first president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company of Hartford ; Rev- 
erend Abel McEwen, of New London ; William A. Buckingham, Connecticut's 
War Governor; Charles J. ]\IcCurdy. lawyer, of Lyme; Morgan G. Bulkeley, 
another Connecticut governor; Charles N. Taintor, president of the United 
States Savings Bank of New York City; Edwin B. Cragin, M.D., of New 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 



255 



York; Edward M. Day, lawyer, of Hartford, and Michael D. O'Connell, 
lawyer, and judge of probate in Stafford Springs. 

With the organization complete, the next important factor in determining 
the success of the school was the principal, who must by his scholarship and 
personality interest, enthuse, develop and direct the youth committed to his 
charge. The first principal was John Adams, Yale 1795, and a teacher of 
successful experience. The choice was a most fortunate one, and the school 
at once took foremost rank. Two months after the school was opened, 206 
students were enrolled, of whom 63 were from out of town. Mr. Adams left 
in 1810 to accept the principalship of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massa- 
chusetts. Able successors followed him, and the school continued to grow in 
numbers until in 1835-36 the enrollment was over 400, including 125 "scholars 
from abroad." The following year the attendance probably reached high 
water mark. The catalogue contains the names of 425 scholars, 137 of whom 
were from out of town, and 32 of these were from out of the State. It must 
have been a problem to accommodate all these pupils in a village which at 
that time had a population of only about 1.200 . "To accommcxiate these 
students or their families, almost every family of the village rented a part of 
the house or took boarders." Gradually high schools were started in other 
towns, and the out-of-town attendance fell off, but the school maintains its 
high standard, fitting for college, and also making special eflfort to adapt 
itself to the community needs. 

There have been some thirty-five different principals since the school 
opened. All but two or three were college graduates, and twenty-two were 
graduated from Yale. Several of the earlier masters had served as tutors 
there. They were a fine body of men, and their influence and example were 
an inspiration to many a Colchester youth and led him to continue his studies 
beyond the high school. There are no statistics extant of the number who 
went from the academy to college during the first seventy years. One who 
had given some time to looking this up has a list of seventy-five Bacon 
Academy students who had graduated from colleges before 1870. Since Mr. 
Burnette became principal in 1869 up to the present, about sixty-five of the 
graduates have completed a course in some college or university, and some 
twenty others have entered but were compelled to withdraw before finishing 
the course on account of ill health or lack of funds. Last year there were 
eighteen graduates from the school continuing their studies in higher insti- 
tutions of learning. The enrollm.ent of the school for the last few years has 
been about eighty-five. 

The original endowment has been increased by gifts from Asa Otis, S. 
Lewis Gillette, Judah Lord Taintor, Lewis E. Stanton, Charles E. Jones, 
James F. Cutler, Hamilton Wallis, Charles N. Taintor, and a fund of $10,000 
given at the Centennial by the alumni. The present fund is about $100,000. 
The list of men and women who have received a part of their prep- 
aration for life work in the academy is a long one. A few may be mentioned 
without reference to the chronological order of their attendance at the school : 

Alorrison R. Waite, chief justice U. S. Supreme Court; Lyman Trumbull, 
U. S. senator from Illinois; John T. Wait, lawyer and member of Congres.s, 



256 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Norwich ; George Champion, missionary to Zululand, Africa ; David Trum- 
bull and James Trumbull, who lived for years in Chili, South America; Wil- 
liam Larrabee, governor of Iowa ; Joseph Selden, editor, East Haddam ; Wil- 
liam A. Buckingham, governor of Connecticut; Elisha Palmer, James D. 
Mowrv. Lewis A. Hyde, Welcome A. Smith, Norwich ; Charles Wetmore, 
M.D., missionary physician in Sandwich Islands; Rev. James T. Hyde, D.D., 
professor in Chicago Theological Seminary ; Lewis E. Stanton, lawyer, Hart- 
ford : Silas A. Robinson, judge of Connecticut Supreme Court, Middletown ; 
Rev. Ezra H. Gillett, D.D., professor in New York University; John E. 
Gillette. Catskill Station, New York; Ralph Smith Taintor, Saybrook; Charles 
N. Taintor, president United States Savings Bank, New York City; James 
U. Taintor. secretary Orient Fire Ins. Co., Hartford; Judah Lord Taintor, 
publisher. New York City ; John E. Leffingwell, president Farragut Ins. Co., 
New York City; Edward Sheffield Bartholomew, sculptor. Hartford; Harriet 
Trumbull (Mrs. George J. Brush), New Haven; Catherine Olmstead (Mrs. 
Erastus S. Day), Colchester; Sebastian Lawrence, banker, New London; 
S. Lewis Gillette, business, Boston, Massachusetts; James S. Foote, M.D., 
professor Creighton Medical College, Omaha, Nebraska; Charles W. Haines, 
lawyer, Colorado Springs; Rev. Curtis M. Geer, Hartford Theological Sem- 
inary; Frank D. Haines, Portland, judge Superior Court, Connecticut; Park 
Benjamin, journalist. New York City; Henry C. Demming. Hartford; Henry 
W. Bigelow. manufacturer, Boston; Henry Marsh, California; Rev. Charles 
N. Ransom, missionary. South Africa ; John T. Swift, professor University. 
Tokyo, Japan; Rev. Florence O'Shea, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Rev. Michael 
Sullivan, LL.D., Hartford; Rev. Eugene Sullivan, Portchester, New York; 
Rev. Timothy Sullivan, East Hartford ; Edward M. Day, lawyer, Hartford ; 
Eliphalet A. Bulkeley, first president Aetna Life Ins. Co.. Hartford; Morgan 
G. Bulkeley, governor of Connecticut, Hartford ; Theron Clark, registrar 
Brown University, Providence; Edwin B. Cragin, eminent surgeon and pro- 
fessor, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City; Michael D. 
O'Connell, judge of probate, Stafford Springs; Rev. James T. Champlin, 
president Colby College, Maine; Qharles Brand, lieutenant-commander U. S. 
Navy; John W. Brand, treasurer Institution for Savings, Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts; Martin Shugrue, assistant professor, ATassachusetts Institute Tech- 
nology, Boston; Almira Lathrop (Mrs. Solomon T. Swift), Colchester; David 
S. Dav, lav.-yer, Bridgeport; Mary R. Willard (Mrs. Edwin B. Cragin), New 
York Citv; Margaret Weeks (Mrs. J. L. Shipley), Springfield; Leonore Bart- 
lett (Mrs. B. F. Parsons), Georgia; Caroline Swift (Mrs. D. W. Willard), 
California ; Lewis E. Sparrowe, investment broker. New York City ; Thomas 
S. O'Connell, M.D., East Hartford ; Richard T. O'Connell, judge of probate, 
East Hartford; Rev. William B. Sprague, LL.D., noted divine, Albanv, New 
York; Rev. Nathaniel Hewitt, D.D., Bridgeport; Frederick W. Lord, M.D., 
member of Congress, Greenport, L. I. ; W. Henry F'oote, Romney, Va. ; Rev. 
E. Goodrich Smith, Washington, D. C. ; Samuel A. Bridges, member of Con- 
gress, Allentown, Pennsylvania; Charles J. McCurdy, lawyer, Lyme; David 
H. Raymond, judge in Indiana when it was a territory; James Raymond, 
Westminster, Maryland ; Henry M. Waite, chief justice Supreme Court Con- 
necticut; Samuel A. Talbot, attorney-general. New York State; Ebenezer 
Jackson, member of Congress. Middletown: Charles J. McCurdv, lawyer, 
Lyme ; Charles J. Watrous, U. S. District Judge, Texas" 

These are a few of the hundreds who have had a share in the benefits 
of Mr. Bacon's gift to Colchester. How much such a legacy means to a place 
so small that otherwise it would not have had a high school ! The following 
taken from a letter written by the Honorable Samuel A. Bridges in August, 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 257 

1853, acknowledging an invitation to attend the Semi-Centennial of the 
Academy, indicates the way a non-resident pupil regarded the matter: 

By it they (the citizens of Colchester) have been elevated in the enjoy- 
ment of privileges far above many of their neighbors. To them the name 
of "Bacon" has given a distinction of which others would like to boast. 
Through his bountiful munificence the elder portion of them have lived to 
see their children first taught in his academic halls elevated to the pulpit, the 
bar, and the bench. How man;/ important influences at the expiration of the 
half century radiate from that grand center ! This is no less true now that 
117 years have passed. The original gift supplemented during the last 
twenty years b}- the generosity of other friends does not in any way relieve 
the town in its support of schools, but provides opportunities for the educa- 
tion beyond the graded schools, for community work and for Americaniza- 
tion work beyond the usual lot of small communities. 

THE BULKELEY SCHOOL, NEW LONDON 

The following account of the Bulkeley School has been prepared by its 
principal, Mr. Walter A. Towne. 

The founder of this school was Leonard Hallam Bulkeley. Mr. Bulkeley 
was a descendant of Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, the second minister of the 
Colonial church, and a son of Captain Charles Bulkeley, who was associated 
with John Paul Jones, who in command of the "Bonhomme Richard" harried 
English commerce so effectively during the war for American Independence. 
One is rather safe in saying, consequently, that the foundation fund of the 
school had its beginning in the prize moneys of these gallant but precarious 
adventures. 

Mr. Bulkeley was a merchant of modest pretensions, whose place of 
business was very near the school which now bears his name. He was born 
December 22, 1799, and died December 19, 1849. He left an estate valued at 
something less than $25,000 to found a secondary school which should be 
free to boys of New London. In his will he provided that the funds should 
be kept intact until the trustees, who w-ere named in the will, should decide 
that they were justified in the erection of the schoolhouse. 

There were five trustees named by I\Ir. Bulkeley, viz.: John P. C. Mather, 
Nathan Belcher, Henry P. Haven, William C. Crump, and N. Shaw Perkins, 
who served continuously until his death in 1905. This official board decided 
in 1870 that the estate had increased so considerably in its careful manage- 
ment that they were justified in beginning operations. Accordingly, plans 
were secured from the famous architect, Mr. Eidlitz, and upon a lot presented 
to them by the city they erected a very substantial and attractive building. 
How little they anticipated the growth of the city may be seen from the fact 
that the school provided seating capacity for only forty-two boys in the 
main study hall. 

The school was opened in September, 1873. for the admission of boys, 
under the direction of Eugene B. Collester as principal, who had graduated 
from Amherst College the preceding June. Mr. Collester resigned in 1880, 
and afterwards lived in Minnesota. The next principal of the school was 

X.I..— 1-17 



258 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Ely R. Hall, Yale '']2, and previously a teacher in Hopkins Grammar School. 
Mr. Hall remained in charge of the school until 1888, when he moved to 
Woodstock, Connecticut, and was principal of the academy of that town 
until his death in 1920. The conduct of the school was then placed in the 
hands of the writer, who has remained in charge until the present (1921). 

The ordinary custom of secondary schools in having a curriculum of four 
years leading to graduation was followed until 1884, when the course was 
changed to one of three years, with the privilege of an additional year for 
boys desiring to enter college. This plan was followed until 1910, when the 
school restored its original plan of a course extending through four years. 

Bulkeley School is the successor of the New London Grammar School, 
established in 1713, and maintained jointly by the town and the income of a 
gift of two hundred and fifty acres of land given by Robert Bartlett, who 
died in 1676. Nathan Hale was one of the masters of this school, which was 
discontinued in 1873 ^'^^ ^^ Robert Bartlett foundation was given to the 
trustees of Bulkeley School. The funds of the school have been enhanced 
by various legacies and gifts, notably from Asa Otis, Henry P. Haven, and 
George F. Tinker. 

The building was very much enlarged since 1873, and now accommodates 
about two hundred boys. The graduates number about 850, of whom 275 
have entered college or other institutions of higher learning. Many of the 
graduates have attained eminence in public life. At the present time the 
school has a graduate in both houses of the National Congress as well as in 
the Connecticut Legislature. They are found in the faculties of the United 
States Military and Naval Academies and various colleges. About two 
hundred were engaged in the activities of the recent European war. 

The foregoing facts constitute the visible history of Bulkeley School, but 
its real history and the apology for its foundation are to be found, like those 
of every school, in the lives of those who have come within its influence, and 
will never be known until the day when all things shall be revealed and we 
shall see each other face to face. 

WILLIAMS MEMORIAL INSTITUTE 

Mr. Colin S. Buell, principal, gives the following account of this school. 

The Williams Memorial Institute is a secondary school for girls, founded 
>»y Mrs. Harriet Peck Williams, of Norwich, Conn., as a memorial to her son, 
Thomas W. Williams, 2d, a whaling merchant of New London. Mr. Wil- 
liams died suddenly in 1855, leaving the bulk of this property to his mother. 
One parcel of this property was a lot on which he had planned to build a 
house. The mother decided to give this lot and the funds left her by her 
son to found a school. 

The school was opened in September, i8gi, with about 100 pupils, taken 
over from the "Young Ladies' High School," a public school of the city of 
New London. In order to make the school free to the girls of New London, 
the city agreed to pay the nominal fee charged to all girls. 

As the years went by the school increased in numbers beyond all expecta- 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 259 

tion, in spite of the fact that a Vocational School was founded and flourished 
greatly. The number of girls at present enrolled is about 325. 

The graduates of the school number about 1,100, and are scattered over 
the world. Over 50 per cent, of them are, or have been at some time, teachers. 
Many of them have attended the leading colleges, and have won the highest 
honors. Some are now professors in colleges of America and of foreign lands. 
The majority of the alumnae are, at the present time, occupying the places 
which are the natural heritage of women — wives and mothers. 

In 1917 a member of the board of trustees bought the property adjoining 
that of the institute and presented it to the school. The property now con- 
sists of about six acres of land in the city, with two large buildings, green- 
houses, etc., tennis courts, out-door basketball court and room for sports of 
various kinds. From the very beginning the school has insisted on physical 
training. A teacher has been in charge of the gymnasium, and all girls go to 
work there twice a week. 

NEW LONDON VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL 

The following is from the pen of Mr. F. S. Hitchcock, principal. 

The origin of this school dates back to the early boyhood of its founder, 
Mr. William H. Chapman, and represents a plan on his part, not necessarily 
to lessen labor, for he believed in work, but to enable young men and women 
to attack the problems of life with intelligence, with a love of industry and 
skill, and with a greater certainty of achievement worthy of their best efforts. 

William Henry Chapman was born April 8th, 1819, in East Haddam, 
Middlesex county, Connecticut, and traces his ancestry from Robert Chap- 
man, a native of Hull, England, who came to America in 1633 and settled 
in Sa\ brook, Connecticut. Another ancestor. Sir John Chapman, was at one 
time Lord Mayor of London. Mr. Chapman spent his youth in the country. 
As a boy he was normally healthy but not vigorous. He was fond of reading 
and inclined to seek seclusion to gratify this taste. From biographies of 
business men he gained help for his personal plans and problems. He was 
educated in the public and private schools of his native town and in Bacon 
Academy, Colchester, Connecticut. He keenly enjoyed historical literature. 

In 1837 Mr. Chapman began as a clerk in a drygoods store in New 
London, which proved to be the beginning of a long and successful business 
career. He was president of the Union Bank (chartered 1792) for forty-six 
years, and was president of the Savings Bank of New London from 1866 
until the time of his death in February, 1912. From 1875 until February, 
1912, he was a deacon in the Second Congregational Church of New London, 
nnd acti\ e in religious work. During the Civil War he was town treasurer 
of New London, and throughout his life his ecclesiastical, educational and 
financial interests led to active participation in constructive service to the city. 

About 1885 Mr. Chapman began to take interest in public education, and 
from reading and observation came to believe the culture and training which 
characterized the instruction of his youth should be supplemented by courses 
in the productive activities of life. About 1891 the annual reports of Charles 



26o NEW LONDON COUNTY 

B. Jennings, acting superintendent of New London schools, began to contain 
a plea for the introduction of industrial arts into the public schools. Manual 
training, mechanical arts and trades schools were being advocated and estab- 
lished throughout the country, and in igoi Mr. Chapman decided to give 
$100,000 for a building and equipment to furnish instruction to girls in dress- 
making, millinery, domestic science and home economics; to boys, the tools, 
appliances and machinery for training in handicrafts by which all might be 
helped in obtaining a livelihood. The intention was to present to the city 
the facilities for teaching the domestic and industrial arts, but the cost of 
maintenance was a problem, and he later contributed securities of a par value 
amounting to another $100,000 to make it possible to start the institution. 
To safeguard the investment and to insure the carrying out of his idea, he 
secured from the Legislature articles of incorporation which were approved 
May nth, 1903. Section i reads: "Resolved by this Assembly, that Walter 
Learned, Alfred Coit, Charles B. Jennings, James Hislop, George Whittlesey, 
Frederick S. Newcomb, Lucius E. Whiton and George H. Holmes, all of the 
city of New London, together with such other persons as may hereafter 
become associated with them and their successors, be and they are hereby 
constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of The Manual Training 
and Industrial School of New London. The mayor of the city of New London 
and the president and secretary of the board of School Visitors of the city 
shall be ex-ofificio members of the corporation." At that date Hon. B. F. 
Mahan was mayor. Dr. John G. Stanton was chairman, and Mr. Carlos 
Barry secretary, of the Board of School Visitors of New London. 

The establishment of an institution of this type proved to be a task for 
the board of trustees involving thought, correspondence, visitation and di^^ 
cussion which required time. The original building was far enough completed 
to be used in the fall of 1906, and the school opened October ist of that year. 

The responsibility of equipment and organization of the school was vested 
in Frederick St. John Hitchcock under the title of principal. He was born 
in Westfield, Massachusetts, August ist, 1865. of English ancestry, educated 
in New England public schools and the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology. He had eighteen years of experience in teaching in high schools and 
technical branches before coming to New London. From this preparation and 
experience, and by conference with the founder of the school and its board of 
trustees, the present institution was developed. 

The experience of other institutions was constantly kept in mind, and by 
inspection or correspondence the activities of technical and vocational schools 
elsewhere, were helpful in these early days. The Massachuestts Institute of 
Technology, Mechanic Arts High School in Boston, the Rindge College, 
Manhattan Trade School, Hebrew Technical Institute of New York, Pratt 
Institute of Brooklyn, the Williamson Free School and Drexel Institute in 
Philadelphia, Hampton Institute, Virginia, and Georgia Technical Institute, 
were visited and studied for ideas. A committee of manufacturers, mechanics 
and individual educators and teachers from New England and New York was 
formed for advice and suggestions. The conclusion reached was that a course 
should be planned for no special class or group, but for normal youth, age 



I 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 261 

about fourteen, with the first eight grades of the public schools completed or 
equivalent preparation, as an entrance requirement. Students with less 
schooling on account of poor opportunity, but with maturity of mind and 
body fitting them for "catching up" and pursuing the course without being 
a drawback to their associates, to be admitted on six weeks' probation. 

In mechanical arts and trades the fundamental principles were sought by 
analysis, only as much taught in a day as could be received with keen in- 
terest; the amount of information and skill in each subject to be compre- 
hensive enough to be of practical use. "Manual training" does not reside in 
the hand, but principally in the brain and in the mind," and "First think out 
your work, then work out your thought," two quotations from Dr. C. M. 
Woodward, represented the angle by which technical skill was approached. 

The age of eighteen was decided upon as a desirable average for gradua- 
tion, to give time for development of body, mind and character through a 
four years course. That the substantial development of skill in mechanical 
arts might lead to further interest and opportunity, the related mathematics, 
science and social and political history were included in the course of study. 
One year of civics and four of English gave a base, from which English litera- 
ture and social and political duties and problems could be taught or discussed. 
After the third year, a group of students observing that at graduation a 
career in the industries would have greater opportunity for them if their 
education was continued in a technical college, a request came for language 
enough to pass entrance examinations. This was given out of school hours 
for a period of five years, and finally was added to the regular schedule of the 
school. 

After the first year all machinery and equipment of the school was in- 
stalled by students, and after the third year all repairs to machinery were 
part of the regular instruction. Practically all small tools within the scope 
of the equipment have been made by students from the beginning. 

The four years course in general woodwork, pattern making, draughting, 
tool forging and machine shop experience, combined with English, civics, 
history, mathematics, sciences and modern languages, has placed the young 
men who have graduated as follows: "j"; per cent, in the trades or vocations 
taught in the school, 12 per cent, went to college, and 11 per cent, are at work 
in other occupations. 

Of the girls who have completed the four-year domestic art and science 
courses, together with English, civics, history, literature, mathematics, sci- 
ences and modern languages, 64 per cent, are employed at vocations or teach- 
ing the branches studied in the school. 24 per cent, continued their education 
in summer schools or by going to college, and 12 per cent, who attended espe- 
cially with reference to the efficiency, independence and contentment afforded, 
have taken a measure of those attributes into their home*. 

The skill and earning capacity of graduates leads i large percentage of 
them to take up work immediately in the productive vocations ; but the scope 
and thoroughness of the academic courses maintained enables students of 
good scholarship to enter colleges, either by examination or by certificate. A 
fair percentage of the young men have been accepted in colleges and technical 



262 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

schools and more are planning to continue their education in that way. 

Considerable difficulty in obtaining teachers has been experienced from 
the first. Competent instructors in the trades could make more money in the 
industries than as teachers. Those at the heads of departments teach because 
they enjoy the life and service. The dressmaking, ladies' tailoring and milli- 
nery are carried to a degree of skill and excellence seldom found outside the 
trades. The analysis of the work may be copied by anyone, but the morale 
and efficiency of the department of domestic art has attracted some notice 
outside New England. A superintendent from the Middle West visited the 
school some years ago, and spent the day in copying details of the course in 
domestic art. Upon leaving he expressed his thanks for information obtained 
and stated : "That is just what we want in our city ; one matter troubles me, 
however; that is teachers. Where do you get yours?" Answer: "We gen- 
erally make our own." "Well, but you had to start somewhere. What do 
you have to pay a woman like the head of that department?" Answer: "That 
is a somewhat embarrassing question." "There is no secret about it is there?" 
Answer: "No!" "But you would not stand in the way of her advancement, 
would you? We could offer much more than that." Answer: "Well, if you 
are going to ask her to leave here, perhaps you ought to be told more about 
her." "Is there any 'out'* about her?" Answer: "Not that we know of, except 
that she married the principal about eighteen years ago, and they are edu- 
cating their own children here." The practical tailoring, millinery and art 
needlework have closely approached professional excellence from the begin- 
ning, due in part to the technical accuracy sought, but due more to the per- 
sonality and example of motherly refinement, dignity and efficienc of the 
teacher matron of the domestic art department, Mrs. E. L. Cheney Hitchcock. 

In the shops and laboratories as well as in the tailoring rooms, competent 
heads of departments have extended their work by employing graduates of 
the school as assistants. Mutual helpfulness carried through the four ears 
of study and practice has developed a constant supply of those who want to 
teach as a vocation. The most skillful have been glad to get experience for 
moderate wages under their old instructors, and the school profits by their 
eagerness to earn a recommendation to superintendents seeking teachers 
skilled and experienced in mechanical arts. 

The very practical work of the students has brought appeals for extend- 
ing the work to smaller groups in grade schools and social service centers. 
Senior boys have taught mechanical drawing and general woodwork in the 
Y. M. C. A., Mystic Oral School and Montville. Senior girls have conducted 
classes in cooking or dressmaking in Mystic Oral School, Montville, and in 
the social service centers of New London. The work in Montville was started 
under the auspices of Mrs. Frederick A. Johnson, and has been instrumental 
in directing many toward a full four years high school course which later on 
they completed. Most of the extension work carried on by students was done 
evenings, on Saturdays, or during vacations. The immediate benefits have 
usually been followed by increased attendance at the Vocational Hieh School. 

Throughout the early years of the school the problem of maintenance 

* "Out," a colloquialism meaning any weakness. 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 263 

■was serious. The intention of the donor ^vas to furnish buildings and equip- 
ment for practical instruction to youth of high school age, but the costs of 
materials, teachers, etc., were expected to be borne by the city or by the pay- 
ment of tuition. New London started by paying $500 per year, and when the 
amount some years later had advanced to $700 an effort was made to get aid 
from the State. The basis of approval by the State included forty-eight weeks 
of school of eight hours per day, per year, consisting of 50 per cent, academic 
and 50 per cent, shop work, each student confined to one trade which must 
be followed to completion. 

Ordinarily, 85 per cent, of the vocational students have to earn a part 
or all of the cost of their education out of school hours. The longer day and 
longer school year would have made attendance impossible for a large num- 
ber. Four hours academic work as taught in other high schools would have 
been acceptable, but in practice the subjects required failed to include those 
which form a basis for culture and make the way open to further training 
after graduation. No parents would consent to that plan. Neither would 
they consent to deciding upon one trade for children at the age of fourteen. 
Another factor leading to the abandonment of State aid was the cost of 
equipment and teachers for the long hours of shop work required. No 
reduction of expense would result for the city, but a large reduction in 
attendance would follow. The four years technical high school course was 
continued free to resident students and paid for by the city. Non-resident 
students met the increased costs by an advance in tuition. The struggle for 
support doubtless had a tendency to increase the attendance and advance the 
standards of the school. The threatened loss of all cultural training developed 
an appreciation of it, and English history, civics and general science received 
an impetus which sent an unusual number of graduates on to technical 
schocls and colleges. One effect of the stim.nlated interest in English was 
the success of students in competition with other schools for literary prizes. 
A second prize of ten dollars offered by the Colonial Dames of America was 
awarded to Samuel Bittner, a junior in 1918. The Connecticut gold medal 
together with fifty dollars in gold from the Sons of the American Revolution 
was awarded to Louise Ernst, a sophomore in 191 5. 

In connection with the English and history classes, the school has given 
several plays each year w^hich at first were staged in the history room of the 
school. The seating capacity soon proved to be inadequate, and the Lyceum 
Theater was used for "Higby of Harvard" in 1912. In 1914, through the 
bequest of $28,000 under the will of Mrs. Ellen Tyler Chapman, wife of the 
founder of the school, a fine auditorium was added to the building. A series 
of debates, prize speaking and plays became part of the student activity each 
year. "Mice and Men," "The Cricket on the Hearth," "Little Lord Faunt- 
leroy" and the "Birds' Christmas Carol" were enthusiastically supported by 
students and the public. The profit from the plays so far exceeded the expense 
that valuable pictures and many articles of furnishing and equipment were 
added to the institution. The school glee club and orchestra formed a begin- 
ning from which a general public interest in good music has grown. Musi- 
cians of national reputation and accepted merit have found the acoustic prop- 



264 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

erties of the school auditorium to be excellent. The audiences have been large 
and appreciative. Much of the achievement in dramatics and musical work 
is due to the talent and energy of Miss Eva M. Sherburne, teacher of English 
in the school. 

In 191 1, when the Hartford Graduate Club, represented by Mrs. E. V. 
Mitchell, Miss Mary Partridge, and Miss Elizabeth Wright, came to New 
London looking for a site for the Connecticut College for Women, and the 
city of New London proposed to raise $100,000, the short term campaign plan 
was proposed and carried out under the auspices of the New London Voca- 
tional School. Professor Ralph L. Cheyney of the Y. M. C. A. College, 
Springfield, Massachusetts, outlined the plan of the campaign. Frederick S. 
Hitchcock, principal of the Vocational School, in consultation with Mr. C. S. 
Ward, member of the international committee of the Y. M. C. A., organized 
the details of the drive. A committee consisting of Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Alex. 
Campbell, superintendent of the New London Gas and Electric Company, 
and Rev. James W. Bixler, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, 
went to Philadelphia, where Mr. Ward was conducting a million dollar cam- 
paign. The organization and methods of work in that drive were practically 
duplicated in New London under the direction of these three men, with the 
addition of Mr. F. Valentine Chappell of New London. The Vocational 
School having suggested the plan of the business organization, was by its 
equipment and personnel able to carry on a large share of the practical work. 
From President Burton, of Smith College, a statement of what Smith 
College has done for Northampton, obtained by Mr. Hitchcock, was used as 
a business argument in favor of the college. The office management organ- 
ized at the school was soon transferred to the larger office equipment of the 
Gas and Electric Company. The special directory and card indexing of the 
city began at the school with students' help, and was finished in the larger 
offices under the same management by paid stenographers and clerks. The 
filing cases and small articles were made entirely by students. In the rush 
to complete larger projects, carpenters and sign painters from outside the 
school were employed. The Daily Bulletin used at headquarters, the twenty- 
foot clock on the "Evening Day" building and the thirty-foot thermometer 
on the First Congregational Church lawn were made in this way. The clock, 
with materials furnished by Mr. Theodore Bodenwein, was begun on the 
school shop floor, but the sections would not go through the largest door, and 
it was transferred to the floor of the Konomoc Hose House. The lettering 
was done under great difficulty by A. Francis Watson, and the clock erected 
on the Day building by B. B. Gardner, in a morning of drizzle of sleet and 
rain. The thermometer in three sections was erected by the New England 
Telephone Company. Noonday lunches were a feature of the campaign, and 
with a hastily improvised kitchen they were managed and served by Miriam 
Marstow and relays of girls from the domestic science department of the 
Vocational School. 

In the College campaign, practically every individual, group, club and 
corporation united as with one mind to carry out a single plan, with every 
personal and business interest merged into an organized whole. The city 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 265 

awakened to a collective conscious effort and did what it set out to do. The 
Vocational School was only one factor among many contributing to the 
object sought. New London has done several bigger things as a city since 
191 1, but the school was ready in mind and skill and equipment to furnish its 
quota of service and cooperation when the opportunity came. 

Upon the declaration of war with Germany, a large number of graduates 
and seniors volunteered in the army and navy, and several were promoted 
on account of their mechanical skill and general academic training. The 
remaining students were organized to put over the many drives to support 
hospitals, the Knights of Columbus, Young Men's Christian Association, Red 
Cross, Hebrew Welfare Association, and the Salvation Army, as well as for 
the sale of bonds. During the summer seasons many worked independently, 
and with the Boys' Working Reserve to increase the production of food. 
Under the auspices of the domestic science department, instructive courses 
were given in the school auditorium teaching better methods of conserving 
food in the home, and a series of demonstrations and lectures was carried over 
a period of two years for the benefit of housekeepers and women desiring 
to prepare for service by nursing. One by one the male teachers enlisted 
until every eligible man had gone. Women served well in their places where 
possible, but most of the academic branches of the school being correlated 
with technical work in shops and laboratories, made it difficult for women 
to do the work of men. Toward the end, senior boys carried some of the 
classes in mathematics and sciences. It was in a way a strain upon the 
student teachers and the classes, but the spirit under which they strove 
together brought no apparent loss to either. The student teachers have since 
done well in technical colleges, and some of the students have done the same. 
An added interest and application to study seem to have offset such weakness 
as there was in formal preparation. 

During the fifteen years of its life to the present time the New London 
Vocational School has carried the approval of the State Board of Education 
for acceptable work as a high school. Making school work a business as much 
as storekeeping, manufacturing or office work, with that absorbing interest 
that leads to success, has helped somewhat. Keeping such standards in 
academic work, parallel with shop and laboratory practice, as would give a 
combination of thought and skill, have developed self-respect and a strong 
school spirit. Contact with and practical service to the interests of the city 
and the homes, has brought increasing attendance and financial support. In 
regard to the dignity of labor, Ruskin said, "We are always in these day.-; 
endeavoring to separate intellect and manual labor; we want one man to 
be always thinking and another to be always working, and we call one a 
gentleman and the other a laborer, whereas the workman ought to be thinking 
some of the time, and the thinker to be working some of the time, and both 

MYSTIC OR.\L SCHOOL FOR THE DE.\F 
Miss Clara M. H. IMcGuigan has the written the following account of 
this school. 

The Mystic Oral School for the Deaf, formerly known as the Whipple 



266 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

Home School, was founded in 1869 by Zerah Colburn Whipple. Zerah Whip- 
ple was descended on the Whipple line from Samuel Whipple and Elizabeth 
Eddy of Providence, Rhode Island, who removed to Connecticut prior to 
1712. Samuel Whipple was an iron manufacturer and a successful business 
man. His mills were built on Saw Mill river, near Pocquetannock. No doubt 
from this line Zerah inherited his ingenuity and mechanical skill. When only 
a boy he made himself a very good violin, and later, as an aid to his work in 
teaching the deaf, he invented the Whipple's natural alphabet, an ingenious 
pictorial alphabet representing the positions of the lips, tongue, etc., in pro- 
ducing the elementary English sounds. He was also descended from the 
Wolcotts and Griswolds of Connecticut, families empowered with great intel- 
lectual and executive ability. His Bolles, Hempstead, Waterhouse and 
Rogers blood gave literary ability, musical and oratorical talent, and 
religious zeal. Two Scotch families, Grouch and Douglass, added strength 
to his fine English blood. Having the remarkable family inheritance that 
he did, it is no wonder that Zerah Colburn Whipple was endowed with the 
vision and ability of a genius. The inspiration for his work came from his 
grandfather, Jonathan Whipple, who had taught his own little son Enoch, 
deaf from birth, to talk and read the lips. 

Jonathan Whipple was also endowed with all of the talents of his remark- 
able ancestors, but perhaps religious zeal was paramount. He was the first 
president of the Connecticut Peace Society, and the extent of his charities 
was boundless. He was a natural scholar himself, and gave his children a 
good common school education in the little red school house of his district, 
but he did so much for the poor and friendless that he hadn't the means left 
for the higher education of his children, so although all, including Enoch, had 
college minds, none had college advantages. 

Enoch Whipple owned a farm and blacksmith shop adjoining his father's 
farm. He spoke and read the lips so well that he did business for years with 
an iron manufacturer in Norwich without anyone suspecting he was deaf. 
He married a cousin, a hearing woman of great literary ability. Their eve- 
nings were spent in reading the best books of literature, travel, etc., and their 
home with its extensive library was the gathering place for all the ambitious 
children in the neighborhood. They had the bound volumes of the "Century 
Magazine" from its first issue to the one at the time of their death, and their 
book-cases were filled with hundreds of fine books on every conceivable 
subject. 

Zerah Whipple grew up in his grandfather's home. He imbibed his 
religious zeal and inherited his remarkable talents. He loved and admired 
his uncle Enoch and his cultured wife. He spent many evenings with them 
in their delightful home. As he grew to manhood, he began to wonder why 
other deaf people could not be taught to talk like his uncle Enoch, and his 
grandfather convinced him they could. He determined to make teaching the 
deaf and dumb to speak and read the lips his life work. 

He advertised for pupils, and November 15, 1869, a young lad of twelve 
years from a wealthy Quaker family of Wilmington, Delaware, was brought 
to the Whipple home in Ledyard, Connecticut, for instruction. The old 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 267 

grandfather showed Zerah how to begin his work in bringing speech to the 
dumb lips of the boy, and Zerah quickly acquired skill in teaching and 
obtained gratifying results. Although this boy was twelve years old when 
his education began, he acquired good, intelligible speech, was a fine lip 
reader, and had a liberal education when he left school at the time of Zerah's 
death in 1879. His taste for good literature was formed. He regularly sub- 
scribed for the leading magazines, was familiar with Dickens and other good 
writers, and was able to take his place in the class of society in which he was 
born and look after his own and his mother's business interests. 

Other pupils came from all over the United States, and the old gambrel- 
roofed farm house had to be enlarged to accommodate them. All of the 
family were pressed into service as teachers except the dear mother, who 
was "Mother Whipple" to them all. The results were remarkable, for 
Enoch, who lived next door, was their model. He it was the parents saw and 
talked with when they brought their children to the school, and speech like 
his or approaching it was what they paid for and expected. Most of tht 
pupils came from distant States, but the fame of the school soon began to be 
talked about in Connecticut. Parents of deaf children who hadn't money vis- 
ited the school and wrote letters begging Mr. Whipple to find a way to give 
speech to their children. There was no school in Connecticut but the sign 
school at Hartford where deaf children could be educated free. Then it was 
that Zerah Whipple applied to the legislature of Connecticut for State aid. 
This was granted July 24, 1872. From that time children from families in 
poor and moderate circumstances have had the privilege, if they so desired, 
of having their children educated by what is known as the Pure Oral Method. 

By the Pure Oral Method is meant giving a deaf child speech and lip 
reading in an oral environment, so that he will unconsciously, by force of 
habit, use speech altogether in communicating with his fellow-men — in other 
words, restoring him to society. Now this can be done more or less per- 
fectly according to the ability of the child, the ability of the teacher and the 
child's environment. If we want our child to acquire French and talk French 
naturally and fluently, we place it in a French school in France, where it has 
a French environment. Such a method of procedure is absolutely necessary 
in acquiring fluency in any language. It is the same with speech for the 
deaf. A deaf child in order to acquire speech and use it spontaneously must 
have a speech environment. No school that teaches signs and finger spelling 
can give its pupils a speech environment. The child easily masters signs 
and finger spelling, and as they are easier at first, it will use them instead 
of speech. So it is in the schools called Combined Schools, where they have 
what is called an Oral department, speech is relegated to the class rooms 
and seldom if ever used elsewhere. In such schools the children think in 
signs and translate into speech when they use it. In Zerah Whipple's school 
this was not true. The pupils thought in speech and used speech as their 
mother tongue. Speech soon became spontaneous and natural. Because of 
this difference between Oral and Sign and Combined Schools, the Mystic 
Oral School has continued its work and because of this difTerence it is still 
needed. 



268 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

In a short time the Whipple School outgrew the farm house and its 
additions. The beautiful summer residence of a retired sea captain was pur- 
chased from his heirs, and in 1874 the pupils were transferred to their new 
home. There is where the school is still situated. It is in the town of 
Groton, about a mile from the village of Mystic. It is said the old sea cap- 
tain selected this site for his home because it commanded the most wonderful 
view of land and sea to be found on the southern coast of Connecticut. It is 
on a high hill overlooking river, village, valley and sound. It has country, 
seashore, and almost mountain air combined. The Mansion, as it was called, 
seemed particularly well adapted to fill the requirements of the Whipple 
Home School, and it grew slowly in numbers and flourished until 1879, j^st 
ten years after its establishment, when its enthusiastic and gifted principal 
died. 

His loss was in a way irreparable, but as the members of his family had 
always assisted in teaching, they were able to go on with the work. His 
brother-in-law, Frank Whipple, who had been his partner for a time, became 
its principal and did excellent work. He finally sold out his interests to an 
uncle and aunt, and though retained for a while as a teacher, eventually he 
left Connecticut and went to California to teach speech to the deaf in the 
State School at Berkeley. 

For ten years longer the school was conducted with varied degrees of 
success according to the efficiency of the teachers employed. Advertising 
ceased with Zerah Whipple's death. The private pupils were gradually 
withdrawn and placed in other schools or taught by a private teacher at 
home until none but State pupils remained. As the school was not endowed 
and had to depend almost entirely upon the State appropriation for its main- 
tenance, and as this was only $175 per capita per annum, it was impossible 
to secure experienced teachers and provide up-to-date equipment in the home. 
In 1895, Hon. O. Vincent Coffin, then governor of Connecticut, visited 
the school and completely reorganized it. Its name was changed to the 
Mystic Oral School for the Deaf, and the per capita appropriation was raised 
to $200 per year. Dr. Clara M. Hammond McGuigan, daughter of the former 
principal and first cousin to Zerah Whipple, was asked to assume the responsi- 
bility of the school as its superintendent. 

Dr. McGuigan was a graduate of the Connecticut Normal School at New 
Britain, of the Mystic Valley Institute at Mystic, and of the Woman's Med- 
ical College of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. She had taught in the public 
schools of Ledyard and Groton, and had been principal of the Ivoryton School 
in Essex. She had been resident physician for fifteen months in the City 
Hospital of Philadelphia, and had received special training in work with the 
deaf from both Zerah and Frank Whipple. She was the wife of a physician, 
and was not dependent upon the school for her support, consequently she 
could and did use the State money for the betterment of the school instead 
of taking an adequate salary. 

Dr. McGuigan at once engaged Miss Ella Scott as principal, a teacher 
who had had eleven years experience teaching in the Clarke School at North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, probably the best school for the deaf in the world. 




MYSTIC VALLEV IN'STlTUTi:, ilVSTK 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 269 

Miss Scott came to Mystic full of courage and enthusiasm, with the deter- 
mination to make the Mj'stic School as much like her model at Northampton 
as possible. She taught trained teachers to assist her, and did brave work. 
The school was soon incorporated, and in five years had doubled in numbers. 
More room was needed, so a large addition, subscribed to by friends of the 
school, was built and occupied. The work of reorganizing and building up 
the school had worn upon Miss Scott so that when she was offered a fine 
position as a private teacher of a little girl in Canada she resigned to accept it. 
Other efficient principals followed Miss Scott, but owing to lack of funds 
the work was arduous and discouraging, so no one held the position longer 
than five years. The principals under Dr. McGuigan's superintendency were 
as follows: Miss Ella Scott, 1S95-1900; Miss Alice H. Damon, B.A., 1900-04; 
Miss Frances E. Gillespie, 1904-07; Misses Jane and Eleanor, associate prin- 
cipals, 1907-12; Mr. Tobias Brill, 1912-17; Dr. C. M. H. McGuigan, superin- 
tendent and principal, 1917-18; Mrs. Sara Small Temple, 1918-19; Miss Addie 
L. Landers, acting principal, 1919-20; Mr. Walter J. Tucker, 1920-21. 

In 1895 the school numbered 18 pupils; in 1900 there were 36; in 1910 
it numbered 54, and at the present time there are 82 pupils in school, and 
about 50 on the waiting list. 

The per capita apportioned by the State of Connecticut for the support 
of the school has been as follows: 1872-95, $175; 1895-1901, $200; 1901-03, 
$225; 1903-07, $250; 1907-15, $275; 1915, $300; in each of the last four periods 
there was an allowance of $20 for clothing when necessary. 

By 1909, the building with its addition was inadequate. It was unsafe 
to house so many deaf children in a frame building, so the State Legislature 
was appealed to and eventually $17,000 was appropriated for a fireproof 
dormitory. This was built and occupied in September, 191 1. This was built 
for fifty or sixty children, and not for eighty, so another new building is now 
needed to relieve congestion and to form the first unit of a model school on 
the cottage plan. 

Four States have sent their deaf wards to the Mystic School : Connecticut, 
1872 to the present time; New Jersey, 1876-1882; New Hampshire, 1897-1902; 
Vermont, 1898-1912. 

A member of the Board of Charities of Massachusetts visited the Mystic 
School and recommended sending its pupils to Mystic when it hadn't accom- 
modations for them within its own borders, but as the room at Mystic was 
limited, no effort was made to secure Massachusetts pupils. 

The course of study prescribed includes lip reading, speech, language, 
technical grammar, arithmetic, geography. United States, General and English 
history, physiology, American and English literature, and some algebra. In 
1904 one pupil, having completed the course, graduated. In 1907 two pupils 
graduated. In 1910 there were two graduates; in 1913, two graduates; in 
1918, three graduates; and in 1919, one graduate. Three of these pupils 
afterwards entered high school for the hearing. 

In addition to the speech, lip reading arwl academic studies taught, each 
child is trained along one or more industrial lines. The various industries 
that have been taught in the school are as follows : For boys — Printing, farm- 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 

ing, cabinet work, carpentry, chair caning, hammock netting, cobbling, tree 
pruning and spraying, waiting on table, assisting cook, cooking, etc. For 
girls — Gardening, basketry, pottery, embroidery, crocheting, knitting, sew- 
ing, dressmaking, housework, cooking, millinery and weaving. 

Almost without exception, the pupils of this school have gone out into 
the world well equipped to earn their own living and to be a credit to their 
school, their families and their State. 

Practically from the time of its organization the school has maintained 
a small normal class. Over fifty teachers have finished the course and ren- 
dered valuable service in bringing speech to deaf children in this and other 
States. 

During all the years Dr. McGuigan superintended the school, she looked 
forward to the time when either some wealthy person would endow it or the 
State would purchase it so its work could go on unimpeded by private man- 
agement and lack of funds. The endowment did not materialize, so in 1919 
a bill for the purchase if the school by the State of Connecticut was passed 
by the legislative body, and the school would at once have become a State 
school had its board been assured it would be continued. This assurance 
was not given, so the deeds were not signed. Dr. McGuigan continued the 
work and waited for a more auspicious time. 

Before the legislature of 1921 came into being, the new governor, Hon. 
Everett J. Lake, expressed himself as favorable to the continuance of the 
Mystic School, so relying upon the hope that he and the new legislative body 
would make proper provision for the future of the Mystic Oral School, the 
deeds were signed and the school passed over to the State. It is now a State 
School. It is the only Pure Oral School in the State. It represents the most 
advanced method known in the education of the deaf. Its situation for such 
a school is ideal, and with proper provisions for its future, new buildings 
and equipment, it can be made the equal of the best school for the deaf in 
the world. 

Dr. McGuigan resigned as superintendent, and Mr. Walter J. Tucker 
was appointed to the place. He was an oral teacher of long standing. He 
had held the position as principal of the Wright Oral School of New York, 
and his wife was also an experienced oral teacher of the deaf. They seemed 
particularly fitted to go on with the work. 

Though not the first oral school in America, it was one of the first. 
Hampered always by lack of funds, it has grown and has done good work. 
Its influence has been far-reaching and its pupils are its best advertisement. 




CHAPTER XI 
RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 

The following History of Religion in New London County, beginning on this page and 
ending on page 314, is by tne Ktv. W. Hujbcrt, pastci- 01 the i<ifSl Church of Christ, 
in Croton. ihc remainder of the chapter is by contributors and staif writers: 

In this southeastern corner of Connecticut, religion of an advanced type 

has for these two hundred and seventy-five years and more proved its funda- 
mental place in human society. The Indian tribes preceding foreign settle- 
ments had their peculiar religious cults which doubtless were also basic to 
their political and social life; but as far as we can know these show no trace 
of development in form of worship or substance of creed, and especially 
interest us only in their contacts with the more advanced faiths of their suc- 
cessors. For more than a quarter of a millenium, now, New London county 
has witnessed almost every development of religion characteristic of the 
New World, and especially of New England.' 

It is true, the temporary decline in ethical ideals did not afflict the infant 
seventeenth century settlements here with anything like the fanatical craze 
which would burn a "witch" or smother a "Quaker," or even exile a Roger 
Williams, as was the case in the Massachusetts colony. Indeed, at intervals 
we note, on the contrary, an unexpected breadth of handling of issues that 
might easily have taken a harsher turn; as when in 1702 the Rev. John Keith 
and the Rev. John Talbot, working under the auspices of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, coming from Providence, crossed 
the Ferry (Groton Banks) to New London and were graciously received, 
particularly by the authorities, even though they came to champion the 
Church of England. The first mentioned of them says in his journal: 

"September 13th, Sunday, Mr. Talbot preached there (New London) in 
the forenoon and I preached there in the afternoon, we being desired to do so 
by the minister, Mr. Gurdon Saltonstall, who civilly entertained us at his 
house, and expressed his good affections to the Church of England. My text 
was Romans viii 19. The auditory was large and well affected. Colonel 
Winthrop, Governor of the Colony, invited us to dinner at his house and 
kindly entertained us, both then and the next day." 

Again we have the story of Jesse Lee, the pioneer of Methodism, in 1789 
preaching with popular acceptance in the identical county court house our 
eyes rest upon today in New London. A few years later. Bishop Asbury, 



' New London county as constituted in 1666, when the Connecticut Colony was divided 
into four counties under the new charter obtained in England by Governor John Winthrop. 
Jr., in 1662, embraced a much larger area than it does today. It stretched from the much 
disputed Rhode Island boundary westward across the Connecticut river to the Hammonassct 
river, being the western border of the modern Clinton, taking in all the Saybrooks (Ivilling- 
worth and Chester). To the north it embraced gradually (until 1726) the larger part of the 
modern Windham county (with the exception of Woodstock, claimed by Suffolk county, 
Massachusetts) and a small part of the modern Tolland county. We must be content with 
a hazy notion of this whole northern border. When Windham county was established in 
1726. the Northern townships of New London county were added to several from Hartford 
county to constitute the new area. When Middlesex county was formed in 1783, New 
London county lost historic Saybrook, with Killingworth and Chester, retaining all east of 
the Connecticut up to East Haddam. 



272 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

of the same Communion, had a similarly favorable reception. In 1793 the 
Rev. John Thayer, a Roman Catholic missionary, was allowed the use of the 
old First Church at Norwich Town by Rev. Joseph Strong, its pastor, in 
speaking to a miscellaneous audience, when he undertook to prove that the 
Roman Catholic was the only true church of Christ. The discourse was 
accounted by the local press to be "learned and vigorous," and the speaker 
was given a further hearing in the same place on the following Sunday 
evening. 

These incidents are typical of the freer conditions that generally prevailed 
in the Connecticut Colony, following the Plymouth precedent and doubtless 
influenced to a degree by the still freer attitude of the Rhode Island Plantation, 
Voting, in New London county, was never confined to church members, as 
was the case in Massachusetts and New Haven, but the suffrage was open 
to all reputable male citizens. While the historian of New London county 
has to call attention to many instances of narrowness and petty religious 
persecutions in the earlier colonial life, he can yet report better conditions 
in these respects than were customarily found in other parts of New England 
or in the British Isles and the continent of Europe. 

The first religious organization in the county (the First Church of 
Christ) came to New London as an already organized body from Gloucester, 
Massachusetts, bringing a modified connection between Church and State. 
To these virile, simple-hearted founders the Bible was a law-book for the 
infant colony, as well as a book of religion, and many decisions in the early 
courts took their precedents direct from Scripture. All freeholders originally 
were taxed for the support of the churches, and many of the disturbances 
and quarrels which arose were essentially economic; for a parish was loath 
to lose any of its paying constituency through the secession of outlying com- 
munities who claimed the right to carve out their own parishes. Indeed, the 
location of churches seems to have caused more trouble than any other 
question that arose in those early days. 

Church attendance at the first was compulsory, and a large number of 
cases of discipline came about thereby. "Separatism" caused the nearest 
approach to martyrdom to be found in all these annals, bringing to the front 
men and women who claimed the right to worship as their consciences dic- 
tated. The record gives us case after case of that form of persecution. 
Extreme personalities were ready to go the limit in self-assertion. Possibly 
the still freer conditions that prevailed in Rhode Island may have helped to 
this end. The famous Rogerenes boldly denounced what they called "the 
idolatry of the Sabbath." and took delight in disturbing meetings, and in the 
"punishments which inevitably followed. New London county took its full 
share in the long contest which at last brought complete separation of Church 
and State (about 1750) and placed on a voluntary basis both church attend- 
ance and church support. But in the meanwhile, Baptists, Adventists, Roman 
Catholics, Episcopalians and Friends, as well as all free thinkers, had, for the 
most part, a hard time of it during the first century of the local history. 

We get a happier outlook on things when we note that New London 
county shared in all the theological movements that helped fashion the re- 



RETJGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 273 

lig-ious, educational, social and political life of Southeastern Connecticut. 
Whatever our modern outlook may be, all this past now seems to have been 
essentia! and fundamental in the developing life. The looser bonds of the 
Cambridge Platform (1648) which fostered the spirit of independency gave 
place gradually to the closer associational and constitutional ties of the Say- 
brook Platform (1708). The more formal life of the churches, that succeeded 
the pioneer fervor, and under which the "half-way covenant" allowed a kind 
of church membership which did not necessitate deep religious convictions, 
was powerfully invaded by the preaching of the Great Awakening in the third, 
fourth and fifth decades of the eighteenth century, when Jonathan Edwards, 
George Whitfield and Eleazar Wheelock championed reasonable evidence of 
true "conversion" as essentia! to church membership. 

The inevitable demoralization of the war of the American Revolution 
struck the religious life in New London county hard, in spite of the patriotic 
fervor that centered about the celebrated Land Office in Lebanon and the heroic 
defence of New London in 1781. The massacre at Fort Griswold took every 
male member of the Groton church except an aged invalid who could not get 
out to share the glory of that September day. Loss of life generally in the 
homes in the county, abject poverty, the emigration of many enterprising 
families to newer settlements in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and 
Ohio, laxness of morals and the inroad of a deistical philosophy from France 
and England, as well as lack of well-equipped men for the ministry, the taking 
of many efficient pastors for much-needed chaplains in the army, the tem- 
porary clouding of the loyalty of those churches in the county planted and 
fostered by the Church of England, and the loss of substantial citizens who 
could not go back on the old flag of England, and who, often as the result of 
bitter handling by their neighbors, migrated to Canada — all these and many 
more obstacles like them contributed to give an alarming setback to organized 
religion in New London county. We may well be astonished that the com- 
bined results were not worse than they were, and that the recovery, checked 
by the alarms of the War of 1812, was as good as it was. It all shows a virile 
stock of men and women who could think through the changing, freer con- 
ditions into the larger life of our day. 

To the aid of the traditional Congregational churches came that of other 
types of religious life and feeling, which, in turn, laid solid foundations of 
religious faith and greatly stimulated, directly and indirectly, the older forms 
Particular attention here is called to the conscientious contentions of the 
various types of the Baptist invasion from Rhode Island, which rapidly per- 
meated the whole county as soon as the initial friction quieted down, and 
affected especially the sections east of the Thames river. Social ostracism, 
oft imprisonment as "Separatists," fines, nor any other obstacles, could keep 
these sturdy contenders for freedom of worship and a literal obedience to the 
commands of their Master from swinging forward, often with a marked evan- 
gelistic force, in all these communities. With these came the Adventists of 
various hues, who seemed still more extreme in their ideals and methods. 

At the opposite poles came the liturgical groups, on ancient and approved 
foundations, which sought to build solidly the Kingdom of God. The Episco- 



274 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

pal churches established their orderl}' worship in all the centers and with 
chapels in selected rural places. They had the honor of presenting to their 
American communion its first Bishop, who, as an infant, had been baptized 
in a Congreg-ational church (North Groton or Ledyard) by his own father, 
then a temporary supply there. (See page 305.) 

As immigration brought in ever-increasing numbers of followers of Rome 
from Ireland and the Continent of Europe, Catholic churches thoroughly 
organized their constituencies throughout the county and rendered an ines- 
timable aid to law and order, as well as to religious fervor. 

The Methodist Episcopal churches sprang up in the tracks of Jesse Lee 
and Bishop Asbury, the pioneers of Methodism. They did vital service in 
all the centers and reached out to the farthest limits of the rural districts. 
Their freer expression of religious life and feeling brought a general benefit 
to all the communities where they were established. 

In the deistical atmosphere of a century and a half ago, when the con- 
ception of an absentee God had so generally displaced that of the immanent, 
Divine Personality of the Bible for both orthodox and free thinker, the stage 
was set for a battle royal in New England, as well as old England, between 
the somewhat decadent orthodoxy and the many who styled themselves 
"Unitarian" as against the semi-theistic tendency of the traditional theology, 
under the soubriuet of "Trinitarian." New London county was not markedly 
influenced by this movement, which in many other sections swung the leading 
Congregational churches under the lead of Harvard College over onto the 
Unitarian side of the controversy Doubtless the Saybrook Platform (1708) 
(see page 287) and its Consociation organization kept the churches of Con- 
necticut more in line. 

In this connection, however, it should be noted that for nineteen years 
the First Church of Christ in New London had a pastor, Rev. Henry Chan- 
ning, just out of Yale College, who during his pastorate from 1787 to 1806 
held views that later were counted "Unitarian," but yet which, with only 
slight modifications of phraseology, do not seem far from modern orthodoxy.' 

But at the close of the ministry of Mr. Channing in 1806, the religious 
leaders of the orthodox Congregational churches of New London county set 



' "Profession and Covenant" used by Rev. Henry Channing at the First Church of 
Christ" in New London from 1790 to 1806: 

"In the presence of Almighty God, the Searcher of hearts, and before this assembly, you 
profess your unfeigned belief in the Holy Scriptures as given by divine inspiration, your 
acceptance of all the doctrines contained in them and your submission to the whole will of 
God revealed in His Word. 

"You do now acknowledge the Lord Jehovah, the one loving and true God, to be your 
God; and, relying upon divine assistance, do promise to walk humbly with God. 

"Professing repentance of all yo'jr fins and faith in our Lord Jesus, you sincerely 
receive Him as He is offered in the Gospel as the Teacher from God— the High Priest of 
our profession— and the King and Head of the church, believing that there is none other 
name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. 

"Depending on the Holy Spirit for sanctification. consolation and spiritual strength; and, 
receiving the Word of God as the only rule of your faith and practice, you submit to the 
brotherly care of this church of Christ, and to the discipline He hath established in His 
church. 

"You do now solemnly give up yourself and all that you have unto God, promising that 
you will endeavor to walk as becometh the Gospel of Christ, that you may give no cause for 
others to speak evil of it on your own account, but that the name of God may be glorified in 
you. Thus you profess and coven.^.nt," — Blake, Vol. IL v. 22. 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 275 

themselves atrainst this pKin of church life which seemed to accept member- 
ship on the basis of a good moral character and not by conversion or deep 
conviction, and which had little or no interest in missionary endeavor and 
became more and more self-contained and intellectual. The sterner Calvin- 
ism of Puritanism had a revival and the Westminster Confession and Cate- 
chism came again into vogue, as a deeper call of God was recognized in power- 
ful revival movements that set in. The winning of an expanding continent 
and of a world lying in sin and misery appealed to the orthodox churches of 
the county of all denominations. The desperately shattered condition of the 
post-Revolutionary churches, with the aftermath of the war of 181 2, had its 
healthful reaction. Slowly the churches gathered themselves together for an 
emphasis upon a Biblical faith, pressing the claims of the Scriptures through 
the Bible Societies upon every home in the county, and by the establishing 
of Sunday schools for the organized study of the Bible. The Connecticut 
Home Missionary Society helped the churches reach all neglected places in 
the State and county and to reach out to all regions whither Connecticut 
people had migrated— in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and especially 
in the Western Reserve of Ohio. The best and the worst of humanity fol- 
lowed the western trail, and the call for the establishment of religion in the 
new sections appealed successfully to the churches of this county, which sent 
its finest men and women as pioneers, and, along with them, churches, schools 
and ministers. 

Soon the call came from further afield and the whole world of needy 
humanity came home to the hearts of these earnest Christians, and the 
orthodox churches of New London county began that steady and copious 
stream of benevolence and self-surrender for foreign work which has grown 
with the years. As the New London and Norwich sea captains took Amer- 
ica's commerce to the ends of the world, so the educator and missionary took 
America's deepest religious character and discipline to nations still in the 
shadow of idolatry. 

Closely linked to this broad development, with its wholesome local reac- 
tion, came the zeal for reform. The Groton Monument was built by a lottery 
scheme, as were many churches and colleges of those early decades of the 
nineteenth century. But the conscience of the churches steadily developed 
until all gambling, like duelling, was outlawed. The same deepening of 
conscience was stirred by human slavery and did its full share in the awak- 
ened nation, first with abolition societies and later with the stern tramp of 
soldiers marching southward. The equally grave curse of intemperance be- 
came more and more evident. In 181 1 we note the occurrence of an ecclesi- 
astical ordination at the Groton Congregational Church. On the expense 
account was a large bill for "liquor." That was quite in order in those days. 
But soon thereafter we see ministers and churches reacting from this growing 
evil in society, and temperance organizations sprang up throughout the 
county and made no compromise with the use of alcoholic drink until at 
length the Eighteenth Amendment made an outlaw of it also. The Groton 
Banks Temperance Society was one of the earlier active agencies to bring 
this about. Orphanages, asylums, hospitals, followed with the marked im- 



276 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

provements in education. In every one of these vital reforms the churches 
of the county have taken a leading part, originating most of them. 

The distinctive work for young men and later for young women among 
all denominations seemed to grow out of the needs made mainfest by the 
Civil War. The Christian Endeavor movement came speedily to South- 
eastern Connecticut, followed by the Baptist Young People's Union and the 
Epworth League, the Knights of King Arthur, the Camp Fire Girls and 
the Boy and Girl Scouts. Later the Knights of Columbus and the Holy 
Name Society took their strong places in the life of the Catholic churches. 

The Brotherhood of St. Andrews and men's clubs of various names have 
been established in many of the churches, and have added marked strength 
to the work of the churches. Perhaps the most active of all these men's 
organizations is "The Layman's League." This is an interdenominational 
organization. It has been especially efficient in New London and through- 
out the southern townships of the county. Mention should be made of the 
Baraea classes that have gathered large groups of men for continuous study 
of the Bible in various parts of the county, and especially in Norwich and 
New London. 

Never has the modern force of free, voluntary, cooperative, religious 
organization shown itself more powerful and fundamental in New London 
county than in the services rendered by the churches of the county in the 
Great War (1917-18). The note of patriotism rang true and convincingly 
from every pulpit. Honor rolls and fiags arose in every place of worship. 
No organization within these churches failed to do its part. Proclamations 
from Governor and President were read so frequently at the services that it 
became evident that, whatever the pressing need, the churches were a chief 
avenue to the intelligence, the hearts, the conscience and the pockets of the 
several communities of the county. 

The close relation of the churches to education in New London county 
has been marked from the first. The common school at once followed the 
church in every community. Academies and, later, high schools, sprang up 
in all the centers, fostered at first in pastors' studies until separate buildings 
were inevitable. Norwich Free Academy in the northern section still retains 
the old name. It also does the high school work for Norwich and its environs. 
Indeed, the remains of most of the old academies are seen in the form of 
endowed high schools, like those in New London, North Stonington and 
Mystic. The Norwich Free Academy furnishes us with a typical New Eng- 
land scene. The camera brings into view the monument to Uncas, the 
Mohegan Indian chieftain who sold the nine-mile tract to the original settlers 
of Norwich Town, then the ancient colonial mansion, once a tavern that har- 
bored George Washington and is now the parsonage of the Park Congrega- 
tional Church, and in the background to the right the fine lines of the Gothic 
Park Church, and the Free Academy to the left. 

The famous Plainfield and Lebanon (Moor's Indian Charity School) 
schools were in territory once a part of the county. Eleazer Wheelock. 
founder of Dartmouth College, was a strong leader in the churches of the 
county. 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 2-77 

The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later Yale College) began its work 
in the parsonage of Rev. Abraham Pierson, at Killingworth (now Clinton), 
then an important part of New London county. In 1707 we find its three 
lower classes established at Saybrook Point, and practically in charge of 
Rev. Thomas Buckingham, the pastor. The minister of the First Church of 
Christ in New London, the Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, was prominent in all those 
early days in the institution, and later as Governor of the Colony had the 
influence that finally located the College at New Haven. 

The Connecticut College for Womert, located in New London, was not 
so directly the outcome of the churches as was Yale University, but in all 
the initial steps leading to the starting of the College and the choice of its 
location and in the raising of nine-tenths of its funds for its first half dozen 
crucial years, the pastors and the churches of Greater New London were 
most active and influential. It is recognized that no other single agency 
ever established in the county has promised so large and pervasive and 
unlimited a spiritual power for this section of the State. Already it has 
become the center of activities in close cooperation with the churches of all 
denominations, as well as with the schools. 

Before closing this brief general introductory review of the religious 
development in New London county through the churches, just a word must 
be said as to the marked reaction of the various denominations on one another 
within these two hundred and seventy-five and more years. The original 
churches in the Colony of the Congregational type have had a steady develop- 
ment from the first. While keeping to the autonomous principle, they have 
cooperated more and more closely in associational forms and have been largely 
influenced by the free and warm-hearted spirit of Methodism and the worship- 
ful and orderly ideals of Episcopacy. In turn, the principle of autonomy, 
fostered by the Congregational as well as the Baptist communions, has had 
a marked influence on Methodism and Episcopacy, bringing in each of these 
denominations a strong laic representation to the front and making it so that 
each individual self-supporting church has practical control of its ministry 
and its local work. At the same time the centralizing tendency in the 
Episcopal and Methodist churches has powerfully affected the plans for 
efficiency in the more loosely ordered communions. Of late this decided 
harmonization of interdenominational methods and spirit has brought to the 
front the Federation ideal which resulted in the Federation of the Churches 
in New London and Vicinity. The cooperative spirit has promise in it of 
large things in the future work of the churches of the county. 

It has been the fashion to speak of "the good old days" in the church and 
family life of New England. While the latter seems to be passing through 
a critical phase and, as yet, has not reached the turning of the road, it is not 
a too optimistic judgment to say that church life as a whole was never in 
better condition in New London county than it is today. In all outward 
ways the outlook is reassuring. The growth in membership, in benevolences, 
in brotherhood, in cooperative efforts and in missionary zeal, since the Great 
War, has been unprecedented. 



273 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

II. 

THE COLONIAL STATE CHURCH IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 
It is now established that org^anized religion came first to New London 
county in 1651, when the Rev. Richard Blinman arrived at the five-year-old 
settlement near the mouth of the Pequot (Thames) river, bringing with him 
a substantial majority of his church, which he had previously organized on 
Congregational principles (1642) at Gloucester (Cape Ann) Massachusetts. 
The total absence of all records of any other formal organization of a church 
in the new colonial venture, and the definite statements later as to the fact 
of a church already being in existence and in full career there, with Mr. 
Blinman as its pastor, have led inevitably to the above conclusion. The Nor- 
wich Town church came there full-fledged from Saybrook (organized there 
1646) under the lead of its pastor, Rev. James Fitch; just as Rev. Thomas 
Hooker brought his Newtown (Massachusetts) church to Hartford, and the 
Plymouth (Massachusetts) church had come from Leyden, Holland. 

The Rev. Thomas Peters had been associated from the first (1646) with 
Governor John Winthrop, Jr., in the beginnings of New London, and doubt- 
less had conducted occasional services in the rude log huts in the clearing 
on the west bank of the river before the arrival of Mr. Blinman and his fol- 
lowers. The accomplished Governor was not unmindful of religion, and all 
labor ceased in the little settlement as the sun went down of a Saturday eve- 
ning, except as emergencies of war arose. The smoke curled up from the 
chimneys of a score or more of crude log huts, as a Sabbath of rest had come. 
The guard kept watch without the stockade, and the goodman of each home 
had his weapons close at hand. As the shades of night fell and the owl hooted 
from the primeval forest trees that hemmed them round, and mothers quieted 
the restless children to sleep, the voice of Psalm and prayer might be heard 
from the hearts that appreciated the Divine protection amid the haunts of 
wild beasts and the skulking Pequot. We can see the little company, in 1647 
increased by a number of families, among them the Governor's own. gathered 
reverently of a Sunday morning in the most convenient audience room avail- 
able to listen to Scripture exposition and Puritan sermon ; and for them, too, 

"The sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
To the anthem of the free." 

The advent in 165 1 of the church-colony from Gloucester, Massachusetts, 
under the lead of Mr. Blinman, at once brought together all the forces of 
religion. The Governor and his family and all the older settlers took their 
places with the new-comers in the regular parish life now fully established, 
it being the thirty-fifth church to be planted in New England under colonial 



■" The story is told of a couple (Jonathan Rudd being the man) that desired to be married 
by the Governor. This prerogative belonged for nearly a generation to the civil magistrate. 
.\bout 1685 clergj-men were legalized to perform the ceremony as well as the magistrates. 
John Winthrop could not legally overstep the boundary into the Connecticut colony to render 
such a service, even though he had been formerly at the head of the Saybrook colonial 
enterprise. So he made his way through the snow that winter's day to the stream separating 
the two colonies. Beside its frozen waters on his own territory he pronounced the eager 
couple to be man and wife. Hence Bride Brook and Bride Pond or Lake, near the modern 
Connecticut Farm for Women in Niantic. 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 279 

jurisdiction. Their first minister was of Welsh extraction and brought with 
him from Gloucester the ancestors of the Calkins, Coits, Averys, Lesters and 
others, in all over twenty families, with a total of one hundred souls. 

The earliest place for worship was a transformed barn owned by Robert 
Park, situated on "Meeting House Hill," near which in 1653 a place for 
burial was set apart. A drum called the assembly for worship in the crude 
structure. Plans were at once laid for the erection of a regular church build- 
ing on the south side of the old burial ground. This first church was com- 
pleted and first used in 1655. It seems to have been a modest place of worship, 
but with a tower commanding wide views down the river and harbor, being 
a point of civic and military importance as well as the religious center. It 
had galleries and a high pulpit, being probably quite the best building in 
the settlement. 

The parish extended from the Pawcatuck river to Bride brook, which 
was considered the western edge of the Massachusetts jurisdiction under 
which, at the first, John Winthrop, Jr., was operating. It also extended 
northward somewhat indefinitely through Montville to the Norwich line and 
included the modern Ledyard and North Stonington. One of the earliest 
records speaks of Thomas Miner, who had moved to Pawcatuck in 1652, and 
Captain Denison as having serious differences of opinion with their minister, 
Mr. Blinman, over the proposed erection of a town of Mystic and Pawcatuck, 
which conflict was healed two years later. Minister's rates were levied by 
the voters over this wide-extended parish. Mr. Blinman undertook to hold 
occasional services in the more remote sections, especially to the east across 
the Thames river. He was deeply interested in preaching to the Indians. 

The short pastorate of Mr. Blinman came to an unexpected end in 1658 for 
no special reason that can be ascertained.* He was accounted a man of learn- 
ing and high abilitv, and a natural leader. On occasion he was sent to the 
General Court of Massachusetts to represent Pequot on business of impor- 
tance. He was a non-conformist and Puritan of the straightest sect, a sturdy, 
frugal pioneer, who well set the pace for the religious development of the 
settlement and the county. 

For three years the parish of Pequot (changed to New London in 1658 
by order of the General Court of Massachusetts) sought a successor for Mr. 
Blinman. In the meanwhile they were supplied by preachers when available. 
Sometimes a Mr. John Tinker, rate-maker, collector and commissioner, as 



' It is surmised that he was not in harmony with the more and more prevalent plan of 
the "Half-way Covenant " a modification of chnrcb mrmhcrship not anticipated hv the found- 
ers of New England, who expected that those who should become members of the church 
would trive reasonable proof of "regeneration," and that children of only such should be 
baptized. But a large number of the children of the first colonists did not seek admission 
to the church and so the grandchildren were left without baptism, with terrible consequences 
in case these died before they themselves were baptised at their own instance. The pressure 
became so great that during the last half of the 17th century the churches gave temporarily 
a new plan to ?uch. v.hcrol-y parent? of good standing in the community, whose parents in 
turn had been members of the church, could bring their children for baptism, even though 
they themselves were not full members. They had to make certain acknowledgements of a 
purpose to give themselves to God in Christ, to endeavor to v-a'k according to the rules of 
that holy religion all their days and bring up their children to fear God. Under these con- 
ditions of a "Half-way Covenant" their children could be baptized. 



28o NEW LONDON COUNTY 

well as an assistant in the affairs in the Colony and licensed to distill and 
retail liquors, often "exercised in public at religious meetings until the arrival 
of the new minister." The open town meeting at this time and for several 
generations following passed upon all business affairs of the church, including 
the calling of the minister. The Colonial legislature also had spiritual over- 
sight of creed and discipline. 

It was during this interval that matters most important for the church 
life of the county (to be) were occurring elsewhere. The crushing of the 
Pequots by Captain John Mason in 1637 in the famous Mystic battle, had 
left Uncas, friend of the English, the leading Indian chieftain of the Mohegan- 
Pequot remnants, with his residence at the head of the Pequot estuary (Nor- 
wich). The southern section of what was to be the county was taken as 
spoil of war by the English, leaving all the northern watershed of the Thames 
more or less under the political control of Uncas and his tribe. In August, 
1659, he signed the famous deed of transfer of the "nine-mile" tract to Captain 
John Mason and his compatriots, following permission from the General Court 
of the Colony to plant a settlement on the Yantic ; and so "Norredge" became 
a legal township in 1662. 

In 1646 the Rev. James Fitch had organized a church at Saybrook as we 
have seen. In 1660 he, with a majority of his churchmen, moved to the fertile 
banks of the Yantic and founded the Norwich Town Congregational Church. 
The first crude structure for religious purposes in this new settlement was 
erected on the southwest corner of the "Green" or "Plain," with a sun dial 
and a horse block at the door, and served its purpose for twelve years. 

Mr. Fitch, in this old First Church, gathered about him a remarkable 
group of men and women, who, with their descendants, were destined to 
render the world as fine a human result as any company of the same number 
has ever done on this continent. The parish extended throughout the nine- 
mile tract, which was made a legal township in 1662, as has been noted. It 
faced somewhat different problems as a church and community than those 
found in the adjacent seaport settlement of New London. The center of 
Indian life was near at hand. Mr. Fitch learned the Mohegan language and 
sought to christianize the accessible tribes. On a Sunday morning the settlers 
near and far rode in for the church services, their wives on pillions behind 
them. Every available hitching post on the Green was preempted, as the 
serious-minded men and women, and children, too, filled the crude meeting 
house under the lead of the much beloved pastor. While it was the social 
event of the week, it also had to do with eternity, as they listened attentively 
to the elaborate exposition of Scripture, and the prayers, and sang out of the 
Old Bay Psalm Book the hymns lined out by the leader. 

When the structure became inadequate, they built a new church on the 
top of the steep hill to the northwest of the Green. Rumors of war with thr 
Indians kept the Norwich settlers restive, and so they made their church a 
fortress and a watch tower. In 1673 they began to hold services on this 
almost inaccessible height, helping the young and the old and the feeble up 
the winding path. The guards kept watch beside the stacked rifles of the 
men during the service. 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 2S1 

Mr. Fitch was incapacitated by a stroke of palsy in 1674, and Jabez Fitch, 
his son, just out of Harvard, was asked to succeed. He helped them out a 
year or so and then went off to complete his studies. In the meanwhile King 
Philip's War (1675-78) threw the whole settlement into confusion. Uncas 
with his Mohegans stood faithfully by his English friends. Fugitives from 
every point of the compass poured in upon them, and a special settlement 
was arranged for these on the Shetucket river near Norwich. 

At last (1699) Rev. John Woodward was inducted into the pastorate, 
his parish covering, besides the nine-mile tract, Canterbury and Windham. 
In 1708 Captain Rene Grignon, a Huguenot from France, presented the town 
with a bell, which was hung in a separate tower on the summit of Meeting 
House Hill, ringing every night at nine o'clock and for Sunday services. 

But to return to the settlement at the mouth of the Thames. The year 
1661 saw Rev. Gershom Bulkeley (Harvard 1655) preaching in the old First 
Church of Christ in New London. He came of fine family connections in 
both New England and old England, and brought to the settlement his young 
wife, Sarah Chauncey, only daughter of President Chauncey of Harvard. 
With them came also his cultured, widowed mother, a daughter of Sir Richard 
Chitwood of England. This second spiritual leader of New London was a 
man of marked strength of character and of decidedly anti-democratic lean- 
ings. His ideals of a more centralized form of church government led to 
differences of opinion with his parishioners; so, rather than foment strife, he 
wisely relinquished the pastorate in 1665. He took this measure under the 
kindly protest of his people, who had voted to give him "liberty of conscience 
and utterance." He was a learned man, skilled in languages and medicine. 
After a decade as pastor at Wethersfield; Connecticut, he retired to the prac- 
tice of medicine. His gracious mother remained in New London to the end 
of her life. His descendant, Leonard Bulkeley, was the founder of the 
Bulkeley school in the same place. Another descendant was the Hon. Morgan 
G. Bulkeley. Governor of the State. 

We now come to a more settled condition of church affairs in New 
London. The new Colonial charter, which John Winthrop, Jr., secured from 
the government of Charles II in 1662, allayed some of the disputes in South- 
eastern Connecticut by defining Pawcatuck river as the eastern boundary of 
the newly constituted Colony. Massachusetts had claimed a large section of 
territory hereabouts, but gracefully yielded the township of Southertown, 
which now became a part of Connecticut. The New London parish by that 
arrangement extended to the Mystic river. 

Rev. William Thompson had come as a missionary to the Indians in 
1667, when the Massachusetts General Court had granted 8,500 acres to a 
tribe of Pequot Indians under the chieftainship of Harmon Garrett. Beside 
preaching to the natives, Mr. Thompson held services in the homes of the 
planters (Cheesebrough, Miner, Wheeler, Palmer, Stanton, DeniscJn, Gallup, 
etc.), who were restive at having to go so far to church as New London. 
Considerable controversy thus arose in the attempt to erect a separate church 
in Mystic and Pawcatuck. The Commissioners of the United Colonies had 
rendered a decision in 1658 that all land east of the Alystic river should belong 



282 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

to Massachusetts, and a township of Southertown had been constituted, 
embracing also territory afterwards ceded to Rhode Island. A humble meet- 
ing house seems to have been erected in 1661, where occasional preaching 
was had. Southertown was renamed Mystic (1665) and later (1666) Ston- 
ington. 

In the meanwhile the planters of this section had called Rev. James Noyes 
to take charge of the religious life and development in the region east of the 
Mystic river. Thus began a long and very important ministry of over fifty 
years (1719). For ten of these years the young minister was content to 
preach as a licentiate and delayed his ordination until 1674, when a new 
church building was erected near the present "Road Church," and the 
ecclesiastical organization was fully established (June 3, 1674). The ministry 
of Mr. Noyes was of far-reaching importance. He and his brother, Rev. 
Moses Noyes, of Old Lyme, were important factors in the founding of Yale 
College. The Stonington pastor entered into all the life of his extensive parish 
and shared with his people to the full the hardships of the Indian wars. He 
seems to have been skilled as a physician as well as a minister, and received 
public recognition for his services in the Narragansett war. 

This venerable church furnished the Colony and the State with a long 
line of able ministers who entered into all the developments of spiritual, 
educational and social life in Southeastern Connecticut. During the long 
pastorate of Rev. Ebenezer Rosseter (1722-62) there was controversy as to 
the location of a new church edifice. This resulted in the erection of two 
buildings, the "West," near the old site on Agreement Hill (1729) ; the other 
the "East." or the "Centre" church, at Putnam Corner. This latter society 
called as pastor Rev. Nathaniel Eells in 1733. In 1762, at the death of Mr. 
Rosseter, the two churches were brought together under the ministry of 
Mr. Eells. 

In the meanwhile the North Society in Stonington (now North Ston- 
ington) was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly in 1720 and was 
organized in 1721. After the customary controversy as to the location of the 
church building and the pressing problem of the "Half-Way Covenant," 
occasional preachers were succeeded by Rev. Ebenezer Russell, who was 
ordained (1727) at the time the church itself was fully organized. After the 
death of the first pastor (1731) carne the remarkable pastorate of Rev. Joseph 
Fish (1732-81). In spite of a large "Separatist" defection in 1742, the min- 
istry of Mr. Fish was notable, especially all through the Revolutionary War. 

For thirty-six years after his death the church had no settled pastor, 
showing the sad case of spiritual decline everywhere manifested in the country 
at large and in New London county in particular. In 1817 the "Separatist" 
and "Regular" churches at last came together and reunited under the ministry 
of Rev. Joseph Ayer.' 

At the conclusion of the Narragansett War the territory north of North 



° The following installed pastors have since served thi>; church : Rev. Prter H. Shaw, 
T837-39; Rev. Myron N. Morris, 1S46-52; Rev. Stephen Hubble, 1853-69; Rev. James R. 
Bourne, 1873-79; Rev. John W. Savage, 1881-84; Rev. Wm. B. Cary, 1884-1900; Rev. Edwin 
Judson Klock, 19CO-1908; Rev. F. M. Hollister, 1909-1914; Rev. O. D. Fi'sher, 1915 — . 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 283 

Stonington was set aside for a new township, which was named in honor of 
the volunteers of that war, Voluntown. All well accredited soldiers of that 
fierce struggle were granted land in the new township. But it was a long 
time before its rather remote fastnesses were made accessible. Pioneers 
finally flocked in in numbers enough to warrant the "gathering" of a church, 
and in 1720 the Onconk or "Line" church was built, one-half the structure 
in Voluntown and the other half in Sterling. 

But we must not forget that the western part of what was New London 
county, as constituted in 1666 and for something over a century and a 
quarter (1785), embraced the huge township of Old Saybrook, stretching 
east and west of the Connecticut river from Bride brook (Niantic) to the 
Hammonasset river (Clinton). In this territory there was an earlier develop- 
ment of organized Christianity than in that now within the county limits. 
Governor John Winthrop, Jr., had first essayed to establish a colony at 
Saybrook Point (1635) in opposition to the Dutch claims. High ambitions 
seemed to have centered about this strategic spot. During the contem- 
poraneous civil disturbances in England it was dreamed that here, at the 
mouth of the Connecticut river, a mighty commonwealth might be planted 
and fostered with the great Cromwell at its head and John Milton to be its 
chief literary ornament. Two Puritan noblemen. Lord Say and Lord Brook, 
were the leaders. The lingering glory of this dream may have had something 
to do with the location later at Saybrook of the Collegiate Institute of Con- 
necticut in 1701. But the early dream faded, and John Winthrop, Jr., gave 
over the enterprise to George Fenwick, who in turn sold out his rights to 
the Connecticut Colony in 1644. Two years later (1646), on the very year 
of the founding of the New London settlement, the Old Saybrook (Congre- 
gational) church was organized under the pastorate of Rev. James Fitch, as 
we have seen. He left in 1660 with a large portion of his flock to found 
Norwich and to establish a church there. 

From the first the Saybrook settlement and its parish included all the 
territory east of the Connecticut river and south of East Haddam as far as 
Bride brook in Niantic. But the broad estuary of the Connecticut made it 
very difficult for the settlers east of it to attend their church at Saybrook. 
Occasional preaching services were held in that eastern section of the parish, 
and in 1666, the very year New London county was legally constituted by 
the General Assembly, Rev. Moses Noyes began to preach regularly east of 
the river. In 1668 a log meeting house was erected, which served the purpose 
until 1689. Then a more fitting structure replaced the original crude edifice. 
Its site was determined by lot, after the usual sharp differences of opinion. 
After Mr. Noyes had been preaching for twenty-seven years at Black Hall 
or Old Lyme, on March 27, 1693, he was installed and the church regularly 
organized. His very distinguished pastorate lasted until 1722. He played a 
most important part in the founding of Yale College (at Saybrook from 
1701 to 1716) and was a leader of eminence throughout the county and the 
colon>-. 

Rev. Jonathan Parsons, the third pastor, was an ardent participant in 
the movement of the Great Awakening, which spread throughout New 



284 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

England. He was eminent as a theologian and a revivalist, receiving into 
the membership of his church 288 members within fifteen years. A successor, 
Rev. Stephen Johnson, was also eminently successful in his pastorate of forty 
years. The outcome of these labors and the increased opening up of the 
county to settlers were the organizations of the Niantic church (1724), that 
at Lyme (1725), at Hamburg (1727), at Salem (1728), and Grassy Hill (1746). 

Indeed, the religious activities in the southwestern part of what is em- 
braced in New London county of our day were more notable during its 
colonial history than those found in any other section of Southeastern Con- 
necticut, as the result of revival interests prevalent there. It was to have 
been expected that this region would be a stronghold of Congregationalism. 
But the early pre-Revolutionary promise was not fulfilled. A large colony of 
religious recalcitrants migrated as a body to the Western Reserve in Ohio 
and founded the town of New Old Lyme in Ashtabula county.* 

But we are far afield from the storv of the "Old First" at New London, 



' The writer is familiar with the modern New Old Lyme, where only in recent years has 
there _ been established an "Orthodox" church. "Free Love" and "Spiritualism" and other 
"isms" originally prevalent there seem to indicate that the inhabitants went westward partly 
at least to escape the moral restraints of religion. The writer knew the clergyman who 
founded the Presbyterian church in New Old Lyme about 1895. He was generously assisted 
by a thiinghtful local merchant nominally a Spiritualist, who endowed the Academy there and 
eventually left his homestead for a parsonage. 

^ Rogerenes. Rogerene Quakers, Rogerene Baptists.— This peculiar sect or social group 
under one or other of these names took its name from John Rogers, son of James Rogers 
who came from Milford, Connecticut, at the instance of Governor John Winthrop, Jr., about 
1655. John Rogers, the son, grew up in the membership of the First Church of Christ in 
New London. He seems to have been a man of a strong, eccentric nature, who, in 1674, 
while at Newport, Rhode Lsland, came under the influence of a small Sabbatarian church and 
there experienced a marked religious upheaval, which set him off in his new career. Later 
he formally united with that body by immersion. Still later he was much influenced by 
preaching of the Friends (Quakers), Finally he broke with the Sabbatarians and established 
his own order, which was neither Sabbatarian or Quaker. 

Among the tenets of the new sect were the following items of creed and practice: 

1. Theologically it held to the orthodox views concerning God and the Trinity. 

2. It sought to follow literally the teaching of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. 

3. It put aside the Puritan "Sabbath" (Lord's Day) as a day of the week more sacred than 
the other six and it inveighed against what it called the "idolatry" of Sunday, although 
holding its stated services on that day. 

4. It emphasized the sacredness and lawfulness of work on all seven days of the week, and 
boldly practiced it on Sunday as against colonial law. 

5. It abjured priestcraft and the salaried profession of the ministry, and refused to pay the 
legal church tax. 

6. It proclaimed public prayers to be pharisaic, especially the "long prayer." 

7. It undertook to oppose the whole scheme of the regularly established church and welcomed 
punishments, fines, imprisonments. A craze for persecution led to most extravagant 
practices. 

8. It used strictly New Testament methods in dealing with the sick, and would not call in 
the aid of the regular physician. The reader has noticed that many clergymen practiced 
medicine on occasion. 

9. The matrimonial experiences nf John Rogers, leading him to practice what he considered to 
be plurality of wives with an Old Testament sanction, and the ignoring of the legal colonial 
ceremony of wedlock, offered an example fruitful of unfortunate family conditions outside 
the law among his followers. 

It will be seen at once how inevitable was the conflict between the ordered evolution of 
ecclesiastical life in New London, Connecticut, and this erratic movement. Refusal to attend 
church services or to pay the ministerial tax, working in the fields on the Lord's Day as well 
as traveling on Sunday, all were indictable offenses calling for fine or imprisonment. Often 
tlte acts committed were so contemptible that justice had hard work getting seasoned with 
mercy. No orderly assembly of Christians in the county could reckon on an undisturbed 
meeting. Violent noises outside the buildings were indulged in. The mischief-makers boldly 
came into the services, arose in their places and undertook to dispute with the preacher, 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 285 

which we left just as it was calling Rev. Simon Bradstreet to its pastorate 
in 1666. This was the very year that New London county was fully consti- 
tuted under the new colonial charter, embracing the four townships of Say- 
brook, New London, Stonington and Norwich. Mr. Bradstreet served the 
church as preacher four years before his regular ordination in 1670. Here 
begin the first obtainable records of the church. The threatening "Half-Way 
Covenant," though spreading among the Connecticut churches, was not yet 
preached or practiced in the New London church. It was under this pastorate 
that the Rogerene disturbances began to be troublesome, gradually spreading 
throughout the county and among all denominations.^ 

The ordination of Mr. Bradstreet in October. 1670, was the first of many 
succeeding such services to be held in New London county. During his 
pastorate (about 1685) ministers were given legal right to officiate at wed- 
dings, although this privilege did not take from the civil authorities their 
prior right. During his ministry a new church edifice was erected, not with- 
out serious differences of opinion as to the location, high up on the southwest 
corner of Meeting House Green, now Bulkeley Square. The tower still 
retained the aspect of a watch tower, looking far down the estuary of the 
Thames and about among the hills and valleys surrounding the little settle- 



brought in all sorts of handwork and flaunted their illegal industn,- before the worshipers; 
and in every other conceivable way attempted to spoil the service. On one occasion a 
Rogerene trundled a wheelbarrow filled with saleable goods into the morning worship of the 
old First Church, and, before anyone could hinder, reached the communion table and the 
obtruder turned and in stentorian voice offered his wares for sale. On the whole the entire 
community and the churches and the ministers were more persecuted than the Rogcrenes, 
who were in a fair way to make all law contemptible. 

New London county today is filled with stories true and apochryphal as to the strange 
and often ridiculous doings of these social conspirators. It cannot be seen that their outrages 
hastened the abatement of the Puritanical scheme of compulsion. They continued until the 
death of John Rogers in 1721, which was soon followed by the death of Governor Saltonstall. 
For fortj- years thereafter the Rogerenes kept out of the court records. The leadership 
was then in the hands of wiser men, such as John Bolles, John Waterhou = e and John Culver, 
The conciliator}' attitude of Rev. Eliphalet Adams of the First Church had much to do with 
this interregnum of hostility between ihe Rogerenes and their neighbors. Printed pamphlets 
and books and itinerant speakers carried their doctrines v.'idely in New F.figland. Settle- 
ments were made as far afield as in portions of the Western Reserve in Ohio. One of these 
may have been New Old Lyme, of which mention has been made. In the meanwhile gradual 
intermarriages led to a less acute contention. The Rogerenes seemed to have prospered in 
business ways in spite of all financial requisitions upon their property for fines and taxes. 
The coming to New London as pastor in the First Church of Rev. Mather Byles, Jr., 
in I7S7 soon brought on a "counter-move" on the part of the Rogerenes which was at its 
zenith in 1764-66. Mr. Byles began to preach against the Rogerenes and to incite renewed 
discipline against Sunday labor and travel, the holding of unauthorized meetings, abstention 
from regular church services and the administration of the sacraments by unauthorized per- 
sons. Court records once more abound with cases of trial, fine and imprisonment. But the 
close of Mr. Byles' ministrv' (1768") largely brought to an end the offensive tactics of the 
Rogerenes. A general plan prevailed among the churches to ignore utterly the disturbances 
of the malcontents. The Revolutionary War now impended. Many Rogerenes proved patriots 
to the American cause. The sect seems to have subsided, as the freedom of church attend- 
ance and voluntary pa.vtnent for church expenses and a simplification of ecclesiastical pulpit 
garments and ministerial manners prevailed. 

Today a small remnant of the sect may be found in the southeastern corner of the 
township of Ledyard, popularly known as Quakertown. Education in public schools, the 
modern newspaper, less stringent sumptuary laws and the new age, have combined to make 
the Rogerenes practically indistinguishable from their neighbors. "Quaker Hill." "Bolles" 
Woods" and many another local designation, recall to mind the places and personalities 
connected with this strange and often amusing religious episode in the long story of New 
London county. 



286 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

ment. The building was not completed until 1682, at the very close of Mr. 
Bradstreet's ministry. 

As we have seen, the eldest daughter of First Church of Christ in New 
London had been fully established in Stonington in 1674, not without friction 
with the mother church or among its own membership. The dividing line 
between the two parishes was placed at the Mystic river. But even this did 
not stop the restiveness of the increasing numbers dwelling on the east side 
of the Thames. These more distant families were under the leadership of 
Captain Janies Avery. In 1684, as soon as the old "Blinman Church" building 
in New London was superceded by the "Bradstreet Church," this strong man 
of the eastern part of the parish bought the old church building for six pounds 
sterling, separated it into parts and floated them one by one around to his 
farm in Poquonnock, and set it up as a part of the homestead he was erecting. 
At one time or another this famous landmark was used for informal religious 
services. 

In 1687 there came to the New London church by far the most outstand- 
ing ecclesiastical figure ever connected with the county, the Rev. Gurdon 
Saltonstall, then a man of twenty-one years of age and only three and a 
half out of Harvard College. He was not ordained in the pastorate of the 
First Church until November 25, i6gi, and remained in that position until 
elected Governor of the Colony in 1708. An aristocrat by birth and tempera- 
ment, large, tall and commanding in person and voice, a natural leader among 
men, he began at once to exercise qualities of personal initiative which spread 
his reputation throughout the colony. Early in his ministry the first bell in 
the county was hung in the church tower and used both for church services 
and for civil functions. 

The "Half-Way Covenant" had, by this time, spread widely in Connecti- 
cut and ^Tassachusetts, and there was a serious declension in spiritual power 
clearly discernible everywhere it went. The low morale led in 1692 in Massa- 
chusetts to the Salem witchcraft delusion. New London county was for- 
tunately free from that most unchristian religious and civil declension. Mr. 
Saltonstall was the first clergyman in New London actually to take advantage 
of the new law permitting a clergyman to perform the marriage ceremony. 
He was a powerful preacher, somewhat stern in church discipline and provoca- 
tive of trouble with the Rogerenes. His severe attitude toward restive parish- 
ioners east of the Thames, especially toward Captain James Avery, widened 
the previous estrangements. These culminated in 1702 in a request to the 
General Assembly for a separate church organization in that portion of the 
parish and township. This was consummated in 1704. On the 8th of No- 
vember of that year, Rev. Ephraim Woodbridge was ordained as the first 
minister and the First Church of Christ in Groton fully organized. In 1705 
Groton township was set off from New London, and the Ecclesiastical Society 
of the church received its permanent name. On the year following (1705) 
the First Baptist Church of Groton was organized at Old Mystic. 

But in spite of elements that awakened opposition within and without 
the church, Mr. Saltonstall was a man of singular power as a preacher and 
as a man. His influence spread throughout the colony to such an extent that 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 287 

at the death of Governor Fitz-John Winthrop (1698-1707), his parishioner, 
all eyes turned to this pastor as the most fitting successor in the guber- 
natorial chair. This political advancement occurred on January i, 1708, after 
a pastorate of nearly twenty years, or sixteen years after his ordination.' 

In the meanwhile, matters of very considerable moment had been occur- 
ring in the northern portion of the county. The First Church of Christ at 
Norwich Town, after the disturbances of the Indian wars, had experienced 
a notable expansion. To the east across the Shetucket river on land purchased 
from the Alohegan Indians, the inhabitants were granted a township charter 
under the name of Preston, in 1687. They set at work at once to have an 
organized church of their own. They were a sturdy band, with household 
names such as Brewster, Standish (of "Mayflower" descent). Park, Tracy, 
Richards, Tyler, Fobes, Morgan, Witter, Wetch, so ran the names, who 
cleared the forests and tilled the rich lands of Preston. In faith they built a 
church and, after long search, secured Rev. Salmon Treat to be their minister. 
He was ordained at the organization of the church on November 16, 1698. 
This was the beginning of a fruitful pastorate extending through forty-six 
years. One of the important results of his ministry was the peaceful estab- 
lishment of the North Church of Preston (now Griswold) in 1720. 

At this last-mentioned church the Rev. Hezekiah Lord, immediately on 
its organization, took up the pastorate, which lasted until 1761. These were 



' Gurdon Saltonstall was re-elected colonial Governor from year to year until his death 
in 1724. The unprecedented elevation of a clergyman to this high office was fully justified 
by the wise statesmanship exhibited by the incumbent. Thomas Hooker, Gurdon Saltonstall, 
L>-man Beecher and Horace Bushnell are four out of a score of Connecticut clergymen who 
proved powerful factors in the building up of the State and the nation. As Governor, Mr. 
Saltonstall at once exercised his leadership by summoning at Saybrook, with the assent of 
the General Assembly, a Synod to examine "the defects of the discipline of the churches of 
this government arising from the want of a more explicit asserting of the rules given to 
that end in the Scriptures." Hence that memorable though small ecclesiastical gathering at 
the next Commencement season of the Collegiate Institute (later Yale College) then estab- 
lished at the mouth of the Connecticut river. On September 7, 1708, this Synod brought forth 
the famous "Savbrook Platform," which was successfully to contest place with the "Cam- 
bridsje Platform'" (1648) in tlie appro\al of the great majority of the churches of Con- 
necticut. An important exception to this approval occurred in the Governor's old church. 
New London First, of which he still remained a member and a regular worshipper. Nor 
did it stand alone. The "Saybrook Platform" was accepted by the General Assembly, which 
"ordained that all the churches within this government that are or shall be united in doctrine, 
wor,-liip and discipline, be and for the future sh.iU be owned and acknowledged by law; pro- 
vided always that nothing herein shall be intended or construed to hinder or prevent any 
church or society that is or shall be allowed by the laws of the government, who soberly 
differ or dissent from the united churches herebj- established, from exercising worship and 
discipline in their own way according to their consciences." 

Bv law, the churches of each county were to form one or more "consociations" or 
Standing Councils before which all cases of discipline, difficult of settlement by the local 
church, should come, as well as certain matters having to do with ordinations, installations 
and dismissions. In similar fashion the ministers of each county were to be formed into 
"Associations" which should in turn send delegates annually to a "General Association" of 
colony-wide representations. The latter is still in existence, though now not_ a delegated 
body, except as any regularlv settled Congregational minister in the State is invited to 
attend. The Saybrook Platform remained legally in effect until 1784, and as a recognized 
standard for more than a half century after that. 

Governor Saltonstall also was influential in the final settlement of Yale College at New 
Haven. At its first Commencement at that place he pronounced an oration in Latin (Sept. 
12, 1718') and its Latinity was accounted of high grade. He ever stood high in the councils 
of the College. What with Indian and French wars, Colony disputes, high prices, territorial 
adjustments with Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the times called for leadership of a high 
order, and the Governor was easily the foremost man in the colony in his time. 



288 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

the difficult pioneering days at that end of the county. Mr. Lord was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. Levi Hart in a still more distinguished ministry lasting from 
1762 to 1808. Mr. Hart had studied theology with the famous Dr. Bellamy, 
of Bethlehem, Connecticut, and married his daughter. He had one of those 
remarkable life-ministries in Griswold, exerting a lasting influence in his 
own parish and widely over the State. His wisdom and charity handled the 
"Separatist" movement in his section so effectively that no opposition congre- 
gations were "gathered" there. He took great interest in Home Missions in 
Connecticut and northern New England, resulting in the organization of 
the Missionary Society of Connecticut, the oldest one in the country. 

Between Norwich and Preston, on a narrow strip of territory about 
twelve miles long, later joined to Preston, in what was before that called 
East Nor^vich, we find the "Long Society" (Fifth Congregational Church of 
Norwich), established in 1726. Rev. Jabez Wight was pastor there for fifty- 
six years. 

But over a quarter of a century before this, came the settlement of 
Lebanon and the founding of its First Church of Christ in 1700 in what was 
to become a famous historic center during the War of the Revolution. In 
1702 it was included in New London county. The "five-mile" purchase from 
the Indians had come in 1697. The pioneers began the opening out of the land 
in the following year and the town was formally organized in 1700, the church 
being there practically from the first (organized November 7, 1700). The 
meeting house was built at the west end of the "Green," near what became 
later the "Land Office" of Governor Trumbull. 

Within twenty years the growth of the wide-extended community called 
for the establishment of a North Parish or Second church, in what was 
styled Lebanon Crank (now Columbia) (1720). There fifteen years later 
(1735) Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, son of Deacon Ralph Wheelock and Ruth 
Huntington (Norwich), was settled. From these two foci of religious life the 
uplifting influence of the Lebanon churches spread widely. In the First 
Church there were two remarkable pastorates, together covering over a cen- 
tury — that of Rev. Solomon Williams, D.D. (1722 to 1771), and Rev. Zebulon 
Ely (1782 to 1824). From these two churches there grew up the Goshen 
Church (November 26, 1729), Exeter (1773), and Liberty Hill. Largely 
owing to the schools established in Lebanon proper (Tisdale's Academy) at 
North Lebanon (Moor's Charity School) and at Plainfield (Academy) the 
homes of those pioneers sent forth within a century over forty ministers. 

In close connection with this development, the churches of Plainfield and 
Canterbury were organized. There seems some dispute as to just which 
county the credit for those earlier years shall go. But it is certain that the 
impetus came from the south. The Plainfield church was organized in what 
was then called the Quinebaug Plantations, on January 3. 1705. They called 
their first pastor from Norwich, Rev. Joseph Coit, who originated in New 
London. He ministered to the church for forty-nine years. The Canterbury 
church was organized in 171 1, while its parish was in New London county. 
Together with Plainfield, it brought forth men and women of wide influence 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 289 

in the nation at large. Moses Cleveland, the founder of the metropolis of 
Ohio, went forth from Canterbury. 

The First Church of Colchester, on the Connecticut river watershed, was 
organized in 1703, soon followed by the Westchester church in the same 
township in 1729. Rev. John Bulkelcy, son of Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, M.D., 
whom we met in New London as pastor of the First Church, was the first 
pastor of the Colchester church, beginning a long line of distinguished min- 
isters. The temporary house of worship was exchanged for a better after 
1709, and in 1771 a new structure came, which was counted "the finest in 
the colony." The Westchester parish in the northern part of the township 
had an equally strong development with a faithful series of influential pastors, 
beginning with Rev. Judah Lewis. 

There was a long controversy with the alleged Indian owners as to the 
southern portion of the town of Colchester, which delayed settlement for 
many years, but at last a township of Salem was set off by the General 
Assembly, made up of portions of south Colchester and northern Lyme, and 
settlers came in. A church was organized in 1728, as previously noted. 

The Norwich Town church went strongly forward under the pastorate 
of Rev. John Woodward for a decade, giving forth helpfulness in every direc- 
tion, as we have seen. Mr. Woodward was one of the delegates to the Say- 
brook Synod, of which he was the secretary, and thus largely responsible for 
the Platform adopted in 1708. On his return he found he could not carry 
his church with him. The friction thus arising paved the way to a rupture 
of the pastoral relation in September, 1716. In the meanwhile a new church 
building was erected, after the usual quarrel over the location, near the site 
of the old one on the Meeting House Hill. This new house of worship was 
opened for use in December, 1713. Mr. Woodward retired from the min- 
isterial profession and spent his last days on his farm in West Haven, Con- 
necticut. 

That section of Norv.'ich called "West Farms," a few miles to the north- 
west of the Green, constituted the most fertile section of the "nine-mile" 
tract, and was portioned out in sections to the occupants of the Town Plot. 
This new region was gradually cleared and settled by some of the leading 
citizens of Norwich. A notable lot of families established themselves there. 
Efforts had been making for some years to secure a separate ecclesiastical 
society in that flourishing section. When two score families there set about 
getting this done, their requests were granted and on October 8, 1718, Rev. 
Henry Willis was ordained pastor and a church organized, what is now known 
as the Franklyn church. The new building was barely housed in, and use 
was made of the old furniture of the former Norwich church at the start. 

Mr. Willis, though a graduate in 1715 of the Connecticut Collegiate 
Institute at Saybrook (later Yale College), was a strong adherent of the 
Cambridge Platform (1648) as distinguished from the Saybrook Platform 
(1708), which quite pleased his people for twenty-six years. But by that time 
friction arose in the parish ; Saybrook adherents made trouble. "Separatist" 
movements were under way and, in spite of the powerful revivals of the 
Great Awakening, the pastorate came to an end in 1750. 



290 



NEW LONDON COUNTY 



But about the time of the founding of this strong daughter of the Norwich 
church, a new pastor came to that church, Rev. Benjamin Lord, who was 
ordained November 20, 1717, also, at the first, a strong opponent of the Say- 
brook Platform. On April 30th of that same year the church had voted to 
sustain itself by contributions rather than by the old State-Church rate, 
anticipating the Old First at New London by ten years. We note a revival 
in 1721 and great activity during the times of the Great Awakening, which 
was judiciously favored by Mr. Lord, who, however, revolted at many of the 
eccentricities that arose. 

The Lisbon church (Newent) was organized in 1723 with Rev. Daniel 
Kirkland, whose pastorate lasted until 1752. 

We now turn back again to the southern part of the county and to the 
First Church at New London. The remarkable ministry of Rev. Gurdon 
Saltonstall terminated by his election to the governorship. It was followed 
by the still more fruitful ministry of Rev. Eliphalet Adams, extending from 
1709 to 1753. He was the last pastor ordained by the township, showing the 
changing order, as church and State began to be separated. Three hundred 
and eighty-seven persons were added to the church membership during this 
long ministry. The powerful revival interest incident upon the Great Awak- 
ening impressed itself upon the old church, especially in 1740-41. The Half- 
Way Covenant, introduced into the church during the previous pastorate, 
still continued, although there was a manifest difference between those ad- 
mitted on deep conviction during the revival period. The children of all 
those living exemplary lives and whose ancestors had made a "serious pro- 
fession of religion" were baptized. 

In October, 1772, the North Parish (Montville) was constituted a dis- 
tinct parish, the church organized, and Rev. James Hillhouse installed as 
pastor. He continued in this position for fifteen years. His successor, Rev. 
David Jewett, was ordained October 3, 1739. A dance (strange to say) and 
a supper gave this occasion the title of the "Ordination Ball." 

The East Lyme (Niantic) church was organized in 1724, its parish being 
known as "The Second Ecclesiastical Society of Lyme," with Rev. George 
Griswold as pastor. This minister, of high social rank and a graduate of 
Yale College, was a strong preacher and widely useful as a spiritual leader. 

On January 23, 1727, the Old First Church of Christ in New London 
formally broke away from the old order of township direction and organized 
the "First Ecclesiastical Society of New London," an incorporated body 
which took over the financial responsibility for the conduct of the church, 
as distinguished from the old plan of universal taxation for the support of 
the ministry. The other churches of the county did the same. This placed 
the churches of other denominations on an equal footing financially and the 
new day was ushered in. 

In 1727 a "Relief" law was passed by the General Assembly of the 
Colony, exempting the members of the Church of England from compulsory 
attendance on the Puritan State-Church and payment of minister's rates, 
provided there was a regularly ordained Church of England minister estab- 
lished and performing tb.e duties of his office. 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 291 

The revolution or evolution involved in this chans^e went down to the 
roots of the matter. It did not come suddenly, but spread steadily all over 
the county, the Colony (later State) and New England. It was in harmony 
with the growing democracy, and came as a matter of justice and common 
sense. We have noted all along the tendencies to break awa\' from the old 
established order of things, as "Separatist" congregations sprang up w 
almost every section of the county. Good Yankee common sense prevailed. 
A glimpse of it is seen in the provisions of the "Saybrook Platform," where 
other possible types of religious organization were clearly in mind. The close 
proximity of Rhode Island, with its broader handling of this same problem 
from the first, doubtless had a strong influence. The lack of a Biblical New 
Testament precedent for the old New England order was a weakness. Doubt- 
less, too, the mighty upheaval of the Great Awakening had much to do with 
the structural change of organized church life. A new individualism pervaded 
the community, and the church life felt the transformation. A State-Church 
more and more seemed an inconsistency. Other denominations were pressing 
in, even though their adherents were asked to pay the church tax for the 
regular ministry. Two BajUist churches and one Episcopalian church were 
already firmly established within the count\- and others came thick and fast. 
The story, whose brief outline we are following, now breaks up into strictly 
denominational divisions, which we must trace out one by one. 

IIL 

THE CONGREGATIONAL DENOMINATION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 
The Congregational churches in the territory of what is now known as 
New London county, at the time of the gradual transition from the position 
of a State-Church to the independent status of its sister denominations, num- 
bered about a score, the most of which were under the leadership of strong 
pastors. These took over by natural inheritance all that had been developin:? 
in the religious activities in more strictly pioneer days. The advantages in 
this situation clearly outbid the disadvantages and gave the denomination a 
powerful leadership with all its responsiblities. 

It is hard to date the beginnings of the transition, for this was largely 
left to local conditions. The movement seems to have been accelerated by 
the "Great Awakening" and the sense of fair-denling with the groups of 
worshippers outside the State-Church. Out of it all came, among other 
things, our Congregational autonom/. Its story begins clearly in the Colonial 
period (1737-1783). From then to 1852 came the period of theological conflict, 
the establishment of theological seminaries, reconstruction after the Revolu- 
tion, evangelical revivals, revived study of the Bible through Sunday schools, 
and the upbuilding of missionary societies for home and foreign work and 
the beginnings of systematic efforts for the well-being of the negro (1846). 
With the Albany Convention (1852), Congregational polity began to realize 
its continent-wide responsibilities. The Connecticut churches had anticipated 
much that later became constituent elements in this denominational self- 
consciousness, and for that very reason in New London county and in the 



292 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

State found it a little harder to adjust themselves to the more radical central- 
ization adopted by the whole denomination in recent days. 

Rev. Eliphalet Adams at the time of the transition was in the heyday of 
his ministry at the First Church of Christ in New London. He was a man 
of peace and good will and of much learning. He spoke the Indian languages 
and preached on all possible occasions for the Mohegans, Pequots and 
Niantics. He received into his church several of the Mohegan sachems. 
Benjamin Uncas, third of the name and sixth Sachem, he received into his 
own family. He cooperated with Samuel Occum in the establishment of 
Indian schools. August 31, 1735, the First Church meeting house (the 
Saltonstall building) was struck by lightning during the service, with one 
fatality and others seriously injured. After some controversy the building 
was repaired in 1746 and served the organization for another half century 
(1785). Under Mr. Adams' kindly handling, the Rogerene troubles quieted 
down. His preaching was sought for all over the colony. He was methodical, 
tactful and constructive. Under such a ministry the church survived easily 
the withdrawal of "Separatists" and the sharing with the Episcopal church 
of St. James founded in 1725, in the religious life of the community. 

Indeed, in 1724 Mr. Adams had been invited to the presidency of Yale 
College, of which he had been a trustee since 1720. Two years after that 
(1722) President Timothy Cutler, D.D., and one of his principal coadjutors, 
had embraced Episcopacy. After debates "that shook Congregationalism 
throughout New England" (said President Quincy of Harvard), it was de- 
cided that the teachers at Yale in the future must assent to the Saybrook 
Platform. A strong man was needed to head the College, and Mr. Adams 
was elected president. However, he declined the honor and went on with 
the pastorate. 

His name does not appear as one of the lights of the Great Awakening. 
He was not unsympathetic, and was glad to see great good come to his parish 
and the county from the movement. But his wisdom and serenity were much 
exercised to curb the eccentricities that abounded in the meetings held 
under the leaders of that type. In 1741 Mr. Adams found himself in the 
midst of a powerful revival interest, and eighty-two persons were received 
into the church. The Separatist movement in New London grew out of the 
eccentric preaching of John Davenport, and some one hundred withdrew 
from the First Church. Only the personal force and wisdom of Mr. Adams 
prevented a fatal schism. Along with this conserving work he yet had a 
rare breadth of spiritual and practical earnestness. He was active in helping 
build a rector's house at Yale, and also encouraging a Congregational move- 
ment at Providence, Rhode Island, lending a hand wherever he could promote 
a o-ood work or word. His long and faithful ministry came to a close with 
his death in 1753. He had been for many years acknowledged "in every 
respect the most superior person" in the Colony of Connecticut. 

The story of the Old First in New London from the death of this beloved 
pastor and citizen (i753) to 1835, takes the church through the greatest 
political and theological controversies of America, including the French and 
Indian war, the American Revolution, the founding of the United States of 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 293 

America, the War of 1812, the unexpectedly firmer cjrasp of slavery on the 
expanding Republic, the consummation of the freedom of the Church from 
the State, and the great schism among the churches of New England resulting 
in the "Unitarian" defection, as well as the beginning of the splendid record 
of the "orthodox" churches in the establishment of the Home and Foreign 
Missionary enterprises, the founding of schools and colleges and theological 
seminaries, and the upspringing of notable spiritual awakenings that far more 
than made up for all the losses. 

The pastorate of Rev. Mather Byles, Jr., in the First Church in New 
London (1757-68), was chiefly marked by the fact that he was the first pastor 
in the county to be inducted into his office in the modern Congregational way. 
A brilliant man, he lacked the judicial temper of his predecessor and soon 
had awakened the animosity of the Rogerenes, who broke out in vigorous 
rebellion against his drastic methods of law enforcements. But the real 
cause of the brevity of his ministry in New London was a strong leaning 
to Episcopacy, which at last led him to resign and seek Episcopal ordination. 

The still shorter pastorate of Rev. Ephraim Woodbridge (1769-76), a 
grandson of the first pastor of the Groton church, was marked by his stren- 
uous opposition to the Half-Way Covenant and his exaltation of the principle 
of church membership based on genuine conversion. A revolutionary spirit 
was in the air, and a spiritual decline manifest throughout the country. All 
denominations lost ground in New London as well as everywhere. Young 
Woodbridge heroically set himself against all the obstacles. But the death 
of his wife and his own physical frailty were too much for him, and he died 
September 6, 1776. 

A long interval occurred before a successor was found (1776-87), during 
which the building of a new meeting house was gotten under way (1785) to 
be finished and dedicated under the ministry of Rev. Henry Channing (1787- 
1806). New London by the first United States census (1791) had 2,465 
inhabitants, of whom 138 were blacks and of these 95 were slaves. This 
pastorate was notable for its relapse to the extreme into the Half-Way 
Covenant heresy on the part of minister and people. Church membership 
involved simply a record of good moral character. The number of members 
at the beginning was down to twelve males and forty-seven females. Mr. 
Channing received in all two hundred and forty-five persons and baptized 
five hundred and seventy-five, going thus the limit of comprehensiveness. 
On another page may be found the form of admission to membership used, 
which was accounted to be "Unitarian" in principle by his orthodox brethren 
all over the county. At the same time considerable care was taken as to 
cases calling for discipline of conduct not befitting a Christian. In 1798 
the church entered heartily into the formation of the Missionary Society of 
Connecticut. The Unitarian tendencies of Mr. Channing led to considerable 
feeling in the church, leading to hesitancy of financial support and finally to 
his resignation in 1806. It is interesting to note that the dismissing council 
voted "they unanimously and affectionately concur in recommending him as 
a minister in regular standing in the church of Christ." 



294 i<E\V LONDON COUNTY 

Turning to the north of the county, we find the long pastorate of Rev. 
Benjamin Lord at Norwich Town coming to its close in 1784. For six years 
he had been assisted by Rev. Joseph Strong, who novv entered upon another 
half-century of service. This was a most critical era of reconstruction, in 
which the Norwich church rendered signal assistance to all the pastorless 
churches in that whole region. Mr. Strong was a man of a most genial 
temperament and held firmly to the new orthodox}- in the reaction from the 
Unitarian movement. The church entered into all the strong forward move- 
ments of this new evangelical Congregationalism, especially into its missionary 
zeal. From 1829 until his death in 1834, Mr. Strong had Rev. Mr. Everest 
as colleague. Mr. Everest resigned in 1836, and the church called Rev. 
Hiram P. Arms, who was installed in 1839. 

The Franklin church kept its strong leadership under the pastorates of 
Rev. John Ellis and Rev. Samuel Nott, which stretched over a century, 
beginning in 1753. During that time the Franklin church sent forth men 
and women of national and international reputation. Indeed, few regions in 
New England during that period were so fruitful in character and human 
achievement as the northern townships of New London county. During the 
storm and stress of the Revolutionary days — as someone has expressed it — 
"the Land Office in Lebanon was for the nonce the capital of the United 
Colonies." The Bozrah church was established in 1739, the Hanover church 
in 1766, Jewett City (Griswold 2nd) in 1825, and Mohegan church in 1832. 

The pastorate of Rev. Abel McEwen, D.D., at the First Church in New 
London (1806-1854), brought that venerable organization into the use of its 
present imposing edifice and into the modern life of the denomination. 
Beginning with a reaction from the latitudinarianism of his predecessor, the 
ministry of Dr. McEwen struck a strong, virile note at a time when religion 
in New London county was perhaps at its lowest ebb and a majority of the 
churches pastorless, he being at the beginning the only settled pastor, as he 
used to say, "in a territory fifty miles long and twelve miles broad." He 
instituted the weekly prayer-meeting. A "Sessions House" was built on the 
site of the present Parish House on Union street (1819) to accommodatt all 
the social activities of the church, especially the newly established Sunda>- 
school. The church, under the leadership of Dr. McEwen, threw itself into 
the Home Mission work in the county. In 181 5 the Consociation of New 
London County was organized, this being the last county in the State to 
do so, "two uncompromising conservators of independency" having died. 
The year following (1816), the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut 
was formed under the lead of Dr. McEwen and Rev. Mr. Hart, of the 
Griswold church. Pastors rapidly began to be called to the churches. The 
world-call for missions was not unheeded, and in 1819 a member of this 
church, Harriet Lathrop, married Rev. Mr. Winslow, and they sailed for 
Ceylon as foreign missionaries. In 1821 the ladies of the church formed the 
Foreign Missionary Society. Mr. Asa Otis became a member of the church 
in 1834, and eventually left to the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions over a million dollars. 

The spiritual quickenings that came with these varied enterprises showed 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 295 

themselves in large and stable accessions to tlie church. Several notable 
revivals stirred the waters. At len.Tth it became manifest that the "Old 
First" could not handle the growing responsibilities. The story of the found- 
ing of the Second Congregational Church in New London is most refreshing. 
The members of the First Church practically built the new edifice, and 
started off this fourth daughter in a strong way. During necessary repairs 
on the old church, the daughter welcomed the mother church to its services 
for several months. Whereupon, leaving the new organization to carry on 
its work unfettered, Dr. McEwen started again to put his own church in 
working order under the new conditions. The empty seats were soon filled 
and both churches went on rejoicing. The pastorate closed with the building 
of the modern church edifice, which remains as peculiarly the monument to 
this remarkable spiritual leader. It expresses the solidity of his character. 
possibly suggesting, too, a certain reserve and stiffness in a rather puritanical 
aspect of his earnest career. His resignation from the pastorate came in 1854, 
with graciousness after nearly fifty years of most active and fruitful ministry. 
He remained for six years an honored worker in the church and county, when 
(i8C)0) he was gathered to his fathers, honored and lamented by the whole 
community. 

The water privileges of the upper end of the Thames estuary gradually 
brought Norwich into trading connection with the whole world. About the 
Landing Place there grew up a community called Chelsea, which finally 
required church privileges of its own. In 1751 such an organization was 
eflfected. The growth was slow, and it was not until 1761 that a regular 
minister was settled over the new parish. Rev. Nathaniel Whittaker. His 
pastorate was interrupted by a long absence' in England as an agent seeking 
funds for Moor's Indian Charity School of Lebanon, Connecticut, and later 
Hanover, New Hampshire. Rev. Ephraim Judson succeeded to the pastorate 
in 1771. He too had an interrupted ministry, being called ofT as chaplain 
during the Revolutionary War and being much of the time in poor health. 
This intermittent service came to an end in 1778, and for eight years there 
was no successor. 

In 1786 came the division of the huge township of Norwich, taking away 
all the upper and eastern portions of the "nine-mile" tract. The year follow- 
ing. Rev. Walter King was installed over the Second Church, as the Chelsea 
organization began to be known. The meeting house was burned in 1793, 
and Mr. King's congregation enjoyed for some months the hospitality of the 
neighboring Episcopal church during the rebuilding. Mr. King was a man 
of deep earnestness. In 181 1 a controversy over the academic question of 
marrying a dead wife's sister led to the dissolution of the pastorate. 

A brief ministry of Rev. Asahel Hooker was followed by that of Rev. 
Alfred Mitchell in 1814, who started the series of powerful spiritual leaders, 
making the Second Church of Norwich a worthy competitor in good works 
with the First Church in New London. It grew rapidly in numbers, wealth 
and standing in the county. Its readiness to be the leader in a new era of 
Congregationalism was indicated in every turn. Mr. Mitchell took an active 
part in all constructive missionary politics. The Second Church was notable 



296 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

especially in standing back of the Sunday school work begun in Norwich in 
1815. The death of the pastor in 1831 was a severe blow to the church. 

The short pastorate of Rev. James T. Dickinson prepared him for the 
Foreign Mission field in 1834. The Rev. Alvan Pond succeeded in a ministry 
of twenty-nine years (1835-65), a period of steady growth for the church and 
community. Soon it appeared that one church could not care for the religious 
life crowding in, and in 1842 what was called the Fifth Society was formed 
by a colony of ninety-eight persons going out, who organized what was 
known for over eighty years as the Broadway Congregational Church, now 
again, with the mother church, making the United Church. That the new 
venture did not seriously deplete the strength of the mother church is seen 
in the fact that the fire of 1844 destroying its edifice did not keep its strong 
constituency from building of granite on its present site what was at the 
time the finest church structure in the county. With its membership ever 
growing in influence, culture and spiritual and evangelical progressiveness, 
the Second Church of Norwich became a power in Eastern Connecticut. 
Then followed the pastorate of Rev. Malcolm McG. Dana, D.D. (1864-74), 
which carried on the strong work of the church. The feeling that its help- 
fulness to the community would be increased by removal to the suburban 
district near the Academy led to marked differences of opinion with the 
majority of his parishioners, and in 1874 Dr. Dana resigned and, with one 
hundred and five of his old members, formed the Park Congregational Church. 
Rev. William S. Palmer, D.D., came to the Second Church in the autumn of 
that year (1874) and began a fruitful ministry of fifteen years. The difficulties 
at the opening of the pastorate were gradually overcome. Dr. Palmer began 
with two hundred and forty members and closed with three hundred and fifty- 
one. During his ministry the Christian Endeavor Society was organized, and 
special work was done for the Chinese. Dr. and Mrs. Palmer did a strong 
and wide work, and their influence was felt in the State and the denomination 
at large. The pulpit was supplied for three years by Rev. Leonard Woolsey 
Bacon, D.D., when Rev. Cornelius W. Morrow was installed. 

As we have seen, the year 1842 was notable in Norwich for the establish- 
ment of what became the Broadway Congregational Church. No new church 
enterprise in the county ever started off with better opportunities. The 
short pastorate of Rev. Willard Child (1842-45) was succeeded by the epoch- 
making ministry of Rev. John P. Gulliver, D. D. (1846-65). With a genius 
peculiar to himself, he took hold of his problem in harmony with his brethren 
in the ministry and worked it out from the community standpoint. The 
story of his local work for education is told at length elsewhere and may not 
be repeated here. A disastrous fire in 1854 led to the building of "Broadway" 
Church, now the home of the United Church. Under his lead the church 
stepped out into the larger life of the denomination and has ever since played 
a strong part in its life at home and abroad. 

Dr. Gulliver's successor was Rev. Daniel Merriman (1868-75), who 
carried on the tradition of strength and breadth, as also did his successors, 
Rev. L. T. Chamberlain (1877-83) and Rev. Nelson Millard, D.D. (1884-87). 
In 1888 began the powerful pastorate of Rev. Lwellyn Pratt, D.D., who had 



RELIGION IN NEW LONDON COUNTY 297 

already in a variety of spheres accomplished a life work. He gathered up 
the lines of service developed by his predecessors and added yet more of his 
own, increasing in power for nearly a score of years. In 1906 he laid down 
the burden of labors which were too much for his weakening physique, but 
remained a loved adviser until' his death in 1913. 

Side by side with the development of these two urban churches, the old 
First at Norwichtown had gone on its way under the pastorate of Rev. H. P. 
Arms, who lived to preach an emeritus sermon on the fortieth anniversary 
of his ministry in 1876. Since that date the Old First at Norwichtown has 
gone on her steady way, holding a strong position in the Association. 

The Park Church started oflf on her vigorous life, as we have seen, under 
the pastorate of Dr. Dana in 1874. Her beautiful house of worship, in a 
superb location, adjoining the group of the Academy buildings, with a pow- 
erful ministry under Dr. Dana (1874-78), Rev. Leonard Woolsey Bacon, D.D., 
and Rev. Samuel H. Howe, D.D., have made the Park Church a bright light 
in the Association and State and throughout the denomination. 

The Greenville Church in Norwich (Third Congregational) had been 
established (1833) in a suburb where the water privileges began to attract 
manufacturing interests. Its pastorates were short for over a half century 
of its life, but it is closing the century with the long and faithful ministry of 
Rev. Charles H. Ricketts. In 1867, as the manufacturing interests moved 
further up the stream, the Taftville Church was added to the Norwich group, 
doing its helpful service to a fine constituency of people mostly connected 
with the mills established there. The Second Congregational Church of 
Stonington was organized in 1S33 and the Mystic church in 1852, and with 
the Groton church have given the shore section of the county a steady and 
vigorous Congregational ministry. 

At the Old First at New London the pastorate of Dr. McEwen was 
succeeded by that of Rev. Thomas P. Field, D.D., after an associate pastorate 
from 1856 to i860, closing in 1876. Dr. Field brought to New London from 
his professorship of literature at Amherst College, culture and learning, and 
a spiritual leadership, as well as a wide reputation throughout religious and 
educational circles. A revival in 1858 led on to a steady growth throughout 
his strong ministry. Rev. Edward Woolsey Bacon (1877-87) and Rev. S. 
Leroy Blake, D. D. (1887-1902), succeeded, each with a fruitful service. Dr. 
Blake wrote in two volumes the story of the church he served. 

Rev. J. Romeyn Danforth, the present pastor (1922), came in 1903 and 
has carried on with distinction the high-grade service of the church. He has 
represented the denomination in her national councils for many years, and 
proved a wise councillor in the American Missionary Association. The war 
opened the heart of this church, and it rendered valuable service, social and 
religious, to the soldiers and sailors, who accepted to an unusual degree its 
hospitalities. Its Young People's Society was especially active in this work 
and has since been carrying on strongly. The Old First Church was incor- 
porated in 1919 in harmony with the modern plans of best church organiza- 
tion, and the venerable ecclesiastical society voluntarily closed its long and 
honorable career. It added deaconesses to its efficient organization. At the 



298 NEW LONDON COUNTY 

time of epidemics its parish house has been used as an emergency hospital. 
j\Ir. Danforth entered widely into the religious and philanthropic life of the 
community. The Smith Memorial Home, the Mohegan fund, the Tinker 
Bread fund, the Rotary Club, the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, claim him. 

As we have seen, the Second Congregational Church started ofT in 1835 
with the warmest favor of the Old First, and has grown into the stature of 
a powerful leader among the churches of the denomination in the State and 
country. It worshipped in its original building until its destruction by fire 
in 1868, just after a thorough repair. At that time the present main building 
was erected, one of the finest in the State, especially after the addition in 
recent years of the Church House, fully equipped for all lines of church 
activity. The early pastorates were comparatively short, with intervening 
supiilies, and the names of Hurlbut, Huntington, MacDonald, Boies a