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OLDM 


OF  THE 


CONNECTICUT-DEERFIELD-BERKSHIRE 


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Please 

handle  this  volume 

with  care. 

The  University  of  Connecticut 
Libraries,  Storrs 

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,y^W  Sg*  A°ND    TorSIr'"'"    '-^°^'^°S    of 


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By  KATHARINE  M.  ABBOTT 

Old  Paths  and  Legends  of 
New  England 

Massachusetts — Rhode  Island — New 

Hampshire. 

Octavo,      With  i86  Illustrations  and  a  Route 

Map.     $3.50  net.     By  mail,  $3.73. 

Old  Paths  and  Legends  of 
the  New  England  Border 

Connecticut — Deerfield — Berkshire. 
Octavo,      With   Photogravure     Frontispiece 
and  about  200  other  Illustrations  and  a  Map. 
S3 -30  net.     By  mail,  $3.73. 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 


Photograph  by  C.  B.  Webster. 

Governor  Winthrop's  Mill,  1650,  New  London,  Conn. 


OLD   PATHS  AND    LEGENDS 


OF  THE 


V 


NEW    ENGLAND    BORDER 


CONNECTICUT 

DEERFIELD 

BERKSHIRE 

BY 
KATHARINE   M.  ABBOTT 

AUTHOR    OF 

"  OLD  PATHS  AND    LEGENDS    OF    NEW 
ENGLAND — THE  EASTERN  COAST  " 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

^be  IknicF^erbocftcr  press 

1907 


Copyright,  1907 

BV 

KATHARINE  M.  ABBOTT 


TTbe  Tftnicfterbocfter  press,  "Wew  Korft 


£; 


Inscribed  to 
P.  M.  A. 

AND  TO 

The  Exiles  from  New  England 


1i 


■1 


PREFACE 

In  our  new  historical  journey,  we  shall  attempt  to  follow, 
as  far  as  may  be  in  a  few  pages,  the  ever-shifting  border  line 
of  colonial  settlement — the  westward  drift  of  the  log-hut 
across  the  wilderness  of  New  England  in  the  days  when  we 
were  still  subject  to  kingly  rule. 

The  story  of  border  life  in  the  North  American  colonies 
is  more  of  a  romance  than  an  historical  study,  a  vivid  illus- 
tration of  Daudet's  aphorism — '*  Romance  is  the  history 
of  men,  and  history  the  romance  of  kings." 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  that  the  inevitable 
course  of  empire  swept  on  to  the  New  England  coast;  the 
great  Anglo-Saxon  wave  crept  onward  from  river-valley  to 
river-valley,  the  Indian  kings  retreating  before  it,  ever 
westward,  exiles  from  the  hunting-grounds  of  their  fathers; 
until,  in  the  reign  of  "our  sovereign  Lord — George  the 
Second,"  nought  but  the  Taconic  range  of  Berkshire  stood  be- 
tween the  homes  of  the  English  yeomanry  on  the  Housatonic 
and  the  feudal  manors  of  Dutch  Patroons  on  the  Hudson. 

The  experience  of  our  colonists  is  unique  in  the  history  of 
nations :  in  part  a  peaceful  tilling  of  the  soil ;  in  part  a  strife 
with  a  race  of  red-men,  some  amenable  to  friendly  overture, 
others  implacable  fiends  in  human  form,  dreaded,  even  as 
allies,  by  both  French  and  English.  Yet  the  acts  of  these 
strange,  primitive  chiefs  changed  the  history  of  the  Courts 
of  Europe. 

It  is  a  fascinating  occupation  to  trace  the  westward  path 
trodden  by  our  ancestors.  Perchance  a  fine  old  Norman 
name,  a  trifle  Anglicized,  appears  on  the  passenger  list  of  the 
good  ship  Mary  and  John;  this  shows  that  its  possessor 
was    unceremoniously  deposited,  plus  goods  and  chattels, 

Hi 


iv  Preface 

on  Nantasket  Point  by  Captain  Squeb,  who,  fearing  to 
face  the  intricacies  of  Boston  Harbor,  left  the  "  godly  families 
of  Devonshire  and  Dorsetshire"  to  shift  for  themselves  in  the 
wilds.  A  year  later,  that  same  sturdy  name  is  found  at- 
tached to  Dorchester  land-grants,  and  shortly  appears  anew 
at  Windsor  on  the  Connecticut,  or  at  palisadoed  Northamp- 
ton as  of  a  freeman  and  proprietor.  His  eldest  son  elects  to 
carry  the  name  over  the  ragged  Hoosacs,  taking  up  his 
Province  grant  in  the  picturesque  valley  of  the  Housatonic. 
In  turn,  his  son  passes  beyond  the  New  England  border  to 
plant  our  Western  Reserv'e.  In  the  great  Northwest  to-day 
we  discover  four  several  towns  endowed  with  that  knightly 
Norman  name,  so  marvellously  far-travelled  since  first 
transplanted  by  William  the  Conqueror. 

The  marked  and  pretty  contrast  between  the  rich  scenes 
of  New  England's  border-land  and  her  eastern  coast  has 
been  interpreted  for  me  by  artists,  each  of  whom  has  deeply 
breathed  the  air  of  this,  his  native  heath.  Likewise  I  am 
again  indebted  to  publishers,  English  and  American,  and 
to  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin,  and  Company  for  permission 
to  transcribe  verses  of  the  poets,  who  sprang  full-armed 
from  this  rocky  land  spied  out  by  their  forefathers. 

K.  M.  A. 

Belvidere,  Lowell, 
August,  1907. 


CONTENTS 

The  First  Voyage  of  "The  Restless":  How  a  Dutch 
Yacht,    Sailing    out    of    Manhattan,    Discovered 

THE        HOUSATONICK,      CoNNITTECOCK,      AND        PeQUOT 

Rivers  .... 

/Uncas  and  THE  Chase  of  the  Pequots 
Saybrook(Pasheshauke),  1635 
Lyme  (East  Saybrook),  1645 
New  London  (Pequot),  1645 
Norwich     .  ... 

Through  Gardiner's  Bay  to  Greenport 
East  Hampton     . 
Sag  Harbor 
Southampton,  1640 
Shelter  Island  . 
Guilford,  1639    . 
New  Haven  (Quinnipiac),  1637 
The  Tour  of  General  Washington  in  1789 
Deerfield  (Pocumtuck),  1670 
Northampton  (Nonotuck),  1654  . 
Stockbridge  (Indian  Town),  1737-9 

Tyringham,  1 739-1 762 

Lenox  (Yokuntown),  i 739-1767 

Pittsfield  (Pontoosuck),  1752     . 


PAGE 


1 1 

16 
42 

64 
78 

81 

86 
89 

93 
96 

loi 

127 

150 
158 
194 
217 

255 
269 

293 


vi  Contents 

PAGE 

Great  Barrington  (Upper  Housatonnuck),    1733-1760  338 

From  Great  Barrington  to  Litchfield         .          .          .  352 

Litchfield,  1721-1724            ......  3^7 

Index           ......•••  393 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Governor  Oliver  Wolcott  Mansion,  Litchfield,  Conn.  Cover 

Photograph  by  C.  B.   Webster. 

District  School  with  Wood-house,  North  Guilford, 

Conn.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     Title-page 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

Governor  Winthrop's  Mill,  New  London,  Conn.    Frontispiece 

In  Color. 

Bash-Bish  Falls,  Berkshire         ....  0pp.  i 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 

Water-Lilies       ...... 

Photograph  by  H.  E.  Robbins. 

The  Housatonic  River,  Sheffield,  Mass. 
Photograph  by  H.  E.  Robbins. 

East  Rock,  New  Haven       .... 

Thomas  Leete  House,  Sachem's  Head,  Conn. 
Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

Shantic  Falls,  Mohegan,  Conn.  . 

The  Medicine  Man 

The  Fringed  Gentian  .... 

Photograph  by  H.  E.  Robbins. 

Lion  Gardiner's  Mill-Stone,  Saybrook  Point,  Conn. 

Polishing  Gran'ther's  Powder-horn  . 
Photograph  by  Marshall  P.  Cram. 

On  Long  Island  Sound         .... 

Photograph  by  F.  At  water  Ward. 

Tomb  of  Lady  Fenwick,  Saybrook  Point,  Conn. 
Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

Tin-Peddler's  Cart,  Old  Saybrook 

Photograph  by  C.  M.  Acton. 

Captain  Elisha  Hart  Homestead,  Old  Saybrook 
Photograph  by  C.  M.  Acton. 

Humphrey  Pratt  Tavern     .... 


3 

7 
8 

12 
I 

15 

20 
24 

28 
30 

34 
39 


41 


vn 


Vlll 


Illustrations 


Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

Elm  Arch,  Blackhall,  Lyme,  Conn. 
Photograph  by  John  R.  Baynes. 

Governor  Griswold  Homestead,  Blackhall,  Lyme 
Photograph  by  John  R.  Baynes. 

Memorial  Bridge,  Lyme,  Conn.    .... 
Photograph  by  John  R.  Baynes. 

On  the  Banks  of  Lieutenant  River    .  .  . 

Photograph  by  John  R.  Baynes. 

Home  of  the  Artists,  Lyme  .... 

Photograph  by  John  R.  Baynes. 

Whitefield  Rock,  in  the  Ludington  Garden 
Photograph  by  John  R.  Baynes. 

Studio  of  Allen  B.  Talcott,  Lyme 
Photograph  by  John  R.  Baynes. 

The  McCurdy  House,  Lyme  .... 

Photograph  by  Dr.  George  Grant  MacCurdy. 

Old  Lyme  Church        ...... 

Phctograph  by  Dr.  George  Grant  MacCurdy. 

Rogers  Lake       ....... 

Salt  Meadows     ....... 

Summer  Home  of  Dr.  Samuel  R.  Elliott,  New  London 

Hempstead  Homestead,  New  London,  Conn. 

Ocean  Beach,  New  London 

The  Town  of  Noank,  Conn. 

Clover-Blossoms 

Trout  Brook  near  Norwich,  Con::. 

Watch  Hill,  R.  L         . 

New  London  Light      .  .  . 

MoNTAUK  Point  and  Camp  Wyckoff 

Oysters  on  Natural  Bed,  Long  Island  Sound 

Presbyterian  Church,  Sag  Harbor,  L.  L 

Town  Creek,  Southold,  L.  L        .  .  . 

Sayre  Homestead,  Southampton,  L.  L 

Manor  of  Shelter  Island    .... 


43 

45 
46 

47 

51 
52 

53 
56 

5S 

61 

65 

69 

71 

73 

75 

77 

78 
80 

81 

83 
88 

90 

92 

94 
95 


Illustrations 


IX 


An  October  Day,  Southampton,  L.  I. 

Spire  of  the  First  Church,  Guilford,  Conn. 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard  of  Guilford. 

Grace  Starr  House,  Crooked  Lane,  Guilford 
Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard  of  Guilford. 

Samuel  Hubbard  House       ..... 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard  of  Guilford. 

Stone  Homestead  and  Chittenden  Homestead     . 
Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard  of  Guilford. 

Samuel  Robinson  Homestead       .... 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard  of  Guilford. 

RuTTAWOO  Brook,  Nutplains,  Guilford 

Side-porch  of  the  Foote  Homestead,  Nutplains 

RoxANA  Foote  (Mrs.  Lyman  Beecher) 
Drawing  by  Mildred  Howells. 

Foote  Homestead,  front  view,  Nutplains 

The  little  District  School,  North  Guilford 

Birthplace  of  David  Dudley  Field,  Madison,  Conn. 
Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

Birthplace  of  Gilbert  Munger,  Opening  Hill    . 
Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

Lot  Benton  House,  Guilford      .... 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 
worthington  bartholomew  house,  guilford 
Door-knocker,  Mulberry  Farm  . 
Ivy  Tower,  Yale  Library   . 
United  Church,  New  Haven  Green 

Photograph  by  Dr.  George  Grant  MacCurdy. 

East  Rock,  New  Haven 

Roger  Sherman  House,  New  Haven    . 

Pierpont  House,  New  Haven 

Collins  Homestead  and  Savin  Rock    . 

An  Old-fashioned  Garden,  Milford,  Conn. 
Photograph  by  H.  W.  Benjamin. 

Phelps  Gateway,  Yale  University 
Photograph  by  Herbert  Randall. 


PAGE 

99 

lOI 
I02 
104 

109 

no 
III 

113 

115 
116 

118 

121 
124 

126 
127 
128 

130 
132 

^33 
135 
137 

139 


X  Illustrations 


PAGE 


•  149 

•  151 

•  153 

•  154 

•  155 

.   156 

^'Wag  at  the  WaV'  Heirloom  of  a  New  Haven  House     141 

By  permission  of  Mrs.  E.  M.  Leete.      Drawing  by  Hubbard. 

A   Tea-Service    from   the    old    Maltby    Mansion         .      142 
By  permission  of  Mrs.  E.  M.  Leete. 

Home   of   Donald   G.    Mitchell,    LL.D,,    New    Haven     143 
Photograph  by  C.  E.  Cornwall. 

Washington         .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .147 

From  a  painting  and  engraving  by  Rembrandt  Peale. 

Powder-horn,  Anson  Phelps  Stokes  Collection 
Benson's  Tavern  and  the  Village  Elms,  Fairfield 
First  House  without  the  Palisades,  Milford,  Conn. 
An  Old  Churchyard,  Wethersfield,  Conn. 
The  Governor  Webster  House,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Chief-Justice  Ellsworth  Mansion,  Windsor,  Conn. 

Photograph  by  H.  W.  Benjamin. 

Charter  Oak  Chair,  the  Capitol,  Hartford  .  -157 

Photograph  by  Mrs.  Sara  T.  Kinney,  State    Regent   of    the 
Connecticut  D.  A.  R. 

Samson  Frary  House,  Deerfield,  Mass.        .  .  .      160 

Photograph  by  Miss  Emma  L.  Coleman. 

The  Fall  in  Deerfield  Old  Street      ....      165 

Photograph  by  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 
Allen  Homestead,  Deerfield      .....      169 

Photograph  by  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 
Old  South  Door  of  the  Nims  Homestead     .  .  .170 

In  Color.      Photograph  b}"  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 

The  North  Meadows  to  Cheapside       .  .  .  -175 

Photograph  by  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 
Ell  of  the  John  Sheldon  Homestead,  Old  Street        .      179 

Photograph  by  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 
Stoop  of  the  Parson  Williams  Homestead  .  .      182 

Photograph  by  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 
Snow  Shoe  Dance        .  .  .  .  .  .  .185 

From  Catlin's  XortJi  American  Indians. 
The  Old  Manse,  Deerfield  .....      189 

Photograph  by  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 

Sign  of  the  Burk  Tavern,  Bernardston      .  .  .      192 

Photograph  by  Joseph  Lamb. 


Illustrations  xi 


PAGE 


An  Heirloom  .  .  .  .  .  -193 

At  Hockaxum  under  the  Shadow  of  Mt.  Holyoke         .      195 
Photograph  by  CHfton  Johnson. 

Whately  Glen    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .197 

*'The  Galloping  OF  the   Mountain,"   Holyoke   Range     198 
In  Color.      Photograph  by  Chfton  Johnson 

Mount  Tom  in  winter  .  .  .  .  .  .200 

Spectres  of  French  and  Indian  Wars  .  .  .      201 

Ready  for  the  Colonial  Ball      .....      206 
In  Color.      Photograph  by  Katherine  C.  McClellan. 

View  across  Connecticut  River  from  Holyoke  .      211 

Photograph  by  C.  H.  Prentiss. 

The  Students'  Building,  Smith  College       .  .  .215 

Photograph  by  Katherine  E.  McClellan. 

Lake  Makheenac  or  Stockbridge  Bowl       .  .  .      218 

Photograph  by  Mrs.  John  Wm.  Boothby. 
Monument  Mountain  .......      219 

Photograph  by  Raymond  Cilley. 
HousATONic  River,  Berkshire     .....      224 

The  Old  Mission  House,  Stockbridge  .  .  .      225 

The  Mohegan  Convert         .  .  .  .  .  .227 

Monument  to  the  Housatonic  Indians  .  .  .      233 

St.    Paul's    Church    and    "Shays's    Rebellion    Elm," 

Stockbridge       .......      237 

Photograph  by  Edward  W.  Morley,  Ph.D.,  LL  D. 

The  Sedgwick  Homestead,  Stockbridge        .  .  .      241 

Aspiration  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      2/5 

From  a  Painting  by  Frederic  Crowninshield. 

The  Charcoal  Cart,  Berkshire  .  .  .  .      248 

Studio  of  Daniel  Chester  French,  Glendale       .  .      249 

Photograph  by  W.  L.  Benedict. 

Windswept  Snow,  Stockbridge    .  .  .  .  -251 

The  Children's  Chimes         ......      254 

Squire  Thomas  Garfield  House,  Tyringham  .  .      257 

Photograph  by  Edward  W.  Morley,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Riverside  Farm,  Tyringham  Valley    .  .  .  -259 


xii  Illustrations 


PAGE 
262 


263 
265 


266 
271 

274 
279 


The  Mountain  Path    ..... 
Photograph  by  Wm.  H.  Sanford. 

Lake  Garfield,  Monterey,  Mass. 

Elephant  Rock,  Monterey 

Photographs  by  W.  L.  Bened'ct. 

Four  Brooks  Farm      ..... 
Photograph  by  Gessford. 

Portrait  of  Catherine  Sedgwick 

The  Old  Saw-mill,  Lenox 

Photograph  by  Major  F.  C.  Grugan. 

A  Deserted  Quarry,  Lee     .... 

Kemble  Street,  Lenox         .... 

Photograph  by  Wilham  Radford,  British  Embassy. 

Apple-orchard  of  Hawthorne's  Little  Red  House      .      281 

Photograph  by  Major  F.  C.  Grugan. 
The  Church  on  the  Hill,  Lenox  ....      283 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

"Yokun  Farm,"  old  Home  of  Judge  William  Walker  286 
"  YoKUN, "  remodelled,  Goodman  Residence,  Lenox  289 
Birches  AT  "Stonover,  "  Lenox  ....      291 

Photograph  by  Major  F.  C.  Grugan. 
Sentinel  Poplars         .......      295 

Among  the  Green  Mountains       .....      297 

A  Wine-Glass  Elm,  Berkshire     .....      300 

Photograph  by  Major  F.  C.  Grugan. 
W^illiams-Newton  House,  "The  Rectory,"  Pittsfield     303 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 
The  Saddle  of  Greylock  from  South  Mountain  Pitts- 
field  ........      306 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln  in  Color. 
Van     Schaack     Mansion,     now     The     Country     Club, 

Pittsfield  .......      309 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 

The  Holmes  Pine,  Canoe  Meadows       .  .  .  .312 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 

The  Home  of  Mrs.  Kellogg,  East  Street  .  -315 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 


Illustrations 


xiu 


PAGE 

"Elm  Kxoll,"  East  Street,  Pittsfield        .  .  -317 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 

The  Brattle  Homestead,  Pittsfield    ....      320 

"  Holiday  Cottage,  "  Daltox,  Mass.      ....      323 

Wacoxah  Falls,  Wixdsor    .  .  .  .  .  .325 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 
Hubbell  Homestead,  Laxesboro  ....      327 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 
Old  Home  of  "Josh  Billixgs",  Laxesboro  .  .  .      329 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 

Thompsox  Memorial  Chapel,  Williams  College  .  .331 

Photograph  by  Edward  W.  Morley,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Squire  Peirsox  House,  Richmoxd  ....  334 
Photograph  by  Edward  W.  Morley,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

The  Housatoxic,  Great  Barrixgtox    ....      339 

The  Dome  of  the  Tacoxics  .....      341 

Photograph  by  \V.  L.  Benedict. 
Lake  Maxsfield  .......      343 

Photograph  by  W.  L.  Benedict. 
WlXTER-WOODS,   SeARLES   ESTATE,   GrEAT   BaRRIXGTOX  .        345 

Photograph  by  W.  L.  Benedict. 

Poxd's  Brook,  Huxtixgtox  .....      347 

Photograph  by  Edwin  H.  Lincoln. 

The  East  Road  to  Sheffield        .  .  .  .  .350 

Photograph  by  W.  L.  Benedict. 
The  Uxder  Mouxtaix  Road,  Salisbury,  Coxx.      .  -3  53 

Photograph  by  W.  L.  Benedict. 
Axgoras  " IX  Clover"  ......      355 

Photograph  by  Mrs.  j .  C.  Kendall. 
GovERxoR  HoLLEY  HousE,  Lakeville,  Coxx.  .  -358 

Schaghticoke  Mouxtaix      .  .  .  .  .  .360 

Gaylord    Homestead,    Gaylordsville    ox   the    Housa- 
toxic .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .362 

Hox.  Elijah  Boardmax  House,  Xew  Milford,  Coxx.     .      364 

Baxtam  Lake,  Litchfield,  Coxx.  ....      366 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 
The  Beecher  Elm         .......      367 

Drawing  bv  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 


xiv  Illustrations 

PAGE 

Deming  Homestead,  Litchfield  ....     368 

Photograph  by  Wm.  H.  Sanford. 

"Town  Hill  Street,  "  Litchfield         ....     370 
Photograph  by  Wm.  H.  Sanford. 

Wolcott  Mansion,  Litchfield      .....     373 
Photograph  by  Wm.  H.  Sanford. 

The  Judge  Gould  House,  Litchfield  .  .  .     375 

Drawing  by  Charles  D.  Hubbard. 

Jewelled  Trees,  Litchfield         .....     377 
Photograph  by  Wm.  H.  Sanford. 

The  Colonel  Benjamin  Tallmadge-Noyes  House  .     379 

Photograph  by  Wm.  H.  Sanford. 

Interior,  "Ardley,  "  Litchfield  ....     383 

Photograph  by  Wm.  H.  Sanford. 

Bradleyville  Tavern,  Bantam    .....     384 

Bantam  River,  Litchfield  .....     387 

The  Underwood  Residence,  Litchfield        .  .  .     389 

The  Great  Elm,  Wethersfield,  the  Largest  this  side 

OF  THE  Rockies  ......      390 

Sketch-Map  of  Western  New  England,  indicating  the 
Border  Towns  and  seat  of  the  more  powerful 
Indian  Tribes   ......         at  end 


OLD    PATHS    AND    LEGENDS    OF   THE   NEW 
ENGLAND  BORDER 


Bash-Bish,  Berkshire 
The  most  remarkable  cascade  in  Massachusetts ;   it  plunges   200  feet  in  all,  and 
leaps  on  through  a  gorge,  between  Alandar  and  Cedar  Mountain,   to  join  the 
mighty  Hudson.     Rare  varieties  of  the  fringed  gentian  have  been  found  here  by 
Professor  Peck. 


Old  Paths  and  Legends   of 
THE  New  England  Border 


THE    FIRST    VOYAGE    OF    THE    RESTLESS 


HOW    A    DUTCH    YACHT,     SAILING    OUT    OF    MANHATTAN,    DIS- 
COVERED   THE    HOUSATONICK,    CONNITTECOCK,    AND 
PEOUOT  RIVERS 


They  goe  abord 
And  he  eftsootie  gati  launche 
his  barke  forthright.  " 
The  Faerie  Queene. 


N  the  bright,  inspiring  days 
pecuhar  to  spring  on  the 
Island  of  Manhattan,  some 
six  years  before  the  May- 
flower entered  Plymouth 
harbor,  and  seven  seasons 
after  the  romantic  adventure  of  Captain  John  Smith  vrith 
Powhatan,  "Emperor  of  Virginia,"  and  the  Princess  Poco- 
hontas,  it  happened  that  the  small  Dutch  yacht  Onrust — 
"The  Restless" — swiftly  slipped  her  ways  to  search  out 
the  hitherto  unexplored  waters  of  our  Long  Island  Sound. 
Unexplored?  Yes,  unless  perhaps  the  castled  galleons  of 
Spain  passed  through  in  search  of  treasure,  or  a  Viking's 


2       Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

dragon  prow  chanced  here  on  quest  by  sagas  unrecorded. 
The  yacht's  name — Onrust — indicates  the  poetic  tem- 
perament of  Adriaen  Blok  (Block) ,  her  builder  and  com- 
mander, who,  with  the  relentless  longings  of  a  born  explorer, 
had  indeed  become  restless,  having  been  forced  by  the 
burning  of  his  ship  Tiger  ^  to  spend  an  inert,  impatient 
winter  among  the  natives  of  Manhattan. 

Friendly  these  savages  were,  but  looked  askance  at  the 
huge  black  dog  of  the  sckipper — "Sachem  of  dogs," 
the  Indians  called  him.  Tradition  says  of  the  first  arrival 
of  the  Dutch  at  Manhattan  Island  (as  communicated  to 
the  Rev.  John  Heckewelder  by  the  Indians  themselves) 
that  they  took  every  white  man  for  a  Mannitto,  yet  inferior 
to  the  Supreme  Mannitto  of  the  red  and  laced  clothes.  The 
whites  asked  them  only  for  so  much  land  as  the  hide  of  a 
bullock  would  cover,  which  hide  was  spread  upon  the 
ground.  The  Indians  readily  granted  this  request  and 
the  whites  cut  the  hide  up  into  a  rope  not  thicker  than  the 
finger  of  a  little  child,  and  drawing  it  out  this  hide  encom- 
passed a  large  piece  of  ground.  The  Indians  were  surprised 
at  the  superior  wit  of  the  whites,  but  did  not  contend  about 
a  little  land,  as  they  had  enough. 

"  The  Delawares  call  New  York  island  Mannahattanink, 
'the  island  of  general  intoxication,'  because  here  their 
chiefs  first  tasted  fire-water  offered  them  by  Mannitto  or 
the  white-skins. " 


1  Possibly  Blok's  ship  was  that  same  famous  Tiger  commanded  by 
"Pretty  Lambert"  when  Holland's  "pigmy  menagerie"  fleet  gained  a 
phenomenal  victory  over  Spain's  bulky  squadron  within  the  very  horns 
of  Gibraltar?  What  an  incomparable  chapter  is  Motley's  picturing  of 
that  valorous  day  for  the  Dutch  sea-conquerors!  "It  is  difficult  for 
Netherlanders  not  to  conquer  on  salt  water,  "  said  Admiral  Heemskerk, 
standing  in  front  of  his  mainmast  on  the  ALolus,  "clad  in  complete  armor, 
with  the  orange  plumes  waving  from  his  casque.  "  And  following  his 
command  the  Tiger,  Sea  Dog,  Griffin,  Golden  Lion,  and  White  Bear 
grappled  with  Admiral  Avila's  ponderous  galleons. —  United  Netherlands. 


Netherlanders    Discover   the    Housatonic      3 

Now  with  winter's  first  relenting,  these  sea-conquering ^ 
Hollanders  and  Zeelanders  were  seized  with  violent  spring- 


The  Housatonic  River  and  Mount  Everett  from  the  Old  Red 

Bridge,  Sheffield. 

"  Thither  drifted  the  Mohican  from  the  Hudson, 
Housatonic  signifying  ''over  the  mountain.'" 

fret  and  a  burning  fever  to  attain  fame  by  exploration  of 
America — the  magic  Unknown. 

1  Toward  the  end  of  the  great  war  the  Netherlands  were  first  in  com- 
merce and  held  supremacy  on  the  seas.  Amsterdam  is  described  by 
Antonio  Donato  as  the  very  image  of  Venice  :n  its  prime,  the  streets  beinsr 
so  thronged  and  bustling,  the  scene  looked  to  J.im  like  a  fair  to  end  in  one 
day. — Motley's   United  Netherlands. 

The  Northern  Provinces  of  the  Netherlands  scarcely  exceeded  two 
million  of  souls,  but  were  animated  by  a  spirit  which  Sir  Philip  Sydney 
said  to  Queen  Elizabeth  "is  the  spirit  of  God  and  is  invincible.  " 


4      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

The  Onrust  piloted  her  way  along  the  river  Hellegat 
between  islands  not  yet  white  with  flowering  dogwood ;  she 
escaped  unscathed  out  of  the  old  vixen  w^hirlpool  where 
the  waters  of  East  River  meet  Long  Island  Sound  in  ram- 
pant swirl,  rushing  across  the  Gridiron  and  overflowing  the 
Pot  into  the  Frying-pan  of  Hell  Gate,^  as  the  sailor 
has  it. 

Giving  a  wide  berth  starboard  to  the  sand  bars  and  spits 
of  Metonwacs  or  Sewanhacky,  "land  of  the  periwinkle"  or 
the  "  country  of  the  ear-shell"  (Long  Island),  Block  hugged 
the  "Great  Bay's"  north  shore,  where  shifted  a  panorama 
of  serene  meadows  and  low-lying  hills,  until  was  met  the 
Housatonick's  mouth. 

Close  at  hand  lay  golden  landholdings,  for  the  Onrusfs 
merchant  owners  in  Amsterdam,  a  new  Netherland.  There- 
fore it  behooved  Adriaen  Blok  to  hasten  to  surpass  in  the 
new  West,  the  English,  Holland's  jealous  rival  in  the  East. 
America  was  the  meaty  bone  now  snatched  at  by  three 
European  mastiffs.  The  red  flag  of  England  waved  over 
Virginia,  the  white  banner  of  France  in  Canada,  and  the 
tri-color  of  a  new  nation  now  displayed  itself  in  the  region 
between. 

The  coming  struggle  for  the 
American  Continent  was  fore- 
shadowed when  de  Halve-Maan, 
flying  the  orange,  blue,  and  white 
flag  of  Holland,  anchored  within 
Sandy  Hook  and,  with  his  mixed 


EAST  RIVER. 


LANDMARKS:  Fortified  in  '76 
from  the  Battery  to  Hell  Gate. 
Wallabout  Bay — "  Waal-booght  in 
the  bend  of  the  inner  harbor  " — here 
during  the  Revolution  anchored 
the  terrible  British  prison  ships; 
Fulton  Ferry — at  which  point  Wash- 


1  The  entire  East  River  was  called  "Hellegat"  by  Adriaen  Blok,  its 
first  European  pilot,  in  honor  of  a  branch  of  the  Scheldt.  The  whirlpool 
of  Hell  Gate  is  formed  by  the  far  long  sweep  of  the  waves  from  the  Race 
in  the  east  from  Montauk  (the  first  measure  of  the  tide  being  from  Mon- 
tauk  to  Block  Island)  accumulating  all  the  length  of  the  Sound  and  meet- 
ing the  lesser  tides  from  Sandy  Hook. 


Dutch,  French,  and  EngHsh  Adventure       5 


crew  of  Dutch  and  English,  Henry 
Hudson  cHmbed  the  River  of 
the  Mountains,  named  by  the 
Dutch  "Mauritius"  in  honor  of 
Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau.  Sa- 
luting the  frowning  Dunderberg 
at  sunset  the  Half-Moon  awoke 
near  West  Point  amid  sublimest 
scenery  in  the  Matteawan  moun- 
tains. At  future  Fort  Nassau 
(Albany)  the  Dutch  vessel  was 
met  by  her  Eldorado — the  In- 
dians, ladeQ  with  countless  rich 
beaver  skins,  ^  to  say  nothing  of 
grapes  and  pumpkins. 

Foreshadowed  also  was  the  com- 
ing contest  at  the  same  moment 
in  Canada;  there  one  perceives 
the  noble,  striking  figure  of  the 
Father  of  New  France,  Sieur 
de  Champlain,  raising  the  citadel 
of  Quebec  with  martial  form  and 
Catholic  faith,  "in  one  hand  the 
crucifix,  the  other  the  sword." 
Foreshadowed  when  the  words  America  and  Virginia 
became  the  topic  of  fashion  in  England.  Lords  of  the 
Admiralty  and  Commoners  alike  gossiped  over  Captain 
John  Smith's  bold  expeditions  up  the  Chesepeak,  and  each 
placed  a  venture  in  some  ship  bound  for  Virginia,  all  Britain 


ington  made  h*''  masterly  retreat, 
outwitting  General  Howe.  New 
York  itself  daily  grows  more  pic- 
turesque, adding  graceful  bridges  at 
dizzy  heights.  United  States  Mar- 
ine Hospital  stands  on  site  of  the 
house  of  the  Catelyn's  mother  of 
Breucklyn.  Beyond  Hell  Gate  are 
Buchanan's  and  Montresor's,  or 
Randall's  and  Ward's  Islands, 
whence  the  British  planned  to 
attack  Washington  at  Harlem. 
Opposite  Port  Morris  and  Astoria 
you  run  between  North  Brother 
and  South  Brother,  "  who  never 
spoke  to  each  other";  a  Lorillard 
house  near  Old  Ferry  Point;  College 
and  Whitestone  Points  with  Vliess- 
ingen  or  Flushing;  Westchester, 
the  "Neutral  Ground";  Fort  Schuyler 
and  Willett's  Point;  Stepping  Stone 
Light;  in  Cow  Bay  Shelter  storm- 
bound boats  await  smooth  water; 
Hart,  City,  and  Glen  Islands;  East 
Chester  Bay;  Pelham  Manor,  named 
for  Dr.  Thomas  Pell  of  Saybrook 
and  Fairfield  who  settled  in  West- 
chester; Ann  Hutchinson  murdered 
by  the  Indians;  New  Rochelle, 
founded  by  the  Huguenots.  All 
vessels  in  the  Sound  run  for  Execu- 
tion Light.  Outside  East  River  is 
Hempstead  harbor,  Long  Island, 
Eaton's  Neck  Light,  the  beautiful 
land-locked  harbor  of  Port  Jefferson, 
Mt.  Sinai  and  Crane  Neck,  the 
General    Spinola    estate. 


1  Thenceforth  the  Dutch  assiduously  cultivated  commercial  acquain- 
tance with  the  tribes  of  the  Hudson  who  "go  further  than  twenty  days' 
iourney  into  the  interior  to  catch  beaver  for  us  "  writes  Miles  Van  Der 
Donck,  Doctor  of  Laws,  to  the  merchants  at  home.  The  beaver,  he 
says,  resembles  "the  shape  of  a  cucumber  which  has  a  short  stem,  or 


6       Old  Paths   of  the  New  England  Border 

had  gone  mad  over  a  shipload  of  gold  dust,  or  ''fool's  gold," 
(iron  pyrites)  just  imported  from  the  precious  sands  of  the 
James.  What  applause,  when  Britons  of  "brave  heroic 
minds"  set  sail,  bathed  in  the  molten  light  of  Raleigh's 
glory  and  adventure,  while  Michael  Drayton  wafted  down 
the  Thames  a  Godspeed  in  twelve  stanzas: 

"  And  cheerfully  at  sea, 
Success  you  still  entice 
To  get  the  pearls  and  gold. 
And  ours  to  hold 

VIRGINIA 

Earth's  only  paradise^ 

How  different  the  scene  on  the  Thames,  on  the  exodus 
to  settle  "North  Virginia"  (New  England).  Noncon- 
formists of  high  degree,  Pilgrim  and  Puritan,  stole  away 
as  secretly  as  possible,  dreading  even  the  creaking  of  an 
anchor-chain  lest  it  betray  them  and  an  order  of  detention 
be  served  by  the  King's  Council.  Among  these  were  Thomas 
Hooker  and  John  Davenport,  the  founders  of  Hartford  and 
New  Haven. 

Half  a  score  of  miles  east  of  the  Housatonick  the  Onnist 
entered  a  deep  bay — New  Haven  harbor.  Conspicuous 
above  the  coast  line  rose  sharply  serrated  iron-rusted  cliff's, 
a  fair  valley  between.  The  Netherlanders  were  vastly 
interested  in  the  unique  topography  of  this  spot  and  de- 
scribed it  in  their  scenic  log  as  Roodenberg — "the  Red 
Mount   Place."     These   two   Red    Hills   are   now   famous. 

a  duck  that  has  the  neck  and  head  cut  off.  "  In  those  days  beaver 
skins  were  currency  in  Xew  Netherland  and  covered  men's  heads  not 
women's  shoulders.  The  Indians  called  the  w^hites  "men  with  hats  en" 
and  pictured  in  beads  on  their  wampum  the  warrior  of  the  scalp-lock  and 
the  Dutch  trader  wearing  a  beaver  hat.  "The  Dutch  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  trade  for  beaver  even  as  the  Puritans  came  to  catch  fish  and  the 
Cavaliers  to  cultivate  tobacco." — The  American  in  Holland,  Griffis. 


Roodenberg  on  The  Sound  7 

East  Rock  is  tipped  by  its  shaft  of  Liberty  and  West  Rock 
holds  the  Judges'  Cave  which  wilHngly  concealed  the 
Regicides,    fugitives   from   the   wrath  of   the   followers   of 


.^s'^^^^^s^.. 


East  Rock,  New  Haven. 

Charles,  who  is  yet  spoken  of  as  "the  royal  martyr^;  a 
remarkable  episode  this  in  the  history  of  the  Puritan  town 
with  laws  dipped  in  deepest  indigo. 

It  has  been  misstated  that  East  and  West  Rock  are 
terminals  of  that  most  ancient  range,  the  Green  Mountains, 
made  millions  of  years  before  these  rocks  were  deposited: 
they  are  of  igneous  origin  turned  into  sandstone  and  the 
sandstone  worn   away.       The  near-by  wonderful   Hanging 

1  The  first  Lord  Holland  used  to  relate,  with  some  pleasantry,  a  usage 
of  his  father.  Sir  Stephen  Fox,  which  proves  the  superstitious  veneration 
in  which  the  Tories  held  the  memory  of  Charles  I.  On  the  30th  of  January, 
the  wainscot  of  the  house  was  hung  with  black,  and  no  meal  of  any  sort 
was   allowed  till   after  midnight.     This   attempt   at   rendering  the   day 


8        Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Hills  of  ]\Ieriden  and  Talcott  Mountain,  also  Mt.  Holyoke 
and  Mt.  Tom  are  lava  flows.  Judges'  Cave  is  a  boulder 
carried  down  from  Meriden  and  dropped  on  the  ice. 

Adriaen  Blok  sailed  on  eastward  toward  the  country  of 
the  "Pekatoos"  (Pequots).     New  Haven's  West  and  East 


At  Sachem's  Head,  Guilford,  in  igo/. 
The  Thomas  Leete  house  of  i/jo. 

Rocks,  ''vv'ith  summits  finely  figured,"  faded  from  view, 
whilst  Mount  Carmel,  the  sleeping  giant  of  the  Quinnipiacs, 
lay  a  deep  purple  cloud  on  the  horizon.     Skirting  the  shore 

melancholy  by  fasting  had  a  directly  contrary  effect  on  the  children; 
for  the  housekeeper,  apprehensive  that  they  might  suffer  for  food,  gave 
the  little  folks  clandestinely  confits  and  sweetmeats,  and  Sir  Stephen's 
intended  fast  was  looked  upon  by  the  younger  part  of  the  family  as  a 
holiday    diversion. — Correspondence  of  C.  J.  Fox,  edited  by  Earl  Russell. 


Mackimoodus   on   the   Connecticut  9 

of  Alenunkatuck  (Guilford) — to  be  colonized  by  men  of 
Kent  under  the  leadership  of  Henry  Whitfield  and  Samuel 
Desborough — the  Onriist  entered  " Connittecock "  River; 
astonished  at  the  strong  current  moving  downward  and  the 
unusual  freshness  of  the  waters  near  the  mouth,  Blok  named 
it  Verch  or  "  Fresh- Water  River." 

Blok  entered  the  Connecticut  highlands  (at  present 
Haddam),  where  the  broad  stream  is  compressed  to  thirty- 
five  rods  in  a  remarkable  gorge  of  crystalline  rocks,  the 
Strait  Hills.  Near  Mount  Tom  the  Hollanders  may  have 
heard  strange  earth  rumblings  like  the  roaring  of  cannon 
or  cracking  of  small  shot;  the  "Moodus  noises"  occur 
spasmodically  at  Mackimoodus  near  the  mouth  of  Salmon 
River,  where  an  early  writer  says  the  Indians  ''held  pow- 
wows with  the  devil."  These  subterranean  thunderings 
have  been  heard  as  far  as  New  London.  An  old  Indian 
being  asked  the  reason  of  the  noises  replied,  "the  Indians' 
God  very  angr}^,  Englishman's  God  come  here." 

Blok  saw  wigwams  of  the  Sequins  at  Folly  Point,  just 
below  Hartford;  had  he  chosen  to  land  on  the  east  side 
(Glastonbury,  to-day  covered  with  orchards  of  pink  peach 
blossoms)  and  mounted  the  hill,  he  might  have  had  a  glo- 
rious view  from  Connecticut's  Mt.  Tom  to  Mt.  Tom  of 
Massachusetts. 

On  this  hill  was  a  fortified  e3^rie  of  the  plucky  Red  Hills 
tribe,  between  whom  and  the  Mohawks  was  deadly  hatred, 
and  the  legend  goes  that  the  Mohawks  thrice  attempted  to 
climb  the  hill,  but  the  Red  Hills  rolled  logs  and  stones  down 
upon  them;  then  they  determined  on  stratagem.  One  day 
a"  runner  "  brought  news  that  the  Mohawks  were  coming,  and 
the  Red  Hills  gathered  the  squaws  within  the  fort.  After 
long  waiting  the  Red  Hills  dispatched  scouts,  who  struck 
the  trail  near  Enfield  running  to  Roaring  Brook.  There 
the  scent  was  lost;  the  Mohawks  entered  the  stream,  waded 


lo    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

down  to  the  mouth,  surprised  and  butchered  the  Red  Hills 
from  the  rear.  This  happened  about  the  period  when  the 
first  settlers  migrated  to  Connecticut,  and  Barber  says  that 
"the  froward  child  was  often  subdued  by  the  terrific  ex- 
clamation, 'the  Mohawks  are  coming!'  " 

Blok  was  able  to  navigate  as  far  as  Windsor  Locks,  then 
visited  vSiccanemos,  or  river  of  the  Sachem,  no\v  Mystic;  and 
Little  Fresh  River,  or  the  Thames,  skirting  the  site  of 
New  London.  Blok's  map,  beautifully  executed  on  parch- 
ment, in  the  Archives  of  the  Hague  (a  copy  is  at  Albany) 
was  our  first  map  of  Southern  Ne\v  England.  How  joy- 
ously the  Amsterdam  merchants  placed  it  before  the  Di- 
rectors and  obtained  a  trading  charter,  with  exclusive 
rights  ''to  visit  and  navigate"  from  New  France  to  Virginia, 
*'now  named  New  Netherland. " 

Blok's  map  show^s  that  he  coasted  to  Montauk  Point, 
naming  it  appropriately  Visscher's  Hoeck,  touched  Martha's 
Vineyard  and  the  Indians'  beautiful  Manisses,  with  its 
great  lake  and  ninety-nine  small  ones,  and  extraordinary 
Mohegan  cliffs,  to  which  he  gave  his  name ;  we  call  it  Block 
Island,  the  Dutch,  Adrian's  Eyland;  the  Rhode  Island 
Assembly  christened  it  New  Shoreham,  and  Whittier  revived 
Manisses,  or  the  "Little  God,"  the  charming  musical  ap- 
pellation of  the  cruel  tribe  who  drove  the  Mohegans  to  the 
cliffs'  edge,  and  watched  them  perish,  penned  between  the 
sea  and  a  more  unmerciful  enemy.  To-day  Block  Island 
has  two  guardians: 

''Point  Judith  watches  with  eyes  of  Jiawk, 
Leagues  south  by  beacon  flames  Montauk  I  " 


UNCAS  AND  THE  CHASE  OF  THE  PEOUOTS 

"Where  erst  the  red  brow'd  hunter  stray'd 
And   marks   those   stremnlets   sheen   and   blue 
Where  gliding  sped  thy  slight  canoe.'' 

''Hark,  hark,  from  yonder  darksome  field 
Alethought  their  thundering  war-shout  pealed — 
Alethoiight  I  saw  in  flickering  spires 
The  lightning  of  their  council  fires.  " 
Mrs.  Sigourney  on  visiting  the  last  of  the  Mohegans  at  Montville  on 
the  Pequot  (Thames)  River.  Connecticut. 

Because  of  a  quarrel  between  two  mighty  Sagamores, 
Sassacus,  the  merciless,  and  Uncas  the  brave,  came  about 
the  first  sight  of  the  beautiful  shore  of  Long  Island  Sound 
by  Englishmen,  and  an  instant  resolve  to  barter  with  the 
Indians  for  this  fertile  coast  west  of  the  Connecticut  River. 
It  was  by  guiding  the  white  forces  in  their  thrilling  pursuit 
of  the  Pequots,  who  had  been  driven  out  of  their  stronghold 
by  Captain  John  Mason,  that  Uncas  gained  a  stern  revenge 
over  Sassacus  in  the  midsummer  of  sixteen  hundred  and 
thirty-seven,  and  caused  New  Haven  Colony  to  be  added  to 
King  James's  colonial  possessions. 

The  glory  of  the  Pequot  tribe  was  approaching  its  merid- 
ian when  the  Dutch  on  the  Onmst  discovered  their  wide 
hunting-grounds,  which  by  conquest  the  tribe  had  ex- 
tended, from  where  their  Prince  held  his  court  on  the  Mys- 
tick  River  (Groton,  Conn.)  quite  beyond  Quinnipiac  to  the 
Housatonic  and  even  farther  north  into  the  "Whetstone" 
country  of  the  Nipmucks  (the  Oxford  lakes,  south  of 
Worcester) . 

These  Pequots  and  also  the  Mohegans  are  both  believed 

II 


12     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

to  be  branches  of  the  Mohican  nation  who  roamed  the 
Upper  Hudson,  drifting  eastward,  some  attaching  them- 
selves to  the  Berkshire  Hills,  others  establishing  themselves 
about  the  Thames.  Prince  Sassacus  and  Uncas,  at  first 
the  lesser  Sachem,  were  both  of  royal  blood  and  entitled 
to  wear  the  wolf-badge  emblem  of  the  Mohegans;  Les  Loups 


Shantic  Fails,  Mohegan,  Conn. 

Not  by  her  sunbeams  only,  summer  '5  known, 
But  by  her  deepeniiig  shadows,  fern-flecked  stone." 


was  the  name  by  which  the  French  distinguished  them^ 
being  the  nation  of  the  wolf's-head  totem,  the  enchanted 
wolf  of  supernatural  power.  Captain  John  Smith,  so  quick 
to  observe  distinctions,  describes  a  savage  as  wearing  "a 
wolf's  head  hanging  in  a  charm  for  a  Jewell.  " 


Sassacus   driven   from   the  Mystic  13 

*'And  they  painted  on  the  grave  posts 
On  the  graves  yet  unf  or  gotten, 
Each  his  own  ancestral  Totem, 
Each  the  symbol  of  hts  household; 
Figures  o"}  the  Bear  and  Reindeer, 
Of  the   Turtle,   Crane,   and  Beaver.'" 

The  tomahawk  of  the  great  Prince  of  the  Pequots,  fierce 
Sassacus,  was  against  every  hut  and  wigwam.  He  had 
never  been  known  to  bury  the  hatchet  until  now,  in  1636, 
he  sought  alHance  with  the  powerful  Narragansetts,  in 
order  to  wipe  out  forever  these  pale-faced  Europeans  who, 
the  astute  aborigine  perceived,  would  presently  cover  his 
royal  hunting  grounds  as  the  saplings  of  the  forest,  and 
become  rooted  like  the  kingly  oak,  yea,  even  as  the  tangled 
underbrush  which  hinders  the  red  deer  from  roaming  until 
scorched  by  the  hunter's  torch. 

The  blood-red  star  of  the  fierce  Pequot  fell,  soon  after 
the  redoubtable  Lion  Gardiner,  serving  a  company  of 
patentees,  built  a  fort  at  Saybrook,  in  the  very  midst 
of  the  haughty,  warlike  nation  of  the  "Pequttoogs"  or 
"Destroyers"  as  their  rivals  the  Narragansetts  called 
them. 

Driven  from  their  forts  at  Mystic  by  Captain  John  Mason 
and  Narragansett  allies,  the  Indians  concealed  themselves 
in  swamps  near  Saybrook.  Reluctantly  they  turned  their 
faces  toward  the  setting  sun,  the  land  of  their  enemy,  the 
great  Mohawk.  Swiftly  fleeing  through  the  wilderness  by 
the  great  water,  the  night  silence  held  no  terrors  for  these 
children  of  the  forest.  But  the  hated  Uncas,  friend  of  the 
white  man,  following  close  on  their  trail,  led  the  Owanux 
(English)  with  fearful  powder  and  shot. 

"How  fled  what  moonshine  faintly  shewed! 
How  fled  what  darkness  hid! 


14    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

How  -fled  ike  earth  beneath  their  feet, 
The   heaven   above   their   head!''' 

Scott. 


Three  hundred  men  led  by  Captain  Stoughton  pursued, 

some  by  water,  some  by 
land.  The  troops  pur- 
sued through  ]\lenunka- 
tuck,  Quinnipiac,  Wap- 
owagee,  to  Unquowa 
(now  Fairfield) ,  and  sur- 
rounded the  tribe  in 
Sasqua  swamp.  It  was 
the  last  battle  of  the 
V  Pequots.      Sassacus  es- 

',  caped    only    to  be  be- 

headed by  the  Mohawks, 
who,  fearing  the  En- 
glish, sent  his  head  to 
the  Great  Counsellors  at 
Hartford. 

-j     '  This  tragedy  was  the 

first  cause  of  the  settle- 
ment of  a  fair    village. 
The  Medicine  Man  Roger  Ludlow,  haunted 

A    North   American    Indian    from    life,    hy  ^Y      ^^^      beautiful 

G.    Catlin.      The  Pequots   doubtless    wore  fields    On    his    return  tO 

similar  feather   decorations,    although    no  Hartford,    turned  again 

portraUs   of   the   tribe   are   known   to    be  ^^,.^^  ^-ampum    tO     buy 

extant.  -^    .    ^   ^  ^         -.at  h 

Fairfield  and    Norw^alk, 
leaving  forever  the  Connecticut  Valley. 

One  of  the  prisoners  of  war,  the  clever  young  Indian, 
Cockenoe-de-Long  Island  (as  his  biographer,  Wm.  Wallace 
Tooker,  phrases  him),  was  carried  off  to  Dorchester  by  Ser- 


Cockenoe   the  Interpreter 


15 


geant  Richard  Caldicott.  The  Indian  servant's  unusual 
wit  was  discovered  by  John  EHot,  who  first  learned  of  him 
Indian  words,  and  armed  with  the  savages'  musical  meta- 
phors, preached  to  Waban's  tribe  at  Watertown  and  from 
his  leafy  pulpit  on  Brook  Farm,  and  the  Indians  answered 
"  with  multitude  of  voyces  that  they  all  of  them  did  under- 
stand."  ^  This  showed  that  ''the  identity  between  these 
two  dialects  [of  Eastern  Long  Island  and  Massachusetts] 
is  closer  than  exists  between  either  of  them  and  the  Narra- 
gansetts  of  Roger  Williams."  Cockenoe  returned  to  Long 
Island  and  became  a  famous  intermediary  between  the 
Sachems  and  the  leaders  of  the  New  Haven  Colony. 


To  the  Fringed  Gentian, 

"  Thou  blossom  bright  with  autumn  dew, 
And  colored  with  the  heaven's  own  blite."- 


-Bryant. 


'  Valuable  notes  of  the  apostle  Eliot's  meetings  have  been  contributed 
by  Mr.  Wilberforce  Eames  of  the  Lenox  Library  to  Filling's  Algonquian 
Bibliography. 


SAYBROOK  (PASHESHAUKE),  1635 

"  We  be  situated  at  the  mouth  of  a  beautiful  river  which  meeteth  the  Sea.  " — 
Diary  of  Peace  Apsley  in  A  Lady  of  the  Olden  Time. 

The  future  of  Saybrook  (at  the  blue  Connecticut's 
mouth)  once  hung  on  the  fate  of  a  small  craft,  The  Bache- 
lor, bound  from  London  to  the  little  town  of  Boston,  and 
scarcely  more  fit  to  face  old  Ocean's  frown  than  a  Dutch 
cradle.  She  carried  as  passengers  Lion  Gardiner,  his  young 
Dutch  wife,  her  maid-servant  and  one  other. 

A  few  short  weeks  before,  Gardiner  was  "Engineer  and 
Master  of  Fortifications  in  the  legers  of  the  Prince  of  Orange," 
and  now,  through  the  persuasion  of  Mr.  John  Davenport 
and  ]\Ir.  Hugh  Peters  at  Rotterdam,  he  had  made  an  agree- 
ment "for  $100  per  annum  for  four  years  in  the  making  of 
a  city  or  forts  of  defence"  in  New  England  for  certain 
Englishmen  of  high  degree  and  republican  opinions.  They 
were  a  small  but  powerful  company  of  patentees,  including 
some  distinguished  Commoners,  with  two  daring  and  popular 
men  as  leaders, — Lord  Say  and  Sele  and  Richard  Greville, 
Lord  Brooke,^  later  of  "rusty  A¥arwick  founded  by  King 
Cymbeline  in  the  twilight  ages." 

These  noblemen  had  sternly  resolved  to  brook  no  longer 
the  despotism  of  Kings  and  Courts,  but  to  place  the  wide 
Atlantic  between  themselves  and  the  erring  throne  of  the 
faithless  Charles;  therefore,  they  had  purchased  of  a  lover 

1  The  portrait  of  Richard  Greville,  second  Lord  Brooke,  hangs  in  the 
collection  of  Warwick  Castle,  the  seat  of  his  lineal  descendant,  the  present 
Right  Honorable,  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  This  ])ortrait  and  that  of  Robert, 
Earl  of  Warwick,  are  contained  in  Lodge's  Portraits  of  Illustrious  Per- 
sonages of  Great  Britain. 

16 


Lion   Gardiner  in    the  Low  Countries      17 

of  the  Puritans,  Robert,  Earl  of  Warwick,  1  his  splendid 
American  domain  (being  the  old  patent  of  Connecticut), 
extending  from  Narragansett  Bay  to  the  South  Sea.  The 
distinguished  engineer.  Lieutenant  Lion  Gardiner,  retainer 
of  the  "  Fighting  Veres"  and  officer  under  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax 
in  the  wars  of  France  Avith  the  Low  Countries,  was  engaged 
to  build  a  fort  and  a  city  of  solid  grandeur  at  Connecticut 
River,  whose  rich  meadows  were  already  celebrated  in 
England.  In  this  Dream  City,  their  Carcassonne,  where 
one  day  peace,  freedom,  and  wealth  should  meet  together, 
they  saw  visions  of  yonder  serene  green  fields  of  Saybrook 
crowded  with  jostling  drays  loaded  with  robes  of  beaver, 
otter,  mink,  and  fox,  shipped  by  successful  merchants  in 
many-masted  ships  from  Saybrook 's  creaking  wharves. 

Lion  Gardiner's  birthplace  was  unknown  until  recently, 
when  his  name  was  found  among  the  retainers  of  the  "Fight- 
ing Veres. "  Gardiner's  fortunes  were  thus  indirectly 
linked  with  the  fortunes  of  the  Fairfaxes  of  Yorkshire  and 
Virginia,  as  he  received  his  training  in  the  camp  of  an 
illustrious  Fairfax,  whose  family  helped  turn  the  American 
Revolution  in  our  favor,  by  association  with  the  Wash- 
ingtons,  so  that  the  lustre  of  the  Fairfaxes  has  become  an 
American  inheritance.  Lion  Gardiner's  superior  officer, 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  became  Baron  Fairfax  of  Cameron 
of  the  Peerage  of  Scotland.  When  being  instructed  in 
fencing,  dancing,  and  mathematics  in  the  camp  of  Lord 
Vere  of  Tilbury  in  Holland,  the  third  and  "great"  Lord 
Fairfax — "fiery  yoiing  Tom" — married  Catherine,  heiress 
of  Thomas,  Lord  Culpeper,  acquiring  title  to  the  northern 
neck  of  Virginia.     Anne,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Fairfax, 

1  Robert  of  Warwick  was  accused  of  loving  our  pilgrim  Xonconformists 
too  well  and  not  only  his  house  but  his  pockets  were  searched  for  treason- 
able papers  by  Sir  William  Beacham,  Clerk  of  the  Privy  Council.  On 
the  other  hand,  Parliament  created  Warwick  Lord  High  Admiral  of 
England,  and  Governor-in-chief  of  all  English  plantations  in  America. 


i8    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Collector  of  Customs  on  the  Potomac,  whose  home,  Belvoir, 
was  immediately  below  Mount  Vernon,  married  Lawrence 
Washington,  and  his  half-brother  George  was  much  in- 
fluenced by  Thomas  Fairfax,  a  commissioned  officer  and 
contributor  to  the  Spectator,  who,  jilted  by  his  lady-loA^e, 
sought  seclusion  on  his  American  estate.^ 

It  was  while  engaged  on  the  battlements  of  the  quaint 
fortress-town  of  Woerden  on  the  old  Rhine  that  Gardiner 
met  his  consort,  the  sweet  Mary  Wilemsen  of  gentle  birth, 
being  a  sister  of  Prince  Garretson  "old  Burgomeister. "  ^ 
Verily  proud  was  the  plighted  one  of  her  sweetheart's 
silver  button  with  the  motto,  "Long  live  the  Prince  of 
Orange."-^  Especially  when  they  strolled  among  their 
acquaintance  in  the  flower-market,  where  Lion  would 
offer  her  a  pot  of  Bloomendaal's  rarest  tulips,  that  turban 
flower  over  w^hich  all  Holland  had  gone  mad.  (You  may 
still  find  to-day  Woerden's  flower-market  a  mass  of  color 
in  crisp  head-dresses  and  sweet-scented  blooms,  while 
Gardiner's  defiant,  picturesque  ramparts  stand  but  as  shells 
of  a  past  glory.  Woerden  has  been  twice  sacked  by  the 
French  and  little  Woerden's  surrender  to  Louis  XIV.  was 
so  pathetic  that  the  Master  Voltaire  wrote  it  down.) 


1  The  story  of  charming  Sally  Fairfax  of  Virginia  is  contained  in  Bel- 
haven  Tales,  by  Constance  Gary  Harrison.  Mrs.  Burton  Harrison  is  one 
of  the  Fairfaxes  and  in  her  New  York  house  are  many  memorials  of 
them.  A  picture  of  the  Alexandria  town-house  of  Lord  Thomas  Fairfax 
of  Virginia  is  included  in  Fascinating  Washington.  J.  F.  Jarvis,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

2  Upon  the  blank  leaf  of  one  of  Lion  Gardiner's  Bibles  is  written  of 
Mary  Wilemsen,  "her  mother's  name  was  Hachir,  and  her  aunt,  sister 
of  her  mother,  was  the  wife  of  Wouter  Leanerdson,  old  Berger  Muster 
dwelling  in  the  hostrade,  over  against  the  Bruser  in  the  Unicorne's  head: 
her  brother's  name  was  Prince  Garretson,  also  old  Berger  Muster.  " 

3  This  silver  button  is  reproduced  in  Mrs.  Lamb's  delightful  sketch, 
"The  Manor  of  Gardiner's  Island,"  in  the  American  Magazine  of  History, 
Vol.   13. 


From    Holland    to    Saybrook  19 

One  day,  when  the  hyacinths,  anemonies,  and  tulips 
of  all  Holland  were  calling  softly  in  a  thousand  tones  to 
sweethearts  to  wander  over  perfumed,  beckoning  garden 
paths,  came  imperatii^e  summons  to  Gardiner  to  hasten 
the  new  undertaking  ''at  Pequot  river  or  Conectecutt. " 
The  honeymoon  was  passed  on  the  voyage  to  London. 
Then  followed  trials  by  sea,  for  these  brave  and  loving 
souls  were  storm-tossed  three  months  and  seven  days, 
ere  The  Bachelor  sighted  Hull's  rocky  head  rising  above 
Nantasco's  beacon  sands,  and  tacked  into  the  haven  of 
Boston  harbor  late  in  November,  1635.  Governor 
John  Winthrop  the  Elder  wrote  in  his  Diary:  "Her  pas- 
sengers and  goods  ^  are  here  all  safe  through  the  Lord's 
great  Providence."  John  Winthrop  the  Younger,  ap- 
pointed agent  of  the  patentees,  impatiently  awaited  Gar- 
diner at  the  wharf,  having  arrived  some  weeks  previous 
from  England  with  his  commission  as  Governor  of  "the 
places  at  Connecticut  river." 

A  warm  welcome  was  meted  out  to  the  celebrated  en- 
gineer newly  arrived  from  the  Low  Countries  by  the  many 
worthies  of  the  little  town  of  Boston.  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley,  Mr.  Haynes,  Mr.  Ludlow,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Mr. 
Bellingham,  Mr.  Coddington,  and  more  entreated  him  to 
advise  about  fortifications  on  Fort  Hill  and  at  Salem. 
Gardiner's  impregnable  fort-to-be^  in  the  Connecticut 
Colony  was  a  Godsend  to  these  men  whose  friends  had 
just  gone  out  with  Hooker  from  Newtown  (Cambridge) 
into  the  Connecticut  wilderness.  The  magistrates  were 
much  concerned  for  their  safety,  having  received  ill-news 
from  an  Indian  runner  concerning  plots  against  the  English, 
who  as  yet  possessed  no  stout  garrisons  at  Hartford,  Windsor, 
or  Wethersfield. 

1  Gardiner's  freight  for  the  fort  included  two  drawbridges,  staple  hooks 
for  a  portcullis,  and  a  wheelbarrow  without  handles. 


20    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Winthrop  had  previously  sent  Lieutenant  Gibbons  and 
Sergeant  Willard  "  to  take  possession  of  the  River's  mouth  "  ; 
they  tore  down  the  arms  of  the  States-General  which  the 
Dutch  had  fastened  on  a  tree  at  Kievit's  Hook,  changed 
the  name  to  Point  Saybrooke,  and  began  "to  build  houses 
against    the    spring."     Grateful    shelters    these    were,    for 


Old   Mill-Stone,  Sayhrook    Point 

Said  to  have  been  brought  over  from  Holland  by  Lion  Gardiner. 

Mistress  Gardiner  caught  her  first  glimpse  of  the  new  home 
at  Saybrook  Point,  hedged  in  by  drifting  snow.  ("The 
weather  this  morning  is  cold  enough  for  an  Esquimaux  pur- 
gatory— terrible.  What  did  the  old  Pilgrims  mean  b}^ 
coming  here?"  once  said  Whittier.) 

The  unusual  bitter  cold  seemed  particularly  vexatious 
when  their  first  Saturday's  baking  would  not  rise  above 
the  pans;  the  young  housekeeper  often  left  her  shining 
kitchen  to  watch  the  men  hurriedly  completing  the  palisade, 
now  and  then  beating  their  frost-bitten  hands;  a  sentinel 
pacing  before  the  gate  was  ready  to   challenge  with  his- 


Saybrook    Point  21 

snaphance  red  man  or  Dutch,  who  had  planted  a  trading 
station  on  the  river  north,  their  "  House  of  Hope"  ^  (Dutch 
Point,  Hartford). 

April  stripped  the  lovely  peninsula  of  her  ornaments 
of  ice  crystals  and  Saybrook  Point  put  on  a  necklace  of 
blue  water.  In  early  morning's  soft  air  on  the  green  cliff 
above  white  sands,  Shelley  might  have  found  inspiration  for 
his  Triumph  of  Life,  or  Charles  d' Orleans  for  a  Spring  Carol : 

^^Old  Time  has  cast  his  robe  away, 
Of  wind  and  icy  cold  and  rain, 
And  is  in  raiment  clad  again 
Of  warmest  sun  and  brightest  day. 
There  is  no  beast  but  is  at  play. 
No  bird  but  sings  the  joyous  strain; 
Old  Time  has  cast  his  robe  away. 
Of  wind  and  icy  cold  and  rain.  "  ^ 

When  the  trailing  arbutus  wove  its  pink  carpet  of  blossoms 
in  Saybrook,  Mistress  Gardiner  looked  eagerly  across  the 
ramparts  for  vessels  with  news  from  home,  and  for  one 
flying  the  English  flag,  with  the  promised  "300  able  men" 
on  board  to  fortify,  till  the  soil,  and  build  houses,  ere  the 
"men  of  quality"  should  arrive  to  occupy  the  great  squares 
of  the  future  city. 

"But,"    Gardiner  says,    "Our  great  expectation   at  the 

1  Whereby  the  Dutch  lay  claim  to  all  Connecticut.  A  message  of 
the  Director-General  from  present  New  York,  dated  May,  1638, 
outHnes  the  Dutch  claims.  "I,  Wm.  Kieft,  Director  General  of  New 
Netherland,  residing  in  the  Island  of  Manhattan,  in  the  Fort  Am- 
sterdam under  the  Government  that  appertains  to  the  High  and  Mighty 
States-General  of  the  United  Netherlands  and  of  the  West  India  Com- 
pany, privileged  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  Amsterdam,  make  known: 
That  the  Connecticut  has  been  our  property  for  years;  occupied  by  our 
Fort  [Fort  of  Good  Hope],  and  sealed  with  our  blood.  " 

^  From  Le  Temps  a  laisse  so)i  Manteaii  by  Charles  d'Orleans  (15th 
century).     Translated  by  Clara  Linforth  West  and  Edward  Oliphant. 


2  2    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

River's  mouth  came  to  only  two  men,  viz :  ]\Ir.  Fen  wick 
[one  of  the  patentees]  and  his  man,  who  came  with  Mr. 
Hugh  Peters,  and  Air.  Oldham  and  Thomas  Stanton  ^  the 
Indian   interpreter." 

Gardiner,  the  diplomat, — as  remarkable  in  solving  the 
problems  of  pioneers  and  savages  as  the  rare  Winthrop,  who 
mediated  successfully  with  kings, ^ — would  have  postponed 
war  with  the  Pequots  until  the  whites  were  stronger,  by 
accepting  their  presents  of  wampum  and  skin-coats,  for 
killing  Captain  Stone,  a  Virginian,  on  the  Connecticut, 
but  the  blundering  shortsightedness  of  the  rulers  at  "The 
Bay"  had  "raised  the  wind"  by  sending  Endicott  with 
troops  thither.  Unhappily,  his  Indian  interpreter,  Kitchi- 
makin,  forwarded  boastfully  a  Pequot  scalp  to  Canonicus, 
the  Narragansett  Chief,  who  passed  the  trophy  derisively 
from  Sachem  to  Sachem,  enraging  the  Pequots  to  frenzy: 
this  was  the  prime  cause  of  the  Pequot  war. 

The  maddened  Pequots  pestered  Saybrook  Fort  like 
wasps.  No  one  dared  venture  outside  the  garden  pales 
to   fish,   or  hunt   the   plentiful  ducks,  geese,    and  turkeys, 

1  Thomas  Stanton  became  a  famous  interpreter  for  the  Colonies  and 
made  purchases  from  the  Indians,  notably  of  East  Hampton  from  the 
four  Sachems  of  Eastern  Long  Island,  as  intermediary  "for  Theophilus 
Eaton,  Esq.,  Governor  of  the  Colony  of  Xew  Haven,  and  Edward  Hopkins 
Esq.,  Governor  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut." 

2  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  in  whom  Bancroft  says,  "the  elements  of  human 
excellence  were  mingled  in  happiest  union,  "  obtained  the  Charter  of 
Connecticut  from  Charles  II.  Winthrop  was  Governor  for  one  year  of 
the  plantation  of  Saybrook  and  his  granddaughter  married  Judge  Samuel 
Lynde  of  that  town.  Winthrop  first  met  Gardiner  in  an  official  capacity; 
they  became  warm  friends  and  a  brisk  correspondence  was  carried 
on  between  the  two  island  proprietors — Winthrop  on  Fisher's  Island  and 
Gardiner  on  his  lordship  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  (Gardiner's  Island).  Their 
letters  are  among  the  Winthrop  Papers,  preserved  first  on  Fisher's  Island 
where  the  Winthrop  homestead  held  six  generations,  then  by  the  New 
London  Winthrops,  then  by  Robert  G.  Winthrop  of  Boston,  and  pub- 
lished by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


Cornfield   Point  23 

because  of  murders  by  Pequots.  Lieutenant  Gardiner 
dreads  "Capt.  Hunger "  ^  more  than  foreign  potent  enemy 
and  expects  daily  to  lose  that  precious  three  acres  of  bread 
at  Cornfield  Point,  "two  miles  from  home";  the  lives  of  all 
Connecticut  actually  hung  on  those  ripening  ears.  The 
traveller  visiting  historic  Cornfield  Point  is  reminded  of  that 
cornfield  in  Plymouth  grown  by  the  aid  of  Squanto's  fish 
which  saved  the  Pilgrims  from  starvation  that  first  winter. 
Plymouth  and  Saybrook  had  good  cause  to  celebrate  a 
Thanksgiving  feast  at  green  earing  and  harvest,  after  the 
custom  of  the  tribes  who  believe  Indian  corn  to  be  a  gift 
direct  from  the  Great  Spirit. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Gardiner  returned  a  messenger 
to  the  Bay  bearing  "as  a  token"  the  rib  of  one  of  his  men 
pierced  half  through  by  an  arrow  to  convince  incredulous 
magistrates  at  Boston  that  Indian  arrows  were  deadly, — 
indisputable,  gruesome  testimony  indeed! 

Gardiner  had  placed  five  lusty  men  with  long  guns  to 
guard  the  corn.  Three  foolhardy  men  disobeyed  orders, 
left  the  Strong  House,  and  went  "a  fowling"  to  their  un- 
doing. The  savages  lying  low  let  the  soldiers  pass,  and 
on   their   return   loaded   with   game,    shot   all   three.     One 


1  Gardiner,  in  forcible,  piquant  language  warns  slumbering  government 
concerning  predicaments  of  new  settlements,  some  being  as  helpless  as 
babes  in  swaddling  clothes:  "War  is  like  a  three-footed  stool,  want  one 
foot  and  down  comes  all;  and  these  three  feet  are  men,  victuals,  and 
munition,  therefore,  seeing  in  peace  you  are  likely  to  be  famished,  what 
will  or  can  be  done  if  war?" 

He  concludes  his  relation  of  necessary  stratagems  in  the  blind  contest 
of  savage  warfare  with  these  lines:  "And  thus  I  wrote,  that  young  men 
may  learn  if  they  should  meet  with  such  trials  as  we  met  with  these  [at 
Saybrook  Fort]  and  have  not  opportunity  to  cut  off  their  enemies,  yet 
they  may,  with  such  pretty  pranks,  preserve  themselves  from  danger, 
.  for  policy  is  needful  in  wars  as  well  as  strength.  " — Gardiner's 
Pequot  Warres. 


Polishing  Gran'thefs  Powder-Horn 


24 


The  Pequot  Torch  2 


escaped,"  two  they  tormented"  as  fiends  invent  torture.  The 
survivors  rowed  hastily  back  across  the  South  Cove  with 
the  ill  news:  the  troops  rescued  a  part  of  the  corn  before 
the  Pequots  razed  all  buildings  outside  the  palisade. 

Gardiner  himself  was  attacked,  but  saved  by  his  buff 
coat  with  a  steel  corselet  and  steel  cap,  a  part  of  an  English 
soldier's  armor:  it  was  worn  also  by  Gardiner's  contem- 
porar}',  Captain  Miles  Standish,  the  hero  of  the  first  and 
only  encounter  of  the  Pilgrims  w4th  the  Indians.  Gardiner 
scented  danger  and  called  to  his  men  firing  reeds  to  come 
away,  but  they  would  not  till  they  had  burnt  all  their  brim- 
stone miatches.  Four  Indians  started  out  of  the  fiery  reeds 
and  Sentinel  Robert  Chapman  cried  out,  "India's  in  the 
marsh  on  the  other  side!"  Gardiner  and  his  men,  almost 
surrounded,  retreated  in  a  half-moon,  exchanging  shots. 
Later  the  Pequots,  approaching  on  pretence  of  a  parley,, 
were  startled  to  see  Gardiner  unhurt,  and  believed  he  had 
a  charmed  life,  not  understanding  the  efficacy  of  a  white 
man's  coat  as  a  fender  of  arrows,  though  they  knew  well 
the  bark  of  his  musket. 

That  summer  Mistress  Gardiner  rocked  her  young  child, 
David,  ^  with  anxious  brow,  because  treacherous  Pequots 
ever  lurked  in  the  long  salt  grass  outside  the  garden  pales. 
E\^en  the  soft  lapping  of  waves  on  the  short  sands  failed 
to  soothe  in  the  night  stillness.  Silence  seemed  ever  to 
warn,  to  be  a  forerunner  of  attack. 

The  Pequots  attempted  again  and  again  to  use  the  torch, 
and  then,  if  ever,  Gardiner  knew  dismay  when  he  thought 
of  little  David;  he  tells  us  of  ''pretty  pranks"  to  prevent 
the  savages  "from  firing  our  redoubt  and  battery."  Three 
great  doors  were  placed  outside  the  fort,  "being  bored  full 

1  David  Gardiner  was  the  first  white  child  born  in  Connecticut,  and, 
like  his  father,  became  Worshipful  Lord  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  (Gardiner's 
Isle).  David's  youngest  sister,  Elizabeth,  born  on  Gardiner's  Island, was- 
the  first  English  child  born  in  the  State  of  Xew  York. 


26      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

of  holes  and  driven  full  of  long  nails  as  sharp  as  awl  blades, 
sharpened  by  Thomas  Hurlburt  ...  in  a  dry  time 
and  a  dark  night"  the  Pequots  came  as  before,  and  found 
the  way  a  little  too  sharp  for  them, — as  they  skipped  from 
one,  thev  trod  upon  another,  and  left  the  nails  and  doors 
dyed  with  their  blood. 

This  episode  of  the  "  Pequot  warres  "  is  of  the  color  of  the 
old  ballad  of  Lillipnt  Town,  in  which  little  Harold's 
harrow  upsets  the  Giant's  calculations:  that  cruel,  crafty 
fox  who,  having  devoured  "the  sheep  with  the  wool  on  their 
backs — the  fowls  and  the  cock-turkey,"  vowed  next  to  eat 
the  babes  "so  plump  and  small." 

''And  every  father  took  his  sword, 
And  sharpened  it  on  a  stone; 
But  little  Harold  said  never  a  word, 
Having  a  plan  of  his  own. 

He  laid  six  harrows  outside  the  stile 

That  led  to  the  village  green; 
Then  on  them  a  little  hay  did  pile. 

For  the  prongs  not  to  be  seen. 

A  toothsome  sucking-pig  he  slew, 

And  thereby  did  it  lay: 
For  why?     Because  young  Harold  knew 

The  Giant  would  pass  that  way. 

The  horses  were  being  buckled  in, 
The  little  ones  looked  for  a  ride, — 

When  on  came  the  Giant,  as  ugly  as  Sin, 
With  a  terrible  six-yard  stride. 

Now,  left  foot,  right  foot,  step  it  again, 

He  trod  on — the  harrow  spikes — 
And  how  he  raged  and  roared  with  pain, 

He  may  describe  who  likes!'' 


Charles  I.  and  the  Patentees  27 

The  savage  cloud  was  about  to  disperse.  In  April,  1637, 
the  fort  was  relieved  by  Captain  John  Underbill,  and  May 
loth  another  famous  warrior,  Captain  John  Mason,  and 
Lieutenant  Seely  fell  down  the  river  to  Saybrook  on  board 
a  pink  and  a  pinnace. 

We  take  leave  for  the  moment  of  Saybrook  Fort  watching 
daily  for  English  ships,  that  we  may  enter  the  Court  of 
Charles  Stuart,  in  "Our  Old  Home,"  out  of  whose  civil 
quarrels  and  cruel  tyrannies  many  a  sweet  and  peaceful 
village  in  New  England  came  into  being.  Affairs  ap- 
proached boiling  point  between  King  and  disaffected  nobles. 
The  date  of  sailing  of  Saybrook's  patentees  was  postponed 
again  and  again,  for  the  god-fathers  of  the  plantation, 
Viscount  Say  and  Sele  and  Lord  Brooke  precipitated  open 
rebellion  by  refusing  in  the  King's  presence  to  sign  his 
required  pledge  of  obedience.  Charles  dismissed  the  two 
refractory  courtiers  to  their  houses,  and  soon  after  the 
Scottish  rebellion  began.  Lord  Brooke  was  appointed 
general  of  the  rebel  forces  of  Warwick  and  Strafford,  and 
distinguished  himself  at  Edgehill.  Yet  our  two  ambitious 
colonizers  did  not  forget  their  god-child  over  seas,  and  many 
a  night  in  the  English  camp  they  built  castles  ^  of  inde- 
pendence on  Connecticut  River, — air  castles  indeed  for 
them,  but  realities  to  later  generations.  Saybrook  garrison 
watched  in  vain  for  its  noble  patrons  detained  by  em- 
broilments in  England. 

Reports  came  that  a  ship  had  weighed  anchor  in  the 
Thames    for    New    England   with   three    of   the    patentees 

1  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  had  returned  from  founding  Watertown  with 
enthusiastic  accounts,  and  fitted  out  a  ship  to  feed  the  infant  Connecticut. 
The  Connecticut  River  was  then  beHeved  to  be  the  best  channel  to  com- 
mand the  free  trade  of  Canada,  a  Northern  Eldorado,  and  they  counted 
on  Iroquois  and  Abenakis  to  paddle  in  fur-laden  canoes  down  the  St. 
Lawrence,  over  lake  (Champlain)  and  river  (Winooski  or  Onion  River), 
and  follow  the  Connecticut  to  the  sea  at  Saybrook. 


28      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


aboard — John  Hampden,  Pym,  and  Heslerigge — and  Hamp- 
den's first  cousin,  Oliver  Cromwell  ^ — all  marked  men ;  yet 
before  her  sails  caught  a  free  wind.  Destiny's  messenger 
hailed  them  with  the  Council's  royal  decree,  forbidding  the 
fleet  to  leave  England.  Had  these  powerful  enemies  of 
royalty  left  the   United 


Kingdom 


to 


On  Long  Island  Sound,  igoj 
trious    compatriots 


embrace  America's 
colonies  at  this  cri- 
sis, what  history 
might  have  written 
of  two  worlds,  none 
may  conjecture.  To- 
day, at  Saybrook 
Point,  west  of  Black 
Horse  Tavern  and 
just  north  of  where 
the  old  fort's  "big 
guns ' '  once  swept 
the  horizon,  some 
one  will  point  out  to 
you  "the  Cromwell 
Place, "  reserved  for 
Oliver  Cromwell, 
a  charming  spot 
commanding  both 
river  and  Long 
Island  Sound,  and 
set  nigh  to  other 
great  squares  des- 
tined for  his  illus- 
Saybrook  named  her    first     ship   of 


1  At  this  date,  so  little  was  Cromwell  known  to  some,  that  on  listening 
to  his  speech  in  Commons,  Lord  Digby  asked  Hampden  who  the  sloven 
was;  and  was  answered  that  "if  there  should  come  a  breach  with  the 
King,  that  sloven  would  be  the  greatest  man  in  England.  " 


Lady  Fenwick  -9 

twenty-four  guns  the  Oliver  Cromwell;  Pettipaug's  Point  in 
the  Borough  of  Essex  where  she  was  built  by  Mr.  Uriah 
Hay  den  in  1775,  was  attacked  during  the  War  of  181 2  by  a 
part  of  the  British  squadron  blockading  New  London; 
British  launches  carrying  twelve-pound  carronades  brought 
away  twenty-two  of  Saybrook's  vessels  from  river  and 
coves. 

Gardiner,  desiring  independence,  purchased  the  beautiful 
Island  of  ]\Iackonake  of  the  Indians  and  departed  to  his 
eminent  domain,  unhampered  by  colonial  dissensions. 

At  Saybrook  fort  a  new  reign  opened,  that  of  Colonel 
Fenwick's  stately  young  wife,  the  sunny-haired  Lady  Alice 
Apsley  Bouteler.  In  the  interval  between  serious  colonial 
affairs,  Fenwick,  now  Governor,  fashioned  for  my  lady's 
pleasure  a  walled  garden  rich  in  roses,  daffodils,  and  poppies 
of  England,  and  here  she  planted  seeds  and  medicinal 
herbs  given  to  her  by  hospitable  acquaintance  in  Master 
Hooker's  church  at  Hartford,  where  their  little  Elizabeth 
was  baptized.  Fenwick  writes  to  Governor  Winthrop  of 
Massachusetts  in  1639:  '*/  am  lastly  to  thank  you  kindly  on 
my  wife's  behalf  for  your  great  dainties;  we  both  delight  much 
■in  that  primitive  employment  of  dressing  a  garden,  and  the 
taste  of  good  fruits  in  these  parts,  gives  us  good  encouragement, 
we  both  tender  our  love  and  respect. ' '  Often  my  Lady  Alice 
was  seen  with  her  favorite  "shooting-gun"  riding  with 
mounted  escort,  beyond  Gardiner's  corn-mill  and  the  outer 
palisade  which  then  fenced  oft'  the  Neck  at  its  narrowest 
part  from  cove  to  cove,  the  waters  being  more  nigh  to  each 
other  than  now.  The  path  she  followed  was  the  present 
highway  to  Saybrook  and  in  sight  of  "  Obed's  hammock," 
an  Indian  village.  Pursuing  the  trail  to  Cornfield  Point 
she  gloated  over  hosts  of  pink  marshmallows,  ^  though  never 

>  There  are  rare  wild  flowers  about  Saybrook,  the  Spiranthcs  vernaJis 
and  other  orchids. — Studies  on  the  Family  OrchidacecB  by  Oakes  Ames,  A.I\I ., 


30      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

had  she  tasted  the  root  in  confection.  Again,  the  Fenwicks 
paid  passing  gay  visits  by  boat  to  Mrs.  Anna  Wolcott 
Griswold  at  Blackhall,  or  to  the  Governor  of  Connecticut, 

John  Winthrop,  Jr., 
at  Fisher's  Island, 
off  Pequot  (New 
London) .  The  ladies 
compared  household 
notes,  for  in  the 
wilderness,  the  fash- 
ion of  the  latest  far- 
thingale or  dinner 
service  mattered 
little,  whereas,  in 
this  monstrous 
changeable  New 
England  climate,  it 
was  exceeding  diffi- 
cult to  discreetly 
clothe  and  feed  their 
babes. 


The  Tomh  of  Lady  Alice  Fenwick  in  the  Old 
Burying  Ground  at  Saybrook  Point. 


Merry  Lady  Alice  was  most  often  seen  amidst  her  flowers 
singing  blithely  old  madrigals,  while  Elizabeth  and  Dor- 
othy played  with  her  pet  rabbits ;  even  staid  Dr.  Thomas- 
Peters  ^  (who  succeeded  Master  John  Higginson  as  Fort 
Chaplain)  amused  himself  in  feeding  the  rabbits  as  he 
took  counsel  with  my  lady  on  church  affairs,  for  the 
Fenwicks  were  staunch  Puritans. 


illustrated  in  the  Ames  Botanical  Laboratory  by  Blanche  Ames.      Hough- 
ton, Mifflin,  and  Company. 

1  Dr.  Thomas  Peters,  a  brother  of  Hugh  Peters  (or  Peter),  was  driven 
out  of  England  by  the  royalist  forces,  and  after  a  short  stay  at  Saybrook 
preached  at  Pequot,  now  New  London.  He  acted  as  physician  also. 
Noted  clerical  physicians  were   Rev.  Jared  Eliot  of  Killingworth,   Rev. 


Old  Point  Burying-Ground  31 

Colonel  Fenwick  gave  over  to  Connecticut  Colony  in  1644 
the  rights  of  the  old  Warwick  patent,  to  pay  for  which, 
Connecticut  imposed  tolls  on  all  exports  of  grain  and  skins 
passing  Saybrook  Fort  to  sea:  this  caused  the  first  contro- 
versy between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut :  being  carried 
to  the  General  Court,  Plymouth  and  New  Haven  repre- 
sentatives decided  in  Connecticut's  favor,  whereupon  the 
Massachusetts  Court  determined  to  collect  tolls  from  all 
other  colonies  for  the  maintenance  of  the  fort  at  Boston. 
Fenwick  returned  to  England  to  become  Governor  of 
Leith  and  Edinburgh  Castle. 

Colonel  Fenwick  left  behind  forever  his  sweet  English 
lady  sleeping  within  the  ramparts  of  the  Connecticut 
stronghold;  his  friend  Matthew  Griswold,  whose  grant  of 
land  at  Blackball  lay  across  the  river's  mouth  at  Lyme, 
watched  over  Lady  Fenwick 's  tomb  erected  by  Fenwick 's 
nephew-in-law,  Benjamin  Batten  of  Boston.^ 

For  more  than  two  centuries  after  the  burning  of  the 
fort  in  1647  Lady  Fenwick 's  rude  yet  beautiful  monument 
LANDMARKS:   At   "The  Point."     of    Connccticut    sandstonc    stood 

Site  of  Lion  Gardiner's  Fort,  burned  ^  . 

1647.   Rebuilt  on  New  Fort  Hill,     alone   m   the   wmd-swcpt   grassy 

Old  Burying  Ground    Cypress  Ceme-        ^l^^    ^^     "  Tomb     Hill,"    Until    the 
tery.     Boulder   on   the   first   site   of  ,        ^     k^a.       ^.xx^ 

Yale  College,  begun  at  Saybrook.     Valley  Railroad  intruded  on  this 

End  of  Watir  Street  is  the  George        i  i-  r  •  i 

Pratt     house,     residence     of     Mrs.        lOVCllCSt  Of  pcnmSUlaS  the  hidcOUS 

LrntRicLT''S:i«„soT''Z:sl!     and  unsympathetic  sheds  of  com- 

residence     Captain     John     Rankin.        mcrCC  ',  thcn   it    WaS   rcmOVcd   With 
Black  Horse   Tavern    (about    1700), 

built  by  John  Burrows,  property     ccrcmony  to  thc  shadowy '' yard  " 

li:^\i:;  ?Hr:  r,'r'c"cu,::     above,     sacred    cypresses    stand 
fireplace  was  9  ft.  6  inches,  chim-     guard  ovcr  the   forc fathers,   and 

ney    of     English    bricks.         James  ^  .,        „  1         11  r 

Ingraham,        Wickstroff       House  ;        the      WaVCS  tOll      the      kncU      Ot 


Gershom  Bulkeley  of  Xew  London  and  Wethersfield,  Rev.  Phineas  Fisk 
of  Haddam,  and  Rev.  Stephen  Holmes  of  Pautapaug.  Rev.  Hugh  Peters 
succeeded  Roger  Williams  at  Salem.  A  step-daughter  of  the  famous  Hugh 
Peters  was  the  second  wife  of  Winthrop  the  Younger. 

^The  Lady  of  the  Olden  Time,  by  Emily  Malbone  Morgan. 


32      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


Cromwell's  lot,  so-called,  opposite 
the  Union  Chapel,  which  stands 
on  site  of  Ayres  Homestead.  On  old 
"Middle  Lane,"  now  Church  Street, 
leading  from  Saybrook  Village 
to  Saybrook  Point,  stood  the  first 
church  and  house  of  Minister 
Buckingham,  prominent  in  the 
Yale  foundation.  Several  anniver- 
sary exercises  probably  held  at  this 
"Parsonage  at  the  Point."  Pali- 
sade built  from  cove  to  cove  at 
narrowest  part  of  Neck.  Here 
from  the  "  Point  Road  "  is  view, 
of  "  Obed's  hammock  "  (hummock), 
one  of  Old  Saybrook's  three  Indian 
vi.lages.  Captain  John  Mason  lived 
on  Middle  Lane  and  married  daugh- 
ter of  Minister  Fitch  of  Norwich. 
Old  Buckingham  house  "  at  the 
bend"  (about  1725).  Property  of 
Mrs.  Amy  Butler.  Congregational 
Church,  present  building  erected  in 
1835.  Organized  in  the  "great 
hall"  of  Saybrook  fort  in  1646. 
Humphrey  Pratt  Tavern  (about 
1785),  property  of  Samuel  Pratt. 
Major-General  William  Hart  house 
(1767),  property  of  Washington 
Berrian,  Esq.,  and  summer  residence 
of  Oliver  Eaton  Cromwell,  Esq.,  a 
descendant  of  Governor  Theophilus 
Eaton,  the  friend  of  Cromwell. 
Richard  E.  Pratt  homestead  (1800), 
opposite  Post-office  on  Oyster 
River  Road  or  road  to  Westbrook. 
Thomas  Acton  homestead  (1801J. 
Residence  of  the  Misses  Acton. 
Thomas  Acton  was  Chairman  of 
Police  Commissioners  in  time  of 
War  Riots  in  New  York,  and  head 
of     the      Sub-Treasury.  Parson 

Hotchkiss  house.  Site  of  Captain 
Elisha  Hart  mansion,  opposite. 
Rev.  Azariah  Mather  house  (1726). 
The  second  church  building  was 
erected  on  the  Green  during  his 
pastorate.  The  mother  of  Azariah 
Mather  was  Hannah,  daughter  of 
Robert     Treat,     Governor     of     the 


parting  day"  whilst  lines  from 
the  great  Elegy  steal  into  the 
heart;  our  American  sod  would 
offer  new  and  strange  themes 
for  the  poet  inspired  by  Stoke 
Pogis,  for  here  at  the  Point 
burying-ground  lies  a  son  of 
Uncas,  Sachem,  who  requested 
in  his  Avill  that  he  be  "buried 
like  the  white  man." 

Yonder  is  a  memorial  to  John 
Whittlesey,  the  pioneer,  who  built 
his  homestead  at  Saybrook  Ferry 
(there  is  also  the  homestead  of 
the  Ayres  family,  who  first  re- 
sided at  Saybrook  Point,  on  the 
site  of  Union  Chapel,  opposite 
the  Cromwell  lot). 

Here  rise  monuments  to  Priest 
Hart^  and  his  successor  Parson 
Hotchkiss;  the  curious,  old-style 
biographical  epitaph  to  Rev. 
Azariah  Mather  (a  grand-nephew 
of  Increase  ]\Iather  and  grandson 
of  Robert  Treat,  1 685-1 736)  ends 
with  these  lines: 


Have  in  g 


Wings     of    earth 


the 

and  Love 
And  feathers  of  an  holy  Dove, 
He      hid     this     wretched     world 

adieu 


1  The  interesting  group  of  stones  to  the  Harts  were  restored  by  Mrs. 
Samuel  Colt  of  Hartford.  The  oldest  stone  in  the  yard  decipherable  is 
to  Susanna  Lynde,  1685,  situated  on  the  west  side.  At  this  point  is  a 
superb  view  looking  across  South  Cove,  to  Light  House  Point  at  Fenwick; 


The  Hart  Homestead,  Saybrook  33 


Colony.     Dr.    Eliot    house     (1745)  Alld  SWlftlv  Up  tO    lieaveil    fleW. 

residence   of   Mrs.    William   Butter-  .  7  •  • 

field.     Amos  Sheflield  house.    Rich-  DlStUvh  UOt  then  htS  pVecioUS  DuSt, 

ard    Tucker    house,  on    road    to  With  ceusors  that  are  most  unjust." 

"Westbrook.  Upper  Cemetery  founded 

1787.     Whittlesey    and    Richardson  -^r    -.-i  ,■•  11    -r^        • 

houses    at    Ferry    Point.   Indian  Neither  are  thcse  all  Puntans, 

Burying-Ground     one     mile     above        ^S     misfht      be      eXDeCtecl  !      VOnder 
Ferry    Point    on    the     Connecticut.  _  _  -^      _ 

R.    Kirtiand  -  Nathan    Southworth     slab   IS   dedicated   to   tile   fairest 

house    U799).    Deep    River   Station,  r    .1  tj        .     cicferq      \vh()    heP-TTlP 

residence     Mr.     Horace    S.     Phelps.        ^^     ^^^^    Xiari    blhierb,    WHO     OeCctme 

Lieutenant  William  Pratt  sold  lands     a  nuH,  aiid  having  been  brought 

in    Hartford,    removed  to  Potapaug  r                 -r»                                   1          •      1 

quarter  of  Saybrook.     Four  of  Indian  home      irom      Rome,      WaS      buried 

settlements  in  Saybrook:  at  Oyster  ^^,-^|^  ^^^  Sei'vice  of  the   Church   of 
River,    at    Obed  s    hammock    near 

mouth  of  the  Pochaug,  at  Ayer's     England.     Her   sister   in    yonder 

Point,  and  Chester.  1  . 1  1       ,        ,  1        1         r 

enclosure  was  the  betrothed  of 
Bolivar,  it  was  rumored,  he  having  been  hopelessly  smitten 
with  her  beauty,  as  he  saw  her  on  the  deck  of  the  frigate 
United  States,  commanded  by  her  brother-in-law,  Com- 
modore Hull. 

AVhen  the  Hart  homestead  was  in  its  prime,  Saybrook 
was  celebrated  as  the  home  of  the  seven  brilliant  daughters 
of  Captain  Elisha  Hart,  their  mother  being  the  beautiful 
Jeannette  McCurdy  of  Lyme.  Two  of  the  daughters,  doubt- 
less inherited  an  admiration  for  exploits  on  the  sea,  as  they 
yielded  their  hearts,  respectively,  to  Commodore  Isaac 
Hull  and  his  nephew.  Commodore  Joseph  Hull.  [His 
daughter  Florence  was  widely  admired  for  her  beauty  and 
charming  hospitality  in  her  native  city,  Philadelphia.] 
Two  other  sisters  married,  respectively,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jarvis 
of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Boston,  and  the  Hon.  Heman  Allen, 
our  minister  to  South  America. 

The  once  merry  house  was  bolted  and  barred  after  Cap- 
tain Hart's  death  and  believed  to  be  haunted  until  it  leaked 
out  that  the  caretaker  kept  a  calf  in  the  cellar. 

Vastly  prominent  in   Yale's   foundation  was    Saybrook's 
Minister  Buckingham.      In   his  parsonage  were  held  Yale's 

north    is  the  historic  Cornfield  Point  of  Lion  Gardiner. 


34      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

earliest  Commencements  and  the  four  days'  discussion  of 
the  Trustees  in  1701.  They  opened  the  doors  of  the  Col- 
legiate School  of  Connecticut  in  "Back  Lane" — now 
*'The  Point"  highway,  in  a  one-story  building  donated  by 


The  Tin-pedler's  Cart  en  route  to  Westbrook. 
On  the  left  is  the  lean-to  of  the  Lord  homestead,  residence  of  Dr.  William 

Kelsey,  a  descendant. 

Saybrook's  large  landholder,  Nathaniel  Lynde,  grandson 
of  the  Earl  of  Digby.  When  the  College  was  to  be  removed 
to  New  Haven,  Saybrook  objected  as  spiritedly  to  giving 
up   her  honors,    as  when   Governor   Edmund   Andros   at- 


The  Black  Horse  Tavern  35 

tempted  to  annex  her  to  New  York  in  1675.  Saybrook 
citizens  protested  at  yielding  the  library  until  forced  by 
the  appearance  of  the  Governor  and  entire  Council.  A 
guard  was  set  to  protect  the  wagons  provided  to  carry  off 
the  books,  but  in  the  raoming  they  were  found  broken  and 
the  horses  set  loose ;  moreover  the  bridges  on  the  New  Haven 
turnpike  cut  away,  On  surmounting  these  difficulties  many 
books  were  found  missing,  including  some  which  cemented 
the  foundation  ceremony  in  Branford. 

"The  Point,"  with  its  aforetime  Wastoll's  Inn  facing  the 
training-green,  was  the  busiest  comer  of  Saybrook  in  old 
boating  days,  when  all  traffic  was  by  water,  and  turnpikes 
unknown.  On  the  river  front  Black  Horse  Tavern  over- 
flowed in  the  open  season,  for  the  coasting  and  up-river 
trade  obliged  Landlord  Burrows  to  crowd  his  long  upper 
room  with  mattresses,  while  huge  logs  crackled  in  the  nine- 
foot  six-inch  fireplaces  upstairs  and  down.  In  the  eight- 
eenth century  Blague's  and  Tully's  wharves  and  Doty's 
bake-shop  swarmed  with  dark-browed  sailors  from  the 
West  Indies.  The  picturesque  Tavern  is  staunch  to-day 
in  its  hand-hewn  beams,  burnt  oyster-shell  plaster,  and 
chimney  of  English  bricks,  in  spite  of  some  two  hundred 
spring  freshets  tossing  ice  floes  against  its  foundations, 
propelled  from  the  Crystal  Hills  of  New  Hampshire.  The 
sign  of  the  Black  Horse  no  longer  swings  to  entreat  the 
traveller;  nevertheless,  the  enchanting  prospect  across 
the  Great  River's  mouth,  ruffled  by  a  soft  summer  wind 
from  the  sea  beyond  Montauk,  compels  him  to  linger 
wistfully.  Light  crafts  are  passing  over  dangerous  reefs 
of  sand,  renewed  ever  by  the  drift  of  the  tides  from  east 
to  west  through  the  tunnel  between  Long  Island  and  "the 
main."  Were  not  the  Connecticut's  mouth  filled  by  sand, 
preventing  the  entrance  of  heavy  cargoes,  Sa^^brook  would 
be  an  important  seaport.     Above  Blackball  the   spire  of 


o 


6       Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


Old  Lyme  shows  itself  among   the  trees.     Alongshore  are 

''Old  hrown  piers ^ 
The  haunt  of  seamen 
Spent  in  years. " 

Hartford  steamers  "touched"  just  below  the  old  Pratt 
house,  the  home  of  Mrs.  Amelia  Ingraham,  who  well  re- 
members the  Fen  wick  house  burned  long  ago.  At  the 
Tally  homestead,  now  "Heartsease,"  The  Lady  of  the 
Olden  Time  (  Lady  Fenwick )  was  written  by  Emily 
Malbone  Morgan. 

Mostly  deep-sea  captains  owned  these  gambrel  roofs 
and  bartered  fish  for  corn,  ground  between  the  Holland 
stones  of  Gardiner's  mill.  One,  Captain  Mather,  who 
possessed  a  just  pride  in  his  famib/  tree,  commanded  the 
bark  Peace  and  Plenty.  She  was  hailed  by  a  vessel,  and 
asked  the  name  of  her  captain;  the  answer  came  back, 
"Captain  Rogers  Selden  Mather" — the  other  called  out, 
"We  don't  want  the  names  of  the  whole  blasted  crew,  sir." 

In  the  days  of  cottage  prayer-meetings  at  "The  Point" 
one  hundred  years  ago,  a  lady  directed  her  serv^ant  to  go 
to  each  neighbor  and  say  that  Mrs.  Bowles  will  have  the 
prayer-meeting  here  to-night.  She  carried  out  instructions 
to  the  letter:  "Mrs.  Bowles  says  the  prayer-meeting  will  be 
here  to-night,"  and  each  lady  put  on  her  best  gown,  ar- 
ranged her  chairs,  and  made  ready  for  the  coming  of  the 
Parson ;  in  consequence  there  was  no  meeting  at  all. 

In  the  church  built  on  the  Green  in  1680,  a  Connecticut 
Synod  adopted  the  celebrated  "  Saybrook  Platform"  of 
1708.  Some  years  ago,  a  fisherman  met  a  farmer  driving 
a  wagon-load  of  whitefish  for  his  rye  and  potato  fields: 
"Say,  Cap.,  what  is  this  'Saybrook  Platform'  they  talk 
about?"  "Saybrook  Platform,  Squire? — why,  I  guess  its 
that  old  platform  down  yonder,  they  used  to  clean  fish  on. " 

The  name  of  Chapman  is  still  rooted  in  Old  Saybrook. 


Ye  West  Parish  of  Saybrook  37 

Robert  Chapman,  Gardiner's  loving  friend  and  Deputy  to 
the  General  Court  for  forty-three  sessions,  selected  the 
charming  "  Oyster  River  Quarter  "for  his  homestead,  having 
received  a  land  grant  for  public  service  in  the  Colony  of 
Saybrook ;  on  a  pane  of  glass  he  scratched : 

"/u    1636,    /    here    appeared, 
In  1666,  /  this  up  reared.  " 

It  was  Captain  Robert  Chapman  and  the  diplomatic 
Captain  Thomas  Bull,  commander  of  Saybrook  Fort,  who 
circumvented  the  tyrant  Andros  without  a  blow. 

The  first  minister  of  ye  West  Parish  of  Saybrook — at 
a  salary  of  £50  and  fire- wood — was  the  Rev.  William 
Worthington  ^  a  grandson  of  Nicholas  whose  estates  near 
Liverpool  had  been  confiscated  because  of  his  part  in  the 
Cromw^ellian  wars.  The  minister's  slim  salary  at  West- 
brook  appears  to  have  been  all  sufficient  as  the  pastorate 
of  Dr.  Worthington  and  his  successor  the  Rev.  John  De- 
votion covered  together  seventy-seven  years. 

Tiie  first  corn-mill  on  Oyster  River  was  built  in  1662  by 
Francis  Bushnell,  the  ance^stor  of  Horace  Bushnell;  David 
Bushnell,  born  in  Westbrook,  was  the  inventor  of  the  first 
submarine  boat,  the  American  Turtle,  built  at  Saybrook 
Ferrv.  By  mistake  it  blew  up  an  American  schooner  in- 
stead of  the  British  man-of-war  Cerberus,  successfully  dem- 
onstrating that  gunpowder  could  be  exploded  under  water. 

A  Valley  Forge  officer,  a  son  of  the  Richard  Lord   lean-to 

1  The  Rev.  William  Worthington  married  first  a  granddaughter  of  the 
victorious  Major  John  Mason,  and  second  Temperance  Gallup  of  Ston- 
ington  whose  wedding  is  described  as  being  celebrated  with  "broad 
spirit  and  good  cheer"  at  Mr.  Wm.  Gallup's  ample  estate  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Mystic  River— "White  Hall  Farm."  The  motto  of  the 
Worthington  arms  borne  in  Lancashire,  reads,  "worthy  by  the  virtues 
of  their  ancestors.  "  William  Worthington  of  Hartford  and  Colchester 
served  in  the  (Turner's)  Falk  Fight.  A  member  of  this  generation  is 
the  Rt.  Rev.  George  Worthington,  Bishop  of  Nebraska. 


38      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

(built  177 1)  on  "Oyster  River  Road,"  sold  his  Saybrook 
lands  to  provide  shoes  for  his  regiment:  Lafayette  is  said 
to  have  recognized  him  on  the  occasion  of  the  festival  made 
for  him  at  the  Pratt  Tavern,  and  embraced  his  comrade 
in  arms  for  aitld  lang  syne. 

The  pleasant  white  homestead  at  the  corner  of  Main 
Street  and  Oyster  River  Road  was  the  home  of  Captain 
Morgan,  that  one  of  our  winning  masters  of  merchant 
ships  endowed  with  a  "genial  earnestness  "  which  Dickens 
says  "does  me  good  to  think  of."  Captain  ]\Iorgan  was 
introduced  to  Dickens  by  his  intimate  friend  Leslie  of  the 
Royal  Academy. 

Dickens  apprised  Captain  Morgan  that  he  is  the  original 
of  his  hero  Captain  J  organ  in  A  Message  from  the  Sea: 
"Here  and  there  in  the  description  of  the  sea-going  hero, 
I  have  given  a  touch  of  somebody  you  know;  very  heartily 
desiring  that  thousands  of  people  may  have  some  faint 
reflection  of  the  pleasure  I  have  for  years  derived  from  the 
contemplation  of  a  most  amiable  nature  and  most  remark- 
able man." 

Young  Mr.  Morgan  was  a  constant  visitor  at  Gad's  Hill. 
Miss  Ruth  Morgan  is  said  to  be  the  heroine  of  Mrs.  Warner's 
Say  and  Seal. 

North  of  the  Congregational  Church  (the  fourth  building) 
is  the  eighteenth-century  home  of  gallant  Major-General 
William  Plart,  an  original  purchaser  in  the  great  Western 
Reserve  of  Ohio;  hospitable  and  fascinating  it  is,  with  two 
huge  ovens,  one  over  the  other,  odd  and  innumerable 
cupboards,  ghost-like  closets,  yet  remodelled  in  marvellous 
manner  to  modem  requirements,  without  losing  the  flavor 
of  its  history  or  its  original  architecture. 

The  house  built  in  1785  by  Parson  Hotchkiss,  who  married 
Miss  Ameha  Hart,  faces  also  the  wide  street  of  Old  Saybrook; 
at  the  door  opening  into  the  garden,  you  remark  some  half- 


Saybrook  Church  on  the  Green 


39 


circular  stone  steps  hollowed  by  the  feet  of  generations, 
and  the  same  by  which  the  worthy  man  entered  his  old 
''Church  on  the  Green"  for  nigh  sixty  years.  Four  pews  in 
its  gallery  troubled  much  the  Ecclesiastical  Society.  The 
east  pew^s  were  restricted  to  young  women  and  the  west  to 
young  men,  yet  the  young  men  and  maidens  would  get 
together  for  entertainment.  Finally  a  division  fence  was 
built  in  the  aisle,  and  a  law  made  that  "the  females  shall 


The  homestead  of  Captain  Elisha  Hart  which  stood  on  Old  Saybrook' s  street.      The 

Jiome  of  the  seven  heautifiil  sisters. 

not  occupy  the  two  westernmost  pews,  and  the  males  shall 
not  occupy  the  two  easternmost  pews,  and  every  person 
guilty  of  a  breach  of  same  shall  forfeit  three  dollars  and 
thirty-four  cents  to  the  Society." 

Saybrook's  importance  was  earh^  increased  on  becoming 
the  "half-way  stop"  for  the  Boston  "post."  One  morning 
in   1673,  the  ferryman  of  the  lower  Connecticut  answered 


40      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

the  horn  from  the  Lyme  shore,  and  welcomed  the  first 
regular  postman  between  Boston  and  New  York;  he  "drew 
rein"  before  Saybrook's  tavern  on  Middle  Lane  and  ex- 
changed "  portmantles "  of  few  letters  and  many  small 
parcels  with  the  Haarlem  post.  Verily  this  was  a  red- 
letter  day  for  every  farmer,  merchant,  blacksmith,  and 
cobbler  between  the  Charles  and  Hudson  rivers;  mine 
host  chuckled,  for  he  "calk'lated"  that  the  regular  post 
would  bring  some  patronage  to  his  door. 

No  such  thrill  had  swept  from  the  village  store  to  the 
Point  wharves,  since  thirteen  years  before,  when  farewells 
had  been  exchanged  on  the  Green  with  Parson  Fitch  and 
half  his  congregation  who  went  out  to  Norwich  to  take  up 
beautiful  farm-lands  bordering  the  Shetucket  and  Nyantic 
rivers;  thereafter  the  postman  once  a  month  unlocked  the 
mail-box  (the  beginning  of  the  New  York  post-office)  at 
the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Colony  of  New  York,  and 
rode  to  Sa^^brook,  noted  for  its  garrisoned  fort,  its  courage- 
ous deep-sea  captains,  its  excellent  fish.  (Though  in  truth, 
at  Saybrook  Point  that  man  was  looked  down  upon  who 
ate  shad  at  his  own  table,  just  as  on  the  Merrimack  River, 
the  hired  m.an's  contract  with  the  farmer  stated  that  he 
should  not  be  obliged  to  eat  despised  salmon  more  than 
three  times  a  \^'eek.) 

In  1660,  with  Parson  Fitch,  the  Saybrook  families  of 
Huntington,  Larrabee,  Hyde,  Backus,  Bliss,  and  Budd 
founded  Norwich,  Conn.  Saybrook's  daring  Ensign  Leffing- 
well  had  won  these  Norwich  lands  by  saving  the  besieged 
and  starving  Mohegans  from  the  Narragansetts'  clutches. 
Loading  beef,  corn,  and  peas  into  an  open  boat,  Leffingwell 
secretly  entered  the  Uncas  fortress.  This  rescue  was  of 
untold  importance ;  had  Uncas  surrendered  to  Miantono- 
moh,  the  mighty  plot  hatched  by  the  Narragansetts  might 
have  succeeded — first  to  destroy  Uncas,  and  last  to  unite 


An  Old  Saybrook  Tavern 


41 


Mohawk,  Iroquois,  and  all  the  tribes  against  the  English^ 
"the  man  with  the  beaver-hat"  (Dutch),  and  the  French, 
and  rid  their  sacred  hunting-grounds  of  the  white  man's, 
moccasin. 


Humphrey  Pratt  Tavern,  178$,  Old  Saybrook. 
Washington  stopped  here.     A  ball  was  given  to  Marquis  de  Lafayette  in  the 
ball  room,  which  hangs  on  cJiains, 


LYME    (EAST  SAYBROOK),  1645 

"/  and  my  forbears  here  did  haunt 
Three    hundred    years    and    jnore. " 

King  Malcolm  and  Sir  Colvin. 

"Each   man's    chimney    is    his    Golden    Milestone." 

Longfellow. 

In  Lyme  on  the  Great  River  you  will  find  the  quahty  of 
"the  picturesque  from  AYhippoorW'ill  to  Blackhall,  from 
Ferry  Road  to  the  Neck  and  the  old  "  North  Quarter;"  see 
first  of  all  that  primitive  feudal  grant,  extending  wide 
and  long  around  her  fascinating  southeast  corner,  first 
possessed  by  Matthew  Griswold,  Esquire,  sometime  Justice 
of  the  Peace  and  Commissioner  of  Saybrook  Plantation. 
About  the  time  of  the  sailing  of  his  friend  Governor  Fen  wick, 
nigh  three  hundred  years  ago,  he  established  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Connecticut,  Blackhall,  the  earhest  of  Lyme's 
iamily  seats.  Sons  of  Griswold  "dwelt  here  permanently" 
on  Lyme  shore,  their  manes  held  sacred,  undisturbed  like 
Latins  of  old.  As  we  have  left  behind  us  the  custom  of 
entail,  the  long  record  of  Blackhall  as  a  family  estate  is 
extraordinary  and  doubly  precious. 

^^ Happy  he  whom  neither  wealth  or  fashion 

Nor  the  march  of  the  encroaching  city  drives  an  exile 
From  the  hearth  of  his  ancestral  homestead.  " 

From  the  smooth  beach  of  Blackhall,  you  look  inland 
into  the  southern  face  of  a  placid  homestead  of  little 
old-fashioned  panes,  built  by  Governor  Roger  Griswold. 
''Young  Roger"  is  swinging  happily  on  the  odd  Dutch 
half-door  watching  a  cluster  of  butterfly  sails  on  the  far-off 
horizon,   and  dreaming  with  the  determination  that   when 

42 


The  Elm  Arch  of  Blackltall,  planted  by  Charles  Chandler  Griswold.      The 

House  of  Mrs,  Elizabeth   Diodati    Griswold  Lane  near  Matthew 

Griswold's  Moss-li)ied  Well. 


43 


44     Old  Paths  of  the  New  Enoland  Border 


t) 


he  grows  up  he  will  be  master  of  a  ship  and  sail  in  search 
of  Captain  Kidd's  treasure  buried  on  Gardiner's  Isle  lying 
just  over  there  between  the  prongs  of  Long  Island,  or  fly 
over  the  sea  and  far  away  to  A'isit  the  old  wonders  of  the 
other  L3^nie  on  the  English  Channel  (Lyme  Regis  of  Dorset) 
which  Aunt  has  read  about  in  Persna^ionA  It  is,  however, 
far  more  probable  that  little  Roger  Griswold's  cabin  in  life 
will  be  stacked  with  volumes  in  musty  calf,  and  that  he  will 
guide  some  Ship  of  State  as  did  his  distinguished  "  forbears." 
Ropier,  enchained,  listens  to  the  true  stories  of  the  Manor 
of  Gardiner's  Island.  How  splendid  was  the  diamond 
dropped  by  Captain  Kidd  in  the  AVell- bucket  at  the  Gardiner 
Manor-house,  and  the  cloth  of  gold  this  roving  buccaneer 
presented  to  Lady  Gardiner  in  return  for  her  un^^'illing 
mutton.  A  scion  of  Gardiner  Manor  came  courtnig  at 
Blackball  in  a  splendid  barge  well-manned,  and  doubtless 
leaped  out  on  the  beach  so  impatiently  to  salute  his  lady- 


1  Lyme  is  said  to  have  been  named  for  Lyme  Regis,  the  port  from  which 
the  brothers  Matthew  and  Edward  Griswold  probably  sailed  for  the  nevv^ 
World  on  leaving  their  native  Kenilworth.  It  is  an  interesting  coinci- 
dence that  Lord  Lion  Gardiner  named  his  island  in  the  Sound  for  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  a  neighbor  of  Lyme  Regis  on  England's  south  coast.  In 
Jane  Austen's  description  of  the  English  town,  one  cannot  but  discover 
a  flavor  of  the  gentle  and  varied  charms  of  seashore  rocks  and  upland 
i  of  our  Lyme  on  the  south  coast  of  Xew  England;  evidently  the  colonists 
I  held  in  vivid  remembrance  the  contour  of  the  beautiful  land  of  their  old 
love.      Of   Lyme    Regis,   Jane   Austen   says: 

"The  remarkable  situation  of  the  town,  the  principal  street  hurrying 
into  the  water,  its  walks  to  the  Cobb,  skirting  round  the  pleasant  little 
bay,  which  in  the  season  is  animated  with  bathing  machines  and  company; 
the  woody  varieties  of  the  cheerful  village  of  Up  Lyme,  and  above 
all  Pinny,  with  its  green  charms  between  romantic  rocks  .  .  .  more 
than  equal  to  the  resembling  scenes  of  the  far-famed  Isle  of  V\'ight.  " 

Other  authorities  believe  it  probable  that  Lyme,  Conn,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Lyme  in  Cheshire,  England,  the  ancestral  home  of  the  Leigh 
family;  one  Thomas  Lee  being  among  the  most  influential  of  the  settlers^ 
at  "East  Say  brook.  " 


The  Griswolds  of  Blackhall 


45 


love,  ]\Iistress  Sarah  Griswold,  that  he  stained  his  line 
top-boots  in  a  salt  ripple. 

Roger  points  out  to  you  the  fern-lined  ghostly  well  of 
Matthew  Griswold  close  to  the  present  spacious  homestead 
on  the  old  site  of  Matthew  Griswold 's  home  to  which  the 
Elm  Lane  leads. 

On  Sabbath  mornings  it  must  have  been  a  charming  sight 


The  Governor  Roger  Grisujold  Homestead,  Blackhall,  Lyme. 

to  see  the  many  sons  and  daughters  from  the  Griswold 
homesteads  and  escorts  with  loaded  muskets,  standing  on 
the  steps  ready  to  mount  pillion  and  saddle  and  follow 
Indian  file  AA'ith  due.  caution  the  Nehantic  trail  up  to  the 
loo:  meetins:-house,  to  sit  under  the  Rev.  ]\Ioses  Noyes  ^ 
who  had  led  his  little  flock  over  from  Saybrook  2  about  1666. 

1  The  Rev.  Moses  Xoyes  was  of  a  family  of  divines,  "to  all  the 
country  dear.  "  His  father  was  the  pioneer,  Rev.  James  Xoyes  of  Xew- 
buryport.  His  grandson,  Judge  William  Xoyes,  was  a  Puritan  auto- 
crat. His  four  sons  never  presumed  to  ride  by  his  side,  but  at  a  respectful 
distance.  He  would  allow  no  traveller  to  pass  through  Lyme  on  the 
Sabbath. 

2  Saybrook  and  East   Saybrook  agreed  on  "a  loving  parting."     The 


46      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Would  that  Ha^vthorne  in  his  wonderful  way  had  made 
us  reverent  guests  in  the  Old  Manse  of  ye  venerable  pastor 
of  "Ye  Prime  Society  of  Lyme"  as  in  that  of  Concord! 
and  would  that  he  might  thus  here  immortalize  the  pure 
and  rigorous  atmosphere  of  The  Street  with  its  early  homes 
of  jurists  and  lawmakers,  moulders  of  the  Nation!  There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  outer  shell  of  Lyme  influenced  the  destiny 
of  the  pioneer,  speaking  to  him  everywhere  of  the  Infinite 
and  of  good  things  provided  for  him  who  will  but  toil. 

Standing    on    the    sunny    shore    of    the     Connecticut's 
mouth   looking    east,  the  ancient  Griswold  domain  spreads 


Memorial  Bridge  across  Black  Hall  River,  erected  by  Mrs.  William  Lane 

to  Charles  Griswold  Lane. 

Soundward  in  sweet,  shelving  beaches  cut  by  jagged  rocks; 
green,  tillable  land  runs  down  into  the  very  sands,  and 
Sowanshine,    the    South  Wind,    laughs   long,    because   her 

Lyme  committee  who  signed  the  parting  covenant  were  Matthew  Gris- 
wold, Reinold  Marvin,  Richard  Smith,  William  Waller,  John  Lay,  Sen'r. 
The  tovmship  patent  was  ratified  unto  Griswold,  Mr.  Wm.  Ely  and  others. 


On  the  Banks  of  Lieutenant  River 

*'  Oh,  father  's  gone  to  market-town,  he  was  up  before  the  day. 
And  Jamie  's  after  robins  and  the  man  is  making  hay, 
And  whistling  down  the  hollow  goes  the  boy  that  minds  the  mill,. 
While  mother  from  the  kitchen-door  is  calling  with  a  will  : 
*  Polly  ! — Polly  ! — the  cows  are  in  the  corn  ! 

Oh  !  where  's  Polly  ? '  " — Gilder.  47' 


4S      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

blustering  rival  Chekesu  is  barricaded  on  the  northwest 
by  the  triangle  of  the  River  Range  and  of  Meeting-House 
Hills  which  stretch  away  from  the  niouth  of  Duck  River, 
one  of  Lyrne's  small  tidal  bayous,  as  the  Southerner  would 
call  her  little  rivers;  under  Sowasayeu's  soft  breath  frosts 
melt  rapidly  in  the  Moon  of  Bright  Nights  and  return  tardily. 
Half-way  to  New  London  Light,  the  Giant's  Neck,  like 
that  of  x\lice  in  Wonderland,  lengthens  out  remarkably  and 
terminates  in  a  natural  flat  rock  wharf  on  three  sides  of 
which  vessels  of  fair  tonnage  may  ride.  Giant's  Neck  is 
The  Golden  Milestone,  so  to  speak,  of  the  family  of  the 
"New  York  Griswolds,"  founded  by  the  Rev.  George  Gris- 
wold.  His  grandsons,  Nathaniel  and  George  Grisw^old  of 
Nevv'  York,  were  distinguished  merchants  in  the  China  trade. 

Bride  Brook  or  Sunkipaug,  the  original  west  bound  of 
New  London,  was  the  scene  of  a  pretty  colonial  wedding. 
In  1646  a  young  couple  of  Saybrook  were  to  be  married. 
The  magistrate  being  absent,  word  was  sent  to  Governor 
John  Winthrop  at  New  London  who  met  the  wedding  party 
at  Bride  Brook  on  the  boundary,  dismayed  at  the  breaking 
ice  in  the  impassable  stream.  Winthrop  pronounced  them 
man  and  wife  on  his  side,  the  twain  promised  to  love,  honor, 
and  obey  on  the  other,  and  sledded  back  to  Saybrook 
rejoicing. 

All  the  land  between  Bride  Brook  and  Niantic  Bay  was  in 
dispute  for  years:  in  167 1  Lyme  and  New  London  deter- 
mined each  to  mow  the  grass  on  the  debatable  meadows: 
the  swinging  of  scythes  and  sickles  ended  in  blows  and  a 
warrant  for  Matthew  Griswold.  Tradition  says  that  cham- 
pioxis  were  selected  and  the  stalwart  son  of  Matthew  Griswold 
Avon  for  Lyme.  This  was  Matthev/  Griswold  the  second. 
The  Griswolds  were  very  tall,  powerful  men.  The  present 
Matthew  Griswold,  of  the  7th  generation,  late  member  of 
Congress  from  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  and  vSix  of  his  sons  are 
all  some  inches  over  six  feet  tall. 


The  Lords  of  Old  Lyme  49 

Along  the  Connecticut  in  upper  Lyme,  Richard  and 
Thomas  Lord,  sons  of  the  pioneer,  reaped  crop  after  crop 
and  acquired  weahh,  exhausting  the  soil.  (Now  these 
charming  fields  are  more  picturesque  than  ever,  if  less 
edible,  with  their  billowy  crop  of  Indian  posy  so  soothing 
in  pillows.) 

The  family  of  Lord  arrived  in  the  Elizabeth  and  Ann,  and 
being  courageous,  root  and  branch,  journeyed  with  Thomas 
Hooker  ^  to  Hartford  in  the  Connecticut  Valley,  compelling 
the  wilderness  to  blossom  like  a  rose  on  Lord's  Hill,  and 
from  that  day  when  the  Lords  and  their  neighbors.  Governor 
Wyllys,  Mr.  Goodwin,  and  Mr.  Matthew  Allyn,  planted  the 
manorial  farms  of  Hartford,  the  town  has  been  noted  for 
its  glorious  gardens. 

William  Lord  was  of  the  fibre  of  such  pioneers  as  Win- 
throp,  Higginson,  Whittlesey,  Griswold,  and  Kirtland  and 
was  loved  by  the  aborigines  as  was  Lion  Gardiner:  he 
Decame  a  large  landholder  in  Saybrook  and  Lyme,  the 
Chief  Chapeto  having  consented  to  sell  him  large  holdings 
because  of  his  friendship  for  him.  He  also  purchased  the 
Indian's  Paugwonk,   the  present  town  of   Salem,   for  the 

1  This  adventure  was  more  remarkable,  as  many  were  persons  of  figure 
who  in  England  had  lived  in  affluence  and  delicacy,  strangers  to  fatigue 
and  danger. 

Captain  Richard  Lord  of  Xewtown  (Cambridge),  1632,  an  original 
proprietor  of  Hartford,  commanded  the  first  Connecticut  troop  of  horse 
and  distinguished  himself  in  Indian  wars.  Captain  Lord  was  the  richest 
man  in  the  colony  and  with  Captain  Pyncheon  was  relied  on  to  secure 
the  regicides  Whalley  and  Goffe  for  trial  in  England. 

The  heirs  of  Captain  Richard  Lord  received  by  his  will  Holland  linen, 
armor,  "  Salmon-nets,  Dear  Skins,  a  new  damask  Tabble-cloth,"  and  land 
in  London.      His  wife,  Mrs,   Sarah  Lord,  left  her  wearing  apparel  thus: 

"I  give  my  daughter  Haynes  my  silk  gown,  my  mohair  petticoat  and 
my  red  'parrigon'    petticoat. 

"  I  give  to  my  daughter  Lord  my  best  broad  cloth  gown  and  my  red 
broad  cloth  petticoat. 

"  I  do  give  to  Hannah  Ingersall  (alias  Kellsey)  my  dark  cloth  gown,  my 
hay're  coll'rd  tammy  petticoate  and  my  green  apron.  " 

4 


50      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

government.  Chapeto's  deed  to  William  Lord  is  one  of 
the  vivid  documents  of  colonial  history.  ^ 

Traverse  the  coast  from  Saybrook  to  New  London  and 
Watch  Hill — over  all  is  color,  delicate,  marvelous  color: 
the  sunlight  has  a  brilliancy,  the  air  a  transparency,  and 
at  sun-setting,  clouds,  sea,  and  sky  take  on  intimate,  ex- 
quisite hues.  Standing  on  Old  Lyme's  Watch  Rock  of 
the  War  of  1812  which  commands  the  Connecticut,  watch 
the  violet  and  rosy  tints  make  luminous  the  waters  meet- 
ing dark  rich  foliage  on  strangely  shaped  hummocks — 
or  "hammocks"  as  the  old  sea-dogs  call  these  rounded 
landmarks. 

Everywhere  in  sequestered  nook  or  on  the  "  King's 
Highway"  of  the  colonial  town  sprout  white  umbrellas  like 
huge  mushrooms. 

Miss  Florence  Griswold's  house ^  on  "The  Street"  pos- 
sesses the  rarest  of  door  panels  called  into  life  by  the  brushes 
of  those  artists  who  have  dwelt  herein  many  a  long,  sweet 
summer.  How  curious  to  recall  by  contrast  the  "good  old 
times"  of  the  first  century  of  our  Republic  when,  if  the  grim 
Puritan  thought  of  Art  at  all,  it  was  as  a  vanity  of  a  luxurious 
life:  he  believed  the  imaginative  quality  to  be  a  wile  of 
the  devil,  even  to  adorn  the  person  was  unpardonable,  a 
waste  of  time  which  could  much  better  be  employed  at 

>  A  very  old  copy  of  Chapeto's  deed  is  possessed  by  Mrs.  Salisbury  and 
included  in  the  Family  Histories  and  Genealogies  of  Lyme  by  Edward 
Elbridge  Salisbury  and  Evelyn  McCurdy  Salisbury. 

2  This  house  in  which  Lyme's  artist  colony  congregates  has  been  ren- 
dered even  more  celebrated  in  1907  in  the  painting  by  Metcalf,  May 
Night,  which  received  the  first  prize  at  the  Corcoran  Gallery  exhibition. 
It  hangs  in  the  Pittsburg  Art  Gallery.  Recent  artists  associated  with 
the  house  include,  Childe  Hassam,  William  Howe,  Gifford  Beale,  Henry 
R.  Poore,  Edward  Rook.  Alphonse  Jongers.  The  discoverer  of  Lyme's 
possibilities  for  art  was  Henry  W.  Ranger  and  later  Frank  Vincent  Du 
Mond  brought  his  school  here.  Many  others  have  established  studios 
with  homes.  Louis  Paul  Dessar,  Jules  Turcas,  Miss  Saunders,  Arthur 
Dawson,  and  the  September  exhibition  is  an  event. 


The  Artist  Colony,  Lyme 


51 


foddering  the  cows  or  building  schoolhouses.  Of  some  of 
Lyme's  rocky  uplands, — adorable  material  for  the  artist — 
the  practical  old-timer  would  remark:  "  Stone's  got  a  pretty 
heavy  mortgage  on  thet  ther  land." 


The  William  Noyes  House,  built  in  1818,  Residence  of  Miss  Florence  Griswold. 
Home  of  ''The  Artists."     Rendered  even  more  celebrated  in  igoy  in  the  painting  of 

Metcalf — May  Night. 


Connecticut's  Colonel  John  Trumbull,  artist  particular 
of  the  American  Revolution,  who  has  left  to  us  in  the  famous 
gallery  of  Yale  the  greatest  military  portrait  of  Washington, 
whose  aid-de-camp  he  was,  bluntly  said  to  an  aspirant  to 
fame,  "You  had  better  learn  to  make  shoes  or  dig  potatoes 


52      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

than  become  a  painter  in  this  country."  On  this  question 
also  Benjamin  Franklin  penetrated  the  future;  he  writes 
from  London    in  1 7  7 1   to    Peale ;    ' '  The   arts    have    always 


Whitefield  Rock,  in  the  Garden  of  Charles  H.  Lttdington,  Esq. ;  earlier  the 
Lot  of  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Parsons.  The  preaching  of  his  friend  White- 
field  caused  dissension  in  the  Lyme  Church,  and  Dr.  Parsons  departed 
to  Newhuryport. 

travelled  westward:  and  there  is  no  doubt  of  their  flourishing 
hereafter  on  our  side  of  the  Atlantic,  as  the  number  of  wealthy 
inhabitants  shall  increase  who  shall  be  able  and  willing  suitably 


The  Arts  in  America 


53 


to  reward  them,  since,  from  several  instances,  it  appears  that 
our  people  are  not  deficient  in  genius.'' 

In  one  of  the    fascinating   Art  scrap-books,    bequeathed 
bv   W.    H.    Huntington   to   the   jMetropolitan   Museum   are 
these  Hnes  under  a  Medallion  of  Franklin: 
"//  a  ravi  le  feu  des  Cieux 
II  fait  fieuri  les  Arts  en  des  climats  sauvages 

UAmerique  le  place  a  la  tcte  des  sages. " 


Studio  and  House  of  Allen  B.  Talcott,  Neck  Road,  over  Looking  the  Connecticut  River. 

Franklin's  prophecy  is  fulfilled  throughout  America;  in 
his  beloved  city  stands  the  Philadelphia  Academy;  here  in 
Connecticut  the  Yale  Gallery  and  the  future  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts  at  Hartford,  the  gift  to  his  native  town  of  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan,   Esq.,   are  both  estabUshed  on  Puritanical  soil. 


54      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

What  an  indisputable  voucher  for  the  fetching  lovehness 
of  Lyme  is  its  ever-increasing  colony  of  painters.  In  the 
lower  Connecticut  Valley  the  uplands  are  full  of  surprises 
and  everyA\^here  you  may  go,  you  will  see  about  you  pictures 
which  would  drive  most  artists  wild  with  joy.  Follow  up 
the  old  "vStreet"  from  the  church  and  McCurdy  house, 
passing  the  Mather  homestead,  the  old  home  of  Chief 
Justice  Henry  M.  Waite  of  Connecticut  and  his  son.  Chief 
Justice  Morrison  R.  Waite,  the  Phoebe  Griffin  Noyes  Library; 
turn  to  the  left  and  cross  the  sapphire  Lieutenant  River  (one 
of  Lyme's  five  little  rivers  rippling  deep  or  shallow  as  the 
tide  flows  and  ebbs)  and  cross  the  low  causeway  dividing  the 
lush  meadow  through  which  the  stream  plays  hide-and-seek 
beneath  the  ripe  smothering  emerald  grasses.  Suddenly 
you  come  upon  the  broad  Connecticut:  north,  bending 
lovingly  close  to  the  "  Great  River, "  are  the  homes  and 
studios  of  Carleton  Wiggins,  Allen  B.  Talcott,  and  Clark 
G.  Voorhees,  within  view  of  the  pleasant  white  village  of 
Essex  on  the  opposite  shore. 

"Up  river"  is  the  wild,  ancient  tract  of  Tantummaheag 
bequeathed  to  Lieutenant  Richard  Lord,  son  of  WilHam 
Lord,  "  bounded  west  by  the  Cove,  East  by  my  brother 
Thomas  Lord's  land.  South  by  Tantomehege  brook." 
At  the  Neck  the  hay-fields  are  edged  by  rugged  rocks, 
formerly  the  quarries  of  the  Lords  and  of  "John  Coult,^ 
Gentleman,"  who  built  homesteads  hereabouts. 

In  the  homestead  of  Lieutenant  Richard  Lord  on  the 
Neck  was  born  the  high-spirited  and  beautiful  Ann  Lord  ^ 
who  vowed  to  "jump  out  of  the  window"  if  not  allowed 

1  Ancestor  of  the  Colts  of  Hartford.  Mrs.  Samuel  Colt  the  philanthro- 
pist, Mrs.  Evelyn  MacCurdy  Salisbury  of  New  Haven  and  Lyme,  were 
among  the  founders  of  the  Society  of  The  Colonial  Dames  of  Connecticut. 

2  Ann  Lord's  sister  Elizabeth  married  Jared  Eliot,  Jr.,  son  of  the  Rev. 
Jared  Eliot  of  Killingworth,  now  Clinton,  Conn.,  a  great-grandson  of 
the  apostle  Eliot. 


The  McCurdys  of  Lyme  55 

to  marry  the  raan  of  her  choice,  the  young  Scotch-Irish 
ship  merchant,  John  McCurdy.  Her  handsome  "  setting 
out"  of  mahogany  and  china  remains  in  their  homestead  to 
this  day.  In  recompense  for  stores  lost  in  the  burning  of 
New  London,  John  McCurdy — one  of  the  governing  com- 
mittee in  charge  of  the  Revolutionary  coastguard — received 
a  grant  in  Ohio — Lyme  of  the  Western  Reserve. 

A  daughter  of  John  McCurdy  married  the  Rev.  Henry 
Channing  of  New  London  in  whose  family  were  spent  the 
early  days  of  William  Ellery  Channing;  he  probably  often 
wandered  over  the  picturesque  rocks  at  the  Neck,  the 
home  of  her  grandfather.  Most  appropriately  the  Channing 
Memorial  Church  was  quarried  out  of  these  rocks  of  por- 
phyritic  granite,  the  gift  of  a  nephew  of  Mrs.  Channing, 
Judge  Charles  Johnson  McCurdy,  Charge  d 'Affaires  at 
Vienna,  185 1-2. 

It  was  midsummer,  1778;  the  American  Revolution  was 
almost  at  boiling  point.  Above  stacked  arms,  under  shad- 
owy elms  on  the  Green  of  Old  Lyme,  waved  the  white  fleur- 
de-lys,  and  our  shining  yearling,  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  first 
flung  in  united  strength  and  beauty  at  Brandywine.  Min- 
gling with  the  rugged  buff  and  blue  were  courtly  and  brilliant 
uniforms  surmounted  by  the  tricorne,  the  sword  suspended 
by  a  knot  of  the  blue  ribbon  of  Saint  Michel,  and  the 
Marquis  de  Lafayette  in  yellow  satin  waistcoat,  the  red 
and  white  trimmings  of  the  blue  coat  fastened  with  gold 
buttons. 

Major-General  Lafayette  had  ordered  a  night's  rest  in 
Lyme  for  Varnum's  and  Glover's  brigades  on  their  quick- 
step to  join  the  land  forces  of  General  Sullivan  and  Admiral 
D'Estaing's  six  frigates  and  twelve  ships  of  the  line  in  the 
recapture  of  the  island  of  Rhode  Island. 

We  have  discovered  no  list  of  these  French  officers,  yet 
doubtless   De   Gimat  was  there,   the  intimate  friend   and 


56      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

aid-de-camp  of  the  ]\Iarquis,  and  chivalric  iVrmand  de  la 
Rouerie,  familiarly  "Colonel  Armand";  also  De  Pont- 
gibaud,  for  he  had  succeeded  in  escaping  from  Chateau  de 
Pierre-en-Cise,  in  order  to  fly  to  the  United  States,  after 
having  been  deprived  of  his  liberty  like  others  of  the  young 
nobilitv  bv  a  lettre-de-cachet. 


The  McCurdy  House,  built  about  1730,  Property  of  Airs.  Evelyn  JMcCurdy  Salisbury. 
Here  Washington  was  entertained  April  g,  1776,  and  Lafayette,  July  27,  1778. 
The  north  chamber  is  preserved  as  of  yore. 

In  the  north  chamber  of  yonder  colonial  house,  Lafayette 
slept,    accepting     the   hospitahty   of   Lyme's    Scotch-Irish 


Lafayette  in  Old  Lyme  57 

patriot  John  ^^IcCurdy,  he  who  had  so  vigorously  circulated 
revolutionary  broadsides  written  by  Sons  of  Liberty,  and 
moreover  had  dared  to  publish  in  the  Connecticut  Gazette 
the  rebellious  document  against  the  Stamp  Act  written  by 
Lyme's  "incomparable  Stephen  Johnson,"  thus,  as  Airs. 
Lamb  says,  ''fanning  the  flame  of  Liberty  with  his  broad 
purse.  "^ 

Lafayette  much  appreciated  his  reception  in  the  country 
towns,  and  enthusiastically  expressed  his  pleasure  in  the 
following  letter  to  his  valorous  comrade  of  noble  lineage,  his 
beautiful  young  wife,  the  unselfish  Adrienne  de  Noailles. 
She  was  first  in  applauding  his  course,  his  relatives  being 
furious  at  his  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  aid  America.  The 
devoted  and  anxious  husband  sent  off  this  letter  to  Madame 
Lafayette  in  three  parts,  in  three  separate  vessels,  chal- 
lenging every  A'icissitude — pirates,  gales,   English  frigates: 

"  Everything  is  very  like  England  excepting  there  i^  more 
simplicity  here.  .  .  .  The  American  ladies  are  very 
pretty,  very  simple,  and  delightfully  clean.  Cleanliness  pre- 
vails universally  with  the  greatest  fastidiousness, 
The  inns  are  very  different  from  those  in  Europe;  the  inn- 
keeper and  his  wife  sit  down  at  table  with  you,  do  all  the  honors 
of  a  good  meal,  and  when  you  go  you  pay  without  any  bar- 
gaining.  If  you  don't  want  to  go  to  an  inn,  you  find  country 
houses,  where  it  is  enough  to  be  a  good  American  to  find  a 
reception  such  as  Europe  only  gives  to  a  friend.  .  .  .  I 
hope  that  for  my  sake  you  will  become  a  good  American.  It 
is  a  sentiment  fit  for  noble  hearts;  for  the  happiness  of  America 
IS  linked  to  the  happiness  of  mankind.  .  .  .  People  must 
think  I  am  very  happy,  but  you  are  not  here,  dear  heart.'"  ^ 


1  Martha  J.  Lamb  on  the  Historic  Home  of  Judge  Charles  Johnson 
McCurdy,  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  26. 

^Household  of  the  Lafayettes,  by  Edith  Sichel:  Archibald,  Constable,, 
&  Co.  and  The  MacMillan  Company.  , 


58      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

The   ardent  young  Marquis,  now  making  his    first  en- 
trance into  New  England,  was  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes,  just 


The  First  Congregational  Church  of  Lyme,  at  the  corner  of  The  Street  and  Ferry 
Lane.     Erected,  iSoy.     Organized,  1666.     Burned,  July  j,  iQoy. 

as  on  his  second  visit  to  Lyme  after  the  vicissitudes  of  his 
beloved  France  had  pencilled  lines  in  the  face  without 
shrivelling  the  heart. 

Enlisted  as  a  volunteer  at  his  own  expense^  and  wounded 

1  After  some  years  Washington  encountered  his  opportunity  to  return 


Lafayette  and  Franklin  59 

at  Branclywine,^  Washington  and  Lafayette  had  just 
wintered  together  at  Valley  Forge,  training  uncouth  volun- 
teers and  sympathizing  with  shoeless  troops,  and  the  raan 
of  forty- five  came  to  love  as  his  own  child  this  generous 
boy  so  royally  impulsive  yet  discreet.  Rumors  of  the 
romantic  star  that  ruled  his  career,  now  luminous,  preceded 
him. 

All  in  one  moment  Lafayette  had  decided  to  fly  to  aid 
America.  He  first  heard  of  the  declaration  of  American 
independence  at  a  dinner  given  by  his  commander,  the  old 
Marshal  de  Broglie.  The  guest  of  honor,  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester — then  in  disgrace  with  his  brother,  George  III., 


in  part  our  debt  to  Lafayette.  On  the  tidings  of  his  imprisonment  at 
Rochefort  in  1792,  Washington's  first  thought  was  the  consolation  of 
the  Marchioness  and  he  wrote : 

"//  /  had  words  that  could  convey  to  you  an  adequate  idea  of  my  feelings 
on  the  present  situation  of  the  JMarqnis  Lafayette,  this  letter  ivonld  appear 
to  you  iti  a  different  garb.  The  sole  object  in  writiiig  to  you  now,  is  to  inform 
you  that  I  have  deposited  hi  the  hands  of  Mr.  Nicholas  Van  Staphorst  of 
Amsterdam,  two  thousand  three  hundred  and  ten  guilders  .  .  .  subject 
to  your  orders. 

".  .  .  This  sum  is,  I  am  certain,  the  least  I  am  indebted  for  services 
rendered  ine  by  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette,  of  which  I  have  never  yet  received 
the  account.  I  could  add  much,  but  it  is  best,  perhaps,  that  I  should  say 
little  on  this  subject.      Your  goodness  will  supply  my  deficiency .  " 

'Fifty  years  later,  when  Mrs.  Rives,  wife  of  our  minister  to  France,  paid 
a  visit  to  Lafayette  at  Lagrange,  she  discovered  that  the  flag  presented  to 
the  Goieral  by  the  officers  of  the  Brajidyivine,  formed  the  tapestry  of  the  prin- 
cipal salo)i,  tn  an  appropriate  drapery  of  the  picture  of  Washijigton.  Samuel 
Topliff  of  Boston,  in  his  pleasant  and  spicy  travels  was  also  impressed  with 
General  Lafayette's  interest  in  all  things  American.  Every  room  in  the 
chateau  "contained  some  memorial  of  America."  On  a  fine  green  spot 
was  the  beautiful  race  boat  presented  by  the  Whitehall  boatmen  of  Xew 
York.  On  displaying  his  farm,  Lafayette  related  that  an  English  noble- 
man had  observed  concerned  a  certain  superior  pig  "that  the  General 
could  boast  of  having  the  finest  one  England  could  "produce.  'Excuse 
me,'  said  the  General  .  .  .  .  '  I  must  inform  you  it  came  from  Baltimore.'  " 
Topliff  s  Travels.  Edited  by  his  granddaughter,  Ethel  Stanwood  Bolton. 
— The  Boston  Athenaeum. 


6o      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

on  account  of  his  marriage, — regaled  the  party  with  the 
story  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party  and  the  denoument:  La- 
fayette was  afire  for  Freedom,  and  opposition  from  his 
king  only  incited  him  to  ask  aid  from  Franklin,  who  put 
him  in  the  way  of  fitting  out  a  ship;  the  Marquis  escaped 
in  the  disguise  of  a  postilion,  and  it  is  said  he  was  recog- 
nized by  the  pretty  maid  of  an  inn,  who  nevertheless  told 
the  officers  pursuing  that  Lafayette  had  gone  by  in  a 
carriage. 

Sailing  from  Bordeaux  the  youth  landed  at  Charleston, 
S.  C,  where  Von  Huger  welcomed  him.  Lafayette's  de- 
voted comrades,  the  Comte  de  Scgur  and  Vicomte  de 
Noailles,  postponed  accompanying  him  only  because  they 
had  no  money.  It  is  said  that  Lafayette  arrived  one 
morning  at  seven  while  the  Count  was  still  in  bed.  "Wake 
up,"  he  cried.  "I  am  going  to  America  to  fight  for  Free- 
dom. Nobody  know^s  it  as  yet,  but  I  love  you  too  much 
not  to  tell  3^ou";  De  Segur  lost  not  a  minute  in  leaping  out 
of  bed  and  saying  he  would  go  too.^ 

Lafayette  encountered  reminders  of  the  practical  Franklin 
continually  in  New  England ;  he  had  first  seen  the  philosopher 
when  page  to  the  Queen  at  the  scintillating  French  Court ^ 
where  this  3^outh  stood  a  little  aside  and  pondered,  whilst 
his  friends  of  Young  Paris  danced  the  minuet  and  picked 
up  the  coquettish  fan.  Marie  Antoinette  encouraged  his 
originality.  In  the  midst  of  the  Ancien  Regime  enters  the 
Envoy  with  black  coat  and  unpowdered  hair  and  the 
novel  idea  of  freedom.  The  young  Societe  d'  Epee  aux 
Bois,  to  the  disgust  of  the  old  courtiers,  embraced  with 
fervor  the  plain  manners  of  Benjamin  Frankhn  in  high 
marten  cap,  declaring  they  would  discard  toupees  and  adopt 
fustian.  Every  man  of  quality  possessed  a  medallion  of 
Franklin  on  a  snuff-box  or  rapier. 

1  The  Household  of  the  Lafayettes,  by  Edith  Sichel. 


62      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


LANDMARKS:  Rivers — Lieutenant, 
Duck,  Black  Hall,  Mile  Creek,  Four 
Mile.  Lyme  once  included  Old  Lyme, 
Lyme,  East  Lyme,  part  of  Had- 
lyme.  First  settlers :  Griswolds,  Mar- 
vins,  Elys,  Lords,  Lays,  Noyes, 
Lees,  De  Wolfs,  Champions,  and 
others.  The  Street  i  i  1-2  miles  long, 
beginning  at  south  end:  Rev.  Jona- 
than Parsons  house  and  Parsons 
Tavern  stood  on  site  Charles  Henry 
Ludington  residence.  First  Con- 
gregational Church.  McCurdy  home- 
stead, built  not  later  than  1730. 
Purchased  by  John  McCurdy,  1753. 
Black  walnut  trees  planted  before 
the  Revolution.  Mather  homestead, 
(1790),  now  Parsonage  of  Congrega- 
tional Church.  The  ancient  and 
learned  family  to  which  Increase 
and  Cotton  Mather  belonged.  Box- 
wood School.  Chief  Justice  Henry 
M.  Waite  house,  residence  Mrs. 
Joseph  Perkins.  The  Noyes  Library, 
on  site  of  Noyes  homestead,  erected 
by  Charles  H.  Ludington  and  Joseph 
Noyes  Ludington  in  memory  of 
Phoebe  Griffin  Noyes,  the  educator, 
daughter  of  Joseph  Lord ;  address  on 
Presentation  Day  made  by  Daniel 
Coit  Oilman.  Mrs.  Noyes  had  one 
of  the  first  art  schools  in  the  country. 
Gen.  Sheldon- Joseph  Lord  house, 
Deming  house  (1729) — ancestors  of 
the  Demings  and  Champions  of  Con- 
necticut. Reuben  Champion  built 
large  vessels  on  the  Connecticut. 
Judge  Charles  Johnson  McCurdy 
house  (1817).  Noyes  house  (1700), 
summer  residence  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
William  T.  Sabine  of  New  York. 
House  of  Judge  Walter  Chadwick 
Noyes  (author  on  Trusts)  on  site 
Manse  of  Rev.  Moses  Noyes.  On 
Leutenant  River,  vessels  built  and 
West    India    trade    carried    on    by 


On  Meeting-House  Hill  is  one 
of  the  celebrated  Franklin  mile- 
stones^ which  in  1776  saw  Wash- 
ington pass  into  Lyme  (where 
he  spent  the  night  of  April  loth) 
on  his  way  from  Cambridge  after 
the  British  had  evacuated  Boston; 
and  also  saw  these  French  allies 
march  on  to  Rhode  Island.  Per- 
haps General  Lafayette  saluted 
this  little  wayside  post  planted 
here  by  his  philosopher  friend, 
Franklin,  when  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral of  the  Colonies;  Franklin 
measured  the  miles  by  a  machine 
of  his  own  invention  attached 
to  his  chaise,  the  ancestor  of  our 
cyclometer. 

A  story  of  Franklin  when  on 
one  of  his  frequent  journeys 
over  the  post-road  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Boston  is  told  by 
Shepherd  Tom  Hazard.  Ar- 
rived at  an  inn  not  far  from 
Lyme  one  frosty  night,  Frank- 
lin found  every  inch  of  the 
blazing  log  pre-empted  by  vil- 
lage politicians  swapping  news, 
and  thereupon  ordered  a  peck 


1  On  the  old  Bowery  is  a  Franklin  stone  which  reads,  "2^  miles  to  New 
York."  It  would  seem  when  one  reviews  the  mechanical  and  intellectual 
devices  turning  our  wheels  faster  and  faster  that  the  earliest  suggestions 
on  all  things  which  add  to  comfort  were  offered  by  Washington  and 
Franklin.  Franklin  founded  the  first  circulating  library  and  the  first 
fire  insurance  company  in  America. 


Old  Lyme  Church 


63 


John  McCurdy  and  William  Neilson 
of  New  York  followed  by  Samuel 
and  James  Mather.  "  The  Neck"; 
Lord  house,  summer  residence  of 
Robert  C.  Hall,  Esq.,  of  Pittsburg. 
Dr.  William  Lord  house,  property 
of  James  N.  Brown,  Esq.,  of  Brook- 
lyn. The  Coult  homesteads.  Jump- 
ing Rocks,  80  ft.  above  valley. 
The  "Stone  house,"  chaotic  mass 
of  caverns,  quarries  of  red  por- 
phyritic  granite.  McCurdy  Avenue 
leads  to  Black  Hall  by  way  of 
Memorial  Bridge  across  Black  Hall 
River.  Lay's  Hill  between  Black  Hall 
Creek  and  Duck  Creek.  Here  John 
Lay  and  Isaac  Waterhouse  first 
settlers.  Point  beyond  Black  Hall 
owned  by  Prof.  Daniel  C.  Eaton  of 
N.  H.  Hamburg  or  "North  Quarter" 
of  Lyme:  Home  of  Rev.  Dr.  E.  F. 
Burr,  author  of  "Ecce  Ccelum." 
Here  lived  Dr.  Samuel  Mather,  and 
Miss  Caroline  Ely  founded  a  school. 
East  Lyme:  Widow  Caulkins  Inn. 
Lafayette  dined  here. 


of  oysters  for  his  horse:  the 
entire  company  followed  the 
landlord  to  see  the  miracle. 
When  mine  host  returned  to 
say  that  the  horse  refused  to 
feed  on  oysters,  Franklin  was 
discovered  ensconced  in  the 
warmest  corner,  quite  recon- 
ciled to  a  meal  off  the  oysters 
himself. 


The  third  house  of  worship 
on  Meeting-House  Hill  caine  near 
destruction  in  1780,  because  of 
woodpeckers  boring  holes  in  the 
roof;  when  the  "watch"  shot  at 
them  with  his  flint-lock  musket 
the  tow-wad  set  fire  to  the  dry 
timbers.  Tradition  says  that 
Hessians  or  light  horsemen  stationed  in  the  town  jumped 
on  the  roof  like  squirrels  and  saved  the  meeting-house, 
finally  destroyed  by  lightning  ini8i5.  IniSiy  this  church 
was  succeeded  by  the  present  model  of  architectural  beauty 
on  the  plain  below.  The  painting  of  Old  Lyme  Church  by 
Childe  Hassam  exhibited  at  the  St.  Louis  Fair  hangs  in  the 
Gallery  of  American  Artists  at  Smith  College. 


NEW  LONDON  (PEQUOT),  1645 

"  New  London,  New  London,  New  Londo7t,  ahoy  !  "      H.  C.  Bunner. 

LION   GARDINER  TO  JOHN  WINTHROP,  JR.,  FROM    THE   ISLE   OF 

WIGHT 

"  Feb.  i6j2. 
''Honored  Sir: — • 

"  My   love    and    service    being   remembered,    are    these 

to  thank  you  for  the  hay  seeds  you  sent  me,  I  sowed  them  and 

sum  came  up      I  have  sent  you  a  rarity  of  seeds  which  came, 

from   the   Mohawks,   which  is   a   kinde   of   milions   [melons, 

probably  the  summer  squash]  but  far  excelleth  all  other.     They 

are  as  good  as  wheat  for  to  thicken  milk,  and  sweet  as  sugar, 

and  baked  they  are  most  excellent,  having  no  shell.      You  may 

keep  them  as  long  as  anie  pumpkins.'' 

Thus  did  the  Lord  of  Gardiner's  Isle  exchange  garden 
civihties  with  the  founder  of  New  London  and  future 
Governor  of  Connecticut,  the  Younger  Winthrop,  preux 
chevalier  and  one  of  the  great  men  of  our  Colonial  age. 
He  had  chosen  for  his  grant — baronial  in  extent — Fisher's 
Island  and  Pequot,  rich  in  woodlands,  a  broad  river,  and 
the  finest  harbor  between  New  Amsterdam  and  Newport. 
The  worshipful  John  Pyncheon  perceived  the  excellencies 
of  Pequot  Harbor,  and  very  early  entered  into  correspon- 
dence with  Winthrop,  sending  cattle  in  droves  from  Spring- 
field "over  the  path  to  Pequot"^  to  be  shipped. 

Winthrop  held   exclusive  privilege  of  grinding  corn  for 

1  On  this  wilderness  path,  which  also  branched  to  Wethersfield,  stood 
the  Uncas  fort,  on  the  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall  grant  of  1699.  After  the 
Charter,  was  built  the  first  English  house  on  this  Pequot  path.  Barber 
says  "the  old  well  and  crooked  pear  trees  fix  the  site,  and  many  won- 
derful stories  are  related  about  what  happened  to  this  house  in  days 
of  old." 

64 


Governor  Winthrop's  Grist  Mill 


65 


the  Colony,  and  strange  to  say  his  mill  is  still  in  possession 
of  the  rock  glen  in  the  heart  of  New  London,  having  sur- 
vived the  town's  disasters  from  war  and  fire,  the  malice  of 
Arnold,  yellow  fever  and  the  decline  of  a  fine  West  India  trade. 


'tgW^^'T^j^^WLJi'^- 


The  Salt  Meadows. 

To  the  Winthrop  grant  soon  came  from  Gloucester  on 
the  Cape  a  "Welsh  party"  of  Monmouthshire,  led  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Blynman;  these  famihes,  called  to  meeting  by 
the  beat  of  Peter  Blatchford's  drum  from  Cape  Ann  Lane, 
were  Hugh  Calkins,  the  Lesters,  Allyns,  Averys,  and 
Coites,!    who   founded    a    shipbuilding   industry,    also   the 

1  Joseph  Coit,  who  became  the  first  minister  at  Plainfield  (the  son  of 


66      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

^leades,  Beebes,  and  ]\Iarshalls.  Hugh  Calkins's  grant  on 
the  bay  adjoined  Winthrop's  Ferry  Farm,  which  carried 
the  Rope  Ferry  privilege  at  Nahantick  bar. 

"  Ye  ferry  ov^er  Great  River,"  Groton  ferry,  "  being  a  scow 
with  both  sails  and  oars,"  was  leased  to  Gary  Latham,^ 
first  at  Groton  Bank,  and  first  to  mow  the  meadows  at 
Fog-Plain.  In  1705,  the  rents  of  the  ferry  were  assigned 
the  grammar  school,  in  part  of  the  master's  "  yearly  sallery. 
provided  nevertheless,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  town 
on  Lords  days,  thanksgiving  days,  and  days  of  humiliation, 
shall  be  ferriage  free." 

The  settlers  like  all  staunch  Puritans  were  severe  on 
themselves.  Nathaniel  Alather  writes :  "  Of  all  the  manifold 
sins  which  then  I  was  guilty  of,  none  so  sticks  upon  me  as 
that,  being  very  young,  I  was  whittling  upon  the  Sabbath 
Day."  Many  were  summoned  to  court  for  offences  almost 
as  trifling  as  whittling:  "John  Lewis  and  Sarah  Chapman 
for  sitting  together  on  the  Lord's  day,  under  an  apple  tree 
in  Goodman's  orchard." 

Hawthorne  declared  that  any  one  of  the  black-browed 
Puritans  of  the  Hawthorne  tree  would  have  thought  the 
LANDMARKS:  Court  House  (1784).     blossomins:  of  an  idler  like  him- 

Library     (Richardson     design);  has-  -^r  rr     •        j^  j.    '1       j_'  £  1    * 

relief  of  founder,  H.   P.  Haven,   by        Sclf     Sufficient     rctnbutlOn    for    hlS 

A.   St.   Gaudens.     General   Jedediah  ginS.        'What    is    hc?'     mUHIlUred 

Huntington  house;  Collector  of  the 

Port    and     friend     of     Washington.  OUC      gray  shadoW     of      my     forC- 

His  house  fashioned  after  the  style  f^^T^^j-g    ^^  ^J^g    O^t^^j.^        ^  ^^    ^^.^'^^^^ 

of  Mount  Vernon.         Ye  Ancientist 

Burying    Ground."     Oldest    stone  to  of      Stor}^  books ! '        '  What      kind 

James     Mudge      1652.     Oldest     in-           r        1          •  •       i-r  1      j^ 

scribed  tablet  to  Captain  Richard     ot  a  busmcss  m  litc,  what  manner 

Lord:  "  The  Bright  Starre  of  our  ^f  srlorifyinSf  God,  Or  beino^  SCr- 
Cavalirie."     Memorials  to     Madame  '-'  jo  ^  ^  o 

Elizabeth  winthrop,   Rev.  Simon     viccablc  to  mankind  in  his  day 

Joseph  and  ^Martha  Coit),  was  the  first  native  of  Xew  London  to  receive 
a  collegiate  education,  being  a  first  graduate  of  the  Collegiate  School  at 
Saybrook,  now  Yale  College. 

2  Captain  William  Latham  commanded  Fort  Griswold  in  17S1  under 
the  district  commander,  Colonel  William  Ledyard. 


The  Gallant  Averys  of  Groton 


67 


Bradstreet,  Deacon  Clement  Miner 
(1700),  Deacon  Joseph  Coit.  To 
founders  Lester,  Harris,  Raymond, 
Comstock,  Hough,  Haynes,  Chappell, 
Truman,  Fosdick,  Darrow,  Dart, 
and  others.  St.  James's  Church, 
dedicated  by  Bishop  Seabury,  the 
first  Bishop  of  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island.  Mumford-Wolcott 
house  (i7Q2),  the  Parish  House. 
Smith  Memorial  house  (1790). 
The  First  Church  of  Christ.  Dis- 
tinguished ministers,  Rev.  Ephraim 
Woodbridge,  Rev.  Henry  Channing, 
Rev.  Abel  McEwen.  Huguenot 
house  (1697).  Soldiers  and  Sailors 
Monument,  gift  of  a  son  of  Joseph 
Lawrence.  Major-General  Burbeck 
house.  Four  Sister  Elms  (1812). 
Captain  Guy  Richards  house  (1739). 
The  "  Red  Lion  ";  house  spared  in 
1 78 1  by  p.eading  of  beautii'ul 
Molly  Coit  for  her  sick  father. 
Latimer-Dr.  Abel  McEwen  parson- 
age. Arnold -Marvin  Wait  house 
(1719).  Birthplace  of  Hon.  John 
T.  Wait,  on  site  of  Gov.  Saltonstall 
house.  Captain  Nathaniel  Coit- 
Belden  house.  Denisou-Chappeil 
house  (.1785).  Manwaring  home- 
stead stood  on  site  of  George  Chap- 
pell's  lot  of  1650.  Hallam  house. 
Shaw's  Neck  between  Bream  and 
Close  Coves,  home-lots  of  Thomas 
Miner  and  William  Morton.  Foxon's 
hill,  named  for  Foxon,  deputy  of 
Uncas  at  court,  "  the  wisest  Indian 
in  the  country."  Nathan  Hale 
Memorial  School,  Post  Hill.  Thames 
River  bridge,  widest  drawbridge 
known.  Tongue's  Bank,  Tongue's 
CUffs.  George  Tongue  was  granted 
four  poles  of  land  before  his  house- 
lot  on  the  bank."  Collection  of 
antiques  at  Groton,  open  to  the  pub- 
lic, by  Anna  Warner  Bailey  Chapter, 
D.  A.  R.,  of  Groton  and  Stonington. 
Groton  is  the  birthplace  of  Daboll's 
Almanac.  Bill  Memorial  Library  and 
Starr  homestead.  Early  light-houses. 
New  London  district :  West  side  har- 
bor entrance  Thames,  built  1760. 
Lynde  Point,  west  side  Connecticut, 


and  generation  may  that  be? 
Why,  the  degenerate  fellow  might 
as  well  have  been  a  fiddler!' 
Such  are  the  compliments  bandied 
between  my  great-grandsires  and 
myself  across  the  gulf  of  time!"^ 
"Little  Owl  Meadow"  was 
given  to  James  Avery,  who  seems 
to  have  been  the  Allies  Standish 
of  New  London.  Together  with 
John  Morgan,  Avery  received 
bounties  for  wolves'  heads.  As 
Lieutenant  he  commanded  the 
Pequot  allies  when  Governor  Jo- 
siah  Winslow  broke  the  power 
of  the  Narragansetts  at  their 
fort  at  South  Kingston,  R.  I. 
Previously  Lieutenant  Avery  with 
Air.  Brewster,  Richard  Haughton, 
and  Samuel  Lothrop  had  rescued 
Uncas  when  pursued  by  the 
Narragansetts  to  the  head  of 
Nehantic  River.  For  £6,  he  pur- 
chased the  first  barn  meeting- 
house (the  men  then  sat  on  one 
side  and  the  women  on  the  other) , 
become  all  too  small  for  the 
settlers,  who  came  from  up  the 
Mohegan  or  Pequot  and  across 
Great  River  (the  Thames)  "with 
flint-lock  in  one  hand  and  the 
Bible  in  the  other."  Lieutenant 
Avery  built  at  Poquonnock  (South 


1  Introduction  to  The  Scarlet  Letter. 


68      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

ughted    1803.     stonington  Point,     Qroton)   that  quaint  and  famous 

1823.     Morgan's  Point  near  Mystic,  ^ 

1831.       Fisher's    Island    Hummock       lamihOUSe    knOWIl     aS         1  he    HlVe 

1849.   Floating   Lights.    Bartiett's     ^^     ^^^    Avervs."!       Eleven     of 

Reef,     1835.     Eel    Grass    Light    on 

Fisher's  Island  Sound,   total  number        the      gallant     AverVS    fell    at     Fort 

of  vessels  passed  in  1850,17,697.  ^^    .  .  ^  ^  11      1 

Griswold  and  are  enrolled  on 
the  Groton  monument.  Christopher  Avery  came  with 
Governor  Winthrop  to  Salem.  Groton  was  named  for  the 
home  seat  of  Adam  Winthrop,  leader  of  the  second  Puritan 
emigration. 

On  September  6,  1781,  sounded  the  boom  of  Fort  Gris- 
wold's  two  regular  guns  of  alarm  and  New  London  met  her 
Waterloo.  Txie  British  were  doubly  exasperated  by  the 
capture  in  Long  Island  Sound  of  the  rich  merchant  ship 
Hannah;  Shaw's  warehouse  at  New  London  was  packed  with 
her  cargo,  the  most  valuable  brought  in  during  the  war,  and 
other  rich  merchandise.  The  scarlet  coats,  vowing  ven- 
geance, landed  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  capturing  Fort 
Trumbull,  and  spared  but  few  houses.  In  New  London 
the  very  gutters  ran  rivers  of  fire,  and  Arnold,  from  "  Ye 
Ancient  Burying  Ground,"  watched  with  bitter  joy  the 
destruction  of  the,  houses  of  "auld  acquaintance"   of  his 


2  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  kin  of  the  Xew  England  Averys  have 
estabhshed  a  homestead  far  south  in  Louisiana  on  one  of  the  old  Spanish 
grants,  the  island  of  Petit  Anse  ("Little  Goose"),  now  Avery's  Island, 
assigned  originally  to  settlers  from  the  Iberian  peninsula  (Xew  Iberia  is 
just  north).  The  island  is  famous  for  its  salt  mine,  the  pepper}^  Tobasco 
sauce,  and  for  its  prehistoric  relics  and  fossils  imbedded  between  the 
overflows  of  salt.  Situated  in  the  vicinity  of  that  region  pictured  by 
Lafcadio  Hearn  in  Chita,  the  island  is  of  unusual  charm,  even  in  winter, 
rising  above  a  wide  sea  of  purple  marshes,  stretching  to  the  Gulf  and 
threaded  by  silver  bayous;  Acadian  huts  scattered  here  and  there,  in 
January,  the  green  and  the  scarlet  of  the  yupon  berries  in  high  contrast 
to  the  sere,  fiat  rice-fields  along  the  Teche.  The  salt  mine  itself  is  a 
superb  crystal  cave,  under  artifical  light  flashing  like  diamonds.  General 
B.  sent  a  brigade  to  destroy  the  mine;  "  we  have  razed  the  works,  Sir, 
but  we  cannot  blow  up  the  earth,  "  was  the  day's  report. 


Ledyard  Defends  Fort  Griswold 


69 


boyhood  and  the  attack  of  Fort  Griswold  on  Groton  Heights 
opposite:  there 


The  summer  home  of  Dr.  Samuel  R.  Elliott,  Xeiv  London,  built  on  the  rock 
where  the  British  landed.  Dr.  Elliott's  home  has  long  been  a  rendezvous 
for  men  of  letters.      Here  {Miss)  Edith  M.  Thomas  spends  her  summers. 

''Ledyard,  the  hero,  held  Jits  men 
Up  to  their  work  iviih  a  grip  of  steel. 

Honor  or  life  then  honor  first. ''^ 


Rose  Terry  Cooke. 


70      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

■    A  letter  dated  "iV.  Lc>W(ioi^,   ph  Sep.   lySi''   is  eloquent: 

Dr.  Sr. 

I  have  the  Unhappiness  to  acquaint  you,  Genl.  Arnold 
with  about  1500  or  2000  Men  Landed  Here  Yesterday 
Morning  &  have  Burnt  this  Town  from  the  Court  House 
to  Nathl.  Shaw;  House  which  was  Sav'd  &  from  Giles 
Mumfords  House  to  Capt.  Richards  Store.  .  .  .  They 
Have  Burnt  your  House  &  All  Your  Stores  at  Groton  & 
Most  of  the  Houses  on  the  Bank.  Thev  Attack'd  the  fort 
at  Groton  with  Great  Spirit  but  were  Repuls'd  with  Loss 
several  times  by  Col.  Ledyard  who  Commanded,  who  was 
Oblig'd  to  Surrender  to  Superior  Force,  after  the  Fort  Had 
Surrendered  they  inhumanely  Put  him  to  Death  as  Also 
Capt.  Peter  Richards  and  a  Number  of  Others. 
The  Enemy  are  Now  Under  Sail  Going  Away — Shou'd 
think  it  Best  for  you  to  Come  Down — 

I  am  With  Great  Affection  Your  friend 

Zab:  Rogers. 
[Addressed :] 

Thos.  L  Mumford  Esq.^  Now  at  Hartford. 

Arnold's  birthplace  being  only  fourteen  miles  distant, 
he  had  retained  secret  allies  in  the  town,  and  gave  orders 
that  a  certain  house  in  Gingerbread  Lane  should  be  spared ; 
it  was  accordingly  chalked ;  the  owner,  like  Ali  Baba  and  the 
Forty  Thieves,  secretly  chalked  his  neighbors'  houses,  and 
these  all  survived  as  "Widow's  Row,"  in  Gingerbread 
Lane.     On  the  Parade  all  was  destroyed. 

By  curious  fortune  the  combustibles  lighted  by  the  British 
in  the  Man  waring  house  were  extinguished  with  a  barrel 
of  soap,  and  at  Shaw  Manor  by  tapping  a  pipe  of  vinegar 
in  the  garret. 

Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jr.,  the  merchant  prince  of  New  London, 
acquired  a  fortune  by  shipping  mules  to  the  West  Indies 

1  Thomas  Mumford  was  one  of  eleven  men  of  Connecticut  who  formed 
the  project  of  taking  Ticonderoga. 


The  Shaw  Mansion,  New  London 


71 


and  importing  molasses,  brown  sugar,  and  coffee.  In  1774 
trade  was  ruined,  for  "  mules  would  not  sell  for  cash  in  the 
West  Indies  or  molasses  in  Nevv  England." 

During  the  Revolution  he  advised  in  all  naval  affairs  in 
Connecticut,  and  forwarded  opportune  supphes  of  powder 
to  General  Washington,  who  visited  New  London  to  counsel 
with  Admiral  Hopkins,  commander  of  the  first  naval  expe- 
dition under  authority  of  Congress. 


9r^  -  'Jj. 


f4^;yv„  .. 


r:-3i,W<^h'I)i 


A,/  J  y- 


The  Hempstead  Homestead  built  before  16 j8  by  Robert  or  his  son  Joshua. 
Residence  of  John  L.  Branch,  Esq. 

The  mahogany  four-poster  in  which  Washington  slept 
is  in  the  "White  Room"  of  the  Shaw  mansion.  In  the 
stress  of  war-times,  Mistress  Lucretia  Shaw  filled  her  home 
with  cots  for  our  soldiers.  In  1898,  in  the  same  hospitable 
hall,  a  descendant,  with  the  Lucretia  Shaw  Chapter,  D.  A.  R., 
packed  hampers  for  the  war  sufferers. 


72      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Nathan  Hale  "taught  school"  in  New  London  and  here 
enhsted  under  the  inspiration  of  his  renowned  epigrani. 
Other  prominent  patriots  were  Major-General  Burbeck, 
later  president  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  of  the  Cincinnati, 
Richard  Law,  and  Major  William  Hillhouse,  members  of 
the  Governor's  council,  and  Captain  John  Deshon 
(Deschamps) . 

The  oldest  house  in  New  London  is  the  Hempstead  home- 
stead,^ in  which  was  held  the  first  assembly  of  the  Society 
of  Mayflower  Descendants  of  Connecticut.  In  "The  An- 
tientist  Book"  of  1647  is  written:  "John  Steubens  and 
Robert  Hempstead  are  chosen  to  view  the  fences  for  this 
year."  Also  Robert  Hempstead  mowed  the  meadows  at 
Lower  Mamacock. 

Mrs.  Branch  has  given  us  a  series  of  pretty  pictures  in 
this  quaint  Hempstead  home  of  eight  generations,  flanked 
by  sweet-flag  and  violets,  the  "posy-beds"  of  great-aunt 
Patty,  and  the  flowering  quince  hedge  along  The  Lane,  up 
which  the  ducks  used  to  wander.  In  The  Manner  of  Life 
of  Nancy  Hempstead,  the  inexperienced  young  wife  of 
Joshua  Hempstead  appears  disconsolate,  not  because  her 
jelly  "won't  jell,"  but  because  in  trying  this  first  time  to 
make  bayberry  tallow  for  candles,  she  skimmed  the  top  off, 
and  got  nothing!  Bayberry,  unlike  other  fat  settles  to 
the  bottom. 

Aunt  Patty  Hempstead  remembered  the  burning  of  New 
London,  and  how  when  they  fled  into  the  country,  she  led 
her  little  brother  Joshua  up  the  long  hills  of  the  Colchester 
Road,  and  lifted  him  to  his  feet  when  he  stumbled;  they 
slept  that  night  in  a  barn  on  piles  of  sheep's  fleeces.  Great 
was  the  children's  excitement  when  they  returned,  to  find 

iXames  connected  with  this  house  are:  Sheriff  Hempstead  and  the 
Joshua  who  was  a  New  England  Pepys ;  also  Mary  Bolles  Branch  and 
Anna  Hempstead  Branch,  to  whom  we  are  deeply  indebted  for  certain 
delicate  and  sympathetic  latter-day  poems. 


Old  Whaling-Days 


73 


houses  in  ashes  and  their  own  home  flooded  with  rum  and 
molasses  and  strewn  with  broken  cheeses. 

After  the  war,  prosperity  sailed  once  again  into  New 
London  in  barrels  of  whale  oil.  There  is  still  a  flavor  of 
whaling-days    among   the    old    "sea-do^s"    who    "call    all 


Ocean  Beach,  New  London,  Conn. 
"Still  shall  a  violet  evening  please  the  sea. 
And  a  pale  splendor  satisfy  the  air.'' 

— Anna  Hempstead  Branch. 

hands"  to  plum-duff  at  the  Jib-Boom  Club,  and  fall  to 
reeling  yarns  as  thrilling  as  at  the  Captains'  Club  of  Nan- 
tucket. There  is  a  fascination  in  sea-adventures  after  safe 
return,  but  imagine  the  horrors  of  fifty  New-  London  sail 
crushed  between  icebergs,  or  a  crew  cast  on  Desolation 
Island  among  sea-elephants.^     When  you  see  tide  meeting 

'  A  sketch  of  New  London's  whaling  industry  and  the  Captain  is  in- 
cluded in  Charlotte  Molineux  Holloway's  "The  Old  Whaling  Port,"  Con- 
necticut Quarterly,  May,  1897. 


74     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

tide  under  Race  Rock  Light,  or  view  on  the  vShore  Road  the 
wrecking-apparatus  of  "Captain  Joe,"  the  diver,  big-hearted 
and  retiring,  and  hero  of  Caleb  West  (Uke  Edmund  Hosmer, 
Emerson's  philosopher-farmer,  "the  spicy  farming  sage"  of 
Concord,  Captain  Joe  is  of  the  finest  "stock"  the  States 
produce) ,  you  rest  content  to  be  a  landlubber,  and  make  the 
most  of  summer  by  the  sea,  upon  the  sands  of  Ocean  Beach 
lazily  watching  the  passing  on  the  Sound,  and,  over  the 
Sound,  summer  reigns  till  gray   November. 

"  So  all  day  long  the  vine   looks    donn, 
On  the  roofs  of   the  quaint,  old-fashioned  town,''  ^ 

Again,  you  stand  on  the  ramparts  of  Fort  Trumbull 
looking  up  the  Thamics  at  sunset,  a  rosy  haze  melting  into 
violet,  lights  up  the  rich  foliage,  tints  listless  sails  and  Gro- 
ton's  emerald  lawns  sloping  to  the  harbor's  mouth.  In 
the  afterglow,  Groton  monument,  the  Fort  Griswold  em- 
bankment, and  a  gray  schooner  drifting  rivenvard,  are  etched 
darkly  against  the  sky ;  the  oars  of  a  dory  trail  gold  at  every 
stroke.  Dancing  attendance  on  the  evening  star,  light 
after  light  flashes  on  the  romantic  horizon — "  the  street 
lamps  of  the  ocean." 

From  New  London's  Vv'harves,  there  is  a  fine  choice  of 
historic  trips  by  water;  you  may  steam  to  Greenport,  or,  if 
it  is  not  "  skittish  weather"  outside,  to  Block  Island.  Again 
to  Watch  Hill,  the  fishing  grounds  of  the  tribe  of  Ninigret 
who  carried  off  the  daughter  of  Wyandace  of  Long  Island 
during  her  wedding  festivities.  The  bride  was  rescued  by 
Lion  Gardiner,  sealing  his  life  friendship  with  the  Sachem. 

Or  visit  ancient  and  aristocratic  Stonington,  touching 
midway  at  the  quaint  hamlet  of  Noank  framed  in  blue 
water  by  Palmer's  Cove  and  ]\Iystic  Harbor.  On  a  trans- 
parent day  of  Indian  summer,   it  seems  as  if  you  mif'ht 

^The  Song  of  the  Van,  by  Walter  Learned,  Xew  London. 


Gales  Ferry 


75 


reach  out  and  touch  Fisher's  Island  and  North  Hill  where 
the  Atlantic  went  to  pieces  in  '46;  Mystic  Island  is  close  by 
and  the  ]\Iason  monument  on  Pequot  Hill.  You  listen  to 
the  sound  of  hammers  '^knocking  away  the  shores  and  spurs'' 
of  some  noble  ship,  for  on  Mystic  River  is  a  large  wooden 
ship-building  plant.  Gales  Ferry,  up  river  (every  June 
the   quarters  of  the  Yale  crew)  is  a  lovely  peninsula.     By 


The  Town  of  Noa)ik,  with  Palmer^s  Ship-yard,  from  JMason's  Island 

the  mill-pond  is  the  red,  gambrel  roof  of  the  Richard  home- 
stead. Commodore  Decatur  was  blockaded  here  with  a 
prize  ship.  The  British  officers  of  The  Wasp  carried  on 
many  a  flirtation  in  old  Rodman  Neil's  kitchen,  and  at 
least  one  Gales  Ferry  lassie  met  her  fate.  A  remarkable 
oak  presides  over  the  old  farm  of  Adam  Larrabee,  often 
spoken  of  as  ''  the  friend  of  Lafayette.  " 


76      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

On  your  trip  up  the  Thames  to  the  beautiful  town  of 
Norwich,  "The  Rose  of  Connecticut,"  you  skirt  the  shore 
of  ^lontville,  the  North  Parish  of  New  London,  and  will 
choose  to  return  by  the  turnpike  road  or  Mohegan  trail, 
over  which  Miantonomoh  fled  before  Uncas.  Near  the 
scene  of  the  sachems'  single  combat,  the  tribe  have  lin- 
gered and  it  is  but  a  few  years  since  the  last  of  the  Mohegans 
departed  to  "the  happy-hunting  grounds."  From  these 
beetling  cliffs,  the  w^arrior  shaded  his  eves  to  sov  out  the 
enemies  of  mighty  Uncas,  or  to  sight  in  shimmering  Pequot 
harbor  the  w^hite  man's  sails. 

Behind  the  Indian  church,  not  far  from  Chehegan  boulder, 
spreads  a  magnificent  view^  of  the  Thames  Valley.  The 
Uncas  granite  chair  is  near  the  River  Fort  and  the  fa\  orite 
grounds  of  Uncas  and  his  chiefs  were  the  farms  at  Massapeag 
and  Pamechaug,  deeded  in  1658  to  Richard  Houghton  and 
James  Rogers;  one  on  Saw-Mill  Brook  was  purchased  by 
Samuel  Rogers;  these  with  Joshua  Raymond  were  first 
settlers.  ]\Iajor  Christopher  Darrow,  who  distinguished 
himself  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars,  belonged  to  the 
North  Parish  and  Elder  Zadoc  Darrow  to  Waterford. 

The  Mohegans  held  seignorial  rights  of  land  and  the 
Uncas  heirs,  in  1898,  directed  a  suit  against  the  town  of 
Norwich,  for  encroachments  upon  their  royal  burying- 
ground  and  Yantic  river-path.  Sampson  Occum,  the 
Indian  preacher,  was  renowned  in  England  and  Mohegans 
attended  the  Indian  school  at  Lebanon,  founded  by  Dr. 
Eleazer  Wheelock,  which  finally  merged  through  the  gener- 
osity of  Lord  Dartmouth  to  the  pagans  into  the  Dartmouth 
College  foundation. 

The  eight-mile  walk  from  the  pretty  Chesterfield  district 
to  meeting  in  New  London  was  said  to  be  merely  an  agree- 
able recreation  to  the  Latimers,  "a  tall  and  robust  race," 
and  one  might  agree  with  them,  when  the  air  is  balmy  with 


Montville 


11 


clover  and  spiced  with  the  sea.  In  North  Parish  (Mont- 
ville) the  ride-and-tic  system  prevailed:  a  farmer  who  took 
his  wife  behind  him  on  his  good  family  horse  and  rode  half- 
way to  the  meeting-house,  then  dismounted  and,  fastening 
his  horse  to  a  bar-post,  trav^elled  the  last  miles  "on  Shank's 
mare, "  leaving  his  mount  for  the  use  of  a  neighbor  and  his 
wife  on  the  road  behind.^ 


1  History   of   New  London,  by  Frances  Manwaring  Caulkins. 

Utley. 


H.  D. 


''The  clover-blossoms  kiss  her  feet 
She  is  so  sweet." 

Sono: — Oscar   Laighton, 


NORWICH 


In  the  long,  long  city  of  Norwich,  you  always  meet  the 
unexpected;  the  old  tow^n  plot  followed  the  windings  of  the 
romantic  Yantic,  the  "noisy  river"  of  rushing,  falling 
water.     Upstart    hills    and    rocks,    half-hidden    in    foliage, 


Typical  Road  and  Trout  Brook  in  Vicinity  of  Norivich,  Conn. 
"Here  is  a  bit  for  a  painter,  a  lovely  vista — the  road  dips  into  a  little  hollow,  turns 
gently,  and  passes  out  of  sight  zvithin  the  sJiadoiv  of  a  u'ood." — Bradford  Torrey. 

charm  and  bewilder  the  stranger.  The  first  homes  crept 
under  them  for  shelter  in  picturesque  abandon;  the  tiny 
meeting-house  mounted  guard  on  top  of  a  cliff,  and  the  bell 
hung  from  the  crotch  of  a  tree. 

It  would  be  impossible  in  less  than  two  volumes  to  tell 

78 


Ancient  Houses  of  Norwich 


79 


the  story  of  old  Norwich.  Her  many,  many  colonial  man- 
sions are  aristocratic  from  the  door-knocker  to  keeping- 
room;  behind  the  portals  of  "Long  Society"  are  rich  an- 
cestral possessions — *'as  choice  as  hens'  teeth"  according 
to  the  old  saying.  If  you  would  know  Norwich  "first 
families,"  open  J\Iiss  Perkins's  delightful  story  of  the 
Ancient  Houses  of  Norwich,  rich  in  portraits,  miniatures, 
and  the  original  colored  map  of  Norwich  by  Donald  G, 
Mitchell,  as  it  appeared  to  him  in  boyhood  days. 

Four  of  the  Presidents  of  the 
United  States  turn  to  Norwich 
as  ancestral  home.  At  Lebanon 
was  the  war  office  of  Governor 
Jonathan  Trumbull,  of  Vv^hom 
Washington  would  say  when  short 
of  supplies:  "We'll  see  what 
Brother  Jonathan  can   do." 

Who  will  not  applaud  the 
patriotism  of  Connecticut  women, 
especially  marked  in  Norwich! 
Was  not  Lydia  Huntington  even 
more  beautiful  in  homespun,  dain- 
tily embroidered  by  her  own 
hand,  than  in  foreign  stuffs, 
scorned  as  bitterly  as  Revolu- 
tionary tea?  The  Norwich  dames 
were  famous  for  their  exquisite 
paper  work  and  shadow  portraits, 
once  so  fashionable. 

In  this  township  the  Indians 
had  three  rude  forts:  Fort  Hill, 
the  citadel  of  Waqueenaw% 
brother  of  Uncas;  Little  Fort 
Hill  between  Landing  and  Trading 


LANDMARKS:  Dr.  Johnson-Lathrop 
house.  Thomas  Lathrop  house. 
Coit  homestead.  Coit  Elms,  al- 
luded to  in  'Autocrat  of  the  Break- 
fast Table."  Lydia  H.  Sigourney 
house.  Home  of  Captain  Joshua 
Huntington  and  Judge  Andrew 
Huntington.  White  residence.  Gen. 
eral  Jedediah  and  Ebenezer  Hunting- 
ton house.  General  Jabez  and  Gen- 
eral Zachariah  Huntington  house. 
Farnsworth  house,  once  residence 
of  John  Lothrop  Motley.  Slater 
house.  Osgood  residence.  Amos 
Hubbard  house.  Sachem  Park. 
Colonel  Joshua  Huntington  house. 
Governor  Samuel  Huntington  house. 
Old  Burying-Ground,  Brown  Tav- 
ern, later  Bela  Peck  house.  Rock 
Nook  Home,  Gift  of  Moses  Pierce, 
Monument  to  Major  Mason.  Old 
Witter  Tavern — Hazard  house.  Bean 
Hill.  Yantic  Mills  on  site  Backus 
Iron  Forge.  Winslow  T.  Williams 
house.  Elijah  Lathrop  house. 
V^ernett  Lee  house.  Hon.  David 
A.  Wells  house,  N.  Washington 
St.  On  East  Main  St.,  Home  Gov. 
William  A.  Buckingham,  now  Club 
House  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic.  Old  Hyde  homestead. 
Navy  Yard  Lane.  Old  Burying- 
Ground.  Cleveland  house,  former 
home  of  Grover  Cleveland.  Near 
Sachem  Park  is  the  Miantonomoh 
Stone  on  the  Providence  trail.  The 
Crotch  of  the  Rivers.  The  Hook 
of  the  Quinebaug.  Scotch  Cap 
Hill  near  where  bounds  meet  of 
Norwich,     Franklin,     and     Bozrah. 


8o      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Ising-Glass     Rock.      Wheel-Timber        COVCS    belonged    tO    UnCaS,    and    a 

dIL  rr;'  r^on-s"  Hof:;  third  stood  at  the  junction  of  the 
Kewontaquck.  Yantic   and  Hammer  Brook.    Cae- 

sar Sachem  was  succeeded  by  Ben  Uncas,  "Major  Ben," 
followed  by  Ben  Uncas,  2d,  who  was  brought  up  in  the 
family  of  Captain  John  Mason,  and  the  first  to  adopt 
our  dress.  To-day  in  that  wild  Mohegan  country  a  city 
lies  serene, 

"  Guarded  by  circling  streams  and  wooded  mountains, 
Like  sentinels  round  a  queen.''  ^ 

1  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman. 


WATCH    HILL,    R.    I. 

Here  Burned  Signal  Fires. 


THROUGH  GARDINER'S  BAY  TO  GREENPORT 


''LaiDich  thy  bark,  mariner/" 


Mrs.  Southey. 


No  short  voyage  along  the  New  England  coast  is  more 
historic  than  from  New  London  to  Shelter  Island  and  Green- 
port,  which  seaport  in  Washington's  day  was  on  the  shortest 
route  from  New 
York  to  Boston 
by  way  of  New- 
port. It  is  partic- 
ularly interesting 
on  account  of  the 
new  fortifications 
on  Fisher '  s  Island , 
Great  Gull,  Plum 
Island  (the  Isle 
of  Patmos),  and 
jMontauk ;  these 
with  Napatree 
Point  completely 
shut  out  maraud- 
ers from  Long  Is- 
land Sound.  No 
forts  command  a 
more  strate2:ic 
position. 

As  the  steamer 
leaves  New  Lon- 
don  Lis^ht  and   Ocean   Beach  on  her  starboard    bow    and 
Watch  Hill  Light  far  to   port,  she  comes    abreast  of    Race 
Point,  the  dangerous  long,  low  beach  on  Fisher's,  and  Race 


New  London  Light. 
"A  Street  Lamp  of  the  Ocean." 


)(^0  (^0< 


82      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Rock  Light,  the  sah^ation  of  mariners,  the  masterpiece  built 
by  F.  Hopkinson  Smith,  transcending  his  other  inspirations 
even  that  of  yesterday's  brush.  The  Glory  of  Venice. 

Fisher's  Island  was  a  Utopia  when  John  Winthrop,  Jr., 
wrote  from  thence  to  Lion  Gardiner  for  advice  about  his 
sick  child;  but  the  deer-stalked  woodlands  disappeared 
under  the  great  gale  of  1815,  which  flung  spray  against 
window  panes  eight  miles  inland.  Deep  under  Fisher's 
Island  Sound,  innumerable  boulders  are  seen  of  the  same 
race  as  great  Chehegan  and  others  at  Mohegan,  which  seem, 
as  it  were,  strewn  by  giants'  play.  Fisher's  Island  itself 
is  a  mass  of  boulders  co  ^^ered  by  sand  where  the  heavy  ocean 
surf  arrested  a  glacier.  It  now  is  a  part  of  Southold,  Long 
Island. 

Great  Gull  and  Little  Gull  are  alight  in  the  green  water; 
here  the  British  fleet  anchored  in  1813  and  blockaded  the 
port,  after  pursuing  several  American  frigates  into  New 
London  harbor,  that  had  come  through  the  Sound,  hoping 
to  slip  out  to  sea  by  Montauk.  No  enemy  could  rendezvous 
before  the  ten-inch  disappearing  guns  on  Plum  Island. 
Steer  discreetly  through  Plum  Gut,  the  narrow  gateway 
of  Gardiner's  Bay  between  Plum  Island  and  Orient  Point, 
the  southern  prong  of  the  fork  of  Long  Island. 

Tiny  unexpected  lakes  glimmer  about  Montauk  between 
sandhills  rolling  like  waves  of  the  sea.  An  old  squaw  on  be- 
ing asked  the  road  from  Narragansett  to  Montauk,  answered : 
"  Keep  out  of  the  woods  and  the  water  and  you'll  get  to 
Montauk."  The  last  chief  of  the  Montauks,  despairing,  is 
said  to  have  departed  with  three  steps:  to  Shelter  Island, 
Orient  Point,  and  to  Montauk,  throwing  himself  in  the  sea. 

Orient  Point  was  formerly  Oyster  Ponds  and  the  scene 
of  Cooper's  Sea-Lions.  Cooper's  hero  was  Roswell  Gardiner, 
and  Lothrop  says  "one  is  tempted  to  call  the  first  Lion 
Gardiner  a  sea-Lion. "    He  was  a  born  leader  of  men  without 


oo 


84      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

boisterous  ambition,  a  diplomat  of  the  first  water,  with  a 
quick  decision  and  courage,  the  admiration  of  the  savage. 
The  Montauks  remained  ahvays  friendly  to  the  whites,  the 
tribe  deferring  utterly  to  Gardiner.  ^  Wyandanch  placed 
his  son  in  his  guardianship  and  left  the  territory  of  Smith- 
town  to  Gardiner,  "the  most  honorable  of  the  English 
nation  here  about  us.  "  2  Gardiner  was  created  by  eminent 
domain  Lord  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  by  the  Earl  of  Sterling, 
possessing  a  grant  of  all  islands  between  the  Hudson  and 
Cape  Cod;  and  Gardiner's  Isle,  30,000  acres  of  concentrated 
romance,  is  possessed  still  by  the  Gardiners. 

Gardiner's  Bay  was  the  prowling  ground  of  Captain  Kidd. 
When  the  Earl  of  Bellomont  was  Governor  of  New  York 
(1699)  he  complained  that  Long  Island  was  a  "receptacle 
for  pirates,"  and  set  a  watch  for  Captain  Kidd.  But  his 
v/as  not  the  wickedest  pirate  bark  that  sailed  high  seas;  he 

1  Gardiner's  extraordinary  insight  into  the  leanings  of  the  primitive 
American  appears  in  his  course  with  the  harassing  Pequot,  the  powerful 
Uncas,  and  his  friendship  with  Wyandanch,  "the  wise  talker.  " 

Gardiner  prevented  the  fiendish  plot  of  the  Xarragansetts  to  unite  the 
tribes  and  destroy  the  whites.  The  Xarragansetts  were  shrewd  in  seeking 
help  from  the  Long  Island  tribes,  mighty  in  the  financial  world;  the  Five 
Nations  came  even  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  obtain  coin  in  the  "land  of 
the  periwinkle,  "  the  Montauks'  bay-indented  shores  being  long  and  rich 
in  shells,  and  squaws  many,  to  string  the  wampum. 

Lion  Gardiner,  on  going  over  one  day  to  Long  Island,  by  chance  saw 
Miantonomoh  and  three  of  his  great  warriors  talking  secretly  with  the 
Montauk  Sachem  and  his  old  counsellors.  Wyandanch  revealed  to 
Gardiner  that  they  urged  him  to  give  no  more  wampum  to  the  English, 
and  offered  presents  if  he  would  join  their  schemes  to  become  once 
again  lords  of  the  soil;  otherwise,  said  the  Xarragansetts,  "  we  shall  be  all 
gone  shortly,  for  you  know  our  fathers  had  plenty  of  deer  and  skins,  our 
plains  were  full  of  deer,  as  also  our  woods,  and  of  turkies.  .  .  .  But 
these  English  have  gotten  our  land,  they  with  scythes  cut  down  the 
grass,  and  their  hogs  spoil  our  clam  banks,  and  we  shall  be  starved" : 
Lion  Gardiner  said  "you  must  not  give  wampum  to  Narragansett,  "  and 
with  Wyandanch 's  help  circumvented  their  wiles. — Gardiner's  Pequot 
Warres. 

2  Wyandanch  continues  in  his  will:  "he  apeared  to  us  not  only  as  a 


The  Lord  of  Gardiner's  Isle  85 

gave  Lady  Gardiner  Indian  sweetmeats  ^  for  her  children 
and  cloth  of  gold — which  she  dared  not  refuse — in  return 
for  her  good  mutton.  Kidd  buried  much  booty  (for 
which  the  unwise  still  go  a-digging) — gold,  silver,  precious 
stones,  silver  candlesticks,  gold  bars  and  dust — and  con- 
fided his  secret  to  Lord  John  Gardiner  (third  proprietor), 
declaring  that  Gardiner  was  welcome  to  the  treasure  if  he 
never  returned,  but  if  he  ever  called  and  found  it  missing, 
he  would  take  his  head  or  his  son's. 

The  Earl  of  Bellomont  sent  an  express  to  Lord  Gardiner 
to  deliver  at  Boston  the  treasure  of  "the  sloop  Antonio^ 
Capt.  Kidd,  late  commander,  for  the  King's  use. "  Gardiner 
delivered  the  treasure  to  appointed  Boston  dignitaries, — ■ 
Samuel  Sewall,  Nathaniel  Byfield,  Jeremiah  Dummer,  and 
Andrew^  Belcher.  This  ended  the  Kidd  episode,  but  less 
considerate  pirates  attacked  Gardiner's  Isle,  slashing  the 
proprietor's  hands  with  sabres,  and  Lady  (Allyn)  Gardiner 
seized  her  silver  tankard  and  fled  to  her  maiden  home  in 
Hartford. 

friend,  but  a  father,  in  giveing  us  monie  and  goods,  whereby  we  defended 
ourselves  and  ransomed  my  daughter  and  friends  .  .  .  we  haveing 
nothing  left  that  is  worth  his  acceptance  but  a  small  tract  of  land  which 
we  desire  him  to  accept  of  for  himself,  his  heires — forever."  Signed  by 
Wyandanch,  his  mark, — an  Indian  shaking  hands  with  a  white  man. 

1  The  Kidd  pitcher  of  Indian  sweetmeats  has  descended  through  the 
Mumfords,  Saltonstalls,  Thatchers,  Christophers  to  Mrs.  H.  Fairfield 
Osborn  of  New  York  from  Lucretia  Alumford  Perry  of  New  London,  Conn. 


EAST  HAMPTON. 

During  the  Revolution  Gardiner's  Bay,  now  a  famous 
roadstead  and  favorite  practice-ground  for  school-ships, 
was  the  pleasant  retreat  of  a  British  fleet  under  Vice- 
Admiral  Arbuthnot.  They  feasted  on  the  rich  pi  escribes 
of  Gardiner's  Island,  and  the  marks  of  dollars  which  they 
pitched  for  recreation  are  yet  on  the  floors  of  the  dining-room 
of  the  Manor. 

Their  depredations  would  have  resulted  far  more  seriously, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  tact  of  Parson  Buell,  father  of  the 
"Lady  of  the  Manor,"  who  invited  the  Britons  to  dine^ 
went  gunning  with  them,  and  accepted  invitations  on  the 
flag-ship,  the  Royal  Oak}  "Old  Rebel,"  the  young  officers 
called  him. 

Sir  William  Erskine,  who  commanded  the  post,  remarked 
one  Saturday  to  Dr.  Buell  that  he  had  ordered  the  men  of 
the  parish  to  appear  on  the  morrow  with  their  teams  at 
Southampton.  "Ah,  yes,  I  am  aware  of  it;  but  I  am 
commander-in-chief  on  Sunday,  and  have  annulled  your 
orders."  General  Erskine  graciously  revoked  the  order. 
General  Erskine  said  that,  after  the  war,  he  should  build 
a  country-seat  in  "the  garden  spot  of  America" — in  the 
rare  old  town  of  East  Hampton. 

''Down  on  the  shore,   the  sunny  shore! 
Where  the  salt  smell  fills  the  land. " 

Among  the  officers  billeted  at  Colonel  Abram  Gardiner's, 
East  Hampton,  were  Lord  Percy,  Governor  Try  on,  Lord 
Cathcart,  and  Major  Andre,  who  was  much  beloved,  and 
the  wine-glass  exchanged  by  Major  Andre  with  Colonel 
Gardiner  is  still  treasured. 


>  Memorandum  of  Lion  Gardiner. 

86 


A  Gardiner  Homestead  87 

A  son  of  the  house,  Dr.  Nathaniel  Gardiner  of  the  Con- 
tinental Army,  came  home  in  disguise,  on  leave  of  absence. 
After  "  Dr.  Nat "  returned  to  his  post  Andre  quietly  remarked 
that  he  would  have  been  pleased  to  have  made  that  young 
man's  acquaintance,  but  as  a  British  officer,  his  duty  would 
have  compelled  him  to  arrest  him  as  a  spy.  ^  It  is  said  that 
Dr.  Nathaniel  Gardiner  was  ordered  to  attend  Major  Andre 
at  Tappan  the  night  before  his  execution. 

Colonel  Gardiner's  grandson  David  was  one  of  the  Presi- 
dent's party  accidentally  killed  on  the  frigate  Princeton  in 
1844.  His  daughter  married  President  Tyler.  2  Their 
engagement  had  been  a  profound  secret.  After  the  wedding 
breakfast,  served  at  the  Gardiner  mansion  in  Lafayette 
Place,  the  bride  and  o;room  drove  down  Broadwav  behind 
four  white  horses  and  embarked  on  a  ship  of  war. 

Many  besides  Gen.  Erskine  have  been  infatuated  with 
this  "love  of  a  place."  Pudding  Hill  is  occupied  by  a 
beautiful  summer  home,  and  Thomas  Moran  set  his 
studio  among  the  honeysuckles;  St.  John  Harper  chose  the 
Amagansett  Road,  the  Albert  Herters,  the  old  Bridge- 
hampton  road,  close  to  Georgica,  a  lake  enchanting. 

East  Hampton's  shining  literary  days  began  with  Lyman 
Beecher,  Cornelia  Huntington,  and  General  Jeremiah  Miller. 

It  was  an  event  in  carpetless  East  Hampton  when  Mrs. 
Beecher  covered  the  usual  sanded  floor  with  a  carpet  for 
which  she  spun  the  cotton  and  painted  a  border  in  oils 
with  bunches  of  roses.     Old  Deacon  Tallmadge  came  to  see 

1  "The  Manor  of  Gardiner's  Island,"  by  Martha  J.  Lamb,  American 
JSIagazine  of  History. 

2  The  Gardiners  have  intermarried  with  Van  Cortlands,  Van  Rens- 
selaers,  Livingstons,  and  Beekmans  of  Xew  York,  the  Smiths  of  St.  George's 
Manor,  the  Floyds,  Thompsons,  Sylvesters,  Xicolls  of  Long  Island,  the 
Greenes  of  Boston,  and  the  Conklings.  George  Bancroft  was  a  descendant 
and  Gardiner  Greene  Hubbard,  past  px^esident  of  the  American  Geo- 
graphical Society. 


88 


Fire-Place,  Long  Island 


Mr.  Beecher  and  seemed  afraid  to  come  in.  He  stopped  at 
the  parlor  door.  "  'Walk  in,  Deacon,  walk  in." — 'Why,  I 
can't,'  said  he,  '  'thout  steppin'  on 't. '  Then,  after  sur- 
ve34ng  it  awhile  in  admiration,  'D'ye  think  ye  can  have 
all  that,  and  heaven  iooT  "  ^ 

A  sermon  on  Duelling,  following  the  duel  of  Hamilton 
and  Burr,  made  Lyman  Beecher  famous;  he  tried  it  first 
on  his  people  at  the  hamlets  of  Amagansett  and  Alontauk 
and  finally  sent  it  over  to  Gardiner's  Island  to  be  criticised 
by  John  Lyon  Gardiner,  his  literary  parishioner,  before 
publication.  On  the  return  it  was  dropped  into  the  water 
from  the  sailor's  pea-jacket  pocket  and  miraculously  tossed 
up  on  shore  above  high-water  mark  and  quite  dry,  being 
wound  with  yam.  The  picturesque  custom  was  to  light  a 
seaweed  fire  at  Fire-Place,  the  point  nearest  Gardiner's 
Island,  as  a  signal  to  the  skiff  of  the  Manor  that  visitors 
wished  to  wait  on  Lord  Gardiner. 

1  Autobiography  of  Lyman  Beecher. 


OYSTERS    SET    ON    SHELLS    ON     NATURAL    BED. 


SAG    HARBOR. 

The  first  newspaper  on  Long  Island  was  printed  at  Sag" 
Harbor — Frothingham  s  Long  Island  Herald, — with  the 
prelude . 

''Eye  Nature  s  walks,  shoot  folly  as  it  flies, 
And  catch  the  manner's  living  as  they  rise. " 

Its  columns  are  etchings  of  the  times:  ''To  be  Sold. 
A  valuable  wench  in  her  19th  year.  She  is  very  active 
and  understands  the  whole  business  of  a  kitchen.  En- 
quire of  the  Rev.  Zachariah  Greene  of  Southold  "  (1792). 
"  Strayed,  a  lame  geese,  one  wing  cut.  Benjamin  Nicoll,. 
Shelter  Island." 

A  poor  printer  of  Boston,  David  Frothingham,  of  the 
aristocratic  family  whose  daughters  were  declared  "the 
beauties  of  Charlestown, "  settled  at  Sag  Harbor,  after 
running  away  with  Nancy  Pell,  a  daughter  of  Pelham 
Manor  ;  he  was  finally  lost  at  sea. 

Lieutenant  Daniel  Fordham  and  nearly  all  the  2nd 
Regiment  of  the  minute-men  of  76,  who  fought  in  the  battle 
of  Long  Island,  were  "raised  in  Sag  Harbor.  "  ^  The  Ford- 
ham  family  purchased  many  acres  of  the  Indians  at  Hemp- 
stead. Sloop  Polly,  Captain  Nathan  Fordham,  plied 
between  Sag  Harbor  and  Albany.  The  valuable  Indian 
implements  picked  up  in  the  Hamptons  by  Mr.  William 
Wallace  Tooker  the  Indianologist  ^  are  the  property  of  the 
Brooklyn    Institute.     He   recently   acquired   at    Barcelona 

1  An  Island  Heroine:  A  Romance  of  Long  Island,  by  Mary  Breck 
Sleight  of  Sag  Harbor. 

2  ^Ir.  Tooker's  interesting  "Aboriginal  Terms  for  Long  Island,"  "The 
country  of  the  ear-shell,  "  may  be  found  in  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  Almanac, 

89 


o 


Southold,  Long  Island  91 

Beach  a  peculiar  semi-lunar  Algonquin  knife,  called  by  the 
Esquimaux,  Uloo. 

Steaming  slowly  away  from  Sag  Harbor  in  late  afternoon, 
glancing  backward  across  the  pretty  North  Haven  bridge, 
the  Shinnecock  Hills  become  violet  as  evening  approaches. 
Sailing  on  through  Shelter  Island  vSound  over  "  the  large 
inland  sea,  adorned  with  divers  fair  havens  and  bays  and 
fit  for  all  sorts  of  craft,"  as  said  Cornelius  Van  Tienhoven 
in  1650,  a  landing  is  made  at  Southold,  and  you  catch  an 
enticing  glimpse  of  the  village  up  Town  Creek,  one  of  the 
pretty  inlets  which  attracted  settlers  when  Southold  became 
a  part  of  the  New  Haven  Colony. 

On  the  final  relinquishment  of  Long  Island  by  the  Dutch, 
there  was  a  landing  of  ceremony  at  Southold.  From  across 
the  Bay  ''where  five  hundred  ships  may  safely  ride  abreast" 
approached  the  skiff  with  the  "Keneticut"  Commissioners, 
Ex-Governor  Wyllys  and  Fitz  John  Winthrop,  the  English 
flag  astern,  followed  by  the  Dutch  in  a  barge  manned  by 
the  colored  servants  from  Sylvester  Manor,  both  nations 
having  been  entertained  over  night  on  Shelter  Island. 

There  are  a  few  homesteads  standing  in  Southold — 
Colonel  John  Young's  of  1650,  and  those  of  the  Benjamin 
L'Hommedieu  and  Boisseau  famihes.  The  monument 
to  the  Founders  stands  on  the  site  of  the  first  meeting-house 
in  the  oldest  burying-ground  on  Eastern  Long  Island.  An 
interesting  coincidence  of  the  250th  anniversary  celebration 
was  the  delivery  of  the  oration  by  the  Rev.  Richard  Salter 
Storrs,  of  Brooklyn,  in  honor  of  the  town  and  church  of  his 
ancestor,  the  Rev.  John  Storrs. 

In  walking  about  the  delightful  little  seaport  of  Green- 
port  among  the  boat-builders,  you  question  which  is  of  the 
more  intense  blue,  the  sea  or  the  sky.  When  Greenport 
was  Sterling,  Colonel  George  Washington  stopped  on  his 
road  to  Newport, in  1757, at  Lieutenant  Booth's  Inn  standing 


92 


Greenport,  Long  Island 


on  Sterling  Lane.  His  servant  announced  his  boat,  and 
Washington,  with  much  grace,  took  each  lady  by  the  hand, 
saluted  her  with  a  kiss,  gravely  asked  their  prayers,  and 
bade  them  an  affectionate  adieu.  This  was  related  by 
^liss  Havens,  one  of  the  Greenport  young  ladies.  Before 
"Ye  Clark  House"  hangs  the  original  sign  and  quite  after 
the  fashion  of  a  quaint,  delicious  English  country  inn  it  is. 
Greenport  is  as  famous  for  its  exportation  of  o^^sters  to 
Liverpool,  as  Orient  for  perfect  potatoes. 


TOWN  CREEK,  SOUTHOLD,  L.   I. 


SOUTHAMPTON,  1640 

The  pioneers  who  inarched  through  Southampton  forest, 
and  stopped  at  the  Old  Town  Pond,  were  from  Massachu- 
setts; and  the  Bay  Colony  became  so  infatuated  with  the 
soft  climate  (by  virtue  of  which  the  inhabitants  of  Eastern 
Long  Island  attain  fivescore  years),  that  a  vessel  sailed 
regularly  between  Lynn  and  Conscience  Point,  Southampton. 
Governor  Winthrop  himself  voyaged  around  Long  Island 
in  the  Blessing  of  the  Bay.  If  Southampton  were  beauti- 
ful then,  it  is  surpassingly  so  now,  for  the  fresh-water  lake, 
Agawam,  close  to  the  roll  of  old  ocean,  is  bordered  by  green 
lawns  of  tasteful  homes ;  white  skiffs  skim  the  blue  surface ; 
a  protecting  sand-bar  shines  between  the  shore  road  and  the 
salt  surf;  the  lo\ely  church,  St.  Andrew's  by  the  Sea,  is  hard 
by;  a  life-saving  station  recalls  wintry  perils  in  contrast 
to  the  Meadow  Club  House,  centre  of  serene  summer  pleasure. 
Along  these  superb  Long  Island  beaches,  some  fifty  years 
ago,  were  little  whaling  huts,  and  whale-boats  on  wagon 
wheels,  ready  to  man  at  a  moment's  notice. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  mention  the  families  of  dis- 
tinction from  New  York  whose  leisure  days  are  spent  by 
Southampton  Beach,  circling  Agawam  Lake,  and  about  its 
sequestered  Hampton  Park,  on  the  way  to  North  Sea. 

A  few  quaint  roofs,  the  Presbyterian  Church,  built  in 
1707,  and  Wind  Mill  Lane  show  the  antiquity  of  Southamp- 
ton; the  homesteads  of  the  day  of  Rev.  Abraham  Pierson^ 
and  Rev.  Robert  Fordham,  built  facing  the  south,  or  the 
beach,  have  been  turned  to  the  main  street,  except  the 
Job  Say  re  house,  after  whom  Job's  Lane  was  named. 

The  little  village  of  Water  Mill  has  its  story  and  Canoe 

1  First  minister  of  Southampton  and  first  rector  of  Yale. 

93 


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An  Ideal  Art-Villao^e 


95 


Place,  the  narrowest  path  between  Shinnecock  and  Peconic 
Bays,  where  the  Indians  carried  their  canoes  across.  In 
this  region  is  a  canal  prehistoric  to  the  white  man,  cut  by 
Mongotucksee,  great  chief. 

Unique  among  the  airy  Shinnecock  Hills,  an  ideal  art- 
village  was  originated  by  Airs.  Hoyt,  somewhat  after  the 
French  fashion,  yet  truly  American,  and  with  enthusiastic 
fervor  the  students  paint  moorlands,  meadows,  sand-dunes, 
woods,  and  tangled  rushes  of  Long  Island,  boats  stranded 
on  sunset  marshes  and  beached  on  its  bays;  also  the  gray 
huts  and  life  of  the  Indian  Reservation,  for  which  Mr. 
William  M.  Chase,  as  instructor-in-chief,  obtained  the 
privilege. 


The  Manor  of  Shelter  Island,  New  York. 
The  Horsford  Summer  Residence. 


SHELTER  ISLAND 

There  was  a  young  poet  of  Orient  who  spoke  of  his 
native  shore  on  one  prong  of  Long  Island  as  "enchanted 
ground,"  and  truly  on  an  enchanted  sea  floats  the  bewitch- 
ing isle,  Manhansack  Ahaquashuwamock,  being  translated 
"the  island  sheltered  by  islands,"  hence  Shelter  Island; 
between  ^lontauk  and  Oyster  Ponds  (Orient)  it  lies  like 
a  pearl  clasped  by  its  Long  Island  shell. 

The  founding  of  an  historic  house  on  Shelter  Island  by 
Nathaniel  Sylvester  carne  about  during  the  trying  Cromwell 
epoch  when  certain  English  estates  were  confiscated,  and 
their  owners,  loyal  to  the  King,  took  refuge  in  Holland  and 
then  purchased  land  in  America. 

Shelter  Island  was  sold  to  the  Sylvesters  by  Deputy- 
Governor  Goodyear  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  for  1600 
pounds  of  "good  merchantable  muscovada  sugar."  About 
this  time  Parliament  issued  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of 
Thomas  Brinley,  auditor  of  the  king  and  much  loA'cd  and 
trusted  by  the  royal  family ;  to  his  ancestral  home  in  Stafford- 
shire Charles  II.  had  fled  after  his  defeat  and  he  was  obhg^ed 
to  live  in  exile.  His  lov^ely  daughter,  Grissell,  a  girl  of 
sixteen,  was  immediately  claimed  by  her  affianced  one. 
Nathaniel  Sylvester,  and  they  took  passage  on  the  Swallow 
accompanied  by  Governor  William  Coddington  and  his 
bride,  Anne  Brinley,  and  Francis  Brinley,  her  brother, 
founder  of  the  Brinley  family  in  America.  In  a  terrible 
storm  off  Newport  the  vessel  was  wrecked  and  priceless 
heirlooms  devoured  by  the  greedy  sea.  The  bridal  pair 
escaped  to  live  happily  in  their  beautiful  Manor  adorned 
with  scriptural  Holland  tiles  and  doors  from  Barbadoes, 
(the  new  home  of  a  brother.   Constant  Sylvester)       The 

96 


The  Manor  of  the  Sylvesters  97 

scented  ''box"  which  they  planted  grew  tall  and  precious 
as  years  rolled  on  and  when  the  writer  visited  the  garden 
a  few  years  ago  was  still  superb  after  two  hundred  and 
fifty  vears,  probably  the  oldest  box  on  the  continent.^ 

Much  friendly  intercourse  took  place  with  their  neighbors, 
the  Winthrops  on  Fisher's  Island,  and  a  pathetic  paragraph 
from  Sylvester  begs  advice  because  the  baby  is  sick 
and  in  danger  of  strangling,  "  and  here  we  are  quite  out  of 
ye  way  of  help.  "  Winthrop  was  presented  with  a  hogshead 
of  sugar  by  Constant  Sylvester,  the  brother  at  Barbadoes. 
The  sugar  business  was  very  lucrative  and  timber  for  hogs- 
heads was  furnished  from  Shelter  Island. 

Brinley  Sylvester  caused  the  present  mansion-house 
with  its  avenue  of  cherry  trees  to  be  ornamented  with 
elaborate  carvings.  On  the  death  of  his  grandson,  General 
Sylvester  Bering,  it  was  purchased  by  Ezra  L'Hommedieu, 
and  inherited  by  Professor  Eben  Norton  Horsford  of  the 
L'Hommedieu  line. 

It  appears  that  by  chance  an  exiled  Huguenot,  Benjamin 
L'Hommedieu,  settled  at  Southold,  where  the  Sylvesters 
attended  worship ;  one  day  he  saw  approaching  two  beautiful 
girls,  Patience  and  Grissell  Sylvester,  in  a  canopied  barge 
rowed  by  six  colored  servants.  His  heart  was  lost  at  first 
sight  to  Miss  Patience,  who  became  Mrs.  L'Hommedieu. 
Quite  as  romantic  was  the  sad  parting  at  the  old  stone 
bridge  of  Grissell  Sylvester  with  her  fiance,  Latimer  Samp- 
son, proprietor  of  the  estate  known  of  late  years  as  Lloyd's 
Xeck.  He  went  south  to  die,  leaving  his  property  to 
Grissell,  who  married  James  Lloyd-  of  Boston. 

Nathaniel    Sylvester    bequeathed    Sachem's    Neck    to    a 

>'"The  Manor  of  Shelter  Island,"  by  Martha  J.  Lamb,  Magazine  of 
American  History,  vol.  xviii. 

2 Descendants  are  the  Hillhouses  and  Woolseys  of  Xew  Haven,  Living- 
stons, Onderdoncks,  and  Brownes  of  Xew  York. 


gS      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

friend,  William  Nicoll,^  a  patentee  of  Islip,  who  married  a 
Van  Rensselaer. 

The  ancient  landing-place  of  Sylvester  Manor  has  borne 
its  part  in  the  family  history.  One  may  imagine  the  wel- 
come of  the  Quaker  exiles,  George  Fox  and  the  persecuted 
South  wicks,  harbored  and  consoled  by  the  Sylvesters.  At 
these  steps,  worn  by  many  feet,  were  received  Governor 
Dongan,  also  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  and  if  you  wish  to  know 
how  many  meetings  and  partings  of  lovers  they  have  seen 
go  and  ask  the  babbling  tide,  the  steps  will  never  tell.  A 
haunted  mirror  in  the  guest-chamber  is  said  to  reflect  at 
midnight  some  fair  lady's  image  of  "  auld  lang  syne.  " 

Other  famihes  of  Shelter  Island  have  been  noted  for 
hospitality:  the  Nicolls,  Derings,  and  Havens;  but  Shelter 
Islanders  loved  not  invaders.  When  the  pigs  were  about 
ready  to  kill  the  British  chose  Shelter  Island  for  a  foraging 
expedition.  The  burning  question  w^as  how  could  the  pigs 
be  concealed,  for  pigs  ivill  squeal,  and  the  ladies 'had  before 
seen  pigs  strung  at  the  yard-arm.  A  witty  dame  concocted 
the  brilliant  idea  of  ripping  up  the  feather  beds  and  sewing 
in  the  pigs,  and  these  went  comfortably  to  sleep  while  the 
troops  searched  the  house,  thus  preserving  the  winter's 
bacon. 

Veritably,  Long  Island  is  a  long  romance.  Its  western 
end  shared  closely  in  the  social  life  of  early  New  York. 
There  were  the  gay  "  bride-visitings  "  from  one  country  house 
to  another, 2  and  the  most  delightful  balls  and  routs.  Wash- 
ington himself  regretted  the  snow-storm  which  prevented 
a  dance,  because  there  were  only  two  chariots  in  New  York. 
Picture  the  gallants  in  sheer  ruflles  and  small-clothes  aglint. 

'The  Xicoll  inheritance  is  the  W.  K.  Vanderbilt,  Jr.,  estate,  "Idle 
Hour." 

2  The  Story  of  a  New  York  House,  by  H.  C.  Bunner,  Charles  Scribners" 
Sons. 


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loo    Old  Paths  of  the  New  EnHand  Border 


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with  diamond  buckles  leading  with  formal  grace  through 
the  cotillion  these  statuesque  dames,  who  wore  their  brocades 
and  filmy  laces  with  the  bearing  of  queens,  not  only  because 
of  the  aristocracy  of  culture,  but  on  account  of  a  judicious 
application  of  the  backboard  in  girlhood. 

There  was  a  pretty  hvide-taking  from  Long  Island.  It  so 
happened  that  Walter  Franklin,  ^  a  man  of  fortune,  was 
riding  in  his  chariot  on  an  excursion  through  Long  Island, 
when  he  caught  sight  of  a  maid  milking  cows  in  a  barn-yard. 
He  asked  her  who  occupied  the  house.  With  great  sim- 
pUcity,  she  replied,  "My  father,  Daniel  Bowne;  wilt  thou 
not  alight  and  take  tea  with  him?"  The  invitation  was 
accepted,  and  after  three  visits  he  asked  her  in  marriage. 
So  the  Quaker  milkmaid  rolled  away  to  take  possession  of 
the  most  elegant  house  in  the  city,  on  Cherry  Street,  near 
Pearl.  Her  daughters  swerved  from  Quakerism,  and  became 
fashionable  belles.     One  married  De  Witt  Clinton. 

1  Uncle  of  Rear-Admiral  S.  R.  Franklin  and  General  Franklin.  From 
Memoirs  of  a  Rear-Admiral.     Copyright  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


GUILFORD,  1639 


Omne  tiilit  piinctiim  qui  miscuit  utile  dulci. 
He  makes  a  good  breakfast  who  mixes  pudding  with  molasses. 

I  sing  the  sweets  I  know,  the  charms  1  feel, 
^ly  morning  incense,  and  my  evening  meal, 
The  sweets  of  Hasty-Pudding. 

Some  talk   of   Hoe-cake,   fair   Virginia's  pride. 
Rich  J ohnny-cake ,   this   mouth  has  often  tri'd, 
Both  please  me  well,  their  virtue  much  the  same. 
Alike  their  fabric,  as  allied  their  fame, 
Except  in  dear  New  England,  where  the  last 
Receives  a  dash  of  pumpkin 

But  place  them  all  before  me  smoaking  hot. 
The  big  round  dumplin   rolling  from  the  pot: 
You  tempt  me  not — my  favorite  greets  my  eyes. 
To  that  loved  boivl  my  spoon  by  instinct  flies. 

The  Hasty-Pudding,  by  Joel  Barlow,  the  "Hartford 
Wit."     Written  at  Savoy,  1793. 


UILFORD  is  to-day  your  goal 
out  of  New  York.  Along- 
shore you  have  had  fleeting 
ghtnpses,  ever  since  you  sped 
out  of  Stamford,  of  garabrel 
roofs  and  lean-tos  in  Old 
Fairfield  and  Stratford  and 
Milford  ;  yet,  as  the  train 
steams  on  east,  lea\4ng  you 
to  saunter  up  Whitfield 
Street  into  the  heart  of  Guil- 
ford, you  are  surprised  to  be 
apparently  transplanted 
backward  into  the  seven- 
teenth century ;  you  instinct- 


lOI 


I02     Old  Paths  of  the  New  Eno^land  Border 


iveh^  look  around  for  some  lady  mounted  on  a  pillion 
behind  her  squire  to  alight  at  the  Old  Stone  House,  assisted 
by  an  expectant  cavalier  in  steeple-crown  and  rapier,  or 
expect  at  least  to  meet  in  Petticoat  Lane  a  yellow  chaise. 
How  oddly  certain  houses  skew  comerwise  to  the  street,  each 
built  by  compass  to  face  the  east.     These  old  houses  form 


The  Grace  Starr  House  built  in  1687  on  Crooked  Lane,  otherwise  State  St., 

Gniljord. 

the  meridian  line  or  noon-mark  "and  every  urchin  on  the 
lane  can  tell  the  dinner-hour  by  watching  for  the  dead  line 
which  at  twelve  o'clock  crosses  the  street  like  a  scissors- 
blade." 

There  is  a  wedding  to-day  in  the  Stone  House,  the  first 
in  New  Haven  Colony;  the  teacher,  young  Master  Higginson, 


The  Men  of  Kent  103 

is  to  wed  Parson  Whitfield's  daughter  Sally,  and  the  merry 
board  is  set  forth  with  rye  bread,  pork,  and  peas. 

Sara  Whitfield  has  a  fair  dowry  and  setting  up,  for  Colonel 
Fenwick  of  Saybrook  gave  the  lands  of  Hammonasset,  which 
he  bought  of  Uncas,  to  Guilford  only  on  condition  that  his 
friend  Mr.  Whitfield  should  have  a  large  slice.  Lady  Alice 
Fenwick  also  had  presented  Master  Higginson,  her  fellow- 
passenger  and  sometime  chaplain  at  Fort  Saybrook, ^  with 
several  valuable  cows  which  she  brought  over  from 
home. 

Her  passage  was  taken  on  a  pilgrim  ship  of  great  im- 
portance to  the  Colony  for  the  St.  John  of  London,  Captain 
Richard  Russell,  sailed  direct  to  Quinipiac  bringing  Mr. 
Whitfield  and  many  men  of  learning  and  means  from  Kent 
and  Sussex,  quite  as  disaffected  with  the  government  and 
Star  Chamber  as  Davenport  who  writes  to  Lady  Vere  Sept. 
28,  1639 :  "  my  deare  child  is  safely  arrived  with  sundry  desir- 
able friends — such  as  Mr.  Femvick  and  his  lady,  to  our  great 
comfort.  Their  provision  at  sea  held  good  to  the  last — we 
sent  a  pinnis  to  pilot  them  to  our  harbor,  for  it  was  the  first 
ship  that  ever  cast  anchor  in  this  place.  The  sight  of  ye 
harbor  did  so  please  ye  captain  of  the  ship  and  all  the  Pas- 
sengers that  he  called  it  Fay  re  Haven."  It  is  said  that  these 
passengers,  many  of  vv'hom  were  younger  sons,  and  became 
world-renowned,  were  put  to  great  expense  to  procure  a 
blacksmith  for  their  new^  town,  for  "there  w^as  not  a  mer- 
chant or  mechanic  among  them."  They  chose  a  place, 
Menunkatuck,    about   sixteen   miles  easterly  from  "  Quilli- 

1  The  Rev.  John  Higginson  succeeded  the  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield  in 
Guilford  and  then  sailed  for  England,  but  was  driven  by  adverse  winds 
into  Salem  harbor,  the  chosen  home  of  the  famous  pioneer,  Francis  Higgin- 
son— previously  Vicar  of  Claybrook  Church,  Leicester. — where  his  father's 
people  persuaded  him  to  remain.  He  succeeded  the  Rev.  Hugh  Peters, 
who  had  returned  to  England  only  to  be  tried  at  the  "Old  Bailey,"  and 
sentenced  "to  be  hung,  drawn,  and  quartered  for  treason.  " 


I04    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


piack"  (New  Haven),  lying  between  Ruttawoo  (East  River) 
and   Agicomick  (Stony  Creek),  "and  there  set  down." 

The  long-since-departed  early  companions  of  Whitfield's 
house  were  the  homes  of  Governor  Leete,  William  Chitten- 
den by  West  River,  Robert  Kitchel  on  the  corner  of  Petti- 
coat Lane,  and  that  of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  Desborough,i 
afterwards  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  of  Scotland  under  the 
Lord  Protector.     John  Hoadley,  one  of  the  "seven  pillars" 


The  Samuel  Hubbard  House   (i/'i/)   on  the  home-lot  of    Jacob  Sheaffe, 
Broad  St.,  residence  of  John  B.  Hubbard,  Esq. 

of  Guilford,  became  chaplain  of  Cromwell's  garrison  in 
Edinburgh  castle;  Guilford  appears  more  nearly  linked  to 
events  under  which  the  Protectorate  evolved  itself,  than 
any  tovrn  of  the  new  colonies.  Henry  Whitfield  himself, 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  clergymen  that  came  to  Connecti- 
cut, driven  by  the  bitter  persecution  of  Archbishop  Laud, 
relinquished  a  rich  living  at  Ockley  in  Surrey  where  his 

1  The  other  "deed  signers"  were  John  Bishop  and  John  Caffinge.     The 
Kitchels  founded  Newark,  X.  J.,  with  Abraham  Pierson  and  his  Branford 


The  Stone  homestead  {residence  of 
Miss  Anna  M.  Stone)  built  tn  1740 
on  the  site  of  Governor  Leete's  house; 
in  his  barn,  tradition  says,  the  Regi- 
cides or  ''Judges"  lay  concealed. 
Opposite  is  the  Simeon  Chittenden 
homestead,  "Cra^tbrook,"  on  the 
home-lot  of  William  Chittenden, 
a  founder  of  Guilford  and  native  of 
Cranbrook  in  Kent;  the  estate  is 
the  summer  home  of  Simeon  Bald- 
win Chittenden,  Esq. 


Sea-Holly  or  Marshmallow  on  the  banks  of  West  River. 


105 


io6     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

house  concealed  such  persecuted  men  as  Cotton,  Hooker, 
Nye,  and  Davenport;  the  climax  arrived  when  Whitfield 
refused  to  read  from  the  Book  of  Sports.  The  exodus  of 
non-conformists  would  have  come  about  seven  years  earlier 
had  not  Laud's  predecessor  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
George  Abbot,  exercised  sympathetic  leniency  to  the  clergy 
of  Puritan  leanings. 

Mr,  Henry  Robinson  says  that  "  Guilford  was  born  with 
a  book  in  her  hand,"^  the  founder  AVhitfield  having  pub- 

LANDMARKS:    The    First    Church       ^^^'^^^  ^  SCCOUd  edition  of  a  "little 

<i83o);  f.rst  building  erected  1643,     buudlc  of  scrmoncttcs  dedicated 

first  tower  clock   in  America,  1726.  1      t~» 

(Historical   sermon    by    Rev.    F.    E.        tO     Lord     BrOOkc,     full     of     quaint 

Snowon-'TheOldMeeting-Housesof  ^OUCCitS  Or  pOCSicS.  "  And  this 
First  Church,        Religious  Herald,  '  ^ 

Jan.   26,   1899.)    The   Old  Stone     was  iu  the  day  of   Shakcspcarc, 

House    built    by    the    Rev.    Henry        -iir*ij_  1  t-»  t 

Whitfield,   1639,  property  of  the     Mutou,    and    rare    Ben     Jonson. 

state  of  Connecticut.  Contains  mu-  ^^hcn  Whitfield  rctumcd  frOm 
■spum    of   antiquities.     On    the    land 

apportioned     to     the     Rev.     John  NcW    England    hc  WrotC    his    plea 

Higginson     stood      the     homestead  ,         -r»i*                j_c  ti*                ur 

of  the  son  of  the  apostle  Eliot,  Rev.     ^^  Parliament  for  ludians,      for 

Joseph     ElUott,     who     married     a        thc  gOOd    of  the   SOUls   of  the   pOOr 

daughter  of  Governor  Brenton,  and,  . 

2d,    Mary,    daughter     of     Governor       wild     CrcaturCS         .         .         .         gOlUg 

pTJ^S/'o^'EdwarfEUofThJ  "P  ^nd  downe  with  the  chains 
present  house  was  built  (1726)  for     of   darkncssc   at   their  hccls. " 

Abiel  EUot  who  married  Mary  Leete, 

great-granddaughter  of  Gov.  Leete.  Benjamin  Franklin  purchased 

Their       granddaughter       was       the  •'  ^ 

mother  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck.     In  fifty  COpicS   of   the    first    essav    of 

this  house  is  an  Eliot  "Court-  ^.^^  ^^^^  .^^  p.^-^^  ^^  Guilford 
cupboard         rare.         The      Green-  ^ 

ChariesFowier  house  (1735).  Major  and  KiUingworth  [present  Clin- 

foUowers.  William  Chittenden  was  known  as  Lieutenant,  fought  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  was  an  ancestor  of  Governor  Thomas  Chittenden  of 
Vermont  and  the  Hon.  Simeon  Baldwin  Chittenden,  representative  to 
Congress.  Jacob  Sheaffe,  a  grandson  of  the  Canon  of  Windsor,  William 
Wilson,  and  one  of  the  "seven  pillars  "  of  Guilford  Church,  sold  his  rights 
and  established  a  notable  homestead  in  Boston.  Jacob  Sheaffe  of  Boston 
purchased  the  old  Went  worth  Mansion  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  for  his 
daughter  Xancy,  the  wife  of  Charles  Cushing. 

1  Gutlford  and  Madison  in  Literature,  by  Henry  P.  Robinson  of  Guilford, 
a  descendant  of  Thomas  Robinson,  1666,  and  the  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield. 


Guilford  Homesteads 


107 


Lathrop-Ralph      D.     Smyth      house 
on     house-lot     of     Thomas    Jones, 
pioneer.     Christ  Church  was  organ- 
ized   at    the    WiUiam    Ward    house, 
near     present     residence     of     Miss 
Annette    Fowler    facing    the   Green; 
Broad  Street.  Timothy  Stone  house 
(1740).  Daniel  Hubbard  house(i7i7) ; 
residence     of     John     B.     Hubbard. 
Tattle    house     (1781),    property    of 
Miss     Clara     I.     Sage.     Chittenden 
homestead.     Samuel      Desborough's 
home-lot      on      "Mr.     Desbrough's 
Lane"     (Water    St.),   purchased    by 
Dr.  Bryan  Rossiter,    1651;    William 
Dudley  residence.     Fair  Street :  Rus- 
sell-Frisbie      house,      residence      of 
Benjamin    C.    West.     Davis    house 
(1759).     Grifiing     house,     residence 
Henry       Eliot,      and      Mrs.      Sarah 
Fowler.     Birthplace      of     Frederick 
A.  Grifhng,  a  leading  founder  of  the 
New  Haven  &  New  London  Railroad; 
its    first    President    and    associated 
for     many     years      with     John     I. 
Blair  of  New  Jersey  in  the  building 
of    western    railroads;    the    largest 
business  man  Guilford  has  produced. 
Johnson    house    (1746).     Birthplace 
Samuel  Johnson,  Jr.     Stewart  Fris- 
bee    house,    residence    Edward    M. 
Leete.     Guilford  Institute  and  High 
School.     Gift     of     Mrs.     Nathaniel 
Grifiing.     York  Street:  Samuel  Rob- 
inson    homestead    (1752).     Shelley- 
W.  N,  Norton  house  (1775).     West 
Side :      Dr.      Sproat-Spencer     house 
(1700),    famous    button-ball     trees. 
State    Street:     On     Henry     Doude 
home-lot,     Anne     Kimberly-Benton 
house     (1740).     Titus    Hall    home- 
stead (1696).    Comfort  Starr  home- 
stead   (1764);    home    of    the    Seven 
Starrs,  Saven  Sisters.     Philo  Bishop 
house  (1671).     Union  Street:  Kim- 
berly    homestead    (1732) .     Collins- 
Cook  house   (1700).     Boston  Street: 
Loyzelle-Burgis-Morse  house.    Cald- 
well-Lathrop  house   (1760),  whence 
descended  a  branch  of  the  L'Hom- 
medieus  of    Norwich   and   Lathrops 
of    New    York    and   New  Rochelle. 
Fiske-Wildman    homestead.     Clap- 
board    Hill    or    "Dudley   Heights." 
Justin    Dudley  house.     Alderbrook 


ton,   founded   by  Edward  Gris- 
wold,    who    came    from    Kenil- 
worth,  England].     Of  Guilford's 
shaking  meadows    Eliot  writes: 
"  I   began    last    Fall    (1747)    to 
drain  another  meadow  of  forty 
acres    up    in    Guilford    woods. 
This   was    a    shaking   meadow; 
a  man  standing  upon  it  might 
shake  the  ground  several  rods 
around    him.       It     seemed     to 
be  only  a  strong  sward  of  grass 
laid   over    a   soft    mud    of    the 
consistence  of  pan-cake  batter. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
the  shaking  meadows  have  been 
formerly  beaver  ponds 
I  was  pitied  as  being  about  to 
waste   a   great    deal    of   money 
.     I  ditched  it,  the  ditch 
serving   as    a    fence,    and    then 
sowed  red  clover,  foul  meadow 
grass,    English   spear  and   herd 
grass.     If    life    and    health    be 
continued,     I     design     to     try 
liquorice    roots,     barley,     Cape 
Breton    wheat,    cotton,    indigo 
seed  and  wood  for  dveine;  as, 
also    watermelon    seed,    which 
was  originally  from  Arch- Angel, 
in  Russia."     His  "darling  sub- 
ject" was  the  planting  of  mul- 
berry trees  for   silk   culture  in 
Guilford,     of     which     we     are 
reminded  in  "Mulberry  Farm," 
long   the   home    of    Eliots    and 
Footes. 


io8     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


Cemetery;  Fitz-Greene  Halleck's 
grave.  Moose  Hill:  General  Eli 
Fowler-Kelsey  house  (1760) .  Fow- 
ler homestead  (1765);  birthplace 
of  Sophia  Fowler,  a  deaf-mute,  the 
wife  of  Rev.  Thomas  Hopkins 
Gallaudet;  her  sons  were  Rev. 
Dr.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet,  pioneer 
in  the  instruction  of  deaf-mutes,  and 
P.  W.  Gallaudet  of  New  York  City 
and  Dr.  Edward  M.  Gallaudet. 
Nutplains:  John  Miles-Hall  house 
(1745),  residence  of  Dr.  N.  Gregory 
Hall.  Davis  homestead  (1646). 
Parmelee  house  (1750).  Evarts 
house  (1756).  Phelps  house  (1748). 
Sachem's  Head:  "Shaumpisheu 
Farm,  '  Guildford,  property  of  Mrs. 
Thomas  H.  Landon,  for  several  years 
summer  home  of  Bisho  i  Woodcock  of 
Kentucky.  Egleston  and  Crampton 
houses  on  Long  Hill  Road  to  North 
Guilford.  Whealen  house,  old 
road  to  North  Branford.  Hungry 
Hill,  Bluff's  Head.  Note:  It  is  im- 
possible to  mention  all  Guilford's 
houses.  There  are  at  least  84  Pre- 
Revolutionary  houses  in  Guilford 
and  46  in  East  Guilford  (present 
Madison)  and  13  in  North  Madison. 
Bassett  homestead  of  six  generations 
(1680). 

MADISON  :  The  five  most  an- 
cient houses  standing  in  the  pleas- 
ant town  of  Madison  are  the 
James  Meigs-Bishop  house  (1690), 
Boston  Street,  North  Bradley  home- 
stead, Hammonasset  (1680),  Deacon 
John  Grave  house  (1680),  residence 
of  Miss  Mary  E.  Redfield,  Captain 
Griffin-Scranton  house  (1759),  and 
the  Deacon  John  French-Captain 
Meigs  house  (1675).  The  Wilcox 
and  Watrous  houses  of  1770 
and  the  Hand  homestead  (1764). 
First  meeting-house  erected  1705, 
"between  John  Grave's  house  and 
Jonathan  Hoit's."  John  Grave  was 
chosen  to  beat  the  drum,  "for  twenty 
shiling  a  year." 


The  most  distinguished  pupil 
of  Jared  Ehot  was  Guilford's 
*' studie-man, "  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Johnson,  first  president  of  King's 
(later  Columbia)  College.  Bishop 
Berkeley  said  that  he  was  "  one 
of  the  finest  wits  in  America.  "^ 
' 'Through  him,"  says  Dr.  Andrews, 
in  his  History  of  Christ  Church, 
Guilford,  "came  about  the  ex- 
tended use  of  the  service  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  Connecticut, 
Samuel  Smithson,  of  ]\Iul  berry 
Point,  having  loaned  Dr.  John- 
son a  Prayer  Book,  one  of  the 
16  volumes  comprising  his  library. 
Johnson  was  called  by  President 
D wight  the  "father  of  Episco 
pacy"  in  Connecticut. 

Teaching  was  hereditary  in 
the  Johnson  family,  but  this  was 
a  farming  community,  and  the 
farmers  who  kept  sheep  sent 
wool  to  the  Johnson  mill  to  be 
fulled,  colored  blue  with  indigo 
and  black  with  logwood;  a  blue 
homespun  coat  with  brass  but- 
tons was  the  pride  of  every  old 
2:entleman. 

Master    Samuel   Johnson,    of 
a  later  generation,  was  a  ^erce 


1  Other  early  writers  in  Guilford  were  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  son  of  the 
famous  John  Cotton  who  "prayed  in  Indian,"  like  Roger  Williams,  and 
also  Samuel  Hoadley:  educated  at  Edinburgh  and  father  of  the  Arch- 


Old  Guilford 


109 


1   O.^'     ./     V/.A.   ^    .• 


"^M.^, 


-''''v^i  ., 


Samuel  Robinson  homestead  of  1752,   on  site  of   the  home-lot  of   1664  of 
TJwmas   Robinson;  residence  of  Henry  Pynchon   Robinson,   Esq., 

York  St. 


CLINTON:  Jared  Eliot  homestead. 
Redfield-Stevens  house.  Hill-Stevens 
homestead,  Prospect  Hill.  Stanton 
house,  John  Stanton  Collection  of 
Connecticut  antiques;  on  this  site 
were  held  sessions  of  future  Yale 
University  by  the  Rev.  Abram  Pier- 
son,  first  rector,  when  the  foundation 
was  in  Saybrook. 


Federalist  and  believing  the 
country  to  be  "going  over  to 
Infidelity  and  Revolution,"  he 
set  the  urchins  this  copy; 
"Demons,  Demagogues,  Demo- 
crats, and  Devils."  His  fa- 
vorite   pupil    was    Fitz-Greene 


bishop  John  and  the  Bishop  Benjamin  Hoadley;  Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles, 
who  left  a  manuscript  history  of  Guilford.  The  Hon.  R.  D.  Smyth  wrote 
the  History  of  Guilford,  1877.  A  later  history  is  by  his  grandson,  Bernard 
C.  Steiner,  now  head  of  the  Enoch  Pratt  Library,  Baltimore.  Other 
writers — Charles  Wyllys  Elliott,  Rev.  Abraham  Chittenden  Baldwin,  and 
the  poet,  George  Hill. 


no     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Halleck,^  to  whom  he  presented  Campbell's  Pleasures  of 
Hope.  Johnson  was  unusually  thin:  and  being  much 
bothered  by  a  persistent  tin  pedlar  to  buy  finally  said; 
"Have  you  a  pair  of  tin  boots?"  "Yes,  just  to  fit  you," 
and  brought  out  a'  pair  of  tin  candle-moulds. ^ 

Many  are  the  tales  of  the  country  store.     One  day  came 


Riittanoo  brook  or  East  River  Kutplains.  Close  to  the  bridgeythe  little  boat 
was  always  found  waiting  by  the  children  of  the  Ward,  Beechcr,  and 
Foote  families.  Across  the  bridge  on  the  pasture  slope  is  the  family 
burying  ground. 

iWhittier  wrote  lines  to  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  "at  the  unveiling  of  his 
statue,"   ending: 

"But  let  no  moss  of  years  o'ercreep 
The  lines  of  Halleck's  name.  " 

2  Samuel  Johnson  (great-nephew  of  Dr.  Johnson)  wrote  the  first  school 
dictionary,  1798.  One  copy  remains  in  the  British  Museum,  one  at 
Yale  University,  and  one  in  the  Hartford  Athenaeum.  His  grandfather 
Nathaniel  (1744)  was  warden  of  Christ  Church. — Samuel  Johnson,  Jr., 
and  his  Dictionaries,  by  Henry  Pynchon  Robinson,  Connecticut  Maga- 
zine, 1899. 


The  Country  Store  -    : 

a  little  boy  with  three  eggs  to  barter:  "  Please,  Sir,  a  penny's- 
worth  o'  rum,  a  penny's  worth  o'  gum,  and  the  rest  in 
sal-soda. " 

The  village  much  admired   Miss  Catherine  E.   Beecher, 
and  even  to-day  they  talk  of  her  driving  down  to  the  Green 


TJic  hospitable  side-porch  of  the  Foote  homestead.  Built  by  George 
Augustus  Foote.  He  afterward'  removed  to  Mulberry  Farm  giving  the  Nut- 
plains  farm  to  his  sons.  '' Farm,ing  is  the  only  business  a  inan  ought  to 
follow,'"  said  he. 

from  Nutplains  to  buy  a  spool  of  thread  of  Miss  A.  lest  some 
one  else  should  buy  it  of  a  man,  when  a  woman  was  in 
business. 

A  lady  summoned  a  jack- of- all- trades  to  repair  her  fence. 
After  contemplation  he  enquired,  "Well,  marm,  will  you 
hev  it  hen-tight  or  cow-tight?"  "As  we  haven't  any" 
hens,  I  think  cow-tight  will  do.  " 


112      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

After  the  railroad  was  built,  a  Guilford  worthy  scorned 
the  train,  for,  said  he,  "My  white  Dolly  is  safer  when 
she  stumbles,  than  the  rail  cars  when  they  go  down  an 
embankment. '' 

NUTPLAINS 

A  serene  and  lovely  hamlet  in  Guilford  is  at  Nutplains, 
where  hickory  and  walnut  trees  unite  with  ancient  elms  to 
guard  the  spacious  street.  The  eldest  elm  is  one  hundred 
and  sixty-two  years,  and  that  noble  one  standing  before 
the  ^leigs  farm  was  planted  by  the  grandfather  of  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck.  The  Indians  used  to  fish  all  up  and  down 
both  sides  East  River,  and  you  could  not  walk  across  the 
lot  without  picking  up  an  arrow-head.  On  the  hither  side 
of  the  "Iron  Stream"  rises  ''Fence  Rock,"  so  steep  that 
the  cattle  cannot  get  up  it  on  account  of  the  ledges ;  volcanic 
action  is  evident  in  the  valley. 

Long  ago,  two  homesteads  stood  in  Guilford,  one  at 
Nutplains  on  the  banks  of  Ruttawoo  Creek,  and  the  other 
on  the  north  corner  of  Guilford  Green,  being  closely  related 
to  each  other,  and  to  our  literary  annals.  On  the  Green 
was  the  home  of  Eli  Foote,  whose  w^ife  was  Roxana,  the 
daughter  of  General  Andrew  Ward. 

It  was  General  Ward's  regiment  that  remained  at  Trenton 
to  deceive  the  enemy  by  keeping  up  the  camp-fires,  while 
Washington  withdrew  the  army.  It  is  related  of  Colonel 
Andrew  Ward,  who  served  in  the  Old  French  War,  that  he 
took  his  grog  rations  in  silver  and  brought  home  six  table- 
spoons engraved  Louisbourg. 

When  Eli  Foote  died,  General  Ward  took  his  ten  grand- 
children home  to  Nutplains,  one  of  whom,  Roxana,  became 
Mrs.  Lyman  Beecher.  General  Ward  used  to  laughingly 
say  of   his  three    eldest    granddaugliters,   that   when    the 


Roxana  Foote  Beecher 


113 


girls  first  came  down  in  the  morning,  Harriet's  voice  would 
be  heard — "Here!  take  the  broom:  sweep  up:  make  a  fire: 
make  haste!" 

Betsy  Chittenden  would  say:  "  I  wonder  what  ribbon  it 's 
best  to  wear  at  a  party?  "  But  Roxana  (who  became  the 
mother  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher) 
would  say:  "Which  do  you  think  was  the  greater  general, 

Hannibal  or  Alexander  ?" 
This  incident  is  related  in 
the  Autobiography  of  Ly- 
man Beecher,^  perhaps  the 
best  picture  of  early  days 
in  Connecticut  bequeathed 
to  us.     The  quaint  fasci- 
nating wood-cuts  of  the  various 
homes  at  New  Haven,  Nutplains, 
East    Hampton,    Litchfield,  and 
Andover  make  it  all  very  real. 
Miss    Catherine     Beecher    drew 
from   memory  the  Ward  home- 
stead— "Castle  Ward"  the  chil- 
dren playfully  called  it. 

General  Ward  brought  up  his 
grandchildren  on  the  most  meaty 
and  inspiring  of  intellectual  pab- 


Roxana  Foote  (Beecher)  the 
mother  of  lilrs.  Stowe,  spin- 
ning flax  and  connhig 
French  verbs,  at  ''Castle 
T Va rd,"  A^ut plains. 


ulum,  for  he  had  the  delightful 
custom  of  reading  aloud  with  remarks  and  discussion.  He 
read  the  whole  public  library  through,  but  was  of  rather 
careless  habits  in  household  matters.  He  came  home 
from  the  Legislature  "with  his  saddle-bags  loaded  with 
books    on    one  side    and    nails    on    the    other.     So,   when 


^Autobiography,  Correspondence,  etc.,  of  Lyman  Beecher,  D.D.     Edited 
by  Charles  Beecher.     Copyright  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


114    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

he  had  taken  his  hammer  and  gone  all  over  the  place 
mending  and  patching,  he  would  come  in  and  read  all  the 
books."  It  was  said  of  Eli  Foote  also:  ''Give  him  a  book 
and  he  is  as  happy  as  if  he  o^^ned  Kensington  Palace." 
So  that  his  children's  children  had  by  rights  a  "born  fac- 
ulty" for  pen  and  pulpit. 

The  girls'  favorite  sport  was  the  spinning-mill  built  by 
General  AVard  in  a  ravine  on  a  little  brook  with  machinery 
for  turning  three  or  four  spinning-wheels  by  water-power. 

Roxana  learned  to  speak  French  fluently  from  a  refugee 
from  San  Domingo  who  settled  in  Guilford,  and  she  studied 
as  she  spun  flax,  tying  her  book  to  her  distaff. 

The  Ward  house  of  delightful  memories  has  disappeared 
but  the  tiny  river  flows  on.  You  may  cross  the  bridge, 
close  to  which  the  little  boat  was  always  found  waiting  by 
the  children  of  the  Ward,  Beecher,  and  Foote  families  for 
four    generations. 

Lyman  Beecher  and  Roxana  Foote  were  married  at  Nut- 
plains  by  Parson  Bray.  "  Nobody  ever  married  more  heart 
and  hand  than  we,"  said  Lyman  Beecher.  He  had  met 
Roxana  when  staying  with  his  uncle  Lot  Benton  at  North 
Guilford,  where  Lyman's  passion  for  fishing  developed,  and 
grew  rampantly;  even  after  he  became  famous  he  would 
occasionally  come  in  to  the  weekly  lecture  at  Litchfield 
fishpole  in  hand  and  rest  it  against  the  pulpit.  Mr.  Beecher 
says : 

"  The  first  time  I  went  fishing.  Uncle  Benton  took  me  down 
to  Beaver  Head,  tied  a  brown  thread  on  a  stick,  put  a 
crooked  pin  in  it  and  worms,  and  said  '  There,  Lyman,  throw 
it  in.'  I  threw  it  in  and  out  came  a  shiner.  ...  I 
always  liked  'training  day'  because  I  could  go  fishing. 
Fished  all  day  till  dark,  and  felt  sorry  when  night  came." 

The  Indians  lingered  long  in  Guilford  after  Whitfield's 


The  Totokets  at  Murray  Farm 


ii5 


The  front  entrance  of  the  Foote  homestead,  Nutplains,  residence  of  Mrs. 
Andrew  Ward  Foote.  Here  Harriet  Beecher  (Stowe)  and  all  the  children 
used  to  visit '  'Grandma  Foote' \  Here  she  heard  first  the  ballads  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott. 

''The  lovely  little  white  farm-house  under  the  hill  was  such  a  Paradise  to 
us,  every  juniper  bush,  every  wild  sweetbrier,  every  barren  sandy  hillside 
every  stony  pasture  spoke  of  bright  hours.'' — H.  B.  S. 

band  came,  for  they  loved  the  creeks,  their  canoe-paths. 
The  Totokets  crept  down  over  the  trail — the  shortest  road 
to  the  beach — from  their  picturesque  village  "to  pick  clams 
and  oysters"  on  the  shore,  stopping  often  at  the  pure  and 
delicious  spring  on  the   ]\Iurray  farm. 


According  to  the  legend  of  the  farm  the  master  of  the  old 
Jonathan  Murray  house  once  fell  ill,  and  was  cured  by  a  pass- 
ing Indian  witch-doctor.  On  leaving  she  thrust  her  staff  of 
buttonwood  into  the  ground,  vowing  that  "  as  long  as  this 
branch  shall  flourish  so  long  shall  the  land  go  to  the  blood, 


ii6      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

but  a  curse  shall  fall  on  him  who  cuts  it  down."  This  button- 
wood  tree  yet  gives  grateful  shade  to  the  wayfarer.  This  was 
the  home  of  Mr.  W.  H.  H.  Murray,  long  known  as  "Adiron- 
dack Murray,  "  the  first  to  reveal  the  charms  of  the  Adiron- 
dacks.  Neck  River  runs  at  the  foot  of  the  farm,  on  which 
the  first  millwright  built. 

The  story  of  Sachem's  Head  is  of  the  days  of  Uncas  who 


mm 


The  little  District  School  with  wood-house, 
North  Guilford. 

clung  to  his  rights  in  the  Hammonasset  lands  "to  hunt, 
fish,  use  trees  for  canoes,  rushes  for  flags"  in  the  deed  of 
sale  to  Colonel  Fenwick.  Uncas  was  leading  Captain 
Stoughton's  troops  on  their  chase  of  the  Pequots  when  he 
discovered  that  the  wicked  old  Mononotto  (who  had  dis- 
puted with  him  over  the  territory  of  New"  London)  was  in 


Sachem's  Head  and  Leete's  Island         117 

hiding  with  his  warriors  on  the  (Guilford)  shore  towards 
Stony  Creek.  Uncas  waylaid  them  as  they  attempted 
to  escape  by  swimming  across  Bloody  Cove,  shot  the  chief, 
and  placed  his  head  in  the  crotch  of  a  tree. 

From  Sachem's  Head  in  1777,  Colonel  Return  Jonathan 
Meigs  (of  a  Guilford  family)  led  an  expedition  against  Sag 
Harbor  in  sloops  and  whale-boats;  they  succeeded  in  burn- 
ing all  British  vessels  in  the  harbor,  stripped  a  foraging 
party  of  De  Lancey's  Brigade,  and  captured  the  hospital 
on  Brick  Hill. 

A  month  later  three  ships  of  the  enemy  landed  at  Sachem's 
Head  and  burnt  Solomon  Leete's  house.  In  1781  the 
British  landed  at  Leete's  Island,  burning  the  house  of  ^Ir. 
Daniel  Leete ;  they  advanced  toward  Guilford  and  were  re- 
pulsed by  Captain  Peter  Vail  and  Lieutenant  Timothy  Field.  ^ 

Agnes  Lee,  the  wife  of  Captain  Samuel  Lee  of  the  Harbor 
Guard,  was  a  noted  foe  to  Tories.  Powder  was  stored  in 
the  attic:  one  dark  night  a  Tory  knocked  at  her  door,  when 
Captain  Lee  was  on  duty;  "Who  's  there?" — "A  friend.  " — 
"No,  a  friend  would  tell  his  name,"  answered  Mrs.  Lee, 
and  fired.  An  hour  later,  an  old  doctor  of  North  Guilford 
was  summoned  to  attend  a  mysterious  gun-shot  wound. 
When  the  British  landed  at  Leete's  Island,  Captain  Lee 
fired  the  agreed  signal;  "  Grandma  Lee  responded  by  blazing 
away  on  the  cannon  set  at  the  head  of  Crooked  Lane,  for 
she  had  not  a  son,  and  Uncle  Levi  was  a  cripple.  " 

During  the  War  of  1812  the  story  goes  that  as  George 
Griswold  was  hoeing  corn  on  his  farm  at  East  Creek,  the 
church  bell  rang  violently  and  the  flag  was  raised  on  Clap- 
board Hill ;  snatching  his  sword  Griswold  mounted  his  black 
horse,  gathered  the  militia  company,  a  score  of  men  with 

'In  1688,  the  tyrannical  days  of  Andros,  commissioners  were  sent  from 
Hartford  to  obtain  the  charter  concealed  at  Andrew  Leete's  but  Captain 
William  Seward  marshalled  his  company,  and  with  drawn  sword  escorted 
them  out  of  town. 


ii8      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

rusty  muskets.  On  reaching  Leete's  Island,  they  saw  a 
vessel  manning  her  boats  to  make  a  landing.  Realizing 
that  they  would  be  no  match  for  the  invaders,  they  manoeu- 
vred by  marching  down  through  a  hollow,  then  up  in  sight, 
then  dow^n  and  around  again  until  the  enemy  became  im- 
pressed that  the  Guilford  forces  numbered  nigh  on  a  thou- 
sand men.     At  the  same  time  the  one  "nine-pounder"  at 


The  birthplace  of  David  Dudley  Field,  D.D.,  ''The  Woods"  district,  East 
Guilford,  present  Madison,  Conn.,  built  by  his  grandfather,  David 

Field,  in  172^. 

the  Green  fired  shot  after  shot,  and  the  British  changed 
their  tactics  and  spread  sail  and  away.  Lieutenant  Gris- 
wold's  sword  still  hangs  in  his  homestead. 

Several  Deerfield  colonists  sought  a  haven  on  the  Sound, 
where  there  was  little  danger  of  awakening  to  find  a  toma- 


The  Fields  in  Guilford  119 

hawk  flourished  over  one's  head.  No  family  suffered  more 
than  the  Fields,  many  of  whom  were  carried  to  Canada. 
Ebenezer  Field  came  to  East  Guilford  and  married  Alary 
Dudley,  a  descendant  of  two  Governors  of  New  Haven 
Colonv;  David  Dudlev  Field  was  born  in  "The  Woods" 
district,  was  graduated  at  Yale,  then  became  pastor  at 
Haddam.  Captain  Timothy  Field,  his  father,  served  under 
Washington,  and  either  abroad  or  on  the  farm  appeared  in 
"cocked  hat,"  short  breeches,  long  stockings,  and  bright 
silver  shoe-buckles.  He  was  Sergeant-major  of  the  Sev- 
enth Regiment  of  Connecticut,  and  after  the  defeat  on  Long 
Island,  was  stationed  between  Fort  Washington  and  East 
River  to  watch  the  British  troops  w^hich  held  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  took  part  at  White  Plains. 

Many  interesting  and  historical  homesteads  stand  in 
Madison  and  North  Madison.  The  beautiful  green  town 
street  is  adorned  by  the  Memorial  Library  to  Erastus 
Scranton.  John  Scranton  came  with  Air.  Whitfield  in 
1639.  It  is  said  that  six  brothers  settled  here  "  within  speak- 
ing distance.  "  The  first  minister,  the  Rev^  John  Hart,  was 
the  sole  member  of  the  senior  class  of  Yale  in  1702,  and  the 
firsG  regular  graduate.  When  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Todd 
"was  upon  trial,  in  order  to  setel, "  Capt.  Janna  Meigs 
(otherwise  "ye  Worshipfull  Janna  Meigs"),  Deacon  John 
French,  and  Left.  Thomas  Crutenden  were  chosen  to  treat 
with  Air.  Todd  upon  his  "  principels. " 

NORTH    GUILFORD 

"Still  sits  the  school-house  by  the  road. 

Within  the  master' s  desk  is  seen. 

Deep  scarred  by  raps  official  ; 
The  warping  floor,  the  battered  seats. 

The  jack-knife' s  carved  initial.  " 

Whittier,  In  School-Days. 

At  the  summit  of  Long  Hill  road  lies  a  quaint  and  pretty 


I20      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

village,  North  Guilford  with  its  district  school.  Here  all 
the  world  seems  fashioned  for  Whittier's  barefoot  boy;  his 
is  the  feast  of  freshest  berries  and  hickory  nuts,  wild- 
flowers,  scarlet  strawberries  and  golden  pippins,  woodchucks 
and  shiners.  It  was  in  Quinebaug  Outlet  that  Lyman 
Beecher  caught  his  first  perch,  and  one  may  imagine  the 
jolly  spelling-school  and  frolics  at  huskings — no  law  was 
ever  kept  so  well  as  that  of  the  red  ear,  while  the  dry  husks 
rustled  and  sweet-cider  wxnt  round.  What  heroes  from 
this  woodland  sprung!  Many  a  boy  became  eminent  Avho 
learned  the  Rule  of  Three  in  "the  great  barn  of  a  school  in 
North  Guilford,"  though  "nobody  ever  explained  anything, 
we  only  did  sums,"  says  Lyman  Beecher;  all  the  sons  of 
the  village  blacksmith  ^lichael  Baldwin  became  prominent. 
Abraham  Baldvv^in  aided  Milledge  to  found  Georgia  Uni- 
versity, and  his  pet  sister  Ruth,  with  whom  we  are  best 
acquainted  through  the  songs,  madrigals,  and  letters  of  Joel 
Barlow,  poet  and  philosopher,  was  of  a  great  piquancy, 
amiability,  and  beauty,  making  her  an  object  of  admiration 
in  the  polite  circles  of  Europe.  She  ensnared  the  heart  of 
the  poet  when  he  was  at  Yale  College  in  the  remarkable  class 
of  1778,1  inspiring  a  remarkable  passion,  which  survived  an 
adventurous  career,  during  which  he  negotiated  the  treaty 
with  Algiers  and  became  minister  to  France,  when  Napoleon 
was  France.  He  writes  to  his  love  ever  with  merry  badinage, 
philosophy,  and  tenderness.  An  early  letter,  when  she  is 
on  a  visit  to  North  Guilford,  affects  jealousy.  (The  Bald- 
wins were  then  living  in  New  Haven.)      "  Do,  Ruthy,  tell 

1  Barlow  excelled  in  mental  rivalry  even  such  men  as  Oliver  Wolcott 
(Governor  Oliver  Wolcott,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, married  Lorraine,  daughter  of  General  Augustus  Collins  of 
North  Guilford)  Xoah  Webster,  Zephaniah  Swift,  Uriah  Tracy,  and  Josiah 
Meigs.  His  favorite  tutor  was  Joseph  Buckminister,  who  took  charge 
of  the  class  when  sent  to  Glastonbury  during  the  Revolutionary  dis- 
turbances. 


Joel  Barlow  to  Ruth  Baldwin 


121 


me  sincerely,"  he  urged,  ''don't  some  of  these  mountain 
swains  invite  you  to  ramble  in  their  green  retreats,  entertain 
you  with  fine  stories  about  Arcadian  nymphs  and  rural 
innocence?  .  .  .  But  you  must  rememxber,  7na  amie, 
that  your  old  friend  Apollo  was  a  poet  as  well  as  a  shepherd 
and  in  winter  time  the  most  likely  place  to  find  him  will  be 


The  Birthplace  of  Gilbert  Munger,  Opening  Hill,  North  Madison,  Conn. 

A  painting  of  Niagara  Falls  ordered  by  the  Prussian  Government  first 
made  him  world-famous.  Alunger's  paintings  of  Venice  were  exhibited 
in  London  on  the  entreaty  of  Riiskin.  The  reigning  Duke  of  Saxe-Cobiirg- 
Gotha  conferred  on  hhn  Knighthood  with  the  title  of  Baron. 

at  college,  so  I  advise  you  to  return  to  New  Haven  as  soon 
as  you  receive  this  letter.     .     .     .i" 

Ruth's  father  objected  to  her  "rhyming  lover,"  in  spite 
of  his  position  as  chaplain  in  Poor's  Brigade,  but  Barlow 
returned   to   New   Haven   when   the   army   was   in   winter 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  Joel  Barlow,  LL.D.,  by  Charles  Burr  Todd,  G.  P.. 
Putnam's  Sons. 


122     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

quarters   and   they   were   secretly   married   and — forgi\'en. 

On  Joel  Barlow's  first  visit  to  Paris,  he  writes  that 
he  was  "  accompanied  by  blaster  George  Washington 
Greene,  twelve  years  old,  who  goes  to  Paris  for  his 
education,  being  addressed  to  the  ^Marquis  de  Lafayette." 
General  Greene's  youngest  son,  and  the  son  born  to 
Lafayette  during  the  Revolution,  were  both  named  George 
Washington.  "  This  fact  abided  with  Lafayette,  and  after 
General  Greene  died,  he  applied  to  Mrs.  Greene  to  allow 
him  to  take  her  son  George  to  France,  where  he  might  be 
educated  with  his  George,  so  as  to  perpetuate  the  love 
which  had  illustrated  the  lives  of  their  fathers."  This  came 
about  as  they  wished,  but  unfortunately  a  few  weeks  after 
young  Greene's  return  home,  when  on  a  pleasure  party,  the 
yacht  capsized  and  all  perished. 

Mrs.  Barlow  was  in  the  first  weeks  not  enamored  of  Paris; 
she  writes  to  Mrs.  Dr.  Dwight  at  Greenfield  Hill:  "  O,  it  is 
altogether  disagreeable  to  me.  It  is  only  existing.  I  have 
not  an  hour  to  call  my  own  except  when  I  sleep.  Must  be 
at  all  times  dressed  and  see  company.  .  .  .  AVe  are 
pent  up  in  a  narrow,  dirt}^  street  surrounded  with  high 
brick  walls.  .  .  .  O,  how  ardently  do  I  Avish  to  return 
to  America."  Paris  being  unsafe  in  1791,  they  removed 
to  London,  where  they  were  frequent  guests  of  Copley  in 
Hanover  Square,  and  saw  much  of  Trumbull  and  Benjamin 
West. 

In  later  years  when  ]\Irs.  Barlow  lived  on  their  beautiful 
estate  Kalorama — where  Jefferson  and  Madison  had  often 
consulted  with  the  statesman,  Joel  Barlow, — her  thoughts 
turned  backward  to  girlhood  days  in  Connecticut.  She 
saw  the  village  smithy,  the  school-children  watching  the 
flaming  forge  and  the  wonderful  yellow^  sparks  struck  from 
her  father's  anvil;  the  drives  to  the  shore,  the  gathering  of 
driftwood  on  the  sand-beach,  the  steaming  clam-chowder, 


Paul  Revere  on  the  King's  Highway      123 

each  child  so  hungry  that  his  spoon  of  clam-shell  seemed 
silver-lined.  In  winter,  light  snowflakes  falling,  merry 
sleigh-rides,  the  horn  sounding  and  bells  tinkling,  on  frosty 
nights,  ending  in  a  frolic  with  blind-man's-buff,  twirling 
the  plate,  and  forfeits ;  and  once  more  an  eager  hunt  for 
snowdrops  and  pussy-willows  coaxed  out  by  that  shy 
coquette,  the  bewildering  New  England  Spring. 

''Hark,  H  is  the  bluebird'' s  venturous  strain, 
High  on  the  old  fringed  elm  at  the  gate — 

Dodging  iJie  fitful  spits  of  snow, 
New  England's  poet-laureate T' 

Aldrich. 

Late  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1773,  an  unknown  horseman, 
half -frozen,  stopped  to  bait  his  horse  in  Guilford.  It  was 
the  first  patriotic  ride  of  Paul  Revere.  He  brought  the 
audacious  news  to  Connecticut  that  King  George's  tax-laden 
tea  had  just  been  salted  dow^n  in  Boston  harbor  by  unknow^n 
Mohawk  champions  of  Liberty,  and  it  would  seem  as  if 
Paul  Revere's  owm  war-paint  as  patriotic  promoter  of  the 
affair  was  of  so  deep  a  dye  that  it  could  never  be  scrubbed 
of?.     Dr.  Holmes  says 

"  The  waters  of  the  rebel  bay 

Have  kept  their  tea-leaf  savor. 
Our  old  North-Enders  in  their  spray 
Still  taste  a  Hyson  flavor. " 

Revere  was  quickly  off  over  the  turnpike  to  Philadelphia, 
hearing  secret  dispatches  to  men  who  w^ere  soon  to  set  the 
country  seething  by  speeches,  in  that  first  Continental 
Congress. 

This  assembly  met  at  the  suggestion  of  the  "  father  of 
all  the  Yankees,"  as  Carlyle  called  Benjamin  Franklin,  who 
had  written  from  London  to  the  Massachusetts  Assembly 


124     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


The  Lot  Benton  house  at  the  sluice  at  the  foot  of  Harbor  St.;  removed 
from  the  north  end  of  Guilford  Green  by  a  yoke  of  jj  oxen  ;  residence  of 
Captain  Jeremiah  Rackett. 

that   it  was  full  time  to  meet  and  act.     Virginia  was  the 
first  in  sending  forth  trumpet  summons. 

What  next!  Ebenezer  Hurd,  the  fortnightly  post-rider 
out  of  Saybrook,  had  ridden  forty-six  years  through  New 
Haven  to  New  York  and  back,  and  never  "heerd  tell  sech 
doin's. "  Every  good  man  along  the  Sound  rose  daily 
expectant  and  took  down  his  rusty  flint-lock  and  the  boys* 
guns  from  their  hooks  on  the  summer-beam  to  set  them 
"hendy";  mother  surreptitiously  rubbed  them  up  a  bit 
with  tears  in  her  eyes. 

It  was  before  daybreak  on  Friday,  April  21,  1775,  that 
Lieutenant  Israel  Putnam's  cry  "to  arms"  echoed  in 
Middlesex  County,  Connecticut;  just  as  the  cry  of  Paul 
Revere  on  his  midnight  gallop  had  roused  Middlesex  County 
in  Massachusetts.  Lieutenant  Putnam  received  at  the 
plough  his  message  from  Israel  Bissell  (who  had  ridden  so 
hard  from  Watertown  to  Worcester  that  his  horse  fell  in  his 
tracks)  and  handed  it  over  to  the  regular  New  York  post- 
rider;  people  hastened  from  distant  farms  into  Guilford^ 


The  Lexington  Alarm,  Connecticut        125 

Branford,  and  New  Haven  to  hear  the  news  of  the  Lexington 
fight  and  Minute-men  began  to  strap  on  haversacks  for 
the  long  niarch  to  Boston,  while  the  post  sped  on  covered 
with  mud  and  foam  through  Milford,  and  Stratford;  Sunday 
at  noon  the  Lexington  message  was  countersigned  at  Fair- 
field by  Jonathan  Sturges.     On  and  on  the  war  messenger 


The  Worthington  Bartholomew  Jiouse  1774,  on  the  Boston— N ew  York  turnpike; 
residence  of  Rev.  Dr.  George  C.  Griswold.     A  rejnarkable  "apple-tree elm." 

rode  through  Nor\valk,  Stamford,  Westchester — do^^'n  Bow- 
ery Lane,  past  Governor  Stuyvesant's  pear  orchard,  the  Tea- 
Water  Spring,!  and  over  the  Kissing  Bridge, 2  shouting  his 
news  regardless  of  Tory  scowls,  clattering  down  Broadway 
to  Bowling  Green. ^ 

'Water  (irawn  from  this  pump  was  said  "to  make  better  tea"  than 
from  any  well  in  Xew  York. 

2  Toll:  "Salute  your  partner.  " 

3  The  historic  Green  of  the  Burgomaster,  centre  of  Xieuw  Amsterdamx, 
the  heart  of  old  Xew  York. 


126     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


What  an  excitement  in  the  market-place  ("T'Marck 
felt")!'  The  Whigs  repeated  it  in  the  very  ears  of  His 
Majesty  George  III.,  who  might  well  have  risen  in  his  leader 
stirrups  with  haughty  amazement  at  the  audacity  of  his 
Colonial  subjects.  The  New  York  loyalists  disdained  to 
countenance  the  facts  and  waited  for  confirmation.  Mean- 
while Isaac  Low  signed  the  message.  On  Tuesday  at  two 
of  the  clock  arrived  a  second  war  dispatch,  indisputably 
endorsed  by  Pierrepont  Edwards  at  New  Haven  on  Monday 
at  nine  and  one  half  o'clock.  The  Long  Island  ferry  awaited 
impatiently  the  news  packet  near  Fly  (Fulton)  market. 
From  end  to  end  of  Tvong-  Island  stirring  scenes  ensued — 
from  Brooklyn  HeigliLs  tu  Easthampton  and  among  the 
retainers  of  the  Lord  of  Gardiner's  Isle.  Town  meetings 
from  Faneuil  Hall  far  vSouth  rang  with  "Liberty!"  Troops 
assembled  and  Washington  was  summoned  to  command. 
1  Site  of  the  present  New  York  Produce  Exchange. 


TJic  door-kjwcker  of  "  Alulberry 
Farm,"  the  Jared  Eliot-Foote  house. 
This  knocker  was  mnoved  from  an 
older  house  on  Guilford  Green. 


NEW  HAVEN  (QUINNIPIAC),   1637 


"  There  was  a  wood,  hi  which  now  the  little  ones  gather  hi  spring,  and  in 
autumn,  heaping  baskets  of  nuts.  There  was  a  strip  of  sea  in  sight,  on  which 
I  can  trace  the  white  sails  as  they  come  and  go  without  leaving  'iny  library 
chair  ;    and  each  night  I  sec  the  flanic  of  a  lighthouse  kindled.  " 

Ik  Marvel  at  Edge  wood,   New  Haven. 

A  GREAT  chami  of  the  City  of  Elms  is  the  reach  of  blue 
sea — "Adrian's  Sea,"  a  poetical  and  ap- 
propriate pseudonym  for  Long  Island  Sound. 
The  sea  gives  a  final  touch  of  kingly  grace 
to  the  old  New  Haven  Colony,  and  to  her 
towns  entangled  'mid  lofty  rocks,  wooded 
hills,  and  tidal  rivers. 

The  stranger  within  New  Haven's  gates 
is  immediately  impressed  by  the  vista  across 
the  broad  and  beautiful  Green,  flanked  by 
roAV  upon  row  of  superb  elms  planted  largely 
by  the  people  under  the  leadership  of  James 
Hllhouse.^ 

Three  churches  of  varying  creed  now 
stand  upon  the  aforetime  Puritan  market- 
place, where  the  austere  stocks  and  whip- 
ping-post once  nodded  to  the  Town  Pump 
and  aided  the  one  meeting-house — surmount- 
ed by  its  Indian  Watch  Tower — in  discipline 
of  Church  and  State.  Unlike  Boston  Com-  Library  Tower,  at 
mon,  the  New  Haven  Green  was  designed,  says    ^  , 

.  7^     ,  .         Ivy  grown  from 

the  Rev.  Dr.  Bacon,  not  as  a  park,  but  for      the  grave  of 
buyers  and  sellers,  for  such  public  uses  as  were  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

1  Many  of  the  elms  planted  between  1787  and  1796  came  from  the 
Hillhouse  farm  in  Meriden.  The  Rev.  James  Austin  planted  inner  rows 
on  the  Green.     Among  those  who  as  boys  participated  were  Judge  Henry 

127 


128     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

resented  to  the  Roman  Forum  and  the  Agora  at  Athens. 
Nevertheless,  being  convenient,  as  on  Boston  Common, 
cows  were  pastured  on    the  Upper  Green,   and  a  student 


United  Church  on  the  New  Haven  Green,  erected  i8i^.     The  Law 
School  of  Yale  University  on  Elm  Street. 

transported  one  to  the  belfry  of  the  Old  Chapel,  at  which 
the  unhappy  cow  protested  as  loudly  as  The  Pope's  Mule 
of  Avignon. 

Pressing  close  upon  the  colonists'  Green  are  classic,  ivy- 
Baldwin,  Ogden  Edwards,  and  President  Day.  The  first  meeting-house 
stood  where  the  flag-pole  is,  and  Ezekiel  Cheever's  school-house 
hard  by. 


Colonial  Blue  Laws  129 

gowned  halls,  half  concealed  by  the  elms  of  the  long  Temple 
Arch,  and  in  the  quadrangle  hidden  by  these  younger  halls 
of  Yale  University  are  the  plain  bricks  of  beloved  South 
Middle  (Connecticut  Hall) ,  the  sole  sur\dvor  of  "  old  Brick 
Row."  Facing  the  Green  on  the  north  is  the  Pierpont 
house  and  other  of  the  older  homesteads  of  the  city. 

Contemplating  the  present  community  of  tolerance  one 
may  scarcely  countenance  the  fact,  as  written  in  the  Town 
Records,  that  in  the  rigid  years  when  this  veritable  Green 
was  subject  to  Blue  Laws,  Elder  Malbon  caused  his  daughter 
Martha  to  be  brought  before  three  magistrates  and  sen- 
tenced to  be  publicly  whipped, ^  because  with  her  cousin 
she  attended  a  forbidden  house-warming  escorted  by  a 
young  man!  Another  delinquent  was  whipped  for  the 
diabolical  outrage  of  lighting  his  pipe  on  the  public  street 
from  a  pan  of  live  coals.  Others  were  branded  on  the 
forehead  for  theft.  It  was  many  years  before  the  punish- 
ments of  the  old  country  were  discarded.  The  closing 
scenes  of  Decker's  Old  Fortunatus  ^  the  villain  in  the  stocks, 
is  akin  to  actual  dramas  of  Colonial  days  in  America,  the 
gate  to  which  has  been  thrown  open  to  us  with  Hawthorne's 
key. 

It  has  been  a  strange  procession  of  years,  this  passing 
from  under  a  royal  sceptre  to  the  government  by  the  people ; 
from  Puritan  edicts  to  our  fraternal  age,  in  which  fellows 
of  all  climes  and  creeds  are  "well  met"  on  Yale's  campus 

It  is  the  prettiest  climb  imaginable  by  woodland  ways 
to  the  summit  of  East  Rock,  for  which  the  poet  Hillhouse  ^ 


1  Recorded  by  the  Town  Clerk  and  included  in  Mr.  Cogswell's  interesting 
historical  novel,    The  Regicides. 

2  Old  Fortunatus  was  marvellously  well  presented  in  the  rich  garb  of  the 
day  on  the  grounds  of  Tufts  College,  by  the  undergraduates,  in  June, 
1906. 

3 James  A.  Hillhouse,  the  son  of  James  Hillhouse  to  whom  New  Haven 
is  so  much  indebted,  was  the  author  of  Percy's  Masque  and  other  dramas. 


130     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

of  Sachem's  Wood,  suggested  the  name  of  "Sassacus"  and  for 
its  twin,  the  West  Rock,  "Regicide."  At  your  feet,  sub- 
merged under  countless  elms  lies  a  bustling  city,  its  core 
the  old  "Nine  Squares,"  stockaded  and  with  guard- 
houses. You  may  draw  imaginary  lines  around  the  Green 
and  the  other  "quarters":  Yorkshire  quarter,  Herefordshire 
quarter,  and  ]\Ir.  Gregson's  and  Mr.  Lamberton's  quarter, 
and  the  Governor's  quarter  which  held  Theophilus  Eaton's 
mansion   of    nineteen  fireplaces.      Eli   Whitney   built    his 


^^\ 


^prc'- 


.rSr 


^. 


:f 


-.  / 


r?-^ 


The  Soldiers'  Monument  on  East  Rock. 

house  in  a  portion  of  the  Governor's  quarter.  President 
Stiles  remembered  the  thirteen  fireplaces  in  Mr.  Davenport's 
house,  for  these  built  large  houses  to  correspond  with  their 
accustomed  style  in  London.  Governor  Eaton  like  Governor 
Edward  Winslow  of  Plymouth  played  the  part  of  diplomat 
and  explorer  for  the  new  Colony. 

At  one  corner  of  the  Green,  close  to  the  inlet  where  the 
company   landed,    once   stood   a   mighty   oak   on    "  Widov/ 


New  Haven's  Historic  Oak  131 

Hannah  Beecher's  lot, "  ^  at  the  present  corner  of  Chapel 
and  George  streets ;  here  the  planters  assembled  on  the  first 
Lord's  day  to  hsten  to  the  celebrated  London  preacher,  the 
Rev.  John  Davenport.  The  stump  of  this  great  oak  severed 
by  time  from  its  canopy  of  leaves,  held  the  anvil  of  Nathaniel 
Beecher.  His  grandson  David  used  the  same  anvil  placed 
on  the  same  oak  stump. 

He  lived  well  according  to  the  times  and  laid  up  four 
or  fiA'e  thousand  dollars.  In  those  days,  six  mahogany 
chairs  in  a  shut-up  parlor  were  considered  magnificent: 
he  never  got  beyond  cherry.  He  was  one  of  the  best  read 
men  in  New  England.  .  .  .  Squire  Roger  Sherman 
used  to  say  that  he  always  "  calculated  to  see  Mr.  Beecher, 
as  soon  as  he  got  home  from  Congress,  to  talk  over  particu- 
lars. "  He  kept  up  with  his  student-boarders  in  their  studies, 
and  was  very  absent-minded:  coming  in  from  the  barn  he 
would  sit  down  on  a  coat-pocket  full  of  eggs,  jump  up,  and 
say,  "Oh  wife!"  "Why,  my  dear,"  she  would  reply,  "I 
do  wonder  you  can  put  eggs  in  your  pocket."  ^ 

Tiie  bricks  stamped  London  discovered  in  razing  the 
Atwater  homestead  recall  the  ballasting  of  the  good  ship 
Hector  and  her  consort  with  building  bricks,  for  John  Daven- 
port and  his  opulent  company.  On  the  shipping  lists  the 
names  of  men  of  note  appeared  in  disguise,  for  the  ship  was 
liable  to  be  searched  by  order  of  the  Lords  of  the  Privy 
Council  for  non-conformists  obnoxious  to  the  Government.-^ 
It  was  with  a  sigh  of  relief  that  the  port  was  cleared  with 

iJn  seating  the  meeting-house  in  1646  the  first  seat  was  assigned  to 
Old  Mrs.  Eaton,  and  Widow  Beecher  was  on  the  list  of  those  "permitted 
to  sit  in  the  alley  (upon  their  desire)  for  convenience  of  hearing.  " 

^The   Autobiography    of   Lyman    Beecher. 

3  Doubtless  the  names  of  Davenport  and  Eaton  were  not  on  the  lists. 
These  had  long  been  concerned  with  colonial  projects,  holding  an  interest 
in  Winthrop's  Arbclla,  which  led  the  fleet  of  1630  to  Salem. 


13-     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

all  sail  set  and  the  ship's  bow  pointed  toward  Governor  Win- 
throp's  town,  ere  King  James,  alarmed  at  losing  from  his 
kingdom  so  many  subjects  rich  in  brains  and  property, 
published  a  decree  forbidding  men  of  their  value  to  pass  to 
plantations  in  his  new  Colonies  without  a  license. 

The    good    people    of    Boston    besought    the    influential 
company   of   the    ''famous   Mr.    Davenport"    to   abide   in 


The  old  home  of  Roger  Sherman,  "The  Siguier"  and  the 
first  Mayor  of  New  Haven.     The  house  was    built    by 
him  in  lySg  and  stands  on  Chapel  Street,  near  High, 
remodelled  into  stores. 


Massachusetts.     Newbury    even    agreed    to 


give 


up 


the 


town.  But  the  Bay  was  in  a  hubbub  on  account  of  the 
controversy  precipitated  by  IMistress  Anne  Hutchinson  ^ 
and  at  that  moment  Captain  Stoughton  returned  from  the 
campaign  against  the  Pequots  with  the  same  glowing  ac- 
counts as  Captain  Underhill,  who  wrote  that  "  Queenapiok 
hath  a  fair  river,  fit  for  harboring  of  ships,"  etc.,  and  his 


1  Mistress  Hutchinson  was  banished  and  the  master  of  the  Dove,  Captain 
Richard  Lord,  was  fined  for  bringing  over  "the  troublesome  Anne  Hutch- 
inson. " 


CO 
CO 


Q    :i 


ti 


li:   s 


►St 


"'     to 


^ 


bvO 


■^ 


^  «  >^ 


c^ 


"5 


til   ^    ^ 


^ 


O 
^ 


(^ 


134    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

interested  audience,  the  London  company,  finally  decided 
to  purchase  lands  beyond  Saybrook.  The  first  winter  in 
New  Haven  messages  to  their  friends  in  Boston  were  prob- 
ably carried  by  Indian  runners,  ^\'hom  Roger  Williams  had 
known  to  run  eighty  miles  or  more  on  a  summer's  day. 

Strange  adv^entures  were  those  of  the  Regicides  Major- 
Generals  Whalley  and  Goffe.  Royal  commissioners  pur- 
sued them  from  Boston  to  New  Haven  and  three  times 
orders  for  their  arrest  arrived.  T^Aice  concealed  at  West 
Rock,  on  the  boulders  of  Judges'  Cave  they  carv^ed  the 
days  of  the  calendar.  Feigning  to  go  to  Manhattan,  they 
returned  to  the  house  of  the  Rev.  John  Davenport.  In 
another  refuge  at  Hatchet  Harbor  in  the  Woodbridge  Hills, 
provisions  were  conveyed  to  them  by  Richard  Sperry;  they 
took  the  Indian  trail  over  which  Thomas  Tibbals  had  led 
the  colonists  to  Wepowagee  (Milf ord) .  Here  they  remained 
two  years  (Judge  Treat  was  in  the  secret) ,  concealed  in  the 
Tomkins  house,  never  venturing  out  even  in  the  orchard. 
This  game  of  hide-and-seek  must  have  been  an  uneasy  and 
chiUing  period  of  existence;  finally  they  fled  to  Hadley, 
where  the  Rev.  John  Russell  protected  them  for  the  rest  of 
their  lives.  The  third  Regicide,  Colonel  John  Dixwell, 
never  dared  reveal  his  identity  in  New  Haven;  although 
he  lived  here  from  1673  to  1689.  The  stone  above  his  grave 
behind  Centre  Church  on  the  Green  ^  is  marked  simply, 
/.  D.,  Esq.  Mrs.  James  Pierpont  used  to  wonder  what  her 
good  husband  found  to  talk  about  at  such  length — across 
the  fence — with  the  mysterious  "James  Davids." 

On  the  Lexington  alarm  the  Governor's  Guard  of  New 
Haven  and  a  company  of  volunteers.  Benedict  Arnold  as 
Captain,  hastened  to  Cambridge.  Nathan  Beers,  Jr.,  was 
with  them  and  was  afterw^ards  one  of  the  guards  of  Major 

1  Chronicle  of  Xew  Haven  Green,  by  Henry  T.  Blake. 


The  Beers  Elm  135 

Andre.  The  original  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  Major  Andre 
drawn  by  himself  with  the  aid  of  a  mirror  and  given  by 
him  to  Jabez  Tomlinson  of  Stratford,  officer  of  the  guard  at 
Tappan,  was  passed  to  Nathan  Beers  of  New  Haven,  and  is 
in  the  Yale  Library.     The  Beers  elm  on  Hillhouse  Avenue  is 


Collins  Homestead,  i6p4, 
West  Haven. 


Savin  Rock,  Long  Island  Sound. 
Where  the  British  Landed.   West  Haven. 

the  loftiest  of  its  kind.     The  Jocelyn^  portrait  of  Nathan 
Beers  descended  to  his  grandson  Dr.  Robert  Ives.^ 
Extracts  from  the  Connecticut  Gazette  in  war-times : 

July  5,  ly/S.  His  Excellency,  Gen.  Washington,  Major- 
Gen.  Lee,  Major  Thomas  Mifflin,  on  their  way  to  the  Provin- 
cial camp  near  Boston,  "were  escorted  out  of  New  Haven  by 

1  Nathaniel  Jocelyn  the  portrait  painter,  was  born  in  Xew  Haven  in 
1796.  His  miniature  was  painted  by  G.  Munger  in  1817.  "  A  Patriarch  of 
American  Portrait  Painters,"  by  Ellen  Strong  Bartlett,  The  Connecticut 
Magazine. 

2  William  Ives  came  over  in  the  Triielove  to  Boston  in  1635,  and 
joined  the  New  Haven  company.  His  son  Joseph  Ives  married  Mary 
Yale. 


13^     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

a  great  number  of  inhabitants,  two  companies  dressed  in 
their  uniforms,  and  a  company  of  young  gentlemen  belong- 
ing to  the  Seminary  .  .  .  whose  expertness  in  military 
exercises  gained  them  the  approbati9n?}.pf  the  Generals." 

June  28,  I  "/So.  "  Yesterday  passed  .^through  this  town 
on  their  way  to  join  the  American  army,  the  Duke  Laezon 
(Lauzun)  with  his  Legion,  consisting  of  about  600.  The 
strictest  order  and  discipline  was  observed  among  them." 

Nov.  2g,  ij8i.  Notice  of  meeting  of  the  Commissioners 
concerning  the  confiscation  of  the  estate  of  Benedict  Arnold, 
"  late  of  New  Haven  now  joined  with  the  enemies  of  the 
United  States  of  America,"  at  the  dwelling  house  of  Pier- 
pont  Edwards,  Esq. 

The  invasion  of  New  Haven  was  accomplished  by  Gen- 
erals Garth  and  Tryon;  when  the  fleet  appeared  off  Savin 
Rock  on  July  j\,  1779,  one  signal  of  alarm  was  the  lantern 
hung  in  the  old  Woodbridge  oak.  Tryon  landed  at  Light- 
house Point  and  Garth  marched  his  forces  across  West 
Haven  Green;  the  families  in  the  first  houses  they  entered 
were  compelled  to  prepare  them  a  good  dinner;  in  the  old 
Kimberly  house  ^  bullets  mark  their  passage.  Parson 
Williston,  made  prisoner,  \vas  released  by  gallant  Adjutant 
Campbell's  order. 

Great  was  the  excitement  in  New  Haven.  Colonel  Sabin 
called  on  the  militia,  and  Captain  Phineas  Bradley  fortified 
West  Bridge.  Ex-President  Daggett  of  Yale^  peppered 
away  solus  at  the  British  near  Milford  Hill:  an  English 
officer,  surprised  at  the  curious  independence  of  the  old 
gentleman,  cried  out.  "What  are  you  doing,  you  old  fool, 

1  A  quaint  portrait  hangs  in  West  Haven  of  ]\Iary  Kimberly  Reynolds, 
gowned  in  satin-petticoat,  lace  sleeves  and  cap,  a  peculiar  ring  on  her 
forefinger  with  Masonic  devices.  The  ring,  lost  in  a  cornfield,  was  re- 
covered twenty  years  later. 

2  President  Dwight  wrote  a  famous  national  song  of  10,000  lines  dur- 
ine:  the  Revolution. 


Garth's  Invasion  of  New  Haven 


137 


An  Old-fashiojicd  Gardoi,  Milford,  Conn. 

^'Grandmother's  gatherijig  honcsct  to-day; 
hi  the  garrett  she  'U  dry  and  hang  it  away. 
Next  winter  I  'II  'need'  some  boneset  tea — 
1  wish  she  would  n't  always  think  of  me!  " 

Edith  M.  Thomas. 

firing  on  his  ^Majesty's  troops?"  "Exercising  the  rights 
of  war,"  said  President  Daggett.  '*  If  I  let  you  go,  you 
old  rascal. 


will  you  ever  do  it  again?" 


Nothing  more 


13S     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

likely,"  said  the  professor.     He  was  dragged  out  from  his 
cover  and  injuied  fatally. 

The  Blue  Meeting-House  parsonage  was  ransacked. 
Many  houses  were  pillaged  and  Madame  Wooster,^  wife  of 
General  David  Wooster,  first  Major-General  of  the  Con- 
necticut troops,  who  fell  at  Ridgefield,  was  roughly  treated; 
she  sent  her  niece  on  horseback  to  Farmington  with  an  escort, 
and  stood  by  the  guns  with  Prissy,  who  would  not  desert 
her  mistress. 

Mrs.  Seeley  of  New  Haven  was  a  great  Tory.  She  walked 
out  of  church  when  a  thanksgiving  was  offered  after  Bunker 
Hill.  "I  came  here  to  learn  the  way  to  heaven,  not  to 
Bunker  Hill,"  said  she. 

General  Garth  departed  by  New  Haven's  celebrated  Long 
Wharf,  considered  one  of  the  great  enterprises  of  that 
age.  It  is  made  up  of  the  parts  of  the  Island  of  Malta,  the 
Rock  of  Gibraltar,  ballast  from  Sicily,  gravel  from  Dublin, 
and  rocks  from  St.  Domingo  and  other  islands  of  the  West 
Indies.  Commodore  Hull  ran  a  West  Indiaman  from 
this  port,  prior  to  his  command  of  "  Old  Ironsides."  On 
Long  Wharf  the  "Merchant  Princes "^  congregated  on 
business;  and  on  rainy  days,  called  "rat  days"  from  the 
immense  number  driven  out  of  their  holes  by  the  high 
tides,  the  merchants  discussed  trade  at  the  Tavern,  and 
pledged  the  success  of  the  army. 

1  Mrs.  Wooster  was  a  daughter  of  President  Clap  of  Yale,  lineal  de- 
scendant of  John  Rowland  and  Mary  Whiting  of  the  Governor  Brad- 
ford line.  The  Mary  Clap  Wooster  Chapter,  D.  A.  R.,  is  named  for  her; 
a  sketch  of  Mrs.  Wooster  is  in  the  volume  Patron  Saints  of  Connecti- 
cut Chapters,  D.  A.  R. 

2  "Long  Wharf  has  produced  such  men  as  Elias  Shipman,  Henry  Dag- 
gett, Ward  Atwater,  Thomas  Ward,  Solomon  Collis,  Benjamin  Prescott, 
Lockwood  De  Forest,  Russell  Hotchkiss,  Timothy  Bishop."  Thomas 
Rutherford  Trowbridge,  a  Secretary  and  President  of  the  New  Haven 
Colony  Historical  Society,  wrote  with  authority  on  the  Ancient  ^Maritime 


President  Stiles's  Diary 


139 


Professor  Ezra  Stiles  wrote  in  his  Every-day  Diary  in 
1777  concerning  his  election  to  the  Presidency  of  Yale 
College:     "An  hundred  and  fifty  or  an  hundred  and  eighty 


The  William  Walter  Phelps  Gateway  at  Yale. 

Young  Gentlemen  students  is  a  bundle  of  Wild  Fire  not 
easily  controlled  or  governed,  and  at  best  the  Diadem  of  a 


Interests  of  New  Haven,  his  family  being  long  connected  with  shipping 
interests. 


I40    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

President  is  a  Crown  of  Thorns."  President  Stiles  liked 
the  intensely  aristocratic  laws  of  English  Universities,  and 
frowned  down  the  Freshmen  Avhen  they  complained  of  the 
fags  put  upon  them.  AVhen  he  was  inaugurated,  the  pro- 
cession returned  to  the  Chapel  in  the  following  order: 

The  four  classes  of  Undergraduates  consisting  of  ii6 
students  present;  Bachelors  of  Arts:  the  Beadle  and  the 
Butler  carrying  the  College  Charter,  Records,  Key,  and 
Seal:  the  Senior  presiding  Fellow;  one  of  the  Honorable 
Council  and  the  President  Elect;  the  Reverend  Corporation; 
the  Professors  of  Divinity  and  Natural  Philosophy;  the 
Tutors;  the  Reverend  Ministers;  Masters  of  Arts;  Respect- 
able Gentlemen. 

Many  interesting  customs  are  continued  at  Yale.  The 
ivy-covered  buildings  of  the  vSkull  and  Bones,  Scroll  and 
Key,  and  Wolf's  Head  reveal  no  secrets,  but  on  Tap  Day  in 
May  the  undergraduates  assemble  at  the  Senior  Fence  on 
the  thrilling  occasion  of  passing  down  the  honors  of  the 
Senior  Society  by  "tapping"  on  the  campus,  and  a  severe 
"go  to  your  room"  from  the  Senior  to  the  lucky  Junior, 
chosen  for  dignity  of  character,  by  tradition's  decree. 
Exclusive  rights  of  fence  have  increased  as  the  fence  dimin- 
ished. President  Timothy  Dwight  abolished  the  mediaeval 
S3^stem  of  "fagging"  for  the  freshmen  and  the  "Bully"  is 
no  longer  elected  to  rule  in  disputes  between  "town  and 
gown. " 

Steeple  crown  hats  are  seen  no  longer  in  Chapel  at  5 
A.M.,  but  the  unique  and  dignified  custom  of  "  bowing  to  the 
President"  takes  place  at  the  close  of  morning  prayers. 
The  President  descends,  and  proceeds  up  the  Senior  aisle, 
the  Seniors  bowing  from  the  waist  to  the  floor  as  he  passes. 
In  early  days  the  students  were  fined  for  any  misdemeanor. 
One  of  the  early  penalties  was  a  fine  of  one  penny  "for 
tardiness  in  coming  to  prayers."     "Scholars  when  in  their 


Rations  at  Old  Yale 


141 


chambers  shall  talk  Latin." 
"  Every  undergraduate  shall  be 
called  by  his  Sir-name  unless 
he  be  the  son  of  a  noble   man 


or  Knight's 


eldest    son."^ 


In 

1742  it  was  ordered  that  the 
steward  shall  provide  the  com- 
mons for  the  scholars — "for 
supper  2  quarts  milk  and  one 
loaf  of  bread  for  four.  When 
milk  cannot  be  had  then  apple 
pie  wh.  shall  be  made  of  i| 
pounds  of  dough,  J  pound  hog's 
fat,  2  ounces  sugar  and  half  a 
peck  of  apples."  After  all  is 
said,  those  who  live  in  Kipling's 
*'pie  belt"  assert  that  nothing 
can  surpass  in  flavor  a  good 
apple  pie.  A  fanner  was  over- 
heard to  say  on  sending  a  wagon 
load  of  melons  to  the  metropo- 
lis, "  Would  you  believe  it,  them 
dudes  in  the  city  ruther'd  hev 
melons  than  pie  for  breakfast  1 ' ' 

When  Jonathan  Edwards  was 
a  student  at  Yale,  he  wrote  to 
his  father  at  East  Windsor  for 
a  pair  of  dividers,  also  a  book 
on  the  Art  of  Thinking.  *'  P.  S. 
What  we  give  a  week  for  board, 
is  £0.  55.  o(i. " 

In   contrast  to    the    present 


'  "  Orders  and  appointments  to    be 
observed  in    ye    Collegiate    School    in 


Wag  at  the  Wa\ 


14-    Old  Paths  of  the  New  Enorland  Border 


^ 


A  Sheffield  Tea-Service  Used  in   the   old   Maltby    Mansioii, 
Fairhaven,  Conn. 

Splendid  buildings  and  scientific  equipments  at  Yale  Univer- 
sity, Lyman  Beecher's  account  is  interesting.  "  Yale  Col- 
lege then  [1793]  was  very  different  from  what  it  is  now. 
The  main  building  then  was  Connecticut  Hall,  three  sto- 
ries high,  now  South  Middle  College.  .  .  .  As  to  ap- 
paratus .  .  .  there  was  a  four-foot  telescope,  all  rusty : 
nobody  ever  looked  through  it,  and  if  they  did,  not  to 
edification.  There  was  an  air  pump,  so  out  of  order 
that  a  mouse  under  the  receiver  would  live  as  long  as 
Methuselah." 

At  the  base  of  East  Rock  in  a  romantic  vale.  Lake  Whitney 
and  Mill  River  trail  like  a  serpentine  ribbon.  At  the  head 
of  tide-water  stand  the  picturesque  mills  of  Eli  Whitney, 
where  he  retrieved  his  fortunes  by  the  manufacture  of 
firearms,  because  his  early  and  mightiest  invention  brought 
him  nothing  but  vexation  of  soul.  The  writer  saw  the 
crude  hut  on  the  banks  of  a  pleasant  brook  in  Augusta, 
Georgia,  in  which  Mr.  Whitney  first  experimented  with  his 
cotton-gin.  The  story  is  told  by  a  granddaughter  of  Gen- 
Connecticut.  "  From  the  Field  Papers  in  possession  of  the  Connecticut 
Historical  Society.    Also  Professor  Dexter's  Yale  Biographies  and  Annals. 


144    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

eral  Nathanael  Greene  of  the  consummation  of  Whitney's 
experiment  at  the  beautiful  and  hospitable  Dungeness  on 
Cumberiand  Island,  over-canopied  with  live-oaks  and  olive- 
trees.  ]Mrs.  Greene  had  become  interested  in  Mr.  Whitney's 
enterprise  and  invited  him  to  spend  the  ^Adnter  at  Dungeness, 
"where  an  abundance  of  cotton  and  quiet  were  assured." 
One  morning  he  descended  headlong  into  the  drawing-room 
from  his  workshop  in  the  fifth  stor}^  and  excitedly  ex- 
claimed, "The  victory  is  mine."  In  deep  sympathy,  guests 
and  hostess  went  with  him  to  see  the  model  in  motion,  by 
which  Whitney  was  to  change  the  industrial  history  of  the 
world.  For  a  few  moments  the  miniature  saAvs  revolved 
without  hindrance,  and  the  separation  of  the  seed  from  the 
cotton  Vv^ool  was  successfully  accomiplished ;  but  after  a 
little  the  saws  clogged  with  lint — the  wheel  stopped  and 
poor  Whitney  was  in  despair.  "Here  's  what  you  need," 
exclaimed  Mrs.  Greene,  and  instantly  seized  a  clothes- 
brush,  and  held  it  firmly  to  the  teeth  of  the  sa\A's.  "  Madam, ' ' 
said  Whitney,  overcome  with  emotion  and  speaking  with 
the  exaggeration  of  gratitude,  "  you  have  perfected  my 
invention  1" 

On  a  secluded  and  sweet  upland  at  the  edge  of  a  hillside 
wood  lives  the  dear  companion  of  all  youth,  and  good 
Americans  in  particular — Ik  Marvel.  His  "farm  at  Edge- 
wood"  faces  what  appears  to  be  a  thick  wood  pierced  by 
belfries,  spires,  and  towers  in  high  relief  against  purple 
hills;  the  picture's  frame  is  composed  of  Mr.  Mitchell's  own 
beautiful  shrubs  and  trees. 

Passing  through  the  Dutch  door  into  an  hospitable  hall, 
a  familiar  portrait  of  our  host  in  his  youth  reflects  the  eternal 
charm  of  the  pensive  humor  of  the  Reveries.     To  a  querying 

1  "  Recollections  of  Washington  and  His  Friends,"  as  preserved  in  the 
family  of  General  Nathanael  Greene,  by  Martha  Littlefield  Phillips,  Cen- 
tury Magazine,  January,   1898. 


New  Haven's  Unique  Possessions        145 

world,  the  Bachelor  answers:  "I  should  think  there  was  as 
much  truth  in  them  as  in  most  Reveries."  One  can  but 
look  at  his  library  with  emotion,  and  the  room  of  ancestral 
portraits.  From  its  window  is  a  view  of  the  Woodbridge 
hills,  commemorating  a  family  name,  and  who  but  a  man 
with  such  a  Scotch  grandfather  as  Donald  Grant  could  have 
spiced  with  a  piquant  savor  that  comparatively  prosaic 
period  of  American  Letters, — from  the  Mayflower  to  Rip 
Van  Winkle, — "when  the  need  to  do  things 
seemed  so  much  larger  than  the  need  to  write  about 
them"! 

New  Haven  holds  possessions  unique  in  America:  The 
Center  Church  on  the  Green,  modelled  after  St.  Martin's 
in-the-Fields  with  the  Crypt;  the  Jarves  and  Trumbull 
Galleries  of  Yale,  and  Hillhouse  Avenue.  Sachem's  Wood,^ 
high  among  the  oaks,  the  stately  home  of  the  author  of 
Percy's  Masque,  faces  the  avenue  at  one  end,  and  the  hand- 
some building  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  Historical  Society  2 
the  other.  Hillhouse  Avenue  was  private  property  until 
1862,  and  annually  on  some  October  night  IMr.  William 
Hillhouse  and  IMayor  Skinner  used  to  stretch  the  chain 
across  the  entrance. 

The  silvery  bell  of  Battell  Chapel  calls  the  study  hours  as 
you  \valk  by  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  past  the  Avenue's 
historic  houses,  to  obtain  a  view  from  Sachem's  Ridge  and 
the  Winchester  Obser\^atory.     Conspicuous  is  the  beautiful 

1  Senator  James  Hillhouse  (father  of  the  poet  James  A.  Hillhouse),  who 
planted  these  elms  in  i  792,  was  often  called  the  "  Sachem  "  because  of  his 
Indian  complexion,  and  a  joke  of  his  Congressional  confreres  related  to  a 
hatchet  he  kept  in  his  desk.  His  favorite  toast  was  "Let  us  bury  the 
hatchet.  "  The  Hillhouse  estate  has  recently  become  the  property  of 
Yale  University,  and  a  part  of  it  will  be  devoted  to  the  Yale  Forestry 
School.  Hillhouse  Avenue,  fonnerly  Temple  Avenue,  from  iSog-igoo,  by 
Henrietta  Silliman  Dana,  is  an  interesting  sketch  of  its  homesteads. 

2  The  Historical  Society  building  is  a  memorial  gift  of  Henry  F.  English. 
Open  to  the  public  from  9  to  5. 


146    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

tower  of  Christ  Church,  ^  a  rare  example  of  fourteenth- 
century  Gothic,  and  soon  will  rise  the  new  Library  building 
of  Yale. 

Most  notable  in  the  Yale  Library  is  the  Salisbury  Col- 
lection of  Oriental  Languages  and  Literature.  Professor 
Lanman  alludes  to  Edward  Elbridge  Salisbury  as  the  "life 
and  soul"  of  the  Oriental  Society.  He  was  the  founder 
of  the  Oriental  chair  at  Yale  long  filled  by  the  eminent 
William  Dwight  "Whitney. 

Men  of  Yale  distinguished  in  letters  and  science  are  legion; 
Andrew  White  in  his  Autobiography  says:  "Yale  had 
writers,  strong,  vigorous,  and  acute;  of  such  were  Woolsey, 
Porter,  Bacon  and  Bushnell,  some  of  whom,  .  .  .  had 
they  devoted  themselves  to  pure  literature  would  have 
gained  lasting  fame." 

Of  the  collections  in  the  Peabody  Museum, ^  Huxley  says 
that  Professor  Marsh's  Extinct  Mammals  of  North  America 
are  surpassed  by  no  other  collection  in  the  world.  Woolsey 
Hall  contains  the  Steinert  Collection  of  Musical  Instruments. 

In  the  Yale  Art  School  Building  (the  gift  of  Augustus 
Street),  is  the  finest  Gallery  of  early  Italian  Masters  in  the 
country.  James  Jackson  Jarves  was  inspired  in  his  se- 
lection of  rare  works  adorning  the  Chapels  of  the  Old  World. 
It  would  be  out  of  the  question  to  gather  together  anything 

1  The  architect  of  Christ  Church  was  Henry  Vaughn.  The  beautiful 
chancel  window  was  designed  by  C.  E.  Kempe. 

2  Indispensable  to  the  traveller  is  the  Guide  to  New  Haven  and  Yale 
University,  with  maps,  and  including  the  old  houses.  As  supplementary 
reading  carry  also  the  Historical  Sketches  of  AVw  Haven,  by  Ellen  Strong 
Bartlett.  ]\Iiss  Bartlett's  illustrations  of  the  Trumbull  Gallery  and  the 
Center  Church  are  comprehensive,  including  even  the  Tablets  to  the 
Pastors,  which  are  of  unusual  historic  interest;  to  Nicholas  Street,  a 
graduate  of  Oxford  University;  to  Chauncey  Whittlesey,  member  of  the 
Colonial  Assembly,  to  James  Dana  and  the  rest. 

A  Manual  of  the  Geology  of  Connecticut  with  map  has  been  compiled 
by  William  N.  Rice,  Ph.  D.,  L.L.D.  and  Herbert  E.  Gregory,  Ph.  D. 


Washington. 

From  a  photograph  by  William  Radford  of  an  E)igraving  by  Rembrandt 
Pcale  after  his  own  Portrait  of  Washington.  The  artist  made  the  Engraving, 
and  then  apparently  added  the  leaves  around  it.  The  painting  hangs  in  the 
National  Capitol. 

147 


148     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

approaching  it  now,  beginning,  as  it  does,  with  the  first 
known  Itahan  painter  Giunta  of  Pisa,  down  through  Veron- 
ese, Taddeo  Gaddi  and  Spinello.  The  frames  alone  are  a 
rich  study.  One  spans  ages  of  thought  in  stepping  from 
the  Jarves  Gallery  into  the  Trumbull  Gallery,  in  which  we 
meet  face  to  face  the  men  of  Washington's  day  (Colonel 
Trumbull  was  very  exact  in  his  likenesses).  One  is  an 
eve-witness  of  the  events  of  the  Revolution  dramatically 
presented  by  the  Aid-de-camp  of  General  Washington; 
among  patriots  and  heroes  are  Laurens,  Knox,  Rochambeau, 
Schuyler,  IMifflin,  Colonel  Wadsworth  and  Governor  Jona- 
than Trumbull,  Jr.,  whose  daughter  Harriett  married  the 
celebrated  Professor  Silliman  the  elder;  and  surprisingly 
beautiful  miniatures  of  charming  women,  belles  of  that 
day — the  graceful  Eleanor  Custis,  piquant  Peggy  Chew, 
and  the  Hartford  beauty,  Mary  Seymour  Chevenard. 

Trumbull's  full-length  portrait  of  Washington  represents 
the  Chief  at  the  moment  when  resolved  to  retreat  into  the 
country  from  the  banks  of  the  frozen  Delaware.  (This 
portrait,  originally  painted  for  the  city  of  Charleston  in 
1792,  was  presented  to  Yale  by  Governor  Trumbull,  General 
Jedediah  Huntington,  the  Honorables  John  Davenport, 
Benjamin  Talmadge  and  Jeremiah  AVadsworth.)  Wash- 
ington writing  to  Francis  Hopkinson  on  the  subject  of  his 
sittings  for  an  earlier  portrait  says:  "It  is  a  proof,  among 
many  others,  of  w^hat  habit  and  custom  can  effect.  At  first 
I  was  impatient  at  the  request  and  as  restive  under  the 
operation  as  a  colt  is  of  the  saddle.  The  next  time  I  sub- 
mitted very  reluctantly,  but  with  less  flouncing.  Now  no 
dray  moves  more  readily  to  the  thill,  than  I  to  the  painter's 
chair. ' '     Lossing. 

Washington  visited  New  Haven  in  1789,  on  his  tour 
through  New  England. 

The  city  offered  all  hospitality  and  honor  to  the  great 


Washington  Visits  New  Haven  149 

Washington,  recently  inaugurated  as  head  of  the  new 
republic.  In  scanning  the  pages  of  Washington's  own 
account  of  his  tour,  one  notes  illustrious  Connecticut  names. 
It  is  a  striking  fact  that  at  New  Haven,  the  three  chief 
magistrates  who  received  President  Washington  were  all 
Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence — Governor 
Samuel  Huntington,  Lieutenant-Governor  Wolcott  and  the 
^layor,  Roger  Sherman. 


Powder-horn  decorated  with  a  drawing  of  New  Haven  Green 
and  a  troop  of  horse,  and  inscribed,  "  Moldrum.  In  the  42d 
Royal  Highland  Regiment,  His  Powder  Horn  made  at  Crown 
Point,  November  17,  1759.  hi  the  Anson  Phelps  Stokes  Col- 
lection of  antiquities  of  New  Haven. 


THE  TOUR  OF  GENERAL  WASHINGTON  IN  17891 

[In  part ;  jrom  New  York  to  Springfield'] 

"  [New  York]  Thursday,  October  ijth,  lySg. 

"  Commenced  my  Journey  about  9  o'clock  for  Boston  and 
a  tour  through  the  Eastern  States. 

"The  Chief  Justice,  Mr.  Jay — and  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Treasury  and  War  Departments  accompanied  me  some 
distance  out  of  the  city.  About  10  o'clock  it  began  to 
Rain,  and  continued  to  do  so  till  11,  when  we  arrived  at 
the  house  of  one  Hoyatt,  who  keeps  a  Tavern  at  Kings- 
bridge,  where  we,  that  is,  IMajor  Jackson,  ^Ir.  Lear  and 
myself,  with  six  servants,  which  composed  my  Retinue, 
dined.  After  dinner,  through  frequent  light  showers  we 
proceeded  to  the  Tavern  of  a  Mrs.  Haviland  at  Rye;  who 
keeps  a  very  neat  and  decent  Inn. 

"The  Road  for  the  greater  part,  indeed  the  w^hole  way,  was 
very  rough  and  stoney,  but  the  Land  strong,  well  covered 
with  grass  and  luxuriant  crop  of  Indian  Corn  intermixed 
wdth  Pompions  (which  were  yet  ungathered)  in  the  fields. 
We  met  four  droves  of  Beef  Cattle  for  the  New  York  Market, 
(about  30  in  a  drove)  some  of  which  were  very  fine — also 
a  flock  of  Sheep  for  the  same  place.  We  scarceh'  passed 
a  farm  house  that  did  not  abd.  in  Geese. 

"  Their  Cattle  seemed  to  be  of  good  quality,  and  their 
hogs  large  but  rather  long  legged. 

"  Friday  i6th. 

.  .  .  we  breakfasted  at  Stamford,  which  is  six  miles 
further   (at  one  Webb's).     ...     At   Norw^alk,  which  is 

1  Extracts  from  the  Diary  of  Washington:  From  the  first  day  of  October, 
1789,  to  the  tenth  day  of  March,  1790.  From  the  Original  Manuscript 
now  first  printed.  New  York,  1858.  By  permission  of  Estate  of  James 
F.  Joy. 

150 


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h. 

152    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

ten  miles  further  ^ve  made  a  halt  to  feed  our  horses.     To 
the  lower  end  of  this  town  Sea  Vessels  come. 

"  From  hence  to  Fairfield  where  we  dined  and  lodged 
.  .  .  we  found  all  the  Farmers  busily  employed  in 
gathering,  grinding  and  expressing  the  Juice  of  their  apples ; 
The  Destructive  evidences  of  British  cruelty  are 
3^et  visible  both  in  Norwalk  and  Fairfield;  as  there  are  the 
chimneys  of  many  burnt  houses  standing  in  them  yet. 
The  principal  export  ...  is  Horses  and  Cattle — 
salted  Beef  and  Pork — Lumber  and  Indian  Corn  to  the 
West  Indies." 

"Saturday  ly. 

"A  little  after  sunrise  we  left  Fairfield, and  passing  through 
Et.  Fairfield  breakfasted  at  Stratford,  ...  a  pretty 
village  over  near  Stratford  River.  ...  At  this  place 
I  was  received  with  an  effort  at  Military  Parade;  and 
w^as  attended  to  the  Ferry  ...  by  several  Gentlemen 
on  horseback.  Doctor  Johnson  of  the  Senate,  visited  me 
here,  being  wdth  Mrs.  Johnson  in  this  town  (where  he  for- 
m.erly  resided).  The  [Housatonic]  Ferry  is  near  half  a  mile; 
and  sometimes  incommoded  by  winds  and  cross  tides. 
The  navigation  of  vessels  for  about  75  tons  extends  up  to 
Danby." 

"From  the  Ferry  it  is  about  3  miles  to  Milford,  .  . 
In  this  place  there  is  but  one  Church,  or  in  other  words,  but 
one  steeple — but  there  are  Grist  and  Saw  mills,  and  a 
handsome  Cascade  over  the  Tumbling  dam.  .  .  .  From 
]\Iilford  we  took  the  lower  road  through  West  Haven,  .  .  * 
and  arrived  at  New  Haven  before  two  o'clock. 
By  taking  the  lower  Road  we  missed  a  Committee  of  the 
Assembly,  who  had  been  appointed  to  wait  upon  and  escort 
me  into  town — to  prepare  an  address — and  to  conduct  me 
when  I  should  leave  the  City  as  far  as  they  should  judge 
proper.  The  address  was  presented  at  7  o'clock — and  at 
nine  I  received  another  address  from  the  Congregational 
Clergy  of  the  place.  ...  I  received  the  Compliment 
of  a  visit  from  Governor  Mr.  Huntington — The  Lieutenant 


Washington's  Diary 


153 


Governor  Mr.  Wolcott  and  the  Mayor,  Mr.  Roger  Sherman." 
"The  City  of  New  Haven  occupies  a  good  deal  of  ground, 
but  is  thinly,  though  regularly  laid  out  and  built.  The 
number  of  Souls  in  it  are  said  to  be  about  4000.  There 
is  an  Episcopal  Church  3  Congregational  Meeting  Houses 
and  a  College,  in  which  are  at  this  time  about  120  Students 
under  Auspices  of  Doctor  Styles  [Ezra  Stiles]. 


The  first    House    btiilt    outside    the    Palisades,    JMilford,  Conn.      Residence 
of  Mrs.  Xathan  G.  Pond.     Property  of  Charles  W.  Beardslev. 

The   Exports  from  this  City  are  much  the   same  as  from 
Fairfield  &c.,  and  flax  seed,  (chiefly  to  New  York)." 

''Sunday,  i8th. 

*' Went  in  the  forenoon  to  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  in  the 

afternoon   to   one   of   the   Congregational    Meeting-Houses. 

Attended  to  the  first  by  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  Mr. 

Edwards,   and  a   Mr.   Ingersoll,   and  to  the  latter  by  the 


154    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Governor,     the     Lieutenant     Governor,    The     Mayor    and 
Speaker." 

"  These  Gentlemen  all  dined  with  me  (by  invitation),  as 
did  Genl.  Huntington,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Brown,  where  I 
lodged,    and   w^ho   keeps   a   good    Tavern.     Drank    Tea   at 


From  the  Connecticut  River  Wet  hers  field  is  a  view  of  delight  ;  her  Chris- 
topher Wren  spire  nestles  among  the  trees,  and  white  stones  of  the  old  bury- 
ing ground,  like  a  flock  of  sheep  on  the  hillside,  appear  quite  English  and 
pastoral. 

the  Mayor's  (Mr.  Sherman.)  Upon  further  inquiry  I  find 
that  there  has  been  about  .  .  .  yards  of  coarse  Linen 
manufactured  at  this  place  since  it  was  established — and 
that  a  Glass  work  is  on  foot  here  for  the  manufacture  of 
Bottles.     At  7  o'clock  in  the  evening  many  Officers  of  this 


Washington  at  Wallingford 


155 


State,  belonging  to  the  late  Continental  army,  called  to  pay 
their  respects  to  me.  By  some  of  them  it  was  said  that  the 
people  of  this  State  could,  with  more  ease  pay  an  additional 
100,000;/^  tax  this  year  than  what  was  laid  last  year/' 

''Monday  igth. 

''Left  New  Haven  at  6  o'clock  and  arrived  at  Wallingford 

(13  miles)  by  half  after  eight  o'clock,  when  we  breakfasted, 

and  took  a  walk  through  the  town.     ...     At  this  place 

(Wallingford)   we  see  the  white  Mulberry  growing,   raised 


The  old  Home  of  the  Ho)i.  John   Webster,  Fifth  Governor  of  Connecticut, 

Hartford. 

from  the  seed,  to  feed  the  Silkworm.  We  also  saw  samples 
of  lustring  (exceeding  good)  which  had  been  manufactured 
from  the  Cocoon  raised  in  this  Town,  and  silk  thread  very 
fine.  This  except  the  weaving,  is  the  work  of  private 
families,  .  .  .  and  is  likely  to  turn  out  a  beneficial 
amusement.  .  .  .  We  arrived  at  Middletown,  on  Con- 
necticut River,  being  met  two  or  three  miles  from  it  by  the 
respectable   Citizens.     ...      I   took    a  walk  round   the 


15^    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


Chief-Justice  Ellsworth  Mansion,  Windsor,  Connecticut . 
Life-size  Portrait  of  Chief -Justice  Ellsworth  and  Abigail  Wolcott  Ellsworth. 

Town,  from  the  heights  of  which  the  prospect  is  beautiful. 
Belonging  to  this  place,  I  was  informed  (by  a  Genl.  Sage) 
that  there  were  about  20  sea  vessels. 

''Having  dined,  .  .  .  passing  through  a  Parish  of 
Middletown  and  Weathersfield,  we  arrived  at  Hartford 
about  sundown.  At  Weathersfield  we  were  met  by  a  party 
of  the  Hartford  light  horse,  and  a  number  of  Gentlemen 
from  the  same  place  with  Colonel  Wadsworth,  at  their  head, 
and  escorted  to  Bub's  Tavern,  where  we  lodged." 

"  Tuesday  20th. 

"After  breakfast,  accompanied  by  Colonel  Wadsworth, 
Mr.  Ellsworth  and  Colonel  Jesse  Root,  I  viewed  the  woollen 
Manufactory  at  this  place,  which  seems  to  be  going  on  with 
spirit.     Their  Broadcloths  are  not  of  the  first  quality,  as 


Washington  at  Springfield  157 

yet,  but  they  are  good;  as  are  their  Coatings,  Cassimeres, 
Serges  and  Everlastings;  of  the  first,  that  is,  broad-cloth, 
I  ordered  a  suit  to  be  sent  to  me  at  New  York — and  of  the 
latter  a  whole  piece,  to  make  breeches   for  my  servants.   .   .   . 

"Dined  and  drank  tea  at  Colonel  Wadsworth's  and  about 
7  o'clock  received  from,  and  answered  an  Address  of,  the 
Town  of  Hartford." 

''Wednesday,  21st. 

"By  promise  I  was  to  have  Breakfasted  at  Mr.  Ellsworth's 
at  Windsor,  on  my  way  to  Springfield,  but  the  morning 
proving  very  wet,  and  the  rain  not  ceasing  till  past  10 
o'clock,  I  did  not  set  out  till  half  after  that  hour;  I  called, 
however,  on  Mr.  Ellsworth  and  stayed  there  near  an  hour — - 
reaching  Springfield  by  4  o'clock,  .  .  .  examined  the 
Continental  Stores  at  this  place,  which  I  found  in  very  good 
order.  ...  A  Col.  Worthington,  Col.  Williams,  Adjutant 
General  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  Gen.  Shepherd,  Mr. 
Lyman,  and  many  other  Gentlemen  sat  an  hour  or  two  with 
me  at  Parson's  Tavern     .     .     .     which  is  a  good  house.  " 


^^^^H^Sr'  1 

Charter  Oak  Chair. 
Senate  Chamber,  Hartford. 


DEERFIELD   (POCUMTUCK),    1670 

"...     in    the    broad    interval 
Through   which    at    will    our    Indian    rivulet 
Winds  mindful  still  of  sannup  and  of  squaw, 
Whose  pipe  and  arrow  oft  the  plough  unburies, 
Here  in  pine  houses,  built  of  new-fallen  trees, 
Supplanters  of  the  tribe  the  farmers  dwell.  " 

Emerson. 

"  It  is  agreed  that  an  Artiste  be  procured  upon  as  moderate  terms  as 
may  be  that  may  lay  out  the  Lotts  at  Pawcomptuck  to  each  proprietor 
according  to  their  Lawefull  interest.  " — Resolved  at  Dedham  Town  Meeting. 

On  a  terraced  plateau  of  a  valley  within  a  valley  were 
builded  the  homes  of  Deerfield.  The  Pocumtuck  tribe 
once  swarmed  this  vale,  council  seat  of  the  Connecticut 
River  Confederacy:  these  with  their  allies  defied  Uncas 
and  the  Mohegans  in  the  Thames  Valley:  but  the  power 
of  the  belligerent  Pocumtucks  was  finally  broken  by  their 
recent  comrades  in  arms,  the  fiery  ^lohawks,  whose  wig^^ams 
lay  distant  two  suns  beyond  Hoosac  on  the  hither  side  of 
Beverwyck    (Albany).^ 

If  you  will  but  climb  to  the  north  of  Fort  Pocumptuck — 
from  which  the  tribe  was  dislodged  and  annihilated  in 
North  Meadows  by  the  Alohawks  in  revenge  for  the  murder 
of  their  ambassador,  Prince  Saheda, — past  Sachem's  Head 
and  Bear's  Den  to  the  Poet's  Seat,  you  find  yourself  high 
above  the  gorge  where  Pocumtuck  stream — our  Deerfield 
River — turns  abruptly  and  enters  the  Connecticut,  by 
piercing  Pemawachuatuck,  the  Tivisted  Mountain:  it  severs 
the  Great  Beaver's  tail,  driving  royally  through  a  craggy 


'The  first  large  Dutch  settlement  on  the  site  of  Albany,  rich  in  beaver 
was  named  after  Beaverwyk  or  Beaverville  of  the  Fatherland.  The 
beaver  no  longer  build  dams  in  Holland. 


Deerfield — From  the  Poet's  Seat         159 

gate  feathered   by  mountain   pine.     Here   you  may  feast 
on  the  mellow  landscape  of  both  lesser  and  greater  valleys. 

FROM     THE      poet's     SEAT 

See,  below  the  historic  x\lbany  ford,  how — between 
fields  of  tasselled  corn — the  slender  Deerfield  bends  en- 
treatingly  toward  the  rugged  and  sometime  menacing 
foot-hills  of  Hoosac,  where  is  the  boiling  spring,  its  well- 
head; ^\hile  the  superb  Quonetacut  (home  of  the  Sococquis, 
as  Count  Frontenac  called  the  river  Indians)  runs  smiling 
the  entire  length  of  old  Deerfield  township,^  some  twenty- 
five  miles,  and  on  and  on,  broadening  as  it  runs  between 
the  blooming  tobacco  fields  toward  the  cherished  patent  of 
Lords  Say  and  Sele  and  Brooke,  at  last  to  lose  itself  in 
Adrian  Block's  "Great  Bay." 

Look  over  the  blue  hills  and  far  away  to  the  north:  the 
Seigneurs'  territory  of  New  France  is  intrenched  behind  a 
hundred  leagues  of  waving  tree-tops  almost  unbroken  except 
by  Le  Merde  Iroquois  (Lake  Champlain)  with  its  ominous 
Point  a  la  Chevelure  or  Scalp  Rock  (Crown  Point).  For  a 
century,  savage  war-parties  glided  out  of  the  glorious  St. 
Lawrence  down  the  Sorel  or  Richelieu  River,  across  Lake 
Champlain,  over  the  AVinooski,  and  into  the  Connecticut 
to  attack  the  Massachusetts  Reach. 

Again  from  your  Poet's  eyrie  you  can  discern  but  one 
white  man's  road,  through  which  aid  might  come  to  the 
border  during  King  Philip's  War,  that  is,  the  Old  Bay  Path, 
trodden  out  by  Thomas  Hooker  and  by  Pynchon  on  his 
way  to  the  Boston  Council  from  Springfield,  and  later  by 
troops  from  the  Bay  who  marched  double-quick  to  the 
rescue  of  Ouaboag,  Aggawam,  Nonotuck,  Squakeag,  and 
Norwothuck.  The  word  frontier  is  a  cynonym  for  peril, 
which  in  our  Colonies  appeared  as  a  living  Red  Peril. 

iBrookfield,  Springfield,  Xorthampton,  Xorthfield,  and  Hadley. 


i6o    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

How  daring  a  deed  to  set  one's  hearthstone  ^  on  the  North- 
west frontier  at  the  extreme  outpost  of  Deerfield !  2  It  was 
to  fly  EngHsh  colors  in  a  hollow  square  composed  of  wild 


The  SamsoM  Frary  house  on  home-lot  of  i6q8,  residence  of  j\liss  C.  Alice 
Baker.  Section  added  in  1748  for  Town  Hall  with  high  carved  cornices. 
The  kitchen  has  a  huge  summer-beam.  Key-stone  of  fire-place  arch  is  a 
double-sized  brick.  Benedict  Arnold  stopped  here,  ivhen  a  tavern,  to  pro- 
cure beef  for  his  troops.     Oldest  house  in  Connecticut  valley. 


1  Deerfield's  hearthstones  nearly  all  came  from  "Hearthstone  brook."' 
not  far  from  Cheapside  bridge. 

2  Early  Deerfield  included  Greenfield,  Gill,  Conway,  and  Shelburne, 
averaging  g  miles  in  width  below  the  great  bend  at  Peskeompskut  (Tur- 
ner's Falls) ;  it  was  bounded  by  present  Northfield,  Bernardston,  Leyden. 
and  Colrain  on  the  north;  by  Montague,  Whateley,  and  Wilhamsburg 
south;  Connecticut  River  separated  it  from  Sunderland,  Montague,  Ewing, 
and  Northfield;  west  are  Claremont,  Buckland,  Goshen,  and  Ashfield, 
where   George   William   Curtis   and   Charles   Eliot  Norton  held  feasts  of 


Pocumtuck's  Rich  Meadows  i6i 

forests  and  savages.  Yet,  Pocumtuck's  stream  overflowing 
Deerfield's  verdant  plain,  sheltered  by  the  Great  Beaver, 
was  to  the  Colonist  as  another  Jordan  in  a  new  Land  of 
Promise. 

At  least  so  thought  Deerfield's  pioneer,  Samuel  Hinsdell 
of  Hadley,  whose  rude  plough — impatient — disturbed  the 
placid  green  level  of  a  breadth  and  beauty  truly  remarkable. 
Hinsdell  had  "made  Emproument"  of  several  acres, 
before  Lieutenant  Joshua  Fisher  and  Tim_othy  Dwight 
arrived  to  gauge  the  famous  "8000  acre  grant"  of  western 
land  with  which  the  Colonial  Council  had  reimbursed 
Dedham ;  a  generous  slice,  for  leading  men  grumbled  audibly 
at  yielding  up  their  superior  Naticke  meadows  to  Ehot's 
Praying  Indians. 

Lieutenant  Fisher  had  passed  by  the  "Chestnut  country" 
(now  the  beautiful  town  of  Lancaster)  because  too  many 
farms  had  been  pre-empted;  riding  on  over  the  Bay  Path, 
the  ambassadors  had  mounted  the  Connecticut  ten  miles 
above  Hadley  to  these  rich  Pocumtuck  meadows  celebrated 
throughout  the  Province,  because  Major  John  Mason,  ^  by 
purchasing  the  corn-crop  of  1638,  and  persuading  the 
Pocumtucks  to  paddle  forty  canoe-loads  to  Hartford, 
saved  Connecticut  from  starvation. 

The  Dedham  men  reported  fev\'  Indians  and  fair  grazing 
on  the  hillsides  "  Easterlie  and  Westerlie";  also  that   the 


reason.  At  Leyden  Hills,  Henry  Kirke  Browne  the  sculptor  was  born, 
also  in  the  vicinity,  Chester  Harding,  William  M.  Hunt,  and  Larkin 
G.    Mead. 

1  This  was  a  unique  affair  altogether,  for  never  before  in  the  history 
of  conquest  did  a  victorious  General  beg  food  from  the  brothers  of  the 
vanquished;  and  these,  Major  Mason,  ]\Ir.  William  Wadsworth,  and 
Deacon  Stebbins,  who  ascended  Connecticut  Valley  one  hundred  miles 
to  buy  corn,  were  the  first  Europeans  to  enter  Deerfield  Valley. 


i62    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


LANDMARKS :  Arms  Corner  house- 
lot  (1698),  south  end  of  Deerfield 
Street.  Tablet.  V/est  Lots.  Chris- 
topher Stebbins  house  (1712),  home 
and  studio  of  Augustus  Vincent 
Tack.  Col.  John  Hawks-Hoyt  house 
(1810).  Barnard  house,  residence 
Henry     Chiids.  Childs-Russell 

Williams  house,  residence  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Williams  Champney,  stu- 
dio of  the  late  J.  Wells  Champney. 
Squire  John  Williams  house.  Birth- 
place of  Bishop  Williams.  Mehuman 
Hinsdale  house  (1760),  residence  of 
the  Misses  Whiting.  Ephraim 
Williams  house,  residence  of  William 
Williams.  The  Old  Albany  Road. 
Dickinson  Academy.  Benoni  Steb- 
bins lot.  Site  of  Old  Indian  House 
or  Hoyt  Tavern.  Tablet.  Now  home 
of  Mrs.  L.  B.  Wells.  The  First 
Church  (1824),  fifth  building  on 
site.  Joseph  Stebbins  house  (1768), 
Captain  of  Company  in  7th  Regi- 
ment under  Colonel  Brewer,  fought 
at  Bunker  Hill.  Commission  signed 
by  John  Hancock.  Residence 
Hon.  George  Sheldon.  Williams 
house  (1750),  remodelled,  residence 
Miss  Louise  Billings.  Jones  home- 
stead (1750).  John  Sheldon  home- 
stead (1708).  Broughton  lot  ran 
west  to  Broughton's  Pond;  Brough- 
ton family  massacred,  1693.  East 
Lots,  North  End.  Stebbins  home- 
stead. Ebenezer  Hinsdale  house  (old 
house  in  1750 ).  residence  Mrs.  E.  C. 
Cowles.  Allen  house.  Site  Colonel 
David  Field  house  and  store  (1754- 
85),  engaged  in  fur  trade  with  the 
Mohawks,  and  was  Chairman  of 
Committee  of  Correspondence  and 
Safety,     Delegate   to    Constitutional 


meadovv  land  of  Pocumtuck  hath 
a  flavor  akin  to  our  beloved 
home-lots  circled  by  the  alluvial 
Charles,  despite  one  striking  differ- 
ence, Pocumtuck  is  close-hipped 
by  a  curling,  zigzag  ridge.  That 
east  rido^e  of  dangler  to  old- 
timers!  Why  was  the  settler 
blind!  Could  he  not  see  how 
these  very  hills  of  enchantment 
were  eyries  for  the  savage  and 
his  hill-locked  home  an  easy  prey? 
Of  what  use  his  turreted  green- 
log  fort  and  twenty  leafy  look- 
outs above?  In  open  season,  from 
the  budding  of  the  creeping  azalea 
to  the  fall  of  the  mahogany 
shield  of  the  oak,  some  pair  of 
tree-hidden  eyes — never  weary- 
ing— watched  the  farmer's  goings 
and  comings  with  plough,  sickle, 
or  to  miil^;  not  even  a  chicken 
strayed  outside  the  stockade  un- 
marked by  an  arrow. 

Nevertheless,  each  proprietor 
only  saw  in  anticipation  his  luxu- 
rious   crops    bending    under    the 


1  One  brilliant  summer  day,  1695,  a  party  of  villagers  rode  to  mill 
through  South  Meadows  with  bags  of  grain  thrown  across  their  horses. 
(Joseph  Barnard,  first  town  clerk,  Godfrey  Xims,  first  constable  escaped 
from  the  famous  "Falls  Fight,"  Henry  White  and  Philip  Mattoon). 
Deep  in  town  affairs,  unnoticed  was  the  whirr  of  the  meadow  lark,  the 
scarlet  wing  of  the  blackbird,  or  the  song-sparrow,  "All  is  vanity — 
vanity — vanity."  Suddenly  from  an  alder  ambush  sprang  Indians  and 
Barnard  w^as  fatally  wounded  at  "Indian  Bridge.  "     Tablet. 


Legend  of  the  Great  Beaver 


163 


Convention.  David  Sheldon  house, 
residence  Mrs.  Samuel  Childs. 
The  Manse  or  Willard  house. 
Orthodox  Parsonage  on  site  of 
Deacon  Thomas  French  house 
(1703);  previously  lot  of  Quentin 
Stockwell  (1673)  where  Mr.  Mather, 
the  first  minister,  boarded.  Samson 
Frary  house  on  home  lot  of  1698, 
residence  of  Miss  C.  Alice  Baker. 
The  Godfrey  Nims  lot.  Home 
of  the  Deerfield  Society,  residence 
of  the  Misses  Miller.  Lane  to 
Memorial  Hall  (1799)  containing 
Museum.  Orlando  Ware  house. 
Site  Catlin  homestead,  1778-1874. 
The  Catlins  established  a  rope- 
walk  and  made  pewter  buttons. 
Barnard  House.  Arms  Corner. 
Stillwater  Gorge.  In  1746,  after 
surrender  of  Fort  Massachusetts 
to  Gov.  Vaudreuil,  Indians  crossed 
Hoosac  Mountain  by  the  Indian 
path  and  waited  in  hiding  behind 
some  haystacks  in  Stebbins  Meadow 
near  the  beautiful  Stillwater  Gorge. 

References:  Sheldon's  "Deerfield." 
"True  Stories  of  New  England  Cap- 
tives" by  C.  Alice  Baker.  Sketch 
of  George  Fuller  in  "Six  Portraits"  by 
Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer. 
"George Fuller,  His  Life  and  Works." 
Sketches  by  W.  D.  Howells  and 
others. 

Events  in  Deerfield,  according 
to  early  history:  First  grant,  1669; 
began  to  settle  at  Pocumtuck,  1671 » 
Captain  Lothrop's  defeat,  1675; 
began  to  re-settle,  driven  off,  1677; 
commenced  settling  second  time, 
1682;  settled  a  minister  (Mr. 
Williams),  1686;  town  destroyed 
second  time,  1704;  number  of 
inhabitants,  280;  killed  at  the 
sack,  47;  taken  prisoners,  122; 
slain  on  the  way  to  Canada,  19; 
never  returned,  28;  redeemed  from 
the  enemy,  62. 

Agassiz   says  that    the 


western  breeze  from  the  Sunsick 
Hills,  little  dreaming  that  Deer- 
field's  rich  harvest  of  five  years 
hence  was  inadvertently  to  be- 
come a  primal  cause  in  precipi- 
tating the  blackest  day  New 
England  had  as  yet  seen — that 
September  tragedy  when  Mudd}; 
Brook  changed  its  color  and 
name.  It  is  Bloody  Brook  to 
this  day. 

The  Indian  title  was  purchased 
of  the  Sachem  Chaud^  through 
the  good  offices  of  the  great  man 
of  the  Middle  Connecticut  Valley 
— Worshipful  John  Pynchon  of 
Springfield  —  soldier,  diplomat, 
and  fur-trader. 

The  old  squaw  Mashilisk, 
mother  of  Wattewwaluncksin, 
marked  Deerfield's  vsouth  bound 
"To  ye  Lower  Point  of  ye  hill 
called  Wequamps  and  by  ye 
Enghsh  Sugar  loafe  Hill"; 
Mashilisk's  Wequamps  (the  pic- 
turesque southern  knob  of 
Pocumtucke  Range,  an  especial 
glory  of  Hatfield  towering  sheer 
above  pretty  Sunderland  Ferry) 
is  of  high  prehistoric  dignity; 
Connecticut    River  once   occupied 


'Chaud  reserved  "Liberty  of  fishing  for  ye  Indians  in  ye  Rivers  or 
waters  and  free  Liberty  to  hunt  Deere  or  other  Wild  creatures  and  to 
gather  Walnuts,  Chestnuts  and  other  nuts  things  etc.  on  ye  commons." 


i64     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Deerfield  Plain  and  swept  forcefully  around  Sugar  Loaf,  evi- 
dence of  its  seething  tracks  being  a  huge  "pot-hole"  on  the 
craggy  slope.  The  valley  legend  of  the  Great  Beaver  (East 
^Mountain)  as  related  by  a  Pocunituck  Indian  tallies  with 
the  conclusion  of  Agassiz.  This  fragment  has  come  down 
to  us: 

"  Many,  many  suns  in  the  past,  ere  the  wigwams  of  our 
tribe  stood  here,  a  great  lake  rippled  wide  and  long  across 
the  land.  In  its  waters  a  giant  beaver  sported,  and  rav- 
aged all  the  countryside.  Mighty  Hobomok,  wroth,  vowed 
that  the  wicked  one  should  die.  With  an  oak  cudgel  he 
struck  across  the  beaver's  neck — just  there,  O  Netop  [pale 
face],  in  the  hollow  between  head  and  shoulders.  The  fear- 
ful creature  sank  gasping  to  the  bed  of  the  lake  and  his 
carcass  turned  to  stone." 

The  back  of  the  petrified  beaver  ^  rises  to  a  dizzy  shelf, 
Pocumtuck  Rock — "the  East  Eye";  another  vigilant 
sentinel  Avatching  over  Old  Street  is  Arthur's  Seat,  "the 
West  Eye,"  looo  feet  above  tidewater,  near  Shelburne 
line  in  the  Sunsick  Hills. 

The  traA'cUer  of  steady  head  will  delight  to  stand  on 
Pocumtuck  Rock  sheer  above  Eagle  Brook  Plain,  Wisdom 
and  the  Old  World  and  the  Mill,  and  sweep  his  field-glasses 
up  Old  Street  and  North  Meadows  of  pathetic  history  to- 
ward Cheapside,  Country  Farms,  and  hidden  Greenfield, 
besides  Turnip  Yard  at  the  final  slope  of  Great  Beaver's 
back;  south,  below  Wapping  or  Plumbtree  Playne  (whence 
the  captive  Hursts  were  carried  to  Sault  au  RecoUet) ,  far 

'The  geology  of  this  region  is  interesting.  A  rare  collection  of  the 
curious  blue  "  claystones  "  found  largely  on  the  lejt  bank  of  the  Connecticut 
at  low  water  has  been  made  by  the  scientist,  Mrs.  Jennie  Arms  Sheldon 
and  illustrated  in  her  volume,  Concrctio)is  horn  the  Champlain  Clays  of 
the  Connecticut  Valley.  The  flora  hereabouts  is  included  in  Wild  Floivcrs 
of  the  Northeastern  States  by  Ellen  Miller  and  Margaret  C.  Whiting  of 
Deerfield. 


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i66    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

out  bevond  the  Bars,  Indian  Hole,  Squaw  Hole,  Bars  Long 
Hill,  the  Grindstone,  and  Sugar  Loaf,  spread  out  in  Nono- 
tuck  Valley  the  meadows  of  Old  Hatfield  and  older  Hadley ; 
finally  the  brother  peaks  Mount  Tom  and  Mount  Holyoke 
stop  the  way,  picturesque  guardians  of  "Long  tidal  River," 
Quinetahacut. 

DEERFIELD   TOWN    PLOTT 

The  Artiste  divided  Deerfield  Town  Plott  into  long, 
narrow  strips,  the  southerly  end  of  it  being  "att  a  little 
brook  called  Eagle  Brook,"  extending  to  the  falling  ridge 
of  land  at  Samson  Frary's  cellar  on  the  north;  each  planter 
was  obliged  to  set  a  stake  "vvith  the  two  first  letters  of  his 
name,  fairly  written";  if  found  wanting,  he  was  fined  i2d. 
The  Worshipful  John  Pynchon  bought  out  the  Rev.  John 
Allyn  of  Dedham,  thus  owning  the  largest  strip — 54  cow 
commons  and  4  sheep  comxmons  (5  sheep  or  goat  commons 
being  equal  to  i  cow  common).^ 

Four  years  passed  of  peaceful  tilling  and  gathering  of 
harvests,  then  a  runner  left  direful  news  at  farmhouse  doors 
— that  King  Philip  had  at  last  yielded  permission  to  his 
young  braves  to  begin  depredations  in  the  village  of  Swanzey 
while  the  householders  were  sitting  under  the  famous  Welsh 
preacher.  Pastor  Myles,  in  ye  little  Baptist  Church  at  New 
Meadow  Neck.  Worse  yet,  Nipmucks — after  having  am- 
bushed in  a  narrow  defile  the  peace  ambassador  sent  by  the 
Colonial  Council,  Captain  Edward  Hutchinson — had  at- 
tacked Ouabaug  (Brookfield)  with  fire-arrows;  the  "treach- 
erous heathen" — as  Captain  Thomas  Wheeler  calls  the 
Nipmucks  in  his  extraordinary  True  Narrative — "bound  their 


'The  Dedham  men  largely  sold  their  rights;  Serg  Fuller  owned  20  cow 
commons;  Isaac  Bullard  11;  Rob't  Ware  and  Nathaniel  Fisher  15;  Joh. 
Bacon  7;  Jnh.  ffarington  18  and  2  sheep  commons,  etc.  Governor  Lev- 
erett  sold  his  for  ;^6  current  money  and  several  barrels  of  tar. 


Peace  and  King  Philip's  War  167 

arrows  with  cotton  rags  and  brimstone,  lighted  them  and 
shot  at  our  roof  " ;  then,  *'  those  cruel,  blood-thirsty  heathen  " 
rammed  against  the  house  a  fire- wagon,  devised  by  a  pair 
of  cart-wheels  piled  high  with  flax,  hay,  and  candle-wood. 
The  beseiged — some  twenty  men,  fifty  women  and  children 
— raised  a  few  logs  for  a  rampart  and  were  holding  feather 
beds  against  the  windows;  a  holocaust  was  imminent  when 
Major  Willard's  company  appeared. 

The  Indian  fighter.  Captain  Mason,  Captain  Richard 
Beers,  and  Lieutenant  Thomias  Cooper  with  dragoons  and 
Indian  allies  arrived  to  aid  terrorized  Middle  Connecticut 
Valley. 

A  critical  moment!  Should  Mohawks  choose  to  unite 
with  the  eastern  tribes  all  those  villages  lying  between  the 
trading -post  Warranock  or  AVestfield  (the  jealous  rival 
of  Springfield  in  fur  barter)  and  feeble  Squakheag  or  North- 
field,  a  A^eritable  hot-bed  of  Indians,  repeatedly  deserted  and 
repeatedly  garrisoned — in  1688  by  Sergt.  Bigelow  and 
Capt.  Jonathan  Bull  of  Hartford,  sent  by  Gov.  Andros, — 
would  without  doubt  be  caught  in  the  vortex  of  massa- 
cre; especially  Deerfield,  so  daringly  planted  on  the  canoe 
path  of  the  Long  River.  No  "darsnt's"  appear  in  their 
vocabulary. 

Moreover  Red-skin  allies  were  oft-times  like  snakes  in 
the  grass.  Attawamhood  declared  that  the  Indians  made 
"fools  of  the  English,"  signalling  their  approach  to  the 
enemy  by  bird  calls.  Game  was  plenty  hereabouts  in 
season,  but  it  was  often  starvation  on  long  scouts  to  our 
regulars  trained  to  a  full  knapsack;  they  were  not  able 
like  the  Kentucky  Rangers  or  coureur  de  bo  is,  to  march  on 
a  handful  of  parched  corn,  or  like  Indians  to  enjoy  ground 
nuts  and  boiled  moccasin.  An  English  commander,  in  the 
Old  French  War,  on  a  far  western  trail  beyond  Albany,  in 
lieu    of    starvation    accepted    Indians'    pot-luck    and    was 


i68    Old  Paths  cf  the  New  England  Border 

horrified  to  see  a  human  hand  ladled  out — "his  hosts  were 
breakfasting  on  a  dead  Frenchman." 

French  battalions  were  often  in  trouble  because  they 
scorned  to  lay  aside  in  the  wilderness  the  rich  foppery  and 
courtly  magnificence  of  the  Old  Regime.  Yet  the  French 
were  apt  in  cementing  friendship  with  the  saA^age.  Even 
the  splendid  Count  Frontenac,  who  commanded  his  army 
from  a  litter  in  old  age,  stooped  to  gambol  in  their  wild 
dances  to  show^  his  good  fellowship. 

' '  Croivned  Quebec  on  her  Citadel 
Fierce  wild  tales  of  Jier  youth  can  tell. 

The  young  sweet  land  of  La  Nouvelle  France 
Has  its  share  of  Old  World  romance: 
But  sobered  by  time  are  sword  and  goivn. " 

The  Old  Regime,  "Seranus." 

THE    FLOWER    OF    ESSEX 

"  The  fields  shall  grow  yellow  with  ripened  ears,  and  the  red 
grape  shall  hang  upon  wild  brambles.'' — Virgil.  Eel.,  iv. 

The  larder  at  the  seat  of  war  stands  empty.  Commander- 
in-chief  Pynchon  answers  the  starvation  question  by  orders 
that  his  wheat  at  Deerfield  be  threshed — upwards  of  three 
thousand  bushels, — and  detached  Captain  Lothrop  of  the 
Bay  to  convey  the  provender  to  Hadley;  ''seventeen  of  ye 
principal  inhabitants  of  Deerfield"  volunteered  as  team- 
sters. Escorted  by  the  very  flower  of  Essex,  the  wheat 
wagons  rumbled  out  of  the  village  over  the  old  Hadle}^ 
road  across  South  ]\Ieadows  and  Bars  Long  HilL  A  crisp 
September  air  dispersed  all  megrims  of  lurking  danger  and 
the  merry  little  procession  crossed  Eagle  Brook — yonder 
stream  of  golden  shallows  and  playful  cascades,  child  of 
Pemmawachuatuck's    coolins:    height — and    let    down    the 


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170    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Bars.i  (Now  the  Bars  district  is  written  down  as  of  a  bitter 
and  sweet  history,  first  as  a  field  for  scalping-parties,  and  of 
late  the  scene  of  Genius's  peaceful  victories  in  color — the 
almost  unrivalled  color  and  American  charm  of  George 
Fuller.)  Another  half -hour  and  the  road  led  the  commissary 
relief-party  through  a  bog,  fringed  with  wild  grape  tangles 
and  scarlet  dogw^ood — just  such  grape  vines  as  delighted 
the  Norsemen.  Guns  were  carelessly  left  on  the  grain-bags 
whilst  heedless  yeomen  jumped  down  to  supplement  the 
hasty  sunrise  breakfast  with  at  least  one  luscious  cluster — 
"which  proved  dear  and  dead  grapes  to  them, "  says  Cotton 
Mather.  In  a  twinkling  out  of  the  innocent  marsh  rose  a 
shower  of  poisoned  arrows  and  the  harsh,  distracting  war- 
whoop,  close-pressed  by  tomahawks  and  scalping-knife 
of  eagle-plumed  warriors,  whose  tawny  backs  had  been 
indistinguishable  from  the  mire.  Captain  Mosely  rushed 
in  too  late.  Of  the  valiant  husbandmen  only  John  Steb- 
bins  2  escaped,  and  all  New  England  mourned  with  Deer- 

1  The  Bars  Gate  was  closed  each  day  in  the  fall  to  fence  the  cattle  so 
they  might  feed  in  the  valley  until  snow-time,  after  coming  down  from 
the  summer  hill  pastures,  where  the  stock  was  allowed  to  run  at  large. 

At  all  roads,  gates  had  been  set  up  except  that  leading  from  Hatfield 
into  South  Meadows,  where  there  were  a  set  of  bars;  this  Deerfield  district 
was  the  scene  of  the  Bars  Fight. 

Here  Edward  Allen  and  his  wife  were  killed  by  Indians ;  Samuel  Allen 
also  on  the  meadows  north  of  the  Burk  homestead,  "while  valiantly 
defending  his  children."  Eunice  was  tomahawked  but  recovered;  the 
boy  Samuel  was  taken  but  rescued  because  of  the  gratitude  of  a  squaw. 
These  were  oral  historians  of  fearful  events.  The  Allen  homestead  became 
the  studio  of  George  Fuller,  who  was  born  in  the  Locke  house  opposite, 
now  the  home  of  George  Spencer  Fuller,  Esq.  Enneking  says:  "Many 
Americans  beside  Whistler  rank  high  as  simon-pure  impressionists ;  among 
them  George  Fuller  takes  the  highest  rank.  " 

First  gate-keepers:  Eleazer  Hawks  had  charge  of  the  Bars,  John 
Broughton  of  the  north  gate,  Samuel  Xortham  the  middle  gate,  Jonathan 
Wells  at  Eagle  Brook,  Ephraim  Beers  at  Wapping. 

2  John  Stebbins,  the  only  man  known  to  come  out  w^hole  from  the 
massacre,  was  grandson  of  Rowland  Stebbins,  the  family's  founder  in 


Photograph  by  Frances  and  Mary  Allen. 

The  Old  South  Door 
Of  ye  Nims  homestead,  through  which  Revolutionary  volunteers  went  out 
to  war.  De  Rouville's  Indian  allies  tragically  burned  the  first  house 
on  this  lot,  that  of  Godfrey  Nims,  cordwainer,  and  "captivated"' 
Mistress  Mehitable  Nims  and  little  Abigail;  now  the  home  of  the 
*' Bine  and  White"  Society,  residence  of  the  Misses  Miller. 


Deerfield  Old  Street  171 

field,  for  were  not  "six  and  twenty  children  made  orphans 
all  in  one  little  Plantation?  " — moreover,  brave  Captain 
Lothrop  and  his  "choice  company  of  young  men  none  of 
whom  were  ashamed  to  speak  to  the  enemy  within  the 
gate"  lay  slain. 

The  Bloody  Brook  still  ripples  by  the  black  mountainside . "  ^ 

(From  Sugar  Loaf's  rock  chair  above,  tradition  says  that 
King  Philip  watched  the  fray,  as  he  actually  did  w^atch  the 
burning  of  Seekonk  seated  in  a  great  arm-chair.  2)  To 
Moseley's  aid  came  Major  Treat,  being  out  on  a  north  scout; 
the  Indians  retreated,  crossing  the  river  at  the  glorious 
gorge  of  Stillwater  shouting:  "Come,  Moseley!  Come! 
you  seek  Indians,  you  want  Indians,  here  's  Indians  enough 
for  you!" 

They  stopped  only  to  wave  the  garments  of  the  English 
before  the  families  of  their  victims  in  Deerfield  fort :  Captain 
Appleton  sounded  the  trumpet,  and  the  miscreants  disap- 
peared up  the  trail  through  Wisdom  and  Greenfield  at  the 
right  of  the  present  Eunice  Williamis  monument. 

DEERFIELD   OLD   STREET 

Sauntering  along  witching  Deerfield  Old  Street  and  up 
the  slight  rise  of  Meeting-House  Hill,  you  read  beneath 
each  gable  and  lean-to,  and  carved  door  flecked  with  elm 

America.  Lothrop  lost  men  from  Lynn,  Romney,  Cambridge,  "  Ould 
Xewbury";  John  Parke  of  Watertown  received  a  pension,  £2.  los.,  for 
a  wound  in  the  elbow. 

i  The  ballad  of  Bloody  Brook  w^as  read  by  the  author,  Edward  Everett 
Hale,  at  the  anniversary  of  1888.  Previously  Edward  Everett,  "our 
first  citizen "  as  Dr.  Holmes  called  him,  delivered  one  of  his  incompa- 
rable orations  at  Bloody  Brook,  and  is  by  interesting  coincidence  de- 
scended from  a  settler  of  Dedham — Richard  Everard. 

2  King  Philip's  arm-chair  is  preserved  by  the  Antiquarian  Society  of 
Rehoboth.  See  Old  Paths  and  Legendj  of  New  England,  Vol.  I.,  chapter 
on  Rehoboth;  also  Swansea,  for  the  opening  of  King  Philip's  War,  and 
Dedham. 


1/2    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

shadows,  tales  of  strange  captures  and  stranger  escapes  by 
the  old  men,  sturdy  youths,  and  Vv'insonie  maids  of  border 
days;  for  eighty-nine  years  of  long  winter  evenings  house- 
mothers shuddered  at  the  shrieking  blast  lest  it  smother 
a  war-w^hoop,  and  called  to  "father"  to  draw  the  shutter 
bars.  Yet,  when  one  family  was  devoured  by  Indians,  an- 
other, by  sheer  pluck,  built  a  house  on  the  ashes  of  the  first. 

Two  child  neighbors  were  carried  into  captivity,  to  meet 
later  as  strangers,  fall  in  love,  and  marry  at  Sault  au  Recollet 
fort ;  one  little  Abigail,  daughter  of  Godfrey  Nims,  baptized 
into  the  Catholic  faith  and  called  To-wat-a-go-nach  by  the 
squaw  Ganastarsi  with  Vv'hom  she  lived;  the  other,  her 
sweetheart,  Josiah  Rising,  was  carried  from  the  house  of 
Alehuman  Hinsdell,  "tvdce  captured  by  Indian  Salvages," 
known  to-day  as  "Tne  Harrow"  of  the  Blue  and  White 
group,  standing  south  of  Dickinson  Academy;  the  latter 
is  built  on  the  site  of  Parson  Williams's  parsonage,  burned 
at  "The  Sack,"  which  stood  hard  by  ye  Old  Indian  house, 
whose  ponderous,  battered  oak  door  with  tomahawked  hole 
- — through  ^^hich  ^Mistress  Ensign  Sheldon  was  shot  in  her 
chamber — is  conspicuous  in  the  Deerfield  collection  at  Memo- 
rial Hall  (having  been  saved  by  Dr.  Slade^  of  Chestnut  Hill), 

Pathetic  there  is  the  worn,  wee  shoe  of  the  little  captive, 
Sally  Coleman,  four  years  old,  one  of  the  spoils  of  Ashpe- 
lon's  raid,  and  in  the  first  party  led  to  Canada.  Sally  dropped 
its  mate  in  a  brook  during  the  long  journey.  By  unrest- 
ing demands,  Benjamin  Waite  and  Stephen  Jennings  had 

1  Visitors  and  historians  are  immeasurably  indebted  to  the  zeal  of  the 
Honorable  George  Sheldon  in  making  accessible  here  at  Memorial  Hall 
a  remarkable  objective  history  of  Deerfield  and  Pocumtuck  Valley.  Mr. 
Sheldon's  History  is  a  monument  to  Colonial  heroes,  many  of  whom  would 
otherwise  have  been  lost  in  obscurity.  Mr.  Sheldon  has  also  published 
The  Journal  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Dwight;  The  Little  Brown  House  on  the 
Albany  Road;  The  Flintlock  Used  in  King  Philip's  War  and  other 
monographs  of  Deerfield. 


Child  Captives  173 

ransomed  their  families  and  the  little  girl  travelled  home  to 
Hatfield  by  Lake  Champlain,  Lake  Saint  Sacremxent  (Lake 
George),  and  the  Albany  Road,  but  not  before  seeing  Ser- 
geant Jonathan  Plympton,  who  had  fought  stoutly  with 
]\loseley's  troop,  led  unmo\'ed  to  the  stake  by  his  friend 
Obadiah  Dickinson.  This  tiny,  battered  shoe  is  expressive 
of  umvritten  pioneer  martyrdoms,  and  is  as  precious  to  pa- 
riots,  as  was  to  pilgrimi  of  scrip  and  staff,  the  finger  encavSed 
in  silver  of  the  greatest  of  the  seven  thousand  virgins  in 
the  beautiful  Church  of  St.  Ursula. 

Quentin  Stockwell  says  in  his  dramatic  relation  that  it 
was  through  Chief  Ashpelon's  intervention  that  all  were 
not  tortured  or  burned. 

"AVe  were  like  to  starve.  All  the  Indians  went  a  Hunting 
but  could  get  nothing:  Powwow'd  and  got  nothing,  then 
they  desired  to  see  what  the  Englishman's  God  could  do. 
I  prayed,  so  did  Sergeant  Plympton.  .  .  .  The  Indians 
reverentlv  attended  Morning  and  Xight:  next  day  they 
got  Bears.  "  One  bear's  foot  served  five  captives  for  twenty- 
four  hours. 

Count  Frontenac  benevolently  sent  four  Gentlemen  of 
his  Household  and  a  guard  to  escort  the  captives  across  the 
border.  Benj.  Waite  writes  from  Albany  to  Hatfield  to 
hasten  aid:  '^Stay  not  for  tJie  SabbaiJi,  nor  for  tJie  shoeing 
of  horses.  We  shall  eiideovor  to  meet  yon  cJ  Canterhook 
[KinderJiook],  it  may  be  at  Housatonnck  [Great  Barrington]- 
We  mnst  come  very  softly  because  of  onr  wives  and  children.  " 

That  was  a  triumphant  and  pathetic  procession  welcomed 
in  broad  Hatfield  Street  led  by  the  rescuers  carrying  each  a 
babe,  born  in  bondage — Captivity  Jennings  and  Canada 
Waite.  Some  were  much  altered  by  hardships:  one  mother 
did  not  recognize  her  own  boy,  so  she  sang  the  child's  fa- 
vorite hymn,  and  he  ran  into  her  arms. 

Old    Street's  mellow  serenity  this  leafy  month  is  intensi- 
fied by  contrast  to  "Injun  days."     On  both  sides  of  the 


1/4    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

road,  hiding  among  huge  elm  roots  which  break  the  sod, 
the  dandehon  doubles  its  yellow  crest  and  long-stemmed 
purple  violets  open  wide  eyes  at  a  stranger's  intrusion  thus 
early  in  summer.  A  whiff  of  rich  fragrance  from  the 
haughty  Persian  lilac  in  a  front  door-yard  brings  back 
February  days  in  tropical  New  Orleans  vrhere  you  discern 
an  unaccountable  delicate  odor,  long  ere  you  arrive  at  the 
source  of  the  sweetness — the  rose-trimmed  arch  gate  or 
the  sweet-scented  olive  tree  a  block  away.  There  at  your 
left,  on  the  old  Sheldon  place,  half-way  between  the  church 
and  North  Meadows,  is  an  apple-tree  bank.  The  pink  and 
white  blossoms  have  but  recently  fallen  on  the  tribe's 
sepulchre  here  overlooking  the  river.  How  marked  is  the 
savage  understanding  of  the  beautiful !  That  which  Thoreau 
says  of  Old  Bedford  of  Middlesex,  is  true  of  this  Deerfield 
bluff:  "  The  land  still  hears  the  scar  here,  and  time  is  slowly 
crumbling  the  hones  of  a  race.  Yet  without  fail  every  spring 
since  they  first  fished  and  hunted  here,  the  hrown  thrasher  has 
heralded  the  morning  from  a  birch  or  alder  spray,  and  the 
undying  race  of  reed-birds  still  rustle  through  the  withering 
grass.     But  these  bones  rustle  not.'" 

You  delight  in  the  springy  earth  path  running  straight 
to  its  close  in  a  triple  row  of  maples  on  the  North  Terrace 
and  seat  yourself  under  a  leafy  green  umbrella  facing  the 
Leyden  Hills,  North  Meadows  in  the  inter.' al  between. 

The  country  path  compels  reverie,  just  as  gray  asphalt 
and  red  brick  incite  that  peculiar  exhilaration  of  great 
human  marts  where  mind  flashes  electric  and  creative^ 
under  counter-currents;  but  once  irresistible  Spring  enters 
the  City  she  turns  hurrying  feet  toward  the  calm  hills 
against  the  blue. 

The  hush  of  the  mowing-land  is  broken  by  an  ox-cart's 
creaking  as  it  trundles  along  against  the  dark  low  back- 


17^    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

ground  of  Pine  Hill.  The  farm-boys  cool  off  under  the 
nooning  oak,  ''the  Dinner  Tree,"  so-called  by  Deerfield 
school -children  as  far  back  as  Revolutionary  Days.  A 
bird  of  velvety  coal-black  wings  and  white  breast  sets  his 
tall  reed  swinging  next  a  burdock  b\^  the  brook  and  whistles 
softly  in  free,  careless  joy,  for  are  we  not  both  guests  of 
Lowell's  "frank-hearted  hostess" — June,  *' whose  roof  is 
every  spreading  tree " ! 

".4   week  ago  the  sparrow  ivas  divine; 
The  bluebird,  shifting  his  light  load  of  song 
From  post  to  post  along  the  cheerless  fence. 
Was  as  a  rhymer  ere  tJie  poet  come; 
But  now,  oh  rapture!  sunshine  winged  and  voiced 

Gladness  of  woods,  skies,  waters,  all  in  one 
The  bobolink  has  come.     .     .     ."  ^ 

Trasfedv  holds  vou  on  the  careen  bank  all  the  loner  after- 
noon;  you  count  certain  treacherous  footsteps  creeping 
vdth  cruel  intent  toward  village  stockade;  again,  footsteps 
retreating,  as  one  train  after  another  of  lagging  captives 
cross  Deerfield  North  Meadows,  at  this  moment  surpass- 
ingly beautiful  in  two-mile  reach  flecked  with  flowers.  No 
fence  of  the  owners  interrupts  the  shaded  sea  of  color,  only 
Plain  vSwamp  Brook  sweeping  toward  Cheapside,  the  pretty 
hillside  village,  formerly  Green  River  and  an  important 
post  at  the  head  of  Connecticut  River  navigation,  now 
possessed  of  seven  bridges  across  her  three  rivers. 

Looking  backward  many  suns  into  a  half-legendary 
mirror,  the  beat  of  tom-toms  mingles  with  cries  of  aboriginal 
battle,  as  IMohawk  drives  Pocumtuck  out  of  his  Fort  Hill 
stronghold  and  slaughters  him  in  his  corn-field.  Pine 
Hill's  skirts  were  as:ain  and  asrain  smirched  with  red  during 


J  Under  the  Willows,  James  Russell  Lowell. 


Deerfield  North  Meadows  177 

Anglo-Saxon  possession,  yet  she  lifts  her  rounded  green 
head  serenely  oblivious  to  world  tumult.  Under  Kine 
Phihp's  sceptre  Pine  Hill  saw  the  spoilers  of  Bloody  Brook 
fly  past  under  swamp  and  sugar  maple  of  flaming  red  and 
gold,  and  at  the  opening  of  Queen  Anne's  War  witnessed  the 
approach  of  Sieur  Hertel  de  Rouville  and  his  four  handsome 
brothers  with  a  band  of  Caughnawagas  and  Abenakis. 

The  exceeding  great  ambition  of  his  Majesty  Louis  XIV., 
punished  in  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  was  the  indi- 
rect cause  of  the  flood  which  overwhelmed  a  few  inoffen- 
sive villagers  in  the  Massachusetts  Province  of  Queen  Anne, 
Deerfield' s  disaster  being  but  the  tail-end  of  a  tidal  wave 
of  European  discord.  The  policy  of  "Good  Queen  Anne" 
lay  less  in  war  than  in  distributing  her  famous  "Bounty," 
of  which  our  colonial  churches  possess  tokens,  and  in  stimu- 
lating Pope,  Swift,  and  other  wits  of  the  Augustan  age,  who 
assembled  at  Wills'  Coft^ee-house  in  Covent-Garden;  yet 
through  her  romantic  fondness  for  a  lady  of  her  bedchamber 
— the  strong-minded  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marlborough — 
Anne,  last  of  the  Stuart  dynasty,  was  persuaded  to  declare 
war  against  France. 

Responsively,  in  New  France  Governor  Vaudreuil  began 
depredations  at  "Guerrefille,"  glad  of  any  excuse  to  bind 
as  allies  the  vacillating  and  wolfish  Abenakis,  panting  for 
more  plunder  and  \-ictims ;  this  tribe  mnght  so  easily  go  over 
to  the  English,  their  villages  on  the  Saco  and  Kennebec 
being  dangerously  nigh  Governor  Dudley's  Boston,  ^lore- 
over,  the  French  dared  not  rouse  the  Iroquois,  so  the 
Governor  sent  a  war-party  three  thousand  miles  from  Roval 
I\Iount  to  bag  a  handful  of  New  England  farmers  instead  of 
bigger  game  at  Albany. 

It  happened  that  in  1704,  "the  old-fashioned  frump,  a 
very  hard  winter  had  laid  in  great  stores  of  snow  with  great 
raving  winds."     A  Februarv  thaw  had  crusted  the  snow 


1/8     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

in  one  boundless  ice-sheet,  circling  the  forty-one  houses  of 
our  Puritan  outpost,  and,  as  the  blacksmith  said,  *'it  was 
cold  as  the  north  side  of  a  Jenooery  gravestone  by  starlight." 
Sieur  de  Rouville  left  the  Pickomegan  (Green  River)  and 
advanced  along  the  Deerfield,  halting  to  reconnoitre  under 
the  west  pines;  the  trappeur  drew  his  pointed  toque  and 
gray  cloak  more  closely  under  the  bitter  chill  preceding 
dawn;  discarding  snowshoes,  the  half-starved  band  again 
advanced,  carrying  plentiful  cords  to  bind  the  fluttering 
EnHish  birds  whom  thev  should  snare,  and  now  and  ao^ain 
stopping,  that  the  crunching  under  so  large  a  body  might 
appear  but  the  rising  and  falling  of  the  wind.  Up  they 
crawled  on  the  natural  ladder  of  a  huge  drift  meeting  the 
top  of  the  palisade.  A  dreamless  sleep  enwrapt  the  inno- 
cent village,  likewise  the  sentinel  lulled  by  a  mother's  song 
to  a  teething  babe;  this  one  night,  alack  the  day,  Colonel 
Peter  Schuyler's  warning  ^  w^as  forgot  and  Parson  Williams 
unheeded,  having  cried  w^olf  too  often.  Raging  wnth  desire 
for  food  and  plunder,  the  "red  varmints"  dropped  within. 
The  blockhouse  of  Sergeant  Benoni  Stebbins  2 — bullet- 
proof by  virtue  of  bricks  between  sheathings — was  aroused 
by  the  awful  w^ar- whoops  and  death-cries  of  its  neighbors. 

1  The  vigilant  commander  of  the  northern  mihtia,  Colonel  Peter  Schuy- 
ler, Mayor  of  Albany,  had  forewarned  Deerfield  of  the  designs  of  French 
and  Indians,  says  Chancellor  Kent.  Colonel  Schuyler  understood  and 
had  more  influence  with  the  Confederacy  of  the  Five  Nations  than  any 
other  man.  He  chastised  the  Canadian  French  for  destruction  of  frontier 
settlements.  (Xew  York  Historical  Society  Collections.)  Colonel 
Schuyler  also  (in  1710)  presented  through  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury  to 
Queen  Anne  the  "four  Indian  Kings,"  who  created  a  great  sensation  in 
London. 

2  The  Stebbins  garrison  sheltered  several  families :  Deacon  David  Hoy t 
(later  captured  and  starved  to  death  at  Coos  Meadows,  now  Newbury, 
Vt.),  Joseph  Catlin,  and  Benjamin  Church  were  there:  the  women  melted 
all  the  silver  and  pewter,  and  the  enemy  was  kept  at  bay  three  hours  until 
aid  arrived  under  Captain  Jonathan  Wells,  who  drove  the  invaders  to 
Pine  Hill. 


The  Sleeping  Village 


1/9 


Ell  of  the  John  Sheldon  Homestead,  Deerfield,  I\Iass., 
Home  of  Five  Generations,  and  Handed  down  to  the 
Hon.  George  Sheldon. 

Silence  Hoit  "peeped  cautiously  out  of  a  little  dormer- 
window.  Deerfield  village '  was  roaring  with  ilames,  the 
sky  and  snow  were  red,  and  leaping  through  the  glare  came 
the  painted  sav^age,  a  savage  white  face  and  the  waving  sword 
of  a  French  officer  in  their  midst.  "^ 

1  Silence,  and  Other  Stories,  by  Mary  E.  Wilkins  Freeman.  Copyright, 
iSqS,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 

The  vivid  drama  of  Silence  is  akin  to  experiences  of  many  a  maid  in  the 
French  and  Indian  wars,  and  Miss  Wilkins  has  by  her  art  made  fiction 
appear  more  true  than  reaHty  itself. 


i8o    Old  Paths  of  the  New  Enofland  Border 


^5 


Hatfield,  Hadley,  and  Northampton  interpreted  the  glare 
in  the  heavens  as  Indians  and  flew  to  the  rescue,  meeting 
distracted  John  Sheldon,  half -frozen,  bringing  news  of  the 
Sack.  At  Chicopee  the  friends  of  Sheldon's  sw^eet  young 
wife,  Hannah  Chapin,  nodded  to  each  other,  saying,  "  Now, 
truly,  she  hath  sad  need  of  that  pelisse,  "  for  they,  in  jest,  had 
quilted  the  future  bride's  wedding  cloak  of  double  thickness, 
three  months  before,  laughingly  saying;  "in  case  the 
Indians  should  carry  thee  off  to  Canada. "  Hannah  Chapin 
proved  herself  a  heroine,  for  the  leap  out  of  the  w^indow  of 
Ensign  Sheldon's  house  (always,  after  that  night,  the  Old 
Indian  house)  sprained  her  ankle,  which  destined  her  to 
captivity,  yet  she  tore  a  blanket  in  strips  to  protect  John 
Sheldon's  feet  and  urged  him  to  leave  her  and  alarm  Hat- 
field. The  pioneers  drove  out  the  enemy,  and  the  remnant 
of  the  tow^n  took  refuge  at  Captain  Wells's  without  the 
stockade,  he  having  a  palisade  all  his  own. 

Footsteps  on  the  creaking  snow^  of  Deerfield  Street  and  a 
light  s\Aish  of  petticoats,  it  is  Silence  looking  over  the 
meadow  to  the  north.  ''David!  David!  David!"  she 
calls,  her  fair  wdts  slipping  away  w^ith  each  step  of  her  lover 
tow^ard  Canada.  Widows  Bishop,  hastening  after,  harshly 
admonishes  her  to  go  to  spinning:  "There  is  scarce  a  yard 
of  hnen  left  in  Deerfield."  Seven  months  later,  according 
to  Goody  Crane's  prophecy,  the  moon  an  hour  high.  Silence 
at  last  recognizes  David  returning  across  the  meadow  with 
a  white  sheep's  fleece  over  his  shoulders. 

Go,  gentle  gales,  and  bear  my  siglis  along 
The  birds  shall  cease  to  tune  their  evening  song, 
The  woods  to  breathe,  the  waving  woods  to  move, 
And  streams  to  murmur,  ere  I  cease  to  love,^ 


1  Pope  wrote  his  Aiitumn  Pastoral  that  same  remarkable  year  of  1704 
when  the  genius  of  Prince  Eugene  and  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  won 
Blenheim,  and  the  renown  of  British  arms  was  rising  to  an  unsurpassed 


The  Deerfield  Massacre  and  Alarm        i8i 

CARRIED  CAPTIVE  TO  CANADA 

Watch  our  forlorn  captives  fording  Green  River's  icy 
current,  running  at  too  swift  a  pace  to  freeze,  yet  in  mid- 
summer, how  deUciously  cool  and  transparent.  John  Wil- 
liams walks  erect  and  austere  among  the  French,  who  exult 
not  in  their  victory,  being  sobered  by  the  repulsiveness  of 
Indian  warfare,  and  the  savages'  broken  promise  to  De 
Rouville  to  fight  like  civilized  Frenchmen.  Little  Eunice 
is  carried  carefully  by  Whistling  Serpent^  and  her  youngest 
brother  Samuel  dragged  on  one  of  the  sledges  (recovered 
at  Brattleboro)  over  frosted  lake  and  river,  for  children 
are  valuable  assets  as  future  converts  ^  to  the  governing  faith 
of  the  seigneurs:  likewise  the  boy  can  hunt  and  fish  for  his 
indolent  owner.  The  mother  Eunice,  drenched  and  fainting, 
is  put  to  death  by  her  Indian  master.  Blind  with  grief, 
Parson  Williams  stumbles  on,  laden  with  smoked  moose 
and  suffering  painful  cramps  of  mal  a  la  raquette,  yet  cheering 
his  fellows  by  reciting  from  the  Good  Book.  The  savages 
threaten  them  with  burning  alive,  should  one  escape. 
What  an  extraordinary  experience  for  the  followers  of 
John  Cotton  and  Increase  Mather!  At  evening  the  biA^ouac 
in  the  forest :  the  snow  swept  aside  in  a  circle,  around  a  fire 
crouch  hardy  Canadians  hooded  like  Capuchin  monks,  and 
savages  fantastic  in  war-paint,  remnants  of  their  last  dance 


pitch  of  glory.  Neither  General  nor  Poet  probably  cast  half-a-thought  on 
contemporary  wars  or  loves  across  the  Atlantic.  Yet,  a  few  years  later, 
England  talked  of  nought  else  than  the  presentation  at  Court  of  the  Amer- 
ican Kings,  and  the  Spectator's  sparkling  satires  on  the  Mohawk  petitioners. 

1  "Whistling  Serpent"  is  the  name  given  to  Eunice's  Mohawk  master 
by  ]\Irs.  Champney,  who  has  written  Eunice's  strange  adventures  for 
children — Great  Grandmother's  Girls  in  New  France.  Mrs.  Champney 
talked  with  descendants  of  the  Caughnawagas  and  searched  Jesuit 
"  Relations." 

2  Jesuit  zeal  possessed  converts  among  Iroquois  of  the  Saut  and  Moun- 
tain, Abenakis  of  the  Chaudiere,  Hurons  of  Lorette,  Algonquins  of  Three 
Rivers. 


i82    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


The  Stoop  of  Parson  Williams  Homestead  on  road  to 
Albany,  hiiilt  in  lyoy  by  the  town  for  their  "Re- 
deemed Captive,"  to  replace  his  parsonage  burned 
in  the  Sack.  The  salary  of  the  Rev.  John  Wil- 
liams, a  Harvard  graduate  was  payable  in  pork, 
wheat,  and  Indian  corn. 

in  the  Mission  Square  of  Sault  St.  Louis  (Caughnawaga) .  ^ 

Hither   to    Kanawake — "By   the   rapid" — they   carried 

Eunice,  child  of  Puritans,  and  the  Jesuit  taught  her  to  forget 

her  catechism,  to  the  grief  of  her  father.     Like  the  Uttle  cap- 

1  Kanawak^,  or  Caughnawaga,  is  situated  at  the  head  of  Sault  St.  Louis 
Rapid  opposite  Lachine,  about  twelve  miles  from  Montreal. 


The  Convert  at  Caughnawaga  183 

tive  Mary  Field/  daughter  of  the  courageous  Field  pioneers 
who  braved  several  Deerfield  massacres,  Eunice  espoused  an 
Indian,-  taking  also  to  her  heart  the  wilderness  customs  and 
dress.  Perchance  she  sang  also  the  songs  of  ancienne 
mere-patrie  which  floated  from  the  passing  raft,  or  that 
plainti\-e  Caughnawaga  song — "  Rinonwes  rinonwes,  Ra- 
keni"  (translated  by  a  son  of  a  vSix-nation-chief,  John 
Waniente  Jocks,  in  Songs  of  the  Great  Dominion) : 

Maiden: 

''Well,  father,  what   is  thy  word? 
Aly  spirit  is  now  to  marry. " 

Father: 
''  AsJiamed  he  thou,  iny  child — 
Thou  whom  I  hold  my  little  one, — 
Thou  art  yet  too  young; 
Thou  canst  not  get  thee  thy  food. " 

Maiden  (in  the  words  of  the  chorus) : 
"/  love  him,  I  love  him,  father, — 
That  young  man.  " 

1  The  father  of  Mary  Field  (a  son  of  the  Deerfield  pioneer  Zecheriah) 
fought  the  enemy  in  the  North  Meadows,  hoping  to  rescue  his  family,  all 
captured  or  killed  in  1704.  He  then  pulled  up  stakes  and  travelled  down 
river  to  East  Guilford  (Madison)  on  Long  Island  Sound,  following  his 
brother  Ebenezer,  the  ancestor  of  David  Dudley  Field.  A  cousin,  John 
Field,  married  Sally  Coleman,  the  little  captive  of  the  shoe.  The  Me- 
morial Hall  tablet  to  the  Field  pioneers  was  placed  by  Marshall  Field  of 
Chicago. 

2  Xo  entreaties  could  coax  Eunice  Williams  or  Mary  Field  to  dwell  again 
among  their  kin.  Eunice  tarried  several  times  at  Longmeadow,  Mass., 
with  her  brother,  the  Rev.  Stephen  Williams,  as  he  records  in  his  Diary: 
"Uncle  and  Aunt  Edwards  [the  parents  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  from 
Windsor]  and  so  many  friends  came  to  visit  us,  and  our  neighbors  sent 
in  so  plentifully  that  we  had  even  a  Feast.  ...  At  evening  our 
young  people  sang  melodiously  that  was  very  Gratefull  to  my  Sister  and 
company  and  I  hope  we  are  something  endeared  to  her."  In  1761, 
Eunice  brought  to  Longmeadow  her  daughter  Catharine  (Flying  Leg)  and 
husbaiid  Grand  Chief  Onasategen  (Franfois  Xavier). 


184    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

From  under  the  cross-crowned  parish  steeple  at  Caughna- 
waga,  the  girl  Eunice  looked  out  upon  the  romance  of  French 
colonization  and  Indian  legend. 

x\bove  the  twisting  waters  of  Lachine,  Eunice  saw  on  the 
opposite  bank  across  the  broad  heart  of  the  Lake  of  St. 
Louis  bounded  by  the  dim  forests  of  Chateaugay  and 
Beauharnois,  a  crumbling  trading-post,  built  by  the  chiv- 
alrous Samuel  de  Champlain,  later  the  residence  of  La  Salle 
on  his  Seigniory,  awarded  by  the  Sulpitians^  to  him  whom 
Louis  XIV  addressed  as  ''Our  dear  and  well-beloved  Robert 
Cavalier  Sieiir  de  la  Salle.'' 

They  named  the  settlement  La  Chine  to  celebrate  the 
Seimior's  South  Sea  dream,  to  be  the  first  traveller  west- 
ward,  ho!  by  this  road  to  China.  Instead,  La  Salle,  ever 
a  wall  of  adamant  under  jealous  persecution,  threw  open 
a  Great  West  and  a  Great  South,  guiding  America  into  her 
richest  possessions.  Then  came  the  struggle  for  a  Conti- 
nent, and 

"  The  lilies  withered  where  the  Lion  trod.'' 

The  golden  girdle  is  severed  with  which  the  practical 
La  Salle,  neither  martyr  nor  dreamer,  bound  the  north 
dominion  of  Xew  France  to  a  superb  new  south  territory 
— ^Louisiana, — and  both  to  Versailles;  A^et  our  fresh- water 
seas  and  the  Alississippi  are  one  eternal  link,  the  other,  the 
sentiment  of  La  Belle  France  which  clings  alike  to  both 
the  frost-land  and  the  land  of  palms  and  roses.  The 
stranger  who  has  passed  Carnival  days  in  Canada  or  Louisi- 
ana perceives  a  distinct  flavor  of  the  Old  Regime:  whether 
at  the  buoyant  storming  of  Montreal's  Ice  Palace  with 
showers  of  light,  and  the  festival  of  furs  and  color  on  skates, 
or  in  that  gay  atmosphere  of  delicious  mystery  in  which 

1  "  La  Salle  and  his  successors  became  feudal  proprietors  of  La  Chine, 
on  the  sole  condition  of  delivering  to  the  Seminary,  on  every  change  of 
ownership,  a  medal  of  fine  silver,  weighing  one  mark.  " — La  Salle  and  the 
Discovery  of  the  Great  West,  Parkman. 


«^ 

<^-> 

t>4 

o 

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o 

to 

to 

^ 

rt 

5 

t^i 

i86    Old  Paths  of  the  New  Eno^land  Border 


^5 

move  the  significant  pageants  of  Comus  and  King  Rex  at 
New  Orleans.  Where  else  on  this  continent  is  such  an 
exuberance  of  gayety  possible,  as  in  these  cities  possessing 
so  large  an  heritage  of  Latin  blood! 

Not  far  from  Caughnawaga,  Chambly,  and  Sorel,  on  the 
Island  of  Montreal,  was  Sault  au  Recollet  ^Mission,  the 
*'Oso"  (au  Saidt)  Fort  of  hated  memory  to  DeerfiekP  men 

''Faintly  cis  tolls  tJie  even  in g  chime 
Our  voices  keep  tune  and  our  oars  keep  time. 

We  'II  sing  at  St.  Anjis  our  parting  hymn 
Row,  brothers  row,  the  stream  runs  fast,^ 
The  Rapids  are  near " 

who  made  entrance  here  only  by  running  the  Mohawk 
gauntlet,  as  Mehuman  Hensdell  and  John  Arms  (once 
offered  in  exchange  for  Sieur  de  Vercheres)  knew  to  their 
cost.  Other  captives  were  at  the  Iroquois  fort  at  Oka  on 
the  Ottawa,  not  far  distant  from  Lachine  and  St.  Anne  Bout 
de  L'Isle.  At  the  Rapid  of  St.  Anne  we  still  hear  the  echo 
of  Tom  Moore's  ''Canadian  Boat  Song"  set  to  the  rhythm  of 
his  boatmen  as  they  sang  and  rowed  the  poet  through  the 
magnificent  scenery  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

1  Many  New  England  maidens  founded  Canadian  families.  A  daughter 
of  Deerfield's  blacksmith  and  town-clerk,  Deacon  Thomas  French  ;  became 
the  ancestor  of  the  first  Archbishop  of  Quebec,  her  daughter  having 
married  a  Plessis  of  Metz  in  Lorraine,  founders  of  "The  Tanneries  of 
Belair,  "  outside  the  gates  of  Montreal. 

Miss  Baker's  Deerfield  ancestor,  Abigail  Stebbins,  was  led  captive  to 
the  house  of  her  husband,  Jacques  Desnoyon,  a  bushranger  of  Boucher- 
ville,  her  godfather  being  "the  High  and  Mighty  Seigneur  Phillipe  de 
Rigaud,  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  Chevalier  de  L'Ordre  MiHtaire  de  St. 
Louis."  Miss  Baker  succeeded  in  tracing  eighteen  captives  in  spite  of 
their  names  being  altered  to  a  defiant  degree  on  records ;  those  at  Caugh- 
nawaga in  Indian  were  translated  for  her  by  the  Curate,  Mr.  Forbes. — 
True  Stories  of  New  England  Captives,  by  C.  Alice  Baker. 

2  To  this  shrine  of  the  "Saint  of  the  green  isle,  "  voyageurs  never  omit 
their  offering. 


Running  the  Gauntlet  at  Oso  187 

At  Oka  on  "Utawas  tide,"  in  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame 
de  Lorette,  were  wedded  ^  the  Deerfield  playmates,  now 
converts,  Josiah  Riseing  (baptized  Ignace  Raizenne)  and 
Abigail  Nims.  A  domain  was  granted  them  on  account 
of  the  example  of  their  piety,  and  a  few  miles'  drive  over 
sand  dunes  and  the  road  cut  by  the  New  Englander  Riseing 
through  his  primeval  forest  will  bring  you  to  their  old  home 
under  the  espionage  of  the  Two  Mountains  on  beautiful 
Lac  de  Deux  Montagnes. 

Fortunate  were  Ouentin  Stockwell  and  Parson  Williams 
to  be  carried  first  to  Chambly,  the  Seigniory  of  Frangois 
Hertel,  "The  Hero,"  father  of  Hertel  de  Rouville.  The 
Hertels  showered  kindnesses  on  the  prisoners,  and  attempted 
to  buy  vStephen  Williams  of  his  Indian  master.  Here 
Thankful  Stebbins  at  sweet  sixteen  married  a  soldier  of  the 
camp — "La  Vallee, "  and  nobles  of  the  Old  Regime  stood 
sponsors  for  her  children.  With  other  New  England  girls 
and  boys,  Therese  Stcben  had  been  graciously  granted 
citizenship  by  Le  Grande  Monarche.  Their  petition  to  His 
Majesty  was  latterly  discovered  by  Miss  Baker  behind  a 
little  tailor's  shop  in  Quebec. 

Parson  Wilhams  was  sent  far  from  Eunice  down  the  river. 

In  a  poem  to  Lady  Charlotte  Rawdon,  Moore  has  also  woven  bits  of 
legend  of  the  Canadian  tribes,  and  the  poetical  belief  of  the  Hurons  that 
the  spirit  departed  to  the  Country  of  Souls  is  changed  into  a  dove.  Park- 
man  relates  a  legend  attached  to  a  floating  island  in  Lake  Superior  (Lac 
Frontenac) ;  here  no  Indians  dare  land,  for  when  their  forefathers  picked 
up  the  wonderful,  round  stones  (copper)  to  heat  their  food,  some  Great 
Manito.  or  God  of  the  Waters,  thundered:  "Who  are  these  that  steal  the 
toys  of  my  children!" 

iThe  Riseing  marriage  in  171 5  is  recorded  by  Father  Quere,  with  this 
addition:  "who  wish  to  remain  with  the  Christian  Indians  not  only  re- 
nouncing their  nation,  but  even  wishing  to  live  en  sauvages.  "  (On  the 
other  hand  several  French  captives  collected  by  Colonel  Partridge  at 
Deerfield  for  exchange  doggedly  refused  to  return  to  Canada.)  The  most 
distinguished  child  of  Abigail  Xims  Riseing — Marie  Raizenne — became 
Lady  of  the  Community  of  the  Congregation. 


i88     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

After  being  threatened  with  torture  by  an  Indian  convert  at 
the  Abenaki  fort,  St.  P'rancis,  because  he  would  not  kiss  the 
crucifix,  he  was  purchased  by  Governor  Vaudreuil  and 
courteously  lodged  at  his  Montreal  house :  then  paddled  down 
to  Quebec,  picturesque  with  the  frowning  bastions  of  Fort 
F'rontenac,  transformed  from  wood  to  stone  by  La  Salle 
when  autocrat  here,  by  favor  of  Count  Frontenac  and  his 
followers,  the  best  canoe  men  in  America.  After  two  years 
of  adventure  ]\Ir.  Williams  was  exchanged  for  the  pirate, 
so-called.  Captain  Baptiste,  and  sailed  for  Boston.  ^  Eleazer 
Williams,  then  a  Freshman  at  Harvard,  with  his  chum, 
Thomas  Prince,  walked  seven  miles  by  way  of  the  Neck 
to  hear  his  father  preach  at  Thursday  lecture. 

Deerfield's  Old  Manse  stands  a  bit  aloof  in  its  dress  of  deep 
yellow  and  green  doors,  as  the  keeper  of  a  thousand  secrets. 
There  is  scarcely  a  crack  in  cornice  or  window-seat  or 
yellow  pine  floor  seasoned  for  thirteen  years.  Its  North- 
east Wing's  dormer  window  saw  the  six  children  of  Samuel 
Carter  "captivated"  in  1704,  and  the  birth  of  Joseph  Allen, 
father  of  the  famous  Captain  of  Green  Mountain  Boys. 
Then  the  Allen  house  became  "the  wing"  of  Lawyer  Sam 
Barnard's  great  house  (entailed)  and  saw  the  sisters  Nabby 
and  Rachel  and  Sally  weaving  and  sewing  long  seams  for 
their  wedding-day:  arrayed  in  sky-blue  silk  the}^  stood  up 
together  in  the  parlor  one  Sunday  of  1792,  with  three  bride- 
grooms from  Greenfield  in  sheer  ruffles  and  knee-buckles. 

You  dont  think  of  them  there  in  the  Manse  at  high  noon 
As  yoii  pass  :  go  again  by  the  light  of  the  moon, 

1  At  Boston,  Aug.  16,  1706,  Samuel  Sewall  writes:  "Spake  that  a  suit 
of  Cloaths  might  be  made  here  for  Mr.  Williams.  .  .  .  Talk'd  thor- 
oughly with  Cotton  Mather  about  selling  Henchman's  House:  . 
tells  me  ^^Ir.  Williams  to  preach  the  Lecture.  ...  I  invited  the 
Gov.  to  dine  at  Holms's."  To  this  dinner  Mr.  Williams  and  Ensign 
Sheldon  were  invited. 


Deerfield's  Old  Manse 


189 


The  Old  Manse,  Deer-field. 
'^ Built  on  honor"  for  Joseph  Barnard  in  1768,  and  home  of  the  Parsons 
Willard.  Residence  of  Mrs.  Madeleine  Yale  Wynne  and  Miss  Annie  C. 
Putnam.  The  hip-roof  Wing  was  the  Samuel  Carter  House  of  1694, 
sacked,  1^04,  and  the  lot  was  previously  owned  by  Joseph  Gillet,  killed  at 
Bloody  Brook.  Miss  Wilkins  ivrote  "  Giles  Corey  "  here.  The  Manse 
suggested  the  mysterious  "Little  Room"  of  Mrs.  Wynne. 

And  you  will  say  they  are  yet  in  town  : — 
And  in  their  old  hem?  with  the  moon-  shining  down. 
As  it  did  long  ago.^ 

Dr.  WillarcVs  chaise  stopped  at  his  parsonage  opposite 
the  Hoyt   Tavern  (Old  Indian  House)  one  eventful  day  of 

1  Nahby  and  Rachel  and  Sally,  by  Isabel  H.  Williams,  included  in  the 
Story  of  the  Old  House  by  Catharine  B.  Yale.  Mrs.  Yale's  pretty  picture 
of  the  Manse  is  written  con  amorc  and  illustrated  with  drawings  of  its 
quaint  interior,  the  English  piano,  "  the  only  one  in  town,  "  and  the  silver 
tankard  made  to  order  by  Paul  Revere  for  Joseph  Barnard,  now  among 
the  church  silver.  A  silver  spoon  of  one  of  the  brides  in  blue  is  treasured 
at  the  Manse. 


iQo     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

1807  and  the  lilies  of  the  valley  opened  wider  their  fairy 
bells  as  he  lifted  out  his  bride,  ''the  loA'ely  vSusan  Barker" 
after  a  four  days'  journey  from  old  Hingham.  One  raay 
imagine  her  on  the  first  Sunday,  the  obser\'ed  of  the  village, 
dressed  in  fawn-colored  spencer  and  white  skirt,  wearing 
a  Leghorn  hat  trimmed  with  white.  She  was  "of  a  loA^ely 
graceful  figure,  and  charmiing  innocence  of  face  and  ex- 
pression." Susan  Barker^  was  one  of  that  original  family 
who  remained  loyal  to  the  King  fifty  years  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, friends  of  Mrs.  Judge  Lyman  of  Northampton.  The 
latch  of  the  great  gate  of  the  Manse  fell  more  often  to  Judge 
L3^man  and  his  loaded  carriage  and  pair  than  any  other  of 
the  expected  and  unexpected  guests.  Emerson,  Sumner, 
Dr.  Henry  Ware,  Sr.,  Parkman,  and  the  Rev.  John  Pierpont 
were  visitors.  Mrs.  Willard's  table  overflowed,  for  any 
respectable  traveller  felt  at  liberty  to  stop  at  the  minister's 
for  dinner,  just  as  at  the  hospitable  Dominie's  on  the  Hudson. 

Miss  Willard  tells  us  that  her  father  eked  out  his  salary 
"by  tutoring  youths  of  the  best  Boston  families — the 
Jacksons,  Codmans,  and  Thorndikes":  often  Harvard 
delinquents  were  rusticated  into  the  good  man's  care. 
The  story  goes  that  "one  of  the  Lowell  tribe,"  a  cousin  of 
the  poet,  Edward  Jackson  Lowell,  being  called  before  the 
Harvard  Committee,  said,  "Gentlemen,  please  be  as  quick 
as  vou  can,  as  I  have  my  horse  out  here  and  he  is  very  un- 
easy. "  This  was  deemed  most  impertinent,  and  they  imme- 
diately took  action  and  rusticated  him  to  Parson  Willard's. ^ 

1  See  chapters  "Hingham  "  and  "  Milton  "  in  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of 
New  England,  Vol.  I. 

2  The  Rev.  Samuel  Willard  lived  in  the  Manse  nigh  on  fifty  years  except 
a  few  years  at  Hingham,  when  occupied  by  Rev.  Adolphus  Dickinson,  and 
Colonel  Wilson  and  his  four  romantic  daughters  who  pored  over  Scott, 
Byron,  and  Miss  Austen  in  the  old  garret. 

Many  interesting  names  appear  among  Mr.  Willard's  contemporaries 
appointed  to  councils  on  his  ordination:  Rev.  Dr.  Abiel  Holms  (father 


Uncle  Eph  191 

Miss  Wilkins  picked  her  first  four-leafed  clover  at  the 
Manse,  near  the  old  walk  of  diamond,  colored  stones  selected 
by  the  blind  parson,  and  Deerfield  is  the  scene  of  her  Old 
Lady  Pingree.  To  an  enthralled  "Ghost  Club,"  at  The 
Manse,  ^Irs.  Wynne  first  told  the  story  of  the  mysterious 
Little  Room}  this  witching  tale  was  passed  on  and  on,  until 
on  its  debut  in  print,  many  readers  exclaimed,  "Why,  where 
have  I  heard  of  that  Little  Room!     Can  it  be  plagiarized?' 

TFIE  OLD  ALBANY  ROAD 

Take  good  heed  of  the  weather-worn  sign  To  Albany  and 
follow  Deerfield 's  sunset  path  down  Hitchcock  or  Middle 
Lane  to  the  old  Albany  ford,  and  to  Broughton's  Pond 
crested  with  lily-pads.  A  century  and  a  half  ago  this  was 
not  a  grass-grown  lane  but  the  King's  highway  to  the  Hudson 
and  the  Great  Lakes,  and  you  might  have  saluted  Captain 
Nathaniel  Dwight  as  he  left  his  cjuarters  in  the  Williams 
house  to  lead  Hampbhire  County  troops  against  Canada. 

Mark  on  the  left  the  stoop  smothered  in  lilacs  dedicated  to 
flirtations  ever  since  Aunt  Spiddy  Hoyt  built  it  with  eggs 
she  sold,  and  not  with  her  good  man's  profits  on  '' wigges  and 
foretops. "  The  neighbors  thought  "Aunt  Spiddy's  Con- 
trivance" "a  great  extravagance."  Her  son.  Gen.  Epa- 
phras  Hoyt,  as  high  sheriff,  wore  a  blue  brass-buttoned 
coat,  cockade,  and  crimson  sash — he  wrote  here  his  Ind  an 

of  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes),  the  Rev.  David  Osgood  of  Medford,  Rev.  Daniel 
Chaplin  of  Groton,  Rev.  John  Barnard  of  Salem,  Rev.  Jesse  Appleton,  X. 
H.,  Rev.  Abiel  Abbott  of  Beverly,  also  Rev.  Roger  Newton  of  Green- 
field,   and    Rev.    Theophilus   Packard,    Scribe. 

Richard  Hildreth  was  born  at  the  Manse;  Hawthorne  says  on  his  first 
visit  to  the  "noble  hall"  of  the  Boston  Athejicetnn  that  "The  most  re- 
markable sight,  however,  was  Mr.  Hildreth,  writing  his  history  of  the 
United  States  ...  as  quiet  and  absorbed  as  he  would  be  in  the 
loneliest  study;  .  .  .  It  is  very  curious  thus  to  have  a  glimpse  of  a 
book  in  process  of  creation  under  one's  eye.  " — American  Note-Books. 

1  TJic  Little  Room  ajid  O^h^r  Stories,  by  Madeleine  Yale  Wynne. 


192    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


Wars.  Deacon  Hitchcock's  boy  Edward  (afterward  Pres- 
ident of  Amherst)  and  "Uncle  Eph"  used  to  fly  from  Aunt 
Spiddy's  broom  on  cleaning  and  baking  days  to  their  study 
in  the  big  elm.     Many  a  gander-party  foregathered  before 

the  blaze  o'  winter  nights 
swapping  war  stories:  Ser- 
geant John  Hawks,  the  hero 
of  Fort  ^lassachusetts, 
gran'ther  Hoyt,^  and  Dea- 
con Nims ;  moreover  Deacon 
Justin  Hitchcock,  the  next- 
door  neighbor,  the  fifer 
who  marched  with  Captain 
Locke's  minute-men  would 
tell  how  Captain  Stebbins 
captured  the  baggage  train 
of  General  Burgoyne  and 
how  he  had  compelled  many 
a  Tory  to"  sign  good  reso- 
lutions. 

Deerfield's  Tory  min- 
ister, Mr.  Ashley,  had 
spoken  of  the  doom  of 
those    Americans    fallen 


Sign  of  tlie  Biirk  Tavern,  Bernard- 
ston,  one  of  the  garrison  houses  of 
the  cordoii  of  forts  commanded  by  Colo- 
nel Ephraim  WilUants.  In  Memo- 
rial Hall,  Deerfield. 


at   Lexington,    as    being 


fearful  in  the  next  world. 

A  week  later  he  found  his 

pulpit    door  spiked     up. 

Turning  to  Deacon  A., 
a  blacksmith,  he  requested  him  to  undo  the  fastening, 
who,   with   a    very  proper  gravity,  replied  that  he  did  not 


i  Jonathan  Hoyt  was  bought  for  twenty  dollars  from  his  Indian  master 
on  the  streets  of  Quebec  by  the  son  of  Governor  Dudley.  The  Indian 
came  later  to  visit  his  boy,  to  whom  he  was  devoted. 


The  "Little  Brown  House"  193 

use  his  hammer  on  the  Sabbath.  Finally  an  axe  was 
procured. 

Another  day  an  incensed  patriot  neighbor  jostled  him. 
Mr.  Ashley  queried  why  this  rude  treatment,  saying,  "You 
should  not  rebuke  an  Elder,"  etc.  He  replied:  "An  elder^ 
an  elder! — if  you  had  not  said  you  was  an  elder,  I  should 
have  thought  you  was  a  poison  sumach.  " 

A  dweller  on  Old  Street  many  years  before  his  death  had 
a  copper  coffin  built  for  himself,  declaring  emphatically, 
**ril  be  d — d  if  I  go  snappin'  raound  hell  in  a  hemlock 
coffin." 

At  Shelburne  Falls — formerly  Deerfield  Northwest — some 
one  remarked  that  the  water  in  the  river  was  very  low. 
"Yaas, "  drawled  a  bystander,  "it  lacks  a  quart  of  being 
any  water  in  it.  " 

This  "Little  Brown  House  on  the  Albany  Road"  is  one 
of  Deerfield 's  studios,  the  village  being  absorbed  in  Art 
with  Crafts.  You  may  hear  the  clack  of  looms  and  the  file 
at  the  smithy,  the  plane  of  the  cabinet-maker,  the  rustle 
of  the  basket-weavers'  reeds  and  willows.  Marvellous  early 
patterns  come  to  the  "Blue  and  White"  fraternity  from 
the  tide-water  families  of  "  Virginny,"  and  the  New  England 
West,  to  live  again  in  delicate  hand-made  dyes  and  tufted 
coverlets. 

There  are  interesting  painted  walls  in  Deerfield  and 
Bernardston.  In  Old-Time  Wall-Papers^  by  Kate  Sanborn, 
is  a  capital  reproduction  of  the  scenic  wall-paper  in  the 
parlor  of  the  Ebenezer  Hinsdale  house  on  Old  Street. 


An  heirloom. 
13 


NORTHAMPTON  (NONOTUCK)   1654 

"  Enterprise,  traffic,  factory  wheels,  steam  whistles,  busy  industries,  en- 
riching and  enlivening  the  people,  have  not  spoilt  the  landscape,  or  robbed 
the  recesses,  roads,  foot-paths,  and  bridle-paths  of  their  romance,  their  love- 
liness, their  legends,  their  traditions  or  their  poetry.'" — The  Connecticut 
River  Valley,  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  Frederic  Dan  Huntington. 

Below  Deerfield,  the  broad,  fair  Connecticut  glides  out 
between  Mts.  Toby  and  Sugar-Loaf  at  sweet  vSunderland 
— village  of  the  plain — and  sweeps  in  magnificent  curv^es 
through  Nonotuck  Valley  toward  Mt.  Tom  and  the  Great 
Falls  at  South  Hadley. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  river  endeavored  to  display  its 
silvery  beauty  to  greatest  advantage  while  within  range  of 
the  kingly  mountains,  Holyoke  and  Tom,  and  to  double 
the  area  of  unrivalled  meadows  for  the  pioneer.  In  this 
valley  of  Nonotuck,  or  Midst  of  the  River,  lie  the  towns 
of  Old  Northampton,  Hadley,  and  Hatfield.  On  the  1831 
map  of  Nonotuck  (drawn  before  the  river  left  its  "Old 
Bed"  at  Northampton)  the  Connecticut  loops  in  a  splendid 
double  ox-bow;  the  north  six-mile  loop  is  the  Hadley 
"Honey-pot,"  the  south  bow  incloses  the  Hockanum 
meadows  at  the  foot  of  Nonotuck,  the  north  spur  of  ]\It. 
Tom,  named  by  President  Hitchcock  of  i\mherst,  "the 
Mountain  of  the  Blest." 

Stedman's  tribute  to  Northampton,  written  from  "  High 
Ridge,"  WilHamsburg,  contains  these  hues: 

"  There  still  the  giant  warders  stand, 

And  watch  the  currents  downward  flow. 
And  westward  still  with  steady  hand 
The  river  bends  her  silver  bow.'' 

If  you  would  wish  to  see  this  caressing  play  of  mountain 

194 


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The  Road  to  Old  Hadley  195 

and  river,  follow  the  meadow  road  from  Northampton  to 
Hockanum  Ferry  and  summon  the  weather-beaten  flatboat 
from  the  opposite  shore  by  horn — old  style — (Ill-betide 
the  would-be  passenger  who  is  unable  to  blow  a  horn,  he 
must  wait  for  the  next  comer.) 

As  you  ride  to  the  ferry  cross  meadow,  on  your  left 
the  earHest  divisions  of  the  coA^eted  alluvial  meadows  are 
Venturer's  Field,  which  extended  from  Walnut  Trees  to 
Pomeroy  Terrace,  King's  Hollow,  Webb's  Hollow,  Bark 
AVigwam  near  Shepherd's  Island,  once  a  part  of  the  Shep- 
herd farm  of  300  acres,  and  Old  Rainbow  Avhere  you  might 
once  have  seen  reaping  hooks  in  use.  In  Northampton 
it  was  a  common  saying,  that  one's  social  position  was 
assured  if  he  owned  meadow  land  and  was  a  member  of  the 
"Old  Church"  of  Mather,  Stoddard,  and  Edwards. 

Those  who  journeyed  in  Indian  days  were  challenged 
at  the  gate  of  the  Northampton  palisades ;  '  these  being 
under  repair  in  1680,  the  town  ordered  that  married  persons 
should  build  3  rods  of  palisades  each,  and  single  persons 
2  rods. 

The  hamlet  of  Hockanum,  established  on  a  very  narrow 
shelf  between  Mount  Holyoke  and  the  river,  is  very  lovely ; 
verdant  farms  and  orchards  decorate  the  gentle  upward 
slope  to  the  forest  wood-lots  on  the  mountain  range.  In 
this  region  Cooper  placed  the  scene  of  The  V/ept  of  Wish- 
ton-Wish;  Ruth  Heathcote,  or  Narra-mattah,  is  the  captive 
heroine  who,  according  to  the  tale,  weds  the  Chief  Canonchet 
of  the  Narragansetts. 

If  you  choose  to  follow  the  level  road  north  '  long  river 

1  The  western  line  of  fortiacation  extended  from  the  rear  of  the  main 
building  of  Smith  College  and  President  Seelye's  house  to  Miss  Tucker's 
(formerly  Rev.  Gordon  Hall's,  owned  in  1780  by  Gen.  William  Lyman, 
a  member  of  Congress),  thence  to  Henshaw  Avenue;  thence  to  west  of 
tV-e  house  of  Henry  R.  Hinckley  on  Prospect  St.,  built  in  part  by  the 
Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard  in  1684,  and  by  his  son.  Col.  John  Stoddard. 


196    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

through  Hockanuni,!  3^ou  will  turn  with  the  great  bend  into 
historic  Hadley's  Elm  Street  near  Goodman's  Ferry.  (This 
ferry  was  the  old  stage-route,  the  way  by  which  Springfield 
traffic  coming  up  the  east  side  entered  Northampton.) 
Just  one  wine-glass  elm  picked  from  West  Street's  four 
royal  rows,  unmatched  on  the  continent,  would  be  the 
vanit}^  of  any  city. 

Who  would  not  wish  to  have  witnessed  that  most  im- 
posing of  all  musters  in  Hadley's  mile-long  street,  w^hen 
the  entire  militia  of  Western  ]\Iassachusetts  was  ordered 
out  by  General  Ebenezer  Mattoon,  an  officer  at  the  battle 
of  Saratoga!  Or  the  marching  into  Hadley  in  1895  of  the 
Third  Corps  and  the  old  soldiers  from  the  regiments  of 
Major-General  Hooker,  to  honor  "Fighting  Joe's"  birth- 
place ;  its  gray  gambrel  has  lately  been  burned ;  the  Academy 
here,  where  General  Hooker  was  educated,  was  founded  by 
Governor  Hopkins. 

Mere  striplings  were  these  elms  when  daring  Parson 
Russell  harbored  the  Regicides  Goffe  and  Whalley.  Con- 
tinental troops  were  stationed  within  the  eight-foot 
stockade  to  repulse  Indians  jealous  for  their  maize  fields. 
The  legend  of  the  "Angel  of  Hadley"  is  connected  with 
General  Goffe,  who,  according  to  tradition,  mysteriously 
appeared  sword  in  hand  in  the  midst  of  an  Indian  attack 
of  1675,  and  led  the  people  to  safety.^ 

The  Indian  fort  southeast  of  the  town,  where  Fort  River 
flows  into  the  Connecticut  from  Amherst  and  "  Indian  Hill" 
opposite,    are    supposed   to   be    aboriginal    battle-grounds, 

iXorth  from  Hockanum  Ferry  is  the  home  of  Clifton  Johnson,  the 
sympathetic  illustrator  of  life  in  old  New  England. 

2 Elbridge  Kingsley's  picture  representing  the  "Angel  of  the  Lord"  at 
Hadley  meeting-house  is  reproduced  (with  other  of  his  remarkable  en- 
gravings of  Hadley  West  Street,  on  which  he  lives)  in  the  Souvenir  book 
published  on  the  meeting  of  the  Third  Corps  Union.  Included  also  is, 
How  Fighting  Joe  Hooker  took  Lookout  Mountain,  by  Clarence  Hawkes, 
the  blind  poet  of  Hadley. 


to 


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198    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

because  the  Connecticut  year  after  year  uncovers   curious 
Indian  weapons. 

In  North  Hadley,  Under  a  Colonial  Roof-Tree,  Frederick 
Dan  Huntington,  the  beloved  Bishop,  was  born.  His 
daughter,  ]\Iiss  Arriah  Huntington,  lives  at  the  old  place, 
and  has  given  us  a  A'ivid  picture  of  this  finest  type  of  a 
Valley  homestead,^  built  by  Captain  JMoses  Porter  in  1752. 
An  unusual  feature  is  the  generous  "stoop"  extending 
the  whole  w^estern  length  of  the  house ;  the  table  is  set  there 
for  the  reapers,  the  churning  and  other  work  carried  on 
there  in  summer  time;  at  nightfall  it  becomes  a  grateful 
retreat  after  the  day's  labor.  "Through  the  stillness  we 
may  hear  the  tread  of  horses'  hoofs  crossing  the  bridge  by 
the  mill  a  mile  away." 

Hadley  tow^ard  the  east,  or  Hadley  Third  Precinct,  is  the 
beautiful  town  of  Amherst. ^  Rev.  David  Parsons  was  the 
first  minister  and  among  the  first  settlers  were  the  families 
of  Cowles,  Dickinson,  Hawley,  Ingram,  Chauncey,  Nash, 
Scoville,  and  Wells. 

THE  SOUTH   ROAD  TO  MOUNT  TO:\r 

To-day,  you  choose  the  south  road  from  Hockanum 
Ferry,  and  discover  that  most  charming  of  pine-crowned 
cliffs — Titan's  pier;  then  wind  down  dale  and  up  hill  in 
sight  of  Old  Rock  Ferry  toward  the  picturesque  pass  at 
Smith's  Ferry. 

1  A  sketch  with  illustration  of  the  Porter-Phelps-Huntington  home- 
stead is  included  in  Bacon's  volume  on  The  Connecticut  River. 

2  Amherst  lies  also  in  the  great  basin  south  of  Mt.  Toby,  together  with 
Hadley,  Leverett,  and  Sunderland  on  the  east  side  of  the  Connecticut 
and  on  the  west  side  Northampton  and  the  three  other  Hamptons,  Hat- 
field, Williamsburg,  and  Whately.  The  meadow  intervals  in  the  valley 
contain  from  500  to  5000  acres  and  rise  in  terraces.  Electric  cars  fa- 
cilitate the  pleasure  of  a  trip  through  the  Deerfield  Valley  as  far  north  as 
Greenfield   and   Turner's   Falls. 


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Mt.  Tom  199 

You  are  traversing  "the  short  road"  between  Amherst 
and  South  Hadley,  the  pastoral  seat  of  Mount  Holyoke 
College,  that  inspiration  of  ]\Iary  Lyon.  Goodenow  Park 
within  the  college  grounds  commands  the  fuU  sweep  of  the 
range.  You  will  not  forget  to  visit  the  Observ^atory,  the 
Falls  at  Lake  Nonotuck,  and  to  stroll  through  the  Pass  of 
Thermopylcie,  and  up  Granby  Hill  for  the  superb  prospect. 

Finally  you  attain  the  bold  summit  of  Mt.  Tom  by  railway 
from  the  city  of  Holyoke  (famous  for  its  paper-mills)  seated 
by  the  Great  Rapids;  so  plentiful  were  shad  here  that  the 
boatmen's  taverns  overflowed  with  fishermen  and  fishermen's 
luck,  with  2000  shad  at  a  haul. 

Even  half-way  up  Mt.  Tom  at  Mountain  Park,  the 
glorious  air  is  a  rare  elixir  for  lungs  and  brain,  exhilarating 
without  oppression;  as  you  face  Mt.  Holyoke  the  buzz 
of  Pandora's  winged  troubles  is  imperceptible  before  the 
beaut}'  of  the  splendid  battalion  of  mountains  on  the  horizon. 
]\It.  Monadnock  signalled  Mt.  Tom  by  mirror  for  the  first 
time  in  1898.  This  day  is  cloudless,  but  on  the  next  a 
fog-sea  fills  the  valley;  by  noon,  playful  clouds  chase  up 
to  the  summit  and  down  on  the  other  side,  then  become 
sullen  and  ragged  with  lightning;  or  the  clouds  are  massed 
below  like  a  "sea  of  cotton,"  and  you,  in  clear  air,  watch 
the  sun  transform  them  into  a  "fleece  of  gold,"  the  phrase  of 
Lafcadio  Hearn;  now,  they  disperse  in  a  gamut  from  orange 
to  pink,  and  far  below  appears  a  white  toy  village,  East- 
hampton,  and  the  golden  river,  "River  of  Pines,"  flowing 
down  from  Agiochook  (Mt.  Washington),  the  Indians' 
Throne  of  the  Great  Spirit. 

The  old  man  of  the  mountain,  Phoebus  Pomerov,  relates 
the  legend  of  how  "Little  Mountain"  came  to  be:  "Old 
Claw-foot  got  angry  at  the  folks  in  South  Hadley,  and 
filled  his  leather  apron  with  rocks  to  throw  at  them;  but 
the  apron  strings  broke,  and  the  rocks  fell  in  a  heap  and 
made  Little  Mountain." 


200    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


p§^**? 


Blount  Tom  in  Winter. 

From  South  Hadley  you  return  to  Northampton  by 
Smith's  Ferry  or  Lower  Farms.  Pascommuck  ^Yas  the 
scene  of  a  frightful  Indian  raid  in  1704.  Here  Benjamin 
Wright's  house  (afterwards  the  EHas  Lyman  place  and 
Cargill  homestead  or  ''Old  Long  House")  was  fired  by 
spiked  arrows  dipped  in  brimstone,  and  extinguished  by 
the  grit  of  Thomas  Stebbins,  who  wrapped  himself  in  a 
feather  bed  and  "put  for"  the  well.^ 

In  Easthampton,  Joseph  Bartlett's  and  Major  Jonathan 
Clapp's  were  fortified  houses.  Clapp's  ta\'ern  was  the 
famous  hostelry  between  Connecticut  and  Vermont.  Willis- 
ton   Seminary    {founded   by   the    Hon.    Samuel   Williston) 

1  The  Indians  escaped  over  Pomeroy  Mountain  after  having  killed  or 
taken  captive  the  families  of  John  Webb,  John  Searl,  Benoni  Jones,  and 
Benjamin  and  Samuel  Janes. 


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202    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

recalls  Easthampton's  first  minister,  Rev.  Payson  Williston, 
whose  beautiful  wife  was  the  daughter  of  Rev.  Nathan 
Birdseye. 

An  interesting  record  was  made  of  the  number  of  houses 
in  each  Connecticut  Valley  town,  about  the  time  Springfield 
was  burned  by  the  Indians  in  1675;  twenty  years  before 
the  Springfield  commissioners  (John  Pynchon,  Elizur 
Holyoke,  and  Deacon  Samuel  Chapin^)  laid  out  to  the 
Planters,  "the  boundes  of  Nonotuck  from  the  upper  end 
of  the  little  Meaddowe  called  by  the  Indians  Cappawonke 
[Hatfield] — to  the  great  fales  [Falls]  to  Springfield  ward." 
This  list  of  houses  is  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  2 : 

Weathersfield  150    Springfield  Burnt     50   Hatfield       50 
Hartford  500    Hadley  100  Northfield  30 

Winsor  400    Northampton         100  Deerfield     30 

During  border-wars,  from  under  every  one  of  Northamp- 
ton's roofs,  men  went  forth  on  the  most  hazardous  ad- 
ventures; Captain  John  Parsons  conducted  the  "Grand 
Scout  towards  West  river"  in  Queen  Anne's  War;  Captain 
Benjamin  Wright  and  Lieutenant  John  King  received 
government  bounties  for  the  Cowasset  scout ;  Captain  John 
Taylor  was  killed  at  Pascommuck,  and  Captain  Thomas 
Baker  of  a  long  romantic  history  was  carried  captive  to 
Canada  and  married  Madame  le  Beau,  a  child-captive  from 
Dover,  N.  H. 

The  veteran  military  commander  was  Colonel  Samuel 
Partridge  of  Hatfield ;  Colonels  John  Worthington  of  Spring- 

1  The  influential  Deacon  Samuel  Chapin  of  Springfield  was  a  founder 
of  the  church  in  Northampton,  and  the  original  of  the  statue  of  The 
Puritan  by  A.  St.  Gaudens;  Springfield  has  also  a  statue  to  Sergeant 
Miles  Morgan,  a  hero  of  1675.  The  first  street  laid  out  in  Springfield 
was  named  for  Col.  Worthington. 

2  Communicated  through  the  courtesy  of  Lieut,  C.  D.  Parkhurst  of 
Fort  Monroe.     Trumbull's  History  of  Xorthampton. 


Famous  Scouts  of  the  Border  203 

field  and  Israel  Williams  commanded  the  Hampshire 
County  regiments. 

By  the  advice  of  Colonel  John  Stoddard — in  charge  of 
general  defence  and  commissioned  to  snatch  back  our  captive 
people  from  the  reluctant  French — large  dogs  were  trained 
to  ferret  out  trails  in  ser\4ce  of  the  scouting  parties  ranging 
from  fort  to  fort;  from  Fort  Dummer  to  Pittsfield  and 
Hoosac.  Lieut.  Timothy  Dwight  of  Northampton  was 
first  commander  of  Fort  Dummer  near  Brattleborough,  Vt. 

Mere  statistics  which  concern  the  daring  Rangers,  inured 
to  greatest  fatigue  and  danger,  recall  Cooper's  roraances. 
A  letter  of  instruction  to  Captain  Caleb  Lyman  dated 
Boston,  June  19,  1755,  runs: 

"You  must  perform  a  scout  of  at  least  thirty  days  upon 
every  marching.  .  .  .  And  before  you  receive  the  bounty 
for  any  Indian  killed  or  captured,  you  must  deliver  up  the 
person  captivated,  or  scalps  of  those  you  kiU.     Phipps." 

Marching  forces  were  allowed  for  rations  by  the  Com- 
missary General,  John  Wheehvright:  i  Ih.  of  bread,  i  lb.  of 
pork,  I  gill  of  rum,  per  day. 

The  load  of  the  ranging  corps  alone  was  no  sinecure, 
carrying  thirty  days'  provisions  with  muskets;  now  camping 
under  brush,  now  marching  on  snowshoes  or  lying  in  am- 
buscade by  a  wilderness  trail;  in  combat  generally  superior 
to  the  Indian,  in  finesse  little  inferior. 

Troublous  times  are  depicted  in  the  letters  of  Colonel 
Seth  Pomeroy  to  his  wnfe^ ;  he  was  ever  at  the  front.  Ensign 
in  1743,  Brigadier-General  in  1775.  One  letter  is  written 
after  "a  warm  engagement"  before  Louisburg,  others  from 
Fort  Massachusetts,  and  from  Albany  in  1755  where  5000 
troops  assembled  under  Sir  William  Johnson  for  the  ex- 
pedition against  Crown  Point. 

1  The  letters  of  Gen.  Pomeroy  are  quoted  by  the  courtesy  of  ]\Irs.  WiUiam 
Francis  Bartlett  (nee  Pomeroy)  of  Pittsfield. 


204     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Major  Seth  Poaieroy  to  His  Wife. 

"  Monday  Morning  4  o'clock.     Fort  Massachusetts,  Aug.  ^rd,  1747. 
"  My  dear  and  Beloved  Wife, 

"  I  have  not  time  with  ink  and  pen  to  say  much  but  hope 
to  have  an  opportunity  in  a  httle  time  to  speak  face  to  face, 
.  AVe  Hve  at  the  Fort,  well;  my  dinner  yesterday 
was  buiscake,  suet,  Whortleberry  pudding  and  a  good  piece 
of  corned  beef  with  squashes  and  turnips — -no  cider,  but 
a  good  appetite  .  .  .  last  Friday  night  the  Indians 
were  about  the  Fort.     .     .     ." 

''Boston,  Oct.   22,   1747. 

"No  longer  than  I  have  business  shall  I  stay,  for  it  is 
no  delightsome  place.  1  have  bought  an  English  girl's  time 
for  five  years  I  hope  will  prove  well,  for  I  know  I  gave  price 
enough  for  her.  If  you  have  an  opportunity  to  send  me 
a  horse  and  bridle  I  should  be  glad  to  have  it  done  (saddle 
I  can  have  here).  If  no  other  v/ay  I  design  to  buy  a  horse 
and  bring  her  up,  for  I  am  determined  if  it  is  in  my  power 
that  you  shall  have  help  by  a  maid  to  ease  you  of  some 
of  your  hard  labor.  " 

The  Major  sent  the  maid  to  Mrs.  Pomeroy  by  land  with 
the  following  letter  (the  supplies  being  sent  around  by 
Long  Island  Sound  to  Warehouse  Point,  were  poled  in 
fiatboats  to  the  "Landing"  below  Northampton  and  loaded 
on  wood-sleds.     "Jed  Day's  Landing"  was  long  famous:) 

"  Boston,  Nov.  7. 

"The  Thanksgiving  I  hear  is  week  after  next,  but  I  hope 
to  keep  one  next  week  at  my  own  house.  I  send  a  receipt 
of  things  I  have  sent  by  water,  .  .  .  Let  one  of  the 
boatmen  go  directly  after  them.  Elisha  and  Mr.  Wright 
have  things  in  the  same  vessel." 

"  Albany,  July  i^th,  1755. 

"  My  Dear — I  have  slipt  several  opportunities  hoping 
soon  to  be  able  to  Inform  you  more  Particularly  how  things 
occur  than  I  now  can — in  general  the  army  are  well  and 


Letters  from  the  Seat  of  War 


205 


in  high  spirits  but  not  without  some  fears  what  may  have 
happened  to  Col.  Titcomb.  By  whom  our  stores  were  ex- 
pected, he  not  yet  heard  of.  .  .  .  I  know  of  nothing 
now  to  hinder  our  marching  but  for  want  of  Stores. 

"  Governor  Shirley  is  here  General  Johnson  is  also  here. 
,  .  .  We  have  frequent  news  from  ye  Ohio  by  Indians  that 
Mr.  Johnson  hath  sent  some  time  ago  to  Gen.  Braddock.  .  .  . 


A  Alt.  Tom  Brook. 


View  Across  the  Connecticut  River  from  Holyoke, 
with  Alt.  Holyoke  Range  and  Old  Boatmeji's 
Tavern. 

I  think  there  is  ye  greatest  Probability  that  General  Braddock 
is  master  of  Ohio — Before  this  time.  .  .  .  The  People 
in  this  place  are  kind  and  seem  to  be  hasty  to  put  forward 
the  Expedition.  .  .  .  What  he  [Governor  Shirley]  designs 
this  Day  I  can't  tell,  he  sent  a  Sergt  this  morning  Desiring 


2o6    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

me   to    dine  with  him  and  I  suppose  ye  rest  of  ve  Field 
officers  are  invited  also. 

"  Seth  Pomeroy." 

In  '75,  as  he  was  returning  for  a  rest,  Colonel  Pomeroy 
received  the  news  that  the  army  had  left  Cambridge;  in 
spite  of  his  threescore  years  and  ten  he  unhitched  his  horse 
from  the  wagon,  mounted,  and  arrived  at  Bunker  Hill  amid 
roar  of  cannon.  General  Putnam  wrung  his  hand:  "Pom- 
eroy, you  here!"  As  the  ammunition  gave  out,  he  walked 
backward  from  the  field,  saying,  ''  No  enemy  shall  ever 
say  he  saw  the  back  of  Seth  Pomeroy."  On  his  way  to 
join  A¥ashington  at  the  front,  he  died  at  Peekskill.i 

Colonel  Seth  Pomeroy  was  of  a  race  of  noted  gunsmiths 
and  used  the  anvil  said  to  have  been  brought  over  to  Wind- 
sor, Conn.,  by  Eltweed  Pomeroy:  his  family  traditions  run 
back  to  Sir  Ralph  de  Pomeroy  who  accompanied  William 
the  Conqueror  to  England;  ponderous  horseshoes  were 
invented  by  Pomeroys  for  Tudors  and  Plantagenets.  To 
induce  Eltv/eed  Pomeroy  to  found  an  armory  in  this  coun- 
try, the  Colony  granted  him  1000  acres  on  the  Connecticut 
River  Even  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  Col.  Seth,  Canada 
Indians  boasted  of  his  guns  as  masterpieces  for  a  long  and 
unerring  shot.  Col.  Seth  was  a  blacksmith  in  all  its  branches, 
employing  people  to  make  his  guns:  Seth  Pomeroy' s  Account 
Book  is  a  replica  of  pioneer  times  (each  man  then  being 
compelled  to  be  a  Jack  of  many  trades,  from  "taking  care 
oi  Ye  clock,  making  a  pair  of  tongs,"  to  "puling  a  tooth" 
and  "carrying  a  warrant  to  Noah  S.").     The  accounts  are 

1  At  the  dedication  of  the  monument  to  General  Seth  Pomeroy  un- 
veiled at  Peekskill-on-Hudson,  by  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution  of  the 
State  of  New  York  on  the  anniversary  of  Bunker  Hill,  1898,  the  address 
was  by  George  E.  Pomeroy  of  Toledo.  Present  were  delegates  from  the 
Order  of  the  Cincinnati,  Society  of  the  War  of  18 13,  Society  of  Foreign 
Wars,  Society  of  Colonial  Wars,  Society  of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  America, 
Daughters  of  the  Cincinnati,  and  Daughters  of  the  Revolution. 


Photograph  by  Katherine  E.  McClellan. 

Ready  jor  the  Colonial  Ball  in  Grandmother  s  Wedding-veil,  on  the  2^oth 
Anniversary  of  Northampton,  Mass. 


A  Typical  Courtship  207 

to  familiar  Northampton  names:  "Caleb  Strong  Dr.  1739," 
Sam  Kingsley,  Deacon  Allin,  Phinehas  King,  Preserved 
Bartlett,    Sam'l   Wait.^ 

In  spite  of  the  raging  of  the  heathen  roundabout  pioneer 
hearthstones,  Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard  (whom  the  Indians 
refrained  from  firing  upon  because  they  believed  him  "the 
Englishman's  god")  was  so  much  concerned  about  his 
people's  domestic  extravagances  that  he  begged  the  Rev. 
Increase  Mather  to  mention  it  to  the  Governor  for  refor- 
mation :  "  many  sins  are  grown  so  in  fashion,  that  it  becomes 
a  question  whether  it  be  sins  or  not  .  .  .  especially 
.  that  intolerable  pride  in  clothes  and  hair."  Soon 
after,  "for  wearing  silk  and  in  flaunting  manner,"  Hannah 
Lyman  2  and  two  daughters  of  the  honored  Elder  John 
Strong  were  presented  at  the  court;  also  several  young 
men  "for  wearing  long  hair,  greate  bootes  and  gold  and 
silver  lace." 

A  typical  courtship  of  ye  olden  time  was  that  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Mix.  He  journe}^d  from  Wethersfield  to  Northam.pton, 
called  on  Mr.  Stoddard,  and  asked  to  see  his  five  daughters. 
After  a  few  minutes'  conversation,  he  offered  Mary  his  hand 
and  heart,  saying  he  would  smoke  a  pipe  with  her  father 
while  she  made  up  her  mind.  The  pipe  was  not  long  enough, 
however,  and  Mr.  Mix  returned  to  Wethersfield,  receiving 
shortly  the  following: 

''Northampton,  March  i6g-. 
''Rev,  Mr.  Mix:— Yes. 

"'Mary  Stoddard.''' 

1  Seth  Pomeroy's  Account  Book  and  his  anvil  are  the  property  of 
Mrs.  Edward  Pomeroy  of  Pittsfield;  his  tortoise-shell  tobacco  box 
and  drinking-glass,  a  gift  of  the  French  officer  Dieskau,  of  Edward  Van 
S.  Pomeroy,  Esq.  A  Pomeroy  musket  is  owned  by  S.  Harris  Pomeroy, 
Esq.,  of  New  York. 

2  Land  in  the  centre  of  Northampton  was  held  by  the  Strong  family  for 
103  years.     Elder  John  Strong  came  over  on  the  Mary  and  John  with  the 


2oS    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Rebekah  Stoddard  married  Lieutenant  Joseph  Hawley 
of  Northampton,  their  son  being  the  distinguished  statesman, 
Major  Joseph  Hawley.  The  beautiful  Esther  Stoddard 
became  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards  and  her 
son  Jonathan  Edwards  ^  was  born  in  the  year  of  the  Sack 
of  Deerfield,  when  ^Irs.  Eunice  Mather  Williams,  their 
half-sister,  perished. 

The  postscript  of  a  remarkable  letter  of  ^Irs.  Stoddard 
to  her  daughter  at  South  Windsor  on  the  birth  of  Jonathan 
is  very  practical: 

"I  would  have  sent  you  half  a  thousand  of  pins  and  a 
porrenger  of  marmalat  if  I  had  an  opportunity:  If  any 
of  vour  town  come  up  and  call  here,  I  would  send  it.  Give 
my  love  to  son  Edwards  and  the  children.  "^ 

This  custom  of  sending  packages  by  kind  neighbors  con- 
tinued until  the  day  of  railroads.  The  note-book  of  School- 
master Joseph  Hawley  of  Pudding  Lane  (Hawley  St.)  when 
starting  on  a  trip  to  Boston  was  filled  with  such  varied 
items  as:  "Capt.  Partridge,  a  dial  and  a  dish  kettle" — 
son   Joseph,    speckled    red    ribbon,    whistles,    buckles    and 

Rev.  John  Warham  and  William  Clark,  a  Planter  and  one  of  the  seven 
pillars  of  Northampton  Church.  Among  the  unusually  large  families 
in  Northampton  Elder  Strong's  was  the  largest  with  eighteen  children. 
His  purchase  included  John  Webb's  home-lot,  corner  of  Main  and  South 
Sts.,  the  late  Enos  Parsons  house,  extending  westerly  to  the  Academy 
of  Music,  the  gift  of  E.  H.  R.  Lyman  to  the  city. 

1  Little  Jonathan  Edwards  was  born  in  a  clerical  atmosphere;  his  Aunts 
Stoddard  had  married  famous  preachers,  and  in  those  days  the  minister 
was  the  head  of  the  town.  His  sisters  also  married  leaders  in  the  Province , 
so  that,  counting  the  "in-laws,  "  the  W^arham-]\Iather-Stoddard-Edwards- 
Pierpont  connection  were  an  influential  clan  and  a  positive  factor  in  any 
undertaking  in  New  England. 

2  This  eminent  woman,  Esther  Mather  Stoddard,  was  the  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  John  Warham,  founder  of  Windsor.  Of  her  other  daughters, 
Christian  married  the  Rev.  William  Williams  of  Hatfield,  Sarah,  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Whitman  of  Farmington,  and  Hannah,  the  Rev.  WilHam  Williams 
of  Weston. 


At  Judge  Lyman's,  Northampton         209 

fish  hooks" — ''a  shiUing  worth  of  plumb  and  spice" — "2  psal- 
ters a  bason  and  a  quart  pot" — "  a  place  for  Mary  Holton." 
It  was  the  same  even  as  late  as  Judge  Lyman's  day; 
his  daughter  J\lrs.  Lesley  writes  in  her  delightful  Recol- 
lections of  My  Mother: 

"  There  were  no  expresses  then,  and  so  when  it  was  known 
in  the  village  of  Northampton  that  Judge  and  Mrs.  Lyman 
were  going  to  Boston  (and  they  always  took  pains  to  make 
it  known)  a  throng  of  neighbors  were  coming  in  the  whole 
evening  before;  not  only  to  take  an  affectionate  leave  but 
to  bring  parcels  of  every  size  and  shape,  and  commissions 
of  every  variety.  One  came  with  a  dress  she  wanted  to 
send  to  a  daughter  at  school; — one  brought  patterns  of  dry 
goods,  with  a  request  that  Mrs.  Lyman  would  purchase  and 
bring  home  dresses  for  a  family  of  five.  And  would  she  go 
to  the  orphan  asylum  and  see  if  a  good  child  of  ten  could 
be  bound  out  to  another  neighbor.?  .  .  .  Would  Mrs. 
Lyman  bring  the  child  back  with  her?  .  .  .  The 
neighbors  walked  into  the  library  where  the  packing  was 
going  on,  and  when  all  the  family  trunks  were  filled  my 
father  called  out  heartily,  '  Here,  Hiram,  bring  down  another 
trunk  from,  the  garret,  the  largest  you  can  find,  to  hold  all 
these  parcels.'  ...  A  little  boy  came  timidly  in  with 
a  bundle  nearly  as  large  as  himself,  and  'would  this  be  too 
large  for  Mrs.  Lyman  to  carry  to  grandmother?' — 'No, 
indeed,  tell  your  mother  Lll  carry  anything  short  of  a 
cooking  stove.'  'Another  trunk,  Hiram,'  said  my  father; 
'  and  ask  the  driver  to  wait  five  minutes.'  Those  were  the 
times  when  people  could  wait  five  minutes  for  a  family  so 
well  known  and  beloved.  .  .  .  our  driver  had  only 
to  whip  up  his  horses  a  little  faster  before  he  came  to  the 
Belchertown  hills;  and  when  he  came  to  those  the  elders 
got  out  and  lightened  the  load."^     At  Belchertown,  a  few 


1  Recollections  of  My  Mother  Mrs.  Anne  Jean  Lyman,  of  Northampton. 
Being  a  Picture  of  Domestic  and  Social  Life  in  New  England.  Houghton, 
Mifflin  and  Company. 


2IO    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

miles  from  Amherst,  lived  for  a  time  J.   G.   Holland  and 
Eugene  Field. 

In  Southampton,  one  Sabbath  during  the  sermon  the 
audience  of  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Judd  suddenly  left  him  at 
the  sound  of  a  gunshot  at  a  "bare."  Also,  by  Parson 
Judd's  Diary,  we  find  that  he,  at  least,  stood  by  Jonathan 
Edwards  on  his  melancholy  departure,  after  being  deposed 
from  Northampton  Church:  "Oct.  i6 — i\Iet  Mr.  Edwards 
and  family  at  Bartlett's  Mills  and  rid  some  miles." 

The  Northampton  Octogenarian  has  a  reminiscence  of 
one  who  was  a  leetle  nigh:  "so  penurious  was  Old  Lick 
Sheldon,  that  it  was  said  whenever  he  went  down  to  the 
meadow^  to  work,  he  would  stop  his  clock  from  running, 
thinking  it  would  last  longer.  "^ 

There  is  a  tradition  in  the  Strong  family  that  when  the 
Rev.  John  Hooker,  the  fourth  minister  of  Northampton, 
was  married  to  the  sister  of  Colonel  Worthington  at  Spring- 
field in  1755  his  bride,  according  to  the  etiquette  of  the 
period,  rode  to  her  new  home  on  a  pillion  behind  one  of 
Mr.  Hooker's  deacons. 

The  first  tea  ever  seen  in  Northampton  was  sent  to  Colonel 
Timothy  Dwight  in  1746  and  called  "bohea. "  The  family 
steeped  it  all  up  at  once  as  an  herb  drink,  and  finding  it 
bitter,    threw    it    away    in    disgust.     The    delightful    New 


1  The  Hampshire  Gazette  was  founded  in  1786  by  William  Butler,  who 
married  a  daughter  of  Colonel  John  Brown  of  Pittsfield,  and  built  on 
Hawley  Street,  where  also  stands  the  old  Clark  tavern,  the  Washburn 
residence.  Ezra  Clark  built  his  homestead  near  the  toll  gate  on  Bridge 
street.  Lieutenant  William  Clark,  the  pioneer,  moved  from  Dorchester  in 
1659  to  Northampton.  His  wife  rode  on  horseback,  with  panniers, 
carrying  one  boy  in  each  basket  and  one  in  her  lap,  her  husband  pro- 
ceeding on  foot.     Antiquities  of  N orthampton  by  Rev.  Solomon  Clark. 

Anniversary  edition  of  the  Hampshire  Gazette.  Its  present  editor, 
Henry  S.  Gere,  author  of  Reminiscences  of  Old  Northampton,  1840  to  18 §0, 
is  the  senior  editor  of  Western  Massachusetts. 


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2  12    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

England  homestead  built  by  Colonel  Dwight  (the  father 
of  the  first  President  Dwight  of  Yale) ,  afterwards  occupied 
by  Nathan  Storrs  and  by  Dr.  Charles  Walker,  stands  on 
King  Street  in  company  with  the  Hopkins  and  Judge 
William  A.  Allen  homestead;  also  the  Josiah  Dwight  Whit- 
ney house  built  on  the  site  of  the  home  of  Jonathan 
Edwards.  A  remarkable  photograph  is  extant  of  the 
distinguished  Whitney  family,  under  the  "Jonathan  Ed- 
wards Elm." 

King  Street  recalls  Captain  John  King,  who  named 
Northampton  in  honor  of  his  native  town  in  England.  An 
Indian  war-club  captured  by  his  son  Lieutenant  John 
King  is  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants. 

At  Florence,  the  village  created  by  the  silk  industry, 
the  oldest  inhabitants  are  the  Warner  family  near  the  fork 
of  the  road  to  "  great  bridge." 

The  Parsons  homestead  (1755)  on  South  Street,  or  "Lick- 
ingwater, "  together  with  the  famous  Parsons  Elm,  brought 
up  by  Noah  Parsons  from  the  meadows  on  horseback,  make 
a  charming  picture  near  the  centre  of  a  busy  city.  The 
Clapp  homestead  has  always  been  proud  of  its  grand  stair- 
case. On  old  South  Street  at  the  corner  of  ]\Iill  Lane  lived 
the  organist  of  the  "  Old  Church"  and  director  of  the  singing 
school, — Professor  George  Kingsley.  On  Elm  Street  is 
the  gambrel  roof  of  the  Judge  Samuel  Henshaw  house  for 
a  time  occupied  by  Sidney  E.  Bridgman,  later  owned  by 
Bishop  Huntington. 

At  13  Main  Street  the  hospitable  and  charming  Miss  Polly 
Pomeroy  entertained  her  friends.  She  is  said  to  have 
borne  a  striking  resemblance  to  Adelaide,  the  Queen  of 
Louis  Philippe.  The  six  sons  and  six  daughters  of  the 
Jonathan  Lyman  family  were  remarkable  for  rare  beauty. 
Other  hostesses  of  Mrs.  Judge  Lyman's  day  were  Mrs. 
Isaac  Bates,  Mrs.   Thomas  Shepherd,   Mrs.   Judge   Dewey, 


Paradise  Woods,  Northampton  213 

Mrs.  Hopkins,  Mrs.  Sam'l  Wells,  and  the  Misses  Cochrane. 

On  Pleasant  Street,  or  "Bartlett's  Lane,"  so-called  from 
the  gate-keeper,  is  the  house  of  Hon.  Eli  P.  Ashmun,  member 
of  Congress,  later  occupied  by  Dr.  Sylvester  Graham. 
Bridge  Street  has  a  wonderful  elm  which  stood  in  front  of 
the  house  of  Hon.  Isaac  Chapman  Bates,  removed  to  North 
Street.  The  Isaac  Parsons  homestead  of  1744  on  Bridge 
Street  faces  the  common,  and  stands  on  the  farm  purchased 
by  Cornet  Joseph  Parsons  in  1674.  The  house  of  Governor 
Caleb  Strong,  one  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  w^as 
removed  to  Pleasant  Street  from  Main. 

A  picturesque  house  with  colonial  door-knockers  on 
Bridge  Street  was  built  by  Asahel  Pomeroy  for  his  daughter 
Hannah.  The  portrait  of  Mrs.  Levi  Shepherd,  a  daughter 
of  Gen.  Seth,  hangs  in  this  house,  the  residence  of  Thomas 
H.   Shepherd,   Esq. 

The  famous  Round  Hill  School,  founded  by  the  historian 
Bancroft  and  Dr.  J.  G.  Cogswell,  was  housed  in  the  early 
homes  of  three  brothers — Levi,  Colonel  James,  and  Thomas 
Shepherd,  who  built  the  "Soapstone  House"  in  18 10; 
this  is  now  one  of  the  halls  of  Clarke  Institute  for  the  Deaf. 

On  present  College  Hill  was  the  home  of  Judge  Charles 
A.  Dewey,  now  "Dewey  House,"  one  of  the  Smith  College 
dormitories;  on  its  old  site  that  of  the  Clark  homestead 
of  four  generations  stands  the  home  of  President  L.  Clark 
Seelye.  The  Hillyer  Art  Building  and  the  campus  of 
Smith  College  were  comprised  formerly  in  the  home-lots 
of  the  Planters,  Lieut.  William  Clark  and  Henry  Wood- 
ward. The  Administration  Building  is  on  the  site  of  the 
Judge  Samuel  F.  Lyman  house. 

The  Alary  A.  Burnham  Classical  School  occupies  the  old 
Thomas  Napier  and  Judge  Samuel  Howe  houses  and  the 
Talbot  residence,  now  the  Capen  house. 

Jenny  Lind  passed  her  honeymoon  on  Round  Hill  and 


214    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

named  the  beautiful  region  below  near  ^lill  River,  "  Para- 
dise." Scenes  of  J.  G.  Holland's  Kathrina  were  laid  here. 
"Tarryawhile,"  the  home  of  George  Cable,  is  on  Paradise 
Road,  a  spot  of  lovely  seclusion,  yet  Elm  Street  with  its 
incessant  clatter  and  hum  is  but  four  hundred  yards  away. 
The  bluffs  in  "Paradise,"  Mr.  Cable  writes,  "suddenly  sink 
to  the  river  seventy  feet  below,  canopied  and  curtained  by 
a  dense  foliage  of  pine  and  hemlocks.  .  .  .  the  sounds 
of  nature  alone  fill  the  air ;  song  of  birds,  chirp  of  insects, 
the  rattle  of  the  kingfisher,  the  soft  scamper  of  the  chip- 
munk, the  drone  of  the  bees,  or  the  pretty  scoldings  of  the 
red  squirrel.  A  boat  rowed  by  college  girls  may  pass  in 
silence,  or  with  a  song:  ...  Of  trees  and  perennial 
shrubs  and  vines  alone,  I  have  counted  in  'Paradise'  more 
than  seventy  species."^ 

A  beautiful  view  of  Paradise  Lake  with  the  mountain 
range  beyond  is  obtained  from  the  Kneeland  garden  with 
its  border  of  wild- wood  carpeted  with  marv^ellous  ferns. 

At  "Tarry awhile,"  Mr  Cable  wrote  The  Cavalier  and 
other  works.  He  is  a  moving  spirit  in  the  great  and  success- 
ful undertakings  of  the  Home  Culture  Clubs  of  Northampton. 
Mr.  Carnegie  also  has  put  his  shoulder  to  this  wheel  of 
Progress. 

The  traditional  literary  atmosphere  has  never  waned 
since  a  pioneer  wearing  the  graduate's  magic  "H.  C,  1656," 
knocked  at  Northampton's  gate.  The  Clark  and  Forbes 
libraries  are  great  acquisitions;  and  Northampton  is  the 
home  of  Jeannette  Lee,  Ruth  Huntington  Sessions,  and  the 
Rev.  George  Gilbert.  The  Mount  Tom  magazine  comes 
to  us  from  the  pen  of  Gerald  Stanley  Lee,  and  Mrs.  Lee  is 
one  of  the  Contributors'  Club  of  The  Atlantic;  Dr.  Lyman 
Powell,  Professor  Joseph  Johnson,    and  Mrs.   Cochran  are 

>"  Paradise  Woods,"  a  sketch  in  Northampton,  The  Meadow  City, 
edited  by  F.  N.  Kneeland  and  L.  P.  Bryant. 


A  Literary  Pilgrimage 


15 


associated  with  Northampton  as  well  as  the  historian 
Charles  D.  Hazen,  Miss  Mary  Jordan,  Elizabeth  Hanscom, 
and  others  of  the  Smith  College  Faculty.  A  picturesque 
literary  pilgrimage  is  to  mount  to  Williamsburg  and  follow 
the  footsteps  of  Matthew  Arnold  and  many  another  philos- 
opher to  Ashfield  among  the  hills,   the  summer  home  of 


The  Students'  Building,  Smith  College. 

Charles    Eliot    Norton.    Charles    Goodrich  Whiting  is  our 
guide  on  inspired    Walks  In  New  England. 

J.  G.  Holland's  confrere  of  Springfield  Samuel  Bowles 
moulded  much  of  the  spirit  of  letters  in  Western  New 
England,  his   Journal   being   notable   as   closed   except  to 


2i6    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

facts  and  honorable  retort.  Holland's  Bay  Path  is  a 
picture  of  the  colonist's  life  at  Agawam  and  bittersweet 
is  ever  kept  on  the  grave  of  him  who  loved  the  rural  scene 
in  the  Valley  of  Nonotuck : 

"  The  old  red  farm-house,  dim  and  dun  to-night, 

Save  where  the  ruddy  firelight  from,  the  hearth — »" 


STOCKBRIDGE  (INDIAN  TOWN),  1737-9 

"Are  they  not  sweet. 
These  chimes  that  come  to  us  on  western  air  ?  " 

Evening  Chimes,  Crowninshield. 

On  the  border  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  there 
Hes  a  gentle  valley  indented  by  low,  wooded  mountains, 
each  of  a  contour  strikingly  unlike  its  neighbor.  The  river 
of  this  ''Happy  Valley"  hesitates  and  lingers  on  the  edge 
of  that  luminous,  green  bowl  of  forest  and  meadow,  mean- 
while changes  her  accustomed  dancing,  vivacious  step,  and 
walks  serenely  in  a  curved  path  west  and  north  across  the 
lovely  plain  of  Stockbridge,  tracing  a  double,  willow- 
fringed  ox-bow,  on  which  the  birch  canoe  must  travel  five 
times  as  far  as  the  horseman  who  rides  from  bridge  to 
bridge. 

This  Taconic-Hoosac  bowl  in  which  Stockbridge  lies  was 
a  home  of  the  Alohekanew  or  Muh-he-ka-nuk,  the  people 
of  the  continually  flowing  w^aters,  who,  in  past  unknown 
suns,  ranged  far  northwest.  Here  'mid  the  softer  hills  of 
the  Green  Mountain  range  the  tribe  told  the  hours  of  the 
day  by  mountain  shadows,  the  sundial  of  the  savage. 
Wnau-ti-kook  is  the  first  to  become  wrapped  in  shade  as 
the  sun  falls  below  her  summit.  Above  Rattlesnake  or 
Deowkook  —  Hill  of  the  Wolves — stands  the  north  star, 
their  compass  of  the  night,  whilst  Orion  served  as  their 
clock.  Captain  Konkapot's  name  for  Rattlesnake  Moun- 
tain was  Mau-ska-fee-haunk  when  he  indicated  the  north 
boundary  of   the   tribe's   lands   of   "  Housatonack  ^ — allias 

1  The  territory  of  Housatonic,  comprising  parts  of  Stockbridge, 
Lee,  and  Great  Harrington,  Mount  Washington,  Egremont,  and  Alford, 
was   conveyed   to    the    committee    appointed   by   the    General    Court,  to 

217 


2i8    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Westonhook" — deeded  to  the  whites  ''in  consideration  of 
Four  Hundred  and  Sixty  Pounds,  Three  barrels  of  Sider 
and  thirty  quarts  of  Rum. "  The  north  hne  of  Westenhook 
patent  probably  ran  within  half  a  league  of  the  enchanting 
wild-wood  park  on  Mr.  Daniel  French's  estate  at  Glendale. 


Lake  Alakheenac  or  Stockbridge  Bowl;  Jiere  burned  the  council  fires  of  the 

Mohekanew. 

On  the  banks  of  Lake  Makheenac  or  the  Great  Pond 
(afterwards  the  Stockbridge  Bowl  of  Mrs.  Sigoumey's 
poem)  burned  the  council  fires  of  the  River  Indians;  here 
treaties  were  sealed,  but  a  runner's  message  without  belts 
of  wampum  was  set  aside  as  "an  empty  word." 


admit  settlers  to  this  region  west  of  the  Connecticut,  hotly  disputed 
by  New  York  and  Massachusetts.  The  Committee  were  Col.  John  Stod- 
dard, Capt.  Henry  Dwight  of  Northampton,  Capt.  Luke  Hitchcock  of 
Springfield,  Capt.  John  Ashley  of  Westfield,  Samuel  Porter  of  Hadley, 
and  Capt.  Ebenezer  Pomroy. 


Monument  Mountain. 


219 


220    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Well-beaten  trails  criss-crossed  Stockbridge  like  the 
spokes  of  a  wheel.  One  twisted  westward  toward  the  ancient 
council  fire  of  the  tribe  at  Eswatak  or  Schodack  (now  Castle- 
ton,  N.  Y.)  where  Henry  Hudson  once  visited  the  Chief 
of  the  Mohicans.  Another  trail  ran  to  the  Sugar  Bush  at 
Tyringham,  another  followed  the  Housatonic  south  past 
the  "Great  Wigwam"  and  Weatogue  village  in  Salisbury, 
Conn.,  to  the  meadow  of  the  Schaghticoke  Indians  in 
Kent.  Judge  Church  says  that  the  first  settlers  could 
accurately  trace  this  Indian  path  by  the  apple-trees  sprung 
up  on  its  course  from  the  seeds  scattered  after  their  repast 
on  our  "national  fruit,"  as  Emerson  calls  the  apple.  The 
most  intimate  trail  of  the  Stockbridge  tribe  mounts  the 
shoulder  of  Prospect  Hill,  crossing  the  garden  of  the  Dr. 
Henry  M.  Field  place  with  its  ever  bubbling  spring,  and 
runs  on  past  "Windymore"  (where  the  Williams  garrison 
stood)  to  an  Indian  village  on  Rattlesnake. 

Hunting  was  good  on  Beartown  hills, — so-called,  tra- 
dition says,  because  a  pioneer  of  Lee  killed  a  bear  in  the 
forest  depths  with  a  knotted  rope's  end.  A  story  handed 
down  at  Beartown  is  of  a  circuit  preacher,  who  remarked 
after  a  scanty  contribution:  "It  is  as  hard  to  convert  one 
of  ye  Beartown  sinners  as  it  is  for  a  shad  to  climb  an  apple- 
tree — yea,  tail  foremost."  The  river  washes  the  fore-feet 
of  the  Bear  at  Ice  Glen  before  it  leaves  Stockbridge  meadows 
to  leap  southward  toward  the  Great  Wigwam  "in  a  place 
called  Ousetonuck"  (Great  Barrington).  On  its  path 
thither  the  river  passes  below  the  face  of  the  sacred  crag 
of  Maris-nos-see-klu,  ^ — the  Fisher's  Xest, — on  whose  proud 
summit  no  Indian  treads  without  first  casting  his  reverential 
tribute  of  a  stone  upon  the  monumental  cone  on  its  southern 
slope. 

»  According  to  other  authorities  the  Indian  name  for  ^Monument 
Mountain  is  Mas-wa-se-hi,  signifying  a  nest  standing  up,  as  appears  in  the 
form  of  its  topmost  boulders. 


A  Monument  Mountain  Romance         221 

This  pile  of  stones  on  Monument  is  one  of  the  mysterious 
shrinesi  of  the  aborigine,  of  whose  import  no  Indian  will 
speak. 

Many  believe  that  it  may  be  a  memorial  to  that  gentle 
and  sorrowful  maid  who  threw  herself  over  the  white 
precipice  to  assuage  a  despairing  love,  having  been  for- 
bidden to  marry  her  warrior-cousin  through  the  unchanging 
law  of  the  forefathers.  To  Bryant  was  related  by  a  squaw 
the  romance  of  the  Indian  maid  of  Monument  Mountain: 

''It  was  a  summer  m.ornmg,  and  they  went 
To  this  old  precipice.     About  the  cliffs 
Lay  garlands,  ears  of  maize,  and  shaggy  skins 
Of  wolf  and  hear,  the  offerings  of  the  tribe 
Here  made  to  the  Great  Spirit,  for  they  deemed, 
Like  worshipers  of  the  elder  time,  that  God 
Doth  walk  on  the  high  places. 
Below  her — waters  resting  in  the  embrace 
Of  the  wide  forest. 

She  gazed  upon  it  long,  and  at  the  sight 
Of  her  own  village  peeping  through  the  trees, 
And  her  own  dwelling,  and  the  calm  roof 
Of  him  she  loved.     .     .     .     She  threw  herself 
From  the  steep  rock  and  perished.'' 


The   wild   legendary   existence 


LANDMARKS:    I  he    First    Church 
(1824)     Memorial     Tablets.     Henry 

Williams  Dwight  homestead.  Stock-     of  thc  Indians  of  thc  Housatonic 

bridge  Cemetery.    Indians'  graves  in  101 

southwest  corner;  they  asked  to  be        mcrgcd  intO  thc  CClcbrated  StOCK- 

buried  near  Dr.  Sergeant  that  they        ^^^dgC    Mission.        Thc    silcnt    fish- 
might  rise  with  him.     In  the  Sedg-  '^ 

wick  lot  is  a  tribute  to  the  faithful     ing-grounds  at  thc  double  Ox-Bow 

Mumbet,  the  first  slave  given  freedom  1  1  -  11 

in   Massachusetts   and   through   the        whOSC       bcaUty      arOUSCd       SUCh 

1  Such  commemorative  heaps  of  stones  are  found  always  near  a 
beaten  trail,  or  a  spring  or  stream.  The  cone  mentioned  in  a  deed  given 
by  four  Indians  to  Stephen  Van  Cortland  in  1682  now  marks  an  angle 
of  the  boundan*'  between  Claverack  and  Taghanick  townships,  New 
York,  standing  within  the  ancient  bounds  of  Claverack  Manor. 


222     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


efforts  of  Judge  Theodore  Sedgwick. 
Edwards  monument.  Miss  Nancy 
Hoxey  house,  residence  of  Mrs. 
Thomas  H.  Rodman,  Jr.  Captain 
John  Whiton  house  (about  1812), 
the  Rectory;  residence  of  Dr.  Arthur 
Lawrence.  Rectory  Cottage;  one 
end  built  without  windows  because 
the  owner  sail  he  would  not  be 
indebted  to  his  Federalist  neighbor 
for  light  and  air.  Site  of  school- 
house  in  which  taught  Theodore 
Dwight,  John  Kirkland,  afterwards 
President  of  Harvard,  Dr.  Joseph 
Catlin,  and  Ma'am  Pynchon,  strict 
in  spelling  and  politeness.  St. 
Paul's  Church,  a  church  of  me- 
morials (key  at  Red  Lion  Inn). 
The  Red  Lion  Inn  stands  on  site  of 
the  Red  Lion  built  by  Silas  Pepoon, 
1773;  Plumb  collection  of  antiques, 
illustrated  pamphlet  on,  by  Allen 
E.  Treadway.  Jackson  Library  con- 
tains Jonathan  Edwards's  desk.  St. 
Joseph's  Church.  Interior  orna- 
ments gift  of  Charles  Astor  Bristed 
Williams  Academy,  endowed  by 
Cyrus  Williams  (Major  Jared  Curtis 
first  preceptor  followed  by  Jonathan 
Cutler,  Mark  Hopkins,  Elijah  Whit- 
ney, Rufus  Townsend,  Edward  W. 
B.  Canning)  Laurel  Hill  or  Little 
Hill ;  Sedgwick  gift  to  Stockbridge. 
Laurel  Cottage  built  by  Jahl  eel  Wood- 
bridge.  Here  David  Dudley  Field 
entertained  Hawthorne  and  other 
distinguished  people.  Burrall  house, 
summer  residence  of  Judge  Byington 
Brownell.  "The  Nunnery,"  residence 
of  Miss  Virginia  Butler,  on  site  of 
Henry  Dwight  Sedgwick  house. 
Rev.  Josiah  Brewer  homestead, 
boyhood  home  of  Chief- Justice 
Brewer,  residence  of  Miss  M.  Adele 
Brewer.  General  William  Williams 
house  on  road  to  Lenox,  property  of 


enthusiasm  in  the  gentle  soul  of 
Dean  Stanley  —  became  their 
school- ground. 

In  those  days  The  Hill^  and 
The  Plain  were  the  two  parts 
of  Stockbridge,  and  you  might 
have  stood  with  Missionary  John 
Sergeant  in  the  doorway  of  his 
Mission  House  on  the  Hill — 
already  famous  in  Great  Britain 
— and  listened  to  a  conch-shell's 
blast  drowning  the  song  of  the 
bobolinks,  w^hereby  David  Nau- 
nau-ka-nuk,  the  tithing- man,  sum- 
moned Mohican  and  Mohawk 
chiefs  and  men  of  the  Six  Nations 
into  the  little  church  on  the 
Plain ;  hence  now,  from  vine-clad 
bell-tower,  the  Children's  Chimes 
chant  softly  to  the  valley  that 
day  is  done.  Presently  from  the 
line  of  wigwams  on  Stockbridge 
Street  you  perceived  Indian  con- 
verts appear  w4th  tools  and  set 
to  building  or  planting  after  the 
English  manner.  Konkapot,  com- 
missioned as  Captain  by  Gov. 
Belcher,  built  and  shingled  his 
bam  on  the  brook  ^  named  in  his 


»  "The  Hill,"  as  the  oldest  families  like  to  call  it,  has  been  variously- 
designated  as  Sergeant's  Hill,  Field  Hill,  Choate  Hill,  and  Prospect  Hill. 
The  sinuosity  of  the  Housatonic  is  remarkable,  circling  twenty-seven 
miles  in  going  eight. 

2  Konkapot  or  Konk's  brook  crosses  the  Crowninshield  place,  in 
Stockbridge;    in  Great  Harrington  it  is  Muddy  Brook.     Tradition  says 


Indian  Hospitality 


223 


Charles  Whitney.  The  Hill  or  Pros- 
pect Hill.  Dr.  Lucius  Adams  house, 
owned  by  Hon.  Joseph  H.  Choate. 
"  Sunset,"  residence  Mrs.  Henry  M. 
Field.  "  Windymore,"  on  site  of 
Williams  Garrison;  here  Dean  Stan- 
ley and  distinguished  men  from 
"  foreign  parts"  entertained  by  Dr. 
Henry  M.  Field.  "  Clovercroft," 
residence  of  Mrs.  Oscar  lasigi. 
"  Council  Grove,"  formerly  the 
Cone  estate,  present  summer  resi- 
dence of  Charles  S.  Mellen,  Esq. 
Judge  Ezekiel  Bacon-Palmer  house, 
residence  of  Mrs.  J.  F.  Pitkin, 
boyhood  home  of  Wm.  Pitt  Palmer; 
mountain  spring  which  turned 
Judge  Bacon's  grist  and  cider  mills. 
Frederick  Perry  homestead,  property 
Mr.  Edward  M.  Teall.  Cyrus  Field 
Park,  old  site  of  the  First  Church. 
Old  Lynch  house.  West  Stockbridge 
Road,  mentioned  in  Life  of  Miss 
Sedgwick — built  in  1777,  was  home 
of  Deacon  Charles  Lynch:  Judge 
Sedgwick  suggested  to  Mr.  Larry 
Lynch  that  he  should  call  the  road 
"  Larry's  Walk,"  hence  the  Lara- 
waug  district.  Ice  Glen;  south  en- 
trance is  near  "  Glenburnie,"  the 
Dr.  Henry  C.  Haven  estate.  Fred- 
erick Crowninshield  residence,  Kon- 
kapot     Brook.       Luke     Ashburner 


honor.  The  schoolmaster  and 
first  magistrate  was  the  Rev. 
Timothy    Woodbridge. 

The  Indians  in  their  turn 
introduced  the  EngHsh  to  the 
squash,  as  Ku-tu-squash,  or 
Vine-Apple,  and  impressed  the 
whites  with  the  dignity  of  their 
ancient  laws  of  hospitality. 
A  Muh-he-ka-neuw  who  enters 
the  home  of  a  neighbor  says 
nothing  until  he  has  eaten, 
and  no  one  speaks  whilst  the 
squaw  hastens  to  set  forth 
food.i 

The  Stockbridge  Mission  was 
sought  eagerly  by  the  Iroquois 
and  the  astute  Mohawk  Chief, 
Hendrick,  sent  his  grandson 
thither  to  be  educated. 


that  Captain  Konkapot  lived  not  far  from  Agrippa's  little  weather- 
beaten  cottage  on  the  old  County  Road  (Goodrich  Street).  Agrippa, 
the  colored  body-servant  of  Kosciusko,  and  his  wife  were  "characters" 
in  Stockbridge.  No  one  could  make  such  gingerbread  and  root-beer  as 
Black  Peggy.  "Grippy"  was  sexton;  it  is  said  that  one  evening  when 
the  church  members  were  dilatory  in  arriving,  Grippy  opened  the  prayer- 
meeting  himself:  "O  Lord,  Thou  knowest  how  I  comes  here  and  rings  de 
bell  and  rings  de  bell,  and  Thy  disciples  halt  by  de  way,  paying  no  'tention 
to  its  solemn  warning  sound." 

1  Other  interesting  customs  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Stockbridge  tribe 
are  included  in  Jones's  History  of  Stockbridge,  edited  by  E.  W.  B.  Canning; 
Mr.  Canning's  sketch  of  the  Indian  Mission  is  included  in  the  Berk- 
shire Historical  Society  Papers.  The  hut  of  Kokkewenaunaunt,  "King 
Ben"  occupied  the  site  of  "  Cherry  Cottage,"  the  birth-place  of  Mark 
Hopkins.  Ten  years  previous  to  his  death  (1781)  at  the  age  of  104,  he 
resigned  to  "  King  Solomon." 

Parkman  says  that  this  tribe  was  in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable 


The  Old  Mission  House 


22 


I'lic  Uia  Mission  iioiisc  on  the  11  ill. 
Built    by    the    Commonweatlh    of    Massachusetts    for   John    Sergeant    the 
Missionary.      Owned  by  Mr.   S.  H.   Woodward.     The  oldest  house   -in 
Stockbrid^e. 


house  (1823),  residence  James  D, 
Hague,  home  of  G.  P.  R.  James  for 
two  years.  Old  County  Road. 
Goodrich  Street.  William  Goodrich 
married  a  daughter  of  Hon.  Timothy 
Woodbridge.  "  Ox-Bow  meadow," 
surveyed  1829  by  Samuel  Goodrich. 
David  Goodrich  house.  Isaiah 
Byington      homestead.  Timothy 

Woodbridge-Baldwin  homestead. 
Enoch  Willard-Seymour  house,  res- 
idence Jonathan  £.  Field.  Severus 
Fairman-Tracy  house,  birthplace   of 


Great  was  the  romantic  interest 
of  the  Old  World  in  the  heathen 
savages  "  who  dwelt  in  the  midst 
of  Nature."  Dr.  Ayscourt,  Chap- 
lain to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  sent 
over  a  Bible  filled  with  fine 
engravings,  inscribed :  presented 
to  Rev.  John  Sergeard,  Missionary 


of  our  country.  Captain  Hendrick  Aupaumet,  their  historian,  was,  like 
Cornplanter  and  Redjacket  of  the  Six  Nations,  statesman  and  leader  of  his 
people.  "According  to  the  peculiar  ethnology  of  our  aborigines, 
the  Delawares  were  the  grandfathers,  the  Suawanees  and  Oneidas  the 
younger  brothers,  the  Mohawks,  Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and  Senecas 
the  uncles  of  the   Muh-he-ka-neew." 


IS 


226    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


to  the  Stockhridge  Indians,  in  the 
vast  wilderness  called  New  Eng- 
land. Sergeant  was  ordained 
Missionary  with  impressive  cere- 
raonies  at  Deerfield  before  the 
Governor,  Council,  and  Indian 
Delegates.  The  occasion  was 
marked  by  one  of  the  famous 
ordination  addresses  of  the  Rev. 
William  Williams  of  Hatfield,  a 
cousin  of  the  ''  Redeemed  Cap- 
tive,"  and  a  son  of  the  cord- 
wayner  Robert  of  Norwich,  who 
crossed  in  the  Rose  of  Yarmouth 
and  settled  in  Roxbury. 

Nobles  and  poets  alike  con- 
tributed on  the  Indians'  behalf, 
in  gold  or  literature :  Lord  Gower, 
Charles,  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
Pope,  Rousseau,  Addison,  and 
Steele.  This  came  about  after 
the  audience  granted  by  Queen 
Anne  to  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations 
— the  "Four  Kings" — who  were 
conducted  to  London  by  Colonel 
Schuyler  and  Ex-Governor  Nich- 
olson of  Maryland.  After  pre- 
senting their  petitions  to  the  Queen  that  she  should  send 
an  army  against  the  French,  they  were  returned  to  their 
apartments  in  her  Majesty's  coach.  Ballads  were  written  in 
their  honor,  portraits  were  painted  of  "the  Emperor  of  the 
Mohawks,  wampum  m  hand,"  and  his  three  royal  compan- 
ions by  Verelst,  who  "engrossed  the  fashion  ";  after  their 
departure,  their  characters  were  assumed  at  masquerades. 


Maria  Fainnan,  a  writer  for  Godey^s 
Magazine  and  I'outh's  Co»ipan- 
ion.  Mark  Hopkins's  birthplace  on 
the  "  Cherry  Farm"  of  Dr.  Charles 
McBurney.  The  Golf  Meadows, 
once  owned  by  Oliver  Partridge, 
afterward  known  as  Hunt  Meadows 
and  Choate  Golf  Grounds. 

G  LEND  ALE  :  House  of  Daniel  C. 
French,  James  Dresser  house 
(1800).  "  The  Knoll,"  residence 
Richard  P.  Bowker. 

Interlaken  or  CurtisviUe:  Curtis 
homestead,  Dr.  Vassall  White  house. 
The  old  hotel  is  now  St.  Helen's 
Home,  for  "  Fresh  Air  Children," 
founded  by  the  Hon.  John  E. 
Parsons,  as  a  memorial  to  his 
daughter. 

DRIVES:  CurtisviUe — 3  miles;  Cur- 
tisviUe (by  turnpike,  return  base  West 
Stockbridge  mountain.  Lake  Averic) 
— 7;  Fernside — 6,  Glendale — /J ; 
Glendale  (by  Butler  estate) — 3; 
Great  Barrington — 7 1 ;  "  Highlawn" 
— 5,  Housatonic— 4;  Lake  Buel — 10; 
Lake  Makheenac — j;  Lee  (over 
hill) — 4;  Lenox — 6;  Lenox  by  Mak- 
heenac— 7;  Long  Lake  (by  Glendale, 
Housatonic,  Williamsville,  return 
by  Van  Deusenville  Monument) — 16; 
Monterey  (by  Monument  Valley, 
Blue  Hill,  return  by  Beartown") — 18; 
Monument  Mt.,  summit — 5,  Monu- 
ment, around — 10;  Perry's  Peak  (by 
West  Stockbridge  and  Richmond) 
— 24;  Pittsfield — 12;  Tyringham, 
Hop  Brook  Road — S;  Warren's 
Woods  (view  Tyringham  Valley) 
— 12;  W.  Stockbridge,  by  Williams 
River,  Fuary's  Quarries,  Glendale 
— 12. 


Indian  Chiefs  before  Queen  Anne 


227 


Addison's  version  of  what  the  Indians  thought  in  their 
turn  of  the  Court  in  wigs,  powder,  and  patches  is  excessively 
pertinent  and  amusing.  The  "odd  observations"  of  King 
Sa  Ga  Yean  Qua  Rash  on  Enghsh  manners  are  presented 
by  The  Spectator. 
"Their  dress  Hkewise 
is  very  barbarous, 
for  they  ahnost  stran- 
gle themselves  about 
the   neck. 

Instead     of     those 
beautiful  feathers 
with  which  we  adorn 
our  heads,  they  often 
buv  up  a  monstrous 
brush  of  hair,  which 
falls  down 
in    a    large    fleece     c 
and    are    a£ 
proud  of   it   as   if   it 
were    their   own 
growth.     .    .     .     The 
women  look  like  an- 
gels,   and   would    be 
more    beautiful  than 
the  sun,  were  it    not 
for  little  black  spots 
that  are  apt  to  break 
out    on    their    faces, 
and     sometimes  rise 
in  very  odd    figures. 
.     When   they 

disappear  in  one  part  of  the  face,  they  are  apt  to  break 
out  in  another,  insomuch  that  I  have  seen  a  spot  upon  the 
forehead  in  the  afternoon  which  was  upon  the  chin  in 
the  morning:. "  ^ 


Dfawn  fro7n  Life  by  G.  Catlin 

The  Mohegan,  Psalm  Book  in  hand. 

".4  nobler  task  was  theirs  who  strove 
to  win 
The    blood-stained    heathen    to    the 

Christian  fold.'' 
— ^Memorial  to  Francis  Parkman  by 

Holmes. 


»  The  Spectator,  Xo.   50.      The  portraits  of  the  "Four   Kings"  are  in 


228    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

The  Valley  Indians'  dearest  foe  was,  first,  the  Dutch 
trader  from  across  the  New  York  border,  balancing  his 
saddle-bags  with  evil  fire-water;  secondly,  the  French,  who 
sent  Indian  viceroys  to  entice  their  young  men  from  an 
English  alliance,  by  holding  orgies  in  the  Taghonic  woods. 
The  Stockbridge  tribe  proved  difficult  to  proselyte,  and 
forthwith  French  and  Indians  prudently  omitted  Housa- 
tonic  towns  in  their  war  programme  of  pillage  and  massacre. 

REVOLUTIOXARY    DAYS 

At  the  opening  of  the  Revolution,  Stockbridge  Indians 
strung  anew  their  faithful  bows,  and,  as  minute-men,  marched 
to  join  the  camp  on  Cambridge  Common  and  aw^ait  orders 
from  a  great  new  chief — General  A¥ashington.  On  June  30, 
1776,  General  Washington,  speaking  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Caughnawaga  friends  and  other  tribes,  says,  "  They  honored 
me  with  a  talk  to-day. ' '     John  Logan  says : 

''But  just  believe  me,  oust  for  all, 

To  thein  that  treat  hint  fair, 
■  The  Injun  mostly  alluz,  wiiz, 

And  is  and  will  be,  square.  " 

The  County  Congressi  met  in  1774  at  Stockbridge  Tavern, 

the  British  Museum.  ^Mezzotint  copies  are  in  the  John  Carter  Brown 
Library.  Providence.  These  Mohawk  kings  were  of  the  race  of  unswerv- 
ing British  alHance,  whose  courage  was  a  factor  m  deciding  the  predom- 
inance of  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  America.  They  produced  Brant  and 
Tecumseh.  The  poet  E.  Pauhne  Johnson  of  "Chiefswood'  is  a  daughter 
of  the  head  chief  of  the  Mohawks  and  his  wife  Emil}^  S.  Ho  wells  of 
Bristol,  England. 

1  The  Berkshire  Convention  appointed  Mark  Hopkins,  Theodore 
Sedgwick  John  Brown  of  Pittsfield,  Peter  Curtis  of  Lanesboro,  a  com- 
mittee to  take  into  consideration  the  acts  of  Parliament  made  for  the 
purpose  of  collecting  revenue  in  America.  The  noyi-consumption  of 
British  manufacturers  League  or  Covenant,  a  crusade  against  the  Tories, 
was  drawn  up  by  Tim^othy  Edwards,  Esq.,  Dr.  Erastus  Sergeant,  Dr. 
Lemuel  Barnard  of  Sheffield,  Deacon  James  Easton  of  Pittsfield.  and 
Dr.  William  Whiting. 


Washington  and  our  Indian  Allies         229 

under  the  sign  of  the  shiny  Red  Lion^  with  a  green  tail,  to 
storm  against  all  things  British.  Captain  Solomon  Wahau- 
wanwaumet  or  "King  Solomon,"  chief  sachem  at  Stock- 
bridge,  journeyed  to  Boston  by  the  old  Bay  Path  to  pledge 
the  fealty  of  his  tribe  in  an  eloquent  and  rhythmic  oration. 
In  a  moth-eaten  hair  trunk  in  a  New  York  house,  among 
certain  other  cherished  papers  of  the  color  of  the  weather, 
belonging  to  the  Andrews  family  of  Farmington,  Conn.,  is 
a  document-  which  appears  to  be  the  proceedings  of  this 
remarkable  conference  at  Boston.  Its  sentences  vibrate 
with  the  passions  and  strange,  picturescjue  customs  of  a 
unique  seat  of  war,  in  wilds  of  the  New  World,  w^herein 
a  hatchet  expresses  more  than  words.  The  white  com- 
missioners speak  first: 

"Uncles  the  Six  Nations,  attend. 

"  At  our  late  interview  with  you  at  place  you  told  us  that 
you  took  the  hatchet  from  our  hands,  that  you  pulled  up 


1  The  Red  Lion  Inn,  Stockbridge,  is  the  lineal  descendant  of  this 
"Stage  Tavern."  At  the  Red  Lion  is  the  Plumb  collection  of  Colonial 
china   and  pewter. 

2  Inherited  by  Mrs.  Alfred  Whitman.  Among  the  contents  are  a 
newspaper  account  of  King  George's  coronation,  printed  on  cotton  in 
order  to  avoid  the  paper  tax:  a  deed  of  the  "Shuttle  Meadow"  at 
Farmington  "in  the  year  9  of  His  Majesty's  Reign,"  and  "Polly  Bissell's 
Book,"  being  an  illuminated  writing-book  of  the  dreary  sentiments 
then  considered  proper  for  the  edification  of  beautiful  young  ladies. 
Examples  of  Mistress  Polly's  copy:  "Rural  Meditations:  Beauty  is 
a  flower  that  fadeth  in  an  hour  without  virtue  is  of  small  estimation.  " 

ALL    IS    VANITY. 

"The  active  youth  a  lifeless  lump  shall  be, 
The  laced  lord  shall  leave  his  pageantry, 
The  carcass  of  the  King  the  worms  shall  eat. 

And  all  on  earth  is  fading  Vanitv." 


230    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

a  large  pine-tree,  which  made  a  great  hole  in  the  ground, 
through  which  you  ran  a  current  of  water,  in  which  you 
told  us  you  flung  our  hatchet,  covered  the  hole  with  a  rock, 
and  set  on  it  the  tree  again  in  the  same  place. 

"Uncles,  attend:  possess  your  mind  in  peace.  Let  not 
our  present  declaration  offend  you.  Uncles,  we  have  taken 
up  the  hatchet  to  defend  our  rights  and  properties  which 
are  taken  from  us  by  the  king,  and  cannot  deliver  it  up 
and  tamely  see  our  property  possessed  by  others.  No, 
Uncles,  we  have  taken  up  the  hatchet  with  our  Brothers 
and  neighbors,  the  white  people,  and  with  them  will  fight 
in  defence  of  our  just  possessions  (etc.). 

"  Uncles,  this  is  all  we  have  to  say." 

"  Brothers,  the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  twelve 
United  Colonies,  attend.  We  your  Brothers,  the  Stock- 
bridge  Indians,  take  this  opportunity  most  heartily  to  thank 
you  our  brethren  .  .  .  for  the  care  you  have  taken 
of  us  since  Ave  have  been  at  this  place  .  .  .  and  we 
beg  that  you  use  A^our  influence  in  our  favor  that  we  may 
have  a  minister  to  teach  and  instruct  our  old  men,  women, 
and  children  while  our  young  men  go  to  the  war;  and 
should  a  kind  Providence  crown  our  united  efforts  with 
success,  we  hope  that  our  Brothers  the  Colonists  will  re- 
store us  to  the  peaceable  possession  of  all  these  lands  of 
which  we  are  at  present  so  unjustly  deprived;  .  .  .  and 
be  assured.  Brothers,  of  our  most  entire  friendship.  Wher- 
ever your  armies  go,  there  we  will  go;  you  shall  always  find 
us  by  your  side;  and  if  providence  calls  us  to  sacrifice  our 
Lives  in  the  field  of  battle,  we  will  fall  where  you  fall,  and 
lay  our  bones  by  yours.  Nor  shall  peace  ever  be  made  be- 
tween our  nation  and  the  Red-Coats  until  our  brothers  the 
white  people  lead  the  way. 

"This,  Brothers,  is  all  we  have  to  say." 

"  [The  Reply  of  the  Commissioners]:  Brothers  of  the  Stock- 
bridge  Tribe,  attend:  We  heartily  thank  you  for  the  kind 
assurances    of    vour    unalterable    attachment    to    us.     We 


Pledge  of  the  Stockbridge  Indians        231 

assure  you,  Brothers,  that  we  will  use  our  utmost  influence 
that  you  shall  have  a  minister  to  instruct  you,  [etc.]. 
"This,   Brothers,  is  all  we  have  to  say." 

To  each  Stockbridge  Indian  enHsted  under  Jehoiakim 
Mtohskin,  selectman,  the  Provincial  Congress  at  Concord 
sent  a  blanket,  a  yard  of  ribbon,  and  an  address,  through 
Colonel  John  Paterson  of  Lenox  and  Captain  William 
Goodrich. 

This  remarkable  tribe  kept  faith  and  celebrated  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  on  Laurel  Hill  in  Stockbridge. 
Washington  presented  them  with  an  ox  for  a  barbecue, 
whereupon  they  buried  the  hatchet  on  the  hill-slope  near 
King  Solomon's  house,  not  far  from  the  old  fording-place 
crossed  by  the  graceful  Memorial  bridge,^  in  an  hilarious 
pow^vow,  adding  a  sombre,  savage  postscript  by  scalping 
the  effigy  of  the  traitor  Arnold. 

Certain  of  these  Stockbridge  warriors  distinguished  them- 
selves as  scouts,  and  it  must  have  been  an  extraordinary 
vScene  when  Captain  Ezra  Whittlesey's  dark-skinned 
company  marched  to  their  post  at  the  "Ty"  Saw  Mills  by 
General  Gates's  orders,  wearing  blue  and  red  caps  to  distin- 
guish them  from  Burgoyne's  Indians. 

Stockbridge  "smelt  powder"  more  than  once  during  the 
heat  of  the  Revolution.  One  peaceful  Sabbath  morning 
a  messenger  roused  Deacon  Timothy  Edwards  to  say  that 
the  army  was  at  Berkshire's  very  door,  for  Burgoyne  had 
sent  a  detachment  to  capture  Bennington's  supplies.    Dea- 

1  Memorial  bridge  was  erected  by  a  bequest  of  Mrs.  Mary  Hopkins 
Goodrich,  granddaughter  of  Colonel  Mark  Hopkins  and  Electa  Sargeant, 
the  first  white  child  born  in  Stockbridge.  Mrs.  Goodrich  was  the  moving 
spirit  of  the  far-famed  Laurel  Hill  Association,  the  parent  of  Village 
Improvement  Societies.  Even  a  crumpled  leaf  seems  a  blot  on  the 
shining  grass  borders  of  the  swept  and  garnished  Stockbridge  street 
and  close-cropped  exquisite  hedges  of  this  model  town. 


232     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

con  Edwards  fired  his  gun  in  the  street  three  times  to  call 
out  the  Stockbridge  militia,  who  arrived  too  late  for  action, 
but  Dr.  Partridge  aided  friend  and  foe  alike,  attending  the 
unfortunate  English  commander  Colonel  Baum. 

After  the  dramatic  surrender  of  the  battle  of  Saratoga 
(pictured  by  Colonel  Trumbull  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capital) , 
marking  the  first  surprised  failure  of  the  British  to  cut  our 
army  in  twain,  a  detachment  of  Burgoyne's  crestfallen 
troops  passed  through  Stockbridge  en  route  to  the  seaboard, 
where  transports  were  to  receive  them  "  whenever  General 
Howe  shall  so  order."  Colonel  Prentice  Williams  as  a  boy 
remembered  seeing  "the  Hessians  smoking  their  pipes  on 
Laurel  Hill."  Burgoyne's  Pass,  over  which  they  marched, 
is  the  grass-grown  road  which  throws  itself  over  a  spur  of 
Bear  Mountain  near  "Bowlder  Farm,"  the  estate  of  Pro- 
fessor Henry  W.  Famam  of  Yale. 

Beautiful  Laurel  Hill  is  a  "Sedgwick  Gift"  to  the  town; 
in  that  delightful  season  of  the  year  when  every  copse  in 
Berkshire  is  veined  with  gold  and  violet,  the  people  of 
Stockbridge  assemble  on  the  grass  arena  for  the  delectable 
feast  of  wit  and  philosophy  set  before  them  by  the  Laurel 
Hill  Association. 

Sergeant's  mission  idea  being  somewhat  after  the  fashion 
of  modern  University  settlements,  several  white  families 
volunteered  to  settle  in  Indian  Town :  the  Ephraim  Browns, 
Josiah  Joneses,  Woodbridges,  and — most  conspicuous  in 
his  fortified  house  on  The  Hill — Colonel  Ephraim  Williams, i 
Esq.,  deferred  to  in  vexatious  boundary  disputes.  They 
looked    daily  for  Indians  from  the  hostile  north,   and  at 

1  Stephen  W.  Jones  said  that  the  Wilhams  house  (built  in  1750)  had 
clapboards  3 J  feet  long  and  5  inches  wide^  lasting  one  hundred  years. 
It  was  subsequently  occupied  by  Dr.  Stephen  West,  who  married  a 
daughter  of  Col.  Williams.  The  old  "  Fort "  well  is  still  under  the  present 
house  "  Windymore,  "  owned  by  Dr.  Henry  M.   Field. 


Berkshire  Garrisons 


233 


Monument  to   the  Housatonic   Indians,    ''the 
Friends  of  our  Fathers .'' 
[The  natural  shaft  is  from  Ice  Gleii.'] 

"It  is  the  spot — /  know  it  well — 
Of  which  our  old  traditions  tell." 
— Indian  at  the  Burial-place  of  his  Fathers. 

Great  Barrington  and  Sheffield,  Conrad  Burghardt's  and 
Elisha  Noble's  houses  were  garrisons.  The  WilHams  house, 
an  almost  impregnable  fortress,  was  planked  with  black 
oak  and  surrounded  by  a  moat. 

Between  Stockbridge  and  the  St.  Lawrence  lay  a  sea  of 
forest  broken  only  by  Fort  Massachusetts  and  a  few  farms 
at  Pittsfield  and  Lanesboro ' ;  these  and  the  one  settler 
at  Lenox  were  called  into  Stockbridge  by  mounted  mes- 
sengers when  the  tocsin  was  sounded  at   Dutch    Hoosac 


2  34     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

on  its  destruction  by  500  Canada  Indians.  Terror  seized 
the  upper  Housatonic  and  Connecticut  River  settlers,  the 
equal  of  which  the  veteran  commander  of  the  Indian 
fighting  militia,  Colonel  Israel  Williams  of  Hatfield,  said 
he  had  never  seen.  Jonathan  Edwards  dipped  his  philo- 
sophical quill  to  ask  aid  from  the  province  and  to  keep  Sir 
William  Pepperrell  at  Kittery  advised  of  western  perils, 
(amazingly  far  west  was  vStockbridge — her  first  newspaper 
being  entitled  The  Western  Star),  and  of  the  crucial 
moment  to  engage  the  friendship  of  the  Six  Nations. 

To  light  signal  fires  of  danger  on  these  western  moun- 
tains, spread  out  "as  thick  as  hasty  puddin'  "  along  New 
York's  border,  gallant  Ephraim  WilHams,  Jr.,i  rode  in  hot 
haste  from  Ne^\i:on,  and  was  placed  in  command  of  a  line 
of  frontier  posts  established  by  the  Province  beyond  Con- 
necticut River,  from  above  Northfield  to  Hoosac.  In  the 
Old  French  War  Major  Williams  successfully  defended 
Fort  ]\Iassachusetts,  the  Night  Watch  of  that  menacing  gap 
in  our  nor' west  corner,  at  present  Williamstown,  threaded 
by  the  old  ^lohawk  trail;  their  Eastern  war-path  crawled 
like  a  deadly  rattlesnake  within  thirty  miles  of  Stockbridge, 
— out  from  the  scenes  of  crafty  moonlit  war-dances  on  the 
Mohawk;  forded  the  Hudson,  and  stole  onward  toward 
Deerfield  River  by  the  "Dugway"  at  Pownal,  and  along 
Hoosac  Plain  east  of  Florida  Mountain ;  the  finish  being  in 
rocky  passes  on  Hoosac  Mountain  where  a  moccasin  leaves 
no  scent;  regard  how  the  trail  always  sheers  oft'  from  the 
Hoosac  River  bank,  because  the  Indians  disliked  wet 
ground. 

1  Ordered  to  the  front,  Colonel  Ephraim  WilHams  fell  on  the  "bloody 
morning  scout"  of  September  8,  1755.  Dr.  Thomas  Williams  of  Deer- 
field  was  surgeon  of  his  brother's  regiment  and  attended  Dieskau,  the 
captured  commander  of  the  French.  Dr.  Williams's  son,  the  Hon.  Eph- 
raim Wilhams,  studied  law  with  Judge  Theodore  Sedgwick;  his  son  was 
Bishop  John  Williams  of  Connecticut  and  President  of  Trinity  College. 


The  Mohawk  Trail  or  "  Hoosac  Road  "     235 

Over  this  fateful  Indian  path  through  Williamstown 
Valley,  Mohawks  stealthily  hurried  eastward  to  attack  the 
Deerfield  River  tribe  in  1662.  Haughty  Greylock,  king  of 
Saddle-back  Mountain  and  monarch  of  Massachusetts, 
towers  two  thousand  and  eight  feet  above  the  trail  and 
appears  to  quarrel  with  Vermont's  hoary  Green  Hills  for 
standing  room.  Up  this  same  "Hoosac  Road"  (as  Chap- 
lain Norton  calls  the  Mohawk  path)  merciless  French  and 
Indians  carried  their  captives  northwestward  to  thraldom 
in  Canada,  after  the  siege  of  Fort  Massachusetts,  the  most 
notable  in  the  war  except  Louisburg, 

The  traveller  need  not  search  the  north  bank  of  Hoosac 
River  for  the  site  of  Fort  Massachusetts ;  as  he  rides  between 
North  Adams  and  Williamsto\vn,  he  will  perceive  a  lofty 
elm  planted  by  men  of  Williams  College  as  an  appreciation 
of  the  fort's  commander  and  their  benefactor — Ephraim 
Williams ;   all  fellows  still  pledge  loyalty  to  the  hero : 

"0/z,  here's  to  the  health  of  Eph  Williams, 
Who  founded  a  school  in  Bill-ville. " 

''And   here's   to   old   Fort   Massachusetts, 
And  here's  to  the  old  Mohawk  trail, 
And  here's  to  historical  Pe-ri^ 
Who  grinds  out  his  sorrowful  tale. " 

At  the  head  of  Stockb ridge  affairs  during  these  troublous 
times,  Jonathan  Edwards  show^ed  judgment  in  things  martial 
as  well  as  spiritual,  for  his  mother,  the  wise  Esther  Stoddard 
of  Northampton,  left  a  broad  and  splendid  inheritance  to 
her  eleven  children. 


1" Historical  Pe-ri"  refers  to  the  historian  of  WilHamscown,  Arthur 
Latham  Perry,  to  whom  Williams  men  were  particularly  devoted.  His 
son  is  Bliss  Perry. 


236    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Dr.  Edwards's  letters  to  the  Rev.  John  Erskine  of  Cul- 
ross  are  filled  with  our  political  problems.  After  General 
Braddock's  defeat  he  writes: 

"It  is  apparent  that  the  ministry  at  home  miss 
it  very  much,  in  sending  over  British  officers  to  have  the 
command  of  our  British  forces.  Let  them  send  us  arms, 
aminunition,  money,  and  shipping:  and  let  New  England 
men  manage  the  business  in  their  own  way,  vvho  alone 
understand  it.  .  .  .  All  the  Provinces  in  America  seem 
to  be  fully  sensible  that  Xew  England  men  are  the  only 
men  to  be  employed  against  Canada.  .  .  .  However, 
we  ought  to  remember  that  neither  Xew  England  men 
nor  any  other  are  anything  unless  God  be  with  us.  " 

Jonathan  Edwards,  in  the  frontier  parsonage  built  by 
Sergeant  on  The  Plain,  doubtless  found  sermonizing  to  the 
Indians  an  awkward  task,  and  spent  far  more  congenial 
hours  on  Original  Sin  than  expostulating  through  his  in- 
terpreter, John  Wouwanonpequunount,  to  a  people  of 
"barbarous  and  barren  tongue."  Edwards's  heart  was 
bound  up  in  marvellous  metaphysics  which  he  squared  and 
multiplied  in  Stockbridge's  laurel-lined  forest  lanes,  sub- 
sequently pouring  out  his  soul  on  paper  in  his  famous 
little  room,  measuring  scarcely  a  man's  length,  but  broad 
enough  to  hold  Freedom  of  the  Will.  The  Doctor's  study  1 
is  marked  by  a  sun-dial  on  the  present  Caldwell  ^  estate  on 
Stockbridge  Street. 

The  Edwardses  rejoiced  in  living  "in  peace,"  after  un- 
happy controversies  which  had  driven  them  from  North- 
ampton, and  Dr.  Edwards  writes  to  his  father  at  East 
Windsor,  "The  Indians  are  very  much  pleased  with  my 
family,    especially    with    my    wife"    (the    beautiful    Sarah 

1  Dr.  Edwards's  study-table  may  be  seen  at  the  Jackson  Library  : 
also  the  Indian's  conch-shell  antedating  the  church  bell.  "  Edwards 
Hall"  was  for  some  years  the  Reid  and  Hoffman  School. 

2  An  unusual  Whistler  collection  is  hung  in  the  house  of  John  Cald- 
well, Esq. 


238    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Pierpont     of     New    Haven,    great-great-granddaughter    of 
Thomas  Hooker). 

The  daughters  eked  out  the  pastor's  salary  (£6,  3s.  46. 
"lawful  money,"  and  twenty-five  loads  of  wood  from  his 
white  congregation,  also  eighty  sleigh-loads  of  wood  from  the 
Indians)  by  embroidering  and  painting  fans  for  Boston 
dames;  thus  Esther  Edwards  earned  her  wedding  outfit, 
and  the  village  was  in  a  buzz  of  excitement  when  the  rather 
elderly  Rev.  Aaron  Burr  arrived  to  carry  away  his  youth- 
ful and  lovely  bride.  On  the  Thanksgiving  Day  when  the 
first  grandchild,  Aaron,  was  brought  home  there  was  un- 
usual festivity  at  the  Edwards  house.  As  a  lad,  Aaron 
often  tarried  in  Stockbridge  at  the  home  of  his  uncle.  Deacon 
Timothy  Edwards. 

The  fascinating  and  wayward  blade  Colonel  Aaron  Burr, 
who  would  fain  conquer  ever}^  feminine  heart,  even  daring 
to  coquette  with  Dorothy  Q.,  after  she  was  promised  to 
John  Hancock,  was  of  a  fibre  unHke  his  grandfather's 
household.  Our  well-beloved  Donald  Mitchell  has  flung 
the  high  lights  of  a  sweet  humor  across  that  gray  homespun 
age  when  the  rod  was  not  spared,  and  domestic  life  ran 
by  rule  at  the  homestead  on  Stockbridge  Street.  Jonathan 
Edwards  was  ''rigid  with  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
Shorter  Catechism  on  every  Saturday  evening,  never  al- 
lowing his  boys  out  of  doors  after  nine  o'clock  at  night: 
and  if  any  suitor  of  his  daughters  tarried  beyond  that  hour 
he  was  mildly  but  peremptorily  informed  that  it  was  time 
to  lock  up  the  house.  Among  those  suitors  .  .  .  was  a 
Mr.  Burr,  who  came  to  be  President  of  the  College  of  Xew 
Jersey  at  Princeton,  and  whose  son,  Aaron  Burr — grand- 
son of  the  Doctor — had,  in  later  days,  a  way  of  staying  out — 
after   nine.  "  ^ 

Dr.  Stephen  West,  the  patriot  parson,  was  held  in  great 

1  American  Lands  and  Letters  by  Donald  G.  Mitchell.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's  Sons. 


Notable  Families  of  Berkshire  239 

reverence.  One  of  the  good  dames  of  his  parish,  being 
much  frightened  at  passing  alone  at  dusk  the  huts  of  Great 
Moon  and  Half  Moon,  murmured  very  fast  under  her 
breath  as  a  talisman  to  protect  herself  from  harm,  "Stephen 
West — Stephen  West — West — West!"  [These  Indian  huts 
stood  on  the  site  purchased  by  Nathan  Appleton,  "Oak 
Grove,"  presented  to  Longfellow,  but  never  occupied  by 
him.  Afterwards  it  became  the  estate  of  Charles  F.  South- 
mayd,  Esq.]  The  Rev.  Dr.  Kirkland,  who  succeeded  Dr. 
West,  lived  on  the  Tuckerman  estate,  "  Ingleside  Hall." 
It  is  said  that  he  had  a  passion  for  the  "cup  that  cheers," 
and  was  partaking  out  of  the  forbidden  Revolutionary 
tea-chest,  with  curtains  drawn,  w^hen  startled  by  a  knock. 
He  sprang  to  hide  the  urn  in  anything  but  a  clerical  manner, 
and  opened  the  door,  only  to  find  one  of  his  Indians  wonder- 
ing over  his  prolonged  wait. 

Next  to  the  minister,  Deacon  Timothy  Edwards  and 
Squire  Jahleel  Woodbridge  were  the  "great  men"  of  the 
town.  At  the  funeral  of  Madame  Woodbridge,  Bellamy 
says  in  his  Duke  of  Stockhridge,  there  was  a  notable  gathering 
of  the  gentry:  the  Stoddards,  Littles,  and  Wendells  of  Pitts- 
field,  Colonel  Ashley  was  there  from  Sheffield,  Justices 
D wight  and  Whiting  from  Great  Barrington,  and  Barker 
from  Lanesboro.  The  carriages,  some  of  them  bearing 
coats  of  arms  upon  their  panels,  made  a  fine  array;  the 
six  pall-bearers  were  Chief-Justice  Dwight,  Colonel  Elijah 
Williams,  the  founder  of  the  iron-works  on  old  Saw  Mill 
Brook  or  Williams  River  at  W^est  Stockbridge  (Queens- 
borough  1767),  Captain  Solomon  Stoddard,  commander  of 
the  Stockbridge  militia,  Oliver  W^endell,  and  Henry  W. 
Dwight,  the  county  treasurer. 

In  the  days  of  Shays' s  Rebellion  the  dreaded  hemlock 
bough  of  the  insurgents  waved  above  the  heads  of  inno- 
cent citizens,  who  had  not  rebelled  openly  against  grinding 
taxes;  even  magistrates  were  not  respected,  and  the   mal- 


240    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

contents  gave  Judge  Sedg^vick  little  quarter,  pillaging  his 
house.  As  a  member  of  the  old  Continental  Congress  and  a 
leader  in  politics  his  correspondence  with  the  brothers  Van 
Schaick,  Ames,  King,  Pinckney,  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton, 
and  others,  is  a  replica  of  the  times.  The  last  letter  written 
by  Alexander  Hamilton  was  to  him. 

The  Hon.  Theodore  Sedgwick,  Federalist,  was  much  of 
an  autocrat,  yet  most  benevolent,  possessing  a  tender  heart, 
which  he  bequeathed  to  his  daughter  Catherine,  the  cham- 
pion of  the  cause  of  letters  in  early  Berkshire. 

To  visit  the  author  of  Hope  Leslie,  and  the  glorious  coun- 
try" pictured  therein,  literati  of  the  Old  World  crossed  the 
Atlantic,  and  the  home  of  Miss  Sedgwick  ^  on  the  Housa- 
tonic  became  to  the  Massachusetts  border  that  which  Con- 
cord on  the  Musketaquid  is  to  the  Eastern  coast. 

In  her  garden  by  the  river  flowing  behind  the  homestead, 
Miss  Sedgwick,  the  priestess  of  good  things  for  all  people, 
encouraged  flowers  and  shrubs  new  to  Berkshire,  much  as 
we  have  seen  the  stately  Susan  Coolidge  bending  over  her 
Spring  blossoms  at  Newport:  "all  these  are  early  blooms  of 
June,"  said  Miss  Woolsey,  "  for  we  like  to  see  the  shrubs  in 
flower  before  we  flit  to  Onteora  at  midsummer.  " 

A  characteristic  little  note  of  our  early  novelist  is  written 
to  her  friend  Mrs.  Richard  Goodman  at  Lenox  (hitherto 
unpublished) : 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Goodman, 

"  I  have  to-day— according  to  my  promise  to  you — 
potted  three  or  four  plants  for  your  daughter — the  pots 
are  too  large  to  be  either  convenient  or  seemly,  but  the 
roots  had  so  spread  in  the  ground  that  I  feared  to  contract 

1  The  mother  of  Catherine  Maria  Sedgwick  was  Pa-mela,  daughter 
of  Brigadier-General  Joseph  Dwight,  the  mihtary  officer  of  highest  rank 
in  western  Massachusetts,  who  commanded  the  Massachusetts  artillery 
before  Louisburg.  When  trustee  of  the  Indian  schools,  he  married  the 
lovely  ]\Iistress  Abigail  Williams,  widow  of  John  Sergeant,  one  of  the 
best -known  of  the  ante- Revolutionary  women. 


242    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

them  into  a  smaller  space.  I  have  trimmed  them  into 
rather  a  forlorn  condition — they  may  lose  the  few  leaves 
they  have,  but  I  hope  they  will  survive  and  look  better. 
Would  that  w^e  could  see  with  the  clear  eye  of  perfect  faith 
the  unfolding  of  those  clip'd  lives  removed  beyond  our 
sight!  Yours  aff'n'y, 

"  C.  M.  Sedgwick." 

Some  ninety  years  ago,  a  humble  cavalcade  entered 
Stockbridge  Street  after  a  stony  scramble  up  and  down 
dale  from  old  Haddam  on  the  Connecticut:  one  lumber- 
ing wagon  carried  valuable  luggage — priceless,  indeed,  as  it 
turned  out,  for,  on  top  of  family  bales  and  books,  bobbed 
the  six  children  of  the  new  minister — David  Dudley  Field 
— enchanted  like  all  children  to  be  on  a  journey,  and  such 
an  eventful  journey!  ^  It  came  to  a  happy  end,  after  crossing 
Little  Plain  2  (the  D wight  meadows),  at  their  new^  home  "  on 
the   rise."      ("  Linw^ood, "   the  present   Butler  estate.) 

Here  Cyrus,  Henry,  and  IMar}^  were  born,  nigh  the  roof- 
trees  of  Mark  Hopkins  and  Miss  Sedgwick,  all  cradled  under 
the  benign  inspiration  of  the  great  stone  face  of  Monument 
Mountain,  whose  mystic  moods  Hawi:horne  affectionately 
tallied  up  in  the  little  red  house  on  Makheenac. 

From  his  far-away  window  to  the  north  the    face  was 

1  Dr.  Henry  'M.  Field  says  in  The  Field  Family  book:  "As  my 
eldest  brother  and  I  took  our  morning  ride  on  horseback  over  the  hills 
of  Stockbridge,  we  passed  a  farmer's  door.  .  .  .  He  had  still  one  of 
the  old  wagons  that  had  taken  part  in  this  memorable  exodus.  "  For 
more  than  fifty  years  its  tough  timber  frames  had  held  together. 

2  The  fine  pollard  willows  on  Little  Plain  were  planted  to  absorb  water 
in  the  spring  floods,  by  Colonel  Henry  Williams  Dwight.  The  Dwight 
homestead  of  1790,  "The  Old  Place,"  stands  next  the  Indian  Memorial. 
When  Colonel  Dwight  was  a  member  of  Congress  he  used  to  travel  in 
his  carriage  to  Washington.  Governor  Christopher  Gore's  appointment  of 
Henry  W.  Dwight,  Esq.,  as  aid-de-camp  to  Major-General  Joseph  Whiton 
is  in  the  collection  of  Berkshire  Historical  MSS.  gathered  by  R.  Henry 
W.  Dwight,  Esq. 


David  Dudley  Field  and  His  Sons       243 

not  visible,  and  Monument  frequently  appears  to  him  as 
a  "headless  sphinx,"  this  morning  wrapped  in  October's 
"rich  Persian  shawl"  and  again — under  magnificent  sun 
gleams  aslant  the  valley  mist — shining  as  "burnished 
copper. "  Just  as  in  Hawthorne's  tale  of  the  Great  Stone 
Face  of  the  White  Hills,  may  there  not  also  have  been  a 
prophecy  concerning  some  noble  soul  born  here  in  Stock- 
bridge  vale  under  the  influence  of  the  wondrous  Titanic 
visage  of  Monument? — some  long- forgotten  legend,  so  very 
old  that  it  "had  been  murmured  by  the  mountain  streams, 
and  whispered  by  the  winds  among  the  tree-tops"  to  the 
forefathers  of  the  Indian  inhabitants. 

It  would  appear  that  the  famous  Fields  were  much  like 
other  boys,  in  that  when  the  parsonage  caught  fire  several 
packs  of  playing-cards  scattered  from  the  good  Doctor's 
desk,  much  to  his  horror  and  glee  of  the  mischievous  ones 
deprived  of  them.  A  barrel  of  sermons  burned  furiously 
— "they  give  more  light  to  the  world  than  if  I  had  preached 
them, "  said  Dr.  Field.  When  he  went  to  Curtisville  to 
preach,  he  w^ould  take  two  of  his  boys  into  the  pulpit,  and 
Mrs.  Field  two  with  her;  during  the  "lastly"  and  the  "long 
prayer"^  he  would  pray  with  a  hand  on  each  boy's  head 
"to  be  sure  they  were  there.  " 

Stockbridge  and  AVilliamstown  are  rich  in  gifts  of  the 
Fields  and  the  world  in  their  deeds.     Indomitable  Cyrus 

1  Dr.  Field's  "long  prayer"  was  short  by  comparison  with  the  Co- 
lonial parsons'  of  the  Connecticut  Valley;  the  four-hours  sermon  with 
its  twenty-seventhlies  manifested  the  minister's  godliness  and  endur- 
ance, and  the  prayer  lasted  one  hour,  all  standing.  Although  Stockbridge 
was  born  after  the  Blue  Law  period,  yet  her  town  records  reveal  that 
on  account  of  Puritan  discipline  pretty  piquant  Sylvia  Morgan  suffered. 
She  was  complained  of  at  church  meeting  in  1782  for  associating  with 
"vain,  light,  and  airy  company,  and  joining  with  them  in  dances  and  frol- 
icking and  by  companying  with  a  man  on  Saturday  night,  which  she 
professedly  considers  a  holy  time."  (The  Sabbath  began  at  sun-setting  on 
Saturday.)  Sylvia  bore  social  ostracism  bravely  for  eight  long  years, 
but  finally  confessed  her  innocently  wicked  deeds,  and  was  taken  back 
into  the  fold. 


244    Old  Paths  of  the  New  Enoland  Border 


&■ 


devoted  his  all  that  the  Old  and  New  World  might  converse 
by  cable.  Living  side  by  side  in  Gramercy  Park,  David 
Dudley  Field  and  Cyrus  counselled  together,  and  to  the  un- 
faltering courage  of  the  elder  brother  the  Atlantic  telegraph 
is  greatly  indebted,  says  Dr.  Henry  M.  Field  in  his  roman- 
tic chapters  on  Cyrus  Field's  twelve  years'  struggle  to  bridge 
the  mountains  beneath  the  Atlantic.  The  first  through  mes- 
sage was  sent  by  England's  Queen  to  President  Buchanan, 
accomplishing  one  of  those  costly  first  strides  in  modern  his- 
tory by  which  the  United  States  entered  the  charmed  circle 
of  world-powers.  A  star  has  been  added  to  the  family  es- 
cutcheon by  Stephen  D.  Field,  Esq.  (a  nephew  of  Cyrus 
West  Field),  in  whose  electrical  workshop  in  Stockbridge 
wireless  telegraphy  first  wrote  her  message  for  us  in  Morse 
characters  on  paper  ribbon  [1905]. 

In  the  little  red  schoolhouse,  Judge  Stephen  J.  Field 
wrestled  with  the  three  "R's",  and  Dr.  Field  preached  at 
early  candle-lighting  in  spite  of  driving  snows.  (The 
schoolhouse  stands  on  the  estate  of  Mrs.  Bernard  Hoffman, 
on  the  road  to  Interlaken.)  This  w^as  the  stage  of  The 
Smack  at  School,  once  as  much  quoted  as  Nothing  to 
Wear.  Wm.  Pitt*  Palmer,  the  author,  lived  hard  by  on 
Prospect  Hill,  and  this  ambitious  boy — with  31  cents  in 
his  pocket — walked  to  Albany  that  he  might  touch  the 
hand  of  his  hero  Lafayette. 

On  the  hill-slope  at  the  picturesque  Perry  homestead 
one  discovers  another  charming  view  of  Stockbridge  vale: 
from  the  windows  facing  west  Susan  Teall  Perry  writes : 

"/    can   see    the   pleasant   valley 
See  tJie  mountain's  woody  crest/' 

Mrs.  Perry  recalls  many  a  piquant  quart  d'heure  when 
her  mother  entertained  Charlotte  Cushman  on  the  stoop 
with  caraway  cookies  and  a  glass  of  milk,  as  she  lingered 


Aspiration 

"  Ye  spell  me,  O,  ye  tree-tops,  thrusting  high 
Your  darksome  domes  and  pinnacles  that  pale 
The  enameled  vault." 

— From  A  Painter's  Moods,  by  Frederic  Crownixshield. 

245 


246     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

for  a  chat  on  her  way  into  Stockbriclge  from  Curtisville, 
where  she  was  staying  on  the  Beckwith  place. 

And  Fanny  Kemble  would  often  dash  by  before  breakfast 
on  her  big  black  horse,  or  jog  along  on  a  charcoal  cart,  en- 
joying a  lively  spar  with  the  smudgy  and  witty  Irish  driver. 
The  country  was  quite  shocked  at  her  independent  ways 
and  dress,  but  they  soon  came  to  admire  her  and  she  was 
dubbed  simply  as  "very  peculiar."  Not  a  whit  cared  she; 
Fanny  Kemble  dressed,  as  she  said,  "for  the  occasion," 
whether  in  bloomers  to  "go  a-fishing"  or  in  splendid  attire 
for  one  of  her  unrivalled  scenes  in  Macbeth' s  castle.  She 
adored  the  "Happy  Valley,"  and  when  far  away  refers 
again  and  again  to  the  "dear  hill-country." 

She  writes  to  Mrs.  Jameson  when  visiting  at  the  Sedgwick 
homestead,  in  1837:  "I  think  the  scenery  and  people  a^ou 
are  now  amongst  fit  to  renovate  a  sick  body  and  soothe  a 
sore  mind.  Catherine  Sedgwick  is  my  best  friend  in  this 
country,  but  the  whole  family  here  bestowed  more  kindness 
upon  me  than  I  now  can  sufficiently  acknowledge.  The 
place  of  their  dwelling  combines  for  me  the  charms  of  a 
great  natural  beauty  with  the  associations  that  belong  to 
the  intellect  and  affections."  ^ 

Longfellow  was  told  on  a  drive  to  Stockb ridge  that  the 
ver>^  grasshoppers  of  the  valley  chirped  "  Sedgwick,  Sedg- 
wick." 

Among  the  delightful  stories  of  distinguished  visitors  at 
old  Stockbridge,  related  by  Henry  Dwight  Sedgwick,  is  one 
of  Longfellow: 

"About  1840  the  Misses  Appleton,  daughters  of  Mr.  Nathan 
Appleton  of  Boston,  passed  the  summer  at  Stockbridge. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Longfellow,  who  in  1843  married  Miss  Fanny 
Appleton,  visited  Stockbridge  in  his  courtship.  ...  I 
was  then  a  student  at  Harvard  and  was  repeatedly  called 

1  Records  of  a  Later  Life,  by  Frances  Ann  Kemble.     Henry  Holt  &  Co. 


Lonrfellow  and  Hawthorne  247 

o 

on  by  him  at  recition  as  '  Stockbridge. '  When  this  first 
occurred,  a  titter  ran  through  the  division;  the  second  time 
the  titter  developed  into  a  loud  giggle,  which  led  him  to 
remonstrate  mildly.  .  .  .  Suddenly  his  mistake  flashed 
upon  him,  and  he  joined  himself  in  the  laugh,  though  with 
a  little  embarrassment.  Many  years  after,  in  meeting  him 
at  Newport,  I  introduced  myself,  *Mr.  Longfellow,  you 
don't  remember  me?'  '  Yes,  indeed  I  do, '  he  said.  'To 
my  dying  day  I  shall  never  forget  calling  you  Stock- 
bridge/ "  i 

Of  Washington  Irving's  visit  "  I  recall  nothing  but  the 
thrill  of  awful  interest  with  which  I  saw  him  seated  on  a 
sofa  in  the  parlor  talking  with  Miss  Sedgwick";  and  the 
"  small  country  boy"  was  much  impressed  by  Macready's 
daily  appearing  in  a  dift'erent-colored  dress-coat,  black,  blue, 
or  claret.  Others  were  Mrs.  Martineau,  the  Hon.  Miss  Au- 
gusta Murray,  Frederika  Bremer,  Williami  M.  Evarts,  the 
genial  General  S.  C.  Armstrong. 

Hawthorne  and  James  T.  Fields  were  caught  in  a  sharp 
and  never-to-be-forgotten  thunder-shower  on  Monument; 
they  had  been  invited  by  Mr.  Field  of  Stockbridge  to  make 
the  ascent  with  Dr.  Holmes,  Mr.  Duycinck,  Henry  D. 
Sedgwick,   Cornelius  [Matthews,   and   Herman  Melville. 

"  To  the  north  a  path 
Conductea  you  up  the  narrow  battlement 
Steep  on  the  western  side,  shaggy  and  wild.  " 

It  was  a  stifling  August  morning  and  our  delightful  party 
of  parts  fled  to  shelter  before  the  ominous  yet  refreshing 
storm-cloud.  Ha\^i:home  and  Herman  IMelville  were  blown 
into  so  narrow  a  crevice  that  shy  reserve  retreated  and 
perforce  they  became  fast  friends.  Hitherto  the  sensitive 
man  of  letters  had  held  aloof,  although  Melville's   appre- 

1  "  Reminiscences  of  Literary  Berkshire,"  by  Henry  Dwight  Sedgwick. 
The  Century,  vol,  xxviii. 


248     Old  Paths  of  the  New  Enrfand  Border 


TJic  Charcoal  Cart  o)i  an  Old  Path  of  Berkshire. 

ciation  of  the  Scarlet  Letter  in  the  Literary  World — edited 
by  mutual  friends,  the  Duycincks — was  known  to  Haw- 
thorne. Three  days  later  Hawthorne  wrote  to  Horatio 
Bridge:  "I  met  Melville  the  other  day,  and  liked  him  so 
much  that  I  have  asked  him  to  spend  a  few^  days  Vvdth  me." 
]\Ielville  speaks  of  "tumbling  down  in  my  pine-board 
chariot"  from  Pittsfield  to  see  Ha\\i:home. 

As  they  crossed  the  valley  on  the  return,  looking  back 
at  that  mighty  height  where  they  had  felt  the  tumult  of 
shrieking  wind  and  thunder-bolt,  the  elect  sympathized  viv- 
idly with  Bryant,  that 

"//  is  a  fearful  thing 
To  stand  upon  the  beetling  verge,  and  see 
Where  storm  and  lightning,  from  that  huge  gray  wall. 
Have  tumbled  down  vast  blocks.  " 


Social  Life — A  Dinner  at  Mr.  Field's      249 

A  brilliant  dinner  followed  at  Mr.  Field's,  and  simple 
withal,  for  such  creative  minds  sought  with  avidity  the 
Berkshire  hills  because  "the  comparatively  small  society 
was  noted  for  its  simple  mode  of  living,  for  its  intelhgence, 
and  its  culture."  Fanny  Kemble  from  "on  top"  of  Lenox 
Hill  describes  to  Mrs.  Jameson  the  good  old  times:    "You 


Studio  of  Daniel  Chester  French,  Glendale. 
The  famous  equestrian  statue  of  Washington,  presented  by  the  "Society 
of  American  Women  "  to  France,  was  created  here,  groups  for  the  New 
York  Custom-House,  and  other  statues.  "  Newchester"  the  home  of  j\Ir. 
French  has  a  superb  prospect  across  the  Housatonic  valley.  Its  parlor  is  a 
copy  of  that  in  the  Daniel  French  homestead  at  Chester,  N .  H.  "  Newchester  " 
was  earlier  the  Marshall  Warner  farm. 

know  the  sort  of  life  is  lived  here:  the  absence  of  form, 
ceremony,  or  inconvenient  conventionality  w^hatever;  we 
laugh  and  we  talk,  sing,  play,  dance,  and  discuss;  we  ride, 
drive,  walk,  run,  scramble,  and  saunter,  and  amuse  ourselves 
extremely  with  little   materials."     The   frolicsome   winter 


250     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

part}^  is  not  entirely  a  thing  of  the  past.  How  the  Sedgwick 
homestead  has  rung  with  merry  shouts  of  old  and  young 
playing  together  in  hide-and-seek  from  garret  to  cellar. 
Those  were  incomparable  winter  evenings  of  fun  with  the 
beloved  host  and  hostess  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Sedgwick, 
who  delighted  in  the  informal  hospitality  traditional  in 
the  Sedgwick  family. 

Hawthorne's  final  note  on  this  memorable  August  4, 
1850,  reads : "  Afternoon,  under  the  guidance  of  J.  T.  Headley, 
the  party  scrambled  through  the  Ice-Glen."  A  lively  and 
Aveird  scramble  indeed.  If  Ice- Glen  and  Laurel  Hill  had 
kept  a  sentimental  guest-book,  then  ingenious  visitors 
might  have  left  us  a  legacy  of  individual  impressions  of 
this  most  curious  fissure  in  all  Berkshire,  lying  concealed 
between  Bear  and  Little  ]\Iountain.  Veritable  moss  castles 
of  gnomes  and  elves  seem  the  tumbled  boulders  in  the 
twilight  of  the  gorge:  all  too  sunless  here  for  lovers'  tryst — 
not  even  golden  Queen  Summer  succeeds  in  erasing  the 
chill  of  his  majesty  the  Frost-King's  footsteps,  yet  by  her 
commands  beautiful  fern-clusters  line  the  yawning  black 
rock  caverns. 

"  AiL'ay  to  the  Ice-Glen, 
The  night  dews  are  falling/^ 

calls  blithe  Fanny  Kemble,  and  inaugurates  the  Stock- 
bridge  custom  of  startling  the  dryads  of  Ice-Glen  once  a 
year  by  a  gay  invasion  of  humans  in  fantastic  masquerade 
with  ghostly  torch. 

The  first  torch- light  party  was  arranged  by  Dr.  S.  P. 
Parker  for  the  amusement  of  his  pupils.  Dr.  Parker  was 
the  first  rector  of  St.  Paul's,  Stockbridge's  beautiful  Church 
of  memorials,  founded  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Caleb  Hyde,  now 
Laurel   Cotta^.^ 

1  The  story  of  St.  Paul's  Church  and  an  account  of  the  growth  of  the 
church    in    Berkshire    may  be  found  in  the  anniversary  sermon  by  Dr. 


252    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

At  Laurel  Cottage  David  Dudley  Field  entertained  Haw- 
thorne and  other  distinguished  people  visiting  Stockbridge 
in  that  day,  a  hospitality  which  he  continued  later  in 
his  house  on  The  Hill.  His  daughter  Lady  Musgrave  of 
London  sold  Laurel  Cottage,  only  on  condition  that  two 
trees  planted  by  Matthew  Arnold  during  his  residence 
should  never  be  cut  down.  The  acacia  was  brought  from 
a  tree  on  the  grave  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  1886. 

Matthew  Arnold  was  at  first  very  much  put  out  with  the 
climate  of  Berkshire,  finding  it  first  too  hot,  then  excessively 
cold;  but  after  his  return  to  his  beloved  English  hedgerows 
and  nightingales  he  writes  to  his  daughter:  "You  cannot 
think  how  often  Stockbridge  and  its  landscape  come  to  my 
mind.  None  of  the  cities  could  attach  me,  not  even  Boston, 
but  I  could  get  fond  of  Stockbridge. " 

From  Laurel  Cottage  Arnold  wrote  to  Sir  Mountstuart 
Grant  Duff: 

.  .  .  "What  would  I  give  to  go  in  your  company  for 
even  one  mile  on  any  of  the  roads  out  of  Stockbridge !  The 
trees,  too,  delight  me.  I  had  no  notion  what  maples  really 
were." 

Again  to  his  sister  from  Stockbridge:  "  I  see  at  last  what 
the  American  autumn  which  they  so  praise  is.  .  .  . 
Day  after  day  perfectly  fine.  ...  I  Avish  you  could 
have  been  with  us  yesterday,  that  is,  if  you  are  not  nervous 
in  a  carriage,  for  the     .     .     .     hills   are  awful.     But  the 


Arthur  Lawrence,  rector  at  Stockbridge.  St.  Paul's  grew  out  of  the 
efforts  of  the  church  in  Otis,  and  Trinity  Church,  Lenox.  The  first 
building  was  designed  by  Upjohn;  the  present  building  by  McKim,  and 
is  a  memorial  to  Susan  Ridley  Sedgwick  Butler  by  her  husband  Charles 
E.  Butler.  The  baptistery  is  designed  by  St.  Gaudens.  The  pulpit  is 
Florentine;  one  lovely  memorial  window  is  to  the  son  of  Ambassador 
Choate,  the  clock  and  bell,  gift  of  G.  P.  R.  James,  the  English  author,  and 
Maunsell  B.  Field.  The  mission  chapel  of  St.  Paul's  at  South  Lee — the 
Church  of  the  Good  Shepherd — was  made  possible  through  the  energy  of 
the  Rev.  Sidney  Hubbell  Treat. 


Autumn  in  Stockbridge  253 

horses  are  the  best  tempered  and  cleverest  in  the  world ;  the 
drivers  understand  them  perfectly.  .  .  .  We  were  per- 
petually stopping  the  carriage  in  the  woods  .  .  .  the 
flowers  are  so  attractive.  .  .  .  You  have  no  notion  how 
beautiful  the  asters  are  till  you  see  them ;  I  remember  the 
great  purple  one  (.4 .  patens,  I  think)  grows  Avild  about  Yar- 
mouth and  the  Isle  of  Wight.  There  is  a  nice  youth  here, 
a  German  called  Hoffman,  who  is  an  enthusiastic  botanist. ^ 

The  autumn  of  1905  was  unusually  splendid  in  riotous 
color.  That  year  Stockbridge  saw  herself  in  a  mirror,  as 
it  were,  in  the  Outdoor  Studies  of  Frederic  Crowninshield, 
who  painted  Stockbridge  in  varied  moods,  from  the  yellow- 
ing of  her  pollard  willows  to  the  November  browns  of 
pasture  and  hill — an  historic  procession  of  the  Months  from 
the  Moon  of  Blossoms  to  the  Moon  of  Snows,  typical  of 
all  Berkshire;  yet  the  artist  set  up  his  easel  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  his  own  door. 

Here  is  the  harrowed  field  and  Monument ;  there  rises 
Tom  Ball,  beyond  a  blue  abundance  of  larkspur  in  the 
garden;  of  a  shaggy  richness  is  August's  hedge  of  golden- 
rod  and  aster;  September  has  stencilled  a  Venetian  border 
of  red  and  gold  (maples)  across  the  olive-green  skirts  of 
Bear  Mountain ;  in  late  September  the  close-cut  hedge 
is  smothered  in  fallen  leaves  of  the  sort  which  little  Julian 
Hawthorne  picked  up  so  joyously — "Look,  papa,  here's 
a  bunch  of  fire!"  Most  splendid  is  October's  sentinel-tree 
in  full  flame  at  the  turn  of  a  mountain  road.  "If  but  only 
my  cousins  in  Norway  could  see  these  views  of  Stockbridge, 
then  they  would  understand  what  our  American  autumn 
really  is,  "  said  a  transplanted  Norwegian. 

The  mirror  of  our  Stockbridge  year  is  complete  with  the 
painting  Wind-Swept  Snow  of  Walter  Nettleton;  Berkshire's 

1  Letters  of  Matthew  Arnold,  arranged  by  George  W.  E.  RusselL 
]\Iacmillan  e^-  Co. 


254    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

"winter  veil  of  maiden  white"  in  which  the  artist  sees  the 
reflection  of  Puritan  character. 

Robert  Reid  is  a  native  of  Stockbridge,  and  one  may  well 
believe  that  his  boyhood's  unconscious  feasts  of  line  and 
color  in  mountain  lanes  and  meadow  are  infused  in  his 
mural  paintings  in  our  Statehouse  and  the  Library  of 
Congress. 


The  Children's  Chimes  on  site  of  the  first  Church  which  the  Indians  attended. 
Erected  by  David  Dudley  Field  as  a  memorial  to  his  little  granddaughter. 
The  chimes  ring  every  day  at  sunset. 


TYRINGHAM,   1739-1762 

"In  the  elms  and  maples  the  robins  call, 
And  the  great  black  crow  sails  over  all 
hi  Tyringham,  Tyringhani  Valley." 

Gilder. 

If  you  would  visit  a  celestial  valley  in  Berkshire,  take 
the  road  out  of  Stockbridge  to  the  pleasant  village  of 
South  Lee  with  its  artistic  chapel ;  cross  the  Housatonic,  and 
follow  up  the  wild-w^ood  mountain  way  toward  Fernside, 
and  you  find  yourself  in  old  Tyringham-Township  "  No.  i " 
of  four  elderly  townships — (Tyringham,  New  Marlborough, 
Sandisfield,  and  Becket)  purchased  by  Colonel  Ephraim 
Williams  and  Nahum  Ward  of  the  Stockbridge  Indians  in 
1735;  this  in  order  that  a  proper  road  might  be  thrown  across 
the  Green  Mountains  between  Westfield  and  Sheffield,  for 
"his  Majestie's  subjects"  who  found  it  "utterly  impossible 
to  provide  themselves  w^ith  foreign  commodities"  in  this 
wilderness  almost  impassable  even  on  horseback,  and  with 
blazed  trees. 

What  a  prospect  is  this!  ''a  sight  to  hanker  arter,"  as 
David  Harum  would  say:  up  and  down  reaches  a  marvellous 
valley — long  and  narrow;  the  converging  hills  seem  almost 
to  swallow  up  the  sweet  meadows  of  the  plain,  through  which 
Hop  Brook  leaps  toward  the  Housatonic,  half  concealed  by 
willow^s  and  cat-o'-nine-tails,  the  white  ribbon  of  the  Lee 
and  Tyringham  stage-road  following  through  the  village 
in  its  wake.  No  railroad  has  impertinently  thrust  itself 
here,  and  the  bark  of  a  dog  w4th  the  haymakers  a  mile 
distant,  echoes  as  a  sharp  intrusion  on  the  imperative  still- 
ness. At  the  smaller  apex  of  the  valley  the  setting  sun 
casts  a  tender  pink  glow  over  all. 

255 


256     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Who  might  fancy  that  this  rich  intervale  was  known 
as  "Bear  Swamp"  to  the  plucky  ox-cart  pioneers,  Captain 
John  Brewer,  Isaac  Garfield,  Thomas  Steadman,  John 
Chadwick,  Thomas  Slaton,  and  also  Deacon  Orton,  first  to 
venture  over  the  mountains  from  the  "Old  Center"  at 
]\Ionterey,  to  found  a  village  at  Hopbrook,  now  Tyringham 
village.  Your  path  climbs  more  than  1000  feet  above  tide- 
water into  Fernside;  here  on  Mount  Horeb,  for  nearly  a 
century,  away  from  the  world's  people,  the  Shakers  of  the 
Upper  and  Lower  Family  swayed  in  their  peculiar  religious 
dances,  described  by  Fanny  Kemble  in  a  vivacious  and 
somewhat  irreverent  manner. 

Enchantingly  picturesque  are  the  old  roads  hereabouts. 
A  wild  country  way  it  is  from  Jerusalem  to  the  deserted 
village  of  Beartown,  nigh  on  a  thousand  feet  up  toward  the 
blue. 

Into  Jerusalem  from  the  "Old  Center"  was  cut  the  Royal 
Hemlock  road  in  1743.  Through  Otis  and  old  Tyring- 
ham, now  Monterey,  ran  the  King's  highway,  the  "great 
road"  across  the  Hoosac  from  Westfield,  over  which 
Lord  Viscount  Howe  travelled  to  Ticonderoga  by  way  of 
Great  Harrington  and  Albany.  It  is  said  that  Lord  Howe 
fell  in  love  with  the  beauty  of  these  forest-lined  lakes 
and  hills,  and  named  the  region  Tyringham,  for  his  favor- 
ite country  seat  in  England.  At  "Old  Center"  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton^  of  Boston  owned  lot  No.  i,  on  which  the 
church  2  was  built,  and  many  settlers  came  out  from  The 
Bay.     The  first  settler  of   Old  Tyringham  was  Lieutenant 


1  Other  proprietors  of  Old  Tyringham  were  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Town- 
send  of  Needham,  the  Rev.  William  Williams  of  Weston,  and  the  Rev. 
Warham  Williams  of  Waltham,  who  owned  the  Jonas  Brewer  lot. 

2  The  first  minister,  Rev.  Adonijah  Bidwell,  a  Yale  graduate,  was 
chaplain  under  Sir  William  Pepperrell  at  Cape  Breton.  The  Rev.  Jo- 
seph Warren  Dow  preached  twenty-five  years. 


Squire    Thomas    Garfield    house   (1794)    ''Cobble    Hill    Farm,"    from    the 

bridge  across  Hop  Brook  dam.     Residence  of  De  Witt  C.  Heath,  Esq. 
n  257 


1258     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Isaac    Garfield.     His    silver-coin    snuff-box,  marked    /.    G. 
1793,  is  in  possession  of  a  descendant  here. 

At  the  turn  of  the  road  is  an  embowered  mill;  on  the 
brow  of  the  hill,  passing  the  Deacon  Cyrus  Heath^  house  of 
the  odd  ox-door,  you  draw  rein  to  drink  in  a  w^de  reach  of 
upland  fields,  flaked  w4th  the  brilliant  orange  of  black-eyed 
Susans,  extending  from  Cobble  Hill  to  Sodom,  where  Long 
Mountain  appears  to  meet  Smith  Hill,  and  abruptly  termi- 
nates the  line  of  pretty  white  farms  "  strung  all  along  down 
thro'  the  holler." 

Nigh  the  "great  bridge"  at  Hop  Brook  dam  is  the  "post- 
office  store"  and  Tyringham  Library  of  rare-built  rubble 
stone  contributed  by  the  citizens  from  their  mountain 
farms.  Just  over  "little  bridge"  is  the  house  of  Elder  Hall, 
founder  of  the  Baptist  society;  his  mischievous  son  was 
found  plunging  his  wee  cosset-lamb  in  the  brook,  asserting, 
"I  'm  goin'  to  make  a  Baptist  of  him!"  Beyond  are  the 
Steadman  saw-mill  and  Riverside  Inn,  the  early  Justin 
Battles  [Battell]  place.  The  old-fashioned  loom  is  seen  in 
the  village  weaving  a  "hit-or-miss  rug"  of  rags. 

Your  waking  dreams  are  of  the  Austrian  Tyrol,  being 
attended  by  the  tinkling  of  cow-bells  on  Cobble  Hill,  and 
the  chattering  of  Hop  Brook,  fed  by  a  thousand  new  rills 
out  of  the  rain-cloud  over  night. 

Whither? — ever  the  traveller's  interrogation  in  Berkshire, 
where  each  path  has  twenty  rivals  in  charm  and  beauty. 

3  The  Deacon  Heath  house,  Shaker  Pond,  and  the  Arthur  Cannon 
corner  are  a  part  of  150  acres  in  Jerusalem  owned  by  Mrs.  Emma  Andrews 
of  Newport.  The  Slaters  of  the  long  lean-to  in  Jerusalem  came  from 
Old  Rehoboth,  a  branch  of  the  family  who  founded  the  first  cotton-mill 
in  America. 


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26o    Old  Paths  of  the  New  Enoland  Border 


LANDMARKS— Jerusalem  district : 
Fernside.  once  home  of  Shakers, 
property  of  John  B.  H  Dingnell. 
Deacon  Cyrus  Heath  house  (1811). 
Sergeant  Solomon  Heath  farm, 
Jerusalem  Road.  Heman  Sweet- 
William  Heath  house,  residence 
Wallace  Johnson;  oldest  house  built 
before  a  road  ran  through  the 
valley.  Brewer  house  (1799)  "stands 
plumb  north  and  south.*'  Solomon 
Slater  homestead,  residence  E.  H, 
Slater.  Gideon  Hale  house  (1783). 
John  Hale  farm  (1762)  residence 
Charles  H.  Hale;  Deacon  William 
Hale  of  Tyringham  came  from 
Sufiield.  Conn.  Clark-Hubbard 
house  (about  1796)  residence  Wil- 
liam Bliss.  The  Elijah  Garfield 
house.  Crittenden,  Fenn,  Daniel 
Clark  and  Solomon  Garfield-Beach 
farms  (1776)  included  in  Ashintully 
Farm,  property  of  Robb  dePeyster 
Tytus.  Daniel  Clark  house.  Old- 
Mill  Farm,  summer  home  of  R.  C. 
Fordham.  Snow-Cannon  House, 
residence  George  Cannon.  Stedman 
house,  residence  of  Marshall  W. 
Stedman,  built  from  timbers  hewn 
in  the  forest  Stedman  saw-mill. 
Reference:  "Tyringham  Old  and 
New."  Old  Home  Week  Souvenir  by 
John  A.  Scott.  Tyringham  by 
O  C.  Bidwell,  in  Beers's  Berkshire 
County. 

MONTEREY. 

Monterey  was  named  in  honor 
of  General  Taylor's  victory,  Mexico. 
1846.  Alvah  Smith  house.  Smith 
Hill,  residence  of  Mrs.  Edward  R 
Ward,  near  boundary  of  Monterey 
and  Tyringham.  Major  Allen- 
Colonel  Daniel  A.  Garfield  house 
(1796).  Morse  farm,  residence 
George  Whitfield  Morse,  at  the 
cross-roads.   Huckleberry  Hill.    Dea 


To  the  heights  of  ]\Ionterey  and 
Sandisfield  ^  and  "  The  vSpecta- 
cles,"  or  to  the  famous  Otis  ponds? 
To  romantic  Becket  by  way  of 
Goose  Ponds,  or  by  the  lower 
or  upper  road  to  busy  Lee,  with 
its  paper-mills  and  granite  quar- 
ries, Fern  Cliff,  and  Laurel  Lake? 
Or  shall  it  be  Lake  Buel  and  the 
homesteads  of  New  Marlborough? 
But  we'll  none  of  these  to-day,  for 
Tyringham  river — as  Mr.  Gilder 
delights  to  call  Hop  Brook — sum- 
mons you  to  the  wild,  where  its 
waters  "head  up,"  the  undiluted 
fastnesses  of  Berkshire. 

The  Hop  Brook  highway  is 
lined  with  pleasant  farms  laid 
out  on  "squadron  hnes."  Near 
Camp  Brook,  you  cross  a  trail 
entering  the  sugar- bush,  a  mag- 
net to  Stockbridge  Indians;  tap- 
ping the  trees,  they  caught  the 
delectable  sap  in  birchbark  buck- 
ets, and  invited  Sergeant  the 
missionary  to  his  first  "sugaring 
off."  This  historic  grove  of  su- 
gar maples  is  on  the  Ashintully 
Farm  of  Robb  dePeyster  Tytus, 


'  Sandisfield  is  the  birthplace  of  president  Jeremiah  Atwater  and 
of  Colonel  John  Brown,  distinguished  in  the  Revolution,  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Pittsfield.  His  daughter  Huldah — a  lady  of  the  old  school 
after  the  pattern  of  Madame  Dwight — married  William  Butler  of  North- 
ampton, who  established  the  veteran  Hampshire  Gazette. 


The  Road  to  Monterey  261 

con  Thomas  Hale  farm.  Amos  Lang-      -j-J^g    Es^Vptian    archceologist,!    who 

don     house.     Traces     of     the    Cap-  ^-^ 

tain   John    Brewer    house,    fortified       boUght    Up    five    old    farmS    Undcr 

in    French    and    Indian    wars     seen  ^             MoUIltam.        Far  aboVe,    the 

near    Frances    G.    Heath    residence.  o                                                                   ' 

Rev.  Adonijah    Bidwell    parsonage,  deniZenS    of    Wild-Cat    Ledge    Stlll 

residence    Ehhu    Harmon.      Bidwell  ^      .    ^          j'ij_            n    \          •               u 

homestead.    "Lake    Farm."      Orton  shriek     O     IllghtS.            A     piece      be- 

house,      property     of     George     W.       yond,  "  VOUr  TOad  TUBS  Up  agaiHSt 
Eggan.     Parson  Miner  house,  oldest       -^  -^  .  . 

in  Monterey.     Luther  Marcy  house.       the      hoUSe      of      Daniel      Clark      in 

slndis^fidrTnl  now^'-Los't  lZ    Sodom,  who  was  Well  known  for 
Farm,"  property  of  R.  w.  Gilder.        ]-^|g  f^^e  mineral  collection  of  this 

region.     Muir  "went  wild"  over  the  Valley's '' quite  won- 
derful glacial  deposit."  2 

At  the  divide,  one  road  takes  a  climb  ("Steep!"  said  a 
Yankee  stage-driver.  "Steep!  Chain  lightning  could  n't 
go  down  it  'thout  puttin'  the  shoe  on!"  )  into  Monterey  by 
Smith's  Hill  and  Four  Corners,  passing  the  Colonel  Daniel 
Garfield,^  Morse,  and  Hale  places  and  on  to  Twelve-Mile 
Pond.      Here  courageous  Captain  John  Brewer,^  who  slept 

1  Mr.  Tytus's  Preliminary  Report  on  the  Re-excavation  of  the  Palace 
of  Amenhotep  III.  is  a  fascinating  monograph  with  remarkable  color 
plates  of  the  ceilings  of  the  palace. 

2  The  Clark  list  of  minerals  is  in  Field's  Berkshire  County.  Professor 
Benjamin  K.  Emerson  of  Amherst  describes  the  rock  formations  of 
Tyringham  in  his  "  Geology  of  Eastern  Berkshire  "  Bulletin,  126  and  159 
U.  S.  Geological  Survey. 

3  Colonel  Daniel  Garfield  was  the  son  of  Lieutenant  Isaac  Garfield 
of  Weston  and  Tyringham.  The  first  Garfield  came  over  with  Win- 
throp  and  possessed  forty  acres  of  the  Rev.  George  Phillips  grant  at 
Watertown.  Solomon  Garfield  of  Weston,  a  nephew  of  Lieutenant 
Isaac  Garfield,  moved  westward;  his  grandson  Abraham  was  the  father 
of  President  Garfield;  when  a  student  at  Williams  College,  the  future 
General  spent  a  vacation  in  Monterey  at  the  Colonel  Daniel  Garfield  house. 
The  visit  at  his  Berkshire  cousin's  came  about  through  Colonel  Garfield's 
sister,  who  settled  in  Ohio,  where  her  son  went  to  school  with  the  Presi- 
dent. President  Garfield  always  looked  back  with  pleasure  to  his  years 
in  Berkshire.  He  was  starting  to  attend  commencement  at  Williams- 
town  when  he  was  shot,  and  he  was  also  expected  at  Monterey. 

4  The  Rev.  Josiah  Brewer,  missionary  to  the  Greeks,  was  a  native  of 
Tyringham,  and  married  Emilia,  daughter  of  Rev.  David  Field. 


262    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

under  his  ox-cart,  pioneer  fashion,  built  Tyringham's  first 
saw-  and  grist-mills. 

The  other  road,  on  a  level  with  Hop  Brook,  enters  a  deep 


The  Mountain  Path. 

Sweets  of  inid- summer. 

cuplike  vale  of  indescribable  beauty,  enhanced  by  the 
picturesque  log  house  of  "  Old-Mill  Farm"  and  the  Steadman 
rake-mill  of  1820.  A  cart-path  beyond  a  pair  of  bars  leads 
into  high  wood-lots.  Leave  this  breezy  pasture  and  plunge 
into  dim  and  breathless  forest  depths,  home  of  the  crystal 


In  Forest-Depths 


263 


Lake  Garfield,  Monterey;  of  old  Twelve-Mile  or  Brewer's  Pond.     Renamed 
in  honor  of  President  Garfield,  July  4,  1881. 

stream,  running  down  over  its  rock-bed  at  the  foot  of  a 
cliff,  caverned  for  wolf  and  bear  and  sheer  as  a  castle-wall. 
Under  a  huge  boulder,  mid-stream,  trout  play  in  a  pool 
turned  emerald  under  the  canopy  of  leaves;  on  top,  a 
marooned  flower  opens  its  heart  to  catch  a  few  stray  rays 
of  sun.  Up  and  up  for  a  mile  and  a  half  all  is  coated  with 
glistening  moss,  and  you  turn  your  ankle  on  Time's  dense 
carpet  of  decay.  Under  mossed  arms  of  fallen  trees  are 
hollows  of  long-forgotten  cellars  and  stone  walls  which 
fenced  the  "clearing"  made  by  the  settler's  axe;  a  bent 
sapling  indicates  a  fox-snare.  At  last,  amid  the  generous 
sunshine  of  an  open  woodland,  you  may  pick  giant  blue- 
berries by  the  handful  along  Hayes's  Pond  in  West  Otis, 
the  source  of  Hop  Brook. 

The  present  town  of  Otis  was  granted  to  Old  Tyringham 
as  an  "equivalent"  for  the  acreage  lost  under  Twelve- Mile 


264    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

and  Six- Mile  Ponds  (Lake  Garfield  and  Lake  Buel),  being- 
twelve  and  six  miles  respectively  from  Sheffield) ;  it  was 
called  the  Tyringham  Equivalent.  In  colonial  days,  Otis 
Avas  on  the  King's  highway  between  Springfield  and  Albany; 
they  used  to  "slaughter  a  whole  ox"  between  her  two  rival 
hotels;  now  the  breezy  and  hospitable  village  possesses  se- 
cluded charms,  and  is  somewhat  bereft  of  man,  the  offic- 
ers of  the  Episcopal  church  being  women.  Otis  is  famous 
for  the  wild  beauty  of  unmatched  fishing  ponds,  and 
the  Farmington  River,  called  "the  Rivulet"  by  Governor 
Winslow's  Plymouth  Company.  The  district  is  almost  as 
deliciously  rugged  as  in  181 7,  when  Professor  Silliman  and 
Daniel  Wadsworth,  following  the  river  road,  crossed  the 
Farmington  sixteen  times  between  New  Hartford  and  its 
source:  "We  passed  almost  the  whole  distance  [forty  miles] 
between  a  vast  defile  of  forest,  which  everywhere  hung- 
around  us  in  gloomy  grandeur,  presenting  lofty  trees  rising 
in  verdant  ridges,  but  occasionally  scorched  and  blackened 
by  fire,  even  to  their  very  tops.  " 

A  wagon  waits  at  Hayes's  Pond  to  carry  you  back  to  Tyr- 
ingham across  the  rough  ridge  of  Long  Mountain.  The 
views  are  constantly  superb ;  from  the  highest  elevation, 
see  the  blue  line  of  the  Catskills.  Long  ago  the  Batteils 
or  Battles  and  other  farmers  lived  on  Tyringham  Mountain, 
later  moving  down  into  the  valley. 

Captain  Thomas  Steadman  planted  here,  having  deserted 
his  coasting-trade  out  of  Narragansett  in  Rhode  Island,, 
because  he  did  not  wish  his  boys  to  be  sailors;  he  arrived 
on  horseback  with  "Aunt  Sally"  Steadman,  his  youngest, 
in  a  silk  handkerchief  slung  around  his  neck.  Captain 
Steadman  voted  for  Washington  for  President.  He  lived 
to  walk  to  Goose  Ponds  at  92,  but  was  once  supposed  to  be 
drowned  in  a  heavy  gale  off  Po  nt  Judith,  when  commanding 
a  Narragansett  Pier  boat,  and  his  cousin,  a  Baptist  minis- 
ter on  Block  Island,  preached  his  funeral  sermon. 


Tyringham  Mountain 


265 


On  the  mountain's  face  is  the  summer  home  of  Francis 
E.  Leupp,  our  Indian  Commissioner;  it  would  seem  that 
just  as  the  colonist  built  high  in  Lanesboro  and  Tyringham 
to  avoid  Indian  trails,  so  does  the  builder  of  a  country 
house  to  escape  the  highway's  dust  and  to  take  part  in  the 
play  of  storm  and  sunlight. 

The  "one-hoss  shay"  was  long  the  sole  conveyance;  the 


Elephant  Rock,  Monterey,  Lake  Garfield  in  the  background ;  the  sandstone 
shows  the  effect  of  frost  and  storm.  The  fisherman's  grain-sack  is  full  of 
fish. 

first  four-wheeler  driven  through  town  caused  so  much 
excitement  that  people  were  late  to  church.  Deacon  B. 
was  remonstrated  with,  and  allowed  to  use  his  carriage  on 
Sunday  only  on  •  condition  that  he  should  drive  slow  . 

Tales  have    been    handed  down  of  an  elder  who  was  a 
"  leetle  nigh  "  on  a  trade.     To  a  would-be  purchaser  said  he, 


266     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

"  Waal,  I  '11  allow  that  you  '11  be  pleased  to  see  that  horse 
go  up  hill."  The  man  bought  the  horse,  soon  returning. 
''The  pesky  critter  balked  at  the  first  rise;  tho't  you  sed 
she  was  a  prime  goer!"  "Not  jes'  so,"  answered  the 
elder,  "I  said  you  'd  be  pleased  to  see  her  go  up  hill:  naow 
^ould  n  't  you  ?  " 

Expecting  a  customer  for  a  cow,  and  wishing  to  keep  the 


''Four  Brooks  Farm,"  of  old  the  Elder  Sweet  place,  summer  residence  of 

Richard  Watson  Gilder. 

bargain  on  his  side,  Elder  C.  selected  the  most  undesirable 
cow  and  placed  her  in  his  best  stall ;  the  farmer  was  affably 
told  that  he  might  choose  any  from  the  herd  except  Mammy's 
pet  butter  cow.  "Could  n't  part  with  her  no  ways,"  The 
customer  got  the  pet  cow.  There  is  a  saying  in  New  Eng- 
land, "  All  deacons  are  good,  but  there  's  odds  in  deacons." 


The  Mountain  Lane,  Four  Brooks  Farm    267 

The  old  Elder  Sweet  farm,  now  called  "Four  Brooks," 
on  which  a  Battell  built  his  log  hut,  is  the  home  of  Richard 
Watson  Gilder,  who  with  Mr.  Leupp  and  the  late  John  R. 
Procter,  president  of  the  national  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sion, have  long  been  identified  with  village  interests.  These 
Jiave  drawn  kindred  spirits  in  art  and  letters  to  Tyringham. 
Cecilia  Beaux  painted  in  a  studio  made  in  one  end  of  an 
old  barn  at  Four  Brooks  The  Dancing  Lesson,  or  Dorothea 
•and  Francesco;  Mr.  Okakura  Kakuso  completed  in  Tyring- 
liam  a  book  on  Japan's  extraordinary  awakening;  ex- 
President  C-eveland  and  Mrs.  Cleveland  enjoyed  visits  and 
one  whole  season  here,  Mark  Twain  a  summer  at  "  Glencote" ; 
the  place  has  been  visited  by  John  Burroughs,  Thompson- 
Seton,  Jacob  Riis,  Edith  M.  Thomas,  Thomas  Bailey  Al- 
drich,  Robert  Underwood  Johnson,  Mary  Hallock  Foote, 
Anne  Douglas  Sedgwick,  Alice  Hegan  Rice,  Adele  Aus  der 
Ohe,  Hamilton  Mabie,  and  other  writers. 

Stroll  up  the  winding  mountain  lane  of  Four  Brooks  Farm, 
up  from  Willow  Glen,  a  feathery  forest  of  willows,  half- 
concealing  the  shining  river,  up  to  maples,  laurels,  pine, 
and  pastures,  where  flickers  nest  in  high  holes.  Lean  on 
the  bars  and  listen  to  Mr.  Gilder's  prose-poem.  The  Night 
Pasture.  No  language  can  more  happily  touch  the  match- 
less charm  of  Tyringham  Valley. 

''In  a  starry  night  in  June,  before  the  moon  had  come  over 
into  our  valley  from  the  high  valley  beyond, 

Terrace  on  terrace  rises  the  farm,  from  meadow  and  winding 
river  to  forest  of  chestnut  and  pine; 

There  by  the  high-road,  among  the  embowering  maples, 
nestles  the  ancient  homestead; 

From  each  new  point  of  vantage  lovelier  seems  the  valley, 
and  the  hill-framed  sunset  ever  more  and  more  moving  and 
glorious; 

But  when  in  the  thujiderous  city  I  think  of  the  inounto.in 


268    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

farm,  nothing  so  sweet  of  remembrance, — holding  me  as  in 
a  dream, — 

As  the  silver  note  of  the  unseen  brook,  and  the  clanging  of 
the  cow-bells  fitfully  in  the  dark,  and  the  deep  breathing  of 
the  cows 

In  the  night  pasture.^'  * 

1  Poems  and  Inscriptions  also  contains  "Autumn  at  Four  Brooks 
Farm"  and  other  poems  of  Tyringham.  Mr.  Gilder's  poem  on  "The 
Pine  "  (included  in  Songs  of  Nature,  edited  by  John  Burroughs)  is  lumi- 
nous with  the  atmosphere  of  their  literary  camp  among  the  hills.  It  is 
interesting  to  contrast  a  sea  poem,  The  Tent  on  the  Beach,  inspired  like- 
wise at  a  poetical  picnic  of  kindred  spirits  on  a  sand  spit  at  Old 
Hampton.     Page  243,  Vol.  I.,  of  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England, 


LENOX  (YOKUNTOWN)   1739-1767 

''There  is  an  eminence — of  these  our  hills 
The  last  that  parleys  with  the  setting  sun: 
We  can   behold  it  from  our  orchard  seat; 
And  when  at  evening  we  pursue  our  walk 
Along  the  public  way,  this  peak,  so  high 
Above  us,   and  so   distant  in  its   height, 
Is   visible,    and   often    seems    to    send 
Its  own  deep  quiet  to  restore  our  hearts.'' 

Wordsworth. 

Lenox,  *'on  top  of  the  hill,"  has  long  been  a  "Land  of 
Heart's  Desire"  to  one  and  another  of  the  world's  gifted. 
No  great  upheaval  in  war  or  peace  has  fretted  the  Happy 
Valley's  mirror  lakes,  the  intervals  of  sunny  meadow,  or 
superb  Lenox  range,  crowned  by  dark  forests  and  Yokun's 
Seat. 

You  may,  nevertheless,  distinguish  four  marked  periods 

in  Lenox  history :  first  the  half -legendary  reign  of  the  Indian 

Chiefs  Yokun  and  Ephraim ;  to  the  second  period  belong  the 

colonial   proprietorship  of  the   Quincys,  and  the  4000-acre 

grant  to  Ephraim  Williams  and  those  ministers  who  gave 

up  their  lands  in  Stockbridge  to  the  Indian  mission.     These 

sold   their  claims,  and  in  the  middle  of  the   century  the 

settler's   axe  rang   through   the   woods,    lilac   and   syringa 

blossomed  at  their  hearthstones;  in  snapping  cold  weather, 

oxen  drew  into  the  kitchen  back-logs  of  such  length,  that 

as  the  sap  ran  it  froze  into  an  icicle  at  the  other  end.      The 

patriot    yeomanry    of    Yokuntown    and    Mount    Ephraim, 

separated  only  by  the  lofty  Lenox  spur  of  the  Taconics, 

christened  their  new  villages  after  the  English  nobleman 

of  proverbial  good- will  to  Americans — Charles  Lenox,  Duke 

of  Richmond,  the  friend  of  Horace  Walpole. 

Scintillating  years  of  literary  proprietorship  opened  the 

269 


270    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

third  period  in  Lenox  with  the  advent  of  the  county  judges 
to  the  shire  town ;  the  hospitable  board  of  Major  Egleston 
— a  founder  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati — and  the 
Berkshire  Coffee  House  rang  with  toasts  and  repartee. 
In  the  early  twenties  arrived,  as  clerk  of  the  courts,  the 
love-compelling  Charles  Sedgwick — his  delightful  humor 
equalled  that  of  his  sister's  stories — followed  by  his  life- 
long friend  the  incomparable  Judge  Henry  W.  Bishop,  who 
purchased  the  Egleston  house.  ^ 

Miss  Sedgwick  could  not  be  separated  from  her  favorite 
brother,  and  left  Stockbridge  to  occupy  the  **wing"  of  his 
Lenox  house,  and  literary  pilgrims  flocked  around  her: 
among  them  Harriet  Martineau  and  the  noted  Italian  ex- 
iles, Confallieri  and  others,  released  from  imprisonment  at 
Speilberg.  (Castillia  spent  a  year  in  Berkshire,  and  after 
his  emancipation  became  a  senatore  del  regno.  "A  lovelier 
nature  than  his  was  never  given  to  mortal  man,"  says  Mr. 
Henry  Sedgwick.) 

In  1846  Mr.  Samuel  Gray  Ward  of  Washington,  the  friend 
of  Emerson,  and  the  American  representative  of  Baring 
Bros.,  took  a  fancy  to  the  farms  at  the  head  of  Stock- 
bridge  Bowl,  and  built  High- Wood,  a  forerunner  of  the 
summer  homes  at  Lenox;  his  farm  included  beautiful 
"Shadow  Brook,"  recently  the  estate  of  Anson  Phelps 
Stokes,  and  the  namesake  of  the  favorite  rivulet  of  the 
children  of  Hawthorne's  Wonder  Book. 

In  the  heat  of  the  day  at  mid-summer  Hawi:horne  used 
to  gather  his  children  and  their  playmates  together  at 
Shadow    Brook, — the    talking    brook,    where    overreaching 


1  Major  Egleston  fought  at  Valley  Forge  and  on  the  staff  of  General 
John  Paterson,  who  built  the  house  in  1783.  It  was  occupied  for  some 
years  by  Judge  Samuel  Dana  and  by  Thomas  Egleston,  LL.D.,  the  biog- 
rapher of  General  Paterson,  and  is  standing  on  Monument  Square.  It 
was  recently  remodelled  by  Mrs.  Alfred  Edwards. 


Photograph  hy  Mr.  Wm.  Radford 


Catherine  Sedgwick. 


From  a  crayon  portrait  made  hy  Seth  Cheney  in  Lenox  sixty  years  ago,  and 
recently  presented  by  his  Niece,  Miss  Lilian  Goodman,  to  the  Sedgwick 
Library,  Lenox. 


271 


272    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

branches  created  noontide  twilight ;  then  Sweet  Fern,  Peri- 
winkle, Cowslip,  and  all  the  rest  would  beg  for  the  story 
of  brave  Perseus,  with  his  winged  slippers  and  enchanted 
wallet,  and  of  the  mysterious  friend  Quicksih'er  who  helped 
him  to  cut  off  the  Gorgon's  head.  When  the  leaves  over 
the  brook  changed  to  gold,  "Cousin  Eustace"  told  the 
children  the  story  of  King  Midas  and  the  Golden  Touch. 
Thus,  before  this  book  of  exquisite  humor  and  simplicity 
was  in  the  printer's  hands  (the  only  one  of  Hawthorne's 
without  a  sad  page  in  it)  his  children  could  repeat  it  by 
heart. 

From  Mr.  Ward's  house,  Jenny  Lind  was  married,  and  it 
was  ]\Ir.  Ward  who  induced  Ha^vthorne  to  come  to  Lenox 
and  occupy  a  tiny  house  near  Lake  Makheenac  just  over 
the  Stockbridge  line;  "all  literary  persons  seem  settling 
around  us"  writes  Mrs.  Hawthorne  from  her  "little  Red 
Shanty,"  as  she  calls  it. 

Horatio  Bridge,  Hawthorne's  college-mate,  assisted  them 
in  establishing  their  household  gods  at  Lenox.  Mr.  Bridge 
writes  to  his  wife: 

"  La  Maison  Rouge, 

"July  i8,   1850. 
"  Cara  Mia     ... 

"Be  it  known,  then,  that  Hawthorne  occupies  a  house 
painted  red,  like  some  old-fashioned  farm-houses  you  have 
seen.  It  is  owned  by  Mr.  Tappan,  who  lived  in  it  awhile; 
but  he  is  now  at  High- Wood,  the  beautiful  place  of  Mr. 
Ward  [Samuel  Gray  Ward].  .  .  .  The  view  of  the  lake 
is  lovely:  I  have  seldom  seen  one  so  beautiful."  ^ 

Lenox's  fourth  period  of  distinction  belongs  to  the  makers 
of  modern  history,  the  Now,  all  too  close  to  be  chronicled : 
a  brilliant  train  of  diplomatists,  financiers,  scientists,  dis- 

1  Personal  Recollections  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  by  Horatio  Bridge. 
Copyright  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


Lenox  Registers  Makers  of  History        273 


coverers,  seeking  a  dolce  far  niente  after  the  exacting  and 
complex  winter  of  the  city.  The  register  books  of  the 
Berkshire  Coffee  House,  Fanny  Kemble's  "Old  Red  Inn," 
and  its  successor  of  to-day,  are  classic  in  autographs,  and 
become  historical,  sociological,  or  genealogical  to  the  reader 
according  to  his  penchant. 

That  is  a  curious  silver  thread  which  links  one  thousand 


n 

it 

n 


The  Old  Saw- Mill,  Lenox. 


acres  in  the  heart  of  Lenox  to  a  Latin  inscription  at  Bun- 
hill  Fields,  London,  whereby  Dorothy  Q.  came  into  landed 
possessions  in  the  domain  of  Yokun,  sachem. 

It  happened  in  this  wise:  Judge  Edmund  Quincy,  when 
on  a  mission  to  the  English  government,  fell  a  victim  to  a 
direful   small-pox   epidemic   in    London,    and    a   memorial 


18 


274    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

was  erected  to  him  in  Bunhill  Fields,  the  resting-place  of 
Bunyan,  and  the  Puritans;  the  Great  and  General  Court  of 
the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  granted  to  his  heirs, 
for  the  great  loss  sustained  in  the  death  of  their  father  while 
in  the  agency  of  the  province,  looo  acres  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Housatonnuck  River  "between  Stockbridge  and  a 


A  Deserted  Quarry,  Lee  in  Berkshire. 
Lee  is  celebrated  for  its  fnarble,  such  as  is  used  in  the  "newer  portions  of 

the  National  Capitol. 

township  laid  out  to  the  Honble.  Jacob  Wendell,  Esq.,  and 
others."      (Wendell's  Town  or  Pittsfield.) 

Wherefore  in  1739  out  of  Xorthampton  town  rode  Sur- 
veyor Timothy  Dwight^  across  the  wilderness  trails  and 
down  over  the  bridle-path  through  Pontoosuck,  Field  of  the 

1  Timothy  D wight,  born  in  Hatfield  in  1694,  son  of  Nathaniel  D wight 
and  Mehitable  Partridge,  was  a  great-grandson  of  Judge  John  Dwight  of 
Dedham;  his  son  married  a  daughter  of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  their 
son  was  the  first  President  Dwight  of  Yale  College. 


Dorothy  Q's  Land-Grant  in  Lenox        275 

Winter  Deer,  to  lay  out  the  Quincy  grant.  The  dainty  maid 
of  Braintree,  "Damsel  Dorothy,  Dorothy  Q.,"  in  hanging 
"sleeves  of  stiff  brocade,"  probably  never  saw  how  lovely 
an  inheritance  was  her  portion  of  Lenox,  threaded  by  little 
Yokun  River,  its  north  bound  marked  by  a  great  oak  tree 
on  the  Pittsfield  road,  and  scarcely  more  than  a  league 
from  "Canoe  Meadows,"  where  her  irreverent  great-grand- 
son Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  was  destined  to  dwell  "seven 
sweet  summers"  on  the  land-grant  of  his  distinguished 
forbear  Jacob  Wendell,  colonel  of  the  "Ancient  and 
Honorables. " 

The  Quincys'  north  bound  ran  across  the  main  road  be- 
tween Lenox  and  Pittsfield  to  the  foot  of  the  west  mountain 
range.  Yokun  Mountain  has  been  chosen  latterly  as  a 
picturesque  background  for  the  "Fembrook"  of  Thomas 
Shields  Clarke;  the  house  is  Tyrolean  Gothic  and  the  lines 
of  the  hills  are  repeated  in  the  roof  lines.  Mr.  Clarke's 
studio  is  fashioned  after  the  refectory  of  an  ancient  mon- 
astery at  Ragusa,  Sicily. 

The  south  bound  of  the  grant  to  Josiah  Quincy  crosses 
the  present  estate  of  Mrs.  Richard  T.  Auchmuty;  there  a 
house  was  built  by  his  grandson  Samuel  Quincy  (registrar 
of  deeds  at  Lenox),  the  father  of  the  beloved  "  Miss  Debby." 
Except  for  the  occasional  transfer  of  a  lot  on  the  "  Quincy 
Grant  Line,"^  this  episode  of  Lenox  history  is  forgotten. 

DRIVES:  Adams— 20  miles;  Around  Wc    fccl     "  marVclloUS     WCll     aC- 

Lake    Makheenac-7o;    Bashbish-        quaint"     with     LCUOX     Hfc    iu     thc 
27;  Chatham  by  West  Stockbndge        ^ 

—20;  Cheshire— zd;  Curtisviiie  (In-     middle  of  thc  eighteenth  century ; 

terlaken) — 4\;       Dalton       (Station)        ^  .         .  r     a 

-12;  Fernside-p;  Fernside  return       the    mCrry     CnthUSiasmS     Ot         OUr 

by  Lee— 79.  Giendaie  by  Stock-     Fauny"  ovcr  hcr  bclovcd  Hapoy 

bridge    return — 16;    Great    Barring-  -^  ^  !,. 

ton   by  new  road— /.-,-  Higginson's        Vallcy,       whcrC      shc      WOUld       llVC 

'Zi^iaJd'^^'  'Z:^     alway,  crop  out  in  letters  to  Mrs. 

1  *'  The  Quincy  Grant  Line,"  by  Robert  C.  Rockwell,  Springfield  Re- 
publican,   Oct.    ii,    1897. 


276    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

—10;  Lake  Makheenac— 2i;  Laurel      Jameson,  and  we  havc  the  letters 

Lake — 3;  Lebanon  Road,  by  Happy        "^  _ 

Valley,  return— 5i;  Lebanon  Springs       of    MlSS    Sedgwiclc   edited   by    MisS 

—72;  Lee— ^/  Lee  return  by  Lenox        T-)p„,p^      ^^^1     ^p,f    Ipocrf    fTnp     Knfp 
Furnace— zo;  Lee  return  by  "  High-        -L'e\\  ey,     ana    nOX    leaSX    tne    .\  016- 

land  Farm"— 70;   Lily  Pond— 7^;     Book    and    letters    of    the    Haw- 

Stockbridge,  return  by  lake  road —  ^  .     . 

7j,  stockbridge,  return  by  interiaken  thomes  and  remimscences  of 
^■If'.  ?r\^t^..'^.^^^'  ''T"""-!'     Lenox  days  by  his  children,— by 

Pittsfield — 6;    Pittsfield,    return    by  _                       •'           •'  '  _         -^ 

mountain    road.    New    Lenox— 7d;  his     COllege-mate     Horatio  Bridge, 

Richmond  Hill-t,;   Richmond,  Bar-  ,      ,            ,.                   ,       ,,  Fiplrlc: 

kerville,    Pittsfield,  return— 76;  Ty-  ^^^      ^y      IVir.      anO      MIS.  T  leiQS. 

ringham  by  Lee,  return  by  South     Moreover,  Hermann  Melville  and 

Lee — 20;   Under   West   Mountain — ■ 

5;  Washington  Mountain,  by  Lenox  Charles  Sumner  and  Other  de- 
^T'^^^Z^'V^::^.  lightful  letter-writers  were  among 
Housatonic, return— 2^;  West  Moun-  the  elect  recuperating  in  Berk- 
tain    drive — 10;    West    Stockbridge  ^   •         •        ,1         nr,'             rt\^         r    n 

— (5;  wiiiiamstown— -'(5.  shire  m  the  nities.      Ihe  lollow- 

ing  is  an  unpublished  memory  of  James  Russell  Lowell : 

"  Elmwood,  23  May,  1875. 
"To  Richard  Goodman,  jr.,  Esq., 

"  Lenox,  Mass. 
"My  dear  Mr.   Goodman: 

"  I  know  Berkshire  tolerably  well  for  one  born  among 
loving  and  placid  landscapes.  I  once  spent  a  summer — • 
(1847,  I  think,  at  any  rate  it  was  while  Hawthorne  was 
there)  partly  in  Stockbridge  and  partly  at  Mr.  Palmer's, 
whose  farm  if  I  remember  rightly  lay  within  your  boun- 
daries. I  have  spent  a  summer  day  alone  on  the  mossy 
top  of  Deowgkook  (pardon  my  phonetic  spelling — being 
interpreted,  it  means  Rattlesnake  Mountain).  I  know 
Monument  Mountain  and  Taghkonic  well ;  had  a  distant 
acquaintance  with  the  Pittsfield  Elm,  though  I  can't  say 
he  ever  returned  my  visits.  Above  all,  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  knowing  those  two  admirable  persons  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Charles  Sedgwick.  My  friend  Ward  lived  at  the  head  of 
the  Lake.  You  see  I  am  not  altogether  a  barbarian." 
[Dr.  Holmes  spoke  of  the  Pittsfield  Elm  as  "sorely  in  need 
of  a  wig  of  green  leaves."] 

]\Ir.  Lowell's   day  in  solitude  on  Rattlesnake  was  prac- 


Mrs.  Sedgwick's  Famous  School         277 

tical  illustration  of  his  thoughts  of  the  blithe  season  when 
''  't  is  good  to  lie  beneath  a  tree." 

.     "Uliat  a  day 
To  sun  me  and  do  nothing  I     Nay,  I  think 
Merely  to  bask  and  ripen  is  sometimes 
The   student's   wiser    business;    the    brain 

Will  not  distil  the  juices  it  has  sucked 
To  the  sweet  substance  of  pellucid  thought. 
Except  for  him,  who  hath  the  secret  learned 
To  mix  his  blood  with  sunshine,  and  to  take 
The  winds  into  his  pulses. " 

The  accomplished  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Dwight  Sedgwick,  1  to 
whom  Mr.  Lowell  refers,  kept  a  famous  young  ladies' 
school,  a  ''character-factory,"  she  called  it.  One  of  her 
pupils  living  in  New  Orleans  says:  "The  girls  all  adored 
Mrs.  Sedgwick,  she  was  so  good  to  us;  she  was  far  ahead 
of  her  time  in  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hygiene.  Hawthorne 
used  to  bring  little  Una  to  see  us,  and  one  of  her  pretty 
childish  phrases  was,  'I  don't  memory  that.'  Fanny 
Kemble  w^as  a  household  word,  and  the  girls  counted  as 
the  great  intellectual  event  of  their  lives  the  delineation 
of  Shakespeare's  men  and  women  by  the  'tragedy  queen' 
(as  Dr.  Holmes  calls  her)  on  Mrs.  Sedgwick's  piazza,  where 
visitors  and  neighbors  gathered  around,  every  one  electrified 
by  that  wonderful  voice." 

With  the  proceeds  of  a  single  night's  reading  Fanny 
Kemble  gave  a  clock  to  the  Church  on  the  Hill,  and  planned 
one  "for  the  poor";  finding  there  were  no  poor  in  Lenox 

1  Mrs.  Sedgwick  was  a  Dwight  of  Xorthampton.  Her  son  Major- 
General  William  Dwight  Sedgwick,  killed  at  Antietam,  was  born  in 
Lenox.  Pupils  of  note  at  Mrs.  Sedgwick's  school  were  Charlotte  Cushman, 
Harriet  G.  Hosmer,  Maria  Cummings,  author  of  The  Lamplighter ,  Miss 
Jerome  of  New  York  (Lady  Churchill),  Lucy  Marcy,  daughter  of  the 
Governor  and  wife  of  Chief  Justice  Brigham. 


278    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

she  gave  a  reading  for  that  historic  institution  the  Lenox 
Library. 

The  Library  of  Lenox  was  founded  as  a  Social  Library 
in  1797,  through  the  Rev.  John  Hotchkin,  a  prominent 
educator.  (The  old  Hotchkin  house  stands  on  Cliffwood 
Street,  the  residence  of  Miss  Anna  Shaw.)  The  home  of 
the  Charles  Sedgwick  Library  is  in  the  second  courthouse, 
purchased  and  presented  to  the  trustees  by  Mrs.  Adeline 
E.  Schermerhorn  ''to  exhibit  her  affection  for  the  beautiful 
town  in  which  she  had  so  long  passed  her  summer  days. " 
A  fund  was  the  gift  of  Ammi  Robbins  of  New  York,  a 
native  of  Lenox.  Its  first  treasurer  and  librarian  was 
Elijah  Brewer.  The  treasurer  for  twenty- two  years  was 
the  Hon.  Richard  Goodman,  and  the  Hon.  John  E.  Parsons 
of  New  York  is  the  president.  In  1874  the  trustees  were 
Judge  Julius  Rockwell,^  Charles  Kneeland,  Richard  Good- 
man, Richard  T.  Auchmuty,  and  F.  Augustus  Schermerhorn. 
Among  interesting  documents  preserved  at  the  library  are 
a  letter  of  General  Washington  to  the  Hon.  Jonathan 
Williams,  Esq.,  Egleston  Collection,  and  the  non-importa- 
tion agreement  signed  by  the  Inhabitants  of  Lenox  1774. 

Frances  Anne  Kemble  is  still  the  best  remembered  of 
the  sojourners  in  her  beloved  Happy  Valley,  because,  like 
the  adorable  Dolly  Madison,  she  never  scorned  the  least 
of  the  charming  amenities  of  life.^     Even  Hawthorne,  the 

1  "The  old  home  of  Judge  Juhus  Rockwell  on  Walker  Street,  of  the 
Georgian  ("Colonial")  period,  stands  on  the  grant  to  Jonathan  Edwards, 
his  portion  of  the  Minister's  Grant.  The  house  was  built  by  Judge  Walker 
for  his  son.  An  illustration  of  its  beautiful  porch  is  included  among 
the  admirable  plates  of  The  Georgian  Period,  edited  by  William  Rotch 
Ware. 

2  Fanny  Kemble  to  Lady  Dacre  from  Berkshire,  1839: 

"You  know  I  do  not  value  very  highly  the  artificial  civilities  which 
half -strangle  half  the  world  with  a  sort  of  floss-silk  insincerity ;  and  the 
longer  I  live  the  more  convinced  I  am  that  real  tenderness  to  others  is 
quite  compatible  with  the  truth  that  is  due  to  them  and  one's  self." 


Fanny  Kemble  at  the  Old  Red  Inn        279 


Kemble  Street,  Lenox. 

"silent  man"  as  he  spoke  of  himself,  delighted  to  see  her 
come  flying  down  on  a  large  black  horse  —  sometimes 
she  would  snatch  up  little  Julian  for  a  gallop;  and  the 
cynical  Charles  Sumner  confessed  to  the  piquant  pleasure 
of  her  company  on  a  ride  to  Pittsfield,  and  begged  this 
"sympathetic,  noble,  and  unaccommodating"  woman  to 
be  his  cicerone  over  the  beautiful  lanes  and  wild  paths 
of  Berkshire. 

As  early  as  1838  Fanny  Kemble  writes  at  the  "Old  Red 
Inn":     "The  village  hostelry  was  never  so  graced  before; 


28o     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

it  is  having  a  blossoming  time  with  sweet  young  faces 
shining  about  it  in  every  direction,  looking  out  upon  that 
prospect  from  the  hill-top."  She  speaks  of  "making 
common  cause  in  the  eating  and  living  way ' '  with  Mary 
and  Fanny  Appleton,  at  the  hotel  for  a  week.  (Mary 
married  Robert,  son  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  and  the 
lamented  Fanny  the  poet  Longfellow.) 

Many  stories  are  told  of  Fanny  Kemble  during  her  va- 
rious sojourns  at  the  "Old  Red  Inn"  and  the  Curtis  Ho- 
tel, planted  on  the  site  of  the  tavern  of  1773.  She  did 
not  purchase  her  cottage,  "The  Perch,"  until  1850,  the 
year  Hawthorne  arrived. 

One  day  Mrs.  Kemble,  while  waiting  for  her  "spach- 
cock"  to  be  served,  following  an  ante-breakfast  canter  over 
hill  and  dale,  gave  some  directions  at  the  desk  about  her 
favorite  horse,  and  added,  "You  should  remove  your  hat; 
gentlemen  always  remove  their  hats  in  my  presence. " 
"But  I  am  not  a  gentleman,  ma'am,  I  'm  a  butcher."  This 
pleased  her  so  much  that  she  was  his  friend  forever  after- 
ward. 

Mrs.  Kemble  annotated  a  volume  of  her  poems  for  Mr. 
William  O.  Curtis;  the  blanks  of  dedication  are  filled  in 
"To  Mrs.  St.  Leger,"  "To  Mrs.  Norton,"  etc.  A  sonnet  to 
her  aunt  Mrs.  Siddons  finishes: 

*'  Think  only  that  I  loved  ye  passing  well 
And  let  my  follies  slumber  in  the  past.'* 

The  remarkable  portrait  of  Mrs.  Siddons  and  Mrs.  Kemble 
by  Briggs  hangs  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  The  distinction 
which  Mrs.  Kemble's  grandson  Owen  Wister  has  achieved 
in  the  literary  world  revives  anew  the  interest  in  her  life 
and  letters. 

The  old  paths  around  Lake  Makheenac,  Shadow  Brook, 
and  Tanglewood  will  ever  be  associated  with  the  second  of 
Hawthorne's  great   romances — The  House  of  Seven  Gables; 


The  Hawthornes  Ascend  Bald-Summit    281 

written  during  that  first  happy  autumn  at  Lenox,  it 
followed  closely  on  the  publication  of  the  Scarlet  Letter, 
composed  during  the  dark,  pinched  days  after  the  author's 
dismissal  from  the  Salem  custom-house. 

Possessing  Hawthorne's  journal  and  letters,  one  may 
follow  him  down  through  his  apple-orchard  to  the  pretty 
glen  between  the  house  and  the  lake.     Picture  "the  silent 


The  Applc-OrcJiard  oj  the  Little  Red  House  Slopes  toward  Lake  Alakheenac. 
"I  shook  our  summer  apple-tree,  and  ate  the  golden  apple  which  fell  from  it. 
Methinks  these  early  apples,  which  come  as  a  golden  promise  before  the  treas- 
ures of  autumnal  fruit,  are  always  more  delicious  than  anything  that  comes 
afterward." — Hawthorne. 

man"  walking  along  the  twilight  road  each  evening  to  a 
neighbor's,  carrying  a  tin  pail  for  milk,  the  boy  Julian 
darting  across  the  "milky  way"  like  a  humming-bird,  and 
little  Una  trudging  after;  or  ascending  Bald-Summit  with 
the  children  for  a  frolic  and  a  wonder-story. 
Hawthorne  writes: 


282     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

*'  Una  and  Julian  grow  apace,  and  so  do  our  chickens. 
.  .  .  There  is  a  difficulty  about  these  chickens,  as  well 
as  about  the  old  fowls.  We  have  become  so  intimately 
acquainted  with  every  individual  of  them  that  it  really 
seems  like  cannibalism  to  think  of  eating  them.  What  is 
to  be  done?"  It  is  quite  probable  that  fowls,  flowers, 
and  vegetables  of  the  Red-house  establishment  were  stud- 
ies for  Phoebe's  garden  favorites  in  The  House  of  Seven 
Gables.^ 

Here  at  last,  Hawthorne  came  into  his  own  in  spite  of 
himself.  Fame  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  little  red  house 
hy  the  lake,  and  the  author  mails  a  jubilant  letter  to  his 
publisher,  James  T.  Fields:  "Mrs.  Kemble  writes  very 
good  accounts  from  London  of  the  reception  my  two  ro- 
mances have  met  with  there.  She  says  they  have  made  a 
greater  sensation  than  any  book  since  Jane  Eyre;  but 
probably  she  is  a  good  deal  too  emphatic.  "2 

Hawthorne,  after  a  year,  began  to  weary  of  the  hills, 
which  he  says  stereotype  themselves  on  the  brain ;  the  se- 
cret of  his  discontent  was  a  hunger  for  the  placid  slopes  and 
a  gHmpse  of  the  beseeching  sea,  his  birthright.  Neither 
Longfellow,  Hawthorne,  nor  Aldrich,  each  born  in  an 
old  town  by  the  sea,  could  allow  himself  to  be  far 
from  the  salt  tang,  the  flavor  of  boyish  dreams;  in  his 
native  port,  at  each  lane's  ending,  is  the  white-winged 
fleet,  whose  pinions  would  take  far  man's  "restless  fancy." 
Aldrich  voices  the  long,  long  thoughts  of  the  youth  of  all 
three : 


1  Henry  James  speaks  of  The  House  of  Seven  Gables  as  "pervaded 
with  that  vague  hum,  that  indefinable  echo,  of  the  whole  multitudinous 
life  of  man,  which  is  the  real  sign  of  a  great  work  of  fiction." 

2  Hawthorne  acquired  that  year  the  wherewithal  for  material  com- 
forts for  "his  family;  he  says:  "The  only  sensible  ends  of  literature 
are,  first  the  pleasurable  toil  of  writing,  second,  the  gratification  of  one's 
family  and  friends,  and,  lastly,  the  solid  cash." 


The  Church  on  the  Hill,  Lenox.  .  -^ 

"  When  the  hells  of  Rylestone  played 
Their  sabbath  music — 'God  tis  aydef" — Wordsworth. 

283 


284    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

"7  leave  behind  me  the  elm-shadowed  square 
And  carven  portals  of  the  silent  street, 
And  wander  on  with  listless,  vagrant  feet, 
Through  seaward-leading  alleys,  till  the  air 
Smells  of  the  sea,  and  straightway  then  the  care 
Slips  from  my  heart,  and  life  once  more  is  sweet. ^^ 

It  is  the  glory  of  Massachusetts  that  her  children  do  not 
need  to  step  without  her  borders  to  know  the  charms  of 
wooded  crags  and  the  boundless  sea,  of  both  old  King 
Greylock  and  rock-bound  Nahant. 

Perhaps  the  last  pages  Hawthorne  wrote  on  the  shores 
of  the  lake  were  his  luminous  Dedication  to  the  Twice-Told 
Tales  (dated  at  Lenox,  November  1,1 851). 

In  that  deliciously  personal  and  shyly  characteristic 
epistle  to  "My  Dedicatee"  Horatio  Bridge,  Esq.,  U.  S.  N. 
(afterward  Paymaster-general),  Hawthorne  recalls  to  his 
college-mate  that  they  were  once  two  idle  lads  at  a  country 
college,  gathering  blueberries,  in  study  hours,  under  those 
tall  academic  pines,  or  watching  great  logs  as  they  tumbled 
along  the  current  of  the  Androscoggin;  and  says:  "If  any- 
body is  responsible  for  my  being  at  this  day  an  author,  it 
is  yourself."  The  near-by  pines  at  High- Wood  no  doubt 
recalled  those  at  Bowdoin.  These  "Hawthorne  Pines,'* 
as  beautiful  as  any  in  the  world,  belonged  to  the  Sergeant 
family  of  Stockbridge. 

Twenty  days  later,  in  a  storm  of  snow  and  sleet,  Haw- 
thorne left  Lenox.  It  must  indeed  have  been  a  droll  emi- 
gration; Una,  Julian,  and  Rose  waved  a  lingering  good-bye 
to  their  hens  with  the  Christian  names,  while  five  pet  cats 
trailed  behind  the  farmer's  wagon  as  it  clattered  down 
the  road. 

Lenox  Church  on  the  Hill-top  commands  eighteen  miles 
of  valley  in  middle  Berkshire;    its  burnished  tower  serves 


The  Woolsey  and  Aspinwall  Estates     285 

as  a  beacon  to  strangers.  Mounted  therein,  the  imaginative 
pilgrim  may  fancy  that  he  is  in  a  lookout-tower  on  an 
island's  wooded  height,  and  misty  mountain  ranges  roll- 
ing like  billows  of  the  sea  on  toward  the  horizon. 

The  ground  on  which  the  church  stands  was  a  gift  in 
1770  of  the  children  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Reynolds  of  En- 
field, Conn.  'Neath  the  quaintly  carven  cherubim  on  the 
churchyard  slates  you  trace  sweet  and  stern  old-time 
sentiments  and  warnings  to  the  thoughtless. 

Close  at  hand  rise  the  magnificent  wooded  heights  of 
the  old  Woolsey  and  Aspinwall  estates,  now  Aspinwall 
Hill,  whence  the  horizon  broadens  to  the  Catskills.  You  may 
drive  a  dozen  miles  over  the  roads  of  this  natural  park, 
and  cross  Lenox  range  by  the  West  Mountain  road :  so 
dense  are  the  hemlocks  that  after  dark  the  path  is  shrouded 
in  an  intense  witching  blackness,  and  the  belated  traveller 
is  fain  to  loosen  rein,  and  allow  his  horse  to  pick  his  own 
road.  Deer  were  so  plentiful  on  these  heights  that  Lenox 
annually   elected   officers   called   "deer-reeves." 

For  more  than  fifty  years  the  Rev.  Samuel  Shepard 
preached  in  Lenox  church  to'  all  the  countryside.  "  His 
Lenox  was  not  the  Lenox  of  to-day.  On  every  southern 
hillside,  with  protecting  walls  of  forest  to  the  north,  stood 
ample  farmhouses.  The  valleys  were  luxuriant  with  corn 
and  waving  grain.  Town  meeting  day  found  the  old  town 
house — which  is  still  standing  and  still  in  use — full  of  as  fine 
a  set  of  New  England  farmers  as  any  town  could  boast. 
Eloquence  was  the  rule."^ 

Familiar  figures  of  old  days  in  Lenox  were  ]\Iajor  Caleb 
Hyde,  Samuel  Collins,    and  Colonel  Elijah  Northrup    (his 

1  "The  Church  on  Lenox  Hill-Top  and  round  about  It,"  by  the  Rev. 
Frederick  Lynch  of  Pilgrim  Church,  New  York.  New  England  Magazine, 
October,  1900.  The  house  of  the  first  minister,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Munson, 
stood  on  the  site  of  the  house  of  the  Hon.  John  E.  Parsons,  "  Stonover.  " 


286    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

house  of  1778  is  still  standing  on  Main  Street,  the  residence 
of  Henry  Sedgwick),  also  Representatives  Asher  Sedgwick, 
Oliver  Belden,  and  William  O.  Curtis,  Senator  Charles 
Mattoon,  County  Treasurer  Joseph  Tucker,  James  Robbins, 
and  Judge  William  Walker  who  came  from  old  Rehoboth 
in  1770,  and  purchased  some  200  acres  on  Walker  Hill  (now 
Lanier  Hill).  Judge  Walker  always  drove  four  horses 
or  four  oxen ;  in  his  house,  Yokun  farm,  remain  still  the 
huge  chimney,  and  exquisite  French  wall-paper  laid  on  in 


"  Yokun  Farm,"  the  Judge  Walker  house,  as  it  looked 
in  1865,  when  the  Hon.  Richard  Goodman  pur- 
chased it  of  Judge  Edwards  Pierrepont,  minister  to 
England  under  Grant. 

sheets,  and  the  room  in  the  "L,"  where  Madame  AValker 
directed  her  maidens  at  their  spinning.  "Yokun"  has 
been  the  home  for  many  years  of  the  family  of  the  Hon. 
Richard  Goodman. 

Judge  Walker  raised  his  gambrel-roof  on  a  most  attractive 
height,  whence  may  be  observed  the  clear  waters  of  three  em- 
bowered ponds — Makheenac,  Lily,  and  Laurel  Lakes;  the 
latter  is  literally  a  "mountain  mirror."  Seated  beneath 
"Yokun's"  honeysuckle  summer-house  on  the  west  knoll. 


Encircling  Laurel  Lake  287 

one  becomes  the  guest  of  the  clouds,  the  cirrus  trains 
which  float  or  scud  across  Bald  Head  and  Monument,  to  be 
finally  drowned  in  the  azure  distance  of  Sheffield's  proud 
Dome.  One  of  the  prettiest  of  days  is  when  "the  clouds 
are  slicking  across," — as  the  daughter  of  a  Cape  Cod  fisher- 
man expressed  it,  her  weather  eye  unconsciously  alert 
for  the  smacks  outside  the  bar. 

On  the  hither  side  of  Laurel  Lake  is  the  broad  sweep  of 
''Erskine  Park,"  the  summer  home  of  the  inventor  George 
Westinghouse ;  thence  you  may  command,  set  in  sublime 
scenery,  "Yokun"  and  the  "Allen  Winden"  of  Charles 
Lanier,  Esq.,  on  this  Walker's  or  Lanier's  Hill. 

"The  Perch"  of  Fanny  Kemble  also  overlooks  Laurel 
Lake,  on  which  she  spent  long  days  fishing  for  pickerel, 
"the  most  patient  fisherman  hereabouts." 

Where  willows  dip,  by  the  western  shore  of  Laurel  Lake, 
the  close-cropped  upland  rises  to  the  terraces  of  "The 
Mount,"  the  home  of  Edith  Wharton.  Simplicity  is  the 
accent  of  this  estate  by  the  author's  preference,  and  the 
house  is  a  copy  of  Beton,  the  seat  of  Lord  Brownlow  in 
Lincolnshire.  June  is  full  of  invitations  to  the  outdoor 
revel  of  bird-folk  and  flowers ;  quite  equal  here  to  the  scene 
at  Elvetham  in  Hampshire,  poetized  by  Peter  Lylly,  for 
the  occasion  of  "The  Honorable  Entertainment  given 
by  the  Queen's  Majestic  in  Progress"  by  the  right  Honor- 
able the  Earle  of  Hertford.  Thus  runs  the  Dittie  of  the 
Six  Virgins''  Song: 

"Now  birds  record  new  harmonie, 

And  trees  doe  whistle  melodie  ! 

Now  everie  thing  that  nature  breeds 

Doth  clad  itself  in  pleasant  weeds. 

O  beauteous  Queene  of  second  Troy, 

Accept  of  our  unfained  joy  /  "  ^ 

1  At  Elvetham,  by  Peter  Lylly.  "To  bee  sold  at  the  little  Shop  over 
against  the  great  South  dore  of  Paules.      1591." 


288    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Still  another  estate  in  the  literary  annals  of  Lenox 
touches  Laurel  Lake — "Wyndhurst,"  originally  the  "Blos- 
som Farm"  of  the  Rev.  John  Hotchkin,  principal  of  the 
celebrated  Lenox  Academy.  ^  Henry  Ward  Beecher  wrote 
Star  Papers  here  and  the  height  is  known  as  "  Beecher' s 
Hill."  Gen.  John  F.  Rathbone  christened  the  place  "  Wynd- 
hurst";  it  looks  out  upon  bewitching  October  Mountain, 
and  the  Housatonic  Valley.  The  ivy-mantled  tower  of  the 
"Tudor"  mansion  of  the  present  owner,  John  Sloane,  Esq., 
commands  a  sweep  of  sixty  miles  across  Berkshire  from 
Greylock  to  the  Dome. 

In  the  appropriate  landscape  setting  of  "AVyndhurst" 
yearly  blooms  the  memory  of  the  power  and  charm  of 
Charles  Eliot  and  Olmsted  the  elder. 

Adjoining  the  Beecher  farm  is  "  Coldbrooke, "  the  estate 
of  Captain  John  S.  Barnes,  who  has  an  unusual  collection 
of  war- relics  of  1812.  Coldbrooke  is  the  summer  home  of 
James  Barnes  the  author. 

The  early  estate  of  Mrs.  Dorr,  a  sister  of  Samuel  Gray 
Ward,  is  now  part  of  "  Blantyre,"  the  present  estate  of  Rob- 
ert W.  Paterson,  Esq.  His  collection  of  paintings  includes 
the  signatures  of  Meissonier,  Romney,  Bridgman,  Henner, 
and  Lembach.  The  furniture  is  modelled  after  Hatfield 
House,  and  includes  pieces  from  the  Marquand  collection. 
The  old  Albany  post-road  used  to  run  through  the  Paterson 
and  Barnes  places. 

The  EHzabethan  villa  built  by  George  H.  ]\Iorgan,  Esq.,  on 
the  old   Ogden   Hagerty    estate  and   designed  by  Arthur 

1  Lenox  Academy,  founded  in  1803,  had  many  distinguished  associ- 
ates: Matthew  Buckham,  President  of  Vermont  University,  Levi  Gle- 
zen  and  Professor  H.  H.  Ballard,  now  of  the  Pittsfield  Athenaeum,  who 
founded  the  Agassiz  Association  in  connection  with  the  Lenox  High 
School.  Among  the  pupils  of  Lenox  Academy  were  Mark  Hopkins, 
Governor  Yancy  of  South  Carolina,  the  Hon.  David  Davis,  and  Anson 
Jones,  president  of  Texas. 


"^ 


■^j 


On 


I 


^ 


On 


290    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Rotch,  well  becomes  its  setting  of  magnificent  old  pines. 
Mrs.  Hagerty  held  the  earliest  salon  in  Lenox,  and  among 
other  interesting  events  Christine  Nilsson  sang  in  her  draw- 
ing-room. Miss  Hagerty  became  the  wife  of  the  gallant 
Robert  Gould  Shaw. 

The  foundation  of  the  Parish  of  Trinity  Church  was  begun 
as  early  as  1771:  its  fine  group  of  buildings  of  Berkshire 
limestone  are  largely  memorials.  The  parish  house  is  a 
gift  of  the  Hon.  John  E.  Parsons,  the  chimes,  of  George 
H.  Morgan,  Esq.,  the  chancel,  of  the  Kneeland  family, 
the  campanile  tower  of  Mrs.  R.  T.  Auchmuty  and  F.  Au- 
gustus Schemerhorn.  Tablets  have  been  placed  to  Chester 
Alan  Arthur,  twenty-first  President  of  the  United  States, 
Major- General  Paterson,  Debby  Hewes  Quincy,  Wm.  El- 
lery  Sedgwick,  Richard  Goodman,  Mrs.  John  E.  Parsons, 
Miss  Sarah  Schermerhorn. 

"  Sunny  ridge, "  the  old  Brevoort  place,  is  the  house  of 
George  Winthrop  Folsom,  Esq. 

Between  the  Lanier  and  Goodman  estates  is  that  of 
Cortlandt  Field  Bishop,  Esq.,  the  president  of  the  Aero 
Club  of  America,  one  of  the  new  marvels  applying  science 
to  sport,  combined  with  valuable  explorations  of  earth 
and  air;  the  earliest  ascensions  were  made  in  Pittsfield. 

Through  the  pines  of  Lover's  Lane  one  may  enter 
'*  Wheatleigh, "  overlooking  Lily  Pond,  the  estate  of  Henry 
H.  Cook,  Esq.i 

This  was  the  farm  of  a  determined  loyalist,  Gideon  Smith, 
an  early  settler  of  Stockbridge,  when  Captain  Biddle 
led  out  the  Lenox  Minute-men  after  Lexington.  He  was 
a  special  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  patriots,  who  had  many 
Tories  to  deal  with,  and  lay  concealed  in  his  own  house 
for  weeks.     It  is  said  he  required  his  children  to  pass  before 


1  A  capital  history  of  this    country   in  detail  is  Lenox  and  the  Berk- 
shire Highlands,  by  Rev.  R.  De  Witt  Mallary. 


Tory  Glen  on  October  Mountain  291 

a  certain  crevice  every  clay,  that  he  might  see  that  they 
were  safe  and  well.  Discovered  in  harboring  a  British  pris- 
oner-of-war, he  fled  to  Tory  Glen,  a  wild  gorge  on  Octo- 
ber ]\Iountain.      Indian  friends  protected  him  from  the  vigi- 


"  Shadows    of    the    silver    birch,"    " Stotiovcr," 
at  the  Lenox  Estate  of  Hon.  John  E.  Parsoiis. 

lance  committee,  and   brought  food   to   his  rocky  cavern, 
over  which  dashed  Roaring  Brook. 

An  enchanting  road  to  Tory  Glen  winds  through  New 
Lenox  of  rich  farm  lands  past  the  Gothic  St.  Helena 
Chapel,  set  in  this  lovely  spot  at  the  foot  of  Washington 
Mountain  by  the  Hon.  John  E.  Parsons  in  memory  of  his 
daughter.     One  lingers  beneath  the  grateful  shade  of  road- 


292     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

side  elms  to  drink  in  the  glorious  outline  of  the  Saddle  of 
noble  Greylock,  across  checkered  fields  of  waving  grain. 

Berkshire  is  famous  for  its  rural  festivals;  the  Ice- Glen 
Procession  at  Stockbridge  and  the  Tub  Parade  at  Lenox 
may  claim  first  place  in  point  of  seniority  over  our  American 
rural  pageants,  says  Mrs.  Burton  Harrison. 

The  Gymkhana  of  1904,  arranged  by  the  Berkshire 
Hunt  and  held  on  the  green  arena  of  "Tanglewood"  (the 
Tappan-Richard  E.  Dixey  estate),  was  an  international 
play-day  at  Lenox.  Among  those  participating  in  the 
brilliant  games  on  horseback  were  Sir  Mortimer  Durand, 
members  of  his  suite,  and  Baron  von  dem  Bussche. 

The  gay  Tub  Parade  has  been  displaced  by  the  run  of  the 
Berkshire  Hunt,  and  the  horse-show  at  '' Highlawn  Farm." 
When  the  first  frost  sets  the  blood  racing,  and  the  fox-hounds 
and  pink  coats  are  out,  snatches  of  an  old  hunting  ballad 
on  the  Greenwood  dance  in  the  brain,  as  sung  at  West  Riding 
in  Yorkshire : 

"  '  Let  ' s  go  to  the  greenwood,'  said  Robin  a  Bobbin, 

'Let  '5  go  to  the  greenwood,'  said  Richard  a  Robin  .   .    ." 

The  refrain  runs  thus  in  Derbyshire: 

*'  'Let  's  go  a-hnnting,'  says  Robin  to  Bobbin, 

*  Let  's  go  a-hnnting, '  says  Richard  to  Robin, 

*  Let  's  go  a-hunting,'  says  Little  John-, 
'Let  '5  go  a-hunting,'  says  everyone 


PITTSFIELD  (PONTOOSUCK),  1752 

''How  I  sometimes  long  for  a  sight  of  Saddle-m-ountaifi  '  but  theii  I  would 
have  to  go  down  to  our  old  Place,  and  I  could  not  inake  up  my  tnind  to  do 
it.  I  should  {want  to)  cry  so  as  to  make  Sackett's  Brook  run  over  its  banks 
and  tJiere  would  be  danger  of  a  freshet  in  the  Housatoriic.  " — Dr.  Holmes 
in  Boston  to  Mrs.  Kellogg,  Pittsfield. 

The  boundary  line  between  New  York  State  and  Berk- 
shire, our  western  border-land,  rests  on  the  summits  of  the 
Taconics  for  fifty-one  mnles;  Berkshire's  bounds  north  and 
east  touch  here  and  there  the  ragged  Hoosacs,  whilst  Pitts- 
field,  the  county-seat,  is  seated,  in  high  state  between,  one 
thousand  and  thirteen  feet  above  tide- water — commanding 
a  marvellous  perspective  of  a  thousand  hills.  Six  lakes 
smile  in  the  arena  of  this  splendid  mountain  amphitheatre, 
and  two  little  rivers  join  forces  in  the  centre  of  the  city,, 
flowing  to  the  sea  as  the  powerful  Housatonic. 

The  discriminating  eye  of  Colonel  Stoddard  in  his  diplo- 
matic journeys  to  Albany  and  Sheffield  saw  the  luxuriant 
Pontoosuc  meadows  and  fine  water  privilege  of  the  upper 
Housatonic;  therefore  he  chose  six  miles  square  of  these 
ancient  hunting-grounds  of  the  Mohicans  and  Schaghti- 
cokes  as  the  patent  which  he  received  as  a  grant  from  the 
province,  in  return  for  his  "great  services  and  sufferings 
on  divers  journeys  to  Canada  and  Albany,"  and  his  enter- 
tainment of  the  Indians  at  his  own  house. 

There  was  difficulty  in  settlement  with  Indian  claimants 
and  others,  and  finally,  by  purchases  and  amicable  exchange 
of  deeds,  Colonel  Stoddard  and  two  other  distinguished 
men  held  equal  divisions  of  the  region  extending  from  a 
point  at  sixteen  miles  north  of  Captain  Konkapot's  house 
in  Stockbridge.     The  others   were  kinsmen :  one,   Colonel 

293 


294    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Jacob  AA^endell,  a  rich  Boston  merchant,  born  in  Albany 
and  of  Dutch  descent,  the  ancestor  of  Wendell  Phillips 
and  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes;  the  other,  Philip  Livingston, 
Lord  of  Livingston  Manor,  the  father  of  Philip  the  Signer. 
Dr.  Holmes  wrote  Mr.  Holker  Abbott:  ''All  of  the  present 
town  of  Pittsfield  except  looo  acres  was  the  property  of  my 
great-grandfather,  whose  deed  used  to  hang  in  the  entry 
of  my  house.  It  was  dated  1738."  A  deed  in  which  the 
land  is  *'farm-letten"  to  Colonel  Stoddard  reveals  a  curious 
mixture  of  Dutch  and  Mohican  names,  and  confirms  the 
fact  of  their  immigration  from  the  Hudson  "  over  the  moun- 
tain" into  the  Housatonic  Valley. 

"  To  all  People  to  whom  these  shall  come.  Greeting:  Know 
Ye,  That  We,  Jacobus  Coh-qua-he-ga-meek,  Mateakim, 
and  Wampenum,  formerly  of  Menanoke,  or  the  island  in 
the  Hudson  below  Albany,  now  planters  in  the  Indian 
tovrn  [Stockbridge]  on  Housatonic  River,  have  de- 
mised, granted  and  to-farm-letten,  and  by  these  presents 
do  farm-let  unto  John  Stoddard  .  .  .  land  of  six 
miles  square  lying  .  .  .  about  sixteen  miles  north- 
ward of  the  place  where  Concupot  [Konkapot]  now  dwells^ 
and  at  the  place  where  Unkamet's  Road,  so-called,  that 
leads  from  Albany  to  Northampton  crosseth  said  branch 
of  the  Houseaatunnick  .  .  .  executed  in  the  eleventh 
year  of  our  sovereign  Lord,  King  George  the  II.,  and 
Anno  Domini  1737,  ...  in  presence  of  Timothv 
Woodbridge,"  etc' 

The  Unkamet  road  was  the  lone  trail  from  Northampton 
trodden  out  a  bit  by  the  pack-horses  of  soldiers  and 
surveyors.  Unkamet  was  the  sobriquet  of  a  J^Iohican 
guide,  who  used  to  point  out  the  Old  Path-over-Yonder,  that 
is,    Unkamet.       Pittsfield   keeps   the   name   still   in   street, 

1  "  Preserved  in  the  collection  ot  the  Hon.  Thos.  Colt. "  Smith's 
History  of  Pittsfield. 


Sentinel  Poplars  on  Pittspcld's  "  old  road  to  Lenox 

to  these  in  all  Berkshire. 


There  are  }ione  equal 


205 


296     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

meadow,  and  brook,  and  an  important  house  (Fort  Anson 
remodelled)  at  Unkamet  Crossing  in  1761  was  that  of  Lieu- 
tenant Graves,  where  the  county  courts  held  quarterly 
terms. 

A  few  years  pass  and  the  pioneer  ventures  over  the 
Hoosacs,  hewing  the  way  for  his  ox-team.  What  huge 
problems  confronted  courageous  Berkshire  pioneers!  Glance 
on  the  map,  at  the  contrasting  halves  of  the  Old  Bay  State: 
a  comparatively  smooth  surface  on  the  east,  and  the  west's 
curling  waves  of  brown,  spilling  over  a  bit  into  Vermont 
and  New  York,  retreating  down  the  Housatonic  toward 
New  Alilford,  Conn. ;  marvel  once  again  at  the  sand  of  the 
English  race  who  chose  to  defy  such  obstacles  for  the  love 
of  land.  How  tenacious  a  love  is  this  which  impels  him 
to  scale  these  stiff  passes  with  a  household  wagon,  plant 
his  field  of  corn  and  potatoes,  and  pasture  a  lonely  cow 
or  sheep  on  the  heights.  If  you  have  been  rolled  about 
in  the  comfortable  Deerfield  stage  of  the  old  days  across 
grim  and  glorious  Hoosac's  ledge — Hoosac  to  the  Indians 
w^as  the  Forbidden  Moimiain — or  climbed  a  thousand  feet 
or  more  from  the  valley  and  come  upon  the  little  village 
clustered  about  Florida  church,  snow-bound  above  that 
"tenth  wonder" — Hoosac  TunneU  (projected  by  Colonel 
Loammi  Baldwin  when  the  canal  was  found  impossible) ; 
if  you  have  listened  to  the  snorting  of  the  Albany  engine 
east  of  Pittsfield  as  it  strains  every  muscle  to  carry  you 
over  Washington  Mountain  on  Unkamet's  Path,  the  old 
trail  east;  if  you  have  driven,  or  rather  slid,  down  the 
precipitous  three  miles  on  table  rocks  into  forest-lined, 
enchanting  Tyringham  Valley  from  Monterey's  sunny  pla- 
teau, your  horse  on  his  haunches  most  of  the  time,  and 
your  heart  in  your  mouth — you  can  partially  appreciate 

'  Hoosac  Tunnel  next  to  that  under  Mont  Cenis  is  the  largest  tunnel  in 
the  world,  being  very  nearly  five  miles  long  and  twenty-six  feet  wide. 


Outlook  from  Washington  Mountain         297 


L/iY'ot  y>h>ison 

God's  Acre,  a  family  burial-ground  among  the  Green  Mountains  near  the 
birthplace  of  Charles  Dudley  Warner;  the  lad  is  reading  inscriptions  to 
those  killed  in  a  struggle  with  the  Indians. 

the  problem  of  the  rude  forties.  An  Irishman  at  first  sight 
of  the  hills,  so  luxuriant  in  Berkshire,  exclaimed,  "Bedad! 
the  land  is  so  plenty  they  had  to  sthack  it  !  " 

On  AVashington  Mountain,  1  there  is  a  veritable  banquet 
of  the  giants,  one  outlook  in  which  every  glimpse  of  the 


1  Washington  ]\Iountain,  to  whose  fastnesses  fled  the  defeated  insur- 
gents of  Shays's  Rebellion,  was  of  old  called  most  appropriately  "Rock 
Mountain,  "  being  of  adamantine  quartzite,  quarried  for  flagstone.  It 
is  defiant  to  the  chisel,  and  the  ancient  stones  in  "Pilgrim's  Rest,  "Pitts- 
field,  are  as  if  cut  yesterday.  In  Cheshire,  and  Lanesboro,  along  the 
Hoosac  range,  the  valuable  bed  of  quartzite  furnished  silicious  material 
for  the  once-famous  glass-works  at  Lenox  Furnace  and  those  near  Chesh- 
ire and  Lanesboro.  Washington  Center  is  the  birthplace  of  former 
Governor  Edwin  D.  Morgan  of  Xew  York. 


298     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

valley  is  cut  off:  "On  the  north  and  on  the  south  .  .  . 
extended  the  long,  rolling,  billowy  swells  of  the  Hoosacs. 
On  the  west,  the  ever  beautiful  Taconics;  and  looming 
far  beyond  them  the  shadowy  Catskills,  looking  like  huge 
ghosts  of  perished  mountains." 

"Among  those  misty  hills,"  said  Eustace  Bright  as  he 
pointed  out  the  Catskills  to  the  children  on  Bald-Summit, 
"was  a  spot  where  some  Dutchmen  were  playing  an  ever- 
lasting game  of  ninepins,  and  where  an  idle  fellow,  whose 
name  was  Rip  Van  Winkle,  had  fallen  asleep,  and  slept 
twenty  years  at  a  stretch."  The  children  eagerly  besought 
Eustace  to  tell  them  all  about  this  wonderful  affair.  But 
the  student  replied  that  the  story  had  been  told  once  al- 
ready, and  better  than  it  CA^er  could  be  told  again. 

Pittsfield's  first  settler,  Solomon  Deming,  came  over  the 
hills  from  Wethersfield  with  his  wife  on  a  pillion.  Others 
came  from  AVestfield,  driving  their  cattle  before  them,  as 
did  Thomas  Hooker  from  Cambridge  to  Hartford.  Na- 
thaniel Fairfield  was  obliged  to  lie  in  a  hollow  log  for  three 
days  with  savages  about,  whilst  his  companion  Dan  Cad- 
well  returned  to  Westfield  for  provisions.  After  making 
a  clearing  in  Pittsfield  near  Captain  Bush,  and  building  a 
log  hut,  he  returned  for  his  bride;  it  was  a  somewhat  intri- 
cate and  dangerous  wedding  journey  through  beautiful 
green  woods,  yet  these  made  merry  over  the  passing  of 
each  blazed  tree — the  guide-board  at  the  thousand  cross- 
ways  of  the  forest — which  set  them  on  the  right  track. 

Bancroft  describes  Hooker's  journey  as  "a  wearisome 
way,"  but  a  New  England  journey  in  June  has  compen- 
sations.    Richard  Burton  writes: 

''Now  say, 
What  month  is  more  beauteous  in  beauties,   in  balms, 
In  lyrics,  in  psalms, 


Pittsfield's  First  Settlers  299 

In  gold-heart  fair  fancies  of  sunset,  and  calms 
Of  twilight,   or  after-glows  wondrously  clear  f  " 

Charles  Goodrich — who  later  owned  some  6000  acres  in 
Hancock,  and  other  outlying  towns,  including  the  mineral 
springs  of  Lebanon,  N.  Y. — hewed  a  way  for  his  cart  and 
pair,  the  first  in  Pittsfield;  at  night,  for  fear  of  wild  beasts, 
he  tied  his  horses  to  a  tree  and  stood  guard  all  night  munch- 
ing apples  to  keep  awake.  Often  the  wolves  drove  the 
sheep  "clean  up"  to  the  stoop,  and  then  it  was  discovered 
that  Mrs.  Judith  Fairfield  and  Mrs.  Seth  Janes  and  other 
pioneer  wives  w^ere  excellent  shots. 

Wendell  Square  was  the  point  selected  to  make  a  centre 
by  four  men,  Charles  Goodrich,  Eli  Root,  Elisha  Jones,  and 
Colonel  William  Williams,  who  agreed  to  build  houses 
where  their  settling  lots  joined,  but  the  ledges  of  rock 
prevented  sinking  wells.  Colonel  Williams  built  the  "Long 
House"  in  Honasada  Street,  and  into  the  "long  room" 
guests  were  ushered  through  doors  of  twenty-six  panels 
each,  by  a  colored  servant — very  grand  state  for  those  days. 

The  first  road  in  Pittsfield  was  "chopped"  through  native 
forests  from  Park  Square  to  the  present  House  of  Mercy 
HospitaP  and  thence  through  Waconah  Street  over  the  old 
highway  to  Hancock.  The  first  town  meeting  was  held 
in  1 76 1  at  Deacon  Stephen  Crofoot's  on  Elm  Street:  the  se- 
lectmen elected  were  David  Bush,  William  Williams, 
Josiah  AVright;  constable,  Jacob  Ensign;  wardens,  Solomon 
Deming  and  David  Noble;  fence- viewers,  William  Francis, 
Nath'l  Fairfield;  deer-reeves,^  John  Remington  and  Reuben 
Gunn. 


1  The  House  of  Mercy  Hospital,  which  stands  near  the  cross-roads  to 
Dalton  and  Lanesboro,  has  grown  from  a  single  cottage  opened  some 
thirty-three  years  ago  by  a  charity  bazaar,  into  its  present  splendid 
equipment.  It  was  established  and  has  been  conducted  entirely  by 
women. 

2  Smith,  the  historian,  says,  in  1867,  that  the  last  deer  known  in  Pitts- 


A  "  Wine-Glass  "  Elm. 

Savage  Mt.  {in  the  foreground)  and  Greylock.      The  pasture  is  near  the  once 

famous  Berkshire  Glass-works  at  Lanesboro. 


300 


''Fighting  Parson"  Allen 


;oi 


As  the  Revolution  approached,  patriotic  feeling  ran  high 
Pittsfield.     The    Rev.    Thomas    Allen,    the    ''Fighting 

Parson"  who  serv^ed  as  a  private 
under  Stark  at  Bennington,  and 
whose  Diary  tells  us  the  story 
of  White  Plains  and  other  events, 
writes  in  1775  to  General  Seth 
Pomeroy:  "Our  militia  this  way, 
sir,  are  vigorously  preparing  .  .  . 
the  spirit  of  Liberty  runs  high  at 
Albany  ...  I  have  exerted  my- 
self to  spread  the  same  spirit  in 
the  King's  District  which  has,  of 
late,  taken  surprising  effect.  The 
poor  Tories  at  Kinderhook  are 
mortified  and  grieved,  are  wheel- 
ing about,  and  begin  to  take 
quick- step." 


m 

DRIVES  :  North  Adams— 20  miles; 
Adams,  by  Cheshire — 15;  Becket — 
16:  BarkerviUe — 3;  Balance  Rock — 
5;  Coltsville — 3;  Cheshire — 10,  Dal- 
ton,  Village — 5I ;  Dalton,  Carsons' 
• — 4\;  Greylock  Mountain — 16;  Han- 
cock— S;  Hinsdale — S,  Hinsdale, 
by  back  road — 12;  Lanesborough — • 
5:  Lenox — 6;  Lake  Pontoosuc— 2j ; 
Lake  Onota — 2;  Lake  Ashley — 7; 
Lebanon  Spring — 7,  Lebanon  Sha- 
kers— S;  Lulu  Cascade — 5;  New 
Lenox — 4;  New  Ashford— //;  Peru 
— 12;  Queechy  Lake — //;  Rich- 
mond— S;  Roaring  Brook — 5;  Savoy 
—17;  The  Gulf  and  Wizard's  Glen 
— 4;  Washington — g;  Weststreet, 
Stearnsville  and  return — 5;  West 
Stockbridge  by  Barkerville  and 
Richmond — //;  Washington  east 
to  Station,  return  by  Ashley  Lake — 
22;  Windsor — 12;  Waconah  Falls 
— S; 

The  drives  and  walks  about 
Pittsfield  in  detail  have  been  pub- 
lished by  the  Berkshire  Life  In- 
surance Company.  Also  a  map  of 
Berkshire  County,  which  can  be  had 
free  on  application.  Many  Berk- 
shire points  may  be  reached  by 
electric  cars  and  a  short  walk  ad- 
ditional. These  cars  now  extend 
from  Pittsfield  and  Williamstown 
to  Great  Barrington,  also  to  Ben- 
nington, Vt.,  and  will  shortly 
reach  Canaan,  Conn. 


Two  leading  men  charged 
with  disaffection  in  1774,  Wood- 
bridge  Little,  Esq.,  and  Ma- 
jor Israel  Stoddard,  and  other 
Tories  were  obliged  to  prepare 
hiding-places:  the  former  in 
his  old-fashioned  spacious  chimney,  and  another  in  the  Dia- 
mond cave  at  the  base  of  the  Taconics.  After  Lexington, 
Little  and  Stoddard  fled,  and  an  advertisement  was  in- 
serted in  the  Hartford  Courant  addressed  to  the  friends 
of  liberty  (by  the  Committee  of  Inspection  of  Pittsfield, 
Richmond,  and  Lenox,  signed  John  Brown),   asking  them 


iield  were  seen  in  1780,  when  the  snow-dritts  were  so  high  that  the  hunters 
killed  them  without  possibility  of  escape  from  the  yards  the  deer  had 
beat  out  for  themselves;  there  was  a  great  need  of  buckskins  that  year 
for  the  military.    Deer  are  frequently  seen  in  New  England  of  late  years. 


302    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

to  take  into  custody  these  incurable  enemies,  and  clap  them 
into  His  Majesty's  jails  until  the  war  be  ended.  These 
very  men,  however,  soon  pledged  allegiance  and  served  as 
privates  in  Lieutenant  Hubbard's  detachment  at  Bennington. 

Captain  David  Noble  fitted  out  his  company  of  minute- 
men  by  sacrificing  se\^eral  of  his  farms,  and  with  the  gold 
— which  was  quilted  into  his  garments — proceeded  to 
Philadelphia  to  obtain  the  blue  and  w^hite  for  the  ''regi- 
mentals," and  engaged  a  breeches-maker  to  come  to  Pitts- 
field  and  make  up  the  buckskins.  And  there  were  spinning 
matches  and  clothing  bees  for  the  army  by  the  daughters 
of  Pittsfield. 

Pittsfield  was  closely  in  touch  wdth  the  capture  of  Ticon- 
deroga,  a  consultation  being  held  by  Captain  Edw^ard  Mott 
and  others  of  Connecticut  with  John  Brown  ^  and  Colonel 
James  Easton  on  the  proposed  action,  at  the  tavern  of 
Colonel  Easton,  which  stood  south  of  Park  Square.  Captain 
Mott  and  Colonel  James  Easton  took  the  road  over  the 
mountains  through  Hancock  and  Williamstown  to  meet 
Colonel  Ethan  Allen,  the  commander  of  the  expedition,  and 
his  Green  Mountain  Boys,  picking  up  volunteers  on  the 
way.  Major  John  Brow^n  w-as  appointed  to  announce  the 
surrender  of  Ticonderoga  of  May  loth,  1775,  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  and  Colonel  James  Easton  to  the  Pro- 
vincial Congress. 

Stark's^   messenger  from  headquarters,    w^ith   the    news 

1  Early  in  '"75,"  John  Brown,  on  a  mission  to  Canada  for  the  Provincial 
Congress,  met  Ethan  Allen  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Champlain,  it  is  believed 
by  chance,  which  resulted  in  an  important  close  to  John  Brown's  report 
to  Warren  and  Adams.  "One  thing  I  must  mention  as  a  professed 
secret:  The  Fort  at  Ticonderoga  must  be  seized  as  soon  as  possible,  should 
hostilities  be  committed  by  the  King's  troops  !  The  people  on  New 
Hampshire  Grants  have  engaged  to  do  this  business,"  etc. 

1  The  hero  of  Bennington,  General  John  Stark,  had  an  eventful  and 
romantic  history.     He  was  at  one  time  taken  prisoner  by  St.  Francis 


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"^-^l 

304    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

that  Colonel  Baum,  by  General  Burgoyne's  order,  had  ad- 
vanced to  seize  Bennington's  fabled  supplies,  reached 
Pittsfield  on  Thursday,  August  14th,  and  the  patriots 
hastened  to  the  usual  rallying-place,  the  Meeting-house; 
a  company  under  Captain  William  Ford  \Yas  enrolled  and 
every  man  in  hot  haste  got  to  Bennington  as  best  he  could. 
With  him  sei*\xd  the  veteran  Colonel  Easton,  Rev.  Mr. 
Allen,  Captains  Goodrich,  James  Noble,  and  AYilliam  Francis, 
Lieutenant  Joseph  Allen  Wright,  and  Rufus  Allen.  Drs. 
Timothy  Childs  and  Jonathan  Lee  went  as  surgeons.  With 
Lieutenant  Hubbard  were  Captains  Israel  Dickinson,  John 
Strong,  and  Lieutenant  01i\'er  Root.  Colonel  Symonds, 
for  whom  Mount  Symonds  is  named,  marched  with  a  full 
regiment;  a  detachment  of  the  middle  district  was  com- 
manded with  spirit  and  skill  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  David 
Rossiter  of  Richmond. 

After  a  powerful  address.  Parson  Allen  started  out  for 
the  field  of  action  in  his  sulky,  as  Mrs.  Plunkett  says,  "  wisely 
conserving  his  forces  for  combat";  the  sulky  was  "an 
important  adjunct  to  the  pastoral  work  of  a  minister  whose 
parish  was  six  miles  square." 

The  English  did  not  at  all  realize  the  concentrated  power 
of  the  farmers.  When  Colonel  Baum  first  saw,  at  the  rear 
of  his  camp,  small  bands  of  men  in  shirt-sleeves  carrying 
fowling-pieces  without  bayonets,  he  thought  them  to  be 
country  people  "placing  themselves  where  he  could  protect 
them,"  says  Bancroft;  it  was  the  yeomen  of  Vermont, 
w^estern  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire,  who  gradually 
hemmed  him  in  and  gained  the  victory.  Lafayette  said 
to  Napoleon,  who,  being  accustomed  to  sway  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  troops,'  spoke  slightingly  of  the  scanty  armies 

Indians  and  carried  over  several  portages  to  Alemphremagog,  and  at 
first  treated  with  great  severity ;  subsequently  he  was  adonted  by  the 
tribe  and  much  caressed.      He,  however,  escaped. 


Greylock  and  Legend  of  Pontoosuc       305 

of  tlie  American  Revolution,    "Sire,  it  was  the    grandest 
of  causes  won  by  skirmishes  of  sentinels  and  outposts." 

That  which  has  been  in  "Wendell's  Town"  shall  be,  in 
that  the  human  eye  ever  seeks  unconsciously  one  object  on 
the  north  horizon — the  serene  summit  of  Greylock.  At 
this  range  of  sixteen  miles,  peak  and  saddle  are  of  heaven's 
own  blue  unless  cloud-capped;  at  "Greylock's  nightcap" 
the  Vermont  farmer  shakes  his  head,  discovering  a  "weather 
breeder,"  and  fierce  becomes  the  rage  of  the  northern  gale 
when  concentrated  in  the  Hopper  and  savage  Notch  of 
Greylock.  Beneath  the  wild  storm  the  Indian  hears  the 
A'oice  of  the  Great  Spirit  speaking  in  anger  on  the  wings  of 
the  wmd,  as  it  roars  through  the  "Bellows  Pipe,"  smoth- 
ering the  more  gentle  voice  in  the  rushing  crystal  waters  of 
Money  Brook. 

Where  did  King  Greylock  find  his  distinctive  name? 
Was  it  acquired  from  the  crafty  Warranoke  chief  of  the 
Gray  Lock,  who  dwelt  aforetime  on  the  Agawam,  near 
AVestfield?  Gray  Lock  took  sides  Avith  the  French  and  was 
as  great  a  pest  to  this  English  countryside  as  the  chimasra 
in  the  dark  ages.  Many  like  to  attribute  the  name  of 
Greylock,  our  tallest  citizen  of  the  Pilgrim  Commonwealth, 
to  his  appearance  when  the  hoar  frost  of  the  aging  year 
creeps  downward,  touching  each  patriarchal  cedar  and 
the  melancholy  dark  sweep  of  hemlock  with  silver  gray. 

The  Saddle  of  Greylock  Group,  formed  by  Mts.  Williams 
and  Prospect,  is  seen  in  perfection  from  Pittsfield's  own 
South  Mountain  across  the  meadows  and  lake  of  the  historic 
Van  Schaack  mansion-house,  now  the  Pittsfield  Country 
Club. 

Again  is  Greylock  enchanting  with  green  Constitution 
Hill  in  Lanesboro  as  a  foreground,  from  the  waters 
of  Shoon-keek-moon-keek  (Pontoosuc)  Lake  at  twilight, 
haunted  by  the  shadowy  boatman  and  mysterious  voices. 


J 


06    Old  Paths  of  the  New  Eneland  Border 


fe 


Swept  along  in  the  moonlight  you  may  perhaps  see  a  misty 
canoe  or  hear  the  plaintive  death-song  of  ]\Ioon-keek,  the 
Indian  maid  deprived  of  her  devoted  one,  Shoon-keek,  by 
the  arrow  of  the  jealous  Nockawando. 

"  But  oft  from  the  Indian  hunter  s  camp 
This  lover  and  maid  so  true 
Are  seen,  the  hour  of  m-idnight  damp, 
To  cross  the  lake  by  a  firefly  lamp, 
And  paddle  their  white  canoe.''  ^ 

Easy  and  of  a  delightful  winding  ascent  is  South  Moun- 
tain, by  some  believed  to  be  the  '*  Elsie  Venner  mountain," 
for  rumor  has  said  that  the  charmer  of  rattlesnakes  lived 
near  South  Mountain  on  the  old  Britton  place,  a  house 
haunted  at  midnight  by  ghostly  visitors.  The  key-note  for 
the  romance  of  Elsie  Venner  was  given  to  Holmes  by  Pro- 
fessor Alonzo  Clark  when  at  Williams  College.  "  H  e  it  was, " 
said  Dr.  Holmes,  **  who  told  me  of  the  woman  bringing  the 
rattlers  to  him  in  her  apron,  which  story  you  find  trans- 
ferred to  my  true  narrative." 

On  your  road  to  view  Greylock  from  beautiful  Lake 
Onota,  you  climb  Jubilee  Hill  and  ride  past  the  Dr.  Timothy 
Child s  homestead,  and  the  Governor  George  N.  Briggs 
place.  Our  old  friend  Godfrc}^  Greylock  2  invites  us  to  his 
favorite  elevation,  on  Onota's  southwest  shore,  the  site  of 
the  old  French  and  Indian  fort.  Here  one  may  drink  in 
the  mountain  vistas  across  the  mirror  lake  whilst  he  relates 
the  legend  of  the  White  Deer  with  hoofs  so  dainty  as  to 
scarce  disturb  the  masses  of  blue  gentian  and  the  stately 
cardinal  flower  when  she  returned  at  intervals  to  drink 
at  her  clear  Fountain  of  Pirene.  One  of  the  dwellers  on 
the  shore  told  his  grandchildren  that  he  once  saw  a  fine 

1  Moore's  ballad  of  "  The  Lake  of  the  Dismal  Swamp." 

2  Taghonic,  The  Romance  and  Beauty  of  the  Hills,  by  Godfrey  Greylock 
(J.  E.  A.  Smith). 


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The  White  Deer  of  Onota  Lake  307 

white  deer  stooping  to  drink,  but  before  he  could  pull  the 
trigger  of  his  rifle  his  dog  howled  and  the  deer  faded  away. 

Then  he  remembered  the  Mohicans'  tale  of  the  deer  of 
spotless  white  who  came  with  the  opening  of  the  cherry 
blossoms  to  drink  at  Onota.  At  this  gentle  creature  no 
arrow  was  ever  pointed,  for  she  brought  good  fortune. 
"So  long  as  the  snow-white  doe  comes  to  drink  at  Onota, 
so  long  famine  shall  not  blight  the  Indians'  harvest,  nor 
pestilence  come  nigh,  nor  foeman  lay  waste  his  country." 

When  war  broke  out,  the  French  sent  an  ambassador 
to  induce  the  Housatonic  tribe  to  become  their  allies.  He 
was  welcomed  to  their  council  fire  and  heard  the  tale  of 
the  marvellous  white  deer.  Ambitious,  like  the  other 
adventurers  in  the  new  West,  it  was  his  passion  to  carry 
home  some  unique  trophy  of  the  forests:  if  he  could  but 
lay  the  skin  of  the  white  deer  at  the  feet  of  his  sovereign 
he  would  receive  favor.  Montalbert's  proffered  rewards 
to  the  red  hunter  who  should  bring  home  the  skin  of  their 
sacred  deer  were  scorned  in  horror.  But  he  so  debased 
the  warrior  Wondo  with  fire-water  that  he  slew  the  gentle 
animal.  Immediately  that  the  prize  was  Montalbert's  he 
set  out  for  Montreal  but  never  reached  the  French  border 
alive.  Then  the  frightened  Indians  sent  up  prayers  to 
Manito  to  arrest  punishment,  but  prosperity  returned  not, 
and  the  red  men  became  less  in  the  valley. 

Hawthorne  once  wished  for  a  winged  horse  that  he  might 
take  a  gallop  from  Lenox  to  see  his  neighbor-authors:  he 
would  begin  with  Dr.  Dewey  at  the  foot  of  the  Taconics, 
and  finally  alight  on  the  hither  side  of  Pittsfield,  where  sits 
Herman  Melville  at  Arrow-Head,  "shaping  out  the  gigantic 
conception  of  the  \Vhite  Whale,  while  the  gigantic  shape 
of  Greylock  looms  upon  him  from  his  study- window."  An- 
other bound  of  his  flying  steed  would  bring  him  to  the  door 
of    Holmes,    "whom  I  mention    last,"  he   savs,   "because 


3o8    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Pegasus  would  certainly  unseat  me  the  next  minute,  and 
claim  the  poet  as  his  rider." 

The  Hawthorne  children's  pet  name  for  Herman  Melville 
was  Onioo,  meaning  a  rover,  in  the  dialect  of  the  Marquesas 
Islands  and  the  title  of  one  of  his  popular  books  of  adA^en- 
ture  in  the  South  Seas,  to  which  Melville  shipped  as  a  cabin- 
boy.  Melville  is  associated  less  with  Greylock  than  with  his 
charming  companion  in  philosophy  —  October  Mountain, 
which  seems  to  stretch  out  an  affectionate  arm  toward  his 
Piazza  of  The  Piazza  Tales.  Melville's  grandfather — the 
patriot  Major  Thomas  Melvill  of  Green  Street,  Boston — was 
"the  last  of  the  cocked  hats"  of  the  Revolution  and  to  the 
youthful  eye  of  Holmes  in  1831  his  appearance  had  some- 
thing imposing  and  odd  about  it. 

''  Xot  a  better  man  was  found 
By  the  Crier  on  his  round. 

But  the  old  three-cornered  hat, 
And  the  breeches,  and  all  that, 
Are  so  queer!'' 

Dr.  Holmes  wrote  the  poem  of  The  Last  Leaf  with  a  smile 
on  his  lips  and  a  tear  in  his  eye  and  said,  "  I  cannot  read  it 
without  a  sigh  of  tender  remembrance."  ^ 

On  Major  Meh'ill's  return  from  the  Tea-Party  held  off 
Griffin's  AVharf  that  wintry  afternoon,  in  '73, — when 
Ok-wooker-tunkogog,  pretender,  Sachem  of  Narragansett 
and  seventy  of  his  tribe  emptied  342  chests  of  tea  in  Boston 
Harbor — Madam  Melvill  shook  out  some  tea  from  his  shoes, 
but  said  nothing  and  put  it  carefully  away  in  a  lavender 
drawer.      In  after  years,  she  was  obliged  to  seal   it   against 

1  Dr.  Holmes  wrote  in  an  Introduction  to  a  later  edition:  "Good 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  a  .ereat  liking  for  the  poem,  and  repeated  it  from 
memory  to  Governor  Andrew,  and  the  Governor  himself  told  me.  I  have 
a  copy  of  it  made  by  the  hand  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe." 


The  Melvilles  and  Elkanah  Watson 


;09 


relic  hunters.  One  of  the  family  well  remembers  the  stately 
Madam  Melvill  as  she  sat  very  straight  in  her  arm-chair  by 
the  window  and  her  work  on  the  table  in  front  of  her ;  she 
wore  knots  of  gauze  ribbon  under  her  ears  attached  to  both 
capstrings  and  ruffs,  in  such  a  way  that  she  could  not  move 
her  head.  Whenever  she  rose  to  leave  the  room,  the  courtly 
Major  or  one  of  his  sons  would  offer  her  his  arm  to  the  door, 
bowing  till  she  had  passed  out.  The  young  people  felt  in  the 


Mansion  House  built  by  Henry  Van  Schaack  ui  I/Sj;.  OriginaUy  lot  55 
assigned  to  one  of  the  joint  proprietors  of  Pittsfield  and  substantially 
intact  to-day.     Now  the  Country  Club. 

presence  of  Madam  Melvill  as  did  the  little  boy  of  Wethers- 
field,  who,  on  seeing  Mistress  Prudence  Stoddard  coming, 
said,  "Now  I  must  put  on  my  manners." 

Major  Melville,  Jr.,  who  came  to  Pittsfield  in  181 2  as  com- 
mandant of  the  military  post,  was  of  the  same  fine  old  school, 
his  courtliness  a  little  accentuated  by  his  twenty-one  years  in 
France;  he  lived  at  the  Van  Schaack  mansion,  now  the  home 
of  the  Country  Club,  and  was  President  of  the  Berkshire 
Agricultural    Society.     Elkanah   Watson,    Major   Melville's 


3IO    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

predecessor  in  the  Van  Schaack  mansion,  was  its  first  Presi- 
dent; he  exhibited  the  first  pair  of  Merino  sheep  seen  in 
Berkshire  under  the  lofty  elm  tree  on  the  public  square  of 
Pittsfield,  to  which  "novel  and  humble  exhibition,"  Mr. 
Watson  says,  ''many  farmers  and  even  females  were 
attracted";  the  first  Cattle  Show  was  held  not  long  after, 
and  the  Berkshire  Agricultural  Society  founded.  On  the 
Anniversary  of  1849,  Dr.  Holmes  was  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  ploughing  match  and  read  The  Ploughman — 

''The  lord  of  earth , 

The  hero  of  the  ploughs 

On  the  walls  of  the  white  panelled  hall  in  the  mansion 
built  by  Henry  Van  Schaack,  are  most  interesting  memen- 
toes. One  portrait  in  "  Broad  Hall,"  which  attracts  the 
eye,  is  explained  in  Dr.  Holmes's  inimitable  way  to  Judge 
Barker  of  Pittsfield. 

"My  Dear  Judge, — 

"I  understand  this  to  be  a  portrait  of  Jacob  Wendell, 
one  of  the  original  owners  of  Pittsfield.  The  portrait  was 
owned  by  Wendell  Phillips  and  I  believe  that  when  a  boy 
he  practised  at  it  with  bows  and  arrows,  and  damaged  one 

eye. 

"Sincerely  yours, 

"O.  W.  Holmes. 
"To  James  M.  Barker." 

Here  is  framed  a  portrait  of  Henry  Van  Schaack  ^  also 

1  Portrait  presented  by  Dr.  Henry  Colt.  An  extract  from  H.  Van 
Schaack's  letter:  "The  farm  I  live  on  I  bought  for  four  hundred  and 
seventy  pounds  York  Money,  .  .  .  with  a  tolerable  good  house, 
barn  and  a  young  orchard,  and  a  pleasant  lake  in  sight  of  me.  In  my 
life  I  never  lived  among  a  more  civil  and  obliging  people.  ...  A 
purse  of  gold  hung  up  in  the  public  streets  would  be  as  safe  from  our 
inhabitants  as  it  used  to  be  in  King  Alfred's  time.  Beggars  and  vagrants 
we  are  strangers  to,  as  well  as  to  over-bearing  purse-proud  scoundrels." 


Mrs.  Ouincy  Visits  the  Van  Schaacks       311 

his  encomium  on  the  charms  of  Pittsfield,  which  he  refused 
to  leave,  when  entreated  by  General  Schuyler  and  other 
patriots  to  return  to  Albany,  from  whence  as  a  neutral  he 
was  banished.  Henry  Van  Schaack  was  Postmaster  at  the 
time  of  the  furor  over  the  Stamp  Act,  and  falling  under 
suspicion  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  his  house  was  mobbed,  in 
spite  of  previous  services  of  the  Van  Schaacks  to  the  country. 
He  fought  as  Lieutenant  under  Captain  Philip  Schuyler  in 
the  Crown  Point  expedition,  and  was  one  who  went  to  the 
rescue  of  Colonel  Ephraim  Williams's  regiment. 

Henry  Van  Schaack  was  born  in  the  historic  mansion  at 
Kinderhook,  N.  Y.,  of  Colonel  Cornelius  Van  Schaack, 
spoken  of  by  John  Jay  as  "the  hospitable  house  on  the 
hill."  In  those  days  Kinderhook  was  a  most  important 
point  between  New  York  and  Berkshire,  by  the  usual 
route  of  the  Hudson.  Mrs.  Quincy,  the  wife  of  President 
Edward  Quincy  of  Harvard,  paid  a  visit  in  the  company  of 
the  wife  of  Brigadier-General  D wight  at  the  younger  Van 
Schaack  house  in  1774.  Madam  Dwight  describes  Mrs. 
Quincy — then  Miss  Morton — as  "a  very  young  lady  of 
high  spirit."  They  left  New  York  in  a  sloop  and  in  the 
course  of  a  week  arrived  at  Kinderhook's  Landing,  thence 
overland  to  Kinderhook,  spending  several  pleasant  davs 
at  the  Van  Schaack  house,  thence  on  to  Stockbridge.  "At 
Mr.  Sedgwick's  [in  1792],"  writes  Mrs.  Quincy,  "I  became 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Henry  Van  Schaack  of  Pittsfield  and 
visited  his  family  at  their  residence.  I  still  cherish  the  re- 
membrance of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Van  Schaack's  hospitable 
reception  of  me.  A  startling  feature  of  their  mansion  was 
the  exquisite  neatness  of  the  house  and  everything  about  it. 
I  had  never  seen  the  floors  of  entries,  stairs,  kitchen,  etc., 

Mr.  Van  Schaack's  farm  was  originally  lot  55,  assigned  to  Colonel  Elisha 
Jones  of  Westfield  and  the  only  lot  of  the  joint  proprietors  substantially 
intact  to-day.  Elisha  Jones,  Jr.,  was  a  Tory,  his  confiscated  lands  were 
sold  at  auction  to  Henry  Van  Schaack  in  1785. 


12     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

painted  and  although  brought  up  among  natives  of 
Holland,  who  are  proverbial  for  their  neatness,  this 
seemed  to  me  a  stroke  beyond  the  reach  of  [their]  art. 
Parts  of  the  house  were  covered  with  very  handsome  car- 
peting, manufactured,  as   I  understood,  by  the   Shakers."  ^ 


The  great  pine  still  stands  ''in  its  solitary 
beauty  and  grandeur  "  [see  letter  of  Dr.  Holmes] 
at     "  Canoe     Meadow  "    now  "  Holmesdale." 

The  Van  Schaack  mansion  with  the  charming  **  fish-pond  " 
passed  from  the  hands  of  the  Melvills  to  the  benevolent 
Mrs.  Sarah  Morewood  and  from  the  Morewoods  to  the 
Country  Club  of  Pittsfield  in  1900. 

i"An  Old  Kinderhook  Mansion,"  by  Henry  Cruger  Van  Schaack» 
American  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  ii. 


Dr.  Holmes'  Farm,  Canoe  Meadow        313 

As  you  walk  along  the  old  road  to  Lenox  you  will  mark  in 
a  wide  sweep  of  lawn  the  lone  and  superb  pine,  so  much  loved 
by  Dr.  Holmes.  "Canoe-Meadow"  was  a  carrying- place  of 
the  Indians,  and  held  everything  that  he  most  delighted  in. 
His  house  1  stood  on  the  soil  owned  by  his  great-grand- 
father Jacob  Wendell,  Colonel  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company.  Here  were  half  a  hundred  acres  of 
forest  trees,  some  of  them  probably  fiv^e  hundred  years  old ; 
above  their  foliage,  the  Berkshire  Hills  reared  their  heads, 
and  the  Housatonic  River  made  its  course  in  a  thousand 
fantastic  curves  though  the  meadows. 

Dr.  Holmes  entered  into  the  life  at  Pittsfield  with  great 
zest;  he  was  present  on  that  distinguished  occasion  in  1844,, 
when  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  spoke  the  words,  ''And  this  is  the 
Berkshire  Jubilee";  Mrs.  Sigourney  read  "The  Stockbridge 
Bowl,"  and  Mrs.  Kemble  and  Macready^  also  took  part,, 
beside  the  "Johnsonian  Dr.  Todd  of  Pittsfield,  orthodox 
minister  and  author,"  whom  Longfellow  in  Kavanagh  sends 
to  slay  the  deer.  Dr.  Holmes  read  the  lines  so  appropriate 
to  the  Old  Home  Week: 

''Come  hack  to  your  another,  ye  children,  for  shame, 
Who  have  wandered  like  truants  for  riches  or  fame!  " 

Then  come  from  all  parties  and  parts  to  one  feast, 
Though  not  at  the  '  Astor'  we  'II  give  you  at  least 
A  bite  at  an  apple,  a  seat  on  the  grass 
And  the  best  of  cold — water — at  nothing  a  glass.'' 

Dr.  Holmes  never  lost  interest  in  Pittsfield.     He  writes 

1  "  Holmesdale  "  is  now  the  estate  of  Mr.  William  Pollock.  Dr.  Holmes's, 
study  is  a  part  of  a  building  on  the  "Meadow  Farm,  "  of  the  late  Coloner 
Walter  Cutting,  a  comrade  of  General  Bartlett.  Not  far  distant  is  "Abbey- 
Lodge,"  once  owned  by  Colonel  Richard  Lathers  of  Xew  York. 

2  "The  Literary  Associations  of  Berkshire,"  by  James  Tucker  Cutler,. 
New  England  Magazine,  1893. 


314     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

to  Mrs.  Kellogg  of  East  Street,  with  whom  he  enjoyed  many 
a  spar  by  post:  "I,  and  we,  always  like  to  hear  about 
your  family,  .  .  .  the  Newtons  .  .  .  and  the  Pomeroys. 
We  depend  on  you  for  all  the  news  about  them.  .  .  .  "; 
again:  "  When  you  meet  any  one  you  think  remembers  me, 
tell  them  I  am  loyal  to  the  place  where  I  spent  seven 
blessed  summers  of  my  life,  and  that  the  very  stones  of  it 
are  precious  to  me." 

''Boston,  Jan.  i,  i88j. 

"A  Happy  New  Year,  my  dear  Mrs.  Kellogg,  and  as  many 
such  as  you  can  count  until  you  reach  a- hundred;  and  then 
begin  again,  if  you  like  the  planet  well  enough. 

"  But  how  good  you  are  to  send  me  all  those  excellent  and 
to  me  most  interesting  photographs  [of  Pittsfield].  I  de- 
lighted in  recalling  the  old  scenes  in  this  way;  changed  as 
they  are  I  yet  seem  to  be  carried  back  to  the  broad  street — 
East  Street — down  which  I — we  used  to  drive  on  our  way 
to  the  '  four  corners, '  and  '  Canoe  Meadow '  as  my  mother 
told  me  they  used  to  call  our  old  farm — I  wonder  that 
Pittsfield  is  not  a  City  by  this  tiine.  It  seems  almost  too 
bad  to  take  awa}'  the  charming  rural  characteristics  but 
such  a  beautiful,  healthful,  central  situation  could  not 
resist  its  destiny  and  you  must  have  a  Mayor,  I  suppose, 
by  and  by,  and  a  Common  Council,  and  a  lot  of  Aldermen. 
But  you  cannot  lose  the  sight  of  Greylock  or  turn  the  course 
of  the  Housatonic.  I  can  hardly  believe  that  it  is  almost 
thirty  years  since  I  bade  good-b3^e  to  the  old  place,  expect- 
ing to  return  the  next  season.  We  passed  through  the  gate 
under  the  maple  which  used  to  stand  there — and  is  prob- 
ably in  its  old  place — took  a  look  at  the  house  and  the 
great  pine  that  stood,  and  I  hope  stands,  in  its  solitary 
beauty  and  grandeur,  rode  on  past  the  two  bridges,  reached 
the  station,  the  old  one — I  think  you  have  a  little  better  since, 
and  good-bye  dear  old  town — Well  that  is  the  way — Yes- 
terday morning  I  passed  through  Alontgomery  Place,  and 


3i6    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

I  found  workmen  tearing  out  the  inside  of  No.  8  where  we 
Hved  for  eighteen  3^ears.  .  .  .  Not  a  vestige  is  left  to  show 
where  our  old  Cambridge  house  stood.  We  must  make  our- 
selves new  habitations,  that  is  all;  and  carry  our  remem- 
brances, associations,  affections,  all  that  makes  home,  under 
the  new  roof.  Once  more  a  thousand  thanks  for  the 
photographs,  and  with  all  kind  remembrances,  I  am — we 
both  are — 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

'*  O.  W.  Holmes." 

Park  Square,  at  the  meeting  of  the  main  cross-roads  of 
Pittsfield,  has  always  been  a  place  of  assembly,  and  is  sur- 
rounded by  buildings  of  historic  interest.  The  first  which 
attracts  the  eye  is  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum,  the  gift  of 
Thomas  Allen  of  Pittsfield.  It  contains  a  Public  Library 
and  Museum  in  -which  is  Hawthorne's  desk.  The  Art 
Gallery  includes  a  portrait  by  Copley,  Mid-Ocean  by  Wood- 
bury, and  paintings  by  Gilbert  Stuart  Newton.  Here  are 
held  the  meetino;s  of  the  Berkshire  Historical  and  Scientific 
Society,  which  has  published  many  valuable  papers.  The 
Wednesday  ^Morning  Club,  whose  President  is  Aliss  Anna 
Laurens  Dawes,  the  author,  also  assembles  at  the  Athenseum. 
Another  handsome  building  is  the  Museum  of  Natural 
History  and  Art  presented  to  the  Athenaeum  by  the  Hon. 
Zenas  Crane ;  it  stands  on  the  site  of  the  Campbell  homestead, 
and  was  designed  by  a  native  of  Pittsfield,  George  Campbell 
Harding. 

The  most  important  habitant  of  Park  Square  until  1864  was 
the  Old  Elm  of  364  rings,  which  presided  over  all  important 
events,  even  the  reception  of  Lafayette.  The  sun-dial  marking 
the  spot  was  placed  by  the  Peace-Party  Chapter,  D.  A.  R. 
The  angel  of  the  tree  who  stood  between  it  and  the  axe  in 
1790  was  Mrs.  Lucretia,  wife  of  the  Hon.  John  Chandler 
Williams;  she  resided  in  the  beautiful  colonial  house  still 


?s 


«     2 


o    -^ 

"^ 

ti:  o 

e 

o 

^      r^ 

!^ 

^         ^ 

"^^ 

►S^ 

5    o 

"v.* 

I 

^:o 

^ 

8    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


^5 


standing  on  East  Street,  the  Rectory  of  St.  Stephen's  Parish. 
The  cause  of  the  proposed  destruction  of  the  Pittsfield  Elm 
was  the  erection  of  the  second  meeting-house,  which  the 
people  of  the  west  part  wished  built  far  into  the  street, 
that  they  might  view  it  when  coming  into  town.  In  this 
historic  meeting-house,  designed  by  Bulfinch,  addresses  of 
welcome  were  made  to  Lafayette;  it  still  exists  as  a  part  of 
the  Maple  wood  Hotel,  for  a  time  used  as  the  gymnasium 
of  the  famous  Maplewood  Young  Ladies  Institute.  Maple - 
wood  was  originally  a  cantonment  for  troops  in  the  war  of 
1 8  T  2 .  The  corner-stone  of  the  present  First  Congregational 
Church  (designed  by  Eidlitz  and  constructed  of  Pittsfield 
gray  limestone  and  Barrington  bluestone)  was  laid  by  Dr. 
John  Todd  in  1852. 

St.  Stephen's  Church  stands  on  the  site  of  the  old  Town- 
Hall.  The  Rev.  William  Wilberforce  Newton  when  rector 
of  the  church  originated  the  plan  for  a  Congress  of  Churches. 
Next  below  the  Williams-Newton  house,  the  present  Rectory, 
is  the  home  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  George  Worthington,  Bishop  of 
Nebraska,  and  in  charge  of  the  American  churches  on  the 
Continent;  "  Bishopthorpe "  stands  on  the  site  of  the  Pom- 
eroy  homestead.  The  gun-shop  of  Lemuel  Pomeroy,  who 
never  laid  aside  the  ruffled  shirt  and  knee-buckles,  was  on 
Gun  Lane,  now  Pomeroy  Street.  Below  is  the  old  Town- 
Hall,  remodelled,  the  residence  of  Mr.  William  G.  Harding. 
The  two  old-fashioned  country  seats  built  by  the  Golds 
stand  "somewhat  back  from  the  village  street,"  the  homes 
respect lA^ely  of  ]\Irs.  Ensign  H.  Kellogg,  and  the  late  Mrs. 
Thomas  F.  Plunkett. 

On  South  Street  is  the  Berkshire  Home  for  Aged  Women 
— a  memorial  to  Zenas  Marshall  Crane — on  the  site  of  the 
Pittsfield  Female  Seminary.  In  the  Ezekiel  R.  Colt  home- 
stead ^  a  reception  was  held  to  Henry  Clay.     The  Brown 

1  Residence   of   Mrs.    Thomas    Perkins    Pingree    and   Miss   Mary   Colt. 


Representative  Men  319 

homestead,  and  the  West  homestead,  and  that  of  Colonel 
Clapp,  built  by  Upjohn,  are  standing  in  Pittsfield.  The 
Woodbridge  Little  place  was  near  Peck's  Bridge. 

In  an  old  chest  in  the  Brattle  house  on  "Court  Hill"  a 
few  years  ago  was  unearthed  a  rawhide  wallet  containing 
papers  throwing  light  on  what  has  hitherto  been  regarded 
as  an  absurd  tradition  or  mysterious  fact.  It  seems  by 
these  yellow  documents  that,  in  18 19,  John  Brattle  was  given 
the  power  of  attorney  to  go  to  a  certain  house  in  a  town  in 
the  north  of  France,  where,  on  Casapom  Street,  he  would 
discover  **  in  N.  47  in  a  cellar  kitchen  a  vault  containing 
casks  of  money  ''  Locked  with  a  strong  Lock  and  the  Key 
placed  behind  a  Loos  Brick  over  the  Dore."  The  sequel  is 
wanting,  for  no  record  has  appeared  as  to  whether  he  was 
successful  in  this  quest  on  which  he  went  in  1820,  as  shown 
by  his  passport  signed  by  the  Mayor  of  Havre. 

Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  was  once  a  student  at  the  old  Berkshire 
Medical  College.  Pittsfield  is  the  home  of  William  Stearns 
Davis,  the  novelist,  and  of  Harlan  Hoge  Ballard.  Miss 
Anna  L.  Dawes  (founder  of  the  Children's  Park)  is  devoted 
to  letters,  as  was  her  eminent  father  the  Hon.  Henry  Laurens 
Dawes,  one  of  the  Massachusetts  Constitutional  Convention 
in  1853,  and  the  successor  of  Charles  Sumner  in  the  Senate. 
Mrs.  Harriett  M.  Plunkett  dedicated  her  timely  and 
witty  pioneer  book.  Women,  Plumbers,  and  Doctors,  "  To 
Dr.  Henry  I.  Bowditch,  the  Apostle  of  Sanitation  in 
America."     When   the    Hon.    Thomas    F.    Plunkett    intro- 

Ezekiel  Colt  was  the  first  Cashier  of  the  Agricultural  Bank,  inaugurated 
in  1818,  at  Colen's  Coffee-House.  Even  its  old-style  bank  check  was 
adapted  to  an  agricultural  district,  engraved  with  oxen  and  a  plough.  A 
list  of  its  Presidents  includes  representative  men  of  their  generation, 
largely  with  homesteads  standing  in  Pittsfield:  Thomas  Gold,  Henry  C. 
Brown,  Edward  A.  Xewton,  Henry  Shaw,  Nathan  Willis,  George  W. 
Campbell,  Thomas  F.  Plunkett,  Ensign  H.  Kellogg,  John  R.  Warriner, 
James  L.  Warriner,  W.  Murray  Crane,  Irving  Dwight  Ferry, 


320   Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


The  William  Brattle  homestead.,  built  about  1754,  ''  Court  Hill,"  Pitts  field, 
residence  of  General  James  Brattle  Burbank;  thence  Lieutenant  William 
Brattle  went  to  Ticonderoga,  Lexington,  and  Saratoga;  Sackeit's  and 
Brattle  brooks  cross  Brattle  m.eadows. 

duced  a  bill  for  a  State  Board  of  Health,  the  enthusiastic 
agitation  of  Dr.  Bowditch  aided  in  carrying  it  through. 
By  the  efforts  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Plunkett,  Pittsfield 
became  the  shire  town.  The  house  of  ''The  Old  Clock  on 
the  Stairs"  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Plunkett  of  Nathan 
Appleton,  but  the  clock  was  carried  to  the  Appleton  home 
in  Boston;  the  old-fashioned  country-seat,  however,  where 


Longfellow  in  Pittsfield  321 

Longfellow  found  "Free-hearted  Hospitality,"  stands  to- 
day, as  then,  except  for  a  French  roof.  Longfellow  wrote 
this  poem  when  he  was  revisiting  with  his  wife — the  queenly 
Frances  Elizabeth  Appleton — the  home  of  her  grand- 
father Mr.  Thomas  Gold.  Their  wedding-journey  was  to 
Pittsfield;  on  the  way  they  visited  the  Springfield  armory, 
offspring  of  that  to  which  Washington  refers  in  his  Diary; 
Mrs.  Longfellow  compared  the  rows  upon  rows  of  arms 
to  the  pipes  of  an  organ,  thus  inspiring  the  lines  on  The 
Arsenal  at  Springfield. 

"  Wendell  Hall"  was  the  home  of  General  William  Francis 
Bartlett,  whose  statue  by  French  stands  in  the  ^Memorial 
Hall  of  the  State  House.  At  the  imveiling  by  his  grandson 
James  Dwight  Francis,  the  tribute  "to  the  advocate  of 
peace"  by  General  Morris  Schaff  was  worthy  both  of  the 
hero  and  the  orator.  General  Henry  S.  Briggs  and  Colonel 
Henry  H.  Richardson  also  are  claimed  by  Pittsfield.  The 
history  and  traditions  of  Pittsfield  and  Berkshire  have 
been  preserved  by  J.  E.  A.  Smith  (Godfrey  Greylock)  and 
Clark  W.  Bryan. 

DALTON 

Dalton,  on  the  east  branch  of  the  Housatonic,  and  the 
encircling  region  is  most  picturesque;  it  is  ever  up,  up,  up, 
to  the  well-springs  of  the  river.  At  Peru  you  attain  the 
highest  inhabited  point  in  the  State;  founded  on  a  rock  to 
which  its  steeple  is  tied  down  by  cable,  Peru  Church  is 
unique;  if  you  are  caught  there  in  a  shower  they  will  tell 
you  that  the  drops  racing  down  one  side  of  the  roof  run 
into  the  Connecticut,  and  on  the  other,  swell  the  Housatonic; 
Peru  is  therefore  the  nearest  hallooing  point  of  the  waters 
of  these  two  New  England  rivers,  first  seen  by  the  Dutch 
in  1 6 14.  From  Peru  a  "sightly"  road  lies  across  the  very 
top  of  the  Green  Mountain  Range  through  Windsor,  Savoy, 


322      Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

and  Florida  to  North  Adams.  Dalton's  neighbor,  Hinsdale, 
is  also  quite  lofty,  and  an  attractive  walk  is  that  from 
Hinsdale  to  Day  Mountain,  seven  hundred  feet  above  Dalton 
village. 

If  you  are  in  Dalton  but  for  a  day,  you  will  carry  awa}^  a 
remembrance  of  the  dark,  rushing  river,  and  the  paper-mills, 
truly  decorative.  (The  Carsons  built  the  Old  Defiance  Mill, 
later  owned  by  the  Hon.  Byron  Weston,  each  playing  a 
prominent  part  in  town  history.)  Here  are  pleasant  old- 
fashioned  houses,  that  of  William  Williams,  the  first  town 
clerk,  the  Deacon  Abijah  Parks,  Brown,  Nathaniel  Merriam, 
and  Crane  homesteads,  and  fine  farms  on  the  Pittsfield 
border,  the  "Unkamet"  farm  of  the  Miltons  and  the 
Allen  and  Crane  farms. 

The  settlement  in  1755  was  led  by  Dr.  Perez  Ward, 
followed  by  Joseph  Chamberlain  and  Josiah  Lawrence.  In 
1799  Zenas  Crane  saw  in  the  multiple  pure  rills  gushing 
from  the  hillsides  the  best  of  "feed"  for  a  paper-mill ^ 
and  erected  the  second  in  Massachusetts.  The  Crane 
mill  at  Coltsville  now  makes  the  bank-note  paper  for  the 
government. 

There  are  many  accessible  heights  in  the  vicinity.  On 
Mount  Weston,  the  opening  of  the  chalet  of  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Weston  was  made  memorable  in  1885  (says  Mr. 
Clark  W.  Bryan,  author  of  the  delightful  Book  of  Berkshire) 
by  the  Pittsfield  Monday  Evening  Club  and  "the  flow  of 
soul  participated  in    by  Senator  Dawes,    Pastor   Jenkins, 

iTo  this  end   a  sprightly   and  fetching  paragraph   appeared  in   the 

Pittsfield  Stm: 

"Americans: 
"Encourage  your  own  manufactories,  and  they  will  Improve.  Ladies 
save  your  Rags.  As  the  Subscribers  have  it  in  contemplation  to  erect 
a  Paper-mill  in  Dalton,  the  ensuing  Spring;  and  the  business  being  very 
beneficent  to  the  community  at  large,  they  flatter  themselves  they  shall 
meet  with  due  encouragement  etc.  [Signed]  Henry  Marshall,  Zenas  Crane 
and  John  Willard." 


324    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Judge  Barker,  the  Rev.  William  Wilberforce  Newton,  and 
others."  On  Mt.  Pleasant  in  West  Windsor  is  the  country 
house  of  Senator  Crane;  from  this  pinnacle  the  Catskills 
are  in  sight.  The  pioneers  on  Mt.  Pleasant,  Alpheus 
Brown  and  Stephen  Hume,  suffered  great  hardships,  obliged 
as  they  were  to  travel  to  Stafford's  Hill  in  Cheshire  for  pork 
and  meat. 

You  will  not  fail  to  see  Dalton's  chaotic  Gulf,  the  Wizard's 
Glen,  where  the  sweetest  voice  echoes  and  re-echoes  in  un- 
canny shrieks.  One  legend  of  the  place  relates  to  a  hunter, 
who,  while  dressing  his  quarry,  was  overtaken  by  a  thunder- 
storm. Lightning  revealed  an  Indian  girl  with  pleading 
eyes,  about  to  be  sacrificed  on  the  Devil's  Altar  by  phantoms ; 
the  hunter  took  out  the  Good  Book  and  v/ith  a  terrible 
crash  all  vanished. 

A  particular  charm  of  the  pastoral  town  of  Windsor  is 
the  brook  where  AVaconah,  favorite  daughter  of  Miahcomo, 
met  her  fate.  After  some  successful  hours  of  angling,  she 
sat  dreamily  twining  columbines  in  her  hair  by  a  mirror 
pool  under  the  Falls;  a  pretty  picture  in  her  white  deerskin, 
trimmed  with  oriole  and  bluebird  feathers,  thought  the 
young  brave  who  startled  her  with  the  words,  "Hail! 
Bright  Star!"  She  sprang  to  her  feet. — "Nessacus  is 
weary,"  said  he,  "with  flying  before  the  Long  Knives,  will 
the  Bright  Star's  people  shut  their  lodges  against  their 
brethren?"  The  maiden  answered,  "M}^  father  Miahcomo 
has  gone  towards  the  setting  sun,  across  the  Taghonics 
to  the  Mohawks,  but  his  lodges  are  always  open;  come,  my 
brother's  people  are  welcome."  On  their  path  to  the 
village,  Nessacus  related  the  fate  of  his  chief  King  PhiHp,  and 
Waconah  told  him  that  her  people  here  were  Pequots  who 
escaped  thither  [to  Dalton]  after  being  driven  from  the 
fort  at  Mystic.  Thereupon  Nessacus,  the  Wampanoag, 
fell  in  love  with  the  daughter  of  the  Pequots.  Miahcomo 
returning  brought  with  him  the  Mohawk  Yonnongah ;  many 


Waconah  Falls,  Windsor. 
Within  walking  distance  of  Dalton. 


325 


3^6    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

scalps  proudly  hung  at  his  belt  and  he  confidently  asked 
the  hand  of  Waconah  for  his  fourth  wife.  "When  Nessacus 
declared  himself  also  a  suitor,  the  old  warrior  emplo3'ed 
alternately  threats  and  promises.  Councils  were  held  over 
the  weighty  matter  for  Waconah  was  the  idol  of  the  tribe. 
"Let  the  Great  Spirit  speak,  and  we  will  obey,"  said  Miah- 
como.  Tashmu,  crafty  wizard  or  priest  of  the  tribe, 
favored  the  IMohawk,  and  declared  Manitou  revealed  to 
him  in  the  Wizard's  Glen  that  it  was  his  will  that  the  spirit 
of  the  stream  should  decide,  by  turning  the  canoe  toward 
the  worthy  suitor. 

After  a  solemn  feast,  the  tribe  assembled  at  Waconah' s 
brook;  the  rivals  Nessacus  and  Yonnongah  were  placed  on 
opposite  banks.  And  Tashmu  was  there,  the  hypocrite 
who  had  secretly  moved  the  dividing  rock  the  night  before 
in  order  to  favor  the  old  warrior. 

"Let  Manitou  speak!"  and  the  sacred  canoe,  carved  with 
mystic  signs,  floated  on,  then  hung  poised  on  the  rock  mid- 
stream, then  seemed  to  incline  toward  the  Mohawk,  but  the 
inconstant  current  struck  it  obliquely,  it  swung  slowly 
around,  and  passed  down  by  the  feet  of  Nessacus.  "The 
Great  Spirit  hath  spoken,  and  it  is  good!"  said  ]\Iiahcomo, 
and  the  people  shouted,  "Hoh!  It  is  good!"  Tashmu  and 
Yonnongah,  discomfited,  disappeared,  Tashmu  to  betray 
Nessacus  to  the  whites. 

As  the  wedding  festivities  were  progressing,  a  messenger 
brought  news  that  Major  Talcott,  with  other  Long  Knives 
had  slain  the  sachem  of  Quaboag,  and  was  at  Mahaiwe  on  the 
Housatonic,  and  he  w^ould  destroy  Miahcomo's  wigwams 
as  soon  as  he  could  obtain  provisions  Nessacus,  taking 
Waconah  by  the  hand,  promised  to  lead  them  to  a  new 
prairie-home,  and  having  executed  the  traitor  Tashmu  they 
took  the  western  trail. ^ 

1  This  legend  of  Waconah  Falls  was  related  to  Godfrey  Greylock  by  a 
young  Indian  of  the  Stockbridge  tribe,  who  had  come  back  from  the  western 
home  of  his  people  to  be  educated. 


Constitution  Hill  and  Balance  Rock       327 


LAXESBORO 


In  Lanesboro  one  may.  float  on  Poontoosuc  Lake,  and 
\nsit  Balance  Rock,  or  climb  the  gentle  slope  of  Constitution 
Hill.  From  the  stage-road  a  fascinating  stretch  of  meadows, 
broken  by  a  rushing  rivulet,  meets  the  hills.     Here  you  will 


The   Huhhell    Homestead,    Lanesboro.       Built   in    iyyo-80    hy   Matthew 
Hubbell  of  Woodbury,  Conn.,  and  his  son  Wolcott  HiibbcU. 

exclaim  over  the  clarity  of  the  atmosphere, — every  leaf  of 
alder  and  elm  is  clean  cut,  a  tree  of  character.  At  evening 
myriads  of  glow-worms  dance  in  the  grass.  It  is  said  that 
the  Stockbridge  Indians  camped  in  these  meadows  in  front 
of  the  Hubbell  homestead  on  their  march  to  Bennington. 


J 


28     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


fe 


Captain  ]\Iatthew  Hubbell,  a  pioneer  from  Woodbury,  now 
Newtown,  Conn.,  built  here  about  1769;  it  is  surmised  that 
it  may  have  been  the  property  previously  of  Major  Thaddeus 
Curtis,  whose  daughter  became  the  wife  of  the  Hon.  Wolcott 
Hubbell.  He  served  as  minute-man  and  fought  at  Ben- 
nington, which  General  Washington  said  was  "the  turning 
point  of  the  war."  His  son  Algernon  S.  Hubbell  was  a 
partner  of  Governor  Briggs.  ^ 

Across  Hoosac  Mountain  came  Henry  Clay  to  visit  his 
friend  the  Hon.  Henry  Shaw  at  Lanesboro.  Another  emi- 
nent son  of  the  town  was  Jonathan  Smith  whose  speech 
won  the  day  for  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts.  The 
Bradley  homestead  stands  near  St.  Luke's  Church.  Silver 
Street  is  a  favorite  walk.  A  drive  to  conjure  with  is  that 
across  Potter  Mountain  through  Hancock,  where  the  traveller 
finds  the  Lulu  Cascade  and  Berry  Pond  on  a  mountain- 
summit;  or  on  to  Lebanon  Springs,  called  "The 
Pool"  by  Miss  Sedgwick.  Horace  E.  Scudder  wrote  the 
Bodley  Books  in  Lanesboro  and  Mrs.  Campbell,  Prisoners 
of  Poverty. 

From  Lanesboro  two  roads  lead  toward  Williamstown 
which  are  rivals  in  romantic  beauty;  the  old  stage-road 
through  New  Ashford  and  lovely  valley  of  South  Williams- 
town  was  preferred  by  Samuel  Bowles  on  his  annual  trip 
to  Commencement  at  Williams  College.  New  Ashford  lies  in 
a  picturesque  gorge  between  Saddle  Ball  and  the  Taconics 
at  the  headwaters  of  the  west  branch  of  the  Housatonic. 
For  several  miles  a  deliciously  cool  stream  parallels  the  road 
and  in  the  north  part  of  the  town  is  a  wild  chasm  close  to 
the  highway,  with  the  ruins  of  the  old  saw-mill,  a  scene  for 
a  painter.     Baker's  Cave  is  another  curious  abyss  with  a 

1  "In  1818,  the  Baptist  church  was  organized  through  the  efforts  of 
Dr.  William  H.  Tyler  and  Governor  Briggs,"  says  the  Rev.  C.  J.  Palmer 
in  his  History  of  ike  Town  of  Lancsborough. 


.Ji.  "^ 


The  house  of  Henry  W.  Shaw,  ''  JosJi  Billings,"  Lanesboro. 


329 


330     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

cold  spring  at  the  bottom.     In  this  fair  country  one  recalls 
Wordsworth's 

"  Up!  tip!  my  Friend  and  quit  your  hooks; 

Books!  'tis  a  dull  and  endless  strife: 
Come,  hear  the  woodland  linnet, 
How  sweet  his  inusic!  on  my  life, 
There  's  more  of  wisdom  in  it.'' 

ON  TO  WILLIAMSTOWN  VIA  CHESHIRE 

The  other  Old  Path  to  Williamstown  is  far  more  rugged ; 
it  vaults  through  Cheshire  and  along  the  valley  of  the 
Hoosac  River  by  way  of  Adams  to  North  Adams,  and  passes 
within  view  of  Fort  Massachusetts  on  the  Harrison  flats. 
Cheshire  is  oddly  planted  among  the  unaccountably  irreg- 
ular mountains  of  the  south  spur  of  the  Greylock  group. 

President  Jefferson's  huge  Cheshire  cheese  was  created  from 
the  curds  gathered  together  from  the  mountain  farms  by  one 
of  his  most  ardent  admirers,  the  eccentric  and  celebrated 
preacher,  Elder  Leland,  who  escorted  it  to  the  White  House 
in  person.  The  first  Baptist  church  in  Berkshire  stood  on 
Stafford's  Hill  (of  glorious  views) ;  here  built  the  pioneers  of 
1766  from  Warwick,  Coventry,  and  Newport,  R.  I.  To  the 
southern  part  of  the  town  came  settlers  from  Swansea, 
Mass.,  whose  ancestors  removed  to  Old  Rehoboth  from 
Wales  in  1663. 

The  saunterer  through  Pork  Lane  discovers  charms  which 
belie  its  prosaic  name.  A  favorite  road  to  Adams  is  through 
the  ''Pumpkin  Hook"  neighborhood.  From  Cheshire  a 
wood-road  leads  up  Greylock.  Another  road  to  the  summit 
is  from  the  town  of  Adams  to  which  Greylock  belongs. 

Adams  was  founded  by  the  Uptons  and  other  Quakers. 
Familiar  names  are  Fisk,  Anthony,  Richmond,   and  Dean. 


The    Thompson    Memorial   Chapel,   and  Griffin    Hall,     Williams   College, 

Williamstown,  Mass. 


331 


332    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

The  town's  fine  statue  of  McKinley  is  a  memory  of  liis 
week's  visit  here.  The  first  attempt  to  wrest  yellow  gold  ^ 
from  Grey  lock  was  made  from  Adams,  by  the  historic 
Bowerman  family. 

The  famous  Old  Notch  road  will  carry  you  to  North 
Adams.  Excursions  are  in  order  to  every  point  of  the  com- 
pass from  the  ''Tunnel  City";  first  to  obtain  a  bird's-eye 
view,  at  sunset,  of  Greylock  and  the  inter-clustered  moun- 
tains. Then  a  mile  northeast  to  the  Natural  Bridge  on 
Hudson  Brook  with  its  marble  pool  (a  remarkable  pot-hole) 
described  by  Hawthorne.  Hudson  Brook  flows  into  the 
Mayunsook,  or  Little  Deerfield,  a  wild  highland  rivulet, 
which  endows  North  Adams  with  a  wonderful  water-power. 

North  Adams  stands  at  the  west  door  of  Hoosac  Tunnel 
by  means  of  which  the  riches  of  western  fields  are  carried 
direct  to  the  Massachusetts  seaboard.  The  Indian's  For- 
bidden Mountain  is  of  such  a  flinty  heart  that  twenty 
millions  of  "very  hard  cash"  was  needed  to  pierce  it  effect- 
ually. An  intimate  book  2  of  the  Hoosac  Valley,  and  a 
delightful  companion  for  a  tramp  across  the  pastures  of 
Northw^estern  Berkshire  or  by  the  fireside,  is  that  by  Grace 
Greylock  Niles;  she  knows  the  secrets  of  marble-caverns, 
of  sweet  paths  that  will  lead  you  away  from  the  footsteps  of 
man  to  Aurora's  lake,  under  the  rude  brow  of  the  Hoosac,. 
still  haunt  of  the  pale  Pink  Moccasin-Flower,  the  wake-robin, 
and  marsh-thrush;  or,  let  us  tramp  afield  and  cross  the 
border  into  Vermont  to  search  for  treasures  in  Rattlesnake 
Swamp,  Mount  (Eta.  You  can  drive  up  Greylock  on  the 
highway  beneficently  accomplished  by  the  Greylock  Park 
Association;  but  you  will  prefer  to  take  fisherman's  luck 
through  The  Notch,  Bohemian  fashion,  scrambling  up  ragged 

1  "  Gold-Hunting  in  Berkshire,"  a  sketch  in  The  Berkshire  Hills  of  June> 
1902,  edited  by  Colonel  William  Phillips. 

2  Bog-Trotting  for  Orchids,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 


Thoreau  on  Greylock  Summit  333 

glens  of  misty  cascades  with  mural  decorations  of  hemlocks 
and  vine.  Is  it  not  better — if  one  may — to  go  a-gypsying 
for  a  season,  cut  the  wood  for  the  camp-fire  to  set  the  pot 
a-boiling,  rest  on  pine  boughs,  and  watch  the  sky  with  a 
lover's  look  to  know  whether  it  will  smile  or  frown,  than  to 
be  merely  a  tame  duck;  or,  as  Dr.  Van  Dyke  says,  one  of  "  the 
people  who  always  live  in  houses,  and  sleep  in  beds,  and 
walk  on  pavements,  and  buy  their  food  of  butchers  and 
bakers,     .     .     .     boarders  in  the  world  "  ? 

Thoreau  attained  Greylock 's  summit  and  found  himself 
"  in  the  dazzling  halls  of  Aurora  .  .  .  playing  with 
the  rosy  fingers  of  the  Dawn,  and  not  a  crevice  through 
the  clouds  from  which  those  trivial  places  of  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut,  and  Vermont  could  be  seen."  Was  it 
not  the  Mist  of  our  Berkshire  Highlands  which  inspired 
Thoreau : 

''Low-anchored  cloud, 
Newfoundland  air, 
Fountain-head  and  source  of  rivers, 
Dew-cloth,  dream  drapery, 
And  napkins  spread  by  jays; 
Drifting  meadow  of  the  air.'' 

"I  had  a  view  of  Williamstown  from  Greylock  summit," 
says  Ha^vthorne,  "  a  white  village  and  a  steeple  in  a  gradual 
hollow  with  huge  mountain  sv/ells  heaving  up  like  immense 
subsiding  waves  far  and  wide  around  it." 

These  mountains  by  which  an  ideal  New  England  town  is 
hemmed  in,  are  intimately  associated  by  name  with  the 
history  and  traditions  of  Williams  College.  The  twin  peaks 
of  Mount  Hopkins — 2790  feet  high — are  named  for  Pres- 
ident Mark  Hopkins  and  Professor  Albert  Hopkins;  and 
Mount  Fitch,  Mount  Griffin,  and  Mount  Chadbourne  in 
honor  of  three  other  Presidents  of  the  College.     There  is 


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Richmond's  Boulder  Trains  335 

a  choice  of  four  passes  across  the  Taconics  into  New  York 
State,  the  Petersburg,  Berhn,  Kidder,  Johnson  Passes. 

A  monument  unique  is  that  to  the  memory  of  the  Hay- 
stack, in  the  shade  of  which  was  founded  the  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions;  students'  meetings  were  also 
held  under  an  ancient  willow  near  the  old  home  of 
Professor  Arthur  L.  Perry,  for  years  President  of  the 
Berkshire  Historical  vSociety,  and  the  historian  of  Williams- 
town.  His  son  Bliss  Perry  was  called  from  Williams  to 
Princeton,  and  to  the  Editor's  Chair  of  The  Atlantic  Monthly, 
and  is  the  successor  of  James  Russell  Lowell  at  Harvard. 

Although  Thanatopsis  was  written  at  Cummington  fol- 
lowing Bryant's  seven  months  at  Williams  College,  tradition 
associates  with  Flora's  Glen  the  lines: 

" /cr  his  gayer  hours 
She  had  a  voice  of  gladness  ajtd  a  smile, 
And  eloquence  of  beauty." 

RICHMOND 

Richmond,  once  known  as  Mount  Ephraim,  is  famous  for 
its  boulder  trains.  If  you  will  take  the  romantic  road  to 
Canaan  Four  Corners  and  Queechy  Lake,  you  will  note  just 
north  a  mountain  west  of  a  valley;  here  on  Fry's  Hill  start 
some  remarkable  boulder  trains,  which  cross  the  road  near 
the  first  Shaker  settlement,  and  over  Merriman's  Mount, 
then  trail  across  the  town  of  Richmond  into  Lenox  near 
the  Stockbridge  Bowl.  The  most  interesting  example  of 
the  Richmond  boulders  is  on  the  top  of  Perry's  Peak,  just 
over  the  brow  of  the  hill  from  the  Richmond  side. 

Sir  Charles  Lyell  visited  Richmond  in  order  to  trace 
their  course  under  the  guidance  of  Dr.  Stephen  Reid,  and 
delivered  a  paper  on  Richmond's  boulder  trains  before  the 
Royal    Institute   of   Great    Britain.     A   boulder   known   as 


33^    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

*'Dr.  Reid's  pet"  is  on  Snake  Hill,  a  terrace  of  South 
Mountain.  Professor  James  D.  Dana  of  Yale  in  1886  re- 
ported the  discovery  of  fossils  just  over  the  Taconic  range 
in  Canaan,  N.  Y.  He  says  that  the  Stockbridge  limestone, 
which  is  also  the  limestone  of  Canaan  and  Williamstown, 
was  once  full  of  coral  fossils  '  and  crinoids,  and  but  for  the 
crystallization  of  the  rock  converting  it  into  marble,  these 
would  be  distinct  in  the  rock  now. 

Richmond  is  also  notable  for  its  beautiful  open  reaches  of 
rolling  country,  for  as  yet  a  superabundance  of  heavy  foliage 
has  not  robbed  her  of  invigorating  mountain  outlines  and 
the  luminous  cloud-pictures  of  Berkshire  skies,  as  in  parts  of 
Lenox.  In  her  northwest  corner  is  Perry's  Peak,  next  in 
height  to  The  Dome.  Here  at  your  feet  is  the  Canaan 
Shakers'  settlement  and  the  lovely  valley  of  Lebanon,  also 
the  J\Iount  Lebanon  Shaker  village  farther  north,  and 
Greylock.  South  are  the  AVest  Stockbridge  and  Alford 
hills,  and  Osceola  tops  the  Lenox  range.  Peny's  Peak  is 
associated  with  the  Rev.  David  Perry  (1784-18 16).  The 
homestead  of  his  successor,  the  Rev.  Edwin  Welles  D wight, 
is  now  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Henry  March.  His  son  Judge 
Charles  C.  D wight  was  a  member  of  the  New  York  Con- 
stitutional Convention  and  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
A  grandson,  R.  Henry  W.  Dwight,  of  Boston,  a  past  Pres- 
ident of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution  of  Massachusetts,  has 
an  unusual  collection  of  rare  Berkshire  manuscripts  and 
broadsides  and  memorabilia  of  the  Dwight  family.  The 
Sherrill- Jennings  house,  now  the  home  of  Chester  Hunting- 
ton, Esq.,  was  built  by  Henry  Sherrill,  to  whose  fine  country 
store  on  the  corner  of  Canaan  and  State  roads,  Pittsfield 
people  came  to  shop.  This  homestead,  "  Kenmore  Hall" 
was  the   home   of   Frederick  Alfred   Bridgeman.     One   of 

1  The  sketch  by  Prof.  James  D.  Dana  on  Berkshire  Geology  in  the  Berk- 
shire Historical  Society  Papers  is  a  useful  guide. 


Richmond  Homesteads  337 

Richmond's  interesting  homesteads  (now  the  Nichols  res- 
idence) was  the  home  of  ^liss  Catherine  Peirson,  whose 
father,  Nathan  Peirson,  owned  extensive  tanneries  here. 
In  this  vicinity  were  built  the  early  Rossiter,  Branch,  and 
Cook  houses.  Near  Stevens  Corners — of  old  "  Indian 
Bread  Corners" — are  beautiful  glens  and  an  altogether 
charming  landscape. 

A  story  of  the  Squire  Henry  Peirson  homestead  relates 
to  his  son  Josiah  who  as  a  youth  was  employed  in  teaming 
supplies  between  Hudson,  N.  Y.  and  Berkshire.  Belated  on 
his  homeward  road,  he  drove  into  the  yard  early  one  Sabbath 
morning  and  unluckily  was  seen  by  two  pair  of  bright  eyes 
belonging  to  Polly  and  Nabby  Rossiter,  the  daughters  of  a 
neighbor.  All  three  were  shortly  summoned  before  the 
court.  Tradition  says  that  Josiah  was  acquitted  instead  of 
receiving  a  fine  for  breaking  the  Sabbath,  as  the  judge  ruled 
that  the  two  witnesses  had  seen  him  only  from  the  inside 
of  the  house  through  a  closed  window,  and  such  evidence 
was  incompetent.     He  afterward  married  Nabby  Rossiter. 


GREAT  BARRINGTON  (UPPER  HOUSATONNUCK) 

1733-1761 

"This  tract  of  country,  wild,  forbidding,  and  destitute  of  roads  other 
than  the  Indian  trail,  .  .  .  lay  in  the  direct  route, — via  Springfield, 
Westfield,  and  Kinderhook,  between  Boston  and  Albany.  .  .  .  Occasionally 
traversed  by  bodies  of  soldiery  in  the  early  wars,  and  by  other  parties  on  pub- 
lic business,  it  was  better  known  to  the  neighboring  New  York  border,  whose 
traders  were  accustomed  to  visit  it  for  the  purpose  of  traffic  with  the  Indians, 
than  to  the  tnore  remote  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts." 

History  of  Great  Barrington  by  Taylor. 

The  Valley  of  the  great  river  of  Berkshire  was  named 
by  the  Mohicans,  who,  leaving  their  ancestral  holdings  in 
the  hands  of  the  Patroons  of  Rensselaerwyck,  Kinderhook, 
and  Livingston,  drifted  over  from  the  Hudson  into  the  new 
wilderness  of  the  Housatonic  Valley;  they  called  the  valley 
Ou-thot-ton-nook  or  Housatonnuck,  and  the  river  took  its 
name  from  the  valley.  Not  many  years  since  came  a 
Stockbridge  Indian  to  visit  the  land  of  his  fathers,  and 
illustrated  the  word  by  pointing  to  the  full  moon  just  rising 
over  East  Mountain  in  Great  Barrington,  Ou-thot-ton- 
nook — "over  the  mountain." 

The  settlement  at  Housatonnuck  or  Great  Barrington 
sprang  up  at  the  principal  ford  way  on  the  main  trail  from 
Fort  Orange  near  Albany,  N.  Y.,  to  Springfield  and  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  It  was  known  to  the  Dutch  as  ''the  New 
England  Path."  Great  Barrington  was  the  "Great  Wig- 
wam" or — as  the  Stockbridge  Indians  called  it — Mahaiwe 
(Nei-hai-we) ,  the  "  place  down-stream."  (The  Indian  burial- 
ground  in  Great  Barrington  is  known  as  Mahaiwe).  Here, 
near  the  old  fordway,  in  all  probability  occurred  that 
celebrated  scrimmage  between  King  Philip's  warriors  flying 
to  refuge  in  the  West,  and  the  gallant  ]\Iajor  Talcott,  son 

338 


The  Honsatonic  at  Great  Barrington. 


339 


340    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

of  the  Worshipful  John  Talcott  of  Hartford,  who  pursued 
them  from  Westfield  over  the  wilderness  trail  to  the  banks 
of  the  Housatonic, 

As  early  as  1694,  a  party  of  gentlemen  from  Boston 
camped  here — the  Rev.  Benjamin  Wadsworth  and  other 
Commissioners  on  their  way  to  Albany  to  hold  a  great 
council-fire  with  the  "Five  Nations."  Mr.  Wadsworth  kept 
a  journal  of  events: 

"  With  Captain  Sewal  and  Major  Townsend,  being  com- 
missioned to  treat  with  ye  Mockways  [Mohawks],  set  out 
from  Boston  about  half  past  12  Monda}^  Aug.  6,  1694.  .  .  . 
At  Watertown,  Ave  met  with  Lieut.  Hammond  and  thirty 
troopers,  who  were  appointed  for  a  guard  to  Springfield. 
.  ^Ir.  Dwite  of  Hartford  did  accidently  fall  into  our 
company,  and  after  the  same  manner,  accidently  he  and 
his  horse  both  together  fell  into  a  brook,  but  both  rose  again 
without  damage.  This  day  we  dined  in  ye  woods.  Pleas- 
ant descants  were  made  upon  ye  dining  room;  it  was  said 
yt  it  was  large,  high,  curiously  hung  with  green;  our  dining 
place  was  also  accomodated  with  ye  pleasancy  of  a  mur- 
muring rivulet.  This  day  some  of  our  company  saw  a 
bear.  .  .  .  This  night  we  went  over  to  Westfield,  .  .  . 
thence  toward  Albany;  the  nearest  way  thro'  ye  woods, 
being  accompanied  with  Collonel  Pinchon,  in  commission 
with  Capt.  Sewal  and  Maj.  Townsend,  by  ye  Council  of  ve 
Province  of  ye  Mass.  Bay,  and  Collonel  Allen  and  Captain 
Stanley,  Commissioners  for  Connecticutt  Colony.  For  a 
guard  we  had  with  us  Cap.  Wadsworth  of  Hartford,  and 
with  him  60  Dragoons.  .  .  .  took  up  our  lodgings, 
about  sundown  in  ye  woods,  at  a  place  called  Ouseton- 
nuck  [Great  Barrington]  formerly  inhabited  by  Indians. 
Thro  this  place  runs  a  very  curious  river,  the  same  (which 
some  say)  runs  thro'  Stratford."  (  The  Housatonic  River 
at  its  mouth  was  known  for  a  time  as  Stratford  River.) 
On     arriving    in     Albany,     Mr.     Wadsworth    says,     "The 


Matthew  Arnold  Admires  the  Dome       341 

treaty^  was  held  in  ye  street  a  little  above  the  meeting 
house;  Ye  Sachims  were  attended  with  many  other  Indi- 
ans .  .  .  Ye  Sachim  of  ye  Maquas  being  3-e  leader, 
.  when  we  were  sat  down,  they  sang  two  or  three 
songs  of  peace,  before  they  began  ye  treaty." 


•  PIP  ■   ■»• 


Across  Pine-tops  to  the  Dome,  or  Alt.  Everett. 
"/  like  Berkshire  more  and  more.      The  Dome  is  a  really  imposing  and 
beautiful    mass;    I    have    seen    it      .     .     .      in    many    lights    and    with 
ever  increasing  admiration.     I  was  shown    the    Green  River    yesterday, 
the  river  immortalized  by  the  American  Wordsworth,  i.  e.,  Bryant." 

Matthew  Arxold  to  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  Aug.  27,1886. 

A  few  years  after  the  Boston  Commissioners  travelled 
down  Three-Mile  Hill  (three  miles  it  is  from  the  top  to  the 
Great  Bridge)  and  passed  through  Housatonnuck,  Captain 

1  At  the  Council  were  present  besides  the  Commissioners  from  New 
England,  "His  Excellency  ye  Governour  of  York  with  fore  of  his  Council, 
Collonel  Bayard,  Coll.  William  Smith,  Coll.  Stephen  Van  Cortland, 
Chidley  Brook,  Esq.,  Major  Peter  Schuyler,  Col.  Andrew  Hamilton, 
Governour  of  New  Jerseys." 


342     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Konkapot  and  a  few  Indian  families  were  here  and  others 
at  Skatekook  (Sheffield)  and  Wnahtukook  (Stockbridge) . 
In  Great  Barrington  a  mission  wigwam  was  built  about  a 
mxile  south  of  Maus-waw-se-ki  (Monument  "Sit.).  John 
Sergeant,  fresh  from  Yale,  preached  here  until  they  removed 
to  the  reservation  of  Indian  Town. 

When  Matthew  Arnold  visited  the  chosen  valley  of  the 
transplanted  Mohicans,  did  he  recall  his  first  impression  of 
America,  and  his  facetious  little  remark,  apropos  of  the 
idea  of  many  foreigners,  that  Indians  in  war-paint  frequented 
the  boulevards  scarce  a  league  from  Broadway?  Arnold 
writes:  "We  had  crossed  the  bar  and  were  inside  New  York 
Bay.  .  .  .  You  may  imagine  I  was  on  deck  with  the 
first  light.  We  were  lying  off  Staten  Island,  a  beautiful 
orne  landscape  with  spires,  villas,  hills,  and  woods.  'Just 
like  Richmond,'  I  said  to  some  one  by  me,  '  and  not  a  sin- 
gle ^lohican  running  about.'  This  precious  speech  got 
into  the  newspapers  here  !  " 

Great  Barrington  was  the  North  Parish  of  Sheffield  from 
1 742-1 761.  Boundary  disputes  became  hot  and  fierce 
between  Patroons  of  the  border  manors  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts settlers,  over  debatable  land  east  of  the  Taconics. 
New  York  claimed  by  patent  the  lands  east  as  far  as  the 
Connecticut  River,  and  Massachusetts  by  right  of  occupation. 

On  the  Van  Rensselaer  Manor  in  1762,  serious  disturb- 
ances broke  out  owing  to  refusals  to  pay  rent  to  the  Manor- 
house,  and  Robert  Noble,  who  had  been  engaged  with  David 
IngersoU  and  Josiah  Loomis  in  the  more  peaceful  occupa- 
tion of  establishing  an  Episcopal  Church  ^  in  Great  Bar- 
rington— the  first  in  Berkshire, — "  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
an  armed  force,  and  actually  defeated  a  strong  posse  headed 

1  The  land  for  the  church  was  given  by  John  Burghardt  in  1763.  Rev. 
Gideon  Bostwick  was  the  first  established  minister.  After  the  Revolution, 
a  monument  of  wood  with  a  gilded  ball  on  top  was  placed  to  the  memory 
of  Washington  near  the  pulpit. 


Burgoyne  in  Great  Barrington 


'A3 


^^. 


Lafe^  Mansfield. 

by  the  sheriff  of  Albany  who  were  attempting  to  dispossess 
squatters  on  the  Van  Renssalaer  tract."  ^ 

The  story  of  Belcher's  Cave  near  "Bung  Hill  Corner"  in 
Great  Barrington  is  connected  with  these  troublous  times; 
a  gang  of  counterfeiters  is  said  to  haA^e  had  their  workshop 
here  with  "Gill  Belcher,  Goldsmith,"  as  leader. 

Two  of  the  most  exciting  events  of  the  Revolution  took 
place  in  '77.  At  the  call  for  troops  to  resist  Burgoyne, 
Captain  William  King  called  a  town  meeting  and  volunteers 
went  out  to  Saratoga  under  Captain  Silas  Goodrich  in  the 
regiment  of  Colonel  John  Ashley,  also  a  company  from 
Alford  under  Captain  Sylvanus  Wilcox.      Then   came   the 

1  Franklin  Leonard  Pope  on  The  Western  Boundary  of  Massachusetts, 
Berkshire  Historical  Papers,  1886.  A  map  of  the  Housatonic  Townships 
of  1 761,  drawn  by  Mr.  Pope  is  included  in  the  invaluable  History  of  Great 
Barrington  by  Charles  J.  Taylor,  to  whom  all  Berkshire  is  indebted  for  his 
research  on  the  early  Patents. 


344    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

news  of  the  dramatic  surrender  ^  to  General  Gates,  followed 
by  the  encampment  here  of  the  prisoners-of-war ;  with 
laggard  steps  the  officers  led  the  troops  down  over  the  old 
trail  through  Kinderhook  into  Great  Barrington,  wearing 
their  side-arms  according  to  the  terms  of  capitulation  made 
at  this  "Convention  of  Saratoga." 
LANDMARKS:       Bouider-Monu-         General    Burgoync,    being    in- 

ment  at  Old  Indian  Fordway  on  the         , .  ^  ,  r  /^    i  ^ 

Housatonic  River   near   the    "Great       OlSpOSCd,  WaS  the  gUCSt  Of  Coloncl 

Wigwam  "  presented  to  Great  Bar-       Elijah       Dwi^ht       in       thc       QUaint 
nngton   by    the    Thursday    Morning  -^  '^  ^ 

Club,  igo4.  General  Joseph  Dwight-     "  Hcndcrson  housc  "  which  stands 

Henderson    house,    oldest    in    Great  .1  t-»       1     1    •  t  mi    • 

Barrington;  here  Bryant  was  mar-       ^Car      thc      Berkshire      Inn.        ThlS 

ried.     Hopkins     Memorial      Manse.       hoUSC     WaS     built     by     thc     distin- 
Hopkins    house  (about    1803),  resi- 
dence Mrs.  Samuel  Camp.    Next     guishcd  General  Joscph  Dwight  m 

stood  the  house   (1765)   of  Colonel  j  i  ^-i^         finest 

Mark    Hopkins,    Treasurer    of    the       ^759      ^nO      W  aS      lOng     XnC      nnCSL 

County;  in  his  office  Judge  Theodore       dwelling    in    the    tOWnship.       In    it 
Sedgwick  studied  law.    At  the  library       ttt-ii-  r^    11  t-» 

is  a  photograph  of  Beckett  House,     William  Cullen  Bryant  was  mar- 

the  seat  of  the  Viscounts  Barrington.      ^[^^  ^q  jy^gg  L^^^y  Fairchild.     Thc 
on  the  very  ancient  Manor  of  Beckett,  ^  ■' 

at  shrivenham  in  the  Vale  of  the     Hcssian  General,    Baron   Riedes- 

White    Horse,   Berkshire,   England:        11  j  1      •         _li  11 

sent  by  Sir  William  A.  c.  Barrington     dcl,    was    quartered    m    thc    old 

son  of   the  sixth  Lord   Barrington,  EpisCOpal  Church. 
to   the   designer  of   the   Town   Seal. 

Dr  William  Whiting  house;  here  the  ^^  ^^  ^Ot  knOW  whether  the 
judges    of    the    Crown    took   refuge 

when  in  1774  the  patriots  refused  to  COUrageOUS     and     brilliant     Bar- 
allow  them  to   hold  court.    Rev.  Q^ess  Riedesdel  passed  through 

Gideon  Bostwick-Burr  house.     Post- 

office  on  site  of  Major  Rossiter  Tav-  Great  Barrington  on  her  way  to 

ern.    St,  James  Church;  the  vesti-  Boston,  after  being  entertained 

bule  is  on  site  of     William   Cullen 

Bryant's   law   office,   Tablet.    Old  by    Mrs.    Schuylcr    during    the 


»  The  captive  General  admitted  Gates's  magnanimity  and  wrote  to  the 
Earl  of  Derby  that  when  the  British  soldiers  marched  out  of  their  camp 
to  pile  their  arms,  not  a  man  of  the  American  troops  was  to  he  seen.  The 
English  and  German  generals  dined  with  Burgoyne  on  the  day  after 
defeat  on  boards  laid  across  barrels,  the  Americans  being  accustomed 
to  frugal  meals.  Burgoyne  spoke  flatteringly  of  the  American  dress 
and  discipline  and  said :  "Your  funds  of  men  are  inexhaustible.  Like  the 
Hydra's  head,  when  cut  off,  seven  more  spring  up  in  its  stead."  Then 
he  proposed  a  toast  to  General  Washington,  an  attention  that  Gates 
returned  by  drinking  the  health  of  the  King  of  England. 


The  Baroness  Riedesdel 


345 


A  Cart-path  through  Winter-woods.     The  Searles 
Estate,  Great  Barrington. 

"Fill  soft  and  deep,  O  winter  snows / 
The  sweet  azalia's  oaken  dells." — Whittier. 


Rectory  removed  to  Castle  St.,  resi- 
dence of  Miss  Abby  Russell. 
George  R.  Ives-Ralph  Taylor  house 
(1815)  residence  Mrs.  Charles  J. 
Taylor.  The  Dr.  C.  T.  Collins  house 
stands  on  the  lot  of  Dr.  Joseph  Lee. 
"Wainwright  Hall"  built  by  Peter 
Ingersoll  the  Tory,  his  confiscated 
house  purchased  by  David  Wain- 
wright;  his  grandson,  Lieutenant 
George  Wainwright,  a  son  of  General 
Timothy    Wainwright,  distinguished 


stay  in  Albany.  But  under  the 
unexpectedly  adverse  circum- 
stances of  the  expedition,. 
Madam  Riedesdel  never  parted 
with  her  rose-colored  glasses  or 
interest  in  all  things  American; 
for  it  seems  the  brilliant  army 
left    Canada  with  confidence  in. 


34^      Old  Paths  of  the  New  Eno'land  Border 


himself  at  Palo  Alto  and  the  storm- 
ing of  Monterey.  Leavitt  estate, 
"  Brookside."  Merritt  Wheeler 
homestead.  Whitlock  house.  Jona- 
than Nash-Dearing  house  (,1790). 

DRIVES  FROM  GREAT  BARRING- 
TON:  Alford  and  return — 77  miles; 
Ashley  Falls — 10;  Bash  Bish — j./; 
Bear  Rock,  by  Mount  Washington — • 
75;  Bear  Rock,  by  Mount  Washing- 
ton, return  by  Sheffield — 2S;  Canaan, 
Conn. — 12;  Clayton — 77;  Glendale, 
• — 7;  Green  River,  N.  Y.,  by  Seekonk, 
return  by  North  Egremont — 77; 
Hudson,  N.  Y. — 27;  Lake  Buel — 5; 
"  Highlawn  Farm," — 122',  Hills- 
dale. N.  Y. — 10;  Housatonic — 5; 
Lake  Garfield — 10;  Lakeville,  Conn. 
— 77;  Lee — 77  i;  Mount  Washing- 
ton, Whitbeck's,  Sunset  Moun- 
tain— 77;  Mount  Washington  P.  O. — 
10;  New  Marlboro',  return  by  Brush 
Hill — 22 ;  North  Egremont — 5 ;  North 
Egremont,  Prospect  Lake,  return  by 
Ox  Bow  Summit,  Baldwin  Hill — 7  /; 
Otis  Reservoir — iq;  Pittsfield — 20; 
Sage's  Ravine — 12;  Sage's  Ravine, 
return  by  Chapinville,  Cooper  Hill 
• — 27;  Sheffield — 6;  Stockbridge,  by 
Glendale — 16;  Tipping  Rock,  by 
Mill  River,  return  by  Southfield,  New 
Marlboro',  Lake  Buel — 26;  The 
Dome  Summit — 14.  Between  Shef- 
field and  Great  Barrington  are  7 
roads,  and  21  trips  returning  by 
different  roads  from  13  to  2j  miles. 


an  eas}^  victory^  and  many  offi- 
cers' wives  attended  their  hus- 
bands, promising  themselves  an 
agreeable  trip  to  New  York.  On 
the  eve  of  surrender,  the  illumi- 
nated mansion  of  General  Schuy- 
ler rang,  says  the  Brunswick 
J ournaW  with,  singing,  laughter, 
and  the  jingling  of  glasses," 
as  Burgoyne  and  his  compan- 
ions made  merry  over  a  royal 
supper.  Outside,  cold  and  hun- 
gry officers  slept  on  the  ground, 
and  wet  through  and  through 
by  rains  Baroness  Riedesdel  lay 
down  with  her  children  upon 
straw  before  an  open  fire.  Next 
day  General  Schuyler's  Saratoga 
mansion  was  burned  to  the 
ground  as  a  military  necessity, 
and  rebuilt  in  fifteen  days  by 
General  Gates's  army  with  tim- 
ber drawn  from  the  forest. 


The  closing  scene  of  Shays 's  Rebellion,  that  singular  revolt 
caused  by  hard  times  after  the  Revolution,  took  place  in 
Great  Barrington.  Paper  money  was  worth  nothing  and 
the  best  of  folks  were  obliged  to  go  to  jail  for  want  of  money 
to  pay  taxes.  The  editor  of  the  Worcester  Spy  took 
subscriptions    in   salt   pork.     Captain    Hamlin    and    other 

1  While  Baroness  Riedesdel  was  the  guest  of  Mrs.  Schuyler,  "One  of 
her  little  girls,  on  just  coming  into  the  house,  exclaimed,  'Oh  Mama!  is 
this  the  palace  papa  was  to  have  when  he  came  to  America?'  As  the 
Schuyler  family  understood  German,  Madam  Riedesdel  colored  at  the 
remark,  which  however  was  pleasantly  got  over." — Life  of  Peter  Van 
Schaick. 


Pond's  Brook,  Huntington. 
Of  the  fraternity  of  hill- streams  of  Western  Massachusetts, 
wrote  "  I  never  can  Forget,"  a  fact  mentioned  by  him   to 
Curtis. 


Here  Bryant 
George   WilUam 


347 


34^     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

characters  in  Bellamy's  Duke  of  Stockbridge  were  real  person- 
ages hereabouts. 

Great  Barrington  is  rich  in  rivers, — the  Housatonic,  the 
Williams,  and  that  loved  by  Bryant,  the  pellucid  Green  River, 
filled  with  sparkles  of  light;  the  Indians  called  it  Waum- 
paniksepoot — White  River, — but  the  Settlement  Committee 
-changed  the  name  of  this  surpassingly  beautiful  stream — 
flowing  down  from  Austerlitz,  N.  Y.,  through  Alford  and  Egre- 
mont — to  accord  with  the  color  of  its  waters.  Bryant  fled 
from  the  drudgery  of  law  to  the  banks  of  Green  River  seek- 
ing a  lonely  hour  in  his  favorite  refuge  under  a  tree  overhang- 
ing the  stream  on  the  estate  of  the  late  J.  Milton  Mackie. 
Bryant  filled  several  town  offices  and  Dr.  Arthur  Lawrence 
writes:  "It  was  Bryant's  duty  as  town  clerk  to  publish  the 
banns  of  marriage  in  the  church,  which  was  generally  done 
by  reading  them  aloud;  but  in  his  own  case  he  pinned  the 
required  notice  on  the  door  of  the  vestibule,  and  kept  care- 
fully out  of  sight."  1  As  Justice  of  the  Peace,  he  twice 
performed  the  marriage  ceremony,  and  an  old  gentleman 
made  it  his  boast  that  he  was  "jined  to  his  first  old  woman 
by  Squire  Bryant." 

One  of  Nature's  marvels  is  the  sunset  light  flung  against 
East  Mountain,  and  to  me  the  sweetest  of  Bryant's  verse 
written  here  is  A  Walk  at  Sunset. 

"Oh  sun!  that  o'er  the  western  mountains  now 
Go'st  down  in  glory!  ever  beautiful 

Yet,  loveliest  are  thy  setting  smiles,  and  fair, 
Fairest  of  all  that  earth  beholds,  the  hues 

That  live  among  the  clouds,  and  flush  the  air, 
Lingering  and  deepening  at  the  hour  o]  dews.'' 

Every  one  climbs  the  flower-decked  path  of  Mount  Peter  ;• 

1  "Bryant  and  the  Berkshire  Hills,"  The  Century  Mae:azine,  July,  1895. 


Magnificent  View-Points  349 

blue-bells  and  columbine  find  a  foothold  in  the  crevices  of 
blue  limestone.  North  of  Mount  Peter  (so  called  for  Captain 
Peter  Ingersoll)  is  Kellogg  Terrace,  the  estate  of  Mrs.  E.  F. 
Searles.  The  Hopkins  Memorial  Manse  of  solid  granite  was 
erected  by  Mrs.  Mary  Hopkins  Searles  for  the  Congregational 
church,  in  honor  of  its  first  pastor,  the  pupil  and  intimate 
friend  of  Jonathan  Edwards — Rev.  Samuel  Hopkins,  D.D. 
He  is  the  hero  of  The  Minister's  Wooing.  General  Ives  and 
the  Hon.  John  Whiting  were  ]\Iajor-Generals  of  ]\Iilitia. 
The  Hon.  Increase  Sumner  w^as  prominent  in  civic  affairs 
for  nearly  fifty  years. 

Great  Barrington  was  the  County  Seat  until  the  courts 
were  removed  to  Lenox  in  1787.  In  that  epoch  the  distin- 
guished lawyer  Major-General  Thomas  Ives  was  prominent 
in  town  and  military  affairs.  Mrs.  Ives  was  a  grand- 
daughter of  General  Dwight,  and  a  daughter  of  the  Hon. 
Jedediah  Foster  of  Brookfield,  Mass.  The  Misses  Ives  were 
great  belles,  and  one  of  their  ball  invitations  printed  on  the 
back  of  a  playing  card  in  18 10  is  in  the  possession  of  Miss 
Harriet  Wells. 

Mr.  Fuller's  Public  Ball 

The  Miss  Ives 

company  is  requested  at  Mr.  Ruggles 

hall-room  on  Friday  Feb.  2nd,  at  6  o'clock  P.M. 

H.  D.  Sedgwick    \ 

S.  Jones  y      Managers 

C.  Webster  \ 

A  great  charm  of  the  town  is  its  magnificent  view-points — 
to  Prospect  Rock  or  East  Rock  on  Mount  Bryant  is  a  fairly 
hard  climb,  but,  within  half  a  mile  of  the  railroad  station, 
an  easy  path  creeps  upward  through  a  sunshiny  hill  pasture 
bordered  by  a  green  wood;  pine-needles  strewn  over  tree- 
roots  offer  an  agreeable  seat  in  the  forest  balcony  on  the 


350    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

edge  of  the  hill;  across  swaying  tree-tops  swells  The  Dome 
of  the  Taconics.  The  inspiring  landscape  of  valley  and 
mountain  extends  into  three  States.  As  evening  ap- 
proaches, the  wood-thrush  pipes  in  harmony  with  the  lines 
of  Cowper: 


Morning.      The  East  Road  to  Sheffield. 

"No  noise  is  here,  or  one  that  hinders  thought; 
Stillness  accompanied  with  sounds  like  these 
Charms  more  than  silence.     Meditation  here 
May  think  down  hours  to  moments.     Here  the  heart 
May  give  a  useful  lesson  to  the  head 
And  learning  wiser  grow  without  his  books.'' 

The  road  to  Alford  and  the  East  Road  to  Sheffield  are 


Sage's  Ravine  and  the  Ice  Gulf  351 

rivals  in  beauty.  The  latter  skirts  June  Mountain  (named 
for  Benjamin  June  who  cleared  it)  and  crosses  Sheffield  Plain. 
From  Sheffield,  The  Dome  ^  of  the  Taconics  appears  so  near 
and  so  soft  in  its  outlines  that  one  would  nev^er  dream  of 
that  ragged,  precipitous  Bash  Bish  gorge  on  its  slope.  The 
famous  Sage's  Ravine  lies  between  Race  and  Bear  moun- 
tains, and  the  Ice  Gulf  west  of  Lake  Buel. 

In  Sheffield  is  Barnard  Mountain  and  the  Barnard  home- 
stead, the  home  of  Major-General  Barnard,  "the  soldier- 
scholar  of  our  Civil  War";  Dr.  Frederick  A.  P.  Barnard, 
President  of  Columbia  University,  was  born  in  Sheffield,  and 
Daniel  Dewey  Barnard,  minister  to  Prussia ;  also,  George  F. 
Root,  the  composer.  Not  far  from  Sheffield's  "Big  Elm," 
in  w^hich  "The  Autocrat"  delighted,  lived  the  Rev.  Orville 
Dewey,  one  of  the  best  beloved  exponents  of  Unitarianism. 
The  "  Friendly  Union  "  building  is  a  memorial  to  Dr.  Dewey. 

1  The  usual  way  of  ascending  The  Dome  from  South  Egremont  is  to 
ride  some  ten  miles  into  the  village  of  Mount  Washington  within  twenty 
minutes  of  the  summit.  A  romantic  path  from  South  Egremont  on  the 
eastern  side  is  described  by  Mr.  John  Coleman  Adams:  "Like  most  well- 
regulated  mountain  trails  this  one  began  in  a  wood-road,  old  and  grass- 
grown  and  mossy  "   {Nature  Studies  in  Berkshire,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons). 


FROM  GREAT  BARRINGTON  TO  LITCHFIELD 

THE  UNDER  MOUNTAIN  ROAD 

The  finest  of  all  fine  roads  in  Lower  Berkshire  is  the 
Under  Mountain  Road  lying  between  Great  Barrington  and 
Salisbury,  Conn.  It  runs  nearly  parallel  with  the  summit 
line  of  the  Taconic  Range — at  a  respectful  distance,  thus 
commanding  a  fine  perspective.  In  the  first  miles  out  of 
Great  Barrington,  you  pass  near  the  scene  of  Shays 's  fight 
in  1787  and  a  corner  of  Bow- Wow  and  the  Curtis  home- 
stead in  its  pretty  green  mountain  frame;  the  road  borders 
the  lofty  township  of  ]\Iount  Washington,  the  extreme 
southwestern  corner  of  Berkshire.  ]\Iount  Washington  was 
long  the  home  of  the  ''Sky  Farm  poets,"  Elaine  and  Dora 
R.  Goodale;  an  armful  of  Apple-Blossoms  made  them 
famous. 

From  the  Under  ^fountain  Road  you  may  turn  aside  at 
the  Connecticut  boundary  and  \^sit  Sage's  Ravine,  a  beauti- 
ful but  fearsome  spot  where  one  w^ould  not  wish  to  lose  his 
path  with  night  coming  on.  Or  you  may  turn  east  to  the 
blue  waters  of  Salisbury's  glorious  Twin  Lakes — Panahe- 
connok  and  Hokonkamok,  or  Washining  and  Washinee, 
the  ''Laughing  Water"  and  the  "Smiling  Water."  North 
of  the  lakes  rises  Babes'  Hill,  east  is  Miles  Mountain  and 
bold  Tom's  Barack. 

Washining  and  Washinee  were  the  beautiful  daughters 
of  an  old  and  tyrannical  chief  who  claimed  the  land  between 
the  Housatonic  and  the  Hudson:  suitors  travelled  from 
far  council-fires,  but  none  were  accepted.  War  was  made 
on  the  chief  by  a  hostile  tribe,  but  the  Weatogue  band 
were    crafty,    and    the    young   leader    was    captured    and 

352 


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354     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

condemned  to  death  by  torture.  Each  of  the  sisters  secretly 
fell  in  love  with  the  captive  brave,  and  brought  him  food. 
They  begged  their  obdurate  father  to  set  him  free;  finally, 
wild  with  grief,  the  sisters  confessed  to  each  other  their 
secret.  The  evening  arrived  before  the  fateful  day  of 
torture  and  no  reprieve.  Then  the  dusky  maidens  pushed 
off  their  frail  canoe  into  the  moonlit  waves  and  sprang  into 
the  lake  together.  They  say  that  when  the  moon  is  at  the 
full  an  empty  canoe  is  seen  floating,  it  may  be  on  Wash- 
ining,  it  may  be  on  Washinee ;  if  you  gaze  long  it  will  fade 
away,  and  the  stillness  is  broken  only  by  the  hoot  of  the 
night-owl. 

The  Weatogue  district  or  "wigwam  place"  borders  the 
west  bank  of  the  Housatonic  in  Salisbury  on  the  early  trail 
joining  the  Stockbridge  wigwams  with  those  of  the  Schaghti- 
cokes  below  the  village  of  Kent,  traced  by  the  apple-trees 
which  have  sprung  up  in  the  wake  of  the  moccasin;  near 
Weatogue's  Council  Elm  many  relics  of  the  tribe  have  been 
found.  Butcher's  Bridge  spans  the  river  between  the 
Russell  farm  and  Butcher's  on  the  Canaan  ^  side. 

It  was  in  1720  that  three  men,  Butcher,  Knickerbacker, 

1  Canaan  on  the  Housatonic  is  very  lovely  with  gentle,  undulating  hills 
encircling  its  homesteads.  The  Blackberry  River  or  Bromfoxit,  willow- 
fringed,  enhances  the  beauty  of  the  pasture-lands  and  the  railroad 
follows  its  course,  high  above,  on  a  terrace  of  drift.  On  Canaan  summit 
is  Lake  Mangum.  On  the  river  stands  the  house  (1747)  of  an  ironmaster 
pioneer,  Squire  Samuel  Forbes;  it  is  the  home  of  Mrs.  Mary  Geikie  Adam, 
whose  illustrated  Sketch  of  Canaan  is  included  in  The  Connecticut 
Quarterly  of  April,  1896.  The  homestead  of  William  Adam  was  built  in 
1808.  Canaan  Falls  possesses  a  certain  grandeur;  other  cascades  among 
the  Litchfield  Hills  are  the  romantic  glade  Kent  Falls  and  the  Maiden's 
Well,  the  falls  in  Roxbury — the  native  town  of  Col.  Seth  Warner,  who 
took  Crown  Point, — and  those  at  New  Milford. 

The  hill-town  of  Norfolk  owes  much  to  its  first  minister,  one  of  the 
remarkable  men  in  Litchfield  County,  and  an  early  educator,  the  Rev. 
Ammi  Ruhamah  Robbins;  also  to  the  Battells  and  the  Eldridge  family. 
It  is  famous  for  its  unusual  privileges  in  music,  the  Library,  and  Eldridge 
Gymnasium. 


Mount  Riga  in  Salisbury 


355 


and  Johannes  Dyckman,  Captain  of  the  Livingston  Manor 
company  of  miHtia,  purchased  land  of  William  Gaylord  and 
one  Noble  of  New  Milford,  who  possessed  a  grant  here. 
The  English  Puritans  came  later  from  Windsor,  and  Swiss 
and  Russian  colliers  were  imported  to  smelt  the  rich  iron-ore 


Angoras  "in  Clover."     Connecticut. 

beds  of  Salisbury.  There  was  as  great  excitement  on  the 
Connecticut  border  over  Ore  Hill  and  Mt.  Riga  as  over  the 
California  gold-fields  in  '49.  These  early  settlers  have 
bequeathed  to  Salisbury  a  varied  nomenclature — no  other 
township  in  Connecticut  has  kept  so  many  Indian  names; 


35^     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

the  very  titles  of  her  mountains,  hollows  and  witching  water- 
ways invite  you  to  come  and  see  and  wonder,  for  Salisbury 
on  the  border  is  peculiarly  beautiful  and  interesting,  and  the 
air  pure  and  exhilarating. 

It  is  still  an  open  question  as  to  whether  unique  Mount 
Riga  was  named  by  the  Swiss  colliers  Mount  Rhigi,  or 
Riga  by  the  Russians  who  came  to  work  the  Old  Furnace 
(the  Ball's  Forge  of  1781)  on  the  mountain.  Mount  Riga 
combines  the  attractions  of  three  mountains  in  one.  The 
road  to  the  Old  Furnace  winds  four  miles  along  a  sprightly, 
tumbling  creek — Wachocastinook  or  Fell  Kill,  haunt  of 
speckled  trout;  two  thirds  of  the  distance  up,  the  distant 
music  of  falling  water  entices  you  to  the  edge  of  the  deep 
green  raA^ne.  Near  the  Old  Furnace  is  the  Pettee  home- 
stead, built  by  one  of  the  ironmasters  associated  with 
Coffing  and  Holley  in  shipping  iron  to  the  United  States 
armories  for  muskets;  and  from  Salisbury  iron  was  made 
the  great  chain  stretched  across  the  Hudson,  defying 
British  warships. 

It  is  surprising  to  find  a  chain  of  lakes  high  up  in  the  air, 
and  more  surprising  to  see  Riga  Lake  mountain-locked  by 
higher  peaks.  From  Lotus  Lodge,  the  camp  of  the  Hon. 
Donald  T.  AYarner,  the  effect  is  startling  and  like  artificial 
scenery,  especially  when  the  three  encircling  mountains — 
Brace  (in  Connecticut)  and  Buck  (in  New  York  State)  and 
the  poetical  Alandar  (of  Massachusetts) — are  decked  in 
Autumn's  scarlet  and  crimson  and  orange  with  a  hint  of 
olive;  the  pond  itself,  by  reflection,  is  like  a  huge  strawberry- 
colored  bowl;  Riga  might  be  called  the  Lake  of  the  three 
States.  A  road  leads  from  ]\Iount  Riga  to  Bear  Mountain, 
the  highest  peak  in  the  State.  The  gilded  globe  on  top  of  a 
monument  erected  by  Robbins  Battell  of  Norfolk  is  2390 
feet  above  tide-water. 

As   you   enter   the   centre   of    Salisbury   on   the   Under 


Ore  Hill,  Lakeville  357 

Mountain  Road,  near  Ball  Brook  is  the  Thomas  Ball  home- 
stead of  1745,  and  beyond  is  the  Scoville  homestead.^  On 
your  right  is  the  Lion's  Head  of  the  Taconic;  the  Clapp 
house  is  now  Maple  Shade  Inn.  Salisbury's  log  meeting- 
house 2  was  set  so  that  its  sill  enclosed  the  stake  driven  into 
the  exact  centre  of  the  town.  A  striking  contrast  in  ar- 
chitecture is  the  old  Bushnell  Tavern  and  the  modern 
Scoville  Memorial  Library.  South  is  the  John  Churchill 
Cofhng  homestead,  the  residence  of  the  Hon.  Donald  T. 
Warner.  An  old  saying  is  that  the  stranger  who  drinks  of 
the  crystal  springs  which  feed  "The  Kettle"  will,  without 
doubt,  return  to  Salisbury;  and  he  must  visit  the  Indian 
Cave  in  the  Wetauwanchu  ^Mountain  but  half  a  mile  distant. 
In  a  house  standing  under  bold  Barack  Matiff,  Alexander 
Hamilton  studied  civil  engineering  with  Samuel  ]\Ioore,  the 
eminent  mathematician. 

In  1790  the  Litchfield  Monitor  held  this  advertisement: 
"Salisbury  Fair  to  be  holden  at  the  Meeting  House  Green 
in  said  Salisbury  on  the  13th  of  April  inst.,  to  begin  at  Sun- 
Rise  and  continue  Three  Days.  All  persons  inclining  to 
attend  may  depend  upon  Fair  Bargains  and  Civil  Usage." 

Wononscopomuc  and  Wononpakook  welcome  you  at 
Lakeville,  formerly  Salisbury  Furnace;  the  brown  hematite 
is  still  dug  out  from  a  "  live  pit "  in  Ore  Hill  ^  which  has  been 
worked  for  almost  two  centuries,  and  is  shipped  to  Lime 
Rock  district  and  Canaan  for  smelting.     Ethan  x\llen  had 

1  Residence  of  Mrs.  Carrie  Scoville  Fisher. 

2  A  lot  for  the  first  church  was  the  gift  of  Colonel  Robert  Walker  of 
Stratford  opposite  the  present  parsonage.  Rev.  Jonathan  Lee's  home- 
lot  was  the  present  site  of  the  Stiles  house  built  in  1772. 

3  The  story  of  Ore  Hill  and  the  ironmasters  is  included  in  Air.  Malcolm 
Day  Rudd's  Historical  Sketch  of  Salisbury,  with  an  invaluable  Note  on 
Indian  Names  by  Irvin  W.  Sanford.  This  is  supplementary  to  Sanford's 
capital  Map  of  Salisbury.  The  Connecticut  Quarterly  in  1904  published 
an  illustrated  sketch  of  Lakeville,  by  Mr.  Rudd. 


35^    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

iron  interests  here  as  well  as  Robert  Livingston,  who  pur- 
chased the  Jabez  Swift  house  of  1773  on  Old  Town  Hill, 
occupied  for  a  time  by  Mrs.  General  Montgomery.  Here  was 
laid  out  a  green  and  a  market-place.  From  the  Hotchkiss 
School  on  Old  Town  Hill  and  from  Tory  Hill  are  fine  views. 
In  Lakeville  is  the  birthplace  of  Governor  Alexander  H. 


The  Governor  Alexander  H.  Holley  House;  the  Rudd  Residence,  Lakeville, 

Conn. 

Holley  and  the  Joshua  Porter  and  Gen.  Elisha  Sterling 
homesteads.  Between  the  lakes  is  the  Warner  homestead, 
and  on  Wononscopomuc  is  the  Taconic  School. 

On  leaving  Lakeville  to  pursue  your  road  southward  to 
the  home  of  the  Schaghticokes  in  Kent,  choose  the  road 
which  enters  the  historic  and  beautiful  town  of  Sharon  ^  by 

»  The  Governor  John  Cotton  Smith  house  in  Sharon  is  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  architecture  of  the  Georgian  period.  It  is  still  perfect, 
having  been  built  by  skilled  ItaHan  workmen  imported  for  the  purpose. 
In  the  garret  were  discovered  family  documents  interwoven  recently  into 
Colonial  Days  and  Ways  by  Miss  Helen  A.  Smith  of  Sharon, 


Ladder  of  Mountains,  Salisbury  359 

way  of  Indian  Pond  or  Wequadnach.  Under  Indian 
Mountain  on  the  Alillerton  road  stood  an  Indian  village, 
where  the  ^Moravians  established  a  mission,  a  fact  well-nigh 
forgotten  and  long  neglected.  The  story  of  the  lake  and 
mountain  and  mission  has  been  told  by  the  Rev.  Edward 
Dyer  of  Sharon  in  his  delightful  volume  on  this  northwestern 
corner  of  Connecticut,  Gnadensee,  or  the  Lake  of  Grace.  It 
would  be  a  novel  adventure  to  ascend  his  "  Stairs  of 
Gnadensee,"  climbing  mountain  after  mountain  of  Old 
Salisbury,  a  step  higher  each  time  from  west  to  east;  the 
first  stair  is  Indian  Mountain  or  Poquonnoc,  "  cleared  land  " ; 
the  next  Mount  Riga,  then  Bald  Peak  and  Bear,  and  finally 
Berkshire's  grand  Dome  of  the  Taconics. 

In  Northwestern  Connecticut  is  "Hemlock  Hollow," 
w^here  the  snow  and  ice  rarely  melt.  According  to  a  Scat- 
acook  legend,  the  "Hollow"  was  the  torture  ground  of  the 
spirits  of  bad  Indians.  The  soul  of  any  one  who  died 
within  its  shadow  could  never  escape  their  demon  clutches. 
The  fell  spirits  sometimes  escaped  for  short  periods  and 
raised  the  fiercest  storms. 

THE  SCHAGHTICOKES 

At  the  point  in  Kent  where  the  Housatonic  swerves 
toward  Connecticut's  west  boundary  and  turns  away  again, 
ragged  Scatacook  Mountain  rises  abruptly  above  a  fertile 
interval — a  green  shelf  as  it  were — on  which  cluster  a  few 
huts,  remnant  of  the  village  of  the  Schaghticoke  tribe, 
who  sent  out  one  hundred  warriors  to  answer  the  call  of 
Washington. 

These  organized  a  unique  Committee  of  Correspondence 
and  Safety  between  Stockbridge  and  the  Sound,  for  it  is 
said  that  they  were  able  to  communicate  intelligence  from 
the  seaboard    by  significant  Indian  whoops   or  yells  from 


3^0    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

their  men  stationed  along  the  Housatonic.  It  is  well 
known  in  Gaylordsville  that  the  Indians  often  signalled 
members  of  the  tribe  who  had  gone  to  dig  clams  and  oysters 
at  Stratford  by  bonfires  on  Pickett  Rocks  (a  high  point 
above  Ten-Mile-River)  and  on  Straits  Mountain  and 
Candlewood. 


Schaghticoke  or  Scatacook  JMonntain  and  The  Housatonic. 
Mohicans  from  Shekomeko  and  Wequadnach  joined  the  Schaghticokes  just 

north  on  their  Reservation. 

From  the  huts,  little  paths  lead  to  the  spring  and  the 
hunting-traps.  The  Indians  sell  the  skins  of  the  rattle- 
snakes, which  they  hunt  in  the  spring  on  Scatacook ;  Candle- 
wood  Mountain  has  "  rattlers ' '  too.  Scatacook  is  smothered 
in  arbutus  and  laurel  and  in  out-of-the  way  nooks  you 
may  chance  on  "the  whippoorwill's  shoe"  as  old  Abigail 
says  the  squaws  call  the  pink  moccasin  flower,  because  it 


Bull's  Bridge  on  the  Housatonic  3^1 

is  as  shy  as  the  whippoorwill,  of  which  there  are  many  on 
Scatacook.  They  all  go  down  "  lampereeling "  for  silver 
eels  at  Eel  Rocks  or  Great  Falls  at  New  Milford  by  inherited 
right. 

The  last  of  the  royal  line  was  Eunice  Mahwee,  a  grand- 
child of  good  Gideon  Mahneesman,  the  first  convert  at 
Pachgatgoch  (1743),  the  Moravian  Mission  here.  The 
Indian  burial-ground  is  north  in  Kent  on  the  Raymond 
farm  on  the  old  lands  of  the  Reservation,  which  the  Indians 
sold,  being  indifferent  to  agriculture. 

Some  say  the  Schaghticokes  were  Mohicans,  some 
Pequots;  whence  they  came  is  a  mystery;  these  may  have 
been  of  the  Iroquois,  at  all  events  they  doubtless  held  with 
other  tribes  the  prehistoric  tradition  that  mankind  came 
out  of  caves.  A  Mohawk  chief  told  a  missionary  that  his 
people  "had  once  dwelt  in  earth  where  it  was  dark  and  no 
sun  did  shine.  Though  they  followed  hunting  they  ate 
mice  caught  with  their  hands.  Ganawagakha  (one  of 
them)  accidently  found  a  hole  to  get  out  of  the  earth; 
he  went  out;  he  found  a  deer  which  he  took  back  with 
him,  it  tasted  very  good;  he  found  the  country  above  so 
beautiful  that  their  mother  brought  them  all  out,  and 
then  planted  corn." 

The  Housatonic  winds  with  calm  grace  past  the  wild 
Scatacook,  then  tumbles  into  cataracts,  at  Bull's  Bridge 
or  one  might  say  did  tumble,  for  the  mad  and  delicious 
turbulence  of  the  river  here  is  now  held  in  leash  by  a  fine 
exploit  in  engineering ;  the  new  dam  compels  the  Housatonic 
to  turn  far-distant  wheels  within  wheels  at  Waterbury; 
but  alas !  lost  are  the  whirling  eddies  attacked  by  the  Indian 
with  his  spear,  caused  by  the  spirited  leap  upon  leap  between 
narrow  walls  of  the  mighty  stream  to  reach  its  goal — the  sea. 

When  Ensign  William  Gaylord  ^  was  granted  1000  acres 

1  The    first   William    Gaylord    or    Gaillard    (the    Gaillards    were    from. 


3^2     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


Whemenuck  Fann  or  ''Cross  Roads." 
Ehenezer  Gaylord  built  this  homestead  in  1800  for  his    son  Daniel  Har- 
vey Gaylord  in  the  event  of  his  jnarriage.     Gaylord  residence. 

in  New  Milford  township  (some  miles  south  of  the  home 
of  the  Schaghticokes,  and  the  meeting  of  the  Webotuck 
with  the  Housatonic)  he  found  Old  Siacus,  one  of  the  tribe, 
living  in  a  hut  above  The  Straits,  at  what  is  now  Gaylord 's 
bridge;  his  beloved  apple-orchard  had  been  sold  out  with 
the  township  by  his  chiefs,  but  he  was  allowed  by  Ensign 
Gaylord  (of  the  train-band)  to  stay  and  enjoy  his  apple- 
trees,  the  *'01d  Siacus  orchard."  It  is  related  by  one  of 
the  Gaylords  that  being  grateful  he  attached  himself  as  a 
follower  of  the  family,  and,  on  an  Indian  uprising,  "carried 

Chateau  Gaillard  in  Normandy)  came  on  the  Mary  and  John  and  signed 
the  first  land  grants  in  Dorchester.  He  then  went  to  Windsor  with  the 
Rev.  John  Warham,  and  Widow  Gaylord  devised  twenty  acres  of  land  to 
the  church  of  Windsor  forever.  There  exists  to-day  a  town,  Gaylord 
by  name,  in  Kansas,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Montana,  and  Virginia. 


Indian  Names,  Gaylordsville  363 

my  grandmother  and  her  child  on  his  back  to  safety  in  the 
woods." 

Through  the  Gay  lord  home-lot  ripples  Naromiyock- 
nowhusunkatanks chunk,  otherwise  Deep  or  Big  Brook; 
this  name  has  been  handed  down  by  the  Gaylords  of  the 
*'  Old  Red  Abbey"  homestead.  "  Grandfather  Gaylord  "  at 
the  Cross-Roads  jotted  down  the  aboriginal  names  in  his 
note-book.  Red  Plum  Plains,  that  is  the  whole  valley 
here,  is  Whemenuck;  Cat  Rocks  is  Motompquasuc;  Long 
Mountain,  Quanictuck;  Cedar  Hill,  entered  through  the 
horse-shoe  bars,  is  Pawqiiiak.  In  the  Gaylordsville  home- 
stead, Charles  Seelye  Gaylord,  the  artist,  was  born.  The 
Gaylord  grant  included  Town  Hill,  New  Alilford,  where 
the  Ingleside  School  and  Christ  Church  now  stand.  In  the 
earlier  Milford  deeds,  the  Housatonic  is  always  **  The  Great 
River"  until  1744,  when  in  a  deed  by  William  Sherman, 
father  of  Roger  Sherman,  to  William  Gaylord,  the  Hous- 
satunnick  River  is  mentioned.^ 

The  Hon.  Orange  Merwin,  whose  house  stood  at  ''  Merry- 
all,"  New  Milford,  travelled  on  horseback  to  Washington 
City,  when  a  member  of  Congress.  He  writes  home  to  Mr. 
Daniel  H.  Gaylord  at  the  Cross-Roads  (now  Gaylordsville) : 

Washington,   Feb.   20,  1S26. 
''My  dear  Friend. — 

"The  state  of  society  here,  is  easy  and  pleasant,  a  person 
can  associate  with  such  as  he  chooses — the  most  stylish  and 
extravagant  can  find  others  like  themselves,  whilst  the 
more  plain,  sensible,  and  prudent,  are  respected  and  easily 
assimilate.  .  .  .  The  utmost  ease  of  manners  and 
equality  of  deportment  is  shown     .     .     .     and  no  notice 

1  This,  "in  the  Seventeenth  year  of  the  Reign  of  our  Sovereign  Lord 
George  the  Second  over  Great  Brittain,  King  Defender  of  the  Faith," 
■etc.,  is  signed  in  the  presence  of  Abel  Wright,  Jr.,  William  Gaylord,  Roger 
■Sherman.     The  Gaylord  deeds  are  possessed  by  Mrs.  Henry  E.  Bostwick. 


3^4    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

is  taken  of  any  peculiarity  of  appearance  or  character. 
Mr.  Adams  himself  is  a  plain  man  with  simple  Republican 
manners.  Mrs.  Gaylord  may  perhaps  inquire — how  is  Mrs. 
Adams? — At  the  Levees  her  usual  dress  is  white  silk 
flounced  with  rows  of  [blurred]  a  long  mantle  shawl,  hand 
wrought,  a  head  dress  of  flowrets  and  hair  in  ringlets — she 


The  Hon.  Elijah  Boardman  House,  of  1793,  New  Milford  on  the  Hoiisatonic. 
Residence  of  j\Irs.  George  Wm.  Wright. 

is  elegant,  easy  and  graceful,  a  very  interesting  woman — 
here  you  may  find  beauty  and  fashion  with  all  their  charms. 
.  .  .  You  talk  and  chat  with  anyone,  sip  a  cup  of  tea,  partake 
of  viands  .  .  .  carried  through  the  crowd  by  servants, 
and  finding  yourself  at  length  weary,  quite  pleased, — if 
small  talk,  fine  bows  and  pretty  faces  are  calculated  to 
please  you, — sentiment  here  has  nothing  to  do;  if  you  are 
well  dressed  and  can  say  some  simple  thing  in  an  easy  way, 
you  pass  off  for  a  Gentleman,  the  Ladies  smiling  upon  yon 
at  every  step — " 


The  Lake  Country  of  Connecticut         3^5 

Again  Mr.  Merwin  writes : 

"Our  Mess  consists  of  Mallary,  Waters  and  Swift  of 
Vermont,  Wright,  Vinton  and  Woods  of  Ohio,  Wing  of 
Michigan  and  Barker  and  myself  of  Conn.  .  .  .  The 
house  was  engaged  about  ten  days  in  deciding  whether 
the  damage  done  by  a  negro  in  the  Hne  before  New  Orleans 
should  be  paid  for  or  not;  in  the  debate  Genl.  Jackson  was 
represented  a  tyrant,  a  monster,  whilst  the  next  man  would 
describe  him  as  a  hero,  a  patriot,  a  benefactor — Cuffe  in  the 
meantime  would  be  forgotten  for  hours  together — this  was 
no  matter  however  as  the  speeches  were  designed  for  the 
good  people  at  home  and  not  for  Cuffe.     .     .     ."  ^ 

On  leaA^ng  New  Milford,  where  was  built  the  first  bridge 
across  the  Housatonic,  one  may  see  the  remaining  lakes 
of  the  Lake  Country  by  taking  the  road  to  Litchfield,  which 
skirts  Lake  Waramaug  set  in  steep  wooded  heights,  such 
as  remind  one  of  the  beautiful  Highlands  of  the  Hudson. 
Lake  Bantam  at  Litchfield,  of  some  900  acres,  is  the  largest 
in  the  State. 

1  Hitherto  unpublished.     By  the  courtesy  of  Miss  Jeannette  Gaylord. 


LITCHFIELD,   1720-1724 

''There  were  a  good  many  cogs  in  the  ^nighty  wheel  which  turned  the- 
machinery  of  the  American  Revolution.  The  swords  of  Washington,  Greene 
and  Lafayette — the  eloquence  of  Adams,  Henry  and  Lee — the  pens  of 
Franklin,  Jefferson  and  Jay — were  equally  necessary,  the  good  work  was 
achieved  not  by  an  individual  but  by  a  multitude.  Peyton  Randolph  was 
not  the  only  em,inent  Crown  officer  who  forced  a  bill  of  attainder — Putnam- 
was  not  the  only  farmer  who  left  one  horse  hi  the  furrow,  and  mounted  the 
other  in  his  fanner's  frock  to  speed  the  battle  muster,  .  .  .  the  ^nechanic 
who  gave  his  all — Jiis  labor,  and  sat  up  night  and  day  to  forge  the  pike- 
peak  .  .  .  and  the  maiden  who  stopped  not  to  weep  over  her  slain  lover,  but 
handed  up  cartridges  and  carried  water  to  the  dying  soldiers  .  .  .  were 
each  but  one  among  a  thousand.'" — Randall's  Life  of  Jefferson. 


[ANY  a  New  England  mile 
lies  between  Old  Ports- 
mouth and  Salem  by 
the  sea  and  Litchfield  on 
the  west  border,  yet  the 
stranger  is  conscious  of  a 
kinship  between  the  stately 
town  among  the  hills  and 
the  seaports.  There  is  a 
certain  grace  of  architec- 
ture and  dignity  common 
to  the  homes  of  colonial 
days,  a  kinship  of  motive 
and  action  which  speak, 
although  the  setting  may 
sharply  differ ;  on  the  coast 
the  merchant  houses  stood 
often  at  the  head  of  a  lane  leading  up  from  the  owner's 
wharf,  or  even  on  a  cow- path ;  in  Connecticut  the  lay  of 
the  land    chosen    by    the    settlers    is  generally  high,  and 

3^7 


The  Beecher  Elm. 


368     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Litchfield's  two  old-fashioned,  lovable,  livable  grass-rib- 
boned streets  are  of  double  width,  and  cross  at  right  angles 
on  a  lofty  plateau,  crowned  by  many  an  elm,  "the  most 
beautiful  vegetable  of  the  Temperate  Zone."  At  neigh- 
borly distances,  in  strong  simplicity  the  homesteads 
stand  flanked  by  luxuriant   apple-blooms;  the  wayside   is 


Denting  Homestead,  "  The  Lindens,"  North  Street. 
Erected  lygo-;^.      William  Sprats,  Architect  {London)  for  Captain  Jttlius 
Deming  A.  A.  C.  C,  ''Eastern  Division,"  Continental  Army.     Resi- 
dence of  the  Hon.  J.  Deming  Perkins. 

yellow  with  buttercups  and  butterflies,  and  the  wind  blows 
fresh  from  Mount  Tom  and  his  brother  hills,  across  the 
pasture-lands,  ruffling  Bantam  Lake  and  the  gentle  river. 

One  of  several  unusually  fine  houses  of  the  Georgian 
period  on  lower  North  Street  is  architecturally  correct  in 
every  part.     It  was  built  for  the  merchant  Julius  Deming 


..rsss->^&- 


"  Town  Hill  Street"   (South  St.)  Litchfield. 
The  Elihu  Harrison  house,   residence  of  Mr.  James  Parsons  Woodruff; 

and  the  residence  of  the  Hon.  George  il/.  Woodruff. 
24  369 


3/0    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

(formerly  of  Lyme)  by  William  Sprats,  a  London  architect 
acting  with  the  King's  forces;  he  had  chosen  to  remain  in 
America,  and  the  first  house  of  his  design  was  that  of  Gen- 
eral Champion  at  East  Haddam.  Certain  houses  on  the 
North  River  are  known  as  "Sprats"  houses. 

There  is  a  striking  analogy  between  the  reflections  of  a 
''yellow  haired  little  rascal"  in  Portsmouth  and  young 
Oliver  Wolcott  of  Litchfield  (Judge  Oliver  Wolcott,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  and  Governor  of  Connecticut)  on 
the  strange  gloom  of  a  New  England  Sunday,  "  when  people 
who  were  prosperous,  natural  and  happy  on  Saturday 
became  the  most  rueful  of  human  beings  in  the  brief  space 
of  twelve  hours.  ...  It  was  merely  old  Puritan 
austerity  cropping  out  once  a  week."  You  remember  the 
description  of  the  "Bad  Boy" — Tom  Bailey  (Aldrich) : 

"It  is  Sunday  morning  .  .  .  the  deep  gloom  which 
has  settled  over  everything  set  in  like  a  heavy  fog  on 
Satm'dav  evening.  At  seven  o'clock  my  grandfather  comes 
smilelessly  down  stairs.  He  is  dressed  in  black,  and  looks  as 
if  he  had  lost  all  his  friends  during  the  night.  Miss  Abigail, 
likewise  in  black,  looks  as  if  she  were  prepared  to  bury  them 
and  not  indisposed  to  enjoy  the  ceremony:  .  .  .  My 
grandfather  looks  up  and  inquires  in  a  sepulchral  voice  if  I 
am  ready  for  Sabbath  school — I  like  the  Sabbath  school;, 
there  are  bright  young  faces  there  at  all  events.  When  I 
get  out  in  the  sunshine  alone,  I  draw  a  long  breath;  I  would 
turn  a  somersault  up  against  Neighbor  Penhallow's  newly 
painted  fence  if  I  had  n't  my  best  trousers  on,  so  glad  am  I 
to  escape  from  the  oppressive  atmosphere  of  the  Nutter 
House." 

Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  says: 

"Sunday  was  to  me  the  most  uncomfortable  day  of  the 
week,  from  the  confinement  in  dress  and  locomotion  which 
it   imposed   on   me   after   Prayers   and    Breakfast.     I   was 


Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.  371 

taken  by  my  mother  to  a  Wash  Tub  and  thoroughly 
scrubbed  with  Soap  and  Water  from  head  to  foot.  I  was 
then  dressed  in  my  Sunday  Habit  which,  as  I  was  growing  fast, 
was  almost  constantly  too  small.  My  usual  dress  at  other 
times  was  a  thin  pair  of  Trousers  and  a  Jacket  of  linsey- 
woolsey;  and  I  wore  no  shoes  except  in  frosty  weather.  On 
Sunday  morning  I  was  robed  in  Scarlet  Cloth  Coat  with 
Silver  Buttons,  a  white  Silk  Vest,  white  Cotton  Stockings, 
tight  Shoes,  Scarlet  Cloth  Breeches  with  silver  buttons  to 
match  my  Coat,  a  close  Stock,  Ruffles  at  the  Breast  of  my 
Jacket,  and  a  cockec^  Beaver  Hat  with  gold  laced  Band. 
In  this  attire  I  was  mt:rched  to  the  Meeting  House  with 
orders  not  to  soil  my  clothes,  and  :o  sit  still,  and  by  no 
means  to  play  during  meeting  time.  .  .  .  Mr.  Champion^ 
not  infrequently  exchanged  Sunday  services  with  the 
neighboring  Parson,  whose  performances  were  most  un- 
comfortable ...  in  the  afternoon  they  frequently 
exceeded  two  hours.  As  I  was  not  allowed  to  sleep  during 
meeting  time,  my  sufferings  were  frequently  extreme. 

"  After  service  new  toils  awaited  me.  Our  Sunday  was  in 
fact  the  old  Jewish  Sabbath,  continued  from  sunset  to 
sunset.  In  the  interval  from  the  end  of  services  in  the 
Meeting  House  until  sunset,  my  father  read  to  the  family 
from  the  Bible  or  some  printed  sermon,  and  when  he  was 
done,  I  was  examined  by  my  mother  in  the  Assembly's 
Shorter  Catechism.  I  learned  to  recite  this  in  self-defense; 
and  I  comprehended  it  then  as  well  as  at  any  time  after- 
wards. When  this  task  was  ended,  I  was  allowed  to  resume 
my  ordinary  Habit.  It  exhilarates  my  spirits,  even  at 
present,  to  think  of  the  ecstacies  I  enjoyed  when  I  put  on 
my  Jacket  and  Trousers  and  quit  my  Stockings  and  Shoes. 


1  An  historic  event  in  the  old  Litchfield  meeting  house  was  the  re- 
markable prayer  of  Parson  Champion  on  the  going  out  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary troops.  One  of  the  greatest  of  American  orations,  The  Age  of 
Homespun,  was  delivered  by  Horace  Bushnell  at  the  Centennial  of 
Litchfield  County;  the  poem  was  also  by  a  native  of  Litchfield,  the  Rev- 
John  Pierpont,  and  the  address  by  Judge  Samuel  Church. 


Zl'2-    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

I  used  to  run  to  the  Garden  Lawn  or  into  the  orchard; 
I  would  leap,  run,  lie  down  and  roll  on  the  grass,  in 
short  play  all  the  gambols  of  a  fat  calf  when  loosened  from 
confinement."  ^ 

Litchfield,  as  the  frontier  village  of  Bantam  (so-called 
from  the  Bantam  Indians),  had  five  palisaded  houses.  A 
pioneer.  Captain  Jacob  Griswold,  at  work  alone  in  the  fields 
west  of  the  present  Court-house  in  1772,  was  pinioned  by 
two  Indians,  carried  into  the  Canaan  wilderness,  and  bound 
hand  and  foot.  Griswold  cleverly  disengaged  his  feet  while 
his  captors  slept  and,  seizing  their  guns  in  spite  of  pinioned 
arms,  took  the  home  trail.  The  Indians  overtook  him  after 
a  time ;  he  pointed  one  of  his  pieces  and  they  fell  back :  thus 
he  travelled  until  sunset  brought  him  near  Bantam,  when  he 
fired  and  called  the  villagers  to  the  rescue. 

Litchfield  was  at  the  crossing  of  many  post-roads  and  at 
the  opening  of  the  Revolution  became  an  important  depot 
of  supplies;  soon  after  the  new  County  of  Litchfield  was 
established  in  175 1,  Oliver  Wolcott  was  elected  High 
Sheriff.  He  came  to  reside  in  Litchfield,  building  a  house 
on  South  Street,  on  land  bequeathed  him  by  his  father, 
]\Iajor-General  Roger  Wolcott,  poet  and  Governor,  and 
first  on  the  seating  roll  of  the  church  at  East  Windsor. 
From  this  house  (the  oldest  standing  in  Litchfield)  he 
went  out  to  the  Continental  Congress;  a  signer  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  he  was  also  Major-General,  Brig- 
adier-General, and  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  and 
took  part  in  the  battle  of  Saratoga.  Governor  Oliver 
Wolcott  held  more  offices  than  any  other  of  the  famous 
Wolcotts,  whose  ancestral  seat  in  the  "Old  Home"  is 
Galdon  Manor,  and  the  unsullied  motto  on  their  knightly 
arms — accustomed  to  swear  in  the  words  of  no  master. 


1  Litchfield   Book    of   Days,    edited  by  George    C.    Boswell.     Alex.    B. 
Shumway,  Litchfield. 


At  the  Door  of  the  Wolcott  Mansion,  Litchfield,  Conn. 

Elizabeth  Wolcott  Merchant  and  Livingston  Tallmadge  Mer- 
chant, great-great-great-grandchildren  of  Oliver  Wolcott  and 
great-great-great-great-grandchildren  of  William  Floyd  each 
a  Signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  hoiise 
was  erected  in  175 3  on  -Town  Hill  Street^  by  Oliver  Wol- 
cott Birthplace  of  Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  Secretary  of  Me 
Treasury,  and  of  Frederick  Wolcott.  The  Iwme  of  Mtss 
Alice  Wolcott. 


:-'7"^ 


374    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Ursula  Wolcott,  a  sister  of  Oliver,  holds  a  unique  position 
in  American  annals  as  the  daughter,  sister,  wife,  mother, 
and  aunt  of  Governors  of  Connecticut:  she  became  the 
wife  of  Governor  Matthew  Griswold  of  Blackhall,  Lyme. 
When  the  young  and  retiring  Matthew  Griswold  was  Gov- 
ernor Roger  Wolcott 's  private  secretary,  he  fell  desperately 
in  love  with  his  daughter,  sweet  Mistress  Ursula,  which 
she  divined.  One  day  as  he  met  her  on  the  stairs,  scarcely 
daring  to  lift  his  eyes  to  the  beautiful  creature  of  his  dreams, 
she  remarked  mischievously,  "W^hat  did  you  say,  Mr. 
Griswold?"— "Noth— nothing,  Miss  Wolcott,"— "Well,  it 
is  time  you  did." 

Revolutionary  days  were  most  exciting  in  Litchfield  and 
particularly  at  the  Wolcott  house:  soon  after  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  tore  down  the  statue  of  George  IIL,  Oliver  Wolcott 
transported  it  to  Litchfield,  and  Madam  Wolcott,  her 
daughters,  the  Marvins,  and  other  neighbors  moulded  it  into 
bullets  in  the  Wolcott  orchard;  Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  at 
nineteen  was  quartermaster  and  had  the  difficult  task  of 
collecting  supplies  and  forwarding  them  to  the  army;  when 
the  infamous  Tryon  descended  on  Danbury  and  Norwalk, 
young  Oliver  and  the  veteran  hunter  Paul  Peck  went  out 
with  the  last  few  men  capable  of  bearing  arms  in  Litchfield. 
Colonel  Elisha  Sheldon  of  North  Street  was  in  the  heat  of 
battle  with  his  famous  Second  Light  Dragoons  in  which 
Major  Tallmadge  commanded  a  troop.  Yet  in  spite  of  the 
depletion  of  Litchfield  of  able-bodied  men,  the  crops  were 
gathered  in  by  patriot  women  and  boys.  At  the  crucial 
moment  of  need,  when  General  Washington  asked  more 
supplies  of  "Brother  Jonathan"  Trumbull,  he  was  not 
disappointed,  and  watched  with  joy  the  wagon-trains  from 
Hartford  and  Litchfield  wind  up  the  hill  at  New- 
burgh,  at  the  appointed  moment  promised  by  Governor 
Trumbull. 


**  Uncle  App."  Greets  Washington        375 


One  of  the  Kilbourn^  family,  Appleton  Kilbourn  (ad- 
mitted a  freeman  of  Litchfield  in  1762),  was  a  methodical 
farmer  and  probably  had  never  been  ten  miles  from  home. 


The  home  of  Jtidge  James  Gould,  North  Street,  built  by  Colonel  Elisha 
Sheldon  in  ij6o;  in  a  small  building  which  stood  in  the  garden,  sessions 
of  the  Law  School  were  held.  When  Samuel  Sheldon  kept  tavern  here. 
General  Washington  spent  a  night  in  the  northeast  room.  For  many 
years  the  summer  home  of  Professor  James  JMason  Hoppin  of  New 
Haven.     Now  owned  by  ^Irs.  James  Mason  Hoppin,  Jr. 

To  church  to  mill  was  the  extent  of  his  travels.  One 
pleasant  September  morning  in  1 780,  *'  Uncle  App. "  mounted 
Dobbin  and  set  out  for  East  Mill  with  a  load  of  grain.  On 
reaching  the  old  tavern  at  County  House  corner,  a  friend 

»  The  Kilbourn  Genealogy,  by  Payne  Kenyon  Kilbourne. 


37^    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


called  out:  *'  Hil  Uncle  App. — you  're  a  leetle  too  late  again 
as  usual." — "Why — what  has  happened  now?" — "Gen- 
eral Washington  and  his  suite  have  just  left  for  the  west- 
w^ard,  there  they  go"  ;  in  an  instant  Dobbin  was  seen  dashing 
olf  at  full  speed  down  West  Hill — the  bags  bounding  ^vith 
every  jump,  and  the  rider's  long  skirts  streaming,  till  the 
front  of  the  procession  w^as  gained.  Suddenly  wheeling 
his  horse  Uncle  App.  confronted  the  chieftain  face  to  face. 
"Are  you  General  Washington?"—"!  am,  Sir."— "God 
Almighty  bless  youi"  waving  his  hat  in  the  air,  and  next 
moment  he  quietly  pursued  his  way  to  the  mill. 

Washington  passed  through 
Litchfield  on  his  road  between 
West  Point  and  Hartford  more 
than  once.  The  conferences  be- 
tween Washington  and  the 
French  officers  w^ere  held  inland, 
as  it  was  unsafe  on  the  coast.  In 
Washington's  first  visit  to  Litch- 
field, accompanied  by  Hamilton, 
they  stayed  at  the  home  of  Oliver 
Wolcott;  on  another  occasion, 
stopping  at  the  Sheldon  Tavern 
on  North  Street,  Washington  en- 
tered through  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  doorways  in  the  land, 
to  which  he  was  attended  by  his 
horse-guards.  This  house,  built  by 
Colonel  Elisha  Sheldon,  is  best 
known  as  the  Judge  Gould  or 
Professor  James  Hoppin  house; 
for  a  time  the  residence  of  Gen- 
eral Uriah  Tracy,  United  States 
Senator,  it  Vv^as  long  the  home  of 


LANDMARKS:  South  St.:  East  side— 
The  Noyes  Memorial  Building  con- 
taining the  Litchfield  and  Wolcott 
Memorial  Libraries  and  Collection 
of  the  Litchfield  Historical  Society; 
a  Memorial  to  Mrs.  William  Curtis 
Noyes  by  Mr.  John  A.  Vanderpoel; 
D.  A.  R.  Memorial  Window  to  the 
Litchfield  County  Patriots  of  the  Re- 
volution, designed  by  Frederic  Crown- 
inshield;  unveiled  and  presented 
by  the  Mary  Floyd  Tallmadge  Chap- 
ter to  the  Litchfield  Historical  Society, 
on  its  semi-centennial  celebration, 
July  5,  1907.  This  building  stands 
on  the  site  of  the  Ebenezer  Marsh 
house  (1759).  Ancient  elin  used,  for 
sign  post  to  present  date.  St,  Michael 's 
Episcopal  Church.  Phineas  Minor 
house  (1819)  Benjamin  Hanks- 
Abraham  C.  Smith  house  (17801  Dr. 
Alanson  Abbey  house,  residence  Wil- 
liam H.  Sanford,  Esq.  Gov.  Oliver 
Wolcott  homestead  (i753)-  Reynold 
Marvin  house  ( i773)  *.  King's  attorney 
in  the  reign  of  George  IIL ;  enlarged 
by  Phineas  Bradley,  and  occupied  by 
Gideon  H.  HoUister,  historian  and 
Minister  to  Hayti ;  Belden  residence. 
On  the  southeast  corner  of  Gallows 
Lane  and  Lake  St.  is  a  well,  mark- 
ing the  home  of  Nathaniel  Woodruff 
(conveyed  to  him  by  John  French 
in  1721),  whose  property  was  largely 
at  South  Farms,  now  Morris.  Site 
of  the  supposed  birthplace  of  Ethan 
Allen    now    occupied    by    Thomas 


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Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 


Aylmar  house;  others  say  he  was 
born  in  a  house  on  the  West  Goshen 
road.  Abner  Baldwin- John  Phelps 
house  (1794).  On  South  Street,  west 
side,  is  a  strikingly  handsome  house 
built  by  Gen.  Elijah  Wadsworth 
{1799),  enlarged  by  Governor  Oliver 
Wolcott  the  second;  residence  of 
Colonel  George  B.  Sanford.  The 
Chief  Justice  Charles  B.  Andrews 
place.  Lyman  J.  Smith  -  Gen. 
Woodruff  house,  residence  of  Mrs. 
John  H.  Hubbard.  Judge  Tapping 
Reeve-Ogden  house  (1773),  res- 
idence of  Charles  H.  Woodruff,  Esq. 
George  C.  Woodruff  house,  on  site 
of  the  Major  Moses  Seymour  house 
U735).  residence  Judge  George  M. 
Woodruff;  additions  made  by  Major 
Seymour  during  the  Revolution  to 
contain  supplies.  Ozias  Seymour 
homestead  (1807),  residence  Hon. 
Morris  Seymour;  birthplace  Chief- 
Justice  Origen  Storrs  Seymour  and 
Judge  E.  W.  Seymour.  Moses 
Seymoiu",  Jr.-Josiah  G.  Beckwith 
house.  Phelps  Opera  House  on  site 
of  Catlin's  Tavern;  famous  gather- 
ings held  in  the  Assembly  room;  in 
1807,  Jerome  Bonaparte  and  his 
wife  drew  up  with  coach  and  four. 
Martin  Van  Buren  and  Adam^ 
Jodged  here.  West  Park  or  Training 
Green,  North  Street:  Phoenix  Bank 
building  (181 5).  Old  Whipping-post 
elm,  at  County  Jail.  Thomas 
Sheldon-Tallmadge  house  (1775), 
residence  of  Mrs.  Emily  Noyes 
Vanderpoel;  birthplace  of  Frederick 
A.  Tallmadge.  Sheldon-Gould  house 
(1760).  Allen  Butler  house,  residence 
of  Frederick  Deming,  Esq.  Dr. 
Daniel  Sheldon  -  Theron  Beach 
homestead  (1783),  long  the  home 
of  Mrs.  N.  Rochester  Child,  property 
of  Captain  Edgar  Beach  Van  Winkle. 
Perkins  house,  "  The  Glebe,  "  on 
site  of  Parson  Champion  house, 
property  of  Mrs.  William  Woodville 
Rockwell.  Congregational  Parsonage 
on  site  of  James  Brace  place.  Old 
Beecher  well  on  the  estate  of  Henry 


the  eminent  jurist,  Judge  James 
Gould;  he  was  associated  with 
Judge  Tapping  Reeve  in  Litch- 
field's celebrated  Law-School. 

On  his  ride  between  Litchfield 
and  Hartford,  doubtless  many- 
impending  questions  were  settled 
by  Washington.  The  time  of 
Washington's  absence  at  Hart- 
ford in  September,  1780,  was  that 
chosen  by  Benedict  Arnold  to 
betray  West  Point  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy.  This  very  journey 
of  Washington  was  also  the  in- 
direct means  of  the  capture  of 
Major  Andre,  first  aid-de-camp  of 
Clinton;  as,  in  the  disguise  of  a 
countryman,  while  hastening  on 
with  the  fatal  plans  in  his  stock- 
ings, he  w^as  arrested  by  a  small 
band  of  patriot  farmers  belong- 
ing to  the  strict  patrol  corps 
formed  to  insure  Washington's 
safe  journey  to  Hartford. 

Count  Jean  Axel  de  Fersen,^ 
aid-de-camp  of  Rochambeau, 
gives  an  interesting  description  of 
Washington  on  the  occasion  of 
this  conference  at  Hartford,  in  a 
letter  to  his  father  from  Newport. 

"  About    fifteen   days  ago     I 
went    to    Hartford    with    Mon- 


>  The  same  Count  Axel  de  Fersen  who  played  an  interesting  part  in  the 
Prench  Revolution  and  assisted  the  King  in  his  flight  to  Varennes. 


Washington  and  Rochambeau 


379 


The  Colonel  Benjamin  Tallfnadge-WilUam  Curtis  Noyes  House. 
Built  by  Thomas  Sheldon  in  i/yS-  Residence  of  a  Great-Granddaughter  of 
Mary  Floyd  Tallmadge — Airs.  Emily  Noyes  Vanderpoel.  Colonel 
Tallmadge,  the  friend  of  Washington  and  Lafayette,  the  first  treasurer 
of  the  Connecticut  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  was  one  of  the  picturesque 
figures  of  his  time;  in  the  southeast  room — the  ColoneVs  office — every 
morning  his  wife  used  to  powder  his  queue. 

sieur  de  Rochambeau.  There 
were  only  six  of  us;  the  general, 
the  admiral,  Viscount  Rocham- 
beau (the  general's  son),  a 
superior  officer  of  the  engineer- 
ing corps,  and  two  aid-de- 
camps. An  interview  was 
arranged  between  Washington 
and  Rochambeau.  I  was  sent 
on  slightly  in  advance,  to  an- 
nounce Rochambeau's  approach, 
and  thus  had  an  opportunity  to 
study  this  most  illustrious  man 


R.  Jones,  Esq.  Lynde  Lord-William 
Deming  house  (1771);  summer  res- 
idence of  Mrs.  E.  Le  R.  Ferry. 
Alexander  Catlin-Dr.  Henry  W.  Buel 
house.  Dr.  Buel  founded  the  Spring 
Hill  Sanatorium.  Reuben  Webster 
house  (1786),  summer  residence  of 
Mrs.  W.  H.  Maxwell.  Deming- 
Perkins  house.  Smith-Asa  Bacon 
house,  Coit  residence.  West  Street* 
formerly  "  Old  Meeting-House  St.*, 
Eli  Smith  house  (1780),  Kenney  res- 
idence; here  about  1800,  Toby 
Cleaves  cur  ed  the  wigs  of  Litch- 
field "  notables."  Luke  Lewis  house 
(1781),  property  of  Miss  Phelps, 
tuilt  by  John  Collins,  son  of  Rev. 
Timothy  Collins,  first  minister. 
David     Buel     house     (1787),     now 


38o    Old  Paths  of  the  New  Eng^land  Border 


United  States  Hotel;  ball  given  to 
Lafayette,  1824.  Gen.  Timothy 
Skinner-Hon.  Seth  P.  Beers  house. 
(1787),  Webster-Candee  house 
Milestone  (1787)  at  Elm  Ridge 
placed  by  Jedediah  Strong.  Birth- 
place of  Horace  Bushnell,  son  of 
Ensign  Bushnell,  at  Bantam,  on 
site  of  residence  of  Mrs.  L.  S. 
Kilbourn. 

References:  Woodruff's  Litchfield. 
Kilbourne's  Litchfield.  The  Chroni- 
cles of  a  Pioneer  School.  Compiled 
by  Emily  Noyes  Vanderpoel.  Litch- 
field Book  of  Days.  Dwight's  Trav- 
els. Barber's  Connecticut.  "  Mary 
Floyd  Tallmadge,"  by  Elizabeth  C. 
Buel  in  Chapter  Sketclics  of  Connect- 
icut D.  A.  R.  "  Poganuc  People," 
by  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.  Statis- 
tical Account  of  the  Towns  of  Litch- 
field County,  by  James  Morris,  Jr., 
founder  of  Morris  Academy,  1790. 
^4  Record  of  Ins-riptions  upon  ilie 
Tombstones  of  Lttchfield  and  Morris, 
Ct.,  by  Dwight  C.  Kilbourne;  The 
ChamptOn  Genealogy  by  Francis 
Bacon  Trowbridge. 


of  our  century.  His  majestic, 
handsome  countenance  is 
stamped  ^vith  an  honesty  and 
a  gentleness  which  correspond 
well  with  his  moral  qualities. 
He  looks  like  a  hero; 
he  is  very  cold,  speaks  little, 
but  is  frank  and  courteous  in 
manner;  a  tinge  of  melancholy 
affects  his  whole  bearing  which 
renders  him,  if  possible,  more 
interesting.  His  suite  outnum- 
bered ours  ;  the  Marquis  de 
Lafayette  ;  General  Knox  of 
the  artillery;  Monsieur  de  Gau- 
vion,  a  French  officer  of  en- 
gineers: and  six  aid-de-camps 
besides  an  escort  of  twenty-two 
dragoons — indispensable,  as  he 
had  to  cross  a  country  bristling  with  enemies.  During 
our  stay  in  Hartford  the  two  generals  and  admirals 
were  closeted  together  all  day.  The  Marquis  de  Lafa3^ette 
assisted  as  interpreter,  as  General  Washington  does  not 
speak  French,  nor  understand  it.  They  separated,  quite 
charmed  with  one  another,  at  least  they  said  so.  It  was  on 
leaving  Hartford  that  General  Washington  discovered 
Arnold's  treachery.  He  was  one  of  their  most  heroic  gen- 
erals, had  been  twice  wounded,  and  always  conducted  him- 
self bravely." 

In  the  meantime  Andre  was  carried  a  prisoner  to  North 
Castle,  where  Major  Benjamin  Tallmadge  penetrated  his 
disguise,  for  he  saw  by  his  manner  of  turning  his  heel  as  he 
restlessly  paced  the  room  that  he  was  a  military  man. 
Eventually  Major  Tallmadge  was  appointed  to  attend 
Andre  on  the  last  fateful  day  at  Tappan.  Tallmadge 
writes:     "I   became  so  deeply  attached  to  Major  Andre, 


Colonial   Treasures  381 

that  I  can  remember  no  instance  where  my  affections  were 
so  fully  absorbed  in  any  man." 

After  the  war,  Colonel  Tallmadge  brought  his  bride,  Mary 
Floyd,  daughter  of  General  William  Floyd,  a  Signer,  to 
Litchfield.  His  devotion  to  the  memory  of  Washington  is 
shown  even  by  the  additions  to  the  house  he  purchased, 
which  resemble  the  wings  at  Mt.  Vernon,  and  differ  dis- 
tinctly from  the  general  architecture  of  Litchfield.  The 
miniature  of  Mary  Floyd  Tallmadge,  the  patron  saint  of  the 
Litchfield  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  is  in 
the  possession  of  Mrs.  Neely  (Mary  Floyd  Delafield),  wife  of 
the  Bishop  of  Maine.  In  the  painting^  by  Earl,  she  is  of  a 
stately  appearance  with  a  head-dress  of  ostrich  feathers 
and  pearls.  Her  hand  was  sought  by  James  Madison. 
The  Tallmadge  house  is  now  the  home  of  her  great-grand- 
daughter Mrs.  Emily  No3'es  Vanderpoel,  who  compiled  the 
history  of  the  celebrated  girls'  school  of  Litchfield,  con- 
ducted by  Miss  Sarah  Pierce. 

A  letter  to  Colonel  Tallmadge  from  Washington  is  in  the 
unusually  interesting  collection  of  the  Litchfield  Historical 
Society;  a  chair  from  ^It.  Vernon  given  to  Governor  Wol- 
cott  by  Washington,  also  a  chair  from  the  Bradley  Tavern 
in  which  Washington  sat ;  the  MS.  of  the  first  law  reports 
of  the  U.  S.  by  Ephraim  Kirby ;  acorns  from  the  oak  at  Fort 
Jedediah  Huntington,  Valley  Forge ;  a  silk  bonnet  sent  from 
Paris  by  ^largaret  Fuller  to  ^Irs.  Gabriel  Greeley  (nee 
Cheney) ;  Colonial  money,  etc.,  collection  of  W.  L.  Ransom 
— silhouettes,  egg-shell  china,  etc.,  endowed  with  traditions 
of  Connecticut  families. 

The  incident  of  several  famous  Tories  being  sent  here 

1  The  paintings  by  Ralph  Earl  of  Mary  Floyd  Tallmadge  and  children, 
and  of  Colonel  Benjamin  Tallmadge,  and  son  are  in  the  possession  of 
Mrs.  Edward  W.  Seymour  of  Litchfield  and  Xew  York.  There  is  also 
an  animated  pencil  sketch  by  Colonel  Trumbull  of  Colonel  Tallmadge. 


382     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

for  safe-keeping  is  recalled  by  a  genuine  Franklin  stove, 
in  possession  of  Judge  George  M.  Woodruff,  and  brought 
to  Litchfield  soon  after  the  Revolution.  One  of  these 
royalists  was  William  Franklin,  estranged  from  his  father 
by  a  determined  loyalty  to  the  crown ;  he  was  the  last  royal 
Governor  of  New  Jersey  being  appointed  by  Lord  Fairfax. 
It  is  said  that  Litchfield  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  this 
distinguished  prisoner  and  allowed  him  to  escape.  Another 
was  David  Matthews,  royalist  Mayor  of  New  York,  who 
imported  the  first  pleasure  carriage  to  Litchfield. 

Chief-Justice  Tapping  Reeve  also  served  in  the  Revolu- 
tion; Lafayette  paid  him  a  visit  in  his  Litchfield  house, 
which  is  of  an  hospitable  architecture;  above  the  stairs 
hangs  the  fire-bucket  marked  "T.  Reeve  i."  which  in  Colo- 
nial towns  is  the  hall-mark  of  the  country  gentry,  who 
composed  the  fire-brigade.  Judge  Reeve's  brasses  were  all 
made  in  Litchfield,  and  like  many  country  Squires  his 
law-office  adjoined  his  house.  Restarted  his  law-school  ia 
1784  and  was  principal  for  forty  years.  Nearly  all  the 
professional  men^  of  prominence  of  that  day  were  modelled 
under  his  eye.  He  married  the  sister  of  Aaron  Burr,  whO' 
lived  with  them  for  some  time.  The  garden  has  many 
blossoms  of  the  old  garden  planted  by  Miss  Ogden;  a  deep 
red  rose  bush  by  the  well  has  a  famous  rose  similar  to  the 
American  Beauty. 

Aaron  Burr  was  a  handsome  youth  of  twenty  when  he 
came  hither  to  study  law  under  Judge  Reeve,  his  brother- 
in-law.     He   arrived   direct   from  Fairfield,   where   he  had 

1  A  few  of  the  graduates  of  Judge  Reeve's  law-school  were  John  M. 
Clayton  of  Delaware,  Colonel  Theophilus  Ransom  of  Lyme,  Benjamin 
H.  Rutledge,  Chief  Justice  Richard  Skinner,  Governor  of  Vermont,  Levi. 
Woodbury,  Marcus  Morton.  When  John  C.  Calhoun  attended  the  law- 
school  it  is  said  that  he  helped  set  out  the  elm  trees  on  Prospect  Street  in 
front  of  the  Reuben  Webster  house;  "Calhoun  held  the  trees  and  Webster 
threw  in  the  dirt." 


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SH    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

met  the  beautiful  Dorothy  Quincy  of  Boston,  at  the  house 
of  his  favorite  cousin  Thaddeus  Burr.  She  was  passing 
the  summer  at  the  home  of  ]\Ir.  Burr,  her  father's  friend, 
under  the  chaperonage  of  Mistress  Lydia  Hancock,  an  aunt 
of  her  betrothed;  the  "rebel"  John  Hancock  had  contrived 


The  Old  Bradleyville  Tavern,  Bantam,  Litchfield. 

Stages  from  Poughkeepsic  stopped  on  their  way  to  New  Haven.  In  Dr. 
Beecher's  day,  weekly  prayer-meetings  were  held  here,  and  here  he  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  his  "Six  Temperance  Sermons."  Now  owned  by 
Airs.  Mary  Sedgwick  Coe,  a  cousin  of  the  distinguished  General  John 
Sedgwick  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  who  was  born  not  far  away  at 
''Cornivall  Hollow.'" 

to  elude  the  red-coats  and  escort  sweet  Dorothy  in  his 
coach  and  four,  far  from  war-turmoil  at  Boston,  to  serene 
Fairfield  on  the  Sound.  When  "Cousin  Aaron,"  the  gay 
cavalier  was  presented  to  the  stately  and  coquettish  Miss 
Quincy,  the  pleasure  was  mutual,  and  "consequences  dis- 


The  Beechers  in  Litchfield  385 

astrous  to  Hancock's  peace  of  mind  might  have  ensued  had 
not  the  safe  counsels  of  elders  prevailed  over  youthful 
passion  and  folly."  ^  In  a  letter  to  a  friend,  Miss  Dorothy 
complains  that  Aunt  Lydia  would  not  allow  them  to  pass 
a  moment  alone  in  each  other's  society;  she  finds  Aaron 
Burr  "a  handsome  young  man  with  a  pretty  fortune." 
That  he  ne\'er  refused  a  flirtation  has  been  said,  yet  his 
conduct  on  this  occasion  was  exemplary;  he  fled  temp- 
tation, and  made  his  adieux  leaving  shortly  for  Litchfield. 
The  last  festivity  in  the  hospitable  Burr  mansion  was  the 
wedding  of  John  Hancock,  President  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  for  in  1779,  the  house  was  burned  to  the  ground 
by  command  of  the  relentless  General  Tryon. 

Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  lived  on  the  corner  of  North  and 
Prospect  streets,  and  many  are  the  stories  of  his  remarkable 
family;  "the  world  is  made  up  of  saints,  sinners,  and 
Beechers,"  is  an  old  saying.  In  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Ensign  H. 
Kellogg  of  Pittsfield,  Dr.  Holmes  refers  to  Mrs.  Stowe: 

"Boston,  Oct.  27,  1872. 
*'  My  dear  Mrs.  Kellogg: — 

**  ...  I  was  not  a  little  pleased  that  you  and  Mrs. 
Stowe  agreed  in  a  charitable  opinion  about  such  a  heretic 
as  I  am — The  real  truth  is,  those  Beechers  are  so  chock- 
full  of  good,  sound,  square-stepping,  strong-hearted  human- 
ity that  they  can't  shut  the  door  of  their  sympathy  against 
Jew  and  Gentile — I  find  everywhere  except  among  the 
older  sort  of  people  (you  and  I  must  be  old  too  in  time,  but 
even  I  am  not  old) — and  the  smaller  kind  of  human  potatoes, 
— ^there  is  much  more  real  '  Catholicism ' — much  more  feel- 
ing that  we  are  all  in  the  same  boat  in  a  fog,  than  there 
was  when  I  was  studying  Calvin's  Essence  of  Christianity 

1  From  the  charming  monograph  of  Miss  Quincy  of  Litchfield,  a  great 
grand-niece  of  Madame  Hancock — Two  Colonial  Dames,  ''Dorothy  Q."  and 
Dorothy  Quincy  Hancock.  Read  by  the  author  before  the  "  Colonial 
Dames  of  America." 

25 


386     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

in  the  Assembly  Catechism.  So  I  can  understand  that  a 
couple  of  good-hearted  and  large-souled  women  manage 
to  tolerate  the  existence  of  such  a  person  as  I  am, — but  to 
be  spoken  of  so  very  kindly  as  you  say  Mrs.  Stowe  spoke 
of  me,  made  me  color  up  so,  that  I  thought  at  first  you  had 
written  on  pink  paper — it  was  the  reflection  of  my  blushes." 

The  life  at  the  Beecher  parsonage  was  typical  of  a  New 
England  country  town.  ■Miss  Catherine  Beecher  describes 
that  remarkable  occasion,  the  minister's  wood-spell. 

"  On  some  bright  winter  day,  every  person  in  the  parish 
who  chooses  to  do  so  sends  in  a  sled  load  of  wood  as  a 
present.  .  .  .  For  nearly  a  week  our  kitchen  was  busy  as 
an  ant-hill  .  .  .  the  cake  was  placed  in  large  stone  pots 
and  earthenware  jars  and  set  around  the  kitchen  fire  and 
duly  turned  until  the  proper  lightness  was  detected  .  .  . 
and  the  bushels  of  doughnuts  I  boiled  over  the  kitchen 
fire!  .  .  .  When  the  auspicious  day  arrived,  the  snow 
was  thick,  smooth  and  well  packed  for  the  occasion  . 
and  the  Avhole  town  was  astir  .  .  .  runners  arrived 
with  the  news  of  gathering  squadrons — Mount  Tom  was 
coming  with  all  the  farmers,  Bradley ville  also,  Chestnut 
Hill  and  the  North  and  South  Settlements.  .  .  .  The 
boys  heated  the  flip-irons,  and  passed  around  the  cider  and 
flip,  while  Aunt  Esther  and  the  daughters  were  as  busy  in 
serving  the  doughnuts,  cake  and  cheese.  And  such  a 
mountainous  wood-pile  as  arose  in  our  Yard  never  before 
was  seen  in  ministerial  donation!" 

The  Beecher  house  has  been  moved  but  the  old  well  is 
still  in  its  place  and  the  Beecher  elm. 

Beecher  Corner  is  still  shaded  by  the  elm  with  the  ring 
to  which  Dr.  Beecher  hitched  his  horse.  After  meeting, 
he  generally  forgot  his  horse  with  proverbial  absent-mind- 
edness, of  which  many  a  tale  has  been  handed  down  by 


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388     Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

his  contemporaries.  Often  when  fishing  o'  week-days,  a 
mile  away,  at  the  Little  Pond,  in  his  boat,  the  "Yellow 
Perch, "  the  bell  would  summon  him  ashore  to  a  forgotten 
service,  and  he  would  make  a  hasty  dash  up -town  behind 
his  pastoral  nag.  At  one  unlooked  for  summons  it  is  re- 
lated that  a  fish  dropped  from  his  coat-tails  as  he  mounted 
the  pulpit-stairs.  One  of  his  Deacons  on  a  fine  spring  day 
found  the  Doctor  trout-fishing.  "Dr.  Beecher,  how  can 
you,  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  enjoy  fishing!  it  isn't  even 
respectable."  "Then  I  '11  make  it  respectable.  Sir,"  replied 
the  Doctor  as  he  made  another  cast  of  the  line.^ 

Another  absent-minded  man,  much  admired  by  Dr. 
Beecher,  was  Judge  Tapping  Reeve:  ^  a  valuable  legal  docu- 
ment for  which  his  family  searched  all  night  was  discovered 
stuffed  into  the  bung  of  the  vinegar  barrel. 

The  era  when  flourished  Miss  Pierce's  school  for  young 
ladies  (some  three  thousand  were  educated  by  her  between 
1792  and  1833)  was  the  most  picturesque  in  the  history  of 
old  Town  Street.  Red  coaches  came  and  went,  swinging 
through  Litchfield  with  cracking  of  whips  and  rattling 
wheels  from  Hartford,  Poughkeepsie,  Boston,  or  New  York. 
Or,  one  might  see  a  private  coach  and  pair  setting  off  with 
some  Litchfield  Honorables  to  Philadelphia  or  Washington 
in  powdered  queues  and  wrist  rufTfies,  w^henever  sessions  of 
any  consequence  in  legal  or  political  crises  were  held. 

It  was  a  pretty  sight  on  a  spring  morning  to  witness  the 
flutter  at  Miss  Pierce's  school  as,  at  the  sound  of  fiute  and 
flageolet,  young  ladies,  in  ringlets  and  wide  hoop-petti- 
coats, started  out  on  their  promenade.  One  had  just 
dropped  her  music  practice,  others  had  been  studying  the 
graces    of    deportment  or  designing  elaborate  colored    his- 

'  Anecdotes  of  Two  Beechers,  by  Clarence  Deming,  a  native  of  Litchfield. 

2  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  once  said:  "  Oh,  Judge  Reeve,  what  a  man  he  was! 
"When  I  get  to  heaven  and  meet  him  there  what  a  shaking  of  hands  there 
will  be." 


Miss  Pierce's  School,  Litchfield 


389 


torical  charts  for  which  the  school  was  noted.  And  doubt- 
less one  might  discover  under  glass  in  almost  every  State 
of  the  Union,  one  of  the  exquisite  samplers  embroidered  by 
a  scholar  of  Miss  Pierce's  school. 

After  a  half  mile  the  ranks  of  the  procession  would  break 
and  the  walk  change  to  a  stroll  in  the  company  of  the  young 
gentlemen  of  Judge  Reeve's  law-school,  the  picturesque 
etfect  being  enhanced  by  the  pink  jackets  of  the  students 
from  the  South.     Whenever  the  young  ladies  went  rowing 


The  Sumyner  Residence  of  Frank  L.  Underwood,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  on  the 
site  of  Miss  Pierce's  School,  North  Street,  Litchfield. 

on  Bantam  River,  or  acted  the  plays  written  by  their 
preceptress  in  good  Johnsonese,  it  was  also  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  law-school. 


*'My  mother  told  me,"  said  Mrs.  B.  of  Litchfield,  ''that 
when  she  came  here  to  live  there  were  six  young  ladies 
in  the  Wolcott  family;  the  law-school  was  just  opposite 
and  the  students  would  watch  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
beautiful  Miss  Wolcotts."     It  is  said  that  when  one  of  the 


390    Old  Paths  of  the  New  England  Border 

Wolcott  family  was  shining  at  Washington,  the  British 
Ambassador  remarked  to  General  Uriah  Tracy,  "Your 
countrywoman  would  be  admired  at  St.  James";  to  which 
General  Tracy  replied,   "Why,  sir,  she  is  admired  even  on 

Litchfield  Hill.  "     An  aged  French  gentleman,  Count  S , 

who  was  a  student  at  the  law  school  at  the  time  his  family 
was  exiled  in  the  First  Revolution,  called  upon  Mrs.  Stowe 
at  Paris;  he  was  most  enthusiastic  over  society  in  Litchfield, 
which  he  declared   "the  most  charming  in  the  world." 

After  all  Litchfield  is  but  little  changed  comparatively. 
The  modern  homestead  blends  w4th  the  mellow  charms  of 
elderly  roofs  in  the  happiest  manner,  especially  in  the  case 
of  such  Colonial  houses  as  those  of  Miss  Quincy,  or  the 
Underwood  summer  home  on  North  Street. 

One  discovers  a  simplicity  and  stateliness  in  the  hospi- 
talities of  Litchfield  carried  down  from  the  past,  an  aroma 
of  the  period  of  leisurely  grace,  when  the  minuet  and  archery 
were  in  favor.  Even  in  the  age  when  we  had  little  leisure 
for  the  social  graces,  and  log-huts  and  homespun  were  the 
chief  products  of  the  New  England  border,  Colonel  Francis 
Lovelace  wrote  in  a  private  letter  to  King  Charles:"! 
find  some  of  these  people  have  the  breeding  of  courts,  and 
I  cannot  conceive  how  it  is  acquired." 


391 


INDEX 


Abbey,  Dr.  Alanson,  376 

Abbot,  Archbishop,  106 

Abbott,  Rev.  Abiel,  191 

Abenakis,  the,  177,  188 

Adam,  Mary  Geikie,  354 

Adam,  WiUiam,  354 

Adams,  Mass.,  330 

Adams,  John  Coleman,  351 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  364 

Adams,  Dr.  Lucius,  223 

Addison,  Joseph,  226 

Agassiz,  164 

Albany,  10,  158,  177,  178,  203,  204, 

264,  293,  294,  338,  340,  343 
Albany  Road,  the  (Deerfield),     59, 

173,  191-193 
Albany  Road,  the  (Lenox),  288 
Aldrich,  T.  B.,   123,  267,  277    282, 

284 
Alford,  217 
Algonqums,  the,  181 
Allen,  Colonel,  340 
Allen,  Edward,  170 
Allen,  Ethan,  188.  302,  357,  376 
Allen,  Heman,  7,7, 
Allen,  Samuel,  170 
Allen,  Rev.  Thomas,  301,  304 
Allen,  Judge  William  A.,  212 
Allyn,  Rev.  John,  166 
AUyn,  Matthew,  49 
Ames,  Oakes,  29 
Amherst,  192,  194,  196,  198,  199 
Amsterdam,  3,  10 
Andre,   Major  John,   86,    135,   378, 

381 
Andrew,  Governor,  308 

Andrews,  Judge  Charles  B.,  378 

Andrews,  ]\Irs.  Emma,  258 

Andrews  family,  229 

Andros,   Sir  Edmund,    34,    37,    98, 

117,  167 
Anne,  Queen,  117,  118,  226,  227 
Anthony  family,  330 
Appleton,  Captain,  171 
Appleton,  Rev.  Jesse,  191 
Appleton,   Nathan,   239,   246,    317, 

320 


Arms  Corner,  162,  163 
Arms,  John,  186 
Armstrong,  Gen.  S.  C,  247 
Arnold,  Benedict,   65,   68,   90,    134, 

136,  160,  231,  378 
Arnold,    Matthew,    215,    252,    253, 

341,  342 
Arthur,  Chester  Alan,  290 
Ashburner,  Luke,  223 
Ashfield,  Mass.,  160,  215 
Ashley,  Capt.  John,  218,  243 
Ashpelon's  raid,  172,  173 
Aspinwall  estate,  285 
Atwater  homestead,  131 
Atwater,  Jeremiah,  260 
Atwater,  Ward,  138 
Auchmuty,    Richard   T.,   275,   278, 

290 
Aupaumet,  Capt.  Hendrick,  225 
Austen,  Jane,  44,  190 
Austin,  Rev.  James,  127 
Avery,  Christopher,  68 
Avery,  James,  67 
Avery's  Island,  68 
Avila,  Admiral,  2 
Ayres  (Ayer)  homestead,  32 
Ayscourt,  Dr.,  225 


B 


Bacon,  Asa,  379 

Bacon,  Judge  Ezekiel,  223 

Bacon,  Dr.  Leonard,  i,  146 

Baker,  C.  Alice,  160,  186,  187 

Baldwin,  Rev.  A.,  109 

Baldwin,  Abner,  378 

Baldwin,  Judge  Henry,  127 

Baldwin,  Michael,  120 

Baldwin,  Ruth,  120-123 

Ball,  Thomas,  357 

Ballard,  Prof.  Harlan  H.,  288,  319 

Bancroft,  George,  22,  213,  304 

Barker,   Judge  James  M.,  310,  324 

Barlow,  Joel,  loi,  120-122 

Barnard,  Daniel  Denwy,  351 

Barnard,  Dr.  Frederick,  351 

Barnard  house,  162 

Barnard,  Joseph,  162 

Barnard,  Dr.  Lemuel,  228 


393 


.94 


Index 


Barnard,  Samuel,  i88 
Barnes,  James,  288 
Barnes,  Capt.  John  S.,  288 
Barrington,   Sir  William  A.  C,  344 
Bartholomew,  Worthington,  125 
Bartlett,  Ellen  vStrong,  135,  146 
Bartlett,   Gen.    Wm.    Francis,   313, 

321 
Bartlett,  Mrs.  Wm.  Francis,  203 
Bash-Bish  Falls,  351 
Bates,  Isaac  Chapman,  213 
Battell  family,  354 
Battell,  Robbins,  356 
Battles   (Battell),   Justin,  258,  259, 

264 
Bayard,  Colonel,  341 
Beach,  Theron,  378 
Beale,  GifEord,  50 
Beartown,  232,  256 
Beaux,  Cecilia,  267 
Beckwith,  Josiah  G.  378 
Beecher,  Catherine  E.,  iii,  113,  386 
Beecher,  Hannah,  131 
Beecher,    Henry    Ward,    113,    288, 

384,  388 
Beecher,  Lyman,  87,  88,  113,  114, 

120,  131 
Beekman  family,  87 
Beers,  Nathan,  134,  135 
Beers,  Capt.  Richard,  167 
Beers,  Seth  P.,  380 
Bellamy,  Edward,  239,  248 
Bellomont,  Earl  of,  84,  85 
Bennington,  231,  301-304,  327,  s^^ 
Benton  house,  107 
Benton,  Lot,  114,  124 
Berkshire     Coffee     House      ("Old 

Red  Inn"),  273,  279,  280 
Berkshire   Historical  Society,   316, 

335.  33^ 
Bernardston,  Mass.,  160,  192,  193 
Bidwell,  Rev.  Adonijah,  256,  261 
Birdseye,  Rev.  Nathan,  202 
Bishop,  Cortlandt  Field,  290 
Bishop,  Judge  Henry  W.,  270 
Bishop,  John,  104 
Bishop,  Philo,  107 
Bissell,  Israel,  124 
Blatchford,  Peter,  65 
Block  Island,  4,  10,  74,  264 
Blok  (Block),  Adrian,  2,  4,  7-10 
Bloody  Brook,  163,  168-17 1,  177 
Blynman,  Rev.  Mr.,  65 
Bo'naparte,  Jerome,  378 


Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  120 

Booth's  Inn,  91 

Boston,    19,  31,  126,  159,  177,  229, 

256 
Bostwick,  Rev.  Gideon,  342,  344 
Bowditch,  Dr.  Henry  I.,  319 
Bowdoin  College,  284 
Bowne,  Daniel,  100 
Brace,  James.  378 
Braddock,  Gen.  Edward,  205,  236 
Bradley,  Capt.  Phineas,  136 
Bradley  Tavern,  381,  384 
Branch,  Anna  Hempstead,  72,  73 
Branch,  Mary  Bolles,  72 
Brandywine,  55,  59 
Branford,  Conn.,  35,  104,  125 
Brant,  Chief,  228 
Brattle,  William,  319,  320 
Bridge,  Horatio,  272,  276,  284 
Bridgman,  Frederick  A.,  288,  336 
Bridgman,  Sidney  E.,  212 
Briggs,  Gov.  Geo.  N.,  306,  328 
Briggs,  Gen.  Henry  S.,  321 
Brinley,  Francis,  96 
Bristed,  Charles  Astor,  222 
British  Museum,  202 
Brook,  Chidley,  341 
Brooke,  Lord,  16,  27,  159 
Brookfield,  Mass.,  159,  166,  167,  349 
Broughton  family,  162,  170 
Brown,  Henry  C,  319 
Brown,  James  N.,  62 
Brown,    Col.   John,   210,   228,    260, 

301,  302 
Brownell,  Judge  Byington,  222 
Brownlow,  Lord,  287 
Bryan,  Clark  W.,  320,  322 
Bryant,  Wm.  Cullen,  221,  233,  248, 

344-348 
Buckham,  Pres't  Matthew,  288 
Buckingham,  Minister,  32,  33 
Buckingham,  William  A.,  79 
Buel,  David,  380 
Buel,  Elizabeth  C,  380 
Buel,  Dr.  Henry  W. ,  379 
Buell,  Parson,  86 
Bull,  Capt.  Jonathan,  167 
Bull,  Capt.  Thomas,  37 
BuUard,  Isaac,  166 
Bull's  Bridge,  361 
Bunker  Hill,  138,  162,  206 
Burbank,  Gen.  James  B.,  320 
Burbeck,  Gen.,  67,  72 
Burghardt,  Conrad,  233 
Burghardt,  John,  342 


Index 


395 


Burgoyne,    Gen.    John,    192,    231, 

232,  344-346 
Burr,  Aaron,  88,  238,  382,  384 
Burr,  Rev.  E.  F.,  63 
Burr,  Thaddeus,  384,  385 
Burroughs,  John,  267,  268 
Burro \vs,  John,  31,  35 
Burton,  Richard,  298 
Bushnell,  Francis,  37 
Bushnell,    Horace,    37,     146,    371, 

380 
Bushnell  Tavern,  357 
Bussche,  Baron  von  dem,  292 
Butler,  Allen,  378 
Butler,  Charles  E.,  242,  252 
Butler,  William,  210,  260 
Byfield,  Nathaniel,  85 


Cable,  George,  214 

Caldicott,  Richard,  15 

Caldwell  house,  107 

Caldwell,  John,  236 

Cambridge,  19,  171,  206,  228,  298 

Campbell  homestead,  3  1 6 

Canaan,  Conn.,  354,  357 

Canaan,  N.  Y.,  336 

Canada,  4,  5,  27,  159,  168,  172,  173, 

177,188,234,  345 
Canning,  E.  W.  B.,  222,  223 
Cannon  house,  260 
Capen  house,  213 
Carnegie,  Andrew,  214 
Carpenter,  Joel,  334 
Carroll,  Charles,  240 
Carter,  Samuel,  188,  i8g 
Castillia,  270 
Catlin,  Alexander,  379 
Catlin  homestead,  163 
Catlin,  Dr.  Joseph,  222 
Catlin's  Tavern,  378 
Caughnawaga,  182,  186 
Caughnawaga  tribe,  177-183,  228 
Caulkins,  Hugh,  65,  66 
Caulkins,  Widow,  63 
Chad  wick,  John,  256 
Chambly,  Canada,  186.  187 
Champion,  Gen.,  370 
Champion,  Parson,  371,  378 
Champion,  Reuben,  62 
Champlain,  Lake,  27,  159,  173 
Champlain,  Sieur  de,  5,  184 
Champney,  Elizabeth  W.,  162,  181 
Champney,  J.  Wells,  162 


Channing,  Rev.  Henry,  55,  67 

Channmg,  William  E.,  55 

Chapm,  Hannah,  180 

Chapin,  Samuel,  202 

Chapman,  Robert,  25,  37 

Charles  I.,  7 

Charles  II.,  22,  27,  96 

Charles  d'Orleans,  21 

Cheapside,  Mass.,  160,  164,  176 

Cheever,  Ezekiel,  128 

Cheney,  Seth,  271 

Cheshire,  Mass.,  297,  324,  330 

Chevenard,  Mary  Seymour,  148 

Child,  Mrs.  N.  Rochester,  378 

Childs,  Dr.  Timothy,  304,  306 

Chittenden,  Hon.  Simeon  B  ,  106 

Chittenden,  William,  104-106 

Choate,  Hon.  Joseph  H.,  223,  252 

Church,  Judge  Samuel,  220,  371 

Cincinnati,  Daughters  of,  206 

Cincinnati,  Society  of,  206,  379 

Clap,  Pres't  Thomas,  138 

Clapp    homestead    (Northampton, 

Mass.),  212 
Clapp  homestead  (Salisbury, Conn.), 

357 
Clark,  Prof.  Alonzo,  306 
Clark,  Daniel,  260 
Clark  Tavern,  210 
Clark,  Lieut.  William,  208,  210,  213 
Clinton,  De  Witt,  100 
Cockenoe,  14,  15 
Coffing,  John  C,  357 
Coit  homestead,  79 
Coit,  Joseph,  65,  57 
Coit,  Nathaniel,  67 
Coleman,  Sally,  172,  173,  183 
Collins,  Gen.  Augustus,  120 
Collins,  Rev.  Timothy,  379 
Colonial  Dames  of  America,  206 
Colonial  Wars,  Society  of,  206 
Colt,  Ezekiel  R.,  318 
Colt,  Dr.  Henry,  310 
Colt,  John,  54 
Colt,  Mrs.  Samuel,  32 
Colt,  Hon.  Thomas,  294 
Cooper,  J.  Fenimore,  82,  195,  203 
Cooper,  Lieut.  Thomas,  167 
Copley,  J.  Singleton,  122,  383 
Cotton,  Rev.  John,  256 
Crampton  house,  208 
Crane,  Hon.  W.  Murray,  319,  324 
Crane,  Zenas,  322 
Crane,  Hon.  Zenas,  316 
Crittenden,  Lieut.  Thomas,  T19 


39^ 


Index 


Crofoot,  Deacon  Stephen,  299 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  28,  32,  104 
Crowninshield,   Frederic,   217,   222, 

223,  245,  253 
Cummings,  Maria,  277 
Curtis,  George  William,  160,  347 
Curtis  Hotel,  280 
Curtis,  Peter,  228 
Curtis,  William  O.,  280,  286 
Cushing,  Charles,  106 
Cushman,  Charlotte,  244,  277 
Custis,  Eleanor,  184 
Cutler,  Jonathan,  222 
Cutting,  Col.  Walter,  313 


D 


Daggett,  Naphtali,  136,  137 

Dalton,  321-326 

Dana,  Henrietta  Silliman,  145 

Dana,  James,  146 

Dana,  Prof.  James  D.,  336 

Dana,  Judge  Samuel,  270 

Davenport,  John,   6,    16,   103,  131, 

134 
Davis,  William  Stearns,  319 
Dawes,  Anna  Laurens,  316,  319 
Dawes,  Henry  Laurens,  319,  322 
Dawson,  Arthur,  50 
Day,  President,  127 
Dean  family,  330 
Decatur,  Commodore,  75 
Deerfield,  Mass.,  158-194,  198,  202 

226,  234 
De  Fersen,  Count  Axel,  378 
De  Forest,  Lockwood,  138 
Deming,  Clarence,  388 
Deming  homestead,  368 
Deming  house,  62 
Deming,  Capt.  Julius,  368 
Deming,  Solomon,  2 98 
Dering,  Gen.  Sylvester,  97,  98 
De  Rochambeau,  379 
Desborough,  Samuel,  9,  104,  107 
Deshon,  John,  72 
Devotion,  Rev.  John,  37 
Dewey,  Judge  Charles  A.,  212,  213 
Dewey,  Rev.  Orville,  307,  351 
Dickens,  Charles,  38 
Dickinson,  Obadiah,  173 
Dickinson,  Richard,  50 
Dixey,  Richard  E.,  292 
Dixwell,  Col.  John,  134 
Dome,  the,   3,    288,   336,   341,    350, 

357 


Dorchester,  14,  362 

Doude,  Henry,  107 

Dow,  Rev,  Joseph  Warren,  256 

Dresser  house,  226 

Dudley,  Justin,  107 

Dudley,  Gov.  Thomas,  19,  177    192 

Dudley,  William,  107 

Duff,  Sir  Mountstuart  Grant,  252 

Durand,  Sir  Mortimer,  292 

Dutch,  5,  6,  8-11,  20,  21,  158 

Dutcher's  Bridge,  354 

Duycincks,  the,  247,  248 

Dwight,  Judge  Charles  C,  336 

Dwight,  Rev.  Edwin  Welles,  336 

Dwight,  Col.  Elijah,  344 

Dwight,  Capt.  Henry,  218 

Dwight,  Col.  Henry  Williams,  221 

239,  242 
Dwight,  Judge  John,  274 
Dwight,    Gen.    Joseph,    240,    311 

344,  349 
Dwight,  Madame,  240,  260,  311 
Dwight,  Capt.  Nathaniel,   191 
Dwight,  R.  Henry  W.,  242,  336 
Dwight,  Timothy  (Dedham),  161 
Dwight,    Col.    Timothy,    203,    210 

212,  274 
Dwight,   Pres't  Timothy,  136,  140, 

274 


E 


Eames,  Wilberforce,  15 

Earl,  Ralph,  381 

East  Hampton,  L.  L,  22,  86-8S,  126 

Easthampton,  Mass.,  202 

Easton,  Col.  James,  228,  302 

Eaton,  Daniel  C,  63 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  22,  32,  130,  131 

Edwards,  Mrs.  Alfred,  270 

Edwards,  Jonathan,    141,  183,  208, 

210,  212,  274,  278 
Edwards,  Ogden,  128 
Edwards,    Deacon    Timothy,    228, 

231,  239 
Edwards,  Rev.  Timothy,  228    231, 

239 
Edwards,  Col.  W.  M.,  237 
Egleston  house,  108 
Egleston,  Major,  270,  278 
Egremont,  Mass.,  217 
Eldredge  family,  354 
Eliot,  Charles,  288 
Eliot,  Rev.  Jared,  30,  109,  126 
Eliot,  John,  15,  106,   161 


Index 


397 


Elliott,  Dr.  Samuel,  6q 

Ellsworth,  Chief  Justice,  156,  157 

Ely,  Caroline,  63 

Ely,  William,  46,  62 

Emerson,   Ralph    Waldo  158,    iqo, 

220 
Endicott,  Governor,  22 
English,  Henry  F.,  145 
Enneking,  170 
Erskine,  Rev.  John,  236 
Erskine,  Sir  William,  86,  87 
Eugene,  Prince,  181 
Evarts  house,  108 
Everard,  Richard,  171 
Everett,  Edward,  171 
Everett,  Mt.,  3,  288,  336,  341,  350 


F 


Fairfax,  Lord,  382 
Fairfax,  Thomas,  18 
Fairfax,  Sir  Thomas,  17 
Fairfax,  Sir  William,  17,  18 
Fairfield,  Conn.,  14,  loi,   151,    152, 

384 
Fairfield,  Nathaniel,  299 
Farmington,  Conn.,  138,  208,  229 
Farmington  River,  264 
Farrmgton,  Jonathan,  166 
Fenwick,     Lady    Alice,  29-31,   36, 

103 
Fenwick,    Col.    George,   22,    29-31, 

103,  116 
Ferry,  Mrs.  E.  Le  Roy,  379 
Field,  Cyrus  West,  223,  242,  244 
Field,  Col.  David,  162 
Field,    Rev.    David    Dudley,     119, 

183,  222,  242-244 
Field,  David  Dudley,  244,  254 
Field,  Ebenezer,  119 
Field,  Dr.  Henry  M.,  220,  222,  242, 

Field,  Marshall,  183 

Field,  Mary,  183 

Field,  Stephen  D.,  244 

Field,  Judge  Stephen  J.,  244 

Field,  Zecheriah,  183 

Fields,  James  T.,  247,  276,  282 

Fisher,  Lieut.  Joshua,  161 

Fisher,  Nathaniel,  166 

Fisher's    Island,    22,    30,     64,     75, 

81,  82 
Fisk  family,  330 
Fisk,  Rev.  Phineas,  31 
Fiske  house,  107 


Florida  Mt.,  234,  296,  322 

Floyd,  Gen.  William,  373,  381 

Foote,  Eli,  1 12,  113 

Foote,  Roxana  (Beecher),  111-114 

Forbes,  Squire  Samuel,  354 

Ford,  Capt.  William,  304 

Fordham,  Daniel,  89 

Fordham,  Rev.  Robert,  93 

Foreign  Wars,  Society  of,  206 

Fort  Dummer,  203 

Fort  Griswold,  68-70,  74 

Fort  Nassau  (Albany),  5 

Fort  Orange,  338 

Fort  Schuyler,  5 

Foster,  Hon.  Jedediah,  349 

Fowler,  Charles,  106 

Fowler,  Gen.  Eli,  108 

Francis,  Capt.  William,  299,  304 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  52,  53,  59 

Franklin,  Walter,  100 

Franklin,  Gov.  William,  382 

Frary,  Samson,  160,  166 

French,  Daniel  Chester,  218,  249 

French,  Deacon  John,  108,  119 

French,  John,  376 

Frontenac,  Count,  159,  168,  173,  188 

Frothingham,  David,  89 

Fuller,  George,  163,  170 

Fuller,  G.  Spencer,  170 

Fuller,  Margaret,  381 

Fuller,  Sergeant,  166 


G 


Gallaudet,  Dr.  T.  H.,  108 
Gallup,  William,  37 
Gardiner,  Col.  Abram,  86 
Gardiner,  David,  25 
Gardiner,  Lord  John,  85,  88 
Gardiner,    Lion,  13,   16-23,  3^>   3^* 

64,  74,  82 
Gardiner,  Dr.  Nathaniel,  87 
Gardiner,  Roswell,  82 
Gardiner's  Bay,  81-86 
Gardiner's  Isle    (of  Wight),  18,  22 

29,  44,  64,  84,  85,    88,  126 
Garfield,  Col.  Daniel  A.,  260,  261 
Garfield  farms,  260 
Garfield,     Lieut.     Isaac,    256,    258 

261 
Garfield,  President,  261,  263 
Gates,  Gen.  Horatio,  231,  244 
Gaylord,  Charles  Seelye,  363 
Gaylord,  Daniel  H.,  362,  363 
Gaylord,  Gaillard  William,  362 


398 


Index 


Gaylord,  Ensign  William,  355,  362, 

Gaylordsville,  Conn.,  360-363 

George  II.,  iii  .,  294 

George  III.,  123,  126,  376 

Gere,  Henry  S.,  210 

Gibbons,  Lieut.,  20 

Gilder,    Richard   Watson,  47,  266- 

2  68 
Gillet,  Joseph,  189 
Gilman,  Daniel  Coit,  62 
Glastonbury,  Conn.,  9,  120 
Glendale,  218,  249 
Goffe,  William,  134,  196 
Gold,  Thomas,  317,  321 
Goodale,  Elaine,  352 
Goodman,  Richard,  278,  286,  290 
Goodman,  Mrs.  Richard,  240 
Goodman,  Richard,  Jr.,  276,  289 
Goodrich,  Mrs.  Mary  H.,  231 
Goodrich,  Samuel,  225 
Goodrich,  Capt.  Silas,  225 
Goodrich,  William,  225,  231 
Goodyear,  Governor,  196 
Gould,  Judge  James,  375-378 
Gouverneur,  Susan  M.,  303 
Graham,  Dr.  Sylvester,  2T3 
Grant,  Donald,  145 
Grave,  Deacon  John,  108 
Great    Barrington,    217,    220,    234, 

256,  30I'  338-352 
Greely,  Airs.  Gabriel,  381 
Greene,  George  Washington,  122 
Greene,    Gen,    Nathanael,  55,    122, 

144 
Greene,  Rev.  Zachariah,  89 
Greenfield,    Mass.,    160,    164,    171, 

188,  198 
Greenfield  Hill,  Conn.,  122 
Greenport,  L.  I.,  81,  91,  92 
Green  River,  341,  348 
Gregory,  Herbert  E.,  146 
Greville,  Richard,  16,  27 
Greylock  Mt.,   235,    284,   28S,    292, 

300,  305-308,  330-^^^ 
Griffin,  Capt.,  house,  108 
Griffing,  Frederick  A.,  107 
Griswold,  Anna  W.,  30 
Griswold,  Edward,  44 
Griswold,  Fort,  68-70,  74 
Griswold,  Rev.  George,  48 
Griswold,  Rev.  George  C,  125 
Griswold,  Matthew,  31,  42-48 
Griswold,  Gov.  Matthew,  374 
Griswold,  Nathaniel,  48 


Griswold,  Gov.  Roger,  45 
Guilford,  Conn.,  10 1- 126 

H 

Haddam,  9,  31,  242 

Hadley  (Xonotuck),  159,  166,   168,. 

180,  194-198,  202 
Hagerty,  Ogden,  288,  290 
Hague,  The,  10 
Hale,  Edward  Everett,  171 
Hale,  John,  260 
Hale,  Nathan,  67,  72 
Hale,  Deacon  Wm.,  260 
Hall,  Dr.  N.  G.,  108 
Hall,  Robert  C,  62 
Hall,  Titus,  107 
Halleck,     Fitz-Greene,      106,     108^ 

109, 112 
Hamilton,     Alexander,     88,      240^ 

357.  376 
Hamilton,  Col.  Andrew,  341 
Hamlin,  Captain,  346 
Hancock,  John,  162,  238,  384 
Hancock,  Mass.,  328 
Hanks,  Benjamin,  376 
Harding,  Chester,  161 
Harding,  George  C,  316 
Harrison,  Constance  Cary,  18,  297 
Harrison,  Elihu,  371 
Hart,  Capt.  Elisha,  32,  33 
Hart,  Rev.  John,  119 
Hart,  Gen.  William,  32,  38 
Hartford,  Conn.,  14,  19,  21,  53,  85^ 

161,  202 
Hassam,  Childe,  50,  63 
Hatfield,  Mass.,  166,  170,  173,  180^ 

194,  198,  202,  234 
Haughton,  Richard,  67 
Haven  family,  98 
Haven,  Dr.  Henry  C,  223 
Haven,  H.  P.,  66 
Hawks,    Eleazer,  170 
Hawks,  Col.  John,  162,  192 
Hawley,  Lieut.  Joseph,  208 
Hawley,  Major  Joseph,  208 
Hawley,  Schoolmaster  Joseph,  208 
Ha\\i;horne,  Nathaniel,  66,  129,  222, 

247-250,  270,  272,  276,  278,  281— 

284,  332 
Hazen,  Charles  D.,  215 
Heath,  Deacon  Cyrus,  258,  260 
Heck  welder,  Rev.  John,  2 
Hector,  ship,  131 
Heemskirk,  Admiral,  2 


Index 


399 


Hellegat  (East  River),  4,  5 
Hempstead,  Joshua,  71,  72 
Hempstead,  Robert,  71,  72 
Henshaw,  Judge  Samuel,  212 
Higginson,  Francis,  103 
Higginson,  Rev.  John,  102,  103,  106 
Hill,  George,  log 
Hillhouse  family,  97 
Hillhouse,  James,  127,  145 
Hillhouse,  James  A.,  129,  145 
Hillhouse,  William,  145 
Hillhouse,  Maj.  William,  72 
Hinsdale,  Mass.,  322 
Hinsdale,  Ebenezer,  162,  193 
Hinsdale,  Mehuman,  162,  167,  186 
Hinsdell,  Samuel,  161 
Hoadley,  John,  104,  109 
Hoadley,  Samuel,  108 
Hockanum,  Mass.,  194-198 
Hoffman,  Mrs.  Bernard,  244 
Holland,  3,  18,  19,  158,  312 
Holland,  J.  G.,  214-216,  319 
Holland,  Lord,  7 
Hollanders,  3,  4,  9 
Holley,  Gov.  Alexander  H.,  358 
Hollister,  Gideon,  376 
Hollo  way,  Charlotte  I\I.,  73 
Holmes,   Oliver   Wendell,  123,  171, 

247,  275,  293,  294,  307.  316 
Holmes,  Rev.  Stephen,  31 
Holms,  Rev.  Abiel,  190 
Holyoke,  Elizur,  202 
Holyoke,  Mass.,  199,  205 
Hooker,  Rev.  John,  210 
Hooker,  Gen.  Joseph,  196 
Hooker,  Thomas,   19,   29,  49,   159, 

238,  298 
Hoosac,  203,  233,  332 
Hoosac    Mountain,    159,    163,    234, 

293,  296 
Hoosac  River,  234,  330-332 
Hoosac  Tunnel,  296,  332 
Hopkins,  Admiral,  71 
Hopkins,  Gov.  Edward,  22 
Hopkins,  Mark,  222,  223,  226,  228, 

242,  288,  313 
Hopkins,  Col.  Mark,  344 
Hopkins  Memorial  Manse,  344,  349 
Hopkinson,  Francis,  148 
Hoppin,    Prof.  James  Mason,   375, 

376 
Horsford,  Eben  Norton,  95,  97 
Hotchkin,  Rev.  John,  278,  288 
Hotchkiss,  Parson,  32,  38 
Hotchkiss,  Russell,  138 


Hotchkiss  School,  358 

Housatonic   River,   3,  6,  152,  220- 

351,  360-365 
Howe,  Judge  Samuel,  213 
Howe,  William,  50 
Ho  wells,  W.  D.,  163 
Hoyt,  David,  178 
Hoyt,  Gen.  Epaphras,  191- 192 
Hoyt  house,  162 
Hoyt,  Jonathan,  192 
Hoyt  Tavern,  162,  189 
Hubbard,  Amos,  79 
Hubbard,  Daniel,  107 
Hubbard,  Gardiner  G.,  87 
Hubbard,  Mrs.  John  H.,  378 
Hubbard,  Samuel,  104 
Hubbell,  Matthew,  327,  328 
Hubbell,  Wolcott,  327,  328 
Hudson    River,    4,    5,    12,    84,   94, 

365 
Huguenots,  5 

Hull,  Commodore  Isaac,  t,^,  138 
Hull,  Commodore  Joseph,  t,t, 
Hunt,  William  M.,  161 
Huntington,  Judge  Andrew,  79 
Huntington,  Arriah,  198 
Huntington,  Cornelia,  87 
Huntington,   Rt.   Rev.  F.  D.,   194 

198,  212. 
Huntington,  Gen.  Jabez,  79 
Huntington,     Gen.     Jedediah,     66, 

79,  148,  381 
Huntington,  Capt.  Joshua,  79 
Huntington,  Lydia,  79 
Huntington,  Gen.  Samuel,  79,  149 

152 
Huntington,  W.  H.,  53 
Hurd,  Ebenezer,  124 
Hurlburt,  Thomas,  26 
Hurons,  the,  181,  187 
Hurst  family,  164 
Hutchinson,  Ann,  5,  132 
Hutchinson,  Capt.  Edward,  166 
Hyde,  Dr.  Caleb,  250 
Hyde,  Major  Caleb,  285 
Hyde,  homestead,  79 


Ice  Glen,  Stockbridge,  220,  250,  292 
Ingersoll,  David,  342 
Ingersoll,  Peter,  345,  349 
Ingleside  School,  363 
Ingraham,  James,  31,  36 
Iroquois,  the,  27,  177 


400 


Index 


Ives,  George  R.,  345 
Ives,  Dr.  Robert,  135 
Ives,  Gen.  Thomas,  349 
Ives,  William,  135 


James  II.,  132 

James,  G.  P.  R.,  225,  252 

James,  Henry,  282 

James  River,  6 

Jameson,  Mrs.,  246,  275 

Jarves  Gallery,  145-148 

Jarvis  house,  133 

Jay,  Chief  Justice  John,  150,   311, 

367 
Jefferson,  President,  122,  367 

Jennings,  Stephen,  172,  173 

Johnson,  Prof.  Joseph,  214 

Johnson,  Nathanael,  no 

Johnson,  Robert  U.,  224,  267 

Johnson,  Master  Samuel,  107- no 

Johnson,  Stephen,  57 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  203,  205 

Jones,  Anson,  288 

Jones,  Josiah,  232 

Jones,  Thomas,  107 

Judd,  Rev.  Jonathan,  210 


K 


Kellogg,  Mrs.  Ensign  H.,  314-316, 

318,  385 
Kemble,  Frances  A.  (Butler),  246- 

250.  273-287 
Kent,  Conn.,  354,  358,  361 
Kent  Falls,  354 

Kidd,  Capt.  William,  44,  84,  85 
Kieft,  William,  21 
Kilbourne,  Dwight  C,  380 
Kilbourne,  Payne  K.,  375 
Kimberly,  Anne,  107 
Kimberly  house,  136 
Kinderhook,  N.  Y.,  301,  311,  338 
King,  Lieut.  John,  202,  208 
"King  Solomon,"  229,  231 
Kirkland,  Pres't  John,  222 
Kirkland,  Rev.  Dr.,  239 
Kitchel,  Robert,  104 
Kneeland,  Charles,  278 
Kneeland,  F.  N.,  214 
Konkapot,   Captain,  217,  222,   223, 

293,  294,  342 


Lachine,  182—184 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  38,  41,   55- 

62,  75,  122,  304,  318,  379,  380' 
Laighton,  Oscar,  77 
Lake  Bantam,  365--368 
Lake  Buel,  260,  264,  351 
Lake  Garfield,  263,  264 
Lake,  Laurel,  286-288 
Lake,  Lily,  286 

Lake  Makheenac,  218,  270,  281,  286 
Lake  Mangum,  354 
Lake  Pontoosuc,  305,  306,  327 
Lake  Riga,  356 
Lake  Waramaug,  365 
Lake  Washinee,  352 
Lake  Washining,  352 
Lake   Wequadnach  (Indian  Pond), 

359 
Lake  Wononpakook,  357 
Lake   Wononscopomuc,  357 
Lakeville,  357 

Lamb,  Martha  J.,  18,  57,  97 
Lanesboro,  239,  265,  297 
Lanier,  Charles,  287,  290 
Larrabee,  Adam,  75 
La  Salle,  Robert,  184 
Latham,  Cary,  66 
Latham,  Capt.  William,  66 
Lathers,  Col.  Richard,  313 
Lathrop,  Elijah,  79 
Lathrop,  Major,  107 
Laud,  Archbishop,  104 
Laurel  Cottage,  222,  250,  252 
Laurel  Hill,  231,  232,  250 
Laurens,  John,  148 
Law,  Richard,  72 
Lawrence,    Dr.    Arthur,   222,   252, 

348 
Lay,  John,  46,  62,  63 
Lear,  Tobias,  150 
Leavitt  estate,  346 
Lebanon,  N.  Y.,  336 
Ledyard,  Colonel,  69,  70 
Lee,  Mass.,  217,  220,  252,  255 
Lee,  Agnes,  117 
Lee,  Gerald  Stanley,  214 
Lee,  Jennette,  214 
Lee,  Rev.  Jonathan,  357 
Lee,  Dr.  Joseph,  345 
Lee,  Thomas,  44 
Leete,  Gov.  104,  106 
Leete  house,  8 
Leete's  Island,  117,  119 


Index 


401 


Leffingwell,  Ensign,  40 

Leland,  Elder,  330 

Lenox,    Mass.,    231,    249,   269   292, 

335.  349 

Lesley,  Susan  I.,  209 

Leupp,  Francis  E.,  265,  ''67 

Lewis,  Luke,  379 

L'Hommedieu,  Benjamin,  91 

L'Hommedieu,  Ezra,  97,  107 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  308 

Lind,  Jenny,  213 

Litchfield,  Conn.,  365-390 

Litchfield  Historical  and  Scien- 
tific Society,  376,  38 1 

Little,  Woodbridge,  301,  319 

Livingston  family,  87,  97 

Livingston,  Philip,  294,  338 

Livingston,  Robert,  358 

Logan,  John,  228 

London,  19,  123,  178,  226 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  246,  247, 
282,  313,  321 

Long  Island  Sound,  i,  4  11,  28, 
81,  82,  127 

Loomis,  Josiah,  342 

Lord,  Lynde,  379 

Lord,  Richard,  49,  54 

Lord,  Thomas,  49,  54 

Lord,  William,  50,  54 

Lorillard  house,  5 

Lothrop,  Captain,  1 68-171 

Lothrop,  George  P.,  82 

Lothrop,  Samuel,  67 

Louis  XIV.,  177,  184,  187 

Louisiana,  68,  184 

Lowell,  Edward  J.,  190 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  176,  276,335 

Ludington,  Charles  H.,  52,  62 

Ludlow,  Roger,  14 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  335 

Lyman,  Capt.  Caleb,  203 

Lyman,  E.  H.  R.,  208,  209 

Lvman,  Jonathan,  212 

Lyman,  ^Ir. ,  157 

Lyman,  Judge  Samuel  F.,  190, 
209,  213 

Lyman,  Gen.  William,  195 

Lyme,  Conn.,  33,  36,  40,  42-63 

Lynch,  Deacon  Charles,  223 

Lvnde,  Nathaniel,  34 

Lvnde,  Judge  Samuel,  22 

Lynde,  "Willoughby,  31 

M 

Mabie,  ?Iamilton,  267 


Mackimoodus  (East  Haddam),  9 

Macready,  247 

Madison,  Conn.,  loS,  119 

Maltby  house,  142 

Manhattan,  i,  2,  21 

Man  waring  house,  70 

Map,  391 

Marcy,  Lucy  B.,  277 

Marie  Antoinette,  60 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,   180 

Marsh,  Ebenezer,  376 

Marshall,  Henry,  322 

Martineau,  Harriet,  247,  270 

Marvin,  Reinold,  46 

Marvin,  Reynold,  376 

Mary  and  JoJin,  the,  1 1 1,  207,361 

Mason,    Capt.   John,    13,     75,     79, 

80,  161,  167 
Massachusetts  Assembly,  124 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  22 
Mather,  Rev.  Azariah,  32,  62 
Mather,  Cotton,  62,  170 
Mather,  Increase,  32,  62,  i8r 
Mather,  Capt.  R.  S.,  36 
Mather,  Samuel,  62 
!Mattoon,  Hon.  Charles,  286 
Mattoon,  Philip,  162 
Maurice,  Prince,  5 
Mayflower  the,  i,  145 
McCurdy,  Charles  J.,  55,  62 
McCurdy,  Jeannette,  33 
McCurdy,  John,  55,  56,  62 
McEwen,  Rev.  Abel,   67 
McKinley,  President,  332 
Mead,  Larkin  G.,  161 
Meigs,  James,  108 
]\Ieigs,  Capt.  Janna,  119 
]\Ieigs,  Josiah,  120 
Meigs,  Col.  Return  J.,  117 
Mellen,  Charles  S.,  223 
Melvill,  Maj.  Thomas,  308,  309 
Melville,    Herman,   247,    248,    276, 

307.  308 
Merriam,  Nathaniel,  322 
Merwin,  Orange,  363-365 
Metropolitan  Museum,  53 
Miantonomoh,  Chief,  79,  84 
Miles,  John,  108 
Milford,  Conn.,  loi,  125,   134,   136, 

137,  152,  153 
Miller,  Gen.  Jeremiah,  87 
Miner,  Parson,  261 
Miner,  Thomas,  67 
Mitchell,  Donald  G.,  127,  143-145, 


238 


402 


Index 


Mohawk  trail,  234,  235 

Mohawk  tribe,  9,   10,   14,   158,  167, 

176,  181,  186,  222,  223,  228,   234, 

235.  340,  361 
vMohegan  tribe,  10,  82,  158,  227 
OMohican  tribe,  3,  12,  220,  222,  2Q3, 

294,  307^  35^^  342,  361 
Montauk  Point,  4,  10,  82,  83 
Montauk  tribe,  3,  12,  220,  222 
Monterey,  Mass.,  256,  265,  296 
Montreal,  182,  184,  186 
Montville,  Conn.,  10,  76,  77 
Monument  Mt.,  219,  221,  242,  243 
Moore,  Samuel,  357 
Moore,  Thomas,  186,  306 
Moran,  Thomas,  87 
Morewood,  Mrs.  Sarah,  312 
Morgan,  Captain,  38 
Morgan,  Gov.  Edwin  D.,  297 
Morgan,  Emily  Malbone,  31,  36 
Morgan,  George  H.,  288 
Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  53 
Morgan,  Serg't  Miles,  202 
Morris,  James,  Jr.,  380 
Morton,  Marcus,  382 
Moseley,  Captain,  170,171,  173 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  79 
Mt.  Alandar,  356 
Mt.,  Bald  Peak,  359 
Mt.  Barack  Matiff,  357 
Mt.,  Bear,  Conn.,  356,  359 
Mt.  Brace,  356 
Mt.  Buck,  356 
Mt.,  Candlewood,  360 
Mt.  Chadbourne,  t,7^^ 
Mt.  Fitch,  ^7,7, 
Mt.  Griffin,  333 
Mt.  Holyoke,  8,  166,  194 
Mt.  Hopkins,  t,2i3 
Mt.  (Eta,  332 
Mt.  Osceola,  336 
Mt.,  Prospect,  305 
Mt.  Riga,  350,  355,  359 
Mt. ,  Scatacook,  359-361 
Mt. ,  Sugar  Loaf,  164-166,  194,  195 
Mt.,  Talcott,  8 
Mt.  Tom,  Conn.  River,  9 
Mt.  Tom,  Litchfield,  366-368 
Mt.  Tom,  Mass.,  8,  9,  166,  194,  199, 

205 
Mt.  Tom's  Barack,  352 
Mt.    Washington    (Agiochook),    N. 

H.,  199 
Mount   Washington,  Mass.,  351,  352 
Mt.  Wetauwanchu,  357 


Mt.  Williams,  305 
Mumford  family,  85 
Mumford  house,  67 
Mumford,  Thomas,  70 
Munger,  Gilbert,  121 
Munson,  Rev.  Samuel,  285 
Murray,  Hon.  Miss  Augusta,  247 
Murray,  Jonathan,  115,  116 
Murray,  W.  H.  H.,  116 
Mystic  River,  10-13,  75 


N 


Napoleon,  121,  304 
Narragansett  Bay,  17,  82 
Narragansetts,     the,     13,     15,     22, 

84,  195 
Natural  Bridge,  332 
Neilson,  William,  52 
Netherlands,  United,  3,  21 
Nettleton,  Walter,  251,  253 
Newburgh-on-Hudson,  374 
New    Haven,    Conn.,    6-8,    11,    15, 

31,    103,    120-124,  127-149,  152- 

.  '54 
New      Haven      Colony      Historical 

Society,  145 
New  London,  Conn.,  9,  10,  22,  30, 

48,  64-77,  81 
New    Milford,     Conn.,     296,      354, 

3^3^  365 
New  Orleans,  174,  185,  277 
New  York,  1—4,  218,  220,  221,  228, 

293,  296,  311,  335,  336,  33S,  341- 

348,  355-  356,  382,  388 
New  York  Historical  Societ}^  178 
Newton,  Edward  A.,  303,  314,  318 
Newton,     Rev.     Wm.     Wilberforce, 

318,  324 
Nickerson,  Rev.  Thomas  W.,  303 
Nicoh,  William,  98 
Niles,  Grace  Greylock,  332 
Nilsson,  Christine,  290 
Nims,  Abigail,  172,  187 
Nims,  Godfrey,  163,  172 
Nipmuck  tribe,  1 1 
Noailles,  Adrienne  de,  57 
Noble,  Capt.  David,  302 
Noble,  Elisha,  233 
Noble,  Capt.  James,  304 
Noble,  Robert,  342 
Norfolk,  Conn.,  354,  356 
North  Adams,  Mass.,  330-332 
Northampton,  Mass.,  159,  194-216, 

235.  274,  294 


Index 


403 


Northfield,  Mass.,  150,  160,  167,  202 

234 
North  Guilford,  Conn.,  116,  1 19-123 
Northrup,  Col.  Elijah,  285 
Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  160,  215 
Norwalk,  Conn.,  114,  125 
Norwich,  Conn.,  40,  76,  80 
Noyes,  Rev.  James,  45 
Noyes,  Rev.  Moses,  45,  62 
Noyes,  Phoebe  G.,  54,  62 
Noves,  Judge  Wm.  Chadwick,  62 
Noyes,  Wm.  Curtis,  376,  379 


O 


October  Mt.,  288,  291 
Olmsted,  Frederick  L.,  288 
Onasategen,  Chief,  183 
Orange,  Prince  of,  16,  18 
Orton,  Deacon,  256 
Otis,  Mass.,  256,  260-264 
Ottawa  River,  186,  187 


Palmer,  Wm.  Pitt,  223,  244 

Parker,  Dr.  S.  P.,  250 

Parkman,   Francis,    184,    187,    190, 

223,  227 
Parsons,  Rev.  David,  198 
Parsons,  Enos,  208 
Parsons,  Isaac,  213 
Parsons,  Capt.  John,  202 
Parsons,  Hon.  John   E.,  226,   278, 

285,  291 
Parsons,  Rev.  Jonathan,  52,  62 
Parsons,  Cornet  Joseph,  213 
Parsons  Tavern,  157 
Partridge,  Oliver,  226 
Partridge,  Col.  Samuel,  187,  202 
Paterson,  Col.  John,  231,  270,  290 
Paterson,  Robert  W.,  288 
Peale,  Rembrandt,  147 
Peck,  Bela,  79 
Peirson,  Rev.  Abraham,  93 
Peirson,  Catherine,  337 
Peirson,  Squire  Henry,  334,  336 
Peirson,  Joseph  J.,  334 
Pelham  Manor,  5,  89 
Pell,  Dr.  Thomas,  5 
Pepperrell,  Sir  William,  234,  2-6 
Pequot  tribe,   8,    10-14,  22,  25,  26, 

84,  117 


Percy,  Lord,  86 

Perkins  house,  378 

Perkins,  J.  Deming,  368 

Perry,  Arthur  L.,  235,  335 

Perry,  Bliss,  235,  335 

Perry,  Rev.  David,  336 

Perry,    Frederick,    homestead,  223 

Perry's  Peak,  335,  336 

Peru,  Mass.,  321 

PeterS;  Hugh,  16,  22,  30,  31,  103 

Peters,  Dr.  Thomas,  30 

Pettee  homestead,  356 

Phelps  homestead,  108 

Phelps,  Wm.  Walter,  139 

Phillip,  King,   159,  166,  171,  338 

Phillips,  Rev.  George,  261 

Phillips,  Martha  L.,  144 

Phillips,  Wendell,  294 

Phillips,  Col.  William,  332 

Pierce,  ]Moses,  79 

Pierpont  house,  129,  133 

Pierpont,  Rev.  James,  133,  134 

Pierpont,  Rev.  John,  371 

Pierpont,  Sarah,  133,  238 

Pierrepont,  Judge  Edwards,  286 

Pilgrims,  the,  23,  25 

Pittsfield,  ]\Iass.,  203,  247 

Plunkett,  Harriet  M.,  304,  318,  319 

Plunkett,  Hon.  T.  F.,  319,  320 

Plymouth,  Mass.,  i,  23,  31,  264 

Plympton,  Sergt.  Jonathan,   173 

Pocumtuck  tribe,  176 

Pomeroy,  Asahel,  213 

Pomeroy,  Capt.  Ebenezer,  218 

Pomeroy,  Eltweed,  206 

Pomeroy,  George  E.,  206 

Pomeroy,  Lemuel,  318 

Pomeroy,  Polly,  212 

Pomeroy,  Col.  Seth,  203-207,  213, 

301 
Pope,  Alexander,  177,  180 
Pope,  Franklin  L.,  343 
Porter,  Capt.  Moses,  198 
Porter,  Samuel,  218 
Powell,  Dr.  Lyman,  214 
Povv'nal,  Vt.,  234 
Pratt,  Humphrey,  32,  38,  41 
Pratt,  Richard  E.,  32 
Pratt,  Lieut.  William,  33 
Prince,  Thomas,  18S 
Proctor,  John  R.,  267 
Putnam,  Annie  C,  189 
Putnam,  Israel,  124,  206 
Pynchon,  John,  64,  19,  163,  166, 

168,  202 


404 


Index 


Q 


Quebec,  5,  187,  188,  192 
Quebec,  Archbishop  of,  1S6 
Quincy,  Debby  Hewes,  290 
Quincy,  Dorothy,  273,  275,  375 
Quincv,    Dorothy    (Hancock),   238, 

384: 385 
Quincy,  Judge  Edmund,  273,  383 
Quincy,  Pres't  Edward,  311 
Quincy,  Josiah,  275 
Quincy,  Samuel,  275 
Quinnipiac  (New  Haven),  14 
Quinnipiac  tribe,  8,  10 


R 


Race  Rock  Light,  74,  81,  82 

Radford,  Wilham,  147 

Raizenne,  Alarie,  187 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  6 

Randolph,  Peyton,  367 

Ranger,  Henry  W.,  50 

Ransom,  Col.  Theophilus,  382 

Ransom,  W.  L.,  381 

Rathbone,  John  F.,  288 

Rattlesnake  ]\It.,  217,  220,  276 

Rawdon,  Lady  Charlotte,  187 

Redfield  house,  109 

Red  Hills  tribe,  9 

Red  Lion  Inn,  222,  229 

Reeve,  Judge  Tapping,  378,  382,389 

Rehoboth,  Mass.,  171,  258 

Reid,  Robert,  254 

Revere,  Paul,  123,  189 

Reynolds,  Rev.  Peter,  285 

Rhine,  the  old,  18 

Richards,  Capt.  Guy,  67 

Richards,  Capt.  Peter,  70 

Richardson,  Col.  H.  H.,  321 

Richardson  house,  33 

Robbins,  Annie,  278 

Robbins,  Rev.  Annie  R.,  354 

Robbins,  James,  296 

Robinson,  Henry  P.,  106,  109 

Robinson,  Samuel,  107,  109 

Root,  Eli,  299 

Root,  George  F.,  351 

Rose  of  Yannoiith,  ship,  226 

Rossiter,  Dr.  Bryan,  107 

Rossiter,  Col.  David,  304 

Rossiter  Tavern,  344 

Rotch,  Arthur,  288 

Roxbury,  Conn.,  354 

Rudd,  Malcolm  D.,  357,  358 


Ruggles,  Rev.  Thomas,  109 
Russell  farm,  354 
Russell,  Rev.  John,  134 
Rutledge,  Benjamin  H.,  382 


Sabine,  Dr.  W.  T.,  62 

Sachem's  Head,  8,  9,  91 

Sage's  Ravine,  351,  352 

Sag  Harbor,  L.  L,  91,  117 

St.  Anne  Bout  de  L'Isle,  186 

Saint-Gaudens,  A.,  66,  202,  252 

St.  Lawrence  River,  27,    iso,  182- 

188,233 
Salisbury,  Conn.,  220,  353-359 
Salisbury,  Edward  E.,  50,  146 
Salisbury,  Evelyn  McCurdy,  50,  56 
Saltonstall,  Rev.  Gurdon,  64 
Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  27 
Sampson,  Latimer,  97 
Sanborn,  Kate,  193 
Sandisfield,  Mass.,  255,  260 
Saratoga,  battle  of,  196,  232,  343- 

346 
Sassacus,  Chief,  10-13,  130 
Sault  au  Recollet  Mission,  164,  186 
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  Duke  of,  121 
Say  and  Sele,  Lord,  16,  27,  159 
Saybrook,  Conn.,  13,  16-41,  124 
Sayre,  Job,  93,  94 
Schaff,  Gen.  Morris,  321 
Schaghticoke  tribe,   220,   293,   354, 

359-363 
Schermerhorn,  Adeline  E.,  278 

Schermerhorn,  F.  Augustus,  290 

Schuyler,  Col.  Peter,  178,  226,  341 

Schuyler,  Capt.  Philip,  311,  346 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  14,  127,  190 

Scoville  homestead,  357 

Scudder,  Horace  E.,  328 

Seabury,  Bishop,  67 

Searles  estate,  345 

Searles,  Mrs.  Mary  Hopkins,  349 

Sedgwick,  Alexander,  241 

Sedgwick,  Anne  Douglas,  267 

Sedgwick,   Catherine    M.,   240-242, 

246,  247,  270,  271,  276 
Sedgwick,  Charles,  250,  270,  276,277 
Sedgwick,  Elizabeth  Dwight,  277 
Sedgwick,  Henry  D.,  246,  247 
Sedgwick  homestead,  241 
Sedgwick,  Gen.  John,  384 
Sedgwick,  Theodore,  222,  223,  234, 

240,  241,  344 


Index 


405 


Sedgwick,  Gen.  Wm.  D.,  277 

Seelye,  Pres't  L.  Clark,  195,  213 

Sergeant,  Electa,  231 

Sergeant,  Erastus,  128 

Sessions,  Ruth  H.,  214 

Sewall,  Samuel,  85 

Seward,  Capt.  Wm.,  119 

Seymour,  Judge  E.  W.,  378 

Seymour,  Airs.  Edward  W.,  381 

Seymour,  Horatio,  377 

Seymour,  Morris,  378 

Seymour,  Moses,  378 

Seymour,  Judge  Origen  S.,  378 

Seymour,    Dr.  Origen  S.,  378 

Seymour,  Ozias,  378 

Sharon,  Conn.,  358 

Shaw,  Hon.  Henry,  319,  328 

Shaw,  Henry  W.,  329 

Shaw,  Lucretia,  71 

Shaw,  Nathaniel,  Jr.,  68-71 

Shaw,  Robert  Gould,  290 

Shays's  Rebellion,  239,  297,  346,  352 

Sheaffe,  Jacob,  104,  106 

Sheffield,  Mass.,  233,  254,  264,  342, 

351 
Sheldon,  David,  163 
Sheldon,  Col.  Elisha,  374-376 
Sheldon,  George,  162,  163,  172,  179 
Sheldon,  Jennie  Arms,  164 
Sheldon,  Ensign  John,  163,  180 
Sheldon,  John,  162,  174,  179,  180 
Sheldon,  Thomas,  378,  379 
Shelley,  Percy  B.,  21 
Shelter  Island,  81,  82,  91,  95-98 
Shepherd,  General,  157 
Shepherd,  Col.  James,  213 
Shepherd,  Rev.  Samuel,  285 
Shepherd,  Thomas  H.,  213 
Sherman,  Roger,  131,  132,  134,  139, 

153.  154,  3,(>3 
Sherman,  William,  363 
Sherrill  house,  336 
Shipman,  Elias,  138 
Shirley,  Gov.  Wm.,  205 
Shrewsbury,  Duke  of,  178 
Sichel,  Edith,  57,  60 
Sigourney,  Lydia  H.,  11,  79,  313 
Silliman,  Prof.  Benjamin,   148,  264 
Six  Nations,  222,  225,  229—231,234 
Skinner,  Judge  Richard,  382 
Skinner,  Gen.  Timothy,  380 
Slater  family,  258,  260 
Sloane,  John,  288 
Smith  College,  63,  195,  213-215 
Smith,  Eli,  379 


Smith,  F.  Hopkinson,  82 

Smith,  Gideon,  290 

Smith,  J.  E.  A.  (Godfrey  Greylock), 

299,  306,  320,  326 
Smith,  Capt.  John,  i,  5,  12 
Smith,  John  Cotton,  358 
Smith,  Lyman  J.,  378 
Smyth,  Ralph  D.,  107,  109 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  206,  379 
Sons  of  the  Revolution,  206,  336 
Southampton,  L.  I.,  93-95,  99 
South  Egremont,  351 
South  Hadley,  194,  199,  200 
South  Lee,  252,  255 
South  Mt.,  Pittsiield,  305,  306 
Southold,  L.  I.,  82,  91,  92 
Southwicks,  the,  98 
South  worth,  Nathan,  2,3 
Sperry,  Richard,  134 
Sprats,  Wm.,  369,  370 
Springfield,    Mass.,    159,    163,    167, 

196,  202,  205,  206,  338,  340 
Standish,  Miles,  25,  67 
Stanley,  Captain,  340 
Stanley,  Dean,  222,  223 
Stanton,  John,  109 
Stanton,  Thomas,  22 
Stark,  Gen.  John,  302 
Starr,  Comfort,  187 
Starr  homestead,  67 
Staten  Island,  342 
Steadman,  Capt.  Thomas,  256,  264 
Stebbins,  Benoni,  162,  178 
Stebbins,  Deacon,  161 
Stebbins,  John,  170 
Stebbins,  Joseph,  162 
Stebbins,  Rowland,  170 
Stebbins,  Thankful  (Therese),  187 
Stedman,  Edmund  C.,  194 
Steiner,  Bernard  C,  109 
Sterling,  Gen.  Elisha,  358 
Stevens  house,  109 
Stiles,  Pres't  Ezra,  139,  140,  153 
Stockbridge,  217-255,  274,  311,  3^36, 

342,  359 
Stockbridge  Bowl,  218,  270,  281 
Stockbridge  Indians,  220-233,  326, 

32>^^  354 
Stockwell,  Quentin,  163,  173,  187 
Stoddard,  Esther  Mather,  208,  235 
Stoddard,    Col.    John,     195,    218, 

293.  294 
Stoddard,  Capt.  Solomon,  239 
Stoddard,  Rev.  Solomon,  195,  207 
Stokes,  Anson  Phelps,  270 


4o6 


Index 


Stokes,  Anson  Phelps,  Jr.,  133,  149 

Stone  homestead,  106 

Storrs,  Rev.  John,  91 

Storrs,  Nathan,  212 

Storrs,  Rev.  Richard  S.,  91 

Stoughton,  Captain,  14,  16 

Stowe,  Harriet  B.,  113,  115,  385,  390 

Straits  Mt.,  360 

Stratford,  Conn.,  loi,  125,  135,  152, 

340,  360 
Street,  Augustus,  146 
Street,  Nicholas,  146 
Strong,  Gov.  Caleb,  207,  213 
Strong,  Jedediah,  3S0 
Strong,  Elder  John,  207,  20S 
Sugar  Loaf  Mt.,  164-166 
Sumner,  Charles,  190,  276,  279 
Sumner,  Increase,  349 
Sunderland,  Mass.,  163,  194,  198 
Swansea,  Mass.,  66,  71,  330 
Swift,  Jabez,  358 
Swift,  Zephaniah,  120 
Sydney,  Sir  Philip,  3 
Sylvester,  Brinley,  97 
Sylvester  Manor,  95-98 
Sylvester,  Nathaniel,  96,  97 
Symonds,  Colonel,  304 


Tack,  Augustus  V.,  162 
Taconic  School,  358 
Talcott,  Allen  B.,  53,  54 
Talcott,  John,  340 
Talcott,  Major,  326,  338 
Tallmadge,     Col.     Benjamin,     148, 

374,  379-381 
Tallmadge,  Deacon,  87 
Tallmadge,  Mary  Floyd,    376,    379, 

381 
Taylor,  Charles  J.,  338,  343,  345 
Taylor,  Capt.  John,  202 
Thames,  the,  Eng..  6,  27 
Thames  (Pequot),  Conn.,  10-12,  158 
Thatcher  family,  85 
Thomas,  Edith  M.,  6g,  137,  267 
Thompson  family,  87 
Thoreau,  174,  333 
Tibbals,  Thomas,  134 
Ticonderoga,  256,  302,  320 
Tienhoven,  Cornelius  Van,  91 
Titcomb,  Colonel,  205 
Todd,  Charles  B.,  121 
Todd,  Rev.  John,  313,  318 
Todd,  Rev.  Jonathan,  iig 


Tomkins  house,  134 

Tooker,  Win.  Wallace,  14,  89 

Torrey,  Bradford,  78 

Totoket  tribe,  115 

Townsend,  Rev.  Jonathan,  256 

Townsend,  j\lajor,  340 

Tracy,  Uriah,  120,  376,  390 

Treadway,  Allen  E.,  222 

Treat,  Major  Robert,  171 

Treat,  Rev.  Robert,  32 

Treat,  Rev.  Sidney  H.,  252 

Trowbridge,  Francis  B.,  380 

Trowbridge,  Thomas  R.,  138 

Truelove,  ship,  135 

Trumbull  Gallery,  145-148 

Trumbull,  Col.  John,  51,  122,  132 

Trumbull,  Gov.  Jonathan,  79,  374 

Tryon,  Gen.  Wm.,  86,  136,  374 

Tucker,  Joseph,  286 

Tucker,  Richard,  33 

Tuckerman  estate,  239 

Tufts  College,  129 

Turner's  Falls,  Mass.,  160,  162,  188 

Tuttle  house,  107 

Tyler,  President,  87 

Tyler,  Dr.  Wm.  H.,  328 

Tyringham,    Mass.,    220,    255-268, 

296 
Tytus,  Robb  de  Peyster,  260,  261 


U 


Uncas.  ii-i^,  40,  79,  80,  103 
Underbill,  Capt.  John,  27 
Under  Mountain  Road,  353-358 
Underwood,  F.  L.,  389,  390 
Unkamet's  Road  (trail),  294 
Upton  family,  330 


V 


Van  Buren,  Martin,  378 
Van  Cortland,  Stephen,  221,  341 
Vanderbilt,  W.  K.,  Jr.,  98 
Vanderpoel,  Emily  N.,  379,  381 
Vandreuil,  Governor,  163,  177,    188 
Van  Dyke,  Henry,  ^33 
Vane,  Sir  Henry,  19 
Van  Rensselaer  family,  27.  87 
Van  Rensselaer  Manor,  338,  342 
Van  Rensselaer,  Mrs.  Schuyler,  163 
Van  Schaack,  Cornelius,  311 
Van  Schaack,  Henry,  309-312 
Van  Schaack,  Henry  C.,  312 
Van  Winkle,  Capt.   E.  Beach,  378 


Index 


407 


Venner,  Elsie,  306 
Vere,  Lord,  17 
Versailles,  184 
Virginia,  5,  124,  193 
Voorhees,  Clark  G.,  54 

W 

Waconah  Falls,  324-326 

Wadsworth,  Benjamin,  340 

Wadsworth,  Colonel,  148,  156,  157 

Wadsworth,  Daniel,  264 

Wadsworth,  Gen.  Elijah.  378 

Wadsworth,  William,  161 

Wainwright,  Lieut.  George,  345 

Wainwright,  Gen.  Timothy,  345 

Wait,  John,  67 

Wait,  'Marvin,  67 

Waite,  Benjamin,  172,  173 

Waite,  Henr\'  M.,  54,  62 

Waite,  Morrison  R.,  54 

Walker,  Dr.  Charles,  212 

Walker,  Col.  Robert,  357 

Walker,  Judge  Wm.,  286,  289 

Waller,  Wilham,  46 

Wallingford,  Conn.,  155 

Walpole,  Horace,  269 

Ward,  Gen.  Andrew,  112,  113 

Ward,  Nahum,  255 

Ward,  Samuel  Gray,  270,  272,  276, 
288 

Ward,  William,  107 

Ware,  Dr.  Henry,  190 

Ware,  Orlando,  163 

Ware,  Robert,  166 

Ware,  Wm.  Rotch,  278 

Warham,  Rev.  John,  208,  362 

Warner,  Charles  D.,  297 

Warner,  Donald  T.,  356,  357 

Warner  family,  212 

Warner  homestead,  358 

Warner,  Col.  Seth,  354 

Warriner,  John  R.,  319 

Washington,  George,  4,  41,  51,  58, 
59.  71.  79.  81,  91,  92,  126,  135, 
147-157,  206,  228,  241,  249,  264, 
278,  328,  342,  344,  367,  376-3S1 

Washington,  Lawrence,  18 

Washington  Mountain,  291,  296- 
298 

Watch  Hill,  74,  80 

Watertown,  Mass.,  15,  27,  124, 
17 1,  261 

Watrous  house,  108 

Watson,  Elkanah,  309 


Webb,  John,  208 

Webster,  Gov.  John,  155 

Webster,  Noah,  120 

Webster,  Reuben,  379 

Wells,  Capt.  Jonathan,  178,  180 

Wendell,  Jacob,  274,  294,  310,  313 

Wendell,  Oliver,  239 

W'est,  Benjamin,  122 

West,  Clara  L.,  21 

West,  Dr.  Stephen,  238 

Westenhook  Patent,  218 

Westfield,     Mass.,     167,    256,    298, 

305-  33^^  340 
Westinghouse,  George,  287 
Weston,  Hon.  Byron,  322 
West  Point,  376,  378 
Wethersfield,    Conn.,    19,    31,    156, 

202 
Whalley,  Edward,  134,  196 
Wharton,  Edith,  287 
Wheeler,  Merritt,  346 
Wheelwright,  Gen.  John,  203 
Whistler,  James  McN.,  170,  236 
White,  Andrew  D.,  145 
White,  Henry,  162 
White,  Dr.  Vassall,  226 
Whitfield,  Henry,  9,  102-106,  113 
Wliitfield  homestead     (Old     Stone 

House),  102 
Whiting,  Charles  G.,  215 
Whiting,  Dr.  William,  228,  344 
Whitman,  Rev.  Samuel,  208 
W^hitney,  Eli,  130,  142,  144 
Wliitney,  Josiah  D.,  212 
Whitney,  Wm.  Dwight,  146 
Whiton,  Gen.  Joseph,  222,  240 
Whittier,  John  G.,  10 
Whittlesey,  Chauncey,  146 
Whittlesey,  Capt.  Ezra,  231 
Whittlesey  homestead,  33,  49 
Wilcox  house,  108 
Wilcox,  Capt.  Sylvanus,  343 
Wildman  house,  107 
Wilkins,  Mary  E.,  179,  190,  191 
Willard,  Enoch,  225 
Willard  house,  163,  189,  191 
Willard,  Rev.  Samuel,  189,  190 
Vv^illard,  Sergeant,  20 
William  the  Contiueror,  206 
Williams,  Abigail,  240 
Williams  College,  243,  261,331-335 
WilliarTiS,  Cyrus,  222 
Williams,  Eleazer,  188 
Williams,  Col.  Elijah,  239 
Williams,  Ephraim,  162 


4o8 


Index 


Williams,   Col.  Ephraim,   232,    255, 

269 
Williams,   Col.    Ephraim,   Jr.,    192, 

234.  311 
Williams,  Eunice,  1 81-184 
Williams,  Eunice  Mather,  171,  181, 

208 
Williams  garrison,  220,  223,  232,  233 
Williams  homestead,  182,  191 
Williams,  Capt.  Israel,  203,  234 
Williams,  Rt.  Rev.  John,  162,  234 
Williams,  Rev.  John,  172,  181,  182, 

187,  188 
Williams,  John  Chandler,  303,  306 
Williams,  Squire  John,  162 
Williams,  Jonathan,  278 
Williams,  Col.  Prentice,  232 
Williams,  Robert,  226 
Williams,  Roger,  15,  31,  134 
Williams,  Rev.  Stephen,  183 
Williams,  Dr.  Thomas,  234 
Williams,  Rev.  Warham,  250 
Williams,  Gen.  William,  222 
Williams,    Rev.   William    (of    Hat- 
field) ,  208,  226 
Williams,  Rev.  William  (of  Weston), 

208,  256 
Williams,  Winslow  T.,  79 
Williamsburg,  Mass.,  160,  194,  215 
Williamstown,  Mass.,  234,  235,  243, 

261,  301,  328-333 
Williston,  Parson,  136 
Williston,  Rev.  Payson,  202 
Windsor,    Conn.,    10,    19,    157,   202, 

206,  208,  362 
Windsor,  Mass.,  321,  324-326 
Winslow,  Gov.  Edward,  130,  264 
Winslow,  Gov.  Josiah,  67 
Winthrop,  Adam,  68 
Winthrop,  Fitz-John,  91 
Winthrop,    Gov.    John,    i,    19,    29, 

68,  93,  131,  132 
Winthrop,   Gov.   John,  Jr.,    19,    20, 

22,  30,  31,  48,  49,  64,  65 
Winthrop,  Robert  G.,  22,  82 
Wister,  Owen,  280 


Witter  Tavern,  79 

Wizard's  Glen,  324 

Woerden,  18 

Wolcott,  Frederick,  373 

Wolcott,     Gov.     Oliver,    120,     149, 

153.  154,  372-376 
Wolcott,  Gov.  Oliver,  Jr.,  370,  373, 

374,  378 
Wolcott,  Gov.  Roger,  372,  374 
Wolcott,  Ursula,  374 
Woodbndge,  Rev.  Ephraim,  67 
Woodbridge,  Jahleel,  222,  239 
Woodbridge  Oak,  136 
Woodbridge,    Rev.    Timothy,    223, 

225,  232,  294  _ 
Woodbury,  Levi,  382 
Woodcock,  Bishop,  108 
Woodruff,  General,  378 
Woodruff,  George  C,  378 
Woodruff,  George  M.  369,  378,  382 
W^oodruff,  James  P.,  369 
Woodruff,  Nathaniel,  376 
Woodward,  Henry,  213 
Woolsey,  Sarah,  240 
Wooster,  Gen.  David,  138 
Wooster,  Mary  Clap,  138 
Worcester,  Mass.,  11,  123 
Worthington,  Colonel,  157,  202,  210 
Worthington,  Rt.  Rev.  George,  37, 

318 
Worthington,  Nicholas,  37 
Worthington,  Rev.  William,  37 
Wright,  Capt.  Benjamin,  202 
Wright,  Lieut.  Joseph  A.,  304 
Wright,  Mabel  'Osgood,  151 
Wyllys,  Governor,  49,  91,  106 
Wynne,  Madeleine  Yale,  189,  191 


Y 


Yale  Art  School,  53,  145-148 

Yale,  Catharine  B.,  189 

Yale    University,    31-35,    66,    120, 

128,  129 
Yancy,  Governor,  288 
Yokun,  Chief,  269 


Jl  Selection  from  the 
Catalogue  of 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS 


Complete  Catalogues  ^ent 
on  application 


Old  Paths  anc^  Legends 
o/  New  England    :   :   :   : 

Satmterings  over  Historic  Roads  with 
Glimpses  of  Pictitresqtte  Fields  and  Old 
Homesteads  in  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
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By  Katherine  M.  Abbott 

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"  The  author  is  at  home  on  every  inch  of  New  England  ground. 
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brance, some  anecdote  that  imparts  a  living  interest.  Beautifully 
made  and  lavishly  illustrated." — Pittsburg  Gazette, 


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The  Connecticut    River 

and  the   Valley   of  the   Connecticut  :    : 

Three  Hundred  and  Fifty  Miles 
from  Mountain  to  Sea    : 

By  Edwin  Munroe  Bacon 

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THE  Connecticut  River  may  perhaps  with  more 
propriety  than  any  other  in  the  world  be 
named  the  Beautiful  River.  From  Stuart 
to  the  Sound  it  uniformly  maintains  this  character. 
The  purity,  salubrity,  and  sweetness  of  its  waters; 
the  frequency  and  elegance  of  its  meanders;  its  ab- 
solute freedom  from  all  aquatic  vegetables;  the  un- 
common and  universal  beauty  of  its  banks,  here  a 
smooth  and  winding  beach,  there  covered  with  rich 
verdure,  now  fringed  with  bushes,  now  covered  with 
lofty  trees,  and  now  formed  by  the  intruding  hill,  the 
rude  bluff,  and  the  shaggy  mountain, — are  objects 
which  no  traveller  can  thoroughly  describe,  and  no 
reader  can  adequately  imagine. 


G.  P.   P  UTN  AM'S    SONS 

New  York  London 


The  Hudson  ^\n^x  from 
Ocean  to  Source   :  :  :  •  : 

Historical        Legendary         Picturesque 


By  Edgar  Mayhew  Bacon 

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NO  stream  in  America  is  so  rich  in  legends  and 
historic  associations  as  the  Hudson.  From 
ocean  to  source  every  mile  of  it  is  crowded 
with  reminders  of  the  early  explorers,  of  the  Indian  wars, 
of  the  struggle  of  the  colonies,  and  of  the  quaint,  peace- 
ful village  existence  along  its  banks  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Republic.  Before  the  explorers  came,  the  river 
figured  to  a  great  extent  in  the  legendary  history  of  the 
Indian  tribes  of  the  East.  Mr.  Bacon  is  well  equipped 
for  the  undertaking  of  a  book  of  this  sort,  and  the  story 
he  tells  is  of  national  interest. 

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ix 


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