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CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 



OK THE 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. ^ 



1773 - I ?73 : 



COMPILED BY 



SMART & NOBLE. 



WASHINGTON COUNTY POST, 

CAMBRIDGE, W. Y. : 
1874. 



d773. • d873. 

CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 



I'lic CLlflinition ot'tlu- ccntfnni;il ;iiuu\ crsarx olllu- rouiuliiiL;' 
oftlii.' old low II of Camhridj^o was liist suj^j^c.slccl hv I Ion. 
Anson Inj^rahaiii. of the present town of C:unl)ritl«);e, in a 
Krief letter dated Fehruarv 28, 1S73. atldresscd to the editor 
of t!ie \Vasmin(;to\ Cointv Post, callinjjj attention to the fact 
that we liad entt-red on the one huiulredth year of the history 
o|" thf ohi tow n. and sujforcstinj; that the event be commemo- 
rated. This letter was published, with editorial comment, 
seconding its siijjjj^cstions. and recommendinjj;^ that at the ensu- 
ing town meetin<;s, then at hand, in the three towns com- 
prised in the boundaries of the old town. H\e gentlemen be 
appointed tVom each town, there to form a central conunittee 
to arranjje for the proper obscrxancc of the occasion. This 
recommendation was acted on and the followin*; p^entlcmcn 
aj)pointe»l : 

C\MiMni)(;p. — Thomas S. (ireen. William Dimick, Coilland 
Skinner. Herrv Lontj. John Ashton. 

W'lirnc CnKKK — R. Kin*^ Crocker. John Larmon. W. I. 
Perrv. (ieorj^e liarker. James Ellis. 

Jackson — (»eor«ije McCieoch. Thomas 1>. Lourie. Williaiu 
Thompson. William McMillan, William Watkins. J. E. 
l^obrrtson. 



4 CENTFWIAI. ANMNKItSAMV 

These j^^entlenieii met for the first tjmc «)n the 13th of March, 
1S73. at the office of I Ion. K. K. Crocker, and orjjani/.cd l>v 
elcctiM«;Corthuul Skinner, Chairman, John Ashton, Secretary. 
The et)mmittee etVected its permanent ori^ani/ation hv elect- 
ini; Cortland Skinner chairman ami K. K. Crocker secretar\ . 
The desirahility and ex|X'diency of a celehration was tlis- 
cussed. an«l the ct)mmittee was imaiiimous in the conclusion 
that the event that had called them toj^ether was t«K> im|M)r- 
tant to pass unnoticed, and that the work of preparation 
should he hei^im at once. The itiea of ha\ inj; a celehration 
was ;i ntw one. and consequently those intereste<i hat! two 
difficulties to contend with. — first, to awaken the interest of 
the people, and second, to arran}»c s«»me siiitahle plan for the 
evercises; that both dilVicuIties were met and happilv over- 
come is a niatter of hist<»r\ that, for the honor of the town and 
the c«»mn)ittee, shonid he rcc«mle<l. .\ftcr due delil>crati(m 
the follow inj; plan was adopted, to hold the centennial anni- 
\ersary exercises on the H)th <lay of Aujfiist. in Fuller's 
(irove. in the villajje of Camhridjje. to have a sketch of the 
histor\" of the tow n prepareil. to have addresses hv eminent 
sins of the town w ho hail jjone ont to do their work in a 
wider field, to ha\e a town dinner at which the entire assem- 
l)la«;e who should ;;atheron that <lay should sit down: in tine 
to make the day not one of |)omp and para<le. hut <ine of 
hearty, thoujjh homely. jjckmI cheer, a larjje family j^atherinj; 
at which all the sons anti daujjhters of the old town of Cam- 
bridge should sit down in kindly remcmhrancc of the hard- 
ships of their ancestors, which, through the providence of 
God. had turned to such blessing to their descendants. 'F'he 



OT.n TOWN OF CAMRRinOK. 5 

<:jcncral coiiiniittcc in cliartjo appointed to assist in canving 
out the idea the following committees : 

ExECUTivK Committee— Cortland Skinner, Geonj^e Mc 
Gcoch. William Eldrids^e, Dr. John Ashton, R. Kincr Crocker. 

0\ FiN.wc K— J. L. Hunt. William McMillan. James Ellis. 

On Iwitations— Charles I). Warner. E. J. McKie. T. 

1). Lonrie. 

On Refkksiimknts— T. C. (iilVord. William I^ldrid^e, 
Clark Woodard, Julius Collins. T. D. ()\ iatt. L. C. Fuller, 
S. W. Croshv. William Handles. A. V>. NcNish. C. E. 
Stroud. William Dimiek. John Cow, Edward Cramer. A. II. 
Comstock. I. 11. Merchant. William Kenyon. Dr. T. C. 
Wallace. 

0\ (iKoiNPS— L. I'lelcher. S. I'uller. 

On I)i:( oKATioNs- A. 1. I'orter. James Cad\ . O. M. Mc- 
Kie. 

On VoiAi. Mt'sic — John Shiland, Andrew McLean, C. O. 
Volentine. A. S. Fassett, Mason Prentiss. 

On Hand - ICdward Whiteside. James S. Smart. Henry 

Ackley. 

On Toa.sts — llcnrv \ol>le. H. K. Sharp. David Hurch, 

James E. Robertson. 

On Resoi.I'TIONs — D. M. Westtall. Thomas Shiland, 
Allen Crandell. Hemy Holden. (Jeor;j;e Arnott. C. Fi. Carter. 
C. T. Ilawley. W. 1. Perry, P. F. McNitt. 

On Rkception— J. S. Smart. James Harper, John C. 
Simpson, Charles Porter, Azor Culver, J. W. Eddy, B. P. 
Crocker, ^ar^•ey Carpenter. 

The tollowint; were appointed officers of the day : 

HoNoi! \i!>- Phesipknt — John Weir. 



O C'KNTKWIAI. A\\I\i:i{SAICN' 

Acting Piiksident — Ri\ . IKtirv (Jortlon. 

\'ic i:-l*itKsii)K\TS— White CiLtk : ncnjamin Crocker. John 
K. Dyer. V. A. Fuller. Dr. 11. C Gray, James 'IMmmpson. 
Ahira Khhidije. Cainl)riil«;e : Anson Inj»T:»li:»Mi. David Koh,- 
ertson. John Stevenson. Nathan (iiflord. IlenrN Whiteside. 
Ja».<)l»C|iiackenlnish. Jackson : Klisha Millin«js. John Roheil- 
M)ii, (»e<»rj;e MawMJI. C'ol. I'.. W. C'l;i])p. I'divha Keinon. 
Jonathan Warner. 

Mausii \i.— J. J. (ii.t\ . 

Assistant Mahshai. -J. II. Uice. 

In onler to secure a thorou<^h canvassin^j of the old town 
for supplies, a ladies' committee was ap|>ointed to make the 
arranj;ements tor the dinner, consisting of the following 
named lathes: Mrs. John M. StevenwMi. Mrs. Clark W'«.o<|. 
ar«l. Mrs. William ICIdridj^e. Mrs. L. C. Fuller. Mrs. William 
(Jrcen. Mrs. Charles I>. Warner. Mrs. Berrv Long. Mrs. M. l», 
Harton. Mis. W illiam Randies. Mrs. Thomas (titVonl. .Mrs, 
Charles Rice, Mrs. William Kiiv^. Mrs. David Arnold. Mrs. 
(J iles Russell. Mrs. William M«M>re.Mrs. .\. M. Sherm.in. .Mrs. 
A.H.McNish. .Mrs. J. Larmon. Mrs. James Hill. Mrs. W illiam 
J. .'*^le\ enson. Mr>.. \\ illi.uu Keiuon. Mr>. Charles Cottrcll. 
Mis. J. McFarland. Mrs. S. I. Stroud. Mrs. Charles Austin. 
Mrs. Alon/.o Lee. Mrs. Panlon IVipp. Mrs. An«lre\v McLean, 
Mrs. Henry Dunham. Mrs. (ieorjje McMillan. .Mrs. James 
(iilchrist. Mrs. William McKic. Mrs. J. 11. Hanna. Mrs. 
Ilenrv Coulter. Mrs. John Iliitchins. Mrs. (jeorjjc Hrigj^, 
Mrs. I.. Sweet. Mrs. J. II. Merchant. Mrs. William Fowler. 
Mrs. Ilenrv Darrow. Mrs. C. Darrow. Mrs. John (iiHord, 
Mrs. r. i:. Kenyon. Mrs. I'. Ha\t«»n. Mrs. C. Carter. Mrs. 
Georjjc Coulter. Mrs. James E. RoWrtson. Mrs. John Coulter. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 7 

Mrs. William Dimick, Mrs. Hiram Sisson, Mrs. Thomas 
Oviatt, Miss E. Crosby, Miss J. Gilchrist, Miss F. Fuller, 
Miss M. McKie, Miss M. Skellie, Miss L. Pratt, Mrs. 
Thomas Whiteside, Mrs. James J^IcKie, Mrs. John Money- 
penny, Mrs. E. Judson. 

As the dav approached the cntluisiasm rose, and all tlie 
residents of the old town were tairly enlisted in the work and 
were hanilsomely secondino: the cHbrts of the Committees. 
Chcerin.L^ responses were received from lon^^ absent sons and 
duiijifhters of the town, and the success of the enterprise was 
well assured some time b<;fore the labors of the committee 
culminated. The Washixgton CorxTY Post, published at 
the village of Cambridge, ^iwc a full account of the day's pro- 
ceedings, with reports of the speeches, in its issue of September 
S. audit is only to put the matter in more convenient form tor 
preservation that tliis book has been published. We take from 
the columns of the Post the following account of the exercises 
of the day : 

••Alter tlie work of tlie various committees had been done 
and the plans all made to make the centennial celebration of 
the old town of Cambridge a success, there was still a con- 
tingency about the matter so large that it could make or mar 
the day— this was the weather. A rainy day would have 
^ been so disastrous that the committee steadily refused to take 
account of it. If it rained it was total failure. The grand 
f)ld sun then never looked brighter or pleasanter to those in- 
terested, than when, on Friday last, it rolled up above the 
mountains and gave unmistakable tokens that we were to have 
a clear day. At an early hour the people began to flock into 
town, and bv the time the hour arrived for organizing the 



S CENTKWrAf. AWrVFRSAnV 

pnKcssion the streets were filled. The arrival «»f the mnrninjj 
train from the south broujjht a larjje accession. Dorinjj's 
Hand, which was (»n the train, was marched hv the marshals 
to Fuller's Block, where the Masonic lo<l;je was in waiting;. 
The lodtje was then escorted down Main street to the enj^ine 
house, where it wuh joined by the (iray Enjjine C<»mpany- 
The march was then resumed to the Academy jjrounds. On 
the arrival of' the l<Klj;e ami fire compan\ the processi(»n was 
«>rjjaniy.ed. ami marched in the rollowin«j <»rder : 
(irand Marshal, ]. ]. (iray. Esq. 
.Assistant Marshal. I. 11. Rice, Kstj, 

Dorinjj's Hand. 
|. |. (ira\ Kn^jine C'«»mpan\. .\<>. i. 
Orticers ot' the l)a\ in Carriaj^es. 
(nic*t.H from abroad. 
Comnuttccs. 
The OKI Folks' Waj,'on. 
Voun;; America. 
Knifjhts of the Ohien Time. 
Town Officers of OKI Cambridge. 
Villajjc Officers. 
Masonic Fniternity. 
Citizens generallx. 
'* Tlie first an«l onlv mishap occurred at this juncture. The 
horses attached to the carriage that contained the Presidents of 
the dav. John Weir ami Rev. Henry Gordon, became frightened 
at the music, reared up and fell flat. For a moment the ex- 
citement was intense, but frirtmiately the horses were so 
l.uiglcd in the harness that they couhl not rise. Old Mr. 
Weir was hel|X'd out of the carriage and another procured. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMnniDCK. 



when the marcli was resumed. The proccssit^ii moveil ilowii 
Main Street to South Park, and tlownthat street to the grove. 
The woods were alive with people, and it was with ditViculty 
that the officers of the day and the speakers reached the stand. 
The arrangements in the grove were very good. The mam 
stand was covered ami lu)arded up at the hack, and was large 
enough to accommodate about sixty persons. The stand for 
the hand was on the left, and a little advanced ; on tlie right 
was a stand for the singers, anil in front of it hoard seats were 
prepared for ahout two thousand people. The scene from 
llie stanil at the moment of the organization was grand. As 
far as one could see into the woods there was one solid mass 
of people. There must have been in the grove at that time at 
least eight thousand people, with ])rohal)ly a couple of thou- 
sand more ahout the streets of tlie viUage. since the streets of 
the village were lined with people while the procession was 
passing. The reallv most difficult thing of the whole business 
was t«) furnish dinner for the crowd. For this purpose five 
hundred feet of table had been prepared, one for the press, 
one for the old people over seventy, and the third for the 
crowd. At the ])ress and at the old folks' table seats were 
prepareil ; at the others it was in lunch style. To have seated 
all was simply impossible, and the writer, when looking out 
on the crowil from the grand stand, had great misgivings as 
to the abilitv of the committee iiv charge of the tables to sup- 
ply the peoj*e with food. But the larder was equal to the 
occasion. There was abundance, and of the best variety, and 
this part of the programme was as great a success as the other 
parts. There might have been a few who were not supplied, 
but it was tVom ditbdence on their ])art. not for want of pro- 



lO CEXTENNIAI. .WMVKRSAIIV 

visions. It was projjoscd to have a roster made of tlie old 
rcsiilents who were present, but the attempt was abandoned 
as im[K>ssible. The music by the banti an'tl the sinjjinj; by 
the choir was j^cmhI, the oratory al)ove the average of such 
(Kcasions, though of course it was impossible for any of the 
s{x>akers to make all the |K*oplc hear what they said. In 
brief, the whole atVair, from iK'ginning to cml. was a success, 
gratifying to all concerned. 

After the exercises were over the large crowd dis|x>rsed. and 
by dark all was as quiet as usual in the village. The com- 
mittees all did well. The hardest lal)or. however, fell on the 
committee on ground antl tables, but no committee <lid In-tter 
tlian it. The numln-r of ohl |Kt»ple present was quite remark- 
able. The Ih>vs of seventy years were of no account : the 
honored chairman, with his ninety-six years, n^ade tliem 
seem voung. Many of them, however, did not l(M>k as vig- 
orous as he. A man who could stand the fatigue an<l excite- 
ment of such a «lav as Friday must have left yet several years 
of life in him. When the old man t<M>k his seat as the 
honorarv President of the day. it hardly could be Inrlieved 
that here was one that was Inim soon after the town. an<l yet 
John Weir lacks only foiir years to his centennial. The Rev. 
Ilenrv (Jonlon. «»f Coila. was the acting President f»f the ilay. 
and dischargetl the duties well. The stand was filled with 
the old men of the town and distinguished strangers." 

K«.\. Henry Gonlon. ujion intrtnlucing the exercises, said: 
Thi>. mv friends, is a great day for <ilil Cambridge. It is the 
Centennial of the old town. an<l you can easily discern the 
imjjortancc attaching to it by casting your eye over the vast 
sea of upturned faces. There arc wmic things people will not 



OLD TOWN OK CA.MRUIDGE. II 

allow to die. Too many great .events have taken place, too 
nianv incidents have occurred, too manv good men and 
women have lived in this old town not to keep alive the 
reminiscences that cluster around it. And let me say to you 
now, just at the very outset, that you are scarcelv aware of 
the trouble persons have been at to get up this celebratit)n to 
keep alive in. and refresh the memor\ with, these important 
events. 1 will not do injustice to any person. There mav 
be something in reference to this toward theclo.se of the day. 
but I do know that certain committees have worked night 
and day. and spared neitiier toil, nor pains, nor expense, to 
ha\e this a granil success, and the result is visible to everv 
person. It is right ami proper, on such an occasion as this, 
and with reference to the past, that we shoultl commence this 
meeting with prayer to the throne of heavenlv grace, and 
first in the order of cxerci.ses will he ])raver 1)\ Re\ . W. H. 
Short!. 

INVOCATION PRAYER. 

Rev. Mr. Shortt otfered the following praver : () God, 
thou alone art from everlasting to everlasting God. Thou 
art the same, yesterday, to-day and forever, without variable- 
ness or shadow of turning. We are the workmanship of 
thine hands — the creatures whom thy power has made and 
thy presence preser^•es. O thou God of our fathers, and (iod 
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of all who put 
their trust in thee, we invoke thv blessing upon this assembly. 
We desire to thank thee. O Lord, for the distinguishetl privi- 
leges with which we have been favored all our lives long. 
Goodness and mercy hath followed us all the days of our 
lives, and we would especially thank thee, O God, on this 



12 CENTENNI.M. A\M\i;KS.\It\' 

clav of remembrance, the CeJiteiinial. for the character of the 
(levotetl int'ii aiul \voine:i who first settled this <>K! town of 
Cambridj^e, who feared (Jtul, honored thee in keeping thy 
commandments, and gh)rified thee, their Creator, tlieir pre- 
server and their Redeemer. They have left to succeeding; 
generations blessings of inestimable \alue. () Lord, lielp us 
to realize thv goodness to us in these latter days, and help us 
to cherish and maintain th«)se heaven given pri\ ileges which 
have been luuuled down t<» us through the generations that 
arc now gone. We have thy Sabbaths and sanctuary privi- 
leges, the gospel is preached, wc enjoy social. ci\il, religions 
and educational privileges above multitudes of om- fellow 
men. () may our hearts this day be lifted up in gratituile to 
that God who gives us all these things richly to enjoy, and 
we pray we may l)e impressed with this one thought, " To 
whom much is given, of them also shall much Ik* re<piired." 
C) (j<m1. hear us, bless us, and Thy great name. Father. .Son, 
and IIolv Spirit, one Ciotl. shall have the glory and the 
praise. Amen. 

Music by the Hand. 

Rkv. Mk. Gordon : We are gl.id to see so many strangers 
present, and s<» many from the difVerent ]>orti«^is of the county, 
whose names are household words with us. Wc arc glad to 
see so manv of the s^>ns and daiighters of the ol<l town of 
Cambridge — but I will not anticipate. An expression of our 
jov will devolve ujx>n another — upon one of the boys of Cam- 
bridge, who has his hca<l-quartcrs here at Fort Grant, over 
the wav. He is nf>t vet full grown, but when he docs come 
to the full grown proi>)rtions of manh<K>d. wc need have no 
fears that he will reflect anv discredit on the old town of 



Ol.n TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. ♦• I3 

Cambridge. I have the pleasure of introducing Hon. James 
S. Smart. 

WELCOME ADDRESS BY HON. J. S. SMART. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is deputed 
to me to give formal expression of the welcome which some 
of the sons and daughters of old Cambridge, wiio have 
abitled on the hill sides and in the vallevs which our common 
ancestors settled more than a hundred years ago, to-day ex- 
tend to those children of the town who have made their homes 
elsewhere. It has been planned to gather in,' as far as coidd 
be, all who were entitled to attend this township reunion, 
not only those that were to the manor born, but frientls of 
the neighboring towns whose histories arc so closely allied 
to that of our town. Though a hundred years have rolled 
away since our fathers met at the house of Captain John 
Wood, and many great changes ha\e come over the old town, 
we are still li\ing in the wav our fathers lived and in\ itc \()U 
back to no pageant, but as a stiu'dy farming community — to 
a simple re-union in the woods, with homely fare but hearty 
hospitality. This day is as much yours as ours, as the history 
to be read to us is as much the history of your fathers as ours. 
Those who are to address you are distinguished sons, but not 
residents. We feel it a privilege to ask you all back to your 
native town to meet with those who have tarried in the homes 
of their ancestors and with the friends whom we can hardly 
to-dav classify, so well have the towns of this good county 
blended. This town of our fathers has been large enough 
and rich enough to divide into three separate townships, 
but the memories stirred bv this centeimial year have obliter- 
ated for the present the divisions of later years, and whether 



14 • CENTENNIAL ANNIVEKSAKY 

ill the sub-division known as Jackson, or in the one known as 
White Creek, wc arc all to-day sons of one common niothcr, 
welcoming back truant children on this her natal annivefsary 
day. In the vear our fathers founded this town the first 
church of Canihridj^e wasorjjanizcd. It is a fact to be proud 
of that no histor}- can treat of the time when Cambrid<,a- had 
no cluirclu The children of such an ancestry should ;md do 
take pride that in the town to-day the spires of twelve c!unc!ies 
are pointinjj heavenwartl, and you are to-day welcomed back 
to the midst of a people who walk in the fear and admonition 
of the Lord. The fathers of thistowil. at an early ilate. jjave 
themselves to the establishment of schools, of which these 
honored men who are with us to-day are the jewels. These 
schools have been kept alive, anil, tliouj^h to-day in a transi- 
tion state, we welcome you back with the confident assurance 
that the cloud is but temix>rary, and that (Uit of tiie feelinj; 
this day engendered will come union and strengtii that shall 
enable us to do even better than our fathers. One hundred 
vears ago the founders of this town were received by s.ivage 
beasts and wiltler men. They found these valleys, swamps, 
and the hills covered with forests scarce ever penetrated by 
the sun. In the fear of the Lord they laid the foundation of 
this town, and he has caused it to blossom like a garden. 
To-dav, as this town welcomes her children and friends, its 
hills are laden with com, its valleys yield bountiful crops, its 
people arc dwelling in comfortable houses, peace and security- 
are in its borders. It boasts not of its looms, it points you to 
no row of splendid houses, nor calls yourattenion to the hum 
of busv concerns, but it invites you to view a valley as fair as 
the lanil of promise, to look at the wood-crowned hills which 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. I^ 

cluster about it as emeralds set about a diamond. It boasts 
not of its great names nor the rent rolls of her sons, but it 
welcomes you to the homes of a prosperous people, not made 
haughtv by great wealth, nor cast down by abject poverty. 
But why should I detain you for a mere form of words. 
Y,ou are not strangers to Cambridge or Cambridge hospitality, 
and your own generous hearts, first nurtured on this soil, tes- 
tify more eloquentlv than can I how welcome you are to-day 
to share with us the pleasure of this occasion. This vener- 
able man who has come to us from the early days of the 
town, who honors this day with his presence, comes here on 
behalf of the past to bid you welcome. The children playing 
about the grove have liriglitcr faces for your coming, and 
speaking for age and youth, in the name of the people of tlie 
town. I bid vou thrice welcome. [Applause.] 

Rev. Mr. Gordon- : The next thing will be a song from 
the choir, and I hope these people will let the audience see 
that old Cambridge people have both hearts and lungs. 

Tile choir then sang 

HOME AC A IN. 

H.)in3 again, home a^^aiu, from a foreign shore I 

And oh I it tills my soul with joy 
To meet my friends once more I 
Here I dropped the parting tear. 

To cross the ocean's foam, < 

But now I'm once again with those 

Who kindly greet me home. 

Happy hearts, happy hearts, with mine have laughed in glee, 

But oh I the friends I loved in j-outh, 
Seem hajipier to me. 



l6 CEXTENNIAI. ANNIXERSARY 

Aud if my guide should be the fate. 

Which bid me longer roaiu, 
But deatli alone can break the tie 

That binds my heart to home. 

Music sweet, music soft, lingers round the place. 

And oh ! I fuel the childhixKl charm, 
That time cannot efface. 
Then give mv but my homestead riH>f, 

I'll iksk no imlace dome. 
For I can live a happy life 

With those I love at home. 

Rev. Mr. Gordon : The next thiiij; in order, and t«) 
which I hojK' you will jjive the utmost attention, is an histor- 
ical address of the old town l>v the Hon. (». W. Jermain. 

IIISTORK.M. .\I)imKSS HV HON. (,. W. JKH.MAIN. 

Such a <'athering of |X*ople as we see here to-day would 
hardiv be expected, even at a celebration which excites s(» 
much interest as the anniversary <>f our National IndejX'n- 
dence. This is indeed the centennial year of oneof tlie most 
prominent events which led to tliat In<le|x*n(lence. the j^reat 
tea partv of 1773 when the tea was cast overb<iard in Boston 
harbor. But the event wliich we celebrate to-day is (juite 
another thoujjh of coincident date with that. As children 
love to do honor to the memory of their ancestors, we are 
here to celebrate the hundredth annivers;iry of the birth-da\ 
of our old mother Cambrid<;e. If it were so that living wit- 
nesses remained to tell us of their own knowledge the earliest 
histor^• of the town, nothing could give greater interest to 
this meeting than to call them up to tell us wh«) was the first 
white inliabitant who came and fixed his home in this then 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 1/ 

wilderness, and which the spot upon which he fixed it ; who 
came riext, and next I How did they work their way through 
the unbroken forest, and how their means to work, and their 
means of Hving were brought to their new homes and the 
hardships and privations they endured. Thus we could follow 
on from farm to farm, as we now know them, and learn who 
who theirfirst occupants, and through but few generations could 
trace the history of many families now with us from the be- 
ginning to the present day. There are some families, and 
not a few, now living upon the same land which their fore- 
fathers cleared, and which has come down to them through 
an unbroken line of lionest ancestrv. "native here," in truth 
lords of the soil from the felling of the first tree. Of the first 
inhabitants themselves the tombstones in the grave-yards 
furnish the most authentic records of those who are thus 
memorized, but of these, and no doubt of manv others, of 
whom wc have no memorial iiere. more will be known and 
read from their "record which is on high." Of li\ing wit- 
nesses now left to testify from personal knowledge of anything 
bevond the last half century, there are very tew, yet some of 
us remain, who stand between the past and present to speak 
from memorv of somewhat beyond that period, and of per- 
sonal knowledge of some wlio first occupied this ground a 
centurv ago when vet a wilderness. 

It will be seen that our object is not a popular address, but 
a matter of fact history. In the division of New York (when a 
British Province.) into counties, in 1683, Albany county 
was established, and extended north to Canada, and included 
Vermont, then claimed to be within the jurisdiction of New 
York, and several counties west of this. At a verv earlv dav 



l8 CENTENNIAL ANNI\ KKSAKY 

j:n-aiits and patents of wild lands were sought by speculators 
from the Hritish government, and in l6SS a patent was 
obtained tor a tract along the Hoosic river, called the lloosic 
Patent, a jjortion of which became included in the town «)f 
Cambridge. Soon afterward another patent, adjacent to it on 
the east, was procured, extentling northerly and easterly about 
a mile in width, called the Van Corler and Lakes Patent. 

In I 731 a purchase was made of the Indians <»f lands con- 
tiguous to and cast of the Van Corler Patent, but as " Lo. the 
|>oor Indian, was not sup|)osed to have any rights which the 
white man was bound to respect." a patent tor this same land 
was aftenvards. in 1739. procured from the British govern- 
ment b\ Steplien \'an Rensselaer antl «)thers. called the 
»• \ValhH)ms;»c Patent" of alMuit I2.cxx) acres.exteniling north 
and east along the WalliKimsac river and t«» the (ireen 
Mountains, coveriii^ the White Critk valley. In 1761 the 
Cambridge Patent was grante<l to Isaac .lawyer. Kdmun<l 
Wells. lacob Lansing, .\lexander Colden. William .Smith. 
Goldsboro Hanyer and others for 31.500 acres north of the 
H<M>sic Patent. an<l extending along the Cambridge valley 
and over the west part of the present town. To induce set- 
tlements on tills land the patentees gave one hundred acres to 
each of the tirst thirty families wIk) would l>ccomc actual 
settlers. The names which are now known of the first set- 
tlers, arc John McClung. James and Robert Cowan. Samuel 
Bell, Col. Blair. George Gilmorc, George Duncan, David 
Harrow. William Clark. John Scott and Thomas Morrison, 
(whose son was the first-born child among the settlers). 
These came on the lands in 1761-2-.3. Other early settlers 
in the vicinitv were Ephraim Cow.m. Robert Gilmore, Austin 



OLD TOWX OF CAMBRIDGE. I9 

Wells, Samuel Clark, Jonathan Morrison, Edmond Wells, 
John Allen, David Sprauge, Seth Chase, John Woods, John 
Harroun. Thomas McCool, Thomas Ashton. Simeon Fowler, 
John Young. Josiah Dewey, Ruel Beebe, William Eager, 
William Selfridge John Younglove and John Corev. 

Edmond Wells, often mentioned among the early settlers, 
was one of the patentees, and probably the only patentee 
who became a settler, and this name anil family haye been 
identified with the history of the town, and have continued 
in successiye generations to be known and respected here to 
the present day. We have no doubt that settlements were 
made upon the other patents south and east of Cambridge 
Patent earlier than 1761. A mill was built on the Iloosic or 
Walloomsac river very early. And there is some history of 
se\eral acres of cleared land found by the early settlers, near 
Buskirk's Bridge, supposed by some to have been an Indian 
corn field, but more probably the site of an old fort, which is 
known to have been built in tiie I loosic river \alley (long 
before the Cambridge settlement.) for protection against the 
Indians, ayd which was attacked by a party of French and 
Indians who came from Canada through the Cambridge 
valley and captured this fort and killed and took captive some 
of the iniiabitants, and on their return encamped several days 
near the Ponds north of Cambridge village. 

The names of other early settlers are given in the record 
of those who were disturbed in possession of their lands by 
reason of the Revolution, and which for a time were exempted 
from cjuit rents on that account. These were James McKie, 
Elizabeth Watson, Michael McCabc. John Nicholson. Daniel 
Busteed. William Busteed, James McKimm. Francis Nichol- 



2n CEXTEXN'TAI. ANVrVERSARY 

son. William Nicholson, on the Emburv Patent. JamcR 
Cowdcn. Ephraiin Bcsscy, Benjamin Smith. John MorriMjn. 
WiUiam Cooper, Isaac Gibbs, James S. Cowden, Samuel 
Cowilen. David Cowden, George Searl, William Hleck, 
Archibald Campbell, John Campbell, William Campbell, 
(ieorge Telford, Winslow Heath, Tinmthy Heath. William 
Kin*;, AnH»s Buck, James Warner, Kl>en Warner, John Aus- 
tin, on the Cambridge Patent, and Francis Lacker <»n the 
\'an Corier Patent. Some who had taken up lots previous 
to the Revolution left them during tliat |X'rit>d : some from 
fear of disturbance bv Tories and Indians. Nvh»» were prowl- 
ing alM>ut the country for plunder, and some, who chose to 
ilesert their friends and join their enemies, left this region 
altogether. The lands of some of these were confiscated by 
government after the war and sold to other settlers. 

The first settlements on the Cambridge Patent were chieHy 
along the Taghkanick range of hills on the east Ixtrder. and 
along the Owl Kill and Cambridge valley. The first Livern 
was a log house kept by James Cowden, where the Chequered 
House is. which we have often heard called by tlie old set- 
tlers, the Cowden Tavern. In 176^ the Annaquassacoke 
Patent for 1 0,000 acres was grantecl to Schermcrhorn and 
others, extending over parts of the present White Creek and 
Jackson. The early settlers on this were James Ir\inc. Peter 
McCiill. John Miller. John McLean. Jonathan Conger. Hugh 
rimmpson. I-'Jh'U Billings. Tlii«» tr.ut !». north of Cambridge 
Patent. 

In 176s the Kmbury Patent for S.ooo acres cast of Anna- 
quassacoke was granted. This anti Wilson's Patent, so 
called, arc cvidentlv the same, as two such patents can not 



OLD TO\\*N OF CAMBRIDGE. 21 

be found, and this patciit was granted to Embury. Wilson 
and others. 

In 1766 a tract of about 1.400 acres was purchased by 
Pliineas Whiteside, in the west part of Cambridge, upon 
which his sons. John. Peter. Thomas. WilHam. James and 
Oliver, each had farms, and the names and possession of this 
family have ct)ntinued there to the present time. Phineas 
Whiteside did great service to the countr\ during the war of 
the Revolution. Other patents obtained are known as the 
(irant and Campbell Patents, lying south of Embury Patent, 
in White Creek, and Bain's Patent, contiguous to that, and 
Reed and \'an Antwerp's, granted in 1770, said to be north 
of the lloosic and west of Cambridge Patent. 

Some very earlv improvements were matle with reference 
to the supplies needed by the settlers. A mill was built on the 
Walloomsac river, and a mill at Pumpkin Hook, (this name 
is said to have been originalh Pompanuck. an Indian name 
derived from the name <>f a lemnantof an Indian trilie once lo- 
cated there for a time). Caml)ridge was not a town nor a 
district until the Colonial Assembly, in i 772. passed an act con- 
stituting it a district, and including vShaftsburv in it. (Dis- 
tricts were li\ the Colimial law the same as towns), Bv act 
of Assembiv the same vear. i77-' a portion of Albanv county 
was setoff and called Charlotte county, in honor of Qiieen 
Charlotte. This county inckuled most of our present county, 
and part of \"ermont. but did not include Cambridge, which 
still remained in Albanv county. Previous to 1777 a consid- 
erable number of settlers had come in and occuj^ied ilifVerent 
sections of the town, and lands contiguous along the lloosic 
river, and made improvements, and acquired stocks of horse? 



ir cH>nrKvvi.\i. anntversary 

and cattle. The war of the RevoKition was then in proprrcss, 
and the British annv, under Burj^oyne. was ailvancinj; from the 
north, and when as far along as the North river, west of us. 
a detachment under Colonel Baum was sent out for supplies, 
and pass! njjthr«)U}jh Cambridge, encamped over ni«;ht. Au;^ist 
'3' '777' "<^'*'" ^^'ait's Corners. \\\ atlvance party of 'rr>ries 
and Indians had preceded them, and near Hoosic or W'al- 
loomsac, attacked and took prisoners a numlK-r of our jX'ople 
and took from them cattle ant! other supplies. Baum. 
with his red c«»ats. (as the British soliliers were called on 
account of their uniform.) proceeded next day toward Ben- 
ninj^on. atul on the i6th. near the junction of the lines of 
Cambrid;,'e. lloosic an«l Bennin«jt<in. encounterc<l (leneral 
Stark in what is called the Benninjjton hattle. .Stark on that 
occasion made his famous speech to his men. which has he- 
come proverbial as sijjnificant of »letermine<l courajje. *' the 
red coats are ours before nijjht or Molly Stark is a widow." 
Baum met sijjnal defeat, and himself and al>out seven hun- 
dreil of his men were taken prisoners and alnnit two hundred 
killed. This incursion of British soldiers in the town cause<l 
much alarm, and the inhabitants (from some of whom we 
have heard relations) apprehending depredations from 
marauding parties of Tories and Indians, secreted their prf»p- 
ertv in various wavs to protect it. and in some instances 
emploving the agency of neighbors who were frien<ls of the 
British. A storv is tohl of one of the old settlers near Ben- 
nington battle ground, who not willing to lose his day's work, 
kept his men in his field while the battle went on. until the 
cannon balls whistled among them, and then told them he 
thought thev wouldn't work any longer that day. 



OLD TOWN' OF CAMBRIDGE. 33 

Soon after the close of the Revolution the settlement of the 
town rapidly increased. Its contiguity to Albany and other 
older settlements, and much improvement of the county south 
of it, induced emigiMtion from other States and from the old 
countries, and the town was verv soon populated. In 1784 
the Legislature of the State of New York changed the name 
of the countv of Charlotte, and highly honored it with the 
name of Wasliington. Cambridge never belonged to Char- 
lotte county, but continued in Albany county as a district 
until 17S8. when it was made a town, "bounded on the north 
bv the countv of Washington," and extending some distance 
south of the Hoosic river, including Tioshoke. below Bus- 
kirk's Bridge. In 1791 Rensselaer covmtv was instituted, 
and Cambridge was annexed to Washington Coimtv at the 
same time, antl in 1S22 all that part of the town south of 
the Hoosic river was set olV to Rensselaer county. 

The eastern bounds of the town, or county, or e\cn of the 
State, were for many years indefinite, and until \'ermont 
became a State a contest had for many years existed between 
New Hampshire and Xew York, both claiming jurisdiction 
over the territory l)etwcen the Connecticut river and Lake 
Champlain. anil the precise eastern boundary of this town 
and county, during this controversy, was dependent upon the 
settlement of it. The British government decided in favor 
of Xew \'ork, but the (ireen Mountain boys having been 
very active ;yul eliicient in the war of independence, and in- 
flated with its spirit, in 1777, declared themselves independent 
of both States, but they soon ascertained that they had, by 
this act, involved themselves in another war of Independence. 
Connected with this are some facts which are part of the his- 



a4 CEXTP.N'NIAI. .\NN-I\Ens.\RV 

torv of Cambriil^a-. The iiulcfiiiilc state of" the boimdar}-. 
and in fact the jurisdiction of this town, havinj^ cxtLMidcd over 
territory claimed by Vermont, a sympathy was induced to- 
ward the Vermonters in their chiim to independence, and in 
this several (Jtiier districts al«)nj; and near the bortlers were 
united. \'crmont. beside tlenyiii'^ the rij^ht of New Wnk to 
an\ jurisdiction bcNond her present boinularies. also denied 
her rijj;ht to the territory, now VVashinj,'ton county, upon the 
pretence that this territory was no part of New York, but 
belonged to a separate Territorial government established by 
Great Britain, over which Gov. Philip Skeenc was appointed 
Governor, and the assumed (iencral Assembly of Vermont, 
in Februar\. 17S1, declaretl its jurisdiction to extend to the 
Hudson river, and in April tollowing appointed a conven- 
tion to be held at Cambriilge in the next nuinth. to which 
delegates were chosen to represent X'ermont. This conven- 
tion was held in May. lySi.in which were represented by 
delegates the following districts, (as then called): Hoosic, 
.Schaghticoke. Cambridge. .Saratoga. I'pixr White Creek 
(Salem.) Hlack Creek (Hebron.) Granville. .Skecnsboro, 
KingsburN . Fort ICdward and little Hoosic. and at whicli 
these districts resolved to submit themselves to the jurisdic- 
tion of Wrmont. John Rogers was chairman of Convention, 
and Moses Robins(»n chairman of Committee. Representa- 
tives were chosen to the \'ermont Legislature, in which, on 
June 16. 17S1. Phineas Whiteside and Joseph Caldwell took 
seats as members from Cambridge. Congress did not readily 
accede to the projX)siti(»n. but Wrmont persisted and resisted 
the authority of New York, and this led to open hostilities, 
and the resistants were adjudged to be outlaws. a»id in 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 



-3 



rebellion, and a large number were arrested, but we do not 
identity any names of these in the documentary history as 
Cambridge people. This state of things led to a *' sober 
second thought, and to the wise conclusion that discretion is 
the better part of valor." March i, 17S3, a convention was 
held at Cambridge to reconsider the action of the convention 
ot the previous year, and a petition was adopted and for- 
wanled to tlic Governor and Legislature of New York, 
retracting the union with Vermont, in which they regret that 
step, and say in their petition, " Our deception was great, and 
our return is hearty, and as acts of lenity and mercy dignify 
the human nature more than strict justice, we doubt not but 
that you, in your clemency and goodness, will restore us to 
our former situation, that thereby we may be rendered more 
serviceable to the United States of America, and the State of 
New York in particular." This petition is signed. "Jona- 
than Waldo. Josiah Dewey, Fortunatus Sherman. Committee 
of District Convention." Another document appears addressed 
to the (iovernor and Legislature of March ^. 1782, signed by- 
Edward Savage, John Gray, P. Fitch, and many others 
(supposeil from their names t<j be inhabitants of Salem, but 
not dated at any place.) petitioning for the pardon of White 
Creek people for having submitted themselves to the assumed 
jurisdiction of Vermont. It seems probable, from this docu- 
ment, that the •' Upper White Creek," named in the Seces- 
sion Convention proceedings of May, 17S1, was intact (uir 
neighbor Salem which took part in that con\ention. and that 
this petition was on behalf of the inhabitants of that town, 
and not our W' bite Creek. In the first settlement of Salem 
(before it became a town,) the New England setders therp 



id CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

called it White Creek, (though the Scotch settlers preferred 
the name of New Perth). This controversy continued seve- 
ral years al\er this. Congress not consenting to admit Vermont. 
Hut afterwards, in iji^i , Vermont was admitted as a .*^()vereign 
State in the I'nion, with her present boundaries. 

We have already adverteil to the law which liist gave 
name and organization to Cambridge, and wc now call to our 
aid to furnish facts relative to its history, an old witness of 
one huiulred vears — the original Ii«>ok «>f Records, com- 
mencing with the first town meeting in May. 1773. which 
proves the present year of 1S73 to l)c tlie centennial \ear of 
its legal organization, and gives its official history down to 
the time of the division of the town. TheapjKMrance of this 
old witness, clatl in parchment, the dress of f»>rmer times, 
proves its own age. anti the well known lunul-writing of 
manv of its records is to some of us full pr«K»f. As some ten 
vears or more ha<l elapse«l since the first settlements. Inrforc 
these records ct)mmence»l. it w ill Ik- seen from the names at 
first ap|x*aring on the records, and for succeeding years, that 
manv whom we have supposed to have Ixren first settlers, did 
not probably come in until years afterwards. Wc read from 
the old book. *' At the tow n meeting held at Cambridge, in 
ve coiuitv of Albany, in the Province of New V«irk. first 

Tuestlay of May. 1773. Mmlerator. Morrison. Esq. : 

Super>'isor. Simeon Covell ; Town Clerk. William Brown : 
Assessors. David Sprague, White Creek ; Michael Ryan, 
Cambridge ; Treasurer. Is;iiah Vounglove : Overseers of 
Roads. Samuel lleth. John Morrison. Edward Wells. Robert 
Kdminston. Nathan .*^mith. for Corlcr's patent : John .Soule. 
.Samuel Hedges, for White Creek : Hazard Wilcox. Andrew 



OLD TOWN' OF CAMBRIDGE. 



a; 



Thoms, for Walloomsac ; Thomas Ashton. for Qiiushecook ; 
Simeon Berry, for Ash Grove ; Jabez Mosher, for Fowler's ; 
Overseers of Poor. John Lake, of White Creek, Robert Gil- 
more, of Cambridge : Collector and Constable, George Gil- 
more, Cambridge ; Constables, Eben Allen. White Creek, 
Peter Halley, Allertown, (probably meant for Peter Hawley 
of Arlington,) John Corey, Shaftsbury ; Fence Viewers and 
Prizers, Seth Chase and David Spragiie, White Creek. Sam- 
uel Ileth and Hugh Gray. Cambridge ; Firemen. John Weir, 
James Morrison. Hazard Wilcox, Jabez Mosher. Isaiah 
Vounglove. Eben Wright : Pound Masters, James Cowden. 
Samuel Hodges." The White Creek portion of the town 
seem to have soon manifested a disposition for independence. 
as appears from the following record, (and besides their dis- 
position for secession, seem to have been in favor of southern 
institutions). We reati : " At a special meeting of the in- 
habitants of White Creek, February i, 1775, voted to petition 
the Assembly to be set ott' from Cambridge," and further. 
•• \'oted to petition the Assembly to let the inhabitants keep 
bloodhounds." It is an e\ idencc of tlie rapid improvement 
of the tt)wn that the number of road districts increased in the 
Hrst ten years from thirteen to twenty-eight, and in the same 
time following to fortv-cight. and soon after over one hun- 
(hed. The names of the lirst magistrates which appear upon 
tlie record are, Edmond Wells, John Vounglove. David 
Sprague and John McKillip. We read further a few extracts 
from this old reconi : "May 11. 1776, at a town meeting 
called for the purpose of electing Field Officers of the 
Eighteenth Regiment of Militia, Lucas Van Wort was elec- 
ted Colonel. Jolin Blair Secontl Colonel, James Ashton. Ma- 



28 t'KNTENNIAI. ANNIVKUSARV 

jor, and John Vounjjlove Adjutant. May 8. 17S3, voted that 
stocks be built at expense of district, (as in Old Tcstanuiit 
times when Job said, ' thou puttest my feet in the stocks." 
and in New Testament times. ' the feet of Paul and Silas 
they made fast in the stocks.' ") April S, iSoi. " 1. Jeremiah 
Stilwell, do hereby manumit my slaves, named Salem Hedoe 
and Arabella his wite," (the tlark a«;es had not then passed, 
even in New York State). Slavery beinj; then all<»wed in 
this State, provision was made by law that the slaves mi<;ht 
be manumitteil by writing;, executed by their owners ami re- 
corded in the town records, which securetl their freedom and 
exonerated the owners from liability for their support. \\\ 
find many .such rec»)rils. 

The earlv establishin}; of chinches in the town sh«»ws the 
I'uritan character of the early settlers. The lirst church or- 
cani/ation in the town was no doubt the Methodist church 
at Ash Grove. I'hilip Embury (the removal of who.se re- 
mains, and the erection of a monument to whose memory, 
have exciteil much interest,) came into this repon. and Hnd- 
ing here a number of settlers desirous of relif^ious privilcj^es, 
who had emij^rated from the old country, he, w ith Thomas 
A.shton. and a few others, orjjanized a church in 1770 at Ash 
(irove, s;iitl to have been named after Mr. Ashton. and a small 
meetin" house was some time after erected at that place, and 
late in iS^2 a new and more commodious house was built, 
which was afterw.irds burned. This church is said to have 
been the seconil Methodist church orj^anized in America, (the 
first being the John street church in New ^<>rk. which Mr. 
Kmburv had just before assisted in organizing). From this 
time forwiu-d has this denominati«»n been justly considered 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 39 

the pioneer in the establishing; of churches in new settle- 
ments, following the example of this good man. 

The old meeting house, so called, which stood upon the 
lot contiguous to the old burying ground, south of the village, 
was commenced about 1775. and perhaps earlier, for it is 
known that as early as 1765 the settlers sent to Scotland for 
ministerial supply, and Rev. Mr. Telfair came in 1766 to this 
place and preached, and ministers from Salem also preached 
here, but the meeting house was not completed until 17S3. 
This lot was donated by William Smith, one of the Cambridge 
patentees, for church purposes, and conveyed to John Young- 
love, Edmond Wells. Phineas Whiteside, James Ashton, John 
Morrison, James McClung, John Welch. Josiah Dewev and 
Josiah Wells, as Trustees, and the building was erected and 
occupied at first by those desiring religious worship without 
denominational distinction — most of whom were from the 
old countries. It appears in the history of this congregation 
that the anxiety to procure such a minister as was desirable 
to a portion of tlicm, induced a Mrs. Hinsdale to undertake a 
journey on foot to Philadelphia for that jnupose. and the Rev. 
Thomas Beverage was procureil. and came and organized a 
church here. A diHerence among them -in regard to prefer- 
ences to the diflerent church relations from which thev origi- 
nated in tlic old countries, soon afti-Mwards induced a division 
into two separate congregations, and the cliurch here organ- 
ized in 1785. under the ministry of Mr. Beverage, procured 
another location and built the yellow meeting house, so 
called. The congregation whicli remained in the old meet- 
ing house organized according to law. January 7. 178^. bv 
the name of '• The First Protestant Presbvterian Coniireiration 



30 CENTKNNIAI. ANNI\KRS.Mn 

of Cambridge," und at some time not now ascertained, organ- 
ized a church In' the name of •* The Associate Rcft)riiifd 
Church of Camliridge," and in 1791 settled Rev. John Dun- 
lap as their minister, with Phineas Whiteside, James Ashton, 
James Stevenson, Fortunatus Shearman, Archibald Robertson 
and Joseph Wells. Elders. The ministers succeeding, previ- 
ous to the present, were Revs. Messrs. D. McLaren. W. 
Ilowden. I*. Gordon anil T. McLawry. The old building 
l)ecoming tlilapidated. in 1S45. was abantloned and the new 
brick church was built bv the same congregation in the vil- 
lage, and has since been enlargetl. The Whiteside faniily. 
for convenience of their neighborhootl, several miles distant in 
the western part of the town, erected a meeting house in about 
iSoo, in their vicinity for occasional meetings, continuing 
their connection, however, with the old church (as we are 
informed bv one of the fan)ily.) for ni.ui\ \ ears, and not until 
1S34 maintaining a .separate Lliurch. \n In n Rt\ . IVtcr (Gor- 
don became their ministei 

The Friends' meeting hou.sc at White Creek had an early 
existence. an«l previous to 17S3 their house was partly built 
for some vears. but ni>t tinished until alxait 1784. and in 1S04 
was ren«»vated or rebuilt. Among the early members we 
find the names of WcmkI. H«>wen. Iloag. Allen. Mosher. 
Duel. Norton, and later are Barker. Hart. Chase. Taber and 
Cornell. The stKiety was called •* The White Creek Pre- 
parative Meeting." 

The vellow meeting house church, as before stated, was 
organized in 1785 by the name of ••The Associate Presbyte- 
rian Church." and its first Elders were Alexan<ler .Skellie. 
James Edie. James Rollo. James Small and William Mc.\ulc\ . 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 3 1 

Their first church was built in 17S6. Their first minister, 
Rev. Thomas Beverage, was succeeded by Revs. John Banks, 
D. D., Alexander Bullions, D. D., and his son, David G. 
Bullions, previous to the present minister. The old meeting 
house was taken down and tlie present brick one was erected 
in 1833. The Rev. Alexander Bullions was pastor about 
fifty years. We trust it will not be deemed undue partiality 
to sa)- particularly of this good man so long with us, that he 
was a true christian gentleman, an eminently able and faith- 
ful minister. His superior learning and ability, ever devoted 
to doing good in the church, in the families and in the 
schools, in which he took much interest, had an influence of 
which the sweet savor will not Ijc lost for manv generations 
after liim. 

The White Meeting House church was organized in 1793, 
and the church was built about that time, whicli was occu- 
pied about forty years. A new edifice was erected in its 
place in 1S32, which was occupied until the present new 
church, on the opposite side of the street, was completed, in 
iS'jz. The first minister. Rev. (iershone Williams, was 
succeeded by Revs. Messrs. R. H. Chapman, X. S. Prime, G. 
Hays, W. Lusk, O. P. Hoyt, E. H. Newton, I. O. Fillmore, J. 
H. Nixon, and C. H. Taylor, previous to the present pastor. 
The first Elders were John Welch, Moses Holmes. Joseph 
Wells, John Rollo. Lucas Younglove, Kirthuul Warner. 

The Baptist church at Wait's Corners was organized about 
1779. According to our best information their first house of 
worship was a log house, built about 17S2, some distance 
east of the present location, and a new churcii was com- 
mencetl at Wait's Corners in 17SS. but not completed imtil 



32 CEXTEXXIAI. AXXIVERSARY 

iSoS. The first minister was Elder William Wait, succeeded 
by Elders Craw, Glass, \\'arren and Tinkham. 

The White Creek village meeting house is said to have 
been erected about 1795 or 1796, but not completed until 
1S07, and occupied in part by the Wait's Corners society, 
but it does not appear that this church has ever been used 
exclusively by any particular denomination, but chiefl}- by 
Baptist and Methodist societies. 

In 1798 the County Clerk's office was located in Cambridge, 
and kept by Gerritt Wendell, (who was County Clerk,) in 
his brick office at the Academy corners, audit was continued 
there for several years, until the location \\-as changed to 
Argyle. This office continued to be occupied by Mr. W^en- 
dell for his professional business during his lifetime, and since 
his death has been taken down. 

The Northern Turni^ikc Company was incorporated in 
1799. with William Hay, Edmond Wells, jr., David Long, 
Martin Van Buskirk, John Williams, Edward Savage and 
others, directors, and the road was constructed soon after- 
wards from Lansingburgh through Cambridge, and became 
a continuous road on to Burlington, Vt. This was l)y far 
a more valuable improvement for a new country than was 
o-enerally acknowledged, and though many would patronize 
the shunpike to avoid the toll, they were glad to avail them- 
selves of the better road in wet seasons. There was much 
complaint about the location of this road over Oak Hill, and 
justly, for the litde distance saved was no compensation to 
the public for climbing over the steep grade of this hill. 

Joseph Tennery published a newspaper in the town in 
December. 1803. called the Cambridge Gazette, which had 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 33 

hot sufficient patronage to sustain it but a short time. By 
reference to a copy of this paper of January, 1804, it appears 
that there was then a public library in the place called " The 
Washington Library," and J. L. Wendell was Treasurer. 
Tennery & Rockwell had a printing office about this time and 
published a history of the Irish rebellion. It appears, also, 
by records in possession of some of the Whiteside family, that , 
previous to this, in 1793, there was a public library in West 
Cambridge in which inhabitants in other parts of the town 
were interested, (the names of Asahel Morris, Rev. John 
Dunlap, Paul Dennis. George Barber, and others, being 
among the proprietors,) of this Edward Whiteside was 
Treasurer. 

As our centennial history commenced before the war of 
the revolution, a second era may properly begin about the 
second half century, with the war of 1S13, the period when 
some few of us can recall to our own personal recollection 
something of men and things as we then knew them. In the 
fall of 1 8 14 reports having reached us that the British troops 
were on our northern frontier and advancing towards us, and 
the British vessels were in threatening position oil Lake Cham- 
plain, a "• callto arms" wasmadc,andordersgivenitomusterthe 
militia in the field. It was an exciting time, and comino- so 
suddenly upon us, found us quite unprepared to meet the 
enemy at once. The old firelocks were rustv and must be 
rubbed up, and some little time was needed for raw militia 
to prepare to confront the foe ; but the marching order was 
finally given, and the advance was made, but the progress of 
the march toward the enemy was slow, and the saying was 
for a long time afterwards that the advancing forces did not 



34 



CENTENNIAL ANNI\ERSARV 



get SO far for several days but that some of them came home 
every night to lodge, and before they reached the borders and 
had a chance to fight, Commodore McDonough had done the 
fio-htingf, and the British fleet liad surrendered and their land 
forces retreated back to Canada. We ilo notxoucli positively 
for the truth of the saying. If there are any present who 
were then old enough to belong to that Spartan band who 
will arise to impeach the story, we shall not insist upon it. 

The Cambridge Washington Academy was incorporated 
about i8iv but the l>uilding had been erected and occupied 
as an academical school ten or twelve years previously. In 
tSi I the old Academy gave place to the more commodious 
building as now occupied. This institution may justly have 
a prominent place in the history of the town as connected 
\sith its prosperity in preparing for usefulness large nuni- 
•bers of the children of our citix-ens, as well as many from 
other places, and very many have gone out from it to occupy 
important positions of usefulness and honor in church and 
State, and in the business of life. It would no (loul)t l)e in- 
teresting and gratifying to many couUl we give the names of 
these, but should we attempt it. it would be in our power 
only to give a partial list, and rather than do this we will not 
attempt it. The principals during the first twenty years 
were Davitl Chassel. Rev. Alexander Bullions. Rev. N. .S. 
Prime. Rev. Joiin Monteith. W. I). Beattie. Cambridge 
has furnished, probably, as large a number of professional 
men as anv country town in our knowledge, and many of 
these eminent. History informs us of another institution in 
the town, which, though not known for its literary cliaracter. 
was made somewhat noted in the biography of the late Gov- 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 35 

ernor Briggs of Massachusetts, who, though not from our 
Academy, was in his youth a resident of the town, and em- 
ployed at a trade, and who afterwards became distinguished 
in the councils of the nation as well as in his State. Some 
time while in Congress, in conversation with several gentle- 
men about the colleges from which they had graduated, he 
was asked from what college he graduated, and he replied, 
"From John Allen's hat shop, in. White Creek," and the 
building thus dignified is honored by a print of excellent like- 
ness in his published biography. JL i /C jLo«3^ 

Long before the close of the first half century, scarcely a 
trace was left of anything which characterizes a new country, 
except that in very many fields the stumps of the original 
forest trees stood as monuments of a former wilderness, until 
the stump machine of Solomon Warner extracted them. 
This machine, when first invented, and as used for a long 
time, was of much curiosity as well as utility, and when seen 
passing from place to place was sometimes called the Jugger- 
naut. It consisted of two immense wheels, with a heavy axle, 
upon which was a small wheel intermediate, and fixed to the 
axle to operate as a lever, a chain was fastened to this lever, and 
oxen hitched to the other end. The axle being placed over 
a stump, and a heavy chain attached to both, the draught of 
the oxen wound this chain about the axle and drew the stump 
from the ground ; and the stump fences now around these 
fields are the result of this operation. We do not know that 
a log house inhabited could be found, and but the remnants 
of a fev\r only were pointed out as relics of the past. The 
well improved farms, the good roads, the schoolhouses, the 
churches, and all the ordinary departments of business in 



36 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

successful operation, denoted a flourishing town. The turn- 
pike road was of important advantage, giving faciHties for 
travel and transportation, and opening a great thoroughfare 
for the country north, to and from the market towns. The 
four-horse stage coaches were passing daily through the town 
along the turnpike, and soon afterwards east and west from 
Vermont and Saratoga, and daily mails were had from both 
directions. 

The magistrates of the town of tlie period of fifty and sixty 
years ago were Paul Cornell, Eben Dwinnell. Joseph Stewart, 
Austin Wells. James Irvine, Ira Parmalee, David Campbell, 
James Hill, William McLean. John Vounglove was early a 
county judge. Doctor Jonathan Dorr, senior, an associate 
county judge, as also John McLean, Simon vStevens. Dr. 
William Richards and Benjamin F. Skinner, afterwards. 

The lawyers were Gcrrit Wendell, who was an inhabitant 
as earlv as 179^^ '^"<^ commonly known as -'theokl lawyer." 
John L. Wendell, who became first judge of the county, John 
P. Putnam, and previous to this John Lee. After\vards, and 
previous to the present lawyers, were (j. \\'. Jermain and 
Luther J. Ilowe. both of whom were associate judges. 

The physicians of this period were Doctors Sanford Smith 
and Philip Smith, Richards. Dorr. Post. Morris, Dean, Gil- 
lette, Agur, Barnum, Stevenson. 

The merchants were Merritts (afterwards Barrett) at the 
white store. White Creek, Stillwell (aflei-vvards Rice & Bil- 
lings) at Dorr's Corners, Dennis, who was also postmaster, 
nearthe White Meeting House, Stevenson (afterwards McNeil 
(S: McXaughton) near the yellow meeting house. Carpenter 
(afterwards Allen) at Buskirk's Bridge. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 37 

The principal hotels were Wilkinson's, at White Creek, 
Beebe and Major Porter's, near White Meeting House, 
Peters', at turnpike crossing, Edward Long's Chequered 
House, and Buskirk's at the Bridge, and Day on Oak Hill, 
and Loomis and Orcutt and Collins on the turnpike. 

By act of the Legislature of i8 15, the town was divided 
into the present towns— Cambridge, Wliite Creek and Jack- 
son. The first town officers were, of Cambridge : James 
Stevenson, Supervisior ; Sidney Wells, Clerk ; Julius Phelps, 
Jesse Pratt, James P. Robertson, Josiah Dunton, Justices. 
Of White Creek : William Richards, Supervisor ; Ira Par- 
merlee, Clerk; Paul Cornell, John P. Putnam, Benjamin 
Crocker, H. S. Barnum, Justices. Of Jackson : James Irvine, 
Supervisor; Kirtland Warner, Clerk; Anderson Simpson, 
George W. Robertson, Ira C. Stevens, Justices. 

The division of the town was an occasion of excitement 
among the inhabitants ; a removal of old landmarks, the old 
center, and what seemed with reference to the tace of the 
country and the direction of the roads to be the natural one, 
and which had become established as the main center of 
business, was thrown on the outskirts of the towns, and new 
centers were found to be difficult to be satisfactorily estab- 
lished, and which, in one of the towns, it would seem, has 
not yet been accomplished. Some bad feeling was engendered 
which, among the older inhabitants and participators in the 
matter for and against the measure, continued a long time. 
But bygones are bygones now. 

Time has proved, however, that the change in town lines 
does not necessarily change business localities, or establish 
new ones, and in this case the change has not interrupted the 



38 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

growth of the original places of business. Before thcdi\ision 
of the town, and not until some years afterwards, was there 
any considerable village, but the business places were in 
comparativelv small neighborhoods. The last half century 
has. however, wrought great changes ; perhaps none greater 
than the railroad, completed in 1S5J, which has taken the 
place, in most respects, of the old turnpike road, and the 
locomotives • and trains of cars the place of the old stage 
coaches and the loaded wagons. 

Not long previous to tlie l)uilding of the railroail the Hlair 
farm occupied most of the ground between the White Meet- 
ing House square aiul the brook west of it. ami the site of the 
present depot aiul all around it was a large open field known 
as the parade ground, and the land north and south of it 
through the valley was cultivated Hclds. The general militia 
trainings were had for many years upon this ground, and 
freat displays were made of epaulets and evolutions, and as 
old soldiers love in story to " fight their battles o'er again," 
we may be allowed to recur to one of these occasions which 
tlie mention of the parade ground calls to mind, though some- 
what personal. The One Himdred and I'ourteenth Regiment 
was commanded by Colonel John L. Wendell, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Clark Rice, jr., and Major Elisha Billings. A dif- 
ference arose on the parade between the Colonel and Brigade 
Inspector, Major William McFarland, 5th, (familiarly called 
the • majt)rs five.') and the Colonel arrested the Inspector, 
who procured the arrest of the Colonel and also of the Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel and one Captain and the Adjutant, who acted 
under the Colonel's orders in disobedience of the Inspector. 
The two field ofHcers were tried bv division court-martial 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 39 

and acquitted, and the Captain and Adjutant by brigade 
court-martial and convicted, but they were honorably acquit- 
ted on appeal to Governor Yates, the Commander-in-chief. 

We are inclined to pause here and inquire how man}- of 
all the number we have named as belonging to our history 
of the first fift}^ years are now living. We have named aboirt 
two hundred and thirty, and of these only about half a dozen 
remain, and most or all of them are here present, and of 
others, our cotemporaries, very few. 

Now we advert to the changes for a moment. The old 
central neighborhood and most of the adjacent ones have 
come together, and we see the old parade ground and the 
land around it traversed by railroad tracks, and streets lined 
with places of business, and public buildings and handsome 
dwellings, and all compacted into a corporate village with the 
good old name of Cambridge. The division of the town re- 
quired and for a while caused a change of names, but the return 
to the old name of place and post-office was heartily welconied. 
The convenience of a portion of the central population has 
induced the name of Coila to their location and their post- 
office, but they and the Cambridge villagers are essentially 
one. Those who have been away for many years notice the 
many and great improvements in the place, and none more 
prominent than the new and beautiful Woodlands Cemetery, 
which gives credit and honor to the place. This cemetery 
will itself (long after its proprietors shall have found in it 
their own last resting place,) be a fit monument to their 
memory. This association was organized November lo, 
1S57 ; Jo^"" M. Stevenson, President ; D. M. Westfall, Secre- 
tary ; B. P. Crocker, Treasurer. Mr. Stevenson, who was 



40 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

the ctlicicnt President thirteen years, ami devoted much time 
and cnerg}' to the work, and Richard Barton ami Rev. J. G. 
Smart and I^'wis Nicholi>un, who did mucli to c!>tabhsh the 
cemetery, already rc|»so in their hist sleep in theM; l>cautifid 
j^ounds. 

The Cambrid};e Valley Hank, now sevenil years in»ucccss- 
ful operation, is an evidence of the husincas enterprise of the 
place and {K'ople. The |x>rmanent efttidilibhment of the ably 
conducted \VA.siii\<iT<»N CtuxTV Post is an impcirtant in- 
stitution. The Greenwich antljohnsonville railroad throu);h 
the town of Cambrid;;e is furnishiiif; j^eat facilities and con- 
veniences to the section of the town tiirou^h which it passes. 

Having ^ivcn some account of the early religious institu- 
tions of the town, it may )>e pr(t|)er to mention the churches 
which have l)ecn establislied in latter ilays, sliowin^ that such 
institutions luive kept pace with the advance in population 
and other improvements. Ikrsides the rchuildinj; and im- 
pn>\\>ment of the older churches, which we have noted, wi- find 
now other new and comm(Hliou» pLices of public worship, to 
wit, in Cambriil^je villa^^e : The Metliodist Episcopal church, 
built .nbout 1S34; the Ilaptist church was organizc<l in 1S43, 
Rev. I-evi Parmalee the first minister — the church was built 
in 1844; the Catholic church was built al>out 1S50: the 
Episcopal church built alx)ut 1S67; a Methotlist church in 
the southea.st part of present Cambridge, built 1S23 ; a Meth- 
odist church in North Cambri<lj»c, built 1838 ; a Reformed 
Dutch church at Battenville, organized 1833. It is worthy 
of note wh.it changes have l>ccn made in the arrangement 
and construction of churches since the buihling of the old 
churches fifty years or more ago. Formerly the minister 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. M 

Stood in what was termed a tub pulpit, placed liij^h up agjainst 
the wall, just large enough for one man to stand in, and a 
canopy (called a sounding board) hung above his head to 
prevent the sound of his voice being wasted over him ; the 
pews were square pens witii scats on three sides, one seat in 
most of them was back to the minister, (the fourth side faced 
the aisle,) and for many years tliere were no stoves or other 
means of warmth in the winter season, and we were oliligcd 
to sit in church witli overcoats and shawls, as we would be 
clotlied in the out-door cold and storms. 

We cannot refer to anything connected with the history of 
the War of the Rebellion which distinguishes the old town 
of Cambridge, particularly from others around it, but wc will 
not omit to say, that in remembrance of tlie deeds of the 
fathers who in the days of the Revolution secured so good a 
land to l)c free and independent for their children, and estab- 
lished a government inferior to no other, the young men of 
this town nobly responded to tlie call of their countr\- to war 
against treason and defeml the integrity of their nation. 

Seeing such wonderful discoveries and improvements every 
(lav around us, may we not suppose that another hundred 
years will show far greater cHanges here than the past has 
done. These hills may yet disclose valuable mineral ores. 
We have seen, vears ago, the indications of mines of lead, 
which are again attracting some attention, as well as more 
promising signs of iron ore. 

We have not intended to give a history of the town down 
to the present time, nor to state facts particularly with which 
the present generation are conversant, but it has been our 
purpose on this occasion (wiien the public attention is called 



4^ CKNTKNNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

to the fact that now a century has passed since this town had 
its beginning and spranjfiip from a wilderness,) to gather up 
soniethinjj of its early history of which the present jjeneration 
have but little knowledjje, and we fear that by reason of our 
long absence iVom the town and limited means of acquiring 
the needed information, we shall Ik.* deemed to have fallen 
far short of what the occasion has dcmantled. With the 
history of the past cjuarter century Mime of us who havef(»und 
new homes in other places and Ik'cu seldom here, have but 
little ac(|uaintance, and here, where once familiar with the 
place and |)cople, we find ourselves almost strangers. 

But when wc look alH)ut u|x>n the same green hills, and 
the same streams, and here and there an old familiar dwell* 
ing, and as we see here to-<lay the familiar faces of those 
whom wc used to sec in former times, the recollections of 
earlier years arc revived again and wc feci ourselves quite at 
our old home. Here are yet many of the old landmarks left. 
The s;»me Owl Kill and Hattenkill anti IIcKisick. the same 
Oak Hill, and Huskirk's Bridge, an«l Che<|ucre<l House, and 
Shaker Hollow, and Skecsit, and Black Hole, and Qiiashe- 

cook, and Pumpkin Hook. 

* . 

>0m rtXB BSFSBSXCB. 

1. Fbr Town. Oooatjr, aad Ballrnxl. aid TBrapOw O wpm ><lu — , am 04nnUI utd 
RUtr Uw« of Um* yrara tamVaotA, la 8UI» LlWrmn . Altanjr. X. Y. 

X For ratrata m^ H^txtrit at naf» sad tohnlAr utMUtaratm nl Vmtmtt ta O m mU rf 
of HUtrn nmop, AHiMi) . and macta't O—mr nf Jirm \tirti, {««• M, aad Book of 
Qnit Rrtit n<tnmm two yt-tw. tn OanptmUtr^ oAcp. AlbMir. "• V. 

3, For Vrnnont mattrni arv ml. " VmiHnil HtmU fapm." uid Dor, RM. M. T.. 4 
vol.. Index CMiihridirr. N. Y. ; both atr ta SUto IJhnn. >• V. 

4. Fnr iwmr* nf nrtr arttW* w* Tova lUfvrd*, FTrarb Oaarlcwr Tovna aad antaa. 
and Corey • OMrtter Wa«htiurt>in Cotinty. 

6. For Cburrbm •><<> Chnrrb RrronU, Hfiraffv'* Annalu nf An. Palpit, rnL 7, (MKb- 
odM) fmtf 1. Rot. K. II. Newtnon in»ntwrrtpt btMnrr nf AMorUtr Cobk.. Oambrldirp. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 43 

At the conclusion of Mr. Jermain's address the choir sang 
A HUNDRED YEAES AGO. 
Where are the birds that sweetly sang, 

A hundred years ago ? 
The flowers that all in beauty sprang, 
A hundred years ago ? 

The lip that smiled. 
The eyes that wild. 
In flashes shone, 
Bright eyes upon, 
■VMiere, O where, are lips and eyes. 
The maiden's smile, the lover's sighs. 
That were so long ago ? 
That were so long ago ? 

Who peopled all the city's streets, 

A hundred years ago ? 
WTio filled the church with faces meek, 
A hundred years ago ? 
The sneering tale 
Of sisters frail. 
The plot that worked 
Another's hurt ? 
Where, O where, are the plots and sneers, 
The poor man's hopes, the rich man's fears 
That were so long ago ? 
That were so long ago ? 

Where are the graves where dead men slept, 

A hundred years ago ? 
Who, whilst they lived, did oft times weep, 
A hundred years ago ? 
By other men, 
They knew not then, 
Their lands are tilled, . 



I 



44 CKNTtNNTAl. WMVKKSAK? 

Their luiiuf-* .ire lilletl. 
Yet uiitan- then wiu» j«>Ht um |{»y. 
And hright the «on Rhone »m lo-tlny, 

A bnn«lred ream •|?o, 

A buiidri-d ye*T* ago. 

Rev. Mk. (jordox : \Vc have a little more entertainment 
on the projjrainme. You will now he atldre&sed hv one of 
the sons of old Cambridj»c. and although his life has not been 
sjXMit here entirely, yet he is one of those sons of Canjhrid«;e 
that wherever liis lot has been cast, or in whatever land he 
lias roamed, his heart has turned hack as true as the needle 
to the pole, to the home of his childhiM»d. 1 now intrtnluce 
Ki\. Dr. Gillette, of New Y«>rk city. 

AI>nRK.S.S BY RKV. A. I>. GILUETTE. !>. l>. 

Mr. Prksiokxt. Laoik* ami> (Jrmtlrmkn, am» I think 
I MAY SAY Fki.low CmzF.N!* «>F CA%iRRrr>r.K : lam glad 
to l>e with you i>n this occasion, an fKcasion whereon we are 
gathering; up the fragment* that nothing may In: l<»st. and 
mv onlv regret is, th;U after all the able and earnest industry 
of the orator of the tlay. there ii» much l<»st that never can i>e 
gatheretl. ^'earl» ago I got the ear «»f Mr. Crocker, (he was 
then the editor in this* place. ) and fourMt in his heart a re- 
sponse to my desire that some qualified man would write the 
histor)- of old Cambridge. I fe accorded assent and was w ith 
me in desire. But where the man to do it .* Later I uttered 
the same sentiment to the present etlitt>r. (Hon. Mr. Smart). 
He. too. was with me in the wish. We tnlked with various 
ones. I lis uncle. Rev. Dr. Mcl-aren, was mentioned, but 
it lias not l>een done until to-<Uiy you have heard in the fruits 
of patience antl toil, of cheerful inchistrA- and able utterance. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 45 

such portions of the history of this old town as have remained 
on record, or could be found traditional. 

The proj^ramme announces that I am to deliver an oration. 
You are entitled to your own definition of the meaning of that 
word. I regret it is there, and you are at liberty to pronounce 
or not whatever you please concerning what I sliall say. 1 
urn here a child at home, and I am a child in my feelings. 
If I were ever a man I am not to-day. I cannot be. I want 
to sit down and weep, as it were, on my motlier's lap; not 
with sorrow, and yet there is occasion for that, but there is a 
sort of holy feeling — I so regard it — that comes over me in 
reviewing the past of more than half a century, which, while 
it associates itself with disaster and disease, with deaths and 
funerals antl graves, yet is not unpleasant to face. It is right 
that the generations shouUl go and come. 1 looked out this 
morning from m\ chamber in Dr. ( iray's liospitable liome, 
and th«)ught with a slight alteration of the words which 
Sheridan Knowles puts into the lips of William Tell, Swit- 
zerland's deliverer, *' Ye crags antl peaks," but will .say, 

'• Ye hills and viileH, I'm with yoii imce agftiu ! 

I bold to yoii the hands you tifHt heheld. 

To sh«nv thty still iire free. Methiuks I heiir 

A spirit in your echoes answer uie, 

And bid your iL-nuut welcome to his home 

.\j;a'\n 1 O, s^icred forms, how proud you look 1 

How high you lift your heiids into the »ky .' 

Ye are things that tower y" 

And not onlv what my eye sees, but my mind reverts to 
what are associated with the tilings that are tall and the things 
that tower. The venc-rabk- men of sixty years ago. whom 



46 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

I can remember, the loving, gmlly women of that day. and 
the heritaj^e of m«.)ral excellence which thev have left tt» their 
children antl their chiUlren's chiKlren, are taller than these 
hills, richer than these valleys, more l)eautifid in memory 
even (with no disrespect or disparagement,) than the beauty 
that surrounds me here. 

In 179;^ Jonathan Dunham and his wife Eunice, of Pisca- 
tacjua, N. }., with their son-in-law. Dr. Fidelio B. (iillette 
and his wife Tahitha a^id their children. Philander D. and 
Cornelius C, turned their backs upon old l*iscataqua. N. |.. 
and came to New Ycirk with their own wagon, putting niost 
of their goinls on lM)ard of a sl<K>p, the old gentleman driving 
the horses and wagon up the Hudson, the rest of the famiU 
lx.*ing on the sUxip, and thus they came to 'rr«»y. emitarking 
northward, cro&scd Oak Hill, arrived at Cambridge, and 
went on north «>f this village. When in front of Mr. Hlias 
\'olentine's house something lKip|H:neii to the wagon and 
they pau.sed. My mother, w ith her tw<» bal>e8, she herself 
then imder seventeen years of age, went into the house and 
Mrs. Volentine pn>lVered all the hospitality of the place, and 
Siiid, •• Whv. mv child, where is the mother «»f these babes ?" 
My mother blushingly replied. •• here." " You the mother 
of these halves r" ♦* Yes, madam." •• Who is your husband?'* 
"Dr. (iillette." "Who ;ire your father and mother.'" 
"Jonathan and Kunice Dunham, in the wagoA," " Well," 
s;»itl Mrs. v.. "they ought to be ashamed of themselves, and 
go back to New Jersey, for allowing so young a girl as you 
to get marrie<l and liecomc a nif>ther. Hut we will do what 
we can for vou. Tarry here for the night with your hal>c8." 
She did tarrv. and then the familv went on to the Uiirthward. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 47 

to the old potul, where the old gentleman had purchased 
four hundred acres of land. They turned to the left and 
climbed the hill to the log house. A family by the name of 
Adkins, and another by the name of Oilman, were in the 
company. They all huddled in and near the old log house, 
where I have caught scores of woodchucks, [laughter] killed 
them and eaten them. [Laughter]. A part of the farm is 
in the Dunham family, occupied by Henry on the hill. My 
father settled between Mrs. McLean's and my grandfather's 
— right north of the south pond. 

As the President said, I have roamed far and wide, so I 
have, not a vagabond, thank God, but I have never seen a 
more beautiful spot than this. I am talking about things 
that are associated with my boyhood. Time went on. and 
the most important event that I will mention after that which 
I have mentioned, occurreil on the Sth day of September, in 
the vear 1S07, when, by the will of God and the pains of my 
mother, I came into the world and have lived from then until 
now. Mv mind runs north to the Batten Kill, to the " Red 
Bridge," as it was then called. The teamsters of those times 
were going north and south as early as I can remember, and 
I, playing by the roadside, or going to and from the school- 
house, (which was the next building between us and Judge 
John McLean's.) was asked by almost every teamster, if he 
were going north. •• how far is it to the red bridge?" •• Four 
miles, sir." Antl everv boy and girl made their obeisance. 
We boys pulled oH' the old slouch hat. with the torn rim, 
and bowed. The girls caught their skirts and made a grace- 
ful courtesv. and if any of us tailed to do that parental reproof 
or schoolmaster or mistress discipline made us smart for it. 



^ CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

The traveler wnith would ask, •• how far is it to the 
Checiuered House.'" aud we would reply. On the north 
lived the Clapps. I think on the other side of Clevehiud's. 
and consecpiently in Salem. 

Om of the jjreat sij^hts that my boyhood eyes used to see 
was the large loads of barrels which they Rent to Troy, for 
thev were coopers. Next, alon«; came Mr. X'anderlip, a 
farmer and a tailor, and he pasxtl us every Sabbath with his 
old horse and wagon — not a modem bugg>' that could only 
accommodate two — but a long wagon full : he came tl<»wn 
here to Cambridge to worship (i«k1, with his family gathered 
about him. Near there a Mr. Small, with an old farm 
wagon, and in it six or eight old-fashioned kitchen chairs, a 
twin one across fi)rthe "old people." and never lefis than six 
or eight {xrrsons in the wagon, and thus they came to the old 
vellow tnecting house. Should he fmil a foot worn pilgrim 
on the wav to his spiritual xion. he would take him in if he 
had to hang half his IkhK over the wagon side to and from 
church. [I.aughterJ. Next, along came the .Shoulders 
turn, and then the schoolhouse, and then Mr. Dobbin's, and 
at the head of that |>onil |<»nathan Cong«»r. a cousin of my 
grandfather's, and hence a relative, whose daughter married 
" L'ncle" Thomas Mclx;an. as I call him, Ixrcause his wife 
was mv mother's cousin, and I am rclatetl to all the McLeans 
bv reason of that. Then we came down to Mr. Collins*, 
who kept the tavern : antl while I have callc<l my father a 
••Doctor." (and such he was. and practiced me<licine.) lie 
was a sort of "jack of all trades." ami among other things 
drew with his pen anil |)encil. Among my earliest recollec- 
tions was his jwinting a sign for Mr. Collins, on which was 



OLD TOWN' OF CAMBRIDGE. 49 

an eagle with darts and arms and something in its bill, — that 
bird of liberty that soars over us to-day in all the emblems of 
freedom, thank God. [Applause]. Then there was "Uncle" 
Jimmv McLean, as I told you, (for I told you they were all 
'• Uncles,") on the pond near bv. and then •* Uncle" Solomon 
Acklev, and a little lower down, but with more dignity be- 
cause of his commanding presence and official position. Judge 
John McLean, sr. His son John became Judge, and when 
he was a student and would come home and go fishing, he 
was well respected and wore liis gloves, and did not love to 
tan his hands, and he would get me to dig the worms, bait the 
hooks and take the ofl' the fish I [Applause and laughter]. 
He alluded to it when we met. I went into the court room 
at Salem one day. years ago. where he was presiding. He 
begged me to come up and take a vacant chair by his side. 
I did so. Hesays, •' Is this Abram ?" I says, *' yes." "Well," 
he says, " you are the boy who used to bait the hooks for 
me. Sit in a judge's seat." Then came the schoolhouse — 
mightier for the good of mankind than all tiie seventv-four 
gun ships that e\er floated — the district schoolhouse.. [Ap- 
plause]. 

As I said, lUN father was a sort of " jack of all trades" — 
sometimes he taught the school there, or taught writing les- 
sons in various sections of the town. The doctors were 
not so busv then as now ; people were not so sickly. 
[Laughter]. Then two older brothers of mine taught 
the school. Hack of us, up on the liill, where Mr. Mc^Vllis- 
ter, I think, now resides, was •• Uncle" Daniel Holbrook. 
The McLeans were Jersevmen — five brothers — not tlie two 
who came in the " Mayflower." but five wlio started from 



50 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

Scotland and got to New Jersey, and whetljer that State \\ as 
too small, or whether it was "out of the l'nit)n" then or not 
1 don't know, but anyway they came up here. One settled 
in the east, one at Batten Kill, one at the heail of the ponds, 
and one t»n the turnpike next to us. Deacon Ford (»n the 
hill northwest. I want to say a word to deacons. I love 
tleacons. We used to meet for worship in the schoolhousc 
Sunday afterno(»ns. and Deacon Foril. who Inrlonged to tlie 
Haptist church in Shushan. scemetl U)\h: by common consent 
Superintendent of atVairs there, antl the rejjulator of the Ixjys. 
We woidd ^et arounti on the little seats. There Dr. Buliions. 
Mr. l*rime. Flder McCidloh antl others useil to hold meet- 
injjs. I lo\ed to j;o. Hut Deacon Ford was tlic presidinj; 
^eniu>. He was nearly seven feet liij^h, and I presume he 
looked much taller to me then than he would now. A ^cmkI 
man, l)ut with such a lonjj. ;;rave face. So watchfid of us 
boys that at one time when Dr. Prime was prcachin;; there 
anil speakinj; of heaven, my little mind lalnired to conceive 
what heaven was. and I thouj^ht it was something like the 
gathering there — two or three rowsof |>cople around the house 
singing the praises of (iod. and that was all very pleas;int. 
but I asked. " will Deacon Fort! I h.* up there.'" I had no 
doubt he would be. but I hoped his office would not be to 
regulate us Ixns. 

On the hill my uncle Nahum Dunham lived. Up further 
the Hebees. The hill raised g<M)d men and women. Df»wn 
the turnpike was L'ncle Daniel X'ok-ntine's. old Uncle Elias 
and sons and daughters, antl Aunt Esther, and below was 
Mr. Heath, and so on tlown ; and I must nt>t forget Deacon 
Tht)mpson, of blessctl memory, l>ut you know the all rest. I 



OLD TO\\"\ OF CAMBRroCE. ^1 

used to pass their houses and come down h^rc to Cambridge 
from mv grandfather's with a basket of eggs and get some- 
thing to carry back, but I always preferred to trade with Mr. 
McGeoch in getting my fish hooks. So much for this. Now 
for some of the clergymen of those times. 

The clergy fust with me— no disrespect to others. Old Dr. 
Bullions used to come and catechise us in the school. He 
wore high swell boots with tassels. I played with the tassels 
one day and was punished for it. [Laughter.] Mr. Prime 
used to come and talk with us. \Ve were always glad to see 
him : of tall, noble form, perfect symmetry, I could paint 
him to-(la\ were I an artist: bland conntcnance. a little dig- 
nified, if not a little stern. His son is liere and will speak 
for himself by and by. I ought to say we always knew Mr. 
Prime's carriage and the white horse. We were always glad 
to see liim. though mv grandfather, on reading his book on 
baptism, used to s:is •• nonsense." But those were the days 
when men spoke for tiieniselyes as well as wrote. Mr. Prime 
seldom passed m\ grandfather's or father's house without a 
kind, ministerial, frienilly. Cluistian call. Ur. Dunlap. wilii 
his saddle-bags, jogging along on his horse would always 
stop at my father's, re-light his pipe and take a sip of old New 
England rum, [loud laughter,] sometliing to eat if he would 
accept of it, and then he would go on his way. A good old 
man : we children loyed him. Mr. Tombs, of Salem, used 
to do the same. The ministers in Shushan the same. I fre- 
quently came with the family tlown here and heard Mr. 
Prime, the first Presbyterian minister that I remember ; also. 
1 went to Dr. Bullions', as my eliler sister married William 
I. (jraham of that church. In that old \ellow meetinghouse 



^- 



CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 



I lia\c sat and was iiiterestt.- 1 in hcarinj; the people sinj^. 
Thev all had their Bibles in their churches, and I wish all 
who attend church now would have theirs. (»enerall\ . the 
psalms were in the hack jxut ot' the Bibles, and so <;enerally 
was it their custom to sin»; that it was avowed that John 
Dunahue. a deaf, mute also sanjj. [Laughter.] He certainly 
looked (HI tlie psalm sun*;, ami his lips moveil — that I know, 
tor I saw him. 

I must be brief, but there are tw«» or three other thin<;s I must 
mention. In the time of the war of 1S12 my brother was the 
schoolteacher of that distric*., and was seventeen \ears of a<;e. 
One ni<4ht he dismissed the sc1hm)1 and ilid not come home. 
When heanl of he was amonj; the troops on their way north. 
Whether he was one of the recreant tmes Jud«;e Jermain 
spoke of. I don't know. Colonel Clark Rice took him as a 
sort of secretar\ . and had him with him. Tlun there was 
Major Simjjson and ohKieneral De Ruyter. from overwcston 
the Hudson. I know ijueer thin;;s were said of him, whether 
true or not. S«)me s;iid that he mistook the prow for the 
stern of the vessel, and >vent the wronjj way on Lake Cham- 
j)lain. [Lauj^hter and cries of •• that's so."] Well, he was 
not a soldier : he was a farmer. The battle of Plattsburj^h 
was foufjht : we soon heard of it. I remember the morninjj 
when the news came, seeinj; iny father stand before the old 
fire-place and tell the storv as he learned it somewhere in his 
rides. All was excitement. The trf>ops Ihially returned. 
Thev passed our door, with prisoners, on their way to Cireen- 
bu.sh : thev were drawincr a larjje cannon. My brother 
arrived: thev paused to fire him a farewell salute at our door. 
I went out and stood bv a large caiuion. and a soldier caught 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 53 



me up and ran my head into the muzzle. [Laughter.] An 
officer drew liis sword and was about to strike him. Some- 
one interfered, and, I believe, though terribly frightened, I 
laughed, and that was the end of it. They went on to 
Orcutt's hotel, turned in and encamped there. Mv father 
took us down to see them. I was presented to '' Commo- 
dore" McDonough and sat on his knee, and he said he hoped 
I would be a soldier or a sailor, and a good one. and indeed, 
I then had no doubt but that I should be. but I never have, 
and I am glad of it. 

The next event was tlie removal of the remains of General 
Montgomery from Qiicl)ec. I remember the parade that 
passed our door, and that the bones which were said to be in 
the coffin, were taken to New York city and deposited, as 
most of vou know, and have seen the monument, along the 
front of Broadway in St. Paul's church vard. 

These events were imprinted upon a ])ov's mind. But 
then there came other changes. One event, however, I will 
speak of in connection with physicians. I had schoolmates 
from over towards Shushan by the name of Kemmis. They 
had a grandfather. People now say, " Vou are an aristocrat 
if you had a grandfather." I have told you I had one ; these 
Kemmis boys had one. They did not till the farm very well, 
and tlid not dress very finely. It was to them an advantage 
in running on the ice ; they could throw off their old shoes 
and outrun any one of us. The old gentleman hurt his ankle 
by snaking out a log in the woods, and crushed it very seri- 
ouslv, and my father tried all he could to save it. He called 
in Dr. Dorr and Dr. Dean as counsel. It was pronounced 
incurable, and it was decided that it must be amputated. An 



54 CEN'TEVVIAI. AVNh'iRRSAR\' 

old phvsician in Salem, whom I will not name liecausc 1 
mav not tell the truth exactly, heard of the matter, and hav- 
inj; a fcml with Dr. Dorr, and I believe not likinj; my father 
verv well, took two or three .students and otFered the patient 
fifty dollars for his leg. which otVerhein*; accepted, the Salem 
phvsician nmpiitate<l the limb and returned home. My 
father and Dr. D<»rr assembled the next <lay. 1 think, to per- 
form the im|x>rtant ojxTation. hut foiuul the «;<M»d old jjentle- 
man in his berl. c<»mlortable. and doinj; well, the fo«jt jjf»ne 
and s;ife in .Salem. The end of it came when, as Dr. )er- 
main said. " Bv-gones were hy-»;«»nes." .Sickness came, fire 
visited the i>ld hoiiM.- in which 1 lived one day : 1 was (uit of 
it bv the wood pile, aiul heard a roar. My brother oliler, 
and m\ sister vounj^er looked up. and sparks and black smoke 
were jjourin;; out «)f the chimne\. " The hous.- is on lire I" 
sai<l mv brother. We rushed in: (my brother always sent 
me ahead w liether we were after pond-lillies. or frojrs. or 
snakes.) As we came in we beheld the flames creeping up 
and rapidly <lestroying the IkhI curtains. whf>se voluminous 
folds had w«)rked w ithin their bonlers the pictures of .Shake- 
speare's *• .Seven .\jxes." The fire scorched me some, burned 
all the hair off mv head. knf>cked me down, and my brother 
valientK drew me out. Never a prouder l>oy than I when, 
in two or three days after that. I received an entire suit of 
clothing (for all of ours were burnefl. together with all my 
father's books, medicines, etc..) made of blue cloth, almost 
covered with bell buttons, together with a hat. a present 
from one of the Wendell family. We received many kin<l 
favors. Another house was built, w hich has lucn renV)ved. 
Disease came. Mv eldest sister died at t^venty-tw(>. and was 



OLD rovrs of Cambridge. 55 

buried the day she was to have been inavried to Leonard 
Church, Esq., of Salem. My youngest brother was born at 
a time when we were houseless. My father became broken- 
hearted and never recovered his spirits, and in i8i9he passed 
away, dying by the roadside after a fatiguing travel, and his 
last visit to old Daniel Holbrook. where Mr. Maxwell now 
lives. His dead bodv was found next morning l)v the side 
of a by-road. Apoplexy or heart disease, we know not 
which, ended his mortal life. 

Then what.' Why, then of course, " bovs. lookout for 
yourselves." We had to scatter, and 1 left the good old town 
of Cambridge, and have not lived in it since, but have loved 
it, visited it. delivered the address at the dedication of Nour 
beautiful cemetery, was given a lot there, deposited the re- 
mains of all my family there who had died, and thei^, per- 
haj)s. mv own \\ ill rest. Well. I ask no pleasanter place. 
I ask no iikmc of you, dear friends, than that vou, with me, 
should try to prove ourselves as good as our ancestors, and 
as much better as our advantages enable us, and I may say 
demand of us. that we should become. God grant this, and 
tlie heart of a Cambridge boy. which has no wrinkles in it, 
though mv brow be so. will always dilate with pleasure, as 
it always has, when asked " where were you born .^" to be 
enabled to say. '^ In old Cambridge. W^ashington county, N. 
Y." [Applause.] 

Music by the band. 

Thk Phesidknt — 1 want the ear and eye of everv peison 
here present while I present to you this gentleman. I want 
you to look at the connecting link between the present and 
past generation. This is Mr. John W^eir. Look at these 



56 CENTEXNIAL ANSrX'ERSARV 

shouUlers. They wtrc not built of mince pie and fancy can- 
dies. He is ninety-six years of age ; only four ye.irs l>ehind 
the birth of the old town. Right here in front «>f lis is an- 
other relic — the daughter of the first settled minister ever in 
the old t«>\vn. The lady is one of the niost interesting spec- 
tators, 1 will venture, in this entire crowd. .She is tlu- 
daughter of the Rev, Thomas Rcveridge, in her eighty-second 
year, 1 believe, her memory g«MMl, and will (juole |K)etrv 
against anv one. and is ac({uainted with more of the In'st 
l>ooks in the language than almo<t any man or woman here. 
I want the ear of the minister* of the old town of Cambridge 
— I propiise, and 1 will pledge myself to make Mi. Weir an 
honorarv meml>er of «>ur great National .*VH;iet\ — the Bible 
Society. Will any minister volunteer to make him an hon- 
orar\-* memlnrr of any or all the Inrnevolcnt societies in 
our land.' I now have to announce the conclusion of the 
first part of the exercises, and invite you to parLnke of the 
substantials. 

The collation having lK*en disposed oi'. the i'resiilent said : 
We have the pleasure and privilege to-<l.iy of introducing to 
this audience another of the *• Sons of Cambridge." a man 
whose graphic |>en and travels have brought to our firesides 
the custom and character «>f the inhabitants of almost every 
countrv imi the face of the gloln.-. Before I introduce Dr. 
Prime, will the reverend gentleman pardon me if I say 
that there are just as fine orchards growing on the sides of 
these hills, and as tempting apples as ever grew in your 
happv bovh(M)d days. 

Dr. I*rime— What is the allusion to an orchard.' 

The Presiiiext — I undcrstootl, in the days of your boy- 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 57 

hood, there were soine very fine, temptinj^ apples on the 
sides of one of those fine hills, and if vou miij^ht favor the 
andience with an account of them here. I don't know that it 
will hurt anythinjif or anvbodv. 

Dr. Prime — I never hook, and tell. [Lauofhter.] 

ADDRESS BY KK\'. S. IKKN.KIS I'lUMK. D. D. 

I am greatly obliged to you. Mr. President, for these very 

flatterin<( remarks. I rej^ret. too. that the state of mv throat 

, (I have a chronic dilficulty) prevents me from speaking so 

as to be heard by any great number of those assembled, and 

I can speak but a very few moments an\ wav. 

I count it as one of the misfortunes of m\ life that I was 
not born in old Caml)ridge. If I had been consulted on the 
subject tliat mislortune would not have happened. [Laugh- 
ter.] It is just sixty years ago this summer since I came to 
old Cambridge, and as that was in the vear 1S13. in tl)e time 
(tf the w.n-. 1 came •• in arms." [Laughter.] Mv mother's 
arms. .\in\ that good lady who brought me here lives to- 
day, and although she can not be here in person with vou, I 
come to bring you her salutations and to tell you that every 
hill and plain. e\ery son and daughter of old Cambridge are 
dear to her heart to-day. [Applause.] My recollection 
does not embrace that early period of yoiu' histor\- when the 
war with (ireat Hritian calleil out your fatliers to the battle 
fields ; but I have often heard my father relate the storv of 
those times, when with his horse and chaise he followed his 
people on their march to the front, giving them his blessing. 
Mv venerable friend. Dr. (jillette. was one of the heroes of 
that day. and you have heard this morning from liis eloquent 
lips how he was rescued from the cannon's mouth. [Laugh- 



rg CE!9TENXIAL AXXIVERSARY 

ter.] An:l he stands before you to-day a spared monument 
of those •' times that tried men's souls"— soles of their boots 
Nvhen they marched away. [Lauj^hter.] He is one of the 
heroes of those times. I was a pulinj,' infant in my mother's 
arms and therefore cannot •• il^dit those battles o'er." I can 
cro back, however, more than half of the century, which 
closes to-dav. and bring before my mind familiar faces, ob- 
jects and events that have jjassed away from the sight of 
men, and which are remembered by very few who are around 
me now. I reinember when the first arched bridge was built 
over the river at Huskirks. and when wc opened the bridge 
with a speech and a prayer, and if there is a man here to-<lay 
who was on that bridge at tl)attime I would like to have him 
sav so. [No response.] There. 1 am aluad ol' the crowd 
on that point. I remember when tliere was a live elephant 
swinunin" in the saw mill j^ond. If lliere is any <»ne here 
vv'.io saw that elephant in that p(»nd 1 would like to lia\e 
him sav so. [•• I sav so; I saw the elephant."] My friends 
are here \^)U .see. They've "seen the elejjhant." He 
brout'ht only a small trunk witii him. and didn't stay. 
rLau<^hter.] And who remembers when the son of Mr. 
Dennis, the post-master, was drowned in that pond.' [No 
response.] There, von see. becau.se he was a boy with me 
I remember that more distinctly than many of those who are 
older than I wa.-> at that time. I remember, also, when a 
stage full of passengers was overturned in front of the tavern, 
right opposite the old White Meeting House, by the driver 
trvino- to show how .short a turn he could make with 
his horses on a full run. and every person in the stage 
was injured. Thev were distributed among the neighbors 



I 



OLD TOWTSr OF CAMBRIDGE. 59 

and cared for hospitably until they were able to be removed. 

Mr. Benjamix Crocker — Are you not mistaken about 
its being a son of Mr. Dennis who was drowned ? It was a 
son of Mr, Porter. 

Dr. Prime — I am not going to be catechised. [Laughter.] 
They will put me through in the County Post, and correct 
me next week. It was somebody's son, anyway. 

These are little incidents that happened in Cambridge fifty 
years ago, which have passed out of the memory of most of 
those now living, and who were then here, and date before 
the birth of many present. There are some (not many) who 
were residents of this town when I came into it. They were 
bo3S then, and have grown to be men now — old men — heroes 
of to-day, like Revolutionary soldiers, survivors of the battles 
that gave birth to the nation. So a man who was here sixty 
or seventy years ago is one of those who were in the youth 
of the town, and assisted inlaying the foundations of those 
institutions which give to it strength and character in its 
manhood and its age. The two institutions that have o-iven 
to Cambridge its distinctive character are religion and educa- 
tion. The men who promoted the one were the great pro- 
moters of the other, and thus a religious and intelligent 
atmosphere has pervaded this beautiful valley through suc- 
cessive generations. The Revs. Thomas Dunlap and Alex- 
ander Bullions, great and good men, combined the firmness 
and courage of Scotchmen with the practical good sense and 
tact of Americans. Dr. Bullions and my father worked in 
harness together six days in the week to do good in this town, 
and on Sunday they each of them fought the devil on his 
own hook. [Laughter and applause.] The good Dr. 



6o CENTENNIAI. AXXn'EKSARY 

Bullions was so hampered bv the traditions ot' his clnirch 
that he could not do as he woukl love to. exchantje pulpits 
or pull in the same traces with his brother and friend on 
Sunday. So the old White Meetinj^: I louse and the old Yel- 
low Meeting IFouse stood like two untViendl\ . if not hostile, 
forts on Suntla\ . while the captains anil soldiers were on the 
best of terms tluring tiie week. 1 have not heard how my 
father and Dr. Hullions get along now, but I have no doubt 
the\ arc both praising (iod in thi- N.mu- liin|)ic. w heri.- •'con- 
"■iV'^Mtioii- nc'el break li|). :uiil S;il>b:illi^ li:i\t M«i euil." 

[Applause.] 

Of all the elders in both of those churches who were on the 
gr«>und when I came, not one survives. Of the second set in 
mv father's church, only one remains, and he is our vener- 
able and respected friend. Benjamin Crocker, [applause] 
who corrected me a few moments ago. And while speaking 
I have been thinking, and I find he was right and I was 
wrong. That's the power of conscience. [Laughter.] 

What noble men. and true they were in those religious 
bodies, which then included almo.st all the iniial)itants of this 
region. I cannot now recall their names. The forms of 
some of them arise to my sight as I look back, and of Steven- 
son, Ashton, Van Tuyl, Wright, Warner, Thompson, Mc- 
Lean, McKie, Wells and Robertson, many of the old residents 
with whom I had personal associations : the memories are 
very interesting, but would not interest others. 

Dr. Gillette was mistaken when he said that John Dunahuc 
sang psalms in the old yellow meeting house, although he 
was deaf and ilumb. [Laughter.] My dear fdhnv — friend 
— I beg vour pardon. [Laughter] John Dunahue was not 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. OI 

deaf and dumb. He talked all the time. [Laughter.] He 
did nothing else but talk. Why, he came into my father's 
church one Sunday, and my father had a young man — a boy 
almost — who was just out of the seminary, to preach for 
him. As the young man stood up in the pulpit before the 
congregation, and was just about to name his text, John 
Dunahue, a tall, grav-haired, splendid looking man, but who 
was a little wandering, as some other people are, jumped up 
and leaned over the pew. and ])ul his hand beliind his ear. 
whereupon the b()\s I)egan lo titter, and sa\s [n\ tatlier. 
"Mr. Dunahue, will you please to sit down.^" "I am a 
little hard of hearing and I want to catch the text," says 
John. [Laughter.] Says my father, "Mr, Dunahue, will 
you sit down .^" " I say I am a little hard of hearing and I 
want to catch the text." My father says, " Mr. Dunahue, 
sit down I" and my father could speak so as to be heard ten 
times farther than I can. You could hear him cough half a 
mile, [laughter] and if he were here to-day speaking, instead 
of me, he could be heard pretty near to the end of the grove. 
He had a tremendous voice. He said, '^ Mr. Dunahue, sit 
down !" and John dropped as though he were shot with that 
cannon Dr. Gillette spoke of. But recovering himself, he 
rose up and said as he strammed out and down the aisle, I 
would have you to know, Mr. Prime, I don't care that for 
you nor none of your journeymen soul-savers either." [Great 
laughter.] He \vas not deaf and dumb — not a bit of it. 
[Laughter.] 

Dr. Gillette — I stand corrected. 

Dr. Prime — I want now to tell you about a very different 
kind of man, and something to connect old Cambrido-e with 



62 CENTENNIAL ANNn'ERSARY 

one of the jjrcat events of the present time. I do not believe 
there is a man or woman in this assembhipjc who has anv 
idea that old Cambridj^e has anvthinj; to do with the expedi- 
tion that has just been sent out to the north pole in search of 
Captain Hall's partv. Well, I will tell you somcthinj^ about 
it that will show vou that old Cambridojc is verv intimately 
identified with that expedition. Rij^ht there on that street 
runniiV4 up tr) the White Meetin*; House corners, is the house 
in which Estjuire Kin«; used to live. He was one of th<»se 
Baptists that Dr. Gillette spoke of who would come to the 
old White Meeting; House to hear g<M>d preaching. [Laugh- 
ter.] He alwavs came to our church, and a gentleman tried 
to prove to me, when I met him in Troy the other day, that 
he knew me, bv s;»ying that Escjuire King used to make long 
prayers; "and." said he, '* I went to the schoolhouse where 
there was a meeting, one night, and yf»u (a little boy) and 
your brother Alanson were standing in the p<»rch. aiul we 
were all waiting for ICstjuire King to get through praying so 
Nve could go in, and after standing there imtil we were tired, 
vou looked up to your brother and s.iid. •• Lanse, I believe 
the olil 'Squire is going to pray all night." Esquire King 
was a capital man ; he had a very pretty daughter ; her 
name was Caroline. And the lx>ys used to tease me by say- 
ing : 

•• Samuel Prime, so they nay. 
(Tt>es n courtiriL; nif,'ht rihI dny. 
With Hword nnd pist(»l.H l>y bin side. 
And Caroline King shall he hifl bride." 

Which, In the way. did not come to pass, because before 
I was old enough to have a bride the Squire, with his pretty 



OLD TOWX OF CAMBRIDGE. 63 

daughter, moved ofi' into Ohio, and settled hi the neighbor- 
hood of Dayton, and the daughter CaroHne, that the boys 
promised should be my bride, became the bride of Mr. 
Greer, of the city of Dayton, a great natinalist. who has a 
splendid minerological collection, and her son. who is a gal- 
lant officer in the U. S. navy, was selected two months ago 
as the most energetic, faithful and reliable man to take charge 
of the ship Tigress, which went out in search of Captain 
Hall. So vou see that old Cambridge, through the pretty 
girl that was destined to be my bride, is now identifietl with 
this great expedition and enterprise. [A voice — "■ Thereby 
rertecti ng great credit on Dr. Prime I"] Ves, somewhat, I 
think. 

There was another good man who once owned these beau- 
tiful trees — this grove in which we are assembled to-day, and 
the adjoining groves. These very spots where we are now 
assembled are all precious to me. for I lived verv near to 
them on the otlicr side. 1 remember perfectly well, when I 
was a bo\ less than ten \ears old. that 1 was in the habit of 
coming into these groves, solitary and alone, and sitting at 
the foot of these trees, and listening to the \vinds sighing 
through the tree tops, and l)eing saddeneii or made solemn, 
as 1 sat tliere thinking of what I would try to do when I grew 
up to be a man. 1 know that tiie resolutions I at that time 
formed at the foot of some of these very trees were enduring 
through the Hftv years that have followed since. John P. 
Putnam, who owned these w^oods. was a lineal descendant of 
old Israel Putnam, of revolutionary memory. When T was 
a boy of only four or five }ears of age, Mr. Putnam came to 
mv father's house and presented to him three \ olumes of 



64 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

"Locke on the Understanding," together with a note request- 
ing him to keep them for his Httle son Samuel until he should 
be able to read them ; and I have preserved those volumes as 
choice books in my library to the present day, and they are 
constantly before me in my study. Old Cambridge, through 
that man, preserves to this da\- the first weapons that were 
ever drawn and used in the battle of the American Rev- 
olution. I suppose that is a fact which is not generally 
known to a great many wlio are present, but those who are 
familiar with the history of the Revolution will remember 
that when a detachment of British soldiers, under the com- 
mand of Major Pitcairn, approached the volunteers at Con- 
cord. Major Pitcairn drew one of his pistols from the holster 
and discharged it at the Americans and ordereil his men to 
'"come on." Thev did come on ami were met with a \()lle}' 
which sent them in retreat, and Pitcairn's horse was shot 
from under him, and his pistols fell into the hands of the 
Americans ; thev were given to General Putnam, and from 
him they descended to John P. Putnam, and 1 am going to 
show them to you to-day. [The speaker here exhibited the 
same.] One of these is the first weapon that was discharged 
in the war of the American Revolution. I regard those 
pistols as the most interesting relics of that time, and of them 
old Cambridge ought to be proud, and she should preserve 
them among her archives to be handed down from generation 
to generation. 

Now, I think, for a man with a sore throat, I have talked 
long enough. [Loud cries of '' go on."] Throngs of asso- 
ciations crowd on my mind as I begin to tell of the men and 
women who were my companions and associates, or my 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 6^ 

seniors in days gone by, but they are mostly personal recol- 
lections. The boys who were my playmates and companions 
are associated with scores of delicious memories, the last 
that will ever fade from an old man's mind. 

If it were fitting that a woman should speak in public, I 
would call on one who is here present, representing a historic 
family, long identified with the history and prosperity of this 
town — I refer to Mrs. Rice, formerly Miss Catherine Wen- 
dell, whose presence is one of the peculiar pleasures of this 
great occasion. 

I wish I could get the hand of Robert Coulter, Russell 
Ackley and Robert Robertson, and some of the Crocker 
boys, the Warners and Johnsons, and others who were at 
school with me. Some of you remember Joseph Law, the 
son of "'Butter John" Law, a brother of George Law. Joseph 
was a splendid man. If his life had been spared to this day 
he would have been one of the great men of this nation. 
He went from here to New York, studied law, became a 
partner of Dudley Selden, then died in early life. Alas ! 
how many of the youth who were my companions forty }ears 
ago are now beyond the centuries in the eternities ? How 
changed the scenes that my heart rejoiced in ! The streams 
in which the trout waited for ine, and came out at my invi- 
tation, are almost dry. The streets and lanes are no longer 
those in which I played and strayed. The fields that were 
once harvested for corn are now covered with beautiful 
houses, but the same old hills are here — the eternal hills — 
thev stand sentries of this glorious plain, and the same skies 
bend lovingly over it, and the same God is fiither of us all. 
Like Jerusalem, old Cambridge is dear to her sons, who 



66 CE-NTENNIAI. ANNIVERSARY 

take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof, 
and we can piously say, " If I forget thee, old Cambridge, 
let my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave 
to the roof of my mouth." 

For myself I can say with the sincerity of one who was 
taught, in this town, to speak the truth, first, last and always, 
I can say with truth that having traveled since I left this val- 
lev through every country in Europe, from Madrid to Mos- 
cow, and wandered along the shores of Asia and Africa, I 
never yet found a spot where more that goes to make up all 
that is enjoyable in life is to be found than in this very valley. 
[Applause.] One hundred years have passed since it was 
settled bv white men. The century has been crowned with 
peace, prosperity and happiness. May the future be as the 
past, and more abundant, and when our children's children's 
children shall celebrate the second centennial, may they bless 
God for us as we now bless Him for our fathers. [Great 
Applause.] 

The choir then sang 

HOME, SWEET HOME. 
Mid pleasures and palaces tho' we may roam, 

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home ; 
A charm from the skies seem to hallow us there, 

"Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. 
Home, home, sweet, sweet home, 
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. 

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain. 

Oh I give me my lowly thatched cottage again 1 
The birds singing gaily, that come at my call. 

Oh ! give me sweet peace of mind, dearer than all. 
Home, home, sweet, sweet home. 
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 67 

The President — The next thing in order is "a poem by 
Mrs. M. E. Doig, of Jackson, N. Y., but as you can easily 
see that this is a very formidable audience to face, by her 
own request, her poem will be read by one with whom you 
are all familiar — ^Judge Gibson of Salem. Judge Gibson 
then read the following poem : 

CENTENNIAL DAY. 

BY MRS. M. E. DOIG, JACKSON, 

We stand in the midst of a mighty throng, 
Of the old, and the young, and the fair ; 

Familiar smiles brighten every face, 

And jubilant tones fill the air. 
We see them, and yet we regard them not, 

Their faces are fading away ; 
And with phantom forms and echoless feet. 

Old Cambridge is peopled to-day. 

The aged are here with the hoary heads, 

The youth with the laughing eyes ; 
The little child, at its mother's side, — 

From many a grave they rise ; 
From graves forgotten, and sunken down, 

'Neath the sods of an hundred years ; 
They meet each other with happy smiles. 

They part with the bittei'est tears. 

Their attire is quaint, with the olden style. 

Each countenance firm and sincere ; 
Their eyes — the mirrors of hearts that know 

No shadow of cowardly fear. 
The grass has vanished from yonder field, 

In its place cling the tangled vines ; 
'Neath the waving branches of forest trees. 

The swarthy reu hunter reclines. 



68 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

The streets are soft with a carpet of moss, 

The dwellings have dwindled away, 
"Where lingered the sound of the voices of men, 

We hear only wood songs to-day. 
A log hut here, and another there, 

Are the homes of the noble and brave, 
"Who lived and loved, who struggled and fought,— 

"WTio won, and our liberty gave. 

But the distant valleys are darkened with smoke, 

"Where the boomings of cannon arise ; 
And it hovers in clouds o'er the blood stained earth. 

That echo the battle fiend's cries. 
Ah me I we sigh for the many who fell, 

"We weep with the many bereft ; 
But time has been tender, and gathered them all, 

No trace of their sorrow is left. 

But a sacred inheritance rests'with us still, 

Not the wealth that our forefathers gave, 
Nor the fertile meadows their thrift has prepared. 

Nor the homes they perished to save. 
Not these, tho' precious, the fruit of thetr toil, 

'Tis the spirit that bums in each breast : 
The will to defend both our freedom and rights, 

And to tight for the homes God has blest. 

But a century more will swiftly glide by. 

"When we will be mingled with clay, 
And the question that rises within us, is this: 

"Will we be remembered as they ? 
"Will the record we leave in honor descend 

Thro' the mighty mutations of years? 
"Will people be proud of our memory then. 

As we, of the old pioneers ? 



OLD TOWN OF CAIVTBRIDGE. 69 

Will they tell their children that virtue and truth 

Was their ancestor's motto and pride ? 
Or, will they reap with tears what we scatter with smiles, 

With vice for their watchword and guide ? 
Soon, neighbors, (he places that know us this year 

Will know us no more, and for aye, 
Yet, an hundred years hence, the power may be felt 

Of words that are spoken tO-day. 

Long life to old Cambridge, let each cup be filled. 

And each son and daughter drink deep 
To the land that we honor, the land that we love, 

The place where our forefathers sleep. 
To those who hereafter inherit this wealth 

Be its honor more precious than gold ; 
And may we, looking down from the homes of the just I 
See Cambridge two hundred years old. 
The President — The authoress of this poem is a niece of 
■ the gentleman who read it. We now desire to exhibit the 
young ladies and gentlemen in the costumes of one hundred 
years ago. 

The President — The toasts are now in order. The first 
is. "We enjoy the benefits of the trials and hardships of our 
Fathers who settled: this town ; may we imitate their vir- 
tues." This will be responded to by Rev. Mr. Brown, who 
is the pastor of the church Mr. Jermain alluded to as having 
'^een organized by Philip Embury. 

REV. O. A. brown's REMARKS. 

We are not alone. The perfume of the past is around us 

. and in our hearts to-day. Our fathers are with us again. 

This vallev is filled with their voices. They speak to us not 

! from the public record only, but from the private history of 

oour own experience. They speak to us in a thousand 



70 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

remembrances, in a thousand incidents, in a thousand events 
and associations. They speak tons not only from their silent 
gra^'es, but from the throng of life. We live in converse 
with those who once lived and conversed with us. Their 
well remembered tones mingle with the whispering breezes. 
The valley is filled with their shadowy train. 

But there are more substantial expressions of their presence 
with us. The valley is filled with their labors, with their 
works. Their handiwork meets our eye at every turn ; their 
footsteps are in our paths ; their presence is in our dwellings. 
Old Cambridge is lifted up out of ordinary and indifferent 
places because of what has been done by those who are gone, 
and the memorials of their deeds which still remain. We 
see dwellings which speak to us of other things than earthly 
convenience or fleeting pleasure, which speak to us the holy 
recollections of lives which were passed in them and have 
passed away from them. We see everywhere inscribed the 
touching storv of J03- and sorrow, love, heroism, patience, 
which lived here, here breathed its first hope, its last sigh 
ci-enerations ago. We behold scenes which ofier more than 
fiiir landscape and living stream to our eyes, which tell us of 
genius, of fortitude, of hope that lived here, suffered here, 
died here. We behold this valley as more than soil and 
scenerv. rich and fair though the\- be ; we behold it as writ- 
ten over with histories, as a sublime page on which are 
recorded the lives of noble men. 

And now our thoughts are of our fathers' trials and toils 
and tears and of their virtues : of their virtues, for death 
kindly throws a veil over their infirmities and leaves but a 
vision of their better nature. You know the vision is always 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. ft 

loveliest when it has vanished, or is vanishing, for often we 
perceive not till we hear the flutter of the parting wing, that 
an angel has been with us. We think of them with melting 
hearts to-day because of their sacrifices for us. They sowed 
in tears that we might reap in joy. They scattered seed ; 
we stand amid landscapes clothed with golden harvests. 
And it is ever so. It is by the sacrifices of the father that 
blessings are secured to the son. It is by throes that privi- 
leges like men are born. It is by death that the world 

advances. « 

Life evermore is fed by death 
In earth, and sea, and sky ; 
And that the rose may breathe its breath, 

Something must die. 
From hand to hand life's cup is passed. 

Up beings piled gradations. 
Till men to angels yield at last 
The rich collation. 
Our fathers have transmitted tons their names, their blood 
and their work. And to-day their voices call up to us say- 
ing, — inasmuch as you enjoy that which cost us toil and 
tears, do not dishonor our names and our blood, but finish 
our work, imitating us only in that \vhich ennobled us, and 
which alone will ennoble you — our virtues. * 

Societv has a right to expect, na^■ more, demand that the 
work of each generation shall be better than that of the pre- 
ceding. With constantly increasing facilities, and with the 
experience of generations before us, we would prove recreant 
to the trust imposed, to the hopes of the past, to the demands 
of the present, and to the possibilities of the future, if our 
work is not well and noblv done. Where, if not here, can 



72 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

we learn these thins^s without which o.ir work \v\\\ lie in 
va.n? Where, if not here, cradled hetwecn these hills, can 
one learn fidelity, steadfastness and purity.^ Here, where 
we see the rich and faithful return of harvests, teach in<i; us 
fidelity ; where the eye forever tails on these ininiovable hills, 
emblems of steadfastness, and wiiere the purlint; streams sing 
of puritv. The greater our privileges the greater our respon- 
sibility. The privileges are ours, the responsibility is ours. 
To ha\e had a virtuous ancestry is much ; to have inherited 
the dwelling-places of our fathers is much ; to dwell in ll.e 
midst of scenery which ap eals to all that is pure and grai.d 
and beautiful within us is much ; but to be virtuous ourselves, 
to improve oin* inheritance, to be pure in heart, grand in 
soul, and beautiful in life is more ; 

"Let us tbeu l>e up ntul d(jiug." 
This valley is no longer the mere material thing it was at 
the beginning: it is the tomb of generations. From out of 
its recesses what oracles come ; upon the majestic brow of 
these hills what names are written? The very dwellings 
have become monumental. Tlieir walls have echoed to jovs 
and sorrows that have passed away. High, heroic hearts 
have throbbed within them, that beat no more. Not the 
present alone is here ; but the image of the majestic pitst 
stalks through our midst and casts its solemn mantle over the 
life of to-day. We live that we may garner up the treasures 
of that past, and adding to them the little that we can. trans- 
mit them to those that come after. We guard the holy be- 
quest. See we to it that it waste not nor dwindle in our 
hands. Let us struggle manfully, giving lieed to the voices 
that are forever calling to us, conscious of our responsibility 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 73 

in the sight of men, and in the sight of God. '^" [Applause.] 
The President — The next toast is " Our x\dopted Citi- 
zens," which will be responded to by Mr. Fillmore, formerly 
pastor of :}he old White Church for many years. 
REV. MR. Fillmore's remarks. 
Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : A 
friend of mine said to me once I "was a fool" [laughter] 
because I arose to speak and had no preparation for it. I 
did not know until five minutes ago that I was going to be 
called upon to speak on this occasion, and yet I have con- 
sented to appear before this audience — this grand presence — 
these grand, noble, far-known and renowned guests who are 
here to-day. The Scandinavians have a kind of a fable that 
the rainbow is the arch on which the gods come down to 
visit the earth. Well, there has been a kind of a rainbow 
over Cambridge to-day. The gods have come down to visit 
us. What can he say who comes after the gods? (A voice, 
"follow you.") [Laughter.] There is a friend here wdio 
has "seen the elephant." a live elephant, in one of the ponds. 
[Laughter.] And now I have seen a live elephant floatino- 
in all these reminiscences of the past fifty years. W^hat can 
I do. coming after such an one to speak, without prepara- 
tion, to you, dear old friends, many of you? Well, I am to 
speak on: what is the subject? (The President — "Our 
Adopted Citizens.") That's it. I was an adopted citizen 
of the old town of Cambridge. I came here just thirty years 
ago last month, a young, untutored sort of a bo}-, to take 
charge of one of the congregations in the old town. I was 
brought up in the western part of the State of New York, 
and as I came here to this old town, and got acquainted with 



nA CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

the people, and went into their homes, and mingled with 
them in society, I at once contrasted the condition and the 
elevation (if I may use the word) of this town and community 
with a town not quite so old in western New York. I was 
impressed with the cultivation and advancement in religion 
and science, and also was I impressed by the schools, and 
what I then beheld imprinted itself on my mind, that in not 
many towns in the State of New York was there a higher 
deo-ree of social advancement, of moral cultivation, and of 
that social kind of feeling that is refined, pervading all classes 
of the community. I recollect a friend of mine said I would 
find at least fifteen piano-fortes in the old congregation that I 
then came to minister to. I thought that was wonderful. I 
came from one of the western New York towns ; we had not 
had the same length of time in which to make our advance- 
ment, but I thought then, as I have ever thought since, that 
you will go a great ways and not find so much that is grand 
and imposing, that is endearing and elevating in the civiliza- 
tion and general condition of the town, as here in this grand 
old town of Cambridge. Her groves are delightful ; her 
streams and hills beautiful. I have looked upon the hills 
and valleys and the streams, clear across to San Francisco, 
and then I have been away up three or four liundred miles 
on the Columbia river, and never have I seen any more 
beautiful prospects than are before my eyes here to-day. 
And who do you think was with me far up the Columbia 
river } When 1 was upon one of the blufis, and looked ofi' 
upon one of the dells where the Columbia pours through a 
channel only about eighty feet wide, rolling and tearing like 
Niao-ara ; I say, when I stood there, it was with two persons, 



OLD TOWN OP CAMBRIDGE. 75 

one oftlicm ])()r.n in th.is town ; and wherever I went I found 
the town of Cambrid^ije represented, and none of her repre- 
sentatives mean fellows either. [Applause.] They were 
men of standinj^, and women of cultivation wherever I w^cnt, 
showin^^ that I am not flattering, and the reminiscences that 
come thron<;(in!^ up over my soul are like those of my brother 
and friend wlio has spoken to you of some time ago, because 
I am not as old as Mr. Prime, am I, brother Prime .^ (Mr. 
Pnme— '• I guess so ; I am only sixty.") I shall never catch 
up with him. [Laughter.] He has only about ten years 
the start of me. When I came here with these influences 
and impressions upon my mind, I felt that there was a work 
for me that perhaps I was not able to perform. When I 
arrived I associated with such men as old Dr. Bullions. He 
was the first man I met coming from Saratoga, and he was 
pointed out to me by a gentleman whom I have seen here 
to-day, and told it was Dr. Bullions. 

I came from where there were no Scotch or Irish churches. 
I had never heard any such name before. Afterwards I 
became acquainted with Dr. B. and the other ministers. I 
felt as though there was a work put upon me to do ; that I 
was scarcely able to do it because I was quite a young man, 
but I found, as I became acquainted with the ministers and 
the people generally of my own and the other congregations 
around the town, that there was a degree of intelligence that 
I had never liefore met, for I used to find some parishioners 
who were occupied evenings in reading Dick's Theology and 
such kindred works. They were reading about creeds and 
confessions and the good old doctrines, and it struck me as 
something very peculiar. When you have in this commu- 



76 cente>:nial anniversary 

nit\ men and woincii like these, wIkj arc familiar w itli the 
great writers and their great thoughts, you have scMiiething 
to do if vou will equal them. I tried to do just what I could, 
and I staid here just about twelve years and three months, 
and I recollet when I come to go away they clustered annmd 
me from the diilerent congregations, the people of the town 
encouraging me as I was going away. I might as well say 
I have made more money going away than I ever did in stay- 
ing with the congregation. [Great laughter.] But what 
changes have come over this town since I came liere. Dr. 
Prime once wrcitc me he was coming to Cambridge. lie 
said he wanted to visit Cambridge aftei" it had an iron rail 
thrust through its heart. That sounds just like .Sam Prime. 
[Laughter.] There was no railroad here when I came. I 
came in a six-horse stage. .Vfterwards this railroad was put 
through here, and that improvement was manifest upon the 
communit\ . ^'ou then began to build houses, and now as I 
ride through vour streets I scarcely know where I am. 
These beautiful streets have been laid out. and these general 
improvements carried on in your midst, and I suppose that 
our ■• adopted citizens" liavc hccn all liarmonious with vou 
in the improvements that have been made, and when you 
have those come to vour town as your atlopteil citizens, you 
have found them reliable, and upon whom you could lean. 
and with whom vou could labor and carry forward the great 
material inij^rovements of the town. 

Not long ago I was called upon to address the Pioneers of 
Orleans county, in Western New York, and I went back and 
told them what had been the great means of the influence 
upon that communit} ; that it luul been the public schools, 



OLD TO\\'N or CAMnniDGE. 77 

the c'llucatioM of iIk- south, and c'spc'cialh the churches. 
Those j^ooil i)KI New I'Lii<^huul people who went U) cuttinjj^ 
down the forests clear thron;^h to western Xew ^'ork, when- 
ever they put lip a tew houses, up wouhl <^o the old lo^ 
schoolhouse, and that would answer toi" a tin)e tor their 
meetin<!fs. and after a little the\ erected churches. The 
church and the schoolhouse went tojj^ether and made its im- 
pression upon that community just as it did here one hundred 
years a<^o and a little less. \'ou account for the present cul- 
tivation and condition ot' the old town of Caml>rid<^e 1)N' its 
schoolhouses. its educational tacilities. the churches that have 
been erectetl 1)\ tlie [jopidace. and by the good morals that 
have prevailed. vSo that amoiiij^ all the communities of this 
State you will hnd but very few. as 1 ha\ e said, excellinj^. 

Now let the •• adopted citizens" fall in w ith the general 
march and carry forward the same great institutions that 
have been established by the fathers, and, as has been said, 
imitate their example in establishing the facilities for educa- 
tion and religion, and one hundred years to come vou shall 
find those worthv of the present generation (»ccupving these 
houses in this town. — a generation we hope that will far 
exceed the generation that now jjrevails. 

I hope, \f I have said anything that has not been vcr}' 
smart, or done anvthing that has not been perfectly prudent, 
vou will j^ardon. because I have been called up for a moment. 
I could utter sentiments tor an hour, but— (.\ voice — *' Give 
us voiu' hand.") [(Jreat laughter, during which the speaker 
retired.] 

The Pui:sii)KNT — The next toast. '•The Churches and 
the Clergy," will be responded to by Rev. J. X. Crocker. 



yS CENTE%'NIAL ANXTVERSARY 

R. K. Crocker.- Esq.— Mr. President, I liavc uo suj^ges- 
tions to make any further than it has been suggested here by 
others that the au(hciicc is ahvady so tired l)y waiting that it 
is better tor us to oniit the responses to the toasts, begging 
the pardon of the gentlemen who had been selected to 
respond to them, and I would say to them that their addresses 
(if furnished) will be published hereafter. The following 
are the remaining toasts: 

•• The Cambridge Washington Academy" — Rev. A. B. 
Bullions. D. D. I have a letter from Dr. Bidlions. who was 
formerly Principal in the Academy, which will be published 
as a response. 

••The Press"— Col. McArthur, of the Troy Budget. 

•• Washington County" — Hon. James Gibson. 

••The Village of Cambridge; May her citizens remember 
that • united we stand, divided we fall.'" — Rev. II. G. Blinn. 

Mi{. Blixn — \ o don't know how mucli you lost there. 

Mk. Ckockkk — ■• Sons of old Cambridge residing abroad" 
Judge Skinner was jjresjnt to respond to that sentiment. 

A VoicK — I would like to know why we can't hear these 
men speak, antl I move we stay until we iiear all of them. 

The motion being jiresented to the audience, it was carried 
bv a tumultuous and overwhelming affirmative vote. 

M(iN. HKNjAMIN SKIXXER's REMARKS. 

Friexds axd Fellow Citizens, and Former Towns- 
men — I return vou mv sincere thanks for the kind reception 
I have received at vour hands, and I only regret that a more 
able and elociuent person to address you in a proper maiuier 
was not called upon to respond to the s^Mitiment proposed : 
'' Sons of Old Cambridge residing abroad." After all the 



OLD TOn-T^ OF CAMnRIDOR. f^ 

speeches lli:it wc li:i\c' licMid. and tlu- Iiislorv of the town 
thioii<>[hoiit. it woulil not he well for ine to attempt to instruct 
you farther. Ninety-five years ajjo my father settled in the 
western part of this town. I lived there until the year iS.jo. 
Since t!iat time I have scarcely set my foot in town, and 
when I retmned tlie other day it seemed more to me that the 
mafjjician's wand had waved over tlie land than that what I 
beheld was the workmansliip of man. On behalf of those 
who have left tliis town and returned aj]^ain, I return vou mv 
heartfelt and sincere thanks for the cordial welcome we have 
received, and the cordial welcome of " old friends aj^ain." 
Ki;v. John n. wklls' kkmarks. 
Mil. PiiKsiDKNT — I am the worst specimen of a thoroujjhlv 
fri<i[htened Cambridjje boy ever you saw. All of these boN s 
that were born " in time" or ••<)ut of time," are not so. .Self- 
posscssjd, they are not afraid to say " their souls are their 
own." I was not born here. I never lived here but about 
tjn years. I have been aw.ny about forty-two years, with an 
occasional visit. Now I am }?"in;x to tell one or two thiufrs 
that ha\e not been told, and th.-n I will retire r)utof the wav. 
This morninjj, lonjx before daylii^ht. a little owl perched 
himself somewhere near my indow, and screeched out his 
disap|)robat»on of some thinj^s, and I said "Amen" to those 
thinjjs. One of those things was this: I suppose he was 
the great-great-grandson of some owl that lived in the old 
forests here, and watched over all the old stage drivers who 
came up here, and turned up by Chase's, or long before 
Chase was here. lie just struck a chortl in my breast that 
vibrates in my breast now. When I came out of Troy on 
the r.iils that went through Samuel Prime's heart. I thought 



So CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

" this is not the way to Cambridge; I must climb the old 
Mill Hill. I want to ride on the box with Charley Tingue, 
and see how he touches up those leaders of his with that in- 
imitable silk snapper, and lays the butt of that whip on his 
good old wheel horses, and brings them in all fresh, and all 
ALIVE, knowing if he comes very near them that he loves 
them well." Is there anybody here who remembers ''Fare- 
well.^" (A voice — "I do, perfectly.") Are there an}- boys 
or girls here who ever played in good old Lowren Wright's 
blacksmith shop, and felt the mighty influence of that good 
old man? I have not heard his name mentioned here to-day, 
and yet he is represented here by sons who are exerting their 
influence in other spheres, and are well known here ; and I 
tell you, my friends, that the influence of these old families 
in the future is perpetuated in other conamunities. and will 
be as long as the sun shines. 

Did anybody ever see old Jimmy Stratton's steer .^ (A 
voice — " I am the man.") I saw it too. Did you ever see 
him when he went to mill, riding astride of that steer, when 
the boys put the chip under the bag so when he got on the 
steer tipped him ofl' and ran home .^ [Laughter.] The 
Cambridge bo3S were accustomed to do things of that kind. 

Did anybody in this assemblage know that Cambridge had 
a splendid " Central Park" long before New York people 
thought of it. and that the idea of •• Central Park" originated 
here in Cambridge.^ Why, we knew very well how we used 
to skate in and out; the girls did not skate then, but they 
SLID ; you can skate crooked, but you can't slide crooked ; 
the girls would slide right^straight into our arms. [Laughter.] 
Now that was on the old park right before Samuel Prime's 



OLD TOWN OP CAMDRIDGE. 6l 

father's lioiise, aiul yet he never mentioned it ; tliat okl 
swamp. (Dr. Prime — " I left that for you.") I never knew 
him to leave an> tiling for anybody before. [Great hiughter.] 
Hut you see we were both born out of oki Cambridge — a lit- 
tle out of Cambricf^e, and we are both mar\elously kind 
toward each other. [Laughter.] 

I tell you, my friends, it seems to mc, all joking aside, that 
the shades of our fathers and our mothers are here as real 
and as silent as the shadow of these trees. I have felt their 
influence. I bless God for that inlluence. I suppose no 
man or minister is here to-da}- who had Dr. Prime as his 
teacher, lirsl in the school-room, and then in the j-ulpit. I 
had him as a paris'.iioner. I had him hold up my hands 
when I was weak. I had him pour into m}' soul the grand 
truths that k^r years moulded this community I had that 
influence follow me for years when I was a timid preacher 
of '• The Word." and w hen he said to me, as old Dr. 
JJeecher saiil to him when he was deeply depressed, ''Brother 
Prime, if vou go to hell you have got to go there through the 
pulpit." That he said to mc. lie kept me in the pulpit 
when otherwise I should not ha\e been there. 

I tell you that the grand influence of those grand old men 
— Dr. Bullions and Dr. Prime — is perpetuated, not only in 
this country, but all over the world. And after we shall all 
be together in Christ, the time for reminiscences will be 
long and sweet and blessed. 

A Voice — Xow, Rev. Blinn, for that splendid speech we 
were so near losing. [Laughter.] 

RE\'. II. G. BLIXN's KEMARKS. 

Ladies and Gentlemen — Mr. Wells has given my 



9t CBNTRNNJAL ANNIVERSARY 

speech. In reply to the sentiment. •• The NMlhisj^e of Cam- 
bridf'e ; iiiav her citizens rcmenihL'r that • united we stand, 

e - > 

divided \vc fall'"; of course this sentiment refers to the 
present citizens of Cambridj^e, and not to the fathers who one 
hundred years ajjjo made this grove vocal, as their sons have 
done to-dav. I had not the pleasure of knowing very inti- 
mately the people w ho resideil here then ; most of them 
were strangers to me. Hut I iiave the pleasure of knowing 
well some of their sons ; and they have heen calleil " worthy 
sons of noble sires." Tiuit is an original rem.irk matle by 
Dr. Prime. We never hcartl it saitl before by anybody. It 
struck me as being very truthful. They are noble sons — 
worthv sons — of noble sires. 

We are accustomed on such occasions to glorify Hrother 
Jonathan, the *' I'niversal Yankee." hut I believe the fathers 
of these sons were, many of them, in the category in which the 
Sunday school boy placed our father Adam. The teacher 
asked "who was the fust man.'" A little fellow in one of 
the classes responded, ''George Washington." ••What! 
George Washington the first man.'" "Yes; first in war, 
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 
'• Oh. no," said the teacher. '• Adam was the first man." 
'• Oh, well," said the little fellow. " if you are talking about 
FOREIGNERS. I suppose he was." [(ireat laugliter.] And 
so the fathers of these noble sons were, many of them, in 
that category. They were really, at first, foreigners. We 
are here to commemorate their virtues, and I am here to tell 
von a truth that you may not have iieard before, that 
•• United" — I want the ladies to hear this, all the young 
ladies, and all the widows — *• United we stand, divided we 



OI-D TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 83 

lall." [Lauc;hter, and a voice, ''I move he interpret that."] 
Well, it has been interpreted already. The ladies are for 
" union" — to a man ! (A voice, "• You probably would like 
a job i*") Some one says I want a job ; I would like the fee ! 
If anybody here is now prepared to enter into the "holy 
bond of wedlock" I will take the fee, and ]Mr. Wells will 
perform the ceremony ! [Laughter.] I need not occupy 
your time with a long speech on this occasion on the senti- 
ment proposed. One man never felled the forests, broke up 
the sod, and cultivated this "garden" — we might almost 
call it " the garden of the world." It was accomplished by 
united elTorts. We should remember that nothing worth 
having was ever acquired in this world except at the end of 
a battle, and no battle can be fought single handed and alone. 
It was by union of eflbrt that the churches and schoolhouscs 
were built, and the people of this valley instructed, and when 
we can strike hands again, neighbor to neighbor, when we 
can sink all personal and all sectional jealousies and diflcr- 
ences, and as with the heart of one man, come up to the 
work and rebuild our schools that liave fallen somewhat into 
disrepute, and rally around them we may hope for strength 
enough to stand and to go forward in the path which our fiithers 
marked out for us. But I will not weary you ladies ; remem- 
ber the sentiment, "United we stand." [Applause.] 

REV. J. N. CROCKER 

Responded as follows to the sentiment, " The Churches and 
the Clergy" : 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : My 
first appearance before an audience in this community was 
up in yonder schoolhouse, when I said. 



84 CENTENNIAL AXNIVEHSARY 

" You'd scarce expect one of my age 
To speak in public on the stage." 

I feel very much like that to-day, and I will assure you 
that I have just had the intermittent fever. I w^as told to 
speak, and then I was told I might not speak, and then I felt 
better, and I hope to feel better yet pretty soon. As the old 
Virginia clergyman said to his colored driver, who was taking 
him to church to preach, " I feel badly ; I have the headache." 
When he was through preaching and returning home, he 
said, "I feel better." "Well, massa," said the servant, "I 
should think 3'ou would, getting that load off your stomach." 
[Laughter.] 

If I am to represent the excellent clergy of the town, I sup- 
pose I must remember to be verv " Shortt." [Laughter.] I 
believe I am a boy again to-day. I cannot realize that I stand 
here of age in the ministry. I am again passing through this 
grove, and verily, I tell you the same angels dwell in its 
leaves to-day as did when I carried my geometry and Virgil 
from yonder house to the Academy ; the same as when Dr. 
Prime was here listening to their whisperings ; and if not the 
angels, the same Holy Ghost. 

Why I should be called upon here to speak of the church 
and clergy I cannot think, for I was called upon to fill an- 
other man's place, unless it may be that the oldest elder of 
any church in the town is my father, and I his youngest child ; 
or perhaps it was because he who stood in that White church 
and rang out so clearly, " Woe is unto me if I preach not 
the gospel," so impressed me that I could not forget it, and I 
went on the bluff yonder and said, "I will do it!" And I 
have done it for twenty-one years, and I trust God will spare 
me to do it yet. [Applause.] 



OI.T) -lOWX OK CAMBIUnr.K. ,S5 

I used to tMiicy in my boyhood that this was the- old (iai- 
dcn of Eden. And because of that fancy I have had a disHke 
to making research and studying in regard to its geographi- 
cal position. I used to think of this plain and that creek 
yonder, and the otiier over there, and these liills, and finally 
thought in truth the spot were Eden. I don't know ])ut it 
was. I am not going to dispute it. My heart would say 
"yes." I have learned to love all these places. There is 
not a foot of yonder farm that I have not turned with the 
plow, save where the rocks and trees forbade such work. I 
have lived here and hccn brought up here under the influence 
of the church, and I believe that the chuixh has been the 
power under God, that has made Cambridge what it is. 
And I am here to-day receiving the answer to the Indian's 
prayer a few days ago in the Saratoga daily prayer meeting, 
'•' Oh, Lord, give us grace to stand to the rack and face the 
music !" So I have come here to ''standto the rack and face the 
music,' and say something in reference to this great and 
glorious subject. I believe this place is grand because God 
has made it grand with the glorious hills and lovely sunlight, 
but which never would have been what it is had not God 
sent people here who have always, to a good degree, obeyed 
his will. Those ministers of whom you have heard to-day 
— the good father Prime who baptized me (and I have felt 
the influence of it ever since, I believe,) and others main- 
tained the faith. That good old Dr. Bullions used to come 
into the Academy and hetchel us, and I am glad that he did, 
because it did me good that I have never got over. It has 
been said that they were united during the week in their 
labors, and perhaps somewhat divided on the Sabbath, but I 



86 « iNTi: \Ni \i. .\\M\ii!s\in 

think tluiv was "unity in the Spirit" on that (la\ . l)i<l \oii 
ever think of the clioriis of sentiment that has been in this 
ccMiiniunity? Did vou e\er hear tliat thron>; sinj^inj;. " The 
Lord's my Sheplierd, I'll not want." D'h\ you eyer think of 
that other one, rejoicinjj in Toplady's hymn, *' Rock of ages, 
cleft f«)r me.'" and that other representatiyc hymn by Charles 
Wesley, "Jesus, loyer of my soul?" Are they not one? I 
helieye %vith that music went up only one sentiment to 
heaven. Ami that sentiment, "One Lord, one faith, one 
baptism," has always been observed in this community, and 
will l>c, 1 hope, until we shall worship in heaven the Land) 
that has been slain. I am ^lad we have this truth represented 
ami preacheil yet. 

There is one reminiscence that I have heard of that I sujv 
posc to Ih.* tnie, showinj; that the fathers in the chinch here 
were none of your Credit Mobilicr nor whitewashing com- 
mittees. They thought they needed a new church up here. 
There was a steeple upon the old editice. Part thought they 
might repair, but there was a committee finally ap|>ointed to 
investigate the matter to know whether it was true that the 
steeple was dangerous, as some asserted, or not. They 
secured a practical mechanic to investigate the matter. They 
accompanied him up into the steeple. It was none of your 
whitewashing investigations at all. It wouKI not do to bore 
into the pillars to ascertain whether they were sound or not. 
but he vigorously applied the saw and thus " investigated" it 
until the steeple had to come down ; and then came along 
the deaf and dumb John Dunahue [laughter] and said : 

"A hanghty prie-st, and an ignoraut people, 

A great big meeting bonRe without any Hteeple." 



OLD TOWN" OK CAMBRIDGE. Sj" 

I believe we Iiavethe same kind of staunch menremaininghere. 
I WDiild not have wearied you with these remarks had it 
not been that I am a Cambridge born man. I am of this 
dust here. I would be ashamed of any Cambridge boy who 
would refuse to fill a gap when called upon. [Applause.] 

REMARKS OF JUDGE GIBSOX. 

"The County of Washington" — Responded to by Hon. 
James Gibson, of Salem. 

What a history there is in the words and their connection ! 
How memory brings up the past and recalls the discovery of 
its territory in 1609 by Champlain ; the causes that for one 
hundred and fifty years after prevented its settlement ; the 
powerful armies that so often marched to and fro through its 
valleys; the cruel raids that were so often made bv means of 
its water courses, and war paths from the territorv of one 
combatant to that of the other ; the fortresses once and again 
and again erected within its extended domain ; the open or 
covert attacks on them, and their destruction, sometimes even 
at the hands of the power that constructed them, in order to 
prevent their furnishing shelter to the advancing forces of the 
enemy ; and the pitched battles that were fought within its 
territory between the armies of the greatest nations on the 
continent of Europe, to procure or maintain an ascendancy 
in North America for one or the other. And tlien the thought 
arises that through its tangled wilds, or on the streams wliich 
llowed through them the dusky warrior often sped to attack 
the defenseless settlements on the borders of New York or 
Massachusetts, and as often returned by one of its trails bear- 
ing the scalps of men, women and children, or driving their 
captives, ind loaded \\ith the plunder they hail seized on 



8S CENTENNIAL ANNl VEHSARV 

their bloody foray, ami the whole country over which they 
had swept as a l)cson of destruction, left desolate with fire 
and slaujjhter. One nienuirahle party of this description, 
consistin<j of ahout nine huiulreil French and Inilians, under the 
commantl of Major Rij^autl de Vaudreuil, on the 20th day of 
Au<;ust, 1 746, captured Fort Massjichusetts, in Iloosic, to 
gether with all its defenders, and the women and chililren 
which it sheltered, killing and scalping some, and carrying 
the rest into Canaila as captives*, — in going, and with booty, 
prisoners and scalps in returning, passed on their accustomed 
war trail within one hinulred rotls of the very place where 
now, one hundred and twenty-seven years later, we arc 
assembled to celebrate the one hundredth natal year of Cam- 
bridge. And then rises in the mind's eye the early settle- 
ment of the county, the struggle of its pioneers in the fight 
for life with the wild beasts of the forest on the one hand, and 
with tleathly t'amine on the other — the latter so severe that 
even corn for seed hail to be obtainctl from the benificence of 
the State. And then, how title to nearly all our territory 
was obtained, being granted as bounty lands for volunteering 



*Tb« UrgOT portioa of Uiis raiding | wty sUrtod for boiD« on Um morning •afloeed- 
inft the rapturp, and on Ui« nlgbt of Aujoiat ZM nx-amiicd on the high groond betwdcn 
tli(< two i-omla In t'le prrarnt tnwn of Jarkann. .Vor(on°« lUdenud Captive p. IS. 
But two (>r mor* •kirmiahing {tartira w(t«> aent oat, one of whicb rat Tliig lo or ii<-ar 
Col<iraar, attacked an adv«ra<> farty and alpw and a^'Al-M-d Oonataiit lil-aa, hi* roni- 
I aniona parai lug by the fle«>tnf«B of tbelr frvt. Drakt't Frenfh and Ituiian War, I'iS. 
On the 3.ttb Augoat another i>arty, alxty In nurabcr, " »t--althlly %\\ marbed" I>.-<t- 
flclJ, about thirty milca easterly of Honalc, bat were providentially dlaoovered befor* 
they were in r«adinf«a for an attark, and tbna, no doubt, many lir«a were aaved. Hut 
the reault waa sad enoogh, aa Ave penaona were killed and acalped, aereral wounde<l 
and one taken captive. 76 136. 

Another party, hea<led by Eoaign Monalgaln, proo««ded toward Fort Haratoga, alt- 
natMl on the bill aouth of Oalearllle, in the present town of Raston, and meeting 
•ev nteon soldier* Iwlonging to the garrison, took four of thorn prlaonera and acaliied 
four others. Thf* remainder threw themselves peclpitately into the fort, followed by 
the enemy, who killed dome of them. 10 S, Y. Col. Ucr. «H. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 89 

as a soldier to defend the country from the combined attack 
of the French nation and their Indian allies. 

And here is called to mind that by the so-called " Hamp- 
shire Grants," great numbers of these soldiers who had 
labored and toiled through the heat and burden of that dread- 
ful war, relying on the good faith of the government to per- 
form its promises, and having received warrants for their 
promised lands, were driven from them, or forcibly prevented 
from settling on them by parties claiming under these grants, 
who had, in most cases, rendered no such services, or had 
paid little or nothingfor the lands thus seized or forcibly held. 

And then, there looms up the war for liberty, for the right 
to govern ourselves through our representatives — " millions 
for defence, but not one cent for tribute"— resulting in revo- 
lution and in the conquering of the peaceful acknowledge- 
ment of that independence for which our fixthers fought. 

This brings recollection to the organization of the state 
government, and the setting in motion of the wheels of local 
action through county, town and municipal creations, and 
here we reach the organization of our territory into the 
county of Washington. 

It was anciently in the county of Albany, which was one 
of the original counties into which the Province of New York 
was divided by an act of the legislative Assembly, passed in 
the year i6Si, and was so named after the Scottish ducal title 
of James, the Duke of York and Albany, to whom the 
province«was granted by the lavish hand of Charles II, then 
King of England, and when organized as a county, embraced 
within its limits the whole of what is now the State of Ver- 
mont and all of northern New York. 



y<) CENTENXIM A\M\EUSAKV 

III 1772:111 that portion of All»:my county north of" ihc 
Batten Kill, and on the cast side of the HudK'>n, was takiu 
from Albany, with the exception of certain counties orj^ani/.nl 
in what is now eastern N'erniont. anti was createil a county and 
named Charlotte, after the Qiieen consort, wife of George 
111. then King of Great Britain. 

By the result of the war of the revolution and the organi- 
zation of the State of New York, the upsetting of existing 
arrangements iK'camc tjuite common, ami thus it happened 
that bv an act passed by the I.,egislature of New York on 
the 2(1 dav of April, I7S4^ the county of Charlotte was or- 
dained *' to l>e hereafter called antI known by the name of 
Washington." 

But as w ill be obser\e<l. this territory did not include any 
part of the old town.n of cither Cambridge or Saratoga, the 
former having within its Uirders the present towns of Jack- 
son. White Creek an<l Cambri«lgc. with a part of eastern 
Vermont, and the latter incUnling the whole of what was then 
known as the ICast-town, or the easterly part of the town of 
old Saratoga, and now called Ea.ston. 

By the act dividing the county of Albany into districts, 
passed on the 12th of March, i/zi. it was enacted that all 
that part of Albany county lying north of Schaghticoke and 
cast of Saratoga. Ix* what was then called a district, and 
named Cambridge, and it was thereby enabled to elect cer- 
tain officers to manage its affairs, and a Su|x?r\isor to act in 
comitv atlairs with those of the nthcr districts. It remainctl 
as a district in the county of Albany till it was organized as 
a town in 17S8, and as such continued in that county till 
annexed to the countv of Washington, in the year 179'' 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 9I 

It may be interesting to notice that a most persistent elfort 
was made by certain parties on the Hampshire Grants, 
assisted by some few active men in this county, to carry into 
Vermont the entire territory now in the county of Washing- 
ton. For that purpose, what was called a '' Union conven- 
tion" was held at Cambridge on the 9th, and adjourned to 
the 15th and i6th of May, 17S1, at which certain persons 
attended and took seats, claiming to represent the districts of 
Cambridge, Black Creek (now Hebron), Granville, Skeens- 
borougK, and other districts in the now county of Washington, 
and agreed with a committee appointed for that purpose by 
the Legislature of Vermont, on a basis of union with that 
state, of tne territory now in our county. This action was 
reported by the committee to the Legislature of \'^crm()nt at 
an adjourned meeting held at Bennington on the i ^tii of 
June, 17S1, and was agreed to by that body, and thereupon 
certain persons claiming to represent the district above men- 
tioned being in attendance, " on taking the necessary oaths 
to cjualify tlicm to a seat," took scats in that body as mem- 
bers, claiming to represent the districts now in this county in 
the Legislature of Vermont, and continued to do so for some 
time, and voting and acting in its proceedings. Among the 
acts this body, thus constituted, undertook to give the sanc- 
tion of the law, was one incorporating this countv into and 
making it an integral part of the quasi State of Vermont, and 
dividing it into towns, and providing for the holding of town 
meetings by Vermont authority. But the delegates, so called, 
were not sustained by the people of the county, and the 
whole project fell to the ground, and the territory sought to 
be taken out of the State remained intact a jiart of New York, 



yi CENTENMAI ANNIVhK>AKV 

ami there we trust it will always staiul. leal and true, in tin- 
future as in the past. 

The name homehv the comitv is sij^nificaut ami illustrious, 
ami will ever recall the «;reat w«)rks ami iiohle character of 
our clistinjfuished namesake, ami when jjiven to us at our 
new birth in lilnrrty am! freedom, was iK'stowctl in jjrateful 
acknowletlj^ement of the heri>ic achievements in the war of 
the revolution of those who had made its soil their home, and 
thus remlered the name jx:culiarly appropriate. It was there- 
fore neither an iillc compliment nor imworthily l)cst«wed. 

Mav we. and those who shall follow us from generation to 
feneration, do n«ithinjj which shall ilish«»nor the jjreat nan)e 
of him our coimtry Ix-ars — the patriot Washin^^on 1 

SPKF-CII OF C. I.. MACARTIIIU. 

Mr. Prksidf.nt ano Lapiks and GkntlIcmkn : Alwut 
one himdred years ago the British government (its navy 
department) had a practice which they called "crimping." 
When their ships were short of men they sent out their drum- 
mers, sergeants anil '• press gangs" and gral)lK-<l whoever 
they could get hold of and put them on l>oard their ships of 
war. That practice was called " crimping," and out of the 
reasons why this country went to war with Great Britain 
was because then, and in later years, the naval force of that 
country " crimix^d" with their press gang on the people of 
this countr>', tearing men aw.iy from their homes unwillingly. 

Gentlemen, this committee of yours has been practicing 
that old thing that was prevalent one hundred years ago ; 
they have been "crimping" me on this occasion. They have 
brought me up standing at a moment's notice to respond for 
the Press. 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. t,3 

For the Press — how great the theme ! A hundred years 
ago and the presses of this country and the presses of tlie old 
Mother World were few indeed. Benjamin Franklin, whom 
we may call the father of the printing press in this country, 
was just one hundred years ago to-day crossing the broad 
Atlantic, at the age of sixty-seven, to act as the agent of a 
few of the struggling colonies of this continent, and after- 
wards he filled that position with great honor and credit to 
himself at the Court of St. James. Why, gentlemen, one 
jiundred years ago is the briefest time in the progress of God's 
events, or in the progress of God's history. I saw a para- 
graph to-day that will make you gentlemen blush when you 
come to reflect upon it at your centennial boasts. I saw that 
the German philosophers have cypliered it out that this old 
globe of ours is two hundred million years old. (Sensation.) 
Wiiat do you think of that, gentlemen, who arc bragging of 
one hundred years to-day? It is but a drop in the bucket in 
the passage of time. The speculative philosophers have a 
theory that civilization travels in cycles; that it moves around 
in circles ; thatn:ivilization, like everything else human, has 
its early birth, its slow growth, its meridian maturity, its 
age, and its decay. That civilization sinks back, like the 
tree that rots at the root and goes back to its primitive 
elements initil new forces come in to lift it out of tlie quag- 
mire, and again start it on a new career of progress. If we 
look through the history of this world, at all that has been 
performed, spoken of, written of, we shall find that four or 
five thousand years ago there was a civilization in ancient 
Egypt, in the valley of the Nile, which in many respects 
vied with the civilization of to-dav. And vet that civilization 



04 CENTENNIAL A N Nl\ EKbAKV 

traveled in its cycle, perfonncil its work, ami ilicd out, le.-n- 
iiig a broad, black abyss, where i<jnorancc prevailed, upon 
this globe of ours. It was not until the press and the pulpit 
combined — the pulpit because it was free ! The press be- 
cause it couUl utter its own sentiments, ami because it hail a 
spiritual religion, and because it sloughed ofVthe old mass of 
corruption and superstition, and came out and appealed to 
the hearts, to the intellect ami brains of mankind I (Applause.) 
It was then that this religion came in as active element in 
arousing and preserving the forces of society. 

With a free jxjople and a free press there is little danger 
but that this ci\.lization of ours, instead of dwindling away 
through old age I'.to ultimate decay, will survive the wreck 
of time, and " Pve," as Pope says, *' through all time, extend 
through all extent." 

I do not want to delay the audience, (cries of '*go on, go 
on.'*) but I cannot but glance for a brief period over the past 
hundred years. A hundred years ago I A moment ago I as 
depreciating that length of time, and yet this hundred years 
that this world has traveled over since the first settlement 
was made in this valley, has seen more development and 
alacrity in the wheels of progress, more in the march of 
improvement, and more in the improvement of mankind, 
than lias been known in all the hundred years, and in all the 
centuries preceding it. Napoleon, under the shadow of the 
monuments of the ancient Egyptians, said to his soldiers, 
"Men, fortv centuries are looking down upon us I" We can 
say with pride to this generation. " A single century is look- 
ing down uix)n you" ; and within that century there has been 
more accomplishetl for mankind, more that is to live in the 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 95 

future, and more that is to elevate man than in all the centu- 
ries that has preceded it. 

One hundred years ago Washington, then at forty-one, was 
quietly dwelling in the shades of Mount Vernon, with his 
beautiful wife ^Martha, to whom he had been married some 
dozen years. He was not the great Washington then that 
future events set up and carved out, and that he carved out 
for them. One hundred years ago and Pitt and Fox. the 
great champions of English statesmanship, were almost in 
their infancy ; one hundred vears ago and Napoleon was 
about four years old. It was in 1773 that Poland was 
divided, and as the poet has it, 

" Freedom Khrieked as KoRciu>;ko fell." 

One hundred years ago it was first that in the old world 
was struck the blow for the religious freedom of mankind. 
I am glad to say that it was in that year the Pope of Rome 
issued his famous bull against the Jesuits, and it was then 
proclaimed that they were to be wiped out from the history 
of religious associations in the world. It was one hundred 
years ago that Portugal struck the first blow to check the 
traffic in human beings. It was one hundred years ago that 
she struck the first blow given by civilized Europe to strike 
down the hydra-head of slavery. [Applause.] Thank God 
we have gone through a contest now after that hundred year*^, 
and have blotted that stain out Irom our national escutcheon 
forever. 

But I do not want to detain and weary you. (Loud cries 
of " go on," " give us more.") I thank you for your indul- 
gence and courtesy extended to me on this occasion. I can 
assure you that the Press has a high mission to perform in 



96 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

this coumr)-, and under the blesssing of God I trust it will 
perform it propcrlv, justly and intelligently for the advance- 
ment of all mankind, and with the best of intent. [Applause.] 
You will pardon me for not trespassing ujx)n your patience 
longer. From the flattering adoration laid by the clcrgAmcn 
at the feet of the distinguished gentleman from New York 
by speakers to-day, I should say they were pretty much all 
"Prime Ministers." [Laughter.] Ilowexer. they have 
made prime s{}eeches on tnis occasion, and I thank them for it. 
As I am not a native of this section of coimtry I cannot speak 
as to its reminiscences, or with, perhaps, the same enthusiasm 
as others. I can but profler my thanks for this reception, 
and leave t to others to recount the reminiscences of their 
youthful days. [Great applause.] 
Music by the Band. 

KK\ . W. F. LEWIS. 

Rector of St. Luke's Church. Cambri<lgi-, r«.-s|>ondcd as 
follows to the toast. " The Old Women of Cambridge" : 

Mr. Pre.sidknt. Laoiks and Gentlemen : In respond* 
ing to the toast to •• The Old Women of Cambridge," after 
what has Ixren ^aid by those who arc not only my elders and 
my betters, but are familiar with those for whom I am called 
upon to respond, I feel that m\ words must not only be few 
but short. 

If there is one theme that belongs alike to the past, the 
present ami the future, that theme is woman. bf»und up as 
she is in all true joy. ever ready with her sympathy to lighten 
every care and every sorrow. On this centennial ann.versarj- 
of the town of Cambridge, almost instinctively we glance 
around to reckon the men who have lived and toiled for 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. 97 

Cambridge, old and new. It gives me pleasure to stand as I 
do here to-day, and bid you remember the old women of 
Cambridge. All honor to them — all reverence to the bowed 
head and wrinkled brow. They tell us that Cambridge is 
one hundred years old to-day. They bid us look around and 
mark the transformation wrought therein. Shall I tell you 
by whom the burden of that change has been borne .'' By the 
old women of Cambridge, some of whom, helpless or bed- 
ridden, in patient sutVering, are debarred from participation 
in the joys of the day, yet happy in the thought that those 
they love are gathered around this festive scene, for 
" Woman's Rtation is retreat ; 
Her fairest virtues fly from public Kigbt, 
DomeKtic worth, that shuns too strong a light." 

Mr, President, I know that there is in the heart of every 
man and woman here present a response to the toast that I 
am called to respond to, fuller, deeper and more sincere than 
mv poor lips can utter, and to that feeling, deep seated in 
everv human breast, I leave the subject. 

The President then read the following letters and telegram 
from Mr. Clark : 

Salem, X. Y.. August 28, 1873. 
To Messrs. Warner, McKie and Lourie : 

Gentlemen — I am grtatly ol)liged by your kind invitation 
to attend the Centennial of the old town of Cambridge to be 
held to-morrow. Up to a recent date I had hoped to be with 
, vou on the interesting occasion, that I might gratify social 
feelings not vet benumbeci by age. with the kind converse 
and cheering presence of manv dear old friends among you. 
But I shall have to content myself with the hope that the 
pleasure of the occasion may equal your expectations, and 
that you all. and the aged especially, may have a day of pure 
e;joyment in the re-union of old friends and the recollections 
of by-gone years. I first saw your village in 1S05. I was at 



g8 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

school in Lansingburgh, and to conveniently secure my return 
home at the close of the term, it was so arranged that Rev. 
Mr. Fullcrton, of Hebron, who hat! business of his own at 
Lansiiiglmrj^h. sliould use mv father's iiorse aiul carriage for 
the jaunt, and bring me with him on his return. This was 
the tirst time I had ever, helpless and alone, been thrown into 
the haiuls of the minister, and I confess I would a gootl tleal 
ratiier have been bosseil by anylxuly else, and were it not 
that home with all its attractions was awaiting me at the 
other end of the route, 1 might easily have been persuaded to 
bolt the whole arrangement. Hut on .S.iturday evening we 
reached L'amliridge. where Mr. Fidlerton had arranged with 
Mr. Chapman an exchange of pidpits tlie next day. My fear 
of the minister began to be modified b\ some sort of respect 
when we reached the first toll-gate. Mr. Fullerton. in the 
most serious t»)ne. said t<» the gate-keeper. *• I exjK-ct to 
preach in Cambridge to-morrow." At the solemn ainiounce- 
ment the gate was opened and we passed on — "toll tree." 
The same potent key ojxMied- every gate on the road, and by 
the time we reached Cambridge I felt somewhat like admit- 
ting that a ministers presence might not be an evil under 
certain circumstances — for old Buck (my father's horte) and 
1 were getting somewhat in the way of compensation for our 
risk in the free use of the new and beautiful road. But sixty 
eight vears have wrought gre.it changes in me. as well as in 
your pleasant village. W hatever may then have been my 
feeling towards the clergy. I am glatl to s.iy that for the cloth 
in general, and for my clerical friends in your village in 
especial, 1 entertain the utmost respect and regard. In the 
evening we reached that long. low. white house. late the 
residence of Mr. Robert Blair, then occupied by Rev, Mr. 
Chapman, and the next day edifieil the gooil j)eople — Mr. I), 
as preacher and I as hearer, and on Monday reached Hebron 
and home. I seem to remember that there were a few 
houses, perhaps three or four, in the vicinity of the cliurch, 
but between Sir. Chapman's and the church, if there were 
any, I don't remember them. A tavern was kept near the 
site of the Union House, from the door of which could be 
seen most of the few dwellings that then made up your vil- 
lage. Why. sirs, at the time of which I speak, not eveiy 
man. wom.m and child on both sides of *• Bhrr's Brook" 
with a reinforcement from the former duskv denizens of the 



OLD TOTTN OF CA^fBRIDGE. 99 

forest, could have got up a fight on any subject, that in its in- 
tense vigor would have compared at all with your late 
unpleasantness on the school question, and which, whatever 
else it may show, is so eminently creditable to the grit and 
persistence of so many good men — men that individually may 
always be relied on for every good purpose, and who will 
cheerfully respond to everv claim of societv, excepting onlv 
the agreement of one school district with the other for mutual 
benefit. On to-morrow vou will probablv have with vou mv 
venerable friends John Weir, Benjamin Crocker, EcUly 
Bowen, Ahira Eldridge, John Barker, Isaac Brownell and 
others. What wonders these venerable men have seen in 
their day I In 1807 the application of steam to navigation — 
1812, war with Groat Britain ; the iron plow in 1816; and 
about the same date the inauguration of our canal svstem. 
Then followed railroads. In 1832 the road was finished 
trom Albany to Utica. and now we have in operation over 
sixty-seven thousand miles. Carding, spinning, weaving and 
knitting mills became common. Sewing machines for the 
women, and mowers, reapers, and steam printing, and iron- 
clad ships. The rebellion and its mighty results — it cost the 
loy il States three hundred thousand lives and over thirty- 
three hundred millions of treasure — it wiped out from our 
national escutcheon its only blot by emancipating four 
millions of slaves. Now we can hold up our head and feel 
that the constitutional right of freedom for everv human be- 
ing is no more an abstraction. The theme is both delightful 
and inexhaustible. But I must stop lest I further weary you 
with an old man's reminiscences. 

Most respectfully, John McDonald. 



Albany, August 26, 1873. 
Charles D. Warner and others. Committee Centennial Anni- 
versarv. Cambridge : 
Gentlemen — I thank you for the honor conferred upon me 
in your invitation to attend your Centennial Anniversarv on 
the 29th inst. I visited your place on the Fourth of July last 
under the impression that it was to take place on that day. 
As the weather proved quite rainv my walks among mv old 
friends were quite limited. I regret to say that mv business 
now is such that I shall not be able to attend. But let me 
assure you in the objects and purposes of your gathering, 



lOO CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

though absent in person, I shall be present in spirit. The 
prosperity of Cambridge in an}- respect \vill always be pleas- 
ant tidings to my ear. I shall gratefully cherish the memorv 
of those with whom I was there associated in mv \oiith and 
manhood, and shall take great pleasure in anv evidence that 
such feelings are reciprocated on their part. 

'■ This fond attac'aiueut to the well known place, 
Whence tir.st we started into life's long race, 
Maintains its hold with such unfailing sway, 
We feel it e'en in age, and at onr latest day." 
Time's changes have been so great during the last thirty 
years that I am now a stranger to a majority of the people of 
Cambridge, but no place, not even the citv where I have 
lived so long, seems to me more like home ; and it has 
always been my desire that when I come to the end of life's 
journey my remains may find a resting place with kindred 
and loved ones in your beautiful valley. 

Yours very respectfully, Austin H. Wells. 



Sharon, Conn., August i6. 1S73. 
Messrs. C. D. Warner, E. J. McKie. T. B. Lourie, Com- 
mittee : 
Gents — I deejDlv regret that owing to another imperative 
engagement it will be out of my power to join with you in 
the glad celebration of the Centennial of the old town of 
Cambridge. Though not a native of Cambridge, I am the 
next to it — a native of Argyle. But while Argyle was and 
continues strange to me, the '•'■ old town" has, from bovhood, 
always been a familiar home. Here my earliest and most 
enduring friendships were formed ; here in the ancient and 
now defunct schoolhouse of the Alaxwell district in Jackson 
my first essay in public life was made, and here, before the 
old yellow Academy departed southward on cumbrous 
rollers, I had the honor of teaching within its ancient and 
hallowed walls some of the best men and fairest daughters 
of the land. I have become thus to indulge in a peculiar 
atlection for old Cambridge, an atlection that goes out most 
fervently toward all the living, and that holds most sacredly 
in charge the homes and the virtues of many who sleep so 
sweetly in your beautiful Woodlands Cemetery. Beassined. 
then, that were it in my power, there is no spot on earth 
where I would more like to be on the 29th than in Fuller's 
Grove. Will you allow me to send vou a sentiment? "To 



OLD TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. lOI 

the memorv of the teachers of the Cambridge \Vashin<^ton 
Acadcinv, deceased — thoiijj^h dead they yet live in the useful 
careers and shininLj virtues of their hundreds of pupils scat- 
tered throutrhout the land." A. B. Bullions. 



State of Illinois. Executivk Department, ) 
Sprin(;field. Aujjust 25th. 1S73. ) 

Charles D. Warner, E. j. McKie and T. B. Lourie : 

Gentlemen — I have the honor to acUnowledjje the receipt 
of your kind invitation to he present at the Centeiuiial of the 
old town of Canibrid^a-, N. Y., to be held in Fuller's Grove, 
in the village of Cambridge, August 29, 1873, and in reply 
thereto I beg to express the sincere regret with which official 
duties commanding my attention at that time. I am compelled 
to decline any participation in the Centennial celebration of 
inv former home. Yours very respectfully, 

John L. Beveridge. 



Centerville. Appanoon County, Iowa, ) 
August 23, 1873. ) 

Messrs. \\'arner. McKie and Lourie: 

Gentlemen — I cannot be one of you at your Centennial of 
the old town of Cambridge. I should enjoy it. hoping to see 
friends, faces familiar fifty years ago; hope you will have a 
good time in this re-union of old friends. It will be titty 
years next month since I left Cambridge for a home in what 
was then the " West." Truh' yours. 

Samuel Crosby. 
Volunteer toast from the western prairie : 

'' The old town of Cambridge : May its prosperity be as 
lasting as its beautiful hills. S. C." 



Hornellsville. N. v., August 25. 1873. 
Mr. Charles D. Warner and others : 

Your letter of invitation to attend the Centennial of Cam- 
bridge Township was received some days ago. Nothing 
would at^brd me more pleasure than to be present on this 
occasion. The place of my birth is dear to me. Your invi- 
tation led me in memories' chariot once again to revisit the 
scenes of mv childliootl. youth and early manhood. My 
palmiest davs were given to the then distant State of Indiana. 



tt» CBXTFXNIAL AXXIVERSARY 

where are those who started Hfc with me. I am sorrv I can 
not be present ; the liealth dI' luy family will not permit. 

Yours trulv. \Vii.i.ia.m T. CiiiKEN, 



RiTLANP. Vt.. Aupiist 29. 1S73. 
To Messrs. Warner. McKie ami Loiirie. Committee: 

Gentlemen — I am imexpcctcillv aiul iMia\ oiihiMv detained 
from Centennial to-<.lay. «;reatly to my rejjret. X'ermont 
sends <^reetin<; to old Camhritlj^e to-day. May its c«Mnin<^ 
hundred vears he as prosperous us its past, and her children 
ever ilciijjht to do her honor. Hknuv Ci.auk. 

Mk. Thompson — I feel we ou«;ht not and cannot disperse 
to-day without expres>sinjj our j^atitude to the eminent j^en- 
tlemen who have addressed us upon this occssion. and there- 
fore permit me to otfer a resolution that the thanks of this 
auilience be prf!>entcd to the H(»n. Ci. W. Jcrmain for the 
labor and pains he has. bestowed in jjatherinj; so many facts 
and incidents in re^^ard to the history of this old town of 
Cambridge, and that a copy l)c solicited for publication and 
preservation. 

The resolution, after amendment to include all the s|)eakers, 
was passed. 

A resolution of thanks to the ladies for their services was 
also adopted. -\lso to the several committees engaged in 
this matter. 

Dr. Ciillette alluded to the presence of several relics of 
olden times, and urgeil that they be gathered together and 
preser\'ed for future centennials. 

The choir then sang the 

SONTf OF THE OLD FOLKS. 
Shuiild aiiKl acquaintance l>e forgut 

And never brought to mind? 
Sboold aald acqaaintance be forgot. 



oro TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. I03 

And sougs of auld lang syne ? 
For auld lang syne we meet to-night, 

For auld lang syne ; 
To sing the songs our fathers sang 

In days of auld lang syne. 

We've passed through mai y varied scenes 

Since j'outh's unclouded day ; 
And friends, and hopes, and happy dreams 

Time's hand hath swept awaj'. 
And voices that once joined with ours, 

In days of auld lang syne. 
Are silent now, and blend no more 

In songs of auld lang syne. 

Yet ever has the light of song 

Illumed our darkest hours ; 
And cheered us on life's toilsome way, 

And gemmed our path with flowers. 
The sacred songs our fathers sang. 

Dear songs of auld lang syne, 
The hallowed songs our fathers sang 

In days of auld lang syne. 

Here we have met, here we may part. 

To meet on earth no more : 
And we may never sing again 

The cherished songs of yore. 
The sacred songs our fathers sang 

In days of auld lang syne. 
We may not meet to sing again 

The songs of auld lang syne. 

But when we've crossed the sea of life. 

And reached the heavenlj' shore. 
We'll sing the songs our fathers sing, 

Transcending those of yore. 



ie4 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 

We'll meet to sing diviner Mtraiua 

Than tboHe uf auld Ung ayne ; 
Immortal HongH of praiHe, aukouwn 
In dajn of anld lang sjne. 
The Doxology ami benediction by Rev. Dr. Prime fol- 
lowed, after which the centennial cclcbrators dispersed. 



CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 



APPENDIX. 



THE CHECKERED HOUSE. 

»Y REV. WALTER R. LONG. 

This notiible Traveler's Home of former days was assigned 
me for a toast on the ever memorable August 29th, 1S73, the 
" Centennial Anniversarj- of the old Town of Cambridge." 
I was not apprised of the signal event in time to attend, which 
I shall ever deeply regret. 

NARRATIVE. 

It may not be too late e\'en now to narrate briefly the story 
of the far famed *' Oicckcrcd House." 

It was called thus simply from the fact that the t. i.ipiM>ards 
were pnintcd in checkers, red and white, in the hv-gone 
century. 

•• The first Tavern." says the latest historian of Cambridge, 
Hon. G. \V. Jermain, •' was a log house, kept by James Cow- 
den. whtTc the Checkcrctl Hou.sc now is. which we have 
often heart! called, by ' Old Settler*.' the • Cowdcn 
Tavern.' " 

PECULIAR TASTE. 

Major Cowden was somewhat peculiar in his taste in 



OLD TO\VN OF CAMBRIDGE. IO7 

orifTinatino^ the checkered style of painting after a frame 
building was erected. 

The checker-board, a household fixture in olden times, 
doubtless suggested the design. Would that checkers had 
never been used for a more harmful purpose. 

Either in the year 1775 or 177S. according to tradition, 
there was no saw mill in Cambridge, and no boards were to 
be had for a coffin, and the late James Cowden, stepfather of 
Edward Long, deceased, went to Pittstown, Rensselaer 
county, and obtained a coffin made, except the putting 
together, and brought it to Cambridge on horseback upon 
the pummel of his saddle, which was the first coffin used in 
the old grave-yard, where the said Mr, Cowden was buried 
July 30, iSoo, aged 65 years; his wife Sarah died May 9, 
iSii, aged also 65, and was buried In his side. 

RE\OLLTIONAR\ ITEM. 

She (Sarah Comstock) was first married to Thomas Corn- 
stock, who bravely fell in the battle of Bennington, Auo-ust 
16, 1777; then to Captain Edward Long ot Revolutionarv 
memory, wiiose commission was signed by Governor George 
Clinton ; afterwards to Major James Cowden. and last to 
Burgess Hall. 

The heroic death of her first husband gave her somewhat 
the reputation of a heroine at the recurring anniversaries of 
the battle of Bennington, which she invariably attended. 

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 

I well remember seeing my father re-paint tlic Checkered 
House at two periods, several years apart. The first time 
the north and south ends, together with the front side, were 



I08 CEiNTENNlAL ANNIVERSAKV 

checkered. When the house was remodeled in 1853, at a 
considerable expense, he painted the front side only in 
checkers, which perpetuates its name. An excellent stereo- 
scopic view has been taken by Wells & Cady. 

EXTENSIVE PATRONAGE. 

Bountiful provisions for both man and beast, with reason- 
able charges, together with the prompt and polite attentions 
of the host, secured a very extensive patronage. The inquiry 
was often reiterated by approaching teamsters, " How far is 
it to the Checkered House?" 

With regret I have oft heard him obliged to say to weary 
and dust begrimed travelers at nighttall, " I can not enter- 
tain you ; the house is full." Even then some would insist 
on staying though they had to sleep on the floor or in the 

barn. 

WAR OF 1 81 2. 

United States troops, volunteers and drafted recruits, in 
marching to and from the battles of Lake Champlain, fre- 
quently bivouacked there during the war for the establish- 
ment of maritime rights. 

I well recollect, in my tenderest childhood, of being car- 
ried around among the troops and beholding the various 
implements of war, cooking utensils, and of seeing the soldiers 
partake of their substantial meals. I remember with shud- 
dering, to this day. how some took God's holy name in vain. 

More travelers found a quiet home there, probably, than 
in any other hotel between Troy and Burlington. 

FAR-FAMED. 

The House was known by multitudes throughout this 
country, and by not a few in other lands. Wherever I travel 



OLD TOWN or CAMBRIDGE. IO9 

over the broad domain of my native land, I meet many a one 
who has visited or seen what was familiarly styled in later 
years " Ed. Long's Checkered House." It was truly one of 
'• the old land marks." 

PUBLIC SERV'AXT. 

The proprietor was not only a faithful landlord and devoted 
servant to the public, but an enthusiastic friend and supporter 
of the Washington County and State Agricultural Societies. 
He took special delight in exhibiting the productions of the 
tarm, and the purest blooded imported cattle and horses', 
doing more to improve the breed of the latter than almost 
any man of his day. 

THE FIRST INN. 

The Checkered House was the first "Inn that was erected in 
the old Town of Cambridge, before any meeting house was 
built. Ministers of all denominations were welcomed and 
their visits blessed. More than forty years since several 
members of the household were hopefully converted, three 
of whom have been sumnjoned to the "^ house not made with 
hands." 

The Inn was dear to me in which I was born, where I first 
bowed at the family altar, pledged myself to temperance, and 
consecrated my life to the Gospel ministry with the appro- 
bation of my tather, who died in peace and hope August lo, 
i860. He had dwelt in the Inn nearly seventy years, when 
it fell to my brother. Colonel B. Long, and has been occupied 
since, chiefly, by tenants as a private residence. 

ANCESTRY. 

It is with virtuous pride I can lookback to Edmund Wells 
as an honorable ancestor on my mother's side, the only 



no CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

patentee who became a settler, and was also the first magis- 
trate of the town of Cambridge. David Long was a promi- 
nent Director of the Northern Turnpike Company, incorpo- 
rated in 1799 ; Grandfather Long was a commissioned officer 
in the Revolutionary War ; and m}- father was drafted in the 
war of 1 8 1 2 . 

PUBLIC HOUSES A NECESSITY. 

They are truly necessary for the entertainment of the trav- 
eling public. Whenever they shall be kept on Christian 
principle, as ultimately they will be, they will furnish the most 
desirable resorts of the public, where they can enjoy the 
blessings of a Christian home. Then they will unite with 
the school and church in promoting the world's civilization 
and evangelization. 

BIBLE VIEW. 

Early mention is made of the Inn at Bethlehem, the place 
where the infant Jesus was born and " laid in a manger be- 
cause there was no room for them in the Inn." Not because, 
as some are wont to suppose, of hostility to Joseph and Mary 
and the infant Saviour, but simply from the large number 
congregated there to be taxed. 

Later mention is made of the "Three Taverns." Roman 
Christians walked out on the celebrated Appian Way, or 
road from Rome to Capua, styled the "■ Qiieen of Great 
Thoroughfares" to the " Three Taverns," notable as a place of 
refreshment and entertainment, about forty-six miles from 
Rome, where most of them remained for Paul's coming, 
while the others proceeded about ten miles further to the 
Appii Forum to meet him, and escort the illustrious '■•Am- 
bassador in bonds" back to the Imperial city. 



CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. II! 

In conclusion, permit me to say, as a native of tlie old 
town of Cambridge, named, probably, in honor of the Duke 
of Cambridge, and also as a resident for a goodly number of 
years of Washington County, named in worthy acknowledge- 
ment of the heroic achievements of her sons in the war of the 
revolution, and especially in honor of the reputed Father 
of his country, I shall ever read with deepest interest the 
record of the Centennial Anniversary of the town that o-ave 
me birth, and lament that I was not present to share in 
festivities that can be enjoyed but once in a hundred years, 

The following letter which has been received explains 
itself: 

Albany, September i, 1873. 
R. K. Crocker, Secretary Centennial Committee. 

Dear Sir : I desire to say a word in response to the vote 
of thanks which the Centennial meeting was pleased to o-jve 
me for my historical address, and which I would not pro- 
tract the closing of the meeting at the time to say, Cambrido-e 
was my foster mother, and adopted me when a lad. sixtv 
years ago, and brought me up, and I can never make any just 
return for all the salutary influences, and good impressions, 
and many kindnessess which I received from the good people 
of the town in my early years, and which have been of inesti- 
mable value to me in my life thus far. I received manv 
tokens of their favor, and evidences of their confidence which 
I can not forget, and for which I shall ever be trulv grateful : 
and for the privilege now to have met with the associates of 
my youth who still remain, and with them and their descend- 
ants of several generations, to have been honored with the 
part allotted to me at their Centennial celebration, I feel that 
the thanks belong to me to render, and I return them with 
unfeigned gratitude. Yours truly, 

G. W. Jermain. 






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