Gc

974.602

L71b 1142615

GENEALOGY COLLECTfON

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 1833 00075 1179

THE

LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS

A COLLATION

OF THK

HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL. AND UTKRARY

REMINISCENSES OF THE TOWN OF

LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT

EDITED BY

George C. Boswell

Pastoi of the Metlwdist Episcopal Church

"That old town, more typical than any other, I think,

of CoiHie6licut institutions and life"

Gov. Ingersoll, Banquet to Chief Justice Seymour

litchfield Alex. B. vShumway

1899

COPYRIGHT, 1S99 BY GEORGE C. BOSWELL

THE HARTFORD PRESS The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company

1S99

1142615

(Cftcsc .f^clcctct) .CBcmoric? <0f h\9 natilic f«Ji:o\Jon arc *D''bicatcti to V Mx. Hconarb .:§^tonc

Pr<?fac(?.

The Litchfield of to-day is in many respects a modern town. Its stores, with scarce an exception, are as new as those of Seattle or Tacoma ; its churches have all been built within the memory of men and women who worship in them. And while for more than a century the beauty of its situation and the charm of its streets haye been justly cele- brated, yet it is within recent years that all this has been greatly enhanced by the Village Improyement Society, and by the enterprise and philanthropy of its citizens.

But no stranger who walks beneath the yen- erable elms on its broad park-like streets, or looks upon its comfortable and stately homes, but feels that he is on historic ground, — and he is right, for there is scarcely a town of its size, eyen in New England, that can compare with it in memories of more than local in- terest.

This is the home of the Wolcotts and Beechers. This is the native town of men whose careers have been as dissimilar as Ethan

(5)

6 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS.

Allen, on the one hand, and Horace Bushnell and Charles Loring Brace, on the other. Litchfield has been the seat of the first Law School in America, of Miss Pierce's Seminary, and of the Morris Academy. In the first of these schools, John C. Calhoun studied ; in the second, Harriet Beecher vStowe, and, for a time, her brother, Henry Ward Beecher ; in the third, John Brown. Every one of the old houses in the town has a story full of interest to those who dwell here, and in many instances of nearly equal fascination to anyone who cares for the history, the biography, the lite- rary reminiscences of his country.

Let no one suppose, however, that the glory of Litchfield is all in the past. To be sure, in one respect this town can never be like the old Litchfield, — a trade center, the fourth town in population in the state. Modern industrialism has sought the valleys, and this hill town has become a summer resort. Once Litchfield was famous for its schools, and we should not be surprised if the time would soon come when it should be known again as an educational center ; for where could be found a place more suitable for a great school which would make the traditions of Miss Pierce's realities once more ?

And even now the men are here who could constitute the faculty of a summer Theological School that would draw students half across

PREFACE. 7

the continent. President Timothy Dwight, Professors Hoppin and Harris, — not to know these names is a confession of intellectual darkness.

And in the winter time, when this town is supposed to hibernate, even then a Law School might be put in operation. Litchfield has never lacked since the time of the first Oliver Wolcott one or two citizens who have been either governor or chief justice, but until these last days it has never had a man who has given new dignity to both of these offices. Let the chief justice preside, and if a coadjutor is needed, there is one here whose name for a hundred years has carried with it leadership at the bar.

This book is confessedly concerned with the days that have passed into history ; it only touches the present incidentally, but it has been compiled in sight of the park, the church, the stores, the life of the town to-day.

Every citizen of Litchfield should know and treasure the memories of this town. They are not to be regarded as bits of bric-a-brac, old china, and choice linen, to be looked at with passing curiosity, and then stored away. Not at all, — these memories are the atmosphere in which the hills about us are clothed with beauty, — they give vitality to the air we breathe.

This Book of Days is necessarily fragment-

8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

ary, but we hope that the compilation has been so far successful that it will put the reader in touch with the humor and pathos, with the achievement and heroism, that have made this town upon its " Western Hill " illustrious, so that whether one's sojourn here be for a week or for threescore years and ten, he ma}^ feel in the life of to-day the stimulus of that which is vital in the past, and that he may —

"At noon-day in the bustle of man's work-time Greet the unseen with a cheer ' "

The editor of these pages takes this oppor- tunity to thank the large number of persons who have made the work of compiling this book possible ; to them he has been indebted for information, the loan of pamphlets and books, the free access to valuable libraries rich in all that pertains to local history.

The publication of this book at a low price has been made possible by the generous sup- port of the business men and citizens of Litch- field, and by the energetic canvass made by a committee of the Ladies Aid Society of the church of which the editor is pastor. "Sir. Wil- liam H. Sanford, G. A. Marvin, editor of /// Litchfield Hills ^ J. Deming Perkins, and D wight C. Kilbourn have kindly loaned a few of the plates used in this book ; while a number of persons have contributed to the expense of its illustration.

PREFACE.

The publishers of the copyrighted books from which large citations have been made, Harper & Brothers, Fords, Howard & Hurl- but, and Houghton, Mifflin & Co., have granted the editor privileges for which he gladly makes acknowledgment here. A similar courtesy has been extended b}^ Governor Roger Wolcott, representing the interests of his family in the Wolcott Memorial Volume.

Litchfield, February 22, 1899.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Photograph 1S9S, Frontispiece. Facing 1 7

The Wolcott House

Oliver Wolcott, Jr., ....

Tapping Reeve,

Residence of J. Deming Perkins,

Origen Storrs Seymour,

The Fuller Elm — Ice Storm of 189S,

Residence of Mrs. H. B. Belden,

The Blizzard Drift at Dr. H. W. Buel'

The Tallmadge House,

Benjamin Tallmadge, ....

Residence of Col. George B. Sanford,

Henry AV. Buel,

Site of the Beecher House,

Lyman Beecher,

North Street,

The Fire Department Building, Litchfield before the Fire, The Beecher House (recent j^hotograph), On Bantam River, ....

Oliver Wolcott,

The Casino,

St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church, The Wolcott House — Photograph 1895,

19 23 32 37 38 47 49 50 59 60

65

82

84

87

91

100

102

108

no

113

114

(10)

LIST ()F ILLUSTRATIONS.

II

The Reeve-Woodruff House, . . Facing

The Congregational Church,

Litchfield Rebuilt,

Residence of Prof. J. M. IIopi

John H. Hubbard,

The Beecher House, .

The Seymour House, .

The Old Meeting-House,

James Gould,

Residence of Mrs. N. R. Child

Daniel Sheldon, .

A Glimpse of West Street,

Frederick Wolcott,

Charles B. Andrews, .

South Street,

Georce C. Wo(_)druff, .

The Methodist Episcopal Church,

St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church,

117 126 128 137 152 157 162 1G3 169 172

173 176 179 182 185 197 199 204

For fitll-page z'lli(sfraf/ous of the Hawk hurst and of the United States Hotels, see the Advertising Supple - nient.

LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.

As vStated in the preface, special permission lias been granted by the publishers of copyrighted books from which frequent quotation is made in these pages.

The quotations from members of the Wolcott famil}- are taken from the Wolcott Memorial \^olunic ; those from the Beecher family are taken (unless otherwise specified) from \^\Q: Autobiography and Cor- respondence of Ly man Beecher. published by Harper & Brothers.

In other cases, where simph' a name is given at the close of a quotation, the matter quoted is the report of a conversation with the editor of the Book OF Days.

The quotations from the writings of Henry Ward Beecher have been taken, in many instances, not directly from the books named, but from that excel- lent compilation b}- Eleanor Kirk, entitled Beecher as a Humorist, published by Fords, Howard «& Hurlbut.

Many brief statements of fact, such as quotations from the town records, are taken from the well known authorities on local histor}-. Woodruff, Kilbourne, and the Litchfield County History, — for other unsigned paragraphs, the editor is responsible.

LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Ja9dary i.

1777. — Oliver Wolcott writes a New Year's letter to his wife :

"Take care of your Health; make the cares of Life easy. Prosperous and happy Times I trust will return to our Country, and that God will grant us the Peace and Prosperity of former Days, — a Happiness which I most sin- cerely covet, tho' I trust I shall never wish for Peace with the Loss of the Security of my Country. For what is there which we can leave our Children equal to the Advantages of civil and religious Liberty?"

1872. — The Shepaug Valley Railroad (as it was then called) was opened to the public.

January 2.

You will have troubles, but when they come don't dam them up; let them go down stream and you will soon be rid of them. — Lv.man Beecher.

JaQuary 3.

O for a boy's appetite! We needed no morn- ing bell. Hunger used to awaken us betimes.

(13)

14 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

We plunged into our clothes, and darted for the kitchen, where stood Rachel, black as night, with a loaf of bread white as milk. She cut a slice an inch thick, smooth as a line had meas- ured it. It needed neither sauce nor butter. It was a mere morsel, sent before, to hold the citadel until breakfast could come to the res- cue! So it was every day, and during all our growing years. — Henry Ward Beecher : Star Papers.

January 4.

So do thy children, Litchfield, owe to thee,

And thy hard treatment, what they've come to be; —

A vigorous race from a harsh nursery.

For when thy skies have smiled, and wept, and scowled,

And thy winds cut, and sighed, and swept, and howled.

And they have borne the various buffeting

They 've had to bear, — the}' can stand any- thing. — John Pierpont : LiichficIJ County Ceutciuiial.

Jai^tjary 5.

In the winter of 1740-41, a man came from Cornwall to purchase some grain for himself and family, who were in great need, and was directed to Deacon Buel. The stranger soon called and made known his errand. The Dea- con asked him if he had any money to pay for

JANUARY, 15

the grain. He answered affirmatively. "Well," said the Deacon, "I can show yon where you can procure it." Going with the stranger to the door, he pointed out a certain house to him, saying, "There lives a man who will let you have grain for your money. I have some to spare, but must keep it for those who Jiave no money y — Rev. Grant Powers: Kilboitnic s His- tory.

Ja9ijary 6.

One of the oddest native characters was Mr.

B , an ardent defender of the doctrine of

election. One day while " argyfying " with a neighbor at dinner, he lifted a morsel of beef on his fork, asserting, " I have no more doubt of the doctrine of election than that I shall eat this meat." With the emphasis of his gesture, the meat flew off and was instantly devoured by the family dog. — Clarence Deming: Yankees and Yankeeisnis.

Ja9dary 7.

1803. — John W. Birge, born. He became major-general in the ill-starred Patriot War in Canada, in 1837-8.

Ja9aary 8.

Poganuc was a place where winter stood for something. The hill, like all hills in our dear New England, though beautiful for situation in summer, was a howling desolation for about six months of the vear, sealed down under

l6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

snow and drifted over by winds that pierced like knives and seemed to search every fiber of one's garments, so that the thickest clothing was no protection. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Pogauuc People.

Ja9ijary 9.

The fire that illuminated the great kitchen of the farmhouse was a splendid sight to be- hold. It is, alas, with us only a vision and memory of the past ; for who in our days can afford to keep up the great fireplace, when the backlogs were cut from the giants of the forest and the forestick was as much as a modern man could lift ? And then the glow- ing fireplace built thereon ! That architec- tural pile of split and seasoned wood, over which the flames leaped and danced and crackled like rejoicing genii — what a glory it was ! The hearty, bright, warm hearth in those days stood instead of fine furniture and handsome pictures. The plainest room be- comes beautiful and attractive by firelight, and when men think of a country and home to be fought for and defended they think of a fireside. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Fogaiuic People.

Ja^ijary 10.

1738. — Ethan Allen born in Litchfield. Two years later his parents removed to Cornwall.

1785. — Oliver Wolcott writes to his son Oliver :

OLIVER WOLCOTT. Jr.

JANUARY. 17

"Sir: Your letter of ' the 4th instant is re- ceived. The Character of the young Lady, whom you mention as the object of your Affection, justifies your Choice, and receives the Approbation of your Parents. And if you sliall wait upon her here, when you shall come to see us, it will increase the Pleasure of the Visit."

Japaary 11.

1760. — Oliver Wolcott, Jr., born in the home- stead on South street. He succeeded Hamil- ton as secretary of the treasury in Washing- ton's administration, and was governor of Con- necticut 181 7-' 2 7.

Ja9dary 12.

The Litchfield of Wolcott's boyhood is de- scribed by Gibbs in his Aduiinistrations of Wash- ington and Adams :

"At a period much later than this Litchfield was on the outskirts of New England civilization and presented a very different aspect from its now venerable quiet. The pickets which guard- ed its first dwellings were not yet decayed. The Indian yet wandered through its broad streets, and hunters as wild as our present borderers, chased the deer and the panther on the shores of the lake. The manners of its inhabitants were as simple and primitive as those of their fathers, a century back, in the older settlements on the Connecticut. Trav-

l8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

eling was entirely on horseback, except in win- ter, and but a casual intercourse was carried on with distant towns. Occasionally and more frequently, as they became more interesting, tidings reached them from Boston, and even from the old world."

Ja9djary 13.

181 1. — Would now write you a long letter, if it were not for several vexing circumstan- ces, such as the weather, extremely cold, storm violent, and no wood cut ; Mr. Beecher gone ; and vSabbath day, with company, a clergyman, a stranger ; Catherine sick, Rachel's finger cut off, and she crying and groanmg with the pain. Mr. Beecher is gone to New Hartford to preach and did not provide us wood enough to last, seeing the weather has grown so ex- ceedingly cold. — RoxANA Beecher : Letter to Esther Beeeher.

Ja^dary 14.

Three years old was I, when singing, she left me, and sang on to heaven where she sings evermore. I have only such remembrance of her, as you have of the clouds of ten years ago, faint, evanescent, and fed b}^ that which I have heard of her, and by what my father's thought and feeling of her were ; it has come to be so much to me that no devout Catholic ever saw so much of the Virgin Mary as I have seen in my mother, who has been a presence to me

TAPPING REEVE.

JANUARY

19

ever since I can remember. — Henry Ward Beecher : Abbotfs Life.

Ja96]ary 15.

Tapping Reeve came to Litchfield a few years before the Revolution. For a time he \Yas chief justice of the State, but his fame rests upon the fact that he was the founder in 1784 of the first Law School in America. He was its Principal for nearly forty years. C. G. Loring said of him: "He was, indeed, a most venerable man in character and in appearance — his thick, gray hair, parted and falling in pro- fusion on his shoulders, his voice only a loud whisper, but distinctly heard by his earnestly attentive pupils. He was full of legal learn- ing, but invested the law with all the genial enthusiasm, and generous feelings and noble' sentiments of a large heart at the age of eighty, and descanted to us with glowing eloquence upon the sacredness and majesty of law."

January 16.

Tapping Reeve loved the law as a science, and studied it philosophically. He considered it as the practical application of religious prin- ciple to the business affairs of life. He wished to reduce it to a certain, symmetrical system" of moral truth. He did not trust to the inspira- tion of genius for eminence, but to the results of profound and constant study. I seem to see 2

20 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

even now, his calm and placid countenance shining through his abundant locks, as he sat poring over his notes in the lecture-room, and to hear his shrill whisper as he stood when giving his charge to the jury. — Judge Church: Litchfield County Coitejinial.

January 17.

The printed catalogue of the Litchfield Law School contains a list of graduates from 1798, no register having been kept for the first four- teen years. Of this number sixteen became United States Senators ; fifty, Members of Con- gress ; forty, Judges of higher State Courts ; eight, Chief-justices of States ; two, Justices of the United States Supreme Court ; ten. Gover- nors of States; five. Cabinet Ministers (Cal- houn, Woodbury, Mason, Clayton, and Hub- bard) ; and several foreign ministers ; while very many were distinguished at the bar. — J. D. Chaaiplin, Jr. : Litchfield Hill.

January i8.

Judge Reeve delivered his lectures in his office. The building stood next to his house, but has since been moved, and is a part of Mr. Daniels' residence, opposite the Hawkhurst. Judge Gould, after he became associated with Judge Reeve, also gave his lectures in his own law office on North street. This building is now known as the Carter tenement, and is

JANUARY, 21

located on the Bantam road, one mile from the village. .

Jai^dary 19.

1752. — James Morris, Jr., born. After serving with distinction in the Revolutionary War, he founded, in 1790, Morris Academy, for many vears one of the most famous schools in New England. His Sfa/is/ira/ Account of the Towns of Litchfield County is one of the early authorities on local history.

Ja^ijary 20.

Henry AVard Beechcr in his Star Papers says of his school days : —

" In winter we were squeezed into the recess of the farthest corner, among little boys who seemed to be sent to school merely to fill up the chinks between the bigger bo3^s. . . . Our shoes always would be scraping on the floor, or knocking the shins of urchins who were also being 'educated.' All of our little legs to- gether (poor, tired, nervous, restless legs, with nothing to do) would fill up the corner with such a noise, that every ten or fifteen minutes the master would bring down his two-foot hick- ory ferule on the desk with a clap that sent shivers through our hearts, to think how that would have felt if it had fallen somewhere else; and then with a look that swept us all into utter extremity of stillness, he would cry, 'Silence ! in that corner.'"

22 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

January 21

1776. — ^ Litchfield men enlist for eight weeks' service " to defeat certain Wicked Purposes formed by the instruments of Ministerial Ty- ranny."

1777. — Oliver Wolcott writes to his wife on the anniversary of their wedding: ''You are more especially intitled to a Letter of this Date, as it is an important Anniversary in our Lives which can not fail of Producing in me the most agreeable Recollections. My distant Situation does not diminish my Regard for you and my Family. I feel the warmest Wishes for your Welfare, and hope that it will please God to bestow upon you and our Children every Bless- ing. I am not able to give you the least Advice in the Conduct of my Business. Your own Pru- dence in the Direction of it, I have no doubt of, I only wish that the cares which must oppress you were less. But if the present Troubles shall terminate in the future Peace and Security of this Country (which I trust will be the case), the present Evils and Incon- veniences of Life ought to be borne with cheer- fulness."

Ja9uary 22.

All Litchfield has read and enjoyed Mrs. Jeanie Gould Lincoln's charming story: — An Unwilling; Maid. It is easy to pass over some minor inaccuracies, such as where the author speaks of the Wolcott house as a manor house,

JANUARY. 23

or has the King George statue melted after the Fairfield Raid. And while no British officer was ever kept prisoner in the north chamber, yet it is certain that if Geoffrey Yorke had been kept in durance there, Mariann would have taken Betty's part, and the romance would have run its happy course in actual history.

From the standpoint of history, the author has made one serious mistake which it is hard to overlook. She leads the reader to believe that Mrs. Wolcott died before the Revolution. Had this been so, it is doubtful if Oliver Wol- cott's name had been signed to the Declaration of Independence, The reason why it was pos- sible for him to be away from home in the interest of his country during the greater part of the Revolution was that his wife was a woman thoroughly capable in the manage- ment of the interests of his home and business. If we remember the patriotism of Oliver Wol- cott, we should not forget the equal devotion of Laura Collins, his wife.

Ja9ijary 23.

Although Julius Deming died in 1838, his fame as a business man has never been eclipsed. He came here from Lyme about 1 781, and for over fifty years was one of the foremost merchants in the State, importing many of his goods directly from London, The ofreat house he built on North street was a

2.4 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

spiirce of wonder in its day, and now is one of the best examples in New England of the household architecture of a century ago.

JaQdjary 24.

179T. — A post-office is opened in Collier's Printing-office. The Post will ride to New York once a fortnight, and to Hartford once a week.

Jai^aary 25.

Long live the winter nights, with the homely fare of apples and nuts, and no stronger drink than cider ; and a merry crowd of boys and girls, with here and there the spectacled old folks ; all before a roaring hickory-fire, in an old fashioned fireplace, big as the Western horizon with the sun going down in it, and with a roguish stick of chestnut wood in it, which opens such a fusilade of snaps and cracks as sets the girls to screaming, and throws out such mischievous coals upon the calico dresses as obliges every humane boy to run to the relief of his sweetheart, all on fire ! — Henry Ward Beecher : Eyes and Ears.

Ja9ijary 26.

For several 3"ears Aaron Burr made his home at his sister's, — the first Mrs. Reeve During this time he studied theology for a while with Dr. Bellamy at Bethlehem. Bel- lamv was one of the orreatest controversialists

JANUARY. 25

of his time. His library was made up cliiefly of the works of infidels and heretics. Those books evidently prevailed in Burr's mind over his teacher's arguments. Burr and Reeve, what a contrast ! the one ruled God out of his thoughts ; the other has made this hill holy ground.

JaQuary 27.

1776. — Judge Reeve writes to Aaron Burr : " Amid the lamentations for the loss of a brave, enterprising general [Montgomery], your escape from such imminent danger to which you have been exposed has afforded us the greatest satisfaction. The news of the unfortunate attack upon Quebec arrived among us on the 13th of this month. .... Your sister enjoys a middling state of health. She has many anxious hours on your account ; but she tells me that, as she believes you may serve the country in the business in which you are now employed, she is contented that you should remain in the army. It must be an exalted public spirit that could produce such an effect upon a sister so affectionate as yours."

Jai^tiary 28.

Conscience, for the obedient, has sounds more pleasant than music ; but for the trans- gressor, peals more terrific than thunder. — Lyman Beecher.

26 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

January 29.

One day a prosperous old farmer came into Judge Gould's office and said," I wish 3^ou would draw up my will." " Very well," said Judge Gould ; " give me some idea of what you want done." The farmer was imbued with the old- time notions of the property rights of women. His im married daughters had for 3^ears helped accumulate his property; but when it came to to making his will the father had no thought of them, but wished to leave all he had to his sons. When Judge Gould found this out, he exclaimed, " I won't draw up any such will, and if I were a daughter of yours I'd dance on your grave before 5"ou'd lain in it a month ! " — J. Deming Perkexs.

Jaijijary 30.

Judge Gould was a critical scholar, and al- ways read with his pen in hand, whether law book, or books of fiction or fancy, for which he indulged a passion. In the more abstruse sub- jects at law, he was more learned than Judge Reeve, and as a lecturer more lucid and m.e- thodical. The Common Law he had searched to the bottom, and he knew it all ^ its princi- ples, and the reasons from which they were drawn. As an advocate, he was not a man of impassioned eloquence, but clear and logical, employing language elegant and chaste. — Judge Church : Litchfield County Centoiiiial.

JANUARY. 27

Ja9dary 31.

I never had any trouble with my people. If anything- came up, instead of going and trying to put broken glass together, I always tried to preach well, and it swallowed up everything. — LvMAN Beecher.

pebmary i.

It seems odd to think of Litchfield as a manufacturing town, yet when Morris wrote his Statistical Account, not far from 1815, there were in existence " 4 forges for iron; i slitting mill; I oil-mill; i paper-mill; mail manufactory; 6 fulling-mills; 5 grist-mills; 18 saw-mills; 5 large tanneries, besides sundry others on a small scale; 2 comb manufactories; 2 hatters' shops; 2 carriage makers; 2 carding machines for wool; I machine for making wooden clocks; i cotton luanufactory."

We who know Litchfield as a summer resort feel more at home when we turn to another page of his Account and read, " Few places yield finer views. From some of the eminences may be seen the hills on the eastern side of the Connecticut River, and the Catskill Mountains on the west of the Hudson. One of them is about a mile northwest of the court-house, from which there is an enchanting view."

pebmary 2.

Waggons, drawn either by one or two horses, are much used b}^ the inhabitants of Litchfield. The first pleasure carriage (a chair) was

(28)

FEBRUARY. 2<)

brought into this town by Mr. jMatthews, mayor of New York, in the year 1776, and is still in use here; the first umbrella in the year 1772. — Morris Sfafisfical Account.

This author also states that there are in the town " I phaeton, i coachee, and 46 two-wheel pleasure carriages."

pebrdary 3.

1776. — Oliver AVolcott writes from Philadel- phia,— " The Ladies, I hope, will still make themselves contented to live without Tea for the good of their country."

pebmary 4.

1 81 9. — Harriet makes just as many wry faces, and loves to be laughed at as much as ever. Henry does not improve much in talking, but speaks very thick. — Letter from t/ie Beecher HouseJiold.

Children grovv" up — nothing on earth grows so fast as children. It was but yesterday and that lad was playing with tops, a buoyant boy. He is a man, and gone now. — Henry Ward Beecher: Ch ildreii .

pebmary 5,

Second-hand text-books are common enough now, but a hundred years ago, wdien books cost more, the stoutly bound volumes often passed

30

LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

through a half dozen hands before they were laid aside. Mr. J. Deming Perkins has in his library an algebra of this kind which was used in Yale College and is inscribed with the names of six owners, — Uriah Tracy, Harvey Chase, A. B. Reeve, and J. Deming, Jr., among them. The last named made this entry, — " Engaged this book to A. B. Reeve on condition that he lets a lad from Litchfield have it in preference to any other, and exacts the same promise from him to whom he sells it, ad iiifinitiimy

pebruary 6.

About 1863, Edwin McNeill, who had been a successful railroad builder elsewhere, re- turned to his native town. He was instru- mental in having a new road put through to the Naugatuck station. Then he tried to have the Boston & Erie Road, then stopping at Waterbury, take a northern route not far from Litchfield. Failing here, he projected the She- paug Valley Railroad. The stock was taken by towns along the line, and by private parties to the amount of $400,000. By the time the road was finished, a first and second mortgage had been placed upon it to meet the expendi- ture of $1,000,000 involved in construction and equipment. As a financial project, the road brought disaster to all concerned. Mr. Mc- Neill died a year or so after the completion of the road, leaving an estate nearly wrecked by

FEBRUARY. 3 1

the venture. As a monument of public spirit, and as a permanent benefit to the towns along the line, the railroad has been an unqualified success. — Coiidoiscd from an article by George A. Hickox^ LitcJifield Enquirer^ March 14, 18^^.

pebmary 7.

During the building of the Shepaug, I chanced to meet W. H. Barnum on a railroad train. He introduced me to another fellow- passenger, Collis P. Huntington, who evinced much interest in the Shepaug. " When you you get that road finished," he said, " I want you to send me a pass. I have every reason to remember the Shepaug Valley, for when a young man, I trudged through it as a pack- peddler. Every dog in all that region barked at me." — J. Deming Perkins.

February 8.

When I was soliciting subscriptions to the stock of the vShepaug Valley Railroad, I met with a great deal of very stubborn resistance. I recollect very distinctly one rich farmer down the Valley who w^ould have nothing to do with the scheme but denounce it. Some years after as I was riding on the cars, this man w^as a fel- low passenger. He came across the aisle, and said : " Mr. Perkins, do you remember me ? " " Oh, yes, very well indeed, " I replied." When

32 LITCHFIELD B0(3K OF DAYS.

we met last," said he, ''I did not believe much in this railroad, but if any one proposed to take the tracks up now, there would be a riot in the valley." — J. Deming Perkins.

pebmary 9.

1 804. — Origen Storrs SeA^mour, born. He was a lifelong resident of the village. For several terms he was a representative in the General Assembly, and in 1850 was speaker of the House. After serving four years as congressman, he vv^as made judge of the Supreme Court of Con- necticut, holding ofRce from 1855 to 1863, and from 1870 to 1874. He retired from the bench at the age of seventy, having been chief justice during his last year of service. From 1865 to 1880 he was a member of every Triennial Con- vention of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

1896. — The Methodist Episcopal Church of Bantam is organized.

pebrdjary 10.

1824. — Thomas K. Beecher, born. Elmira, New York, claims him as one of its foremost citizens, — pastor of Park Church for a life- time.

pebmary 11.

1840. — The Housatonic Railroad opened as far as New Milford. With the building of this road, the New York and Albany stage, which

ORIGEN STORRS SEYMOUR.

FEBRUARY. 33

usL^d to roll through these Litchfield streets at unearthly hours in the morning, is heard no longer. Or are the older inhabitants right, and can there still be heard above the winter gale the rumbling of the heavily laden stage, and the hoof-beats of the four strong horses ?

pebmary 12.

Judge Se3^mour was eminently and prover- bially kind to all, high or low, rich or poor. His every act, and look, and word gave evidence of this. It was the recognition of this trait that called forth the facetious and rather ex- travagant remark I once heard from a lawyer of this state, to the effect that if Judge Sey- mour decided a case against a man, the latter always thought he had won the case. — Judge LooMis : Address on Judge Seymour.

pebmary 13.

1899. — After a week of bitterly cold weather, when the mercury at its highest was only a few degrees above zero, and at its lowest threatened to disappear altogether, the blind- ing snow of a great storm filled the air. Nothing but the blizzard of 1888 has sm'passed it. Drifts ten feet high were common enough; in some cases, the snow reached to second- story windows. From Monday noon till Wednesday night, Litchfield was under the snow blockade.

34 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

pebmary 14.

Judge Seymour's conduct on the bench is sketched by ex-Gov. Hubbard in an address before the Hartford Bar : " I have never known a judge more scrupulously watchful of the movements of a trial, more intent on the precise matter in hand, more completely totiis in illis „ . . He used, as you will remem- ber, to take very few notes of evidence; but his ears and memory were marvelously alert to all the disclosures of the case. He had a habit of listening to an argument with closed eyes — owing, I suppose, to w^eakness of vision; but how sleepless his attention and reason were ! and how those shut eyes of his used to open with mild surprise, sometimes with expressive reproach, at any perversion of fact or law, or any other abuse either in matter or manner of the just liberties of argument. A casual ob- server might have supposed him a sleepy, if not a sleeping, judge. But he was never thus for a single instant."

pebmary 15.

Judge Seymour was made chairman of the commission which was appointed in 1878 to prepare the new code of civil procedure. " By this work more than all else he has done," says ex-Gov. Hubbard, " he has left his mark on the jurisprudence of the State. The fame of the

FEBRUARY. 35

best lawyer ordinarily goes with him into his coffin; but I cannot doubt that this service of his will make his name and fame abide in honor, w^hen the lives of the rest of us are as a watch in the night that is past." — Address before the Hartford Bar. 1 "f 4. ^^ "f ^

p(^bmary i6.

Origan Storrs Seymour had made an envia- ble record as judge of the Superior Court, i^SS'^S- Upon the expiration of his term of office in the latter year, the Democrats were defeated after the bitterest conflict the State has seen. Judge Seymour w^as a Democrat, and the Republican legislature refused to re- elect him. In 1870, however, a Republican legislature appointed him to the Supreme Court. In 1873 he became chief justice, retir- ing a year later because reaching the constitu- tional limit of age.

pebraary 17.

The great white house on South street, tw^o doors beyond the Beckwith block, is the home of Mr. Morris W, Seymour. The house was built by Ozias Seymour, and wdien it w^as ready for occupancy, his son. Judge Seymour, at that time a young boy, carried into the house the first article taken there. In that house, he made his home for the rest of his life.

36 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS-

pebrdary 18.

Such a thing as a novel was not to be found in our house. And I well recollect the des- pairing- and hungry glances with which I used to search through father's library, meeting only the same grim sentinels, BclFs Sciinons, Bogiies Essays, Bonnefs Inquiry, Toplady oji Predestina- tioji, Horseleys Tracts. There, to be sure, was Harjuer on Solomon's Song, which I read and nearly got by heart, because it told about the same sort of things I had once read of in the Arabian Nights. And there was T//c State of the Clergy diCring the French Revolution, which had horrible stories in it stranger than fiction. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

pebmary 19.

In Lyman Beecher's library, " there was a side closet full of documents, a weltering ocean of pamphlets, in which I dug and toiled for hours to be repaid by disinterring a delicious morsel of Don Quixote that had once been a book but was now lying in forty or fifty dissecta membra, amid Calls, Appeals, Sermons, Essays, Reviews, Replies, Rejoinders. The turning up of such a fragment seemed like the rising of an enchanted island out of an ocean of mud." — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

FEBRUARY. 37

pebmary 20,

1809. — Henry W. Wessells, born. What would we not give for an autobiography of this veteran soldier ? General AVessells graduated at West Point in 1832, won his spurs in the Seminole war, and was given a gold-mounted sword for his valor on Mexican battlefields. He was in California in '49, — saw no end of service on the frontiers, till called East in 1861. Wounded at Fair Oaks, he soon took the field again; towards the close of the war. he" was captured by the Confederates.

" Gen. Wessells," said the Enquirer at the time of his death, "was a man of quiet demeanor, the furthest possible from the domineering old soldier of the stage, temperate in habit and language, as clean and pure, as well as gallant, a soldier as ever spent his life in the hard mil- itary service of our regular army."

1898 — The ice storm which began Saturday evening, February 19th, was at its height, and continued with but little abatement for forty- eight hours. This proved the most destructive storm on record. Every tree in the town suf- fered. Many were snapped off ten or fifteen feet from the ground. The venerable elm in front of Mr. Fuller's, laden with tons of ice, crashed into the street. For days the sidewalks were impassable, filled with a tangled mass of broken limbs. Millions of icicles hune from

3

30 LITCHFIELD f300K OF DAYS.

the electric wires which sagged in great loops, and finally broke. The very blades of grass stood up stalagmites of ice.

pebmary 21.

1767. — Abraham Bradley, born. From 1799 to 1829 he was First Assistant Postmaster-Gen- eral of the United States. He drew and pub- lished a map of all the post roads in the Union with the post-offices and distances clearly de- fined.

pebraary 22.

1757. — Ephraim Kirby, born. He published in Litchfield the first law reports ever issued in America. He was appointed in 1804 United States Judge for the Territory of Louisiana, but died while on his way to the South.

pebmary 23.

The house on South street now the residence of Mrs. H. B. Belden, is one of the most nota- ble in the village, both for its present attract- iveness and its past history. Here lived the last King's attorney of the county, Reynold Marvin. His daughter, Ruth, married Ephraim Kirby. Their grandson, Kirby Smith, was the famous Southern general. Just north of the house stood a little office where Col. Kirby pre- pared the first law reports ever published in this country.

FEBRUARY. 39

pebrdary 24.

1786. — I suppose you expect to hear of a wedding or some such high matter, but I assure you I have better news to tell you, which is no other than this, that your sister Alariann is not going to be married at all. The night after you left us, Mr. W. and his family, which consisted of Mrs. G. and his boy Nat and his dog Caper, arrived here, and Saturday they set off for Albany, but before they left us, it was agreed that there should be a total cessation of hostili- ties from this time henceforth and forever. Amen. I could add JialleliijaJi^ for my very soul is in raptures at the deliverance. . . . You may tell people that this business is at an end, but do not show this letter to any living mortal. . .

In true sijigleness and sincerity of heart, I am my dear brother, your loving and affectionate sister until death, Mariann Wolcott.

Mariann Wolcott was in very truth An Un- willing Maid. She did not marry Mr. W., neither did she marry (as the story book says) Geoffrey Yorke, late in His Majesty's service. vShe became the wife of Chauncey Goodrich of Hartford, a leading citizen of the State in his day, lieutenant-governor, congressman, and United States Senator.

February 25.

1810. — Lyman Beecher preached his trial sermons in Litchfield. He was pastor here for sixteen years.

40 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

pebrdjary 26.

A Mr. B. , before driving from his farm

to town used to delay long- delivering what he called his " last words." His vexed hired man at last broke out, " Mr. B.— — , you'd be an awful bad man to die ; you'd have so many last words that the undertaker's bill would come in before yer was dead." — Clarence Deming : Yankees and Yaiikeeisius.

pebraary 27.

Two years before the outbreak of the Revo- lution, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., then a young boy, made his first trip to New Haven. On his way thither, he tells us, he met Parson Leaven- worth : " On inquiring my name and placing his hands on my head, he inquired whether I intended, if I was able to be like old Noll, a Republican and King Killer."

pebmary 28.

The old musical bell up in the open belfry was busy tolling. It was the only thing that was allowed to work on Sunday, the bell and the minister. The bell rope was alwa^^s an ob- ject of desire and curiosity to our young da3\s. It ran up into such dark and mysterious spaces. What there was up in those pokerish heights in the belfry tower we did not know, but some- thing that made our flesh creep. Once we ven-

FEBRUARY. 4I

tured to pull that rope. It was a bold and ven- turesome thing we knew. But a sorcery was on us. It came gently and easily to the hand. We pulled again. " Dong ! dong ! " went the bell. The old sexton put bis head out of the door when, on that particular morning, service liad begun, and said in a very solemn and low

tone, '' Boy ! boy, you little d , you ! " and

much more I presume, but I did not wait for it, but cut round to the other door and sat all church time trembling, and wondering whether he would " tell my pa ; " and if he did, what he would say, and more especially what he would do. — ^ Henry Ward Beecher: Going to Meeting.

pebmary 29

When I was a boy, nothing suited me so well as to have my father whip me when my clothes were on. Then I could bear it with the most equanimity. It was when he took me at ad- vantaofe in the morninof before I was dressed, that I did not like whippings. — Henry Ward Beecher : T/ie Conflicts of Life.

/T)arel7 i.

The month of March had dawned over the slippery, snow-clad hills of Poganuc. The cus- tom that enumerates this as among the spring months was in that region the most bitter irony. Other winter months were simple winter^ cold, sharp, and hard enough, but March was winter with a practical application driven in by winds that pierced through joints and marrow. Not an icicle of all the stalactites which adorned the fronts of houses had so much as thought of thawing ; the snowbanks still lay in white bil- lows above the tops of the fences ; the roads, through which the ox-sleds of the farmers crunched and squeaked their way were cut down through heavy drifts, and there was still the best prospect in the world for future snow- storms ; but yet it was called " spring." — Har- riet Beecher Stowe • Poo-ani/c People.

niarel? 2.

17 16. — Col. William Whiting, John Marsh, Thomas vSeymour, committee for Hartford, and John Eliot, Daniel Griswold, Samuel Rockwell, committee for Windsor, acquire from the In-

(42)

MARCH.

43

dians the title to the land of the original town- ship of Bantam or Litchfield. The price paid was ^15 ; the deed was signed at Woodbury,

fnarel? 3.

As some of our readers may be curious to know the names of the Indians mentioned in the paragraph for March 2, we record them here : Chusquenoag, Corkscrew, Quiump, Mag- nash, Sepnnkum, Poni, Wonposet, Suckqun- nokqueen, Toweecume, Mansumpansh, Kehow, and Norkgontonckquy.

(Harel? 4.

'"'' Mcnioraiidiini. — Before the executing of this instrument [the deed of March 2, 17 16], it is to be understood that the grantors above named have reserved to themselves a piece of ground sufficient for their hunting houses near a mountain called Mount Tom."

marel? 5.

" A blue bird ! Impossible, so early in March. You must be mistaken."

" No, come to the door, you can hear him just as plain."

And sure enough on the highest top of the great button-ball tree opposite the house sat the little blue angel singing with all his might, — a living sapphire dropped down from the w^alls of the beautiful city above. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Pogaiiuc People.

44 LITCHFIEI-D BOOK OF DAYS.

f[\3rQ\) 6.

1894.— Rev. D. D. T. McLaughlin writes the following lines :

TO THE FIRST BLUEBIRD.

Welcome, little bluebird,

Perched upon the topmost bough ; How thy note, anew heard,

Lifts me from the miry slough. O, so blithe and joyous.

With thy whistle shrill ; What, would care annoy us.

With determined will ?

Welcome, little bluebird,

Harbinger of joyous spring ; How that note, anew heard,

Wakes my soul again to sing. Bring along the chorus

Of the feathered throng ; Music warbling o'er us

All the summer long.

Courage, little bluebird,

Though the chilling storm thou meet ; For that note, anew heard.

Says, " The Spring you soon will greet.'' Yes, the buds are swelling,

Winter, hie thee home ; For that note keeps telling,

" Spring has almost come."

Welcome, little bluebird.

With thy whistle, strong and clear ; For that note, anew heard,

Brings again my childhood's cheer. He who rules the seasons.

Cares for even thee ; So my glad heart reasons.

He will care for me.

MARCH. 45

1757. — Ashbel Baldwin, born. He was or- dained deacon by Bishop Seabury at Middle- town, 1785. His ordination was the first Prot- estant Episcopal ordination in the United States. From 1785-93 he was rector of St. Michael's.

[\\arQ\) 8

It sometimes happened, that when we were bnsy about the " chores," we discovered a nest brimming: full of hidden eggs. The hat was the bonded warehouse, of course. But sometimes it was a cap not of suitable capacity. Then the pocket came into play, and chiefly the skirt pockets. Of course, we intended to transfer them immediately after getting- into the house; for eggs are as dangerous in the pocket, though for different reasons, as powder would be in a forgeman's pocket. And so, having finished the evening's work and put the pin into the sta- ble door, we sauntered toward the house, be- hind which, and right over Chestnut Hill, the broad moon stood showering all the east with silver twilight. All earthly cares and treas- ures were forgot in the dreamy pleasure ; and at length entering the house, — supper already delayed for us, — we drew up the chair and peacefully sunk into it, with a suppressed and indescribable crunch and liquid crackle underneath us, which brought us up again in

46 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

the liveliest manner, and with outcries which seemed made up of all the hen's cackles of all the eggs which were now holding carnival in our pockets ! Facilis descensus Ave mi, sed rev- ocare gradiini, etc., which means it is easy to put eggs into your pocket, but how to get them out again, that's the question. And it was the c^uestion ! Such a hand-dripping business, — such a scene when the slightly angry mother and the disgusted maid turned the pockets inside out !

We were very penitent ! It should never happen again ! And it did not, — for a month or two. Henry Ward Beecher : Eyes and Ears.

/Tiarel? 9.

We wish our neighbors would only lend us an urchin or two to make a little noise in these premises. A house without children ! It is like a lantern, and no candle ; a garden, and no flowers ; a brook, and no water gurgling and gushing through its channel. — Henry Ward Beecher : CJiildrcii.

fT)arel7 10.

Mrs. Reeve [the Judge's second wife] was the largest woman I ever saw, with a full ruddy face that had no pretensions to beauty ; but her strong and cultivated mind, her warm and gen- erous feelings, and her remarkable conversa- tional powers made her a universal favorite.

MARCH. 47

She was both droll and witty, while she made so much sport of her own personal appearance that it removed all feeling of its disadvantages. — Catherine Beecher.

[\\arQ\) 11.

I wish every day I conld go down with you to see Mrs. Reeve and the Judge, and regret that I did not see them oftener when I was where I could. I am resolved, when I come again, to see them every day. I charge you to improve your opportunites of visiting them faithfully, for you will not often meet their like in this world. In the next we shall have no lack of such society — I mean in a better world. — Mary Hubbard : Letter to Mrs. Bcechcr.

(T)arel7 12.

1888. — The wind blew a perfect blizzard all day and the drifting and falling snow made even main streets almost impassable. Monday night the storm continued with increasing fury, and buildings rocked as though in a storm at sea. — Enquirer.

(Harel? 13.

1888. — On Tuesday morning the wind had lessened, though still blowing a gale, with the thermometer at or near zero. . . . The most remarkable drifts are at Dr. [H. W.]

4b LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Buel's. One, a little west of the house, r.ses about 20 feet, to a level with the eaves. There is an addition on the west of Dr. Buel's house, reaching- about to the eaves, which is almost completely covered by the snow, so that our reporter, walking- along the top of the drift, passed completely over the roof of this part of the house, and down on the northern side. There is a drift on the east which is even higher, shutting up one of the library windows completely, and reaching nearly to the top of one of the large firs which form a hedge on that side of the house. — Enquirer.

The last of this drift did not disappear till June.

fHarel? 14.

1888. — The wind is northeast, and consider- able snow is still falling. People are about on snow shoes, "skees," and snow shoes extempo- rized out of boards, some carrying groceries to those in great want. . . . Little business is doing. Most of the stores are closed. A few are open with people standing about compar- ing notes about tunneling to their woodsheds, drifts over second-story windows, and other marvels of the great storm. — Enquirer.

It was not until Friday, March i6th, that the Shepaug was running. A cut below Lake Station was drifted in to the depth of twenty- two feet.

MARCH. 49

fHarel; 15.

Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, the friend of Washington and Lafayette, and one of the most picturesque figures of the Revolutionary War^ was a native of Long Island. He came to Litchfield at the close of the war, and resided here for over fifty years.

f[\are\) 16.

1784. — Col. Tallmadge married Mary Floyd, daughter of Gen. Floyd of Mastic, Long Island, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He ha I previously purchased of Thomas Shel- don tiie property still known as the Tallmadge Place. In O/d Litchfield Houses it is stated that "in the southeast room of his residence, the Colonel had his office, and here every morning his wife used to powder his queue."

This house was owned for twelve years by Gideon H. HoUister. In the southeast room of the second floor, so Mrs. Hollister tells me, he wrote his History of Connecticut.

The house is owned at present by Mrs. W. C. Noyes, a granddaughter of Col, Tallmadge.

/T)arel? 17.

Col. Tallmadge was rather above the ordi-- nary stature, well proportioned, dignified, and commanding. His step, even in his last years, was firm and elastic, his body erect, and his

qo LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

whole carriage possessed of a military dignity, in which was combined the model of both the soldier and the gentleman. His countenance was indicative of intelligence, firmness, and sincerity. — Laurens P. Hickok : Address on Col. ToII/nadg-e.

(T)arel? i8.

Col. Tallmadge was a member of Congress from 1800 to 1816. "He was appointed on some of the most important committees, espe- cially that on military affairs, of which he was for some time the chairman. His religions character while in Congress was so well under- stood and so highly appreciated by the Chris- tian public, that petitions involving religious interests were generally committed to him to be presented before the House. — Laurens P. HicK(^K : Address on Col. Tallmadge.

n)arel7 19.

To hear Dr. Lyman Beecher read the Bible at family prayer in such an eager, earnest tone of admiring delight, with such an indescribable air of intentness and expectancy, as if the book had just been handed him out of heaven, or as if a seal therein was just about to be loosed, was enough to impress one with the feeling that he was ever on the search into the deep things of God's word.— Charles Beecher.

c

^^-a^^--^

MARCH. 51

[\\arQ\) 20.

One thing is certain, the custom of family prayers, such as it was, was a great comfort. . Even though the chapter were one that she could not by possibility understand a word of, yet it put her in mind of things in the same dear book that she did understand ; things that gave her strength to live and hope and die by, and it was enough ! Her faith in the invisible Friend was so strong that she needed to but touch the hem of his garment. Even a table of geneal- ogies out of /lis book was a sacred charm, an amulet of peace. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Pogaiiiic People.

(Harel? 21.

Judge Reeve, as eminently as John, might be called the loving disciple. I am aware that with many intellect is idolized, and the affec- tions depreciated, but in a world where intel- lect was common, and unfeeling selfishness is common, a heart filled naturally and by grace with the fullness of love is like the sun dis- pelling the darkness and dissolving the ice of the frozen regions, and calling into being by its ra^^s, vegetation and life and joy. — Lyman Beecher : Address on /i/d^^^-e Reeve.

fT\arel7 22.

1777. — Oliver Wolcott had heara from Dr. vSmith that the family had been inoculated for

52 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

smallpox, and writes from Philadelphia to his wife : " I perceive that Mariana has had it bad, he writes very hard. I am heartily sorry for what the little Child has suffered, and very much want to see her. If she has by this lost some of her Beauty, which I hope she has not, yet I well know she might spare much of it and retain as much as most of her Sex possesses."

1837. — The ice storm of this and the succeed- ing day damaged timber and orchards in the town to the extent of $100,000.

f[\3rQ\) 23.

1 72 1. — The first white child is born in Litch- field. Her name was Eunice Griswold. She married Solomon Buel.

fHarel? 24.

1802. — Charles P. Huntington, born. He became judge of the Superior Court in the city of Boston.

marol? 25.

Mother was an enthusiastic horticulturalist in all the small ways that limited means allowed. Her brother John, in New York, had just sent her a small parcel of fine tulip bulbs. I remem- ber rummaging these out of an obscure corner of the nursery one day when she was gone out, and being strongly seized with the idea that

MARCH. 53

they were good to eat, and using all the little English I then possessed to persuade my broth- ers that these were onions such as grown peo- ple ate, and would be very nice for us. So we fell to and devoured the whole. . . . Then mother's serene face appeared at the nursery door. ... I remember there was not even a momentary expression of impatience, but that she sat down and said, " My dear children, what you have done makes mamma very sorry ; those were not onion roots, but roots of beauti- ful flowers ; and if you had let them alone, ma would have had next summer in the garden great beautiful red and yellow flowers such as you never saw." — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

(T[avQ\) 26.

When I was a law student (1823-25) a few old gentlemen still retained the dress of the Revolution. It was a powdered queue, white topped boots, silk stockings, and breeches with buckles. I can remember to have seen David Daggett, chief justice, and a half dozen others, walking in the streets with this dignified dress. It is vain to say that the present dress is at all equal to it, — in what ought to be one of the objects of good dress, — to give an idea of dig- nity and respect. — E, D. Mansfield : Personal Memories.

54 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

n)aref? 27.

At Easter-tide, when winter struggles in vain against the on-coming spring, and when the words, " Earth to earth, aslies to aslies, dust to dust " fade out before the radiance of " I am the resurrection and the life," the " quiet gate " on the Torrington road becomes the entrance into the larger life beyond.

The lines quoted under March 28th, were written in boyhood by Prof. E. T. McLaughlin. All that is mortal of him rests in the God's- Acre of which he sings, but the soul of him has seen and heard the wonders of the better country.

(Harel? 28.

A WINTER WALK.

(torrington road.)

A winding walk soft paved with snow, On either hand against the skies,

Streaked with the ruddy sunset-glow. White mantled trees arise.

No sound : the very wind is still, Tired by long waiting into sleep ;

No hurrying brook or wnld birds trill Disturbs the silence deep.

The wintry forest scene appears

The tranquil vestibule of peace ; From wistful hopes and haunting fears

We win a sweet release.

MARCH. 55

And so we walk the winding way, Dismissing thought, content to feel

What eloquence can never say, Or clearest thought reveal.

And through this quiet gate we peer

Into the hidden land ; ah well ! What wonders we may see and hear,

When we with silence dwell !

— E. T, McLaughlin: Etiquirer.

(T)arel? 29.

Prof. E. T. McLaug-hlin, from whom we have just quoted, grew from boyhood to manhood in Litchfield, graduated at Yale in 1883, and con- tinued there as fellow, instructor, and professor until his untimely death ten years later. Two years is a long time in the thronging life of a great university. Yet when the class of 1895 came to graduate, the class poem was an /// Mcmoriam of Prof. McLaughlin, while the most striking paragraph in the class oration was de- voted to the brilliant teacher of English litera- ture. These are its closing words : " I cannot express all I feel of emotion and tenderness for the life that is no longer lived among us. Many of you knew him better than I, but the refining influence of that noble spirit is the best thing I carry away from Yale."

(T)arel? 30.

1788. — Amos M. Collins, born. He was an eminent m.erchant and philanthropist, mayor of Hartford, 1843-46.

56 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS.

marel? 31.

Let not your heart be troubled. Give thanks greatly for the good ; and at whatsoever times yon are afraid, trust in the Lord. — Lyman Beecher : Letter to Catharine BeecJier.

Ppril 1.

1724. — John Marsh chosen agent of the town, "to represent their state to the General Assembly concerning the settlement and con- tinuing of their inhabitants in times of war and danger."

/^pril 2.

Some time in April, 1785, the vSouth Farms Society voted that '' the meeting-honse com- mittee shall have good right to furnish Riiin^ Grijhhtoiies and Ropes sufficient for framing the meeting house according to their best discre- tion."

ppril 3.

William Norton came to church on runners for twenty consecutive Sundays during the winter of 1872-73. — Leonard Stone s Diary.

This is a good record for the snow, and for Mr. Norton, too.

/^pril 4.

State elections used to be held on the first Monday in April.

"When a fall of snow became moist under an election-day sun, so as to pack easily into balls, 3* ' (57)

58 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

the heart of every true Litchfield lad thumped with delight. Then half a dozen of the most agile of us would 'shin' up the lightning-rod to the belfry, forty or fifty feet above, and, secure in our perch, pelt mercilessly the help- less and somewhat profane crowd of sovereign voters." — Clarence Deming : A Yankee Town Meeting.

Ppril 5-

The snows passed away like a bad dream, and the brooks woke up and began to laugh and to gurgle, and the ice went out of the ponds. ... In a few weeks the woods, late so frozen — hopelessly buried in snow-drifts — were full of a thousand delicacies of life and motion, and flowers bloomed on every hand. " Thou sendest forth thy spirit and they are created ; and thou renewest the face of the earth." — Harriet Beecher vStowe : Poganiic People.

/^pril 6.

1785. — John Pierpont, born. He became one of the most eminent of Unitarian preachers, a powerful advocate of the anti-slavery and tem- perance reforms, and one of the leading men of letters of his time.

/Ipril 7.

181 7. — Our election has been held this day. In this villao-e, Gov. Smith had 222, and vour

APRIL. 59

humble servant 2>-~ votes. I own that I am pleased with obtaining- the majority in this Town, as every possible exertion has been made to oppose me. I know that seven-eighths of the Town are pleased with the result, though many dare not confess it. I know my Conn. Comrades well ; when a strange animal, as they consider me, comes among them, they first attempt to knock him on the head. If they find him too strong, they will make peace on pretty fair terms, and like him the bet- ter for having resisted them. — Oliver Wol- coTT, Jr.

This election was one of the most decisive in the history of the vState, resulting in the downfall of the Federalist party, and the dis- establishment of Congregationalism.* Added bitterness was given to the conflict because Wolcott had been one of the most honored of Federalists in the country, but was now the candidate of the Democratic party in a cam- paign that proved to be the death struggle of the Federalists. He alludes to himself as a stranger to Litchfield, from the fact that for years most of his time had been spent m Washington and New York. In the former city, he was Controller and afterwards Secre- tary of the Treasury. In the latter city, he was judge of the United vStates Circuit Court. When that office was abolished, he entered

* See Lyman Beechei's Comment, Oct. 5.

6o LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

business life, and was founder and first presi- dent of the Bank of Nortli America.

1820. — Henry W. Buel, born. He founded vSpring Hill vSanitarium in 1858, and became one of the leading physicians of the vState.

''He was so much of an educated Christian gentleman that it was comparatively easy for him to do that which would give a man peace at the last."— Dr. G. W. Russell: Hartford Courajit.

" There will be a great many people who will be glad to see Dr. Buel's picture in the Book of Days," said some one while this book was going through the press.

At his first surgical operation, Dr. Buel offered a prayer, and in that spirit he fulfilled his ministry of healing, helping men to realize that the Great Physician is not far off.

/^pril 8.

1794. — Edmund Kirby, born. He served through the War of 1 8 1 2 and the Mexican War, attaining the rank of colonel.

/^prii 9-

In 1 81 7, the year Oliver Wolcott, Jr., was elected governor, he enlarged the house on South street, built by Gen. Wadsworth in 1799, and is said to have lived there in a style never before attempted in Connecticut. The present owner of this historic house is Cob George Bliss Sanford.

HENRY W. BUEL, M. D.

APRIL. 6l

Ppril 10.

1776. — Oliver Wolcott writes his wife : "Your Cares and Burdens must be many and great ; but put your trust in that God who has hitherto supported you and me ; He will not fail to take Care of those who put their Trust in Him."

Ppril II.

The first Oliver Wolcott set out thirteen button-ball trees in the village, naming themi after the original States. These trees were not set out in a row, but were planted here and there on the main streets. Two of these trees are still standing ; one, on East vStreet near the Ebenezer Marsh House ; the other, in front of the Roman Catholic Church. The latter tree, it is said, was named Connecticut.

Ppril 12.

After Dr. Pierpont had become one of the most distinguished Unitarian clergymen in the country, he revisited Litchfield. At once a dis- cussion arose in the Congregational church as to whether he should be asked to preach. P'inally, a compromise was reached. He was invited to make the long prayer. And he did it. He might just as well have preached the sermon, for he prayed for nearly a week ! — J. Deming Perkins,

62 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

f\pn\ 13.

1789. — Ephraim Kirby's law-reports, the first to be published in the United States, are adver- tised by the Monitor as " just published at this office, and ready for subscribers and gentlemen disposed to purchase, for which most kinds of country produce will be received."

/^pril 14.

1778. — Times, I admit, are bad, but I do not believe that God will consign this country to Destruction. Light in due time will arise, and the Happy Days of Peace, fair, equitable, and just Peace will return. — Oliver Wolcott.

1802. — Horace Bushnell was born " in an old house, now gone, at the fork of the roads, and opposite the Episcopal church in Bantam." When three years of age, he removed with his parents to New Preston.

Bushnell was pre-eminently the preacher's preacher, — the most original and stimulating thinker in the realm of theology that America in this century has produced.

/^prii 15-

I was only a tender, rubicund mollusk of a creature at the time when I came out in this rough battle with winds, winters, and wicked- ness; and so far from being able to take care of myself, I was only a little and confusedly

APRIL. 63

conscious of myself, or that I was anybody; and when I broke into this little, confused con- sciousness, it was with a cry — such a dismal figure did I make to myself ; or perchance it was something prophetic, without inspiration, a foreshadow, dim and terrible, of the o-reat battle of woe and sin I was sent hither to fight. But my God and my good mother both heard my cry and went to the task of strengthening and comforting me together, and were able ere long to get a smile on my face. My mother's loving instinct was from God, and God was in love to me first, therefore ; which love was deeper than hers and more protracted. Long- years ago she vanished, but God stays by me still, embracing me in my gray hairs as ten- derly and carefully as she did in my infancy, and giving to me as my joy and the principal glory of my life that he lets me know him, and helps me with real confidence to call him my Father. — Horace Bushnell : Life and Letters.

/^pril 16.

Horace Bushnell was born in a household where religion was no occasional and nominal thing, no irksome restraint nor unwelcome vis- itor, but a constant atmosphere, a commanding but genial presence. In our father it was char- acterized by eminent evenness, fairness, and conscientiousness ; in our mother, it was felt as an intense life of love, utterly unselfish and un-

64 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

tiring in its devotion, yet thoughtful, sagacious, and wise, always stimulating and ennobling, and in special crises leaping out in tender and almost awful fire. If ever there was a child of Christian nurture, he was one. — George Bush- NELL : BushncW s Life and Letters.

ppril 17.

F. Ratchford vStarr, after a successful busi- ness career in Philadelphia, came to Litchfield some thirty years ago, bought property on Chestnut Hill, and began farming for recrea- tion. He soon added to his land, and estab- lished the Echo Farm Dairy. No one has done justice to the sights of Litchfield who has failed to visit this model dairy.

Ppril 18.

The reader may want to know how I suc- ceeded in my first and only attempt at plowing. Everything being ready, and not a few look- ers-on to witness results, I started on a course due south, at least it should have been, but certainly v\'as not. Though " due " there, I never reached that point. It was an ordinary plow I had, yet it acted in the most extraordi- nary way, going southeast and then southwest. Indeed, the oxen proved so stupid that they could not be made to "head" as I ordered them. ... At times the}" were bound N.

. .'lAtj^m^ki^ibJ . .. A

APRIL. 65

N. W., then N. N. E., thoug-h " due " south, and I began to suspect that I was driving a more intelligent team than I had at first supposed, and that the knoAving- creatures, aware of my fondness for sailing, were "boxing the com- pass" for my gratification. — F. Ratchford Starr : Farm EcJioes.

/^pril 19.

I remember standing often in the door of our house and looking over a distant horizon, where Mount Tom reared its proud blue head against the sky, and the Great and Little Ponds, as they were called, gleamed out amid a steel-blue sea of distant pine groves. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Ppril 20.

To the west of us rose a smooth-bosomed hill, called Prospect Hill ; and many a pensive, wondering hour have I sat at our playroom window, watching the glory of the wonderful sunsets that used to burn themselves out amid voluminous wreathings, or castellated turrets of clouds — vaporous pageantry proper to a mountainous region. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Ppril 21.

" On the east of us lay another upland, called Chestnut Hills, whose sides were wooded with a rich growth of forest trees, whose changes of

66 LITCHFIELD EOOK OF DAYS.

tint and verdure, from the first misty tints of spring green, throngli the deepening hues of summer, into the rainbow glories of autumn, was a subject of constant remark and of pen- sive contemplation to us children." — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Ppril 22.

In April, 1723, the inhabitants voted to build their first church ; and the house was finished within three years. It was built in a plain manner and without a steeple. Its dimensions were 45 feet in length and 35 in breadth. . . . At the raising of this building, all the adult males in the whole township being present, sate on the sills at once. — Morris' Sfafisfifal Account.

i^prii 23.

1749. — The first St. Michael's church was raised. It stood about a mile west of the Court House. It was named at the request of John Davies, who had been for some years the only Episcopalian in the town.

Ppril 24.

1875. — The A'illage Improvement Company is organized at the home of George M. Wood- ruff. The following were the first officers : George M. Woodruff, President ; Mary C. Hickox, Secretary ; Grace N. Gates, Treasurer.

Up to the time of its celebration in the

APRIL. 67

summer of 1895, this society raised and ex- pended for the benefit of the village, $15,253.70. The concrete walks, the street lamps, the stone watering trough in the center of the village, are some of the evidences of its work ; while through its public spirited initiative, householders have been stimulated to give added care to their own private grounds. This society has been the determining factor in making this venerable town one of the most beautiful of summer resorts in all New England.

ppril 25.

Tapping Reeve " was quite absent-minded. One day he was seen walking up North street with a bridle in his hand, but without his horse, which had quietly slipped out and walked off. The Judge calmly fastened the bridle to a post, and walked into the house oblivious of any horse." — E. D. Mansfield: Personal Memories.

Ppril 26.

A number of stories concerning Judge Reeve's absent-mindedness have come down to these later days. It is part of local tradition that one day he borrowed a gun of his neigh- bor. Major Seymour. Weeks after it was found where he had left it, leaning against a bean- pole, but meanwhile entangled by the rapidly- growing stalk.

68 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

On another occasion, a passenger on the mid- night stage from New Haven made an urgent call at the Judge's for a legal document in his possession. All night long the search was kept up, but in vain. Some time after the paper was found — stuffed in the bung of the vinegar barrel.

/^pril 27.

1777. — News of the Danbury Raid reaches town.

" About one o'clock we were alarmed. Our people turned out spiritedly ; came up with the rear of the enemy at eleven the next day, a lit- tle below Wilton meeting-house, and pursued them aboard their ships." — Dr. Reuben Smith Letter to Oliver Woleott.

ppril 28.

1741. — Col. Beebe, born. He was distin- tinguished in the French and Revolutionary conflicts, and held many civil offices in his native town.

1777. Paul Peck was slain in the Wilton skirmish. He was the most famous hunter of his day. Father Mills of Torringford, in preach- ing on the folly of self-conceit, told of a Berk- shire fox who had eluded so man}" snares and hunters and hounds as to become careless. " He enters Fat Swamp at a jolly trot, head and tail up, looking defiance at the enemies he

APRIL. 69"

has left so far behind him. But, oh 1 the dread- ful reverse ; in the midst of his haughty rev- erie, he is brought to a sudden and everlasting stop in one of Paul Peck's traps."

Fat Swamp is the fertile valley just south of the Ripley place.

Ppril 29.

1 7 19. — Fifty-seven deeds were made out to the original proprietors of the township.

piprW 30.

When I first came here, I was presented by a friend with numerous valuable cuttings, and felt in duty bound to give them my personal attention. They were all planted with the utmost care, perhaps too much of it, for not one of them took root, so far as could be seen. It did not occur to me to ask the members of the Chinese Embassy, when they honored me with a visit a year or two ago, whether they had heard of, or seen, before leaving China, any of these cuttings or the results of them. I had planted them years previoush^ upside down, and if they appeared anywhere, it must have been at the antipodes. — F. Ratchford Starr : Farm Echoes.

may I.

1 789. — A meeting of leading citizens is held at the house of David Bnel. They " associate and mutually agree, that hereafter we will carry on our business without the use of distilled Spirits as an article of refreshment, either for our- selves or those whom we employ, and that instead thereof, we will serve our workmen with w^holesome food, and common simple drinks of our own production." — Litchfield Monitor^ May 25, lySg.

While this is not the " first Temperance Organization in the world," nevertheless, the signing of this agreement is one of the most noted landmarks in the history of the Temper- ance Reform in America, — antedating Lyman Beecher's " Six Sermons " by more than thirty years.

1898. — G. P. Colvocoresses, Lieutenant Com- mander of the Concord, takes part in the battle of Manila Ba}^ In a letter of his published in the Enquirer^ he says : " We were under the fire of more than a hundred guns for over four hours, and I cannot imagine ships being han- dled with more skill, or men behaving with greater coolness and courage, than did ours."

(70)

MAY. 71

Eight Litchfield men were in the service of the country during- the Spanish war, — three of them were under fire at the front.

/T)ay 2.

A few days after the meeting at David Buel's, just alluded to, Jedidiah vStrong signed the Temperance Resolutions with a commendatory note.

As one reads his name in this connection, even at this late date, it is with a feeling of sadness. vStrong was a man of considerable ability, and a successful politician in his day ; even in the times of the Wolcotts and chief Justice Adams, and Tapping Reeve, he sat in thirty sessions of the legislature, was a mem- ber of the Continental Congress, and held other positions of trust. But domestic troubles came, resulting in a divorce ; then strong drink helped him on the downward road. He died in poverty, and no man knows the place of his burial. The only memorial that is left of him is the milestone at Elm Ridge : 33 Miles to Hartford 102 Miles to New York

J. Strong AD 1787.

72 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

n)ay 3.

What a preponderance of motives in favor of doing right ! How small the inducement to do wrong ! The first is to the second as a million to one. — Lyman Beecher.

may 4-

1791. — Robert Pierpont, born. He became lieutenant-governor of Vermont and judge of the vSupreme Court of the vState.

may 5.

1812. — Luke Lewis moved into his house on East street. There had been a heavy snow the night before, and the moving was done with ox-sleds. — Old LitcJificId Houses.

may 6.

Litchfield being a frontier town when it was first settled, the inhabitants were often alarmed. In May, 1722, Captain Jacob Griswould \sic\ being at work alone in a field about one mile west of the present court-house, two Indians suddenly rushed upon him from the woods, took him, pinioned his arms, and carried him off. They traveled in a northerly direction, and the same day arrived in some part of the township, now called Canaan, then a wilder- ness. The Indians kindled a fire, and after

MAY. 73

binding their prisoner hand and foot, lay down to sleep. Griswould, fortunately, disengaging his hands and his feet, while his arms were yet pinioned, seized their guns, and made his escape into the woods. After traveling a small distance he sat down and waited till the dawn of day. . . . The savages awoke in the morning, and finding their prisoner gone, im- mediately pursued him ; they soon overtook him, and kept in sight of him the greater part of the day. . . . Near sunset, he reached an eminence, in an open field about one mile northwest of the present court-house. He then discharged one of his guns, which immediately summoned the people to his assistance. The Indians fled and Griswould safely returned to his family. — Morris Statistical Account.

/T\ay 7.

A Mrs. Sanford in South Farms cleared her dooryard by cutting with her own hands one tree a day, while her husband was engaged in more pressing farm work. It was she who, before even a bridle path had been opened through the woods, used to walk to Litchfield meeting-house on Sundays carrying her shoes in her hands to be worn only in the village. When we consider such exertions, need we wonder that many years later, when the younger Wol- cotts and others set the elms in our village

74 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Streets, the old men groaned : " We have worked so hard and just got the woods cleared off, and now they are bringing the trees back again I " — Esther H. Thompson : Enquirer.

(nay 8.

In the early days, the hostess of the village tavern was asked by an Indian for supper and a drink. As he had no inoney, she refused him, calling him a worthless and good-for- nothing fellow. A white man overhearing the conversation, took pity on the Indian, ordered supper for him and paid the bill. When the meal was ended, the Indian said he would like to tell a story to the hostess and to his bene- factor :

" The Bible say, God made the world, and then he took him and looked on him, and say, ' it's all very good.' Then he made dry land and water, and sun and moon, and grass and trees ; and took him and looked on him, and say, ' It's all very good.' Then he made beasts, and birds, and fishes ; and took him and looked on him and say, 'It's all very good.' Then he made man ; and took him and looked on him, and say, ' It's all very good.' Then he made woman ; and took him and looked on him, and he dare no sa}^ one such word." The Indian having told his story withdrew. — Condensed froni DwigJifs Travels.

MAY, 75

may 9.

The sequel to the story of the preceding paragraph relates to the captivity of the white man. Years after, while in the wilderness, he was carried captive by the Indians to Canada. After spending some months there, an un- known Indian met him and ordered the white man to follow him. They traveled together for many days. At length, "they came one morning to the top of an eminence presenting the prospect of a cultivated country, in which was a number of houses. The Indian asked his companion whether he knew the place. He replied eagerly that it was Litchfield. His guide then, after reminding him that he had so many years before relieved the wants of a famishing Indian at an inn in that town, sub- joined : " I, that Indian ; now I pay you ; go home." Having said this, he bade him adieu ; and the man joyfully returned to his own house. — Condensed from Dwi^^hfs Travels.

fT)ay 10.

1725. — The town "voted and agreed that there shall forthwith be erected one good and substantial Mount, or place convenient for sentinels to stand for the better discovering the enemy, and for the safety of said sentinels when upon their watch or ward ; that is to say, one Mount at each of the four Forts."

76 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

(T)ay II.

My grandmother, Ann Catlin, when a little girl, was playing- in the yard, and thinking she saw a band of Indians coming tip the hill, ran in terror to her mother saying, "The Indians are coming, and we shall all be killed." The dreaded Indians proved to be a cavalcade of relatives, old and yonng, in every imaginable sort of conveyance, coming to do honor to the birthday of Mrs. Catlin. Her housewifely anxiety was relieved as to the entertainment of so many guests, by the thought that her capacious brick oven was at that moment filled to overflowing with good things, and that the honey from a hive of bees had that very morn- ing been secured, and that a cart, seemingly supplied with creature comforts, was approach- ing.— Mrs. Mary A. Hunt: Eiiqiiirer.

/Hay 12.

1777. — Gov. Franklin is confined in our gaol, and a constant guard kept. We trust he will find it difficult to escape, should he attempt it. — Dr. Reuben Smith : Letter to Gen. Woleott.

Hon. Wm. Franklin was the son of Benja- min Franklin, and was the Tory governor of New Jersey.

may 13.

1793. — Samuel S. Phelps, born. He was the son of Captain John Phelps, proprietor of the

MAY. 77

United States Hotel in the old days. He became judge of the vSupreme Court, and United States vSenator from Vermont. His son is E. J. Phelps, one of the best known of the public men of to-day.

may 14.

Vermont is a child of this County. We gave her her first Governor, and three Governors besides ; as many as three vSenators in Con- gress, and also many of her most efficient founders and early distinguished citizens. — Judge Church : Litchfield County Centennial.

may 15.

The attitude assumed by Vermont in the early stages of the Revolutionary War, in respect to Canada on the north, and the threatening States of New York and New Hampshire on either side, was peculiar and delicate, and demanded the most adroit policy to secure her purpose of independence. In her dilemma, her most sagacious men resorted to the counsels of their old friends of Litchfield County, and it is said that her final course was shaped, and her designs accomplished by the advice of a confidential council, assembled at the house of Gov. Wolcott in this village. — Judge Church : Litchfield County Centennial.

yS LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

(Day 16.

1740. — "Voted, that whosoever shall Kill and Distroy any Rattle Snakes, within the bounds of the town, any time before the tenth day of December next, bringing the tayl and som of the flesh to any one of the vSelectmen of the town, shall have three pence for each snake."

(T)ay 17.

There, on the topmost twig that rises and falls with willow}^ motion, sits that ridiculous but sweet singing bobolink, singing, as a Roman candle fizzes, showers of sparkling notes. — Henry Ward Beecher: Eyes and Ears.

(Hay 18.

Every thoughtful, right-minded farmer has an inspiration not found in any other calling. He works God's earth, preparing it for the de- sired crops, and when all is ready he plants the seed. There his work ceases. He can do no more, for God alone can "give the increase." In due time myriads of blades of grass or grain make their appearance as so many messengers sent b}^ the Almighty to tell him of the coming harvest. He reverently feels that God and he have worked together, and goes forth with grateful heart to receive the ripened grain direct from the hand of the Creator. — F. Ratch- FORD Starr: Eann Echoes.

MAY. 79

f[\ay 19.

1780. — The Dark Day throughout New Eng- land. The darkness came on about ten o'clock ; candles were lit in the houses; lanterns, carried on the roads. To multitudes, it seemed as if the end of the world were at hand.

1 78 1. — Washington breakfasted in Litchfield, e/i route to Wethersfield.

(I)ay 20.

When General Washington passed through Litchfield in the Revolutionary War, the sol- diers, to evince their attachment to him, threw a shower of stones at the windows of the Epis- copal Church. He reproved them, saying : " I am a Churchmau^ and wish not to see the church dishonored and desolated in this manner." — Anna Dickinson : Narrative of the Episcopal Church.

may 21.

1864. — The wSecond Connecticut found itself for the first time face to face with the enemy. Yes, that dingy looking line, slowly moving to the north along that slope, a mile and a half in front of us, was a body of real, live Johnnies ; and those puffs of smoke in the woods below were from the muskets of rebels, who were firing on our pickets. . . . Late in the evening we silently moved out, following the 5*

8o LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

track of the troops who had preceded us, and began that long and terrible series of marches which were continued almost without a breath- ing spell, until the first of June. — T. F. Vaill : History of the Second Connecticut.

(Day 22.

1898. — Auxiliary No. 16 of the American National Red Cross vSociety was organized in the Town Hall. Up to September 23d, $820 and a large amount of material were contrib- uted. Twenty-three sewing meetings were held with an average attendance of twenty- two. The ladies in Bantam, Milton, and North- field co-operated in the work.

The Red Cross work calls to mind the still larger work done during the Civil War, and leads one to think of that memorable vSunday in the Eighteenth Century when a messenger came breathless into the meeting-house, and Parson Champion read to the people " St. John's is taken ! " But there is news that the soldiers are in great destitution. There is immediate need of clothing. That afternoon, not a woman was at service. " On that usually still Puritan Sabbath afternoon, there now rang out on every side the hum of the wheel and the click of the shuttle. . . . Many years after, when a ven- erable old man, Mr. Champion was asked by his granddaughter how he could approve such

MAY. 8 1

a desecration of the vSabbath. He turned on her a solemn look and replied simply, " Mercy before sacrifice."

may 23.

At a local sword presentation during the Civil War, I heard one of the orators exhort the ladies not to forget the soldiers in the hospital as well as on the field, " For," added he, " there's more what is not slewed on the field of battle than what is killed by ball." — Clar- ence Deming : Ya/ikces and Ya/ikt'eis/zis

may 24.

Hezekiah Murra}^ seventy or eighty years ago, became a total-abstinence man, and refused in any way to abet the use or traffic in intoxi- cants. He had had a still costing a hundred dollars put upon his premises, but he deter- mined it should never be used for distilling. He plead with Dr. Beecher, who said of him, " He would not give me peace ; he stood up in the middle of my floor, and counted the names of my people w^ho had died drunkards, and of those who were going to ruin. . . . Do you believe after that I made flip with a crowbar? "

Murray's earnestness was an important fac- tor leading to the " Six Sermons on Intemper- ance."

Years after, when Murray had passed away, a strip of copper from the still was sent to Dr. Beecher. " Do vou remember Hezekiah Mur-

82 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

ray?" said the writer. "Yes," replied he, springing- to his feet, " he was one of God's no- blemen." — Condensed from an artiele in Boston Recorder^ Feb. j, i86j.

/Day 25.

One of the first converts under Lyman Beech- er's Litchfield ministry fell into intemperate habits. This led the doctor to prepare his famous Six Sermons on Intemperance. " I wrote under such power of feeling as never before or since. Never could have written it under other cir- cumstances. They took hold of the whole con- gregation. Sabbath after Sabbath the interest grew and became the most absorbing thing ever heard of before. A wonder — of weekly conversation and interest, and, when I got through, of eulogy; all the old farmers that brought in wood to sell, and used to set up their cart-whips at the groggery, talked about it, and said, man}^ of them, they would never drink again." — Lyman Beecher.

I didn't set up for a reformer any more than this : when I saw a rattlesnake in my path, I would smite it. — Lyman Beecher.

/T)ay 26.

Here is a characteristic advertisement taken from the Monitor of one hundred years ago : " Whereas Anner my wife hath eloped from

LYMAN BEECHER.

MAY. 83

my bed and board. All perfons are forbid trufting her on my accomit as I will pay no debts of her contracting after this date. All thofe indebted to me are forbid making any payments to her."

(T)ay 27.

William Norton, who has handed down to the present generation many incidents of the former times, is responsible for the following anecdote :

When the great elm at the jail corner was a slender tree, it was used as a whipping-post. The culprit was tied to the tree, and could put his arms clear around it. When one of the Seymours was sheriff, he was obliged to inflict the old-time penalty upon two men, the one an Indian, the other a white man. The Indian bore it stoically without a murmur ; but the white man, at the first lash, screamed. The sheriff had not the heart to make the next blow so heavy ; still the culprit continued his outcry. Each succeeding blow was lighter, and the offender got off with scarcely any injury, — save perhaps to his vocal chords.

/T)ay 28.

The County Jail is now known as " Benton's Inn," from the genial Civil War veteran who is the jailor. We are sure that if Mayor Mat- thews were his guest, he would give as good an

84 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

account of him as he did of Major Seymour a hundred years ago.

When Rev. James Taylor was pastor of the Methodist Church in 1874, he instituted regu- lar religious services at the jail. His success- ors maintained his work until 1877, when Rev. D. D. T. McLaughlin became chaplain. Since he passed away in 1895, his wife has continued his work. The Enquirer justly said of him : " The good that he has done and the lives that he has redeemed, since he has been chaplain at the jail the past eighteen years, can never be known until the books are opened at the Judg- ment Day."

may 29.

Of course you will often walk under the great elms on the North street. Tell me whether they really touch the skies as it used to seem to me, and if they 3^et hold m5^sterious conversa- tion when the wind moves in their tops ; and find out what they say, if you can, for I never could. — Henry Ward Beecher : Letter to Fanny Fern.

(nay 30.

1778. — Richard Skinner, born. He became chief justice and governor of Vermont.

1780. — Henry Se5^mour, born. He became a distinguished citizen of Central New York. Gov. Horatio Se3^mour was his son.

1789. — James Collier, born. He was the first

MAY. 85

civil officer of the Federal government in San Francisco.

(nay 31.

1778. — Horatio Seymour, born. He was for twelve years United vStates Senator from Ver- mont. It was his nephew and namesake who was the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1868.

JdQe 1.

1776. — Oliver Wolcott writes from Philadel- phia to his wife : " It is now a long time since I have been here, and I do most sincerel}^ wish to return to the Pleasures of a domestick rural Life. . . . Here I see little except human Faces which I know not, and numerous Piles of Buildings which have long since satiated the vSight, and the street rumble is far from being- musical. But as I was not sent here to please myself, I shall cheerfully yield to my Duty."

1864.— Battle of Cold Harbor. The Litch- field county regiment lost 81 men killed; 212 wounded (:^^ fatally) ; 15 missing.

"About three o'clock the order was re- ceived for the Second Connecticut to advance. The first battalion w^ent at double-quick across the open field under a whizzing of lead that dropped somebody at every step, into the wood under fire every moment thickening, and in a moment with unbroken ranks confronting the enemy in their entrenchments, and but for a strong abattis of pine boughs would have gone over them like Niagara. But there the fight began, and there our men fought like lions, and there fell and died without the slightest

(86)

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT BUILDING.

JUNE. 87

sense of pain, many, oh how many, of the noblest men that ever saw the light. . . . They took the entrenchments, they made more than five hundred rebel prisoners and sent them to the rear, and held the line. — Adjutant Vaill : Newspaper Correspondence.

1892. — The Fire Department Building is formally opened. This handsome and lavishly equipped club house, — for such it is, — is the gift of a public-spirited citizen, Mr. J. Deming Perkins.

There was a time when the facilities for fighting fire were insufficient, though to be sure, it rained sometimes. But, with the intro- duction of city water and the building of the Fire Department House, the efficient volunteer firemen were not only adequately, but ele- gantly, equipped for service.

Jijpe 2.

You can have no idea of the intense anxiety in Litchfield in the days following Cold Har- bor. It was the same after every great battle in which Litchfield troops were engaged. The telegraph wires had more news than they could carry. It was impossible to get details. All we knew was, that a terrible battle had been fought, and that a great number were either dead or wounded. As Mr. Hubbard was Con- gressman, our house was a rendezvous for peo- ple hoping and fearing for news. They would

88 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

often stay till late at night. I particularly remember one woman from Goshen who waited till eleven o'clock, and then went home, cheered with the thought that no news was good news. She had just gone, when we received word that her husband was among the slain. — Mrs. Abby J. Hubbard.

J'Jf?'? 3-

You can stand over in the neighborhood of the West District schoolhouse, and see the smoke from six farm houses, where their dead were brought back from the Civil War. Three sons of the Wadhams family were slain within three weeks. When Deacon Adams went over to break the news of the death of one of them, he was on his way back to the village, when he was told that another had fallen. — Mrs. Abby J. Hubbard.

Such funerals as we had in those days ! I shall never forget them. I had the stage line then, and (will you believe it ?) when the war was over, I brought up from the Naugatuck station all that were left from a company that went from this town. I carried them all up in one stage drawn by four horses. — George Kenney.

}a^q 4.

During the summer of 1720, the first settlers arrived. Captain Jacob Griswold of Windsor, John Peck of Hartford, and Ezekiel Buck of

JUNE. 89

Wethersfield, broug-ht their families here, built log houses on their home lots, and moved into them.

" Mother, I don't want to go to school."

" You don't wish to grow up a dunce, do you, Henry? "

"Yes, marm."

" What ? Grow up like a poor, ignorant child, go out to service, and live without know- ing anything? "

" Yes, marm."

"Well, suppose you begin now. I'll put an apron on you, and you shall stay at home and do housework. How would you like that ?"

" Oh, do. Ma ! "

Sure enough, we were permitted to stay away from school, provided we would "do house- work " ; and all summer long our hands set the table, washed dishes, swept up crumbs, dusted chairs, scoured knives ; our feet ran of errands, besides the usual complement of chores in the barn. — Henry Ward Beecher : SUir Papers.

Col. Matthew Lyon, who figured in public life in the early part of this century, having been congressman from Vermont and after- wards from Kentucky, is remembered here as a friendless Irish lad who was sold, to pay his passage, to Hugh Hannah. After an alterca-

90 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

tion with his master, he ran away from him. Years after Hannah attributed Lyon's success to the corporeal lessons which he had given him. Kilbourne, who tells the story, says that the price paid for the boy was a pair of stags valued at ^12.

JtJW 7-

1797 — The Monitor contains the following advertisement, prefaced with a rude cut of a man going along the highway with a stick and bundle slung over his shoulder :

" Ran away from the fubfcriber, about the 13th inftant, a mulatto fervant Jep 21 years old, about five feet 7 or 8 inches high, underftands the trade of a Bloomer, will probably feek em- ployment in that bufinefs. All Perfons are forbid harboring, employing, or dealing with faid Jep upon the penalty of the Law. — David Welch."

Ju9(^ 8.

On a sultry morning in June, John Davies, Jr., started for church on horseback with his wife behind him on a pillion, when a shower arose. Near Bradleyville there came a blind- ing flash, accompanied by a terrific peal of thunder which brought a scream from the lady, to which her husband replied, " Keep quiet, Molly, we are four miles nearer the burying ground than when we left home." — S. : Eiiqidrcr^ November, 1895.

JUNE. 91

J^9^ 9-

In Litchfield, when I saw a thunder-storm coming- up, I used to run into the house and ask my mother to let me put on my old clothes and go out into the rain ; for nothing was so grand to me as being out in the tempest, and seeing the elms swayed and the long drought broken by the coming on of the storm. I ex- ulted ; and though the birds were all gone, I was there to sing, — Henry Ward Beecher : Lectures on Preae/iifii:;.

jdVjQ 10.

1773. — Roger vSkinner, born. He became prominent in public life in the state of New York, and was for some 3xars judge of the United vStates District' Court.

Jai^e 11.

1886. — Fire breaks out at a little past one in the morning. The Court House and Mansion House are destroyed, and all buildings from Dr. Beckwith's residence on vSouth street, to a brick building thirty feet west of the Court House on West street. " The rapidly burning- mass of wooden buildings, with the Mansion House towering up in the center, and the Court House on the right, the air full of flame and cinders (one of the latter was found six miles awa}^ at the foot of the lake), made a splendid if terrific picture." — Enquirer.

92 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Jdi^e 12.

There are only two or three things required for a good stone wall. It must be made so that chipmonks can run in and out, easily ; it must have woodbine enough in spots ; it must have a deal of mosses growing on it ; and it must be broad enough on the top for one to walk on. I know of nothing else which a good wall requires. — H. W. Beecher : Eyes and Ears.

Ja9e 13.

1781.— The first meeting of St. Paul's Ma- sonic Lodge held, Rev. Ashbel Baldwin pre- siding as master.

Jdi^e 14.

181 1. — Harriet Beecher, born. Her home was here until her father was called to Han- over Street Church, Boston, in 1826.

Mrs. Stowe loved Litchfield. Her best book for reading in this town is Pogaiuic People, — photographic in its accurate delineation of the Litchfield she knew, and touched with the skill of a great literary artist. In sending a presen- tation copy to Oliver Wendell Holmes, she wrote : " It is an extremely quiet story for these sensational days, when heaven and earth seemed to be racked for a thrill ; but as I get old, I do love to think of those quiet, simple times, when there was not a poor person in the parish, and the changing glories of the year were the only spectacle."

JUNE. 93

Mrs. vStorrs O. Seymour, who was a personal friend of Mrs. Stowe in her later years, used occasionally to send her flowers from her mother's grave or from the garden of Judge Reeve's house, where Lyman Beecher doubt- less called on June 14, 181 1, to tell his friend of the birth of his daughter.

Mrs. Storrs O. Seymour, while residing in Hartford, frequently saw Mrs. Stowe. After a visit from her in the winter of 1889, she made tlie following memorandum, which now appears in print for the first time :

" I once showed Mrs. Stowe a copy of her autobiography which had been given me, and she was much interested in looking over the pictures with me. 'My portrait,' she said (the first one in the book), ' was taken by a Mr. Richmond ; he used to talk to me and keep me laughing ; I suppose so I should have a pleas- aiit expression.' Of her father's, she said . ' That is my dear father ; that looks as he used to, when he came into the room where we children were all frolicking; he would stop and look at us with that pleasant, amused expression on his face.'

"Her sister Catharine's, she said, 'was like lier, only it looked cross, and she was not cross.' Of her brother, Henry Ward's, she exclaimed. ' Oh ! there is Henr^^ ! that looks

94 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

just as he used when he went into his pulpit, as much as to say, 'here I am! per- fectly fearless ! I am going to say just what I think right, no matter what anyone says about

it;

" Of her mother she spoke very tenderly and beautifully, and of her husband also.

" She told me about each of the houses she had lived in, and with very great feeling of the old home in Cincinnati.

" When I opened at the last picture of her- self, she said : ' I like that better than any I ever had taken ; they used to make such dread- ful pictures of me,' and then went on to tell me of a gentleman who, when introduced to her, said : ' Why, Mrs. Stowe, is it possible this is you ? You are quite a good looking woman ; all the portraits I ever saw of you made you out dreadfully homely.' "

jai)(^ i6.

1823. — It was about the middle of June that my father and I drove up to Grove Catlin's tavern on the Green. One of the first objects which struck my eyes was interesting and picturesque. This was the long procession of school girls coming down North street, walk- ing under the lofty elms, and moving to the music of a flute and flageolet. The girls were gaily dressed and evidently enjoying their evening parade, in this most balmy season of

]VNE. 95

the year. It was the school of Miss Sally Pierce. — E. D. Mansfield : Personal Memories.

J^9e 17.

Miss Sarah Pierce opened a school in this town, for the instruction of females, in the year 1792, which has justly merited and acquired a distinguished reputation. — J/i;/v7V' Statistical Accoujit.

This school was doubly famous, both for its teachers and for its students. Sally and Mary Pierce and John P. Brace were pioneers in the field of higher education for women. Be- sides the Beecher children, there were many other pupils whose names are well known. In the long list, we note the names of Mrs. Mar- shall (3. Roberts, ^Irs. Cyrus W. Field, xMrs. McCullough, wife of the Secretary of the Treasur}^ Mrs. Bliss, and Mrs. Van Lennep, the missionaries.

JijQe 18.

Boys have nothing to do but to set each other on to mischief. They pull off buds from the unblossomed rose bushes ; they pick cucumbers by the half-bushel that were to have been let alone ; the)" break down rare shrubbery to get v:hips, and instead get whip- pings ; they kill the guinea-pigs ; chase the chickens ; break up hens' nests ; get into the carriages and wagons only to tumble out, and

set all the nurses a-running ; they study every 6*

g6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

means of orettinQ^ under the horse's feet, and, as of the more dangerous act they are fond of tickling their hind legs and pulling at their tails ; they fill the already fed horses with extra oats, causing the hostler to fear for his charge's health, since he refuses oats at the next regular feeding ; they paddle in all the mud on the premises ; sit down in the street and fill their pockets with dirt ; they wet their clothes in the brook, tear them in the woods ; lose their caps a dozen times a day, and go bare-headed in the blazing sun ; they cut up every imaginable prank with their long-suffer- ing nurses when meals are served, or when bedtime comes, or when morning brings the washing and dressino;-. Thev are little, nimble, compact skinfuls of ingenious, fertile, endless, untiring mischief. They stub their toes, or cut their fingers, or get stung, or eat some poison- ous berry, seed, or root, or make us think that they have, which is just as bad ; they fall down stairs, or eat green fruit till they are as tight as a drum, and yet there is no peace to us with- out them, as there certainly is none with them. — Henry Ward Beecher : Sf(7r Papers.

Jd9e 19.

1809. — Lew^is B. Woodruff, born. He w^as one of the most distinguished jurists Litchfield has produced. His long judicial career in the city and state courts of New York culminated

JUNE. 97

when President Grant appointed him federal judg-e for the Southern District of New York. The bar and the press received the news of his appointment with marked enthusiasm, and when he had finished his life-work, a few years later, even so irresponsive a paper as the New York Post said, " It would be difficult to find a better representative of his class than Lewis B. Woodruff, late United States circuit judge." 1826. — Charles Loring Brace, born. It is a singular coincidence that two of New York's foremost citizens of recent years should have been born on the same day of the month, in a quiet New England town.

JiJi^e 20.

1826. — The Litchfield County Post issued its first number. During the editorship of Henry Adams, a few years later, it received the name by which it is now known, The Litchfield En- quirer. It is the oldest paper in the county.

1864. — This was the most intolerable position the regiment was ever required to hold [in the entrenchments before Petersburg]. We had seen a deadlier spot at Cold Harbor, and others awaited us in the future ; but they were agonies that did not last. Here, however, we had to sta}\ hour after hour, from before dawn until after dark, and that, too, where we could

not move a rod without extreme danger

Do you like to drink warm water ? Then enlist

9» LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

in the next war and stay twelve hours in a hole in the ground, without shelter from the fierce- ness of a Virginia sun in June, with bullets passing two feet above your head, with dead bodies broiling all around you, and with two tin canteens of muddy water. — T. F. Vaill : History of the Second Connecticut.

Ja9e 21.

Charles Loring Brace's curiosity on subjects of history was insatiable, until his questions and his father's elaborate replies became a torment to the young ladies of the school. When finally the child selected the dinner hour to propound his queries, and their teacher laid down his carving knife and fork, and the roast grew cold, the pupils after suffering thus silently and hungry on several occasions, rebelled. Charles was threatened. If he did not stay away with his questions, he should be kissed. Dreading this terror, after the manner of small boys, he desisted. — Life and Letters.

Jd9e 22.

In Kilbourne's Biographical Notes, Charles Loring Brace is mentioned as a literary man who has written some pleasing volumes of European travel. " He is now secretary of the Children's Aid Society in the city of New York." It was there that Mr. Brace accom- plished his life work. In the annals of Ameri-

JUNE. 99

can philanthropy, no name stands higher. He was pre-eminent both in practical achievement and in a wise understanding of all that per- tains to the field of philanthropy. His Gesta Christi is a book that has received world-wide recognition.

Jtjrje 23.

1790. — Freeborn Garrettson, accompanied by his colored servant Harry, enters Litchfield. They preached the first Methodist sermons delivered here. " I found freedom in preach- ing from ' Enoch walked with God.' " The sermon was delivered in St. Michael's church before a large congregation. Garrettson left Harry to preach another sermon, and went on to the center of the town ; the bell rang, and he preached to a few in the Presbyterian meet- ing-house, and lodged with a kind churchman.

During his visit, " I preached," he says, " in the skirts of the town, where I was opposed by

, who made a great disturbance. I told

him the enemy had sent him to pick up the good seed, turned my back on him, and went my way accompanied by brothers W. and H. I found another waiting company in another part of the town, to whom I declared, 'Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' In this town we have given the devil and the wicked much trouble ; we have a few good friends." — Stevens : ATcDioriah of Methodism.

It is pleasant to remember that the Episco-

lOO LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

pal and Congreg-ational churches were open to the early itinerant. His colaborers did not fare so well generally. Jesse Lee, the founder of Connecticut Methodism, preached his first sermon in Norwalk. After trying" in vain to secure a private house for service, he asked permission to preach in an orchard. The lady owning it objected on the plea that the people would tramp down the grass. He preached on the highway, and the common people heard him gladly.

Jui^e 24.

1813. — Henry Ward Beecher, born.

On one occasion Mr. Beecher was introduced to an English audience as the son of the dis- tinguished Dr. Beecher. To those of us who have the Litchfield perspective he is always that. We are not unmindful of the later fame that came to him and to his sister Harriet, but to us they are the children at the parsonage ; and as we pass by Prospect street they seem even yet to be playing on the lawn.

Jtiije 25.

Oh, there is not a place in the old Litchfield house where I was born that is not dear to my eyes ! I go back there sometimes ; and the last time I went I chose not to go in the glare of day, they had so changed the place. But I stood at twilight when just enough darkness had come down to hide the changes, and yet

w

J *

1 1 1

HE HEECHER HOL'Sp:. Bcceiit PhoUwraph.

JUNE. lOI

there was light enough to throw up above the horizon and against the sky the substance and form of the old house. It was full to my thought of my father and my mother, of my sisters and brothers. My heart blessed the old house for all that it had had in it ; for all the care it had had ; for all its sweet associations. It was stained through with soul color. It was full, as it were, with the blood of life. — Henry Ward Beecher : Lectures on Preaching.

Jdjpe 26.

181 9. — About this time Henry Ward Beecher went a-fishing. He tells of it in Eyes and Ears : " A bare-footed boy might have been seen on a June afternoon with his alder-pole on his shoulder, tripping through the meadow where dandelions and wild geraniums w^ere in bloom, and steering for the old saw-mill. As soon as the meadow was crossed, the fence scaled, and a descent begun, all familiar objects were gone, and an overpowering consciousness of being alone set one's imagination into a dance of fear. Could we find our way back ? What if a big bull should come out of those bushes ? What if a great big man should come along and carry us off ? . . . .

"But no sooner did we see the sparkle of the water than our soul grew calm and happy again.

" Now, for the first time in our lives, we put

I02 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

on a worm. AVe threw in the hook, and trembled all over with excitement !

'' The hook and bait fell upon the wrinkled water, went quietly down the stream, and swept in near the shore, where some projecting stone roofed over a little pool. Out of that pool our little eyes saw something dart, and our little hands, all a-tremble, felt something pull. In an instant, with a spasm of energy, we drew back the line ; there was a flash in the air,— a wriggling flash, — and something smote the rocky, gravelly bank behind. Scrambling up we found a shiner ; but alas ! smashed to pieces. Soon another and another fared in like man- ner, and it was long before we could subdue our nerves so as not to dash the fish to pieces. Our courage grew every moment. What did ive care if there was a bull in the bushes ! What if a beggar man should come along ! What if a great black dog should — but that thought was a little too serious. Black dogs were terrors not to be lightly thought of, even by a six-year-old urchin who had caught fish — alone, too ! And so gathering up two roach and three shiners, we started home. Up the sloping hill we ran, till our father's house shone out from among the trees ; and then, with the dignity and nonchalance of a con- queror, we prepared to make a triumphal entrance. Since then we have fished in many a stream and lake, and in the deep sea, but

JUNE. 103

never with half the exhilaration of that first joyful hour on the Bantam."

JiJ9e 27.

1858. Henry N. Hudson became rector of St. Michael's church. Mr. Hudson is remem- bered as a man of fine literary tastes, wl.o had made something of a study of Shakespeare. He became one of the foremost American editors that the ^-reat dramatist has had.

As a preacher, Mr. Hudson had some gro- tesque mannerisms. He would hurl out a statement, and then would stand watching bis audience to see its eft'ect, but with a peculiar facial contortion that had to be seen to be appreciated.

Jd^e 28.

A child that has not ridden up from the meadow to the barn on a load of hay has yet to learn one of the luxuries of exultant childhood. What care they for jolts, when the whole load is a vast and multiplex spring ? The more the wagon jounces, the better they like it ! Then come the bars leading into the lane with maple trees on either side. The limbs reach down and the green leaves kiss the children over and over again ; so would I, if I were a green leaf, and not consider myself so green after all! — Henry Ward Beecher : Fruits^ Flowers, a /id Farmiiii^.

I04 LITCHFIET.D P.OOK OF DAYS.

Jdi^e 29.

I remember hearing father say with a sor- rowful countenance, as if announcing tlie death of some one very interesting to him, '" My dear, Byron is dead, — gone.'' After being a while silent, he said. "Oh, I'm sorry Byron is dead. I did hope he would live to do some- thing for Christ. What a harp he might have swept ! " The whole impression made upon me by the conversation was solemn and pain- ful.— Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Jui^e 30.

One very hot day in summer, and in the afternoon, I was in church, and Dr. Beecher was going on in a sensible, but rather prosy, half sermon, when all at once he seemed to recollect that we had just heard of the death of Lord Byron. He was an admirer of Byron's poetry, as all who admire genius must be. He raised his spectacles and began with an account of Byron, his genius, wonderful gifts, and then vv^ent on to his want of virtue and his want of true religion, and finally described a lost soul, and the spirit of Byron going off, wandering in the blackness of darkness forever ! It struck me as with an electric shock, and left an im- perishable memory. — E. D. Mansfield: Per- sonal Alcinorics.

Jdy 1.

With the Fourth of July so near at hand, our thoughts naturally go out to Judah Champion and to Oliver Wolcott. Like Isaiah and Heze- kiah, our own prophet and statesman stood side by side in a time of stress and storm. While the parson's well-known prayer sounds a little too much like the imprecatory psalms to suit this Christian dispensation, we may be certain that the Lord knew that it came out of the heart of as true a patriot as America had. The prayer was delivered in the meeting- house which stood where the soldier's monu- ment now stands. In the audience were Col. Tallmadge and his cavalry regiment, for they were spending a Sabbath in the village while on their way to the front. But enough, — here is the prayer :

" O Lord, we view with terror the approach of the enemies of thy holy religion. Wilt thou send storm and tempest to toss them upon the sea and to overwhelm them upon the mighty deep, or to scatter them to the uttermost parts of the earth. But, peradventure, should any escape thy vengeance, collect them together again, O Lord, as in the hollow of thy hand,

(lis)

Io6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

and let thy lightnings play upon them ! We beseech thee, moreover, that thou do gird up the loins of these thy servants who are going forth to fight thy battles. Make them strong men, ' that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight.' Hold before them the shield wdth which thou wast wont in the old time to protect thy chosen people. Give them swift feet, that they may pursue their enemies, and swords terrible as that of thy Destroying Angel, that they may cleave them down when they have overtaken them. Preserve these saints of thine. Almighty God, and bring them once more to their homes and friends, if thou canst do it consistently with thine high purposes. If, on the other hand, thou hast decreed that they shall die in battle, let thy spirit be with them and breathe upon them, that they may go up as a sweet sacrifice into the courts of thy temple, where are hab- itations prepared for them from the founda- tions of the world."

)a\y 2.

There is another prayer of Father Champion's, not so much of a classic as the one just quoted, but still worthy of remembrance. The parson was an ardent Federalist. He received the news of John Adams's election to the presidency wHth delight, but it was very hard to learn that Thomas Jefferson, that arch- Republican (to use the old phraseology), was vice-president.

JULY. 107

When Sunday came he prayed fervently for the president, and then added, " And, O Lord ! will thou bestow upon the vice-president a double portion of thy grace, for tkou knoivcst he needs it f "

JiJiy 3-

This is the day when firecrackers are bought, and when, -for these many years, preparations are made for the great bonfire at the Center. As it is a long wait till midnight, we may beguile the time with a story. Captain Alva vStone, a Civil War veteran whom everyone loves, told it to me in his inimitable wa}^ As I write, I see again his keen, bright eyes, and note his eloquent cane giving emphasis to what he said.

" There was one night when the ' Glorious Fourth ' was ushered in with a roar and racket that I can hear yet. The first stroke of the clock had scarce made itself heard, when the church bells rang out, guns were fired, fire- crackers went off by the pack, — and mingled and jumbled with all this noise were blasts from tin horns, and shouts from enthusiastic 'Young America.'

" I had had a broken sleep during the earlier hours, but now I was wide awake. The first fifteen minutes I rather enjoyed the fun, then I wished for quiet ; at the end of half an hour I grew a little impatient. Was this outlandish din to go on forever ? Then I got downright 7

Io8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

mad, and vowed that if I could ever get hold of the young fellows ringing those church bells, I would give them a flogging. By and by this feeling wore itself away, and I was lost in admiration of their indomitable persistence. " In the morning, as I was on my way up town, I hailed the first boy I met, and said, ' My boy, did you have a hand in that bell- ringing ? ' 'Yes,' said he. 'Well,' said I, 'I admire your pluck and endurance. Take this ! ' — and thrusting my hand into my pocket, I gave him all the loose change I had."

July 4.

1753. — Judah Champion is ordained pastor of the Congregational church and continues in that relation for fifty-seven years, having the assistance of a colleague during the last eleven years.

Thy Reverend Champion, — champion of the truth; I see him yet, as in my early youth ; His outward man was rather short than tall, His wig was ample, though his frame was small. Active was his step and cheerful was his air. And oh how free and fluent was his prayer !

— John Pierpont : Litchfield Con7ity Centeiuiial.

1776. — Oliver Wolcott signs the Declaration of Independence.

Bold Wolcott urged the all important cause, With steady hand the solemn scene he draws ; Undaunted firmness with his wisdom joined. Nor kings, nor worlds could warp his steadfast mind. — Joel Barlow : Viswn of Cohimbus.

OLIVER WOLCOT

JULY. 109

Oliver Wolcott was appointed first slieriff of tliis county in 175 r. For forty-six years he was continuously in public life, and died while Gov- ernor of Connecticut. During the Revolution, as member of Congress, and as a general in the army, he rendered indefatigable service to the Patriot cause.

1826. — The semi-centennial of the Declara- tion of Independence was elaborately cele- brated. At the Congregational church the Declaration "was read by T. Smith, Esq., in a manner well worthy of that most eloquent and interesting document." J. P. Brace was the orator of the occasion. The citizens then went to the banquet at the Court House. The list of toasts was interminable. The Cause of the Greeks was drunk in silence, and the Patriots of the South Aniericau Republies Avere not forgotten. At last the citizens retired, and the " gentle- men of the Law Office " had eight more toasts. vSix Southerners spoke. The last sentiment responded to in this New England town was : " The enemies of John C. Calhoun ; may they be lathered with aqua fortis and shaved with a hand-saw ! "

1876. — At the Centennial Celebration in Litchfield, the Declaration was read, as in 1826, by Truman Smith, who had meantime been senator from Connecticut. The Historical Address, a model of accuracy and compactness was delivered bv Geon>-e C. Woodruff.

no LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

1893. — The Casino is formally opened. Alexander McNeill was the first to suggest the building of this fine club house. Back of the building are ample grounds for tennis and golf. Votaries of the latter game will also find links on the slope of East Hill. Were "Penelope," — to whom Kate Douglas Wiggin has introduced us, — making her progress through East street or West street of a summer morning, she might think she were in a town in the highlands of Scotland.

JiJiy 5-

1784. — My dear Eliza: You want to know wdiat we are about on this Western Hill. Since you will not be so good as to come and see, I will tell you that our sister Laura is thinking and dreaming of her Beloved. As my soul was not made to be puffed awa}^ in sighs, I spend many an hour of clear comfort in the Grove, the Bower, and my Chamber. At this delightful season when all nature is singing, I think it best to dismiss all our cares, and give them a parole till sullen Winter returns, when we can think of nothing else ; and I believe after all, Eliza, there are few of us that have not our pensive moments, — and at every season. For myself, I will confess that I have often at this very summer retired to the brink of a purling stream, and thought how convenient a place it was for a despairing lover to end his

JULY. Ill

days I I have recommended it to two or three, but they are not yet far enough gone to take the leap. — Mariann Wolcott : Letter to Miss Stoiightoji {Mrs. Oliver Wolcott, Jr.).

Jaly 6.

Were we writing a formal history, large space would be given to Seth P. Beers. A native of Woodbury, for over fifty years he was a leading citizen here. His career culminated in his appointment as sole School Commis- sioner of the State. For nearly a quarter of a century he administered the school fund with such ability that Connecticut still owes his memory a debt of gratitude.

He was a self-made man, and, mindful of his own early struggles, aided and encouraged many ^^oung men here and elsewhere to a suc- cessful career. Prof. Beers of Yale is his grandson.

Jtjiyy.

As we pass b}' St. Anthony's Roman Catholic church we are not thinking of the mediaeval saint gone to his reward near eight hundred 3^ears ago, but our imagination calls up the picture of a Litchfield woman, Miss Julia Beers, tlie real founder of this strong parish church.

She w^as the daughter of Seth P. Beers. While at John P. Brace's school in Hartford she met James R. Bayley, a gifted young

student at Trinity. Those who knew them

7*

112 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

both well, believe that they were engaged to be married. Bayley subsequently studied under Dr. Jarvis at Middletown, but instead of becoming a clergyman in the Protestant Epis- copal church entered the Roman Catholic priesthood. To-day he is remembered as an archbishop.

Nine years passed away, then Miss Beers was baptized a Roman Catholic b}^ the friend of her school days. She lived for a time at the Convent of Mercy in New York. But the rigors of the religious life proved too much for her constitution. After a trip abroad she returned to Litchfield. Through her instru- mentality the fine location on South street was secured for her church. The Catholic Transciipt has reason enough to pay her a noble tribute. We quote one of its paragraphs :

" It was she who cared for the altar, for the instruction of the children whom she tenderly loved, and for the guidance and encourage- ment of the whole congregation ; for when, as often happened in those days of difficult travel, the priest did not arrive at the hour expected, she would gather the waiting people upon their knees, and lead them in the rosary and other devotions. On those Sundays when there was no mass, the people met at her house where she gave instructions to the children, after which all joined in the rosary. This was to her a work of love, and was continued with ardor while she remained in Litchfield."

ST. ANTHONY S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

JULY. 113

She was not disinherited by her father, though it is true that her portion of the estate was held in trust for her during her lifetime.

After the death of her parents, she went to Rome, where she died, and is buried.

Jdly 8.

1888. — St. Anthony's Roman Catholic church is dedicated by Bishop McMahon. Rev. T. R. Sweeney was parish priest at the time. He has been succeeded by Rev. P. H. Finnegan and Rev. • P. M. Skelley. AVould that Father Smith, who used to come all the way fi-om Albany forty years before to administer the mass to the few scattered Roman Catholics, could have been present on this eventful day I And James Morris, Jr., too, our old-time his- torian, with the pen of a ready writer ! Pie would have had to revise his famous Sfafisfics a bit, for this is what he wrote not far from 1815 :

"Only two European families have settled in Litchfield ; they came from Ireland and were respectable."

JdJiy 9.

1776. — The leaden statue of King George III. at Bowling Green, New York, is pulled down by the Son^ of Liberty. It was subse- quently broken up and sent to General Wolcott. Ebenezer Hazard, who wrote about this time to General Gates, was right in his conjecture that

.114 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

the redcoats " would have melted majesty fired at them."

Jdly 10.

Just when the King George statue arrived in Litchfield we do not know, but when it did come, this was what was done with it : " Fred- erick Wolcott, who was a boy at the time, informed me a few years ago that he well remembered the circumstance of the statue being sent there, and that a shed was erected for the occasion in an apple orchard adjoining the house, w^here his father chopped it up with the wood axe, and the ' girls ' had a frolic in running the bullets and making them up into cartridges." — George C. Woodruff: History of Litchfield.

A memorandum in General Wolcott's hand- writing states that 42,088 cartridges were made.

Jdjiy 11.

As New York city was in the hands of the British during most of the Revolution, New England's line of communication with the American army in the Middle States lay through Litchfield and the Hudson river posts. This place naturally became an important depot for military supplies. One storehouse was at the head of North street, another on the site of the present Court House. A w^orkshop for the army stood on East street, just west of the cemetery. The old jail which

JULY. 115

Stood on East street, about where the school - house stands, is where Governor Franklin was confined.

Jdly 12.

1814. — "Dear Sister, — I arrived vSaturda}^ at sunset, and found all well, and boy (Henry Ward) in merry trim, o-lad at heart to be safe on terra firma after all his jolts and tossings. I left m}^ goggles in the paper box for combs, on the toilet table where I slept the first night, the night we turned everything- topsy-turvy to make room for the influx of company. . . Pray save me some pink seed of your double pink, and la}^ me down some honeysuckle of all sorts that you have, and save me a striped rose. I have never seen one. Good night. — RoxANA Beecher : Letter to Harriet Foote.

July 13.

Hiel Jones, in virtue of his place on the high seat of the daily stage that drove through Poganuc Center on the Boston turnpike, felt himself invested with a sort of grandeur as occupying a predominant position in society from whence he could look down on all its movements and interests. Ever}^ housekeeper charged him with her bundle, or commissioned him with her errand. Bright-eyed damsels smiled at him from their windows as he drove up to house doors, and of all that was going on in PoQ-anuc Center or anv of the villao-es for

Il6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

twenty miles aronnd, Hiel considered him- self as a competent judge or critic— Harriet Beecher Stowe : Pogauiic People.

Jtjiy 14.

Hiram Barnes, whose home was a little house by South Bridge, was a typical, jolly stage- driver whom Mrs. Stowe has no more over- drawn in her "Hiel Jones" of " Poganuc Peo- ple " than she has his wife, " Nabby Higgins," who is a composite character depicting in part the dear old bright-eyed Aunt Emily Addis of our early recollection, and, in part, her sister Sally, who became Hiram's wife. — Esther H. Thompson : Enquirer.

July 15.

1829. — The Congregational Church dedicates its third house of worship. This is the present Armory Hall. On the same day, Laurens P_ Hickok was ordained pastor. His ministry here was most fruitful. Many aged persons look back with affection and respect to him.

Dr. Hickok subsequently became widely known as an educator, and the author of books in the realm of ethics and psychology.

Jijiy 16.

How well I remember Judge Reeve's house, wide, roomy, and cheerful. It used to be the Eden of our childish imagination. I remember

JULY. 117

the great old-fashioned garden, with broad alleys set with all sorts of stately bunehes of flowers. It used to be my reward, when I had been good, to spend a Saturday afternoon there, and walk up and down among the flowers, and pick currants off the bushes.

— Harriet Beecher Stowe.

J(jly 17.

In after years, wherever Lyman Beecher went, those families he was accustomed often- est to visit on terms of closest intimacy, he was v.^ont to call his "Judge Reeve places." — Charles Beecher.

Jdly 18.

Judge Reeve's house was built in 1773. How many illustrious memories gather about the home of the founder of the first law school in America I There are other places that are holy ground than those over which a bishop has read words of consecration. Here is one of them. While this house stands it bears wit- ness to a life that was lived on the heights. We may smile at the Judge's absent-minded- ne.':"S, but should we forget to revere his mem- ory, the ver}^ stones of the town would cry out against us.

This house was the home, too, of vSally Burr, and of her cousin Amelia Ogden, and of Eliza- beth Thompson. Here Aaron Burr and Theo- dosia Provost and Lafayette were entertained.

Il8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

And, in recent years, an added interest has been given to the house from the fact that it was the summer home of Judge Woodruff of the United States Circuit Court. Here he lived, a worthy successor of the great and good judge before him ; here, too, in a like faith, he passed away.

Jtjiy 19.

1825.— I thought last evening our street pre- sented the most solemn scene I had ever wit- nessed. I left the house of a dying saint (Mrs. S.) about nine o'clock. Many persons were hanging about the doors and 3^ard in perfect stillness. I crossed the street and stepped softly into the anxious meeting, where a hun- dred poor sinners were all on their knees before God, and 3"our father was in the midst, plead- ing with strong cries and tears for the mercy of God. Around the doors were a number of people, solemn as death. I could not but say, '' How awful is this place ! This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven." — Mrs. Lyman Beecher [Harriet Porter].

Jdly 20.

This town was originally among the number of those decidedly opposed to the movements of former revivalists [at the time of the Great Awakening], and went so far in a regular church meeting called expressly for the pur- pose under the ministry of the venerable Mr.

JULY. 119

Collins, as to let them know, by a unanimous vote, that they did not wish to see them. The effect was they did not come. The report circulated that Litchfield " had voted Christ out of their borders." It was noticed by some of the older people that the death of the last person then a member of the church was a short time before the commencement of our revival. — Rev. Dan Huntington: Kilbouriies History.

Jaly 21.

1861. Battle of Bull Run. Mrs. Hubbard informs me that when the news of this crush- ing defeat reached town, John H. Hubbard went into the yard where some men were painting the summer-house and told them to stop work. "This is no time to spend money for such improvements. The government needs every dollar now." That summer-house was not painted till after the war was over. Mr. Hubbard spent his money freely during the war in recruiting troops, and in assisting the families of soldiers at the front. He was congressman from 1863 to 1867. As he was an ardent Administration man, Lincoln liked and trusted him. As Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard on one occasion were attending a White House reception, Lincoln spied them over the heads of those nearer him, and called out heartily, " Why, here comes Old Connecticut ! "

I20 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Jdly 22.

1 791. The Episcopal church was offered at Litchfield, and here I preached, with very little faith, on the love of Christ. I thought Morse's account of his countrymen is near the truth. Never have I seen any people who could talk so long- and so constantly and so seriously about trifles. — Francis Asburys Journal.

July 23.

Bishop Asbury, from whom we have just quoted, was the founder of American Metho- dism. In two respects he is not only un- equaled, but unrivaled by anyone in the history of American Christianity. In arduous- ness of service who can compare with him ? For forty-five years he traveled, mostly on horseback, over six thousand miles a year, and averaged one sermon a day. And what of tangible results ? " When he commenced his labors in this country there were about six hundred members ; when he fell it was victori- ously at the head of two hundred and twelve thousand." That was in 1816. In 1864 Lincoln wrote: "The Methodist church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospital, more prayers to heaven than any other." Even here, in the home of the Beechers and Bushnell, the visit of that Apostolic man is a noteworthy event.

On that July day he preached in weariness

JULY. 121

and discourag-ement, and then, mounting- his horse in front of Old St. Michael's, he jour- neyed out of sight over the Litchfield hills.

Jtjiy 24.

Until the Meadow Street Church was built in 1837, the early Methodists met in private houses and then in the Town Hall. In the great old-fashioned kitchens at Jacob Morse's, Sr., or at " Uncle Ben " Moore's, and at similar homes, they prayed and sang with such fervor, that local tradition has it, that when they met on Plumb Hill, they could be heard all the way to Town Hill. But, tradition aside, as we catch glimpses of their meetings through the gather- ing mist of the years, we may be sure that the voice of their supplications was heard on high, and that there the names of these men and women, now for the most part forgotten, are written out in full in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Jiily 25.

1794. — William A. Bradley, born. He be- came postmaster and mayor of the city of Washington.

July 26.

1815. — Payne Kenyon Kilbourne, born. From 1845 to 1853 he was editor and proprietor of the Enquirer. In 1859, he published his " History of Litchfield," put in type by himself. Mrs. HoUister informs me that he also collabo-

122 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

rated with Mr. Hollister in the latter's History of Connecticut, to the extent of furnishing' much of the data for that work, and verifying many of its facts.

Jdly 27.

T837.— The Methodist Episcopal Church dedicates its first house of worship, the building now used as a Masonic hall.

Jacob Morse, Sr., cut the timbers in his woods and contributed them, while the great old-fashioned latch and lock were the gift and handiwork of "Uncle Ben" Moore. Look at them, next time you go through Meadow street, for they are fitting memorial of a char- acter that was as old-fashioned and solid as the lock. Stories of " Uncle Ben's " versatility still linger. Give him the opportunity, and he could conduct a prayer meeting for an hour unaided, and make it interesting, too. Sing- ing, prayer, exposition of scriptures, exhorta- tion,— through them all heaven's sunlight shone.

One who remembers him writes : " He was tall and erect, with steady blue eyes, long, straight hair, and solemn dignity of manners. In extreme old age, he was blind, and his thin, white hair, parted in the middle, fell to his shoulders."

Jijly 28.

1 72 1. — The first white male child is born in Litchfield, Gershom Gibbs b}^ name. He be-

JULY. 123

came a soldier in the Revolution, was taken prisoner at the downfall of Fort Washington, and died in captivity.

1 8 1 9. — Leverette W. Wessells, born. He was sheriff of the county for twelve years, organ- ized the Nineteenth Connecticut Volunteers, and was quartermaster-general during the ad- ministration of Gov. Andrews.

JiJly 29.

1866. — George A. Hickox became editor of the Enquirer, which he conducted with marked ability for twenty-five years. His successors have been C. R. Duffie, Jr., and George C. Woodruff. No higher tribute could be paid to the present management than was given by G. W. Newcomb during the Arctic weather of February, 1899. " What are you doing in town to-night, are you here to summon a doctor ? ' ' " No, Fve come to get the Enquirer ! "

July 30.

A. B. Shumway has been connected with Litchfield journalism even longer than Hickox or Collier. He came here as foreman in 1859. The Enquirer, in its seventieth anniversary number, says of him: He "has served continu- ously in that position ever since, save for a gal- lant three-years record as an officer of the Nineteenth Connecticut, and for a brief period, i865-'66, as business manager. The record of

124 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Captain Shumway is an enviable one, and we believe that there is hardl}" a printer in the country that can equal, let alone surpass, it." He has had the satisfaction of being unofficially the dean of a school of journalism. Among others trained in this office, have been E. W. Addis, long an editor in the state of New York, Fred E. Ives, who has won fame and fortune in photo-engraving, and George C. Rowe, a lead- ing colored man of the South, preacher, edu- cator, and editor of the CJiarlcston Enquirer.

July 31.

Litchfield journalism looks back to Thomas Collier as its founder. He established the Monitor in 1784, the same year the Law School was founded.

" No mines of coal, with its bitumen fat,

Sleep in thy breast — thy granites tell us that ;

Yet have thy laboring Colliers done their part.

Thy head to enlighten, and to warm thy heart.

Their Sibyl leaves upon the winds were thrown,

For others' bene.fit, if not their own."

- — John Pierpont : Litchfield County Centennial

/^d§dJSt I.

1865. — Litchfield gives a rousing welcome to the soldiers returned from the war, about three hundred of whom were present. There was a procession and speech making, a parade of ''phantastiques," and no end of decoration and illumination.

f\U(^lASt 2.

Sometime in August, 1723, Joseph Harris was shot and scalped by the Indians. His body was found on the plain, since known as Harris Plain, not far from where the road turns to Milton.

PdiJdSt 3.

1893. — The Litchfield Historical Society is organized. It is to be hoped that the time will soon come when this organization will be ade- quately housed, for there are in the homes of this town many articles of rare historical inter- est which would be of tenfold more value if collected and arranged under the auspices of this society.

Pdijast 4.

I have prided myself not a little upon having excellent barns. . . . No wonder, then,

(125)

126 LITCHFIELD BOOK (^F DAYS.

that I was somewhat taken aback a few months ago, when addressed by a tramp, who pointed to my largest and best barn, and asked what building it was. Upon being told that it was a barn, he replied, " Oh, I thought it was a poor- house. They have poorhouses just like it in the old country." — F. Ratchford Starr: Farm Echoes.

/1u§u5t 5.

I read and hear much that is absurd in re- gard to " points " in Jerseys, and long ago made up my mind that my schoolmaster was very remiss in not teaching me how to spell that simple word. I spell it " pints," and am fully convinced that the chief "point " of a cow is in the number of pints she yields. — F. Ratchford Starr : Farm Echoes.

fl(j?<jst 6.

1873. — The present Congregational church is dedicated. Rev. Henry B. Elliott was act- ing pastor. His successors have been Rev. Allan McLean and Rev. Charles Symington, both of whom died at the same age, while in the service of the church.

"The two men finished their work in the strength of their years, and the church is left once more in the mystery of life and death in its immediate presence. The church life may well be in close sympathy with the unseen life when such messages are sent to it. And

AUGUST. 127

what are the messages but the same that have been given to all the ages and in all Christian experience, that the unseen sphere is close to the seen ; that the door from the one to the other may open easily and at any time ; and that when it opens, and we are ready, all is beautiful and under the Father's care." — Presi- dent D WIGHT : Address on Bcv. Charles Sy mi ag- io n.

Rev. John Hutchins, the present pastor, came here in 1895.

1806. — The Democrats protest against the imprisonment of Editor Osborn. At simrise seventeen guns are fired, a procession com- posed of men from far and near parade the streets, a public meeting is held, followed by a collation. Osborn was editor of the JVii/iess, a rank Democratic paper in this stronghold of Federalism. He had been convicted of libel against Julius Deming, and had been impris- oned. His friends claimed he was shut up in an unwholesome room with the worst crim- inals. Naturally, Democrats everywhere were stirred up, and Litchfield Federalists came in for no end of denunciation.

/^ij^ast 7.

Two colored men were discussing the demon- stration of August 6, 1806. "What does it mean ? "

" Why, don't you know ? This is leap year, and the Fourth of Tulvhas come around ao^ain."

128 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS.

j^ij^ijst 8.

1888. — Fire bells ring at 12.30 a. m. The Beach building on West street is on fire. Two hours later, four business buildings are de- stroyed, and the new court house, which had just received its last coat of paint, is ablaze ; and like its predecessor of two years before goes up in fire and smoke.

fliJ^dSt 9.

Sunday was to me the most uncomfortable day of the week, from the confineinent in dress and locomotion which it imposed on me after Prayers and Breakfast. I was taken by my mother to a Wash Tub and thoroughly scrub- bed with Soap and Water from head to foot. I was then dressed in my Sunday Habit which, as I was growing fast, was almost constantly too small. My usual dress at other times was a thin pair of Trousers and a Jacket of linsey- woolsey ; and I wore no shoes except in frosty weather. On Sunday morning I was robed in Scarlet Cloth Coat with vSilver Buttons, a white Silk Vest, white Cotton Stockings, tight vShoes, Scarlet Cloth Breeches with vSilver Buttons to match my Coat, a close Stock, Ruffles at the Breast of my Jacket, and a cocked Beaver Hat with gold laced Band. In this attire I was marched to the Meeting House with orders not to soil my Clothes, and to sit still, and by

AUGUST. 129

no means to play during meeting-time. — Oli- ver WoLCOTT, Jr.

Pd^dSt 10.

Parson Champion succeeded Parson Collins, our first Minister, Doctor, and Justice of the Peace. Mr. Champion was a pleasant, affable man and a sonorous, animated Preacher. I liked loud preaching and suffered only from the confinement of my vSunday dress. Mr. Champion not unfrequently exchanged Sunday services with a neighboring Parson, whose per- formances were most uncomfortable. They were dull, monotonous, and very long, in the afternoon they frequently exceeded two hours As I was not allowed to sleep during meeting time, my sufferings were frequently extreme. — Oliver Wolcott, Jr.

/^iJ^iJSt II.

After service new toils awaited me. Our Sunday was in fact the old Jewish Sabbath, continued from sunset to sunset. In the inter- val from the end of services in the Meeting House until stmset, my father read to the fam- ily from the Bible or some printed sermon, and when he was done, I was examined by my mother in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. I learned to recite this in self-defense ; and I comprehended it then as well as at any time afterwards. When this task was ended, I was

130 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

allowed to resume my ordinary Habit. It ex- hilarates my spirits, even at present, to think of the ecstacies I enjoyed when I put on my Jacket and Trousers and quit my Stockings and vShoes. I used to run to the Garden Lawn or into the orchard ; I would leap, run, lie down and roll on the grass, in short play all the gam- bols of a fat calf when loosened from confine- ment.— Oliver Wolcott, Jr.

^dJ^dJSt 12.

1776. — David Matthews, the royalist mayor of New York, who was a political prisoner in Litchfield, writes to his wife : " Ever since my arrival here, I have been at the house of Capt Moses Seymour, who, together with his wife, have behaved in the most genteel, kind man- ner, and have done everything in their powei to make my time as agreeable as possible. He is a fine merry fellow, and she is a warm Prot- estant ; and if it was not the thoughts of home were continually in my mind, I might be happy with my good landlord and his family."

/^U(?dst 13.

185 1. — This was the first day of the Centen- nial Celebration of the organization of Litch- field County. A vast throng from all parts of the County and from distant places gathered at West Park. Samuel Church, at that time chief justice of the State, delivered an historical ad-

AUGUST. 131

dress. John Pierpont, the celebrated Unita- rian clergyman and man of letters, was the poet of the occasion.

" Thy fathers, Litchfield County, are at rest : Thy children meet to-day to call thee blest. Honored and loved as by them all thou art, They leave their homes, and gather to thy heart, To see once more thy venerable face. Once more to feel thy motherly embrace, Each other's voice to hear, to clasp once more Each other's hand, still, warm, and to implore God's blessing on thee, for all coming time." — John Pierpont: Litchfield County Cefitennial.

/^d^dst 14.

1 85 1. — On the second day of the Centennial celebration, Horace Bushnell delivered one of the noblest orations known in the history of American oratory. His "Age of Homespun" is a magnificent tribute to the services of un- historic and forgotten men and women, who, after all, have done more than the illustrious few to make the history of the County what it is.

pa(?ust 15.

If you ask who made this Litchfield County of ours, it will be no sufficient answer that you get, however instructive and useful, when you have gathered up the names that appear in our public records, and recited the events that have found an honorable place in the history of our county, or the republic. Yoti must not go into

132 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

the burial places and look only for the tall monuments and titled names. . . . Around the honored few, here a Bellamy or a Day sleeping- in the midst of his flock ; here a Wol- coLt or a Smith, an Allen or a Tracy, a Reeve or a Gould, all names of honor — round about these few, and others like them, are lying mul- titudes of worthy men and women under their humbler monuments, or in graves that are hid- den by the monumental green that loves to freshen over their forgotten resting-place ; and in these, the humble but good many, we are to say are the deepest, truest causes of our happy history. — Horace Bushnell : Litchfield County Centennial.

fld^dst 16.

Litchfield has always been famed for lon- gevity, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's words still have application : " Nobody ever seemed to be sick or to die either, at least while I was there. The natives grew old till they could not grow any older, and then they stood still, and lasted from generation to generation."

Mrs. Mary Adams, mother of Chief Justice Adams, was born in 1698, and died in 1803, and so had the very unusual experience of living in three centuries. And, as if this were not enough, she rode on horseback thirty miles in one day after she had passed her one hundredth year.

The oldest person in the town at present is Miss Rebecca Osborn, in the ninety-eighth

AUGUST. 133

year of her age. vShe was born in the house she now lives in ; her father was also born in that house, which was built by her grandfather in the last century.

f\ii(iast 17.

1774. — The inhabitants of Litchfield, in legal town meeting, protest against the operation of the Boston port bill, and authorize subscriptions for the relief of the poor in that town.

On the same day, Aaron Burr writes from the home of his brother-in-law, Judge Reeve : " Before I proceed further, let me tell you that a few days ago, a mob of several hundred per- sons gathered at Barrington, and tore down the house of a man who was suspected of being- unfriendly to the liberties of the people, broke up the court then sitting at that place, etc. As many of the rioters belonged to this colony, and the Supreme Court was then sitting at this place, the sheriff was immediately dispatched to apprehend the ringleaders. He returned yester- day with eight prisoners, who were taken with- out resistance. But this minute there are enter- ing the town on horseback, with great regular- ity, about fifty men, armed each with a white club, and I observe others continually dropping in."

/)dj$dst 18.

1837. — The Milton Episcopal Church is con- secrated by Bishop Brownell.

134 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

pti^dst 19.

1798. — The Milton Congregational Church is organized. The Third Ecclesiastical Society had been organized some years before, and there had been occasional preaching at Milton, as the following minute of 1779 (exact date not given) shows : " Voted, That we will hire Mr. Stephen Heaton to preach with us seventeen days, for which we agree to give him thirty-five bushels of wheat or equivalent in money, to be paid by the 20th of November, 1780."

t8o8. — Frederick Henry Wolcott, born. He was one of the sons of Frederick Wolcott. After a business career in New York, he re- tired in middle life, and gave himself entirely to philanthropic work. He was one of the most influential Presbyterains of his day, and sat for several terms in the General Assembly of that church.

Pd(?a$t 20.

One of my temptations to an afternoon walk was to meet the girls who, like ourselves, were often seen taking a daily walk. Among these were the Wolcotts, the Demings, the Tal- madges, the Landons, and Miss Peck, who after- wards became my wife. The Demings were always my warm friends, and to them I am indebted for many a kindness at a time when I was ill and weak, and the bystanders hardly expected me to live. Of the Wolcotts

AUGUST. 135

there were four, and I think now, as I did then, that I never beheld more beautiful women than were Hannah and Mary Ann Wolcott. Many a time have I met them on North street, when it was a pleasure to look upon them, with the clearest complexions of white and red, the brightest eyes, with tall and upright forms, and graceful walk. These ladies would have attracted admiration in any place in the world. — E. D. Mansfield : Personal Memories.

/^d?iJSt 21.

Hannah and Mary Ann AVolcott, alluded to in the quotation for August 20, were the daugh- ters of Frederick Wolcott. If the men of the Wolcott family were distinguished for sev- eral generations, the women were no less so. Every one in Litchfield, save some of the younger school children and recent summer boarders, knows what Senator Tracy said in reference to Mrs. Oliver Wolcott, Jr. Dur- ing the second administration of Washington, no one was more admired in the society of the Capital than the wife of the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Liston, the British minister, said one day to Senator Tracy, "Your country- woman, Mrs. Wolcott, would be admired even at St. James." "vSir," was the reply, "she is admired even on Litchfield Hill."

136 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

f\a(^ast 22.

Judge Reeve was noted for his chivalrous devotion to woman, both in and out of the do- mestic circle. His first wife, the sister of Aaron Burr, was a delicate invalid, confined to her bed for many years, and various interesting stories are told of his tender watching- and unwearied care. He was a great admirer of female beauty and also of female talent, and various anecdotes were current of his chival- rous sayings. Among others, this especially attracted my childish interest, that he never saw a little girl, but he wished to kiss her, for if she was not good, she would be ; and he never saw a little boy, but he wished to whip him, for if he was not bad, he would be. — Catherine Beecher.

f[UQUSt 23.

1780. — Washington and Hamilton enter- tained at Oliver Wolcott's, en route to West Point.

While Frederick Wolcott was a Yale student (he graduated in 1787), he received many a bright letter from his sister Mariann at Litch- field. Under this date (year not given) she writes :

. . . " Verily, Frederick, there is no sense in living in this world; if I had one wing, one single pinion to buoy me up, I would endeavor to keep aloof from it.

RESIDENCE OF PROF. J. M. HOPPIN,

AUGUST. 137

" I expect to see you at Commencement. I shall go with — my Papa. I believe we shall come in a carriage for the sake of confabula- tion. I have been dancing all the forenoon, and my hand trembles so that I can hardly write intelligently. We dance again this even- ing, and w^e all wish for your company. Mean- time you are poring over some antiquated sub- ject that is neither instructive nor entertaining. You cannot say so of our dancing, it is an amusement that profits the mind. . . . " Heaven bless you. — Mariann." 1 791. Clark Woodruff, born. He became one of the leaders of the Louisiana bar, and judge of the eighth judicial district of the state.

/^d<5dst 24.

The oldest house on North street is the one owned by Prof. J. M. Hoppin. It was built in 1760 by Elisha Sheldon, who, as judge and member of Council, exerted much public influ- ence in his day. His son, Samuel Sheldon, used the house as a tavern, and a famous one it was, too. Washington was entertained there, spending a night in the northeast room. vSub- sequently, the place passed into the hands of Uriah Tracy, the brilliant United States sena- tor. Here are enough memories to last a house forever, biit we have only touched upon the first fifty years.

138 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

flij^dst 25.

In this century, the house has been known as the Gould House, and latterly as the Hoppin House. James Gould was a son-in-law of wSen- ator Tracy, and associate and successor of Tapping Reeve in the famous Law School. We have already alluded to the fact that his lectures were delivered in his office, which stood just south of the house. Prof. James M. Hoppin, known everywhere to students of the- ology and art, and to lovers of good literature, bought this house of Judge Gould's daughter in 187 1 ; and has made it his summ.er home ever since. Miss Jeanie Gould Lincoln, in writing An Uim'illiiig Maid, though she speaks of the Wolcott House, is thought to have been writing more from her memory of her grand- father's home in North street.

flil^dSt 26.

When Congress sat in Philadelphia, a Litch- field County man was seen driving a drove of mules through the streets. A North Carolina member congratulated the late Mr. Tracy upon seeing so many of his constituents that morn- ing, and inquired where they were going, to which he facetiously replied, that they were going to North Carolina to keep school. — Judge Church : Litchfield Comity Centennial.

Truly this is an age of destructive criticism. Prof. Hoppin, the owner of Senator Tracy's old

AUGUST.

39

home, claims this anecdote for a Rhode Island congressman.

/^d§ast 27.

1826. — I hope to begin to preach in about five years, and so our dear mother's prayers will be answered. I found a paper the other day written by her in which I find .she used to rise before day to pray, and that she used to dedi- cate her sons to God to be his servants in his cause. — William Beecher.

The passage in Uncle Tom's Cabin w^here vSt. Clair describes his mother's influence is a simple reproduction of this mother's influence as it has always been in her family. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

f\a(^as\: 28.

I could give you introductions to numbers of most excellent people. Litchfield was famous for good society. I would send you notes, but you would have to deliver them in the grave- yard, always hospitable to the dead, and inhos- pitable to the living. Ancfyet if you should go over to the east of the town, and wandering in the burial ground, you should find a stone marked Roxana Foote Beecher, please uncover your head, and drive from your mind all but heavenly thoughts. — Henry Ward Beecher : Letter to Fanny FeDi.

140 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Pd?a5t 29.

1792. — Frederick A. Tallmadg-e, born. For many years he was one of the foremost citizens of New York, president of the State Senate, member of Congress, Recorder of the City, and Superintendent of the New York police.

1 804. — Joshua Huntington Wolcott, born. He became a member of the famous Boston house, A. and A. Lawrence & Co. During the Civil War he was treasurer of the Boston vSanitary Commission. Gov. Roger Wolcott of Massa- chusetts is his son.

The village library, which dates from the spring of 1862, was named, a few months after it was established, the Wolcott Library, in rec- ognition of the generosity of Joshua Wolcott, and in respect to the honored name he bears,

Pij(?ijst 30.

1832. — Edward W. Seymour, born.

Judge Fenn, his colleague in the Supreme Court, wrote of him as follows, upon learning the news of his sudden death in 1892 : "The eldest son of the late Chief Justice Origen S. Seymour, he inherited the rare judicial tem- perament, the calm, candid, impartial judg- ment, the love of mercy-tempered justice, so essentially characteristic of his father. Edu- cated at Yale College, a graduate of the famous class of 1853, studying law in his father's office, early and frequently called to represent his

AUGUST. 141

native town, and later his vSenatorial district in the General Assembly, a useful member of Congress for four years, having in the mean- time, by devotion to his profession, as well as by natural ability, become the acknowledged leader of the bar in the two counties of Litch- field and Fairfield ; certainly it was the princi- ple of natural selection which three years ago led to his choice as a member of our highest judicial tribunal, — the vSupreme Court of Errors of this State."

J. H. Olmstead of vStamford, in speaking be- fore the Fairfield County Bar, said :

"He wore the ermine so modestly, and was so kind and considerate on the bench. He re- garded the feelings of the counsel, whether old or young, as well as the feelings of the parties and all connected with the cases on trial. Dur- ing the brief time he was on the bench, he proved himself a model judge, giving great promise of the future. . . .

But paramount to all else in the life of Judge vSeymour, stands out the fact that he was a true Christian gentleman. . . . The life and character and death of such a man is refresh- ing to believers in these materialistic days."

/^ij<5tist 31.

Personally, Judge [E. W.] vSeymour was one of the loveliest of men, a favorite with his class in college, the life of all companies,

142 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

always respected, always beloved. As it should be with every man, his ways grew more serious with age, but his wit was as ready, as spontaneous as ever. His talk was always refreshing to young and old, always kindly, always cleanly. To his strong attachment to his church, to his family, and to his home, his whole life testified. — G. A. Hickox : Eiiqiiirer.

There was no one who took more account of the common, everyday affairs of his street associates, interesting himself in all that went for their happiness, the improvement of their places, and the good of the town. He knew every shrub and tree that had been planted, had probably leaned over the fence and talked with the owner about it. . . . Plain people trusted him, and voted for him, too ; politics had little to do with it.

He "liked dumb beasts, and they trusted him," he knew birds well, knew all the wood roads where the cypripediums and wild calla grew, and took the neighborhood boys with him to get them. I thought myself fairly keen in the getting of rare wild flowers, but I seldom made a find that wasn't an old story to the judge. — Dr. H. E. Gates : Enquirer.

September i.

Moses Seymour, a native of Hartford, came to Litchfield in early manhood. He distin- guished himself in the Revolution, held various offices of public trust, and was town clerk for thirty-seven years. His wife was Molly, the daughter of Ebenezer Marsh. Their family consisted of five sons and one daughter. Two of the sons, Ozias and Moses, were sheriffs of this county, another, Epaphroditus, became a bank president in Brattleboro, Vermont. The careers of the two other sons, Henry and Horatio, we have noted elsewhere ; the daugh- ter became the wife of Rev. Truman Marsh.

Septe/T)ber 2.

Is there anything so delicious as roast pig, thought Oliver Wolcott, as he surveyed a fine litter in his barnyard. " Here, Pompey," call- ing to his faithful slave, " take two of these pigs up to Parson Champion with my compli- ments."

No sooner said than done ; the pigs are caught, and, despite their squealing, put into a bag, which is securely tied. It is quite a trip to the parson's, and as Pompey passes the house of Major Moses Seymour he determines to find

(143)

144 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS,

refreshment for his journey in the smiles, and perhaps the doughnuts and coffee, of Phyllis in the kitchen. While he is regaling himself within. Major Seymour is enjoying himself without. Had he been a man of letters, he might have meditated upon the deliciousness of roast pig, and have anticipated Charles Lamb in his famous essay. But he is a man of action. He has opened the bag, let out the pigs, and put two puppies in their place.

Pompey appears at last, and finishes his journey. When the bag was opened. Parson Champion was in no mood to enjoy a joke, and gruffly ordered Pompey home to his master. The poor slave was about speechless with astonishment, and when he got back to Major Seymour's again, he was glad to tell his story to the good major, who showed his amazement, and was kind and sympathetic. " Pompey, you had better step in and tell Phyllis about it," said Major Seymour; and while the slave was in the kitchen, quick hands freed the puppies and put back the pigs.

A few moments later Oliver Wolcott, as he listened to Pompey's incoherent explanations, thought the man must be drunk or out of his head. " Why, what are you talking about ? Open that bag and let the pigs out." And sure enough there they were. " Pompey have you stopped anywhere on the way?" "Yes, sail ; yes, sah ; just a minute at Major Sey-

SEPTEMBER.

145

moiir's." "Well," said his master, "that ex- plains it all."

S(^pt(^mb(^r 3.

Old Dr. Champion in the latter part of his ministry thought he had sinned away the day of grace, and that he was going to hell ; and he never showed himself so much a Christian as in the disposition which he manifested at that time. If it was God's will that he should go there, he was willing to go. He did not know what he should do in hell, till one day he solved the question satisfactorily in his own mind, and said, " I will open a prayer meeting there ! " He thought it would afford him some balm and consolation. I do not think that man ever got there. — Henry Ward Beecher : Seniiou — Sin against the Holy Ghost.

Sept:(^mb(^r 4.

1777. — Morris Woodruff, born. General Woodruff was a lifelong resident of the town, and was repeatedly, almost continuously, entrusted with public office. He represented the town in fourteen sessions of the legislature, and was magistrate of the county for twenty- six years. Upon the Litchfield of his day and upon the church of his choice, he left a deep impress by reason of his integrity and force of character.

146 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

On one occasion, Morris Woodruff, upon his return from the legislature, was much annoyed to find that some of his directions concerning farm work had not been carried out. Salmon Brown, a brother of the famous John Brown, who was in Mr. Woodruff's employ, consoled him by saying, " Gin'ral, Gin'ral, don't you know that if you want anything did, you must did it yourself?" — George M. Woodruff.

S(^pt(^mb(^r 6.

John C. Calhoun studied law under Tapping Reeve. The following reminiscence of his Litchfield life is taken from a book highly prized by collectors of Americana — "The National Portrait Gallery," New York, 1835 :

" It was in the debating society of this place, where the most agitating political topics of the day were discussed before crowded meetings, that Mr. Calhoun, who was ever the champion of the republican side, first developed his great powers of parliamentary debate. It was his custom even then to prepare by reflection and not by arranging on paper what he meant to say, and not by taking notes of the arguments of others. A good memory preserved the order of his own thoughts, and a wonderful power of analysis and classification enabled him to digest rapidly, and to distribute in their proper places the answer and refutation of all

SEPTEMBER. 147

the arguments of the speakers, however nu- merous, whom he followed."

September 7.

John C. Calhoun boarded for a time at the McMartin Place on Prospect street. The house was at that time the boyhood home of Rosea Webster, Mrs. H. B. Belden's father. He very well remembered helping Calhoun set out some of the trees in front of the house.

The elms in front of Dr. Page's are also claimed as his. Calhoun seems to have boarded in about as many houses as Washing- ton was entertained in. The southeast room of the second floor of the house now the Episcopal rectory was his room for a time.

This was the house that Samuel Seymour built in 1784. His son Charles, when eighty- seven years of age, came on to attend the golden wedding of Judge and Mrs. Seymour. He searched the garret for a fishing-rod he had left on the rafters forty-five years before, but unfortunately looked in vain.

September 8.

I very well remember going back, after hav- ing arrived at years of manhood, to the school- house where I did not receive my early educa- tion. I measured the stones which in my child- hood it seemed that a giant could not lift, and I could almost turn them over with my foot ! 9*

148 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

I measured the trees which seemed to loom up into the sky wonderously large, but they had shrunk, grown shorter, and outspread narrower. I looked into the old schoolhouse, and how small the whittled benches and dilapidated they were, compared with my boyhood impres- sion of them ! I looked over the meadows, across which my toddling feet had passed. They had once seemed to me to be broad fields, but now but narrow ribbons, lying between the house and the water. I marveled at the appa- rent change which had taken place in these things, and thought what a child I must have been, when they seemed to me to be things of great importance. The school ma'am — oh what a being I thought she was, and the school- master — how awe-struck I was at his presence. vSo looking and wistfully remembering, I said to myself, "Well, one bubble has broken." But when you shall stand above, and look back with celestial and clarified vision, upon this world — this rickety old schoolhouse earth, it will seem smaller to you than to me that old village school. — Henry Ward Beecher : Ab- bot fs Life.

Septe(T)ber 9.

E. D. Mansfield in his Personal Mefuones g\\e^ the following glimpse of Judge Gould's lecture room : " At nine o'clock we students walked into the lecture room, with our note books under our arms. We had desks, and pen and ink to

SEPTEMBER. I49

record the important principles and authori- ties. The practice of Judge Gould was to read the principle from his own manuscript twice distinctly, pausing between and repeating in the same manner the leading cases. After the lecture we had access to the law library to con- sult authorities."

September lo.

1805. — John Pierpont, born. He became judge of the vSupreme Court of Vermont.

1862. — The Nineteenth Connecticut Volun- teers marched in from Camp Button and re- ceived an elegant stand of colors from Mrs. William C. Noyes, her husband making the presentation address.

September ii.

Miss Pierce's schoolhouse was a small build- ing of only one room, probably not exceeding 30 feet by 70, with small closets at each end, one large enough to hold a piano, and the others used for bonnets and over-garments. The plainest pine desks, long plank benches, a small table, and an elevated teacher's chair consti- tuted the whole furniture. When I began school there, she was the sole teacher. In pro- cess of time her nephew, Mr. John Brace, be- came her associate. — Catherine Beecher.

150 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Sept(^(T)ber 12.

Mr. Brace was one of the most stimulating and inspiring instructors I ever knew. He was himself widely informed, an enthusiast in bot- any, mineralogy, and the natural sciences gen- erally, besides being well read in English clas- sical literature. . . . Much of the training and inspiration of my early days consisted, not in the things I was supposed to be studying, but in hearing while seated unnoticed at my desk, the conversation of Mr. Brace with the older classes. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

September 13.

1795. — Joseph E. Camp, ordained. He was the first pastor of the Northfield church, which he served forty-two years. On one occasion, he went over to preach at the Wolcott church, which was in such straits that it could not sup- port a settled minister. He gave out as his opening hymn a selection from Watts : " Lord, what a wretched land is this That yields us no supply."

A smile stole over the congregation, and was in no wise lessened when the chorister an- nounced very audibly the tune — " Northfield."

Septe/T)ber 14.

My servants had gone out for the evening, and I had just put the children to bed, when Mr. Hubbard came into the house, and told me

SEPTEMBER.

151

that a number of enlisted men had just come to town, and that there were no preparations to receive them at Camp Button, and that the hotels were full. " They must be taken care of, for they are going- out to fight for us." So I looked up all my bedding, and then went in to Miss Ogden's and borrowed of her. That night nineteen soldiers slept in our house. — Mrs. Abby J. Hubbard.

Septe/T)ber 15.

1862. — The Nineteenth Connecticut Volun- teers, after giving three parting cheers for Camp Button, moved to Litchfield Station, en I'oute for the seat of war.

September 16.

John Brown attended Morris Academy with his younger brother Salmon. A story of the two brothers is told, how John, finding that Salmon had committed some school offense, for which the teacher had pardoned him, said to the teacher : " Mr. Vaill, if Salmon had done this thing at home, father would have punished him. I know he would expect you to punish him now for doing this, — and if you don't I shall." That night finding Salmon was likely to escape punishment, John made good his word, — more in sorrow than in anger, — giving his brother a severe flogging. — F. B. Sanborn : Life of JoJui Brown.

152 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

Septe/nber 17.

1862.— The Battle of Antietam. The Eighth Connecticut, containing two companies of Litchfield County troops, was engaged in this fight. Three men from this town were slain on the field.

5epte/T)b(^r 18.

John H. Hubbard, Congressman during the Civil War, writes from Washington to his wife :

" How hard it is for me to be kept from you ! I think I can appreciate the great sacrifice of the men who leave their families to fight for their country. Is it not a wonder that more of them do not desert or die with homesickness? Poor fellows ! Many of them will come home to die in poverty and obscurity in spite of their brave generosity. I hope that their wives and children will continue to love them, and that God will help them."

Sept(^(riber 19.

1864.— The Battle of Winchester. The Nine- teenth Connecticut had been reorganized at Alexandria, and was known in its fighting days as the Second Connecticut Artillery. It was part of Gen. Upton's brigade that saved the day at Winchester. The regiment was under fire from the middle of the forenoon till about sun- set. T. F. Vaill tells the story of those fatal ten

JOHN H. HUBBARD.

SEPTEMBER. I53

minutes which wroug-ht as much havoc as all the rest of the day :

" The enemy's artillery, on a rise of ground in front, plowed the field with cannister and shells, and tore the ranks in a friglitful man- ner. Maj. Rice was struck by a shell, his left arm torn off, and his body cut almost asunder. Maj. Skinner was struck on the top of the head by a shell, knocked nearly a rod with face to the earth, and was carried to the rear insensi- ble. Gen. Upton had a good quarter pound of flesh taken out of his thigh by a shell, and was laid up for some weeks ; several other officers were also struck, and from this instance some idea may be gained of the havoc among the en- listed men at this point."

The regiment lost that day one hundred and thirty-six killed and wounded, fourteen of whom were officers. Three men from this town were among the slain; a fourth, mortally wounded, died a few days later.

Sept(^mb(^r 20.

Take the report of my doings on the platform of the world's business, and it has been naught. But still it has been a great thing even for me to live. In my separate and merely personal kind of life, I have had a greater epic trans- acted than was ever written, or could be. The little turns of my way have turned great

154 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

changes, — what I am now as distinguished from the merely mollusk and pnlpy state of in- fancy ; the drawing-ont of my powers, the cor- recting of my errors, the winnowing of my faults, the washing of my sins, that which has given me principles, opinions, and, more than all, a faith, and as the fruit of this, an abiding in the sense and free partaking of the love of God. . . . What a history of redemption and more ! — Horace Bushnell : Life and Letters.

S(^pt(^nii^^r 21.

Reckon as thy jewels, then, Thy saintly women and thy holy men. — John Pierpont : Litchfield County Centennial.

Si^ptember 22.

1849. — The first passenger train runs over the Naugatuck railroad to the terminus at Win- sted.

5epte/T)ber 23.

Mother was one of those strong, restful, widely sympathetic natures in whom all around seemed to find comfort and repose. She was of a temperament peculiarly restful and peace- giving. Her union with the spirit of God, tm- ruffled and unbroken even from childhood, seemed to impart to her an equilibrium and healthful placidity that no earthly reverses ever disturbed. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

SEPTEMBER. 155

September 24.

The communion between my father and mother was a peculiar one. It was an inti- macy throughout the whole range of their being. Both intellectually and morally, he re- garded her as the better and stronger portion of himself, and I remember hearing him say that after her death, his first sensation was a sort of terror, like that of a child suddenly shut out alone in the dark. — Harriet Befcher Stowe.

S(^pt(^mb(^r 25.

1816. — Roxana Beecher died. Mrs. Reeve, in a letter written at the time, says : " Her soul lighted up and gilded the way as she en- tered the valley of death. She made a very feeling and appropriate prayer in my hearing. She told her husband that her views and antic- ipations of heaven had been so great that she could hardly sustain it. She dedicated her sons to God for missionaries. Mr. Beecher then made a prayer, and she fell into a sweet sleep from which she awoke in heaven."

Harriet Beecher vStowe writes : " There was one passage of Scripture always associated with her in our minds in childhood ; it was this — ' Ye are come unto ^It. Zion, the city of the liv- ing God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels ; to the gen- eral assembly of the Church of the first-born.

156 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

and to spirits of just men made perfect.' We all knew that this was what our father re- peated to her when she was dying, and we often repeated it to each other. It was to that we felt we must attain, though we scarcely knew how."

S(^pte/T)ber 26.

1776. — David Matthews, the royalist mayor of New York, writes from Litchfield : " The committee have been compelled to request my removal in order to pacify some people. They insist I can blow up this town. Oh, that I could ! The sheriff has given orders that I shall not approach the gaol, lest the doors should fly open and the prisoners escape. I should not have returned to this cold wilder- ness had not the sheriff of Hartford declared he must lock me up in gaol. "

5<^pt(^mb(^r 27.

Shortly after his mother's burial, Henry Ward Beecher was discovered under Sister Catherine's window, digging with great zeal and earnestness. vShe called to him to know what he was doing, and, lifting up his curly head, with great simplicity he answered, "Why, I'm going to heaven to find ma." — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

SEPTEMBER. I57

S(^pt<^mb(^r 28.

1738. — Town of Goshen is org-anized in the house of Deacon John Buel, West street, Litch- field.

S(^pt(^mb(^r 29.

1864. — Seth F. Plumb, for whom the Grand Army Post of this town is named, was killed at Chapin's Farms, Va. An army letter, writ- ten at the time, bears the following tribute : " Fairer character never graced a soldier's uni- form, and he lives embalmed in the affections of home and in the hearts of his comrades. He led in the closing prayer of that last meeting before the fight, and his last words, as the col- umn moved for the charge, were respecting ' that good meeting ' and the preciousness of Christ to the soldier."

S(^pt(^mb(^r 30.

1821. — Edward Beecher writes at the close of September : " Harriet reads everything she can lay her hands on, and sews and knits dili- gently. Henry and Charles go to school. Henry is sprightly and active, and Charles as honest and clumsy as ever.

"And what shall I say more? Shall I vSpeak of our orchard, from which the gale blew off

158 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

apples enough for twenty barrels of cider, and wherein are yet cider and winter apples with- out number ? Or of our cellar, wherein are barrels small and great ; moreover bins, boxes, and cupboards, which I have arranged, having cleansed the cellar with besom, rake, and wheel- barrow? Or of the garden, in which are weeds of divers kinds, particularly pig ; yea, also beets, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes, the like whereof was never seen ?

" Hear now the conclusion of the whole mat- ter. The family at Litchfield to the family at Guilford sendeth greeting, hoping we meet again in this world and rejoice together in the next."

Oetob(?r I.

No town-meeting' in a New England commu- nity would be complete without its auction. . . . Everything is there, from a broken sewing-machine down to a rusty chain or a nicked axe old enough to have figured in the familiar legend of Washington's boyhood. Over all this conglomerate of truck stands the auctioneer, a predominating figure at Litchfield town-meetings, long to be remembered, and now, at seventy-seven, so old as to be a social landmark of the village. Tall and angular, with spectacled nose like the beak of a Roman galley set on the face of a vSocrates, a voice like that of the Numidian lion, a ready tongue and a wit whose Attic salt Time has not even yet freshened, he does more to enliven a Litchfield town-meeting than all other characters united. Consistent piety, kindly and generous temper, and a simple, unaffected life round off the per- sonality of a man who, more than all the rest, seems to me to symbolize the spirit of those town-meetings at which he has been auctioneer for time out of mind. Good old Tom Salton- stall ! Long may he live to knock down to the highest bidder the archaic kettle and the pris- lo (159)

l6o LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

matic-htied bedquilt ; and at that Great Town Meeting where we shall gather when time and eternity meet, may no figure more sinister than his be there to bid tis welcome. — Clarence Deming : A Yankee Town Meeting. [1882.]

0(:tober 2.

1780. — Major Talimadge accompanies Major Andre to the foot of the scaffold at Tappan. Years after, he wrote : " I became so deeply attached to Major Andre that I can remember no instance when my affections were so fully absorbed in any man. When I saw him swing- ing under the gibbet, it seemed for a time as if I could not support it. All the spectators seemed to be overwhelmed by the affecting spectacle, and the eyes of many were suffused in tears."

Oetobi^r 3.

In another portion of the book* reference has been made to the famous Agreement of 1789, and to Lyman Beecher's "Six Sermons" delivered here and subsequently in Boston. These are conspicuous landmarks in American Temperance Reform. What more fitting way to commemorate them than by casting a vote for No-License at the Town Election,

See pages 70, 82.

OCTOBER. t6i

" The commerce, therefore, in ardent spirits which produces no good, and produces a certain and immense amount of evil, must be regarded as an unlawful commerce, and ought, upon every principle of humanity and patriotism and conscience and religion, to be abandoned and proscribed." — Lyman Beecher : ,5V.v Sermons on Intemperance.

October 4.

1858. — The town authorized the construction of Center Park at private expense. This park originated in the thought of Miss Mary Pierce, who gave money for grading and fencing it.

The East and West parks were graded and planted with trees in the summer of 1836. Dr. John Wolcott was the moving spirit in this im- provement, and Henry L. Goodwin and D. C. Bulkley had much to do with the planting and care of the trees. About the time the Center Park was put in order, a young college grad- uate, George M. Woodruff by name, had more trees set out in the east end of East Park.

October 5.

1818.^ By the ratification of the new Consti- tution, the Congregational churches of the state of Connecticut are disestablished.

Lyman Beecher's comment is not only inter- esting historically, but is especially pertinent

l62 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

in these da3^s of ecclesiastical unrest in Old England :

" It was as dark a day as I ever saw. The odium thrown upon the ministry was incon- ceivable. The injury done to the cause of Christ, as we then supposed, was irreparable. For several clays I suffered what no tongue can iell/c>r the best tJiiii^^ that ever happened to the State of Coiinectieut. It cut the churches loose from dependence on vState support. It threw them wholly on their own resources and on God."

1880. — Origen Storrs Seymour and Lucy ]\I. Woodruff, his wife, celebrate their golden wed- ding.

" These two are wedded fifty years, For fifty years two hearts are one, And in this mild October sun There is no sorrow in their tears."

— Gideon H. Hollister.

October 6.

The golden wedding of Judge and Mrs. Sey- mour, bringing together many distinguished people from far and near, was the most nota- ble social event in the history of Litchfield.

Not far from this time, three couples closely connected celebrated their golden weddings. On one of these occasions, there sat down at the same table. Judge and j\Irs. vSeymour, Mr. and Mrs. George C. AVoodruff, and Mr. and Mrs. James B. Parsons.

.^ ^ ■ ■ ■■■■ i •

! ! Ir

\

THE OLD MEETING HOUSE.

OCTOBER. 163

October 7.

That fellow 's so contrary that he hates to do the very thing he wants to, if anybody else wants him to do it. If there was any way of voting that would spite both parties and please nobody, he'd take that. The only way to get that fellow to heaven would be to set out to drive him to hell ; then he'd turn and run up the narrow way full chisel. — SJieriff Dciiiiie on Zeph Higgijis — Pogamic People.

October 8.

In his Yankee Tonni Meetings Clarence Dem- ing tells of the attempt of a vociferous lawyer to browbeat the Moderator : '* Mr. Moderator, for three years you have decided this question the other way." " All right," was the response, "if I have decided the question for three years wrong the other way, all the more reason wh}" I should decide it right now."

October 9.

The old Litchfield " meeting-house " stood in the middle of the " Green " very nearly at the intersection of the two main streets of the town. There it stood, solitary, solemn, and lonely. There was not a single line or fixture in it sug- gesting taste or beauty ; but that which the architect had neglected, the worshipers sup- plied. The hearts of thousands of men and

164 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

women who had worshiped there from child- hood to old age had thrown the color of the deepest feelings upon the gaunt old church, and no doubt in their eyes the old wooden meeting- house looked more beautiful than the Parthe- non to the Greeks.

The building was square, with two stories of windows and a high steep roof on which the snow had hard work to lie in winter. The windows were large, with panes of glass six by- eight in size, full of warts and wrinkles, through which external objects were seen by our young eyes in the most grotesque distortion. — Henry Ward Beecher: Goi/ze to Meeting.

October 10.

The glory of our meeting-house was the singers' seat, that empyrean of those who re- joiced in the m3^sterious art of fa-sol-la-ing. There they sat in the gallery that lined three sides of the house, treble, counter, tenor, and bass, each with its appropriate leader and sup- porters. There were generally seated the bloom of our young people, sparkling, modest, blushing girls on one side, with their ribbons and finer}^, making the place as blooming and li^^ely as a flower garden ; and fiery, forward, confident young men on the other. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

OCTOBER. 165

October II.

I remember the wonder with which I used to look from side to side wdien treble, tenor, counter, and bass were roaring and foaming, and it verily seemed to me as if the Psalm were going to pieces among the breakers ; and the delighted astonishment with which I found that each particular verse did emerge whole and uninjured from the storm. — Harriet Beecher Stowe.

October 12.

But even Sunday cannot hold out forever, and meetings have to let out sometime ! vSo at length a universal stir and bustle announced that it was time to go. Up we bolted ! Down we sat as quick as if a million pins were stick- ing in our feet ! The right leg was asleep ! Limping forth into the open air, relief came to our heart. The being out of doors had always an inexpressible charm, and never so much as on Sunday. Away went the wagons ! Away went the i^eople ! The whole Green swarmed with folks. The long village streets were full of company. In ten minutes all were gone, and the street was given up again to the birds. — Henry Ward Beecher: Going to Alcetuig.

Octobi^r 13.

When the day was done and the candles were lighted, and the supper was out of the

l66 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS.

way, we all gathered about the great hitcheii fire; and soon after George or Henry had to go down for apples. Generally it was Henr}^ A boy's hat is a universal instrument. It is a bat to smack butterflies with, a basket for stones to pelt frogs withal, a measure to bring up apples in. And a big-headed boy's old felt hat w^as not stingy in its qualities; and when its store ended, the errand would always be re- peated. To eat six, eight, and twelve apples in an evening was no great feat for a growing young lad, whose stomach was no more in danger of dyspepsia than the neighborhood mill, through whose body passed thousands