SB* pi THE WOLCOTT HOUSE. Photograph, 1S0S. 8 s M cr <*J >£ & o 3 r* » 3 ear 1 O © »-3 a Or 2. THE LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS A COLLATION OF THE HISTORICAL, MOGRAPHICAI,, AND I.ITKRARY REMINISCENSES OF THE TOWN OF LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT EDITED BY George C. ^oswelx Pas/or of the Melhodist liptscofial Church 'That old town, more typical than any other, 1 think, of Comieaicut institutions and life" Gov. Ingersoll, Banquet to Chief Justice Seymour litchfield Alex. b. Shcmway 1899 Pn?fac0 172 '73 176- 179 182185197 1 qq 204 For full-page illustrations of the Hawk hurst and of the United States Hotels, see the AdvertisingSitppU- ment. LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS. EXPLANATORY NOTES. As stated in the preface, special permission has been granted by the publishers of copyrighted books from which frequent quotation is made in these pages. The quotations from members of the Wolcott family are taken from the Wolcott Memorial Volume; those from the Beecher family are taken (unless otherwise specified) from the Autobiography and Cor respondence of Ly man Beecher, published by Harper & Brothers. In other cases, where simply 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 or Days. The quotations from the writings of Henry Ward Beecher have been taken, in many instances, not direct 1 j- from the books named, but from that excel lent compilation by 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 history, Woodruff, Kilhourne, and the Litchfield County History, — for other unsigned paragraphs, the editor is responsible. LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. January 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, tho1 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. — Lyman Beecher. January 3. O for a boy's appetite! We needed no morn ing bell. Hunger used to awaken us betimes. (13) '¦+ ••! I'l'IIFIELII HOOK OF DAYS. We jilunn-cd 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 clay, and during all our growing years.— Henry Ward Beecher : Star /'upas. 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 'vc had to bear, — they can stand any thing. — John Piekpont: Litchfield County Centennial. January 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. "5 s* the grain. He answered affirmatively. "Well, ' said the Deacon, "I can show you where you can procure -t." 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 have no uio/;ty."—^Mv. Grant Powers: Killwunie's His tory. January 6. One of the oddest native characters was Mr. B 1 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 Yankeeisms. January 7. 1803.— John W. Birge, born. He became major-general in the ill-starred Patriot War in Canada, in 1837-8. January 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 year, sealed down under 1 6 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. snow and drifted over by winds that pierced like knives and seemed to search every liber of one's garments, so that the thickest clothing was no protection. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Poganuc People. January 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 Bkiccher Stowe : J'oganuc People. Jaijuary 10. 1738. — Ethan Allen born in Litchfield. Two years later his parents removed to Cornwall. 17S5. — Oliver Wolcott writes to his son Oliver : JANUARY. ¦¦¦¦¦* ?$ "m^w OLIVER WOLCOTT, Jll. "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 shall wait upon her here, when you shall come to see us, it will increase the Pleasure of the Visit.' January 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 1817-27. Jar/ciary 12. The Litchfield of Wolcott's boyhood is de scribed by Gibbs in his Administrations oj 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- cling 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." January 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 Sabbath day, with company, a clergyman, a stranger ; Catherine sick, Rachel's finger cut off, and she crying and groaning 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 Beecher. January 14. Three years old was I, when singing, she left me, and sang on to heaven where she sings evermore. 1 have only such remembrance of her, as you have of the clouds of ten years ago, faint, evanescent, and fed by 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 A JANUARY. '9 ¦JJ*Tv*!~-.-arv i i\ 1 I I 1,-rfi Sri ' v&^33lJ>; ^¦^^^-Mu^i^u^i^^ TAfl'JNG REEVE. ever since I can remember. — Henry Ward Beecher : Abbott's Life. * Jar/uary 15. Tapping Reeve came to Litchfield a few years before the Revolution. For a time he was 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. Pie 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 profoulid and constant study. I seem to see LI FCHFIELI) HOOK OF DAYS. JANUARY. even now, Iris 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 Centennial. Jaijuary 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. Champlin, Jr. : Litchfield Hill. January 18. 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 . located on the Bantam road, one mile from the village. Jaijuary 19. 1752. — James Morris, Jr., born. After serving with distinction in the Revolutionary War, he founded; in 1790, Morris Academy, for many 3rears one of the most famous schools in New England. His Statistical Account of the. Towns of Litchfield County is one of the early authorities on local history. January 20. Henry Ward Beecher 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 boys. . . 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, lie would cry, 'Silence! in that corner.'" t v- 11 1- i im.ii m>i IK ( M'" DA VS. 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 j oppress you were less. But if the present j Troubles shall terminate in the future Peace and Security of this Country (which I trust ; will be the case), the present Evils and Incon- B' veniences of Life ought to be borne with cheer fulness." '< January 22. All Litchfield has read and enjoyed Mrs. |* Jcanie 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, — r-"~-TT*T rr * a oz w Q oM ozwQw 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. January 23. Although Julius Deming died in 1838, his fame as a business man has never been eclipsed. He came here from Lyme about 17S1, and for over fifty years was one of the foremost merchants in the State, importing many of his goods directly from London. The great house he built on North street was a '•' "i in- 1 1'. I li lilloK (IF DAYS. source of wonder in its day, and now is one of the best examples in New Ensjland of the household architecture of a century a--o JANUARY. -5 Jar/uary 24. I70r. A post-office is opened in Collier's Printing Ofiiee. The Post will ride to New Wk once a fortnight, and to Hartford once a January 25, ..ong hvc 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 hickorv-firc, 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 drosses as obliges every humane boy to run to the relief of his sweetheart, all on fire ! — Henry Ward Beecher : Eyes and Ears. January 26. For several years Aaron Burr made his home at his sister's, —the first Mrs. Reeve During this time he studied theology for a while witli Dr. Bellamy at Bethlehem. Bel lamy was one of the greatest controversialists of his time. His library was made up chiefly 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. January 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." January 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 HOOK OF DAYS. January 29. One day a prosperous old farmer came into Judge Gould's office and said," I wish you would draw up my will." " Very well," said Judge Gould ; " give me some idea of what j'ou want done." The farmer was imbued with the old- time notions of the property rights of women. His unmarried daughters had for years 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 you'd lain in it a month ! " — J. De.minu Perkins. January 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 me thodical. The Common Law lie 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 Centennial. JANUARY. 27 January 31. T 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. — Lyman Beecher. February i. It seems odd to think of Litchfield as a manutacturmg town, yet when Morris wrote his Statistical Account, not far from 1815, there were m existence "4 forges for iron; 1 slittino- mill; i od-mil]; 1 paper-mill; 1 nail manufactory* 6 fulling-mills; s grist-mills; iS 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; 1 machine for making wooden clocks; 1 cotton manufactory." _ 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." February 2. Waggons, drawn either by one or two horses, are much used by the inhabitants of Litchfield.' ^ The first pleasure carriage (a chair) was (28) FEURUARV. ^9 brought into this town by Mr. Matthews, mayor of New York, in the year 1776, and is still in use here; the first umbrella in the year 1772.— Morris' Statistical Account. This author also states that there are in the town " 1 phaeton, 1 coachee, and 46 two-wheel pleasure carriages.' February 3. 1776.— Oliver Wolcott writes from Philadel phia,— "The Ladies, I hope, will still make themselves contented to live without Tea for the good of their country." February 4. 1819. — 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 the Beecher Household. Children grow 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 AVard Beecher: Children. February 5. Second-hand text-books are common enough now, but a hundred years ago, when books cost . more, the stoutly bound volumes often passed 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 thalThe 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 infinitum:' February 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- pan g 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 feiiruary. 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. — Condensed from an article by George A. Hickox, Litchfield Enquirer, March 14, 1895. February 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 Shepaug Valley Railroad, I met with a great deal of very stubborn resistance. I recollect very distinctly one rich farmer down the Valley who would have nothing to do with the scheme but denounce it. Some years after as I was riding on the cars, this man was 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 wc met last," said he, " I did not believe much m this railroad, but if any one proposed to take the tracks up now, there would be a riot in the valley."— J. Deming Perkins. February 9. 1804.— Origen Storrs Seymour, born. He was a lifelong resident of the village. For several terms he was a representative in the General Assembly, and in 1S50 was speaker of the House. After serving four years as congressman, he was made judge of the Supreme Court of Con necticut, holding office from 1855 to 1863, and from 1870 to 1S74. He retired from the bench at the age of seventy, having been chief justice during his last year of service. From 1865 to kSSo he was a member of every Triennial Con vention of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 1896.— The Methodist Episcopal Church of Bantam is organized. February 10. 1 S24— Thomas K. Beecher, born. Elmira, New York, claims him as one of its foremost citizens,— pastor of Park Church for a life time. February n. 1840. — The Housatonic Railroad opened as far as New Milford. With the building of this road, the New York and Albany stage, which -' * •'--'-J^'^eL. * 1 ¦¦'.-<; -*V- ** OKICEN STORRS SEYMOUR. FEBRUARY. 33 used 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 ? February 12. Judge Seymour 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. February 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 surpassed 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. ¦l4 LITCIIFIIM.D MOOR or- DAYS. February 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 lotus '» nhs ... 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 weakness 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." February 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 clone," says ex-Gov. Hubbard, " he has left his mark on the jurisprudence of the State. The fame of the fkhruary. ^c, 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, when the lives of the rest of us arc as a watch in the night that is past." — Address before the JIartford Bar. February 16. Origen Storrs Seymour had made an envia ble record as judge of the Superior Court, l85S"63- 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 was 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. February 17. The great white house on South street, two doors beyond the Beckwith block, is the home of Mr. Morris W. Seymour. The house was built by Ozias Seymour, and when it was 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. February 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, Bell's Sermons, Bogues Essays, Bonnet's Inquiry, Toplady on Predestina tion, Horsclcys Tracts. There, to be sure, was Harmcr 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 The State of the Clergy during the French Revolution, which had I horrible stories in it stranger than fiction. — Harriet Beecher Stowe. i February 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 I morsel of Don Quixote that had once been a | book but was now lying in forty or fifty dissccta ! 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. - .w fc'jjaJBwJE*;;!...-1.. > f ¦ ' ""¦ *'¦ *> *«»? 'Mii'/' ¦ /' - 7 t y,J '¦/%' *»> *Mri''- f V i •¦¦ ft '¦**! ¦ feiiruaky. 37 February 20. 1809. — Henry W. Wessells, born. What would we not give for an autobiography of this veteran soldier ? General Wessells 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 hung from 3'"> LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. the electric wires which sagged in great loops, and finally broke. The very blades of grass stood up stalagmites of ice. February 21. 1767. — Abraham Bradley, born. From 1799 to 1829 he was First Assistant Postmaster-Gen eral of the United States. Pic drew and pub lished a map of all the post roads in the Union with the post-offices and distances clearly de fined. February 22. 1757. — Ephraim Kirby, born. He published in Litchfield the first law reports ever issued in America. He was appointed in 1804 United States J udge for the Territory of Louisiana, but died while on his way to the South. February 23. The house on South street now the i-esidcnce 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. 1 % FEIIRUARV. j>n February 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 Mariann is not tomgto 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 hallelujah, for my very soul is 1 in raptures at the deliverance. . . . You may j tell people that this business is at an end, but do not show this letter to any living mortal. In true singleness 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 She 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. 4° LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. February 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 Demi.no : Yankees and Yankeeisms. February 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." February 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 always an ob ject of desire and curiosity to our young days. It ran up into such dark and mysterious spaces. What there was up in those pokcrish heights in the belfry tower we did not know, but some thing that made our flesh creep. Once we ven- Vi FEIIRUARV. 41 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 his head out of the door when, on that particular morning, service had 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. February 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 vantage in the morning before I was dressed, that I did not like whippings.— Henry Ward Beecher : The Conflicts of Life. /Tlareb, 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 : Poganuc People. /T)arer; 2. t 7 16.— Col, William Whiting, John Marsh, Thomas Seymour, committee for Hartford, and John Eliot, Daniel Grisvvold, 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 £1S '< fhe deed was signed at Woodbury. Warel? 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, Sepunkum, Poni, Wonposet, Suckqun- nokqueen, Toweecume, Mansumpansh, Kehow, and Norkgontonckquy. marer; 4. " Memorandum. — 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." fT\areI? 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 walls of the beautiful city above. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Poganuc People. 44 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. fflareh. 6. 1S94 — Rev. D. D. T. McLaughlin writes 11 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 ; J.Iusie 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 fnarer; 7. 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. fflarel? 8 It sometimes happened, that when we were busy 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 LOOK. 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 ! Eacilis descensus Ave mi, sed rev- ocare gradum, 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 question ! 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. /uareb, 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 (lowers; a brook, and no water gurgling and gushing through its channel.— Henry Ward Beecher : Children. /T\areb, 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. ¦* ¦" "". " P'^Tf-m " v^rt'J ~~! . S •rM MARCH. 47 . ' til • ': .! %U r^ »' 'AJjf-,,*, W f • ^^L2 ~# *^~> .¦i'.W '' '.'i*3•0*4. b / ; ':<¦ 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. /T\arel? n. I wish every day I could 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. Beecher. ff\are\) 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. (T\areb. 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.] 4S 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. (Harel? 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 arc 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 16th, that the Shepaug was running. A cut below Lake Station was drifted in to the depth of twenty- two feet. march. 49 fl)arel? 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. /T\arel? 16. 1784. — Col. Tallmadge married Mary Floyd, daughter of Gen. Floyd of Mastic, Long Island, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He ha 1 previously purchased of Thomas Shel don tne property still known as the Tallmadge Place. In Old 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. Hollister. 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, /narel? 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 ¦^ LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. whole carriage possessed of a military dignity n which was combined the model of both the soldier and the gentleman. His countenance was indicative of indigence, firmnessTnd "2^^^ P' ^o,: Address on /^arer; 18. Col. Tallmadge was a member of Cono-ress om" Jf tl t0 lSl6- "HeWaS -PPomted c^ ePvH , m°S1t lmP°rtant committees, espe- uallj that on military affairs, of which he was for some time the chairman. His religious 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 1-Uckok : Address on Col. Tallmadge. Hlarer; 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 mtcntness 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 Befc.ifr I £ay : ,/Tm. i \ / g^v-"^^^ MARCH. 51 /T\areh, 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 his book was a sacred charm, an amulet of peace. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : I'ogauuc People. ' (T)arcr; 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 rays, vegetation and life and joy. — Lvsi.in Beecher : Address on Judge Reeve. /March, 22. 1777. — Oliver Wolcott had hearo from Dr. Smith that the family had been inoculated for LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. smallpox, and writes from Philadelphia to his wife : " 1 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." 1S37. — The ice storm of this and the succeed ing day damaged timber and orchards in the town to the extent of $100,000. (uarel? 23. 1 7 2 1 . — The first white child is born in Litch field. Her name was Eunice Griswold. She married Solomon Buel. fearer; 24. 1802.— Charles P. Huntington, born. Pie became judge of the Superior Court in the city of Boston. fnarcb. 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. 5.? they were good to eat, and using all the little English 1 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\areb, 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 buckle's. 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 HOOK. OF DAYS. /T\arer; 27. At Easter-tide, when winter struggles in vain against the on-coming spring, and when the words, " Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, 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. f[\ZVQ\) 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 wild 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. 4 i 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: Enquirer. /nareb, 29. Prof. E. T. McLaughlin, 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 In 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 T, but the re-lining influence of that noble spirit is the best thing I carry away from Yale." fflareb. 30. 1788.— Amos M. Collins, born. He was an eminent merchant and philanthropist, mayor of Hartford, 1843-46. S" LITl-ll FIELD HOOK OF DAYS. rnarel? 3,, Let not your heart be troubled. Give thanks greatly for the good ; and at whatsoever times you are afraid, trust in the Lord. — Lyman Beecher : Letter to Catharine Beecher. /Jpril 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 South Farms Society voted that "the meeting-house com mittee shall have good right to furnish Rum, Grindstones and Ropes sufficient for framing the meeting house according to their best discre tion." flpril 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. /Ipril 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) 5 8 LITCHFIELD HOOK (IF DAVS. 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 Stowe : Poganuc People. ppril 6. 1785. — John Pierpont, born. Pie 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. ppri! 7. 1817. — Our election has been held this day. In this village, Gov. Smith had 222, and your % V =; pi & a p n Cu pi m - * o 3 ° ? O _, r 5 * 1 8 o g < 2 -i o < c APRIL. 59 humble servant 322 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 State, 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 partv 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 in | Washington and New York. In the former )\ city, he was Controller and afterwards Seere- | tary of the Treasury. In the latter city, he was judge of the United States Circuit Court. When that office was abolished, he entered * See Lyman Beecher'o Comment, Oct. 5. Go LllCIIFII'.l.D HOOK Inisiness life, and was founder and first presi dent of the Bank of North America. 1S20.— Henry W. Btiel, born. He founded Spring Hill Sanitarium in 1858, and became one of the leading physicians of the State. "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 Courant. " 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. Btiel 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. /Ipril 8. 179+ — Edmund Kirby, born. He served tli rough the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, attaining the rank of colonel. /Ipril 9. In : Si 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 Col. George Bliss Sanford. m ¦f&s^ HENRY W. I1UEL, M. 1). 6 1 flpril 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." Ppri! 11. The first Oliver Wolcott set out thirteen button-ball trees in the village, naming them 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 Street near the Ebenezer Marsh House ; the other, in front of the Roman Catholic Ghtirch. 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. Finally, 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. '¦ LITI-HFIKI.T) HOOK OF DAYS. fipri\ 13. 1789.- Ephraim Kirby's law-reports, the first » be pub ished in the United Stales, are adver ted by the M ihtr us .. just pnb]ishc(] ofncc, and ready for subscribers and gentlemen disposed to purchase, for which most kinds of country produce will be received." /Ipril 14. t 778.- 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 Woi cott 1802.- Horace Bushnell was born " in an old house, now gone, at the fork of the roads and opposite the Episcopal church in Bantam " A\ hen 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 m the realm of theology that America m Lhis century has produced, /}pril 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 ol myself, I was only a little and confusedly APRIL. (, , conscious of myself, or that I was any bod v and when I broke into this little, confused con sciousness, it was with a cry -such a dismal hgurc did I make to myself; or perchance it was something prophetic, without inspiration a foreshadow, dim and terrible, of the -Teat 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. Mv mother's oving instinct was from God, and God was in love to me first, therefore ; which love was deeper than hers and more protracted Lono- 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 mv Father.- Horace Bushnf.ll : Life and letter's. /tyril 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 commaudin-- but genial presence. In our father it was char acterized by eminent evenness, fairness, and conscientiousness; in our mother, it was felt is an intense life of love, utterly unselfish and un- 'M LITl-IIFII-'.LD HOOK OF DAVS. 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 : BushnelTs Life and Letters. /Ipril 17. F. Ratchford Starr, 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 clone justice to the sights of Litchfield who has failed to visit this model dairy.^pril 18. The reader may want to know how I suc ceeded in my first and only attempt at plowing. Everything being read)', 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 was 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 they were bound N. APRIL. 65 m M|||f«»i:ti ^ ill #, ,# i * o ! a ! W i Bu . a . o -. a) I N. W., then N. N. E., though "due " south, and I began to suspect that I was driving a more intelligent team than I had at first supposed, and that the knowing creatures, aware of my fondness for sailing, were "boxing the com pass" for my gratification. — F Ratchfoed Starr : Farm Echoes. ppril 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 Beech kh Stowe. /}pril 21. " On the east of us lay another upland, called Chestnut Plills, whose sides were wooded with a rich growth of forest trees, whose changes of 66 L1TCHFIRLT> HOOK OF DAYS. tint and verdure, from the first misty tints of spring green, through 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. April 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' Statistical Account. /Ipril 23. 1 749-— 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 Davics, who had been for some years the only Episcopalian in the town. /3pril 24. 1875.— The Village Improvement Company is organized at the home of George M. Wood ruff. The following were the first officers : Geoige 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. fiS I.ITI-IIFIKLI) l-.OOK OF DAYS. APRIL. 69 On another occasion-, a passenger on the mid night stage from New Haven made an urgent caTl at the Judge's for a legal document in his possession. All night long the search was kept up but ui vain. Some time after the paper was found -stuffed in the bung of the vinegar barrel. ppril 27. ,777._News of the Danbury Raid reaches town. " About one o'clock we were alarmed. Uur 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 Wolcott. flpril 28. I74i_Col Beebe, born. He was distin guished in the French and Revolutionary conflicts, and held many civil offices m his native town. -ht-h.„„ 1777 Paul Peck was slam m the Wilton skirmish. He was the most famdus hunter of his day Father Mills of Torringford, in preach- in'..- on the folly of self-conceit, told of a Berk- shire fox who had eluded so many 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 up has left so far behind him. But, oh ! 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. 1719. — Fifty-seven deeds were made out to the original proprietors of the township. April 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 previously upside down, and if they appeared anywhere, it must have been at the antipodes. — F. Ratchford Starr : Farm Echoes. /T\ay i. 1 789. — A meeting of leading citizens is held at the house of David Btiel. 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 wholesome food, and common simple drinks of our own production." — Litchfield Monitor, May 23, i/8g. 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 Bcecher'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 Pay. In a letter of his published in the Enquirer, he says : " We were tinder 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) 7' Eight Litchfield men were in the service of the country during the Spanish war, — three of them were under fire at the front. may 2. A few days after the meeting at David Buel's, just alluded to, Jedidiah Strong 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. Strong was a man of considerable ability, and a successful politician in his day ; even in the times of the AVolcotts 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. 7- LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. A)ay 3- What a preponderance of motives in favor of doing right ! flow 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 Supreme Court of the State. 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 Litchfield Houses. may 6. Litchfield being a frontier town when it was first settled, the inhabitants were often alarmed. In May, 1722, Captain Jacob Griswottld [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. Pie 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. may 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 HOOK OF DAYS. streets, the old men groaned : " We have worked so hard and just got the woods cleared off, and now they arc bringing the trees back again ! " — Esther 11. Thompson: Enquirer. may 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 money, 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 say one such word." The Indian having told his story withdrew. — Condensed from JJwight's Travels. MAY. 75 i 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 Dwight' s Travels. may io. 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." 7(> H'l'CHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. may n. My grandmother, Ann Catlin, when a little girl, was playing in the yard, and thinking she saw a band of Indians coming up 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 young, 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: Enquirer. may 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. Reuiien Smith: Letter to Gen. Wolcott. 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 cf the may. 77 United States Hotel in the old days. He became judge of the Supreme Court, and United States Senator 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 Senators 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. — JunciE Church : Litchfield County Centennial. LITCHFIELD LOOK OF DAYS. may 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 Selectmen of the town, shall have three pence for each snake." may 17. There, on the topmost twig that rises and falls with willowy motion, sits that ridiculous but sweet singing bobolink, singing, as a Roman candle fizzes, showers of sparkling notes. — Henry Ward Beecher : Eyes and Ears. may 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 by 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: Farm Echoes. MAY. 7') may 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. 1781. — Washington breakfasted in Litchfield. en route to Wethersfield. may 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 Churchman, and wish not to see the church dishonored and desolated in this manner." — Anna Dickinson : Narrative of the Episcopal Church. may 21. 1864.— The Second 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* So LITCHFIELD HOOK OF HAYS. 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. may 22. 1S98.— Auxiliary No. 16 of the American National Red Cross Society 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 Sunday 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. Si a desecration of the Sabbath. 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 : Yankees and Yankeeisms may 24. Hezekiah Murray, 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 who 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 you remember Hezekiah Mur- LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. ray?" said the writer. "Yes," replied he, springing to his feet, " he was one of God's no blemen." — Condensed from an article in Boston Recorder, Feb. j, i86j. may 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, many 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. LYMAN UFECIIER. may 26. Here is a characteristic advertisement taken from the Monitor of one hundred years ago : " Whereas Anner my wife hath eloped from MAY. 83 my bed and board. All perfons arc forbid trufting her on my account as I will pay no debts of her contracting after this date. All thofe indebted to me are forbid making any payments to her." may 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. may 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 «4 LITCIIFIKI.D HOOK 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. Plis success ors maintained his work until 1877, when Rev. D. D. T. McLaughlin became chaplain. Since he passed away in 1 S95, 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 mc, and if they yet hold mysterious 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. may 3°- 17 78. — Richard Skinner, born. He became chief justice and governor of Vermont. 1780. — Henry Seymour, born. He became a distinguished citizen of Central New York. Gov. Horatio Seymour was his son. 1789. — James Collier, born. He was the first o O ¦>-, h,\t, <¦>¦; -¦ ,VoS ; '. ¦ '-.-„.T-:l-l4.^t |> ^|™ f-^fii Vy j! mm ^¦w^ ';-l,^.- . J.'i' l^M .Ui-»_ — mi#m '^¦-";; THE FIRE DEPARTMENT BUILDING. 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. Jur;e 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 the}' 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 cither dead or wounded. As Mr. Hubbard was Con gressman, our house was a rendezvous for peo ple hoping and fearing for news. They would ss LITCHFIELD HOOK 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 Iter husband was among the slain. — Mrs. Abby J. Hubbard. J<»N 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. Ably J. Hubbard. Such funerals as we had in those days ! I shall never forget them. 1 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 Kf.nney. Jui?e 19. 1809. — Lewis B. Woodruff, born. He was 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 judge 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. Juge 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 stay, 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 e 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. Jurie 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 1 >y , 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 II. 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 : Memorials of Methodism. It is pleasant to remember that the Episco- LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. pal and Congregational 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. Jurje 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. Jui?e 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^mm ?S£SHtWl5iSI(W!3».Ji 1111! IIKKCUKIt IIOl'SE. Il,,;ilt I'liuliKjnti'l,. ' 1 JUNE. IOI 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. Jiige 26. 1819.— 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 were. 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 1°- LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. on a worm. We 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 out- little hands, all a-tremblc, 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 we 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 o2>'J, JUNE. never with, half the exhilaration of that first joyful hour on the Bantam." Juge 27. 1858. Plenry N. Hudson became rector of St. Michael's church. Mr. Hudson is remem bered as a man of fine literary tastes, who had made something of a study of Shakespeare. He became one of the foremost American editors that the great dramatist has had. As a preacher, Mr. Hudson had some gro tesque mannerisms. He would hurl out a statement, and then would stand watching his audience to see its effect, but with a peculiar facial contortion that had to be seen to be appreciated. Jur;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, and Farming. io4 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. Jur;e 29. I remember hearing father say with a sor rowful countenance, us if announcing the death of some one very interesting to him, " My dear, Bvron is Acad,— 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 mc by the conversation was solemn and pain ful — Harriet Beecher Stowe. Jurre 30. One vcrv hot day in summer, and in the afternoon, 'i was in church, and Dr. Beecher was »oing 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. Pie raised his spectacles and began with an account of Bvron, his genius, wonderful gifts, and then went 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 Memories. \ July 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, (105) ioO LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. \1 JULY. and let thy lightnings play upon them ! We beseech thee, moreover, that thou do gird up the loins of these thy servants who arc going forth to fight thy battles. Make them strong men, ' that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight.' Plold before them the shield with 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." July 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. lie received the news of John Adams's election to the presidency with delight, but it was very hard to learn that Thomas Jefferson, that: arch-Republican (to use the old phraseology), was vice-president. 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 thou kuowest he needs it ! " J"iy 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 Stone, a Civil War veteran whom .everyone loves, told it to me in his inimitable wa)'. As 1 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 ioS LITCHFIELD HOOK 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 1, 'I admire your pluck and endurance. Take this t '—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; 1 see him yet, as in my early youth ; His outward man was rather short than taH, 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 Pifui'ont-. Litchfield County Centennial. i776— 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 : Vision of Columbus. OLIVER WOLCOTT. JULY. I09 , Oliver Wolcott was appointed first sheriff of 4 this county in 175 1. 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 i 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 I the South American Republics were not forgotten. • At last the citizens retired, and the "gentle- -1 men of the Law Office " had eight more toasts. Six Southerners spoke. The last sentiment I 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 i senator from Connecticut. The Historical Address, a model of accuracy and compactness was delivered by George C. Woodruff. 1 HO LIICHFIELD HOOK. OF DAYS. 1S03.— 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 finks 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.J"»y 5- 1784.— My dear Eliza: You want to know what 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 away 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 '"'¦ " iS5 JULY. days ! 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 St ought on {Mrs. Oliver Wolcott, Jr.). July 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. Plis 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 young men here and elsewhere to a suc cessful career. Prof. Beers of Yale is his grandson. J"iy 7- As we pass by St. Anthony's Roman Catho church we are not thinking of the mediicval saint gone to his reward near eight hundred years ago, but our imagination calls up the picture of a Litchfield woman, Miss Julia Beers, the real founder of this strong parish church. She was 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 >/ ic 112 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS, both well, believe that they weie engaged to be married. Bayley subsequently studied under ,t, 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 by the friend of her school clays. 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 v returned to Litchfield. Through her instru mentality the; fine location on South street was secured for her church. The Catholic Transcript has reason enough to pay her a noble tribute. I 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, I 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." ;. c ST. ANTHONY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CIIUKCII. JULY. 11? 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. July 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. Would that Father Smith, who used to come all the way from Albany forty years before to administer the mass to the few scattered Roman Catholics, could have been present on this eventful day ! And James Morris, Jr., too, our old-time his torian, with the pen of a ready writer ! He would have had to revise his famous Statistics a bit, for this is what he wrote not far from 1815 : "Only two European families have settlcvl in Litchfield ; they came from Ireland and were respectable." July 9. 1776. — The leaden statue of King George III. at Bowling Green, New York, is pulled down by the Sons of Liberty. It was subse quently broken up and sent to General Wolcott. Ebenczer Hazard, who wrote about this time to General Gates, was right in his conjecture that LITCHFIF.LD HOOK OF DAYS. the redcoats "would have melted majesty fired at them." July 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, where 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,oS8 cartridges were made. July n. 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 Plouse. A workshop for the army stood on East street, just west of the cemetery. The old jail which mm JULY. 1 15 stood 011 East street, about where the school - house stands, is where Governor Franklin was confined. July 12. 1814.— "Dear Sister,— I arrived Saturday at sunset, and found all well, and boy (Henry Ward) in merry trim, glad at heart to be safe on terra firma after all his jolts and tossings. 1 left my goggles in the paper box for combs, on the toilet table where I slept the first night, the night we turned eveiything topsy-turvy to make room for the influx of company. Pray save me some pink seed of your double pink, and lay 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. Every 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 Poganuc Center or any of the villages for Il() I.ITClll'IF.LI) HOOK OF DAYS. twenty miles around, Hiel considered him self as a competent judge or critic. — Harriet > Be f.cher Stowe : Poganuc I'eople. July 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- f [829.— The Congregational Church dedicates its third house of worship. This is the present Armory Hall. On the same day, Laurens P. Ilickok was ordained pastor. His ministry here was most fruitful. Many aged persons <, look back with affection and respect to him. I Dr. Plickok subsequently became widely j known as an educator, and the author of books in the realm of ethics and psychology. I July 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. "7 •!•>;£ .,-> the great old-fashioned garden, with broad alleys set with all sorts of stately bunches 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. July 17. In after years, wherever Lyman Beecher went, those families he was accustomed often- est to visit on terms of closest intimacy, he was wont to call his "Judge Reeve places."— Charles Beecher. July 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 ! 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 ness, but should we forget to revere his mem ory, the very stones of the town would cry out against us. This house was the home, too, of Sally Burr, and of her cousin Amelia Ogden, and of Eliza beth Thompson. Here Aaron Burr and Thco- dosia Provost and Lafayette were entertained. < C i iS LITCHFIELD HOOK 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 awav. July 19. ,825.— 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 yard 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 your father was in the midst, plead ing with strong cries and tears for the mercy o/(3od. 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." — aIks. Lyman Beecher [Harriet Porter |. July 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. >9 Collins, as to let them know, by a unanimous vote, that they did not wish to sec 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: Kilbournc's History. July 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 i'n 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 ! " 120 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. July 22. 179'- The Episcopal church was offered at Litchfield, and here 1 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 Asbury's 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- cqualed, but unrivaled by anyone in the history of American Christianity. In arduous- ncss 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 1S16. 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 Becchers and Bushnell, the visit of that Apostolic man is a . noteworthy event. ' On that July day he preached in weariness J '¦J'. JULY. 121 and discouragement, and then, mounting his horse in front of Old St. Michael's, he jour neyed out of sight over the Litchfield hills. July 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. July 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 l853 ne was editor and proprietor of the Enquirer. In 1859, he published his " History of Litchfield," put in type by himself. Mrs. Hollister informs me that he also collabo- I2_- l.l'i'CIIKIF.I.D HOOK OF DAYS. rated with Mr. Plollister in the hitter's History of Connecticut, to the extent of furnishing much of the data for that work, and verifying many of its facts. July 27. 1837. — 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. ( )ne 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. " July 28. 1721. — The first white male child is born in Litchfield, Gershom Gibbs by name. He be- * 1 I; (1 t JULY. '-'.^ V 'A came a soldier in the Revolution, was taken prisoner at the downfall of Port Washington, and died in captivity. 1819. — 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. July 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, I've 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 if 124 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. Captain Shumway is an enviable one, and we believe that there is hardly 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 Charleston 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 nnii. -. -.f coal, with its bitumen fat, Sleep in iii; 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' benefit, if not their own.' — John Pifki-ont : Litchfield County Centennial % pugust 1. 1865. — Litchfield gives arousing 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. /Ju^USt 2. Sometime in August, 1723, Joseph Plarris 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. fiUQUSt 3. l893- — 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 arc 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. /lugust 4. I have prided myself not a little upon having excellent barns. ... No wonder, then, (125) 126 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF 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. Ratchforo Starr: Farm Echoes. August 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. Ratchforo Starr : Farm Echoes. fltiQUSt 6. 1873 — The present Congregational church is dedicated. Rev. Plenry 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 rmm^, oo•2. oV PIo> j: AIJIIl'S'l 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 f that when it opens, and we are ready, all is ; beautiful and under the Father's care." —Presi dent Dwight : Address on Rev. Charles Symiiw- \ ton. J h Rev. John Hutchins, the present pastor, came here in 1895. 1806.— The Democrats protest against the imprisonment of Editor Osborn. At sunrise 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 Witness, 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. /August 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 July has come around again." I2K LIICHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. t /3U(3USt 8. t888. — Fire bells ring at 12.30 a. m. The Peach, building on West street is on lire. Two hours later, four business buildings are dc- st roved, 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. pugust 9. Sunday was to me the most uncomfortable day of the week, from the confinement in dress and locomotion which it imposed on me after Prayers and Breakfast. I was 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 Silver Buttons, a white Silk Vest, white Cotton Stockings, tight Shoes, Scarlet Cloth Breeches with Silver Buttons to match my Coat, a close Stock, Ruffles at the Breast of my Jacket, and a cocked Beaver Hat with gold laced Band. In this attire I was marched to the Meeting PIousc with orders not to soil my Clothes, and to sit still, and by - f AUOUST. l-'O, no means to play during meeting-time. — Oli ver Wolcott, Jr. August 10. Parson Champion succeeded Parson Collins, our first Minister, Doctor, and Justice of t he Peace. Mr, Champion was a pleasant, aft,- lie man and a sonorous, animated Preacher. I liked loud preaching and suffered only from the confinement of my Sunday 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. /August ii. After service new toils awaited me. Our Sunday was in fact the old Jewish Sabbath, ntinued from sunset to sunset. In the inter val from the end of services in the Meeting House until sunset, 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 lime afterwards. When this task was ended, I was '3° LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. allowed to resume my ordinary Habit. It ex hilarates my spirits, even at present, to think of the ccstacics I enjoyed when I put on my Jacket and Trousers and quit my Stockings and Shoes. 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. Pu^USt 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 eveiything 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. ' /August 13. ft, 1851. — This was the first day of the Centen nial Celebration of the organization of Litch field Count}-. 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- AUOUST. 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 Centennial. /August 14. 1851. — 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 tin- 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. August 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. You must not go into LIICHFIELD HOOK. 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 cott 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. /August l6. 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 AUOUST. 133 year of her age. She 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. /August 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 colon}-, 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. Butthisminute 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." /August 18. 1837. — The Milton Episcopal Church is con secrated by Bishop Brownell. '34 rciIFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. AUC.UST. August 19. 179S. — 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.' 1808. — 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. Pie was one of the most influential Presbytcrains of his day, and sat for several terms in the General Assembly of that church. August 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 T was ill and weak, and the bystanders hardly expected me to live. Of the Wolcotts f- 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. /}U$USt 21. Hannah and Mary Ann Wolcott, 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." "Sir," was the reply, "she is admired even on Litchfield Hill.' '3° LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. fluqust 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 j stories are told of his tender watching and unwearied care. He was a great admirer of female beauty and also of female talent, and j various anecdotes were current of his chival rous sayings. Among others, this especially j. 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. — -f Catherine Beecher. August 23. 17S0. — 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. !< I ,- RESIDENCE OF l'KOF, J. M. 1I01TIN, AHCUST. '37 " 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 hard!}' write intelligently. We dance again this even ing, and we 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." 1791. Clark Woodruff, born. He became one of the leaders of the Louisiana bar, and judge of the eighth judicial district of the state. /August 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. Sub sequently, the place passed into the hands ol Uriah Tracy, the brilliant United States sena tor. Plere arc enough memories to last a house forever, but we have only touched upon the first fifty years. LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. /lutjust 25. Iii this century, the house has been known as the Gould House, and latterly as the Ploppin House. James Gould was a son-in-law of Sen 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 summer home ever since. Miss Jeanie Gould Lincoln, in writing An Unwilling 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. /Jugust 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 County Centennial. Truly this is an age of destructive criticism. Prof. Hoppin, the owner of Senator Tracy's old n if ' t home, claims this anecdote for a Rhode Island congressman. August 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 where St. 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. /August 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. And yet 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 uneover your head, and drive from your mind all but heavenly thoughts. — Henry Ward Beecher : Letter to Fanny Fern. '¦JO LP Tl I1FIFLD HOOK '(IF DAYS. flu^ust 29. 1792 — Frederick A. Tallmadge, 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.— J oshtia 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 Sanitary 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. ^ugust 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 l native town, and later his Senatorial 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 Supreme Court of Errors of this State." J. H. Olmstead of Stamford, 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 Seymour, 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." /August 31. Personally, Judge [E. W.] Seymour was one of the loveliest of men, a favorite with his class in college, the life of all companies, J-i- I.MIII FIELD HOOK OF DA VS. 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: Enquirer. 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. Pie 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. II. E. Gates : Enquirer. tr •4 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. September 2. Is there anything so delicious as roast pio- 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 (M3) '4-f LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. SI'.l'TF.MHE MS 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. Plad 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 Pompcy'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, ^sah ; yes, sail ; just a minute at Major Sey- 1 mour's." "Well," said his master, "that ex plains it all." S• originated in the thought of Miss Mary Pierce, who gave money for grading and fencing it. * The East and West parks were graded and , >j planted with trees in the summer of 1836. Dr hi 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 ; 1 care of the trees. About the time the Center Park was put in order, a young college <>rad- uate, George M. Woodruff by name, had more ff trees set out in the east end of East Park. I , ( Oetober 5. *! 1818.— By the ratification of the new Consti- ,] tution, the Congregational churches of the : i state of Connecticut are disestablished. ! Lyman Beeeher's comment is not only inter- j estmg historically, but is especially pertinent H I(>2 I. ITCH KIEL!) IIIIIIK OF DAYS. in these days 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 days I suffered what no tongue can tell /<>.'- the best thing that ever happened to the State o/ Connecticut. It cut the churches loose from dependence on State support. It threw them wholly on their own resources and on God. ]88o. — Origen Storrs Seymour and Lucy M. 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 PL Hollister. Oetober 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. ( )n one of these occasions, there sat down at the same table, Judge and Mrs. Seymour, Mr. and Mrs. George C. Woodruff, and Mr. and Mrs. lames B. Parsons. 1 OCTOBER. 1 63 % ZM THE OLD MKETINO 110 USE. 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 follow to heaven would be to set out to drive him to hell ; then he'd turn and run up the narrow way full chisel.- Sheriff Dennie on Zcph Higgins — Poganuc People. October 8. In his Yankee Town Meeting, 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 why 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 suo- gesting taste or beauty ; but that which the architect had neglected, the worshipers sup plied. The hearts of thousands of men and 164 '-'-'•CHFIKLD HOOK OF nAYS_ vvindows vve e la Je u >, m winte* The '-'-ciiER. G-w/jr /r; Meeting. Oetober 10 bloom of 011 voun 'C fnCra1^ SC^ the 1.1,,,;;™:;^ sP-^ing, modest, li-ly as a flower garden ll fic T"' nnd OCTOliER. >('5 Oetober 11. Oetober 12 at length a universal stir anrl K„<..fi our heart Th* k„- P ' rehef came to on Sundav A»n Ver so much «« with folks Tho i« ae.^ho3e Green swarmed of company In t ^ " lagB Streets werc f»" October 13. wel'Xhtr^Tr"0"0""" '"°"-™"- SroKO. and the. supper was out ut the I 06 LITCHF1KLD HOOK OF JIAVS. OCTOBER. 167 way, we all gathered about the great kitchen fire; and soon after George or Plenry had to go down for apples. Generally it was Plenry. 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 was 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 of bushels of corn, leaving it no fatter at the end of the year than at the beginning. Cloyed with apples ? To eat an apple is to want to eat another. —Henry Ward Beecher: Fruits, Flowers, and Farming. October 14. Rev. Dan. Huntington, who was ordained Pastor of the Congregational Church in Octo ber, 1798, wrote the following well-known de scription of the Litchfield of his day: "A delightful village on a fruitful hill, richly endowed with its schools, both professional and scientific, and their accomplished teachers; with venerable Governors and Judges; with its learned lawyers and Senators, and Representa tives, both in National and State Departments; Litchfield was now in its glory." October 15. 1724. — A Town Meeting orders a " Memo rial of the distressed state of the Inhabitants of the Town of Litchfield, which we humbly lay before the Honorable General Assembly now sitting in New Haven." . . " Many of our Inhabitants are drawn off, and the duties of Watching and Warding are become very heavy." October 16. 1820. — William Guy Peck born. He gradu ated at West Point, was with Fremont in his exploring expeditions, and was a member successively of the faculties of West Point, University of Michigan, and Columbia College. Oetober 17. 1 777-— Captain Moses Seymour commands a Litchfield company at the surrender of Bur- goyne. A few days later he attended a dinner at which General Burgoync was called upon for a toast. Every voice was for the moment hushed into the deepest attention, as he arose and gave —"America and Great Britain against the world." — A'ilbou'me's History. l6S LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. Oetob V -f. OCTOBER. '73 ».fcv DANIEL SHELDON, M. I). V r rf October 26. Dear old Dr. Sheldon ! We began to get well as soon as he came into the house; or if the evil spirit delayed a little, " Cream-o'-tarter with water poured upon it and sweetened," finished the work. He had learned long before the days of homeopathy, that a doctor's chief business is to keep parents from giving their children medi cine, so that nature may have a fair chance at the disease without having its attention divided or diverted.— Henry Ward Beecher: Litchfield Revisited. October 27. Another physician still earlier than Dr. Sheldon should be remembered here. We refer to Dr. Reuben Smith from whose corre spondence with Oliver Wolcott during the Revolution we have quoted. The house he built in 1770 is now the home of Mrs. Henry R. Coit. Plow one name calls up another ! All this time, we have forgotton to mention Parson Collins, the first minister of the town. lie had a rather stormy time with his parishioners for thirty years, and then left the pulpit for the practice of medicine, continuing to reside in Litchfield until his death fourteen years later. L1TCHFIF.I.O BOOK OF DAYS. OCTOBER. '75 October 28. The home of Mrs. Henry R. Coit is one of the most noted of the historic houses. We have just spoken of its builder. Dr. Smith sold the house to Asa Bacon, the lawyer who came here from Canterbury with seventeen law students whom he transferred to the Litch field Law School. David R. Boardman.in speaking of Asa Bacon, has said: " He had a fine appearance, being tall, well proportioned, and usually richly dressed. The first time I saw him before the jury, his head was well cased in powder and pomatum, and a long queue was dangling at his back ; but he soon laid aside this conformity to old- time fashions, though he was the last member at the bar to do so. He would sometimes in terlude his arguments with specimens of droll ery and flashes of wit, and the expectation that these would be put forth, secured a very strict attention from all his hearers." In later years the house became the home of Mr. Henry R. Coit, who, through his connec tion with the Bank and the Shepaug Railroad, and in other ways, was for many years closely identified with all that pertained to the welfare of modern Litchfield. •^ Oetober 29. One of Mr. Starr's most trusted employes was a man whom he called "Uncle Bill." In Farm Echoes, the following anecdote is told of him, which makes one think that the "bonnie brier bush " grows here as well as in Drum- tochty: " At one time during a severe illness which he felt might end in speedy death, he expressed a wish to communicate something to me alone, and in confidence. He summarily ordered the other occupants of his room to leave it, and I stood at his bedside, fully prepared for some important revelation — perhaps a death-bed con fession of something as yet a secret to all but God and himself. "Could it be some dark deed in his past life, now weighing more heavily than ever on his conscience in view of the near approach of death, and that he longed to unburden himself of it to one from whom he thought he might receive comforting advice ? Judge of my sur prise and relief, when I found that what he had to communicate was the confession of his neglect to inform me, at the time of its occur ence some year or two previous, that one in my employ had left open for a night a door which ought to have been locked. He found it open early the next morning, and had ever since felt he had neglected his duty in not at once re- !: '.li I 76 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF HAYS. porting the fact to me. There was a tone of sadness in his voice which told as plainly as did his words, his regret at this failure of duty. It was 110 light matter to him that I had placed confidence in him, and that he had seemingly abused it. " I shall never forget the impression this made upon me, nor I hope the lesson it taught me. I exclaimed: 'Happy Uncle Bill, to be thus prepared. Is this all that troubles you ? ' " Here was a soul about to enter eternity as we supposed, and it had no greater burden rest ing on it than this trifling matter. To tell of this open door, and then feel he was prepared for whatever might take place, proved a child like faith and trust rarely to be met with. The eye of faith was evidently looking upon another ' open door,' and so steadfastly as not to see any of the difficulties which distress those who do not take as literally as did he, the precious promise of the Precious Saviour: ' I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.' " October 30. The illustration on the opposite page shows one of the oldest houses on West Street, built by Eli Smith in 1780. For the last thirty years it has been the residence of Mr. George Kenney. r OCTOBER. IV i W^hnSt0r! n6Xt d°°r has given wayt° the i Fire Department Building. For many years >t was a landmark of the village. Seated on the steps, is Captain Alva Stone. ^ October 31. 1789— John M. Peck, born. He became an eminent Baptist clergyman, and was at one time the Whig candidate for Governor of Illinois. , 1850. -The Baptist Church of Bantam is 1 organized. Kou?/nb?r i. 1776.— About this time, thirty-six picked men go, under the command of Capt. Beebe to the defense of Fort Washington. 1825.— This has been a good day. Twenty- five have been added to the church. Harriet communed to-day for the first time' — Lyman Beecher : Letter to William Beecher. Mrs. Stowe, in her Life and Letters, does not speak of this service, but she does speak of the time «' that I first believed myself to be a Chris tian." It was at an earlier communion service in the summer of the same year. In Poganuc People, she tells the story most beautifully : " When she saw the white, simple table, and the shining cups and snowy bread of the Com munion, she inly thought that the service could have nothing for her,— it would be all for those grown-up, initiated Christians. Nevertheless, when her father began to speak, she was drawn to him by a sort of pathetic earnestness in his voice. . . " Dolly sat absorbed, her large blue eyes gathering tears as she listened, and when the Doctor said, ' Come, then, and trust your soul (178) 3 m .. -'.'¦ '.,;.r'.t,PLl.",)f- ^ ' FKF.lll'.RICly WOl.l'OTT NOVEMBER. '79 to this faithful Friend,' Dolly's little heart throbbed, ' I will.' And she did. For a mo ment she was discouraged by the thought that she had not had any conviction of sin ; but, like a flash came the thought, Jesus could give her that as well as anything else, and that she could trust Him for the whole. And so her little earnest child-soul went out to the won derful Friend. She sat through the sacramental service that followed, with swelling heart and tearful eyes, and walked home filled with a new joy. She went up to her father's study and fell into his arms, saying, ' Father, I have given myself to Jesus, and He has taken me.' " "The Doctor held her silently to his heart a moment, and his tears dropped on her head. " ' Is it so ? ' he said. ' Then has a new flower blossomed in the Kingdom this day.' " |fov«?niber 2. 1767. — Frederick Wolcott, born. He was a lifelong resident of the town, and more closely identified with its interests than his father or brother, whose time was so largely given to state and national affairs. Judge Church gives, in his Centennial Address, the following expression of local sentiment : " I never pass by the venerable mansion of the Wolcott family in my daily walks about this village, without recalling the stately form and i So ITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. ever honorable deportment of Frederick Wol cott." 1768.— John Jacob, an Indian, was executed. Rev. Timothy Pitkin of Farmington came over to Litchfield, at the request of the criminal, to preach the execution sermon. His text was Numbers xxv: 16,— " And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer : the murderer shall surely be put to death. ffovi?rn.ber 3. In Dwight C. Kilbourn's library (a veritable section of paradise to the bookworm) is a copy of the sermon just alluded to. It is the quaint est specimen in the realm of homiletics that I have ever seen. As I remember its outline, it is as follows : ist and chiefly, Capital Punish ment a Divine Ordinance ; 2d, A Message of Warning to the Audience ; 3d, Consolation to the Condemned Criminal. The execution sermon has not been unknown in Connecticut even in this century. David Dudley Field, in speaking of his boyhood mem ories, said in an address given a few years ago: "A sermon was preached to a crowded house, and the prisoner was then taken, dressed in a shroud, to a hill near by, and in the presence of thousands of spectators was executed." NOVEMBER. f/ov/Qmber 4. 1768. — Mary Buel died. This is the inscrip tion upon her tombstone in the West burying- ground : " Here lies the body of Mrs. Mary, wife of Dea. John Buell,* Esq. She died Nov. 4, 1768, aged 90 — having had 13 children, 101 grandchildren, 247 great-grandchildren, and 49 great-great-grandchildren ; total, 410. Three hundred and thirty-six survived her." Jfov^fn,ber 5. 1745- — The first Episcopal society of Litch field is organized at the house of Captain Jacob Griswold. It was about this time that Mary Davies came here, homesick with memories of Hereford shire. What a rough and shaggy look this Western country must have worn to her eyes, and what a topsy-turvy state of society existed when dissenting meeting-houses were estab lished by law, and when there were scarce enough Church of England people in the col ony to found a church ! Writing from under the shadow of Mount Tom, Mrs. Davies in formed her friends in England that she was * The local historians spell the name with one "1"; on the tombstone it is spelled with two. The descend ants of Deacon John and Mary, his wife, follow the method of Shakespeare, and spell the name, now one way, and now another. I S3 LITCHFIELD BOOH OF DAYS. "entirely alone, having no society, and having nothing to associate with but Presbyterians and wolves." 1 799-— The Rev. Truman Marsh became rec tor of St. Michael's church. His term of ser vice— thirty years— is the longest in the his tory of the parish. 1878. — Charles B. Andrews received a plu rality of the votes cast in the election for Gov ernor, and was subsequently elected to that office by the Legislature. He came, to Litchfield as a young lawyer in 1863, having been called here from Kent by John PI. Hubbard, about the time the latter was elected to Congress. The career of Judge Andrews is a striking illustration of the fact that even in a state where wealth and social prestige count for much, native ability and en ergy will not be without recognition. Judge Andrews is the only citizen in the history of Connecticut who has held the two highest offices in the gift of the State. 1879. — Little Pond is frozen over. A few days later the thermometer rose to 80° and re mained at that point for several days. — Leonard Stone's Diary. I 'f r s&^ CHARLES B. ANDREWS. rYov^mber 6. Parson Marsh, as he was called, lived for many years in the house now. owned by C. M. NOVEMBER. 1S5 Gaming. There he kept school; one clay, after jf ordering the boys to pile up some wood for the schoolroom fire, he was surprised to find that they had barricaded the door so that he could not get out. ^ Pie had a great dread of fire, and had a pane ^ of glass inserted in the panel of his bedroom door so that he could look now and then, at night, and watch the fire in the sitting-room I Jfovemb^r 7. ft Frederick Wolcott might have been Gov ernor of the State, had he so desired. He twice declined the nomination on the ground that his j health was not firm. In both instances, the » candidate who took his place was successful. | Aside from Judge Reeve, no man who has lived here has called forth heartier tributes of affection and respect than Frederick Wolcott. Jonathan Brace has said of him : " If there was a man in this village whom the aged rc- 1 spectcd, and to whom the young looked up with reverence, that man was Frederick Wol cott." [November 8. Soon after the second Oliver Wolcott had re tired from the governorship, he became in volved in a lawsuit, growing out of his business interests in Wolcottville. The case came to 1^4 I-ITCHFIEI.D BOOK OF DAYS. trial here, Judge Daggett presiding. The judge was an ardent Federalist, and, as Litchfield was a famous stronghold of Federalism, the jury was largely opposed, politically, to Wolcott. it was at this trial that Judge Gould made his last appearance as counsel. He conducted the case against Wolcott, and carried the jury with him. Judge Seymour, then a young man, attended the trial, and felt that Judge Daggett's conduct of the case was partisan. On review ing the matter, however, in later years, he not only modified, but reversed his opinion. Koi/emb(?r 9. There have been some remarkable instances of tenure of office in Litchfield. From 1751 to 1836, there were but two county clerks: Isaac Baldwin, serving forty-two years; Frederick Wolcott, forty-three years. ' With these men, we must put the first Ebenezer Marsh, who was elected to the Legislature in the spring of 1 74b and was re-elected semi-annually, with scarcely a break, until 1771. The house he built in 1759 is the second old est in the town, and is the well-known land mark on the southeast corner of South and East streets. f/oue/i)ber 10. Since 1793 Litchfield has been represented in Washington by its own citizens for sixty-six NOVEMBER >s5 UI O years; in the Senate, by Uriah Tracy for eleven years, and Truman Smith for five years; in the House, for fifty years; Benjamin Tall madge serving the longest term, sixteen years. |fovf Northwestern Connecticut, between two lakes stretches a long reach of level bog-land winch a winter's thaw often covers with water \cars ago, one of these periodical overflows covered the bogs, and a sharp snap of cold weather left a level surface of black ice several inches tuck. Then the water receded, Icavim- hc ,cc hung on the bogs, but bent between em into a series of long depressions like the i oughs of Atlantic waves. The sensation of skating over these long billows of ice was pe culiarly novel, and for days the lads of the near village indulged in it with irrepressible delight — U , a e e n e e I ) KA1 , N ( ; . o„ Black Ice. CiEOROE C. WOOIJRUFK. Deeernbassed a vote for "coloring the meeting-house and put ting up electrical rods." December 7. Some time in December, 1753, liberty was voted to Isaac Hosford and others to erect a Sabbath Day House. December 8. 1885. — The Methodist Episcopal church is dedicated by Bishop Harris of New York. Decern.b I.I TCIIFIF.I.D HOOK OF DAYS. for 1 did not know who I was to meet; they were the gems of the circle. Flora Catlin was sociable; Miss Lewis, ani mated. Susan Lcavitt (of Bethlehem) showed some spirit, which became her. Mrs. Gould was civil to me for having taken a relative of hers into my gig one day, and transporting her a mile or so.— George Y. Cutler's Journal. Under another date is the following entry : " A charming visit at Mary Ann Wolcott's. How beautiful ! It was uppermost in the abundance of my heart, and I could not help telling her my opinion. She is one the finest- looking women I ever knew." Dee^mber 19. Some time in December, 1753, Captain Stod dard and Supply Strong were appointed a com mittee to "measure from the crotch of the Shepaug River to the northwest corner of the town, with Mr. Roger Sherman, County Sur veyor." December 20. The Wolcott Memorial volume contains this interesting glimpse of Revolutionary hardship and of the patriotic spirit with which it was met. The following words, though applied to Oliver Wolcott and his family, are equally illus trative of the prevailing patriotism of the town and county ; 11F.CF.M11F.R. 207 During the winter of 1779-80 famine added- its terrors to excessive cold. The deep snows in the mountain region of the State, and the explosion of the paper system, rendered it al most impossible to procure the necessaries of life. . . . The resources of so zealous an advocate of the war were not withheld. Every dollar that could be spared from the mainte nance of the family was expended in raising and supplying men ; every blanket, not in actual use, was sent to the army, and the sheets were torn into bandages or cut into lint by the hands of his wife and daughter." D ..ITCIIFIF.I.D HOOK OF DAYS. together. The consequence was, that just when we were most afraid to laugh, we saw the most comical things to laugh at. Temptations which we could have vanquished with a smile out in the free air, were irresistible in our little corner, where a laugh and a stinging slap were very apt to woo each other. So we would hold on and fill up ; and others would hold on and fill up, too; till by and by, the weakest would let go a mere whiffet of a laugh, and then down went all the precautions, and one went off, and another and another, touching off the others like a pack of fire-crackers. — Henry Ward Beecher : School Memories. December 23. i73T- — "Voted to build a schoolhouse in ye center of ye town on ye Meeting House Green." Horace Bushnell's description of the school- house he knew would be just as true as if ap plied to the school of 1731 : " There were no complaints in those days of the want of ventilation; for the large, open fireplace held a considerable fraction of a cord of wood, and the windows took in just enough air to supply the combustion. Besides, the big ger lads were occasionally ventilated by being sent out to cut wood enough to keep the fire in action. The seats were made from the outer slabs of the sawmill, supported by slant legs driven into and at a proper distance through DKCEMHF.R. 2 00 auger holes, and planed smooth on the top by the rather tardy process of friction." — The A&c of Homespun. The present attractive and commodious schoolhouse dates from 1888. Robert L. Zink is the principal. December 24. In his Age of Homespun, Horace Bushnell, speaking in West Park at the Litchfield County Centennial, paid the following tribute to the District School-Teacher : "Oh, I remember (about the remotest thing I can remember) that low seat, too high, nevertheless, to allow the feet to touch the floor, and that friendly teacher who had the address to start the first feeling of enthusiasm and to awaken the first sense of power. He is living still, and whenever I think of him, he rises up to me in the far background of memory, as bright as if he had worn the seven stars in his hair (I said he was living : yes, he is here to-day, God bless him.)" D o s u Q0 r*1/0 DECEflBEK. Tjtchticld Business Cards Cije George C. Woodruff, Proprietor. The Oldest Newspaper in Litchfield County. Other papers, in the town and county, have been born and died, and the old reliable En quirer has continued to give the town, county, and state news to the sons and daughters of Litchfield all over the world. It circulates in two-thirds of the states of the Union and in sev eral foreign countries. The sub scription price is $r.5o per year, pay able in advance. These are plain facts. The Enquirer is to be judged entirely on its merits and does not believe in "blowing its own horn.' A first-class Jon Printing office is run in connection with the newspaper. f.itc/t/ii-fif J-iitsinrxs C 'nrtf-v THIS popular resort having been recently refitted, newly furnished, and equipped with an Otis Passenger Elevator is homelike in all its . appointments, with cuisine of superior excellence ; easy of access from all points. Altitude of nearly 1,200 feet is not attained at any other moun tain resort within equal distance of New York City. Open from April to November. Illustrated booklet sent on application. George B. Browne .... manager .... to XwX> Si s*s X c ft '->: "n.. ™ /' /..''iff , . * *5fcffV tf-V "if • V 3s ._-- mm ffl$ttgSM& i/s5 fx^f st;4l« •/«* mil L.itcMicld Business Cards I o Crt w 1 H E R N 1 Z E 1 ^ WELL EQUIPPED, AND OPE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE YEA1 JAMES CAMPBELL, Proprietor The First National Bant Of Litchfield, Conn, GEO. M. WOODRUFF CHAS. H. COIT President Vice-Pres. CHAS. E. WILSON, Cashier Capital, . $200,000.00 ELBERT P. ROBERTS Real estate flgencp I have on my list every house that is for rent in Litch field, with the exception of one, for the Summer Season. Send for list. Address, ELBERT P. ROBERTS, Litchfield, Conn. fltcbfleld Insurance flgencp Thirty Companies FIRE, Lll-E, ACCIDENT, HEALTH, PLATE GLASS, IIURCLAKV, TORNADO, BONDS AND INDEMNITY CAPITAL, . . . $400,000,000 Losses paid in 12 years more than $250,003 " Time tried and fire tested " Low Rates Prompt Settlement of Losses CHAS. B. BISHOP, Agent. (4) f-itclificld Business Cards WILLIAM T. MARSH, i]sfsaRH)vce. The Strongest Companies and Fa vorable rates. FRED. J. STAUSEBACH Fire, Life, and Accident Insurance Beckwith Block CHARLES J. BURRILL Counselor at Caw NORTH STREET JOHN T. HUBBARD « o s Counselor at Law Beckwith Block (6) Litchfield Business Cards WOODRUFF & WOODRUFF Counselors at Caw SOUTH STREET George M. Woodruff James P. Woodrufj TELEPHONE, 15-12 BALL DENTAL AND OPTICAL CO. Office and Residence, over Wheeler's Pharmacy Win. C. C. Ball, Dentist Mrs. Wm. C. C. Ball, Ref. Optieiar Lady Assistant in Attendance (Wt/fc-u- M. He-wit.., S).vT).§. ^oul'Pt- iStrcc!' JOHN J. KARJL DEALER IN -priRST-CLASS Pianos, Organs, and Musical l'9 Merchandise. Instruments Taken in Exchange. Illustrated Catalogues Free on Application : : . : : : (7) Litchfield Business . Cards Litchfield Business Cards ^RTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY Portraiture, • • • • Landscape Work, Colored Photographs. Developing and Printing for Amateurs. THE LITCHFIELD STUDIO SOUTH STREET WHY N0T TRY us? Every Article is Bought Clean and Fresh, and of tiik Latest and Most Popular Designs. Our Prices Make these Beautiful Goods Irresistible. ERNEST L. PRATT, Jeweler Pratt's Block PHELPS' BLOCK.... —-.and QPERA HOUSE.... TERMS ON APPLICATION Xj. PHELPS THE CORNER DRUG STORE Aaron Crutch, Proprietor. Druggist and Stationer Choice Confectionery, Cigars, Papers, and Periodicals for sale. Prescriptions carefully compounded from Best Materials — Wheeler's Pharmacy We Are CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS NEARLY everybody knows this, but many people think that our business is con fined to putting up prescriptions and vending drugs. It is true that we give special atten tion to these things — we are leaders in fact — but there are other ways in which we can serve you. A large line of DRUGGISTS' SUN- DRIES and TOILET ARTICLES. Fashionable STATIONERY in all its branches. Orders taken for engraved Visit ing Cards and Wedding Invitations. "Huyler's" Dainty Chocolates and Bon Bons ark Here Also 19) Litchfield Business Cards Litchfield Pharmacy Pratt & (irannlss, Proprietors NORTH STREET J sell the coldest and the best ICE in town Edward Crutch Orders left at Crutch's Drug- Store promptly attended to. E(^ HO PAR1VI ' "* located one mile east of Litch field, with, which it is con nected by telephone. management of It, with its Dairies, is under the The Echo Farm Co. Which makes daily deliveries in Litchfield and to New York and Brooklyn homes of Bottled Milk, Cream, and Buttermilk, also Roll and "Echo Print " Butter Either with or without salt The above product, without exception, is from cows that have successfully passed the tuberculin test The company now conducts its two Grist or Custom Mills, supplying therefrom Com, Oats, Middlings, Bran, and Mill-Feeds generally ; also honest Graham Flour. This latter will be found particularly appetizing and much more wholesome than the prevailing white, starchy brands popular at present. Branch OHIccs: f 112 W. 4oth St., N. Y. City. j 364 Columbus Ave,, near 77th St. I toj Fulton St., Brooklyn. I 43} Atlantic Ave., Hrooklyn. (10) Litchfield Business Cards eim Ridge Farm . . ? Bottled Milk and Cream If you want the best, be sure to send your order to Elm Ridge Farm ; orders promptly attended to. I. TRUMBULL qoto c. M. Qanung The Poor Man's Friend for your GROCERIES We make Tea and Coffee a specialty WEST STREET Grartniss & Elmore Dealers In DRY GOODS, GROCERIES, CROCKERY, CARPETS, ETC. West Street I.ilcliliclit Business Cants Litchfield Business Cards C. W. HINSDALE At the Old Stand, First • • Door Fast ok Court House, Keeps an assortment of Notions, Crockery, Hardware, Farming Tools, Wooden Ware, and a full line of GROCERIES. JE.-B. PECK_ ¦DEALER IN- Choice BEEF, MUTTON, LAMB, AND VEAL Smoked Meats of All Kinds WEST STREET. W. N. Reynolds ??Peoplest Fish Market* fine sea food, soft crabs to order. FRUITS and vegetables, lobsters on saturdays. West Street. Special Attention Paid to Teaming and Freighting. Telephone Connections. Louis J. Goodman ...DEALER IN... COAL, WOOD, CHARCOAL, and GREAT EASTERN FERTILIZERS JJS^Agent for Osborne Fanning Implements, Syracuse Plows, Champion Farm and Team Wagons, and Bob Sleighs. Every thing guaranteed as represented. ( 12 J ( t F. LI. Newcomb | Dealer in | . . . , COAL, WOOD, BRICK, LIME, CEMENT, SEWER PIPE, DRAIA TILE, ETC. W. J. BISSELL. Dealer in west street. Dry Goods, Fancy Goods, Etc. L. R. DENEGAR, — dealer in- Ready-Made Clothing and Gentlemen's Famishing Goods Hats, Caps, Boots, and Shoes Trunks, Bags, Etc. Wiggins' Block ZXLEX. J. GR05JEAN . . DEALER IN . . Boote, Shoes, and Rubbers Custom Work and Repairing. Cash Store Woodruff Block, West Street ('3) /- itcftiiciit Jjffsi/icss Cords J. m:. jkii^^tjse lYIercbant Caitor Litchfield Business Cards ^"Z^SEZZ&tigot Woolen Samples .-1 perfect fit and fine ivorkmanship guaranteed in every case J. M. KRAUSE, West Street Litchfield Clothing Store THOS. A. SMITH, Proprietor CLOTHING Furnishing Goods, Hats, Caps, Ruisuer and Oil Clothing, Trunks, Bags, Umiirellas, Etc. GEORGE J. SWITZER Contractor and Builder Builders' Hardware, Building Paper, Tar Paper, Electric Bells, Stable Fixtures, Etc. W. E. MALLORY Practical Plumber and Tinsmith Plumbing and Tinning in All Their Branches Heating by Hot Water, Steam, Hot Air, or Combination Hot Water and Hot Air (14) George E. Mason George A. Smiti MASON & SMITH Furniture Dealers and Funeral Directors West Street Reliable Goods and Honest Prices YE Old Curiosity Shoppe R. P. SMITH dealer in Antique Furniture east street repairing done in all its branches PAPER HANOINGS PAINTERS' SUPPLIES W. G. ROSBACH HOUSE AND SIGN PAINTING Picture Frames Made to Order Beckwith's Block, South St. (•5) Litchfield Business Cards ...F. M. SANFORD... dealer IN ALL kixds of Stoves, Furnaces, Ranges, Hardware, Housekeeping Goods, Pumps, Sinks, Iron and Lead Pipe, Steam Fitting; and Tinning Agency for the National ~M Third Building West of Acetylene Gas Generator. "J^Z Court House. Karl's Barber Shop Stating, . Haircutting, . and . Shampooing RAZORS HONED Sanford Building, West Street LOUIS HAE... CHINESE LAUNDRY . South Street Work promptly done and returned the third or fourth day after it has been received. (16) 3 9002 00847 0891