USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > A biographical history of the county of Litchfield, Connecticut: comprising biographical sketches of distinguished natives and residents of the county; together with complete lists of the judges of the county court, justices of the quorum, county commissioners, judges of probate, sheriffs, senators, &c. from the organization of the county to the present time > Part 1
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The University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs
3 9153 00055783 7
974.61/K551b
A
102 . Lle K4
1851
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
OF THE
COUNTY OF LITCHFIELD,
CONNECTICUT:
COMPRISING
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF
DISTINGUISHED NATIVES AND RESIDENTS OF THE COUNTY;
TOGETHER WITH
COMPLETE LISTS OF THE JUDGES OF THE COUNTY COURT, JUSTICES OF THE QUORUM, COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, JUDGES OF PROBATE, SHERIFFS, SENATORS, &c.
FROM THE
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY PAYNE KENYON KILBOURNE.
NEW YORK : CLARK, AUSTIN & CO., 205 BROADWAY, MDCCCLI.
474.41
K5516
TO THE 1
EMIGRANT SONS AND DAUGHTERS
OF
LITCHFIELD
COUNTY
THIS VOLUME
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PREFACE,
Ethan Allen, .
9
John Trumbull, LL. D.
Seth Warner,
53 70
Nathaniel Chipman, LL. D.
Samuel J. Mills, Sen'r.
75 81
Daniel Chipman, LL. D.
Stanley Griswold, 84
89
Samuel J. Mills, Jr.,
92
Ephraim Kirby,
103
John Cotton Smith, LL. D.
107
Ira Allen,
117
Jonathan Brace, 121
Bezaleel Beebe, 126
132
Augustus Pettibone, 135
137
Horace Holley, LL. D.
140
Abraham and Phineas Bradley,
154
Richard Skinner, LL. D.
161
Joseph Vaill, 164
David Bostwick, 175
Ebenezer Foote,
181
Daniel S. Dickinson,
187
7
Oliver Wolcott, LL. D. .
24 39
Martin Chittenden,
Frederick Wolcott,
Nathaniel Smith,
vi
Jedediah Strong,
Edmund Kirby,
196
Ambrose Spencer,
203
William Ray, .
210
Timothy Merritt,
221
Henry W. Wessells,
225
Amasa J. Parker, LL. D.
233
Elijah Boardman, 237
Elisha Whittlesey,
242 246
Peter B. Porter, .
258
Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D.
261
Joseph I. Foote, D. D. 263 269
273
Samuel S. Phelps,
277 283
John Pierpont,
289
Ebenezer Porter, D. D.
291
Horatio Seymour, LL. D.
303 307
Thomas Day, LL. D.
Nathan Smith, 310
Frederick A. Tallmadge,
313
Arphaxad Loomis,
315
William W. Boardman,
319
John Milton Holley,
321
Mrs. Laura M. Thurston,
324
Francis Bacon,
336
Charles G. Finney, 341
George B. Holt, 344
Ebenezer Porter Mason, 349
Brief Sketches, &c.,
353
Appendix, County Officers, &c., 361
PAGE. 193
Junius Smith, LL. D.
William Thompson Bacon,
Frederick Whittlesey,
Jeremiah Day, D. D., LL. D.
PREFACE.
" THE history of nations," says Plutarch, "is little else than the history of its warriors, sages, poets and philosophers." In a similar sense, this volume may be properly entitled a history of Litchfield County. The author has endeavored to collect and pre- serve in a durable form, the prominent incidents in the history of some of the more conspicuous personsages, who have spent their lives among us, or who have gone out from our borders and distin- guished themselves in other fields of usefulness and fame. The body of the work is devoted exclusively to sketches of natives of the County, who are either numbered among the dead or who are residents abroad. The rule thus adopted, must of course exclude not a few men, now high in office and honor at home. These, and many other natives and former residents of the County, are briefly noticed at the close of the volume. ·
Litchfield County is the youngest in the State in point of organi- zation - having been incorporated at the October Session, 1751. Much of the land, morcover, having been very rough and unin- viting, some of our towns were the very last in the State to be set- tled. Persons are now living who can remember when wolves and other wild animals inhabited the "Green Woods" and other regions in the northern part of the County. When, therefore, we
viii
take into consideration the newness of the country around us, and the privations and hardships incident to pioneering in the midst of mountains, and rocks, and swamps, and interminable forests, such as our fathers here encountered, we have no fear in comparing the number and position of our great men, with those of any other region of no greater limits and population.
Most of the materials for this volume have been collected from original sources ; at the same time the author has availed himself of such other facts and sketches as have fallen in his way, without, in all cases, giving credit. He has aimed to make his work as correct as possible, though even in that particular, it is by no means improbable, that errors of date or otherwise, may now and then be discovered. He hopes it will prove an interesting and valued memorial to those for whom it is especially intended.
LITCHFIELD, August 4, 1851.
BIOGRAPHY.
ETHAN ALLEN.
AMONG the most conspicuous in laying the foundation upon which the independent State of Vermont has been reared, and indeed the leader and champion of that resolute band of hus- bandmen, who first planted themselves in the wilderness of the Green Mountains, was ETHAN ALLEN. He was born in Litchfield,* January 10, 1737. His parents soon after- wards removed to Cornwall where other children were born, making in all six sons and two daughters-Ethan, Heman, Heber, Levi, Zimiri, Ira, Lydia, and Lucy. The family sub- sequently became residents of Salisbury, where, in 1762, Ethan was one of the proprietors of the Iron Furnace. All the brothers grew up to manhood, and at least four of them emigrated early to the territory west of the Green Mountains, where they all were active and conspicuous characters in their border feuds and in the Revolutionary struggle-and the name
*Biographers have differed in regard to the place of his birth. Hinman says he was a native of Roxbury : Allen's Biographical Dictionary calls him a native of Cornwall ; Salisbury has also been named as his birth place. Sparks and Barber have correctly designated Litchfield as the place of his birth -- his birth being recorded upon the records of that town His father was Joseph Allen of Coventry ; his mother was Mary Baker of Woodbury.
10.
of Ethan Allen gained a renown, which spread widely while he lived, and has been perpetuated in history.
The territory on which the Allens and their associates set- tled, was then called the "New Hampshire Grants," and was claimed by the Government of New York-a claim, however, which the settlers openly and vigorously resisted. In 1764, the Crown having declared the Connecticut River to be the boundary line between New York and New Hampshire, the New York Governor decided that jurisdiction meant the same thing as right of property, and forthwith proceeded to vacate all the titles by which the settlers held their lands, and even issued writs of ejectment. This roused to its full extent the spirit of the Green Mountain Boys. Ethan Allen was ap- pointed an agent to manage the affairs of the defendant before the Court at Albany ; and, having secured the aid of Mr, In- gersoll, an eminent counsellor in Connecticut, it is scarcely necessary to add, that the cause of the settlers was defended with great boldness and ability. The verdict was of course given to the plaintiffs-it being the theoretical and practical doctrine of the New York government that all of Governor Wentworth's grants were illegal.
It is recorded, that after Allen retired from the Court at Al - bany, two or three gentlemen interested in the New York grants called upon him, one of whom was the King's attorney general for the colony, and advised him to go home and persuade his friends of the Green Mountains to make the best terms they could with the new landlords, intimating that their cause was now desperate, and reminding him of the old proverb, that " might often prevails against right." Neither admiring the delicacy of the sentiment, nor intimidated by the threat it held out, Allen replied, " The gods of the valleys are not the gods of the hills." This laconic figure of speech he left to be inter- preted by his visitors, adding only, when an explanation was
11
asked by the King's attorney,'that if his troops ever come to Bennington his meaning should be made clear.
The purpose of his mission being thus brought to a close, Allen returned and reported the particulars to his constituents. The news spread from habitation to habitation, and created a sudden and loud murmer of discontent among the people. Seeing, as they thought, the door of justice shut against them, and having tried in vain all the peaceful means of securing their rights, they resolved to appeal to the last arbiter of dis- putes. The inhabitants of Bennington immediately assembled, and came to a formal determination to defend their property by by force, and to unite in resisting all encroachments upon the lands occupied by persons holding titles under the warrants. granted by the governor of New Hampshire. This was a bold step ; but it was promptly taken, and with seeming determin- ation to adhere to it at any hazard. and without regard to con- sequences. Nor was this decision changed or weakened by a proposition on the part of the New York patentees, made about this time, which allowed to each occupant a fee simple of his farm, at the same price for which the unoccupied lands in his . neighborood were sold. The first purchasers still insisted, that this was requiring them to pay twice for their lands, and that in any view the proposal was not just, inasmuch as the value of unoccupied lands depended mainly on the settlements which had been made in their vicinity by the toil and at the expense of the original occupants. In short, the time for talking about charters, and boundaries, and courts of judicature, was past, and the mountaineers were now fully bent on conducting the controversy by a more summary process. Of the wisdom or equity of this decision, it is not our province or purpose to de- cıde.
Actions of ejectment continued to be brought before the Al- bany courts ; but the settlers, dispairing of success after the precedents of the first cases, did not appear in defence, nor
12
give themselves any more trouble in the matter. Next came sheriffs and civil magistrates to execute the writs of possession, and by due course of law to remove the occupants from the lands. At this crisis the affair assumed a tangible shape. The mountaineers felt themselves at home on the soil which they had subdued by their own labor, and in the territory over which they had begun to exercise supreme dominion, by meet- ing in conventions and committees and taking counsel of each other on public concerns. „To drive one of them from home, or deprive him of his hard earned substance, was to threaten the whole community with an issue fatal alike to their dearest interests, and to the rights which every man deems as sacred as life itself. It was no wonder, therefore,' that they should unite in a common cause, which it required their combined ef- forts to maintain.
In all the feats of enterprize and danger, as well as in mata ters of State policy, Ethan Allen had {from the first been the chief adviser and actor. It was natural that, in arranging their military establishment, the people should look up to him as the person best qualified to be placed at its head. He was ap- pointed colonel-commandant, with several captains under him, of whom the most noted were Seth Warner and Remember Baker, both natives of Roxbury, Conn. Committees of safety were likewise chosen, and intrusted with powers for regulating local affairs. Conventions of delegates, representing the peo- ple, assembled from time to time, passed resolves and adopted measures, which tended to harmonize their sentiments and con- centrate their efforts.
Open war now existed, and hostilities had commenced. Sheriffs, constables, magistrates and surveyors, were forcibly seized and punished whenever they were so unlucky as to be caught on the grants. Frequent acts of violence on the part of the Green Mountain Boys, as they were called, drew down upon them the special wrath of the government of New York.
13
Proclamation succeeded proclamation, in the first of whien Go, vernor Tryon branded the settlers as 'rioters,' whom the sher- iffs were commanded to seize and imprison ; in the second, they were pronounced 'felons,' and offered a reward of £20 for the arrest of Allen and Warner ; in the third, a reward of £150 was offered for Allen, and £50 each for six others .- Not to be outdone in exercising the prerogatives of sovreignty, Colonel Allen 'and his friends issued a counter proclamation, offering a reward of £5 for the delivery of the attorney general of New York into their hands, But notwithstanding the fre- quency of the Governor's proclamations, no one of Allen's men was ever apprehended.
Affairs were proceeding in this train of active hostilities, when Tryon, despairing of ever conquering the 'felons,' resol- ved to try a milder policy. He wrote to the inhabitants of Bennington, under date of May 19, 1772, expressing a desire to do them justice, and requesting them to send a deputation for consultation and peaceable negotiation. To any deputies. thus sent, he promised protection, except Allen, Warner, and three others named. The settlers, always ready for an honor- able peace, acceded to the proposal, and dispatched Stephen Fay and Jonas Fay on the mission. Tryon received the dep- ties with much politeness, and laid their grievances before his council. After due deliberation, the council reported that all suits respecting the lands in controversy, and all prosecutions growing out of said suits, should be suspended, until the King's pleasure should be known. This report was approved by the Governor, and with it the deputies returned home. The news spread quickly to the cabins of the remotest settlers, and with it went the spirit of gladness. The single cannon, constituting the whole artillery of Allen's regiment, was drawn out and dis- charged several 'times in honor of the occasion ; and Captain Warner's company of Green Mountain Boys, paraded in battle array, fired three volleys with small arms ; and the surrounding multitude answered each discharge with huzzas.
14
But unluckily this season of rejoicing was short. During the absence of the deputies, it was ascertained that a noted surveyor from New York was in one of the border town, run- ning out lands. Allen rallied his men, pursued and captured him, and, after breaking his instruments, they passed the sen- tence of banishment upon him, threatening him with death if he ever returned. On this expedition Allen discovered an in- truder from New York upon the grants, who had dispossessed an original settler. Him he also banished, burnt his cabin, and restored the saw mill and premises to their first owner.
The fame of these exploits soon reached New York, and kindled anew the anger of Governor Tryon and his council. The governor wrote a letter of sharp rebuke to the inhabitants. of the grants, complaining of the conduct as an insult to the government and a violation of public faith. This letter was taken into consideration by the committees of the several towns, assembled at Manchester, who voted to return an answer -- which was drafted by Ethan Allen, secretary of the conven- tion:
The answer was written with great force and perspicuity, but was not dictated by a spirit calculated to conciliate the feel- ings of Tryon and his council. The feelings of animosity be- tween the two parties were daily becoming stronger and more embittered, when it was suddenly arrested by events of vastly greater moment, which drew away the attention of the political leaders in New York from these border feuds. The Revolution was on the eve of breaking out; and the ferment which already had begun to agitate the public mind from one end of the con- tenent to the other, was not less active in that city than in other places. From this time, therefore, the Green Mouatain settlers. were permitted to remain in comparative tranquility.
Early in the year 1775, as soon as it was made manifest that open hostilities must soon commence between the colonies and the mother country, it began to be secretly whispered
15
among the principal politicians of New England, that the cap ture of Ticonderoga wasan object demanding the first attention. Several gentlemen at that time attending the Assembly at Hart- ford, Connecticut, concerted a plan for surprising that fortress and seizing its cannon for the use of our army, then marching from all quarters to the environs of Boston. A committee was appointed, at the head of which were Edward Mott and Noah Phelps, with instructions to proceed to the frontier towns, in- quire into the state of the garrison, and, should they think prope"; to raise men and take possession of the same. To aid the pro- ject, one thousand dollars were borrowed from the treasury, for which security was given.
On their way, the committee collected sixteen men in Con- necticut, and went forward to Pittsfield in Massachusetts, where they laid open their plan to Colonel Easton and John Brown, who agreed to join them, and they proceded in compa- ny to Bennington. On the route, Easton enlisted between 40 and 50 volunteers As no time was to be lost, a council of war was immediately held, in which it was voted that Colonel Ethan Allen should command the expedition, that James Eas- ton should be the second in command, and Seth Warner the third. Allen having first rallied his Green Mountain Boys, it was decided that he should march with the main body of their combined forces, (about 140 men,) directly to Shoreham, opposite Ticonderoga-which point was reached on the 9th of May. With the utmost difficulty boats were procured, and 83 men were landed near the garrison. The approach of daylight rendering it dangerous to wait for the rear, it was determined immediately to proceed. 'I'he commander in chief now address- ed his men, representing that they had long been a scourge to arbitrary power, and famed for their valor : and concluded by saying, "I now propose to advance before you, and in per- son conduct you through the wicketgate ; and you that will go with me voluntarily in this desperate attempt, poise your fire-
16
lo .ks !" In an instant every firelock was poised. At the head of the centre file he marched instantly to the gate, where a sentry snapped his gun at him and retreated through the cover- ed way ; he pressed forward into the fort, and formed his men on the parade in such a manner as to face two opposite barracks. Three huzzahs awakened the garrison. A sentry, who asked quarter, pointed out the apartments of the commanding officer ; and Allen, with a drawn sword over the head of Captain De La Place, who was undressed, demanded the surrender of the fort. "By what authority do you demand it ?" inquired the as- tonished commander. "I demand it (said Allen) in the name of the great Jehovah and of the continental congress." The summons could not with safety be disobeyed ; and the fort, with its valuable stores and 49 prisoners, was immediately surrender- ed. Crown Point was taken by Warner the same day, and the capture of a sloop of war sool afterwards, made Allen and his brave party complete masters of Lake Champlain.
In the fall of 1775, Allen went twice into Canada to observe the disposition of the people, and attach them if possible to the American cause. During this last tour, Col. Brown met him and proposed an attack upon Montreal in concert. The propo- sition was eagerly embraced, and Col. Allen, with 110 men, crossed the river in the night of September 24. In the morning he waited with impatience for the signal from Col. Brown, who had agreed to co-operate with him-but he waited in vain. He made a resolute defence against an attack of 500 men, and it was not until his own party was reduced in number to 31, that he surrendered. A moment afterwards, a furious savage rush- ed towards him, and presented his firelock with the intention of killing him. It was only by making use of the body of the offi- cer to whom he had given his sword, as a shield, that he escaped destruction.
From Colonel Allen's own Narrative we make the following inter- esting extracts :
17
The regular officers said that they were very happy to see Col. Allen. I answered them, that I should rather have seen them at General Montgomery's camp. The gentlemen replied that they gave full credit to what I said, and as I walked to the town, which was, as I should guess, more than two miles, a British officer walked at my right hand, and one of the French nobles at my left ; the latter of which, in the action, had his eyebrow carried away by a glancing shot, but was nevertheless very merry and facetious, and no abuse was offered me till I came to the barrack yard at Montreal, where I met Gen. Prescott, who asked me my name, which I told him. He then asked me wheth- er I was that Coi. Allen who took Ticonderoga. I told him I was the very man. Then he shook his cane over my head, calling many hard names, among which he frequently used the word Rebel, and put himself into a great rage. I told him he would do well not to cane me, for I was not accustomed to it, and shook my fist at him- adding, that was the beetle of mortality for him, if he offered to strike ; upon which Capt. M'Cloud, of the British, pulled him by the skirt and whispered to him (as he afterwards told me) to this import ; that it was inconsistent with his honor to strike a prisoner. He then or- dered a serjeant's command with fixed bayonets to come forward and kill thirteen Canadians, which were included in the treaty aforesaid. It cut me to the heart to see the Canadians in so hard a case, in con- sequence of their having been true to me; they were wringing their hands, saying their pravers, as I concluded, and expected immediate death. I therefore stepped between the executioners and the Cana- dians, opened my clothes, and told Gen. Prescott to thrust his bayo- net into my breast, for I was the sole cause of the Canadians taking up their arms. The guard in the meantime, rolling their eye balls from the General to me, as though impatient, waiting his dread com- mands to sheath their bayonets in my heart. I could, however, plain- ly discern that he was in a suspense and quandary about the matter. This gave me additional hopes of succeeding ; for my design was not to die, but to save the Canadians by a finesse. The General stood a minute, when with an oath he made the following reply : " I will not execute you now ; but you shall grace a halter at Tyburn." I re- member I disdained his mentioning such a place. I was, notwith- standing, a little inwardly pleased with the expression, as it significant- ly conveyed to me the idea of postponing the present appearances of death, besides his sentence was by no means final, as to " gracing a halter," although I had anxiety about it after I landed in England, as the reader will find in the course of this history. General Prescott then ordered one of his officers to take me on board the Gaspee schooner of war, and confine me, hands and feet, in irons, which was done the same afternoon I was taken.
I now come to the description of the irons which were put on me. The handcuff was of a common size and form, but my leg irons, !
18
should imagine, would weigh thirty pounds; the bar was eight feet long, and very substantial ; the shackles which encompassed my ancles, were very tight. I was told by the officer who put them on, that it was the king's plate, and I heard others of their officers say, that it would weigh forty weight. The irons were so close upon my ancles, ' that I could not lie down in any other manner than on my back. I was put into the lowest and most wretched part of the vessel, where I got the favor of a chest to sit on ; the same answered for my bed at night, and having procured some little blocks of the guard, who, day and night, with fixed bayonets, watched over me, to lay under each end of the large bar of my leg irons, to preserve my ancles from galling, I sat on the chest or lay back on the same, though most of the time, night and day, I sat on it; but at length having a desire to lie down on my side, which the closeness of the irons forbid, I desired the Captain to loosen them for that purpose, but was denied the favor. The Captain's name was Royal, who did not seem to be an ill-natured man ; but oftentimes said that his express orders were to treat me with such severity, which was disagreeable to his own feelings ; nor did he ever insult me, though many others who came on board, did. One of the officers by the name of Bradley was very generous to me; he would often send me victuals from his own table ; nor did a day fail, but what he sent me a good drink of grog.
I was confined in the manner I have related, on board the Gaspee schooner, about six weeks ; during which time I was obliged to throw out plenty of extravagant language which answered certain purposes, at that time, better than to grace a history. To give an instance ; upon being insulted, in a fit of anger I twisted off a nail with my teeth, which I took to be a ten-penny nail; it went through the mortise of the bar of my handcuff, and at the same time I swaggered over those who abused me ; particularly a Doctor Dace, who told me that I was outlawed by New York, and deserved death for several years past ; was at last fully ripened for the halter, and in a fair way to obtain it. When I challenged him, he excused himself in consequence, as he said, of my being a criminal. But I flung such a flood of language at him that it shocked him and the spectators, for my anger was very great. I heard one say, " d-n him, can he eat iron ?" After that, a small pad- lock was fixed to the handcuff instead of the nail; and as they were mean-spirited in their treatment to me, so it appeared to me that they were equally timorous and cowardly.
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