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A MODERN HISTORY OF
NEW HAVEN
AND
EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
By EVERETT G. HILL Editor of the New Haven Register
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
.
NEW YORK : CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1918 .
261
١
CONTENTS -
CHAPTER I LOOKING BACKWARD TO BEGINNINGS
THE LANDING OF THE QUINNIPIAC PILGRIMS-THE ROOTS OF NEW HAVEN AND THE PROCESS OF ITS EARLY DEVELOPMENT-JOHN DAVENPORT'S TRINITY OF CHURCH AND STATE AND SCHOOL 1
CHAPTER II THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS
THE PURCHASE OF THIE TRACT WHICH WAS TO MAKE NEW HAVEN COLONY AND THE CREATION FROM IT OF TIIE DAUGHTER TOWNS THE BLOOD, SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS AS DEVELOPED THROUGHI THE YEARS. 11
CHAPTER III
THE DUAL DEVELOPMENT
THE COMMON ORIGIN OF THE TOWN AND THE COLLEGE IN DAVENPORT'S PLAN- THE VICISSITUDES OF THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL IN ITS FOUNDING AND EARLY DAYS, AND THE NEW HAVEN-HARTFORD STRIFE OVER A SITE-THIE PART OF ELIHU YALE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF YALE COLLEGE IN NEW HAVEN. .. 19
CHAPTER IV THE YEARS OF DISCORD
TIIE CRUDE STRIFE OF TOWN AND GOWN-ITS SEQUEL IN THE MISUNDERSTAND- -
ING AND SEPARATION OF THIE COMMUNITY AND THE UNIVERSITY 29
CHAPTER V
THE BEGINNING OF HARMONY
THE NEW ERA IN THE NEW CENTURY AND THE EMERGENCE OF YALE FROM ITS CLOISTER
36
vi
CONTENTS CHAPTER VI
THE GOWN LAID ASIDE
THE YALE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF 1901-THE PARTICIPATION OF YALE OFFICERS AND TEACHERS, GRADUATES AND UNDERGRADUATES IN THE RE- LIGIOUS, SOCIAL AND CIVIC LIFE OF NEW HAVEN 38
CHAPTER VII THE DOORS THROWN OPEN
THE SUNDAY OPENING OF THE YALE SCIENTIFIC AND ART COLLECTIONS AND THE WELCOME TO WOOLSEY HALL-YALE'S INVITATION OF THE PEOPLE TO JIER ATHLETIC FEASTS 44
CHAPTER VIII THE SEAL OF THE UNION
THE PAGEANT OF 1916, ITS PREPARATION AND HISTORICAL CELEBRATION IN BAT- TELL CHAPEL-THE GREAT SPECTACLE AT THE BOWL. . 49
CHAPTER IX THE OLD AND THE NEW
TIIE CONTRAST OF THE CENTURIES AND THE ELEMENTS THAT MAKE IT-A GEN-
ERAL GLIMPSE OF TWENTIETH CENTURY NEW HAVEN. 61
CHAPTER X THE IDEAL NEW HAVEN
A REVIEW OF THE RESPECTS IN WHICH THE REPORT OF THE CIVIC IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE WOULD MAKE OVER THE CITY. 74
CHAPTER XI NEW HAVEN GREEN
ITS ORIGIN. OWNERSHIP AND PRESERVATION INTACT-ITS HISTORY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT-ITS RELIGIOUS, EDUCATIONAL, CIVIC AND OTHER USES ...... 80
vii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII NEW HAVEN'S PARK SYSTEM
ITS MODERN DEVELOPMENT FROM EAST AND WEST ROCKS-THE INTERESTING SYSTEM OF CITY SQUARES.
92
CHAPTER XIII
NEW HAVEN'S CHARTERS
HISTORY AND PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT FROM 1784 TO 1917-CONSOLIDATION OF TOWN AND CITY AND THIE HOME RULE ACT-RECENT REVISION EFFORTS ... 100
CHAPTER XIV NEW HAVEN'S CHURCHES
THE ORIGINAL CHURCH AND ITS DESCENDANTS-THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND THE GROWTH OF ITS FORM OF WORSHIP IN A NEW ENGLAND CITY 111
CHAPTER XV NEW HAVEN'S CHURCHES (Concluded)
THE EARLY AND LATER GROWTH OF THE METHODIST CHURCHES-THE BAPTIST CHURCHES-THE GREAT RECORD OF THE CHURCH OF ROME-THE JEWISH CONGREGATIONS AND THEIR LEADERS-TITE VALUABLE GROUP OF YOUNGER CHURCHES 126
CHAPTER XVI NEW HAVEN'S SCHOOLS
THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT CONSTITUTION-THEIR EXCELLENT EQUIP-
MENT, FORCE AND OPERATION-MISCELLANEOUS AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS. . 16
CHAPTER XVII NEW HAVEN'S LIBRARIES
TARDY APPEARANCE OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND ITS EARLY HISTORY-ERECTION OF THE NEW BUILDING-THIE PUBLIC LIBRARY'S BRANCHES AND USE. 148
viii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVIII THE CIVIC DEVELOPMENT
ORIGIN AND WORK OF THE CIVIC FEDERATION-OLD AND NEW HISTORY OF THE
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-SOME CONTRIBUTORY ORGANIZATIONS. 158
1
CHAPTER XIX MANUFACTURING IN NEW HAVEN
SOME RESPECTS IN WHICH NEW HAVEN WAS A PIONEER-DEVELOPMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY'S INDUSTRIES. 174
CHAPTER XX THE NEW HAVEN MANUFACTURERS' EXHIBIT
CONCEPTION AND FORMATION OF THE FIRST PERMANENT DISPLAY OF ITS SORT IN
AMERICA-REVIEW OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES IT PRESENTS. 185
CHAPTER XXI
THE YALE BOWL
THE NEED WHICH MOTHERED IT AND THE MAN WHO FATHERED IT-ITS CON-
STRUCTION, ITS DESCRIPTION AND ITS SUCCESS-ITS UNEXPECTED RESOURCES .. 194
CHAPTER XXII TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN TURNPIKES-TIJE MOUTH OF AN INTERESTING CANAL -STEAMBOAT AND RAILROAD LINES-NEW HAVEN AND THE TELEPHONE. 203
CHAPTER XXIII THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION
NEW HAVEN THE MELTING POT-RACES REPRESENTED AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION IN THE CITY-THE PROCESS OF ASSIMILATION, IN NEW HAVEN AND THE ADJOINING TOWNS 216
ix
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXIV MAKERS OF MODERN NEW HAVEN
IN GENERAL PUBLIC SERVICE-MEN OF THE CHURCHES-LEADERS IN EDUCATION -COURT'S AND LAWYERS-MEDICINE AND SOME OF THE PHYSICIANS-LEADERS IN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS-BANKS AND BANKERS-NEWSPAPERS AND PRINTERS-MANUFACTURERS, MERCHANTS, ENGINEERS AND OTHERS. 226
CHAPTER XXV MILITARY NEW HAVEN
THE GOVERNOR'S FOOT GUARD AND ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN SERVICE-THE HORSE GUARDS AND THE INFANTRY COMPANIES-NEW HAVEN'S PLACE IN THE WAR SERVICE OF TODAY. 251
CHAPTER XXVI THE PART OF WOMAN
WOMEN AS INDIVIDUALS AND IN VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS-THEIR REMARKABLE CONTRIBUTION TO THE PREVENTION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE DANCE COMMITTEE 260
CHAPTER XXVII FRATERNITIES AND CLUBS
THE ANCIENT ORDER OF MASONRY IN NEW HAVEN-ODD FELLOWSHIP-THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT WORK-FRATERNITIES IN GENERAL-SOCIAL CLUBS-THE TRADES UNION 269
CHAPTER XXVIII MERIDEN
COLONIAL ORIGINS AND HISTORY, ITS NAMING, INCORPORATION OF TOWN AND CITY, LATER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE CITY OF TODAY. 284
CHAPTER XXIX MERIDEN (Continued)
CHURCHIES, SCHOOLS, CIVIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS-MEN WIIO HAVE MADE MERI- DEN, PHYSICIANS, LAWYERS, LEADERS IN LOCAL, STATE AND NATIONAL LIFE. . 290
X
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXX MERIDEN (Concluded)
INTERESTING GROWTH AND PRESENT MANUFACTURING GREATNESS OF THE "SIL- VER CITY, " A CHARACTERISTIC YANKEE MANUFACTURING TOWN. .. 301
CHAPTER XXXI
ORANGE
EVOLUTION OF THE COLONIAL PARISH OF NORTH MILFORD INTO THE TOWN OF ORANGE, AND THE CHARACTER OF A RARE FARMING COMMUNITY. 308
CHAPTER XXXII WEST HAVEN
THE SEPARATE COMMUNITY ON THE NEW HAVEN SIDE OF ORANGE WHICH HAS GROWN INTO A NEAR-CITY-ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMUSEMENT RESORT, SAVIN ROCK 313
CHAPTER XXXIII WALLINGFORD
EARLY LIFE OF THE MOTHER TOWN OF MERIDEN AND CHESHIRE-ITS CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE IT. 319
CHAPTER XXXIV WALLINGFORD (Concluded)
MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF AN IMPORTANT CENTER OF THE SILVER FABRICATING ART, AND ITS PRESENT DAV PROGRESS. . 325
CHAPTER XXXV BRANFORD
ORIGINS OF AN IMPORTANT OLD COLONIAL TOWN, AND THIE EVOLUTION FROM THEM OF A LIVELY, MODERN MANUFACTURING AND FARMING COMMUNITY ... 330
xi
CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXVI STONY CREEK
TIIE UNIQUE SHORE RESORT, THE CENTER OF THE QUARRY INDUSTRY, THE OYSTER PRODUCING VILLAGE WHICH IS A PART OF THE TOWN OF BRANFORD. 338
CHAPTER XXXVII
HAMDEN
TOWN OF MANY PARTS THAT ALMOST SURROUNDS NEW HAVEN, ANCIENT PLACE OF MANUFACTURES, MODERN SUBURBAN AND AGRICULTURAL TOWN. 342
CHAPTER XXXVIII
MOUNT CARMEL
THE INDEPENDENTLY FOUNDED AND DISTINGUISHED SECTION OF HAMDEN THAT LIES IN THE SHADOW OF THE FAMOUS OLD "SLEEPING GIANT' 348
CHAPTER XXXIX
CHESHIRE
THE FARMING AND INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY THAT WAS CARVED
OUT OF WALLINGFORD IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ... 357
CHAPTER XL NORTH HAVEN
EARLY OFFSHOOT OF THE NEW HAVEN COLONY, HOME OF DISTINGUISHED DIVINES, MODERN MINGLING OF INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL TOWN. 363
CHAPTER XLI EAST HAVEN
"EAST FARMS, " ITS DEVELOPMENT. ITS GROWTH AND DIVISION AND ITS CHANGE TO TIIE AGRICULTURAL TOWN AND SUBURBAN SETTLEMENT WHICH IT IS TODAY 368
xii
CONTENTS CHAPTER XLH GUILFORD
THE INDEPENDENT ORIGIN YET NEW HAVEN AFFILIATION OF THE FOUNDERS, THE ESTABLISHMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLANTATION OF MENUNKETUCK 374
CHAPTER XLIII TWO SONS OF GUILFORD
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK, CONNECTICUT'S GREATEST POET, AND HIS WORK-WIL- LIAM HARRISON MURRAY, PREACHER, WRITER, DISCOVERER OF TIIE ADIRON- DACKS AND THE PERFECT HORSE. . 383
CHAPTER XLIV MADISON
EAST GUILFORD AND NORTH BRISTOL BEFORE THEIR SEPARATION FROM GUILFORD, THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY AS DIVIDED PARTS OF AN UNUSUAL, CON- NECTICUT TOWN 397
CHAPTER XEV WOODBRIDGE
THE STORY OF THE ANCIENT "PARISH OF AMITY," AND OF THE ELEMENTS WIIICHI
MAKE THE FINE OLD TOWN ON THE HILLS OVERLOOKING NEW HAVEN. .... 406
CHAPTER XLVI
NORTII BRANFORD
NORTH FARMS, THE HISTORIC AND COLONIAL PART OF BRANFORD, THE TOWN OF
DEEI' FOUNDATIONS, HONORABLE RECORD AND SUBSTANTIAL MODERN INDUSTRY 414
PREFACE
The rush and pressure of daily newspaper work is not conducive to that leisure and spirit of research which must precede careful historical production, and this must explain in part, though it may not excuse, the deficiencies of these pages. Moreover, much ground has been covered in a brief period of time, and the defects which may appear were inevitable. It will be obvious that this is not an attempt to tell again the story of these towns in their past, already, in most cases, told so well before. As to origins, no more has been attempted than to pick up some threads which may bind together a story that is chiefly in the present time. As a panorama of the "New Haven and Eastern New Haven County" of today, with emphasis on certain signifieant features of them, these pages are presented. The writer realizes their deficiencies by the usual historical tests, and only hopes that their errors are chiefly those of omission.
Even this would not have been possible without substantial aid from many sources. The writer acknowledges his great indebtedness, in the construction of the early chapters, to Edwin Oviatt's inspiring "Beginnings of Yale," a work of the highest historical value. In the chapters on later New Haven aid has come from many sources, some of which are noticed by the way, but espe- eially is eredit due to the help of Charles E. Julin of the Chamber of Commerce. The chapters on Meriden would not have been possible but for George Munson Curtis's "Century of Meriden," the masterly record of that town. In addition, for help from many friends, most of whom must remain unmentioned here, the writer is deeply grateful.
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, MAY 8, 1918.
E. G. H.
iii
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
CHAPTER E
LOOKING BACKWARD TO BEGINNINGS
THE LANDING OF THE QUINNIPIAC PILGRIMS-THE ROOTS OF NEW HAVEN AND THE PROCESS OF ITS EARLY DEVELOPMENT-JOHN DAVENPORT'S TRINITY OF CHURCH AND STATE AND SCHOOL
I
Midway between where two mild mountain chains, tapering down, the one from far north and the other from the northeast, end abruptly in aceented heights close by Connecticut's shore. has stood for nearly three centuries a unique New World community. The adventurous and inquisitive Duteh pioneers, who poked the noses of their shallops into more of our creek-mouths than we know, had seen, long before English foot was set upon it, the red plain between the sentinel rocks, which they had translated into their tongue as "Rodenburgh." It was a fair land of agricultural, commereial and maritime promise, and the wonder is that the Dutch did not preempt it long before the English eame, or at least claim it when they came. It seems, however, that the Dutch, safely separated by seventy-five miles of indistinctly trailed forest and marsh, never troubled themselves about their newer neighbors until some years later when those ambitious and grasping Englishmen eame down and stirred them up-but that is another story.
So the good ship Hector found no fort to threaten her progress when, on a breezy April Friday in 1638, she fortunately missed the then uncharted roeks off what is now Lighthouse Point, and entered the broad harbor of the Quin- nipiac. Her 300 people were not right from England, however, and they were not happening on this harbor. For the Ilector, with Pastor John Davenport and Master Theophilus Eaton in joint command, had left London ahnost a year earlier, and made her course direetly for Boston. Somewhere in that seetion their faney had located their promised land. With but the vaguest ideas of the extent of the new country, nothing short of the region of Pilgrim Plymouth Vol. I-1
1
2
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
or greater Boston seemed to meet their requirements. But they demanded large room, as we shall see. It was not a town or a city, but a New World state that was to be different from any other earth had known, that the ambitious Davenport planned. As for Eaton, soon logically to be made governor with- out the formality of an election, what he wanted was a place to found a great trade metropolis. But both plans required space, and distance from rivals. No such place was found in Massachusetts. The Reverend John Daven- port, moreover, had other reasons for desiring to become, in a sense, lost in the wilderness. Archbishop William Laud of London, his implacable foe, had sworn that his hand should reach the rebellious Davenport, even in the New World, and the latter was minded to get where the archbishop would forget him.
The Massachusetts neighbors, on their part. took another view of it. They were not slow to discern in the Rev. John Davenport, and as well in the substantial Theophilus Eaton, who had been a prosperous merchant in London before ever he started on his New World venture, stuff for progressive citizens such as the new colony needed. But neither of the leaders would listen to blandishments. Like earlier pioneers of that Holy Writ which was their law, and for similar reasons, they "sought a better country." They had some earthly guidance. Then. as sinee, war was opening up new country. It was Captain Stoughton, who had chased the doughty Pequot Indians down to the Connecticut marshes, who was able to tell the questers some good things about the region of the Quinnipiac. They had heard, too. of Dutch "Rodenburgh," and the information so appealed to the practical Eaton that he determined to prospect. He took a few of his best sailors, and probably in the good old Hector rounded Cape Cod-then, in paeifie August, quite a different region from that which the larger party must have found in the following March-and entered Long Island Sound. Past rocky Stonington, past to-be-historie New London, past that Saybrook Point which was later to play an important and almost dis- astrous part in John Davenport's plans, he made straight for the month of the Quinnipiac. Ile found what he wanted between the two red roeks, though it must have been but an imperfect idea he got of the virgin forest and untracked marsh. But his commercial eye saw its possibilities.
Eaton wasted no time. Leaving a few squatters, as it were, for the perilous task of holding the ground until he could return with the larger party. he sailed back to Boston. It seems to have been no twenty-four hour trip from New Haven to Boston in those days. for it was impossible to get the party baek before winter-which was as well for their health, no doubt. New Haven climate, as we may know, is more favorably introduced with spring than with winter.
So it was not the Heetor's first trip into Quinnipiae Harbor-that of April 13, 1638 .* This landing, however, is aeeepted as the legitimate first. It seems to have occurred to the respeeters of signs in the party, somewhile they were working their way up past Morris Cove or the Palisades, that the day was
* There is no little confusion as to this date. Evidently this was O. S., which would make it, by our calendar. April 24, and the actual landing the following day, April 25.
NEW HAVEN COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING, NEW HAVEN
1888
THE FOUNDERS OF THIS TOWN, LANDING NEAR THIS SPOT, ASSEMBLED HERE FOR THE WORSHIP OF GOD ON THEIR FIRST SUNDAY
APRIL 25. 1338
TABLET MARKING SPOT OF FIRST WORSHIP, AT GEORGE AND COLLEGE STREETS, NEW HAVEN
3
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
Friday. Seeming to have come on a good place to anchor, they prevailed on their leaders, who mayhap needed no great persuasion, to cast out some anchors and wait for the next day.
But for the old maps with which the modern reader is plentifully furnished, it might be difficult to appreciate the location of that landing. One has to travel full seven city blocks seaward from that spot, in these days, to find anything like navigable water. There is a modern, un-Puritan drugstore, at the time of this writing, near the spot where they are said first to have set foot on the red soil of Quinnipiac. For some blocks around-this being now somewhat in the center of the motor vehicle supply district, there is more gasoline than water. But in those days the harbor itself came almost to the edge of what is now Hill Street, and nearly at a converging point entered it two creeks, one from the direction of what is now State and Elm streets, and the other from some point in the present region of George and Fligh streets. It was up this latter and larger creek that the Heetor went as far as her navigators deemed prudent, the actual landing being from the ship's boats.
If our fancy is lively enough, we can imagine these black-eloaked, steeple- hatted and sea-weary navigators, not as stepping out of their boats on to easy, mossy shores, already greening under April's sun and rain, but as serambling up the high red clay banks of the narrow creek, laden with considerable house- hold furniture as well as their clothes-chests. We have to imagine most of the scene, for the authentic accounts are meager. They found the few "squatters" Theophilus Eaton had left there the preceding fall to hold the land very glad to see them, we may believe. These had been living in rudely roofed dugouts on the banks of the creek, and with similar shelters, it appears, the newcomers had to content themselves that summer and probably through most of the next winter. Close by the creek, for the moment, was the center of New Haven. This accounts for the fact that the first gathering of the Rev. John Davenport's flock for religious service, which was on the day after they landed, was near this northeast corner of the present George and College streets. There, since 1888, has stood a marble tablet suitably marking their first place of worship.
II
Superficially, this seems like the beginning of New Haven. But to under- stand the story, we shall have to go further baek by some forty years. We shall find ourselves in that quaint old walled town of English Warwickshire which Tennyson first introduced to us as the result of his wait for the train-the very Coventry of Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom. For it is more than a coincidence that there, in the closing years of the sixteenth century and the opening of the next. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton were boys together. And through Theophilus Eaton, as will later appear, was to come the natural connection of Elihu Yale with New Haven, and the name of Elihu Yale was to descend on the New Haven college of John Davenport's-to him-unrealized dream.
It may seem a far cry from the time and eireumstances in which John
4
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
Davenport of Coventry and Oxford became a rebel against the rule of the established church, to modern New Haven. But New Haven of today is a eenter of Congregationalism, and the spirit of New Haven's sort of Congregationalism was born in John Davenport at Coventry. The later influences, at Oxford, in London and in Holland as a refugee, which made John Davenport a pioneer filled with the determination to find a spot so far from England and so remote from the vengeful eye of the tyrannical Bishop Laud of London that in it he might found a church-state after his own heart, it is not necessary to trace here.
With these troubles the less idealistie Theophilus Eaton had less eoneern. He did, however, appreciate the possibilities for commercial opportunity which the New World might offer, and he was glad enough to join in the Davenport enterprise. It should not be supposed that there was no religious fervor in Eaton. It was not omitted from the constitution of any strong men of his land and time. He never demurred, as far as we ean learn, at the ehurehly nature of the state of which he was to become the first governor. It was before the party sailed, not on the way over, that a covenant was drawn up and signed by some representative of each of the groups in the company, somewhat plainly defining the character of the unique government which it was proposed to es- tablish. The most we know of it is from the manner in which it worked out in New Haven's later history. It worked out its own destruction, by the way, for from reasons inherent in the very democratie air of the New World, it was out of the question for so ntter an antoeracy to outlast the very beginnings of the primitive settlement.
However, John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton must have been good friends, or at least very greatly in harmony in their confidenee that the church- state was a sure foundation. If there was any clash of authority in their joint leadership, the record of it has not come down. The pastor was ruler, judge and exeentor in things spiritual; the governor had the same authority in things temporal. But often it must have been hard to find the dividing line between the two. The laws were the laws of Moses, and pastor and governor, about equally versed in them, were their joint interpreters. There was no participation in the government exeept by church members in good and regular standing-the regenerate who had brought forth works meet for repentance. They took their religion very seriously. They were so intolerant, not only here but in other . parts of New England, of those who ehaneed to differ from them in matters of religions belief or practice, that they made the perseention of the churehmen of Old England look anaemie. On week days Governor Eaton's court sat-and considering the smallness of the population it had a busier time than our police court of today-and dealt with those against whom, it was natural from the critical spirit of the times, there should be abundant aceusations. There was swift hearing, stern judgment-and there was no appeal. It was not always a meekly received judgment, for the early settlers were human, and the New World bred a sense of justice that could not always have matched the Davenport-Eaton sort. It is a tremendous tribute to the genius of the joint arbiters of this strange republie that for thirty years they maintained it in a fashion, and that its down-
5
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
fall was hastened by eireumstances which they could not control-circumstances which came in considerable measure from without. But it matched the Cal- vinistie theology which Davenport brought with him, which his successors main- tained for a good deal more than thirty years.
Meanwhile, the town had shaped itself physically in a manner that cannot but be interesting to us. Some erude assistance it had, to be sure. Modern dwellers in New Haven who often have wondered why the central streets follow no cardinal points of the compass may find the answer in the vagaries of those early wandering creeks which have long sinee hidden their courses in shame. Coming, the one from the region of what is now upper George Street, its course about southeasterly, and the other from "somewhere out State Street," in a general southwesterly direction, they made a sort of rough right angle at the point where they entered the harbor head. This natural angle seemed to John Broekett. a young London surveyor who same over with the Davenport-Eaton party, better bounds than the points of the compass on which to lay out a city. So he marked ont by map -- the actual going by land was so far from being good that the map was easier-a town of nine equal squares, one-half of a square mile in total extent. George Street and the West Creek were its southwestern boundary ; State Street and the East Creek its southeastern. On the northwest what was to be York Street limited it. To the northeast was what is now Grove Street, its name more than adequately foretold by the interminable virgin forest which then began only a little north of Elm.
These boundaries probably were not imaginary. The settlers had learned before they came to expect confliet from foes without as well as from their natural inward enemies of original sin. Against the latter they made it one of their early tasks to erect a Meeting House where Pastor Davenport might give them weekly-or more frequent-treatment for their souls. Their first task, .however, was to enclose the nine squares with a substantial stockade. Even though trees were plentiful and the digging was good (there is not in the whole nine squares today a roek or a stone, and probably there were very few in those days) this could have been no light undertaking. To set elose together two miles of sharpened palings, substantial logs well planted in the ground and extending seven feet above it, was a labor of spade and post and pestle that could hardly have been light, even for many hands. The evidence is conflicting, but the weight of it favors the belief that New Haven had this protecting stoekade. The energetie Eaton, if not the provident Davenport, would have seen to that.
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