A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I, Part 1

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 930

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GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01150 6521

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015

https://archive.org/details/modernhistoryofw01linc

A MODERN HISTORY OF

WINDHAM COUNTY

CONNECTICUT

A Windham County Treasure Book

ALLEN B. LINCOLN, Editor

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME I

"The thing I want is not Redbook Lists and Court Calendars *

* *

* * but the Life of Man * what men did, thought, suffered, enjoyed; the form, especially the spirit, of their terres- trial existence; its outward principle; how and what it was, whence it proceeded, and whither it was tending. * * * His- tory, which should be the essence of innumerable biographies." -Carlyle.

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1920

A TRIBUTE TO MISS LARNED

"I saw her last in life one Sunday morning about the first of August, 1911. It was a beautiful morning, about half an hour before church-time, when we drove up Thompson Street, which to me at least is always quaint and charming beyond expression. The peace of the Sabbath day was in the air-not the Sab- bath day of the great city or its noisy suburbs, but the New England Sabbath day of my boyhood and of my father's time. As we passed slowly by Miss Larned's house, I saw her sitting on the porch, upon one of those side, board benches or seats; and in her lap lay a book, which looked very like and which it pleased my fancy to believe was the identical copy of the Bible from which, more than half a century before, she had taught me. As I passed I raised my hat to her almost in reverence, but her failing sight was not sufficient to enable her to notice my salute or passage. I looked full in her face and, as long as con- sciousness shall last, I shall remember her as she then appeared. The peace of that New England Sabbath day was upon her face, illuminating it with that light of sanctification which such peace may bring to such a nature of the old Puritan stock."

-Tribute of Judge Mills.

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HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT AND PATRIOTISM* BY ALLEN B. LINCOLN

A well-known educator has said, that an effective inspiration to patriotism is residence in an historic locality; but it is necessary that the environment shall be realized, and its sig- nificance be brought out in the schools and in the civic consciousness of the community.

Willimantic is certainly rich in this regard. From the commanding eminence of our own Hosmer Mountain, one may see the city itself in vivid panorama, and then, in larger view, may comprehend a wonderful scene of historic inspiration.

In the foreground, just beyond our northern boundary, lie the rolling fields and wood- lands of Mansfield, originally a part of Windham; and whose townspeople were among the first in all the colonies to propose resistance to British tyranny. Every child in school, in- deed, every citizen, should become familiar with those remarkable resolutions adopted in Mansfield townmeeting, October 10, 1774, or nearly two years before the Declaration of In- dependence, and which boldly proclaimed that "to the utmost of our ability" shall "main- tain, and hand down to posterity, FREEDOM, that sacred plant of Paradise"; and that "we will defend with our lives, and our fortunes, our natural and constitutional rights!"

With this inspiration from Mansfield, your gaze may follow along the picturesque valley of the Natchaug, then turn to the north, to find, in clear relief, the rugged hills of Ashford, whence Capt. Thomas Knowlton led his famous "Rangers" to the aid of General Washington.

To the west, as the eye ranges along the gracefully winding valley of the Willimantic River, you may see, bordering the shores of beautiful Lake Wamgumbaug, the Coventry Hills, which still shelter the boyhood home of Nathan Hale; and if, perchance, you shall be- hold this western view in the glorious light from the setting sun, you may catch a glimpse of silver sheen reflected from the granite shaft of the Hale Memorial Monument-that shaft which bears the immortal words of the dying patriot: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Pass now to the southern slope of the mountain, and you may see the hills of Lebanon, where almost within our view is the home of "Brother Jonathan" Trumbull; the tomb where his sacred ashes lie; and the old "War office" (still preserved in the thoughtful care of the Sons of the American Revolution) where Washington and Lafayette met in council. Not far to the west of the war office, you may still walk along the very fields where Count Rochambeau and his "five sparkling regiments of Bourbonnois" were quartered from March to June, in 1781, on their overland journey from Newport, to join the American armny on the Hudson; and where General Washington himself, in that same year, reviewed the Duke de Lauzun's Legion of five hundred mounted Hussars!

Returning now to the eastern brow of the mountain, you may gaze upon the historic hills of our own "Old Windham," whence Colonel Elderkin led 150 men to Bunker Hill, and where, in those days, dwelt Samuel Huntington, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and president of the Continental Congress; Col. Eliphalet Dyer, a member of that Congress; and Nathaniel Wales, Jr., with Dyer and Elderkin, members of the "Council of Safety."

Raising the eyes a little farther to the northeast, you may readily bring into the picture the hills of Brooklyn, long the county seat, and where now stands the state's enduring eques- trian memorial to Israel Putnam, the fearless hero of "Wolf's Den" fame; and who, like Cin- cinnatus of old, left the plow at his country's call, scorning the retirement which his long pub- lic service had richly earned, and made his way to Cambridge and to Bunker's Hill, there to win that immortal distinction: "He dared to lead where any dared to follow."

* Recalled in substance from response to toast "Willimantic" at Board of Trade Banquet April 2, 1907, and afterwards adapted for use in declamation at Natchaug School, by request of Principal James L. Harroun.

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY

Nor did this spirit of patriotism die with the days of the Revolution and the achievement of American Independence, among these old Windham County hills. It was the selfsame spirit of civic devotion which led far afield from his father's fireside, and in the crisis of '61 found him a stanch defender of the Union cause in the border state of Missouri-brave young Nathaniel Lyon of Eastford, who gave his life for his country at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, and bequeathed his fortune to the Republic; Brig .- Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, whose mem- ory the State of Connecticut has lately honored anew, as one of the most brilliant and ef- fective of military leaders in the Civil war. To those days of '61 and '65 belongs also the glorious record of Connecticut's "war governor," William A. Buckingham, whose birthplace, in Lebanon, is still a shrine for patriots.

These illustrious names are but exemplars of the hundreds of brave boys who went forth from these Windham County hills, in the days of '76 and '61, to do battle for the cause of human freedom; patriots all, whose graves it is now our sacred privilege to decorate, in honor and gratitude, on each recurring Memorial Day.

Such, then, is the rich heritage revealed to our beloved Willimantic, in this horizon sweep from old Hosmer Mountain! How vividly it brings to our minds a realization of the fact that right here, amid the hills and dales of our own associate communities of today, there dwelt, and tilled this selfsame soil, an influential and effective portion of those early American patriots, who gave so freely of their lives and substance, to secure the liberties which we still enjoy. It is worth while to live in a community so eloquently environed.

But we must never forget, that it is not only our privilege to enjoy, but our duty to preserve, the liberties for which our fathers fought. Keep in mind that best maxim of Colonial days, "Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."

Our problems today are not military, but civic, not of bullets, but ballots; not of sword, but in the service of Peace.

The greatest lesson of citizenship, not yet fully learned, is that we must so uphold the standards of our daily living that the conflicts of war, always due to selfishness and greed, may be averted. Teach youthful ambition that "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war."

If any shall indulge the illusion that the victories of peace are less strenuous, sacrificial or ennobling than the conquests of war, let him take more thoughtful note of the daily heroisms of a progressive and achieving civilization. If inspiration and outlet for mighty energies be needed, how better employed than in the discoveries of exploration, or in mastery of problems of travel, traffic and transportation, in unknown lands, on trackless seas, or in the pathless air? If the quest be in skill of intellect, what of the opportunities in science and invention?

Where shall you find greater loyalty, higher courage, nobler character, deeper sacrifice than in the compelling tasks of mine or railway, farm or shop; among priests and ministers, doctors and nurses; in the household; wherever the burden of "the daily round" is met with brave determination to excel and achieve and thus to make one's life worth while?

In this spirit, then, let us realize and interpret the modern meaning of our historic en- vironment. Let the lessons thereof be so impressed upon the minds and hearts of the chil- dren of this community, and indeed, upon us all, that there may come to each of us an effective inspiration to patriotism; not only that spirit of patriotism, which glories in the heroic deeds of the fathers, but a genuine practice of patriotism, which shall find expression in daily service and in clean, noble lives, free from that which weakens or degrades ourselves or our fellow-men; each of us seeking ever to develop and follow the best that is in us, for our community, for the state, and the nation.

. 1

MISS ELLEN DOUGLAS LARNED

ELLEN DOUGLAS LARNED

A SKETCH AND APPRECIATION OF HER LIFE AND WORK .

WRITTEN BY HER FORMER PUPIL, HON. ISAAC NEWTON MILLS, LL. D., ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION (SECOND DEPARTMENT) OF THE NEW YORK SUPREME COURT.

Ellen Douglas Larned, widely and most favorably known as the historian of Windham County, Connecticut, was born on Thompson Hill in the town of Thompson in that county on the 13th of July, 1825. With the exception of occasional visits to relatives in Provi- dence, New Haven, or New York City, and two or three winter trips to the South, she passed her entire life there in the same house. It was situated a few feet to the west of the Congregational Church and almost within the shadow of its stately spire, upon the south side of the main street of the little hamlet, which is the Hart- ford and Boston Post Road, known in stage-coach days as the Middle Route between New York and Boston. She died in that house on January 31, 1912; and three days later her funeral services were held in that old church, where her maternal grandfather and great- grandfather had been deacon for many years. Her remains were interred in the ancient burial ground at the western base of Thompson Hill, where four generations of her an- cestors rest.

It used to be a Thompson tradition that her father named her, his youngest and per- haps dearest child, after the Ellen Douglas of Scott's "Lady of the Lake," which he greatly admired. Certain it is that throughout her long life she was in the expression of her sentiments as open, direct, and guileless as Scott made his heroine to be-

"Not Katrine, in her mirror blue, , Gives back the shaggy banks more true, Than every free-born glance confessed The guileless movements of her breast: Whether joy danced in her dark eye, Or woe or pity claimed a sigh, * * * * *

* * Or tale of injury called forth The indignant spirit of the North."

Miss Larned's ancestry was of New England's very best. Every line of it runs back directly to a family which was one of the original settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that is, of Boston and adjacent towns, and which migrated to that locality from England about 1630. Indeed most of the first settlers of Thompson were of that same general stock. Her mother was Anna Spalding Gay, daughter of Joseph Gay and granddaughter of Lusher. Gay, who settled in Thompson about June, 1738, and was a direct descendant in the third degree from John Gay, who migrated to America from England about 1630 and set- tled at Watertown and later at Dedham, Massachusetts. The Gays in all those early genera- tions were prominent men, often holding public office such as that of selectman.

Miss Larned's father, George Larned, was born in Thompson, March 13, 1776; gradu- ated at Brown University, 1792; studied law at the famous Litchfield Law School, and prac- ticed law in Thompson all the rest of his life. He often represented that town in the Connecticut General Assembly, and in 1818 was a member of the Convention at Hartford which formulated and adopted the Connecticut State Constitution. He was one of the leading lawyers of Eastern Connecticut, and for many years the chief citizen of his town. He died June 9, 1858. He was twice married and had four children by his first wife. The first of those was William Augustus, who graduated at Yale in 1826 and was there a tutor for a time, and later, for very many years until his death in 1862, a professor of rhetorie and English literature. He was a very able instructor and was held in high repute as one of Yale's best. His widow endowed three scholarships at Yale which still exist. A

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY

daughter of that first marriage married Capt. Steven Crosby of Thompson and was the mother of the late George Steven Crosby of that town.

George Larned married his second wife, Anna Spalding Gay, December 5, 1816. She was born November 29, 1793, and died November 30, 1883. They had five children of whom the subject of this sketch was the last. Of the others Joseph Gay Eaton Larned was born April 29, 1819; graduated at Yale 1839; was tutor there 1842 to 1847, and later a patent lawyer in New York City and died there June 3, 1870. He was the inventor of a celebrated steam engine and was one of the organizers of the Free Soil Party in Connecticut. An own sister of Miss Larned named Sophia Gay was born December 21, 1823; taught 1845- 1856 in the noted "Grove Hall School,"' New Haven; married January 2, 1851, George Hadley, a brother of the famous Professor Hadley of Yale and uncle of its president, Arthur T. Hadley. He was for many years professor of chemistry at the Buffalo Medical College. She died January 8, 1884 ..

Miss Larned's paternal grandfather was Daniel Larned. He was born November 16, 1743, and on April 4, 1771, married Rebeckah Wilkinson, a daughter of Capt. Benjamin Wilkinson, a very prominent citizen of Thompson. He died December 29, 1797, and she died January 22, 1821. They had ten children. He was, in his time, easily the leading man in Thompson. He served in the Revolutionary war and attained the rank of ensign. After the war he became major and lieutenant-colonel of the 11th Connecticut militia regi- ment and finally brigadier-general of the Fifth Brigade of the Connecticut militia. He is the only man of Thompson birth who ever attained to any rank of general, except the late Maj .- Gen. George W. Davis. He held practically every civil office in the gift of his fellow-townsmen and was their delegate to the Connecticut Constitutional Convention in November, 1787, which ratified the Federal Constitution. He was the leading business man of the Thompson neighborhood and also a very prominent Mason.

Miss Larned's paternal great-grandfather was Samuel Larned. He was born De- cember 28, 1718; married Rachel Green of Killingly, December 29, 1741; and died February 5, 1770. He was a lieutenant in the Third Connecticut regiment of which Israel Putnam was major in the last French and Indian war. They also had ten children.

Here it may be noted that General Ebenezer Larned, living at Oxford, Massachusetts, was a cousin of the above-named Daniel Larned. He was a patriot brigadier-general in the Revolutionary war and commanded the famous Larned Brigade which rendered such dis- tinguished service in relieving Fort Stanwix, and shortly thereafter at Saratoga. Indeed, it may well be said to have won the critical assault there upon the enemy's lines. While General Larned may in his conduct there have been less spectacular than Arnold, he was perhaps really no less efficient.

The father of Samuel. Larned was William, and he was the first of the line to settle in the Thompson locality. He was born February 12, 1688; married November 24, 1715, Hannah Bryant of Killingly of a family who came there from Braintree, Massachusetts. He came to Killingly, October 25, 1712, and bought and held considerable land at the present Putnam. He was one of the first members of the Thompson church, being admitted there in 1730, and became one of its deacons in 1742. He was selectman of Killingly 1740-1744 and town treasurer 1742-1746. He died June 11, 1747.

The father of William was Isaac, who was born September 16, 1655, and died Sep- tember 15, 1737. He lived in Framingham, Massachusetts; married Sarah Bigelow, July 23, 1679; was a soldier in Captain Davenport's company in the Narragansett war and was wounded. He was several times selectman. His father was also named Isaac. The latter was born February 25, 1623, in Bermondsey Parish, County Surrey, England, and at the age of seven or eight came to this country with his parents. He married July 9, 1646, Mary Sterns of Watertown, Massachusetts, and died at Chelmsford, Massachusetts, November 27, 1657. His father, William, was the original founder of the American line. The first record of him in this country is that of his admission to the Charlestown church, October 6, 1632. He was one of the first inhabitants of that town. He was married in England, his wife's name being "Goditha, "' and all of their children were born there. He was made a freeman in Charlestown, May 14, 1634; was selectman and remonstrated against the expulsion of Anne Hutchinson. He died March 1, 1646.

Nearly all of Miss Larned's ancestors were devoutly religious, members of the Puritan, the Congregational, church, and included several deacons, that being in those days an office of great importance and dignity, perhaps equal to that of captain or major in the militia.

Her ancestors were all of them intense American patriots. They fought for their

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY

country in four wars, namely, the New England war with the Indians, the two French and Indian wars, and the Revolutionary war.

From this review of her ancestry it may be readily perceived that with the exception of a very few families, such as the Adams family, no New England family has a superior ancestry, and very few indeed an equal one. The late Joseph H. Choate, in his oration at the dedication at Boston of the statue of his uncle, the great lawyer, Rufus Choate, said of the old New England stock, "He came of a long line of pious and devout ancestors whose living was as plain as their thinking was high." Miss Larned's ancestry merits the same encomium. Her forbears without exception were leaders in their respective communities, of high character, marked ability, and commanding influence. Moreover her own brothers and sisters above-mentioned were manifestly of the same nature. It used to be the current tradi- tion in Thompson that her mother was a person of rare ability, a great and wide reader, at least for those times, and, indeed, quite a writer and something of a poet. She lived to be ninety years of age, surviving her husband twenty-five years. After his death she resided with her daughter Ellen. Her pastor in his discourse at her funeral pronounced upon her the following eulogium, which the general opinion of Thompson people then held to be fully deserved :

"Upon the intellectual side she was marked by great mental activity, great clearness and keenness of perception, great breadth and variety of intellectual sympathies: you might say there was nothing human she was not interested in. Persons, places, events, old and new, not only in her home circle but widening out into the out-goings of the great world- the history of the past, the conditions of. the present, the prospects of the future, alike in state and nation, in church and the world, in the lives of great men, the poets, earlier and later-the newest things as well as the older-all had a charm for her. Her memory was marvelous, filled with prose and poetry, God's Book and man's books, family history and the events of the outside world. No wonder that with all these resources her conversation was unusually finished and interesting, the more so because lighted up by a vivacity and play of humor, remarkable at any time and especially so in one so far advanced in life, showing itself up to the last moments."

In Miss Larned's youth and young womanhood Thompson Hill was a far more im- portant place, relatively speaking, than it is at present. Now it is a most charming sum- mer resort of the tranquil sort-quite tranquil indeed-where certain families, mostly de- scendants of old Thompson stock, pass the warmer months, entirely content with their com- parative isolation. In those days, however, it was a recognized center, not only of educa- tion, general culture and refinement, but as well of trade, business and wealth, and in those respects dominant of the country for miles around. Its residents'then were permanent. It had two daily stage-coach lines running through it, namely, one from Providence to Springfield and another from Hartford to Boston, being part of the famous Middle Route between New York and Boston, over which Washington in November, 1789, in his coach and four returned from his New England tour. Thompson Hill then had two practicing lawyers, two doctors-who divided between them the patronage, affection and loyalty of the people of a large territory round-about-two clergymen, the Congregational and the Baptist, of which the former was highly educated, a graduate of Harvard, Yale, or Dartmouth, a man of strong personality and generally the practical ruler of the neighborhood. The Congrega- tional Church in Thompson has the unique distinction of having had three successive pas- torates covering a period of 115 years, ending with 1872; and the writer considers that the great ability and strong personality of those three pastors had much to do with moulding the intellectual and moral excellence of the old Thompson citizen- ship. The pastor during Miss Larned's early life was the Rev. Dr. Daniel Dow, whose pastorate extended from 1796 to 1849, and who was a very able preacher and of most mas- terful character, but withal of much eccentricity. In the writer's boyhood many illustrative amusing anecdotes were told of him. Thus it was the tradition that after the death of General Washington, when a eulogy was pronounced upon him in every church in the land, Doctor Dow took for the text of his sermon the words "Speak, ye who ride on white asses" (Judges 5:10), and in the discourse, while he eulogized the great man, he adapted the text by declaring that Washington, great as he was, still was mortal and would have to account to the Court of The Most High just as much as the lowest individual. He pro- ceeded to take out of his congregation the conceit, so far as in them any had survived his previous ministrations, by vigorously inculcating the lesson that, inasmuch as the greatest of men had to die, certainly they all must, and therefore had better, without further delay, prepare for that event. It is safe to assume that in all the land no clergyman took for his eulogy upon Washington a more unique text.

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY

The writer's father told him of the following incident. A celebrated Reform advocate, who had spoken in various parts of New England and had gained a great reputation, deliv- ered his address one evening in the Thompson church, Doctor Dow presiding and introducing him. As they were leaving the church after the services the writer's father met the reverend doctor and said to him, in substance, that the man was a very able speaker and had made a great address. "Yes," said Doctor Dow, who was very conservative and did not quite believe in the proposed reform, "He is smart enough, if he would only be careful to always keep the truth on his side."

Again, in the time of the great anti-Masonic movement, Doctor Dow took a strong stand against Masonry and preached against it a sermon upon the text, "If ye will inquire, in- quire ye" (Isaiah 21:12) ; and he proceeded to inquire most strenuously into the practices of the craft and to condemn them because they were secret, declaring that nothing good need be secret, and affirming, perhaps by way of anticipation, the recent modern doc- trine of "open covenants openly arrived at." His denunciation of the order became so severe that Squire George Larned, father of Miss Larned, who was an ardent Mason, with his independent nature could stand it no longer, and rose from his seat in a prominent position in the church and, with every feature flaming with indignation, marched out of it in the very midst of the sermon, thus braving the resentment of the dominant clergyman. That, however, did not faze Doctor Dow or serve to mitigate his denunciation of what he considered to be a wrong.

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A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I, Part 1

Author: Lincoln, Allen B Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 930