USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > An historical address delivered at the opening of the village library of Farmington, Conn., September 30th, 1890 > Part 1
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Gc 974.602 F22 ga 1781014
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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= ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00075 1732
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FARMINGTON PAPERS
Julius Gay
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Profim .. ed.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicaladdres00gayj
AN
HISTORICAL ADDRESSES
DELIVERED AT
The Opening
OF THE
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VILLAGE LIBRARY OF FARMINGTON, CONN.,
SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1890,
BY
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JULIUS GAY.
HARTFORD, CONN .: THE CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1890.
154201
1781014
AN
HISTORICAL ADDRESS
DELIVERED AT
Che Opening
OF THE
VILLAGE LIBRARY OF FARMINGTON, CONN.,
SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1890,
BY
JULIUS GAY.
F 846 .32
Gay, Julia,- An historical address delivered at the opening of the Village library of Farmington, Conn., September 30th, 1890. by Julius Gay. Hartford, Conn., The Case, Lock- wood & Brainard company, printers, 1890.
19, il p. 2 pl. 2210. (His (Historical addresses, no :- IT ~Hartford, 1890-190-1)
1. Farmington, Conn. Village library.
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18-15756
Library of Congress F104.F4G287
Copy 2.
104.F4G25
113002
OHELF CARL
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ADDRESS.
WE have met this evening to open, to the use of > the public, the library which the generosity of the citizens and friends of this village has instituted. By way of introduction, a brief account has been thought fitting of an older library founded here a century ago, of the men who organized it, and of the literary taste of their times.
There have been other libraries in this town also well-deserving consideration, if time permitted. Seven were in active operation, in the year 1802, with an aggregate of 1,041 volumes on their shelves, cost- ing $1,241. The most recent library is too well- known to you all to need any culogy or description from me. If the Tunxis Library had not attained its remarkable prosperity, there is little reason to suppose we should have been here this evening.
In the year 1795, when the Revolutionary War had been a thing of the past for twelve years, the peo- ple of this village found time to turn their energies to peaceful pursuits. The long and bitter contentions in the church had just given place to peace and good- will by the settlement of the beloved pastor, the Rev. Joseph Washburn, in May of that year. The Hon. . John Treadwell of this town, afterward Gov. Tread-
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well, was at this time a member of the upper house of the State Legislature, and John Mix, Esq., had just begun to represent the town in the lower house twice each year as certainly as the months of May and October came around. These worthy and public- spirited men, with such assistance as their fellow townsmen were ready to offer them, founded, in that year, the first library in this village of which we have any extended record. They called it " The Library in the First Society in Farmington," and this library, with sundry changes in name and organization, has survived to the present time.
The first librarian was Elijah Porter, a soldier of the Revolution, who served three years with the Connecti- cut troops on the Hudson, and was for many years a deacon in the Congregational Church. The members of the first committee were Martin Bull, John Mix, and Isaac Cowles. Martin Bull, also a deacon of the church, was a man of versatile powers and occupations, - a goldsmith and maker of silver spoons and silver but- tons, a manufacturer of saltpetre when it was needed in making gunpowder for the army, a conductor of the church music with Gov. Treadwell for assistant, the treasurer of the town for eight years, and clerk of probate for thirty-nine years, and until the office passed out of the control of the old Federal party. He was one of the seventy signers of an agreement to march to Boston, in September, 1774, to the assistance of our besieged countrymen, if needed. Of all his numerous occupations, perhaps none pleased the worthy deacon more than writing long and formal letters to his
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friends. One series of fifteen to a student in college, full of kindly feeling and pious exhortation, has come down to us, but whose appalling solemnity would tend to drive the modern college youth into any dissipation for relief.
John Mix, the second member of the committee, was a graduate of Yale College, and an officer in the Revolutionary War, serving first as ensign along the Hudson, and afterward as lieutenant and quarter- master in the Highlands until the close of the war. Then, when the return of peace dismissed the officers of the army to their homes, and the strong friendships formed around the camp-fire and on the battlefield led to the founding of the Society of the Cincinnati, John Mix became the Secretary of the Connecticut branch until that society was dissolved, in 1804, to appease the insane clamors of the politicians of the day. He then served the town ten years as judge of probate, thirty-two as town clerk, and twenty-six as a represen- tative to the General Assembly. Those were the good old days when the magistrate and his duties were looked up to with veneration, and rotation in office had not become a political necessity. This old town was then a power in the land.
Isaac Cowles, the third member of the committee, was a farmer, a tavern keeper, a colonel in the State Militia, and a man of wealth.
The library company numbered thirty-seven members, who contributed 3So volumes, valued at $644.29, which amount was six-sevenths of one per cent. of the assessed value of all the property in the
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First Society of Farmington. The books were in par. the remains of a former library formed Aug. I, 1785, of which no record, except this date and the amount of money collected, has come down to us. The first book on the list was Dean Swift's Tale of a Tub. Other works of fiction were his Gulliver's Travels, The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves of Smollett, The Sentimental Journey of Sterne; Henry Brookes' Fool of Quality ; Fielding's Tom Jones; Miss Fanny Burney's Evelina and Cecilia; Dr. Moore's Zeluco; and Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. - There were translations of Gil Blas, and of several French novels; The Tales of the Castle and the Adelaide, and Theodore of Madame De Genlis, and others of a more ephemeral nature.
Of poetry, they had, of course, the Paradise Lost, Pope's version of the Iliad, Young's Night Thoughts, and Goldsmith's Poems. There were, too, McPher- son's Ossian, The Task and Olney Hymns of Cowper, Thomson's Seasons, and the poems of Akenside.
The list is not a long one, for the New England mind did not take kindly to works of the imagination. Being appealed to on their patriotic side they bought with alacrity The Conquest of Canaan by President Dwight, and the Vision of Columbus by Joel Barlow, - those two epic poems which were thought to be so inspired by the Genius of American Liberty as to put to shame all the works of effete monarchies and empires. To these they added the poems of .General David Humphreys, revolutionary soldier and diplo- matist, and a volume of miscellaneous American
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poetry, which completed the list, nor did they see occasion to make any additions until twenty years after, in 1817, they bought Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh published that year.
History fared a little better. Robertson was represented by his Histories of America, Scotland, and India, and his Reign of Charles the Fifth. Even Voltaire was admitted with his Charles the Twelfth and his Age of Louis the Fifteenth. Rollin's Ancient History appears in ten volumes, and Joseph- us's Antiquities of the Jews in four volumes. Hume's History of England, Watson's Philip the Second, and Winthrop's Journal were there, -the latter now a valuable prize when found in the edition of that day. There were histories in many volumes of almost all the then known countries of the world, - Europe, Greece, Rome, England, Spain, America, Switzer- land, and Hindostan, but by whom written we can only conjecture. The volumes have long since dis- appeared, and the catalogue is silent.
Of biographies, there were those of Mahomet, Cromwell, Frederick the Great, Eugene, Newton, Doddridge, Boyle, Franklin, and Putnam. Of books of travel, there were Anson's Voyage around the World, Cook's Voyages, Wraxall's Tour through Europe, Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, Niebuhr's Travels in Arabia, Cox's Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, and Young's Travels in France, which latter has been recently reprinted, and is one of the notable books of the day.
Any one could make a list of the essay literature
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on the shelves without much danger of going astray. The Tatler, The Spectator, and the Citizen of the World constituted pretty much the whole of it.
Of dramatic literature there is not much to say. The first copy of Shakespeare waited twenty years for admission to the library. Our forefathers did not love the theater or its literature.
Theological books were more to their taste. I will not weary you with a list of those which formed a large part of their first library. The most famous were Butler's Analogy, Edwards "On the Freedom of the Will,"" On Justification by Faith Alone," his " Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections," and his " His- tory of the Redemption "; Hopkins' Divinity ; Paley's Evidences and his Hora Paulina; Newton, on the Prophecies ; West, on the Resurrection; Strong, on Baptism; and Sherlock's Practical Discourses on Providence. There were also sermons by Blair, Newton, Edwards, and other divines.
Such were the 3So volumes with which the first library was opened to the public. For a quarter of a century thereafter the books added were, with few ex- ceptions, of a theological character. With the excep- tion of " Don Quixote " and " Sir Charles Grandison," added in 1799, no more novels were bought until Miss Hannah More's " Coelebs in Search of a Wife " found favor in ISog, probably owing to the religious charac- ter of its authoress; and so matters continued until the Waverley Novels knocked too hard at the doors to be denied admission.
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and no favorite Psalms which the congregation, becom- ing familiar with, could in time sing without the book. They deemed it their solemn duty to sing all the Psalms in course, just as they read their Bibles through from Genesis to Revelation, and then began again; and it worried their consciences not a little that in the early editions, Sternehold and Hopkins had not rendered all of the one hundred and fifty Psalms into meter. Still, as several had more than one hundred lines, and one over seven hundred, " deaconing out the Psalm," in this lack of books, was an evident necessity.
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Let us now spend a Sabbath in the first meeting- house which stood on our village green, and, so far as may be, learn how our fathers worshiped within its walls. As all days are alike open to our choice, we select the year 1676 for our visit. You need not listen for the signal of the bell; you will have to wait 44 years for that sound; but the drum will be beaten at the time of divine service, and also an hour before.
Let us join the train of worshipers as they ap- proach the sanctuary from all parts of the little village. They are, for the most part, on foot; but some from the outlying farms are on horseback - the good wife on a pillion behind the good man, with the youngest child in her arms, while the rest of the family -- the sturdy sons and daughters - follow on foot, family in- termingled with family, and much paired according to the law of a natural selection older than Darwin. The meeting-house stands where the second and third house were afterward built. Doors open to the
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were frowned upon for stopping on the way at too many of the numerous taverns then lining our street. We know how Gov. Treadwell fined the society ladies of his day because, as the indictment read, " They were convened in company with others at the house of Nehemiah Street, in said town, and refused to dis- perse until after nine o'clock at night." The nine o'clock bell meant something in those days.
Only a few years later, the Governor writes in a strain worthy of John Ruskin, " The young ladies are changing their spinning wheels for forte-pianos and forming their manners at the dancing school rather than in the school of industry. Of course, the peo- ple are laying aside their plain apparel, manufactured in their houses, and clothing themselves with Europ- ean and India fabrics. Labor is growing into disre- pute, and the time when the independent farmer and reputable citizen could whistle at the tail of his plough with as much serenity as the cobbler over his last, is fast drawing to a close. The present time marks a revolution of taste and of manners of immense import to society, but while others glory in this as a great ad- vancement in refinement, we cannot help dropping a tear at the close of the golden age of our ancestors, while with a pensive pleasure we reflect on the past, and with suspense and apprehension anticipate the future."
Such was social life then. Much hearty enjoy- ment of the increasing good things around them, tempered and always overshadowed by their ever
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present belief in the stern doctrines of Calvin - " fixed fate, free-will, fore-knowledge absolute."
The meetings for the drawing of books were held on the first Sunday evening of each month, not be- cause the eminently religious character of the library became that day, but because our ancestors read on the first page of Holy Writ that the evening and the morning were the first day, and when they saw the last rays of the setting sun disappear behind the west- ern mountains, the Sabbath with all its restraints was ended. The boys might resume, though somewhat quietly, the sports of the week. Those of older growth were expected to present themselves in all the bravery of their Sunday attire wherever their youth- ful affections called them, and they, both young men and maidens, doubtless blessed the new library as a most suitable place of resort for their elders. Hither they came from far and near, not simply for books, but to exchange friendly greetings, to discuss the affairs of the State and the Church, the health of their families, the labors of their farms, and all the details of their everyday life. It was a true literary club made up of the most intelligent and worthy mem- bers of the community.
When all were assembled and had accounted for the books charged them, the new books, or any old ones desired by two persons, were put up at auction, and the right to the next month's reading was struck off for a few pennies, adding on the average $2.50 to the annual income of the company.
Deacon Porter kept the library in excellent order.
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Every volume, though originally bound, as books then were, in full leather, had a stout cover of sheep skin sewed around it. The reader who turned down a leaf to keep his place while reading was fined a penny, and a strict record was kept of every grease spot or other blemish, giving the volume and page where it occurred, so that any new damage could be charged upon the offender with unerring certainty. Two pence a day was the cost of forgetting to return books on time. It made no sort of difference who the un- lucky offender was, be he of high degree or otherwise, he had to pay. Major Hooker pays his sixpence, Col. Noadiah Hooker his shilling, and even Gov. Tread- well is reminded that it has cost him five shillings and sixpence for forgetting his books a whole month. Solomon Whitman, Esq., reading the fourth volume of Rollin, probably with a tallow dip in one hand, sets fire to the book and comes so near bringing the wars of the Persians and Grecians to an abrupt termination, that he has to pay one dollar. Dr. Todd is fined one- half as much for having his mind so occupied with his patients as to forget his books for six days. The fines for ten years amounted to £1 3 6.
On the first day of January, ISO1, the first day of the new century, the name of the library was changed from The Library in the First Society in Farmington to The Monthly Library in Farmington, probably to distinguish it from some other library. Deacon Mar- tin Bull, still the chairman of the committee, engraved for it a new book plate in the highest style of his art.
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It contains the by-laws of the company and this motto :
" The youth who led by Wisdom's guiding hand Seeks Virtue's temple and her law reveres, He, he alone in Honour's dome shall stand
Crowned with rewards and raised above his peers."
Wisdom is represented in the central picture in the form of the god Mercury leading a very small boy up to a book-shelf of ponderous folios. The boy is dressed in the fashionable court costume of the period, and with uncovered head contemplates a per- sonification of virtue crowned with masonic insignia. By her side stands a nude figure of wondrous anatomy, perhaps a siren against whose allurements the youth is being warned.
The books were kept in the house of the librarian, which stood on the east side of the main street, next north of the graveyard, and here sat Deacon Porter, the village tailor, in this solemn neighborhood and among these serious books ready to minister to the literary taste of the community. In the meantime the be- loved pastor, Joseph Washburn, died on the voyage from Norfolk to Charleston, whither he had gone in the vain hope of restoring his health, and on the 23d day of August, eight years afterward, Deacon Porter married the widow and moved into her house opposite, now occupied by Chauncey Rowe, Esq. He relin- quished his care of the library, and Captain Luther Seymour succeeded him for the year 1813. At the end of the year the Monthly Library Company came to an end. The furniture was sold and the cash on
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cleus, he said, of the Village Library. The accuracy of Capt. Scott's recollection seems to be sustained by the list of books bought from the Village Library at its dissolution in 1826. Two of the twenty volumes of " The World Displayed," the boys' first purchase, are still in existence bearing the book plate of the Village Library, a work of art probably beyond the skill of Deacon Bull. It substitutes for his awkward boy a self-possessed young lady seated in an arm chair in the most approved position taught by the boarding schools of the day. She is absorbed in a book taken from the library shelves at her side, and through the window of the room has before her the inspiring vision of the Temple of Fame crowning the summit of a distant mountain. Beneath is the motto -
" Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll,
Charms strike the sense, but merit wins the soul."
Thus early did the Village Library recognize the value of female education.
In March, 1826, the Village Library was merged with the Phoenix, and Capt. Selah Porter, who since 1817, and perhaps longer, had been its librarian, now took the place of Deacon Elijah Porter. He held the office until he resigned April 4, 1835, and Simeon Hart, Jr., was appointed in his stead, and it was voted that the books be removed to the house of the latter. The affix of Jr. sounds strangely to those who remem- ber the venerable and beloved instructor of our youth better as Deacon Hart,- a name which brings back to many hundreds of men scattered all over the world
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the recollections of the wise teacher, the kindly direc- tor of their sports as well as studies, the high minded man trusting the honor of his pupils and worthy of all honor in return. Deacon Hart had just finished his twelfth year as principal of the Farmington Acad- emy, and one month after his appointment as librarian "Commenced," as he wrote, "a Boarding School in my own house, May 1, 1835." This new departure of his so occupied his time that on the 6th of March he felt it necessary to resign, and Rufus Cowles was appointed in his place, filling the office until the company came to an end and was reorganized on the 18th day of February, 1839, under the name of the Farmington Library Company. The library was given a room in what was then the northeast corner of the lower floor of the old Academy building, and Rev. William S. Porter was installed as librarian, which office he filled until March 1, 1840, when he was succeeded by Mr. Abner Bidwell.
Under this administration the library comes within the limit of my personal recollection. The meetings were held on the first Sunday evening of the month immediately after the monthly concert. To this mis- sionary meeting came the patrons of the library from the Eastern Farms, from White Oak, and from most of the districts of the town, each with his four books tied up not unusually in a red bandanna handkerchief. Here we waited, more or less patiently, the men on the right hand and the women on the left, while Deacon Hart gave us a summary of missionary intelligence for the month, and the Rev. William S. Porter elucidated
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his views of family government and the divine prom- ises to faithful parents. Then, when Dr. Porter had expounded some suitable portion of the Scriptures and invoked the blessing of God on us and on all dwellers in heathen lands, when the choir in the northeast corner of the hall had concluded our devotions with the Missionary Hymn, a large part of the meeting re- paired to the library room below. Here were the books, a thousand or more, some in cases, some on benches, some on a big table, some in rows, some in piles,- but all scattered without regard to character or size or numbering in a confusion that would have astounded the orderly soul of Deacon Elijah Porter. The books purchased during the last month were an- nounced and the first reading of each was determined by a spirited auction at which every book was de- scribed as a "very interesting work." Then after tumbling over the book piles with varying success, and with the excitement unknown in more orderly collections, of possibly unearthing some unexpected treasure, each had his four books charged, and departed to enjoy the spoils of his search.
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This chapter in the history of the library was abruptly terminated in 1851 by a change in the owner- ship of the building in which it had its temporary home. The old building and the adjoining premises were owned jointly by the Academy Proprietors, the First Ecclesiastical Society, the Middle School District, and the town. The upper room was used for all sorts of purposes. The Sunday-school boy saw its walls adorned with the big placards which
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taught him " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." and that " The wages of sin is death," but his mind was much more apt to dwell on the grotesque exhibitions he had seen and heard from the same benches the evening before, - the political orator. the ventriloquist, the negro minstrel, the mesmerist, the uncouth magic lantern pictures, and the war dance and war-whoop of imitation red men. The situation became so intolerable that the Ecclesiastical Society, after no end of skillful diplomacy and hard work on the part of Deacon Simeon Hart, bought out the other owners, and the upper room was dedicated to religious uses only, by a vote which will not seem strict to those who remember the abominations of the past. The money changers in the holy temple at Jerusalem were most respectable by contrast. From the Academy building the books were removed to the office of Deacon Simeon Hart, who was appointed librarian once more, February 7, 1853, only twelve weeks before his death. He was succeeded by Austin Hart, Esq., who had charge until the office building was sold and moved away. The library, once more homeless, was moved across the street into the stone store which stood, before the great fire, on the site of the present parsonage. Finally, in 1855, the town gave it a resting place for the next thirty-five years in the new record building. it being agreed in considera- tion therefor, " that any responsible person belonging to the town may have the right of drawing books from the library upon paying a reasonable compensation."
Mr. Chauncey D. Cowles, the town clerk, was
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librarian for the year 1855. In February of the fol- lowing year, Mr., now Dr.,, James R. Cumming, then the very successful principal of the Middle District school, was appointed librarian. With his habitual energy and exactness he brought order out of confu- sion, and the library became once more a very useful and prosperous institution. During the next ten years nearly all the most valuable books of the library were acquired, thanks to the fine literary taste, the generous gifts, and the practical good sense of Deacon Edward L. Hart.
Such, then, was the library, which for a century has been no mean adjunct to the pulpit and the school-house, in giving to the citizens of this village whatever claims to intelligence and uprightness may justly belong to them. And now, after its wanderings from one temporary resting place to another, it has found an honorable and fitting place of abode. May it with many additions and with a generous care con- tinue for another century to bless this village.
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