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$ 1856 1893 The Litchfield Historical + Antiquarian and Antiquarian Society to the Litchfield
Society
County
Historical
Semi-Centennial
1857-1907
NOYES MEMORIAL BUILDING
SEMI-CENTENNIAL
OF THE
LITCHFIELD
Historical and Antiquarian Society
ADDRESSES
AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW BUILDING
AND THE
Presentation by the Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of a window in memory of the Revolutionary Soldiers of Litchfield County.
JULY 5, 1908
LITCHFIELD
F104 LTL785
The Society nAT 2 1314
1
THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPANY.
Preface
T HE Litchfield Historical and Antiquarian Society is the successor of a Society of earlier date. The original Society was the result of a meeting held in the old Mansion House, which stood where Phelps Block now stands. This. meeting, held January 4, 1856, was called by a circular signed by several citizens of Litchfield and addressed to the different towns in the county. As the result of this meeting people came together on the thirtieth of January and organized the "Litchfield County Historical and Antiquarian Society." Occasional meetings were held for a few years and officers were elected, and then came a long period in which no meetings were held. The last meeting was held on the twenty-first of September, 1892, and a vote was then passed making over to any local Society, when established, the exhibits and property which the original Society had acquired.
On the third of August, 1893, a meeting was held in the Town Hall at which the present Society was organized. For a number of years the property inherited from the County Society, and that which the Society acquired, was housed in the building on South Street formerly used as a store by Mr. Silas N. Bronson. It was felt that this was a very unsafe place for keeping valuable relics. It was there- fore a great relief when, through the generosity of Mr. John Arcut Vanderpoel, a room in the new fireproof Noyes Memorial Building, erected by him in pious memory of his grandmother, Mrs. William Curtis Noyes, was offered for our use. This building was finished and dedicated to the
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use of the Wolcott and Litchfield Library Association, July 5, 1901.
The room given up to the use of the Historical Society was soon filled. Many valuable articles were either given or loaned by people glad to find a safe place in which to deposit articles which if lost or destroyed could not be replaced. Accordingly, Mrs. E. N. Vanderpoel, in loving memory of her son, added to the Noyes Memorial Building, affording thereby more room for book stacks, a room which is occupied by the Litchfield Scientific Association and a large room for the Historical Society. This addition was publicly dedicated to its uses on Friday, July 5, 1907. The occasion was made the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Society and was made memorable by the presentation and unveiling of a stained glass window, given to the Society by the Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Semi=Centennial of the Litchfield Historical and Antiquarian Society
F RIDAY, July 5, 1907, was a day that will long be held memorable by the Litchfield Historical Society, the Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter, D. A. R., and the citizens of Litchfield generally. In the morning the Historical Society had exercises that were not only dedicatory of its beautiful new building, but were in the nature of a semi- centennial celebration of the Litchfield County Historical Society, of which it is the successor.
When the late John A. Vanderpoel gave our handsome library building as a memorial to his grandmother, Mrs. William Curtis Noyes, he had in mind the erection of an addition when the necessity arose. The rapid growth of the Historical Society and of the Scientific Association and the large number of collections of animals, birds, butterflies, insects, etc., secured by the latter, made imperative the erection of a suitable building where these collections could be housed and the two societies have their meetings. Mrs. Emily N. Vanderpoel, who had already been most generous in her benefactions, offered to erect the building needed as carrying out the original plan of her son and an addition to the Noyes Memorial Building.
The new home of the Historical Society adjoins the Noyes Memorial Building on the east and the style is the same, the architects of both buildings being Ross & McNeil of New York, the latter a Litchfield boy. The main room is large, handsomely but simply furnished, with a gallery, and at one end is the D. A. R. memorial window. It is an
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ideal meeting and lecture room and fills a long felt Litchfield want. In the room below are the various collections of the Scientific Society and it can also be used for a banquet or meeting room, being complete in every detail.
The morning exercises were under the auspices of the Historical Society, and the room was filled, while the addresses were all extremely interesting. After the invoca- tion by Rev. John Hutchins, the presiding officer, Rev. STORRS O. SEYMOUR, D.D., President of the Historical Society, spoke as follows :
A half century is a small fraction of the world's long history. Yet it forms a very large part of any individual's life. Fifty years ago this Society was framed under the title of the Litchfield County Historical and Antiquarian Society. Of the men who formed its membership not one from Litchfield is still living, nor is any of those who are noted as the Committee of Correspondence from the other towns of the County, so far as I can learn.
In the original constitution of the Society the various objects of the Society are enumerated. It was to have in view the collection and preservation of such historical facts and data, biographical statistics, genealogical tables, record book, manuscripts, medallions, relics, etc., as may serve to throw light upon the history of the several towns and families in the County and the Indian tribes who formerly resided here, or to illustrate the lives and characters of such of the sons of the County as have been distinguished either at home or abroad.
Fifty years have passed away, and if any ask the question, how have we fulfilled the responsibility so clearly assumed half a century ago, what reply shall be made? Certainly, my friends, we can confidently assert that to a certain extent this responsibility has been met. Not so fully as we might wish. Not so fully as the framers of the constitu-
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tion had hoped, but we certainly have been measurably successful, as much so perhaps as the circumstances would lead us to look for. Especially may this be said of the Society since its renewal about fifteen years ago. That this is so will be admitted, I think, by any one who examines the many valuable or interesting articles which form our collection. Many of these, some of them possibly the most valuable and not the least interesting, have been contributed or loaned within this period, while our membership has largely increased.
The framers of our Society had in view very distinctly one object to be attained, and that was to keep in mind the names of the men who, prominent in the history of our County, had given brightness to its deeds and brought honor to their home. The number of such names was large. They have been recorded on the scroll of fame. Their memory has been kept green, and to this result our Society has largely contributed. At the time of its organization it put upon record the names of thirteen United States senators who had been born in this County; the names of twenty-two members of Congress from the State of New York, who had been born here, as well as nine judges of the Supreme Court of New York, and at least fifteen judges of the higher courts of Connecticut, and other states. To this roll the half century now past has added many other bright stars; it will be the pleasant duty of our Society to keep in mind and to commend their virtues to the imitation of coming years. You will see, then, that valuable and interesting as is our collection of relics of the olden time, our Society has a purpose higher and more important than to offer a shelter to these reminders of the days that are past. A knowledge of the men who have lived here, and of the services which they have rendered to the town, the State, and the country, is indeed a valuable asset. To hold these men in high esteem for the noble acts which they have done,
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necessarily reacts upon the character of those who know and admire them.
To keep their memory green and to hold them up as ideals worthy of imitation is a work which well deserves the earnest efforts of our Society. When this Society was started it hoped to gather here portraits of some of the notable men who were born in this County. In this direc- tion no great progress has been made. How valuable a gallery might be formed, could we hang upon our walls the portraits of Oliver Wolcott, Tapping Reeve, Col. Benjamin Tallmadge and his son, Frederick A. Tallmadge! We have promise of one of Joseph Bellamy, the great preacher of his day, whose works, as another has said, "are sought for by the Christian scholar wherever the English language is spoken." It is easy to see how family feeling and a pride of ancestry keeps those and other portraits in the possession of their descendants, and probably few of them will come into our hands. Still the fact that here can be offered a secure shelter for them, and that every care would be taken to preserve them, and present them to the gaze of the people who honor and admire the character of the originals, may as time goes on induce some families to hang their pictures on our walls.
In an address delivered by the Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, when this Society completed its formation, are these words : "In order to induce the public to feel an interest in our efforts we ought as soon as possible to provide ourselves with suitable rooms. I hope the day is not far off when our means will enable us to erect a handsome fireproof building ample for * * uses connected with the institu- tion." To-day this hope stands fulfilled, not because the means of the Society were large enough to warrant the outlay but because in the mind and heart of one of our members there was the noble and generous purpose to prepare a fit temple in which may be sustained the high
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ideals of our Society, where may be found a safe resting place for the collections which we have made.
This generous purpose has been nobly planned and executed, and its fulfillment enables us this day to celebrate our semi-centennial with exulting joy. As a Society we express to our generous benefactor our hearty thanks, and believing that her work will enable us to carry on and to perpetuate the objects for which we exist with greater assurance of success, we pledge ourselves to renewed efforts in this direction and express the hope that through many a happy year she may witness our prosperity, to which in times past and also to-day she has contributed so much.
At the close of Dr. Seymour's address, the Hon. GEORGE M. WOODRUFF spoke as follows on the "Organization of the Litchfield County Historical and Antiquarian Society":
For two centuries and more after the landings at James- town and Plymouth the settlers in this country were too much occupied in the making of history to give much time and attention to the recording of it. Connecticut had its full share in the making of that history, but beyond the keeping of Colonial, town and church records, little was done in the historical line. We have Trumbull's "History of Connecticut," the first volume of which was published in 1797, the second in 1816, and Barber's "Connecticut Historical Collections" in 1836. Locally there were the "Statistical Account of Several Towns in the County of Litchfield" by James Morris, published about 1814, Wood- ruff's "History of Litchfield" in 1845 and Kilbourne's in 1859. It was not till 1825 that Connecticut had a State Historical Society even in name. On the Fourth of July, 1822, the Rev. Thomas Robbins delivered an address before a number of military companies assembled at Hartford, and probably as a result of this address the General Assembly in
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1825 incorporated thirty-one gentlemen as the Historical Society of Connecticut, of which Hon. John Trumbull was made President; Bishop Thomas C. Brownell, Vice Presi- dent; Rev. Thomas Robbins, Corresponding Secretary, and Rev. George W. Doane, who was subsequently Bishop of New Jersey, Secretary of the Standing Committee. The Society held several meetings, but languished till 1839, when a new impetus seems to have been received from the centen- nial celebration at New Haven the previous year. The fine library room in the Atheneum at Hartford, completed in 1843 and the selection the next year of the Rev. Thomas Robbins as Librarian, made the Society the successful institution it has since become.
The publication of Woodruff's history in 1845 turned the thoughts of our own people in the direction of historical research, and the Marsh and Buel picnic the next year, of which Dr. Seymour gave you an account last fall, quickened this interest, which the Litchfield County centennial, cele- brated here in 1851, made more general. This interest took form in the issuing of a circular dated January 4, 1856, signed by Seth P. Beers, William Beebe, Geo. C. Woodruff, G. H. Hollister and P. K. Kilbourne of Litchfield, John Boyd of Winchester and Chas. F. Sedgwick of Sharon, calling a meeting to be held on the thirtieth of January at the old Mansion House for the purpose of organizing a County Historical and Antiquarian Society. This meeting was duly held and Hon. Seth P. Beers was made chairman and Payne Kenyon Kilbourne secretary, who read, as he expressed it, "a few suggestions" which were so pertinent and interesting that I will give them at some length.
He said: "Of the benefits and advantages of the Connec- ticut Historical Society I need not speak. It has done and is doing much to foster and carry out the laudable designs contemplated by its founders. But it is equally and perhaps necessarily true that its exerts very little influence beyond
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the limits of Hartford County, within which it is located. Indeed, its existence is scarcely felt at all in this part of the State, except by those who have occasion to visit Hartford for the purpose of consulting its noble library, for which it is indebted to Dr. Robbins, a native and at present a resident of this County.
"To obviate in some degree the want thus indicated it is proposed to establish a County Historical and Antiquarian Society, with the view of awakening an historical interest in the minds of the people in this corner of the State, and through the medium of records, books, lectures, correspond- ence and such other ways and means as may from time to time be devised, bring the advantages derivable from such an association more immediately within the reach of us all. Probably all those of our number who have had anything to do in the way of gathering historical and genealogical facts and statistics, have felt a regret that the work has not been sooner begun. Our County and all the towns composing it are still in their infancy ; and yet many important facts are lost to us and the world for want of a timely chronicler. Our aged people, whose memory goes back almost to the time when this entire region was a wilderness, one by one are leaving us; and with them are being buried stores of information which such a Society as the one contemplated would have preserved from oblivion. A thorough syste- matic effort, even now, may secure for all time to come, much that will otherwise be irrevocably lost. Now we may lay the foundations of a more complete and perfect history than any people of antiquity could ever claim for them- selves ; and the generations who may hereafter find their homes on these hills and in these valleys will not have cause to lament that the history of their County is lost in tradition and fable. It should be our purpose to gather up and preserve not only the history of our towns and other cor- porations, but also that of individuals and families. The
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subject of genealogies is so nearly allied to that of history, that it may fairly be considered in the formation of our Society. It may also be within our province to collect such facts as may be accessible relative to the aboriginal inhab- itants of this County. Our venerable friend who has so recently taken his departure from our midst (Dr. Abel Catlin) had a distinct recollection of the time when the Indians from a distance were accustomed to make their periodical visits to Litchfield for the purpose of fishing in our waters and hunting in our forests. And it is not improbable that there are aged people now living, especially in the northern and newer portions of our County, who can give information concerning the tribes or remnants of tribes who were living within our borders sixty or seventy years ago. Relics of that almost forgotten race have in years past often been turned up by the spade and ploughshare. Their arrows, mortars, pestles, hatchets and rude specimens of statuary have been found in our soil, but for want of some general depository, many of them have been scattered and ultimately lost. Could they be gathered together in one place they would form an interesting cabinet and throw much light on the manners and customs of a people of whom they may be called the sole remaining representatives. Should it not be one of our aims to form a nucleus for these interesting relics of a race who preceded us on our native soil ?"
The Hon. John Boyd of Winchester, who subsequently published "The Annals of Winchester," followed with some remarks. He said "he had long felt the need of some efficient local organization, similar in its designs to that suggested in the call which had brought us together. This feeling in his case had been increased by the late 'Centen- nial Celebration' in the County." He argued that the subject of genealogy was becoming more and more important or, at least, that the interest in it was yearly
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becoming deeper and more general in the community. People who a few years since had never thought of the subject are beginning to ask who their fathers were, where they lived and where and when they died. He said there were many interesting facts and statistics in regard to the origin and progress of different branches of manufacture, which might be collected and preserved by means of this association. He once asked Colonel Harris (whose father was a pioneer in the scythe business in this region) concern- ing the origin of that business in the family; he replied, "My father bought a negro in Litchfield who learned him the trade."
After further remarks by Rev. H. L. Vaill, Stephen Deming, Rev. Benjamin L. Swan and others it was unanimously voted, "That it is expedient at this time to organize a Litchfield County Historical and Antiquarian Society," and at a subsequent meeting the Society was duly organized and a constitution adopted. Of the thirteen gentlemen then appointed to office, none survive.
A number of meetings of the Society were held. As indicative of the general interest in the subject it may be noted that on the occasion of the meeting at which the introductory address was delivered by the Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, the Superior Court then in session, Hon. Origen S. Seymour, Judge, adjourned, to enable the Society to hold its meeting in the court room.
At the May session of the General Assembly, 1856, the Society was duly incorporated. Addresses and sketches upon various subjects were read before the Society, includ- ing "Sketches of the Unpublished History of Sharon and its Vicinity," by General Charles F. Sedgwick; a report upon the "Disputed Question of the Birthplace of General Ethan Allen and Hon. Ephraim Kirby," by Payne Kenyon Kilbourne; and "The Steady Habits of Litchfield County in the Olden Time," by Rev. D. L. Parmelee. All these
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addresses and reports were, as appears from the records, to be lodged in the archives of the Society "for reference and preservation," but I have not been able to find any of them.
On the twelfth day of July, 1859, Mr. Kilbourne, who had been the most efficient member of the Society, and its secretary, died and at the next annual meeting on Septem- ber 19, 1860, so few members were present that the meeting was adjourned till the third of October and then again till the tenth, when the former officers were all reelected, but nothing further was done.
For more than thiry years this was the only meeting of the Society, but it had acquired an interesting collection of antiquities and curiosities and a small but valuable collec- tion of books and pamphlets, and after your local Society was organized, the Litchfield County Historical and Anti- quarian Society, at a meeting on the twenty-first of Septem- ber, 1892, upon motion of the late Judge Edward W. Seymour, voted, "That when a local Antiquarian or Historical Society shall be established in Litchfield and shall have proper accommodations to store the exhibits and property of this Society, such property and exhibits shall be made over to such local Society." This transfer was duly made and Mr. Ransom and myself alone remain of the former members of the County Society.
The next speaker, Rev. SAMUEL HART, D.D., Professor at the Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, and President of the Connecticut Historical Society, said :
First of all, Mr. President, let me speak a word of con- gratulation, both official and personal, on this most pleasant occasion. If any public institution should be well housed, it is an historical society; if any historical society is well housed, it is yours. My special topic for this morning is, "Types of Colonial Settlements in Connecticut" :
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The Colonies of New England have had from the first very much in common. Not only have they, in great part, the same physical features, but they were settled by substan- tially the same people, with substantially the same ideas, and for substantially the same ultimate purposes; and their growth has been under not very dissimilar conditions.
But no sooner do we note the points of resemblance among the settlements which made up the Colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut, than our attention is called to points of difference. There were two original settlements in what is now Massachusetts, which were after a time united by the possession of a royal charter; and in the present limits of Connecticut there were also two original Colonies, besides the military post at the mouth of the great river, and one of these was absorbed by the other under the operation of a charter which the latter secured from the King. The earlier of the two Colonies or settlements in Massachusetts had its beginning with a company of Inde- pendents or Separatists from the Church of England- Pilgrims we call them-who had come out from that Church as from Babylon, had fled to Holland, and thence had sought a home in the new world. They came without any color of authority from the State, though they afterwards obtained a patent from the Council for New England. As Independents, and as an entirely new government, they held to no connection between Church and State ; and no religious test was ever required among them as a condition of exercis- ing the franchise or of holding even the highest office.
The other Massachusetts Colony, that of Massachusetts Bay, dating at Salem from 1629 and at Boston from 1630, was a settlement of Puritans, that is to say, of men who held that they were members of the Church of England by law established, but of that Church as reformed or in process of reformation from serious errors both of doctrine and of practice.
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This Colony had a charter, upon which they engrafted provisions for the maintenance and carying out of the prin- ciples which they deemed necessary for the perpetuity of a government such as they wished to establish; and when they had made their settlements and had matters practically in their own hands, they provided that no one should there- after be admitted to take any part in public affairs unless he were a member of their ecclesiastical organization. It was the latter of these two Colonies that became the stronger, very largely no doubt by reason of the advantages of its position, but still more by reason of the stern resolu- tion and the unmistakable ability of its leading men for more than one generation. There was a long struggle to retain the old charter ; and when it was declared forfeited and the Bay was made a royal Colony under a new charter, the earlier, Independent, and more liberal settlement of Plym- outh, which had but a feeble existence for some seventy years, was incorporated into the later, Puritan, close cor- poration of Massachusetts. The latter, however, in the process lost a large part of its closeness and rigidity ; for the new charter, dating after the revolution in England, forbade the application of religious tests for citizenship. In outward form Salem conquered, but in principle Plymouth was rather the victor.
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