USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 1
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THE
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF
HARTFORD COUNTY
CONNECTICUT
Estetrumbull. ١
THE
MEMORIAL HISTORY
122 H3
78
1880
OF
HARTFORD COUNTY
CONNECTICUT
1633-1884
EDITED BY J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL LL.D. PRESIDENT OF THE CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I.
HARTFORD COUNTY TOWN AND CITY
PROTECTED BY CLARENCE F. JEWETT
BOSTON EDWARD L. OSGOOD PUBLISHER 1886
17462 TTilm V.1
Copyright, 1886, BY GEORGE DRAPER. All rights reserved.
University Press : JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
"ITHE initial point of the history of the Colony and State, and especially of the 'Towns upon the River,' whose planters framed the first constitution of Connecticut and laid the foundations of her civil and political institutions," is, as was said in the first announcement of these volumes, the issue of the Earl of Warwick's grant, known as the " Old Patent " of Connecticut, March 19, 1631 (March 29, 1632, new style) ; and the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of that date seemed a fitting occasion for the publication of a "Memorial History " of a county whose earlier history is inseparable from that of the Colony and State. Difficulties of obtaining such co- operation as was required to insure the permanent value and interest of the work, unavoidable failures and delays in securing promised contributions, as well as other causes which need not be mentioned here, have postponed the completion of the History until now, - a few weeks after the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first organization of civil government in Connecticut, by the first meeting of the Court of Commis- sioners for the River Towns "holden att Newton" (now Hartford), April 26 (new style, May 6), 1636.
The delay, however much to be regretted by the publishers and the editor, has not been to the disadvantage of the completed work. It has enabled the writers to avail themselves of the results of the census of 1880, and thereby, in many particulars,
vi
PREFACE.
to advance nearly a decade on information attainable in 1881; it has secured important contributions which could not earlier have been had; and, so far as the wants of general readers are concerned, it has added to the immediate interest of the history without detracting from its permanent value.
In undertaking this work the publishers, at the suggestion of the editor, stipulated that, "in typographical execution and in the fulness and excellence of the illustrations, it should be equal to its model," the " Memorial History of Boston." That this engagement has been carried out to the letter we think will not be questioned.
A.If. Trumbull
HARTFORD, June, 1886.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
THE publishers of the MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY take pleasure in presenting to its subscribers - after numerous inevitable delays - a work of two handsome volumes, several hundred pages larger than the prospectus called for, which they believe will in other respects also equally exceed the public expectation. Dr. J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL, the accom- plished scholar and historian, who has been its editor from the beginning, has carefully superintended its execution. He has read, annotated, and corrected every page of the great work except the chapter in Vol. I. by Miss MARY K. TALCOTT on the "Original Proprietors," which is made up largely from his own notes and memoranda. And it should be added here that Dr. TRUMBULL's many and very valuable notes upon the early his- tory of Hartford have been put by him at the disposal of the various contributors engaged upon their special topics.
Dr. TRUMBULL's peculiar fitness for this task is recognized by all who know him. It was the unanimous wish of the many gentlemen interested in the work when it was projected, that he should take such charge of it; and in his editorship the book has received the corrections and approval of unquestionably the leading historical authority in Connecticut.
It will be found to be fully and handsomely illustrated ; and in addition to the portraits included in the text, there will be found about seventy fine steel portraits, especially engraved for this work, of citizens of the county, living or dead, including
.
viii
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
such representative men as Dr. Bushnell, Dr. Gallaudet, the Wolcotts, Gideon Welles, John M. Niles, Marshall Jewell, Colonel Colt, Noah Porter, Dr. Barnard, Noah Webster, Elihu Burritt, Chief Justice Williams, Dr. Trumbull, Junius S. Morgan, James Goodwin, and many others. The only essential change in the work since it was projected has been its embellishment by these portraits and many views, which were not originally contem- plated, and which the subscribers receive without additional expense. The entire artistic superintendence of the work, from the beginning, has been with Mr. A. V. S. ANTHONY, so long at the head of the art department of the well-known firm of JAMES R. OSGOOD & COMPANY; and this is a sufficient guaranty of the high quality of the work.
The publishers take this opportunity to express their grati- tude to Dr. J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL, and to his assistant Mr. CHARLES HOPKINS CLARK, for their labors upon the work, and also to the numerous contributors who have lent their valuable services to making up a suitable memorial history.
The publication of this work was undertaken by JAMES R. OSGOOD & COMPANY, and upon the dissolution of that firm all their interest therein was transferred to Mr. GEORGE DRAPER.
The undersigned, one of the partners in the late firm of JAMES R. OSGOOD & COMPANY, is acting as the representative of Mr. DRAPER in the publication of this History.
EDWARD L. OSGOOD.
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Part I. - The County.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HARTFORD COUNTY. By Charles L. Burdett . . 1 ILLUSTRATIONS : Map of Hartford County ; Trap Dyke at " Stone pits," 2.
CHAPTER II. - EARLY HISTORY.
SECTION I. - INDIANS OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. By J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D. . 11 II. - THE DUTCH TRADERS ON THE RIVER ; AND THE HOUSE OF HOPE. By the Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D. . 15 III. - HOW THE RIVER TOWNS CAME TO BE PLANTED. By the
Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D. 19
CHAPTER III. - THE RIVER TOWNS, 1635-1666.
BY THE REV. INCREASE N. TARBOX, D.D. .
SECTION I. - ORGANIZATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT . 37
II. - CHARACTER AND SOCIAL POSITION OF THE SETTLERS . 45 III. - THE PEQUOT WAR. - THE CODE OF 1650, ETC. 49 IV. - THE CHARTER OF 1662. - UNION OF THE COLONIES, ETC. . 59
CHAPTER IV. - THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
SECTION I. - THE ANDROS GOVERNMENT. - THE CHARTER AND THE CHARTER OAK. By Sherman W. Adams . . . 63
ILLUSTRATIONS : The Andros Seal, 64; Governor Andros, 66; Site of the Charter Oak, 69; The Charter Oak, 71.
SECTION II. - GENERAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY. By Miss Mary K. Talcott 73
x
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
PAGE
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. By John C. Kinney 89
CHAPTER VI.
THE BENCH AND THE BAR. By Sherman W. Adams . 105 ILLUSTRATIONS : The County Court-House, 111; The Hon. Richard D. Hubbard, 118.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
I. By Dr. W. A. M. Wainwright 135
II. By Dr. E. B. Hooker . . 149
ILLUSTRATION : Dr. Horace Wells, 146.
CHAPTER VIII.
HARTFORD IN LITERATURE. By Professor Henry A. Beers 155
ILLUSTRATIONS : S. G. Goodrich, 162; Mrs. Emma Willard, 163; Henry H. Brownell, 167 ; Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, 169; Charles Dudley Warner, 170; Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), 171.
CHAPTER IX. - THE MILITIA AND INDEPENDENT COMPANIES.
THE MILITIA. By Sherman W. Adams
175
ILLUSTRATIONS : The State Arsenal, 177 ; Colonel Thomas H. Seymour, 186.
HARTFORD'S INDEPENDENT MILITARY COMPANIES. By various Contributors 189
CHAPTER X.
FREEMASONRY, ETC. By J. K. Wheeler, Stephen Terry, and others . . . 195
CHAPTER XI.
EMIGRATION. By the Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D.
201
CHAPTER XII.
THE GROWTH OF THE COUNTY. By Charles Hopkins Clark 207
HARTFORD COUNTY TOBACCO. By Fred. S. Brown . 215
ILLUSTRATIONS : Shoestring Tobacco, 216; Connecticut Seed-leaf, 216.
xi
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Part II. - Jiartford, Town and City.
CHAPTER I. - THE TOWN.
PAGE
SECTION I. - SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN. By Sherman W. Adams
. 221
ILLUSTRATION : Seal of Hertford, England, 221.
SECTION II. - THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS. By Miss Mary K. Talcott . 227 ILLUSTRATIONS : Map of Hartford in 1640, 228 ; The Chester Arms, 234; The Haynes Arms, 243; The Lord Arms, 248; Thomas Seymour's Seal, 258; The Talcott Arms, 263; The Whiting Arms, 269; The Wyllys Arms, 271.
SECTION III. - THE FIRST AND SECOND CHURCHES.
THE FIRST CHURCH. By the Rev. George L. Walker, D.D. . 277
THE SECOND CHURCH. By the Rev. E. P. Parker, D.D. 288
ILLUSTRATIONS : The Centre Church, 285; The Rev. Nathan Strong, 286; The Second Church, 291.
SECTION IV. - GENERAL HISTORY TO THE REVOLUTION. By Miss Mary 293
K. Talcott
ILLUSTRATION : The Ledyard Elm, 296.
SECTION V. - COMMERCE AND BANKING. By Rowland Swift 308
ILLUSTRATIONS : Bartholomew's " Commerce," 308; First Bills of Credit of Connecticut, 324, 325; Hartford Bank Bill, 332; The Old Phoenix Bank, 336.
SECTION VI. - DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE IN COLONIAL TIMES. By
Charles Dudley Warner .
349
CHAPTER II. - TOWN AND CITY.
SECTION I. - THE TOWN SINCE 1784. By Miss Mary K. Talcott . 361
ILLUSTRATIONS : The Present Stone Bridge, 369; Hartford in 1841, 370.
SECTION II. - THE CITY OF HARTFORD. By James P. Andrews 377
ILLUSTRATIONS : The First City Seal, 380; The Present City Seal, 381; Main Street, looking south, 383.
SECTION III. - THE CHURCHES OF HARTFORD.
THE NORTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. By the Rev. N. J. Burton, D.D. 389 THE FOURTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. By the Rev. Graham Taylor 391
OTHER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. By the Rev. F. S. Hatch .
394
THE BAPTIST CHURCH. By the Rev. A. J. Sage, D.D. 400
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. By the Rev. W. F. Nichols . 405
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. By Thomas McManus 410 OTHER DENOMINATIONS. By the Rev. F. S. Hatch 420
ILLUSTRATIONS : Asylum Hill Congregational Church, 397 ; South Baptist Church, 403; Church of the Good Shepherd, 408; St. Joseph's Ca- thedral, 415.
SECTION IV. - INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING.
THE AMERICAN ASYLUM. By Edward M. Gallaudet, LL.D. 425
THE HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. By the Rev. William Thomp- son, D.D. 431
xii
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
TRINITY COLLEGE. By Professor Samuel Hart, D.D. 435
ILLUSTRATIONS : Trinity College in 1829, 435; Dining-Hall Mantel- piece, 436; Trinity College in 1869, 437; Statue of Bishop Brownell, 438; View of proposed Buildings of Trinity College, 439; Bishop Seabury's Mitre, 440; Trinity College, 441 ; College Seal, 444. SECTION V. - PARKS AND PUBLIC WORKS. By William A. Ayres . 447 ILLUSTRATIONS : Capitol and Bushnell Park, 445; The Memorial Arch, 448; View of Capitol, 449; State House Square, 451 ; A Fire in the Mitchell Building, 453.
SECTION VI. - ARCHITECTURE IN HARTFORD. By William C. Brocklesby . 463 ILLUSTRATIONS : A Colonial Doorway, 464; Other Doorways, 464, 465 ; Talcott Staircase, 466; Barnabas Deane House (Hollister Resi- dence), 467 ; Iron Balconies, 472; Residences of L. L. Felt, 473; Gurdon Trumbull, 474; Mrs. Samuel Colt, 475; S. L. Clemens, 476; Mrs. James Goodwin, 477; Franklin Chamberlain, 479; 60 Garden Street, 479; A. H. Olmsted, 480; and J. G. Batterson, 481; Group of Goodwin Cottages, 483; The State Capitol, 484; Views about the Capitol, 485, 486; Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Building, 487 ; Government Building, 489; Cheney Block, 490; Connecticut Fire In- surance Building, 491 ; The Goodwin Building, 493; High School, 495. SECTION VII. - INSURANCE.
FIRE INSURANCE. By Charles Hopkins Clark 499
LIFE AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE. By Forrest Morgan 511
ILLUSTRATIONS : Hartford Fire Insurance Building, 497; Early "Hart- ford " policy, 501 ; Etna Insurance Building, 503; Phoenix Insurance Building, 507; Charter Oak Life Insurance Building, 517; Travelers Building, 523.
SECTION VIII. - THE RETREAT FOR THE INSANE. By Dr. Henry P. Stearns 525 OTHER BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS. By William I. Fletcher . . 530 ILLUSTRATIONS : View of the Retreat, 526; Hartford Hospital, 531; The Old People's Home, 535.
SECTION IX. - LIBRARIES. By William I. Fletcher . 541
ILLUSTRATIONS : Wadsworth Atheneum, 542; David Watkinson, 547; Daniel Wadsworth, 550.
SECTION X. - TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. By William A. Ayres . . 551 ILLUSTRATIONS : Stage-coach handbill, 555; "Victory " handbill, 556; "Ellsworth " handbill, 557.
SECTION XI. - MANUFACTURES AND INVENTIONS. By William A. Ayres . 563 ILLUSTRATION : Colt's Armory, 567.
SECTION XII. - SOCIAL LIFE AFTER THE REVOLUTION. By Henry Baldwin 574 ILLUSTRATIONS : Theatre handhill, 584; Card to Election-ball, 593; State House Square (1825), 599; Dr. Mason F. Cogswell, 600.
SECTION XIII. - THE PRESS. By Charles Hopkins Clark 605
ILLUSTRATIONS : "Courant " Building, 607 ; Hon. Joseph R. Hawley, 610 ; Hon. A. E. Burr, 618; The Case, Lockwood, & Brainard Company's Printing House, 625.
SECTION XIV. - SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION. By the Hon. Henry Bar- 628
nard, LL.D.
SECTION XV. - PROMINENT BUSINESS MEN. By Miss Mary K. Talcott 653
ILLUSTRATIONS : Thomas Y. Seymour, 654; Jeremiah Wadsworth and Son, 656.
INDEX TO VOLS. I. AND II. 673
LIST OF STEEL PORTRAITS.
VOLUME I.
THE HON. J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL, LL. D. .
Frontispiece
THE HON. HENRY BARNARD, LL. D.
To face page 628
JAMES G. BATTERSON 520
ELIPHALET A. BULKELEY 514
HORACE BUSHNELL, D.D.
390
AMOS M. COLLINS
660
ERASTUS COLLINS
666
CHARLES CHAPMAN
116
COLONEL SAMUEL COLT
562
THOMAS DAY
126
CALVIN DAY
670
THE HON. WILLIAM E. DODGE 658
AUSTIN DUNHAM
572
WILLIAM ELY .
664
THOMAS H. GALLAUDET, D.D. .
426
DR. R. J. GATLING
186
JAMES GOODWIN
512
WILLIAM HUNGERFORD
130
EDMUND G. HOWE.
342
THE HON. MARSHALL JEWELL 570
JUNIUS S. MORGAN
668
BISHOP McMAHON .
410
THE HON. JOHN M. NILES
616
xiv
LIST OF STEEL PORTRAITS.
HENRY A. PERKINS To face page 332
DR. GUY R. PHELPS 510
ANSON G. PHELPS 656
GEORGE ROBERTS
564
ELIPHALET TERRY .
500
RODERICK TERRY 662
LOREN P. WALDO
132
NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D. 172
THE HON. GIDEON WELLES 618
CHIEF JUSTICE THOMAS S. WILLIAMS 114
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OK
MEMORIAL HISTORY
OF THE
COUNTY OF HARTFORD, CONN.
Part I. - The County.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
BY CHARLES L. BURDETT, C.E.
EXTENT AND BOUNDARY. - NATURAL FEATURES. - GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, ETC.
THE larger part of the territory included within the limits of Hartford County lies in about the centre, north and south, of a valley or depression the origin of which is placed by geologists in the Paleozoic, or Ancient era. The geological features of this valley have been for years the subject of investigation and study, and the writings of Dana, Hitchcock, Percival, and others have contributed to a large fund of information. The valley was formed by the bending of the crust of the earth which, according to Professor Dana, "took place as a sequel to or in connection with the crystallization of the rocks of which the bottom of the valley is made." This bend was made in the Archæan rock before the deposit of the covering layer of sandstone. It was dur- ing the succeeding era, the Reptilian, that this layer of sandstone was formed by deposits laid down while the valley was occupied by an estu- ary of an average width of twenty miles extending from what is now the southern part of Vermont to New Haven, about a hundred and ten miles.
In the several periods following the Paleozoic era, the whole valley was subject to various changes in elevation and conditions as to climate. The depression became filled with water as an estuary, so protected that the ocean forces, except the tidal, exerted but little influence within it, and so remote as a whole that no sea life entered it; at least, no organic remains have been found to warrant the conclusion that it did. Large beds of sandstone were deposited over the whole bottom of this arm of the sea, the bed in Hartford County having an estimated thickness of not less than three thousand feet. Through breaks and fissures in this bed masses of melted trap-rock at some time during the Reptilian era VOL. I .- 1.
2
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
burst out, and now appear in ridges that are marked and prominent features of the present surface. Traces of the igneous origin of this trap formation are distinctly seen in the color and condition of the sandstone adjacent to the trap-rock at these ridges. At this time the whole region was lifted above the level of the sea, and there is no rec- ord of any subsidence of any part of it until after the glacial period.
It was during the formation of the stratified beds of red sandstone, prior to this lifting of the surface, that the story of the climate and of
TRAP-ROCK DYKE AT "ROCKY HILL STONE-PITS," HARTFORD,
LOOKING TOWARDS TRINITY COLLEGE.
the vegetable and animal life of that remote past was written on leaves of stone that have yielded from their study by scientists a history of the utmost interest, and one that has made the red sandstone of the Con- necticut valley world-famous. The gradual hardening into a mass of stone of the sand and gravel washed into the estuary from the neigh- boring hills of gneissic and schistose rock preserved in the beds the remains of giant ferns and conifers that show the tropical character of the climate, and held safely locked within them the records of animal life. The fossil specimens and footprints are most numerous outside the limits of Hartford County, and particularly at the north, in what was the head of the estuary ; but in the sandstone beds of Wethersfield cove there have been found the tracks of a multitude of birds and reptiles, bipedal and quadrupedal. These tracks were made in the soft mud along the shore of the estuary or in the plastic sand or clay of flats that were exposed when the tide was out. The returning tide filled these footprints, that had been hardened by exposure to the rays of the sun, with fine sand or clay, and made them permanent beneath the layer of detritus next deposited. Successive layers of sand and clay were thus
3
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
formed, imprinted, and covered over until the layers aggregated thou- sands of feet in thickness, and by pressure and chemical changes were hardened into stone. Naturalists, from a study of these remains, have built up species, many of them now extinct, of swimming, crawling, and flying reptiles, reptilian birds, and huge mammals.
Then came an uplifting of these sandstone beds that raised them high above the level of the sea and tipped and tilted them so that they slope from 10° to 50° with the dip to the east and south of east. The finest footprints - that is, those of most even depth and fulness of out- line - are found in beds now sloped at angles of from 10° to 40° out of level; and as such prints could not possibly have been made in inclined beds, it shows that they were first level and then were tilted. The erup- tion of the melted trap-rock probably accompanied this change in the overlying sandstone. While parts of the bed of sandstone were hard, and, like the trap-rock, offered great resistance to erosion, or wearing away by weather, and the action of flowing water, other parts were more easily moved by fluvial currents and other denuding forces. These trap eruptions and disturbances were a large factor in determining the courses of rivers in this valley ; for when the land that was submerged in the basin was lifted at some time near the date of the eruption, the Connecticut River was narrowed, and, turning aside from the trap-dikes of Wethersfield, Berlin, and Meriden, cut through the hills at the Nar- rows in a course towards the southeast, -an abrupt bend from its course above. The Farmington River, which flowed from the north and west as a tributary to the estuary, was deflected sharply north along the western foot of the Talcott Mountain range, running for sixteen miles before it cut through the range into the valley of the Connecticut River, which it joins. After the uplifting there followed a period when, according to Dana, from glacial action the present valley was dug out by erosion and the physical features in all essential points were outlined and marked ; "and this was when the land stood at a higher level than now." Fol- lowing the Glacial epoch, which was one of intense cold, and when large masses of ice spread over the region, was a warmer period, the Cham- plain, in which the land was sunk below its present level and was sub- merged beneath the sea along the coast. The great glacier was melted, and the rivers and lakes extended in area ; the valley of the Connecti- cut being occupied by a succession of basins or expansions of the stream, joined by narrower water-ways in gorges cut through the separating ridges. The lakes have disappeared, and the stream is now confined for the greater part of its extent in this county to a tortuous bed bor- dered by alluvial meadows ; but evidence of their having existed is left in the terraces and in the well-defined ancient basins. The largest and widest basin extends from Middletown to Mount Holyoke, a distance of fifty-three miles. Many years ago several teeth of the mastodon were found in Cheshire, and a vertebra was dug up in the town of Berlin amongst a heap of bleached fresh-water shells in a bed of a " tufaceous lacustrine formation," showing the existence of this animal in the Champlain era.
In the Glacial period a vast sheet of ice spread over the continent, and of this the Connecticut valley glacier formed a part, so distinct, however, as to have a motion of its own. With a frontal width of from one hundred to one hundred and twenty miles, and a thickness to the
4
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
north of more than four thousand feet, it moved down the sloping valley with resistless force, guided by the trap hills in direction southerly or a little west of south. The sheet of ice lay with enormous pressure upon the plains and low hills beneath it, and was plastic to a degree that enabled it to conform to the surface that was cut and shaped by it. The softer sandstone was easily ground up, and ploughed out to a depth of hundreds of feet, while the hard granite rocks were scratched and furrowed to the depth of from six inches to a foot, and suffered an unknown amount of surface planing. The ridges of the Talcott Moun- tain and others in the western and southern part of the county show traces of its action; while blocks from the dikes of the western Primary rocks are found scattered over the sandstone in a line from West Hart- ford through Berlin and Meriden. The melting of the ice left large deposits of fragments of rock, gravel, and cobble-stone, and the streams that were in action during the progress and decline of the glacier helped it in the rough shaping of plains, valleys, and mountains, and worked over the diluvium. Peculiar accumulations of small rolled fragments (gravel and cobble-stones) that have been found in basins or val- leys, apparently deposited by currents of local operation, are heaped in rounded hillocks in Newington and Berlin in a cove surrounded by one of the trap ranges. A subsidence of the land marked the close of the Glacial era and the beginning of the next, resulting in a warmer climate, the melting of the glacier, and the work of the Diluvial period above described. A following elevation of the land that may have taken place in successive steps made it habitable by man and marks the transition to the Recent era. The amount of the sinking of the land and subse- quent rising may be estimated by noting that Professor Hitchcock found beaches in New England at heights varying from eight hundred to two thousand six hundred feet above the present sea-level.
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