USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > A biographical history of the county of Litchfield, Connecticut: comprising biographical sketches of distinguished natives and residents of the county; together with complete lists of the judges of the county court, justices of the quorum, county commissioners, judges of probate, sheriffs, senators, &c. from the organization of the county to the present time > Part 19
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him to make inquiries. Generally, however, the plan was made the subject of sarcasm, slander, and ridicule. The storm raised by the shipping interest and all in the American trade, with a single exception, was a fearful thing to encoun- ter, and Mr. Smith took some time to consider before proceed- ing further. The expense was heavy, the labor severe, and the risk of defeat and consequent loss and disgrace, deserved some attention. He was not long in deciding upon his course.
He revised his Prospectus, raised the capital stock to £500,- 000, and and adopted the name of The British and American Steam Navigation Company, though as yet he had not secured a single Director. He called personally upon all the princi- pal American Houses to solicit their aid by becoming Direc- tors, and every one declined. By this time Mr. Smith was .convinced that the company must be formed, if at all, entirely independent of the shipping interest. This increased the dif-
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ficulty ten fold. Those must be enlisted who were strangers in the field, and who must be argued into the belief that they could do what those concerned in the trade could not do.
After encountering various other obstacles. which it is un- necessary to detail, the company was organized, with the fol- lowing Board of Directors, viz., ISAAC SOLRY, Esq., (Chair- man of the London and Birmingham Railroad Co.,) chairman, Moses Allen, Esq., Colonel Aspinwall, Captain T. Larkins, James Beale, Henry Bainbridge, Charles Enderby, George Lunell, Joseph R. Pim, Junius Smith, and Paul Twigg, E'sq's. Macgregor Laird, Esq., of London, was chosen Secretary, and several Bankers to the Company were appointed. Seven of these Directors resided in London, and one in each of the cities of Bristol, Liverpool, Dublin, and Cork.
Advertizements were now published in the daily journals, informing the public of the formation of the Company and stating where shares might be obtained. Applications poured in from all quarters. The capital was raised to £1,000,000, and a resolution was adopted to establish two lines of steam ships to run to New York -- one from London and one from Liverpool. In July, 1836, the Directors gave notice that they were ready to receive plans and proposals, and in September a contraet was made with some ship builders in London, to construct a steam ship of 2016 tons burthen -- the keel of which was laid on the 1st of April, 1837. This vessel, after the accession of Victoria to the throne of England, was called the " British Queen."
The company were delayed in sending out this ship by the failure of those who contracted to furnish the engines ; in consequence of which the Sirius, a steam ship of about 700 tons, was chartered and dispatched for New York. This was the first ship that ever crossed the Atlantic propelled by steam, Subsequently the British Queen crossed it from London and the President from Liverpool. Mr. Smith embarked in the
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British Queen on the 12th of July, 1839, and at half-past 12 o'clock, P. M., she was under full headway, shooting out to sea from Spithead, the eastern extremity of the Isle of Wight, with 150 passengers. 'T'hey had a most delightful run, and at 2 o'clock ou the morning of the 28th of July, they were at Sandy Hook, waiting for a pilot -- thus making the passage in fourteen and a half days. On Thursday afternoon, August 2d, they hauled out ot dock and proceeded down the Narrows, cheered by innumerable spectators who thronged the wharves, shipping, batteries, &c., and accompanied by several steam - boats, gaily decorated and crowded with ladies and gentlemen.
Returning to England, on the 14th they took on board a Cowes pilot -- twelve days from pilot to pilot, and thirteen and a half days from New York to Portsmouth. Mr. Smith ar- rived at his own house precisely on the day and hour he had fixed upon previous to leaving England.
The navigation of the ocean by steam, was now no longer a doubtful experiment. The praises of JUNIUS SMITH were upon every tongue. He was elected President of the Com- pany which he had founded, and Yale College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. We shall not speak of the untold advantages which have resulted and may yet result from the persevering labors of this one man ; pos- terity will do him justice.
Having accomplished this great object of his ambition and hopes, he turned his thoughts into another channel. He had visited those countries where TEA was the staple production, and had minutely watched its growth and cultivation in con- nection with soil and climate ; and having satisfied himself rel- ative to the feasiblity of the plan, he determined to introduce its cultivation into his native county. With this view he pur- chased an extensive plantation in Greenville, South Carolina, where for some eight years past he has been experimenting
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with this new article of agriculture. The following letter on the subject is contained in the last Patent Office Report :
DEAR SIR :- The frequent netices which have appeared in the pub- lic journals, by those who have visited my tea-garden in Greenville, S. C., and by those who have not, seem to render superfluous the ad- dition of another word.
Nothing but your request to make a communication on the subject of tea cultivation, through the the Patent Office, would induce me to risk the danger of wearying the' public ear and of exposing myself to obloquy:
During the past year the tea-plant under my care has passed through' severe trials, from the injury received in transplanting, from the heat generated in the packing-cases, from the want of shelter during the severe frosts of February, from the excessive heat in Jurre, and from the drought of 58 day's continuance in July and August. The plants were divested of their leaves and generally of their branches and twigs in February, during my absence in New York. Knowing that the plants were tender, and not fortified by age and mature growth against severe weather, I had directed them to be covered in case a material change of temperature should occur. But these or. ders were neglected, and they consequently suffered from that cause .:
'The plant is sufficiently bard'y to' resist any weather occurring in this part of the country, when seasoned for one year.
The plant has grown thrifty since April, and the quantity of foliage, buds and blossoms, show that the root has taken strong hold, and is' now fully equal to produce its fruit next autumn, which always follows the year after the blossoms. I have a variety of both black and green tea-plants. The buds and blossoms of the latter did not aps pear until a fortnight after the black tea-plant. But the blossoms were larger when they did appear in September, October, November,; and December. From present appearances, I think the blossoms of some of the late plants will continue to unfold until spring. It is not an unusual thing for the blossoms and the fruit to appear at the same time upon the same plant. In this particular it differs from any plant I have seen. As my chief object, at present, is to cultivate and- increase the tea-nut, it will be a year or two perhaps before I attempt to convert the leaf into tea. The root supports the leaf and fruit, and the leaf the root, so that neither can be spared without detri- ment.
This climate appears congenial to the growth of the plant, and the soil is so diversified in this mountainous district that there is no- difficulty in selecting that best adapted to seed growing plants, or that designed for the leaf only. Upon the plantation purchased this
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summer, I have light-yellow, dark-brown, red clay subsoil, of a fria- ble character, with a surface soil sufficiently sandy to answer the demands of the plant. I do not see any reason to doubt, from a year's Experience, that the tea-plant in its varieties will flourish in what I heretofore denominated the tea-growing district of the United States; as well as in any part of China.
The slowness of its growth requires patience. But when once es- tablished, the tea-nuts will supply the means of extending cultivation, and the duration of the plant for twenty years diminishes the ex: pense of labor. To illustrate the hardihood of the plant, I may ob- serve, that notwithstanding the zero severity of February frost des- troyed the leaves and branches of most of the plants, and those now blooming in great beauty and strength are from roots the growth of this summer, I have one green tea plant the stem and branches of which withstood the frost of February without the slightest protection and is now a splendid plant, covered with branches and ever-green leaves, affording undeniable evidence not only of its capability of re- sisting frost, but of its adaption to just such a degree of temperature.
I have often remarked that the tea- plant requires for its perfection the influence of two separate and distinct climates, the heat of sum- mer and the cold of winter. The thermometer in this vicinity during the heat of summer generally ranges from 74 at 6 o'clock A. M. to 82 at 3 o'clock P. M., only one day during the summer so high as 86.
This is a most agreeable temperature, nights always cool, which the tea· plant enjoys, and the days hot and fanned with the mountain breeze.
The drought I found the most difficult point to contend with, ows ing to the want of adequate means for irrigation. I lost 20 or 30 plants through this, and learned that no tea plantation should be es- tablished without irrigation. After two or three years there will be little necessity for it, because the depth of the roots will generally then protect the plant.
My plantation at Golden Grove is well supplied with water, or İ should not have purchased it at any price.
It is the first and most important point to secure a southern of western aspect, a gentle declivity the second, salubrious air and suit- able soil the third.
Our country is filled with natural tea plantations, which are only waiting the hand of the husbandman to be covered with this luxuri- ant and productive plant.
I know the public is naturally impatient of delay. Like corn, it is expected that the tea-nuts will be planted in the spring, and the crop gathered in the autumn. But they forget that the tea-plant does not interfere with any other crop, and when once planted it does not soori require a renewal.
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I have sometimes felt this impatience myself, and longed for a cup of tea of my own growing, but I have never had one. As a husband- man, I must wait some time longer, and let patience have her perfect work. Your obedient servant,
JUNIUS SMITH.
GOLDEN GROVE TEA PLANTATION. GREENVILLE, S. C. December 11th, 1849.
In July, 1851, Mr. Smith writes to the New York Journal of Commerce, that he has just drank for the first time, a dish of tea of his own raising.
Mrs. Smith, (the wife of the subject of this sketch,) died in 1836. They had one child, a daughter, who became the wife of the Rev. Edward Knight Maddox, a graduate of Cambridge and a clergyman of the church of England. In October, 1842, Mr. Maddox was appointed a chaplain to the army in India. They sailed for Calcutta with a little son about two months old, in November of the same year. In September, 1843, he was appoint- ed chaplain to the important station of Mearut, a little north of Delhi, and about seven hundred miles east of Bombay. Mrs. Maddox has since died.
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PETER BUEL PORTER.
GENERAL PETER B. PORTER, (son of Colonel Joshua Por- ter,) was born in Salisbury in 1773, and graduated at Yale Col- lage in 1791, in the class with the Hon. Lyman Law, of New London, and the Hon. James Gould, LL. D., of Litchfield. Hay- ing completed his legal studies with Chief Justice Reeve of Litch- field, he, in company with his brother, the late Hon. Augustus Porter, emigrated to Western New York, they having purchased large tracts of land in that then wilderness. The country around him increased rapidly in population and resources, and he was called early to the performance of various public trusts. Having passed, step by step, through various offices of minor grade, in 1809 he was elected to represent the western district in the Con- gress of the United States, in which body he served with fidelity and distinction on some of the most laborious committees. In the summer following, he was chosen by the legislature of New York, in conjunction with De Witt Clinton and Gouveneur Morris, a Commissioner to explore the route from Albany to Buffalo, and report upon the feasibility of uniting the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Hudson. The Report subsequently presented by these Commissioners, determined the grand question of commen- cing the "Erie Canal" -one of the greatest works of internal improvement in the world.
In 1811, Mr. Porter was again elected to Congress for another full term of two years. The events which transpired during this
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latter period, and in which he was an active participant, were among the most important in our history. The long series of alleged indignities to our countrymen and our flag, were brought to a crisis by a declaration of war by our Government against Great Britain, in 1812. Mr. Porter was among the earliest and most efficient advocates of the justice and policy of that decla- ration. During the exciting sessions of 1811 and 1812, he was Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations. In the latter part of November, 1811, he reported a set of resolutions, authori- zing immediate and active preparations for war ; and on the 11th of December following, justified their propriety and necessity by a speech of great ability, firm and energetic in its tone, yet temperate and judicious. Soon after the war, he was elected Secretary of State for New York ; and was also appointed by President Madi- son, one of the Commissioners to run the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions.
In 1813, he was transferred from the national councils to the field - having been appointed Major General and Chief in com- mand of the New York state troops. From that time until the close of the war, General Poter was in active service, and distin- guished himself in several engagements on the northern frontier. It is a fact not generally known, that in 1815 he received from President Madison the appointment of Commander-in-chief of the army of the United States- a post which he respectfully decli- ned. The letter tendering to him that distinguished station, is still in the hands of his family at Niagara Falls.
At the termination of that unhappy conflict, in 1815, General Porter was once more clected to Congress. At the close of that term, he declined a re-election, and retired to his seat at Niagara, intending to spend the remainder of his days in the quiet of domes- tic enjoyment. He was regarded as one of the great men of the nation, and the annual throng of visitors to the Falls, were wont to pay him respectful homage and share in his cheerful hospitality. For his services in the war, the legislature of New York voted him
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an elegant and costly sword, with appropriate devices and inscrip- tions commemorative of his military career.
In 1828, President Adams called him from his retirement, having appointed him to an important post in his cabinet, that of Secretary of War. He repaired at once to the seat of govern- ment, and entered upon the arduous duties of the office, and con- tinued to discharge them with extraordinary industry and fidelity, until the inauguration of President Jackson ; when, presuming that his place would be wanted by some friend of the new administra- tion, he sent in his resignation. The famous John H. Eaton suc- ceeded him, who was soon succeeded by General Lewis Cass of Michigan.
The wife of General Porter was Leticia Breckenridge, of Ken- tucky, a sister of the Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, D. D. a dis- tinguished clergyman of that state. She died at Black Rock, N. Y. in August, 1831, leaving a son and daughter. General Porter died at Niagara Falls, March 20, 1844, aged 71 years.
REV. NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR. D. D.
BRIGHT PROFESSOR OF DIONISO THEOLOGY I YALE COLLEGE.
Nath & W. Taylor.
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NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR, D. D.
THE Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, the second minister in New Mil- ford, was settled over the Congregational church in that town, in June, 1748, and continued his pastoral duties there until his death, in December, 1800 - over fifty two years. His wife was Tamer, daughter of the Rev. Daniel Boardman, his predecessor in the pas- toral office. His sons were 1, John B. died in infancy ; 2, Nathan- iel; 3, General Augustine, graduated at Yale College, was an officer in the Revolution, and died in Sharon in 1816 ; 4, Colonel William Taylor, graduated at Yale College, died in New Milford, in 1841.
Nathaniel Taylor, Esq. (son of the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor,) was born in New Milford in 1753; married Anna Northrop ; he died in 1818. Their children were, 1, Laura, died in childhood ; 2, John, died in 1837, aged 60; 3, Charlotte, married the Hon. David S. Boardman of New Milford, and died in 1846 ; 4, Nathan- iel W. the subject of this sketch.
The Rev. NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR, D. D. was born in New Milford, June 23d, 1786, and graduated at Yale College in 1807, in the class with the Hon. John P. Cushman, M. C., Thomas L. Grimke, LL. D., Jacob Sutherland, LL. D., Rev. Samuel R. Andrew, and other distinguished men. Having completed a regular course of theological study, he was ordained and installed pastor of the First Congregational Church and Society in New Haven, April 8, 1812. In this relation he continued the prompt
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discharge of his ministerial duties, for a period of ten years - during which time he established for himself the reputation of being one of the ablest and soundest divines in New England ; and what is still more to his praise as a faithful ambassador of the Great Head of the Church, he became the instrument of everlasting good to very many who sat under his preaching.
In November, 1823, Dr. Taylor was appointed to and accepted the important post of "Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology" in Yale College - a position which he still occupies with distin- guished ability. He has long occupied a prominent position in the religious world ; being regarded as the official exponent of the system of theology taught in one of the largest and most important theological seminaries in the United States. But aside from his peculiar position, his sermons and lectures, published and unpub- lished, have attracted very general attention from their own intrin- sic merits - the soundness of their philosophy, the loftiness and dignity of their language, and the depth and fervency of piety which they exhibit.
While in the pastoral office, Dr. Taylor was married to Miss Rebecca Hine, daughter of Major Beebe Iline, then of New Mil- ford, but now a resident of New Haven. His only son, Nathaniel, graduated at Yale College in 1844, and is now a practicing physi- cian in New Haven.
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JOSEPH I. FOOTE, D. D.
REV. JOSEPH I. FOOTE was born in Watertown, November 7, 1796. We have no information of his early life and education, until he graduated at Union College, N. Y. in 1821. He fitted himself for the Christian Ministry at the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., where he spent three years. In 1826, on the 26th of October, he was installed pastor of the Congregational Church and Society in West Brookfield, Mass. in which relation he resided there until May 1, 1832. In the year following he was called to the charge of the church in Salina, N. Y. where he resided until 1835, when he removed to Courtland in the same state, where he continued to labor in the ministry until 1837. In 1839 he removed to Knoxville, East Tennessee, to the pastoral charge of the church in that place. Here his reputation as a scholar and divine arrested the attention of the corporation of Washington College, in that section of the state, who conferred upon him the degree of D. D. and tendered him early in 1840, the presidency of that Institution. This College was the first incor- porated west of the Alleganies. It dates back to 1794, and within its walls were educated many of the most distinguished professional men in the Southern and Western States. Dr. Foote, after consulting the advice of his friends, accepted the presidency, and on the 9th of April, 1840, left Knoxville on a visit to the seat of the College in Washington county. On his way, he preached on the Sabbath, April 13, at Rogersville, from a part of the apos-
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tolic benediction -" The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all" -and on the following Sunday, at New Providence, from another part -" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." These labors were his last, and seem prophetic of his end. On the 20th, as he was continuing his journey, he was thrown from his horse near Leesburg, and received such injury that he expired on the following day, twenty hours after his fall- the day preceding that on which he was to be inaugurated Presi- dent of the College, and enter on a new and wide career of useful- ness.
The following summary of Dr. Foote's character is taken from a Biographical Sketch of him, published soon after his death.
" By this mysterious and afflictive dispensation of Providence, the church of Christ has lost a bright and shining light - the cause of literature and science, an illustrious and efficient advo- cate and patron - a large circle of friends and acquaintances their pride and ornament - and a fond and devoted wife, a kind and affectionate guide and protector.
" As a faithful, zealous, and evangelical preacher, Dr. Foote had few equals, and perhaps no superiors. As a theologian, he was thoroughly conversant with the various systems of faith embra- ced by the different denominations of the Christian church. As a controvertist, he made no compromise with essential error, either in the doctrines or order of the church ; but with that boldness and intrepidity which characterized the Fathers of the Reforma- tion, he combatted whatever he believed to conflict with the plain canons of Scripture, or to stand in opposition to the advancement of a pure, practical, and evangelical religion. As a scholar and writer, he stood pre-eminently high ; and the frequent contribu- tions of his pen to the New York Literary and Theological Review, and other periodicals of equal celebrity, have placed him on an eminence in polemic and didactic theology, to which but few can, with confidence, aspire. In his intercourse with the world, he was frank and undisguised -an instructive and sociable com-
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panion - a candid, sincere, unaffected and sympathizing friend ; and in his domestic circle, a very pattern of tenderness and affec- tion."
The address which Dr. Foote had prepared to deliver on the occasion of his inauguration was published immediately after his death. In this address he advocates the claims of the College in a very able manner. The following extract shows his sympathy with the poor, to whose doors he would carry the means of the highest intellectual improvement.
" A prominent motive in extending the operations of the Col- lege, is the education of the poor. I use not this term in reproach. Who, almost in the whole circle of distinguished schools, has not been indigent ? If from the lists of those who have been distin- guished officers in Colleges, or pre-eminent in the profession of Law, Medicine or Divinity, or celebrated for their attainments in science -if from these lists we were to strike out the names of those who were originally indigent, how small then would be the remainder ? Nor is this scarcely less true of the many who have risen to the principal places of honor in the several states, and even in the nation itself.
" There is a disposition in the community to compound indigence with ignominy, and to treat the poor as if they were criminal ; no other tendency is so injurious to the general elevation of society or to our republican institutions. It is, indeed, an affecting fact, that scarcely a son of the indolent, the worthless and the immoral has ever risen to eminence in our country. The habitations of vileness engrave their own character so legibly on their children, that it is rarely, or never, obliterated. By far the greater portion of those, who in our country have been denominated poor, are entirely competent to sustain their families at home. They are honest. Their morals are without a stain. They are beloved by all their neighbors. Their children are trained in every virtue. They are the joy of their parents and the delight of their wealthy neighbors. If instead of undertaking to procure an education in
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the liberal arts and sciences, they were to apply themselves to agri- culture, to merchandize, or to any ordinary employment, it is unquestionable, that competence and perhaps wealth would soon smile around them. But if instead of limiting their circle of use- fulness by these boundaries, their minds contemplate a wider range of operation ; if instead of growing up with the rapidity of the pop- lar, they endeavor to acquire the solidity and the expansion of the oak ; if their hearts are fixed on being widely and permanently useful to the human race, such aspirations in the youthful bosoms, ought to he hailed by the community. Facilities ought to be pro- vided for the development of such desires and faculties. With steady and persevering industry, these minds will soon shine with a lustre, equal to that of a prince in his court, or the sons of the rich in their palaces.
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