USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 14
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The name of Oliver Wendell Holmes awakens a pathetic interest in con- nection with that of Abraham Lincoln. About the time that gem of American literature, Dr. Holmes' "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," was appearing serially in "The Atlantic Monthly," then in its second year, the delightful essayist and poet wrote "The Last Leaf," one stanza of which appealed so deeply to the martyred President that he frequently repeated it:
"The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has pressed In their bloom; And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On their tomb."
Dr. Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and finished his literary education at Harvard. His grandfather, a resident of Woodstock, wrote as follows in his diary under date of August 4, 1803, as quoted in the "Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes," by John More, Jr .: "Mrs. Temperance Holmes, my much honored and beloved mother (she was therefore Oliver Wendell Holmes' grandmother), was born at Norwich in Connecticut, A. D. 1733. My mother was an admirer of learning, though she received her education in a part of the town of Norwich (Newent parish) which did not probably furnish her any signal advantages at school, yet she had a mother who was at once a school and library to her." It is worthy of note that Holmes, in his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," speaks of the "Coit Elms" of Norwich.
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Edmund Clarence Stedman, who ranked very high as a poet and essayist, lived in Norwich during all his boyhood. He was born in Hartford, son of Edmund Stedman, a merchant of that city; his mother was Elizabeth C. Dodge, the poetess. His father died when he was but two years old, and he was sent to his great-uncle, James Stedman, at Norwich, and where he began and continued his education until his sixteenth year, when he entered Yale College. An incident of his literary career was his service as a corre- spondent of the "New York World," from the Army of the Potomac, during the Civil War. He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and much of his most excellent literary work was accomplished during the hours that most busy men give to recreation. During his later years he gave him- self entirely to literary work.
Lydia Sigourney, an author and poet who has been called "the American Hemans," was a native of Norwich, born September 1, 1791, only daughter of Ezekiel and Sophia (Wentworth) Huntley. She was an ardent student from her very youth, and became proficient in Latin and Greek. In associa- tion with Miss Ann M. Hyde, she opened a select school for young ladies, and made it so much of a success that after four years, at the earnest solicita- tion of leading families in Hartford, she removed her school to that city. When about twenty-four, on the suggestion of a friend, she published "Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse," a collection of her occasional writings. The volume was well received, and paved the way for her life occupation. In 1819 she gave up her school, and became the wife of Charles Sigourney, a merchant of Hartford. Her husband, a most congenial mate, failed in both health and business, and out of necessity she gave herself unreservedly to pen work, becoming one of the most voluminous writers of her day, her published volumes numbering nearly sixty, and her contributions to maga- zines and periodicals some two thousand. Much of her verse work was on the solicitation of friends, on special occasions, and generally unrecompensed. She was a graceful writer, and all that she produced was marked with lofty sentiment. She was a devoted friend of the sorrowing and afflicted, and in Hartford her memory is held as highly in honor for her charitable work as for her literary talent. She lived many years in widowhood, and died at Hartford, June 10, 1865, in her seventy-fifth year.
Captain Samuel Chester Reid, one of the most brilliant officers of the old American Navy, was born in Norwich, August 25, 1783. His father, Lieut. John Reid, of the British Navy, was taken prisoner at New London on a night in October, 1778, while in command of a night boat expedition sent out from the British squadron. While in custody, he resigned his com- mission, and on being exchanged took sides with the Americans. In 1781 he married Rebecca Chester, a descendant in the fourth generation of Captain Samuel Chester, of the British Navy, who settled in New London. Her father, John Chester, was among the American soldiers at Bunker Hill, and afterward a member of the Connecticut convention which ratified the Con- stitution of the United States. Such was the parentage of Samuel Chester
BRICK TAVERN, NORWICH WHERE WASHINGTON RESTED THE NIGHT OF JUNE 30, 1775. SITE NOW OCCUPIED BY NORWICH SAVINGS SOCIETY.
Tin
BIRTHPLACE OF MRS. LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, ONE OF THE MOST GIFTED OF THE EARLIER AMERICAN WRITERS, NOW THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM C. GILMAN.
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Reid. Following in the footsteps of the father, he took to the sea at the age of eleven, but was soon among the prisoners taken during the difficulties between France and the United States. Later he served under Commodore Truxton. In the war of 1812 he held the rank of captain, and as commander of the brig "General Armstrong" performed one of the most notable feats in naval annals, off Fayal, fighting with his nine guns and ninety men a British squadron of three vessels with 130 guns and 200 men, finally scuttling his ship rather than surrender. Swimming ashore, he was taken into custody by the Portuguese authorities, who refused to surrender him to the British, and out of which refusal grew an extended diplomatic discussion which was finally settled by Louis Napoleon as arbitrator, who decided against the American claim as to neutral rights. The gun with which Reid sank his vessel was presented to the United States by the King of Portugal. In peace times Captain Reid performed services of the highest usefulness-the inven- tion and construction of the signal telegraph at the Battery in New York and the Narrows between the upper and lower bays; and the perfecting of the pilot boat system at Sandy Hook. He designed the American flag as it is today-the thirteen stripes representing the original States, and a star for each of all. The flag of his designing was first raised over the National Hall of Representatives in Washington City on April 13, 1818. Captain Reid mar- ried Mary, daughter of Captain Nathan Jennings, of Willington, Connecticut, who fought at Lexington, crossed the Delaware with Washington, and was commended for gallantry at Trenton.
Mrs. Leland Stanford, wife of the late Senator Stanford of California, was a member of the Lathrop family of Norwich. In memory of a son who died at the age of sixteen, named for the father, Senator and Mrs. Stanford founded the Leland Stanford University, contributing for the purpose an eighty- three thousand acre tract of land, valued at eight millions of dollars.
Francis Hopkinson Smith, a most talented artist, excelling in water color landscapes, also successful as an author and platform lecturer, added to his varied accomplishments surpassing skill as a mechanical engineer, his most famous piece of work in that line being the foundation and pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. He was the designer and builder of the Race lighthouse off New London, a task which occupied him for six years. He was a native of Maryland.
Richard Mansfield lived in New London some years before his death. His widow, whose stage name was Beatrice Cameron, continues to make it her legal residence.
David Ames Wells, an economist of the highest rank, a native of Massa- chusetts, was for many years identified with Norwich, which was his place of residence for over twenty years, and where he died, November 5, 1898. He was known as a high-class mechanician and inventor before coming into the field in which he attained international repute; one of his inventions was the machine for folding book and newspaper sheets, and which is practically the same as used at the present time. Giving his attention to taxation prob-
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lems, he produced his economic work, "Our Burden and Our Strength" (1864), which was an important factor in the restoration of the government credit, which had been seriously inspired during the Civil War. This led to his being appointed chairman of a congressional commission to devise a revenue taxa- tion system, and which eventuated in the creation of a special Commissioner of the Revenue, and his appointment as such official. Among his important public services were the redrafting and perfecting of the internal revenue laws, the introduction of the stamp system for taxes on tobacco, liquors, etc .; and the organization of the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treas- ury Department. From a Protectionist, he became a Free Trader, and to this was due his failure of reappointment to his revenue commissionership, in 1870. However, that year he was called to the chairmanship of a com- mission on the New York State tax laws, for which he prepared two elab- orate reports and a revised code. In 1872 he became a lecturer on economics in Yale University. The remainder of his life was passed in railroad arbitra- tions and railroad and canal taxation questions, and in writing various vol- umes on these and similar topics.
The Rev. Horace Bushnell, a divine of the loftiest spirituality and a graceful author, in young manhood was a school teacher in Norwich. His "Nature and the Supernatural," published in 1858, daring in its time, became profoundly suggestive in the vast field now illumined by the revelations of evolution. This was but one of several fine volumes from his pen. His clerical life was passed with the North Congregational Church in Hartford, but he was frequently heard in public addresses in principal eastern cities. In 1855, his health being seriously impaired, he visited California, and was there tendered the presidency of the State University, which he declined. In 1859 he resigned his pastorate in Hartford, and devoted himself to literary labors. He died in Hartford, February 17, 1876.
John Fox Slater, a liberal contributor to educational and other philan- thropic objects, was a native of Rhode Island, but his life was principally passed in Norwich. He was a principal figure in manufacturing enterprises, displaying therein a capacity similar to that of his distinguished uncle, Samuel Slater, "the father of American manufactures." He was chiefly instrumental in the establishment of the Free Academy in Norwich, for which as a tribute to his memory, two years after his death in Norwich, May 7, 1884, his son, William Albert Slater, erected a memorial building. Mr. Slater's greatest benefaction was his gift of a million dollars in 1882 as a fund for industrial education of the freedmen-the blacks emancipated during the Civil War by President Lincoln.
Joseph Lemuel Chester, antiquarian, born in Norwich, 1821, after some years devoted to journalism in Philadelphia, went to England and died in London, May 28, 1882. He took up his residence there in order to search out the genealogical history of early New Englanders, and among his works was "Marriage, Baptismal and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church or
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Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster," in which edifice a tablet to his memory was placed after his death.
Thomas Winthrop Coit, Episcopal clergyman, was born in New London, June 28, 1803, and died in Middletown in 1885. After occupying several important rectorates and college lectureships, he became a professor in the Divinity School at Middletown. He made many contributions to church lit- erature, and was regarded as one of the best scholars and ablest writers of his denomination.
John Lee Comstock (1789-1858), born in Lyme, was an industrious writer of text-books on the natural sciences, and a skilled draughtsman, mak- ing most of the illustrations for his books. His "Mineralogy" was used at the West Point Military Academy, and his "Natural Philosophy," which was republished in London and Edinburgh, had a sale of nearly nine thousand copies.
Erastus Corning (1794-1872), born in Norwich, became one of the leading ironmasters and bankers of his day. His master work was in the development of the railroad system of the State of New York and of Hudson river trans- portation. He held various public offices, including several terms in Congress.
John Gardiner Calkins Brainard, of New London (1796-1828), studied for the bar, but forsook it for journalism. He wrote much verse which brought him a certain celebrity. His brother, Dr. Dyar Throop Brainard, a physician (1810-1863), was a chemist, and an eminent botanist.
Mary Lydia (Bolles) Branch, her husband a lawyer in New York, beginning in 1865 wrote much for periodicals, principally stories and verse for young people.
John Newton Brown (1803-1868), born in New London, Baptist clergy- man, held pastorates in Providence, in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Virginia. In Boston he edited the "Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge," which was republished in England. He was afterward editor of the "Chris- tian Chronicle" and the "National Baptist," and was editorial secretary of the Baptist Publication Society.
Asa Burton (1752-1836), was born in Stonington and passed his child- hood there and in Preston. He became a Congregational minister, was noted as a theological teacher, and prepared some sixty young men for the ministry. He published a volume on "First Principles of Metaphysics, Ethics, and Theology."
George Deshon, born in New London (1823), was a West Point graduate, a room-mate of Gen. U. S. Grant. He was converted to Catholicism, and resigned from the army to enter the Order of Redemptorists, and was one of its most efficient missioners.
The Daboll family of Groton was remarkable for three generations of most useful men. Nathan Daboll (1750-1818), was a famous teacher, and instructed as many as fifteen hundred persons in navigation. His treatise on arithmetic, published at New London in 1799, was long a standard text- book, as was also his "Practical Navigator." In 1773 he began the publication
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of the "Connecticut Almanac." His son Nathan (1782-1863) was a State legislator ; he aided his father compiling his "Arithmetic," and published the "Almanac" from the death of the father and until his own. His son, of the same name, was also a State legislator, aided his father in both of the works before named, and also continued the "Almanac." Celadon Leeds Daboll, another son of the second Nathan, was an inventor and was father of the application of the principle of the clarionet to the construction of the fog- horn as a coast signal. This device was perfected by his brother, Charles Miner Daboll, in the steam fog-horn.
James Deane, Indian missionary (1748-1823), born in Groton, during the Revolutionary War was an Indian interpreter at Fort Stanwix, and later was employed by Congress to pacify the northern Indians. He wrote an essay on Indian mythology, which has been lost.
Charles Wheeler Denison (1809-1881), born in New London, edited a newspaper there before he was of age. He became a minister, and edited "The Emancipator," the first anti-slavery paper published in New York City. He was a potent advocate of the Union during the Civil War, before the cotton operatives in England.
PANORAMIC VIEW OF NEW LONDON.
CHAPTER V THE CITY OF NEW LONDON
Its Founding-First House Lot Owners-The Winthrops-Dealings with the Indians- During the Revolutionary War-Development of Whaling-Some Remarkable Voy- ages-The War of 1812-Steam Navigation-Early Newspapers-Manwaring Hill.
From "The Edelwiss," a poem by John G. Bolles, the following extract is taken, illustrative of the river Thames, and of incidents in the history of New London and vicinity :
But I do love my own fair Thames, E'er fed by living fountains And noble streams of Indian name Upspringing in the mountains.
All gliding through the valleys sweet To that delightful river, By airy wing of zephyr touched, I've seen its waters quiver, While jauntily upon its breast
My little skiff would rock and rest;
And I have seen its quiet depths Reflecting cloud and sky, And gazed along its winding course Far as could reach the eye, Where, nestled 'mid the distant hills, Its cradled waters lie.
I ne'er beheld a lovelier scene,
Or skies more bright, or hills more green,
Or blissful morning more serene,
While islands in the distance rest
As emeralds on the water's breast.
The traveler, with admiring eyes,
Exclaims, "Can this be Paradise?"
There towers that lofty monument On Groton's tragic height, To mark the spot where martyrs fell Undaunted in the fight.
There Ledyard sleeps, and many a score Of heroes each renowned, Who midst the battle's wildest roar Were firm and foremost found.
Amid the storm of fire they sang "Columbia shail be free," And every whizzing bullet rang For honor, liberty.
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Allyns and Edgecombs left their plow To win immortal fame, And glory sets on many a brow I need not call by name.
Let Hempstead's memory be bright Who wrote the battle's story, Wounded and bruised and down the steep Hurled in that wagon gory;
And left for dead among the dead Till, touched by gentle hands, He saw his wife and rose again To live long in the land.
'Twas there Decatur with his fleet Held hostile ships at bay, And guarded well the sacred place Where patriot ashes lay.
The town of New London is at once the oldest and the smallest in area of New London county. Its boundaries are the same as those of the city of New London, namely : On the north, the town of Waterford; on the east, the town of Groton, from which it is separated by the estuary of the Thames river, forming beautiful New London harbor; on the south by Long Island Sound; on the west by Waterford.
Its founder, John Winthrop the younger, was the son of the John Win- throp who, leading the second Puritan emigration from England, became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The son John, born in 1606, spent the years 1622 to 1625 at the University of Dublin. At the age of twenty-one (1627) he served under the Duke of Buckingham in France, was married in 1631, and the same year arrived in Massachusetts. After the death of his first wife in 1634, he returned to England, married again in 1635, and returned to take charge of the settlement at Saybrook in 1636; from Massachusetts he obtained a grant of Fisher's Island in 1640, confirmed by Connecticut in 1641, and later by New York in 1668. In 1644, shortly after his first settlement on Fisher's Island, he obtained from Connecticut a grant of a plantation "at or near Pequod." This grant he began to occupy in 1645.
The Natal Day of New London is thus described by Miss Caulkins:
At a General Court held at Boston, 6th of May, 1646. Whereas Mr. John Winthrop, Jun., and some others, have by allowance of this Court begun a plantation in the Pequot country, which appertains to this juris- diction, as part of our proportion of the conquered country, and whereas this Court is informed that some Indians who are now planted upon the place, where the said plantation is begun, are willing to remove from their planting ground for the more quiet and convenient place appointed-it is therefore ordered that Mr. John Winthrop may appoint unto such Indians as are willing to remove, their lands on the other side, that is, on the east side of
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the Great River of the Pequot country, or some other place for their con- venient planting and subsistence, which may be to the good liking and satisfaction of the said Indians, and likewise to such of the Pequot Indians as shall desire to live there, submitting themselves to the English govern- ment, &c.
And whereas Mr. Thomas Peters is intended to inhabit in the said plantation,-this Court doth think fit to join him to assist the said Mr. Winthrop, for the better carrying on the work of said plantation. A true copy, &c .- (New London Records, Book VI.)
The elder Winthrop records the commencement of the plantation under date of June, 1646:
A plantation was this year begun at Pequod river by Mr. Winthrop, Jun., (and) Mr. Thomas Peter, a minister, (brother to Mr. Peter, of Salem,) and (at) this Court, power was given to them two for ordering and govern- ing the plantation, till further order, although it was uncertain whether it would fall within our jurisdiction or not, because they of Connecticut chal- lenged it by virtue of a patent from the king, which was never showed us. It mattered not much to which jurisdiction it did belong, seeing the con- federation made all as one ; but it was of great concernment to have it planted, to be a curb to the Indians.
The uncertainty with respect to jurisdiction hung at first like a cloud over the plantation. The subject was discussed at the meeting of the com- missioners at New Haven in September, 1646. Massachusetts claimed by conquest, Connecticut by patent, purchase and conquest. The record says :
It was remembered that in a treaty betwixt them at Cambridge, in 1638, not perfected, a proposition was made that Pequot river, in reference to the conquest, should be the bounds betwixt them, but Mr. Fenwick was not then there to plead the patent, neither had Connecticut then any title to those lands by purchase or deed of gift from Uncas.
The decision at this time was, that unless hereafter, Massachusetts should show better title, the jurisdiction should belong to Connecticut. This issue did not settle the controversy. It was again agitated at the Commissioners' Court, held at Boston, in July, 1647, at which time Mr. Winthrop, who had been supposed to favor the claims of Massachusetts, expressed himself as "more indifferent," but affirmed that some members of the plantation, who had settled there in reference to the government of Massachustts and in expectation of large privileges from that colony, would be much disappointed if it should be assigned to any other jurisdiction.
The majority again gave their voice in favor of Connecticut, assigning this reason-"Jurisdiction goeth constantly with the Patent."
Massachusetts made repeated exceptions to this decision. The argument was in truth weak, inasmuch as the Warwick Patent seems never to have been transferred to Connecticut, the colony being for many years without even a copy of that instrument. The right from conquest was the only valid foundation on which she could rest her claim, and here her position was impregnable.
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Mr. Peters appears to have been from the first associated with Winthrop in the projected settlement, having a co-ordinate authority and manifesting an equal degree of zeal and energy in the undertaking. But his continuance in the country, and all his plans in regard to the new town, were cut short by a summons from home inviting him to return to the guidance of his ancient flock in Cornwall. He left Pequot, never to see it again, in the autumn of 1646. In November he was in Boston preparing to embark.
Mr. Winthrop removed his family from Boston in October, 1646; his brother, Deane Winthrop, accompanied him. They came by sea, encounter- ing a violent tempest on the passage, and dwelt during the first winter on Fisher's Island. Some of the children were left behind in Boston, but joined their parents the next summer, at which time Mr. Winthrop, having built a house, removed his family to the town plot. Mrs. Lake returned to the plantation in 1647, and was regarded as an inhabitant, having a home lot assigned to her and sharing in grants and divisions of land as other settlers, though she was not a householder. She resided in the family of Winthrop until after he was chosen governor of the colony, and removed to Hartford. The latter part of her life was spent at Ipswich.
Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, regarded the new plantation with great interest. As a patriot, a statesman and a father, his mind expatiated upon it with hope and solicitude. A few days after the departure from Boston of his son, with his family, he wrote to him: "The blessing of the Lord be upon you, and He protect and guide you in this great undertaking. I commend you and my good daughter, and your children, and Deane, and all your company in your plantation (whom I desire to salute,) to the gracious protection and blessing of the Lord."
To this chapter may properly be added the relation of a romantic incident that occurred at an early period of the settlement, and which had an important bearing on the western boundary question that subsequently threw the town into a helligerent attitude toward Lyme.
In March, 1672, when the controversy in respect to bounds between New London and Lyme was carried before the legislature, Mr. Winthrop, then governor of the colony, being called on for his testimony, gave it in a narra- tive form, his object being to show explicitly that the little stream known as Bride Brook was originally regarded as the boundary between the two plantations. The preamble of his deposition is in substance as follows :
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