USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > An historical address delivered at the opening of the village library of Farmington, Conn., September 30th, 1890 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
A roll of honor on which we may well be pleased to see the names of our ancestors recorded.
8
Town meetings followed in quick succession. On the 20th of September the Rev. Levi Hart of Preston was invited to preach to the assembled freemen of Farming. ton on Liberty. He preached them a sermon on "Liberty Described and Recommended," but his text must have sounded strangely in their ears as he read, "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption." There was not a word about British tyr- anny, but a fervid discourse to our merchant princes on the horrors of the slave trade.
Strange doctrine this. Did not the good men of that day rejoice in thus delivering benighted souls from the heathen darkness of Africa? West India shippers, not only of this, but of all trading communities, universally engaged in the traffic. Times have changed. Let us judge men by the light of their own day. We, no doubt, will need like favor badly enough an hundred years hence.
The meeting, at the close of the discourse, proceeded to vote thirty hundred-weight of lead, ten thousand French flints, and thirty six barrels of powder. A little later they voted "that the several constables should have a large staff provided for each of them with the King's arms upon them." The authority of the King was as yet unquestioned.
On the 12th of December the town approved of the Association of the Continental Congress and appointed a Committee of Inspection to carry out its provisions. This committee of fifty-two men at once met at the tavern of Amos Cowles, and while they are busy with the public good, and, very likely, with the good of the house, let us take a little rest from the contemplation of these warlike proceedings and look about us. The inn of Amos Cowles stood just south of the church, on or about the site of the house of the late Chauncey D. Cowles, Esq. It has long
.
9
since disappeared, as have all but about a half-dozen of the houses of that day, and they, for the most part, have been reconstructed past recognition. The village street, certainly not since broadened with age, ran as now, and along it passed the pedestrian, the horseback rider, and the unwieldy cart of the farmer. Pleasure carriages were unknown. When the minister of that day brought home his bride in the first chaise his parishoners had ever seen they lined the street to welcome him, and the first man who caught sight of the coming chaise shouted, "The cart is coming." Mail coaches were unknown. In 1778 Joseph Root advertised in The Connecticut Courant as follows :
"This is to notify those that have friends in General Parsons' brigade that I have undertook to ride post for the town of Farm- ington, the letters to be left at my house and at Landlord Adams', Southington; at Landlord Smith's, New Britain; at Landlord Hayes', Salmon Brook; at Esq. Owen's, Simsbury; at Joseph Kel- logg's, New Hartford, and at Robert Mecune's, at Winchester. Those who have letters to send are desired to leave them at either of the above places by the first day of next month, at which time I shall set out.
JOSEPH ROOT.
"N. B. Letters may also be left at Lieut. Heth's, West Hart- ford, and at Landlord Butler's in Hartford.
"FARMINGTON, June 12, 1778."
The travel between the two capitals of the colony then, as now, passed on the other side of the mountain through Wethersfield and Wallingford, but the exigencies of war required new lines of communication, and this quiet street was soon to be familiar with the measured tread of armies. Thomas Lewis, writing to Lieut. Amos Wadsworth at Roxbury Camp, says :
"The same night " (that is, July 19, 1775.) "lodged in this town a captain with a company of riflemen, who appeared to be, many of them, very likely young gentlemen. The officers informed me a great number of their soldiers were men possessed
2
IO
with fortunes worth three or four thousand apiece. These are from Philadelphia and on their march to join the army. The Cap- tain told me he expected one thousand more of the same troops would pass the town next week for the like purpose."
After the evacuation of Boston the line of communi- cation from Newport and Hartford to the Highlands above New York passed through this village.
Here in 1781 marched the army of Rochambeau. The diary of one of his aids, accompanied with a map of the route, records, under date of June 24th :
"In the afternoon I went to see a charming spot called Wethersfield, four miles from East Hartford. It would be impos- sible to find prettier houses and a more beautiful view. I went up into the stceple of the church and saw the richest country I had yet seen in America. From this spot you can see for fifty miles around.
"June 25. In the morning the army resumed its march to reach Farmington. The country is more open than that we had passed over since our departure, and the road fine enough. The village is considerable, and the position of the camp, which is a mile and a half from it, was one of the most fortunate we had as yet occupied."
On the return of the army in 1782 Rochambeau made a halt in Farmington on the 29th of October, and the next day in Hartford.
Of the journeys of Washington through this town he leaves us but brief mention. In May, 1781, he writes :
"I begin at this epoch a concise journal of military transac- tions, etc. I lament not having attempted it from the commence- ment of the war."
In this journal he writes :
"May 19th. Breakfasted at Litchfield, dined at Farmington. and lodged at Wethersfield."
Also :
"May 24th. Set out on my return to New Windsor, dined at Farmington, and lodged at Litchfield."
II
This is all we gather from his own writing, but we know that on the 18th of September, 1780, he bade adieu to General Arnold at Peekskill and was in Hartford on the 21st. The commonly traveled road between the places lay through Farmington. After his conference with Rochambeau, he leaves Hartford on the 23d and arrives at Litchfield on the same day. Two days later he heard of the flight of Arnold. On the 2d of March, 1781, he left New Windsor, and arrived at Hartford on the 4th, and, returning on Sunday the ISth, was back at his head- quarters at New Windsor on the 20th. He seems, there- fore, to have passed through Farmington six times: on the 20th and 23d of September, 1780, the 4th and 18th of March, 1781, and the 19th and 24th of May, 1781.
What house had the honor of entertaining his Excel- lency is uncertain. An idle tradition one hears over and over again tells us that once, being overtaken by a sud- den storm, Washington took refuge in the newly erected meeting-house, but if there is any one with any military experience before me, I will leave him to determine into which the General would most likely turn his steps, the hospitable inn of Amos Cowles, or the house of God with closed doors, standing there side by side. The means of entertainment at that day were ample. As he rode down the mountain slope from the east and first came in sight of the meeting-house spire, the tavern of Samuel North, Jr., greeted him on the left. A little farther on, where the Elm Tree Inn now stands, Mr. Phineas Lewis would have been happy to entertain the General. He could also have been cordially welcomed by Mr. Seth Lee, where are now the brick school buildings of Miss Porter. If he suc- ceeded in passing all these attractions, the newly erected inn of Mr. Asahel Wadsworth, grandfather of the late Winthrop M. Wadsworth, Esq., hung out its sign, and just as he turned off from the main street into the wilder-
12
ness toward Litchfield there was still the well-known inn of Captain Solomon Cowles to prepare him for the rough journey before him. This last tavern was famous in its day. The weary teamster on his journey with supplies for the army hailed it with delight. One Joseph Joslin, Jr., a revolutionary teamster from Killingly, left a racy diary which ought to please the modern advocates of pho- netic spelling. He says:
"April 21, 1777. We set out again and went through Harwin- ton into Farmington, and it was very bad carting indeed, I declare, and we stayed at a very good tavern, old Captain Coles', and we fare well, and did lie in a bed, I think."
The hay mow by the side of his cattle was usually con- sidered good enough for a revolutionary teamster. Three days later he says :
"I went to Farmington to old Captain Coles' again."
But alas! the hopes of man are deceitful. It was a Fast day, and all he could get was a little cold, raw pork. But it is time for us to return to our Committee of Inspec- tion, whom we left at the house of Amos Cowles. William Judd was made chairman and John Treadwell clerk, and their business was to carry out the requirements of the fourteen articles of the Association of the Continental Congress. This agreement, signed by the representatives of the twelve colonies at Philadelphia on the 20th of Octo- ber, 1774, was not so much sustained by law as by the merciless power of public opinion. The transgressor was looked upon as Achan with his wedge of gold in the Israelitish camp before Jericho. A single instance will illustrate the spirit of the times and help you to under- stand what is to follow. Samuel Smith, merchant, of New Britain, had been convicted by Isaac Lee, Jr., justice of the peace, of selling metheglin at too high a price, namely, at eight shillings the gallon, and hens' eggs at
13
the enormous price of one shilling the dozen. He brought his humble petition to the General Assembly, in which he says :
"But when your memorialist reflects on the disability he is under, a sort of political death or disfranchisement which must render him incapable either to provide for or save himself from insult, or to serve the public in this time of calamity, which he . always has and still wishes to do, he cannot but in the most hum- ble manner pray this honorable Assembly to take your memorial- ist's case into your wise consideration and grant that he may be restored to his former freedom."
The petition was signed by Justice Lee and twenty- six of the principal men of New Britain. The Assembly promptly granted his petition. Our committee held sev- eral meetings, and considered numerous complaints which the Sons of Liberty had to make concerning the patriot- ism of their neighbors and of each other. It required cool heads and ripe wisdom to satisfy this red-hot zeal and do justice to all offenders. I will note only a few representative cases. Samuel Scott was accused of labor- ing on a Continental Fast day. This solemn day was to be kept with all the strictness of the Jewish Sabbath, and in its entirety. "Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid- servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates." It was not alleged that he had himself performed any labor on that sacred day, but there was some suspicion that one of his hired men might have done some work not strictly necessary. For this and similar cases the com- mittee drew up a form of confession, in which the accused affirmed his fervid patriotism and regretted any breach of the fourteen articles he might possibly have been guilty of. Another case made our worthy committee more trouble. Captain Solomon Cowles and Martha, his wife, were complained of for allowing Seth Bird of Litchfield
14
and Daniel Sheldon of Woodbury to drink India tea at their tavern. From the time of the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor nothing so roused the wrath of the pat- riots as any dalliance with this forbidden luxury. Their wives, who had patriotically abstained from their darling beverage and looked with regretful eyes on their unused china, could not endure such intemperance as this. The guilty parties printed their humble apology in The Con- necticut Courant. Seth Bird was exceedingly wroth, and published in the next paper his version of the affair, this tempest in a teapot, as it seems to us, laying all the blame on the landlady, and accusing her and the committee of making him infamous. It was the old story of the forbid- den fruit and the ignoble reply, "The woman gave me and I did eat." He says :
"About the middle of the month of March last past I called for breakfast at Captain Solomon Cowles'. The landlady said she would get some, and asked what would suit, and added, says she, 'I suppose you don't drink tea.' I answered that I had not prac- tised it, to be sure, since March came in, but as I feel this morn- ing it would not wrong my conscience to drink a dish or two, if I could come at it, for I had a new cold by riding in the wet the night before and had slept very little, etc. The landlady replied that if I felt unwell she supposed she might get me some, and accordingly went and prepared it, and I drank thereof."
The committee do not seem to have taken any notice of Mr. Bird's disrespectful paper. Litchfield was a far country, and, like the immortal Dogberry, they no doubt thanked God they were well rid of one offender. More serious still were the complaints against the Tories. Some one petitioned that Nehemiah Royce, "a person politically excommunicated." be prevented from sending his children to the public school. The committee wisely declined any such action, and, moreover, voted that the evidence against him " is not sufficient to justify the com-
.
.
15
mittee in advertising said Royce in the gazette." Every week there appeared on the first page of The Courant, in the blackest type Mr. Watson possessed, a list of enemies of their country, and confessions from parties accused appeared from every part of the State. Matthias Leam- ing, they voted, should be advertised in the public gazette " for a contumacious violation of the whole Association of the Continental Congress," and then voted to defer the execution of their sentence. By the middle of the fol- lowing September the committee had had enough of the business, and voted "to request a dismission from the office, it being too burthensome to be executed by them for a longer time." A new committee was appointed, who passed a few votes, and then we hear no more of them. There were more important matters to occupy the public mind. The persecution of Matthias Leaming, how- ever, was not yet ended. As late as 1783 his petition to the General Assembly sets forth that, being involved in debt, he had conveyed his real estate to a brother without his knowledge and without receiving one penny in con- sideration. Unfortunately for Matthias, his brother joined the enemy in New York, and the land, being found recorded in his name, was confiscated.
A very long and minute report by the legislative committee is on file, in which they decided adversely. Three years later another long memorial met the same fate, but in 1787 the Assembly gave him $80 in treasury notes, payable on the ist of the next February. Before that day the treasury was virtually bankrupt. In October, 1788, Governor Treadwell drew up another memorial, and persuaded Rev. Timothy Pitkin, Col. Noadiah Hooker, and twelve others of the most prominent men of the village to petition the Assembly to assist him in his old age and distress. No action was taken. The treasury was power- less to help. No doubt the Tories were treated roughly.
16
Some lost their lands by confiscation. Some were hung. It is very easy to sit by the quiet firesides which the valor of patriotic fathers secured us and coolly moralize on their severity. War is not a lovely thing, least of all, civil war. The sight of neighbors with whom we were wont to hold pleasant converse arrayed against us, side by side with hired mercenaries and scalping savages, rouses passions slumbering deep down in human nature, which war always has and always will arouse, moralize as we will, so long as warm blood flows in human veins. A single letter written by Dr. Timothy Hosmer of this village to Ensign Amos Wadsworth July 30, 1775, illustrates the spirit of the times, and is, perhaps, quite enough to say about Whig and Tory hatred. He says :
" The first act I shall give you is concerning the grand Con- tinental Fast as conducted by that great friend to administration, the Rev. John Smalley. The Sunday before the Fast, after ser- vice, he read the proclamation, and then told his people that fast- ing and prayer were no doubt a Christian duty, and that they ought in times of trouble to set apart a suitable time to celebrate a fast, but they were not obliged to keep the day by that procla- mation, as they (the Congress) had no power to command, but only to recommend, and desired they would speak their minds by a vote, whether they would keep the day. The vote was accord- ingly called for, and it appeared to be a scant vote, though they met on the Fast day and he preached to them. We look upon it as implicitly denying all authority of Congress. It hath awakened his best friends against him. Even Lieut. Porter, Mr. Bull, and John Treadwell say they cannot see any excuse for him, and I believe the committee will take up the matter and call him to answer for his conduct. There hath happened a terrible rumpus at Waterbury with the Tories there. Capt. Nicholl's son. Josiah. enlisted under Capt. Porter in Gen. Wooster's regiment, went down to New York with the regiment, tarried a short time, and deserted . . came home and kept a little under covert, but goes down to Saybrook and there enlisted with Capt. Shipman . . . got his bounty and rushed off again. Capt. Shipman
came up after him . . and went with some people they had got
17
to assist them to Lemuel Nicholl's, where they supposed he was. Lemuel forbade their coming in, and presented a sword and told them it was death to the first that offered to enter, but one young man seized the sword by the blade and wrenched it out of his hands. They bound him and made a search through the house, but could find nothing of Josiah. The Tories all mustered to defend him, and finally got Lemuel from them and he and Josiah pushed off where they cannot be found. This ran through Thurs- day. The Whigs sent over to Southington for help, and the peo- ple almost all went from Southington on Friday. They took Capt. Nicholls, whom they found on his belly over in his lot, in a bunch of alders, carried him before Esq. Hopkins, and had him bound over to the County Court at New Haven. They had near 100 Tories collected upon the occasion, and were together till ten o'clock Friday night. They dispersed and there was nothing done to humble them, but I apprehend the next opportunity I have to write I shall be able to inform you that Smalley and they, too, will be handled."
If the Rev. Dr. Smalley of New Britain, eminent divine and esteemed pastor, had not at this time deter- mined which cause to espouse, there was no doubt in the mind of the pastor of the church in Farmington, the Rev. Timothy Pitkin. His pulpit rang with fervid discourses on liberty. He visited his parishioners in their camp, and wrote them letters of encouragement and sympathy. To Amos Wadsworth, in camp at Roxbury, he writes :
" These wait on you as a token of my friendship. Truly I feel for my native, bleeding country, and am embarked with you in one common cause. . What you may be called to is unknown. Iwish you may fill up your new department with wis- dom, courage, and decorum. My hope is yet in God, the Lord of Hosts and God of Armies."
To the first company of soldiers marching from Simsbury he preached a farewell sermon from the words, "Play the man for your country, and for the cities of your God ; and the Lord do that which seemeth Him good."
At the opening of the war there stood at the south-
3
ยท
18
west corner of Main street and the Meadow lane, as it was called, a shop where Amos and Fenn Wadsworth adver- tised to sell drugs, groceries, etc., etc. Amos, the elder brother, was one of the first soldiers to march to Boston, and it is from his extensive correspondence, together with the orderly-book of Roger Hooker and the diary of Dea- con Samuel Richards, that most of our knowledge of Farmington men in the war is derived. The first Farm- ington company commenced its march on the ISth of May, 1775, being the 6th company of General Joseph Spencer's regiment. The officers were Noadiah Hooker, Captain ; Peter Curtiss and Joseph Byington, Lieutenants; Amos Wadsworth, Ensign, and Roger Hooker, Orderly-Ser- geant. They were eight days on their march, resting one rainy day at Thompson. They were stationed at Rox- bury and there remained during the siege. They were therefore at a distance from Bunker Hill and took no part in the battle of June 17th. Deacon Richards, however, gives a description of the battle as he saw it from elevated ground at Roxbury. With the exception of this one bat- tle, the whole army was kept in inglorious inactivity for want of powder, seldom returning the fire from the bat- teries in Boston. Deacon Richards says :
" The almost constant fire of the enemy produced one effect pro- bably not contemplated by them: it hardened our soldiers rapidly to stand and bear fire. When their balls had fallen and became still the men would strive to be the first to pick them up to carry to a sutler to exchange for spirits. At one time they came near pay- ing dear for their temerity. A bomb had fallen into a barn, and in the daytime it could not be distinguished from a cannon ball in its passage. A number were rushing in to seize it when it burst and shattered the barn very much, but without injuring any one. One night a ball passed through my apartment in the barracks, a few feet over me, as I lay in my berth. Such things, having become common, we thought little of them."
19
The troops before Boston were mostly farmers, each at home the absolute lord of his broad acres, impatient of military discipline, and a sore trial to the patience of Washington. Over and over again Orderly-Sergeant Roger Hooker records, "It is with astonishment the Gen- eral finds," etc., etc. On the 4th of August it is
"With indignation and shame the General observes that, not- withstanding the repeated orders which have been given to pre- vent the firing of guns in and about the camp which is daily prac- tised, that, contrary to all orders, straggling soldiers do still pass the guards and fire at a distance where there is not the least probability of hurting the enemy, and where there is no end answered but to waste their ammunition and keep their own camp in a continual alarm, to the hurt and detriment of every good sol- dier who is thereby disturbed of his natural rest, and at length will never be able to distinguish between the real and false alarm."
Occasionally the men were allowed to gratify their restlessness in certain madcap adventures. On the 12th of June Amos Wadsworth writes:
"A week ago last Friday about one hundred of our men went to one of the islands to assist some of the Whigs in getting off their families and effects. They brought off about 500 sheep, some cattle and horses, and took a boat belonging to one of the transport ships with three men as they were fishing near the shore. They secured the men and drew out the boat in plain sight of a man-of-war. The ship twice manned out her boats and set off, but put back without doing anything more. Our men got a team and cart, loaded the boat into the cart, hoisted her sails, set the two commanding officers in the stern of the boat, and the three prisoners rowing, and in this manner drove on as far as Cam- bridge, where they confined their prisoners in gaol. Eight of our company were in the expedition. She is now launched in a large pond about 100 rods from us, very convenient for us to fish and sail in."
Amos Wadsworth, Roger Hooker, and others of their company were in the somewhat famous boat expedition of July 11th. Amos writes :
20
" It was necessary for us to take the night for the business, as we had several ships of war to pass. We lay till after sundown, and then manned out 45 whale boats and set off for Long Island in order to take whatever we could find on the island. About II o'clock arrived at the island, and landed without opposition, and drove off 19 cattle, about 100 sheep, I horse, 4 hogs. The island lies between the lighthouse and Castle, and, we supposed, was guarded by a party. of regulars. The island is about one and one- half miles long, and one large house on it, which contained con- siderable furniture, which we carried off the most of it. We took 19 prisoners on the island, two of whom were women, one a young lady a native of Boston, who, they said, was to have been married to the captain of the King's store ship the next week. The most of the prisoners, we suppose, were marines and sailors sent on shore to cut hay for the use of the troops in Boston. . We towed the cattle near two miles at the stern of the boats to another island, where we landed them, and a part of the men drove them at low water to the main land. There were 7 ships lying so near the shore that we could hear people talk on board them, though not distinctly, and see the ships plain. I can give no reason why they did not fire on us. After we had returned as far as Dorchester with the boats the prisoners said there was something of value left in the house. We got to Dorchester Wednesday morning about 6 o'clock. Ten boats were manned out with fresh hands to go and make farther search and burn the barn and hay. They landed in the daytime, and were attacked by a number of the King's troops in a boat and an armed schooner, which fired grape-shot and obliged them to retreat with the loss of one man. However, they fired the house and barn before they left the island, but had not time to get much furniture on board, nor was there much for them, as we brought off all the beds, chairs, tables, a considerable quantity of wool, cupboard furni- ture, etc."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.