USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Suffield > Celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Suffield, Connecticut, October 12, 13 and 14, 1920, with sketches from its past and some record of its last half century and of its present > Part 4
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In the summer of the year 1633, a number of the people in Massachusetts, finding the local government too autocratic, began to look about for some remoter place that would be safe for democracy; a small company forced their way through the forests and over the hills to the Connecticut River, and came back, bringing enthusiastic stories of a pleasant and well- watered valley. Two years later a larger number came, and reached the fort at Windsor, a few going on to Wethersfield. Winter provisions and clothing were sent after them by ships through Long Island Sound, but when the boats passed Say- brook they found the icy river impossible, and they returned to Boston. The lonely people at Windsor and Wethersfield had a horrible winter. All the cattle died, and the men, women and children had to live on what nuts they could find. About seventy of them walked all the way on the frozen river to Say- brook, found a little boat imprisoned in ice, cut her out, and managed to navigate her to Boston. A few remained, however, and held the fort in every sense of the word. Next June, in 1636, Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church in Newtown, led his congregation from Massachusetts through the woods and founded the town of Hartford. By the next year fully 800
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people were living in and in the neighbourhood of Hartford. Before Suffield was born, seventeen towns were in existence on the banks of the Connecticut River, at various intervals be- tween Saybrook and northern Massachusetts. Two of their connecting paths ran through what is now Suffield, then called Stony Brook. At Stony Brook there was a slender meadow, surrounded by trackless forests. Mr. Pynchon of Springfield, bought from the Indians the ground on which we are now stand- ing and over twenty thousand acres besides, for a sum that amounted to less than a cent per acre.
The attractiveness of the situation here, the excellence of the soil, and other advantages, were perceived by the people in Springfield, and in the autumn of 1670 they brought a petition to the General Court at Boston, asking that they might settle at "a place called by ye name of Stony River." This petition was granted on the twelfth day of October, 1670; they were to have a township six miles square, provided twenty families should be living there within five years, and should then pay for the support of a pastor. In the individual grants of land, made in January, 1671, it was stipulated that in every ten acres there should be one acre of meadow. The documents that we are most eager to read are unfortunately lost. We know when the general petition was granted, we know the arrangements made the next year, but we cannot ascertain with certitude when the first settlement here was actually made. But the "first family" of Suffield, speaking chronologically, was named Harmon; Samuel, Joseph and Nathaniel.
Within two or three years there were thirty-six inhabitants by the census; there were two mills, and it is significant that one lot was set apart for the minister, and another for the school. They knew they could not get along without Christianity and without education; if everybody in the world knew that simple fact now, the millennium would materialize. In 1674, Stony Brook changed its name to Southfield, which being pronounced as we pronounce the first syllable in Southerly, quickly became by euphony Suffield. In March, 1682, the Town of Suffield was first legally organized. There were then between four and five hundred people here. Thirty-four only were allowed to vote, there being many restrictions by both Church and State, the
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town being obliged to follow the laws of Massachusetts, to which colony it then belonged. The chief street was High Street, where lived the Kings, Hanchets, Remingtons, Grangers, Kents, Nortons, Spencers, Sikes. On Feather Street were the Bur- banks, Hollydays, Smiths, Trumbulls, Palmers. On South Street the Austins, Risings, Millers. On the western road the Harmons and Copleys, in Crooked Lane the Taylors, Hitch- cocks and Coopers.
Allow me at this point to quote again from my predecessor, Mr. John Lewis, who made the address in 1870.
"Would that we might lift the veil of two centuries and catch a glimpse of the pioneer settlement as it was in 1682. There were the primitive highways, whose location I have already indicated. But let not the word highways suggest smooth turnpikes bordered by a few rods of grassy meadow, and en- closed by substantial fences. Think rather of rude pathways winding among the stumps and trees, which still occupied the land set apart for public travel. Along these pathways were scattered the dwellings of the settlers. These were cabins of the rudest architecture, containing for the most part but a single room, lighted by one or two small windows, warmed by the huge fireplace, and furnished with rude stools, and tables and shelves, and compelled to answer all the various needs of the family. Ricks of meadow grass and stooks of corn were carefully reared adjacent to the still ruder shelters provided for the cattle. Around these comfortless abodes lay a few acres of half-cleared land, with the charred stumps yet standing and the green copse about their roots. And beyond this little clear- ing, and surrounding it on every side, lay the dark, threatening forest, rearing aloft its mighty trunks in defiant grandeur."
Besides the quarrels that arose from time to time as to the boundaries between Suffield and neighbouring towns, for it was difficult to fix these with accuracy, the result being that indi- viduals decided them with the sole view of their own personal convenience and profit, the great and growing dispute was as to which colony Suffield belonged-Massachusetts or Connecti- cut. Let no one think that these were petty or unimportant matters in the eyes of the colonists. Many years ago actual war was declared between the towns of Stamford and Norwalk, and the young men of both towns eagerly rushed to arms. This seems perhaps laughable now; I hope it does; I hope wars between nations will seem equally ridiculous three thousand
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years hence. But then there was considerable feeling, and per- haps it is not without some reason that a man should be inter- ested in knowing where he lived.
Of course Suffield came from Massachusetts, and Hartford did as well. In the year 1713, however, a survey was made, and it appeared that Suffield, Enfield, Woodstock, and Somers, were really in Connecticut. Now the governments of the two colonies settled this matter in defiance of Woodrow Wilson's twentieth century principle, that the local inhabitants should decide to which country they should belong. Without consulting the wishes of the people of Suffield or of the other towns, Massa- chusetts and Connecticut decided over their heads that Suffield was in Massachusetts, and thought to let the matter rest; as a quid pro quo, some land in Western Massachusetts was handed over to Connecticut; later it was sold, and the money given to Yale College, an excellent idea. But the people in Suffield were naturally not content with this arbitrary and overhead bargain; they continually protested; finally they presented in due form through appointed representatives a petition to the Connecticut General Assembly. It was not until the year 1749 that the Assembly finally decided that Suffield and the other petitioning towns belonged to Connecticut. When Massachusetts learned of this rather naive decision, she gave notice of an appeal to England, which, however, was not carried out, and since 1749 Suffield has been in Connecticut; and the smoke of her Con- necticut tobacco rises like a burnt offering in all parts of the world.
When I was a little boy studying geography-and in my childhood we really had to study spelling, arithmetic, and geography-I used to wonder how that curious notch came in the smooth northern line of my native state. It was always a pleasant duty, however, for it seemed a break in the monotony of drawing boundaries, to set in that northern notch, as well as that strange open fish-mouth in the Southwest.
In the struggle between Great Britain and France for the control of America-a struggle of enormous importance in the history of the world, and called over here the French and Indian War, as though a series of trivial skirmishes-Suffield did her part. Naturally the colonials had to do most of the fighting
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and the suffering. The first man from Suffield to win national prominence came out of the struggle. This was General Phinehas Lyman, who commanded the troops contributed by our town. He also represented Suffield in both the assemblies of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and after the peace of 1763, he was given a grant of land near the Mississippi by the British government.
The next great event in our history was of course the war of the Revolution, in which it appears that Suffield was actuated by precisely the same sentiment of patriotism, independence, and hatred of England's arbitrary rule, that was common else- where in America. It is interesting to observe in a time when there was no telegraph, no railways, no fast post, no Associated Press, that the spirit of independence and willingness to fight for it spread with such rapidity that all thirteen colonies were thinking the same thoughts at the same time. Such a spirit does not need mechanical means of transportation; it flies through the air. The same story of this war and the prepara- tions that led up to it are like others; public sentiment was all- powerful, and woe to non-conformists. General Grant once said, "God help the man who does not share in public sentiment in war time!" He may be called Tory, Copperhead, Pro- German, or what not; but by any other name his odour is the same. In the year 1770 the colonists formed a league agreeing not to import from England, and the language toward dissenters has a familiar ring: "Let the goods of such single souled wretches that regard nothing but their own interest, that Cultivate and Endeavour to promote the Same in a way evi- dently Ruinous to their own Country, lie upon their own hands. Let their Crime be their punishment, and Should the Deplorable Event of the Loss of American Liberty take place, may them- selves be accounted as Ignominous, Disgraceful, and Selfish mortals, and unfit for Society by Every brave, Noble Patriot and virtuous American, and may their Names Descend to the Remotest Posterity with all that ignominy and Disrespect they so justly merit and Deserve."
A subsequent resolution passed by our fathers in Suffield has, I think, a peculiarly inspiring and affecting appeal to us. The above statement was recorded in the Town Book, for the
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express benefit of posterity, "wherein they may See and behold how Careful the present Age have bin to transmit to them the inestimable Privileges of Liberty and Freedom, and Excite them to the Like Conduct on Similar Occasions." Well, I think the Fathers looking down on Suffield in the twentieth century, would have no cause for shame.
In the spring of 1775 we find this brief statement on a pay list in a Hartford library: "Marched from Suffield for relief of Boston in the Lexington Alarm, April, 1775, Captain Elihu Kent and one hundred and fourteen men."
Company after company was formed here between 1775 and 1781, and constant town meetings were called to increase taxa- tion in order that money and supplies might steadily be given. The history of Suffield in those momentous years is the history of other American towns.
It is interesting to remember that two schools of law have flourished in Suffield, one headed by General Lyman, and the other by Gideon Granger. In the beginning of the last century, Suffield had five lawyers, which would seem to indicate a certain amount of prosperity, or, at all events, activity.
There is no better test of the general enlightenment of a com- munity than its willingness to make sacrifices for education. The history of Suffield in this respect is one of which we may all be reasonably glad. We have already observed that at the founding of the town a plot of ground was set apart for educa- tional purposes. The memorandum makes pleasant reading today. The land was "for the support and maintenance of a School, to continue and be Improved for and to that use forever, without any alienation therefrom." This fine determination first bore fruit in 1696, when Anthony Austin became teacher at twenty pounds a year-teachers have always been overpaid! In 1703 was built the first building for educational purposes. The curriculum was absolutely sound: reading, writing, arithmetic, taught with the aid of a hickory stick. Just as now doctors tell us that pains in the feet are often caused by defects in the teeth, so our ancestors knew that the quickest way to impress a fact on a boy's brain was to make an impression on a remoter por- tion of his frame. Early in the nineteenth century the Con- necticut Literary Institution was founded in Suffield. This fine
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school has prepared many boys for college, it has maintained a high standard of education and character, and in the spiritual history of the town it deserves the first place.
About one hundred years ago the Connecticut Baptist Educa- tion Society began to collect money to establish a literary insti- tution in Suffield. The object was to educate young men for the ministry. In 1833, after competing offers from other towns, Suffield was finally selected. The institution was formally opened August 31, 1833. The school house then stood near the Congregational Church; 113 scholars were enrolled the first year, and sixty-one of these came from Suffield.
The first head master, Reuben Granger, was so over critical, and so fond of the big stick, that the boys became Bolsheviks, organized a Soviet and drove him off the platform with various missiles. The first regular building was a four story edifice erected in 1834. The big bell is still available, but in 1899 the building was taken down in order to make room for the Kent Library. After the year 1843 girls were admitted to the school.
A new building was dedicated August 2, 1854, and was reno- vated in 1908. In 1898 a high school was formed and an ar- rangement was made between the town and the Connecticut Literary Institution by which, at a low fee, high school privileges were furnished to Suffield inhabitants.
Mr. Albert Kent, who was a pupil at the Connecticut Literary Institution, is, together with Mrs. Kent now honored by the Kent Memorial Library, erected to their memory by Mr. Sidney Albert Kent in the year 1899. Besides building the structure, Mr. Kent gave nearly seven thousand volumes, and now there are about twenty thousand books in the building.
The conservative side of Suffield has its defects as well as its virtues. There was a time when the new railway from Hartford to Springfield was actually surveyed to run through Suffield; with a spirit of short-sighted obstinacy, the townsmen fought the project, and the railroad was driven across the river. In- stead of finding themselves in splendid isolation as a result of this manoeuvre, they and their descendants found themselves marooned. The only reason for recalling such an irreparable error of judgment is that in future years Suffield may not let slip other opportunities for advancement.
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As I believe that Suffield, in common with other Connecticut communities, has progressed over earlier times not only in wealth and comfort, education and refinement, but also in morals, so I believe-quite contrary I admit to the general as- sumption-that physically our young men are definitely superior to the pioneers. It is a common mistake to suppose, as so-called civilization advances, that morals and physique decline. Mor- ally, there is not the slightest doubt that the average of business relations and political manipulations is higher than in the eighteenth century. Physically, the same is true. The all but universal athletic training of both boys and girls, the love of games and recreations now daily indulged in by men and women who formerly would have been retired to the scrap-heap of old age, the immensely better knowledge of such hygienic matters as food and fresh air, have all contributed to produce a higher grade of physical manhood and womanhood than the world has hitherto known.
It is the common unthinking assumption that the pioneers were hardy men and women of superb physique; but the recent world war proved that the young men who went into the trenches and the young women who went over as nurses and Y. M. C. A. helpers endured horrors that no Spartan or Roman or Colonial or Pioneer could have supported. And as the physical constitu- tion of our young men and women in the twentieth century is undoubtedly superior to any previous generations, so the cheer- ful willingness displayed by modern youth to give up not only luxuries but life, would seem to indicate that so far as the im- mediate future of America is concerned, there is no ground for pessimism.
At the conclusion of Professor Phelps' address the audience rose and sang "America," and Rev. Jesse F. Smith pronounced the benediction.
Then the great audience following the custom of all New England communities, gathered for nearly an hour outside the church on the steps and sidewalk. Here was an opportunity for old friends to meet, and they availed themselves of the op- portunity to the fullest extent.
Hundreds crowded the rooms of the Masonic Temple which had been converted into a hostess house for the exhibition of
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colonial relics, antique furniture, examples of old needle work and fancy work and a multitude of old and valued articles. The Town Hall likewise attracted many to see the Miller col- lection of Indian relics and relics of the World War, and to register at the headquarters of the Reception Committee in Union Hall.
The Collation
At 2 o'clock about 400 people gathered for the collation in the Suffield School Gymnasium which was admirably adapted to the purpose and brilliantly decorated with red, white and blue streamers from the center of the ceiling to and along the walls. Eight long tables extended the length of the room to the speakers' table, set at right angles along the north wall. All the tables were handsomely decorated with flowers, and on the speakers' table were three mammoth anniversary cakes. The one in the center, made in the pattern of the American flag, bore the legend "250th Anniversary;" those at the ends the dates 1670 and 1920 respectively.
At the close of the collation Mr. Edward A. Fuller, president of the General Executive Committee of the celebration, an- nounced that under the leadership of Hobart G. Truesdell, head master of the Suffield School, the people would join in singing some of the familiar songs. Under his leadership, and with the accompaniment of the orchestra, "There's a Long, Long Trail," "Keep the Home Fires Burning," "Swanee River," and "School Days" were sung with spirit.
Before introducing the toastmaster of the occasion, Mr. Fuller expressed the general appreciation of the exercises of the morning and regret at the absence of "Hugh Alcorn." "I speak of him in this way," he said, "rather than say The Hon. Hugh M. Alcorn, because I have been very much interested in Hugh. In common with a great many others, Hugh is a product of Suffield. The educational facilities of Suffield provided the education upon which he has built in the work he has taken up. I am interested in Hugh because, in the dark days of 1862 and 1863, his father and myself, and one or two hundred other Suffield boys, were in that line of defense, a picket line that
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passed along by Falls Church. In those dark days-and they were dark days when the battle of Gettysburg was being fought -when Hugh's father was defending his country, Hugh's mother stuck by the stuff-the job at home-and she saw that those children had an education fitting them for the professions they are in today. We are all interested in Hugh and regret his absence."
Mr. Fuller then introduced as toastmaster, Prof. William Lyon Phelps, who spoke pleasantly of his renewed acquaintance with the home town of his ancestors. In introducing Father Hennessey of the Sacred Heart Church, as the first speaker he said:
"I ran away from my classes at Yale today-of course they feel dreadfully about it; they can not bear to have their teacher leave them, even for a moment, but I hope they will recover sufficiently to be with me tomorrow morning. I ran away so that I might come up here and be with you. When Father Hennessey was in college, I gave him an examination; I told the class beforehand there would be a whole lot of questions and they better study up. But when Father Hennessey took the examination, he wrote at the top, 'I plugged all this stuff up, but now I can't get the plug out.' There was a man who thought he would jump across Niagara, but, in order to jump it, he must get a good start. So he went back two miles and got so tired running the two miles that he couldn't jump. It is a great pleasure to have Father Hennessey, that good old Baptist, here. It isn't necessary for him to deliver an invoca- tion; where Father Hennessey is, there is a blessing."
After speaking in appreciation of the occasion Father Hennes- sey said:
"We can't leave the exercises of this day without turning the invocation into a thanksgiving, and call upon the Lord God of Hosts, the source of power, of truth, of goodness, of mercy and love, gratefully showing our feeling for this repast, begging him to teach us so we will know we are taught by our sires of two hundred and fifty years ago; those teachings which have made this good old community of Suffield, the grand old State of Connecticut and the more wonderful United States of America. Let us ever be mindful that what God has joined together, no
SUFFIELD PAGEANT
OCT.13. 2 P.M.
SECOND DAY OF CELEBRATION
"Selling the Land."
SUFFIELD, CONNECTICUT WILL OBSERVE THE 250 th ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FOUNDING OCT. 12,13 AND 14,1920
Much Reduced Reproduction of Pageant Poster
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man shall put asunder; for increased and multiplied are His teachings, the teachings of a God of Justice and Truth."
"There are times of trial and days of darkness when the best of us are apt to show our distrust in the providence of God, when we are sorely tempted to lose hope and heart in the things that are but, if we, like our sires, are seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven, we shall understand that it is God who gives and God who takes away, that God gives and takes away for our soul's safety. Therefore, let us this day show our trust in the Almighty Providence of God, and never suffer the weight of the body, nor the things of sense, nor the trials of life to fill our souls with bitterness. It is a blessing then that I wish you all; you who have come to join with dear old Suffield to make this occasion memorable."
Hon. R. U. Tyler, of Haddam, the Democratic candidate for Governor in the election soon to occur, was next called upon and spoke of his pleasure in joining in Suffield some of his pro- fessional and college friends. "We people down in Haddam," he said, "are a little older than you. We celebrated the two hun- dredth anniversary of the organization of our first church some twenty years ago. Eight years ago, we reached the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town, and two years ago was the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town. I speak of our own experience be- cause I can appreciate to some extent the great amount of work that people here in Suffield have had to do in order to stage this magnificent celebration. It means hard work and a great deal of planning, and a great deal of thought and effort, for which I trust you will feel fully repaid. It is a good thing to celebrate the history of our New England towns. I never attend one of these celebrations without being reminded of that reference to New England which we used to see in our school- books, an extract, as I recall, from an oration by S. S. Prentiss:
" 'Glorious New England! thou art still true to thine ancient fame and worthy of thine ancestral honors! A thousand fond associations throng upon us, roused by the spirit of the hour! On thy pleasant valleys rest, like sweet dews of morning, the gentle recollections of our early life; around thy hills and mountains cling, like gathering mists, the mighty memories of
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the Revolution; and far away in the horizon of thy past gleam, like thine own bright northern lights, the awful virtues of our Pilgrim sires?' "
The next speaker, Mr. Henry B. Russell, of the Springfield Union, spoke of Suffield as his home town, but said that a man whose ancestors did not cut down the first trees nor the first Indians in Suffield felt almost like a man without a country in such a celebration as this. He had found, however, that he could bring his ancestors much nearer Suffield than he had supposed, because, when they migrated from New Haven northward, though they did not stop at Suffield, they stopped at the "Suffield Equivalent" which was the ragged edge of the present town of Blandford. He also spoke of the loyalty of Suffield people who live here or had lived here but had gone elsewhere, whether their ancestral roots ran deep into its early history or not.
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