USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Middletown > Centennial address and Historical sketches > Part 6
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To tell all that the people of Middletown and Chatham did, during the protracted struggle, were all the facts collected and arranged, would require much time. They are not collected and cannot be now, as many records have perished since they transpired, and the performers of them almost entirely, and most of their immediate de-
* Now in the hands of his son-in-law, Col. Covil.
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scendants have already gone to the grave. Still some further ideas may be gathered from sketches of a few individuals, for which there are more ample materials.
Capt. Return Jonathan Meigs has been spoken of. He was born in this town. The family was from that part of Guilford which is now Madison. In the capaci- ty of major, he accompanied Arnold up the Kennebec river to the city of Quebec, and wrote the best account that exists of that perilous and suffering expedition. Abijah Savage of the Upper Houses was with him, and probably others from Middletown and Chatham. Mr. Savage was then an officer, afterwards a continental eap- tain, as just noticed. The provisions for the expedition were scanty, and a part of the corps were obliged to stop on the way, and return to avoid starvation. The rest kept on, and at the end of sixty-three days, on the night of the 13th of December 1775, crossed the St. Lawrence at Wolf's Cove, without being discovered by the guard boats from the men of war, and formed in good order on the Plains of Abraham, near the city of Que- bec, while the British sentinels were articulating " all is well." But successfully as they had accomplished their journey, the soldiers were emaciated by fatigue and hunger ; their clothes were nearly worn out or rent from their bodies ; their time of enlistment was expired ; they were penniless, and in these circumstances could not but think of wages, kindred and home. But when Gen. Montgomery arrived with his force by a different route, he was anxious in the emergency of the case, that the men should re-enlist. They were marched in front of his quarters, and he addressed them " like a father, like a brother, and like a soldier," and in less than twenty minutes gained their hearts, and to a man they volunteered their services. The storming of the city
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followed on the last day of the year, and the result is known. The New England men fought most bravely. Maj. Meigs entered with a battallion within the walls of the city, but was made prisoner with eaptains Morgan and Dearborn, afterwards American Generals. Upon his exchange and return in 1777, he was appointed Lieutenant colonel, with authority to raise a regiment. Having raised it in part, he marched to New Haven, and was then designated by Gen. Parsons, to execute a pro- ject for the surprisal and capture of a body of the ene- my at Sag Harbor, L. I. He embarked with about two hundred and thirty men, in thirteen whale boats, and procceded castward as far as Sachem's Head in Guil- ford, that he might the better eross the Sound. At that place he re-embarked one hundred and seventy of his detachment, May 23d, at 1 o'clock P. M., and landed within three miles of Sag Harbor at 1 o'clock at night. Having made arrangements for attacking the enemy at five different places, they proceeded with the greatest order and silence within twenty rods of them, and then rushed with fixed bayonets upon their barracks, guards and quarters, while Capt. Throop with a party under his command, at the same time, took possession of the wharves and vessels lying there. The alarm soon be- came general, a schooner of the enemy, of twelve guns, within one hundred and fifty rods of the wharves, opened an incessant fire, but with little effect. Twelve vessels, brigs and sloops were destroyed, a great amount of forage and provisions ; six men were killed and ninety taken prisoners. Col. Meigs returned to Guilford with his prisoners in twenty-five hours from his departure, having transported his men by water and land in that time ninety miles, without the loss or injury of a single person. Such is the substance of two accounts of that
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memorable exploit. In view of it Congress resolved ; " That Congress have a just sense of the merit of Lieut. Col. Meigs, and the officers and men under his com- mand, who distinguished their prudence, activity, enter- prise and valor, in the late expedition to Long Island ; and that an elegant sword be provided by the commissa- ry general of military stores, and presented to Lieut. Col. Meigs." Probably numbers from Middletown and Chatham were in this expedition.
" In 1779 Col. Meigs commanded one of the regi- ments under Gen. Wayne which stormed and carried Stony Point." Probably many individuals from Mid- dletown were in that regiment. One who was in it from Middle Haddam, used to say that he determined and strove to be the first to lay hold of the flag-staff. In this he failed, but always affirmed that he helped the more successful aspirant pull the flag down. His honest character is evidence that he spoke the truth. His name was John Strong.
After the peace, Col. Meigs returned to this town and lived a few years, but in 1787 went with the very ear- liest emigrants to Marietta, the first town, (as has been mentioned,) settled by the English in the great State of Ohio. Though an ordinance had been provided for the government of the Northwest Territory, and a Governor and Judges were appointed, yet they had not arrived, and the emigrants were without civil law and authority. Col. Meigs drew up a concise system of regulations which were adopted by the emigrants until the proper authorities should arrive. These regulations spread up- on a sheet, were attached to the side of a large oak from which the bark was cut off to receive them, standing at the confluence of the Muskingum with the Ohio. They
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were as frequently consulted, it is affirmed, as the oracle of ancient Delphos, and very happily regarded.
In the latter years of his life he was Indian agent at the Cherokee station, and was so beloved and trusted by the Indians, that they denominated him emphatically " The White Path." At this station he died, Jan. 28, 1823, in his 83d year. It is said his death was serene- ly happy in the assurance of christian hope, and that at his funeral a petition ascended to heaven, that his succes- sors at the Cherokee station might walk in the White Path. His remains were interred amidst a concourse of friends, with the honors of war.
Col. Meigs had three younger brothers who lived to adult age, Giles, John and Josiah.
Giles Meigs lived and died in this town, and is remem- bered by the people. He was a captain of militia in the Revolution, and went with his company to New London.
John Meigs entered the army a volunteer at the be- ginning, and served through the war. He was attached to the regiment of Col. Webb, was appointed adjutant, and for a time acted as brigade major. He soon receiv- ed a commission, and serving a few months as a Lieuten- ant, was advanced to a captaincy. During a part of the war he was stationed in Rhode Island, and two or three years in the neighborhood of the High Lands. He was a very active officer, and much beloved by his regiment. In 1797 he removed to New Hartford, where he died in 1826, aged 73 years.
Josiah Meigs was a graduate and tutor of Yale Col- lege, subsequently a lawyer, in which capacity he resi- ded and acted for a time at Bermuda, where he had an opportunity to observe how our vessels and men were treated by the English, and to plead in their behalf in
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the court of Admiralty. For years afterwards he was Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Yale College ; then President of the University of Geor- gia at Athens, and then Surveyor General of the United States. At last he was placed at the head of the U. S. Land office at Washington, where he died in 1822 aged sixty-five.
Gen. Parsons has been repeatedly mentioned. Hc was born at Lyme, and was the third son of Rev. Jona- than Parsons, an eminent clergyman, for some years minister of Lyme, and then at Newburyport, Mass. Hc was graduated at Harvard College in 1756, and read law with his maternal uncle, Hon. Matthew Griswold, afterwards Governor of Connecticut. He commenced the practice of law in Lyme, and represented that town ten or twelve years consecutively in the Legislature. Having been appointed King's attorney for New London county, he removed to the town of New London in 1774. He had an elevated standing at the bar, but resigned his appointment as King's attorney at the opening of the Revolution. About the time of his agency in form- ing the plan for taking Ticonderoga, he was made a colonel, marched his regiment to Roxbury, and remained there until the enemy evacuated Boston. He was in the battle on Long Island in August 1776, about which time he received an appointment as Brigadier General. He was subsequently in many important military tran- sactions under Washington and Putnam, about New York, the Hudson river and the western section of Con- necticut, in which he showed great activity, judgment and courage.
In 1780 he was one of the judges on the trial of Ma- jor Andre, and about that time became Major General. For his successful attack on the British troops in Mor-
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risania in 1781, Congress requested the Commander- in-chief to express to him their thanks. In the latter part of this year, the Governor and Council of Safety of Connectieut, requested him to take the command of the State troops and coast guards, and to dispose of them as he should judge necessary, to protect the inhabitants against desultory expeditions of the enemy.
Upon the establishment of peace, Gen. Parsons open- ed a law office in this town. He was sent to the Legis- lature, and in the measures for the formation of Mid- dlesex county, was more aetive and influential than any other man. In 1785, the year in which this was formed, he traveled to Ohio, and in January following held a treaty with the Indians, in connection with Gen. Rich- ard Butler and Gen. George R. Clark, near the mouth of the Great Miami. In this treaty the Indians ceded to the United States a large and valuable traet of eoun- try. He returned home the following spring, and in October following, (1787,) he was appointed by Congress first judge of the territory northwest of the Ohio, but did not go forward and enter upon the duties of his office, until he had taken a part in the Convention of Connecticut, which in January 1788 adopted the National Constitu- tion. His associates were Gen. James M. Varnum of of Rhode Island, and the' Hon. John Cleves Symmes* of New Jersey. In 1789 Gen. Parsons took a journey to the Western Reserve, to make arrangements for form- ing a treaty with Indian tribes, who elaimed lands in that portion of Ohio. In the contemplated treaty, Oliver Wolcott of Litchfield, the first Governor of that
* Mr. Symmes was a son of Rev. Timothy Symmes, the first minister of Millington, in East Haddam, and father-in-law of Gen. Harrison late President of the United States.
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name, and James Davenport Jun. Esq., of Stamford, were appointed by the government of Connecticut to aet with him. But in that treaty he did not take a part ; for in returning to his residence in Marietta, he was drowned in deseending the rapids of the Great Beaver Creek, Nov. 17, 1789, aged 52.
Nehemiah Hubbard, a direct deseendant of George Hubbard, one of the earliest settlers of this town, was born April 10th, 1752, O. S., and at the age of fourteen, went to live with Col. Matthew Talcott, as clerk in his store, where he continued until he was twenty-one years of age. He then went to the West Indies, first as su- percargo, and afterwards as captain and merchant.
Early in 1776, he entered the army, and in May of that year, was appointed. by Gov. Trumbull paymaster to the regiment, commanded by Col. Burrall, and which was sent on service to the shore of Lake Champlain. He first went and paid the troops at forts Stanwix, Schuy- ler, Herkimer, on the Mohawk, and then joined his regiment at Ticonderoga, where he remained some time.
" In May, 1777, he was appointed by Major General Greene, who was at that time quarter-master general of the United States, his deputy for the State of Conneeti- cut ; which post he filled, until the resignation of Gen. Greene. He was again appointed by Colonel Pickering, then acting as quarter-master general, but he deelined. He continued, however, to discharge the duties of depu- ty-quarter-master general, till relieved by another per- son, when he entered into the service with Wadsworth and Carter, who supplied the French army. This he accompanied to Yorktown, and was present at the siege and surrender of Lord Cornwallis."
" As a provider of publie supplies, all his movements were marked by decision, promptness and punctuality.
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The resources of Connecticut were brought forward at the most critical juncture ; and while the army was en- during the greatest privations, it was frequently relieved by this State, through his energy and extraordinary ex- ertion. As a specimen of the confidence reposed in him by such men as Washington, Green, Trumbull, and Hamilton ; it ought to be mentioned that after the or- ganization of the present government, Colonel Hamilton, while Secretary of the Treasury, was pressingly urgent to have him take the management of an institution which he wished to establish, for promoting the manufactures of the country."
" After the Revolutionary war, he settled here as a merchant, where he continued the remainder of his life. As a proof of the confidence reposed in his ability and integrity, it may be mentioned, that he was justly placed at the head of two of our most important monied insti- tutions. He was President of the Middletown Bank, from 1808 till 1822, when he resigned, being then seventy years of age. He was also the first President of the Savings Bank, and held that place until his death."
" Many instances have come to the knowledge of the writer, in which he showed the most enlarged liberality, in furnishing young men and other persons with money, to enable them to begin and advance in business."
" The person of Mr. Hubbard was rather above the ordinary stature : his appearance very commanding, and he retained a very erect form till the last, with an un- common exemption from most of the infirmities of age. His memory and judgment seemed to be unimpaired to the last. His judgment was quick, discriminating and rarely erroneous. In his deportment there was always a most noble frankness, nor did he fail honestly to re- prove, when he saw rebuke required. A reproof from him
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carried a sting to the conscience, that in the end worked for good, instead of being productive of rancorous re- sentment."
" As a man of business, he was uncommonly methodi- cal and was altogether, one of the first merchants of his day. In his private walk and character, were beheld all the stern virtues that adorned the lives of some of the best of the New England Pilgrim fathers. He was a faith- ful attendant on public worship, in one society, during fifty years, and for the last eighteen years an exemplary pro- fessor of religion. And it must be known to the citizens generally, how unremitted were his exertions for the cause of christianity, and for the spread of the gospel abroad, as well as for its support at home, together withı the deep interest which he took in the welfare of the church to which he belonged."
" He gave liberally to all engaged in good works, and the calls of the present day arc not few. He was, in- deed, ever conspicuous, though unostentatious in every good work. Than he, Middletown never possessed a citizen of more sterling worth or purer patriotism."
Many of his ancestors and relatives, were distinguish- ed for longevity. He died February 6th, 1837, aged eighty-five years, and we trust ascended to the eternal rest, prepared for the righteous.
His numerous relatives, descendants and connections will look back with veneration to his memory .*
Other respected inhabitants of Middletown, who help- ed forward the Revolution in one capacity and another, deserve more notice than can now be given them.
Matthew Talcott settled in Middletown as a mer- chant about 1750, and was advanced in the militia to
* Obituary in Sentinel and Witness, Feb. 15th, 1837.
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the rank of a colonel. When the Revolution commenced he warmly espoused the cause of his country. When Middlesex county was organized, he was appointed a Justice of the Quorum, and afterwards Judge of the County Court. He died August 29, 1802, aged 89.
Chauncey Whittlesey was educated at Yale College, studied theology and licensed to preach, but relinquished the ministry as his profession without relinquishing his attachment to the gospel. He entered into mercantile concerns, and was distinguished for correct business habits. In 1776 he was on a committee "to procure and purchase such articles of refreshment and clothing, as should be directed by the Governor and his Council of Safety," and in that and in the succeeding year, thou- sands of dollars were expended by him in procuring and purchasing such articles. From December 1797, until August 1801, he was collector of customs for the port of Middletown. He died in March 1812, aged 65.
Elijah Hubbard, in May 1777 was appointed by the Governor and Council of Safety "commissary and superintendent of the stores provided by the State, for the Continental troops." From the instructions given him for the collection of supplies, the drafts upon him for them, and the various references to him in the doings of that committee, it is apparent that great confidence was reposed in him, and that the support and comfort of the soldiers depended much upon his proceedings. He was a justice of the peace, and for the last six years of his life a justice of the Quorum. He died suddenly at Hartford, while attending the General Assembly, May 30, 1808, aged 62; of which body he had been a mem- ber in more than thirty sessions.
John Pratt, a native of Hartford, entered into the army at the commencement of the Revolution, and rose
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to the rank of captain. He served his country through the war of the Revolution, and through the Indian war which followed and which raged in Ohio, was under Gen. St. Clair and Wayne, sharing in the mortification of the former from defeat, and the gratification of the lat- ter from victory. Having been long in military life and further services from him being less needed, he resigned his commission near the close of 1793. He settled soon after in Middletown, where his gentlemanly manners, his good sense and integrity, gained the affections and con- fidence of the people. He was a magistrate, and re- peatedly elected Representative to the Legislature, some- times by the votes of both parties in politics. He died December 27, 1824, aged 71.
What the people did for physicians for half a centu- ry, I know not unless those who had the cure of souls, undertook to cure the body, which ministers did then frequently. Dr. John Cooper, whose name is honorably associated with medical skill, lived here about 1700. Dr. John Arnold came from Haddam some thirty years after, and lived here until his death in 1754. He was probably instructed by the Rev. Phineas Fiske of that town, who was an eminent physician as well as divine. Before his death Dr. Abijah Moores was here, who died in 1759. Contemporary with these two men, and sur- viving them, was Dr. Eliot Rawson, a direct descendant of the celebrated Edward Rawson, long Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Contemporary with the two physicians last mentioned for a while, though dying sooner than the latter, was Dr. John Osborne .- Medical authority pronounces him " a very respectable physician.">* He ranked higher as a scholar than most
* Thatcher's Medical Biography, pp. 413, 14.
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of the literary men of his day, and was also a poct. When in College at Cambridge he was distinguished for mathematical investigations, and for his Latin verses. One of the professors pronounced his hexameters truly Virgilian. Before he was graduated in 1737, he wrote an elegy on the death of a young sister, and addressed it to an elder one. It was written in the Spring of the year, and he begins by describing with great beauty the charms of the season, and then addresses his bereaved and sympathizing relative ;
" But, Sister, all the sweets that grace The Spring, and blooming nature's face, The chirping birds, Nor lowing herds, The woody hills, Nor mumuring rills, The Sylvan shades, Nor flowering meads
To me their former joys dispense,
Tho' all their pleasures court my sense, But melancholy damps my mind ; I lonely walk the field With inward sorrow filled,
And sigh to every breathing wind. I mourn our tender Sister's death In various plaintive sounds, While hills above, and vales beneath Their faultering note rebounds. Perhaps when in the pains of death She gasp'd her latest breath, You saw our pensive friends around With tears bedew the ground ; Our loving father stand,
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And press her trembling hand,
And gently cry, my child adicu,
We all must follow you.
After Mr. Osborne was graduated, he was offered & tutorship in Harvard College, but deelined the honor. About this time residing at his father's house in East- ham, Mass., and in the midst of companions accustomed to a sea-faring life, he wrote his Whaling Song, which is as sportive, as the clegy, from which we have quoted, is plaintive. It has been sung with rapture by our hardy adventurous whalemen in all latitudes, whither they have gone to harpoon the monsters of the deep. Besides these poetic effusions, there are a few stanzas, which our author wrote upon his death bed, which are religious, ex- pressing his resignation to death, and anticipations of heaven.
Dr. Osborne died May 31, 1753, aged 40, leaving a widow and six children.
Dr. John Osborne, son of the preceding, studied medi- cine at Hartford, under Dr. Morrison, an eminent physi- cian from Scotland, and in 1758, before he had attained his majority, he went with the army that attacked Ticon- deroga in the second French war, and in a subordinate capacity was in the medical department of the Provin- cial troops." He practised in this place more than sixty years, about as long a space as was occupied by all his predecessors, if we except Dr. Rawson. He was a man of very extensive reading, and for many years possessed the best medical library in the State. His knowledge of the materia medica was accurate and extensive, and he excelled in chemistry. He exerted himself greatly to remove the prejudices against inoculation for the small- pox, and to improve the treatment of that distressing disease. About one thousand and two hundred persons
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were inoculated here in the winter 1777 and '78. He was one of the founders of the medical Society of the State, and gave instruction to students in medicine. As a practitioner he was eminent. He appreciated the worth of well-bred and faithful physicians, but held quackery in the utmost abhorrence. He had great sen- sibility, quick apprehension and strong passions ; he spoke his mind fearlessly when and where he pleased, and it was not safe for any to attack him in words, for none better understood the retort kcen. The numerous ancedotes still circulating respecting him, when well told, present him directly before our eyes, and yet his heart was not a stranger to kind emotions. Among his patients were the poor and unfortunate, and to these he was merciful. He died in the summer of 1825, aged eighty-three.
Dr. John Dickinson, son of Rev. Moses Dickinson of Norwalk, was a well informed physician. He began to practice in Wallingford, but removed to this town upon an invitation from the selectmen, and was here liberally patronized, and repeatedly sent a Representative to the Legislature in the time of the Revolution. Soon after that period he declined professional business, but acted as a magistrate and influential man in the town. In 1793 he was appointed a Judge of Probate, and in 1796 Judge of the County Court, both which offices he held until 1807. He died in 1811, aged eighty-two.
It sometimes occurs, that superior talents are found in the same family through several successive generations. Two physicians by the name of Osborne, father and son have been described. The latter had four sons who were all literary men, John Chevers and Samuel Osborne physicians, and Joseph and William Franklin Osborne, merchants.
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Dr. John C. Osborne, received his classical education under that eminent teacher, Rev. Enoch Huntington, and his medical education exclusively under his father. He began practice in Newbern, N. C., in 1787, and con- tinued there twenty years. He was well known as a successful practitioner, and was repeatedly placed at the head of the Medical Society of that district. Fromn Newbern he removed to New York, and was soon after introduced to a large practice ; was created professor of the Institutes of medicine, in the Medical Faculty of Columbia College, and upon the union of that faculty with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, was again appointed to a professorship. He died of pulmonary consumption in the island of St. Croix, upon the day of his landing, March 5th, 1819.
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