USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Bristol > Centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Bristol [Conn.] June 17, 1885 > Part 5
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* An allusion to the Rev. Leicester Lewis, who was pastor of the Bap tist Church from the year 1847 to the year 1853, and who was remembered by the speaker, not only as a most worthy minister, but as, in the best sense, a noble instance of muscular christianity
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ing and going passengers exchange places with one another. Then the bngle sounds again, the little bridge is crossed, and the yellow magnificence disappears around the bend in the Hartford turnpike.
Well, the steam whistle was no improvement on the bugle, but the stage-coach had its day. The location of the railroad depot at South Side established a new center of business and a more assured prosperity.
There are other topics upon which I should like to dwell. Among them are the development of the clock-making art through which the name of Bristol is known the wide world over, and the honorable part of Bristol in the Civil War. But I may not detain you longer. I bring my remarks to a close by expressing the hope that we all may gather in spirit at good old Bristol's next centennial. [Applause. ]
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ADDRESS OF PROF. TRACY PECK.
Mr. Newell then introduced Professor Tracy Peck of Yale College, as follows : -
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : In all the old records of the town of Bristol, you will find the name of the next gentleman who will address you. For a great number of years, Tracy Peck was the Town Clerk and Judge of Probate, and drew nine- teen - twentieths of the deeds, writs, and legal documents in the town of Bristol. His son, of the same name, Professor Peck of Yale College, will now address you.
ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR TRACY PECK.
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, NATIVES OF BRISTOL, AND ALL OTHERS WHO, THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN, HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO BE BORN ELSEWHERE: In the rush and rivalry of thoughts which this hour naturally calls forth, I hardly know what to say first, and, if I once begin, I fear that I shall not know when to stop. We certainly must all feel personally thankful to those citizens of Bristol who con- ceived the idea of celebrating the completion of the first century of the town's existence, and to the committees which have so successfully carried out that idea. I am sure, too, that we all feel that it is a good thing to be here, and to sur- render ourselves to the experiences and emotions of this day. Foreigners often remark that the American citizen has a kind of incapacity to publicly enjoy himself,- that he is suspicious of holidays. Certainly our ancestors who came to these rugged New England shores, and had to reclaim a vast con- tinent from savage control and lay the foundations of a genuine and beneficent Republic, had little time to give to social festivities; and to-day our American life is so complex and exacting, that it is very hard for those who are bearing the heat and burden of the day to turn aside with heart and spirit to the enjoyment of even such an event. But, unless we are cautions, is there not danger that this constant absorption
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in business and somewhat feverish hurry of American life may make us forget the higher things of existence, and lead to a weakening of the tough and steady fibre of our fathers? If, then, for no other reason than that we thus secure a holi- .day, we ought to thank the good people of Bristol who have summoned us here to-day.
Again, that is a positive blessing which now and then jostles us out of our ordinary ruts. Most of us spent our earliest days in these beautiful valleys and on these glorious hills. For a few years our lives ran peacefully on in parallel lines, or interlacing one with another day by day. By and by came the inevitable change: circumstances broke those carly circles; different tastes were developed within us; dif- ferent pursuits claimed our time and energies and residence; soon we had drifted so far apart that many of us now meet only at wide intervals, and must utter our greetings and our farewells with almost the same breath. We are like ships that meet on the bosom of the vast ocean; they hastily sahite and speed apart, to come together again-God only knows when or where. Unless we are on guard against ourselves, we thus tend to magnify our separate interests, and to become unduly isolated, self-centered, unsympathetic. It is well, therefore, to get away from our ordinary cares and ambitions and from the narrowing influences of our surroundings, and, at least one day in a century, realize and rejoice that we are all members- brothers and sisters-of the great human family.
And should not such an occasion be thrice welcome which calls us back to what was best in our early lives? Home, father and mother and kindred, playmates and friends of childhood, early teachers and pastors, the scenes upon which our eyes first looked and in which we first figured,- these are the associations of this day. The thoughts which thus come rushing in upon us like a full tide, give us feelings than which perhaps none are more dear to the human heart, none border more closely upon what is divine. Truly, as Words- worth has said,-
" Heaven lies about us in our infancy."
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ADDRESS OF PROF. TRACY PECK.
In the old mythology, the giant Antaus was the son of Earth, and he was invincible so long as he kept his feet firmly planted upon the earth. If we hold fast to the primary and elemental sentiments and ideals which we here derived, we neod not fail amid the struggles and temptations of the world. Many a traveler in Rome on the eve of his departure eagerly drinks from the fountain of Trevi, if haply the dranght may have the reputed charm of bringing him again to the eternal city. I do not know that there is any fountain of Trevi among the lovely cascades and crystal streams of Bristol ; but I do feel that in the thoughts which to-day are justly ours we may have a fresh baptism, and that this may be to us a new consecration to dnty, and enable us to go to our various posts on the morrow with increased hope and courage and snecess.
For most of ns the associations of the day and place are not altogether pleasurable.
" But O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still !"
I am not very old, but for me there are far less familiar faces in this great audience than there are dear, familiar names in yonder quiet cemetery. Grateful reference has been made by more than one speaker to my honored father, and certainly you will pardon me if, for one brief moment, I for- get all else except that I am his son. As he was born, in the valley below, in the same year that Bristol was incorporated as a town, this festival completes also a century since his birth. He deeply loved this town, was thoughtful of all its people and interests, and for half a century held some official trust as the spontaneous tribute of his fellow-townsmen. He was yery fond of antiquarian researches, and took great delight in tracing genealogies. Could his days have been continued till this jubilee, how he would .have burned with zeal, and stood erect with pride ! But I am willing to believe that he is here by his spiritnal presence, and that with a ful. ness of joy, to which you and I are yet strangers, he is a wit ness of all that is worthy of this day.
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The historian of the day, by his clear and attractive picture of the past, has given us reason to rejoice that our lives started here. The first century of the town is certainly one of honor and interest. What shall be the character of its .next century? To one who is largely occupied- as it is my duty to be- with the works and words of a people that had been many centuries on its triumphant career before the dawn of the Christian era, one hundred years in the life of a town seems but a brief span,- a mere point on a line of indefinite extension. In some particulars the career of a town is anal- ogons to that of an individual; but age need not bring to the town any decay or feebleness in purpose or achievement. What, then, of the future of Bristol? Nearly all the early Roman literature has been swept into oblivion; one clear and pregnant line, which has escaped all the perils of more than twenty centuries, tells of an old man who plants trees for the coming generation : -
" Serit arbores, quae alteri saeclo prosint."
And so, my friends, may we not plant trees whose shade and blossoming and fruitage shall be a blessing to many whom we can never know? Can we not, in this centennial year, lay the foundations of something which shall be of daily service and elevation to the coming sons and daughters of this place? Ilow is it, citizens of Bristol, with your public institutions? We have been proud of the noble stand yon have taken as a town on the temperance question. We rejoice that you are introducing an abundance of pure water for those who may live or sojourn here. How is it with your public library and reading-room? What of an art-gallery, or a historical museum? Are your churches and schools moving on from a good past to a better future? Nature has enriched this locality with rare favors; you may travel far and wide, and yet find no town whose general outlines are so finely pictur- esque, or which contains so many spots of surpassing beauty, or which presents to the eye so diversified and restful and grand a panorama as is unrolled from this storied and conse- crated hill-top. If Nature is reasonably supplemented by the
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ADDRESS OF PROF. TRACY PECK.
suggestions of art and taste, by institutions of religion and education and philanthropy, and by the lives of true men and women, what a glorious future may we not predict for this vicinity !
Playful allusions have been made to our connection with Bristol's next centennial. More than twenty-three centuries ago, when Xerxes surveyed his vast army, he is said to have burst into tears at the thought that in a hundred years no one of his brave soldiers would be living. Those royal tears would ill become us in this Christian age. If we but do the full measure of duty to our own generation, we may project our thoughts, without tears or apprehension, into the swiftly accumulating centuries. Those unborn generations will cer- tainly be molded by us long after the vanishing of our forms. With the Christian's hopes and efforts we may utter the prayer of the ancient Greek, that our children may be better than their fathers. As I have fallen, Mr. Chairman, into a somewhat serious vein, I will close with those words of Scripture which may serve both as a warning and an inspiration to the citizens of this goodly town : - " Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
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Mr. Newell then introduced General Joseph R. Hawley of Hartford, as follows: --
. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The next speaker, although not a native of the town of Bristol, spent some part of his early life here, and, in a sense, is a representative of all the towns of the State,- a gentleman whom we always delight to hear, and one whom we know to be the embodiment of whatsoever things are good and true, whatsoever things are pure, whatso- ever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good report. General Hawley will now address you.
ADDRESS OF GENERAL JOSEPH R. HAWLEY.
MR. CHAIRMAN, AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: I assume it as a pleasure, and, I may say as a publie man, a duty, to attend on such occasions. As a public officer and a citizen, I am very much interested in the history of Connecticut, in which there is a great deal of which we ought to be proud. I have blamed ourselves, I have blamed our State, I have blamed our scholars and legislators that they have not devoted more attention to it. There is but a very imperfect history of our State. Old Trumbull's is the best, which does not come down to our times within several generations. There is an interest- ing, but very incomplete one, by the late Mr. Hollister, excellent in its way also. But there are great, broad fields, - there are eras in the history of the Revolution, with regard to which Connectient is silent so far as any book I know is concerned. There is no good history of Connecticut in the Revolution. Yet there is no State that took a more honorable part therein. She had more troops in proportion to her numbers than any other colony. Her men were upon every important battle field. She had more men in the last assault at Yorktown than Virginia had.
Some one, by and by, when too much of the material shall have passed away, will devote himself to writing a history.
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It is high time, now, while yet we have among ns several of these elderly men who can tell us something about it, that some one should devote himself to a chapter in our history, which only of late has been touched by historians. I mean our .industrial history. No people in the world have so invented and discovered. The Patent Office shows that more inventors come from this State, in proportion to our population, than from any other, and we can point to many of our inventions which have changed the industries of the world. Will not somebody by and by make us a State history of them? You have to-day heard something of the share Bristol has taken in mechanical and manufacturing progress, and it is an exceedingly interesting one. I have had occasion to quote this town many times in discussing these subjects, especially in relation to two points. One of them is in reference to this famous clock industry of yours. It was found by the bright young men around here, the farmers included, that there must be something besides farming to furnish them work and a home market for farm products, and gradually this great industry grew up. It has demonstrated one thing to every lover of America, and the student of American institutions. We have proved that cheap goods can be made at the same time that good wages can be given to the workmen. The American clock is the cheapest in the world ; and if any man desires to compare the working people of America with those of any part of Europe, I would as lief he would come to Bristol as any other town in the United States. My friends, this is the solution of the great problem of industry. You have never been troubled with strikes. You have had no communistic organizations. You have had prosperous workmen, who have not lived in long barracks built for them by their employers, but each one for himself has laid up something, and by and by bought a little place, and is living there under his own vine and fig tree.
It is within a hundred years that a Frenchman, one Gri- beanval, was thought to have made a great improvement in
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the manufacture of artillery carriages when he made spare wheels and other parts to quickly replace similar parts broken by accident, or in action. For a long time the idea was not carried much farther. Within eighty years it had its revival and extension, its true birth, indeed, in this town. There has grown up what may be called the American idea,-the inter- changeability of parts. As you have been perfectly familiar with it for generations, you wonder that people did not always work in that way. The earliest elock-makers did not understand it. They may be said to have whittled out the clock, piece by piece. They hammered, chiseled, planed, and sawed it out. For the perfection of interchangeable parts, go to Colt's armory, to all modern armories, indeed, and see this and that piece of metal shaped into parts of pistols, by the aid of marvelons, rapid, and ingenious machine tools, and, as each part is finished, it is thrown into a box containing, perhaps, ten thousand pieces, each gauged true, and thence they are taken ont and " assembled " in ten thou- sand pistols.
One of my early recollections is of going to Boardman & Welles' clock factory on the Hartford turnpike, where I took my first lesson in clock-making. I watched the piles of thin boards of cherry, touched by swift saws, falling as clock wheels into boxes below. Then I found that the clocks were not made by one man, but by as many sets of men and women as there were pieces; and then they were assembled. Americans have marvelously improved all machine tools, and brought ganges to perfection. It is this that has made American workmen famons all over the world, and has given us the highest reputation that has ever been enjoyed by a people for mechanical ingemity.
I think I can go farther back than Mr. Mitchell did, in my recollections. I remember in 1838, when a school boy, I attended the old Bristol Academy, signs of whose ruins I see just south of yonder school house. Mr. Parsons was a very excellent teacher. There are four other pupils of that year on this stage: Henry Beekwith, Nathan L. Birge, Rev. Mr.
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ADDRESS OF GEN. JOSEPHI R. HAWLEY. 73
Jerome, and Noah Brewster. There are doubtless others here whose faces I do not recall. I ought to remember some of the pretty girls, but they have a habit of changing their names so that I cannot recall them so well. [Laughter.] And . then winter came, with my first sight of ice strong enough to skate upon, and my first pair of skates. What splendid hills these were to slide down! I thought the water on Jerome's pond was the hardest water I ever saw in my life, when I struck it with head in my first attempt to skate. [Langhter.]
Mr. Mitchell has given you a graphie description of the old-fashioned stage-coach. Whenever that old picture comes to my mind in sketches of old-time traveling, the place that presents itself is always the old North Side tavern, which Mr. Mitchell has so well described. My friend omitted only one part of the performance. Many of the passengers stepped into the back room for some purpose, while the horses were changing, and came out wiping their mouths. [Laughter.]
Mr. Peck has set forth before you the men who gave char- acter to these New England towns. I might add something by describing his greatly respected father, Mr. Traey Peck, with whom I had the honor to become well acquainted after my return to Connectient in 1849. He was a typical New England squire.
. Professor Tracy Peck, quite after the practical manner of his venerated father, suggested that something should be done to mark this day in the history of the town. Pardon me for a suggestion. You have an exceedingly instrnetive and valuable historical collection on exhibition this week. It illustrates the progress of this region in the kitchen and all other household labors, in the garden and on the farm, in the products of the loom, in pottery, old and modern, and especially in your famous industry, clock-making. It will soon be scattered beyond recall. Could you not make it the foundation of a mechanical and industrial museum? It could be easily enlarged by adding more of modern work, in all
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branches, in such manner as to make it a source of unceasing instruction and pleasure. Put with it that which Bristol and a hundred other Connecticut towns ought to have, but have not -- a free public library.
. You are to be congratulated for your most successful cele- bration, blessed by delicious weather, and the gathering of a multitude of old friends. But time passes. I thank you, and bid you good-by. [Applause.]
The audience then sang the Doxology, led by Mr. Miles L. Peck and accompanied by Colt's Band.
The assembly now dispersed, - the various organizations of the procession, the committees and invited guests, to dine at the places assigned; the committees and invited guests, in number about seventy, at the Bristol Honse ; the Fire Com- missioners and Putnam Phalanx, at the Gridley House; Welch Steamer Company and Colt's Band, at the Commercial Hlouse ; the Plainville Order of the United American Mechanics, at the Odeon; G. W. Thompson Post and N. S. Manross Post, at the headquarters of the former; Uncas Steamer Company and the Crescent Company, at Uncas Hall ; the Hook and Ladder Company and Steamer Company No. 1, at their respective halls. The veteran firemen are said to have aided Steamer Company No. I very effectively in their festivities. In the evening, the Boys' Branch, Y. M. C. A., had a fine supper at the Association rooms.
At six o'clock there was an exhibition of the new Bristol Water Works near the old Baptist Church, hose being attached to a hydrant. Water was thrown to a distance of 200 feet, and perpendicularly 150 feet. With more water in the reservoir, still better results will be shown.
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As evening drew on, Colt's Band gave a fine serenade opposite the depot, and in the evening the fire department's annual ball was held in Town Hall, attended by over two hundred couples.
The proceedings throughout were marked by the best of order. The various events of the day took place practically on time. Even the railroad company landed its eighteen hundred Bristol passengers withont annoying delays. There was absolutely no rowdyism, and what little intoxication there was did not show itself publicly. No arrests were made, and the exertions of the sixteen special constables and two detailed detectives were confined to keeping the streets and side-walks clear.
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LETTERS OF REGRET.
The following letters of regret were received in response to invitations to be present :
ITHACA, N. Y., June 3, 1885. S. P. Newell, Chairman, etc. :
DEAR SIR : Yours of the 21st ult. inviting me to the centennial of the incorporation of Bristol as a town, June 17, 1885, was received during my absence. I should be happy to accept your invitation, but shall not be able to. Russell Sage never lived in Bristol. I think he was born in Middletown, but of this I am not certain. I only know that his original stock, which was mine also, settled there in 1652. I was born in Middletown, in 1814. My parents moved to Bristol, I think, in 1816, and I moved thence to this place in 1827. I have but few memories of Bristol, as I have been there but once since 1827. Of my early friends then, I know but very few now living. H. M. Welch of New Haven, is one. Robert Cone, I think, is living in New York. These men were near my age, and my very near friends. Mary Woodruff may be living yet. Of the Merrimans, the Barneses, Mitchells, Iveses, Jeromes - of my age - I presume not many are left.
I often wonder if the old religious life which I used to know in Bristol remains there yet; the stern old Puritan ideas; the hush of Saturday night; the solemn duties of Sunday; the rebound of Sunday night (which I prized more than all that preceded it). Were I sure that I could again have an experience of this old life, I would try to go there for a month and live it over once more. I think there is enough of the old fire left in me to enjoy it from a new standpoint. But this cannot be. I thank you for the invita- tion; and, as I cannot accept it, take he liberty to enclose my photograph. It is just possible some one there may recognize in it a resemblance to the boy who left Bristol in 1827.
Very truly yours,
II. W. SAGE.
NEW HAVEN, June 6, 1885.
S. P. Newell, Chairman :
MY DEAR SIR : I have your favor of the 2d inst., inviting me to participate in the Bristol centennial on the 17th. If I can arrange
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my matters, I shall be pleased to be present on that occasion, and join with you in the exercises of the day. I cannot boast of being a " native " or " town born," for I remember well when a boy of coming to Bristol with my father's family about 1826, cold enough, in the month of March, and, as we got in front of Unele George Mitchell's store, he invited me to come inside and warm myself. In the summer of that year I went into Mr. Mitchell's store as a clerk, and remained there about four years, and had Mr. D. B. Hinman for chief clerk. All the old men or people of that day I remem- ber as well as though it were but yesterday. But alas! I see they are nearly all resting in their graves. Peace be to them all! Since then Bristol has pushed on grandly, and I rejoice in her prosperity. Chippin's Hill, Fall Mountain, South Side, and North Side - I remember you all!
I remain truly, H. M. W ELCIL.
GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL, CHICAGO, June 14, 1885. Ilon. S. P. Newell :
MY DEAR SIR : I regret to say that it will be impossible for me to attend the Bristol centennial celebration on the 17th. My duties here as a member of a committee of the Senate will keep me in the West beyond that date. I hope the occasion will be pleasant and successful, and assure you that I should take great pleasure in attending if it were possible.
Very truly yours, O. II. PLATT.
NEW HAVEN, June 13th. S. P. Newell, Esq. :
MY DEAR SIR: When I answered your letter of invitation, I expected to be in Vermont on the 17th. I have been unexpect- edly called home. Engagements here, however, will, nevertheless, deprive me of the pleasure of being present at your centennial celebration. Hoping that your celebration will be in all respects a success, I remain.
Very truly yours,
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