USA > Connecticut > Colonial Days And Ways: As Gathered from Family Papers > Part 14
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From the first the "Sharon Literary Club " seems to have found favor in the little township of its birth, and had continued its regular meetings from January, 1779, to May, 1780, with so much advantage that by the time for their resumption, the first Monday in the following October, it was " determined to establish The Clio so that the
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talents of the Club's members might be cultivated in writing as well as in speech." To its columns each club-member was " expected to make at least one contribution in every second or third number." A lawyer named Canfield (first name illegible), Mr. Ambrose Spencer, and Miss Juliana Smith were named as those "to whom all essays intended for insertion in these columns should be submitted for due consideration "; but by the time that the next surviving paper was issued, Juliana's name appears alone, although the two others continued to contribute. "Mr. Spencer," at this time a lad of about fifteen years, afterward married a daughter of Judge Canfield, and became a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
Each issue of the "Miscellany " was read aloud at the meeting of the club next after the paper's date, and as "there was much lively comment on each article," it is probable that the contents of the "Clio" formed the chief topic of the evening, after the stated reading of selected portions from certain books which the club's members were supposed to have been perusing in their own homes during the intervening days. It is interesting to know that some of these selections were translations from Cæsar's "Commentaries," made by Juliana's brother ; from Plutarch's Life of Hannibal, made by the parson and the schoolmaster; and from Fénelon's " Télémaque," made by Mrs. Smith and Juliana. These translations were subject to criti-
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cism from the club's members, and on one occasion, when the learned Dr. Bellamy of Bethle- hem, Connecticut, was visiting at the parsonage, there would seem to have been a good-natured but rather lively sort of a discussion between the two divines and the schoolmaster concerning the proper rendering of certain disputed passages in Plutarch. At least, Juliana reports that "they became as heated over a Greek word as if it were a forge fire."
The alternate meetings of the club were mainly debating societies, in which old and young men took part as debaters, and old and young women as listeners, while, in accordance with a resolution unanimously passed at one of the club's earliest meetings, "all of the women and such of the men as were not engaged in speaking or reading " were " expected to knit stockings or do some other work to help our brave and suffering soldiers in their desperate struggle to gain the Liberty of our Na- tive Land." Whether shoemaking formed one of the patriotic industries pursued during these literary evenings I do not know, but presume so, for, from another source, I have found that, beginning with the winter of 1777, and onward during the war, the men of many Connecticut villages, including Sharon, " had learned to make shoes so that they might help the soldiers in the field. The State furnished the materials, and almost all the men in each township, from the Ministers down to the
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slaves, spent their winter evenings in making shoes for the Soldiers." It must be remembered that shoe factories were then unknown.
In spite of her silent tongue and busy fingers, at least one of the young women who were privileged to listen to the wisdom of the superior sex availed herself of her opportunities to extract abundant amusement from the readings and discussions, which she reported for the benefit of her brother and his classmates, always good-naturedly, but sometimes keenly criticizing, and in a few instances even caricaturing the speakers with an untrained but clever pencil.
It is a singular fact that neither in Juliana's diary, nor in that of her brother, nor in the surviv- ing numbers of the "Clio," is there much mention of the war then so actively progressing. Yet Sharon was intensely patriotic, and had furnished what was, proportionately, a large contingent to the Continental forces, while the club's president had been a chaplain in the Northern army until disabled by a camp fever, and several of the most active of the club's members had been officers and privates in the patriotic armies for longer or shorter terms before 1780, and after that date still others took their places. The chief exception to this ignoring of what must have been the subject of first interest in the hearts of all is Juliana's exulta- tion, in April, 1780, over the " sure news," which then had but just reached the little inland town,
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of the victory gained the preceding September " by Captain Paul Jones in the little Bon Homme Richard over the big British ship Serapis. A GLO- RIOUS VICTORY for which GOD be praised !" Per- haps the reason for the silence on the most vital of all the topics of the time may be found in this very thing. With the slow means of communi- cation, suspense, long and harrowing, was inevi- table. Was it not, therefore, wise to divert the mind as much as might be while working, praying, and hoping without cessation ?
The club's meetings were "always punctually opened at half-past seven o'clock in the evening with a short prayer for the Divine blessing," and they seem to have been, with equal punctuality, closed at nine. After this refreshments were served. If the meetings took place in almost any other house than the parsonage, the refreshments were followed by an hour of dancing. The sprightly Juliana several times expresses her regret that, as the parson's daughter, she was always obliged to leave before the dancing began, "tho', as you know," she once naïvely adds, "Papa does not think dancing to be wrong in itself, but only that it may be a cause of offending to some."
From tradition and the materials at hand we may paint a reasonably correct picture of one of the meetings of this long ago literary club. We will suppose that it is held at the parsonage. Here three rooms are opened to the company - the
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parson's study, the family living-room, and the kitchen. In all three great blazing logs of wood are sending their cheerful heat and light princi- pally up the broad-throated chimneys. The night is very cold, but the guests do not feel its chill too acutely, for the air of the rooms is so fresh that the blood is well oxygenated. The curtains, too, are closely drawn, and they are not flimsy things, but thick and heavy, made to keep the wind out, and they are drawn over doors as well as windows. Such curtains are usually made of a mixture of linen and wool, homespun, home-dyed, and home- woven, and were sometimes lined and quilted. In the wealthiest families curtains of flowered red chintz were often hung on the roomward side of the heavier curtains, and sometimes, but probably very seldom, they were all displaced by imported satin-damask or damask-moreen, lined with wadded and quilted silk.
Even at this late period there would not be enough chairs to seat all the guests, for these, in Juliana's reports to her brother, are often said to number more than one hundred; so the forms were brought from the schoolhouse, and were some- times supplemented by long planks laid from one stool or block of wood to another.
As both the study and the living-room commu- nicated with the kitchen, which extended along the house at the rear of both of them, and a speaker or reader standing midway of the kitchen
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could easily be heard in both of the other rooms, it is probable that here would be the chosen position.
There would be some finely dressed persons present, for at this time there were gentlemen and ladies of fortune and position in this retired spot, safe from war's alarms, and they would be attired as became their station ; but the most would be arrayed in clothes of home manufacture, from pocket-handkerchief to shoe-tie. Tailors were so few that well-fitting coats and breeches must have been rare. One unfortunate college student from this neighborhood had placed the cloth for a suit of clothes with the local tailor in the spring, and by the time that potentate had seen fit to finish them, the garments had been so far outgrown that they had to be passed over to a younger brother; and the same thing was repeated twice, so that the poor student must have been agonizing in out-grown or out-worn clothes for the greater part of his college course. For this state of things there was no help. The tailor, having no com- petitor within thirty miles in any direction, was monarch of his customers. Storm and threaten they never so sternly, they were obliged to wait his pleasure, for they could get no better served even by journeying long distances. The trade of the tailor, however profitable, was despised in the colonies, and few would engage in it. Conse- quently, during the years preceding the war, the larger part of the wearing apparel of even wealthy
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men was either imported from England, as made to order from more or less accurate measurements, or was of household manufacture. The same was true of much of the dress of the women; but in their case it would not so greatly matter, as the materials were so much more pliable, and the cus- tom of wearing an abundance of lace trimmings on the gowns of the young, and of covering the neck and shoulders of the elderly with crossed kerchiefs or small shawls, concealed a multitude of defects. During the war such imported clothes as existed must have been decidedly old in style, but that would have been too universal to have been noticeable.
Gaiety there must have been in plenty. There could have been little dullness where such mirthful spirits as Juliana, her sister Elizabeth, and their mother were the leaders, and this they plainly were, notwithstanding that they " maintained a seemly silence while the slower half of creation was laying down the law."
Both from the pages of the "Clio" itself and from those of Juliana's diary, which, with comparatively few breaks, was continued all through her " brother Jack's" four years in Yale, there is abundant evidence that the literary instinct in that quiet village, then so very remote from all the centers of activity, was by no means confined to the family in the parsonage, though its manifestations were led from there.
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The club's meetings were held in various houses, from the stately " Montgomery House " on the hill dividing Salisbury from Sharon, which was occupied by one or another of the numerous branches of the Livingston families during nearly the entire war, to the brick cottage occupied by the families of Robert G. Livingston and the lately deceased Philip Livingston, which was on one side of the parsonage, and to the broadly spreading house of Judge Can- field on its other side. In all, seventeen dwellings are mentioned as having at one time or another been meeting-places for the club. Several of these still exist, but only three of them are now occupied by the heirs of the then owners. These three are the "Gay House," more than a mile above the village, the " King House," at the head of the beautiful village street, and the "Smith House," in whose garret are the papers from which we quote. All are in good preservation and are fine specimens of colonial architecture.
Juliana evidently possessed a good degree of literary and editorial instinct. From the lips of her two grandmothers and from her mother - her- self too busy to spend much time in writing - the young lady obtained many narratives of early days in the colonies. To several of these she in- cidentally refers, and some of them she wrote at considerable length in her diary for Jack's benefit. From these narratives she sometimes made such extracts as she deemed suitable for the "Clio,"
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though not as often as she (and we) would have liked, because, as she writes to Jack : " Judge Can- field seems to think that such things foster pride and vanity, albeit, Nota Bene, I think I do observe now and then a morsel of those sinful emotions in himself. Dost remember him, dear Jack ?"
From her brother and his classmates Juliana was indefatigable in begging contributions, whether in prose or in verse, declaring that she "cared less for moral reflections than for new thoughts," and that " most of all " she desired "news and narratives of things that one has not already heard or read a thousand times. Of course," she adds, " Odes and Sonnets would be very fine IF they were poetical, but, Oh, my dear Jack, I fear me there is very lit- tle promise that any of your Friends will prove to be Shakespeares or Miltons."
It must be confessed that the most of the sur- viving contributions of the young collegians are decidedly sophmoric in tone, and we cannot blame the editress, who does not hesitate to inform Jack, by way of consolation after some sharp criticisms, that she " hopes, nay, believes, that he will be wiser by-and-bye"; and, after reading a certain halting "Ode " by A. H., we are ready to confirm the editorial opinion that " your chum " (Abiel Holmes, afterward author of the laborious " Annals of Amer- ican History," but better known as the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes) "is no doubt, as you say, a Man of Parts, but the Pegasus he rides is a
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sorry steed that has lost his wings and is badly shod." Of James Kent, afterward the justly cele- brated Chancellor Kent of the State of New York, she says : "Mr. Kent does well, always well. He has thoughts and does not hide them under a rub- bish heap of words as H-s and S. B. do. .. . I wish that your friend Daggett" (David Daggett, afterward United States senator from Connecticut for several terms, and a judge of high standing) " would be so obliging as to be a more frequent contributor ; he writes wittily and without affecta- tion."
One contribution in a surviving number of the " Clio" is signed "Noah Webster." The future lexicographer was then teaching a district school in Sharon, and " boarding round," receiving the ex- travagant salary of three dollars a month. This I find from the private account-book of the acting town clerk, through whom the stipend was paid. The somewhat hackneyed moral lesson which Mr. Webster wished to convey was cast in the dream form which seems to have appealed so strongly to the fancy of the age, and is a stilted, disjointed sort of thing; yet it hardly deserved the little fling of the young editress - herself, it will be remem- bered, only nineteen :
" Mr. Webster has not the excuse of youth, (I think he must be fully twenty two or three), but his essays - don't be angry, Jack,- are as young
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as yours or brother Tommy's, while his reflections are as prosy as those of our horse, your namesake, would be if they were written out. Perhaps more so, for I truly believe, judging from the way Jack Horse looks round at me sometimes, when I am on his back, that his thoughts of the human race and their conduct towards his own, might be well worth reading. At least they would be all his own, and that is more than can be said of N. W.'s. . . . In conversation he is even duller than in writing, if that be possible, but he is a painstaking man and a hard student. Papa says he will make his mark; but then, you know that our dear Papa is always inclined to think the best of every one's abilities, except his own and MINE, of which last, I grieve to say, his opinion seems to be sadly low. Perhaps that is because every one says I am so like him; you know he is ever repeating that self- praise is no credit! I wish you were at home, dear Jack, so that I might get a word of flattery now and then. I would pay you back in your own coin ! "
A club-member whose contributions pleased the critical Juliana much better than those of the future lexicographer was a Mr. Beecher, who was in some way related to the subsequently celebrated Rev. Lyman Beecher. He was perhaps a brother of the latter's father. None of his papers appear in the still-existing numbers of the "Clio," and
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perhaps he did not write many, but he was always an active member of the club. "Mr. Beecher is," says Juliana, " the life of our Debates. Every thing he utters is to the point, forcible, pungent, and often so witty that we are in convulsions of laughter. Papa says he is one who would become great, an he had the opportunity. As it is, though he is not great, he well fills his lot in life and is somewhat of a power in our little community." In another place she writes : "Mr. Beecher was on what I conceive to be the wrong side of the question last night, but I must concede that his remarks were full of force, fire and persuasion. What a pity that he could not receive the advan- tages which are now being, as it seems to me, wasted on P. L. Jr! I believe that Mr. B. would make a preacher of extraordinary eloquence."
On at least one occasion there was present a young surgeon of the Continental troops, probably home on leave of absence. Dr. Wheeler, after- ward of Redhook on the Hudson, may have been drawn to Sharon by the charms of Elizabeth, Juliana's sister, whom he subsequently married, but where they first met does not appear. In 1782 we find in Juliana's diary the first mention of one who not long after became the controlling influence in her life. "This evening," she says, "our de- bates were enlivened by the presence of a young gentleman who came in with Judge Canfield and his daughters. He is very handsome in person and
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courtly in manners. His remarks were received with much favor, even the carping P. L. being heard to say that Mr. Radcliff's speech 'was not intolerable.' I fear me he would not have con- ceded as much to one of ourselves. Mr. L. never has any faith in home born prophets."
After this, Mr. Radcliff's name is mentioned a good many times, but - or at least so it seems in the light of future events - with an ever-increas- ing reticence. Whatever may have been the oc- casion which first drew the young gentleman to Sharon, there is no doubt that the reason for sub- sequent visits was to be found in the attractions of the handsome and quick-witted Juliana. Until after the peace the time was not propitious for members of the legal profession, and the betrothed couple had to spend two and perhaps more years of happy, hopeful waiting. Almost immediately after the peace young Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Rad- cliff began to live in Albany, New York, where in time he became one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature. At a later period they re- moved to New York city, of which Mr. Radcliff was mayor for three terms between 1810 and 1818.
Apparently from about 1790 the Radcliffs had a summer home on the banks of the Hudson. "Chest- nut Hill " was not far from Poughkeepsie. At this home Mr. and Mrs. Radcliff entertained largely and handsomely, and the name of the hostess is often mentioned in domestic chronicles of that date as that of one of the most charming members of
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the notedly charming society which gathered along the banks of what used then to be so affectionately termed "the River." The "literary evenings at the Radcliffs of Chestnut Hill " are mentioned in published and in unpublished letters written by Chancellor Kent, Edward Livingston, Chancellor Livingston, and Mrs. Janet Montgomery, as stated and delightful gatherings where youth and age, fashion and wit, met for pleasure and improvement. It is not too much to assume that the idea for these gatherings was taken from the literary club which had been so great a social and mental resource to the members of an inland country parson's parish at an earlier date.
Tradition tells us that after the marriage of the young editress the " Clio " ceased to appear, but that the club continued in active operation for twenty or more years later. I have found no rec- ord of this, but in a few instances certain allusions in private correspondence countenance tradition.
It has several times been affirmed that the first purely literary club in the United States was the one which was started by Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney in Hartford, Connecticut, in the early years of the present century. Our records prove that the one in Sharon was very much earlier, and it is probable that others had preceded it; but until some other claimant shall arise we may continue to give to the beautiful little village of Sharon, Connecticut, the honor of being the mother of literary clubs in the United States.
CHAPTER XVIII NEW ENGLAND'S FESTIVE DAY
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CHAPTER XVIII.
NEW ENGLAND'S FESTIVE DAY.
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Thanksgiving in 1779. Expedients. Abundant Hospitality. Absence of Beef. Celery. After-dinner Entertain- ment. Two Oranges.
T HE following account of a Thanks- giving dinner in 1779 is given in a letter of Juliana Smith's, copied by her into her diary - a praise- worthy practice not uncommon when letters were written with care and might easily be lost in transmission. This letter was addressed to its writer's "Dear Cousin Betsey." Who the latter may have been I do not know, but presume that she was a daughter of the Rev C. M. Smith's elder brother Dan.
After the usual number of apologies for delay in writing, Juliana proceeds :
" When Thanksgiving Day was approaching our dear Grandmother Smith [nee Jerusha Mather, great-granddaughter of the Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, Massachusetts], who is. sometimes a little desponding of Spirit as you well know, did her best to persuade us that it would be better to make it a Day of Fasting & Prayer in view of the Wickedness of our Friends & the Vileness of our Enemies, I am sure you can hear Grandmo-
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ther say that and see her shake her cap border. But indeed there was some occasion for her re- marks, for our resistance to an unjust Authority has cost our beautiful Coast Towns very dear the last year & all of us have had much to suffer. But my dear Father brought her to a more proper frame of Mind, so that by the time the Day came she was ready to enjoy it almost as well as Grand- mother Worthington did, & she, you will remem- ber, always sees the bright side. In the mean while we had all of us been working hard to get all things in readiness to do honour to the Day.
" This year it was Uncle Simeon's turn to have the dinner at his house, but of course we all helped them as they help us when it is our turn, & there is always enough for us all to do. All the baking of pies & cakes was done at our house & we had the big oven heated & filled twice each day for three days before it was all done. & everything was GOOD, though we did have to do without some things that ought to be used. Neither Love nor (paper) Money could buy Raisins, but our good red cherries dried without the pits, did almost as well & happily Uncle Simeon still had some spices in store. The tables were set in the Dining Hall and even that big room had no space to spare when we were all seated. The Servants had enough ado to get around the Tables & serve us all without over-setting things. There were our two Grand- mothers side by side. They are. always handsome
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old Ladies, but now, many thought, they were handsomer than ever, & happy they were to look around upon so many of their descendants. Uncle & Aunt Simeon presided at one Table, & Father & Mother at the other. Besides us five boys & girls there were two of the Gales & three Elmers, be- sides James Browne & Ephraim Cowles. [Five of the last-named seven were orphans taught and in all ways provided for by Parson & Mrs. Smith.] We had them at our table because they could be best supervised there. Most of the students had gone to their own homes for the week, but Mr. Skiff & Mr. - [name illegible] were too far away from their homes. They sat at Uncle Simeon's table & so did Uncle Paul & his family, five of them in all, & Cousins Phin & Poll [probably Phineas and Apollos Smith, sons of Dan]. Then there were six of the Liv- ingston family next door. They had never seen a Thanksgiving Dinner before, having been used to keep Christmas Day instead, as is the wont in New York Province. Then there were four Old Ladies who have no longer Homes or Chil- dren of their own & so came to us. They were invited by my Mother, but Uncle and Aunt Simeon wished it so.
" Of course we could have no Roast Beef. None of us have tasted Beef this three years back as it all must go to the Army, & too little they get, poor fellows. But, Nayquittymaw's Hunters
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were able to get us a fine red Deer, so that we had a good haunch of Venisson on each Table. These were balanced by huge Chines of Roast Pork at the other ends of the Tables. Then there was on one a big Roast Turkey & on the other a Goose, & two big Pigeon Pasties. Then there was an abundance of good Vegetables of all the old Sorts & one which I do not believe you have yet seen. Uncle Simeon had imported the Seede from Eng- land just before the War began & only this Year was there enough for Table use. It is called Sel- lery & you eat it without cooking. It is very good served with meats. Next year Uncle Sim- eon says he will be able to raise enough to give us all some. It has to be taken up, roots & all & buried in earth in the cellar through the winter & only pulling up some when you want it to use.
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