USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Colonial history of Hartford, Connecticut > Part 21
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1 State Archives: Ecclesiastical, IX: 19-22.
2 Conn. Col. Rec., X: 96, 106. 3 The Hartford Times, March 18, 1891.
4 Dr. Parker's History of the Second Church, pp. 120-123; "Seymour Papers" in Boardman Collection, State Library, No. 5630 ff.
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may indicate that its spire was patterned more after that slender and tall type, which some of the meeting-houses of that day had. The Second Church edifice is described by a traveller in 1807 as "of wood, alike unornamented within and without, and when filled there was still pre- sented to the eye nothing but what had the plainest appearance." 1 Its steeple was erected by a subscription of sixteen men, amounting to £465. At its base the tower was two feet larger than that of the First Church edifice. The spire was more of the conventional type.2 In this feature, the meeting-houses of that period usually displayed the taste and wealth of the congregation.
These were not the only meeting-houses erected in Hart- ford during the colonial period. One was built on the East-side in 1699. It was probably one of the small square edifices, which continued in fashion into the next century. Its location was on a low hill where the South Meadow Road diverges from Main Street. This stood until 1735. Its successor was erected about the same time as the First Church meeting-house. The dimensions were exactly the same. It had no steeple. In 1754 it was painted.3 A meeting-house was built by the West Society in or about 1712 and stood diagonally across the highway from the present church. It also was probably a small barn-like build- ing. North of this, at the same corner its successor was erected in 1742-1744. This followed the type then pre- vailing in the town. The third meeting-house of the West Society was built in 1834 and is the present town hall.4
That there were no other churches in Hartford about the middle of the eighteenth century, does not indicate entire unanimity of religious faith. In 1745, John Tiley
1 Kendall's Travels, I: 4.
2 The Wadsworth Athenaeum has an old oil painting, the colors of which are much dimmed, which shows the spire of the Second Church meeting-house. It is said to have been formerly in the possession of the Pond family. As this edifice was torn down in 1828, and the picture also shows the spire of the present First Church meeting-house, erected in 1807-1808, the painting was executed between those dates. A writer in the "Old Days in Hartford" articles, No. 27, Connecti- cut Post, refers to this or a similar painting as giving the view from Lord's Hill in 1818 and states that it was painted by Waldo.
3 Goodwin's Hist. of East Hartford, pp. 129, 130.
4 The Hartford Courant, May 19, 1913.
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declared himself as a Baptist. He had been a member of Elder Stephen Gorton's church in New London since 1726, and had sometimes been there to worship.1 John Bolles, called the father of the denomination in Hartford, attended church in Suffield before 1789. He and others then formed a church. It is said that their first meeting for worship was held in the home of John Bolles. A meeting-house was erected about 1794, on the corner of Market and Temple streets. There were Methodists in Hartford as early as 1789, but no meeting-house until 1821. The year before, services had been held in the old Court House on Church Street. A few merchants or traders of the Jewish faith were occasional residents of Hartford in colonial times. There were Roman Catholics, also, before 1781, when Abbé Robin, chaplain of the French troops, celebrated mass in their encampment. Neither had any stated place of wor- ship. About the middle of the eighteenth century, there were a number of families in Hartford that had affiliations with the Church of England. These had so increased in number and strength that, after 1762, occasional services were held. Land for a church was purchased, and there was a parochial organization. The first administration of the Lord's Supper was celebrated in the Court House in 1766. This early movement declined during the Revolu- tionary War. Adherents were then in fellowship with the church in Middletown. The interest was revived in 1786. Their first church was built in 1792, on the north corner of Church and Main streets.2
It must be admitted that Hartford was no exception to the rule of colonial times, in showing intolerance toward dissenters from the established order, especially when they violated the laws. Some such were confined from time to time in Hartford's jail. There were others, however, of good religious standing in the community, who worshipped reverently in its Puritan congregations, because there was no church in the town according to their faith. Their dissent was doubtless known, but, in the general esteem for their characters, it was overlooked.
1 State Archives: Ecclesiastical, X: 312, 313.
2 See Dr. Russell's History of the Parish of Christ Church.
CHAPTER XIV SOME PUBLIC BUILDINGS
THE places where the founders of a town or commonwealth were accustomed to meet in early times, have ever afterwards a public interest. If there was a rude log hut erected within the palisado by the pioneers of 1635, that was the town's first public building. In 1636, the meeting-house became the place for assemblies and continued to be such for some years. It is not so likely, as it seems to the writer, that all their general or particular courts in early times were held there. That was not in accordance with their custom in old England; nor would it have suited their convenience. The story is told that an Indian was hired to seek a lost horse, which its English owners had sought in vain. He dashed off into the forest and quickly found it feeding in a well-watered intervale. When he was asked for an explana- tion of his ready success, he replied: "I just thought what I would do, if I were a horse." Their courts for some years had comparatively few members. If the reader had been one of them, he certainly would have suggested some more comfortable place of assembly than a cold meeting-house in mid-winter. In England, courts of that time were fre- quently convened at inns, and are sometimes to this day. At the inn, members could stable their horses and find lodgings and entertainment for themselves. The hall was a suitable meeting place. It seems very likely that the settlers convened their courts in such inns, as soon as suitable ones were established. Such is the indication of the records. On June 3, 1644, the General Court, after rehearsing the need of such inns or ordinaries in the Colony, passed an order requiring each town to provide one. We have no hint of any inn in Hartford before this date. At the same meeting, John Steele, Andrew Bacon and James Boosey were appointed a committee to secure "some conuenient
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
house in Hartford, for the comly and sutable meeteing" of the Commissioners of the United Colonies in September. This body numbered eight. It certainly would not convene in a meeting-house, and no such place was thought of in Hartford. We are not told what house the committee secured; but we do know that Thomas Ford, a deputy of that General Court from Windsor, married, November 7, 1644, Ann, the widow of Thomas Scott. They then, or soon afterwards, established the first inn in Hartford, at the late home of the deceased husband. Perhaps that was the meeting place of the Commissioners. In 1645, John Win- throp, the younger, recorded in the diary of his journey to Connecticut the fact that he "reached the inn of Thomas Ford at Hartford," about nine o'clock in the evening of November 17th.1 He spent the next day there, on which he says, "the Governor and magistrates went to Tunxis Village." This entry at least suggests that this inn was their place of assembly and departure, to which Winthrop was a witness. Thomas Ford was keeping this inn in 1648, although he had a large property in Windsor.2 It was located on the southwest corner of State and Front streets. Thomas Scott, at his death in 1643, had bequeathed to his widow and son Thomas a half interest in this property. The house at that date evidently had a hall, parlor, several chambers, a garret, cellar and leanto. It passed, in 1652, to Thomas Cadwell.
We next note that the General Court, in May 1660, ordered that no person in Hartford, excepting Jeremy Adams, should sell wines and liquors in small quantities, as innholders did. The Court was presumably convened at his tavern, as two of its members were appointed to take in his account. This inn was located on Main Street, where the Church of the Redeemer recently stood, now occupied by the southern half of the Travelers Insurance Company building. It was originally the lot of John Steele, and in 1650 passed to John Talcott, who sold it to John Morris, from whom Jeremy Adams bought it in 1651. As this was shortly before the Ford inn was sold, we may infer that it was acquired for
1 2 Ser. Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., VIII: 8; The Hartford Courant, Dee. 22, 1892. 2 Conn. Col. Rec., I: 168.
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SOME PUBLIC BUILDINGS
the purpose of an inn, and was the successor to Ford's. The messuage or tenement of John Steele is mentioned in the above transfers. It was probably a house of the better sort, and of some size for that day. The lot comprised two and one-half acres. Jeremy Adams mortgaged this property in 1661, to John Talcott, treasurer of the Colony, to secure the payment of a debt. This unusual action probably meant that the Court had an interest in Adams's possession of the premises. On March 13th following, they gave him three hundred acres of land. Moreover, upon his desire that the house he "doth now possess and improue for an Ordnary, or house of comon enterteinment, shalbe and remaine for the same end and vse and occupation for the future," they gave him a perpetual license, to run to his heirs and suc- cessors. The conditions were, that the inn be conducted to the approval of the General Court, that the house "be fitted and made capable" of giving entertainment to neigh- bors and strangers, and that the accommodation be ample for travellers, "both respecting wine and liquors and other provision for food and comfortable refreshing both for man and beast."1 This appears very like an agreement between the Court and its landlord, to provide for the enter- tainment of its session, or to continue a provision already enjoyed and in danger of interruption, because of the finan- cial embarrassment of the host. No other innholder re- ceived such consideration. This action is further signifi- cant in view of the Court's recommendation to the freemen, the previous October, to consider the reduction by one-half of the number of deputies, because of the expense of so large a body. At that session, these numbered twenty-three. In September 1661, they certainly had a "Court Chamber" in "the house of Jeremiah Adams," as mentioned in a deposition of that date, and alluded to afterwards as the place where their courts convened. In 1679, the County Court reprimanded him for "having no signs according to law." He was ordered to provide a "compleat one." Jeremy Adams died August 11, 1683. In his inventory the furnishings of the chamber are enumerated. Among the items are the following: "In the Court Chamber two 1 Ibid., I: 378.
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
Tables & a Carpet, £ 1. 10 s.," "One doz. of joynt stools & a forme, £1. 10 s.," and "2 leather chayres & 4 other chayres, £1. 10 s." At that time, the inn and its land were owned by the Colony, the mortgage having been foreclosed January 14, 1680-81. In 1684, a committee was appointed to sell the property, "according as they shall judg most advantageous for the country." On December 2, 1685, it was conveyed to Zachary Sandford, grandson of the former host.1 That this. inn continued for some years, as formerly, to be a place for court assemblies, is unques- tioned. The "court chamber" had become the recognized center of all judicial proceedings, and Sergeant Sandford was a worthy host. He is said to have made additions to the house. At the Court's special meeting, March 30, 1687, a committee was appointed "to agree with our [their] land- lord Sanford for the payment of what the country is indebted to him."
Here, one of Hartford's historic scenes was enacted. It was on the 31st of October, 1687, that Governor Edmund Andros reached Hartford, in the hope of receiving the sur- render of Connecticut's charter. He would have stopped at the inn, where the General Court was then convened. There was some conference concerning the matter in the "court chamber." Trumbull says: "The important affair was debated and kept in suspense, until the evening, when the charter was brought and laid upon the table, where the assembly were sitting. By this time, great numbers of the people were assembled, and men sufficiently bold to enter- prise whatever might be necessary or expedient. The lights were instantly extinguished, and one Captain Wadsworth, of Hartford, in the most silent and secret manner, carried off the charter, and secreted it in a large hollow tree, front- ing the house of the Hon. Samuel Wyllys, then one of the magistrates of the colony. The people appeared all peace- able and orderly. The candles were officiously re-lighted; but the patent was gone, and no discovery could be made of it, or the person who had conveyed it away." Such was the story in his day. The tree was known in colonial times, and in 1780 esteemed sacred as that in which the charter
1 Ibid., I: 145, 172; Hartford Land Records, 1: 95.
THE STUART HOMESTEAD AND THE CHARTER OAK
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SOME PUBLIC BUILDINGS
was concealed.1 There is a tradition that, long before the coming of the English, the Indians were accustomed to hold their councils underneath its wide-spreading branches, and plant their crops when it put forth its leaves in the spring. Its age at its fall was computed by competent authority as nearly a thousand years. This famous tree stood on the estate that was owned and occupied by the Wyllys family for nearly two centuries. In 1823, it passed from the heirs of George Wyllys to Stephen Bulkeley, who built there one of those stately mansions, which formerly graced the streets of Hartford. He is said to have used much of the ancient frame of the Wyllys mansion. This property passed to Mr. Bulkeley's son-in-law, Hon. Isaac W. Stuart. The sacred oak fell August 21, 1856. The next day, it was the subject of several early photographs taken by N. A. Moore of Hartford, which are now in the collections of the Connecticut Historical Society.
How long Sandford's inn continued to be used for such courts, must be left to conjecture. An order of October 1689, notes the meeting of the assistants "in the court chamber" to canvas the nominations of the towns. Probably the Governor and Council, empowered in 1692 to act for the General Court between its sessions, and other smaller bodies, continued to meet there for some time. Sandford had a bill against the Governor in 1704, for "expenses in his house." It was paid by the Colony. He had apparently made over the greater part of his household goods to his son-in-law, Jonathan Bunce, before 1710, when he made his will. In this, he mentions "the jury chamber." His inventory, taken in 1713, does not refer to the court furniture. Jonathan Bunce died in 1717. His inventory mentions "A Long Table & Foarm," probably once owned by Jeremy Adams or Zachary Sandford. "In ye Jury Chamber" there were "Four Turkey work chairs," but the apartment was fur- nished as a bedroom. "In ye Court chamber" there were "A Long Table," "a fmall Do," "A Turkey Work Carpett,"
1 Trumbull's History, I: 371; Hoadly's The Hiding of the Charter; Stuart's History of the Charter Oak, MS. in collections of the Conn. Hist. Soc .; Twitchell's Hartford in History, pp. 99 ff .; Mem. Hist. of Hartford County, I: 63 ff .; Conn. as a Colony, I: 247 ff. On the Charter Oak tree, see The Hartford Courant, Oct. 29, Nov. 2, 5 and 19, 1907, April 19, 1914; The Hartford Times, Aug. 18, 1906.
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
"Six chairs & 4 cushions." The contents of this room suggest that it was then used largely for storage purposes. As there was a "jury chamber," we may infer that this inn had been generally used for trials.
A new era had come, however, for the General Court. Its size had increased. In October 1698, it was ordered that thereafter it was to consist of two houses.1 The same session introduced the roll call of deputies. Thereafter, it was termed in the records the "General Assembly." In the author's opinion, it was about that time that the Assem- bly, having outgrown the inn, began to convene regularly in the meeting-house. The upper house then used the porch chamber, which was of sufficient size for that body, the lower house using the auditorium of the church on the first floor. It is noted in connection with the meeting of the Court of Assistants, May 12, 1708, that a constable was charged to go with the jury "to a room appointed" and remain by themselves, until they had agreed on a verdict. On May 27th, Joseph Wadsworth was before this court, for using improper language to Ichabod Wells, the sheriff, "he the said Wadsworth being in the Gallery of the Meeting house in Hartford, under the Court Cham- ber where the Governor and Council were sitting." 2 These quarters at length became unsatisfactory to some of the Assembly. In 1712, the meeting-house was nearly seventy- five years old. That year, at its May session, the upper house numbered eleven and the lower house sixty-five. On the 14th of that month, Governor Gurdon Salton- stall made certain proposals to that body, the last of which was as follows: "What provision may be requsite to be made, in the present want of a suitable house for the holding our General Assemblies." It was referred to a committee, which thought there should be court-houses in each county, "but more especially at Hartford and New Haven, for holding the General Assemblies." Action was deferred by the lower house. At the same session, it was voted to sell certain country lands and use the proceeds "to the building a publick house or houses for the use of
1 Conn. Col. Rec., IV: 267, 282, 284.
2 Records of Court of Assistants, II: 95.
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SOME PUBLIC BUILDINGS
the Assembly and other courts." 1 Objections to this plan arose, and nothing came of it for some years. The Council voted, therefore, in 1715, to "repair the court chamber in the first meeting house at Hartford, so as may be safe for the courts to be held in the same, at the Colony's charge."2 This was the porch chamber in which the upper house con- vened. Thus they managed until 1718, when the proposal for a court-house was adroitly coupled with a plan for the encouragement of Yale College and its final location in New Haven.3 The amount appropriated for the former purpose was five hundred pounds, which was eventually secured from the sale of lands in Stafford, Voluntown, New Milford and Danbury. On October 28, 1718, the Governor and Council appointed a building committee, consisting of William Pitkin, Esq., Joseph Talcott, Esq., and Captain Aaron Cook. Their design, as approved by the Council on March 11th following, gives a good description of this pro- posed building, then called a "State House."
"This board are of opinion that a house of seventy-two feet long, thirty broad, twenty-four between joints, with a range of pillars under the middle of the beams of the cham- ber floor, a door on each side, and at each end, a staircase at the south-west and another at the south-east corner, two chambers of thirty foot long at each end, one for the Council and another for Representatives, with a space of twelve foot between the two houses, and a staircase into the garrets, and on the other side a lobby to the Council chamber, will well serve the occasions designed by the Assembly, and answer their expectation in the grant aforesaid." 4
This building, the Assembly at its October session, ordered the committee to erect with all speed. The length was apparently altered to seventy feet. Two hundred and fifty pounds were taxed on Hartford County, in February 1719-20, toward finishing the building, and the balance was paid by the public treasury.5 According to the same proportion, the Colony and County bore the expenses of repairs in 1732, and also in 1735, when shutters were pro-
1 Conn. Col. Rec., V: 325, 333.
2 Ibid., V: 493, 512.
4 Ibid., VI: 91, 102.
3 Ibid., VI: 35 36,8, 3, 84. 5 Ibid., VI: 157, 158.
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
vided for the lower windows to prevent the breakage of glass. The building once had a cupola, but it was never restored after a fire, which threatened the entire edifice in 1783. This fire was occasioned by its illumination, or by fireworks at the peace celebration.
Although this building was at first called the "State House," after a few years, the more common designation became "Court House," especially in later advertisements. It stood in the square, in front of the present City Hall. In 1796, it was sold to make room for the new State House, and was moved to the rear of Christ Church. There it remained for many years, being owned by the trustees of the estate of Ebenezer Clark. It was occupied at sundry times, wrote Dr. Gurdon W. Russell, as a tenement house, a school taught by George J. Patten, where the late Mr. Henry Keney was once a pupil; a shop in which Charles Hosmer printed an edition of Scott's Bible; the place where the Methodists worshipped, before their church on Trumbull Street was built, and a factory where Force and Goodnow made carriages and William R. Loomis shaped saddle- trees by machinery, the power being a horse in the cellar.1 The parish of Christ Church bought the property in 1833; and part of the building was sold to Messrs E. B. Pratt and G. H. Hart, who removed it to a location in the rear of Nos. 185 and 187 Pearl Street. There, Robert Walker, and later Preston and Kenyon, had a paint shop. It was torn down in 1910, after a life of nearly two centuries, to make way for the telephone company's building.
The most historic public building of Hartford that has been intrusted to present and future generations, and the choicest example of earlier architecture, is the State House, completed in 1796. It is a memorial of the city's incorpora- tion, and the result of its early enterprise, as elsewhere related. At the beginning of its history, the City of Hart- ford having been aroused to an interest in its municipal privileges and responsibilities, determined to secure the erection of a state house, which should be worthy of honor among its citizens. The best legacy that colonial times
1 The Hartford Times, Nov. 17, 1904, May 25, 1907; The Hartford Courant, Nov. 2, 1910; Geer's Directory, 1879.
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THE STATE HOUSE OF 1719
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SOME PUBLIC BUILDINGS
in their passing away could have left to those who will inhabit the city two centuries hence, is such a building. In accepting it for city uses, Hartford has taken a moral responsibility to preserve an edifice that has been made famous by the State and is consecrated by the labors of her citizens.1 This building, consecrated anew as the throb- bing heart of Hartford's municipal life, will receive great praise in that day when cities realize the dream of the proph- ets; and the place of a man's birth, whatever his race, will quicken his pride and give him honor in his wanderings.
The Connecticut General Assembly, at its May session in 1792, appointed a committee "to superintend the Businefs of erecting and finishing a large Convenient State House in the Town of Hartford." The gentlemen named were: John Chester, John Caldwell, John Trumbull, Noadiah Hooker and John Morgan. The material specified was brick. They were to raise £1500 from the inhabitants of the City, Town and County of Hartford, and if raised before May 1, 1793, they were authorized to draw on the State for £1500. The original subscription list of Hartford has been preserved by the Connecticut Historical Society. - Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth was the first and largest subscriber, giving $500. The city contributed $3500., and the County $1500. In May, 1793, the Assembly granted the privilege of a lottery to raise £4000. It was attempted, but failed of financial success. After the money raised had been used, and work on the building was suspended, the General Assembly accepted the proposal of Colonel Jeremiah Halsey of Preston and General Andrew Ward of Guilford, to complete the State House "according to the proposed plan," in exchange for the State's interest in the Gore Lands on Lake Erie. They received a deed of these lands July 25, 1795.2 Their land venture was not successful, and subse-
1 "The Old State House, Hartford - Why it should be preserved" - Publica- tions of the Municipal Art Society of Hartford, Bulletin No.15; The Hartford Courant, Nov. 2, 1904, Oct. 19, 1905, March 7, 1906, March 4 and 10, 1910, Nov. 19, 1910, Feb. 3, May 24, and Dec. 3, 1911, March 8 and Nov. 16, 1913; The Hartford Times, March 10, and Nov. 19, 1910, March 10, 1912.
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