USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington papers > Part 21
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with which our subject is more immediately concerned, in which other topics are discussed, and when thought begins to take a broader range. In 1813 we hear of the " Moral Society." Mr. Hooker records -" Thursday, Sept. 9. Evening. Attended the 'Moral Society,' when the conver- sation was chiefly on the means of resisting the vice of profane swearing." The next week the society conversed " on the use of ardent spirits at the meetings of people for business." At other meetings they discussed colonization for the negro, paper money, and other topics of a political nature, until the one member who looked upon slavery as a divine ordinance came to denounce the Moral Society and all effort to interfere with the morals of the community or the nation as odious, comparing them with the inquisi- tion of Spain and the system of espionage in the time of Bonaparte. A more genial body of men was the " Con- versation Club," which met weekly at the houses of the members and discussed a wide range of topics. The prin- cipal members were Doctors Todd and Thomson, Mr. Goodman, principal of the academy, Egbert Cowles, George Robinson, Nathaniel Olmsted, and sometimes other prom- inent men. Mr. Hooker almost always attended, and wrote in his diary an abstract of the subjects considered, and the diverse opinions of each of the members. We have space for only the most meagre account of these most in- teresting discussions. They conversed on the penitentiary system; to what extent it is desirable that the benefits of education be diffused among the mass of people; on poor laws; on the expediency of further and greater encourage- ment being given to the manufacturing interests of the United States; on the distribution of the public school money of Connecticut; on the assessment of property, and on other questions mostly of public utility. There were
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also monthly meetings of the village library company, in which they discussed the merits of new books, and Mr. Hooker records the talk at length. The comparative value of the " Commentaries " of Clarke and Scott and Gov. Treadwell's criticism of "Johnson's Lives of the Poets " especially interested them. The ladies, too, had a society known as the Female Society, for aiding in the education of pious youth for the ministry. By far the most interest- ing conversations recorded by Mr. Hooker are those which he himself held with the good people of the village in his daily walks among them, and which he recorded at length when he returned at night, revealing what Farmington society most cared for, and giving some insight into its culture and intellectual breadth. We can give but glimpses of it. He says -" In the afternoon moralized with Mr. Chauncey Deming at his store about an hour . . . . He
entertained me with some description of the manners that prevailed thirty or forty years ago. He says that more expense is bestowed on the bringing up of one youth than was formerly bestowed on twenty. Young fellows would often, perhaps generally, go to meeting without stockings and shoes in the summer till they were fourteen or fifteen years old. Not more than twenty-eight years ago the girls would attend balls with checkered aprons on, and he has many a time gone to a ball with Dema (his wife) attired in that way." Again - " Made a call of an hour or two at Chauncey Deming's. Conversed on his favorite theme, the selfishness of the human character." With Gov. Tread- well he converses on the common origin of mankind, on foreign missions, on Johnson's "Lives on the Poets," and on the sudden growth of Farmington opulence; and with Capt. Seymour on the most profitable mode of reading. With President Dwight he " walked very leisurely, and con- . 318.
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versed on various topics, but mostly on matrimony," he being particularly interested in that subject at that time. One afternoon he calls at Mr. Pitkin's, who was busy with some law business, “ so Mrs. Pitkin said she must be un- ceremonious enough to ask me into the room where were her friends, Mrs. L. and Mrs. M., seated by a good fire and very social. The conversation turned on the reasoning power of brutes, catching rats, suicide, and various other things." Riding home from Hartford with Mrs. Pitkin, they discourse on the utility of newspapers, on the belittl- ing nature of the ordinaray strifes among men for village distinction, on the character of some public men, espe- cially of John Randolph, and on the Quakers of Philadel- phia, among whom Mrs. Pitkin had visited. Soon after Dr. Porter's settlement here, after noting all his wander- ings for the day, he says, " Walked to the Rev. Mr. Por- ter's and spent the evening. There was quite a large as- semblage, more than a dozen in number. Mrs. Washburn and her sister, Misses Charity Cowles, C. Mix, C. Dem- ing, Mary Ann Cowles, Mary Treadwell, Maria Wash- burn, and Messrs. Porter, G. Norton, Camp, T. Cowles, W. L. Cowles, T. Root, and Egbert Cowles. The evening was spent in mixed conversation and singing, and the com- pany was treated with cider and walnuts. The subjects of conversation were the Rev. Mr. Huntington's dismis- sion, the character of the Philadelphia clergy and those of New York, the state of piety in the cities of New York and Charleston, the Southern Baptists, and numerous other topics suited to the time and place." Of all the conversa- tions which he so laboriously reported, none can begin to compare for clearness of thought, breadth of range, liber- ality of sentiment, and nobility of heart and mind with those of Dr. Eli Todd. He says - " Dr. Todd is hardly
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willing to rank the pleasures of music with those of sense, for he thinks them intimately connected with the best af- fections of the heart. At least he believes this pleasure never exists in a high degree except when so connected. When in Trinidad he daily saw a tiger of prodigious fierce- ness confined in a cage, so rapacious that if a piece of meat were put to him he would instantly tear it into shreds. He played airs on a flute by the cage day after day, and the beast every day seemed less wild, till in a short time he would purr like a cat and roll and rub and be apparently the subject of inexpressible delight." An experience which may have profited the doctor in his new and kindly methods of treating the insane in after life. Again he discourses on "the state of society in Farmington, the causes and consequences of the particular form which its character takes, and on earthquakes and meteors." On another oc- casion he talks on the " subject of expensive rural embellish- ments in reference to Daniel Wadsworth's country seat, and discussed whether it be justifiable to expend one's super- fluous wealth in such a way, or in the expensive gratifica- tion of a taste for the fine arts. He argued for the affirma- tive, and insisted that the rich have a right to gratifications as well as the poor." Again he conversed " on those pe- culiarities of character which mark a simple state of society, holding that a high cultivation of the intellect, if not a part of virtue, is necessary to give to virtue its highest de- gree of beauty and loveliness, and on whether a state of society devoted to the rural interest or to commerce is to be preferred." Again he discourses " on the kind and degree of evidence by which the Christian revelation is supported," and " on the effects of ardent spirits, and on the threatening danger to the country from the prevalent use of them."
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The dangers of intemperance to the State were only just beginning to force themselves on the attention of thinking men. Deacon Bull, writing an account of the town to be used by Gov. Treadwell in his "Statistical History of Farmington," under the head of vices does not once allude to intemperance. He says: "The number and kind of vices in .the town are too many for the compass of my ability to find out or enumerate; however, there is nothing in this respect distinguishable from other towns of the same age, numbers, and experience. In particular, card- playing and profane swearing are the most prominent vices of the town. The inhabitants, in general, are industrious, sober, and peaceable."
While the men amused themselves with their clubs, moral or conversational, the ladies read at home whatever books came in their way. He who will, may examine the records of the village library and find charged to them the works of Jonathan Edwards and other books which are not often called for in the library of to-day, and whose titles are as unfamiliar to us as most of those we read will be to our children. One devourer of books writes in her diary: " Yesterday, which was Monday, I went to Hart- ford in the stage with Miss Sally Pierce. . . . Bought a couple of books, - ' Wilberforce's View,' 6/, and ' Mem- oirs of Miss Susanna Anthony,' 3/6; the former, Miss Pierce advised me to purchase." We hear no more of Mr. Wilberforce and his "View," but, on leaving the school in Middletown, Mr. Woodbridge presented her with " Reflections on Death." Two Sundays afterwards she writes : " Attended meeting all day; read in ' Reflections on Death'; found it very interesting as well as instructive." Here is her experience with a famous novel she got from the library: "Thursday evening. Read in 'Sir Charles
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Grandison,' a novel I don't intend to read any more." But she did. Two weeks afterward she wrote: "Saturday. At home. Evening, read in 'Grandison.' Sunday. Stayed at home; read in 'Grandison'; had a very bad pain in my head. Monday. As usual. Evening. Read in ‘ Grandi- son.' " .Two weeks later: "Went to Mr. Bull's . . . to get the second volume of 'Grandison ' which I have read almost through." The Saturday following she writes : " Have been so much reading 'Grandison' that other things have been neglected." This is the last we hear of Sir Charles. How any mortal could have waded through the one thousand nine hundred and thirty-three octavo pages of that famous book, even with skipping nine pages out of ten, is a mystery to all moderns. In the early days of the library, some one calling at Mr. Ezekiel Cowles's remarks: "Egbert is now reading the ' Lady of the Lake,' which seems to be a very fashionable book about here."
Schools and music, debating clubs, books, and serious conversation filled up but a small part of the leisure hours of society. Five o'clock teas and evening parties assembling by invitation were not in vogue. Families were larger than now, and the young people from one house had but to join their cousins across the street to make the liveliest gath- erings. Others dropped in, and, somewhere every night, there were dancing and music and games and hearty enjoy- ment. One favorite meeting-place on a summer evening was the long flight of stone steps which led from the street up to the ever hospitable door of Squire Mix. Another favorite locality involving a somewhat longer walk which sometimes had its own attractions, was "The Maples." I think, but am not positive, that this must have been the familiar name of the residence of Gov. Treadwell, the little red house by the side of Poke Brook, near the great
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rock. Here are a few glimpses of these informal gather- ings: "To Gen. Cowles's, where we found a lively little party engaged in a family dance, with a couple of negroes to play for them. Much affability and hilarity." Or, " All the ladies were at Mr. Norton's, and the gentlemen. We played 'Button.' I was mortified by a lad's handing me the button twice following." Again: "Thursday we went to Fanny's. All the girls were there, and, among the rest, Miss N- H- -. Tim and Tim were there (afterward Major Timothy Cowles and Major Timothy Root). They proposed trying fortunes. N- tried hers. (I'll tell you how we try them.) We take a glass and a ring and tie a string around the ring and hold it in the glass and let it strike the glass, and count A, B, C, etc. N's struck M-C -. " Much previous knowledge seems to have entered into this as into most fortune-telling, for soon after- ward is was announced from the pulpit that M- C- and N- H- intend marriage. Even the weekly prayer-meeting had its social side. Here female piety came to hear the teaching of the beloved Washburn, and here, too, came young men not always of devout reputation. Until near the close of the ministry of Dr. Porter it was the fashion to seat the men on the right side of the hall in evening meetings and the women on the left, in the vain attempt to defy the strongest of nature's laws. When Dr. Porter began his ministry here, a young lady writes: " Mr. Porter addressed the gentlemen and requested them to sit down and wait till the ladies were out of the hall. We arrived safely home without any escort, as the gentlemen, alas! could not overtake us. Mr. B- got to us just as we crossed the street, after a long running." In the winter evenings the young people amused themselves with sleighrides. Commonly they drove to Southington, stop-
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ping at all the inns on the way - at least the boys did - and returning had a supper at Cook's in White Oak, and so home. Occasionally they rode to Solomon Langdon's, stopping, of course, at Thomson's by the way. Those old houses, Langdon's and Cook's, somber enough in our day, have probably seen more of mirth and good cheer than any other two in town. Here are a few specimens of a girl's experiences : "February 23, 1798, . . . We went to Mr. Jonathan Thomson's; came back. Coming by the meeting-house, the bell rang [9 o'clock, of course]. Down to Mr. Dunham's we went; stayed there about an hour, then down to Mr. Job Lewis's, then to Mr. Selah Lewis's. All abed. Came back to Mr. Dunham's. We stayed there about an hour longer. Got home about 2 o'clock. Got to bed and asleep about 3." One more account must suf- fice. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1799 they planned a sleighride, but an inopportune rain carried off all the snow; this, however, made no difference; they went all the same. " Cleared off at noon; took the stage and went out to Langdon's to dine. On the back seat were four, S-, F-, B-, and myself. Next N- H- , and D-, and A-M-, Next L-, and M- N-H-, G-, and M -. Dick Gleason, negro, drove four horses. T- C, T- R-, T-, and S- on horseback. Had a very good dinner, fried fowls, pies, chicken-pies, and cake. There was a live owl there, and after we got seated in the stage it was flung in, and then - what a screaming! Set out to come home and the boys got whipping and running horses. Very muddy. You may depend I was frightened. The girls' white cloaks were covered with mud, and Sukey told me this afternoon she had been washing hers and could not get it out. In the evening went to the ball. Had a very good one. Thir-
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teen ladies and about as many gentlemen." Fifteen years later we have a picture of social life in Farmington by the same Mr. E. D. Mansfield, who gave us his impressions of the school of Miss Sally Pierce. He says: " In August, 1815, my father took me to Farmington, Conn., to pre- pare, under a private tutor, to enter college preparatory to the study of law. . . . As this was to me a new and striking life, I will give a little description of it, chiefly for the sake of the inside view I had of New England society. My tutor, Mr. Hooker, was a descendant of one of the old New England families, and had all the charac- teristics of the Puritans; was very religious and exact in all his duties. He lived on what had been a farm, but a por- tion of it had been embraced in the town. Having got forward in the world, he had built a new house. His old house was one of the oldest in the country, large, dark-red, with a long, sharp, projecting roof. This was the residence and schoolroom of the students, and we called it ‘Old Red.' There were about fourteen of us, from nearly as many states. There we lodged and there we recited, while we took our meals at Mr. Hooker's. His son, John, af- terward married Miss Isabella Beecher.
" Mr. Hooker was a deacon in the church - the church, I say, emphatically, for it was the only one in the village - a monument remaining to the old and unquestioned ortho- doxy of New England. It stood on the little green, its high, sharp spire pointing to heaven. The pastor of that church was Mr. Porter, who preached there for nearly half a century [sixty years]. He was the father of the present Noah Porter, president of Yale College. Mr. Hooker took a large pew for the students, and he told us to make notes of the sermon, upon which he questioned us. I was always thankful for this exercise, for I got into such
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a habit of analyzing discourses that, if the speaker had any coherence at all, I could always give the substance of the sermon or address. This is, to a newspaper man, a useful talent. I have tried to discover what was the religious effect of this continual hearing and analyzing sermons, but could not find any. Such exercises become a habit, and are purely intellectual. A striking figure is sometimes re- membered, but any spiritual effect is wanting on young people who have not learned to think seriously. I re- member one of Mr. Porter's illustrations of the idea of · death, which I think he must have taken from Sir Walter Scott's 'Talisman.' At any rate Scott has beautifully de- scribed it in that work. It is that of Saladin, who, in the midst of the most splendid fête, surrounded by his chiefs, had the black banner unfolded, on which was inscribed, ' Saladin, remember thou must die!' Mr. Porter was more than half a century minister in that parish, and a most suc- cessful clergyman, honored in his life and in his death. Such was the ministration of the church to me, but I must say that in the service the chief objects of my devotion were the bright and handsome girls around. At that time, and to a great degree yet in a New England village, out of the great stream of the world, its young women were the largest part of the inhabitants, and by far the most in- teresting. The young men usually emigrated to the cities of the West, in the hopes of making fortunes. The old people were obliged to remain to take care of the home- steads, and the young women stayed also.
" No place illustrated this better than Farmington, where there were at least five young women to one young man. The advent of the students was, of course, an inter- esting event to them. And a young gentleman in his nine- teenth year was not likely to escape wholly the bright shafts
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which, however modestly directed, he was sure to encounter. I soon became acquainted with these young ladies, and never passed a pleasanter time than when days of study were relieved by evenings in their society. My father went with me to Farmington and introduced me to the Hon. Timothy Pitkin. This gentleman was then a very distin- guished.man. He was one of the leading men of the old Federal party. He was sixteen years a representative from the State of Connecticut, and had written a very good book on the civil history and statistics of this country. He was a plain man of the old school, living in an old-fash- ioned house near the church. In two or three weeks after I had been in ' Old Red,' Mr. Pitkin called upon me and said his daughters would be glad to see me on a certain evening. Of course I accepted; and on that evening, ar- rayed in my unrivalled blue coat, with brass buttons, cra- vated and prinked, according to the fashion, I presented my- self at Mr. Pitkin's. It was well I had been accustomed to good society, for never was there a greater demand for moral courage. On entering the parlor I saw one young man leaning on the mantel-piece, and around the room (for I counted them) were eighteen young ladies! During the evening my comrade and self were reinforced by two or three students, but five made the whole number of young men who appeared during the evening. The gentleman who was in the room when I entered it was Mr. Thomas Perkins of Hartford, who afterward married Miss Mary Beecher, the daughter of Dr. Lyman Beecher. The town of Farmington furnished but one beau during the evening, and I found out afterward that there were but two or three in the place; I mean in that circle of society. This was perhaps an extreme example of what might have been found in all the villages of New England, where, in the
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same circle of society, there were at least three girls to one young man. You may be sure that when I looked upon that phalanx of eighteen young women, even the assurance of a West Point cadet gave way. But the perfect tact of the hostess saved me from trouble. This was Miss Ann Pitkin, now Mrs. Denio, her husband being Mr. Denio, late Chief-Justice of New York. Miss Pitkin evidently saw my embarrassment, which was the greater from my being near-sighted. She promptly came forward, offered me a chair, and, introducing me to the ladies, at once began an animated conversation. In half an hour I felt at home, and was ever grateful to Miss Pitkin.
" I will mention here, as one of the characteristics of New England manners, that Mr. and Mrs. Pitkin never once entered the room on this occasion, and the older people never appeared at any of the parties or sleighrides given by the young people, or at any gatherings not public. This was contrary to the custom of my father's house, where people of all ages attended the parties, and my mother was the most conspicuous person and the most agreeable of entertainers. . . The evening passed pleasantly away, and I was launched into Farmington society. As there were only three of us at the close of the entertainment to escort the young ladies home, it was fortunate that Farm- ington was built almost entirely in one street, so one of us took the girls who went down street; one, those who went up the street, and a third those who branched off. Of these young ladies more than half bore one name, that of Cowles. I was told there were in that township three hundred persons of the name of Cowles. There were on the main street five families of brothers, in all of which I visited, and to whom I was indebted for many pleasant hours. . . The time had now come for me to leave
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Farmington. My sleighrides, my parties, my pleasant visits, and, alas! my pleasant friends, were to be left for- ever. My path lay in different and sometimes far less pleasant scenes. I well remember the bright morning on which I stood on Mr. Pitkin's step, bidding farewell to my kind and gentle friend, Mary Pitkin .* Married and moved away, she soon bade farewell to this world, where she seemed, like the morning flower, too frail and too gentle to survive the frost and the storm."
The vast range of amusements which now enter largely into social life were scarcely known sixty years ago. School exhibitions were the nearest approach to the theater, and card parties were held of doubtful morality. Deacon Bull, compiling material for Gov. Treadwell to use in his " Sta- tistical History of Farmington," wrote what he knew of the amusements of the village, though both worthies prob- ably knew less of amusements than of theology. He writes : " Their diversions and amusements are various, according to their different ages. The former generations had for their amusements the more athletic exercises, such as wrestling, hopping, jumping, or leaping over walls or fences, balls, quoits, and pitching the bar, also running and pac- ing horses, especially on public days when collected from all parts of the town. Some of these diversions are still in fashion, especially balls, but the most polite and fash- ionable amusements now are dancing at balls or assemblies, card-playing, and backgammon. There are also hunting and fishing, both by hook and seine. The mountains afford
· Afterward the wife of John T. Norton, a native of Farmington, to which place he returned to reside before reaching middle age, after a period of very successful business in Albany. His wife died early. She was the mother of Prof. John P. Norton of Yale College, who also died before reaching middle age. - J. Hooker.
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plenty of game, such as squirrels, partridges, and some turkeys and foxes. The river abounds with plenty of small fish, such as pike, trout, dace, etc. In this diversion gentlemen and ladies both unite, and in the pleasant part of the summer ride out to the most agreeable part of the meadow near the margin of the river, where are de- lightful shade trees with green and pleasant herbage for the accommodation of a large number of people to walk, fish, or eat, which renders the amusement delightful." Another out-of-door amusement was the Annual Field Day. This is how it impressed a quiet, unmilitary spectator. " September 25. Some rain. Review Day. Street full of men and horses and carriages and mud, etc. A regiment of cavalry was out and part of the regiment of infantry. Afternoon. The troops marched off into the meadow and the town was quiet for two or three hours." A young girl observes, "In the afternoon rode out in the stage upon the Plain with seventeen in the stage. Stayed a few hours and became quite tired of field day. I was shocked to see the indelicacy with which some of my sex appeared. It wounded my delicacy to see girls of seventeen encircled in the arms of lads. From the field I repaired to the ball. I returned home about 12."
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