USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington town clerks and their times (1645-1940) > Part 15
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At this same meeting it was voted that Timothy Pitkin, Lemual Whitman, Horace Cowles, Augustus Bodwell, Asahel Thomson, Timothy Porter, Edward Hooker, Egbert Cowles and Timothy Cowles be a committee to inquire into the ex- pediency of authorizing the erection of a meeting-house for the use of the Methodist Society in this town upon the meeting house green. At a meeting held November 29, the committee reported that they found after examination, that the meeting house green or square, had, from the first settlement of the town, been reserved and used, by the inhabitants of the Town,
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"solely for publick purposes" and that in their opinion, it was practicable to erect a Methodist Meeting House on the north part of said green, and on the east line thereof, without inter- fering materially with the other public buildings on the green. They stipulated, however, that "the said Augustus Bodwell and his associates, inhabitants of the Town of Farmington and members of the Methodist Episcopal Society in said Town for the purpose of religious worship, build on the Northeast part of said green; the east part of said House to be located on the east line of said Green, the southeast corner of said House to be about seventy five feet from a large stone monument, which is the Northeast corner of said Green and to extend West and so that the south line of said House will range with the south line of the Academy, now built on said Green; said House not to exceed in length seventy five feet and fifty feet in width; and is to be erected on the following terms and conditions: that the said House is to be used and occupied, by the said Augustus Bodwell and his associates, during the time and so long as, they shall be and remain inhabitants of the said town of Farmington, and by no other person or persons whomsoever, as a Methodist Meeting House." The meeting house burned to the ground July 3, 1897.
That night of July 3, 1897, was a Saturday night and accord- ing to the accounts of the older residents who remember it, was one of Farmington's wild nights. Some of the young men were determined to celebrate their independence by ringing the church bell. They had been forestalled the year previous, de- spite the fact that they had turned a fire hose, from the nearby firehouse, on Deputy Sheriff Gustavus Cowles who was on guard in the belfry. The Hartford Courant for July 5, 1897 said:" ... There was a great deal of excitement as the fire was believed to be incendiary. Alfred Hardy who had charge of the church had six deputy sheriffs from the surrounding towns at the church last night to prevent the bell from being rung, assisted by about twenty men from about the town. The church was totally destroyed. It was a frame building about sixty by forty feet with a small steeple."
A battle which raged through the center of the town during
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most of the night, with cannon being fired and kettles being beaten along Main Street, ended in a march to the church with its ultimate destruction. So say the "old residents." Others re- member attending Yale Glee Club concerts there, and church suppers and prayer meetings, both typical of those years of great repasts, and fervid prayers.
The site of the church is now mostly green lawn in front of the Barney Memorial Library.
April 7, 1834, Sidney Wadsworth and Richard Cowles were elected to represent the town in the General Assembly.
January 5, 1837, it was voted to build a bridge above Perry's Bridge, at a place called the rocks, near Youngs' mill, provided the County Court shall have previously discontinued the Perry Bridge and released the town from the liability of maintaining the same.
The Selectmen were also directed at this meeting to remove the engine house to some more convenient place, that it might no longer interfere with the horse sheds lately erected.
January 23, 1837, Horace Cowles was appointed Agent of the town to receive from the treasury of the State the proportion of money recently deposited by the Government as specified in the act entitled "An Act accepting the deposits of a portion of the surplus funds belonging to the United States, providing for the safe keeping thereof, and appropriating the interest accruing therefrom for the promotion of education and other purposes" and give a receipt therefor, for the Town.
December 4, 1837, a set of twelve rules for the conduct of town meetings was voted and the selectmen were instructed to print and distribute 500 copies. Rule I was for the election of a moderator, clerk, selectmen and road commissioner; rule 2 was for the presentation of town matters and reports by the select- men; then followed rules for the preservation of decorum at meetings; powers of the moderator to decide questions unless "doubted;" his right to ballot in case of a tie, but not otherwise; rule 8 forbade any member to speak more than twice unless permitted by the meeting; rule 9 forbade debate after the ques- tion, and also any private conversation during debate; rule IO called for each motion to be repeated by the moderator and
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reduced to writing; rule II restrained any other business after a motion was made and seconded, except to amend, commit or postpone; and rule 12 dealt with such members as were out of order, giving the moderator power to decide the case or call on the meeting to do so, but without debate.
December 18, 1837, the townspeople were wroth against the Canal Company and directed the selectmen to insist that the canal embankments and bridges be properly protected with railings. One bridge took the road over the canal at the foot of present Garden Street. There were two sharp turns on the present Waterville Road, one bridge taking the road west of the canal for about the distance of the present golf course, with another sharp turn carrying the road east of the canal. Another bridge near the Deeds gate kept the canal east of the road until the last one carried the road over again, as the canal turned toward the aqueduct and over the Farmington River.
The selectmen were also directed to put the engine house in as good condition as it was before it was moved.
In that year, for the first time in the recorded meetings, we find anxiety concerning the use of intoxicating liquor. As was characteristic with the town fathers, they discussed the matter, and voted.
"Whereas the moral, social, civil and pecuniary interests of the people of this town have suffered and are continuing to suffer serious injury from the habitual and intemperate use of intoxicating liquors among a portion of the community; and whereas it is the duty of the informing, judicial and executive officers to employ all the necessary powers, which the consti- tution and the laws have entrusted to them for protecting the people against the evil consequences of prevalent vice and crime, so in a special manner, it is their duty to employ these powers in protecting them from the evils of intemperance in particular; inasmuch as this vice is the fruitful source of a vast amount of crime and misery; and is in aggravated forms con- tinually appearing and re-appearing among us; disturbing and destroying the peace of families and neighborhoods, and des- perately resisting all the ordinary influences of a mild and moral character which are employed to suppress it; therefore;
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"Resolved: That as a town in legal meeting assembled, we pledge ourselves faithfully and firmly to stand by, and support those officers who are, or may be appointed, for the ensuing year, so far as they will faithfully endeavor to support the laws, and especially, so far as they will with integrity and wisdom, enforce the laws against drunkenness, and the irregular sale of intoxicating liquors.
"Yeas 67, Nays oo."
February, 1839, evidently saw great floods, for the selectmen and Sidney Wadsworth were directed to examine the new bridge at Youngs' Mills and report soon on the best method, and cost of repairing the same. It was decided to repair the bridge, "if they can arrange with adjoining proprietors to risk their own property," otherwise to report on the expense of removing the bridge. March 18, 1839, the bridge at Unionville was to be "raised three feet, with the embankments adapted accordingly, to restore it to its former condition, before the late freshet."
January 13, 1840, a license fee of $100 was voted as re- quired from such persons as sold spiritous liquors, "this vote is offered for the purpose of having the persons who may be li- censed pay a fair portion of the extra poverty."
November 23, 1840, the town clerk was directed to record a notice of the "Centennial Celebration" of the settlement of the town, held November 4, 1840.
The Committee for the celebration was representative of Farmington and her daughter towns: for Farmington, Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., Horace Cowles, Esq., Edward Hooker, Esq., Dr. Asahel Thomson, Simeon Hart, Esq .; Avon, Amasa Woodford, Esq., Zerah Woodford, Esq .; West Hartford, John Belden; New Britain, Dr. John R. Lee; Worthington, Dr. Horatio Gridley; Kensington, Roswell Moore; Southington, Stephen Walkley, Esq .; Bristol, Tracy Peck, Esq .; Burlington, William Marks, Esq.
By vote of the town, the program and brief minutes were made a part of the Town Minutes. They were not recorded until 1841 by Deacon Simeon Hart who had been appointed town clerk following the death of Horace Cowles three months
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after the celebration. Simeon Hart was a scholar and left his own word picture:
"The following was the order of Exercises
"I. Reading of the Scriptures by Rev. Erastus Scranton of Burlington.
2. Hymn - By Dr. E. P. Terry, Hartford.
3. Prayer - By Dr. Porter.
4. Singing - 'Happy the land.'
5. Historical Discourse by Rev. N. Porter Fun.
6. Hymn- By Rev. Royal Robbins, Kensington.
7. Poem - By Mrs. Emma Willard (*)
8. Prayer - By Rev. David L. Parmelee, Bristol.
9. Hymn - By Rev. R. Robbins.
"The exercises in the church being concluded the congre- gation withdrew to the green to partake of a collation previously provided in the open air. Apart from the other tables, were two very old ones covered with dishes, served up in ancient style. After partaking of the collation, and indulging for a while in social conversation, the people united in singing the 100th Psalm, 'Before Jehovah's Awful Throne'
"IO. Benediction - By Dr. Porter.
"The day was very pleasant for the season, & nothing oc- curred to mar the interest or pleasure of the occasion; & it is believed many good impressions were made & new resolutions formed, to transmit to posterity the privileges & institutions received from our Fathers.
"May those who succeed us, and are alive in 1940, in the possession of all the valuable institutions we leave to them, unite to celebrate a day commemorative of the settlement of this ancient Town.
"The 'Historical Discourse' is printed and one copy de- posited in the Historical Society's Library Hartford, and an- other in the Library of Yale College. It contains an appendix in which is exhibited many interesting facts, relating to the past History of the Town.
"Entered by permission of the Town.
Simeon Hart Town Clerk"
*The poem by Emma Hart Willard was her oft-quoted Bride Stealing.
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The first suggestion was made at that time, of a fire-proof building for a record office "if it should cost no more than $3,000." and Horace Cowles, the selectmen, Simeon Hart, Egbert Cowles and Sidney Wadsworth were appointed a com- mittee to consider the matter. Also, the record books were evi- dently wearing shabby, and they were to be repaired if the cost should not be too great. January 1, 1841, the selectmen were directed to have the first, second and seventh volumes of the town records "receive a new binding and have them well bound; provided the expense shall not exceed fifteen dollars."
Permission was given at that meeting, probably for the first and last time, "for Giles M. Porter to carry the first four volumes of the Town Records to New Milford, to be returned in four days, for the use of his brother in preparing historical notices of this town."
At that meeting Henry Mygatt, Samuel Deming and Calvin Hatch were appointed a committee to inquire into the facts relating to a prosecution instituted by Henry Thomson against Abi Thomson for fast traveling on the North Bridge; and also for malicious prosecution in the above case.
Also voted was a direction that "the selectmen pay to the Society Committee a reasonable sum for the use of the Hall for Town Meetings." This referred to the use of the hall in the Academy. On the same page, in the handwriting of Deacon Simeon Hart, next town clerk, we read "Horace Cowles Esqr. died much lamented Feb. 6th, 1841. Ae. 58."
In the Bicentennial year of 1840, the School Society known is Middle District, now the Center District, voted an appro- riation for the red stone marker in Riverside Cemetery as a memorial to the Indians whose home was on the river bank, whose happy hunting ground can be seen from the location marked by the stone, and whose bones were buried overlooking their ancient home and the river known to them as the Tunxis Sepus, or Little Crooked River.
The epic of the Mendi, or Amisted Negroes in Farmington, s an integral part of the two years these captive Africans spent n Connecticut.
There is no official record of their being here (with the ex-
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ception of the death of Fooni who was drowned in the Canal Basin), but we have extracts from A History of the Amisted Captives by John W. Barber; reminiscences as told by the late Elijah Lewis to Miss Julia Brandegee in 1898; and personal recollections written in 1901 by Julia (Strong) Brown, daughter of Dr. Chauncey Brown. Sixty years after the Mendians had left Farmington, Charles Ledyard Norton recalled what he could. And in 1941 a roving reporter for The New Yorker maga- zine, chanced on a painting of Cinque in the Metropolitan Mu- seum, sensed a story, and what with the Court Records of the case and some imagination, wrote an excellent account of these people and the important role they played in pre-abolishionist days. East by Day by Blair Niles, published in 1940, gave a vivid picture of the captive Africans and their self-appointed masters, with a running story of the trials by which responsi- bility was fixed and their status decided. Farmington was scarcely mentioned in these accounts, but it was here the black men and girls found homes and friends. They responded with loyalty and sincere interest in the efforts made to educate them. Probably what Farmington did for these captured people before they were returned to Mendi land in Africa, was equalled if not surpassed by what the Mendians did for the abolition of slavery. Every newspaper north of the Mason and Dixon line gloried in the human interest story. The entire episode of the forcible removal of the free Africans, their agonizing voyage to Cuba where they were sold and their own efforts, ill-advised, but fundamental, to return to their home, struck a responsive and sympathetic chord all through the North.
Captured by slave traders in 1839, chained in the hold of a slave boat, so close to one another that one man's knees em- braced the back of another, with only four feet of headroom and forcibly fattened for market, many died on the way to Cuba, but forty-nine men and three young girls lived to bring $450 apiece.
Despite the acceptance by Spain in 1820, of 400,000 pounds from England to relinquish slave trade, business was fairly brisk in Cuba, with Government officials receiving their "cut." This particular load of Africans was sold to Don José Ruiz and
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Don Pedro Mantez. These two Spanish Dons set sail with their cargo for the port of Guanaja, three hundred miles east of Havana, planning to sell the men and girls there. For this pur- pose they chartered "a long, low, black schooner" of about 120 tons burden, with Captain Ferrer in command. Two days out, one of the captives was told by the cook, with a misplaced sense of humor, that they were all being taken away to be killed and eaten. This, one of the slaves testified later, "made our hearts burn." It was then that Cinque, vigorous, intelligent beyond the others, took command of the situation, led the mutiny, killed the captain and compelled, so far as he under- stood how to do so, his masters of two days, to sail the vessel back to Mendi. The portrait in the Metropolitan Museum is captioned as being done by Nathaniel Jocelyn and owned by The New Haven Colony Historical Society. It is exactly similar in detail to a reproduction of an engraving by John Sartain, published in Farmington Village of Beautiful Homes and is a fascinating study of a strong, young black man. His eyes show brooding intelligence, the mouth is firm and the whole face is set in lines of courage and leadership. These qualities he dem- onstrated many times in the next two years.
For two months the two Spanish Dons, now not masters, but wounded and suffering after the mutiny, were forced to sail the vessel toward Africa during the day. Cinque had remem- bered that on the trip to Cuba the rising sun was always back of them, consequently, he reasoned, to return home, they would sail toward the rising sun. But at night, he was powerless and it was then that the two Spaniards made their desperate efforts to return to Cuba, by sailing east by day but west by night. They finally found themselves, after many adventures, off the southeast coast of Long Island where they were taken by the Coast Survey brig, the Washington, Lieutenant Gedney in command. Taken from New London to New Haven for trial on charges of murder and piracy, Cinque admitted that he had killed the Captain of the Amisted and the cook, in order to gain Freedom for himself and his countrymen, (a privilege under- stood in any country) and addressed his fellow prisoners on
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more than one occasion, telling them to be brave and not value their lives above their duty to their brothers.
The trial might have been extremely difficult had not Pro- fessor J. W. Gibbs of the Yale Divinity School solved the prob- lem of language. After obtaining from the captives their names for numerals from one to ten, he visited the docks in New York harbor until he found a negro sailor who understood, when accosted, the Mendi words. With the interpreter, the story of the free black men was soon in the Court records, in every newspaper and on every tongue. Out of the original case arose others. The government of Spain demanded their extradition. Great Britain pleaded for leniency. Several abolitionists, in the name of Cinque, brought suit against Montez and Ruiz for damages for false imprisonment. "President Martin Van Buren, worried about the Southern vote in the 1840 election, sent a warship to New Haven with orders to sieze the Negroes immediately if the trial should go against them." The Court ruled that the Negroes were kidnapped into slavery and there- fore legally free. An appeal was taken by the government.
The case finally came before the United States Supreme Court in February 1841. Ex-President John Quincy Adams befriended the captives and eloquently argued their case. The Supreme Court ruled that the Negroes were neither slaves nor subjects of Spain, that "they must be declared free, and be dis- missed from the custody of the Court, and go without delay".
It was then that they were brought to Farmington, probably in wagons, although one account puts them on a Canal boat. It was in that year that Mr. Austin F. Williams, grandfather of Miss Amy Vorce, built his new home, now the Vorce home- stead and here he built adequate quarters for the men and women. Here in the stone store, now on Mill Lane, all of the Africans attended school and learned to read, write and recite many of the Psalms and the Lord's Prayer. Some of the girls were taken by Farmington families and given every oppor- tunity to learn to cook, sew and garden. Mrs. Chauncey Brown took Tamie into her home, answering her many questions, teaching her to live a civilized life, and missing her after she returned to her own home in Mendiland.
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One of the young men remained in Farmington. A stone in Riverside Cemetery reads: "Foone A native African who was drowned while bathing in the Center Basin Aug. 1841. He was ne of the Company of Slaves under Cinque on board the Schooner Amisted who asserted their rights and took possession of the Vessal after having put the Captain, Mate and others o death, sparing their Masters, Ruiz and Montez." The day before Foone was drowned he told Chauncey Rowe, "Foone going to see his Mother, he very homesick."
The Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin of New Haven, Mr. Lewis Tappan of New York, Ex-President John Quincy Adams, Hon. Samuel Deming and John Treadwell Norton of Farmington vere some of the men who took active and effective interest n the Africans.
In January, 1842, the lonely and heartsick Africans rejoiced n being back in their own native Mendi land, largely through charitable efforts of local citizens and the Missionary Society.
Cinque illustrated more than any of the others, the value of is life with the white men. He lived at the mission station and erved there as an interpreter until his death in 1880.
ONE
OF THE GUARDIAN
ANGELS
Simeon Har
1841-1853
THE accent on the life of Deacon Simeon Hart, was an insatiable desire for learning, leading him early in life to desire to impart his own knowledge to others, always studying and in turn teach- ing. He realized that as he taught, he also learned, and was student as well as teacher all of his life.
Not content with his long and successful years as an in- structor he originated the now famous Hart Genealogy, work- ing on it until his death April 30, 1853. This volume contains the only known likeness of Deacon Hart, as its frontispiece.
Far-sighted in finances as in education, he is credited with being the originator of the Farmington Savings Bank, and was its first secretary and treasurer.
But as master of the Hart School for Boys he achieved a rep- utation as fresh and vivid today as ever. Born in Burlington November 17, 1795, he was the fifth son of eleven children. He taught school in order that he might attend Yale college, and was graduated in 1823. He settled in Farmington and the following year, on December 9, 1824, married Abigail Maria, only daughter of Asa Andrews, famous designer and craftsman in japanned-ware, pewter and silver, who had his shop and home in the small brick house at the junction of Town Street and Back Lane, now the home of Mrs. Mary (Scott) Crossman.
Asa Andrews gave "for love and affection and eight hundred dollars" his home, next south of the brick shop (now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Allen) to Simeon and Abigail Hart, where they lived and where their two children were born. Simeon Hart later purchased from the Wadsworth family,
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Simeon Hart
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twenty rods of land to add to his home lot and agreed to "keep the fence as long as water should run or grass shall grow."
Abigail Hart died in 1838 and on November 6, 1839, Mr. Hart married Abby Eliza Langdon of Hartford. Five children were born of this marriage, of whom the late John Hooker Hart was the youngest, being less than two years old at the death of his father in 1853. John Hart was a well-known farmer here all of his life, being particularly famous for his steers. He lived on part of the land which was once the home of the Hart School, now known as "Hart House" and owned and occupied by Miss Rose Churchill on Main Street.
The only surviving descendant of Deacon Simeon Hart now living in Farmington is Mrs. Ellen (Hart) Risley who lives on Colton Street. There is an interesting, if difficult-to-prove tra- dition, that her house is one of the very early schoolhouses of Farmington. It does not fit the foundation on which it stands, the site being that of the Thomas Bull house. The general archi- tecture of the house, and its dimensions, would make it coincide with the measurements of the early schoolhouses.
The Middle District, as the Central Village School was known then, began voting, and rescinding its votes, for a new school in 1849. Their first plan was to purchase the academy building. This plan was soon dropped and the discussions were for and against a new school, the cost gradually rising from $2,000, to the final figure of $4,500. The old school which was built on the Meeting House Green about 1747, was sold at auction to the highest bidder and the land on which it had stood was, by vote at a District meeting, quit-claimed to the Ecclesiastical Society for the sum of $400. At the first meeting, held in the new school October 27, 1851, built on the southwest corner of land purchased from Samuel Deming, the committee reported that they had sold the old schoolhouse, the necessary brick, lumber, etc., but without giving the name of the purchaser. Simeon Hart was clerk of many of these meetings, and as the present Risley house has been in the family for three genera- tions, the tradition of its being the ancient schoolhouse seems well founded.
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