USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington town clerks and their times (1645-1940) > Part 9
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of those hot moments enables us to smile now at their anxieties, even as we appreciate their sacrifices and principles.
William Judd was by training and inheritance, as much as by inclination, eminently fitted for the chairmanship of the Committee of Correspondence. Since the first settler arrived in Farmington, the family of Thomas Judd, immigrant, had been conspicuous in the civic and religious interests of the town. Major William Judd was descended from Thomas's eldest son William and his wife, Mary, daughter of John Steele. He was born July 20, 1743 and his father was William. In 1765 he mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of Ebenezer and Anna (Goodwin) Mix of West Hartford. Their son John Mix was to be the next town clerk. Major Judd was admitted to the bar in the year of his marriage and during the rest of his life was a promi- nent and leading man in the affairs of the town and colony. He was commissioned Major of the 24th Regiment of militia of the colony in 1775. John Mix was ensign in Captain Judd's company, Colonel Wyllys' regiment in 1777.
In addition to being chairman of the Committee of Corre- spondence he was chairman of the powerful Committee of Inspection. In September 1774 he drew an agreement, signed by seventy Farmington men, to march to the defense of Boston with thirty hundred weight of lead, 10,000 French flints and thirty-six barrells of powder. The following spring when word came by exhausted and foam-flecked courier (who in four days of riding had spread the alarm through Connecticut) immedi- ately one hundred men marched under the command of Fisher Gay.
Frederick Lodge, No. 14, of the Free and Accepted Masons, with several of the fraternity residing in Farmington, was organized September 18, 1787, receiving its charter from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts nearly two years before the Grand Lodge of Connecticut was formed. Major William Judd was a delegate to the convention which organized the Grand Lodge of the State and was made chairman.
In October 1794 Daniel Curtiss and his son Eleazer sold their new house, built by them 1783, to Major William Judd and his son, William Samuel Judd. The house still stands on
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the northwest corner of Main Street, near the old store. Gone now, however are the barns, store and other buildings, and gone too the sadler's shop which the Curtis' reserved from the sale, to remove to their new location.
At the State constitutional convention in New Haven, called in 1804 and attended by delegates from ninety-seven towns, Major Judd presided over the session, which was held behind closed doors and ended with an address by him to the people, followed by a "pamphlet war" in which some of the Federalists sided with the anti-Federalists. Once again Major Judd partici- pated in the doings of the anti-Federalist or Democrat-Repub- lican party, as it was called, when in August 1804 he presided at a convention called by Pierpont Edwards, which met in Middletown August 29. Of the resolutions adopted, 101,000 copies were sent over the State. "After defeat of that party in the fall, the Federals thought to discipline five justices of the peace who had attended the convention, which had attacked the Constitution they were sworn to uphold. Professor Edward Daggett of New Haven represented the Federals; Edwards de- fended the justices of the peace - whose commissions were revoked."
Meantime, Major Judd had sold his interest in the Main Street house to his son, William Samuel, who immediately mort- gaged it to the State of Connecticut for $1,250.00. When Major Judd died at Farmington November 11, 1804, he left little es- tate - so little that commissioners were appointed to adjust his obligations. He left, however, the best estate of all - a good name.
The first Farmington Company was complete and began its march to Boston on May 18, 1775, being the sixth company of General Joseph Spencer's regiment. The officers were Noadiah Hooker, captain; Peter Curtis and Joseph Byington, lieutenants; Amos Wadsworth, ensign; and Roger Hooker, order-sergeant. Julius Gay, in his paper on Farmington in the Revolution, gives us the benefit of not only his extensive and thoughtful studies, but of many letters to which he had access, and without which so much detail of the war, as well as the names of many who fought, might be utterly lost. Most of the
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soldiers were first of all farmers and they went to service for a few weeks or months, returning to their farms for planting or harvesting, and then going on again to the front. It was some- times a casual and none too well organized system with no other record of many of the skirmishes and journeys than come to light in just such old letters and diaries. They had no uniforms and their arms were slowly and carefully made only by private armorors. The bounty of (£) ten voted by the town for each man who enlisted was a very real aid in preparing him for the wars and, with the town aid for soldiers' families, some- thing to insure food and warm clothing for a short time. It was in no wise intended as a reward for enlistment, rather as an aid to those who were to need clothing and shelter, food and seed.
Dr. Timothy Hosmer, who lived in the red house at the corner of Hartford Road and College Highway, long the village doctor, was assigned the duty of examining Andre's pulse and declaring him dead.
Deacon Richards, afterward Farmington's first postmaster and a future town clerk, kept a diary from which we quote, regarding the battle of Bunker Hill: "The almost constant fire of the enemy produced one effect probably not contemplated by them. It hardened our soldiers rapidly to stand and bear fire. One night a ball passed through my apartment in the bar- racks, a few feet over me, as I lay in my berth. Such things, hav- ing become common, we thought little of them."
The Farmington men made their preparations to leave as soon as they heard of the necessity there. They were kept in Roxbury during the siege of Boston and the inactivity, irksome and disappointing, led to various pranks, minor in nature, but disturbing to military discipline and greatly annoyed General Washington. We are indebted to journals and letters left by Amos and Fenn Wadsworth and Roger Hooker and to Colonel Fisher Gay for about the only information we have of Farm- ington men in the Revolution.
Fisher Gay lived in a large white house which stood on the present site of the Country Club. He was a member of most of the town and church committees, being one of those towns-
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men who could be depended upon to take a journey or a task and see it through, whether it took him to the Maine woods for timber for the new church, or to the legislature to protest against an unwelcome suit in which the town was involved. He was ordered by George Washington to purchase powder for the army, a task which brought the general's commendation. He died at the battle of Long Island and is supposed to be buried in Trinity church yard in New York. Many of his de- scendants are living in Farmington-among them being Mrs. Ernest Hyde Cady and her children and Miss Florence Gay.
Amos and Fenn Wadsworth owned and operated a shop on the site of the present William Sheffield Cowles homestead at the outbreak of the war. Here they sold drugs, groceries, hard- ware and household necessities. The letters of Amos Wads- worth afford much detail of the life and varied activities of the Farmington men at camp. Under date of June 12, 1775 he wrote:
."A week ago last Friday about one hundred of our men went to one of the islands to assist some of the Whigs in getting off their families and effects. They brought off about 500 sheep, some cattle and horses, and took a boat belonging to one of the transport ships with three men as they were fishing near the shore. ... She is now launched in a large pond about 100 yards from us, very convenient for us to fish and sail in." He also tells in detail of the midnight expedition to Long Island. There were forty-five whale boats in the party and they brought back cattle, hogs, horses and sheep and prisoners of war.
Amos Wadsworth was the recipient of one letter from Dr. Timothy Hosmer in which the Doctor described in detail the lack of sympathy of the Rev. John Smalley of New Britain, with the observance of the Continental Fast and the result- ing breach between him and his friends. Dr. Hosmer wrote in part: "We look upon it as implicitly denying all authority of Congress. It hath awakened his best friends against him. Even Lieut Porter, Mr. Bull, and John Treadwell say they cannot see any excuse for him, and I verily believe the com- mittee will take up the matter and call him to answer for his conduct. There hath happened a terrible rumpus at Water-
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bury with the Tories there. . .. They had near 100 Tories col- lected upon the occasion and were together until ten o'clock. They dispersed and there was nothing done to humble them, but I apprehend the next opportunity I have to write I shall be able to inform you that Smalley and they, too, will be handled."
Rev. John Smalley was pastor of the New Britain church, and at that time had not determined which cause to espouse. Not so with the Rev. Timothy Pitkin. His pulpit, the town meetings and his letters to parishoners in camp rang with fervor and exhortation. To the first company of soldiers marching from Simsbury he preached a farewell sermon from the verse "Play the man for your country; and for the cities of your God; and the Lord do that which seemeth Him good."
Amos Wadsworth died October 29, 1775, shortly after his decision not to accompany Arnold and his expedition against Quebec. His funeral was military in detail, with crossed swords on the draped coffin and his regiment under arms. A guard of twenty men with reversed muskets and the musicians playing "Funeral Thoughts" with the funeral beat of the drum acted as escort. His mother and brother accompanied the body to its final resting place in Brookline Cemetery, where a monument stands in his memory. His brother Fenn inherited the shop and house adjacent thereto, which a few years later became the property of the Cowles family, who have made it their home- stead since that time. Fenn kept up the drug and general store business until the death of his brother, when he too joined the army. For several years he was one of the Committee of the Pay Table in Hartford. He died just after the close of the war, leaving his estate to his mother.
From Boston, Farmington soldiers marched by way of Provi- dence to New London, where they took ship for New York, in response to the earnest request for two thousand men to guard the borders of Connecticut until Washington could reach there with his army. They were wrecked on a rock in Hell Gate, but finally reached New York in safety. Deacon Elijah Porter, who, it is said, for want of a better uniform wore his wedding suit to the war, wrote of the Farmington men who were concerned
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in the first occupancy of West Point: "When General Putnam was ready to go over on the ice he called me to come to him. He then loaded me with tools for building huts, and took a heavy load himself, and bade me follow him. When we got about half a mile on the ice, he went on some shelly ice, began to slip about, and down he went with his load of tools and made the ice crack so that I thought he would go down, but the ice held him up, and I sprang round and picked up his tools and loaded him up again. We went on and arrived safe at the point."
During the occupation of New York by the British, the cor- poration of Yale college sent the freshman class to Farmington under their tutor, the Rev. John Lewis. The legislators of the State passed a bill in 1781 whereby they proposed to meet in Farmington and were offered the large house, with the upper hall unpartitioned and suitable for their meeting place, be- longing to Asahel Wadsworth, ancestor of Mr. Adrian R. Wads- worth. Members of the legislative body set forth that they found it exceedingly difficult to find lodging for themselves and forage for their horses in Hartford, so depleted were they in the last years of the war.
Washington's journeys through Farmington are extensively recorded and repeated. If he stopped here at all, as he might well have done for refreshment, it could have been at the inn of Solomon and Martha Cowles at the corner of Meadow road and Main street, it being the first one he would have found in the village on his way from Litchfield; or if he had come to the center he would have seen, and been urgently invited into, Amos Cowles's inn next the new church. If he succeeded in passing this inn, that of Seth Lee, standing where now the main house of the Porter School stands, would have attracted him, as his inn was famous. On the Main Street were also an ancient inn of the Root family, where the family had lived since their purchase in 1662. Also there was the new addition to the Wads- worth homestead - in the family since the settlement of Farmington. Mr. Phineas Lewis entertained guests in the inn where his family had lived for many generations and where the Elm Tree Inn now offers famous hospitality. And if General Washington had succeeded in passing all of these offers of rest
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and refreshment, there was one more to beckon him, for as he rode up to the cut in the mountain, and stopped to look back at the spire of the new church and the hills in the west, there was still the inn of Samuel North Jr., now the farm house on the estate of Hillstead, home of Mrs. John Wallace Riddle.
In those years of war no enemy, except those within the gates, marched through the town streets. The army of Roch- ambeau did pass through the town and encamped on their way on the plain near the South Schoolhouse. Officers were well entertained here with dinners at the homes of the residents and the evenings made comfortable and pleasant for them. Old letters tell of dances arranged and the best in food, such as was to be had, served on the finest of china - an opportunity eagerly seized upon by the good housewives who were as starved for social life as for luxuries in living.
October 13, 1926, when the Jeremiah Wadsworth chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution marked the fact of the encampment in Farmington, it was decided that the boulder should be placed where it could be seen, rather than on the field where the encampment had actually been; consequently, it is on the green in the center of the town opposite the Elm Tree Inn. A parade with dedicatory exercises at the Farm- ington church preceded the unveiling of the tablet. John Mix Deming, elder son of Judge and Mrs. Edward Hooker Deming, did the unveiling. He was six years old at the time and a de- scendant of John Mix, a Revolutionary War soldier and long associated with public life in the town - of whom more later.
The march of Rochambeau and his men from Providence to the Hudson River and on to Yorktown and victory, and their return have been so thoroughly told in history and story, it should not be attempted here, except as it concerns the Town. On the first journey of the French army Claude Blanchard, the commissary general of the army, was sent ahead to prepare the camp and arrange for the necessities for the men. He left Providence on the 14th of June and says in his diary: ". . . I did not leave Hartford until early on the 22nd. M. de Rochambeau arrived on that day with our first division and he desired me to precede them. I dined and remained at Farmington, ten or
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twelve miles from Hartford. Farmington is in a pleasant valley. I continued my journey and lay at Barons (Barnes) Tavern (which is intended for Barnes in Southington) which is situated between two steep mountains."
An ancient map, now in the Library of Congress, shows these marches of the French across the state from Providence to Yorktown, with the flanking army of General Greene on the south, accompanied by the French cavalry under Lauzun. The main army from Providence through Willton, Glastonbury, present East Hartford, Hartford, Farmington, Southington, over Breackneck to Southbury, Newtown and Danbury to Bed- ford, was guarded on the south by Generals Greene and Lauzun from Lebanon through Wallingford and Stratford in almost a straight line to Bedford.
According to a letter dated June 22, 1781, from Rochambeau to General Washington, the first regiment under Rochambeau arrived on that day in Hartford, informing his commander-in- chief that the four divisions would follow at intervals of one day, the "corps" of Lauzun who started from his headquarters at Lebanon to march as far advanced "as my first division through Middletown, Wallingford, North Haven, Ripton and North Stratford, in which place it will be on the 28th" - Consequently the northern regiments were nearly a week in Farmington, their seventh camp from Providence, which was at the south end of the village; thence going on to Southington where the next camp was made at the tavern of Ebenezer Barnes.
As the rain was very heavy, the divisions were obliged to halt there for several days. One encampment according to some of the old inhabitants of Southington, was on the hillside from the home of the late Martin W. Frisbie to opposite the home of the late Rodney Langdon. Other divisions encamped on French Hill, in the southwest part of the town, called locally Marion village. Marks of the camp pits were easily found until recently and in fields nearby have been found French coins, buttons and other indications of the visit of foreign soldiers in this Connecticut village. Allan Forbes wrote in his France and New England under the chapter "The Marches and Camp
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Sites of the French Army in New England": "The people of Southington and the nearby towns were enthusiastic in re- ceiving their allies. Some of the officers had rooms at an inn on Queen Street while others put up at a hostelry near the North Center School House. It is related that some of the most aristo- cratic houses in Southington were whitewashed, which very much puzzled the French, who believed them to be the remains of a military encampment such as they had seen in other parts of the world. Washington and Lafayette passed through the town, but an historian said that Southington was one of the few places he had heard of "in which these two had not slept." Dr. Edward Robinson used to relate that his father entertained several of the French officers one afternoon at tea. A ball was also given for the visitors at the nearby tavern of landlord Barnes and many of the girls used to boast that they had danced the cotillion with a French officer. So many of the officers pa- tronized this tavern that its proprietor, it is said, was able to retire from business soon afterward. Dr. Frisbie states that the roads were almost impassable and that a large part of the army passed by the way of Clark's Mills and took the road leading directly west.
"This camp site at French Hill in Marion is on the right of the Meriden road going west and an excellent concrete monu- ment, with a bronze plaque of Rochambeau, has been placed a few hundred yards down a small road that leads off the Meriden turnpike, the inscription on the front reading:
"'Rochambeau Lieutenant General Commanding the Aux- iliary French Armies under Washington July 10, 1780 - January II, 1783
Done by Kelly 1912.'"
We find no account of a celebration in Farmington at the end of the war. If church bells were rung, or a victory parade was arranged, there is no word of it. Having followed Farm- ington folk through the first hundred and fifty years and being fairly well acquainted with her men and women now, we may be sure they greeted those who returned with sober dignity and carefully repressed joy, going all to their churches and
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thanking God quietly, then on to the business of managing their homes and town again.
Although the treaty of peace with Great Britain was signed at Versailles January 20, 1783, word of the ending of the war did not reach Hartford and Farmington until March 27 when a letter received by Colonel Wadsworth conveyed the news. The Hartford Courant stated: "As the express came solely to bring the news, and we had no doubt of its being true, the in- habitants of this town manifested their extreme joy by the firing of cannon, ringing of bells, and in the evening fireworks and illuminations."
Immediately after the war the country hit its low spot in currency and credit. Banks were practically without cash, farmers were without credit and merchants without goods. But wise men were working in town, state and country and before another ten years had elapsed Farmington was the fore- most town in this section of the State, with a population far ahead of Hartford, merchants who had vessels on all the seas, and shops and stores in the town to fill any need. In those years the fine homes were built in the village, and the factories and power plants established in Unionville, which still stand and still contribute to the livelihood of the town.
Apropos of the post war period, Colonel Charles W. Burpee says in The Story of Connecticut "The obvious defects of the Federation and its Congress paved the way for the real Statehood at the only possible time, and its management by the members who did not think or show jealousy was little short of genius. Efforts to stabilize the currency were made difficult by the condition of the farmers and the depreciation of paper currency which had necessitated resort to mortgages. Instinc- tively there was desire for more unsupported paper money and the debtor group had assumed large proportions. ... That actually was a protest against hard times - a demand for remedy in the form of more currency, not dissimilar to demands of sundry politicians in these later years."
That Farmington saw defects in the Congressional Acts was plainly manifested in their protest as it affected states' rights.
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Their directions to their representatives bear a striking simi- larity to those expressed by Hartford votes.
Sometime during the year of 1778, but undated,
"The Inhabitants of the Town of Farmington in legall Town Meeting Convened - To Isaac Lee Jr and John Treadwell Esqrs Representatives for sd Town in the General Assembly of this State, Gentlemen - having in Pursuance of the recom- mendation of the Governor of this State Taken into Serious consideration Articles of Confederation and perpetuall Union proposed by the Honorable Congress of the United States to the Consideration and approbation of sd States we are of the opinion that there is much wisdom Conspicious in many of sd Articles which in Many Respects are hapily calculated to pro- mote the welfare and amoluments of the United States and promise the most extensive Blessings to us and Posterity. It is therefore, with the utmost pain that we find there is Discernable in some of sd Articles which bear an unfavourable aspect to the New England States and to this in particular, the Simu- larity of Costoms Manners & Sentiments of the nine western States & their opposition to the New England States in those Respects, especially on the Power of Transacting the most important business is vested in nine States gives us great appre- hension that evil consequences may follow to the prejudices of the New England States - the Method of appointing Courts for the deciding Controversies between two or more states will as the Case may be entirely exclude every person that may be nominated in the New England States, the rule of stating the Quotas of men for the Continental service in war & mode of apportioning of the Publick Expense we are constrained to say are in our opinion very objectionable although we are un- willing to believe that they were designed for the prejudice of this & the other New England States. You are therefore Di- rected to use your Influence in the General Assembly of this State by proper ways & means that the articles of Confedera- tion may be amended and altered in the Several Particulars above mentioned by Congress if such amendments can be made without manifestly Endangering the Independence and Lib- erties of the United States - The Emoluments however of the
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United States is to govern you in all your Deliberations upon the Interesting and Important Subject.
"Voted that the Articles of the Confederation are approved with the Exception above taken in these Instructions.
"Test Solomon Whitman Town Clerk."
The sport of the day was to either attack or defend the Articles of Federation, the whole bringing forth the "Federalist Papers" read with profit then or now.
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