USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Sharon > General history of the town of Sharon, Litchfield County, Conn. from its first settlement, 2nd ed. > Part 6
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the commencement of one of the hymns which was frequently sung for Sabbath worship :-
"Let tyrants shake their iron rod, And slavery clank their galling chains, We fear them not, we trust in God, New England's God forever reigns."
The intelligence of the battle of Lexington was brought to Sharon on the Sabbath, and Mr. Smith, at the close of the morning exercises, announced it from the pulpit, and made some remarks tending to arouse the spirit of the congregation to firmness and to resistance. Immediately after the congre- gation was dismissed, the militia and volunteers, to the number of one hundred men, paraded on the west side of the street, south of the meeting house, and prepared to march immedi- ately to the scene of action. David Downs, Esq., was Captain, James Brewster, Lieutenant, and David Gould, Ensign. After further deliberation, however, it was determined to send Lieu- tenant Brewster to Litchfield, to enquire more fully into the accuracy of the intelligence, and whether the service of the militia would be required immediately. Lieut. Brewster* per- formed this mission, and learning that the British had returned to Boston, and that no pressing necessity existed for further military aid, it was determined not to march, until further hostile movements on the part of the enemy should render it necessary.
The General Assembly was forthwith convened, and a large military force raised. One company was raised in Sharon and its vicinity. Samuel Elmore received a Major's commis- sion, and also had the command of this company. Amos Chappell was the Lieutenant.
The last survivors of this company were Thomas Heath and Adonijah Maxam. Deacon Isaac Chamberlain, Capt. Sylvanus Gibbs, and Mr. Ebe Everitt, lately deceased, were
* This young gentleman was at this time a clerk in Colonel Gay's store. He was originally from Windham, and came to Sharon in A. D. 1770, with his mother, who was the second wife of Captain Caleb Jewitt. He died, much lamented, of a cons umption, on the 22d day of February, 1777.
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also members of this company, as were William Gray, Samuel Lewis, Jr., and David Goff. This company was attached to a regiment which marched to the northward in 1775, for the con- quest of Canada, under General Montgomery. Before St. Johns was taken, it was determined, by Colonels Allen and Brown, to make an attempt upon the city of Montreal with a few volunteers, if they could be obtained. The troops were paraded, and Allen marched in front of the Connecticut line, and invited volunteers to join him. Of the soldiers who belonged to Sharon, Adonijah Maxam, David Goff, William Gray and Samuel Lewis, stepped forward, and offered to share in the perils of the expedition. It was arranged between Allen and Brown, that the latter should land on the island, below the city, while Allen, with about eighty men, should land above the city, and there wait until they should hear the firing from Brown's party, when they were to rush on to the attack. Allen crossed the river St. Lawrence with his detachment on the evening of the 24th of September, on a raft, and waited in the expectation of hearing the firing from Brown's party through the whole night, but he waited in vain. For some reason the expedition on Brown's part had failed, and the morning light found Allen altogether in the power of the enemy. This rash adventurer, however, determined to defend himself to the last extremity against the seven or eight hun- dred men that were brought against him, and he fought until twenty-five of his men were killed, and seven wounded, when he and his brave associates, including Maxam, Goff, Gray and Lewis, from Sharon, and one Roger Moore, of Salisbury, were compelled to surrender. They were loaded with irons, and sent to England, for the avowed object of receiving the sen- tence and punishment of traitors. The threat of retaliatory measures, however, on the part of the Americans, prevented such summary proceedings against them, and after being kept in close confinement, in England and Ireland, during the win- ter, the prisoners just named were brought back to New York in the spring of 1776. They were confined, in an old church,
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with a large number of others, who had been taken during the campaign, at Fort Washington, and other places. From this place the persons above named contrived to make their escape within a few days after they were put into confinement. The old church in which they were confined was surrounded by a high fence, and thus a little daily out-door exercise was allowed the prisoners. While enjoying this liberty, William Gray managed to loosen one of the long planks of which the fence was made, but did not remove it, and the appearance of things were so little disturbed by the act of Gray, that it escaped the observation of the officers in charge of the prisoners. Through the opening in the fence, thus made practicable, the five soldiers above named made their escape as soon as it was sufficiently dark to conceal their operations. They had been habited in sailor's clothes during their captivity, and on this account they were less liable to be detected. They divided into two parties, Maxam and Moore forming the one, and Gray, Goff and Lewis the other. The three latter very soon found means to land on Long Island, and from thence passed over the Sound to the Continent, and returned to their friends in Sharon, Maxam and Moore had more difficulty. They were two or three days in the city before they found it possible to leave it, and after landing on Long Island they suffered much from hunger. After travelling several days, they found means to embark in a boat on the Sound, and to reach Saybrook. Their return to Sharon astonished their friends, who having learned from Gray and his comrades the circumstance of their escape from confinement, and having heard nothing further from them, had concluded that they had been retaken by the British. The last survivor of this band of sufferers was Mr. Adonijah Maxam, who died at the age of 97 years.
In the campaign of 1775, Parson Smith went with the army to the northward, as Chaplain to Col. Hinman's regi- ment, and spent several months in the service.
There was one soldier from Sharon, who joined the expedi- tion led by General Arnold through the wilderness of Kenne-
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bec, to Canada, whose name was Alexander Spencer. He died, however, on the march, from sickness.
The exigencies of the times calling for a large army at the commencement of 1776, a large number of men, more than one hundred, enlisted from the town of Sharon. One com- pany marched for Canada. It was commanded by Captain David Downs, already mentioned. The first lieutenant was Adonijah Griswold, and the second lieutenant was David Doty. The last survivors of this company, which was a large one, were Joel Chaffee and Adonijah Pangman, of Cornwall. Charles Gillet, another member of the company, was killed near The Cedars, so called, by a party of Indians in ambush, as he was riding along the road, having gone on some business connected with his duty as commissary. The other soldiers raised in Sharon for the campaign of 1776, were distributed among three other companies, and all marched for New York, against which an attack by the British was now apprehended. Of one company, Dr. Simeon Smith, was captain; of another, Elijah Foster was captain ; and of the third, Nathan- iel Hamlin was lieutenant. These companies were in the campaign of 1776, under General Washington on Long Island and in the vicinity of New York, and shared in the fatigues and perils of that disastrous period. David Wood, Nathaniel Buel, Josiah Coleman, Jabez Jennings, Asahel Som- ers. John Randall, Jr., and Thomas Ackley were taken prison- ers at Fort Washington, of whom Wood and Ackley died during their captivity, and Buel and Coleman on their return. The British having obtained possession of New York, General Washington determined to make an effort to dislodge them during the winter which followed the unfortunate campaign of 1776. For this purpose a large military force was raised in the fall of that year for two months service, and one company was enlisted in Sharon. William Boland was captain, Hezekiah Frisbie, lieutenant, and Azariah Griswold, ensign. As the period enlistment was so short, there was no difficulty in filling the company. The survivors of this company were Messrs.
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Adonijah Maxam and Thomas Heath. New York was not attacked. and the company was discharged at Kingsbridge, at the expiration of their term of service.
The forces that had hitherto been called into the service were raised on the authority of the State. To provide for the cam- paign of 1777, Congress undertook to raise an army, which was called the Continental army ; and of this army, two regi- ments, Swift's and Bradley's, were raised in the western part of Connecticut. Of one company, David Strong was appointed lieutenant, and he enlisted a number of recruits, one of whom, David Goodrich, was killed at the battle of Brandywine, in the subsequent campaign. Of another company, Reuben Calkin was lieutenant, and a number of men enlisted under him. There are none now remaining of either company.
A large depot of provisions and military stores had been established at Danbury, and in the month of April, an expedi- tion was sent out from New York to destroy them. It was com- manded by Major General Tryon, of the British army, and consisted of two thousand men. They landed at a place called Compo, in the south-west part of the town of Fairfield, and pro- ceeding through the towns of Weston and Redding, reached Danbury, and effected their object, which was the destruction of the stores. The most active measures were taken to spread the alarm through the adjacent country, and to collect the militia to repel the invaders. On the evening of the 26th of April, a messenger arrived in this town bringing the intelli- gence, and requiring the immediate marching of such forces as could be collected, to meet the enemy. The bell commenced tolling, and it was kept tolling through the night, and it was a night of great terror and solemnity. Colonel Ebenezer Gay, who then commanded the militia in this vicinity, gathered together as many troops as could be collected on so short notice, and marched for the scene of action ; and on the morning of the 28th reached Danbury, and finding that the British had retreated, pursued them. The route which the British had taken on their retreat, brought them on the west
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side' of the Saugatuck River, which empties into the Sound a mile or two west of Compo, where their fleet lay. They were intercepted in their attempt to reach the bridge over this stream, by General Arnold, who was then in command of a few regular troops, and were guided by some tories to a fording place, a little higher up,-and it was while they were marching up on the west side of the stream to reach this fording place, that they were first observed by the troops from Sharon, who were endeavoring to reach the bridge, and to join the corps under Arnold. As the British marched by them on the low grounds which bordered on the river, Adonijah Maxam, who had not forgotten the injuries which were heaped upon him while a prisoner in England, begged permission of the com- manding officer to steal down the hill from the left flank and shoot a few of them. He was strictly forbidden, however, to execute this perilous undertaking. The British marched by unmolested, and our troops took undisputed possession of the bridge. The enemy came down on the east side of the river, and having taken ground a little to the east of the bridge, fired upon our men who were stationed there. Arnold, per- ceiving the danger to which his men were exposed, brought his artillery to bear upon the new position of the enemy, and firing upon them over the heads of such of his men as were upon the bridge, soon drove them beyond the reach of his cannon. They took new ground a little to the south-east of their first position, and it was determined to attack them there with small arms A few regular troops under Arnold, commenced the action with great bravery, and our men at the bridge were ordered to join them. They marched up the hill with a good degree of resolution, to sustain the regular troops. As they came within the reach of the enemy's musketry, however, some one, and it was never known who, cried out retreat. As this word was uttered, Lieutenant Samuel Elmer, Jr.,* perceiving
* This brave young officer was a son of Colonel Samnel Elmer, and a lieutenant in the New York line of the continental army. He had returned home on a short furlough the very day the intelligence of the invasion of Danbury was received in Sharon, and was one of the first to volunteer to drive off the enemy. He was buried on the spot where he
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the effect it was producing, and the trepidation which was taking hold of his comrades, stepped up on a stone wall, and cried out, "for God's sake, men, don't retreat, don't run, march up the hill and drive them off." He had barely uttered these words, when he was shot through the body. The only words he spoke afterwards, were addressed to his uncle, Mr. George Pardee, who was near him : " Uncle George," said he, "I am a dead man." A general retreat of our men then followed ; and the British, being left unmolested, marched to their ship- ping, and sailed for New York.
A large depot of provisions had been established in this town early in the war. The store-house stood a little west of the Messrs. Goodwins, on the old road that formerly ran through their land, before the present turnpike road was estab- lished, and a guard was constantly kept at the depot during the war. The fate of the stores at Danbury caused much ap- prehension for the safety of those here. There were frequent alarms, and the citizens frequently collected in arms to defend the public property at the store-house. On one Sabbath day, during the sermon, Jonathan Gillett, who lived directly oppo- site the meeting house, came out of his house during the pub- lic service, and proclaimed with a loud voice that the British were coming. A dense smoke was seen rising beyond Tower Hill, a mountain in the State of New York, a few miles south- west of Sharon, and the belief was general that the enemy was at hand. Parson Smith was foremost in exhorting the people to firmness and resistance, and he entreated them to stand firm, not only as soldiers of the cross, but as soldiers of their country
was killed, by two of his comrades soon after the battle. His body was afterwards removed to the burying yard at Green's Farms where it reposes to this day.
EPITAPH.
" Lient. Samuel Elmer, son to Col. Samuel Elmer of Sharon, was killed at Fairfield, fighting for the liberties of his country, April 28th, 1777. in the 25th year of his age.
Our youthful hero, bold in arms,
His country's cause his bosom warms ;
To save her rights fond to engage,
And guard her from a tyrant's rage, Flies to ye field of blood and death, And gloriously resigns his breath.
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and of liberty. The alarm, however, proved to be groundless.
The approach of a large British army from Canada, under General Burgoyne, and the expedition up the North River, under General Vaughan, filled the whole country with terror and despondency, and frequent alarms were spread, requiring the constant and active duty of the militia. The tories, too, in Duchess county, New York, where they were numerous, took courage from the prospect of success which the progress of the British arms afforded, and embodied themselves into a formidable force. Information was brought to this town during the summer that four hundred of them had assembled at Car- penter's, as it was then called, now Washington Hollow, and that they were threatening destruction to all the whigs in the neighborhood. An expedition was immediately set on foot to break up the gang. Volunteers to the number of fifty or sixty immediately assembled .- They marched immediately for the Hollow, and were joined by others in their progress, so that when they arrived at Bloom's Mills, which is about four miles north of the Hollow, their numbers amounted to two hundred men. There they encamped for the night, and marched the next morning to attack the tories. They found them paraded in the meadow just north of the public house, and marching up with spirit, fired upon them. The tories fled immediately and as many as could made their escape. About thirty or forty of them, however, were made prisoners, and brought to this town, and locked up in the old church at the head of the street. They were taken to Exeter, in New Hampshire, where they were kept in close confinement for two years. This proceed- ing broke up the gang, and no further trouble was had from this class of persons during the war.
A company of light horse, which belonged to Sharon and its vicinity, were kept on duty during the whole summer of 1777, on the North River, watching the motions of the enemy in that quarter. It was commanded by Captain Dutcher, of Salisbury, and David Boland, of Sharon, was the cornet of the company. The smoke of burning Kingston was distinctly
*10
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seen from our mountain when it was destroyed by the Hessian troops. Adonijah Maxam belonged to this company.
A large number of men marched from this town under the command of Colonel Gay to the northward, to oppose the pro- gress of Burgoyne's army, and shared in all the conflicts which preceded its surrender .* John Hollister, one of the soldiers from this town, was killed at the battle of Stillwater, on the 7th of October.
The intelligence of the surrender of Burgoyne's army was received here under circumstances which produced a deep im- pression. Nothing had been heard respecting the state of affairs at Saratoga excepting that two severe battles had been fought without any very decisive result. This state of uncer- tainty produced extreme anxiety regarding the issue of the campaign, and many trembled at the prospect of defeat and disgrace to the American arms. The firmness and confidence of Parson Smith, however, never forsook him, and he did every- thing in his power to rouse the drooping spirits of his people. On Sabbath, the --- day of October, he preached a sermon from Isaiah xxi. II :- "Watchman, what of the night? the watchman saith the morning cometh." The discourse was en- tirely adapted to the condition of public affairs. He dwelt much upon the indications, which the dealings of Providence afforded, that a bright and glorious morning was about to dawn upon a long night of defeat and disaster. He told the congregation that he believed they would soon hear of a signal victory crowning the arms of America, and exhorted them to trust with an un- shaken and fearless confidence in that God who he doubted not would soon appear for the deliverance of his people, and crown with success the efforts of the friends of liberty in this country. Before the congregation was dismissed, a messenger arrived, bringing the intelligence of the surrender of Burgoyne's
* The following is the record of an adjourned church meeting, holden on the 23d of September, 1777, " Met according to adjournment, but by reason of a great number being called off into ye service of their country and but a few members met, adjourned to the 4th Tuesday of November next ensuing.
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army. Parson Smith read the letter from the pulpit, and a flood of joy burst upon the assembly.
During the next year a large part of Burgoyne's army was marched through this town on their way to the south. They were met here by a regiment of continental troops under the command of Lieut. Colonel Jameson, who was afterwards somewhat conspicuous in the affairs connected with the capture of Major Andre, and who here took charge of the prisoners .* One of Burgoyne's soldiers, by the name of Robert Gibbs, a Scotchman from Dundee, who was wounded and taken in the battle immediately preceding Burgoyne's surrender, was here left by his comrades. He died at the age of 94.
After the campaign.of 1777, the seat of the war was re- moved to so great a distance that no further call was made for the militia of the town, except for the purpose of keeping guard on the sea coast. The burdens and privations of a pecuniary kind, however, which are incident to a state of war, were borne by the people of this town without a murmur, and the almost unanimous feeling in favor of the cause which marked the com- mencement of the war, continued with unabated ardor to the close of it.
The records of the County Court show that several of the citizens of Sharon were delinquent in responding to the calls for temporary service in the army, but it does not appear that their neglect was owing to any want of fidelity to the cause of the country, but it was probably for some reasons which were deemed satisfactory to themselves, but which were not deemed sufficient by the Court. Abner Curtice, David Hollister, Elijah Pardee, and Apollos Smith were each fined fro and costs of prosecution "for refusing to muster and march to the assist- ance of the continental army," about the time of the appre- hended invasion of this part of the country by Burgoyne's army.
* A large proportion of the prisoners of this detachment were Hessians. They were subjected to the most severe diseipline, and were entirely offensive. Each regiment was furnished with a chaplain and divine service was frequently performed. They encamped here over night, and when they started in the morning, the whole body sang devotional music on the march, Governor Smith informed the author that he, then a lad, followed them some miles to hear their singing.
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Stephen Sears was fined fro for not marching to the relief of Peekskill. Theodore Elmer, Thomas Hamlin, Jun., Joseph Barrows, Jesse Goodrich, Amasa Hamlin, Robert Whitcomb, David Hollister, James Henry, Nathaniel Curtis, were prose- cuted for the same offences, but were able to show good rea- sons why they had not reported for muster, and were discharged.
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CHAPTER IX.
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INCIDENTAL EVENTS-DISASTROUS FIRE IN SHARON VALLEY- SMALL POX-CASUALTIES-SHAYS' REBELLION-EXCISE DUTIES.
ON the night of January 27, 1775, a disastrous incendiary fire occurred on the premises of Joel Hervey, in Sharon Val- ley, which destroyed two barns and a threshing mill, with a large quantity of grain and hay, with seven good horses. Sus- picion attached to one John Thomas, a transient person, as the perpetrator of the offence, and at the February term of the Superior Court, 1776, sufficient proof had been brought to light to bring him to trial. He was convicted, and the follow- ing warrant for the execution of the sentence passed upon him by the court, will show the particulars of the crime laid to his charge, and the form of prosecution in those early days. In- dependence not then having been declared the proceedings were in the name of the King.
To Litchfield County Sherif or his Deputy Greeting
WHEREAS the Grandjurors of our Soverign Lord the King for the County of Litchfield upon their oath present that one John Thomas a Transient person now Confined in the Com-
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mon Goal in said Litchfield not having the fear of God before his eyes but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil did at Sharon in said County in the night season next after the 27th day of January 1775 Voluntaryly feloniously and of his malice forethought with force and arms carry a Quantity of Fire into and therewith inkindle and set on fire two Certain Barns and one Threshing Mill in which there was then and there Contained Seven good horses and a large quantity Wheat Rye and Hay all being in said Sharon to the Value of four Hundred pounds lawfull money, all being the property of Joel Hervey of said Sharon, and that by means of the said Johns Siting fire as aforesaid the said Buildings, Horses Wheat Rye and Hay were Consumed and utterly destroyed contrary to the Law of this Colony and the Rights of mankind, and Said John Thomas being brought before this Court and araigned for Tryal and by a Verdict of the Jury was found Guilty. Where- upon this Court gave judgment that the said John Thomas sit upon a Gallows for the space of one hour with a Rope round his neck, and Tyed to a Cart and be whipt on the naked body in four of the most public places in the Town of Litch- field to the number of Thirty nine Stripes and find sureties for his good behavior with one Surety in the penal Sum of one Hundred pound lawfull money for his future good behavior and pay the cost of prosecution Taxed at, £26,15,8 and stand committed till this judgment is fullfilled Whereof Execution remains to be done.
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