USA > Connecticut > New London County > Groton > Groton, Conn. 1705-1905 > Part 30
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We recall some of the teachers who held forth in this building: Misses Fanny Haven, Elizabeth Williams, Mary Esther Edgcomb, Eleanor Ashby, Mrs. S. A. Edwards, Mrs. Prudence D. (Gallup) Gates, Miss Lavinia A. Munger.
The Academy above referred to was the outgrowth of a demand for better educational advantages for the village than were afforded by the public schools. A stock com- pany was formed September 2, 1850, under the name of "The Mystic Academy Association" with Nathan G. Fish, president; John L. Denison, secretary and treasurer; Nathan G. Fish, Isaac Randall and Charles II. Mallory, trustees.
Pending the erection of a building, the school was con- ducted in the small school house which stood between the
"Groton California Company," which sailed in the schooner Velasco, this day for the "gold coast." Health and success to them and a safe return to their home and friends .- May they find their full share of the "precious metal" and bring it all home with them! A finer body of men has not embarked for California:
Elijah B. Morgan, Daniel Davis, Mason R. Packer, James D). Avery, Osmore H. Morgan, C. G. Newberry, Reuben S. Chapman, Albert Chapman, John S. Lester, Nathan M. Daboll, John Batty, Levi Chapman, Lyman Chapman, Giles E. Lamb, J. A. Stoddard, Romain Stoddard, S. A. Parlin, David Fox, Mosley Curtis, Elisha D. Wight- man, Wm. E. Chapman, Jno. M. L. Cheesebrough, Franklin R. Smith, Nathaniel Chipman, Henry Deane, Thos. Wilson, Wm. Webb, Win. O. Phillips, Dwight Phillips, George Huntley, B. W. Morgan, Simeon A. Stoddard, Fred S. Hotchkiss, G H. Fish, Ruel Cary, Courtland Morgan, Wm. Bray, Ambrose H. Grant. January 1849.
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district school house and the Mariners Church, but in 1852 the fall term opened in the new building with one-hundred and fifty pupils and with the following faculty :
John L. Denison, Principal, Instructor in Greek, Latin and Literature. Palmer Gallup, Associate Principal, Instructor in Mathematics, Phil-
osophy and Chemistry, Lecturer on Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene.
Miss Emily Denison.
Miss Adaline Gallup, teacher of French &c.
Miss Almira Palmer, teacher of History, Astronomy and Primary studies.
Miss Louise Smith, teacher of Painting and Drawing.
J. Randall Fish, teacher of Music.
The academic year was divided into four terms of eleven weeks each. In 1855 the attendance reached one-hundred and ninety-five, but the school not being a financial success was closed and the building became the property of the Fifth School District and was occupied by the upper grades of pupils, the boys occupying the first floor and the girls the second. Mr. Standish was the first principal after the change to public school. He was succeeded by William H. Potter, who served until 1865, when he resigned to become assistant assessor of internal revenue. Among his suc- cessors were David L. Gallup, ----- - Gage, George O. Hop- kins, Willard G. Sperry, Timothy A. Avery, William W. Noyes, Frank E. Sheffield, Charles R. Heath, Snyder J. Gage, and Miss Harriet E. Park, who served seven years, her length of service being next to that of Mr. Potter. Others have followed for longer or shorter terms.
In 1879 a building for use of the lower grades was built on the Academy grounds, the old house adjoining the Bap- tist church being abandoned for school purposes. In 1888 the town purchased the building and removed it to the former site of the Second Baptist Church, where it serves as a town hall.
One of the regular visitors of the primary schools of the town was General William Williams of Norwich. Miss Caulkins writes of him :* "Though naturally of a conserva- tive disposition with great reverence for his ancestors and
* History of Norwich, 1874, pp. 609-5
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the principles of the Pilgrim founders of New England, yet General Williams cherished to a remarkable degree a warm heart of sympathy with the young. He chose a neglected field to manifest specially this sympathy and one where he was sure not to meet with a single fellow worker. In this county there are more than two hundred District Schools, many of them in poor crossroads, seldom visited save by the pupils and their teachers.
"The heart of our deceased friend was turned especially towards these humble primary schools of learning, and it is believed that there is not a single school house in the remotest corner of this county which he did not visit and speak to teachers and pupils some kind words of advice as to their studies and moral duties, especially suggesting to them the propriety of each learning one verse of Scripture daily. In many of the schools in our country towns he was an annual visitor."
For many years the school house of the tenth district was located in the fields northwest of the residence of the late George Packer and was known as the Packertown school house. With the growth of the village came a demand for a more conveniently located building. In the fall of 1859 several meetings were held for consideration of the matter of a change of location, but it was not until February 1, 1860, that an agreement was reached and a location selected on the Noank road near the West Mystic station and Messrs. James R. Stark, William E. Maxson and Erastus Latham were appointed a committee to build a building 30 x 42 feet, to be completed by the first of the next August. This building was enlarged in October 1869 and has since that time filled the needs of the district.
The attendance in the Ninth School District has fallen to a very small number, yet a hundred years ago it was one of the large districts of the town.
The Rogerenes, as we have noted in a previous chapter, were friendly to education but it remained for one of thei: number to introduce a method of lip reading by which dar mutes became able to talk and to enjoy the ordinary mems
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of communication with their fellows. Through teaching a deaf mute son, Jonathan Whipple developed a system that resulted in the establishment of the Whipple Home School for Deaf Mutes, since called the Mystic Oral School for the Deaf. For a number of years Jonathan Whipple taught lip reading in Quakertown, but in 1873 he removed to the house built by the late Silas E. Burrows. This property consisting of a house and seven acres of land was purchased by J. and Z. C. Whipple in April 1875. The house stands on a hill overlooking the Mystic Valley and is sufficiently large to accommodate the present school with prospective additions. Aided in some measure by the State the school has done notably good work in teaching lip reading.
Census
From the Connecticut State Manual we gather the follow- ing census statistics of Groton :
1756-2869
1830-4805
1774-3848
1840-2963*
1782-3823
1850 -- 3743
1790- 1860-4450
1800-4302
1870-5124
1810-4451
1880-5128
1820-4664
1890-5539
1900-5962
The Mystic Press ** gives the following statistics of Mystic River (Portersville) in 1818:
Dwelling houses
130
Families
180
Barns
40
Mechanics' shops
20
Merchants' stores
8
Store Houses
6
Meeting Houses
2
Conference Houses
School Houses
Meat Market
1
Fish Market
1
Buildings (not including wood or wash houses)
225
* Ledyard set off.
** May 29, 1883.
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Clergymen (Baptists all)
3
Dentist
1.
No. of children enumerated
264
Total population
1200
No. births (one year)
18
No. deaths (one year)
8
No. marriages (one year)
6
CHAPTER XVIII
DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS
G ROTON has not been behind her sister towns in her contribution of men who have made their marks in all the walks of life. While she has not furnished a Governor of her own State, her sons have filled the gubernatorial chair in other States. James Y. Smith, a son of Groton, and a very successful cotton manufacturer, was a war Governor of Rhode Island, while his predecessor, William Sprague, the youngest Governor of the Civil War days, was a grandson, his mother, Fanny Morgan, having been a native of Pequonnoc. The temperance Governor of Iowa, William Larabee, was born in Groton.
We have already spoken of Thomas Mumford and his services to the cause of the Colonies in the Revolution, but probably the most noted son of Groton in that war was Silas Deane, a member of the Continental Congress. At the outbreak of the war he served as chairman of the first naval committee, which included in its membership such men as Robert Morris and Samuel Adams. He also served on a committee with George Washington to draft rules and regulations for the army. He was also a member of the committee of nine to import powder, cannon and muskets and also one of a committee of five to consider the best means of supplying the army with provisions. In a Con- gress composed of such men as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris, John Jay, John Adams, John Dickinson and others, the holding of such places is an indi- cation of his standing amongst his compeers. In the spring of 1776 he was chosen for a mission to France, as shown by the following commission :
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"We the undersigned, being the committee of Congress for secret correspondence, do hereby certify whom it may concern that the bearer, the Honorable Silas Deane, Esquire, one of the delegates from the colony of Connecti- cut, is appointed by us to and unto France, there to transact such business commercial and political, as we have com- mitted to his care in behalf and by the authority of the Congress of the thirteen united colonies. In testimony whereunto we have set our hands and seals at Philadelphia 2 March 1776.
"B. Franklin "Benj. Harrison "John Dickinson "John Jay "Robert Morris"*
Deane sailed for France early in March 1776, arriving at Paris in July. This is neither the time nor the place to enter into all the polities connected with his mission-of his dealings with Beaumarchais, and of the gradual es- trangement of Arthur Lee, one of his colleagues, which finally ripened into bitter hatred and proved the source of no end of trouble to Deane. Rather let us look at some of the results of his mission which were of vital importance to the colonies.
In the Silas Deane collection of papers in the Smithsonian Institute may be found the original or certified copies of contracts made with the Marquis de La Fayette and Baron de Kalb. The translation of the former is as follows :
"The wish that the Marquis de Lafayette has shown to serve in the army of the United States of North America, and the interest that he takes in the justice of their cause, making him wish for opportunities of distinguishing him- self in the war, and to make himself useful to them as much as in him lies; but not being able to obtain the consent of his family to serve in a foreign country and to cross the ocean, except on the condition that he should go as a general officer, I have believed that I could not serve my country * Silas Deane, Clark, 1913, p. 42.
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and my superiors better than by granting him, in the name of the very honorable Congress, the rank of Major general, which I beg the States to confirm and ratify, and to send forward his commission to enable him to take and hold rank, counting from today, with the general officers of the same grade. His high birth, his connections, the great . dignities held by his family at this court, his considerable possessions in this kingdom, his personal merit, his repu- tation, his disinterestedness, and above all his zeal for the freedom of our colonies have alone been able to induce me to make this promise of the said rank of Major-general in the name of the said United States. In witness of which I have signed these presents, done at Paris this seventh of October seventeen hundred and seventy-six."
"To the above conditions I agree and promise to start when and how Mr. Deane shall deem it proper, to serve the said states with all possible zeal, with no allowance nor private salary, reserving to myself only the right to return to Europe whenever my family or my king shall recall me. Done at Paris, this seventh day of October 1776.
(Signed) The Marquis de Lafayette."
The agreement between Deane and De Kalb was written in English as follows :
"Baron De Kalb contract .- Le Baron de Kalb being advised by some generals of the highest reputation and by several other noblemen of the first rank in this realm, to serve the cause of liberty in America, he accordingly offers his services to the most honorable Congress on the follow- ing terms :
"1st To be made a Major General of the American troops at the appointments of the major generals in that service with all other perquisites, belonging to that rank; besides a particular sum to be allowed to him annually, which he will not determine, but rely for it on the Congress, hoping they will consider the difference there is between their own countrymen, who are in duty bound to defend their all, and a foreigner who out of his own accord offers his time, sets aside his family affairs to hazard his life for the American
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liberties. The said appointment to begin from this day, November the seventh 1776.
"2nd That Mr. Deane will furnish him presently and before embarking with a sum of twelve thousand livres french money namely, 6000 to be considered and given as a gratification for the necessary expenses attending such an Errant, and the other 6000 as an advance upon his appoint- ments.
3rd That Capt. Dubois Martin and another gentleman who Le Baron de Kalb shall nominate in time, may be agreed as majors to be his aid de Camps at the appoint- ments of american officers of the Same Rank, and the sum of 3000, or at least 2400, to be paid to each of them pres- ently, or before embarking, the half of which as a gratifica- tion & the other half as an advance, the said appointments beginning too from this day.
"4th That in case the Peace was made at their Landing in america or that the Congress would not grant these demands and ratify the present agreement, or that the Baron de Kalb himself should on any other account & at any time incline to return to Europe, that he be allowed to do so, and besides be furnish (ed) with a sufficient sum of money for the Expenses of his coming back.
"On the above conditions, I engage and promise to serve the american States to the utmost of my abilities, to ac- knowledge the authority and every act of the most honor- able Congress, be faithfull to the country as if my own, obey to Superior committed by that Lawfull Power, and be from this very day at the disposal of Mr. Deane for my embarkation and in such vessell and harbour as he shall think fit. Witness my hand in Paris, November ye seventh, in the year one thousand seven hundred seventy-six.
(Signed) "De Kalb."
"Received of Silas Deane at Paris Nov. 22nd 1776 Sixteen Thousand Eight Hundred Liv's on account of the above.
(Signed) "De Kalb." "N. B. paid 8800 in Cash
&-8000 by a bill on Mess Delaps."
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The above engagements alone would place a high value upon the services of Mr. Deane.
John Ledyard, the celebrated traveler, was born in Groton in 1751. He was a nephew of Colonel William Led- yard of Fort Griswold fame. While studying at Dartmouth for the work of a missionary to the Indians, he was seized with "wanderlust" and made his first voyage down the Connecticut river to Hartford in a rude canoe of his own fashioning. He again essayed theological study but after a short time he shipped at New London for a voyage to the Mediterranean. A brief service in the English army pre- ceded his return to this country.
Another voyage took him to London, where he met Captain Cook, then just about to sail on his third and last voyage around the world. He enlisted for the voyage and was a witness to the death of Captain Cook. His diary of the voyage was taken from him by the English government, although afterwards he published an account of the voyage written mostly from memory .* Though he remained in the British army after his return from this voyage, he refused to do duty against his own countrymen, and in December 1782 he escaped from a British man-of-war stationed off Long Island and made his way home.
He was the first man to suggest the exploration of the Northwest coast of North America, and after months spent at home and abroad had failed to raise the necessary funds to fit out an expedition, he met Thomas Jefferson in Paris in 1785, who undertook to secure the consent of Catherine II, Empress of Russia, for him to make a journey overland across Russia and Siberia, crossing Behring Strait to the North American continent. Mr. Jefferson failed to secure the consent of the Empress, which was finally obtaired through the influence of some English gentlemen and in 1786 Ledyard set out on the overland journey. In the winter he traveled on foot from Stockholm to St. Peters-
* Journal of Captain Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean and in Quest of a North West Passage between Asia and America. By John Ledyard. Hartford, 1783
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burg, making the journey of fourteen hundred miles in seven weeks.
A passport given him by the Empress enabled him to travel as far as Yakutsk, where, permission to go to Okhotsk being refused, he returned to Irkutsk. There by order of the Empress he was arrested and hurried to the border of Poland, where he was set free with the warning not to return to Russia under threat of being hanged. He returned to London, "disappointed, ragged and penniless," but was ready at a moment's notice to undertake new ven- tures. Under the patronage of the "Association for Pro- moting the Discovery of the Inland Parts of Africa" he set out in June 1786 and reached Cairo in Egypt, where he was taken ill and died January 17, 1789.
Mr. Jefferson said of him :* "In 1786 while at Paris I became acquainted with John Ledyard of Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science and of fearless courage and enterprise. . I suggested to him the enterprise of exploring the western part of our continent by passing through St. Petersburg to Kamtchatka and procuring a passage thence in some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Land, whence he might make his way across the continent to the United States and I undertook to have the permission of the Empress of Russia solicited."
Judge Asa Packer was born in Groton December 20, 1806, and died in Philadelphia May 17, 1879. His grand- father, Doctor Elisha Packer, was one of the most prom- inent and successful business men in the town, and his wife, Lucy Smith, came from a family distinguished in the history of the town. His father, Elisha Packer, Jr., was a man of solid parts, but was never successful in business, so that Asa, as soon as he became of an age at which he could earn his living, was placed in the tannery of Mr. Elias Smith at North Stonington. The death of Mr. Smith broke up the connection, which bade fair to be permanent as the young man had found his way into the confidence
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. III, p. 655.
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and affection of his employer. He was afterwards appren- ticed to Mr. Sanford Stark in Mystic, to learn the car- penter's trade, but not being satisfied with his prospects he pulled up stakes and started for Pennsylvania, landing in Susquehanna County in the year 1822.
Here he apprenticed himself to a carpenter and joiner, and, after mastering the trade, he continued to work at it for a number of years, investing his savings in a lot of wild land on the upper Susquehanna, where he made a clearing and built a cabin to which he brought as bride a Miss Blakeslee. After living here for a few years he removed to the Lehigh Valley and commenced the career which made him one of the most notable men of his day.
It was in the spring of 1833, when he was twenty-seven years of age, that he settled at Mauch Chunk, starting business with a capital of a few hundred dollars. For two years he was employed in boating coal to Philadelphia, acting as master of his own boat. His abilities soon at- tracted the attention of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, which entered into a connection with him that continued for many years. With his brother, Robert Packer, he formed the firm of A. & R. W. Packer with a capital of $5,000 for carrying on a general merchandise business at Mauch Chunk. From the very beginning this firm conducted a large and profitable business, soon becom- ing known by its large transactions on both the Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers. Its operations on the Lehigh during the fifteen years between 1835 and 1850 embraced a large mer- cantile business at Mauch Chunk, contracts with the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company which involved the building of dams and locks on the upper navigation; working coal mines leased from the company, and afterwards Mr. Packer's own mines near Hazelton, and shipping coal to Philadelphia and New York.
A similar business was done by the brothers on the Schuylkill. They were the first through transporters of coal to New York. Up to the year 1856 all the coal from the Lehigh Valley was transported by water, but at this time
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Asa Packer conceived the idea of building a railroad in connection with the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. We cannot enter into all the struggles and trials which he passed through before the Lehigh Valley Railroad was completed, but the road stands as a monument to his fore- sight and indomitable perseverance. While the railroad made him a multi-millionaire, its value to the whole Lehigh Valley is incomputable.
He enjoyed the confidence of his neighbors in the Valley and in 1844 was elected to the State Legislature. He was instrumental in the formation of Carbon County and was for five years judge of the county court. He served two terms in Congress from 1853 to 1857, and in 1868 he received the votes of the Pennsylvania delegation for President in the Democratic National Convention and the next year was the nominee of that party for Governor of Pennsylvania. In 1876 he served as one of the commis- sioners of the Centennial Exposition.
On his return from a visit to Europe in 1865 Mr. Packer gave the sum of $500,000 and a woodland park of sixty acres for the foundation of Lehigh University at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The branches of education to which it was Mr. Packer's design the institution should be especially devoted were civil, mechanical and mining engineering; general and analytical chemistry ; mineralogy and metal- lurgy; analysis of soils and agriculture, architecture and construction, all branches of knowledge of unexception- able value in the Lehigh Valley. By its charter it is made a self-sustaining institution, intended to reach both rich and poor with its advantages, its free scholarships being offered as prizes to be competed for by all the students. No sectarian bigotry limits its beneficent influence to a single religious denomination, but those of every creed find a wel- come in its halls. By Mr. Packer's last will he left $1,500,- 000 as an endowment to the university and $500,000 as an endowment for the library. His daughter, Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, has given a memorial church to the
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university. Judge Packer will long be remembered for his untiring efforts for the upbuilding of the Lehigh Valley and his name goes down to posterity as that of a good citizen in the best sense of the word.
Waitstill Avery was born in Groton in 1741, the son of Humphrey Avery, a citizen of renown, having represented his native town in the General Assembly nine times com- mencing with 1732. Waitstill was a graduate of Princeton College in the class of 1767. He studied law and in 1769 located at Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He soon became eminent at the bar and was noted for his efforts to advance the cause of independence among the people in his adopted State. He was* a signer and moving spirit, if not the author, of the celebrated Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence adopted at Charlotte, North Carolina, May 20, 1775, one year, one month and fourteen days before the more celebrated but not more pronounced Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776, from which we date our birth as a nation."
The instructions to the North Carolina delegates in the Continental Congress, accompanying the engrossed copy of the Mecklenburg declaration, were in Avery's handwriting. This was the first concerted utterance not for redress merely, but for absolute independence of Great Britain. It had a powerful influence in strengthening the cause of freedom when the fear of consequences and a traitor's doom had kept members of Congress discreet in their delibera- tions, and prepared the delegates for a united declaration a year later. Mr. Avery was the first attorney general of the State of his adoption and was Mecklenburg's representa- tive in the Legislature for many years. He was also a commissioner to negotiate with the Indians, a difficult and delicate trust, which he discharged with satisfaction to the State. He died in 1821, aged eighty years, full of honors, leaving an unsullied name to his posterity.
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