USA > Connecticut > Tolland County > Hebron > Hebron, Connecticut, bicentennial, August 23d to 25th, 1908 : an account of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town : 1708-1908 > Part 3
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It seems strange that after seventy years and with more than forty town names, there had been in 1708 in this Puritan and Independent commonwealth but one example of a name taken from the Bible, that of Lebanon which was given in 1695. And the Lebanon of holy Scripture is, it need not be said, the name of a mountain, the "white" mountain of Palestine, and not of a city.
Hebron is the first city name taken from the Bible for a Connecticut town. It was proposed by the legatees; but why it was given, or who first selected it, does not appear. It may have been chosen by some one of the ministers who, from his knowledge of Hebrew (and I take it that they all knew Hebrew then), recalling that the word means a confederacy, thought it apt for a settlement of people who came from diverse directions; at any rate, we are assured that it was no sudden suggestion in the General Assembly, such as that which eighty years later imposed the name of Bozrah on a place which asked to be called Bath; and it gave you an historical and dignified name.
The Hebron from which you borrowed it vies with Damascus for the honor of being the oldest city in the world; it was old in Abraham's day; we read that it "was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt," and scholars tell us that these words tell of a rebuilding or a fortifying, and that the real foundation was still farther back in time. The mention of the name recalls great men and wonderful events; to-day the city bears the title by which the Arabs speak of the patriarch who is buried there, "The Friend", and it is one of the sacred places of the world. Of the eight Biblical town- names within our borders, yours is among the most famous and the most inspiring.
And if your very name tells of history, we may not forget that two men who in very different ways wrote the history of Connecticut were natives of this town, and were indeed born in the same year. 1735, and
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within a month of each other. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, after his gradua- tion at Yale College, was ordained in 1760 over the church of the standing order in North Haven, continuing its pastor for sixty years until his death at the age of 85, the work of his study and his pulpit being uninterrupted except by his service as soldier and chaplain in the revolutionary army. His two volumes of the History of Connecticut, published with an interval of twenty-one years, are a monument to his diligence and a mine of inform- ation for all subsequent students. Only, as he tells us, by employing "all the leisure hours which he could possibly redeem, by early rising and an indefatigable attention to business", did he find time for that work of research the fruits of which we enjoy to-day. Judging-again to use his own words, though in condensed form-that authentic history, while it instructs, affords also an exalted pleasure, and that not only to the man of genius and curiosity but also to the pious man who views a divine hand conducting the whole, he thought it wise to make this, the first history of the colony, full and particular, that nothing useful or important respecting church or state might be lost. The result, we gladly acknowl- edge, was worthy of the plan. He "aimed at authenticity, propriety and perspicuity"; and while he attained these excellent qualities, he added to them that, by the greatest endowment of a historian, he had the instinct to tell what later generations would want to know, and thus made his pages interesting even when he devoted nearly half a hundred of them to the Wallingford controversy. It is no little honor for Hebron that it gave to Connecticut its great historian, Benjamin Trumbull.
The name of his townsman and contemporary, Samuel Peters, may call forth a smile or a frown; but he too wrote a history and he too has added to your fame, his connection with Hebron being more generally known than that of Dr. Trumbull. He too was graduated at Yale College, but two years before the other; he too was ordained, but in England by a bishop; he too continued long in the ministry-it was for sixty-six years- but he lived here and in England and later in Vermont, and in the very far west of those days, and then in loneliness and poverty in the city of New York; he too was interrupted by the War of the Revolution, but it was because he was a tory and an outspoken one; and he too, but with scarcely veiled anonymity, wrote a History of Connecticut. Of this voluine it may be truly said that it is not of the same type as that of Dr. Trumbull, while it should not be denied the name of history. Full of anecdote, pointed in its sarcasm, and defying the attempts of either lower or higher criticism to trace its constituent parts to their sources; written with a grim view of humor at a time when that kind of humor was not understood, and read then and to-day by men without the power of appre- ciating it; the work of one who drew lines straight or crooked on his canvas, not caring whether they corresponded or not to what was actually before him if only they helped the interpretation of his picture, a very impres- sionist in words; it may be truly said that the volume does help us to know men and things as they presented themselves to an eccentric but discerning mind; and it certainly has added to the world's too scanty supply of humor.
Some day, when the sores which he rubbed harshly have quite healed over, we shall all laugh at it and admire its ingenuity and find out its real contribution to the history of our colony and state. While I have been writing, there have fallen under my eyes proofs that a new generation is giving Samuel Peters his due. In almost the latest published part of the new Oxford English dictionary, he is quoted as the authority for "Pope, a nanie given in New England to the whippoorwill, by reason of its darting with great swiftness, from the clouds almost to the ground, and bawling out 'Pope'!" and also for "Pow-wow," as "an ancient religious rite, annually
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celebrated by the Indians." What treasures are reserved for the later letters of the alphabet, we may not know as yet. But, in all seriousness. when the whole story of the life of Dr. Peters comes to be written, you of Hebron will, even more than now, be glad that his name is on the roll of her sons.
I leave it to your historians of to-day to read the record of what has been done here. But I will not close without a greeting from the historical society of the state, and an exhortation to you to guard your history and its annals, and to make it and them known "to the children of the genera- tions to come".
"Auld Lang Syne" was then sung, the audience standing, and a paper written by John Homer Bliss of Plainfield, Conn., and a native of Hebron, entitled "Morey and Fulton" was read, closing the morning programme.
A paper prepared for the Hebron bi-centennial celebration by John Homer Bliss, of Plainfield, Conn., a native of Hebron.
MOREY AND FULTON.
It may not be known to many in Hebron that their town gave to the world the person who first successfully applied steam power to the pur- poses of navigation, but we have reason to believe that such is the fact, That person was Samuel Morey, born in Hebron, Conn., October 23, 1762. son of General Israel Morey and Martha Palmer of Hebron, who with their family removed to the Coos country in Northern New Hampshire in 1766 in an ox team. The statement that Capt. Samuel Morey ran a steam ferry boat between the towns of Orford, N. H., and Fairlee, Vt., as early as 1793, is current in Orford, and Rev. Mr. Ward now of that place thinks the statement is correct.
Rev. Cyrus Mann of Plymouth, N. H., and Lowell, Mass., a cousin of the late Judge Cyrus Mann of Hebron, gave an account in a Boston paper many years ago of the true story of the steamboat which he himself "saw when he was a boy, on the Connecticut River, before Fulton had run his on the Hudson. Of this boat Morcy made a model and took it to New York, where he was offered by Fulton and Livingston one hundred thousand dollars if he would perfect his invention and have the engine in the middle instead of the bow of the boat. This he succeeded in doing, but when he came with his improved model to New York he got no satis- faction, but Livingston got a monopoly of steam navigation upon the Hudson from the New York legislature, and Fulton got his patent. Morev complained of his treatment as long as he lived, but the public did not hear of it, and Fulton got the honors for an invention which he had received from another."
I do not vouch for any of the above statements but give them verbatim just as received; but judging by dates they seem to be confirmed by the following authorities :---
Rev. Royal Robbins' Outlines of Ancient and Modern History. pub- lished at Hartford in 1830, page 375, says that "Fulton first made the experiment of propelling boats by steam at Paris in 1803; after which he
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returned to America and exhibited a boat in successful operation on the waters of New York." This was ten years later than the operations of Morey at Orford.
Collier's Cyclopedia, compiled by Nugent Robinson, New York, 1888, page 357, says "Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, made her memorable trip from New York to Albany on Sept. 14, 1807."
The Rev. Cyrus Mann, before alluded to was a son of John Mann and Lydia Porter of Hebron, who removed to Orford, Oct. 16, 1765, where Cyrus was born April 3, 1785. He was a brother of the late Benning Mann, who is well remembered as a police justice in Hartford, Conn., for many years some forty or fifty years ago, and who was familiarly known as 'Squire Mann. I have not the date of Cyrus Mann's death, but his widow, Mrs. Mary (Sweetser) Mann, died in Fairlee, Vt., in January, 1888, aged 102 years and two months.
J. HOMER BLISS.
The "Firing of the Pump" according to the printed pro- gramme, to mark the noon hour was purely imaginary but the appetites of those present marked it most effectively. Chairman Jagger and his able associates on the Entertainment Committee were ready with a bountiful repast. Tables were spread for the invited guests in the dining room of the Congregational Church and a large tent on the Green contained abundant supplies for every person present.
A bugle call announced the beginning of the afternoon exer- cises, which opened with "Hail to the Chief." Chairman Way then introduced His Excellency, Rollin S. Woodruff, Governor of Connecticut, who was given an ovation as he rose to speak and during his patriotic address there were frequent cheers and applause.
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INTRODUCTION OF . GOVERNOR ROLLIN S. WOODRUFF.
Looking back over the history of Hebron in the notes of the historians we are all proud when we find that one of our towns- men, after serving a term as Lieutenant-Governor, was selected for and elected to the high and most honorable office of Governor of the Commonwealth. I refer to the Hon. John S. Peters, who was Governor of Connecticut during the years 1831 to 1833. It may interest you to know that Hebron also furnished one State Treasurer, Lucius J. Hendee, whose term of office was during the years 1858 to 1861, and that two members of Congress have gone out from our midst, viz: Sylvester Gilbert, 1818 to 1819, and Daniel Burrows, 1821 to 1823. We may also take pride in, if not lay claim to, Governor Jonathan Trumbull, of Lebanon, and Governor William A. Buckingham, of Norwich, by reason of their having been born in towns so closely related to this town.
It is a great honor to be favored with a visit from the Chief Magistrate of our Commonwealth, and especially when the gentleman so distinguished has graced the office as has its present incumbent. He has been so kind as to accept our invitation, notwithstanding his many responsibilities and calls to duty in other directions. I have the honor to introduce as the next speaker, His Excellency, Rollin S. Woodruff, Governor of Connecticut.
ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR WOODRUFF.
After some complimentary remarks on Hebron's history and the sturdy men who made it the governor launched into his subject. "In the old days" he said, "when Hebron was started two hundred years ago, your ancestors laid the foundation upon which your fortune is built, and you are the heirs of their faithfulness. Are we doing for others what they did for us? Are we true to our citizenship, for there the whole thing rests. The individual must not only do right and be right but the state must do right and be right. The citizen must be the commonwealth. The will of the people must be the law of the state. This can only be done by the united action and concurrence of all people working in
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favor of the best that is in our home, our community and our state. In one word, we must be good citizens and take an active personal interest in our public questions and in all public men.
We have been making money in America very fast. We are all en- gaged in that struggle. In our haste to get hold of the material things that bring comfort, have we not neglected to give sufficient attention to the government which is, after all, the bulwark that protects us? Have we not often said, 'I'll get what I can while I can, and let the future take care of itself?' What if our ancestors had acted in that spirit!
My friends, we are in the future before we know it, and by neglecting to prepare for what is to come, we endanger our present safety. These things that operate against one, finally operate against all. The people of the United States are very much exercised on the subject of govern- ment. It is fast dawning upon them that the government does not belong to a few men, who claim to represent political parties-a small body of dictators who have heretofore assumed the right to nominate for office anyone they please, regardless of any consideration for the masses of the people. Our states have been too long dominated by selfish men, serving selfish interests and manipulating the machinery of government to suit themselves. We will never have just laws until the people make them-until we have popular representation. A few poli- ticians controlling delegates and dictating the action of conventions is not popular government.
Popular government in the United States begins where the citizens take part in primaries, where the delegations are chosen; and bears fruit when those delegates go into the convention unpledged, and with an unselfish honesty of purpose choose the best men that their judgment can agree upon, so that the delegates stand before the people free and un- fettered, like men and like Americans, and not like slaves, obedient to their private masters.
I say that popular government begins at the primary and ends at the convention because after that it is too late. Yet, no matter what a con- vention may do, we still have public opinion to reckon with and public opinion is excited at this time in the different states of the country. It is aroused and excited to such a degree that no man can hope for election, no matter to what party he belongs, unless he inspires confidence among the people. This will be a critical year.
The government of Connecticut especially concerns us and is a serions matter to us all. Our state should be no plaything for politicians who serve interests entirely selfish and antagonistic to the commonwealth. It is our home, our hope, our future, and all our happiness that depends upon the integrity and common justice of our laws.
The people of Hebron are called upon to exercise the patriotism of their courageous ancestors to-day; not with gun and sword, but with the sturdy fearlessness of independent citizenship, standing in defense of those liberties that come down the years, through peril and poverty and toil-back to the honest manhood whose virtues you celebrate to-day."
The old hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" was sung to the tune "St. Ann's" to which it is musically wedded, and F. Clarence Bissell of Willimantic, the historian, was introduced.
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INTRODUCTION OF F. C. BISSELL, Deputy Comptroller, State of Connecticut. HISTORIAN OF THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS.
History forms a very important part in these proceedings,- in fact, it is history that we are assembled here to-day to com- memorate.
The historian who has been selected to cover the first one hundred years of our town was born in Hebron, and closely identified therewith until his removal to Willimantic in 1892. Mr. F. C. Bissell has been connected with the State Comptroller's office at Hartford since 1898, and is now Deputy Comptroller of the State. He needs no formal introduction to this audience.
ADDRESS OF F. CLARENCE BISSELL.
In preparing this address the most serious difficulty has been in determining what to leave out. The idea! trying to cover the history of a hundred years in an address of half an hour!
So, if you find some pet tradition omitted or even some important fact but slightly mentioned, attribute it to the newspaper publisher's apology, "lack of space."
When our ancestors made their appearance here two centuries ago, the country was covered by a practically unbroken forest but without underbrush or thickets except upon banks of rivers and in marshy places. Such paths as led through these forests were winding, narrow footways along which the Indian and the wild animal alike traveled in single file.
Few Indians inhabited this particular locality, so far as history or tradition states, although "Burnt Hill" is said to have been kept clear by annual burning and used by some of these wanderers as a planting ground for their corn, a circumstance from which the name originated.
INDIAN TITLE
The first title to the land of the township was from the will of Joshua or Attawanhood, Sachem of the Western Nehanties and the third son of Uncas, the great Sachem of the Mohegans. He lived near Eight Mile Island in Lyme and died in May 1676 during an expedition against the warlike Indians, in which he and his father, Uneas, assisted the English. The will was signed Feb. 29, 1675-6 and admitted to probate in New Lon- don County Court Sept. 19, 1676. The General Court also allowed and established the will at its May session 1679.
In this will he gave to Capt. Robert Chapman, Lt. Willm. Pratt, Mr. Thos. Buckingham, Willm. Parker, Senr .. Willm. Lord, Senr., Robt. Lay, Senr., Abraham Post, Samll. Jones, John Clark. Tho. Dunk, Richd. Ely, John Fenner, Francis Bushnell, Senr., Edward Shipman, Senr., Mr. John Westall, John Pratt, John Chapman, John Parker, Willm. Lord, Jr., Saml. Cogswell, Lydia Beamont, John Tully, Richard Raymond, Senr., Abraham Chalker, Willm. Bushnell., Senr., Joseph Ingham, Senr., John
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FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH-Dedicated May 1, 1883
ST. PETER'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH-Consecrated October 19, 1820
Bushnell and Tho. Norton,* *** "All that tract of land lying on both sides Unguoshot River abutting Westward to the insight of Hartford and of Hartford bounds North to Majr. John Talcotts farm Northeast to Watto- choquisk upon the East side bounded eight miles in bredth from the mountains eastward and to carry that bredth throughout the length being eighteen miles and according to a mapp drawn and subscribed with nay own hand bearing date with these presents."
This description, drawn with characteristic Indian recklessness and disregard of actual measurements, made our ancestors a deal of trouble. The only things about it that have stood the test of time, are that it was "lying on both sides Unguoshot river" and the northern boundary "Major John Talcott's farm, northeast to Wattochoquisk upon the east side." This Unguoshot river was the stream known at the present time as the Blackledge. The Indian name of this river, as in many other cases is taken from some land mark adjoining and according to "Trumbull's Indian Names" (page 75) "Denotes land at the bend or crotch of the brook where Blackledge bends eastward to its union with Fawn river." The northern boundary was a farm deeded to Major John Talcott by the Indians in 1674 and the Indian name of the locality, Wattochoquisk, signified according to Trumbull "a boggy meadow," which was in the southern part of the old town of Coventry.
The total area, eight miles in breadth and eighteen miles in length was much larger than the actual measurements, which were at the most but about seven by ten miles.
Trumbull the historian says "By will of said Uncas, all the lands in Hebron were bequeathed to Thomas Buckingham, Esq., William Shipman and others, called the Saybrook Legatees, except about 2,600 acres at the northeast corner, and about 4,000 acres at the south end of the town. There were about 700 within the parish of Marlborough. These lands were claimed by Mason."
This claim was under a deed given by the Sachem Uncas, and it made much trouble for the settlers.
COLONIAL PATENT
The "Governor and Company assembled in General Court according to the commission and by the vertue of power granted to them by our late Soveraigne Charles the Second of blessed memory in his letters pattent bearing date the three & twentyeth day of April in the fowerteenth year of his sayd Maties reigne" issued a patent to the persons named in the will of Joshua, Robert Chapman and others for the land described as being given to them by said will. This patent in the quaint legal phraseology of the period covered "all the woods, uplands, arrable lands, meadows, pastures, ponds, waters, rivers, fishings, huntings, foulings, mines, minerals, quaries, precious stones upon or within said tracts of lands with all other proffits, comodities thereunto belonging" and described the title as being "according to the tenure of his Maties manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent in the Kingdom of England in free and common socage & not in cappitte nor by knight service, they yielding & paying therefor to o' Soveraigne Lord the King his heirs & successors only the fifth part of all the oare of gold and silver, which from time to time and at all times hereafter shall be there gotten, had or obteyned in lieu of all rents, services, duties & demands whatsoever, according to charter"
This was dated June 8, 1687.
PROPRIETORS
It must be remembered that the title to these lands antedated the
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incorporation of the town, and was given to the company of proprietors, who were known as "The Legatees of Joshua" or the "Saybrook Legatees," few of whom were settlers on the land. Their book of record in town clerk's office commences about 1700 and relates at length their efforts to get their land in condition for disposal to actual settlers.
They made agreements with Colchester and Lebanon proprietors as to their boundaries, which fell far short of the eight by eighteen miles of Joshua's will and the Colonial patent, surveyors were appointed to lay out the lots and a "rate upon ye legatees" laid to pay the expense thereof. A thousand acres each were set aside for the first minister, the school, and the collegiate school at Saybrook.
November 10, 1702 the lots in the first division were drawn, eighty- six in number and they were evidently in the market for customers. A number of these were soon after sold to actual settlers and the drawing of lots in new divisions followed from time to time for several years. At a meeting February 19, 1706-7 the proprietors appointed a committee to present a petition to the General Court "for the granting of a township within said lands" and yt the name of the said place may be called Hebron". In conformity thereto, it was established and recorded a township and the name of Hebron confirmed upon it at the May session 1707. It should be noted that this was not the incorporation of the town, which event we are celebrating to-day, but a naming of a township or proprietoary holding, the lands of which were being put in the market by the proprietors.
They continued their existence as proprietors for many years, holding meetings from time to time for the transaction of their business. The first meeting in Hebron was probably May 2, 1710, before that having been held at Saybrook. They laid out highways, appropriated money to aid the settlers in providing for a minister and in building a house for him, made new divisions of land among themselves and vigorously fought with the proprietors of the surrounding townships who tried to encroach upon their territory. In this latter capacity, as good fighters, they, as well as the actual settlers at a later period, achieved quite an enviable notoriety and gained the reputation of being a hard lot to impose upon.
The last recorded meeting of the proprietors was held January 14, 1782.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
Nearly one hundred years after that of Jamestown, Va., eighty-five years after Plymouth and seventy years after the first English settlements in Connecticut, the settlement of the town commenced.
Twenty-five years before this the Governor of the colony in answer to an inquiry made by the Lords of the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations, said in regard to the unsettled land in the colony, that it was "a mountainous country, full of rocks, swamps, hills and water and most that is fit for plantations is taken up; what remains must be subdued and gained out of the fire, as it were, by hard blows and for small reconi- pense".
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