USA > Connecticut > Windham County > Historic Gleanings in Windham County, Connecticut > Part 14
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will say. " Did not he breakfast, dine, or sup, in every old tavern of the country ?" But would not you like to have seen young Nathan Hale prance up to the doorstep that cold January morning in 1776, when the taverns were so crowded that he had to ride eighteen miles before he could snatch a morsel of food ; or hob-a-nob-ed with Putnam, glass to glass, in the great bar-room; or bartered greetings with those valiant champions, Knowlton and Durkee; or cheered the triumphant battalions under Generals Heath and Sullivan as they marched to New York after the evacuation of Boston; or bring back for one golden hour the vanished glories of the deserted thoroughfare ?
Cousin Jotham's plain farm-house recalled me to present duties. A burly old fellow, with very red face and most abnormal nose, sat by the table at the open window munching down his supper. Pro- pounding with new hope the stereotyped query- " Can you tell me anything about the Nathaniel Jay who bought the Saltonstall traet in 1740," "Yes, I know everything about him," he interrupted. "He
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was my great-grandfather, and came to this town when grandfather Jay, his youngest child, was just two years old." And thence he went on to report his various wives and children, and their several hus- bands, wives, children, occupations, and places of residence, as clear, methodical, and minute, as if he had served apprenticeship at a Genealogical Bureau. He was his grandfather's boy, he said, and used to potter all over the farm with him, hearing his old stories ; and so it came to pass that he alone of all the race had treasured up the family history. And to think that within three days after this interview this faithful custodian should have been gathered to his grandfathers, cut down in his own hay-field by a sun- stroke, and if I had waited for Mr. Blue Jay to have finished his haying, or if Mrs. Blue Jay had not broken the Sabbath, not one of their numerous brood might have heard this true story of their ancestors.
Finding your prospective victim alive and accessi- ble, a word of cantion may be helpful. Over rash- ness and precipitancy may blast your hopes in the moment of anticipated discovery. Old people, espe- cially those remote from the world in country places, are easily flustered and unstrung. To burst in upon a feeble old woman with blunt announcement of name and errand might drive every idea and memory from her bewildered brain, and reduce her to tempo- rary imbecility.
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" I think I did have a sister Olive once," whimpered a poor old lady badgered out of her wits by an un- skilled evidence-taker. Gradual approach should precede the main attack. Assume an errand if you have it not. Take along your butter pail or egg basket, and from easy chat upon crops and weather glide imperceptibly into family matters, and you will hardly fail to unlock the treasures of memory and the still more precious records, carefully hoarded in Bible and pocket-book. Whatever you hear or find, do not waste time and temper in debate and argu- ment. However absurd may be the family theory of your informants, it is not wise to controvert it. Their facts may be "first-rate " if their "theory don't coin- cide." You are not a judge nor partisan pleader but a seeker after truth ; and what you need above all is to have every witness state whatever facts he may have, after his own light and fashion. It is just pos- sible that his pet theory is nearer right than your own, and there are often germs of truth in the most absurd theories. More than once I have been forced to adopt views which I thought at first utterly pre- posterous. If you suffer pangs of conscience at leaving an ancient relative, in what seems to you gross error, consider the probable futility of attempt- ing to enlighten him. Jokes and opiates may be in- jected into the system, but what can expel an idea from the fossilized intellect? Even if under the
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pressure of inexorable logic you compel your oppo- nent to admit that a man cannot die before he is born, or be older than his grandmother, you will hear him within twenty-four hours reiterate the same absurd- ities. It is well, however, to insinuate mildly that other branches of the family hold different opinions and theories, leading your informant to a more care- ful scrutiny of his own position, and bringing out more clearly all sides of the question.
These veteran hard-shells, with one or two de- tached facts to stand upon, are far less exasperating than their light-minded antipodes, void alike of facts and theories. Old people, in genealogical estimate, are either priceless or good-for-nought. Some have memories like a well-ordered store-house, with most valuable commodities carefully assorted and labeled ; while others are best typified by the household rag- bag or refuse-heap. Truly pitiful it often seems that eighty or ninety years' experience should have gar- nered up so little worth preserving or repeating-and yet it will not do to despise rag-bags and rubbish- heaps, for precious things sometimes slip into them that would never find their way into an orderly re- ceptacle. Such a time as I had with old Lady Feather-pate. The descendant of a pioneer family, with a grandfather almost Enoch-Arden-ized by cap- tivity in the French and Indian War, a father who had drummed through the Revolution in Putnam's
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own regiment, and personal acquaintance with all the noted ministry and gentry of her own generation -I could not get a tangible item out of her. Again and again, with the utmost care and patience, I would lead the conversation back to some note- worthy person or incident with which she must have been perfectly familiar, and off she would bob to some irrelevant household matter, descanting with greatest volubility upon her success in raising calves, which seemed to have been the culmination of her life's achievement-(It was whispered, indeed, that her own graceless cubs did her far less credit). But amid the scum and froth of this disjointed babble there bubbled out, inadvertently, a diamond of the first water; a definite, chronological, long-buried fact, whose recovery is pronounced by my friend, Mr. Gradgrind, of more practical valne than the sum total of all my previous investigations-a fact which settled the original lay-out of a contested highway, and saved two towns from angry debate and impend- ing litigation.
This apparent dependence upon mere chance and luck in antiquarian researches can hardly fail to awaken anxious solicitude. If we scarcely manage to save so many valuable items, must we not lose many others? Even in matters that would seem to demand only patient plodding there is an element of uncertainty. A gap is found in the church records
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just at the time that missing great-grandmother might have been born or married, a pivotal date by chance left out, precious names blotted or undeci- pherable, blundering entries, entailing inextricable confusion and bewilderment. It is almost needless to advise an earnest, persistent Japheth never to send for information when he can possibly go for it, know- ing as he does the risk of entrusting such search to an indifferent person. Undoubtedly experts may be found, especially in old mother towns, who take pro- fessional pride in unraveling the most complicated lineage ; but the acumen of the ordinary town clerk is, to say the least, problematic. They are often afflicted with that peculiar optical infirmity that re- stricts the vision to things directly under the nose. I have known them positively deny the existence of records that historic instinct ferreted out in five min- utes. It is observed, however, that an application of gold-dust or bank-note is a sovereign specific in such cases. Equally uncertain is the result of epistolary effort, the blanks, as in other lotteries, bearing a large proportion to the prizes. Of course, all that can be done is to try our chances over and over, believing that an earnest seeker will in time attain the object of search. For myself, I came at last to a certain assured conviction that all that I needed would some- how find its way to me.
" Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, Can keep away my own from me !"
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Ever following, never fainting, watching, hunting, plodding, year after year, you will in time solve your problems, fit in your links, establish connection, and complete in a good degree your family record. Some perverse great-grandmother or minor collateral may yet evade you, permitting you the tantalizing pleas- ure of further research. Can anyone give tidings of a certain fair Rachel, married in 1738 to a faithful Benjamin C? Blank spaces in many " Ancestral Tab- lets " are waiting for her name.
[Several statements in the above paragraph need modification and retraction. I am most happy to affirm that the efficiency of the ordinary town official is not in these days "problematic." On the contrary, since the great demand for family records, the in- efficient and blundering town clerk has become ex- ceptional, and many of them have attained almost preternatural acuteness in answering these demands. The stupidity of a former fossil, who withheld for half a dozen years the needful record from a most importunate old gentleman simply because of one superfluous letter in the name, cannot be paralleled in these days. Driven to desperation, this persevering Japheth instituted search in every town of the coun- ty, though all the evidence pointed to one particular town. Having occasion to visit this town, I remem- bered his plaintive appeal, and taking up the birth- record, there, on the very first page, inscribed in large, bold letters with the blackest of ink, were the names of this identical "John and Hannah," at the
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precise dates specified in search warrant-with just an o added to the family name, making it Broad in- stead of Brad! Anyone familiar with old records knows that a few vowels, more or less, make no differ- ence. There was no standard of spelling, and, first names and date corresponding, there need have been no doubt in this and similar cases. Most fortunately our long suffering and waiting friend survived to attain this welcome verification.]
The omission or displacement of some small letter may be equally disastrous in consequences. With deep contrition I recall the perplexity and labor in- flicted upon two painstaking genealogists by inad- vertently overlooking in proof the substitution of John for Jonah and Joseph for Josiah. Both had the sense to appeal from the printed page to previous notes, which fortunately enabled me to correct the error. Where old town records have been copied there is room for many errors to creep in, unless the copyist is familiar with old family names. In case of doubt it is wise to consult the original record. In an instance where the birth-date of the oldest child was omitted from the copy, I found it safely tucked away in the dogs-ear roll of the discarded leaf. Old minis- ters in baptizing a batch of babies sometimes man- aged to mix up the names in recording them-a source of perplexity somewhat difficult to unravel till we find him marrying the exchanged Lucys or Abigails -and are able to fit them into their rightful families.
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Still by care and patience we learn to, discriminate and circumvent these several errors.
And even assured success may have its reserva- tions. It must be admitted that our ancestors are not always what we desired and expected. Some of us have to take up with Ham instead of Shem or Japheth. I have myself restored grandparents to anxious descendants when I would fain have whis- pered Pope's couplet :
"Go and pretend your family is young,
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long."
It was embarrassing to report to an unknown ap- plicant from Boston, that one of the name had been publicly flogged at the whipping post for breaking the Sabbath ; that another had figured as a witch, sticking pins into sleeping neighbors, and commit- ting other malicious pranks ; and a third, bearing the same unlucky name, was the last man hung in the county ! One letter of inquiry among hundreds that have come to me is left unanswered, my pen refusing to blast the hopes of the wife of a high church dig- nitary by the disgraceful intelligence that the last heard of her unworthy progenitor he had been con- victed of horse-stealing, whipped, branded, and sent back to jail for lack of means to pay the fine. Let him rest in dark oblivion. An ancestor with no more consideration for the feelings of descendants de- serves to be blotted from their record.
20
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[I feel now that I was utterly at fault in the above premises and conclusion. Under present light and experience I feel that the inquirer should be in- formed of every fact connected with his family his- tory, and that the genealogist has no right to keep back discoveries, however unfavorable.]
" From Nature's chain whatever link you strike.
Tenth or ten thousandth breaks the chain alike."
If one link was unsound, those back of it may have proved of true metal. How great the loss inflicted in this particular instance can never be determined. My horse-lifter may have come from some robber count or highland freebooter; he may have de- scended, like myself, from William the Conqueror or a line of raiding Vikings, and by withholding this link I have robbed the Bishop's children of ability to prove connection. We wish, like good Mr. Omer, " that parties were brought up stronger minded," so that the genealogist need not feel qualmish in mak- ing disagreeable revelations. It is certainly absurd for citizens of our great republic to be unduly squeamish concerning the social position of their an- cestors. We cannot "all be corporals " as the chil- dren expected in the old story, and may take right- ful pride in having worked our way up from the ranks by dint of honest struggle and gradual promotion. Even the honor and privilege of tracing your line straight back to historic names brought over in the Mayflower, or Winthrop's fleet, has its drawbacks.
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"What a descent," said a sarcastic old gentleman to a boastful scion of the Pilgrims. A less noted line may also portend a more vigorous future. Fam- ilies, like their familiar symbol, grow, culminate, and decay. Your old trees have hollow trunks and many sapless, moss-grown branches. Some are blighted, some quickened by change of position and climate.
" A tree that stands square in old Massachusetts,
When transplanted to other States sometimes askew sets."
The most hopelessly inert, lifeless, incapable speci- mens of humanity may be found among the descend- ants of old Puritan magnates. And while there are those who still do honor to illustrious names, it must be admitted that it is the new blood that chiefly leads in public affairs. Over fruitfulness in past genera- tions may have impaired capacity for present pro- duction, and the lower the social position of your grandfather the better may be the chance for your grandson's future.
But there are things unearthed by the genealogist harder to bear than degree of social position. There are " blots on the escutcheon," bar-sinisters, too great. discrepancy between dates of birth and marriage, in some instances birth preceding marriage. Those familiar with ancient church records find frequent examples of such previousness. The custom of ex- torting a public confession from such offenders would
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seem to have aggravated the evil, making it almost a matter of course that such confession should be needed. With our ideas of the strictness of Puritan morals and discipline, it seems remarkable that such a condition of things should have existed; yet in point of fact, it was less immoral than appears on the surface, and was based on the old Germanic idea of the sacredness of the betrothal. "Engaged folks have a right to live like married ones," was the blunt assertion of one sturdy recusant. The poverty of the times, the lack of business openings, made it difficult for a young man to provide and maintain an inde- pendent household, and existing customs allowed great liberty of intercourse between contracting parties. In one case, at least, marriage was delayed till the youngster was old enough to be the most con- spicuous witness of the ceremony. It may be said that this liberty was seldom abused, and that in- stances where marriage did not follow this previous intercourse are very infrequent. But when for some unavoidable cause marriage was prevented, it bore most hardly upon the unmarried mother, bearing through life a burden of disgrace and sorrow, having lapsed no more than hundreds of more fortunate sisters who lived and died in honor. On the other side, a pathetic incident occurred in the death of a young mother soon after the birth of her child. The infant was baptized at its dying mother's bedside,
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but almost immediately the father had its birth re- corded under his own name, and his family assumed its charge and support. But a shadow followed the young man through life. When, after a time, he de- cided to marry, his first child was given the name of his lost love, and his life ends in a mazy tradition of falling over a bridge in mist and darkness. In that case, as in many others, marriage had been delayed simply as a matter of convenience.
But in the days following the Revolution there was far greater looseness of morals and manners. It was a time of general upheaval and commotion. The deadness of the established churches, the spread of French Revolution ideas and infidelity, the assertion of personal liberty, and the excessive use of liquor, all conspired to induce a very bad condition of affairs. The diary of our friend Zeph gives a graphic picture of the frolickings and junketings among young peo- ple of his grade, and among his many frank entries are those of numerous births immediately preceding, or without, marriage. Nor were things much better among the higher classes. That such a graceless rep- robate as Oliver Dodge could have maintained his position in such a town as Pomfret, shows the low tone of public morals. Our first ventures in pop- ular literature bear striking testimony in this line. Ministers' sons and deacons' daughters, teachers in Plainfield Academy and promising young lawyers,
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figure in highly sensational stories, with only too much literal foundation. With the new century came new spiritual life and movements, and influ- ences were set at work that wrought a wonderful betterment in all directions. If any genealogical Japheth lights upon an unfavorable record, or lack of record, during this unsavory period, he can only comfort himself by the probability that many others are in the same situation. The genealogist may deem himself fortunate who never stumbles upon an unpleasant revelation. "Any possible move," says the wise Mr. Bucket, "being a probable move ac- cording to my experience." Considering all the bad things that have been done in the world, we have no right to claim exemption for our ancestors. And the farther back we go the greater probability of wrong- doing. It is all very well to trace your line back into the old world, intersecting lines of nobility and kings, but their character and conduct will not bear close inspection. A line or lines straight back without gap or blot to substantial New England settlers is as good a thing as one need have in the way of an- cestry, and many such favored lines have been tri- umphantly established, while failure in any point certainly demands great exercise of philosophy.
But if you have not gained all that you would like, your search has not been fruitless. Apart from the fascinating excitement of pursuit it has strengthened
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the ties of blood and kindred, and given you a closer apprehension of the oneness of the human family. Amid the hurry and rush of our headlong national growth and expansion this modern interest in genea- logical research has a most beneficent and humaniz- ing influence, counteracting the tendency to separa- tion and dispersion, and drawing thousands of scat- tered families around a common hearthstone. Most noteworthy is its bearing upon the vexed question of New England's future. At a time when the out- flow of its native population and the influx of for- eigners has revolutionized the rural district, when a great majority of Yankee farms are tilled by those of alien blood and tongue, this awakened interest in ancestral homes and shrines is a hopeful feature in the situation. Pilgrim sons of Pilgrim fathers pay pious visits to the graves of their ancestors, and ar- range for their better care and more fitting memo- rial stone or tablet. Often the interest extends to the family homestead, the neighborhood, the town, and finds expression in helpful aid-in renovated church-yard and church edifice ; in public school- house or library building. Many a town has received a new impulse from these friendly gifts, arousing the before discouraged residents to greater efforts in their own behalf, and stimulating the interest and cooperation of other wandering sons and old-time residents. Family reunions at ancestral homes,
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bringing together sons and daughters from all parts of the land, strengthen the ties of blood and early association, and make it more and more evident that sons of New England will not outgrow their filial relations ; that the homes that nourished the infancy of our land will be even more honored and cherished as time rolls on.
And in its more personal aspect the genealogist finds great reward. His feeling of kinship widens out to the whole family circle and brings them into reciprocal relations. Truly "he setteth the solitary in families." To many isolated lives he brings new sources of interest and consolation. The most shriv- eled old maid, the dryest old twig of a bachelor, gains new life and freshness when incorporated into a family tree. To how many of our elderly friends this pursuit has brought enjoyment that nothing else could substitute. How striking its adaptation to the instinctive craving of those, who retired from active labor, can thus gather up the past and project it into the future :
" Becoming, as is meet and fit, A link among the days, to knit The generations, each to each."
How hopeful the interest and enthusiasm thus awakened among the younger branches.
Success to all the Japheths, far and near! May each achieve his "Tree," and may its shadow never be less.
INDEX.
A. Benjamin, 198. Abbe, Rachael, 100. Adams, Abigail, 54. Adams, Mrs. Elisha, 127. Adams, Samuel, 17, 90, 91. Allis, Abigail, 54. Allston, Washington, 217. Almy, Sampson, 162. Alton, Mrs. Elizabeth (Hos- mer), 127. Andros, Sir Edmund, 3, 139. Angel, Jonathan, 177. Angell, Job, 151, 153, 154. Aplin, John, 147. Aspinwall. Peter, 135, 137. Avery, Mr., 17.
Backus, Rev. Isaac, 37, 38, 43. Bacon, James. 60. Ballou, Rev. Hosea, 183. Bancroft, 90. Barrett, John, 113. Bartholomew, Mrs. Abigail, 53.
Bartholomew, William, 53. Bass, Rev. John, 147. Belcher, Jonathan, 57. Bishop, Widow, 196. Blackwell, Sir John, 56-57. Blake, Goody, 128. Bolles, Lucins, 156. Bowles, Captain, 149. Bowlses, 60. Bradbury, Jermima, 61. Bradford, 17. Mrs. Hannah, 66. Broad, Hannah, 239. John, 239.
Brown, 146. Rev. Aaron, 72, 106. Jeremiah, 149. John, 149. Nicholas, 156. Buck, Lieut., 112. Bucket, Mr .. 246. Bullock, 148.
C-, Benjamin, 239. C .. Elder, 184, 188, 189, 193, 194. Cady, 61. Daniel, 99. Joseph, 99, 149. 160. Mrs. Joseph, 160. Calhoon, Mr., 149. Cargill, Capt. Benjamin, 8. Lucy, 80. William E., 81.
Carpenter, Mr., 60. Chaffery, Old, 18. Chandler, Capt. John, 57, 59, 60. Chandler, Deacon John, 59. John, 58, 61. Peleg, 156. Chase, 148. Chauncey, Dr., 73.
Cheese, Sam., 118. Childs, Capt. Elisha, 110. Ephraim, 110. Henry, 110. Christopher, Mr., 8. Clap, Rector, 30, 209. Rev. Thomas, 65. Clark, James, 103. " Claver'ouse, Bloody," 46.
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INDEX.
Clemmons, John, 170. Cleveland, Capt. Aaron, 94. Ebenezer, 29. John, 17, 29-31. Mrs. Josiah, 16. Gen. Moses, 94. Cogswell, Rev. James, 26, 28, 29, 32, 46. 50, 92, 93. Coit, Abigail. 61. Billy, 60, 61. John, 60, 61. Rev. Joseph, 59-61 Martha, 60. Coit, Mrs. Mehitable Chand- ler, 59, 66.
Coit, Thomas, 59-60.
Cole, Nathan, 12.
Coleman, Goodman, 54.
Coles, Old Captain, 170.
Congdon, 148.
Converse, Jacob. 156.
Cook, Capt. Nicholas, 141, 155.
Corbin Mrs. Caroline Fair- field, 130. Corbin, Jabez, 60. James. 60. Corliss, Captain, 149.
Cotton, Rev. Josiah, 147.
Coy, 61. Crosby, Capt. Stephen, 112, 114. 115.
Cutler, Ephraim, 98-129. Manasseh, 72, 76, 78, 85, 99.
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