USA > Connecticut > New London County > Groton > Historic Groton : comprising historic and descriptive sketches pertaining to Groton Heights, Center Groton, Poquonnoc Bridge, Noank, Mystic, and Old Mystic, Conn. > Part 4
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among the poor in New York city, which was very gratefully appreciated. Improvement of the well on the monument grounds was made by securing the old well curb on the new post office site in New London, which was origi- nally owned by Mrs. Slocomb's great grand- father, Capt. Elisha Ilinman.
In 1896 Mrs. Slocomb was chairman of the national hymn committee and made an ad- dress at the Continental Congress in Wash- ington on this subject. Later Mrs. Clara B. Whitman of Groton was elected regent, and Mrs. Slocomb was appointed chairman of the monument house committee.
When Mrs. Slocomb found need of a flag for decorative purposes, she was informed that there never was a Connecticut state flag es- tablished by law. None of the flags carried by Connecticut troops, from Colonial days to the present time, was ever adopted by the General Assembly, though there were thirty- five different designs extant, while red, blue yellow, and once green flags were used to dis- tinguish Connecticut troops. Our chapter submitted several designs to the General As- sembly for a legalized state flag. One was ap- proved, which is made of blue bunting 12 by 18 feet. It has the state shield in white, bor- dered in silver and gold, and the old colonial seal of three clinging grape vines, of strength and beauty, wreathing themselves upward, freighted with full fruitage, and said to be symbolical of religion, liberty and knowledge. Beneath the shield, on a silvery streamer, in blue letters, bordered with brown and gold, we read our state motto, Qui, transtulet, sus- tinet. Translated, He who hath transplanted, will sustain. On the staff was attached an ex- quisite silver presentation plate, snitably in- scribed.
This flag became the Connecticut official State flag, and on Aug. 12th, 1897, was pre- sented by our chapter to Governor Lorrin A. Cooke at the capitol in Hartford, and shortly after it was hoisted on the staff to the peak of the capitol's dome, where it was saluted by the firing of thirteen guns.
On Aug. 16th, the governor received at Camp Cooke the silk flag for the governors of
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the state, from our chapter. Senator Lee spoke at least 10,000 persons were present and it was difficult to get passage across the Thames. A company called "The Ledyard Volunteers," of the thirteen stripes, representing the thir- teen original states, saying, if the names should be written upon them, Connecticut manned the fort, and in the line of march were ought to have her name at the head of the list, 18 survivors of the massacre, some showing scars and others with bullet rent garments. One veteran had two holes in his vest which were made on that memorable day in 1781 when he escaped death from the bullets by having a British officer stuff his night cap into because of her noble history ; for during the Revolutionary war, more troops were raised from Connecticut than from any other state, with one exception, and during the Civil war she sent about 55.000 soldiers to the front.
SUSTINET
QUIC
TRANSTULIT
CONNECTICUT STATE FLAG
In June, 1898, Mrs. Slocomb was one of eight Daughters from Connecticut who peti- tioned Congress against the misuse of the na- tional flag, and in July she was one of the New London and Windham County D. A. R. relief committee for collecting and forwarding contributions to our United States hospital at Jacksonville, Fla., during the Spanish-American war. Our chapter gave in money and mate- rials $135. On the 6th of September, as usual, a fitting celebration was observel at Groton, it being the 17th anniversary of the battle, which since 1825, 44 years after the massacre. had been commemorated in some proper man- ner.
Subscriptions were taken at the taverns in Stonington, Groton, Preston and New London to defray expenses, and when the day arrived
the orifice of the wound. These men of Revo- lutionary days marched with dignity to Fort Griswold, where tooo women were assembled, and listened to the oration by lon William Brainerd. Later Gov. Wolcott was placed at the head of a committee to erect a monument to the honored heroes who fell there in 1781. The money was secured by a lottery, and so this monument was built which stands there in all its grandeur to-day.
And so on, down the years, each succeeding Sept. 6th brings with it some fitting celebra- tion, and patriotic hearts take up willingly the work of keeping green the memory of these brave men who fell at this spot. On the 6th of Sept., 1868. Hon. Benjamin Stark read a paper. which had been compiled by Miss Mary Ben- jamin, relative to the laying of the corner-
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stone of the Groton monument. Mrs. Sara Kinney made an address and Mrs. Slocomb presented a water color painting of the new state flag to Battery B, First Connecticut Heavy Artillery Volunteers.
In October, 1898, Mrs. Whitman, on account of ill health, resigned, and Mrs. Slocomb once more became our leader. In this same month, the monument house, which had been closed several weeks undergoing repairs, amounting in cost to over $800, was reopened amid interesting ceremonies. A sealed box of records was buried under the main entrance, and after addresses and songs, the flagging was placed over it.
The photographs of the little stone house sold well to its many visitors. It scarcely seems possible, but in the summer months of two years 10,000 persons viewed this historic place. The chapter has distributed many val- uable, large water colors and artistic colored photographs of the tags to the military and various libraries and societies at a cost of $250. W'e also published a booklet by Miss Benjamin on local history.
Five large volumes, given by Mrs. Slocomb, were filled with a cartoon history of the Span- ish-American war, prepared by our historian, Mrs. Ira Hart Palmer of Stonington, and sometime after Miss Emma W. Palmer of Stonington completed a number of volumes of cartoon history of the same war. The C. A. R. did a large amount of relief work during this war and two of their number became sol- diers of Uncle Sam. .
Our chapter was honored by a request from Washington to have its work, the state flag and monument house, forwarded as a report to the Smithsonian Institution, this being the first report including D. A. R. work, published at the expense of the government. It contained thirty plates, one of which was the monument honse. .
In 1899, two of our silk flags were presented to the Third Regiment at Camp Lounsbury and in this year, plans were made to add to the monument house, a large hall, 47 by 27 feet and one-third higher than the present building. to be called the Memorial Annex in memory
of our heroic dead of the Spanish-American war, the first monument to be raised in the state to that cause.
At this time, news of the assassination of King Humbert was learned with feelings of sorrow by the world. Our chapter, through the kind thought of Mrs. Slocomb, had Tiffa- ny prepare a most exquisite and appropriate memorial album, with the arms of Italy and illuminated lettering, on delicate white vellum, with silver and gold mountings, containing parchment leaves to be inscribed by the offi- cers and members of each Connecticut chap- ter, and with the national officers also, ex- pressing to Queen Margherita, of Italy, the love and support of the patriotic American women. The volume was presented by the Countess Di Brazza, who was granted a long and delightful audience at the Queen's court.
Before the Queen's reply had reached us our own beloved President had been shot and was lying wounded unto death. Our chapter sent a letter of sympathy to Mrs. McKinley, and later upon the President's death extended ap- propriate resolutions.
Mrs. Slocomb made many appeals to Con- gress to secure the protection and adornment of the old forts, those important relics of the American Revolution, and at last the point was gained. Instead of selling off the guns, ordnance and buildings of Fort Griswold, and then dismantling the fort, the old battleground was converted into a memorial park owned by the State of Connecticut and in care of our chapter. All the guns, eleven cannon and pro- jectiles and 2000 cannon balls were donated to this chapter by the secretary of war, to deco- rate the park.
Through the hearty co-operation of Miss May Williams of New London our chapter be- came the enstodians of one of Uncle Sam's Spanish-American war trophies, a gun from the Admiral Cervera's flagship, the "Marie Theresa," which fired the first shot in the na- val battle of Santiago. So on the western slope of Groton Monument grounds the trophy can- non was mounted on its carriage on a substan- tial stone foundation, even the shield which protected it on the flagship being sent by the
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government. On June 17th, 1902, a great cel- ebration was held in Groton by the Anna Warner Bailey chapter and their friends. Capt. Richard P. Hobson, the orator of the day, was escorted by detachments of the va- rious local national organizations to Groton Ileights, where the day proved an unqualified success, from the planting of the Constitution- al Oak, by little Cassie N. Bailey, to the un- veiling of the gun which Capt. Hobson des- ignated as an old friend, he having helped to raise it from the deck of the Theresa after the battle of Santiago. He also said that he
Revolution for the purpose of raising money to purchase land for a monument park. Later Mr. Morton Plant placed there a fountain, as a memorial to Capt. William Latham, who once owned the land, and was in the Revolu- tionary war at Groton Heights.
At the unveiling of the fountain a most in- teresting historical paper on the subject was written and read by Master Joseph A. Copp.
Some months after work for the Colonial Dames, relative to describing the old Colonial houses, was taken up by Miss Emma W. Palmer, Miss Julia Copp and myself.
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THE MONUMENT HOUSE
would "rather be born a citizen of the United States than a crown prince of the proudest country in the world."
President Roosevelt also having taken much personal interest in saving the old forts to our chapter, a vote of thanks was tendered him with a gift of a large and beautiful basket of red peonies, Mother Bailey's favorite flower.
Shortly after this onr regent was appointed a member of the site committee, regarding the proposed Continental Hall to be built at Washington, D. C., and she had the honor of selecting the accepted location, an ideal spot in every respect for this "Home of the Daugh- ters," on 17th St., near the White House.
In August a concert was given under the anspices of the Daughters and Children of the
Our chapter was authorized to erect a me- morial annex on the east side of the present monument house, and a committee of six la- dies was appointed to supervise Fort Gris- wold's memorial park. The necessary $8,000 to accomplish this task, seemed an almost im- possible amount to raise. The building was designed to harmonize with the old house and carried on to successful completion with eye- brow windows and a Jonathan Brooks me- morial window at the east. Aleoves and fire- proof rooms, with a janitor's room, and cases to hold and protect loaned and donated an- tiques, were designed for this museum, and much of the furniture was given.
In November, 1903. Fort Griswold which was built by the state, during the Revolution-
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» ary war and transferred to the United States in 1813, now again became the property of the state. Fort Griswold was no more. Shortly after the C. A. R. and the school children of Groton raised a flag in Fort Griswold Memo- rial Park, the exercises being attended by our chapter. Afterward, as Mrs. Slocomb's health made it necessary for her to lay aside many duties, she tendered her resignation as regent and Mrs. Clara B. Whitman was elected to the position, which she filled most acceptably.
Mrs. Whitman began her work by asking the war department to turn over to the Fort Griswold Commission, five gun carriages, viz. : Four barbette carriages for 8-inch Rodman gun, front pindle, and one barbette carriage for 20-pounder rifle, front pindle. They were already on the grounds and soon became our property.
In 1904 we note the presentation to the State of Connecticut of a turnstile supported by cobble pillars, placed in the north wall of the lower fort, near the new highway, for the perpetual continuance of a footpath through the forts, from north to south. A handsomely painted sign was also placed at the foot of School street, pointing the way to the mon- ment.
Mrs. Whitman had now an arduous task upon her heart and hands, to raise the neces- sary $8,000 and to bring to completion the work of the new annex, together with many other calls for money, among which was the Connecticut column in Continental Hall at Washington, our chapter raising about $50 for this object. The annnal Together Meeting of the Daughters in the state was held at Groton on Oct. 11th, 1905, this day being memorable as the birthday of the national society and the birthday of our patron saint, Anna Warner Bailey.
Our members gave and solicited, while the C. A. R: presented nearly $1,000, besides the Jonathan Brooks window, which was given by the New London C. A. R. society. The lit- tle state button was sold to those who wanted it and to those who did not want it, yielding a large return.
Sentiment culminated in a grand fair, which netted $260. This, though a great help, was in- adequate, and when in October Mrs. Whitman announced to the chapter that the remaining $2,000 had been given by Mr. Morton F. Plant, great was onr rejoicing, as the gift was entirely spontaneous and unsolicited. A trib- ute of thanks to him should be here recorded by the Anna Warner Bailey chapter, for his thoughtful aid, prompted by his generous heart in this patriotic work. We also record another gift of a memorial plate of blue and white china, designed by John Tolcott Adams, representing Col. Ledyard.
With this load off our minds, attention was directed to raising money for the purchase of the three lots on the east side of the fort, which required as our regent said, "A long pull, a strong pull and a pull all together." At last the annex was entirely completed and the long anticipated opening day, June 28th, 1907, arrived, bringing sunshine and blue skies, for the many guests, who came to do honor, not only to the patriotic dead, but to the patriotic living, who had worked so assiduously for he consummation of this work.
Lest you have never seen the house, let me tell you, that the interior of the building is well adapted to showing the relics. The roof is high and the room well lighted, the walls are decorated with heraldie shields and pic- tures of historic meaning, while swords, mili- tary clothing and apparel of ye olden time may be clearly seen in their cases. As you enter this building, you see our state motto and seal on the eastern wall in gilt letters, be- tween American flags, "Ile who transplanted still sustains," and on the western wall is the seal of the Daughters, in the blue and silver colors of the chapter against the background of two state flags. With the room full of in- teresting objects where shall we look first? Be sure and see the three pictures of Mother Bai- ley at different ages and the portrait of Abi- gail Hlinman. Gaze at the old Avery house and Ebenezer Avery's historic home. In one of the brick fireplaces, see the andirons and crane which once belonged to Mrs. Bailey, and, lest I weary you, go and look for yourself.
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Our regent, Mrs. Clara B. Whitman, pre- sented the house to the state, which was ac- cepted in an address by Gov. Woodruff. Af- terward Hon. Jonathan Trumbull of Norwich, "a Son of the Revolution," made the historical speech of the day, and the memorial window was unveiled. America was sung with enthu- siasm and Groton's place in history was again repeated. Mrs. Whitman has since resigned as regent and the position is now very capably filled by Mrs. Ida Baker.
All you who read this book should hunt the newspaper files of the last fifteen years and read of Groton's patriotic days, in- cluding the anniversaries of the battle of Gro-
ton Heights, when our chapter keeps open house, at the new memorial annex and enter- tains hospitably several hundreds, who view the new room and the many interest- ing relics with admiring eyes. These are in- creasing daily as our citizens realize that here is a safe deposit for their treasures, so that the remark has even been ventured that "oui memorial house is not yet large enough."
We see in mind the younger generation, fol- lowing in the footsteps of their predecessors, by rebuilding and rededicating in patriotic fervor, as members of the Anna Warner Bai- ley chapter of Groton and Stonington.
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Center Groton
By DAVID A. DABOLL
BROKEN and narrow valley, split into two sections by a central for- est covered ridge, sloping irregu- larly from the southern border of the present town of Ledyard to the broad and open plains upon the sound, forms what may be called the middle section of the Groton of to-day. Its western half is the basin of a river, originally much greater in volume than now, whose waters long fur- nished power for mills of various kinds, the wheels of which have mostly ceased to turn, or have already crumbled back to dust. In the upper part of the valley, in the shadow of the rocky ridges of Candlewood Hill, which here forms its eastern boundary, lies the little village whose story it is ours to tell.' Valley and plains, river and village, all once bore the quaint aboriginal name of Poquonnock, but the river, from its sources to tide water, became known in early settlement days as "The Great Brook," a title which has been perpetuated in deed and record, and the village, after hav- ing for a century and a quarter fulfilled the conditions which entitled it to its later name of Center Groton, received its belated christening as such, in the fine irony of circumstance, at a date when the reasons for it were passing or had already passed away.
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The twentieth century tourist, consulting his road map as he rolls in his automobile along its quiet street, sees little in its relative posi- tion and still less in its appearance to justify its name. He does not know and he does not stop to find out, that when the town of Groton comprised an area more than twice as large as it does at present, this spot was, approxi- mately speaking, its geographical center; and that as a corallary thereto it became its eccle- siastical, corporate, and educational center. Two highways running east and west and
north and south respectively, here cross one another at right angles. The first and more important one of the two was, long before the white invasion, an aboriginal trail worn by the feet of generations of savage warriors, and leading from the Narragansett country to the shores of the Pequot river, now the Thames. The second, similar in its origin, led from the open plain around the sound to the Mohegan country at the north. Into each of these at various distances, branching trails, now high- ways, converged.
"Once churches had towns; now, towns have churches." In this brief sentence, from some forgotten essayist, is to be found an epi-
OLD TAVERN
tome of the reasons for the rise and the de- cline of many a New England village, which, like this one, still holds its place on the map, although in the expressive phrase of Renan it may have long "less lived than lasted." Here at the crossing of the highways, then hardly more than bridle paths, by means of which the scattered farmers maintained a neighborly intercourse with one another, the founders of Groton, who believed that the only safe path- way to heaven was through the portals of the Established Church, reared the first meet- ing house in the town, where it could be most conveniently reached by the majority. Close
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Ly it they built the ruder school house, within whose walls no matter how limited the curri- culum might be, the discipline, like that of the church, was complete. Within a stone's throw of the two was the dwelling of the min- ister, whose rates, fixed by law, were to be collected from believers and unbelievers alike, peaceably, if possible, forcibly if necessary.
Thus they established an ecclesiastical, ed- ucational and intellectual center which was likewise to be a corporate center, since the meeting house was to serve as town house also. Doubtless, viewing the situation under fading seventeenth century lights, they ex- pected it long to endure, and in time to draw unto itself the elements which should make it a business and social center as well. Under
DABOLL HOMESTEAD
different conditions, with a different environ- ment, all this might have been. Here and there in New England such an one still lives in some- thing more than name, with its stately "First Church" gracing the spot where the first meet- ing house stood in Colonial times; with its school house grown to academic or even col- legiate proportions; connected by modern highways of iron with the bustling, hustling outer world, still a center of intellectual, social and even of business life.
But not in towns like Groton, whose growth even in its earlier days, was largely along other than agricultural lines, and three-fourths of whose boundaries were washed by the ocean tides. The spirit of commercialism arose and throve by the shore. "Dissenters" came in to
disturb the ecclesiastical monopoly and monot- ony, and vex the souls of those who believed in an enduring democratic theocracy. The bonds which held church and state together grew weaker and weaker and finally snapped asun- der.
Then came a time when the center of ortho- dioxy in the town, like the "Star of Empire," moved westward, and the church at Poquon- nock, no longer sustained by unwilling tax- payers, moved west with the tide. The hope of the founders was a vanished dream before the generation that succeeded them had passed over to the silent majority. The town had churches in plenty, but the church no longer had the town.
That the site of the place was a clearing somewhat greater in area than now, and culti- vated in savage fashion at the time of the white invasion is a matter of tradition forti- fied by the silent testimony of relics exhumed from time to time even down to the last cen- tury. It is probable that the few wigwams scattered along the principal trail went up in fame during the morning of the 26th of May, 1637, a few hours after the storming of the Pequot fortress on Mystic Hill.
The story of that memorable fight is told elsewhere, but a reference to the dramatic march of the victors from the scene of slaugh- ter and victory to their rendezvous on the Thames is permissible here, as in the opinion of the writer, the tacit assumption by historians that the route taken by Captain Mason and his party was in an almost direct course to the western river is an erroneous one. Of the three contemporaneous accounts of the expedi- tion, but one, that of Mason himself, gives even a hint upon the subject, and the hint so far as it goes helps to negative the popular assumption. He had marched, in parts of two days, a distance of nearly forty-five miles over the Narragansett trail already mentioned, and had only turned aside from it when within striking distance of his objective. To return to it when his work was done, and, leaving the remaining fortress of the enemy on the farther side of a deep valley, to effect his retreat (for it was nothing else) along the line of least
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resistance to his base of supplies, would have been the dictate of military reasoning and common sense. Crippled in numbers, encum- bered with his wounded, his provisions ex- hausted, and his ammunition nearly so, he was obviously in no condition for further offensive operations. He was guided by native allies whose loyalty was of proof and to whom the whole region was a familiar one. Giving him credit for those qualities of leadership which: had won for him "golden opinions" from his superiors in other campaigns, the writer long ago came to the conclusion that his line of re- treat that morning took him directly past the spot where, sixty-seven years later, the first church in Groton was erected.
It is probable that the valley again resound- ed to the tramp of armed men about one month later, when the last collected force of the Pe- quots which then remained in the vicinity was surrounded and captured in the Pine Swamp a few miles to the north by Captain Stoughton and his Massachusetts troops. Then followed a long silence, one of desolation and death. The region was a part of a conquered coun- try, over which two colonies were to contend for the right of eminent domain, and the con- quered for the most part belonged to that quiet class which a later authority has defined as being "the only good Indians." Eight years were to elapse before John Winthrop the younger, was to appear with his few follow- ers on the western shore of the Thames.
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