USA > Connecticut > Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley > Part 13
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pective Church, sixty acres of farm land, and eight acres for the " home lot " upon which the parsonage was to be built, on the south side of the road from Rocky Hill to Griswoldville. It is supposed, that the meeting-house was begun in the same year the land was given. It was not finished till about 1725. The Rev. Daniel Russell, son of the Rev. Noadiah Russell, one of the founders of Yale, was settled in July, as the first minister. His pastorate continued for thirty-eight years, ending in 1764. The second minister was the Rev. Burrage Merriam, from 1765, to 1776; the third, was the Rev. John Lewis, from 1781, to 1792; the fourth, was the Rev. Dr. Calvin Chapin, from 1794, to 1851.
Dr. Chapin was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was graduated at Yale in the class of 1788. He studied for the ministry with the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford. From 1791, to '94, he was a tutor at Yale.
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It has been mentioned elsewhere, that the people who settled Connecticut were of a superior class, and that many of the fami- lies were possessed of considerable means. Of this class were the Notts, of Wethersfield.
The first American ancestor of the Nott family was John Nott, who came to America and settled in Wethersfield, in 1640, just after the adoption of the famous Constitution, when the young Colony was becoming stronger each year. John Nott was born in Nottingham, England. The old records give him the title of sergeant, which in those days was a title of considerable distinction. It was probably on a par with that of captain now, and besides, it must be remembered, that the military and civil offices were given to men of note in the community, so even the lowest title marked the man who bore it.
John Nott owned much land and after the year 1665, was for several years a member of the General Court. He was survived by one son and two daughters. The elder of the daughters, Elizabeth, married Robert Reeve, the ancestor of Judge Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School, and the other, Hannah, married John Hale and so she became the grandmother of Captain Nathan Hale of glorious Revolutionary memory. The youngest child was the son John, who was named for his
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WETHERSFIELD ELM.
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father. It is from his large family, which included seven sons, that so many of America's notable ministers and educators of the name of Nott are descended, and although some of them were born in other towns, their origin in America was Wethersfield.
On March 28, 1683, John Nott, the son, married Patience Miller, a widow. They had seven sons and two daughters. The sons and daughters were honors to their name. Abraham, the youngest son, who was born on January 29, 1696, obtained a liberal education and entered the Congregational ministry.
Abraham prepared for Yale College and was graduated in 1720, just after the removal of that institution to New Haven from Saybrook. He then studied for the ministry and was ordained minister of the Second Congregational Church of Say- brook, in that portion that is now Essex, on November 16, 1725. This, his first and only pastorate, extended over a period of thirty-four years and thus began a record for long pastorates for which the Nott family is famous. Abraham Nott was strong, morally, mentally and physically. In College he was a notable athlete and generally won against all competitors in contests requiring great strength and endurance. There is a tradition that his strength was so great that he could raise a barrel of cider and drink from the bung-hole. As a wrestler he was irre- sistible; as a preacher he was earnest, and convincing. With one exception the men of the Nott family were thrifty and had ability to accumulate property. Even the ministers of the family were good business men and although their lives as ministers were full, with their pastoral duties, they still found time for looking after their property. The Rev. Abraham Nott died on January 24, 1759, and left a fine property to his four sons.
One of these sons, Stephen, was the unfortunate member of the family. He was regarded as "a well informed man " and had received a good education, although he was not a college- man. Stephen started well in business at the age of twenty-one. He had a thorough knowledge of tanning and farming, but as he preferred commercial pursuits, he opened a store in Saybrook, in 1749. That same year he married the second daughter of Samuel Selden, of Lyme, the beautiful Deborah Selden, who was but seventeen at the time of her marriage, and her husband but
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twenty-one. The Seldens were among the best families at the southern end of the Connecticut river. The future for these two young persons seemed bright. Of equal social position and intelligence, and the husband with a good business, they little anticipated the misery and poverty that was to be theirs. But Stephen had no more than experienced his first loss of fortune than he discovered that he possessed a mine of unknown wealth in his brilliant and beautiful young wife. As year after year passed and their poverty became more burdensome, Deborah Nott's grand spirit developed. Her courage and splendid forti-
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OLDEST HOUSE IN WETHERSFIELD.
tude would have caused her husband, had he possessed those qualities, to conquer adversity, but Stephen could not stand up under hard times and finally the gently born Deborah, accus- tomed in her parental home to all the refinements and luxury of the times, became the support of her "sick " husband and large family of children. It is not impossible, that what the young mother was experiencing while she was bearing her chil- dren and while they were young and easily influenced by such nobility as hers, was the fire that separated the pure metal from
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the dross, for two of her sons became famous; one of them the greatest educator of the nineteenth century. Neither of these men possessed a single characteristic of their father's. Their Nott characteristics, of great energy, singleness of purpose, ability to overcome difficulties, great strength of will, mind and body, all came from their grandfather and his father and grand- father. From the Seldens, they inherited their brilliancy, their elegance of manner; and the great educator, the Rev. Eliphalet Nott, D.D., the eloquence which makes his eulogy of Alexander Hamilton as much admired to-day as it was when he uttered it.
The first serious trouble that came into the life of Stephen was in 1759, when the home and all it contained was destroyed by fire. The fire occurred in the night and Samuel (one of the two famous sons), then but five years old, was rescued by his mother at great risk to her own life. A minister who was a guest of the Notts was also rescued by Mrs. Nott with great difficulty. Friends of Stephen Nott made it possible for him to build a new home, and his business prospered so greatly that it seemed as if he would soon recover from the loss he had sus- tained through the fire. Before a year had passed, the last straw was laid upon a seemingly weak back and from that time onward the fortunes of Stephen dwindled till real poverty was reached.
Stephen Nott's business was of the kind known in those days as a general store. He dealt in a great variety of articles. The chief source of his profit was horses. These he would buy from the surrounding farms, giving goods from his store in payment. He, of course, gave the smallest price for which he could obtain the horses, and charged the full retail price for the goods taken in exchange. Here was one profit. In addition, there was a demand for horses in New Jersey at that time, where he drove them when he had a herd of sufficient size, and sold them for a good price. On the occasion in question, he was returning with his saddle-bags well filled with money, when highway-men knocked him senseless and took the entire proceeds of the year's business. For some unaccountable reason his creditors lost con- fidence in him, refused an extension of time and attempted to confine him in the debtors' prison. He successfully eluded arrest and, after the passage of the insolvency act, returned to his home.
Through the assistance of a relative, Stephen was able to pur-
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chase a small house with a little land, in East Haddam, on credit, where he made use of his knowledge of the tanner's trade to start in that business.
Five or six years of struggle with adversity were passed in East Haddam, and had Mrs. Nott been as easily discouraged as was her husband, the family would probably have gone to pieces. Besides her usual housekeeping duties Mrs. Nott had a family of six small children to care for, make clothes for and to teach. In addition, there were long periods in which her husband was laid up with malaria - the disease that is so apt to afflict persons who are without energy or spirit - in which she supported the
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family by making dresses, knitting stockings and teaching drawing.
Deprived of the refinement and cultivation of her girlhood; with no hope of reward in this life ; stimulated only by a Divinely inspired sense of duty and by her deep love for her husband and children, Mrs. Nott made a drudge of herself and, notwithstand- ing, kept herself joyous and cheerful for the sakes of those she loved and because it was her duty. Deborah Selden Nott was
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a type of New England woman that existed then, exists now and always will exist, so long as New England cherishes its traditions and the memory of the noble men and women who made it what it is. The world is better for her having lived in it. Who can estimate the value of her quiet self-sacrificing life, or measure the widespread influence for good; for education ; for State and National progress; that was accomplished in the ninety-three years in which her son Eliphalet lived. He often said, that his mother's teaching and influence had made him what he was, and that which he had been able to accomplish was due to her training and example.
It is a lamentable fact, that while historians record the noble, unselfish lives of New England men, the same qualities in the lives of the New England women - who did as much toward the making of the Nation as the men and sacrificed more - are taken for granted and remain unrecorded. The heroic men of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods received a certain de- gree of reward for what they did, or accomplished, from the deference paid them and honors bestowed upon them by their fellow men. The women expected neither recognition nor honors ; they accomplished, sacrificed and suffered willingly, with happy faces, content to be unknown, because they loved their country and their God. And of such was Deborah Selden Nott.
From East Haddam, the family moved two miles east to a little hamlet called Foxtown, where the struggles were even harder and in 1772, they moved again, this time entirely out of the Connecticut Valley, to Ashford, in Windham County, where the desolate country resembled the barren wastes of the moon.
Of the two famous sons of Stephen and Deborah Nott, Samuel was born in Saybrook, on January 23, 1754; and Eliphalet, in Ashford, June 25, 1773.
The Rev. Abraham Nott left his valuable library to his grand- son Samuel, in the hope that he would choose the ministry for his life's work. The poverty of his parents would have made this hope of his grandfather impossible, had Samuel not pos- sessed those qualities which his father lacked and which were so striking in his ancestors. He began early in his life to ren- der every possible assistance to his mother. His early attend- ance at school were brief, intermittent periods, for the small
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wages he was able to earn were needed at home. Of good blood from both sides of the house, his pride was not false, so he buckled to whatever work he could find that would bring in a little · money.
On one of his book and trinket peddling trips, he stopped in a place where the district school was without a teacher. The Nott intellect was well known, so he was given the chance to fill the vacancy for two months, with "a steel trust " salary of four dollars a month. Samuel undertook the duties of teaching with
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reluctance. He feared that some of the older pupils would dis- cover his deficiencies. That he might do his best for his pupils, he studied the next day's lessons the night before and so, was not only able to do well for the school, but was also acquiring the most practical kind of education for himself. All of the money he received was sent to his mother, his board and lodging being a part of his salary. This teaching revived his dormant ambition for a college education. After overcoming difficulties and disappointments that would have laid his father up with a serious attack of "malaria ", he found the friend in need in the
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person of the Rev. Daniel Welsh, of Mansfield, who made it possible for Samuel to enter Yale College. This he did and was graduated with credit with the class of 1780. He then studied for the Church under the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who was at that time minister of a New Haven Church. After acting as supply for the Church in Bridgehampton, Long Island, he was called to the Congregational Church of Franklin, Connecticut, and was ordained as its minister, on March 13, 1782. As was the case with his grandfather, Abraham Nott, his first parish was his only one and it continued over a period of seventy-one years, ending with his death, on May 26, 1852.
Eliphalet's boyhood was hard enough, but his youth and edu- cation were far easier than had been his brother Samuel's. Samuel was nineteen years older than Eliphalet so, when the time came for Eliphalet to leave the poor home in Ashford, after the death of his inspiring mother, Samuel was well settled as the minister at Franklin and there, in his brother's home Eliphalet spent many years, and was educated. Eliphalet taught in the country schools and later was appointed master of the Plainfield Academy, where he conceived that system of school government and discipline that he perfected as president of Union College, in Schenectady, New York, of which institution he became presi- dent in 1804. While master of the Academy in Plainfield, he became intimately acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Joel Benedict and on July 4, 1796, he married the eldest daughter of his friend, Sarah Maria Benedict. In the autumn before his marriage, he had been given a degree of Master of Arts by Brown University. Immediately after his marriage, he left for New York State. From this time on his life was spent in Cherry Valley, Albany and Schenectady, so the history of it belongs to the Mohawk Valley, rather than to the valley of the Connecticut. The years of the Rev. Abraham Nott and of his two grandsons, the Rev. Samuel and the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet, spent in the ministry were 34, 71, and 63, respectively, making a total for the three lives of 168 years.
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NEWINGTON.
W HEN Newington was a part of the Town of Wethers- field, the inhabitants of Wethersfield voted to divide the unoccupied land between Wethersfield and Farm- ington into lots, and the portion which became Newington was known on the records as the East Tier.
In the center of the Town of Newington is a pond, in the midst of a considerable plain which was known for many years as Cow Plain. This pond with its water-power, and the excellent grazing land and fertile valley, attracted the first settlers, who were five families by the name of Sled and Hunn and three named Andrews - according to Barber, while other writers give the name as Andrus - who made their pitches about 1690. They were from Farmington. Joseph Andrews built his house near the meeting-house and fortified it as a place of refuge and defence against possible attack by Indians, who were numerous. The shore of the pond was the site of an unusually large Indian vil- lage, but the Indians lived peaceably with the white settlers. As the war-like Sequasson, who hated the English, was the great chief over the local chief, the English thought it no more than prudent to provide a place of refuge, should Sequasson take it into his head to attack the place.
This Joseph Andrews bought the lots known as the sawmill- lots in 1684, and by later purchases he became one of the greatest property owners. He was a son of John Andrus, one of the first settlers of Farmington, and was born in 1651. Joseph had a son, Dr. Joseph Andrus, who was prominent in the social and church life of Newington and the doctor's son, Joshua, was a deacon of the Church. Deacon Joshua lived on the property recently occupied by the Kappell family. The two other settlers of that name are supposed to have been Daniel and John Andrus, nephews of Joseph, one of the first settlers of that name. These brothers settled in the southern part of the town. Of the other first settlers, Samuel Hunn was prominent in the affairs of the town and church. He settled in the northern portion of New- ington; the other, John Sled, settled a half mile from Joseph Andrus and not far from the site of the old Academy.
Mr. Roger Welles, in his history of Newington says, that Sergeant Richard Beckley, who settled in the northern portion
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of the town, was the earliest settler and greatest property owner. He received a grant of 300 acres from the General Court in 1668, the property lying on both sides of the Mattabesett River and the Town confirmed the grant in 1670. There is a tradition · that Sergenat Beckley married a daughter of Chief Turramuggus who was next in succession to Sequasson, Sachem of the Matta- besetts. The records of the New Haven Colony show that Ser- geant Beckley lived in New Haven from 1639, to 1659, and that he was one of the prominent members of Davenport's Church. Other members of the Beckley family settled near him in New- ington in considerable numbers. For this reason the district was known as Beckley's Quarter.
The settlement of Newington had increased sufficiently by 1708, for the inhabitants to petition to be set off as a sepa- rate Church. While the petition was not granted, permission was given, in 1710, for the inhabitants to meet for worship in 'Newington during the winter months, from December to March inclusive, instead of going to the Church in Wethersfield. Another attempt was made for a separate society in 1712, which was successful. A committee was appointed to fix upon a site where the meeting-house should be built. The site was fixed in 1713, and limits of the parish were determined as being two miles and fifty rods east from the Farmington line, with Hart- ford and Middletown as the northern and southern boundaries. There were two settlements in the parish, called the Upper Houses and the Lower Houses. The former contained about twenty-three families and was north of the pond in the center of the parish ; the other consisted of eight families and was south of the pond. The meeting-house was built at the Upper Houses.
The inhabitants of the Lower Houses objected to the location of the Church, so far from their little settlement. They peti- tioned to be allowed to leave the Church at the Upper Houses and to join that at the Great Swamp. Again quoting Mr. Welles :
As an equivalent for their secession they proposed the annexation to the new parish of some of the proprietors' lands in Farmington, abutting upon Wethersfield. These settlers were nearer the chosen site of the meeting-house in Newington, than to that in the Great Swamp Society, and they were willing to make the exchange. For the encouragement of this exchange, the "Lower Inhabitants" executed a bond, dated May
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13, 1715, for the payment, to their "neighbors in the said Western Society ", of £50 to help build the new meeting-house, and lodged it on file in the office of the colonial secretary at Hartford, where it is still to be seen.
A petition was presented to the General Court at its session in May, 1715, to legalize the exchange. The General Court appointed a committee to "go upon the place " and effect a settlement if possible; to consider the subject of the exchange; fix a site for the meeting-house, if necessary, and report at the next October session of the Assembly. The committee reported in favor of the cxchange, and fixed the site of the meeting-house upon the commons " near Dr. Joseph Andrus' house ", which was the site previously selected by the Town Committec. The Assembly accepted the report, and passed an act to carry it into effect. Thus, Stanley Quarter, as the annexed portion of Farm- ington was called, became a part of the parish of Newington, and it so continued till 1754, when the parish of New Britain was incorporated.
The work of building the Church was begun and in 1720, the Rev. Elisha Williams was called. In 1721, the society was named Newington by the Legislature; the Church was organized on October 3, 1722, and Mr. Williams was ordained on the seven- teenth of the same month of the same year.
Mr. Williams was a minister, an educator and a politician, with a decided preference for politics. He was born in Hatfield, in 1694, his father being the Rev. William Williams. He was graduated from Harvard in 1711, having entered in the Sopho- more class in 1708. After graduation he taught for a year in the Grammar School in Hadley. Hc moved to Wethersfield in 1715, and married Eunice Chester, daughter of Thomas Chester, of Wethersfield. His political life began in October, 1717, when he represented Wethersfield in the General Court. He continued as its representative till 1721. He was Clerk of the House in '17, '18, and '20, and auditor of public accounts in '19. In 1716, he began his educational career by tutoring Yale students in Wethersfield, in that and the following years. In 1720, he was seriously ill and, according to President Stiles, of Yale, " he became sanctified ". On August 5, 1720, he was chosen minister of the Newington Church, and so began his ministerial career.
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Five years later, in 1725, he was chosen to be the Rector of Yale College and was installed in September, 1726, and continued as Rector till October, 1739, when failing health caused his resignation.
. Relief from the arduous duties of the Presidency of Yale must have had a beneficial effect upon his health, for seven months -later, in May, 1740, he was again in the Legislature as Repre- sentative and Speaker of the House, in which capacity he served for several sessions. That same year, 1740, he became Judge of the Superior Court and continued in that office for several years. In 1745, he was chaplain of the Colonial militia and was present, in his official capacity, at the capture of Louisburg. In 1746, he was again in the Legislature and was appointed by that body as chaplain of a regiment in the expedition against Canada. For some reason the regiment did not go to Canada, but the Rev. Elisha Williams was sent to England to negotiate for the expenses incurred by the regiment. Mrs. Williams died while he was in England, on May 31, 1750 and eight months later, on January 27, 1751, Mr. Williams married again, his second wife being the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Scott, of Norwich, England. She was Elizabeth Scott, the writer of hymns. Mr. Williams returned to Wethersfield and died there in July, 1755. It is rather odd that the second minister of the Church, the Rev. Simon Backus, of Norwich, who was ordained in 1727, was also chaplain at Louisburg after its capture, Mr. Williams being the chaplain at the time of the capture. Mr. Backus died in Louis- burg in 1746. His wife was a sister of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards.
The long contest over the site for the second church building resulted in the withdrawal of a number of families who, witli others from Worthington and Kensington, organized Christ Episcopal Church, in 1797, in the south-western corner of the parish. During the thirteen years of its existence, its rectors were the Rev. Seth Hart, the Rev. James Kilbourn, and the Rev. Ammi Rogers.
Public schools were not started so soon after the settlement as in other towns. In 1723, a school committee was appointed and the first mention of a school-house in the records, was in December, 1729. In 1757, a school-house was built in the north
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end of the parish. In 1773, there was one at the south end, and in 1774, a new building was erected at the center of the parish.
On October 18, 1726, John Camp was elected captain ; Ephraim Demming, lieutenant ; and Richard Bordman ensign of Newington's first militia company, which was Wethersfield's fourth company. In 1735, Captain Martin Kellogg was in com- mand. Captain Kellogg's life, from his childhood to old age, was spent in close relation with Indians and in serving his King and the Colony. It was a life that was full of excitement and adventure. Captain Kellogg was born in 1686. At the age of eighteen he was living with his parents in Deerfield, Massa- chusetts. On February 29, 1704, when Deerfield was attacked by the French and Indians, he and his father, brother Joseph, and sisters, Rebecca and Joanna, were captured and forced to make the journey on foot through the wilderness to Canada. While in captivity the children learned the Indian language and the elder sister, Joanna, liked the life lead by the Indians so well that she married one of the chiefs, and adopted the manners and customs of the tribe. Their knowledge of the Indian lan- guage was frequently made use of, they acting as interpreters. Captain Kellogg was several times captured by Indians and taken to Canada. His familiarity with that country and the Indian language was the cause of his appointment as pilot, on the St. Lawrence River, for the British ships in the proposed expedition to Canada. Captain Kellogg was possessed of great strength and was notable for coolness and courage in danger. In 1749, and '50, he was employed as a teacher in the Hollis School for Indians, in Stockbridge, especially for the Indians of the Six Nations who attended that school. He was sent with clothing to Chief Hendrick of the Mohawks, as agent of the Colony, in 175). In 1716, he married Dorothy Chester, a cousin of the Rev. Elisha Williams, the minister of Newington, and great-granddaughter of Governor Thomas Welles, who was Governor of Connecticut in 1655, '56, '58 and '59. He was a member of the committee appointed to arrange the financial part of the removal of Mr. Williams from Newington to New Haven, where he was to be the Rector of Yale. Captain Kellogg pur- chased the fine mansion built by the Church for Mr. Williams and lived in it up to the day of his death, in November, 1753.
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