USA > Connecticut > Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley > Part 9
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In 1749, there were sixteen Episcopal families in Middletown which were desirous for a building in which to worship, to which end Mr. Wetmore had urged them. On April 29, 1749, the Town of Middletown voted "that the professors of the Church of England have liberty to erect their church in the highway, between Jaffries' corner, John Foster's corner and the dwelling of Mr. Ephraim Doane (on the east side of South Park), and the selectmen, or any three of them, are hereby empowered to stake out the place for the said building." But the parish was not organized till Easter Monday, which occurred in 1750, on April 16. In 1752, a church was built in the site set apart by the town. It was fifty by thirty-six feet and had "a towering steeple " but it was not finished till 1754, or '55. This church building was used eighty years, when the congregation had in- creased so greatly that a larger building became a necessity. The second church building was erected in 1734 and was built of the famous Portland sandstone. It was seventy-eight by sixty feet and cost $14,000. The church had a bell in 1759, and in 1785, John Alsop, a wealthy merchant of New York and a brother of Richard Alsop, " the merchant-prince " of Middletown, gave the Church a new bell.
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The first rector was the Rev. Ichabod Camp. He was born in Durham and was graduated from Yale in the class of 1743. He served as rector of Middletown and Wallingford from 1752, to 1760. Mr. Camp met with a tragic death in Louisburgh, Virginia, in 1760, at the hands of his brother-in-law. His suc- cessors were: The Rev. Abraham Jarvis, of Norwalk, Con- necticut, who was graduated from Yale in the class of 1761. He served as Lay-reader for two years. In 1763, there being ne Bishop in the Colonies, Mr. Jarvis sailed for England to be ordained, the Church giving him £40 toward his expenses. Upon his return, he was given the very respectable salary of fgo and remained as rector of the Church till 1799. In 1801, he was elected Bishop of Connecticut, when he resided in Cheshire and later in New Haven, where he died in May, 1813, at the age of seventy-five.
The succeeding rectorships were brief. The Rev. Calvin White, of Middletown, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1786, was rector from September, 1799 to July, 1800: the Rev. Joseph Warren, from October, 1800, to August, 1803; the Rev. Clement Merriam, April, 1804 to April, 1806; Mr. Samuel Birge, served as Lay-reader for six months, when there was a period of about five years in which visiting clergymen officiated.
The Rev. John Kewley, M.D., became rector in April, 1809. Dr. Kewley was educated in England, at Eaton and Cambridge. He practiced medicine in the West Indies and later, in Pennsyl- vania, for several years. He was ordained in Chester, Mary- land, and soon after went to Middletown. His ministrations were highly profitable, both for the temporal as well as the spiritual side of the Church, but for some reason he was removed by the Bishop in March, 1813, when he went to St. George's Church, in New York.
Deacon Birdsey Glover Noble, of New Milford, a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1810, officiated from 1813, to 1828; the Rev. Smith Payne was rector from December, 1828, to August, 1830; the Rev. George Jones, a graduate in the class of 1823, at Yale, chaplain in the United States' Navy and tutor in Yale, served for one year when Mr. Payne returned and served as rector from August 1831 till August, 1836.
The Rev. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, D.D., of Middletown, a son-
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of Bishop Jarvis, and a graduate of Yale, in 1805, became rector in April, 1837, and the Rev. John Williams, D.D., was his assist- ant. Dr. Williams was called to old St. George's Church in Schenectady, New York (the oldest church building in Schenec- ta'dy County), and served there till he was called to the Presidency of Trinity College, in 1849.
It is impossible for Churchmen to think of Bishop Williams without having all that is best in them aroused. What the digni- fied Washington, the intensely human Lincoln and the lovable Mckinley were to the Nation, John Williams was to Churchmen. Venerated and beloved in America; venerated and held in pro- found respect in Great Britain, by Bishops, Priests and Laymen ; his life was complete; a glory to the Divine Power that created it ; an honor to the Nation of which he was a citizen ; a blessing to the poor; an inspiration to all men; one of the finest men and Christians that the Anglo-Saxon race, in any century, has produced.
The Rev. Edson Wilson Wiltbank was rector from April, 1842, to February, 1844 ; then the Rev. Horace Hills, till August, 1845; the Rev. F. J. Goodwin, of South Berwick, Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin College, in the class of 1832, was rector in 1845.
The old church building was notable from the fact that it was where the Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury, the first American Bishop, first met the clergy, after his return from Scotland, where he was consecrated, and the first ordination of Deacons took place in it.
This Church, like nearly every Episcopal Church in the country during the Revolution, suffered considerably from the fact that the clergy were sufficiently Quixotic to believe that a moral obligation bound them to continue to pray for the Royal Family. The patriots naturally felt that the intent was for prayers to be made for the government and that the President or the Congress should be substituted, as is now done. The majority of the rec- tors were stubborn in this matter and the result was temporarily bad for the parishes. After peace had been declared, matters adjusted themselves. In September, 1786, the Bishop confirmed 127 persons in Middletown.
The first Methodist Church was organized in 1741, but the Methodist had held service for two years previous to that date.
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The Rev. Jesse Lee preached the first sermon to the Methodists on December 7, 1739. From the founding up to 1816, the society was part of a circuit, but in IS15, the society became a station, or separate charge. In 1816, there were 112 communicants. The Church continued to grow in strength and numbers and such growth was greatly increased by the founding of Wesleyan University. In 1846, when the University took a decided jemp in the educational world, there were 515 communicants in the Methodist Church.
MICHAEL BURNHAM T.WERN, WASHINGTON STREET, WHERE ST. JOHN'S LODGE NO. 2, F. AND A. M., HELD ITS FIRST MEETING IN 1854.
ST. JOHN'S LODGE NO. 2.
The third Masonic Lodge chartered in the State of Connecti- cut, was St. John's No. 2, of Middletown, the first being Hiram Lodge No. I, of New Haven, and the second, a Lodge in New London which did not long survive. So while St. John's charter was the third to be granted, the ceasing of the New London Lodge, makes St. John's the second in age at the present time.
ST. JOHN'S LODGE. 109
The application for a charter was made on November 6, 1753, and the charter was granted by the Grand Lodge in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 4, 1754. At that time, Thomas Oxnard was Provincial Grand Master for North America, by appointment by Lord Ward, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England. As Grand Master Oxnard was in England at the time St. John's charter was granted, his name did not appear upon it. It was signed by Benjamin Hollowell, D.G.M., Charles Brockwell, S.G.W., James Forbes, J.G.W., and John Leverett, G.S.
No name was given to the Lodge in the charter of 1754, nor was a numeral assigned. The first time the name and number,
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN.
St. John's No. 2, appears, is in a catalogue of members in the record book, on February 10, 1787, and it appears in the records for the first time on March 7, 1810. In 1796, the numeral was officially fixed by order of the Grand Lodge.
The names signed to the application were Ichabod Camp, Jno. Easton, Richard Alsop, Thomas Tyler, Samuel Bement, Jedh. Stow, and Israel Abbott. Of these, the only Master Masons were Starr, Alsop, Tyler and Stow, the others being Fellow- crafts who were made Master Masons two years and six months later.
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The first meeting was held in the tavern kept by Captain Michael Burnham, on the north side of Washington street, and it is a pleasant and interesting fact, that this first home of St. John's Lodge is still standing. The first Master of the Lodge, who was named in the charter, was Jehosaphat Starr, February 4, 1754; then followed Richard Alsop, June 4, 1755; Philip Mortimer, December 27, 1756; George Phillips, December 27, 1757; Ichabod Camp, December 27, 1758; Philip Mortimer, June 24, 1760; George Phillips, December 27, 1764; Richard Alsop, December 27, 1765; Comfort Sage, December 30, 1767; George
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WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN.
Phillips, -, 1769; Richard Alsop, -, 1771 ; John Cotton, December 27, 1781 ; General Samuel Holden Parsons, December 27, 1782; General Comfort Sage, December 27, 1783; Robert Warner, December 27, 1784; Asher Miller, December 26, 1785; Lamberton Cooper, December 22, 1788; Ebenezer Sage, Decem- ber 15, 1790; Stephen Titus Hosmer, December 23, 1794; Samuel Canfield, June 21, 1798; and William B. Hall, December 17, 1800.
As was the case with the majority of the Lodges in the Colonies and the States, just before and during the Revolution, St. John's meetings ceased in 1772, and were not resumed till 1781, when a meeting was held in Mrs. Shaler's tavern.
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WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY.
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
Had Captain Partridge not moved his Academy to Verinont, Wesleyan University would probably not have located in Middle- town. In 1824, the generosity of Middletown caused Captain Partridge to move his American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy (what a mouthful for a foot ball cheer) from Norwich, Vermont, to Middletown. A charming site was provided and the cornerstone was laid with Masonic honors. A chapel was also erected and the fifth anniversary was celebrated in Septem- ber, 1825. The Hon. S. W. Dana delivered the address, to a large number of citizens, as well as to 200 cadets from nine- teen states and the District of Columbia. The " A. L. S. S. and M. A." was called the Institution locally, for brevity's sake. The Institution was under the exclusive control of Captain Part- ridge until 1828, when a board of trustees was appointed and the number of instructors was increased. A considerable num- ber of students were from southern states, the greatest number of students in one year being 240. The Institution flourished and was regarded as a first class, high-toned Academic institu- tion and it turned out some of the foremost military engineers and officers of the Mexican and Civil Wars, and George Dewey's name was the key-stone of the arch of notable and honored sons of the Institution.
In 1829, the Institution was induced to remove to other parts and the buildings erected for academic purposes were left vacant, and being of little use for any other than school purposes, the owners put a bargain-counter price on them.
Just before this time, the Methodist Episcopal Church was feeling the need of a college. The Church determined to estab- lish it in the North anyhow and in the East if possible. The owners of the Institution buildings and chapel offered them as a gift to the Methodist Church, if an endowment of $40,000 could be secured. Middletown's quick response was typical. It pledged $18,000 through public and private subscription and the Church at large had little difficulty in raising the $22,000. In 1830, Wesleyan University began its honorable and useful existence and received its charter the following year. The first president, the Rev. Dr. Fisk, although advanced in years, worked hard for
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the success of the University and he began to see the fruits of his labors before death cut them short.
MISCELLANY.
The newspapers of Middletown had brief and varied ex- istences. The first to be established was the Middlesex Gazette, in 1785. The publishers were William Woodward and James Green. A few years later, Mr. Green withdrew from the concern and Mr. Woodward continued to publish the paper till 1797, when he sold it to Tertius Dunning. He published the Gazette till his death in 1823, and his son, Charles Dunning, continued it for a year, when it was sold by the administrator of the estate to Epaphras and Horace Clark, in 1824. T. N. Parmelee and E. T. Greenfield purchased it in 1828, and a few months later Mr. Parmelee sold out to Mr. Greenfield who, in turn, in 1830, sold it back to Mr. Parmelee and he edited it till 1832. Edwin Hunt was the next purchaser and soon after he sold it to Josephi Longking, Jr., and in 1834 it ceased to be published.
The Gazette's plant was sold to George F. Olmsted who started the New England Advocate. The Advocate suspended publica- tion in 1836. The presses were sold to Charles H. Pelton, who was proprietor of a book and job printing establishment.
The Connecticut Spectator was started in January, 1814, by Loomis and Richards. Mr. Loomis sold to Mr. Richards, in 1815, and in 1817 this paper expired.
On January 1, 1823, William D. Starr and William H. Niles started to print the American Sentinel. Mr. Niles sold to his partner in 1827. In 1833, the Sentinel and Witness were united. The Witness had been established in January of that year by H. W. Green. The Sentinel and Witness eventually ceased to be published.
The Constitution was started by Abner Newton, Jr., in 1838, and in 1847, he attempted a daily, but that expired at the end of twelve months.
The first determined attempt to publish a daily was made by N. J. Phelps & Company, in 1850. It was sold the following year to B. Casey & Company and was discontinued that same year.
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MISCELLANY.
The following were Middletown's first public officers, with the years they served :
The first Recorder, later called Register and finally Town Clerk, was Robert Webster, 1653-1656. He was also the first Justice of the Peace.
The first Mayor was the Hon. Jabez Hamlin. He was elected on July 13, 1784. He continued to fill the office, without the formality of being reelected, till he resigned in 1788. Mr. Ham -. lin seems to have been a man of and for the people for he was persuaded by the people to remain in office as mayor, which he . did till his death in April, 1791.
The first City Clerk was Bezaleel Fisk, from July 13, 1784, to January, 1785. .
The first Treasurer was Nehemiah Hubbard, from 1795, to 1800.
The first Bank of the City of Middletown was the Middletown Bank, incorporated in October, 1795, but it did not begin banking operations till the spring of 1801. Elijah Hubbard was the first president, from May, ISO1, to May, ISOS. The first cashier was Timothy Southmayd, from May, 1801 to December, 1821.
Middlesex County Bank was incorporated in May, 1830. Its first president was Henry L. DeKoven, from September, 1830, to April, 1832. The first Cashier was Samuel Cooper, from September, 1830, till November, 1830, when he resigned.
The Branch Bank of The United States was started in 1817. Samuel W. Dana was its president till 1819, and Arthur W. Magill was its cashier till 1822. In 1824, the Bank was moved to Hartford and in 1835 it ceased to exist.
The Middletown Savings Bank was incorporated in May, 1825, and began operations in June of that year. The first President was Nehemia Hubbard, from 1825, to 1837. The first Secretary- treasurer was Ebenezer G. Southmayd, from 1825 to 1832.
The first Judge of Probate was the Hon. Jabez Hamlin, who served from 1752 to 1789.
The first Post Office was established in 1775, and the first Postmaster was Winslow Hobby, who served from 1775, to 1807.
The first Collector of the Port was George Phillips, who served from 1795 to 1797.
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INDIANS.
Middletown and vicinity had been an Indian stronghold and headquarters for many centuries before the White-man had even heard of it. This is proven beyond doubt by the utensils, beads and implements of tempered copper found in graves which have been opened. On the road toward Newfield the first settlers found an Indian burying ground, that had every appearance of having been used for many generations, on which were found rough gravestones marked with devices, perhaps the Indian symbols for the name of the warrior buried beneath, or possibly, simply the emblem of the tribe of which he was a member.
The Indians whom the white settlers found there in 1650, were the Mattabesett Tribe under the chieftainship of a man of strong character and powerful will who was possessed of far-reaching influence.
Sequasson - erroneously called Sowheag - in Europe would have been a great political leader ; in the New World he was a Sachem, whose will was obeyed over an extensive territory. As Great Sachem of the Mattabesetts, he was supreme over the Indians on both sides of the Connecticut River, including several tribes besides his own immediate tribe. From Indian Hill, where he lived, he was accustomed to summon the tribe by biowing on a famous conch shell. This was believed to have magical powers because its tones could be heard at so great a distance by the chiefs and warriors of the Mattabesett and subordinate tribes, whom he wished to summon for council or defence. Sequasson was held in profound reverence by the In- dians and was respected and somewhat feared by the white settlers for, while he was not an open enemy of the settlers, he was far from being friendly. They were treated by him with the dignified reserve and contempt of a great chief. He regarded them as interlopers and inferiors, who had encroached upon his birthright. The Indians of the tribe kept his burial place a pro- found secret from the settlers and when questioned by them in regard to the location of his grave, they showed anger and remained silent. To the north of Middletown, near the Sebeth River, was a field called after him, in which many stone arrow- heads and spearheads were found.
Not far from Middletown, in what is now Glastenbury,
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INDIANS.
was a small tribe of the Mohawks, of the Five Nations of New York, of whom the Indians of New England were in great dread, with the exception of the Pequots. How this collection of Mohawks happened to be settled there, so far from their own beautiful Mohawk Valley, may be accounted for reasonably enough.
The Mohawks were the most powerful and dominant tribe of Indians on the Continent in those early days, before the Dutch had demoralized them with rum and trade. It was their boast and an historical fact, that they demanded and received tribute from other tribes, not of the Five Nations, which lived hundreds of miles distant, to the south and east of the Hudson River. They delighted in the power they possessed and were never happier then when inspiring terror in the hearts of those distant tribes. They boasted that one Mohawk Sachem, or even a prominent warrior, could walk alone through the village of one of the tribute-paying tribes and receive anything he demanded. The journeying to the tribes east of the Hudson, and in the south, for the purpose of collecting tribute and asserting their supremacy, came to be regarded as an unnecessary trouble. To avoid this they stationed small tribes of the Mohawk Nation in central points, among the other tribes from whom tribute was demanded, so that the resident Mohawks could collect the tribute and maintain the fear, which was more highly prized than the tribute. That the tribute collected by the small tribes did not reach the Mohawk Nation mattered little, so long as it was paid to Mohawks, and their supremacy niaintained. The Mohawks at Glastenbury were probably settled there to keep the New England Indians constantly in mind of the fact that they were subservient to them. It is a strange fact, that one or two painted Mohawks would inspire nearly as great terror among the white settlers, as they did among the Indians of other tribes. Eventually the Mohawks, of Glastenbury, annihilated the Mattabesetts.
There is nothing that more strongly illustrates the power of the Mohawks and the fear in which they were held by the New England Indians, than a clever bit of Indian cunning successfully practiced by Uncas.
Weaseapano, a Podunk Indian, killed a Sachem of the Matta- besetts, who lived near Middletown, in 1656. Sequasson, Great
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Sachem of the Tribe, complained to the white magistrate of the Colony, that the Podunks were hiding the murderer and that they were protecting him from the punishment he deserved. Sequasson also told his troubles to Uncas and obtained a promise of assistance from him. Uncas then complained to the magis- trates that Tontonimo had protected an Indian who had mur- dered a Mohegan. The magistrates summoned all the parties concerned before them. Sequasson and Uncas demanded that ten of Weaseapano's friends should be delivered up to them for slaughter, as the murderer was a worthless Indian and the mur- dered man a great Sachem. Tontonimo regarded the price as excessive and brought in a counter claim, that the dead Sachem had killed Weaseapano's uncle. The Governor of the Colony, fearing trouble from direct interference, suggested that the de- mand was too great and told Uncas and his friend that the white men were content to punish the murderer.
Tontonimo wanted to pay for the dead Sachem in wampum, but it was refused. Uncas then reduced his demand from ten to six men, but this in turn was refused by Tontonimo. The Gov- ernor urged that the murderer be delivered to Sequasson and Uncas, and they agreed to be satisfied with him in place of the six men. Tontonimo promised to do as the Governor wished and then secretly withdrew from the court and retired to the Podunk stronghold. The Governor was indignant, but he kept it to himself and tried to persuade the Indians not to fight it out. The most they would promise was, not to interfere with the white settlers or injure their property on either side of the Connecticut River. Uncas then gathered an army of Indians with which to avenge himself upon the Podunks. Uncas met the Podunks near Hockanum River, opposite Hartford, and seeing the enemy about equal in number to his own followers, he decided not to fight.
Now here comes in his craft. Uncas sent word to Tontonimo, that if he did not give up the murderer he would send the Mo- hawks to wipe the Podunks off the face of the earth. Uncas' op- portunity came soon after the delivery of the message. He pro- vided a Mohegan warrior with several Mohawk weapons (each nation and tribe fashioned its weapons in some peculiar manner so
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that they could be easily recognized by other Indians, as belonging to such or such a tribe) and sent him to the Podunk stronghold, with instructions to set fire to a house nearby and then to leave the weapons on the ground and return to camp. In the morning the Podunks went to the. place where the fire had been, found the weapons and recognizing them to be of Mohawk make, they believed that Uncas had really won the Mohawks over to his side. Tontonimo immediately delivered up the murderer, Weaseapano, and asked Uncas to make peace with him.
Generally speaking, the white settlers and the Mattabesetts lived in peace. The Indians had everything to gain from such conditions and nothing to lose, for the New England settlers, un- like the Dutch of New York, did not demoralize them with rum.
The last of the Tribe of Mattabesett was Mamoosun, a fine, high-spirited old man, whose faithfulness to his tribe and its traditions, was inspiring. Where Mamoosun lived is not posi- tively known, but that he made annual visits to Middletown each autumn, for the purpose of paying respect to the memory and the greatness of his tribe, is a matter of history. He spent whole days in the Indian burial ground, near Newfield, mourning over the past glories of the dead who were buried there.
On these annual pilgrimages the old Indian seemed to live more in the spirit than in the flesh, and there can be no doubt that his mind was in an exalted state as it dwelt on the past. During this period he shunned mankind and spent his nights in the hollow of a gigantic sycamore, of great age, that was known for many generations as " Mamoosun's tree ". Mamoosun's pilgrim- ages began before, and continued for several years after, 1720. The white settlers of Middletown honored and respected the dignified, sad old man who alone of all his tribe still lived. A Mr. Gilbert, who owned the farm upon which the Indian burial ground was situated, was most friendly and hospitable to Ma- moosun who, after his days of mourning and religious duties were finished, would go to Mr. Gilbert's home as his guest. Mamoosun dreaded above all things that the graves of his dead should be disturbed by the plow and harrow. Mr. Gilbert promised him, that so long as he lived the field should not be cultivated and the promise was faithfully kept for several years after the visits of the old Indian had ceased.
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