USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > Historical sketches of New Haven > Part 5
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escort waiting with eager reverence, while the veteran and the dame looked back across the vale of years to the heights of revolutionary trials and triumphs ; and then the departure through the leafy street, all knowing that it was the last time.
Mrs. James D. Dana was then a baby, and had the honor of being kissed on the occasion by the gallant old Frenchman. Col. John Trumbull, the painter, Mrs. Silliman's uncle, was for some years an inmate of the house. To it came Agassiz, with his wife, for their first visit in this country, when he was in the glow of his beauty and enthusiasm ; and throughout his life, at this house and that of Professor Dana, he was a frequent visitor.
Professor Silliman's high position in the scientific and the social world brought to him during his long life on the avenue many other illustrious ones, Sir Charles and Lady Lyell; Basil Hall, the English traveler ; Dr. Hare, of Philadelphia ; President John Quincy Adams, among them.
In fact, it would be safe to say that few men of literary, scientific, or artistic distinction have visited New England without being domiciled some- where on the avenue. Under Professor Dana's roof have come suclı men as Wendell Phillips, Professor Guyot, Pro- fessor Gray, of Cambridge ; Professor Baird, of tlie Smith- sonian Institute.
Freeman, Farrar, and Dean Stanley, church digni- taries and historians galore, Ian Maclaren last but not least, have been entertained by Pro- fessor Fisher, the church his- torian, who has compressed the learning of a lifetime into the "History of the Reforma- tion," the "History of Chris- tian Doctrine," the " Outlines of Universal History," etc., works whose erudition and candor have made him known 011 both sides of the Atlantic.
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ST. MARY'S CHURCH.
The first erected of the houses now standing on the avenue was built by Mr. William J. Forbes for his daughter, the wife of the second Professor Bell- jamin Silliman. It was one of the first houses in the city in which were employed certain features of interior decoration now often seen. It was for years a center of gracious culture and hospitality. Famous people were often
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there ; recently, Dr. Dörpfeld, the coadjutor of Schliemann in digging out from the earth the secrets of Greek history, has been the guest of Professor Seymour, the learned Greek scholar, the present occupant of the house.
Next in time to the elder Professor Silliman's house was that of Mrs. Whelpley, which at first stood on another street. She was the sister of Mrs. Apthorpe, and the mother of Melancthon Whelpley, one of the wretched victims of the Nicarauguan expedition. It was afterwards the home of President Porter, who received there a long procession of men of note in all departments of learn- ing. As we go on to the house of Profes- sor Hoppin, whose "Old England " has been a guide to many a wanderer in the mother island, even as his lectures in the THE DANA HOUSE. Yale Art School have led the way to clearer insight in the paths of art, we remember that Phillips Brooks; the Bishop of Manchester, England ; Lady E. Fitzmaurice, the author, and the friend of Browning ; Herkomer, the painter ; Augustus Hoppin, the artist ; Amelia B. Edwards, learned "in the wis- dom of the Egyptians," have - enjoyed hospitality there.
Midway on the street is the home of Mrs. Boardman, the giver of the Manual Training School. The house is also asso- ciated with Mayor Aaron Skin- ner, who was, during his life, a steadfast promoter of New Haven's welfare, a citizen who left many traces of his good taste, notably in the gateway and walls of the Grove Street Cemetery. He built the house HOUSE WHERE LIVED THE ELDER PROF. SILLIMAN. for a boys' school, which for years existed there beside the girls' school, conducted by the Misses Apthorpe, in the house now in the possession of Yale University, and occupied by Mrs. Cady's school.
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On the other side lived Henry Farnam, the giver of Farnam College, and of that triumph of road-making, the ever beautiful Farnam Drive in East Rock Park. The house and grounds are to be the prop- erty of Yale at some time ; the new operating theater at the New Haven hospital is the gift of his widow and his so11, Professor Farnam ; and in many ways the family name is associated with ben- efactions to the city.
Around all lingers the memory of that remarkable man who made his own monument in this beautiful street. We hope that he was gifted with a prophetic vis- ion of his completed plan ; and, indeed, some now liv- ing remember his tall form striding up and down the avenue for many years after it was opened.
THE RESIDENCE OF PROF. THOMAS D. SEYMOUR. (Formerly the home of Prof. Benjamin Silliman, the younger.)
The Hillhouses were a Protestant family of importance in Ireland, having
an estate at Arti- kelly, near Lon- donderry, whence a Rev. James Hill- house, born in 1687, came to New Hamp- shire about 1719, and thence to Mont- ville, near New Lon- don. There two sons, William and James Abraham, were born. His
wife, Mary Fitch, was a great grand- - daughter of Captain John Mason, of Pe- quot fame; and thus, WHERE PRESIDENT PORTER LIVED. although the Hill- house family came to America nearly one hundred years after the landing at Plymouth, these sons
[With the kind permission of the Elm City Nursery Co.] HILLHOUSE AVENUE. " What floods of splendor, bursts of jocund din, Startled the slumbering tenant of these shades, When night awoke the tumult of the feast, The song of damsels, and the sweet-toned lyre !" Percy's Masque.
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were descended from one of the most valuable of the early settlers. William married a sister of the first Governor Griswold, and of their numerous sons, the second, James, was adopted by his uncle, James Abraham, who had been grad- uated from Yale in1 1749, and had become a lawyer in New Haven, distinguished for ability and uprightness. The little seven-year-old boy was undoubtedly warmly welcomed in the big, childless Hillhouse house on Grove street, but probably no one dreamed that his name was to be inseparably associated with benefits to New Haven.
The father, William, of Montville, was himself a striking character, and filled an important place in public life even to his eightieth year, serving in one hundred and six semi-annual legislatures. For these frequent trips to Hartford and New Haven, he scorned such new- fashioned luxuries as wheeled carriages, re- garding such tokens of effeminate degen- eracy much as did the Gauls the saddles of their neighbors ; and lie invariably performed the jour- ney in one day, and on horseback. His grandson, James A. Hillhouse, the poet, has left, in his notes to "Sachem's Wood," the following pictur- esque description of - his grandfather :
" Venerable in- THE BOARDMAN RESIDENCE. age of the elder day ! Well do I remember those stupendous shoe-buckles ; that long gold-headed cane (kept in madam's, thy sister's best closet, for thy sole annual use) ; that steel watch chain and silver pendants, yea, and the streak of holland like the slash in an antique doublet, commonly seen between thy waistcoat and small clothes, as thon passedst daily at nine o'clock, A. j., during the autumnal session."
And again : "As the oldest councilor, at the Governor's right hand, sat ever the patriarch of Monticello (a study for Spagnoletto), with half his body, in addition to his legs, under the table, a huge pair of depending eyebrows con- cealing all the eyes he had till called upon for an opinion, when he lifted them up long enough to speak briefly and then they immediately relapsed. At his leave-taking (when eighty years old) there was not a dry eye at the council board."
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In a New Haven newspaper of December 21, 1791, we find the following announcement of holiday cheer and charity :
" A X(sic)mas ox will be distributed on Saturday next, and the needy are requested to apply. William Hillhouse."
Quite a contrast to the organized charities and the tramps of to-day ! One likes to picture the jovial scene when the needy ones so politely invited crowded around to receive the bounty of the generous man. Probably there were grumblers even then.
William Hillhouse, of Montville, lived to see his son a success. He died in 1816. That son, coming from the large family in Montville, found himself in the position of only child in his uncle's family in New Haven. He was a student in the Hopkins Grammar School, and afterward at Yale, in the class of 1773. The serious discussions of the time did not wholly repress youthful festivity, for, at the anniversary of the Linonian Society, in 1772, the " Beaux's Stratagem" was given, and Nathan Hale and James Hill- house were among the actors.
The faculty did not cover so many pages then as now, five names composing the list : the Rev. Dr. Daggett (acting President), who, later, distin- guished himself by marching in solitary defiance against the British invaders of New Haven; Nehemiah Strong, Professor THE HENRY FARNAM RESIDENCE. of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and three tutors. But one of these tutors was afterwards the first President Dwight, and he interested himself in young Hillhouse enough to rouse him to do his best, and thus he gave the impulse which seems to have directed a noble career.
One very important influence must have come from the aunt, under whose roof he lived. She was Miss Mary Lucas before marriage, a stately woman of French descent, and she brought much land in the region of Temple street into the family. Her husband, James Abraham Hillhouse, died in 1775, in mid- career, but she lived to old age in the family mansion, which is now called Grove Hall. As long as she lived the family meeting for Christmas dinner was at her house ; and as long as she lived her adopted son never failed, when in New Haven, to pay her a daily visit of respect. Before his death, the uncle had forbidden his nephew to leave his law studies to follow Arnold at the outbreak of hostilities, but when the invasion of the town roused all patriots to excite- ment, young Hillhouse, who had already issued a stirring call for enlistments,
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led out, as Captain of the Governor's Foot Guards, the little company of defenders. Aaron Burr, then in his brilliant youth, was visiting his New Haven friends and volunteered to lead one company.
What a hurrying and skurrying there must have been on that fifth of July, which was to have seen the first celebration of the "glorious Fourth !" What a change from the cheerful discussions of jubilant festivity to the hasty prepar- ations for defense ! Captain Hillhouse was full of activity. He led his men across the fields to Westville bridge, he fought, he captured prisoners, and in one way and another achieved the desired object of delaying the enemy for many hours, so that those who tarried behind had an opportunity to remove much valuable property. When the pillaging of the town could be no longer averted, the Hillhouse home was rescued from plunder and destruc- tion by the respect felt for Madam Hill- house, who was well known as an adher- ant of the king and the Church of Eng- land.
She entertained the Britishı officers with all the hospi- tality at her com- mand, very likely in- wardly hoping thus to mitigate the se- verity of the treat- iment of her friends.
THE CHARLES H. FARNAM RESIDENCE.
What must have been her consternation in the midst of courtesies exchanged, to behold a newspaper, unwittingly left in sight, drawn forth, and the highly treasonable conduct of hier nephew made evident by his printed call for volunteers. All seemed lost; but the dignified old lady took truth for her defender, and did not deny that her young relative, in her esti- ination misguided, was doing his best to defeat his majesty's forces ; but she explained that the house, like her opinions, was her own, and thus wrath was appeased and the house was saved.
Hostilities over, Captain Hillhouse, who was already an able lawyer, noted for never undertaking a case unless he had implicit confidence in its justice, was introduced to political life in the State Legislature, in 1780.
Although very young for the honor, he was sent to the Council in 1789, and, in 1790, to Congress. For fourteen years he served the country as senator,
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gallantly representing the land of steady habits. He was a Federalist, and accordingly a fervent admirer of Washington, but he learned to dread the effect of presidential elections. It is reported that he sometimes said to his friends that " the presidency was made for Washington ; that the convention in defining the powers of that office, and the states in accepting the constitution as it was, had Washington only in their thoughts, and that the powers of that office were too great to be committed to any other man." So, in April, 1808, he proposed to the Senate a plan for reducing the term of office ; for representatives, to one year ; for senators, to three ; for president, to one year. The president was to be selected by lot from the Senate.
He said, "The office of President is the only one in our government clothed with such powers as might endanger liberty, and I am not without apprehension that, at some future period, they may be exerted to overthrow the liberties of our country." He thus describes an election going on at that time : "In whatever direction we turn our eyes, we behold the peo- ple arranging tlien- selves for the pur- pose of commencing the electioneering campaign for the next President and Vice-President. All the passions and feelings of the hu- RESIDENCE OF PROFESSOR FISHER. man heart are brought into the most active operation. The electioneering spirit finds its way to every fireside, pervades our domestic circles, and threatens to destroy the enjoyment of social harmony. The candidates may have no agency in the business. They may be the involuntary objects of such competition, without the power of directing or controlling the storm. The fault is in the mode of election, in setting the people to choose a king. The evil is increasing, and will increase, until it shall termi- nate in civil war and despotism." This naturally excited much comment. But Mr. Hillhouse expressed opinions entertained by other thinking men. Chan- cellor Kent wrote to him ; "We can not but perceive that this very presidential question has already disturbed and corrupted the administration of government. Your reflections are sage, patriotic, and denote a deep and just knowledge of government and of men." Chief Justice Marshall wrote, in 1831: "The passions of men are inflamed to so fearful an extent, large masses are so embit- tered against each other, that I dread the consequences. The election agitates
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every section of the United States, and the ferment is never to subside. Scarcely is a President elected before the machinations respecting a successor commence."
Crawford, afterward Secretary of the Treasury under Monroe, seconded the motion. Crawford wrote : "Elective chief magistrates are not, and can not, in the nature of things, be the best men in the nation ; while such elections never fail to produce mischief to the nation."
We have outlived the dread of a king ; but, just after the stress of one of the most intense of presidential campaigns, what strange significance is attached to these forebodings of the serious men of almost a century ago !
It is very evident that Mr. Hillhouse was the proper type of man for political life, for his zeal and ability were expended in efforts truly disinterested. He seemed to have no thought of self-aggrandizement, either financial or political. The success with which he managed his own affairs gave men confidence that he could carry on the business of the pub- lic, and never did he disappoint or betray that confidence. His unceasing exertions for his town and state were the result of an affection that knew 110 weariness. Per- haps in no way did he accomplish a more lasting benefit for the state than when he restored the school fund to a paying con- THE HOTCHKISS RESIDENCE. dition. In 1786, Connecticut reserved to itself from its original grant, which extended to the Pacific, a tract in northern Ohio between the same parallels that formed its own boundaries. Some of this land was given to those who had suffered at the time of the British invasion ; the remainder, three million threc hundred thousand acres, was sold to a company of capitalists, and was applied to the support of the public schools. As is well known, this is the first school fund.
But interest was not paid, affairs fell into disorder, and, in 1809, the whole fund seemed in jeopardy. Then it was that the public eye was turned on James Hillhouse as the only man who could relieve the state from its difficulties ; and, in place of a Board of Managers, he was appointed sole Commissioner. Then it was that he gave up his seat in the Senate and devoted fifteen years of perplexity and toil to straightening the knotty problem given him. By processes of busi-
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ness, the original thirty-six bonds had become nearly five hundred. The debtors were scattered, and they were secured many times by mortgages on lands in different states, then not easily accessible. " Without a single litigated suit or a dollar paid for counsel, he restored the fund to safety and order." He used all his ingenuity in dealing with individuals, and in seeking that which was appar- ently lost, so that he not only secured the original sum, but added a half million to it, leaving it one million, seven hundred thousand dollars at his retirement.
Such results were not attained without indescribable exertion. In sun and storm, through the wilds of a new country, wading deep fords, threading mazy forests, in spite of fever's heat and winter's cold, even when in danger of imprisonment under the false accusation of an enemy, he persevered to the desired end. For seven or eight years his journeys were performed in a light sulky, drawn by his famous "Young Jin," as indomitable as her master. Sometimes he drove her seventy miles in a day. Once, after twilight, in a lonely region, he drove her at full speed for thirty miles, because he was dogged by two ruf- fians who tried to stop him and snatch - his trunk. They would have been still more enraged at being foiled than they were, if they had known that twenty thousand MRS. CADY'S SCHOOL. dollars were locked in that trunk. Poor
Young Jin was blind after that forced march.
Again in the silent forest, an Indian, as silent, appeared at his side and kept himself abreast for miles. At last, Mr. Hillhouse stopped, gave him a coin, and the man of the woods vanished as he had come.
Mr. Hillhouse himself, by exposure to cold, lost the use of one eye for a whole winter, but the well eye was made to do double work. Instead of making enemies by his demand for lost property, lie often gained friends, and some debtors were restored from poverty to wealth by his sympathetic management of their affairs, making his interference a mutual benefit.
In the case of the estate of Oliver Phelps, the indebtedness had amounted to three hundred and fifty-six thousand dollars. Mr. Hillhouse went to the very spot where lay the land involved, and so extricated it from embarrassment that he gained the whole sumn for the fund and left the family rich. Fittingly, they presented him with six thousand dollars as a token of appreciation ; but
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lie declined to accept it for himself and gave it with about four thousand dollars more sent to him for similar reasons, by others, to the fund. Surely every boy and girl in Connecticut who enjoys the advantages of public schools ought to be taught to revere the man whose disinterested and skillful labors secured these benefits, and should learn to regard the qualities which the first commissioner displayed, as the copy above all others to be imitated in forming that true and upright character which is the most precious treasure the citizen can bring to the state.
In still one more office, that of treasurer of Yale, held for fifty years, from 1782 to 1832, he achieved a benefit lasting and widespread in its influence.
In 1791, the college was under an exclusively clerical corporation, which caused some dissatisfaction ; and there were forcible suggestions of another in- stitution to be under state control. At this crisis, Mr. Hillhouse proposed that the Governor and Lieutenant Gover- nor and six "senior assistants " (after- wards six senators) should be added to the corporation, and he conceived the idea that the money raised throughout the state for paying state revolutionary debts, debts which had just been as- snmed by the United States government, should be in part given to Yale. Thus GROVE AT SACHEM'S WOOD. about forty thou- sand dollars were added to the slender college purse, and with that, under the direction of Mr. Hillhouse and of John Trumbull, the artist, needed buildings were erected from time to time.
Just after meeting the prudential committee of the college to present his report, this noble inan excused himself from the family circle at Sachem's Wood, retired to his own room, and gently closed his eyes on the activities of this world, December 29, 1832.
Hopeful amid difficulties, untiring in labors, unmoved by temptations of public life, brave and patient in peril, full of all good and lovely impulses, and endowed with sagacity and ability to carry out his design, James Hillhouse was a man whose like does not appear in every generation.
We are too apt to feel that the virtues of our forefathers belonged to a past age ; that they are superseded in common with the stage coach and the flint lock,
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and that any attempt to reinstate them in their former prominent place in the public estimation would be like the efforts to call back the candle light and the spinning wheel of other days-charming, but not practical. But while, in the kaleidoscope of life, circumstances and conditions never repeat their grouping, there is always a place for the main pieces of integrity, single-heartedness, and patriotism ; and uprightness and unselfishness ought to be admired and culti- vated as much in the end of the century as in the beginning.
Mr. Hillhouse's first wife died young. His second wife was Rebecca Wool- sey, of Dosoris, L. I. Of his children, one, Augustus, passed many years in France, where he died ; another son, James Abraham, the poet, developed liter- ary talent and devoted himself to writing. He delivered some fine addresses and poemis on special occasions. Among his works, "Sachem's Wood," a beautiful description of his home ; "The Judgment ;" and "Percy's Masque," are best known. The latter, with Hotspur's son, the last of the Percies, as liero, pictures the time of Henry V., and was admired on both sides of the water. The third child, Mary Lucas Hillhouse, lived to old age, in the house upon the hill, and displayed, from three years up, her father's sagacity and interest in public affairs. She was strenuous in insisting that sewing ought to be taught in the public schools ; and, to her, the colored people of New Haven owe their school on Goffe street. Always a promoter of good works, she was so constant a reader and student, that her society was sought by the learned, and, as an acknowledgment of favors received from her father and herself, a professorship was honored by the family naine.
She loved to talk of the past, and to few has childhood furnished so many interesting memories. When eleven years old she went with her father to the session of the Second Congress, in Philadelphia, during the last winter of the presidency of Washington, who petted and remembered the little girl. She heard his last address, was allowed to witness his last birthnight ball, saw the inauguration of President Adams, at which she sat in the lap of Mrs. Madison. Her father, in writing to her mother, February 23, 1797, said : “Mrs. Wolcott was so kind as to take Mary under her wing, by which means she was honored by a seat in the President's box through the whole evening, and a seat at the first supper table near the President, and by that ineans had an opportunity of seeing the brightest and most pleasing part of the whole scene ; and, indeed, she did appear to be highly delighted. Mrs. Washington took very particular notice of her, and often spoke very kindly to her, which caused her to be inquired out and noticed by ladies of the first distinction, who naturally resorted to the President's box as the most honorable seat. One circumstance of good fortune which has attended M. in this business I have not mentioned, which is that 110 ladies under sixteen are admitted to these balls; but Miss Mary liad a ticket sent her by the managers unsolicited. Under these circumstances I did not think it was proper to admit of her going upon the floor to dance, though it was urged by some."
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