USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
18-VOL. 1
242
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
son ) of Hartford, and Col. Henry C. Deming (scholar, orator, sol- dier, mayor) of Hartford.
The play had not been "the thing" in the New England colo- nies till long after the war, and then those who did glance in its direction were classed among skeptics, revellers and others of low morals against whom the church people were compelled to lift their standards. So when a group of Yale students studying in Glastonbury, in 1778, prepared for a theatrical production, the county was scandalized. Glastonbury authorities quickly put a veto on it, but by some collegiate hook or crook the boys did get the right to appear at the very State House itself. This along in the May vacation. The play, which they had written themselves, was based on Revolutionary war incidents. It cost £60 to stage the performance. They held up the mirror to nature faithfully- according to their lights-in such characters as Burgoyne, an arch enemy, and Prescott of Bunker Hill, a demi-god. We can gather, however, from a printed communication from a lady who went, or heard said, that the mirror may have been somewhat too faith- ful as she bewailed the profane language put in the mouth of Pres- cott-this to say nothing of the defiance of law in utilizing wom- en's apparel.
Altogether, then, there were no more undertaking's of this sort till 1794 when Hallam & Henry, an outside combination which was working for the erection of playhouses in the leading cities, got Ephraim Root to erect a theater on the north side of Temple Street, known then as Bachelor or, after the dedication, Theater Street. The structure was about 500 feet from Main Street. Several prominent men bought some of the sixty shares of the company's stock, the rest being held by members of the troupe, which included Mrs. Frances Hodgkinson of New York, wife of the leading man and playwright. It was an English company of players. The advertisement asked patrons to go out only "by the doors," for the sake of example and to preserve tranquillity. The repertoire included plays like "She Stoops to Conquer." Edito- rially the Courant requested the management to bar the indecent and irreligious or else submit the plays to a committee of "liter- ary gentlemen," possibly like the Hartford Wits. At the after- noon performances, "young gentlemen up to twelve and young ladies up to fifteen" were admitted at half price. For the even-
-
243
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
ing performance, the curtain rose at half-past five. Perform- ances were mostly in the summer. The second season, in the cast and as scene painter was Joseph Jefferson, grandfather of the "Rip Van Winkle" Joe. The Governor's Foot Guard, with star- tling scenic effects, put on a drill in one of the plays in 1797. The management was highly laudatory of the town but could not conceal its surprise that the ladies would not buy seats in the pit as they did in other towns.
What evidently was the best era of the stage for those days was brought to a close by a legislative act in 1800 prohibiting all theatrical representations. The theater never was used again except for the assemblages of Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes' parishioners while the new First Church was being built. Fourth of July had been and continued the chief day of entertainment, the Order of the Cincinnati and other societies holding exercises in the morn- ing and all assembling at the churches in the afternoon where dis- tinguished speakers were heard.
Dancing was approved by the clergy and greatly encouraged by popular masters. Anne Wolcott, according to "Wolcott's Me- morials," wrote to her brother at Yale that while he was "poring over some antiquated subject," she had been dancing all the fore- noon and would be dancing again in the evening. "Assemblies" became the special feature of social life. For many years all the prominent people were subscribers. An especially notable one was held the week after Washington's death when the ladies were requested to wear white trimmed with black and the gentlemen a crepe insignia on the arm. At the inns and taverns where the assemblies were held wine was served freely with the suppers. These pleasures were maintained, in common with the Election Day ball, for many years except for interruption through scarcity of money during the period of the War of 1812 and also when there was a revival at the First Church.
A great attraction in 1805 was Steward's Museum in the new State House. Previously the only exhibitions of wax-work and the like had been held at private houses, and in 1799 there had been a circus on the Commons, or South Green, now Barnard Park. Steward's moved in 1809 to a building opposite the Epis- copal Church and in 1824, as seen in the picture of State House Square, it was established in the conspicuous building on the cor- ner of Main Street and Central Row where now towers the build-
244
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
ing of the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company. Travelers were invited to bring contributions to the collections. For many years it was the only place of entertainment in the town.
There were few evidences of poverty. The property the Legis- lature had permitted the town to buy for an almshouse in 1785, opposite the present North Cemetery, had been sold at auction in 1797 to Ashbel Spencer. At the approach of the War of 1812, however, matters were somewhat different. After various work- house experiences, wholly inharmonious with the idea of alms, that same place was leased in 1811 and was maintained till 1822 when for $5,000 the Kelsey farm on present Sigourney Street was bought, well utilized with buildings and cultivated fields, a hos- pital added, and the "Town Farm" continued till the surrounding land was needed for residences and a park when the property was disposed of and the present almshouse was built in the last quar- ter of the century.
In the matter of cemeteries there were periods of uncertainty. As has been seen, the first specially designated burying ground, near the First Church, had been encroached upon, first by the church itself and then by other buildings and had been neglected. The vote in 1785 to sell off lots along the street to raise money for a new cemetery appears not to have yielded a new place for pub- lic interments. In 1800 "Old South Yard," on Maple Avenue, was bought for the use of the two churches. But in 1806 it was again votéd to sell land near the old cemetery and the following year the land for the present North Cemetery on Windsor Avenue was bought of Hezekiah Bull and opened for public use. There were few burials in the Ancient Cemetery after that. The burial of Town Clerk William Whitman in 1836 was the last till that of Mrs. John M. Holcombe, as told in the story of recent times. A monument was erected in 1836 by the Ancient Burying Ground Association in memory of the first settlers, and later a memorial by the First Company, Governor's Foot Guard. In 1843, Zion Hill, another public cemetery, was opened. Cedar Hill, on Fair- field Avenue was established by a private corporation in 1866, and Spring Grove adjoining the North Cemetery. The first hearse was built and maintained for the town in 1800.
A Hooker item which has aroused discussion concerning the priority of colonial churches may here be set forth. Was the
245
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Hooker church or the Warham church in Windsor literally the first church in the colony? The account of the settlements of the two towns, as given in the early pages, is by the accepted records. The Dorchester party arrived in the Bay Colony in May, 1632. Rev. John Warham was one of their spiritual leaders. The "Hooker Company" arrived in September, 1632. Mr. Hooker ar- rived the next year and he and Mr. Stone were inducted into office in October. Mr. Warham accompanied members of his church to Windsor in 1635, leaving his colleague with some of the mem- bers behind. Mr. Hooker and his followers joined his advance party at present Hartford in 1636. None was making history with thought of priority. Mr. Warham's became the First Church in Windsor; Mr. Hooker's the First Church of Christ in Hartford.
Mr. Hooker died July 7, 1647. The wife of Governor John Winthrop the younger died in 1672 and was buried "just beyond the south side of Mr. Stone's monument, within three or four feet." Letters show that in 1683 her son Fitz John Winthrop was corresponding with James Stancliff relative to a stone to mark her grave and that Stancliff inquired what to inscribe on it. On the back of his letter is an acknowledgment bearing date of. November in that year of £4, 8 shillings from Wait Winthrop, with no specifications. After the death of Fitz John, the stone- cutter wrote Maj. Wait Still Winthrop (November, 1710), saying the slab was ready to deliver and asking about the pillars to sup- port it; he said he would finish setting the stone in the spring. Then ensued delay over the inscription. Major Winthrop died in 1717. His son John in that same month received a letter from William Stancliff saying he expected to set the slab the next spring. This grandson of Mrs. Winthrop never had lived in Hart- ford and took no particular interest. He died in England in 1747. Doubtless it passed out of his mind that Mrs. Winthrop was bur- ied here. In 1772, the body of Rev. Edward Dorr was buried just south of Mr. Stone's, not more than three feet between them. This was the location of Mrs. Winthrop's grave as re- vealed by the letter of her son to the stone-cutter, found many years later.
In 1817, on suggestion of Seth Terry, the First Church Society voted to look into the condition of monuments erected in memory of the ministers. In 1807 the present edifice had been built on
246
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
these grounds, setting further back from the street than had the first one. There was still considerable space between the rear of it and the grave of Mr. Stone. Mr. Hooker's grave was presumed to be just north of Mr. Stone's; that is, Mr. Stone's on his left. The location of Mrs. Hooker's could not be surmised and in 1817 there was no knowledge of the incidents connected with Mrs. John Winthrop's. An uninscribed slab with pillars was found near the Stone monument or table. They were set up on the north side of Mr. Stone's, with this inscription under the direction of Mr. Terry :
In Memory of the Rev. Thomas Hooker Who in 1636 With His Assistant, Mr. Stone, Removed to Hartford With About 100 Persons When He Planted Ye First Church in Connecticut. An Eloquent, Able and Faithful Minister of Christ. He Died July 7, 1647, Æt LXI.
It is possible that the expression "First Church in Connecti- cut" was accidental; it is also possible that then as in later years, the word "First" had been stretched in the public mind, familiar with Hooker's greatness and the first written constitution, to in- clude the whole colony, but Rev. Dr. Hawes and Rev. Dr. Walker long after him gave evidence of their knowledge of history.
XIX
THE BULFINCH STATE HOUSE
GREAT ARCHITECT'S FIRST PUBLIC BUILDING-DIFFICULT FINANCING- PROMOTERS OF FIRST BANK, FIRST INSURANCE, EPISCOPAL BANK AND FIRST CONNECTICUT BRIDGE.
The gambrel-roof State House, with its burned-off cupola, had become unworthy and inadequate. Heeding the complaints, the Legislature in May, 1792, appointed a committee to superin- tend the building of a new one. It voted £1,500 on condition Hart- ford raise a like amount, within a year, and subscriptions were called for, payable to the committee, John Chester, Noadiah Hooker, John Trumbull, John Caldwell and John Morgan. Of this state committee, Col. John Trumbull, the artist, being in Hartford in September, wrote his friend Oliver Wolcott, then comptroller of the United States treasury, saying that he and Colonel Chester (of Wethersfield) and the rest of the committee were desirous of having "an elegant and durable building," after a design by Mr. Bulfinch "worth executing in the best material." Middletown brownstone had been favored by the committee but the colonel believed Philadelphia marble would be better if not too expensive, and he asked for prices on cornice, column, pilaster, pedestal, entablature and window blocks and for the cost of good workmen. When only twenty-four had subscribed from $25 up to $500, the Legislature authorized a lottery to raise £5,000 for the completion of the structure. Lotteries were becoming unpop- ular, this lottery failed, but the committee was undaunted. Gen. Andrew Ward of Guilford and Jeremiah Halsey of Norwich agreed to furnish the building, the state to guarantee them by conveyance of a deed to the "Gore Lands," the proceeds of the sale to be divided with the state.
Governor Huntington signed the paper July 25, 1795. The Connecticut Gore Land Company was formed and forthwith opened for business. The story of the gore land dates back to the
247
248
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
charter grant and the Massachusetts boundary war. The Ply- mouth Company in 1628 sold the Bay Colony's association all of New England to the Pacific. Connecticut's part came to be con- sidered, by her charter, to be bounded on the north by Massa- chusetts. Between the Massachusetts survey and that of Con- necticut there was a strip lying between forty-one degrees and fifty-five minutes north latitude and forty-two degrees, or two and one-third miles in a strip running from the western boundary of New York, as assented to, a distance of 245 miles, all in accord with the state's cession of its western territory, its loss of Wyoming and its receiving the Western Reserve when making its cession. Business for Ward and Halsey had started briskly when New York raised objections in court, and lost. The decisions of the courts, however, were nullified in the final dis- cussion with the government relative to the territory of the West- ern Reserve. By 1804 the Gore Land Company was ruined. Nevertheless the State House had been built, and Ward and Hal- sey were reimbursed with an appropriation totaling $40,000, over a period from 1805 to 1808. General Moses Cleaveland of Canterbury, as agent for Oliver Phelps of Windsor and the others who had bought the Reserve lands, had bought of the Indians, for $1,200 worth of goods, and had established New Connecticut and his city of Cleveland.
Connecticut possessed what was considered the handsomest building in the United States. It had cost $52,480, of which at time of completion $3,500 represented Hartford's subscription, $1,500 the county subscriptions and $35,000 that of Ward and Halsey, repaid. The Legislature held its first session there in May, 1796.
Charles Bulfinch of Boston had designed private houses and thereby had acquired some fame at the time Colonel Trumbull wrote General Wolcott that he was preparing the design for this State House. In 1887 he had made plans for the Massachusetts State House and he was to design the Capitol at Washington and other famous buildings, but this was the first of his public build- ings. Because nothing could be found in his writings about the Hartford building, there was doubt for a time in the last century whether it was his work, but with the discovery of this letter of Trumbull's, of drawings among Bulfinch's papers and compari- sons by experts, the evidence was considered complete before
OLD STATE HOUSE, HARTFORD, BEFORE CUPOLA WAS ADDED (From rare China plate in collection of Morgan B. Brainard)
251
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Charles A. Place in 1925 published his book on the architect. Brownstone had to be substituted for the marble finally for the lower part of the building and the trimmings, with brick for the upper courses. In the background of a portrait of Colonel Halsey in the Connecticut Historical Society's collection and on an ex- ceedingly rare English plate in the collection of Morgan B. Brain- ard here reproduced, the structure can be seen as it looked when occupied. The roof balustrade was added in 1815 and the cupola, surmounted by the statue of Justice, in 1822 when the city gave the bell, "but both," according to Mr. Place, "were doubtless in the original design" since they are characteristic of Bulfinch's style. "It is stated that the cupola is copied from the one on the New York City Hall and, though the lines are good, they are not those of Bulfinch."
The size of the structure is 50x100 feet with porticos on both the east and west sides. That on the east, marking the main en- trance, had an especially beautiful and classic effect with its pil- lars. The balcony commanded a broad view down State Street to the river. On either side were residence sections, shaded by trees and surrounded by wide grounds. In the foreground, taking in the rest of the old Meeting-house Yard, was a green which was to become a park with a fountain in the center of it, altogether to be widely reproduced in engravings and on the doors of the more elaborate clocks which vied with chinaware in being the particular items of vertu. How State House and park were submerged in the rush of business and then saved by Hart- ford spirit is a story in itself, to add interest to a later page. The rush began to be felt in 1870; business had centered westward, and after the new Capitol was built and the State House became City Hall in 1880, Justice turned her face westward and the park was a backyard.
The earlier State House-or "Court House" as it had come to be called-was moved to the rear of Christ Church when the Bulfinch structure was begun. For many years it was a tene- ment house, then George J. Patten's schoolhouse and afterwards Charles Hosmer's print shop, a church for the Methodists, a car- riage factory and, with power furnished by a horse in the cellar, William Loomis' saddlery. Christ Church parish bought it in 1833 and sold a part of it which was removed to Pearl Street where, on the rear of the lot on which the Southern New England
252
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Telephone Company began its large buildings in 1910, it was occupied as a paint shop by Robert Walker and later by Pres- ton & Kenyon.
Country and county were picking up after the war, but the first bank no more than the State House was an evidence of pros- perity in the '90s; rather they both were evidence of the same pure grit and devotion that had led their ancestors to come with Hooker to Hartford. Alexander Hamilton was educating the people to see that without currency and financial stability the United States could not go on. Getting Congress to incorporate the Bank of North America in 1781 was a notable patriotic achievement. Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth was the largest sub- scriber and a year after the Bank of New York was organized, or in 1785, he was elected president on the advice of Hamilton. Also he was a director in the United States Bank. Good results despite croakings and threats of the political opposition led him to believe that Hartford, like Boston and Providence, should at once have such an institution, and his old-time associates here agreed with him. Their names are already familiar in this his- tory. They met at David Bull's tavern on the evening of Febru- ary 27, 1792, and voted to petition the Legislature for a charter, with a capital of $100,000 in 250 shares, and Maj. John Caldwell, Barnabas Deane and John Morgan were appointed the committee on subscriptions.
Noah Webster, John Trumbull and Chauncey Goodrich pre- pared the petition after subscribers had advanced 5 per cent of the capital, and the charter was granted June 14. Oliver Ells- worth, presiding at the meeting, Wadsworth, Caldwell, Morgan, Deane, Timothy Burr, James Watson, Caleb Bull and Ephraim Root were elected directors and Caldwell was elected president after Wadsworth had declined the honor. Hezekiah Merrill, on a salary of $500, was made cashier. The first formal location was on the south side of Pearl Street, near Main, where a vault was dug in the ground for the resting place of a safe Wadsworth had secured in New York, access to which was through a trap door. Entrance from the street was gained only through a double door iron-sheathed and iron-barred. The bank's classic building on State Street, to be its home for the better part of a century, was not erected till 1811, the second of its only four locations. At a time when there had to be recourse to barter, and credit was
1
BULFINCH STATE HOUSE AND PARK, HARTFORD, ABOUT 1825 As originally when it fronted east. Post Office now on this park
OLD STATE HOUSE, HARTFORD, 1927 Captured German gun temporarily placed on front walk
255
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
a thing of tissue, the bank created a confidence which was the be- ginning of the Hartford as it exists today. One of its first regu- lations was that bills should be payable in dollars and cents, thereby introducing the decimal system in place of the cumber- some English method of calculation. In 1806 it made the mis- take of permitting unlimited subscriptions from religious soci- eties and school corporations for five years on equal terms with the state, so that such certificates could be surrendered at par or taken at par, whatever the value at the time, and the capital had been increased to $1,000,000. The handicap was not fully over- come till the bank nationalized in 1865.
The history of the bank was to be one with the history of the city. Its stock is still held by descendants of the original holders, and the names of those holders are still prominent in Hartford affairs. Col. Francis Parsons, vice chairman in the present en- larged organization, is a grandson of Major Caldwell's second wife who was the widow of the brilliant young lawyer, William Brown.
§
But another striking peculiarity the student of the old Con- stitution town finds, in addition to this of continuity of family so frequently remarked, is that of unity of interests in enter- prise and effort. Here at the inception of the modern Hartford, in the first days of independence under a federal Constitution so much like its own of 1639, one can make special note of this fact. The city long has been preeminently the world's City of Insur- ance. The first insurance and the first bank were closely allied; increasing number of companies and increasing number of banks have continued so, in personnel and activities-mutually helpful, always watchful for the good name of Hartford.
Great were the natural risks in the large shipping business. After the manner of the ancient Greeks, a group of substantial men would write their names (be "underwriters") under an agreement to cover losses; if the voyage were successful, they would share in the profits. Peleg Sanford, private secretary of Colonel Wadsworth, was one of the more active in securing these underwriters. By 1794 he thought to apply the principle to land property and Colonel Wadsworth's only son Daniel became asso-
256
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
ciated with him, providing for the purpose printed forms. No. 2 of these policies, February 8, 1794, is in the possession of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company. It insured the house of William Imlay against fire or tempest for one half of 1 per cent for one year; no proofs were required; no loss would be paid not exceeding 5 per cent; salvage would be allowed for and expense thereof would be paid on the insured's personal affidavit. March 10, 1794, Sanford & Wadsworth's first advertisement appeared in the Courant. The following year Elias Shipman joined them in forming a marine "firm" named the "Hartford and New
Haven Insurance Company." Colonel Wadsworth, Major Cald- well and John Morgan shared in this enterprise. Shipman re- tired after two years and set up his own office in New Haven with a company of which he was president for twenty-six years. Sanford following him, the Hartford firm was dissolved. The principle, however, was kept alive by Wadsworth and Caldwell, with Ezekiel Williams the active agent. In 1803 Caldwell and others organized a marine company under the Hartford name, which later became the Protection (1825-1854).
At the May session of the Legislature in 1810 these leaders in Hartford with others from New Haven, Middletown and New London secured a perpetual charter for what is today the great Hartford Fire Insurance Company. As their institution was to stand not only for the good of the city but as a bulwark for the United States when general credit was threatened by great fires, the names of these founders are venerated today. Maj. Nathan- iel Terry, a native of Enfield, commander of the Foot Guard, in whose honor the title had been changed to major, legislator, con- gressman, judge of the County Court, member of the Constitu- tional Convention, president of the Hartford Bank from 1819 to 1828, mayor for several years, and progenitor of Gen. Alfred H. Terry, was president. His wife was Colonel Wadsworth's daughter. The other directors were: David Watkinson who came from England in 1795, was a merchant, gave generously for the Hartford Hospital, founded the Watkinson Farm School, subscribed $100,000 for the Wadsworth Atheneum and left the residue of his estate for the Watkinson Reference Library with $5,000 for enlargement; Thomas Glover and James H. Wells, leading merchants; Nathaniel Patten, printer; Henry Hudson, son of Barzillai Hudson, one of the publishers of the Courant,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.