USA > Connecticut > New London County > Montville > History of Montville, Connecticut, formerly the North parish of New London from 1640 to 1896 > Part 39
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Peggy, the wife of Lorenzo Dow, died at Hebron, Conn., January 6, 1820. She had been a true and valuable com- panion to him during his travels about the country on his preaching tours for sixteen years. On his first visit to Ireland (he several times crossed the Atlantic) he says, "A loyal woman scolded me because I did not pray for the king. I replied that I came from a country where we had no king, and it was not natural for me, so she excused me and invited me to breakfast."
In Belfast he was sent to prison for preaching in the streets, but was very soon liberated. He improved his opportunity, however, while in prison to address the prisoners.
Being solicited to play cards while on a passage in a canal boat, he told them who solicited him that would play one game when they had done. After they had done playing he offered to buy the cards. The captain told him he did not sell cards, but that he would give them to him, which having done, Dow played his game by throwing them out of the windows into the canal.
Speaking in relation to one who was prejudicial against him he remarked, " The best way that ever I found to kill an enemy, was to love him to death." In speaking of a visit to Stonington, Conn., he says, " Left Peggy, visited Hebron, Stonington (where George's ship "Nimrod " killed two horses, one hog and a goose) so on to Newport, R. I."
There are many anecdotes related of Lorenzo Dow, some of which he relates himself in his journal, and others which
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he does not mention. The following are some of the latter: He was applied to in a place where he was about to preach to endeavor to detect a thief who had stolen his neighbor's axe. Accordingly, he carried with him into the pulpit a stone as large as he could easily wield with one hand. During the service he remarked that there was an individual in the as- sembly who had stolen his neighbor's axe, and seizing the stone, and raising it for a heave, he declared that he was going to throw it at the thief's head, whereupon the guilty individ- ual dodged and thereby was detected.
The story about his raising the devil had become quite familiar to persons well acquainted with this eccentric man in past generations. In one of his frontier tours in New York or Pennsylvania he came to a log house, the mistress of which entertained him hospitably in his character as a preacher, gave him his supper and a bed in a sleeping room adjoining the living room. After he retired a familiar friend of the woman came to visit her and the two chatted till midnight, when the mistress' husband came home intoxicated and angry to find the door fastened. For fear of his drunken wrath, the wife's companion got into a barrel and she covered him up with the tow of flax. Then she let in her husband, swear- ing loudly at being barred out. "Hush! " says she, " You'll wake up the preacher sleeping in the spare room." Preacher? What preacher?" "Why, the celebrated Lorenzo Dow." " Dow? Why, I've heern of him, and blamed if I don't have him up," and in spite of the wife's remonstrances Dow had to dress and exhibit himself, saying to the master of the house, " Well, sir, Lorenzo Dow is before you, what will you have? " " Why, I'se heern tell as how you can raise the devil - now let's see you do it." Dow took the candle from the table, made a circuit of the room, saying " Hocus, pocus " several times in succession and touched the flame to the tow, when the fellow in the barrel rose up all afire, and, with a screech and a howl, ran blazing out of the door. The drunken hus- band was sobered in an instant from fright, and was com-
39
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pletely cured of his drinking habits. He reformed and joined the church, and the secret was kept till after the death of the man.
Another ludicrous incident is related that Lorenzo Dow is said to have been connected with when on one of his preach- ing tours through South Carolina. As the story goes, on reaching a large spruce tree he overtook a colored lad, who was blowing a tin horn and could send a blast with rise and swell and cadence which waked the echoes of the distant hills. Calling aside the lad, Dow said to him, " What's your name, sir?" "My name's Gabriel, sir," said the ebony-colored lad. " Well, Gabriel, have you ever been to Church Hill?" " Yes, Massa, I'se been dere many a time." "Do you re- member a big spruce pine tree on the hill?" "Oh, yes, Massa, I knows dat pine tree." " Do you know that Lorenzo Dow has an appointment to preach under that tree to-morrow?" " Oh, yes, Massa, everybody knows dat." " Well, Gabriel, I'm Lorenzo Dow, and if you'll take your horn and go to- morrow morning and climb up into that tree and hide your- self among the branches before the people begin to gather, and wait there till I call your name and then blow such a blast with your horn as I heard you blow a minute ago, I'll give you a dollar; will you do it, Gabriel?"
Gabriel, like Zacchaeus, was hid away in the tree-top in due time. An immense concourse of persons of all sizes and color assembled at the appointed hour, and Mr. Dow preached on the last judgment day. By his power of description he wrought the multitude up to the opening of the resurrection scenes, and grand assize at the call of the trumpet blasts which are to wake the sleeping nations. " Then," said he, " suppose my dying friends, suppose that this should be the very hour? Suppose now, that you should hear, at this moment, the sound of Gabriel's trumpet?" Sure enough, at this moment the trumpet of Gabriel sounded, the women shrieked and many fainted, the men sprang up and stood aghast, some ran, others fell and cried for mercy, and all felt for a time that the judg-
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ment was set and the books were opened. The preacher stood and watched the drifting storm till the fright had abated, and someone had discovered the ebony angel, who had caused the alarm, quietly perched on a limb of the old spruce, and wanted to get him down to whip him. Then the preacher resumed his theme, saying, " I forbid all persons from touching the boy up there. If a colored boy with a tin horn can frighten you almost out of your wits, what will you do when you hear the trumpet thunder of the archangel? How will you be able to stand in the great day of the wrath of God?"
Peggy Dow, the first wife of Lorenzo Dow, died at He- bron, Conn., Jan. 6, 1820, aged 39 years. He afterwards married Lucy Dolbeare of Montville, the daughter of George B. Dolbeare. His last courtship and marriage was unique as was the first, and was characteristic of the man. Miss Dolbeare was a thorough Methodist, and, being a woman of great muscular strength and masculine in her speech, and, withal, gifted with a flow of language, she was a powerful ally in a Methodist meeting. At one of Mr. Dow's meetings Lucy was present and Mr. Dow was strongly attracted toward her. At the close of the meeting he shook hands with her; before parting he propounded the question. She was ready to meet the proposal, and both then and there entered into a contract which was very soon after sealed with the marriage VOW.
Soon after their marriage Mr. Dow settled at Montville, and was engaged in farming. He did not, however, abandon his itineracy, and continued at certain seasons of the year to make his tours through the country, fulfilling appointments made a year ahead. Nearly every Sunday he would preach either in his own neighborhood or in adjoining towns. He run a saw-mill which stood on the farm which he occupied. This farm belonged to his wife, having been bequeathed to her by her father in his last will. He afterwards bought a saw and grist-mill of Henry Maynard, which was located at the outlet of Oxoboxo Pond, which he occupied until sold in
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1830, after the great lawsuit between Peter and Henry A. Richards and himself about holding back the water in his pond.
During the time he lived on his farm in Montville, from about 1822 until his death, he did quite a business at farm- ing. He repaired the buildings and improved his land, and was considered quite a successful farmer. The shingles at that time put on his house have remained quite sound and were still intact in 1890. Often when going to market (Nor- wich being the city where he did most of his trading) he would yoke up his oxen and drive into town. It was not unusual to see him ride through the streets on the bottom of his ox-cart or wagon drawn by two and sometimes three yoke of cattle, driven by a negro teamster.
Lorenzo Dow was a staunch Jackson-man, and when the president made his eastern tour in 1833 his route led him near to Mr. Dow's residence, the route being along the Essex turnpike through Montville and Salem. At the " Bland Tavern " Mr. Dow had a hickory pole erected with the flag of the nation flying at the top. As President Jackson came along with his suite, on his way from Hartford, by way of Essex, to Norwich, he stopped and had an interview with Mr. Dow and his wife, Lucy, the president introducing to them his suite, Van Buren and Donaldson, his private secretary. The place of their meeting was then and long afterwards called Hickory Plain, in honor of the president. It is said that about two hundred of the neighboring citizens assembled on that occasion.
Mr. Dow took considerable interest in the affairs of the town. At one time he was chosen, with others, to audit the accounts of the town. The records will show the remarks made by him, written on the margin of the pages by his own hand with his name attached. The following are specimens of the remarks:
" N. B. It appears that those men at the bottom of the town business get our own orders and then charge interest,
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though the books do not express it; either the books are not correct, or the men are innocent who hold those orders; or else it is Montville way of doing business! L. DOW."
" P. S. See No. 119, 1823, interest $40.14 on his 'note ' where we find no note mentioned, but Order 669-21 as above and yet the order for interest is $41.14 and for five days less than a year."
" Montville wants a new book, better bound to transmit the records safe to posterity. L. DOW. Dec. 23, 1823."
Lorenzo Dow was a remarkable and eccentric individual, who for nearly half a century, prompted by an inward impulse, devoted himself to a life of singular labor, self-denial, and sacrifice. One month he would be heard of laboring for the good of souls in his own peculiar way in the neighborhood of his home, the next, perhaps, braving the frosts and snow of a Canadian winter; the next on his way to Ireland or England in the prosecution of some benevolent purpose, and six months or a year afterward he is encountering the dangers and hard- ships of a Georgia or Kentucky wilderness, or fleeing for his life from the tomahawk or the scalping knife of the Indian savage in the then untrodden wilds of the Mississippi valley. The suddenness and promptitude of his appearance in a town or village at the very hour and minute that he had appointed, perhaps some twelve months before, the boldness with which he would attack the ruling vices and denounce wickedness, either in high places or low, the general adaptation of his dry and caustic rebukes to the sin and follies prevalent in the place where he might be and which he seemed to know almost intuitively, together with the biting sarcasm and strong mother-wit that pervaded his addresses, all served to invest the approach to any place of the " crazy preacher," as he was fre- quently called, with an air of singular and romantic interest. And most extensively has the influence of the labors of this strange and eccentric man been experienced and felt; eternity can only reveal the good he may have accomplished. Scarcely a neighborhood from Canada to Georgia, or from the Atlantic
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to the Mississippi, that has not some tradition still to relate, or some tale to tell of the visit and the preaching of Lorenzo Dow, and there is scarcely an individual in all New England that has not heard their fathers or mothers, or grandfathers and grandmothers, relate some one or more of the witty say- ings, or speak of the humorous doings of this singular man.
He died at Alexandria, Va., the second day of February, 1834, aged 56 years and 4 months. The last wife of Lorenzo Dow survived him and remained on the " Old Dow Home- stead " until her death. She used to receive quite an income from the sale of her husband's books, which contained a journal of his life, his travels, incidents, and witty sayings, during the first few years after his death.
She died at Montville on the 26th day of October, 1863, aged 77 years, and was buried on her own farm in a burying- lot enclosed by an iron fence.
LORENZO DOW.
CHAPTER V.
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
Although this town, as a separate and independent in- corporate body, does not date back but a little more than one hundred years, yet its early history is intimately connected with that of New London, of which it was originally a part, and until it was incorporated a distinct township, in 1786, was called the " North Parish of New London."
Its early settlement, which was very rapid the first half- century, was largely owing to its being an elevated and re- tired location, descriptive of its name, its many fertile, open fields and extensive timber, its beautiful lakes and rivulets, affording an abundance of water-power, easily controlled for saw and grist-mills, industries of great importance with the first settlers. Its advantages were further increased by its near access to the " Great River," afterwards called the Thames, then affording an abundance of fish. Containing, as it did, within its bounds the famous tribe of Mohegan Indians, so friendly and generous to the white man, its history has ever been such as to command universal attention. "New London County," says its gifted historian, Miss Caulkins, " is a locality no way inferior in interest to any part of the state. Its early history is full of life and vivid anecdotes. Here the white and red race flourished for a time side by side, while hard- ships, reverses, and adventures of various kinds marked its subsequent progress."
This town, in its growth and advance in agricultural, manufacturing, and other industrial pursuits, may serve as a representative of other New England towns. That noble band of Puritans who left their own native country to found a home in a wild foreign land, and whose special object appears
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to have been "to preserve the morals of their youth; to prevent them through want of employment from leaving their parents and engaging in business unfriendly to religion; to lay a foun- dation for propagating the gospel in the remote parts of the world; to form the model of a pure church, free from admix- ture of human additions." A set of men more conscientious in their doings, or simple in their manners, never founded any commonwealth. Speaking of them, Governor Stough- ton remarked, " God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice grain over into the wilderness."
These same Puritans who landed at that dreary, disconso- late place, afterwards named Plymouth, after the town in England from which they last sailed, in the month of Decem- ber, 1620, and those of like faith and noble character who followed them during the fifteen or twenty years following, had many representatives among the early settlers in this town. The name of Bradford, Rogers, Fitch, Mason, Turner, Baker, Raymond, Alden, and many others, all were early settlers here. These pioneers were the first to cultivate and improve these farms, build houses, fence their lands, lay out and build highways through their farms, and from house to house. The first to erect schoolhouses and to found a church. The school- houses served as well for meeting-places for religious worship on the Sabbath before any church edifice could be erected. It was nearly fifty years after the first English settler located in this present town before a house for the public worship of God was erected.
Most of the early settlers here were members of some church before they came, some belonged to the church at New London, and some at Norwich, and it was never con- sidered a hardship to ride six or ten miles on horseback to attend religious services at those places on the Sabbath. These pioneers were a robust, hardy set of yeomen, capable of enduring hardships and privations, and were possessed of a nature willing to endure privations, and an ability to perform a great amount of manual labor. From early morn to the last rays of the evening twilight they were employed
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in some laborious work on their farms. The families in those days were usually quite large, often from four to six sons and nearly as many daughters, who, when arriving at the proper age and strength were called upon by their parents to assist them, the sons on the farm and the daughters about the house- work. The pleasure and enjoyment of the home circle in those days seem to have been far greater than that of modern experience, the labor of the hands gave life and buoyancy to the spirit. Some of the first inhabitants of this township were remote only three generations from their first American ancestors, and were possessed with much of the Puritan character. " They were men," as an able writer has truth- fully portrayed, " who habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him, was with them the great end of existence."
Our forefathers were men well calculated and wonder- fully fitted to be pioneers, in subduing and improving the wild land, and laying a foundation for the building up of indus- tries, which to-day are of magnificent proportions. Much hard labor was required in clearing the land and erecting houses in which to live. Though their houses were nearly as rude as those of their uncivilized neighbors, yet they served as a home and were pervaded with a spirit of contentment and wholesome enjoyment. As progress was made in the im- provement of their homes and farms, as clearings were con- tinued to be made, the soil broken up and improved, better dwellings built, schoolhouses and houses of worship erected, new life began to dawn upon them, fields of knowledge were discovered, new industries were developed, social intercourse among neighbors became a greater source of pleasure and profit. Attendance upon religious worship was a means of building up character and developing a higher spiritual life.
The Pilgrims were an agricultural people, and so were many of those who followed them to these shores. One
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reason why the Pilgrims left their adopted country, Holland, was, according to Bancroft, because they "had been bred to agricultural pursuits," which they could not follow in that land. That they continued to follow their original pursuit as their chief one for many years after their arrival is familiar history. But their task was a severe one. Cleared fields were small and few; and their implements were rude and ill fitted to clear the dense woods and break up the stubborn soil. Some of their implements, no doubt, were obtained from the mother country. The only metal to be found here that could be formed into implements of husbandry was bog-iron ore, which was very brittle and often spoiled by a day's use. The magnitude of their task from lack of appropriate implements with which to perform their work is perhaps more difficult for those of the present age to realize than any other feature of our history, because agricultural implements have been brought to such a degree of perfection. The most important of farm implements is the plow, and is doubtless one of the oldest, for its origin must be coeval with the human race of antiquity, in the days of Elisha, who, when sum- moned by Elijah to follow him, was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. The plow is probably an improvement upon the hoe, which may be claimed as still more ancient. At first it was made of the tough crotches of trees; then the forked piece was trimmed and bound to the handle to prevent the two from splitting apart. The plow had an equally humble origin. Like hoes, one limb of a tree formed the bean and the other the share. When the colonists first began to upturn the soil the plow was a very simple and weak affair. It was wholly made of wood. It required a great deal of power to draw it. During all the centuries preceding the present but few improvements were made in the construction of the plow. Even at the beginning of this century this implement was wholly made of wood, except that a wrought-iron share or point was attached to the mould-board, and some bolts and nuts whereby the pieces were fastened together. Fastened to
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the end of the beam was an iron clevis. The wooden mould- board was sometimes plated with sheet iron or by strips made by hammering out old horeshoes. The standard rose nearly vertically, and to which was attached the beam. Two pins in the standard formed the handles.
All the other implements of husbandry used by our fore- fathers were alike rude and clumsy, and it required great strength to manage them. For a century the colonists here, and throughout the country, remained in nearly a stationary state in respect to their leading pursuit. Their implements, few and imperfect, were rarely improved. The hoe, plow, spade, fork, and occasionally a harrow, scythes, and axes, com- prised nearly the whole inventory of farming tools. There was an obstinacy with which old ideas were cherished that served to quench the spirit of improvement in those times. The system of agriculture best adapted to the country and the method by which the best results could be obtained could only be learned by experiment. If a possessor of superior in- telligence arose, who ventured to try experiments, he was neither cheered nor encouraged, but on the other hand was laughed at for his folly. One who was familiar with the habits and customs of the people of those times has said that if such an one " did not plant just as many acres of corn as his fathers did, and that, too, in the old of the moon, if he did not sow just as much rye to the acre, use the same number of oxen to plow and to get in his crops in the same day; or if he did not hoe as many times as his father and his grandfather did, if, in fine, he did not wear the same kind of homespun dress and adopt the same religious views and prejudices, he was shunned in company by old and young, and looked upon as visionary."
However prejudicial our ancestors may have been to any newly advanced idea in their method of work or of their reli- gious views, yet, in the log cabin or simple frame dwelling of that agricultural era were first cultivated the true, though austere religion, the domestic virtues, the sturdy habits of
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frugal industry, the daring spirit and the devoted love of liberty that have so advanced the prosperity and the renown of their remote posterity.
Let us go back to the first half of the eighteenth century, and in imagination, with the help of history, recall some of the sketches of the houses of that period as drawn from actual observation by the antiquary of those historic times. On a visit to one of these yeomen we pass along a "trail " indicated by marked trees, and first discover his horse and cattle-shed standing near an old Indian clearing, which may have been a planting-field of the chief of the tribe; and just a little way off stands the dwelling built of logs, with a thatched roof and a large chimney at one side built of stones cemented with clay. The small windows are covered with oil paper, and the massive door is thick enough to be bullet- proof. At one end of the house, at a distance of about ten feet, is a well, from which water is obtained by means of a crotched tree set in the ground, supporting a large " sweep " balanced in the middle, upon the small end of which is fastened a pole reaching down to near the ground. On the lower end hangs the " Old Oaken Bucket." Pulling the " latch string " we enter and find that the floors are made of rifted chestnut or straight-grained oak, roughly smoothed with the adze, while the immense hearth in front of the large fireplace occupying nearly one-half of the side of the house, is of large flat stones. There are no partition walls, but thick curtains made of homemade cloth, and are hung so that at night they divide off their straw beds, upon which they pile rugs, cover- lets, and flannel or linen sheets. A high-backed chair or two, a massive table, a large chest with carved front, and some Indian birch-bark boxes and splint baskets are ranged round the walls, while on a large dresser we notice wooden bowls and trenches, pewter plates and earthern plates, horn drinking- cups, and a "tinder box " with flint and steel. Hanging on the wall is the old " flint lock " ready for defense or to shoot down the wild beasts that may be prowling around their flocks.
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