USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 55
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July 2d, 1788, Capt. John Chapman and nine other persons, chiefly emigrants from Ireland, were drowned within twenty rods of the shore of Fisher's Island. The disaster was occasioned by the up- setting of two boats ; one of them being deeply laden, was filling with water, and her people all seizing hold of the other, that also filled and sank. Capt. Chapman had just arrived with a company of emi- grants, (probably about twenty,) and some of them being sick, he was attempting to land them on the island, where a tent was to be erected, in which they might perform the necessary period of quarantine. Capt. Chapman had served in the Revolutionary War, both in a naval and military capacity. He was a brother of Major James Chapman, who fell at Harlem Heights, in 1776, and of Lieut. Richard Chapman slain in Fort Griswold, in 1781.
Under the state authority, Connecticut was arranged into two cus- tom-house districts ; those of New London and New Haven. The first collector appointed for New London, was Gen. Gurdon Salton- stall. In October, 1784, a branch of the office was established in Norwich ; Christopher Leffingwell, naval officer. In October, 1785, the same arrangement was made for Stonington ; Jonathan Palmer, naval officer. Gen. Saltonstall died September 19th, 1785.2
Elijah Backus, of Norwich, was the next collector. He removed to New London, on receiving the appointment, which he held until the state authority over the customs was merged in that of the gen- eral government.
In June or July, 1789, Gen. Jedidiah Huntington was appointed collector of the port, by Congress, and Nathaniel Richards, surveyor and searcher. These were the first appointments under the federal constitution. Previous to this period, no custom-house records are
1 Printed at New London by Timothy Green, 1786, and entitled, " God admonishing his people of their duty, as parents and masters."
2 In Norwich, at the house of his son-in-law, Thomas Mumford. His remains were brought to New London and deposited in the family tomb.
49
578
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
extant. The following estimates are taken from the marine list kept by Thomas Allen, and published in the New London Gazette:
" Shipping employed in the European and West India trade, sailing from the port of New London, and chiefly owned in this district, from January 1st, 1785, to January 1st, 1786.
Ships, 3, Brigantines, 84, Sloops, 90.
Schooners, 38,
Total export of horses and cattle from January 6th, 1785, to January 10th, 1786-8,094.
The same to January 1st, 1787.
Ships, 3,
Schooners, 32,
Snow, 1,
Sloops, 62,
Brigantines, 68, Coasting vessels not included.
Export of horses and cattle to January 10th, 1787-6,671.
From January 1st, 1788, to January 1st, 1789.
Ships, 4,
Schooners, 38,
Snow, 1,
Sloops, 71.
Brigs, 53,
Export of cattle, horses and mules-6,366.
To January 1st, 1790.
Ships, 2,
Schooners, 35,
Brigs, 43,
Sloops, 56.
Export of horses and cattle-6,678.
Besides a number that slip over the platform with stock, unnoticed."!
Allen's marine list was esteemed a valuable appendage to Green's newspaper. He enlivened the dull record of entries and clearances with maxims, witticisms and sudden insertions of extraneous matter which were often grotesque and amusing. This list commenced in 1770. During the Revolutionary War, he kept a public house in Main Street, which was reopened as the City Coffee House, and the marine list renewed January 1st, 1785.2 This house was regarded as the center of good living and convivial brotherhood. Here was to be heard the latest news, the freshest anecdote, the keenest repartee ; here was served up the earliest and best game of the season, the Jan- uary salmon, the eighteen pound blackfish, trout, woodcock and wild duck, in advance of every other table. It was then much in vogue for gentlemen of the town to dine together in clubs.
1 This means out of Connecticut River.
2 " City Coffee House reopened by Thomas Allen, next door to Capt. Joseph Pack- wood's, where can be had drink for the thirsty, food for the hungry, lodging for the weary, good stabling for horses. Said Allen has also a supply of choice Madeira, Lis- bon and Port wines, for the benefit of the sick and weakly, and good horses to let to merciful riders." Green's Gazette.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
August 27th, 1788, the list comes out with a cheering announce- ment:
" Thomas Allen's marine list, commences on a new hope, the Fed- eral Constitution."
Allen died November 19th, 1793.1 The marine list was next kept by Thomas Pool and Thomas Coit, successively, to the year 1805, when it was taken by Nathaniel Otis, and kept by him to June, 1813; that is, till the second war with Great Britain had deprived the town of all commerce to report.
After the Revolution, foreigners, French and Spanish, occasionally resorted to New London, and a few, finding congenial occupation, re- mained and became citizens. Louis Maniere, a French Protestant, settled in the town, in 1785. The French government, in 1786, sta- tioned Philip de Jean at the port as a naval agent. He was a gen- tleman of mature years and discretion, and had been long in the country, having dwelt on the north-western frontier. After remain- ing in New London for six or eight years, sometimes receiving a sal- ary from his government, and occasionally obliged to supply its place by teaching the French language, he was ordered to Hispaniola, on some business, where he soon fell a victim to tropical pestilence.
The names of Badet, Bocage, Boureau, Constant, Dupignac, La- borde, La Roche, Laurence, Pereau, Poulain, Renouf, designate for- eigners who either brought families to the place, or contracted family relations after they came. Descendants of several of these persons are still found here, and others are scattered in various parts of the Union. Other Frenchmen were found for a few years on the roll of inhabitants, and then passed away. Among these were the names of Durivage, Girard, Laboissiere, Mallet, Montenot, Rigault and Rouget.
Some of these were emigrants or exiles from France, but most of them came from the French islands. After the struggle between the races commenced in St. Domingo, New London became a noted re- sort for the unfortunate, who were driven from their homes by the conflict. From 1794 to 1797, inclusive, almost every vessel from the islands brought passengers, and some were crowded with them.2 The hotels and all the small boarding-houses were filled for a season, but
1 He was born in Boston about the year 1728, and married at New London, in 1754, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Christophers, and relict of John Shackmaple.
2 Among the emigrants who arrived in 1794, was the abbess of a nunnery at Cape St. Francois, who was brought out by Capt. Samuel Hurlbut.
580
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
they soon scattered, seeking in other parts of the country, cheaper liv- ing, or friends and employment. They were mostly a quiet, cheer- ful people, with habits of industry and morality.
Many of these emigrants who fled from their homes in times of in- vasion and insurrection, took no property but what they could carry on their persons, and when this was expended, their case was mel- ancholy in the extreme. One of these unfortunate exiles boarded with a widow, herself with small means; yet she exacted from her lodger only a bare sufficiency to save herself from loss. To requite her kindness, he kept her little garden in order. This occupation, as it engaged his chief attention, and diverted his mind, served him for companion and friend. He paid his stipend to the widow as long as he had money, or any thing that he could convert into money. He parted with every pocket article, and with every extra garment, having made up his mind apparently to live as long as he had any thing left, but to quit life when all was exhausted. That time at length came; he was still cheerful, and paid his landlady with a smile for his last meal. He then went into the garden, and passed from side to side, gazing upon it with seeming delight. Just as the sun went down, he gathered up his implements, saying to each article, the shovel, the rake, and the hoe, as he laid it aside, in a low, sad tone, farewell ! farewell ! Then turning round, he surveyed the little plot, and raising his hat, bowed toward it a respectful leave, and en- tered the house. All this was seen and overheard by a fellow-lodger, but its purport was not understood till the next morning, when the unfortunate exile was found dead in his bed, with an empty bottle labeled laudanum, by his side.
Laboissiere, a name before mentioned, was an exile from the islands, who brought a small sum of money with him, which enabled him to set up a small shop. After affairs at home were in some de- gree quieted, he went back, and it was reported by those who carried him out, that on meeting his wife after their long separation, he was so overcome with emotion that he fell dead upon the spot.
About the year 1795, the French republic commissioned John Pinevert to be their vice-consul at the port of New London. This was an acceptable appointment. Mr. Pinevert had resided in the place for nearly twenty years, and was esteemed for suavity and in- tegrity. He was a native of Rochefort, in France, and died in New London, in 1805.
581
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
The advancement of morals and religion, unhappily, did not keep pace with the public prosperity. People seemed to think of little except the means of subsistence, the excitements of business and pol- itics, and the pungent enjoyment of life.
All accounts agree in speaking of the manners of the inhabitants as belonging to the free and easy style. Jovial parties of all kinds, hot suppers, tavern dinners, card-playing, shooting matches, and dancing assemblies were popular. Merchants and other citizens congregated around the coffee-houses, told stories, cracked jokes, made the air resonant of laughter, smoked, traded, and complimented each other with brandy, gin sling and old Jamaica, as matters of course every day in the week, Sundays, we regret to say, not wholly excepted. Such were the general characteristics of society, until we pass over the threshold of another century.
After ten or twelve years of great prosperity, reckoning from the peace of 1783, the commerce of the United States was checked by the depredations of belligerent European nations. The West Indies had various claimants ; they were the resort of people of many tongues and hues, of royal fleets, of legalized privateers, and of pirates and buccaneers. The American traders were the prey of the whole. Their vessels were subject to all the degrees of molestation, from simple detention and abusive words, through plundering, capturing, libeling, adjudication and condemnation, to entire loss of vessel and cargo, and often, impressment of the crew. New London had her portion of these wrongs. Her seamen also suffered greatly from the pestilential fevers of the tropics. Capt. George Chapman, in one voyage, lost every man on board, but one, of fever. In November, 1795, Capt. Lathrop, in the ship Columbus, fell in with a schooner, bound to Boston, that had only one living man on board ; the rest of the crew, five in number, had died after leaving port. He put a couple of his own men on board, who brought her into the Thames.
The Saltonstall family, of New London, was repeatedly thinned by deaths in the West Indies. Capt. Gurdon Saltonstall, (son of Win- throp,) and Thomas B. Saltonstall, died in June, 1795. Capt. Dud- ley Saltonstall, father of the last named, who had attained the rank of commodore in the continental service, was the victim of the next year. Dr. Winthrop Saltonstall, another of the family, died on the island of Trinidad, in 1802.
Of the same diseases and in the same clime, died also, in 1795 and
49*
582
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
1796, Captains Giles Mumford, Howland Powers, John Rogers, Ezra Caulkins, James Deshon, and Samuel B. Hempstead.
In 1798, the ship Sally, Capt. Boswell, of Norwich, lost eight men in one voyage, of yellow fever.
July 2d, 1802, arrived brig Neptune, Bulkley, from Grenada ; Capt. Merrills, of Hartford, went out master, and died, with both mates and five hands.
It was calculated that for twenty years, reckoning from 1790, so many from New London went to sea and never returned, being swal- lowed by the ocean, or cut off by the diseases of the tropics, as sensi- bly to diminislı the population of the place.
Among the captains who perished by marine disasters, were Peter Latimer, in 1790 ; Robert Crannell, 1792 ; James Angel, 1794.
The brig Nabby, Capt. Norcott, sailed for the West Indies, July 25th, 1795. She was just rounding Montauk Point, when she began to settle, (probably from the sudden starting of a plank,) and falling upon her larboard side, the water rushed in with such vehemence that Joseph Hurlbut, a young man only twenty-two years of age, but the principal owner of the vessel and cargo, was drowned in the cabin. The others on board barely escaped. They heard the voice of their friend, uttering exclamations of distress, without being able to afford him any assistance. It was supposed that in the lurch of the vessel, he was disabled by a blow, or so entangled by the freight, that he could not extricate himself.
Captains John Manwaring, Oliver Barker, Thomas Crandall, Wil- liam Briggs, John McCarty, Thomas Rice, Timothy Sparrow, Wil- liam Weaver, died at sea; Briggs, McCarty and Rice, in 1804; William Packwood, in 1805; William Leeds, in 1806; James Rogers, in 1807; Edward Merrill, in 1809; Charles Hazard, in 1810. Benjamin Richards, a native of New London, but engaged in the European trade, and sailing from New York, died at St. Peters- burg, Russia, in 1809. It is probable that no port in the Union, leav- ing out of view the fishing ports on the eastern coast, has buried so large a proportion of its population in the sea.
It has been often asserted, and is probably correct, that seamen who are not cut off by disasters, and are not given to excesses, are usually favored with a vigorous old age. A few instances may be given of commanders in the old West India trade, who attained an age beyond the appointed span of life.
Daniel Chapman died in 1841, aged eighty ; George Chapman. 1846, aged seventy-six; Edward Chappell, 1824, aged eighty ; James
583
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Edgerton, 1842, aged eighty-two; Samuel P. Fitch, 1841, aged seventy-six ; Michael Melally, 1812, aged seventy-seven; William Skinner, 1803, aged seventy-four. Capt. Joseph Skinner was re- garded as a skillful and accomplished seaman; he made many Eu- ropean voyages, sailing often from New York, but sometimes from New London. He died in 1836, aged seventy-two.
1798. This was the year in which that fatal epidemic, the yellow fever, committed such ravages in New London.
" From the 28th of July, to the 1st of September, the heat was intense ; the mercury in a northern exposure in the open air, stood at midday from 86° to 93º, with the exception of five days, in which it stood at 82°, and one day at 78°, which was its greatest depression. There was only one thunder-shower during this period. The earth being parched under excessive drought, vegeta- tion failed early in August, and many trees shed their leaves. It was noticed that the air was remarkably unelastic, especially in that part of the city where the desolating sickness prevailed. Scarcely a day occurred for seven weeks, in which a person might not have carried a lighted candle through the streets. The nights, in gloomy succession, brought a deadly calm, attended with sultry heat."1
" A short account of the yellow fever, as it appeared in New Lon- don, in August, September and October, 1798, with a list of those who died by the disease," was published in pamphlet form, by Charles Holt, of the Bee newspaper. From that account, which was com- piled with care and accuracy, the following sketch is abridged.
The first alarm was given by the death of Capt. Elijah Bingham, keeper of the Union Coffee House, after an illness of two or three days. The funeral, which was on the same day, (Sunday,) was attended by a concourse of people, and celebrated with masonic pomp. The heat of the weather was extreme; and two days afterward, three other persons in the neighborhood died, and the report now spread with rapidity that the yellow fever was the fatal disease that had swept them away. Many persons removed from the town, or at least from the immediate neighborhood of the disease, and a health com- mittee was appointed, with directions to see that the sick had proper care and attention, that the indigent were relieved, and the dead properly buried. For several days after this, four or five died in a day, and this ratio kept increasing, until the infected district was almost entirely abandoned. It was most virulent in the northern
1 Rev. Henry Channing, in a newspaper statement.
584
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
part of Bank Street, where it first commenced, and was limited in its extent to 100 rods north and south of the market. The fatal day was usually the fourth or fifth from the first attack. The patients had the various symptoms which have so often been described as charac- teristic of this disease, languor and restlessness, chills and flushess nausea, extreme pains in the head and back, a scurfy, pealing tongue, a yellow skin, delirium or stupidity, the black vomit, and death. By the 14th of October, the disease had greatly abated, and by the 28th had nearly disappeared. In about eight weeks, 350 had been at- tacked, of whom eighty-one died.1 It was remarked that the disease attacked almost indiscriminately all within its reach ; no description of people, no particular habit or constitution, escaped; large and airy dwellings, wealthy and respectable citizens, were visited with as much severity as the poorest and more crowded families in the neighbor- hood. Many of those who used the greatest precaution, caught the disease and died; others who were greatly exposed, escaped. Be- tween the market and Golden Street, on the bank, only two persons over twelve years of age, of the regular inhabitants, escaped the in- fection, except those who removed on the first appearance of the fever. Mr. William Stewart died at Haughton's, on the Norwich road, seven miles from New London. From the time that the fever commenced, he had used the precaution of sleeping out of town, leav- ing the place in the afternoon, after his business was concluded. But this was not effectual; he carried the infection with him, and died September 6th, after less than two days' illness.
Dr. Samuel H. P. Lee was almost the only physician belonging to the town who attended upon the sick. Dr. Rawson was one of those attacked early with the disease; another of the faculty was confined by sickness, and others deserted the city. "It fell to the lot of Dr. Lee," says Mr. Holt, "alone and unassisted to combat the fury of this dreadful pestilence." He was assisted, however, during a part of the time, by Dr. James Lee, of Lyme, and Dr. Amos Collins, from Westerly. Mr. Gurdon J. Miller, also, though not a practicing physician, administered medical aid to a large number of the sick, and refused all compensation for it. The health committee per- formed their duties in the most satisfactory and noble manner. Vigilant, cheerful, assiduous, unwearied and impartial, they executed
1 Several names not in Holt's list were afterward ascertained to have been victim S of the fever, making the whole number about ninety. The compact portion of the town then comprised about 2,800 inhabitants.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
their difficult and hazardous office until their services were no longer needed. Their names will be found honorably recorded in the fol- lowing town vote :
"In town meeting, February 4th, 1799, voted that this town entertain a very high sense of the fidelity, benevolence and unwearied exertions of Messrs. John Woodward, John Ingraham, James Baxter, and Ebenezer Holt, Jr., the committee of health during the late epidemic in this town, and that the thanks of this town are cordially tendered to them for their meritorious services. Also, that the thanks of this town be presented to Mr. Gurdon J. Miller, for his be- nevolent medical exertions in behalf of the sick, during the above mentioned period."
A few cases of yellow fever appeared again in the town in 1803, but the disease came from abroad, and did not spread among the cit- izens.
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CHAPTER XXXIV.
Death by lightning .- Meeting-house built on Zion's Hill .- Ministry of Rev. Henry Channing .- Of Rev. Abel McEwen .- Granite or McEwen Church built .- Second Congregational Church .- Seabury Church .- Bishop Seabury. Hallam Church built .- Origin of the Methodist Society .- Scenes in 1808 .-- Division in the Society .- Bethel Church .- First Baptist Church .- Second Baptist .- Huntington Street or Swan Church .- Universalist .- Roman Cath- olic.
IN this chapter the ecclesiastical history of the town will be resumed at the period succeeding the Revolution, and brought down to the present time.
Congregationalists .- After the death of Rev. Ephraim Wood- bridge, pastor of the first Congregational church, in 1776, eleven years elapsed before a successor was ordained. Such was the confu- sion of affairs consequent upon the war, the continual apprehension of an attack, and the ultimate burning of the town, that the society only engaged preachers by the year, month or Sabbath, as opportu- nity offered. Rev. William Adams preached about half the time, during the first three years. Rev. Emerson Foster occupied the pulpit for fifty-eight Sabbaths, in 1780 and 1781. Rev. Solomon Wolcott, twelve Sabbaths in 1782. Rev. Nathaniel Patten, the whole of 1785, and the first part of 1786. These were the last stated services in the old Saltonstall meeting-house, on the hill. A few oc- casional sermons were afterward preached on it. Rev. John Murray gave one of his popular discourses from that pulpit, June 21st, 1786. But it is believed that the last sermon in the house, the last on old Meeting-house Hill, was preached by Rev. Rozel Cook, of the North Parish, August 23d, 1786, on occasion of the death of Sally, daughter of Thaddeus Brooks.
This young maiden was killed by lightning, on the day previous, during a tremendous thunder-storm, which lasted three hours. She was in the act of closing a chamber window, in her father's house, in Bradley Street, when the bolt descended upon the chimney, and glancing in various directions, injured the house considerably, threw down Mr. Brooks, who was in one of the lower rooms, and rendered
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
him for a time insensible, and striking his daughter upon the right temple, ran down her side and produced instant death. Her cheerful, ringing voice, sounding from above, "I am not afraid, mother !" had scarcely ceased, when she lay upon the floor, dead, discolored, deeply scarred by the fire, and her garments half consumed. She was an only daughter, fifteen years of age, amiable and much beloved. The young girls of the town attended her funeral, wearing mourning badges, and moving in sad procession. Mr. Cook's text was from Job, xxxvii. 11-14. A tomb was excavated in the old burial-ground to receive the remains of the youthful victim, and thither for several successive years, all the flowers that bloomed in her flower-garden, were brought by her relatives and laid on her coffin.1
The pulpit and pews of the old meeting-house had been taken down before this period and sold to the inhabitants of Stonington Point, who were then building their first house of worship, but tem- porary staging and seats were provided for occasional use.
In the year 1785, two houses of worship were projected and com- menced by the two ecclesiastical societies, Congregational and Epis- copal. Both were opened for service in 1787, and both have been recently relinquished by their respective societies, (in 1849 and 1850,) after a coincident worship in each, of nearly sixty-three years.
The Congregational society abandoning the old site, selected a po- sition more accessible and central for their new church. After some preliminary measures had been taken, they passed with great una- nimity the following votes :
" 1st. That the meeting-house shall stand on Bolles' Hill.
" 2d. That the pews shall never be the property of individuals, but rented annually, and the proceeds used for keeping it in repair, and supporting a min- ister."
The spot selected for the site was originally included in the Blatch- ford or Hill lot, but had been sold before that lot went into the pos- session of the Ervings, and was then the property of Stephen Bolles.2
1 It is not ascertained that another instance of death by lightning occurred in New London till July 25th, 1847, when a farm-house near the harbor's mouth was struck, and a son of Ezra M. Keeny, four years of age, standing near the window, was in- stantly killed.
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