History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 68

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317

USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 68

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Coit, Erastus Coit, Woodbridge & Snow, Samuel Rudd, Henry Gordon, Devotion & Storrs, Felix A. Huntington & Co., Raymond & Dodge, Pliny, Brewer & Co. (the "company" being Joseph Otis), G. Buck- ingham & Co., D. N. Bentley, William Williams, Benjamin Dyer, Dwight Rigley, Calvin Tyler, Joseph Backus, Henry B. Norton, Col. George L. Perkins, Thomas Robinson, Gordon A. Jones, Capt. William W. Coit, Benj. Buckingham, Amos W. Prentice, etc.

The First Druggist .- Dr. Daniel Lathrop, of hon- ored memory, was the first druggist in Norwich, and probably the first in Connecticut who kept a general assortment of medicines. His store was on Main Street.

Miss Caulkins says,-

" Dr. Lathrop furnished a part of the surgical stores to the Northern Army in the French war. He often received orders from New York. His drugs were always of the best kind, well prepared, packed and for- warded in the neatest manner. This was the only apothecary's estab- lishment on the route from New York to Boston, and of course Dr. Lathrop had a great run of custom, often filling orders sent from the distance of a hundred miles in various directions. It is related that in 1749, when a malignant epidemic was prevailing in several of the western towns of the colony, the Rev. Mark Leavenworth, pastor of the church in Waterbury, incited by the suffering condition of many of his people for want of suitable medicines to arrest the distemper, came to Norwich on horseback to obtain a supply, performing the journey hither and back in three days. This fact alone is sufficient to show that no drug-store then existed either in New Haven or Hartford, and corroborates the statement often made by aged people in Norwich, that Dr. Lathrop's was the first establishment of the kind in the colony.

" Joshua Lathrop, a younger brother of Dr. Daniel, after graduating at Yale in 1743, became connected with him in business, and no mercan- tile firm in this vicinity had a more solid reputation than the brothers Lathrop. They imported not only medicines, but fruits, wines, Euro- pean and India goods directly from England; one of the firm, or a skillful agent, often crossing the ocean to select the stock. After a few years they relinquished the trade in miscellaneous merchandise and con- fined themselves in a great measure to the drug business.

" Benedict Arnold, Jr., and Solomon Smith were apprentices to Dr. Lathrop at the same period. Arnold subsequently set up the business in New Haven. Smith went to Hartford and established a drug-store in connection with Dr. Lathrop, who furnished the first stock. This was in 1757.

"The following is one of their advertisements :

"'Just imported from London in the last ship, via New York, and to be sold by Lathrop & Smith, at their store in King st. Hartford, Ct .- A large and universal assortment of medicines, genuine and of the best kind; together with complete sets of Surgeons' Capital and Pocket in- struments; very neat instruments for drawing teeth ; metal mortars, small scales and weights; all sorts of spice and choice Turkey figs; a variety of painters' colours and many other articles.'

"In 1776 the firm in Norwich was changed from Daniel & Joshua Lathrop to Lathrops & Coit, their nephew, Joseph Coit, Jr., having been associated with them in business. The younger partner died in 1779, in the thirtieth year of his age, and the former title was resumed."

CHAPTER XXII.

NORWICH-(Continued).

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

Interesting Incidents-Military Organization-Gen. Washington's Visit -Visit of Lafayette-Baron Steuben and Pulaski-Votes-Benedict Arnold-Sketch of his Career-Soldiers of the Revolution.

ALTHOUGH Norwich was not the scene of impor- tant military events during the war of the Revolution, and felt not the invader's foot nor the torch of its

George.

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Honor.

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Prosperity.

Charlestown

Friendship.

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180

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1,535

6,600 " ham,

2,000

612 10

IMPORTS.

280

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

son, the treacherous Arnold, as did its sister-city of New London, still there are many ineidents of inter- est that should not be omitted as showing the spirit of the inhabitants during that sanguinary struggle. The following account is taken chiefly from Miss Caulkins' History :

"In November, 1775, Dr. Benjamin Church was sent by Gen. Washington under a strong guard to Governor Trumbull, at Lebanon, with an order from Congress that he should 'be closely confined in some secure goal in Connecticut, without pen, paper, or ink, and that no person should be allowed to converse with him, except in the presence and hearing of a magistrate or a sheriff of the county where he should be confined, and in the English language, until further orders.'

"Governor Trumbull directed that he should be kept in custody at Norwich, in charge of Prosper Wetmore, sheriff of New London County. Here he was detained during the winter, in striet and eheer- less seclusion. Mr. Edgerton, the gaoler, was di- reeted to build a high picket fence around the prison, and even within this inclosure Dr. Church was not permitted to walk but once a week, and then with the sheriff at his side. This was harsh discipline to a man accustomed to a luxurious, independent style of living.

" Dr. Church was a Boston physician of considerable literary ability who had written songs and delivered orations in favor of American liberty, and had been a member of the Provincial Congress in 1774. He was an associate of Warren and other patriots; but in September, 1775, a letter written by him in eipher to his brother in Boston was intercepted, and the con- tents found to be of a character so questionable that he was arrested and tried for holding a treasonable correspondence with the enemy. The letter, though it contained no positive treason, seemed to emanate from one who was feeling his way to treachery and dishonor.

" Dr. Church was kept in Norwich until the 27th of May, 1776, when, by order of Congress, he was sent to Watertown, Mass. About the same time he obtained permission to retire to the West Indies, but the vessel in which he embarked was never heard of afterwards.

"Norwich and some other towns in the eastern part of the State remote from the sea-coast were often charged with the safe-keeping of Tories and other prisoners of war. Items like the following may be gathered from newspapers and publie records :

" Aug 26, 1776. Last Saturday a number of gentlemen tories 1 were brought to New London, and sent from hence to Norwich.

"Ten persons arrested at New York and first imprisoned in Litchfield gaol have been transferred to Norwich.

"Feb. 22, 1777. John L. C. Rome, Esq., of New York, confined as a tory at Norwich, was released on his parole to return on request of the Governor and Council.

"In August, 1776, the sheriff moved from New London to Preston twenty persons arrested in Albany for Toryism. They remained at Preston for several months, and were allowed to live as they chose at their own expense, most of them paying for their board by their labor. The Tory prisoners at Nor- wich were often distributed in private families, and allowed their liberty within certain limits.

" In March, 1782, a company of sailors, eight or ten in number, that had been taken in an English privateer and sent up from New London for safe- keeping, broke out of jail in the night, and after lurking three or four days in the woods uneaught, succeeded in reaching New London, and by stealth got possession of a fine new eoasting-sloop, just fitted for a voyage and fastened to one of the wharves, with which they escaped.

" The large number of Tories arrested during the earlier years of the war suggests one of the great trials that beset the patriot cause : seerct enemies, opponents at home, were like thorns in the side or serpents in the bosom. They were often arrested, but seldom kept long in duranee. After the detention of a few days or weeks they were generally dismissed, on giving bonds to return when ealled for, or upon taking oath not to bear arms against the country or to aid and comfort the enemy in any way. 1

"In the summer of 1775 a battery or redoubt was built below the landing on Waterman's Point. Ben- jamin Huntington and Ephraim Bill were directors of the work, but the labor was mostly performed by Capt. Lyon's company of militia,2 that had been sent to Norwich on an alarm of invasion from vessels prowling in Long Island Sound. When the work was completed, four six-pounders were brought from New London, and a regular guard and watch kept. For further defense of the place two wrought-iron field-pieces and several other pieces of ordnance were mounted, manned, and placed in the charge of Capt. Jacob De Witt.

" William Lex established a manufactory of gun- carriages in town, and succeeded so well as to be em- ployed by the State to furnish apparatus for much of the eannon used by them. Elijah Baekus, Esq., at his forges upon the Yantie, manufactured the ship anchors used for the State's armed vessels, two of which weighed twelve hundred pounds each. He afterwards engaged in the casting of cannon. Samuel Noyes made and repaired guns and bayonets for the light infantry.

"Capt. Ephraim Bill, of Norwich, was in the ser- vice of the State as a marine agent, and Capt. Jabez Perkins as contractor and dispenser of the public

1 " In the accounts of the State Pay Tablo there is a startling item of £658 108. 2d., drawn by J. Huntington, of Windham, for rum and coffee furnished to prisoners under his charge In August, 1777. This might lead us to conclude that either these gentlemen tories were very numerous or that they were slightly luxurious In their habits and had uncommonly Indulgent wardons. But It is probable that the amount Is given in a depreclaled currency.

2 " Capt. Ephraim Lyon, of Col. Putnam's regiment.

281

NORWICH.

stores. The Governor and Council of Safety sometimes held their sessions in town.

" Norwich was admirably situated to serve as a port of refuge to which vessels could retire and discharge their cargoes in safety. In July, 1775, the brig 'Nancy,' owned by Josiah Winslow, a well-known royalist of Boston, having on board eighteen or nine- teen thousand gallons of molasses, was forced by stress of weather into Stonington Harbor. It was no sooner known at Norwich that she had anchored near the coast than her capture was decreed. Without wait- ing for the State authority, but with the sanction of the Committee of Inspection, a spirited band of vol- unteers, in a large sloop, commanded by Capt. Robert Niles, proceeded forthwith to Stonington, where they took possession of the vessel, and brought her, with the cargo, round to Norwich. They then made report of the affair to the Governor and Council, who ap- proved of their proceedings and sequestered the prize for the use of the State.

" The Tory molasses, as it was called, proved a valu- able acquisition. It was doled out to hospitals, and used as a medium of exchange for public purposes. Molasses was a commodity which could only be ob- tained by capture, and the want of it was one of the home-felt privations of the war.1

" The scarcity of sugar and molasses continued for several years. Various were the substitutes contrived. Cornstalk molasses is no myth or caricature, but a veritable resource of those trying times, and probably the best substitute that was brought into use. The stalks were cut when the ears of corn were just ripe for roasting or boiling, thrown into a mill, the juice pressed out, and then boiled down until it became a tolerable syrup. It served at least to satisfy the natu- ral craving of the appetite for saccharine matter, some portion of which in food seems to be requisite both for nourishment and delight.

"In October, 1775, another merchant vessel was seized under circumstances similar to those of the 'Nancy.' She had a cargo of 8000 bushels of wheat, shipped at Baltimore for Falmouth, England, and was steering towards Stonington in distress, having lost her mainmast in a storm, when she was seized by an armed schooner belonging to the colony, and con- ducted to Norwich to secure her from recapture. She was subsequently sold for the benefit of the country.

" A very great evil experienced during the war was the high price of salt and the difficulty of procuring it at any price. It was almost impossible to get a sufficiency to put up provisions for winter's use. The State government was obliged to send abroad for sup- plies of this necessary article and distribute it to the

various towns. It was then apportioned by the select- men to the districts in proportion to their population, and again dealt out by a committee to individuals.

" Whenever a quantity of salt was obtained it was disposed of with great care and consideration. One of the State cruisers having taken 300 bushels, it was deposited at Norwich, and in April, 1777, the Gover- nor and Council directed Jabez Perkins to dispose of it to inhabitants of Connecticut only, to allow no family to purchase more than half a bushel, and small families to be supplied with less in proportion.2

" Three years before the peace salt was six dollars per bushel, and bohea tea two dollars per pound, and this in fair barter, not Continental bills. Common cream-colored cups and saucers were two dollars per half-dozen. Many persons in comfortable circum- stances drank their daily beverage out of glazed earthen mugs.

" The scarcity of wheat was a still greater calamity. Norwich, of course, shared in the general dearth, but the winter of 1777 appears to have been her only season of actual deficiency and short allowance. The authorities were obliged to enforce a strict scrutiny into every man's means of subsistence, to see that none of the necessaries of life were withheld from a famishing community by monopolizers and avari- cious engrossers. Each family was visited, and an account of the grain in their possession, computed in wheat, was taken. The surplusage, down to the quan- tity of four quarts, was estimated. One hundred and twenty-six families were at one time reported defi- cient, viz. :

" 42 up town, 26 down town, 12 West Farms and Portipaug, 2 Newent and Hanover, 9 East Society, 27 Chelsea, 8 Bozrah."

" The following certificate is also upon record, and though without date, belongs to this season :

"This may certify that the whole number of inhabitants in the town of Norwich is hungry ; for the quantity of grain computed in wheat is scanty ; the deficiency amounts to a great many bushels, as pr return of the selectmen unto my office, agreeable to the act of assembly. Certi- fied by GALETTIA SIMPSON.'

" These facts in regard to the scant supply of the necessaries of life apply only to the earlier years of the war.3 After 1780 the tide turned, and in Norwich at least the farms prospered, the mechanic arts flour- ished, and there was almost a superabundance not merely of the means of living, but of articles of lux- ury and display.

"Those who remained at home, as well as those who went into actual service, were often called on to perform military duty. When most of the able-bodied men were drawn off, a Reformado corps was established,

1 By the side of this fact an order of the Governor and Council, May 4, 1777, for the distillation of 40 hhds. of molasses into New England rum does not appear very creditable. But spirituous liquors were then regarded as absolutely necessary to the highest physical efficiency of soldiers and laboring men. Feb. 28, 1777, the Governor and Council orderd 250 hhds. of West India and New England rum to be purchased to supply the troops of the State .- Hinman, 419, 441.

2 Hinman's Am. Rev., p. 431, 441.

3 " At this very period of greatest scarcity there was at least one dis- · tillery in operation in the town, as we learn from the records of the War Committee, or Council of Safety, Dec. 11, 1777, to wit :

"The Governor was desired to grant a license to Caleb Huntington, of Norwich, to distil from rye the spirit called Geneva, to supply the in- habitants of the State as far as he could, provided he retail the same at a reasonable price, not to exceed 15s. per gallon.'

282

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

consisting of those whose age, infirmities, or other cir- cumstances would not allow them to become regular soldiers and endure the fatigue of the camp, but who were willing to go forth on a sudden emergency.

" Early in 1776, Capt. McCall and Lieut. Jacob De- Witt enrolled and organized a fine company of vet- eran guards for home service and defense of the State should it be invaded. These were well equipped with arms in readiness for sudden emergencies. On the 12th of Angust, 1776, Gov. Trumbull issued an order to Capt. McCall to convene his company and enlist as many as were willing, and to make up with others a company, not less than ninety-three, and march im- mediately to New York, in the most convenient man- ner, by land or water, and there join the Nineteenth Regiment of Connecticut militia. The order was in consequence of a pressing requisition from Gen. Wash- ington for reinforcements.

" The Veteran Guards were subsequently often called out on short tours of duty upon alarms near the sea-coast, at New London, Lyme, or Stonington.

" In 1779 a company under Capt. Ebenezer Lathrop, and another under Capt. Ziba Hunt, of Newent, per- formed tours of duty at New London.

" In 1777 Connecticut raised eleven regiments, nine for Continental service and two for the defense of the State. Col. Jedediah Huntington and Col. John Durkee, of Norwich, commanded two of the Continental regiments.

" The army was in a great measure dependent upon importations from France for a sufficiency of arms and ammunition. The following vote of the Governor and Council of Connecticut alludes to a fresh supply of these necessary equipments:

" Sept. 26, 1777. It was voted that Maj,-Gen. Huntington should be desired to cause to be made up 15,000 musket cartridges fitted to the now French arms provided for the use of the Continental army, and pack them in bunches of 18 cartridges each and lodge them in some safe place in the town of Plainfield.1

" In the earlier periods of the contest the town's quota of soldiers was always quickly raised, and the necessary supplies furnished with promptness and liberality. The requisitions of the Governor were re- sponded to from no quarter with more cheerfulness and alacrity. In September, 1777, when extraordi- nary exertions were made in many parts of New Eng- land to procure tents, canteens, and clothing for the army, many householders in Norwich voluntarily gave up to the committee of the town all they could spare from their own family stock, either as donations or, where that could not be afforded, at a very low rate. The ministers of all the churches on Thanksgiving Day exhorted the people to remember the poor soldiers and their families.

" Every year while the war continued persons were appointed by the town to provide for the soldiers and their families at the town expense, but much also was

raised by voluntary contributions. The following items from contemporary newspapers furnish exam- ples :

"""On the Inst Sabbath of December, 1777, a contribution was taken up in the several parishes of Norwich for the benefit of the officers and soldiers who belonged to said town, when they collected

"'386 pr. of stockings, 208 pr. of mittens,

227 pr. of shoes,

11 buff caps,

118 shirts, 15 pr. of breeches,

78 jackets,

9 coats,

48 pr. of overalls, 22 rifle frocks,

19 handkerchiefs, and £258 178. 8d. in money, which was forwarded to the army. Also collected a quantity of pork, cheese, wheat, rye, Indian corn, sugar, rice, tlax, weed, &c., to be distributed to the needy familles of the officers and soldiers. The whole of which amounted to the sum of £1400.'

"' Norwich, Feb. 15, 1779.

"'Yesterday a contribution was made at the Rev. Dr. Lord's meeting for the distressed inhabitants of Newport, which have lately arrived from Providence, when the sum of three hundred dollars was collected for their relief.'

"' March, 1780.

"' Mrs. Corning (wife of Mr. Joseph Corning, now a prisoner with the enemy) being destitute of necessary clothing for her children, a number of the ladies of Chelsen, of the first character and respectability, ap- pointed a day on which they assembled and spent the same in spinning, after which they presented Mrs. Corning with the yarn to a considerable amount.'

The situation of New London was one of constant alarm, in which all the surrounding towns partici- pated. It was menaced in December, 1776, when the hostile fleet found a rendezvous among the small islands in the Sound, previous to taking possession of Newport. All the militia in the eastern part of the State turned out to oppose the expected descent. It was observed, as band after band marched into New London, that no company in order and equipments equaled the light infantry of Norwich, under the command of Col. Chr. Leffingwell. Many times dur- ing the war the militia were summoned to New Lon- don or Stonington on the appearance of an armed force or the rumor of one. If a hostile vessel entered the Sound no one knew its commission, and the alarm was quickly spread from the seaboard into the coun- try. The dreaded foe perhaps hovered near the coast a few hours, made some startling feints, and then passed away. Orders were given and countermanded, and the wearied militia, hastily drawn from their homes, returned again without having had the satis- faction of seeing the enemy, or arriving on the spot before the danger was over.

" Detachments from the Continental army fre- quently passed through Norwich. In 1778 a body of French troops, on the route from Providence to the South, halted there for ten or fifteen days, on account of sickness among them. They had their tents spread upon the plain, while the sick were quartered in the court-house. About twenty died and were buried each side of the lane that led into the old burying- yard. No stones were set up, and the ground was soon 'smoothed over so as to leave no trace of the nar- row tenements below.

"Gen. Washington passed through Norwich in

1 " Hinman's Rev. War.

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NORWICH.

June, 1775, on his way to Cambridge. It is probable that he came up the river in a packet-boat with his horses and attendants. He spent the night at the Landing, and the next day pursued his journey east- ward. In April, 1776, after the evacuation of Boston by the enemy, the American troops being ordered to New York, came on in detachments by land, and crossing the Shetucket at the old fording-place below Greenville, embarked at Norwich and New London, to finish the route by water. Gen. Washington ac- companied one of the parties to Norwich, and met Governor Trumbull by appointment at Col. Jedediah Huntington's, where they dined together, and the general that evening resumed his route to New York, going down to New London by land.

" The inhabitants also had an opportunity of seeing Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and other distinguished foreigners in our service. There was some who long remembered the appearance of the noble Lafayette, as he passed through the place on his way to New- port. He had been there before, and needed no guide; his aides and a small body-guard were with him, and he rode up to the door of his friend, Col. Jedediah Huntington, in a quick gallop. He wore a blue mili- tary coat, but no vest and no stockings ; his boots be- ing short, his leg was consequently left bare for a con- siderable space below the knee. The speed witlı which he was traveling and the great heat of the weather were sufficient excuses for this negligence. He took some refreshment and hastened forward.

" At another period he passed through with a de- tachment of two thousand men under his command, and encamped them for one night upon the plain. In the morning, before their departure, he invited Mr. Strong, the pastor of the place, to pray with them, which he did, the troops being arranged in three sides of a hollow square.

"Nearly fifty years afterwards, Aug. 21, 1824, the venerable Lafayette again passed through Norwich. Some old people, who remembered him, embraced him and wept; the general wept also.

" At one time during the war the Duke de Lauzun's regiment of hussars was quartered in Lebanon, ten miles from Norwich. Col. Jedediah Huntington in- vited the officers to visit him, and prepared a hand- some entertainment for them. They made a superb appearance as they drove into town, being young, tall, vivacious men, with handsome faces and a noble air, mounted upon horses bravely caparisoned. The two Dillons, brothers, one a major and the other a captain in the regiment, were particularly distinguished for their fine forms and expressive features. One or both of these Dillons suffered death from the guillotine during the French Revolution.

" Lauzun was one of the most accomplished but unprincipled noblemen of his time. He was cele- brated for his handsome person, his liberality, wit, bravery, but more than all for his profligacy. He was born in 1747, inherited great wealth and high

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 68

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1317

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317