USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 34
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the marble top of this table the following inscription was carved :
" REVEREND AMMI R. ROBBINS,
A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF HIS BLESSED LORD. HE WAS BORN AT BRANFORD, AUGUST 25, 1740, O. S., AND GRADUATED AT YALE COLLEGE 1760. AT THE AGE OF 21 HE WAS ORDAINED THE FIRST PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN NORFOLK. HE LIVED TO BURY ALL THAT CALLED HIM TO THE CHARGE, AND WITH THE ANXIOUS FEELINGS OF A FATHER, ADDRESSED HIS FLOCK AS CHILDREN. HE WAS HUMBLE, YET ZEALOUS; PEACEABLE, YET BOLD IN HIS MASTER'S CAUSE. IN ALL THE DUTIES OF HIS OFFICE HE WAS SINCERE, TENDER, AND AFFECTIONATE. HIS DOCTRINE AND HIS LIFE REFLECTED CREDIT ON EACH OTHER, AND IN HIS DEATH HE STRIKINGLY EXEMPLIFIED THAT RESIGNATION TO THE DIVINE WILL WHICH HE STEADILY PREACHED TO OTHERS. WHEN CALLED FOR HE SAID, LET ME GO AND RECEIVE MERCY. HE DIED ON THE 31ST DAY OF OCTOBER, 1813, AGED 73."
After the death of Mrs. Robbins, the following inscrip- tion was also placed upon this memorial table:
"MADAM ELIZABETH ROBBINS : RELICT OF REV. AMMI R. ROBBINS, DIED SEPTEMBER 28, 1829, AGED 83."
This tablet was in 1846 placed in a permanent manner in the cemetery, over the graves of Mr. and Mrs. Robbins, where it may now be found.
Roys inserted in his history of the town the following: "Memoir of Madam Elizabeth Robbins.
"Mrs. Robbins died September 28th, 1829, aged 84. Mr. Emer- son remarked in his discourse at her funeral: 'Her last sickness was very short, terminating in the compass of two days. The faith which she manifested on this occasion, appeared truly the sub- stance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. In giving a character of this aged and pious matron I would say, her vivacity was remarkable, tempered and guided by truth and piety. It was as useful as it was entertaining. It delightfully min- gled the animation and charm of youth with the sedateness of age,- the life of spring with the ripeness and serenity of autumn.
Her capacity and readiness to entertain the numerous guests of the family, when the duties of the study demanded the seclusion of her faithful partner, are well known. Her knowledge of the- ology, especially in its practical bearings, was extensive and highly
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useful. Perhaps ere this, she has received a crown sparkling with the memorial of many a deed the world never saw, and of which herself has to say, 'Lord, when was this, or why is it thus esteemed by thee?'
The last friendly act performed for her was September 30th, when she was placed in the silent grave by the side of her husband, there to wait the re-animating call of the archangel."
From a letter written by a granddaughter of Mr. Robbins, Mrs. Mary Robbins-Kasson, of Des Moines, Iowa, July, 1900, addressed to this writer, we quote:
"My grandfather lost four children in infancy. The next was Uncle Ammi Ruhamah; he was a farmer and lived in Colebrook. He married Salome Hale. They had a son, James Watson Robbins, who was a Doctor and practiced in Uxbridge, Mass. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Lewis Allen of Colebrook, and lived with Uncle Ammi.
The next of grandfather's children was Elizabeth. She married Grove Lawrence. Her children were James Robbins Lawrence, a noted lawyer of Syracuse, N. Y. Next, Eliza Lawrence, married first, Henry Olmsted, and second, Dr. Timothy J. Gridley, of Am- herst. Then Grove Lawrence; he was a lawyer, married Sarah Ben- nett. Then Sarah Lawrence; she lived many years with our grand- mother, and married first, Rev. Eben L. Clark; second, L. Z. New- comb.
The fifth was William Lawrence. He was a long time in Uncle Battell's store, and lived in his family. He married Caroline Au- gusta Rockwell. The sixth, Francis Le Baron Lawrence, I never knew. He lived in Canada.
My Aunt Elizabeth also married a Mr. Grant, and had a daugh- ter, Anna Elizabeth Grant.
Then there was a son of grandfather's, Nathaniel Robbins. I never knew him. He died at Sag Harbor, Michigan.
Uncle Thomas Robbins was a minister, and antiquarian. He gathered a valuable library, now in the Hartford Athenaeum. He never married.
Next, Sarah Robbins, married Joseph Battell.
Next, James Watson Robbins, was a merchant at Lenox, Mass. Mr. Emerson said he had more brains than the other brothers. His health was not equal to the work of the ministry, for which he was fitted. Three of his sons spent each a summer on my father's beautiful farm in Onondaga County, N. Y., to learn farming. They were Ammi, George, and Edward. I think it was very kind in my mother to care for them, when she had seven children of her own, but father felt he could not refuse uncle James anything.
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The next, Samuel Robbins, was my father. He married Fanny Osborne.
The last was Francis Le Baron Robbins. He preached all his life at Enfield, Conn. He married his cousin, Priscilla Le Baron. She was a widow, her first husband being a sea Captain, Alden. Uncle had no children. She had two Alden boys.
Uncle wanted me to come and stay a year with him. I went there from Norfolk and staid three weeks, but I was so homesick he couldn't persuade me to remain, and I spent the rest of the sum- mer with the Osborne's. Mother's brother was Judge Osborne of Fairfield, Conn.
When I was at Norfolk the brothers had a family meeting at Aunt Battell's. Uncle James and wife, Uncle Frank and wife, Uncle Thomas with his silver knee buckles and snowy hair, and my father. Uncle Ammi was confined at home by rheumatism, so they all went over to see him at Colebrook, and they all went to visit the grave of their venerated sire. With patriarchal grace Uncle Thomas placed his hand on my head and said, 'so this is brother Samuel's daughter.' He was a very courtly gentleman."
Kilbourne's Litchfield Biography says: "General James R. Law- rence was a native of Norfolk, but a resident of Syracuse, N. Y .; was a member of the Legislature in 1825, '38, '39 and '40. Judge of the County Court in 1847, and United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York. His brother, Grove, also of Syra- cuse, was First Judge of the County Court, for several years, from 1838."
REV. THOMAS ROBBINS, D. D.
(FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO ' THE DIARY OF THOMAS ROBBINS.')
"Thomas Robbins, son of Rev. Ammi R., and Elizabeth Le Baron-Robbins, was born in this town August 11, 1777.
The earliest American ancestor in his paternal line was Richard Robbins, of Cambridge, who came from England to this country as early as 1639, settling first at Charlestown, but soon removing to Cambridge, Massachusetts. From him the order of descent was through Nathaniel, born in Cambridge, 1649; Nathaniel, born in Cambridge, 1678; Philemon, born in Cambridge, 1709, a graduate of Harvard College, 1729, and the life-long pastor at Branford, Con- necticut, 1732 to 1781; and Ammi Ruhamah, father of Thomas.
On the maternal side, Dr. Robbins traced his line directly. back to Governor William Bradford, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. This line ran through William Bradford, Jr., son of the Governor by his second wife, Alice Southworth, nee Carpenter; then through David, son of William and Mary Holmes, nee Atwood. A daughter of
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David and Mary was Lydia Bradford, born December 23, 1719. By her marriage the name Le Baron was brought into this maternal line. The story connected with this name is curious and romantic:
In the year 1694, a French Privateer, hovering around our shores to capture vessels loaded with grain, was wrecked near the upper end of Buzzard's Bay, and the men on board were rescued and taken off as prisoners of war. This was in the reign of Wil- liam III. The Treaty of Ryswick brought peace in 1697. The sur- geon on board this French Privateer was Francis Le Baron. In the transfer of these prisoners from the head of Buzzard's Bay to Boston, a halt was made at Plymouth. On the day of their ar- rival, it so happened that a woman of Plymouth had met with an accident, causing a compound fracture of one of her limbs. The local physicians decided that the limb must be amputated, but Dr. Le Baron asked permission to examine the fracture, and decided that he could save the limb, which he did. This led to a petition on the part of the Selectmen of Plymouth to the public authorities, asking that Dr. Le Baron might be released, to become a physician and surgeon at Plymouth. The request was granted. He went there in 1694; married in 1695 Mary Wilder, a native of Hingham, Massachusetts, and became the father of three sons: James, Lazarus and Francis. This Lazarus Le Baron, in 1743, married for his sec- ond wife Lydia Bradford, named above, daughter of David. As the wife of Dr. Lazarus Le Baron, she was the mother of seven children, the second of whom was Elizabeth, the wife of Rev. Am- mi R. Robbins, and the mother of Thomas, and others.
Thomas Robbins was fitted for college in his own home. His father's house was an Academy for Northwestern Connecticut in those early years, where many boys pursued their preparatory studies. The country minister of that day was also a farmer.
At the age of fifteen he was fitted for college, and was entered at Yale, in 1792. President Stiles died in May, 1795, and President Dwight was inaugurated in September of the same year. Wil- liams College had been organized and the Norfolk minister had been made one of the early trustees. In 1795 Williams graduated her first class, and in the autumn of that year, Rev. Mr. Robbins desired his son to remove from Yale to Williams, and pursue his senior studies there, in order to show a practical interest in the infant college at Williamstown. He did so, and the matter was so fixed that after his graduation at Williams, September 7, 1796, he went the following week to New Haven, and was graduated with his Yale classmates September 14, of the same year.
In Williams College January first, 1796, Thomas Robbins be- gan his Diary, which he continued with some small breaks until 1854,-nearly fifty-eight years. This diary, edited and annotated
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by Mr. Increase N. Tarbox, of West Newton, Mass., was printed by Robbins Battell and Miss Anna Battell, in two large volumes in 1886, and from a sketch of Mr. Robbins in the first volume, most of the facts concerning him are gathered for this sketch.
He taught school and studied theology, and in September, 1798, he was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Association. He made a long horseback journey during 1799 through Vermont, preaching as he went. He taught and preached in Danbury, Conn., and vicinity for some two years. Then he went on a long mis- sionary journey through the new settlements in New York, return- ing in August, 1802. In May, 1803, he was ordained to go in the service of the Connecticut Missionary Society to the new settle- ments on the Western Reserve, in Ohio, and returned from this service in 1806, seriously broken in health, so that for a year or two he was unable to resume ministerial labor.
In the summer of 1808 he commenced preaching in East Windsor, Connecticut; was installed there in May, 1809, and his ministry there continued until September, 1827. It was in East Windsor that he began to collect his library, which became one of the large pri- vate libraries of his generation. This library is in the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society.
Some two years after leaving Windsor he was called to Matta- poisett, in the town of Rochester, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, to assist his uncle, Rev. Lemuel Le Baron, who had been pastor there nearly sixty years. He was installed there October, 1832. His uncle died November, 1836, in his ninetieth year, and in the sixty- fifth of his ministry. Dr. Robbins continued as pastor there until 1844.
In 1844, Dr. Robbins had reached his sixty-seventh year; had been teaching and preaching nearly forty-six years. In that year an arrangement was made, chiefly through the agency of Hon. Henry Barnard of Hartford, by which Dr. Robbins' library was to become the property of the Con- necticut Historical Society, and he himself was to become the Society's Librarian, on a stipulated salary, through the remaining years of his active life. This position he grace- fully and honorably filled for ten years. In 1854, the in- firmities of age came upon him, and he was obliged to close his diary and retire from all public duties. He lingered until September 13, 1856, when he passed away peacefully at the house of Mrs. Elizabeth-Robbins-Allen of Colebrook,
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the daughter of his brother, Ammi Ruhamah Robbins. Dr. Robbins never married, yet the diary shows that in his early manhood the subject of matrimony was much in his thoughts. In 1838, while at Mattapoisett, he received the degree of D. D. from Harvard College.
The following interesting reminiscences were kindly written for this volume by Mrs. Mary Robbins Kasson of Des Moines, Iowa. She is the grand-daughter of Rev. Ammi R. Robbins, the first minister in this town, and so by only two steps takes us back to the very beginning of the town:
Des Moines, July, 1900.
"I am eighty-two years old this month; the eldest child of Samuel Robbins. I was born in my grand- father's old parsonage, the first framed house in Norfolk, in which my grandfather lived all the fifty-two years of his pastorate. When the Rev. Ralph Emerson succeeded my grandfather, he came there, a bachelor, to board, and when he married Miss Rockwell of Colebrook, my father and mother attended his wedding. Later he was called to An- dover, and Dr. Joseph Eldridge succeeded him. He preached in Norfolk forty-two years, and his wife was my cousin, Sarah Battell. Both were very popular. I visited in Norfolk in 1837, and spent two weeks with them in grandpa's old home. It was then standing in good repair where now are the buildings of the Robbins School. Mr. Eldridge had a gentle horse, named Calvin, and Sarah used to take me with her to call on their parishioners. Anna drove over with me to Uncle Ammi's. He was a farmer, grandpa's eldest son, and proud to show his famous cheese of 50 lbs. each. His wife was Salome Hale, a relative of the martyr, Nathan Hale. His only son was a physician and a noted botanist, who fitted General Lee for West Point, and during the civil war Lee gave him a pass through his lines on a botanical excursion to Louisiana and Cuba.
While at Norfolk, Anna, John and I had old Calvin to drive up to Lenox, and visit our Uncle James. He was a merchant in Lenox, and married there a daughter of old General Eggleston. Their home is still in their family,
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being owned by their daughter, the widow of Professor Schenk of Princeton, N. J. Aunt Maria, the wife of James Robbins, and her other daughter, met a tragic fate, both being killed in the terrible Norwalk railroad disaster, in 1853. I was told that their funeral was the largest ever held in Berkshire County.
Don't forget to note from Uncle Thomas Robbins' Diary his purchase of the Elder Brewster chest, brought over in the Mayflower, and the gift to him of a magnificent copy of the Bishop's Bible from the Duke of Sussex, with an autograph letter, of both of which he was exceeding proud. Uncle Thomas always wore the old-fashioned 'small clothes.' He and one other antiquarian of Hartford ;- Judge Camp of Litchfield, told me he had seen those two venerable patriarchs in the Athenaeum, eating their bread and cheese off the lid of that old Brewster chest, on which the famous 'Compact' was written and signed in the 'May- flower.'
My father told me he helped to plant those ancient elms around 'the green.' He told me of the wolf hunt on Hay- stack mountain, when the wolves troubled their choice 'merinos.' The hunters had drawn together in a compact circle, and the desperate wolf, completely surrounded, dashed out between one man's legs. Father used to tell of his father examining a school teacher. He set him to read the line, "The quality of mercy is not strained." The poor fellow read it over three times; first, he emphasized 'qual- ity'; then, fearing he was wrong, he tried 'mercy,' and finally, 'not strained.' Let us hope he won his certificate.
In old times, Norfolk had plenty of stones. Perhaps it has still. There was a General Mills visiting there, from his beautiful home at Mt. Morris, on the Genesee flats. As he looked at the stones he said emphatically, 'I never was out of sight of land before.' My Uncle Battell was a Mason. At a feast, in all his regalia, he was carving, when the bird slid bodily into his lap. With the greatest sang froid he gathered it up in his apron, declaring he had not known before the worth and use of such an indispensable article.
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Grandmother was the grand-daughter of Dr. Francis Le Baron, a French emigrant and a Huguenot. Her mother was Lydia Bradford LeBaron, great granddaughter of the famous Governor Bradford. When they crossed my cousin, Urania Battell's, Puritanical traditions or training, she was wont to say, 'Huguenot and Mayflower can't go this.'
Grandmother was but a young girl when grandfather brought her, a bride, from old Plymouth, with her rich brocades; and she told my mother she was so homesick she used to climb up the tallest stump and look toward old Plymouth and cry. Poor girl! at this late day I can pity her. But what a worthy help-meet she made, all those fifty-two years; raised up a family of six stalwart sons and two fair daughters; helped to care for the hundred students that during all that time he was fitting for college; "looked well to the ways of her household," and entertained with generous hospitality the clerical visitors and the frequent guests. People journeyed then in their private conveyance, often the one-horse shay, and she told mother she always kept a choice pie on hand for the stranger guest.
I have a friend living here whose father, Seymour Wat- son, born in Norfolk, used to run the old Canaan and Hart- ford express. He died here some two years ago, aged eighty, and his wife, born Phebe Spalding, died on her birthday last August, eighty-one, just eleven days younger than I. She bought her wedding dress of my Uncle Bat- tell. Uncle Battell was a very shrewd and successful mer- chant. At one time he had a quantity of cheese that he had bought in all the towns around Norfolk, that had reached New York. He wrote his agent there to ship it to Richmond, Va., in a certain vessel. The letter did not reach the agent in time,-there were no telegraphs then,- so he put it on board the next sailing vessel. The first vessel was wrecked and its cargo lost. The market was bare of cheese, and when Uncle's arrived he realized a hand- some advance. He seldom lost, being very sagacious. When the Eagle bank failed in New Haven, he had be- come suspicious of its management; he was in New York
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arranging to dispose of his stock, when the boat came in and announced the failure. He lost a large sum at that time. Uncle owned a vast amount of Ohio land, and every year he used to go by stage from Norfolk to Ohio to look after it. He always took one daughter with him, and would reach our place to spend the Sabbath. Cousin Irene Battell was the beautiful one of the family. I once heard Uncle James tell father that he, who was quite a traveller, had never seen so beautiful a woman as Irene. It was her in- fluence that persuaded her brother Joseph to give that princely donation to Yale College that made Battell Chapel possible. Then, too, she was, as Professor Gustave Stoeckel says in her memorial, 'an unrivalled soprano singer.' It is no wonder her father and the family were so proud of her. Grandpa Robbins had a sister who was the wife of Rev. Peter Starr, who was for more than fifty years the minister in Warren, Conn. My father taught school in Warren once. The Starrs were a noted family. One of them, Chandler, a cousin of father's, was a merchant in New York. Another one, Philemon, a wealthy bachelor, I met at Aunt Battell's. Grandfather was very fond of music. Mother told me that when on his deathbed the family sang, he noticed a mistake in the tune and corrected it. Uncle Frank was a fine singer and remarkably gifted in prayer. He insisted that all the congregation should stand through the long prayer, and at times it was as long as the sermon.
Of our family, the four girls all married ministers. Susan was a missionary in Southern India. My three sisters are all dead now. My eldest brother, a graduate of Yale, was a skilful doctor. He studied in Paris a year, and was offered a medical professorship in New York City, and died, greatly lamented, in Glendale, a suburb of Cincinnati. It was a crushing blow to mother. I have two brothers living. Thomas lives at Pittsburgh, Penn., a retired capitalist in feeble health. Both brothers have travelled extensively in Europe and the Holy Land."
Of the other living brother, referred to by Mrs. Kasson, a friend says :
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"Francis Le Baron Robbins, clergyman, born in Camillus, Onon- daga County, New York, May 2, 1830. He was graduated at Wil- liams College in 1854; studied theology at Auburn Seminary, and in 1860 was ordained to the ministry, and installed as pastor of a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. He founded the Oxford Pres- byterian Church in that city, which was dedicated in 1869, and be- came the pastor, resigning the office in 1883. During his pastorate the church edifice, one of the handsomest in the city, and which had been constructed through his efforts, was destroyed by fire. Through Dr. Robbins' efforts a new building was erected. After resigning he travelled extensively in Europe, and on his return took up the work of founding a church in Kensington, the centre of the manufacturing district of Philadelphia. In this he succeeded, and in 1886 the Beacon Presbyterian Church was dedicated. Connected with it is a reading-room, and a hall, where lectures on travel, art, sanitation, and other popular and timely themes are delivered, and class-rooms for instruction in mechanical arts, music, drawing, ora- tory, and a dispensary, in which more than 3,000 patients received free medical attention in 1887. Dr. Robbins received the degree of D. D. from Union college."
In 1896 for some months he preached as stated supply for the Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado, the pulpit at that time being vacant. More recently he was stated supply for several months of the North Congre- gational Church of Springfield, Mass., and in this last half of the last year of the Nineteenth Century, July, 1900, in the absence of the pastor in Europe, Rev. Dr. F. L. Good- speed, Dr. Robbins is stated supply of the 'First Congrega- tional,' the largest church in Springfield, Mass. He has a fine summer home in Greenfield, Mass.
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XXV.
REV. JOSEPH ELDRIDGE, D. D.
One great object of this book is, to preserve in permanent form some record of the labors and lives of the men and women who have been, in some measure at least, helpful toward that which is just, and true, and of good report in this town, and also of the sons and daughters of Norfolk who have made and left a good record elsewhere.
One who, in the opinion of the writer, is worthy of a very high place in this regard, not only for what he did in his holy calling as a Christian minister, but for his labors through life, in behalf of the schools of the town, in the general cause of education, and in every good work, in all that he did, the influence he exerted, the lasting benefits he bestowed upon the entire community, is Rev. Joseph Eldridge, D. D. His work was mani- fold; his influence was felt in all directions; his wis- dom and foresight were most unusual. A brief sketch of such a life must necessarily be very imperfect. A discourse "commemorative of his life and character," by President Noah Porter of Yale College, which was delivered May 25th, 1875, a few weeks after his death, at the request of the North Consociation of Litchfield County, is given. Upon the day of its delivery the ministerial association took the following action: "Resolved, That we have heard with grateful appreciation the eminently fit delineation of the life, character and influence of the late Dr. Eldridge by President Porter, and earnestly request that this tribute, pronounced in our hearing today, be published in such form and manner as will put it in the hands of his many friends, so widely scattered, and thus stimulate all our ministers and churches to nobler endeavors in the service of God." President Porter said:
REV. JOSEPH ELDRIDGE, D. D.
-
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Rev. Joseph Eldridge was born in Yarmouth, Mass., July 8th, 1804. His father was a sea captain in easy circumstances, who provided generously for the comfort and the culture of his family, without sacrificing the simplicity of their tastes or the claims of duty and of God. His mother was a superior woman of ardent piety, of large intelligence, and an enterprising spirit. By the nature of her husband's occupation she was forced to assume the chief responsibility of training her children and ordering the household. Of these four children our friend was the eldest, and all of the family have brought honor upon their parents and their name.
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