USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Torrington > History of Torrington, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1737, with biographies and genealogies > Part 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
In the time of the parliament and of Cromwell, many of the organs in the churches in England were destroyed, the more rigid of the Roundheads regarding them as instrument of iniquity, and after the restoration, there being few good organ-builders in England, a number of foreign artists came in.
From the close of the seventeeth century to about 1830, the organ received few improvements ; pipes of tin, zinc, or tin and lead, and wood were substituted for brass, and the arrangements of the pipes, the registers, or stops, and the connection of the several partial organs into two, three or more sets, or groups, for the player's convenience, were the most important of these changes.
430
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
Since 1830, however, the instrument has been so modified and improved that it is hardly the same in anything save its external appearance, as the organ of a century ago. The voicing of the pipes has been greatly modified, and the variety, richness, compass and sweetness of its tones thereby increased ; the valves and other arrange- ments for the passage or cutting off the air from the pipes instan- taneously have been perfected, which with many other improvements introduced have made the grand and noble instrument approximate more nearly to its predestined purpose, of giving utterance, under the hands of a skillful player, to the sublimest and most impressive musical compositions.
It has been until recently a necessity that the great range of musical expression could only be attained at a very high cost. The number, size and material of the pipes, and the great variety of me- chanical contrivances necessary for their harmonious manipulation and the production of the best results from them, have rendered it inevitable that even a small pipe organ of good tone and moderate compass should cost from one thousand to two thousand dollars, while the larger and more complete instruments have ranged from three thousand to one hundred thousand or more dollars.
To reduce this cost, and yet furnish an instument whose compass power, and sweetness of tone should be equal or superior to that of the best low priced organs, has been the problem which musical in- strument manufacturers have sought for thirty-five years past to work out. The piano was greatly improved, and the hope was at one time entertained that in it might be found the instrument sought for, but it soon became evident that admirable as was this instrument for parlor purposes, it was not adapted to accompany sacred music, especially in halls, chapels or churches.
Attention was next called to reed instruments, and their tone and character being greatly modified by drawing the air through the reed instead of forcing through, as had been previously done, there seemed more promise of success in these. At first, however, there were serious obstacles to be overcome.
Mr. Jeremiah Carhart, born in Dutchess county New York in 1815, began about 1845, to make some improvements on this kind of instrument, and had some considerable success. He voiced the note by curving the reeds, and made many other improvements on the reeds and reed board.
In 1855, Mr. Arvid Dayton, having then been engaged in the manufacture of reed organs about nine years invented a new plan of
431
BIOGRAPHIES.
reed board which has proved to be the greatest improvement in reed organs, that has been effected, and all of this kind of instruments are made now upon his plan of reed board. This invention consisted in arranging the reed board so as to have two and a half sets of reeds, or three sets, three and a half or four, all to operate with one set of valves, having dampers placed over each half set to be raised by stops, so that either set or half set, can be played alone or all at the same time as the performer may desire. Between 1850 and 1860, Mr. Dayton made several valuable improvements on reed organs ; being engaged regularly in the manufacture of such instruments to a con- siderable extent, without having obtained any patent for any of his improvements. He also invented a new principle for tuning organs, known as the Tuner's Gamut, which is very extensively used through- out the country for tuning reed instruments ; such tuning being an easy matter compared to the old method. This improvement, further, consists in having, what organ builders now call a double reed board, made two stories high, or having one set of reeds directly over the other, or several partial or full sets in the same way, all operated by one set of valves. This is the greatest improvement that has ever been made on reed instruments and is the only real difference between melodeons and organs, and the only thing to regret is that Mr. Dayton did not obtain a patent, and thereby secure to himself some permanent advantage from the invention ; in which case he would probably now be manufacturing organs on an extensive scale. He has already, with his limited means, manufactured and sold about five thousand instruments, and is still making improvements.
It will be interesting to know that the great law suit between Mr. Riley Burdett of Erie, Pa., and Mr. Jacob Estey of Brattleboro, Vt., in February 1876, was in regard to the principle in the reed board which Mr. Dayton had used some twenty years, and of which he was the inventor. Mr. Burdett had worked in Mr. Estey's shop some years, and then commenced making organs for himself, at the west, on a large scale. Having made some slight changes, involving no new principles, he obtained a patent on a reed board, and then brought a suit against Mr. Estey for trespass on his patent. Under such cir- cumstances Mr. Dayton became the principal witness in order to show that he had invented and used the same principle more than twenty years. The following extract from the speech of Hon. William M. Evarts, delivered in the United States circuit court in February and March, 1876, shows the importance of Mr. Dayton's testimony. He says :
432
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
" In Brattleboro, March 26, 1873, there was considerable testimony taken and then we came to Wolcottville, April 23, 1873, and April 24, 1873, which your Honor sees is but a single sitting, or two consecutive days, and there for the first time Mr. Dayton appears and gives evidence; and in those two days' examination, this whole series of reed boards, etc., was completed ; all of them I think, and manifestly that occupied all the time that was given to the subject then. * *
* Now we have then, before we introduce number 2!, a claimed state of knowledge, contrivance and attention to the necessity or value of certain improvements in the reed organ, and entire competency of mechanical skill and of musical knowledge [in Mr. Dayton] to produce, effectively, what- ever the invention or the experiments of Mr. Dayton, should have led him to. It is not therefore like finding a result in an unexpected quarter, not at all He liad worked along with his own lights and his own knowledge, and his own mind, in his own shop and made no parade about it, nor did he think very highly of himself in respect of it, and reached all these results that are now paraded in this patent and the application for it by Mr. Burdett as such wonders."
The following extract is from the Hon. Edmund Burke's speech in the same case as Mr. Evarts ; Mr. Burke being one of the most celebrated lawyers on patents, in the United States :
"Defendant's [Mr. Estey ] exhibit No. 21, is a conclusive answer to com- plainant's claim. Number 21, [an organ] was invented and made by Arvid Dayton, of Wolcottville, Conn., one of the most early, original and ingenious inventors and improvers of the reed organs, who has ever appeared in this country, as the evidence in this case proves beyond a reasonable doubt. He was the first to invent and make the Reed board containing two full sets and a partial set of reeds of the different sets opening into the same valve-opening. He was the first to give the partial set an inclined position in the reed board, and the first to introduce into the reed organ the method of tuning described in the complainant's patent. And it may further be briefly remarked in con- nection with Mr. Dayton, that the testimony shows that he was a prominent and distinguished pioneer in the reed organ industry of this country, when it first began to assume form and importance. Exhibit 21, has precisely the combination and arrangement of mechanical instrumentalities, as are described in the specification, and recited in the claims of the complainants patent. So far as the sub-bass is concerned, exhibit 24, made by Mr. Dayton, nineteen years ago, is the first reed instrument in which it is known to have appeared, and in many respects it is a remarkable instrument, containing all the combina- tions of musical capabilities ; reeds, air passages, valve openings, tracker-pins, keys, etc., contained in the infringing organ. It was one of the earliest pro- ductions in the art of organ making, and the thoroughness, if not the beauty of the work is demonstrated by the fact, that it never has been repaired, nor even tuned, from the time it was sold by Mr. Dayton eighteen years ago until the present time ; a noble testimonial to the genius and the fidelity of its inventor and maker, Arvid Dayton. It made good music, having been played upon in the presence of the ezaminers, the counsel of both sides, and others. It is be- lieved that few if any other reed org ins have ever exhibited such a remarkable endurance ; a thorough test of the workmanship and of the materials used in its construction."
433
BIOGRAPHIES.
REV. SPENCER O. DYER
Was born in Plainfield, Mass., October 4, 1827; did not pursue a collegiate course; studied divinity with Rev. J. Cunningham, of La Porte, Indiana ; was licensed for the Presbytery of St. Joseph's, In- diana, April 8, 1857 ; was ordained pastor at Becket, Mass., April 21, 1858, and dismissed June 17, 1862; was stated preacher in Torringford one year, to Nov. 1863 ; was acting pastor at North- ampton one year, and acting pastor at Upton, Mass., from 1865, a number of years.
REV. BROWN EMERSON
Was born in Harvard, Mass., August 11, 1807 ; was graduated at Yale college in 1833 ; studied theology at New Haven and An- dover ; was licensed by Middlesex Union association, Mass., in May, 1836; was ordained pastor at West Boylston, Mass., August 3, 1837, and dismissed November 6, 1859 ; was pastor at Torringford three years from 1841 to 1844, and at Dracut, Mass., four years, at Northumberland, Pa., two years, at Montague, Mass., three years, at Westminster, Mass., from 1859 to 1862; removed to South Jersey, and supplied a small Presbyterian church ; was stated preacher at Burlington, Conn., two years, closing there in 1869, and went to New Hartford. Several of these changes were caused by ill health.
REV. STEPHEN FENN
Was born in Plymouth, Conn., October 6, 1824 ; was graduated at Yale college; studied theology two years at Andover, where he was graduated, August 2, 1854 ; was licensed by New Haven Central association, July 6, 1853; was ordained as pastor at Torringford, November 16, 1854, and dismissed September 4, 1857, was pastor in Watertown four years from 1868.
REV. GEORGE REID FERGUSON
Was born in Whately, Mass., 1829. He was son of Rev. John Fer- guson, of Scotland, England, and later, pastor at Whately, Mass., and was graduated at Amherst in 1849; studied one year at Andover, and was ordained in 1860, as an evangelist at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He preached at Northeast and Millerton until 1874 ; then taught school at Lakeville, Ct., and commenced preaching at Torringford in May 1875, and in the autumn of the same year removed his 55
434
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
family thither, and continued to labor acceptably among this people two years.
He preached his last sermon at that place August 5, 1877, and sailed with his family for Wellington, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, under an engagement as a teacher, under the directions and patronage of the Dutch church, at that place. He left the very birth place of Samuel J. Mills Jr., and follows the same track on the great ocean, to the same continent, only goes still further south, as a missionary, to the same land.
MRS. SOPHIA (C. HAYDEN) FOGG,
Daughter of Cicero and Sophia (Squires) Hayden, married Rev. George W. Fogg, July 18, 1859. He was born in Virginia ; joined the Kentucky conference of the M. E. church, in 1828, and was stationed that year on Logan district ; was sebsequently stationed at Bowling Green, Salt river district, Elizabethtown, Mt. Sterling, Birdstown, Newport, Covington, Louisville and Shelbyville ; was a few years disabled by ill health ; traveled on agencies ; manumitted several slaves, and was employed some time in gathering emigrants to Liberia; joined Florida conference in 1847, and has been stationed at Tallahassee, Gadsden, Apalachicola, Albany, Ga., St. John's, Fla., and at Fernandina, Fla. He owned a residence at Mt. Pleasant, Fla.
NOAH FOWLER,
The youngest child of Joseph, was the first of the Fowlers born in Torrington, and long lived to enjoy his birthright inheritance. He inherited a manly form, good intellectual abilities, and received for his day a fair education, and a thorough puritanical religious training. He was a great reader, and an original thinker ; and sought to know the great principles of truth, and of religious and civil liberty. He married Rhoda Tuttle, daughter of Capt. Levi Tuttle, of Fair Haven, Ct.
She was a woman of good mind, and such disposition as made her a valuable help mate and proper companion of the man she married. He inherited considerable landed property from his father, which he sold, and purchased a farm next to Dea. Cook's, on the west, which is still known as the Fowler place, where he reared his large family, which was ever industrious and comfortably prosperous. His children all grew to manhood except one ; and one other died at the age of twenty-three, and they formed honorable alliances for life ; living
435
BIOGRAPHIES.
independently and usefully in the world. It was customary for this family to be together on Thanksgiving day, if no other day in the year. All of the members of the family were noted singers, and when the Thanksgiving dinner was over the whole family would rise and stand, and sing the old fugue tune Ocean, with the following words :
" With songs and honors sounding loud Address the Lord on high, O'er the heavens he spreads his clouds And waters veil the sky.
He gives the grazing ox his food, He hears the raven's cry ; But man who tastes his finest wheat Should raise his honors high.
He sends his showers of blessings down, To cheer the plains below ; He makes the grass the mountains crown, And corn in valleys grow.
His steady councils change the face Of the declining year, He bids the sun cut short his race, And wintry days appear."
The annual gathering of such a family under such earnest religious influences and considerations, gave an inspiration to character, and threw around the home such sacred and pleasant remembrances, as that the children could never escape and as would give a charm to life, wherever it might be placed.
This family were ever the steadfast friends of Mr. Roberts, the first minister. They were educated to endorse the traditional, Cal- vinistic doctrines and faith, but after Rhoda Tuttle Fowler fell a victim to it, in a religio-Calvinistic mania, which continued many years, the views of some of the family were essentially modified.
Noah Fowler and Dea. John Cook fell into a difference of opinion about the time Mr. Haynes was preaching in the first meeting house, or when meetings began to be held in the first house at the green ; and this is the way the story runs. Dea. Cook, in the early state of the church, was considered the leading man, next to the minister in conducting the services of worship as well as most other services, and after so many years, the deacon very naturally concluded that all things should move according to his judgment. The deacon had also been the justice of the peace for many years, and in those times
436
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
such officers usually had the whole town "under their thumb." At the time spoken of a proposition was made to organize the singing in the church according to the new improvements then gaining ascendancy. The deacon had been accustomed to set the psalm, or in modern language, lead the singing, standing always just in front of the pulpit. It was proposed to have a choir, seated in the gallery, and arrangements were made accordingly, and Noah Fowler was ap- pointed as leader of the choir. Deacon Cook very severely opposed this, as a worldly, irreligious, wicked thing, and an infringement on his rights, and a disrespect to his former services. When the time of singing came, the choir rose with Mr. Fowler at their head as if to lead. Just then, Dea. Cook rose, and cried aloud, " Noah Fowler I forbid you to set the psalm !" What the result was that sabbath is not stated, but when the next sabbath came the deacon had the seats of the choir filled with young men to the exclusion of the singers, and for that day the singing was silenced. The minister, who was in favor of the improvement, administered a severe reproof, after which the intruders retired and the singing was led from the gallery ; but the deacon did not submit until after failing in a civil suit on the subject, which he finally withdrew. Such was the experience ninety years since, proving that all the difficulties with church singing have not been confined to later years, and that it is not always the sole fault with the choir. Noah Fowler's family made only twelve in that choir, and had it not been that there were a dozen such families in the parish, there might have been a lack of singers, but as it was the singing was sustained the year round.
Mr. Fowler lived to the respectable age of seventy-four years ; and his widow to the advanced age of ninety years. The fragrance of their names, has hallowed the home where they lived and died, for a hundred years.
WARREN R. FOWLER, M.D.,
Was the eldest child of Noah and Rhoda (Tuttle) Fowler, and was born March 2, 1775.
He early manifested a studious mind and love of books, and having attained a good common school education, with considerable culture attained at home, was invited, when eighteen years of age, to become a student of medicine in his office, by Dr. Daniel Sheldon, then one of the most noted physicians in Litchfield county. This place he accepted, and more than fulfilled the expectations of his preceptor in
-
437
BIOGRAPHIES.
his acquirements of the science, and competition with students of wealthy parentage and superior advantage. His success was crowned by the approval of Dr. Sheldon, and a license from the county medi- cal society to practice medicine. This was then the highest medical authority in the state ; the medical school at Yale college not having been established.
Upon invitation he settled at Washington, Ct., in 1796. Here he followed closely his profession in which he made decided progress and was accordingly honored by the people. His personal appear- ance, dignity of demeanor, self possession ; and his discrimination, critical and cautious observations, and firm decision, made him a suc- cessful and popular physician. He was ever modest ; paying due deference to his superiors in age and practice, and considerate to his inferiors. He was studious, and improved his leisure hours by reading all the medical literature he could command. His inaugural diserta - tion on Hypochondriasis, indicated his vigor of mind and discriminating study. His standing in the county and state medical societies was honorable, and Yale college conferred upon him the degree of medi- cal doctor. He read several essays before the medical societies ; one regarded at the time as particularly valuable, on the " use and abuse of alcoholic stimulants." He was a strong advocate of tem- perance, in opposition to the prevalence of intemperance generally, and particularly in all professions.
He was appointed a medical censor of Litchfield county. His puritanical nurture and training were never compromised ; religious observances were conscientiously maintained and whenever he was called to visit a patient on Sunday, as a convenience, he invariably postponed the visit until another day.
He inherited a musical voice, and love of singing, and every Sunday was in his place in the choir, to do duty and improve the opportuni- ties of the house of worship, and was very active in promoting edu- cation in all forms, for which in some respects, Washington became noted. He also educated several young men to the medical profes- sion ; particularly two of his brothers and his two sons. His sisters also shared in his efforts in the progress of intellectual culture.
His manner of traveling was on horseback, that being not only the accustomed mode but the swiftest.
In 1826, he was attacked violently with malarial typhus-fever and departed this life in the fifty-fifth year of his age, and in the prime of his useful and honored life.
438
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
NORMAN FOWLER,
The second son of Noah and Rhoda (Tuttle) Fowler, did not inherit the qualities and vigor of mind, and literary proclivities, which characterized most of the members of that distinguished family. Yet he was a respectable husbandman and citizen ; a regular attendant at church, and believer in the Calvinistic creed ; a federalist and re- publican in politics. He was trained a farmer ; resided with his parents, and at their death inherited the old homestead, where he re- sided until his decease. He married Statira Blake, a very worthy woman, by whom his limited dairy was made highly reputable for its superior quality. His industry and morals were praiseworthy ; his reading was mainly the Bible, published sermons, and the Litchfield Enquirer, for which he was a subscriber of long continuance.
At and near the time of his decease he was the only surviving one of the old pillars of the church at Torrington Center, or green. When the meeting house, where his old pastor Alexander Gillett had been minister thirty years, was about to be torn down and re-built at the hollow, his spirit was bowed within him, and this reminding him so much of the departure of the old land marks, and that his wife, son and both daughters had deceased before him, made his closing days truly solitary and mournful.
He retained his faculties to a remarkable degree and died at the age of ninety-five years, greatly esteemed and respected.
The following extract of a letter written by the Rev. John A. Mckinstry of Ohio, a former pastor in Torrington, was written to Mr. Fowler, and received the day after his death, was read at his funeral ; and is worthy of a place here, as showing the esteem this pastor had for this worthy patriarch :
" Mr. NORMAN FOWLER :
Venerable and most respected friend. By a letter just received from Mr. Alonzo Whiting, I am informed that you still remain to represent the circle of older people in the days of my ministry in Torrington. What memories come back at the mention of your endeared name, of your honored mother and be- loved sister, and those honored companions. I feel almost alone, and how truly so must it be with my beloved friend, Mr. Fowler. The tears start as [ write; I feel that I would love to grasp your hand, and say, may God bless you in your last days, and give you a glorious rest when your pilgrimage is ended. I trust that a kind Father in Heaven tempers the storms that beat on your whitened and thinned locks, and when e'er long, you shall fall on sleep, you may find it a blessed sleep, from which none ever wake to weep. A kind Heavenly friend has mercifully preserved me and mine since we left New England.
REMUS M. FOWLER, M. D.
439
BIOGRAPHIES.
And now, dear friend, whose presence has often cheered me in the sanctu- ary and in the parsonage, may we meet again, and if not in this world, as seems impossible, in that better world where partings are unknown. With a great deal of love from myself, wife and family, I am your's most truly,
and affectionately, J. A. MCKINSTRY.
At the time of the expedition of Mr. Fowler's only son, Homer, to Florida, the family distress was great, in consideration of the dan- ger attending it ; the following expostulatory acrostic was written by his aunt Sibyl :
"Homer you go! Ah, must you go ? One of the last of blue-eyed Fowlers, say ? (My will subdued is hushed with passion's glow), Eternal Power, guard him to Florida ; Return him safe ; regard the mourner's tear ! For Jesus sake, he's the only son ; O, hear the humble prayer and ever near, With mercy guide him, till his journey's done !
Let thy wings be his cover and defence ; Each day and night, thine eye make darkness flee,
Raise him to life in thine own Providence. With this request I lowly bend, My hope, my trust alone in thee "
GEORGE FOWLER,
The third son of Noah and Rhoda (Tuttle) Fowler, was born Dec. 5, 1778, and inherited an active mind and temperament, and possessed a commendable spirit of enterprise. He was apprenticed when young, to learn the tanners' trade, and when he had completed his apprenticeship, went, by invitation to Burlington, Vt., to avail him- self of the facilities which the forests of that region afforded for the tanning business. That malarial region proved inimical to him, and he was suddenly stricken down by fever ; and Lake Champlain ever performs the mournful requiem over his mouldering dust which re- poses in its embrace.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.