USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Torrington > History of Torrington, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1737, with biographies and genealogies > Part 45
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
The production of maple sugar was an item of much work in the spring of the year. Troughs were made of basswood ; pails or buckets not being used, and the sap was boiled in the woods, very frequently, and the boiling continued some times through the night.
Mr. Fyler had many acres of apple orchard, from which he made in good years about three hundred barrels of cider, a large proportion of which he made into brandy in his own still. His father had a still before 1800, also his neighbor, Capt. Eli Richards and many others. The making of cider by Mr. Fyler was, as by many others, continued with intervals into November and December. The apples were so abundant that they were thrown into piles in the field and lay there until the snow fell and were drawn home on sleds and made into cider.
Mr. Fyler did much in support of the Methodist church of New- field during twenty or more years, and received in return, as far as
57
450
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
this world goes, just what many others, in all ages have received, and at last seems but little disappointed that it should have been just as it was, for so is human nature. This kind of reward has been so common among all denominations and in all communities as to need no explanation here.
In all this variety of enterprises, and the perpetual toil, never to be shunned only at the hazard of ruin, consequent upon it, and the perpetual annoyances and disasters which will inevitably come in a farmers life, what success could he have had but for the aid and charm, and hard work, of his constant and efficient wife, Sibyl R. (Tolls) Fyler? Those who understand not the work of a farmer's house, should go into that long kitchen, prepared for making cheese and butter, then go into the cheese room over that kitchen, twenty feet squre, with shelves on every side, sufficient to support, in curing two hundred cheese; and know that in the process of curing, every one must be turned and moved two or three times a week. Then look at the spinning and weaving, and making of garments for a family of eleven besides the hired help. If help is hired in the house as well as out, as must have been the case, how much careful guidance must have been required to save from destruc- tion at least ten or twenty dollars a day. How glad also when all those " little tots " are in bed safe at night, and how glad when they are again up and well. Such is the outline of one family history. Four children died young : one son is now in the Black hills after gold : another occupies the seat of judge of the county court ; the youngest son, after coming out of the war injured for life, is allowed to be post master at Wolcottville. The father, now in his eighty -second year, resides in Winsted with his faithful wife and dutiful daughter.
MRS. POLLY (COLLIER) FYLER
Was born in 1758, probably in Windsor, or that part of it called Wintonbury. Her family were not of the original settlers of Wind- sor but came to that town much later, but the family has taken de- cided high position in the state. She was a woman of decided energy of character, clearness of perception and discriminating judgment and is a good representative of the women of her day, and as such it is a great favor to have her likeness with the style of dress very common in her day, and which with that of her husband represents the New England style about the year eighteen hundred, and thirty years follow- ing, very faithfully.
MRS. POLLY FYLER.
45I
BIOGRAPHIES.
Mrs. Fyler, like many of her neighbors, had the care of a large family, in connection with the business and the men employed in the various kinds of work on a large farm, and therefore her life was no easy play spell, but one of continued and often severe toil. Un- der such circumstances she continued her cheerful and constant efforts for the comfort and success of her home, almost three score years and ten, closing her dutiful, well spent, and honored life in the ninetieth year of her age.
REV. JOSEPH T. GAYLORD
Was born in Norfolk, Conn., Nov. 4, 1836 ; was graduated at Yale college in 1863, and at Union Theological seminary in 1866; was licensed by the Association of New York and Brooklyn in April 1866 ; began to preach in Torringford in January 1867, where he was ordained without charge, November 7, 1867, and he served un- til January 1869.
REV. ALEXANDER GILLETT
Was born August 14, 1849 (O. S.), in Granby, Ct., and was the son of pious parents, and was trained in the knowledge of divine truth by his devout grandmother. At the age of thirteen he was the subject of serious impressions during a revival which then prevailed in several towns in Hartford county, and these impressions, though they seem subsequently to have declined, never entirely left him.
He early exhibited a great fondness for books, especially for his- tory, and at the age of fourteen years began his preparations for col- lege, under the Rev. Nehemiah Strong, his pastor, and completed it under the Rev. Roger Veits, an Episcopal clergyman, and a mission- ary of the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts. He was admitted a member of Yale college in June 1767, at an ad- vanced standing, and was graduated in September 1770. It was not until the summer of 1769 that his mind seems to have become fully settled in regard to the doctrines of the gospel, and not until about the close of 1770, that he was the subject of any religious experience that he himself believed to be genuine, and in May 1771, he united with the church in Turkey Hills (Granby).
After leaving college he taught a school for a year or more at Farmington, and probably, studied theology during that time, under the direction of Rev. Timothy Pitkin. He was licensed to preach by the Hartford Association, at Northington, on the 2d of June 1773 and on the 29th of the next December was ordained the first pastor
452
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
of the church in Farmingbury, now Wolcott, where he continued to preach nearly eighteen years.
Mr. Gillett was married in December 1779, to Adah, third daugh- ter of Deacon Josiah Rogers of Wolcott, who was descended from Thomas Rogers who came in the Mayflower, and of John Rogers the martyr in England.
Owing in part to a difficulty in his church of long standing, involv- ing no delinquency on his part, his pastoral relation to them was, at his own request, dissolved in November, 1791, and in the following May he was installed pastor of the first church in Torrington, and was received with much rejoicing on the part of the whole parish. On settling here, he purchased a farm a little more than a mile north of the church, where he resided until his death, and where his only surviving daughter Miss Adah Gillett, still resides, being in the ninety-third year of her age. The old house is still standing and the pastor's study is the same as it was fifty-one years ago at his decease. His papers and books are there the same, and even the money in the drawer of his writing desk is there still, and will abide so as long as his daughter survives. The house being over one hundred years old, gives signs of wearing out, but the maple trees along the road in front of the house, set there after he purchased the place, are now only in their strength and grandeur, and give an ancient nobleness to the old homestead that is very gratifying to the passing stranger or old friend.
Mr. Gillett's ministry was attended with much more than the or- dinary degree of visible success. At Wolcott he was privileged to see large numbers added to his church as the fruit of several revivals, one especially in 1783, in which he was aided by the Rev. Edmund Mills (brother of Samuel J.), and during the period of his ministry at Torrington there were three seasons of deep religious interest among his people, the results of which were equally benign and ex- tensive.I He also frequently aided neighboring ministers in revival seasons, preaching frequently during the week holding meetings in neighborhood school houses, and visiting from house to house ; and sometimes he accompanied other ministers in going abroad for the purpose of holding revival meetings such as Edmund Mills, Samuel J. Mills, a Mr. Miller, Dr. Griffin of New Hartford and others.
Mr. Gillett had much of the missionary spirit and long before the
" Mr. Gillett's account of the revival of 1799, he published in the Evangelical Magazine of 1800.
453
BIOGRAPHIES.
Connecticut Missionary Society was organized he had made several tours in the eastern part of the state, and in 1789 or 90, he made a missionary tour of several months in the new settlement of Vermont, under the approbation of the association of New Haven county, and almost entirely at his own expense ; his pulpit being supplied a part of the time by his brethren in the vicinity. At a later date he went several times, by appointment from the Connecticut Missionary So- ciety, into those destitute regions on the same errand of good will to man, and was known extensively as having much pleasure in, and adaptability for such work.
By the still remaining members of the old Torrington church he is remembered with the kindest and most respectful feelings ; with- out a thought of any act to tarnish the most sacred memory of him. He was always seen on Sunday mornings coming to church on foot, with umbrella and overcoat, the latter on his arm in all warm weather no matter how high the thermometer. Having preached the morn- ing sermon he frequently closed with the remark, " having thus at- tended to the doctrines of the text, we will consider the applications this afternoon," and thus the morning and afternoon sermons were nearly always connected, or part of the same subject.
Mr. Gillett was a composer of poetry and music as well as ser- mons.
In a note book called Rudiments of Music, published by Andrew Law, A.M., about 1790, there are fourteen tunes with his name as composer ; and he seems to have made no hymns except as adapted to a certain tune, or to make a tune for the hymn.
The following hymn is characteristic, and a good sample of his ยท compositions of the kind.
GLOOM OF AUTMN.
Hail ! ye sighing sons of sorrow, View with me the autumnal gloom ; Learn from hence your fate to-morrow : Dead perhaps ; laid in the tomb. See all nature fading, dying !
Silent all things seem to mourn ; Life from vegetation flying Call to mind my mouldering urn. Oft an autumn's tempest rising, Makes the lofty forest nod ; Scenes of nature, how surprising ! Read in nature, nature's God.
454
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
See our sovereign, sole creator, Lives eternal in the skies ; While we mortals yield to nature, Bloom awhile, then fade and die. Nations die by dread Belona, Through the tyranny of kings,
Just like plants by pale Pomona Fall to rise in future springs.
Mournful scenes, when vegetation Dies by frost, or worms devour, Doubly mournful when a nation Falls by neighboring nations power.
Death my anxious mind depresses,
Autumn shows me my decay ;
Calls to mind my past distresses,
Warns me of my dying day.
Autumn makes me melancholy, Strikes dejection through my soul ; While I mourn my former folly Waves of sorrow o'er me roll.
Lo ! I hear the air resounding
With expiring insect cries :
Ah! to me their moans how wounding, Emblem of my own demise.
Hollow winds about me roaring ; Noisy waters round me rise ; While I sit my fate deploring Tears are ftowing from my eyes.
What to me are autumn's treasures Since I know no earthly joy ;
Long I've lost all youthful pleasure ; Time must youth and health destroy. Pleasure once I fondly courted,
Shared each bliss that youth bestowes ; But to see where then I sported Now embitters all my woes.
Age and sorrows since have blasted Every youthful, pleasing dream ;
Quivering age with youth contrasted : O how short their glories seem.
As the annual frosts are cropping Leaves and tendrils from the trees, So my friends are yearly dropping Through old age or dire disease.
Former friends, oh, how I've sought them ! Just to cheer my drooping mind ; But they're like the leaves of autumn, Driven before the dreary wind.
Spring and summer, fall and winter Each_in swift succession roll :
455
BIOGRAPHIES.
So my friends in death do enter Bringing sadness to my soul.
Death has laid them down to slumber ; Solemn thought ; to think that I
Soon must be one of their number ;
Soon, so soon with them to lie.
When a few more years are wasted ;
When a few more suns are o'er ;
When a few more griefs I've tasted, I shall fall to rise no more.
Fast my sun of life's declining
Soon 'twill set in endless night ;
But my hopes are past repining ; Rest in future life and light.
Cease this fearing, trembling, sighing ;
Death will break the awful gloom ;
Soon my spirit fluttering, flying, Must be borne beyond the tomb.
The following letter of Rev. Frederick Marsh, will be interesting both as regards Mr. Gillett and as being from the minister of an ad- joining town.
WINCHESTER CONN., May 27th, 1856.
DEAR SIR : My first knowledge of the Rev. Alexander Gillett was in New Hartford, during the great revival in 1798 and 1799, when he occasionally came there with Mr. Mills, Mr. Miller, and others to assist Dr. Griffin. My particular acquaintance with him commenced soon after coming to this place in 1808. From that time, as our parishes were contiguous, until his decease in 1826, our relations became more and more intimate, and I can truly say that he ever treated me with paternal kindness. Besides the ordinary ministerial exchanges and intercourse, he used to visit us and preach in seasons of special religious interest.
In his person Mr. Gillett was rather above the medium stature and size, of a full habit, broad shoulders, short neck, and large head. His position was erect, except a slight forward inclination of the head. His face was broad and unusually square and full, illuminted by large, prominent eves, the whole indi- cating more of intellect than vivacity. His ordinary movements were grave and thoughtful. In his manner he was plain, unostentatious, and at the great- est possible distance from all that is intrusive. He was courteous and kind, swift to hear, and slow to speak, apparently esteeming others better than him- self, and in all his intercourse exhibiting a delicate sense of propriety.
As a man of intellectual ability he held a decidedly high rank. He had an aversion to every thing superficial. Ever fond of study, he went thoroughly and deeply into the investigation of his subject, whatever it might be. He was an admirable linguist, and above all excelled in the knowledge of the Bible ; not merely in his own language, but in the original. As a scholar he was char- acterized by great accuracy. I have heard an eminent minister, who fitted for college undet his instructions, say that he never found any tutor so accurate and thorough in the languages as Mr. Gillett. He was also very familiar and ex- tensively acquainted with history ; and he studied history especially as an ex- position of prophecy.
456
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
But the crowning attribute of his character was his devoted piety and high moral excellence. While great simplicity and godly sincerity characterized his habitual deportment, it was still only by an intimate and extended acquaintance with him, and by observing his spirit and conduct in trying circumstances, that one could gain anything like a full view of this part of his character. During seventeen years of familiar intercourse with him, my mind became constantly more impressed with the depth of his piety ; his unreserved consecration to God, his self sacrificing devotedness to the cause of Christ and the highest in- terests of his fellow-men. Among the most striking elements of his religious character were meekness, humility, and a conscientiousnes, and apparently im- mutable regard to truth and duty.
In social life, Mr. Gillett's constitutional reserve and defect of conversational powers, rendered him less interesting and useful than might have been expected from such resources of mind and heart as he possessed. Ordinarily he said little in ecclesiastical meetings. Patiently listening to all the younger members chose to say he would remain silent, unless some gordian knot was to be untied, or some latent error to be detected, and then he would show his opinion to good purpose. With individuals and in private circles, where religious or other important topics became matter of conversation, he would often talk with much freedom and interest.
In his ministerial character and relatious there was much to be admired and loved, and some things to be regretted. It may readily be inferred from what I have already said in respect to his intellectual powers and attainments, his piety, his studious habits and devotedness to his appropriate work, that his sermons were of no ordinary stamp. And thus it really was. He presented divine truth with great clearness and point. Hence his preaching took strong hold of congrega- tions in times of revival. Often in closing his discourse by an extemporaneous effusion, he would turn to some one class of hearers, and urge upon them his subject in its practical bearings with a tenderness and earnestness that were quite overcoming.
But as his delivery was rendered laborious and difficult by an impediment in his speech, he could not be called a popular preacher. Those who regarded the manner more than the matter of a discourse, would pronounce him dull. But he was a skillful and faithful guide to souls ; and his labors were abundantly blessed not only to the people to whom he ministered but to others.
Of pastoral labor Mr. Gillett performed less than many of his brethren. His constitutional diffidence, his incapacity for entering into free and familiar inter- course with people generally, and his love for study, probably all combined to produce in him a conviction that he eould accomplish the greatest good by making thorough preparation for the pulpit, for occasional meetings, and seasons of prayer, rather than devoting much of his time to pastoral visits.
On the whole, he was an able, laborious, faithful and successful minister ; ever bringing out of his treasure things new and old, edifying the body of Christ, enjoying the confidence and affectionate regard of his brethren, and exhibiting uniformly such an example of consistency in his profession as to leave no room to doubt either his sincerity or piety.
I remain, dear sir, fraternally and truly yours."
FREDERICK MARSH.
The Rev. Dr. McEwen of New London has recorded the follow- ing concerning this good man :
I Sprague's Annals.
457
BIOGRAPHIES.
In 1782 the Rev. Alexander Gillett was installed the pastor of the church in Torrington ; a man of middle age ; having been pastor of the church in the parish of Farmingbury, afterwards the town of Wolcott. He graduated at Yale college, 1770. Though he sought not public notoriety, he was a man of strong mind, a good classical scholar, and a profound theologian. He published a small volume of six sermons, on the subject of regeneration ; which indicate in the author, method, accuracy and orthodox sentiment. In the pulpit, as else- where, his manner was serious, earnest and affectionate. The sermons were written and elaborated. A slight impediment he had in his speech ; yet so lucid, instructive and rich in doctrine and piety were his discourses, that he was, especially to the substantial and heavenly minded part of the population, an acceptable preacher. He loved his ministerial brethren, and stood high in their estimation.
Soon after his first settlement, while making his visits to become acquainted with the people of his charge, a single man, he entered a house, and was conversing with the family, a little girl of eight years, came in to see the new minister. He took her on his knee, told her she was a nice girl, and added, " who knows but that you will be my wife !" This was not pro- phecy in form, whatever it might have been mentally. The event proved that the conjecture or hint of the man, had in it something oracular. At Torrington he bought a farm, having on it, a full sized, old fashioned house. Whatever of management and labor pertained to the farm, he gave exclusively to the family. But one large chamber he made his sanctum. It was accommodated with a large, old fashioned fireplace." In this, every morning, even through dog-days, he made a blazing fire, raising when necessary the windows. His philosophy was, that in hot weather, a fire in the morning purified the air, and by increasing the circulation of it, made it cooler. Few ministers have spent more hours in their studies than Mr. Gillett. He read and wrote extensively, and all this with the addition of much thinking. Who- ever knew the man, the state of mind which he manifested habitually, and the great object for which he lived and acted, cannot doubt, that in that room, prayer was a constant exercise. This seriousnesss was no pretense. It was above all suspicion from which such an imputation would originate. Still the even tenor of his life admitted of a variety of exercises ; yea demanded it. He thought too accurately not to know that theology and nothing else, would kill a man, while in the feableness of the flesh. No man whom I ever knew, had his necessary diversions so much within himself. They were found almost exclu- sively in that room. Expedients for keeping the air within their limits pure and healthful, and agreeable, were important. The occupant of that large chamber was one of the most independent men in the world. There he wrote music ; and thera, if any one who was accustomed to see him abroad will believe it, he played on a bass-viol Though he thought farm work, and mechanical and mercantile labor, unsuitable for a minister, still there was one craft from which it was remote and in which accommodation from it would not be had, which he designed to practice. It was that of book binding. In that room he bound his own books, rebound his old ones, and did jobs of this sort for other people of the vicinity. One work was accomplished here which required resolution, toil and perseverance. When past the age of forty years, this lonely minister commenced the study of the Hebrew language, and made himself a proficient in it. We have heard of the patience of Job. Had Job alone, aided not by men but by books only, commenced the study of Hebrew, and mastered it as
58
458
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
triumphantly as dld Alexander Gillett ; and that, in an atmosphere not made congenial by literature, but tempered by the wood fire ; in the record which canonized the patriarch, this test of patience might have been given."
REV. TIMOTHY P. GILLETT
Was born June 15, 1780, in Farmingbury, now Wolcott, being the eldest child of Alexander and Adah (Rogers) Gillett. He was fitted for college by his father, partly in connection with Rev. Luther Hart, and in 1799, became specially interested in a religious life, during the revival of that year, and united with the Torrington church. He entered Williams college in 1800, when he was twenty years of age and was graduated in 1804. He then taught school in Cornwall, and then in the academy at Williamstown until in 1806, when he was appointed tutor in Yale college which position he held one year and a half.
Samuel J. Mills, Gordon Hall, and James Richards were then under graduates in that college, and Mr. Gillett has stated to members of his congregation that they were accustomed to hold prayer meet- ings in his room, and to consult in regard to the duty of carrying the gospel to the heathen. He never lost the interest thus awakened in foreign missions, but was an earnest advocate of the cause, and a warm friend of the American board. During his tutorship he studied theology under President Fitch, and was licensed as a candidate for the gospel ministry, by the Litchfield North Association September 30, 1806. In the winter of 1807-8, having resigned his tutorship, Mr. Gillett supplied the pulpit for two Sundays at East Haven, and was then invited to preach in the vacant pulpit of the church at Branford. He received, shortly after, a call to settle with them in the gospel ministry, on a salary of five hundred dollars, and the privi- lege of cutting firewood on the society's lands, until from continued ill health or infirmity, he should be no longer able to perform the duties of a minister among them. This invitation was accepted and he was ordained June 15, 1808, pastor of the church, on his twenty- eighth birth day.
Mr. Gillett married Sally, daughter of Dr. Elkanah Hodges, Nov. 29, 1808, who still survives him, being in the ninety-first year of her age. He died at his residence in Branford, November 5, 1866, in the eighty-seventh year of his age, and the fifty-ninth of his ministry.
Mr. Gillett was noted for his steady, faithful Christian and minis- terial life. He was not equal to his father in classic learning, but
459
BIOGRAPHIES.
was well versed, and true to the theology of his day and church, and his preaching presented good practical advice, seasoned with the sub- stantialness of full and unconditional submission to the Divine law. It was one of the most prominent traits of his character that he made all of his literary pursuits subservient to the momentous business of his holy calling. He daily consecrated his time and talents to the service of Christ. In his pastoral life he was sedate, yet cheerful, and kindly in his attention to all ; speaking fewer words than many, but such as became the office he served in, and the profession of a follower of the Revealer of truth, and in all things was a good exem- plification of the education and training he had received under his father's roof.
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.