USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut, Volume II, 1760-1880 > Part 28
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In view of this great loss and the combined opposition, Mr. Water- man thought it unwise to remain in Windham and was dismissed by council, Feb. 12, 1805, the church still attesting its regard. Of eighty- nine admitted to the church during his pastorate only twelve were males. The venerable deacons-Nathaniel Wales, Sen., Joseph IFunt- ington and Nathaniel Skiff-had now been dead many years. Deacon Samuel Gray died in 1787, Deacon Jonathan Martin in 1795, Deacon Elijah Bingham in 1798. Samnel Perkins. Esq .. and Capt. Eliphalet Murdock were elected deacons during the ministry of Mr. Waterman.
Many of Windham's honored citizens were now passing away. Colonel Ebenezer Gray, after suffering greatly from disease contracted in Revolutionary service, died in 1795, greatly respected and beloved. It was said that his extreme generosity to the poor lost him his position as selectman. With other Windham officers he was an honored mem- ber of the Society of the Cincinnati, established to perpetuate Revolu- tionary friendships and associations, and relieve the widows and orphans of those who had fallen. His widow survived him many years. His brother Thomas, physician and merchant, died in 1792. Colonel Jedidiah Elderkin died in 1794, Deacon Eleazer Fitch in 1800, Elder Benjamin Lathrop in 1804, Samuel Linkon in 1794, after entering upon the second year of his second century. Windham's "oldest inhabi- tant," Arthur Bibbins,* had preceded him several years and also exceeded him in length of life. Colonel Dyer, now far advanced in years, was still hale and hearty, and though no longer participant in public affairs was still keenly interested in all that was passing. A gentleman of the old school. punetilions in dress and manners, his familiar form was often seen on Windham street. and his voice often heard in earnest deprecation of the alarming growth of radicalism, Jacobinism, infidelity and immorality. Swift had now completed that famons " Digest of the Laws of Connecticut." which brought him so much honor, served as secretary on an important foreign mission, and in
* This venerable patriarch, according to Windham Church records, attained 108 years, but a more careful investigation reduces his years to 102. " He is represented to have been a man of great vigor and health, never sick a day until after he was one hundred, when he was thrown from a horse and injured, after which he was confined until his death."
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
1805 was appointed a judge of the Superior Court. Samuel Perkins. after studying for the ministry, had decided to enter the legal profession. and engaged in practice in Windham. John Baldwin and David W. Young also settled as lawyers in their native town. Henry Webb now served as high sheriff. Charles Abbe, deputy-sheriff: Phinehas Abbe. jailer. Thomas Grosvenor of Pomfret succeeded William Wil- liams as chief judge of the County Court in 1806, Ebenezer Devotion. Hezekiah Ripley. James Gordon. Lemuel Ingalls, associates. Samuel Gray was clerk of the Superior and County Courts. Windham enjoyed during this decade the excitement of two public executions-that of Caleb Adams of Pomfret. Nov. 19. 1803. and of Samuel Farnham of Ashford, two years later. The lamented death of Sheriff Abbe was thought to have been hastened by his official duties at the execution of the former.
Colonel Elderkin's silk factory passed, after his decease, into the hands of " Clark and Gray." who were initiating many business enter- prises, but it was soon bought by Mansfield experimenters who were making great efforts to increase and improve silk manufacture. Capi- talists were buying up land and attempting to establish various mann- factures at Willimantic, but after the death of Amos Dodge the residents of this vicinity lost faith in its immediate up-building. and suffered the meeting-house frame to be carried to Windham Green where it did good service on Zion's Hill as a public school house. Willimantic was a place of much resort in the spring for its fisheries of shad and salmon, and the new turnpike brought throngs of travelers and enstomers to David Young's tavern, but the great rush of business and enterprise still sought the Green. Mr. De Witt's tack business had been ruined by the invention of nail-making machinery. and his shop had passed into the hands of Jedidiah Story, where might be found " Hats of the newest fashion, warranted to be as good and cheap as at any factory in the State." John Burgess offered for sale " excellent soal-leather " and as good morocco and calf-skin shoes as could be found in market. and also a new fashioned four-wheel vehicle, called a wagon, which had somehow come into his possession and which most people thought a very impracticable invention. Business and trade were as brisk and lively as ever. The columns of the Windham Herald teemed with solicitations and demands. Brown, white and striped tow cloth of home manufacture, blue and white striped mittens, stockings of all textures and colors, good shoe thread, cheese, butter. geese feathers, rags. old pewter. brass and copper, rabbit skins and other furs, were taken by all the merchants and manufacturers who offered in return the usual variety of household and fancy articles. All dealers were urgent and profuse in offering rum. gin. brandy and wines at the lowest figure. "Good sweet rum at five and sixpence per gallon :" " the best of Jamaica rum at the moderate
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price of one dollar and six cents per gallon :" hogsheads, barrels and kegs of good rum for farmers and housekeepers who wished to supply themselves by the quantity and provide for their help in haying, were temptingly paraded. The increasing use of liquor in public and private and the great number of idlers who hnung about the stores and taverns, was, perhaps, the reason that Windham with all its business and bustle seemed to have lost something of its thrifti- ness, and to the keen eye of Doctor Dwight, as reported in one of his inspectorial tours, exhibited " marks of decay." Both churches in its first society were now destitute of a pastor, Mr. Daniel C. Banks declining a call to the First Church. Many valued families were lost to churches and town by the rage for emigration. The children of Wyoming emigrants returned to the Susquehanna Valley, and gained possession of the lands claimed by their fathers. Thomas Dyer, Jr., grandson of Col. Dyer, settled in Wilkesbarre, where he was greatly esteemed. The sons of Col. Elderkin removed from Windham after the death of their father. Major Ebenezer Backus and Dr. John Clark followed their children to Central New York. Representatives of the old Windham families were scattered abroad in all parts of the opening Republic. Dr. Samnel Lee died in 1804. His son Samuel, associated with him in practice, had already distinguished himself by the composition of "Lee's Windham Bilious Pills"-one of the first patent medicines that came before the public. So great was their reputation that the lawyers at Court maintained that even to carry a box of Lee's pills in their pockets would ward off disease. Windham with its usnal vivacity interested itself in experi- ments for the amelioration of that much dreaded disease-Small-pox. William Robinson and Samuel Bleight offered to inoculate its inhabit- ants in 1800, for Kine or Cow-pox, which they declared to be a perfect security against the small-pox, and only to be communicated by inocu- lation. Dr. Vine Utley and Mr. Jonathan Woodward went about the County in the following year, inoculating scores of people in every town with very satisfactory results.
Windham's loss of population-a hundred and twenty, between 1790 and 1800-made little apparent difference in its animation and activity. Taverns and stores were as well patronized as ever. Public meetings were held in increasing number and variety. In 1801. the Masons of Windham and Lebanon were gathered into the Eastern Star Lodge with appropriate ceremonies. The Festival of St. John the Evangelist was celebrated in Windham the following Christmas day with much rejoicing. The first Republican or Democratic cele- bration of which we have report was held July 4. 1806. at the house of Mr. John Staniford, innholder. A large attendance was expected and doubtless secured.
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
III.
SCOTLAND'S FIRST BELL. THE SCOTLAND PARSONAGE. SOCIAL LIFE. CHANGES. CONTROVERSY BETWEEN PASTOR AND PEOPLE.
SCOTLAND Parish shared in the general growth and prosperity of the town, raising its dne proportion of sheep, swine and cattle, and sending butter and cheese. beef, pork and wool to market. Ebenezer Devotion, though now judge of the County Court and employed in many public affairs, was still engaged in trade. Zebediah Tracy's shop accommodated the public with many useful articles. A new firm, . French and Allyn, offered choice New York goods to purchasers, together with groceries and a few hogsheads of St. Croix rum very cheap in exchange for stockings, mittens, tow cloth, etc. Returned veterans-Captains John Baker, Abner Robinson and others-engaged with renewed zest in the arts of peace. Samnel, Jeremiah and Jedidiah Bingham, John and Jacob Burnap, William and James Cary, Jonathan Kingsley, Eliphalet Huntington and various other deseend- ants of the early settlers, were now in active life, attending to their farms and other industries. Major John Keyes of Ashford, appointed in 1786, adjutant-general of the militia of Connecticut, had now removed his residence to Scotland village, and his comfortable tavern had become a famous place of resort for the many old soldiers resid- ing in this part of the town. Its physician, Dr. Pennel Cheney. was very active and useful in society and town affairs. The parish bore its part in civil administration, and was allowed the privilege of holding one-third of the allotted town meetings in its convenient meeting-house. Having fortunately erected a new house just before the breaking-out of the war, it had no special home demands during this period, and was able to do its part with great care and efficiency, furnishing many men of tried fidelity and valor. One of its first achievements after the return of peace was to procure a bell for its meeting-honse steeple which involved it in a series of misadventures. According to popular tradition the bell was cracked upon its first journey : returned as unsound, and re-cracked upon its hanging : re-mended and re-cracked in celebrating its successful return and sus- pension-the whole population venting their joy by ringing it-and by farther mischance was twice disabled. sent back and returned before its final exaltation and installment into office. Probably these reports were exaggerated by their jolly neighbors of Windham, only too glad to retaliate the banterings upon their own frog panic, but the records show that they were not unfounded. Dr. Cheney was
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appointed to procure subscriptions for a bell in 1790. In June the following year. Dr. Cogswell reports that the subscribers for a bell voted not to have the bell which is now in use here, nor any other of Davison's but to apply to Dolittles, (New Haven). In November, the society voted to accept the bell provided by the committee for that pur- pose, and to provide some suitable person to ring and toll it. In 1793, it enjoins upon its committee, to take care of the bell, get the tongue mended, make fixture for deck and keep the wet out. Two years later it is ordered to get the bell repaired, and again, 1796, to get the wheel repaired and make it more convenient to ring the bell. A sing- ing school had been instituted during this time through the efforts of Captain Robinson. Young people were prompt and eager in attendance and the singing so much improved that young Mason Cogswell affirmed that they sang better in Scotland than in Hartford. A social library for the benefit of the east part of the town was formed about 1790.
Mr. Cogswell's ministrations were still acceptable to church and society. In 1790 he received a doctor's degree from Yale College- the first Windham County minister thus honored. His church shared in the prevailing religious declension, receiving few accessions and meet- ing many losses. Deacon John Cary died in 1788; Deacon John Baker in 1791. Some members were lost by emigration, some by secession to other churches. Religious feeling was at a low ebb ; social conferences and prayer meetings were not encouraged, and the "gifts of the church " were so little exercised that when its pastor was kept at home by sickness and sent his son to read a sermon to the congre- gation there was not a brother in the church willing to offer a public prayer. Whatever spiritual life existed was drawn to the Sectaries. Zealous Baptist itinerants, Lyon of Canterbury, Dyer Hebard and Jordan Dodge, held meetings on Pudding Hill and remoter neighbor- hoods, and through their instrumentality " a religious stir," or revival, was incited at which many professed conversion and received baptism by immersion, uniting with the Baptists in Windham and Hampton. The Brunswick Church, under its aged minister, was greatly weak- ened by this new element, but still maintained regular worship. Unlike many Separates, Elder Palmer had a respect for education, his son David graduating at Dartmouth College in 1797. Schools in Scotland were maintained and catechized as the law required. The central school flourished for two seasons under the charge of a teacher who afterwards became very famous-William Eaton, the conqueror of Tripoli.
In polities Scotland parish was more conservative than the western part of the town, standing squarely by its favorite candidate, Judge
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Devotion, and when it came out in full force sure to carry the election. This result may have been due in great measure to the influence of its honored son, Samuel Huntington, who, after serving as president of the Continental Congress, and chief justice of the Superior Court of Con- nectient, was elected governor of the State in 1786. Publie cares and high position did not lessen his interest in his carly home, but with increasing years he seemed to find it more attractive. Every few weeks Dr. Cogswell's journal reports a visit from the Governor, and instructive discussion of national and scientific questions. Mingling thus freely with old friends and townsmen a man of such weight and elevation of character could hardly fail to become a power for good to the com- munity.
Governor IHuntington's brilliant brothers were also frequent visitors at that pleasant parsonage as well as many other celebrities. It was a day of universal visiting and social intercourse. not only between the resi- dents of particular towns but between different towns and neighbor- hoods. The mode of traveling was eminently conducive to sociability. One-horse chaises and rough roads compelled short stages. Travelers were accustomed to stop at every friend's house for rest and refresh- ment. In these slow old days everybody seemed to have time to drive abont and chat with their friends and neighbors, and the Scotland parsonage was a place of especial resort and popularity. Its family cirele was large and lively. Children, grandchildren and hosts of relatives were continually coming and going. Neighbors and parishioners were dropping in at all hours of the day, bringing news and asking counsel. Scarce a day passed without a call from some neighboring townsman- Dr. Baker of Brooklyn, Esquire Perkins of Newent. Dr. Adams of Westminster, Colonel Mosely and Mr. Stewart from Hampton. Colonels Dyer and Danielson, and even " old General Putnam." Nightfall often brought with it some traveling minister-poor broken-down Mr. Rowland with his budget of troubles: Mr. Williams of Woodstock, "a serions, pious man and good divine," or Dr. Huntington with " metaphysical par- adox that seemed to favor Universalism." These visits, with other family affairs, the general news of the day and appropriate moral reflections, were duly recorded in the Doctor's voluminous diary. Not only did he entertain these constant visitors, prepare sermons and lectures, visit the siek, catechize the schools, attend numberless associations and ordina- tions, manage farm, orchard and garden, but he contrived to read all the newspapers and new books that came in his way, and make a daily record of all these doings. Ile also maintained a very close and friendly intercourse with his brethren in the ministry, soothing the declining years of Messrs. White and Mosely ; extending aid and counsel to perplexed Mr. Staples, and interchanging weekly visits and
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confidences with his dear friends Lee and Whitney. To young men just launching into the ministry he was especially helpful and consid- erate, and kindly encouraged them to test their powers in his pulpit. Men now remembered as hoary dignitaries in church and state were among these trembling neophytes. Daniel Waldo, the centennial chaplain of Congress, was then "a sensible, serious, growing youth, no orator, but likely to do good in the world." Ebenezer Fitch, the future president of Williams College, " preached and prayed exceed- ingly well ;" but the young man destined to important home mission work in Connecticut had unfortunately "been praised too much and made self-important." Dr. Cogswell was much pleased with Samuel Perkins of Windham, "a judicious, prudent, pious young man and fine scholar," who, against his advice and much to the regret of all, left "preaching for law." He also rejoiced in the promise shown by the grandson of Voluntown's much tried minister, Gershom Dorrance, and thanked God who raised up children in room of their parents. Young Hendrick Dow was much liked in Hampton. Parish and Tyler of Brooklyn were promising young men whom he rejoiced to see in the ministry. "Jonathan Kingsley's son James "-Yale's erudite professor-was pronounced " a very forward, likely boy."
The Scotland parsonage had its shady side as well as its sunny. The genial pastor had his own trials. One of them was a frequent head- ache, accompanied by inexplicable "luminous flashes " and loss of temper and patience. He was troubled by his own "airiness," a per- verse tendency to exceed in jokes and stories and neglect opportunities for personal religious conversation ; and still more by the flirting and frolicking of the young people under his roof and the painful necessity of administering reproof to them. Even some of his young ministers were found to be dangling after his wife's granddaughters. He was harassed in money matters, receiving his small salary in driblets and seldom settling with any one without throwing off a few shillings, "if it seemed to come hardly." His yearly supply of wood, cut and drawn from the ministerial wood lot by the voluntary labor of his parishioners on a day set apart for that purpose, gave him much anxiety, the vary- ing height of the wood-pile in successive years marking his rise or fall in the affections of his people, while his mind was always exercised in regard to the " treat " befitting the occasion, lest the women should lay themselves out too much or the hungry swarm of volunteers fail of a full supply. Then his sensitiveness was sometimes wounded by the jokes and banters of the rough wood-choppers, especially when they turned upon the seating of the meeting-house, and he was obliged to remind them "that it was too serious a subject to be merry about." But though so troubled in collecting his legal rates and dues, Dr. Cogs-
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
well was aghast at the proposal to abolish them. If people would not half pay their ministers under legal compulsion what would they do without it? If ministers could hardly live with rates they would cer- tainly starve without them. The talk of setting aside the religious constitution of the State and depriving the government of any jurisdic- tion in religious worship and affairs, filled the Doctor with consternation and he believed that such action would " tend to the great injury if not to the total overthrow of religion." The increasing laxity of the times, the growth of Universalism, infidelity, French Jacobinism, and anti- Federalism also alarmed him greatly, but hardly gave him so much personal annoyance as the high Calvinism and Hopkinsianism then coming into fashion. With such ministerial brethren as professed themselves " willing to be damned if it were for the glory of God," Dr. Cogswell had no sympathy. Such depths of self-abnegation were wholly beyond his attainment. He preferred the half-way Covenant and Calvinism very much diluted, and thought it a great mistake "to dlebar the unregenerate from so potent a means of grace as partaking of the sacrament."
But by far the greatest of all Dr. Cogswell's ministerial trials was the prevalence of "Sectaries." Separates and Ana-baptists were thorns in his flesh throughout his long ministry. Natural amiability and engrafted charity and philosophy failed to reconcile him to their existence, or to enable him to see the least good in them. Avoidance of rate-paying was the sceret spring of all schism and separation. The ruling passion of the Separates was avurice. His contemporary, John Palmer, pronounced by candid, competent testimony a most excellent man and devoted christian laborer, figures in Dr. Cogswell's journal as a mischief-maker and liar, and a sensational young Baptist exhorter of great popularity he reports as " an Universalist, a Socinian and proba- bly a DEIST." These " Ana-baptists " were in his estimation as bad as the Separates and acted the same part, breaking up churches and drawing off church members. The "religious stir " in the north part of the town, in which large numbers were awakened and professed conversion, he regarded with great suspicion and anxiety, and records in his journal with apparent endorsement the remark of a zealous adherent of the standing order-"That such teachers as come into a neighborhood, and take off from the standing and stated worship, and endeavor to seduce opinion, deserve to be whipped out of town."
The happy family eirele met with many bereavements. A second Elizabeth Devotion, daughter of Judge Devotion, "a lovely, charming girl, blooming as the rose of June," was suddenly smitten with mys- terions disease, a loathing for food and chink which baffled the utmost skill of the physicians, and after four months languishing ended her
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life, " aged eleven years, eleven months and twice eleven days." The bereaved father never recovered from this loss but went down into the grave in a few years, mourning. Dr. Cogswell's oldest son, James, died while yet in the prime of life, in New York city, where he had become eminent for professional skill, and unobtrusive but effective piety His second son, Samuel, died September, 1790, from the accidental discharge of a gun.
The pastor and his family were also called to sympathize in many neighborhood afflictions and calamities. Within one week they attended the funerals of Mrs. William Cary and her three daughters, all dying of throat distemper. One Sabbath spring morning the people flocking to church discovered a strange object dangling from a beam in a carriage house, and find the lifeless body of one of the village young men, a promising youth of cheerful temper with a good home and happy prospects, and no known losses or crosses that could give the least clue to his self-destruction. This "tragical event " deeply affected the whole community. The aged mother of the deceased was bowed to the earth but did not murmur. Dr. Cogswell with his usual self-distrust was troubled to know what to say with propriety upon so delicate an occasion, but succeeded in satisfying both friends and public by a most impressive and appropriate discourse upon the words of the Saviour-" Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things ?" Still more distressing was the sudden death of one of the prominent men of Windham, a son of one of her most honored families, who had fallen into evil courses, amassed property dishonora- bly, officiated "as head to a drinking club-a striking instance to warn mankind against profligacy of manners and irreligion." A few months later three fast young men of most respectable families " drank Geneva rum on a wager at Dorrance's tavern till all were drunk," and then started off " for a Voluntown frolic." One of them, suffering from effects of the Presidential influenza, was much over- come and unable to proceed beyond Scotland village. His companions becoming alarmed carried him into Tracy's shop, called in medical assist- ance but were unable to arouse him, and the unhappy young man died in a short time. Dr. Cogswell, called up "to pray with the corpse," was at no loss for expressions on this occasion, but was carried out of himself in awe and horror at such an end of such a life-" relatives sad and serious : spectators solemn ; the father most deeply affected." Such were some of the fruits of the prevailing levity and license.
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