USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut, Volume II, 1760-1880 > Part 46
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387
LINE MEETING-HOUSE, ETC.
Dow, Samuel and William Gallup, Samuel and James Gordon, John Douglas, Kinne, Keigwin, Tucker, Frink, Campbell, Adams, Burgess, and John Stewart, agreed. February 24, 1794, to give certain sums for the erection of a new meeting-house. A convenient site on the line between the towns was given by Mr. James Gordon. In 1797, it was voted to sell the pew ground at vendue to raise money to finish the house. This being accomplished after two years' labor, a new disap- pointment awaited the society. Rev. Micaiah Porter, their pastor for nineteen years, decided upon removal. Mr. Porter, like his prede- cessor, had married one of his congregation, Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Isaac Gallup, and it was hoped that he would spend his days amongst them ; but continued losses and changes made it difficult to support a Congregational pastor, The old Presbyterian element had nearly disappeared, a large proportion of the existing population was Baptist, and the remnant of the standing church joined with them in worship. Elder Amos Crandall, an Open Communion Baptist, ocen- pied the Line meeting-house every alternate Sabbath for several years, preaching to a small congregation. The Nazareth church grad- ually wasted away. Mr. Morgan was dismissed in 1782, after a ten years' pastorate. In 1793, "taking into consideration their destitute and broken state, destitute of a pastor and deprived of the regular administration of ordinances, a large proportion removed by death,"- the few remaining members reunited in covenant and made an earnest effort to maintain public worship. Brother Allen Campbell was per- mitted to preach and expound, and the sacrament was administered from time to time by Separate ministers. A company of subscribers now erected a small meeting-house " at the cross-roads west of John Campbell's "-Moses Campbell, John Stewart, Jas. Wylie, committee ; James Alexander and James Campbell, Jun., to apportion out to each subscriber his part of building material. This house was long used by the town for public meetings, but the church became extinct before the close of the century.
In town affairs there was little occurring of special interest. Allen Campbell, James Alexander, Joseph Wylie served as justices ; Moses and Samuel Robbins, Nicholas Randall and William Gallup were sent as representatives. With other towns Voluntown was interested in the proposed change of county seat, and appointed delegates to con- sult measures for removing the place for holding courts to Brooklyn. Increasing attention was given to the utilization of its woods and water privileges, and a forge established for the manufacture of iron. A library association was formed in 1792, and a hundred volumes procured.
388
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
XIV.
WINDHAM COUNTY IN 1800. POPULATION. BUSINESS. MORALS. RELIGION. SCHOOLING. SOCIAL CONDITION.
TN the preceding pages we have carried our Windham townships from the close of the Revolutionary War to the dawn of a new era of development. In this twenty-five years there had been growth and advancement, though the constant outflow to new countries had checked the increase of population. The census of 1800* showed a loss of 699 since 1790, and a gain of only 728 since 1774. Ashford, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Plainfield, Voluntown and Windham had been losers. The largest gains were in Killingly and Thompson. Business enterprise had been stimulated by the opening of new avenues of trade, turnpike roads and mechanical inventions. Several business firms traded directly with the West India islands, owning their own vessels and buying up much surplus produce, whereby the farming interests of many towns had been greatly benefited. Towns with fewer farming facilities had turned attention to mannfactures. Keen eyes watched with eager interest the various attempts now made to supersede by machinery the slow and painful processes of hand labor. Machines for carding wool were brought into the County in 1806. The manufacture of paper, potash, pottery ware, bricks, boots, shoes and hats was carried on to a considerable extent. Yet notwithstanding the apparent briskness of business, and the laborious industry of the great mass of the population, money was not plenty. Rich men were rare. The farmer who owned land free from inenmbrance, profes- sional men and traders, might indeed secure a competence, but it is doubtful if a majority of the population could do more than make a scanty livelihood. Children were numerons, trades few, wages low. Three shillings a day, paid in produce, was the common price for farm laborers, and a working woman would drudge through the week for
Ashford, 2,445. Brooklyn, 1,202. Canterbury, 1,812. Hampton, 1,379. Killingly, 2,279. Plainfield, 1,619. Pomfret, 1,802. Sterling, 908. Thomp- son, 2,341. Voluntown, 1,119. Windham, 2.644. Woodstock, 2,463. White population of the towns now forming Windham County in 1800, 22,013. Slaves, 31. Free negroes and Indians not given. Rate list in 1800 :-
Windham $64,272 20 Pomfret
55,154 54
Canterbury
48,037 48
Sterling 20,873 12
Ashford
61,367 41
Thompson
Brooklyn
50,932 95 35,600 90 Hampton
38,321 01 Voluntown 20,923 20 Killingly
Woodstock 62,821 04
41,027 32
Plainfield
39,826 22
Amount
. $539,157 39
389
POPULATION, BUSINESS, ETC.
two and six-penee. A faithful "hired man" carried on General Cleveland's farm, managing all his out-door affairs, for seventy dollars a year. A poor man has been known to walk miles with his little boys and work hard all day digging potatoes for one bushel out of ten. Ten dollars a month for a school-master and five shillings a week for a school-ma-am, was deemed ample wages. Young menroved about in spring, swingling flax and tow ou shares, and picking up any odd jobs they could find. The few ways for earning money made it very difficult for a young man to make his way in the world, and after years of hard labor he would hardly save enough to stock a farm without the closest economy. General Cleveland's man, with bare feet, tow cloth frock and breeches, and no family to support, accumu- lated quite a fortune, but those who married young found it very difficult to provide for their families. The poverty of the Notts of Ashford, who are reported to have worked their one cow upon the farm because they could not afford horse or oxen, and lived chiefly upon brown bread and milk and bean-porridge, was not without its parallel in other households. So difficult was it in many cases to provide even such seemingly indispensable articles as shoes and stock- ings, that it was a common practice for young girls to walk barefoot to meeting, donning those hoarded treasures just before entering the house of worship. Numberless instances are reported of men who made one "Sunday suit" last a life-time. Quaint old figures toiling up to the meeting-house could be identified as far as the eye could reach, by the old cocked hat, many-caped great-coat, or some other striking peculiarity of their time-honored costumes.
In accordance with the statutes of 1783, forbidding slave importa- tion and providing for the gradual emancipation of children of slave parentage, slavery had nearly died out. An abnormal excrescence, incongruous and uncongenial, it dropped off without apparent notice. Blacks who had served during the Revolution generally received their freedom at that time. General Putnam freed his body servant, Dick, and bought a farm for his Indian servants. "General Job " of Canter bury lived to receive a pension for his services. Many born in slavery were mannmitted by their owners. The old house servants were gen- erally retained for life and comfortably supported. Deacon Gray of Windham kept his old negroes in a cabin, where he supplied them with food. Many of the younger negroes sought employment in large towns. The aboriginal inhabitants were fast disappearing. Remnants of an- cient tribes might yet be found on reservations in Woodstock and Brooklyn, as alieu from the people around them as if they belonged to another order of beings. Almost every town had its one Indian family, familiar to all, and regarded as a common charge. The Mooch sisters
390
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
of Scotland, Josh and Martha Sousamon of Killingly, "Old Quanto," of Pomfret, were well-known characters in their respective towns, and assumed something of the habits of civilization-the Mooch's and Sonsamons miting with Christian churches. A few wandering Indians with no fixed home roved abont from town to town extorting tribute of food and cider. Noah Uncas, Little Olive, Ennice Squib and Hannah Leathercoat, were familiar figures, grim, gaunt and taci- turn. stalking in single file along highway and turnpike. Mohegans still made their annual pilgrimages up the Quinebang. These various representatives of a fallen dynasty were usually treated with kind- ness and consideration, strongly seasoned with contempt-the " In- jun" of that date holding much the position of the succeeding " nigger."
In morals there had appeared at the beginning of this period a marked deterioration. Rum was used without stint; Sabbath- breaking, profanity and loose-living were increasingly prevalent. Yet there were now indications that the supreme ebb had been reached and the tide was slowly turning. The public had awakened to a sense of its condition. Intemperance in drinking was denounced and plans discussed for the suppression of vice and immoralities. The Wind- ham Her ild, while advertising in its columns the usual variety of tempting liquors at astonishingly low prices, would often balance the sheet by such advanced temperance documents as " The Drunkard's Looking-glass :" "The Moral and Physical Thermometer of the Vices, Diseases and Punishment" resulting from Intemperance, and a new " Drunkard's Catechism,"* prepared expressly for the instruction of
* Question. What is the chief end of Rum? Answer. The chief end of Rum is to make toddy, fip and punch. Q. What are the benefits which tipplers receive from toddy, tip and punch? A. Peace of conscience, joy in the comforter, increase of love thereto, and perseverance therein to the end. RUM. Q. Who is the comforter? A. Q. Into what state will the love of Rum, and a perseverance in the use of it, bring mankind? A. A drunken state. Q. What otlice doth a man execute who is a drunkard? A. The otlice of a beast both in his state of humiliation and exaltation. Q. Wherein consists a drunkard's exaltation? A. In a triumph over reason, fear and common sense, in the prostration of dignity, reputation and honor, and in contempt of Death and the Devil. Q. Wherein does a drunkard's humilia- tion consist ? A. In his being senseless, and that in a low condition, lying under the table, rolling in the dirt and wallowing in uncleanness. Then fol- low pain, loss of appetite, trembling hands, with idleness, inattention to business, want, poverty and distress. Friends nogleet him, diseases torment him, exeentions vex him, ereditors tease him, sheriff's seize him, and the prison opens its doors to take him in-Surely it is an evil way and the end thereof is sorrow.
The " punishments" accruing from the use of rum as noted by Dr. Rush's thermometer, were :- " Debt, black eyes, rags, hunger, alms-house, work- house, jail, whipping-post, stocks, Castle Island, Newgate, gallows. And unless repentance should prevent they will share in the punishment prepared for the Devil and his angels." As a substitute for this pernicious beverage,
----
391
MORALS, RELIGION, ETC.
vonth. A religious revival had preceded this attempted reformation in morals. Methodism had done a good work in reaching a class removed from religious and restraining influences, and the ministry at large was awakening more and more to the demands of the hour, and striving to arouse the churches to a higher sense of individual respon- sibility and more general cooperation in aggressive Christian labor. The number of religious societies in 1806, with each its church organization and place of worship, was about forty, viz .: Congrega- tionalists, twenty ; Baptists, thirteen ; Methodists, four : Separate, two ; Episcopalian, one. About forty families, mostly in Woodstock and Thompson, were connected with the Universalist Society of Oxford, under the charge of Rev. Thomas Barnes and his successors. Though other denominations were now rapidly gaining ground, the original churches in their established parishes still kept the lead, and the Windham County Association of ministers continued to exercise their official prerogatives as guides and guardians of the churches and censors of the public morals. Many knotty points of doctrine and practice were discussed and settled in their frequent meetings. They were called to consider in 1786 that most searching question then widely agitated :- " Whether a person ought to be willing to be damned for the glory of God ?" "The negative ingeniously and learn- edly supported by arguments from Scripture and reason." It was voted at the same date, " That the neglect of family prayer is a censura- ble evil," (i. e., amenable to public censure by the church). In 1799, it was "judged inexpedient withont urgent necessity to travel on the Sabbath from one parish to another for exchanging ministerial labors." " Deacons ought to be ordained by prayer and imposition of the hands." Increasing ministerial assumption was manifested in change of title. At first they had simply styled themselves the associated pastors or ministers of the County ; now they met on several occasions as an " Assembly of Bishops," while their Judaizing parishioners loved best to consider them as "Priests." The Hopkinsianism and High Calvinism of the younger generation of clergy led to a division of the Association in 1799, not by lines as in some cases, but each choosing to which of the associations he would be annexed. The Rev. Messrs. Cogswell, Whitney, Staples, Atkins, Putnam and Lee were recognized
the use of that excellent liquor, cider, was strongly recommended, contain- ing indeed "a small quantity of spirits, but so diluted and blunted by being combined with an acid and a large quantity of saccharine matter and water as to be perfectly inoffensive and wholesome. It disagrees only with persons subject to rheumatism, but it may be rendered inoffensive by extinguishing a red hot iron in it, or by diluting it with water." Beer was also suggested as "a wholesome liquor, abounding with nourishment." Extracts from Wind- ham Herald, 1797-1800.
392
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
as the Eastern Association of Windham County. The original Asso- ciation proposed the following May to effect a more formal consocia- tion according to the provisions of Saybrook Platform. Messrs. Welch, Sherman, Waterman, Ely and Dow were appointed a commit- tee " to collect from the Scriptures and throw light on the subject as they may be enabled." Fifteen ministers with delegates met in con- vention at Mansfield, November, 1800, to consider the report. "The Plan of Consociation " embraced the following articles :-
"I. The Consociation shall consist of those Pastors and Churches, by delegation, who agree to adopt this and the following articles; which shall be the constitution of Church Government for the Consociation of Windham County, and shall go into operation when nine churches shall agree to and adopt the same.
V. The Consociation shall have cognizance of all things that regard the welfare of the particular churches belonging to the body. Particularly,
1. They shall be considered as having the right at all times to originate and adopt for themselves, and propose to the churches any rules or regula- tions, which they may judge to be calculated for the edification and well ordering of the same.
2. It shall be considered as their duty to assist the pastors and churches of the body by their counsel and advice in any cases of difficulty, when applied to for the purpose.
3. They shall have a right to censure irreclaimable pastors, churches, or individual members of the churches of the body who fall into heretical senti- ments or scandalous immoralities, upon complaints regularly laid before them.
4. A complaint can not be received by this body, or considered as coming regularly before them, unless the previous steps have been taken pointed out by our Lord in Matt. XV., 15, 16, 17.
5. When a member of any partienlar church belonging to this body shall view himself aggrieved or injured by his being laid under censure, he shall have the right of appeal to the Consociation.
VI. Pastors elected by churches belonging to the Consociation shall pre- viously to their ordination be approved by the body of their committee. The Consociation shall also examine and approbate candidates for the Gospel ministry.
X. The foregoing articles may be amended by calling a special convention whenever a majority of the churches shall signify their desire for the same to the Consociation.
Voted, unanimously, in convention, that we agree to the foregoing articles as a system of church government agreeable to the Word of God; and they are accordingly recommended to the several churches for their concurrence and adoption."
It was also voted " that the committee prepare this plan for the press, together with some arguments and Scripture proof in support of it, adding thereto a serious address to the churches on the subject of christian union and fellowship." Seven churches adopted the plan and were formally consociated. The Eastern Association looked with much suspicion upon this hierarchical combination and declined to transfer to it any proper Association business. Deprecating the High church and High Calvinistic tendencies of the times, it made
393
RELIGION, SCHOOLING, ETC.
little apparent effort to influence public sentiment, its members enjoy- ing the pleasure of sympathetic fraternal intercourse varied by oeca- sional sparrings with their western brothers. Highly conservative in usage they suggested one innovation, "That when sermons are delivered at the meeting-house at funerals, prayers at the house of death before carrying out the body are improper." The sympathies of these ministerial brethren were deeply touched by the trials and loneliness of their venerated father, Dr. Cogswell, and through their intercession he was removed to Hartford, where he survived till January 2, 1807. For more than sixty years he had been intimately associated with ecclesiastic and public affairs in Windham County. Pacific and even timorous by nature, he had been called to take a prominent part in most fierce and bitter controversies, and men of more positive convictions had not scrupled to question the genuineness of his christian experience. But to "patient continuance in well- doing," was added a remarkable dying testimony. When mind and memory were so impaired that he had ceased to recognize his dearest friends, ONE NAME could still aronse him. His most beloved son tried in vain to extort a word of recognition, but when he asked-" Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ ?" -- the aged face brightened and with confidence and rapture he replied-" I do know Him : He is my God and my Saviour." " Monuments in the North Burying-ground of Hart- ford preserve the memory of Dr. Cogswell with his more distinguished son," and the beloved granddaughter, whose deprivation of speech and hearing led to the foundation of the American Asylum for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, while his prolonged ministerial service, his connection with the Separate movement and his faithful chronicle of cotemporaneous events, have insured him a lasting place in the annals of Windham County.
The educational interests of Windham County were now receiving more intelligent consideration. Public schools had received a new impulse from the creation of the school fund and more stringent supervision. The district system was more fully carried out, bringing a school within the reach of every family, and schools were maintained
* " United in death here rest the remains of Mason F. Cogswell. M. D., who died December 17, 1830, aged 69 years-and of Alice Cogswell, who died December 30, 1830, aged 25 years-the Father distinguished for his private virtues and public spirit and his professional worth, and the daughter (though deprived of hearing and speech) for her intellectual attainments and loveliness of character. The American Asylum for the deaf and dumb which under Providence, owes its origin to the father's tenderness towards his child and his sympathy for her fellow-sufferers, will stand an enduring monument to their memory, when this shall have perished."
50
394
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
with greater regularity and efficiency. The ordinary school-house was yet very rude and primitive. A sufferer* thus reports :-
" It was a wooden building about twenty feet square, underpinned at the four corners with common stones. It was boarded, clapboarded, the roof shingled, and an onter door, no porch or entry, at the southeast corner. It had a loose floor made of unplaned boards, and a ceiling of the same, a chimney in one corner built of rough stone. There was a long writing-table, reaching across one side and one end of the room, and the scholars sat on both sides of the table, facing each other. They had no desks or drawers, nothing of the kind. The idea of being comfortable there never entered our minds. While we wrote our ink would freeze in our pens so that we were frequently obliged to hold them up to our mouths and thaw it with our breaths."
The qualifications required in teachers were still very limited. but the necessity of passing examination involved some degree of fitness and preparation. Yankee utilitarianism insisted upon instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, sewing and catechism, leaving less vital knowledge optional with the teacher. Notwithstanding this narrow range and the low price paid the teachers, these schools were more efficient than might at first be supposed. In Windham County as a rule the brightest and most eapable young men secured the envied position of schoolmaster, and were generally very successful in rousing the energy and ambition of their pupils. The few things taught were thoroughly learned and fixed in the mind, and often a thirst for knowl- edge was incited which found gratification in the solid, standard works of the various town libraries. Increasing interest in education and mental development was manifested in the establishment of academies and high schools, and the multiplication of these useful libraries. An unusual number of newspapers were taken in Windham County. . S. G. Goodrich in his recollections of his boyhood reports not more than three newspaper subscribers in the village of Ridgefield, Fairfield County. Joseph Carter of Canterbury, post-rider, carried the Hart- ford Gazette, in 1778, to twenty five families in Scotland Parish ; forty-three in Westminster Parish, and forty-five in the First Society of Canterbury. The Providence papers were also widely circulated, and the Windham Herald had twelve hundred subscribers early in the century. Almost every town had its " newspaper class," neighbors joining together that so they might have a large variety.
In social and domestic life there had been gradnal improvement. Each generation built better houses than the preceding. Comfort and conveniences had been sparingly introduced. Foreign goods had been brought in, and many articles once unknown were now in common use. And yet the main features of ordinary domestic life were
Eliashib Adams, Bangor, 1854. Born at Canterbury, 1773.
--
395
SOCIAL CONDITION, ETC.
unchanged. Things needful for existence had still to be wrought ont of the raw material by the separate labor of every household. Time and energies were almost wholly expended in evolving food from the flinty soil and raiment from the sheep's coat and flax stalks. Class distinctions were made in consequence far more definite and irreversi- ble. Those who by inherited wealth or successful trading were freed from the necessity of daily burdensome labor were as distinctly separate from the great mass of the population as the nobility of foreign lands. In Windham County this class was but a unit, scarcely an "upper ten " among its thousands. Its true nobility were the sons of Revolutionary fathers, the hundreds of stalwart men who stood at the head of its public affairs, the farmers, traders and artisans, who earned their bread by the sweat of their brow, and the homes of these men differed little from those of their grandfathers. The great kitchen with its log fire in the huge chimney and high-backed settle keeping the draughts out, its bare, sanded floor, and round-top table tipping back into an arm chair, its wheels and reels and various work- ing appurtenanees, its porridge kettle on the crane and dye-pot in the chimney corner, was still the general abiding-place of the whole family-for there alone could be conveniently carried on the multi- farious domestic operations.
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