USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut > Part 10
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A notable feature of the later years of the war was the num- ber of very young men, lads of fourteen and upwards, who en- listed if permitted to do so, or attached themselves to some pop- ular officer. Samuel Calvin Adams, of Canterbury, not then quite fourteen years of age, waited upon Captain Aaron Cleve- land at the time of Governor Tryon's assault upon Horse-Neck, and saw General Putnam plunge down the steep bluff, while the bullets of the baffled dragoons were whizzing around him and some even passing through his hat. William Eaton of Wood- stock, at the age of sixteen ran away from home to join the army, and prevailed upon Captain Dana to receive him as his servant. John Pettengill, of Windham, enlisted at fourteen and served till the close of the war under the same popular leader. Levi Bingham, of Windham, entered the service at fifteen. Daniel Waldo, at seventeen served a month under Captain William Howard at New London, and then enlisted under Captain Na- thaniel Wales for continental service. Many a household was forced reluctantly to part with even its Benjamin. Laban, the youngest son of Barzillai Fisher, appeared before his aunt one morning at daylight with a gun upon his shoulder. "O, Laban, you are not going ! " besought his distressed aunt. "Yes," he answered cheerily, "but don't tell father," and off he went to suffer and die in the Jersey prison ship.
After the removal of the seat of war to the Southern states Windham had less occasion for active participation, though still called to raise her quota of men and supplies for protection of the state and continental service. Of fifteen hundred men raised by Connecticut in May, 1780, for six months' continental service the quotas of the towns of Windham were as follows: Ashford, 17; Canterbury, 9 ; Coventry, 18 ; Killingly, 37 ; Lebanon, 36; Mansfield, 20; Plainfield, 16; Pomfret, 25 ; Union, 6; Volun- town, 17; Windham 34, and Woodstock 20. The towns at once made provision for enlisting these men, but before it was ac-
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complished a thousand men were called for to serve for three years. Windham offered £20 in money, equal to wheat at five shillings a bushel, as a bounty for recruits. In December she offered £12 in silver money as a bounty for the first year and £9 silver for each succeeding year. Plainfield offered £100 to any five men who would enlist for three years. Other towns were equally generous in offering bounties, and the quotas were filled without resorting to a draft.
Notwithstanding the continued demand for men, money and supplies, and the little apparent progress made by the conti- nental arms, the prospects were brightening. La Fayette had returned full of hope and courage. France was taking part in favor of American liberty more decidedly and heartily. The marching of Gates and his division through Plainfield, Canter- bury and Windham on their withdrawal from Newport, the quartering of the French Huzzars at Windham for a week and at Lebanon through the winter of 1780-81, gave new life and stimulus, and encouraged the people to hope for better days. In 1781 the patriots of Windham, eagerly watching the signs of the times, heard dim rumors of more fleets and troops on the way from France, and treasure to the amount of fifteen tons of silver in French hornpipes; and in June they were treated to the sight of Rochambeau's grand army as it marched from Newport to Hartford. " Magnificent in appearance, superb in discipline," with banners and music, it passed in four divisions through the county. The major part took the great highway through Volun- town, Plainfield, Canterbury and Windham, where all the coun- try people from far and wide flocked to the Providence road to see the brave array pass by. Barrack masters appointed by the governor and his council met them at every stopping place and provided suitable accommodations. A hundred eager school boys in Plainfield village gave them vociferous welcome. In Windham they encamped for a day or two, where they were visited by all the leading patriots. It is supposed that one of these divisions took the more northerly route to Hartford, through Killingly, Pomfret and Ashford. Tradition confidently asserts the passing of the French army through these towns, and points out the very place of their encampment in Abington. The accompanying tradition that Washington and La Fayette were with the army appears hardly probable, as the latter was with the southern forces in June, 1781, at which time the army
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is supposed to have passed through here. It seems more prob- able that the visit of the two generals was at some other time, perhaps after the cessation of hostilities. They are reported to have passed a night at Grosvenor's, in Pomfret, waited for breakfast at the hearth-stone of the Randall house in Abington, and spent another night at Clark's tavern in Ashford, where their names are still to be seen upon an antique window pane.
April 19th, 1783, Washington announced the cessation of hos- tilities. We hear but little of festivities and noisy demonstra- tions of rejoicing on the reception of this welcome tidings. The joy of the citizens of Windham county was perhaps too deep for such expression. It had been a long, hard, earnest struggle- one that involved questions of life and death. Many precious lives had been sacrificed. There had been great expenditure of money and forces; there were hard problems still to face; and so the rejoicings were mostly expressed by religious solemni- ties. As the people repaired to the sanctuary when they sent out the first soldiers to the war, so when the war closed and the soldiers returned, they again found their way to the house of God to give expression to the mingled feelings which must have filled their bosoms. It may have been difficult indeed to discern the noise of the shout of joy from that of the weeping of the people, for in the galleries and in the great pews there were many vacant places. The aged deacons who sat beneath the pulpit had laid their precious sons upon the altar. There were other parents there whose sons had been stricken; there were widows bowed with grief ; there were children who were father- less; there were fair young girls whose hearts still yearned for missing lover and brother, and thanks for the great blessings of peace and independence were hallowed by a deep consciousness of the great price that had been paid for them.
With the close of the war and the return of peace the attention of the people was turned to the question of organizing society anew and resuming the ordinary labors and habits of a time of peace. The citizens of Windham county went vigorously to work, adapting themselves to the new social and political condi- tions with which the establishment of a new form of government surrounded them. One of the first things to be done was to rid society of the few tories which infested it. No formal process of ejection was served upon them, but somehow they were given to understand that they would be no longer tolerated here, and
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it appears that they heeded the admonitions of the situation. The principles of the modern " boycott " were applied to them. The Sons of Liberty had ordered that no mills should grind for a tory, and that no merchant should sell goods to one of that class. By various means the lives of tories were made so un- comfortable here that most of them preferred to leave the coun- ty rather than endure the conditions of remaining. A few were among that notable band of refugees who left New York in Sep- tember, 1783, to seek new homes in Nova Scotia. Only a few re- mained and suffered the partial sacrifice of their property by confiscation.
Now arose a voice of complaint which, though raised before, had been stifled amid the confusion of louder calls upon the public ear, but now sounded with more distinct and conspicu- ous force. This voice of complaint came from the soldiers who had fought the battles of the revolution and had returned with- out satisfactory pay for their services. Some had received no pay at all, while others who were nominally paid received their pay in scrip which was little better than worthless. So thorough- ly demoralized were the finances of the country, and to such an extent had the continental currency depreciated that a hundred dollars of it would hardly buy a meal's victuals. With such a low condition of the circulating medium it is easy to see what extremes of injustice might result to those who had loaned money or entered into contracts when the nominal unit of value was fifty or a hundred fold greater than it was at this time and they were compelled to receive pay in the depreciated currency.
Various attempts were now made to organize other towns, and one even to organize a new county, but nothing was effected ex- cept that the towns of Union and Coventry were withdrawn from this county to become parts of the newly formed county of Tolland, which was organized by act of general assembly in 1786.
The consideration of the new constitution of the United States now involved much of the attention of the people. Public opinion was at first greatly divided in regard to it. In Novem- ber, 1787, the towns of the county were instructing their dele- gates in the general assembly in regard to it. The proposed document was publicly read and warmly debated in the several towns, assembled for the purpose. By many it was looked upon with suspicion, as calculated to rob their state of its rights and
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give too much power to the general government. But the coun- sels of wisdom prevailed and most of the towns accepted the constitution, though Pomfret, Woodstock, Mansfield and one of the Lebanon delegates withheld their consent. The great ma- jority of the people of the county, however, approved of the ac- tion of the state convention in adopting the constitution and the final result was ratified with general rejoicings. At the conven- tion which assembled at Hartford January 3d, 1788, adopting the constitution, Windham county was represented by the fol- lowing delegates: Windham-Eliphalet Dyer and Jedidiah El- derkin ; Canterbury-Asa Witter and Moses Cleveland ; Ash- ford- Simeon Smith and Hendrick Dow; Woodstock-Stephen Paine and Timothy Perrin ; Thompson-Daniel Larned ; Kil- lingly-Sampson Howe and William Danielson ; Pomfret-Jon- athan Randall and Simon Cotton ; Brooklyn-Seth Paine ; Plainfield-James Bradford and Joshua Dunlap ; Voluntown- Moses Campbell and Benjamin Dow; Lebanon-William Wil- liams and Ephraim Carpenter; Mansfield-Constant Southworth and Nathaniel Atwood.
CHAPTER VII.
WINDHAM COUNTY UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
Progress after the War .- Immigration and Commercial Enterprise .- The lot of the Farmers .- Moral and Religious Declension .- Slavery disappearing .- Remnants of Indian Tribes .- Educational Interests .- Teachers .- Newspapers. -Social Conditions .- Domestic Customs .- Manufacturing Enterprises begin. -The War of 1812 .- Party Spirit .- Revival of the Patriotic Spirit .- Recruit- ing .- Organization of Troops .- First Summons to Arms, June 21st, 1813 .- Another Call in September .- To Relief of New London. August 9th, 1814 .- On Guard at Stonington .- Peace restored, 1815 .- Appropriate Celebrations of the Event.
P ASSING over a period of about twenty-five years, we pause to look again at the condition of the people of Windham county, and to note the changes that have been made in the course of that time as the citizens went forward with the work of building up a prosperity which should in after years make them strong and vigorous of muscle, means and principle to maintain the contests into which subsequent years were to bring them. We find that the twenty-five years was a period of growth and advancement, though the outflow of population to newer parts of our vast country had somewhat checked the increase of population. The census of 1800 showed a gain of only 728 since 1774 and an actual loss of 699 since 1790. Busi- ness enterprise, however, had been stimulated by the opening of new avenues of trade, turnpike roads and mechanical inven- tions. Several business firms traded directly with the West In- dies, owning their vessels and buying up surplus produce here, thus enriching themselves and at the same time greatly benefit- ting the farming interests of many of these towns. Other towns, in which the facilities for farming were fewer, had turned their attention to manufacturing. Keen eyes watched with eager in- terest 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 as early as 1806. The manufacture of paper, potash, pottery, bricks, boots, shoes
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and hats was carried on to a considerable extent. At that time, however, wealth had not begun to roll into the laps of the fav- ored ones in such masses as has been seen in later times. Money making as a fine art was probably not the absorbing theme of the minds of that time. Rich men were few. The farmer who owned land free from incumbrance, professional men and traders might indeed secure a competence, but it is doubtful if a majority of the population could do much more than make a scanty livelihood. Children were numerous, trades few and wages low. Three shillings a day, paid in produce, was the common price for farm laborers, and a workingwoman would drudge through the week for two and sixpence. Ten dollars a month for a schoolmaster and five shillings a week for a schoolma'am were deemed ample wages. Young men roved about in spring, swingling flax and tow on shares and picking up such odd jobs as they could find. Young men found it very difficult to make their way in the world, and it was only after years of hard, self-sacrificing labor that they could save enough to stock a farm, even in the most meagre manner. Clothing was expensive, and partly owing to this fact and partly owing to the more favorable fact that it was durable in those days, it was common for a good suit of clothes to be worn almost a life time, and until men could be distinguished as far as the eye could see them by the well known peculiarity of some feat- ure of their clothing ..
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 preva- lent. But there was now evidence of a turn in the tide. The immediate effects of the war, always demoralizing, were being obliterated, and the public mind was awaking to a sense of its condition. Intemperance in drinking intoxicants was de- nounced, and plans were discussed for the suppression of vice and immoralities. The evils of rum drinking were set forth by printed publications intended to arrest the attention of the thoughtful and instruct the young to avoid the snare of the drinking habit. 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 influ- ences, and the ministry at large was awaking more and more to the demands of the hour and striving to arouse the churches to
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
a higher sense of individual responsibility and a more general co-operation in aggressive Christian labor. There were in the county in 1806, about forty religious societies, each having a church organization and a place of worship. Of these, twenty were Congregational, thirteen Baptist, four Methodist, two Sep- arate, and one Episcopal.
In accordance with the statutes of 1783, forbidding the im- portation of slaves and providing for the gradual emancipation of slave children, the institution had nearly died out. Uncon- genial as it was with the spirit of society here, it died almost unnoticed, of its own spontaneous decay. Negroes who had served during the revolution generally received their freedom at that time. Many born in slavery were manumitted by their owners. The old house servants were generally retained for life, and were comfortably supported. Many of the younger negroes sought employment in the large towns.
The aboriginal inhabitants also were fast disappearing. Rem- nants of ancient tribes might still be found on reservations in Woodstock and Brooklyn, as alien 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 sort of common charge. A few wandering Indians with no fixed home roved about from town to town, extorting tribute of food and cider. Noah Uncas, Little Olive, Eunice Squib and Hannah Leathercoat were familiar figures of this class, grim, gaunt and taciturn, stalking in single file along highway or turn- pike. Mohegans still made their annual pilgrimages up the Quinebaug. These various representatives of a fallen dynasty were usually treated with kindness and consideration, strongly seasoned, however, with contempt, the Indian of that period holding much the same position as the negro of a later period.
The educational interests were, at the time of which we speak, 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 with greater regularity and efficiency. But the ordinary school house was yet very rude and primitive. A typical house of this class has been described by a man who knew it as a boy, as follows : " It was a wooden building about twenty feet square, underpinned at the four
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
corners with common stones. It was boarded, clapboarded, the roof shingled, and an outer door, no porch or entry, at the south- east 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 standard of qualifications of teachers was low, compared with that of the present time, the range of subjects being mainly reading, writing, arithmetic, sewing and the catechism; the price paid teachers was correspondingly low; but the results show that they were more efficient in securing the vital objects of public education than the popular voice of the present boast- ing age would permit us to believe. The brightest and most capable young men generally secured the position of teachers, and the energy of their youthful blood sustained the enthu- siasm of their minds and inspired their younger charges to the most effective mental achievements. The few subjects taught were thoroughly learned, and often a thirst for investigation and further knowledge was excited which found gratification in the solid, standard works to be found in the different town libraries. Increasing interest in education was manifested in the establishment of academies and high schools and the mul- tiplication of these useful libraries.
The people of Windham county were among the foremost in recognizing the value of the newspaper as a popular educator. When we speak of the newspaper as a popular educator we mean the newspaper of that time and the class of later times that are aiming to elevate mankind by wholesome teachings and profitable intelligence-not the indiscriminate newspaper which daily or weekly throws to its readers a mass of the slimiest filth that it dare put in print, or at best the most worthless literary froth which its hireling writers can spin out. While other localities similarly circumstanced in most other re- spects were counting their newspaper subscribers by twos or threes, the towns of this county were counting theirs by scores. For example, in 1778, Joseph Carter, of Canterbury, a post-rider,
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carried the Hartford Gasette to twenty-five families in Scotland parish, to forty-three in Westminster parish, and to forty-five in the First Society of Canterbury. The Providence papers were also widely circulated, and the Windham Herald had twelve hund- red subscribers early in the present century. Almost every town had its " newspaper class," neighbors joining together that they might have a larger variety.
The social conditions of that time have so completely passed away that the historian must in justice review them to prevent the memory of them entirely passing from the knowledge of men. The great kitchen, with its log fire in the huge chimney, and its high-backed settle keeping the draughts out, its bare sanded floor, and round-topped table tipping back into an arm chair, its wheels and reels and various working appurtenances, 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 diversified operations of the domestic routine. The fabrication of cloth taxed the united energies of the household. Strong arms were needed to break and swingle the stubborn flax fibre, cleanse and separate the matted fleece, ere feminine hands could undertake the hatcheling and carding. Children, grandparents and feeble folk could wind up the quills and turn the reel while the sturdy matron and her grown-up daughters accomplished their "day's work " at the loom or spinning wheel. The various kinds and grades of cloth needful for family use-sheeting, toweling, blankets, coverlets, heavy woolen cloth for men's wear in winter and tow cloth for summer, woolen stuff, linsey-woolsey and ginghams for women and children-were mainly manufactured at home. And when to this Herculean labor was added the making of butter and cheese, the care of pickling and preserv- ing a year's supply of beef and pork, making sausages, running candles and other necessary work, but little time was left for
labors of fancy and ornamentation. The homespun gowns were made up in the simplest fashion. Perambulating tailors cut and made the heavy garments for men, and itinerant shoe- makers fashioned the family shoes from cowhides and calfskins produced on the premises. Bean porridge, baked pork and beans, boiled meat and vegetables, rye and Indian bread, milk, cheese and cider, with plenty of shad and salmon in their sea- son, and a good goose or turkey at Thanksgiving, made up the
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
bill of fare. Butchers and markets were yet almost unknown, but a self-regulating meat exchange was found in every com- munity, several neighbors by mutual understanding slaughter- ing each an animal in turn, and exchanging the fresh meat, so each was served with fresh meat during a considerable part of the season. The salt then used was bought in great chunks, and had to be ground at the grist mills, where a day was occa- sionally set apart for this specific kind of work.
The beginnings of the manufacturing era, to which Windham county mainly owes its present material prosperity, may be set down as about the close of the last century, or the early years of the present one. Arthur and John Scholfield, who came from England in 1793, succeeded after ten or twelve years' experi- mental effort in making ready for market "double carding ma- chines, upon a new and improved plan." A machine for carding sheep's wool was set up by John Scholfield, Jr., in Jewett City, in 1804, who accommodated numerous customers by picking, breaking, carding and oiling wool at twelve cents a pound. Families in adjacent parts of this county availed themselves of this improved method of getting their work done, and the busi- ness prospered so much as to stimulate others to engage in it. In 1806 Cyrus Brewster established a mill on the falls of the Willimantic, where he did the same work as that mentioned above for nine cents a pound in cash, or eleven cents "other pay." Other machines in other parts of the county soon followed. About this time the introduction of machinery for manufactur- ing cotton furnished new food for the enterprise and activity of the people. This was the establishment of the Pomfret Manu- facturing Company at the present site of the village of Putnam, the first cotton factory in Windham county. The works were set in operation April 1st, 1807. Other cotton factories followed in the neighboring towns with such rapidity as to cause alarm in the minds of some. The Windham Herald in November, 1811, after stating that the number of cotton mills within thirty miles of Providence had increased within two years from thirty-nine to seventy-four, asks the startling question: "Are not the peo- ple running cotton-mill mad ?" But for all that the cotton mills continued to be erected and the people connected with them prospered.
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