USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1854 > Part 33
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From a sermon delivered by the present pastor, in April, 1853, the following extracts are taken to show the present state, and also the prosperity of the church, past and present :
4
" It is dne to the kind providence of God, my friends, to remember with gratitude the fact, that for twelve years, and even ever since your organization as a society, you have been uniformly prospered-not always equally, but still, more or less, prospered. Very little, perhaps I may say nothing has occurred, since you became a society for Christian purposes, to disturb, essentially, your unity, or the harmony of your counsels and your operations. . But from the first till now, during a period of thirty-six years, you have had a very steady and uniform prosperity. When this house was first erected, you were comparative- ly few, yet through the good resolution, firmness, and self-sacrificing spirit of the men of that day, most of whom have been gathered to their fathers, it was so far completed as to be a comfortable place for Christian worship, and at the expiration of two years, it was finished in a style to compare with the churches of that day. Under these favorable auspices, your numbers, as your popula- tion, increased, and during almost the entire ministry of my predecessor, to whom I have not a doubt, we are all of us indebted, for, at least, a considera- ble portion of the harmony and prosperity that we have enjoyed here, your course was onward. You were not broken up by divisions of sentiment, or by changes in the pastoral office ; and in consequence of frequent revivals of reli- gion during all that period, you were decidedly strengthened as a society. * * * * * *
*
" Our peace has been mostly uniform-never seriously broken-and, conse- quently, we have been able to go on in the ordinary use of the means of grace, without having to turn aside and rectify evils among ourselves. Our meetings as a church, have not been, except in a very few instances, meetings for the settlement of difficulties, but for spiritual edification. This has been true of
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us for the past twelve years, to an extent that is by no means common among the churches throughout the country, and it should be regarded as an occasion for gratitude and praise to God."
" Such indeed has been the spiritual prosperity of this church during the past twelve years, that we now have nearly the whole adult portion of the con- gregation included in the church, or among those who entertain the hope of salvation. It is confidently believed, that there is not another congregation in the State, where so large a proportion of them are regarded as Christians- where there are so few irreligions persons in proportion to the whole number."
One deacon has been appointed during the ministry of Mr. Church- ill, Reuben H. Hotchkiss, November 4th, 1842, in place of of Dea. Sherman, who had resigned. In 1846, a commodious chapel was built for the use of the society near the church, and another in Hotchkissville, for the use of the people of that neighborhood.
In 1821, a fund of $5,163 was raised by subscription among the members of the society, to
" Be and remain a perpetual fund, and the interest arising thereon shall be appropriated and applied exclusively for the support of a Minister to be ap- proved by the association of Ministers within the limits of which we live, and who shall preach the pure doctrines of the Gospel, generally called Calvinis- tick, or in conformity to the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly of Divines; and no Minister shall be entitled to receive support from this fund, unless he is approved by three-fourths of the male members of the church in the aforesaid Society. And it is explicitly stipulated, that the interest of this fund shall be applied for preaching the Gospel, in the present Meeting House of said Society, or in a house erected for public worship at the same place where their said Meeting Honse is now standing, and that no part of such in- terest shall be applied for preaching the Gospel in a house of publick worship at any other place."
On the failure of the Eagle Bank in New Haven, some years ago, $1,000 of this fund, which had been invested in the stock of that bank, was lost. Another loss of $95 has occurred. There still re- mains of the fund, the income of which is appropriated for the purposes for which it was originally raised, $4,068. Of this sum, $500 is in- vested in the stock of the Woodbury Bank. It will be seen, that here, as in the first society, the location of the present meeting-house is made perpetual, so far as the fund can do it.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CIVIL HISTORY CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER IX.
MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS FROM 1775 TO 1853 ; SLAVERY ; "REDEMPTIONERS" -- HON. MATTHEW LYON; PEST-HOUSES ; APPROVAL OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1757 ; RAVAGES OF CANKER WORMS ; PUBLIC LIBRARY, 1772, 1923 AND 1850 ; ROBBERY AT GUERNSEY TOWN; OBSEQUIES OF WASHINGTON, 1800; NEW MILFORD FEVER ; WAR OF 1512; HARTFORD CONVENTION, 1511; STATE CONSTITUTION, 1818 ; DANIEL BACON'S TOWN HALL, 1823; NEW TOWN HALL, 1545; SECTIONAL FEELING ; BURIAL CUSTOMS; NEW BURIAL GROUND, 1826; NORTH ACADEMY, 1846; SOUTH ACADEMY, 1851; MASONIC LODGE FOUNDED, 1765 ; MASONIC HALL, 1839; FIDELITY CHAPTER, 1509; POMPERAUG DIVISION, S. OF T., 1847; BETHEL ROCK LODGE, I. O. O. F., 18.17 ; WOODBURY BANK, 1951 ; WOODBURY SAVINGS BANK AND BUILDING ASSOCIATION, 1853; TRADE AND MANUFACTURES ; REMARKS.
AGAIN we address ourselves to the task of collecting and treasur- ing up the isolated facts and incidents in the history of the town, and this time the last, in this our undertaking. Although the labor has been arduous in the extreme, as we have slowly traced our way through the long years gone by, yet we can scarcely leave these com- munings with the past without regret. We part from the actors and their deeds as from old friends, and join again the thronging, rushing tide of busy life.
It will scarcely be believed by some, who have imbibed cer- tain notions so prevalent in the north, that Connecticut was ever a slave state, and that in this sequestered spot, in these re- ligious vales, in this Puritanic "dwelling-place in the wood," have been heard the "clanking chains of slavery." Yet it is but five years since that " institution" was unconditionally abolished in this state. Up to this time, slavery had existed in Woodbury, although it has been for many years reduced to the person of one superannua- ted negro, who was and is supported on the estate of his former owner.1
1 An aet passed May, 1848, abolishing slavery. There had been for a long period of years but a few superannuated slaves in this state, supported by their former masters, or their families, as was their duty to do by the statute. One such instance still ex- ists in Woodbury.
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It will be difficult for a portion of our community to believe, that the sainted Walker, Stoddard and Marshall, those men of God, those lights to the people in this wilderness for so many years, were slave- holders ; and yet such is the fact. All the leading men and men of property, in the early days, owned slaves. The fact is attested by all our records, town, probate and ecclesiastical. It is true that they were treated kindly, educated, presented in baptism, their reli- gious interests cared for, standing rather in the light of children of the household, than that of slaves ; yet were they such, bought and sold, and at the will and pleasure of their masters. During the whole of the eighteenth century, the institution flourished here, though in a mild form. The various records show, that a considerable pro- portion of the personal estate of the more opulent of the inhabitants consisted of negro servants. They became attached, in many instan- ces, to the place where they had been brought up, and lingered around the " old homesteads," long after some of them were entitled to go free by virtue of law.
Although slavery was never directly established by statute in this state, yet it was introduced in the seventeenth century, has been in- directly sanctioned by several statutes, and frequently recognized by the courts, so that it may be said to have been established by law. Importation of slaves into the state was never large, and in 1771, their importation was prohibited altogether. In the war of the Revolution, freedom was granted to all slaves, who would enlist and serve during the war. To avail themselves of this provision, some twenty-five of their number in this town enlisted at various periods of the war, and made good soldiers, fighting valiantly for the liber- ties of the country. Several of these, having survived the perils of the war, returned and resided in Woodbury, and received pensions from the general government, in common with others, for their mili- tary services.
After the elose of the war, in 1784, the legislature to effect the gradual abolition of slavery, assuming that " Policy requires that the Abolition of Slavery should be effected as soon as may be consistent with the Rights of Individuals and the public Safety and Welfare," enacted that no negro or mulatto child born after the first day of March, 1784, should be held in servitude longer than till they arrived at the age of twenty-five years ; and also provided for the emancipa- tion of slaves by masters without being liable for their support on application to the civil authority of the town, if they were in good health, were desirous of emancipation, and were between the ages of
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twenty-five and forty-five years. To prevent those entitled to free- dom at the age of twenty-five years from being held longer by unseru- pulous masters, a statute was passed in 1788, requiring all masters, within six months after the birth of each slave, to send in to the town-clerk their own names, and the names and ages of such children, under a penalty of seven dollars for each month's neglect. In 1797, children of slave mothers, born after August of that year, were to be free at the age of twenty-one years. All slaves, set free by their masters, in any other form, than is above expressed, and all who served for a time, were to be supported by their masters, if they ever came to want. Another regulation was made, that no one should carry slaves out of the state for sale. In consequence of these stat- utes, slavery gradually decreased, and had virtually disappeared, when in 1848, a statute was passed abolishing it pro forma.
By an act under the title of "Arrest" in the code of laws com- piled in 1650, and not repealed till more than one hundred and sixty- five years afterward, it was provided that if no other means could be found to pay a debt for which a debtor was imprisoned, if the ereditor required it, and the court judged it reasonable, the debtor might be disposed of in service to satisfy the debt. It is asserted to have been a common practice, for poor foreigners, who were unable to pay their passage money, to engage their passage by stipulating with the captain of the vessel which brought them to this country, that he might assign them in service to raise the money which was his due, on arrival at the port of destination. Persons assigned in this manner, were called "Redemptioners," and more than one was so held in Ancient Woodbury. Among the number was Matthew Lyon, a native of Ireland, who was assigned on his arrival in New York, to Jabez Bacon of Woodbury, who brought him home, and after enjoying his services for some time, he assigned him for the remainder of the time of service to Hugh Hannah of Litchfield, for a pair of stags, valued at £12. By dint of sterling native talent, under these most disheartening circumstances, he fought his way to fame and eminence, and was afterward a member of Congress from Vermont, and also from Kentucky. , He was one of the number con- victed under the famous " Alien and Sedition" law, and fined, but the fine was subsequently remitted by Congress. Lyon's success furnish- es a striking example of the genius of the institutions of our favored country.
About the time of the Revolution, the small-pox was the great courge of the colonies, and during that period, the soldiers were
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constantly dying of this disease. The returning soldiers frequently came home with it, and scattered it among their neighbors in this retired valley. So great was the affliction and alarm growing out of the prevalence of this disease, that searcely any one dared to under- take a journey of any length without first being inoculated with the small-pox. During the Revolution, upon the representation of Gen. Putnam that sokliers should be inoculated, liberty was granted to Dr. Isaac Foster to set up a house, or hospital for the inoculation of this disease in Woodbury. It was located east of the Orenang Rocks. In December, 1789, it was voted that
" Doct. Joseph Perry have liberty to set up the business of Inoculation in this town under such regulations as a comtee Judge proper which the town should appoint."
Hle accordingly took charge of this business for many years. At the present day, the matter is much more easily managed by inoeu- lation with the vaccine or kine pox.
As the town had been true to the cause of independence, during the dark and gloomy night of the Revolution, and expended freely its blood and treasure in the acquisition of free institutions; so after that event it was among the first to take advantage of the rights and privileges that had been gained, by a right direction of publie opin- ion. On the 12th of November. 1787, after the formation of the Constitution of the United States, and its presentation for ratification, a special town meeting was called, at which Hon. Daniel Sherman presided as moderator, and it was
" Voted, that this meeting approve of the system of government recommend- ed by the Convention of the United States."
At the same meeting Doet. Samuel Orton and Hon. Daniel Sher- man were chosen delegates to the state convention at Hartford, for the ratification of that instrument, fraught with so many interests of this widely extended country. By their active exertions they did much toward the consummation of this auspicions event. Though impressed with the right views, and taking the right course of action, little did they dream of the vast importance of that action, and the glory that should dawn on their country by the adoption of that chiar- ter of our liberties.
The convention met at Hartford, January 3rd, 1788. Woodbury at this date had parted with territory sufficient for three towns, Washington, Bethlem, and Southbury. These children of the old town were also represented in the convention, and imitated the ex-
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ample of the mother-town. Bethlem was represented by Moses Hawley, Esq. ; Washington by John Whittlesey and Daniel N. Brinsmade, Esqrs. ; and Southbury by Benjamin Stiles, Esq. The entire delegation of the ancient territory gave an affirmative vote on the question of ratification, showing themselves true to the best in- terests of the country, though the proposed constitution met much opposition in some quarters.
In 1791, the canker-worms devoured the orchards, not only here. but all over the New England states ; and their ravages were re- peated the two following years. Orchards standing in stiff clay soil, and in low grounds, which are wet in the spring, escaped ; but on all kinds of light and dry soil, the trees were almost as dry on the first of June, as on the first of January. The same insect has this year (1853) attacked the orchards in the same manner, and with the same result. The trees on the fifteenth of June, were as brown as in autumn, and almost entirely stripped of foliage. The fruit has been entirely ruined, although at the present writing, (August,) the trees have again put on a fresh garment of foliage. The eye of man could not well behold a denser shower of vermin than these trees presented.
In 1772, a public library for the use of those disposed to avail themselves of its advantages was established in the town. The best information that we have of it is contained in an extract from a let- ter written by Rev. Noah Benedict to Dr. Stiles, president of Yale College, dated December 17th, 1798;
" There is one public library in the Town. It was set up in the year 1772. It contains about 150 volumes, consisting principally of Books upon Divinity and Ecclesiastical History. However, there are other histories, and some books of amusement."
It is highly probable, that the " books of amusement" constituted no large proportion of the library, when we reflect what were the notions of that day, and even they might not be classed under the head of " amusement," were we of the present day called upon to make the classification. This library association was broken up some time after 1800, and there was nothing of the kind in town for some years after.
In 1823, another circulating library was established by about forty of the principal inhabitants of the town, under the name of the Woodbury Union Library Company. This company also " ran well for a season," and acquired a respectable number of interesting and useful books. Like other human institutions it had its rise and fall.
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It held its last meeting in 1836. Its books became scattered among those of its members who were probably the best readers, and finally went out in darkness.
The town depended on the " light of nature," and the use of pri- vate libraries, from this date till the organization of the present library in January, 1850. This library was organized on a different principle from either of the others, and thus far has prospered be- yond any former experiment. By its rules every book is to be re- turned to the library on the first Thursday of each month under severe penalty, so that each member may know, that at each succeed- ing monthly meeting all the books will be in the library. The use of the books each sneeceding month, is then put up at anction, and struck off to the highest bidder. A fund is thus raised without in- convenience to the members, sufficient without taxation, which for some reason is always odions, to make a tine addition of books to the library at each snecceding annual meeting. It has been incorporated as a body politie and corporate under a public statute of this state. enacted for such purpose, and is thus enabled to carry its regulations into effect. Its corporate name is the Woodbury Library Associa- tion, and it has about 300 volumes of well selected books on varions subjects of interest, civil, ecclesiastical and miscellaneons. Its officers are Rev. Lucius Curtiss, president, William Cothren, treasurer and librarian, and Lucius Curtiss, William Cothren, George Drakeley, Garwood II. Atwood and John E. Strong, executive com- mittee. Its influence has been for good, and has induced an increas- ed desire for reading useful books. There is no reason to doubt, that if the present system is strictly followed, there will be, in a few years, a library of which the town may well be proud.
In the spring of 1778 or 1779, an occurrence took place at Guern- sey Town, which is thus related by Barber in his Historical Collec- tions of Connecticut :
" A robbery, which at the time eansed considerable excitement in the com- munity, took place in the east part of the parish of Bethlem, called Guernsey Town, in the spring of the year 1775 or 1779, at the house of Ebenezer Guern- sey, a wealthy farmer. Mr. Guernsey had sold his farm some time before, to Isaac Baldwin of Woodbridge, who had moved in with Mr. Guernsey, and had paid him a large sum of money. Mr. Guernsey had a number of men in his employ in building a house on an adjoining farm. All in the house had retired to rest, it being late at night, except Mr. Baldwin and wife, and two young men who were in another room. Two of the robbers came in, their faces being blackened, one being armed with a gun, the other with a pistol, and ordered Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin into the room where the young men were, to be bound,
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threatening them with immediate death if they made any resistance. One of the young men made his eseape; they bound the other, and while attempting to bind Mr. Baldwin, who was a very active man, he wrenched the pistol from one of the robbers, at which the other attempted to shoot him, but he managed to keep behind the other robber till another from without came in and knocked Mr. Baldwin down with the breech of a gun, and wounded him badly. Mr. Guernsey, although somewhat deaf, was awakened by the uncommon noise, and coming into the room was knocked down and had his skull fractured ; the rest of the family made their eseape or hid themselves. The robbers rifled the house of many valuable things, but in retiring, dropped Mr. Guernsey's pocket book, which contained a large amount of continental money. One of the young men who eseaped ran three miles to Bethlem meeting-house, without stopping to give any alarm."
Under the date of the 14th day of April, 1800, there appears on the town records the following interesting vote :
"Voted that the town pay Major Cunningham 25/6, the expense of Musiek at the time the death of Gent Washington was kept."1
Thus it is seen, that Woodbury, in common with the rest of our favored land, mourned with public rites the death of the " father of his country." Amid the tolling of bells, and the booming of minute guns, the participation of our quiet valley in the general grief was betokened. A public culogy was pronounced in commemoration of the virtues of the nation's greatest benefactor, and of the public grief at the country's greatest loss. That was a sad day in the vale of Woodbury. No man in this country, if in the world, was ever mourned so widely and sincerely as Washington. In every part of the United States, the most distinguished men pronounced culogies on his public and private character ; the pulpit spoke forth his praise ; and some mark of respect was offered in every little hamlet in the country. There is no extravagance in the assertion, that a nation was in tears at his death. There have been other men, great and popular in their day and generation, and lamented with deep sorrow at their death, but their fame has soon passed away. Not so with that of Washington. His fame has continued to grow brighter with the lapse of years, and thus it shall go on as time glides by, till the last great day.
In 1813, the town, which was then reduced to its present limits, was visited with another fatal scourge, or " Great Sickness." It was called the "New Milford fever," from the fact of its having first orig-
1 Town Book, vol. 1.
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inated there. The disease was very destructive of human life, ter- minating in death, apparently, without remedy. Medical aid, for a time, seemed to be of no avail. After a while, Doct. Josiah R. East- man, of Roxbury parish, hit upon a mode of practice, which though not so scientific, perhaps, as that of his brethren in the profession, proved effieacious in this disease, and he was called to attend patients in all directions, and always with great success, till the disease finally disappeared late in the year. Forty-four deaths occurred in the present town of Woodbury during the year, while the number of deaths for many years preceding and succeeding this date, had only been from ten to twenty-five each year. The records show twenty- two deaths in Roxbury, twenty-seven in Washington, and in the same ratio in Southbury. So that there were, undoubtedly, as many as one hundred and fifty deaths, in the " ancient territory," during this year. Surely this was a sad and trying time for the dwellers among these verdant hills and smiling valleys.
On the 28th of June, 1812, war was declared between the United States and Great Britain. From the war message of President Mad- ison, we learn as causes for the declaration, that British ernisers had been in the continual practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it ; not in the exercise of a belligerent right, founded on the law of nations, against an enemy, but of a municipal prerogative over British subjeets. That so far from British subjects alone being affect- ed by this practice, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard of national law and of their national flag, had been torn from their country and everything dear to them ; had been dragged on board the ships of war of a foreign nation, and exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be ex- iled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of their own brethren. That British cruisers had been in the practice, also, of violating the rights and peace of our coasts, hovering over and harassing our entering and departing com- merce. To the most insulting pretensions, they had added the most lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and had wantonly spilt Amer- ican blood within the sanctuary of our territorial jurisdiction. That although for a series of years our government had made every effort to induce England to discontinue these untenable pretensions, yet such was the spectacle of injuries and indignities, which had been heaped upon our country, and such the crisis which its unexampled
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