USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1872, Vol. II > Part 54
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"After expressions of hearty congratulation to the parish on this deeply interesting occasion, and a fitting reference to the pres. ence of a colonial bishop, the subject presented was the organiza- tion of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1701, and its missionary work in Connectient. At the conclusion of the sermon, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,' was sung, after which the bishop confirmed four persons.
" The rector then received the offertory. Bishop Williams said the prayer for Christ's Church militant. Bishop Venables read the exhortation, the confession and comfortable wr .s. The Tri- sagion having been sung, and the prayer for humble access offered,
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY. 1419
Bishop Williams consecrated the elements of the Lord's Supper, and was assisted in the delivery of the same by the Rev. Mr. Baldwin and the Rector. The Communion hymn was :
" Oft in danger, oft in woe, Onward Christian, onward go, --- Bear the toil, maintain the strife, Strengthened by the Bread of Life."
A large number of communicants united in the Holy Eucharist. The offering was four hundred and sixty-three dollars.
" At three o'clock in the afternoon, after the singing of the seventy-ninth psalm, the Rev. Mr. Moody read the Litany. The sixtieth selection was then sung, and an address was delivered by the Reetor. The subject was: The historic spirit of the Christ- ian traveller following the current of the Church, as a river, from its source to the sea. Ezekiel's vision of the holy waters issuing from the gate of the Temple, was taken as the ground of an his- torical discourse. The Church, under the figure of a river, was traced from its original spring. It was represented as flowing on from the east, branching into the isles of the west, and from thence passing over into the new world-reaching to the ankles in the valleys, rising to the knees around the inland hills, swelling to the loins among the central mountains, deepening and widening in its course from east to west. A river to swim in, having a continu- ous line of trees flourishing upon its banks, with healing in its liv- ing waters. The faithfulness of such noble missionaries as John- son, Beach, and Marshall, was enlogized. The history of Mar- shall, the first settled missionary in Woodbury, and the sore trials he endured, were briefly sketched, and an historical and statistical account of the parish was given to the present time.
" Pleasant are Thy courts above,"
was then sung, and the Benediction pronounced.
Evening service, at 7:40 o'clock, was conducted by the Rev. Messrs. Nelson, Clark, and Peck. The Rev. Dr. Beardsley deliv- ered a sermon from Job, viii. 10. This admirable discourse, by the able historian of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, was on the mission of the Rev. John Rutgers Marshall, and on the elec- tion of Bishop Seabury, in Woodbury, to the Episcopate of Con- necticut. He clearly showed the prominent part which Connecti-
37
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cnt took in settling the framework and in arranging the formula- ries of the Church, as it is now organized.
The hymn,
" Saviour again to Thy dear Name we raise,
With one accord, our parting hymn of praise,"
was sung. The Bishop then closed the service with prayer and the benediction. The gifts presented on this interesting occasion were: Wall decoration of the chancel in polychrome ; four paint- ings in oil, to fill four panels of the reredos, (the paintings to con- tain the symbols of the four Gospels, blended with emblems of the Lord's Supper, and texts from the Evangelists) ; silver flagon and silver paten ; prayer-books for the altar; pulpit desk and pulpit frontal, in crimson and gold; two sets of candle branches for the reredos; a set of altar linen, and a pair of crystal vases. These were presented by the descendants of the first Rector, and by the friends of the parish. In addition, several memorial windows have been promised.
" A beautiful collation was provided by the ladies, of which the bishops, clergy, visitors, and parishioners partook with much so- cial enjoyment.
" All the services were attended by full congregations. The responses were rendered with unusual spirit. The singing, led by the choir, with well arranged and appropriate music, was hearty and joyful, and there was a general expression of cordial thank- fulness for the privilege of joining in such pleasant commemora- tion services.
" Why should not the Church 'spend the flower of her time happily,' by keeping such pleasant merrories with religious joy ? The centenary of the consecration of Bishop Seabury is not far distant, which may be pleasantly anticipated by religious memo- rials of the missionaries who preceded him. If the centenary of the birth of a great literary and poetical genius, who 'roused ro- mance from her mouldering urn,' and awakened historic voices in a mountain land, which have resounded round the world, be widely celebrated, why should not the name and r torial of the heroic servants of God, who have been the heralds of the Gospel and the missionaries of the cross, be worthily kept with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, by those in whose hearts their memory remains as a tuneful melody ? The very dust of the
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sacred dead should be honored. At their graves the blushing rose should speak of the cheering hope of the resurrection, and the clustering evergreen vine shadow forth the immortality of saints departed."
Here ends our account of the various societies that have been born and bred in the " old homestead," and we leave them with a benediction, hoping that at the " Day of final accounts" we shall meet with all of our children "in a general joy."
EX TO WOODBURY
HCC.
.
CHAPTER XI.
BIOGRAPHIES AND AUTO-BIOGRAPHIES OF NATIVES, RESIDENTS, AND DESCENDANTS OF ANCIENT WOODBURY, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.
D EATH has made it neces- sary that fur- ther biogra- phies should be written. Further auto-bi- ographies will also be added. Time is short, and this is a bu- sy world, but it is useful and instructive to note the record of the men who act well their part in the great drama and tragedy of life. Twenty years will always add to the proces- sion to the " Great Unknown Land." Singular instances occur in every rank in life. The following is an instance in the clerical profession :-
GARRETT GARNSEY BROWN.
Garrett Garnsey Brown, of the class of 1809, Yale College, died in the Woodbury almshouse, on Saturday, October 1st, aged 86 years. He was a native of Bethlehem, and after being gradu- ated at Yale, at the age of twenty-five, went South, where he en- gaged in teaching in families of wealthy planters in Louisiana He also preached as a Congregational minister, but whether reg- ularly ordained or not, we do not know. Later in life he went to the Sandwich Islands, where he was unfortunate and lost his prop- erty. He subsequently returned to Louisiana, . ining there
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until shortly before the war, when he came back to his native place. He was provided for a while by a brother, but finally, being unwilling to make any exertion for his own comfort or ben- efit, was turned upon the town, and boarded at the public expense at the Woodbury almshouse. He retained his faculties to a re- markable degree until the end of his life.
HON. SETH P. BEERS.
A sketch of Mr. Beers appears on page 426. An error occurs . in the date in the 11th line. It should be, November, 1812.
He was born at Woodbury, July 1st, 1781, but passed his whole business life at Litchfield, Conn. He attended the " Bi-Centen- nial " of the town, July 4th and 5th, 1859, and made a most feel- ing, appropriate, and eloquent address, which included a sketch of his own career. One remark made on that occasion proved pro- phetic in his own case. It is recorded on page 974. "My coming hither to day seems a completion of the circle of my life. It brings me round to the point whence I started, and connects the termination of the line with the beginning." He was at this time one of the best preserved old men with whom the writer has ever been acquainted, but he died a little more than a year later. All his children are gone, too, except Julia. And thus passed away a Christian gentleman of the "old school,"-one of the most honored and useful citizens of our county and State.
HON. CHARLES CHAPMAN.
Charles Chapman,' the most brilliant advocate of the Connec- ticut bar, was . "grandson of Woodbury " by two lines of de- scent. He died at Hartford, where he resided, on the 7th day of August, 1869, in the 71st year of his age. He was born in New- town, Conn., June 21st, 1799. His father was Asa Chapman, a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State. He commenced his law studies with his father, pursued them for a time at the Litch- field Law School, and completed them with the late Chief Jus-
1 The larger portion of this account of Mr. Chapman is taken from the $5th Vol. of Connecticut Reports.
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tice Williams, then in practice in Hartford. He commenced the practice of law in New Haven, and in 1832 removed to Hartford, where he spent the remainder of his life. He six times repre. sented the town of Hartford in the State Legislature, and was elected to Congress in 1851 by the Whig party, to which he was then attached. He was also United States District Attorney for the District of Connecticut, from the spring of 1841 to the close of 1844.
Mr. Chapman had a very large professional practice, especially in criminal cases. There was hardly a criminal trial in the State of special importance in which he was not employed for the de- fence, and he often went into neighboring States upon such cases. Over-work in the trial of a protracted case in Northampton, Mass., a few months before his death, undoubtedly hastened that event.
Mr. Chapman seemed to be in his natural element in the trial of causes before a jury. The more desperate his case, the more he seemed to be inspirited by it. His resources were inexhaustible. His power in addressing a jury was very remarkable. In the ex- amination of witnesses, and the sifting of evidence, he had no su- perior ; it seemed impossible for a falsehood to elude him. His sarcasm, when he thought the occasion demanded it, was terrible. He had command of a masterly English, which he compacted into sentences, generally, of finished elegance, often of dramatic power. His wit was always keen, and ever in hand; nobody approached him in readiness of retort. He did not move his hearers as the greatest orators do, by being profoundly impressed himself and carrying them along by sympathy. The process with him was wholly intellectual-cool himself and with a perfect comprehen- sion of the suttlest springs of human feeling and action, he played with his audience like a magician. Wit, pathos, humor, invective, fancy, logic,-all seemed to combine, or take their turn in sweep- ing everything before them. In his delivery he was entirely nat- ural, and his manner unstudied. He was very social in his nature, a remarkably good talker, and incomparable and inexhaustible as a story teller. Many of his felicities of speech and story will long survive among the festive traditions of the bar.
Hon. Richard D. Hubbard says of him :- " In the delicate duty of examining witnesses-above all, in that most important and most difficult of all professional functions, a cross-examination- he was not only distinguished, he - consummate. A cross- examination with him was a hot and running fire of scathing
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inquisitions. He searched the very veins of a witness. A per- jurer in his hands was not merely unmasked, he suffered on the spot a part, at least, of the punishment due to his crime."
Judge Wm. D. Shipman, of the United States District Court, says of Mr. Chapman :- " No greater mistake could be made than to suppose that mere ingenuity and adroitness were the main weapons which made Charles Chapman, for nearly forty years, a singular power at the Bar of this State. His capacity to main- tain a high position in a large class of cases, with the able leaders of the profession, was due to quite other and higher qualities than mental dexterity.
" In this field (criminal defence) he is admitted on all hands to have been without a superior,-I may say without an equal, at the Bar of this State. In the performance of this duty, he was faith- ful in all things. I say duty, for the defence of persons accused of crime is a duty, which the public cannot afford to see neglected or under. ated. So tender and mindful is our law on the subject, that it not only discards the barbarous usage once prevailing in England, by which alleged criminals were denied counsel, but, if the accused is destitute, it is the duty of the Court to assign him counsel. Whether originally employed by the defendent, or as- signed by the Court, the path of the lawyer is plain. He is bound by the law itself to use, with honor and rectionde, every intellect- ual and professional weapon to the utmost of the ability which God and the law have given him, in the defence of his client. This Charles Chapman did, and the faithful manner in which he per- formed this duty, constitutes one of his highest titles to honor. He defended men only by the open use of the legitimate weapons of professional warfare. Some may have been acquitted who re- ally deserved conviction. But it is idle to charge the lawyer who honorably and successfully defends an accused man with wrong- fully shielding the guilty. He interposes no shield but that which the law puts into his hands, and is necessary for the proper de- fence of every defendent, whether innocent or guilty. The ques- tion before the triers is never that of absolute guilt, but whether, upon the evidence presented in the Court, all reasonable doubt is excluded. No higher duty can devolve on the lawyer, than to see to it that no man is convicted upon unworthy, or insufficient evi- dence ; for in doing so he preserves the only safeguard which in- nocence has against popular rage, or official tyranny. Our de- ceased brother well understood this duty, and performed it with
.
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fearlessness and ability ; often in behalf of the poor and friend- less. without hope of reward.
" In private life, Mr. Chapman was an interesting and enter- taining companion. With his never failing fund of anecdote and humor, his quaint. epigrammatic, incisive comments upon phases of character, and the incidents of daily life, and the usual gaity of his temper. he threw a charm over the hours of relaxation. Though living to the age of seventy, his youthful tastes and feelings never forsook him. He loved the applause which success in that profes- sion brought him. The love of distinction may be pronounced by the moralist an infirmity, but an anstere genius has declared it to be
" The last infirmity of a noble mind."
It undoubtedly is a powerful incentive to excellence, and when seeking its triumphs in the field- of intellectual renown. it is, next to the spirit inculcated by Christianity, the most mighty agent in developing and nourishing those virtues which give dignity and ornament to human character."
WILLIAM COTHREN,
Son of William and Hannah Cothren, was born at Farmington, Maine, November 28th, 1819. He fitted for College at the Far- mington Academy; graduated at Bowdoin College, Maine, in 1843 ; received his second degree in course, at the same institution in 1846. and the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem, from Yale College, in 1847. He studied law under the direction of Hon. Robert Goodenough, of Farmington, Me, late a member of Con- gress from his district, and with the late Hon. Charles B. Phelps, of Woodbury. He came to Woodbury in 1844, taught school for a while, and was admitted to the Litchfield County Bar, Oct., 1845. He commenced the practice of his profession in Woodbury immediately after, and has continned there in the performance of his duties as a counselor to the present time. He was elected a county commissioner for Litchfield County, at the May session of' the General Assembly, in 1851. In April. 1856, he was admitted as an Attorney and Counselor of the United States Circuit Court, and on the Sth of March. 1865, he was admitted as an Attorney and Counselor of the Supreme Court of the United States. He
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was elected Corresponding member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, at Boston, Mass., May 5th, 1847 ; a member of the Connecticut Historical Society, Nov. 23d, 1852, of which, for many years, he has been a Vice-President; an Honorary mem- ber of Old Colony Historical Society, at Plymouth, Mass., April 24th, 1854 ; a Corresponding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Jan. 17th, 1855 ; a Corresponding member of the Ver- mont Historical Society, Feb. 3d, 1860; a Corresponding member of the Maine Historical Society, Sept. 18th, 1861 ; and an Hono- rary member of the Rutland County Historical Society, Oct. 8th, 1868.
HON. SAMUEL G. GOODRICH.
Mr. Goodrich was even better known by his nom de plume of "Peter Parley," under which he achieved his world-wide dis- tinction as an anthor, than by his real name. He was the son of the late Rev. Samuel Goodrich, pastor of the Congregational church in Ridgefield, Conn., where the subject of this notice was born. He was a member of a highly cultivated and intellectual family, and spent a life of industry and usefulness, and earned an enviable fame. It is not the design of this notice to write an obituary of him, or an estimate of his life and his works. They are engraved on the hearts of the intelligent and thoughtful in all the world. It is simply to say a word of the closing years of his life, and to mention the fact that " his bones remain with us" in this beautiful valley. Two or three years before his death, he bought a country house in Southbury, on "Maple Hill," on the beautifully shaded street, just below the Woodbury line, for the purpose of spending, in the serenity of a country repose, the eve- ning of his days, and to identify himself with the people of his chosen home, and thus renew the thoughts and associations of his early years. But he was not long to enjoy his desired rest. He went to New York on business one day in good health, the next day he was stricken down, and on the next brought home. The dream of life was over, and they laid him to rest in the " ancient cemetery " of Sout. bury, where lie the generations who have gone before him. Thus passed away one of the most distinguished men of our times.
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HON. ORLANDO HASTINGS. 1
Mr. Hastings was born in Washington, in Litchfield County. Conn., in 1789, and, at the age of seven years, was removed by his parents to the vicinity of Clinton, N. Y. He was the third son and fifth child in a family of eleven children. In common with the other members of that interesting household, he enjoyed in early years the instructions and prayers of eminently pious pa- rents; and, as in ten thousand other cases in the moral history of mankind, the first sacred influences of a godly mother have but lived again in the strict integrity and high-toned religions senti- ments of the son. His youth was morally circumspect, but not religious.
Being attacked, at about the age of twenty-one years, with he- morrhage of the lungs, he was turned aside from the plan of ob- taining a collegiate education, which he had cherished, and after a time engaged in commercial pursuits. In 1815, he entered the law office of the late Judge Griffin, then practicing at Clinton, N. Y .; and in the year 1818, removed to Genesseo, where he estab- lished himself in the business of his profession. Abont this time he dated his hopeful conversion, though his public connection with the church was not formed till the year 1825. In 1830, he remo- ved to Rochester, where the burden and heat of the day were borne. These were the first fruits of his influence, both at the Bar, and in the church. In either sphere it was an influence that will not soon be forgotten. Among the many worthy names which are justly revered, as having given character to that city, and which will live as long as it has a history, that of Orlando Hastings will stand high, both as a legal counselor, and as a very pillar in the House of God.
Mr. Hastings was gifted with a mind of rare capacity, distin- guished particularly for its logical clearness, its power of close and prolonged attention, and its intuitive grasp of a whole subject at once. He generally apprehended the chief points at issue in clear and sharp outline, with no blur or shading into penumbral dimness and uncertainty. And the views so clearly and strongly conceived, on whatever subject, always enlisted the enthusiasm of his whole nature, stirred the resoluteness of an indomitable perse-
1 This notice is extracted principally from the funeral sermon preached by Rev. F. F. Ellinwood.
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verence, and called forth a very rare degree of executive force. No opinion was ever indifferently entertained, which he deemed worthy to be entertained at all. No mere surmises-his own or another's-could be accepted by him as conclusions; but that which was received as truth, became a fire in his bones, stirring every energy-putting forth the most unflinching resolution, and the promptest action. Even those who differed with him could never doubt his entire sincerity ; and if, in the earnestness with which he sought his ends, he seemed to any too strenuous, they were still constrained to feel that it was neither interest, nor dis- ingenuous obstinacy, but only the zeal of strong and honest con- victions, that influenced him.
I shall utter (said the pastor) nothing new to most of you, when I say, that for tenderness of sympathy, Mr. Hastings was one in a thousand. I am constrained to bear it as my well considered tes- timony, that in all my intercourse with men, I have never known a heart more susceptible to kindness and the tokens of friendship, or more easily moved with sympathy for the wants and woes of others. I have never seen the tears of emotion so often stealing from any other manly eye; nor heard so frequently the stifled utterances of tender feeling, from any other manly lips. Hundreds and thousands who had nothing with which to pay, have gone to him and found advice and help in every species of difficulty ; and as to pecuniary means, who does not know that a large proportion of his handsome income was dispensed, almost with the freeness of the sunlight and the shower ? Could all those who have re- ceived his benefactions for the last half century, stand up here in full array before us, the spectacle itself would utter a silent eulo- gium more eloquent than tongue can express.
I need not say to those who knew his mental or moral qualities, that he has been to us a valued counselor. I need not add that his well known earnestness and Christian zeal, have rendered him indefatigable in every labor of love among us; and so as to pe- cuniary support, as you might suppose, his liberal purse has been almost a treasury of the church. In our social meetings, he never opened his lips without having something to say, which was both edifying and instructive to his hearers. Moreover his example among us-if punctuality in every religious duty-if thorough honesty in his Christian life-if high-toned sentiment in respect to the influence of the church upon the world has any worth, it has, we trust, left its lasting impress upon us. He loved the inte-
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rests of this church as his own life. There was almost no sacri- fice that he was not prepared to make for its outward prosperity, or its spiritual thrift. His thoughts were much upon it ; he plan- ned for its advancement ; he gave to and labored for it, and prayed in its behalf. Even when no longer able to come up to this much loved place, or even kneel at the family altar, still, bolstered in his chair, and speaking only in slow and feeble accents, he uttered one of the most remarkable petitions of his whole life, for the spirit- nal interests of this church. And we may feel that as a legacy of blessing to us, that prayer stands as a memorial before God.
He was one of the most industrious and successful practitioners in the State of his adoption. On the occasion of his death, spe- cial meetings of the church, and other public bodies of which he had been a member were held, at which resolutions of the most complimentary kind were passed, and also in the several Courts before which he had so long and ably practiced, set eulogies were pronounced, scarcely equaled by those delivered on any similar occasion in this country. And thus passed to his rest the able counselor, the revered friend, and the Christian gentleman. 1
CHIEF JUSTICE JOEL IIINMAN.
A brief account of Judge Hinman appears on page 442, but as he has now deceased, a further record of him will be added -- taken principally from a paper prepared by Frederick J. Kingsbury, Esq., of Waterbury, and printed in the 35th vol. of Coun. Reports.
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