USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Plymouth > History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut : with an account of the centennial celebration May 14 and 15, 1895 : also a sketch of Plymouth, Ohio, settled by local families > Part 15
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The early efforts to procure distinct religious privileges, as stated by Rev. Mr. Hilliard, are curious and interesting, but cannot be detailed at this time. Finally after several attempts, the General Assembly of the Colony, in 1739, were induced to
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appoint a committee to investigate ; who reported to the Assem- bly, that the " northerly inhabitants," as they were called, were well able to bear the charges of a distinct society, and it was resolved that "they be and become a distinct society or parish, and that they shall have and be invested with all the powers and privileges wherewith other parishes within this Colony are endowed, and shall be known and called by the Parish of North- bury." This was the first official recognition as a distinct com- munity of what afterwards became the town of Plymouth.
The public thought of the next few years centered in the solution of the problem of securing a pastor, and locating and erecting a house of worship. The first was secured in 1740, in the person of Rev. Samuel Todd ; the last, after many disputes between the inhabitants on the west side, and those on the east side of the river, some of them living as far eastward as what is known as "Town Hill," then a relatively prosperous section, was in 1744 located at a place called the Middle stake on the south side of the green, at the center of the town, on the high- way opposite the present brick building belonging to the town- and here the first meeting house was built, and thus what is now Plymouth Center begun. But the meeting house was long in building. Voted, in December, 1745, to be forty-five feet long, thirty-five feet wide, and twenty feet between joists, it was not until September, 1747, that the frame was up, and it was voted to clear the meeting house green, which had then been laid out, by cutting brush and carting it away.
In 1750, Elnathan Bronson was appointed to sweep the house, an indication that it was then in use. But it was not then finished, for in 1761 it was voted to lay the floor in the galleries. In 1763, a committee was appointed to carry on the work of the meeting house, and in 1768 a rate was laid to defray the charge of finishing. Thus after forty years in the wilderness, these children of God found their first completed spiritual rest- ing place and home.
Meantime, in 1764, the first pastorate, that of Rev. Samuel Todd, had ended. When he came to Plymouth, he was twenty- three years old, a native of North Haven, a graduate of Yale, recently married. lle came here on horseback, bringing his wife with him, doubtless on a pillion behind him, into what was then woods and wilderness, with only bridle paths and fords to the streams, to a small, feeble, scattered flock. His promised home was not begun when he arrived, and he went to live on Town Hill, where the cellar hole is still to be seen, in the lot near where he, whom it is one of my proudest boasts to speak of as my grandfather Elam Fenn, so long lived a beautiful and con- secrated life.
Samuel Todd, I regard as the typical founder of this com- munity, and brief as is my time, I cannot forbear quoting to you his fitting tribute in the words of Rev. Mr. Hilliard. He says in his admirable sketch of the church in Plymouth : "To no man in its history has the community been more largely indebted. He was the pilot under whose guidance it weathered the storm.
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Coming in his young manhood into the wilderness, bringing his young wife with him on horseback when bridle paths werc the only roads ; the society that had called him wrecked at the out- set of its history; his parishioners divided and alienated; his church for years, destitute of a home and wandering like a way- farer from house to house; his support inadequate; his salary which had been small from the first diminished by the deprecia- tion of the currency, and because of the straitened circum- stances of his people, difficult to secure; changing his home repeatedly with the changing fortunes of the parish; struggling with discouragement, and in the later years of his ministry with broken health, this good man labored on with patience and faith- fulness and a spirit unembittered by trouble, his chief solicitude being not for himself, but for the parish in its weakness." In speaking of his final dismissal, Mr. Hilliard says it was from " a pastorate which was not a failure, but a success, unsurpassed indecd by any that followed it. Mr. Todd did good pioncer work, making things easier for his successors, and the records of the parish for a century and a half is his monument." Mr. Todd was succeeded by Rcv. Andrew Storrs, ordaincd in 1765, when thirty years old, and who, after a successful ministry of twenty years, died in office in 1785, at the age of fifty, and lies buricd in the old cemetery in Plymouth Center. Hc was succeeded by Simon Waterman, settled in 1787, and dismissed in 1809. Con- cerning him, the following anecdote was related by my grand- father, which Mr. Hilliard has preserved. He was tall, thin, stylish ; a master of ceremony. "Hc used to walk up the broad aisle of the church, bowing and smiling on either side, the peo- ple rising and bowing to him as he passcd. Reaching the pulpit he first turned and bowed to the bass on his right, who filled the front gallery seat on the south side, and rose to bow in return. This parade was repeated with the treble in front, and with the counter and tenor on the left." The dignity and courtesy of this old time style told with benefit on character and life. This was carried to excess by the president of Yale-small in staturc, but great in dignity, who, in passing into the chapel between two files of seniors ranged outside the door according to custom, slipped and fell on his back in the mud. The students were overcome with laughter. Rising and casting a withering glance upon them, the Prex. burst out, " Young gentlemen, do you not know how awful a thing it is to laugh in the presence of God, and much more in my presence ?"
During the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Storrs, the Revolutionary war occurred. In this, several of the inhabitants of the parish of Northbury had an honorable part. Deacon Camp went through the wilderness of Maine in 1775, with Arnold to besiege Quebec. Daniel Rowe was at the battle of Saratoga, and is said to have been the first person to reach Arnold after he was wounded. Jesse Smith was Major. There were both patriots and tories, as they were called, in the community, and both did their part.
I ought not to omit to say, that the Episcopal Church in
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Interior Congregational Church, Plymouth,
where Centennial Services were held.
Tent on Baldwin Park, Terryville,
where Centennial Services were held.
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Plymouth, St. Peter's, is as ancient as the Congregational. It was organized in 1740, and the first church edifice erected in what is now Thomaston. It had, previous to the revolution, five rectors ; Theophilus Morris, James Lyon, Richard Mans- field, James Scoville and James Nichols. After the revolution, the society was reorganized with a list of members which em- braced the names of many of the most influential citizens of the community. The present church edifice in Plymouth Center is substantially of the same age as the town, having been erected in 1796 and consecrated in 1797. But I am not undertaking to give a church history. My only purpose in alluding to the sub- ject to-day, is to develop the secular story of the town, and it has thus far been requisite to refer at such length, because the Ecclesiastical Parish was the parent of the town, and until the latter was organized, the former was the only body whose story could be told. Having now reached the period of such organi- zation, that I may conclude this branch of my address, permit me to anticipate the thread of my narrative in point of time and to say, that the successor of Rev. Mr. Waterman, the Rev. Luther Hart, who began his ministry of the Plymouth church in ISIo, continuing it until his death in 1834, must have been a man of superior ability and fitness for his work, for, more than forty years after his death, I have heard old people who sat under his ministry refer to him in such terms of mingled admira- tion and veneration and love, as few men ever receive, and fewer still are honored with when they have long been dead. He was succeeded by Rev. Ephraim Lyman, who was pastor from 1835 to 1851. During his ministry, in December, 1837, the Congre- gational Church in Thomaston was founded, with thirty-seven members. It took with it one of the deacons of the church in Plymouth, Tertius D. Potter, born before the town of Plymouth was organized, and who died three years ago at the age of nearly one hundred. The very next month, January, 1838, the church in Terryville was organized with about fifty members. Its first pastor was Rev. Nathaniel Richardson. His pastorate lasted two years. He was succeeded by Rev. Merrill Richardson, twice a pastor of the church, a short pastorate of Rev. Judson A. Root coming between, his last ministry here closed in 1858. Of his successors, I need not speak, for they belong to modern times.
The General Assembly of this State in 1795 passed an act dividing the town of Watertown, and incorporating the town of Plymouth. The population of the new town was, I suppose, substantially 1, 200, for in 1790 the population of Watertown was 3, 170, and in 1800 the population of Watertown was 1,622, and of Plymouth 1, 121, a sharp decrease in the total in the decade. But in ISI0, the population of Plymouth had increased to 1,882 ; again in 1820, it had decreased and was 1,758, while in the same decade the population of Litchfield County had fallen from 41,375, in 1810, to 41,267, in 1820. In 1830, Plymouth had increased to 2,064; in 1850 it was 2,568; in 1860, 3,244; in 1870, notwithstanding the loss of the war, the greatest increase
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came, to 4,149, becoming then the largest population of any town in Litchfield County. In 1875, occurred the division of the town, and the setting off of a portion of its territory to form Thomaston. In 18So, the population of Plymouth was 2,350 ; of Thomaston, 3,223 ; in 1890, of Plymouth, 2, 147 ; of Thomaston, 3,278. Now that I am upon the matter of statistics, may add that midway between the organization of the town and the pres- ent time, just fifty years ago, in 1845, by authority of the legis- lature, information concerning certain branches of industry in the various towns of this State was procured, and an abstract prepared and published, a copy of which is in the State Library at Hartford, referring to which I find the following information concerning Plymouth :
In the year 1845, we had I cotton mill, with 2, 188 spindles, cotton consumed, 15,000 lbs., cloth manufactured, 49,000 lbs., value, $39, 200 ; I atting, 3,000 lbs., value, $180 ; capital, $40,000 ; males employed, 22 ; females, 36; I woolen mill, with two sets machinery ; wool consumed, 60,000., lbs cassimere manufactured, 40,000 yards., value, $45,000 ; capital, $18,000 ; males employed, 20; females, 10; sewing silk manufactured, 320 lbs., value, $2,000; capital, $2,000; males employed, I; females, 7; machine factory, I ; merchandise manufactured, $1,500; capital, $800; employes, 3; lock factories, 2; locks manufactured, 42,000 dozen ; value, $25,000 ; capital, $11,000; employes, 38. Clock factories, 5 ; clocks manufactured, 95,500; value, $191,- 000; capital, $45,000; employes, 200, other minor manufactures included. Forks and hoes, 350 dozen; plows, 15; saddles, harnesses, and trunks, value manufactured, $5,000. Coach and wagon manufactories, 2 ; merchandise, $30, 240 ; capital, $10,000 ; employes, 35. Chair and cabinet manufactories, I ; value mer- chandise, $2,500; capital, $1,500. Flouring mills, 2; flour manufactured, 162 barrels; value, $810. Tanneries, 2 ; hides tanned, 1,700; boots manufactured, 1,265 pairs; shoes, 2,750 pairs ; value, $7,769; employes, 10. Bricks manufactured, 175,000; value, $990; lime, 200 casks. Lumber prepared for market, 150,000 feet; fire wood prepared for market, 3,752 cords; value, $9,231. Sperm oil consumed, 3,434 gallons, value, $3,434 ; anthracite coal consumed, 20 tons, value, $204. There were in the town 275 Saxony sheep, 522 Merino sheep, and of all other sorts, 1,013, total value, $2,262. There were 273 horses, 1,787 neat cattle, 673 swine. There was raised in 1845, corn, 6,653 bushels, wheat, So bushels, rye, 4,724 bushels, barley, So bushels, oats, 9,535 bushels, potatoes, 14,968 bushels, fruit, 111,092 bushels, flax, 1, 122 pounds, and 61, S29 pounds of butter, and 22,358 pounds of cheese was made.
The first town meeting of the new town of Plymouth was held on Wednesday, June 24, 1795. David Smith was chosen moderator, and Joseph A. Wright, the first town clerk or regis- trar. Aaron Dunbar, Joseph A. Wright and Abram Heaton were chosen selectmen. Jason Fenn appeared not as town clerk, as he does to-day, but as a surveyor of highways, to which
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office another of my great-grandfathers, Timothy Atwater, was also at the same time appointed.
The next town meeting was held December 14, 1795. It was then voted, that the town treasurer for the time being, by and with the advice of the selectmen, be directed to loan out the money which has or will be paid by the town of Watertown to this town agreeable to the resolve of the General Assembly incor- porating said towns, in sums not exceeding fifteen pounds to one man, provided those who apply for the money procure surety to the acceptance of said treasurer and selectmen ; the obligations for which sums not to exceed the jurisdiction of a single justice, with the interest at the time they become payable, which shall not exceed one year from the time they are given. This money appears, a few years later, to have been specially appropriated for the purpose of building a bridge.
The town meeting of which I have just been speaking, was adjourned to December 31, 1795, when it was voted, that a tax of two pence on the pound, on the last August list be granted, payable the tenth day of January next, for the purpose of paying the expenses of the town. Asa specimen of the spirit of paternal government, which appears to have somewhat prevailed at that time, it may be mentioned that it was also, at said adjourned meeting, voted, that the town will pay the expense of Lem Dunbar's late sickness, and that the same be not charged to the said Dunbar. We have seen that in 1795, the tax was of two pence half penny on the pound, but in 1796 the tax was two cents on the dollar. Then more examples of the paternal spirit occurred. It was voted, that the selectmen be directed to allow Mrs. Anna Royce ten dollars for the expense of doctoring Free- man Upson in August and September last. And it was voted, that if any boar of more than three months old, or any ram should be found out of the custody or possession of the owner thereof between the 20th day of August and the Ist day of November next, it shall forfeit the sum of one dollar to any one who shall prosecute the same to effect. And it was also voted, that the selectmen be directed to apportion out four of the law books which are the property of this town, to the several parts of the town according to the list of their inhabitants. In 1797 it was voted that liberty be given for the inoculation for the small- pox to be carried on in this town under the direction of the civil authority and the selectmen. It is stated that more than two- thirds of the inhabitants present were in the foregoing vote. In ISoo it was voted that the selectmen be directed to procure a funeral cloth. December 12, ISOS, it was voted that a com- mittee be appointed to confer with the selectmen on the subject of Allen Howe's wife, and report to this meeting. Said com- mittee reported that they wish for more time for consideration of the subject.
The town records of a town contain its official history. That of Plymouth is now embraced in two volumes. It may be interesting to know when the first of these volumes, which was begun in 1795, closes. It seemed to me significant. It is with
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the meeting, a special one, of September 2, 1862, and with the recorded action of the town, at that meeting, in voting a bounty from the town treasury to volunteers in the war for the Union, and appointing a committee to solicit such volunteers in the ser- vice of the U. S. Government. Then the second or present volume begins with the record of the annual town meeting of 1862, in which it was voted to authorize the selectmen "to draw orders on the treasury of this town to an amount not exceeding $3,000 in addition to what has been heretofore voted for the same purpose, and to use the same so far as in their discretion they shall deem necessary for the benefit and support of the families of such persons belonging to this town as have, or may hereafter enlist in and enter the service of our country under the call of our governor for volunteers in aid of quieting the pres- ent rebellion." Thus the second volume of the official history of Plymouth began as the first ended, with provisions for National welfare and defense in time of peril. Pray God, that in the years to come, it may end as the first began, with the record of wise measures for the welfare of a united community ; a unit in a union, whose states constitute a nation, presided over by a Chief Magistrate, who, although he shall never have known war, shall be because of true statesmanship, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
The first conveyance of land in the town of Plymouth, with the record of which its land records begin, Vol. I, page I, is dated April 29, 1795 ; received June 24, 1795, and is from Noah Upson to Daniel Rowe. It conveyed two acres, and the consid- eration expressed is seven pounds, lawful money. There appears to have been considerable activity in real estate at that time, for during the first twelve months 114 warranty deeds, besides other conveyances, were recorded.
Plymouth was made a separate Probate District in 1833. The first Probate Court in the new district was held June 20, 1833. The first official act was granting administration on the intestate estate of Cornelia Fenn. On the next day June 21st, the first testate estate came in, that of Amos Mallory. The first inventory returned was that of said Mallory's estate, on August 23, 1833. The entire property was about $1,000, including the library, valued at $1.92, composed of the following five items : I Bible, 75 cents ; Explanation New Testament, 42 cents ; Scrip- ture of Regeneration, 25 cents ; Watts' Hymns, 25 cents; Dr. Trumbull's Sermons, 25 cents. Small as this may seem in the way of literature, the next seven inventories returned do not show as well. The only books in any of them are Bibles, and only three of those out of the seven. Then came the inventory of Rev. Luther Hart's estate: Total, $7,202.67, including library appraised at $1,500
It is the fortune-ought I, or ought I not to say the misfor tune-of such a town as Plymouth, to be the cradle. the nursury, of men whose activities in life are devoted to the development of other communities, the building up of other places. The extent to which this is true can hardly be stated, but a single instance
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may perhaps illustrate it. In 1877, a suggestion was made that the former residents of Plymouth, then residing in Bridgeport in this State, be called together for a social evening. The sugges- tion was carried out, and on the evening appointed, although doubtless, some were not known and therefore not invited, and some of those invited were not able to attend, upwards of seventy-five were present. I do not doubt that there are other places in this State and probably places in other States that could muster as many. And I wish with all my heart they would muster, whatever their numbers and wherever they are, and gathered thus together recognize the common tie which binds them to each other, and to the dear old town from which they have wandered. I need not say to you that the occasion in question was one of rare interest ; its proceedings were published and embrace a historical sketch by the late Deacon Joel Blakes- lee, a poem and short speeches, all breathing affection for Plymouth.
If I were now to sum up in a few words the history of Ply- mouth for the first two-thirds of its corporate existence, for the period which the first volume of its town records embrace, I should say that it appears to me to be a fair type of a representa- tive New England town, worthy of the name which it derived from its first settlers, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Puritan stock and descent; a typical New England community, with the interests, the thoughts, the activities, the peculiarities ; in a word, the life of such a community. And if there is a better life on this earth anywhere, I should be glad indeed to learn where to find it. I know that during the late war, thousands of Union soldiers, thinking, oh, how fondly, as they faded and wasted away in rebel prisons, of just such communities, whispered of them to each other by the name of "Home" and "God's coun- try ; " a community, which though it gave freely of its best to the world at large, has always kept a fair part of its best for itself, and for its own enrichment; a community interested in good laws, good government, good morals ; in education, progress, religion. In later years, perhaps, like other semi-rural com- munities, too much neglecting its farms for the sake of its shops. Draining and denuding its hills to fructify and beautify its valleys. But always, I think, as a whole, as a unit, as a town, to whatever means and methods and avocations, its children turned for sustenance and support, recognizing the divine truths that the life is more than meat, the body more than raiment, and that man, the image of the Creator, does not live by bread alone. And so, as in the progress of time its streams have been put at labor to carry the machinery of its factories, and iron highways traversed by steam have supplanted its wagon roads for traffic, when it has been brought by railroads, telegraph and telephone out of the woods and solitudes, and into touch and contact with the throbbing pulse of a world-wide humanity. it has still kept. and let us trust it will ever keep, a touch and fellowship with Him, whose everlasting arms are underneath, holding whose hand in trust, our fathers walked, rather by faith than sight, into
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the wilderness, and made it blossom like a rose. The fathers are gone, as we too shall go. But let us preserve sacredly our sacred birthright and inheritance. Let us leave to our children, as they to theirs, to us, the faith that makes faithful; the perfect love that casteth out fear ; and the trust that endureth to the end.
In 1861, the war of the rebellion -- the war for the Union- began at Fort Sumter. It ended at Appomatox in 1865, thirty years ago. In that great struggle, Plymouth did its full share. Its loyalty was unbounded ; its devotion sublime. It gave to it the strength of its manhood, the flower of its youth. Wherever Connecticut men went in that conflict (and where was there, the conflict raged, that Connecticut men did not go?), the sons of old Plymouth were with them, in all three hundred strong. They were in the First Cavalry. Erastus Blakeslee was its adjutant, afterwards, its colonel. Brayton Ives, grandson of venerable Truman Ives, of Town Hill, was also its colonel. Leonard P. Goodwin was its major. They were in the Second New York Cavalry. Augustus Martinson was a lieutenant there. He was killed. So the old question, "Did anyone ever see a dead cavalryman ?" was answered, "Many of us have seen them." There were no braver men anywhere than in the cavalry, and there was no more useful arm of the service. Dorence Atwater was in that regiment, and he saved to the nation the dead roll at Andersonville. They were in the First and Second Light Batteries. They were in the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, that famous regiment, originally the Fourth Infantry. How well do I remember they were there. It was my privilege to enroll my name among the list that went to make our company of that regiment, enlisted from Plymouth and Torrington, and it lingers in my mind to-day, as one of the saddest spots in a life that has had its sorrows, that when one bright spring day, the two squads met for final organization at Campville, as a half way place, I found there were more names upon the roll than were required to fill the company. The fittest were taken, and Homer E. Cook, of Terryville, and myself were left. Poor fellows. As we walked back home that afternoon, over the dusty road and through the woods, we felt that we should rather face the entire Confederate army single handed, than meet again the people at home. But time has its revenges. Poor Homer Cook, worthy man that he was, lived to compel the people of Plymouth to stand and deliver their money to him for many years in the shape of taxes, and as for myself, I was fortunate enough to see a little fighting after all, before the war closed, and to be, on one bright Sunday in April, 1865, near a certain famous apple tree at Appomatox, Va., and where I was the boys of old Plymouth, belonging to Co. D., of the Second Heavy Artillery, were also.
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