USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Wolcott > History of the town of Wolcott (Connecticut) from 1731 to 1874, with an account of the centenary meeting, September 10th and 11th, 1873 and with the genealogies of the families of the town > Part 26
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REV. LUCAS HART.
North Association, September 25th, 1810. He was em- ployed by the Missionary Society of Connecticut, part of the time, until he commenced preaching for the church in Wolcott, in August, 1811. He was ordained pastor in Wolcott December 4th, 1811. He married Harriet, daughter of Deacon Amos Harris, of East Haven, on Thanksgiving evening, November, 181I, about a week before his ordination. He was a good minister and pas- tor, and successful in his work a year and ten months. In the fall of 1813, he went with his wife and child to East Haven, to his wife's father's, on a visit, where he and his little son were sick with dysentery. His son died Octo- ber IIth, and he October 16th. His son, Edward Lucas, was born after his father's decease. This son is now a successful teacher, resides in Farmington, and has in his care two Chinamen and one Spanish lady as his pupils. The widow died in New Haven, February 23d, 1853.
LUCAS C. HOTCHKISS.
Mr. Lucas Curtiss Hotchkiss, the son of Major Luther Hotchkiss, was born in Wolcott, October 14, 1807, and resided with his father, on the farm, until he was eighteen years of age, during which time he attended the District school in the winters after he was of sufficient age to attend school. In 1825, he went to that part of Southing- ton called Plantsville, where he engaged as a mechanic for Messrs. Merriman and Copps, manufacturers of lasts and many kinds of handles used in making boots and shoes. Here he continued three years, making some intellectual improvement by attending school in the winters. In the spring of 1828, he removed to Meride n, and was in the employ of Messrs. Lauren, Merriman, & Co., making ivory and wooden combs, and machinery for the manufacturing of the same. After a few years this firm dissolved, and Mr. Hotchkiss became partner in the same business with Messrs. Walter Webb and Philo Pratt. He was afterwards partner with Mr. Oliver Snow in the manufacture of hardware and general machinery.
In 1829, he united with the First Congregational church in Meriden, where he still holds his membership, and in which church he was leader of the choir for a number of years. To him music has lost none of its charms, especially when in the order of the "old tunes." Like many others, when prosperity began to favor his labors in worldly goods, he returned to his native town, and won for his bride Miss Rufina Hall, daughter of Captain Levi Hall, in October, 1831. He has four children. His
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LUCAS C. HOTCHKISS.
daughter, Sarah Ann, married Mr. Edward P. Yale, a successful merchant of New Haven ; his daughter, Olive, married Mr. L. W. Curtiss, of New Britain ; and his son, Levi H., married Miss Mary Marshall, of Hartford. His wife, Rufina, died in 1850, aged forty years. About two years afterwards he married Mary Ann Raymond, of New Haven, and the son of this marriage, Arthur R., resides in Providence, R. I.
Mr. Hotchkiss has a very pleasant home in West Meriden, where he now resides, striving to accomplish good for humanity in various ways, as opportunity affords. He has been a man of thought, taking notice of passing events around him in all his life, and hence many items of history are incorporated in this book which will add much to the pleasure of the reader, for they are all of the pleasant and cheerful kind.
He has furnished the following interesting reminiscen- ces :
Some of the school teachers in the Center district from 1812 to 1825, were these : Thomas Upson, Mark Upson, Irad Bron- son, William Bartholomew, Clark Bronson, Luther Roper, Levi Parker, William A. Alcott, John Potter son of Dr. Potter. Mr. John Clark of Waterbury taught a select school in the winter of 1826, in the house where Rev. Mr. Keys had lived. The old school house stood very near the present one. The writing tables extended around on three sides of the room, and were placed against the wall, so that the writers sat with their backs to the teacher. Long benches, made of oak slabs, extended around the room in front of the writing tables. Benches were made for small children, in the same style, with no backs. Bible reading, without opposition, was the custom in the morning. Columbian Orator, American Preceptor, and Webster's Spelling Book, were text books. Writing and spelling were leading studies every day, and on Saturday the Old Assembly Catechism, in the Con- gregational order and the Episcopal order, were regularly repeated. Daily exercises were required in the Moral Catechism, in Webster's spelling book, and the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, viz : b has one sound, as in bite, etc.
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
When David Harrison taught school in the East district, he had a nephew by the name of Beebe, living with him and attending school. Mr. Harrison composed some verses, which the boy repeated, and for which he received hundreds of pennies :
"Alvin Miles Beebe is my name, I am a lad of little fame ; Yet I can read, and spell, and play, Which is my business every day. Before I lived, my father died ; Three orphans left and me beside - And here I stand, a squint-eyed lad, Pray, give me a cent - I will be glad."
This Mr. Beebe now resides in West Haven, and has a family grown to manhood.
One of the members of the military company, a good, honest man, but very odd, was chosen a corporal, and when the choice was announced by the captain, he stepped in front of the company and spoke as follows: "Gentlemen, officers, and fellow-soldiers - I am greatly surprised at the choice you have made, when there are such men as the Plumbs and the Beechers, who are not afraid of the woods full of Indians, nor a hell full of devils. I thank you for the respect you have shown me, but I cannot accept." Then making a low bow, took his place in the ranks.
This same person went to spend an evening with a young lady, in the West district, and she refused his company by saying she was sick. "Well," said he, "if you are sick, you must be prayed for," and he wrote a notice (giving the name as was the custom) and gave it to the minister the next Sabbath, who read it, and prayers were offered in the presence of the young lady, but she did not rise as was the custom.
Daniel Munson married Maranda Selcriggs, the daughter of widow Molly Selcriggs. The next day Mr. Jared Welton's daughter told Dinah, a negro woman, what had happened. Said Dinah : "Law me, du tell; Daniel Munson smart man, married Randa Selcriggs; how it does seem; what a happy choice it is to Mrs. Molly-git all Mrs. Molly's wood. Did oor pappa and mamma do to wedding ?"
Praying ;for the sick was a custom regularly observed. When
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LUCAS C. HOTCHKISS.
any members of the congregation were sick, the following notice was read from the pulpit: Elijah Royce and wife re- quest the prayers of God's people in behalf of their son, who is dangerously ill; friends and neighbors joining with them in this request." Any members of the family present at the reading, would rise in their seats. If the sick recovered, thanks were re- turned, the form of rising in the audience being observed. If the person died, another notice would be read, as follows : "Elijah Royce and wife having lost a beloved son, by death, ask the prayers of God's people that this severe affliction may be sancti- fied to their spiritual and everlasting good." I speak of Mr. Royce's family, as they were often sick. This was in Mr. Keys' time.
Mr. Keys once preached from the text: "Ephraim is joined to his idols ; let him alone." Ephraim Hall was present, and was young enough to smile, then, as did many others; they are too old now to smile.
Mr. Keys exchanged pulpits with the minister at Northfield. In those days it was the custom for the leader of the choir to name the tune so loud that the singers and the congregation could hear. The minister from Northfield, in opening the ser- vice, read the hymn commencing :-
" Lord, what a wretched land is this That yields us no supplies."
The chorister named the tune Northfield, at which many smiled ; the catch of the word indicating that the minister had come from such a wretched land.
Mr. Keys, while preaching a sermon, told of a man who, while riding over a bridge, the bridge gave way, and he exclaimed, as he went down, "Devil take all!" at which the young people smiled, which was a rare occurrence in those days, for many were so superstitious as to think it sinful to smile in church.
REV. LENT S. HOUGH.
Rev. Lent S. Hough was born in Wallingford, January 2Ist, 1804, of worthy parents, and was the second child of a family of nine children. His childhood and youth were spent in his father's home, on the farm, where he received a good common school and academical edu- cation. He taught a district school one winter in Meri- den, and afterwards taught a select school two years, summer and winter, in Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey. His classical, and part of his theological edu- cation, was obtained in Bangor, Maine. He graduated, theologically, at Yale Divinity School, in 1831. During his last years in Yale he preached frequently as supply of vacant churches, and in aiding neighboring pastors. Under his preaching, in his native town, in aid of an aged pastor, a revival commenced, in which there were many conversions.
About the time of graduating he was ordained pastor of the church in Chaplain, where he remained five years and a half, when his health became poor, causing his dis- mission. He afterwards preached as stated supply three years in North Madison, and one year in Bethel. He then preached in Middletown, Westfield Society, as sta- ted supply, nine months, and was then installed pastor of the same Society, where he remained seventeen years. He came from Westfield to Wolcott, as stated supply, where he preached six years. Here he labored with suc- cess, though considerable of the time with poor health. The letter of commendation of him as their pastor, from
.
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REV. LENT S. HOUGH.
Westfield to the church in Wolcott, is preserved, and is of the highest honor to him as a successful pastor and minister. While in Wolcott, there were considerable re- pairs done upon the Meeting house, and furnishing inside, which were creditable both to him and the people. From Wolcott he went to Salem sixteen months, and from Sa- lem to East Lyme, where he has labored with much suc- cess three years, and where he still resides, receiving the greatest kindness from his people, while deeply afflicted in his family. -
23
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CAPT. HEMAN HALL.
Captain Heman Hall was the son of Lieutenant Heman Hall, the first of the name who settled in Wolcott, and was born in Wallingford, in the year 1750. His father purchased land in Wolcott as early as 1754, but removed. hither some years after, and resided near the present, so- called, " gamble-roofed house " on the road from Wolcott Centre to Marion. Captain Heman, it is thought, built this gamble-roofed house, and resided in it with his mother until 1800, when they exchanged this farm for the one then owned by Elnathan Thrasher, in Woodtick, where his grandson Orrin now resides. He married Rebecca Finch about the year 1770, by whom he had eight children, three of whom are recorded as being baptised at the same time, October 20th, 1776.
He was entrusted with the military authority of "Ensign of the Ninth company or train-band, in the Fifteenth regiment in this State," on the 27th day of May, 1785, and subsequently was made captain of the same company, and has been known as Captain Heman Hall ever since. His son Heman was made corporal in 1795, and sargeant in 1797. His son Levi has been des- ignated as Captain Levi, and is still so called.
Captain Heman Hall was near relative to the Hon. Lyman Hall, of Georgia. This Lyman was the son of Hon. John Hall, and was graduated at Yale College in 1747; studied medicine and located at Midway, Ga. Having earnestly espoused the cause of his country in the Revolution, his efforts contributed much to induce
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CAPT. HEMAN HALL.
the people of Georgia to join the Confederacy. He was in May, 1775, elected to Congress, and as a member of which, he signed the Declaration of Independence, and continued in that body until the close of the year 1780. In 1783 he was elected Governor of Georgia. He died in February, 1791, aged sixty-six. Captain Heman was a man of prominence and responsibility in Farmingbury Society from its first organization until his death in 1795, at the age of forty-five.
1
EPHRAIM HALL.
Ephraim Hall was the son of Sargent Heman, and grandson of Captain Heman, and great-grandson of Lieutenant Hall, the first of the name in Wolcott. He was born September 15th, 1799. In the autumn, when twenty-two years of age, he went to South Carolina to work on the Broad and Saluda rivers in constructing ca- nals and locks around the falls in those rivers. Early the next spring, an opportunity presenting itself, he engaged two or three months in peddling, traveling on foot. After this he spent six or seven winters in peddling in the Southern States, and working on a farm at the north during the summer. He first engaged in selling tin-ware for the Yale Brothers, of Wallingford, they having a depot in Richmond, Virginia, where their peddlers ob- tained their goods, transporting them through the country with a horse and wagon. He peddled by license, taking license for a county or two, and remaining all win- ter within the prescribed circuit. At first he found this business wearisome and discouraging, but when he be- came acquainted he fared well and did well in the busi- ness. He learned to fall in with the notions and preju- dices of the people, and let them talk as they pleased, and then everything went well. He usually paid for the privilege of staying over night, and sometimes traded to the amount of thirty dollars, sometimes forty, sometimes over a hundred. He would seldom go away without trading, for the people learned to expect him at a certain time, and prepare for his coming ; especially was this che case in the later years when he sold dry goods.
For several summers he worked for Rev. Wm. Robin-
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EPHRAIM HALL.
son, of Southington ; the good minister saying in the autumn when he closed work: "Well, Ephraim, when you get back in the spring, come over and see me, and if I am living I shall want you again to work for me."
He married, September 9th, 1824, Mary Minor, daugh- ter of Archibald Minor, Esq., with whom he lived until her death, July 19th, 1870. He had three children, only one of whom survives him. His farm in Wolcott was that now owned by C. Frank Munson ; the large maple trees now standing by the roadside at that place he set there soon after he purchased the farm. This farm he gave to his grandson a few years since, and made his residence at Wolcott Center.
When the anti-slavery cause began to move the public mind, Mr. Hall was found on the side of the oppressed, and calmly, but decidedly, he maintained their cause as long as he lived. In his anti-slavery sentiments, as in all other things, he was not violent, but calm and deci- ded, firm and true, at any cost. In 1839, his horse, with those of a few other men, was sheared because of his anti-slavery principles ; and when the Meeting house was burned, through this excitement, and there seemed to be no prospect of peace in the old Society, he, with several others of the most reliable members of the church, with- drew, and formed a second Society. Through the high and honorable decision of the Consociation held on the subject, the rights of the church were guaranteed, and then the new Society dissolved and returned to help the old in building the new Meeting house, and in settling a pastor.
His regular subscription to the American Missionary Society in behalf of the Freedmen has been, for several years, one hundred dollars a year, and in his will he left to that society the sum of fifteen hundred dollars. He was a true man to the church and humanity, and was greatly respected by the citizens of his native town. He died June 7th, 1874, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
L
DR. AMBROSE IVES.
Dr. Ambrose Ives was the son of Abijah, and grandson of Abraham Ives, and was born in Wallingford, December 20th, 1786. He studied medicine with Dr. Cornwall, of Cheshire, and settled in Wolcott about the year 1808, at which time Dr. Potter was enjoying a good degree of confidence from the people of the community. The young physician was regarded by some as intrusive in coming into the field where one physician could attend all the sick, and by others as a welcome friend, who might, possibly, be helpful in turning aside the death messenger. Dr. Ives identified himself with the interests of the community to such a degree, and gave such diligent attention to his profession, that he soon secured an extensive practice, and an important standing as a citizen. On the 30th day of March, 1817, he married Wealthy Hopkins, daughter of Charles Upson, Esq., and thereafter continued his professional labors until 1827, when he removed to Wallingford to look after his deceased father's estate. Dr. Ives was celebrated in Wolcott for careful living, diligence in his profession, and not particularly enterprising in the town and local inter- ests. He identified himself with the Episcopal church and did good service therein. From Wallingford he removed to Plymouth, where he resumed his profession, and soon obtained a large practice. In 1834 he became interested in the manufacture of gilt buttons at Waterville 1
and took charge of the business. In 1837 he removed his residence to Waterbury, and in 1839 sold his interest at
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DR. AMBROSE IVES.
Waterville and became a stock owner in the company of Brown & Elton, and continued in this connection until his decease. He died in Waterbury, January 3Ist, 1852, having accumulated quite a fortune.
His wife, Wealthy H., survived him a few years, always manifesting much interest in the people of her native town, and made a present of a very choice Communion Set to the Congregational church a short time before her decease.
REV. JOHN KEYS.
Rev. John Keys was a Presbyterian minister, and came from the Albany Presbytery, State of New York, and hence of his early history we have no knowledge. He was settled in Wolcott in the days of its greatest pros- perity. The inhabitants numbered about eleven hun- dred. The old Meeting house was crowded with hearers, and among them were as fine a class of men and women, young people and children, as could be found in any rural congregation in the land. The money credit of the town of Wolcott is said to have been at this time as high as any town in the State. Its fame for schools and education was noted. The commercial business of the town rivaled that of Waterbury, Southington, and Bristol. The salary ($500 and twenty-five cords of wood) was liberal for those days, and the circumstances under which he was intro- duced into his office and work were most favorable. The installation sermon, preached by Dr. Lyman Beecher, was sufficient to inspire a man and a congregation a life- time. The ceremonies of that installation were im- posing, and have been referred to by many out of Wol- cott, as well as in it.
The council met at the house of Mr. Keys; a little east of the church, for examination. When the hour came for services at the church, the members of the council formed in procession, two by two, then the gentlemen and ladies of the choir, and following them, in the same manner, the members of the church, all walking to the church. Miss Abigail Hall, now (1873) residing in Meri-
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REV. JOHN KEYS.
den, says, the Meeting house was full. The singers sat in the gallery, nearly filling the front seats on three sides. The ladies sang with their bonnets off in those days,-and they were bonnets, not hats. "Mr. Hender- son, who had been employed to teach a singing-school, took charge of the singing at the installation. The bass singers sat on the west side of the gallery, David Harri- son, with bass viol, in the center ; the tenor and counter on south side, and Stephen Harrison, with tenor viol, in the center ; first treble on east side, and Doct. Harvey Norton, with violin, in the center." Such was the choir in 1814, and such were the encouraging facts around Mr. Keys as a minister. He was a laborious, diligent, good man, careful of all, and a true man. All those who re- member him speak kindly of him, without a word of re- proach. Eight years he toiled for this people, as though they were his own children, and when the separation came it was a heavy trial to him. His letter to the church is the saddest of the kind I have ever read. He commences that letter with the following words : "The painful hour seems now arrived, in the sovereign dispensations of Providence, when we must part." He was endeared to many young men who had attended his school, by influences arising in such labor, which are not easily severed, and can never be forgotten. He closed his labors in December, 1822, at a time of the year when a church should hesitate to dismiss a faithful ser- vant. Without house, or home, or work, with a large family, in the dead of winter, is rather a sad picture con- cerning one who gave up all secular pursuits to preach the gospel !
Mr. Keys moved to Ohio, and other western States, where he resided forty-six years, and died at Dover, Ohio, in 1868, aged eighty-six. His wife, Mary, died at Peoria, Illinois, in 1850, aged sixty-six. Their children were Mary O. (Kingsbury), now living in Toledo, Ohio ; John A., now living in Visalia, California ; William M.,
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
now living in Saltillo, Nebraska ; Richard M., now living in California ; David C., died in 1867, in Oakland, Cali- fornia ; Catharine S. (Moore), living in Dover, Ohio ; Lucy H. (Abbott), living in Cleveland, Ohio ; Charles F., died in 1837, in Alabama ; Luther H., living in Greeley, Iowa. This record dates in 1873.
SIMEON H. NORTON.
Simeon H. Norton, son of Simeon N., and great-grand- son of David Norton, was born in Wolcott, August 11th, 1813. He began attendance in the district school at the Center, when but two years and nine months old, and. continued to attend the same until twelve years of age, during which time he acquired, besides the regular studies of the school in that day, some knowledge of geography, arithmetic, and English grammar. At the age of thirteen he engaged in a manufactory in Meriden, Conn., where he continued two years, at which time, being at the age of fifteen, he accepted an invitation to teach the north district school of his native town, one term, in which being quite successful, he accepted an invitation to teach the north-east school the following summer and winter terms ; and while engaged in teaching he was pursuing a course of study preparatory to the teaching of a high school, the accomplishment of which was of great con- sideration in his own mind. In order to perfect this de- sire, he attended the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, where he became an Episcopalian. At the age of nine- teen he engaged as teacher in the largest district school in Bristol, where he continued teaching, summer and winter, three years,- at the same time teaching singing school in the winter season, and taking charge of the choir of the Episcopal church. During his last term in Bristol he wrote to Dr. William A. Alcott, then in Bos- ton, to assist him in obtaining the place of assistant in some high school in that city, to which the Doctor re-
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
sponded cordially, expressing great pleasure in the aspi- rations of the young men of Wolcott. Before any ar- rangement of this kind could be made, Mr. Norton was urgently requested to engage as clerk in the store of Messrs. Benham and Tuttle, in Wolcott, which invitation he accepted, and notified his friend the doctor, in Bos- ton, accordingly. He was in the store at Wolcott one year, and during that time served as acting school-visitor for the town, that being the first office he ever held by the votes of the people. From Wolcott he went to Bris- tol, and engaged as clerk in a store in the same portion of the town where he had taught school, and where he accepted his old place in the Episcopal choir. At the end of four years he left Bristol, and entered, as clerk, the store of Messrs. H. M. Welch & Co., in Plainville, the largest store at that time in that part of the country, and continued there about four years, during which time, there being no Episcopal church in the place, he attended regularly the Congregational church, and served, by invi- tation, as leader of the choir during the time of his resi- dence there.
In the spring of 1843, he was urged to go into partner- ship with an old merchant at Plymouth, which offer he declined, but engaged with him as clerk in the store. Not being well pleased with the business of selling liquors as connected with this store, he left as soon as the time of his engagement expired, and, collecting all his capital, located himself in a store at a place now known as Hitchcock's Station, in Southington, where he remained three years, and then removed to Plantsville, where he still resides. He engaged in this place as a merchant, keeping a temperance store, until 1869, when, having been quite successful in business, he retired from the same, to pass the remaining years in quietness and rest.
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