USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield County centennial celebration > Part 3
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The usual officers, made necessary by the erection of the new County, were immediately appointed by the General Court. William Preston, Esq., of Woodbury, was the first Chief Justice of the County, and his Associates were John Williams, Esq., of Sharon, Samuel Canfield, of New Milford, and Ebenezer Marsh, of Litchfield. Isaac Baldwin, Esq., was the first Clerk, and the first Sheriff was Oliver Wolcott, of whom I shall speak again. The County Court, at its first session in December of the same year, appointed Samuel Pettibone, Esq., of Goshen, to be King's Attorney, who was, within a few years, succeeded by Reynold Marvin, Esq., of this village, and these two gentlemen were all in this County, in this capacity, who ever represented the King's majesty in that administration of criminal justice.
The tenure of official place in the early days of the Common- wealth, was more permanent than since party subserviency has in some degree taken the place of better qualifications. The changes upon the bench of the County Court were not frequent. The office of Chief Judge, from the time of Judge Preston to the time of his successors, who are now alive, have been John Williams, of Sharon, Oliver Wolcott, Daniel Sherman, of Woodbury, Joshua Porter, of Salisbury, Aaron Austin, of New Hartford, also a mem- ber of the Council, and Augustus Pettibone, of Norfolk. I can
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not at this time present a catalogue of Associate Judges. It has been composed of the most worthy and competent citizens of the County-gentlemen of high influence and respect in the several towns of their residence.
In the office of Sheriff, Governor Wolcott was succeeded by Lynde Lord, David Smith,* John R. Landon, Moses Seymour, Jr., and Ozias Seymour, of this village, and the successors of these gentlemen are still surviving.
Mr. Marvin was succeeded in the office of State's Attorney, by Andrew Adams, Tapping Reeve, Uriah Tracy, Nathaniel Smith, John Allen, Uriel Holmes, and Elisha Sterling, whose successors, with a single exception, f still survive.
Hon. Frederick Wolcott succeeded Mr. Baldwin in the office of Clerk, and this place he held, undisturbed by party influences, for forty years, and until nearly the time of his death in 1836.
The common Prison first erected was a small wooden building, near the late dwelling house of Roger Cook, Esq., on the north side of East street. This stood but a few years, and in its place a more commodious one was built, nearly on the same foundation. The present Prison was built in 1812, and essentially improved within a few years. The first Court House stood on the open grounds a little easterly from the West Park, and may still be seen in the rear of the buildings on the south side of West street. It was a small building, but in it were often witnessed some of the most able efforts of American eloquence. In this humble Temple of Justice, Hon. S. W. Johnston of Stratford, Edwards of New Haven, Reeve, Tracy, Allen, and the Smiths of this County, ex- hibited some of the best essays of forensic power. The present Court House was erected in 1798.
The early progress of the County presents but a few incidents of sufficient note to retain a place in its traditionary history. The apprehension of savage incursions had passed away, and the people were left undisturbed to carry out, to their necessary re- sults, what might have been expected from the spirit and enter- prise which brought them hither. The old French War, as it has
* This gentleman was the father of Junius Smith, LL. D., formerly a distinguished mer- chant in London, and one of the projectors of Steamship Ocean Navigation, and now engaged in the culture of the Tea Plant in South Carolina.
t Leman Church, Esq., of Canaan.
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since been called, disturbed them but little. Some of the towns in the County, moved by a loyal impulse, and a legitimate hatred of France, as well as hostility to Indians in its service, furnished men and officers in aid of some of the expeditions to the northern frontier.
The pioneers here were agriculturists. They came with no knowledge or care for any other pursuit, and looked for no greater results than the enjoyment of religious privileges, the increase of their estates by removing the heavy forests and adding other acres to their original purchases, and with the hope, perhaps, of sending an active boy to the College. Of manufactures, they knew nothing. The grist-mill and saw-mill, the blacksmith and clothier's shops,-all as indispensable as the plow and the axe,- they provided for as among the necessaries of a farmer's life.
Thus they toiled on, till the hill-sides and the valleys every where showed the fenced field and the comfortable dwelling. The spinning wheel was in every house, and the loom in every neigh- borhood, and almost every article of clothing was the product of female domestic industry. Intercourse with each other was diffi- cult. The hills were steep, and the valleys miry, and the means of conveyance confined to the single horse with saddle and pillion, with no other carriage than the ox-cart in summer and the sled in the winter. The deep winter snows often obstructed even the use of the sled, and then resort was had to snow-shoes. These were made of a light rim of wood bent into the form of an ox-bow, though smaller, perforated and woven into a net work with thongs of raw-hide, leather or deer skin, and when attached to the com- mon shoe enabled the walker to travel upon the surface of the snow. Four-wheeled carriages were not introduced into general use until after the Revolution. Ladies, old and young, thought no more of fatigue in performing long journeys over the rough roads of the County, on horseback, than the ladies of our times in mak- ing trips by easy stages, in coaches or cars.
The County Town constituted a common center, where the leading men of the County met during the terms of the Courts, and they saw but little of cach other at other times. The course of their business was in different directions. The north-west towns found their markets on the Hudson River-the southern " towns at Derby and New Haven-and the eastern oncs at Hart
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ford. In the mean while, and before the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, nearly every town had its settled Pastor, and the schools were every where spead over the territory.
No manufacturing interest was prevalent in the County at first. The policy and laws of the mother country had discouraged this. But the rich iron mine which had been early discovered in Salis- bury, and the iron ore found in Kent, could not lie neglected. Iron was indispensable, and its transportation from the coast al- most impracticable. The ore bed in Salisbury had been granted by the Colonial Assembly to Daniel Bissell of Windsor, as early as 1731, and produces a better quality of iron than any imported from abroad or found elsewhere at home.
The manufacture of bloomed iron in the region of the ore, com- menced before the organization of the County. Thomas Lamb erected a forge at Lime Rock, in Salisbury, as early as 1734,- probably the first in the Colony. This experiment was soon ex- tensively followed in Salisbury, Canaan, Cornwall and Kent, and there were forges erected also in Norfolk, Colebrook and Litch- field. The ore was often transported from the ore beds to the forge in leathern sacks, upon horses. Bar iron became here a sort of circulating medium, and promissory notes were more fre- quently made payable in iron than in moncy.
The first Furnace in the Colony was built at Lakeville, in Salis- bury, in 1762, by John Hazleton and Ethan Allen of Salisbury, and Samuel Forbes of Canaan. This property fell into the hands of Richard Smith, an English gentleman, a little before the war of the Revolution. Upon this event he returned to England, and the State took possession of the furnace, and it was employed, un- der the agency of Col. Joshua Porter, in the manufacture of can- non, shells and shot, for the use of the army and navy of the country, and sometimes under the supervision of Governeur Mor- ris and John Jay, agents of the Continental Congress ; and after the war, the navy of the United States received, to a considerable extent, the guns for its heaviest ships, from the same cstab- lishment.
It will not be any part of my purpose to become the Ecclesiasti- cal historian of the County. This duty will be better performed by other pens. And yet, the true character and condition of a people can not be well understood without some study of their re- ligious state.
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I have already suggested, that there was here a more tolerant and better spirit than existed among the first emigrants to Ply- mouth and Massachusetts. The churches were insulated, and in a manner shut out from the disturbing causes which had agitated other portions of the Colony. I do not learn from that full and faithful chronicler of religious dissensions, Dr. Trumbull, that there was in this County so much of the metaphysical and subtle in theology, as had produced such bitter effects at an car- lier time, in the churches at Hartford, New Haven, Stratford and Wallingford. The Pastors were men of peace, who had sought the retired parishes over here in the hills and valleys, with- out much pride of learning, and without ambitious views. The in- fluence of the Pastor here was paternal ; the eloquence of his ex- ample was more potent than the eloquence of the pulpit. It might be expected, that by such a Clergy, a deep and broad foundation of future good would be laid, -a fixed Protestant sentiment and its le- gitimate consequence, independent opinion and energetic action.
There was here, also, very early, another element which modi- fied and liberalized the temper of the fathers, who had smarted, as they supposed, under the persecutions of an English home and English laws. A little alloy was intermixed in the religious crucible, which, if it did not, in the opinion of all, render the mass more precious, at least made it more malleable, and better fitted for practical use. There was not in this County an univer- sal dislike of the Church of England. We were removed farther back in point of time, as I have said, from the original causes of hostility. We were Englishmen, boasting of English Common Law as our birthright and our inheritance, and into this was interwoven many of the principles and usages of English Ecclesiastical polity. This respect for the institutions of the mother country, though long felt by some, was first developed in the College, and extended sooner and more widely in this County than any where else ; so that congregations worshiping with the Liturgy of the English Church were soon found in Woodbury, Watertown, Plymouth, IFarwinton, Litchfield, Kent, Sharon and Salisbury, and were composed of men of equal intelligence and purity of character with their neighbors of the Congregational Churches. And yet, enough of traditional prejudice still remained, uncor- rected by time or impartial examination, often to subject tile
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friends and members of the Church of England to insult and in- justice. Some of it remains still, but too little to irritate or dis- turb a Christian spirit.
The spirit of emigration, that same Anglo-Saxon temperament which brought our ancestors into the County, and which constantly pushes forward to the trial of unknown fortune, began its mani- festations before the Revolution, and sought its gratification first in Vermont. Vermont is the child of this County. We gave to her, her first Governor, and three Governors besides ; as many as three Senators in Congress, and also many of her most efficient founders and early distinguished citizens,-Chittendens, Allens, Galushas, Chipmans, Skinner and others. The attitude assumed by Vermont in the early stages of the Revolutionary War, in respect to Canada on the north and the threatening States of New York and New Hampshire on either side, was peculiar and delicate, and demanded the most adroit policy to secure her purpose of independence. In her dilemma, her most sagacious men resorted to the counsels of their old friends of Litchfield County, and it is said that her final course was shaped, and her designs accomplish- ed, by the advice of a confidential council, assembled at the house of Governor Wolcott in this village.
Perhaps no community ever existed, with fewer causes of dis- turbance or discontent than were felt here, before the complaints of British exaction were heard from Boston. But the first mur- murings from the East excited our quiet population to action, and in nearly every town in the County, meetings of sympathy were holden, and strong resolves adopted, responsive to the Boston complainings. The tax on tea and the stamp duty were trifles. The people of this County knew nothing of them, and probably cared no more. The principle of the movement was deeper- more fundamental; the love of self-government-" the glorious privilege of being independent!" The excitement was general throughout the County. Individuals opposed it, and from differ- ent, though equally pure motives. Some supposed resistance to the laws to be hopeless at that time, and advised to wait for more strength and resources ; others were influenced by religious con- siderations, just as pure and as potent as had influenced their fathers aforetime ; others had a deeper seated sense of loyalty, and the obligations of sworn allegiance. But the County was nearly
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unanimous in its resistance to British claims, and saw in them the commencement of a Colonial servitude, degrading, and threat- ening the future progress of the country, in its destined path to wealth and glory. I believe no individual of distinction in the County took arms against the cause of the country.
Our remote position from the scenes of strife and the march of armies, will not permit me to speak to you of battle-fields, of victories won or villages sacked any where in our sight. We were only in the pathway between the different wings of the American army. I have no means of determining the amount of force in men or money furnished by this County in aid of the war. From the tone of the votes and resolves passed at the va- rious town-meetings, and from the many officers and men, Conti- nental and militia, who joined the army, I may venture the asser- tion, that no county in New England, of no greater population than this, gave more efficient aid in various ways, or manifested by its acts, more devoted patriotism.
Sheldon's was, I believe, the first regiment of cavalry which joined the army. It was raised in this County chiefly, and com- manded by Col. Elisha Sheldon of Salisbury. The services of this regiment have been favorably noticed by the writers of that day, and on various occasions called forth the public thanks of the Commander-in-Chief. Among other officers attached to it, was Major Benjamin Tallmadge, afterwards and for many years a dis- tinguished merchant and gentleman of this village, and, for several sessions, a valuable member of Congress in the Connecticut dele- gation. Major Tallmadge distinguished himself by a brilliant exploit against the enemy on Long Island, for which he received the public approbation of General Washington; and through the whole struggle, this officer proved himself a favorite with the army and the officers under whom he served. Besides these, several other officers of elevated as well as subordinate rank, were attached
to the Continental army, from this County. Among them were Col. Heman Swift of Cornwall, Major Samuel Elmore of Sharon, Col. Seth Warner of Woodbury, Major Moses Seymour of Litch- field, Major John Webb of Canaan, Capt. John Sedgwick and Edward Rogers of Cornwall, Col. Blagden and Major Luther Stoddard of Salisbury, and many others not now recollected.
Contributions in support of the war were not confined to the
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payment of heavy taxes, but voluntary aid came from associations and individuals in every town. The aggregate can not be com- puted,-if it could, it would show an amount, which, rich as we now are, I think could not be demanded of our citizens for any cause of patriotism or philanthropy without murmurs, and per- haps, resistance.
Nor was the Patriot spirit confined to men and soldiers,-it warmed the bosoms of wives, mothers and sisters, in every town. An equestrian statue of the King, of gilded lead, before the war, had stood upon the Bowling Green in New York. As soon as the news of the signing of the Declaration of Independence reach- cd New York, this was missing. Ere long it was found at the dwelling-house of Hon. Oliver Wolcott, in this village, and in time of need was melted down into the more appropriate shape of forty thousand bullets, by the daughters of that gentleman and other ladies, and forwarded to the soldiery in the field. Other la- dics still, and in other towns, were much employed in making blankets and garments for the suffering troops.
I have no means of determining the number of killed and wounded soldiers belonging to this County.
Mr. Matthews, the Mayor of the city of New York, was for some time detained in this village, a prisoner of war, and it is said that his traveling trunk, and some parts of his pleasure carriage, still remain in possession of the Seymour family. Governor Franklin, the Royal Governor of New Jersey, and a son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, was confined as a prisoner of war in our jail which was often used to detain English prisoners as well as Tories.
Although the treaty of peace brought peace to other parts of the State, it did not bring it to the whole of this County. One town was left,-not to the continued and merciless inroads of British soldiers and savage Indians, as before, but to the unjust oppressions of Pennsylvania,-Westmoreland, better known to the readers of Indian tragedy by the name of Wyoming. Its history is one of melancholy interest. This territory is in the valley and region of the Susquehanna River, and included the present flourishing village of Wilkesbarre. Its extent was as broad as this State. It was supposed to be embraced within our chartered limits, and such was the opinion of the most eminent
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counsel in England and in the Colony. Under this claim, a company associated about the year 1754, by the name of the Susquehanna Company, and purchased the Indian title to the country, for two thousand pounds, New York currency. This was a voluntary movement, -- a people's enterprise, unsanctioned by any direct Legislative act, but unforbidden, and probably encour- aged. Within a few years, a settlement was effected upon the choice lands of the Susquehanna, chiefly by cmigrants from the counties of Windham and New London, with several from this County, among whom was John Franklin of Canaan, the brother of the late Silas Franklin, Esq., of that town, a gentleman whose fortune and history were closely interwoven with the fortunes of that colony. The Authorities of Pennsylvania, though claiming under a later Charter, opposed this settlement, and kept up a continual annoyance until the breaking out of the war with Eng- land, and even then sympathized but little with our people there, under the dreadful afflictions which that event brought upon them.
Sad indeed was the condition of the colonists of Wyoming !- persecuted by their Pennsylvania neighbors, and left defenceless ! to the ravages of British troops and their savage allies! The Legislature of this Colony recognized this interesting band of its own children, and incorporated them into a township, by the name of Westmoreland, in 1774, and annexed it to the County of Litchfield. They would have been protected from the aggressions of Pennsylvania, if the war of the Revolution had not prevented, and the good Friends of that Commonwealth would have been compelled to doff the Quaker a while, or quietly to have left our fellow-citizens in peace. Under the protection of their parent power, this little colony now looked for security. They were a town of the Connecticut Colony, organized with Se- lectmen and other ordinary Town Officers, and semi-annually sent their Deputies to the General Court at Hartford and New Ha- ven ; chose their Jurors to attend the Courts of this County, and their Justices of the Peace were magistrates of the County of Litchfield, and all writs and process, served there, were return- able to the Courts of this County, and remain now upon our records. But their security was transient ; the war of the Revo- lution brought down upon them a combined force of British Pro- vincials and Tories, from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New
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York, and a large body of Indians, commanded by Brant, a cele- brated chief. This whole force was directed by Col. John Butler, of infamous memory.
I have no leisure to describe, in its details, the progress of the tragedy of the Wyoming massacre. Cols. John Franklin and Zebulon Butler were conspicuous in their efforts to avert the sad destiny of the citizens. It was in vain. The battle opened on the 3d day of July, 1778, and it closed with the entire destruc- tion of the settlement. Men, women and children, whether in arms or defenceless, were devoted to the bayonet and scalping knife, and such as were so fortunate as to escape, were driven away, houseless and homeless, many of them to be dragged from their hiding places to the slaughter, and others to escape after many perils by the way. That massacre was without a likeness in modern warfare, and a stain upon the English character, for which English historians have found no apology.
" Accursed Brant ! he left of all my tribe Nor man, nor child, nor any thing of living birth ; No,- not the dog that watch'd my household hearth Escaped that night, upon our plains,-all perished !"
Men, maidens, widowed mothers and helpless infants, flying from this scene of death, are remembered by many still living, passing on foot and on horseback through this County, back to their friends here and to the eastern towns. Such was the fate of a portion of the citizens of our own County. Nine years Wy- oming had been a part of us, and after the war was over, Penn- sylvania renewed her claims and her oppressions. Our Pilgrim fathers could recount no such afflictions ! Our jurisdiction ceased in 1782, after a decision by a Board of Commissioners ; but a great portion of those who had survived the conflict with the Indians, gathered again around the ruins of their former labita- tions, and still refused submission to the claims of Pennsylvania. Col. Franklin was the master spirit of resistance, and upon him fell the weight of vengeance. He was arrested, imprisoned, and condemned to death as a traitor. After a long confinement in jail, he was at length released, and survived many years, and was a respectable and influential member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, from the County of Luzerne.
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The result of the compromise of our claim to the town of West- moreland, was the acknowledgment, by Congress, of the claim of Connecticut to the Western Reserve, from which has been derived the School Fund of the State.
The war of the Revolution had ceased, and left us an exhausted people. The extravagant hopes of many were disappointed : they felt the present pressure, but anticipated none of the future prosperity and glory in reserve. This disappointment, in a neighboring State, had produced open resistance to the laws,- rebellion ! It was a contagious spirit, and such as municipal lines could not confine. Much was feared from it here. A spark from that flame in Berkshire county had flown over into Sharon. One Dr. Hurlbut, an emissary of Shay's, visited that town, in the spring of 1787, to enlist men in his cause. He made some impression. The General Assembly was then in session, and took efficient measures to prevent the spread of the treasonable contagion. Col. Samuel Canfield, of New Milford, and Uriah Tracy, of this village, were sent to suppress it. Several indi- viduals were arrested and imprisoned in the jail of this County ; but, as the disturbance in the sister State subsided, the advo- cates of resistance to the laws were disheartened, the prosecu- tions were finally abandoned, and these disciples of the treasona- ble doctrine of resistance were permitted to go at large, punished enough by the contempt which followed them.
Although the resources of our citizens had been consumed by a wasting war and a bankrupt government, the elasticity of our former enterprise was not relaxed. Released, now, from Colonial dependence, and free to act without foreign restrictions, the ener- gies of our citizens soon recovered all they had lost. A Consti- tution of Government, uniting the former Colonies into a great nation, was proposed to the State for adoption ; and, in January, 1787, a convention of delegates from the several towns met at Hartford to consider it. The votes of the delegates from this County, upon this great question, stood, twenty-two in the affirm- ative, and nine in the negative. The negative votes were from Cornwall, Norfolk, and Sharon. Harwinton, New Hartford, and Torrington were divided.
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