USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations > Part 33
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359
PLEA FOR NATIONAL RECOGNITION OF HALE
urge the President or Postmaster General or any other high official to place a head of Hale on one of our postal issues, a good cause might be forwarded.
I have already referred to the celebration of the Centennial of Linonia in 1853, when Francis Miles Finch, Yale 1849, read a poem on Hale which at once achieved a wide popularity. It was freely reprinted in the school books of the period and did more to rescue Hale's name from oblivion and pass on the Hale tradition than any tribute paid to him up to that time. Finch subsequently performed a national service in writing his famous poem, "The Blue and the Grey," which softened the bitterness and sectional feeling of the Civil War, and is said to have been the moving cause of our national institution of Memorial Day. It is fitting that the first of these poems should have memorialized Hale.
Yale is fortunate in having in its custody some priceless memorials of Hale, including the minutes of the Linonia Society, largely in his handwriting; an original poem in his handwriting in the Stokes Collection; Hale's Commission as Captain in the Continental Army; two letters from Hale; a statue by Lee Lawrie and an inscription-both in the Hark- ness Memorial. I am sure that I betray no confidence in stat- ing that the architect of the building, James Gamble Rogers, Yale 1889, seriously considered placing the Hale inscription on the face of its main portal under the tower; that place of honor was finally given to another inscription.
Yale has also a modest memorial in the Hale statue, designed by Bela Lyon Pratt, a native of Connecticut and a student in the Yale School of the Fine Arts. Of this statue, which has been a constant source of inspiration to the undergraduate body since it was erected ten years ago, Arthur Kingsley Porter, Yale '04, another Connecticut man and one of the fore- most Yale scholars of our day, wrote :
The poetic and deeply illustrative statue of Nathan Hale on the Yale Campus is highly esteemed by a small circle particularly interested in art ; but the great majority of an exceptionally enlightened community is prob- ably still unaware that this is a work of extraordinary merit.
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Hale has not yet been admitted to the official Hall of Fame, which may be thought to need the luster of his name more than his fame needs anything that the Hall of Fame could bring to it. It is a cause for thankfulness that after comparative neg- lect for a century he should now have definitely taken his place as our youthful national hero and our matchless symbol of patriotism. In his youth, in his personal beauty and athletic prowess, in his simplicity and straightforwardness of char- acter, in his supreme sacrifice and early death, he has an unfad- ing brightness which must forever endear him to all who are quick to feel a modest and manly spirit.
The first stanza of Finch's poem brings our Yale patriot vividly before us :
To drum beat and heart beat, A soldier marches by ; There is color in his cheek, There is courage in his eye, Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat In a moment he must die !
MORE PROPAGANDA FOR A NATIONAL MEMORIAL TO HALE: LETTERS FROM PRESIDENT COOLIDGE AND THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL.
My suggestion to President Harding, in my letter to him of May 25, 1923, that the Federal Government should place a head of Hale upon one of its postal issues, as a memorial to the patriot, and also as a means of forwarding the cause of Americanization, was favorably commented upon by the press, with the single exception of one writer, who feared, forsooth, that such a course might give offense to the British! Since the American people have suffered the erection in succession of two memorials to the British spy, Major André, to mark the place of his execution, I feel prepared to run the risk of offending the "Mother Country." Even Washington paid tributes to André, but he paid none to Hale,-at least, none that has been recorded.
During the Yale Commencement of 1923, the Hon. Schuyler
36I
PRESIDENT COOLIDGE'S TRIBUTE TO HALE
Merritt, Yale 1873, now representing the Fourth Connecticut District in Congress, spoke to me in the Graduates Club, warmly commending the idea of the proposed Hale Memorial Postage Stamp. He said that in the fall, on the return of President Harding from Alaska, he would endeavor to get the Connecticut delegation to join him in waiting upon the Presi- dent at the White House and urge upon him the issuance of a stamp bearing a head of Hale. President Harding's death, of course, defeated that plan, and there the matter rested until July 26th of this year (1924), when I wrote to President Coolidge on the subject of a national memorial to Hale, and enclosed a copy of President Harding's letter to me on the subject. Mr. Coolidge promptly replied as follows :
THE WHITE HOUSE
July 31, 1924. MY DEAR MR. SEYMOUR :
You may number me among those profoundly in sympathy with your fine purpose of bringing about a proper national recognition of the patriotic services of Captain Nathan Hale. I can say with all confidence that what- ever form may be given to the testimonial, if it is approved by the friends of this movement, it will have also my own approval. Nathan Hale's memory will live so long as the martyrs of American liberty are remem- bered by a grateful country. There should be some proper national memorial to him, and I hope it may not be much longer delayed.
Most sincerely yours, (Signed) CALVIN COOLIDGE.
In my reply to the President, under date of August 9, 1924, I said in part :
"In my letter to Mr. Harding, I suggested that a head of Hale should be placed on a postage stamp. I did not press that idea in my letter to you, though it remains uppermost in my mind as the method by which the name and fame of Hale could be impressed upon the entire country almost at a stroke, and the cause of Americanization immeasurably forwarded. A stamp of high denomination would not serve the intended purpose on account of restriction of use. It occurs to me now, however, that the main purpose might be accomplished by a single large issue, say, of the one-cent stamp, after which the Franklin issues might be resumed. A Nathan Hale stamp so issued would no doubt be cherished in the hands of millions of people.
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"There should also be a suitable permanent memorial to Hale in Wash- ington, but it seems to me that nothing could be devised as a first step that would equal in effect the issuance of a large number of one-cent Hale postage stamps. I am sure no one would be more gratified by it than the 'shade' of Franklin himself."
To this letter, the Secretary to the President replied as fol- lows, under date of August 1Ith :
"Your letter of August 9th, to the President, has been received. I shall at once take up with the Postmaster General your suggestion as to the Nathan Hale Stamp."
With gratifying promptness, the Postmaster General then wrote me as follows :
August 14, 1924. MY DEAR MR. SEYMOUR :
I have your letter with reference to the Nathan Hale stamp. I quite agree with you that Hale is one of the most interesting characters of the most interesting historical period of the development of our common coun- try. It would be impossible to pay too much honor to his memory.
Naturally, the Post Office Department hesitates about the issuance of stamps. There have been almost no exceptions-of course, barring the case of Franklin, who was the first Postmaster General-where stamps have been issued to memorialize anyone but Presidents. We are contemplat- ing the issuance of a set of stamps in connection with the Sesqui-Centennial Celebration at Philadelphia and in my opinion it would be a fitting thing to have Hale's likeness used on one of that series. I assume, of course, that the projectors of the Sesqui-Centennial will have their preferences and will have a good deal to say about selection of subjects, but it might be well to consider this project in that connection.
Very truly yours, (Signed) HARRY S. NEW,
Postmaster General.
On August 20th I had a satisfactory interview in Washing- ton with the Postmaster General, Mr. New. He gave me a letter to Mr. Victor Rosewater, Secretary of the Sesqui-Cen- tennial Committee in Philadelphia, and on returning home, I wrote Mr. Rosewater, who replied that his official connection with the Committee had been terminated, but that he would be pleased to bring the Postmaster-General's letter to the atten- tion of its Chairman.
363
"HOW POOR ARE THEY WHO HAVE NO PATIENCE" .
My experience has taught me that the firing of an individual with enthusiasm is easy, but I have no formula for firing a big committee, particularly a big committee of Philadelphians. Meanwhile, I extract what comfort I can from Shakespere's "How poor are they, who have no patience."
On September 6, 1924, I wrote (looking hopefully forward) to General Dawes as follows :
"I was pleased to read of your following the 'ancestral footstep' by mak- ing a pilgrimage to East Haddam during your recent visit to Connecticut, and particularly to learn that while in East Haddam you visited the school- house where Nathan Hale taught on leaving college in 1773. It is more than likely that some of your Gates forbears were under him as a school- teacher, or at least knew him. I also read of your visit to the Yale Campus and your inspection of the statue of Hale in front of Connecticut Hall, where he roomed as an undergraduate*
On September 15th General Dawes replied as follows :
"I have always been very much interested in the life and work of Nathan Hale, and am glad to learn of your efforts to impress his memory upon the American people .*
"Say that the Struggle Naught Availeth"
Much more correspondence not to be detailed followed with the Postmaster General. Mr. New, Mr. Merritt, Governor Pinchot, and Mr. D. C. Collier, the new Chairman of the Sesqui-Centennial Celebration Committee. Finally, Mr. New rewarded all my pains and trouble by writing me as follows on March 10, 1925 :
MY DEAR MR. SEYMOUR :
I hope I am about to make you happy. You may not be aware of the fact that the recently enacted postal pay and rate bill created a condition which seems to make it necessary for the Department to issue a new stamp of one-half cent denomination. Requests for such an issue have been com- ing in for the last few days and I am satisfied the demand for such a stamp will be widespread and permanent. Anticipating this, I had the Bureau of Engraving and Printing make two designs for me which I am sending for your information and inspection.
My choice goes instantly to the one showing the face. To me it is a perfectly marvelous countenance. If that face doesn't carry on it the stamp of nobility, I am no judge of physiognomy. I feel almost as much personal
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NEW HAVEN :
interest in this matter as you do and I see a way to get what we want with- out any reference to Sesqui-Centennials or anyone else, for I have authority to place this order myself.
The full length figure I do not like. I expect to affix my signature to the first one and put it immediately in work, so that it ought to be ready for issue within the next 45 days. I trust this has your approval. Kindly return both designs to me at once as I want to place the order without delay.
Very truly yours, (Signed) HARRY S. NEW, Postmaster General.
To my reply of March IIth, the Postmaster General replied the next day in part as follows :
MY DEAR MR. SEYMOUR :
Your letter returning the two designs for the Hale stamp just now received. I have this moment affixed my signature approving the one we both prefer and you may rest easy in the knowledge that your dream is realized and the thing is accomplished. We are going to have a Hale stamp and I don't know of any figure in the Nation's history that paid more dearly for the honor or who is more entitled to it than this lofty-spirited young patriot.
Very truly yours, (Signed) HARRY S. NEW, Postmaster General.
Under date of March 19th, Chief Justice Taft wrote me :
"I am glad you have gotten Nathan Hale into the 'national gallery' in a way that people will become familiar with his face."
Mr. New took advantage of his opportunity and to him I render my special thanks. A postage stamp is far from an adequate national memorial to Hale; I hope it may lead to one. Meanwhile, placed in the hands of millions of our people, it carries with it its incomparable lesson of love of country. "Hale thought of his country and was glad to die for it. He remembered the immortal line in Horace that he had read in College : 'Dulce et decorum est pro patrie mori.' " (Munger.)
The Birth-Place, March, 1925.
365
FAR MORE WORTHY OF REGARD THAN ANDRÉ
HALE AND ANDRÉ, A DISTINGUISHED WRITER'S VIEW
In his scholarly introduction to the reprint in 1887 by the Dunlap Society, of Dunlap's tragedy "André," Mr. Brander Matthews said in conclusion :
"It may be well to note, also, that a play called 'Nathan Hale; or the Martyr Spy of the Revolution,' by Edmond Pillet and S. A. McKiever, was acted at the Bowery Theatre, in New York, Feb. 3, 1879.
"This attempt to set on the stage the life and death of Nathan Hale, who was far more worthy of regard than André, was not unsuccessful, but I cannot discover that it was ever published."
In a recent conversation (Nov. 6, 1924) with Mr. Matthews in the "Century House," he warmly confirmed the above view of Hale as "far more worthy of regard than André."
XL.
HENRY CANER, YALE'S FIRST BUILDER.
By GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR.
(Reprinted from the Year Book and Catalogue of the Fifth Annual Exhi- bition of the Architectural Club of New Haven, 1924) : This article, considerably amplified, will be found in the January 1925 issue of Old Time New England.
With the unfolding of Yale's great architectural pro- gramme, starred as it is with famous names, it seems fitting that we should turn back the fast-fading pages of our Colonial history to the beginnings of Yale and recover what we may, after the lapse of two hundred years, of the life and work of Henry Caner, the builder of Yale's first two college buildings, not to mention a barn for the Rector's cow.
Henry Caner, probably pronounced "Canner," was born about 1680 at Long Ashton, near Bristol, England. What training he had there is entirely unknown, nor is it known what induced him to remove with his family to Boston, where he was living as early as 1710; nor does any record remain of any work done by him in Boston, beyond the enlargement in 1710-1715 of King's Chapel, a wooden structure of 1688- 1689, erected under the patronage of Sir Edmund Andros and said to have been the first Episcopal house of worship in New England. In all probability, it was Caner's work in connection with King's Chapel that brought him to the atten- tion of Governor Gurdon Saltonstall (1666-1724), a native of Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard in 1684, and then Governor of the Colony of Connecticut. Saltonstall, able, eloquent, highly proficient in the grand gesture, was very much the "man of affairs," and likely to know what was "going on' in Boston, where beyond doubt he was an occasional visitor drawn thence by family ties or public or private business. We know that the French and Indian War took him to Boston with three hundred Connecticut soldiers in 1710.
367
HENRY CANER, YALE'S FIRST BUILDER
At an adjourned meeting, held in New Haven October 20, 1716, of the Trustees of the College, it was voted to build a "Collegiate house and Rector's house," and "the Honorable Governor Saltonstall" and Deputy Governor Gold were "In- treated to favour us with their advice concerning the archi- tectonick part of the buildings."
No Boston records of which I am aware show when Henry Caner removed to New Haven. The first appearance of Caner's name on the town records of New Haven is on Janu- ary 24, 1722, when, with Samuel Andrews, Junior, of Milford, he bought a parcel of land from Capt. John Munson, Miller. In this instrument, as well as elsewhere on the town records, he is styled "Housewright," barring a deed of 1728 in which he is described as "Carpenter."
The first appearance of Caner's name in the College archives goes back five years earlier, when, at a meeting of the Trustees on September 13, 1717, it was :
"Agreed and ordered that what Bills of debt Mr. Caner shall bring Signed, or allowed by Mr. Andrew, or Mr. Russel, the Treasurer of ye Collegiate School Mr. John Prout, shall and is hereby impowered to make payment of" (Dexter's Documentary History of Yale University, p. 104).
Mr. Caner is not described in this earlier entry as of New Haven and it may be that the vote was passed in anticipation of his coming. It seems more reasonable to assume, however, that he had now just arrived on the scene of his future labors. Farlier meetings of the Trustees in the same year do not men- tion Caner by name. His son, Richard, was born in Boston, June 4, 1717. From these facts I feel warranted in assum- ing that Caner removed from Boston to New Haven sometime in the summer of 1717, probably in August or in September, coming in time for the raising of the building on October 8th of that year. It is clear that he did not plan or design Yale's first building, -- he came too late for that. The planning of the building must be credited to Saltonstall, whose plan Caner finished as master-builder. In the early New England tradi- tion, framing and finishing were viewed as separate under- takings.
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Governor Saltonstall furnished a plan for the building as early as January, 1717, and the Rev'd Mr. Samuel Russel of Branford, on the basis of that plan, prepared specifications for the "great timber" for the "Collegiate house." Mr. Russel's specifications are in such striking contrast to those of the modern architect that I give them in full.
In ye front, 10 posts, 27 foot long; 10 inches Square each.
-3 Sils 54 foot long, beside Spliceing, 10 inches wide, & 8 deep.
--- for ye Hall, 2 girts; 31 foot Longe; 10 inches wide & 8 deep.
-for ye Starcases, 6 girts ; 9 foot Long; 10 inches wide & 8 deep.
-for ye other romes, 10 girts 21 foot Long; 10 Inches wide 8 deep.
3 plates 54 foot Long (besides Spliceing) : 8 Inches Square for the Ends 4 Girts 21 foot Long 10: and 8.
for the Top 10 beams 27 foot Long 10: and 8
For End Sils and Cross Sills 10: of 22 foot Long : 10 & 8
21 Summers. 22 foot Long: 12: and 8: or 7
16 Cross Girts 21 foot Long 10 & 8
for the back of the house 10 posts 27 foot Long 10 Square Io Girts 21 foot Long 8: and 6
for the hall back &c 2 Girts 31 foot Long 8 and 6
Newhaven Janry. 4th. 1716|7. I gaue the Committe for building the Col- legiate house the aboue dimensions for ye getting ye great timber for sd. house.
Wittnes my hand
SAMUEL RUSSEL. (Dexter's Documentary History, pp. 82-83.)
The "Collegiate house" was raised October 8, 1717. It stood on what was known as "Mrs. Coster's lot" on the north- east corner of the "College Yard," as it was soon to be called, facing what is now College Street, and overlooking the Great Square. The building was about 165 feet long, 21 feet wide, 30 feet high and surmounted by a belfry. Whether it had a simple pitched roof or a hipped roof seems uncertain. It had numerous dormer windows, then somewhat unusual in our New England buildings. It was so far finished at the time of the second College Commencement held in New Haven on September 10, 1718, that with great parade and Latin speeches, it was named "Yale College," in honor of Governor Elihu Yale, at that time the chief benefactor of the institution. In this matter, Yale got ahead of Harvard, since Elihu Yale was
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HENRY CANER, YALE'S FIRST BUILDER
born in Boston, rather than in New Haven, as commonly sup- posed. The building was first occupied by tutors and students on October 8, 1718, just a year after it was raised. Caner's name occurs in the College archives once or twice in connection with repairs to this first Yale building. It appears to have been left unpainted until 1738, when it was painted the bluish or lead color produced by mixing lamp black (College Archives "lamb black") white lead and oil. No blue pigment was used. It is certain, therefore, that Yale's first college building was not Yale blue, or any other blue, as has been sometimes asserted.
For some reason or other, now lost sight of, Yale's first building was destined to have a short life. Perhaps it was inconvenient, and it was certainly placed too near to College Street to fall into the line of the afterwards historic Brick Row, projected as early as 1750, when "Connecticut Hall" was begun. At any rate, in 1775-1776, the north end of the building was torn down and the remnant in 1782,-only sixty- four years after it witnessed that glorious New Haven Com- mencement of 1718. In its brief life, we already have a strik- ing illustration of the characteristically impatient American treatment of a building which has survived its first purpose.
The Rev. Samuel Peters, Yale 1757, in his celebrated and little-understood "General History of Connecticut," written in London for the edification of a disgruntled but wonder-loving English public, missed few opportunities of slyly making fun of Connecticut and Connecticut institutions. The building was standing when he was an undergraduate; he makes no fun of it, though he does not praise it. He says, "Yale Col- lege is built with wood and painted a sky color; it is 160 ft. long and three stories high, besides garrets."
A better witness is the Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, Yale 1765, a close observer, a careful writer and a man of an emi- nently practical turn of mind, as anyone who will read his "Life, Journals and Correspondence" must admit. He came to New Haven in 1787, and visited President Stiles. The "Collegiate School" had then been demolished. Commenting
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upon the changes in New Haven since his undergraduate days, he says :
"But the most affecting change to me is the loss of Mother Yale. Yale College [the "Collegiate house"] was by far the most sightly building of any one that belonged to the University, and most advantageously situated. It gave an air of grandeur to the others. There are now only Connecticut Hall, the Chapel, which is three stories, containing the Library, and Cabinet, also the Dining Hall and Kitchen. These are all built of brick, but so sit- uated as to make very little show."
The use of the word "grandeur" by such a practical writer as Cutler is to me highly significant. The picture that remained in his mind of the old building may have been colored by the sentiment of a returning alumnus, but plainly, the building, as he remembered it, was imposing, and its design, in his view, appropriate. I am free to say that I attach great importance to this brief comment upon the first Yale building by Dr. Cutler, who saw the building as an undergraduate and, perchance, lived in it.
No adequate representations or descriptions of the building have survived. The familiar copperplate engraving known as "Johnson's Prospect of Yale College" seems to have been made about 1745. This view is obviously inaccurate, since it represents the length of the building as not more than two and one-half times its width, whereas it was nearly seven and one-half times as long as it was wide. The engraving makes a clock almost the feature of the building, which is not known to have had one. It is more than likely that Greenwood, the engraver, never saw the building and made his engraving from a fanciful drawing by Johnson, who may never have seen it either.
Caner's next undertaking was the Rector's House, built in 1722, on College Street, on the Rev. Mr. Hooke's lot, lately occupied by the ill-fated Rialto Theatre. Mr. Hooke (Trinity College, Oxford 1620) came to New Haven, 1644-5, as associ- ate minister with Mr. Davenport. Here on this lot he had his home. In it he brewed his own beer. He returned to
371
HENRY CANER, YALE'S FIRST BUILDER
England in 1656 and became Domestic Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, a kinsman of Mrs. Hooke, who was a sister of General Edward Whalley, one of the regicides of Charles I. When Mr. Hooke left New Haven he gave his home-lot to the Church under the express condition that it should not be alienated, but Yale acquired it in 1721 under a perpetual lease for the sum of 43 lbs. How the shade of Mr. Hooke feels about it is another matter !!!
Governor Saltonstall was still acting as the supervising architect of the infant college and in all probability was responsible for the general plan for the Rector's house, which was a two-chimney house with a central hallway and therefore corresponded in a way to the "elegant mansion" which he built on the shores of Furnace Pond (now Lake Saltonstall) in Branford in 1708. The Trustees contracted with Mr. Caner to build this house for 600 lbs., a part of which was raised by a spirited "drive" conducted by Governor Saltonstall and a part from an impost upon "rhum." This house, which stood about 20 feet back from the street, was to be "fourty-four 1/2 foot long, thirty-eight foot wide and eighteen foot Stud with a Barn and well." The roof was considerably steeper in pitch than the later Connecticut houses and was provided, between its massive cut-stone chimneys, with a square lookout, from which the Harbor could be observed. It also had two or more dormer windows in front, perhaps other dormers in the back. The barn, which was located on the southern side of the lot, provided accommodations for the Rector's cow, which I have somewhere read was pastured about where the Harkness Memorial now stands, but perhaps nearer to Christ Church. This useful creature was, I fancy, a red Devon, tracing her ancestry back to the animals brought over from England by "Lady Fenwick" and presented by her to the Rev. Henry Whit- field of Guilford. The square lookout referred to was, I am sure, a later addition.
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