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 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
The felling of so many elms on the Green during the last
396
NEW HAVEN :
few weeks has been a painful sight, even if many trees that have come down were only stumps of trees. Some citizens have thought that they might have been spared a while longer. Personally I think that the Park Commission has been well advised in ordering the deformed and dying trees to be cut down, and the Green replanted with elms.
Notwithstanding the insect enemies of elms, the Park Com- mission has decided to replant the lower portion of the Green with elms, which, it is believed, will flourish, if well fertilized and properly cared for. No modern city can expect to have ornamental trees without unceasing care of them. Mr. Cromie is planting oriental plane trees along the sidewalk on the north side of the Green. The oriental plane is practically immune from insect enemies, and has been found to flourish extremely well in this locality.
The removal of the trees, so long the glory of New Haven and the Green, makes it more important than ever that the churches on the Green should be restored to their original appearance, so that they may adorn it as best they may.
For many years these churches were largely concealed by the trees. Trinity Church, in particular, now that the trees about it have been taken away, shows how much it suffered when it was remodeled about 1870, and the parapet around the edge of the roof removed as well as the parapet and pinnacles of the tower. But for these mutilations of Mr. Town's origi- nal design, Trinity Church would have none of the bareness which it now presents.
Center Church, also designed by Mr. Town, was last year restored to its original appearance of a red brick structure with white woodwork. Center Church was first painted in 1845, and its original design thus greatly disfigured.
The North Church, designed by David Hoadley, was painted in 1850, and has been repainted from time to time up to the present day. When it shall be restored to its original appear- ance, the Green will present, side by side, two of the finest specimens of Colonial architecture in the United States.
PLANTING THE DAVENPORT AND EATON MEMORIAL OAKS 397
The writer first suggested, in 1909, the restoration of Center Church to its original appearance. To the surprise of many persons in this community, Center Church, when scraped, was seen to be an exceptionally fine example of brick work of the kind known as Flemish bond. The United Church, when scraped, will undoubtedly present an equally fine appearance, and it is hoped that that public improvement will not long be delayed. If Center Church and North Church are standing in 2013, they will be viewed as "national monuments," and among the most notable specimens of American architecture. By that time let us hope that the Eaton and Davenport Oaks will be flourishing trees in the handsomest public square in the entire United States-a square sixteen acres in extent traversed it may be by subways, but not, I devoutly hope, encumbered by new buildings of any description.
GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR
New Haven, April, 1913.
NOTE .- The trees were planted as planned with Col. Samuel Herbert Fisher (Yale 1889), a descendant of Mr. Davenport, assisting Mr. Taft and Mr. Cromie, and Mr. Walter Ruel Cowles (Yale 1906), a descendant of Gov. Eaton, assisting Mr. Amhryn. The trees thus planted did not thrive but were replaced during the same year and their successors are now flourishing. Stones inscribed "Davenport Oak" and "Eaton Oak" set into the turf close to them would serve to identify them and heighten their interest. G. D. S. 1922.
NOTE 2: The compiler has for years advocated the organization of a body of citizens, men and women, to be known as The Defenders of New Haven Green, charged with fostering sentiment favoring the retention of the Green as a great open square for the use and enjoyment of our entire citi- zenship. Such an organization would provide a body always ready to resist encroachment, of whatever character, upon the Green. The compiler failed in his effort to keep the Bennett Fountain off the Green, and has long favored its removal to one of our parks. His fight to prevent the erection on the Green of two long waiting stations, urged by the Mayor and the Chamber of Commerce, is elsewhere recorded in this book. He is proud to have been in the van of those who from the first were opposed to locating the Comfort Station on the Green. The Defenders of New Haven Green should organize. Every citizen who loves it would be eligible.
XLVI.
AN INCIDENT IN THE BUILDING OF CHRIST CHURCH, WEST HAVEN.
FOREWORD: I had no idea when I wrote the following letter to Mr. Gammack, then a total stranger to me, that it would do more than please and perhaps encourage him. It happened, however, that it served a far more important purpose. His parishioners were at the time as much set against the use of trap rock for the building material of the church, as Mr. Gammack and the architects were in favor of it. My letter, coming from a member of the then New Haven Commission on Public Memorials, was so timely in advocating the use of trap rock, that Mr. Gammack at once published it in the papers and reprinted it in a leaflet with which he circularized his parish. He was good enough to say later that my letter had thus helped to win the congregation over to the use of trap rock for the church.
The letter follows :
New Haven, Conn., January 29, 1906.
The Rev. Arthur T. Gammack,
West Haven, Conn.
My dear Mr. Gammack:
Some days ago my eyes fell quite accidentally on a perspective drawing, in the window of Tiernan & Company's art store, of a Gothic Church. The beauty of the design attracted me, and you may imagine my surprise when I learned that it was a sketch of the proposed new church building for Christ Church Parish, West Haven, by Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson. That the church, when built, will be a fabric of enduring beauty, I can have no doubt. Nor is there any way of measuring the value to a community of a building so churchly in its character, and so sound as this will be in design and construction, if the plans of these architects are carried out. Your parish will not be alone in these benefits; the city of New Haven and the whole countryside will share in them. A church by these architects is sufficient to give distinction to any place. I may be mistaken about it, but I think Mr. Cram, by common concensus of opinion, is the leading Gothic architect of this country, and I have been told that within a century no
399
"A CONCENTRATION OF NATURE"
such splendid drawings in the Gothic style have been produced as those made for the series of new buildings at West Point by his firm. Many architects work in the Gothic style, picking here and there from the books, but Mr. Cram has so assimilated the style that he works in it as fluently and easily as he speaks his native tongue.
I am glad to know, too, that trap has been decided upon as the building material, for it is the building material par excellence of this locality, pro- ducing an effect of great solidity with unusual beauty of coloring. I have always wondered that the stone has been so neglected in New Haven as a building stone, especially as it was so well used long ago in old Trinity on the Green and in the Daggett House on Wall Street, and lately in the houses of Professor Schwab and Professor Fisher on Prospect Street. No building material can approach that taken from the immediate vicinity of the structure. An alien stone never secures quite the same result. A stone that the eye sees frequently in the landscape, when worked into a building, seems almost, to use an expression of Mr. Cram's, like a "concen- tration of nature."
I shall look forward with interest to seeing a sketch of the interior and the detail plans.
Very truly yours, GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR
Trap-Rock Better Appreciated as a Building Stone a Century Ago than To-Day.
"These several eminences [East and West Rocks], from their peculiarly bold and characteristic features, give to the scenery of New-Haven an appearance of novelty, grandeur and interest, surpassing that of almost any other town in the United States. The stones of these mountains are very valuable for building, and have latterly been used extensively for that object, in New-Haven." (P. 96, "A Gazetteer of the States of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, by John C. Pease and John M. Niles. Hartford : 1819.")
"Of the public buildings, the Episcopal church deserves a conspicuous notice. It is a large and stately stone edifice, constructed in a style of superior elegance. It is one of the finest specimens of the arts in this State; and in style of architecture, solidity of structure, richness of orna- ment, and the general elegance of its appearance, is surpassed by few public buildings in the United States. . The stones of which it is con- structed were from the greenstone strata of East and West Rock. This, together with the two Congregational Churches, is also situated upon the public square; these several public buildings being ranged upon the west side of the avenue, by which the public square is intersected." (P. 103, "A Gazetteer of the States of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, by John C. Pease and John M. Niles. Hartford : 1819.")
XLVII.
A RARE HALE ITEM.
"Who would not sing for Lycidas?" -Milton.
Of all the contemporary personal accounts of Hale, I know of none more convincing than a rhymed tribute, "wrote soon after his death," and first printed in 1836 in a short-lived local magazine, numbers of which are almost unknown. The entire poem has never been reprinted. I am, therefore, constrained to reprint it in full. Want of space alone prevents me from printing with it a long inquiry, written two or three years ago, into the authorship of the verse, and a detailed, almost line by line, criticism of the statements and allusions to be found in it. I must content myself now with the statement that the poem was written by Dr. Eneas Munson, Sr. (Yale 1753), a friend and correspondent of Hale's, and certainly not by the first President Dwight (Yale 1769), also a friend and corre- spondent of Hale's, to whom the poem has sometimes been attributed. I cannot adduce positive proof of my attribution, but I have no doubt of it.
The poem was first published in the February issue of the American Historical Magazine, of which a few numbers were published in the fore part of 1836 under the editorship of Colonel Ebenezer Baldwin (Yale 1808), an uncle of our Governor Simeon Eben Baldwin. In a note preceding the poem, the Editor says in part :
"The following article is from the pen of an aged and respected citizen, now deceased [the elder Munson died June 16, 1825]; and whatever may be incidental errors in poetical illustration, will be compensated by the facts disclosed in it [Italics mine]. We have been desirous to preserve a registry of all circumstances attending the fate of Nathan Hale."
This notice was followed by a note dated August 9, 1784, evidently written by the poet, and then by the poem of 160 lines in eighteenth century heroic couplets.
401
A RARE HALE ITEM
NEW HAVEN, Aug. 9, 1784.
I was personally acquainted with, and entertained a high opinion of the amiable Capt. NATHAN HALE, who suffered death in New York, [State,] by the hands of the British troops, in 1776; a character on some accounts similar to Major ANDRE, and on many, greatly superior. Every man who regards the welfare of his country, must revere a patriot who died in its defense; and while the English Magazines, news, &c. were filled with the praises of Major Andre, it gave me no small degree of regret, that Capt. Hale's virtues should be so little celebrated in the country, where, and for which, he died. This I am able to impute to nothing, but the great distress in which America was at that time involved. This gave rise to the follow- ing piece, which was wrote soon after Hale's death.
TO THE MEMORY OF CAPT. NATHAN HALE.
"Heu ! miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris." VIRG. Lib. vi. line 882.
A MUSE who ne'er drank Heliconian spring, Shall strive to raise her feeble voice to sing ; Can she forbear, although 't will naught avail, When low in earth is laid her favorite HALE? Shall haughty Britons in heroic lays,
And tuneful numbers, chant their ANDRE's praise ; And shall Columbia,-where blest freedom reigns With gentle sway, to bless her happy plains, -- Where friendship, truth, and simple manners shine, And noblest science lifts her head divine ; Shall she forget a son's-a patriot's name, A hero's glory, and a martyr's fame ? And shall not one, of all her tuneful choir, Whose bosom glows with true poetic fire, Attempt to sing that dear departed youth, Who fell a victim in the cause of truth? Rous'd by the thought, a friend presumes, thus late, Lov'd HALE, thy life and death to celebrate.
Dear shade of him, whose life drew all men's love, If you regard from your bright seat above, Aught that's transacted on this ball of clay, Forgive this simple, unadorned lay. Forgive the fondness of an infant muse, Who dares to sing what nobler bards refuse, And let her friendship plead for her excuse.
Erect and tall, his well-proportion'd frame, Vig'rous and active, as electric flame; His manly limbs had symmetry and grace,
402
NEW HAVEN :
And innate goodness marked his beauteous face ; His fancy lively, and his genius great, His solid judgment shone in grave debate; For erudition far beyond his years; At Yale distinguish'd above all his peers,- Speak, ye who knew him while a pupil there, His numerous virtues to the world declare, His blameless carriage, and his modest air ; Above the vain parade and idle show, Which mark the coxcomb and the empty beau, Removed from envy, malice, pride and strife, He walked through goodness as he walked through life; A kinder brother nature never knew,
A child more duteous, or a friend more true ; His teachers' precepts he obeyed with ease, The charms of science every hour could please ; Then he with rapture read those polished lines, Where Grecian wit and Roman genius shines,- Where the great worthies of the former age Live in the poet's and historian's page, Raised to a hight which envy dares not blame, Crown'd with a glorious and immortal fame ! Their bright example fired his gen'rous mind; Like them, the friend and lover of mankind, He glowed with zeal for his dear country's cause, And to support her mild and equal laws, When impious Britain, drunk with pride and power, Sent forth her legions in an evil hour, To strow this hapless land with heaps of slain, With step intrepid sought th' embattled plain ; And soon distinguish'd, in his first essay Of valiant deeds, on that important day, When titled slaves, brave freemen's valor tried, And Bunker's hight with British gore was dyed. Merit like his could not unnoticed lie, Beneath the ken of his great leader's eye; He early marked him, in the patriot line, A genius fit for ev'ry great design,- His virtues trusted, and his worth admired, And mutual friendship both their bosoms fired; For kindred souls, whom ends most noble move, Are ever certain of each other's love.
New York, strong post, by impious Howe was held, While patriot legions spread th' adjacent fields, And Fabius wished to learn the foe's designs, Their numbers, order, batteries, forts and lines.
403
A RARE HALE ITEM
To gain that knowledge was the task he chose, And free,-alas ! too free,-his life t' expose, Trusted himself amid his savage foes. With close attention all their works he scann'd, And executed what great Fabius plann'd ; Then far removed from ev'ry friendly aid, By force arrested,-by a wretch betrayed,- Arraigned before a savage, bloody court, Where harden'd souls at human sufferings sport, Cool, firm, undaunted, and composed he stood, Among those butchers-thirsting for his blood. Not all their pomp, parade, and lordly pride,- Not all their threats, nor all the arts they tried,- Nor death, that King of Terrors, nature's dread, Hov'ring in air, incumbent o'er his head, Could tempt his soul to use the least deceit, Or speak one falsehood to elude his fate! But clear and open as the noon-day sun, Declared the cause why he the hazard run, Why from the calm retreats of rural life, He plunged amid the dang'rous martial strife : "Hate of oppression's arbitrary plan, The love of freedom, and the rights of man; A strong desire to save from slavery's chain The future millions of the western main, And hand down safe, from men's invention cleared, The sacred truths which all the just revered ; For ends like these, I wish to draw my breath," He bravely cried, "or dare encounter death." And when a cruel wretch pronoun'd his doom, Replied, "'t is well,-for all is peace to come ; The sacred cause for which I drew my sword Shall yet prevail, and peace shall be restor'd. I've serv'd with zeal the land that gave me birth, Fulfill'd my course, and done my work on earth ; Have ever aimed to tread that shining road That leads a mortal to the blessed God. I die resign'd, and quit life's empty stage, For brighter worlds my ev'ry wish engage; And while my body slumbers in the dust, My soul shall join th' assemblies of the just."
He spent the time until he met his fate, With smiling patience, and in pious state ; Which when arrived, To draw that scene, the powers of language fail,- Love, grief and pity break the mournful tale.
404
NEW HAVEN :
Not Socrates, or noble Russell died, Or gentle Sidney, Britain's boast and pride, Or gen'rous Moore, approach'd life's final goal, With more compos'd, more firm, and stable soul. The flesh sunk down, to mix with kindred clay, --- The soul ascended to the realms of day.
A form so manlike, with such sweetness join'd, Such fortitude, and so enlarg'd a mind, Such pleasing manners, and such spotless truth, Such majesty and grace, in bloom of youth, Such patriot love, that match'd the Desius' zeal, Or Codrus, dying for his country's weal,- Produc'd effects almost beyond belief, Struck e'en his barb'rous, savage foes with grief. The wretches felt, by whose vile hands he died,- Though flushed with conquest, and elate with pride,- Though born in Britain, and to murder bred,- Lost their base errors, and rever'd the sacred dead !
In earth's full bloom, fell this lamented friend; But life is long, that answers life's great end,- That leaves embalm'd a pure, unsullied name, And adds a worthy to the rolls of Fame. Ye sons of Science and of Virtue, mourn, With copious tears bedew his silent urn; And thou, fair Yale, the Muses' blissful seat, Nurse of the learn'd, the virtuous, and the great,- Thy mournful notes, let Melopene swell, And solemn dirges ring his funeral knell. Chief let th' assembly, where the valiant meet, Which, dangers past, in friendship, renders sweet,- Where conquest gain'd o'er haughty Britain's arms, The well-earn'd peace, and sacred freedom's charms, Give joys, which none but worthy souls can know,- At Hale's sad fate let fall the tears of woe. Thus wept Achilles his Patroclus' fate, A sorrow worthy of the truly great.
Let all the fair, the gen'rous, learn'd and brave, Approach with rev'rence his untimely grave; While living laurels, with eternal bloom, Shall deck the scene, and shade the warrior's tomb.
In my long discussion of the poem, I conclude that it was written or begun "soon after Hale's death," September 22, 1776, to satisfy the poet's own deep feeling about Hale, and
405
A RARE HALE ITEM
then laid aside and finally taken up, added to and completed after the War was won in 1783, and therefore after the recep- tion in this country of Anna Seward's sulphurous "Monody on André," unmistakably referred to, though not by name, in the opening of the poem. Copies of the "Monody" were received here in this country in the forepart of 1781. My opinion is that the poem was not finished in its present form until about August 9, 1784, the date of the poet's prefatory note. The narrative section of the poem (lines 50-127) is the least felicitous part of it, and the least convincing. Inasmuch as the very circumstances of Hale's secret mission, capture and execution were nearly as much veiled then as now, we can excuse inaccuracies in the narrative part of the poem, in which the poet, whose aim was laudation, seems to have claimed too much service for the hero. Apart from this, the poem is a touching tribute of friendship by a New Haven friend who knew him well and loved him and resented the neglect of his memory by friends better qualified to celebrate his virtues and mourn his tragic fate. The defects of the poem do not impair its value as a nearly-contemporary docu- ment, of the first importance, bearing on the story of Hale. It was our eloquent Governor Hubbard who in his oration on Hale delivered in 1883 so happily characterized Hale as the "Lycidas of our heroic dead."
The Birth-Place, April, 1925.
XLVIII.
HALE IN BALLAD POETRY.
In his "Literary History of the American Revolution" (New York, 1897), Moses Coit Tyler, writing of Hale, says :
"Moreover in the very year of his self-immolation, his fate was sung in a ballad which for poetic quality-for weird pathos, for a strange sweet melody-probably deserves to be placed at the head of this entire class of writings as produced during the period of the Revolution." (Vol. II, p. 184.)
Tyler is here referring to a ballad printed in F. Moore's "Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution" (New York, 1855), entitled "Capture and Death of Nathan Hale" and dated 1776. Where Moore found the ballad is not known, nor what authority he had for giving it the date of 1776. The writer has for many years endeavored to identify the author and the place of the first appearance of the ballad, but without success, though he has enlisted the interest of such authorities as Mr. Albert Matthews, of Boston, and Professor George Lyman Kittridge, of Cambridge. Newspapers of the Revo- lutionary period have been examined in vain. It may have appeared in the form of a broadside, but if so, it is strange that not a single copy has ever turned up. My valued neigh- bor, the late Professor Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury (Yale 1859), thought well of the verse as ballad poetry. One stu- dent of balladry found something in it to suggest that it might have been sung to "Hearts of Oak," a popular air of the Revolutionary period. The story of Hale's capture at Hunt- ington, as recited in the ballad, accepted by Stuart in his "Life of Nathan Hale, the Martyr Spy" (Hartford, 1855), is not now credited. As a matter of fact, since no one has been able to discover when or where the version of Hale's capture, given in the ballad, originated, its evidential value appears negligible. Johnston, in his "Nathan Hale, 1776," rejects the story outlined in the ballad (pp. 118-12I).
407
HALE IN BALLAD POETRY
Authentic records conclusively dispose of the story that Hale was captured at Huntington, Long Island. For example, Hale's brother John made the following entry in the town records of Coventry :
"Capt. Nathan Hale, the Son of Deac" Richard Hale was taken in the City of New York [Italics mine] by the Britons and executed as a spie sometime in the Month of September A. D. 1776."
An orderly book, kept by an officer of the British Foot Guards and discovered a few years ago by the late Mr. William Kelby, sometime Librarian of the New York Historical Soci- ety, was found to contain, under date of September 22, 1776, the following entry :
"A spy from the Enemy (by his own full confession) apprehended last night, was this day executed at II o'clock in front of the Artilery Park."
The ballad referred to by Tyler was doubtless written when the story of Hale's capture in the manner described was cur- rent, by some balladist who did not know of the record in the Town of Coventry or the entry in the Orderly Book quoted. In view of these unquestionable records, we may certainly question Tyler's statement that the ballad was sung in the "very year" of Hale's sacrifice. It is possible but unlikely. Tyler's statements and comments seem to me to be in the nature of literary embroidery-to want historicity.
CAPTURE AND DEATH OF NATHAN HALE.
BY AN UNKNOWN BALLADIST
The breezes went steadily thro' the tall pines, A-saying "oh, hu-sh !" a-saying "oh, hu-sh!" As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse, For Hale in the bush; for Hale in the bush.
"Keep still !" said the thrush as she nestled her young, In a nest by the road; in a nest by the road;
"For the tyrants are near, and with them appear, What bodes us no good; what bodes us no good."
The brave captain heard it, and thought of his home, In a cot by the brook; in a cot by the brook. With mother and sister and memories dear, He so gaily forsook; he so gaily forsook.
408
NEW HAVEN :
Cooling shades of the night were coming apace, The tattoo had beat; the tattoo had beat. The noble one sprang from his dark hiding place, To make his retreat; to make his retreat.
He warily trod on the dry rustling leaves, As he pass'd thro' the wood; as he pass'd thro' the wood; And silently gain'd his rude launch on the shore, As she play'd with the flood; as she play'd with the flood.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.