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 44
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496
NEW HAVEN :
JAMES HILLHOUSE TO NATHAN HALE.
Dear Sir
New Haven July the IIth 1774
How to account for your Lon [Long] silence I know not, It cant be you did not know the place of my abode; or that your Letters would not be acceptable. It is Impossible you should have so soon forgot, that there was such a person in the world as old Friend Jacob-The only reason then, is becaus [sic] you Thought me unworthy your notice, which I can hardly believe, but must, unless you soon clear up the point; which, I hope, you will be able to do to to [to duplicated] satisfaction-But least you should be tempted to retort what I have sayed upon myself, I will save you the trouble by telling you I should have wrote many months ago, had I known where to have found you-One while I heard you was keeping scool at windsor, & had prepared a letter to send you; at another you was at Provi- dence; & very lately at New London-& thus you post about the world, & nobody is able to find you, forming to yourself new Friends and acquain- tance, who in length of time may Root out old ones-
The Friendship which subsisted between us when at Colledge, I should think sufficiant [sic] to warrant a Correspondance-I am sure it was sincear on my part-what can be more pleasing, since our Collegiate Life is at an end, than to embrace the only Remaining method of enjoying each others Thoughts; for tho' we shant be able to comprehend half we want to say in this narrow Compass of a Letter, yet we, or at least I, sall [shall] reap much Pleasure & advantage from a Correspondance with you.
The study of the Law I find to be a very Intricate and difficult study, that Requirs much Labour & Patience-I now wish I had improved my time to better advantage when at Colledge.
Liberty is our reigning Topic, which loudly calls upon every one to Exert his Tallants & abilities to the utmost in defending of it-now is the time for heroes-now is the time for great men to immortalize their names in the deliverance of their Country, and grace the annals of America with their Glorious Deeds.
You are now living in my Native Country, Instilling into the tender minds of youth, the early seeds of Virtue and Piety, which I hope is very agreable to you-I should take pleasure in seeing you there-Alden is engaged in the same business with yourself-Wyllys is the man of Pleasure, and applys himself intirily to the acquirement of knowledge, for which you know he has an Insatiable Thirst.
All other Friends are well-I am St.
To Nathan Hale [Addressed : ] To Nathan Hale, A. B. at
Your sincear Friend & affectionate Clasmate JAMES HILLHOUSE
New London [Endorsed in Hale's hand :]
James HillHouse [sic] N. H July IIth
497
A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
Hillhouse begins, "How to account for your Long silence I know not," thus chiding Hale for not writing him. Hale was but a poor correspondent, though he received and wrote many letters. His brother Enoch, his Yale classmates Hillhouse, Alden, and Marvin, and his comrades in arms, John Hallam and George Hurlburt, all chide him for not replying to their letters. They forgave him but could not forbear complaints which he disarmed by admitting the fault and claiming that he had reformed (see p. 259-261). The fact is, Hale was not only a poor correspondent but not a first-rate letter-writer. Perhaps he was too sober-minded, too literal. At any rate, his existing letters want that lightness of touch indispensable to familiar correspondence of the first order. Hillhouse, too, was a serious person but his reference to himself as "old Friend Jacob" suggests a background of redeeming raillery. Hillhouse continues :
One while I heard you was keeping scool at windsor, & had prepared a letter to send you; at another you was at Providence; & very lately at New London-& thus you post about the world, & nobody is able to find you, forming to yourself new Friends and acquaintance, who in length of time may Root out old ones-
Hale never taught school in Windsor nor in Providence. This may be mere bantering on the part of Hillhouse, or it may be that he had quite lost sight of Hale since their gradua- tion from Yale some ten months before this letter was written, when Hale was teaching in New London as the preceptor of the Union School, of which the proprietors were among the principal gentlemen of the place. In his letter of September 24, 1774, to his uncle, Major Samuel Hale (1718-1807, Harv. Coll. 1740), of Portsmouth, Hale says, "I have a school of 32 boys, about half Latin, the rest English." (Johnston, pp. 49-50.) In his letter of November 30, 1774, to Dr. Eneas Munson (1734-1826, Yale Coll. 1753), of New Haven, he wrote, "I have a school of more than thirty boys to instruct, about half of them in Latin; and my salary is satisfactory. During the summer I had a morning class of young ladies- about a score-from five to seven o'clock." (Johnston, p.
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NEW HAVEN :
177.) What a tribute, that last, to the handsome young col- legian as a teacher and as a winning personality !
After graduation from Yale in September, 1773 (Hillhouse was graduated at the same time), Hale paid a visit (on horse- back, of course) to his uncle, Major Samuel Hale (he served in the Old French War) who was then conducting a Latin School at Portsmouth, N. H., the leading school in that Colony. On his way going to or coming from Portsmouth, as I have reason to believe, Hale stopped to visit his relatives in New- bury, his father's boyhood home, and perhaps in Beverly, where the fine parsonage of his great-grandfather, the Rev. John Hale (1636-1700, Harv. Coll. 1657), is still standing and cherished as an ancient fabric of great interest as well as on account of its association with the Hale name.
Returning home, Hale engaged to teach school at East Had- dam on the Connecticut River, where he taught from some time in October or November, 1773, until early in 1774. Short as was his sojourn there, he captivated all hearts. Says Mrs. Hannah (Green) Pierson, "Everybody loved him he was so sprightly, intelligent and kind, and withal so handsome." (Stuart, pp. 22-3.)
After four years at Yale, with all of its distractions and lively companionships, Hale seems to have thought East Had- dam dull, a place of virtual exile. To Thomas Mead (1755- 1775), a Yale classmate, he wrote (the original letter may be seen in the Yale University Library) on May 2, 1774, "I was, at the receipt of your letter, in East Haddam (alias Modos), a place, which I at first, for a long time [he could not have taught there above four or five months], concluded inaccessible, either by friends, acquaintance or letters." (Johnston, p. 175.) William Robinson (1754-1825, Yale 1773), another Yale classmate, writing from Windsor January 20, 1774, takes a "crack" at "Modos" as an outlandish place, opening his letter as follows :
I have just recd yours of Day after Thanksgiving; from which I am at a loss to determine whether you are yet in this Land of the living,
499
A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
or removed to some far distant, & to us unknown region; but thus much I am certain of, that if you departed this Life at Modos, you stood but a narrow chance for gaining a better ;
(JOHNSTON, p. 208.)
East Haddam, on "the River," an hundred and fifty years ago was doubtless isolated during the winter season, but it was a thriving town, boasted good society and was so far from being benighted that the remarks made by these boys, deprived of college companionships, must not be taken seriously. Almost nothing is known about Hale's life in "Modos," but we are not surprised to discover that he found time for a romance, for love-making. Of that particular romantic episode nothing remains but some doggerel verses in his handwriting now owned (the draft only) by the Chicago Historical Society. Who the young woman was no one knows. Hale did not reveal the names of his inamoratas-a gallant gentleman ! Had he dated his doggerel verses (but when were lovers atten- tive to dates ?) we, who are so much interested in every chapter of his brief history, would have known just when he quit East Haddam for New London, where he was teaching when Hill- house, on July II, 1774, wrote the letter around which this discursive history is being written.
At this time Hillhouse, destined to be the most illustrious, save Hale, of the Yale Class of 1773, was living in New Haven and reading law with his uncle, James Abraham Hillhouse (1730-1775, Yale Coll. 1749), of New Haven, then living in the stately mansion which he had built in 1762, long known in greatly altered form as "Grove Hall," demolished in 1925. Hillhouse was born in Montville (a play on the family name) near New London, on October 21, 1754, and was, therefore, some seven months older than Hale. He was a son of Hon. William Hillhouse (1728-1816) and Hannah Griswold (a sister of Governor Matthew Griswold of Lyme), and a grandson of the Rev. James Hillhouse (1687-1740), the founder of the American family of the name. Of an ancient though untitled family long established near London-
500
NEW HAVEN :
derry in Ireland, the Rev. James had come to America soon after taking his degree at the University of Glasgow.
Our James was adopted by his uncle, James Abraham Hill- house, when seven years old and brought up in his family in New Haven, for which in his later years he was to do so much. It is a tribute to the upbringing of the two Hale boys, Nathan and Enoch, sons of Deacon Richard Hale (1717-1802), a well-to-do farmer in remote Coventry, that on coming to college they found such a friend in James Hillhouse, bred a gentleman and the inheritor of the best colonial traditions of life and character.
Hillhouse Cast for a Part in the "Beaux Stratagem": "Tall, Long-limbed, with High Cheek-bones": His Portrait by Vanderlyn
Presumably the warm friendship between Hale and Hill- house, evidenced by the latter's letter and by Deacon Gilbert's statement that Hillhouse was one of Hale's "principle corre- spondents," was fostered by their common membership in Lin- onia. Curiously enough, Hillhouse's name appears but three times in the minutes of the sixty-eight meetings held between their election to membership on November 7, 1770, to and including the great anniversary meeting of April 15, 1773- first, in the minutes of the meeting of November 7, 1770, when, with Hale, he received an election to membership; second, in the minutes of the meeting held on November 27, 1771, in which we read :
Quest" Brought in by Hillhouse to Be recorded-What is the reason that in Every Quadratic Aquation the unknown Quantity has two Values or Roots ?
Ans. Because that when it has either the sign + or - Prefixed to it (in which cases it has two Different Values) Being Involved to the second third or any Proposed Power it Will Produce the same Quantity in one case as in the Other.
Hillhouse's name appears for the third and last time in the minutes of the anniversary celebration on April 15, 1772 :
50I
A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
The meeting was opened with Beauxs Stretigems, the prologue was spoken by Aldin [Roger Alden an intimate friend of Hale's and one of his correspondents] then followed the actors whose names are as follows Lyman, Cooley, Billings, Williams 2dus [Rev. Ebenezer Williams, 1755-1777, Yale Coll. 1773, an intimate friend and correspondent of Hale's], Cobb, Woodhull, Williams IMus, Hays, Greenough, Hale IMus [Hale's older brother Enoch], Robinson [Rev. William Robinson, 1754-1825, Yale Coll. 1773, a friend and correspondent of Hale's], West, Kimball, Hillhouse [James Hillhouse, the Patriot, a friend and correspondent of Hale's], Mead [Thomas Mead, a classmate, friend and correspondent of Hale's]. Then as usual officers were chosen. Hale 2dus [Nathan] was chosen Secretary.
It is interesting to find Hillhouse, at this time a stripling of seventeen, cast for a part in Farquhar's "Beaux Stratagem," one of the most popular of the plays of that time and frequently given. Unfortunately, we do not know for what part in the play Hillhouse was cast. We may be sure, however, that what- ever his part, he was the most striking figure on that mimic stage. Dr. Bacon describes him as :
"Tall, long-limbed, with high cheek-bones, swarthy, lithe in motion, light- ness in his step and strength and freedom in his stride, he seemed a little like some Indian Chief of poetry or romance-the Outalissi of Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming-the Massasoit or King Philip of our early history as fancy pictures them-so much so that with a kind of affectionate respect he was sometimes called, 'the Sachem.'" (Bacon's "Sketch of the Life and Public Services of Hon. James Hillhouse of New Haven," 1860.)
What would "old Friend Jacob" have thought of being com- pared to Outalissi, Massasoit, and King Philip?
Vanderlyn's portrait of Hillhouse, painted in 1816 when he was in his sixty-second year and now hanging high over the fireplace in the library of the manor-house of "Sachem's Wood" in which he died in 1832, supports Dr. Bacon's description of him, swarthy with high cheek bones.
We are so wonted to think of Hillhouse as a person of such indefatigable activity from youth to age in the public service- as a sort of congenital patriot and sage-that it is hard to visualize him as a boy or as boyish, but he was once both, as any one who can read between the lines of the following truly Baconian additional excerpt from Dr. Bacon's "Sketch," must see :
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NEW HAVEN :
"He [Hillhouse] was somewhat advanced in college life before he became properly conscious of his powers or of the worth of time, or practi- cally convinced of the importance of that close application to whatever was in hand, by which he was afterwards so distinguished. The late President Dwight [the first President Dwight], who was then in college as a tutor, tho not his tutor, had noticed him with interest, and, with the discern- ment of youthful character which qualified the illustrious president to be the greatest teacher of his age, had seen in him the elements of future greatness ; and he by one well-timed, spirited, affectionate admonition and appeal, roused the man in the bosom of the unthinking stripling and gave the country a patriot and a sage." [Italics mine.]
Dwight himself knew what it was to be "saved," for was he not, about 1765, redeemed from vice by the timely admonition of his tutor, Stephen Mix Mitchell (1743-1835, Yale Coll. 1763), afterwards Chief Justice of Connecticut. (Life of Dwight in Sparks' "Library of Am. Biog."; "Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit," Vol. II, pp. 152-6; "Memorials of Yale Men" by the Rev. Dr. Anson Phelps Stokes, Vol. I, p. 47.) Thus was the old adage, "One good turn deserves another," verified and reinforced. If Mitchell redeemed Dwight from we know not what folly and if Dwight, in turn, "roused the man in the bosom of the unthinking stripling" named Hillhouse, the nation and Connecticut and Yale in particular owe an unsuspected debt of gratitude to Mitchell, whose own redemption, if any were haply necessary, is unre- corded, save perhaps in Heaven above, to the credit of someone unknown to fame. It has been suggested that young Dwight's feet slipped under a card table. If peradventure card-playing was the vice from which as an undergraduate he was redeemed by the "considerate and monitory regards" of Tutor Mitchell, ambition was the vice of his later years when he "grasped at universal knowledge." I have it on the authority of the late Governor Baldwin that Dr. Dwight was so disturbed in his conscience by allowing himself to be gripped by the vice of ambition that he confessed it in a sermon which fairly stunned a community accustomed to regard him-the "Ægis of the Age"-with awe if not with affection.
503
A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
Timothy Dwight, James Hillhouse and Nathan Hale as Playboys of the Western World
Hale and even Dwight and, of course, many other favored sons of the "Clubb" took part in plays which were great occa- sions of student rejoicing one hundred and fifty years ago, even as they are now. Thus, at a meeting of "This Honorable Society" held in Mead's room on "January 2"." AD 1771" "Sir Dwight" (our Timothy) was appointed to take part "in acting a Comedy call'd the Conscious Lovers" (by Sir Richard Steele, first produced in 1727) and "Hale Ist" (Enoch) and "Hale 2"d" (Nathan) and others were appointed "to act a Farce call'd the Toy Shop" (by Dodsley, first produced in 1735). The parts were not assigned and, therefore, we do not know what characters in the plays Timothy Dwight and Nathan Hale were to essay.
For some reason not stated in the Linonia minutes, the anni- versary exercises were this year (1771) postponed to June 5th. The minutes of that meeting make no mention of the perform- ance of the "Conscious Lovers," but the "Toy Shop" was pre- sented and we may assume that Hale took a part in it. If "Sir Dwight" ever appeared in the "Conscious Lovers," we may be certain that he was highly conscious-he never failed in that part, if we read his story aright, and there's no denying that it is a story of conspicuous achievement. But it is hard to visu- alize him as a playboy and also hard to evoke a picture of Hill- house on any other than the civic stage.
Hillhouse, as we have seen, however, donned the buskins for a part in the "Beaux Stratagem," put on the boards at the house of Mr. Brown on the occasion of the anniversary celebration of "this honorable Fellowship Clubb" on April 15, 1772. The house of Mr. Brown has lately been identified for me by Mr. Donald Lines Jacobus as the house designated as Mr. Nesbit's (it was painted red) on the N.E. corner of Church and George Streets. (See Wadsworth's Map of New Haven in 1748.) Enoch Hale, Thomas Mead, Ebenezer Williams and William Robinson, all intimates of Nathan, were in this cast. One
504
NEW HAVEN :
would expect Nathan to have had a part in every play, but I fancy his conspicuous talent was forensic, rather than mimic. Whatever the fact, he was busy and having a wonderfully good time. The Linonia minutes are heavy with his name. For example, the minutes of the meeting of March 3, 1773, record that the Brothers were first entertained with a narrative related by Hale 2dus ; from the minutes of the next meeting, on March 24th, we learn that "We had beside the usual Exercises a Dialogue Between Hale 2dus & Mead on the Advantages of attending the weekly meetings." At the next meeting, March 3Ist, "Hale 2ª, Swift & Fenn were chosen to superintend the Affairs of the Anniversary. The Dialogue between Hale 2ª & Mead was continued." At the next meeting, April 7th, "Hale 2d was Chosen Chancellor Pro Tempore."
April 13th following was the great day of the year in the annals of the fraternity-the day set apart for the anniversary exercises. In the fortnight succeeding their appointment on March 31, Hale 2d, Swift and Fenn must have "done them- selves proud," since the exercises surpassed any before held. The exercises began at eleven and concluded at five. In the morning "the New Comedy entitled the West Indian was represented." Observe that this is referred to as the new comedy. New it was. Richard Cumberland's comedy, destined to hold the boards for some time, was first produced in 1771 and yet this progressive committee were able to produce it on this side of the Atlantic early in 1773. Quick work that !! In the afternoon "An Epilogue made expressly on the occasion & delivered by Hale 2ª was received with approbation." A contemporary book of Linonia Manuscript Papers contains the text of a speech with the caption, "Valedictory Oration by Billings, Anniversary April 13, 1772," and a speech with the caption, "Valedictory Oration answering to the foregoing by Hale 2ª." The minutes themselves do not refer to these speeches. Presumably they were delivered at the anniversary meeting held on April 15, 1772.
505
A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
The "Beaux Stratagem," The "Conscious Lovers," The "Toy Shop" and The "West Indian"-the First Plays Known by Name Produced by Yale Undergraduates
The four plays referred to above are the first fraternity plays ever produced at Yale which we know by name,-i.e., Far- quhar's "Beaux Stratagem" with Hillhouse in the cast ; Steele's "Conscious Lovers" (perhaps not given, though projected, with "Sir Dwight" in the cast) ; Dodsley's "Toy Shop," with Nathan Hale in the cast; Cumberland's "West Indian," with Ebenezer Williams and Mead in the cast. How far we have come since those early days! Now we have a School of Drama and a wonderful mechanistic as well as artistic theatre to take the place of a room in a tavern.
The four plays named appear also to be the first of which any record remains. The minutes for the meeting of Febru- ary 6th, 1767, record that "actors [were] appointed for the anniversary." This may be the very first reference to play- acting at Yale. Whether any play was given following such appointment, we do not know, or, indeed, whether there was any anniversary celebration, since the next minutes to be recorded are nearly two years later when at a meeting of "the Comtt of this Honorable Society" on December 15, 1768, it was voted that "the first wensday Eve in every month there is to be a Commedy Acted Every other wensday Eve there is to be Disputes and other Exercises as usle." April 20, 1769, "the anavarsary [was] Celebrated with much Delight" but apparently there was no play since the minutes are silent on the point. The next year (1770) on February 15th "a Play [was] Acted by Williams 2d, Cobb, Barker & Billings" but the minutes of the meeting fail to give the name of the play. This year "the Anavarsary was Celebrated with much delight" (the same spelling by the "scribe" as the year before) but again the minutes say nothing about the giving of a play. Hale now appears on the scene with an election to membership on November 7, 1770. The very next week, and on November 14, "The aforesaid Society met at Hale's Room"-perhaps
506
NEW HAVEN :
Enoch's room, perhaps Nathan's. Since Isaac Gridley was Hale's roommate, it would appear that the brothers did not room together. A few weeks later, on January 2, 1771, Nathan appears as "scribe," and thereafter the minutes are entered in his handwriting up to and including the meeting of November 20th of the same year. In this interval there were fourteen meetings, all recorded by Hale and two in "Hale's room." Hale's first appearance as scribe (on January 2, 1771) is coincident with the appointment of two groups of members to take part respectively in the "Conscious Lovers" and the "Toy Shop." These are the first two plays to be given or projected by Yale undergraduates of which the names are known and I incline to the view that they were among the very first plays given, and given because of Hale's energy, business capacity, and unusual gift for leadership.
On the Founding of the Linonia Library
· Of the two fraternities of that day, Linonia and Brothers in Unity, Linonia was much the older and had the more prestige. Enoch Hale was elected to membership in Linonia on October 31, 1770, while the elections of Nathan Hale and James Hill- house took place on November 7th, the very next meeting of the "honourable Fellowship Club," as the fraternity was called in the minutes of this meeting.
In 1853 there was published by the Linonian Society a pamphlet containing "An Oration By William Maxwell Evarts And A Poem By Francis Miles Finch Delivered Before the Linonian Society of Yale College At Its Centennial Anniver- sary With An Account Of The Celebration."
Judge Finch's famous stanzas on Hale delivered on that occasion have alone survived from a much longer poem in which they were introduced by these fine lines :
And one there was-his name immortal now- Who died not to the ring of rattling steel, Or battle march of spirit-stirring drum, But far from comrades and from friendly camp, Alone upon the scaffold.
507
A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
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 !
If I may venture upon a personal note here, it was this poem-read and re-read as a small boy in my school-reader- that first aroused my life-long interest in Hale and I lived to have the pleasure of hearing Judge Finch (1827-1907, Yale Coll. 1849) himself, then a man of seventy-four years, read it at the dedication of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in East Haddam on June 17th, 1901.
The Hale lyric at once achieved wide popularity and, more than anything else, served to keep the lamp of memory burn- ing for Hale during the long years when the young scholar- soldier and his sacrifice were all but forgotten.
Now to take up the matter of the Linonia Library, I read in the "Proceedings," printed at the end of the pamphlet in question (p. 65) :
The three founders of our Library were honored in the northwest corner of the hall [Alumni Hall, recently demolished], which was decorated with portraits of Timothy Dwight, formerly President, and James Hillhouse, for fifty years the Treasurer of Yale College, while the name of Nathan Hale was placed between these portraits, and surmounted by national flags, in allusion to his patriotic life and death.
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