USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > New London's participation in Connecticut's tercentenary, 1935 > Part 7
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was given the name, The Nathan Hale Grammar School, a street of our City was named in his honor, and in many other ways the name of Nathan Hale has been for us a symbol of the highest and best in patriotic example. I truly believe that Miss Boone, whose hero Nathan Hale was, and whose wish it was that his statue be most suitably placed, if she were present, would be most happy to see this beautiful statue located in this historic square, under the spreading shade of these noble elms.
Our citizens will ever be grateful to Miss Boone for this, her inspired gift, and to another New London benefactor, the late Otis K. Dimock, whose bequest made possible this noble pedestal and these surrounding approaches. We wish to express our sincere appreciation.
And now, President Whittelsey, on behalf of all the citizens of New London, I accept this noble work of art commemorative of a youth of Connecticut, who valued his country's welfare above life itself, and made patriotism a living, vital force and an inspiration to all Americans, young and old, throughout the ages.
REMARKS
HON. GEORGE M. HAIGHT
Appreciation of cooperation by the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and the City of New London in the placing of the statue of Nathan Hale here was expressed by George M. Haight of Syracuse. Mr. Haight was the executor of the estate of Carlotta Boone who bequeathed money for the statue. His remarks follow:
As the representative of the young woman whose modest gift has been the moving inspiration for this splendid celebration, I cannot but express to you my constantly enlarging appreciation of the hearty cooperation of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution; for the generous contribution by the City of New London for the beautiful site and fine pedestal; and the Governor for gracing the occasion.
And I must thank you personally for the genuine and cordial New England hospitality you have extended to myself. I feel at home, for much of my ancestry came from Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Much has been better said, and will be better said today, than I could express of our glorious heritage from those purposeful pioneers and patriots who laid the sure foundations and planned so well the structure of our Commonwealth. There is a statement of deep insight in the ancient Hebrew literature, "Ye shall hear a voice from behind saying this is the way, walk ye in it," and it is most fitting in a day of
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confused standards that we here commemorate the ideals and patriotism of our common ancestry.
The problem of this generation is not so much to escape the re- straints of the past as to avoid our modern confusion of standards and temporary shifting expedients under the mistaken idea that the end justi- fies the means.
Carlotta Boone was a quiet but keen student of history and an astute appraiser of human standards and character. Her ancestry ran back to pioneer Connecticut, and she fully realized and appreciated those inner qualities and standards of New England character which had been the inspiration of those latter pioneers who had pushed across a continent, and which were written into our basic law, and which make that which we call Americanism today.
Those inner attributes of the New England character she visualized and personified in Nathan Hale.
Frederick MacMonnies expressed for her her idealism in beautiful bronze. But the statue was in New York. It was her purpose to per- sonify that idealism at the source and from her small estate, after caring for her mother, to erect in Connecticut a replica of the famous statue to Nathan Hale.
Your generosity and cooperation have brought her patriotic purpose to a splendid fulfillment, and again, for her and for all New England's progeny, I thank you.
ADDRESS
HIS EXCELLENCY WILBUR L. CROSS Governor of Connecticut
An interesting history of Nathan Hale, whom he called one who "stands for the highest ideal of young manhood created by Puritan New England," was given by Governor Wilbur L. Cross of Connecticut in the chief address of the Nathan Hale day exercises. The Governor spoke as follows:
I have often visited the home where Nathan Hale was born in 1755. The farm is now owned by my friend, George Dudley Seymour. Though the house has been much enlarged and made over, one may make out what it once was. Nathan's father, Richard Hale, a farmer with 240 acres of land, was a man of conspicuous talents. He was a deacon in his church, a justice of the peace, and often a member of the General Assembly. So, you see, Richard Hale could make laws and administer them, and at the same time preserve his character as a Christian. He was, too, an ardent revolutionist when the chance came
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for the colonies to win their independence. Though he was then too old to take the field, he was active as a member of a committee for raising supplies and clothing for the soldiers throughout the War of Inde- pendence.
Nathan's mother, Elizabeth Strong, belonged to a Puritan family somewhat higher in the social scale. Her grandfather, Justice Joseph Strong, was a leading citizen of Coventry. He held in turn nearly every office of the town. In those days there were-God save the mark !- two sessions of the General Assembly every year, besides extra sessions. During his lifetime, Justice Strong represented his town in 65 sessions. And yet he managed to live for 90 years. What a constitution! What endurance! He earned everlasting rest in Paradise. His son, Captain Joseph Strong, Elizabeth's father, was also a leading citizen of the town, though his experience in the General Assembly was restricted to nine sessions. Of the daughter Elizabeth, who married Richard Hale, it is written: "Mrs. Hale was a lady of high moral worth and of strong Puritan faith and feelings, and devoted to the right religious culture of her children." She bore her husband nine sons and three daughters. Those were heroic days for women as well as for men. Of the nine sons, three were sent to college and six of them enlisted in the Army It was a family in which right conduct was cultivated and in which patriotism was a tense emotion.
Last year I visited the house of the Rev. Joseph Huntington, a minister of the Coventry parish, where Nathan Hale was prepared for college under the instruction of an excellent master. Thence he proceeded to Yale. In school and in college were built on a background of fine physique and sterling character that culture and those amenities of temper and manners which made Nathan Hale a most delightful per- sonality. Everybody who knew him liked him. Men and boys liked him. Children liked him. When he was teaching a school for boys here in New London, he conducted special classes for young ladies from five to seven o'clock in the morning. Those New London girls who met their handsome teacher under the morning stars before breakfast, and before family prayers, must have passed beyond the stage of merely liking him.
A year ago I took part in the unveiling of a tablet on a boulder by the military training field overlooking the Coventry lake, where for the first time two military companies met in 1728 for drill under Samuel Parker and John Bissell, their commanders. Within a stone's throw was the First Church of Christ. There Deacon Richard Hale, his wife and children, worshipped and listened to the sermons of the Rev. Joseph Huntington, who watched the family grow and grow until one pew could not hold them all. You may wonder why the training field was so
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near the church. But church and state were not then separate institutions in Connecticut. The union was not formally dissolved until the adoption of the present constitution in 1818.
You may wonder also why military training was necessary at a time when no war was imminent. In 1728 military training was hardly necessary in Connecticut, which was far removed from the Indian frontier. Still, fear survived among the first settlers who had fled south- ward with their cattle from Indian massacres in Northampton and Deerfield, where men, women, and children not long before had been scalped or carried away into captivity. And though fear had abated, the field day lived on, outside periods of war, in Connecticut towns through the 18th century and in some places still later, for military drill enlivened with amateur sports and the eloquence of local orators. In my boyhood, I listened to tales of old men who in their youth had taken part in the drill and the games of training day.
Nathan Hale was an athlete. There is a record of two of his favorite feats. He "would put his hand on a fence high as his head and jump over it." At other times he "would jump from the bottom of one hogs- head up and down into a second, and from the second up and down into a third like a cat." These are stories told by an old man, who as' a boy, attended his school in New London. Quick and unexpected jumps explain why Hale had "wonderful control" over boys who sometimes locked a schoolmaster out-of-doors. When in Coventry, Hale and his brothers must have attended the field sports near his home. Nor could a boy of his temperament have refrained from a display of his prowess. So let us imagine him on field days jumping in and out of a row of empty hogsheads which had brought rum and molasses from the West Indies to the grave Puritans of Connecticut.
Soon the scene changed to intensive military training on the ap- proach of the Revolution. In 1774 Coventry provided for her militia a double quantity of powder, shells, and flint. During February, March, and April of the next year the entire militia of the town was drilling every week. The news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, reached Connecticut towns by special couriers. The Revolution was on. The shot had been fired which was to be heard round the world. New London and all Connecticut heeded the call of Massachusetts.
Nathan Hale was then teaching English and Latin in the Union School here in New London. On the arrival of the courier from Boston, the citizens called a town meeting. Hale, who had been trained in public speaking while at Yale, addressed them in the emotional eloquence of patriotism, moving them to admiration of his "noble demeanor." One sentence of that speech has survived. It is: "Let us march immediately
NATHAN HALE DAY
and never lay down our arms until we obtain our independence." You know the rest. Hale enlisted as a volunteer. He was soon commissioned as lieutenant and afterwards made a captain. In 1776 he was attached to Washington's Army on the Hudson. His last words to be recorded are: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." When Hale uttered those immortal words, he was at the beginning of his 22d year. By his death were canonized not only the exalted spirit of young America, but equally the fire, devotion, and patriotism of the heroes of ancient Greece and Rome, who as he read of them in his books, were the daily companions of his imagination. Nathan Hale spoke for them all. Of Hale, one who knew him wrote: "On the whole-I then thought him (and his tremendous fate has not weakened the impression) one of the most perfect human characters. recorded in history or exemplified in any age or nation."
New London does well in uniting in one celebration the anniversary of the birth of Nathan Hale and the tercentenary of the first settlements of Connecticut. The site selected for this noble statue by MacMonnies on the highway between those first settlements in the Connecticut Valley and the closing scenes of Hale's civic career is equally appropriate. The school in which he taught here in New London was in the finest tradition of the institutions of learning founded by our forefathers in Hartford and New Haven, culminating in his own time in the foundation of Yale College.
I cannot conclude without calling to memory the provision in the will of Miss Carlotta Boone for this statue erected under the auspices of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, with the aid of the City of New London. Nathan Hale stands for the highest ideal of young manhood created by Puritan New England. May we hope that his statue, looking toward the morning light, is a symbol of the preservation of that ideal through the ages.
REPORT OF INFORMAL PROCEEDINGS
By GEORGE H. GROUT
Secretary Nathan Hale Branch. Sons of the American Revolution of New London
A report of the informal proceedings at the noon luncheon of the Sons of the American Revolution :
That the Sons of the American Revolution must and will take a strong stand on the issue of preserving our Constitution, which will be the important issue of the next political campaign, was the message delivered by State President Charles B. Whittelsey of Hartford to a
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gathering of the Sons at luncheon here preceding the parade and dedi- cation exercises at Nathan Hale statuc.
This duty was set forth in even stronger terms by Henry F. Baker, of Baltimore, newly-elected President General of the Organization, who declared it was emphatically up to the Sons of the American Revolution
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OLD NATHAN HALE SCHOOLHOUSE
When built in 1773, it stood on State Street, New London, on the site of the present Crocker House. In 1833 it was removed to the west side of Union Street and used as a dwelling. In 1901 it was purchased by the Connecticut Society, Sons of the American Revolution, removed, restored to its original condition and placed upon an unused portion of "Ye Town's Ancientest Buriall Ground" on Huntington Street by permission of the General Assembly and the City Council. It is kept in excellent repair by its owners, and is used as a museum by its custodian, the Lucretia Shaw Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
to preserve the form of government our ancestors created. He further said that the Sons of the American Revolution Organization proposes to organize in every state society and branch a committee to teach the vital value of our Constitution, to select speakers to go before luncheon clubs, church clubs, Parent-Teacher associations, and similar groups, to
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point out to their members the meaning of our Constitution, to promote a fuller understanding of our government.
There were gathered in the dining room of the Methodist Church here about 125 members of the National Society, and of Connecticut. Massachusetts, and Rhode Island state societies, some of whom brought lady guests. Other high officials attending, besides President General Baker, were Past President General Arthur M. McCrillis, whose term recently expired; Past President General Ernest E. Rogers of this City ; Colonel Winfield S. Solomon, President of the Rhode Island State Society; Willard Whitman, representing the Massachusetts State Society in the unavoidable absence of its president ; the Rev. J. Romeyn Danforth of this City, Past Chaplain General of the National Organization ; Fred- erick MacMonnies of New York and Paris, sculptor of the Nathan Hale statue ; Hon. George M. Haight of Syracuse, New York, administrator of the estate of Miss Carlotta Boone of Syracuse, giver of the fund which provided the statue.
Members of Nathan Hale Branch, No. 6, of this City in attendance at the luncheon and parade, besides Past President General Rogers and Past Chaplain General Danforth included President Elmer H. Spaulding. Vice President Charles C. Perkins, Secretary George H. Grout, Henry Holt Smith, Carey Congdon, J. William Clarke, Judge Alfred Coit, Loren E. Daboll, George W. Sisson, and Edward P. Eggleston. Officers of the local branch were at the church to assist in welcoming the visiting patriotic society members.
State President Charles B. Whittelsey presided at the speakers' table at the luncheon and in opening the short exercises spoke a welcome, particularly to the members of Massachusetts and Rhode Island societies, who were making this the tri-state meeting for this year. President Whittelscy said he was glad to have so notable an occasion as the Nathan Hale Celebration for the return of the hospitality of these societies to Connecticut in the past.
He introduced to the gathering a number of the distinguished visitors, who rose and bowed to the assemblage, included among these being Past President General McCrillis, Rhode Island President Solomon, Massachusetts Representative Whitman, Frederick MacMonnies, and the Hon. George M. Haight, all of whom were given tributes of applause.
In presenting the representatives of other states, President Whittel- sey in each case bespoke closer relations between them and the Connec- ticut Society in the important work ahead of the order.
He declared that there were grave problems ahead of the nation in the next few years and a wonderful opportunity for state chapters to take a strong stand on the Constitution. He demanded that all the Sons gain a thorough understanding of our situation before casting their
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ballots. He hoped these joint meetings of the societies would help to clarify the conditions.
President Whittelsey presented Past President General Rogers as a man of magic, who had proved himself the most wonderful man in the Organization. Mr. Rogers in response said his magic had failed this time or else he would have provided better weather for the im- portant occasion. After expressing his pleasure at the coming of so many to aid in this City's celebration, he outlined the plans for the parade and exercises, which at that time it was decided might best be held in Buell Hall, due to the apparent imminence of further showers.
President General Baker declared his pleasure at the privilege of being back in his old state, where he had first brought his bride and where his daughter was born. He said that we hear mostly of Nathan Hale as a soldier and patriot but that he likes to think of him as his teacher, to imagine this patriot inculcating in the minds of the children under his care the love of liberty and of our form of government, later to be embodied in the Constitution as we know it.
"When it comes to our Constitution, I am a fundamentalist," the . speaker declared. "The greatest service the Sons of the American Revo- lution can do is to teach the Constitution to the people-make them Constitution minded.' Every day we hear suggestions of changes to our Constitution. It may be some changes are necessary, but look out for those that will alter our form of government. They are trying to take power from the Supreme Court and give it to Congress. Then instead of a constitutional government we shall have one by statute, changeable al- most within a day. Changed perhaps by a whim or by a brainstorm. I think we have had some brainstorms lately."
He then spoke of the plan for the Sons of the American Revolution speakers to expound the Constitution, which will be the outstanding issue in the next campaign, and declared that we, the descendants of those who founded our government, have a duty to carry it on. It is up to the Sons of the American Revolution to preserve what our ancestors created.
Carey Congdon, marshal for the Sons of the American Revolution section of the parade, was then introduced and gave the instructions to those who were to march. General Chairman Rogers reminded that 34 years ago when the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse removal was the occasion for a parade Mr. Congdon was marshal, and he had changed very little. Marshal Congdon retaliated by saying that Mr. Rogers was General Chairman of that occasion and now looks even younger than he did then.
Among the guests from out of town who registered were Colonel and Mrs. Willis Metcalf, Miss Ethel Metcalf, Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf, Mr. and Mrs. Addison P. Monroe, Mr. and Mrs. Winfield S. Solomon
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of Providence, E. A. Sawyer, Mr. and Mrs. Carlton B. Morse of Massa- chusetts, Past President General Arthur McCrillis, Arthur H. Armington, Mrs. Earl S. Armington of Providence, Hon. George M. Haight of Syracuse, Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Corbin, Mr. and Mrs. Harry B. Kennedy, Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Corbin, Mrs. Carey Congdon and son, Storrs P. Sumner, W. F. Tomlinson, Miss Anna Grimshaw, Miss Barbara Tomlin- son, Royal S. Barnum, H. K. Taylor, William A. Willard, John M. Larned, J. N. Belden, C. H. Wickham, Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Roberts, Mrs. Ernest E. Rogers and two guests, C. P. Tomlinson, Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Woodruff, Wilson H. Lee, Clark Howlett, E. E. Freeman, Judge and Mrs. A. McC. Mathewson, L. H. Spencer, Frederick MacMonnies, Mr. and Mrs. Howard E. Coc, Miss Erma Scott, C. B. Whittelsey and party of five, Leverett Belknap, J. Richard Carpenter and guest, C. K. Dechard and guest, J. Townsend Gill, Charles R. Hale and guest, Roland M. Hooker, Arthur S. Lane, J. Arnold Norcross and guest, A. V. Pills- bury, Frank E. Sands and guest, Frederic W. Seymour, George D. Sey- mour, J. Allen Wiley and guest.
--- Courtesy of Mrs. Ellen N. Watrous
Old Town Mill, 1650, Mill Street.
Memorial Service by Connecticut Veterans of Foreign Wars
T HE Connecticut Veterans of Foreign Wars planned to hold its 15th Annual Encampment in New London in July. During a meeting of the Cooperating Committees of this Area, held in the Council Chamber of the Municipal Building on February 8, the representatives of the Veterans of Foreign Wars were asked by General Chairman Ernest E. Rogers to participate in Connecticut's Tercentenary by laying a wreath on the statue of Nathan Hale, on Sunday, July 14. The invi- tation was accepted and below is the program.
SUNDAY, JULY 14, 12.30 P.M.
Placing of a wreath at statue of Captain Nathan Hale, Connecticut's most distinguished Soldier-Hero. A tribute by the Department of Connecticut Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, during its 15th Annual Encampment as its participation in Connecticut's Tercen- tenary.
The line of march formed at Encampment Headquarters, Mohican Hotel, at 12.25 P.M.
The Ladies' Auxiliary marched from the Elks' Home up Wash- ington Street to the hotel and joined the line of march.
Headed by the Junior Fife and Drum Corps of the Murphy-Rathbun Post, the line of march was up Broad Street to the Park.
Exercises at the Park were as follows:
GEORGE DESROSIER
Patriotic Instructor, Department of Connecticut, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Chairman, Presiding
SELECTION-Junior Fife and Drum Corps
INVOCATION - Harry Downing, Past Chaplain, Murphy-Rathbun :
Post
WELCOME-Ernest E. Rogers, General Chairman, New London Ter- centenary Committees
LAYING OF WREATH-Raymond C. Frost, Acting Commander, Department of Connecticut, Veterans of Foreign Wars
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MEMORIAL SERVICE
LAYING OF WREATH - Agnes Peloquin, President, Department Auxiliary
TAPS-Spencer W. Moon, Bugler, Murphy-Rathbun Post BENEDICTION-Harry W. Downing
NATIONAL ANTHEM-Junior Fife and Drum Corps
ADDRESS
HON. ERNEST E. ROGERS General Chairman New London Tercentenary Committees
The State of Connecticut is celebrating her 300 years of self- government. As General Chairman of the Tercentenary Committees of the New London Areas, may I extend a most cordial welcome to the Con- necticut Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and also congratu- late you upon choosing this historic city by the sea for holding the 15th Annual State Encampment. New London is one of the oldest towns in the State, and stands second on the roster of incorporated cities of the State. She has furnished sons for all the wars of the three centuries, both on land and sea, was burned by Benedict Arnold in 1781, and has more graves of the heroes of 1812 in her cemetery than there are in any other cemetery in the State.
Here Captain Nathan Hale, the martyr hero of the American Revo- lution, was a schoolmaster in 1774 and 1775, resigned his position to accept his commission as First Lieutenant in the Continental Army, marching from New London to Cambridge to join the Army under Washington.
Today you are standing near the statue of Nathan Hale, the most renowned soldier-hero of the ages. You have come to lay wreaths on this superb bronze statue by MacMonnies of international fame, which was cast in Paris, the recent gift of the Connecticut Society, Sons of the American Revolution, and standing on a pedestal furnished by the City of New London. You do well to pay this tribute to a fellow soldier of the past, for in so doing you honor yourselves as well as his memory, and you thus participate also in Connecticut's Tercentenary, for the statue was unveiled on June 6, as a part of New London's contribution to the Tercentenary Celebration.
Your organization represents a large section of the many who offered their lives in the World War for their country, and he who sur- vived, as well as he who fell, is entitled to the same praise, for he laid his all upon the altar for sacrifice, if need be. Your ideals were the same as Hale's, who expressed his in those memorable words, which
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