USA > Connecticut > New London County > Old Lyme > The educational history of Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1635-1935 > Part 10
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63. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, March 31, 1777, p. 206.
64. Ibid., p. 208.
65. Salisbury, Family Histories and Genealogies, I, introductory notes, p. xxiv. "Branches of DeWolf, Marvin and Denison families and others went to Nova Scotia rather than renounce British allegiance."
66. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, December 22, 1777.
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the Last Day of December next . . . at the cost of the Town." The selectmen were then directed to borrow silver and paper money sufficient to pay the bill and the town rate was raised to nine shillings on the pound, Continental money, in the grand levy.
The tenseness of the situation continued to increase. Re- sponsibilities became more widespread. All available resources in men, goods and money were marshalled for the support of the army.
So on July 12, 1780, all the selectmen of Lyme: Capt. Abel Hall, Capt. Daniel Lord, Messrs. Joseph Smith, Samuel Mather Junior, Harris Coult, Frederick Mather and Jonathan Warner, together with Richard Wait Junior, Esq., Messrs. Moses Warren, John John- son, Seth Ely, Abner Lord, Ezra Selden, Abner Comstock and Jesse Beckwith, were chosen a special committee to class the inhabitants of the town in order to procure soldiers to enlist into the Continental Army according to an Act of the General Assembly passed at their session held at Hartford, the Second Thursday of October 1779.67
Further demands were again made in 178 I for money suf- ficient to purchase meat to support the guards stationed along the seacoast from Lyme to New London. A special grant was voted for the purchase of the beef cattle required by an act of the general assembly of the state of Connecticut. This latter was no doubt a part of the $200,000 raised by Governor Trumbull for the purchase of livestock driven on the hoof to the starving soldiers at Valley Forge. The last recorded demand came on April 2, 1782, when it was again voted to classify the town of Lyme in order to raise their proportion of soldiers for the ranks of the Continental Army.
Thus impoverished in men, money, food and all of the commodities of trade, Lyme found herself in 1783 at the dawn of a new prosperity. The records of her men who be- came commissioned officers in the Continental Army68 and
67. Ibid., July 12, 1780, p. 226.
68. Records of Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution, 1812, and War with Mexico. See "Records of Lyme," pp. 72-433 passim.
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those who later became voluntary members of the Society of the Cincinnati, representing Lyme, are here included.69
During the progress of the Revolution both Washington and Lafayette visited Lyme and are reported to have stayed at the McCurdy house and also at a house later owned by Dr. Daniel Calkins. They had with them a considerable company of men who set up a bivouac on a hill near at hand. In a later" visit to Lyme, Lafayette is reported to have put up at the latter house, where Judge Warren introduced him to a con- siderable gathering of people. These events have been a source of pride and satisfaction to all succeeding generations.
The influence of the war upon the tax rate throughout the Connecticut colony has been previously referred to. The si- multaneous influence of the war upon the tax rate of indi- vidual towns was equally marked and immediately significant. In Lyme the tax rate not only indicates the unprecedented demands placed upon the people at that time but presents a convincing reason for the decline in local school appropria- tions. The tax rate between 1750 and 1790 was subject to wide fluctuations. Between 1750 and 1776 the rate varied from three pence to four pence and back to two and a half pence. Then in 1777 it was raised to eight pence and in 1780, at the high point of the war, it reached the extreme rate of six shillings on the pound of listed estates. By 1785 it had decreased to nine pence and in 1790 had returned to the 1750 rate of three pence on the pound.
The close of the war brought with it a natural return to a consideration of local affairs. A town provision for schooling was soon made. In other matters the change in social think- ing and the trend away from the traditional methods of pre- war days began to appear. "On November 12, 1787, His Excellency Matthew Griswold and William Noyes were ap- pointed Delegates to attend the convention to be held at Hartford on the first Thursday of January next agreeable to
69. Records of Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution, 1812, and War with Mexico, "Records of the Society of the Cincinnati : subscribers from Lyme," pp. 373-376: "John Noyes, Surgeon; William Higgins, Lieutenant ; Joseph Higgins, Surgeon's Mate; Ezra Selden, Captain; Stephen Billings, Cap- tain; Thomas Anderson, Lieutenant; David F. Sill, Lieut. Colonel."
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a Resolve of the General Assembly at their last session." This was part of the general program of affairs connected with the change of political organization and the acceptance of the responsibilities of national and state governments. The con- stitution was ratified in 1788.70
This ratification was followed in Connecticut by immediate modifications of certain aspects of the social structure. Trends in social change, which were becoming evident in the period between 1740 and 1760, came more forcibly to the front at this time. Some movements found fruition in general legisla- tion. Others, less political in character, profited by the grow- ing secularism and contributed to the modification of public opinion. Changes in social, economic and political thinking made new types of educational practice all but inevitable. Ac- tivities in Lyme make clear her limited part in this general movement.
During the war, in response to emergency needs, the num- ber of selectmen in the town was increased to seven in order the better to distribute additional public responsibilities. Then in 1792, as a result of the returning trade in lumber, Roswell Beckwith, Benjamin Higgins, - - Ely and James Ely were appointed cullers of staves and surveyors of boards and shin- gles. New provisions were also made for the holding of town meetings. "Accordingly for the future the Town Meetings in the Town of Lyme were to be held one third part of the time at the Meeting House in the First Society; one third of the time at the Meeting House in the East Society, called the new Meeting House; and one third part of the time at the Meeting House in the North Society called Mr. Higgins' Meeting House."71 The plan of the "moving school" was ap- plied to the town meeting in an effort to equalize the oppor- tunities and to distribute the difficulties of regular attendance.
70. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, November 12, 1787. Also, Norton, Governors of Connecticut. Mathew Griswold was a king's attor- ney for many years and was a judge of the supreme court between 1776 and 1779. He succeeded Governor Trumbull as governor of the state and in 1788 presided over the convention which met in Hartford in January of that year to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
71. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, p. 281.
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Another item significant of the time is found in the brief mention, in the index to deeds, of the acts of certain citizens of Lyme in pursuance of the state act of 1784 abolishing slavery in Connecticut. This is of real local interest in con- nection with the social stratification of the people because Lyme had been conspicuous in the West India trade of the eighteenth century, which was described as a triangular trade in molasses, rum and slaves. New England flourished on the fruits of the slave trade but slavery itself seems to have been a small factor. Yet the numbers of colored men and women in Lyme, after the abolition of slavery within the state, directs attention to their possible origin. Connecticut had previously passed a law against the slave trade in 1769, at a time when it was apparently unprofitable. In 1756 there were 3,636 slaves in Connecticut and in 1800, 4,830. No slaves were allowed to enter after 1784 and further legislation provided that no child born in servitude should be held in servitude after he had reached the age of twenty-five. Then in 1788 ministers voted against the slave trade and in 1789 captains were pro- hibited from engaging in it. When the Act of Emancipation was passed in the state in 1848 only six slaves remained to be freed. Lyme's recorded part in this drama is brief and in- teresting.
Slave, Cuff (negro October 7, 1790
owned by (Daniel Weigh (Sarah Cynis (Jas. Punham)
Conditional Emancipation
Slave, Negro, Cato October 7, 1792
Warren Jonathan )
With consent of
town
Slave, Negro, Jenny Feb. 2, 1799
Mather, Samuel)
Freedom granted
The census of 1810 still recorded nine slaves in the town of Lyme and while none appear in the census of 1820 there are recorded in 1830 ninety-seven free colored persons living in the town-forty-six males and fifty-one females.
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The affairs of the First Church of Lyme appear to have been carried on with security and satisfaction throughout the Revo- lutionary period, under the distinguished leadership of the Rev. Stephen Johnson. His death, in 1786, brought to the pastorate Edward Porter of Farmington, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1786. Mr. Porter's contract was drawn and voted at the ecclesiastical society meeting of October 19, 1789. It was the same contract which had been previously drawn for Stanley Griswold and refused.72 Mr. Porter's pastorate began on February 24, 1790, and was ended by dismissal on September 19, 1792. He was succeeded on January 15, 1794, by the Rev. Lathrop Rockwell of Lebanon who was ordained into what proved to be his life work. He served the Lyme church until 1828-through a period of bitter political and religious controversy. This period ushered in the new nation- alism and the new democracy. In Connecticut it was favored by an increased sectarianism with consequent demands for public support and public control of education. Under this growing influence the Congregational aristocracy relinquished its dominant power and ecclesiastical societies forfeited their
72. The contents of this contract reveal much of the business astuteness of the committee elected to engage the minister and also suggest the manner of life in this rural town. The goods of the farm and the goods of trade share propor- tionately with money in the fulfillment of the contract.
"Voted that the Society do invite Mr. Edward Porter to settle with them as their Gospel Minister and do covenant and agree to give him as a reward for his services two hundred pounds as a settlement, one fourth part to be paid in money and the other three fourths to be paid in Pork, Beef, Live Cattle, Wheat, Rye, Indian Corn, Oats and West Indian goods at cash price: the whole to be paid in two several payments one half of each to be paid in one year after the day of ordination, the other half to be paid two years after ordination. Also voted to give sd Porter eighty pounds sallery for each of the two first years and after the two first years ninety pounds per year so long as he shall remain the Society's Gospel Minister-also the year shall commence on the day of ordi- nation and that the Rate shall be granted annually as near that time as may be in collecting while he is performing the service for which it is to be paid and that ... be a committee to wait upon Mr. Edward Porter ... and report to the Society." Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1786, February 20, 1792.
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control of the administration of public education. This was accompanied by great bitterness and a natural increase of social and religious barriers.
The local attitude of the orthodox group and the religious tension which attended this general demand for public con- trol of education can be appreciated in part through the read- ing of portions of a pencilled poem entitled "Poem on Reli- gious Sects," written by Moses Warren Jr. of Lyme and found unexpectedly, by the writer, in the back of his tax assessor's report. The date is not given but is assumed to have been in the latter part of the eighteenth century." 73
Another interesting incident, happening at this time, was the annual voting, beginning in 1792, of a fund for the hiring of a local singing master "in order to improve the quality of the church singing."74 The singing school, which held its meetings in the local district school, became one of the antici- pated pleasures of the long winter months and the overnight visits of the singing master among the church members be- came the occasion of neighborhood social gatherings. In 1797, when the pews were being sold, certain initial reservations were made for the singers.
Another of the outstanding influences of the war, which greatly affected the social and educational interests of the people, was improved transportation facilities. Prewar roads and bridges were in no way adequate for the transfer of men and supplies. Main trunk roads were either constructed or repaired and remained after the war to the advantage of the people. They created a general demand for improved post
73. Moses Warren Jr. was a man of wide erudition and travel. He was one of the engineers engaged in the first survey of portions of the Northwest Ter- ritory. With Mr. Cleveland he surveyed the cities of Cleveland and Warren, Ohio, which latter city bears his name. His public responsibilities, spread over a long period of years, are a testimony to his ordinary good judgment. Lyme, Connecticut, Justice Court Records, Moses Warren Jr. See insert at end of note- book or James, "Education and Schooling in Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1635- 1935," Appendix VII.
74. Lyme Records, Meetings of the Ecclesiastical Society, 1733-1876, Octo- ber 19, 1789.
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roads and this demand was attended by reasonable support. Over these roads men carried goods and ideas.
Between 1763 and 1770 travel was by foot, horseback or sailing sloops. Mails were carried by post-riders on horse- back. Few wheeled vehicles existed either in public or private use. In 1772 public passenger conveyances from Boston to New York were introduced. They were scheduled to run weekly at a charge of three pence a mile and followed either the old route through Springfield and Hartford or the old post road through Saybrook and Lyme. Much of the travel from New Haven to New York was by sloops since the Bos- ton to New York post road was poorer at that end.75
All of this regular service was discontinued during the war but returned with greater impetus following the war. The State Register, first published in 1786, gives continuous rec- ords on certain public matters, such as the names and locations of ferries. This information for 1786 included both the names of the ferries and their respective rates. The standard rates in the Lyme area were the following:
man, horse & load
footman
lead horse ox & kine sheep
Saybrook
8p
3
6p
8p
Ip
Brockways
2p
03/4
1 1/4
3
O
Warners
3P
I
11/2
2
O
And the fare for every two wheel carriage with one man and draft- horse, to be double and for every four wheel carriage, one man and draft-horse treble the fare for a man, horse and load as stated above, and for every additional person or horse or other beast the same as stated above.
The idea of the turnpike road with toll was of early Eng- lish origin and the first turnpikes in America, built in 1792 in Maryland and in Connecticut, followed the precedent of Charles II of England and sought to provide maintenance for
75. Jenkins, The Old Boston Post Road, "Postal Service, 1700-1800," pp. 26-30.
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roads already built.76 The first two such roads in Connecticut were the Mohegan Road between New London and Norwich and the Old Post Road in Greenwich. Previous to this each village had built roads sufficient for travel within its own independent community. The road which led to the church generally led to the gristmill, the store and the blacksmith's shop. Only as the inhabitants pushed inward were more per- manent connecting roads necessary. Early manufacturers had also, in some instances, gone far from existing roads in order to use the power of precipitous rivers or waterfalls. They be- came incidental to road building and these roads were often the result of private enterprise."
In the town of Lyme few new highway or bridge grants were recorded between 1770 and 1800 and few new industrial grants were issued. Numerous provisions were made, how- ever, for the extensive repair of highways and bridges already in operation and in 1789 and 1796 there were transfers of industrial grants.
In 1782 we find a reference to the "Great Bridge" which is the first such reference in years. Provisions were made for repairs and additions to the ferry house and a bridge was voted over Eight Mile River. Also in 1.790 William Noyes, then living in the house now owned by Daniel Hodgdon, was given liberty "to pent the highway leading from the Town Street to Deming's Landing, in such a manner, by bars, as not to discommode any Person from Passing or Repassing to and from said Landing at all times or from using said Highway for the purpose of carting or Drying Hay."
76. Wood, Turnpikes of New England, pp. 46-54.
77. Ibid., "Turnpikes of Connecticut," pp. 331-334, 376-377, 379-380, 391-392. The turnpike era in New England began in 1792 and brought with it a general wave of highway improvement. Connecticut held the lead position in this turnpike program, building as she did in 1795 four turnpikes, in 1797 six turnpikes, in 1798 six turnpikes and in the five years from 1795 to 1800 a to- tal of twenty-three turnpikes. These turnpikes were built by turnpike corpora- tions who received charters from the state, including specified rights, duties and privileges. They were not required to build new roads but rather to put old roads in repair. Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations, II, 186-230, The Toll Bridge and Turnpike Companies.
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In spite of the lack of new highways the records of the years between 1792 and 1800 are congested with town acts in connection with the highway reconstruction. These acts led to a great activity in the town of Lyme with reference to the state program of turnpike construction. Accordingly, on Feb- ruary 20, 1792, a memorial was prepared asking permission of the general assembly to tax themselves that they might make repairs and whatever alterations were necessary for the accommodation of stage wagons in the town. A committee was appointed to determine the rate of the tax and the price of labor.
This committee set a tax of three pence on the pound on the levy of 1792 and divided the town into eight districts. An elaborate program for tax collection and labor rates was also voted:
that all Persons from 20 to 60 years of age not in the List made by Listers be taxed on a list of eighteen pounds in a Separate Rate Bill of the several Districts in which they dwell and in like manner all Male Persons between sixteen and twenty-one years of age be taxed on a list of 9 pounds and that the price paid for Labour done in Repairing the Highways be as follows-for a man three shillings per day (he finding himself and finding tools suitable to the acceptance of the Highway Master) from the first day of April to the first day of Sep- tember and in like manner two shillings per Day from the first of September to the first of April and for a good team with Cart or Plow found to the acceptance of the Highway Master four shillings per day from the first of April to the first of September and three shillings per day for the Rest of the year. Also Messrs. Richard Wait, Gurdon Clark, John Johnson, Samuel Lee, William Sill, Harris Coult, Rich- ard E. Selden and Luther Reeve were selected as highway masters and collectors in the districts in which they lived. They were to re- ceive three shillings per day for their work in superintending the busi- ness and six pence on the pound for collecting the rate.78
The effects of such an extensive project in road improve- ment upon the supplementary earnings from labor as well as from the increased local business resulting from stagecoach travel might seem to have been considerable were it not for
78. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, February 20, 1792.
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the record of May 26, 1796.79 Town residents took into con- sideration the highways lately laid out through the town by the committee appointed by the general assembly for the lay- ing out "of Public Stage Roads" and expressed the opinion that the roads would be both nonbeneficial and a source of great unnecessary expense. A memorial was voted to be sent to the general assembly containing their objection.
In the interim, on April 7, 1794, when the repair or recon- struction of the "Great Bridge" over the Lieutenant River was again before the town meeting for decision, a vote was taken making this a toll bridge when the use of the draw was required, fixing the rate on laden scows at four pence in cash and three shillings for each vessel requiring the draw to be raised. The moneys were to apply on the cost of repair. Simi- larly, in 1801, it was voted "that for every vessel that shall be brought too and laid along side of the great bridge in the first Society in said Lyme and made fast thereto shall pay a fine of three dollars and thirty-four cents and that sum per day for such time as such vessel shall be fastened to said bridge for the use of said town."80 The price allowed for all public work at this time was fixed at sixty-two cents five mills per day for a man and tools, and ninety-four cents two mills per day for a team of four oxen and a cart.
Lyme was in the flush of her returning sea trade and local affairs reflected this in increased agriculture, more extensive stock raising, new and better homes, more diversified interests and a more vital citizenship. These stage roads encouraged and anticipated new markets. They connected directly with the carriers of coastwise and West India trade. They dis- seminated knowledge among the people and created a demand for an improved and more practical school system.
Nevertheless, in spite of their great increase, these turn- pike companies brought great hardships upon the towns through which they were projected. The cost to the town for land for the road and for the repair or construction of neces- sary bridges became prohibitive. Especially was this a hard-
79. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, May 26, 1796. 80. Ibid., p. 320.
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ship in Lyme with its extensive marshland and numerous estuaries.
However, in 1807 the New London turnpike was chartered to improve and to complete that part of the main road be- tween New London and Killingworth which connected Water- ford and Lyme. The westerly terminus of this turnpike was in Lyme on the Connecticut River where it connected with the old Saybrook ferry. In this way Lyme residents had an- other direct contact with the travelers who passed through the town on their way between New York and Boston.
Similarly the monthly mail service, which was started in 1772 between New York and Boston, was resumed and fol- lowed two main routes with Hartford and Saybrook as relay stations.81 Post offices were also quite generally established and the creation of the United States Mint in 1792 brought American money into general circulation.82 In these several ways the influence of the new national government made it- self felt. Lyme was still a rural agricultural town but her proximity to land and sea travel made her highly sensitive to the progressive thinking of the day. Many young industries and a considerable maritime trade, which flourished in Lyme before the war, began to show signs of revival as early as
81. Post offices were established gradually so that with 75 in the United States in 1790 there were 450 in 1795. On February 20, 1792, rates on postage on single letters were fixed according to mileage as is shown in the following scale :
0-30 miles 30-60 miles
6 cents 8 cents
60-100 miles
IO cents
100-150 miles
121/2 cents
150-200 miles
15 cents
200-250 miles
17 cents
250-350 miles 20 cents
more than 450 miles 25 cents
McMaster, History of the People of the United States, "Postal Service in 1792," II, 60 n.
82. The United States Mint was created on April 2, 1792, and during that year the dime, half-dime and pence were struck off. The cent was issued the following year, but nickels were not current until March 1, 1859. Ibid., I, 404 n .; II, 73, 360-361.
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1780. John McCurdy directed a flourishing West India trade, while the Mathers and Sills had numerous trading vessels on the high seas.83 In 1785 Samuel and James Mather, descend- ants of Timothy Mather, took over the McCurdy interests and themselves became merchants of wide reputation. The "Parsonage" in Lyme, built by Samuel Mather in 1790, re- flected their prosperity. Its appointments and hospitality were unexcelled. Then the facilities of the wharves and warehouses at the "Great Bridge," already referred to, were rebuilt to meet the requirements of their carriers. Lieutenant John Sill was also both an owner and builder of vessels and went trad- ing along the coast. His grandson, Captain Thomas Sill, in- herited this trade and developed a shipyard and three land- ing places along his frontage on the Lieutenant River.84 It was largely to accommodate his carriers that the "Great Bridge" was made a drawbridge. In return, for a number of years, his tolls guaranteed its repair. In his day, the now quiet "Silltown" buzzed with industry.
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