The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 88

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

for the coming year, and the usual committee of 12 persons chosen to collect the money and superintend the schools. After this, school mat- ters disappear from the records of the ecelesiastical parish.

The Perry Mss. (in possession of the South Windsor church) gives us the following :

" East Windsor, April 23, 1471. Mrs. Margaret Ledly was employed to teach school at the rate of 26x. pr. mo., she boarding herself - to be made up in proportion to the mumber of scholars sent by each person, and they also bearing a proportionate ex- pense of house-hire.

Parents of Scholars.

No. of Children. 2

8. d.

Joseph Perry

Moses Wells

Charles Mather

Oliver Chamberlain 3

(absent 2 wks. ) Sam" Webster

Aaron Bissell

Jonathan Drake

John Smith, Jr.

Capt. Grant 1

Benj. Cook

Ebenezer Bissell

Matt. Bissell

(for two weeks) Aaron Grant

" The school kept 11 weeks. The hire of the House was 10x. This divided among 22 scholars leaves 52d. to be paid pr. scholar for house hire."

Schools and School Districts in East ( now South ) Windsor. The late Dea. Abner Reed, who died in 1866, at the age of 95, furnished his grandson, the author of this history, in 1858, with the following ac- comt. :

"The Ist School Society of So. Windsor is composed of tive districts, four on the main street and one at Long Hill. (1st Dist.) from Seantie river to Strong's road, so called. The school-house, ever since my remembrance, stood just about ou, or adjoin- ing the S. E. cor. of the ground now owned by the Theological Institute. When the Academy was built, the lower part was designed for the District School and the old house was taken down. It was an edifice about 18 feet square, with a large chimney and tireplace in the centre of one end, a partition ran across even with the jambs, form- ing a closet on one side and on the other a little square hall into which the outside door opened ; a door in the partition opening into the sanctum. (d Dist.) extended from Strong's road down to the Shew road, so called, running out East between my lot and that of Moseley Newberry. The School-house formerly stood on the East side of the street, directly opposite where it now stands and in size and construction was similar to that of the 1st Dist. Some 50 yrs. ago it was moved across the street and some years later was burned ; and was rebuilt with brick, much after the former fashion, but as it stood on the line of the street, thus affording the children no play-ground except in the street, and as it obstructed the view South from Dr. Gillette's house, it was finally taken down and rebuilt several rods back from the street. (Se Dist.) extended from the Shew

Wido Drake

753

SCHOOLS OF EAST (NOW SOUTH ) WINDSOR.

road to one formerly called the Ezekiel Loomis Road, running East ; the school house was on the East side of the street, in the centre of the District and built much like the others, except that there was a closet on each side of a large chimney and fireplace, on the North side and the outside door opened directly facing the fire, on the South, there being no place for the scholars to shake the snow or rain from their clothes, or mud from their feet except in the school-room, which, I think, could not have been 20 ft. square, including the closets. As to its furniture, the following description will answer for that of all the 4 schools. The writing-tables were of plank, fastened to the wall or side of the room and extending all around, except on the chimney side and door-way. The seats for these tables were also of plank, with legs driven into auger holes, and the writers, of course, sat facing the wall. On the inner part of the room were the seats for the younger scholars, made of plank or thick slabs with similar seats, but without backs. Such was the noble academical institution in which I received my education. attending 3 months in the summer until I was 8 years old, and 3 months in the winter until I was 15 years,-the summer school taught by a female, the winter by a male. Five years after I left this house as a scholar, I entered it as a teacher for the winter and had more scholars than could be accommodated with any comfort. On one seem- ingly as cold a day as ever blew, I found the house filled when I got there in the morn- ing, and so closely crowded together that it was difficult to open the door to get in ; all standing up and trying to get to the fire, and many young ones crying. I ordered those at the fire to fall back and let a party of young ones take their place, and so by dividing by platoons, by about 11 o'clock they had all got so far warmed that I ordered them to take their seats, and by storing into every nick and corner I finally got them all seated and undertook to count them, when I found that my family consisted of 103 members. This house was sold to Maj. Daniel Hayden, and by him improved as a woodhouse and a new school-house built about 1806 or '07. This was of oblong shape. a little more roomy than the old one and occupied the same site as that, on the S. E. cor. of the lot occupied by Rev. Dr. MeClure during his lifetime. It was at first fur- nished in similar style to the old one - but afterward more according to modern ideas - and was afterwards disposed of -and two-story building, built by Abiezer Porter for a brad and tack factory was bought and converted into a sort of Academy, the District school occupying the lower part and a school of a higher grade the upper part. This house is a few rods N. of the site of the old one on the opposite side of the street. (4th Dist.) extended from the E. Loomis road to E. Hartford, the school house being on what is called the old road, formerly the main road to Hartford and a little E. of the present main road. It was of the same size and construction as the other houses.

" From my carliest recollection, the teachers were generally inhabitants of the dis- triet. The regular price of a man teacher was 40 shillings N. E. money, and board for a month; for a female teacher from one dollar to one and a half a week and board. Sometimes, if they lived near the school-house, they wonld engage for $2 a week and board themselves. During my school days the books in use were . Dilworth's Spelling Book.' ' Dilworth's Arithmetic,' called . The Schoolmaster's Assistant,' the . New Eng- land Primer, the ' Psalter and Bible.' The 1st class was called . the Bible Class,' and had no other book to read from, until about the third winter before I left school (1786 ?) when ' Webster's Spelling Book ' was introduced, and next winter his 'Art of Reading. and . Morse's Abridgment of his Geography.' Previous to this all the branches taught in the schools were Reading, Writing, Spelling, and a very little of Arithmetic. The C'at echism was always recited Saturday noon, which ended the week. Dilworth was an English author, and the words in his Spelling Book ending in tion, tion, sion, de., &c., had their endings divided into two syllables. His Arithmetic, I think, was plainer and easier and better calculated for common schools than any that I have ever seen. I did not study it at school, but all my knowledge of Arithmetic I got from that book after 1 left school and without an instructor. There were no engraved writing copies in those days-every master wrote copies at the head of a page, and you may imagine there VOL. I .- 95

754

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

was a great variety of hands, and I was expected to imitate them all. The last winter 1 attended school ( ¿. 15) we had a teacher who called himself a doctor and was a sort of Separate preacher [the Baptists were then called Separates, or Separatists], who, every morning when he opened school, would have all the scholars who read in Bibles, use them and follow him while he read a chapter, and would charge us to mind how he read and learn to read as he did - which was in what used to be called the ' Separate tone '- see-saw, up and down. He was succeeded by Mr. George (brother of the late Den. Amasa) Loomis, who, the winter previous, attended a Writing School at Coventry, and he had a number of pieces of writing on Whole sheets of Foolscap, which he had copied -- and among them were imitations of Roman, Italian, German and Old English text; the two latter I had never seen, and felt a desire to try and copy them. There was no paper in those days fit to write upon, except English paper, and that was not plenty; but my teacher offered to furnish me paper if I would copy them for him -- which I did so much to his satisfaction that he used them as copies, afterwards, in the schools which he taught at Hartford and AAlbany.

"] should have said, in relation to the 5th Dist .. or Long Hill School, in The S. E. part of the town -it was similar in size and accommodations to the other four, though smaller."

The Academy on East Windsor Hill was creeted by private enter- prise early in the present century, probably about 1800. It was a two- story edifice, with belfry and bell ; the upper floor used for the academy proper, the lower For a district school, and still holds its own in this year of grace 1891.

It was always well condneted, had a wide reputation, and not only many of the young men of East Windsor and its neighboring towns were fit- ted for college there; but numbers eame also from distant places. Its teach- ers were well selected, mostly college graduates, generally of Yale, and were of the highest standing. Among these we may mention Mr. JOHN HALL, who graduated at Yale, 1802: was tutor there 1804-7, and from 1809 to '29 made his home in East Windsor, leading a scholarly life, teaching, ete., and then founded his celebrated school at Ellington. Prof. ELEAZER T. Frren, who took the academy in Oct., 1810, having graduated from Yale College the month before; he was afterward Professor of Theology at Yale and Preacher to the College, 1817-1853, -a notable thinker and writer; a modest man, but a good teacher. During his term we find the following note in Rey. Mr. Robbins's Diary, under date of 24 April, 1811: " The academy here had an exhibition. It began about eight o'clock in the evening and continued until two in the morning. 1 did not attend. It is said to have been a very good one." MiLo LOOMIS NORTH, who graduated at Yale College 1813. took the academy in 1814- 1815. He became a physician, and most have been immediately followed (1816) by SAMUEL STILES STEBBINS, who graduated at Yale College 1807. and commenced the study of theology with Rev. Dr. Robbins, though he never became a minister. Joux HALL. BROCKWAY (son of Rev. Diodate, of Ellington ), graduated at Yale College 1820, a lawyer, and afterwards

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755

THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF CONNECTICUT.

Representative in United States Congress, taught the academy 1820; OZIAS SHELDON BELLS, son of Rev. Ozias, of Barkhamsted, Com., immediately after his gradnation at Williams College, 1821, became the teacher, and studied theology with Dr. Robbins until (probably Oet. 1) 1823, when he was licensed to preach. Gen. NATHAN JOHNSON, of Hart- ford : Dr. ALVAN TALCOTT, of Vernon, Conn., 1821-1826: Dr. Maro M. Reed: Judge WILLIAM STRONG, of the U. S. Supreme Court: ERASTUS NORTH, and others of equal worth and ability are remembered as among the principals of this academy. Its efficiency continued until about 1835, after which it declined, being gradually absorbed by the varied instruc- tions afforded by the establishment upon the hill of the Theological Institute of Connectient : and, since the removal of that institution to Hartford, has not been revived. It is worthy of note that the young ladies of East Windsor, after learning all that could be taught them at the Academy on the Hill, were usually sent to some of the Hartford " fin- ishing schools," among which the most prominent was opened about 1800 by Mrs. Lydia Bull Royse. Among her scholars from East Windsor were Ann Watson, Frances and Maria Bissell, Helen and Ursula Wolcott, and Betsy Rockwell (see very interesting letter from Rey. Prof. J. J. MeCook, p. 645-647, Hartford Co. Mem. Hist., vol. i.

The Seauntie Academy, near the meeting-house of the North Parish (now East Windsor), was erected in 1817, according to a memorandum in Dr. Thos. Robbins's Diary. Though a two-story edifice, it was a hum- bler institution, both architecturally and educationally, than that on the Hill : but it provided winter education in the higher English studies, and, to some extent, in the classics ; and Yale College students were generally employed as teachers. It has been discontinued for many years.

I will also be seen, by reference to the Reed Genealogy in another part of this work, that East (now South) Windsor held, for many years, quite a School of Art and Design, in Dea. Abner Reed's engraving estab- lishment. Its gradnates (the good Deacon would have called them " apprentices " ) were, subsequently, mostly identified with the history of bank-note engraving in the United States-of which branch of engraving the Deacon was a pioneer.

THE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF CONNECTICUT (now the Hartford Theological Seminary ) was the result of a conference hekt at East (now South ) Windsor, 10th Sept., 1833, by 36 Congregational ministers, among which the more prominent members were Drs. Samnet Sperry. Asahel Nettleton, Nath't Hewitt. Daniel Dow, G. A. Calhoun, Joseph Harvey, and Rev. Cyrus Hale. This conference was the expression of a widespread alarm created by the speculations and dogmas of " the

756

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

New Haven Divinity." The famous " Concio ad Clerum" sermon, preached Sept. 10, 1828, by Prof. Nathaniel W. Taylor of the Theologi- cal Department of Yale College, had brought into prominence certain views held by himself and his associates ; which, the more they were discussed by the then leaders of religious thought in New England. such as Jeremiah Evarts, Gov. John Cotton Smith, Drs. Tyler, Nettleton, Humphrey, Griffin, Eben'r Porter, Woods, and others, seemed to be "antagonistic to biblical doctrines respecting the divine government, human depravity, regeneration, and the essential difference between the motives that govern renewed and unrenewed men."

At this East Windsor convention of 1833, " The Pastoral Union of Connectient " was organized on the basis of a Calvinistic creed. Its constitution provided for the establishment of a theological seminary : and in the measures which they at once adopted to exeente this design they sought, in several ways, to guard against the perversion of conse- crated funds and other perils developed in the experience of similar in- stitutions. The control of the seminary was vested, not in a self-per- petuating corporation, but in a board of trustees chosen annually by the Pastoral Union ; and required. as a condition of their holding office, to give assent to the creed of the Institute, which was thus brought into close relation with the churches. The institution was located at East Windsor, and its corner-stone laid by Dr. Perkins of East Hartford, 13th May, 1834 ; its first course of instruction opening the following autumn to a class of 16 students. Dr. Bennett Tyler was its first professor of Theology, Dr. Jonathan Cogswell the first professor of Church History, and Prof. William Thompson gave instruction in Hebrew and Greek exegesis. The Institute, dependent at first upon donations, received in 1839 its first endowment of $11,000 from Miss Rebecca Waldo of Worcester, Mass .; and donations, varying from $1 to 87,000, were re- ceived during the next few years for support of professors and increase of the library. In 1849 a second professorship was endowed by the be- quest of Mr. Chester Buckley and his wife of Wethersfield ; and an attempt to set aside this will was singularly fortunate, in that, by the compromise effected by the late Hon. Seth Terry of Hartford, consider- ably more than the sums specified in the will was seenred to the heirs-at-law, and to various public institutions and charities a large pro- portion of what was bequeathed to them. The third professorship was endowed partly by Rev. Dr. Asahel Nettleton from the proceeds of " Village Hymns."

Students were furnished with ample facilities for physical exercise ; 70 acres of choice land on the river were offered (rent free) for their use ; and each student also had the free nse of a box of tools in a work-

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757

EAST WINDSOR'S LITERARY MEN,

shop to be used in cold and stormy weather. But the young men, as a rule, did not " take " to mannal labor.

But, from the first, the disadvantages incident to its location had been embarrassing to the seminary, and at the end of twenty years they awakened grave apprehensions among its firmest friends. Its isolation, sufficiently characteristic in 1834, had become extreme in 1851. The lack of social and church life and of a literary atmosphere in the sur- rounding community aggravated the discomfort of separation from the outer world.

Finally, 1856, an invitation was offered to the officers of Yale Col- lege to consider the matter of uniting the two seminaries. This propo- sition, as well as one from the Clerical Fellows of Yale College in 1864, came to nought. Then the removal of the Seminary to Hartford was agreed upon, and effected Sept., 1865, by the temporary occupation of two spacious dwellings on Prospect Street, Hartford, and two others subsequently occupied by students. This arrangement continued for 14 years, when, by the generosity of the late James B. Hosmer of Hartford (who gave it $100,000 for the erection of a building, founded the pro- fessorship of New Testament Exegesis, and made it residuary legatee of his estate), the Seminary was enabled to ocenpy its present fine building upon Broad Street.

Among its recent liberal benefactors have been Mr. Richard Bond of Boston Highlands, Messrs. S. S. Ward, Roland Mather, Newton Case of Hartford, the latter especially advancing the growth of its library. Mr. Joseph Carew of South Hadley Falls, Mass., donated $5,000 for an annual lecture course, and a similar fund has been given by five in- dividuals for a Lectureship of Foreign Missions, ultimately to be en- larged into a Professorship of Missions ; while 22 scholarships, varying from $1,000 to 82,000 each, have been created by friends for use of needy students. By an amendment (1880) the charter now covers property to the amount of one million dollars, with the usual condition.

Before its removal to Hartford the largest number of students was 34; the catalogue of 1884 contained 54. The library then had 7,000, it now has 42,000 volumes. The three professorships of 1834 have in- creased to five, to which has lately been added an Associated Professor- ship of Sacred Music and Hymnology. Among theological seminaries this one stands pre-eminent for the number of its graduates who have entered the home and foreign mission fields. Its theology is Calvinistic, and in harmony with the accredited formularios of New England Con- gregationalism. (Condensed from article in Hartford Co. Mem. Hist., by Rev. Wm. Thompson, D.D., Dean of Faculty.)

Literary Men. Of these, if we except the Rev. Timothy Edwards, the first was Gov. ROGER WOLCOTT, who wrote and issued, in 1723,

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

" POETICAL MEDITATIONS, being the Improvement of some Vacant Hours, by Roger Wolcott, Esq .: with a Preface by the Reverend Mr. Bulkley of Colchester. New London : Printed and Sold by T. Green, 1725." In the preface of 56 pages Mr. Bulkley painfully delivers himself on matters and things in general, but chiefly on the title of the Indian aborigines to their lands. Then follow a dedication to the Rev. Timothy Edwards, a few poetical meditations on Scripture texts, and a poem of 60 pages, entitled, " A Brief Account of the Ageney of the Honourable John Winthrop, Esq .; in the Court of King Charles the Second, Anno Dom. 1662. When he obtained for the colony of Connecticut His Ma- jesty's Gracious Charter." The volume closes with an - Advertise- ment " by Joseph Dewey, a Colchester cloth-maker, who " having been something at charge in promoting the Publishing the foregoing Medita- tions," hereby taketh occasion to give his country people a few di- rections towards the better preparation of wool for the weaving.

Of this work, Rev. Dr. Tarbox, in Hartford Co. Memorial History. says: "There is nothing noteworthy about the shorter pieces in the book, but the . Brief Account "' is of historical interest, its subject being the proenring of that charter so precious in Connecticut tradition, which Wadsworth afterward hid in the Charter Oak. The greater part of the poem is in the form of episode, Winthrop describing to the king the plantation of the colony and its war with the Pequots. Not much can be said for its literary merits. The description of Connecticut River and its banks - a favorite theme with later Hartford poets - is conven- tional and untrue. 'Philomel high perch't upon a thorn,' meadows enamelled with roses and violets, els embraced by fruitful vines, figure in the same landscape with the beaver and the mink. The fragmatic style of the narrative is heightened by the usual classical insipidities - Aurora, Phoebus, Cynthia, Tithon, Thetis, and Lucifer carrying on their astronomical operations in laughable proximity to the names of Uneas, Sassaens, and Miantinomah. The burning of the Pequot fort at Mystic - which the poet calls a ' castle ' and a ' stately palace ' - is painted with an epic pomp that emulates Virgil's picture of the destruction of Troy." A much better example of the Governor's literary abilities is to be found in the Mss. vol. described on page 568 ;' and in his Anto- biography, portions of which are quoted in the Wolcott Genealogy, in our 2d volume.

ERASTUS WOLCOTT ELLSWORTH, born in East Windsor, 1822, son of Ilon. Erastus Ellsworth, and a graduate of Amherst College, is the hon- ored living representative of East (South ) Windsor's literary men. In

1 Reprinted in Maxx. His, Sor. Coft., iv. 262.

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EARLY POLITICS IN EAST WINDSOR.

1855 he published a book of poems' of much merit, the longest of which is based upon the story of Theseus and Ariadue. One of these poems, a remarkably good one, entitled " What is the Use," has received the well- merited compliment of being republished in the poet Whittier's Songs of Three Centuries ; and the poems " Tuloom " and " Mayflower " are quoted in the poet Stedman's Library of American Literature. These poems were first published in Putnam's Magazine.

Mr. Ellsworth also presents in his intellectual make-up the very un- usual union of strong poetic feeling with a rare mechanical taste and ability. Hle is the inventor and patentee of an exceedingly curious and excellent hydraulic machine, as well as of other mechanical contrivances, indicating a high order of mechanical talent. Mr. Ellsworth has lived a retired and studious life in the paternal mansion, and, surrounded by the love and respect of relatives and friends, has not seemed to care to assume that more prominent position in literary and scientific society to which his few published works, as well as his acknowledged talents, entitle him.

Polities in East Windsor in the Early part of Present Century. Our sources of information concerning politics in the carly part of the pres- ent century in this town are but fragmentary - but we will piece them together as well as we can. The late Edward King of Indianapolis, Ind., has preserved for us the following specimen of political rhyme, found among his grandfather's papers, and referring to a Fourth of July cele- bration held at East Windsor in 1801 :

'Twas on the fifth day of July, The democrats did meet, sir, Beneath a bowry green and high, Erected in the street, sir.

The thundering cannon's early roar Re-kindled all their slander, Turn'd out more plenty than before, Led on by Mexander.

('horus - O blessed name! O democrat! lle fears no kind of danger. Come, join the gang with gallant Pratt, He'll welcome every stranger.

Ladies attend most gaily drest. In petticoat and jerkin, With loaves of bread made of the best. And butter by the firkin.

1 Poems ; by Erastus Elterrorth. Published by F. A. Brown, Hartford, 1855. Latest poems contributed to Tranders Record, Hartford, Conn.

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

Likewise a basket full of pease, With lusty loaf of cake, sir, Almost as big as th' mammoth cheese, As good as e'er was bak'dl, sir. ('horus - O blessed name, ete.

And now the board had been well furnished, had not the fattened turkey balk'd the circus -the fact was this: T. Wolcott had been fatting a fine tom and cram'd him with food as often as (you please) and weigh'd him as often, but on Friday before holi day poor Tom was choked in the operation and expired - (fable says he died by his own hands, scorning to suffer in such a cause) ; make what you please of it and weave it in.

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 88

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909 Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company Number of Pages: 1038

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038