USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1936 > Part 15
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tails of varied colors. The ones of 1833 were called Leonids, after the star group from which they appeared to scatter out .* The astral display was a morning's marvel to the early-rising householders of that day, of whom Mrs. Elias Warner was one, and inspired the Sabbath text of a local pastor: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handi- work."
MOUNT CARMEL AND EAST PLAINS CHURCH PROGRESS
By 1830 the Mount Carmel congregation decided to purchase their first stove. Its introduction may have been related to the beginning of Sabbath School classes for children. A new church building was erected in 1840, two hundred feet south of the old one. Free "slips," or pews, were set aside "for strangers and for colored persons." A fine of one dollar was to be levied upon anyone defacing the building. It was voted that "all persons are requested not to smoke or spit Tobaco juice except in a Spit Box in said House." One of the duties of the church deacons was to provide a hot toddy for the minister after the sermon; and one can only wonder what enlivening interest might have been added to some of the discourses had this refreshment come before instead of after them! The old accepted custom of using liquor in church activities was still prevalent; but in 1842 the New Haven West Asso- ciation (delegates from Congregational churches) voted "that in all future meetings of this Association ardent spirits form no part of the entertainment." On the treasurer's books are three other items no longer part of the church's needs:
* One account says there were 240,000 in nine hours.
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Cash for wood, and candles for singing, $1.10 Ecclesiastical Society of Mt. Carmel to Hobart Ives, Dr. For Repairs on Bass Viol and strings for two years, 1.50
Yearly amounts of from $ 10 to $80 were voted for the instruction of singers, from as far back as 1797.
In the church in the East Plains, after the dismissal of Reverend Abraham Alling, there was great discour- agement. Many withdrew their membership because of bitter feelings connected with his leaving, the church building was in great disrepair, and often the small con- gregation had no preacher. This condition continued for sixteen years, the deacons filling the pulpit in the absence of visiting ministers. Among them was Lyman Ford who, though he never attended school "possessed a very superior mind, great knowledge of the Bible, and remarkable gifts for the utterance of divine truth." These stalwart members were determined, resourceful, self-reliant-and religious services they would have, even though forced to draw upon their own numbers to provide them.
Largely through the efforts of Reverend George Delevan who supplied the pulpit in 1833, plans were developed for the erection of a new meetinghouse. Al- though many wished to remain on the west side of Hamden, the east side was chosen, due in part to the gift from Eli Whitney, 2d, of land from his father's estate. It was near the paper mill on the Cheshire Road, which at that time ran closer to Mill River and east of the present church. The building was erected through subscriptions solicited by members in 1834 at a cost of $2,740.54. And so the church made a pil- grimage of a mile to rest its ark on the river bank, thenceforth to be known as the Whitneyville Church,
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in honor of Eli Whitney. When the cornerstone was laid, Governor Henry Edwards and his wife were pres- ent, and Reverend Leonard Bacon delivered an ad- dress. The building was finished in August, and between Sunday services it was possible for people to eat their lunches and rest under the trees or in the horsesheds, but soon cooler weather led them to the need of a Sab- ba-day house, and William Shares and others petitioned the Mill school district committee for permission to set such a building on the adjoining schoolhouse lot. A comfortable building, painted red like the school, was placed near the church, facing east and the door open- ing toward the turnpike.
In the short time that Reverend Mr. Delevan served the church, a modest library was started, which circu- lated a small number of books among the members.
The turning point in the church's history was the installation in July, 1838, of Reverend Austin Putnam as its pastor. He had been thoroughly educated for the legal profession, and was a member of the New York bar. Soon after he began the practice of law, he was led through his interest in philosophy to make a careful study of the Bible, with the result that he felt himself called to the Christian ministry. He and his wife came from upper New York State to Whitneyville in a horse and buggy, to begin there his record pastorate of nearly fifty years.
HAMDEN CEMETERIES
There are nine sacred squares in Hamden, set aside in years long gone by as "God's acres." Graves of many are remembered and well tended; and many more are forgotten, for all to whom they were dear in life have long since joined them in death.
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MOUNT CARMEL, 175I
The oldest gravestone in the town is that of the chil- dren of Jonathan and Rebecca Dickerman, Hezekiah and Joel, aged one and three years, a double red sand- stone marker dated 1751. A stone beside it is dated a few months later for one-year-old Rebecca.
Most of the old stones are slabs of granite, slate, or red sandstone, decorated either with the face and wings or with the weeping willow and urn. Married women were designated as "relicts" or "consorts" of their hus- bands-adjuncts, not yet considered equals or for them- selves recognizable. Nevertheless there were compen- sations, as many an epitaph bears witness.
Women of that day concentrated their attention upon home and church; they bore joint hardships with their husbands, taking their heavy share of the toil and pri- vations endured in the earliest days of the settlement, instilling in their well-taught children those high stan- dards of bravery and character which many an ultimate- ly successful man remembered to have been taught him by his mother. Many of the stones erected to the mem- ory of departed wives bore sentiments which testified how greatly they were loved. In the Mount Carmel Cemetery is the grave of Mrs. Kezia Munson, whose stone reads:
Mrs. Kezia Munson, the excellent wife of Bazil Munson. She was industrious, she looked well to the ways of her own household. The heart of her husband safely trusted in her. Her children may rise up and bless the memory of a most affectionate parent. She trusted the righteousness of Christ for pardon and eter- nal life.
On the slate stone of Samuel Bellamy, Sr., is writ- ten:
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Here lies buried the body of Mr. Samuel Bellamy, who departed this life the 8th day of May 1760, in the 40th year of his age.
The sweet remembrance of the just Shall flourish when they sleep in dust.
An early date, 1767, marks Joel, son of Jabez and Esther Bradley, aged twelve years; and Jabez, who died in 1793, was called
Patron of industry, a friend to Vertue, and a Pillar to Society.
A double headstone bears mute testimony to Amos and Mabel Alling's loss of their two children, Mabel in 1771, aged fifteen days, and Amos in 1773, aged twelve days.
This verse was chosen for the grave of Deacon Dan- iel Bradley, who was a power in his time:
Adieu, paternal Shade, Thy sufferings now are o'er, Though here thy body mouldering lies, The immortal part triumphant flies On angel wings to mount the skies To sing redeeming joy.
The epitaph of Amos Peck, who died in 1783, reads: He adorned the religion he professed, and was zealous in the cause of his Devine Master.
His wife Lois died in 1852 at the age of one hun- dred. Mary Peck's stone bears this verse:
Look, youth, and view this solemn tomb, Nor think this life a lasting home, Improve your time and God adore, You soon like me will be no more.
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Nathaniel Tuttle died in 1786. His stone bears two sentiments:
He was a loving husband and a tender parent and a good member of Society.
Behold and see as you pass by, As you are now, so once was I, As I am now, so you must be, Prepare for Death and follow me.
One wonders how some verses came to be chosen for a permanent association with the departed one, many are so impersonal and so lugubrious. Probably no Hamden graves bear sentiments penned by Lydia Si- gourney, so ineptly called "the Sweet Singer of Hart- ford," but she wrote such quantities of pious verse and tombstone epitaphs that she was accused of having added a new terror to death.
Abigail Sperry's stone says:
The clods of the valley here Cover the remains of the Just Whose works shall follow her.
Mary Bradley, who died in 1808, seems to have been an invalid.
Afflictions sore long time I bore,
Physician's art was vain,
Till God did please to give me ease And free me from my pain. Ye living friends behold me past Where death will bring you all at last.
Jonathan Dickerman, who died in 1821, and Isaac Dickerman, 1822, were among the founders of the Mount Carmel Parish. The lines on Jonathan's stone-
Praises on tombs are trifles vainly spent, A man's good name is his best monument.
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are indeed true of him and of many of his family, whose good name will live as long as the town is remembered.
This old burying ground, with spruce trees provid- ing occasional shade, has directly behind it the head of the Sleeping Giant, who was the first sleeper, and who may be symbolized as a lasting and fitting monu- ment to those who rest in his shadow. They were giants too-in courage, strength and wisdom, as they staunchly built their part of the foundation of the town.
THE CENTRAL BURYING GROUND, 1767
Originally the private cemetery of the Goodyear family, the burial ground at Centerville was called by the warranty deed of Miles Goodyear in 1896 the "Cen- tral Burying Ground."
The Pardees were probably the earliest family to build a home in Centerville, and it was one of them, Hannah, wife of Benjamin, who was the first to be buried in this cemetery, in 1767. Her husband's stone says (leaving the reader frustrated with curiosity),
He was crushed to death in an instant, Aug. 29, 1776, aged 60.
Thomas Pardee and his wife Lois, both aged seventy- seven, died in 1802. The inscription on the stone of Jason Bradley, who died in 1768, aged sixty, is dis- appointingly impersonal, and a public warning rather than an epitaph:
Kind Reader, Prepare for the important hour of death.
Captain Samuel Atwater's wife Sarah, and Jacob Atwater's wife Miriam, lived respectively seventy-nine
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and seventy-one years, but in all that time made no greater impression as individuals than to be designated on their gravestones as only the "consorts" of their husbands.
Timothy and Ruth Goodyear suffered a dreadful loss in 1773, as a triple sandstone slab testifies. Within the space of one month their three children died (aged eleven, nine, and four), victims of the awful scourge of smallpox in that year.
The cemetery is enclosed by a white picket fence. A habit of New Englanders is the building of picket fences around their dooryards, like embracing arms flung pro- tectively about the homes they love. Here, in like manner, such a boundary mark shuts out the heedless world from the hallowed square which is the last earth- ly home of departed dear ones. Little evergreen trees stand here and there among the graves, straight, and stiffly at attention as though on sentinel guard.
HAMDEN PLAINS CEMETERY, 1787
The first cemetery on the west side of the town was laid out in the lowland east of Cherry Hill Road, which runs from Circular Avenue up to Benham Street, but after three or four burials there it was judged to be too wet for that purpose, and the present cemetery on Cir- cular Avenue, surrounded by a high stone wall with tall pillars at the gateway, was opened in 1787. Resi- dents of this part of town were previously buried on New Haven Green. A stone bearing the name of Joseph Dickerman, dated 1777, states that he is "inter'd in New Haven yard."
Matthew Gilbert, a direct descendant of Governor Matthew Gilbert, was buried here in 1795, under a
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typical red sandstone marker, decorated with the crude picture of a face supported by wings. Thomas Leek was buried in 1791.
Reverend Abraham Alling's last resting place is marked by a stone table, the lettering of which is mostly obliterated other than the date of his death, 1837. Two names also associated with the early days of the churches here are Moses Ford of the East Plains Society, and Sybil Tuttle of the Methodist Church.
Of Chauncey Bassett, who died in 1874 at the age of forty-three, it is said that
His cheerful ways won many friends;
and of his wife, Betsy, in 1868, aged twenty-seven years:
She always made home happy, but was too fair for this world and faded like a flower.
On the stone over Abner Sperry's wife is the inscription:
A heap of dust alone remains of thee, 'Tis all I am, and all the proud can be.
Of Ichabod Alling, aged fifty-two, was written in 1809:
Life and the grave Two different lessons give; Life shows how to die, Death how to live.
The preponderant family names here are Benham, Warner, Woodin, Dorman, Dickerman, Gorham, and Gilbert. In a general view of the cemetery, one is im- pressed with the great number of fluttering flags, mark- ing the graves of war veterans. In their bright vibrant animation, they seem almost to be signaling to us the
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living, reminding us that these men still live, in the grateful memory of those who now enjoy what they died to save.
STATE STREET CEMETERY, 1799
The original burying ground of the State Street locality was a few rods north of the present one, and when the new plot was opened, apparently only the markers made the short journey; for when the cellar was dug for the wooden schoolhouse, many ancient bones were discovered there.
The oldest grave is that of Timothy Potter (whose son so admired Andrew Jackson). He "departed this life Oct. 24, 1799, in the sixty-ninth year of his age." The verse on his stone is:
Come My Companion, behold and see The clods that doth cover me, And on my right hand often view The clods reserved to cover you.
This adjuration was faithfully complied with, for in 1838 his wife was buried at his right.
The unique feature of this burying ground is the fact that it is shared by Protestants and Catholics, a perma- nent testimonial to the religious tolerance of the com- munity. It is a small area, enclosed by a low stone wall, and contains comparatively few graves. The one en- trance drive, through an iron gate, runs straight down the center, bordered by large maples. Most of the stones are conventional granite slabs, with an occasional one of slate, and most of the dates are of the early 1 800's. There are a few modern monuments, and sev- eral lots are enclosed by low fences.
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Many Atwaters and Potters are buried here. The epitaph of Phoebe Potter creates the picture of a gra- cious personality, and is a reminder that many women played an incalculably important part in the life of the town, even though their scope was limited to domestic affairs.
Mrs. Phoebe Potter died May 10, 1809, aged 69, con- sort of Philemon Potter. She was a kind companion, an affectionate mother, an obliging neighbor. She lived beloved and died lamented.
WEST WOODS CEMETERY, 1804
Near the Hamden-Bethany town line on Gaylord Mountain Road, standing close to the road but above it on a sharp steep rise, the West Woods Cemetery seems aloof from passersby, sunk in dim antiquity, undis- turbed for many years by all but faithful Legionnaires who annually place flags on the graves of two veterans, one said to be a Warner, veteran of the Seminole War, 1818, and the other of the Civil War. The flutter of these fading banners is all that marks the presence of the soldiers-no headstone nor footstone, no rounded outlines even, to indicate the graves in which they sleep.
The property was originally owned by Alling Gay- lord, and a deed filed in 1804 in the town records says:
Know ye that Alling Gaylord of Hamden, for the consideration of twelve dollars ($12) received to my full satisfaction of Hezekiah Tuttle, Benjamin Gay- lord & Simeon Warner, give, grant, bargain, sell and confirm unto the said Tuttle, Gaylord, & Warner & to all other persons living in that vicinity who wish to bury their dead friends or relations on the premises, hereby grant a certain piece for the only purpose of a burying place, containing one quarter of an acre, beginning at
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Hamden's Oldest Gravestone, 1751
Photo by Carl J. Jensen
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April 31 Gravestone in West Woods
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a heap of stones on the brow of the hill & to extend north six rods, and west of each end so far as to make one quarter of an acre, and is bounded East, West & North on my own land, South on Highway.
The few gravestones in this cemetery bear the pre- dominant names of Doolittle, Handy, and Warner, and the name of the donor, Gaylord, which was the source of the name for Gaylord Mountain. Although the dates upon the stones are not the oldest in the town, residents in the locality say that burials were made there before 1800. These old graves are not marked, and no record of them remains, so that there is room for speculation upon their age. Because of the isolation of this grave- yard and of its having had no burials in recent years, there is a congruous air of quiet antiquity which sug- gests great age.
Two little headstones testify to the loss sustained by Gaylords, in 1803 and 1814, of two children, Milla and Delos, aged five and three years. The verse of one reads:
Sleep on, sweet babe, and take thy rest, God called thee home because He saw it best.
The other seems cruelly unsuitable :
Soon ripe, soon rotten, Soon gone, but not forgotten.
Other names on the pitted old stones are Tuttle, Hitchcock, and Phelps. Three of the conventional old slabs which had fallen and broken in half have been repaired. On the stone bearing Jesse Doolittle's name appears this epitaph:
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My flesh shall slumber in the ground Till the last trumpet's joyful sound, Then burst the chains with sweet surprise, And in my Saviour's image rise.
On his wife Betsy's stone appears this message:
The sweet remembrance of the Just Shall flourish when they sleep in dust.
The name of one of the several Caleb Doolittles stands out for an unusual reason, not for the knowledge of him or his family or his deeds, but because the date of his death was irretrievably carved upon his grave- stone as April 31, 1838. April surely had but its cus- tomary allotment of thirty days, even as far back as 1838, and one may wonder whether Caleb, the strong man of Dog Lane Court, was perhaps an exact and care- ful man who turned in his grave at the numerical error placed forever beneath his name, or whether, on the other hand, he was a simple soul who craved more at- tention, and now happily may bask for endless years in moderate notice.
This little cemetery, drowsing in the bright sunlight, covers only a treeless square the size of a small meadow; there are no high weeds, only sparse grass, low briars and blueberry bushes, clover and yarrow, and here and there among them little yellow or white wild flowers. One cannot stand here, pondering on the past and on those early townsmen who lie here, many of their graves undiscernible and their names forgotten, without the consciousness of dignity and tradition and the feeling that these courageous souls, even though no kin nor friends of ours, were yet our civic antecedents, who typify, in the strength and purpose with which they
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helped to build our town, the civic ideals which we wish in our turn to perpetuate.
WHITNEYVILLE CEMETERY
When the Whitneyville Church was built on the east side of town in 1834, a cemetery was established beside it-square, enclosed within a white picket fence, tree- less, and lying in the full sun as though forever look- ing with unobstructed view up into the blue of God's heaven. Members of this congregation in earlier years were buried in Hamden Plains Cemetery. On the Treadwell Street side, some of the old wooden hitch- ing posts with their battered round tops are still stand- ing where the horses of the funeral trains used to be tied.
Outstanding names on the tombstones there are those of Austin Putnam, for nearly fifty years pastor of the church; Dr. Charles Cutting, a later pastor; James J. Webb, who died in 1889, and his father Darius, who died in 1869; and Charles P. Augur, 1836-92, a first selectman of the town.
The most interesting monument is that of the Dick- erman family, a tall brown shaft which commemorates their history:
Thomas Dickerman came from England 1635, died in Dorchester, Mass. in 1657. Abraham Dickerman died in New Haven in 171I aged 77; Isaac Dickerman died in 1758, aged 81; Stephen Dickerman died in 1779 aged 58; Isaac Dickerman died in 1835 aged 75; Deacon Eli Dickerman died in 1869 aged 74; Elias Dickerman 1821-1905.
The last two of these took an important part in church affairs and in Hamden school matters.
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In an old manual of the Whitneyville Church ap- pears this paragraph :
The starred names upon this church manual exceed in numbers its members today-many have passed from this side of the street to the silent congregation over the way. More past members rest in hope there, than live in hope in the Church today. Great in numbers, rich in faith, bright in hope, they silently rest there waiting the coming of the Master.
MOUNT CARMEL CATHOLIC CEMETERY, 1860
The Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery lies on a steep green hillside within imposing sight of the Sleep- ing Giant. Lovely silver spruce trees and shapely arbor vitae appear among the gravestones, nearly all of which are decorated with a cross. One stone is a beautiful figure of a child, in memory of two little girls. The Hennessey mausoleum dominates the top of the hill. None of the stones are old. Many Catholics of the par- ish were buried in New Haven cemeteries.
THE TWO JEWISH CEMETERIES, 1855-1895
There are two tiny cemeteries in Highwood-one on Warner Street, maintained by Congregation B'nai Israel, containing graves, none of which are more than fifty years old; and the plot on Alling Street, estab- lished in 1855 by Congregation B'nai Scholom. The oldest stone bears the date 1857. Two war veterans lie here, one of the Civil War and one of World War I. An interesting and unusual stone is in memory of a twenty-one-year-old boy, and into the monument is inserted his glazed photograph.
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So, in these hallowed enclosures lie our ancestors and people of Hamden who have passed upon their west- ward way. One may stand within them on a bright summer day, aware of the deep silence, sometimes brok- en by the song-sparrow's "sweet-sweet-sweet," and think allegorically of the change in seasons, from cold and drifted winter snows to quickening spring and flow- ers and green things blooming again, of solemn night and breaking morn, light from darkness, life from death -and breathe a prayer that mourners coming here with weeping will find within their darkened hearts peace and hope that cannot die.
The words of Dr. Leonard Bacon's famous hymn, written of the earliest settlers of New Haven, is in its last part appropriate sentiment to feel about Hamden's dead:
O God, beneath Thy guiding hand Our exiled fathers crossed the sea, And when they trod the wintry strand, With prayer and psalm they worshipped Thee.
Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God Came with those exiles o'er the waves,
And where their pilgrim feet have trod The God they trusted guards their graves.
And here Thy name, O God of love, Their children's children shall adore, Till these eternal hills remove,
And spring adorns the earth no more.
Part III Wheels Begin to Turn
PART III WHEELS BEGIN TO TURN
1836-1886
M ANUFACTURING in Hamden, already under way at Eli Whitney's gun factory, the two concerns on the canal, and other smaller businesses in the town, might be said to have received considerable impetus from the establishment of the two railroads which passed through the town, one on the east side and the other on the west. To the poverty-stricken state of Connecticut railroads offered a chance to export manufactured goods to dis- tant markets, and factories sprung up rapidly in this period, in Hamden particularly upon Mill River. The water power in the river was somewhat increased by the return to it of waters that had formerly been di- verted to the canal.
The first railroad in Connecticut, the Hartford and New Haven, was chartered in 1833, and trains were in operation to Meriden by 1839 and to Hartford the next year. Railroad traffic between New Haven and New York was not opened until 1849.
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