USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1959 > Part 5
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The Colonial Period
In 1766 a committee consisting of John Yale, John Barrett, Timothy Foster, Yale Bishop, Samuel An- drews, Jr., Jonathan Foster, and Jonathan Collins stated that the road through Wallingford to the "Plains so- called," forty feet wide in places, was being encroached upon, and asked that a committee view it.
Protection of grain from destruction by livestock was still an issue, and in 1756 Joel Munson in Mount Car- mel was made the keeper of a pound built by his son. Almost immediately two other pounds were petitioned for by Waite Chatterton in the northwestern part of town and Ezra Dorman in the west.
After the mills and tavern in Mount Carmel had be- come the nucleus for a settlement, the most natural event to follow was a petition to the General Assembly for a distinct parish and church of their own. This was drawn up in May, 1757, and bore the signatures of Daniel Bradley, Samuel Bellamy, Joel Munson, Daniel Sperry, Amos Peck, Jonathan Dickerman, and others.
When the North Haven Parish heard of this petition, they were alarmed and dismayed, and they held a meet- ing in which Captain Samuel Barns was named their agent
to oppose the memorial of the inhabitants of the north- ern part of the New Haven First Society who pray to be made into a distinct parish-in that they are about to include divers families belonging to this society, where- as we were never notified of such doings, nor do we think it best they should be set off.
In spite of Captain Barns's best efforts, the petition was granted in October, and the Mount Carmel Ecclesiasti- cal Society was established, with "all the powers, privi- leges, and immunities" to which it was entitled. Its
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boundaries were defined to include the territory from the border of Cheshire to nearly a mile below the pres- ent village of Centerville.
In those days the General Assembly would not give incorporation papers to a church, but Ecclesiastical So- cieties were considered more firmly organized and entitled to such consideration. Grants to these societies gave them the privilege of holding property, and of raising money by taxation to cover the expenses of the parish. They were required to maintain schools, and the voting privilege in the Society was given only to mem- bers.
North Haven was soon disturbed in spirit again, for the Mount Carmel Society felt the need of more terri- tory, and once more a petition was presented to the Gen- eral Assembly, asking for an enlargement on the north- east border. The North Haven group indignantly voted
that they were unwilling to part with one inch of land that does now or did belong to the Society, and being cited by the inhabitants of Mt. Carmel to appear at the General Assembly if they saw cause, to object against their having their request granted, in the memorial they are sending to the Assembly. This Society, looking upon it as highly unreasonable that they should have such request granted, have by vote chosen Ensign Dan Ives their agent to oppose them in the matter of said memorial, to the last extremity, at the General Assem- bly now held at Hartford.
Ensign Ives did so vigorously oppose "to the last ex- tremity" at the hearing that the Mount Carmel Society's petition for more territory was denied.
When Reverend Benjamin Trumbull, D.D., famous author of the Complete History of Connecticut, Civil
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and Ecclesiastical, preached his century sermon at North Haven in 1801, he said that some time before his ordi- nation (1760) Mount Carmel was made a different parish, and that between twenty and thirty families were by them taken off from the North Haven Society; and that about eighteen members of the North Haven church had by mutual consent been embodied with the Mount Carmel Society. Dr. Trumbull went on to tell his remarkable record of service:
I was ordained to the pastoral office by the Consocia- tion of the pastors and churches of the whole county, Dec. 24, 1760. Through help obtained from God, I continue to this time. I am now entering upon the 4Ist year of my ministry. My locks have whitened and my eyes grown dim in your service; but during this long period, through the wonderful patience and goodness of the great Father of mercies, I have never been un- able to perform the public worship on both parts of the day, but in one single instance. I have been able to meet you at every lecture, at every funeral, and upon all occasions in which my ministerial service has been required. Within a little less than a century, you have had three ministers, two of whom have served you about 75 years.
In the olden days, a minister when called to a church and settled there, expected to remain for life.
The Mount Carmel Ecclesiastical Society met for the first time on January 31, 1758, and the next meeting was held at the ever-popular home of Samuel Bellamy. Subsequent meetings were "warned" by written notice on the meetinghouse and on taverns at either end of the parish, as well as the beating of a drum on the ap- pointed day. The committee on the subject of schools- Waite Chatterton, Jonathan Ives, and Samuel Atwater
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The History of Hamden
-arranged for classes to be held for the instruction of children at the Bellamy home-an arrangement which was followed for twelve years thereafter, until the first schoolhouse was built under a sycamore tree beside the church, in 1770, the building some time later (1819) being moved "to the brow of the hill" across the street.
By 1774, three school districts had been laid out: "North" was from the north end of the parish, south on "Chesher" Road to brook between Basel Mun- son's and Kimberly's, and westwardly to Bethany, including Deacon Amos Peck's.
"Middle" was from the south line of the above, south on Chesher Road to Hezikiah Bassett's, then west to highway south of Jonathan Dickerman's to Beth- any.
"South" was the remainder of the parish. In 1776, "Southwest" was from the "Brethren" so-called, west to the bounds of the Society, north by highway to top of hill west of Isaac Hitchcock, north of Enos Tut- tle's.
The meetinghouse, fifty-five by forty feet, was fin- ished in 1761. It had square pews, called "dignified seats," and a massive sounding board. In a Society meet- ing it was voted "to build a tarit [turret] to the meet- inghouse, provided particular men appear to get the timber frame, and finish said tarit by free donation." There were Sabba-day houses near-by, in which families refreshed and warmed themselves between services, for the church was not warmed with stoves until 1830. Although footwarmers were in some use,
personal ease in religion was an equation never to be worked out by our ancestors . . . While the town meeting, the Society meeting, the militia drill, and the ballot box brought each its sometimes indecorous fol-
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The Colonial Period
1
lowers there,-yet these were deemed no invasion of the Almighty's rights; but when it was once broached in Dr. Trumbull's church that a chimney and fireplace be constructed, the horrified worshippers arose and would have thrust the thoughtless suggestor headlong from among them .*
Every able-bodied member of the family attended church services on Sunday as the great duty of the week. In snow and zero cold, usually on foot and often stum- bling through deep drifts from long distances, into the icy temperature of the never-heated meetinghouse came these devout people who cheerfully braved such hard- ships to sit in physical discomfort while they warmed their spirits with the Word of God.
Before any musical instrument was used in the church services, it was the custom to repeat after a chosen lead- er one line at a time of the psalms or sacred tunes. In 1767, Sergeant Stephen Goodyear and Alvin Bradley were chosen to assist Captain Ives in what was called "setting the psalm." Later on, musical instruments were used-the fiddle, and the single or double bass viol. Choir singers were used, and the Society voted that "they would sing by rule and that ther Corristers shud proceed as they have done for some time past." A committee selected the tunes to be used. All the sa- cred music that church goers knew were a few crude versions of the psalms, five or six of them at best.
Two unsuccessful efforts were made in the next two years to settle a minister in Mount Carmel. There was much heart-burning and wrangling as to the proper way to organize the church. The first candidate who was
* North Haven Annals.
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The History of Hamden
invited to settle as minister was Stephen Hawley; but a violent disagreement occurred among the church mem- bers as to whether the minister should be ordained by a Council of their own choosing, or by action of the Con- sociation .* The Mount Carmel people had seen un- happy disruptions over this question before, and because some of them had been members of the Whitehaven Church in New Haven (now United Church), and some of the First Church, which were not in accord on this subject, it was natural to find discord in the Mount Carmel group. They saw, too, the troubles of neigh- boring churches. In North Haven Reverend Isaac Stiles, who had served as minister for many years, was in his old age engaged in a law suit against his congrega- tion; and in Wallingford, Reverend James Dana was ordained by a Council, a service which was condemned and denounced by the Consociation, which went so far as to publish sentence of noncommunion against the of- fending church. In the meantime, Mr. Hawley was called to another church, so candidating was once more begun, and Jesse Ives was found acceptable and was in- vited to stay. But the Consociation would not give their approval until charges against Mr. Ives for "equivoca- tion and want of seriousness" had been investigated. In spite of the resulting suspension of his license to preach, the Mount Carmel group still wanted him, but he de- clined their offer.
Although Hawley and Ives did not gain the position which they wished when they came to Mount Carmel, they remained long enough under the hospitable Bel-
* The Consociation was composed of an organized group of dele- gates from a number of churches, who followed the laws prescribed by the Saybrook Platform.
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The Colonial Period
lamy roof to find a wife, each choosing a Bellamy daughter.
In January of 1764 the Mount Carmel group were recognized as a church by their distinguished neigh- bors, Reverend Samuel Hall of Cheshire, and Reverend Benjamin Trumbull of North Haven.
After ten years of listening to candidating preachers, Reverend Nathaniel Sherman (younger brother of the statesman, Roger Sherman) received a hearty call to become the pastor and was installed in 1768. But after two years of his pastorate there was serious disaffection, and the Consociation voted his dismissal. Mr. Sherman protested that he had built a house and made all other plans with the expectation of spending his life in the parish. He carried his case to court, and to the General Assembly also, over a period of several years without success, and after six years he moved away. But at last in 1781, due to his loyal support of the colonial cause, the General Assembly belatedly granted the demands of his petition, and an indemnity was paid. The house which Nathaniel Sherman built, standing just south of the church, is today one of the oldest houses in the town. Mr. Sherman was three years in building it, the lumber, brick, and nails being brought from Boston; and he en- joyed living in it for only a few short years.
GOVERNMENT
Because a parish was the beginning of so many towns, the fundamental influence of the church on the eventual town government was clearly marked throughout New England. This influence was much stronger in New Haven than elsewhere in Connecticut. New Haven
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The History of Hamden
bequeathed to her children extremely high ideals, which emanated from the meetinghouse. In England, many communities gained the name of "city" because they possessed a cathedral, and in much the same way the New England meetinghouse was the first requisite for a community to become a town. The name meeting- house, so commonly used instead of church, suggests its double purpose as a place to draw men together in their civil as well as their religious life; and also that their relation to their fellowmen was as sacred as their touch with God.
New England town government can trace a relation- ship back to the fourteenth century English parishes. In the middle ages the feudal system, in which the lords completely controlled the serfs, was breaking up. As new communities developed, they lacked any estab- lished government, although they did have an estab- lished church (then the Catholic church) which collected tythes; thus, when England began to pass poor laws, the most logical administrators in each locality were the vestrymen who were already collecting tythes.
Since the vestry meetings were composed of mem- bers of the church in good standing, the group began to acquire more and more secular duties, until in time they actually became the local government. (The par- ish is still the smallest governmental group in England -not the town.)
When the English came to New England, they were familiar with the parish system, they were brought up on it-so they merely modified their previous expe- rience to the New World situation, their church now being Puritan instead of Catholic. It was consistent with their background to require in early Massachusetts
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The Colonial Period 67
and Connecticut that membership in the church be a prerequisite to the franchise.
Because we of Hamden are offspring of New Haven, we should bear in mind the distinct differences between the eleven Fundamental Orders of the Connecticut Col- ony (Hartford) accepted in January, 1639, and the six evolved a few months later in New Haven.
In Hartford, after Reverend Thomas Hooker's fa- mous sermon on May 31, 1638, in which he expressed the governmentally revolutionary belief that the true authority for a government is the free consent of the people, Roger Ludlow, the chief legal adviser of the Colony, framed a code of laws which were adopted January 14, 1639. They represent the first example in all history of a written constitution, and they became the model for all constitutions subsequently adopted in the United States and abroad. The five most important principles were these:
All the authority of government comes directly from the people.
There shall be no taxation without representation.
The number of men chosen by the towns to make the laws shall be determined by population.
All freemen who take an oath to be faithful to the state shall have the right to vote.
New towns might join the three original towns- Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor-and have the same government.
Five months later, June 4, 1639, the New Haven set- tlers met to lay the foundations of their government. They decided in favor of government by the few, while Connecticut Colony had made the choice of gov- ernment by the majority. In New Haven, only church
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The History of Hamden
members could be citizens or hold office. So it was the church which came first and organized the civil gov- ernment.
The chief differences were that Connecticut Colony provided for practically universal suffrage, while New Haven restricted the ballot to church members. In one, church and state were separated; in the other they were practically identical. The source of authority at Hart- ford was the people, and in New Haven, the Scriptures. Connecticut Colony was a democracy, and New Haven an aristocracy.
After Connecticut Colony drew up in 1650 the "body of laws for the government of the commonwealth," New Haven, five years later, brought out the quite dif- ferent code, the Blue Laws.
It is easy to understand how painful to New Haven Colony was the necessity of becoming a part of Con- necticut, in 1662. The immediate occasion was the Con- necticut Charter, obtained by Governor John Winthrop, Jr., from King Charles II, a document which swept away New Haven Colony and included her in a strip, as wide as Connecticut is now, and extending from Narragansett River to the Pacific Ocean. The Charter granted the Colony the qualified right to govern itself. The people might make their own laws, select their own officers, punish, pardon, and mete out justice, without appeal to England. They really were independent in all but name. No king had ever given a more demo- cratic charter.
The northern part of Pennsylvania came within the bounds of the territory granted to Connecticut, but un- fortunately William Penn soon secured a conflicting claim upon it. When Connecticut people in considerable
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The Colonial Period
numbers moved upon the land on the Susquehanna River, never before occupied, their right to be there was violently disputed by the Pennsylvania people, and the struggle for possession was called "the Pennanite War." With characteristic determination, some six thousand Connecticut people set up Westmoreland County, and held elections and town meetings, observed the laws of Connecticut, and sent representatives to the legislature which met in Hartford and New Haven. The Twenty- Fourth Connecticut Regiment in the Continental Army came from this region, and it was during their absence from home that the Indians destroyed the settlement.
By 1762, all the land in Connecticut had been allotted to the towns. The roads called "Kingshighways" that connected the towns and carried trade and travelers be- tween the large centers were uniformly bad. Much bet- ter care was taken of roads within the towns, branching out from the church and from the mill to the commons and home lots. At New Haven center no room had been left for the children of the original settlers or for newcomers, when they should want land. They had to go into the outskirts of the town to settle.
England attempted to monopolize all the trade for her own merchants, and therefore deliberately discour- aged trade between colonies. This caused each little town or village to depend almost entirely upon what it could produce for itself. They were so nearly self-sup- porting that the people did not wish to go elsewhere, and they would not support the main highways. Like- wise, they had little interest in the coming of travelers, and were not hospitable to outsiders. They even prac- ticed the old custom of "warning out" undesirables who came to them without invitation.
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Gradually there grew up in Connecticut a resentment against the use of English goods. In 1763, the English authorities made a resolute effort to prevent the illicit trade with the West Indies which was being carried on by the Colonies. A New Haven town meeting took determined action on receipt of a letter from Boston urging agreement on "some measures for promoting economy":
That it is their opinion that it is expedient for the town to take all prudent and legal measures to encour- age the produce and manufactures of this colony, and to lessen the use of superfluities, and more especially the following articles imported from abroad: Car- riages of all sorts, men's and women's hats, shoes, and ready made apparel, household furniture, sole leather, gold and silver buttons; gold, silver and thread, lace, wrought plate; diamond, stone and paste ware, clocks, silversmith's and Jeweler's ware, house furniture, broadcloths that cost above 10 s. sterling per yard, muffs, furs and tippets, starch, gauze, women's and children's toys, silk and cotton velvets, linseed oil, malt liquors and cheese; and that a subscription be recom- mended to the several inhabitants and householders of the town, whereby they may mutually agree and en- gage that they will encourage the use and consumption of articles manufactured in the British American Col- onies, and more especially in this Colony, and that they will not, after March 31 next, purchase any of the above-enumerated articles imported from abroad, and that they will be careful to promote the saving of linen rags and other materials proper for making paper in this Colony.
Nearly everything was made by hand at this time. Machinery was as yet almost unknown in the productive arts. The early colonists included in their number arti- sans of most of the manual trades followed in Eng-
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The Colonial Period
land at the time that the Colony was established. But England actively discouraged all Colonial attempts to develop trades that were competitive with hers.
DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS BY 1766
For all their absorbing interest in religion in this period, the colonists never neglected the schooling of children. In the early days of the Colony, the church made itself responsible for both religious and secular instruction of children, and taxed the parents to pay for it. In 1658, when the villages of East Haven and Fair Haven were founded, John Davenport had remarked that there would be officers to maintain order and some to teach the children, and the 1676 Colony records show that men were appointed "to mack surch throughout the town whether children are educated according to law," and "to see yt children and servants are brought up to read and be taught in the principles of religion." In 1679 the townsmen named Abraham Dickerman and William Bradley as responsible for doing this work. Schoolhouses were invariably built in the shadow of a church and would never have come into being in the Colony had it not been for the influence of the church, which throughout New England's history has sponsored innumerable educational institutions.
In 1700, the Colonial Assembly provided for consta- bles in each town to collect a special school tax, but in 171 I provision was made for payment from the Colo- nial Treasury to the towns for such purposes.
In 1766 the district system of school administration was established for Connecticut by the General Assem- bly.
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The History of Hamden
Each town and each society shall have full power and authority to divide themselves into proper and neces- sary districts for keeping their schools, and to alter and regulate the same from time to time as they shall [have] occasion, which districts, so made, shall draw their equal portions of said monies, as well as all other public monies, for the support of schools belonging to such respective town or societies according to the list of each respective district therein.
MILITARY AFFAIRS
The historian George Bancroft once said: "He that would understand the political character of New Eng- land must study the constitution of its towns, its schools, and its militia." New Haven and Hamden are so typi- cal in these regards that it is well to know the salient points in each of these spheres.
The history of the militia begins with the order of November 25, 1639, applying to all males from six- teen to sixty, if not exempted by office in state or church,
that everyone that bears arms shall be completely fur- nished with arms-viz: a musket, a sword, bando- leers, a rest, a pound of powder, 20 bullets fitted to their musket, or 4 pounds of pistol shot or swan shot at least, and be ready to show them in the marketplace . before Captain Turner, under penalty of 20 shillings fine for default or absence.
Such general training as was ordered was at first intend- ed to be monthly drills and a viewing of armor on every other month, and weekly exercises performed by squad- rons in rotation. This schedule was not strictly kept, general training occurring once in several months, a strict view once a quarter, and squadron training in alternating months.
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The Colonial Period
The Sunday watch in and around the meetinghouse was the responsibility of the militia. Squadrons of the training band took turns at this duty, and their seats in the meetinghouse were conveniently located at the rear. The guardsmen wore their brown homespun, knee breeches, and long woolen stockings, with powder horn and bullet pouch slung over their shoulders and matchlock musket in hand, ready to repel attacks of the Indians. Every man who was not a militiaman was obliged to carry his sword to meeting.
The Wars with France early in the eighteenth cen- tury increased the importance of the militia. Joseph Cooper was named an ensign in charge of "the com- pany or train band att the North Parrish of the town of Newhaven" in May, 1733, "in the sixth year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord George the Second, King of Great Britain"; the commission was signed by "Jos- eph Tallcott, Esq. Governour and Commander-in- Chief of His Majesty's Colony of Connecticut in New England." Thomas Wilmot was confirmed lieutenant in the Sixth Company Train Band in New Haven in I727.
On June 25, 1747, Captain Caleb Alling of the Sec- ond Company of the Second Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, ordered the clark* of the Company, Caleb Hotchkiss, to impress eight men for service at Sheffield and Stockbridge. These eight seem to have been selected: Asa Alling, Jonah Attwater, Matthew Gil- bert, Jr., Ezekiel Hotchkiss, Daniel Lash, Jabez Mun- son, Daniel Alling, and Joseph Woodin. These six appear to have been alternates: Joseph Munson, Isaac
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