USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Harwinton > The history of Harwinton, Connecticut > Part 3
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*History of Western Massachusetts. See herein, at Appendix, Note L.
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bly, were on their 'claims' here, settlers, in 1731 and most proba- bly in the previous year .*
In a Memorial,t bearing date 13 May, 1736, presented to the General Court by Nathan Davis, Daniel Messenger, and George Wyllys, as a Committee of " the inhabitants of Harwinton" ask- ing, through this their Committee, permission to levy an addition- al tax, in order to pay arrearages due to a gentleman who had preached to them, and asking, also, "authority to embody in Church estate, and to be incorporated as a town ;" it is stated that, at that time, the township 'contained one hundred souls, of whom twen- ty-one were heads (masters) of families.' No action, as respecting Church embodiment and Town incorporation, having been taken by the General Court, on that Memorial; another Memorial, t da- ted 4 October, 1737, signed by Anthony Hoskins, Daniel Messen- ger and Zechariah Seymour, as Agents for "the inhabitants of Harwinton," in which said inhabitants, through their said Agents, renew their requests and gain their objects; states that "the place, being daily increasing," then numbered one hundred and sixty-one souls, of whom 'twenty-four were heads (masters) of families.' There are not sufficient data for designating these male heads of families, with absolute certainty as to each of them ; but as nearly as the materials obtained seem to authorize a specification, the twenty-four such persons were :
Samuel Barber, Jacob Benton (,Sen., Dea.), Daniel Bissell (,Jr.), Dan- iel Brown (,Esq.),¿ Thomas Bull, Nathan Davis (,Jr., Lt.), Daniel Gil- let (,2d), Nathaniel Hatch, Amos Hinsdale, Jacob Hinsdale (,Sen., Capt.), Ebenezer Hopkins (,Jr., Sen.), Hezekiah Hopkins, Jonathan Hopkins (, Sen., Ens.), Anthony Hoskins (,Jr.), Noah Loomis (,Sen.), Israel Mer- riman, Daniel Messenger (,Capt.), Nehemiah Messenger, Samuel Mes- senger, Samuel Moodey, Daniel Phelps (,2d, Dea.), Samuel Phelps (, Jr., Sen., Lt.), Cyprian Webster (, Sen., Esq.), Samuel Winchell.
*See, in Appendix, Note M.
+State Archives, "Ecclesiastical" Papers.
#Sandisfield, Ms., "was not permanently settled until 1750. Thomas Brown was the first settler, and, very soon after him, Daniel Brown and others went in from En- field, Conn. Daniel Brown was formerly from some town near Boston. [See here- in, in Appendix, Notes L. and M.] He owned a very considerable part of the town- [ship], and was, for a number of years, the principal business man, holding the im- portant offices, and having almost the entire control of the town."-History of Western Massachusetts. History of the County of Berkshire, Massachusetts.
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In the latter Memorial a statement is made that, at the time when it was dated, there had been fourteen children born within the territory, a circumstance which, as various others do, indi- cates that many of the families then here were youthful ones ; but more noticeable is the fact, seen by comparing together what both Memorials say, as to the whole population here, that, in the interval between the dates of these Memorials, seventeen months wherein only three families were added, the sum total of persons, instead of increasing at the same rate, or becoming, at most, one hundred and fifteen, had increased more than four times as rapidly, and so become one hundred and sixty-one. This fact, accounted for by the supposition that wives of the settlers and young children, not previously here, had at this later period come in, shows that the preparations made for their comfort were now finished; and is thus significant of houses built, barns set up, harvests gathered, stores for the winter laid in, and progress made on every hand.
, As we find it to be with individuals in the formative stage of their life, so we find it to be with Towns in theirs. Other con- ditions being the same, such as are in a healthy state grow rap- idly. In less than three years from the incorporation of Har- winton, it was, as to the number of its men, increased somewhat more than two-fold; and, probably, its matrons, its wives, and mothers and daughters, with its sons still in their youth, had be- come numerous in a similar ratio. Thus, in about ten years after its territory had received its first resident, not an Indian, that is, inclusively from 1730 to 1740 (,in the earlier part of which last-mentioned year, the first Church building within the territory was 'raised'), there were here some fifty adult males, nearly all of them voters. Assuming, what in regard to a few of the individuals is indeed doubtful, that the new settlement had not, as yet, become to them a place too old, so that on this account they had not left it for a newer one; their names, with prefixes and suffixes attached to such as then or afterward bore that sort of blazonry,* were :
*See, in Appendix, Note N.
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Job Alford, (Edmund Austin, ) Samuel Barber, Rev. Andrew Barthol- omew, Dea. Jacob Benton, Sen., Daniel Bissel, Jr., Hezekiah Bissel, Lt. Jonathan Brace, Esq., Daniel Brown, Esq., Isaac Bull, Thomas Bull, Jonathan Butler, Jr., Maj. Abijah Catlin, Sen., Esq., Sergt. Benjamin Catlin, Sen., Jonathan Catlin, Sen., James Cole, John Colt, Lt. Nathan Davis, Jr., Daniel Gillet, 2d, Nathaniel Hatch, Joseph Hayden, William Hayden, Josiah Higley, Amos Hinsdale, Capt. Jacob Hinsdale, Sen., Ebenezer Hopkins, Jr., Sen., Hezekiah Hopkins, Ens. Jonathan Hop- kins, Sen., Stephen Hopkins, Anthony Hoskins, Jr., Parmenor King, Joseph Lawrence, Noah Loomis, Sen., Israel Merriman, Joseph Merri- man, Capt. Daniel Messenger, Nehemiah Messenger, Samuel Messenger, (Capt. Peletiah Mills, Sen., Esq.,) Samuel Moodey, Dea. Daniel Phelps, 2d, Lt. Samuel Phelps, Jr., Sen., Joseph Richards, (William Robinson, ) Zechariah Seymour, Jr., John Stoughton, Ebenezer Tyler, Cyprian Webster, Sen., Esq., Moses Webster, Capt. Dea. John Wilson, Jr., Samuel Winchell, Capt. Hon. George Wyllys.
Among the women who were here in the first decennary, sharing alike the joys and the griefs of their husbands, and so increasing the one and diminishing the other, were Sarah (Catlin) Bartholomew, Mary (Messenger) Brace, Elizabeth (Davis) But- ler, Jemimah Hopkins, Lydia Messenger (,our patriarch's matro- nally 'first mate' or 'second mate', whose place death soon occa- sioned another to fill), Mabel Messenger, and Ruth Phelps. With other women who early were here, "these all, having obtained a good report," are thus duly commemorated. The whole num- ber of persons belonging, in 1740, to Harwinton, was probably some two hundred and twenty-five, or two hundred and thirty .*
WHENCE THEY CAME.
There will elsewhere herein be found stated in what other lo- calities the men whose names have just been mentioned, had lived before their immigration into Harwinton. It may by in- specting that summary be seen that, while a certain part of the immigrants came from other places, the larger proportion came from the two Towns to whose citizens, respectively, the two half- townships had been appropriated. Some of the Proprietors in- deed disposed of their lands here to persons not relatives ; but, generally, the Hartford people came themselves or their sons to
*See, in Appendix, Note B.
+See, in Appendix, Note M.
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their Propriety, "East Harwinton;"* and the Windsor people came themselves or their sons to their Propriety, "West Har- winton."* This was a natural procedure for landholders who were not 'speculators' but 'operators.' In the same manner Farmington, formerly including what now are two or three other Towns, was settled from Hartford; Waterbury, then including what now are several other Towns, was settled from Farming- ton; and Simsbury, then similarly inclusive, was settled from Windsor. A result from the two-fold proprietorship of this ter- ritory was that its eastern moiety became by occupancy, what it by ownership had been, the Hartford-Town portion; and its western moiety became by occupancy, what it by ownership had been, the Windsor-Town portion; of the entirety or com- bined Hartford-Town- Windsor-Town. From the two-fold occu- pancy of this territory, along with the circumstance that the mother towns had been long enough settled to allow variant habits to gain strength, a result was that, though the geographi- cal line between the half-townships was removed, a social line as real was formed which not so readily admitted removal.+
The original population of the Town having, for the most part, the two-fold proximate derivation abovesaid, has, of course, a two-fold remote derivation. It may here be noted where one who would seek for them will find, to the like extent nearly, the English-born ancestors of your American ones. Go through Windsor (,at first named Dorchester), in Connecticut, and through Dorchester, in Massachusetts, over to Dorchester in Dorsetshire, and to Exeter, in Devonshire, England-there is the one greater portion ; then go through Hartford (, at first named Newton), in
*These are the appellations employed in the Proprietors' Books. In one instance is found " Windsor Side." Common parlance has, from the first, said 'the East Side ' and 'the West Side' of Harwinton.
+That effects outlive their causes, is especially true of moral ones. On that point might be found profitable more reflection than truisms ordinarily receive. Some- times, things smaller than those above noted have, unfavorably, a posthumous bearing.
The evil that men do, lives after them ;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
Some undersigned 'influences of the dead' remind one thus of marks left on the finger, for a week or two, from the bite of a dying eel.
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Connecticut, and through Cambridge (,also at first named New- ton), in Massachusetts, over to "Brantree" and Chelmsford, in Essex County, England-there is the other greater portion of your distant ancestry, English men on English soil. Such men, leaving the Towns which they in England had loved, sought to create even better American Towns. Be it ours to show that these, so far as this one is properly a specimen, have proved to be, at least, equally good.
THEIR BEGINNINGS.
Special circumstances lead to special advantages, or in some way they affect and effect special results. Yet some things per- tain similarly to all men; and, to that extent, the lot which our fathers with their parents had in former abodes, our fathers with their children would have in this. Beginning to live; making arrangements the more comfortably to live; working; building; contests,* with victory or defeat; sooner or later, dying; are everywhere.
The earliest marriages registered in Harwinton are those of William Robinson with Elizabeth Lawrence and Edmund Austin with Susannah Lawrence :
William : Roboson was Marreed to Elisabeth lawrence on the : 6 : day of January anno dom 1736 :-
Edmon Austin was Marreed to Susanna Lawrence on the : 6: day of January Anno dom 1736 :-
The earliest birth registered is that of Ruth Phelps :
Ruth Phelps of Harwinton the Daughter of Let Samuel Phelps & Ruth Phelps his wife was Born the Sixth Day of Febuary Anno. Dom- ini 1733
The earliest death registered is that of Dorcas Bissel :
Darcis Bissell of Harwinton the Daughter of Jabez Bissell and Dorcis Bissell his wife Died 29 day of Aprill year 1742
The first dwelling-house here which merited such a name, was erected by Daniel Messenger, in 1731.+ An anomaly then, it gave more than "shadow of good things to come " when the 'log cabins' should have fulfilled their destiny.
*See, in Appendix, Note O.
+See, in Appendix, Note P.
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The first Town Meeting was held, 20 Dec., 1737 .*
Such are the events of a community organized. They mark it, as commencing to gain firmer establishment and, with home- ness, regularity. They attest a mingled experience, of joy and of sorrow, the designed consequence of that succession of inci- dents which, under Providence, comes to every community. The succession, wisely superintended still, has continued, little varying through six score years; all the while marriages, births, life, work, gladness, grief, health, sickness, death-yet, for the most part, death after accomplishing something. That which our predecessors here accomplished is sufficiently evident in what we ourselves here are, what for good we here may be, what we here look upon and possess and enjoy.
THE CHANGE HERE WHICH THEY MADE.
Since "your fathers " first came hither, this region has indeed changed. Perceptible alteration has occurred within less than the quarter of a second centenary which has past since was com- memorated here 'One Hundred Years Ago.'t The prominent features of the territory, it is true, have remained unvaried, holding their sameness, thus far, indelibly. Still unaltered are, especially, these parallel hills, extending through the township from the north to the south, with sides eastwardly and westward- ly rounded, which together,-lying thus along, all one triad,- so much exhibit their general outlines as to suggest, to a mind that is only moderately fanciful, ideas of a huge Titanic melon of some more than Titanic king. Here continue, also, as now being what of yore they were, the outspread valley, the flowing, shimmering brook, the overarching sky. But otherwise, how greatly the scene is transformed. Over this landscape, in the earlier days of men whom some of the eldest among you knew, roved at his will the Indian, in his, at best, poor tawdry attire; or, to relieve for a while his migratory life, he here set up, oc- casionally, his cheerless, uncouth wigwam .; As, seeking prey, §
*See, in Appendix, Note Q.
+See, in Appendix, Note R.
#See, in Appendix, Note S. §See, in Appendix, Note T,
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he traversed a domain which till so lately was his fathers' and his own, through the openings of the primitive forest,-whose tall trees with their rich and dense foliage shed a pensive sweet gloom all around, and amid whose solitude, the silence of it breaking, the woodman's axe seldom rung,-his feathered arrow whizzed sure to its mark; and, perhaps, even thus far up that river which is our township's western boundary, his frail canoe, light and swift as a bird, sped strait, like his arrow, to its desti- nation. So, as we deem, was it then. We are not sorry that it was so, then. But we are glad that here are, now, preferable things. Since the white men succeeded to the red, all for the better has been the resulting transformation. What the territo- ry with its incidents was, Fancy is pleased with. What the ter- ritory with its circumstances is, Reason approves. Civilization has been introduced. Comfort with wealth has supervened. Where were only those wild growths of nature which, however in some sense luxuriant, are comparatively as a " desolate wil- derness," Culture exhibits her nobler harvests. Those who to- day have, on these hill-sides and in these vallies, a home in the midst of fruitful fields, possess what gives ever the highest worth to home, arts, manners, education, science, together with a ra- tional liberty so much the more to be prized, as it, first, is rec- ognized in Constitutions duly ordered and clearly expressed, and, then, secured to us through our intelligent obedience to salutary laws that, in good measure, are both enacted and administered upon that basis-principle, of all right civil and ecclesiastical pol- ity, which is in the New-Testament announced *: GOVERN-
*He is the minister of God TO THEE FOR GOOD; said, Rom. 13: 4, of "the power" or "ruler," that is, any man who, being at the post of command over other men, uses the place for its "ordained" purposes, fulfilling, not violating his trust. This principle has two applications. As to persons under authority, hereon rests the charge given, Rom. 13 : 1, "be subject," i. e., obey the ruler, and hereon rests the necessity stated, Rom. 13: 5, "ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake," i. e., yield not a slave's unwilling external obedience, out of fear of being punished by the human delegate of magistracy, but a freeman's volun- tary and so internal obedience, out of regard to the divine Appointer of magistracy. Hence is authorized an inference,-When the "subject" knows that not his good, but perhaps or certainly the contrary, is the "ruler"s design, then to the "subject" ceases, its foundation being gone, the force of said charge and necessity. From that inference follows another,-The "subject" in the case last put, is at liberty to
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MENTS ARE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE GOVERNED. How would the persons who, some hundred and thirty years since, began, as well "in fear and in much trembling " as with hope, the work of creating in a district then desert such homes as ours, have re- joiced and given thanks, might they but have seen, when finished, the work which they commenced. Those persons were "your fathers". That work is done. Such transformation made in this territory is, to a greater degree than most of us have learned, the result, under God, of their designing minds and laboring hands. Our occasion and our opportunity for rejoicing have come from their success. More yours than theirs is the advantage of so much 'accomplished bliss'. "Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors." Did we, though living in Africa or 'in Greenland, instead of in America, possess such municipal ad- vantages, such civil immunities, such encouragements to indus- trial pursuits, such educational facilities, as we here do to-day rich ly possess; did we there have these unconnected, were the thing possible, with those means of moral improvement which are im- parted by that religion, divinely revealed, to practise which man's conscience is in this land free, as it never has been in other lands; even there would such patrimonial possessions be to us incomparably " a goodly heritage."
THEIR PURSUITS. 1136851
The first comers hither were all agriculturists .* That occu-
take any suitable time and needful measures to displace such hopelessly derelict " ruler," that a faithful one may succeed him. An inference from all the above truths is,-In only such desperate cases should this 'right of revolution' be exer- cised. As to persons in authority, one corollary from the principle is,-Incorrigi- ble rulers stay in place by sufferance. A second is,-To that "Power" whose ' ser- vants' a people's 'masters' are, those 'servants' are accountable. From this arises a third,-With that "One greater than they," these lesser "powers that be" must have a reckoning. By that is suggested yet one other,-These "powers" should be ready to meet that reckoning from which they cannot escape.
*See, in Appendix (, Note Q.), their vote, passed at the first Town Meeting, invi- ting a " smith" to renew his residence with them. Such was, naturally, a very frequent act in the settlement of early New England Towns. Even in Towns be- gun upon the coast it was sometimes necessary ; e. g. at Guilford, "planted " in 1639, "there was not one blacksmith among them ; it was with great cost [that] the town obtained one to live among them."
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pation is one which, though it usually is physically laborious and always needs for insuring success as much mental work as it ever receives, is never injurious to any person. So far is it from being harmful, that man's Creator in a practically emphat- ic manner declared it good. "The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." Gardening is the earliest and the highest style of agricul- ture. "Your fathers " followed in Harwinton that calling which thus the divine Father assigned to the first human father. There remains regarding one of ancient Israel's kings a record that "he loved husbandry." It does his memory honor. Not merely by un- thinking choice of it, not mainly from necessity of doing some- thing, or from the need all men have of "the fruits of the field," are so large a proportion of men everywhere farmers. All ex- perience, Adam's itself, that from his day till Uzziah's, and that from Uzziah's time to ours, has exhibited the advantages which attend this employment. These advantages do not come to view from the fact, ultimate and primary too, that agriculture lies at the basis of other avocations, and is the foundation* of the wealth of nations; they appear, at once, in the farmer's normal- ly relative position. To one who is contented with living a quiet life whose variations themselves are ordinarily uniform ; who wishes for not an hour to be available towards dissipation, but craves leisure to discipline his mental faculties and invigor- ate them, while recruiting his bodily energies through rest from out-of-doors labor ; to one who loves his home, and prefers there- fore an employment that will allow him to remain there; to one who is prepared to be thankful for having the means of a steady and sure income, but who does not seek such a place as is likely to yield him a large fortune, yet is equally liable to make him suddenly penniless; to such a one, the farmer's occupation offers nearly everything that is reasonably desirable. These prefera- ble circumstances attending a farmer's position, every farmer who has natural abilities not falling below the average, with good habits and right principles of action, may ordinarily secure. At least, if with those qualities he have industry and health, he,
*The 'funds', too, as the French use their (identical) term, fonds,
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in the usual course of things, will never lack the grounds of a good hope of being able to preserve these advantageous circum- stances. Of what other employment open to all men can more be said? rather, of what other such can with fairness so much be said ?
THEIR PLACE ADAPTED TO THEIR PURSUITS.
Such 'locations' as "your fathers " here gained were well fit- ted for their design. . Capt. Messenger, first in age and in position among them, might have reminded them, as Moses, first in age and in position among the Hebrews, had reminded that people : " The LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills." If there are not here broad low-lying prai- ries, such as on the Connecticut river invited the emigrants from Massachusetts who founded Hartford, nor such as on the Tunxis attracted the emigrants from Hartford who founded Farmington, nor even 'boggy meadows '* such as below us, on our own Nau- gatuc, drew emigrants from Farmington to establish Waterbury ; so neither are there here such dreary sandy plains, nor such hard-bound sterile places, nor such rough rocky hights, as cer- tain other localities contain. If the territory here is not " a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass [copper],"+ as, respectively, is that of Salisbury in our own county, and of Bristol or Burlington in Hartford county adjoin- ing this ; still is it, as regarding theirs their chieftain told the Jews, " a land which the LORD thy God careth for." Our soil, however some speak of it disparagingly, may be regarded as by no means inferior in quality to that of the most part of New England, which part a gentleman, accurately acquainted with both countries and in other respects competent to judge of the matter, pronounced to be, naturally, quite as productive as the soil per average of England .; Yet, by means of art applied to it, how productive we know England to be, "as a watered gar- den " which she is. While, therefore, the fathers were wise in
*History of Waterbury.
+See, in Appendix, Note U.
#See in Dwight's Travels, I. 214, 215.
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occupying this territory and did their part towards drawing forth its capabilities ; it concerns the heirs of the fathers to show an equal wisdom in carrying onward their sort of work. Let there be by the present occupants of this soil such improvements made as increased experience has suggested, such culture bestowed as with better implements is now cheaper than was the former cul- tivation with poorer ones; thus bringing up its productiveness more nearly toward what the soil is worthy. of and will appre- ciate and repay; then, amid the healthfulness* enjoyed here, with the outlay of labor diminished, and relatively larger returns for it obtained; how enviable would each farmer's condition be- come. How much smaller a proportion of persons born here would then be either necessitated or inclined to wander over re- gions far from the scenes of their youth; and,-the once dear attachments of home broken off, the still needed influences of the home bible and the home sanctuary gone,-to 'stop' (not settle) there in uncertain quest of gain. +The number of dwel- lers in the township, instead of being as now less than it was fifty years since, would be greater. No person would say in dis- content, "What is the cause why the former times were better than these?" All would recognize the present times as the bet- ter ones. Then would be known as fact, the stanza now regard- ed as fancy :
Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound ; Content to breathe his native air On his own ground.
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