USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Harwinton > The history of Harwinton, Connecticut > Part 4
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For, exhibiting a proper self-reliance along with a right trust in God; an open-handed, true-hearted farmer, well-informed, re- flective; having more fully than most men have a sound mind in a sound body ; living amid his early companions, among his kindred, in his own house, on the spot selected by him out of his own fields which furnish, with other supplies for himself and for his household, "food enough and to spare;" not hampered with such debts as fasten upon and break down other men; not undergoing conflicts with sharp temptation, or else coming out
*See, in Appendix, Note V.
+See, in Appendix, Note W.
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of them the victor; aloof from vicious dispositions ; apart from social destroyers of social peace, from · cabals, entanglements, tyrannies ; aiming to " work righteousness " towards himself, his fellow men, his God; in readiness to meet the demands of justice, of charity, of religion; gratifying, so far as any one may, his desires; satisfying, if any one can, his wants; how much, while such things are his, does he fall short of possessing all that he needs ?*
Although a few of the later inhabitants of Harwinton have, to some ex- tent, engaged in manufactures, t and although others, especially of late, have, to a greater extent, engaged in trade ;} yet the prevalent occupa- tion of our citizens has always been agriculture. For the sake of this dominant interest, and as confirmatory of suggestions above given, are added some remarks of one who, on such subjects, speaks with an au- thority to which the present writer has no claim. Having mentioned, as the general fault of farming in New England, "an imperfect, slight, and feeble tillage of too much land," he adds: "It might, in a measure, be remedied. If much greater attention were paid to the cultivation of various species of grass, and to the rearing of stock, far less labor would be requisite to tillage; while at the same time the farmer's revenue would be increased, and a smaller portion of his ploughing lands, being put into a much higher state of cultivation, would yield him a much greater quan- tity of grain. Where he now obtains 200 bushels of grain from 20 acres, he might then obtain the same quantity from 5 acres." -- Now, if "the liberal soul shall be made fat;" so should be, a liberal soil. At least, however much a soil gives or may have given, who, if meanwhile there was liberally supplied to it that which nature provides for its fattening, ever found it growing lean ?
THEIR SCHOOL PROVISIONS.
In regard to the education of youth, there was active, among our early inhabitants, a spirit not unlike that of the first coloni- zers of New England. Our fathers, as was previously mention- ed, were the posterity of those emigrants from England by
*Agricultural have, like other pursuits, their comparative evils. But, though he says it who is neither a farmer nor a farmer's son, the balance of advantage in- clines manifestly on the farmer's side. The degree of relative economical indepen- dence usually attainable by persons of that occupation, ought to make envy in their minds impossible. When they ' dance attendance on the great,' so called, their deg- radation is alike more pitiable and more condemnable than is that of such 'flun- kies ' and 'snobs' as never saw a plough.
+See, in Appendix, Note X.
¿See, in Appendix, Note W.
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whom, after they had lived for a short time in certain of the oldest towns of Massachusetts, the oldest towns in Connecticut were founded .* The founders of these towns in said States were well-instructed, intelligent men, and so, in both instances, " their settlement in the wilderness was not a lodgment of nom- ade tribes, a mere resting-place of roaming savages. It was the beginning of a permanent community, the fixed residence of cultivated men. Not only was English literature read, but Eng- lish, good English, was spoken and written, before the axe had made way to let in the sun upon the habitations and fields of the settlers". +
In Massachusetts, begun in 1620, the General Court, so early as 1642, enacted a law declaring :
For as much as the good education of children is of singular behoof and benefit to any commonwealth; [it is ordered, ] that the selectmen of every town, in the several precincts and quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices, so much learning, as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the capital laws. [Also,] that all masters of families do once a week (at the least) catechise their children and servants in the grounds and principles of religion.
In May, 1647, was passed a general law requiring of every township within the jurisdiction, consisting of fifty householders : . .. to appoint, forthwith, a teacher of all such children who should re-
*Referring to these "first planters of Connecticut" so as to set their American abodes in contrast with their "illustrious characters," Dr. Trumbull says: They " twice made settlements .... on bare creation."
+Address delivered at the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843, by Daniel Webster. To the statement above quoted Mr. Webster added: " And whatever may be said to the contrary, a correct use of the English language is, at this day, more general throughout the United States than it is throughout England herself."
A corruption of the language in Western Connecticut, New Haven not excluded, seems of late to be extending; viz., a misuse adverbially of the word 'good,' as in the following phrases : 'It sets good ;' 'It fits good;' 'It eats good [, tastes well];' 'He runs good,' 'writes good,' 'pays good,' ' sings good,' etc. In fact, the adverbs ' well' and 'ill' are nearly supplanted by 'good' and 'bad,' as misapplied in the ordinary conversation of not few persons who, in other respects, converse correctly.
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sort to him, to write and read, [said teacher] to be paid either by the parents or masters of such children or by the town. And farther, that every town consisting of one hundred families or householders should set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university [, to wit, Harvard College, established in 1636].
Citing that statute, John Quincy Adams once said :* "And listen to the beautiful,-may I not say, sublime,-preamble to this law, declaring the motive and purpose of its enactment:"
It being one chief project of Satan to keep man from the knowledge of the Scripture, as in former times keeping them in unknown tongues, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of deceivers ; to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our fore-fathers, in Church and Com- monwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors. It is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof, etc.
In Connecticut, begun in 1634, the General Court, exhibiting the same zeal, passed, as early as 1650, laws the same in effect and assigning the same motives as above assigned; in fact copy- ing, for this matter, the laws of her mother State nearly ver- batim.+ As there was, however, no College at that time in Con- necticut, we find a provisot which declares:
The proposition concerning the maintenance of Schollars at [Harvard College in] Cambridge, made by the Comissioners, is confirmed. And it is ordered, that two men shall be appointed in euery Towne, within this Jurissdiction, whoe shall demaund what euery familye will giue, and the same to bee gathered and brought into some roome, in March, and this to continue yearly as it shall bee considered by the Comissioners.
In the spirit which led to the above-quoted declarations and enactments, the General Court of this Colony, after Yale College had been established, made to it various grants of land, and es- pecially a grant in each (unless Salisbury be excepted}) of the new townships into which was divided the moiety of "the Western lands " received by the Colony as its portion, on the termina- tion of the controversy it had, respecting them, with the Towns
*In A Discourse on Education, delivered at Braintree, [Ms.,] Thursday, Oct. 24, 1839.
+See in Trumbull's Colonial Records, I. 520, 521, 554, 555.
#Hon. Samuel Church's Centennial Address at Salisbury, 20 Sept., 1841.
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of Hartford and Windsor. In the same spirit, also, the General Court, designing to extend aid to humbler institutions, reserved in each of said townships, when offering these for sale, one of the twenty-five lots into which each of said townships was sub- divided, to be applied to the support of schools that should be in each of these established; and it also, by an act passed in 1733, directed that the proceeds arising from the sale of all those townships should be distributed to the several Towns then ex- isting in the Colony, to be by those applied in supporting schools :
Viz, those schools that ought to be kept in those towns that are now settled, and that did make and compute lists of their polls, and ratable estate in the year last past, and such towns shall receive said money, every town according to the proportion of said list, and each parish to receive in proportion according to their own list given in as aforesaid the last year; all which money shall be let out, and the interest thereof im- proved for the support of the respective schools aforesaid forever and to no other use .*
While the rights reserved for supporting schools were, in some of the new Towns within the then " Western lands," made quite serviceable to that end; the chief benefit accruing from the Legis- lature appropriating the proceeds of sale of other rights in those Towns, to the support of schools in the older Towns, seems to have been, that it suggested or prepared the way for that Body, at a later period, to originate,-from the funds procured to the State by her cession, to the United States, of what were more truly "Western " lands,-that liberal "School Fund " by which, since 1796, the Common Schools of Connecticut have been, al- most exclusively of other means, maintained.
What our fathers, in whose township there had been no right reserved for supporting schools, and for whose children no funds from any source had been appropriated by the Colony, were in the penury of their early condition enabled and inclined to ac- complish for that end; the following extracts from their records will show.
20 Jan., 1741-2. Uoted: that : wee will : haue schooling sum part of the year
Uoted that theire be three : pence upon the pound Leued upon the Grand List in order to Maintain a School in the town
*Quoted in the History of Waterbury, Connecticut, by Henry Bronson, M. D.
..
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Uoted that Jacob Benten and Jonathan Hopkins and Nathan Davis Be a Commity in order to provide a Sofisiant School master and mistress for the year insuing in the town
Uoted that the School for the Instructing the youth to Right And Read for two months this year Be att the Dweling House of Jsarael Merimon.
Uoted that the Rest of the Mony Be Left to the Discresion of the Commity to Lay out upon School Dames-
9 June, 1743. Voted that any parson or parsons Joyning to gether to Build a School house in the town of Harwinton shall have Liberty to Build a Schoolhouse Sumwhere Neer the Meeting Hous upon there one cost.
Uoted that Jsrael Merrimon and Daniel Bartholomew Be a Commity to Determin the place whare the School House Shall Stand
13 Jan., 1745-6. it was Voted that there Shold be a School house built in Sum Cenvenient place near the meeting house in Said Town
17 Feb., 1745-6. it is now Voted that ye above Said School house Shold butt Sumwhar neare ye South East corner of ye Rd: Mr: Andrew Bartholomew yt Lyeth West of ye meeting house* or near there as ye Comiitis descresion Shall Lad them
Voted that ye above menshoned School house Shall be Eighteen feet in length & Sixteen feet in Wedth one Story high
Voted that De: " Jacob Benton & Daniel Bartholomew & Jonathan Butler Shall be a Commity to order & See to ye building & finishing of ye above Said Schoolhouse
it was Voted that all ye boards & Timber & Stone that was Left in finishing of ye Loar part of ye meeting house Shall be made Use of So fare as it will Go for the benifit of the above Said School house in any Use as sd Commity Shall See fit about sd house
15 Dec., 1747. this meeting [, begun at the Meeting-House,] is aiorned to the School house in ye above Said town
this meeting being opned at said School house they proseded uiz- Uoted that Amaziah Ashman Shall be a town Inhabitant in this Town.
Uoted that there Shall be a Rate Leued on poles and Ratabel Estats in this town of Seventy pounds money of the old tener to Defray the Charge of Building the Schoolhouse in this town in this year
Uoted that there Shell Be Twenty pounds in money of the old tenor Leued on poles and Ratabele Estats in this town in order to maintaining of a Schoole a mongst in this town in the year Insuing
Uoted that De Jacob Benton & daniel Bartholomew & Samuel Phelps Shall be a Commitus to Recceve and pay out the above Said money for Schooling as there Disscreshon Shall Lead them for the Best advantage for Enducating yuth amonst us in this town for the year Jnsuing.
13 Dec., 1748. Uoted that there Shall be Eighty pounds in money of the old tenon Leved on pols and Ratabel Estats in this town in order to Cary [on] Schooling in this town the one half of it is to be improued to hire a School master as fare as it Shall Go in this town for the year
*The premises indicated are those now owned by Mr. Lewis Catlin, Jr.
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insuing and the other half is to be improued to hire School danes in this town for ye year Insuing
Uoted that de Jacob Benton and and Samuel Phelps and Daniel Bar- tholomew and Daniel Phelps and Capt Daniel Messenger Shall be a Committee to order and a point a School master and School mistrises in this town in the year insuing and to Receive in and pay out the above Sum of money for the use aforesaid according to there Discresion for the Larning of the youth a mongst us to w[r]ight and Reade
3 Dec., 1750. Voted that there be Sixty pounds leved for the hiring a School master to teach Children to Read & write Cypher the one half to be Raised by the town and the other half to be by the parents or mas- ters of the Children that thay Send to Said School
Voted that there Shall be Forty pounds Raysd for the hiring of two women to teach Children to Read the Schools to be kept the one East Side of the town at Such Place as the Committee that Shall be Chosen Shall a point; to be Raised one half by the town the other half by the parents and masters of the Children that thay send according to the number they send
Voted that Ebenezer Hopkins Isaac Bull and Abijah Catling Shall be a Commitee to order the prudentals of the of the Schools in hiring a School master and School mistrises and disposing the money that was Voted for School according to the true intent for what it was Granted
3 Dec., 1751. Voted that there Shall be one hundred pounds in money of the old tenor Raised in this Town for Schooling of Children in order to teach them to writ and Read the one half of sd money to be Raised on the Ratetabel Estate of the inhabitants and the other half to be-Raised upon the poles of Such Children as Shall be Sent [to] School the above money to be divided upon the List on Each Side of the town and Improved as the Commitee that Shall Be Chosen Shall order the same in one Shool or more and to apoint the places to keep the Schools and git school masters for ye same
Voted that Ebenezer Hopkins and Abijah Catling and Lt Aaron Cook and Israel Merriman and David Hayden and decon Daniel Phelps Shall be a Committee] to apoint the Places for the Schools and dispose of the School money for the Use for which it is voted for
20 Dec., 1752. Voted that we will have a School in this town for the year Insuing to wit one month on the East Side of the town and one month at the School house in this town & one month on the West Side the Town
Voted that their Shall be 60 -08: 00 in money of the old tenor Leived on the one half of it Leived on the Ratable Estate in this Town and the other half of the sd money to be Leived on the poles of Such as Go to School in order to maintain a school among us
Voted that Cyprian Webster & Samuel Phelps & Der Jacob Benton Shall be a Commetee to apoint places for Said School and to hire a School master for said School
18 Sept., 1753. Voted that their Shall be Seventy Pounds money Levied on the poles & Ratable Estates of the Inhabitants of this Town to Defray the Charges of the meeting house and of the Schooling that
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we have had Done allready in this Town this year & pay for a Cloth to Cover the Ded that is allready provided in this town
To the above extracts from the Town Book I., should be add- ed, as follows, from the Records of "the west propriaters of har- winton :"
20 March, 1753. voted that the proprietors will dispose of the un- devided Land the interest of Sd money to Support a School in the west propriety of Harwinton*
These arrangements,-at first one school, in the Center of the Town; afterwards, either two schools, the one on the East- erly, the other on the Westerly part of the Town, or three schools, one in each of those localities,-were found adequate until 1766, when, the population of the township being between 800 and 1000 persons, there were made for School purposes ten Districts. To a good degree the Schools answered their design. The funds, needful to meet the expense of sustaining them, were provided freely. So much as, in 1750, £60, and, in 1751, £100, devoted here to educational purposes, though one should recol- lect that there was then the evil of a depreciated currency, may, in view of the small number of the householders then, the new condition of the settlement, and the fact that the first house of worship was scarcely finished then, be pronounced a liberality, regarding education, which can be remembered with quite as much of admiration for our fathers, as of complacency toward ourselves.t
*In the Records of the "Proprietors of East Harwinton," the latest mention no- ticed of "undevided lands" is under date of 1746, at which time "deck [Deac.] thomas richards " was allowed to "make his pitch" of them.
The last entry made in the Records of the "Proprietors of East Harwinton " is, under date of 6 March, 1769, in these words:
ajurned to the first munday of march next
The last entry made in the Records of the "Proprietors of West Harwinton" is, under date of 14 April, 1757 [,1769?], in these words:
Voted that this meeting be adjorned to the first munday of march 1770
The Records of these Proprietors, kept first at Hartford and Windsor respective- ly, at which places the first meetings of said persons were held, were kept, and said meetings were held, in Harwinton, after the organization of the Town.
+See, in Appendix, Note Y.
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THEIR CHURCH BUILDING.
If, as the fact was, the fathers here did well, in regard to edu- cational interests, so, in respect to another vital interest of the community, they approved themselves equally commendable. Not least, among the social wants which earliest drew their at- tention, was the necessity of possessing among themselves a structure in which, they with their children assembling, the so- cial element should have scope afforded to it for application and development and training, as to the highest of human concerns- an edifice appropriated to the public worship of their own great Father, God. For the many years before the building by them made for that purpose was employed, not even a Schoolhouse was ready to serve that end ; for, as may be seen by comparing the dates pertaining to notices which soon will be given, the first Schoolhouse was not erected until long after their 'Meeting- house' was reared. The Church-building, indeed, contributed towards that erection ; the surplus materials of the larger edifice having been applied in the construction of the smaller one. Be- fore their edifice for public worship was sufficiently near com- pletion to allow their meeting in it, they worshipped together in the dwelling-house of one of their number. As they there attended upon the Christian ordinances, we may believe that they there obtained the Christian consolations, while on the fam- ily of that house was meantime descending such blessings as came to Obed-Edom's, when in his dwelling had sojourned " the ark of God." Still, this arrangement could last but temporarily. A building designed expressly for public social worship was their great need. Therefore such an one was, if it were possible, to be reared.
If an enterprise of this nature should at this time be under- taken here, it would require thought, care, prudence, wisdom, patience, forbearance, union of feeling, with various other sorts of good moral qualities kept in exercise, as well as requisite pe- cuniary means. A work involving so many interests and pref- erences which never are easily kept in harmony, is indeed, at all times and among every people, found to be one of a delicacy equal to its magnitude. Our fathers, in prosecuting such a work,
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had to contend with peculiar embarrassments. Besides the grat- ifying various tastes, and the conciliating and reconciling con- flicting interests, in men as they usually are situated, they had to consult not only how to accommodate best the conveniences, but how to remove best the prejudices of persons so recently brought together as not yet to have become assimilated to each other, and with whom the ties which association promotes were yet to be, if they could be, established. The circumstance that they all were, for the present, so busied in providing for the supply of their physical wants by subduing, and as it were training to their use, lands almost wholly uninured to the plough, and this other that, apart from mere ownership of such lands, their wealth yet remained to be created; environed the work with difficulties more than ordinarily trying. We, in our condition which their accomplishment of the undertaking has benefitted, can only by an effort appreciate the troubles that, in accomplishing it, they overcame. The following notices how- ever may, in part, show the difficulties which attended what they achieved.
4 Oct., 1737. The inhabitants of Harwinton presenting, by their Agents, Daniel Messenger, Zechariah Seymour, and Antho- ny Hoskins, a Memorial to the General Court, in which they ask from that Body what they had unsuccessfully sought from it, 13 May, 1736, "authority to embody in church order " and "to be incorporated* as a town," assign as reasons for their request that, "the place being daily increasing, it will be necessary for us not only to have a settled minister," but "also to build us a house " for divine worship.t
20 Dec., 1737, at the first Town Meeting it was
Uoted that the Enhabitents of the town of Harwinton haue uery unanimusly A grieed to Build A Meteing House for Diuine Worship :-
Voted we agree thus that the Meeting House Shall be set in the Sen- ter Line Between the Proprietors of Hartford and windsor Condishond that Windsor Propriators give their Proporshon of land Agreed for the Jncurrigment of our Minnistor and Pay half the Choost boilding the
*Persons inhabiting unincorporated territory, were limited as to political rights. They were protected by the laws, but they had no voice in enacting any law.
+State Archives, "Ecclesiastical" Papers.
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Meeting House and half the : 100: Pound Agreed to giue the Ministor Jn Labour :-*
Subsequent proceedings were had ; as at the several dates be- low may appear.
2 May, 1738. Uoted and unanimusly agreed to APlye our Selues to the Generall Assembly now in there Present Sestions to A fix A Place for the Meeting Hous for the tow town of harwinton to Stand in for diuine worship :-
Uoted that M' daniel Messinger and m' Jsreal Merriman Shall be A Commeete to make APlication to Jenerall assemBly att there Present Sestions to fix de terminet and asartain the Place where A house to Meet in for the Publick worShip of god Shall be Erectted and Built within the Bounds of Harwinton :- *
May, 1738. Daniel Messenger and Israel Merriman, acting as a Committee of the Town of Harwinton, present to the Legis- lature a request, that that Body will appoint a Committee to des- ignate a place for the site of a Meeting-house in Harwinton. The request was granted.}
6 Oct., 1738. The Committee appointed by the Legislature report, that they have located the Meeting-house "where the Litchfield [and Farmington road] crosses the line of east and West proprietors." Petitions of various persons are sent to the Legislature, expressing objections to the location selected, and dissatisfaction with those who had chosen it. The Legislature sustained the action of their Committee .¿ Harwinton takes other measures.
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