USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 57
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was elected Bishop of Connecticut in 1819. Plans were again laid for securing a charter for a college; and they introduced a new element into the religious and political controversies which were then agitating the State. In 1822 cighteen clergymen met at Bishop Brown- ell's residence in New Haven, to consult as to the steps to be taken in the matter. On the 13th day of May, 1823, a numerously signed peti- tion was presented to the legislature ; three days later the act of incor- poration of Washington College passed the lower house ; and it soon
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received the sanction of the upper house and the approval of the gov- ernor. It seems to have been assumed that the new institution would be called Seabury College, -the name which, as has just been said, was frequently given to the academy at Cheshire; but others than Episcopalians had united in the petition, a third of the corporators were not Churchmen, a clause of the charter forbade that any religious test should ever be required of any officer or student,1 and it was felt that prejudice would be disarmed if the college was given the honored name of Washington. The charter was to take effect whenever $30,000 should be subscribed for an endowment; and the institution was to be located in such town within the State as should be selected by the trustees.
The passage of the act of incorporation was received by the citizens of Hartford with great joy, as was testified by the lighting of bonfires and the firing of cannon. Within a year about $50,000 were raised for the new college ; and the citizens of Hart- ford having surpassed those of other towns in the competition in liberality to which they had been invited, - more than three fourths of the sum men- tioned having been contributed by them, -that city was selected as the seat of the institution. An ample and beautiful site of some fourteen acres was secured on an eminence about half a mile west of the State House ; and in June, 1824, two buildings were begun. They were erected of Port- land brown stone, in the Ionic order of architecture, and were afterward known as Seabury Hall and Jarvis Hall. The former, containing the chapel, the library, the cabinet, and other public rooms, was designed by Professor S. F. B. Morse ; the latter, a dormitory block, by Samuel Willard, of Boston, the architect of Bunker Hill Monument. They were ready for DINING-HALL MANTEL-PIECE. occupation in the autumn of 1825.
On the 6th day of May, 1824, Bishop Brownell was elected Presi- dent of the College. In the August following, a Faculty was chosen, consisting of the Rev. George W. Doane (afterward Bishop of New Jersey), Professor of Belles Lettres and Oratory ; Dr. Frederick Hall, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy; Dr. George Sumner, Professor of Botany; and Mr. Horatio Hickok, Professor of Agriculture and Political Economy (probably the first incumbent of a chair of political economy in this country) ; together with Mr. Hector Humphreys
1 The religious test at Yale College, to which strenuous objection had been made by the petitioners for the new institution, was repealed by the corporation, at a special meeting in Hartford, on the day before the petition for Washington College was presented to the General Assembly.
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(afterward President of St. John's College, Maryland) as Tutor. In 1826 Mr. Humphreys was elected the first Professor of the Ancient Languages, and in 1828, the Rev. Horatio Potter (now Bishop of New York) was chosen Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. When they announced the names of the members of the Faculty, the trustees also published the proposed course of instruction, which was conformed to that prescribed by the older colleges of New England for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, no provision being made for any theo- logical or other professional instruction. It was proposed, however, to receive students who might not be prepared to undertake the full course of study for a degree, and to allow them " to pursue such particu-
TRINITY COLLEGE IN 1869.
lar studies as might be suited to their circumstances," and for such length of time as might be desired. This was nearly if not quite a new feature in American college education, and it attracted a consid- erable number of students.
At the opening of the college, Sept. 23, 1824 (when, the buildings not being completed, it was temporarily accommodated with rooms in the city), nine undergraduates were admitted ; before the close of the year the number had increased to twenty-eight; and in 1827-1828 there were eighty-seven students in the institution. The beginning of an excellent library was soon made ; and when the Rev. Dr. S. F. Jarvis, who became connected with the college in 1828, placed his valuable collection of books at the service of the officers and students, it was said that the library was only second in value to that of Harvard Col- lege. Students in science were assisted in their studies by good philo- sophical apparatus, a valuable mineralogical cabinet, and a botanical garden. The war of pamphlets did not cease at once, the special champion of the college in reply to a vigorous opponent's " Considera- tions " being the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel S. Wheaton, who had already shown his interest in the college by making a visit to England to ask for contributions for the supply of the library and of philosophical appa- ratus. The college met with a fair share of prosperity ; yet it is to be remembered that it owed its existence to the generous liberality of a small number of persons. At the end of ten years the whole amount
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of donations was a little more than $100,000, of which $11,500 was the gift of the State ; while the annual income, besides the amount of fees paid by the students, was about $1,500.
An honorary Doctorate in Divinity was conferred in 1826 upon the saintly Alexander Jolly, Bishop of Moray in Scotland; but the first Commencement was held in August, 1827, in the Centre Church, when ten young men received the degree of Bache- lor of Arts.1 On the 4th of June, 1825, the students founded a literary society known as the Athenæum ; and in 1827, nineteen of its members, among whom was the poet Park Benjamin, with- drew to form another society under the name of the Par- thenon. A third literary so- ciety, the Theta Beta Phi, organized in 1828, had but a short life; but the Athenæe- um and the Parthenon con- tinued in active existence till 1870, when they were dis- banded and their libraries merged in that of the college. PRESENTED BY GORDON WBURNHAM The Whately Debating Soci- ety is, however, a " survival " of the Parthenon. In 1832 a Missionary Society was FFDY founded, its first president being George Benton, after- ward a faithful missionary to STATUE OF BISHOP BROWNELL, COLLEGE CAMPUS. Greece ; it is still in active existence. The Alumni or- ganized themselves into an Association on the 3d day of August, 1831.
Bishop Brownell was obliged to give much of his time to the admin- istration of the college ; and though he had great affection for the institution and great interest in academic work, he concurred in the judgment of his Convention that it was desirable that he should devote himself exclusively to the pastoral work of the Diocese. On the 3d day of October, 1831, he resigned the presidency, and on the 18th of December he retired from his duties. Yet, as a member of the corpo- ration and as chancellor, he maintained an active interest in the wel- fare of the college, until his death, in 1865; and when he could no longer be present at its public exercises, the Commencement procession
1 It appears that three Commencements were held in the Centre Church. The new Christ Church was completed in 1829 ; and the Commencements from 1830 to 1860 inclusive were held in it. The Commencement exercises in 1861 were in St. John's Church ; from 1862 to 1867 inclusive, in Allyn Hall; and since 1867, in Roberts's Opera-House.
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would halt at his residence to salute him and receive his salutation. The college is itself his monument ; and the colossal statue which adorns the campus, the gift of a son-in-law, will remind future genera- tions of the debt which it owes to him.
The Rev. Dr. Wheaton was immediately chosen to succeed Bishop Brownell in the presidency of the college. He worked for its interests with the same self-denying zeal which he had shown at the time of its foundation. He made A. S. Hurtow. successful efforts to secure further endowments ; the Hobart Professorship was founded by gifts of $20,000 from indi- viduals and corporations in the State of New York ; the Seabury Pro- fessorship was established, its beginning being from a legacy of Nathan
.MAYER.SC.
VIEW OF PROPOSED BUILDINGS, TRINITY COLLEGE.
Warren, Esq., of Troy; and other sums were liberally contributed. Dr. Wheaton's own gifts to the college were both liberal and judicious ; and they were freely bestowed all through his life and at his death. It was owing to his judgment and taste that the grounds of the college were tastefully laid out, and that such excellent use was made of the natural advantages of its site. In faithful labor, in generous benefac- tions, in noble example, no one has done more for the college than was done by Dr. Wheaton.
On his resignation of the presidency, in 1837, the Rev. Dr. Silas Totten, who had been for four years Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, was chosen to succeed him; and his administra- tion extended over eleven years. He was able to secure considerable
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
additions to the funds of the college, especially for the establishment of scholarships ; and in 1845 to complete the original plans for the buildings by the erection of a second dormitory block, which was called Brownell Hall. In the same year the Connecticut Beta of the Phi Beta Kappa was organized at the college under authority conveyed to Pro- fessor John Brocklesby ; and this society has never failed to do an ex- cellent work in encouraging diligent scholarship and sound learning among the students.
The name of Washington College had never been satisfactory ; and it was probably adopted at the first, as was suggested above, at a time when all kinds of objections were made to the foundation of a new col- lege, chiefly on the ground that it was quite unobjectionable. It does not seem to have been pro- posed at any time to revive the name of Seabury College ; but a name was taken which was associated not only with sound faith, but also (and this seems to have been the chief reason) with sound learning and extended scholarship, es- pecially at the University of Cambridge in England. The Alumni at their meeting in 1844 proposed that a change should be made in the name of the college; and on the 7 8th of May in the following year the corporation voted that it was expedient that the name should be altered to BISHOP SEABURY'S MITRE. Trinity College, and the con- sent of the General Assem- bly of the State was soon obtained. In the same year the trustees, acting under a clause in the original charter, organized a Board of Fellows, to have the superintendence of the course of study and disci- pline ; and the Alumni and other graduates, not being members of the corporation, were organized into the House of Convocation. In 1883 the name of this body, at its own request, was changed to that of the Association of the Alumni.
In August, 1848, Dr. Totten resigned his position as president ; and the announcement of the election of the Rev. Dr. John Williams, a graduate of the college in the class of 1835, was received with great enthusiasm. Dr. Williams, it need not be said, was a man of remarkable natural abilities and rare attainments, well cal- culated for an academic position, and in his presidency he did good service to the college and to the general cause of education. By his efforts, it should also be noted, the library funds were considerably
TRINITY COLLEGE.
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increased. In 1851 Dr. Williams gathered about himself and other learned clergymen in the college a number of young men studying for holy orders ; and this informal theological department led to the foundation of the Berkeley Divinity School, which was chartered in 1854 and located in Middletown. In 1851 Dr. Williams was elected Assist- ant Bishop of Connecticut; and two years later, his episcopal duties increasing, he resigned the presidency of the college.
To him succeeded, in 1853, the Rev. Dr. Daniel R. Goodwin ; in 1860, Dr. Samuel Eliot ; and in 1864, the Rev. Dr. John B. Kerfoot. They were all men of scholarly attainment, who left their mark on the institu- tion ; and though the college felt the depressing effects of the Civil War, hiot. and was weakened in numbers by sending a goodly delegation into the national service, yet it maintained. and advanced its standard of scholarship, and the beneficence of friends made liberal additions to its general funds, besides founding the Scovill Professorship and increasing the endowment of the library. Dr. Kerfoot withdrew from the college on being elected to the Bishopric of Pittsburgh, in January, 1866.
In June, 1867, the Rev. Dr. Abner Jackson, President of Hobart College, a graduate in the class of 1837, was chosen to fill the vacant Of Jackson. place. He was well known in academie life, and brought a ripe experience to his work. Under his administration, in 1871-1872, for the first time the number of undergraduates reached a hun- dred. In 1871, by the legacy of Mr. Chester Adams, of Hartford, the college received about $60,000, the largest gift thus far from any individual donor. A gift of the Hon. Isaac Toucey also provided for the foundation of four valuable scholarships for necessitous students for the ministry.
When the city of Hartford, in 1871, decided to offer to the State a site for a new capitol, it was proposed to purchase the college campus for that purpose. The trustees twice rejected the proposition which was made by the city ; but at last, in February, 1872, they voted to sell the college site in consideration of $600,000, reserving the right to use the grounds, with Seabury Hall, Jarvis Hall, and part of Brownell Hall (if possible), for five or six years. In 1873, a site of some eighty acres on the slope of the trap dyke about a mile to the south of the old cam- pus, commanding an extended and beautiful view in every direction, was purchased by the college; and President Jackson visited England and secured from Mr. Burges elaborate plans for the erection of a complete suite of college buildings in four quadrangles. But before the work had been begun, Dr. Jackson died, on the 19th of April, 1874, being the only officer of instruction in the college who had died in office.
To his successor, the Rev. Dr. T. R. Pynchon, a graduate in the class of 1841, and for many years professor in the college, fell the task of modifying the plans and carrying them out in part. The original de- sign had been altered so as to provide for two quadrangles each three hundred feet square, having between them a third, six hundred feet by
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
three hundred ; but it was found necessary to change entirely the gen- eral appearance and arrangement of the part of the buildings which it was possible to erect at once, in order to provide for the immediate Phos. R. d yuohow. needs of the college from the funds which were at its disposal. Ground was broken on Commence- ment day, 1875, with impressive ceremonies ; and two large blocks of buildings - Scabury Hall, intended in large part for public rooms, and Jarvis Hall, for officers' and students' dormitories - forming nearly the whole west side of the long quadrangle, were ready for occupation in 1878. The erection of Northam Hall in 1881, joining these build- ings, completing the western range of the quadrangle, and crowning it with its lofty towers, has added greatly to the external appearance of the build- ings. Their style is in the secular Gothic of the carly French type; and they are COLL TRIN. probably unsurpassed in solidity and elabo- ration of work by any other similar build- SANC. TTIDIS PROIECT ings. The completion of the plan, providing separate buildings for the Chapel, the Li- € brary, the Museum, the Dining-Hall, etc., has been left to future years. Northam Hall takes its name from its munificent CLESIA PAT R donor, Mr. Charles H. Northam, of Hart- ET ford, who added to this gift a legacy pro- viding for the endowment of a professor- SEAL OF THE COLLEGE. ship and for an addition of $75,000 to the general funds of the college. The sum total of his gifts, together with a legacy from his widow, does not fall far short of a quarter of a mil- lion of dollars. Under President Pynchon's administration large and valuable additions were made to the library and the cabinet of the college. He retired from the presidency in 1883.
He has been succeeded by the Rev. Dr. George Williamson Smith, who has been most enthusiastically received. During the year just passed, a change has been introduced into the regular curriculum of studies, whereby one fourth of the work of the last two years is made
yes, Michaincon Smits
elective, and carefully arranged courses are provided for instruction in science and in letters. It is hoped and believed that the college will never fail to maintain a high standard of liberal culture ; and that her Alumni will always continue to exert a wide influence in the learned professions and in the business of life, carrying out the full meaning of the motto which the college bears on its seal : "Pro Ecclesia et Patria."
8. Harb
THE CAPITOL AND BUSHNELL PARK,
FROM THE MULBERRY STREET BRIDGE.
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PARKS AND PUBLIC WORKS.
SECTION V. PARKS AND PUBLIC WORKS.
BY WILLIAM A. AYRES.
PARKS AND PUBLIC GROUNDS. - FIRE DEPARTMENT. - WATER SUPPLY. - STREET LIGHTING.
IT is safe to say that without Horace Bushnell Hartford could have had no such park as that which bears his name. It was he who saw the need and the opportunity, and who hammered publie feeling into shape. The spot he selected was unpromising to any one without his prophetic imagination. It was apparently an out-of-the-way place, occupied by dirty buildings and waste pasture, given up to uncleanness and the hardest kind of prosaic neglect and dirt. He saw more or less clearly what might be made of it, and he anticipated the probable growth of the city which would make it a central breathing-spot, easily acces- sible, and fittest in situation of all the places that could be suggested. He worked hard for it, and lived long enough to see it laid out and well advanced toward the development that has caused it to be named the most beautiful park of its size in the United States. His personal influence was what carried the scheme through in the face of opposition and distrust. The park was laid out in 1853. Not many years before, the railroad tracks had run across the northern part of it. There were a few houses upon it, the only one of any consequence being that of James Ward, which stood north of the large elm-tree that is now within the park and opposite the First Regiment Armory. Most of it was waste land, undulating in surface, well studded with trees, having a few sheds along the northern part, and a small collection of poor houses near Imlay's Mill, which stood not far from the present tool-house on the bank of the river in the west park. Elm Street, instead of following its present line, tended to the north all the way west from Daniels's Mill, the north line being a little south of the large elm-tree above mentioned. From this point the street curved more to the north, passing what is now Ford Street not far from the position of the Putnam monument. At a point about due south of the stepping-stones it curved sharply to the north, and then west, to the mill. This part of it, as well as the present Trinity Street and Lafayette Street, was all known as Cooper's Lane. There was a ford for horses and wagons from Pearl Street, run- ning a little west of the present Ford Street bridge, and another near the present bridge above the stepping-stones. Near the river on the south side and west of Ford Street the land was low and wet, rising abruptly to the upper level near the edge of which Cooper's Lane ran to the mill. Across this low land and over the river between the two fords ran a long foot-bridge, much higher where it crossed the river than on either side. The place was also encumbered with railroad em- bankments. The park as at first laid out contained about twenty-five
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
acres, lying chiefly within the curve made by the Park River from above the Imlay dam to Daniels's dam. When Trinity College was removed, and the present State Capitol built, all the land north of Capitol Avenue in that immediate vicinity became practically a part of the park. The enclosure is very fortunate in the natural contour of the surface, which is sufficiently varied, and lies for the most part in slopes and hollows that present graceful outlines and much variety. It was fortunate also in the number and variety of its trees, and in the beauty of many indi- vidual specimens. Subsequent additions have made the variety of trees represented almost unique for a tract of so small area, and they have generally been set with an excellent eye to effect. The way in which
THE MEMORIAL ARCH. (By permission of the Publishers of "Harper's Magazine.")
natural contours of land and trees standing in the place have been treated is specially worth notice ; and it is through these and the excel- lence of the lawn that the park obtains much of its attractiveness. Little has been done in the way of monuments or works of art. A fine bronze statue of General Putnam, by J. Q. A. Ward, stands on what is known as the West Park, - that part which lies west of Ford Street ; and one of Dr. Horace Wells, by T. H. Bartlett, stands on a temporary ped- estal in the East Park, and commemorates his discovery of anæsthesia. Beyond this there is nothing except the handsome soldiers' monument, begun in 1884, which stands at the Ford Street entrance. It is original in design, and shows on a triumphal arch of brown stone a very excel- lent use of terra-cotta in the form of a frieze, which represents scenes from the War of the Rebellion. As a matter of record it may be noted that Bushnell. Park contains about a hundred and fifty species of trees, - perhaps the largest variety to be found growing in the open air within equal limits. Two oak-trees from acorns of the Charter Oak
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PARKS AND PUBLIC WORKS.
grow in the park, - one in the triangle near the Trumbull Street bridge, and one near Clinton Street.
For a number of years the place was known simply as " the park," and often goes by that name still. Properly and suitably, however, it is Bushnell Park. The name was given it by vote of the common council, Feb. 14, 1876, at which time also resolutions were passed rec- ognizing the work Dr. Bushnell had done to secure and develop it. He then was lying ill with what proved to be his last sickness. He died three days later.
The other public parks are all small, the most important being the South Green, or South Park, at the junction of Main Street and Weth- ersfield Avenue. It dates back to the earliest days of the settlement, when there was a divergence of ways at this point. It was fenced in 1816, and lying at the end of the nearly straight stretch of Main Street, and at a point where six streets meet, has always been a sort of natu- ral mark and limit. In addition to this there are Washington Street
VIEW OF THE CAPITOL.
Park, at the north end of Washington Street (laid out as a park in 1881) ; Village Street Park, at Windsor and Village streets ; the Tun- nel Park, at the junction of Main Street and Albany Avenue (laid out in 1875) ; Windsor Street Park, between Avon, Front, North, and Wind- sor streets (ordered, but not laid out) ; and the Franklin Avenue Park, laid out in 1876, at the junction of Franklin Avenue and Maple Avenue. All these last are inconsiderable. The chairmen of the Park Commis- sion which has charge of all these grounds, including that about the city hall, have been William L. Collins, Fred. S. Brown, S. R. McNary, and Sherman W. Adams.
VOL. I .- 29.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
With the parks must be classed the City Hall Square. No exact information as to its original dimensions can be had. It was first known as Meeting-House Yard, and kept the name for a hundred years. Old records give an approximate idea of its size and shape, and from these it seems to have been almost twice as large as now, extending to the north, south, and east. The uncertainty as to its exact boundaries is a natural result of the conditions. The town as a corporation owned all the land in the plantation, and allotted it among the inhabitants. It took what seemed a suitable piece for public purposes, and there was no need for too exact measurement or record. It has been suggested that some common division, such as is illustrated in the ten-acre field, might have been intended ; but no computation that agrees at all with the limits as approximately known lends any authority to the supposi- tion, and it is rather to be believed that it was laid out without any regard to exact area. A map compiled from old records by William S. Porter, who was both an antiquarian and a surveyor, and whose conclu- sions have thus a double support, shows the square in 1640, four years after the actual settlement, as extending much less than half-way to Kinsley Street on the north, to a point somewhat below the building of the Hartford Trust Company on the south, and a little way to the east. Here the first meeting-house, a temporary affair, was built near the south side of the square. About four years later a large and better building was put up on the east side of the square very near the pres- ent front line of the American Hotel. This was used for about ninety years. Near the church was a public market, and near the northeast corner were the jail and the burying-ground, neither of which can be exactly located. The stocks and the whipping-post were also on this square. According to some traditions the burying-ground was nearly where the post-office now stands; but others make it farther north, about at the rear of the present "Courant" building. In connection with this it is remembered that workmen excavating for the cellar of this building found a quantity of human bones. This burying-ground, whatever its exact location, was used only a few years, and in 1640 the town bought of Richard Olmsted a part of his lot for a burying-ground. This was the beginning of the old cemetery in the rear of the Centre Church. At first it extended to Main Street. The jail was established very early in the history of the settlement, and is mentioned as existing in 1640. The public market came a little later. This was ordered in 1643, and Wednesday was made market-day. The market continued in use at nearly the same place until 1829, when the (old) City Hall market was opened on Market Street. Without having been as impor- tant as public markets are in some other places, this seems to have met more public favor than the market in New Haven, of which President Dwight, of Yale, wrote in his " Travels in New England : " -
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