USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 21
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" Voted, That the other articles of confederation are approved with the exceptions above taken in these instructions.
" April, 1778.
" Test. Sol. Whitman, Town Clerk."
Foremost among those who acted and spoke at all these meetings was Colonel Fisher Gay 1 (the son of John Gay, Jr., who was born in Dedham, Mass., 1698), born in Litchfield, Oct. 9, 1733, and grad- uated at Yale College, 1759. He began his life at Farmington as a school-teacher, but after two or three years he started a small mer-
1 The regiment which he commanded belonged to Wadsworth's Brigade, and numbered four hundred and forty-nine on the roll. See Henry P. Johnston's "Campaign of 1776, etc." Brooklyn, 1878.
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cantile business, which by his energy and skill became very consider- able. He soon became prominent in public affairs. He was appointed one of the committee of correspondence from the town in 1774, and was a member of the other important committees, as of vigilance, preparation, etc. On hearing of the conflicts at Concord and Lexing- ton he shut up his store at once and marched to Boston at the head of about a hundred volunteers. His commission as lieutenant- colonel is dated Jan. 23, 1776. His last commission as colonel bears date June 20, 1776. The brief journal which he kept of his services before Boston is preserved. From this it appears that he reported to General Washington February 6, and on the 13th was sent for by him and immediately despatched into Rhode Island and Connecticut to pur- chase powder. On the 18th he reported himself with a number of tons, "to the great satisfaction of the General," but was severely ill from over-exertion. The 4th of March he was ordered with his regiment to act as a part of a covering party to the workmen who were detached to fortify Dorchester Heights. The success of this attempt led to the evacuation of Boston, and Colonel Gay, with his regiment, with Colonel Leonard, Majors Sproat and Chester, and other officers and their troops, were ordered to march in and take possession of the town. Here he continued within, or before the works, until the army before Boston broke up, when his regiment was ordered to New York. On his way he spent two or three days with his family for the last time, being at that time very ill. He grew worse after reaching New York. A part of his command was sent to Long Island, and were in the action which followed the retreat, in which last movement they were distinguished. He died Aug. 22, 1776, and was buried on the day of the battle. His zeal and self-sacrifice were conspicuous. On his sword, which is still preserved, are engraved the words, " Freedom or Death !" Alike ardent in counsel and foremost in every good work in this community, whether it concerned the school, the church, or the state, he cheerfully risked his life for the rights of New England and the independence of the United Colonies. Nor was he alone. Three companies from Farmington were in action against Burgoyne, and it is confidently asserted by one whose recollections cannot be mistaken, that every young man from the town, worth any consideration, was at some time or other in the field.
The village street was a part of the high road from Boston through Hartford to New York. Washington came by this route to meet Rochambeau at Wethersfield to arrange for the final expedition against Yorktown. Several thousand of the French troops were encamped for a night at least, about a mile below this place, and their arrangements for a bivouac are still to be seen. Tradition says that the Puritan misses did not disdain a dance by moonlight with the French officers. Some of Burgoyne's officers were quartered here after the surrender, and the town is indebted to the skill of one of their number for two of its best houses. Several dwellings were patterned in different parts of the State after one of these houses. A part of the artillery taken at that memorable surrender was kept for a long time in the village.
Till near the end of the war the town was conspicuously an agri- cultural community. The life and manners of the people were faithfully
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depicted by an honest chronicler in the following sketch prepared by the Hon. John Treadwell in 1802 : -
"This town, as its name imports, was at first, and indeed till a late period, wholly agricultural. Labor in the field was almost the only employment. In- dustry and economy have characterized the inhabitants ; labor has been held in reputation ; none, however elevated by office or profession, have considered themselves above it. Magistrates and ministers, when their appropriate business would permit, have labored in the field. Indeed our magistrates have always been farmers ; have been as laborious on their farms as others, and have derived their support from labor as much, almost, as the meanest citizen. They have been content to eat their bread in the sweat of their brow ; and it was honor enough to be esteemned the first among equals. But very little of the labor on farms has been performed by slaves ; and if a farmer had a slave, he constantly labored with him, and taught him the habits of industry by his own example as well as by his authority. Labor having been thus reputable among all classes of citizens, industry has been almost universal ; and very few through idleness have become chargeable to the public. The master of the household has gone before his sons and domestics into the field in their daily labor, and if too remote, as usually happened, to return at noon, they dined together on their plain fare, under the covert of some thick shade, where on the green grass they might enjoy the luxury of the free air, with more sincere delight than the greatest modern epicure at a civic feast. While the men have been thus employed in the field, in raising the materials for food and clothing, the women have been no less indus- trious in the domestic circle, in rearing the tender branches of the family, and in dressing food for the table. The careful matron has been accustomed to 'seek wool and flax and work willingly with her hands; she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff.' On Monday they have been employed in perfect dishabille, in washing their linen in their houses, and when this is done, at about the middle of the afternoon, they assume their neatest appearance, and are the perfect contrast of what they were in the morning, prepared to visit or to receive company. The brothers of the family returning from their daily labors, toward evening, covered with sweat and dust, and finding their sisters neatly dressed, and enjoying the cool shade, are led sometimes almost to repine at their happy lot ; but these feelings are corrected when they reflect that their sisters are employed more hours in the day, and that their labor when compared with their strength is, many times, more severe than their own. It is true, however, that the young daughters, who have much to expect from their appearance, find means to shift off no small proportion of the drudgery of the family on the fond mother; who submits the more readily, because she feels that there are reasons for it, that have their weight; that she herself in youth has had the same indulgence, and that they must submit to the like service in their turn.
" Our ancestors here, of both sexes, have, till of late, clad themselves in simple apparel, suited to their moderate circumstances and agricultural state. The men have been content with two suits of clothes, called the every-day clothes and the Sabbath-day clothes. The former were usually of two sorts, those for labor and those for common society. Those for labor in the summer were a check homespun linen shirt, a pair of plain tow-cloth trousers, and a vest generally much worn, formerly with, but more modernly without sleeves ; or simply a brown tow-cloth frock and trousers, and sometimes a pair of old shoes tied with leather strings, and a felt hat, or old beaver hat stiffened and worn white with age. For the winter season they wore a check blue and white woollen shirt, a pair of buck-skin breeches, a pair of white, or, if of the best kind, deep blue home- made woollen stockings, and a pair of double-soled cowhide shoes, blacked on the flesh side, tied with leather strings; and, to secure the feet and legs against snow, a pair of leggins, which, for the most part, were a pair of worn-out stock- ings, with the bottom and toe of the foot cut off, drawn over the stocking and
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shoe, and tied fast to the heel and over the vamp of the shoe ; or if of the best kind, they were knit on purpose of white yarn, and they answered for boots on all occasions ; an old plain cloth vest with sleeves, lined with a cloth called drug- get ; an old plain cloth great-coat, commonly brown, wrapped around the body, and tied with a list or belt ; or as a substitute for them, a buck-skin leather waist- coat and a leather apron of tanned sheep-skin fastened round the waist, and the top of it supported with a loop about the neck, and a hat as above, or a woollen cap drawn over the ears.
" For ordinary society in summer they were clad in a check linen homespun shirt and trousers, or linen breeches, white homespun linen stockings, and cowhide single-soled shoes, a vest with sleeves usually of brown plain cloth, a handkerchief around the neck, a check cap, and a hat in part worn.
" In winter they were clad as above described for winter, excepting that they assumed, if they had it, a better great-coat, a neckcloth, and a hat that might be considered as second best. Their Sabbath-day suit for winter was like that last mentioned, excepting that their stockings were commonly deep blue, their leather breeches were clean and of a buff color, they added a straight-bodied plain coat and a white holland cap, and sometimes a wig with a clean beaver hat. For the summer, it was a check holland shirt, brown linen breeches and stockings, single- soled cowhide shoes with buckles, a plain cloth and sometimes a broadcloth and velvet vest, without sleeves ; the shirt-sleeves tied above the elbows with arm- strings of ferreting of various colors, a white holland cap or wig, and beaver hat ; and on Thanksgiving days and other high occasions a white holland shirt and cambric neckcloth.
"The women have been, till within about thirty years past, clothed altogether in the same style, with a moderate allowance for the taste of the sex. A minute description will not be attempted ; a few particulars will characterize the whole. They wore home-made drugget, crape, plain cloth, and camblet gowns in the winter, and the exterior of their under dress was a garment lined and quilted, extending from the waist to the feet. Their shoes were high-heeled, made of tanned calf-skin, and in some instances of cloth. In the summer they wore striped linen and calico gowns, cloth shoes, and linen underdress ; and every young lady when she had attained her stature was furnished with a silk gown and skirt if her parents were able, or she could purchase them by dint of labor. Their head- dress has always occupied a great share of their attention while in youth ; it has always been varying, and every modle seems, in its day, the most becoming. Within the period just mentioned, the elderly women have worn check holland aprons to meeting on the Sabbath, and those in early life and of the best fashion were accustomed to wear them in their formal visits.
" The same simplicity has been conspicuous in their diet, their houses, and their furniture. Equipage they had none ; pleasure carriages and sleighs were unknown. In attending the public worship, or in short excursions, a man usually rode with a woman behind him, mounted on a pillion ; and even to this day this practice is not wholly laid aside.
" The people of this town, as farmers, have had some advantages above most of their neighbors, but they have had their disadvantages ; among which, their compact settlement is one. Two things induced this mode of settlement : fear of Indians, and a wish to place themselves in a situation convenient to improve the meadows. The inhabitants have their home-lots in the town plot ; their lots, as usually happens, in various parts of the meadows, distant from a quarter of a mile to nearly three miles ; and their pastures for their cattle and horses in perhaps an opposite direction, and as far or farther distant. In this situation, the time spent in taking the cows to pasture, and fetching their teams in the morning, and going to their fields, in returning home, turning out their teams and fetching their cows at night, must be, in most cases, a considerable part of the day, which is worse than lost, and is more than saved by those who live on their farms in a central situation."
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FARMINGTON.
Soon after the War of the Revolution, with the returning activities of peace this town became the seat of an extensive trade. The town which had guarded the frontier undauntedly for three fourths of a cen- tury in face of an Indian village and the dark forest of the Mohawks beyond, now began to command the trade of the new towns which were springing up in every part of that forest. From along the Litchfield turnpike on the west, - the turnpike which, as long as New York and its vicinity was held by the English, was the high road from Boston and Hartford to the Middle States, -down the valley of the Tunxis from the northwest toward Pittsfield and Albany, up the Farmington from the north and beyond the Great Plains from the south and south- east, there was gathered an active mercantile trade which was first set in motion by John and Chauncey Deming, who were followed by the five sons of Elijah Cowles, Seth, Elijah, Jonathan, Gad, and Martin, and the two sons of Solomon Cowles, Solomon and Zenas. Some of these mer- chants set up branch houses in the neighboring towns. Some, not con- tent with buying their goods at Hartford and New York, arranged to import them, and in their own vessels. The signs on the numerous stores bore the inscriptions of " West India and East India goods," and in some instances these goods came directly to the hands of the Farming- ton merchants. At one time not less than three West India vessels were owned in Farmington, which were despatched from Wethersfield or New Haven. One at least was sent to China, and brought from the then far-distant Cathay, silks and teas, and china-ware bearing the initials of these enterprising importers. The Indian corn which was raised so abundantly in the meadows and on the uplands was extensively kiln- dried and sent to the West Indies, and with the horses and the staves which the then new near West could so abundantly furnish, was the chief export, which brought back sugar, molasses, and Santa Cruz rum. At a somewhat later period an active trade in tin-ware and dry-goods was pushed into the Atlantic Southern States, and employed the energies and excited the ambition of many of the young men of the village and the town. Large fortunes were occasionally the results of these ventures. Not infrequently the young man who went forth in the maturity of strength and the confidence of hope never returned.
The old meeting-house began to rustle with silks and to be gay with ribbons. The lawyers wore silk and velvet breeches ; broadcloth took the place of homespun for coat and overcoat, and corduroy displaced leather for breeches and pantaloons. As the next century opened, pianos were heard in the best houses, thundering out the " Battle of Prague " as a tour de force, and the gayest of gigs and the most preten- tious of phaetons rolled through the village. Houses were built with dancing-halls for evening gayety ; and the most liberal hospitality, recommended by the best of cookery, was dispensed at sumptuous dinners and suppers.
This period of active business and mercantile enterprise and the rapid accumulation of wealth extended from 1790 until about 1825. In 1802 Governor Treadwell records that "a greater capital is employed in [trade ] than in any inland town in the State." Mr. Chauncey Deming was first among these merchants for strength and positiveness of char- acter and for business ability. He was foremost in enterprise, and was
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
an active and influential director in one of the banks of both Hartford and Middletown. During the War of 1812, all the banks of the State except the Hartford Bank suspended payments in specie, and it is con- fidently asserted that Mr. Deming held large specie reserves in Farm- ington, which he produced from time to time to save its credit. No one who ever saw him in his vigorous old age as he galloped along the street upon his strong and elegant horse, or as he sat in church, with his powdered queue and his bright blue coat and gilt buttons, will forget the impression.
The decline of this trade began with the opening of a more ready communication with Hartford, by the extension of the Litchfield and the Albany turnpike roads over the Talcott Mountain. The Farm- ington capitalists were large owners in the stock of both these roads. They did not foresee that by making it easier for themselves to go to Hartford they would make it easier for their customers to do the same.
The military spirit of the town was fostered by its wealth and enter- prise. Upon the meeting-house green on the first Mondays of May and September, and some one or two other days in the autumn, there were gathered the three military companies of the town, - the Grenadiers, select and self-respecting, glorying in the buff and blue of the Revolu- tion, with a helmet of more recent device but of Roman model; the Infantry, or bushwhackers, numerous, miscellaneous, and frolicsome, whose straggling line and undisciplined and undisciplinable platoons were the derision of the boys and the shame of all military men ; and a small but select company of cavalry, or " troopers," as they were called in contrast with the "trainers." These last consisted of " the horse-taming" young men of the community, more commonly sons of farmers in the remoter districts, who delighted in the opportunity to show their horsemanship, and thus vie with the aristocratie grena- diers, who were more largely from the village. In the autumn also was the annual " field day " for the regiment, which was summoned to meet once a year on one of the immense rye-fallows that stretched out upon the Great Plains. To these military organizations the meeting-house was in some sense the centre. The minister was sum- moned yearly to offer prayer upon the Green amid the assembled three companies, and invited to dine with the officers and those aspiring privates who chose to indulge in the expense of a dinner for a trifling sum. Should it rain beyond endurance on training-day, the meet- ing-house was opened to protect the soldiers from a drenching. Its sacred walls have many a time reverberated to drum and fife and the tramp of files along the aisles, while excited boys looked down from the gallery with wonder at so strange a spectacle, breathless with misgiving at the disturbance of their wonted associations with the place.
Around the meeting-house were gathered representatives of all the population on the three or four days of election week in the spring, and the two days after the annual Thanksgiving in the autumn. The elec- tion days were usually devoted to ball-playing, in which adults partici- pated with the zest of boys, and delighted to show that their youthful energy was not extinct, and that the tales of their youthful achievements
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were not mythical exaggerations. Wrestling matches, throwing of quoits, and other feats were by-plays to the principal performances.
Between 1783 and 1802 one hundred and forty-seven families emi- grated from Farmington, besides a number of unmarried persons of both sexes, in all about seven hundred and seventy-five individuals. The most of them settled in the States of Vermont and New York ; " a few in different parts of the Northwestern Territory." Since that time there has been a constant stream of emigration in every direction, into almost every State of the Union.
In 1802 there had but three of the inhabitants been convicted of high crimes ; one was excented for murder thirty-five years before ; two were sent to Newgate Prison for a number of years; they were all Indians. There were in 1802 fifteen paupers supported by the town, at an expense of $718. In that year there were thirty free blacks in the town. The number of dwelling-houses was four hundred and thirty-eight. (The town then included the present town of Avon.)
In 1775 the Hon. John Treadwell and Martin Bull engaged in the manufacture of saltpetre, a material then needed in the preparation of gunpowder. They prosecuted the business with success till the French espoused the cause of the United States, when the demand for the article ecased.
In 1802 and 1803 there were manufactures in the town of Farming- ton of the following articles : checked and striped linen, 15,000 yards per year ; hats, 2,500 per year ; leather in four establishments, 1,500 sides, 500 skins ; tin-ware in five shops, 200 boxes tin plate per year ; potash. three establishments, 15 tons ; muskets, 400 stands.
Stephen Bronson manufactured the linen with enterprise and suc- cess, employing foreigners to assist in weaving and dyeing. The yarn was spun in private families.
Asa Andrus carried the art of preparing japanned ware to a high degree of perfection, and realized from his efforts considerable profit.
These were the days of prosperity and pride for this always beautiful village.1 For reasons already given, its active trade was gradually diminished. Some unsuccessful efforts were made to introduce manu- factures here and to invest in manufacturing enterprises abroad, but with little success. The fortunes that had been accumulated under more favorable circumstances have been greatly diminished, until agri- culture has seemed to be the chief reliance for the inhabitants. Many of the hamlets and villages that formerly were the dependencies of the mother town have rapidly increased in wealth and population by the manufacturing industries to which they were compelled by necessity, while the decaying splendor and wealthy respectability of the formerly brilliant village has occasioned their wonder and criticism. The canal, from which something was expected, proved little more than a costly and troublesome convenience, and the railway was unfortunately al- lowed to leave the village far enough in the distance to suggest thoughts of what it might have been had it passed near its centre,
1 The social aspects of the village, as they were some fifty or seventy years since, are graphically depicted by the late E. D. Mansfield, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in " Personal Memoirs at Cincinnati," 1879, pp. 79-84. Mr. Mansfield became a student of Mr. Edward Hooker, of the Red College, in 1815.
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while it stimulated what were formerly two school districts into the rapidly growing communities of Plainville and Unionville.
While these villages have shot up into vigorous life, a few abortive attempts to introduce clock-making and other industries into the cen- tral village were made and relinquished. The gambrel-roofed buildings that once were the scenes of busy traffic on the village street have one by one, with two or three exceptions, been removed into the back streets, and become solid and comfortable dwellings; and the village itself is left to be the pleasant retreat of the remnants of its older and once numerous families, or the lovely sojourn for the gay inmates of the school, which almost calls the town its own. Meanwhile some stimulus has been given to its agricultural industry, and the soil, and its nearness to markets, destine it to become sooner or later a thriving agricultural community, and a lovely retreat from the battle and strife of manufacturing and commercial towns.
The Farmington Savings Bank was organized May, 1851, and has been very prosperous. The Farmington Creamery Company was established in 1870, and has stimulated and rewarded the agricultural enterprise of the community. In 1884 it received 1,201,000 quarts of milk.
We resume our sketch of the moral and religious life of the old town, with the pastorate of Dr. Porter, who was ordained Nov. 5, 1806, and died Sept. 24, 1866, after a pastorate of nearly sixty years. During this period the town passed through some of the most eventful experiences of its history. He was in every sense closely identified with the intellectual, ethical, and religious history of the town. His ancestor was one of the original proprietors, and also one of the original members of its carefully selected church; his father was deacon of the same. He was fitted for college in the family of Mr. Washburn. He had scarcely known any other home than Farming- ton except during his college life. His church and parish embraced the entire population, and with the exception of six or eight families, it was Congregational. Far and near, in lonely hamlets, and beyond rough and rocky paths, he was the one pastor for all these households, whatever were their needs or longings for human or Christian sym- pathy. His Sunday congregation, for many years, was from six hun- dred to nine hundred souls. During the first third of his pastorate he was zealous for Orthodoxy, having inherited the New England sturdy confidence in a fixed formula of doctrine as the only faith once deliv- cred to the saints, which he did not fail to proclaim in its sterner as well as its milder features. In the last two thirds of his ministry his enlarged views of the spiritual adaptation of the gospel to the soul of man imparted a new interest to his preaching and his conceptions of the gospel. He welcomed new thoughts, and had them to the very end of his life. He was not afraid of any new light which might break forth from the Scriptures, because he was so saturated with its great truths and its prevailing spirit that he had no misgivings that the truth would ever fail. It was characteristic of this spirit that at eighty- six some of his latest reading was devoted to " Ecce Homo ;" and his Greek Testament was found open on his study table at his death. In his meridian activity, and even after the beginning of old age,
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