USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Mount Carmel > The old Mount Carmel parish, origins & outgrowths > Part 17
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Of course, there were great differences in taste and thor- oughness. But on some farms a kind of artistic sense domi- nated the most ordinary occupations. My father was fastidi- ous. In ploughing, the furrow had to be even, each like every other in width and depth. Corn was planted in lines so straight that when the stalks were grown one could see
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through between them from one end to the other across a broad field. In mowing grass, the scythe must leave a path so clean that no blades should be found standing behind; and in carrying the hay off the field no wisps must be al- lowed to remain here and there to disfigure the finished work. A stack of hay may seem to be a crude piece of build- ing, but often the pains taken to insure solidity and at the same time to offer graceful proportions and a pleasing pic- ture to the passer-by were greater than one would think. Cutting timber in the woods was done in a like spirit-it was considered workmanlike to drive the axe near the ground so as to leave a short, even stump; also to make the gash on the one side correspond to that on the other; and finally to cut through the heart before the tree was ready to fall, leaving the stubs on either side for the last strokes of the axe, to avoid splintering the butt.
Equally conscientious and true to their art were the women in their dairy operations; in their spinning, knitting, and needlework; in their baking, cooking, and mending. It was their pride to be tidy and thorough, and to do some things so finely as to win admiration for their handiwork. Their skill and care are shown in the old linen that has been preserved by some of their children and grandchildren.
Another proof of aesthetic feeling was the prevalent fondness for animals of superior stock. The annual cattle show on the New Haven Green did a good deal to encourage this. It is said that Hamden and Woodbridge were rival towns, particularly in raising steers and oxen, and that each exerted itself to send to the show a larger and finer display of these than the other; on one occasion, the procession of yoked cattle was so long as to extend entirely round the square. This tells how much was thought of good oxen among the farmers. Oxen were their pet property. The boys found their greatest sport in breaking steers and acquired some of the best education they had in learning how to man- age them. The work of the farm was carried on at every stage by oxen; and after their days of work were past, the oxen were fattened for the market and brought in more
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ready money than came from almost any other source. A similar interest, though not usually quite so great, was taken in other animals; in good horses for driving; in pigs of a good breed; in sheep, when they could be kept without dan- ger from sheep-killing dogs; in geese and turkeys, grateful reminders of Thanksgiving and Christmas; in chickens, which became the special charge of the boys and girls, who hunted for their eggs, watched over the hatching brood, and chose out from among them their own pets, for which their fondness never grew cold.
Wild birds that had a bad name as marauders, such as hawks, crows, and blackbirds, were hunted without mercy; but other birds, especially sweet singers, such as the robin, were prized for their notes and carefully protected. One evening, a guest at our house, the minister at the time, be- came greatly annoyed at the melancholy wails of a whip- poor-will and came to father for his gun "to shoot that crea- ture," when he got the instant answer, "I would not have that bird killed for a hundred dollars."
Musical opportunities were few and simple, chiefly the singing school and choir rehearsals for Sunday worship. The instruments in use were the violin, bass viol, and flute, with drum and fife for military occasions. The love of music, however, was common; and now and then a person was seen who followed it to the neglect of other things. Members of the Ives family were of this class, a number becoming pro- fessional musicians and even attaining to distinction. My father was fond of music and tried to have his children learn to sing, even drilling them himself, sometimes, on the eight notes. He encouraged his daughters to practice on the piano; and when the eldest had a piano of her own, we often had singing in the family to her accompaniment.
Family worship in our house was about as regular as get- ting up in the morning. The usual way was for each one, from the oldest adult to the younger children, to have a Bible and to read one or two texts in turn, after which father led in prayer, all kneeling. At times, when there was a drive in farm work, as in haying and harvest time, the exercise was
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somewhat hurried and only father read from the Bible, but to omit prayers altogether would have been thought next to heathenish. Indeed, it seemed to be the prevailing opinion among church-going people that every Christian household should have its daily worship. Equally insistent was the duty of a blessing at meals. That "a family altar might be erected in every house" was a sentiment frequently expressed in public service.
As our house was but a short distance from the meeting- house, it was the one where ministers were usually taken care of when there was no regular pastor. To have such guests was regarded as a privilege, their company being especially prized on account of its influence on the children. Occasion- ally, we had with us some man of eminence. I have a picture in my mind of Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor sitting by the win- dow in our parlor on one side of the table, while my father sat opposite discussing with him ecclesiastical questions, of the meaning of which I had not the faintest inkling. Another visit that I remember more distinctly was that of Dr. Dan Bradley, missionary to Siam, who was my father's cousin. He took particular notice of us children, showing us pictures of elephants and telling us how the people lived in Bangkok. We once had in our house the famous temperance lecturer, John B. Gough, who was then at the beginning of his re- markable career and was not unwilling to speak in a small country meeting-house. He was a bubbling fountain of mirth and, on returning to the house, after the lecture, kept the family up till midnight with a stream of stories funnier than had ever been heard there before. Some of those very stories I heard from the same lips, with the same inimitable mim- icry, some forty years later in the college hall at Amherst, and I wondered that he had not tired of them. .
It was said that our house was made of India rubber be- cause of its expansiveness in the face of unexpected arrivals. One secret of this was the haymow in the barn, to which, at a pinch, the boys could betake themselves for sleeping quar- ters and make a lark of it. The barn, too, was a convenience for travelling strangers, whom it was desirable not to have in
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closer proximity to the family. These sometimes found a lodging there unasked. My brother Ezra went out one morning to give the cattle hay and, stepping on the mow in the dim light, felt under his feet what seemed like a log or something else that did not belong there; so he stuck his fork down to try it and was met by the scream, "Don't hurt me"; at which the frightened boy beat a precipitate retreat.
With a lavish disposition in some things was combined a rigid economy in others. Once, I remember, some cobs on which a few kernels of corn remained had been brought in to put on the fire in grandmother's room; at which the old lady told us a story of some shipwrecked sailors, short of food, who lived some time on three grains of corn a day; and so, she said, we must never burn a grain of corn. Then the ker- nels were carefully picked off every one and afterward thrown out to the chickens. Because the people were so thrifty in little ways, they were prosperous and could be generous when occasion called for it.
I have heard my mother say that when father brought her to Mount Carmel as his bride, in 1826, the pair were asked to spend an evening at Deacon Aaron Bradley's. At this time Deacon Bradley took occasion to say that he wished my fa- ther to succeed him in office. He had been a deacon for nearly twenty years, having succeeded his father and grand- father, and at the age of seventy, with growing infirmities, was anxious to designate the man of his choice for a succes- sor. Naturally, the church acceded to his wishes and father could not decline acceptance. Another incident of the honey- moon was a visit of my father's grandmother, "Granny Bradley," as she was called, who was eighty-five years of age. Mother described her as a little old lady who liked her pipe of tobacco, but was so considerate of others that she did not smoke in the house; it was her way to go outdoors and find a secluded spot where she could sit and enjoy her pipe in quiet. There was no smoking in our house. The only time we ever saw anyone using tobacco was when the hired men smoked their pipes about in the open fields. It was not con- sidered good form in most of the houses I saw. In this par-
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ticular, my father's example has been followed by his sons throughout their lives, with but a single exception.
My brother Edward, the eldest of nine children, had al- most a parental interest in the younger members of the family. As long ago as I can remember, he used to speak of Ezra, Watson, and me, as the "little boys," to whom special care must always be given. He was proud of his sisters and his fondness for them was most brotherly, especially for Elizabeth, who was nearest his own age. When he was a boy, he went to a school in North Haven, taught by a Mr. Cowles, and father bought him a pony, on which he rode over in the morning and back at night. The pony liked to go fast and he was glad to have her. One cold November day, on his return home, he was speeding her up to the limit, when father happened to be standing in the blacksmith's shop and saw her go by. Edward caught a glimpse of his father and looked for a scolding later in the day, but father was so delighted to see how fast the pony could go, that he surprised the boy by saying simply that he had better not run her like that very often. When Edward was a few years older, he used to teach school in the winter months. One winter he taught in Whitneyville, and I remember his taking Ezra and me down with him one day to show us how he handled his boys and girls. He certainly made things lively and kept the pupils interested in what they were about. In months when he was not teaching, he sometimes canvassed for books, like Barber's Historical Collections, for example. This took him on long tramps to distant towns and made him a great walker. On one such trip, he finished his work in Rhode Island. Nevertheless, he took it into his head to walk home, where he arrived after a stretch of fifty miles at about midnight, and found the folks had all gone to bed; and so, instead of disturbing their slumbers, he turned into the barn and made his bed on a haymow.
From selling books he went into insurance and travelled in the south and west. He was in Ohio when it was a new country and was greatly taken with the chances for making a fortune. He even thought it would be a good thing for
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father to sell the old farm and take his family out there. Much as he made of the new country, however, the old asso- ciations were still cherished. Once, in Cincinnati, he was ill with a raging fever and could not get any decent water to drink. He afterward told us how he longed for the little spring under Spruce Bank and how much he would have given for a glass of cool water from there.
In 1847, Elizabeth went away to boarding school, at the Seward Institute, in Florida, New York, and returned the following year with the first prize for scholarship, which was a book entitled The Crystal Fount, bound in red morocco and having on its flyleaf the autograph of William H. Seward. The next year, Abbie went out to the same school. People were beginning to give more thought to the education of their girls than had been done theretofore. A demand was coming for girls' schools and there was need of one in Mount Carmel. Elizabeth started such a school and eventually its patrons erected a suitable building for its accommodation. It was called "The Mount Carmel Female Seminary." When Abbie returned from Florida, she assisted in the teaching, and the school was carried on by the two sisters together. Quite a number of boys belonging to the neighborhood were allowed in the school. I was among these, with my brothers, Ezra and Watson. My sister Fannie also attended the school and sometimes assisted in teaching. After a while, Elizabeth went to Plymouth to assume charge of a similar school there, and the building in Mount Carmel was occupied as a public school.
My brother Street went to Williston Seminary, East- hampton, Massachusetts, about 1854, and his three younger brothers, one after another, followed him to the same school. He became greatly attached to Dr. Edward Hitchcock, who was one of his teachers, and who afterward became famous as the teacher of athletics in Amherst College. It was the cus- tom on Amherst class days to greet "Old Doc" with the cheer: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen!" The same personal charm which made him a favorite at Amherst was one of his traits at Easthampton,
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and Street felt its power. It was the time of awakening inter- est in geology, and Dr. Hitchcock took his boys out to look over the fields, to discuss their formations, and to explore mines and quarries for a variety of minerals. One such trip was to Chesterfield, which proved particularly rich in speci- mens. When Street came home from Easthampton, he brought a lot of minerals and other curiosities, for which he set about to build a cabinet with glass doors, wherein they could be protected and displayed. He taught school one win- ter in Plantsville, and then went to Illinois to be near Ed- ward, who had settled there. Street made his home in Springfield and wrote to me while I was in Williston Semi- nary, inclosing a little picture of "Abe Lincoln," whom he said the western people were likely to put forward as their candidate for President.
My brother Ezra was particularly fond of working in wood and making things with carpenter's tools. Jared At- water, one of our neighbors, had a well-equipped shop and was something of a genius in carpentry. Ezra used to go down there often. Atwater liked to have him around and was always willing to show him the rules of a nice job. So the boy became skillful. Father encouraged him to equip a shop of his own, in which he tried to make a better sled for coast- ing than anyone else had, and other things in a like spirit. He interested himself in Sunday School work and used to go to one Sunday School at West Woods in the morning before church, and to another in the afternoon at Quinnipiac. When the Civil War came on, he enlisted in the Tenth Connecticut Regiment. After he had been in service nearly a year, Ed- ward came on from Illinois and raised a company, many of whom were Ezra's old companions, and by their choice Ezra was commissioned captain in the Twentieth Regiment and continued his service till the end of the war.
Watson, the youngest of the family, was the stand-by at home for a little while after the rest of us had gone away, and was efficient in managing things and caring for the stock in father's last illness. Then he was with me during my last term at Williston Seminary, and continued there for three
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years, after which he went out to Springfield, Illinois, to be with Street. After learning the banking business in Spring- field, he went to New York. There he became a member of the Stock Exchange, and was twice elected its president. Re- taining his early love of country life, he had a stock farm, which is called "Hillanddale," at Mamaroneck, New York, and achieved distinction in rearing some celebrated trotting horses.
These somewhat intimate allusions to a family life now departed seem necessary to the story I have undertaken to give of a single homestead in this old Connecticut parish.
NOTE: The picture of our old home was posed and taken in 1862 by A. J. Ebell, a student in Sheffield Scientific School, who had recently come from a trip to Minnesota, where his plans had been upset by a rising of the Indians, of which he gave an account in the Harper's Magazine of that time. He had me seated in the buggy with our old dog "Lion" at my side, while mother is standing near by; the figure farther back is Mrs. Asa Austin whose husband was away with my brother Ezra in the army at the South; the boy is Frank Austin, and the horse is "Bob," a favorite animal of the Morgan stock which father had brought down from Vermont a num- ber of years before. The buggy was a piece of Ezra's handiwork, having been made in his shop just before he enlisted for the war. My brother Watson's love of horses and dogs began with "Bob" and "Lion." He prided himself once on having driven old "Bob" out to the farm from New Haven in half an hour. Doubtless he was as much gratified at the time, as he was long after when his young mare "Nedda" lowered the world's record for trotting three-year-olds.
XIX. Canal, Railroad, and Factories.
T HE first serious innovation in the traditional ways of the farmer folk living in the valley to the north of New Haven came with the building of the canal. This extraordinary enterprise was projected by a few New Haven men of wealth, reputation, and influence, to whom the commercial advantage of their city was of such vast con- cern that the interests of other communities were worthy of notice only as they contributed to that end. These men be- came obsessed with the idea that an artificial waterway from Lake Memphremagog on the border of Canada to their har- bor on Long Island Sound might be made a thoroughfare of transportation and trade that would give New Haven the ascendency over its rivals and make it a port of commanding influence on land and sea alike. Accordingly, they obtained the counsel of expert engineers, made surveys, and set about carrying out the scheme by every means within their reach .*
In 1822, a charter was obtained from the Connecticut General Assembly. Supplementary charters were obtained from the legislatures of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Under the Connecticut charter, the Farmington Canal Company was formed, and under the Massachusetts charter the Hampshire and Hampden Canal Company, both joint-stock companies and working together for the same object. As the canal never got beyond Northampton, the two other charters were inoperative.
The Farmington Company was authorized by its charter to purchase and forever hold as much land and real estate as might be necessary for making the canal and providing it with such basins, harbors, and side-cuts as the corporation
* "Map exhibiting the Farmington and Hampshire and Hampden Ca- nals, together with the Line of their proposed continuation through the Valley of the Connecticut River to Canada." Engraved and published by N. & S. S. Jocelyn.
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should think expedient; also to purchase and hold mills, manufactories, and mill sites. The owners of all properties thus demanded were required to give them up; and if any question arose over the sums to be paid for them, it was to be determined by a board of commissioners empowered to fix the amounts for claims and damages.
It was hardly to be expected that such a proposal would be received with unalloyed satisfaction, especially by land- holders and mill owners along the designated route. Nor was it likely that people who valued their money would be in a hurry to put it into an enterprise so hazardous. Books were opened for subscriptions in July, 1823; but the response was so inadequate for the requirements that something more had to be done to attract support, and in the following May a bill was passed by the legislature exempting the stock from taxa- tion forever. This brought in funds enough to warrant a be- ginning, and in July, 1825, the first ground was broken for the excavations at Suffield. Work went on with vigor for the next three years, so that, in the spring of 1828, the canal was opened to Cheshire; and, in the autumn, as far as South- ington .*
Meanwhile, the people who were particularly interested
* This account is derived from Reports and other papers belonging to the New Haven Colony Historical Society; among which are the follow- ing:
The Act of Incorporation of the Farmington Canal Company, with Reports, etc., 1822.
The Act of Incorporation of the Farmington Canal Company; also the Act of Incorporation of the Mechanics' Bank of New Haven, with Sundry other Documents, etc., 1825.
George Beach, Esq., and the Northampton Town Meeting. 1825-26.
Remarks on the Farmington Canal &c. By an Original Stockholder.
Petition of the Farmington and Hampshire and Hampden' Canal Com- panies, To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. Presented by James Hillhouse, Agent, in behalf of the Companies. 1830.
Also papers relating to the incorporation of the Hampshire and Hamp- den Canal by the legislature of Massachusetts; and a Journal of the Pro- ceedings of the Convention Holden at Windsor, Vermont, in 1825, for the purpose of taking preliminary measures to effect an improved naviga- tion of the Connecticut River.
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in the navigation of the Connecticut River, headed by mer- chants and shipowners in Hartford, started a movement to thwart the New Haven project by another of their own which aimed to open and improve the navigation to the headwaters of the Connecticut and to Lake Memphremagog. In 1824, they obtained a charter for a canal around Enfield Falls and proceeded to ask legislation in Massachusetts for countenance of their plans in that state. In November, 1829, the canal at Windsor Locks was completed and was at once put into operation.
The New Haven enterprise again became embarrassed for want of funds. In 1829, the city of New Haven took $ 100,000 worth of stock, which afforded some relief but not the amount required. So it was decided to make an appeal to the United States Congress for an appropriation. In Febru- ary, 1830, Mr. James Hillhouse,* representing the Farm- ington Canal Company and also the Hampshire and Hamp- den Canal Company, offered a petition for the sum of $130,000 to complete the canal from Westfield to North- ampton. He then stated that, on the Farmington Canal, in- dividuals had advanced $645,000 and that $25,000 was
* The entrance of Mr. Hillhouse into this enterprise is full of mean- ing. He was the one man who might give the project a well-founded hope of fulfillment. His life had been devoted to public interests and he was distinguished for his successful achievements. As a young law student, he had been made captain of the Governor's Foot Guards, and had led his company in the defence of New Haven at the British invasion in 1779; and from that time onward he had been almost uninterruptedly engaged in public service,-in the Connecticut legislature, in the House of Repre- sentatives at Washington, in the United States Senate, as the treasurer of Yale College, and as commissioner of the Connecticut School Fund. He had resigned from a position of great distinction in the Senate, near the beginning of his third term, to be commissioner of a school fund that was on the verge of bankruptcy; and, by fifteen years of toil, he had rescued the endowment and established it upon a secure foundation. As treasurer of Yale College, which office he held till the end of his life, or for some fifty years, his administration was productive of similar results. At the same time, he was foremost in many other undertakings-in building a turn- pike, in laying out new streets and setting apart ground for a cemetery, in grading and fencing the Green, and in setting out young elm trees along
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needed to finish it; while for the Hampshire and Hampden Canal $ 167,54I had been paid in and $130,000 was neces- sary to complete it. This appeal was unavailing.
Some knowledge of divergent sentiment on the part of those in the neighborhood of the canal may be gained from a paper, purporting to be from "A Stockholder," which was published in a pamphlet under date of February, 1828. This paper sets out with the proposition that: "The Construction of Canals is the proper work of the sovereign power and should never be committed to private corporations"; and ar- gues with much cogency that the charter of the Farmington Canal was radically wrong and subversive of the principles of the common law and the liberties of the people. The pa- per closes with these words:
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