USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, Volume I > Part 64
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Although the original limits of Mattatuck included eight towns and parts of towns, the population as late as 1712 centred closely around the Green. As time went on and little settlements were established at points remote from the centre, "each neighborhood that would keep up a school, and had a sufficent number of scholars, was allowed a proportion of the school money."* From the records it would appear that in 1730 there were settlements, with a sufficient number of inhabitants to justify the establishment of schools, at. Judd's Meadow (now Naugatuck), Wooster Swamp (now Water- town), and Bucks Hill. It was voted, December 10, 1734, that a school be kept during the whole year following, as the law directs; seven months at the centre, nine weeks at Wooster Swamp, and seven weeks at Judd's Meadow. In 1737 the vote was that the school should be kept twenty-one weeks at the centre, twelve weeks at Wooster society, six weeks up the river, that is, at Plymouth, six weeks at Judd's Meadow, and three weeks at Bucks Hill, the num- ber of weeks being proportional to the number of scholars. The same master taught all the schools, going from place to place for this purpose.
In February, 1730, an attempt was made in Waterbury to secure a new school-house, but the project was voted down in town meet- ing. In December of the same year it was voted to " build a school- house on the meeting-house green where the old house stood," but the fathers exercised a wise man's privilege, and within a few days
* For the earliest notices of outside schools see Bronson, p. 237.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
the decision was reversed. We can learn nothing more on the sub- ject until 1743, when we find that the town "granted liberty to set a new school-house where the old house stood."
From references already made to the early records it has been seen that certain lands were set apart for school uses. It is impor- tant to distinguish accurately in regard to the three kinds of school land, so-called, whence the money for the support of the schools of Waterbury was derived.
There was, first, the land known as the " school lots," which had been set aside by the early proprietors for the purpose of leasing. This land was valued at £150, and the income from it was to be employed for the benefit of the town schools. For a number of years this land was rented and the money disposed of by the town, the funds being sometimes misappropriated and used for public objects other than educational. The care of it occasioned some trouble and expense at various times, and it was at length thought best to devise some means of disposing of it legally and profitably. A committee appointed for the purpose of considering this matter reported, December 10, 1734. recommending that the school lots be sold at auction at some public place, the money thus obtained to be " converted to the use of the schools." The sales commenced almost immediately, and this excellent plan was duly carried out. (See pages 333, 334.)
At the time when the respective claims of Hartford and Windsor were adjusted, the colony had obtained possession of seven townships in the western part of Litch- field county. In 1733 these townships were sold, and the proceeds of the sale added to the local school fund of the towns and societies of the colony. In Water- bury the First society claimed for itself alone the entire portion of this fund accru- ing to the town, basing its claim upon the fact that it was the only society in exist- ence in the town at the time of the passing of the law. It was not until after several years of discussion and wranglings that a vote was passed (in 1770) decree- ing that thenceforward the moneys should be divided among the several societies, and parts of societies in the town, both those then established and those hereafter to be brought into existence. The controversies and lawsuits which began when the new societies were made independent towns, combined with bad management, put an end to the dispute by dissipating the money."
The third source of revenue was the sale of Western territories belonging to the state. In 1773 Connecticut formed a township, on the Susquehanna, called West- moreland, extending indefinitely to the westward, which was annexed to Litchfield. In 1786 Connecticut ceded this Western territory to the Federal union, reserving the tract on the southern shore of Lake Erie, still known as the Western Reserve. As Litchfield county resigned all claim to the town of Westmoreland, congress recognized the right of the state to this territory, which embraced an area of 4,000,000 acres. Of this immense area, a section measuring a half million acres was granted to citizens whose property had been destroyed by fire or otherwise during the Revolutionary war (whence the name Fire lands) and the remainder was
* For further details see Bronson's "History," pp. 240-242. The following receipt, the original auto- graph of which is preserved among the papers of the First Congregational society, may be regarded as a souvenir of this period of dissension :
" Recd. March 12th, 1795, of Capt. Saml. Judd and Capt. Benjn. Upson, by the hands of Richard Bryan, seven pounds one shilling on part of an Execution in favor of John Woodruff, etc., against them and others as committees of the several Ecclesiastical Societies in Waterbury, obtained at Litchfield Superior Court, January term, 1795 .- WILLIAM HILLHOUSE."
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THE EARLY SCHOOLS AND THE FIRST ACADEMY.
sold in 1795 for $1,200,000, the proceeds being added to the state school fund. Con- necticut in 1800 ceded her right of jurisdiction over the reserve to the United States, and in the same year ceased, as a state, to control the fund. By an act of the legis- lature, the care of the fund was committed to James Hillhouse, under whose wise management it steadily increased. The proceeds of this fund are distributed annually to the various towns of the state, and it is this money, in addition to the school tax, which places the schools of Connecticut upon so favorable a basis.
The condition of the educational system in Connecticut at the close of the colonial period has been described by Noah Webster as follows:
The law of Connecticut ordains that every town or parish containing seventy householders shall keep an English school at least eleven months in the year, and towns containing a less number at least six months, Every town keeping public school is entitled to draw from the treasury of the state a certain sum of money proportional to its census on the list of property, the deficiency, when any occurs, being raised by a tax. To extend the benefit of this establishment to all the inhab- itants, large towns and parishes are divided into districts, each of which is supposed to be able to furnish a competent number of scholars for one school. In each district a house is erected for the purpose by the inhabitants of that district, who hire a mas- ter, furnish wood and tax themselves to pay all expenses not provided for by the public money. In this manner every child in the whole state has access to a school. The school is kept during the winter months, when every farmer can spare his sons. In the summer a woman is hired to teach small children who are not fit for any kind of labor. In the large towns scholars either public or private are kept the whole year, and in every county town a grammar school is established by law.
From this closing sentence of Noah Webster's statement it appears that the enactment of 1644 had been carried out, or at any rate was still recognized as in force at the close of the colonial period. As a matter of fact, it was found impracticable at first to enforce the requirement; but by 1672 grammar schools, or, as they were frequently called, Latin schools, were established in the chief towns of each county, and these were supported in part by grants of public lands, and sometimes by individual endowments. By degrees, when there was difficulty in establishing the local grammar school, as part of the public system, it became common for the clergyman of the town to fit young men for college, or for a college graduate to open at his own risk a place of instruction for those whose parents desired them to pursue a more advanced course of study than the district school could provide. In such cases, if there were a few men of public spirit and energy to encourage the under- taking, an academic institution would be established sooner or later, supported in some instances by private bequests and in others by corporate powers and grants of public lands obtained from the legislature. Thus it was that the first Waterbury Academy came into existence.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
THE FIRST ACADEMY.
Until the year 1784, there was no school in Waterbury of a higher grade than the common or district school. About this time, however, the Rev. Joseph Badger opened a school for girls. Its success awakened among the people of the town a desire for a school of the first class for both sexes, with a suitable building. A subscription was started, and a building, to be forty feet long, twenty feet wide, two stories high, with gambrel roof, two dormer windows on each side, and a chimney at each end, was commenced on the south side of the "Green," opposite to where the City hall now stands. It is not known whether the cupola was built at this time or later. The promoters of the building failed to receive money enough to finish it, and it seemed as if the plan must be abandoned, when Stephen Bronson, Benjamin Upson, Dr. Isaac Baldwin and John Curtiss came forward with the proposal that they would finish the building, on condition that they should have control of it until the money was refunded. This offer was accepted, and the build- ing, when completed in the fall of 1785, presented a quite impos- ing appearance. Two schools were opened, one for girls on the first floor, under the care of Mr. Badger, and one for boys up stairs, under the care of David Hale, a brother of Captain Nathan Hale of Revolutionary memory. Jeremiah Day, afterward president of Yale college, and Bennet Bronson, afterward Judge Bronson, were among his pupils. For a time scholars came in from adjoining towns to attend the schools, which were very prosperous. The first winter there were 150 pupils. The next year John Kingsbury, who had just graduated from college, joined the corps of teachers, and remained connected with the school until 1788 or '89, when he went to Litchfield to pursue his law studies. We do not know how long David Hale remained with the school, but his name used to be mentioned frequently by the old inhabitants during the first quarter of the present century, and he seems to have been a teacher of great ability and popularity. Mr. Badger remained with the school two years, that is, until 1787, at which time he accepted a call to Blandford, Mass., and there remained until 1800, when he became a pioneer home missionary at the west. It is recorded of him that he was a brave man, who, before entering college, had been a sol- dier in the Revolution, and that in the war of 1812, while nominally a chaplain, he had rendered great service to General Harrison as a guide and assistant. Throughout his life he was very poor, and in his later years depended mainly upon his Revolutionary pension for support. He died in 1846.
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THIE EARLY SCHOOLS AND THE FIRST ACADEMY.
These three, Badger, Hale and Kingsbury, are the only teachers that can be named of those who served while the academy stood upon the Green. It appears that the school, in the height of its prosperity, was furnished with the first bell ever brought into the town. At first, as there was no cupola on the school-house, it was hung in a willow tree near by, where it served not only to call the children to school, but also to summon the people to worship on the Sabbath. Charles D. Kingsbury, who died in 1890 at the age of ninety-four, said that he remembered the tower on the building after it stood on West Main street, and that it was circular in form, with supporting pillars six or eight feet high.
The prosperity of the school, which was so great that both stories of the building were filled with scholars, did not continue long after the departure of the teachers already named; at all events it appears that about 1790 James Harrison was making clocks in the lower story of the building .* It was probably between that time and 1800 that it was removed to a lot on West Main street. near where Central avenue now is. Its removal was brought about in an amusing way. At a meeting of the officers of the militia regiment, which was held at Captain Samuel Judd's tavern, prob- ably prior to the year 1807, to prepare for the annual "general training," the question arose where the general muster should be held. Some urged that it should not be held in Waterbury, as there was no good place in which to parade and perform evolutions. Captain Judd being present, or hearing of the discussion at the time, said, "I'll tell you what to do; move that school-house over to the corner of my lot, and then there will be room enough." The idea met with general approval, and in a short time the building was removed, the order of transfer being given by Colonel William Leavenworth, and the way prepared for holding the general train- ing on the Green. After the removal the building became the school-house of the West Centre district; the upper room was used for the school, the lower for religious purposes, town meetings, singing schools, etc. It also served as Town hall, until about 1807, when, as it became necessary to make repairs, the two stories were thrown into one, the cupola was taken down, and the bell hung under the roof. A division was made into two rooms, separated by a swinging partition, which on account of its weight was divided into two parts. This could at any time be swung up, and both rooms thrown into one. On the south side of the partition was a door for a passage between the two rooms. The east room was
* Judging from the charges entered in his books, he made two clocks per month, at a price of about £4 each.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
occupied by the district school of the West Centre district, and the west was sometimes used for a private school, though it appears that after the "stone academy " was built in 1825, the west room was used exclusively as a cloak room and a play room for the children. By a vote of the district, the bell in the old building was removed to the belfry in the new academy. The district school was held most of the time in the old academy building until about 1836, when, as it would no longer answer for a school without consider- able repairs, the district sold it at auction to Samuel J. Holmes for about forty dollars. It was then moved back from the sidewalk and altered into a dwelling-house. In the summer of 1878 it was transferred about 400 feet to the northwest, into a vacant lot, to make way for the laying out of Central avenue. Thus the old aca- demy survived four removals. The main timbers, which are of white oak, ten inches square, are still in a good state of preserva- tion.
Among those who taught when the building was on West Main street are the following:
Ashley Scott, Samuel Root, Ira Hotchkiss of Naugatuck, a Mr. Porter, the Rev. Mr. Williams, the Rev. Virgil H. Barbour, John Clark, Elijah F. Merrill, Israel Holmes (Ist), Phebe Hotchkiss (a sister of Deacon Elijah Hotchkiss), a sister of Phebe Hotchkiss, whose name is not known, Miss Warner of Plymouth, Elmer Clark of Bucks Hill, Mr. Peck of Watertown, Mr. Robinson, Miss Norton (after- ward married in New Milford), David Trumbull Bishop, Janet Judd (afterward married to a Mr. Beers of Watertown), Harriet Powell, Julia Upson of Southing- ton (afterward married to Joseph Rogers of East Haven), and Phebe Bronson (afterward married to Dr. William A. Alcott, the author). The last teacher was a Miss Clark of Middlebury.
Great sacrifices were undoubtedly made to erect this academy building. The population, including Plymouth, Watertown, Mid- dlebury, part of Oxford, Naugatuck, Prospect and Wolcott, did not exceed three thousand, and the amount in the " grand list " of 1786 was only £17,000, or $60,000 as money was then rated. It was as great an undertaking to erect and equip this building as it would be for the Waterbury of to-day, with its present population and wealth, to erect one costing $500,000. If we had no other evidence, we could safely infer from the churches and school-houses of a cen- tury ago, and from the instructors who labored in them, that the forefathers were sterling men, men who believed in education and religion, and were willing to deny themselves, that knowledge and righteousness might be advanced in the community.
CHAPTER XL.
SABBATH-KEEPING AND SUMPTUARY LAWS-THE EARLIEST CONNECTICUT CHURCHES-TOWN AND CHURCH IN MATTATUCK-JEREMIAH PECK, JOHN SOUTHMAYD, MARK LEAVENWORTH-THE "GREAT AWAKEN- ING " - THE REVOLUTION - - MR. LEAVENWORTH'S CHARACTER THREE MEETING-HOUSES-THE EARLY CREED-DECLENSION AFTER WAR-EDWARD PORTER, HOLLAND WEEKS, LUKE WOOD-REVIVAL UNDER NETTLETON - ORIGIN OF PRAYER-MEETING, OF SUNDAY SCHOOL -DANIEL CRANE-A CHRONICLE - SALEM SOCIETY - A CHURCH AND A MEETING-HOUSE - DEACON HOTCHKISS'S ACCOUNT BOOK-GIFTS OF LAND - REMOVAL TO THE VALLEY - MINISTERS AND DEACONS.
T HE absence of any very early legislation in Connecticut Col- ony concerning the Sabbath is an evidence of the deep and wide-spread observance of its sancity in the lives and hearts of the colonists. For more than thirty years no allusion was made touching the possibility that the Sabbath could be desecrated by the people, and a similar absence of written law in regard to it is found in the early records of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. The Indians were the first apparent offenders. In 1666 it was ordered that whatever Indian or Indians should labor or play on the Sabbath within the English limits, or on the English lands, should pay a fine of five shillings, or sit in the stocks one hour.
The evil was evidently growing, for in 1668 it was ordered that if any person should " prophane the Sabbath by unnecessary travel or playing, or should keep out of the meeting-house during the public worship unnecessarily, if there was convenient room in the house," the offender should meet the same penalties that had fallen upon the Indian. It was not until 1676 that the order came requiring any person either on Saturday night or on the Lord's Day night, though it should be after the sun had set, who was "found sporting in the streets or fields, or drinking in houses of public entertain- ment, or elsewhere unless for necessity, to pay ten shillings for every such transgression or suffer corporal punishment for default of due payment." Servile work on the Sabbath was forbidden at the same date. It was defined as "works not of piety, charity or necessity." "Prophane discourse or talk, rude or unreverent be- havior," were not to be permitted on that holy day, and if it so
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
happened that the offence was "circumstanced with high handed presumption," the judge had power given him to augment the penalty.
In 1676 "God's worship and the homage due to him" required " reading of the Scripture, cattechizing of children, and dayly prayer with giving of thanks to be attended to by every Christian family," and the neglect of those obligations was declared by the law to be a great sin, "provoaking to God to power forth wrath on such fam- alayes or persons," and the Court solemnly advised the ministry in all places " to look into the state of such families, convince them, and instruct them in their duty, and encourage them to perform it," and advised the townsmen to "assist the ministry to reform and educate the children in good literature and the knowledge of the Scripture." If any governors of families proved obstinate and would not be reformed, the grand jury presented such persons to the county court, to be fined, punished, or bound to good behavior. All persons were forbidden to make, or wear, or buy any apparel exceeding the quality and condition of their persons or estates, and any tailor who fashioned any garment for any child or servant, con- trary to the mind of the parent or master, was compelled to pay ten shillings for his offence. Excess in apparel was, at the same time, declared unbecoming a wilderness condition and the profession of the gospel, and it was ordered that "what person soever should wear gold or silver lace, or gold or silver buttons, silk ribbons, or other superfluous trimings, or any bone lace above three shillings per yard, or silk scarfs," should be assessed to pay rates on an estate of £150,-the same amount that men were accustomed to pay to whom such apparel was allowed, as being suitable to their rank. Ex- ceptions were made in favor of magistrates, public officers of the colony, their wives or children, and of settled military commissioned officers, and also of those persons whose quality and estate had been above the ordinary degree, although then "decayed."
The above laws were in full force and effect in 1681 when the planters of Waterbury assembled their families around the Green.
The "most auncient towne" in Connecticut is Wethersfield. It was so determined by the General Court as early as 1650, and the statement is incorporated in the "code of laws" of that year. In that most ancient town-then known as Watertown-the first church of Christ in Connecticut was organized. On May 29, 1635, the church in Watertown in Massachusetts Bay granted "a dismis- sion " to six of its members, "with the intent that the six men should form anew in church covenant on the River of Connecticut." The names of the six members were: "Andrew Ward, John Sher-
603
THE FIRST CHURCH TO 1825.
man, John Strickland, Robert Coe, Robert Reynold, and Jonas Weede." In April, 1636, the first court of which we have record in Connecticut Colony was held at Newtown (now Hartford), and before it the six men presented "a certificate that they had formed anew in church covenant with the public allowance of the rest of the members of the said churches." The "said churches" were undoubtedly those of Newtown and Dorchester (Hartford and Windsor)-which churches had removed, as churches, from the Bay to the Connecticut river.
The second and third churches, those of New Haven and Mil- ford, were formed August 22, 1639-that at New Haven by the appointment of twelve men chosen by the freemen, who out of the twelve men thus chosen did select seven of their number to begin the church. By the covenanting together of the seven men and their reception of other men into their fellowship, the church was gathered. In like manner in 1652, the Farmington church was established with its "seven pillars." Two of the seven men, many years later, were personally interested in the settlement of our township (see p. 148).
What minister first preached in Waterbury we do not know, but it seems almost safe to say that it was the Rev. Samuel Hooker (see p. 159), for what could have been more natural than that his love for the more than thirty members of his Farmington church should have led him to visit Mattatuck, whither they had removed, and minister to their spiritual comfort in the wilderness.
As early as 1679 Mattatuck was one of two "newly begun " set- tlements within the colony, who were seeking for a minister (see p. 184). In February of 1681, or as soon as the majority of the plant- ers were living here, the question arose concerning the lot that should be for the minister's use, which question involves the proba- ble presence of a minister to use it. That the colony, through its committee, was vigorously interested in procuring a settled minis- ter, certainly as early as 1683, appears from the "Diary of the Rev. Noadiah Russell," tutor at Harvard in 1682. Early in 1683, he wrote: "I received a letter from Major Talcott of Hartford, in behalf of Mattatuck, to invite me to be their minister, which I answered neg- atively." Major Talcott doubtless met with many similar disap- pointments in his efforts, for during the ensuing six years there has not been found on record the name of a minister in connection with the people of Mattatuck. Nevertheless, that there had been a minister appears again from an item in the town records of 1686, when the question came before the town concerning the lot that should be and remain for the minister's use, and there is sufficient
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
evidence to warrant the belief that Mr. John Frayser was in Water- bury, and living in the house that had been built for him, and that he served the people as their pastor during a part if not the whole of the period between 1684 and 1689 (see p. 210).
The history of the town and the history of the First church, from the beginning down to October, 1738, are so blended, that their sep- arate estates cannot be defined. The story of the invitation sent to the Rev. Jeremiah Peck to become the settled minister here; the pledge given by twenty-five men of Waterbury concerning his sal- ary; the town's unanimous action in presenting house and lands to Mr. Peck and gifts to his sons; the escort provided to transport him from Greenwich here; the events of the year in which he came; the reasons why he could not baptize the children of his people until he became an ordained minister over the Waterbury church; the known events of his life, together with the petition to the General Court by some of the inhabitants of Waterbury for permission to " proceed to the gathering of a Congregational church"; the court's happy response, and all that we know concerning the most impor- tant event that ever took place within the Naugatuck valley-the organization of the First church of Waterbury-together with the story of the efforts of the people to build a meeting-house under adverse environment, have been so fully given between pages 210 and 233 as to make their repetition here unnecessary.
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