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 III > Part 40
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After Messrs. Kingsbury and Anderson, the most prolific of Waterbury writers, with the exception of our editors and novelists, is David G. Porter. Mr. Porter is a native of Waterbury, a son of Deacon Timothy Porter (page 679) and a graduate of Yale college in 1857. He has spent most of his life in his native town (see page 550), and for some years past has devoted himself to the study of theological and educational questions and to their discussion in the periodical press. As a writer he is at once vigorous and graceful, courageous and discreet. He has the full courage of his convic- tions, but at the same time believes that progress in society and the church must always be gradual, and perhaps slow. In theology Mr.
* Dr. Anderson was chairman of the executive committee and editor of both volumes. He contributed also the " Historical Account of the Congress " and the " First Year of the Congress." A considerable part of the former paper is reproduced in Dr. W. W. Newton's "Life of Dr. Muhlenberg " in the series of " American Religious Leaders."
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POETS AND PROSE WRITERS.
Porter represents, in an independent way, the views of that large body of Christians known as " Disciples," and many of his papers have appeared in the periodicals of that denomination. He shares with them a deep interest in the subject of Christian union, and during its brief career was an active participant in the American Congress of Churches. The articles contributed by him to the Chris- tian Quarterly are as follows:
The Significance and Practical value of Baptism. April, 1872.
How has the Once Plain Way become Obscured ? July, 1872.
Collegiate Education for the People. October, 1872.
Church Organization versus Church Government. January and April, 1873. Liberal Education for Girls. July, 1873.
Collegiate Education for Girls. October, 1873.
Republican Government and the Suffrage of Women. October, 1874.
The Relation Between Baptists and Disciples. October, 1892.
Christian Union and the Lambeth Proposals. New Christian Quarterly, October, 1895. Also in pamphlet form, pp. 15.
Mr. Porter also contributed to the New Englander, July, 1880, a paper on the " Objects and Methods of Classical Study." In 1885 he pub- lished a volume entitled "The Union League Club; a Sequel to The Christian League of Connecticut. By R. E. Porter. St. Louis: Christian Publishing Company " (pp. 212)-a substantial contribu- tion to the discussion opened up by Dr. Washington Gladden's book. In 1886 he read at Cleveland, O., a paper on "A True Church, its Essentials and Characteristics," which was published in the Pro- ceedings of the American Congress of Churches for that year. But the production of Mr. Porter's pen which belongs most distinctly to the realm of pure literature is his "Columbian Lunar Annual for the First Year of the Fifth American Century. Boston: 1893" (pp. 88). The volume (for so it deserves to be styled) is an essay toward a revival of the lunar calendar, but not to "supersede or interfere with the solar calendar in legal or practical matters;" "it is for literature rather than law, . for poetry rather than profit, for culture rather than contracts." In keeping with this idea, the " Annual " contains selections from the best poetry of the ages and a careful account of the ancient mythology of the months and the year. The work serves as a notable proof of the author's scholarship, taste and ingenuity. Mr. Porter published in the Journal of Social Science for 1894 a paper on "English as a Universal Language."
With the exception of one or two of our novelists, there is no resident of Waterbury whose name has appeared on the title-page of a larger number of volumes than that of Anna L. Ward, one of the responsible collaborators in this History of the town and city.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Miss Ward was born in Bloomfield, N. J., and lived in her child- hood's home until March, 1887, when she removed to Waterbury. Previous to this, however, she had spent a considerable time in travel in parts of America not often visited by residents of the United States. In 1886, with Florentine H. Hayden of this city, she visited Labrador, and spent some weeks at points further north than any which, up to that date, had been reached by any American woman. The time was spent in studying the Eskimo and their mode of life, and the results of the visit were embodied in an illustrated lecture on that "untravelled " region. Miss Ward's literary career may be said to have begun in 1880, or earlier, when she became associate editor in compiling the "Hoyt & Ward Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations" (New York and London: 1881). Since then she has published "A Dictionary of Quotations from the Poets" (1883), "Surf and Wave," illustrated by Florentine H. Hayden (1883), "Familiar Quotations from American Authors," in a "Library of Quotations " (five volumes, London and New York: 1884), "A Dic- tionary of Quotations in Prose" (1889), "Waterbury Illustrated " (1889), and several magazine and newspaper articles, chiefly descrip- tive of her travels. In connection with these labors she has col- lected a valuable library, rich in English literature and in books relating to northern America. Miss Ward has spent the last eight years chiefly in work upon the History of Waterbury, but in the meantime has not failed to identify herself with philanthropic labors in behalf of others. She has been especially interested in the Young Women's Friendly league of this city.
Our writers of fiction have been alluded to. There are several Waterbury names that belong in this class, that of Sarah J. Prichard standing first in order. Miss Prichard's earliest endeavor in the field of literature was a communication in the Waterbury American in the summer of 1853, descriptive of a bit of travel from Niagara northward. At about the same time "The Consecration of River- side," referring to the first burial-that of a woman-in the new cemetery, appeared in the same paper. Her first book, published in 1860, was "Martha's Hooks and Eyes." Other volumes have appeared in the following order: "Nat's Shoes," 1862; " Kate Mor- gan and her Soldiers," 1862; " Kenny Carle's Uniform," 1863; "The Old Stone Chimney," 1865; " Joe and Jim," 1865; " Marjie's Matches," 1866; " Hugh's Fire on the Mountain," 1866; " Faye Mar of Storm- Cliff," first as a serial in Hours at Home, 1867, and afterward in book form, 1868; "Rose Marbury," 1870; " What Shawney did to the Light House," 1871; "Aunt Saidee's Cow," 1872. Other serials are: "Mr. Axtell," which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862, and "David
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POETS AND PROSE WRITERS.
Bushnell and his American Turtle," published in the Wide Awake in 1876. Besides the periodicals just mentioned, Miss Prichard has contributed stories and articles to the following publications:
The Advance, The Christian Union, The Congregationalist, The Evening Post, Good Cheer, Hearth and Home, The Home Journal, The Illustrated Christian Weekly, The Independent, The Little Corporal, Merry's Museum, The New York Evangelist, The New York Tribune, The Nursery, Our Boys and Girls, Our Conti- nent, St. Nicholas, The Waterbury American, The Youth's Companion.
A simple enumeration of this kind is sufficient to bring into full view Miss Prichard's industry and perseverance and the largeness of her resources as a writer of fiction. As the titles of her books indicate, she has devoted herself chiefly to the production of stories for the young, and in so doing, while to some extent narrowing her range, has extended very widely her personal influence, and thus secured results which must always be precious to a person of Miss Prichard's benevolence and broad sympathies. She is permitted to cherish the assurance that during the long period of her literary activity she has thrown fresh sunlight into many a young life and moulded many an aspiring spirit to a more perfect pattern. The apparent discontinuance of her literary activity some years ago, as indicated by the dates of her stories, is due in part to her accept- ance, in 1887 or thereabout, of the task which has since occupied her so fully, the writing of the story of early Waterbury. For seven or eight years she has been at work upon this, with a quite excep- tional thoroughness and keenness of vision. In this History the narrative from the first coming of the white man to the close of the the Revolutionary war, is exclusively hers, and the results she has brought together justify her right to the field and her methods of procedure.
Other writers belonging to Waterbury at the present time or for- merly have made ventures in the realm of fiction. Arthur Reed Kimball, for example, wrote a novel some years ago, entitled “A Reporter's Story." His book, "The Blue Ribbon," has been referred to elsewhere. The Rev. Frederick R. Sanford, a native of Water- bury, published in 1889 "The Bursting of a Boom; a Semi-Tropical Love Story." Mrs. Nellie Lowe Willmott, also a native of Water- bury, has tried her hand at "A Dash of Red Paint " (1894). "Ezra Hardman, M. A.," a story published in Scribner's Magazine in March, 1893, was the product of another native of Waterbury, a daughter of S. T. Rogers of Bridgeport. "Asa of Bethlehem and his House- hold," a work of fiction relating to the early life of Jesus, by Mary Elizabeth Jennings, wife of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Jennings already mentioned, appeared in 1895. And other stories by other Water-
966
IIISTORY OF WATERBURY.
bury writers could doubtless be added to the list. But the only person in our city to-day who is making authorship in the field of fiction her definite vocation is Constance Goddard Du Bois. She is a native of Zanesville, O., a daughter of Delafield and Alice (God. dard) Du Bois. She was educated at the Putnam seminary in her native town, and before coming to Waterbury lived in Charleston, West Va., and in Watertown, N. Y. More than ten years ago (in July, 1884) Miss Du Bois published in Demorest's Magazine "Mary Webster, the Witch; a Sketch of Hadley in the Seventeenth Cen- tury." In April, 1889, she contributed to Belford's Magazine a novel- ette entitled "An Eccentric Revenge;" and since then she has pub- lished "Martha Corey; a Tale of the Salem Witchcraft" (1890), "Columbus and Beatriz " (1892), "A Modern Pagan" (1895), and " The Shield of the Fleur de Lis" (1895). Most of Miss Du Bois's work has been done in the field of historical fiction, and is the result of conscientious preparation, a high artistic sense, and an ambition to achieve the best.
There remains to be mentioned a small and very miscellaneous group of writers, who cannot be classified except in chronological order. One of the earliest of these was Henry Terry (see page 458), who published in the Waterbury American of June 10, 1853, a long review of Dr. Alcott's "History of Clock Making." This grew into a pamphlet on the "Early History of American Clock Making," published in 1870, and reissued in an enlarged edition in 1885. The books written by R. W. Wright, who while a resident here was a lawyer and an editor, are referred to elsewhere. In 1863 H. F. . Bassett began the publication of his papers on entomological sub- jects (chiefly on cynipidae), which are enumerated in another chapter. In 1890 he wrote the " Historical Sketch " (pp. 36) that accompanies the "fifty selected views" which make up the handsome volume entitled "Waterbury and Her Industries." His name stands at the threshold of the present History (Volume I, Chapter I), and he wrote the article "Waterbury " in Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia (1895). (The article on "Needles and Needle Making" in the same work was prepared by S. W. Goodyear.) In 1874 C. C. Commerford (page 170) printed some earnest papers on such subjects as "Labor and Capital " and "Strikes." W. H. K. Godfrey, while he was a resi- dent of Waterbury, put into print a little volume giving an account of his " Three Months in Europe." Captain C. W. Burpee published in 1891, a "Military History of Waterbury," designed as a contri- bution to the present work, and Major J. C. Kinney, some years after his removal from our city, published some valuable reminis- cences of the civil war. The scientific papers of Dr. E. O. Hovey, W. H. Patton and G. B. Simpson are more definitely noticed in
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POETS AND PROSE WRITERS.
the scientific section. We conclude with a reference to the brief essay on " Hypnotism and Justice" in the North American Review for April, 1895, by our young friend H. Merriman Steele. It ought, however, to be added that John A. Moran (see page 515) was mak- ing arrangements just before his last illness for the publication of an elaborate volume relating to Cuba, the fruit of his six years' residence on that island. He was also the translator of a Spanish work of fiction.
Notwithstanding the fulness of this record the writer has doubt- less overlooked names that ought to be included in it. Such short- comings are inevitable in all kinds of history. Let us be thankful that the dead are not here to rebuke us for not having been lifted for the moment out of the oblivion of the past; and as for the liv- ing, let them look onward to the recompenses of the future, when another History of Waterbury shall require to be written!
IRVING N. HALL.
Irving Nelson Hall, the only child of Nelson and Lorinda (Mar- shall) Hall, was born at Pittsford, N. Y., May 24, 1829, and was edu- cated at the Rochester high school. He was a young man of scholarly tastes, and a hard student, but had not a college training. He lived in Waterbury from 1844 to 1855. Becoming interested in the German language he went abroad to spend several years in travel and study and to gather material for a history of the religious wars of Ger- many. To this history he intended to devote his life or so much of it as might be necessary, but he became the victim of comsumption, went to Egypt in search of improved health, and died at Cairo, May 14, 1859. His grave in the English Protestant cemetery in that city is referred to in a little poem published in the Waterbury American of February 22, 1861:
And she whose son beside the Nile is sleeping, Where her fond hand can plant no shrub or tree,
Finds time to thank God in her bitter weeping That he hath said, " There shall be no more sea."
This loving mother, Mrs. Lorinda M. Hall, at her death in 1894, left a bequest of about $1200 to "the board of foreign missions of the United Presbyterian church of North America " for the benefit of its mission in Egypt, with the proviso that the missionaries and agents of the board should, during the continuance of the mission, take care of the grave of her son and its memorial stone in the cemetery at Cairo. Mrs. Hall left also $1000 to the Waterbury Industrial school, of which she was one of the founders (page 897).
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE EARLIEST NEWSPAPERS - CONNECTICUT PROVINCIAL PRESS - THE "WATERBURY AMERICAN "-GILES & COOKE-MESSRS. HURLBURT,
TOWNSEND AND MATTOON-SUCCESSIVE ENLARGEMENTS-THE WAR PERIOD-A DAILY ISSUE-THE AMERICAN PRINTING COMPANY- MESSRS. SCUDDER, DAKIN, KINNEY, SMITH AND BEACH-DEATH OF "FATHER" COOKE-IMPORTANT CHANGES-THE COMING OF C. F. CHAPIN-A NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE-A. R. KIMBALL -VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS AND MEN-LOCAL CORRESPONDENCE- RECENT ENLARGEMENTS-THE "DEMOCRAT "-ITS GROWTH-THE MESSRS. MALONEY-STEPHEN J. MEANY-THE "REPUBLICAN " - J. H. MORROW AND T. D. WELLS-CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF SMALLER JOURNALS-PAPERS REPRESENTING SPECIAL INTERESTS-AMATEUR JOURNALS-ENOS BRONSON-R. W. WRIGHT-WILLIAM STOCKING.
F REDERIC HUDSON, in his "Journalism in the United States," informs us that the first American newspaper appeared in Boston on September 25, 1690, headed “ Publick Occurrences." Its publisher intended it to be a monthly, but only one issue appeared. The next attempt was made in 1704, when, on April 24, the Boston News Letter began to be published. It was the only paper in British North America, but " by its establishment," says Hudson, " journalism became an organized business," and the News Letter itself lived for seventy-two years. The next paper was the Boston Gazette, established December 21, 1719, and another, the American Weekly Mercury, appeared in Philadelphia the following day. The New England Courant appeared in 1721, the New York Gazette in 1725, and the Connecticut Gazette in New Haven, January 1, 1755. The Connecticut Courant (which still lives) was first issued on October 29, 1764, by Thomas Green "at the Heart and Crown near the North Meeting-House" in Hartford.
The Connecticut Journal and New Haven Post Boy first appeared in October, 1767, and the Norwich Packet in 1773. In 1775 there was one newspaper in each of the three cities, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Hudson refers to the "papers that passed through the fire of the Revolution and entered the new political arena," but he has very little to say of the provincial press of Connecticut. We, know, however, that some of these papers were occasionally read in Waterbury; also the Litchfield Weekly Monitor, which appeared in 1784, and the Weekly News Print
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THE AMERICAN AND OTHER NEWSPAPERS.
of Danbury, established in 1790-although the regular edition of the last named paper did not usually exceed a hundred copies. Stray copies of the Post Boy, above referred to, certainly found their way hither, and in passing from household to household were some- times, we are told, "worn to tatters." The Connecticut Mirror, estab- lished by Dr. Dwight in 1806, and the American Mercury of Litchfield were also seen, now and then, in Waterbury homes. Which of these several papers had the "largest subscription list" in Waterbury, and whether the total number of subscribers, say in 1800, was more than a dozen or two, it is impossible to know. Said Noah Webster, referring to this period:
In Connecticut almost every man reads a paper every week. In the year 1785 I took some pains to ascertain the number of papers printed weekly in Connecticut and in the southern states. I found the number in Connecticut to be nearly 8000, which was equal to that published in the whole territory south of Pennsylvania. By means of this general circulation of public papers the people are informed of all political affairs, and their representatives are often prepared [in advance] to delib- erate on propositions made to the legislature.
During the early decades of the nineteenth century there was, of course, a gradual increase in the newspaper reading of the com- munity, and after 1840 one or two attempts were made to establish a local paper here. These, however, came to naught.
THE WATERBURY AMERICAN.
The first number of the Waterbury American was issued on December 14, 1844, by Josiah Giles, from an office in what was at that time known as Porter's brick building (on the corner of West Main street and Exchange place). It was a four-page paper of foreign, general and political news, much of it several days and even several weeks old, with miscellaneous prose and poetry, brief market reports, a scanty record of marriages and deaths, four short advertisements, and the publisher's address to the public, but not a line of editorial comment or local news. At that time Waterbury contained a population of 3000, had twenty-six manufacturing estab- lishments, four churches-Congregational, Episcopal, Baptist and Methodist -- and two hotels.
The publisher stated that his "experiment was a new one," by which he meant perhaps a doubtful one, as other previous attempts to start a paper had been made and failed; but he included the neighboring towns of Naugatuck, Wolcott, Middlebury, Watertown and Plymouth among those which "should feel an interest in sup-
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