USA > New York > Oswego County > History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 108
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Henry II. 1Inll, 9th II. Art. Enlisted Nov., 1863; discharged 1865. Benj. G. Sparks, 81st Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1861 ; disch. Sept., 1864. Amos Allport, 147th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862 ; promoted ; disch. Truman King, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. David Worden, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. Daniel Carson, Jr. Enlisted July, 1864; discharged 1865.
Daniel N. Bronson, 4th II. Art. Enlisted Dec., 1863 ; disch. 1865. Wesley Madison, 184th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1864; discharged 1865. Milton Jones, 9th H. Art. Enlisted Dec., 1863; discharged 1865. Chas. 11. Hall, 21st Battery. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1,865. Loyd Parmiter, 4th H. Art. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. Jos. Baker, Jr., 24th Cav. Enl'd Dec., 1863; died June 17, 1864.
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Joseph Pelo, 147th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; died Feb. 27, 1863. John H. Simpson, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862 ; pro. to sergeant ; discharged 1865.
Wm. II. Simpson, 10th H. Art. Enlisted Feb., 1864; disch. 1865. Robert Simpson, 184th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1864; discharged 1865. L. O. S. Madison, 81st Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1861 ; 2d sergeant ; pro- moted to major ; discharged 1865.
Z. Paterson, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. Hiram Madison, 24th Cav. Enlisted May, 1861 ; disch. May, 1863. M. L. Stearns, 10th Ohio. Enl'd May, 1863 ; disch. Aug., 1863, disab. John E. Madison, 9th II. Art. Enlisted Jan., 1864; disch. 1865. Wm. F. Barlow, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. Benj. F. Madison, 8Ist Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1861 ; disch. Sept., 1864. Joel E. Streeter, 184th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1864; discharged 1865. Lucius HI. Tompkins, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; disoh. 1864. Jas. W. Parkhurst, 184th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1864; promoted to captain ; discharged 1865.
Byron B. Parkhurst, 147th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; promoted three times ; discharged 1865.
A. Decory, 147th Infantry. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. Benj. B. Smith, 110th Inf. Enl'd Aug., 1862; disch. Dec., 1862; disab. F. Gilbert, 184th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1864; discharged 1865. L. N. Borden, 9th HI. Art. Enlisted Jan., 1863; discharged 1865. John Sigourney, 147th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. John Sparks, 184th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1864; discharged 1865. Frank Waugh, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; pro .; disch. 1865. Henry Hubbard, 147th Inf. Enl'd Sept., 1862 ; pro. to capt .; disch. 1865.
Colon Hall, 147th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1862; discharged 1865. A. R. Larkin, 184th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1864; discharged 1865. David Hyatt, 24th Inf. Enlisted May, 1861 ; discharged 1865. L. I. Hall, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; disch. Dec., 1862, disab. IIerbert Bailey, 12th Regiment. Discharged 1865.
R. M. Davis, 184th Iof. Enlisted Aug., 1864; discharged 1865. Alex. Gasett, 147th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1862; discharged 1864. C. M. Burt, 110th Inf. Enlisted Ang., 1862; died July 17, 1863. W. H. Wright, 29th Wis. Enlisted Aug., 1862; died Aug. 11, 1863. Chas. Coon, 147th Inf. Enlisted Jan., 1864; died June 1, 1864. F. H. Hamlin, 147th Inf. Enlisted Ang., 1862; died Aug., 1864. Daniel Gugle, 81st Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1861 ; died Jan. 25, 1864. Lewis B. Porter, 81st Inf. Enl'd Sept., 1861; died March 17, 1862. Silas Halleck, 147th Inf. Enlisted Jaly, 1862 ; died July 1, 1863. John Manifold, 59th Ill. Enlisted Sept., 1861; died March 18, 1863. Jas. H. Manifold, 97th Ill. Enl'd Aug., 1862; died July 28, 1863. John H. Coon, 147th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1862; died Apr. 2, 1863. Geo. W. Coon, 147th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; dicd Apr. 12, 1863. Geo. P. Holly, 81st Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1861 ; killed at Fair Oaks. Edgar M. Warren, 110th Inf. Enl'd Aug., 1862; died July 13, 1863. Wm. Woolworth, 81st Inf. Enl'd Sept., 1862; dicd Feb. 22, 1863. Wm. Stevens, 14th Inf. Enlisted Nov., 1862; died Aug. 14, 1863. Chas. Read, 81st Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1861 ; died in rebel prison. Henry Read, 81st Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1861; died May 26, 1864. Thos. H. Robinson, 9th H. Art. Eol'd Jan., 1864; died July 17, 1864. Frank Welch, 81st Inf. Enlisted Jan., 1862; killed at Cold Harbor. Giles Read, 81st Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1861; died June 5, 1862. Luther Hall, 81st Inf. Enlisted Jan., 1864; died June 20, 1864. Wm. Ramsey, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; died Dec. 6, 1863. Silas Delong, 20th Inf. Enlisted Feb., 1864; died March 10, 1864.
Wm. H. Barnes, 81st Inf. Enlisted Oct., 1861; dicd Feb. 1, 1864. Julius Davis, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862 ; died May 18, 1863. David Mulligan, 110th Inf. Eulisted Aug., 1862 ; died Aug. 18, 1863. Jas. A. Brown, 24th Inf. Enlisted Apr., 1861; died Sept. 21, 1862. Joel A. Baker, 147th Inf. EnI'd Sept., 1862 ; pro. to capt. ; disch. 1865. John H. Downs, 21st Bat. Enl'd Sept., 1862; pro. to lieut. ; disch. 1864.
Lewis Lafaver, 193d Inf. Enlisted Apr., 1865 ; discharged 1865. Thos. W. Smith, 184th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1864; pro. ; disch. 1865. Wm. Holmes, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. John Dawson, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. Edw. B. Bilkey, 9th H. Art. Enlisted Dcc, 1862; discharged 1865. Wm. E. Long, 9th H. Art. Enlisted Dec., 1862; discharged 1865. Nelson Wilmot, 193d Inf. Enlisted March, 1865; discharged 1865. Chas. Goddard, 127th Ill. Enlisted July, 1862; discharged 1865. F. T. Fish, 184th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1864; discharged 1865. Wm. D. Gleason, 10th II. Art. Eulisted Feb., 1864 ; disch. 1865. Geo. R. Gleason, 16th Reg's. Enlisted Jan., 1865 ; discharged 1865. Thomas Garity. Enlisted April, 1865; discharged 1865. Allen Shattuck, 9th H. Art. Enlisted Jan., 1864; discharged 1865. Caleh Shattuck, 24th Cav. Enlisted Jan., 1864; discharged 1865. T. Waugh, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. Washington Waugh, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; disch. 1865. Johu Waugh, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; discharged 1865. John Crosier, 9th H. Art. Enlisted Jan., 1864; discharged 1865. John Akins, 193d Inf. Enlisted March, 1865; discharged 1865. John Comer, 123d Inf. Discharged 1865.
L. Merich, 147th Inf. Enl'd Aug., 1863; pro. to serg't; disch. 1865. Oscar Hines, 21st Bat. Enlisted Sept., 1862; discharged 1865. Joseph Comer, Navy. Twenty months in service.
Patrick Malona, 2d Cavalry.
Win. Court, 147th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1862; discharged 1865.
Jas. A. Scribner, 147th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1862 ; died Jan. 3, 1863. Chas. M. Sheldon, 18th Cav. Enl'd March, 1864; died Oct. 17, 1864. John W. Mullen, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862 ; died Feb. 1, 1863. John P. Collins, 106th Inf. Enlisted July, 1862; killed in battle, July 9, 1864.
Benj. B. Hart, 24th Inf. Enlisted May, 1861 ; died Nov. 24, 1862. E. II. Craft, 110th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862 ; died June 15, 1863. Jas. Delancey, 24th Cav. Enlisted Jan., 1864; died June 17, 1864. Manville Crooker, 81st Inf. Enl'd Sept., 1861 ; died May 31, 1862. Win. H. Taylor. Enlisted Feh., 1864; died March 6, 1864.
Wm. E. Dunham, 81st Inf. Eul'd Sept., 1861 ; killed at Cold Harbor. Jay Jewitt, 81st Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1862; died Sept. 11, 1864. Geo. W. Du Bois, 81st Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1861 ; died June 15, 1862. James Ratican, 84th Inf. Killed at Gettysburg.
Samuel Burrus, 4th H. Art. Died in Salisbury prison.
Wmn. Martin, 147th Inf. Enlisted Aug., 1862; killed at Gettysburg. Julius Grantier, 24th Inf. Enlisted May, 1861; died June 19, 1862. G. R. Jones, 147th Inf. Enlisted Sept., 1862; died Feb. 8, 1863.
L. P. Hines, 9th H. Art. Enl'd Dec., 1862; killed in Shenandoah Valley, Oct., 1864.
Jas. McDermon, 2d H. Art. Enl'd Jan., 1864; died Sept. 1864, in Salisbury prison.
Nicholas Cormer, 2d H. Art. Enl'd Jan., 1864 ; killed at Petersburg. Francis Boguett, 110th Art. Enl'd Aug., 1862; died at N. O., Apr. 24, 1863.
John Boguett, 81st Art. Enlisted Aug., 1862; died June 14, 1864.
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REDFIELD.
THIS town was the scat of one of the earliest and most flourishing settlements in Oswego County. In fact, so early did the very first emigrants locate there that they and their children have all passed away, and there is not a single per- son who can tell with absolute certainty when the first man swung his axe and built his cabin on the banks of Salmon river. The survivor whose memory goes back the farthest of any one that has lived in that town (and probably of any one in the county) is the venerable Mrs. Mary Porter, widow of Ashbel Porter, now a resident of the village of Orwell. She was brought by her father, Eli Strong, from Connecticut, in March, 1798. She was then four years old, and well remembers how she and her still younger brother were carried on the ice down Salmon river, from the residence of Captain Nathan Sage, near the present village of Redfield Square, to the location selected by her father for his new home, the two children being transported on the backs of the captain's black servant and white hired man.
Captain Sage was afterwards well known in the county as Judge Sage, and after removing to Oswego was post- master and collector there many years. He was a Connec- ticut sea-captain, and was the leading pioneer of Redfield. He and a few other Connecticut men had located there between the spring of 1795 and the autumn of 1797, and had sent back glowing accounts of the fine, level flats on the Salmon river,-the virgin soil of which then appeared extremely fertile,-of the vigorous growth of timber, and, above all, of the pure, clear water everywhere to be found.
Among those who came during the three years previous to 1798, besides Sage, were Deacon Amos Kent, James Drake, Benj. Thrall, Josiah Lyon, Samuel Brooks, Eliakim Simons, and Isham Simons. The two latter are reported by tradition to have built the first barn in town, and to have raised it themselves. If so, they must have been the first settlers. Samuel Brooks, an unmarried man of twenty- eight, came in 1797.
A considerable immigration came in the spring of 1798, and in the course of that year we find the first authentic written record regarding Redfield. The territory which now bears that name was then townships Nos. 7 and 12 of the " Boylston tract." No. 7, constituting the north part of the present town, was then called Acadia, and was entirely unsettled. No. 12 had, as a survey-township, received the appellation of Redfield in honor of Dr. Fred- erick Redfield, who bought a large tract of land there very early, and visited the locality, but died on his return to Connecticut to make arrangements for a permanent removal.
Both these survey-townships, together with all the rest of Oswego County east of Oswego river, and a large tract lying east ward and northward, had been included in the town
of Mexico, when it was re-organized by the law of 1796, and the authentic document before referred to is the as- sessment-roll of that town for the year 1798, more fully described in the general history. The assessed owners of property in " No. 12," in that year, were Samuel Brooks, Phineas Corey, Nathan Cook, Ebenezer Chamberlain, Jos. Clark, Taylor Chapman, Roger Cooke, James Drake, John Edwards, Nathaniel Eels, Titus Meacham, Amos Kent, Joseph Overton, Joel Overton, Silas Phelps, John Pruyn, Nathan Sage, Eli Strong, Jedediah Smith, Obadiah Smith, Samuel Smith, Josiah Tryon, Joseph Strickland, George Seymour, Benjamin Thrall, Jonathan Worth, Jos. Wiek- ham, Thomas Wells, Luke Winchell, Charles Webster, Daniel Wilcox, and Jonathan Waldo, making thirty-two in all, while there were only twenty-six assessed in all the rest of Oswego County east of the Oswego river.
Some of these (including the two Overtons) had come in the spring of 1798, others, as before mentioned, during the three years previous, and still others had merely acquired title to their lands, and had not yet become permanent resi- dents. This was the case with Phineas Corey, whose son, John H. Corey, now probably the oldest resident of Red- field, states that his father came thither in 1796, bought and paid for a tract of land, and then returned east, not making a permanent location on his purchase until 1800, when he, John, was three years old.
Other settlers continued to come during and immediately after 1798, among whom were Erastus Hoskins, Benjamin Austin, and Elihu Ingraham. David and Jonathan Har- mon were also very early settlers, and probably came before 1798. Farms were speedily opened along the river, above and below the present village of Redfield Square. Cap- tain Sage was the agent of the proprietors. The only route by which the locality could be reached ran from Rome through the present town of Florence, Oneida county, and even that route was almost impassable for wagons. The road now called the State road was laid out at this period by the State from Rome, running through . Redfield and the northeast part of Boylston to Sackett's Harbor, but was not entirely opened for travel until two or three years later.
Snows of four, five, and even six feet in depth blockaded the settlers in winter, but still the level land, the fine tim- ber, and the clear water attracted .new-comers. It is said of Eli Strong and others that they could have bought good land in the valley of the Mohawk, within a short distance of Utica, as cheaply as at Redfield, but they did not fancy the water, and pressed on to the sparkling springs and purling rills of Redfield.
By the beginning of 1800 it was considered that there were inhabitants enough to form a separate town.
423
424
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Application was accordingly made to the legislature, and on the 14th day of March, 1800, a town was formed which corresponded in size to the survey-township of Redfield (No. 12), and retained the same name. It is said that there was considerable disposition to call the town " Strick- land," after another large land-holder, but about the time of its organization he ran away with another man's wife, and so the good people reverted to Redfield, on the ground that the doctor was dead and couldn't possibly commit a similar offense. It was a very small town for those days, and made a mere notch in the side of far-spreading Mexico, but the Salmon river settlement constituted a Connecticut world by itself, separated by rocky hills and dense forests from other communities, and its boundaries were intended to include only these sons and daughters of the land of steady habits.
On the first day of April, 1800, the voters met at the house of Josiah Tryon (the son-in-law of Captain Sage), and organized the town by electing the following officers : Supervisor, Luke Winchell; Town Clerk, Eli Strong; As- sessors, Erastus Hoskins, James Drake, and Benjamin Austin; Collector, Benjamin Thrall ; Overseers of the Poor, Amos Kent and Jonathan Harmon; Commissioners of Highways, Samuel Brooks, Daniel Wilcox, and Eliakim Simons ; Constable, Nathan Cook ; Path-masters, Eben- ezer Chamberlain, David Harmon, and Elibu Ingraham ; Fence-viewers, Titus Meacham, Isham Simons, and Nathan Sage ; Pound-master, David Harmon.
This last office was no sinecure. Plenty of evidence is to be found in the town-book of the interest taken by the people in that good old New England institution, the pound. At the very first town-meeting a vote was passed that a pound should be erected " as near the forks of the road, by David Harmon's, as can be found convenient," and that it should be composed of round timber, laid up forty feet by thirty.
That summer the proprietors gave fifteen acres of land to the young town for public purposes, and at a special town-meeting held in September following, it was voted to accept the gift. It was laid out as a public square, the name of Centre Square was given to the locality, and the early settlers all called their embryo village by that name. They soon, however, abbreviated it to " the Square," and it is now generally known as Redfield Square, many of the residents having, apparently, never heard of the original designation.
At the same meeting a penalty of five dollars was voted ·for felling trees into the Salmon river, unless they were immediately afterwards cut out. A bounty of five dollars was also voted for each wolf killed in the town.
The same year, 1800, Elihu Ingraham built the first saw- mill in town, and connected with it a run of stone, making also the first grist-mill, though a very inferior concern. It was run a few years, and then abandoned ; the inhabitants being afterwards compelled to go to Rome for their grinding, as they had done previous to its erection, or else resort to the primitive stump-mortar, so often mentioned in this work.
Phineas Corey came in 1800, as before stated. David Butler came the same year, and in that year or the next opened the first tavern in town. It was a log building
(situated near the northeast corner of the Square), but that edifice was soon replaced by a frame one.
In 1800 or 1801, also, came Amos and Joshua Johnson, brothers, whose occupations would now be considered the opposite of each other, but were not thus viewed at that period, when deacons frequently kept tavern, and attended sedulously to both the spirituous and spiritual needs of their customers. Amos, commonly called Colonel Johnson, kept the second tavern in town, situated south of the creek, at Centre Square, and Joshua, who lived with him, was the first minister. He was of the Congregational denomination, as were most of these early New England settlers.
At the same period (1800 or 1801) Dr. Enoch Alden came from Rome and made his home in this secluded but promising locality. His own family, however, furnished the first occupant of the newly laid out grave-yard at Centre Square, his infant son, Franklin, being buried there in 1801. This, however, was not the first death in town, as a young daughter of Wells Kellogg had previously been buried on the top of a hill on Captain Sage's farm, just west of Centre Square.
It is said that after the burial of Dr. Alden's child, Katie, the daughter of " Priest Johnson," as he was com- monly called, a girl just verging into womanhood, frequently expressed a feeling of sadness at the thought of that little infant lying there alone in the grave-yard. The same year she, too, was stricken down by death, and the child was no longer alone. Her tombstone still stands in the same grave- yard, but scores lie buried all around to keep her company.
It is not certain whether it was quite the first, but one of the first marriages was that of Samuel Brooks and Lamenta Strong, daughter of Eli Strong, and sister of Mrs. Porter, before mentioned, which took place in 1801. Of that marriage Mrs. George Mckinney was one of the off- spring.
The first child born in town was a son of Ebenezer Chamberlain, who received the name of Ezra L'Homme- dieu Chamberlain, in honor of one of the great land-holders of that section.
The first school of which any account can be obtained was taught in the winter of 1801-2, by the Rev. Mr. Johnson, though it seems probable that so large and intel- ligent a community had had one before. It is certain, however, that the first church (Congregational) was organ- ized in 1802 by Mr. Johnson, with nineteen members, and this was unquestionably the first church organization within the present county of Oswego. It antedated by five years the first formation of a church in Mexico, and preceded by fourteen years a similar proceeding in Oswego village. In 1802, also, Captain Sage was appointed a judge of the court of common pleas of Oneida county ; being the first official above the rank of supervisor within the present county of Oswego.
Allyn Seymour, father of the late Rodney Seymour, came in 1802, and settled about a mile east of the Square. An exciting incident of that year, remembered only by the earliest settlers, was the burning of Benj. Austin's house, where an infant a few months old was snatched from its cradle by another child, only five or six years of age, who barely succeeded in saving its life. The babe thus saved
JAMES PETRIE.
RES. of JAMES PETRIE, REDFIELD, OSWEGO Co., N. Y.
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
became in later years the Rev. Mr. Austin, a celebrated Universalist minister.
Phineas Corey was appointed one of the earliest justices of the peace, in 1802. His books as justice are still pre- served by his son, John H. Corey, as are also his father's account-books. The latter reach back to 1801, charges being made in that year against Jacob Houser, Dr. Alden, and Aaron West. The last-named person was debited with a hundred pounds of venison at three cents per pound, and "two yards of tobacco" at three cents per yard. On in- quiry regarding this curious entry, we were informed that tobacco twisted into a long, slender rope was commonly sold by the yard in those early days. The price charged for a day's work with an ox-team, harrowing and logging, was " nine shillings,"-a dollar twelve and a half cents
It would appear that the pound, forty feet by thirty, voted at the first town-meeting, was either not erected or was not considered sufficiently stylish, for at a special meet- ing held in August, 1802, it was decreed that a pound forty feet square and eight feet high should be erected in the public square. It was to be of hemlock timber, with sills and plates on all sides ; to have three posts between each corner ; the spaces between each pair of posts to be ocen- pied with seven bars of sawed timber, two by five inches each, tenoned into the posts; the structure to be furnished with a good gate, with lock and hinges.
It is a little difficult to understand the object of this fine institution, as at the same meeting it was voted that hogs should be " free commoners." It was certainly curious if cattle were shut up and hogs allowed to run at large. At the same time it was voted that the highway commissioners should open the "great road," from Allen Merrill's to the bridge, with money to be raised by the town.
They were not as particular about fences as in some towns, for at a later meeting it was decreed that they need be only four feet high, the part under three feet to have but six-inch spaces between the rails.
The first suit at law which can be found on record in Esquire Corey's docket (though doubtless there were others tried before) was in 1804, between Amos Kent, David Butler, and Eli Strong, plaintiffs, and Isham Simons, then of Rome, defendant. A judgment of twenty-two dollars was rendered in favor of the plaintiffs.
Another record of that year was this very simple but sufficient announcement : " Married by me, John Thomas, of Sandy Creek, to Betsey Dobson, of this place. Phineas Corey."
Betsey Dobson had a brother, Thomas Dobson, a man of great strength and daring. On one occasion, when in the woods without a gun, he discovered a bear (probably a young one) on the point of ascending a tree. Rushing up, he seized the animal's paws in an iron grasp, and held his legs around the tree until Dobson's shouts brought a man to his assistance, who dispatched the unfortunate Bruin.
Besides bears and wolves, the shriek of the savage pan- ther was sometimes heard on the hills that overlooked the valley of the Salmon. In 1803 or 1804, Erastus Hoskins and Luke Winchell had the honor of killing the first of these ferocious animals ever slain in town. There have been but two or three killed since.
In the winter of 1804-5 a strong effort was made to organize a new county from Oneida, comprising the terri- tory of the present counties of Lewis and Jefferson, and the greater part of Oswego, with the county-seat at Red- field. Instead of that, the two new counties of Lewis and Jefferson were formed in March, 1805, leaving Redfield in Oneida.
A hotly-contested suit, tried on the 10th of December, 1805, between Dr. Enoch Alden and Wells Kellogg, resulted in a verdict of twelve and a half cents for the plaintiff. The jury consisted of Jonathan Harmon, foreman ; Amos Kent, David Butler, David HIarmon, Ebenezer Chamberlain, and Hezekiah Ford.
Soon afterwards Dr. Alden returned to Rome to reside, and the little settlement was left without a physician. There was no store, the miniature grist-mill built by Ingraham was abandoned, and a long journey must be made ere one could cither live or die in accordance with the rules of civilized society. At first Rome was the nearest resort, but at a later period a store and other conveniences were to be found at Florence, only eight miles distant.
Yet these secluded pioneers were an intelligent and relig- ions community, and the school and church never ceased to flourish. After Mr. Johnson, a Mr. Charles Owen taught the school at the Square, and the Rev. William Stone, father of the celebrated editor and author, William L. Stone, offi- ciated as minister.
Very patriotic, too, were these sons and daughters of Con- necticut. Nearly every recurring Fourth of July saw an enthusiastic celebration, when bowers covered with bushes were built in the public square, and long tables capable of accommodating every man, woman, and child in the little community were spread with the bounteous cheer produced by the farms around. There the roast pig, standing on all- fours, ruled over a wilderness of meats, game, fish, bread, cake, pics, and all the savory results of the skill of New England housewives.
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