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JULY, 191?.
AMERICANA
CONTENTS
Page
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned and Hero-
ically Suffered in the Revolution for the Cause of
American Independence.
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B 647
Introduction.
I. Hannah Arnett of Elizabethtown.
II. The Tragic Fate of Jane McCrea.
The Story of Old Fort Edward, and the Marking of
the Site Where it Once Stood.
The Hamlet at the Bouwerij. Part I.
By Hopper Striker Mott 660
Journal of George Croghan, January-February, 1753-4.
Contributed by John W. Jordan, LL. D. . . . 677
The Rouse Family 684
Historic Views and Reviews 713
Paper read by Hon. John S. Applegate, President of
the Monmouth Historical Association at a Joint
Meeting of that Association and the Navesink Li-
brary Association held June 24, 1915, in Library
Hall, Navesink, New Jersey.
An Appreciation. By R. A. Douglas-Lithgow, M. D., LL.D.
I. M. Greene, Editor.
Josiah Collins Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B., Member Publication
Committee New York Genealogical and Biographical So-
ciety, Associate Editor.
Victor Hugo Duras, D. C. L., M. Diplomacy, Historian of the
American Group of the Interparliamentary Union of the
Congress of the United States, Contributing Editor.
Published by the National Americana Society,
David I. Nelke, President and Treasurer,
131 East 23rd Street,
New York, N. Y.
AUGUST, 1915
AMERICANA
CONTENTS
Page
Recollections of a Half a Century and More.
By Andrew M. Sherman 723
I. My Paternal Ancestry.
II. My Boyhood in New England.
The Hamlet at the Bouwerij. Part II.
By Hopper Striker Mott 743
Chapters in the History of Halifax, Nova Scotia, No. II.
By Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, M. A., D.
C. L. 764
The Coming of the Boston Tories.
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned and Hero'cially
Suffered in the Revolution for the Cause of American
Independence.
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B. . . . . 791
III. Mrs. Robert Murray.
IV. Emily Geiger.
V. Lydia Darrah.
I. M. Greene, Editor.
Josiah Collins Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B., Member Publication
Committee New York Genealogical and Biographical So-
ciety, Associate Editor.
Victor Hugo Duras, D. C. L., M. Diplomacy, Historian of the
American Group of the Interparliamentary Union of the
Congress of the United States, Contributing Editor.
Published by the National Americana Society,
David I. Nelke, President and Treasurer,
131 East 23rd Street,
New York, N. Y.
SEPTEMBER, 191$
AMERICANA
CONTENTS
Recollections of a Half a Century and More.
By Andrew M. Sherman . . . . . . 79,'J
III. My Boyhood in New England (Continued).
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned and Heroically
Suffered in the Revolution for the Cause of American
Independence.
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B 818
VI. Molly Pitcher.
VII. Margaret Corbin.
VEIL Anna Warner Bailey.
Chapter in the History of Halifax, Nova Scotia. No. Ill . 828
Social Life of Halifax after the Revolution.
L. Greeneway Greene, Editor.
Josiah Collins Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B., Member Publication
Committee New York Genealogical and Biographical So-
ciety, Associate Editor.
Victor Hugo Duras, D. C. L., M. Diplomacy, Historian of the
American Group of the Interparliamentary Union of the
Congress of the United States, Contributing Editor.
Published by the National Americana Society,
David I. Nelke, President and Treasurer,
131 East 23rd Street,
New York, N. Y.
OCTOBER, 1915
AMERICANA
CONTENTS
Recollections of a Half a Century and More.
By Andrew M. Sherman 863
IV. My Boyhood in New England (Continued).
Thomas Paine.
By George R. Boynton 881
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned and Heroically
Suffered in the Revolution for the Cause of Ameri-
can Independence.
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B 894
IX. Nancy Hart of the Georgia "Hornets Nest."
X. Susanna Keith.
XL Cornelia Beekman of New York.
Cushing Memorial Monument.
By S. G. Lapham .901
Commander Cushing and the Virginius.
By S. G. Lapham ....... 903
Historic Views and Reviews ...... 906
Avery Family Association Meeting.
Ex-Senator Doolittle of Wisconsin to President-Elect
Clevland of New York: interesting confidential let-
ter from the Wisconsin statesman. -Contributed by
Duane Mowry.
L. Greeneway Greene, Editor.
Josiah Collins Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B., Member Publication
Committee New York Genealogical and Biographical So-
ciety, Associate Editor.
Victor Hugo Duras, D. C. L., M. Diplomacy, Historian of the
American Group of the Interparliamentary Union of the
Congress of the United States, Contributing Editor.
Published by the National Americana Society,
David I. Nelke, President and Treasurer,
131 East 23rd Street,
New York, N. Y.
i
NOVEMBER, 1915
AMERICANA
CONTENTS
Recollections of a Half a Century and More.
By Andrew M. Sherman 915
V. My Boyhood in New England (Continued).
Boots, A Bucolic.
By Rev. Charles Caverno, A. M., LL.D. . . .942
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned and Heroically
Suffered in the Revolution for the Cause of American
Independence.
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B 954
XII. Dicey Langston of South Carolina.
XIII. Elizabeth Zane.
XIV. Lucretia Shaw.
The Historic Billopp House, on Staten Island, now to be in-
cluded in a New Park. . 961
The Peace Conference at the Billopp House, Staten Island,
September 11, 1776 968
Biographical Sketch of Capt. Samuel Chester of Boston,
Mass., and New London, Conn., and some of His De-
scendants.
By Herbert Merritt-Chester of New York City . 975
Historic Views and Reviews.
Contributed by Duane Mowry, Milwaukee, "Wis. . 978
Book Reviews . . 982
Early History of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph.
Matthew's American Armoury and Blue Book.
L. Greeneway Greene, Editor.
Josiah Collins Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B., Member Publication
Committee New York Genealogical and Biographical So-
ciety, Associate Editor.
Published by the National Americans Society,
David I. Nelke, President and Treasurer,
131 East 23rd Street,
New York, N. Y.
DECEMBER, 191 5
AMERICANA
CONTENTS
The Winthrop Family ....... 985
Chapters in the History of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
By Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, M. A.,
D. C. L. . 1002
No. IV. Sir John Wentworth and the Duke of Kent.
Kecollections of a Half a Century and More.
By Andrew M. Sherman . . . . . . 1029
VI. My Boyhood in New England (Continued).
Some of the Women "Who Skilfully Planned and Heroically
Suffered in the Eevolution for the Cause of American
Independence.
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B 1045
XV. Martha Bratton of South Carolina.
XVI. Catherine Schuyler.
XVII. Mercy Warren.
Honors a Distinguished Scientist— The Father of the
Weather Bureau.
Contributed by S. G. Lapham, Oconomowoc, Wis-
consin 1050
Historic Views and Eeviews 1053
L. Gbeeneway Gbeene, Editor.
Josiah Collins Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B., Member Publication
Committee New York Genealogical and Biographical So-
ciety, Associate Editor.
Published by the National Americana Society,
David L Nelkb, President and Treasurer,
131 East 23rd Street,
New York, N. Y.
AMERICANA
(Formerly THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL MAGAZINE)
is a monthly magazine of history, genealogy and literature. The
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THE NATIONAL AMERICANA SOCIETY
131 East Twenty-third Street, New York City
AMERICANA
July, 1915
Some of the Women who Skillfully Planned
and Heroically Suffered in the Revolu=
tion for the Cause of American
Independence
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B.
Introduction
f"~": ff^l HE writer of these sketches desires to here express
his regard for the memory and his indebtedness to
that true friend of his young manhood, Elizabeth F.
Ellet, the poetess, and author of " Women of the
American Revolution." To her and to the memory of the de-
lightful conversations he had when a half century ago he drove
with her through the lovely scenery of the Susquehanna Valley,
he owes it that in his life 's late afternoon he finds the inspiration
within him to offer this respectful tribute to the memory of some
of America's most self-sacrificing and heroic women.
In that great crisis of our Country's history there was a sen-
timent pervading the people, which, as Mrs. Ellet has well said,
4 * gave statesmen their influence and armed heroes for victory.
What could they have done but for the home sentiment to which
they appealed and which sustained them in the hour of trial and
success, and the feeling which wrought thus powerfully in the
community depended in great part upon the women. Patriotic
mothers nursed the infancy of freedom. They animated the
courage and confirmed the self devotion of those who ventured
all for the common cause. â– '
I quote the following lines by Sarah M. Davy, the great-grand-
daughter of Ann Halsted, one of New Jersey's Revolutionary
heroes, as they seem to be a fitting introduction to my subject :
(647)
648 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
"Not all the noble men went forth upon the battle field ;
Some must remain the lands to till, the firesides to shield;
But when the Short Hills cannon resounds in thunderous tones,
The fires are Lit from hill to hill; then from their various homes,
The "Minute Men'" like swarms of bees assemble at their posts,
And in a trice the Morris hills are safe from hostile hosts.
Another silent army gave their husbands, brothers, sons,
To the service of their country, when they went to man the guns.
Were there no heroines in their ranks — no glorious martyrdom?
Did they not suffer oftentimes a thousand deaths in one?
Brave Molly Pitcher faltered not before the cannon's roar;
Ann Hoisted donned coat, hat and gun and saved her father's stores;
Gay Baltimore still celebrates brave Peggy Stewart's day ;
The matron of Elisabethtown unbidden went her way
To the Council Chamber where was broached the question of the hour —
Submission to oppression and to a hostile power ;
Standing before her husband, with firm, unflinching heart,
She said: "If you submit, henceforth our ways do part."
In Morristown, the women through the country far and wide,
Ceased not to knit and spin from early morn till eventide,
And many a weary soldier, when he felt the hand of death. •
Murmured blessings on their efforts with his last sad parting breath."
i
Hannah Arnett of Elizabethtown
It was in the dark days of 1777, in Jersey when many
were half-hearted and discouragements was paralyzing ef-
fort, and many thought it best to make their peace with
the mother country. Indeed as an old inhabitant de-
clared: "In the closing part of the year 1776 the whole
population could have been bought for eighteen pence a
head. ' ' The great flood of panic which overspread the land had
seemed to sweep away all hope, honor, faith and patriotic senti-
ment. In Elizabeth where Lord Cornwallis was encamped, lead-
ing citizens actually thought of foreswearing the cause of their
countrymen. Right there and in a certain town in Elizabeth
several of the irresolute sort met and were agreeing among
themselves how to accept the conditions offered by the enemy,
when the wife of one of these men, Hannah Arnett by name,
learning of their intention, made her way into the room, where
they were assembled and demanded they should recall their deci-
sion and stand for their country. And appealing to her own
husband she declared with the look and inspiration of a prophet-
ess: "England will never conquer; I stay with my country.
I married a good man and time and it needs no divorce to sever
me from a traitor and a coward. If you take your protection
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 649
from General Howe, you lose your wife; and I, I lose my hus-
band and my hoine."
That night in that house the solemn oath was sworn to stand
by the cause. The heads that were drooping were now erect,
and the eyes were bright with manly resolve. Hannah Arnett
is not forgotten, mother of heroes that she was : and the man
who caught hre and resolution from her inspired words are
honored among New Jersey's noblest and best.
Upon the soil of New Jersey occurred the events which really
decided the American Revolution. When Congress was resolv-
ing whether to declare independence, a Presbyterian Divine
from Princeton invoked the guidance and blessing of God upon
their decision. When disheartenment everywhere prevailed,
and men were ready to yield all for life, the hattles of Trenton,
Princeton and Monmouth renewed hope everywhere. The
blood by which the soldiers of Washington might have been
traced on their memorable retreat had baptized the soil of Jer-
sey, and her soil remained thenceforth sacred to freedom.
AN ORIGINAL POEM.
Written by a great grand-daughter of Ann Halsted, a Revolutionary heroine, and
dedicated to the New Jersey Society, Sons of the American Revolution, December
26, 1892.
A century and more sheds its dim and mellow rays
Over Revolution scenes and the deeds of other days ;
But let us part the drapery, enter into memory's halls ;
And gaze with reverent spirit at the pictures on her wails.
There's the North Church steeple with the lantern swinging to and fro,
And the rider urging on his steed upon the road below ;
The hopes and fears that filled the soul of loyal Paul Revere
As he sped upon his errand, were not voiced to mortal ear,
But as he passed the word to each terror-stricken band.
We can almost hear him saying: "God and my native land!*'
There's the Hessian camp at Trenton. December 26th.
The soldiers idling listlessly — their arms in stacks are fixed;
Still lingering o'er their Christmas feast, without a single fear,
They little dream of anything but comfort and good cheer.
But the brave and gallant leader of the now disheartened band
Is already on the Delaware and so the time has planned
That the mercenary Hessians are surprised and put to rout : —
Then throughout the little army, courage takes the place of doubt;
One thousand of the enemy yield, with cannon and with shot,
And the nation's fate is settled upon that very spot.
Another land and other scenes now come at Memory's call ; —
Nobles and lords — a regal court ; and grand among them all,
Plain Benjamin Franklin tells the heirs of luxury and ease
The story of his country's needs — the land across the seas.
They bend a listenting ear to his projects and his plans
650 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
And the struggling little colony clasps the helping hand of France.
The suffering at Valley Forge, of the Camp at Morristown;
The traitor's deed; the dark, dark days before the victor's crown; —
All come before our vision as we linger in the past,
And the names of martyred heroes crowd upon us thick and fast.
Sarah M. Davey.
II
The Tragic Fate of Jane McCrea
There are several versions of the story of how Jane McCrea
came to her death, but the true account, is no doubt, that lately
given me by Mrs. George Underwood, a loyal member of the
McCrea Chapter, D. A. R. This statement was made by the
soldier, Samuel Standish, in his application for pension, file No,
28889, and the same he made to Sparks, the historian, and given
in his life of Arnold, and which Mrs. Elizabeth Ellet also re-
lates in her u Women of the American Revolution.' 7
Standish while on guard duty near Fort Edward in July,
1777, was captured by the Indians, and while their prisoner he
saw a party of Indians coming with two women up by the hill to
a spring and there they seemed to be in a quarrel, and then he
saw one of the Indians shoot and scalp Miss McCrea. This is
confirmed, says Mrs. Ellet, by General Morgan Lewis, one of
the party who found the body of this lovely lady and superin-
tended her funeral.
The headquarters of the division of the American Army com-
manded by Arnold were at the time between Moses Creek and
Fort Edward, and Jane McCrea was residing with her brother,
one of the pioneer settlers, about four miles from Fort Edward.
On that fatal day she was on a visit to Mrs. McNiel, a widow
lady, whose house stood near the foot of the hill about one-third
of a mile northward from the fort. Fort Edward then in pos-
session of a guard of one hundred Americans was situated on
the eastern margin of the river very near the water, and sur-
rounded by a cleared and cultivated plain of considerable ex-
tent.
Mrs. Ellet, who was a much esteemed writer and friend of my
family, speaks of this young woman as nineteen years of age,
* 696501
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SOME HEROIC WOMEN OE THE REVOLUTION 651
"beautiful, with auburn hair, blue eyes, a fresh complexion and
endowed with accomplishments, virtues not less attractive than
her personal charms."
It appears that unfortunately two parties of Indians had start-
ed out to attack the picket guard, commanded by Lieutenant Van
Vecliten stationed on a hill not far from Mrs. McNiel's house.
And all this was unknown to Captain Jones of the British
forces, who had sent out some Indians to convey his affianced
bride to meet him. This party presented a letter to Miss McCrea
from Jones telling her she should come with them and the two
women did so.
Thereafter the two parties of savages met and had a dispute
over the division of the reward they were to receive for their
services, the savages Jones sent, not knowing at the time the
relation in which the girl stood to their employer, and so looked
upon her only as a prisoner decoyed by a stratagem.
A furious quarrel ensued and in the midst of the fray one of
the chiefs fired and killed Miss McCrea and then scalped her.
This finished the quarrel and the Indians hurried away with
their two prisoners, Standish and Mrs. McNiel toward Fort
Anne.
The brother soon after arrived and took charge of his sister 's
corpse which was afterwards buried three miles below the Fort.
The anguish of the unfortunate Captain Jones when the
bloody scalp was presented to him was increased by the reflec-
tion that his innocent bride elect had fallen a victim to her con-
fidence in him. His grief was so severe, he lived but a few years
and went down heartbroken to the grave.
General Gates reproached Burgoyne for this uncalled for
murder and the description of it given by Burke in his cele-
brated speeches made it familiar throughout Europe and upon
our own people it acted as a mighty stimulant to greater exertions
for the cause of American Independence.
As the history of Fort Edward is closely related to the above
it is deemed best that it should follow and make a part of the
sa me.
652 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
The Story of Old Fort Edward, axd the Marking of the Site
Where it Once Stood
On September 16, 1914, a boulder with tablet, appropriately
marking the site of old Fort Edward, New York, was unveiled
and dedicated by the Jane McCrea Chapter, Daughters of the
American Revolution. Mrs. Charles Henry Wilson, Regent of
the Chapter, Mrs. Willard S. Augsbury, State Regent and Mrs.
Joseph E. King, founder and First Regent of Jane McCrea
Chapter, were present and spoke, so also did Dr. Sherman Wil-
liams of the University of the State of New York, and Hon.
John Alden Dix. From the walls of this fort was witnessed the
revolting murder by the Indian Chief LeLoup of Jane McCrea,
when on her way to be married to Lieutenant David Jones, an
English officer.
The marker consists of two huge boulders of granite, mounted
on a concrete foundation, and is located on land recently pur-
chased and owned by the Chapter. On the upper stone, on a
smooth surface fortunately left by nature of the exact size de-
sired, a bronze tablet has been placed bearing this inscription:
This Boulder
marks the site of
Old Fort Edward
1755—- 1780
Erected by the
Jane McCrea Chapter
Daughters of
The American Revolution
1914
This having been one of the most important rallying points
and centers of defence in the state and associated intimately with
many of the most prominent officers of America in both Colonial
and K evolutionary times, .this fort deserves our most consid-
erate attention.
To Dr. Sherman Williams I am indebted for the following
facts :
In 1709 Colonel Francis Nicholson led a force of about two
thousand men on an expedition against Canada. Colonel Peter
Schuyler, with a special force of about three hundred men, ac-
companied the expedition for the purpose of erecting forts, and
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SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 653
stockades were built at Stillwater and Fort Miller, and forts at
Fort Edward and Fort Ann. The latter was named Fort Schuy-
ler in honor of the builder, and the former Fort Nicholson in
honor of the leader of the expedition. Fort Nicholson was gar-
risoned by 450 men. A British fleet was to co-operate with Ni-
cholson by an attack on Quebec, but it failed to appear and Ni-
cholson returned to Albany, first destroying Forts Nicholson and
Schuyler. Fort Nicholson was the first military structure of any
kind erected on the Hudson at this point and it was on the site
afterward occupied by Fort Edward, but was a much smaller
and weaker work.
Nicholson made a second attempt against Canada in 1711 and
rebuilt Fort Schuyler but not Fort Nicholson. He called the
work at Fort Ann the "Queen's Fort," but later it was given
the name of Fort Ann.
In 1755 four great expeditions were organized in this country
against the French. The one intended for the capture of Ticon-
deroga and Crown Point was commanded by "William Johnson,
after known as Sir William. Colonel Phineas Lyman, of Mas-
sachusetts, was the second in command. The force intended for
this expedition gathered on the site of Old Fort Nicholson. John-
son went to Lake George, so named by him in honor of a stupid
and selfish king, with no title to the honor. It might far better
have been named in honor of Father Jogues or kept the name
that he gave it.
About 4,000 men gathered at the junction of Fort Edward
Creek and the Hudson river. Captain Eyre, an engineer, under
the direction of Colonel Lyman, erected a fort which was named
Fort Lyman, in honor of the man under whose direction it was
built A year later Sir William Johnson changed the name to
Fort Edward, in honor of Edward, Duke of York, a grandson
of George II and a brother of George HI.
The fort was an irregular four sided structure with bastions
at three angles, the fourth being protected by the river. The
fort was constructed of earth and timber, had walls 16 feet high
and 22 feet thick. It mounted six cannon. It was surrounded
W a deep moat on three sides, the river serving the same pur-
pose on the fourth. The perimeter of the fort was about 1,600
654 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
feet. It enclosed several large buildings. On an island in the
river opposite the fort were the barracks and storehouses. They
were reached by means of a bridge.
The route from Foil Edward to Whitehall was known as the
" Great' Carrying Place," probably because of the unusual
length of the carry, but possibly because of the amount of traf-
fic over it. The trail followed substantially the same route that
the D. & H. railroad does now. It is a noteworthy fact that the
railroads of the State very generally follow old Indian trails pret-
ty closely. Modern engineers with all their skill and knowledge
have not been able to improve very much over the untrained sav-
ages in the matter of ease of grades or the saving of distance.
The importance of Fort Edward was mainly a matter of phy-
sical geography. Neither Lakes George or Champlain, the gate-
way to Canada, could be readily reached from the south with-
out passing through or near Fort Edward. It was here that the
trail branched, leading to Whitehall, South Bay or Lake George,
as might be desired. The importance of Fort Edward as a strat-
egic point may perhaps be best illustrated by giving a brief ac-
count of some expeditions that either gathered here or passed
through this place. The expeditions of Colonel Nicholson have
already been referred to. Although the place was then a wilder-
ness the location made it important.
In 1690, LeMoyne, with a party of French attacked and burned
Schenectady. They went by the way of Lake Champlain, Wood
Creek, and passed down the valley formed by Fort Edward
Creek. The same year General John Winthrop, of Connecticut,
with a force of five hundred men from Connecticut and New
York set out on an expedition to Canada in retaliation for the
destruction of Schenectady. They passed through Fort Ed-
ward. On account of sickness, lack of provisions, and canoes,
the greater number did not go beyond Whitehall, but Captain
John Schuyler, the grandfather of Philip Schuyler, with 150
men went on to La Prarie, south of Montreal, and took some
prisoners and destroyed considerable property.
In 1756 Lord Loudon gathered a large force at Fort Edward,
but no fighting took place here or anywhere in this locality.
In 1757 Montcalm attacked and captured the garrison at Fort
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 655
William Henry. At this time General Daniel Webb was at Fort
Edward with 1,600 men, with a thousand more available, and
soon received a reinforcement of 2,000 militia, yet in the most
cowardly manner "Webb refused to allow anyone to go to the re-
lief of Munro. Sir William Johnson, who soon came to Fort Ed-
ward and begged to be allowed to lead a force against Montcalm,
says of Webb, "He is the only British general— in fact I may
say the only British officer of any rank — I ever knew or heard of
who was personally a coward. " Webb sent out piteous appeals
for aid and soon 20,000 men were gathered here at Fort Edward
but too late to save Munro or punish Montcalm.
During the winter after the massacre at Fort William Henry,
Colonel Haviland of the regular army was in command at Fort
Edward, and Putnam with his rangers was on the island oppo-
site the fort.
In 1758 General Abercrombie gathered a great army to attack
the French at Ticonderoga. Early in July he had gathered a
great force and a great amount of supplies at Fort Edward. Fif-
teen thousand men took part in the campaign, all of whom passed
through this place. You know the story of the humiliating de-
feat. Amherst, learning of the reverse, hastened to Fort Edward
with four regiments of regulars. He remained there till Janu-
ary, 1759. ^
The fort was repaired and strengthened in 1757 under the di-
rection of Colonel Lyman. During the time this work was being
done an interesting incident took place. About 150 laborers were
employed cutting timber on the low land to the east of the fort.
Captain Little with 100 men was sent out to act as a guard. They
were surprised by a party of Indians. The laborers reached the
fort but Captain Little and his men moved more slowly and Ly-
man shut the gate of the fort, fearing that the Indians might
force an entrance. This left Captain Little and his men on the
outside, and in a perilous position. Major Putnam, who was
stationed on the island with a force of men, heard the firing and
forded the river with his men and ran to the relief of Little. Ly-
man, fearing that both Little and Putnam might be drawn into
an Indian ambuscade, ordered the latter to stop, but Putnam re-
membered the massacre at Fort William Henry and he also re-
656 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
membered the cowardice of Webb, and if he heard Lyman he
gave no indication of having done so, but hastened to the relief
of his companions and was successful, the Indians retiring be-
fore the combined forces.
In the spring of 1759 another great army under the command
of Amherst gathered at Fort Edward, not as large as that of
the preceding year, but still a great force. This time success
crowned the efforts of the British, and Ticonderoga and Crown
Point were captured.
From this time till the beginning of the Eevolution, but little
of importance happened on the northern frontier and Fort Ed-
ward was allowed to become much out of repair. In fact it was
almost forgotten. With the expedition of Burgoyne it once more
became a place of consequence.
At the time of the invasion of Burgoyne there were not more
than three or four houses in what is now the village of Fort Ed-
ward. The fort was in a dilapidated condition and practically
worthless as a defence. In fact its position made it worthless at
that time. Earlier when cannons were rarely used and those of
comparatively short range and little power the fort at the river
side was of much account, but at this time with the heavier
cannon at greater range this fort on a level with the river, sur-
rounded by higher land on nearly everv side could not be prop-
erly defended unless aided by an army of considerable strength,
so it did not play an important part in the Burgoyne campaign
though the position at the " Great Carrying Place' ' was import-
ant. Fort Edward was occupied by Burgoyne on the 6th of
July, 1777. It was retaken by the Americans on the 10th of Oc-
tober of the same year and the occupation of this position aided
in making the retreat of Burgoyne to Canada more difficult and
so to a minor extent contributed to the surrender of the British.
With this event Fort Edward ceased to be of importance.
The water gate mentioned above was located about two hun-
dred feet south of the old cottonwood tree so often mentioned by
historians, and near a butternut tree which stands on the dwell-
ing lot of Mrs. Ehodes, where the underground passage from the
fort to the river emerged. The west and the south ramparts of
the fort still exist. The unfilled hollow of the east moat, extend-
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 657
ing from Moon street south to the old channel of the Creek, still
exists, and traces of the north rampart can still be seen.
There was elevated land along the bank of the river, over
which a footpath ran north from the fort to the block house on
the hill. There was elevated land also along- the route of the old
military road, although a corduroy road was built at the point
where it crossed Notre Dame street. The Fort Edward swamp
lay between the footpath and the military road, which was con-
structed to avoid the swamp.
Frequent mention has been made of the Island, and it figured
in a very important manner in all the old wars. Capt. Israel
Putnam and his Rangers were stationed there during parts of
two years, and Lieut. Noah Grant, ancestor of our own General
Grant, was also stationed there. There were a dozen or more
large barrack and hospital buildings located on this Island, and
innumerable relics have been unearthed by those who have tilled
the ground.
A bridge crossed the river from this Island leading to the gar-
den cultivated by the garrisons of the fort, which garden was lo-
cated along the bank of the river south of the Creek. The Island
during the wars was protected by the cannon mounted on the
fort, and by blockhouses located on each side of the river at the
river crossing at the south end, and by the Royal Block House,
located on the high land on the north side of the present Moreau
river bridge.
Systematic excavations were made years ago in the vicinity
of the fort ? s mess room, and unearthed old kettles, cups, bottles,
andirons, etc. There were spades, some with wooden center and
iron rims, and shovels, both square and round-pointed. These
useful implements did not differ much from those of the present
day, except that they were larger and heavier, and coarsely
wrought. There was a great variety of axes and tomahawks,
both iron and stone, and flint arrowheads, skilfully wrought;
fcuere, long spikes for fastening the heavy timbers of the fort, and
<unnon balls, grape shot, and ordinary shot. One of the cannon
mite weighed forty pounds. These balls and iron implements
were in a wonderfully good state of preservation, considering
Ike fact that they had lain in the earth over 100 years. There
658 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
were several bayonets, some badly eaten with rust, but several
that were more perfect. All these were much larger and heavier
than those used at the present day. Among the collection were a
few knives and forks, some with the bone handles partly pre-
served, and others with the handles consumed with rust. There
was found, too, a pair or two of huge handcuffs, that doubtless
had graced the sturdy limbs of some prisoner, or, possibly, a re-
calcitrant soldier.
These relics have been preserved, and some have lately been
given a receptacle in the High School building near the historic
spot where they so long reposed in their tawny sepulchre.
What is known as the Roque map shows fourteen structures
located on the Island opposite the fort, which military records
show to have been barracks and hospital buildings. But the most
important fact of all shown by this map is that the mouth of the
Creek then existed at the base of the south rampart of the fort,
300 or more feet north of the present mouth, thus contradicting
the common belief relative to it. The Champlain Canal, built in
1818, crossed the Creek and diverted its waters to their present
mouth. The remains of its embankment still prove this fact, as
likewise do some of the dressed stone of its lock still lying in
place. The Canal connected with the river at this point until
1832, when it was abandoned and the present Canal to Fort Mil-
ler constructed.
All authorities agree, among them Prof. Silliman of Yale
University, who saw the fort in 1796, that the south side of the
fort fronted upon the bank of a deep sunk rivulet which protect-
ed it from sudden attack. The authority quoted shows that the
rampart, 17 feet high and 22 feet thick, sloped not only to the
water 's edge of the Creek but to the river. The elevated land
on the south side of Old Fort street is what remains of the slope
of the rampart, and at its base extending east the channel of
the Creek ran to the rear of Henry Pike's house lot on Old Fort
street, and from thence southerly to near Cortland street, and
from thence northeasterly on its route to the summit. Had the
mouth of the channel of the Creek existed during the old wars
in its present location, no protection whatever would have been
given the fort.
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 659
The line of the east barracks was discovered by the late AVil-
liain McDougall, who, near a large tree standing east of his
house on Edward street, excavated seven or eight feet in depth
to the floor of the fort, and found a large brick fireplace, perfect-
ly preserved, and a pair of andirons and about four quarts of un-
used gun flints, some bullets, etc. A living witness of this fact
is Seth Allen, who saw the fireplace, andiron and gun flints. The
fireplace remains there in place at this moment, and was proba-
bly located in one of the eight rooms of the east barracks, below
one of the chimneys.
The east moat of the fort intersected the Creek on the east side
of the dock and on the rear of Mahon Brodie's lot on Old Fort
street. It was originally, as the records state, 14 feet high and
8 feet deep. It forms a part of the cellar of Mr. Brodie's house,
the wall being built on each side of it without excavation. Go
stand to-day in the cellar of Mr. Brodie 's house and you will be
in the moat of Old Fort Edward. It crossed Fort street, and
when the elder Bibbins built the Bhodes house, the younger Mr.
Bibbins stated that the ditch was impassable on Old Fort street
with teams. - The moat also still exists on the lots of Seth Allen
and Ernest H. Smith, north of Old Fort street, to the depth of
five or six feet, and shows itself all the way to the blacksmith
shop on Moon street.
A living witness says that the walls of the well in the old fort
were built of large stone boulders, and that there was a passage
way three or four feet wide near it, likewise constructed of
boulders.
The Hamlet at the Bouwerij
By Hopper Striker Mott
Trustee and Treasurer of the New York Genealogical and
Biographical Society and Editor of The New York Genea-
logical and Biographical Record.
[To be Completed in Two Parts.]
PAETI
THE earliest purchase in the Madison Square neigh-
borhood was made by Jan Jansen Damen. The tract
which he acquired has a most interesting history. It
is remarkable among city farms, because of the num-
ber of noted families which have been connected with it. Damen
was a trader who settled at Fort Orange (Albany) circa 1631
but subsequently removed to New Amsterdam where he took a
prominent part in the public affairs of his time. For the of-
fices he filled vide Register of New Netherland. He was the
original grantee (1644) of a large farm, extending from the
Hudson to the East River, and bounded partly on Maiden Lane.
The city wall cut through a part of this property when erected
in 1653 and laid the green fields open; it then belonged to his
heirs, for having visited the fatherland, on public business in
1651, Damen died on his return. This trip to Patria was occa-
sioned by the controversy over Stuyvesant's alleged violent be-
havior to the inhabitants of the colony, against which the so-
called " Great Remonstrance ' ' was made by Van der Donck and
his associates in 1649 and which led to the sending of Cornells
van Tiehoven, Stuyvesant's secretary and the latter 's father-
in-law, Jan Jansen Damen, his private agent, to bolster up the
cause of the Director-General. In 1685 Damen 's heirs conveyed
(66o)
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 661
one thousand feet of land fronting on the present north side of
Wall street. Measures were then taken by the provincial au-
thorities to demolish the old fortifications and a survey of the
line proposed to be established as the north side of said street
was ordered this year, the thoroughfare to be of a width of 36
feet. (Valentine's History, etc.; Minutes Court Burgomasters
& Schepens.)
It was as agent of Petrus Stuyvesant that Damen, while yet
in Holland, acquired March 12, 1615, "for a valuable considera-
tion'' certain lands "upon the Island Manhattan, then common-
ly known by the name of the West Inaya Compagnes Bouwerij "
containing about six score acres, and with said deed sailed for
New Amsterdam the same month.*
This was one of those laid out at an early date and rented to
fanners. Designated as Bouwerij No. 1 its tenant in June, 1650,
was Thomas Hall. (Laws & Ords. N. N., 118). While the title
was in Damen he rented it to Cornells Aertsen. Bancroft, Vol.
11:53, states that the land was of so little value that Stuyvesant
thought it no wrong to his employers to purchase of them at a
small price this extensive bouwerij "just beyond the coppices"
among which browsed the goats and the kine from the village.
On his surrender of the Dutch possessions in 1664 this dough-
ty warrior was called to Holland to confer with his superiors
and there he was taken severely to task for the seemingly hurried
way in which he yielded up his authority and possession. That
he could have done aught else, under the circumstances, is con-
firmed by the perusal of the letter he submitted in 1666 in de-
fence of his action. (N. Y. Hist, Coll., Holland Docs., Vol. H,
4-10-1). During his absence Richard Nicolls, Governor, etc., of
the Province of New York, issued to him a patent of the above
land, dated Nov. 6, 1667, which recited that Damen acted in the
capacity of trustee for the grantee "who made payment for the
same." The Nicolls map (1664-8) shows the location of the
Governor's bouwerij and its buildings and its relative position
March 12, 165 1. Deed. Directors of the West India Company at Amsterdam
to Petrus Stuyvesant, per Jan Jansen Damen, his attorney, of the Company's
bouwerij in New Netherland with the house, barn, stock and two young negroes,
lately leased to said Stuyvesant. Consideration 6400 guilders. (Calendar Dutch
*.«., Register of Provincial Secretary, Vol. 111:87).
662 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
and distance from the city with the lane leading to it. He re-
turned from Holland in 1667* and retired to his mansion on the
property, which stood on the north side of present 10th street,
immediately west of St. Mark's church.
"What was later the Bowery village came about because of an
order in council, which, on May 3, 1660, permitted the houses of
Wolfert Webber and Thomas Hall to remain and a village or
hamlet to be formed near the bouwerij of Augustyn Heermans
and that of the Director-General. (Gal. D. Mss., 196). Webber
and Hall owned a tract in common near the Fresh Water. The
state of affairs which determined the establishment of outlying-
places into which the inhabitants might gather for defence in
time of danger, is shown by this quotation:
"On the Island of the Manachatas from the north even unto
the Fresh Water there are no more than five or six spots inhab-
ited at this date (1643). These are threatened by the Indians
every night with fire and by day with the slaughter of both peo-
ple and cattle. There was no shelter but the Fort." (N. Y. His.
Coll. Holland Docs., Vol. 1, 190). This condition continued for
years and at the request of the scattered residents who lived
north of the Fresh Water the hamlet was formed at present
Cooper Square .where the inevitable tavern, a blacksmith shop,
a school house which was near present 8th street and 3rd ave-
nue, and a few rude dwellings commenced the settlement. To
aid the enterprise the Governor erected the school house and
also a chapel in which Domine Selyns preached Sunday after-
noons in Dutch. In what year it was built we cannot ascertain.
It was standing, however, when the Domine arrived in New
Netherland in 1660. Just after this event he indited a letter to
the Classis of Amsterdam,* wherein he mentioned that he was
*October 23,. 1667. It is this day ordered by his Ma tie in Councill That his
Royall H ss the Duke of Yorke Lord High Adm 11 of England be and hereby he is
authorized to graunt his Passe and Lycence unto Heere Peter Stuyuesant, late
Generall of the New Netherlands to returne to the place formerly called the New
Netherlands and now called New York, pursuant to the Passport he had and re-
ceived from Colonel Nicolls for his safe goeing for Holland and return into these
parts. (N. Y. Col Hist. London Docs. Vol III. 167).
*"I serve on Sundays, in the evenings only, at the General's Bouwery, at his ex-
pense. Catechizing will not be held here [Breuckelen] before the winter; but we
will begin it at the Bouwery at once, either on week days or when there is no
preaching service there. The bouwery is a place of relaxation and pleasure whither
people go from the Manhattans for the evening service. There are there forty
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 663
engaged to divide his services between Brooklyn and the Gov-
ernor's bouwerij, the Governor rendering himself personally re-
sponsible for the proportion of the salary corresponding to the
share of service rendered on his farm.* Here the Domine contin-
ued to officiate until his return to Holland in 1664. When he ar-
rived he states there was no church organization having a dis-
tinct consistory but it must have been considered as under the
jurisdiction of the church in New Amsterdam. A church organ-
ization was, however, effected by him as the following entry in
the records of the Church in the City proves: "Oct. 12, 1664. In
consequence of the removal of Henricus Selyns, minister on the
General's bouwerij the following persons were accredited as
members of this church." Among the names received from the
church on the Bouwerij were Peter Stoutenburg, Elder; Jan
de la Montague, Deacon ; Harmanus van Hoboken, schoolmaster
and voorleeser, who had charge of the school in the hamlet in his
first capacity, and visited the sick in his second.* Other com-
municants are to be found among the parents of those baptized
there. This list was copied into the Baptism Book of the Church
in the Fort, on the departure of Henry Selyns, preacher at the
General's Bouwerij:
Apr. 24, 1661. Jilles, son Martin Abrahamszen & Marritie Si-
mons.
July 31, Elias, son Jelis Janszen & Christina Laurens.
Pieter, son Eomeyn Servyn & Xeeltie Pieters.
Aug. 14, Hillegond, dau. D. Michiel Superiur & Anne-
ken Duurkoop.
Apr. 11, 1662. Margariet, dau. Hendrick Loef & Gerritie Hen-
dricks.
negroes, from the region of the negro coast, besides the household families. There
w here as yet no consistory but the Deacons from New Amsterdam provisionally
receive the alms." Letters to Cassis, Oct. 4. 1660. (Ecclesiastical Records, Vol.
I. 4*7).
•Pctrus Stuyvesant having been informed of the inability of the inhabitants of
Hrcuckclen to pay Do. Selyns' salary, offers, provisionally and until their situation
•^ improved, to pay to the Company 250 guilders yearly towards the salary of the
w,< * Do. Selyns, on condition that the Domine shall preach at his Honor's bouwery
on ...anhattan Island on Sunday evenings. The Council after considering the offer
Kcepted it and with his Honor resolved to inform Do. Selyns of it. — July 5, 1660.
ilei Doc. XIV. 477-9, Council minutes).
u 1& 1 ! ^° r - Appointment Harman van Hoboken to be cadet and schoolmaster
*« ihc Bouwerij. (Cal. D. Mss., 231).
664 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
Sep. 10, Sara, dau. Philip Claeszen & Maria Tine.
Anna, dau. Nicolaes Matthijsz & Barentie
Dircks.
Oct. 15, Wyntie, dau. Pieter Stoutenburgh & Aefje van
Tienhoven.
Maijken, dau. Marten Claeszen & Jannetje
Martens.
June 17, 1663. Abraham, son Hendrick Gerritszen & Marritje
Lamberts.
Oct. 1, Tryntje, dau. Jan van Langestraeten & Maria
Arents.
Beletje, dau. Arie Corneliszen & Rebecca Yrens.
Jan. 27, 1664. Maria, dau. Soert Olfertszen & Ytie Roelofs.
Mch. 16, Abraham, son Jan de la Montagnie & Maria
Vernelje.
June 2, Marie, dau. Jelis Janszen & Christina Laurens.
July 13, Paulus, son Paulus Turck & Aletje Barents.
(N. Y. G. and B. Record, Jan., 1876, 22-23.)
There are no entries among marriages at the Bowery church.
but in Do. Selyns' list of 1686, appear these names, which because
they lived ' ' Beyond the Fresh Water, J J were probably commun-
icants :
Wolfert Webbers. His wife Geertruyd Hassing is not listed.
Neeltje Cornells, wife of Dirck Cornelissen.
Arie Cornelissen, and wife Eebecca Idens.
Franciscus Bastiaense and wife Barbara Emanuel, negroes.
Solomon Pieter s and wife Marritje Anthony.
Daniel de Clercq and wife Grietje Cozyns.
Cozyn Gerritsen and wife Vroutje Gerritse.
Jan Thomassen, of the Manhattans, and wife Apollonia Cor-
nelis, m. 1665.
Pieter Jansen, of Amsterdam and wife Marritje Jacobs, of
Hoorn, m. Feb. 2, 1663.
Jacob Hendrickszen Kip and wife, Maria de la Montague of
Amsterdam, m. March 8, 1654.
Nicholaes Willem Stuyvesant and wife, Elizabeth Slechten-
horst.
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 665
Egbert Fockensen, of Drenthe and wife Elsje Lucas of New
York, m. March 26, 1678.
Johannes van Couwenhoven, of Amersfoort and wife Sara
Frans of Haarlem, m. April 11, 1664.
(A\ Y. Hist. Soc. Colls., 2nd Series, 1:398; N. Y. G. & B. Soc.
Colls., Vol. I, Marriages.)
After the removal of Do. Selyns it was deemed expedient to
rely upon the services of the minister of the Church in the Fort,
especially as in the preceding year, Samuel Megapolensis, M. D.,
the son of the aged senior pastor, had arrived from Holland and
took part in the ministry. Doubtless the minister of the church
of New Amsterdam continued frequent supplies at the Bou-
werij, certainly during the lifetime of Stuyvesant. (Christian
Intelligencer, Oct. 29, 1842.)
Perhaps the earliest inhabitant of the hamlet was Cornelis
Aertszen who in 1665 was dwelling on the bouwerij. He
settled in New Amsterdam prior to 1641, and was the pro-
genitor of the Van Schaick family, his sons about 1680 having
assumed that surname. One of them, Arie (Adriaen) Oorneli-
sen van Schaick held land in 1696 lying in Bloomingdale above
the Great Kill. He married probably at Stuyvesant \s bouwerij
in 1662 Eebecca Idens. His daughter Elizabeth married Gerrit
Oncklebaeh, son of Adam. Another daughter Belitje Adriaen-
ens van Schaick was baptized Oct. 1, 1662, at the General's bou-
werij. His son Hendrick Cornelisen van Schaick, bap. Sept, 23,
164(5, lived and probably died on that portion of the old Stille
fa nn which he purchased with Wplfert Webber on Jan. 10, 1685.
By 1660 the settlement at the Bouweij was beginning to be of
some consequence. We are granted a few glimpses of the ear-
lier inhabitants in the records, three of whom were Focke Jans,*
Kier "Walters and Jan Jansen van de Langestraet who denomi-
nated themselves "husbandmen dwelling on the bouwerij of Mr.
Petrus Stuyvesant." At a court held at the City Hall, June
15, 1665, it was resolved that the former, "living at the Bou-
* , erij l M be allowed to lay in every week half a barrel of strong
beer, free of excise, in consideration of the great expense he had
.. * U K- 5. 1671. Severijn Lourens, widower of Trijntje Reynders m. Grietje
* , t nd J»cx, widow of Focke Janzen, both residing at the Bouwerij. (Recs. N. A.,
666 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
to incur before he could get the beer to his house, inasmuch as
he had "to convey it in his own wagon with his own men, also
the leakage of the beer in the road." (Ct, Mins. A 7 . A., Vol.
5:253). This same Jans joined the other two individuals in an
affidavit, dated Aug. 4-14, 1666, in aid of the defense of the Gov-
ernor. They certified that they had been earnestly requested by
His Honor to thresh, in a hurry, "as much grain as possible and
carry it to the Fort and that as their hands were full of work
because of the harvest, the Governor himself had as much grain
threshed by his own negroes and servants and brought into the
Fort every day whilst the English frigates remained in the Bay. ' '
(Col. Mss., Vol. 11:474.)
Wdlters, the ancestor of the Kiersen family, was superin-
tendent of the Bouwerij. He had lived, says Biker, at Gees and
at Aernhout, two obscure villages in the desert-like fens of
Drenthe and came here via Amsterdam. He settled at New Am-
stel on the South (Delaware) Eiver where he was reported to be
one of the ablest and best farmers. Flattering offers, in conse-
quence, were made to him to come to New Amsterdam. On ar-
rival he went into the Governor's employ. He was elected Over-
seer of Fences, April 16, 1667, (Ct, Mins., Vol. 6, 69), but in the
fall of that year removed to Haarlem where he leased de Meyer's
farm at 500 guilders per annum. (Biker, 263). On Oct. 2, 1668,
he was re-elected overseer {Ct. Mins., Vol. 6:150) and again on
Dec. 7, 1669, although at that latter date he had become a resi-
dent of Fordham where he took up the lease of a farm for seven
years from Sept. 29, 1668 (Eiker, 249). Having "gone away
since the last election' ' another was chosen in his stead as Over-
seer Jan. 25, 1669-70. Cornells Steenwyck, Mayor, authorized,
May 16, 1670, the W. Court of the Towne of Niew Haarlem to
appoint curators of his estate. (Ct. Mins., Vol. 6: 213). His
son Jan Kiersen became one of the patentees of Haarlem.
There are a number of entries about van de Langestraet. He
was a farmer. (Cal. D., Mss., 228). "The Mayor's meeting"
held Jan. 25, 1669-70 appointed him overseer of the branding of
horses and cattle and on March 1, of the same year he was made
overseer of Eoads and Fences "on this as on the other side of
the Fresh Water," to which position he was re-elected April 18,
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 667
1671. (Ct Mins. N. A., Vol. VI:215, 222, 296; Biker's Harlem,
273.) In 1690 he was aged about 61. (.V. Y. Col. Mss., London
Docs., iii:741.)
The Ct. Mins., Vol. 5 :287, reveal another feature of life in the
new settlement. Abel Hardenbroeek testified Aug. 22, 1665,
that he met Denys Isaacksen on the Bouwerij road yesterday
where the latter drew a knife and said— " Draw, van Leer, or I
shall stab and cut you, etc., that he used such threats and abusive
words that the plaintiff was obliged to save his life by seeking
shelter in the house of Cosyn Gerretsen, he was so hard pressed.
Whereupon the defendant answered and said that the plaintiff
had challenged him the same morning in the house of Luycas
Dircks, the tapster, to fight in the neighborhood of the Fresh
Water and as he did not find plaintiff there at the appointed
time he went further towards the bouwerij where he found him
on the road and asked him : Is this the appointed place, etc." He
admitted he drew a knife and told plaintiff to draw also. Plain-
tiff in his defense, denied the challenge and demanded proof as
there were many people at Dirck's who without doubt had heard
him. Not so, said the defendant, as plaintiff whispered it to
him so that none of the bystanders could hear him. Tomas
Lodowyck, a witness for the plaintiff, testified that as he was
proceeding with Hardenbroeek and some women folks towards
the Bouwerij he saw the defendant draw the knife on the plain-
tiff whom he pursued with many abusive and threatening words.
The Mayor's Court referred the matter to the Court of Assizes
and meanwhile held defendant in the sum of fl. 500 Hollands to
keep the peace. The scene of the above encounter was at the
junction of 4th Avenue and Astor Place where nearby Gerrit-
sen's farm was located. It had a frontage on the Bowery, just
north of Art Street, of 16 rods and a depth of 100 rods, and
contained about 5 acres, or two morgen and four hundred. To-
gether with a house and garden. Grant dated May 26th, 1668.
(Hoffman, 11:193.)
Peter Stoutenburgh's plantation (acquired in 1664) "near
the Governor's bouwerij" was just north of Cosyne Gerritse's.
His house and garden, however, were in the city lying " under
the fortifications and bulwarks. ' ' Having just been recaptured
668 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
and renamed (New Orange) the municipal authorities in 1673
decided that buildings so located should be "instantly demol-
ished" for defensive reasons. (Hoi. Docs., Vol. 11:634.) Stout-
enbnrgh's lot was valued by appraisers, together with the cost
£*-<££ removal, at fl. 880 wampum and the lot assigned to him in the
Company's Garden No. 3, to which the house was to be removed,
'at ti 460, thus making a balance of fl. 420 due him. (Ibid., 636.)
-y. He was nominated as Schepen, August 16th, of this year (Ct.
~Mins., Vol. VI :397) and took the oath of allegiance after the sur-
render. (Hoi. Docs., Vol. 111:76.)
Gerrit Hendricksen, a farmer, owned a plantation nearby. He
was condemned to pay the cost of the repair of the common fence
in 1656, but on his statement that he had no money Burgomas-
ter van Cortlandt paid his fine. (Ct. Mins., Vol. 11:92). By his
will, dated Nov. 8th, 1683, he stated his wife was Margaret Moll,
deceased. His children by her were Henry, Huybert, Johanes,
, Abraham, Isaac, Margaret and Maria Gerrits. The second
; mMe, Josyntie Thomas, had two children, viz: Elizabeth and
Peter. It was provided that, in case the bouwerij was sold the
children should be put in trade. They all took the name of Ger-
rittsen. Margaret married Lambert Hessen(!). Witnesses:
John Pieterse Herring, John Tiebout and William Bogardus,
notary. (N. Y. His. Soc. Coll., 1892:471.)
The names of some of the later inhabitants are derived from
the records of the Dutch Church, dating from nearly the original
settlement. (New York Gen, & B. Society Colls., I.)
1672, Jan. 21. Anthony Backers, Neger, m. Mayken Arta,
negine, of Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 35.)
: March 10. Geertje Couzyns. of Beyond the Fresh Water, m.
Andries Jeurians of Bergen, (p. 35.)
Nov. 17. Will em Anthonissen, Neger, m. Margaret Pieters of
Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 36.)
1673, July 2. Hendrick Bastiaenszen, j. m. of Cuylenburg, m.
Marritje Hendricks, j. d. of Brevoort in the Province of Uij-
trecht, now of Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 37.)
Sept. 25. Gerrit Cosynszen, j. m. of New Nederland, m. Bel-
itje Jacobs, j. d. of Fort Orange, living at Stuyvesant's bou-
werij. (p. 37.)
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 669
1677, June 18. Jan Davidszen, j. m. from Sweden and Deutal-
i.aij (Turtle bay) m. Jannetje Jans, j. d. of Leyden and the bou-
werij. (p. 42.)
1678, March 26. Egbert Fockenszen, j. m. from Drenthe, m.
Elsje Lucas, j. d. of New York both living at the Bouwerij.
(p. 44.)
1(179, April 15. Huijbert Gerritszen, j. m. of New York, m.
Willemtje Ariaens, j. d. from Gelderlandt, both living at the
Bouwerij. (p. 45.)
1680, Feb. 25. Michiel Manuels, j. m., m. Marie Bruijn, j. m.
from London, both living at Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 46.)
March 31. Claes Manuels, neger, m. Lucretia Lovijse, ne-
gress, both living at Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 47.)
August 8. Cornelis Adriaenszen, j. m. from Thuijl in Gelder-
landt, m. Anna Frans, j. d. of New Albany, both living at Stuy-
vesant's bouwerij. "On account of the bridegroom's sickness
marriage in front of the bed." (p. 47.)
Nov. 3. Frans Abrahamszen, j. m. from Bedfort, m. Lucretia
Hendricks, j. d. of the bouwerij. (p. 48.)
1681, Dec. 10. Pieter Janszen, j. m. of Amersfoort, m. Belitje
Adriaens, j. d. of New York, both living Beyond the Fresh "Wat-
er, (p. 49.)
1682, Feb. 4. Willem Anthony, widower of Margaret Pieters,
in. Maria Claerce, j. d. from England, living Beyond Fresh Wat-
er, (p. 50.)
April 9. Lambert Aertzen from Thuijl in Gelderlandt, m.
Margretje Gerrits, j. d. of the Bouwerij. (p. 50).
July 26. Pieter van Kampen, widower of Susanna Hillarie
— — , m. widow Lovys Angola, both living at Stuyvesant's bou-
*>rij. (p. 51.)
1683, May 9. James Babbage, j. m. of England, m. Bersheba
Torner, j. d. of Westchester, living at the Fresh Water. Mar-
ried by the English minister, (p. 52.)
1684, June 12. Jan Willemszen Eomen, j. m. from Cuylen-
t'urtf, the man living here, the woman at the Bouwery. (p. 55.)
1685, June 24. Johanes Andrieszen, j. m. from Spangien, m.
A^neitje Abrahams, widow of Jan Tobiaszen, both living at
Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 57.)
670 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
Nov. 25. Gerrit Bastiaenszen, j. m. from Cuylenburg, in.
Tryntze Thijs, j. d. of New Albany, both living at Stuyvesant's
bouwerij. (p. 58.)
1686, Sept. 29. Pieter Janszen Bogart, j. m. from Leerdam,
m. Fijtje Thyssen j. d. of New Albany, the man living at Nieuw
Haarlem, the woman at Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 61.)
1688, June 9. Nathaniel Southfield, j. m. Barbados, m. Stijn-
tje Jans, j. d. from Zuijtrivier, living next to Stuyvesant's bou-
werij. (p. 64.)
1689, May 20. Jacques Fonteijn, j. m. from Boswijck, m. An-
na Webbers, j. d. of New York, both living Beyond the Fresh
Water, (p. 66.)
1689, Sept. 8. Nathaniel Pittman, j. m. from Bristol, Eng-
land, m. Mary Merrit, widow of Walter Dop, both living Beyond
the Fresh Water, (p. 67.)
Nov. 22. (lic d ) Manuel Pieters, widower of Dorothea d' An-
gola, m. Marij Ken d 'Angola, widow of Domingo d 1 Angola, both
negroes and living at Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 68.)
December 1. Theunis Quick, j. m. of New Albany, m.
Vrouwtje Jans, j. d. of Stuyvesant's bouwerij, the man living
here, the woman at Tappan. (p. 68.)
1691, Nov. 18. Pieter Lucaszen, free negro, j. m. from Crome-
skij, m. Marij ken Jans, free negress, j. d. of Stuyvesant's bou-
werij. (p. 71.)
Dec. 9. Dirck Zlijck, widower of Anna Jans, m. Hendrickje
Hendricks, j. d. of Stuwesant's bouwerij, both living here. (p.
71.)
1696, Jan. 8. Abraham Janszen, j. m. from Maspot Kill, m.
Sara Etkins, j. d. from the Bouwery, both living here. (p. 82.)
1699, April 30. Cozyn Gerritszen, j. m. of Stuyvesant 's bou-
werij, m. Catalina van Gunst, j. d. of New York, both living
here. (p. 89.)
April 30. Samuel's Jakaen, j. m. of New York, m. Neeltje
Gerrits, of Stuyvesant's bouwerij, both living here. (p. 89).
1700, July 14. Benjamin Quackenbosch, j. m. of New Albany,
m. Claesje Webbers j. d. of the Poor bouwerij, both living al-
most at Stuyvesant's bouwerij. (p. 93.)
1704. April 17. Hendrich de Kamp, j. m. from N. Uijtrecht,
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 671
living on Staten Island, m. Maria de Lamars, j. d. of the Bou-
werij^ (p. 101.)*
1709, June 10. Fredrik Jacobse Woertenijke, j. m. of the
Bowery, m. Divert je Quakkenbos, j. d. of Albany, living at the
bouwerij. (p. 110.)
June 10. David Mandeviel, j. m. from Hempstead, m. Jan-
net je Jacobs Woertendijk, j. d. of the bouwerij. (p. 110.)
1710, Feb. 14. Thomas Grikson, widower of Elizabeth Wijn-
ruit, m. Janneake Andries, j. d. both living at the Bouwerij.
(P. HI.)
xVprii 13. Cornelisz Jacobse Woertendijk, j. m. of the Bou-
werij, m. Janneke Paers, j. d. of New York. (p. 111.)
June 1. Benjamin van Vegten, j. m. of New Albany, m. Jen-
neke Eckkisse, j. d. of the Bouwerij. (p. 112.)
Dec. 20. Bernardus Jansse, j. m. of Flatlands, m. Jannetje
Salomons, j. d. of the Bouwerij. (p. 113.)
1711, Aug. 25. Jacob Koning, widower, of New York, m.
Claasje Cornelis, widow of Reinier Quakkenbos, of the Bouwerij.
(p. 116.)
1712, Mch. 24. Casparus Fransee, j. m. of the Bouwerij, m.
Elizabeth Pietersse, j. d. of the Bouwerij. (p. 117.)
Mch. 8. (lic d ) Salomon Jacobsz, j. m. of Amsterdam, m. Eva
Woertendijk, widow of Thomas Sjerman of the Bouwerij. (p
117.)
1718, Nov. 25. Thomas de la Montagne, j. m. Rebecca Bruijn,
j. d. living at the bouwerij. (p. 129.)
1719, Dec. 1. Adam Arre, j. m. of Raretans, m. Susanna Sal-
omons, j. d. of the bouwerij. (p. 131.)
1722, Feb. 20. Caleb Miller, j. m., m. Apollonia Barres, j. d.
Both from England living at the bouwerij. (p. 135.)
April 14. Nicolaes Thomasz, m. Jannetje janssen, widow of
Thomas Gerritsson of New York, living at the bouwerij. (p. 136.)
1736, Sept. 19. Benjamin Waldron, j. m. of New Haarlem, m.
Elizabeth Samman, j. d. of the Bouwerij. (p. 159).
1740, July 18. Walther Edwards, j. m. of Old England, liv-
ing here, m. Marijtje Dok. j. d. of the Bouwerij. (p. 165.)
lh iose who lived at the Bowery at a later period, taken from the same records,
i{ > *ow. Without doubt some of these were from other bouwerijs (farms).
672 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
Dec. 7. Abraham Pit, j. m. of New York, m. Susanna Wood,
j. d. of the bouwerij. (p. 166.)
1746, July 25. Cornells Dykman, j. m., m. Elizabeth Gerdin,
j. d., both of the bouwerij. (p. 175.)
August 30. Richard Hoppe, j. in., m. Maria Orseltouwn, j. d.,
both of the bouwerij. (p. 175.)
1747, Jan. 11. Cornells Webbers, j. m., m. Anna Sighels, j. d.
both of the bouwerij. (p. 176.)
1766, Dec. 22. Abraham Rithan, j. m. from Paramus, m. Sara
Webbers, j. d. of the bouwerij. (p. 225.)
1774, June 11. Herry Crun, free negro, m. Jain, negress of
John Dykman. (p. 241.)
The Governor and later his widow and sons offered induce-
ments to tenants who would settle near the Bouwerij and by
1702 about 400 people lived in that vicinity, mostly within a
short distance of the ancestral home.
The Governor's portrait which is in the Historical Society's
Building displays a strongly marked noble countenance and
would at any time arrest attention even if the subject were un-
known. An interesting query has arisen in reference to which leg
he sacrificed to the god of war before he landed at New Nether-
land. There continues to be a shadow of doubt notwithstanding
that the preponderance of opinion, as shown in early woodcuts,
makes the right leg the wooden one. Washington Irving also
seems to have taken this for granted, but this facetious native
New Yorker, in his history of New York disclaims being taken
seriously.
The famous pear tree* planted by the Governor grew from a
slip which he brought with him on his return in 1667. How this
tree could have been planted in 1647 as some historians assert
passes comprehension. A mere review of the facts is sufficient
to shelve such a statement. Would the Governor, just arrived,
take the slip up to the site of a farm he did not own at the time,
and of which presumably he had no knowledge ? The tree bore
fruit until November, 1867, when in crippled stateliness, it was
♦The Stuyvesant Pear Tree. This venerable Tree, the object of regard to all
knickerbockers, is once more in bloom. It is, if our memory serves us, about 230
years old. (N. Y. Times, May 2, 1853). An example of a very faulty memory in-
deed.
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 673
knocked over by a careless truck driver. An effort was made
to preserve the shoots which put forth from the roots with no
success. Forty odd years ago, however, Jesse Ryder of Ossin-
ing secured two grafts and planted them on his farm. One of
them grew to be a thrifty tree and was in 1902 in good condition.
So a lineal descendant of the original tree was in existence on
the farm of Jesse's son, Malcolm, some three miles from that
village. (F. W. Crane in N. Y. Times May 4, 1902.) Now and
again the location of the old tree has been the cause of discus-
sion. It is undoubtedly true that it stood on the northeast corn-
er of 13th Street and 3rd Avenue. Numerous pictures of it have
appeared in the histories of the city. The map of the village
fixes its position correctly. On the house at the location above
has been erected a tablet with this inscription :
On this corner grew
Petrus Stuyvesant's pear tree.
Recalled to Holland in 1664,
on his return
he brought the pear tree
and planted it
as his memorial.
"By which," said he, "my name
may be remembered."
The pear tree flourished
and bore fruit for over
two hundred years.
This tablet is placed here by
the Holland Society
of New York,
September, 1890.
It would be an instance of supererogation to recite here the
particulars of Stuyvesant's administration. Sufficient is it to
observe that he was fortunate to hold office during the golden age
of the Colony's history and was supported by his employers in
granting autonomy to the inhabitants such as was but vaguely
anticipated as a hoped for happy reality. It was at his bou-
werij, says the Book of General Entries, 33, that the parties ap-
pointed to agree on terms of surrender met September 6th, 1664.
The Hon. Jan de Decker, Capt. Nicholas Varleth and Dr. Sam-
uel Megapolensis, nominated by the council ; Burgomasters Cor-
nelis Steenwyck, Oloff Stevenson van Cortlandt and Schepen
Jacques Cousseau, by the city were those who represented New
Amsterdam and were appointed the previous day. Says Dr.
6>'4 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
O'Callaghan: ''Thus was fitly consummated an act of spoliation
Which, in a period of profound peace, wrested this Province
from its rightful owners by means of violating all public justice
and infringing ail public law. The only additional outrage that
remained was to impose on the country the name of one un-
known in history, save as a bigot and tyrant— the enemy of re-
ligious and political freedom wherever he ruled. New Nether-
land was accordingly called New York."
The governor's after life was uneventful. He devoted him-
self to his farm and cattle and died at his country seat, having
lived only eight years after his retirement from office. Had he
been spared a little longer he would have had the satisfaction of
seeing the flag of Patria again raised over the Fort he had been
so loath to surrender. The walls of this commodious house rose
among the trees of the wilderness in 1653, it is related, the same
year, by the way, when the hamlet at the south end of the island
became the city of New Amsterdam. Authorities differ as to
the materials of its construction. Some say it was built of brick
from Holland and others of wood with brick foundation. From
the appearance of the view it might be either. Two stories in
height, with a small attic under the curved Dutch eaves, its sec-
ond story projected over the first, thus making a porch or cov-
ering for the doorway. Altogether an admirable specimen of
the typical house inhabited by a well-to-do landowner, it re-
mained standing until 1777 when it caught fire and was totally
destroyed. The Memorial History fixes the date of this catas-
trophe as October 24th, 1778.* All authorities agree that it was
during the British occupation at any rate. The grounds in front
were laid out in stiff garden style arranged in geometrical fig-
ures—squares, circles and crescents— after the mode in vogue
in the fatherland. Parts of the walls of this bouwerij house re-
mained as late as 1851. One brick thereof is preserved at the
rooms of the New York Historical Society.
Stuyvesant's remains were deposited in the vault which he
*The Editor of the Memorial History, Gen. James Grant Wilson, wrote me under
date of September 17th, 1907, in answer to an enquiry', as f ollows : "There is no
doubt that the Stuyvesant Mansion was destroyed Oct. 24th, 1778, as stated in my
history of New York. In the Centennial sermon delivered in St. Mark's Church
by its rector, the Rev. Dr. Rylance, a few years ago, that date is confirmed." An
examination of the pamphlet in question fails to confirm the month and day.
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 675
himself had had constructed under the chapel. Many of his
descendants have been interred near him beside that little
church, and there also reposes the body of the English Governor
Col. Henry Sloughter who died in 1691, (Mem. History, 1:488)
and that of Peter Vallet, Esq., who was designated, with Peter
van Brugh Livingston, by an act of the N. Y. Assembly in 1746,
a manager of a lottery to raise funds to establish a college,
which is now Columbia.*
The stone which designated the location of the tomb became
ho weather worn that its inscription for years was almost unin-
telligible and in September, 1902, his descendant, Robert Reade
Stuyvesant, of the line of Nicholas William II, who married
Catherine Livingston, daughter of John and Catherine (Living-
ston) Pteade, caused to be inserted in the wall on the east side
of St. Mark's Church, looking towards 2nd Avenue, a new stone
commemorating the burial of his ancestor which was inscribed
in these words :
In this vault lies buried
PETRUS STUYVESANT
late Captain General & Governor in Chief of Amsterdam
In New Netherlands, now called New York,
And the Dutch West India Islands. Died A. D., i6»4
Aged 80 years.
There is a slight change from the former inscription, the orig-
inal epitaph reading: "Died A. D. 167y 2 , aged eighty years."
The old stone was not placed in the wall until long after Stuy-
vesant's decease and it is thought by some antiquarians that it
may be only somewhat over a century old. The date of the death
seems to have escaped the memory and the month was not even
known until the late William Kelby, the librarian of the New
^ •Mr. Peter Vallet, an eminent Merchant of this City, departed this Life on Sun-
cay last and two days after his corpse was carried out of Town on a black Hearse
*r.d cnterred in the Stuyvesant vault: — This gentleman was born in France but
V*i erring a foreign Country to his own, for a Liberty of Conscience which at
Home he could not enjoy; he fled that Kingdom (as did many others) in the
y •* n °^ Q ueen Ann. It is said he is survived but by one of all these Gentlemen
kstugces who supported the French Church of New York in the Figure it made
v > >rars ago. Mr. Vallet affected no Noise nor Bustle but lived retired from both
«* lh« calm Exercise of all the Virtues of a Christian and Gentleman. He was
sssiversaHy respected while he lived and died at an advanced Age, and to adopt
V. c *°*P«atic Language of Scripture, the Remembrance of him is sweet. (New
?.*T* Ga=ctte ' revived in the Weekly Post Boy, December 18th, 1752). Peter
Met, of a later generation, advertised good Jamaica Rum to be sold at his home in
a*mh street, "by the Hogshead or Smaller "Quantity," (Ibid., Dec. 25, 1849)-
676 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
York Historical Society, discovered that it was in February of
the year 1672, under present notation. The exact day is lost.
A quotation from a paper read before said Society by Benjamin
Kobert Winthrop, one of the Governor's descendants, is perti-
nent: "From the construction of the vault and the position of
the entrance I have come to the conclusion that the western ga-
ble of the old church must have stood about ten or twelve feet
from the eastern gable of the present edifice. [St. Mark's.] My
reason for this conclusion is that what appears to have been an
entrance has been closed up by brick work while the rest of the
vault is of solid masonry. ' '
Domine Selyns wrote an epitaph in the Governor's memory
containing a play on the name which Henry C. Murphy (Anthol-
ogy of New Netherlands) has translated in this way:
Stir not the sand too much, for there lies Stuyvesant
Who erst commander was of all New Netherland,
Freely or no, unto the foe, the land did he give over.
If grief and sorrow any hearts do smite, his heart
Did die a thousand deaths and undergo a smart
InsufFrable. At first, too rich; at last too pauvre.
An intimation that he died of a broken heart because of the sur-
render.
Journal of George Croghan, January —
February, 1753=4
Contributed By John W. Jordan, LL.D.
Librarian Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
"^ HE threatening movements of the French west of the
Allegheny mountains, gave so much concern to Gov-
ernor James Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, that he se-
lected George Croghan, Andrew Montour and John
Patten, who had large experience in Indian affairs, to rendez-
vous at Logs town, an Indian village on the right bank of the
Ohio river, 14 miles below Pittsburgh, and gather what infor-
mation they could, and to ascertain the status of the Indians in
that locality. Col. George Washington had been previously
sent on a similar mission by the Governor of Virginia.
Croghan, in forwarding his journal to Governor Hamilton of
what transpired at the Logstown conference, wrote :
"By Mr. Andrew Montour and Mr. John Patten I have sent
your Honor a copy of all our proceedings at Logstown, and all
the news I heard worth mentioning. Your Honor will see by the
Indians' speeches that they are in high spirits and very willing
to defend themselves from the enemy, provided the English Gov-
ernment, on whom they depend, will assist them. They expect
your Honor will immediately order a house to be built to keep
necessaries in to enable them to carry on a war against their
enemy, who has already invaded their country. Your Honor
^*ili also see by ye Indian's speech that a part of that speech sent
you by Louis Montour, must have been forged by those that
wrote the speech Mr. Montour and myself brought. Joseph
Campbell, who was ye interpreter of that speech, and the In-
dians face to face, when ye Half King proved that there was not
ft word of giving up their lands to pay ye Traders debts men-
tioned. . . ."
(677)
678 JOURNAL OF GEORGE CROGHAN
George Croghan was a native of Ireland, and when he came to
Pennsylvania settled near Harris' Ferry, and was an Indian
trader as early as 1746. Having secured the confidence of the
Indians and acquired their languages, he became agent of the
Province among them and served on many important missions.
He was a captain in Braddock's expedition of 1755, and the year
following was appointed Deputy Indian agent for the Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio Indians by Sir William Johnson. In 1765, when
on a mission to pacify the Indians in Illinois, he was attacked,
wounded and taken prisoner to Vincennes, but soon released
and accomplished his mission. For over thirty years he ren-
dered valuable services in pacifying the Indians and concilia-
ting them to the British interests until the breaking out of the
Revolution. He died near Philadelphia in the Summer of 1782.
The Half King, spokesman for the Indians at the conference,
was a Seneca chief then residing at Logstown, and his name is
a familiar one in the Indian history of the Province, prior to his
death at Harris ' Ferry in October of 1754. The brothers An-
drew and Louis Montour, were the sons of the equally well known
Madam Montour.
George Croghan's Journal
J any. 12th, 1753-4.— I arrived at Turtle Creek, about 8 miles
from y e forks of Monongahela, where I was informed by John
Fresar, an Indian Trader, that Mr. [George] Washington who
was sent by y e Governor of Virginia to y e French Camp was re-
turned. Mr. Washington told Mr. Fresar, that he had been very
well used by y e French General, that after he had delivered his
message, the General told him his orders were to take all Eng-
)ish he found on Ohio, which orders he was determined to obey,
and further told him, that y e English had no business to trade on
Ohio, for that all y e Lands of Ohio belonged to his Master, the
King of France, all to the Allegheny Mountain. Mr. Washington
told Mr. F. y e Fort where he was, is very strong, and that they
had abundance of Provisions, but they would not let him see
their Magazine. There is about 100 soldiers and 50 workmen at
that Fort and as many more at y e upper Fort and about 50 men
JOURNAL OF GEORGE CROGHAN 679
at Venango ; y e rest of their Army went home last Fall, but is to
return as soon as possible this Spring. When they return, they
are to come down to Logstown in order to build a Fort some-
where thereabouts. This is all I heard of Mr. Washington's
journey worth relating to y r Honour.
On y e ,13th. I arrived at Shanopen's town where Mr. [An-
drew] Montour and Mr. [John] Patten overtook me.
On y € 14th. We set off to Logstown where we found y e In-
dians all drunk. Y e first salutation we got was from one of the
Shawnese who told Mr. Montour and myself, we were prisoners,
before we had time to tell them that their men that was in prison
in Carolina were released, and that we had two of them in our
company. The Shawnese have been very uneasy about those
men that was in prison, and had not those men been released, it
might have been of very ill consequence at this time, but so soon
as they found their men were released, they seemed ail over-
joyed and I believe will prove true to their alliance.
On \f 15th. Five canoes of French came down to Logstown in
company with y e Half King and some more of y e Six Nations,
in number a Sergeant and 15 soldiers.
On y e 1 6th. In the morning Mr. Patten took a walk to where
y e French had pitched their tents, and on his returning back by
y e officers * tent, he ordered Mr. Patten to be brought into him,
on which word came to y e Town that Mr. Patten had been taken
- prisoner. Mr. Montour and myself immediately went to where
y e French were encamped, where we found y e French officer and
y* Half King in a high dispute ; y e officer told Mr. Montour and
me, that he meant no hurt to Mr. Patten, but wondered he should
pass backward and forward without calling in. Y e Indians were
all drunk and seemed very uneasy about y e French for stopping
Mr. Patten, on which y e officer ordered his men on board their
canoes and set off to a small town of y* Six Nations about two
miles below y e Logstown, where he intended to stay till y e rest
of their Army comes down. As to any particulars that passed
between y e Officer and Mr. Patten, I refer y r Honour to Mr.
Patten.
By a Chickasaw man who has lived among the Shawnese since
he was a lad and is just returned from y e Chickasaw country,
680 JOURNAL OF GEORGE CROGHAN
where he has been making a visit to his friends, we hear that
there is a large body of French at y e Falls of Ohio, not less he
says than 1000 men, that they have abundance of provisions and
powder and lead with them, and that they are coming up y°
River to meet y e Army from Canada coming down. He says, a
canoe with 10 Frenchmen in her came to y e lower Shawnese
town witli him, but on some of y e English traders threatening
to take them, they set back that night without telling their bus-
iness.
By a message sent here from Fort Detroit by the Wayondotts
to y e Six Nations, Delaware and Shawnese, we hear that the
Ottawas are getting together on this side of Lake Erie, several
hundreds of them, in order to cut off y e Shawnese at y e lower
Shawnese town; y e French and Ottawas offered the hatchet to
y e Wayondotts, but they refused to assist them.
"We hear that y e Tweetwees, that went last Spring to Canada
to council with the French, returned last Fall, that they had
taken hold of y e French hatchet, and had gone back to their
old towns among y e French.
From y e 16th till if 26th. We could do nothing, the Indians
being constantly drunk.
On y e 26th. The French called y e Indians to Council and made
them a present of goods. On the Indians return y e Half King
told Mr. Montour and me, he would take an opportunity to re-
peat over to us what y e French said to them.
On y e 27th. We called y e Indians to Council and clothed
y e two Shawnese according to the Indian custom, and delivered
them up in Council, with your Honor's speeches sent by Mr.
Patten, which Mr. Montour adapted to Indian form, as much as
was in his power and mine.
On y e 28th. We called y e Indians to Council again and deliv-
ered to them a large belt of Black and White Wampum, in y r
Honor's and the Governor of Virginia's name, by which we de-
sired they might open their minds to your Honor and speak from
their Hearts and not from their Lips, and that they might now
inform your Honor by Mr. Andrew Montour whom he had chos-
en to transact business, you and y r Brethren at Ohio, whether
that speech which they sent your Honor by Mr. Louis Montour
JOURNAL OF GEORGE CROGHAN 681
was agreed on in Council or not, and assured them they might
freely open their minds to their Brethren, y r Honor and the
Governor of Virginia, as y e only friends and brethren they had
to depend on.
Gave y e Belt,
After delivering y e Belt, Mr. Montour gave them the goods
left in my care by y r Honor's Commissioners at Carlisle, and
at the same time made a speech to them to let them know that
these goods vras for y e use of their Warriors and defence of
their Country.
As soon as the goods were delivered the Half King made a
speech to y e Shawnese and Delawares, and told them as their
Brother Onas had sent them a large supply of necessaries for y e
defence of their Country, that he would put it in their care un-
til all their Warriors would have occasion to call for it, as their
Brethren, y e English, had not yet got a strong house to keep
such things safe in.
The 31st. A speech delivered by y e Half King, in answer to y r
Honor's speeches on delivering y e Shawnese.
Brother Onas, we return you our hearty thanks for y 6 trouble
you have taken in sending for our poor relations y e Shawnese,
and with these four strings of Wampum we clear our eyes and
hearts that you may see y e Brothers y e Shawnese as you best
wish to do, and not think that any small disturbance shall obstruct
y* friendship so long subsisting between you and us y r Brethren
the Six Nations, Delawares and Shawnese, we will make all Na-
tions that are in alliance with us acquainted with y e care you
have had of our people at such a great distance from both you
and us.
Gave 4 strings of Wampum.
A speech delivered by y e Half King.
Brethren, y e Governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia, you
desire us to open our mind to you and to speak from our hearts,
which we assure you Brethren we do : you desire we may inform
you whether that speech sent by Lewis Montour, was agreed on
in Council or not, which we now assure you it was in part, but
that part giving y e Lands to pay y e Traders debts, we know
nulling of, it must have been added by y* Traders that wrote y e
682 JOURNAL OF GEORGE CROGHAN
letter ; but we earnestly requested by that Belt and likewise we
now request, that our Brother y e Governor of Virginia may build
a strong house at y e Forks of the Monongahela, and send some
of our young brethren, their warriors, to live in it, and we ex-
pect our Brothers of Pennsylvania will build another house
somewhere on y e river, where he shall think proper, where what-
ever assistance he will think proper to send us may be kept safe
for us, as our enemies are just at hand and we don't know what
day they may come upon us. We now acquaint our Brethren
that we have our hatchet in our hands to stick y e enemy as soon
as our Brethren comes to our assistance.
Gave a belt and eight strings of Wampum.
Tonelagnesona, Half King,
Shingas, Skasuntia,
Delaware George, Coswentaunea.
Newcommer,
After y e Chiefs had signed y e last speech the Half King re-
peated over y e French Council which was as follows :
Children, I am come here to tell you that your Father is com-
ing to visit you and to take you under his care, and I desire you
may not listen to any ill news you hear, for I assure you, he will
not hurt you. 'Tis true he has something to say to y r Brethren
y e English, but do you sit still and don't mind what y e Father
does to y e Brothers, for he will not suffer y e English to live or
trade on this river Ohio, on which he made them a present of
goods.
Feby. ist. By a cousin of Mr. Montour's that came to Logs-
town in company with a Frenchman from Venango by land, we
hear that y e French expect four hundred men every day to y e
Fort above Venango and as soon as they come they are to come
down the river to Logstown to take possession from the English
till y e rest of y e Army comes in the Spring. The Frenchman
who came here in company with Mr. Montour's cousin is Keep-
er of y e King's Stores and I believe y e Chief of his business is
to take a view of y* country and to see what number of English
there are here and to find out how y e Indians are affected to y e
French.
JOURNAL OF GEORGE CROGHAN 683
Feby. 2d. Just as we were leaving Logstown y e Indiaus made
the following speech:
Brethren, y e Governor of Pennsylvania and Virginia : We
have opened our hearts to you and let you know our minds. We
now by these two strings of Black Wampum desire you may
directly send to our assistance, that you and us may secure
y* Lands of Ohio, for there is nobody but you, our Brethren, and
ourselves have any right to y e land, but if you don't send imme-
diately we shall surely be cut off by our enemy y e French.
Gave two strings Black Wampum.
Fehy. 2d. A speech made to us by Shingas, King of the Dela-
wares.
Brother Onas, I am glad to hear all our people here are of
one mind. 'Tis true I live here on y e river side which is y e
French road, and I assure you by these three strings of AYam-
pum, that I will neither go down nor up, but will move nearer
to my brethren y e English where I can keep our women and chil-
dren safe from y e enemy.
Gave three strings of Wampum.
The Rouse Family
UDGED by the fundamental test of perpetuation in an un-
broken lineage from a historical period anterior to the ex-
istence of precise records, the family of Rouse (le Roux,
Rufus, Rous, Rowse, etc.) is one of the most ancient in
Europe. "It reaches back," says a writer on the origin of sur-
names, "to the Norman invasion of England, back to the Norse
invasion of Normandy, and still farther back to the old Danish
and Norse histories." All the principal authorities on the an-
cestry of the gentle families of England are agreed respecting
the Norman derivation of the Rouses, the transplantation of the
family to Britain in 1066 by a noble knight in the army of Wil-
liam the Conqueror, and its uninterrupted repute and promi-
nence from that remote period.
Says the author of "The Norman People," quoted by the
duchess of Cleveland in "The Battle Abbey Roll": "The Eng-
lish line descends from Turchil Rufus or le Rous, who came to
England in 1066 and held lands in Norfolk from Alan Fitz-Flaad,
ancestor of the Fitz-Alans. Alexander Rous appears in the Lib-
er Niger; also Richard Rous, who held from de Albini in the
eastern counties. Hugo Rufus was viscount of Norfolk in 1225.
Richard le Rous of Norfolk died 1277, and had Alan, who in 1366
was lord of Durham and East Lexham, Norfolk, and had Peter
le Rous of Dennington, ancestor of the Rouses of that place,
from whence descend the Rouses of Henham, earls of Strad-
broke."
The same author, referring to aspects of the Rouse family his-
tory subsequently to the conquest, remarks: "This family is
Norman, and in 1165 held lands near Rouen from the county of
Breteuil. Ralph le Roux was sent in 1119 by Henry I. to the
aid of Ralph de Guader, and in 1120 was one of the nobles who
perished with Prince Henry in the 'Blanche Nef\"
(684)
THE ROUSE FAMILY 685
Among other citations made by the duchess of Cleveland,
which bear upon the early history of the Rouses, are the fol-
lowing: .
"In Gloucestershire the manor of Dunstbourne-Rous, soon af-
ter the conquest, belonged to John le Rous, and continued long
in the family. Roger le Rous held there in the twenty-second
year of Edward I., and John le Rous temp. Edward II. He was
in rebellion against that king, and was attainted and his lands
forfeited, but restored in the first year of Edward III."— Atkyns.
" In Wiltshire Richard Ruffus or le Rous had a grant of Im-
ber from Henry II. for his services as chamberlain. Sir Roger
and Sir John attended Edward I. in his wars. After the time of
Henry VI. I can find no descendants of le Rous of Imber."—
Hoare.
" Little Mitton in Blackburnshire was granted by Robert de
Lacy, third of Henry I., to Ralph le Roux, whose posterity were
named for that place."— Whit-taker's Whalley.
Thomas le Rous was high sheriff of Leicestershire in the four-
teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth years of Edward II. John Ru-
fus in time of Henry II. was seated at Ragley in Warwickshire
and Lench-Randolph in Worcestershire; his last heir male, Sir
Thomas, died in 1721. Another John Rouse, who died in 1491
and lies buried in the nave of Warwick Church, was, says Le-
land, 'of the Howse of Ragley by Alcester. He beareth three
Crounes in his Armes.' The Augustinian priory of Woodbridge
sn SuiTolk was founded by Hugh le Rous, but at what date is un-
certain. The prior and convent were bound to pray and say
mass for the souls of Sir Hugh, the founder, and six other
knights of the same surname, registered on a table in this mon-
astery »~Z)a vis's Suffolk Collections.
From those invaluable genealogical records, the Heralds'
*** imitations," by which, in early times, the arms and pedigrees
°f English families were officially authenticated and registered,
several of the principal branches of Rouse descent may readily
be traced by any one who will take the trouble to refer to the
published works.
686 THE ROUSE FAMILY
Rous of Dennington and Hexham Hall
Foremost of these lines, on account of its subsequent distinc-
tion, is that of Eons of Dennington and later of Henham Hall,
in the county of Suffolk. From it is descended, in the direct
or eldest line of succession to estates, title, and arms, the most
distinguished English family of the name at the present day,
represented by George Edward John Mowbray Rous, whose ti-
tles in the peerage are earl of Stratbroke, Viscount Dunwich,
and Baron Rous of Dennington. 1
Through a younger branch of the same original stock comes
the American family of Rouse to which this memoir is devoted
—established in Massachusetts toward the middle of the eigh-
teenth century by I. Benjamin Roiise, from Essex, England, and
since represented, successively, in a continuous made descent,
I. As the representative English branch of the family, and for the purpose of
comparison, we give below the lineage of the earls of Stratbroke, condensed from a
late edition of Burke's "Peerage":
Sir Anthony Rouse, knight, of Dennington, purchased Henham Hall, Suffolk,
from Sir Arthur Hopton, and from him lineally descended (several connecting gen-
erations being here omitted) :
Sir John Rous of Henham Hall, M. P., who was created a baronet, May VJ,
1660, m. (2d) Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Knyvett, Esq., of Ashwell-Thorp,
County Norfolk, and was succeeded by his only son,
Sir John Rous, high sheriff of Suffolk in 1661 ; m., 1st, Philippa, daughter of
Thomas Bedingfeld, Esq. ; 2d, Anne, daughter of Robert Wood, Esq. ; succeeded
by his eldest son,
Sir John Rous, M. P., at whose decease, unmarried, the title devolved upon
his half-brother,
Sir Robert Rous, who m. Lydia, daughter of John Smith, Esq., of Holton,
County Suffolk, and was succeeded by his only surviving son.
Sir John Rous, member of parliament for County Suffolk in 1768; m., in 1749,
Judith, daughter and heiress of John Bedingfeld, Esq., of Beeston, County Nor-
folk; d. October 31, 1771. and was succeeded by his only son,
Sir John Rous, b. May 30, 1750; member of parliament for County Suffolk from
1789 to 1796; elevated to the peerage, May 28, 1796, as Baron Rous of Denning-
ton; created, July 18, 1821, Viscount Dunwich and earl of Stradbroke; m„ 1st
Frances Juliana Waiter, only daughter and heiress of Edward Warter-Wilson,
Esq., of Bilboa, County Limerick; 2d, Charlotte Maria, daughter of Abraham Whit-
taker, Esq.; d. August 27, 1827; his second son was the noted Henry John Rous
(l795"I^77)» admiral of the royal navy, member of parliament, etc.. of whom a
brief notice will be found in the text. The first earl was succeeded by his eldest
son,
John Edward Cornwailis Rous, second earl of Stradbroke, b. February 13, 1794;
was lord lieutenant and vice-admiral of Suffolk; m. Augusta, widow of Colonel
Bonham and daughter of Rev. Sir Christopher J. Musgrave, baronet of Edenhall ;
d. February 27, 1886 ; succeeded by his eldest son,
George Edward John Mowbray Rous, third earl of Stratbroke, b. November 19,
1862 ; vice-admiral of Suffolk, lieutenant-colonel of the First Volunteer Brigade,
East Division royal artillery. Seats : Henham Hall, Wangford, Suffolk, and 33
Belgrave Square, S. W., London.
THE ROUSE FAMILY 687
bv II. Joseph Rouse of Boston, Mass.; III. Benjamin Rouse of
Cleveland, 0.; IV. Edwin Coolidge Rouse of Cleveland, and V.
the late Henry Clark Rouse of Cleveland and New York.
The Rouse pedigree in this American line is as follows :
Turchil Rufus or le Rous, a knight in the army of William
the Conqueror, came to England from Normandy in 1066 and
held lands in Norfolk County from Aian Fitz-Flaad, ancestor of
the Fitz- Alans. From him was descended.
Richard le Rous, viscount of Norfolk, died in 1277, and had 1.
Alan le Rous, who in 1316 was lord of Dunham and East Lex-
ham, Norfolk, and 2. Peter le Rous of Bennington, ancestor of
the Rouses of that place, from whom are lineally descended the
Rouses of the Ajnerican family here considered and also the
Houses of Dennington and Henham, Suffolk, England, earls of
St radbroke.— This Peter le Rous of Dennington, county of Suf-
folk, gentleman (grandson of Peter le Rous of Dennington and
tfreat-grandson of Richard le Rous of Norfolk), married Maude,
daughter and heiress of Ralph de Hobart of Dennington, time
of Edward III. (1327-77).
[Hobart. — Coat armor (as borne by Hobart-Hanipden, earl
of Buckinghamshire) : Arms— quarterly, 1st and 4th, argent, a
*altire gules between four eagles displayed azure, for Hampden;
2d and 3d, sable, an estoile of eight rays or, between two
planches ermine, for Hobart. Cr est— 1st, a talbot statant erm-
ine, collared, ringed, and lined gules, the end of the line tied in
a knot over the back, for Hampden ; 2d, a bull passant per pale,
*able and gules bezantee, in the nose a ring or, for Hobart. Sup-
porters— dexter, a stag; sinister, a talbot; both proper and re-
garded, each gorged with a radiant collar and lined or. Motto
— Auctor pretiosa facit.]
Succeeded by William Rous of Dennington, who by wife Kath-
arine, daughter of Walter de Watre of Dennington, had
H illiam Rous of Dennington, who by wife, daughter of John
Clouting, gentleman, had
Robert Rous of Dennington; married Margaret, daughter of
Richard Boys.
[Roys, Boies, Boyse, Boise.— This family was early settled at
Bamiow, County Wexford, Ireland. Several of its members rep-
688 THE ROUSE FAMILY
resented Bannow in the Irish parliament. A rms— argent, on a
chief three escallops proper, and two bars gules, below. Crest
—two snakes intertwined erect.]
Succeeded by
Reynold Rous of Dennington, who by wife Joane Denarston of
Dennington had
Sir Henry Rous; married Agnes, daughter of Mr. Denton of
Oxfordshire.
[Denton.— Arms— quarterly of six: 1. argent, two bars gules,
in chief three cinquefoils sable, for Denton; 2. argent, a fesse
dancettee between three billets gules for De la Launde ; 3. or, a
lion rampant sable; 4. gules, a fesse dancettee between six cross
crosslets or; 5. ermine, on a fesse (untinctured) three cross
crosslets or; 6. argent, three goats' heads erased gules pale-
wise between two pales sable, each charged with three cross
crosslets of the field. Crest— & lion couchant or.]
Succeeded by
Sir William Rous, " Sonne and Heir"; married Alice, daugh-
ter of Sir John Sulyard of County Suffolk, chief -justice of Eng-
land.
[Sulyard.— A rms— azure, a chief merine. Harleian Society
publications, vol. xiii., p. 494; Metcalf 's " Visitation of Suffolk,"
pp. 69, 168; Berry's "Kent Genealogies," p. 87; Paige's "His-
tory of Suffolk," p. 556.]
Succeeded by
Sir Anthony Rous, who bought Henham Hall in 1545; mar-
ried Agnes, daughter of Sir Thomas Blennerhassett of Prense
Hall, County Norfolk, knight.
[Blennerhassett.— This family originated in England, and eith-
er received its name from, or conferred it upon Blennerhassett
in the county of Cumberland, where it appears to have been lo-
cated for several centuries. The Blennerhassetts settled in Ire-
land in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and have since maintained
the highest rank among the gentry of the county of Kerry, where
the first progenitors, Themar Blennerhassett and his son, Rob-
ert, obtained a part of the earl of Desmond's large possessions.
Arms— gules, a chevron ermine between three dolphins embowed
argent. Crest— a wolf sejant proper. Motto— Fortes fortuna
juvat. Seat— Ballyseedy, Ireland.]
THE ROUSE FAMILY 689
Succeeded by
John Rous, second son, of Cratfield, County Suffolk, born
15(30; married Margery, daughter of Thomas Ward.
[Ward.— The name is variously written Ward, Warde, de
Warde, and de la Warde, and is of great antiquity in the county
of Northumberland. As far back as the reign of Edward HE.
Simon de Warde sat in parliament for that shire, and Richard
Ward was elected for the borough of Northampton in the ninth
year of Henry VI. Arms— quarterly, 1st and 4th, azure, a cross
dory or, in dexter chief a mullet for difference ; 2d and 3d, a fesse
tx-tween three mullets. Crest— & wolf 's head charged in the neck
with a mullet for difference.]
Succeeded by
Lany Rous of Brieklinsea, County Essex; married Eunice,
daughter of Robert Wright of Dennington
[Wright.— Arms— or, on a chevron azure between three grey-
hounds courant sable, as many trefoils argent. Crest— & stag's
head erased or, charged with three guttees in cross, gules.]
Succeeded by
Benjamin Rous of Clacton Magna in County Essex, gentle-
man, born 1634 ; married Mary, daughter of Robert Mott of Col-
chester, County Essex.
[Mott.— The surname Mott or de la Motte is of French origin.
De la Motte Fenelon was the great archbishop of Cambria. Orig-
inally from France, and probably with William the Conqueror,
the Motts have been prominent for several centuries in Essex,
England. After a time the French prefix was dropped, although
the forms De Motte and De la Motte are still retained by some
branches in America and England. The Motts of Essex owned
many manors, and the main line can be traced for five hundred
years. Arms— sable, a crescent argent. Crest— an estoile of
<^k'ht points argent. Motto— Spectemur agendo. (See the New
1 ork Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. xxv.).]
The preceding had issue: 1. Robert Rous, " Sonne and Heir,"
aged nine years in 1664, and 2.
Benjamin Rons, born 1670 ; married, November 18, 1705, Cath-
*r>*n Julyan.
[Julien, Julian, Julyan.— Arms— azure, a lion rampant ar-
690 THE ROUSE FAMILY
gent, wielding a sword of the last. Crest— a bear's paw erased
holding the hilt of a broken sword proper.]
Succeeded by
Benjamin Rous; married, January 17, 1734, at South Church,
County Essex, Rachel Sully.
[Sully.— Arms— or, two bends gules; a label azure. Crest
—a goat passant argent.]
Succeeded by
Benjamin Rous or Rouse, born June 25, 1736, in the county
of Essex, England, who came to Massachusetts and had for his
second son
Joseph Rouse, born June 22, 1773; married in Boston, Mass.,
July 29, 1793, Mehitable Corbet, and had
Benjamin Rouse, born in Boston, March 23, 1795, removed to
New York and finally to Cleveland, 0., and died July 5, 1871;
married Rebecca Elliott Cromwell, daughter of John Cromwell
of Salem, Mass.
[Cromivell.— The Cromwell Family in America has been rep-
resented by a number of important branches from an early per-
iod of the settlement of the country. The New England branch,
from which the above-named John Cromwell of Salem descend-
ed, was settled in Massachusetts before the middle of the seven-
teenth century ; according to Savage there was a Philip Cromwell
in Salem in 1647, who was b. in England about 1614, and the
same authority mentions several other Cromwells of the sev-
enteenth century residing in the colony of Massachusetts. An
important and interesting family of Cromwells appeared in
Westchester County, N. Y r ., during the same century, which, ac-
cording to Bolton in his ' - History of Westchester County, ' ' was
descended from Colonel John Cromwell, an uncle of the illus-
trious lord protector, Oliver Cromwell. There was also at an
early period a Cromwell Family of much consideration in Mary-
land, which likewise traced its ancestry to the protectorial stock.
Indeed, it is probable that all the Cromwells of America have
an origin identical with that of the family from which the great
Oliver sprang. Especially at the time of the English Restora-
tion and subsequently, when everything was done by the court
and its sycophants to cast odium upon the name of Cromwell,
'
THE ROUSE FAMILY 691
there were frequent emigrations of persons connected with the
protector's family to Puritan New England.
The Cromwell line, says a learned writer, dates from Alden
de Cromwell, who lived in the times of William the Conqueror,
and his son Hugh de Cromwell, from whom descended ten Ralphs
de Cromwell in as many successive generations. In the branch
of the protector the Cromwell name became suspended by the
marriage of his great-great-grandmother, Katherine Cromwell
(1494), with Morgan Williams, of Welsh stock. This Katherine
Cromwell was a sister of the renowned Thomas Cromwell, earl
of Essex (the Cromwell of Shakespeare's play), who was the
chief adviser and minister of King Henry VIII. The son and
heir of Morgan Williams and Katherine Cromwell was Sir Rich-
ard Williams, who took the name of Sir Richard Cromwell. Sir
Richard, in a memorable tournament, enjoyed the distinction of
defeating two of the bravest foreign champions, whereupon the
delighted king presented him with a ring from his own finger. In
memory of the event Sir Richard Cromwell and his descendants
bore ever afterward, as their crest, a lion rampant holding up a
ring in its right paw. (See "The House of Cromwell, by James
Waylen, Sometime Secretary to Thomas Carlye." London,
1897). Arms — a lion rampant argent. Crest— a demi-lion ram-
pant argent, in his dexter gamb a gem ring or. Motto— Pax
quaeritur billo.]
Benjamin and Rebecca Elliott (Cromwell) Rouse had
Edwin Coolidge Rouse, born in New York City, August 12,
1S27, died in Cleveland, 0., February 1, 1877; married Mary
Miller, daughter of Joseph K. Miller, and had
Henry Clark Rouse, bora in Cleveland, 0., March 15, 1853;
residence in New York City, Cleveland, 0., and "The Ram-
parts," Cape Ann, Mass.
It will be seen that, dating from William Rouse of Denning-
ton, who married Katherine de Watre, eighteen generations are
comprehended in this pedigree.
Arms— sable, a fesse dancettee or, between three crescents ar-
gent.
Crest — a pyramid of bay leaves in the form of a cone vert.
Supporters— dexter, a lion argent, maned and tufted or; sin-
692 THE ROUSE FAMILY
ister, a sea-horse argent, mailed and finned or, the tail round an
anchor azure; each supporter gorged with a wreath of bay vert.
Motto— Jevive en espoir.
Dennington and Henham Hall, both in the county of Suffolk,
are the two ancestral seats identified with the history of the
Rouses of this line.
Dennington was brought into the family in the time of Edward
III. by the marriage of Peter le Rous with a Hobart heiress, and
the estates were subsequently increased by alliances with the
De Watre and other families. Long before the acquisition of
Henham Hall, the Rouses of Dennington were among the princi-
pal gentry of Suffolk. "Al the Rousis that be in Southfolk,"
quaintly writes Leland, "cum, as I can learne, out of the House
of Rouse of Dinnington. Diverse of the Rouses of this Eldest
House ly in Dinnington Paroche Chiorche buried under flat
stones."
Henham Hall, a property which to-day, after nearly four cen-
turies, is still the seat of the eldest branch of the Rouse Family
in England, was anciently the residence of the De la Poles.
It was built by Edward De la Pole, duke, marquis, and earl of
Suffolk, who was beheaded in 1513. Later it was the home of
Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, upon whose decease it was
granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Arthur Hopton, knight. From
him it was purchased in 1545 by Sir Anthony Rous, who enjoyed
the dignity of comptroller of Calais, and under whom the im-
portance of the family seems to have been greatly increased. ' l It
was," says Suckling in his work on the county of Suffolk, "a
very fine house, but was burnt down in 1773 through the care-
lessness of a drunken butler, who, while robbing the cellar during
his master's absence in Italy, set fire to the sawdust in one of
the wine-bins." Near the site of the original mansion another
hall was built, which, with modern improvements, is the present
residence of the earl of Stradbroke.
The Rouses of Henham Hall, unlike those of Halton in Corn-
wall (from which branch came the celebrated Francis Rous the
Speaker) were staunch partisans of the king in the Civil AVar.
The head of the house in those distressing times, Sir John Rouse,
THE ROUSE FAMILY 693
was, says Suckling, so eminent for his loyalty that Charles II.
wrote him a letter of thanks with his own hand. " There is
[was] a venerable oak beneath the windows of the Hall which,
according to tradition, saved his [Sir John's] life when a party
of rebels arrived at Henham with a warrant for his arrest. It
was even then hollow, and having been nsed as a summer house
was fitted with a door so curiously contrived that no one sus-
pected the cavity thus concealed. Into this hiding-place his wife
conveyed him, and night after night stole out to bring him food,
eluding the strict watch kept over her by the Roundheads. ' '
Rous of Rous-Lench
While the line of Dennington and Henham is one of immedi-
ate interest in connection with the present memoir, other
branches of the Rouse or Rous Family in England, descending
from the same original ancestors, are of much genealogical and
historical importance.
Distinguished among these is the family of Rous of Rous-
Lench, Worcestershire, referred to as the "clarissimae de Rous"
(illustrious family of Rous), w r hose heads were from a very
early period lords of Rous-Lench parish. Their pedigree, taken
by Clarenceaux about the year 1562, derives them from Sir
Baldwin Rous, knight, of the early fourteenth century, time of
Edward II. Previously to their appearance in Worcestershire
they were seated at Ragley in Warwickshire, as appears by ser-
eral inquisitions, thirty-seventh year of Edward III. (1364).
They had half of the manor of Alecester, with lands in Kingsley,
Aversley, etc. John Rous of *Ragiey possessed lands at Ambres-
tey in the forty-third of Edward III. (1370). It was his son John
who acquired the manor of Rous-Lench in Worcestershire, which
he transmitted to his son Henricus or Henry at his death in the
twentieth of Richard II. (1397).
Rous-Lench Manor continued in the possession of the family
for nearly five hundred years, or from 1397 until 1876, when it
passed to the Chafy Family, the Rev. W. H. K. Chafy becoming
ice thirtieth rector of the parish in 1881. The affix "Lench"
means ridge, afterward being adopted as the name of a family.
694 THE ROUSE FAMILY
Many monuments of the Rouses are to be seen in the parish
church. One of the conspicuous characters of this branch was
Sir Thomas Rous, who lived in Shakespeare's time. 4 'Yew Ave-
nue/ ' planted in 1480, still survives as a memorial of the early
Rouses. The history of Rous-Lench is an exceptional instance
in the record of a family— a single manorial residence being re-
tained and occupied for five centuries, throughout all the vicissi-
tudes of domestic and national life. The arms of the Rouses of
Rous-Lench are Sable, two bars engrailed argent. Their pedi-
gree, dating from the period of Henry III. to the end of the eigh-
teenth century, is as follows :
John Rous, temp. Henry III., had
Thomas le Rous, fifteenth Edward II. (1322), who had
Sir Baldwin Rous of Ragley (Warwickshire), who had
John Rous of Ragley, married Christian, thirty-seventh Ed-
ward III. (1364), and had
Henry Rous of Ragley and of Rous-Lench, married Maud or
Margaret, daughter of John Throckmorton, and had
Thomas Rous, married Anne, daughter of Sir John Cheney,
and had
William Rous of Rous-Lench, married Anne, daughter of Sir
Humphrey Stafford, and had
John Rous of E>/erston, County Northampton, married Eliza-
beth Vavasor, and had
John Rous of Rous-Lench, married Anne, daughter of Sir Ed-
ward Montague, chief -justice, and had
Edward Rous of Rous-Lench, married Mary, daughter of Mr.
Haselrigg of Noseley, County Leicester, died 1611, and had
Sir John Rous, knight, married Esther, daughter of Sir Thom-
as Temple of Warwickshire, died 1645, and had
Sir Thomas Rous baronet, married (1st) Jane, daughter of
John Ferrers, Esq., of Tamworth Castle, died May 27, 1676,
and had
Sir Edward Rous, baronet, died November 5, 1677 ; married,
1st, Elizabeth, daughter of John Lisle of Moxhull ; 2d, Frances,
daughter of David Murray. Issue: L Elizabeth Rous, died
1729. 2. Sir Francis Rous, baronet, married Frances, daugh-
ter of Thomas Archer of Umberslade, and died 1687. 3.
THE ROUSE FAMILY 695
Sir Thomas Rous, died 1721, aged fifty-seven; married Anne,
and by her had two sons who died in infancy. He left his estate
to Thomas Philips, who took the name of Rous and died 1786
without issue, transmitting the Rous estate to Charles Bough-
ton, who in his turn assumed the Rous name.
Of this branch of the family, while still having its principal
?eat at Ragley in Warwickshire, was the renowned John Rous
the antiquarian, born in Warwickshire in 1411, son of Geoffrey
Rous, who was a descendant of the Rowses or Rouses of Brinke-
Jow in that county. He was educated at Oxford, and about 1445
was appointed a priest or chaplain of the chantry or chapel at
liuy's Cliff (formerly called GibclifT), near Warwick, which was
built by Richard Beauchampt, earl of Warwick, in 1423. Here
be resided until his death, engaged in profound and exhaustive
scholastic labors.
One of his most important compilations was a record of the
^arls of Warwick, his patron's ancestors, written in English and
Latin versions on rolls of parchment, both elaborately illus-
trated with portraits and heraldic devices, not only of the heads
«>f the house of Warwick, but of many British kings anterior to
Henry VII. Another book, in continuation of the same sub-
ject, was a Life of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (now
preserved in the Cotton MSS.), which was adorned with fifty-
three drawings representing the earl's adventures, and other il-
lustrations.
His most ambitious general historical work was " Historia Re-
gum Angliae," written at the solicitation of his college friend
•John Seymour, who, being in charge of the erection of St.
tieorge's Chapel, Windsor, was anxious to be informed about
the exploits of kings and princes, to guide him in his selections
01 subjects for statues to fill the niches in that sanctuary.
Other writings from Rous's pen which have been preserved,
»r which, though not now extant, are ascribed to him by indubit-
able authority, were: " De Episcopis Wigorniae" ; accounts of
Ik* antiquities of the town of Warwick and of Guy's Cliff; a
refutation of a false history of the University of Cambridge;
an unfinished treatise on the English universities ; a chronicle
entitled "Vevoriciim," and a tract on giants.
696 THE ROUSE FAMILY
He died January 24, 1491, and was buried in St. Mary's
Church, Warwick, to which he left his library and other literary
effects.
Rous of Edmerston, Halton, and Courtyrala
Collaterally related to the two branches already considered
was that of the family of Francis Rous the Speaker (1579-1659),
which bore coat armor described as follows : Arms — or, an eagle
displayed azure, pruning its wings, with feet and bill gules.
Crest— a, dove argent. Motto— Vescitur Christo. This is the
line known as Rous of Courtyrala (formerly of Halton), within
recent times represented by George Grey Rous, Esq., of Courty-
rala , County Glamorgan (born 1818). (See Burke's "History of
the Landed Gentry 7 ' and "Dictionary of the Landed Gentry. ,, )
Omitting nine antecedent generations (given by Burke), the
pedigree starts from
Sir Robert le Rous, knight banneret, who distinguished him-
self under Edward the Black Prince in the wars with France
and Spain, was governor of Cherbourg in the reign of Richard
II., and was succeeded by his son,
William le Rous, married Alice, daughter and heiress of
Thomas Edmerston of Edmerston, and had
William le Rous, who inherited his mother's lands of Edmer-
ston, married Margaret, daughter of William Lower of the
county of Cornwall, and had
John Rous, married Isabel, daughter of Henry Drewe of Mod-
bury, and had
William Rous of Edmerston, married Sibyll, daughter of Wil-
liam Fowell of Fowelscombe, Devon, and had
Roger Rous of Edmerston, married Juliana, daughter of Wil-
liam Hill of Penquite and Fleet in Cornwall, and eventually co-
heiress of her brother, John Hill, and had 1. Richard Rous, his
successor. 2. John Rous, who inherited from his mother Hal-
ton and other lands in Cornwall, but dying without issue be-
queathed those estates to his nephew, Sir Anthony Rous of Ed-
merston.
Richard Rous of Edmerston, elder son of the preceding, mar-
THE ROUSE FAMILY 697
lied Eleanor, daughter of Sir Richard Mervyn of Fonthill,
Wilts, one of the judges of the common pleas, and had
Sir Anthony Rous, who succeeded to the original estates in
Devonshire, as well as Cornwall and other landed possessions ;
was twice sheriff of Cornwall, and "a man of great parts and
virtues"; married, 1st, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas South-
eote and co-heiress of her mother (who was Grace, daughter of
John Barnhouse and great-granddaughter of Edward Barn-
house of Kingston in the parish of Staverton) ; 2d, Philippa,
daughter of Humphrey Coles, Esq. ; 3d, Susan, daughter of Sir
Lewis Pollard. His fourth son (by his first wife) was Francis
the Speaker. Sir Anthony died in 1622, and was succeeded by
kis grandson,
William Rous, Esq., of Halton, member of parliament for
Truro, who married Mary, eldest daughter of Richard, Lord
Eobartes of Truro. From them the elder branches of this fam-
ily have descended to the present time.
Francis Rous, fourth son of Sir Anthony Rous (above),
was born at Dittisham in Devonshire in 1579, was matriculated
lit Broadgate's Hall, afterward Pembroke College, Oxford, in
1593, and was graduated as bachelor of arts in 1597. Whilst
fct Oxford he contributed a prefatory sonnet to a eulogistic
work on Sir Francis Drake, and wrote an ambitious poetical
composition, "Thule, or Vertue's Historie," an imitation of
Spenser in two books (orginally published in 1596 and recently
reprinted in the publications of the Spenser Society).
He entered the Middle Temple in 1601, but, abandoning his
$>uqx>se of engaging in the legal profession, retired to Land-
rake in Cornwall, and for many years was occupied with theo-
logical studies and writings, publishing a number of works,
which gave him the reputation of a sound Puritan controversi-
es t
In 1625 he became a member of parliament for Truro, and in
1 628-9 sat for Tregony. He distinguished himself in the latter
£*>dy by the violence of his attacks on Arminianism and pop-
ery. From 1640 until a short time before his death he was con-
tinuously in public life, figuring as one of the most important
698 THE ROUSE FAMILY
men in the various parliaments of that memorable era. He was
speaker of the Little or Barebones parliament from July 5 to
December 12, 1653, was subsequently sworn of the protector 's
council of state, and was one of the committee appointed (April
9, 1656) to discuss the question of the kingship with Crom-
well, by whom he was created lord of parliament in December.
1657. He died at Acton in January, 1659, and on the 24th of
that month was buried with great state in Eton College Chapel.
Portraits of him are preserved in that institution and in Pem-
broke College, Oxford. By his will he founded three scholar-
ships in Pembroke College.
Francis Eous was one the most voluminous writers of his
times, his works being almost exclusively devoted to subjects
of religious and political disputation. The following is a par-
tial list:
"Meditations of Instruction, of Exhortation, of Eeprofe: in-
deavouring the Edification and Reparation of the House of
God." "The Arte of Happinesse, consisting of three Parts,
whereof the first searcheth out the Happinesse of Man, the sec-
ond particularly discovers and approves it, the third sheweth
the Meanes to attayne and increase it." "Diseases of the Time
attended by their Remedies." "Oyl of Scorpions." "Testis
Veritatis," a reply to Richard Montagu's " Appello Ceasarum."
"The Only Remedy that can Cure a People when all Other Rem-
edies Faile." "The Mystical Marriage, or Experimental Dis-
courses of the Heavenly Marriage between a Soule and her
Saviour." "Catholicke Charity: complaining and maintaining
that Rome is uncharitable to sundry eminent Parts of the Cath-
olicke Church." "The Psalms of David in English Meeter"
(a version approved by the Westminster Assembly and author-
ized by the committee of estates in Scotland, where it still retains
its popularity) . ' ' The Balme of Love to heal Divisions. " " The
Lawfulness of obeying the Present Goverment." "The Bounds
and Bonds of Publick Obedience." "Mella Patrum," a compil-
ation from the fathers.
By his wife Philippa (born 1575, died 1657), Rouse had a son
Francis who was born at Saltash in 1615, educated at Eton and
THE ROUSE FAMILY 699
Oxford, and became a medical practitioner in London. He was
the author of learned works, dying about 1643.
We append brief notices of other celebrated characters of the
name Rous or Rouse, without especial reference to their ances-
tral connections.
John Rouse or Russe, one of the noted librarians of the Bod-
leian Library, was born in the county of Northampton, Eng-
land, in 1574. He was matriculated at Oxford in 1591, gradu-
ated as bachelor of arts from Baliol College on the 31st of Janu-
ary, 1599, elected fellow of Oriel College in 1600, and became
master of arts March 27, 1604.
On the 9th of May, 1620, he was chosen librarian of the Bod-
leian Library, and in that capacity he continued until his death,
April 3, 1652, making a record for great faithfulness and effi-
ciency.
The name of John Rouse the librarian is associated in an
agreeable way with that of John Milton. Rouse and Milton were
warm friends, and the former, having a profound appreciation
of the poet's genius, applied to him on several occasions for
complete copies of his works for the library. Milton, finally ac-
ceding to these solicitations, sent him, in 1647, two volumes, one
comprising his prose pamphlets, carefully inscribed in his own
hand "to the most excellent judge of books,' ' and the other be-
ing a collection of poems. The volume of poems was, however,
lost or stolen on the way, and "to this circumstance we owe Mil-
ton's mock-heroic lines to Rouse (dated January 23, 1646-7) in-
serted in a second copy still preserved at the Bodleian."
Rouse's life was devoted exclusively to his books, and his
name is one of the best remembered of those of the scholarly men
identified with the Bodleian Library.
John Rous, known as "the diarist," younger son of Anthony
Rous, rector of Hessett, Suffolk, by his first wife Margery (who
died 1588), was baptized at Hessett on the 20th of April, 1584.
He was admitted a pensioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
m 1598, and graduated as master of arts in 1607. For many
years he was associated with his father, who was a rector of the
Established Church, also having pastoral charge of the small
living of Stanton-Downham, Suffolk.
Too THE ROUSE FAMILY
Throughout his life he kept a complete diary, replete with
1 * news," both foreign and domestic, and interspersed with com-
ments on the weather, the crops, and the affairs of the petty ses-
sions, where he sat as a magistrate. He copied into it numerous
popular skits and satirical verses of the times, many of which
have survived only through him. A minute record of ordinary
happenings and conditions for the period in which he lived,
Rous's Diary is one of the highly esteemed historical authori-
ties of its class.
He died at Downham, April 4, 1644, leaving daughters.
Coming down to recent times, the most conspicuous member
of the Rouse Family in England was Admiral Henry John
Rouse, a younger son of the first earl of Stradbroke, by his sec-
ond wife, Catharine Maria, daughter and heiress of Abraham
Whittaker, Esq. He was born January 23, 1795, and was edu-
cated at Westminster School, but discontinued his studies when
thirteen years old to enter the royal navy. During the Napo-
leonic wars his name was associated with several gallant ex-
ploits, and he enjoyed rapid promotion. He continued in the
navy until October, 1835, when he retired. Subsequently he was
successively promoted to rear-admiral and full admiral. He
represented Westminster in parliament. For the last thirty
years of his life he was enthusiastically devoted to racing sports,
being "universally regarded as the dictator of the English turf."
Admiral Rouse died January 19, 1877. Though married, he
left no issue.
The Rouse Family of the United States comprises a number of
lines from early colonial ancestors, which, considered separately
have no very close relation one to the other, but which neverthe-
less all spring from the immemorial British stock.
Savage, in his "Genealogical Dictionary of the Early Settlers
of New England, " mentions a number of persons of the name of
Rous, Rouse, or Rowse who were resident during the seven-
teenth century in various localities of Massachusetts, including
Cambridge, Groton, Gloucester, Marshfield, Little Compton, and
Boston. One of the most prominent of these was Captain Wil-
liam Rouse of Boston, a mariner. Probably belonging to the
same family was the celebrated Captain, afterward Commodore,
THE ROUSE FAMILY 701
John Rous. Born in or near Boston in the early part of the
fifteenth century, he became noted as an intrepid commander
of vessels, and attracted the attention of the colonial authorities
as one peculiarly fitted for the naval service in the wars with the
French. In 1745 he was appointed second in command of the
naval force in the expedition against Louisburg. In this enter-
prise he highly distinguished himself, capturing, with a twenty-
pun vessel, a French frigate of sixty guns— one of the most bril-
liant feats in the history of the colonial wars. Continuing in
the same career he entered the British navy, in which he at-
tained the rank of commodore. He died at Portsmouth, Eng-
land, April 3, 1758.
Another Rouse who acquired prominence in colonial times was
John Rouse "the Quaker," son and heir of Lieutenant-Colonel
Thomas Rous, a wealthy West Indian planter of the parish of
St. Philip, Barbadoes, and one of the principal landholders of
that island. Father and son became converts to the doctrines of
George Fox, and the son, as early as 1656, published a "Warn-
ing to the Inhabitants of Barbadoes/' In the following year,
notwithstanding the cruel laws then prevalent in New England
against all professing his religious creed, he came to Rhode Isl-
and, and began to preach and proselytize. Later he went to Bos-
ton, where he was arrested, publicly whipped, and by sentence of
the court had his right ear cut off. After his recovery he went
to England, and, by developing his large wealth to the promo-
tion of the cause of the Friends in America and elsewhere, was
instrumental in procuring toleration for them.
He was extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits in Lon-
don. In March, 1661, he married Margaret, eldest daughter of
Margaret Fell, one of the prominent promoters of the interests
of the Friends. In 1695, returning to England from a visit to
Barbadoes, the vessel which bore him was lost and all on board
perished. He left an only son, Nathaniel (1671-1717), who mar-
ried Hannah, daughter of Caleb Woody of Guildford, England.
7 02 THE ROUSE FAMILY
American Descent of Henry Clark Rouse
The American progenitor of the Rouse Family in the line
treated in this memoir was
BENJAMIN ROUSE, known as "the elder/ ' son of Benja-
min and Rachel (Sully) Rouse. He was born in the county of
Essex. England, June 25, 1736, removing to Massachusetts.
n
JOSEPH ROUSE, second son of the preceding, was born
June 22, 1773. He was married in Boston, July 29, 1793, by Rev.
Samuel West, to Mehitable Corbet.
Ill
BENJAMIN ROUSE, son of the preceding, was born in Bos-
ton on the 23d of March, 1795. Deprived of both his parents at
the age of six, he was for some time cared for by an aunt, and
later found a home with his maternal grandmother. ' ' While his
early opportunities for acquiring an education were limited, he
nevertheless, owing to his possession of great natural ability,
gained an extensive knowledge of subjects of general interest.' '
Throughout his life he was noted as a man of wide information
and sound accomplishments.
When only seventeen years old he entered the military ser-
vice of the United States as a volunteer in the War of 1812. At
the close of that struggle he became associated with Peter Os-
good of Boston as a building contractor, and in this department
of enterprise he was subsequently (1821 to 1830) engaged with
substantial success in New York City. Five years previously to
his removal to New York he was married to Miss Rebecca Elliott
Cromwell of Salem, Mass. This proved to be a union of truest
mutual sympathy, devotion, and helpfulness, each sharing at all
times, and earnestly cooperating, in the interests, plans, and co-
ble and beneficent works of the other.
THE ROUSE FAMILY 703
In his enterprises in New York City Mr. Rouse, as a man of
niarked capacity for business affairs, soon established himself
on a prosperous footing. But from an early period of his career
his aims in life had been by no means confined to the mere ac-
cumulation of wealth, and, imbued with a deep religious and
philanthropic spirit, he sought to make his life conform to the
purposes of usefulness to his fellow-men which he had at heart.
Becoming much interested in the cause of Sunday-School and
similar reformatory and educational work among certain neg-
lected classes in the metropolis, he applied himself so actively to
labors in this connection that he was urged by the American
Sunday-School Union to accept a special commission in its be-
half to a new field in the west. He was appointed agent of this
union in the Western Reserve of Ohio, and, accepting the offer,
removed with his family to Cleveland (at that time a commun-
ity of only a thousand souls), where he arrived on the 17th of
October, 1830. Here he resided for the remainder of his life,
occupying a position of prominence, influence, and widely-recog-
nized usefulness as a citizen. Upon the site of the modest dwel-
ling where he established his home upon first coming to Cleve-
land, he erected, in 1852, the Rouse Block, which today is a sub-
stantial reminder of the early development of the city.
Conscientiously devoting himself from the day of his arrival
in Cleveland to the interests of the mission with which he was
charged, Mr. Rouse's efforts were rewarded with abundant suc-
cess. "He opened a Sunday-School book depository, and for
many years travelled through northern Ohio, holding religious
meetings and accomplishing a vast amount of good. From the
fir<t he threw his whole soul into the work he had come to do,
and his devoted labors resulted in the organization of a Tract
Society, the Seamen's Friends' Society, and over two hundred
Sunday-Schools. He was also one of the constitutent members
of the First Baptist Church, organized in the city of Cleveland
*» the year 1833, and for forty years thereafter was one of the
nsost zealous workers in that church, in which during all that
Period he was deacon. His religious faith and the force of his
*«i power were remarkable for their strength and firmness. He
never shirked any task that devolved upon him, and never lost
7<H THE ROUSE FAMILY
courage. He was a man of sterling qualities, strong against
temptation, and zealous in whatsoever lie engaged in. . . .
While very practical, he was full of sympathy, generosity, and
enthusiasm. He was quick to act and certain in his course, and
had the power of infusing zeal in others, his greatest joy being
in doing good to his fellow man."
He died at his residence in Cleveland, July 5, 1871.
Rebecca Elliott Cromwell, the beloved and noble wife of
Benjamin Eouse (to whom he was married in Boston on the
12th of August, 1819), was the daughter of John Cromwell of
Salem, Mass., where she was born October 30, 1799. The fol-
lowing highly appreciative biographical notice of Mrs. Rebecca
Elliott (Cromwell) Rouse is from a work published several
years after her death. 1
"Her childhood was spent in affluence, and to a liberal educa-
tion were added the refining influences of extensive foreign trav-
el. .. . Always of a benevolent and deeply Christian char-
acter, it was a pleasure and a privilege to Mrs. Rouse to devote
herself to missionary labors in a field where the work was urgent
and the laborers few. Upon coming to Cleveland her first work
was to make a personal visitation into every house in the village,
and her success was such that a church was soon organized, she
and her husband being of the original seventeen members of the
first Baptist society. With anxious solicitude she watched the
growth of the infant society, and it was her great joy to see it
develop and become strong.
"In the wider realm of philanthropy her influence as a leading
spirit was everywhere felt. She was the organizer and presi-
dent of the Martha Washington Society of 1842, one of the earli-
est of Cleveland's benevolent associations, out of which grew
the Protestant Orphan Asylum, of which she was the managing
director for years. She was also a leading spirit in many other
benevolent organizations of Cleveland during her active life,
giving freely of her time, talents, and means towards the fur-
therance of all works of a philanthropic character.
"During the great Rebellion she was indeed a ministering an-
gel. For five years she labored incessantly, earnestly, and zeal-
I. "Illustrated American Biography," by the Lewis Publishing Company.
THE ROUSE FAMILY 705
ously, and was instrumental in collecting and distributing mil-
lions of dollars , worth of supplies for the gallant sick and
wounded lying in the military hospitals. Five days after Presi-
dent Lincoln's call to arms (April 15, 1S61), the Soldiers' Aid
Society of Cleveland was organized— the first society of women
that met and organized for the noble work of bearing a nation's
love to a nation's army. Mrs. Rouse was the president of this
society, and as such became widely known and much beloved.
The enterprise achieved a national reputation, and it is but due
to Mrs. Kouse to say that its success was largely owing to her
wise administration of its affairs. In connection with this relief
movement she made a number of highly effective and patriotic
addresses, which aroused the sympathies of the women of north-
ern Ohio, and revived the fires of patriotism in the bosoms of
those who heard her. Upon several occasions she went to the
front on business pertaining to the supplies sent, and visited the
soldiers in the hospitals. At one time, when more buildings and
supplies were needed to shelter and relieve the troops passing
through Cleveland, so heavy had been the tax upon the resources
of the citizens that some of the business men said that the money
could not be raised. Her quiet and characteristic reply was, * It
must be raised,' and it was raised. She possessed in a very large
measure that genius of common sense, that breadth and boldness
of conception and wonderful executive ability, which met and
mastered difficulties as they arose, and which were adequate to
each emergency. In honor of her great work in behalf of the
soldiers, and in grateful memory of her name, a bronze figure of
Mrs. Rouse was placed upon the south side of the magnificent
soldiers ' monument in Cleveland, and upon an entablature with-
in her name is inscribed. . . .
"Mrs. Rouse was eminently a religious woman, governing her-
**'Sf by religious principles in the discipline of her family, over
^hom she exercised a winning and persuasive influence. Her
-uth, which had ever adorned her life and character, which
made her actions open, honorable, and useful, shed a halo of
mora] beauty and glory around her declining years. Serenely
cheerful, still young in her affections and sympathies and de-
voutly submissive, she presented a most attractive picture of
706 THE ROUSE FAMILY
loving and venerable old age. She survived her husband six-
teen years, and died December 23, 1887, at the age of eighty-
eight."
IV
EDWIN COOLIDGE ROUSE, second son of Benjamin and
and Rebecca Elliott (Cromwell) Rouse, was born in New York
City, August 12, 1S27. The removal of his parents to Cleveland
occurred when he was only three years old, and in that city he
was reared, educated, and always resided. In early life he was
a member of the wholesale drygoods house of Clark, Morgan and
Company, subsequently becoming the head of the firm of Rouse,
Post, and Company. The latter partnership was dissolved in
1856, and during the remainder of his business career Mr.
Rouse devoted his attention almost exclusively to fire insurance,
ranking as one of the foremost men of the United States identi-
fied with that important interest. He was one of the organizers
of the Sun Fire Insurance Company (1865), serving at first as
its secretary and treasurer, and afterward (from 1875 until his
death) as its president. He was for several years manager of
the Ohio business of the Continental Fire Insurance Company of
New York; was for five years president of the Cleveland Board
of Underwriters, and was a member, and one of the executive
committee, of the National Board of Fire Underwriters from
the time of its organization until his death. He was also the
first president of the American District Telegraph Company.
For several months during the Civil "War he was in active ser-
vice as capitan of Company F., One Hundred and Fiftieth
Volunteer Infantry, commanding Fort Totten, one of the defen-
ses of Washington.
He died at his residence in Cleveland, February 1, 1877, in
the fiftieth year of his age.
Mr. Rouse married, at Cleveland, August 12, 1850, Miss Mary
Miller, daughter of Joseph K. and Margaret (Spangler) Miller.
[Joseph K. Miller, son of William and Hannah Miller, was de-
cended from a Maryland family, having been b. in that state on
the 17th of January, 1802. In his childhood he was brought by
his parents to Ohio. He d. at the age of thirty-six. M., Febru-
THE ROUSE FAMILY 707
ary U, 1826, Margaret Spangler (b. June 18, 1809, d. September
'26 1S91), who was the daughter of Michael and Elizabeth
Spangler of Canton, Ohio. Mrs. Miller has been described as
"a woman of many noble qualities of mind and heart, her life
being replete with acts of benevolence and charity."]
Mrs. Mary (Miller) Rouse was born May 25, 1832, and died
January 13, 1884. Uniting mental and artistic accomplishments
with an earnest religious nature and great amiability of dis-
position, her life was one of refined and useful influence. With
her husband, who was highly endowed with musical gifts, she
was a member of the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, and
for twenty-nine years both husband and wife gave their gratuit-
ous sendees to the conduct of the choir of that church.
HENRY CLARK ROUSE, only son of Edwin Coolidge and
Mary (Miller) Rouse, was born in Cleveland, 0., March 15, 1853.
He received an academic education, supplemented by instruction
under private tutors, and also enjoyed the advantage of exten-
sive travel abroad before engaging in the active affairs of life.
At the age of twenty-one he entered the office of his father,
where he received a thorough business training, so that, upon the
latter's death, when only twenty-three years old, he assumed the
conduct of his father's large interests, being the youngest man
in the country occupying so responsible a position in insurance
management He continued for a period of five years to devote
himself to the insurance business, but at the end of that time,
becoming interested in other pursuits, abandoned underwriting
and began the career of organization and administration in
iho corporate and financial world in which he was afterward
*o strikingly successful.
He was the first man in Cleveland to conceive the idea of
Greeting large apartment houses adapted to the needs of the bet-
ter classes, and as managing director of the Lincoln Apartment
House Company (1882) carried the plans thus originated to
â– necessful execution. In the following year he became identi-
Bed with the brass manufacturing industry as president of
ilie Harden Company a corporation operating extensive brass
708 THE ROUSE FAMILY
works in Massachusetts and in Ohio; later he was made presi-
dent of the United Brass Company of New York (then the lead-
ing concern in that industry), and also held official positions
in the Britton Iron and Steel Company, the Lorain Manufactur-
ing Company, and other industrial corporations.
This period of Mr. Rouse's business career was brought to an
end by his entering the broader field of railway management;
and during his last fifteen years his energies were entirely
directed to the administration of railway properties. " Previ-
ously to engaging in this work," says a biographical writer,
"he had devoted considerable attention to the study of rail-
road interests, in pursuit of which he travelled extensively over
a greater portion of the continent, visiting every state and ter-
ritory in this country and all the provinces included within
the British possessions in America. The fund of general infor-
mation thus obtained pertaining to the vast material resources
of the country and their relation to trade centers and the aven-
ues of commerce, admirably adapted him for entering upon the
broad field of practical railroad administration."
In 1885 he became interested in the Chicago, Wisconsin, and
Minnesota Railroad, ultimately the extension of the Wisconsin
Central system from Milwaukee to Chicago, and soon after
became identified with the development of the extensive railway
terminals in Chicago, now known as the Chicago Terminal
Transfer Railroad. In 1891, upon the reorganization of the Mis-
souri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Company (which four years
previously had defaulted the interest on its bonds, and in conse-
quence had passed into the hands of receivers), he was offered
the position of chairman of the board of directors of that com-
pany, and, accepting this responsible trust, the entire property
was turned over to him by the receivers on the 1st of July of the
same year. Later, he was also elected president of the company,
being then but thirty-eight years of age, the youngest railroad
president of that day in the United States. He was afterward
annually re-elected, his entire administration having been char-
acterized by the most brilliant abilities, resulting not only in the
thorough rehabilitation of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas prop-
erty, but also in developing sixteen hundred miles of dismem-
THE ROUSE FAMILY 709
bered railway, earning barely nine millions a year, into a system
of over three thousand miles, which now earns more than twenty
millions per annum and affords the best service of any road in
the territory that it traverses. In addition to his connection with
tliLs great corporation, he served, from August, 1893, to Febru-
ary, 1896, by appointment of the United States court as receiver
of the Northern Pacific Kailway Company. In the latter year he
aNo took a prominent part in the successful reorganization of
the Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago Railway. Later he
wa> made a member of the reorganization committee of the Tex-
a* Southern Railway. Indeed, Mr. Rouse's activities in connec-
tion with the vital interests of American railways, in addition to
the particular position which principally engaged his attention,
were most varied. Besides being president and chairman of the
board of directors of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, and re-
reiver of a great transcontinental line, he served as president of
the following railway companies: The Northern Pacific and
Manitoba Railway Company; Winnipeg Transfer Railway Com-
|»any, Limited; Cceur d'Alene Railway and Navigation Com-
pany; Helena and Jefferson County Railroad Company; Fargo
and Southwestern Railroad Company; Southeastern Dakota
liailroad Company; Northern Pacific and Cascade Railroad
Company; Central Washington Railroad Company; Washing-
ton Short Line Railroad Company ; Rocky Ford and Cooke City
Itailway Company; Sanborn, Cooperstown, and Turtle Moun-
tain Railway Company; Tacoma, Orting, and Southeastern
Railroad Company, and Boonville Railroad Bridge Company.
He was also a member of the directorates of some twenty-nine
oilier railroads, as well as a director in various mining, indus-
trial and financial corporations.
Mr. Rouse was a charter member and for several years an offi-
^*r of the First Cleveland Troop of Horse, organized in 1878.
Accomplished as a horseman, he spent several summers (1878-
*~) campaigning for recreation with the regular government
troops on the Indian frontiers in the Rockies, resulting in a wide
acquaintance in military circles.
Besides visiting every portion of the United States and Cana-
*K he travelled most extensively abroad. In 1886 lie spent the
710 THE ROUSE FAMILY
winter in Mexico; that of 1890 was passed in Cuba; in 1897 he
went to the Mediterranean and visited Egypt, and in 1899 he
made a tour of the West Indies, including Martinique and Trin-
idad. In 1902 he accompanied General Miles, commander-in-
chief of the United States army, to the Philippine Islands, ex-
tending the trip to Japan and China and thus enjoying excep-
tional opportunities for seeing America's insular possessions
and the Pacific littoral. "While in Pekin he had the honor of an
audience with the emperor and dowager empress of China. He
returned home by way of the Trans-Siberian Eailway in the
midwinter of 1903, having travelled thirty thousand miies in a
journey occupying one hundred and thirty-six days outside the
United States. He spent the winter of 1905 in India, experienc-
ing special facilities for travel through the courtesy of the rail-
way officials of that country, where the ; 'dead past of the wes-
tern world is still a living reality." Continuing east, he stayed
a fortnight in Ceylon, and, passing through the Straits of Ma-
lacca, the return voyage presented renewed opportunities for
visiting points of interest in China and Japan, when completing
his second trip around the world at a time when universal inter-
est centered on the struggle for supremacy in the Pacific. He
also made several European tours, beginning as a student in
1872. It may be observed that few men, even of the largest af-
fairs, acquired so extensive an acquaintanceship with persons of
note, both at home and abroad, as that enjoyed by Mr. Kouse.
In 1896 Mr. Bouse improved part of his property in Cleveland
inherited from his mother, by erecting a handsome new fire-
proof building, which he named the "Century," in honor of
Cleveland's centennial year, on the site of the Miller block built
by his maternal grandfather forty years earlier. The following
year he located the "Y Banch" in Estes Park, Col., embracing
a thousand acres of meadow and stream under the shadow of
Long's Peak, a delightful resort at a high altitude, where moun-
tain trout and game abound. In 1898 he purchased a tract of
land at the termination of the Eastern Point of Cape Ann, Mass.,
near Gloucester Harbor and not far from Salem, the historic
home of the Cromwell Family, from which he was descended
through his paternal grandmother. This estate of one hundred
THE ROUSE FAMILY 711
acres, with a handsome residence built by Mr. Rouse upon the
site of an old fortification occupied by a garrison in 1812 and
again in 1863, is known as "The Ramparts"— one of the most
interesting seaside properties in the country, and here he spent
the summer months, with friends to whom he took pleasure in
extending a liberal hospitality.
Mr. Rouse was an enthusiastic and accomplished yachtsman,
ranking among the best-known men of the country in this gentle-
manly sport. He owned, successively, ten yachts, all character-
ized by important special features or qualities: — the "Mystic"
(1875), a thirty-five foot centre-board sloop; the * ' Naiad " (1881),
a twenty- four centre-board sloop; the "Iseult" (1885), a thirty-
foot centre-board sloop; the "Ola" (1891), a twenty-two foot
cabin cat; the "Iroquois" (1894), an eighty foot schooner; the
"Olita" (1895), a half-rater; the "Shark" (1897), a one-rater;
the "Mistral" (1898), a twenty-one foot knockabout; the "Ed-
jako" (1899) a twenty-five foot knockabout, and "Olita 2d"
(1903), a half -rater. Several of his boats, constructed after his
own ideas and under his personal supervision, were built spec-
ially for racing qualities, and won many prizes. The "Iro-
quois," a hundred ton schooner, he acquired for her excellence
as a cruiser, and during the seven years that Mr. Rouse owned
this vessel he sailed her an aggregate distance far exceeding the
circumference of the globe. He became a member of the Sea-
wanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club in 1886, was elected its commo-
dore in 1895, and continued to hold this office till 1900. He was
also a member of the New York Yacht Club and the Eastern
Yacht Club. His boat-house, with its adjunct of yacht float and
other waterside facilities, was made, by the courtesy of the com-
modore, the designated "Eastern Station" of the Seawanhaka
Yacht Club.
Mr. Rouse's club memberships, in addition to those already
mentioned, comprehended the Metropolitan, Racquet and Ten-
nis, Arts, Midday, and Riding clubs, and the Down Town Asso-
ciation of New York ; the Union, Roadside, and Tavern clubs of
Cleveland, and the Essex County and Myopia Hunt clubs of
Massachusetts. He was a member of the Geographical Society
and a companion of the Order of the Loyal Legion.
7 i2 THE ROUSE FAMILY
The record of the Rouse Family, as traced from remote times
in England, is noteworthy for those solid and substantial traits
equally of character and ability, which afford the most reliable
basis and the chief sustaining power for a reputable lineage.
This record presents few "sensational" aspects, but is distin-
guished, with remarkable uniformity, by the vital and enduring
qualities of an inherent strength, vigor, cultivation, and capac-
ity. In the American line the characteristics of the English an-
cestry are well preserved in each succeeding generation. Prom-
inent in New England in the early period of its American resi-
dence, the family, with the larger development of our country,
has followed the lines of that national progress, and has been
conspicuously associated with the growth of the west and the
inception, organization, and administration of interests of com-
prehensive importance ; while in the persons of its representative
members it has been noted for civic usefulness and devotion to
the best interests of society.
Historic Views and Reviews
The Following Paper was Read by Hon. John S. Applegate,
President of the Monmouth Historical Association at a
Joint Meeting of That Association and the Navesink
Lebrary Association Held June 24, 1915, in Library Hall,
Navesink, New Jersey.
The Monmouth County Historical Association and the Nave-
sink Library Association meet in this hall today as affiliated cor-
porations, i hope they may always maintain the present friend-
ly relation. Our aims are not so widely different that we can-
not do it. The quest of the Navesink Association is literary at-
tainment; that of the Monmouth County Historical Association
is historical acquisition. We travel different roads but lead to
the same goal, which is culture. Thus do these two corporations
become co-workers for the benefit of the community at large,
and I take pleasure in extending mutual congratulations to both.
T am glad to know that the inhabitants of this portion of the
Highlands are partial to Navesink. I am glad to know that the
nomenclature of the lands and rivers and bays along the sea-
coast has become settled and adjusted. In the beginning of Eu-
ropean settlements in Shrewsbury and Middletown Townships
there arose a diversity of geographical names occasioned by the
failure of European settlers to write or pronounce Indian names
as the Indians pronounced them. Thus it is we find in Colonial
writings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a superflu-
ity of such names, as for instance the following : Naversink, Nar-
rumsing, Newasunk, Newasing, Naverumsunk, Navesink. It
took one hundred years to clarify this nomenclature so that of
the above names only Navesink now remains.
As to the Navesink Highlands the world recognizes them to-
day as an uncommon spot on the earth's surface. From their
(7i3)
7 i4 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
summits we look down upon beautiful rivers and bays. We see
to north Sandy Hook, Staten Island, LoBg Island, Manhattan,
and many other beautiful objects in nature; to the east we con-
front the "deep and dark blue ocean;" to the south a chain of
Municipal Boroughs that stretch from Raritan Bay to Manas-
quan River.
The Navesink Highlands were unknown to history until 1609,
three hundred and six years ago. It was then, the distinguished
navigator, Henry Hudson, entered Sandy Hook Bay in his lit-
tle vessel "The Half Moon" and cast anchor. The Captain
and his crew went ashore and made the acquaintance of the In-
dians who were of the Lenni Lenape tribe, which once inhabited
a large portion of our United States. Capt. Hudson and his
crew explored the hills and valleys of the Highlands and were
the first white men to plant foot on the soil of New Jersey. In
1663, which was fifty- four years after Hudson's visit to the
Navesinks, the first permanent settlement began, when twenty
Englishmen hailed from Gravesend, Long Island, crossed the
bay in a sloop and landed on the shore of the Navesink River.
They hunted up Indian Sachems and made bargains with them
to purchase their lands, for which later on they received a valu-
able consideration and delivered deeds, with their names and
mark attached. They conveyed a large portion of the counties
of Monmouth and Ocean. A few months afterward came Gov-
ernor Richard Nicoll from England. He was an agent of the
Duke of York, who was the brother of King Charles II. Gover-
nor Nicoll brought with him a patent called the NicoH's Patent,
covering a tract of land including New Jersey and part of Con-
necticut and the State of New York. He made a deed covering
that portion of the lands of Monmouth and Ocean counties which
they had purchased of the Indians. That deed is now known as
the Monmouth Patent and the grantees were the Monmouth
Patentees. Among them were John Bowne, sometimes called a
"Nation Builder," being the leader of the Monmouth Paten-
tees ; Richard Gibbons, called Sergeant Gibbons ; James Grover,
the first land surveyor of Monmouth County; Richard Stout*
who is acknowledged to be one of the very first settlers of Mid-
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 715
dletown, in Monmouth County; and eight other men of promi-
nence in that day and generation.
These were great historical events happening on the shores
of the Highlands of Navesink. Another event occurred on these
shores of great importance. That was the wreck of a vessel
compelled to land at Sandy Hook. Among the passengers
was one Penelope Van Princes and her husband, who was an in-
valid and unable to complete the journey. They were left alone
on the shore. In a short time they were discovered by Indians
who slew the husband and wounded the wife, leaving both for
dead. She survived and hid herself in a hollow log. A few days
afterward she was discovered by some friendly Indians who
bore her to their abode. She was nursed and provided for un-
til she finally recovered. A long time afterward the white set-
tlers on the Island, having heard of a white woman in the cus-
tody of the Indians at the Navesinks, communicated with the
Navesink Indians and obtained their consent to take her away
to Gravesend, Long Island. That place then became her abode
for a time and her name frequently appears in the Gravesend
records. Later on she married Richard Stout, one of the above
named patentees. They then moved to Middletown where they
spent the remainder of their lives, leaving a large family of chil-
dren at their death.
In this general resume of early important events connected
with the Navesink Highlands, the murder of that sterling pa-
triot and brave soldier, Captain Joshua Huddy, should be
specially noted. He was hung during the Revolutionary War on
the shore of the Highlands by a party of Loyalists and Tories
for no other cause than his ardent attachment to the cause of
American liberty.
Many skirmishes and battles occurred in the Navesinks dur-
ing the period of the Revolution; one was the Battle of Nave-
sink, fought over a considerable area of the Navesink High-
lands, possibly right here where this hamlet is located. The bat-
tle was between the New Jersey Militia and the Loyalists. There
vere as many as 80 men killed and wounded. An account of this
battle was written up several years ago by our compatriot, Mrs.
716 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
M. C. Murray Hyde, and published in the New York Times,
which was very interesting. Very little mention of the battle
has been made in history, but the records on file in the Mon-
mouth Court House and contemporary newspapers give an ac-
count of it. /
A week seldom passed in the Highlands during the Revolution
without a marauding party being sent out at night or day by
the authorities commanding headquarters at Sandy Hook Bay
and the Highlands. Their business was to plunder, capture and
destroy the homes and property of the American patriots. Fre-
quently the marauders were attacked by American militia and
sometimes the marauders attacked the militia, with varying suc-
cesses and defeats. Several skirmishes occurred at Black Point,
just across the Navesink River, where the Shrewsbury and
Navesink Rivers come together. At that point a brave New
Jersey commander, Col. Nathaniel Scudder, was killed in the
skirmish. At Jumping Point, opposite what is now Sea Bright, a
marauding party consisting of British Refugees, Tories, com-
mon thieves and pine robbers, and murderers of the worst type
to the number of seventy men, were intercepted after they had
succeeded in capturing Captain Joshua Huddy at Colt's Neck,
by surrounding his house and setting fire to it in the night, at a
time when he and his daughter were its only occupants. Alarms
were quickly given by Americans who kindled fires on the hill-
tops, which brought out the militia reserves to the number of
nine, who followed the mob all the way back to Jumping Point.
At that place about daybreak, as the mob was crossing the river
in boats, driving before them herds of cattle, sheep and swine
which they had stolen, the nine militiamen, coming up with their
guns, opened fire upon the robbers. The result was a panic and
several of the boats capsized; on one of these Captain Huddy
was a prisoner. He had been shot in the thigh by a bullet fired
by an American. As he swam to the shore he called to the Amer-
icans, shouting, u Iam Huddy, I am Huddy!" One John Eld-
ridge, a militiaman only twenty-one years of age, recognizing
Huddy 's voice, ran down into the water and grasping his arm
helped him ashore where he joined his friends. He lived two
years after that event serving his country, when he was captured
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 717
again, in the Tory attack on the Blockhouse at Toms River by
overpowering numbers.
There are many other tragic events that occurred during the
Eevolutionary War in the Highlands of Navesink and the im-
mediate vicinity. You will find them described in New Jersey
histories.
A beautiful and popular story entitled "The Water Witch/ '
is founded and laid in the Navesink Highlands by the famous
novelist, James Fennimore Cooper.
There is a vast amount of legendary lore connected with the
Navesinks. Perhaps more in past generations than in the pres-
ent. A large part of it has been relegated to oblivion. There
is a place in these Highlands known as "Witch Hollow," and
there lived in the vicinity one Samuel Bowne, who bore a nick-
name which was "Sam, the Witch." He was born and died in
Middletown township. My father, who was born in 1789 and
died in 1881, has told me that when a boy he lived at Apple-
gate's Landing, not very far from Atlantic Highlands— perhaps
a half mile west of the steamboat dock. My father's father kept
a general store there. At night neighbors gathered in the store
and told stories. Many of them have come down to me as told
by my father. Witch Hollow was said to have acquired its name
from Samuel Bowne, who told many adventures he had in Witch
Hollow. He was troubled very much by witches. One time he
said they rode him to "Capertoon" and carried a bushel of
clams on his back, and when they got there they tied him to a
hickory tree while they had a dance. Whether Sam helped to
eat the clams or not has not been told, so far as I have heard
the story, but certain it is that ' ' Sam, the Witch, ' ' was entitled
to some sort of refreshments after bearing so heavy a burden.
A record of the above story will be found in Dr. John E. Still-
well's "Historical Miscellany," volume HI, page 64, recently
published.
7 i8 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
The Following Sketch of How the State of New Jersey and
Residents of Toms RrvER Honored the Memory of Capt.
Joshua Huddy and his Fight With the British in March,
1782, is .Given Here as it Helps to Explain the Reference
to This Famous Jersey Patriot in the Above Paper by
John S. Applegate.
On the Water Witch Monument is a tablet inscribed as fol-
lows:
"Huddy, with his company of twenty-five artillerymen, was
detailed to occupy a blockhouse at Toms River, N. J. The post
was one of some importance, and the people of Monmouth by
special petition had requested the Legislature to give Huddy its
charge. Not only did it protect valuable salt works established
in that vicinity by the Council of Safety at the outbreak of the
war, but it also furnished a necessary base to the privateers en-
gaged in intercepting* traffic between the loyalist Jerseymen and
the British army in New York.
"At that time a deep inlet opened to the sea opposite the
mouth of Toms River. The sand bar fronting the shore now
covers the spot, and as the harbor thus made had but one equal
along the coast it was imperative that it should be held for the
coast service and for the safe-keeping of such prizes as the pri-
vateersmen brought in from time to time.
"Huddy, with his little force, had been so established in the
blockhouse nearly three months, when, about March 20, 1732,
news reached him of a formidable attack designed by the enemy.
He immediately made all possible preparations for resistance,
and four days later the blow fell.
"The British account of the affair as printed in Riverton's
paper, 'The Royal Gazette,' ran as follows:
" 'On Wednesday, the 20th inst., Lieut. Blanchard of the
armed Whale Boats and about 80 men belonging to them, with
Capt. Thomas and Lieut. Roberts, both of the late Bucks County
Volunteers, and between thirty and forty of the other refugee
Loyalists, and the whole under the command of Lieut. Blanch-
ard, proceeded to Toms River from Sandy Hook, under the con-
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 719
voy of Capt. Stewart Ross, in the Armed Brig Arrogant, where
they were detained by unfavorable winds until the 23rd inst.
" 'At about 12 o'clock on that night the party landed near the
mouth of Toms River and, reinforced by the River Robber Dav-
enport and his men, marched to the Block House opposite Toms
River village and reached it at daylight. On the way they were
challenged and fired upon, and when they came to the works
they found the rebels consisted of 25 three-months men and the
militia, apprised of their coming and prepared for a defence.
The Post onto which they had thrown themselves was six or sev-
en feet high and made of large logs with loop holes between them
and a number of brass swivels on top, which was entirely open,
nor was there any way of climbing over this. They had, besides
the swivels, some muskets with bayonets and long pikes for their
defence. Lieut. Blanchard summoned them to surrender and
they not only refused but bid the party defiance, on which he
immediately ordered the place to be stormed, which was done,
and, though defending with obstinacy, was soon carried.
" 'The rebels had nine men carried in the assault and twelve
under prisoners, two of whom were wounded. The rest made
their escape in the confusion. Huddy surrendered because his
ammunition gave out. Five of the men carried were wounded
after laying down their arms.' "
4, 4, 4, 4. 4.
An Appreciation
My attention has been recently directed to ' ' Americana ' ' an
American Magazine, published monthly by the National Amer-
icana Society of Neiv York, and, deeply interested in its varied
manifold excellencies, I venture to express my estimate of its
attractive and unique character as a circulatory medium among
persons whose tastes demand unequivocal superiority, and who
appreciate the higher forms of literary expression.
First, as to the formatio of the Magazine; it is convenient in
size and shape, light and easily handled, while the neutral color
of its cover is pleasing and the cover design simple but elegant ;
*fl paper, margin and type it is all that could be desired.
?2b HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
A special feature of this Magazine is the vividity of its por-
traiture which is indeed of striking excellence in every detail of
tone and finish, while as artist-proofs, copies can be supplied by
the publishers either for framing or for use in extra illustra-
tion.
The field chosen for its activities is a large one and of surpass-
ing interest, inasmuch as it represents History, Biography, Gen-
eral Literature and Genealogy, four attractive departments of
intellectual literary endeavor and daily becoming more and more
engrossing with the progressive evolution of education.
If American history does not extend backward coevally with
that of European countries, it is equally interesting, and has
contributed its full quota to the records of human effort,— the
progress of civilization. Much of it remains unrecorded, not
only with regard to our early settlers, but, from that time on-
wards, students are throwing light upon its forgotten pages
£very day, searching records in every direction as to the growth
of politics and government, naval and military history, the de-
velopment of law and order, traditions, folk-lore, everything in
fact of historic interest, thus showing how American character
and American ideals have been evolved, and how her national
greatness has been achieved and established.
History may be roughly defined as a systematic written chron-
icle concerning the development of a nation or a community,
combined with a record of events associated with human ex-
perience; what an ample field is thus afforded, and how appro-
priately this attractive magazine provides for every fresh dis-
covery, and the registration of every forgotten fact!
How interesting is thus dealing with the life histories of men
in their differentiated individuality,— their physical and psychi-
cal peculiarities, inherited and acquired, analytical and synthet-
ical, in all that concerns their temperaments, dispositions and
habits, and the reactions between their relative environments
and their personalities !
The writers of biography are artists in words instead of col-
ors, and in the production of word-pictures the subjects should
manifest every element of a man 's individuality from his cradle
to his grave: of course biography is more complete when illus-
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 721
trated by artistic portraiture as is evidenced between the pages
of " Americana.' ' Those devoted to Genealogy should be per-
haps, as interesting as popular, and as eagerly sought as any
of the other departments which come within the magazine's
scope and influence. It is a comparatively new study in Amer-
ica, but an earnest desire for its cultivation is being generally
expressed. There are many evidences of its spreading in many
directions. A short time ago the writer was told bv one of the
heads of a department in the Boston Public Library that he was
kept busy answering inquiries as to heraldic information, and
that such demands were steadily increasing. Within a recent
period the writer was also told that a strong effort was being
made to have a Heraldic College founded in Boston!
The articles I have read in " Americana } 9 are well-written,
very interesting and appropriate, and ably edited, while the mag-
azine is excellent in every particular, and should be successful
if merit has any claims to success.
R. A. DOUGLAS-LITHGOW, M. D., LL.D.
6 Brimmer Street, Boston, Mass.
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REV. ANDREW M. SHERMAN.
Morristown, N. J.
I
AMERICANA
August 1915
Recollections of a Half Centnry and More
By Andrew M. Sherman, Morristown, N. J.
Author of Life of Captain Jeremiah 'Brien, Machias, Me. ;
Phil Carver : A Romance of the War of 1812 ; Historic Mor-
ristown, New Jersey: The Story of its First Century
The O'Briens of Machias, Me. ; Memorials of the
Hon. Joshua S. Salmon; Historic New Eng-
land Towns Revisited, Or Back on my Na-
tive Heath, etc.
j ?
My Paternal Ancestry
Y paternal ancestors have been traced by genealo-
gists to Germany, from whence they emigrated to
England. Not all the Shermans, however, left Ger-
many, for as late as the nineteenth century the name
was to be found along the river Rhine and it is probable the
name is still to be found in the same region of the fatherland.
The names Shuman, Schuman, Schurman and Schureman now
somewhat common in Germany and in this country seem to be
different forms merely of the name Sherman.
It seems to have been sometime during the ninth century that
the Shermans found their way to England ; and from the famous
Domesday Book, or Doomsday Book, "the name of one of the
oldest and most valuable records of England, containing the re-
sults of a statistical survey of that country made by William the
Conqueror, and completed in the year 1086," it is gleaned that
(723)
724 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND .MORE
as early, at least, as the eleventh century there was a section of
England known as i l Shermanbury* ' '
If the readers of Americana were as deeply interested in the
history of the family of which I am a representative as the au-
thor of these articles I would give a verbatim transcript of a will
executed by one of my old country ancestors in the fifteenth
century, but as this deep interest is scarcely to be expected in
the direction suggested I will simply say that the transcript of
such a will, duly attested, is in our possession, thanks to the en-
deavors of an older brother, George W., of Lynbrook, N. Y., who
has expended no small amount of money in gathering from reli-
able sources in this and in the old country data concerning our
German and English forbears.
As near as can at present be ascertained it was about the year
1630 that our first paternal American ancestor, William Sher-
man, emigrated from England to these wild western shores ^
and there is some satisfactory evidence that he came from the
old country across the sea with his "kine" in the same vessel
with the Rev. Francis Higginson, the original American ances-
tor of the late Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, noted author as
well as capable soldier, of Boston.
Several plots of land were duly granted to my ancestor by
the colonial authorities in what was then Duxburrow township.
It must have been about the year 1631 that the first of these
X>lots of land was granted to "the emigrant" William Sherman,
for in the earliest records of the Plymouth Colony he is men-
tioned as having paid taxes in 1632. i l He was granted, ' ' I now
quote from the Plymouth County records, "a Garden place on
the Duxburrow side; five acres of land at Powder Point and a
meadstead about Stony Brooke, in Duxburrow, and land towards
Green Harbor in 1640." In 1641 he was chosen Surveyor of
Highways of Duxburrow township.
In 1642 Marshfield (spelled, also, Marehfeeld and Marshfeeld)
was incorporated, and the land owned by William Sherman was
included in the territory composing the newly incorporated
township set off from Duxburrow; and thereafter my ancestor
was a resident of Marshfield. On the 13th of November, 1644,
he was admitted an "Inhabitant of Marshfield." And it is a
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 725
fact of 110 small interest to lovers of our national history that
from, but exclusive of William Sherman, all my paternal ances-
tors have been born in this old New England town; and, with the
exception of one of the six generations of those ancestors, there
they married, there they lived and died and were interred, and
the locations of their graves are with but two exceptions cer-
tainly known to the present generation. Only my immediate
family ties deter me from arranging for my own interment in
this old New England town in which I began my terrestrial ex-
istence.
According to the Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Vital Rec-
ords, from which I quote, "William Sherman and Prudence
Hill marryed the XXIIIth January, 1638. "
Prudence Hill, the bride of William Sherman, as seems prac-
tically certain, was the daughter of the Rev. William Hill, rec-
tor of an Episcopal Church in Mell, Somerset County, England.
Sarah Hill and Hester Hill, sisters of Prudence Hill, the wife
of William Sherman, Sr., married, in old England, John Wash-
er and Robert Marks, respectively; and that these marriages
were worthy of the brides will appear from the following ex-
tracts from "Weaver's Somerset Inductions, " an English au-
thority :
"John Washer and Robert Marks, both designated 'Mr.' ex-
cept in one instance, when Marks was styled 'Doctor,' were par-
sons, and parsons moreover of parishes not very far removed
from Mells."
"Merriot-1626, Oct. 12, Robert Marks, A. M., inducted Vi-
car of South Petherton, 21 May, 1671. S. T. P. and Preben-
dary of Bristol Cathedral, went from South Petherton to Mer-
riot, 1626, where he was incumbent until about 1660."
From the above quotations it seems that both of Prudence
HilPs sisters married clergymen of the Established Church, of
England.
Certain old English records which have been consulted seem
to say that the Rev. Philip Bisse, D. D., of Magdalen College,
Oxford, was the maternal grandfather of Prudence Hill, the
bride of William Sherman, Sr.
It is probable that in Old England William Sherman and
726 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AXD MORE
Prudence Hill were lovers ; and, on her arrival in Plymouth
Colony sometime between 1G30 and 1638, the ;i twain were made
one," as is learned from the colonial records at Plymouth,
Massachusetts.
L'pon the plots of land which had been assigned at different
times to William Sherman in what is now Marskfield he and
his young bride established their home ; and there several chil-
dren were born to them, among the number being William Sher-
man, Jr., my second paternal American ancestor.
A part of the land assigned to my first paternal American an-
cestor was near that of Peregrine White, with whom he was
more or less associated ; and it is a great pleasure to the de-
scendants of William Sherman to be able to locate, approxi-
mately, at least, the land once owned and tilled by this " emi-
grant " from across the sea before the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century.
Among the special pleasures of my life is that of having per-
sonally examined the pages of the Plymouth Colony records.
That things valuable, interesting and even curious are to be
found in the well-worn pages of these ancient records is to be
presumed by those, even, who have never looked upon them.
As illustrations, merely, of the truly rare character of these
records I will say that while scanning their pages I came across
several entries of great personal interest to me. For example,
I learned that in the early part of the seventeenth century there
arose a disagreement between my paternal ancestor, William
Sherman, and the owner of an adjacent farm in Marshfield, over
boundary lines ; and in consequence, the two near neighbors
were for some time at loggerheads with each other. It seem-
ing to be impossible for the two neighbors to settle the difficulty
between themselves, the court at Plymouth at length authorized
Captain Miles Standish to go to Marshfield and arbitrate be-
tween the two hard-headed farmers; and, proceeding to the
scene of the disagreement, about eight miles from Plymouth,
the doughty captain soon adjusted the long standing difficulty
to the mutual satisfaction of all parties concerned.
The following occurrence recorded in the Plymouth court
proceedings, and which I came across during my researches of
.
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RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 727
the records, may well, I think, be classed among the curious
things of those early days: The use of tobacco was forbidden
in the P-lyniouth Colony, and the penalty for the violation of
the enactment was the imposition of a fine. My ancestor, Wil-
Jiam. Sherman, St., chewed tobacco; and he was, therefore, cited
into court to answer the charge of having violated the enact-
ment against its use. To this citation he promptly responded.
He admitted using the "vile weed;" paid the fine imposed; re-
turned to his home at Marshfield; continued the use of tobacco,
and there is neither record nor tradition of his ever again be-
ing molested for his indulgence. From this and other incidents
in his career one would naturally infer that the Marshfield farm-
er was well endowed with independence of character ; and I can-
not deny that some of his descendants of the present generation
have irherited the same trait of character.
^i> one of the glass show cases arranged about the rooms in
"Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, Massachusetts, may be seen numerous
articles of great interest. I was somewhat startled while examin-
ing the contents of one of these eases to see the original deed of
a piece of land given by William Sherman, Sr., to his son Samuel,
dated June 6, 1673. Of this deed I have a copy, furnished by
the officials of the Pilgrim Society, of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
This deed was "Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of
Peregrine THrite (who, it will be remembered, was the first child
born to the Pilgrims after their arrival in Plymouth, in the win-
ter of 1620) and Francis Crocker," and was acknowledged be-
fore Governor Josiah AYinslow. The phraseology of the deed is
decidedly quaint and interesting.
I beg to assure the readers of these articles that it is not
"pride of ancestry" that moves me to mention what is to follow,
but rather the thought that its mention may be a matter of inter-
est, and perhaps, of pleasure, to them ; and with these words of
introduction I proceed to say, that I have the duly attested cre-
dentials to show that through my paternal grandmother, a na-
tive and lifelong resident of Marshfield, whose maiden name
was Mitchell, I am descended from Edward Doty, John Alden
and Priscilla Mullen; and through my great grandfather, Eben-
ezer Sherman, who married a Simmons, I am also descended
728 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
from Captain Miles Standish. Doty, Alden, Mullins and Stand-
ish were among the ''emigrants" from Old England in the
year 1620.
For reasons which I will not now mention I have never, how-
ever, joined any of the societies, such as the Mayflower Descend-
ants. I cannot and will not deny that the thought of having the
ancestry above mentioned is a pleasing one; but I am "fully
persuaded" that "every tub should stand on its own bottom,"
and I am trying to cultivate that species of manly independence
instead of attempting to "cling to the skirts" of my ancestors.
It sometimes occurs to me that perhaps a measure af William
Sherman's independence of character has come down to the
author of these articles.
In Marshfield, William Sherman, Sr., and his wife. Prudence,
lived until their decease. The date of the decease of the latter
is not, at present, known to the descendants ; but it is known
that the former was buried Saturday, October 25, 1697. After
prolonged endeavor to ascertain the burial places of these an-
cestors the descendants have settled down to the conclusion that
they were both interred in the Winslow burial grounds near the
Webster place, but that all traces of their graves have disap-
peared. The Winslow burial grounds, it should be said, are the
next oldest in New England, the oldest being those on Burial
Hill, Plymouth.
In the Winslow Burial grounds there stands a plain, square
granite monument about eight feet in height, two and a half feet
in diameter at its base and proijortionately smaller at its sum-
mit. The central portion of the monument, bearing the inscrip-
tion and names has a highly polished surface, which adds dis-
dinctness to the lettering. On one side of this monument is the
following inscription: "In Memory of the Early Settlers of
Green Harbor, Marshfield." Just below the inscription are the
names of thirteen of said settlers ; and on another side of the
substantial testimonial are the names of twenty other settlers.
At the head of the names last mentioned are those of: "William
Sherman and wife, Prudence."
The circumstances under which this monument was erected
are as follows : At her decease, Miss Marcia Thomas, a resident
ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORTH MAIN ST., PROVIDENCE, R. I.
Which the author attended when about six years of age. He lived directly
opposite the church
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 729
of Marshfield, left a sum of money, by will, to pay for erecting
a monument to the memory of the early settlers of Green Har-
bor, Marslifield, in the Winslow burial grounds; and her sister,
Miss Sarah Thomas, was instructed to see that the provisions
of said will were carried out; and the monument was therefore
erected several years ago.
The Thomases were men of note in early colonial days ; and
from them the Misses Thomas above mentioned were descended.
Miss Marcia Thomas, it is due her to say, was deeply inter-
ested in the early history of Marshfield, and, at her decease, left
in printed form, for future generations, data concerning her na-
tive township which is invaluable, and which, but for her pains-
taking efforts, would doubtless have been lost.
I will not conclude this brief and fragmentary genealogical
introduction without saying that representatives of four gen-
erations of the Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Shermans of
my own immediate line have participated in the different wars
in which this country has engaged during its highly eventful
history, as follows : In one of the Indian wars in which the Ply-
mouth colonists were engaged William Sherman, Jr., son of Wil-
liam Sherman the " emigrant,'' served as a soldier; and, as a
result of witnessing the fiendish tortures, by the Indians, of
some of the colonists, his health was seriously affected. In the
year 1675, as is learned from the Plymouth Country Records,
he was allowed twenty pounds by the colony because of injuries
received by him in ' ' the service of his country. ' '
My great-grandfather, Ebenezer Sherman, served in the Rev-
olution in the year 1777 in Captain John Byington's company
of Colonel Xathan Sparhawk's regiment; and also in the regi-
ment commanded by Colonel Job Cushing in an expedition to
Bennington, Vermont. During a visit to Marshfield a few years
since I was shown the musket carried by Ebenezer Sherman in
the Revolution; it had, however, been changed from a flint-lock
to a percussion-cap gun, and was used for hunting game. It
was very gratifying to me to hold in my hands this musket car-
ried by a paternal ancestor in the seven years war for national
independence.
During the War of 1812 my paternal grandfather, A^ron
730 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AXD MORE
Sherman, commanded a company of Massachusetts militia, and
my father, Aaron Simmons Sherman, a lad of about fifteen years
of age, was the drummer boy for the company. When it was re-
ported that the British purposed landing a force of redcoats at
Scituate Harbor, a few miles nearer Boston than Marshfield,
grandfather's company marched to the first mentioned place
with a view to assisting in repelling the anticipated attack up-
on the excited village.
Upon reaching Scituate Harbor, however, it was learned that
the British had been frightened away by two brave and re-
sourceful Yankee girls, Rebecca Bates and Sarah Winsor, who,
secreted behind a building near the shore of the harbor so suc-
cessfully displayed their skill in blowing the fife and beating
the drum that the British officers in command of the troops
ready to land from vessels jumping to the conclusion that a large
force of "rebels" had arrived for the defence of the place has-
tily left for Boston.
For many years my paternal grandfather was one of the dea-
cons of the Baptist Church, of North Marshfield, now known
for miles around as "The old skunk," from the duly authenti-
cated fact that one of the deacons, whether my grandfather or
not I have never been informed, on taking the large, old style
contribution box on a Sunday morning to pass it for the usual
collection, found a skunk cuddled up in said box, where the ani-
mal had evidently spent the night in undisturbed slumbers.
There is, however, another version of this skunk story, and as I
am disposed to do full justice to all parties concerned, I will
give it; it is, in brief, to the effect that on the arrival of the
faithful sexton at the place of worship one Sunday morning he
discovered a skunk seated on the pulpit desk. Of the sexton's
emotions on witnessing this unfamiliar scene no report has come
down to the present generation.
It is a pleasure to his descendants to recall, that my father.
Aaron Simmons Sherman, when a young man, made the altera-
tions and improvements in the house in Marshfield, Massachu-
setts, purchased by Webster of Captain John Thomas ; this was
in the year 1827, and he had just returned from Machias, Maine,
where he had begun his career as a "boss carpenter." Later
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RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AXD MORE 731
in life my father became a pattern maker and achieved a na-
tional reputation as a master workman at his trade.
In the Civil War five sons of my parents served, two in the
infantry, one in the calvary, one in the navy and a fourth in the
hospital department; aud our mother, when commiserated by a
sympathetic friend on having so many boys in the Union army,
remarked: "If I had fifty sons I would give them all to my
country!"
My paternal American line of ancestors, which may be of in-
terest to some, at least, of Americana 9 s readers, is as follows:
1. William .Sherman, "the emigrant;" 2. William Sherman,
Jr.; 3. Ebenezer Sherman; 4. Elisha Sherman; 5. Ebenezer
Sherman; 6. Aaron Sherman; 7. Aaron Simmons Sherman, the
author's father.
II
My Boyhood in New England
Of the date and place of my birth I confess, without the shad-
ow of a blush, that I haven't the faintest recollection. If, how-
ever, I have been informed once, I have a thousand times, more
or less, by those best qualified to impart a knowledge of the facts,
tliat I made my advent into this beautiful world on the 5th of
May, 1844, and in the ancient town of Marshfield, Plymouth
County, "situate" in the easterly part of the Old Bay State;
which town with its eight separate villages and hamlets and as
many small postoffices, lies along the rugged shores of Massa-
chusetts Bay about thirty miles south of Boston, " as the crow
flies.'? I speak of Marshfield as being an ancient town; but it
is of course, ancient from an American point of view, only. I
will, however, say that in 1942, only twenty-seven years hence,
the town will be sufficiently ancient to celebrate, as it doubtless
will, the three hundredth anniversary of its incorporation.
The precise place of my birth, I take no small pride in saying
was not many miles from the rock, or more properly speaking,
the large boulder, on which the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the
bleak day in the month of December, 1620; indeed, (and I am
about to speak in hyperbole, that figure of speech which "lies
732 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
without deceiving") if, at the moment of my entrance into this
fair world I had stretched out my arm to its full length, my tiny,
soft fingers would have touched the smoothly worn side of the
now world-famous boulder whose surface, according to some
historians, was first pressed by the dainty feet of Mary Chil-
ton, the brave English maiden who afterward became the happy
bride of one of the highly esteemed pilgrims from across the sea.
It was while my parents were visiting, for the first time in
several years, with my paternal grandparents at the Sherman
homestead, in Marshfield, on their way from Bridgewater, Mas-
sachusetts, to Providence, Ehode Island, there to establish a
new home for themselves, that I made my initial appearance in
this wonder-teeming world.
The house in which I first saw the light of this world, built as
early, at least, as 1810, is still standing in a good state of pres-
ervation, having been constructed "on honor." It is a source
of pleasure to have had pointed out to me, by an older brother
who for many years has been the family historian and genealo-
gist, to whom I am indebted for no little data given in this initial
article of the present series, the identical room in which I was
born.
The Sherman homestead has been removed from its original
site to a point about fifty rods distant, approximately.
The Aaron Sherman homestead referred to is a one story and
a-half structure of the style of architecture common in the Old
Bay State and is shingled on roof and sides and ends. I do not
believe the house was ever painted ; but if so, the paint has been
completely worn by the i ' play of the elements, ' ' leaving not the
slightest traces of its former presence.
I confess that as I think of the house whose walls heard my
first infant cry, which is now occupied by strangers, I share
somewhat the sentiments of the poet, Byron, when he penned
the following lines :
"He enter 'd his home— his home no more,
For without hearts there is no home— and felt
The solitude of passing his own door
Without a welcome.
'.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 733
While an infant I was taken by my parents from Marshfield
to Providence, Rhode Island, where ray father had been engaged
to work at his trade, that of a pattern maker, in a large concern
which, as I recall, was situated near the present railroad station
in the city above mentioned. The entire plant, I think, has long
since disappeared.
Of the first years of my residence in Providence, a city then,
as I have been informed, of about thirty thousand inhabitants,
I have, of course, no recollection. My recollection, however, ex-
tends back to my fourth year; indeed, I can recall some things
which occurred during my third year, but these are of a hazy
and uncertain character. Of my fourth year I have a most dis-
tinct recollection. At that period I was residing on Ann street,
near the Tockwatten House, a large hotel in the basement of
which Toot beer and other soft drinks were manufactured, and dis-
pensed to stores in the city and vicinity. I have a most vivid recol-
lection of the fact that my frequent visits, as a "little fellow/ ' to
the aforesaid basement, were rewarded by the privilege of par-
taking freely of the root beer, of which I was especially fond. I
have no recollection of ever having been limited by the proprie-
tors in my consumption of that delicious root beer, presumably
because of my limited stomachic capacity; and although I may
be charged with again resorting to the use of hyperbole, I am
constrained to say that I can, at this late day, taste the delicious
beverage of which I was permitted to partake so frequently and
freely in the basement of the Tockwatten House, torn down, as
I am informed by a twentieth century resident of Providence,
about thirty years ago.
Another incident in connection with my residence on Ann
street, which is fresh in my memory, was a "big fire," which at
one stage was likely to reach and set fire to the house occupied
by my parents. Indeed, so rapidly did the fire spread toward
our home that many of our household goods were hastily car-
ried out on to the sidewalk preparatory to removing them to a
place of safety. The roof of our house was set on fire by flying
embers from other burning buildings, but we were spared the
misfortune of being "burned out." When it became known that
the roof of our house was on fire one of my older brothers was
734 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
hastily notified to arise and get dressed as soon as possible ; and,
acting upon the notification, he arose and began to dress, and
finding he had the night before on retiring turned his shirt in-
side out he deliberately turned it right side out before donning
it. Not a few times since has this brother been "jollied" over
the coolness exhibited by him when the roof of our house was
on fire.
There must have been coasting in Providence for I recall that
on a Christmas Eve during our residence on Ann Street I re-
ceived from my father what then seemed to me a beautifully
painted sled; and a brightly colored worsted comforter such as
were worn in those days but which were long ago discarded as a
prolific cause of throat and lung complaints.
At the period of my life just referred to my light auburn hair
hung in long curls down over my shoulders. This was the work
chiefly, of my sister Helen, then living at home, who derived
great pleasure from seeing her "little brother" thus adorned,
and in exhibiting him to her young friends as they called. Na-
ture had given me the hair and the curl in it, and sister Helen
did the rest. The curling business, as I recall, became at length
a bore to me ; and I longed for the time when I should have "just
hair on my head, without any curls."
From Ann Street we moved to North Main Street into a house
directly opposite St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, a
stone structure, which I am informed is still standing and pre-
sumably used for divine worship. For this church edifice I
cherish fond recollections and tender sentiments, for in this
church I attended Sunday School ; and in the cramped burial
grounds in the rear of the edifice lie the remains of a sister who
died in infancy, and a leaf of ivy plucked from a vine growing
in this burial place during a visit a few years ago is now among
the things the sight of which revive precious memories of years
long past.
As an illustration of the tenacity with which trifling events
cling to one's memory I will say that while I lived on North
Main Street one of my older sisters, Amelia, who had married
and was residing in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, from which we
had moved to Providence, paid her parents a visit ; and on her re-
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 735
turn home she took me with her for a visit. I distinctly recall that
while visiting with my married sister she was very fond of keep-
ing my hair curled and exhibiting me to her friends as they
called. Of her attachment for her husband I have vivid recollec-
tions which it is a pleasure to recall as ''the evening shadows
lengthen.' \
My sister's husband's father, a kind hearted man, ''Grand-
pa," I called him, had in some way (I think by a spark from red
hot liquid iron used in "pouring" in iron foundries) lost
the sight of one of his eyes ; and for some reason he wore a
green covering or "patch" over that eye, and this "patch" was
quite a wonder to my childish imagination. But in spite of the
"patch" on "Grandpa's" eye I was very fond of him.
When I was between five and six years of age I used occasion-
ally to be taken to school by a teacher of the primary depart-
ment in the Grammar School on the corner of Benefit and Hal-
sey Streets. When the school session opened this beloved
teacher would carefully place me in a chair on the platform
where I could watch the various classes as they came up one af-
ter another for recitation in "readin', writin' and 'rithmatic."
I will not deny that while seated on that platform in the primary
department of the Benefit Street Grammar School I "magni-
fied," to employ a Pauline term, my elevated position as I looked
with childish hauteur down upon the regular pupils seated on
the hard wooden benches before me.
When I was about six years of age I began attending the Ben-
efit Street School as a "regular pupil" and I was assigned to
the room presided over by the teacher who had so frequently
taken me to school, as a visitor, during the previous summer.
As dearly as I loved that teacher as a boy I regret to say I am
unable to recall her name, which must, of course, have been
known to me at the time of our association as teacher and pupil.
I have many times wished I might learn of her residence and
either visit her or correspond with her if she is still living; but
of her present whereabouts, if now living on this "mundane
sphere," I am as ignorant "as a bat." For aught I know she
may have years ago gone as a missionary to the jungles of Afri-
ca or to " Greenland 's icy mountains ; ' ' and she may have laid
736 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
down her life for ''the heathen." Or, she may have married
and had a small primary school in her own home— who knows 1
If she is living, which is possible, and these articles should come
to her attention it would be one of the rare pleasures of my life
to receive a letter from her, which I should most assuredly an-
swer with more than ordinary promptness.
Scarcely less vivid in my memory than the teacher's fondness
for the little curly-headed boy on North Main Street is the rec-
ollection of a woman well advanced in years who lived in a small,
old, unpainted house, so dilapidated that to my boyish imagina-
tion it seemed likely at any time to tumble down over her head,
on the opposite side of Benefit Street from the Grammar School
building. This house stood at the corner of a lane or narrow
street, down which some of the pupils were accustomed to go as
a short cut to their homes. The fact in conection with that old
house and its occupant which especially lingers in my memory is
this : that the woman kept homemade molasses candy on sale in
her humble home on the corner. The children of the primary
and intermediate departments, especially, of the public school
nearby were her principal customers. For a big copper cent,
such as we had in those early days, we used to get a generous
stick of unadulterated molasses candy the thought of which even
now makes my ' ' mouth water. ' ' The dear old woman must have
done quite a business in the confectionery line in the days when
candy manufactories were probably unknown in this country.
On the opposite side of the street from our house on North
Main Street was a narrow street leading up a steep hill to Ben-
efit Street, the latter of which ran parallel to the street on which
I lived. On the lower side of North Main Street and opposite
the street running up the steep hill above mentioned was a lane
which ran between our house and the one next south. This nar-
row lane ran a long distance down toward a canal. It was a
favorite sport of the boys especially of the neighborhood to coast
down the steep hill beginning at Benefit Street, into the lane,
and thence on toward the canal. The great speed with which the
boys would come down this steep hill, shoot like an arrow from
an Indian's bow across North Main Street and enter the lane
leading toward the canal was enough to frighten those unaccus-
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 737
tomed to such sights. I used sometimes to borrow a small, low-
built, but swift-going sled from a boy friend, and, going to the
extreme summit of the steep hill come down with such force that
it was with great difficulty I avoided going into the canal at the
terminus of the lane. My parents soon forbade my sliding more
on that hill because of its positively dangerous character.
Providence was noted for its steep and dangerous hills ; and
numerous stories were related of hair-breadth escapes from
death, of residents and others driving down them, especially in
winter. One of my mother's friends in the city was riding down
one of those steep hills when the horse became frightened, ran
away, and before he could be stopped the lady was thrown vio-
lently from the carriage to the frozen ground and instantly
killed. A babe well wrapped in winter clothing escaped unhurt.
Another horse and carriage were coming down one of those
steep hills leading into North Main Street, and, becoming fright-
ened ran away He dashed down the hill, shot across the street
at its base, up on to the pavement on the further side of the
street, and before the horse could be checked he plunged head-
long through one of the large front show windows of a store,
breaking it into many pieces. The poor animal was so nearly
killed by the numerous and severe cuts about the face and breast
that he had to be shot.
Most every boy, I suppose, has to have one or more narrow
escapes from death; and I am no exception to this rule, as the
following incident will show : I had gone across the canal already
mentioned, on a rude, narrow foot-bridge, on to the railroad
tracks, where a large number of passenger and freight cars usu-
ally stood, and where every day, many trains of both kinds of
cars were made up for outgoing traffic. It was summer time. I
was standing on one of the tracks wholly oblivious of the ap-
proach of a freight train making up, which was coming toward
me at a considerable rate of speed. In some way my attention
had been attracted in another direction ; and just as the moving
train was about striking me and reducing the number of the
Sherman family in Providence by one an employee of the rail-
road company hastily snatched me from the track. It was a
narrow escape, for in another moment the oncoming train would
738 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
have struck me and that would probably have meant death by
mangling underneath the heavy wheels of the cars.
My timely rescuer gave me a good talking to on the folly of
standing on the railroad track when trains were making up and
sent me home with a "bee in my ear." My most serious trou-
ble, however, was the fear that in some way or other my parents
would hear of my having been over on the railroad tracks and
punish me for disobeying them ; for I had again and again been
instructed and warned to keep off the tracks.
If my parents ever heard of my narrow escape from death on
the occasion mentioned it must have been so long after the oc-
curence that they considered it too late in the day to punish me
for my disobedience. Or perhaps they considered my fright a
sufficient punishment. Certain it is that I never afterward ven-
tured on to the railroad tracks where trains were making up.
One of my older brothers, of whom there were two at home at
the time, concluded he would like to earn some pin money; so,
with the consent of our parents, he bought a good sized handle
basket, filled it with candy and nuts and fruit which he purchased
of a friend at the wholesale prices, and on each Saturday morn-
ing went out to offer them for sale.
Sometimes I was permitted to go with my brother; and at
such times he found me one of his best customers, so far at least,
as the reduction of his modest stock was concerned. So far,
however, as the profits were concerned he could not have made a
very favorable report. The number of my sweet teeth increased
so rapidly that he deemed it desirable to leave his curly-headed
brother at home whenever he could do so without "raising a
rumpus' ' with him. y
Only two or three blocks from our house on North Main
Street, as I recall, was a factory where drinking cups were made
from cocoanut shells. Perhaps few or none of the readers of
Americana have ever seen a drinking cup made from a cocoanut
shell; so I will try to give them some idea as to how they were
made, but before doing so I will say that the cocoanuts were
purchased in large quantities, probably by the ship-load.
The cocoanuts were first sawed in two pieces and the meat
taken from the shell. This meat was sold to confectioners and
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 739
others who appreciated its commercial value for cooking pur-
poses. The delicious cocoanut cakes we used to buy for a big
copper cent when I was a boy were made from this cocoanut
meat purchased by the confectioners who made them without
adulteration.
The half of the cocoanut shell having no holes, or eyes, in it.
was put into a lathe and with sharp tools turned somewhat
smooth on the outside. The edges of the shell were also straight-
ened and rounded so as not to hurt the mouth in drinking. A
long wooden handle was then fastened to the side of the cup and
this made one of the nicest vessels in the world to drink from. I
used to think the water drank from a cocoanut shell cup was
cooler and tasted far sweeter than that drank from other cups,
not excepting a silver cup.
The shop where those cocoanut shell drinking cups were made
was a favorite resort of the boys from all over our part of the
city, for this was the only shop of the kind in the entire city, so
far as I recollect. The boys who visited this shop were given
their fill of the small pieces of cocoanut meat taken from the
shells; I mean the pieces that were too small to sell to confec-
tioners and others. There were large quantities of these small
pieces so that no boy who visited the factory had reason to say:
"I never yet had enough cocoanut meat to eat." But many a
boy, who was piggish, had abundant reason for saying he had
had too much cocoanut meat, and had found it very desirable to
sometimes get rid of it in great haste while mother held his head.
During our residence in Providence, especially on North Main
Street, fires were of frequent occurrence. How well do I recol-
lect being awakened in the middle of the night when I was about
seven years of age by the fire alarm, which then consisted of the
ringing of the church bells and the hideous cries of: "fire! fire!"
on the street. All were promptly up and dressed. The fire about
to be described had commenced in the cocoanut-cup factory,
which, to the deep sorrow of every boy in our part of the city,
who had ever been a visitor to that earthly paradise, was totally
destroyed— "burned clean to the ground" as we learned in due
course.
Onward the terrible fire swept toward our house. As it crept
'
74Q RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
closer and closer toward us preparations were hastily made to
carry our household goods out on the street to some place of
safety. ' Small articles were tied up in bed sheets and the other
bedding was tied up in quilts and carpets. When it seemed al-
most certain .that the flames would reach our house the house-
hold goods were expeditiously carried out, the neighbors whose
houses were not threatened, in the kindness of their hearts, lend-
ing a hand in the work of removal.
After a season of great suspense, during which the women and
children stood shivering in the open air, not by reason of the
cold, however, but from fright and intense anxiety, it became
evident that, the fire had been checked; and then the household
goods on the street were leisurely taken back into the house.
But there was no more sleep that night, I assure you. The peo-
ple all along the street sat up and over and over recalled the
stirring incidents and occurrences of the fire which had de-
stroyed an entire block, and even more.
The property owners, especially, did not forget to shower
their compliments upon the volunteer fire department for their
excellent work in checking the awful conflagration before its
ravages had extended further; the wonder, as not a few ex-
pressed it, being that it did not " destroy the entire block in
which we live ! 9 '
During our residence on Xorth Main Street we used what was
known as camphene for fuel in the house lamps. Camphene
was highly explosive, and many a fire more or less serious in
its consequences originated from the explosion of camphene
lamps. In some way one of our camphene lamps took fire ; that
is to say, suddenly, and without any warning whatever, fire
was discovered on the outside of the lamp as it sat on the sitting
room table. An explosion, with its terrible consequences seemed
imminent. At the critical moment, however, one of my older
brothers seized the flaming lamp, and, at the risk of his life,
threw it out of an open window— it was summer time— into the
lane at the side of the house. This was the lane leading down to
thfc canal. The burning lamp had scarcely touched the ground
when it exploded with quite a noise. The sight of the burning
camphene as it spread in almost every direction on the ground
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 741
from the shattered lamp was a very pretty one. My brother
who threw the burning lamp out of the window was from that
day considered a boy-hero.
"Come, children," mother would say, when a thunder storm
was gathering, "let's get on the feather-bed. and we shall be safe
from the lightning ; ' ' and then my younger brother and I would
scamper for the old-fashioned cord bedstead in the sleeping
room just off the sitting room. We would hastily clamber up its
side, and wait for mother to come, which would be in a minute or
two after we had fixed ourselves in the deep geese feather bed,
with the feathers gathered about us. Mother would sit on the
side of the high bedstead, with her feet just off the floor. If the
storm was a long or particularly severe one mother would tell
us stories to divert our attention from its terrors. It was a great
relief to both mother and children when the storm abated.
One of the happiest experiences of my life as a boy while re-
siding in Providence was an excursion, by steamboat, on a de-
lightful summer day, down the bay to a United States fort. Our
mother, as I distinctly recall, went with us— I mean my younger
brother and perhaps an older brother— as father was engaged
at his business and could not well get away to go with us. We
had a fine sail clown the bay; and were greatly pleased with the
fort— Fort Adams— its big cannon, and its gaily dressed sol-
diers with their bright muskets, which fairly shone in the blaz-
ing sun of a summer day.
We were some little distance from the steamboat wharf when
the whistle blew for the boat to leave on its return to Providence
with the satisfied excursionists ; and the way we all scampered
for the steamboat landing must have been amusing to spectators
who watched us in our precipitate haste. On reaching the
steamboat landing, all out of breath from our long run, we as-
certained, to our chagrin, that the bell we had heard was only
the first bell ; and that the steamboat would not start for several
minutes.
What remains very distinctly in my memory, after the lapse
of the many intervening years with their absorbing events and
occurrences, is the fact that our dear mother was greatly fright-
ened, as she thought we were going to be left by the steamboat.
742 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
Another thing that has to this day remained fresh in my mem-
ory in connection with our hasty run for the steamboat landing,
is the fact that our mother hustled the children along at such a
rapid rate of speed that "we got there/' even though we were
a little ahead of starting time; and I have often said to myself,
while recalling the occurrence, "better a little ahead than ever
so little behind I" and, acting upon that motto has many times in
my life time prevented my being left by the steam cars.
If I should neglect to relate the following incident in connec-
tion with our residence in Providence my younger brother, now
a resident of the Quaker City, ' ' might consider himself slighted,
so here goes : During our residence in Providence small-pox
broke out in the city. There were, as I recall, many cases of the
then dreaded disease ; and not a few of the cases died. All chil-
dren who had not been vaccinated were required by the city au-
thorities to undergo the operation. My younger brother and I
were required to go to a small school building some distance
from our home to be vaccinated, one of our older brothers going
with us to see that no harm befell us. I remember, as if it was
only yesterday, that my "little brother" made a great fuss
about being vaccinated; the physician had to hold him by "main
force." The patient kicked and struggled to get free in his
evident determination not to submit to the operation. But the
faithful physician "carried the day" and my "little brother"
thereby became immune, as was supposed, from small-pox.
The Hamlet at the Bouwerij
By Hopper Striker Mott
Trustee and Treasurer of the New York Genealogical and Bio-
graphical Society and Editor of The New York Genealogi-
cal and Biographical Record.
[To be Completed in Two Parts.]
PART II
TUYVES ANT'S will is not of record. From a recital in
a deed from his widow Judith to Garret Lydecker it ap-
pears that he devised all his realty to her. She was the
daughter of a distinguished Huguenot divine and reached
New Netherland with her husband, the newly appointed Direc-
tor-General, May 11th, 1647, accompanied by his sister, Anna,
the widow of Samuel Bayard, his wife's elder brother and her
three infant sons, Peter, Balthazar and Nicholas. This group,
the origin of two families, may be regarded as a genealogical
unit, from which double connection sprang a relationship which
continued for the following century. The Bayard farm is as well
known to conveyancers as is that here exploited. By the term of
Mrs. Stuyvesant 's will, dated January 29th, 1679 (L. 3 of wills,
67) one-half of her estate vested in her son, Nicholas Willein,
born 1648, and the remaining half in the children of her eldest
son, Balthazar, born 1647, deceased.
The latter, named for his grandfather, Rev. Balthazar Stuy-
vesant, was a staunch Dutch patriot and after New Netherland
became English moved to the West Indies.* His children, who
*Nov. 15th, 1664. Letter from Vice Director Beck of Curacoa to Stuyvesant
in which he promised Balthazar Stuyvesant a good tract of land.
Dec 11, Ditto. Balthazar had arrived with letters of 12/22 October.
April 16th, 1665. Ditto describing Balthazar's plantation.
April 17th, Ditto. Account with Balthazar for his passage to Curacoa. (CaJ
Dutch Mss., 334.)
(743)
744 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
were born there and were in consequence aliens, preferred a
claim for part of the real estate of which their grandmother
died seized, which is said to have been rejected by the judicial
tribunals of the Colony of New York and Nicholas Willem and
those claiming under him have been in undisturbed possession of
the whole premises since the death of the testatrix in 1686.
(Original Abstract).
The following is an extract from her will referring to the
church her husband had erected:
"And I doe by these presents farther, by form of Legasie,
Give and Grant to the Eef. nether dutch Church or Congregation
of the City of New Yorke, My Testacries Church or chappell
seituated on my bo wry or farmes, Together with all the Reve-
nues, proffitts and Immunityes As alsoe with all the Incum-
brances to the said chappell belonging or appertaininge To have
and to hold the said chappell and appurtenance, after the time
of My decease, Unto the Overseers of the said congregacon, to
the use aforesayd for Ever, with further power, iff they see
cause to demolish or displace the same and to Employ the Ma-
terials thereof to such Uses as they shall think ffitt and expedi-
ent, Provided that in such case of the sayd materialls bee made
and built all and whatsoever In the Inclosed Testament Is Ex-
presst and Required, for the preservation of the tombe or
vaught, which was built by my deceased husband in said
Church." The "enclosed testament" was another will, of a
previous date and contained the following bequest to Col. Nicho-
las Bayard: "I doe further bequeath to my said cousin, Nicho
laes Bayard, and to his wife and child or children, (if desired),
a bureing place In the tombe or vaught of my Late deceased
husband In the chappell or Church att my Bowry; and in case
it should happen that my sayd church or chappell did Come to
decay or for any other Reason be demolished, I doe hereby de-
clare and publish it to be my Last w T ill and Testament, that of
the materialls and Rubbage of sayd chappell be made a build-
ing Sufficient ffor a cover upon the sayd Vaught." (Feb. 15th,
1678-9. L. 3-4 wills, 44.)
This will intimates the desire that the Consistory of the
Church of New York should take charge of the chapel and ap-
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 745
propriate it to the uses for which it was originally built; or if
deemed more expedient that the materials not needed for the
preservation of the vault might be appropriated for similar
uses. Just when services were discontinued is not in evidence;
but the Consistory failed to carry out the terms of the devise
for the reason, it is said, that testatrix had only a life interest
in the property and suffered it to pass by default and the chapel
gradually and surely fell into a delapidated condition, until lit-
tle remained but the foundation.
From a list of church members in 1686, kept by Do. Selyns, we
find that said Nicholaes "Willeni en zyn huysvrou (and his house-
wife) lived over liet Versch Water, (beyond the Fresh Water).
On the same record his mother is entered as "Juffrou Judith
Isendoorn.* weduwe van do Herr Petrus Stuyvesant" After
the death of his father, the son resided in the paternal mansion.
A prominent citizen of the infant city he took a lively interest
in the growth of his inheritance and in church work and philan-
thropy. He represented his ward in 1687 as AJderman and was
in other respects engaged in public life. The Bouwerij Church
was yet standing in 1694 in which year Gov. Fletcher wrote
(Nov. 28) to Capt. Stuyvesant requesting the loan of the bell
therein for the use of the garrison, the bell in the fort being
cracked. (Cal. Hist. Mss. Eng. at Albany, 243). By his first
wife, Maria, only daughter of Wilhelmus Beekman, the founder
of the family in the new world, and Vice-Director on the Dela-
ware, whom he m. May 5th, 1672, Nicholaes "Willeni had no issue.
His second wife was Lysbett, daughter of Brandt Arent van
Slechtenhorst, first Director of Kennselaerwyck, he who had so
grievously antagonized the Dutch Governor, the father-in-law
*Isendoorn was a village in Guilderland. Judith Isendoorn was a different
person from Judith Bayard wife of Gov. Stuyvesant. Judith van Isendoorn mar-
ried Domine Eagidius Luyck. The good Domine (Selyns) has certainly con-
fused these names. "We find in an entry of the baptism of Catharine, daughter
01 Nicholas William Stuyvesant, son of the Governor, in 1673, when Madame
Luyck had left the country and gone back to Holland with her husband, that at
t.iis baptism Judith van Isendoorn was a witness; thus showing that there was
another person of the name residing in New Amsterdam, neither the wife of
Qr. Luyck nor the widow of Gov. Stuyvesant." {Anthology of New Nethcrland,
K-) Luyck was rector of the Latin School in New Amsterdam. He married
Iu&3, Domine Selyns composed a nuptial song for the bride and groom who
were married the "second day of Christmas'' and another verse called the "Bridal
*orch »n their honor. (Ibid., 133, 137) • For sketches of their lives vide p. 171
01 that book. In 1673 Luyck held the office of Burgomaster.
746 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
of whose son lie was fated to become. License was dated Sept.
15th, 1681, and they were married in the Esopus. Two sons and
one daughter resulted from this union. One son Peter died in
1705 unmarried. The son Gerardus and a daughter Anna sur-
vived their father. (L. 7 Letters Testamentary, 306; also L.
8:171). Gerardus by his wife Judith Bayard, his second cousin,
had two sons Nicholas William II who died unmarried at the
age of 58 and Peter III. Their father's will is not of record.
Upon the death of Nicholas William II, without issue, his share
fell to his brother. Born in 1727 this Peter III. married Mar-
garet, daughter of Gilbert Livingston. The latter was the fourth
son of the first Lord of the Manor of Livingston and devoted
himself to his estate, to reading and to social duties, says Fa-
mous Neiv York Families. He married Cornelia Beekman and
was the founder of the Poughkeepsie branch of the family. His
most distinguishde descendant was the Rev. John Henry Liv-
ingston, D. D., LL.D., who, in his latter years, was recognized
as the father of the Dutch Reformed Church in America. His
memoirs were written by the Rev. xUexander Gunn, D. D., the
first pastor of the Church at Harsenville, otherwise the Bloom-
ingdale Reformed Church.
Peter Stuyvesant III died in 1805.* His will is of record in
L. 46:107. He had six children, two sons and four daughters.
Of the latter Judith married Benjamin Winthrop, Cornelia
Dirck Ten Broeck and Elizabeth Col. Nicholas Fish and became
the mother of the Hon. Hamilton Fish of national reputation,
while Margaret died unmarried. The sons were Nicholas Wil-
liam III and Peter Gerard. The former's residence, known as
the " Bowery House," devised under his father's will and situ-
ated on the block between 8th and 9th Streets, 1st and 2nd Ave-
nues, was approached by a private way from Bowery Lane. By
his wife Catherine Livingston Reade, daughter of John and
Catherine (Livingston) Reade, he had six sons and three daugh-
*The tablet to his memory at St. Mark's reads as follows :
"To the memory of Peter Stuyvesant at a testimony of filial love and grati-
tude. He was born 13 Oct., 1727 O. S., died 7 Oct., 1805, and his remains are de-
posited in the vault of his ancestors within the walls of this church. The kind
father, the faithful friend, the honest citizen and the sincere Christian rests
from his labours and his works do follow him. (Amer. Epitaphs, Alden, 1814,
1:270.)
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 747
ters, viz: Peter, the oldest, m. Julia Martin; Nicholas William
IV. m. Catherine A. Oheeseborough ; John Read m. (1) Cath-
arine Ackerley, (2) Mary A. Yates; Gerard m. Susan Riving-
ton van Home; Robert Reade itl Margaret A. Mildeberger; Jo-
seph Reade m. Jane Ann Browning; Catharine Ann, eldest
daughter, m. John Mortimer Catlin; Helen C. m. (1) Henry
Dudley, (2) Francis Olmsted, (3) William S. Mayo and Mar-
garet Livingston m. Robert van Rensselaer. This was a gen-
eration of scholarly well-to-do people who devoted themselves
to their estates, to study and to social affairs. The " Bowery
House" was later and until 1825 occupied by Peter Gerard
Stuyvesant.
Peter Gerard, born 1778, was graduated from King's (Co-
lumbia) College in 1794, was admited to the bar and practiced
law for a time. This he abandoned to devote himself to the
management of his large estate. He lived on a part of the
family inheritance which his father had devised to him under
the name of "Petersfield" and which mansion was located be-
tween present 15th and 16th streets, east of 1st Avenue. Peters-
field Lane led to it from Bowery Lane at a point just south of 12th
Street. Because of the swamp lands which covered a portion of
the tract the lane swung to the north in crossing 2nd Avenue and
again to the south after the swamp was passed. Both of these
two comparatively modern dwellings were erected before 1765.
Peter Gerard was a founder of the New York Historical So-
ciety in 1804, serving as its President from 1836 to 1840, and an
incorporator of the Erie Railroad in 1832. He partially en-
dowed the professorship of Ecclesiastical History at the Gen-
eral Theological Seminary and was Vice-President of the Amer-
ican Bible Society. Although twice married, (1) to Susan,
daughter of Col. Thomas Barclay and (2) to Helen Sarah,
daughter of the Hon. John Rutherfurd of New Jersey, he had
no issue. He met a lamentable death at Niagara on Aug. 16,
1847, aged 70. As a visitor to the Falls with his wife and while
the weather was warm and oppressive, he repaired to the wat-
er to enjoy the luxury of a cooling bath. Plunging beneath the
surface he sank to rise no more. His large estate was left to
his nephews and nieces and $5,000 to the Bible Society. An ac-
748 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
tive business man he was possessed of great energy. (Obituary
notice. )
In his will dated Feb. 21st, 1846, (L. 94 Wills, 742) he devised
his residuary estate to Gerard Stuyvesant, Hamilton Fish and
Stuyvesant Rutherfurd, the latter on condition he caused him-
self to be called by the surname of Stuyvesant. Chap. 342
passed October 28th, 1847, allowed the change of name. The
residuary estate was partitioned in the action of Gerard Stuy-
vesant vs. Hamilton Fish & Rutherfurd Stuyvesant began Feb-
ruary 11th, 1848. Decree was entered confirming the report of
Commissioners October 24th. Map No. 163 in Register's office.
The chief portion of this extensive property came into the pos-
session of Benjamin Robert Winthrop, the Hon. Hamilton Fish
and the noted astronomer Lewis Morris Rutherfurd. (Original
Abstract). Peter III. Stuyvesant, the father of said Nicholas
William III. and Peter Gerard, advertised his "Petersfield"
mansion in 1706, to wit:
Peter Stuyvesant oilers for rent that pleasant seat 2
miles from New York called Petersfield, lately occupied by
Baron de Pollnitz and now in possession of Mr. Robert B.
Winthrop. Also a small house and garden near the house
where he lives on the Bowery road.
Feb. 13.
At the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United
States the Baron owned and had his residence on the notable
estate of Andrew Elliott, son of Sir Gilbert Elliott, Lord Chief
Justice Clerk of Scotland, who was Receiver-General of the
Province of New York under the Crown. In 1790 Elliott sold it
to Robert Richard Randall and through his munificence it be-
came the property of the Sailor's Snug Harbor.
It was Peter Stuyvesant III, who, after the marriage of his
daughters, laid out streets over the Bouwerij, which were named
for the members of his family. His attention was largely con-
centrated on the building up of his patrimony. The lanes on
the map were wiped out by the plan of the Commissioners of
1807 who laid down streets without the slightest regard for
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 749
those already in existence. Only one of the original ways was
preserved, the present Stuyvesant Street, which starting at
the Bowery ends at 2nd Avenue, before the grounds of St.
Mark's.
It is interesting to follow the course of events through which
this street was saved. On January 12th, 1807, Peter G. Stuy-
vesant petitioned for its regulation and on March 30th, the Com-
mon Council referred the matter to Richard Harison, its Coun-
sel, for his opinion as to whether the ground included therein
had been accepted as one of the public streets. (Ms. Mins. C. C,
Vol. 16:360). So much history is contained in his statement,
submitted April 13th, and incidentally concerning the first offi-
cial map of the city, that much of the recitation is here append-
ed. This map was used as the basis on which the Commission-
ers laid out the northern part of the city. From Harison 's "an-
swer" we learn that
On November 30th, 1787, Evert Bancker, Jr., had surveyed
and laid out at the request of Peter Stuyvesant on his farm a
piece of groand intended for a street then and since known as
Stuyvesant street, that
On March 30th, 1789, the said Peter had conveyed by inden-
ture of lease lots of ground bounded by said street to John Cou-
tant and Gilbert Coutant, that
On the day of the ground on which St. Mark's in
the Bowery was erected, also bounded by said street, was con-
veyed in fee to the Corporation of Trinity, that
St. Mark's was built in 1795, before which time and since the
said piece of ground had remained laid open and had ever since
been used by the public for their enjoyment and accommodation
as a highway, that
The Act of the Legislature, passed May 7th, 1793, vested all
the right, title, &c, of the People of the State of, in and to all
lands at any time theretofore left for streets or highways in the
City of New York by any person or persons whomsoever, in the
Mayor, &c, and their successors for the use of streets and high-
ways, that
The Act passed March 30th, 1799, declared that no street should
thereafter be laid out except with the approbation of the Mayor,
750 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
&c., in Common Council convened and if any such street should
be laid out without such permission it should be lawful for the
Mayor, &c, by By-laws or Ordinances to direct the same to be
stopped up and all buildings adjoining thereto be removed by
the proprietors or occupants within such times and under such
penalties as they should think proper and that all streets not
already named and approved of by the Mayor, &c, should be
considered as new streets within the meaning of that act, which
had expired on March 30th, 1S02, that
The Act passed April 2nd, 1803, made similar provisions to
those contained in the above act of 1799 with the variation that
all streets not already opened and named should be considered
new streets that
On December 11th, 1797, the Corporation contracted with
G-oerck and Mangin to make a new map of the city from the Bat-
tery to the Sandy Hill Road at the Two Mile Stone and easterly,
including the streets on which St. Mark's stands, to the East
River and westerly to the North River, so as to include the Sandy
Hill road and the State Prison. By the contract the map was to
contain certain specific descriptions and a Field Book to accom-
pany the same and the contractors were to deliver another map
upon a smaller scale which was intended for sale to indemnify
the Common Council, that
On April 10th, 1799, the Mayor laid before the Board the new
map, which was referred to a Committee to examine and correct
as to the names of streets and also to report a mode of obtain-
ing subscribers to the work, that
On July 13th, 1799, it was ordered that the Committee, to-
gether with Mr. Mangin, obtain the engraving of the new map
by Mr. Mavrick or other competent persons, on the best terms
they could, that
On March 30th, 1801, it appearing that great inconvenience
was sustained in consequence of having several streets desig-
nated by the same names, it was ordered that the Street Com-
missioner be directed to attend to the completion of the new
map and that he be authorized to employ Richard Furman to
assist him in the execution of that duty, that
On February 14th, 1804, Aldermen Joshua Barker, Philip
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 751
Brasher and John Oothout were appointed, in conjunction with
the Comptroller and Street Commissioner to examine the new
map then nearly ready to be published and to take such meas-
ures as would be most proper to indemnify the Board and the
arsons who had executed the same for the expense that had
lH. j en incurred, that
A number of these maps were sold by the Corporation with
the Title of a plan and regulations of the city made from actual
>urvey by Goerck & Mangin by order of the Common Council
and protracted by J. Fr. Mangin, 1800. Some alterations were
also made on the map and instead of the above Title a label
was substituted in these words, ''Plan of the City of New York"
drawn from an actual survey by Casimer Th. Goerck and J. Fr.
Mangin, C. S. This plan showed the Wards as lately altered by
the Legislature and designated with accuracy most of the streets
and wharves and slips, &c, lying to the southward of a line be-
irinning at the North Eiver at Watts street, thence extending
through said Street to Hudson Street, thence to Leonard Street,
thence to the Broadway, from thence in a line to Bayard Street,
through this street to the Bowery Roaji, thence to Bullock Street
and through that street to the East Eiver. Except Brannon and
Spring Streets none of the streets to the northward of the above
line had been ceded to the Corporation or had been approved
and opened under their authority. They were therefore to be
considered subject to such future arrangements as the Corpor-
ation might deem best calculated to promote health, introduce
regularity and conduce to the conveniency of the city. Novem-
ber, 1803, that
By an act passed March 8th, 1803, entitled an act to increase
the number of Wards and to equalize the same, the boundaries
of the 7th were described in these words : The 7th. Ward shall
Wgin at the southeasterly corner of the 4th. Ward * * *
making the middle of Stuyvesant Street to the East River the
northern boundary, that
By three acts enabling the city to raise money, passed April
Sth, 1804, March 28th, 1805, and February 17th, 1806, respec-
tively the lamp and watch district was described to be to the
southwest of a line beginning at the North Eiver at a place
752 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
called De Kleyn's ferry, a little to the northward of the State
Prison, thence easterly in front of the new Banking houses to a
road commonly called the Sandy Hill Road, thence along that
road to the northward of Potter's Field and the house of Wil-
liam Neilson to the Bowery road, thence across that road to a
street commonly called Stuyvesant Street and through the mid-
dle thereof to the East River, and that
The said piece of ground or street had never been actually
ceded from the said Peter Stuyvesant or any other person to
the Corporation. The Counsel thereupon concludes his state-
ment by this quotation : 4 * The following answer to return to the
question as to whether this is a public street. Though there
are several circumstances in this case which might lead to the
idea that the ground was considered as a public street, yet I
am of the opinion that they are not binding on the Corporation.
The charter gives the Corporation full power and authority to
establish and appoint the laying out of all streets and the alter-
ing, mending and repairing of them. This grant would be nuga-
tory if every individual had a right to lay out streets over his
grounds according to his fancy. The several acts of the Legis-
lature do not in my opinion destroy the original power, they
only restrain the Corporation from removing the buildings un-
less they are valued and paid for in the manner prescribed by
law. I think therefore that the Corporation may if they deem
it proper order this street to be shut up, provided that no act
was passed at the late session of the Legislature which may de-
prive them of that right. The expediency of such a measure
they alone are competent to decide."
Chapter 59, passed March 9th, 1831, declared Stuyvesant
Street, as now laid out of the breadth of 66 feet from the Bowery
Road to Second Avenue, to be a public street, and Chapter 252,
passed April 23rd, of that year applied all laws relative to the
opening of streets to said street in the manner as if it had been
laid out under the act of 1807.
The map showing the original layout of the Bowery village,
on which the streets are superimposed, was drawn by Benjamin
Robert Winthrop in 1862, from recollection. Thereon is placed
the governor's mansion on the north side of present Stuyvesant
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 753
street. This error was corrected by William Kelby, former Li-
brarian of the X. Y. Historical Society, who in his researches
located the house as standing approximately on 12th street,
just east of Third xAvenue and adjacent to the Pear Tree. The
site of the- ancient church is also shown on this map.
The upper story of the school-house on Nicholas William
street was later used by what was known as the Bowery Village
church. It was then called the Academy and there Bishop As-
bury preached. A Methodist organization, it was launched in
1786 by the Rev. Wiliam Valleau, a zealous local preacher from
the John Street Church. This part of his circuit was known at
first as the " Two-mile-stone Appointment." The earlier meet-
ings were held in the two story frame residence of Gilbert Cou-
tant, on Third Avenue, between 7th Street and St. Mark's
Place. The second place of worship was in the Academy.
In 1817 the first church edifice was erected on the lot adjoin-
ing the Academy and it was at this time it became known distinc-
tively as the Bowery Village Church. It was a plain wooded
structure with brick basement, having two doors opening on a
porch that was reached by a flight of steps. Here the Eev. Henry
J. Feltus, D. D., who later obtained great eminence as an elo-
quent divine of the Episcopal Church (St. Stephen's) frequently
officiated, as did also the popular young preacher, Eev. John
Summerfield. It was not an unusual practice of the latter clergy-
man to hold services in the private houses of citizens of the
neighborhood. Born in Preston, England, Jan. 31, 1798, he
commenced his ministerial labors in the Connection of the Wes-
leyan Methodists in Ireland, but employed the last four years of
his life in the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in the U. S. He died in this city June 13, 1825. (Earli-
est Churches in N. Y ., Disosway, 236).
Some few years afterward, when the reconstruction of the
streets occurred, the edifice was left in the middle of the block,
and was then moved to the north side of 7th Street, near Second
Avenue. Later the church was moved to two lots near Third
Avenue and as the city grew up about it the old name was
dropped and the Bowery Village church is known to the present
generation as the Seventh Street Church— a decided loss in
754 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
picturesqueness. The venerable John Stephenson, famous the
world over as a builder of cars, was one of the members of some
eighty years ago and at the centenary of the organization told
of the green fields he crossed on his way to service and of happy
experiences and reminiscences during his connection with the
church. For a history of this church and names of its early
members, vide Annals of N. Y. Methodism, Seaman, pp. 153,
291.) The congregation consolidated in 1911 on the Hedding M.
E. Church in E. 17th Street and sold its edifice on March 25,
of that year.
The site of the tavern, although not shown on the village map,
was near the " Two-mile-stone. " It was renowned in its con-
vivial way. The Dutch settlers were a comfortable sort of folk
and the City of New Amsterdam encouraged the building of
taverns in order that a considerable excise tax might be col-
lected. The law not only regulated the price of the tankard of
beer and the mutchkin of rum but the cost of beds with sheets
and beds without. Early in its existence the Arie Cornelissen,
above mentioned who had come from the Corlear's Hoek region,
was its landlord. His house became a favorite place of re-
sort for city people and fate made it historic. When Leisler
was acting Governor of the Colony, the French and Indians
raided the valley of the Mohawk, burned Schenectady and
threatened Albany and the New England settlements. The
whole Atlantic border was aroused, and Liesler, who was sa-
gacious beyond his time, saw his opportunity for union and sum-
moned delegates from the Colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Plymouth and Connecticut to meet his own representa-
tives in New York. The avowed object was the invasion of
Canada. Small-pox was prevalent in this city at the time the
delegates were to assemble, in 1690, and the Governor fixed up-
on the Bowery Village as the place of meeting, the Tavern in
which he described as "a good neat house kept by Capt. Arien
Cornelis" (Letter from Fort William dated, March 26th, 1690.
Cal. Eng. Mss., 183).
In this humble tavern met the first American Colonial Con-
gress, predecessor and pattern of all that came after and showed
its successors how the people of the New World might unite for
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 755
a common object and against a common enemy. New York
promised to furnish 400 men for the Colonial Army; Connecti-
cut, 135; Massachusetts, 160; Plymouth, 60, and Maryland, 100.
Rhode Island had no soldiers to spare but agreed to raise her
proportion of money. The troops were raised. Boston and New
York sent out fleets, the enemy were checked and the Colonies
saved.
A curious sort of character became the proprietor of the
tavern a few years later. A mathematician, wit and speculator,
he set up the first hackney coach that had ever been provided
for the public accommodation. A year later he published the
first almanac that had ever been printed in New York and he
was smart enough to make abundant use of it as an advertising
medium. Thus under the head of June, he gave notice that "the
24th of this month, is celebrated the feast of St. John the Bap-
tist, in commemoration of which, and to keep up a happy union
and lasting friendship by the sweet harmony of good society, a
feast is held by the Johns of this city at John Clapp's, in the
Bowery, where any gentleman whose name is John may find a
hearty welcome to join in concert with his namesakes. " In a
table of distances he puts his tavern down as being two miles
from the city Post-Office, adding that his is generally the bait-
ing-place where gentlemen take leave of their friends and where
a parting glass of generous wine,
"If well applied, makes the dull horse feel
One spur in the head is worth two in the heel."
The location of the Bowery House and Petersfield are desig-
nated on the village map as is also the cemetery.
Verily not only did the Governor fall before the English pow-
er but his great grandsons capitulated to the attractions of the
English Church. Nicholas William Stuyvesant II was a ves-
tryman of Trinity from 1760 to 1773 and his brother Petrus
held the same office from 1793 to 1799. When the former died in
1780 Petrus III became the last patroon of the name. So it
was, a natural sequence that actuated, doubtless, by the same
motives as his great grandfather, more than a century before,
756 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
he should propose, in 1793, to the vestry of which he had just
become a member, the conveyance of the land on which the
old chapel stood for the erection of a church of his faith. He
offered a plot 150x190 feet, some twelve city lots and £800 N. Y.
currency ($2,000). This generous offer was taken into consid-
eration on July 8th, of that year, when it was resolved to accept
it and to "take measures for building a church accordingly as
soon as the situation of the corporation will admit thereof and
that Messrs. Stuyvesant, [Hugh] Gaine and [John] Jones be a
committee to enquire what aid can be obtained from well dis-
posed persons toward the same."
From St. Mark's Memorial we learn that Stuyvesant declined
to serve and that Augustus Van Home was appointed in his
place. It does not appear that they succeeded in raising any
immediate funds, for two years elapsed and then on January 19,
1795, the vestry of Trinity resolved to "raise the sum of £5000
($12,500) for building a church on the land of Peter Stuyvesant
Esq. in conformity with his proposal," and Messrs. Nicholas
Carmer, Gaine, Van Home, and Stuyvesant were appointed a
building committee. On St. Mark's Day, Saturday, April 25th,
1795, the corner stone was laid by Bishop Provoost. The work
progressed very slowly, a delay having occurred, apparently in
1798, for in that year the building committee was authorized to
enter into contracts for the work of construction. On Thursday,
May 9, 1799, the edifice was reported finished and was conse-
crated the same day by the Bishop with a sermon by the Eev.
Dr. Benj. Moore and the administration of the Holy Communion.
A meeting of the male adult members of the congregation was
held October ISth, of that year immediately after divine ser-
vice at which they incorporated themselves. By vote Peter
Stuyvesant and Francis Bayard Winthrop were elected church
wardens and Gilbert Colden Willett, Mangle Minthone, Martin
Hoffman, William Ogden, William A. Hardenbrook, George
Turnbull, Nicholas William Stuyvesant and James Cummings
vestrymen. The meeting then resolved that the church should
be known as St. Mark's in the Bowery.
Although the body of the church has remained intact to the
present day the appearance thereof in 1799 was very different
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 757
as there was neither steeple, porch nor fence and the stone walls
had not yet been covered with plaster. Inside, the pews in the
gallery were unfinished, there was no organ and much painting
remained to be done. The light streamed freely in through the
plain glazed windows and on the short winter afternoons can-
dles furnished the illumination when daylight faded.
The building actually stood, as its name implied, on a farm-
in the midst of green fields and trees. The built-up portion of
the city was still far away. Maps of the period do not even indi-
cate any streets on the east side above Houston Street and in
fact no plan had yet been adopted for the region above that line.
while below only straggling houses approached it. The upper
part of the Island was generally in its original state of hill,
morass and forest with farm houses and country residences
scattered along the Albany post road and at the most pictur-
esque points on the East River. This section was a charming
rural region where people went to spend the summer. As late
as 1807 Dr. Harris reported to the Diocesan Convention that
the number of communicants was 60 to 70 in winter and 120 to
200 in summer. Besides the Stuyvesant farm there were sev-
eral large estates so that the regular congregations consisted of
a few rich families and their servants and dependents.
The first rector was the Rev. John Callahan and he has been
succeeded by the Revs. William Harris, William Creighton,
Henry Anthon, Alexander H. Vinton and Joseph H. Rylanee,
biographies and portraits of whom appear in the above men-
tioned volume to which attention is called. Many noticeable tab-
lets and windows are to be seen in the church.
Land was given by Stuyvesant — a plot 56-95 — lying on the
south side of Stuyvesant Street, east of Second Avenue or what
is now 11th Street and thereon was erected in 1801-2 the par-
sonage (L. 71:358). On August, 26th, 1803, he made another
munificent donation of land for a cemetery— a plot 242x190 feet
opposite the rectory lots and extending eastward. (L. 71:362).
In the following spring it was resolved to fence it with "neat
palings in front and boards in their original state on the sides
and rear." In 1806 the movement began for the erection of the
steeple which was not fully realized until 20 years later. In
758 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
the meantime Trinity donated $500 towards it and the small
bell of St. Paul's. This was hung in the low tower with which
the vestry were forced to content themselves. The little bell
continued to ring out over the fields until they were swallowed
up by houses and the struggling country church had become a
wealthy city parish. In 1837 a new bell was provided and the
old donated to St. Clement's.
In 1807 the first vaults were built in the grounds adjoining
the church. It was the custom in the early days for every
church to have a burying ground but this remains today one of
the few city churches which still preserve adjacent cemeteries.
In 1811 an organ was rented, and not until 1823 was one pur-
chased and installed. Oil lamps were substituted for candles in
1825 and a Sunday School organized the following year. When
Stuyvesant Street was established up to 2nd Avenue, the stee-
ple, the construction of which had been delayed pending the
decision, was constructed. Twelfth Street was opened in 1829
and Eleventh Street afterwards. Both of these cut off corners
of the cemetery and made a readjustment of the boundaries
necessary which was effected by exchanges with adjoining own-
ers. An act of the Legislature, passed February 4th, 1814, per-
mitted such a settlement with the consent of the Chancellor. (L.
130:519; 213:159). A two story building was erected in the
rear of the church for Sunday school and vestry purposes
which was finished in 1835. The next year saw a vane placed on
the steeple and subscriptions opened for a clock to ornament
the latter. Gas was introduced in 1836 and a stone portico
added as there was no longer any doubt about the closing of
Stuyvesant Street and the approach to the church.
The opening of 2nd Avenue left an irregular plot of ground
between the church yard and the avenue which Peter G. Stuy-
vesant offered to sell to the Corporation ; this transfer was made
May 28th, 1838. The price paid was $10,000 and the land af-
forded space for 43 vaults. An iron railing was erected this
year which replaced the picket fence of 1800. In 1851 it was
decided to buy a plot out of town for a burial place and one was
selected in the Cemetery of the Evergreens. Quit claims were
obtained from 61 persons scattered through the country from
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 759
Maine to California who had interests in the old plot in order
that it might be sold. The rectory which had stood for 50 years
was torn down in 1891 and replaced by an apartment house. Al-
though it was not a "stately mansion" yet, with its old fash-
ioned gabled roof and dormer windows, it was a quaint reminder
of the substantial dwellings of olden time.
On Saturday, November 1st, 1903, a window showing a full
sized [likeness of Governor Stuyvesant, was unveiled in the
church, as an additional memorial, by the Daughters of Hol-
land Dames. Hamilton Fish made the presentation address on
behalf of the Society.
Instead of the four hundred residents of the village, who, in
1702, congregated near the Governor's mansion the city had en-
compassed it about during the following hundred years and the
Commissioners ' map fills the section with numerous habitations.
New streets in the neighborhood were being opened and St.
Mark's, which, in 1830, had stood for three decades, was becom-
ing the nucleus of a rapidly built up community of substantial
people. As early as 1832 schools for young ladies opened. One
of the most important was that carried on by Mrs. Saffery who
had a day school in St. Mark's place, with a preparatory annex
under the direction of Miss SafTery. The terms per quarter for
English, with its appropriate routine of Study, Needle-work,
writing and Arithmetic were $10. Special attention, at an ex-
tra individual charge, was given to "Piano-Forte Playing and
Theory of Music, the Harp, Drawing, Dancing, Italian, Spanish
and Latin and Geography and Theory of the Globes," ranging
from $25 for the Harp to $4 for Latin Grammar. (Courier and
Enquirer, Dec. 13.)
The attractions of the neighborhood soon drew a class of
people for whose accommodation boarding facilities were re-
quired. The "spacious Mansion House and Grounds," in xAl-
bion place, at 385 Fourth Street, next door to the corner of the
Bowery, was announced in the same medium, May 20, 1836, as
being open for their reception. Some of the allurements men-
tioned were the large and commodious house, containing forty
rooms, the dining hall, 65x21 feet, the "truly delightful location
which was in the most fashionable and healthy part of the city."
760 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
Mrs. Warren, the landlady, stated that her establishment was
"a delightful summer residence, fully equal to that of the coun-
try,' ' and that "gentlemen will be taken to breakfast and tea
if required." Access was convenient by the Bowery stage
which passed every five minutes during the day. In 1837 Brow-
er's "line of Broadway omnibuses " extended its itinerary from
in front of St. Mark's church, through Eighth Street, to
Broadway, leaving its terminus at half-past 8, 9, and half-
past 9 for Wall Street and on the return trips every afternoon
at half-past 2, 3 and half past 3 o'clock. (C. & Enq., Jan. 28).
It was during the Mayoralty of Cornelius W. Lawrence. (1836-
7) that Thomas E. Davis purchased some vacant lots in St.
Mark's Place and vicinity in an effort to build up the locality.
(Haswell 321). On July 30, 1836, Alex. J. Davis, Architect,
with offices at 14 Wall Street and in the X. Y. University Build-
ing, advertised in the Evening Star, for proposals for furnish-
ing marble, granite or light free stone for the construction of
the portico of St. Mark's Church, to be 70 feet front and 25
feet deep, with six Corinthian columns 4 feet in diameter. The
plans, elevations and sections were to be viewed at his uptown
office.
' 'Splendid Private Residences" began to be constructed. The
line of Second Avenue was an especial favorite because of its
width. Advertisements appeared in the press calling attention
to certain houses under construction. Glowing accounts of their
attractiveness were narrated. They read very much as present
builders advertise their wares. That some of the interior im-
provements may be noted, these special features are mentioned :
"sliding doors of the richest polished mahogany, silver furni-
ture intaglio, marble columns by the sliding doors, grates of the
newest and most splendid pattern in the parlors, silver grates
and looking glass, summer blowers, made by Ward & Goodby
and elegant marble mantles by R. J. Brown." The above is
part of the description of three residences just completed on
the east side of Second Avenue between Sixth and Seventh
Streets, each in size 26x56, on lots 125 feet deep, which had been
eighteen months in building and embraced all recent improve-
ments. (Coar. & Enq., Nov. 28, 1838). It is difficult to imagine
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 761
that families could be found who would invest in such expensive
habitations when the only water to be had was supplied by wells
located in the kitchen.
St. Mark's place promised at one time to become one of the
most fashionable residence streets and Second Avenue was a
favorite locality. Rich and conservative families colonized the
surrounding streets. And what aided largely in fixing and re-
taining for a season fashionable attention to this location was
the setting apart of pieces of land on each side of that ave-
nue for a public park. To Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, a great-
great-grandson of the Governor are the city and especially the
inhabitants of the east side indebted for this establishment and
breathing resort.
In May, 1836, he proposed to the city authorities to convey
land to them for the purpose, upon condition that it be improved
and named Holland Square. At their instigation a bill was in-
troduced at Albany setting apart the land designated. The Act
passed May 18, 1836, to become effective on the cession of the
property. By its terms all that part of 16th Street between the
southeasterly line of Second Avenue and a line drawn parallel
to and 190 feet distant southeasterly therefrom and all that
part of 16th Street lying between the northwesterly line of Sec-
ond Avenue and a line drawn parallel thereto and 190 feet dis-
tant northwesterly therefrom was discontinued on the map or
plan of the city. (Sec. 1.)
By the second section all the land in the 16th Ward, bounded
northeasterly by 17th Street, northeasterly by Second Avenue,
southwesterly by 15th Street and southeasterly by a line drawn
parallel to and distant 190 feet southeasterly from the south-
easterly line of Second Avenue; also bounded northeasterly by
17th Street, southeasterly by Second Avenue, southwesterly by
15th Street and northwesterly by a line parallel to and dis-
tant 190 feet northwesterly from the northwesterly line of Sec-
ond Avenue, was declared to be a public square, to be called
Stuyvesant Square and the same was to be thereafter known as
such public square on the map or plan of the city.
Spaces of thirty feet in width were to be laid out on such map
and opened for public use as ways, from 15th to 16th Streets and
762 THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ
from 16th to 17th Streets, along the southeasterly and the north-
westerly sides of such public square. (Sess. Laws, 1836, Chap.
361.)
The conveyance from Peter Gerard Stuyvesant and Helen, his
wife, is on file in the Register's office in Liber 360:550, the date
of record being Sept. 22, 1836, and the consideration five dollars.
The conditions attached to the transfer are that an Act closing
16th Street, 190 feet on each side of Second Avenue must be
procured, that a parallelogram of 190x450 feet on each side of
that Avenue must be at once enclosed with a railing similar to
the one to be placed around Union Place, that said enclosures
must be planted and improved similar to the improvements in
Washington Square and that the lands conveyed should at all
times thereafter be applied to and used exclusively for the pur-
poses of a public square. The grantor's modest request that the
park should be known as Holland Square was over-ruled by the
city authorities. A further deed to the City for land on Ruth-
erfurd Place, in order to carry out his intentions, was executed
by said Stuyvesant on April 1, 1846. (L. 476:71.)
After the grantor's death his executors brought action in
chancery against the City. The purpose, it is to be presumed,
was to compel the carrying out of the clauses in the deed and
for other relief as indicated below. The papers have not been
found in the office of the Corporation Council or that of the
County Clerk. The Minutes of the Common Council, however,
supply the details of the settlement made. On May 14, 1849,
certain resolutions became valid without the Mayor's sanction
which provided that, whenever said suit should be discontinued
and a release or relinquishment executed of all claim for dam-
age on account thereof, in such manner and form as should be
approved by the Corporation Counsel, the Corporation of the
City agreed to pay the cost of the suit and on the appeal to be
taxed, together with $2,500 for lawyers' fees paid by the execu-
tors.
By the second resolution the City bound itself on compliance
with the above requirements to reduce the carriage way on Sec-
ond Avenue from 60 to 40 feet, to reset the curb and gutter on
said Avenue from 11th to 20th Streets ; also to permit the own-
THE HAMLET AT THE BOUWERIJ 763
ers of lands thereon from 11th Street southwardly to 4th Street
and from 20th Street northwardly to 23rd Street to reset (at
their own expense) the curb and gutter so as to reduce the car-
riage way to the same width of 40 feet and to grant permission
to such owners, between 4th and 23rd Streets to enclose 15 feet
of the sidewalks within court yards, as had been permitted in
the case of Fifth Avenue, of 23rd Street, etc., etc., and if neces-
sary to obtain from the Legislature an Act authorizing such
enclosures. The Corporation further agreed to place a foun-
tain, equal to that in Union Square, in each of the enclosures
aforesaid, the same to be under the control of the City officials.
{Mins. C. G\, Vol. XVII :3). The release is not of record.
On August 4, 1849, the "widening [sic] of the sidewalks in
Second Avenue, from 60 to 45 feet" and the resetting of the
curb and gutter in the Avenue from 11th to 20th Streets were au-
thorized and the question of building fountains was referred to
the Croton Aqueduct Board with instructions to procure plans
and estimates and submit them to the Common Council. Said
Department was directed on October 11 to erect the fountains
and $7,500 was appropriated to cover the expense.
Considering the above action it is rather disconcerting that
the Mayor should have approved resolutions, Jan. 5, 1850, open-
ing as a public square the triangular piece of ground lying be-
tween and contained by the Bowery, Third Avenue and 7th
Street, (Vol. XVII :566) and that the Legislature should have
passed a law, March 16 of that year laying out a public place
on the above plot to be known as Stuyvesant Square, (Chap. 65.)
This has now become Cooper Square and lies just south of
Cooper Union.
Many people of note settled around the original square. Those
families which inherited parts of the Stuyvesant farm were
anxious to live thereon and built substantial brick mansions
along the broad stretch of Second Avenue. Their following went
with them and a great deal of the social gaiety of the City was
transferred away over to the East Side. There still remain
niany of these fine old houses where people live in comfort and
it is yet a highly respectable place of residence which, although
fashion has passed by, clings tenaciously to its old home charms.
Chapters in the History of Halifax,
Nova Scotia
No. II— The Coming of the Boston Tories
By Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, M. A., D. C. L.
"Time was when America hallowed the morn
On which the lov'd monarch of Britain was born,
Hallowed the day, and joyfully chanted
God save the King!
Then flourish 'd the blessings of freedom and peace,
And plenty flow'd in with a yearly increase,
Proud of our lot we chanted merrily
Glory and joy crown the King!
i
"But see! how rebellion has lifted her head!
How honour and truth are with loyalty fled !
Few are there now to join us in chanting
God save the King!
And see! how deluded the multitude fly
To arm in a cause that is built on a lye !
Yet are we proud to chant thus merrily
Glory and joy crown the King!"
Loyalist Poem by the Rev. Jonathan Odell, M. D., on the
King's birthday, June 4, 1777. Printed in the Gentleman's
Magazine.
OF THE several provinces that constitute the Domin-
ion of Canada, Quebec and Nova Scotia were the only
ones at the time of American Revolution that could
be considered settled. The nearest of the provinces
to the colonies engaged in revolt was Nova Scotia, and the fact
that her population had in great part only recently been drawn
from New England, and that her trade was still most largely
with Boston, gives this province a significance in the great strug-
(764)
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 765
gle for independence that is second only to that of the revolt-
ing colonies themselves. Political sympathies are usually most
strongly determined by racial connection and commercial inter-
est, and with a large proportion of the people of Nova Scotia
at the period of the Revolution, near ties of blood and the neces-
sities of trade naturally combined to produce a feeling of sym-
pathy with the revolt, that showed itself strongly throughout
the province, particularly in the two important but widely sepa-
rated counties of Yarmouth and Cumberland. That in the Rev-
olution the political fate of Nova Scotia "hung upon a very
slender thread" is a statement that has recently been boldly
made in Nova Scotia itself, and strong as the statement to many
people may seem, the facts in the case we believe fully warrant
the historian in making the charge that his statement implies. 1
Geographically, Nova Scotia and the adjoining province of
New Brunswick, which until 1783 was reckoned as part of
Nova Scotia, belong with New England, and in the commissions
of several of the governors sent out as the chief executives of
Massachusetts, Nova Scotia was included as part of the terri-
tory over which these officials were empowered to exercise con-
trol. 2 For two-thirds of a century before the Revolution, ever
since England had gained the final undisputed right to rule Aca-
dia, intercourse, political and social, between the two provinces
had been of the closest kind. Massachusetts, indeed, for much of
this time had been in a military way much more than a friendly
1. Edmund Duval Poole in "Annals of Yarmouth and Barrington," page 1.
2. Sir William Phips's commission, in 1692, gave this governor control of
"the Old Colony, the Colony of New Plymouth, the Province of Maine, of Nova
Scotia, and all the country between the last two mentioned places.'' See Sparks's
American Biography, Vol. 7, p. 77. William Shirley's commission, in 1741, reads :
"Whereas by a Royal Charter under the Great Seal of England, bearing date the
Seventh day of October in the 3rd year of the Reign of King William the Third,
the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, the Colony of New Plymouth, the Province of
Main in New England, the Territory of Acadie or Nova Scotia, and the Lands
lying between the said Territory of Nova Scotia and the Province of Main afore-
said were United, Erected, and incorporated into one real Province, by the name
of Our Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. . . . W r e repos-
ing Especial Trust and Confidence in the Prudence, Courage, and Loyalty of you
the said William Shirley. ... do Constitute and Appoint You the said Wil-
liam Shirley to be Our Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over Our
said Province of the Massachusetts Bay." "The Correspondence of William Shir-
ley," edited by Charles Henry Lincoln, Ph.D., Vol. 1, pp. 2^-36. The "seventh day
pf October in the third year of the Reign of King William the Third" was Octo-
ber 7, 1691.
766 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
neighbor to the more easterly province, she had, primarily of
course for her own protection, used her forces unsparingly in
guarding the interests of Nova Scotia against the machinations
of the common foe of all the eastern American colonies, the
papistical French. 3 In the matter of trade the two provinces
had been extremely valuable to each other, important commer-
cial intercourse between them having begun even earlier than the
time that De Razilly's warring lieutenants, D'Aulnay Charni-
say and Charles La Tour, were waging their petty wars for su-
premacy in the Acadian woods.
As we have seen, there was no attempt at British settlement
of Nova Scotia until 1749, and thereafter no further attempt un-
til 1758, so that the political grievances of which long settled
Massachusetts had come to complain had had no chance to de-
velop in the former province. But the population of Nova Sco-
tia, wherever population existed in the districts outside of Hali-
fax, had been largely drawn from New England, and as has
been said, and as we should expect, these Nova Scotian New
Englanders soon after the outbreak of the Revolution showed
unmistakable signs of close sympathy with the cause to which
their relatives and friends in the colonies they had left behind
had given their passionate support. At Halifax, however, mat-
ters were different, many of the most influential inhabitants of
the town, it is true, were New Englanders, but society there had
begun on a distinctly aristocratic plan, the governor was an
Englishman, the council, into which several New England men
had already been admitted, was a body which stimulated and
gave exercise for the love of power which most men possess,
and already a considerable number of the Boston Congregation-
3. In 1747, Governor Shirley wrote the Duke of Newcastle that "New Eng-
land had furnished for years the only succour and support the Garrison at An-
napolis Royal had received, and that the General Assembly of Massachusetts were
growing tired of having the burden of defence thrown upon them, and desired
his Majesty's more immediate interposition for the protection of Nova Scotia."
Archdeacon Raymond, LL.D., in "Nova Scotia under English Rule; from the
Capture of Port Royal to the Conquest of Canada, A. D. 1710-1760." published in
the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada," Third Series 1910, p. 68.
March 28, 1750, Shirley writes the Duke of Newcastle that Nova Scotia hav-
ing long been the object of his attention, appears to him "immediately to affect
the safety of all his [Majesty's] other Northern Colonies, particularly those of
New England, and in its consequences the interests of Great Britain itself in a
very high degree." "The Correspondence of William Shirley."
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 767
aiists settled in the town had conceived an attachment, stronger
or weaker, for the Anglican Church. When the Revolution
began, therefore, self interest for most of the Halifax men
seemed to demand that whatever might come they should keep
Joyal to England, hence the strong censure with which any disaf-
fection towards British control was visited at Halifax from first
*.o last through the whole continuance of the war.
The Revolutionary conflict started in Massachusetts on the
nineteenth of April, 1775, by the march of some eight or nine
hundred royal troops from Boston towards Concord to seize
stores of ammunition and food the provincials had collected there
for use in the impending certain strife. The attempt was un-
successful, and before long Boston, where the British forces
were gathered, was completely surrounded by provincial troops
and all supplies for the King's army were cut ©fY. As soon as
this fact became known in Nova Scotia, Governor Legge of this
province ordered shipments of provisions from the Bay of Fnn-
dy, and likewise dispatched four companies of the 65th regi-
ment, then stationed at Halifax, to assist the royal troops in the
beleaguered town. In the Massachusetts Archives is a mass of
documents which reveal with great clearness the unhappy con-
ditions which existed both in Nova Scotia and in Massachusetts,
from the prohibition of all intercourse between the two prov-
inces by the patriot authorities of Massachusetts, throughout
the progress of the strife, until the enactment of the resolve of
July fifth, 1792, by the Massachusetts Great and General Court
abolished privateering and put trade relations once more on a
friendly basis.
Fear that the interruption of trade relations, and more es-
pecially that the close relationship that existed between a
gTeat part of the inhabitants of Nova Scotia and the people of
Xew England, might produce a feeling of sympathy in Nova
Scotia with the revolting colonies, caused the government at
Halifax to bestir themselves vigorously almost as soon as the
Revolution began to check any outward demonstration of dis-
loyalty the Nova Scotians might be disposed to make. At the
I opening of the Legislature in June, 1775, Governor Legge in
his speech said diplomatically : * ' On so critical a conjuncture of
768 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
affairs in America I cannot forbear expressing the great pleas-
ure and satisfaction I receive from your steady and uniform be-
haviour in your duty and allegiance to the King, and in your
due observance of the laws of Great Britain. Nothing can more
advance the good and welfare of this people, nor render us more
respectable to Great Britain, nor be more subservient to procure
the favour and protection of our Royal and most gracious sov-
ereign; as on the continuance of his protection our safety, our
prosperity, and the very existence of this colony depends." The
replies of the Council and the Assembly to this speech were as
loyal in tone as could be asked, but the Governor soon began in
letters to the Home Government to charge disloyalty to England
on most of the people under his rule, clearly insinuating that
even members of the Council itself were tainted with treasonable
feeling. 4 Positive orders issued both by the revolted colonies
and the Governor and Council of this province prohibiting in-
tercourse between Nova Scotia and the other colonies soon pro-
4. At Halifax the restraint of trade was of course severely felt, and a few
persons there were charged by name with unfriendliness towards the English
cause. A quantity of hay had been bought from Mr. Joseph Fairbanks for the
King's troops at Boston, but by some means it was burned before it could be got
away. Responsibility for destroying it was publicly laid on two Massachusetts
residents of the town, John Fillis. formerly of Boston, and William Smith. They
stoutly denied the charge, however, and the council exonerated them. In Octo-
ber, 1777, an order was passed in council for the arrest of Mr. Malachy Salter,
one of the most prominent merchants of the town, also a native Bostonian,
on a charge of correspondence of a dangerous tendency with parties in Boston,
and a prosecution was ordered against him for unlawful correspondence with
the rebels. In the next session of the Supreme Court Mr. Salter was tried but
he too was honourably acquitted.
The Eddy rebellion in Cumberland county in 1776, led by Jonathan Eddy, John
Allan, and Samuel Rogers, all of whom had been members of the Nova Scotia
Legislature, is a conspicuous matter of Revolutionary history. How the news of
this rebellion affected the government at Halifax a minute of the council books
shows. This notable entry is as follows :
"At a council holden at Halifax, on the 17th Nov., 1776, Present the Honoura-
ble the Lieut. Governor, the Hon. Charles Morris. Richard Bulkeley, Henry New-
ton, Jonathan Binney, Arthur Goold. John Butler.
"On certain intelligence having been received that Jonathan Eddy, William
Howe, and Samuel Rogers have been to the utmost of their power exciting and
stirring up disaffection and rebellion among the people of the county of Cumber-
land, and are actually before the fort at Cumberland with a considerable number
of rebels from New England, together with some Acadians and Indians. It was
therefore resolved to offer £200 Reward for apprehending Jonathan Eddy and
iioo for apprehending John Allan, who has been deeply concerned in exciting said
rebellion. : '
A fact never entirely lost sight of by historians of Halifax is that in this
Eddy rebellion in Cumberland a young Irishman, Richard John Uniacke. who in
later life was to hold high positions in the local government and to found in
Halifax a family of the first importance, took part against the British authorities.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 769
dueed a most unhappy state of feeling all over the province;
Nova Scotia had lost her markets, privateering on both sides was
rampant on the seas, so large a number of prisoners were being
brought into Halifax that the prison ship in the harbour and
the jail in the town were full to overflowing, and to crown all an
order had gone out from Governor Legge for the enrollment of
a large body of militia in various parts of the province for im-
mediate service, if necessary in the field. Legge, who was a rel-
ative of the Earl of Dartmouth, was the most unpopular gover-
nor Nova Scotia has ever had, he was autocratic and suspicious,
and in the three years that he spent as head of the government,
he managed hopelessly to antagonize not only the lieutenant-
governor, Mr. Michael Francklin, and the members of the Coun-
cil, but the people at large of perhaps every settled township in
the province under his rule. His order to the militia was re-
ceived throughout the province with marked disapprobation;
i i Those of us who belong to New England being invited into this
province by Governor Lawrence's proclamation,' ' say the peo-
ple of Cumberland, "it must be the greatest piece of cruelty
and imposition for them to be subjected to march into different
parts in arms against their friends and relations." Protests
from Onslow and Truro speak of the hardships of the militia
law, since it takes men from their avocations, and also leaves the
parts of the country from which they come exposed to attack.
The movement of Loyalists from Massachusetts to Nova Sco-
tia began very soon after the skirmish at Lexington. Many per-
sons of comfortable fortune, in and near Boston, foresaw that if
the provincials triumphed their own fortunes must lie elsewhere
than in their native province, and cast their eyes on Nova Scotia
as a place of refuge. Early in May, 1775, therefore, several
vessels arrived in Halifax harbour with families that were glad
to escape thus early from the scene of what clearly threatened
to be a miserable and protracted civil war.
The first Massachusetts Loyalists that we know to have ar-
rived in Halifax were a group who embarked at Salem on the
twenty-ninth of April, 1775, in the brig Minerva. This group
comprised Mr. George DeBlois, a local Salem merchant, a first
cousin of Gilbert and Lewis DeBlois, the well known Boston
770 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
Tories who died in England, — Dr. John Prince, a Salem physi-
cian, Mr. James Grant, and a Mrs. Cottnam and her family. 5
A little over a month later, on the eighth of June, 1775, Edward
Lyde and his family of Boston left their native city, in some
syessel, and sought refuge in Halifax. Edward Lyde was a
-prosperous iron merchant, a man of the first social position, who
had managed to make himself highly offensive to the patriots,
;m<\ his flight from his native town at this early period seems
to have been necessary for his safety. Precisely where in Hali-
fax he lived during the year he spent there we do not know, but
when his friends from Boston arrived with General Howe, as
we shall presently see, he met Chief Justice Peter Oliver, and
at once took him to his house, where he kept him during his stay.
Some time in 1776, Mr. Lyde embarked for London, though he
did not long stay abroad. In 1779 he came to New York, where
he had important business interests, and in that city he spent
^most of the remainder of his life. 6 When Howe's fleet reached
Halifax, among the Eefugees that came with it were Mr. By-
^ field Lyde of Boston, Edward Lyde's father, and two or three
sisters of Edward Lyde. Of these sisters, Sarah, became in
3777, in Halifax, the second wife of Dr. Mather Byles.
Very soon after the battle of Lexington, Major John Vassall
of Cambridge and Boston, and his family, and Colonel Isaac
Eoyall of Medford, sailed for Halifax, and with the latter prob-
ably went also Sir William Pepperrell, 2nd, Colonel Eoyall 's son-
in-law, and Lady Pepperrell. In Halifax Lady Pepperrell died,
her funeral taking place there October eighth, 1775. Late in
1775, or early in 1776, Rev. John Troutbeck, who had been for
about twenty-one years assistant minister of King's Chapel,
also took refuge in Halifax, and with the exception of the Pep-
5. See the writer's "Old Boston Families, No. I, the DeBlois Family," in the
â– â– 33. E. Hist, and Gen. Register for January, 1913. Mrs. Cottnam afterward kept
a school for girls, first in Halifax, then in St. John. She and her daughter are
..occasionally referred to in the Byles correspondence.
6. Edward Lyde's movements are clearly learned from the deposition he
-made before the commissioners appointed to receive petitions from Loyalists for
compensation for their losses in the Revolution. See "Ontario Sessional Papers,*
Vol. 37, Parts 11 and 12 (2 Vols., 1905).
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 771
perrells these persons -were all in Nova Scotia when Howe's
lieet arrived in March and April, 17 76. 7
Almost immediately after the battle of Lexington, as we have
said, Boston came into a state of siege, General Gage promptly
ordering the inhabitants of the town to have no communication
whatever with the country around. Just before the battle of
Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), General Howe said to his troops:
"Remember, gentlemen, we have no recourse if we lose Boston,
but to go on board our ships, which will be very disagreeable to
us all." On the seventh of March. 1776, Howe's situation "was
perplexing and critical. The fleet was unable to ride in safety
in the harbour. The army, exposed to the mercy of the American
batteries and not strong enough to force the lines, was humiliat-
ed and discontented. The Loyalists were expecting and claim-
ing the protection that had so often been guaranteed to them. 8 In
7. Rev. John Troutbeck was in Boston as late as October, 1775. when he
signed the address from the gentlemen and principal inhabitants of Boston to
Governor Gage. When Dr. William Walter, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston,
arrived in Halifax we do not know, but it was probably earlier than the coming
there of Howe's fleet.
Colonel Isaac Royall left his beautiful mansion in Medford (which is stand-
ing still) with great sorrow, three days before the battle of Lexington. He ex-
pected to go to Antigua, but he soon decided to go to Halifax, and in that town
he remained until the Spring of 1776. Probably in May, 1776, he embarked for
iingland, and there without ever revisiting his native country, he died in 1781.
One of his daughters was the wife of Col. George Erving, another the wife of
Sir Wiiliam Pepperrell, 2nd.
Of Colonel Royall's house at Medford, Mr. Stark writes : 'The mansion it-
self was inded one of the finest of colonial residences, standing as it did in the
midst of elegant surroundings. In the front, or what is now the west side, was
the paved court. Reaching farther west were the extensive gardens, opening from
the courtyard, a broad path leading to the summer house. The slave quarters
were at the south. . . . The interior woodwork of the house is beautifully
carved, especially the drawing room, guest chamber, and staircase. The walls are
pannelled, and the carving on each side of the windows is very -fine/'
This notable mansion was the scene of great hospitality. "No home in the
colony," continues Mr. Stark, "was more open to friends, no gentleman gave bet-
ter dinners, or drank costlier wines." Colonel Royal was a kind master to his
slaves, a charitable man to the poor, and a friend to everybody. From Halifax,
March twelfth. 1776, he wrote from Halifax to Dr. Simon Tufts of Medford,
directing Tufts to sell some of his slaves. See Stark's "The Loyalists of Massa-
chusetts," pp. 293, 294; and Brooks's "History of Medford," p. 173.
8. Public acts of the Massachusetts Loyalists that were particularly offensive
to the patriot party were, a respectful address of the merchants and others of
Boston to Governor Hutchinson, May 30, 1774, before Hutchinson's departure for
England; an address of the barristers and attorneys of Massachusetts to Gover-
nor Hutchinson on the same day; an address of the inhabitants of Marblehead
to Governor Hutchinson, May 25, 1774; an address to Governor Hutchinson from
his fellow townsmen in the town of Milton shortly before the Governor sailed;
an address presented to his Excellency Governor Gage, July 11, 1774, on his ar-
rival at Salem; a loyal address from the gentlemen and principal inhabitants of
772 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
addition, the belief was general that no despatches had been re-
ceived from the government since October." Accordingly, on
the 7th of March, 1776, Howe convened his officers in Council,
and in a speech, impassioned and forceful, told them that in
spite of the humiliation which the action would involve, and
of the losses that the Loyalists under his protection must inevi-
tably suffer, in order to save the army he must evacuate the town.
Ten days later the formal evacuation came. On Sunday the
17th, very early in the morning, the troops began to embark.
" About nine o'clock," says Frothingham, "the garrison left
Bunker Hill, and a large number of boats, rilled with troops and
inhabitants, put off from the wharves of Boston." How soon
after his final decision was made to leave Boston Howe notified
the majority of the Loyalists under his protection, we do not
know, but the Eev. Henry Caner, Eector of King's Chapel, tells
us that he himself had only a few hours given him to prepare for
his flight.
Although the formal evacuation occurred on the seventeenth
of March, the whole fleet did not leave Boston harbour for sev-
eral days, and Frothingham says that during that time the
British officers wrote many letters to their friends. On the day
of the evacuation, one wrote from "Nantasket Road": "The
dragoons are under orders to sail tomorrow for Halifax,— a
Boston to Governor Gage, October 6, 1775, shortly before he sailed for England;
and a "loyal address to Governor Gage on his departure. October 14, 1775, of
those gentlemen who were driven from their habitations in the country to the
town of Boston."
In September, 1778, was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts the
Banishment Act of the State, '"an Act to prevent the return to this state of cer-
tain persons therein named, and others who have left this state or either of the
United States, and joined the enemies thereof." In this were included many gen-
tlemen in various professions and businesses prominent in several towns of the
State. The second section of the act reads: "And be it further enacted by the
authority- aforesaid, that if any person or persons, who shall be transported as
aforesaid, shall voluntarily return into this state, without liberty first had and ob-
tained from the general court, he shall on conviction thereof before the superior
court of judicature, court of assize and general gaol delivery, suffer the pains of
death without benefit of clergy." On the 30th of April, 1779, was passed the "Con-
spiracy Act," or Act of Confiscation, "an Act to confiscate the estates of certain
notorious conspirators against the government and liberties of the inhabitants of
the late province, now state, of Massachusetts Bay." (The term "notorious con-
spirators" was highly insulting to men who were honestly convinced that what-
ever the mistakes the British Government was then making, it was wrong to
throw off allegiance to the mother land. Private letters of Harrison Gray in the
writer's custody show how indignantly they resented it, and how inappropriate it
really was).
.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 773
cursed, cold, wintry place, even yet ; nothing to eat, less to
drink. Bad times, my dear friend." On the twenty-fifth of
March, another wrote: "We do not know where we are going,
but are in great distress." On the twenty-sixth, still another
wrote: "Expect no more letters from Boston. We have quitted
that place. Washington played on the town for several days.
A shell, which burst while we were preparing to embark did very
great damage. Our men have suffered. We have one consola-
tion left. You know the proverbial expression, 'neither Hell,
Hull, nor Halifax,' can afford worse shelter than Boston. 9 To
fresh provision I have for many months been an utter stranger.
An egg was a rarity. Yet I submit. A soldier may mention
grievances, though he should scorn to repine when he suffers
them. The next letter from Halifax."
The whole effective besieging force that withdrew with Howe,
says Lossing, including seamen, was about eleven thousand, and
the number of Eefugees about eleven hundred, but a list of the
latter in the handwriting of one of them, Mr. Walter Barrell,
Inspector General of Customs, which was long ago printed in the
"Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society," gives
the number as nine hundred and twenty-seven. 10 In Barrell *s
9. "There is a proverb, and a prayer withal,
That we may not to three strange places fall:
From Hull, from Halifax, from Hell, 'tis thus,
From all these three, good Lord, deliver us!"
John Taylor (the "Water Poet"), 1 580-1654; in "News from Hell, Hull, and
Halifax."
The siege of Boston had been in progress for ten months when Howe evac-
uated the town.
10. ''Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc," Vol. 18, p. 266. Also Stark's
"Loyalists of Massachusetts," pp. 133-136. In his "Siege of Boston," Richard
Frothingham, Jr., gives the number of Refugees with Howe as "more than a thou-
sand." Of members of Council, commissioners, custom-house officers, and others
who had occupied official positions, he says, there were a hundred and two; of
merchants and other inhabitants of Boston two hundred and thirteen; of persons
from the country a hundred and five; of farmers, traders, and mechanics three
hundred and eighty-two. and of clergymen eighteen, all of whom "returned their
names on their arrival at Halifax." About two hundred others, he adds, did not
return their names. Where the "return" made at Halifax, that Frothingham
speaks of, was ever deposited we do not know. Nor can we feel at all certain
that Frothingham's summary is correct. It is impossible, for instance, that there
can have been eighteen clergymen among the Refugees. The only Massachusetts
clergymen that the fleet can possibly have carried were Rev. Dr. Henry Caner,
Rector of King's Chapel, Rev. Dr. Mather Byles. who had been Rector of Christ
Church, Rev. Moses Badger, whose home was in Haverhill, and possiblv though
not at all likely, Rev. Dr. William Walter, Rector of Trinity Church. When Dr.
774 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
list we find besides Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Oliver and his
servants, six persons in all, eleven members of council, and a
clerk of the courts, they and their households numbering in all
seventy-three, — a group of custom house officials numbering no
less than thirty-seven, they and their families aggregating a
hundred and thirty-two, and two hundred and twenty-eight other
men, with their families, these comprising the greater number
of the Bostonians in private life who were regarded as occupy-
ing the most prominent positions in the town. Among the Refu-
gees were Hon. Harrison Gray, Eeceiver General of the prov-
ince and member of council, Brigadier-General Timothy Rug-
gles, Hon. Foster Hutchinson, Col. John Murray, Col. Josiah
Edson, Mr. Richard Lechmere, Col. John Erving, Mr. Nathaniel
Ray Thomas, Messrs. Abijah Willard, Daniel Leonard, Nathan-
iel Hatch, George Erving,— and leading representatives of the
families of Atkinson, Brattle, Brinley, Cazneau, Chandler, Cof-
fin, Cutler, DeBlois, Dumaresq, Faneuil, Gardener, Gay, Gore,
Gray, Green, Greenwood, Holmes, Hutchinson, Inman, Jefferies,
Johannot, Joy, Loring, Lyde, Oliver, Paddock, Perkins, Phips,
Putnam, Rogers, Saltonstall, Savage, Sergeant, Snelling,
Sterns or Stearns, and Winslow. That several other important
Boston men like Thomas Apthorp, and Major John and Wil-
liam Vassall, are not found in this list of Refugees with the fleet
is to be accounted for by the fact that they had left, either for
Halifax or directly for England, some time before. 12
Walter went to Halifax, we have nowhere found recorded, it may have been
with the fleet, or it may have been, as was the case with Rev. John Troutbeck, a
little earlier. There may have been several army or navy chaplains on Howe's
ships, there were no Massachusetts clergymen except those we have mentioned.
ii. On page 136 of his "Loyalists of Massachusetts" Mr. Stark gives the names
of thirty-six mandamus councillors appointed August 9, 1774. Of these, several,
like Foster Hutchinson, Timothy Ruggles, and Nathaniel Ray Thomas, going with
the fleet, settled permanently in Nova Scotia.
12. Judge Curwen. of Salem, one of the most important Massachusetts Loy-
alists, landed at Dover, England, July 3, 1775, and after visiting the castle there,
at once took coach for London. The next evening, at seven o'clock, he arrived at
the New England Coffee-House, on Threadneedle Street. He remained in Eng-
land until 1784, when at the urgent solicitation of his old friends, "the principal
merchants and citizens of Salem," he returned to New England. At Salem he
says, "not a man, woman, or child but expressed a satisfaction at seeing me, and
welcomed me back." His affairs were in so bad a condition, however, that he
thought he might have to "retreat to Nova Scotia," but he staid in Salem, and
died there in 1802. April 24, 1780, he writes :
"This day, five years are completed since I abandoned my house, estate, and
effects and friends. God only knows whether I shall ever be restored to them,
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 775
On the thirtieth of March. 1776, so tradition has it, the Hali-
fax people, who had had no previous notice of the action of
Howe, were startled to see a fleet sailing into their harbour. 13
Their first thought was that another French fleet bent on re-con-
quest of Nova Scotia had suddenly surprised the town, but the
truth was soon learned, and then the greatest perplexity arose
to know how to house the thousand civilians who wished to dis-
embark from the ships, and to provide food for the more than
eleven thousand soldiers and sailors that General Howe's forces
comprised. To supply shelter every available spare room in the
town was quickly secured and tents were thrown up on the
Parade, and for food, cattle were rapidly driven in from the
suburbs and slaughtered, and all shops and storehouses were
taxed to the limit of their supplies. So great was the demand
for food that as in all such crises the price of provisions rose to
what was then an exorbitant figure, and this went on until the
Governor was obliged to issue a proclamation fixing the price of
meat at a shilling a pound, milk at sixpence a quart, and butter
at one and six-pence a pound.
At this time, it will be remembered, Halifax was only twenty-
seven years old, and its regular inhabitants numbered not more
than between three and four thousand, and we can well imagine
the excitement that must have prevailed in all ranks of society
at the sudden descent of such a force on the town, and at the
prospect of such a permanent increase to the population as the
remaining there of a large number of the Bostonians would
make. Towards the troops and the people who accompanied
them, however, there seems to have been generally the kindest
feeling shown, and however limited the hospitality the Hali-
gionians were able to offer, the Boston people were no doubt
thankful to their hearts' core to receive it, for they had been
living for months previous to their enforced embarkation in a
or they to me. Party rage, like jealousy and superstition is cruel as the grave; —
that moderation is a crime, and in time of civil confusions, many good, virtuous,
and peaceable persons now suffering banishment from America are the wretched
proofs and instances." See Curwen's "Journal and Letters," and Stark's "Loy-
alists of Massachusetts," pp. 246-254.
13- This is the tradition, but it is also said somewhere in print that when
General Howe found that he must leave Boston he dispatched Brigadier-General
Robertson to Halifax to make ready for the troops.
I
77 y
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
state of apprehension and in some cases of real physical discom-
fort. The distress of the troops and inhabitants of Boston dur-
ing the siege, some one wrote at the time, "is great beyond all
possible description. Neither vegetables, flour, nor pulse for the
inhabitants; the King's stores are so very short none can be
spared for them; no fuel, and the winter set in remarkably se-
vere. The troops and inhabitants absolutely and literally starv-
ing for want of provisions and fire." 14
Details of the voyage of these Boston Tories to Halifax are
not entirely wanting. In the Journal of Chief-Justice Peter Oli-
ver, as quoted in Thomas Hutchinson's "Diary and Letters," 15
we have one prominent Bostonian's account of it. On the sev-
enteenth of March, the day of the embarkation, Judge Oliver
writes: "The troops at Boston embarked, and about 20 sail fell
down into King's Road by 11 o'clock this morning." On the
twenty-seventh, then well at sea, he writes : "I sailed from Nan-
tasket, at 3 o'clock, afternoon, in the 2nd and last Division of
the fleet, about 70 sail, for Haliifax, under convoy of the Chat-
ham, Admiral Shuldham, and of the Centurion, Capt n Braith-
waite— 28th, A good wind. 29th, Ditto. Were on Cape Sable
Bank. 30th, Wind about X. E. A tumbling sea, supposed to be
occasioned by the indraught of the Bay of Fundy. 31st, Ditto.
April 1st, A tumbling sea : wind at N. E. 2nd, A southerly wind
and smooth sea. Made land, on a north course, about 3 o'clock
afternoon, and came to anchor before Haliifax at half an hour
past 7 at night. 3d, Landed at Haliifax. Edward Lyde, Esq. in-
vited me to his house, where I tarried till I embarqued for Eng-
land. I was very happy in being at Mr. Lyde's, as there was so
great an addition to the inhabitants from the navy and army,
and Refugees from Boston, which made the lodgings for them
very scarce to be had, and many of them, when procured, quite
intolerable. Provisions were here as dear as in London. The
rents of houses were extravagant and the owners of them took all
advantages of the necessity of the times, so that I knew of three
rooms in one house w ch house could not cost 500£ Sterl g , let for
£250 Sterl g p year. Thus mankind prey upon each other. . . .
14. We can understand from this account how it was that the Old North
Church, the Church of the Mathers (Dr. Increase and Dr. Cotton Mather), with
about twenty other buildings, was torn down for fuel during the siege.
15. "Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson,'' Vol. 2, pp. 46-54.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 777
I pitied the misfortunes of others, but I could only pity them : for
myself, I was happily provided for, and was the more happy, as
1 had been very sea-sick during my 6 1-2 days voyage, so that I
could not enjoy to my wishes, the grand prospect of the ocean
covered with ships in view, and some of them so near as to con-
verse with our friends on board them. "
How Halifax appeared to the Refugees we also learn from
Judge Oliver's journal. " Halifax, " Oliver writes, "is a very
agreeable situation for prospects, and for trade: it is situated
on a rising ground fronting the Harbour and ocean. There are
6 or 7 streets parallel to each other on the side of the hill, of
about 1 1-2 or 2 miles in length, very strait, and of good width.
There are many others which ascend the hill, and intersect the
long streets. On the top of the hill there is now a most delight-
ful prospect of the harbour, Islands near the entrance of the
harbor, and of the ocean, so that you may see vessells at a very
great distance at sea : and when the woods are cleared off, there
will be a most delightfull landscape, but at present there is not
a great deal of cleared land.
"The harbor of Hallifax is a most excellent one, capable of
containing the whole English navy, where they may ride land-
locked against any storms ; at this time there are 200 sail before
the town ; and when L d Lodoun was here in the year 1757, there
were above 300 sail of vessells in the harbor. It is above a mile
wide for 3 or 4 miles, and it is deep with good anchorage, and a
bold shore. Above the harbor there is a Basin which empties
into it; it is 5 or 6 miles broad, and 7 or 8 miles long; a good
shore, and in some places 50 fathom deep. In this Basin Duke
D'Anville retired out of observation in y e year 1745 [sic], and
here he left one of his 70 gun ships, which is now at the bottom
of this Basin.
"The houses of Hallifax seem to have been sowed like mush-
rooms in an hot-bed, and to have decayed as fast; for although
they have been built but a few years, yet there are scarce any of
them habitable, and perhaps a conflagration might occasion a
Phoenix to rise out of its ashes." 16
16. Chief Justice Oliver further says : "During my stay at Hallifax, as well
as during my residence in Boston, I was treated with y e utmost politeness, not to
778 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
Until early in June Howe's fleet lay at Halifax, the general
up to this time having undoubtedly been waiting for the arrival
of his brother, Admiral Lord Richard Howe, with instructions
for his further movements. In June the fleet sailed for New
York, and there in July the general was joined by his brother,
who brought with him a large force, and came armed with the
King's authority to the general and himself to treat with the
rebels, who it was fondly believed could yet be cajoled into more
complaisancy towards the mother country. 17
Of the high standing in Boston of these Refugees with Howe's
fleet, a writer in the "Memorial History of Boston," giving the
names of a hundred and forty of the Loyalists proscribed in
1778 as inveterate enemies to the State, says: "When it is con-
sidered that forty-five of the above were termed esquires, nine
were ministers and doctors, and thirty-six were merchants, we
can form some idea of the great social changes produced by the
Revolution. ... It can easily be seen that this forced emi-
gration must have had the effect to destroy the continuity of the
social history of the town. The persons who adhered to the
Crown were naturally the wealthy and conservative classes. They
composed the families which had prospered during the preceding
century and which had been gradually forming a local aristoc-
say friendship, by General Howe, who offered and urged me to every assistance
1 might wish for, and assured me, now at Hallifax, of being provided with a good
ship for my passage to England ; but the Harriot Pacquet, Cap n Lee, being sent
to carry home Gov r Legge cf Hallifax, Mr. Legge invited rrv niece Jenny Clarke
and myself to take passage with him ; not suffering us to uy in any stores for
ourselves, but to partake in his, of which he had made ample provision."
Judge Oliver then proceeds : "We accordingly embarked in the s d Packet on
y 6 I2th May, having as passengers in the cabin Gov r Legge. James Monk, Esq.,
Solicitor General of Hallifax, and his lady, Mr. Birch, Chaplain of a Regiment,
and Miss Clarke and myself. We embarked at 8 o'clock in the morning, and came
to sail at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. There were six sail more in company, con-
voyed by the Glasgow Man-of-War, Cap n How.'' the voyage to England was made
in three weeks, the ship reaching Falmouth harbour about midnight of the first
of June.
It is probable that in the "six sail" Judge Oliver mentions went to England
most of the Tories who did not wish to remain in Halifax, or that did not a few
weeks later continue with Howe to New York.
17. In Dr. Ezra Stiles's Diary (Vol. 2, p. 168) we find recorded a dispatch
from Halifax of June 13, 1776. The dispatch reads : "The British Fleet is gone
from this place for New York; great Dissention prevailed on their Departure,
among officers and soldiers. This morning about 2 o'clock two Transports found-
ered in a gale of wind near this place and about 300 troops perished."
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 779
racy. The history of the times which should omit these families
would be fatally defective." 18
A considerable group of Boston Loyalists, among these some
who sailed with the fleet to Halifax, for a longer or shorter time
afterwards, settled in Bristol, England. In a letter to William
Pynchon, Esq., of Salem, written April 19, 1780, Judge Cur-
wen enumerates these as follows : Miss Arbuthnot, Mr. Barnes,
wife and niece, Mrs. Borland, a son and three daughters, Na-
thaniel Coffin, wife and family, Miss Davis, Mr. Faneuil and
wife, Robert Hallowell, wife and children, Nicholas Lechmere,
wife and two daughters, E. Lechmere, brother of Nicholas, Colo-
nel Oliver and six daughters, Judge Sewall, wife, sister, and two
sons, Samuel Sewall, ;t kinsman to Mr. Faneuil, " Mr. Simp-
son, John Vassall, wife and niece, and Mr. Francis Waldo. 19
Some of the Boston Loyalists also seem to have located for a
time, at least, in Birmingham, England, but the majority settled
in London, where many of them spent the rest of their days. In
London in 1776, they formed a club for a weekly dinner at the
Adelphi, Strand, the members being Messrs. Eichard Clark, Jo-
seph Green, Jonathan Bliss, Jonathan SewaE, Joseph Waldo,
Samson Salter Blowers, Elisha and William Hutchinson, Sam-
uel Sewall, Samuel Quincy, Isaac Smith, Harrison Gray, David
Greene, Jonathan Clark, Thomas Flucker, Joseph Taylor, Dan-
iel Silsbee, Thomas Brinley, William Cabot, John Singleton
Copley, and Nathaniel Coffin. To these names also must be add-
ed, Thomas Hutchinson, previously governor of Massachusetts,
Samuel Porter, Edward Oxnard, Benjamin Pickman, John
Amory, Judge Eobert Auchmuty, and Major Urquhart. 20 In
May, 1779, the Loyalists in London formed an association, evi-
18. William H. Whitmore in the "Memorial History of Boston," Vol. I, pp.
563, 564.
19. "Jownal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty,
etc.," pp. 237, 238.
20. "Journal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty,
etc. (1842), p. 45. Later the members of this club must have met regularly for
their weekly dinner at the New England Coffee House. On the 4th of July, 1782,
Judge Curwen writes in his journal: "Went to London to the Thursday dinner at
£ew England Coffee-House." July nth he writes: "Dined as usual at New
fc-ngland fish-club dinner." July 27th : "Dined at New England Coffee-House on
hsh, in company with Mr. Flucker, Francis Waldo, Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Gold-
tnwait, etc."
780 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
dently for united political action, or for the improvement of
their own condition, composed of representatives from all the
New England colonies, and made Sir William Pepperrell. sec-
ond baronet of the name, who was a leading one of their number,
president. 21
The unhappy condition of probably a good many of the Boston
Refugees when they reached Halifax, is reflected in a letter of
Eev. Dr. Henry Caner, of King's Chapel, written to the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, shortly after the Loyalists
arrived. Under date of May tenth, 1776, Dr. Caner says: "I am
now at Halifax, but without any means of support except what
I receive from the benevolence of the worthy Dr. Breynton. Sev-
eral other clergymen, Dr. Byles, Mr. "Walter, Mr. Badger, etc.,
are likewise driven from Boston to this place; but [all] of them
have some comfortable provision in the Army or Navy as Chap-
lains, a service which my age 22 and infirmities will not well ad-
mit of. I have indeed greatly suffered in my health by the cold
weather and other uncomfortable circumstances of a passage to
this place ; but having by the good providence of God survived
21. The Loyalists who went to England did not lose sight of Nova Scotia.
On the 18th of January, 1784, Chief-Justice Oliver writes from Birmingham:
"Nova Scotia populates fast — 60.000 already." February 9th he writes: '"Parson
Walter is arrived from Nova Scotia; many other Refugees are come. America is in
a bad plight — they will lose their whale and cod fishery, and Nova Scotia will
ruin the four New England governments." March £th he writes from London:
"Mr. Winslow and family are there [Halifax]. Mr. Walter is here, having left
his family at Port Roseway. Col. Ruggles hath built him a large house near to
Annapolis : they settle there very fast. The whalemen are leaving Nantucket for
Nova Scotia, and the New Englanders will suffer extremely by overacting their
importations, and English merchants will suffer by tr.em." Again he writes: "A
new Province is made on St. John's river, and called New Brunswick. Gen 1 Carle-
ton's brother, Col. Carleton, is the Governor, and the General to be Gov r Gen-
eral of Canada and all. Col. Willard with a thousand Refugees, I hear, is em-
barking for Nova Scotia, so that that they will encrease rapidly, and I suppose that
our Province will sink as they rise, for none can return to it without the expense
of Naturalization." "Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson."
22. Dr. Caner was then seventy-six. He too went to England in the Spring
of 1776, and when he reached there, the S. P. G. appointed him at his own re-
quest, to the mission at Bristol, Rhode Island. Whether he ever came to Bristol
or not we do not know. At some time after he left Boston he married a young
wife, and at one time lived with her in Wales. He died in England in 1792. In
one of the record books of King's Chapel which he took with him from Boston,
he wrote: "An unnatural rebellion of the colonies against His Majesty's govern
ment obliged the loyal part of his subjects to evacuate their dwellings and sub-
stance, and take refuge in Halifax, London, and elsewhere ; by which means the
public worship of King's Chapel became suspended, and is likely to remain so
until it shall please God, in the course of his providence, to change the hearts of
the rebels, or give success to his Majesty's arms for suppressing the rebellion."
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 781
the past distress, I am in hopes some charitable hand will assist
nie in my purpose of proceeding to England, where the com-
passion of the well-disposed will I hope preserve me from per-
ishing thro' the want of the necessaries of life. If otherwise,
God's will be done." A letter has reached the Society from the
Rev. Dr. Byles, writes the Secretary of the S. P. G. in the So-
ciety's report for 1776, who is "now at Halifax with five moth-
erless children, for a time deprived of all the means of support."
But towards these clergymen, as indeed towards all the Refu-
gees that needed help, not only by Dr. Breynton, but by all the
leading secular officials and private gentlemen of Halifax, un-
remitting and thoroughly appreciated kindness seems to have
been shown. "Two letters have been received in the course of
the year from the Society's very worthy missionary, the Rev.
Dr. Breynton," writes the secretary of the S. P. G. in the report
mentioned above, ' ' lamenting the unhappy situation of affairs in
America ; in consequence of which many wealthy and loyal fam-
ilies have quitted New England, and in hopes of a safe retreat
have taken up their residence at Halifax, thereby becoming a
great acquisition to the province, and a considerable addition to
his congregation. For many of them, tho' Dissenters in New
England, have constantly attended the service of the church
since their arrival in Halifax."
Of the social life of Boston, from which these Halifax Tories
were so unwillingly obliged to flee, we get glimpses in the "An-
nals of King's Chapel," that admirable history of the mother
Episcopal parish of New England, of which so many of the Tor-
ies were members. King's Chapel, says the annalist, "saw all
the rich costumes and striking groupings of that picturesque age
gathered in that ancient day, within its walls. Chariots with
liveried black footmen brought thither titled gentlemen and fine
ladies ; and the square pews were gay with modes of dress which
must have brightened the sober New England life— as the ruf-
fled sleeves and powdered wigs, and swords ; the judges, whose
robes were thought to give, dignity and reverence to their high
office as they set upon the bench; the scarlet uniforms of the
British officers in army and navy,— all mingling with the beauty
and fashion which still look down from old family portraits the
782 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
special flavour of an age very different from our own." 23 At the
chapel, says the historian, writing of two decades before the Rev-
olution, " worshipped not a few of the first gentlemen of the
Province, now at the meridian of success and distinction, who
in twenty years were to be swept away in the vortex of the
Revolution." 24 "We see again the Royal Governor in his pew
of state. ... we recall the British officers of the army and
navy crowding here as honoured guests ; we hear the familiar
prayers for King and Queen and royal family repeated by loyal
lips. The Church as it was, seemed to be in some sense a part of
the majesty of England. Then the sky lowers, as the blind and
senseless oppressions of the British ministry change a loyal
colony to a people in rebellion. For a time the church brightens
more and more with the uniforms of the King's troops, as the
church is changed into a garrison; till, on a March Sunday in
1776, they hurriedly depart, never to return, and the dutiful
prayers vanish, to become a dim vision of the ancient world, so
different from ours. A large part of the congregation went
also; and at their head went their aged rector, whose pride and
life-work had been with unwearied pains to ensure the erection
of the noble structure to which he bade farewell as he followed
his convictions of duty to his King." 25
Nor was the noble gravity and dignity of King's chapel as a
building at all out of harmony with the character of the houses in
which these Loyalists of Boston lived. On King Street, and
Queen Street, and Beacon Street, and Tremont Street, as on
Milk and Marlborough and Summer streets, stood fine colonial
houses, that had rivals, indeed, in Roxbury, and Cambridge, and
Medford, and Milton, in all which there was architectural beauty
23. "Annals of King's Chapel," by Rev. Henry Wilder Foote, Vol. 1, p. 549.
24. On the registers of King's Chapel most of the names prominent in Bos-
ton before the Revolution are sooner or later to be found. Many strictly Congre-
gational families as they rose to wealth and influence gave the Chapel more or
less support. Some families of importance, however, were from the first Episco-
palians, not Congregationalists. Among the King's Chapel worshippers were fam-
ilies of Auchmuty, Brattle, Brinley, Coffin, Cradock, DeBlois, Gardiner, Green-
leaf, Hallowell, Hutchinson, Lechmere, Lyde, Minot, Oliver, Royall, Sewall, Shir-
ley, Snelling, Vassall, and Winslow. A notable family was the large family of
Mr. Samuel Wentworth, originally a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, man, but
long one of the most prominent merchants of Boston. He died before the Revo-
lution, but his wife lived, we believe, with her son, Benning in Halifax, near her
daughter Lady Frances Wentworth, wife of Governor Sir John.
25. Annals of King's Chapel, Vol. II, p. 336.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 783
and stately elegance. Some of these houses were large, two or
three story mansions, with handsome approaches, dignified hall
ways, wainscotted drawing-rooms, fine stair-cases with carved
balusters, ample tiled fireplaces, classic mantlepieces, and walls
hung with portraits and landscapes by the best American paint-
ters before the Revolution. Lady Agnes Frankland, as is well
known, up to the time of the siege lived chiefly at Hopkinton, but
her house in the North End of Boston, to which she came early
in the siege, is minutely described by James Fenimore Cooper.
The Frankland house was of brick, heavily trimmed with wood,
and had a spacious hall, off which led the drawing-room, the
panels of whose walls were painted with imaginary landscapes
and ruins. The walls were also " burdened with armorial bear-
ings," indicating the noble alliances of the Frankland family.
"Beneath the surbase were smaller divisions of panels, painted
with various architectural devices ; and above it rose, between
the compartments, fluted pilasters of wood, with gilded capitals.
A heavy wooden and highly ornamental cornice stretched above
the whole, furnishing an appropriate outline for the walls. . . .
The floor, which shone equally with the furniture, was tessellated
with small alternate squares of red cedar and pine. . . . On
either side of the ponderous and laboured mantel were arched
compartments, of plainer work, denoting use, the sliding panels
of which, being raised, displayed a buffet groaning with massive
plate."
In 1766, John Adams wrote in his diary: "Dined at Mr. Nick
Boylston's— an elegant dinner indeed. Went over the house to
view the furniture, which alone cost a thousand pounds sterling.
A seat it is for a nobleman, a prince. The Turkey carpets, the
painted hangings, the marble tables, the rich beds with crimson
damask curtains and counterpanes, the beautiful chimney clock,
the spacious garden, are the most magnificent of anything I
have ever seen. 26
As early as 1708 John Oldmixon, an English author, after
visiting Boston wrote: "A gentleman from London would al-
most think himself at home at Boston, when he observes the
number of people, their houses, their furniture, their tables,
•26- "Memorial History of Boston," Vol. 2, p. 452.
784 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
their dress and conversation, which perhaps is as showy as that
of the most considerable tradesmen in London." Thirty- two
years later, in 1740, Mr. Joseph Bennett, another Englishman,
writes: "There are several families in Boston that keep a coach
and pair of horses and some few drive with four horses, but for
chaises and saddlehorses considering the bulk of the place they
outdo London. . . . When the ladies ride out to take the
air, it is generally in a chaise or chair, and then but a single
horse ; and they have a negro servant to drive them. The gentle-
men ride out here as in England, some in chairs, and others on
horseback, with their negroes to attend them. They travel in
much the same manner on business as for pleasure, and are at-
tended in both by their black equipages. . . . For their do-
mestic amusements, every afternoon, after drinking tea, the
gentlemen and ladies walk the Mall, and from thence adjourn
to one another's houses to spend the evening,— those that are
not disposed to attend the evening lecture; which they may do,
if they please, six nights in seven the year round. . . . The
government being in the hands of dissenters, they don't admit
of plays or music houses, but of late they have set up an assem-
bly, to which some of the ladies resort. . . . But notwith-
standing plays and such like diversions do not obtain here, they
don't seem to be dispirited nor moped for want of them, for both
the ladies and gentlemen dress and appear as gay, in common,
as courtiers in England on a coronation or birthday. And the
ladies here visit, drink tea, and indulge every little piece of gen-
tility to the height of the mode, and neglect the affairs of their
families with as good grace as the finest ladies in London."
"I remember," says Miss Dorothy Dudley of Cambridge, writ-
ing after the Revolution of her beloved Christ Church, in the
university town, "the families as they used to sit in church.
First, in front of the chancel, the Temples, who every Sabbath
drove from Ten Hills Farm ; Mr. Robert Temple and his accom-
plished wife and lovely daughters. . . . Behind the Tem-
ples sat the Royalls, relatives of Mrs. Henry Vassall, the In-
mans, the Borlands, who owned and occupied the Bishop's Pal-
ace, as the magnificent mansion built by Rev. Mr. Ap thorp, op-
posite the President's house, is called. The house is grand in
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 785
proportions and architecture, and is fitted in every respect to
bear the name which clings to it. It was thought that Mr. Ap-
thorp had an eye to the bishopric when he came to take charge
of Christ Church, and put up this house of stately elegance. . . .
Among his congregation were the Faneuils, the Lechmeres, the
Lees, the Olivers, the Kuggleses, the Phipses, and the Vassalls.
Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Lechmere, and Mrs. Vassall the elder, are sisters
of Colonel David Phips, and daughters of Lieutenant-Governor
Spencer Phips. The 'pretty little, dapper man, Colonel Oliv-
er/ as Reverend Mr. Sergeant used to call in sport our some-
time lieutenant-governor, married a sister of Colonel John Vas-
sall the younger, and Colonel Vassall married his. Mrs. Ruggles
and Mrs. Borland are aunts of John Vassall 's. These families
were on intimate terms with one another, and scarcely a day
passed that did not bring them together for social pleasures.
. . . I well remember the train of carriages that rolled up to
the church door, bearing the worshippers to the Sabbath service.
The inevitable red cloak of Judge Joseph Lee, his badge of of-
fice in the King's service, hung in graceful folds around his
stately form; the beauty and elegance of the ladies were con-
spicuous, as silks and brocades rustled at every motion, and In-
dia shawls told of wealth and luxury."
From Copley's portraits, painted in Boston during the ten or
fifteen years preceding the year 1774, when the painter finally
left for Europe, we can see how richly the Boston people
dressed. One of Copley's woman sitters is in brown satin, the
sleeves ruffled at the elbows, a lace shawl and a small lace cap,
and is adorned with a necklace of pearls. Another has a bodice
of blue satin, and an overdress of pink silk, trimmed with
ermine. One is in olive-brown brocaded damask, one in white
satin, with a purple velvet train edged with gold, one in blue sat-
in, a Marie Stuart cap, and a sapphire necklace, one in pink da-
mask, open in front to show a petticoat of white satin trimmed
with silver lace, and one in yellow satin, also with silver lace,
and with a necklace and earrings of pearls. Hardly less richly
dressed, also, are Copleys men. One full-wigged gentlemen
wears a brown broadcloth coat and a richly embroidered satin
waistcoat, one a gold-laced brown velvet coat and small clothes,
786 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
one a blue velvet doublet with slashed sleeves and a large collar
trimmed with white lace (evidently a fancy costume), one a
brown dinner coat, a blue satin waistcoat with silver buttons,
and ruffles at the neck and wrists, and one a crimson velvet
morning .gown, with white small-clothes, and a rich dark velvet
cap. 27
Before the Revolution, as we have seen, a very considerable
group of New England families were permanently settled in
Halifax, the Brentons, Fairbankses,Fillises,Gerrishes,G-orhams,
Greens, Lawlors, Lawsons, Monks, Morrises, Newtons, Pres-
cotts, Salters and others ; when the Revolution was at its height,
or had passed, we find the New England element permanently
increased by such important families as the Blowerses, Brattles,
Brinleys, Byleses, Gays, Halliburtons, Howes, Hutchinsons,
Lovells, Lydes, Minots, Robies, Rogerses, Snellings, Sternses,
Thomases, "VVentworths, 2S and Winslows, with others besides. 29
Among well known Boston Loyalists who died at Halifax were
William Brattle, Theophilus Lillie and Byfield Lyde, who died
in 1776, John Lovell, the Tory schoolmaster, in 1778, Jonathan
Snelling, in 1782, Christopher Minot, in 1783, Jeremiah Dum-
mer Rogers and Edward Winslow, Sr., 30 in 1784, Jonathan
27. See Mr. Frank W. Bayley's "The Life and Works of John Singleton
Copley," Boston, 191 5.
28. Sir John Wentworth. Bart., who was governor of Nova Scotia from 1792
until 1808, was from New Hampshire, but his wife, who was his first cousin, was
a daughter of Mr. Samuel Wentworth of Boston. Lady Wentworth's brother
Benning was also one of the Refugees in Halifax and for some years was secretary
of the province. To this position Sir. John's only son, Charles Mary, was like-
wise appointed, but he probably never assumed the office.
29. In a letter to his aunts in Boston, written from Halifax December 24,
1783, Mather Byles, 3d, eldest son of Rev. Dr. Mather Byles. 2d. writes: "The
final evacuation of New York has taken place and many New England gentry
arrived here from that place are appointed to the first offices in the Garrison.
Messrs. Brinley, Townsend, Coffin, Winslow, and Taylor are among the number,
so that our Refugee party will be very strong this winter." From other records
we know that some of the Loyalists who settled permanently in Halifax went on
to New York with General Howe, but several years later returned to Halifax.
This was true of Edward Winslow, Sr.
30. Mr. Edward Winslow's funeral at Halifax in June, 1784 (he died June
8) was conducted with great ceremony. The pall-bearers were Mr. John (after-
wards Sir John) Wentworth, General Edmund Fanning, then lieutenant-governor
(under Governor Parr), Hon. Arthur Goold, Brigadier-General John Small, Hon.
Judge Foster Hutchinson, and Henry Lloyd, Esq. The chief mourner was Colo-
nel Edward Winslow, Jr., who was followed by the family servants in deep
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 787
Sterns or Stearns in 1798, Judge Foster Hutchinson in 1799,
George Brinley in 1809, Archibald Cunningham in 1820, and
Chief-Justice Sampson Salter Blowers in 1842. Of Sir John
Wentworth, Baronet, the ninth governor of Nova Scotia from
Colonel Cornwallis, a New Hampshire man but with a Boston
wife, we shall have much to say in a later chapter of this series.
Brigadier-General Timothy Ruggles, previously of Hardwick,
Massachusetts, one of Gage's mandamus councillors, died in
Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, in 1795, and Hon. Nathaniel
Bay Thomas of Marshfield, Massachusetts, another mandamus
councillor, died at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1791.
When we come to follow the fortunes of Halifax in detail af-
ter the arrival of the Boston Loyalists, we shall see how greatly
the large, energetic group of these people that settled perma-
nently there stimulated the town's activities and gave fresh col-
our to its social life. But the prominence in the Nova Scotia
capital of these new comers was not by any means viewed with
entire complaisance by the earlier settlers. There had been at
the very first beginning of the settlement of Halifax, ' ' says Mur-
doch in his History of Nova Scotia, "something like a division
between the settlers from England and those who joined them
from New England, but this difference died out shortly after,
without occasioning much mischief, the people being united to
defend themselves against the French and their Indian allies.
Now, however, circumstances had brought into the country a
new and numerous population from New England, New York,
etc., and a rivalry of interests sprang up between their promi-
nent men and the older inhabitants. . . . The party division
mourning. After this walked in pairs, Sampson Salter Blowers and William
Taylor, Esq'rs. their excellencies the Governor and the General of the forces,
Gregory Townsend, Esq., and Lieutenant Hailes of the 38th Grenadiers, William
Coffin, Esq., Captain Morrice Robinson, Rev. Dr. Mather Byles, Captain Adden-
brooke, the Governor's aid-de-camp, and Lieutenant Gordon, major of brigade.
Next came the members of his Majesty's Council, "a number of the respectable
inhabitants," and many gentlemen of the army and navy. The funeral service was
rendered in St. Paul's Church by the Rev. Dr. Breynton and the Rev. Joshua Win-
gate Weeks, and the burial was in the town burying-ground in Pleasant street,
which bears the name "St. Paul's. " In this cemetery a stone was erected to Mr.
Winslow, which bears a lengthy inscription. See Proceedings of the Mass. Hist
Soc., 2nd Series, Vol. 3.
788 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
thus originated extended for some years to the house of assem-
bly, and it was long before it was quite allayed. An anonymous
correspondent of the Nova Scotia Gazette at this time alludes to
it as a division into 'old comers and new comers/ or 'loyalists
and ancient inhabitants. ' ' '
One of the most serious local issues of this strife was a severe
charge of maladministration of justice, brought by two attor-
neys, Messrs. Jonathan Sterns or Stearns and William Taylor,
refugees from Massachusetts with Howe's fleet, against the
Nova Scotia chief-justice, Isaac Deschamps, and an assistant
judge of the supreme court, Judge James Brenton. Deschamps
was of Swiss extraction and had long been in the province, Bren-
ton was from Newport, Rhode Island, and he too had early set-
tled in Halifax. The attorneys publicly charged that cases
brought by Loyalist settlers could not get fair trial at the hands
of these judges, and so strongly did they press their charges
that the judges were finally impeached. For a time the lawyers
bringing the charges were disbarred, but the Chief Justice re-
signed his office, and Judge Brenton like him for some time
remained under a cloud. At last, however, in 1792, when the
case had dragged along for between four and five years, the
Privy Council in England, to whom it had been appealed, ac-
quitted the judges and the matter was finally set at rest. In a
letter to his sisters in Boston, in May, 1788, the Rev. Dr. Mather
Byles writes: "From this day [April 2nd] to the 21st, my time
was entirely engrossed by the dispute between the old inhabi-
tants of this Province and the American Loyalists. The flame,
which has been so long kindling, now blazes with the utmost vio-
lence. I first joined in a remonstrance to the Governor signed
by more than two hundred inhabitants of Halifax, and when this
was not properly attended to, I wrote several letters to my Eng-
lish correspondents recommending Sterns and Taylor, who on
the 21st sailed for England as our agents, to seek that redress
at White-Hall which it was impossible to obtain from a corrupt
junto. They are both gentlemen of the law, my particular
friends, and men of the most unblemished character ; they have
been grossly injured, and I hope God will graciously succeed
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 789
them. The case was so perfectly plain that I thought myself
obliged to be open, active, and fearless ; and I have the pleasure
to learn that remonstrances similar to ours signed by many hun-
dreds, are constantly arriving from all parts of the country."
The coming of thousands of New York Loyalists to Nova Sco-
tia in 1783 furnishes material for a highly interesting chapter of
Loyalist history, which, since the facts all have a close bearing
on Halifax history, we shall feel it necessary to give in some de-
tail as this narration proceeds. Among the vast number of New
York Tories, who finally settled in New Brunswick a consider-
able number of Massachusetts Tories also settled, and some of
the historic families of New Brunswick, like the Blisses, Chal-
cners, Chipmans, Coffins, Paddocks, Sewalls, TJphams, and Win-
slows, have been of this stock. The most influential New York
Loyalist that settled in Halifax was the Right Reverend Charles
Inglis, D. D., previously Rector of Trinity Church, New York
City, who in 1787 came to Halifax as the first incumbent of the
newly erected Nova Scotia Anglican See. Until 1816, when he
died, Bishop Inglis continued to exert an influence in Nova Sco-
tia and New Brunswick in religious and educational matters,
that has not ceased to be felt to the present day. 31
31. "An Occasional," writing in the Halifax Acadian Recorder newspaper for
March 21, 1914, says:
"Let me remind you that Charles Inglis, the first Episcopal bishop of Nova
Scotia; Sir John Wentworth, governor of this province at the beginning of this
century; Edward Winslow, a member of a distinguished Massachusetts family.
whose death at Halifax, in 1784, was followed by funeral ceremonies of unusual
distinction; Sampson Salter Blowers and Ward Chipman, chief justices, the first
of "Nova Scotia, and the second of New Brunswick; Judge Sewall, of New
Brunswick, an early and intimate friend of John Adams; Foster Hutchinson,
judge of the supreme court of Nova Scotia; Jonathan Bliss, attorney-general of
New Brunswick, and Benning Wentworth. provincial secretary of Nova Scotia,
were all Loyalists, and all, with two exceptions, graduated at Harvard; that Sir
Brenton Halliburton, whose life story has been well told by the Rev. Dr. Hill;
Egerton Ryerson, founder of the well-known school system of Ontario ; Joseph
Howe, of whom no Nova Scotian can be ignorant; and Judge Stewart, of the
Supreme Court of this province, were sons of Loyalists ; that Sir John Inglis, the
brave defender of Lucknow; Sir Frederick P. Robinson and Sir W. H. Robinson,
both knighted on account of their military services; Lemuel Allan Wilmot like
Joseph Howe, a leader in the struggle for responsible government, and, like him,
at one time a governor of his native province; Sir George Cathcart and Major
Welsford, who fell in the Crimea . . . were grandsons of Loyalists. The late
Sir Robert Hodgson, lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward Island, was also of
Loyalist descent. Let me remind you of these and of many others living or dead,
whose names may occur to you, with the suggestion that a study of the history of
the Loyalists at large would swell the brief list given to an almost indefinite ex-
790 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
In the next chapter of this history we shall discuss the social
life of Halifax after the war of the Revolution, giving also some
account of the striking physical features of the town.
tent, and you may form some idea of the value of the men and of the descendants
of the men who were driven abroad by the bitterness of the revolutionary victors."
In this enumeration the writer makes the mistake of supposing that it was
Judge Foster Hutchinson of Massachusetts who became a judge in Nova Scotia.
The Nova Scotia Judge Foster Hutchinson was son of the Massachusetts judge.
Some of the Women who Skillfully Planned
and Heroically Suffered in the Revolu=
tion for the Cause of American
Independence
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B.
ni
MKS. ROBERT MURRAY.
Mrs. Robert Murray, wife of a Quaker, by her diplomacy and
hospitality, saved a part of the American Army from probable
capture on the retreat from Long Island. General Putnam lin-
gered in the lower part of the city and then chose the road on
the west side by the Hudson, to join the rest of the army at 160th
Street. A party of British twice as large as his own, was also
advancing in that direction, but were in ignorance of any enemy
in their front, and on reaching what is now called Murray Hill,
stopped at the house of Robert Murray, where the gracious lady
of the house, treated General Tryon and his officers with cake
and wine, and by her courteous hospitality and bright conversa-
tion, beguiled them to stay a couple of hours, in which time the
British might have easily secured at a certain turn, and cut off
Putnam's retreat. The opportunity was lost and it became a
common saying, among the officers, that Mrs. Murray had saved
this part of the American Army from capture.
IV.
EMILY GEIGER.
Emily Geiger, a young woman of South Carolina, when acting
as messenger between General Greene, near Broad River, to
General Sumter, and passing on horse-back through a country
(79i)
792 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
full of fierce tories, was intercepted by Lord Readon's scouts
and imprisoned, and when a tory woman was sent to search her,
she ate up the message. Nothing being found on her person of a
suspicious nature, Emily was allowed to depart and in due time
reached General Sumter and delivered the message verbally,
and he was thus provided with important information and acted
successfully upon the same.
LYDIA DARRAH.
Lydia Darrah, a Quakeress and her husband, Robert, were
living in a house opposite General Howe's headquarters in Phil-
adelphia in 1776, and this house was selected by the General
and his officers for a conference, and she and her family were
ordered to be all in bed at the time of the conference. Lydia,
however, listened at the door of the conference room, and heard
that the British were to quit the city on December 4th and march
out and attack secretly the American Army at White Marsh.
After the officers had all departed she extinguished the lights
and at dawn waked her husband and told him she must go to
Frankfort for flour for use in the household.
She obtained a pass from the British to go through the lines,
and soon reaching the grist mill at Frankfort five miles away,
she left her bag and pressed forward to the American outposts,
and being met on her way by an American officer gave him the
important information and thus Washington was enabled to
make all needful preparation, and afterwards General Howe in
asking her who had been spying upon their conference, told her
that "when his force arrived at the American camp he found
the cannon mounted, troops under arms, and so prepared to re-
ceive us that they had been compelled to march back like a par-
cel of fools without injuring the enemy in any way."
Thus this grave, demure, yet courageous Quakeress snatched
from the British what would have been an important victory at
a very crucial time.
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AMERICANA
September, 1915
Recollections of a Half Century and More
By Andrew M. Sherman, Morristown, N. J.
Ill
My Boyhood in New England
(Continued).
HEN I was between seven and eight years of age
we removed from Providence, Rhode Island, to
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, one of the old towns
of Plymouth County, about twenty seven miles south
of Boston. Our parents had formerly lived in Bridgewater and
they were glad to get back among old and tried friends and
acquaintances. My father's business had made a change of
residence desirable. We moved into the same house our par-
ents had occupied before their removal to Providence. To me
it was an interesting fact that some of my brothers and sisters
had been born in that house during the previous residence of
our parents there. In that house one of my older brothers sub-
sequently died in the same room and the same bed where he was
born. While serving as a volunteer fireman in Providence dur-
ing our residence there he contracted a cold which terminated
in consumption. This brother, a few moments before passing
away, remarked to his mother who stood beside his bed : ' ' Moth-
er, I see Annie; she has come for me." Annie was the name
of a young sister who had previously passed away. Whether
the experience of my dying brother was subjective or objective
is a question each one will answer according to the philosophy
of life he may entertain; but our dear mother believed it to have
(793)
794 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
been objective, and from this conception derived great comfort
in after years.
The house into which we moved on our return from Provi-
dence was a large, two-story and a half structure, painted white,
and was always kept in excellent condition, the owner being a
person of means. One end of the house faced the road on which
it stood, with a small yard in front. In this front yard there
grew the usual shrubbery of the time ; and on either side of the
walk leading up from the gate to the house was a row of flowers,
in the season of flowers, which were the delight of my boyish
eyes.
Connected with the house was a series of sheds and other out-
buildings, at the extreme end of which was a large barn. All
of these out-buildings were kept in excellent condition by the
frequent paintings and repairs they received. A part of the
out-buildings ran directly back from the house; and the others
ran at a right angle with the house.
The extensive square yard connected with the place was un-
feneed and hence lay open to the road passing the house. It was
a fine old New England residence. The house may have been
built as early as the year 1750, hence its style of architecture
can be inferred by those acquainted with the prevailing New
England style of house architecture of the period in question.
We occupied a part of the house, and the owner, an aged woman,
lived in the other part.
Extending back from our house a long distance— it seemed to
me, as a boy, to be a quarter of a mile, at least— were broad,
beautiful meadows, which in the spring and early summer were
covered with a luxuriant growth of the greenest grass I have
ever seen, anywhere.
Whether the peculiar hue of this meadow grass was a mere
fancy on my part, a fancy born of my fondness of Nature, and
of these meadows in particular; or, whether, because of their
having been well watered, these meadows were really greener
and of more luxuriant growth than meadows in general, I will
not stop to discuss— indeed, on whichever side the preponder-
ance of evidence might seem to be, my imagination would still
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 795
clothe those meadows with a beauty and a luxuriance possessed
by no other meadows in the wide, wide world !
Separating these meadows from the adjoining property in the
rear of our house was a stream of water. This river, for such
I will call it, was deep enough in its narrow channel for the use
of flat bottom boats, of which there were not a few moored at
different points along its grassy banks ; and it was an exquisite
pleasure for my younger brother and I to clamber over the side
of these boats and seat ourselves, even though we did not move
the boat from the river's bank. So active, however, was our
imagination, we did, in thought, frequently row up and down
the placid stream on which we had been forbidden by our par-
ents to embark.
Water lilies were plentiful along the banks of this enchanted
stream, and not a few bunches of these fragrant lilies did my
brother and I take to our mother, sometimes as a peace offering
when we returned from our imaginary river navigations with
clothes wet and soiled.
My father had the use of the spacious barn on the place rented
by him; and during the winter season, particularly, it was
usually filled with hay from the extensive meadows in the rear
of the house. On Saturdays, and on rainy and otherwise un-
pleasant days, my younger brother and I and our neighborhood
chums used often to have right jolly good times playing on the
immense stack of fragrant hay, sometimes with, but I fear
oftener without, our father's consent. These were regular gala
days with the boys !
Climbing to a high beam over the big hay-loft and then jump-
ing off on to the soft, springy mow was a favorite sport for us ;
and often did one or another of the jolly jumpers bite his tongue
by reason of the chin suddenly, and with great force, coming
in contact with one of the knees, as we landed on the hay. It
hurt, you may depend upon it, for a few minutes, atjeast; but
we were soon up and at the fine sport again.
Digging a deep hole into the hay-mow with our hands, and
then hiding ourselves from the other boys, was another kind of
fun we used to have on those none-too-long gala days in father's
big barn. Sometimes we would keep the boys looking for us a
796 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND .MORE
long time; so long, indeed, without discovering our snug hiding-
place, that they would threaten to go home if we did not come
forth, and then we would begin to call to them in an unnatural
tone of voice or in some bungling foreign language so as to
conceal our whereabouts. Another threat, sometimes accom-
panied with: "honest! we'll go home, if you don't come out!"
was usually sufficient to bring us forth from the deep hole we
had burrowed into the hay-mow. And, then in turn, the other
boys would pay us in our own coin, by hiding from us, and put-
ting us to the trouble of conducting a hunt, more or less pro-
longed, for them ; but as my brother and I were well acquainted
with every nook and corner of the barn our hunt for the visiting
boys was not of long duration.
When the spirit of mutual friendship was burning brightly
in our young hearts the entire group of boys would burrow deep
into the hay-mow and there fashion a large room, where we
would lie, sometimes for an hour or more, building "castles in
the air." Ah! the brilliant plans and schemes we then and there
formulated for the time when we would "be men." And so,
one after another of the boys would select the profession or busi-
ness we would follow, when "I'm a man." The memory of
those superlatively happy hours spent on the big hay-mow in
father's barn is among the most delightful of my early boyhood.
How often have I wished for their return, even for a single
month ! But alas ! that cannot be ! I can only recall those happy
hours in memory!
In father's barn he kept a cow and some fowls. I had seen
my father milk the cow so often that I supposed I could do so,
too. When alone in the barn with the cow I several times tried
my hand at milking "bossie, " and succeeded in getting enough
of the lacteal fluid to justify the boyish boast that "I can milk
a cow." But the boast did not satisfy me; so, on a Saturday
afternoon, after the cow had been brought from the pasture in
a part of the meadow back of our house, and while there were
several boys and girls in the barn with me, I resolved to give
them an exhibition of my superior skill as a milker. I stepped
up to "bossie" with the confident exclamation: "I know how
to milk a cow;" and, stooping down I grasped the cow's teats,
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 797
one in each band, and began tugging away at them, boy-fashion.
The presence of tbe strange boys and girls in the barn, and per-
haps the extreme vigor with which I tugged at "bossie's" teats,
irritated the usually docile animal.
I had made but a few tugs at the cow's teats when she quietly
lifted the hind leg nearest me and sent it backward so as to hit
my nose sidewise. The blow, which seemed to have been tem-
pered to my youth, was of just sufficient force to knock me over
sprawling on the barn floor. While the boys and girls were
laughing heartily over my mishap, I picked myself up, at the
same time grasping my sore nose with my right hand to ascer-
tain if it had been broken.
Though my nose was not broken, as I soon discovered, it
began to bleed profusely. The sight of the blood frightened the
children in the barn with me and they soon started for their
homes. I remained in the barn until my nose stopped bleeding
and then I went into the house, a wiser boy, for I never again,
while a small boy, attempted to milk a cow.
It was a long time before I heard the last from my playmates,
who knew of the episode just related, of my being "knocked
over by a cow on to the barn floor." The favorite means of
reminding me of my mishap was for some one to innocently in-
quire: "Say, Andy, can you milk a cow?" and the only way I
could turn off the matter was to reply: "I'm learning."
My father also kept a few fowls on the place, and he allowed
my younger brother and I to keep a pair of Bantams, of which
we were very fond. On an extremely cold day in winter, just
before sundown we fed our pet Bantams a liberal quantity of hot
meal mush, thinking it would help to keep them warm during
the night.
The night was a bitter cold one ; the thermometer must have
gone considerably below zero, which was no unusual thing in
the eastern part of the Old Bay State, when I was a small boy.
On going out into the barn next morning to feed our pets we
were both overwhelmed with grief to find the Bantams frozen to
death and lying on the barn floor under the ladder on which
they had roosted, as stiff as a hickory stick. Upon making the
discovery we ran into the house and almost simultaneously ex-
798 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
claimed to mother: "Mother, our Bantams are frozen to death!
"We found them on the barn floor under the ladder where they
roosted!'' and then we both burst into tears over the great
calamity that had befallen our pet Bantams. It was only the
ready expression of motherly sympathy that in large measure
compensated us for our great loss.
My father's business— he was a pattern maker, by trade, and
an expert workman— necessitated his keeping a sharp pocket
knife. This knife was made of the best quality of steel, was
well tempered, and was tapered off to a narrow point at the
end. It was almost as sharp as a razor ; indeed, it was fully as
sharp as some razors I have attempted to shave with when visit-
ing, not only on its edge, but at its point,
It was seldom that our father would allow the boys, even the
older ones, to use this sharp knife; and then only as the result
of importunity. His reluctance to allow the boys to use his knife
was partly because they were likely to more or less dull it, which
would require considerable time on his part to re-sharpen it,
and partly because he was afraid they would cut themselves
with it.
One day, it was spring time, after father's arrival home from
business, I persuaded him to let me take his knife to use in mak-
ing some willow whistles.
My younger brother and I then went down in the meadow
back of the house, cut some choice willow sticks, and, sitting on
a rock I began making a whistle. I had loosened and removed
the tender bark from the stick, and had the stick on my left
knee, cutting the notch near the whistle end, when, in an un-
guarded moment the knife, by reason of its keen edge, cut clear
through the willow stick and my trousers leg into my knee.
The point of the knife must have touched the bone just above the
knee-cap, for I received, as I distinctly recollect, quite a shock
as the point of the knife went into my leg; indeed, I thought I
felt the knife-point strike the bone.
The leg began at once to bleed. I immediately roiled up my
trousers leg, and, applying my handerchief to the wound tried
to stay the flow of blood; but the handkerchief was soon thor-
oughly saturated. I confess I began to get frightened ; not
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 799
so much for the cut I had received, nor at the sight of the b'ood-
soaked handkerchief, as for what my father might say on as-
certaining that I had not been as careful, in the use of the knife,
as I should have been. I feared he would never again lend it
to me, and I should keenly feel such a deprivation.
With my knee still bandaged and bleeding freely my brother
and I started for home. I was obliged to limp most of the way
home, because my knee was getting stiffer and stiffer with every
step I took.
On reaching home I was glad enough to learn that our mother
was at one of the neighbor's, for I thought she would chide me
for my carelessness in the use of father's knife, against which
she had again and again warned me. Going at once to my room
I undressed as expeditiously as possible and got into bed, in the
hope of keeping the knowledge of my mishap down in the
meadow from mother. I had procured a clean handkerchief,
and, removing the saturated one I had tied it about the wound
in my knee, which, by this time had nearly stopped bleeding.
Soon after mother's return home she came to my room to kiss
her two "little boys" good-night. As the result of her inquiry
why I had gone to bed earlier than usual I told her the whole
story about cutting my knee with father's knife. After express-
ing her motherly sympathy over my mishap she properly band-
aged my knee, and with a extra kiss she left us. In a few
minutes my brother and I were asleep.
On the next morning after my mishap the knee was somewhat
sore; but the faithful application of healing salve for a few
days enabled me to move about as usual, with the exception of
a slight limp. Fortunately, my father did not notice my limp;
or if he did, he may have attributed it to some other cause than
the actual one. I do not believe mother ever told father about
my mishap for he never once referred to the matter. Mother
may have reasoned that I had been sufficiently punished for my
carelessness in the use of the sharp knife to make me more care-
ful in future.
Not far from our house was a large field of corn belonging
to one of the neighbors; the field must have contained many
acres, indeed, to my boyish eyes this cornfield seemed like a
8oo RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
small world. The cornstalks were much higher than my head.
I could only, when in the field, see the sky and the floating clouds
above me. On a warm Saturday afternoon in July my younger
brother and I wont over into the cornfield to "have some fun."
After running about between the corn rows half an hour or so
with our clothes on, playing tag and other boy's games, we con-
cluded to take off our clothes so as to "get cooled off," for our
running in the cornfield had overheated us. We ran about in
the cornfield stark naked for at least an hour, which we con-
sidered great sport. When we had run to our hearts content-
it was then almost supper time at home— we went for our
clothes, to dress ; but to our amazement we could not find them.
We hunted here and there and everywhere but could not find
our clothes. We began to think we would have to go home
naked, in which case we would, of course, have to wait until after
dark; but we kept up the search. It seemed to us that we had
gone over every square foot of that big cornfield several times
in the search for our clothes; but we did not find them, and
seemed just as far from it as when we began. We were becom-
ing frightened. My "little brother" began crying; but I com-
forted him as best I could. It was then almost dark, and we
were still stark naked in that great field of corn. Enjoining
my brother not to move from the spot where I left him seated
on a large stone I set out alone in the final and desperate effort
to find our clothes.
Over and over the great cornfield I ran, row by row, for I
knew it would soon be dark, and then it would be much more
difficult, if not impossible, to find our clothes. My heart was all
the time "beating like a trip hammer," such was my anxiety.
Keep up the search, I must, and would ; and I did. Several times
I called to my brother in order to keep in close touch with him
and to encourage him.
When the hope of finding the lost clothes was almost gone out
of my heart, and I was disposed to give up the search as useless,
I espied them a short distance ahead of me, lying in a pile, just
where we had left them when, nearly three hours before, we
had undressed for our run in the cornfield to "get cooled off."
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 801
I lost no time in calling- to my brother that I had found our
clothes.
My brother and I never again undressed in a cornfield !
Just to the rear of the cornfield of which I have spoken was
a piece of woods which had not been cut for many years— a
quarter of a century, perhaps. Nearly every tree was full
grown. All! the happy hours my younger brother and I spent
in those woods ! It seemed as if the world could not be much
larger than that piece of woods ; indeed, to us it was a world, by
itself ! In the autumn my brother and I set our traps for rabbits,
and during the same season we gathered nuts for the winter's
store. In the spring, as soon as the snow was gone, we roamed
these woods in search of wintergreen berries, which were plen-
tiful. In the summer we would wander about the woods hunting
for the shady spots, often sitting on the moss covered rocks and
letting imagination have free play. Woods and cornfield be-
longed to a Mr. Baker, one of our near neighbors.
Some of the great fun we had, as boys, was breaking up
hornet's nests in stone walls that in my boyhood were common
in New England. We first provided ourselves with a small
green switch for each hand. Then one of us poked a long pole
or stick into the hornet's nest in the wall. This would bring
the hornets out in force, and they immediately swarmed about
lis, bent on wreaking vengeance upon the ruthless invaders of
their cozy home in the stone wall. But for the switches with
which we were armed we would doubtless have been stung to
death; for the hornets were furious in their attacks upon ns.
It was only by the constant and rapid swinging of the switches
in both hands about our heads, while we slowly retreated back-
ward from the stone wall, that the hostile hornets were beaten
off from us ; and when they had thus been beaten off they would
slowly return to their home, only to find it either partially or
wholly destroyed. It was not a nice thing to do, to destroy the
home of even hornets, and I have often regretted doing such a
thing; but, somehow, boys will do things that in after years they
are sorry for. But all boys hav'nt learned that hornets have
as good a right to live and enjoy a nice, snug home in a stone wall
or elsewhere as we to live and enjoy our home. To any boys
8o2 RECOLLECTIONS OE A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
who may read these articles I would say: "Be kind to the whole
creation. Do not tread unnecessarily upon a worm, even; and
in every way discourage unkindness to the animal creation on
the purt of others. Remember, that all life is but a manifesta-
tion of the Universal Life, and should, therefore, be considered
sacred ! ' '
The nearest church to our house in Bridgewater was one of
the Protestant Episcopal order; and here my younger brother
and I attended Sunday School. For a time I also attended the
Sunday morning service. I well remember how difficult it was
for me to keep awake during the long, tedious service, conducted
by the dry-as-dust rector, who had long since out-lived his use-
fulness in that parish, but who yet clung with the tenacity of a
drowning man to the none-too-remunerative rectorship.
With his snow-white hair and shabby black clergyman's garb
he presented a most venerable, and I may say, quaint appearance
as he passed now and then through the streets of the village.
While some of the boys feared the rector of the village church
and some respected him on account of his advanced age and the
good work he may have done in his more palmy days, it must be
confessed that few loved him, because of his extreme austerity
and pronounced bigotry, for he thought there was no church on
earth worth attending except his own.
Adjacent to the church edifice above mentioned was an old
burial ground surrounded on three sides by a substantial stone
wall; the church edifice enclosing the burial ground on the fourth
side. This old burial ground was so well filled with graves that
it seemed impossible to find room for another; and yet, strange
to say, there was always room for "one more" interment. The
sexton received a small sum of money for digging the graves ;
whether that was the reason why he could always find "one
more" spot in the ancient burial ground in which to inter those
who preferred to have their remains lie in the village burial
ground "at the works," I will not venture to say.
The stone wall enclosing that old burial ground on the front
and side opposite the church edifice was cemented, that is to
say, the openings between the stones were filled with cement;
and the wall was of sufficient thickness to allow the boys to run
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND BURIAL
GROUND AT 'THE WORKS," BRIDGEWATER MASS.,
Around which the author played in his early boyhood, and whose
Sunday School and morning service he attended. For this build-
ing and its surroundings the author still cherishes a fond affection.
A few years ago this church was taken down and a portion of
the material was used in the construction of Trinity Episcopal
Church which is now situated near Bridgewater village.
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Trinity Church, Bridge water, Mass., constructed in
part of material taken from the Protestant Episcopal
Church, which, in the author's early boyhood, was
at "The Works"
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 803
about on the top while playing "tag" and other games which
called for running. Many a happy hour did I spend, chasing
and being chased around on the broad top of that wall and often
through the burial ground, and sometimes over and between the
graves of the village ancestors, some of whose remains had lain
there for at least three quarters of a century. In our effort to
get away from our pursuers we paid little heed to the sexton's
kindly warnings to "keep off the graves, boys." But, alas!
what heedless boys some of us were !
My! but wasn't I afraid to pass that old burial ground, alone,
after dark! I'd rather take an ordinary whipping than do so;
and whenever I was obliged to pass it in the night time I almost
invariably had some one to accompany me. It almost makes
my teeth chatter now to think of my fear in passing that old
burial place of the village dead, when I was a boy of eight or
ten years of age.
The church edifice of which I have spoken was in a somewhat
dilapidated condition when I was a boy at "the works" in
Bridgewater. The dark brown paint which was once in evidence
was nearly worn off by long exposure to the elements ; and
if my memory is not at fault, some of the smaller window panes
on the back side of the edifice had been accidentally broken out
by the boys and in a few instances those broken window panes
had been rudely repaired by placing a thin board over the open-
ing.
In a big field in the rear of the old church edifice at "the
works ' ' we boys used to play what in my boyhood was known as
"old cat," a game of ball similar to our present base ball. There
was "one old cat," "two old cat," three old cat" and some-
times "four old cat," according the number of boys who could
be got together for a game. "Old cat" was preceded by the
choosing of "sides," which consisted of two boys placing their
closed hands, one above the other, around a bat, until the ex-
treme top of the bat was reached; and then, if the boy whose
hand was nearest the top of the bat could, with the hold he had,
swing it around his head three times without losing his hold
on it, he had the first choice of a player for his side of the
pending game. Of course, the best player was chosen; and
804 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
afterward, each chooser of sides tried to select the best players
to support him in the game to follow. In those early days most
anything answered for a bat, from a round stick of suitable size
to a narrow piece of inch board with one end smaller than the
other for a handle.
Ah! the happy, happy hours I spent in the rear of that old
church edifice playing "old cat" and other out-door games!
What cared we for the barked shins and bumped heads and
gravel-scratched hands and wrists and sometimes swollen eyes
received in the course of our games engaged in with the abandon
of youth, if only we had ' ' fun. ' ' Did we ever have scraps over
our games ? What live boys do not ! But the scrappings were
soon forgotten, thanks to the magnanimity of youth.
I must relate a very interesting little experience I had in con-
nection with the field in the rear of the old church edifice in
Bridgewater. We were having a lawn party; it was under the
auspices of the Sunday School of the Protestant Episcopal
Church. The day was a most charming one. We had played
our games ; we had eaten our refreshments, and many of the
boys and girls were walking about over the green fields.
Among the girls of the party was one with long, dark curls —
one of the prettiest girls in the village— to whom I took a great
fancy; not altogether because of her beautiful curls, but chiefly
because she was as "pretty as a picture." Arm in arm we
promenaded around the green fields like two genuine lovers ;
and lovers we were, for the time, at least. I distinctly recollect
the goodnatured remarks jjassed by the older people present,
over the youthful lovemaking, as they considered our intimacy.
I have still a very tender feeling for that sweet-faced, curly-
headed girl, who was my partner on that beautiful summer day
so long ago. Is she still living ? If she is, I often wonder where
she is. And does she recall the little episode of our youthful
days in Bridgewater?
One of our near neighbors at "the works" was Mr. Shubell
Lovell, one of most kindly men I ever knew. In the rear of his
house was an apple and peach orchard. His peaches were
among the finest in the village and in those days no better
peaches could any where be found than in New England. Mr.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 805
Lovell was very good to the boys in the neighborhood in shar-
ing with them the luscious fruit of his orchard. But that did
not satisfy them, judging from their conduct; so, at recess, for
the district school building was only a short distance from the
peach orchard, the boys would now and then steal around the
back way to Mr. Lovell's orchard, and, after eating to their
stomach's content they would fill their pockets? oh, no, their
shirts with the luscious peaches, and then return to school eating
the stolen fruit on the way thither. Usually we boys would
make our exit from the orchard between two buildings belonging
to Mr. Lovell, a narrow passage way allowing us to get into
the street. On one occasion, which I can never forget, good Mr.
Lovell, having in some way ascertained that the school boys
were in his peach orchard "bent on mischief, " stood just out-
side the narrow passage way through which they would make
their exit, waiting for them to emerge; and, as the boys, one
by one, emerged from the passage way our benefactor would
say to us, in the kindest tone of voice : i i Boys, haven't I always
given you peaches when you asked me for them?" "Yes, sir,"
was the only reply we could truthfully make. "Then why do
you steal into my orchard by the back way and take my peaches
without leave? Do you think it is right for you to do so?" to
which we slowly replied: "No, sir, we do not."
I cannot speak for all the other boys implicated in those raids
upon our good neighbor's peach orchard, but I know of one boy
in the party whom Mr. Lovell's fatherly way of addressing us
hurt more than a thrashing would have done; and never again
after the occasion mentioned did I steal peaches from his
orchard.
Mr. Lovell used to hire my younger brother and I in the
autumn to cut the tops off of his turnips, of which he usually
raised a large crop, for which he paid us two cents per bushel ;
and we thought we were making "lots" of money.
Mr. Lovell carried on the shoe business ; that is to say, he had
a shop and hired several men to make shoes for him which he
sold to wholesale dealers in the larger commercial centers.
Among the workmen employed by Mr. Lovell in the shop near
his house was a man by the name of Lapham. Mr. Lapham was
806 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
what is popularly termed " eccentric," and the boys of the
neighborhood were not slow in discovering this fact and making
the most of it in the way of getting amusement out of it. The
eccentric shoemaker's bench was on the back side of the shop
and near a window. This window, in the summer time, was
usually open as a means of comfort to the men employed in the
rather small shop.
Stealing quietly up under this open window the mischievous
boys would call out at the top of their voices: "Hello, Lap-
ham!" and then scramper to a place of safety and watch de-
velopments. When the boys felt satisfied that Mr. Lapham had
forgotten or perhaps overlooked their former raillery they
would again steal up under his window and repeat, with such
additions as occurred to them, their raillery. When Mr. Lap-
ham could stand our raillery no longer he would seize a leather
strap, and hastening out of the shop would endeavor to catch
the boys who had been annoying him at his work. It was seldom,
however, that he succeeded in catching his annoyers; for the
inactive life he led made a poor runner of him.
Mr. Lapham did now and then get near enough to the boys
who had annoyed him to hit them with his strap; and this is
the way he did it: He would stand at the narrow opening be-
tween the shoe shop and an adjoining building, keeping well out
of sight, and when the unwary offenders emerged, one by one,
from the narrow passage way, he would deal them a quick blow
with the leather strap. When he succeeded in hitting a boy the
effect was not soon forgotten by the unfortunate victim. The
suppressed anger of many days and perhaps weeks and of nu-
merous offences seemed to be concentrated in the one blow of the
leather strap.
The worst punishment inflicted upon the boys by the eccentric
shoemaker— the worst because it was considered humiliating
by their outraged pride— was being saturated with water
thrown by him from the open window near his work bench when
the boys were off their guard. But this was a game at which
more than one could play ; and consequently Mr. Lapham did not
go home dry every day during the summer. Water was easily
procured by the boys, and more than once during the summer
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 807
months the shoemaker was paid in his own coin, which was "a
cup of cold water" externally applied. I hope the shoemaker
long since forgave me for the not unimportant part I played in
our boyish annoyances of him so many years ago.
About a mile down across the fields from our house "at the
works" was the "very best" swimming place for the boys of
the village ; it was the canal or raceway which conveyed the
water to the large mills for power to run them. This canal at
the widest point was about fifteen feet across, and about eight
feet in depth. On either side of this canal was a rudely con-
structed stone wall. At the lower end of the canal, however,
there were no walls, the gravel sides of the canal running grad-
ually down toward the center of "the basin," as this portion
of the canal was called. This basin was fully eight feet deep
in the center. Before I learned to swim I had quite an ex-
perience in this basin ; it was on this wise : For some time I had
been accustomed to rolling up my trousers legs to the knees and
paddling about the basin on a long, two inch plank. I considered
it great fun to paddle by means of a stick up and down and
from side to side of this basin. To me it was a feat to be proud
of; and I sometimes boasted of it to the other boys.
One day I undressed and went out into the basin on a plank,
my favorite, which I kept secreted for my exclusive use. I got
along very well for a time as a nude paddler ; but when in the
center of the basin I somehow lost my balance and fell into the
water. As I fell, the plank was pushed from me and I was left
struggling in the water. After struggling awhile I went to che
bottom. Rising to the surface in a few moments, for up to this
time I had not experienced any fear, I resumed my struggling ;
only, however, to go down again in a few moments. This time
I remained under water a little longer than before. YVhen I
began to realize that my strength was giving out I began to be
afraid I might drown. Again I rose to the surface ; and there
followed another and a desperate struggle, and soon, for the
third time I went down, probably never to rise again, had not
help come to me just ' ' in the nick of time. ' '
A young man, a son of Erin, was at that moment coming from
one of the mills, having finished his day's work. He quickly saw
8o8 RECOLLECTIONS OE A HALE A CENTURY AND MORE
the agitation of the water in the basin above my head, and
probably surmising that some one was in the water he hastily
procured a pole, and, running it down under the water where he
saw the commotion, he awaited developments. He did not have
long to wait ; for I soon caught sight of the pole and grasped it
with the desperation of a drowning person, which I then realized
myself to be. Perceiving that I had grasped the end of the pole
he had thrust down for me the young man began pulling, with
the result that in a few moments he saw me emerging from the
water, walking on the ascending bottom of the basin from whose
waters I had been opportunely rescued.
On reaching the shore of the basin the young man discovered
whom he had rescued from a watery grave. After giving me
some good advice he started for home. I sat on the shore of the
basin until I had regained my breath and my self-composure,
when I arose, dressed myself and started for my home up across
the fields.
It was several days before my parents learned of my narrow
escape from drowning.
It was not long after my rescue from drowning by the young
Irishman, whom I still gratefully remember, that I learned to
swim, and in the following manner : Just above the basin where
I had come so near drowning, the canal was only about eight
or ten feet in width, and on either side was a stone wall so im-
perfectly constructed that there were numerous openings all
along its sides, large enough to furnish a footing for a per-
son in the water. These walls rose about a foot above the sur-
face of the canal. Undressing, the boys who could not swim
would get a footing in the wall on one side of the canal, and
then, with their feet they would shove themselves across the
canal, taking two or three strokes with the hands and feet, and
thus reach the opposite side. The water was fully eight feet in
depth at this point of the canal, so it was literally "sink or
swim," with the boys.
Going back and forth a few times in the manner described a
boy would soon gain sufficient confidence in his ability to keep
above water so that he would a little later strike out and swim off
into the wider part of the canal. In this manner I learned to
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 809
swim; so that never afterward had I any difficulty in the water.
It was a proud moment for me when I realized for the first time
that I could swim; and I did not miss an opportunity of ac-
quainting my youthful friends of the fact. The boasting, how-
ever, was mutual.
Up from the canal just mentioned was an apple orchard be-
longing to one of the stockholders of the immense iron works
in the vicinity. In this orchard were several trees bearing
eweet apples— "July Sweets," they were called. Those "July
Sweets" were a special temptation to the boys and our power of
resistance was by no means strong. The end of the high board
fence enclosing the lower side of this apple orchard ran clear
down to the canal on one side of it. When undressed and in
swimming the boys would enter the orchard from the water, go
up naked into the orchard and help themselves to the luscious
"July Sweets," carrying away as many as possible for future
consumption. Not a few times did the owner of the orchard, Mr.
Jacob Robinson, a powerfully built man, chase us from his
grounds, with vows of vengeance against the boys who had pre-
sumed to invade his domains. But we knew our man and were
very careful to keep out of his clutches. Jumping into the water
we would swim away beyond his reach, and then from the dis-
tance watch his manifestations of anger at the young fruit
thieves he could not get hold of. The fact of our nudeness made
it impossible for the owner of the apple orchard to recognize us,
else we would have been reported to our parents, and then .
Only a few rods back from the basin where I came so near
being a dead boy was a high bank composed of a clay soil which
seemed to be entirely free from stones. This bank was fully
twenty-five feet in height and sloped back from the base at such
an angle as to permit us boys to climb up its side. In this clay
bank were scores of small, round holes which were the entrances
to the nests of a bird of the swallow species. The sight of these
birds flying about the entrance of their nests, some entering
and others making their exit, presented a very pretty sight,
These birds would lay their tiny eggs so far in from the mouth
of the entrance to their nests that they could not be reached by
human hands— boys 7 hands, I mean— and, undisturbed, they
810 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
would hatch their young. The busy mothers would then go out
in search for food for their young ones. The mother birds
seemed to know their bird babies were safe, for they would often
go a long distance from their nests in search of worms and other
kind of bird food, and return leisurely to their young with what
tilings they may have gathered for them.
We boys were very fond of climbing up the side of the clay
bank and with our hands dig holes, sometimes as far in as our
arms would reach, into the clay. To us this was great sport.
Meanwhile, the birds would fly about our heads as if they en-
joyed our presence. They would twitter, and circle gracefully
around us, and seemed almost to be saying: "Its a fine time
we're all having, isn't it!" Many a happy hour did I and my
youthful playmates, including, often ? my younger brother, spend
about that high clay bank in our care-free boyhood.
Among the pleasures of my boyhood in Bridgewater was to
be at the little village railroad station when the Boston evening
express train would pass on its way to meet the steamboat at
Fall River running between that place and New York. This
express train was due in Bridgewater at "the works" station
at about five o'clock in the evening, and it seldom varied more
than a minute or two from its schedule time. On this train
which, as its name indicates, ran with great speed, without
stopping or even slowing up at Bridgewater, the Boston evening
newspapers were brought to the village ; and, as the train rushed
past the station a well wrapped bundle in strong brown paper
would be thrown out, coming from the car with such force that
if it had come in contact with a person near the train it would
have knocked him violently to the ground. I recollect that those
who gathered at the station to watch the express from Boston
to Fall Eiver were very careful to keep at a suitable distance
from the bundle as it came flying from the swiftly moving train.
The rapidly passing Boston express, the crowd that daily
gathered at the diminutive rail road station, and the bundle of
newspapers fiying through the air and some times landing a
long distance from where it should, were sufficient to attract the
boys, especially, and furnish for them the excitement which their
nature craved.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 811
Living only a short distance from the railroad station above
mentioned was a man— an Englishman, as I remember, ruddy-
faced and good-natured— who spent much of his time when not
at his work in hunting and fishing; and at these out-door sports
he was a recognized expert. One of the strange things about
this man was the fact that he trapped many skunks. But this
was not, by any means, the strangest thing about our English
townsman; he ate skunks. The shock that my boy-fancy re-
ceived on first hearing that this man actually and habitually ate
skunks is an experience never to be forgotten. I could at first
scarcely believe it; but I was forced to believe it at last. The
only thing that at all reconciled me to the idea of his eating
skunks was the information given me by one of his acquaintances
that in dressing the little animals he was very careful to give the
odor bag a wide berth. Such was his great care in this respect
that the dressed animal when prepared for the table, as I was
informed, did not have the slightest trace of the odor which
makes the animal, while alive, the dread of most hunters. Even
the fact, as I was also informed, that the meat of the skunk was
not only as tender but as delicious as spring chicken could wholly
reconcile me to the idea of a human being eating skunks ; and
I always, on meeting the skunk eater on the street, avoided him,
somewhat as I avoided, and still avoid, the little animal whose
rear is considered far more formidable than his front.
Like most boys I was very fond of playing marbles ; and usu-
ally I had a. well-fiAtei-bag. For a few days, at least, after the
beginning of the marble season, the boys carried their marbles
to school with them, but we were very careful to keep them out
of sight during school hours, else they would be taken away from
us by the teacher and placed in the desk drawer for future con-
sideration as to their disposal. Before the ringing of the school
bell for school to begin and during recess we did little else than
play marbles ; the ring-game being the favorite game in Bridge-
water il when I was a boy." Some of the boys managed to get to
school half an hour or more before it opened so as to play
marbles.
One noon after the bell for school had rung, my younger
brother and I continued to play. It was a sultry day and we
812 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
were disinclined to going in to school ; so we kept on playing,
intending to go in to school at the close of the afternoon recess.
We were just across the street from the school house. On the
front end of the school building, the end facing the street, was
a hall for the storage of wood for the stove; here, also, the
school children hung their clothing and hats and caps. This hall
between the schoolroom and the street prevented the teacher
from seeing any children who might be on the street in front of
the school house; so my younger brother and I played marbles
wholly unobserved by the teacher. But we were, however, seen
by one who seemed bent on making trouble for us.
"We had played for some time, and were sitting on the ground,
leaning against the stone wall on the inside of the gravel walk,
when we looked down the street and saw two men coming. As
they drew nearer to us we discovered that they were two broth-
ers of our acquaintance who lived in the neighborhood of our
home. As soon as we learned who they were we clambered over
the stone wall and both crouched down on the ground to keep out
of sight if possible; we were afraid the approaching brothers
would report us to our parents. My brother and I kept as quiet
as possible, waiting for the two men to pass, when we would
resume our marble playing. These men had, however, caught
sight of my brother and I as we clambered over the stone wall ;
and when they arrived opposite us one of them leaned over the
wall and exclaimed : ' ' Oho ! playing truant, hey I I '11 tell your
mother about it, you little scamps ! ' '
"Don't you do it," said the other brother. "Was you never
a boy? Did you never play hooky? What do you want to
squeal on these boys fori"
"I'll tell on them ail right. They ought to be in school, the
little scally-wags ! ' '
When the two brothers had gone we climbed back over the
stone wall. For a few moments my brothers and I stood in
silence. We knew that one of the brothers who had seen us
would do as he had threatened, and we were contemplating the
consequences when we reached home after school was closed.
While we stood in deep thought the school was let out for
recess. We joined the boys and girls in their playing, all the
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 813
time thinking of our home-going and what our mother would
say and do becau.se of our truancy.
When the bell rang for the children to return to school my
brother and I went in with them. We gave the teacher an
explanation of our absence during the early part of the school
session which seemed to be satisfactory; but if ever two boys
"sat on pins" during the remainder of the afternoon school ses-
sion it was my brother Charles L. and I.
When the school was dismissed my brother and I accompanied
the other children home, as usual; but our hearts "were heavy"
from apprehension of "coming events."
Of course our mother called her two boys to an account for
playing truant, and when informed that we were only absent
from school a part of the afternoon she graduated the punish-
ment accordingly.
About half a mile from our house was a large iron-foundry
connected with the extensive iron mills of old Bridgewater. Each
day after the hot liquid iron used in making moulds had been
"poured" the surplus iron was turned into a shallow depression
made in the ground floor of the foundry. The liquid iron was
then sprinkled over with a thin covering of fine sand as a pre-
caution against fire. When thus covered the liquid fire was in-
visible. I had been playing in the vicinity of the foundry— it
was Saturday— and while one or more of the boys were chasing
me in a game of "tag" I ran at full speed through the foundry;
and, not seeing the liquid fire on the ground floor I ran through
it with my bare feet, for I had on neither shoes or stockings.
As soon as I ascertained what I had done— and I was not long-
in discovering it, J assure you— I ran immediately for the canal,
and, sitting on the ground, thrust both of my burned feet into
the cool water. So long as I kept my feet in the water they were
comfortable, but if I removed them, even for a moment, they
smarted very badly. I must have sat on the side of the canal
with my feet in the cool water for nearly half an hour when my
brother Nathan L. who was coming from his day's work in one
of the shops on the premises saw me. It did not take him long
to learn the situation. He took me on his back and carried me
home, a distance of about half a mile, a part of the distance up
hill, at that.
814 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
On reaching home mother put me to bed, which, to an active
boy, was a great trial ; but I could not stand on my feet and
that was, of course, the only thing that could be done under the
circumstances.
Mother did everything she could think of to heal up the burns,
which she soon discovered were between each toe of both feet,
as well as on the bottoms of the feet; but nothing mother could
do healed the smarting burns. At last an aged lady across the
street, Mrs. Cole, a friend of mother, brought over some black
salve ; I remember distinctly it was a black salve, and the faith-
ful application of this salve in due course healed up the burns
which had confined me to bed for about two months. That was
the first and last time I ever ran through liquid fire !
I think I was never more elated, when a boy, than one day on
catching a red perch in the raceway near the iron foundry just
mentioned. I was fishing off a rude stone bridge with a rough
railing that crossed the raceway. With the other boys of the
neighborhood I had often fished off that old bridge, but I had
never caught anything but small fish, such as sun fish. I had
been fishing a long time on the day in question and had given up
all expectation of catching anything worth carrying home, when
suddenly I had "splendid bite;' 7 my cork went under the water
clear out of sight. At the proper moment I pulled the line and
hook in, and behold! I found on the hook a big red perch!
I was satisfied from his appearance that he would weigh at least
three-quarters of a pound. The boys crowded around the ' ' lucky
fisherman, 7 7 giving frequent expression to their surprise and
pleasure over my having hauled in so big a fish. Then followed
a series of guesses as to the weight of the fish, guesses varying
from a half a pound to a pound. I took the fish home and weigh-
ed it, and it weighed a plump pound. I felt that I was a great
fisherman, and I pictured to myself the other big red perch I
would in future haul out of the raceway from which this one
came. But I never caught another fish as big as that in that
raceway. My experience in fishing off that stone bridge and at
length hauling in that one pound red perch isn't a bad illustra-
tion of the saying that: "All things come to them that wait.' 7
I think some of the greatest fun of my boyhood was ex-
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 815
perienced in connection with the hanging of May baskets and
June boxes, a custom I have never known elsewhere than in dear
old New England. For several days before the beginning of May
the boys and girls were busy making May baskets. They were
made somewhat as follows : The body of the baskets was usually
made of the sheets of our old copy books, the writing of which
was entirely covered in the process of making. The basket was
then covered with tissue paper of different colors and shades
with hanging fringe of the same materials. In the trimming
of these baskets there was opportunity for the display of much
artistic taste, which not a few of the youth improved.
The May baskets were of various shapes and sizes, a favorite
being three-cornered in shape with the point hanging downward,
and an opening at the top. To this a narrow handle— usually
a strip of tissue paper— was added. Sometimes the baskets
were square in shape with a cover to open at the top. These
May baskets were intended, chiefly, for the boys and girls best,
liked by the hangers ; some of the boys had their girl-sweethearts
and some of the girls had their boy-sweethearts. The name of
the person for whom the May basket was intended was some-
times attached, written on a slip of paper, and sometimes the
person receiving the basket was left to infer the name of the
giver by the handwriting designating the intended recipient.
May baskets were usually hung after dark, and therein lay
much of the sport of this New England custom in my boyhood.
All through the month of May this custom was kept up and the
boys and girls were constantly on the lookout for baskets. Those
hanging the baskets would stealthily approach the house where
his or her best girl or boy lived and when they saw the coast
clear would go up to the door; hang the basket on the knob or
latch, ring the bell and then run as if "old Nick" was after them.
If the person hanging the basket was caught by the recipient
of the basket, he or she, as the case might be, must pay a forfeit
of some kind; sometimes it was to receive or bestow a kiss. It
has to be confessed that some of the boys were more than will-
ing to be caught by the girl he liked best ; and the same was also
true of some of the girls who were caught by their boy-sweet
hearts. And strange to say! Some of the girls were glad
816 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
enough to be caught by their boy-sweethearts; indeed, they con-
tributed to being caught by slackening their speed in the pursuit.
Did any of the boys ever slacken their speed while being pur-
sued by their girl-sweethearts? I know of one boy who was
perfectly willing to be overtaken by "the girl he liked best;"
and I do not believe he was the only one who was sometimes
willing to be caught and receive or pay "the forfeit."
When the novelty of the May basket sport began to wear off
somewhat the boys resorted to various ways of manifesting
their dislike to those who had in any way offended them. For
example: There was a certain man at "the works" whom the
boys did not like, and they would find an old basket, fill it with
cobble stones, hang it on to his front door, attach a long piece of
twine to the bell knob, and, getting behind a stone wall across
the road, pull the string. This, of course, would bring some
one to the door, where they would find the basket, upon looking
into which the stone contents would be seen. Woe to the boys
who were caught after such a frolic as that described !
What was still more indignantly resented than a basket of
stones was the following: Procuring an old chestnut fence rail
the boys would stand one end of it up against the front door of a
disliked neighbor, attach the long piece of twine to the bell knob,
as before mentioned, and then from across the road or from
some other hiding place pull the string. This brought some
member of the family to the door, whereupon the rail would fall
in upon them. This was a thing the boys seldom did, and the
dislike of the victim of this species of boyish sport had to be
very strong to induce the boys to engage in it.
At some distance from our home was a family containing
three daughters, the liveliest trio in the village. These girls
were very popular with the boys and we were always certain of
"lots of fun" in hanging May baskets on the door of their house.
Of course we hung them May baskets in their season; and we
also hung them June boxes in their season. In the month of
June, the season for June boxes, much more liberty was al-
lowed the boys and girls than in May; and they made use of
their extra liberty. I distinctly recollect one experience we boys
had with the three girls mentioned; and this concrete illustra-
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 817
tion of June box hanging may convey a better idea of the custom
than any explanation of the custom. We had hung the three
girls several nice May baskets and June boxes, and now thought
we boys, "we will have some rare sport!" So we caught about
fifty June bugs, put them in a package of inviting exterior ap-
pearance, hung it on their front door, either rang the bell or
made some noise to attract their attention to the door, and then
we ran for "dear life," for we knew that to be caught by these
Thomas girls, who were noted for their running capabilities,
meant, under the circumstances, a good drubbing.
As we boys afterward learned, when these girls came to their
front door they took the package found on the door knob into
the house ; and when the package was opened, the June bugs, as
we had anticipated, flew all about their faces, giving them quite
a fright. The girls at once rushed to their front door and out
into their front yard, and, surmising the direction in which the
boys implicated had taken in their flight, started on a brisk run
down the side street on which they lived toward the main street
of the village. On seeing the girls rush out into their front yard,
knowing that my running capabilities were not equal to theirs,
I quickly dodged down behind a huge stone in an opposite direc-
tion from that I felt they were almost certain to take as they
emerged from their house and front yard.
Down the side street the girls sped like deer. They caught
one or two of the fleeing boys and their ears, I assure you, were
not in as comfortable a condition next day as on the evening of
our frolic.
When I ascertained that the girls were some distance from
their house in pursuit of the other boys I crawled cautiously
from my hiding place, jumped over a stone wall into Mr. Ansell
Robinson's apple orchard, ran at the top of my speed through
the orchard, from thence out on to the main street and for-
tunately reached my home without encountering the girls. The
way those girls ran on that evening was ' ' a caution ! ' '
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned
and Heroically Suffered in the Revolu=
tion for the Cause of American
Independence
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M. LL. B.
VI
Molly Pitcher
ON June 28, 1778, a hundred and twenty-nine years
ago, a British army under Sir Henry Clinton was
moving across New Jersey from Philadelphia to New
York, closely followed in its retreat by the Americans
under Washington. The two forces were equal in number, each
consisting of about fifteen thousand troops ; and they were prac-
tically equal in discipline, equipment, and fighting qualities, for
the American soldiers had now been seasoned by three years of
warfare and had been properly armed by the aid of French gold.
Washington was eager for a decisive battle, and had assigned
the immediate command to Lafayette; but at the last moment
he put in his place General Charles Lee, an English soldier of
fortune, who ranked the young French officer. Lee had been
Washington's rival for the chief command, and was intensely
jealous of his chief. He was a man of violent temper and in-
tense self-conceit, and there is grave reason to question his loy-
alty to the cause that he was serving.
The armies came in touch at Monmouth Court-House, near
the town of Freehold. The Americans attacked the British
rearguard, and were conducting a successful flanking movement,
when Lee ordered a retreat, to the astonishment of Lafayette
and "Mad Anthony' ' Wayne, who. were compelled, however, to
obey. The American lines fell back, and disorder was fast
spreading, when Washington suddenly appeared, riding his
(818)
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 819
great charger into the midst of the troops. For once, at least,
his habitual austerity and calmness gave way before a wrath
that was sublime. With a terriffic oath he turned on Lee and
demanded what this movement meant. Lee cowered before the
fury of his commander, and slunk to the rear. The Americans
rallied and moved once more to the attack, under the inspira-
tion of Washington himself. All day the battle raged under a
burning sun ; and when night came, the Americans camped upon
the field, while Sir Henry Clinton drew off his troops, having
yielded the ground which he had gained through the misconduct,
if not the actual treachery, of Lee.
One picturesque incident of the battle has been commemorated
in the poem here reprinted. An American gunner, while serving
his cannon, was shot down by a British bullet. His wife, who
had followed him through the campaign, immediately took his
place, and discharged his duty through the whole bloody day.
After the battle, Washington directed that she should receive
henceforth a sergeant's pay, and she became known throughout
the army as "Sergeant Molly."
BY KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD.
'Twas hurry and scurry at Monmouth town,
For Lee was beating a wild retreat ;
The British were riding the Yankees down,
And panic was pressing on flying feet.
Galloping down like a hurricane,
Washington rode with his sword swung high,
Mighty as he of the Trojan plain,
Fired by a courage from the sky.
"Halt, and stand to your guns !" he cried,
And a bombardier made swift reply;
Wheeling his cannon into the tide,
He fell 'neath the shot of a foeman nigh.
Molly Pitcher sprang to his side,
Fired, as she saw her husband do ;
Telling the king, in his stubborn pride,
Women, like men, to their homes are true.
Washington rode from the bloody fray
Up to the gun that a woman manned.
"Molly Pitcher, you saved the day,"
He said, as he gave her a hero's hand.
He named her sergeant with manly praise,
While her war-brown face was wet with tears —
A woman has ever a woman's ways,
And the army was wild with cheers !
820 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
The monument commemorating this important battle is located
in a beautiful triangular park of a little over three acres at the
junction of Court and Monument streets, about three minutes'
walk from the Court House. Its base corresponds in form to the
Park, being an equilateral triangle composed of three massive
spurs of granite, surmounted at the point of contact by a large
drum-shaped block on which are five bronze tablets five feet high
and six feet wide, illustrative of scenes of the battle. Above these
is a smaller drum sloping to contact with the shaft and sur-
mounted at the intersection with a ring of bronze shields bearing
the arms of the thirteejr original States. Springing from these
comes the shaft proper, consisting of three sections of eleven
feet each, joined together by rings of bay leaves cut in the gran-
ite. Surmounting the shaft is a composite capital, with flying
eagles springing from its interstices. Upon the capital stands a
colossal granite statue, "Columbia Triumphant." The height
to the top of the statue is within a fraction of one hundred feet.
The design is a simple one and yet it has a distinct character
in its details and general appearance, that distinguishes it from
any other monument. The shaft is of Concord granite and the
base of Quincy granite both fine-axed.
The Bas-Reliefs
The bronze tablets were designed by Mr. J. E. Kelly, and were
cast at the National Fine Art Foundry in New York City. They
represent, with graphic exactness, five scenes in the battle. In
the delineation of the minor accessories of these pictures in
hronze Mr. Kelly spared no labor or expense to obtain originals
->f the arms, accountrements, furniture, uniforms, etc., of the
oeriod, many of his models having been actually used on the
*ield, and are now cherished heir-looms in the families of the
officers who wore or carried them. And so with the human fig-
ures, most of them being copied from portraits of the persons
represented, the likeness being reproduced in the bronzes. As
^orks of art these tablets are said to be unsurpassed by any-
thing of the kind in this country. The following is a brief de-
scription of them :
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 821
Ramsey Defending His Guns
This represents Lieutenant-Colonel Nathaniel Ramsey, of
Maryland, in the closing effort to hold his position until the
main army could be rallied. General Washington had told him
he depended on his exertions, and he had promised to check the
enemy. He tried with his gallant regiment to defend the guns
of Lieutenant-Colonel Oswald, until, having been dismounted,
he was overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the British
Dragoons. In the foreground he is represented with historical
accuracy in a hand-to-hand conflict with a detachment of the
Seventeenth British Regiment, Light Dragoons. Colonel Ram-
sey's portrait is from a miniature and silhouette, both taken
from life and furnished by his family. His sword is modeled
from the short-bladed weapon which he actually carried and
used with great effect that day, and which is still preserved.
The uniform, horse furniture and all the equipments of the
Dragoons are taken from the official record of the regiment. So
particular has the artist been that the " death head" may be
seen on the hat of the trooper of the Seventeenth Dragoons—
the organization allowed to wear the same by the order of the
King— with the motto " Glory or Death." In the background
Oswald is directing his men in their attempt to carry off his
guns.
Washington Rallying the Troops
The Commander-in-Chief is here depicted riding down the
American lines on the splendid horse which had just been pre-
sented to him by New Jersey's War Governor, William Living-
ston, and rallying the troops after General Lee's unaccountable
retreat. He is placing the regiments of Stewart and Ramsey
and Livingston in position to check the advance party of the
British. General Washington's head and figure are modeled
from Houdin's life-cast, now in possession of Mr. Power's heirs.
The model is worked on a scale, and is entirely accurate in all
its proportions, from Houdin's measurements. The style of the
822 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
uniform and horse equipments of the chieftain are all from
authentic sources.
Molly Pitcher
The head and figure of the heroine of Monmouth is an ideal
woman of great muscular power. Her dead hushand is at her
feet, and General Knox is seen at the background directing his
artillery line. A wounded soldier uses his right hand instead
of left in thumbing the vent. This, it is readily seen, improves
the composition of the picture. The old Tennent Church, still
standing as a memorial of the battle, is seen on the extreme left
of the relief.
Council of War at Hopewell
This tablet represents Generals Washington, Lee, Greene,
Stirling, Lafayette, Steuben, Knox, Poor, Wayne, Woodford,
Patterson, Scott and Duportail as they appeared in the import-
ant council of war held at Hopewell, old Hunterdon county, New
Jersey, June 24, 1778. General Washington is listening atten-
tively as General Lafayette, standing by the table, is urging
upon the council to decide on making a strong demonstration
against the British column, even if it brought on a battle. The
position and general expression of other officers clearly indicate
their opinion of Lafayette's appeal. General Lee, who prefer-
red to let the British force parade unmolested across the State,
looks anxious and indignant that his military experience and
judgment do not entirely control the board. It is also easy to
see that the foreign officers, Steuben and Duportail, want to
make a strong attack, and not simply to feel the enemy. Gen-
eral Patterson agrees with them, and so does the true-hearted
Greene. General Wayne, always ready for fight, can hardly
wait until Lafayette has finished that he may speak a few words
of ardent patriotism. Colonel Scammell, Washington's Ad-
jutant-General, who afterward gave his life for liberty on York-
town's ramparts, is here engaged in noting the opinions of the
general officers for the guidance of his chief.
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 823
Wayne's Charge
This relief depicts Mad Anthony Wayne leading his troops
in the final charge of the day through a trampled corn-field, and
the battalions of British grenadiers falling back and trying in
vain to carry away the body of their dead commander, Lieut-
Colonel Henry Monckton. The parsonage of Tennent Church is
seen in the background.
When as president of the New Jersey State Society Sons of
the American Revolution I visited Freehold and made an ad-
dress. I viewed this Monmouth Battle Monument with the
greatest admiration and my memory to that day is one of the
most interesting of my whole life in Jersey. The "Council of
War at Hopewell" tablet had formed special value as General
Patterson was the Colonel of the regiment in which my ancestors
David Pixby was a Lieutenant. (See picture and full account in
the Americana Magazine for July, 1912.)
The maiden name of the "heroine of Monmouth" was Mary
Ludwig, and she was of German descent, born 1754 in New Jer-
sey on a farm situated between Princeton and Trenton, and
married John Hays, of Carlisle, Pa., and when he joined the
Continental army, Mary went back home to live with her father.
As the army came across New Jersey she visited her husband
and was with him on the Sunday of the Battle of Monmouth.
During which she aided her husband and the gunners in Gen.
Knox's artillery by carrying water in the cannon's bucket for
her husband's cannon and for the thirsty men, who in pleas-
antry called her "Molly Pitcher." Her husband, overcome with
fatigue and heat dropped down by the cannon, when his wife
jumped forward and helped to "work the gun." A bas-relief
on the monument gives this scene showing her as "an ideal
woman of great muscular power. Her (exhausted) husband is
at her feet, and Gen. Knox is seen in the background directing
his artillery line. A wounded soldier uses his right hand in-
stead of left in thumbing the vent. The Old Tennent Church,
still standing as a memorial of the battle, is seen on the extreme
left of the relief." Molly after the battle nursed her husband
back to his usual strength and she was complimented by Gens.
824 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OE THE REVOLUTION
Washington, Greene, and Lafayette. Also Congress bestowed
on her an annuity of $40. After the death of her first husband
she married a man by the name of McCauley. She died Janu-
ary, 1833, and was buried at Carlisle, Pa. Years afterwards on
July 4,' 1876, the citizens of Cumberland County, Pa., placed a
handsome Italian marble stone over her grave. She was not a
coarse camp-follower, as has sometimes been said, but a robust,
industrious, kind-hearted woman, faithful as a wife and mother.
Mrs. Isabella (Crater) McGeorge has written a fine sketch of
Molly in the American Monthly Magazine of November, 1900.
VII
Margaret Corbin
Margaret Corbin like Molly Pitcher of Monmouth was an
Irish woman and was the first woman pensioned by our govern-
ment for heroic deeds. In relation to this interesting character
I quote the following from an article by Arthur P. Abbott :
"Margaret Corbin was born in Franklin County, Pennsyl-
vania, November 12, 1751. She was the only daughter of Robert
Cochran, who was killed by the Indians in 1756, his wife, Mar-
garet's mother, being taken into captivity by the Indians at the
same time, Margaret being at the time only five years of age.
The reason she escaped was that she and her brother were visit-
ing an uncle, brother of her mother. This uncle raised Mar-
garet, who in 1772 married a Virginian by the name of John
Corbin. John Corb'n enlisted in the 1st Company, Pennsylvania
Artillery, under Captain Francis Proctor. His wife, Margaret,
having no children or other home ties, did what many other
noble women of that day did, followed her husband to war and
offered her services as a nurse and aid in camp life.
John Corbin was killed at the battle of Fort Washington No-
vember 16, 1776, and when he fell Margaret took his place at his
gun and served it with great credit till struck down with three
grapeshot, which nearly severed her arm and a part of her
breast. At the surrender she was paroled to General Greene,
across the river at Fort Lee, and was carried, with other sick
and wounded, to Philadelphia. Here later she was formally
'
1
1 V v I - J
: ^ ! J
' ,.,. "iii*r
:
ANNA WARNER BAILEY
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 825
enrolled as a member of the "Invalid Regiment,' ' the history
of which is most interesting, but which space will not permit
giving here. An interesting item in this connection is that Mary
Ludwig, the real "Molly Pitcher," married Hayes, who was a
gunner in the same regiment as John Corbin, which no doubt
made her acquainted with Margaret Corbin. And it no doubt
was Margaret Corbin 's deed at Fort Washington that inspired
the act of Mary Ludwig, or "Molly Pitcher/ ' at the battle of
Monmouth, and which placed her name in the book of immor-
tality.
So grievous were the wounds received by Margaret Corbin at
Fort Washington that they were ultimately the cause of her
death, and not, as Lossing would have us believe, by a loathe-
some and dishonorable disease. On account of these wounds,
the Supreme Council of Philadelphia, on June 29, 1779, granted
her $30 and recommended her to the Board of War for a regular
pension which that body granted her, July 6, 1779.
When the Invalid Regiment was mustered out in April, 1783,
Margaret, having no home to go to or hospital to receive her,
turned her thoughts to the Hudson River, where her husband
had laid down his life, and where, owing to the disbanding of the
greatest number of soldiers, she could find the largest number
of sympathetic friends. Here she found a quiet refuge, aided
by the poor but grateful country on whose altar she had laid
her all. She died about 1800, and, as we have already shown,
was laid to rest among the hills she loved and graves of those
who loved and honored her. In the Holyground Protestant
Episcopal Church at 179th Street, New York, is a tablet erected
in 1902 by the Mary Washington Colonial Chapter of the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution in memory of the exploit of
Margaret Corbin.
vm
Anna Warner Bailey
A heroine, of Groton, Connecticut :
Anna or Nancy Warner, daughter of Philip Warner and Han-
nah Mills, born at Groton, October 11, 1758. When about ten
Szv SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
years of age, she and her brother Jebez, two years older lost
iheir parents. Anna was taken to live with an uncle Edward
. i ills, who lived at Centre Groton. There were no boys in the
family so Anna helped care for the stock and dairy, she helped
at sheep shearing and did out-door labor, in those days expected
of a farmer's daughter. Thus she grew to womanhood. When
the Massacre at Fort Griswold took place in 1781, she was about
twenty- three years of age. Previous to this she was bethothed
to Elijah Bailey. At first alarm on September 6, 1781, her uncle
Edward Mills hastened to join the patriots at Groton 's heights.
At sunset of that day when Mills did not return Anna having
performed the duties connected with the farm and home, went
to the fort in search of her uncle. Anna's words "If the earth
had opened and poured forth blood, instead of drinking it in,
it could not have been more plentiful." After searching long
she found Edward Mills, shot and faint from loss of blood, and
left for dead. He escaped the torture of the ride down the hill
in the wagon packed with dying patriots. In an empty cartridge
box she brought water to her uncle who revived. He expressed
the wish to see him wife "Oh, if I could see Hannah and the
baby before I go I should die content." Anna hurried home,
saddled and bridled a horse, hasteneel back to her uncle with the
child who received the father's blessing. During these incidents
Anna had obtained no trace of her lover.
Anna made bandages, brought food and water and did every-
thing she could to relieve the sufferings of the wounded. At
dawn Anna turned her weary steps towards home. She had no
rest till duties of farm and home were performed. At her
uncle's funeral she made a solemn vow "to hate England and
the English forever." A vow she kept. Hannah Mills was left
a widow with five children and Anna showed her love for her
aunt by assuming charge of business affairs, gathered crops,
etc. Not until her aunt was able to provide for herself was
Anna married to Elijah Bailey. Colonel Ledyard, September 6,
1781, ordered Bailey to man a gun at a redoubt, a little southeast
of the fort. Mrs. Bailey, years after said: "he was courting
me then, boy though he was," (she twenty-three, he seventeen).
A happy married life was theirs.
•
U.^-.--^- Aa'.
&
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OE THE REVOLUTION 827
Housekeeping was conducted on unalterable rules, and no
work that could be avoided was done on Sunday. All meals
were served cold. A member of Groton Church. Every
year for fifty-six years she read the Bible through. In
1813, Commodore Decatur was blockaded in New London
Harbor by an English fleet. Inhabitants feared battle. Women
fled into the country taking their children and valuables.
"Mother Bailey" sent her effects, but remained to face
the danger. Supply of flannel being short for wadding, a
search was made in the village for some but not half enough was
obtained. After a moment's hesitation, "Mother Bailey" seized
her scissors, which every matron of that day carried at her side,
quickly clipped the strings of her flannel skirt and stripping the
garment from her person handed it to the messenger saying:
"It is a good heavy one, but I do not care for that." The mar-
tial petticoat and its patriotic donor have ever since been re-
nowned in our local annals.
She was honored with visits from distinguished soldiers and
statesmen. Lafayette and suite called upon her in 1824. Presi-
dents Monroe, Jackson and Van Buren, Colonel E. M. Johnson
and General Cass. She was noted for her qualities as a nurse.
Mr. Bailey died in August, 1848, it is said he was the last sur-
vivor of the Fort Griswold massacre, first postmaster of Groton
office held till his death and thereafter Mrs. Bailey held the office
till her death three years later, January 10, 1851, aged ninety-
two years.
The foregoing is a copy of some of the facts contained in an
article written for the Anna W 7 arner Bailey Chapter by Mrs.
H. T. Palmer and Miss M. E. Benjamin, and published by Con-
necticut Chapters D. A. R. and sent to the magazine by A. A.
Thomas.
Chapters in the History of Halifax,
Nova Scotia
NO. Ill
Social Life of Halifax After the Revolution
By Arthur Wentwobth Hamilton Eaton, M. A., D. C. L.
"All hail to the day when the Britons came over
And planted their standard, with sea foam still wet,
Around and above us their spirits will hover,
Rejoicing to mark how we honour it yet.
Beneath it the emblems they cherished are waving,
The Rose of Old England the roadside perfumes,
The Shamrock and Thistle the north winds are braving,
Securely the Mayflower blushes and blooms/'
— Hon. Joseph Howe.
(On the hundredth anniversary of Cornwallis's landing at Chebucto.)
"Be aristocracy the only joy:
Let commerce perish, let the world expire !"
— Anonymous Satircal Poem.
IN the landscape of Nova Scotia at large, to the cultivated
traveller as to any impressionable native of the province,
there is a strongly compelling if never wholly definable
charm, that stirs deeply the romantic and poetic elements
in the mind. If the romance of the early settlement of the coun-
try, which was one of the most conspicuous and treasured of the
colonies of ancient Bourbon France, is ever exaggerated in the
mind of the historian or the poet,— the romance of Port Royal,
Pisiquid, Beausejour, and Grand Pre,— there is yet in the varied
natural charm of the landscape enough to cast an unusual spell
over the imagination and quicken the soul to poetic fervor. The
Nova Scotia landscape has great variety, we find in it the verd-
ant luxuriance and apparently exhaustless fertility of the broad
dyke-lands about the Bay of Fundy, the deep Italian blue of
Minas Basin, the sweet, sheltered grace of the Valley of the
(828)
â–
f$f.'7#.*.
4
§w
THOMAS CHANDLER HALI BURTON
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 829
Gaspereau, the gray lights and purple shades and wraith-like
mists that pass over the steep slopes of the North Mountain, the
stern aspect of Blomidon, as it looks out coldly on the restless
tide, the marvellous orchard-bloom that rolls, pink and per-
fumed, in great waves across the landscape in early June, the
red glow of the laden apple trees in October, the wide-spreading
fields of red clover, the ridges of flaming goldenrod, the splen-
did patches of purple wild asters,— with on the Atlantic sea-
board and along the rivers that flow thither, in contrast to the
drowsy islands that dot the bays where these rivers empty, a
tumbled wealth of rugged scenery that gives virility and strength
to the whole.
Of the situation and natural setting of the capital of Xova
Scotia, the city of Halifax, a graceful Canadian writer, Dr.
Archibald MacMechan, has recently written: "One feature
must be plain even to the least observant, the unmatched mag-
nificence of the setting. ' Beautiful for situation/ the phrase of
the Psalmist for his sacred city, fits the capital of the Mayflower
Province. Before her feet lies the great land-locked harbour,
where the old three-deckers used to swing at their anchors ; on
her right hand extends the long picturesque fiord we call the
'Arm;' 1 on her left is a second inner haven, twenty miles in cir-
cuit, called Bedford Basin. In the very centre is the hill crowned
with a citadel. From this point of vantage you can see how the
peaceful roofs huddle close around the base of the projecting
stronghold, and how the dark blue water washes all sides of the
triangular peninsula on which the city stands. ' *
In general aspect Halifax is a gray, smoke-coloured town,
largely built with wooden houses, but containing likewise a good
many substantial buildings of brick and stone, the most historic
1. The "Northwest Arm" extends inward from the sea perhaps more than
a mile, and is lined on both sides with comfortable cottages, occasional club-
houses, and tiny bungalows for summer use. Near the head of the Arm is an
islet known as Melville Island, which one reaches by a road called the "Dingle
drive." On this island stands the little naval prison, where after the war with
France, numbers of French sailors who had been captured on ships-of-war, pri-
vateers, and merchant vessels were for months confined. These sailors were
cheerful, industrious fellows, who employed themselves by making bone boxes,
dominoes, and other small articles, and it became the fashion to row over to
the island in summer, or skate across in the winter, to purchase trinkets from the
men. The war with the United States, of 1812, brought crowds of American
prisoners also here.
830 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
of which are the Province Building and Government House.
The first of these buildings Frederic Cozzeus, an American
author of the last generation, in his book "A Month with the
Bluenoses, " describes as a structure of great solidity and re-
spectability, and this emphatically the building is. There can be
few more solid or better proportioned buildings on the continent.
It is constructed of rich brown freestone, its corner-stone was
laid August 12, 1811, and the structure was completed in 1819, at
a cost of $209,400. For two or three decades after it was built it
was often said to be the finest building, architecturally, in North
America. Within its walls are the House of Assembly, the Leg-
islative and Executive Council Chambers, and the combined
Provincial and Nova Scotia Historical Society's libraries, which
contain not only many valuable books, but a great wealth of
manuscript records of priceless value for purposes of history.
On the walls of the Legislative Council Chamber hang portraits
of King George II, King George III, and King William IV;
Queen Charlotte and Queen Caroline ; Sir John Eardley Wilinot
Inglis, the "Hero of Lucknow;" Sir Fenwick Williams, the
"Hero of Kars ;" Sir Charles Hastings Doyle, Sir Brenton Hal-
liburton, Judge Thomas Chandler Haliburton, the author of
"Sam Slick,' ' and a portrait by Benjamin West of Sir Thomas
Andrew Strange, in scarlet gown, and wig. 2 This Province
Building is distinguished not only as the home of the Pro-
vincial Legislature, but as having been the scene of several his-
toric balls, one as early as 1826, in honour of Sir James
Kempt, an English governor of the province, one in 1841, in
2. There are other portraits in this building besides the ones we have men-
tioned, notably a recently acquired one of the late King Edward. In private
houses in Halifax there are also a few notable portraits, the finest being a Cop-
ley of the elder Dr. Mather Byles, of Boston, painted in 1774, it is believed, the
year Copley finally left Boston for England. This distinguished Copley belongs
to W. Bruce Almon, Esq., M. D., and has been reproduced, by its owner's kind
permission, in the writer's latest book, "The Famous Mather Byles." In Hali-
fax also, in the possession of Major William B. Almon, is an interesting por-
trait of Miss Catherine Byles. daughter of Dr. Byles, senior, which was painted
by Henry Pelham, Copley's half-brother. This also, by the owner's kind per-
mission has been reproduced in the writer's book.
A highly important and very complete resume of paintings and engravings
done in Halifax by Robert Field, William Valentine, and others, who worked in
this province, has lately been published by Mr. Harry Piers, the able archivist
and local historian of Nova Scotia, in the eighteenth volume of the Collections
of the Nova Scotia Historical Society.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 831
honour of Prince de Joinville, and one, the best remembered of
all, in 1860, in honour of his late Majesty, King Edward Seventh,
then Prince of Wales.
The first Governor's House in Halifax was a small wooden
building, the frame of which, as we have seen, was ordered from
Boston, which stood on the site of the present Province Build-
ing, its primitive defences being cannon mounted on casks or
hogsheads filled with gravel. Whether this house was com-
pleted as early as October, 1749, we do not know, but by the
fourteenth of that month Governor Cornwallis had removed
from his ship to the shore, and the Council was meeting in his
"apartment." In 1758 Governor Lawrence built a new resi-
dence on the same spot, to which Lord William Campbell added
a ball-room, later governors still further enlarging and beauti-
fying the house. In 1800, on the site of an old wooden building
on Pleasant Street long used to shelter field officers and for other
military purposes, the corner-stone of the present Government
House was laid, and here ever since it was finished successive
governors have kept their little courts, holding state levees, giv-
ing state dinners and balls, and more quietly entertaining hos-
pitably not only native Nova Scotians but many distinguished
foreign guests as well. This Government House is an exact copy
of the famous London Lansdowne House, and for many decades
it was naturally the chief centre of Nova Scotia's smartest social
life. 3
3. The governors of Nova Scotia in succession, from 1749 to 1800, all of
course during their terms of office residing at Government House, were : Col.
the Hon. Edward Cornwallis ; Col. Peregrine Thomas Hopson : Col. Charles Law-
rence ; Henry Ellis, Esq. ; Col. the Hon. Montagu Wilmot ; Rt. Hon. Lord Wil-
liam Campbell, fourth son of the fourth Duke of Argyle; Major Francis Legge ;
John Parr, Esq.; Sir John Wentworth, Bart. From 1800 to 1900 they were: Sir
John Wentworth ; Lt. Gen. Sir. George Prevost, Bart ; Gen. Sir John Coape Sher-
brook, K. B. ; Lt. Gen. George Ramsay, ninth Earl of Dalhousie ; Lt. Gen. Sir
James Kempt, G. C. B. ; Gen. Sir Peregrine Maitland, K. C. B. ; Major Gen. Sir Colin
Campbell; Viscount Falkland; Sir John Harvey, K. C. B. ; Hon. Augustus Con-
stantine Phipps, 2nd Marquis of Normanbv and Earl Mulgrave ; Sir Richard
Graves Macdonnell. K. C. M. G. ; Sir William Fenwick Williams, Bart, K. C. B.
a native Nova Scotian, hero of Kars ; Sir Charles Hastings Doyle, K. C. M. G. ;
Hon. Joseph Howe, a native Nova Scotian, whose father was John Howe, the
Boston Loyalist; Hon. Sir Adams George Archibald, K. C. M. G.. a native Nova
Scotian; Matthew Henry Richey, Esq.; Archibald Woodbury McLelan. Esq.;
Hon. Sir Malachy Bowes Daly, K. C. M. G. ; and Hon. Alfred Gilpin Jones, a
Nova Scotian of New England descent, who was appointed August 7, 1900, and
died in office March 14, 1906.
832 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
In a later chapter of this history detailed account may be
given of the defences of Halifax, the great Citadel, surrounded
with its moat, the various shore batteries along the harbour,
the forts on McNab's and George's islands and at Point Pleas-
ant, Fort Clarence, on the Dartmouth side of the harbour, and
York Redoubt, far out in the bay. Until about 1870 two regi-
ments of the line were always stationed here, but Egypt and
Ireland needing more troops, one was finally withdrawn, and
for perhaps thirty years before the Imperial troops were re-
moved there was but one Line Regiment, with the force of Artil-
lery and Engineers about equal in number to a full regiment.
There has always been, likewise, in Halifax, a corps of Sub-
marine Engineers specially trained by Imperial officers for man-
ning the harbour defences. As a matter of course there are in
the vicinity of the Citadel extensive barracks for the accom-
modation of soldiers and their families, and quarters for those of-
ficers who, unmarried, are not living in rented houses in the town.
Not far from the centre of the city, towards the South, is Belle-
vue, now an officers' mess, a large wooden house which was long
the residence of the General in command, and in the far northern
part of the town, overlooking the Dockyard, stands what was
"Admiralty House," where until the Dockyard was closed, from
May to December of every year the Admiral of the Fleet on the
North American station gave a succession of agreeable dinners
and balls. The beginning of the Citadel was a block-house with
a parapet, built in 1753, on the summit of the hill, then eighty
feet higher than now, that overlooks the town. This block-house
has port-holes in its sides for cannon, and all around it a ditch
and ramparts of earth and wood, strengthened by palisades or
pickets driven close together. In 1795 his Royal Highness the
Duke of Kent caused the old fortifications to be removed and
began the erection of the present Citadel, which has accommo-
dation within for a regiment, and has always had ready signal
communication with the harbour forts. For many decades in
the past, with measured march, from the eastern entrance of
the fortification little companies of soldiers would often be
seen issuing, while on extraordinary occasions, as for church
parades, the greater part of the regiment, with its band playing,
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 833
would magnificently march down the side slope of the hill. Be-
low the glacis, directly facing the middle of the town, is still the
old square clock-tower, another conspicuous memorial of the
residence in Halifax of the Duke of Kent.
The Dockyard, which was begun in 1758, nine years after Hali-
fax was founded, occupies half a mile of the harbour front, and
within its guarded walls anciently stood the Commissioner's res-
idence and other houses for the several employees whose official
duties included the landing and shipping of naval stores. The
final inclosure was made, as the figures over the central gate an-
nounce, on the line of the present wall, in the year 1770. In
1815, one of the historic loyal celebrations of Halifax took place
here, after the victory of Waterloo, and many a time the Dock-
yard has been the scene of brilliant aquatic contests, of which
many have been held in Halifax harbour, in earlier or later times,
Until late in the nineteenth century, throughout the summers
there was hardly a week that several war-ships of the British
fleet were not flying their flags in the harbour, hardly an evening
when the music of magnificently trained ships ' bands did not float
from mid-stream across the water to the Halifax or Dartmouth
shores. Halifax, as we have intimated, was the headquarters of
the Commander-in-Chief of the North American Naval Station,
from the middle of May till the latter part of October ; then the
war-ships took their departure for Bermuda, Nassau, or Ja-
maica. During their stay society was always in a whirl of din-
ner giving and dancing, and this gayety was often still further
increased by the visit, for longer or shorter time, of some Ger-
man, French, or American man-of-war.
The closing of the Garrison Chapel in the north end of Hali-
fax made one of the greatest losses the town suffered by the re-
moval of the Imperial troops. From the time when it was
opened, the year 1846, until 1905, it was the authorized place
of worship for the British soldiers who were not Roman Cath-
olics or Presbyterians, and nothing could exceed the heartiness
of the service performed there. 4 From the Wellington Bar-
4. The corner-stone of the Garrison Chapel was laid in October, 1844, the
Rev. Dr. John Thomas Twining then being chaplain. The chapel was closed in
1905, and the next year was purchased by the congregation of Trinity Church,
which until 1907 worshipped in a church in Jacob Street. This congregation
834 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
racks, from Artillery Park, and from the Citadel, on Sunday
mornings, the troops, with bands playing, would march to the
church for a crisp military service, for when the twelve o'clock
gun fired the prayers and the short sermon must promptly be
done. To civilian worshippers it was always an inspiration to
hear the soldiers' firm responses, and their hearty singing, as
accompanied by the organ and several instruments of the band
they rendered the familiar chants of the Prayer-Book and the
"Ancient and Modern" hymns. Soldiers who were Presby-
terians as a rule went to St. Matthew's Church, and Roman
Catholics to St. Mary's Cathedral, on Spring Garden Road. Not
infrequently in the quiet Halifax streets would be heard the dull
beating of the muffled drum which headed the sad funeral pro-
cession of some private soldier or soldier's wife or child, who
as the waning sun threw purple shadows round the Citadel, in
barracks or hospital had breathed his last on earth and gone into
the unseen. On a low gun-carriage the still form would now
be passing to Camp Hill Cemetery, or the Military Burying
ground at Fort Massey, or to the Cemetery of the Holy Cross,
there to be laid away to moulder slowly to dust. From the
burial, the band, according to custom, would always return, play-
ing no longer the "Dead March in Saul," but the liveliest pop-
ular airs the bandsmen knew. In these Halifax burying grounds
where soldiers and soldiers' families lie are touching inscrip-
tions to the memory of men of all ranks in the service, lieuten-
ant-colonels, captains, ensigns, colour-sergeants, stafT-sergeants,
and corporals, and to many a hard-working soldier's wife or
sweet little one, who in the long, cold Halifax winter, perhaps
rendered more susceptible to the climate by previous residence in
Bermuda or India, had sadly drooped and died.
has occupied the Garrison Chapel since 1907. A newspaper notice at the time
of the laying of the corner-stone of the chapel reads: "Yesterday afternoon, Oc-
tober 23d, 1844, at three o'clock, the corner-stone of the new Military Chapel
was laid. The troops were in attendance, accompanied by the band of the Royals.
Sir Jeremiah Dickson, Colonel Calder, Colonel Bazelgatte, and Major Tryon, and
other officers belonging to the military department were in attendance.
"A part of the 90th Psalm was sung, and the Reverend Doctor Twining offered
prayer. Sir Jeremiah Dickson performed the ceremony of laying the stone, on
which was a suitable Latin inscription. Reverend Doctor Twining remarked in
the course of his address that he had held services in no less than eleven different
buildings." For a brief sketch of Dr. Twining, see Eaton's "History of King's
County, Nova Scotia," p. 851.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 835
A highly picturesque feature of Halifax has always been the
" Green Market,' ' held on Wednesday and Saturday mornings
on the sidewalks, near the Post Office and the Market Slip. All
summer through, as regularly as these mornings came, a mixed
company of 4 i Chezzetcookers ' ' and negroes, the former some of
the dark-skinned descendants of the old Acadians, have been
accustomed to troop into town, across the Dartmouth Ferry*
their rude wagons laden with farm produce, poultry, flowers, and
domestic small wares of various sorts, and ranging themselves
along the side-walks unobtrusively offer their goods for sale.
The negroes, descended from slaves who at the time of the Rev-
olution or in the war of 1812 escaped from the Southern States,
are so like those one may see still in Portsmouth, Virginia, or
Charleston, South Carolina, that watching them squatted on the
pavement in motley garments and gay head coverings, and lis-
tening to their thick negro dialect, one might easily imagine
one's self in far more southern climes. Describing the buyers
at this open-air market, some writer of early in the nineteenth
century whose name is unknown to us said : ' ' Here we can see
the regimental mess man, the smart gun-steward from the Dock-
yard, the caterer for the ships, and the natty private soldier
who has just set up housekeeping with a newly made wife from
the servant class of the town, jostling gentlemen's servants in
livery and eager-eyed boarding house keepers, or even the mis-
tress of some aristocratic mansion, who in fresh morning gown
has thriftily risen early to do her own marketing for the day. ' '
The Halifax fish market, too, has always been liberally sup-
plied and well patronized,— salmon, cusk, halibut, pollock, mack-
erel, lobsters, herring, gaspereaux, and trout being abundant
and cheap. A story is told of a certain naval captain of old
days, new to the station, who, probably better accustomed to the
prices which ruled at Billingsgate than at Halifax, once gave his
steward a sovereign to buy lobsters for the cabin dinner. The
man returned with a small boat load of the crustaceans in two
or three wheelbarrows and presented them to the captain, whose
surprise can be easily imagined.
The residences of the wealthier Haligonians have in large
part been built on the sloping wooded shores of the beautiful
836 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
"Arm," but they have not by any means been confined to these
charming outskirts of the town, they have been scattered through
the city, some even daring to show themselves far in the mostly
unfashionable extreme "north end."
Another interesting feature, added to Halifax in the nine-
teenth century, is the large park, at Point Pleasant, in the south
part of the city, the point where the Arm opens in from the
Atlantic below the steep, heavily wooded shore. The Park com-
prises several hundred acres in an almost natural state, but with
nature's primeval ruggedness judiciously softened and refined.
The Halifax Public Garden, too, has been for years a spot of
unusual beauty, in artistic arrangement and marvellous wealth
of shrubbery and floral bloom easily rivalling the finest public
gardens of the old or the new world. 5
These were some of the attractive physical features of the
Halifax of the nineteenth century, as they are of the Halifax of
to-day,— who, it will be asked, were the people who actually
created and gave character to the finished town? The negative
answer to that question is that they were not, save in a few
cases, the original British settlers that came with Colonel Corn-
wallis in 1749. 6 To no small extent they were native-born Bos-
tonians, or other New Englanders, who almost immediately after
Halifax was founded, drawn thither through previous knowl-
edge of the province, or by the fresh fame of the Cornwallis en-
terprise, brought their families here, and in official positions, or
in trade, 7 or both, soon rose to influence, and in some cases to a
5. The able director of the Halifax Public Garden for many years has been
Mr. Powers. One often wishes that the Boston Public Garden could have had
the benefit of his artistic skill.
6. The character of many of the settlers of Halifax Governor Cornwallis
brought with him from England was not by any means pleasing to this eminent
leader in the British colonization of Nova Scotia. On the 24th of July, 1749, he
writes the Lords of Trade that the number of men among the colonists fitted to
carry on the settlement creditably is very small. Some were "idle and worthless
persons who had embraced the opportunity to get provisions for a year without
labour, or sailors who only wanted a passage to New England" and had embraced
the opportunity afforded by the expedition to obtain passage free to American
shores.
7. Almost immediately after his arrival at Halifax, though the precise date
we do not know, Governor Cornwallis entered into an agreement with Messrs.
Charles Apthorp and Thomas Hancock, influential merchants of Boston, to fur-
nish the new colony with supplies, and this contract evidently lasted for years.
At some early period, Messrs. De Lancey and Watts, of New York seem to have
snared in furnishing Halifax with supplies.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 837
much wider prosperity than had found opportunity to gain in
their native provinces. The great migration of Bostonians to
Halifax, as we have seen in an earlier chapter of this history,
came when Boston was evacuated by the British in March, 1776,
but from 1740 to that period probably not a year had passed in
which some native of Massachusetts, usually of Boston, had not
transferred himself, and his family if he had one, permanently
to the new Nova Scotia capital. Among very early influential
families in Halifax, it is true, were such families of immediately
British origin as Best, Bulkeley, Collier, Nesbitt, Piers, Pyke,
"Wenman, etc., but from Massachusetts, chiefly from Boston, much
before the Revolution came the Belchers, Binneys, Blagdons
("Blackden"), Clevelands, Fairbankses, Fillises, Gorhams,
Grays, Greens, Howes, Lawlors, Monks, Morrises, Newtons,
Prescotts, Salters, Sandersons, Shaws, Tidmarshes, and others,
almost all which families had been people of excellent standing
among the New England commercial gentry to which they be-
longed. At, or following in the wake of, the Revolution came
another for the most part highly connected group of permanent
settlers from New England, families named Blowers, Brinley,
Brown, Byfield, Byles, Clarke, De Blois, Gay, Greenwood,
Halliburton, Hart, Howe, Lawson, Minns, Nutting, Robie, Saw-
yer, Snelling, Stayner, Wentworth, Winslow, and Wylde; while
in the same movement came from New York the Inglis family,
and the Lynch, Pryor, Thorne, Tremaine, and Wilkins families ;
from New Jersey the Boggs, Cunard, and Odell families ; from
Maryland the Stewarts ; from Virginia the Wallaces ; and from
Georgia, through the island of Jamaica, the Johnstons. A large
number of Halifax families of note in the nineteenth century
did not trace to the United States, but came independently and
singly at intervals, before the end of the eighteenth century or in
the early part of the nineteenth, directly, or in some few instances
through other British colonies, from Great Britain or Ireland.
Such were the Allans, Allisons, Andersons, Archibalds, Beck-
withs, Blacks, Bowies, Bremners, Breyntons, Brymers, Bullocks,
Butlers, Campbells, Cochrans, Crawleys, Creightons, Crichtons,
Cunninghams, Dalys, Donaldsons, Doulls, DufYuses, Fancklins,
Francklyns, Frasers, Georges, Grahams, Grassies, a second
838 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
family of Grays, the founder of the Hare family, the Henrys,
two families of Hills, the Hostermans, Kennys, Macleans, Mc-
Donalds, McNabs, Mitchells, Morrows, Murdochs, Oxleys, Park-
ers, Richardsons, Richeys, Ritchies, Slayters, Stairses, Sterlings,
Thomsons, Tobins, Twiiiings, Uniackes, Woodgates, and Youngs,
some of whom, however, like the Archibalds, Macleans, and Ritch-
ies had settled first in other counties of the province. Of import-
ant American names that came into Halifax through the migra-
tion from New England to other parts of Nova Scotia in 1760,
we have Albro, Chipman, Cogswell, Collins, De Wolfe, Harring-
ton, Hunt, Longley, Starr, Troop, Whidden, and Wier. The
Almon family, always of high social standing in Halifax, was
founded here by Dr. James William Almon, a physician, born
probably in Newport, Rhode Island, though on his father's side
of Italian origin, who married after the Revolution the eldest
daughter of the noted Tory clergyman, who fled here from Bos-
ton, the younger Dr. Mather Byles.
The character of the social life of Halifax throughout the
town's whole history, has depended of course very largely on the
town's commercial prosperity, and for a small, remotely situ-
ated eastern American town the prosperity of Halifax for many
decades was rather unusually great. Along the water front of
the city stand many staunch granite warehouses, where before
the days of steamships not a few considerable fortunes were
made in the United- States or the British- West-Indian trade.
In Halifax, as is well known, the Cunards early established a
business that laid the foundation of their world-renowned en-
terprise, the great steamship line that bears their name. 8 In
8. Mr. Frederick P. Fairbanks, a native Haligonian, from whom this chapter
will hereafter quote liberally, writes :
"In 1838 Samuel Cunard was a prominent merchant in Halifax and agent for
the East India Company. In response to certain circulars sent out by the British
government he went to England and became associated with George Burns and
David Maclver; and together they raised money and started the Cunard Service.
Then they made a contract with the government to carry the mails for seven
years between Liverpool and Boston, and Halifax and Boston ; and they got a
subsidy of $80,000 per annum for this service. They were to employ four steamers ;
these were at first the Britannia, Acadia. Calendonia. and Columbia. The Britannia
sailed from Liverpool on Friday, July fourth, 1840 and inaugurated the serivce. The
facts connected with this service are very interesting; the above ships were fol-
lowed by the Hibernia, Cambria, America, Niagara. Europa, Asia, Arabia, Persia,
and Scotia. These ended the paddle wheelers. The Britannia took 14 days and
eight hours to cross.
... .
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 839
1825 a group of merchants of local note, of whom Samuel
Cunard (afterward Sir Samuel Cunard, Bart.) was one, found-
ed here the first joint-stock banking house in the province, and
one of the founders of this bank, the Honorable Enos Collins, of
a Cape Cod, Massachusetts, family, son-in-law of Sir Brenton
Halliburton, finally died in the town worth six and a half millions
of dollars, a very great fortune for the days in which it was
acquired. 9 Nor did the town's commercial prosperity cease
when sailing ships gave place to steamships on the busy seas.
after that period, as is true of it to-day, Halifax became a chief
distributing port for almost the whole of British America.
Given a certain amount of commercial prosperity, the over-
shadowing and largely controlling influence in the social life of
Halifax in the nineteenth century was undoubtedly exerted by
the presence of the army and navy. But even this influence,
strong, and foreign to practical American social ideals, as it was,
could not change the fact that fundamentally Halifax was, as it
had been from the beginning, essentially an American town. Up
to the Revolution, Boston had been virtually an English
provincial community, but with an independence of spirit and
a power of creating fresh ideals that belonged strictly to the
new world rather than the old. From the start, Halifax drew
much of its best life directly from Boston ; its earliest trade was
with the Massachusetts capital, and the frames of its first public
buildings came from there, from Boston shops the necessary
household stores of its people were replenished, and almost im-
mediately after its founding, as we have seen, Boston people of
"In my younger days the arrival of what was then generally designated 'the
English steamer' was a matter of public importance. All vessels were signalled
from the citadel. The first signal was by balls signifying a large or small steamer,
then would come the Cunard private signal showing that it was coming to the
Cunard firm, then the distinctive flag denoting the 'English Mail' ; so the people
would breathe sighs of relief. This experience would be repeated every fort-
night right along through the year."
9. The other founders of the bank besides Cunard and Collins were John
Clarke, Joseph Allison, William Pryor, James Tobin. Henry Hezekiah Cogswell,
and Martin Gay Black. (Eaton's "History of King's County, Nova Scotia, p.
481). Sir Samuel Cunard died worth five millions of dollars. Mr. William Mur-
doch worth over a million and a half, and Mr. Charles Murdoch worth a mil-
lion. Many persons in Halifax in the 19th century accumulated from seven or
eight hundred thousand down to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Chief Justice
Sampson Salter Blowers (a Boston born man) died worth four hundred thousand,
and Chief Justice Sir William Young worth three hundred and fifty thousand.
840 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
influence poured into the town. When a judiciary needed to be
established for the province, as of course was quickly the case,
an able Boston born lawyer of eminent family, Mr. Jonathan
Belcher, was called to be the chief justice, and in the determined
movement of the Halifax people soon alter for representative
government, Mr. Belcher, in opposition to the governor, as be-
came a man reared in a province where representative institu-
tions largely prevailed, was the chief mover. When the first
Assembly was actually created, an overwhelming number of the
members elected were, like Mr. Belcher, Boston born men. 10
In structure and general tone, Boston before the Revolution
was much more aristocratic than it was after the struggle. And
it is a great question whether with the passing of the town's
control into the hands of men steeped in the democratic spirit,
Boston did not suffer forever the loss of some of her very finest
ideals. In Halifax there was no Revolution, and here we may
say emphatically, the best social ideals and most hospitable
customs of pre-Revolutionary Boston, for many decades after
the Revolution continued to prevail. It is quite true that the
general intellectuality, that increased rather than diminished
in Boston after the Revolution, was always sadly lacking in
Halifax, and that the people, divorced from libraries and having
little to stimulate them to think world-problems out, absorbed
themselves largely in business and pleasure and petty politics, and
that in religion, when they felt the power of religion, they accept-
ed without question common traditional orthodox views. For a
long time, both before and after the Revolution, we know, strict
moralists deplored the frivolity of Halifax, and censured in
scathing terms the low moral standards of its smart social life.
Of the controlling power of the army and navy in Halifax, no
visitor to the town in the whole of the nineteenth century could
fail to be aware. About the time of the Crimean war, probably
10. The strength of the New England element in Halifax in 1758, is shown
by the fact that probably no less than twelve of the nineteen members elected in that
year to the first House of Assembly were from either Massachusetts or Con-
necticut. These were : Jonathan Binney, Robert Campbell, Joseph Fairbanks,
Henry Ferguson, John Fillis, William Foye, Joseph Gerrish, Philip Hammond,
Henry Newton, William Pantree, Joseph Rundle (probably Randall), and Robert
Sanderson. The last of these, Sanderson, was elected Speaker. From the first
appointment of members to the Council, Boston men figured largely in that body
also.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 841
very soon after the fall of Sebastopol, when Nova Scotia, al-
ways, to the present moment, staunchly loyal to England, was
more than usually aglow with military ardor, Frederic Cozzens
of New York, visiting Halifax, wrote of the town: "Every-
thing here is suggestive of impending hostilities, war in bur-
nished trappings meets you at the street corners, and the air
vibrates from time to time with bugles, fifes, and drums. ' ' " But
0," he adds, "what a slow place it is. Even two Crimean regi-
ments, with medals and decorations, could not wake it up." 11
Though Cozzens speaks strongly in praise of the hospitality
of Halifax, the morals of the place, so far as we remember,
he does not criticize. It is a matter of common knowledge, how-
ever, that popular British military and naval stations, for ob-
vious reasons, are universally places where superficial love of
pleasure and often easy virtue in social relations, among the
commoner classes at least, are apt to prevail. Of the com-
parative slowness of Halifax in anything besides pleasure, Judge
Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a quarter of a century earlier
than Cozzens, had made his Yankee " Clockmaker ' ' in answer
to the question "What do you think of the present state and
future prospects of Halifax? â– " Say: "If you will tell me when
the folks there will wake up, then I can answer you; but they
are fast asleep." 12
The only important connected study of Halifax social life in
the first half century of the town 's history that to our knowledge
11. Frederic Swartout Cozzens, "Acadia, or a Month with the Bluenojes."
New York, Derby and Jackson, 1859. "That the Haligonians are a kind and good
people, abundant in hospitality," Cozzens says, "let me attest. One can scarcely
visit a city occupied by those whose grandsires would have hung your rebel
grandsires (if they had caught them) without some misgivings. But I found
the old Tory blood of three Halifax generations yet warm and vital, happy to
accept again a rebellious kinsman, in spite of Sam Slick and the Revolution."
(Cozzens does not remember that some of the Massachusetts patriots would
have hanged the Tories with right good will ; it is not at all clear that the reverse
was the case).
12. "The Clockmaker: Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville,"
first printed as a series of sketches in the Nova Scotian newspaper in 1835, soon
afterward published in book form. Judge Haliburton, whose books are many,
was of New England descent, but was born at Windsor, Nova Scotia. His fam-
ily in Nova Scotia belong to the New England migration to that province in
1760- A United States author who has mentioned the external features of Hal-
ifax is Charles Dudley Warner, in his "Baddeck and That Sort of Thing." This
book "a narrative of a journey to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton,"
was published in Boston by James R. Osgood and Co. in 1874.
842 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
has come into print was made about 1860 by the Rev. Dr.
George William Hill, then and for long after, Hector of St.
Paul's Church in Halifax, in his memoir of Sir Brenton Halli-
burton, Kt, the seventh chief justice of Nova Scotia. 13 After
describing the public buildings and the external features in gen-
eral of Halifax, and giving some important facts of the town's
13. Sir Brenton Halliburton (who was knighted when he was very old) was
born in Newport, Rhode Island, and came to Halifax with his parents at the
Revolution. His father, John Halliburton, was born in Scotland, but married in
Newport Susannah Brenton, whose brother (Judge) James Brenton settled early
in Halifax, as did also did her sister Mary, wife of Hon. Joseph Gerrish. The
importance of Hon. Jahleel Brenton and his family in Newport has often been
mentioned in print. Air. George Champlin Mason in his "Reminiscences of New-
port (1884)" says: "Jahleel Brenton was fond of society and kept an open house,
both at the homestead [on Thames Street], and at Hammersmith [near Fort
iQams], where he was always prepared to entertain a large number of guests.
He was public-spirited, gave the clock that hangs in Trinity Church steeple, was
one of the original members of the Artillery Company, and one of the committee
to build the State House. But however well off in landed property, he was at
times crowded for ready money, and when he died, in 1767, his estate was en-
cumbered" (p. 369).
Of Dr. Halliburton, Mr. Brenton's son-in-law, Mr. Mason writes: "At the
foot of the Parade, where there is now a modern brick building, there stood until
within a few years a large gambrel-roof house that dated far back in the last
century. When the ground on which it stood was wanted for other purposes it
was removed to Bridge Street, where it still does service for shops and tenements.
On its old site it was occupied in succession by a number of physicians, all of
whom doubtless found it a good location. The first was Dr. Thomas Rodman,
who came from Barbadoes in 1680, and here resided up to the time of his death in
1827. His son Thomas, also a physician, was his successor. After him came Dr.
William Hunter, a Scotch physician, who was eminent in his day, and whose
worth has been frequently dwelt upon. Dr. John Halliburton was the next phy-
sician to occupy the house. He was residing here when the war broke out, took
sides with the Crown, and in 1781 was suspected of keeping up a secret commun-
ication with the enemy. So strong was the evidence against him that he left
hastily in a boat and made his way to New York early in 1782; for in one of his
letters now before me, dated New York, March 17, 1782, he speaks of his sudden
departure and expresses regret at having to leave one of his very sick patients,
Mr. William Tweedy. In this letter he urges his friends in Newport to see that
his wife and children were sent to him by the first flag. When his family joined
him, he removed to Nova Scotia and settled there; but for a time at least his
position in his new home was not a comfortable one, for in a letter dated at Hal-
ifax, September 8, 1782, he writes: A few casual acts of civility I have now and
then experienced, but that sincere and generous hospitality that was formerly
practised in Rhode Island is seldom to be met with in any country. . . . There
are a few agreeable and courteous people here, from whom we have received
some civilities, but whether for want of a proper knowledge of us, or from what-
ever cause, they want that cordial and generous confidence, that smiling ease
and cheerful communication which alone make civilities palatable.' In time this
feeling was changed ; there was a better understanding between the doctor and
the people of Halifax, who had learned to know and esteem him highly. He
died in 1807. Mrs. Halliburton, who was a daughter of Jahleel Brenton, died
in 1818. Their son Brenton Halliburton, chief justice of the province, was hon-
ored with Knighthood." (pp. 28, 29).
Rev. Dr. George Hill's "Memoir of Sir Brenton Halliburton" (207 pp.) was
printed in Halifax by James Bowes and Sons in 1864. It may be found in Boston
libraries.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 843
history, Dr. Hill says: "The private dwellings were usually
small, covering a very limited area, and seldom more than one
story in height, finished above with an attic. Although the town
was laid out in squares, each containing sixteen lots, of forty
feet in width and sixty feet in depth, each individual obtained,
if he could, except in the central part, more lots than one. Thus
the residences of many were quite detached, and ample scope
afforded for gardens, which were assiduously cultivated by the
proprietors. . . . Not a few planted trees before their
doors, under the shade of which the dairy cow loved to ruminate
during the hot days of summer, and to lie down at night, to the
inconvenience and danger of the pedestrian.
"The furniture in the dwellings of those who possessed means
was of a far more substantial character than that now used by
persons of the same class, and was considerably more expensive.
. . . It was usually made of a mahogany wood, of a rich,
dark color; the dining-room table was plain, but massive, sup-
ported by heavy legs, often ornamented with the carved re-
semblance of a lion ? s claw ; the side-board was high, rather nar-
row and inelegant; the secretary, or covered writing desk, was
bound with numberless brass plates at the edges, corners, and
sides ; the cellaret, standing in the corner, which held the w T ines
and liquors brought up from the cellar for the day's consump-
tion, was also bound elaborately with plates of burnished brass ;
the chairs, cumbrous, straight-backed, with their cushions cov-
ered with black horse-hair cloth, were as uncomfortable as they
were heavy; the sofa, though not common, was unadorned but
roomy; the great arm-chair deserved its title, for it was wide
enough and deep enough to contain not only the master of the
household, but, if he pleased, several of his children beside.
These for the most part comprised the furniture of the dining-
rooms of the upper classes. That contained in the bed-room
was built of the same wood, and of a corresponding style. The
bedsteads were those still known as four-posted, invariably cur-
tained, and with a canopy overhead. . . . The chests of
drawers and the ladies ' wardrobes were covered with the ubiqui-
tous brazen plates, and being kept bright, gave the room an air
-
844 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
of comfort and cleanliness. In almost every hall stood a clock,
encased by a frame of great size. . . .
"The kitchen department in those early times was of the
greatest importance. The day's labor began at early morning
with the often unsuccessful attempt to produce fire from flint
and steel ; baking and brewing, as well as ordinary cooking, were
for the most part attended to at home, and all was done for
many years at the open hearth, on which hard wood was burned
for fuel. . . .
"It was the habit to dine at an early hour, and take supper
between eight and nine o'clock. The fashionable dinner hour
was three o'clock, and on some state occasions it was made as
late as four. 14 As a consequence of this custom, business ceased
to be transacted, at least by the public offices, soon after mid-
day. It was too late to return when the somewhat lengthened
meal was over. In the ordinary course, a custom prevailed of
walking on a fine day, after dinner, sometimes towards the
Point, sometimes to the North, and in less favorable weather to
the Market, for a promenade beneath the balcony. On return-
ing home, those whose resources in themselves were small, usu-
ally played cards until supper was laid; while among the more
intellectual it was the admirable custom that the gentlemen
should read aloud while the ladies worked at embroidery. The
standard English authors were their text books on these oc-
casions ; they had but few, but these were the works of the ablest
historians and the more distinguished poets. Few are aware
how well informed, in spite of many disadvantages, were the
upper classes of society in those early times. . . . The full
and accurate acquaintance of many ladies with History, ancient
and modern, with Milton and Shakespeare, with Pope and Dry-
den, and with others of equal fame, may yet be traced through
a few of their daughters who survive— themselves old ladies
now— to adorn their native land. Many of them learned the
French language, and both wrote and spoke it fluently. ' '
Later in his description Dr. Hill says : * * It is quite indicative
of the general ease and lack of urgent business in the community
14. Speaking of food, Dr. Hill tells us that porcupines were much used as
game.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 845
that even as late as 1796, . . . there were no less than
twenty-four holidays, during which the public offices were clos-
ed." Levees at Government House, he adds, were very fre-
quent, on which occasions the streets leading to the executive
mansion were filled with gentlemen in powdered hair, and silk
stockings, and with silver-hilted swords.
Full dress for the women of the period was commonly a stiff
brocaded silk or heavy satin gown, with a long prim waist, from
which the ample hooped skirt spread off like a balloon, the
sleeves being tight to the arm. Over the neck and bosom a lace
handkerchief was likely to be spread, fastened by a heavy
jewelled pin. For church a richly wrought apron, and spangled
white kid shoes, with peaked toes and high heels were worn. The
hair, dressed with pomatum, was drawn over a cushion perhaps
twelve inches in height and sprinkled thickly with powder, a
white rosebud or other natural flower crowning this extraor-
dinary dome. In these days there -were few hair dressers in
Halifax, so people were obliged to begin very early in the day
to prepare for afternoon or evening entertainments, and very
clever must the fashionable hair-dresser have been who man-
aged to keep all his patrons in good humour as he went his slow
rounds from house to house. Full dress for men consisted of
knee-breeches, silk stockings, shoes with silver buckles, a white
neckerchief of great thickness, a straight-collared coat with
large buttons, a brilliantly coloured waistcoat, and the silver-
hilted sword or rapier we have spoken of.
Many of the large dinners of early Halifax were given at a
three-story wooden hotel at the corner of Duke and Water
streets, known as the " Great Pontac," a house built before 1757.
For dinners the cooks of the war-ships were often called into
requisition, and when naval officers themselves were the hosts
the dishes would be brought up to the windows of the hotel by
ships' stewards, rowed by sailors in spotless white, and handed
in for the several courses. In 1757, before the second taking of
Louisburg, Generals Wolfe and Amherst were entertained at
the Great Pontac, and for many years thereafter few distin-
guished men visited Halifax who did not find accommodation
within its hospitable walls.
.
846 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
About 1790 there was but one closed carriage in Halifax, and
the owner of this vehicle was so gallant that on the evening of
grand balls he was accustomed to send his servant round for
many of the ladies of the smart set, in turn. For a long time
sedan chairs were commonly used in the town. An advertise-
ment in a newspaper in 1794 announces that sedan chairs may
be ordered in Barrington Street at one shilling, one and three-
pence, and sixpence a ride. For church on Sundays the price
was an eighth of a dollar ; to Dutchtown, near the Arm, the price
was a shilling. 15
In a former chapter we have described in some detail the re-
markable accession to the population of Halifax that came with
the exodus from Boston in 1775 and 1776 of almost the whole of
that town's acknowledged aristocracy. As the Revolutionary
spirit in Massachusetts grew, the position of those who felt com-
pelled to take strongly the British side became more and more
intolerable, and as early as the spring of 1775, singly or in
small groups, Boston and Salem families of importance began
to seek shelter in the Nova Scotia capital. When the formal
withdrawal from Boston of General Howe's troops was posi-
tively determined on, the British sympathizers who had always
lived in the town, and those who from other places had recently
sought refuge there, also hastily prepared to leave, and on the
seventeenth of March, 1776, families and single men to the num-
ber of between nine and eleven hundred persons embarked with
15. As we have shown in the first chapter of this history, a considerable
number of Germans came to Halifax in the wake of the Cornwallis English
settlers. Many of these removed to Lunenburg, but a considerable group remain-
ed in the north end of Halifax. Among these Germans some picturesque social
customs prevailed. At their weddings the bridal party walked to church in pro-
cession, led by the bride and groom eiect, the women dressed in white with white
caps and ribbons, the men wearing white trousers and round blue jackets. At
the conclusion of the ceremony all went to a tavern, and partook of refreshments,
after which they went home for two or three days' feasting and dancing. For
one German wedding, in Halifax, the good things provided, included several
sheep, eighteen geese, soups, hams, puddings, pies, cakes, and wines in abundance.
The best fiddler that could be found was secured and the people danced all night
and perhaps all the next day. It is said that the host and hostess generally in-
sisted on the guests staying until all the food was eaten up. One quaint custom
observed at these weddings was for some guest at the wedding supper, on the
first day of feasting, to ask the bride to take off one of her shoes, which he then
passed round to each of the party for a coin as a gift to the lady. Usually guests
gave a dollar apiece, and sometimes the shoe was sold at auction to the highest
bidder, who returned it to the bride, together with the purchase money.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 847
the fleet. The arrival in Halifax of this bruised and heart-sick
multitude, the straits to which they were put to find even tem-
porary comfortable lodgment on shore, the departure of many
of them in a few weeks for England, and of some of them later
with the fleet for New York, their reinforcement before long by
others of their sort from the middle and southern colonies, the
introduction of many of those who settled permanently in the
town into the highest public positions, and the natural jealousy
felt towards such by the older inhabitants— these are incidents
in the progress of the history of Halifax that we have already
tried to describe. The establishment of an Episcopate in Nova
Scotia, and the consequent founding there of a college in which
Anglican principles should be taught, were two of the results of
the coming of the Loyalists, and the appointment in 1787 of
Rev. Dr. Charles Inglis as bishop, and in 1792 of Mr. John
Wentworth as governor, tended soon to make these later comers
to Nova Scotia well nigh supreme in the councils of church and
state.
What gave especial brilliancy to the social life of Halifax in
the last decade of the eighteenth century was the presence there
for part of this time of His Royal Highness Prince Edward,
Duke of Kent, later Queen Victoria's father, who was then in
chief command of the King's forces in British North America.
To this residence of Prince Edward in Halifax we shall devote
an independent chapter as this history goes on. Giving, as it
did, a great and lasting stimulus to the loyalty of Nova Scotians
to the British Crown, it likewise tended strongly to stimulate
gayety in Halifax, and the accounts of social entertainments,
in the town while it continued are highly interesting to read.
John Wentworth was governor from 1792 until 1808, and for
much of that period of sixteen years he made Government House
the scene of great festivity. Early in 1795 he was created a
baronet, and after that notable event in his career, as before,
he, and his wife Lady Frances, a woman of unusual charm and
accomplishment, devoted themselves with energy to making
Halifax social life as hospitable and gay as they could. " There
have dined at Government House between 12 December, 1794,
and 29 October, 1795," writes young Nathaniel Thomas, a cousin
• â– '•••■■■'â–
848 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
of Lady Wentworth (son of Nathaniel Ray Thomas, the well
known Massachusetts Loyalist, who spent the rest of his life
after 1776, and died, in Windsor, Nova Scotia), "two thousand,
four hundred and thirty-seven persons." On the evening of
Thursday, December twentieth, 17V2, says a newspaper of the
day, "the Lieutenant-Governor and Mrs. Wentworth gave a ball
and supper to the ladies and gentlemen of the town and the
officers of the army and navy, which was altogether the most
brilliant and sumptuous entertainment ever given in tins coun-
try/ ' Describing in detail the features of the entertainment,
the newspaper pays a highly enthusiastic tribute to the "ele-
gance and superiority of manners" of Mrs. Wentworth, and the
"hospitality, perfect good breeding, and infinite liberality, which
so distinguish the character of our beloved and adored gov-
ernor." On this magnificent occasion, says the article, "every-
thing tended to promote one sympathizing joy, and never was
there a night passed with more perfect harmony and luxurious
festivity. ' '
From year to year, as the history of Halifax in the time of
the Wentworths goes on, we read of social events that surprise
us with their luxury and brilliancy, for the town was then, we re-
member, less than fifty years old. The visits of royal person-
ages were always the signal for elaborate functions and great
display. On the fourth of October, 1786, Prince William Henry,
afterwards King William the Fourth, arrived in H. M. ship
Pegasus, and his visit was twice afterward repeated in 1787,
Magnificent, indeed, were the doings on these occasions, the
presence of a son of the Sovereign making the people almost
wild with joy. Notable also were the celebrations of the birth-
days of royalties, especially of that of King George's rather
staid and exceedingly proper queen. On the eighteenth of Janu-
ary Queen Charlotte was born, and every year as the day came
round, Halifax echoed with the thunders of cannon, while levees
and balls, with brilliant illuminations of the houses, enlivened
the cold and somewhat dreary town. In 1794, the birthday of
Prince Edward, the exact date of which was November second,
came on Sunday, and the popular customs precluded any gayety
on that sacred day. Accordingly there was only a salute from
.
â–
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 849
the citadel and a quiet levee at Government House. Monday
night, however, there was a magnificent ball and supper at the
Governor's, for which three hundred invitations were issued.
On Tuesday night the town was illuminated, and over the gate
of Government House appeared a crown and the initials P. E.,
"enclosed by a blaze of lights.' ' On the twelfth of August, 1796,
the Prince of Wales's birthday was celebrated, with parades,
salutes, and all the military pomp possible. A banquet at Gov-
ernment House, "at which Prince Edward, the army and navy
officers, and chief gentlemen of the town were guests of Sir
John Wentworth, concluded the festival."
On Tuesday, the thirteenth of September, 1796, Lady Went-
worth gave a ball and supper at Government House to Captain
Beresford, of one of his Majesty's war ships, who had "success-
fully beaten off a superior French ship, supposed to be a vessel
of the line. " " Most of the ladies and gentlemen of the town, ' '
Murdoch says, "were invited, and the officers of the army and
navy. As a compliment to the captain, all the ladies wore navy
blue cockades, and many had on bandeaux and ornaments of
blue, on which his name was inscribed in gold letters. Splendor
and taste were predominant, and gayety reigned supreme.
The merry dance was not deserted till the small hours of the
morning came on. ' '
Nor did the loyal celebrations of Haligonians lose any of their
fervor after the nineteenth century opened. On Friday, April
seventh, 1820, George the Fourth, who had been nine years
regent, was proclaimed King at Halifax. "At half past ten,
A. M., the governor went in state to the council chamber. The
members of His Majesty's council, the speaker and several mem-
bers of the assembly then residing or remaining in town, the
justices of the peace in Halifax, grand jurors, and many of the
inhabitants, and the officers of the army and navy, had pre-
viously assembled there. The governor having taken his chair,
the provincial secretary read the official despatches notifying
the demise of the late king and the accession of his eldest son and
heir. A proclamation of the new king's reign was signed by the
governor, councillors, and other chief persons present. His
Excellency having appointed David Shaw Clarke, Esquire, to
•»W
850 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
be herald at arms, that gentleman read the proclamation aloud
in a distinct and clear voice. At this time the Royal standard
was hoisted upon citadel hill. The herald proceeded from the
council chamber in a carriage, accompanied by the sheriff, to
the front of the Province House, to the market square, to the
door of St. Paul's Church, and to the new parade on Brunswick
Street, near the North Barracks, escorted by troops and at-
tended by the populace, and at every place repeated the procla-
mation. At the North Parade the garrison were drawn up under
arms, and a salute of twenty-one guns fired from six field
pieces. The procession then returned to the Province House,
and the proclamation was again read in the Supreme Court
room, now the Legislative Library. At one P. M. the Royal
standard was lowered to half mast, and minute guns were fired
from the fort on George's Island, which was continued the re-
mainder of the day, in memorial of the deceased sovereign. On
Sunday, sermons suited to the occasion were delivered in the
different places of public worship."
In 1830 was published by Henry Colburn and Richard Bent-
ley, in New Burlington Street, London, an interesting volume,
called "Letters from Nova Scotia, Comprising Sketches of a
Young Country," by Captain William Moorsom, of the Fifty-sec-
ond Light Infantry, which was written in Halifax in 1829, while
the author was officially engaged "in various tours undertaken
for the purpose of gaining some military information relating to
the province." 16 In describing Halifax the author says: "The
garrison forms about one-eighth of the population, and of course
materially influences the tone of society. A young officer in
whose head conceit has not previously effected a lodgment stands
every chance of undergoing a regular investment, siege, and
assault from this insidious enemy on joining his corps in Hali-
fax. He finds himself raised at once to a level above that ac-
corded to the scarlet cloth at home— his society generally sought,
frequently courted, and himself esteemed as a personage whose
opinions are regarded with no little degree of attention.
It is not the fault of the inhabitants if Halifax be not a
pleasant quarter for a stranger, and particularly for a military
16. The book has nineteen chapters. It also may be found in Boston libraries.
:
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 851
stranger. Hospitality, unbounded in comparison with that
which such a person will experience in England, is offered to
his acceptance. . . . The general tone of intercourse is
somewhat analogous to that we meet with in Ireland ; it is in fact
such as naturally prevails where the circle is not very extended,
where the individual members have been long acquainted, and
where military have long been stationed with few internal
changes. . . . There are no regular public assemblies in
Halifax. A theatre, conducted by amateurs, is opened five
or six times during the season, but a dearth of female perfor-
mers renders it not particularly attractive. Quadrille cards have
lately been issued every fortnight by one of the regiments in
garrison, and have been received in the light they were intended,
as an earnest of social harmony and amusement. Picnic parties
in summer and sleighing excursions in winter complete the scale
of divertis semens. . . . Whenever a fine day and a well-
formed road combine their attractions, from a dozen to twenty
of the members of the sleigh club may be seen with tandem, pair,
four-in-hand, or postillions a I Anglais e, first making the tour
of the streets, to the open-mouthed admiration of ail the little
truant ragamuffins, and the dashing out of town along the fine
1 Bason road' to partake of a dejeuner a la fourchette at some
country inn a few miles off. Each preux chevalier is accom-
panied by the lady of his choice, while some in double sleighs
are so unconscionable as to monopolize three or four. The only
sine qua non of propriety seems to be that the signorine shall
be matronized by some one. Strange as it may appear, while
hosts of the unqualified are ready to the moment, matronly
volunteers are rarely to be found ; and the one who is eventually
pressed into the service usually finds her numerous charge as
perfectly beyond all control, as the necessity for which control
is perfectly trivial."
Elsewhere Moorsom says: Were an Englishman "placed in
the midst of the party at the Governor 's weekly soiree, he would
not conceive himself to be elsewhere than in some English
provincial town with a large garrison. In fact there cannot
be any town out of Great Britain where this similarity is so
complete as at Halifax.' ' "The winter is here," he continues,
.
852 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
"as in other places, the season for gaiety similar to that we find
prevalent elsewhere, in the shape of dinner and evening parties,
rational and irrational, festive, sober, and joyous, insipid, dull,
and stupid. How far individual gout, or rather degout, may
act to give a ' jaundiced eye' I know not, but it seems to me the
general tone of these social meetings indicates a stage of luxury
rather than of refinement, of gaiety rather than its com-
bination with that intellectual foundation which renders such
gaiety truly delightful."
In 1842 and '43, an educated Italian named Gallenga, who af-
terward wrote many books under the pseudonym of L. Mariotti,
spent some time in Nova Scotia and saw much of Halifax society.
In a very entertaining book he wrote called "Episodes of my
Second Life," 17 he says, evidently with great pleasure in the
recollection: "Picnics at the Duke of Kent's Lodge, reunions
at Government House, balls given in turn by the officers of the
garrison at the Assembly rooms or by the naval officers on board
the Admiral's frigate, were almost daily occurrences— balls with
such a show of beauty as hardly any other town of the same size
and pretension could exhibit, and to the charms of which, I,
17. In 1842, "Luigi Mariotti" came out from England, where he had just
declined the position of private secretary to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, to be
professor of modern languages in King's College, at Windsor. Lord Falkland
was then governor of the province, and Dr. John Inglis, bishop of the diocese, and
Mariotti gives very graphic pictures of these dignitaries and of the other chief per-
sonages of the Province at that time. The Bishop, he says, was a dapper little man
with a lively face on which the sense of what was due to his prelatic dignity was
perpetually struggling to check the impulse of his bustling activity. There was in him
something of the look and manner of Dean Stanley. The Bishop's wife and "four
thin, and not very young daughters," he describes as having stateliness enough for
the whole Episcopal bench in the House of Lords. The new professor seems not
to have been the most contented person in the world, and he was very much dis-
appointed in King's College, his position for one thing proving far more of a
sinecure than he either expected or desired, but he soon set up a modest establish-
ment, bought a horse, engaged a black groom, and embarked on the sea of Windsor
and Halifax society. With Dr. McCawley, the president of the college, and his
wife, he was at once on good terms, and speaking of some of the girls he met at
Windsor, he says that the Miss Haliburtons, the Miss Heads, and the Miss Uni-
ackes "wanted neither prettiness nor animation and showed no invincible objection
to a little flirting." He does not deign to tell us to whom it was, but he confesses
that he lost his heart in Windsor, and when later he settled in Halifax, and was
a frequent guest at Government House (although the beautiful Lady Falkland was
then "in deep mourning for her brother, the Earl of Munster"), at the officers'
mess, and at assembly balls, and hops on the Admiral's frigate, he used regularly
on Saturday to saddle his horse and ride forty miles over a rough road to spend
Sunday in the college town with the fair captor of his affections.
An edition of "Episodes of my Second Life," was published in London by
Chapman and Hall, in 1884. The book may be found at the Boston Public Library.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 853
though I never danced, could not be blind— the charms of the
acres of dazzling-white bare necks and shoulders of the Arch-
deacon's strapping daughters, of the bright eyes and elegant
figures of the four Miss Cunards, of the fair complexions and
sweet expression of the four Miss Uniackes, two of them stars
of the first magnitude— all of whom whirled before me as crea-
tures of another orbit, happy in the arms of the red-coated or
blue-jacketed gallants encircling their waists.' '
In recollection of his boyhood and young manhood in Halifax,
Mr. Frederick P. Fairbanks, 18 a bachelor of arts of King's Col-
lege, Windsor, much of whose later life has been spent in the
neighborhood of New York City, has written the following pleas-
ant description of the social life, as he remembers it, of his native
town. "Halifax," he says, "had exceptional advantages for
6ocial recreation. Being the summer headquarters of the
fleet of the British and North American squadron and
being garrisoned by two regiments of infantry, several batteries
of artillery and a corps of engineers, the military and naval ele-
ment were largely in the ascendant, and aided to a considerable
degree in the entertainment of the citizens. This element
broughtwith it as residents the Commander-in-Chief of the forces
in America, and the Admiral of the fleet, with their respective
staffs, and Halifax being the place of residence of the Governor
of the Province, the Judges of the Supreme Court, and all the
executive officers of the government, as well as the Bishop of the
Diocese, naturally furnished excellent material for tea parties
and other social events. The respective regiments and ships of
war offered a lavish hospitality to the townspeople, to which
the latter did not fail to make satisfactory response, and hardly
a week passed that cards were not out for a General's, Ad-
miral's, or Governor's ball, or a dance on board ship, or by in-
vitation of the military officers or some one of the prominent
citizens.
* ' Then to fill in, there was a constant round of driving parties,
18. Mr. Frederick Prescott Fairbanks, Barrister, of Passaic, New Jersey, a
warm friend of the writer, is one of the few Haligonians who have ever taken the
trouble to describe the social life of their native town as it was about the middle of
the nineteenth century. His manuscript is a notable one and we are glad to re-
produce so much of it here.
854 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
yachting, garden, skating parties, or picnics, the participants in
which generally returned to the house of the patron for an im-
provised dance. Military reviews and parades, and sham fights,
too, were very frequent, concerts by the military bands were
given twice a week at the public gardens during the summer,
and all kinds of out door sports were in vogue, which were
largely attended by spectators. For example, it was not un-
common on a fine winter day, when the ice was good on the North
West Arm, to find assembled there on skates the best representa-
tives of all classes of society. High officials of the government,
judges, lawyers, rectors, and curates, and even the dignified
Bishop joined hands with the crowd ; colonels, majors, captains,
and middies were all on skates, and naturally the fair sex of the
city were out in force to greet them. When the sun shone
and the ice was smooth, there was good fellowship and enjoy-
ment which could hardly be excelled.
"In all social festivities, the heads of the house of Fairbanks
indulged and encouraged their children to indulge. They ac-
cepted invitations and made bounteous return. For many years
at Briar Cottage they kept open house and entertained freely,
until all the daughters but one were married and that one had
retired from society. Briar Cottage was seldom quiet in the
evening. Both parents and children were fond of company and
liked it best at home. Large and small dances, family dinners,
dinners to politicians, high teas to clerical friends and the peo-
ple of the church, card, charade, round game, and children's
parties were interspersed with an occasional ball, when every-
body in the Army, Navy, or Citizen force considered properly
entitled to an invitation would get one. A feature of these re-
ceptions was the absence of formality. Our parents made no
pretension to style, the ladies wore no dazzling jewels or costly
attire, and a man's income was never regarded as the measure
of his eligibility. Everything, however, was comfortable and
pleasing. The girls looked well, the military came in full dress
uniform with plenty of scarlet and blue and gold-lace, so at-
tractive to the feminine fancy, and the young men of the city
were so well looked after that they could not feel otherwise than
at home during the whole of the event.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 855
"On such occasions the two back parlours were opened for
dancing, the drawing room was reserved for tete-a-tetes and
conversation, and the supper was served in the front sitting
room, where it was laid early in the day, the room not being
opened till midnight or thereabout. During the evening, re-
freshments were served from the pantry or the sideboard in the
dining room. Wine and ale were always provided, and the sup-
per was of a substantial character, generally comprising boned
turkey, chickens, salads, and sweets of various kinds.
"The greater part of the time the daughters had friends visit-
ing them, and as men callers were always welcome in the even-
ings, many improvised dances were often got up. Every night
before retiring we had supper, even when the family were alone,
and a good bottle of ale was considered, both at supper and din-
ner a sine qua non. In these days a guest was never allowed
to depart without partaking of some refreshment— a very good
custom, and one which our children would do well to observe.
"At Christmas there was always a family gathering at Briar
Cottage. On such occasions the little front sitting room was
made to do duty for the children, and the recollection of that
room can never fade from their minds. While the children
were allowed their stockings in bed in the morning, they had
to wait until after breakfast for any further inspection of their
Christmas gifts. Then the family adjourned to the sitting room,
where on a round table (trees were not in vogue with us in those
days) the presents were displayed. This little front sitting room
could tell many a tale, if it had a voice, for it was the room re-
served, as well, for the daughters of the house when they were
about to be married. Often at such momentous times the boys
would receive the strict injunction: ' Don't come in without
whistling.' "
In a later manuscript Mr. Fairbanks writes :
"The principal public functions of Halifax were held at Gov-
ernment House, Admiralty House, the Commandant's residence,
the Provincial Building, and Masonic Hall. The balls on shore
had no distinctive feature, but were like all balls ; it may be noted,
however, that by whomsoever the entertainment was given one
was sure to be treated most lavishly as far as the inner man was
.
856 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
concerned. The hospitality of Halifax is proverbial, and one's
host was never lacking in his desire to regale one with the very
best that the market afforded or that the most pronounced epi-
cure could desire.
"The most popular of all the social events that took place in
those days, were, I think, the hops on board the ships of war.
This was possibly owing to some extent to the fact that they
possessed certain novel features not met with on shore. The
ships lay out in the stream some distance off the dockyard, and
a constant stream of boats manned by the sailors in holiday
dress, and commanded by midshipmen, moved back and forth
taking the guests from the dockyard to the ship. Once on board,
the most diffident could not but feel at home; he was free to
dance, smoke, sleep, eat or drink, or amuse himself by doing
nothing ; there was simply no restraint, and abundant opportun-
ity was furnished for having a good time in the way one wished.
There was a beautiful deck in the finest condition for the dance ;
there were the ward room and gun room below for those who
desired to indulge in mild dissipation; and there were numerous
nooks all over the vessel to be used as desired. There was most
deferential attendance, there were eatables and drinkables in
profusion ; and you were away from the hum of the city, floating
serenely on the placid waters of the great harbour, with some
of the finest ships of the British navy in close proximity, and
your surroundings in all ways pleasing. The water of the
harbour was often an intense blue which enhanced the beauty
of the vista from the shore, and there was plenty to look at in
the stream from the deck of the man-of-war.
Of certain popular regiments, Mr. Fairbanks says :
"I remember the arrival of the 62nd and 63rd regiments
which came directly to Halifax after the Crimean war. They
presented a very ragged appearance as they disembarked from
the troop ships and marched to their barracks. The 62nd was
very popular in Halifax and a number of its officers married
Halifax girls. Another very popular regiment was the 78th,
which took part in the relief of Lucknow. It was customary
at that time, and I believe still is, to have concerts by a military
band in the Public Garden (then the 'Horticultural Garden,'
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 857
once or twice a week). There was a musical composition en-
titled 'The Relief of Lucknow' if I remember rightly, which the
78th 's band used sometimes to perform. One part of the band
occupying the stand was supposed to be in the fort, and while
it was playing, another portion of the band was heard
a long distance off in a remote part of the garden playing ' The
Campbells are Coming. ' As soon as this became distinct, the
band on the stand took up the air and the two divisions played
if. in unison till the relief party marched into the 'fort, ' when
there was tremendous enthusiasm among the spectators. The
Fourth (King's Own) was also a very popular regiment in Hali-
fax.
"A feature of the arrival of troops in the city was that the
town crier turned out, ringing his bell and 'crying down credit' —
that is crying to the effect that all persons were prohibited from
giving credit to the members of her majesty's — th regiment,
and that the government would not be responsible if they did.
I remember one of the town criers very well, I often heard him
cry 'Lost; Strayed; or Stolen!' etc., etc.
"An extremely popular social organization in my day," this
writer adds, "was the Halifax Archery and Croquet Club, a
large and interesting club to which many of the army and navy
men as well as civilians belonged. A portion of the Horticultural
Garden was set apart for its use, and on field days the gathering
was most animated and gay. At that period tennis had not
come into vogue. A few years ago when in Halifax I saw an
aquatic carnival on the Arm. It was said that there were about
a thousand boats on the water. It was one of the prettiest
sights I ever saw. The Governor General of Canada, Earl Grey,
was then on a visit to Halifax, and this and many other interest-
ing social events were arranged in his honour."
In another manuscript by a native Nova Scotian we read:
"When an old regiment was ordered off the station there was
always sorrow in the drawing rooms and deep regret in the
Halifax Club, while on the part of the private soldiers and their
sweethearts there were presumably many tender farewells in-
dulged in and many bitter tears shed. Wlien the last echoes of
' The Girl I Left Behind Me, ' however, had died on the air, and
858 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
the new regiment, after disembarking from the ships, with flying
colours had marched into the town, a fresh round of acquaint-
anceships, usually equally pleasant with the old, began to be
made, fresh dinners and dances loomed on the near social
horizon, and the feminine heart, in high circles and low, was
athrob with the anticipation of new triumphs in the matrimonial
line. While imperial troops continued to visit Halifax, the
general ambition of girls in the smart set was to marry officers,
and few families of fashion in the town but succeeded, sooner
or later, in allying themselves with families of greater or less
note in England by marrying their daughters to young officers
of the army or navy. Of these two sets of officers, the latter, on
the whole, had more popularity than the former, for th^re is
usually a more open confidingness in sailors than in soldiers,
and it used to be felt that naval officers at large had the higher
breeding of the two departments of the British service of public
defence.
"The entertainments common in Halifax in the nineteenth
century were tennis, badminton, polo, lobster-spearing, tobog-
ganing, skating, dinners, luncheons, hops, kettledrums, balls,
picnics, and fairs. The balls given by the naval or military
officers were often especially brilliant affairs, the uniforms in
evidence including those of the line regiments, the artillery, the
engineers, and the various war-ships then on the station.' '
In one of his essays, Charles Dudley Warner says of the
dramatic social plantation life of the southern States before
the abolition of slavery: "Already, as we regard it, it assumes
an air of unreality, and vanishes in its strong lights and heavy
shades like a dream of the chivalric age. ' ' The old picturesque
eighteenth and nineteenth century life of Halifax has largely
disappeared too. For better or for worse, probably much for
the better industrially, certainly much for the worse in point of
dramatic interest, under the influence of insistent modern prac-
tical demands, it has utterly changed. One of the things that
helped give it and that helps it still retain a certain flavor of
the old England which it loves to copy, and in whose traditions
it has a persistent feeling of somehow having a right to share,
was and is the bestowal of occasional knighthoods on Halifax
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 859
men. For special service to the Empire, Britain has always thus
rewarded her sons, and thus she will probably long continue to
reward them. Of such easily given honours, that very likely
tend to keep dignity in the popular life, and that even in a
thoroughly democratic province such as Nova Scotia now is,
cannot at least do much if any harm, Halifax will always, prob-
ably, as long as Britain remains in name a monarchical country,
receive and welcome from the sovereign a modest share.
APPENDIX
Nova Scotians, many of them Haligonians, who have received titles. Several
of these names appear in the Dictionary of National Biography.
1
Sir Adams George Archibald, K. C. M. G., June 6, 1885 (C. M. G., 1872, Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Manitoba and the North West Territory, 1870-1873; of
Nova Scotia, 1873-1883).
Sir Edward Mortimer Archibald, K. C M. G., Aug. 26, 1882, British Consul for
some years at New York.
Sir Thomas Dickson Archibald, Kt. Bachelor, Feb. 5, 1873, Judge of the Queen's
Bench, London and Baron of the Exchequer, brother of Sir Edward Mor-
timer Archibald.
General John Charles Beckwith, C. B., Italian Knighthood (order of Sts.
Maurice and Lazarus, received from King Charles Albert, of Italy, Dec.
15, 1848. He was born at Halifax, Oct. 2, 1789, a nephew of Sir Brenton
Halliburton, Kt. Bach.
Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Belcher, R. N., K. C. B., March 13, 1867 (Kt. Bach.,
1843). He was born at Halifax, in 1799, son of Hon. Andrew Belcher,
M. E. C, and his wife, Marianne Geyer (of Boston), his grandfather being
Chief-Justice Jonathan Belcher, of Nova Scotia, and his great-grandfather
Governor Jonathan Belcher, of Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Sir Frederick William Borden, K. C. M. G., 1902, born in King's County, Nova
Scotia, May 14, 1847. He was for some years Minister of Militia in the
Dominion Parliament.
Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Laird Borden, K. C. M. G., 1914, born in King's County,
Nova Scotia, June 26, 1854. Premier of Canada at the present time.
Sir John George Bourinot, K C. M. G., May 21, 1898, born Oct. 24, 1857, died
Oct. 13, 1902. He was Clerk of the Dominion House of Commons, and
a literary man of distinction.
Sir James Cochran or Cochrane, Kt. Bachelor, March 12, 1845. He was born at
Halifax, June 2, 1794, and was Chief-Justice of Gibraltar from 1840 to
1877. He was an uncle of Sir John Inglis, K. C. B. He died at Gibraltar
June 24, 1883.
Lieutenant-General William George Cochran or Cochrane, C. B., brother of
Sir James Cochran, was born in Halifax April 19, 1790. He was a dis-
tinguished military man, serving in the Peninsular War.
860 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
Sir Samuel Cunard, Baronet, March o, 1859, was born in November, 1787. In
1840 he successfully inaugurated ocean travel by establishing the Cunard
Steamship Line. His son Sir Edward Cunard, born January 1, 1816, suc-
ceeded to his title April 28. 1805 and died in i860. Sir Bache Edward
Cunard, born May 15, 1851, succeeded as third baronet in 1869.
:Sir Malachy Bowes Daly, K. C. M. G., was Governor of Nova Scotia from
1890 to 1895, and again from 1895 to 1900.
Sir John William Dawson, K. C. M. G. September 11, 1884 (C. M. G., 1881),
was an eminent geologist and President of McGill University. He was
born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, Oct. 13, 1820.
Colonel Sir William F. De Lancey, K. C. B., a native of New York (son of
Stephen De Lancey) came with his father to Nova Scotia about 1783. He
entered the army, died at Waterloo, and was buried at Brussels. His father
became Chief-Justice of the Bahamas, and later Governor of Tobago. Sir
William's daughter, Susan, was the wife of Sir Hudson Lowe, Governor
of St. Helena when Napoleon was captive there.
Sir Sanford Fleming, K. C. M. G., 1897 (C. M. G., 1877) was born in Scotland,
but was for many years a summer resident of Halifax, where he owned
valuable property. Sir Sanford was long one of Canada's most useful
public men. He died at Halifax in July, 1915.
Baron Haliburton, 1898, (Sir Arthur Lawrence Haliburton), youngest son of
Judge Thomas Chandler Haliburton. was C. B., 1880, K. C. B., 1885, and G.
C. B., 1887, and was raised to the peerage in 189S. He died childless and the
peerage is extinct. Lord Haliburton was born at Windsor, Nova Scotia,
Sept. 26, 1832.
Sir Brenton Halliburton, Kt. Bachelor. April 13, 1859, was a son of Hon.
John Halliburton, M. D., and his wife, Susannah Brenton (of Newport,
R. I.). He was Chief -Justice of Nova Scotia from 1833 to i860, when he
died.
Sir John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, K. C. B. January 21, 1858, was a son of
Bishop John Inglis and grandson of Bishop Charles Inglis. He was born
November 15, 1814, and was knighted for successfully defending the Pres-
idency of Lucknow in the Crimean War, in 1857. He is popularly known
in Nova Scotia as the "hero of Lucknow."
Sir Edward Kenny, Kt. Bachelor. Nov. 3, 1870, was born in Ireland in 1800,
but was long a resident of Halifax. He was successively President of the
Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, Receiver General of the Province,
President of the Privy Council of Canada, and a member of the Dominion
Senate.
Sir James Monk, Kt. Bachelor, born in Boston in 1746, removed with his parents
to Halifax early in the history of the town, and by 1774 became Solicitor
General of Nova Scotia. After 1777 he removed to Montreal and there
became Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench. He was knighted late
in life.
Sir William Johnstone Ritchie, Kt. Bachelor, May 24, 1881, Chief-Justice of
the Dominion of Canada, was born at Halifax Oct. 28, 1813.
Sir Thomas Andrew Strange, Kt. Bachelor, March 14, 1798, was Chief -Justice
of Nova Scotia, June 6, 1791, to Sept. 9, 1797. He was afterward Chief-
Justice of Madras, India.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 86 1
Sir John Sparrow David Thompson, K. C. M. G., Sept. 10, 1888, was Minister of
Justice for the Dominion of Canada, and later Premier.
Sir Charles James Townshend, Kt. Bachelor, was eleventh Chief-Justice of
Nova Scotia, from Nov. 2, 1907 until some time in 1915.
Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Baronet, 1888 (C. B.. 1867. K. C. M. G., 1870, G.
C M. G., 1S86). Sir Charles was the most distinguished statesman Nova
Scotia has produced. Like several others in this list he was of New Eng-
land origin. He died in England, October 30, 1915.
Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, K. C. M. G., 1893, son of Sir Charles Tupper, Bart.,
was born August 3, 1855, and became Minister of Justice for the Dominion
of Canada.
Rf.ar-Abmiral Sir Provo William "Parry Wallis. G. C. B., May 24, 1873 (K. C.
B., i860), was born at Halifax, April 12, 1791, and died February, 1892. He
had a distinguished career in the Navy, and was long known as the "Father
of the Fleet." It was he who conducted the Chesapeake into Halifax in 1813.
Sir Robert Linton Weatherbe, Kt. Bachelor, 1006, tenth Chief-Justice of Nova
Scotia, from 1905 to 1907, was born in Prince Edward Island, April 7, 1836,
and died at Halifax in 1915.
Sir John Wentworth, Baronet, 1795. was Governor of Nova Scotia from 1792 to
1808. He died at Halifax April 8, 1820, when his son, Charles Mary suc-
ceeded to the baronetcy. The latter died childless in England, April 10,
1844, when the title became extinct.
Vice-Admiral Sir George Augustus Westphal, K. C. B. (?), April 7, 1824. He
was born July 26, 1785, and died January 11, 1875. He was wounded at
the battle of Trafalgar.
Major-General Sir William Fenwick Williams, R. A., G. C. B., May 20, 1871 (C.
B., 1852, K. C. B., 1856), was distinguished in the Crimea. He is known as the
"hero of Kars. ,? He was born at Annapolis Royal, probably in 1799, and died
unmarried in London, England, July 26, 1883.
Sir William Robert Wolsey Winniett, R. N., K. C. B., June 29, 1849, was born
at Annapolis Royal, in 1794.
Sir William Young, Kt. Bachelor, 1868 or 1869, was Chief-Justice of Nova
Scotia from i860 to 1881. He died at Halifax May 8, 1887.
[Since this list was compiled, another Haligonian, Dr. Charles Frederick Fraser,
has been knighted for conspicuous public service. He was made Kt.
Bachelor, June 3, 1915.
Our list does not include either New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island men
who have received titles].
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PUBLIC LIBRARY, BRIDGEWATER, MASS.
AMERICANA
October, 1915
Recollections of a Half Century and More
BY ANDEEW M. SHERMAN, MORRISTOWN, N. J.
IV
My Boyhood in New England
(Continued)
USED, when a boy, to be very fond of ripe tomatoes, or
"loveapples" as they are sometimes called by the senti-
mental ; and many mornings I would go out into the garden
and while the dew was still on the vines pick and eat
the bright red or delicate yellow tomatoes with as keen
a relish as ever I ate the most luscious peach or pear in their
season.
One morning during the season for tomatoes one of my school-
mates and playfellows, John Lambert was his name, but the boys
called him just "Johnnie" for short, was taking a small cart
load of tomatoes from a neighbor's garden to his own home for
his mother to make into catsup, as I now recall. As we were
warm friends and as I had frequently shared with him apples
and peaches and other fruit in their season I took one of the
tomatoes from the top of the load he was hauling and began to
eat it. For some reason "Johnnie" was not in the best of humor
on that morning, and he flew into a perfect rage over the lo^s
of a single tomato from his load and threatened to chastise me,
or to repeat his exact words, he exclaimed : "Hey ! Put that toma-
to back, or I'll lick you!" And I think he would have licked me,
for he was older and stronger than I; and beside, I knew T had
(863)
"
864 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
no right to take the tomato, hence I could hardly have mustered
pluck to defend myself as I could and would have done had I
been conscious of being in the right. So I at once put the tomato
back on the load with the prints of my teeth in its shining side,
and, as best I could I attempted to smooth over the matter. It
was several days before "Johnnie" resumed his friendly rela-
tions with me.
The little episode just related occurred in front of what used
to be called the ' * old church, ' ' a building once used for religious
gatherings before the Protestant Episcopal Church was erected ;
this "old church" may be seen in the illustration of the Protes-
tant Episcopal Church at "the works" appearing in connec-
tion with the article just preceding this, at the left of said church.
The "old church" had been made into a dwelling house and
"Johnnie" Lambert's parents occupied a portion of it at the
time of the tomato episode.
"Johnnie" and I in due course resumed our friendly relations
and subsequently had many a fine time together, swimming and
skating and romping the fields and woods and in playing on
the big haymow in father's barn.
My friend and playmate, I must not omit saying, nobly died
in defense of "Old Glory" in the immortal sixties of the century
just past ; and his remains now lie in an unknown and hence un-
marked grave in southern soil. In the early part of the Civil
War "Johnnie" enlisted in a Massachusetts infantry regiment
which served under Grant in Virginia. In one of the series of
bloody battles fought in the wilderness during the spring of 1864
my old playmate was severely wounded and with many others was
left helpless on the field where he had fallen. The woods in
which the Union wounded lay took fire from the incessant dis-
charge of cannon and musketry and the flames were soon sweep-
ing mercilessly over the grounds where the brave boys in blue
lay, and my old playmate and schoolfellow of many years ago
was burned to death ; and the remains of his charred body still
rest in Old Virginia.
I cannot on Memorial Day drop a spring flower upon the grave
of my old playmate in dear New England, whose remains quietly
sleep in the sunny South, but I can and do recall his ardent devo-
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 865
tion to the country which gave him birth and for which he sacri-
ficed his young and promising life in the War for the Union—
a war which immeasurably transcended in importance the war
now being waged in Europe, where millions of the flower of the
countries involved are being sacrificed!
Before I was twelve years of age I had two narrow escapes
from untimely death ; one of these I have already mentioned, and
the second was as follows : It was winter time. The stream, or
river, as the boys called it, that fed the raceway that furnished
water power for the mills "at the works" had been frozen over
for several weeks and the boys and girls had greatly enjoyed the
fine skating. But at length there came a thaw and the ice became
very tender; so tender, indeed, that some of the older boys quit
skating until there should be "another freeze,' ' and the ice
should again become safe for skating. One day, before the
"freeze" came, some of the younger boys and girls were on the
stream skating near the shore; and getting bolder, several of
them ventured out into the middle of the stream. Not satisfied
with skating, the boys started a game of "tiddly-bender," which,
as most boys know is running, and jumping up and down on the
tender ice until it fairly bends beneath their feet ; and the girls
are sometimes persuaded to join in the dangerous sport. The
girls had joined the boys on the occasion I am now describing.
We ran back and forth on the ice, becoming bolder and bolder
with each successful crossing, until it seemed as if the ice would
collapse beneath our feet; and still we continued our running
and jumping. Suddenly, when we were near the center of the
stream, and over the deep channel, the ice began to crack and snap
"at a great rate" and the boys and girls began at once to scatter
in various directions to points of safety. For some reason, which
I do not exactly recall, I did not get away as quickly as the rest,
and the ice gave way under me. Gradually the ice sank beneath
me, and, opening, let me into the cold water below. I scrambled
for a spell to get back on the ice but the more I scrambled the
more the surrounding ice gave way. Exhausted from my des-
perate struggles to get back on to the ice I finally gave up the
struggle. My clothes by this time were thoroughly soaked and
with shoes and skates on my feet I felt my body being dragged
866 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
down, down into the channel, which was running with consider-
able velocity. Meanwhile the boys and girls who had escaped
were standing on the banks of the stream looking helplessly on.
Once I went to the bottom of the stream, but I rose to the surface
and made a desperate effort to grasp the ice. Again the crumb-
ling ice mocked my endeavor to use it as a means of rescue,
and for the second time I was going down, having given up all
hope of escaping from a watery grave.
Just as I began to go down for the second time one of the boys
on the shore shoved out a big plank to me ; the plank was nearly
twelve feet in length and it was long enough to reach from one
side of the opening in the ice to the other, and to lap over one
or two feet on each side. I first caught sight of the plank as my
head was about going under the water, and reaching up my hands
I grasped it. Hope began to revive, and the sudden revival of
hope gave me new strength in my entire body. I was able to pull
my body up on the plank although it took me some time to do so ;
but at length I was flat on the top of the plank. The boys and
girls had meanwhile been cheering at the prospect of my being
rescued; and I cannot describe how the cheering helped me to
get up on the plank above my head. But for the cheering I
might not have been able to lift myself and my water soaked
clothing on to the plank. As I lay on the top of the plank long
enough to "get my breath" I felt the plank moving; and it did
not take me long to ascertain that the resourceful boy who had
so opportunely shoved the plank out on to the ice for me had
fastened a rope to one end of it, and with the aid of other boys
present I soon found myself on ' ' dry land. ' '
Many a time since my narrow escape have I played " tiddly-
bender," but I never again broke through the ice into the cold
water.
Until I was quite a good sized boy the immediate neighborhood
of our home seemed, to my boyish imagination, to comprise the
whole world. I can distinctly recollect when I first began to ' ' get
my eyes open" to the fact that the world was larger than the
neighborhood in which I lived. By permission of my mother I
went one beautiful spring morning for a ride with the butcher
with whom we traded over a part of his weekly route. As I
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 867
passed out of the sight of my home and the new houses began one
after another to appear ; and as the new scenes along the route
greeted my wide-open eyes it seemed as if I was passing through
some enchanted region. This fresh dawning upon my mind of
the fact that the world was a much larger place than our immedi-
ate neighborhood was an important revelation to me, for it was
enlarging my mental no less than my physical vision. Up to that
spring morning of my early boyhood the experience I am relat-
ing was the most delightful of my life.
And then, such an indescribable sense of freedom as came over
me after I had lost sight, for the time, of my home ! The thought
of being, even for a few hours, released from my "mother's
apron strings, ' ' good and indulgent as was that dear mother, is
still vivid in my memory.
I returned from that ride fully resolved that as soon as possi-
ble I would see more of the world whose greatness was beginning
to dawn upon my young mind.
Attending the same district school "at the works' ' with my
younger brother, Charles L., now of Philadelphia, Pa., and I,
was a big, overgrown boy who was a bully, and like most bullies
he was a generally conceded coward.
For some reason he had gotten in the way of abusing my
younger brother when I was not about. At length this bully
kicked my brother in the abdomen. This was of so serious a
character that my brother told me about it. The next time I met
this bully I called him to account for his abuse of ' l Charlie, ' ' and
he at once struck an attitude of defiance, which meant: "Well,
what are you going to do about it ? ' ' Notwithstanding this bully
was older and much larger than I, I resolved then and there to let
him know what I would ' ' do about it. " I therefore ' ' went for
him." I threw him on the ground, after striking him several
blows, and getting astride of his prostrate body I gave him the
soundest pummeling with my clenched fists he ever received be-
fore or afterward. He never again abused my ' ' little brother ;' '
and he took special pains to cultivate my acquaintance after the
episode just related.
The most interesting phase of this occurrence, however, is the
fact that about twenty-five years ago, while visiting in Bridge-
868 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
water, I had occasion to go to that portion of the Bridgewater
iron works known as * ' the forge. ' ' In this department of the iron
works the former bnlly was employed; and after ascertaining
where he could be found I made myself known to him. We had a
pleasant chat, for I perceived the change that had taken place in
his character. Before parting with my old schoolmate I asked
him if he remembered the thrashing I gave him when ' ' we were
boys," to which he pleasantly replied. "Yes, Andrew, and I
deserved it!" It is perhaps needless for me to say that we
parted with the most kindly feelings each toward the other. He
has since passed over the narrow stream "twix't the two words."
It was while attending the district school at "the works"
taught for several terms by a Mr. Caldwell from an adjoining
town, whom I remember as a most excellent teacher, that I first
participated in what were termed ' ' spelling matches, ' ' which were
usually conducted on Friday afternoon. The larger scholars,
boys and girls, having been chosen, one by one, by the "leader"
on either side of the school room for their proficiency in spelling,
the two rows of scholars engaged in the spelling match faced
each other ready for the friendly contest. Words were then
given out alternately by the teacher to the two rows of con-
testants. When a scholar missed correctly spelling a word given
to him or her he was required to take his place at the foot of the
row in which he stood; and when a scholar correctly spelled a
worji given him or her he was permitted to take his place at the
head of the row in which he stood. It was an interesting and
often an exciting exercise, and many of the scholars anticipated
with much pleasure those weekly spelling matches. The author
of these articles was not far behind the most proficient spellers
in Mr. Caldwell 's school at "the works" in old Bridgewater.
In Mr. Caldwell's school was a girl about my own age— she
lived next the district school— to whom, as a boy, I took a partic-
ular fancy. She may have taken a fancy to me, also, for when
I was about eight years of age she gave me a pretty book mark
made of perforated cardboard and bright colored worsteds with
a piece of colored silk ribbon as a background. It was doubtless
highly prized by the donee.
A few years before my mother passed away, and during a visit
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 869
to her home in Lynbrook, N. Y., she brought out her "treasure
box" containing- various souvenirs, and, taking therefrom the
book mark above mentioned, about which I had entirely forgot-
ten, she said : "There is a book mark given to you, when a boy,
by Carrie Guild; I wish you to have it." I took the book mark
and it is now among my souvenirs.
The school girl who made and gave me the book mark long
since "crost the bar," having, while crossing, I trust, seen her
"Pilot face to face."
I must tell my readers about a strange character I knew in my
boyhood in New England. He lived in an old, unpainted house
near the railroad running from Boston to Fall River. This man
kept fowls, and also bought and sold them as a speculation. It
was common talk that he once stole from one of his neighbors a
fine rooster. He kept the fowl for a while ; and when this neigh-
bor, wishing to replace the missing rooster, went to Mr. Jones,
as I will call him— for I do not wish to mention his actual name
—to purchase another rooster, Jones, having previously painted
the feathers of the stolen rooster, sold him to his customer. It
did not require more than one or two rains to wash off the paint
from the rooster's feathers; upon which the purchaser discov-
ered to his amazement that he had bought and paid for his own
missing fowl. Of course there was "bad blood" between the
two townsmen ever afterward.
Mt. Jones daily walked the railroad tracks for several miles
out and back and with a long straight stick with a sharp pike at
one end he would pry off all the loose pieces of iron from the
rails on either side. The rails were then made of soft iron, and
in consequence of the constant running of trains over them they
wore away quite rapidly. This old iron thus collected Jones
would deposit in a bag which he carried with him on his daily
trips, and when a sufficient quantity was procured he would sell
it for old iron ; and at that time old iron brought something like
five cents per pound. Mr. Jones' income from the sale of old
iron, therefore, was not to be despised.
He was one day walking on the some tracks where for several
years he had faithfully plied his peculiar business, when, by rea-
son of his age and deafness, he did not discover the approach
870 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
of an express train from Boston until it struck him, threw him
down the high embankment, instantly killing the eccentric old
man. The worst feature of the case was that his body was so
fearfully mangled that he was scarcely recognizable when picked
up. In these catastrophic days the incident just related seems
insignificant, but in "the good old days" of my boyhood and to
my boyish thought the death of Mr. Jones seemed horrible and
made an impression on my mind from which I did not recover
for several years afterward.
I must not forget to speak of the first silver quarter of a dol-
lar I ever earned ; it was when I was a small boy in old Bridge-
water. Like many boys of our age my younger brother, Charles
L., and I were fond of talking, and I suppose we may sometimes
have taken up more of the time than belonged to us as "little
fellows. " At any rate, one day, after our tongues had wagged
more than usual, John C, son of Mr. Shubell Lovell, of whom
I have already spoken, more for a little fun than for anything
else, offered to give twenty-five cents to the boy— there were
only my brother Charles and I present— who would keep quiet
the longest ; the time fixed was five minutes. So my brother and
I each seated himself in a chair, and, at a signal from Mr.
Lovell, began the contest.
Scarcely three minutes had elapsed before Charles inquired:
"Is the time up, John?" Charles did not, of course, win the
twenty-five cents ; and it was therefore awarded to me, for by a
truly strenuous effort I had succeeded in keeping quiet the pre-
scribed length of time. That silver quarter, when it came into
my possession, seemed "bigger than a cart wheel."
What boy does not like to ride horseback? I did, that is cer-
tain. I had quite a unique experience riding a horse when about
eight years of age, it was as follows : One of the neighbors, a
Mr. Leonard, had built a new house. In the front yard, or rather
in the place where he wished to have a front yard, there was a
deep hole which, during a portion of the year had considerable
water in it. Indeed, I used to kill frogs in the water which
accumulated there, and this mud-puddle, for that was about all
it really was, although to me, a small boy, it seemed to be quite
a pond, had, of course, to be filled ; and it was done with the aid
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 871
of a scoop-plough. Mr. Leonard held the two strong handles of
the scoop-plough and a small boy rode the horse that drew the
scoop-plough. It fell to me on a certain day to ride the horse
and I was as proud a boy as ever wore a jacket or walked in
shoes, although on the occasion referred to I was barefoot. "While
the horse was driven round and round the mudhole to be filled
Mr. Leonard would turn the scoop-plough inward, and thus, lit-
tle by little, throw the surrounding earth into the hole. It seemed
to me a slow, tedious process. I got along very well for some
time, but becoming a little careless about guiding the horse she
got too near the center of the remaining hole, the result of which
was that she suddenly sank nearly to her belly in the soft soil.
If I wasn't frightened no boy ever was! It was with consider-
able difficulty that the horse was gotten out of the soft soil into
which she had sunken. Mr. Leonard scolded me some and I
afterward paid stricter attention to the business in hand. Be-
fore noon of the day there was no hole to be seen in front of
neighbor Leonard's new house; and before the close of summer
no one would have dreamed on looking into his front yard that
the frogs ever peeped where flowers and shrubbery were then
growing in rich profusion.
In Bridgewater, when I was a small boy, was a young man who
had for several years followed the sea, part of the time, at least,
on "a whaler," which as every " Yankee" knows, is a vessel en-
gaged in capturing whales, usually off New Foundland, and ex-
tracting oil from their carcasses and preserving such of their
bones as are suitable for " whalebones, and other uses." This
young man had followed the sea long enough to have acquired
all the ways of a sea-faring man, even to the swagger of the
typica 1 sailor ; and I will also add that he had not forgotten the
grog-drinking habits acquired on the "briny deep." Neverthe-
less, he was well liked by people in general, and carried around
with him a warm heart that moved him to not a few good deeds,
especially on behalf of those who were in trouble.
At the time of which I am about speaking this young sailor was
i \ on shore ; ' ' that is to say, he had recently returned from a sea-
voyage and was at home on a visit. Because of this sailor's
acquaintance with one of my older brothers he invited me, on a
'
872 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
fine day in the summer time, to accompany him in a boat row
down the river which ran sleepily through Bridgewater south-
ward. This river, "Town River/ ' by name, was and is one of
the crookedest streams I ever saw ; indeed, it might very properly
be called "Serpentine River," so far as its decidedly winding
course is concerned. The scenery along the banks of this crooked
river, however, are beautiful and varied. In some places, for
example, the trees form an almost complete arch across the
stream, thus affording a most delightful and refreshing shade on
a hot, sultry day. Sometimes the stream runs through broad
meadows covered with rich green. For a considerable distance
the river's bank is high and almost perpendicular and covered
with dense woods. The numerous curves in the river form pretty
little bays, into which, every now and then, the boatman is
tempted to turn his boat and sit and dream, and dream. "While
tarrying in these tiny bays the boatman has to cling to the over-
hanging tree-boughs to prevent his craft from swinging out
again into the stream. As one tarries in these shady nooks and
enjoys their peculiar quiet he will lazily watch the fish dart about
in the deep waters of the temporary miniature harbors in which
he moors. Meanwhile, the birds, seated on the overhanging tree-
boughs sing their sweet songs, apparently oblivious to the pres-
ence of the boatman so thoroughly absorbed and delighted with
the enchanted place in wt ich he fain would dwell forever.
The sailor's invitation to accompany him in a trip down
"Town River" was gladly accepted by the author, who, at the
time, had never seen but a small section of the stream.
As we moved down that crooked river, which seemed like a
fairy land to my boyish imagination, our trip appeared like a
journey out into the wide, wide world ; indeed, it opened up to me
a new and hitherto unexplored country ! Our summer trip, which
was really only two or three miles, seemed to me to be ten times
that distance.
Not the least interesting feature of our trip down "Town
River" on that delightful summer day, was the sight of the sailor
in his dark blue, low-neck shirt, and long, flowing black neck-
tie, the ends of which were blown hither and thither by the cool
breeze that swept up the river. The perfect ease with which
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RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 873
the apparently happy sailor rowed the boat, while I sat in the
stern taking in, like one in a dream, the passing scenes along the
route, was to me quite a wonder ; and I then and there resolved
that I too, would at no distant day become as expert an oarsman
as the sailor in the bow. The thought that again and again came
to me that I was taking a trip with a "real" sailor, in a "rear'
sailor suit, was a most delightful experience to me ; and I had
the feeling that I would like to spend my whole time on the water.
Several times the sailor and I went ashore, sometimes to gather
wild flowers ; again to cut some sweet birch to eat, and again to
cut some cat-o-nine tails to carry home. Ah! that was a great
day for me, the boy of about eight years of age ; and the only
regret I experienced was, that the day did not last an entire week !
When I was between ten and eleven years of age we moved into
another school district. Our removal was made necessary by
the decease of the aged woman who owned the house we had been
occupying, and the inheritance of the property by an only child,
a son, who wished to spend the remaining years of his life on
"the old homestead" where he was born and where he had spent
his happy childhood.
The house we moved into was an old-fashioned one, which had
once, in the distant past, been painted a pretty shade of yellow ;
but long exposure to the elements had so far worn the body of
the paint from the house that the color had become a faded yel-
low. This gave to the house a decidedly shabby appearance. The
owner of the place was apparently contented with the neglected
appearance of the house ; but be that as it may, nothing was done
to improve it.
In the back yard and only a short distance from the rear of the
house was a well with a long well-sweep for drawing the cool
water from its depths. My younger brother and I were very
fond of riding up and down on the well-sweep ; and we usually
took advantage of the landlord's absence from home by indulging
in this sport. If our landlord was about home and discovered us
riding on the well-sweep, which he once in a while did, the sur-
rounding atmosphere was anything but red or white.
The district school my younger brother and I attended while
living in the "Willis Place," so named from the fact that the
874 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
house was once owned and occupied by a family of that name—
indeed, the maiden name of the landlord's wife was Willis—
was about two miles distant on the main road leading to the next
large village; and we had to walk it during the regular school
terms.
Soon after my brother " Charlie " and I began attending "The
Alden School/' so called because there were several families of
the name of Alden living in the district, the school committee
for that district made their annual visit to the Alden School for
the purpose of ascertaining what progress, if any, the pupils
were making. The teacher, as usual, upon such occasions, brought
up several classes for recitation, among them the first class
in reading to which I belonged. The text book used by this class
was "The American Common-School Eeader and Speaker," ded-
icated to John Quincy Adams. The reader I then used is now
(1915) in my possession with my name scrawled on one of the fly
leaves. To say that I prize this old reader would be almost su-
perfluous.
On the occasion just referred to, we were required by the com-
mittee to read, one after another, a few paragraphs from Bry-
ant's poem entitled "Thanatopsis." At the conclusion of the af-
ternoon's exercises I was publicly, and by name, declared by the
school committee to be the best reader in the class, and that was
equivalent to declaring me the best reader in the school.
From that hour my troubles began ; and in those troubles my
"little" brother "Charlie" shared. That a new pupil, a boy
neither born nor reared within the precincts of the Alden School
District should have been publicly declared by the august school
committee to be the best reader in ' l The Alden School, ' ' was more
than some of the boys— and girls, for that matter— who were "to
the manor born" and who had always attended that school could
stand ; and several of the boys— acting, I presume, by proxy for
some of the girls— whose envy had been aroused, almost imme-
diately began a systematic persecution of my brother and F
which for several weeks made existence anything but happy for
us. At every opportunity and in various ways these boys an-
noyed "Charlie" and I; and one boy in particular, by the i\**vn**
o f * Churchill, did his best to provoke me to a quarrel with Irm
1
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 875
Foreseeing, however, the consequence of an encounter with half a
dozen or more boys— for that was what a quarrel with Churchill
meant— I avoided being drawn into such an encounter. Still, I
confess, I was fully resolved to "get even" with Churchill at the
first opportunity.
The boys of the Alden School made it so disagreeable for my
brother and I that we both lost our interest in school; about
the only pleasure we had was in going off together into the woods
near by during the noon-hour and there partaking of our lunch,
which, owing to the distance to and from school we brought with
us in a tin pail each day. Several times my brother and I laid
our troubles before the teacher of the Alden School; but either
because she could not or would not she did nothing to make our
attendance at her school more agreeable. At length " Charlie "
and I concluded we would not try to go to school ; in other words
we resolved between us to "run away from school." So day
after day for a period of several weeks we would start from
home in the morning with our dinner pails as if to go to school ;
but instead of attending school we would play "hookie." On
some days we would spend the whole time in the woods making
beautiful bowers by bending down and fastening together at the
tops with strong cords, the small trees. Inside these bowers we
made rude seats and there in the quiet of the woods with only
the sweet songs of the birds to break the silence my brother and
I would sit and talk over the fine times we used to have in the
school district from which we had removed.
When we had talked ourselves out we would leave the bower
and run hither and thither through the woods. Playing Indian
was a favorite sport that furnished the excitement a boy's na-
ture craved. More than once I as a "big Indian" captured
"Charlie" whom I imagined was a white boy and carried him
off to my wigwam— the bower we had constructed in the woods,
and confined him until, while "big Injun" was off on a hunting
expedition, he escaped.
Then we would go in bathing, sometimes in the swiftly-flowing
river near by, and sometimes in a mudhole close to the bower
where the bloodsuckers would fasten themselves on the bottom of
our feet and put us to no little trouble in extracting them.
876 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
As the hour for the afternoon session of school to close drew
near we would go off to the fields and fill our tin pails with ber-
ries to take home as a sort of peace offering to our mother;
or rather, as a peace offering to our own consciences for the
wrong we were doing in running away from school. And still,
under the circumstances, we felt that we were more than half
justified in doing so. When we caught sight of the school chil-
dren going home from school my brother and I would join them
and, together we would proceed toward our home. Of course
mother was very glad to get the berries.
It was a month or more before our mother discovered that her
two boys were running away from school ; and it was because of
a visit of the school teacher to our home to ascertain the reason
of our absence from school. When our mother was informed of
our repeated absence from school and learned of our truancy she
was very much displeased ; and although my brother and I tried
to explain the cause of our truancy our mother punished us se-
verely. I thought at the time and still think that if our mother
had known all the facts in the case her punishment would have
been less severe, at least.
The teacher of the AJden School was requested by our mother
to inform her at once if we were again absent from school with-
out written permission; and with that understanding between
the two, " Charlie' ' and I were sent off "bright and early' ' to
school on the following day.
Our persecutions at school again began ; if anything, Churchill
was worse than ever before. I did not mind so much his annoy-
ing me, but he could not let my brother alone; he hadn't a
minute's peace when Churchill was around. I stood it as long as
I could and then I made up my mind that whatever the conse-
quences I would give Churchill a good thrashing. I resolved,
however, to wait until he should again annoy ' ' Charlie ; ' ' and I
hadn't long to wait.
The scholars were coming out of the schoolhouse for their
nooning. As my brother stepped on the ground just outside the
door Churchill put out his foot quickly in front of my brother and
tripped him so he fell sprawling on the gravel walk leading from
the schoolhouse. As "Charlie" fell his dinner pail flew from
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 877
his hand, the lid came off and his dinner was spilled on the
ground. He began crying ; not altogether because of the loss of
his dinner but because of the bruises his hands had received from
violent contact with the gravel walk.
Without speaking a word I rushed up to Churchill and with
the flat of my right hand gave him a smart slap in the face. By
this time the teacher was standing in the doorway of the school-
house. "Andrew, what are you doing to Churchill 1" she in-
quired.
I should not have known the teacher was in the doorway had
she not sang out, as I gave Churchill another slap on the other
side of his face: "Andrew Sherman, stop fighting, or I will re-
port you to your mother ! ' '
My attack upon Churchill had been so sudden, and to him, un-
expected, that he was at a loss to know just what to do ; but the
presence of the teacher in the doorway and her sharp reprimand
of me seemed to brace him for a resentment of the blows I had
given him.
With clenched fists he rushed at me and was in the act of send-
ing his first into my face when I stepped quickly to the right,
at the same moment grappling with him.I knew he was stronger
than I, but I also knew he was in the wrong, and that I was in the
right, and that double knowledge added to my strength. As I
bore Churchill to the ground the teacher again sang out, or
rather screamed: "Andrew Sherman, you naughty boy, don't
you hurt Churchill !" When, a few moments later, the teacher
saw me astride of one of her pet pupils and witnessed the blows
I began to shower upon his head and face, she rushed out of the
doorway, ran up to where he was helpless on the ground, and
again screamed: "Andrew Sherman, you ought to be ashamed
of yourself to be pounding a schoolmate in that way! Stop!
Stop ! I say, or I'll report you to the school committee!"
Churchill seemed to take fresh courage from the continued in-
terference of the teacher; for with a desperate movement he
came very near getting me off his prostrate body. But I was not
to be prevented from punishing him until he would promise to
let my younger brother and I alone in future; and, with a well
directed blow of my right hand in his face I had the satisfaction
878 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
of seeing him give up any further attempt to release himself
from me.
As I still sat upon his body I inquired of him: "Will you
promise to let * Charlie' and I alone if I will let you up?"
I think Churchill was about ready to make that promise, but
just at that moment one of the larger girls of the school, Mary
Ryder, was her name, as near as I am able to recall, a big, strong
girl, came up to where he lay on the ground underneath me, and,
seizing me by the jacket collar, exclaimed in her almost masculine
voice : "Andrew Sherman, you let him up ! Let him up, I say !
You'll kill him, and then you'll be arrested!"
Mary Ryder's special interest in Churchill is explained by the
fact that he, a relation, and an orphan, was a member of the fam-
ily to which she belonged, and they seemed almost like brother
and sister.
Mary Ryder grabbed me with both her hands and made a great
effort to pull me off of Churchill, but I clung to him like a bull
dog.
By this time most of the pupils of the school were gathered
about Churchill and I. Again Mary Ryder attempted to pull me
off of Churchill, but without succeeding. When she became con-
vinced she could not get me off of Churchill by the use of force
she began to coax me to let him up ; but I was determined not to
let him up until he had promised to quit his persecutions of
"Charlie" and I. After waiting a few minutes for Churchill to
say something I again inquired of him : ' ' Churchill, will you let
my brother and I alone if I get off of you ? ' ' He may have begun
to realize that he had been in the wrong, for he said between his
sobbing: "Yes, Andrew, I promise; now let me up." Being
certain that I could depend upon him to keep his promise I sprang
to my feet. Slowly Churchill arose to his feet, and, accompanied
by the Ryder girl he went into the schoolhouse.
While my brother and I were sitting under a big elm tree in the
schoolyard eating our dinner, Churchill came out where we were,
and, putting out his right hand, said: "Andrew I'm very sorry
I annoyed you and ' Charlie,' and I ask your forgiveness. I will
try to make you both feel at home in the Alden School while you
are here."
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 879
Of course, I forgave him, and so informed him. And, sitting
down under the same big elm tree just north of the schoolhouse
we ate our dinners together ' 4 in peace. ' '
When the school bell rang for the afternoon session we went
into school together.
From that day Churchill was one of my best friends ; and
among the rare pleasures of my boyhood life afterward were my
occasional visits, on Saturdays and during vacations, to his home,
where I was made welcome, even Mary Eyder warming to me.
It was during one of my visits to Churchill's home that I
learned that he was a descendant of John Aiden, of Plymouth.
Our scrap in the schoolyard was, therefore, Pilgrim against
Pilgrim, for I, too, am descended from John Alden, and from
Priscilla Mullin, also.
Down in the fields back of the Alden School, at the terminus of
a narrow roadway lined on either side with splendid shade trees,
was an old, abandoned house, which in its day had been a very
comfortable home for its occupants. If the house had ever been
painted the paint had entirely disappeared; and no one would
have thought, to look at it, that a paint brush had ever passed
over its exterior.
It had for some time been a favorite sport with the school chil-
dren to go down to this old house and play about it at recess and
at noon; our special delight being to throw stones at the win-
dows, and so complete the destruction of the few remaining panes
in the dilapidated sash. In consequence of our sport the ground
about the house was littered with pieces of glass of various sizes
and shapes.
While in the act of throwing a stone at one of the windows I
accidentally stepped on a piece of glass. At the moment I sup-
posed I had simply cut my foot slightly; so I paid very little
attention to the cut, my mind being so completely absorbed in the
sport in which we boys were engaged that it seemed but a mere
trifle.
By the time the school bell rang for the afternoon session my
wounded foot began to be quite sore; and so on my arrival at
the schoolhouse I informed the teacher of my mishap down in the
fields by the old house. After looking at my wounded foot she
880 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
advised me to go straight home and have it attended to. With
my younger brother, who was permitted to go with me, I started
for home. My foot, the right one, hurt me more and more at
every step I took ; indeed, it was difficult for me to walk. Most
of the distance home I walked on the heel of my right foot, the
one that had been cut.
After reaching home the wound was dressed. I was obliged
to remain at home several days.
The sequal to this little episode will appear at a later stage of
my story.
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Thomas Paine
by george r. boynton
Introduction
H[ W T* SEN Count Joseph de Maistre said, 'For three
centuries history has been an uninterrupted con-
spiracy against the truth/ he might have im-
proved the sentence by leaving out the time lim-
itation." I am indebted to the New York Times editorial page, Au-
gust 12th, 1915, for the foregoing. The title of the article is
"History, Lies and Guesses," and has for a motive in part a
"protest by Mr. J. L. Graham over the utter misapprehension of
the place ancient Ireland occupied in civilization." The edi-
torial is most interesting and quotes in verification Fronde, Gib-
bon, Dr. Nordeau and Mathew Arnold. Those who are inter-
ested in history should by all means read it.
My subject does not relate to Ireland, ancient or modern, or to
any one of its many distinguished men, but to a certain solitary
Englishman, and his unselfish and untiring efforts for the cause
of American Independence.
Several years ago I came across a quotation from him which
made a deep impression. It was forceful, humanitarian in sense,
and a religious fervor pervaded it. The discovery was a revela-
tion. As a result I have devoted a liberal part of my spare time
to research and study of the doings and writings of this remarka-
ble man, and in my humble opinion, he must have been one of the
most unique characters ever connected with American history,
and especially the Revolutionary period.
Probably no man was ever more misunderstood, misrepre-
sented, vilified, hated and abhored than he. In the British Mu-
seum are more than three hundred entries of books on his life,
(88*)
882 THOMAS PAINE
and in not a few he is represented with horns and a tail. The
man was Thomas Paine.
Paine came to America less than two years before the revolu-
tion, and it was due to the influence of his pen and personality
as much if not more thau to any other that the Revolution was
precipitated and a demand was made for separation and inde-
pendence.
Was it not most natural that the Mother Country should have
had a feeling for her erring son scarcely akin to love? I shall
explain a little later why he was a thorn in the side of his own
sect, the Quakers ; and why the politicians and the slave holders
of the South detested him.
Paine, doubtless, was the greatest political pamphleteer of his
day. Though his enemies said that he was * 'nothing but a shallow,
if not illiterate scribbler, " yet so powerful was the impression
made by his first pamphlet, ' i Common Sense, ' ' that the author-
ship was attributed to Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John
Adams and others of eminence. An eminent English historian
wrote: "He (Paine) saw beyond precedents and statutes and
constitutional facts or fictions into the depths of human nature. ' '
. . . Andrew Jackson said, "Paine needs no monument
erected by human hands. His monument is in the hearts of all
true lovers of liberty. ' '
Following the American Kevolution Paine returned to Eng-
land. His theories on monarchy and republicanism soon made
him most popular with the masses ; but the publication of his
"Rights of Man, " a political controversy with Burke, soon caused
such grave apprehension to the government that he was prose-
cuted, convicted and adjudged an outlaw. His effigy was hanged
and burned and he was declared a dangerous man.
Most opportunely a committee arrived from France to request
his presence and counsel in framing a constitution for the new
republic. For a time he was influential and popular, but later in a
vain endeavor to save the life of Louis he very nearly lost his own.
He was in prison for nearly a year, where he wrote the first half
of ' i The Age of Reason. ' ' The publication of this work gave his
many enemies their opportunity. He had taken issue with the
THOMAS PAINE 883
Church of England on certain of its dogmas, among other things,
and he was a doomed man.
He returned to America a disappointed, broken hearted man.
He died in New York City, and on June 8, 1809, his remains
were given a temporary resting place at New Rochelle, N. Y.,
where a monument has since been erected to his memory.
G. R. B.
As an introduction to my subject "What Thomas Paine did
for American Independence, ' ' I shall give you two quotations ;
the first is from Ealph Waldo Emerson :
"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
Then all things are at risk."
The second is from Paine himself :
*"The world is my country, to do good is my religion."
Thomas Paine a man of about thirty-eight years of age arrived
from England towards the close of the year 1774, and, with a
letter from Benjamin Franklin, presented himself at the office
of one of our publishing houses in Philadelphia. A few months
before, Paine had met Franklin in London, and a brief acquaint-
ance had soon ripened into a warm friendship. Franklin, recog-
nizing the natural abilities of the younger man, and believing that
he had a future, urged him to come to America.
The early youth and manhood of this unique character, who
was so soon to become one of our foremost and ablest advocates
of the cause of American independence, demand more than a
passing allusion; but lack of time, and matters of greater im-
portance prevent my giving you more than a glimpse— a bare
outline.
Thomas Paine was born at Thetford, England, in 1736. His
parents were Quakers and very poor. Up to the age of thirteen
years he was under the tutelage of a Rev. William Knowler, when
he was taken out of school and taught the art and mystery of
^Quotation referred to in introduction.
.
884 THOMAS PAINE
making stays. In after years, speaking of his boyhood days, he
says: "My parents were not able to give me a shilling beyond
what they gave me in education ; and to do this they distressed
themselves. My father, being of the Quaker profession, it was
my good fortune to have an exceedingly good moral education,
and a tolerable stock of useful learning. The natural bent of
my mind, however, was to science. ' '
Paine soon tired of his father's trade, and drifted from one
place to another ; but his love for books aad study soon brought
him to London, where for many days and weeks he was in ac-
tual want. During one of these periods of depression, he very
fortunately met Franklin, who was engaged in some electrical ex-
periments, and, I imagine, Paine may have been of service to him.
At any rate, as a result of the acquaintance, we find him a little
later as assistant editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine at Phila-
delphia, now the Saturday Evening Post. For eighteen months
he edited this paper, and probably there never was an equal
amount of good literary work done on a salary of fifty pounds
a year !
One of his first articles was a protest against dueling. In a
short time there appeared another against the slavery of Afri-
cans. A little later appeared a poetic protest against cruelty to
animals. In his August number, 1775, is found the earliest
American plea for woman.
But Paine 's pen was soon to be engaged on lines of thought
and action which as yet he little dreamed of. There had been
angry mutterings and bitter controversies between the mother
country and her colonies ; but few, if any, had thought of war, or
of separation and independence. The idea that America was,
or could be, a host unto herself lay dormant. In Paine 's mind,
however, we see the first awakening. In the opening essay of his
magazine, written a month after his arrival, he speaks of Amer-
ica as a u nation, ' ' and says : ' ' America has now outgrown the
state of infancy. Her strength and commerce make large ad-
vances to manhood; and while proud antiquity, like a skeleton
in rags, parades the streets of other nations, their genius, sick-
ened and disgusted with the phantom, comes here for recovery. ' *
Paine was a unique character. Born and brought up a Quak-
. .
THOMAS PAINE 885
er, it would seem perfectly natural that he should have more than
an aversion to war. Besides, at this time, it apparently was
contrary to all his worldly interests. He was thirty-nine years
of age ; his prospects were growing brighter. Does it not seem
natural that he might have thought of possible future literary
fame, or of achievements in science, of which there is abundant
evidence of his aptitude and love? In July, 1775, he says: "I
am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly agree with all the
world to lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotia-
tions; but unless the whole world wills, the matter ends, and I
shall take up my musket, and thank Heaven it is in my power. ' '
Paine 's service for the cause of independence may now be
more clearly defined. After the Lexington massacre, separation
was talked of by many. Had it then occurred, America might
have become another kingdom. The members of Congress were
of the rich, conservative "gentry," or royalists. Had he not
been a patriot, Peyton Randolph, our first president, would prob-
ably have borne a title, as his father did, and "Washington might
have been knighted. The war having begun, and separation be-
come probable, Paine hastened to connect it with humanity and
republicanism. As the abolitionists resolved that the Civil War
should sweep slavery out of the country, Paine made a brave
effort that the Revolution should clear away both slavery and
monarchy.
During the autumn of 1775, Paine wrote his pamphlet ' ' Com-
mon sense. ' ' Judged by the results, this pamphlet was the most
powerful and effective piece of literature written during the Rev-
olutionary period. Its praises have been sung by the intellects
of every nation. It appeals to the reason. It quickens patriot-
ism; It points out the line of duty. It impels action. It in-
spires a religious fervor.
"We may as well assert," he says, "that because a child hath
thrived on milk, it is never to have meat" . . . "or that the
first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the
following twenty." Among other things, he says: "But Eng-
land has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is
true, and defended the continent at our expense, as well as her
own. But she would have defended Turkey for the same motive,
886 THOMAS PAINE
viz: for the sake of trade and dominion. ' ' "But Britain is the
parent country, say some. Then the more shame on her conduct.
Even beasts do not devour their young, nor savages make war on
their own families. But Britain is not the parent country, or
only partly so; Europe, and not England, is the parent country
of America." . . . "This new world hath been the asylum
for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every
part of Europe Hither hath they fled, not from the tender em-
braces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster. It is
so far true of England, that the same tyranny that drove the emi-
grants from home, pursues their descendants still."
"By procrastination, we leave the sword to our children. We
lose the opportunity of making this continent the glory of the
earth. England consults the good of this country no further
than it answers her own purposes. But some say, where is the
king of America? Ill tell you, friend, He reigns above! The
Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings
for good and wise purposes. They are the Guardians of His
Image in our hearts."
A thousand copies of this famous pamphlet were ordered at
once from Virginia, and many more followed. In the short space
of three months nearly half a million copies were sold. At that
time it was not generally known that Paine had donated the copy-
right to the Colonies for the cause of Independence. The author
thus gave away a fortune, for those days, in the pamphlet alone.
Nor was that all, for there is a bill extant showing that he was in
debt to the publisher on account of this transaction to an amount
of nearly thirty pounds, a sum equal to three-fifths of his pre-
vious year's salary. Washington said : ' ' Without this pamphlet
of Thomas Paine 's, the hearts and minds of the people would
never have been prepared to respond to our call for troops.' '
Paine also gave to the Colonies the copyright of his "Crises,"
(thirteen numbers), for which he never asked or received a
penny.
While most of our colonies had instructed their delegates in
Congress to vote for Independence, the powerful ones, New York
and Pennsylvania, hesitated. News had come of the approach of
Lord Howe, bearing from England the "olive branch." Con-
THOMAS PAINE 887
gress, in consequence of this and other considerations, adjourned,
thus postponing decisive action until July 1st. It has been said
that this delay was decidedly perilous to independence. At this
juncture Paine issued one of his most effective pamphlets. He
points out that France only awaits our declaration of indepen-
dence to come to our aid, and that America teems with patriots,
heroes, and legislators who are impatient to burst forth into light
and importance. He also points out that the commercial appre-
hension of New York and Pennsylvania are groundless. He
says: "Your dependence upon the crown is of no advantage,
but rather an injury to the people of Great Britain as well, as it
increases the power and influence of the King. The people are
only benefitted by your trade, and this they may have after you
are independent of the Crown.' '
I shall diverge from the chronological path, for a moment, and
introduce a very small part of one of Paine 's papers, found in
the Pennsylvania Historical Society. This paper was probably
not published during the Revolutionary period. Paine had an-
ticipated the Declaration of Independence by more than eight
months with one of his own. Nearly every salient point in the
historic Declaration is found in this paper. The portion I pro-
pose to call to your attention relates only to the abolition of sla-
very, one of Paine 's chief objects, first and last. It so clearly
reflects the humanitarian and religious side of the man's nature
it will be of interest. He says: "And when I reflect on the
use England hath made of the new world, that the paltry dignity
of earthly kings hath been set up in preference to the great cause
of the King of kings . . . that instead of Christian examples,
she hath employed herself in the most horrid of all traffics, that
of human flesh, hath ravaged the hapless shores of Africa—
When I reflect on these, I hesitate, not for a moment to believe
that the Almighty will finally separate America from Great
Britain. Call it Independency, or what you will, if it is the cause
of God and humanity, it will go on. And when the Almighty shall
have blessed us, and made us a people dependent only on Him,
then may our first gratitude be shown by an act of continental
legislation, which shall put a stop to the importation of Negros
888 THOMAS PAINE
for sale, soften the hard fate of those already here, and in time
procure their freedom. "
Eight months later our Legislators had completed the Declara-
tion of Independence, and while they were affixing their signa-
tures, a procedure which reached from August 2nd to November,
Paine had resigned his position on the magazine, taken a musket
on his Quaker shoulders, and gone to the front.
A little later we find him at Fort Lee, under General Greene,
who very soon recognized his abilities, and promoted him to Vol-
unteer Aid-de-Camp.
Every one is familiar with the vicissitudes of the patriots at
that time. By November 22nd the whole army had retreated to
Newark, where Paine began writing his first "Crisis." Wash-
ington was in desperate straits, as his private correspondence of
that period clearly shows. In a letter to his brother, he writes :
"I am worried almost to death with the retrograde motion of
things.' ' In another:
"Your imagination can scarce extend to a situation more dis-
tressing than mine. ' ' And yet in another :
"You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation.' '
Many of his soldiers were nearly naked, and most of them so
thinly clad as to be unfit for service. The inhabitants of New
Jersey by hundreds were offering submission, and taking pro-
tection from Lord Howe. Just a few days before, one of Wash-
ington's Generals, Lee, had been taken prisoner. Washington,
as a forlorn hope, had now planned to attack Trenton. Paine 's
first "Crisis" with the familiar and often quoted head line:
"These are times that try men's souls," was being printed in
Philadelphia, and evidently was looked for with some concern,
for, though it did not arrive until after dark, on the night of the
proposed attack, a copy was given to every corporal's guard, for
the purpose of stimulating the half-starved, half-frozen patriots.
"Not a cord of faith or love or hope was left untouched. With
skillful illustration of lofty principles, three of the most misera-
ble weeks ever endured by men were raised to epical dignity. ' '
Following the victory at Trenton, Paine was, for a short time,
a resident of Philadelphia. He probably knew that his own sect,
the Quakers, were sympathizers with the British. But when he
THOMAS PAINE 889
discovered that whenever opportunity offered, they were giving
surreptitious aid, he devoted a portion of his time to a treatment
of this problem. The Quakers must be practically dealt with.
He proposed an "oath of affirmation,' ' renouncing allegiance to
the King, arid pledging support to the "United States/' and, at
the same time he adroitly suggests a tax of ten, fifteen or even
twenty per cent, to be levied on all property. But all persons
who would take the oath, and pledge themselves to render ser-
vice to the cause, might be exempt !
About this time Paine was invited to procure regular and con-
stant intelligence of the proceedings of Washington's army. The
succession of mistakes, surprises and panics which occasioned
the defeat before Philadelphia, and ended in the occupation of
that City by the British General, seriously affected, for a time,
the reputation of Washington. Never was aid more tactful
than that Paine 's pen now gave our commander. The allusions
to him are incidental; there is no account of advocacy. While
mentioning the unabated fortitude of Washington, Paine lays a
laurel on the brow of Gates, on that of Herkimer, and even on the
defeated, while belittling all that Howe had gained. . . . He
reunites Washington and Gates in the public mind, by showing
the manouvers of the one near Philadelphia, a part of the oth-
er's victory at Saratoga. "It is easy for modern eulogists of
Washington to see this, but when Paine said it, the sentence was
a sunbeam parting a black cloud. ' '
Coming from an author of reputation and a member of Gen-
eral Greene's staff, from the military correspondent of the Penn-
sylvania Council, and the Secretary of the Congressional Com-
mittee of Foreign Affairs, for Paine was now all of these, his
optimistic view of the situation had an excellent effect.
I have now arrived at what is called the "Paine-Deane Con-
troversy. ' ' I will but briefly touch upon this subject. Paine hav-
ing discovered such unmistakable evidence of fraud connected
with the finances of the Government, he very promptly and posi-
tively called attention to it. His bold, if not politic utterances re-
sulted in his being censured by Congress, and losing his secre-
taryship. Too many men, high in position, might be somewhat
embarrassed. It would never do to pry too closely into their
890 THOMAS PAINE
private affairs and motives. It might affect their honor. (?)
Paine was dismissed, but his loyalty saved to the American cause
a quarter of a million of dollars.
Would it not be remarkable if this courageous man of stern
patriotic principles, this enthusiast, this idealist, this seer, this
dreamer of dreams had not been hated by the politicians, the
slave holders of the South, the hypocritical sanctimonious ele-
ment in the north interested in supplying the demand and his
own sect, the Quakers, during the remainder of his life? After
more than a century we have scarcely recovered from the mis-
representations and prejudices of that day. The counterfeits
and biographies of . his contemporaries are in our text books, our
histories and encyclopedia; but seldom this man's; and gen-
erally not at all. The information is limited and frequently un-
reliable and sometimes false.
As far as I have been able to discover, Paine had received for
his services up to this time not a penny. For want of the bare
necessities of everyday life he was now obliged to take a subor-
dinate position in a law office. His enemies certainly had tri-
umphed, and he was temporarily disgraced. But shortly after,
the Council of Pennsylvania, recognizing the services Paine had
rendered the cause and missing the influence of his pen, elected
him its clerk. This incident, though seemingly trivial at the time
was most fortunate for the cause as we shall see later on.
"The times that try men's souls" had come again. Facing us
was an impoverished treasury, an incompetent, intriguing Con-
gress, a mutinous, half-fed, half-clad army, and commanded by
officers devoured by petty jealousies. More than ample cause
for grave apprehension to our great commander and to every
thoughtful patriot.
The New Year, 1780, found Washington amid much distress
at Morristown. The enemy, having discovered the sufferings
of our soldiers, circulated leaflets, inviting them to share the
pleasures of New York. Nor were they entirely unsuccessful.
On May 28th was penned the gloomiest letter Washington ever
wrote. It was addressed to Peade, President of Pennsylvania,
and Paine read it to the Assembly.
"I assure you," said the Commander's letter, "every idea you
*
THOMAS PAINE 891
form of our distress, will fall short of the reality.' ' And further
on he says: "And we see in every line of the army the most
serious features of mutiny and sedition." There was through-
out the letter a tone of desperation that moved the Assembly pro-
foundly. At the close there was a dispairing silence, amid which
a member arose and said: "We may as well give up first as
last." Doubtless there were others in that assembly and many
throughout the country and in the army who for a long time had
thought "We may as well give up first as last." But England
would be no lenient enemy to rebels. They might be recipients
of indulgences not altogether to their liking. Is it any wonder
that thoughtful men's faces blanched at the prospect?
Several days had elapsed since the reading of Washington's
letter to the Council, but that body had done nothing definitely
to relieve the situation or, so far as is known, even formed a plan.
But on a certain morning Blair McClenahan, a Philadelphia mer-
chant, received a vigorous letter from Paine enclosing five hun-
dred dollars ($500), a large part of his salary as clerk, to head
a subscription for a relief fund.
I have not been able to trace this most important paper out-
side the Sate of Pennsylvania. If it came to New York, or not, I
cannot say. But certain it is that within an incredibly short
period of time there were raised three hundred thousand 'pounds.
The Bank of Pennsylvania, later known as the Bank of North
America, was started with these funds, and Washington's army
received assistance from this source, during the remainder of
the campaign. The Secretary certainly demonstrated beyond a
doubt that he could meet a crisis as well as write one. In after
years, speaking of this subscription, Paine called it his "mite."
For some time before, and especially during this memorable
year of 1780, Paine urged the necessity of asking France for
loans to assist us in our struggle for Independence. Much cor-
respondence between him and various leading men of that day
is extant on this subject. Finally, Colonel John Laurens, a mem-
ber of Washington's staff, was appointed to visit France and ex-
plain the military situation. Laurens demurred at first, but
finally accepted on condition that Paine shoud accompany him.
According to Lamartine, Laurens so far made a failure of the
8g2 THOMAS PAINE
mission, that Franklin and Paine interferred, and finally a loan
of six million livres was confided to them. We are all familiar
with the happy ending of the enterprise. The re-equipment of
Washington's army, and, later, the surrender of Cornwallis.
Paine 's work for the cause is nearly done. He is now to touch
on a very delicate and sensitive subject with the colonies. They
were jealous of their "sovereignty!" but he must intimate the
necessity of surrendering it. He manages to say that "each
state (with a small 's') is to the 'United States,' what each
individual is to the state he lives in. And it is on this great
point, this one center, that our existence as a nation, our happi-
ness as a people, and our safety as individuals depend. ' '
Before the Declaration, Paine minted the phrases "Free and
Independent States of America," and "The Glorious Union."
He says to Lord Howe: " 'The United States of America' will
sound as pompously in the world of history, as the Kingdom of
Great Britain."
I have given you barely an outline, a little more than a sugges-
tion of what this remarkable, indefatigable, noble man did for the
cause of American Independence. Nearly every line of his life
was given to the uplift and the betterment of humanity. ' ' Free
and Independent States of Ajnerica," "The Glorious Union,"
"International Arbitration," the rights of woman before the law
and in the home. Freedom for the slave, and the loving care and
protection of our dumb friends.*
"What brilliants would our modern reformers have con-
tributed to a coronet for that man's brow, had he not presently
worshipped the God of his fathers after the way theologians of
that day called heresy! "Be not righteous over much," saith
cynical Solomon, "Neither make thyself overwise; why shouldest
thou destroy thyself?"
Following the American Revolution, Paine made a brief so-
journ in England. In answer to a letter from America, an-
nouncing the marriage of a yonug lady whom he had known as
a little girl at Bordentown, N. J., he wrote : "I have lost my
tide. It passed by while every thought of my heart was on the
* Paine must have lived a century in advance of his time !
THOMAS PAINE 893
wing for the salvation of my dear America. To Captain Nichol-
son and Mrs. Nicholson, and to you, my dear Kittie, and your
partner for life, God bless you all, and bring me safely back to
my much loved America. "
*For much of the data I have accumulated, from which I have formed my con-
clusions, I am especially indebted to the late Rev. Monsieur Daniel Conway's "Life
of Thomas Paine," and to Paine's "Rights of Man" and his "Age of Reason."
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned
and Heroically Suffered in the Revolu=
tion for the Cause of American
Independence
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M. LL. B.
IX
Nancy Hart of the Georgia "Hornets Nest"
Nancy Hart lived near a stream called "War Woman's
Creek, " and so named on account of Nancy's hatred of the Tories
and vigorous devotion to the "Liberty Boys" as she called the
Whigs. Her husband she called a "poor stick" because he re-
fused to take a decided stand for his country.
When a detachment of five Britishers unceremoniously en-
tered her cabin, and demanded to know whether it was true she
had helped a certain noted rebel to escape, she said, yes, she
had let the fugitive pass right through her cabin and so on to
safety in a nearby swamp, and when his pursuers came to hand,
she muffled up her head and face, and opening the door, inquired
"why they disturbed a sick lone woman," and then told them she
saw some one, on a sorrel horse, turn out of the path three hun-
dred yards back; and so "they went off well fooled" she said.
The Tories liked not the story and ordered her to cook them
a dinner. She replied : * ' She never fed traitors and kings if she
could help it— the villains having taken it out of her power to
feed her own family, by stealing all her poultry and pigs, except
that one old gobbler you see in the yard." "And that you shall
cook for us" said the leader, as he raised his musket and shot
the turkey.
(894)
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 895
Nancy stormed and swore, yet nevertheless she went to work
assisted by her daughter, a girl of twelve years, and even par-
took of the liquor the soldiers offered her.- At the edge of the
swamp was a spring and on a stump was a eonch shell, used to
call the men to meals or let them know when Tories were about,
and they were to keep close or "make tracks " for another swamp.
While cooking the turkey she sent Sukey to the spring for
water and to give the warning on the conch to her father to
"Keep Close" with his three neighbors who were with him, until
he should again get a signal.
The Britishers got merry over their jug and dinner on the
slaughtered gobbler. Their guns were stacked in view and within
reach, and yet nevertheless Nancy had managed, by slipping out
a part of the ''chinking'' between the logs of the cabin, to pass
to the outside two of the five muskets. Also she had a second
time dispatched Sukey to the spring for more water, and to blow
the signal on the conch for Hart and his men to "come imme-
diately. ' '
At this time Nancy was detected by the soldiers while trying to
put outside the third musket, and the whole party started to their
feet, but Nancy, quick as thought, brought the piece she held
to her shoulder with a threat to kill the first man who approached
her. All were terror struck especially as Nancy, being cross-
eyed, seemed to be aiming at each soldier separately.
One made a dash at the woman and she shot him dead, and
seizing another musket she levelled it directly at the others, thus
keeping them at bay.
At this moment Sukey arrived and taking up the other musket
she carried it out of the house saying to her mother, ' ' Daddy and
them will soon be here. ' '
This excited the soldiers and they proposed a general rush, so
Nancy fired and killed another of the enemy, and then taking the
other musket Sukey held, she stood in the doorway and called
upon the party to surrender "their damned Tory carcasses, to a
Whig woman," to which they agreed, but the brave woman
trusted them not and kept them where they were, until her hus-
band and neighbors arrived and proposed to shoot all of them.
"No," said the woman, "they have surrendered to me and
896 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
shooting is too good for them," and she had the men bound and
taken out beyond the bars and hung. The tree from which they
were suspended was shown in 1828 by an old woman residenter,
also the site of the famous cabin, she at the time declaring that
"poor Nancy was a honey of a patriot, but the devil of a wife."
X
Susanna Keith
The picture of this courageous woman though inanimate, seems
in the strength and beauty of the features to tell the story of
a useful life more perfectly than can any written words.
The picture has an especial interest for the writer because it
was loaned to him by his much esteemed friend and compatriot,
Mary Vanderpoel, the granddaughter of Susanna Keith and the
regent of the Mary Washington Colonial Chapter of the Daugh-
ters of the American Bevolution.
Susanna Keith was the daughter of Captain Joseph Keith of
Taunton, Massachusetts, and she came honestly by her fighting
blood, for her grandfather on her mother's side was Captain Ben-
jamin "Williams, who commanded a company in Colonel Thomas 's
regiment and took part in the bloody battles of Lake George and
Crown Point.
It was destined that little Susanna Keith should save old Taun-
ton town by her quick wit, from the savages of the British when
in 1776, they were marching down from Concord to forage in the
name of the crown. The story of this episode has been so well
told by Mrs. Julia Hubbell Treat, historian of the chapter of
which Miss Vanderpoel is regent, in a poem called "A Tale of
Taunton Town, ' ' that I give it here in full.
A Tale of Taunton Town.
The news was flying through Taunton town,
1 1 To-morrow, the British are marching down
To Concord, for forage in name of the Crown.
f* â– â– -â–
■■■•■•-
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-- ' * * -.- -
'
^birUHMMrt... iu -— â–
SUSANNA KEITH
By courtesy of Miss Mary Vanderpoel
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 897
Lexington first may be their goal,
Up, up ! ye captains, and call the roll
Aid gather the men from meadow and knoll."
Now who is this who hither runs?
'Tis Captain Keith, and his stalwart sons
Are just behind, with their swords and guns.
"Muster the men," the Captain cries,
As the summons about the village flies,
"Or the English will take us by surprise !"
They left the mill, the loom, the plough,
They heeded not the lowing cow,
The only thought for them, was how
By road and forest, hill and dale,
They'd soonest reach the peaceful vale,
Ere long to echo with the wail
Of wife bereft, of sonless sire,
Of tramp of redcoats coming nigher,
And call of ' ' Steady men, now fire ! ' '
To the powder-house with one accord
They rushed to view their cherished hoard
Of shot and powder, gun and sword.
But oh, alas, for their hope and fear !
Three charges only, for each appear !
"What news, for valorous men to hear !
The women had followed with faces pale ;
Though brave as the men they did not quail ;
And the children's courage, too, did not fail ;
For out stepped little Susanna Keith
With kerchief and cap, and eyes beneath
Swimming with tears, but not of grief.
"I know a way, my father," she said,
Drooping a little her dainty head ;
"Come all with me;" and away she sped.
898 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
To her father's house upon the green-
As fine a house as e'er was seen—
With leaded window, and pillars between.
To the dresser she led the gaping crowd:
4 'There are your bullets !" she cried so proud
That her childish voice rang clear and loud.
Upon the shelves stood the pewter plates
With coats-of-arms, and early dates
Of sixteen twenty and thirty, mates
Of teapot, and creamer, pitcher, and bowl.
All were perfect, and bright, and whole,
Stamped with a unicorn, "cheek by jowl.'*
The pride of the house, the dower which came
To Captain Keith's fair stately dame,
Descended from fam'ly of noble name.
All turned to the mistress in great surprise—
"Take them!" she said, with bright, flashing eyes,
"Thank God for a child so brave and wise!"
The cheers went up from the men until
The rafters rung, and then with a will
They melted the pewter, the moulds to fill.
All through the night, till the glimmering day
They worked, and the child worked hard as they,
Till their pouches were full, and they marched away.
So this is the tale of Susanna Keith,
In honor of whom I lay this wreath
Of humble verse, on her grave beneath
The Taunton skies, by the river fair,
Near the ancient house still standing there,
To tell what a child may do and dare !
For she lived, and wedded in Taunton town,
And sent her brave blood coursing down
Through the veins of many of fair renown,
.
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 899
Till her grand daughter's child, with eyes as blue,
And spirit as earnest, and purpose as true.
Is, my friends, your Regent, now looking at you !
XI
Cornelia Beekman of New York
This heroic lady took an active and important part in the Revo-
lution and her example was of great service in strengthening the
courage of others. She was the daughter of Pierre Van Cort-
landt and Joanna Livingston and was born in 1752. Her father
was Lieutenant-Governor of the State.
At the age of seventeen she married Gerard C. Beekman.
During the Revolution she resided in a large brick building two
miles north of Peekskill at the foot of Regular Hill, where the
American army encamped for some time.
The place was marked out as an object of aggression and insult
by the royalists on account of the part taken by her relatives and
friends and her own loyalty to the cause of American Independ-
ence.
'Twas her high spirit and strong will that supported her
through many scenes of trial and bloodshed.
Once she removed for safety some miles back only for a day
and night, and on her return she found the manor house a scene
of dire desolation. Not an article of furniture was left but one
bedstead and of provisions but one ham. She bore all with such
equanimity that on a visit by General Putnam he immediately
sent her woodenware and several other most necessary articles
and with these she recommenced housekeeping.
General Patterson was at one time quartered in her house and
Washington visited her frequently and made her house his head-
quarters ; the chairs used by his aides as beds are, it is believed
still in the possession of her descendants.
She was noted for her acts of benevolence and humanity and in
many cases to persons in the enemy's ranks. The most daring
robberies, including that of her own favorite saddle horse, as well
as her poultry and provisions were committed before her very
eyes. But her courage won out and her resolution in many an
900 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
encounter with the insolent soldiery was the saving of her life and
family.
Her courage and good judgment, were clearly shown when
" Lieutenant Jack Webb " acting aid to Washington left with her a
valise containing a new uniform and some gold saying: "Do not
deliver it without a written order from me or brother Sam."
When a fortnight after an acquaintance Smith by name, rode up
in haste and asked for "Lieutenant Jack's" valise; he having no
written order was refused the valise and it was well she did re-
fuse, although her husband doubted her wisdom, for soon after it
came out Smith had no authority to get the valise, and at the time
Major Andre was in Smith's house, for he and Lieutenant Webb
were of the same stature and form, and had Smith gotten the
valise and the uniform Andre would have used it and have made
his escape through the American lines.
Thus is shown what important events depend upon things ap-
parently trivial.
She was a remarkable and much beloved woman and died in
serenity and confidence.
•
- ..ffip*'
Pri
"*m-
CUSHING MONUMENT AT DELAFIELD, WISCONSIN
By courtesy of The Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, Wis.
Cushing Memorial Monument
By S. G. Lapham.
beautiful monument in memory of the Three Wiscon-
sin Cushings was dedicated at Delafield, Wisconsin,
the birthplace, on May 31st, 1915.
The monument was erected by the State of Wisconsin,
under the auspices of the Waukesha County Historical Society.
At a meeting held in May, 1911, the late Hon. Theron W.
Haight called attention to the fact that the Hero of the Albemarle
and two of his brothers were born in Wisconsin, and that it would
be fitting for the Society to undertake the work of providing a
suitable monument to mark the birthplace of the Cushing broth-
ers at Delafield.
From this remark the movement started. At the solicitation of
the Society, the State legislature of that year appropriated
$5,000 for the erection of the monument.
A little over seven acres of land, including the site of the birth-
place was donated by three Milwaukee gentlemen, Judge Geo. H.
Noyes, Mr. Richard W. Houghton and Dr. Charles H. Lemon,
members of the Society, and by the heirs of the Estate of Albert
Alden, of Delafield.
The land was deeded to the State of Wisconsin, and will be
known as the Cushing Memorial Park.
The monument was furnished by the Barre Monument Co., of
Barre, Vermont.
The total height is fifty feet. It is of white Barre marble and
consists of a large square base, surmounted by a shaft forty feet
in height.
On one face of the square is a bronze medallion showing the
heads and shoulders of the three Cushings, in bas relief and in-
scriptions under each name, as follows :
(901)
902
CUSHING MEMORIAL MONUMENT
Bronze Medallion.
Head and shoulders of the Three Brothers.
Alonzo IL, William B., Howard B.,
Bom 1841, died 1863 Born 1842, died 1874 Born 1838, died 1871
Brevet Lt. Col. Commander 3d U. S. Cavalry
4th U. S. Artillery. U. S. Navy.
" Perhaps the most conspicuously daring trio of sons of one
mother, whose exploits have been noted in the pages of history/ '
Haight.
Alonzo H.
Killed while repell-
ing Pickets charge at
Gettysburg, having
been wounded the
third time within a
few minutes.
Probably no other
man of his rank did
as much to save the
day.
William B.
Prominent among
his many brave
deeds was the blow-
ing up of the Albe-
marle.
His perfection of
action in the midst
of death dealing
missiles was an ex-
hibition of coolness
absolutely unparal-
leled.
"So long as such men can be produced in
little danger of its decline and fall. ' '
Howard B.
His courage and de-
termination made
him famous all over
the southwestern
borders. A terror to
the marauding
Apaches, at whose
hands, he fell in am-
bush bravely leading
his men to safety.
the Republic there is
Haight.
Commander Cushing and the Virginius
By S. G. Lapham.
IN President Grant's message to Congress December 1, 1873,
he says that: "The capture of the Virginius by a Spanish
naval vessel had for a time threatened serious consequences,
but that the affair was then in course of adjustment honora-
ble to both nations concerned. ' '
The steamer Virginius was used as a blockade runner during
the civil war and in 1870 was sold in Washington to an agent of
the Cuban junta. The steamer cleared from the Port of New
York in October, 1870, bearing the American flag and carrying
American papers. She cruised about for three years, mainly
in West Indian waters, and during that time did not call at
any home port.
On October 23rd, 1873, the Virginius cleared from the United
States consulate at Kingston, Jamaica, as a XL S. vessel bound
for Port Limon, Costa Rica, bearing an American flag and still
carrying American papers.
The captain, Joseph Fry, was a well known southern man, a
native of Florida and had been a distinguished officer in the Con-
federate Navy commanding the gunboat, "Maurepas" at Island
Number Ten and during the Vicksburg campaign.
While the Virginius was on the way to Cuba, the Spanish gun-
boat i \ Tornado ' ' came in sight and after a long chase overhauled
and captured her and took her to Santiago de Cuba.
There was no doubt of the character of the expedition for the
cargo of the Virginius contained 500 Remington rifles, 600 sabres
and 400 revolvers, destined for the Cuban Army.
Four days after the capture a summary court-martial was held
and four of the prisoners, including "General" Washington
Ryan, a southern soldier of fortune, were sentenced to death and
(903)
.
904 COMMANDER CUSHING AND THE VIRGINIUS
were shot at sunrise by order of Gen. Burriel, the Spanish Com-
mandant.
On November 7th, Captain Fry and thirty-six others were shot
in pursuance of the order of the conrt-martial. This execution
caused great excitement in the United States and was nearly the
cause of war. Lieut. Com. Wm. B. Cushing was in command of
the U. S. S. Wyoming at Aspinwall when he received a dispatch
on November 8th from the U. S. Consul at Kingston, that some
Americans were in need of protection at Santiago. Cushing ca-
bled on November 10th, l i Am now coaling. Will leave tonight or
early tomorrow morning for Santiago. ' ' The Wyoming came to
anchor in the bay off that port at 11 A. M. on the 16th.
Cushing immediately sent a letter to the Spanish General in
which he protested against the execution of the Virginius prison-
ers and insisted that the Virginius was not a pirate ship. General
Burriel returned a very evasive answer and finally Cushing in-
sisted upon an interview.
He came to the General 's room, but refused to notice the hand
which the General extended to him. In this interview Cushing
said to Burriel : "If you intend to shoot any more of the Virginius
prisoners, you would better first have the women and children
removed from Santiago as I shall bombard the town. ' '
In consequence of Cushing 's bold stand and determined action
there were no more executions and eventually, after some diplo-
matic correspondence between the two governments, the Virgin-
ins was surrendered to a United States warship, and the surviv-
ors returned to the United States.
The Virginius was convoyed to the Tortugas and an attempt
was made to take her to the North, but unfortunately, as she was
in an unseaworthy condition she foundered in a storm off Cape
Hatter as.
The Committee on Foreign Affairs in a Eeport to the House of
Representatives June 22nd, 1874. quote the letter of Cushing to
Gen. Burriel with approval and say: "From which it appears
that Captain Cushing did his duty completely and gallantly in
asserting the rights of the American Government and its citizens
and in upholding the honor of the American flag."
The United States Government was embarrassed in its endeav-
COMMANDER CUSHING AND THE VIRGINIUS 905
or to obtain redress by fact that the Virginius was undoubtedly
engaged in a filibustering expedition. The fact that she had
cruised about so many years without returning to any home port
gave Spain at least good technical grounds for maintaining that
the vessel was not lawfully entitled to claim the protection of our
flag.
After some diplomatic correspondence the matter was settled
and an indemnity of $80,000 was paid by Spain for the benefit of
the heirs of the victims of this affair.
Historic Views and Reviews
Avery Family Association Meeting
E are glad to note that the Avery Family Association
had a successful annual meeting on July 16th, the
anniversary of the burning, in 1894, of the home of
the founder Captain James Avery, and the site of
which is now marked by the Avery Memorial Park wherein
stands a granite shaft surmounted by a bronze bust representing
the builder of the "Old Hive of the Averys."
Capt. James Avery, the Colonial warrior, who commanded val-
iantly in the Narragansett Swamp tight during King Phillip's
war, 1675, and many of his gallant revolutionary descendants
slain at the battle of Groton Heights, 1781, by Benedict Arnold's
murdering corps are interred in this Colonial burying ground, as
well as Susannah Palmes Avery, wife of Samuel Avery, of royal
lineage, who died in 1747, as stated on the brownstone which
marks the grave.
The line of descents embraces the first 16 kings of England
in the 34 generations, or from King Egbert to the present cen-
tury.
It is a record of historic facts verified by proof, for so much
thereof as comprises the interval of time between the reign of
King Egbert and the arrival of Lady Susan Clinton and her hus-
band, Gen. John Humphrey, in Massachusetts bay. No more than
a casual glance along the line of the ten centuries is necessary to
discover the notable array of soverigns, soldiers and statesmen
famous in British and European history.
The following officers were elected for the ensuing year :
President— Hon. Elroy M. Avery, L. L. D., Ph. D., D. C. L.,
Cleveland, Ohio.
(906)
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 907
Vice Presidents— Hon. Frank M. Avery, Brooklyn, N. Y.,
Cyrus Avery, Poquonoc Bridge, Capt. John O. Spicer, Groton;
Col. Christopher L. Avery, Groton ; William L. Thomas, Groton ;
Mrs. Elisha L. Thomas and Mrs. John 0. Spicer, Groton.
Secretary— Miss Helen Morgan Avery, New London.
Treasurer— Miss Addie Avery Thomas Groton.
Executive Committee— Hon. Elroy M. Avery, Helen Morgan
Avery, Addie Avery Thomas, William L. Thomas, Cyrus Avery,
Mrs. Prentice P. Avery, New Haven, Mrs. Susan S. Meech, Gro-
ton, Capt. John 0. Spicer, Mrs. Deborah H. Keene, Glastonbury,
Mrs. Adelaide Avery Cavalry, New London, Miss Mabel Holman,
Saybrook, Miss Eliza Warren Avery, Norwich, Walter Clifford
Morgan, Mystic Latham Avery, Groton.
To make further improvements in the park and to provide for
its maintenance as well as of the Old Avery and Morgan bury-
ing ground at Poguonock Bridge, one-half mile from the park,
a fund of ten thousand to twenty thousand dollars is needed.
Our Associate Editor is a descendant through his grand-
mother, Frances Avery Pumpelly, of Susann Palmes Avery,
and he will be glad to transmit any contribution small or large
for this fund to the Treasurer of the Association, Miss Addie
Avery Thomas, Groton, Mass.
*.■•♦••■;+■■•♦'♦
Ex-Senator Doolittle op Wisconsin to President-Elect Cleve-
land of New York
interesting confidential letter from the wisconsin statesman
Contributed by Duane Mowry, of Milwaukee, Wis.
The following letter is interesting because it is believed that
it was offensive to the then president-elect. There is no posi-
tive evidence that Mr. Cleveland took umbrage because of it ; but
the immediate relatives and friends of Judge Doolittle have
informed the contributor that the president-elect gave no heed
to the letter or its recommendations.
908 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
It is also an open secret that when Judge Doolittle was an ac-
tive and aggressive candidate for both the Russian and Austrian
missions, his applications were treated with silent contempt and
indifference. Letters from members of President Cleveland's
cabinet, including Messrs. Daniel Manning, William F. Vilas and
Walter Q. Gresham, to Judge Doolittle and now in the possession
of the contributor, amply confirm this view.
Although Judge Doolittle was a strong and influential support-
er of Mr. Cleveland's candidacy before the people, his influence
with his administration was mainly negligible. This has been
characterized in some quarters as most unjust and inexcusable
ingratitude.
Confidential.
Pawtuxett, R. L, Feb. 6, 1885.
Hon. Grover Cleveland,
President-Elect ;
Dear Sir : I saw Mr. Hewitt, at Washington. He said, that
in a general way, he was authorized to say : that you desired to
meet men of experience in public affairs, who are friendly to a
democratic administration, and learn their views of men and af-
fairs, before you finally determined upon your Cabinet; and, as
I was on my way to see my daughter, who resides here, in Rhode
Island, he thought it was due to you, and due to myself, that I
should stop over a day or two, in New York, and see you, and
have free talk, and without reserve.
But I found the pressure around you, yesterday, was such,
that such a conference was hardly possible. Therefore, as" sug-
gested in the brief interview, at Buffalo, (where, at the invitation
of Gen'l Thayer, I went purposely to see you,) and as suggested
by Col. Lamont, yesterday, that the better way would be to com-
municate my views in writing, I now take the liberty, in a strictly
confidential way, to submit a suggestion or two, in few words, in
relation to your proposed CABINET.
For the State Department, I would suggest Mr. Thurman. He
is able to discuss the great questions, as to the Isthmus Routes,
(our Bosphorus,) with the ablest men of England, France, or
Germany.
Mr. Bayard is an able man in the Senate, and a power there, on
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 909
which the Administration may lean for support. It would be
difficult to fill his place in that body, where we have so few from
the Northern or Middle States to speak for us. He would bring
to the State Department no more strength than would Thurman;
and his leaving the Senate would weaken us where we are weakest
now.
I know it is said Thurman is past seventy. So is Bismark, and
Gladstone. And the State Department is not like the other De-
partments. It is one where there is plenty of time to think, and to
write. And where there are no such detailed duties, and respon-
sibilities, as rest upon all other Departments.
The question I have heard raised as to Air. Thurman 's personal
habits, could be solved, it would seem to me, with absolute certain-
ty. I am slow to believe that he has become disabled by his habits.
Mr. Pendleton, too, could be placed in position to bring strong
support to your administration, at a point where he could render
the vesy best service by sending him to represent you to France,
for which place, for many reasons, he is peculiarly fit.
As to the Treasury. It is to be regretted that this Department
is not divided into Two, One of Revenue and One of Expenditure,
with two separate heads, with two sets of Books, to be checks
upon each other, one keeping account of Receipts— the other of
Expenditure.
It is too enormous for one man, or for one head of Department.
But there is a general talk or understanding, that a man from
New York will take that place. Your personal knowledge of the
men of New York is so much greater than mine, that I will make
but one or two suggestions.
Prom Mr. Hewitt's long service in Congress, the mass of the
people have come to regard him as one of the ablest in the coun-
try; but a fear is expressed that his health might not be such as
to bear the strain.
Others have been named, Mr. Kernan among them, with favor.
But there is one man of large capacity, a good organizer and
leader of men, who, if his business experience and training has
fitted him for the place, impresses me very strongly, as a large
brained man, who would bring a real power to your administra-
tion. I refer to Mr. Manning.
910 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
You must know him, and know if he has the executive, financial,
and business capacity to fit him for that great and trying posi-
tion.
If you should go outside of New York, and go West for a Sec-
retary, Mr. Alexander Mitchell of Wisconsin, is one of the ablest,
if not the ablest man west of the Allegheny Mountains for such a
position. But I have serious doubts, whether he could be induced
to take the place, which would compel him to change his present
relations to some of the great business affairs in which he is now
engaged.
As to the Interior. Our friends in Wisconsin, the democratic
members of the Legislature and of Congress, and our people gen-
erally, concur in presenting the name of Col. Vilas. He is an able
and rising lawyer, of popular address, of most industrious hab-
its, whose integrity cannot be questioned, and he would fill the of-
fice of Secretary of the Interior or of the War Department, with
honor to himself and to the country.
As he is from my state, and my name has been occasionally
mentioned, it is due to you, and to myself to say, twice in my
time I have been as near the great responsibilities of the Presi-
dential office as I ever desire to go; and, I am in no sense any
aspirant for a position in the Cabinet. On the other hand, I join
with our friends in Wisconsin in favoring Col. Vilas for such a
position.
As to the War Department. The name of McDonald of Indiana
would be received with general satisfaction. Indeed, his name
and Col. Vilas is thought of alternately for the War and Interior
Departments.
As to the Navy. General McClellan and Mr. Stockton of New
Jersey are favorably spoken of.
As to Attorney General. Mr. Garland; and, Samuel Wilson of
California I have heard discussed. He is the ablest lawyer of
the Pacific Coast.
Justice Field is quite sanguine that a strong man in your Cabi-
net could probably make California and Oregon Democratic
states, and the new State of Tacomah, to be soon formed of Wash-
ington Territory, would also be a Democratic state.
The general opinion, however, has been that Mr. Garland would
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 911
be the man. He is a very able lawyer, and, though his leaving the
Senate would be seriously felt, yet it is probable that Arkansas
could find an able man to fill his place. It has just chosen Mr.
Jones, who is a very able man, as colleague of Mr. Garland.
As to the Postmaster General. If that office is to go to South,
I have heard Mr. Jones, Mr. Barbour, and Mr. Money all spoken
of with favor.
I would much prefer to discuss such matters in a private inter-
view, for there are many considerations which cannot be said in
writing, without making this communication too long.
I fear it is too long already. But I could hardly say less. When
you shall have disposed of the question please return this paper
to me at Racine, Wisconsin, as there is no necessity of its preser-
vation, as it is only intended as a suggestion, which will cease to
be of any value when the result is reached ; which we shall all,
with one heart and voice, cheerfully accept "un fait accompli,"
and as the best thing attainable.
I now hope that I may stop at Albany, on my way home, and
seek a third opportunity for a private interview, where we may
talk over the suggestions in this paper, or such other matters as
you may desire. I now think I will here on Monday for Albany by
Worcester, and stop over in Albany Tuesday next.
With great respect, Truly yours,
J. R. Doolittle.
Note, This letter is entirely in the handwriting of Judge Doo-
little. The sentiments are those of a sincere and honest mam
one who had the good of his party and of the country at heart. I
cannot be absolutely certain that the letter ever reached Mr.
Cleveland. But I believe it did and was afterwards returned to
the writer as requested. Judge Doolittle 's daughter, the late Mrs.
Burge, of Providence, assures me that Mr. Cleveland well knew
that her father favored Mr. Thurman for Secretary of State.
And this fact, both her father and herself believed induced the
indifference of President Cleveland to the political ambitions of
Mr. Doolittle. Mr. Bayard is also thought to have taken umbrage
at Judge Doolittle *s recommendation. D. M.
912 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
George R. Boynton
It is with a good deal of satisfaction that we present to our
readers this month the paper upon "What Thomas Faine did for
American Independence, ' ' because in its composition the writer
who is also an artist, has shown clearly the value of an artistic
temperament and a firm believer in the power of patriotic ideals,
and then too, this artist has shown almost as much facility in the
use of the pen as in that of the brush.
Mr. Boynton is chiefly known by his portraits of distinguished
men. He is well represented in our leading clubs, colleges and
universities, and he has portrayed many of our most beloved and
famous clergymen, as well as our most prominent physicians and
surgeons ; also he will be long remembered for his excellent and
faithful representations on canvas of our best known officers of
the Army and Navy.
An interesting fact about Mr. Boynton is that his knowledge of
the principles and technique of his art have been of American
origin and development only, which is clear proof that to the
painter of portraits at least this country affords adequate oppor-
tunity for the expression of marked individuality in the handling
of form and color.
"In my many talks with this gifted artist," says our Associ-
ate Editor, "I have found him not only a good judge of differ-
ent schools of art, but of men not only in their outward appear-
ance, but of their psychological and ethical qualities and ways
of expression and thought, and this I believe has been of great
aid to him in his work. His ability as a conversationalist and a
teller of good stories has brought to him many valued and
pleasant friendships. ' '
Mr. Boynton so far as his family is concerned can trace back
his ancestry as is shown in Burke's Peerage to this well-known
family in Yorkshire, England.
On the 30th of April, 1637, Sir Matthew Boynton with an im-
portant company including Sir William Constable, Sir Arthur
Hazlerig, Mr. John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell were about
to set sail in eight ships for New England when they were ordered
GEORGE R. BOYNTON
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 913
to disembark with all their stock and merchandise by a pre-
emptory order from the council.
This movement on the part of the government was far reaching
in its consequences, for if Sir Matthew Boynton and his friend
Oliver Cromwell had been allowed to voyage to America,
Charles I would probably have not lost his head.
Now having said this much as to the writer of the paper
"What Thomas Paino did for American Independence," I need
say little as to the paper itself, as I feel that all serious readers
will not fail to find in it that same simplicity and directness of
expression that is to be seen in all Mr. Boynton's work as an
artist.
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AMERICANA
November, 1915
Recollections of a Half Century and More
By Andeew M. Sherman, Morristown, N. J.
V
My Boyhood in New England
(Continued)
LATE in the summer or early in the autumn of 1855 my
eldest brother, Horatio Nelson, of Birmingham—
now Derby— Connecticut, visited his parents in Bridge-
water, Massachusetts. The presents he brought to my
younger brother and me made his visit one of rare pleasure for
us, especially.
Before my brother's return to Connecticut it was arranged
that I should accompany him and henceforth make my home in
his family.
On the night before our departure from Bridgewater we slept
at the home of my sister, Mrs. Henry Perkins, that being nearer
the railroad station than the home of our parents.
As we had to take an early train in order to reach my broth-
er's home on the same day of our departure it was necessary for
us to be up betimes next morning; and the promptness with
which I responded to the call of my brother-in-law to rise was so
pleasing to him that he afterward frequently spoke of it as a
very creditable thing on my part. Perhaps my kindhearted
brother-in-law did not take into account the fact of my joyous
anticipation of a long ride • ■on the cars ' ' that day. To this fact,
(9i5)
916 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
I confide to the reader, more than to any particular fondness for
leaving a comfortable bed in the early morning hours should be
attributed the unusual alacrity with which I responded to my
brother-in-law's summons on the day of my departure for the
"Nutmeg State/ ?
It was on a mild day in September, 1855, that I bade adieu
to old Bridgewater never to return except for visits.
The journey from my Massachusetts home to my prospective
home in Connecticut was inexpressibly pleasing to one who had
seen so little of the world. The numerous and strange villages
and cities through which we passed and the throngs of people I
saw along the route were a novel and exceedingly interesting
experience to a boy not quite twelve years of age; and to say
that I keenly enjoyed the ride is but a feeble way of describing
my pleasure.
We reached Birmingham in the early evening and were con-
veyed by carriage from the somewhat distant railroad station
to my brother's home.
My brother, in whose family I was thereafter to have a home,
had for several years been the superintendent of a large tack
and nail factory connected with the Shelton Manufacturing
Company, of Birmingham, which was known far and wide to
merchants engaged in the wholesale and retail hardware busi-
ness.
My brother, it is only just to him to remark, was an expert ar-
tisan at tackmaking and used to have the choicest work in the
factory; indeed, his reputation as a tackmaker was national, and
there was not a tack manufactory in this country but would have
been glad to employ him and thus have the benefit of his super-
ior mechanical skill. As to the compensation received by him it
may be said that it was no uncommon thing for him before the
opening of the Civil War to have a monthly income of $250.00 ;
and in "war times" his monthly income was sometimes double
the sum above mentioned.
I should not omit saving in this connection that this brother
was the inventor and patentee of two highly valuable pieces of
machinery, one for making the bedscrew bolts once used in cord
bedsteads, which had previously been made by hand; and the
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This picture of the author is from a tintype which
was copied from an ambrotype, the latter of which
w r as taken in Birmingham mow Derby), Conn.,
when he was about 14 years of age,
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 917
other, the first of its land, for cutting out and placing the round
leather heads on tacks for use in fastening down carpets. By
way of contrast it may be remarked that the machine for mak-
ing bedscrew bolts was about five feet square, three feet in
height and weighed fully fifteen hundred pounds ; while the
machine for cutting and placing the round leather heads on
tacks was about twelve inches square, five inches in height and
weighed scarcely more than ten pounds. The larger machine
my brother sold outright to the Shelton Manufacturing Com-
pany for use in their busy bolt shop, and on the smaller ma-
chine he received a royalty from the same company for its use.
During almost the entire autumn and winter following my re-
moval to Birmingham I had intermittent fever, induced in part,
at least, by homesickness ; for this was the first time I had ever
been away from my parents and brothers and sisters. My
younger brother, Charles L., and I were especially fond of each
other. For several years we had occupied the same bed, and
like many other boys of our age we frequently engaged in "pil-
low-fights" in the morning before getting ourselves in presenta-
ble form. In outdoor games and sports incident to boyhood we
were almost invariably associated; and as companions we were
inseparable.
It is a wise provision of the infinite Creator that childhood has
the power of readily adjusting itself to its environment, and
consequently I soon began to be contented and happy in my new
home in the "Nutmeg State." This was due in part to the
pleasant friendships I soon formed among the children of my
own age in the neighborhood, among whom was the son of Mr.
Charles Jackson— Fred. Jackson, by name— who was employed
in the tack factory of which my brother was the superintendent.
The intimacy of the two families is, indeed, pleasant for me even
now to recall.
My brother, at the time of which I am writing, resided on
Catherine Street, next door to the residence of Mr. John I.
Howe, the principal owner of a prosperous pin factory in Birm-
ingham.
It was commonly reported that Mr. Howe, in order to qualify
himself to construct a pin machine, used to sit or lounge for
918 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
hours at a time on an elevation overlooking a pin manufactory
in England which he was not, for prudential reasons, permitted
to enter, and through open windows carefully watch and study
the mechanism of the machines in operation, until, at length,
such was his mechanical ingenuity, he was able to construct a
machine for making pins. I remember with what interest and
almost wonder I used to look upon a man who could, with such
meagre aid, accomplish so difficult a feat.
In due course Mr. Howe— he was an Englishman by birth-
came to this country; and after having a sufficient number of
machines built under his personal superintendency, having pre-
viously taken out a patent, he engaged in the business of manu-
facturing pins, and his business became the famous Howe Pin
Manufacturing Company, of Birmingham, Connecticut, known,
at one time, the country over.
As a reward of his inventive skill and untiring industry Mr.
Howe became a wealthy man, wealthy, I mean, for those early
days ; and it is worthy of remark that notwithstanding his wealth
he was a modest and unassuming man and noticeably free from
the vulgar display made by many men of wealth in the present
century, not a few of whom deserve no credit whatever for the
accumulation of their wealth, having in many instances inher-
ited it from parents or others, and some of whom have scooped
it in by "ways that are past finding out."
I well remember how zealously the operation of the pin ma-
chines in the Howe Pin Manufactory was guarded for fear that
others might construct a similar machine and engage in the man-
ufacture of this almost indispensable household necessity.
Through the influence, however, of a friend whose father was
a trusted employe in the Howe pin shop I was now and then
permitted to enter said shop; and the somewhat complicated
machine was a sort of seven years' wonder to me. I will not
attempt to describe the process of pin making except to say that
a reel of fine brass wire was fed into the machine, and, after-
ward came out with amazing rapidity in the form of pins which
were afterward given a coating of tin and then stuck in long
colored papers for the trade. I remember when the Howe pins
were the only American pins used in this country.
St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, Birmingham
(now Derby), Connecticut, where I attended
church and Sunday school and in which I was
baptized when a small boy. It is a substantial
stone structure.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 919
My brother and his wife attended the Protestant Episcopal
Church, and as might be expected I soon began attending the
same place of worship; and the recollection of the beautiful and
impressive form of divine worship of that church is still vivid
in my mind and I am still fond of recalling the memories of the
happy hours spent in the Episcopal Church of Birmingham,
Connecticut.
It is no wonder to me, as it is to some, that the classical ritual
and the beautiful church architecture of the Protestant Episco-
pal Church gain so strong a hold upon those who for any con-
siderable length of time have attended its services. And after
the lapse of nearly sixty years the Episcopal form of worship
has still a fascination for me. I never attend an Episcopal
Church but my mind is crowded with pleasant recollections of
my early boyhood.
In the Sunday school of the St. James Episcopal Church, for
such was the name of this church, I was a member of the class
taught by Mr. Thomas Elms, an excellent teacher and an exem-
plary Christian. The Rector of this church at the beginning of
my attendance there was the Rev. Jared Flagg, D. D., who soon
resigned the rectorship and engaged in the work of painting por-
traits in oil for which he had received special training. He
opened a studio in New Haven, Connecticut and acquired no
mean reputation as a portrait painter. It will doubtless be re-
membered by some of the older residents of Morristown, New
Jersey, that Dr. Flagg subsequently opened a studio in the
county seat of Morris where he continued the work of painting
portraits. During his residence in Morristown he lived in a
house on High street which is still standing with the studio used
by Dr. Flagg at the extreme top of the house. This studio, so
the author has been informed, was constructed expressly for
Dr. Flagg.
Only a short distance from my new home in Birmingham was
a private school taught, as I remember, by Miss Carrie Shelton ;
and it is a fact of no ordinary interest to me that the young girl
who subsequently became my wife attended this private school
and it is probable that I frequently saw her, as a small girl, as
she trudged day after day to school and as she engaged in out-
92G RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
door games with her schoolmates. She has since informed me
that among the pupils of that private school during her attend-
ance was a little bare-footed girl— it was common in those days
for small children to go barefoot during the warm season—
who afterwards became the famous American Prima Donna,
Clara Louise Kellogg; and in commemoration of her mother's
association, as a child, with Miss Kellogg, our youngest daugh-
ter was named Clara Louise, which name she now bears.
Living but a short distance from us on Catherine Street was
a family consisting of a widow, Mrs. Banks, her young son, Burr
Banks and one or two maiden sisters of Mrs. Banks. From my
first acquaintance with the family I was very fond of Bun-
Banks, and we frequently exchanged visits. One of the aunts,
whose name as I now recall, was Margaret, or "Aunt Mag-
gie/' as her nephew called her, after a lingering illness with con-
sumption passed away. As she lay in the casket awaiting bur-
ial I called at the modest home of Mrs. Banks and my friend
Burr Banks invited me to go into the room where her remains
lay and look at her. Almost trembling with fear I reluctantly
accompanied him and slowly approaching the casket I looked at
her face. I mention this little episode chiefly because this was
the first time I had seen a deceased person, and the recollection
of my emotions as I entered the room where her remains lay is
as fresh as if it had occurred only a few days ago. The room
in which that woman lay in her casket is to this day a sacred
place to me.
During the first years of my residence in Birmingham month-
ly meetings of the different Sunday Schools of the place were
held under the auspices of what was known as the Sunday
School Union. These meetings were held alternately in the dif-
ferent churches, with the exception of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, at which the pastors and others made appropriate ad-
dresses. Among the speakers at one of these meetings I was
permitted to attend was the Bev. George A. Hubbell, pastor of
the Methodist Episcopal Church; and in the course of his ad-
dress he related what to me was a very touching story of the
death of a little boy which made a strong impression upon my
plastic mind. Previous to this evening I had been accustomed
RECOLLECTIONS OE A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 921
to having a lamp to take to my room on going to bed which I
placed on a stand at my bedside ; and when I had fallen asleep
my sister-in-law would come to my room and remove the lamp.
When I returned from the meeting of the Sunday School Un-
ion on the evening in question I was in such a happy frame of
mind that all fear of the dark had vanished ; indeed, I was so full
of courage that when my sister-in-law spoke of having a lamp
to go to bed with I said: "I don't care for a light." So I went
to my sleeping room in the dark, undressed and got into my bed.
In my room were two windows both of which were open, for it
was a warm evening, I had lain in bed but a few minutes when
suddenly I heard what to my awakened imagination seemed the
most exquisite music to which I had ever listened. This music
seemed to be out under the eaves of the house. Still in the al-
most ecstatic frame of mind in which I had returned from the
meeting of the Sunday School Union on that evening I imagined,
as the various strains of the music came floating on the summer
air into my room, that it was a band of angels who were singing.
For a few minutes I listened with rapt attention ; but at length
I began to be frightened. The fright so conrpletely overcame me
that I called for my sister-in-law to bring me a lamp, which she
did, placing it on the stand at my bedside, as usual. It was some
time, however, before I was able to get to sleep.
Not until some time afterward did it begin to dawn upon my
mind that the music I had heard on that evening was of purely
human origin, and proceeded from some house in the neighbor-
hood where the inmates were singing religious hymns with or-
gan accompaniment at the close of the Sabbath.
Every now and then for several weeks I had felt a sharp pain
in the ball of my right foot, and some times I was scarcely able
to walk for the pain experienced. The attention of my sister-
in-law having several times been called to the matter she said to
me one morning before starting for school: " Andrew, let me
look at your foot." Glad of even the possibility of being re-
lieved from the frequent pains I had suffered I willingly com-
plied with the request. Taking off my shoe and stocking I al-
lowed my sister-in-law to take my foot in her lap. She then
carefully examined the bottom of my foot, and as a result she
922 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
remarked: "Why, Andrew, there is a piece of glass in your
foot. Sit here until I get something with which to remove it."
Returning soon with a case knife she again took my foot in her
lap and with the sharp edge of the knife she removed from the
ball of my foot a triangular piece of window glass which meas-
ured about a quarter of an inch along each side. This she held
up for me to see. It was then that for the first time I related
to my "good physician' ' that it was while playing around the
old, abandoned house up in the "Old Bay State" nearly eigh-
teen months before that I had, as I then supposed, simply cut
my foot. That piece of glass had therefore been in my foot all
those months.
Birmingham was situated on an elevated plateau between two
rivers, with the lower or southerly part of the village sloping
gradually down toward one of these rivers. On the easterly side
of Birmingham was the Naugatuck River and on the westerly
side the Housatonic River. Just below Birmingham these two
rivers formed a junction and from thence onward to Long Island
Sound there was but one river.
At the junction of the two rivers mentioned, and on both sides
of the narrow outlet, were ledges of rocks reaching on one side
to the height of at least twenty-five feet and on the other to a
height but little less.
In the spring of the year severe freshets occurred in both
rivers mentioned. The snow, melted by the copious spring
rains, came rushing down from the hills on each side of the riv-
ers for several miles above us, in consequence of which both riv-
ers would rise and break up the thick ice of the previous win-
ter. The huge cakes of ice would then be carried by the power-
ful current down both rivers and at their junction would become
wedged between the high rocks on either side, and the huge
cakes of ice following, forced by the increasing velocity of the
river current, would sometimes shoot up into the air many feet,
presenting a sight well worth beholding.
As the ice became wedged between the rocks at the narrow
junction of the two rivers the water of both would rise, and rise
and rise until it reached a height sometimes of twelve or fifteen
feet above its usual level. I have seen fully twelve feet of water on
.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 923
the road, familiarly known as "the causeway/ ' between the
contiguous villages of Birmingham and Derby. Of course all
travel was for several days stopped and business of all kinds, in
the lower parts of Birmingham, especially, was at stand still.
Even the mills, of which there were many, were unable to run,
as they were without power, the surplus of water being no less
disadvantageous than a scarcity. It became necessary to go
about some portions of Birmingham in row boats, and this was
great fun for the boys who enjoyed the unusual.
I recall not a few incidents and episodes of the freshets in
Birmingham, for example: During a great freshet which oc-
curred a few years before my removal to Birmingham a young
man and his prospective bride— or fiancee, in the language of
the present day— were standing on the wooden bridge spanning
the Naugatuck Eiver between Birmingham and Derby, when the
water rose so suddenly and to such great height that before the
young people were able to leave the bridge for a place of safety
the bridge was lifted from its abutments and carried down the
river, and they were both drowned. This peculiarly sad event
created much excitement.
The young people were buried in the village cemetery, and a
picture of each was inserted in the front of their respective
headstones.
Over the Housatonic Eiver between Birmingham and Hunt-
ington— now Shelton— was a covered wooden bridge about six
hundred feet in length. For many years this bridge had been a
toll bridge ; and not a few times did ' i we boys ' ' run the toll, not
always, however, because we hadn't the money to pay the small
fee— two cents, as I remember — but because of the "fun of it,"
and because of the excitement of running to get away from the
keeper, who, I am glad of the opportunity of saying, was a very
krndhearted man. "We boys' ' would cross the bridge from
the end at which the keeper did not live, that is to say, from the
Birmingham end, stealthily approach the toll house where the
keeper and his family lived— his name was Yale— and when the
keeper was not in sight, or in the house where he could not
see us, we would scud at the top of our speed through the gate
for foot travelers and into the road beyond where for the time
924 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
we were safe. It was an imprudent thing for boys to do for we
were liable to be arrested, and only the kindness of the keeper
gave us immunity from arrest. In returning- to the Birmingham
side of the river we had sometimes to get across in a row boat.
During one of the freshets in Birmingham the rivers as usual
rose to a great height, the ice came slowly up under this long
covered bridge, lifted it in the air as if it had been a small build-
ing, carried it down the river a short distance where it broke
in two pieces of about equal length— the one piece being
carried down stream by the strong current and the other piece
going ashore a short distance below the Birmingham end of the
bridge. This toll bridge was owned by a stock company and had
been paying a fair rate of interest in the way of tolls for foot
travelers and vehicles of various kinds, hence it was concluded
to make an effort to save the portion of the bridge that had
gone ashore. A sailor — I think his name was Dorman— was
home on a visit, "on shore/' is the nautical term commonly em-
ployed by the i t Jack-tars, ' ' and Dorman was engaged to go out
in the swiftly running river filled with immense cakes of ice and
fasten a strong rope or hawser to the bridge with a view to pre-
venting it from being carried further down the river. At the
risk of his life, as it seemed to the throng of anxious spectators
on shore, who watched him with bated breath, the brave sailor
fastened the hawser to the bridge, brought the other end to
shore where he securely fastened it, thus saving that portion of
the broken bridge. For his perilous service— so it was generally
reported among the throngs of spectators at the time— Dorman
was paid the paltry sum of $25.
The other end of the bridge was carried down stream and
was gradually broken to pieces by the ice.
The catastrophe above described occurred at about midnight,
and the destruction of the bridge and the attendant circum-
stances produced great excitement. Although I was only about
fourteen years of age I was a deeply interested witness of the
exciting scenes enacted.
Among the interesting incidents of the floods we used to have
in Birmingham in my boyhood was the following: As the waters
of the river rose in Lower Derby and set back into that portion
[1
.- . - , . ■•-.-
School Building, Birmingham (now Derby), Connecticut, where I attended
school in my boyhood. This building has been superseded by a fine
brick structure.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 925
of the township, a huge cake of ice, driven by the powerful cur-
rent, broke clean through one side of a dwelling house and
landed on the top of a square piano, and it was some time before
it could be removed. The effect upon the case of the instrument
must have 'been anything but favorable, and I question whether
the tone was any the better for the water that must have per-
colated down through the case into the interior of the piano.
It was during a winter of my boyhood in Birmingham that
the weather was so extremely cold as to freeze the river nearly
up to the newly constructed "Huntington bridge" solid to the
bottom in some places. Before the snow came and covered the
ice the men and boys skated down the river a distance of about
ten miles and back, furnishing the finest sport of several years.
Think of skating a distance of twenty miles on a stretch !
After the snow had covered the ice, to the keen regret of men
and boys, horses and sleighs drove up on the almost solid ice
from many miles below to Birmingham and Huntington. It was at
this time that General Tom Thumb, in his tiny turnout drawn by
two small horses, was driven up the river from his home in
Bridgeport, about sixteen miles distant. He was afterward
driven about on the ice to the great amusement of the boys in
particular. To them it was an important event, and was a sub-
ject of conversation for many a day afterward.
In the spring of 1856 I began attending the grammar school
in Birmingham. The principal of the school was a Mr. Stevens
from the west whose first name has escaped my memory. He was
a large, powerfully built man, of great strength. As an illustra-
tion of his strength it may be said that stooping down on his
hands and knees under one end of the rear axle of the heavy
fire engines of those days he would with apparent ease lift upon
his shoulders that part of the engine. I do not believe there
was another man connected with the local fire company who
could perform the feat.
Mr. Stevens was exceedingly popular with the pupils of the
school of which he was the principal, especially with the boys,
and the reasons are far from difficult to find. Besides being an
excellent teacher and efficient principal he introduced and en-
couraged games of different kinds among the boys of his school,
926 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
such as dumb bells, swings, foot ball, boxing, base ball, etc. In
these games he personally and enthusiastically joined with the
pupils. If, in boxing with the pupils, the principal now and then
gave some of them a knock-over punch it was only to train them
efficiently in the ''manly art of self defence, " so that if necessity
required they would be able to l * look out for number one. ' '
In skating in winter and in swimming in summer Mr. Stev-
ens also joined with his pupils, and many of them could thank
him for having taught them to skate and swim. Some of the
more confiding boys acquired the art of swimming after a few
days faithful coaching by the "big schoolmaster.' ' If he thought
it necessary to now and then give some of the less venturesome
boys "a ducking" to inure them to the water he did so; and
while for the time it seemed like harsh treatment the boys thus
treated afterward acknowledged the benefit derived from it in
the way of deliverance from fear of the water.
In the school room, however, Mr. Stevens was a strict dis-
ciplinarian.
One of the peculiar methods of this teacher when he perceived
that a boy was not giving proper attention in his seat to his
studies was to make a circuit, on tiptoe, of the school room, com-
ing down behind the lazy pupil from the rear and treating him
as I shall describe. The boys sat on the right of the school room
as the principal faced the school and the girls on the left. The
principal would go stealthily up the aisle at the left of the girls,
then go from the girls' side to the boys' side, then across the back
of the school room to the head of the boys' aisle. There he would
stand for a few moments in full sight of the pupils in the front
part of the room rubbing his loosely clenched fists together as
if getting them in good condition for what was soon to take
place. All this time the lazy pupil was in ignorance of what
awaited him. Coming down the aisle behind the pupil like a
cat approaching a bird or mouse the principal would suddenly
rub with both closed fists each of the boys' ears enough to set
them on fire from the friction, and conclude with lifting the boy
nearly out of his seat. This was all done in the best good nature
without even the trace of anger; but "the treatment" accom-
plished the purpose for which it was intended, which was to
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 927
make this pupil more studious in future and serve, also, as a
warning to other pupils disposed to be lazy about studying.
One's ears would smart and burn for some time after receiving
such a brisk and rapid rubbing. If you inquire whether the
author's ears ever smarted after such a unique ''treatment" he
will have to take refuge in the principle of law that no criminal
is obliged, on the witness stand, to make statements that will in-
criminate him.
Among the especially interesting incidents of my school life
under the aforesaid principal was the following: Upon discov-
ering that some trees recently planted in the large front yard of
the school had apparently been mutilated with a knife or some
other sharp instrument he kept every boy after school of the
afternoon session. When the girl pupils had been dismissed
these boys were requested to occupy the front seats, where they
were required to remain for a time in perfect silence. The prin-
cipal then endeavored in the following manner to ascertain, if
possible, which of the detained boys had cut the young trees:—
He went from one boy to another, closely questioning each one;
while talking to one boy he would with great force slap the boy
next to him on the leg near the knee. Thus he went from one
end to the other of the row of boys ; but he did not succeed in
ascertaining who mutilated the young trees. He then dismissed
the boys with a smile indicative of his good nature.
I thought at the time I knew and I think now that I know the
boy who cut those trees, but the principal was none the wiser
for what I thought I knew.
Only a few years ago while visiting in Birmingham I called
upon one of my old schoolmates in Mr. Stevens ' school and our
conversation very naturally drifted to the subject of our early
school days; and I called his attention to the tree-cutting inci-
dent. I said to him, with a significant smile playing over my
face: " I have always thought you knew who cut those
young trees. ' ' To my remark he made no oral reply ; but the pecu-
liar twinkle of his eyes impressed me that my opinion was well
grounded. He was, however, the same reticent, close-mouthed
individual as in his boyhood. My old schoolmate, a successful
manufacturer, has recently passed away.
.
928 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
Mr. Stevens was very fond of having declamations in school,
usually on Friday afternoons after the studies of the week were
"out of the way." There were some clever declaimers in this
school, among them Wells Piper, William C. Atwater, Andrew
Neweonib, and others whose names I do not now recall. One
declamation which was a great favorite with the pupils was
"Three Black Crows," which was recited by Wells Piper in a
manner exceedingly pleasing to the school; hence he was fre-
quently requested to recite this poem. Piper enjoyed reciting
the poem fully as much as the school did in listening to the reci-
tation.
"The American Eagle," by C. W. Thomson, as recited by
William C. Atwater, was another favorite, more especially be-
cause of Atwater 's fine elocutionary powers.
But the poem that the principal was especially fond of having
recited was "Old Ironsides," by Oliver Wendell Holmes, com-
mencing as not all my readers may be aware :
"Ay, tear her tatter 'd ensign down!
Long has it waved on high !
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
and closing with the following inspiring lines :
"Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail;
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale."
Mr. Stevens had trained Wells Piper to recite "Three Black
Crows" with such excellent effect that at every opportunity,
both for his own personal gratification and for the edification
of visitors to the school, he frequently called upon Piper to ex-
hibit his elocutionary proficiency.
One of the great events in connection with our school life un-
der the principalship of Mr. Stevens was an exhibition given in
the town hall— "Nathan's Hall"— which consisted of the en-
acting of a dramatization of Sir Walter Scott's thrilling poem
of "The Lady of the Lake," with Scottish costumes and appro-
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RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 929
priate scenery. The different parts of the play were taken by
"Wells Piper, Andrew Newcomb, Bliss French, Charles Hub-
bard and other pupils whose names have escaped my memory;
it would be a pleasure to mo to recall them all. The large au-
dience which listened to the presentation of Scott's "Lady of
the Lake'* was enthusiastic in its praises of the excellent man-
ner in which, under the supervision of our principal, the play
was enacted. Nearly if not quite all the participants in the pre-
sentation of that play have passed on into "the great beyond ;"
and included in the list is our beloved principal. When the Civil
War broke out, so I have been informed, Mr. Stevens, who had
some time previous returned to the west, entered the Union
army in which he became quartermaster of one of the western
regiments. He came out of the war alive and uninjured. He
accumulated considerable property, but in consequence of poor
investments he lost most of his savings and died a poor man-
such, at least, was the report that came to Birmingham concern-
ing him. To say that the report of our beloved principal's mis-
fortune was painful to his former pupils in Birmingham would
be superfluous.
On my right wrist is a scar about half an inch in diameter
which ever reminds me of the following incident in connection
with my attendance upon the grammar school of Birmingham : I
was standing one recess leaning against the side of the school
building with both my hands behind me. The outside of the
building was not only painted but over the paint fine sand had
been sprinkled. While my hands were pressed against the
the sanded surface, one of the pupils— I wonder if he is living
and remembers the little episode?— as he passed me on his way
up into the school room, gave me a vigorous push sidewise—
"just for fun"— as usual, with the result that the skin was torn
from the back of my right wrist. The wounded wrist bled pro-
fusely and was a long time healing.
That was about fifty-six years ago, and the scar is plainly to
be seen to this day. But I do not regret the lingering scar, for
besides reminding me of the little school incident mentioned, it re-
calls many, many pleasant recollections of those happy days
long since gone, never to return.
930 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
When I was about fifteen years of age a new schoolmaster
took charge of the Birmingham grammar school. He was an
excellent teacher with a better preparation so far as book learn-
ing was concerned than the principal of whom I have been speak-
ing; but he did not mingle so freely with the boys in outdoor
games and in other respects as our former principal, hence he
was not so popular, personally. The girls liked him, because,
as a rule, they were at school to learn. Mr. Smith, for this was
the name of the new principal, did not interest me as the form-
er one had ; and for this and other reasons I therefore gradually
lost my interest in school. I had reached that age when many
boys become discontented, and I wearied of the restraints of not
only school but of home ; I was itching to get out into the world
to see more of life. As I now understand, it is a dangerous
period in a boy's life, and needs a firm but kind hand to guide
one over the period to the one where the boy begins to see he is
better off where he is.
For some violation of the rules of the school my particular
chum and I were kept after school. We were both called down
to the principal 's desk and there he gave us a faithful talking to,
the justice of which I readily perceived. I can almost recall the
kindly tones of the principal's voice as he endeavored to im-
press upon our minds the unwisdom of the course we were tak-
ing. After receiving this talk we were both required to retire
to one of the recitation rooms situated on the back side of the
school building, as the principal had other disobedient pupils to
deal with. Seeing one of the windows of the recitation room
into which we had gone open we concluded we would dismiss
ourselves instead of waiting for Mr. Smith to do so; so, one
after the other, we got out of the open window on to the roof of
an L and from thence we let ourselves down to the ground.
"Walking stealthily out of the front school yard we proceeded
on our way home, inwardly congratulating ourselves over our
slick escapade.
As we were crossing the village green about a hundred rods
distant, the principal for the first time discovered we had left
the school building. Upon seeing us he called to us by name,
first to one and then to the other ; but pretending we did not hear
him we kept on our way and soon reached our homes.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 931
Next morning we were in school at the usual time. In due
course we were called up to the principal's desk. There we were
reminded of the escapade of the previous day, and were asked
to give an explanation of our conduct. After making our state-
ment Mr. Smith reminded us of the consequences of such con-
duet upon our future lives, and we were then sent to our seats.
I have always regretted the course taken with that principal ;
and have since seen very clearly that he had our best interests
at heart in dealing with us.
I have not mentioned the last episode of my life with any
pride but to say that it was very unwise on my part and as a
warning also to other boys who get discontented and long to
leave school.
One of the great events of my boyhood in Birmingham was
the coming of Barnum T s one ring circus to town each year. With
this circus were a number of elephants, one of which was named
" Columbus, ' ' said to be the largest elephant in the country, and
I think it was true. In reaching Birmingham the circus came
through Huntington : Bridgeport, about sixteen miles below, be-
ing the winter quarters of the circus. To reach Birmingham the
circus had to cross the covered bridge between Huntington and
the former place. As "Columbus" approached the Huntington
end of the bridge he would cautiously place first one foot and
then the other on the bridge, evidently to convince himself it
was safe to cross ; and only when satisfied it was safe could the
great animal be persuaded to cross to the Birmingham side.
Once, at least, "Columbus" was for some reason so mistrustful
of the safety of the bridge that neither by coaxing nor threaten-
ing could he be induced to cross the bridge, and his keeper had
to allow him to swim the river, except where it was shallow
enough for him to wade.
In the year 1858, as near as I am now able to recall, my broth-
er with whom I lived purchased what was known as the Hinman
Place on Minerva Street, which place was situated at the lower
southwestern corner of the large village green.
In the rear of the house and facing the street running across
the village— it may have been Second Street— was a two story
shop belonging to my brother's place, and on the second floor of
932 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
this shop was a good sized room ; indeed, it occupied the entire
second floor and may have been about twenty by thirty feet in
dimension. In this large room, or hall as it might properly be
called, "we boys," with my brother's consent, used to give ama-
teur theatrical performances. We had self-made curtains, scen-
ery and side wings, which, in the evening presented a pretty ap-
pearance to the audience. To our performances a small admis-
sion was charged— two cents, if I remember correctly— and it
was not long before some of the adults in the neighborhood be-
gan to attend our "shows." This, of course, was very gratify-
ing to the performers, who naturally thought they were furn-
ishing high class entertainments to their audiences.
The theatrical performances given in my brother's shop, in
which the author took prominent parts, was the beginning of
his fondness for amateur theatricals ; and as will be seen at a
later stage of my story it was not, by any means, the end of his
interest in such entertainments.
As vividly as if it were only last month is the recollection of
my great fondness for two of my girl schoolmates, each of
whom used frequently to accompany me home from school at
the close of the day. Although the names and faces and general
appearance of those girls are inefxaceably engraven on the tab-
lets of my memory I must refrain from giving their names.
One of these girls, grown to womanhood and married, I am
certain is now residing at the west end of Long Island, N. Y.
As a girl she was "as pretty as a picture," having long, dark
curls, and in her girlhood and young womanhood was decidedly
sentimental. How well do I remember that frequently, on her
way home from school, she would come into our yard at the foot
of the village green and swing, and swing and swing under the
grape arbor at the side and rear of the house, until occasionally,
at least, it seemed necessary for my sister-in-law to remind the
lingering caller that the time had arrived for her to bid adieu
to the boy in whose company she was experiencing pleasure. I
have no doubt she still remembers those happy school days in
the "Nutmeg State." The engagement and subsequent mar-
riage of this girl was of a peculiarly romantic character, as I
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 933
learned during one of my visits to Birmingham, the circum-
stances of which it would be almost sacrilegious to repeat.
The other girl sweetheart of whom I have spoken was rather
plain in appearance, but with a buoyant, happy disposition. She
was plump of form and face and the mere touch of her fingers
as we walked, hand in hand, from the afternoon session of the
grammar school, sent a magnetic thrill through my entire body.
This girl married, and at last accounts was residing in the cen-
tral part of Connecticut. It would be a superlative pleasure to
meet both of these youthful "sparks" and together recall the
happy days of "long ago."
I must not omit mentioning that with the only brother of the
first mentioned girl I was very intimate, and as we were both
interested in books and spent many hours together in the effort
to add to our stock of useful knowledge we were very fond of
each other. In the early years of his young manhood he went to
Chicago, and while in a fair way of making for himself a worthy
name in that great city he died a premature death. The recol-
lection of his noble character and of our pleasant association
is still delightful to recall.
It must have been some time during the year 1858 that I was
baptized in the St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, of
Birmingham, by the Rector, the Rev. John Brainerd. He was
an excellent man, a good rector, and was very acceptable to his
large parish until his marriage to a widow, who, for just cause
had been divorced from her husband. Soon after his marriage
he found it desirable to resign the rectorship of the church in
Birmingham, and he removed to Auburn, N. Y., where he became
the rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church of which the Hon.
William H. Seward, Secretary of State under Lincoln, was a
member. Dr. Brainerd was the rector of the Auburn church for
many years.
It was while I resided on Minerva Street that I was instru-
mental in saving the life of a boy about four years of age; it
was as follows : This boy while playing had fallen down between
a building near his home and a stone wall, the space between the
stone wall and the building being only about fifteen inches. As
the boy fell he became wedged in between the wall and the build-
934 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
ing so that he could scarcely move in any direction. Fortunately
he fell so his head was up. Some one who saw me passing the
scene of the accident, where the boy's parents were very excited
over the affair and over what means to employ to rescue the boy,
suggested that I be let down by the feet and that I get hold of
the boy's body and then be drawn up again. Upon being asked
if I would allow myself to be let down as above mentioned I
readily consented, and I was therefore let down a distance of
about ten feet where I grasped the boy by his arms and was
promptly drawn up by the father who had hold of my feet. The
work of rescue had to be expeditious because it would not have
been safe for me to be held head down except for a brief time.
The father, realizing the seriousness of the situation worked
expeditiously and it was only a minute or so before I was drawn
up with the boy who had, in falling, receiving only a few slight
scratches. For the part I performed in the work of rescue I
was given by the father a silver quarter dollar. To say that I
was delighted with the reward received would be superfluous.
Indeed that silver quarter seemed to me "as large as a cart
wheel. ' '
My first observation of "table tipping " was during my resi-
dence on Minerva Street. In my brother's family was a nurse,
whose name, as I remember, was Mrs. Oooley, a widow. When
it became known that this nurse was a medium she was request-
ed by some of the neighbors to give an exhibition of her medium-
istic powers, which she was willing to do. On one evening in
particular a company of invited neighbors were gathered in
the two front rooms of my brother's house when the following
phenomena were witnessed: The medium had a small painted
pine stand brought to her and after she had placed her hands
upon it for a few moments the stand began, first to move up and
down, and afterward to move slowly across the rooms and stop
in front of one of the company who, it was supposed, had men-
tally wished it. This was done several times, the stand going
first to one and then to another of the company. I am of the
opinion that the entire company gathered on this and other
occasions at my brother's house thought the apparently myster-
ious movements of the stand were due to the presence and in-
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 935
fluence of departed spirits ; for that was the belief quite gen-
erally entertained by people in those days. I distinctly remem-
ber that I then entertained that belief. I have since learned that
the phenomena above mentioned were of purely natural origin ;
that is to say, they were the result of the operation of a purely
natural law now known to the New Psychology as Telekinesis,
defined in Webster's New International Dictionary as the " Pro-
duction of motion in a body apparently apart from the action of
any physical cause ;" and defined by Professor Thomas Jay
Hudson, in his remarkable book entitled "The Law of Psychic
Phenomena' ' as "The power of moving ponderable bodies with-
out physical contact.' ' The reader is respectfully referred to
Professor Hudson's valuable work above mentioned for an ex-
planation and elucidation of Telekinesis and other occult phe-
nomena. If it were within the scope of this article to do so the
writer could and would enter more thoroughly into an elucidation
of the law of Telekinesis and its interesting phenomena.
The hill between the Protestant Episcopal Church and the
east side of the village green in Birmingham while neither steep
nor long was nevertheless, owing to the little travel on it, an
excellent place for sliding in winter ; and both the girls and the
boys in the neighborhood frequently improved the opportunity
which it offered them. Getting possession of an open sleigh, not
always in a legitimate manner, by any means, and filling it with
straw, we would draw it to the summit of the hill, pack in the
boys and girls, and then with one or two boys seated on a strong
sled between the thills of the sleigh we would, after receiving a
vigorous push, start down the hill and run a long distance. One
evening while going at a good rate of speed the boys between
the thills lost control of the sleigh and we ran with great force
against the house of one of our near neighbors— Mr. John W.
Storrs, who, by the way was the village poet and local historian.
The collision of the heavily loaded sleigh with the unyielding
house threw some of the coasters out into the snow, which was
considered a part of "the fun." The sleigh thills struck the
house at only a slight angle, otherwise the boys who were guid-
ing the sleigh wouldn't have been able to attend school next day.
As it was they barely escaped serious injury.
-
•
936 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
At the lower corner of the village green I once had a tussle
with a schoolmate, the memory of which is still fresh, the cir-
cumstances of which are as follows : This schoolmate, an other-
wise "tip-top" fellow, had for some time been deliberately hec-
toring me and the patience with which I had borne his hectoring
perhaps encouraged him to keep it up. But as "there is a turn
to the longest road" so was there a limit to my forbearance.
One afternoon as we came down through the green on our way
home from school and had reached the corner exit from the green
near my home— he had just been annoying me— I resented his
annoyance and then and there "I went for him" and we had a
"rough and tumble" scrap. Before the scrap terminated this
schoolmate became fully persuaded that in future it would be
better for him to let me severely alone ; and he did so, and from
that time on he studiously avoided annoying me. I mention this
little episode of my boyhood, not in a spirit of boasting, but to
show that it is sometimes justifiable to thrash a boy as a " means
of grace"— to the boy.
"We boys" used frequently to play foot ball on the village
green at recess and also between school sessions. Among the
players was a son of a wealthy man in Birmingham who seemed
to think he was privileged, on that account, to abuse the smaller
boys in particular whenever and howsoever he pleased. Often
when one of the smaller boys was about getting fair possession
of the foot ball this rich man's son would deliberately kick him
in the shins, causing, for the time, acute pain and sometimes
temporary lameness. Protests against this brutal treatment were
useless with this boy who was much larger than those whom he
abused ; so we had to â– ' grin and bear it. ' '
On reaching young manhood this schoolmate enlisted in the
First Regiment of Connecticut Cavalry and went to the front.
At the close of the Civil War he returned to Birmingham; and
I have been informed that his subsequent career was anything
but a credit to himself or to the community. Some fifteen or
twenty years ago during a visit to my boyhood home in Con-
necticut this man was a barkeeper in one of the local hotels.
Only a few years ago while riding a horse in Chicago he was
thrown from the horse and instantly killed. The case of this
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 937
former schoolmate of mine in Birmingham is a striking illustra-
tion of the familiar saying that "the boy is father to the man."
When a boy I was exceedingly fond of the water and I would
go without a good dinner any day rather than miss the oppor-
tunity of having a sail or row on the river. Once, when about
fifteen years of age, I was taking a sail with a young man who
pretended to be able to navigate a sail boat. We started to sail
down the river in the direction of Lower Derby. We had
gone but a short distance when there sprang up a stiff breeze.
At a moment when the amateur sailor was not "attending to
business " the breeze struck the sail and before the "man at the
helin" could bring the boat to it capsized and out we both went
into the water. As I could swim I did not mind the upsetting
much but inasmuch as my companion had never learned the art
of swimming I was somewhat anxious about him, and I should
have been still more anxious if the river where we had been cap-
sized had been of any considerable depth; on the contrary it
was shallow and we could both stand on the river bottom and
with much effort we dragged the boat to shore, where we emp-
tied her of water. Of course I was wet to the skin and the
problem that confronted me was how to dry my clothing before
going home; for to go home with wet clothing meant a severe
reprimand from my sister-in-law. I therefore found a sheltered
place, removed my clothing, wrung out as best I could the differ-
ent garments, one by one, and exposed them to the sun and air
until they were sufficiently dried to put on again. No one at
home was the wiser for the complete ducking I received that
forenoon. But I never took another sail with this novice at
boat sailing. That young man was none other than Wells Piper,
of < < Three. Black Crows ' ' fame.
I think the best coasting I have ever known "we boys" en-
joyed in Birmingham and vicinity. Hills suitable for sliding
were numerous and we didn't have to hunt for them. In Hunt-
ington, now the flourishing manufacturing place known as Shel-
ton, was one hill on which we could slide about two miles. It
was a small journey to the summit of the hill, 'tis true, but once
there we could have a splendid ride of about two miles without
interference from horses and carriages and sleighs. To say it
-
938 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
was " great fun" to take that long sled ride but feebly expresses
our experience. It should be remarked, however, that at the
time referred to there were but few houses and other buildings
in Huntington; but today Shelton— formerly Huntington— is
almost solid with buildings, including many large and flourish-
ing manufactories of different kinds. Of one of these manufac-
tories, the Star Pin Manufactory, employing about four hun-
dred men and women, my oldtime friend, Mr. J. Clarence Hub-
bard— " Clare, " was the name by which he was familiarly known
in our boyhood— is, and has for several years been, the efficient
superintendent. Indeed, Mr. Hubbard was one of the pioneers of
the company, which for a few years was located at what is still
known to older residents of Shelton as Wells Hollow, situated a
few miles below Shelton on the way to Bridgeport.
But the "bulliest" coasting the boys of Birmingham had was
in the village, sometimes on the main street— this was usually
in the evening when few vehicles were on the street— and some-
times on a shorter but much steeper hill which crossed the main
street at a right angle. This was at the lower end of Catherine
Street. Crossing the main street we would shoot down a wide
lane leading to several mills and on toward the Housatonic riv-
er. Just at the entrance to the lane the boys had constructed a
i 'thankyemam ' ' which must have been fully fifteen inches high
and about six feet long. Going to the top of the Catherine Street
hill we would come down the steep hill at a furious rate of speed,
shoot like an arrow across the main street— where we usually
had one or more boys posted to warn the coasters of approach-
ing vehicles— then into the lane we would scud at lightning
speed, and then over the ' ' thankyemam, " going up into the air
sometimes ten or twelve feet, then down on the ice-like snow
and on down the lane almost to the river 's bank.
One of the narrowest escapes of my life occurred in this lane,
from the consequences of which I am not certain I have ever
fully recovered. I came down the Catherine Street hill at a
break-neck speed, shot swiftly across the main street, thence into
the lane and over the " thankyemam, ' ' in descending from which
instead of striking flat on the sled runners as usual, I turned a
complete forward somersault. I struck on the top of my head in
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 939
front, on which I slid, as it seemed to me at the time, about
twenty-five feet. For a few moments I was stunned. As other
speeding sleds were immediately behind me I came to sufficiently
to realize the necessity of getting out of their way as quickly as
possible; so with considerable difficulty I dragged myself enough
to one side of the sled path to avoid being run over and seriously
injured and perhaps killed by the oncoming sleds. But the
strangest thing about the episode is that in a few minutes I re-
sumed my sliding down the Catherine Street hill and over the
same i ' thankyemam. ' '
It was in the spring following the incident above described
that there occurred an episode of more than ordinary interest,
to those directly concerned, at least. For a long time two or
three of my boy friends had talked about taking a trip by row
boat down to the mouth of the Housatonic River and spending a
few days in fishing, rowing and other sports. So two chums
and I procured a good row boat, in which we placed provisions
and cooking utensils, for we expected to catch and cook our own
fish. As a means, also, of self-protection we took with us one
or two cavalry swords —we were in a romantic frame of mind—
and one or more horse pistols, revolvers being scarce in those
days. We left the wharf at Lower Derby, about a quarter of a
mile below Birmingham, early in the forenoon, with an ebb tide,
on which we counted to prove auxiliary to our rowing.
The row down the river was "great fun" especially as the tide
was "with us." The distance to the point on the river we had
selected for our rendezvous— the Stratford Lighthouse, kept by
Captain Albee, with whom one of the party was somewhat ac-
quainted—was about twelve miles from Lower Derby, and we
reached it sometime in the afternoon, from which it may be in-
ferred that we loitered considerably along the route.
We rowed into a creek which emptied into the river and made
a landing on ground that was high and dry, for we expected to
sleep on the ground during our outing and had therefore taken
with us some old bedding and coverings. After securely fasten-
ing our boat we wandered aimlessly about "everywhere in gen-
eral but nowhere in particular" until time for supper, when we
940 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE
returned to our boat, and, sitting on the ground ate with a keen
relish the food we had brought with us.
When it came time to go to bed we turned the boat upside
down and propped it up with sticks and stones so we could
crawl under it, where we made our beds and ' ' turned in. ' ' We
were too tired after our long row down the river to engage in
any lengthy conversation so we were soon " locked in the arms
of Morpheus.' '
Next day we fished and caught crabs and cooked and ate to
our stomach 's satisfaction.
Weary with our days work and play— mostly the latter, how-
ever—we went to bed "with the chickens.' '
In the middle of the night it began to rain, and we soon found
the upturned boat so incomplete a covering that we were forced
to vacate our quarters and seek shelter in a shed adjoining the
house occupied by Captain Albee, where we ' ' slept a little. ' '
All the following day it rained, and the kindhearted lighthouse
keeper invited us into his house, where we could be dry and
warm ; which invitation we gladly accepted.
Before night came the rain poured down in torrents. The ro-
mance of a trip by row boat down to the Stratford Lighthouse
began to subside; and as the "evening shadows" began to ap-
pear—the rain increasing rather than otherwise— it was entire-
ly quenched, and I confess we wished we were back in our snug
beds at home. But we for the most part "kept mum" and made
the best of the situation.
Let us return for a few moments to Lower Derby from whence
we had embarked two days before.
On the evening of the day we "set sail" a young man of our
acquaintance was found drowned in the river near the wharf
at Lower Derby. In endeavoring to account for the drowning of
this young man some hot heads intimated that he had started
with our party to go down the river to the Stratford Lighthouse
and that objecting to his company, and wishing to rid ourselves
of him, we had pushed him overboard, and being unable to swim
he had drowned. This wild rumor passed from mouth to mouth
until at length it reached the ears of our parents who naturally
became anxious ; not that they believed the rumor, but thinking
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF A CENTURY AND MORE 941
that perhaps the boat in which we started down the river had
been capsized and we had all been drowned. The finding of a
capsized boat in the vicinity of the Lower Derby wharf lent
credence to this latter theory.
Who, therefore, should make their appearance at Captain Al-
bee's on the third day of our sojourn there but my brother and
the father of one of our fishing party. Learning that we were all
three ' i in the land of the living, ' ' the conversation turned to the
drowning of the young man. It needed but our disavowal of
complicity in the drowning of the young man whose lifeless
body had been found, and of any knowledge whatever of his
untimely death, to set the mind of brother and father at ease in
the matter; and satisfied concerning our own safety they soon
started for home.
Next day we rowed up the river on a flood tide and were wel-
comed home by our friends.
Concerning the drowning of the young man there were two
explanations, one of which was that he committed suicide by
jumping overboard from a rowboat in which he had left the
wharf-; and the other that having gone out for a row the boat in
some way was upset and being unable to swim he was drowned.
""â– â–
Boots
A Bucolic
By Rev. Chahles Caverno, A. M., LL. D.
E must look after the honor of all the gods in our
industrial pantheon. We worship iron and stone
and electricity. We consume iron as an ox does hay.
We call this the iron age and are never tired of
singing peans to the steam engine. We reverence stone when we
see it in monuments and huge buildings. We pay divine honors
to electricity because it can talk, run errands and work like
steam. But there is another god whom these divinities must al-
low to take rank with themselves. He is a god whom we have
not worshipped at all, or if we have, at least we have worshipped
ignorantly. This divinity is leather. Iron is not sole lord para-
mount over the industries of this age. Leather will claim a seat
on a throne near him.
In 1873 the Hon. Geo. W. Allen, of Milwaukee, Wis., whose
firm was then one of the foremost in the world in the manufa-
ture of leather, in a speech in honor of the Hon. Jackson S.
Schultz, U. S. Commissioner to the Vienna Exposition, said —
" Leather and its products are today the largest manufacturing
interest on this continent. It employs more labor and more
capital than any other interest in the United States except Agri-
culture. The value of its products is double tliat of the entire
iron interest."
Since that date iron and steel have shot far ahead of leather
in our industry. The census for the year 1900 gave value of
Iron and Steel products as , $1,793,000,000
Value of Leather and products 583,000,000
Statistics compiled for 1905 give value of products
of Iron 2,176,374,000
Value of products of Leather 705,447,000
(942)
BOOTS 943
A god who presides over an industry of such immensity as is in-
dicated by these last figures must have a seat among the thrones
on the huge Olympus of labor. We must have some symbol of
this deity to put in a shrine where we may pay our devotions.
To hang up a side of sole leather to worship seems too crude.
We must seize upon the most significant thing we can find about
the leather industry and make that symbolize the whole scope of
the industry itself —make it as a representative stand for it.
Those who extol this as the iron age, and put the significance
of our times, industrially speaking, in iron, put forward the
steam-engine as the type best representative of the iron interest.
A noble instrument and a noble symbol. But the iron interest is
not "sole sovereign of the ascendant." Leather too holds a
sceptre. Let the Boot go up to a shrine.
To see how much the boot means in our industrial civilization,
imagine us a barefoot nation. What would become of this great
iron age? How long would a barefoot nation run a steam en-
gine? How long would we mine ores and smelt iron? How long
chop down forests, and turn over the stubborn glebe either
primitive or otherwise? If it is a little uncomfortable to be
thinking about being barefoot suppose we give the order to re-
clothe the feet, but suppose, in rehabilitation, we first try mocca-
sins or wooden clogs. Would trains be on time tomorrow with
everybody in those kinds of foot rig? Would ax or plough be
up to their usual rate of execution?
In the moccasin one is substantially barefoot as against all
things hard or sharp. In the wooden clog he is condemned to a
snail's pace. But industrial civilization depends full as much on
swiftness and certainty of foot as on quickness of thought or
sleight of hand. In the boot we have the happy adjustment of
the flexible and the firm. The foot is, physically speaking, the
pioneer of all our enterprise, and upon the absolute confidence
with which this pioneering is done depends all our success.
Hence we ought to have pedal, as well as manual, training in-
troduced into the schools, to secure cunning of foot as well as
deftness of hand.
Sure footing is absolutely indispensable in labor. If a man
944 BOOTS
knows and feels that lie can stand and move with full protection
to the foot he will attack anything and go anywhere.
It is in pioneer life that the story is told which shows how
much our civilization depends upon the boot.
The difference between an Indian and a white man is best ex-
pressed by the difference between a moccasin and a boot. An
Indian wears a moccasin not simply because he is an Indian but
the moccasin makes him in great measure the Indian that he is.
The reason why the Indian on the frontier does not adopt the
white man's civilization is because he is in no condition to assert
himself against nature as the white man does. The moccasin is
a confession. The boot is an assertion. An Indian glides
through the forest, picks his way through bush and brier be-
cause he has to. A white man stalks along and stamps over and
through every thing because he can. An Indian in his moccasins
works his way through hazel brush in a light careful way which
says as plain as words can frame the idea: "0 Nature, you are
too much for me. ' ' But a white man in his good cowhide boots
stamps straight along as if to say, "Z am here, Dame Nature,
how are you going to forbid me!" If you have never seen an
Indian in the hazel brush and doubt this analysis you can try
a patch barefooted, some day, or in your stockings, for they
would be about equivalent to the moccasin. You want to select
a patch which the fire has run through and left, here and there,
the stubs standing an inch or so high. In default of hazel brush,
you can take a cactus patch. It is not necessary to condemn you
to actual pedal trial of the matter. A good vigorous imagina-
tion will present the points sufficiently. Any hundred and sixty
acres of hazel brush land which to a white man's eye, looking
for a homestead, has the possibilities of a paradise in it, in the
near distance, is as closed as Eden by the flaming sword, to a
man who cannot walk w T here he will upon it in utter unconscious
recklessness of his feet. No man would attempt to put a plough-
share in it if he could not kick over the turf. The earth tri-
umphed over the Indian and would have triumphed to the end
of time. The white man comes and in a generation millions of
acres come under his domination and yield him their immeasur-
able harvests. The secret of the white man's success lay first
BOOTS 945
not in the iron of his plough-share but in the leather of his boot.
There is a point however where even the boot has to make its
confession. From 20 degrees below zero and downward, the
boot is a failure in the snow. Then the reign of the moccasin
begins. But then only because man's whole attitude toward na-
ture becomes a confession. A moccasin or shoe-pack is the only
thing in which a man can live at twenty below and downward.
At that temperature in a well padded moccasin a man can travel
like a deer.
You cannot see an Indian in the forest. But the difficulty
arises not so much from your lack of keenness of vision as from
his powerlessness of self-assertion. He is alive at all not so
much because of his power over the nature as of his adaptation
to it. He has worked into the principle of protective adaptation
and that has saved him. He can neither be seen or heard. So he
both escapes and picks up his living. Bare headed, standing
still, he looks just like a broken pine stump, and if he moves he
adapts himself to the sinuosities of nature about him just as the
branches of the trees sway in the wind.
But a white man with a stove pipe hat and cowhide boots, he
can be seen and heard? He asks no favors of the principle of
protective adaptation. An Indian disturbs nothing. The ani-
mals pay no heed to him. A white man makes a commotion with
everything. He leaves a wake of disturbance a mile wide on
either side of him. At the craunching of his mailed feet beast
and birds are smitten with terror. The deer, wolf, fox, wood-
chuck, skunk, snake, take one hurried glance and then turn tail
and flee from the horrid apparition. The Indian's most human
sound— his warwhoop— is on the same key with the howl of the
wolf or the shriek of the loon. A modification in one part en-
tails the most surprising correlated modifications in other parts
of our nature. The ability to stamp imperatively on nature with
his foot has modified the white man's utterance so that he whis-
tles, sings, or swears not in tune with nature, but in high com-
manding discord over it.
The cowhide boot is the best symbol of the rough, stern pio-
neer work that has been done and is doing on this continent. It
is because cowhide boots have gone before that railroads fol-
946 BOOTS
low after, and towns spring up and become marts of trade of-
fering facilities for the introduction of the refinements and ele-
gancies of life. A log cabin is a whole civilization above and be-
yond a bark or skin covered wigwam. I speak in the praise of
the cowhide boot not only because it is one of the best symbols
of man's power over nature, and also one of the best tools in
helping him to assert his power ; but because in certain circum-
stances a cowhide boot is a real luxury. From what has been
said it can be seen how a man may rejoice in what gives him
consciousness of mastery over nature. When nature stands in
the solemnity of her untamed might about you, it is a joy to be
able to put your foot down feeling that you are in some respects
master. Then again it is a real luxury in a well broken boot to
strike a lope.
"Over hill over dale,
Through bush, through brier,
Over park over pale,
Through flood through fire."
It does not take a great deal of frontier experience to make a
man pet his cowhide boots as friends and companions.
Here is an experience that has been known from Maine to
Oregon in a wooded or brush country. The frontier settler has
been at work all day on the crops on his clearing. His cattle
were turned out into the unlimited wild in the morning. There
is not a moment of the day when his ear is not alert to catch the
sound of the bell on the leader of his herd. "Faint and more
faint" its tinkle grows till in mid-afternoon it dies out of hear-
ing in the woods beyond the hill. Still the work must go on till
the sun has gone down beyond the tops of the trees. Then as
the gloaming comes on and the dews are falling, cudgel in hand
the settler starts out in the direction in which the sound of the
bell died out in the distance. Through brush, over logs that the
forest fires have felled in every direction, he must make his
way— and that swiftly; for in the darkness of a moonless night
the woods and brush are an almost impenetrable jungle. There
can be no stopping here to pick his way, he must go over and
BOOTS 947
through or not go at all. Every faculty is alert to catch the sound
of the bell. The cattle may have lain down, and he must learn
how to jerk himself to instantaneous quiet to locate the sound of
the bell that comes from a mere flirt of the head. So progress
is made by rashes and abrupt stops. He spins along with mouth,
and every avenue of sense open to catch the sought for sound.
Hark! what is that!! Only the hum of a mosquito at the ear!
Deeper you plunge into the wood. A Whippoorwill breaks out
with his plaintive note so near that you hear the cluck with
which his every measure terminates and a medley of other
sounds which you never before knew accompanied the brief dis-
course of his song. See there ! ! What is that waving line of
white so rapidly cleaving the thickening darkness away from
you. It is a deer's tail and haunch as he bounds over log and
hummock in that regular rythmic movement in which he seems
to delight to express his sense of mastery of the situation. Not-
withstanding your anxiety about your cattle you will rejoice in
the sight of that springy yet regularly measured movement.
Hark ! that is the bell surely ! ! How suddenly you stop ! No it is
no bell— it is only the ringing in your ears— the result of the
pressure of blood to your head from your day's work and from
the intense stretch of the hearing faculty. A little sobered but
resolute still you plunge on. And here if you never have learned
it before the conviction will dawn upon you that a cow bell must
be chosen not for its resonance but for its harshness and coarse-
ness of tone. Farewell to the prospect of finding your stock if
you have chosen a bell from any esthetic taste and got one that
will blend with any other sound in nature. If you chose the bell
to please your own ear you will be sure to hear that bell in any
quarter of the compass to which your ear is turned. After
standing and turning round in your tracks and hearing the bell
in every direction, when you know you don't hear it at all, you
will make up your mind that you will never again buy a bell
that could correspond with any subjective impression and you
will learn as you never did before to prize a sound that strikes
dissonantly on the ear. "Where are those cattle? What sweep
did they take after you lost the sound of the bell in the mid-
afternoon? Did they go to the right? Did they go to the left?
948 BOOTS
They may be miles from you, for they had hours the start.
Which way shall a man go? For go he must till they are found.
The last glimmer of red has died out in the west. It is of no
use for the psychologists to say that a man cannot make a deci-
sion on things indifferent; for right and left here are indiffer-
ent; nevertheless you do choose, and plunge on in your circuit at
your utmost speed. Headlong you go at full length over a log
that you took for a hollow and were going to leap it, and now
down you go in a hole that you took for a hummock, with a jar
that makes you sure you have certainly snapped off the top of
your head. Ha ! there is the bell right down there in the valley,
and you strike Hail Columbia or Old Hundred in spite of
scratches, bumps and bruises! And the beasts know that they
have been bothering you, for as you utter a yell that partly ex-
presses your exuberance of spirits over your good luck, and
partly authority over them, they break into a run for your cab-
in at a pace that may take the bell again out of your hearing
before you pass over the miles that lie between you and it.
When you get home, wet does not begin to express your condi-
tion. The dew a man can shake on himself in hunting cattle
after nightfall in a hazel brush country can wet through his body
as well as his clothes. You are drenched, soaked, parboiled to
the eyebrows.
We get the boot from the hides of the genius boss. Think along
the line of the connection of the various kinds of animals with
each other. That line is fearfully, wildly tragic. It is true that
"Nature, red in tooth and claw, with raven shrieks.' ' Man is no
exception to the principle of ferocity in nature. Lions and tigers
may now and then tear a victim. But go and look at stock trains
and stock yards and confess that man is the greatest carniver
of all beasts, the grand master in biologic tragedy.
But it is not so much to the great tragedy of the stock yards
and packing houses that I call attention, as it is to tragedies of
a finer and subtler kind that lie in the background. In the sun-
nier climes and more sparsely occupied regions, cattle are reared
in droves and are never individualized enough to call forth from
man any special affection. But in the colder latitude it is differ-
ent. The cattle that come from farms in these regions have
BOOTS 949
been cared for individually. They have heen reared as parts of
the farmer's family rather than as things foreign to it. Every
horned head that stands in the stock yards, which has been picked
up from the -smaller farms represents not only so much com-
mercial value but so much heart ache. There is in the stock
yards a cow, little, flat-bellied, with thirteen wrinkles on her
horns. She is a ridiculous object to the eye of the stock-fancier
and the derision of the beef-packers. But there is pathos about
her. She has been a staff of life to some home for all the long
years represented by the wrinkles on her horns— a staff that
failed not. She has been half mother to half a dozen children,
every one of whom has fed to her dainties from his own hands,
has hung on her neck while she was milked and may have slept
on her side as she lay chewing her cud behind the cabin. It is
felt to be high tragedy in that home when she starts on her way
to the drove which is ultimately to bring up in the stock yards.
There is many an old farmer— to the credit of human and of
bovine nature, too, be it said — who has never seen the final driv-
ing of a yoke of oxen from his premises. How could he ? They
have been his personal companion for years. He has spent
more hours in their society than in that of any other being. They
have come to him to lick his hand in the pasture— they have hum-
med him a welcome every morning as he has opened the barn
door, and he has leaned up against their great broad sides to find
warmth and a wind-break in bitter weather. Longfellow has a
good eye for an ox. Somehow he picked up a great deal of ox-
inspired wisdom in his youth. He makes Giles Corey say to
Martha his wife:—
"All my dear oxen dead. I loved them Martha
Next to yourself. I liked to look at them,
And watch the breath come out of their wide nostrils,
And see their patient eyes. Somehow I thought
It gave me strength only to look at them.
And how they strained their necks against the yoke
If I but speak or touched them with the goad !
They were my friends."
So it is that when the great rounded beef oxen are to start for
950 BOOTS
the last time from the barn in one direction the old farmer, an
hour before they leave, starts in another with a big lump in his
throat, and when he is out of sight of the boys the tears fall like
rain. Each animal excites in us a class of feelings peculiar to
itself. I believe an ox or a cow capable of exciting in us more
tender feelings than any other animal can arouse. You sport
with your pet horse. But the great sad eye of an ox suggests
no sport. It calms into tenderness— sets one to some pathetic
dreaming. Its great black depths look as though they had long
been conscious that the end was tragedy and had quietly adjusted
themselves to it.
Longfellow has seen a sight that is as full of poetry as any
ever gazed on by the eye of man. "Whoever has actually seen
it thenceforth blesses his stars forever:
"In the furrowed land
The toilsome and patient oxen stand;
Lifting the yoke encumbered head,
•'With their dilated nostrils spread.
They silently inhale
The clover-scented gale
And the vapors that arise
From the well watered and smoking soil.
For this rest in the furrow after toil
Their large and lustrous eyes
Seem to thank the Lord
More than man's spoken word."
To lean on your plow-handles and see that, after a flirt of a
warm spring shower, is to have lived. It is a phenomenon as
rare as an eclipse of the sun.
It has been a long friendship— this between the man and the
ox — it is among the oldest between man and any of the animals.
The assistance of the ox was called in early and still he stays
in the hard places. Livingstone's best assistant in opening
up the heart of Africa— better than man— was an ox. This ox
carried his master and his baggage from the centre of the con-
tinent to the western sea and then back again to the borders of
BOOTS 951
that great lake region around which so much of interest centres.
In this country the ox paced out, with the first overland pio-
neers, that weary two or three thousand miles between the Mis-
sissippi and the Pacific ocean. Up that long easterly inclined
plane to the summit of the Rocky Mountains— down the Rocky
Mountains— across the alkali plains — up the sharp acclivities of
the Sierra Nevada— down through the sunny vales of California
to the Golden Gate toiled that slow, patient, sure step making the
path of empire possible. The remains of multitudes of these
old bovine pioneers who fell by the way, preserved in the alkali
dust with the perfection of the embalming of the bull Apis of the
Egyptians, still mark the old trails across the deserts which
would otherwise be obliterated— melancholy monuments of the
desperate struggle of man and beast with inhospitable nature. I
met a man a few years ago who had heard the guns of Perry 's
victory on Lake Erie in the war of 1812. In '49 he went through
overland to California. Of 3,000 teams registered at Ft. Kearny
he passed all but six. The leading team of the six was an ox
team.
In some respects culture upon the animals has produced its
finest effects in the ox. There is no other animal that shows so
much quiet dignity of bearing— the thorough, imperturbable self-
possession which is the best evidence of culture. There is not a
horse on earth that can put in motion the lordly grace some of
us have seen some well-bred classically-educated ox of seven
feet girth exhibit when he comes forward, at a breath from his
owner from the thither side of the yard to take his place under
the yoke. He is consciously equal to the situation— but there is
no fuss, no parade, no brag about him. It is ludicrous to see
those great 2000 and 2500 pound horses amble. So much weight
ought to have more gravity.
"Fletcher/' said Mr. Webster as he broke up some ears of
corn and gave to his oxen as they came around him on the right
and the left— "Fletcher, I like this— I'd rather be here than in
the Senate— I think it is better company." And when the old
statesman came to die he did not call for the representatives
of the governments of the earth to stand at his beside, as he
might, but he asked that the curtains might be parted and his
,
952 BOOTS
oxen driven to the window, that he might carry with him a last
fresh look from their rugged honesty. Ah ! there was a man for
you, deep set in nature, mighty of soul, inevitable in speech, as
Mathew' Arnold would say, inevitable as Pike and Long!
The following story illustrates much psychology that was
wrought into American history in the War of '61-5 :
Back in 1830 a Massachusetts farmer lay sick in bed. Some
one brought him a newspaper report of "The Eeply to Hayne. ,,
He read it, and cried in full voice, "Bring me my Boots !" When
men in the North heard, on that historic Sabbath morning, the
sound of the cannon fired on Sumter, they remembered the tone
of "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and Inseparable,"
and in common chorus cried:
' ' Bring me my Boots ! ' '
What more can I say for boots, and especially for my beloved
cowhides? What a joy they are as you stand in them in perfect
security w T hile you cut rails in the depths of a tamarack swamp?
The winter is wearing away. The sun comes up high and looks
down lovingly warm on your back. The snow settles down and
the slush appears inches deep over your ice foundation. But
what care you, your feet are free and dry and warm in those
great, wide, generous, protecting, tallowed cowhides. True, you
are alone, but the chick-a-dee comes down and hops socially
about on the rails you have cut, and away a little distance th.3
jay not only screams you encouragement, but now and then gives
you that clear-ringing, mellifluous Kar-link, Kar-link, Kar-link,
which in the depths of the wildwood is one of the most agreeable
sounds which fall on the ear; and right above, surviving over
from last year's foliage on some oak or beech is that—
"One pale leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances, as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky,"
and away above all in the clear blue sky are great white, fleecy
BOOTS 953
clouds sailing lazily. Master of the situation here, what care
you for the soft delights of urban life.
Into such thought has our subject led. When we glorify our
civilization we put forward the steam engine, the electric tele-
graph and the printing press, and then we think we have given
full summation. But civilization is a very complex affair and
uses a great many agencies. As you look over the materials for
a bridge you may not pay much attention to a little stone of no
particular beauty of outline that lies among the monster masses
that are to build up the buttresses. But that stone may be the
key of the arch. There are a great many little keys to the arch
of civilization. There are no trifles, no little things. Says De-
Quincy, "High above all ascends solemnly the philosophic truth
that the least things and the greatest are bound together as
parts equally essential of the mysterious universe.' '
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned
and Heroically Suffered in the Revolu=
tion for the Cause of American
Independence
By J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL. B.
xn
Dicey Langston of South Carolina
partanburg, South Carolina, witnessed many deeds
of violence and blood as well as of loyal assistance given
by women to the cause of independence and under great
difficulties.
The tories boasted often and too freely before the so-called
weaker sex and thereafter they had to execrate their folly, for
the listening and attentive women made the best of scouts and
rendered priceless aid to the continental forces.
One of these was Dicey, the daughter of Solomon Langston of
Laurens District. He was a cripple but the son was a continental
soldier and ever on the alert to benefit by the information received
from his devoted sister.
Hearing one day of a contemplated raid by the British com-
pany called the "Bloody Scouts," she left her home at midnight
and traversed miles of marsh and woodland and at the risk of
her life waded the rushing tide of the Tyger river and reached
her brother just in time to warn and save the little company and
the neighbors, for the next day when the British came they found
no one on whom to wreak their hatred.
At one time these desperadoes were about to kill her old father
in revenge for the active hostility of his sons, but when the pistol
was pointed his brave daughter stood up resolutely between the
(954)
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 955
aged parent and the Britisher, and in spite of threats she clung
to him until her fearless action touched even the heart of the
"Bloody Scout " and Langston's life was spared. And this
heroic maiden whenever any wrong was meditated by her own
people, as when the seizing of a tory neighbor's horses was plan-
ned, warned her tory neighbor, and on her return, finding this
same tory was about to betray her friends the "liberty men' 7
into the hands of the enemy she even more quickly warned the
latter and thus saved them all.
Patriotism and service and that at any and all risks formed an
integral part of her life and character. When ordered to be-
tray her people's plans or to "die in her tracks" she replied:
"I will not tell you," and removing her neck handkerchief she
said "Shoot me if you dare." And it was this reckless defiance
that saved her life.
At another time, when her brother James had left a rifle in her
care which was not to be given up until he sent for it, one of a
party called and asked for the rifle and she brought it out, but
insisted upon the man giving the countersign. He replied by say-
ing that it was too late for conditions for the gun was in their
grasp and its holder also. "Do you think so" cried she, cocking
the rifle and pointing it at the speaker, 6 ' if the gun is in your pos-
session take charge of her."
The countersign was quickly given and the "libertyman"
laughing heartily pronounced the girl worthy of being the sister
of brave James Langston, and declared that the threat was used
only as a test of her loyalty to the cause. Of Dicey 's descendants
living twenty-five years ago, thirty-two were sons and grandsons
capable of bearing arms and ready at any time to do so in
defence of their country's honor.
xm.
ELIZABETH ZANE
This woman was an actor in some of the most tragic and mem-
orable incidents in the annals of border warfare in 1777 at and
about Fort Henry on the Ohio near the mouth of Wheeling Creek.
In an attack by over three hundred Indian warriors on the
956 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
fort then defended by only twelve persons including boys, Girty,
a white renegade and tory, led the Indians and appearing with
a white flag demanded their surrender in the name of His Brit-
tanic Majesty. Colonel Shepherd refused to surrender as he
had a sacred charge to protect the mothers and children who had
come fleeing to him for protection.
The defence was successful until the gunpowder gave out and
it was determined that a certain keg of gunpowder then in the
house of Ebenezer Zane, one hundred and eighty feet distant,
must be obtained at all hazards. Several young men volun-
teered on the desperate enterprise, only one man could be spared,
and while the matter was being discussed, Elizabeth, the sister
of Ebenezer and Silas Zane, asked to be permitted to go for the
powder and in spite of much opposition persisted in the offer as
her loss would not be felt while not a single soldier could be
spared. Her request was granted. The Indians saw her depart,
but for some reason unknown did not molest her, but when she
reappeared from her brother's house carrying the powder in a
table cloth fastened around her waist, the Indians fired on her
as she fled onward but she reached the fort unharmed and the
fort was saved.
This event is considered one of the most important in the his-
tory of Wheeling, Virginia, as the noble act of Elizabeth con-
tributed so much to sustain the courage of the defenders of the
fort until relief arrived.
XIV.
ltjcretia shaw.
Extract from "Patron Saints" New London, Connecticut.
Lucretia Shaiv, whose name the New London Chapter would
perpetuate in recognition of her loyal life and early death in the
cause of American Independence, still looks down from her place
in the picture gallery of the Shaw Mansion after more than a
century since her death.
Mrs. Shaw was the devoted and beloved wife of Nathaniel
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 957
Shaw, Esq., an eminent merchant and a most efficient represent-
ative of the Continental Congress in naval affairs during the
war of Independence. One of the earliest acts of Congress, af-
ter the battle of Bunker Hill, was the authorization, under the
hand of John Hancock, for the issue, to Nathaniel Shaw, Esq.,
of a commission as Naval Agent for the Continent. Long before
this appointment, Mr. Shaw had been conspicuously associated
with the patriotic movements of the "Sons of Freedom"— (a
long article about his life is in this book "Patron Saints.")
At the opening of the Revolution Nathaniel Shaw and his wife
Lucretia Shaw, were in the very prime of life. Mr. Shaw being
forty years old and his wife a little more than two years his
junior. The relations of Mr. Shaw and his wife were most ten-
der, and there existed between them not only affectionate con-
jugality but also an earnest, patriotic co-operation.
One of the fragrant traditions of their descendants is the ro-
mantic attachment of this distinguished couple. Letters which
passed between them when Mr. Shaw was absent at the legisla-
ture or on business with Gov. Trumbull at Lebanon (Connecti-
cut) have all the warmth of youthful lovers. Mrs. Shaw lived
at the very focus of Revolutionary affairs, while the majority of
the women of those times participated only through the services
of brothers or husbands or sons. In a few instances only were
women able to perform some heroic act of daring, or to make
direct personal sacrifice. Moreover, to most the events of the
war came as tidings and not the result of their own undertak-
ings. But Lucretia Shaw lived in the presence of statesmen
whose deep-laid plans were known to her from their very incep-
tion, and carefully watched by her through their development to
their very fulfilment, not unrarely the plan itself having been
conceived and its execution aided by her woman's wit. Such was
Lucretia Shaw, living in the midst of the great war
movement, was also the mistress of a mansion always famous
for its hospitality and the center at that time of a wide field of
action. In colonial days distinguished strangers and official
guests, visiting New London were entertained at the Shaw Man-
sion. Before the outbreak of the war, New London being the
center of local authority, the eminent Friends of Freedom were
,
958 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
cordially received here and after the war began its welcome was
no less catholic.
Gov. Trumbull was not only a fellow patriot, he was an inti-
mate personal friend. His duties often called him from his
war office at Lebanon to New London, and, attended by his coun-
cil he was always received at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Shaw.
Their table was rarely without guests connected with the army
or navy or council chamber. General Washington, General
Greene, Governor Griswold, a Connecticut celebrity, all the men
of note in the state were frequent visitors. At the Shaw home in
the course of a day one might have met all the patriots of local
reputation; Huntington of Norwich, when home from Congress;
Dyer and Elderkin of Windham; Johnson, the famous clergy-
man, and in the early days before Bunker Hill, Nathan Hale,
was a constant visitor at the house of his genial and trusted
friend. New London was on the great turnpike from Boston via
Providence and Newport to New York and Philadelphia, and the
constant expresses, from high quarters to high quarters always
stopped at the Naval Office in New London to receive and give
the latest news, hence with the frequent arrival and departure of
war vessels and privateers, the incoming of cartels with ex-
changed prisoners, New London was both a naval center and an
important post town; thus Mrs. Shaw's home became a well
known gathering place. Every day registered an important event,
or its promise or portent.
In the midst of these activities Mrs. Shaw lived the earnest
and close friend of her husband; ready to give with an open
hand to want, and with even a pitying eye for suffering. Her
unfailing kindness and christian charity found abundant field
for action. She manifested in her ministrations and in her sym-
pathy a perfect impartiality; distinguished patriots and suffer-
ing wounded soldiers and sailors were regarded by her as of the
same household, and received in unstinted measure of her bounty.
The more especial objects of her compassion were the prisoners
returning from the floating gaols, mere physical wrecks, victims
of every imaginable deprivation, who had to be carried in litters
by the pitying townsmen from the vessels to the lodging places
whither they had been assigned; there to be cared for and, if
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 959
possible, restored to vitality before seeking their homes, but who
too often passed from this kindly haven to the "bourne from
whence no traveller e'er returns.' '
"The New London Gazette" in an issue late in 1781, the year
of the burning of New London, gives the following picture of the
devotion of the townspeople to the unfortunate victims of the
cruelties of war.
"It has been the more than hellish practice of these enemies to
God and man, during this barbarous war to stab promiscuously
in the dark, to murder by secret ways those they cannot kill
openly, and for this purpose, our friends who have the misfor-
tune to fall into their hands are immediately crowded into prison-
ships and there confined till 2/3d perish with gaol fever and the
surviving being affected (sic) there with the fever, are sent out to
spread death and desolation through our borders. 130 were
landed here the 3d ult. (Dec, 1781) from New York in a most
deplorable condition, a great part of them have since died and
those of them that have survived are in such a debilitated state,
that they will have to drag out a miserable existence. Numbers
in this unhappy town, and in Groton, have lost their lives by tak-
ing them in and great numbers of others have been brought to
the very gates of death and still lie in a languished condition. It
is enough to melt the most obdurate heart (except a Brition's) to
see these miserable objects continually landing here from every
flag (of truce) that comes; to see them poured out upon our
desolated wharfes, sick and dying and the few rags they have
on covered with vermine— their friends (if they have any) at
a distance, and no public hospital or provision made to receive
them !
Thus it is that the compassion among us are compelled by
their dying groans to take them into their families at the ex-
pense of their lives, until their friends can come to their relief,
and they are for the most part, burdened with them for a long
time, without the least recompense in this world, notwithstanding
whole families have been ruined by this means. The little part
of this town that was preserved from fire, by bribing the firing
parties on the 6th of September, 1781, is so crowded by those
who have been burned out of house and home, that it is dreadful
.
960 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
indeed, to take these poor infectious dying creatures in. In short
if there is no redress of this intolerable evil this town and Gro-
ton must be depopulated."
The devotion of Mrs. Shaw to the cause of independence and
her ministrations to the sick prisoners place her on the list of
.Revolutionary heroines, though she would have shrunk from
receiving such an acolade; not counting herself worthy of the
honor.
The last act of her life, one that occasioned her death, was her
personal attendance upon a number of sick prisoners, infected
with contagious disease, whom, in the warmth of her pity, she
had had transferred into the family residence. From them she
took the gaol fever and, after a short illness, her beautiful life
was ended, her husband surviving her but two or three months.
" Death ere thou slayest another,
Good and wise and fair as she,
Old time shall throw a dart at thee. ' '
Nathaniel Shaw died in 1782, aged forty-seven years.
His wife, Lucretia Shaw, died in 1781, aged forty- four years.
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The Historic Billopp House on Staten Island,
Now to be Included in a New Park
From ''News Letter," Mar. 14, 1903.
bill has recently been introduced in the Legisla-
ture providing for an appropriation of $10,000 to be
used for the purchase of the old Billopp house, which
stands within the manor of Bentley, at Tottenville,
Staten Island. Erected in 1668, says the Times, this building is
rich in historical associations, and it is proposed to make of it
a historical museum.
In turn the house was the homestead of the Billopp family, an
English military barrack, the headquarters of General Howe,
and the scene of a famous peace conference between that general
and three representatives of the Continental Congress.
In 1667 Captain Christopher Billopp arrived in New York from
England on his own vessel, the Bentley, mounting two guns.
At that time it was a disputed question whether Staten Island
belonged to New York or New Jersey, and to end the discussion
the Duke of York decided that all islands lying in the Harbor of
New York that could be circumnavigated within twenty-four
hours should remain within the jurisdiction of New York, other-
wise they would be given to New Jersey.
Captain Billopp succeeded in sailing around Staten Island
within this time, and in consideration the Duke presented him
with 1,163 acres of land. This land was given the name of the
Manor of Bentley, and Billopp house was built thereon.
Captain Billopp gathered material on the plantation and im-
ported cement from England and bricks from Belgium.
Billopp house stands on a slight elevation facing Raritan
Bay. A lawn covered with fine old willows slopes down to the
water's edge, while at the back of the house are elms, cedars,
and more willows.
(961)
962 THE HISTORIC BILLOPP HOUSE
The ravages of time have made little impression on the rough
exterior of the old house. It is an unpretentious two-storied lit-
tle structure, almost square in shape, and built of irregular
stones of all sizes, cemented together.
A brick chimney stands at either end of the gable roof, on
which old fashioned, board shingles, though worn green with
age, still hold a semblance of order. A veranda, was added to
the building in 1844, and is now dropping to pieces, although ce-
dar window frames in the original structure bleached white by
the sun and rain, show no signs of decay.
There have been few alterations within the house. The slaves '
quarters in the garret have been torn away, but beyond this the
changes have been few, and the massive white oak beams which
hold each floor are still as solid as ever.
Propped against the veranda are two tombstones which came
from the family burying plot on a knoll not far from the house.
On one of these stones the inscription reads: "Here Lyes ye
Body of Thomas Billopp, Esqr., Son of Thomas Farmer, Esq.,
Deceased, August ye 2d, 1750, In ye 39th Year of his Age."
The other stone is broken in two, but the inscription, with the
exception of the year, is perfect. It reads: "Here Lyes ye
Body of Eujenea ye Wife of Thomas Billopp, aged 23 years.
Deceased March 3."
The burial ground was desecrated long ago, and only a lonely
cedar marks the situation. Beyond the two stones and the mem-
ories that cling to Billopp House there is nothing tangible left of
a family that controlled Staten Island for more than a century.
From "New York Times," Sept. 7, 1913.
One of the interesting features of the park plan is the propo-
sition to buy the historic Christopher Billopp house, at the ex-
treme southern end of Staten Island, along with fifteen or twenty
acres of ground surrounding it, and convert it into a public park.
The old house is near the water's edge, and still is in a good state
of preservation. It was for several weeks the headquarters of
General Howe, the British commander, when General Washing-
ton's army was near Morristown, and it was here that Benjamin
Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge, a committee of
Congress, with an expectation of removing obstacles in the way of
THE HISTORIC BILLOPP HOUSE 963
a return of the colonies to their allegiance, met General Howe,
commander of the British forces at New York. Christopher Bil-
lopp was a Tory. His name originally was Farmer, but he mar-
ried the daughter of Captain Christopher Billopp, of the British
Navy, who had obtained a patent for a large tract of land on
Staten Island, and when his wife inherited this estate he adopted
her father's name. He commanded a corps of loyalist militia
recruited in the vicinity of this city during the Revolution, and
having been taken prisoner was confined in a jail at Burlington,
N. J. In 1782 he was Superintendent of Police of Staten Island.
His large property was confiscated. He went to Nova Scotia in
1783 and became prominent there.
The cellar of the old Billopp house was fitted up as a dungeon,
and American soldiers were confined there during the British
occupation of this city.
With one exception, it is of exactly the same appearance as
it has been for years and years. The one change consists in the
removal of the porch which used to run across the front of the
building, with colonial pillars and a slant roof. This porch rotted
until it had to be torn down, but the splendid stonework of early
days, when building was done for the future instead of the shoddy
present, is in excellent condition even now.
The Billopp house is considered by many to be the most inter-
esting house from a historical standpoint on Staten Island, and
it is a melancholy sight to see it sinking toward decay. Built
in 1668, it was from the first connected with some of the most
interesting passages in the island's history.
The situation, back in the sixteen hundreds, was like this :
Staten Island was first discovered in 1609 by Hendrick Hudson
and named Staaten Eylandt, out of respect for the States General
of Holland. There followed years of Dutch colonial government,
during which this fine tidbit of land belonged to Nova Caesarea,
the then name for New Jersey.
Now James, the Duke of York, and brother to Charles II., got
a sort of rulership over all the King's possessions in America.
Provinces which had been under Dutch control passed into Eng-
lish hands. Staten Island became a scene of discord; to the
English and Dutch dissensions the French added their quarrels,
964 THE HISTORIC BILLOPP HOUSE
and matters began to look somewhat like a Kilkenny-cat contro-
versy.
To settle affairs, the Duke finally came to a decidedly original
decision. . He ordained that all the islands in the harbor of New
York which could be circumnavigated in twenty-four hours
should belong to the colony of New York ; otherwise, Nova Caes-
area, or New Jersey, was to possess them. The next point was
to find the right man to attend to the circumnavigation.
It happened at the right time that Capt. Christopher Billopp
was stopping at Perth Amboy. His vessel, called The Bentley,
was a little affair, probably belonging to the English Navy, al-
though there seems to be a question as to whether it was of the
merchant service.
Billopp was chosen to perform the Duke's task. He was an
excellent seaman, but, for all that, the feat was not going to be
an easy one. He did not start out until he had racked his brains
a bit to determine how he would be best able to include this large
island in his trip.
It was during this racking that he hit upon the idea— say
rather inspiration— of the empty barrels. If he covered his deck
with these, would he not gain much sailing power? Thus laden
lie set out, and we can imagine the excitement that held New
Yorkers and New Jerseyites in suspense at this critical moment.
The upshot was that Capt. Billopp performed his feat Nay, he
more than performed it ; a trifle over twenty-three llours sufficed
him, and Staten Island was New York's.
The Duke had a reward ready. So much pleased was he with
Billopp 's success that, instead of letting him return to England to
make his home, he presented the Captain with 1,163 acres of
Staten Island land and invited him to remain thereon.
This land was out at the corner of the island where you are
now— the Tottenville corner. So fine a plum had fallen into the
worthy seaman's hand that he determined to make the most of
it, and he set himself at once to building this house. He named
it for the vessel which had won him his laurels, the Manor of
Bentley. The stout stones of which it is built were found there-
about and were suitable for the best of walls ; but Billopp sent
to Belgium for the bricks needed, and to England for the cement.
THE HISTORIC BILLOPP HOUSE 965
The next thing for a wise and thrifty sea captain to do, having
settled down into a home on dry land, was to take unto himself
a wife — which he did. The daughter of Thomas Farmer, a judge
who lived in Richmond county, looked comely to him, and her he
chose.
So was established the Billopp household, to play so important
a part in local history. The Captain himself disappeared in the
early seventeen hundreds, before the revolution came on; it is
believed that his vessel, the Bentley, went down with him when
he was making a little trip to England to see his old home. He
left a widow and one charming daughter, Miss Eugenia Billopp,
who had received a fashionable education at the Perth Amboy
Academy across the kill. Miss Eugenia conceived an affection
for her cousin, another Thomas Farmar, and the mother gave
permission for the marriage to take place on the proviso that
the happy bridegroom should adopt the name of Billopp and
make his home, in the Manor of Bentlev.
This perpetuated the family name. Still further to perpetu-
ate it a family burial ground was established, and until recently
some of the headstones were to be seen ; both the Billopps them-
selves and their Indian friends were laid at rest there. At last
only two stones remained in fair condition, and these were being
so much damaged by the ubiquitous souvenir fiend who chipped
off bits to carry away that they have been removed to the cellar
of the house and can be seen there any day.
One of them reads:
—Lyes ye Body of Thomas Billopp. Esq., son of Thomas
Farmar Esq., Deed August ye 2d 1750 In ye 39th year of his
age.
And the other:
Here lyes ye Body of Evjenea ye wife of Thomas Billopp.
Aged 23 years * * * March * * *
Imperfect, both the inscriptions, yet sufficient to tell their
story.
But there is more than this of interest in the old cellar. That
black, mysterious doorway, which looks like a gulping mouth
awaiting you in the darkness, leads not only to the tombstones,
but to the dungeon beyond. Yes, a veritable dungeon, probably
966 THE HISTORIC BILLOPP HOUSE
as mysterious a corner as any cellar in an American citizen's
dwelling ever contained. You will grope your way from the
dim light that surrounds the entrance on into the growing dusk,
until you.reach a far corner where total blackness reigns. Stoop-
ing, trying to follow your guide, feeling your way, you enter a
room like a cave, solidly walled, ugly and ominous.
Here during that period of the Revolution when the house
was held as a British outpost this dungeon was put to stern use.
Our own American patriots were held captive here. Many a
hardship did they suffer in this black cell. It is believed that an
underground passage was made at that time leading down to
the river, a distance of 200 yards, but to-day this cannot be
traced. However, there has been considerable foundation for
the theory.
But these gloomy tales of the dungeon, the suffering prisoners,
and the underground passage are only one side of the old house's
history. Perhaps they are the more interesting side to romance.
When Cooper wrote "The Water Witch" he laid one of its
scenes in this mysterious cellar. But gay and sparkling scenes
took place above stairs. Many a banquet did the old manor see;
many a daintily brocaded lady, many a gallant ruffled and pow-
dered gentleman tripped to light measure at the Billopp balls.
Col. Billopp became famous for his magnificent entertainments.
Such Generals as Howe, Cornwallis. Clinton, Burgoyne, Cleve-
land, and Knyphausen were among his guests.
It was after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 that Lord Howe
went to the Billopp house to meet Benjamin Franklin, John
Adams, and Edward Eutledge, who were chosen to confer on
the issues of the war. They hoped for peace, but when they
found that Howe's offer was merely to resume old conditions,
as before the war, the conference came to an end without results.
Nevertheless, it had added much to the history of the place.
As you stroll back through Tottenville toward the ferry you
can realize the importance of the Billopp family thereabouts by
pausing to recollect that this entire village was once known as
the Manor of Bentley, and that the peninsula at the furthest
point, later called Ward's Point, was originally Billopp 's Point.
Later on the village's name was contracted to just Bentley. Then
THE HISTORIC BILLOPP HOUSE
967
along came the Totten family, and the town became divided
against itself, for the lower section, hailing a new hero, wanted
it called after this household. With the upper section fighting
for Bentley, the lower for Tottenville, the poor village did not
know its own name until the lower side of town came out vic-
torious. The name of Totten stands in the records of old St.
Andrew's Church, and is known for its "respectability and in-
fluence. ' '
The Peace Conference at the Billopp House,
Staten Island, September 11, 1776
Paper Bead by Mrs. Ralph McKee Before the Richmond Coun-
ty Chapter Society, Daughters of the American
Revolution, December 22, 1914.
TATEN ISLANDERS are perhaps especially glad just
now that they can claim for the island the first Peace
Conference ever held in America, always excepting the
many peace pipes smoked in Council by the really native
Americans, the red men.
The Daughters have always stood for accuracy, and our Chap-
ter is proud to remember that when we were placing a tablet on
the historic St. Andrew's Church, at Richmond, Staten Island,
commemorating an engagement in the Revolution, our Regent
was not contented merely with the local histories, but after a
long and fatiguing search found, in the American Archives, the
documentary evidence she was seeking in the report of General
Hugh Mercer (who was in command) to General Washington,
giving full details. For our subject today we have no lack of
documentary evidence. I have used John Adams' letters to his
wife, the Account of Henry Strachey, secretary to Lord Howe,
published in the ''Atlantic" June, 1896, and the reports in the
Congressional Records,— several Encyclopedias and John
Fiske's History of the American Revolution.
As early as January, 1775, the English ministry had been
planning to send a mediator to the American colonies to settle
the differences between them and the Mother Country. They
had won the King's consent "to holding out the olive branch"
altho he later wrote Lord Worth, "I have always feared a
commission not likely to meet with success, yet I think it right to
be attempted, whilst every act of vigor is unremittedly carried
(968)
-
1i**^^.^±^.j*^^iJ$' -..&■[<
â–
II ^1
I
*g
THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE BILLOPP HOUSE 969
on." The difficulty had been to find a mediator who would carry
out the King's wishes and yet be acceptable to the Americans.
Lord Howe's eldest brother, Richard, had fallen at Ticonderoga,
fighting for an American cause, and in gratitude Massachusetts
had erected -a monument to him in Westminster Abbey. Lord
Howe had spoken for America in Parliament; so thoroughly had
he shown himself the friend of the colonies that the King was
unwilling for a long time to appoint him.. When Lord Howe
heard he was likely to be appointed he sought Benjamin Frank-
lin who was then in London and who played chess with his sis-
ter. The two men became intimate friends in the winter of 1775
and held earnest consultations over possible mutual concessions
that might lead to peace being unbroken. Franklin says: "At
one time I wept tears of joy when the hope of reconciliation
seemed possible." But, as John Fiske says: "How to conciliate
the Americans without giving up a single one of the fake posi-
tions which the King had taken was the problem, and Franklin
soon perceived it to be unsolvable and made up his mind to go
home." On the contrary Lord Howe was quite sanguine that he
would be successful in restoring harmony, saying that peace
would be made in America within ten days of his arrival. It is
to be noted that he had only a few months before, refused a
command in the American station, because he believed the con-
duct of Great Britain to her colonies, unjust. His failure to fol-
low up his brother, General Howe's victory at the battle of Long
Island with decisive aggressive action would seem to indicate that
he regarded himself as a commissioner of Peace first, and sec-
ond, commander-in-chief.
He arrived in Staten Island on July 12, 1776, after a three
months' voyage. His first practical difficulty was in getting into
official communication with the Americans. He could not write
to Congress because the King regarded it as an illegal body. First
he sent the royal declaration of pardon to all who would desist
from rebellion and send aid in restoring tranquillity. In a letter
addressed to "George Washington, Esq.," by a British officer
under a flag of truce, Washington refused to receive it because
as a plain esquire— a Virginian land owner, merely — he had no
authority for dealing with a royal commissioner. A week later
97o THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE BILLOPP HOUSE
Lord Howe sent Colonel Patterson, the British Adjutant Gen-
eral, with a document addressed to "George Washington, Esq.,"
etc., etc. He asked for an interview and described Washington
as a gentleman of magnificent presence, and very handsomely
dressed, ^somewhat overawed," says Fiske, and beginning his
remarks with "May it please your Excellency. ' ' Patterson ex-
plained that the etceteras on the letter meant everything. " In-
deed/ ' said Washington, with a pleasant smile, "they might
mean anything. " He declined to take the letter and said that
his lordship seemed empowered only to grant pardons, whereas
those who had committed no fault needed no pardons. As Pat-
terson got up to go, he asked if his Excellency had no message
to send to Lord Howe. ' ' Nothing, ' ' answered Washington, ' ' but
my particular compliment s."
After the British victory on Long Island, Lord Howe again
tried the "olive branch.' ' This time he sent on parole General
Sullivan, a prisoner and an American officer, to Congress to state
that Lord Howe would use his influence to get all the obnoxious
acts of Parliament repealed and to ask for an informal confer-
ence with some of the members of Congress as were private gen-
tlemen. A lively debate lasting over three days in Congress fol-
lowed the receiving of this message, some seeing it as an insult
to Congress, most, suspecting treachery. John Adams, who, as
usual, had violent opinions expressed with equal explosiveness,
remarked quite unjustly that "General Sullivan was a ' decoy
duck' who had better been shot in the battle in which he had
been taken prisoner than to be employed in such a business. ' '
It was finally voted that no peace proposals from Great
Britain "should receive notice, unless in writing, and recogniz-
ing Congress as the legal representative of the American States.
For this once, however, out of personal regard for Lord Howe,
and that nothing should be disdained which might lead to a
peaceful settlement, they would send a committee to confer with
his lordship, who might regard this committee in whatever light
he pleased."
The Committee was chosen by ballot. Colonel R. H. Lee of
Virginia and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina tied on the
first ballot, but Rutledge was elected on the second. He seems
THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE BILLOPP HOUSE 971
to have been a cautious, conservative Southern gentleman ; a
member of Congress from the beginning, when the Declaration
of Independence was first introduced, and in June, 1776, he
moved that action on it be postponed for three weeks to avoid all
appearance of undue haste and to invite the judgment of those
colonies which had not yet declared themselves. Dr. Benjamin
Franklin and John Adams were unanimously elected members
of this committee. So on a pleasant September morning, the
eleventh, these three gentlemen, members of Continental Con-
gress, arrived at Amboy. They had left Philadelphia, about
ninety miles away, two days before in a stage-coach. At the boat
landing they found Lord Howe's own barge awaiting them, to
row them the half mile across the Kill von Kull. On the Staten
Island side they found. Lord Howe himself at the water's edge
to meet them and they walked the few hundred feet to the old
stone house of Christopher Billopp, built about 1650. John
Adams writes: "We walked up to the house between lines of
grenadiers, looking fierce as the furies and making all the grim-
aces and gestures and motions of their muskets which (I sup-
pose) military etiquette requires, but which we neither under-
stood nor regarded.' '
The house had been used as a barracks by British soldiers,
and was in an unsavory condition, but Lord Howe, who was a
very grand person, indeed, being the King's first cousin, and a
grandson of George I., had arrived in the battleship " Eagle' '
with his own butler, likewise a very grand and imposing person-
age, and had made preparations to receive his guests, fittingly—
a room was cleaned, aired and spread with green moss and dec-
orated with boughs. A cold luncheon of ham, mutton, tongue,
bread and claret was served. We hope for the sake of our good
Dr. Franklin, who was a vegetarian, that the menu included
other items not considered worth mentioning.
Perhaps, however, being, as an English authority assures us,
the greatest of American diplomats, he gave up his prejudices
against meat on this occasion. After dinner was ended Lord
Howe made a long discourse, afterwards Dr. Franklin, John
Adams, and Edward Rutledge spoke. That the conference came
to nothing was a bitter grief to Lord Howe, who was a warm
972 THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE BILLOPP HOUSE
friend of America and a fearless and energetic opponent of the
King's policy.
The conference ended, the committee returned at once to Phil-
adelphia, having been gnne four days, of which three hours were
spent with Lord Howe on Staten Island.
[This account concludes with the report submitted to Con-
gress by the Committee] :
From Congressional Records
"In Congress, September 13th, the committee appointed with
Lord Howe, having returned, made a verbal report.
"Ordered that they make a report in writing as soon as they
conveniently can."
September 17th. The committee appointed to confer with
Lord Howe, agreeable to the order of Congress, brought in a re-
port in writing, which was read as follows:—
In obedience to the orders of Congress we have had a meeting
with Lord Howe. It was on Wednesday last, upon Staten Is-
land, opposite Amboy, where his Lordship received and enter-
tained us with the most politeness.
His Lordship opened the conversation by requesting us, that
though he could not treat with us a committee of Congress, yet,
as his powers enabled him to confer and consult with any private
gentlemen of influence in the colonies, on the means of restoring
peace between the two countries, he was glad of this opportunity
of conferring with us on that subject, if we thought ourselves
at liberty to enter into a conference with him in that character.
We observed to his Lordship that, as our business was to hear,
he might consider us in what light he pleased, and communicate
to us any proposition he might be authorized to make for the pur-
pose mentioned; but that we could consider ourselves in no
other character than that in which we were placed by order of
Congress.
His Lordship then entered into a discourse of considerable
length, which contained no explicit proposition of peace except
one, namely that the Colonies should return to their allegiance
and obedience to the Government of Great Britain. The rest
-
THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE BILLOPP HOUSE 973
consisted principally of assurances that there was an exceeding
good disposition in the King and his ministers to make that
government easy to us, with intimations that in case of our sub-
mission, they would cause the offensive acts of Parliament to be
revised, arid the instructions to governors to be reconsidered;
that so, if any just causes of complaint were found in the acts,
or any errors in Government were perceived to have crept into
the instructions, they might be amended and withdrawn.
We gave it as our opinion to his Lordship, that a return to the
domination of Great Britain was not now to be expected. We
mentioned the repeated humble petitions of the colonies to the
King and Parliament, which had been treated with contempt, and
answered only by additional injuries; the unexampled patience
we had shown under their tyrannical government, and that it was
not till the last act of Parliament which denounced us and put us
out of the King's protection, that we declared our independence;
that this declaration had been called for by the people of the col-
onies in general; that every colony had approved of it, when
made, and all now considered themselves as independent States,
and were settling or had settled their Governments according ; so
that it was not in the power of Congress to agree for them that
they should return to their former dependent state; that there
was no doubt of their inclination to peace, and their willingness
to enter into a treaty with Britain, that might be advantageous to
both countries ; that though his Lordship had at present no power
to treat with them as independent states, he might, if there was
the same good disposition in Britain, much sooner obtain fresh
powers from thence, than powers could be obtained by Congress
from several colonies to consent to a submission.
His Lordship then saying that he was sorry to find that no
accommodation was likely to take place, put an end to the con-
ference.
Upon the whole, it did not appear to your committee, that his
Lordship's commission contained any other authority of import-
ance than what is expressed in the act of Parliament, namely that
of granting pardons, with such exceptions as the commissioners
shall think proper to make, and of declaring America, or any
part of it, to be in the King's peace, upon submission, for, as to
974 THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE BILLOPP HOUSE
the power of inquiring into the state of America, which his Lord-
ship mentioned to us, and of conferring and consulting with any
persons the Commissioners might think proper, and representing
the result of such conversation to the ministry, who, provided
the colonies would subject themselves might, after all, or might
not, at their pleasure, make any alteration in the former instruc-
tions to Governors, or propose in Parliament any amendment of
the acts complained of, we apprehended an expectation from the
effect of such a power would have been too uncertain and pre-
carious to be relied on by America, had she still continued in her
state of dependence.
Order, that the foregoing report, and also the message from
Lord Howe, as delivered to General Sullivan, and the resolution
of Congress in consequence thereof be published by the Com-
mittee who brought in the foregoing report.
John Hancock,
President.
Attest :
Chas. Thomson,
Secretary.
Biographical Sketch of Captain Samuel
Chester of Boston, Mass,, and New
London, Conn M and Some of His
Descendants
By Herbekt Merritt- Chester of New York City
CAPTAIN SAMUEL CHESTER was born in England
and came to Boston as master of his own Brigantine.
He removed to New London, Conn., in 1663, and was
made a Freeman the same year. In connection with
William Condy, he was engaged in the West Indian trade as
commander, owner and factor. Their warehouse and landing
place was in Close Cove. After a few years William Condy
returned to Boston.
Captain Chester made several voyages to the West Indies as
the commander of the Barque " Endeavor.' ' He was part owner
of the New London ' ' TrualP ' which was the first actual merchant
vessel owned in New London. The following news item was
taken from the Boston News Letter which was first issued in
April, 1704, and was the first newspaper published in North
America. In the issue of May 18, 1704, was the following item :
" Captain Parry of the Brigantine Adventure being dead the
owner has appointed Captain Samuel Chester Master who is to
sail with the Virginia fleet.' '
From the issue of June 1, 1704 :
"Captain Chester from New London will sail in ten days for
London with the Virginia convoy."
â– He commenced his voyage on June 12th and on account of the
I delay in taking on cargo, he missed the convoy and he, with his
vessel, was captured by the French.
Captain Chester was educated as a Civil-engineer and Naviga-
(975)
976 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CAPT. SAMUEL CHESTER
tor. He surveyed grants of land for the settlers and was one
of the founders of Groton, Conn., in 1704.
He bought a large tract of land in the North Parish of New
London, now Montville, from the Indian Sachems Owaneco and
Josiah of the Mohegan tribe. The latest signature of the Sachem
Uncas was to a deed to Samuel Chester, dated June 13, 1683.
He also was among the earliest grantees under the Indian deeds.
Captain Chester was a member of the General Assembly from
New London held at Hartford, October 14, 1669, and he was ap-
pointed one of the commissioners by the Court of Election held
at Hartford, May 11, 1693, to fix the boundary line between the
Colony of Mass. and Conn. In 1694 he was appointed a com-
missioner to settle the disputed line between the towns of Ston-
ington and Preston, Conn.
He also had a large landed estate in the East Parish of New
London, which is now Groton, covering the ground where Fort
Griswold and the Groton Monuments now stand, and which
ground was conveyed to the Government by his son Jonathan in
1777.
On September 6, 1781, four of the descendants of Captain
Chester: Sergeant Eldredge Chester, Daniel Chester, Jede-
diah Chester and Frederick Chester, gave up their lives in de-
fence of Fort Griswold during the massacre by the British and
Tories under the command of the Traitor Benedict Arnold.
Captain Chester was twice married ; his first wife was Mary,
by whom he had three sons and two daughters,— Abraham, John,
Samuel, Mercy and Susanna. By second wife Hannah, he had
Hannah and Jonathan. He died in Groton, March, 1709-10.
Among the descendants of Captain Chester may be men-
tioned Joseph Lemuel Chester, the noted Genealogist and Anti-
quary, who died in London, England, in 1882, and a tablet has
been erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.
Judge Alden Chester of Albany, New York, is also a descen-
dant and is one of the Vice-presidents of the Chester Associa-
tion; Rear- Admiral Colby Mitchell Chester of Washington, D.
C, being President.
The well known Attorney Augustine Chester of Washington,
D. C, was a descendant of Captain Samuel.
'
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CAPT. SAMUEL CHESTER 977
Among the descendants of Captain Samuel Chester who lived to
a good old age may be mentioned Christopher Chester who was
a Revolutionary soldier. His son, the Rev. Christopher Chester
of Hopkinton, R. L, and the writer's father, John Hicks Ches-
ter (son of the Rev. Christopher Chester) who died in Westerly,
R. L, in 1913 in his ninety-fifth year.
It is said the Chester family in America were noted for the
three "P's": Piety, Poetry and Productiveness.
Simeon Chester, one of the descendants of Captain Samuel,
was presented by his wife with three boys at one birth. He
named them Elias, Elijah and Elisha and he wrote the following
in the register of the Family Bible :
"Send then no more by two's and three's, but one good Lord
as often as you please."
'
Historic Views and Reviews
Contributed by Duane Mo wry, Milwaukee, Wis.
U. S. Can Make Fine Porcelain
PROBABILITIES are that the United States will not be
compelled to look to Europe in the future for its chemical
porcelain. Experiments by the bureau of standards dis-
close that it is possible to manufacture sucTi articles from
American materials. Heretofore practically all chemical porce-
lain came from Germany.
The experiments developed that porcelain wares could be
made from American clay, which were the equal of the foreign
product, except as to color. This difficulty, however, recently has
been overcome. One concern has begun the manufacture of
chemical porcelain, and while the process is yet somewhat in the
experimental stage, the bureau says it is probable that all varie-
ties of such ware soon will be made in the United States.— Ex-
change, Feb., 1915.
The Christ of the Andes
On the boundary line between Argentina and Chili, 12,000 feet
above sea level, there has been erected the Christ of the Andes,
a huge monument in commemoration of the peace treaty between
the two countries, which was signed under the arbitration of KiDg
Edward of Great Britain. The statue, which was built through
the co-operation of the two countries, and was unveiled in 1904,
has for a base a huge block of marble, on the sides of which are
inscriptions pledging perpetual peace between the two countries.
The base is surmounted by a large bronze figure of Christ, one
hand holding the cross and the other raised as if to give a bless-
ing.— Exchange, February, 1915.
(978)
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 979
China's Indestructible Wall
Few people realize what an almost perfect condition prevails
along a large part of the Great Wall of China. The bricks of
the parapet are as firm as ever, and their edges have stood the
severe climatic conditions of north China with scarcely a break.
The paving along the top of the wall is so smooth that one may
ride over it with a bicycle, and the great granite blocks with which
it is faced are smooth and as closely fitted as when put in place
more than 2,000 years ago. The entire length of this wall is 1,400
miles ; it is 22 feet high and 200 feet in thickness. At intervals
of 100 yards or so there are flowers some forty feet in height.—
Tit-Bits.
e&* ejjl* e& e&s> e&*
Germany's Dyestuffs Industry
An authority on the manufacture of dyestuffs in Germany calls
attention to the fact that export chemists are at the head of all
the great establishments in that country. He says that one of the
largest, if not the largest, of the German color works was founded
by two chemists, and the works are still mainly controlled by men
of science. The amazing extent to which this concern has grown
suffices to dispose of the belief which is fostered by some in this
country that scientific and commercial ability cannot be com-
bined in one personality and that a business controlled by chem-
ists could not possibly succeed. The works in question cover a
ground area, including workmen's dwellings, of nearly 500 acres.
The daily consumption of coal at normal times is 750 tons and
of water 20,000,000 gallons. The output of goods annually is
something like 400,000 tons.
Other works almost as gigantic are controlled by directorates
composed mainly of chemists. In fact, it is not a common thing
to find purely financial and commercial men taking the principal
share in the management of these concerns. One of the beneficial
results of this scientific control is that the directors are capable
980 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
of understanding the full importance of new inventions and of
exercising patience in waiting for the outcome of experiments.
Another extremely important point which must not be over-
looked is the fact that success depends not only in supplying a
demand for estabiisned colors but in inventing new colors and
shades. A factory which produces nothing but the colors in de-
mand would soon be outclassed by the factory which as a result
of laboratory achievements turned out a new series of colors.
For this reason it is the chemist who directs the course of the
business, and not the business manager. For instance, it is of
little use for the commercial man to instruct the expert— as is
done in other businesses — to produce a certain article. The po-
sition is reversed.
The chemist looking for one color finds another, and says to
the businessman : * ' You must make a market for this. ' ' People
began to wear mauve colored garments not because the produc-
ers of cloth had asked for that color, but because the late Sir
William Perkin, while trying in his laboratory to synthesize qui-
nine accidentally produced a compound with a mauve color.—
Exchange.
•fr ♦ ■*£ + +
Women Hymn Writers
Fanny Crosby, blind since she was six weeks old, when hot
poultices applied to her eyes destroyed the optic nerve, has lived
a long and useful and happy life, and now lies dead within little
more than a month of her ninety-fifth year. She was the author
of two of the best-known popular songs of a generation which
she survived— "There's Music in the Air" and "Hazel Dell,"
and also of upward of six thousand religious hymns, of which
several, including the well-known "Safe in the Arms of Jesus/ '
are widely used at the present time.
It is interesting to recall the prominence of woman authors as
contributors to modern hymnology. "Nearer My God to Thee"
was written by Sarah Flower Adams. Mrs. Cecil Frances Alex-
ander wrote "There is a Green Hill Far Away" and "Once in
David 's Koyal City. ' ' " Just as I Am, Without One Plea, ' 'â– came
.
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
981
from Charlotte Elliott, and "Our Blest Redeemer Ere He
Breather' ' was by Harriet Auber. Frances Ridley Havegral
began her studies with the idea of making music the aim of her
life, but became famous as a hymn writer.
Mrs. Crosby was a teacher in an institution for the blind when
she began to write. Her hymns were prominent in the repertory
of Moody and Sankey. Despite her affliction, she was noted for
her cheerful disposition. She not only poured sunshine into the
lives of those about her, but communicated hope and joy to thou-
sands at a distance through the medium of her gift of verse. —
Editorial in Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, February, 1915.
.
Book Reviews
"Early History of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph." (Hines
Bros., New York. Price 50 Cents)
We have received an interesting pamphlet treating of the early
history of the American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, taken from
the letters and journals of Alfred Vail by his son, J. Cummings
Vail. The pamphlet, comprising some thirty-six printed pages
of a most convenient size, is profusely illustrated; it ably sets
forth in convenient and comprehensive form the part which Al-
fred Vail played in the establishment of the telegraph and throws
an interesting light upon the difficulties overcome and obstacles
surmounted by Vail, Morse and their associates before final suc-
cess.
The first page of the pamphlet contains a chronology of the his-
tory of the telegraph, which, as Mr. Vail informs us "had prop-
erly speaking, no inventor. It grew little by little, each inventor
adding his little to advance it towards perfection. " Mr. J. Cum-
mings Vail, to whom we are indebted for this compilation, is
expertly familiar with the subject treated of.
c&9 e$9 e&» e&» e&
Matthew's American Armoury and Blue Book
We are glad to acknowledge the receipt of Parts I and II
of "Matthews' American Armoury and Blue Book," edited and
published by John Matthews, 93 Chancery Lane, London, Eng-
land, and we do not hesitate to commend a work that has been
known to all our lovers of genealogy for so many years as an
authority and a book of special reference on the history and
lineage of those families in this country who have the right to
use a crest and coat of arms. We await the coming of Part III
(982)
BOOK REVIEWS 983
with especial interest, as it will complete the volume and contain
what is indispensable in such a work, a full and complete alpha-
betical index. We wish Mr. Matthews increasing success each
year and hope that his work may find a ready sale in every part
of this country. We are glad to know that the "New York
Genealogical and Biographical Record, ' ' an undisputed authority
on matters of genealogy, has also given this work its hearty com-
mendation.
-
S.
/
, ty.S
^
EDWARD, DUKE OF KENT AND STRATHEARN, K. G.,
K. T., K. St. P., Etc.
AMERICANA
December, 1915
The Winthrop Family
"^HE name of Winthrop may be traced back, in various
spellings, for at least seven centuries. On the Rolls of
Court of the county of York, in England, for the year
of our Lord 1200, there is a record which begins with
the name of Robert de Winethorp. There is a similar record
for the county of Lincoln, seven years later, in which the name
of J. Winthorp is found. Thorp is the Saxon word for " vil-
lage,' ' corresponding to the Dutch word Dorp. Win, or wine,
has more than one significance: sometimes meaning " pleasant,' '
sometimes "the beloved,' ' and sometimes standing for that juice
of the grape to which both the epithets are not infrequently
applied.
Dr. Johnson, quoting from Gibson, says that "Win, whether
initial or final, in the names of men, may either denote a mascu-
line temper from pin, which signifies, in Saxon, 'war strength,'
etc., or else the general love and esteem he hath among the peo-
ple, from the Saxon pine, i. e., 'dear,' 'beloved.' In the names of
places, it implies a battle fought there."
An old pedigree of the Winthrop family, of uncertain date,
and of still more uncertain detail, commences by stating that
"they came anciently from Northumberland;" that "they after-
wards settled in a village not far from Newark, which was called
'Winthrop;' " that "from thence they came up to London, and
owned Marribone (Marylebone) Park:" that "from thence they
went to Groton, in Suffolk, where they lived many years. ' '
The branch of the Winthrop family that, in the person of Gov-
ernor John Winthrop, was conspicuously identified with the set-
tlement of the Massachusetts Colony, and that in the descendants
(985)
986 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
of the first Governor Winthrop was not less distinguished in the
colonial and provincial periods in Connecticut and Massachu-
setts, was of Groton Manor, county Suffolk, and its representa-
tives were prominent and active as far back as the fifteenth cen-
tury.
I. ADAM WINTHEOP, the ancestor of Governor Winthrop,
of the Groton Manor family, and with whom the authentic his-
tory of the family begins, was located in Lavenham, county Suf-
folk, England, in 1498, with his wife, Joane Burton, or Burnell.
After his death his widow married John Pouder, of Lavenham.
In the visitation and pedigrees of the Harleian manuscripts,
Adam Winthrop is described as of Groton.
• H. ADAM WINTHEOP, son of Adam Winthrop and Joane
(Burton, or Burnell) Winthrop, was of Groton Manor, County
Suffolk, and St. Michaels, Cornhill, London. He was born
in Lavenham, October 9, 1498. He was a prominent and
wealthy merchant and an active citizen and cloth mak-
er in London and afterward in Groton. The freedom of
London was granted to him in 1526. Upon the dis-
solution of the monasteries, he was granted the Manor
of Groton in 1544 by Henry VIII. , and became Lord and Patron
of the Manor. He was a man of culture, energy, and great
strength of character. Arms were granted to him in 1548. His
prominence and the esteem in which he was held by his fellow
citizens are shown by the fact that in 1551 he was the master of
the influential London Company of Cloth Workers. Craft guilds
were co mm on in London at an early date. These guilds were
voluntary associations governed by ordinances of their own
framing, which regulated, and to some extent controlled, the
trades carried on in the city. They appointed overseers to in-
spect the wares produced and sold, and umpires to adjudicate
the cases of dispute between masters and workmen. In the reign
of Edward HI. (1312-77), charters were granted to these volun-
tary associations and their ordinances formally recognized and
enrolled in the court of the Lord Mayor as livery companies. The
Clothworkers ' Company promoted the establishment of York-
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 987
shire College, Leeds. Into these guilds royalty itself, a half
century after, thought it no scorn to seek an entrance. King
James I. (16S5-88) went himself into the Hall of the Clothwork-
ers, without being known, and asked: "Who is the master of
the company?" The Lord Mayor answered, "Sir William
Stone." The King addressed himself to Sir William: "Wilt
thou make me one of the clothworkers ? " "Yea," quoth the
master, "and think myself a happy man to think that I live to
see this day." "Thanks," said the King, "give me thy hand—
and now I am a clothworker. "
Died November 9, 1562.
Married, 1st, November 16, 1527, Alice Henny, or Henry, who
died June 25, 1533.
Married, 2d, July 2, 1534, Agnes Sharpe, daughter of Robert
Sharpe, of Islington, county Middlesex. She was born in 1516 ;
died May 13, 1565, having married, 2d, William Mildmay, of
Springfield Barns.
Issue (by first wife) :
1. Thomas Winthrop, b. November 8, 1528; d. in April, 1529.
2. William Winthrop, b. November 12, 1529; d. March 1,
1581, at London, and buried at St. Michael's Church, Cornhill,
Ver sine fraude bonus et pietatis amans, m. Elizabeth Norwood,
of Kent. She died in Kent, June 2, 1578, having had children :
Jonathan, Adam, William, Joshua, Elizabeth, and Sarah. Son
Adam Winthrop, b. about 1570, d. in 1634, m. Joane, daughter of
William Hilles, of Holton Hall, Suffolk, early in 1600, and had a
son, Adam, b. in April, 1691.
3. Bridget Winthrop, b. January 1, 1531; d. January, 1536.
4. Christopher Winthrop, b. January 4, 1532; d. aged nine
month.
5. Thomas Winthrop, 2d, b. in June, 1533 ; d. in 1537.
Issue (by second wife) :
6. Alice Winthrop, b. November 15, 1539; d. November 8,
1607; m. Sir Thomas Mildmay, son of William Mildmay of
Springfield Barns, her stepfather, leaving issue, six sons.
7. Bridget Winthrop, b. May 3, 1543 ; d. in Thorfield, Hert-
988 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
fordshire, November 4, 1614. M. Roger Alabaster, of a dis-
tinguished Hadley family, and had William, George, John,
Thomas and Sarah Alabaster, William Alabaster was preben-
dary of St. Paul's and rector of "ye rich parsonage of Thorfield
in Hertfordshire." During a visit to Rome he turned " Papist' '
and upon his return to London was for this offense imprisoned
in the Tower, but was released on renouncing the Pope, and
thereupon received the parsonage. He died in 1640.
8. Mary Winthrop, b. March 1, 1544; m., 1st, William Celie;
m., 2d, Abraham Veysie.
9. Tiuin— John W T inthrop, b. January 20, 1546; d. in Ireland,
July 26, 1613. He purchased Irish lands and acquired a consid-
erable estate in county Cork. He is supposed to have left a
son, from whom came Stephen W'inthrop of Bandon (1658) ;
among whose numerous descendants may be named Benjamin
Winthrop, Esq., of London, governor of the Bank of England
(1804-5), and his son, Benjamin Winthrop, Jr., Esq., of Univer-
sity College, Oxford, and of Lincoln's Inn, London, whose
nephews were the Rev. Benjamin Winthrop, M. A., of Wolver-
ton, Warwick, and Winthrop Mackworth Praed, M. P., the
lamented poet and statesman. The family records leave the first
link of this connection in some doubt; but a letter in the posses-
sion of Robert C. Winthrop, dated "Bandon Bridge in Ireland
the 5th day of March, 1637, " addressed "To her loving & aproved
good f rend and Kinsman, Mr. John Winthrop in New England, ' '
and signed, "Your lovinge Cosen, Joane Winthrop, daughter of
Willyam Hilles," settles the question that the Winthrops of
Bandon were of the same family with those of Groton. Joane
Hilles, daughter of William Hilles, of Holton Hall, Suffolk, m.
Adam Winthrop, cousin of our Massachusetts governor, John
Winthrop, early in 1600, and had a son named Adam, in April,
1691. Joane writes that her husband had been dead three years
in 1637. He was undoubtedly the son of William Winthrop of
St. Michael 's, Cornhill, London, and thus the Bandon family may
have been descended from W T illiam (born November 12, 1529),
and not from John (b. January 20, 1546). (See note 2, p. 16,
"Life and Letters of John Winthrop").
M., 1st, Elizabeth Risby, daughter of Robert Risby, of Thorpe
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 989
Morieux, county Suffolk, by whom he had one son, who died
young; in., 2d, Elizabeth Po widen, daughter of Thomas Po wi-
den, of Rathgogan, county Cork, Ireland. Issue : i. John Win-
throp, of Rathgogan, who died unmarried in 1634. ii. Elizabeth
Winthrop, m. Peregrine Bannister, iii. Anne Winthrop, m. Hen-
ry Hoskins.
10. Tivin— Adam Winthrop, b. January 20, 1546; d. aged six
months.
11. Adam Winthrop, of whom below.
12. Catherine "Winthrop, b. May 17, 1550 ; she is not named in
her father's will of 1562, when, if living, she would have been
only twelve years of age. Robert C. Winthrop says, in note on
page 16 of "Life and Letters of John Winthrop," that the old
pedigree which states that she "married and had children" can
hardly be correct.
13. Susanna Winthrop, b. December 10, 1552 ; d. in Coventry,
August 9, 1604, m. D. Cottie, leaving issue.
in. ADAM WINTHROP, son of Adam Winthrop and Ag-
nes (Sharpe) Winthrop, was born in London, August 10, 1548.
He resided in Edwardston in the early part of his life, and after-
ward at Groton Manor. He was a graduate of Magdalen Col-
lege, a lawyer, a county magistrate and auditor of Trinity and
St. John's colleges, Cambridge.
Died in March, 1623, and was buried in the Groton church-
yard, March 28.
Married, 1st, December 16, 1574, Alice Still, daughter of Wil-
liam Still, of Grantham, county Lincoln, and sister of Doctor
John Still, bishop of Bath and Wells. She died December 24,
1579, leaving no issue.
Married, 2d, February 20, 1580, Anne Browne, daughter of
Henry Browne, of Edwardston, near Groton. She survived her
husband, and died April 19, 1629.
Issue (by second wife) :
1. Anne Winthrop, b. January 5, 1581 ; d. in the same month.
2. Anne Winthrop, b. January 16, 1586 ; d. May 16, 1618 ;
m., February 25, 1605, Thomas Fones.
990 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
3. John Winthrop, founder of the family in America, of whom
below.
4. Jane Winthrop, baptized June 17, 1592; m., January 5,
1612, Thomas Gostling.
5. Lucy Winthrop, b. January 9, 1601; in., April 10, 1622,
Emanuel Downing. Issue: i. George Downing (afterward Sir
George Downing), ambassador to the States-General, 1659.
Downing street, London, was named for him. ii. Annie Down-
ing.
The arms of the Winthrop family, which were granted to
Adam Winthrop in 1548, are :
A rms.— Argent, three chevrons, gules, crenele, over all a lion
rampant, sable, armed and langued azure.
Crest. — A hare proper running on a mount vert.
Motto.— Spes vincit thronum [Hope wins a throne].
The Family in America.
In America the history of the Winthrop family began with
John Winthrop, the leader of the great Puritan immigration
th atcame to Massachusetts Bay in 1630. His descendants in
the generations since his time have worthily borne the name of
the family to which they belong. His son, John Winthrop, the
younger, was scarcely less distinguished than his father, and to
him more than to any other single individual was due the firm
establishment of the new Connecticut colony. In later years the
descendants of these two great colonial pioneers have been prom-
inent in public affairs, distinguished in letters, and prominent in
social and business pursuits.
JOHN WINTHEOP, only son of Adam Winthrop and Anne
(Browne) Winthrop, was born in Edwardston (near the family
seat at Groton), England, January 12, 1587. He studied two
years at Cambridge University (1602-4). He married early and
immediately began to interest himself in public affairs. He be-
came a magistrate when only eighteen years of age, and his
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 991
virtues became conspicuous. He was exemplary in his profes-
sion, as an upright and impartial magistrate, and in his private
character as a Christian. He had a pious mind, and early do-
mestic bereavements inclined him towards the ministerial pro-
fession. That pious disposition characterized him throughout
his entire life. He did not, however, take religious orders, but
after a time devoted himself to the study and practice of the law
and to the exercise of his duties as a magistrate. His profession
was largely in the courts of wards and liveries. He was highly
esteemed in his professional relations and enjoyed the confidence
of all with whom he was associated. He continued to exercise
the authorities of his office until 1629, when his position was tak-
en from him, probably, it is said, on account of his outspoken op-
position to unjust exactions of the Crown.
About this time he became actively interested in the Great
Massachusetts Enterprise, and believed that the finger of God
pointed to the serene establishment of the Reformed faith in the
New World by colony of pious self-denying men, willing to give
up their lives and fortunes to the undertaking. Liberty of con-
science could not be enjoyed in England. Many were so harassed
for their nonconformity that they determined rather to make
settlements in a dreary wilderness, at the distance of three thou-
sand miles from their native country, than endure the persecu-
tions to which they were constantly exposed. They emigrated
not for the advantages of trade, but for religion, and the enjoy-
ment of liberty of conscience. They wished to transmit the
blessings of civil and religious liberty to their posterity.
In 1629, with Sir Richard Saltonstall and others, he signed the
Agreement to Emigrate ; on the twentieth of October of the same
year he was chosen Governor of Massachusetts Bay Company,
and in the following April, carrying with him the charter that
had been granted the spring before, he embarked with a fleet of
eleven vessels, containing about one thousand persons. On the
twenty-second of June, 1630, he landed at Salem, where already
the Company had established a colony of two or three hundred
persons under John Endicott.
This was the " Great Suffolk Emigration, ' ' as it has been
called, and is not to be confounded with the Pilgrim Colony at
992 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
Plymouth in 1620 (which at the time of Winthrop 's arrival num-
bered some three hundred and was not united to the Massachu-
setts colony until 1692), nor with the scattering settlements else-
where, some of which had died out, and others were in a weak
and precarious condition. In the following autumn he moved
the seat of government from Charlestown to the' neck of land
since known as Boston, where he resided eighteen years, during
twelve of which he was Governor, at other times serving as Dep-
uty-Governor, or as a member of the Court of Assistants, and
always the guiding spirit of New England, until he died at the
age of sixty -two, worn out by the incessant labors, and having
spent his substance in the cause he had at heart.
He endured all the hardships of colonization with noble equan-
imity and never for a moment lost his confidence in the future of
Massachusetts. When the settlement was subjected to succes-
sive privations that drove some of the colonists back to England,
while a large number of them succumbed to disease, he wrote, "I
do not repent my coming. I would not have altered my course
. though I had forseen all these afflictions." He lived to see the
confederation of the Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and
New Haven colonies, under the name of the United Colonies of
New England, and was the first president of this confederation.
The appellation of the "Father of Massachusetts" has been apt-
ly applied to him. Historians have delighted to dwell upon his
character and upon the efficient service that he rendered to the
colonies by his able administration of affairs. George Bancroft
said of him, "It was principally the calm decision of Winthrop
which sustained the courage of his companions. ' ' The historian,
John G. Palfrey, wrote of him: "Among the millions of living
men descended from men whom he ruled, there is not. . . .
one who does not owe much to what is best in him to the benevo-
lent and courageous wisdom of John Winthrop." Winthrop
kept a journal of his life in the new world, and this has been pub-
lished as "The History of New England from 1630 to 1649."
Died in Boston, March 26, 1649.
Married, 1st, April 16, 1605, at Great Stambridge, England,
Mary Forth daughter and sole heiress of John Forth, Esq., of
Great Stambridge, county Essex. She brought a considerable
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 993
estate to her husband. She was born January 1, 1584, and died
after ten years of married life, being buried January 26, 1615,
and leaving six children.
Married, 2d, December 6, 1615, Thorn a sine Clopton, daughter
of William Clopton, Esq., of Castleins, near Groton. She died
December 8, 1616.
Married, 3d, April 29, 1618, Margaret Tyndal daughter of Sir
John Tyndal, of Great Maplested, county Essex. She died June
14, 1647.
Married, 4th, December 4, 1647, Martha N. (Eainsborough)
Coytemore, daughter of Captain William Eainsborough, of the
royal navy, and widow of Thomas Coytemore, of Boston. She
survived her husband, and married, 3d, March 10, 1652, John
Coggan.
[Fourth.— The very ancient family to which Mary Forth, the
first wife of Governor John W T inthrop, belonged, was of county
Suffolk, England.
William Forth, of Hadleigh, county Suffolk, d. in 1505. Issue
Robert and Alice.
Robert Forth, son of W 7 illiam Forth, d. in 1541. He married a
daughter of the Odurn family. Issue, William, Anne, and Dor-
othy.
William Forth, of Hadleigh, son of Kobert Forth, had a grant
of Butley Abbey, or Priory, in Suffolk, in 1544. He married
Elizabeth Powell, of Wales. Issue : Eobert, Philologus, Edward,
Israel, William, John, Mary, Catherine, Elizabeth, and Anne.
John Forth, sixth and youngest son of William and Elizabeth
(Powell) Forth, was of Great Stambridge. He married Thom-
asine Hilles of the county of Essex, an only child.
Mary Forth, only child of John Forth, m. John Winthrop. Her
uncle, Eobert Forth, was high sheriff of Suffolk in 1569, and his
second son, William Forth, was knighted at Greenwich, July 3,
1604].
Issue of John Winthrop and Mary (Forth) Winthrop:
1. John Winthrop, of whom below.
2. Henry Winthrop, baptized January 20, 1607. He went to
Barbadoes in 1627. Ee turning to England in 1629, he married
994 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
his cousin, Elizabeth Fones, daughter of Thomas Fones, of Lon-
don. He came to New England soon after his father, but was
drowned the day after his arrival. Issue: i. Martha Johanna
Winthrop, b. May 9, 1630.
3. Forth Winthrop, b. December 30, 1609; died unmarried,
and was buried in Groton, England, November 23, 1630. He
was graduated from Emanuel College, Cambridge.
4. Mary Winthrop, m. the Reverend Samuel Dudley, b. in
England, 1610; d. February 10, 1683, son of Governor Thomas
and Dorothy Dudley. She died in Salisbury, Massachusetts,
April 2, 1643, leaving issue.
5. Anne Winthrop, b. August 8, 1614 ; buried August 26, 1614.
6. Anne Winthrop, b. June 26, 1615 ; buried June 29, 1615.
Issue (by second wife) :
7. An infant child, b. and d. December 8, 1616.
Issue (by third wife) :
8. Stephen Winthrop, b. in Groton, March 24, 1619. He came
to New England with his father in 1630 and was subsequently
recorder of Boston and a representative to the general court.
He returned to the mother country and had command in the
parliamentary army about 1646, rising to the rank of colonel. He
was a representative for Banff and Aberdeen in one of Crom-
well's parliaments. D. in London in 1659. M., before 1645,
Judith Bainsborough, daughter of Captain William Bains-
borough, of the parliamentary army. He had two daughters,
who married in England, and four sons and two daughters who
died in early childhood.
9. Adam Winthrop, b. April 7, 1620 ; d. in Boston, August 24,
1652; m., in February, 1642, Elizabeth, daughter of Beverend
Jose Glover, and sister of the wife of Deane Winthrop. She
died in 1648. Issue: I. Adam Winthrop, b. October 15, 1647;
d. August 3, 1700; m., Mary, daughter of Colonel Lutrell, of
Bristol, England ; she m., 2d, Colonel Joseph Lynde, of Charles-
town, Massachusetts. Issue: i. Adam Winthrop, b. March 3,
1676. He was graduated at Harvard College, 1694. He was
chief justice of the court of common pleas and colonel of the Bos-
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 995
ton regiment. D. in Boston, October 2, 1743; m. Anne, daugh-
ter of Colonel John Wainwright, of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Issue.
10. Deane "Winthrop, b. March 16, 1623, in Groton. He came
to New England in 1635, and war one of the founders of the town
of Groton, in Massachusetts. Subsequently he located in the
vicinity of Boston in what has since been known as the town of
Winthrop. There he resided for more than forty years. D.
March 16, 1704. M., 1st., before 1648, Sarah Glover, daughter of
the Reverend Jose Glover. M., 2d., prior to 1684, Martha Mel-
lowes, widow of Captain John Mellowes, of Boston. Issue: i.
Margaret Winthrop, b. in 1660 ; m. Jonathan Glover, ii. Eliza-
beth Winthrop, b. in 1663 ; m. Samuel Kent. iii. Jose Winthrop,
b. May 3, 1666; died unmarried, November 13, 1702. iv. Pris-
cilla Winthrop, b. in 1669 ; m. Eliab Adams.
11. Nathaniel Winthrop, baptized February 20, 1625; died
young.
12. Samuel Winthrop, baptized August 29, 1627. He studied
in Harvard College and returned to England at an early age.
He permanently established himself as a planter in the West
Indies, and in 1668 was deputy governor of Antigua. M., in
Holland, in 1648. D. in 1677, but his male line became extinct
in the second generation following him. From him is descended
the Duke of Norfolk.
13. Annie Winthrop, batpized April 29, 1630 ; d. on the voy-
age to New England.
14. William Winthrop, b. August 14, 1632 ; died young.
15. Sarah Winthrop, batpized June 29, 1634 ; died young.
Notes.— From the report of the commissioners (dated Feb-
ruary 16, 1866), appointed by Governor Andrew— the commis-
sioners were Hon. John G. Pelf rey ; Hon. Solomon Lincoln, and
Hon. Richard Frothingham— for the erecting a statue of John
Winthrop in the Capitol of Washington, D. C. :
"In one of the early emigrants to Massachusetts, their ac-
knowledged chief, all their virtues were impersonated. We do
not hesitate to advise, that one of the statues to be set up in the
national hall shall commemorate the period and services of the
.
996 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
first John Winthrop. All nations have reserved peculiar hon-
ors for their founders : John Winthrop, rather than any other
man, represents the founders of Massachusetts. It is impossi-
ble to estimate the lasting influence of a human life ; but nothing
can be more certain than that the beneticent consequences of
Winthrop 's life have been vast. His mind more than any other
aranged the social state of Massachusetts; Massachusetts
moulded the society of New England. "The principles of New
England/ wrote the philosophical French observer, ' spread at
first to the neighboring states; then they passed successively to
the more distant ones, and at length they imbued the whole con-
federation. ' By virtue of recent events, this process is now go-
ing on with a new activity, which is destined still to grow, and
this nation as long as it continues to hold up a guiding and
cheering light to the friends of liberty and law, in all parts of
the earth, will be carrying out the work of John Winthrop and of
his associate colonists of Massachusetts Bay."
From one of the speeches of the late Josiah Quincy:
' l For years, Winthrop, the leader of the first great enterprise,
was the chief magistrate of the infant metropolis. His prudence
guided its councils. His valor dictated its strength. His life
and fortunes were spent in fixing its character or improving its
destinies. A bolder spirit never dwelt, a truer heart never beat
in any bosom. Had Boston, like Eome, a consecrated calendar,
there is no name better entitled than that of Winthrop to be reg-
istered as its ' patron saint.' "
From the "Pilgrim Fathers of New England and their Pur-
itan Successors, ' ' by John Brown, B.A., D. D., 1896, page 296 :
"Governor Winthrop is one of the great names in American
history, taking its place in the Temple of Fame side by side with
that of Washington himself. Descended from an ancient and
honorable family in Suffolk, he was born at Groton Manor-house
near Sudbury, in 1588. Trained to the law, a member of the In-
ner Temple, and subsequently one of the attorneys of the Court
of Wards Liveries, he was at the same time a typical example of
the grave and earnest country gentleman of Puritan times.' '
From Young's "Chronicles of Massachusetts," page 105:
"In his magnanimity, disinterestedness, and moderation; in
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 997
his mingled firmness of principle and mildness of temper; in his
harmonious character, consistent life, and well-balanced mind—
the Father of Massachusetts reminds us of the great ' Father of
his Country,' and is the only name in our history worthy to
stand as a parallel to Washington."
"History of New England," by John G. Palfrey, 1858, vol-
ume 2, page 266 :
John Winthrop :
"The influence of his genius and character has been felt
through seven generations of a rapidly multiplying people, and
of those not of their number whom their proceedings have in any
way affected.
"The importance which history should ascribe to his life must
be proportionate to the importance attributed to the subsequent
agency of that commonwealth of which he was the most eminent
founder.
"It would be erroneous to pretend that the principles upon
which it was established were an original conception of his mind,
but undoubtedly it was his policy, more than any other man's,
that organized into shape, animated with practical vigor, and
prepared for permanency those primeval sentiments and in-
stitutions that have dictated the course of thought and action in
New England in later times. And equally certain it is that
among the millions of living men descended from those whom
he ruled, there is not one who does not — through efficient influ-
ences, transmitted in society and in thought along the interven-
ing generations— owe much of what is best within him, and in
the circumstances about him, to the benevolent and courageous
wisdom of John Winthrop.
"They who to make up their idea of consummate excellence in
a statement require the presence of a religious sense prompting
and controlling all public conduct will recognize with admiration
the prominence of that attribute in the character of this brave,
wise, unselfish, righteous ruler. His sense of his religious obli-
gation was the spirit of his politics, as well as the spirit of his
daily life. It had pleased God to place him where he might so
act, so that the virtue and well-being of large numbers of men,
living and to be born, might be the fruit of his courage, diligence,
998 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
steadiness, and foresight. With clear intelligence he discerned
the responsibilities of that position, and accepted them with a
cordiality which made it easy to subordinate every less worthy
object, and control every meaner motive that might interfere
with the generous task he had assumed. To the public service
he lavishly gave his fortune. As freely he devoted to it the best
laber of his mind, and sacrificed every personal ambition. No
obstinacy, or petulance, or pride hindered the upright applica-
tion of his serene and solid judgment. Not only did he not suffer
injustice to irritate him ; he would not be disabled, discouraged,
nor depressed by it. Immovably patient of opposition, he
scanned its reason in reconsideration of his own plans, or
watched its course to learn how it could be conciliated, or to note
the time when its relaxation, or its errors, should invite a repeti-
tion of the efforts which it had embarrassed. He was too right-
minded and too kind-hearted to despise any man's good will or
good opinion ; but he sought public favor by no arts but honest
labors for the public welfare, as he was far above regarding
public favor as the price that was to stimulate or to requite those
labors. When, from time to time, the place of highest dignity
was assigned to others, he addressed himself, wdth no sense of
mortification and with unabated zeal, to the tasks of humbler
station. He knew how with dignity to meet injustice and slights,
as well as how to hold power and receive applause with sober-
ness and modesty. Vindictiveness was an emotion unknown to
him, resentments had no resting place in his bosom. He judged
candidly ; he forgave without an effort ; he loved to win back the
offended by graceful overtures and prompt amends; and per-
sonal discontents could not withdraw him from alliance that
would help him to promote the public good. So gentle was his
nature that no bitterness mingled with, or was excited by, the
severest exercise of his official authority ; men who had suffered
severely from his action as magistrate— Coddington, Wheel-
wright, Williams, Vane, Clark —were afterward in friendly cor-
respondence with him. In private relations and intercourse, the
qualities that superficially denote the gentleman were eminently
his. His genuine sense of honor suspected no intention of of-
fence. Just, frank, cordial, and ready to every expression of
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 999
respect and courtesy, he gave to all their due, whether in great
or in little things. Gracious and humane, he never, by rudeness
or self-assertion, gave pain to an inferior. A tender husband
and father, his public cares never made him forgetful of the ob-
ligation of domestic ties. "What remains of his private corres-
pondence is an affecting record of that union of excellence which
attracts love as much as it commands veneration. His ability
ought to be estimated by the amount of what it projected and
what it achieved. His scheme of public action had been so well
considered that no complication of affairs found him unpre-
pared with principles which were to solve it; and, in the quaint
phraseology of his age and sect, he used to express as occasion
prompted the profoundest doctrines of social science. His com-
prehensive system of politics embraces a long range of the fu-
ture. Not magnificence, nor inordinate power, was what he de-
sired for the community which he was establishing, but freedom,
security, competence, virtue, and content. The founders of
dynasties have hitherto commanded the world's most noisy plau-
dits. But the time will come when the men who have created
happy republics will be thought worthy of higher praise."
"All effects have remote and slowly operating causes. I do
not forget that various agencies must be combined to produce an
important political result; but to my view the New England
campaign of 1775-1776, the movement of John Adams and his
compeers for independence eighty-four years ago, and— conse-
quent upon those transactions— the latter product of self-gov-
ernment in America, are, to Winthrop's administration, some-
thing like what the fruit is to the blossom."
"The Beginnings of New England," by John Fiske, 1892,
page 102 :
' ' For governor the choice fell upon John Winthrop, a wealthy
gentleman from Groton, in Suffolk, who was henceforth to occu-
py the foremost place among the founders of New England.
Winthrop was at this time forty-one years of age, having been
born in the memorable year of the Armada. He was a man of
remarkable strength and beauty of character, grave and modest
intelligent and scholar-like, intensely religious and endowed with
a moral sensitiveness that was almost morbid, yet liberal withal
1000 THE WINTHROP FAMILY
in his opinions and charitable in disposition. When his life shall
have been adequately written, as it never has been, he will be
recognized as one of the very noblest figures in American his-
tory. From early youth he had the same power of winning con-
fidence and commanding respect for which Washington was so
remarkable; and when he was selected as the Moses of the Puri-
tan Exodus, there was a wide-spread feeling that extraordinary
results were likely to come of such an enterprise."
Bancroft's "History of the United States":
"It was principally the calm decision of Winthrop which sus-
tained the courage of his companions. In him, a yielding gen-
tleness of temper and a never-failing desire for unity and har-
mony were secured against weakness by deep but tranquil en-
thusiasm. His nature was touched by the sweetest sympathies
of affection for wife, children, and associates. Cheerful in serv-
ing others and suffering with them, liberal without repining,
helpful without reproaching, in him God so exercised His grace
that he discerned his own image and resemblance in his fellow
men and cared for his neighbor like himself. He was of a socia-
ble nature, so that 'to love and be beloved was his soul's para-
dise'; and works of mercy were the habit of his life.
"Parting from affluence in England, he unrepiningly went to
meet impoverishedment and premature old age for the welfare
of Massachusetts. His lenient benevolence tempered the bigotry
of his companions without impairing their resoluteness. An
honest royalist, averse to pure democracy, yet firm in his regard
for existing popular liberties ; in his native parish a conformist,
yet wishing for 'gospel purity'; in America, mildly aristocratic,
advocating a government of 'the least part,' yet desiring that
part to be 'the wiser of the best'; disinterested, brave, and con-
scientious,— his character marks the transitive of the reforma-
tion into virtual republicanism, when the sentiment of loyalty,
which it was still intended to cherish, gradually yielded to the
irresistible spirit of civic freedom."
Cotton Mather's "Magnalia":
"Let Greece boast of her patient Lycurgus, the law-giver, by
whom diligence, temperance, fortitude, and wit were made the
fashions of a therefore long-lasting and renowned common-
.
THE WINTHROP FAMILY 1001
wealth; let Rome tell of her devout Numa, the law-giver by
whom the most famous commonwealth saw peace traimphing
over extinguished war and cruel plunders, and murders giving
place to the more mollifying exercises of his religion. Our New
England shall boast and tell of her Winthrop, a law-giver as
patient as Lycurgus, but not admitting any of his criminal dis-
orders; as devout as Numa, but not liable to any of the heathen-
ish madness; a governor in whom the excellence of Christianity
made a most improving addition into the virtues wherein even
without those he would have made a parallel for the great men
of Greece or of Eome which the pen of Plutarch has eternized. "
(To be continued)
Chapters in the History of Halifax,
Nova Scotia
Sir John Wentworth and the Duke of Kent
By Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, M. A., D. C. L.
No. IV
Here "Wentworth and his Tory compeers eame
When fierce rebellion rent the neighboring land,
Foes to the foes of England and her King.
Acadian Ballads.
A woman of fashion and wit and grace,
The Governor's wife, of Portsmouth town,
From Copley's canvas still looks down
Beautiful Lady Wentworth 's face.
Acadian Ballads.
IN September, 1775, after proroguing the New Hampshire As-
sembly at the Isles of Shoals, Mr. John Wentworth, last roy-
al governor of this New England province, found it neces-
sary to flee in haste from his home in Portsmouth to the shel-
ter of the King's troops in Boston. Among the notable fam-
ilies of New England before the Revolution not a single one
stands out more conspicuously than the New Hampshire Went-
worths. Descended from the finest English stock they early
planted themselves in America, and here brought into exercise
the high qualities of intelligence, energy, dignity, and courtesy
that by nature, the heritage of generations of high-bred ances-
tors, were theirs. Both Longfellow and Whittier have celebrated
the family in charming verse, Whittier, especially, in his " Amy
Wentworth, ' ' of whom he says :
(1002)
,*..."'": . • ;' : :.
•
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1003
"Her home was brave on Jaffrey Street,
With stately stairways worn
By feet of old Colonial knights,
And ladies gently born.
"Still green about its ample porch
The English ivy twines,
Trained back to show in English oak
The herald's carven signs.
"And on her from the wainscot old
Ancestral faces frown,—
And this has worn the soldier's sword,
And that the judge's gown."
The romantic second marriage of Benning Wentworth, first
Royal Governor of New Hampshire as a separate colony, furnish-
ed the subject, also, for Longfellow's poem, "Lady Wentworth,"
the poet's tale in "Tales of a Wayside Inn." In this poem Long-
fellow followed closely the account given by Brewster, which
runs thus : "The Governor invited a dinner party, and with many
other guests, in his cocked hat comes the beloved Rev. Arthur
Browne [Rector of Queen's Chapel, Portsmouth]. The dinner
is served up in a style becoming the Governor's table, the wine is
of good quality, etc. In due time, as previously arranged, Mar-
tha Hilton, the Governor's maid servant, a damsel of twenty
summers, appears before the company. The Governor, bleached
by the frosts of sixty winters, rises : 'Mr. Browne, I wish you to
marry me. ' * To whom % ' asked the Rector in wondering surprise.
'To this lady,' was the reply. The Rector stood confounded. The
Governor became imperative: 'As the Governor of New Hamp-
shire I command you to marry me. ' The ceremony was performed
and Martha Hilton became Lady Wentworth." 1
With a poet's license, Longfellow has given Martha Hilton
Wentworth a title that was never hers, Lady Frances Went-
worth was the only "Lady Wentworth" this continent has ever
known. Moreover, the Wentworth family history says that Mar-
I. This second marriage of Governor Benning Wentworth took place
March 15, 1760. On the 19th of December, 1770, two months after her elderly
first husband's death, Martha Wentworth became the wife of a retired English
army officer, Col. Michael Wentworth, one of the English Wentworths, who
settled in New Hampshire and the rest of his life shared the comfortable for-
tune his distant relative, the Governor, had left.
1004 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
tha was not servant but young housekeeper to the Governor, she
being only twenty-three while her elderly lord was sixty-four.
John Wentworth 's grandfather, John, was Lieutenant Gover-
nor of New Hampshire before that Colony became separated from
Massachusetts. Among his sons were Governor Benning Went-
worth, born July twenty-fourth, 1696, graduated at Harvard Col-
lege in 1715, who became as we have said the first royal governor
of New Hampshire as an independent colony; Mark Hunking
Wentworth, an eminent merchant in Portsmouth and a represent-
ative to the legislature, whose son was Governor John Wentworth
of Portsmouth and Halifax; and Samuel Wentworth, father of
Governor John's wife, Lady Frances.
Governor John Wentworth was born at Portsmouth, August
ninth, 1737, graduated at Harvard College, in the class with
President John Adams, in 1755, took his master's degree in 1758,
and in a short time became, like his father and his uncle Benning,
a leading merchant in Portsmouth. From the standing of his
family in New England and with the administration in England,
and through strong qualities in himself, having already acquired
political influence, when in 1767, on account of age and infirmities
his uncle Benning resigned the governorship, he was at once ap-
pointed in his place ; to the governorship being added the office of
Surveyor of the King's Woods for all North America. On the
11th of November, 1769, at Queen's Chapel, Portsmouth, the Rev.
Arthur Browne united in marriage Governor John and his first
cousin, Frances, the remarkable fact being that exactly a fort-
night before the lady had become the widow of another first cou-
sin of both her and John, young Theodore Atkinson, to whom she
had been married less than eight years. 2
For nine years John Wentworth administered the government
of New Hampshire, entertaining lavishly in his comfortable town
house on Pleasant street, Portsmouth, and his roomy cottage at
Wolfeborough, and until his Tory sympathies showed themselves
was generally liked by the New Hampshire people. At last, how-
2. It is said that on the day he married Frances (Wentworth) Atkinson
to her cousin, John Wentworth, Rev. Arthur Browne fell down some stone
steps and broke his arm. Until the appointment of his son, Marmaduke
Browne, as assistant missionary he was the only Anglican clergyman in New
Hampshire. Rev. Arthur Browne was an Englishman.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1005
ever, his quick response to Gage's appeal for workmen from his
province to help build barracks at Boston for the British troops,
which appeal had become necessary by the refusal of the Boston
carpenters to assist in the work, sealed his own fate and that of
his government, and he had to leave Portsmouth by the back en-
trance and through the garden of his house. "With his wife and
infant son, on the frigate Scarborough he fled to Boston, 3 and
from Boston, in 1776, sailed with Howe's fleet for Halifax, his
wife and child having previously left on the ship Julius Caesar
for England.
In April, 1776, Mr. Wentworth was at Halifax, in November he
was at Long Island; in January, 1777, he was in New York City,
and in May of the same year he was at Newport, R.I. In February,
1778, he went to England, and there he remained until August,
1783, 4 when as Surveyor General of all the woods in North Amer-
ica that remained to the King, with a salary of seven hundred
pounds a year, he sailed for Halifax, which he reached on the
20th of September. On the 25th of November, 1791, Governor
Parr died at Halifax, and late in April or early in May, 1792, Mr.
Wentworth was appointed Governor of Nova Scotia. At this
time he was in England, and Saturday, May 20th, he reached
Halifax in his Majesty's frigate Hussar, commanded by Rupert
George. 5 On Sunday he disembarked and was received by a de-
3. "His Excellency John Wentworth, Esq., Governor of the Province of
New Hampshire, with his Lady and son, is arrived here in his Majesty's ship,
Scarborough, Captain Berkley." Massachusetts Gazette, and Boston Post Boy
and Advertiser, for September 7, 1775.
"Governor Wentworth has left his retreat at the mouth of the Piscataqua
river, and taken refuge at Boston, with the rest of the Tories.*' Boston-Gazette
and Country Journal, September 11, 1775.
In a letter from Halifax, dated September 23, 1783, Dr. Mather Byles says
that Governor Wentworth and Lt. -Governor Edmund Fanning arrived at Hali-
fax from England, September 20, three days before. December 30th, of the same
year, Dr. Byles dined with Governor Wentworth.
4. It is said that in 1778 Mr. Wentworth was also in Paris, and that one
night on leaving the theatre he encountered President Adams. The latter soon
recognized his Harvard classmate, but it is prettj' clear, as. we may well believe,
that he did not give him a very cordial greeting. Friendship, however, proved
stronger than political rancour, and the two men, in spite of the antagonism in
their political views, whenever they met afterwards met as friends. On this par-
ticular occasion, ''not an indelicate expression." writes President Adams, ''to us
or to our country or our ally escaped him. His whole behaviour was that of an
accomplished gentleman."
5- It seems impossible that his commission as Governor could have been
issued May 14th, since he reached Halifax May 20th, "after a voyage of five
weeks from Falmouth," but so a printed record reads.
1006 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
tachment of the 21st Regiment, and by the Royal Artillery, who
saluted him with field pieces on the Grand Parade. To Govern-
ment House he was escorted by the acting secretary of the Prov-
ince, Mr. J. M. Freke Bulkeley, and on Monday at one o'clock was
sworn into.oi^ce, a salute of fifteen guns being fired by a party of
Royal Artillery drawn up on the Parade. Addresses of congratu-
lation and welcome were then presented him by the magistrates,
the bishop and his clergy, and many societies and individuals.
In May, 1795, Governor Wentworth was created a baronet, 6
and on Sunday, the 31st of that month, the Duke of Kent with all
the officers of the garrison attended a levee at Government House,
where congratulations were showered upon Sir John first, and
then on Lady Wentworth in her drawing room. Sir John's ad-
ministration, of the Nova Scotia Government lasted until 1808,
when he resigned, and was succeeded by Sir George Prevost,
Bart. From the time of his retirement until his death, April
eighth, 1820, at the age of eighty-three, he enjoyed a pension of
five hundred pounds a year. Although Sir John was a native of
Portsmouth his wife, Lady Frances, was not. Her parents, Sam-
uel and Elizabeth (Deering) Wentworth, were important mem-
bers of the aristocratic society that on occasion ' ' trooped in full
tide through the wainscotted and tapestried rooms, and up the
grand old winding staircase with its carved balustrades and its
square landing places" of the famous Province House, of Boston,
"to do honor to the hospitality of the martial Shute, the courtly
Burnet, the gallant Pownall, or the haughty Bernard, ' ' and that
knelt with proper reverence on Sundays in the high-walled square
pews of King's Chapel, where the Rev. Henry Caner, D. D., or
his assistants the Rev. Charles Brockwell, or the Rev. John
Troutbeck, said Morning or Evening Prayer. Samuel Went-
worth, who was a merchant of prominence, died in 1766, but in
the Revolution his whole family were Royalists, and their lives
generally after the evacuation of Boston may be learned from
the Wentworth family history.
During most of Sir John's governorship of ]STova Scotia Lady
6. The Wentworth family history says that at this time he was "further
honoured with the privilege of wearing in the chevron of his arms, two keys, as
the emblem of his fidelity."
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1007
Wentworth was with him in Halifax, her charms leading not a
little colour to the somewhat sombre social life of this cold pro-
vincial capital. In England, however, both she and Sir John had
attached themselves to the well known titled English Wentworth
families, the Rockinghams, Straffords, and Fitzwilliams, and with
the last of these, the Earl and Countess Fitzwilliam, Lady Fran-
ces, and her son Charles Mary, had a long and intimate friend-
ship. In England, in close intercourse with these noble kinsmen
of hers, much of Lady Wentworth 's later life was spent, and it is
said that Sir Charles Mary in his last years lived with the Fitz-
williams.
In July, 1798, Lady Frances Wentworth was presented at
court by Countess Fitzwilliam, and Queen Charlotte was so
charmed with the handsome Colonial that she had her appointed
lady-in-waiting, at a salary of five hundred pounds a year, with
the privilege of residing abroad if she wished.
Sir Charles Mary Wentworth, Sir John's only legitimate child,
named for his God-parents, the Marquis and Marchioness of
Rockingham, 7 spent very little of his life in Halifax. He was
graduated at Oxford, acted as private secretary to Lord Fitzwil-
liam when the latter was Lord of the Treasury, and at his fath-
er's death succeeded to the baronetcy. He died unmarried, at
Kingsland, Devon, April tenth, 1844, and the baronetcy granted
7. Sir Charles Mary Wentworth, Bart., was born at Portsmouth, January
20. 1775- On that event, his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Samuel Wentworth,
wrote her sister, Mrs. Nathaniel Ray Thomas, then in Boston, the following
letter.
"Portsmouth, February 2, 1775.
"My Dear Sister,
"I had the pleasure to receive your favour of the 10th December, in which
you make no mention of any from me. I wrote some time past and trust it met
your hand. Mrs. Wentworth is safe in bed with a fine, hearty boy, with another
blessing added, in being able to nurse him herself. I need not attempt to tell
you the pleasure this child has brought with it to all its connections. The Gov-
ernor's happiness seems to be complete ; and had a young prince been born there
could not have been more rejoicing. The ships fired their guns. All the gentle-
men of the town and from the King's ship came the next day to pay their com-
pliments. The ladies followed, and for one week there were cake and caudle
wine, etc., passing. I forgot to mention that this young gentleman made his ap-
pearance on the 20th January, and this house has been full ever since. Adieu,
my dear sister, and be assured you have not a more affectionate one than
"ELIZABETH WENTWORTH.
"To Mrs. Nathaniel Ray Thomas, Boston."
Mrs. Nathaniel Ray Thomas, it will be remembered, with her husband and
family, came at the Revolution to Windsor, Nova Scotia, and there spent the rest
of her life and died.
>i
1008 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
his father then became extinct. Sir John had ambitions for his
son in Nova Scotia and June sixteenth, 1801, had the latter, then
in his twenty-sixth year, sworn as a member of the council. In
this dignified body the young man sat in 1801, 1S02, and 1803, but
in March, 1805, bis father reported his seat vacant, and it is
doubtful if he was ever in Nova Scotia after that. When his un-
cle Benning died in Halifax in 180S, Charles Mary was appointed
to the vacant Provincial Secretaryship and the Registry of Pat-
ents and Deeds, Mr. Michael Wallace being appointed Deputy
Provincial Secretary. Three months after his appointment Sir
John retired from the government and the son never personally
assumed the office. 8 When Sir Charles Mary died he left his cou-
sin, Mrs. Catherine Gore, the authoress, twenty-three thousand
acres of land in Nova Scotia, including the famous "Prince's
Lodge," and also the papers, plate, and pictures he had inherited
from his father.
Sir John Wentworth's town house in Portsmouth, as we have
said, was on Pleasant Street. It is yet standing, a comfortable
old Colonial house, still pointed out with pride by the Ports-
mouth people. His house at Wolfeborough, burned the year of
his death, was a hundred feet long, and forty-five feet wide, with
five barns near it, and a large farm about it in which Sir John
took great pride. In Portsmouth Sir John lived in much state,
his stable containing the very considerable number of sixteen
horses. In Halifax he and Lady Wentworth made Government
House the centre of a social life on the whole more brilliant than
Halifax has probably ever had since. As we have said in a pre-
8. In place of Charles Mary Wentworth, Mr. Samuel Hood George was
made Provincial Secretary in 1808. Mr. George held the office until 1813, when
he died. See the writer's monograph on the Cochran family, p. 8. Admiral Sir
Rupert George, then a junior officer in the navy, a young Irishman, married in
Halifax, in 1782, Margaret, eldest daughter (by his first wife) of Hon. Thomas
Cochran of Halifax. The Georges had eight children, of whom Samuel Hood,
born in 1789, was the eldest, and Rupert Dennis, born October 9, 1796, was the
third.
As has been mentioned above, Sir John Wentworth was graduated at Har-
vard in 1755, and took his Master's degree there in 1758. He was also made a
Master of Arts by Princeton College in 1763; an LL.D. by the University of
Aberdeen in 1764, and by Dartmouth College in 1773; and a D. C. L. by Oxford
University in 1766. Sir Charles Mary Wentworth, received his A. B. from Ox-
ford in 1796, and his A. M. from the same university later. An honorary A. M.
was also given him by Harvard in 1801. He was further created a D. C. L.
by Oxford in 1806.
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DUCHESS OF KENT
•
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1009
vious chapter, Lady Wentworth 's cousin, young Nathaniel Ray
Thomas, Jr., once wrote: " There have dined at Government
House between December 12, 1794, and October 29, 1795, two
thousand, four hundred, and thirty-seven persons.' ' There is a
story told of Governor John in Portsmouth, that one day a coun-
tryman met him among his horses. "They say," said the rustic,
"that Johnny is short and thick and fond of wine, but on the
whole a pretty clever sort of fellow. How I should like to see
him!" The Governor soon asked him to step into the house,
where the man to his great confusion learned who his companion
was. Among the early entertainments given by the Wentworths
at Government House, in Halifax, was one on Sunday, August
12th, of the year of Sir John's appointment. On that day, the
birthday of the Prince of Wales (afterward King George the
Fourth) Governor Wentworth gave a grand dinner to the officers
of the army and navy and many gentlemen of the town. During
the evening, Government House was brilliantly illuminated.
December 20th of the same year, from the Gazette newspaper
we learn that, i ' On Thursday evening, the Lieutenant Governor
and Mrs. Wentworth gave a ball and supper to the ladies and
gentlemen of the town and the officers of the army and navy,
which was altogether the most brilliant and sumptuous entertain-
ment given by the Wentworths. The company being assembled
in the levee room at eight o 'clock, the bands which were very num-
erous and excellent, played 'God save the King' three times over,
after which the country dances co mm enced, two sets dancing at
the same time. The whole house was open— every room illumi-
nated and elegantly decorated. There was a room set apart for
cotillions, above stairs, for those who chose to dance them, and a
band provided on purpose for it. During the dancing there were
refreshments of ice, orgeat, capillaire, and a variety of other
things. At twelve the supper room was opened, and too much
cannot be said of the splendor and magnificence of it; the ladies
sat down at table and the gentlemen waited upon them. Among
other ornaments, which were altogether superb, there were exact
representations of Hartshorne and Tremain's new flour-mill, and
of the windmill on the Common. The model of the new lighthouse
at Shelburne was incomparable, and the tract of the new road
1010 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
from Pictou was delineated in the most ingenious and surprising
manner, as was the representation of our fisheries, that great
source of the wealth of this country. To all these inimitable orn-
aments corresponding mottoes were attached, so that not only-
taste and .elegance were conspicuous, but encouragement and gen-
ius were displayed. The viands and wines were delectable, and
mirth, grace, and good humor seemed to have joined hands to cel-
ebrate some glorious festival ; but this was only for the friends of
the Governor and Mrs. Wentworth. When the ladies left the sup-
per-room the gentlemen sat down to table, when the governor
gave the several loyal toasts, with three times three, and an ap-
plicable tune was played after each bumper, which had an ad-
mirable effect. At two o 'clock the dancing recommenced, and at
four the company retired. That ease, elegance, and superiority
of manners, which must ever gain Mrs. "Wentworth the admira-
tion of the whole community; and that hospitality, perfect good
breeding and infinite liberality which so distinguish the charac-
ter and conduct of our beloved and adored Governor never shone
with more lustre than on this occasion, when every care of his and
Mrs. Wentworth's mind seemed to be to give one universal satis-
faction. Everything tended to promote one sympathizing joy,
and never was there a night passed with more perfect harmony
and luxurious festivity. ' '
At some time early in his official career in Halifax Governor
Wentworth purchased land and erected a small villa a few miles
north of the town. To the villa he gave the name, suggested by
Komeo and Juliet, "Friar Laurence's Cell," and there, until the
Duke of Kent came, he probably in summer lived. This place
was leased by his Royal Highness on his arrival, and the house
greatly enlarged, and in it in considerable state, with Madame de
St. Laurent, during his stay the Duke for the most part lived. Of
the Prince 's Lodge, as the place came to be called after the Duke
left, the late Dr. Thomas B. Akins has given the following graphic
account: "This beautiful little retreat/ ' he says, "had been
erected by Prince Edward on the land of the Governor, Sir John
Wentworth. The grounds were laid out and improved at con-
siderable expense under his direction. The Rotunda, or music
room, on the opposite side of the road, next the water, surrounded
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1011
by the rich foliage of the beech groves, and surmounted by a
large gilded ball flashing in the sunlight, presented a beautiful
and picturesque appearance on the approach to the Lodge. The
villa was built altogether of wood, consisting of a centre of two
stories containing the hall and staircase, with a flat roof. There
were two wings containing the Duke's apartments. In the rear was
a narrow wooden building with pointed gothic windows, resem-
bling a chapel, containing the kitchen and offices, which extended
some distance southward beyond the main building. The group-
ing of the beech and birch trees around the house was well ar-
ranged. They were the original forest trees, selected and per-
mitted to stand in clearing away the space for the buildings. The
rooms were not spacious and the ceilings were low, as appears to
have been the fashion of building in Halifax at the time.
"The woods around were very beautiful. They were tra-
versed by walks, and in several places by a carriage road with
vistas and resting places where little wooden seats and several
imitation Chinese temples were erected. Several of these small
summer houses were in existence in 1828 and probably later, and
portions of them could be seen through the openings in the trees
on passing the main road. The Duke erected a range of low build-
ings on the edge of the Basin, a little to the north of the Rotunda,
which were occupied by two companies of his regiment, and con-
tained the guard-room and a mess-room for the officers. This
building was afterwards known as the Rockingham Inn, a favor-
ite resort in Summer, when tea and ginger beer were to be had
under the piazza which ran along the edge of the water. * ' 9
In September, 1795, Sir John and Lady Wentworth made a
tour of the western part of Nova Scotia and on this occasion some
now forgotten poet of Granville, Annapolis County, composed
and printed the following poem.
9. The Rockingham Club was established either while the Duke of Kent
was resident in Halifax or very soon after his leaving for Canada. Its members
were Sir John Wentworth, the whole of his Majesty's Council, the Admiral on
the station, several of the principal military officers, and a number of leading
civilians. One of these latter was the Rev. Dr. Stanser, Rector of St. Paul's,
another the Hon. Andrew Belcher, both of whom had villas on the Basin. The
club was partly literary and party social. The members dined together at the
hotel, about this time named the "Rockingham House," a building erected near
the Prince's Lodge for the accommodation of the two companies of his regi-
ment that the Duke of Kent had stationed near him. The name "Rockingham"
was in compliment to Sir John's English connexions.
1
1012 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
"On Seeing His Excellency Sir John Wentworth Passing
Through Granville on his Way to Annapolis.
"When Tyrants travel, though in pompons state,
Each eye beholds them with indignant hate;
Destroying angels thus are said to move,
The objects more of terror than of love ;
For grandeur can't, unless with goodness joined,
Afford true pleasure to the virtuous mind.
But when our loyal Wentworth deigns to ride
(The Sovereign's fav'rite and the subjects ' pride)
Around his chariot crowding numbers throng,
And hail his virtues as he moves along.
Such high respect shall be conferred on him
The King delights to honor and esteem,
Whose loyalty unshaken, spotless fame,
And social virtues shall endear his name
In every loyal bosom long to live,
As our lov'd Monarch's representative."
The last years of her life Lady Wentworth spent in England,
and from the spring of 1810 to at least the summer of 1812 Sir
John was with her there. She died at Sunning Hill, Berks, twen-
ty-four miles out of London, on the fourteenth of February, 1813,
but Sir John was then in Halifax. His own last days Sir John
spent in lodgings at Mrs. Wentworth Fleiger's, on the east side
of Hollis Street. 10 He died April eighth, 1820, aged eighty-three
and his remains were deposited in a vault under St. Paul's
Church. In the church was erected a mural tablet to his memory,
bearing the following inscription: "In memory of Sir John
Wentworth, Baronet, who administered the Government of this
Province for nearly sixteen years, from May, 1792, to April,
1808. With what success, the public records of that period, and
His Majesty's gracious approbation will best testify. His un-
shaken attachment to his Sovereign and the British Constitution
was conspicuous throughout his long life. ' ' Governor Wentworth
ia From a letter of Lady Wentworth's written from Morin's Hotel, Lon-
don, to her nephew, Samuel Henry Wentworth, and dated March I, 1810. we
learn that she and Sir John had recently crossed the Atlantic and had had a
hard voyage. On their arrival they had been met by their son. Other letters
prove that up to July 24, 1812, at least, Sir John was with his wife in England,
but on her death at Sunning Hill, Berks, February 14, 1813, if not earlier, he
returned to Halifax and took lodgings at Mrs. Wentworth Fleiger's.
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1013
left nine manuscript volumes of copies of his correspondence, ex-
tending from 1767 to 1808, a period of forty-one years, which are
now in the Provincial Archives at Halifax. Like many of the
most prominent Loyalists of the American Revolution, a complete
history of his life has never yet been written, but it is to be hoped
that at least his correspondence may some day come into print.
Of Sir John's character, the Nova Scotia historian, Mr. Beam-
ish Murdoch in a private letter once wrote: "One thing has im-
pressed me distinctly in my examinations, viz., that although Sir
John was ardently attached to the Royal Government, he had a
great and sincere love for his native land, and disapproved of
most of the measures that incensed the people and produced re-
volt. At every step I have been more and more impressed with
his candor, hospitality, urbanity, constancy, and the affectionate
nature of the man, evinced toward his kinsfolk, friends, neigh-
bors, and his country (America), of whose future he was ever
sanguine. I found the task of following his career as Governor
of New Hampshire a very pleasing one. The confiscation of his
estate must have been very painful to him, as he had taken great
interest in its improvement. ' '
There are Copley portraits in existence of both Sir John and
Lady Frances Wentworth. That of Sir John is a fine crayon, 22
by 18 inches in size, made in 1769. In it Sir John wears a white
wig and a light coat and waistcoat. Lady Wentworth 's portrait
was painted in 1765, when she was nineteen years old. It is a
three-quarters length portrait and an excellent specimen of Cop-
ley's work. In it Miss Wentworth sits by a small table holding
a delicate chain, to which is attached a flying squirrel. This por-
trait is in the gallery of the New York public library. 11
The youngest brother of Lady Frances Wentworth was Ben-
ning Wentworth, and he too, and his family were long distin-
guished residents of Halifax. Benning Wentworth was born
March sixteenth, 1757, and baptized at King's Chapel the first of
the following May, Governor Benning Wentworth, Charles Pax-
il. Mrs. Archibald McPhedris (Sarah Wentworth), an aunt of Lady
Frances, was also painted by Copley. Mrs. Theodore Atkinson, another aunt of
Lady Frances, and Mr. Atkinson (second husband of this aunt), with their son,
Theodore, cousin and first husband of Lady Frances, were painted by Blackburn-
1014 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
ton, Esq., and Mrs. Penelope Vassall, being sureties. He was
graduated at Oxford, married at All Saints Church, Hereford, to
Anne, daughter of William Bird, of Drysbridge House, and after
1788, like. his sister, Prances, removed to Halifax. In the north
part of this city he owned a small place known as "Poplar
Grove/ ' the place becoming later the property of Col. John Starr,
M. P. P., 12 and finally having a street cut through it, which was
named "Starr Street." Before coming to Nova Scotia, Benning
Wentworth must have lived in New Hampshire, for by an Act of
Attainder, in 1778, he was proscribed and banished and his estate
confiscated in that Province. In Nova Scotia, November 12, 179G,
he was made a member of H. M. Council, thereafter becoming
Treasurer of the Province. In 1800 he was appointed Master of
the Polls, Registrar in Chancery, Captain and Paymaster in the
King's Nova Scotia Regiment, and Provincial Secretary, in
which last important office he died, February 18, 1808. Benning
Wentworth and his wife had eleven children, all of whom sur-
vived their father aud went to England with their mother. One
of these was Benning William Bentinck Wentworth, R. N., who
died in England in 1810, aged twenty-one. Mrs. Benning Went-
worth died at Hereford in 1812. About the Wentworths in Hali-
fax clustered a group of their distinguished Boston connexions,
families of Brinleys, Goulds, Monks, and Thomases, some of
whom came before the Revolution, some about the time that the
Wentworths themselves came.
The extraordinary social brilliancy of Sir John Wentworth's
administration of the Nova Scotia government was enhanced in
no slight degree by the residence in Halifax during part of the
period that it covered of His Royal Highness Prince Edward,
fourth son of King George Third, who while he was stationed in
Nova Scotia was created Duke of Kent. 13 In 1790, at Gilbraltar,
the Prince was given command of the 7th regiment of foot (Royal
12. Colonel John Starr was the writer's great-great uncle. He was father
of Hon. John Leander Starr, M. L. C. who married for his second wife a Miss
Throckmorton of New Jersey. A granddaughter of Mr. Starr by this second
marriage is Mrs. John DuFais, of Newport, Rhode Island, and a grandson, Mr.
John Starr Hunt, a lawyer in Mexico City.
13. Prince Edward was born November 2, 1767, he was therefore less than
twenty-seven years old when he took up his residence in Halifax. When he mar-
ried he was between fifty and fifty-one.
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THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1015
Fusiliers). In 1793 he was at Quebec, the next year, February
sixth, he arrived at Boston 14 on his way to the West Indies^ where
he had been ordered to assume chief command of the troops. In
the West Indies he remained but a short time, for on Saturday,
May tenth, 1794, after a voyage of eleven days from St. Kitts, he
landed at Halifax to take command of the troops on the North
American station. The afternoon of his arrival, at six o'clock,
his Excellencv Governor Wentworth waited on His Eoval High-
ness on his ship and congratulated him on his safe arrival, then
the Prince and the Governor landed under royal salutes from the
Blanche and the Earl of Moira, warships, and the great fortress
above the town. The next Monday a salute was fired from the
Grand Parade, which was answered by the garrison batteries, and
on Wednesday there was a crowded levee at Government House,
and in the evening a brilliant illumination of the town. At the lev-
ee flattering addresses were presented to the Prince, in which he is
described as the "heroic offspring of highly revered parents, of a
king the undoubted father of his people, of a queen the unriv-
alled pattern of her sex," and as himself having "noble and en-
gaging qualities of active valour and condescending courteous-
ness" — with much else of a like extravagant eulogistic sort. On
Saturday His Eoval Highness, attended by General Ogilvie, mili-
tary commander, Commodore George of the Eoval Navy, and
other officers, reviewed the troops stationed in Halifax, behind
the citadel Hill. On Monday the 26th, Bishop Charles Inglis pre-
sented the Prince with an address on behalf of himself and his
clergy, by which we see how completely the Bishop also had lost
his head in the presence of royalty, and how far gone he had got
14. A fact of sufficient local interest to be remembered is that on the thir-
teenth of February, 1794, Miss Nancy Geyer's marriage in Boston to Mr. Rufus
Amory was graced by the presence of Prince Edward, who on his way from
Canada to the West Indies was detained in Boston for a few days. Miss Gey-
er's father, Frederick William Geyer, who lived in Summer street, was a mer-
chant of much social prominence in the New England metropolis, and his
daughter's wedding was no doubt a brilliant affair. How the Geyers knew the
Prince sufficiently well to invite him to the wedding we do not know, but it is
recorded that they did invite him and that he came with his aides. It is also re-
corded that he claimed the privilege of kissing the bride and bridesmaids. An-
other daughter of Mr. Geyer, Mary Anne or Marianne, was married in 1792 to
Hon. Andrew Belcher, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, son of Chief Justice Jonathan
Belcher, and became the mother of Rear Admiral Sir Edward Belcher, K. C. B.,
and of Catherine, wife of Charles Maryatt, M. P., and mother of Captain Frederick
Marryatt, the English novelist
1016 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
from the possibilityof expressing himself in unexaggerated prose.
"Your progress Sir," he says "to this part of His Majesty's
American dominions, has been marked by a variety of hazards.
Whilst we admired that heroic ardor and intrepidity, which at the
call of duty and honour led you to spurn every danger from fa-
tigue through inhospitable wilds, from the extremes of climate,
from armed enemies, and from others who were secretly hostile,
we were greatly agitated, and felt the utmost anxiety for your
safety. Like the celebrated Roman, who is equally memorable
for the number of his victories and for the celerity of his military
movements, you flew to the embattled hosts of your enemies ; like
him, you came, you saw them, you conquered/ '
Prince Edward was, as we have said, the fourth son of King
George the Third and Queen Charlotte, this royal family compris-
ing no less than seven sons,— George the Fourth, Frederick Duke
of York, William the Fourth (Duke of Clarence), Edward Duke
of Kent, Ernest Duke of Cumberland, Augustus Duke of Sussex,
Adolphus Duke of Cambridge; and besides the King's favorite
daughter, the Princess Amelia, 15 and we believe four other
daughters who died young, Charlotte, wife of Frederick, King of
Wurtemberg, Elizabeth, wife of Frederick, Prince of Hesse Hom-
burg, and Mary, wife of William Duke of Gloucester. 16 Of the
coming to Halifax of Prince Edward, the historian Murdoch says :
"As our colonists were gratified and felt deeply honored by the
repeated visits of Prince William Henry (afterwards King Wil-
liam the Fourth, who came here first as a young naval officer, and
after that in command of a frigate, and were charmed with his
frank, genial, and simple manners 17 [so] they were dazzled and
15. Miss Frances Burney speaks affectionately of this child as "that en-
dearing child . . . the lovely little Princess Amelia."
16. In all, this prolific royal pair brought into the world fifteen children.
"Farmer George" may therefore be pardoned, perhaps, for the rigid economies
with which he is commonly credited.
17. On Wednesday, October fourth, 1786, Prince William Henry arrived at
Halifax from St. John's, Newfoundland, in the war-ship Pegasus. On Thurs-
day morning he landed at the King's Slip, "where the people thronged joyfully
to see him." He was welcomed on shore by Major-General Campbell and Gov-
ernor Parr, who conducted him to Government House. On Thursday. June
twenty-eighth, 1787, he came again, this time from Jamaica, in the Andromeda,
and was received with great applause. On Wednesday, October twenty- fourth,
1787, he came the third time, now from Quebec. Beamish Murdoch's "History
of Nova Scotia," Vol. 3, pp. 50-53, 55, 61.
On one of Prince William Henry's visits he rode through Windsor and
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1017
impressed greatly by the residence of the young prince, Edward,
who brought with him the personal reputation he had earned for
great activity and zeal in his military profession. Independently
of the eclat which his rank gave him, he gained the hearts of the
civilians by his affability, benevolence, and liberality. His gen-
erosity was displayed in many ways. He gave employment to
workmen of every kind— laborers, painters, carpenters, etr\ He
interested himself sincerely in the welfare of families and indi-
viduals, and this feeling continued during his life ; for long after
he bade a final adieu to Halifax, his exertions and influence were
often used to procure commissions, pensions, or employment for
persons whose parents he had known while here. He remained,
in fact, the ready patron of Nova Scotians until his death."
Soon after the Prince came to Halifax he leased from Sir John
Wentworth the property out of town we have referred to,
which ever since the Duke's stay in Nova Scotia has been called
the "Prince's Lodge." 18 The house in town in which he
first placed his establishment, and to which he probably
from time to time returned, was a dwelling in the North
End that chroniclers describe as a handsome structure, with
a portico on the front resting on Corinthian pillars. After
he went away this house became an army hospital, the stables
in connection with it, which were roomy and large, being used as
a barracks storehouse and for a garrison library. The villa, sev-
en miles north of the town, which His Royal Highness rented
from Sir John Wentworth, originally comparatively small, the
Kentville to Annapolis Royal, accepting hospitality from several private citizens
along the way. He left a quieter record in Nova Scotia than in Barbadoes, for
Leigh Hunt tells us of a certain landlady in Barhadoes who became famous ''in
Barbadian and nautical annals" for having successfully drawn up a bill of dam-
ages against His Royal Highness to the amount of seven hundred pounds. The
Prince, then a wild young naval officer, in a fit of ultra joviality begun at the
mess of the 49th Regiment had demolished all the good woman's furniture, "even
to the very beds," and as a concluding act of good nature had upset the staid
woman herself as he left the house.
18. In a private letter to John King, Esq., under secretary of state, written
September 27, 1709, Sir John Wentworth says : The Prince "has entered upon
his command with infinite activity, and ideas extremely enlarged, since his de-
parture from here. The arrangement in contemplation promises a plenteous cir-
culation of money, and improvement in this province. He is now residing chiefly
at my house near town, which he requested to reoccupy, and I have accordingly
lent it to him during his stay in Nova Scotia, though I have not another place
to go to for a day's retirement. However, it must be so! for he wrote to me,
and now says he has more pleasure in that villa than in any other place out of
England." Quoted by Murdoch in his "History of Nova Scotia," Vol. 3, p. 181.
1018 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
Prince enlarged until it became, as we see by engravings of it
that have come to us, and the description we have already given,
a spacious residence, somewhat in the Italian style, with exten-
sive wings at the north and south, and drawing-rooms in the cen-
tre. The Lodge stood in the middle of a fine open lawn, about
two hundred yards from the post road which winds around Bed-
ford Basin, and was flanked by large and well appointed stables.
Dr. Akins's pleasant picture of it and its surroundings which
we have reproduced is added to or given a little differently by
other historians. The Lodge grounds, they say, though rustic and
retaining a great deal of their primitive wildness, had many
charming surprises, among these an artificial lake, and several
little pagoda-like summer houses and " Greek and Italian' ' imita-
tion temples which stood on elevated mounds among the thick-
growing trees. In the neighborhood of the Lodge were dwellings
for mechanics and workmen of various sorts employed on the
estate and in directly military service, so that the place was like a
small feudal town. The little Rotunda, containing a single room,
which was richly frescoed and hung with paintings by the Prince
himself, was built especially for dancing, and under the narrow
portico which surrounds this building the Prince's regimental
band used to play in the afternoons. Prom the house, gravelled
walks used to stretch in all directions, and there the household
and their guests used to stroll at leisure on every fine day. On an
adjoining hill the Prince had a signal station erected, by means of
which he could send his orders into town, a responsive signal hav-
ing been erected by his orders on Citadel Hill. 19
19. Writing of Halifax about 1828, Judge Thomas Chandler Haliburton
says: "At a distance of seven miles from the town is a ruined Lodge, built by
H. R. H. the late Duke of Kent, when Commander in Chief of the forces of this
Colony, once his favorite summer residence and the scene of his munifiicent
hospitalities. It is impossible to visit this spot without the most melancholy feel-
ings. The tottering fence, the prostrate gates, the ruined grottoes, the long and
winding avenues cut out of the forest, overgrown by rank grass and occasional
shrubs, and the silence and desolation that reign around, all bespeaking a rapid
and premature decay, recall to mind the untimely fate of its noble and lamented
owner, and tell of affecting pleasures and the transitory nature of all earthly
things. It is but a short time since this mansion was tenanted by its Royal Mas-
ter; and in that brief space how great has been the devastation of the elements. A
few years more and all trace of it will have disappeared forever. The forest is fast
reclaiming its own, and the lawns and ornamental gardens, annually sown with seeds
scattered by the winds from the surrounding woods, are relapsing into a state of
nature, and exhibiting in detached patches a young growth of such trees as are
common in the country/'
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1019
When Prince Edward came to Halifax he was unmarried but
he brought with him from the West Indies a lady who as much as
she was permitted by society shared his social responsibilities,
and who, sincerely attached to his interests and to his person, as-
siduously ministered to his wants. In Martinique, it is said, the
Prince found Madame Alphonsine Therese Bernadine Julie de
Montgenet de St. Laurent, Baronne de Fortisson, and this noble
Frenchwoman was his companion during his stay in Halifax, and
afterwards until nearly the time of his marriage to the widow
who was to become through her alliance with Prince Edward the
mother of Victoria, England's illustrious and greatly beloved
queen. In Quebec the Prince had formed the acquaintance of a
French family named De Salaberry, and this acquaintance rip-
ened into a very close intimacy, cemented by Edward's patron-
age of and continued regard for two of the De Salaberry boys,
Maurice and Chevalier. As a result of this friendship we have
a small volume of the letters of the Prince to Monsieur de Sala-
berry, which contain as frequent and familiar references to Ma-
dame de St. Laurent as if the lady had been the Prince's legal
wife. When Prince Edward first landed in Halifax he wrote De
Salaberry regretting that his friend Madame de St. Laurent had
not yet come, and in almost every succeeding letter "written dur-
ing his stay he freely couples her name with his own. How the
Wentworths, at Government House, treated the Prince's mis-
tress we have never been informed, but there are still historic
echoes heard in Halifax of the disapproval with which Mrs. Mi-
chael Francklin, and other conventional ladies (probably like
Mrs. Francklin of Boston antecedents) regarded the lady who
presided over the household and assisted in dispensing the hos-
pitalities of the royal establishment.
In 1818 the Duke of Kent married, and in that rarely interest-
ing gossippy narration entitled the i i Creevey Papers ' ' we find a
conversation recorded between him and Mr. Creevey which took
place at Brussels the year before, from which we get a glare of
light on His Royal Highness' state of mind towards matrimony
and towards the lady who had so long and affectionately shared
his varied fortunes. Apropos of the future succession to the
British throne, Prince Edward says: "As for the Duke of York,
...
1020 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
at his time of life and that of the Duchess, all issue of course is
out of the question. The Duke of Clarence, I have no doubt, will
marry if he can, but the terms he asks from the ministers are
such as they can never comply with. Besides a settlement such
as is proper for a Prince who marries expressly for a succession
to the Throne, the Duke of Clarence demands the payment of all
his debts, which are very great, and a handsome provision for
each of his ten natural children. These are terms that no Minis-
ters can accede to. Should the Duke of Clarence not marry, the
next prince in succession is myself, and although I trust I shall
be at all times ready to obey any call my country may make on
me, God only knows the sacrifice it will be to make, whenever I
shall think it my duty to become a married man. It is now seven
and twenty years that Madame St. Laurent and I have lived to-
gether; we are of the same age, and have been in all climates and
in all difficulties together, and you may well imagine, Mr. Cree-
vey, the pang it will occasion me to part with her. I put it to
your own feeling— in the event of any separation between you
and Mrs. Creevey. ... As for Madame St. Laurent herself,
I protest I don't know what is to become of her if a marriage is
to be forced upon me, her feelings are already so agitated upon
the subject. You saw, no doubt, that unfortunate paragraph in
the Morning Chronicle, which appeared within a day or two
after the Princess Charlotte's death, and in which my marrying
was alluded to. L T pon receiving the paper containing that article
at the same time with my private letters, I did as is my constant
practice, I threw the newspaper across the table to Madame St.
Laurent and began to open and read my letters. I had not done
so but a very short time when my attention was called to an extra-
ordinary noise and a strong convulsive movement in Madarne St.
Laurent's throat. For a short time I entertained serious appre-
hensions for her safety ; and when upon her recovery I enquired
into the occasion of this attack she pointed to the article in the
Morning Chronicle relating to my marriage.
" From that day to this I am compelled to be in the practice of
daily dissimulation with Madam St. Laurent to keep this subject
from her thoughts. I am fortunately acquainted with the gentle-
men in Bruxelles who conduct the Liberal and Oracle newspa-
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1021
pers; they have promised me to keep all articles upon the subject
of my marriage out of their papers, and F hope my friends in
England will be equally prudent. My brother the Duke of Clar-
ence is the elder brother, and has certainly the right to marry if
he chooses, and I would not interfere with him on any account. If
he wishes to be King— to be married and have children, poor man
—God help him! let him do so. For myself, I am a man of no
ambition and wish only to remain as I am. . . . Easter, you
know, falls very early this year, the 22d of March. If the Duke of
Clarence does not take any step before that time I must find some
pretext to reconcile Madame St. Laurent to my going to England
for a short time. St. George's day is the day now fixed for keep-
ing the birthday, and my paying my respects to the Regent on
that day will be a sufficient excuse for my reappearance in Eng-
land. "When once there it will be easy for me to consult with my
friends as to the proper steps to be taken. Should the Duke of
Clarence do nothing before that time as to marrying, it will be-
come my duty, no doubt, to take some measures upon the subject
myself.
"You have heard the names of the Princess of Baden and the
Princess of Saxe-Coburg mentioned. The latter connection would
perhaps be the better of the two, from the circumstance of Prince
Leopold being so popular with the nation ; but before anything is
proceeded with in this matter I shall hope and expect to see jus-
tice done by the Nation and the Ministers to Madame St. Laurent
She is of very good family and has never been an actress, and I
am the first and onlypersonwho ever lived with her. Her disinter-
estedness, too, has been equal to her fidelity. When she first came
to me it was upon a hundred pounds a year. That sum was after-
wards raised to four hundred pounds, and finally to a thousand
pounds, but when my debts made it necessary for me to sacrifice
a great part of my income, Madame St. Laurent insisted upon
again returning to her income of four hundred pounds a year.
If Madame St. L. is to live amongst her friends, it must be in such
a state of independence as to command their respect. I shall not
require very much, but a certain number of servants and a ca-
riage are essentials. Whatever the Ministers agree to give for
such purpose must be put out of all doubt as to its continuance. I
1022 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
shall name Mr. Brougham, yourself, and two other people, on he-
half of Madame St. Laurent for this object.
"As to iny own settlement, as I shall marry (if I marry at all)
for the succession, I shall expect the Duke of York's marriage to
be considered the precedent. That was a marriage for the suc-
cession, and twenty-five thousand pounds for income was settled,
in addition to all his other income, purely on that account. I shall
be contented with the same arrangement, without making any de-
mands grounded upon the difference of the value of money in
1792 and at present. As for the payment of my debts, I don't call
them great. The Nation, on the contrary, is greatly my debtor.''
Mr. Creevey's reporting this remarkable declaration of the
Duke's which was clearly not intended for other ears than the
first hearer's, causes the editor of his memoirs to say: "It must
be confessed that his Royal Highness was not very discreet in
chosing Mr. Creevey as the repository of his confidence in such a
delicate matter. Creevey seems to have had no scruple in com-
municating the tenour of the conversation to some of his friends.
He certainly told the Duke of Wellington. ' ' Mr. Creevey himself
says somewhat later than the conversation : ' * The Duke of Well-
ington 's constant joking with me about the Duke of Kent was ow-
ing to the curious conversation I had with the latter at Brussels
in the autumn of 1817, the particulars of which had always
amused the Duke of Wellington very much. ' '
It would be interesting to know the details of the tragical part-
ing between the Duke and Madame de St. Laurent when at last
Prince Edward determined fully for state reasons to sacrifice in-
clination to duty and give up his mistress for a wife, but no such
details have been vouchsafed to the world. The last notice we
have of Madame de St. Laurent is in 1819. Sometime in that
year Major-General de Rothenburg writes Lieutenant-Colonel de
Salaberry sententiously : "Madame de St. Laurent has retired to
a convent."
In 1798 the Duke of Kent had a troublesome accident in Hali-
fax. On the eighth of August of that year he was riding fast
across a little wooden bridge somewhere in the town, when a
plank gave way and his horse fell, coming with all his weight on
the rider's leg and thigh. Prince Edward suffered much from
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1023
the fall, but continued to perform his military duties until Octo-
ber, when on the urgent advice of Dr. John Halliburton, the phy-
sician of the naval hospital, and Dr. William James Almon, the
leading civil doctor, in concurrence with a Dr. Nooth of Quebec,
he decided to go to England for treatment. On the thirtieth of
November he reached Portsmouth, and in England he remained
until August, 1799. On Friday the sixth of September of this
year he once more reached Halifax, and here he stayed until early
in August, 1800, when with many expressions of good-will
towards the people, and attended by sorrowful regrets on their
part, he finally sailed away. On Sunday, August third, he em-
barked in the warship Assistance, the garrison forming a double
line through which, attended by the Governor, the members of the
Council, and the naval, military, and civil officials, he passed to
the King's wharf. As he went through the town salutes echoed
and people crowded to the tops of the houses to cheer the depart-
ing royalty on his way. On the thirty-first of August he landed
at Portsmouth, England, again. On the 29th of May, 1818, he
married at Coburg her Serene Highness Victoria Mary Louisa,
widow of Emich Charles, Prince of Leiningen, the ceremony be-
ing repeated on Monday, the thirteenth of the following July, in
the Queen's drawing room in England, in presence of many mem-
bers of the Eoyal family. On the same occasion the Duke of Clar-
ence married the Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen.
In Prince Edward's life at Halifax there is much to remind one
of the simple homeliness of the life at Windsor of his father,
plain "Farmer George." The King used to get up at unseason-
able hours and march round in his shovel hat to poor people's
cottages, he played backgammon every evening regularly with the
dull people of his dull court, while the equerries "yawned them-
selves to death in the ante-room"— Prince Edward, we are told,
used often in Halifax to put his own hand to the jack-plane and
drive the cross-cut saw, and there was little in the doings either
of his troops or his ordinary workmen that he did not personally
oversee. If he was deficient in the strict virtue of his mother,
who Thackeray tells us regarded all deviation from the strict path
of conventional morality with absolute disfavor and "hated poor
sinners with a rancour such as virtue sometimes has," he at least
t
1024 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
had a large share of his father's energy and his father's simple,
homely tastes.
The great and lasting service the Duke of Kent did for Halifax
was to put its defences on a solid foundation. He had not been a
great while in Halifax when through the governor he called for
help from the militia in constructing the great citadel and
strengthening and rendering more impregnable the various har-
bour forts, and these works, with other industries which he stimu-
lated, soon told greatly on the prosperity of the town. Mingling
freely and affably with the citizens, at the entertainments at Gov-
ernment House and probably in other social ways, he gained the
thorough good-will of the Halifax people, and when he finally left
the Province his going was attended with much more than per-
functory regret on the part of all classes in the maritime town.
Whether he did anything in Halifax for the education of the chil-
dren of the soldiers there we do not know, but he is said to have
been the first commander of a regiment in the whole British army
to establish a regimental school. So highly were his efforts for
the education of soldiers' children appreciated, that in 1811, at
the Free Masons' Tavern in London, the following resolution,
moved by Lord Lansdowne and seconded by Lord Keith, was
unanimously adopted : ' ' That the respectful thanks of this meet-
ing be presented to H. R. Highness the Duke of Kent, whose
friendship to soldiers ' children has been shown in that princely
liberality with which H. R. H. has established a school in the
Royals, as Colonel of that Regiment, and set an example which it
is hoped will be universally followed by military commanders,
and thereby promote the welfare of and do honour to the charac-
ter of the British army. ' '
In spite of the general amiability which won Prince Edward
an enduring place in the affections of the Halifax people, and has
done much to keep his memory fragrant in Nova Scotia even to
the present time, 20 in his military discipline the Duke of Kent
20. Prince Edward is said to have had the faculty, (as had also his daughter,
Queen Victoria) of never forgetting a face. He was always ready to return, with
apparent friendship, the greetings of any persons he met. At his dinners, though
of course much of the recognized royal etiquette was observed, every one felt
comfortable and at home. In Halifax he encouraged dramatic performances, and
Murdoch says that during the winters of his stay in the town plays seem to have
been given about once a fortnight. As an evidence of his amiability, DeGaspe tells
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1025
was a martinet, and sometimes, one cannot help believing, in his
punishments almost criminally severe. In the journal of Dr. Al-
non, who was the leading medical practitioner of Halifax at the
time of the Prince's stay, we find mentions of an appalling num-
ber of case? -of illness and death among the soldiers of the Sev-
enth Eoyal Fusiliers, the direct result of the severe punishments
inflicted by his orders, and at the Lodge is still shown a burrow or
cave in which tradition says he kept a soldier confined for two or
three years until he died. It is recorded that he ordered for one
poor fellow a thousand lashes on his bare back, and that once or
twice in Halifax a soldier committed suicide from fear of the ter-
rible punishment he had sentenced him to undergo. In the use of
cards and drink in the army the Duke was very strict, in order
to discourage gambling he never touched cards himself, and to
promote temperance both in the army and in civil society he used
great moderation in wine. To prevent drunkenness in his regi-
ment he used to make his men get up at five o'clock in the morn-
ing for drill, which regulation of course precluded their being
away from barracks in Halifax bar-rooms late at night. At this
early morning drill he used to be present regularly himself.
The severity of the Duke of Kent's discipline we may attribute
partly to inherited traits, partly to the inflexible training he had
received in Hanover, and partly to the almost utter lack of sym-
pathy he seems to have found in his royal father and his
carousing brothers. The Dukes of Clarence, Cumberland, and
Cambridge, all appear to have received from Farmer George
some proper share of consideration, but poor Prince Edward was
early sent away from home, and during his fourteen successive
years of foreign service, in the Mediterranean, Canada, the West
Indies, and Nova Scotia, was kept on a starvation income, and
allowed to contract debts which for many years made life for him
a burden. He was, we believe, one of the best of George the
Third's sons, and why the old King or indeed Parliament, should
us that once, when His Royal Highness was in Quebec he went to the Isle of Or-
leans to see an old woman, a centenarian. Having talked to her for some time he
asked her if he could confer any pleasure on her. "Yes," said the old lady, "I
should like to have you dance a minuet with me, that I may be able to say before
I die that I have danced with the son of my Sovereign." The Prince at once com-
plied with her wish and after the dance, conducted her to her seat and bowed gal-
lantly, the old lady curtseying low in return.
1026 THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
have permitted him to live most of his life under a heavy burden
of debt it is quite impossible to tell. It is stated in a pamphlet
published sometime after 1815, called "A detailed statement of
the case of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent," that Mr. Pitt
shortly before his death became thoroughly aroused to Prince
Edward's necessities and took great blame to himself for not hav-
ing considered his case earlier. Mr. Pitt's death, however, put an
end to any hope the Prince may have had from that quarter, and
so, appeals to his spendthrift brother the Prince of Wales being
met with prompt refusal, at last in 1815 he tried to get permis-
sion to sell by lottery Castle Hill, the only piece of property he
owned, in order to raise sorely needed ready cash. From first to
last he seems to have had a hard time. His earliest military
training was received in Hanover under an execrable man, Baron
Wagenheim, whom his father persisted in keeping as his tutor,
but whom the Prince himself, no doubt quite properly, once char-
acterized as a " mercenary tyrant. ' ' "When he was twenty, he was
removed from Hanover to Geneva, a better place, but one he
found so utterly uncongenial that as soon as he came of age he
resolved to go to England (without leave) and try by personal
remonstrance to get that consideration which his father had hith-
erto wholly denied him. Accordingly, he went to London and
took up his quarters at an hotel, where he was at once visited by
his brother the Prince of Wales. Together the two went to Carl-
ton House, and were there joined by another brother, the Duke
of York, who undertook to communicate Prince Edward's arrival
to the King. The King's anger was terrible. He refused to see
the Prince, and in a few days sent him written orders to proceed
within twenty-four hours to Gibraltar. On the night before he
left, his royal father deigned to see him for a few minutes, and
this was the first time the King and his son had met for six
years. 21
21. Of George the Third himself, Leigh Hunt says: "He was a very brave and
honest man. He feared nothing on earth, and he acted according to his convictions.
But, unfortunately, his convictions were at the mercy of a will far greater than his
understanding; and hence his courage became obstinacy, and his honesty the dupe
of his inclinations." He possessed "an extraordinary mixture of domestic virtue
with official duplicity; of rustical, mechanical tastes and popular manners, with the
most exalted ideas of authority; of a childish and self-betraying cunning, with the
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 1027
In spite of the Duke's extreme severity with his soldiers and
his strictness regarding their conduct, the following amusing
story is told of him. One evening in one of the Halifax streets he
suddenly came upon one of his men who was much under the in-
fluence of drink. Staggering towards his colonel, the soldier joc-
osely said : ' i Aha Neddy, you Ve caught me at last ! ' ' The Duke
was amused at hearing once more his old nursery name, and
laughing a little to himself passed on without even reprimanding
the man. Prince Edward had a special fondness for young men,
and many a youth who afterward rose to high rank in the army
owed his earliest promotion to the good offices of the Duke. 22 It
is said that the 7th Royal Fusiliers needed severer regulations
than other regiments, for the Duke had filled it with good look-
ing fellows, many of whom had little but their fine physical ap-
pearance to recommend them.
The friendship of Prince Edward for Sir John and Lady Went-
worth was of a very intimate and enduring character. When
Mr. Wentworth received his baronetcy in 1795 the Prince, as
we have seen, with all the officers of the garrison, went to
Government House in due form to offer his congratulations,
and it is evident that no important function given by Sir
John while the Duke was in Halifax was neglected by this
royal soldier. When the ocean came to divide the Went-
worths and him the correspondence between the friends
most stubborn reserves; of fearlessness with sordidness ; good nature with unfor-
givingness; and of the health and strength of temperance and self-denial, with the
last weaknesses of understanding, and passions that exasperated it out of its reason/'
22. One of Prince Edward's proteges and warmest admirers in Halifax, among
the young men of the period, was Brenton Halliburton, who began life as a lieu-
tenant in the Duke's regiment, the 7th Fusiliers. In later life, as Chief-Justice of
Nova Scotia, Sir Brenton wrote of the Prince: "A tale of woe always interested
him deeply, and nothing but gross misconduct could ever induce him to abandon any
one whom he had once befriended." Another Nova Scotian who was taken into the
7th Fusiliers was young Charles Thomas, son of Hon. Nathaniel Ray Thomas, one
of the Boston refugees in Halifax (who finally settled in Windsor, Nova Scotia).
Charles Thomas was accidentally shot by a brother officer in a road-house near Hal-
ifax, in August, 1797, and the Prince mourned him as a personal friend. At Lieu-
tenant Thomas's funeral his commander is said to have shown much feeling, and a
little later he had a tombstone erected in St. Paul's burying-ground, bearing the fol-
lowing inscription:
This Stone | sacred to the memory of | Lieut. Charles Thomas I of f His
Majesty's | Royal Fusilier Regiment I who departed this Life | on the 16th of Au-
gust, 1797 I aged 24 years I is placed as a Testimony of | His Friendship and Es-
teem I by j Lieut. General His Royal Highness | Prince Edward | his Colonel.
1028
THE HISTORY OF HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
did not cease, and when at last the Prince had married
and his illustrious daughter was born, Sir John sent his own and
Lady Wentworth's congratulations in due form. To Sir John's
letter the Duke replied : "I have received your kind congratula-
tions on' the birth of our little girl, which you may be sure I highly
appreciate, as coming from the heart of one of my best and old-
est friends. You will, I am sure, be pleased to hear that the
Duchess has been able to suckle her child from the first to the
present moment, and that both are doing wonderfully well."
When Lady Wentworth died, the Duke wrote Sir John express-
ing his sorrow, and ending with: "I look forward anxiously to
the time when I shall receive you again at Castle Hill, and retain
you there as a guest.' '
This picture of the author is from a
carte -de-v'isitc photo taken in Birm-
ingham (now Derby), Conn., early in
1861.
Recollections of a Mali Century and More
BY ANDREW M. SHERMAN, MOBRISTOWN, N. J.
VI
My Boyhood in New England
(Continued)
"^ HE coming of Barnum's Circus to Birmingham was
considered an extraordinary event, by the boys es-
pecially ; and not the least pleasure experienced by us
was that of rising early in the morning so as to welcome
the grand parade as it emerged from the long covered "Hunt-
ington bridge" into Birmingham, and afterward following the
parade through some of the principal streets to the circus
grounds on the broad meadows between Birmingham and Derby
on the left hand side of "the causeway " going toward the latter
place. It was a one ring circus, it is true, but the performance
"the great showman' ' gave each year was sufficient to draw large
numbers of the town's people ; and from the surrounding country
for a distance of ten miles the people nocked to attend "the
greatest show on earth.' 9 .
Among the people drawn from the country in every direction
was a man who was annually the center of attraction outside the
tents before the circus opened. This man not only carried hay-
seed in his uncombed hair but he shed the unmistakable odor of
hayseed about him. He couldn't have been more than five feet
and four inches in height and to add to his otherwise peculiar ap-
pearance he was unfortunately decidedly bowlegged in both legs ;
so bowlegged, indeed, that a good sized fox— I repeat the remark
of a witty observer —could have run between his legs without
(1029)
.
1030 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
touching on either side. He was truly "a sight to behold" be-
cause of his deformity.
But this deformity was not, by any means, the most conspicu-
ous characteristic of this countryman from ''away back." He
was also what is by some termed a "skycraper" and by others
"a skygazer;" that is to say, instead of looking straight ahead
like people in general he looked, or seemed to be looking, sky-
ward, the explanation of which is that his eyelids fell down so as
to nearly half cover the balls of his eyes, and he was therefore
obliged to look upward in order, so to speak, to look straight
ahead as others do.
As if the peculiarities already mentioned were not sufficient to
make this countryman a conspicuous mark for the crowds attend-
ing Barnum's circus he was "everlastingly" eating peanuts.
With his chin held high in the air and with his eyes apparently
pointed skyward he would perambulate the circus grounds in
every direction— evidently determined to get his money's worth
by "taking in" everything to be seen— before the circus opened,
meanwhile chomping peanuts as if that was the only season of
the year he was permitted to indulge in this luxury ; and an in-
expensive luxury it was in those days, for if my memory is not at
fault, peanuts were only five cents a quart at the time. This coun-
tryman was everywhere visible— although apparently oblivious
to the attention he was attracting— and wherever he was seen he
was gazing skyward and chomping peanuts. I do not believe he
ever missed attending Barnum's circus, and he had come to be
regarded by the boys, at least, as a part of "the show."
I must not omit mentioning an experience a small boy once had
with Columbus, the giant elephant of which I spoke in a former
article.
During one of the annual visits of Barnum's circus to Birm-
ingham, this boy, thinking to have "some fun," approached the
big elephant, who was chained to the trunk of a tree on the
grounds, and for a few minutes opened and fed peanuts to the
animal, which was something Columbus was very fond of. At a
moment when the attention of the elephant was fixed upon the
peanuts, the boy slyly gave the animal a piece of plug tobacco,
and hastily retreated backward as if anticipating some retaliation
.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 1031
on the part of Columbus. As soon as the elephant discovered
what the boy had given him he spit it out, at the same time exhib-
iting his disapproval of having been fed ' ' the vile weed. ' '
The keeper of Columbus having in some way learned what the
boy had fed -to the elephant, walked up to him, and said: "My
boy, you must never go near Columbus again ; if you do, he will
punish you in some way, for he will never forget that you fed
him tobacco. ' '
The following year Barnum's circus came to town again and
again pitched its tents on the same grounds as previously. The
giant elephant was, as usual, chained to the trunk of a tree, near
the river's bank. At this point the river was only about a foot in
depth and the bottom of the river was stony. The boy who the
year before had fed Columbus the plug tobacco was on hand for
the circus and evidently for some "more fun," and, as we shall
see, he had the ' ' fun, ' ' but not in exactly the same form he had
anticipated.
The keeper of Columbus seeing and remembering the boy and
his experience with the elephant the year before again warned him
to keep away from the animal; but the boy "on mischief bent"
couldn't quite understand how a dumb beast of the elephant tribe
could remember anything that occurred twelve months before;
so, after a while the boy cautiously approached Columbus, and
perceiving no signs of recollection or of anger on the part of the
animal, began to open and feed him peanuts again. The shrewd
animal accepted enough of the peanuts from the boy to allay any
latent fears the latter might have, and when the unsuspecting boy
was within reaching distance of the animal he quietly, and with
great care, wound his long trunk about the boy's body, turned
toward the river, only a few feet away, held the frightened boy
for a few moments over the water as if to give him time to pre-
pare himself for the fall, and then dropped him into the river.
The fall, was so slight— the elephant evidently not wishing to
seriously injure his last year's tormentor— that the boy received
no injury save a thorough wetting. As soon as the boy recovered
his self possession he scrambled to his feet and hurried out of
reach of the animal who had so judiciously punished him. The
lesson had never again to be learned by this boy. He had had all
1032 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
"the fun" he wished with an elephant; and he was once for all
convinced that an elephant, as Columbus ' keeper had told him,
never forgot an injury done him. And it might well be added,
that this animal never forgets a kindness done him, neither.
Phineas T. Barnum wns not only the prince of showmen in his
day but he was a man of great natural ability, and had he been
educated in statecraft he would probably have ranked with the
most eminent statesmen in American history. Not the least in-
teresting feature of "the greatest show on earth" was the ap-
pearance of Barnum in the ring before the beginning of the per-
formance, when and where he. made a brief address worthy of a
trained public speaker. Strange as it may seem to not a few
who may read these lines he was also a man of most excellent
character and hence commanded the respect of all who were ac-
quainted with the showman.
Barnum 's small beginnings as a showman may not be known
to all of Americanos readers, so I may be pardoned if the follow-
ing incidents are here related : He began his remarkable career
as a showman in Bethel, Connecticut, where he was born of hum-
ble parents, by giving shows in a stable, for which he charged a
small admission. It is related that the young showman once ad-
vertised among the attractions to be exhibited "a cherry colored
cat;" and on entering the stable the highly expectant patrons
saw a black cat, such as most of them had frequently seen ; and
the joke of the thing, as Barnum explained it, was, that the cat
on exhibition was a black cherry colored cat.
On another occasion the young showman advertised to exhibit
"a horse whose tail was where his head ought to be;" and on en-
tering the stable the people saw a horse tied in a stall with his
tail inward next to the manger and his head pointed outward into
the stable; and the people had a hearty laugh over the "curi-
osity."
From such small beginnings Barnum became the prince of
showmen, and a showman, as all his patrons conceded, who al-
ways gave them more than they paid for.
While the following episode in the career of the great show-
man may be considered out of chronological order this seems to
me to be an appropriate place to relate it: Barnum, as some, at
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 1033
least, of the older readers of Americana may recall, was three
times burned out in New York City, and all within a few years.
His losses must have been very great, enough, indeed, to crush
the spirit of most men. After the third fire he gathered a new
circus and •menagerie with new and beautiful accessories and
many fine horses. I chanced to be in New York one day soon
afterward and had the pleasure of witnessing his show parading
Broadway. On one of the largest and handsomest wagons in the
parade were the words, painted in conspicuous and artistic fash-
ion: "MyAmbition Survives the Fire!" The effect of these
words, in view of his repeated losses and his heroic recovery
therefrom, was. truly thrilling; and now, after the lapse of the
intervening years, the effect of those brave words furnish an
inspiration to perseverance amid the embarrassments and losses
which, in one form and another, come to us all-
Sheldon Lake was the name of one of the eccentric characters
living in the vicinity of Birmingham when I was a boy; but I'll
venture to express the opinion that his most intimate acquaint-
ances would have been under the necessity of thinking more than
twice before recognizing the man by that cognomen. If, however,
he was spoken of as "Shel Lake" everybody within a radius of
twenty miles or more of Birmingham knew, in the twinkling of
an eye, who was meant.
"Shel Lake" was about six feet in height and being "long,
lean and lank" resembled a bean pole in appearance. His cloth-
ing, which hung like a bag on a broomstick, looked as if it had
been worn since the year Columbus didn't make a landing on the
main land of North America ; and if I was requested to describe
"Shel's" toggery as to its neatness I should ask to be excused.
Well, "Shel Lake" almost invariably appeared on the streets
of Birmingham with a worse-for-the-wear violin and bow under
his arm— he called the thing he lugged around with him a "fee-
die"— and everybody who spoke of the thing he carried about
with him also referred to it as a "feedle." "Shel" was usually
willing to play most anywhere for the few cents he gathered from
his charitable listeners ; but his favorite place for sawing on his
"feedle" was in barrooms, where he usually received as compen-
sation a few drinks of something that limbered up his elbows and
1034 RECOLLECTIONS OE A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
added vehemence to the manipulations of his "feedle." " Hello,
here comes 'Shel Lake' and his ' feedle' " was a frequent and fa-
miliar remark elicited by his approach. He was as good natured
as the day is long, hence the oft repeated efforts of the small boys
to tease him by inquiring, as they met him on the streets : "How's
your ' feedle' this morning, 'Shel' "; or " 'Shel,' where 'd you get
that coat?" the tail of which, by the way, was approximately
where the waist ought to have been. But this boyish raillery only
elicited a broad smile, and some humorous reply that threw the
questioner off his guard; for "Shel" was well endowed with
Yankee wit.
"Shel Lake" had two sisters, the name of one of which, abbre-
viated, was "Sal." "Sal" was ailing one day, and on the arrival
home of her brother— they lived up the "river road" about two
miles from Birmingham— she was reclining on a lounge. It was
nearly dinner time, but no dinner was on the table awaiting, as
usual, "Shel's" hunger. Seeing his sister on the lounge exhibit-
ing signs of pain, and glancing at the table, minus the expected
dinner, and then glancing again at "Sal" he exclaimed: "Git up
an' peel the taters, 'Sal,' 'an' don't be layin' there gaspin' for
breath.' " Not that "Shel" was hardhearted, not at all; but he
did not realize the seriousness of his sister's illness. But "Sal"
didn't get up and "peel the taters" that day, and a physician was
soon called to treat her. Who peeled the * ' taters ' ' during the sis-
ter's illness I was never informed; perhaps "Shel" took a hand
in the peeling rather than go without his regular meals.
In Birmingham, when I was a boy, was a son of Erin named
John Collins— "Johnnie Collins" he was popularly called. He
was as goodnatured as could be and bubbling over with genuine
Irish wit. The boys were very fond of ' ' Johnnie Collins. ' ' I must
say, however, that he was decidedly superstitious, as the follow-
ing incident will illustrate : In one of the large mills in the lower
part of the village was a wide, swiftly running leather belt used
in propelling some of the machinery. It was favorite sport of
some of the boys, including the writer, to fill an empty soda water
bottle with fine steel filings from one of the machine shops in the
village; place a small steel rod in the bottle of filings, join hands
in a circle and hold it up close to the running belt. The electric-
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 1035
ity drawn from the swiftly running belt would pass through the
entire circle of boys, causing no little amusement because of the
shock received from the current.
Thinking to have a little extra "fun" the boys once invited
our friend, "Johnnie Collins' ' to join them "at the belt," which
invitation he innocently accepted. Having all joined hands as
usual, with Collins included, one of the boys held the steel rod of
the bottle up close to the belt, and the entire circle, of course,
received a smart electric shock. The instant Collins felt the shock
he suddenly and with considerable effort unloosed his hands from
the circle and, with an exclamation indicative of his fright, rushed
away from the scene of his mysterious experience ; and nothing
could thereafter induce "Johnnie Collins" to come within several
feet of the revolving belt. Indeed, I do not believe a yoke of oxen
could have drawn him near enough to that mysterious leather
belt to reach out and touch it. Even now, as I recall the rapid
flight of our friend from the Emerald Isle from that belt I in-
wardly laugh. No doubt my old time friend, J. Clarence Hub-
bard, of Shelton, Connecticut, remembers the incident related
above and I '11 venture to say that as he recalls it his face is con-
siderable elongated, sidewise.
If "Johnnie Collins" was afraid of the electricity drawn from
the leather belt in the woolen mill in Birmingham he was not
afraid of powder and minnie balls, for on the outbreak of the
Civil War he enlisted in one of the regiments furnished by ' \ The
Nutmeg State" and served his adopted country faithfully.
During a visit to the scenes of my boyhood in Birmingham a
few years after the close of the war for the Union I called upon
Mr. Collins at his home, and we laughed over the amusing episode
at the leather belt in the woolen mill ' ' Bef o ' de wah. ' ' I presume
my old friend Collins has found rest and peace in paradise ere
this.
When I was about fifteen years of age one of my boy friends
and I concluded, after due consultation, to embark in a little
business for ourselves in the hope that it might eventually assume
such large proportions as to yield a generous income for each of
us and in due course make us wealthy. So we procured a dozen
small, round wooden boxes, more or less ; mixed a recipe for gold
"
1036 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
and silver polishing powder we had found perhaps in an almanac ;
filled the boxes, pasting a handwritten label on each box, and in
due course started out one day early in the morning to sell our
wares. We chose the outlying country for our field of operations.
Full of bright expectations we left our homes on that beautiful
Saturday morning; but after travelling several miles and calling
at a score of houses on the way we disposed, as near as I am
able to recall, of one box of our superior gold and silver polishing
poivder. The remainder of our stock in trade we brought back
to our homes and never again attempted to offer it for sale to an
unappreciative public.
My partner in the business venture above mentioned was
, but perhaps I had better not give his name for fear his
relation, after his decease, may scramble for a portion of the
wealth he accumulated from the sale of superior gold and silver
polishing poivder in the days of his youth in the "Nutmeg State. "
My partner in the business venture above described doubtless
remembers our experience in the polishing powder business, and
when he reads these lines, as he almost certainly will, for Ameri-
cana goes to his address each month, I'll wager half a pint of
peanuts he '11 not be able to keep a long face as he is reminded of
our little business scheme that " flashed in the pan."
While a boy in Connecticut, my father, then a resident of
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, visited Birmingham. During his
visit he and I went through an old, abandoned copper mill in the
lower part of the village which had in former years done a flour-
ishing business. The reader will doubtless remember that I have
previously remarked that my father in the latter part of his life
was a skillful pattern maker with a national reputation. Unknown
to me he had, many years before his visit to the "Nutmeg State,"
made the patterns for some of the machinery in the old copper
mill in Birmingham; and as we passed from one portion of the
large mill to another, examining the dust covered machinery, his
eye rested upon an immense cog wheel once used in the manufac-
ture of copper for the trade. This cog wheel must have been
fully ten feet in diameter. My father almost instantly exclaimed :
"Andrew, I made the pattern for that cog wheel!" Amazed that
he should be able to say this, I at once inquired: "Why, father,
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 1037
how do you know you made the pattern for that cog wheel!" To
my inquiry he replied: "My son, I should know a piece of ma-
chinery made from one of my patterns if I saw it in Japan." It
is needlesa for me to add that the remainder of our visit to this
old copper mill was rendered still more interesting as the result
of our little conversation about the big cog wheel ; and it is still
a pleasure to recall our stroll through the old copper mill so many
years ago.
Methodism, when I was a boy in Birmingham, was a radically
different thing, so far, I mean, as its outward manifestations
were concerned, from what it is now. As examples of the mani-
festations of Methodism during my boyhood in New England I
will mention the following :
Among the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in
Birmingham was Jesse Beecher, a local preacher. I remember
him as a sincere follower of Jesus Christ; indeed, no one who
knew brother Beecher doubted his sincerity. During revival
meetings in the church with which he was connected he became
very much exercised over what he considered the lost condition of
those in the meetings who had not united with the church ; and in
praying for those in the meeting who were along in years he made
use of substantially the language following: "0 Lord! convict
and convert the aged persons for whom we pray ; they have one
foot in the grav— er and the other all but— ter." I need not say
that the young people in the meeting were greatly amused, and
the unique phraseology of brother Beecher 's prayer on the occa-
sion referred to was not soon forgotten by those who listened
to it.
In the same church was a member named George W. Cheese-
man, a prosperous business man of Birmingham. Aside from his
occasional Methodistic manifestations— "antics," some staid
Congregationalists called them— brother Cheeseman was a man
of more than ordinary intelligence ; indeed, I am of the opinion
that he had received at least a fair education.
During a revival meeting, when the fervor of the brethren was
at white heat, and while brother Cheeseman was engaged in
prayer, he made use of substantially the following language : "0
Lord, come down! come down in great power! come down, if it
'
1038 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
takes the shingles off the roof of the church! I'll pay for them!
I'll pay for them!" And he was able to pay for them, and would
have done it had it been necessary. But the revival meetings in
progress were successful, as success was then conceived, and
brother Cheeseman was not called upon to replenish the shingles
on the roof of the church in which he worshipped.
I have no doubt that if brothers Beecher and Cheeseman were
living in the Twentieth Century they would both have a good
hearty laugh over the manifestations of old-fashioned Metho-
dism, and over their own unique manifestations in the days long
since gone.
It may have been when I was about sixteen years of age that I
began to be active in amateur theatricals in Birmingham. A dra-
matic club composed of boys of about my own age was organized,
which, after no little discussion, was named "The Thespian
Club." This club was organized for the purpose of presenting
plays in our public hall, known as "Nathan's Hall," because of
the name of the sole owner, a shrewd Welshman, who for many
years had been employed in a copper mill in Ansonia, a thriving
manufacturing village about two miles to the northward of Birm-
ingham, at which latter place Mr. Nathans resided. I cannot
make mention of all the plays our dramatic club brought out, but
I can mention two or three of the most interesting ones.
One of the most popular of the plays our dramatic club pre-
sented was ' ' Paddy Miles ' Boy, ' ' an exceedingly funny farce. In
the production of this farce we had the assistance of an English-
man named "Tom" Gardner, who, in his native country, had
been identified with theatrical companies as a comedian, but who
was, at period suggested, a resident of Birmingham. It was
"Tom" Gardner to whom the part of Paddy Miles' Boy was as-
signed, because of his familiarity with "the lines." Owing to a
scarcity of young ladies to take women's parts in our plays we
were sometimes under the necessity of utilizing one or more of
the boys of the dramatic club to personate the part of women.
In presenting the farce of "Paddy Miles' Boy," for example : J.
Clarence Hubbard, or * * Clare, " as he was popularly called, was
assigned the part of a woman. With the aid of a lady friend
"Clare" was properly dressed for the part he was to enact. His
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 1039
costume included, in accordance with the prevailing custom of
the day, a large hoop skirt. ' ' Clare ' ! managed quite well with his
feminine attire with the sole exception of the hoop skirt; and
among the amusing incidents in connection with the presentation
of the farce in public was the fact that while attempting during
the performance to cross from one side of the stage to the other
he caught one of his shoes in the wires of the hoop skirt, and be-
fore he could extricate the toe of his shoe from the skirt he had
made quite a scene before the alert audience— a scene, by the
way, that was not laid down in the text of the play. The amuse-
ment caused by this special scene was not confined to the audience
for the performers behind the scenery were all thrown entirely
off their equilibrium in hearty laughter. In spite of the strenu-
ous efforts of the stage manager to compose " the players" a per-
ceptible " hitch" in the performance occurred. But the sympa-
thetic audience accepted the "hitch" as a part of the farce and
refrained from any overt act of disapproval. The farce caused
great amusement for the audience, due, chiefly, it is only just to
remark, to the excellent manner in which our English friend por-
trayed the leading character of Paddy Miles ' Boy.
In one of the scenes of the farce above mentioned Paddy Miles '
Boy, when very hungry, ate, or "gobbled it down," as he ex-
pressed it, a bowl of starch which had been prepared for starch-
ing the week's washing; and in subsequently relating, in the
course of the play, the occurrence, he declared that by reason of
the starch hardening in his stomach he became "as stiff as a
stake!" It was a long time before "Tom" Gardner heard the
last, on the streets and elsewhere, of his having become i ' as stiff
as a stake, ' ' after ' ' gobbling down ' ' a bowl of starch, when hun-
gry.
As for my old time friend, "Clare" Hubbard, I'll venture the
remark that the first, last and only time he ever enacted the part
of a woman "in a play" was the occasion on which he got the toe
of one of his shoes tangled in a hoopskirt on the stage in ' * Nath-
an *s Hall," in old Birmingham.
Another play brought out by "The Thespian Club" of Birm-
ingham was entitled "The Wreckers," an English production.
I recall that in presenting this play we had on the stage an excel-
i
1040 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
lent representation of the hull of a sailing vessel, including a por-
tion of the rigging, which added greatly to the realism of the
play. To assist us in the presentation of "The Wreckers" we
had the efficient services of another Englishman named Jackson,
who had been but a short time in this country. Mr. Jackson not
only coached us in our rehearsals but he furnished music for our
public performances. He was an entire orchestra in himself ; by
which I mean, that because of his proficiency as a violinist and
because also of his having, in the old country, played in a theatre
orchestra, he was qualified to furnish music for ' L The Wreckers ' '
with such fine effect as to add very greatly to its acceptance by
the audience.
Before coming to this country Mr. Jackson had in some way
lost every finger on his left hand up to, but fortunately not includ-
ing, the third joint, the thumb only of that hand remaining unin-
jured. The left hand, as the reader will please be reminded, is
the hand used by the violinst in "fingering" the strings and mak-
ing the various tones required in playing the "king of instru-
ments." And yet, with only those stubs of fingers remaining Mr.
Jackson was a splendid performer on the violin.
At our public performances, Mr. Jackson, instead of sitting
in front of the stage in sight of the audience, as an orchestra us-
ually does, took a position behind the curtains— for we had all
the necessary accessories of the theatre— where he could watch
the progress of the play being enacted, and as was needed would
introduce appropriate music. The excellent music thus furnished
by Mr. Jackson beside effectually supplementing the play was
also an inspiration to the performers, and thus greatly assisted in
making our plays acceptable to the audience. Our English friend
was as deeply interested in our performances as the members
of the club, entering enthusiastically into the details of the play,
and thus, in a sense, becoming "one of us;" for this and other
reasons we became very much attached to him.
I must not forget to mention that Mr. Jackson was an excellent
machinist, and in Birmingham he was employed in the large roll-
ing mill, most of the time, in turning down, in a great lathe con-
structed for the purpose immense steel rollers used in rolling out
red hot iron into plates of varying width and thickness. This
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 1041
was work that required an expert machinist. I used now and
then to go to the department of the rolling mill where our Eng-
lish friend was employed and chat with him, which I could prop-
erly do, for the rollers he turned down revolved so slowly that our
conversation did not interfere with the performance of his duty.
I can see him now, standing in front of his great lathe, looking
now and then, as was necessary, at the slowly revolving roller,
and occasionally, as was needed, readjusting the finely tempered
steel chisels used in turning down the rollers.
Mr. Jackson's end was a most unfortunate one, however, the
circumstances of which, concisely related, were as follows : The
wife of his youth and the mother of several grown up children was
called from her earthly home. After a suitable length of time he
married a widow. The only daughter of this widow by a former
husband had previously married a young man in town, and a son
was duly born to them. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson made their home
with the young couple. Of the grandson, by marriage, Mr. Jack-
son was exceedingly fond. When his grandson was four or five
years of age Mr. Jackson became insane ; and, calling the boy to
him one day he took him on his knee, as had been his custom,
drew a knife from his pocket and cut the boy's throat. Mr. Jack-
son then cut his own throat with the same knife. Both died. This
sad incident is a most striking illustration of the saying, that an
insane person who does violence to another almost invariably se-
lects as a victim one for whom he has cherished a special fond-
ness.
I still remember with affectionate regard our English friend!
Among the violin specialties of Mr. Jackson was the following :
He would take the ring end of a brass or composition key between
his front teeth, place the other end lightly against the bridge of
the violin, and while executing some pathetic piece of music he
would speak through the key the words "Mama, Mama," in
well nigh perfect imitation of a small child uttering this endear-
ing word. The effect of this performance was tear-impelling,
and he was frequently requested by his numerous appreciators to
repeat "the Mama" selection, which he usually did, for he was
a most kind-hearted man.
With what great pleasure do I remember the coming of
'
1042 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
"Wyatt's Theatrical Company" to Birmingham, and their pre-
sentation of the dramatization of Harriet Beecher Stowe's won-
derful story of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which, as the readers of
Americana' ar e aware, is considered by millions to have done
more to bring slavery in this country into disrepute and to hasten
its passing away than any other single agency. The characters
of Uncle Tom; Little Eva; Topsy, who "jest growed up;" Le-
gree, the brutal slave driver, and others introduced in the thrill-
ing drama, stand out before my "mind's eye" as distinctly, al-
most, as if I had witnessed the presentation of the play only last
week. How, as a boy, did I loathe Legree ; with what deeply sym-
pathetic interest did I follow "poor Uncle Tom" as the object of
the cruel lash, in his devotion to the members of the southern
family by whom he was owned and his final deliverance from the
"ills his flesh was heir to" as a chattel slave; how I wept over
Eva in her affection for Uncle Tom and as she passed upward
where there are no black and white— the recollection of the thril-
ling, softening and uplifting effects of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as
presented by "Wyatt's" itinerating theatrical company lingers
with me after the lapse of many years !
George Wyatt, the proprietor of the theatrical company men-
tioned, was an excessively fleshy man. After his decease and bur-
ial, his remains, for some reason, were disinterred ; and it was dis-
covered—so came the report to Birmingham— that he was turned
on one side in the casket, and his arms showed signs of having
been gnawed. The explanation given was that he was buried be-
fore he was dead, and that on discovering this fact he had turned
in his casket and had gnawed his arms as a means of physical
sustentation. This and other similar cases have made many peo-
ple careful about burying their dead until they are certain that
life has become extinct.
Another theatrical company that occasionally visited Birming-
ham in the days of my hopeful boyhood was that known as
" 'Tom' Hampton's Company;" and among the favorite dramas
presented by this company during one of its visits was "The
Poachers," a three act play, as I remember, of the melo-dramatic
style. Because of my frequent participation in the local amateur
theatrical performances I had acquired something of a reputation
RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE 1043
as a disciple of Thespis. Mr. Hampton having been informed of
my experience as an amateur Thespian engaged me to take the
leading character in * ' The Poachers, ' ' and I did so, after careful
study of ' ' the lines. ' ' While my performance was far from satis-
factory to me my friends who attended the play predicted a
bright future for me if I should adopt the stage as a profession.
Taking the readers of Americana into my confidence for a few
minutes I will say, that for a few years in my early life I seriously
contemplated adopting the stage as a profession. As to whether
I should have succeeded in this profession I will permit another
to give his opinion. While on a trip to New York City I visited
the office of Fowler and Wells, the expert phrenologists, then on
Broadway, for an examination of my head. The examiner, the
then aged Nelson Sizer, after a thorough examination, said, in
substance as follows : ' * There are three professions to which you
are, by nature, adapted. If you wish to make money, enter the
legal professional; if you wish to make 'a decided hit/ enter
the theatrical profession, but in view of your temperament I
would not advise you to engage in this profession, since a large
proportion of those who follow the theatrical profession are mor-
ally injured thereby; you are adapted to the ministry, but you
would not attain to eminence in this profession ; if you should de-
vote yourself to medical lecturing you would attain to eminence.' '
But I didn't adopt the stage as a profession and so very likely
escaped not a few dangerous pitfalls ; I didn't enter the legal pro-
fession and haven't made money; I didn't, in accordance with the
advice of my venerable phrenological examiner, Nelson Sizer, de-
vote myself to medical lecturing and thereby attain to eminence
in that important field— although I have always been, as I am
now, deeply interested in the various lines of thought I should
naturally have treated had I taken the advice of Mr. Sizer—
hence I have not attained to eminence as a medical lecturer. I
have, however, devoted no little time to a study of the various
lines of thought familiarity with which would have prepared me
for lecturing upon medical themes ; and, as a result, I will mod-
estly venture to express the opinion that there are some things
that some physicians know that I don't know and there are some
things concerning the general principles of medical practice that
1044 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HALF CENTURY AND MORE
some physicians don't know that I might be able to tell them.
After due meditation, observation and actual experience I am
of the opinion that Nelson Sizer wasn't far from right when he
advised me to engage in medical lecturing. Modesty forbids me
to say more along this line.
I did enter the ministry, and while I have not attained to emi-
nence in this profession I have, as my ministerial record will
show, accomplished practical results, of which, to say the least, I
am far from ashamed. Further reference to the practical results
of my ministry will appear at a later stage of my "Recollec-
tions. ' '
But I have been wandering, and must at once return to the
main path from which I departed.
It was soon after my appearance in the leading character of
the play of i ' The Poachers, ' ' in Birmingham, that, through the
influence of a friend in Paterson, New Jersey, who had formerly
resided in Birmingham, that I went to Paterson and supervised
the arrangements for a theatrical performance to be given by lo-
cal talent. In this entertainment I took, by request, the principal
characters.
I have a distinct recollection of having met during my several
days stay in Paterson a number of young men and women, none
of whose names, however, I regret to say, do I remember. If
these articles should come to the attention of any or all of those
young people it would be a pleasure to hear from them.
If the friend and former resident of Birmingham is still "in
the land of the living' ' I should be more than pleased to get in
touch with him again.
Paterson, as I recall, was a comparatively small town of a few
thousand inhabitants when I visited there just before the open-
ing of the Civil War— or it may have been in 1861, before I be-
came one of Lincoln's Boys in Blue.
I was entertained in Paterson at the same boarding house with
a minister who has since had a long pastorate over one of the
Presbyterian Churches of that city. I think it was the Rev.
Charles D. Shaw, D. D., deceased, if my memory serves me.
I
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned
and Heroically Suffered in the Revolu=
tion for the Cause of American
Independence
BY J. C. PUMPELLY, A. M., L.L. B.
XV
Martha BRATTOisr of South Carolina
At a celebration of Huck's defeat given on July 12, 1839, at
Braltonsville, York District, South Carolina, the following toast
was proposed and drank.
' ' The memory of Mrs. Martha Bratton. In the hands of an infu-
riated monster with the instrument of death around her neck she
nobly refused to betray her husband ; and in the hour of victory
she remembered mercy and as a guardian angel Interposed in
behalf of her inhuman enemies. Throughout the Eevolution she
encouraged the Whigs to fight on to the last; to hope on to the
end. Honor and gratitude to the woman and heroine who proved
herself so faithful a wife, so firm a friend to liberty. ' '
The battle took place fifty-nine years before, on ground within
a few hundred yards of the residence of Dr. Bratton, whose fath-
er was one of the victors, and it was here the celebration was
held.
This was the first victory of our troops after the fall of
Charleston, and had a most encouraging effect upon the then de-
pressed spirit of the people, and thereafter the Whigs took new
courage and in the end gained the victory.
It was the wife of Colonel Bratton that showed her hero-
ism, for when the British officer, Captain Huck, arrived at her
(1045)
1046 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
house the night before the battle and rudely demanded that she
induce her husband to join the royalists, she replied she would
rather see him remain true to his duty even if he perished in
Sumter 's army.
It was then the soldiers seized a reaping hook and threat-
ened to murder her if she did not give the information they de-
manded. It was the second officer in command who interposed
and compelled the soldiers to release her. She then had to min-
ister to the wants of her enemies who occupied the place.
After they had eaten Huck and his officers went to another
house one-half mile away to pass the night, his troops encamping
around it. Not keeping a sufficient watch Colonel Bratton and
Captain McClure attacked the enemy at midnight and thoroughly
routed them. The conflict raged around Bratton 's house and
Mrs. Bratton made her little son sit within the chimney and while
there a ball struck the opposite jam and was preserved by him as
a trophy. The conflict was bloody, but brief for a battle. None
of the Brattons fell, for as soon as Captain Huck and another
officer fell his men threw down their arms and fled, and the route
was completed.
Grateful that none of her loved ones had fallen and being of a
most noble spirit, Mrs. Bratton opened her house alike to the
wounded of either friend or foe and she supplied their wants
with every attention.
The "Whigs had made the officer second in command to Huck a
prisoner, and they were determined to put him to death. As a last
favor he entreated to be conducted into the presence of Mrs. Brat-
ton and this was done. Our heroine instantly recognized him as
the officer who the day before had saved her life, and she pleaded
so eloquently for his life, that her plea was granted, and she
thereafter entertained him till he was exchanged.
Another anecdote is told of Mrs. Bratton. Before the fall of
Charleston when the want of ammunition was greatest, a supply
of powder was sent by General Eutledge to Colonel Bratton to be
secreted and carefully guarded.
The colonel being away, the wife had the care of the powder.
Some loyalists informed the nearest British officer of this fact
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 1047
and lie immediately sent a detachment after the much coveted
prize.
As they approached, Mrs. Bratton seeing no chance of saving
her charge, immediately laid a train of powder from its hiding
place to where she stood and as the troops came in sight, she set
fire to the train and thus destroyed the prize they so much co-
veted. Being threatened with severe punishment by the officer in
command, if she were the culprit, she replied: "It was I who
did it, let the consequences be what it will. I glory in having pre-
vented the mischief contemplated by the cruel enemies of my
country. ' '
Colonel Bratton was prominent in the battles of Rocky Mount,
Hanging Rock, Guilford, etc., and in most of the skirmishes inci-
dent to the partisan warfare under General Sumter.
XVI
Catherine Schuyler
Catherine Schuyler, wife of Philip Schuyler, was the daughter
of John Van Rensselaer " Patroon of Greenbush" a patriot noted
for his hospitality. He had a residence in Albany and one in Sar-
atoga, the latter Burgoyne destroyed.
One of the most remarkable instances of American generosity
in the War of the Revolution was shown when this captive, Brit-
ish General with his suit, was received and entertained after his
surrender at Saratoga by the Schuylers ' whose property he had
wantonly laid waste. In the words of Madame de Rudesel ' ' all
these actions proved that at the sight of the misfortunes of others
we quickly forgot our own. ' '
Burgoyne said to General Schuyler: "You are too kind to me,
one who has done so much injury to you. "Such is the fate of
war ' ' said the noble-hearted victor, i l let us not dwell on the sub-
ject/ '
Mrs. Schuyler's graceful hospitality so affected the British
General that with a deep sigh he said : ' ' Indeed Madame this is
doing too much for the man who has ravaged your lands and
burned your dwellings. ' '
When the continental army was retreating from Fort Edward
1048 SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
before General Burgoyne, Mrs. Schuyler went up herself in her
chariot to Saratoga to see to the removal of her furniture and by
orders of her husband to set fire to his extensive fields of wheat
rather than to suffer them to be reaped by the enemy, and to re-
quest others to do the same, all of which she did. She died in
1813 regretted by a host of cherished friends.
XVII
Mercy Warren
Mercy Warren, third child of Colonel James Otis of Barnsta-
ble, in old Plymouth Colony, wife of James "Warren, merchant
of Plymouth and friend of Abigail Adams, was a true patriot and
brave as she was wise. Thus she spoke to John Adams in 1774,
"I have my fears, yet notwithstanding the complicated difficul-
ties that rise before us there is no receding ; and I should blush if
in any instance the weak passions of my sex should damp the
fortitude, the patriotism and the manly resolution of yours. May
nothing ever check that glorious spirit of freedom which inspires
the patriot in the cabinet and the hero in the field, with courage
to maintain this righteous cause and to endeavor to transmit the
claims to posterity even if they must seal the rich conveyance to
their children with their own blood." Thus although not a par-
ticipant in the war she inspired her men friends to do brave
deeds.
She refers to the altered services while General Burgoyne 's
Lighthorse used the Old South Church for a barracks while "the
infamous Dr. Morrison reads prayers in the Brattle Street
Church to a set of banditti who after the rapines robberies and
devastations of the week dare to lift up their sacrilegious hands
and bow before the altar of mercy. I cannot wish to see the
sword up in the scabbard until justice is done to America." She
says "Generals Washington, Lee and Gates dined with us at
Watertown. The first I think one of the most amiable and ac-
complished gentlemen both in person, mind and manners that I
have ever met with. The second I think plain in his person to a
degree of ugliness, careless even to impoliteness and his garb or-
SOME HEROIC WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION 1049
dinary, his voice rough, his manners rather morose ; yet sensible
learned, judicious and penetrating, a considerable traveller,
agreeable in his narrations and a zealous indefatigable friend to
the American cause. The last is a brave soldier, a high republi-
can, a sensible companion, an honest man of unaffected manners
and easy deportment. ' '
She described Lafayette as: "Penetrating, active, sensible and
judicious, he acquits himself with the highest applause in the
public eye, while the politeness of his manners and the sociability
of his temper insure him welcome at every hospitable board."
Mrs. Warren was a poetess as well as a beautiful writer of
prose. She died October 19, 1814, in the eighty-seventh year of her
age.
Honors a Distinguished Scientist
The Father of the Weather Bureau
contributed by s. g. lapham, oconomonoc, wisconsin
N June 18th, the Old Settlers' Club of Milwaukee ded-
icated in Lapham Park, a very unique memorial to the
memory of Dr. Increase A. Lapham, for whom the park
was named, and who is credited with having secured
the passage of the bill which resulted in the establishment of the
U. S. Weather Bureau.
The memorial consists of a natural boulder, six to eight feet in
diameter and weighing eighteen tons. On the face of the boulder
is placed a bronze tablet showing the face and bust of Dr. Lap-
ham in bas-relief. The finely modeled portrait shows a face
breathing life and expression and is exceedingly life like.
The sculptor Mr. Albert H. Atkins is a native of Milwaukee.
He is now a member of the faculty of the Rhode Island School of
Design, Department of Sculpture.
The inscription on the tablet is as follows :
In Memory of
Increase Allen Lapham
Naturalist.
MDCCCXI-MDCCCLXXV
Erected by his friends in
commemoration of his services
to the cause of human knowledge
and his unselfish devotion to
the welfare of the people.
Under the auspices of the
Old Settler's Club of Milwaukee
County.
(1050)
HONORS A DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST 1051
In the presence of a gathering of the members of the Old Set-
tlers Club; friends and acquaintances of Dr. Laphani, Mr. Wm.
W. Wight, President of the Trustees of the Milwaukee-Downer
College in a brief address touching upon the life and work of the
distinguished scientist presented the memorial to the city. The
boulder was then unveiled by Mrs. Guy 0. Lindow, a grand-
daughter of Dr. Lapham.
Percy Braman, Deputy Commissioner of Public Works, as the
personal representative of Mayor Bading, accepted the gift on
behalf of the city.
The ceremony was concluded by the remarks of several mem-
bers of the Club, who related brief reminiscences of Dr. Lapham.
The park in which this memorial is placed was purchased by
the city about eight years ago, and was then named Lapham Park.
Increase Allen Lapham
1811-1875
LL. D. Amherst 1860.
Distinguished Botanist, Geologist and Scientist
Dr. Lapham is, perhaps, best known by his work on the Anti-
quities of Wisconsin, published by the Smithsonian Institution
in 1855. He was one of the first to point out the value of storm
indications, especially on the great lakes. In 1869 Dr. Lapham
prepared a memorial to Congress, containing a long list of dis-
asters caused by storms on the lakes which resulted in great
loss of life and property. The memorial showed, by instances
cited, that by use of telegraphic messages announcing the actual
state of the weather at various places, and at stated intervals, no-
tice of the coming of these storms could have been given several
hours before they arrived, and many of these disasters would
have been prevented.
This memorial was presented to Congress by Halbert E. Paine,
of Wisconsin. It was very largely through the efforts of Mr.
Paine that a bill, prepared by Dr. Lapham, became House Bill
No. 602, the passing of which resulted in the establishment of the
Division of telegrams and reports for the benefit of Commerce.
When the work was organized under Gen. Albert J. Myer,
Chief Signal officer of the Army, the position of meteorologist
-
1052 HONORS A DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST
was offered to Dr. Lapham who declined to accept it, principally
because to do so he would have been obliged to enter the military
service, a thing which his quaker principles prevented him from
doing". However, in November, 1870, he was appointed assistant
to the Chief Signal officer with headquarters at Chicago. Dr.
Lapham personally prepared the first storm warning. It was tel-
egraphed and bulletined along the lakes on November 8, 1870.
In January, 1871, Gen. Myer appointed Prof. Cleveland Abbe
meteorologist of the weather bureau. Prof. Abbe soon became
popularly known as "Old Probabilities." "While Dr. Lapham
was engaged on a plan for the protection of mariners on the great
lakes, he and Prof. Abbe of Cincinnati, Ohio, exchanged data,
compared notes, and in various ways endeavored to advance the
cause of science.
Dr. Lapham is often spoken of as the ' ' Father of the Weather
Bureau. ' ' It is not claimed by the friends of Dr. Lapham that he
was the only man who worked in this field. There were others
working along other lines, and the theory of the progress of
storms was well known.
Prof. Abbe had, in connection with the Chamber of Commerce,
of Cincinnati, Ohio, an arrangement ' i for collecting and compar-
ing telegraphic weather reports from all parts of the land and
making deductions therefrom."
When the question is asked to whom the credit for any work
belongs, the answer is : "In the realm of science as well as in all
lines of human endeavor, to the one who accomplishes actual re-
sults."
Prof. Abbe's work was in the line of scientific research of
storm effects.
Dr. Lapham 's work was to find a practical way to prevent the
loss of life and property in storms. His work, resulting in the
Memorial to Congress, was the direct means of establishing the
"Division of telegrams and reports," of the War Department,
which afterwards became the Weather Bureau, and the credit for
so doing is honestly due to Dr. Increase A. Lapham of Milwau-
kee, "Wisconsin.
Historic Views and Reviews
An Appropriate Christmas Gift
HE following is a reprint from our issue of March,
1915, and appears here with several indorsements of
Mrs. Van Loan's book because she has arranged for
the proceeds of the sale of the book to go to the cause
of the better education of the children of the Mountain Whites
of the South.
"The Power to Right Our Wrongs' '
by anna fitzgerald van loan
We acknowledge the receipt of a copy of ' ' The Power to Right
Our Wrongs, ' ' written by Anna Fitzgerald Van Loan, and after
a careful perusal of the same, we take pleasure in commending
it to the attention of all who desire to keep up with the trend of
all those influences which tend toward social uplift, a truer
democracy, more justice in industrial affairs and a more prac-
tical method for the establishing of international peace by a
"Peace Force' ' to enforce peace compacts and an accepted
Board of Arbitration.
Mrs. Van Loan has done her work well, and throughout each
chapter of this excellent book has shown a perspicacity and com-
prehension of American social and economic conditions both bad
and good, as well too of International affairs that will, we are
assured, meet with the confidence and commendation of every
one of her readers.
We cannot refrain, at this time of war and devastation in
Europe, from referring particularly to the chapter "An Inter-
national Peace Force,' ' because it has in it so much that is
worthy of careful consideration.
(1053)
1054 HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS
America's opportunity to use her influence for peace will not
come until some one of the giant war lords, now engaged in such
cruel public murder, shall have become exhausted and shall be
willing to join with the countries with which the United States
has already treaties of peace and arbitration, and, so combining,
aid in establishing an ''International Peace Force," which, says
the authoress, "shall enforce peace compacts and insist that all
disputes arising between these nations shall be settled at their
accepted Court of Arbitration, and in case of any one of them
refusing to do this, then such power should be confronted by the
united forces of all the nations of the globe, both small and great,
acting in the capacity of a police force, until the refractory na-
tion should consent to settle the quarrel at the stated Court of
Arbitration. ' •
"Had Austria been given the alternative of settling her dis-
pute with Servia at the Hague or of confronting the forces of the
nations there represented, her attitude in all probability would
have been different."
And the authoress goes on to make an interesting argument in
behalf of the "principle that national peace must be maintained
by force," as was "demonstrated during the Boxer rebellion"
when certain nations united "their armaments to enforce pea^
in China."
"What was accomplished," says the authoress, "in one in-
stance might also be effected again in behalf of international
peace," and in answer to the contention "that the interests of dif-
ferent nations are too varied for them to unite for the formation
of international force for the prevention of warfare, ' ' she replies
that they did unite to protect interests in China ; " it is obvious
that it would be wiser still for them to unite to protect interests"
of far greater value to all concerned.
In referring to the "Twenty-six nations (I think the number is
Twenty-eight) who have recently signed ' Peace Treaties' with
the United States," she says, "it is stipulated in these compacts
that in case of disagreement between the parties to these treaties
there is to be no war until one year is passed in efforts to suc-
cessfully arbitrate the questions involved/'
The book has a hopeful, well-balanced Christian spirit through-
HISTORIC VIEWS AND REVIEWS 1055
out, and in this sense recommends itself strongly to readers of
Christian literature. J. C. Pumpelly.
44 This is a book that should command the attention of all seri-
ous students- of the causes that tend to the uplift of humanity."
Rev. Charles S. Burch,
Suffragan Bishop Diocese of Neiv York.
"This is one of the most forceful and characteristic books of
the year." Floyd S. Leach,
Secretary Social Service Commission of the Episcopal Church.
"The most excellent book I have read in years."
Helen S. Woodruff,
Author of "The Lady of the Lighthouse."
"I deem this one of the few volumes written upon political,
economic and sociological problems which is so judicious, com-
prehensive and practical as to be really helpful to a wise solu-
tion." Junius B. Remensnyder,
Chairman of Commission on Peace and Federation.
INDEX
VOL. X.
January, 1915 — December, 1915
Billopp House, on Staten Island, now to be included in a new park,
The Historic , ,. . 961
Book Reviews , 982
Boots, A Bucolic. Rev. Charles Caverno, A. M., LL. D ,. . 942
Chapters in the History of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Arthur Went-
worth Hamilton Eaton, M. A., D. C. L.
No. I. The Founding of Halifax in 1749 269
No. II. The Coming of the Boston Tories 764
No. III. Social Life of Halifax after the Revolution 828
No. IV. Sir John Wentworth and the Duke of Kent 1002
Chester, Capt. Samuel, of Boston, Mass., and New London, Conn.,
and Some of His Descendants, Biographical Sketch of.
Herbert Merritt-Chester of New York City ,. . 975
Commander Cushing and the Virginius. S. G. Lapham 903
Commemorative Tablets of Historic Sites of the Revolution and
Some Revolutionary Relics. Edward Hale Brush.. . 79
Cushing Memorial Monument. S. G. Lapham . 901
For Conscience Sake. Cornelia Mitchell Parsons.
Chap. 8 and 9, 44; Chap. 10 and 11, 105; Chap. 12, 198;
Chap. 13 and 14, 289; Chap. 15 and 16, 351 ; Chap. 17, 18
and 19, 461.
Hamlet at the Bouwerij, The. Hopper Striker Mott.
Part I. 660; Part II. 743.
Historic Views and Reviews ,. . ., 265
Historic Views and Reviews , 713
Historic Views and Reviews. . . ., 906
Historic Views and Reviews , 978
Historic Views and Reviews 1053
Honors a Distinguished Scientist — The Father of the Weather
Bureau. Contributed by S. G. Lapham...., 1050
Journal of George Croghan, January-February, 1753-4. Contrib-
uted by John W. Jordan, LL. D.. 677
(Hi)
iv INDEX
Mormon Church, History of the. Brigham H. Roberts.
CXIV, 52; CXV and CXVI, 116; CXVII, 204; CXVIII,
299; CXIX and CXX, 363; CXXI, CXXII, CXXIII, 480.
Paine, Thomas. George R. Boynton 881
Peace Conference at the Billopp House, Staten Island, September
II. 1776, The 968
Recollections of a Half a Century and More. Andrew M. Sherman.
I. My Paternal Ancestry , 723
II. My Boyhood in New England 731
III. My Boyhood in New England (continued) 793
IV. 'My Boyhood in New England (continued) 863
V. My Boyhood in New England (continued) 915
VI. My Boyhood in New England (continued) 1029
Rhode Island Settlers on the French Lands in Nova Scotia in 1760
and 1761. Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, M. A.,
D. C. L. Part I, 1 ; Part II, 83 ; Part III, 179.
Rouse Family, The 684
Some of the Women who Skilfully Planned and Heroically Suf-
fered in the Revolution for the Cause of American Inde-
pendence. J. C. Pumpelly, A. M., LL.B.
Introduction 647
I. Hannah Arnett of Elizabethtown 648
II. The Tragic Fate of Jane McCrea * 650
The Story of Old Fort Edward, and the marking of
the Site where it once stood , 652
III. Mrs. Robert Murray >..'.'• 791
IV. Emily Geiger ., 791
V. Lydia Darrah 792
VI. Molly Pitcher. . .. 818
VII. Margaret Corbin 824
VIII. Anna Warner Bailey 825
IX. Nancy Hart of the Georgia "Hornets Nest." 894
X. Susanna Keith . .. 896
XL Cornelia Beekman of New York. . 899
XII. Dicey Langtson of South Carolina 954
XIII. Elizabeth Zane 955
XIV. Lucretia Shaw , 956
XV. Martha Bratton of South Carolina , 1045
XVI. Catherine Schuyler — 1047
XVII. Mercy Warren. 1048
Winthrop Family, The 985
ILLUSTRATIONS
Opposite Page
Bailey, Anna Warner. 825
Boynton, George R 912
Cushing Monument at Delafield, Wisconsin, (By Courtesy of The
Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, Wis. 901
Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, K. G., K. T., K. St. P., Etc. 1002
Fort Edward, N. Y., Jane McCrea Monument .. . 652
Haliburton, Thomas Chandler 39
Haliburton, Thomas Chandler 828
Her Royal Highness, Victoria-Mary-Louisa, Duchess of Kent 1008
Keith, Susanna (By courtesy of Miss Mary Vanderpoel) 896
Longfellow, Henry W. 1
Massacre of Jane McCrea, July, 1777 650
Mercer, Hugh, Tablet of 968
Mother Bailey House, The, Groton, Conn . 826
Old Billopp House, Staten Island 961
Original Peregrine White House, Marshfield, Mass., as it appeared
in the days of William Sherman, Sr., a near neighbor of Mr.
White, The 726
Paine, Thomas 881
Perkins, MrsrKmelia Bartlett, Residence of, widow of Mr. Henry
Perkins, Bridgewater, Mass. In this house the author slept
on the night before his departure for Birmingham, Conn.,
in the autumn of 1855 915
Protestant Episcopal Church and Burial Grounds at "The Works,"
Bridgewater, Mass., The . 802
Public Library, Bridgewater, Mass 863
Relics from the Old Tavern at Hollis, L. 1 135
School Building, Birmingham (now Derby), Conn., where I attend-
ed school in my boyhood. This building has been superseded
by a fine brick structure 925
Shaw Mansion (rear view) 957
(v) .
vi INDEX
Opposite Page
Sherman, Rev. Andrew M. This picture of the author is from a
tintype which was copied from an ambrotype, the latter of
which was taken in Birmingham (now Derby), Conn., when
about 14 years of age 917
Sherman, Rev. Andrew M. This picture of the author is from a
carte-de-visite photo taken in Birmingham (now Derby),
Conn., early in 1861 1029
Sherman, Rev. Andrew M., Morristown, N. J 723
Shirley, His Excellency William, Esq r . Captain General and Gov-
ernor in Chief, etc., of the Province of the Massachusetts
Bay in New England and Colonel of one of His Majesty's
Regiments of Foot — 269
State Normal School, Bridgewater, Mass 863
St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, Birmingham, (now Derby),
Conn., where I attended church and Sunday school and in
which I was baptized when a small boy. It is a substantial
stone_ structure 919
St John's Episcopal Church, North Main St., Providence, R. L,
which the author attended when about six years of age. He
lived directly opposite the church . . 728
Stuart, Gilbert Charles 41
Tablet, College of the City of New York. (By Albert Weinert) . . 124
Tablet, Fraunces's Tavern. (By Albert Weinert) 81
Tablet, New York University. (By Albert Weinert) 137
Tablet in St. Paul's Church, New York. (This tablet is by Albert
Weinert) 79
Tablet, Washington Heights, New York City. (By Albert Weinert) 80
Tablet, Nathaniel Woodhull. (By Albert Weinert) 121
This covered bridge connects Birmingham (now Derby), Connect-
icut, and Shelton (formerly Huntington), Conn. It replaced
the covered bridge carried away by a freshet when I was
a boy. The upper part of Shelton is shown in this picture
and a portion also of the Housatonic River 929
Town River, Bridgewater, Mass 872
Trinity Church, Bridgewater, Mass., constructed in part of mater-
ial taken from the Protestant Episcopal Church, which, in
the author's early boyhood, was at "The Works" 803
INDEX vii
Opposite Page
Webster House, The, Marshfield, Mass., in 1829, showing the
enlargement and improvements made by Aaron Simmons
Sherman in 1827, the year of its purchase by Webster from
Capt. John Thomas 730
Wentworth, Sir John, Bart., Governor of Nova Scotia, 1792- 1808. 83
Wentworth, Lady Frances, Wife of Sir John Wentworth 83
Witherell Place at "The Works," The, Bridgewater, Mass., as it
now appears. In this house the author lived as a boy
between the ages of eight and ten years 793
*MV
j