CHAPTER III.

The Hart Families of Lower Lane; Their Ancestors, Descendants, and Dwelling Places. Abby Pattison and Her Ancestor, Edward Pattison, the First Manufacturer of Tin-ware in America. Emma Hart Willard and Her Work.

55

By "Mac" and "0" you'll surely know
True Irishmen, they say,
But if they lack both O and Mac,
No Irishmen are they.

"Mac" means son, "O" means grandson.

The Hart family originated in Ireland. Through various transitions from Airt, O'h-Airt, O'Hairt, O'Harte, and Harte comes the Americanized name of Hart.

John O'Hart of Dublin, Fellow of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, published, in 1877, a wonderfully complete genealogy of the O'Harts which bears this title.

IRISH PEDIGREES
OR
THE ORIGEN AND STEM
OF THE IRISH NATION.

This work, which represents the research of a lifetime, carries the O'Hart pedigree, family by family, name by name, back through 114 sole monarchs of Ireland, and through long lines of kings and queens of Scotland and England, back to the Garden of Eden. Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ire-land, comes in this family in the 136th generation from Adam. Milesius, the last of the pre-historic invaders of Ireland, was the progenitor of those 114 Irish monarchs and of the royal families mentioned. He married Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh Nectoni-

56

bus, King of Egypt. Milesius was contemporary with King Solomon, and it makes us feel like giving the latter the endearing title of "Uncle Sol" when we read that his Egyptian wife is supposed to have been a sister of Scota.

King Cormac Mac Art, called Ulfhada, on account of his long beard, was the 115th monarch of Ireland. He excelled all his race in wisdom, learning and goodness. Prior to the year 560, the kings of Ireland had their royal residence on the beautiful hill of Tara, twenty-one miles northwest of Dublin. The story of King Cormac Mac Art and his life at Tara in the third cen-tury reads like that of Solomon and his household as related in I Kings 4. He had always one thousand one hundred and fifty persons in constant attendance at his "Great Hall" which was 300 feet long, thirty cubits high and fifty cubits in breadth, with fourteen doors. His service of plate, in daily use, consisted of 150 pieces—flagons and drinking cups of gold, silver and pre-cious stones, besides dishes, all of pure gold and silver. King Cormac ordained that ten choice persons should attend him and never be absent from him. These were:

With the exception that since the Christian faith was adopted the Druid or magician was changed to a prelate of the church, this custom was followed without change by all the succeeding kings down to the sixtieth from Cormac. The ancient records of Ireland at Tara were brought to complete accuracy during the reign of Cormac. Of several learned treatises written by King Cormac, one, "Kingly Government," is still extant.

57

In his actions and judgment Cormac was so upright that seven years before his death God revealed to him the light of his faith, and thenceforward he refused to worship the idol gods of the Druids, whereupon they caused his destruction by the "ministry of damned spirits, choking him as he sat at dinner, eating of salmon, some say by a bone of the fish sticking in his throat, A. D. 266, after a reign of forty years."

St. Rodanus, in anger, because his brother was held a prisoner by King Dermot, laid a curse on Tara and it was forsaken as a royal residence in the sixth century. In 975 Tara was described as a desert overgrown with weeds and grass. Some earthen ramparts and mounds are now all that remain of its ancient magnificence.

The Harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls
As if that soul were fled.

So sleeps the pride of former days,
So glory's thrill is o'er;
And hearts that once beat high for praise
Now feel that pulse no more.

No more to chiefs and ladies bright
The harp of Tara swells;
The chord alone that breaks at night
Its tale of ruin tells.

Thus freedom now so seldom wakes
The only throb she gives
Is when some heart indignant breaks
To show that still she lives.

"That still she lives," was shown in 1843, when Daniel O'Connell, greatest of Irish patriots, held monster political meetings in every corner of Ireland. There was never a mob, and, thanks to Father Mathew, there was no crime or drunken-ness at those meetings. The greatest rally of all was on August 15, 1843, at Tara, when the attendance was estimated at three-quarters of a million. Of the limited editions of The Stem of

58

the Irish Nation, a few copies were placed in the libraries of large cities in America. A complimentary copy was sent to the Librarian of Congress, and another is in the Philadelphia Library. The latter may be taken out by a deposit of ten dollars.

Mrs. F. A. North, some years since, wrote to Mr. O'Hart of Dublin, author of the Stem, and asked him if he could tell her how Stephen Hart of Farmington was connected with the O'Harts of Ireland. In reply he said:

I am satisfied that your ancestor was descended from. Stephen Hart of Westmill, Hertfordshire, England, who is the first of the name recorded as living in that country, and I believe that said Stephen Harte was a descendant of Lochlaan O'Hart...

Mrs. North is referred by Mr. O'Hart to the "Irish Pedigrees" for further information. The work of a genealogist brings him a scanty livelihood. Mr. O'Hart confided to Mrs. North an account of his straightened circumstances. He says:

In 1889 Providence was pleased to take from me in the fortieth year of his age and unmarried, my good and only son, who up to his death affectionately allowed me £100 (sterling) annually out of his income as chartered Public Accountant in Dublin, and in 1894 died my cherished friend, the late George W. Childs of Philadelphia, Pa., who on the death of my son did benevolently grant me a munificent annuity . . . but as the good Mr. Childs did not mention in his will his generous intentions toward me (and my dear wife if she survived me) his estate has refused the annuity to me.

(Mr. Childs had promised to continue the annuity during the life of Mr. O'Hart.)

The letter goes on to say "These two deaths have in my present old age left me and my dear wife in very straightened circum-stances . ..." A paper enclosed gave a list of subscribers to a testimonial to Mr. O'Hart. The donations as there men-tioned amounted to £43, "in recognition of his invaluable services in elucidating Irish and Anglo Irish Pedigrees and Ethnology."

59

We will now turn to Lower Lane, where, in ancient times, were four colonial houses, in a row, all occupied by Hart families, descendants of Deacon Stephen Hart of Earmington, horn about 1605, at Braintree, in Essex County, England. Stephen Hart was at Cambridge, Mass., 1632; at Hartford,* with Rev. Thomas Hooker's company, in 1635, and was one of the eighty-four proprietors among whom Earmington lands were divided in 1672.

John Hart, the eldest of the three sons of Deacon Stephen Hart, lived near the center of the village of Earmington. One night, in 1666, the Indians set fire to his house, and all the family, with the exception of his eldest son John, who chanced to be away from home, at Nod (Avon), where he had gone to care for some creatures, were burned to death.

The public calamity was increased by the destruction of the town records, which were kept in the house.+

He married, December 25, 1723, Mary Hooker, daughter of John Hooker, Esq., of Earmington. John Hooker was regis-trar, and you should see his beautiful handwriting, as it appears on the deeds of his time.

60

The home of Samuel and Mary Hooker Hart was west of Isaac Norton's on the northwest corner, now owned by Deacon Leonard C. Hubbard.

Samuel Hart, Sr., died September 30, 1751, aged fifty-nine, leaving three daughters and one son. The second daughter, Mary, became the wife of the eminent physician, Joseph Wells of Wethersfield.

The plan had been to give to the son Samuel, who was a boy of "good parts," a liberal education, but he was only thirteen when his father died, and his mother could not make up her mind to send him away from home.

He devoted himself to the care of the family and inherited his father's farm. He was connected with the local train band of which he became the captain. His father, Samuel, had held the office of lieutenant.

Samuel Hart, born January 21, 1738, married, October 10, 1757, Rebecca Norton, a girl of eighteen, daughter of Charles Norton. They had seven children, and then Rebecca died, July 28, 1769, in her thirty-first year. Captain Hart married, sec-ond, October 4, 1770, Lydia, daughter of Captain John Hins-dale, who lived up on the "Street." Lydia was twenty-three when she took charge of Samuel Hart's little flock, and she had ten children of her own. The names of Rebecca's children were:

61

Ten of these children lived to marry and have families. A notable assemblage, indeed, their descendants would make, if they could be brought together for an "Old Home Day" at Berlin.

Captain Samuel Hart was the first clerk and treasurer of the Second Congregational Church of Berlin, in 1775. His views in regard to the final salvation of mankind differed from those of his brethren in the church, and he withdrew from their fellowship in 1807.

It was said of Mr. Hart that while his thoughts were strong and clear, he was unwilling to speak in public until he had committed them to paper—in writing. He was a lover of books, and at evening it was said that he would gather his large family about the open fireside, and read to them, from the best English authors, Young, Locke, Thomson, Milton, and others of his favorites. There was at that time a village library from which he might have drawn his books.

An old account book kept by David Webster, Esq., of Berlin, contains the following entries:

Dec. 1784. Worthington Library company, Dr. to Chesterfield's Letters, 2 vol. a 24 agreed with committee. Feb. 25th, 1783, Cr. by cash rec'd of Peat Galpin, part for books.

62

"Peat" Galpin lived in an old house that stood on the site of the large Edwards house now owned by Luther S. Webster. The inside cellar door of that house was Pete Galpin's front door.

The graves of Lieut. Samuel Hart and his wife, Mary (Hooker) "Heart," and of Captain Samuel Hart, with his wives, "Rebekah Heart" and Lydia (Hinsdale) Hart, are in the South Cemetery at Worthington. The inscription on Lydia Hart's stone reads as follows:

In memory of Mrs. Lydia Hart, Relict of Capt. Samuel Hart, who died Jan. 18th, 1831, AE 84. Her generous self devotion in the various relations of Daughter, Sister, Wife & Mother, are best known to those who best knew her, but that hope of Salvation which made her life cheerful and her death serene, was in the mercy of God through a Savior.

We have heard that once on a time a certain D. A. R. Chapter was rent asunder because they could not agree on the spelling of this name Hart or Heart. In the old deeds it is given first one way and then another, by members of the same family, and even for the same individual.

Jesse Hart, born 1768, married 1792, was a cabinet maker. Before he kept the hotel, at Boston Corners, he lived in the brick house, now owned by Leon LeClair. It is probable that he built that house. His first wife, Lucy Beckley, died in 1814, and, in 1822, he married, second, Mindwell Porter, daughter of Samuel Porter. Mr. Hart died in 1827, aged fifty-nine. Mrs. Hart survived him forty-eight years, and died July 6, 1875, aged ninety-one. It had been the custom, whenever there was a death in the community, to toll the church bell. Mrs. Hart's daughter, Mrs. Jane Hart Dodd of Cincinnati, said she could not hear the bell toll for her mother, and that was the first case remembered when the right was omitted.

Aunt Mindwell, as she was familiarly known, will always be remembered, by those who knew her, for her quaint speeches. She lived, in her latter years, with her two sisters, Mrs. Almira Barnes, and Mrs. Sophia Camp, in the house now owned by

63

Mrs. Hopkins. The "Sisters" were noted for their hospitality. They were always ready to open their house for missionary meetings, and prayer meetings, for the sewing society and to entertain guests.

Lydia Hart, fifth child of Samuel Hart and Lydia Hinsdale Hart, married Elisha Treat of Middletown. They were the grandparents of the Misses Emily and Adeline Wilcox of West- field Society, Middletown.

It is known that Mrs. Emma Hart Willard, in her poem "Bride Stealing," written in 1840, took the utmost pains to make the story historically correct. She said she had no idea, when she began it, of the difficulty she would have in collecting the facts.

Of the Harts she says:

And thither hied, in friendly part,
Norton's next neighbor, Ensign Hart,
Whose comely spouse was, when he took her,
The modest maiden, Mary Hooker,
They walked with firm and even mien
Their little Sammy led between.

The genealogical books, copying from old church records, tell us that all these children of Lieut. Samuel Hart, and of his son Captain Samuel, were born in Kensington, or possibly in Farmington, and that is true.

Miss Abby Pattison used to point out a stone, set near her house, which marked the old boundary line between Farmington and Middletown.

The first Ministerial Society, formed October, 1705, in Great Swamp parish, or "ffarmington village," as it was sometimes called, received the name of the Second Society of Farmington.

In May, 1722, its name was changed, by General Assembly, to Kensington

Resolved by this Assembly that the 2d Society of Farmington, with what of Wethersfield & Middletown is by this Assembly annexed thereto, shall for the future be called and known by the name of Kensington. Passed by both Houses 1722.

64

Until the final division of the church, in 1772, nearly all of what now constitutes the town of Berlin was, ecclesiastically speaking, Kensington.

The Samuel Hart dwelling house stood a little way north of the present house, on the corner. Some of the timbers from the old house are a part of Leonard Hubbard's wood-house. The well, south of the house, is the same that was used by the Harts. After Mr. Hubbard purchased the place, Mrs. Willard and her sister, Mrs. Phelps, called there and asked for a glass of water from the well of which they drank in childhood. Mrs. Willard left with Mrs. Hubbard, a framed engraving of herself, with the request that it might always remain in the house.

A gravestone at the Bridge Cemetery in Worthington bears the following inscription:

According to reliable records the family history as given on that stone, is incorrect. Deacon Stephen Hart, the progenitor of the New Britain and Berlin Harts, came to Hartford with Mr. Hooker in 1635. He was a leader in the settlement of Farmington in 1640, and he died there in 1682-3 aged seventy-seven years. He never lived in Berlin, although in his will he mentions his land in "Great Swamp."

Thomas Hart, son of Stephen, born 1644, captain of the Farmington train band, thirteen times chosen deputy; four times speaker of General Court; chairman of committees to

65

protect the natives from "illegal trading" of lands with the whites; "to draw a Bill to prevent disorders in Retailers of strong drinke and excessive drinking" and "to prepare a Bill to put in execution the reform Lawes" was a man of wealth and influence. It is said that he owned 3,000 acres of land which was divided among his children.

"Worshipful Captain Thomas Hart," as he. was called, died August 27, 1726, in his eighty-third year, and was buried with military honors.

The Hart homestead in Farmington was opposite the meeting house.A clause in Captain Thomas Hart's will reads as follows:

I give my two sons, Thomas Hart and Hezekiah Hart, all my right in lands that have fallen to me within ye limits of ye Great Swamp Society.

This son Thomas was the Deacon Thomas who lived on-the corner west of the Driving Park, and whose "home lot" was taken as a site for the second meeting house. He was a member, with his wife, of the Christian Lane church, in 1712, and was chosen deacon, after probation, 1719. He was Clerk and Recorder for the Ecclesiastical Society; six times a member of General Assembly, for the town of Earmington; chairman of memorialists and petitioners, justice of the peace, and was described as the most influential man in Kensington. His son, Deacon Ebenezer Hart, inherited the place, which is now known as Mott's Corner, and married widow Elizabeth Lawrence. They had five sons:

Ebenezer J., born at Kensington, July 29, 1742, removed to New Hampshire, where he died in 1796, aged fifty-four years. He was the grandfather of Jonathan T. Hart, the manufacturer of Kensington. Jonathan, born at Kensington in 1744, was a graduate of Tale in 1768. He was in the public service from 1775 to 1791, and was slain by the Indians, November 4, 1791, at St. Clair's defeat. He held the military rank of major.

66

Elihu, born March 4, 1751, was the unfortunate one of the family. He removed to New York State, where he failed in business. He was imprisoned for debt, and died in the jail at Coxsackie, N. Y.

Doctor John Hart, born at Kensington, March 11, 1753, graduated from Yale in 1776, and soon after entered the army as surgeon. He died October 3, 1798, aged forty-five years.

Thomas Hart, born 1754, whose faulty inscription suggested this account, was the fifth and youngest son of Deacon Ebenezer Hart, and his wife, Elizabeth Lawrence. He never married, but remained on the corner homestead, and adopted a daughter of his brother Ebenezer, Lydia Hart, to whom he gave the property.

In 1834, the second year after her uncle Thomas died, Lydia Hart was married, at the age of fifty-four, to Theron Hart of New Britain, and they lived on the place until her death in 1850.

Captain Thomas Hart, father of Deacon Thomas, was also a maker of reeds, for use in weaving. In his will, dated July 24, 1721, is the following clause:

I give unto my son Howkins Hart all my reed making tools, great table and joynt tools, which he has already in his possession.

Deacon Thomas Hart's wife, Mary (Thompson), died Octo-ber, 1763, aged eighty-three years. Lieut. Isaac Norton, father of Tabatha of "Stolen Bride" fame, died January 10, 1763, in his eighty-fourth year.

At the beginning of the next year, January 11, 1764, Deacon Thomas Hart, aged eighty-four, and Elizabeth, widow of Isaac Norton, aged seventy-nine, were united in marriage, by the Rev. Samuel Clark. She died March 28, 1771, and was buried beside her first husband in the South Cemetery, at Worthington.

Deacon Thomas Hart died January 29, 1773, aged ninety-three years, lacking three months. By his will, made 1760, Deacon Hart gave to his grandson, Elijah Hart of New Britain, all the tools of whatsoever name he used in making reeds for weaving by looms; also all the cane he might have at his decease.

67

Hezekiah Hart, fourth son of Captain Thomas Hart of Farm-ington, born 1684, was assigned a "pue" in the Christian Lane church, in 1716-17. His father, in his will, dated 1721, gave him all his lands in Great Swamp. He married, in 1710, Martha, daughter of Benjamin Beckley of Beckley Quarter. They had nine children, of whom Zerviah, born December 16, 1728, was married, December 19, 1761, to David Webster, Esq., as his second wife.

Hepzibah, born April 16, 1732, was married January 18, 1753, to Isaac North, son of Deacon Isaac North.

Mrs. Hart died September 7, 1752, and Mr. Hart died on the 29th day of the same month. Their tombstones are in the South Cemetery at Berlin.

They have many descendants who would like to know exactly where they lived. It is probable that their home was on Hart Street, in one of the houses long since torn down.

Zachariah Hart, fifth son of Hezekiah Hart and his wife, Martha Beckley, born January 5, 1733-34, married, March 23, 1758, Abigail, daughter of Joseph Beckley. She died July 12, 1765, aged twenty-eight years, when he married second, June, 1766, Sarah Parsons.

There were in all eleven children, of whom Sarah, born 1770, was married to Shubael Pattison. She used to say that when she was two years old, her father, Zachariah Hart, built the house now owned by heirs of the late James B. Reed. This house, now a hundred and thirty-four years old, was built of fine selected timber, and will outlast many a modern structure. The inscription on the tombstone of Mr. and Mrs. Hart, in the Bridge Cemetery, reads as follows:

In memory of Mr. Zechariah Hart who died Dec. 26th, 1811, in the 78th year of his age.

In memory of Mrs. Sarah Hart, relict of Mr. Zechariah Hart, who died Jan. 26th, 1813, in the 80th year of her age.

From cruel death no age is free,
Nor sex, nor birth, nor blood you see,
Tho' we were old, our time has come
And you must follow to the tomb.

68

The Zachariah Hart house now stands alone at the north end of Hart Street. From that point a new road was extended, in 1865, straight north until it joins "Berlin Road," half way between the village and the depot, while the old "highway" turns directly east and runs up to the old church.

Not far from the corner, on the north side of the east road, there stood, until a few years since, a house known as the Jarvis-Tuttle place. The southwestern view, from this site, is one of surprising beauty. The house was the home of Ebenezer Hart, born November 27, 1722, eldest son of Isaac Hart.

In 1741 Ebenezer Hart was one of a committee to receive funds from sale of "western lands" that may be divided to that part of this society that dwell in the bounds of Farmington; "to be loaned out by said committee"; "always disposing of the interest thereof for the support of a lawful school in this society."

The name of Ebenezer Hart's wife was Martha. They had four children when he died, November 17, 1753, in his thirty-first year.

Abel Hart, their eldest son, who married Mary Galpin, sister of Deacon Daniel Galpin, had one son and ten daughters. They removed to New York State. Without this Abel Hart family, if we include that of Hezekiah Hart, we may count, by name, sixty Hart children, born on this one street, and there were others, whose names are lost to us.

Captain Isaac Hart, son of Captain John Hart of Farming-ton, was baptized November 27, 1686. He came, with his brother, Lieut. Samuel Hart, to Great Swamp, where, in 1713, he was collector for the Ecclesiastical Society. In 1715 he was appointed surveyor. In 1720 he was credited with one and a half bushels of corn at 5s. 9d. on the rate bill for support of the minister. Money was scarce in those days, and men paid their church taxes in grain, or firewood, or with whatever they could spare from their farms.

Isaac Hart married, November 24, 1721, Elizabeth Whaples. Their names appear in a list of members of the Christian Lane

69

church made up, in 1756, by the newly-settled minister, the Rev. Samuel Clark. Captain Isaac Hart was deacon of the church. He died January 27, 1770, aged eighty-four. His widow, Elizabeth (Whaples), died November 14, 1777. They were the grandparents of Luther Pattison, father of Miss Abby Pat-tison, and the old house, so dear to her, to which she clung to the last, habituating herself to the increasing slant of the floors, was the same to which Isaac Hart brought his bride.

A writer in "Old Houses of Connecticut" describes this house, with its overhang, and goes on to say:

The house is said to have been built by Isaac Hart in 1721. This we cannot believe. Isaac may have added the lean-to, but the house is of a type which belongs to a time before his day. If it is not so late as this, it cannot, on the other hand be earlier than 1670. The house probably belonged to some settler, attracted to the neighbor-hood by the presence of Richard Beckley, and was built in the decade which began with 1680.

It was related of Isaac Hart that one day, when at work in his meadow over west, he saw a bear coming toward him. With only a pitchfork for a weapon, he mounted his horse, set chase for the bear, and killed it.

Miss Pattison was born in 1811. When she was young, Indians used to come straggling along, and stop to beg for feed, and a night's lodging. Her mother, who was always kind to the poor, used to prepare a bed for their comfort, out in the barn, and sometimes Abby was sent, alone, with the Indians, to the barn to make up the bed. She said she was not at all afraid of them. One day an old Indian and his squaw came there. The squaw took a Bible and pretended to read its pages devoutly. Her husband said, aside, "She can't read a word."

About the year 1815 a number of lively young people of Berlin, attracted by the doctrines and zeal of the Methodist Church, formed a "Class," with a leader, and had preaching services occasionally. Their first meeting was held in the south front room of Luther Pattison's house. Miss Pattison said that when they asked her father's permission to come there, he answered, "I guess they won't hurt the old house."

70

Miss Pattison's father had promised her that she should go to Mrs. Willard's school at Troy, but her mother became an invalid, and thenceforth her life was one of self-sacrifice and devotion to the needs of others. One instance will serve to show the kindness of her heart. A man who had lived with the family many years, paid a small sum for his board, until his money was gone. Aunt Abby, whose own income was probably less than a hundred dollars a year, said she could not send the old man to the poor-house, and she gave him a home free for the rest of his life.

In her latter days Miss Pattison lived quite alone. One cold night she thought her pet kitten would suffer out of doors, and before retiring she carried it to a chamber. As she turned to go down the crooked stairway, her foot slipped and she fell. Her body was so bruised and broken that she could not survive the shock. She died March 10, 1897, aged eighty-six. Up to that time she was active and had retained all her faculties. With her bright mind, if she could have had the advantages of Troy, as was said, "what a lady she might have been."

After Aunt Abby's death the "old house" was vacant. Nothing now remains of it but the great chimney foundations, ten feet or so square. One Sunday afternoon, it was August 2, 1903, flames were discovered leaping out from the windows, and its end had come. A boy candidate for the Reform School out of "pure cussedness" had set a match to a pile of hay stored in one of the rooms. Speaking of the age of the house Miss Patti-son said she could count it back 180 years, that was more than nine years ago, and would take it to 1717, four years before Isaac Hart was married.

A hundred years ago, around on Lower Lane, as it turns eastward, there was an old, forsaken dwelling house. Mysterious lights were seen there at midnight, and the story went abroad that the place was haunted. Emma Hart was not to be scared by ghosts, or anything else. One dark, rainy night she and a young friend disguised themselves, and started out to investigate. Sure enough there were lights in the house. When

71

The Pattison House.
(Built Before 1721.)

the two girls crept cautiously up to a window and looked in they saw —a company of men playing cards.

In the first half of the eighteenth century, a Mr. Edward Pattison, who, to escape religious and political persecution, had fled from Scotland to the north of Ireland, planned to emigrate, with his family, to America, but he was taken sick, and died, before he could accomplish his desire. In accordance with his parting advice, his eldest son, Edward, came over to see what the country was like, and then returned for his brothers and sisters, "William and Noah, Anna and Jennie.

It was said of Edward that he came from Boston to Berlin, with only eighteen cents in his pocket. Is it not probable that he had the same disposition seen in his great-granddaughter, Miss Abigail Pattison, and that he had given all he could possibly spare to his younger brothers and sisters?

It would seem that William Pattison came to Berlin with Edward. He was in this vicinity in 1747, and was a member of Great Swamp Society.

In 1754 he was in New Britain and was one of the school committee in 1758-9. He was active in society affairs, and was an original member of the First Church, formed in New Britain, April 19, 1758. He had a blacksmith shop next his house, on East Street, and was rated as one of the wealthiest men, at that time, in the parish.

In 1759 he sold, for £300, his homestead of twenty-six acres of land, extending from East Street to "Wethersfield line, with buildings thereon, to Dr. John Smalley, who lived there nearly thirty years.

William Pattison and his wife, Sarah (Dunham), were received, April 11, 1762, by letter from New Britain church to the Christian Lane church.

Another William Patterson* came to America from Ireland, and settled in Baltimore. By his great business talent he became one of the richest men in Maryland. His daughter Elizabeth, born February 6, 1785, was possessed of remarkable beauty and wit.

72

In 1803, Jerome Bonaparte visited this country and met Miss Patterson at the autumn races at Baltimore. It was a case of love at first sight. They were married Christmas eve of that year.

On July 7, 1805, a son, named for his father, was born to them at Camberwell, England. Jerome professed to be very fond of his wife, but Napoleon Bonaparte had other plans for his brother and caused the marriage to be annulled.

Madame Bonaparte spent much time abroad, but returned to Baltimore, where her last days were spent in a quiet boarding house. She died April 4, 1879, aged ninety-four.

Their son, Jerome, married November 30, 1820, Miss Susan May Williams of Baltimore. Their son, Charles Jerome Bona-parte, grand nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, is now (1905) Secretary of the Navy, XT. S.

It would be interesting to know the connection between the William Pattison of Berlin and the William Patterson of Baltimore, both of Scotch descent, and both from the north of Ireland.

Mr. Charles J. Bonaparte, in answer to a letter of inquiry, states that he has not been able to trace his Patterson ancestry. He said, however, that he did not think the two families could be related for the reason that in Baltimore, the name was spelled "Patterson" whereas his correspondent spelled it "Pattison." If Mr. Bonaparte should consult the Berlin records he would find Pattison, Patterson, and Paterson. Edward's branch of the family have preferred the "Pattison" spelling.

Edward Pattison's sister Anna came to Berlin and was mar-ried to Amos Galpin. They were the great-grandparents of Henry N. Galpin. Noah and Jennie Pattison went South and all trace of them has been lost.

Edward made his home on Hart Street. A well in the lot south of Miss Abigail Pattison's is all that now remains to mark the site of this dwelling place. He was a tinsmith by trade and his shop stood opposite his house on the north corner of the property now owned by the heirs of the late William F. Brown.

73

Here, about the year 1740, Edward Pattison established the manufacture of tinware—the first made in America. At first the ware was a luxury, and a great curiosity. At Tabitha Norton's wedding the guests exclaimed:

"Oh. what's that lordly dish so rare,
That glitters forth in splendor's glare?
Tell us, Miss Norton, is it silver?
Is it from China, or Brazil, or—?"
Thus all together on they ran.
Quoth the good dame, "'Tis a Tin Pan—
The first made in the colony;
The maker Patterson's just by—
From Ireland, in the last ship o'er—
You all can buy, for he'll make more."

Mr. Pattison began the sale of his tinware by carrying it from house to house in baskets suspended from the back of a horse. The tinplate was imported from England and during the Revolutionary War the business in this country was suspended.

Young men employed by Mr. Pattison set up shops for them-selves and after the war peddlers were sent all over the South and West with wagons loaded inside and out with bright tin pans kettles, etc., made in Berlin.

Edward Pattison was married November 28, 1751, to Eliza-beth (Betsey) Hills. They had six children, Edward, Shubael, Lucretia, Lois, Elizabeth, and Rhoda. Mrs. Pattison had large, brilliant, black eyes, that have been transmitted to some of her descendants, to the present day. Mr. and Mrs. Pattison have tombstones in the South Cemetery at Berlin. Their inscrip-tions read as follows:

In memory of Mr. Edward Pattison who departed this life Dec. 22d A. D. 1787, in the 57th year of his age.

In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth, relict of Mr. Edward Pattison, who died Nov. 6th, 1804, JEt 72.

Mr. Pattison's age, as here given, would make him only ten years old in 1740, and doubtless there was a mistake. Miss

74

Ruth Galpin has a record of her great-great-grandmother, Anna Pattison, which shows that she was born in 1724, and was mar- ried to Amos Galpin, November 5, 1745. She was sixteen in 1840 when her brother Edward was said to have settled in Berlin.

Edward Pattison's sons, Edward and Shubael, continued their father's business. By deed of date February 6, 1786, Mr. Pattison, for the consideration of £30, conveyed to Shubael a tract of land, which, judging from the description, must have been the same that was sold by heirs of Shubael Pattison to William F. Brown about the year 1848.

In 1787, Shubael married Sarah, the seventeen-year-old daughter of Zachariah Hart, his father's second-door neighbor on the north, and it is supposed that he built, at that time, for the reception of his bride, the large white house now occupied by the Browns. He also built a large, new shop on the south corner of his lot, where he made great quantities of tinware, which he carried in wagons to Canada, where he sold it in exchange for furs.

It is said that John Jacob Astor was his companion on some of those Canadian trips. The business was very profitable. Mr. Pattison brought his furs home to Berlin and employed girls who came from Newington and all about to make them up into muffs and other articles in his shop on the corner.

There is a springy feel under the feet as one walks through this street A few years since, when Elmer E. Austin planted a row of apple trees along the side of the road, by his premises, he found tin chips buried there the whole distance, and some of the trees died because the roots could not penetrate to the under soil.

In the fall of 1828, Shubael Pattison went to New York City on business, where he was taken suddenly ill with congestion of the lungs, on a Friday afternoon. A letter sent to Berlin was received the next Tuesday night Two of Mr. Pattison's sons-in-law, who started the next morning to go to him arrived Thursday. Think of that "slow coach." Mr. Pattison died the next day, November 8, 1828, aged sixty-four. He was brought back

75

Emma Hart Willard.
(From a painting by Robert Bolling Brandegee.)

to Berlin, and his funeral, attended in the church on Monday, "was calculated to be the largest funeral ever held in the town."

Shubael Pattison and his wife, Sarah Hart, had ten

Shubael Pattison's shop was moved about 1830 over to the Captain Samuel Hart corner and was made into the dwelling house now owned by Leonard C. Hubbard.

Should a resident of Worthington Street tell a man who lives on Hart Street that "it is damp there," he will reply, "My cellar is dryer than yours. If it were filled to-night with water, it would all disappear before morning." There is a porous, sandy subsoil all along that highway, which acts as natural drainage.

It has been said that a pupil of Miss Porter's school at Farmington may be known by the way she enters a room. Sixty or seventy years ago there was a class of young ladies in Berlin, of superior qualities of mind, and of distinctive bear-ing, the latter the result of a course of training at Troy Sem-inary, under Mrs. Emma Hart Willard,* who seemed to have the faculty to impart to her pupils somewhat of her own dignity of manner.

Mrs. Willard was anxious that all the girls in her large circle of relatives should have a chance to obtain an education, and she invited them to come to Troy, at her own expense. Twelve

*It is well known that Mrs. Willard was educated at the old Berlin Academy. Cf.. "Memories of Berlin's Earlier Schools," an historical address, delivered by Miss Alice Norton at the Old Home Day exercises, in the Congregational Church, Berlin, Sept. 20th, 1905. (Berlin News, Nov. 2, 1905.) This address gives an account of Mrs. Willard's experiences in the academy.

76

or more of her nieces and grandnieces, who lived in Berlin village, with a few others, in whom she became interested, accepted her generous offer. Among these were three daughters and three granddaughters of her brother Jesse Hart; Julia and Sarah Hart, daughters of Freedom Hart; Sarah and Susan Hinsdale, daughters of Frederick Hinsdale; Harriet Hart, daughter of George Hart; Jane and Laura Barnes, daughters of Blakeslee Barnes, and Frances Durand.

Mrs. Emily Galpin Bacon, mother of Attorney C. E. Bacon of Middletown, was born in the house that stood across the way from the Dr. Brandegee place. She has never forgotten how she longed to go to Troy with the rest of the girls. Her father was dead, Mrs. Willard did not know of her desire, and she could not go.

Most of these Berlin girls were fitted for teachers in schools, or for governesses. Some went South, whence not all returned single; others remained as assistants in the seminary.

Harriet Hart, who afterwards married Nathaniel Dickinson, taught in two of the Kensington schools, and in the Center dis-trict of Worthington, and in New York State.

Susan Hinsdale, whose parents lived in the Captain Samuel Hart place, had a select school in the Evelyn Peck shop, across the way from her home, which was attended by children from "up street."

An old woman used to go to the "Seminary" with a basket on her arm, filled with candy and cakes, which she sold to the girls, in exchange for their cast-off clothing, and it was said that Jane Barnes ate so much candy that she ruined her health. She died September 1, 1834, at the age of eighteen. When her mother went for her, to bring her home, she begged to be taken to Niagara, that she might see the Falls before she died, and her request was granted.

Jane Porter Hart, now Mrs. William Dodd of Cincinnati, taught music and drawing at the seminary.

Miss Emily Treat Wilcox, now of Westfield, a granddaughter of Mrs. Willard's sister Lydia, was educated at Troy Seminary

77

which she afterward conducted for a number of years, as a day school.

Miss Catherine R. Churchill, whose early home was in New York City, was sent "away to school" to Troy. Miss Sarah Churchill remembers seeing Mrs. Willard at a party in New York, given by the Scudders, as she sat, like a queen, with her turban on her head, surrounded by a group of scientific men, like Davies, the mathematician, while the young people looked on from a distance.

Sometime during the ministry of the Rev. Wilder Smith, 1862-1866, Mrs. Willard visited the sisters, Mrs. Mindwell Hart and Mrs. Sophia Camp, who lived opposite the academy. Mr. and Mrs. Smith were invited to meet Mrs. Willard at tea. Mr. Smith, on his way home, remarked, "What eyes; she looks right through you."

The popularity of Mrs. Willard's school was so great that pupils came to her from all parts of the United States, from Canada, and even from the West Indies. In 1838, she resigned her charge to her son, John Willard, and his wife, in order that she might travel abroad, and have more time to give to her liter-ary labors. She died in Troy, April 15, 1870, aged eighty-three years.

Almira Hart, known as Mrs. Phelps, was the seventeenth child of Captain Samuel Hart. Born in 1793, she was six years younger than her sister, Mrs. Willard, who for three years was her teacher, in the schools of Berlin.

At the age of nineteen she taught a school in her father's house, and not long after took charge of an academy at Sandy Hill, New York. In 1817 she was married to Simeon Lincoln, of New Britain, then editor of a literary paper, published in Hartford. He died in 1823, and in 1831 she was married to the Hon. John Phelps, of Ver-mont, an eminent jurist and statesman ... In 1841 she was invited by the Bishop of Maryland and the trustees of the Patapsco Institute, to "found a Church school for girls." Here she continued fifteen years, doing, as her sister says, "her great and crowning edu-cational work." Her husband died in 1849. She died in Baltimore

78

in 1884, at the age of 91. She published many books for students in the various departments of natural science, the best known of which is her work on botany, published in 1829, while she was vice-principal of the Troy Seminary.

Before the publication of Mrs. Lincoln's "Lectures on Botany," the science had been little studied in schools. Her work of about 500 pages met a quick demand and in a little more than three years nearly 10,000 copies had been sold. It gave a com-fortable income to Mrs. Lincoln, and made her publishers rich. For many years it was a standard text book on the subject of botany in colleges and high schools throughout the country. It was written in an attractive style, the unavoidable scientific terms, which so often discourage a pupil, were interspersed with interesting remarks relative to the history and uses of plants, with occasional quotations from the poets. For instance under class "Pentrandia" we read:

The garden violet, viola tri-color, has a variety of common names, as pansy, hearts-ease, etc. Pansy is a corruption of the French pensee, a thought; thus Shakespeare, in the character of Ophelia, says:

There's rosemary— that's for remembrance,
And these are pansies—
That's for thought.

In 1833, Mrs. Lincoln, then Mrs. Phelps, published a small botany for children. In spite of its long, hard words, such as "helminthology" and "infundibuliformis," the "Botany for Beginners" found a ready field. In six months the first edition was exhausted and the second sold as quickly. In 1847 a third edition, revised and improved with "many useful remarks inter-spersed throughout the work," was introduced in the common schools.

One of the sweetest memories of a lifelong resident of this village is of a Saturday afternoon (school kept Saturday morning then), nigh on to sixty years ago, over on the "Ledge," back of the old Bosworth place, sitting on a mossy bank, where the wind flowers grew, and partridge berries, and fragrant pipsis-

79

sewa. There, teacher gathered about her knee, her class of little girls, who had begun to study the new botany, and taught them to name the parts of the flowers, which they held in their hands. One of that class placed a mark in the index of her book, against all the flowers she learned to know. There are 126 marks there, thanks to Mrs. Lincoln Phelps and to "Teacher."

Mrs. Willard and Mrs. Phelps both retained a lifelong interest in their native town. Both expressed a desire that the street on which they were born could be called "Hart Street."