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The student chosen to respond to this toast was the pick of the western men. His name cannot be recalled, but the impression he made is vivid. His response to the toast was a credit to himself and the vast, fertile territory he represented. The other toast was:

Of the entire territory known as the East, there is one long, narrow district that stands forth beyond all others as being the one that has produced a purer type of the Nation's MEN than any other. The river which has given this territory its name starts on its course far up in the rugged wilderness of New Hampshire and, flowing southward between dense forests, precipitous cliffs, and fertile meadows of vast acreage, finally loses itself in the waters of the Sound between the shores of the beautiful and venerable Towns of Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. In the picturesque language of the Indians, it is " The Smile of God "; to civilized men, it is The Connecticut Valley.

THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY
BEFORE ITS SETTLEMENT.

The rugged hills which compose the western, and, in lesser degree, the eastern areas, are formed of rocks resembling in many respects the group to which granite belongs — rocks which are very ancient, dating far back into the early history of the world. The rivers which flow among these hills have open valleys, showing that the portion of the land above the sea-level has been practically unchanged for ages. But in the central portion of the State these ancient highlands sink down into a broad trough running from Long Island Sound far up in to Massachusetts, and this trough is filled with rocks of much later date — whose history is one of the most interesting to be found in the great book of nature.

Long ago, before man lived upon the earth,— when huge reptile forms, long since utterly passed away, clambered over the hills or roamed along the muddy shores,— the trough was filled by a great lake or arm of the sea. Into its quiet waters ran streams from the surrounding hills, bringing down into the lake mud and sand from the land over which they flowed. These sank to the bottom and formed there beds of sand and clay.

Then a strange thing happened. Somewhere in this region, which is now so peaceful, a volcano burst forth and rolled floods of molten lava over the whole area. This lava turned much of the water in the lake to steam, and, spreading itself over the beds of land-waste at the bottom, there cooled and hardened into rock. Three times and more has the lake

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lain in the trough, its bottom covered by beds of clay and sand, and three times has the lava overflowed the region, for we find now in central Connecticut three great sheets of volcanic " trap "— as the rock is called, lying one above another, each one resting on beds of clay, sand or pebbles, now hardened into rocks "known respectively as " shale", " sandstone" and " conglomerate ".

Now, how can we see these three layers of lava, if they lie one above another? How is it that we can see more than the top of one, even if we should find that there is no land-waste on top of that? It is in some such way as this: Long after the last lava had hardened, the region was greatly disturbed and everything was tilted, so that the sheets of lava and the rocks lying between them, instead of lying horizontal, sloped strongly to the east. Since then there has been great wearing away of the land by the weathering of the rocks, and the streams have carried away the land-waste to the sea. But. the trap is much harder than the sandstone and shale, so that it stands up above the country in high ridges running north and south. At the time the rocks were tilted, they were also greatly broken, so that vast fragments — miles in length — have been separated from each other in different parts of central Connecticut. But for all this, the geologist finds plainly, that these fragments belong to three different sheets of lava, which mark three different periods of volcanic action.

The second volcanic eruption was apparently the greatest, for it left a sheet of lava which is in some places 500 feet thick. It is the up-turned edge of this great sheet which forms the various " mountains " of central Connecticut Good examples of these are Newgate Mountain, Talcott Mountain, Farniington Mountain, the "Hanging Hills" of Meriden; Lamentation Mountain, north-east of Meriden; Durham range, including Higby and Beseck Mountains, and " Three Notches "; Toket Mountain, in North Guilford, and Pond Rock * * * at Lake Saltonstall. East and West Rocks, at New Haven, cannot be reckoned among these, as their history seems to be somewhat different from that of any of the mountains mentioned.

But perhaps the most remarkable remains of life, those which are certainly the most famous, are the so called " Connecticut River Bird Tracks ". These are foot-marks left in the mud of the ancient shores by the creatures that roamed over them long ago. The mud has long since hardened into shale, but the foot-marks remain intact to the present time. They are found in various places, but probably the most famous localities are Turner's Falls, in Massachusetts, and the great sandstone quarries at Portland, Connecticut.

On Shepherd's Island, in the Connecticut, at Northampton, a mile above Hockanum ferry and nearly opposite the mouth of Fort River, some excellent specimens of these foot-marks have been found. There was for many years and probably still is, a flagstone in the sidewalk, not far from the Mansion House, in Northampton, with a foot-mark measuring eighteen inches.'

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The tracks in many cases resemble those of turkeys, but 'are often as much as a foot in length. Careful study, however, shows that they belonged, not to birds, but to huge reptile forms. Some of these appear to have walked almost entirely upon their hind legs, since the prints left by the small fore feet are only occasionally found.

There is one special locality in the vicinity of Meriden which should not be left unmentioned. It is well known that in the early stages of a great volcanic eruption vast quantities of ashes, or, rather fine dust, are thrown into the air from the crator. These again to the earth, sometimes at great distances, but they fall thickest in the neighborhood of the volcano. * * * Sometimes, also, blocks of half-molten rock are cast into the air, falling to earth again among the ashes. The overflow of lava is normally one of the later phenomena of an eruption. At a place in a low ridge in front of Lamentation Mountain, now known far and wide as the Ash Bed, this whole story of an eruption may be seen written in the rocks. At this place is a great bed of volcanic ashes, now hardened into gray rock, and among them may be seen the masses of rock which were cast out, red-hot and smoking, by the forgotten volcano of long ago, while above lies the lava sheet that was spread over the whole when the first fury of the eruption had subsided. The weathering and the changes of the rocks have laid bare the whole record, and it may be read plainly in the low cliff which lies on the east of the New Haven turnpike, about two and a half miles north of Meriden.

Thus, it almost seems as if the sublime tragedies and struggles through which Nature passed, to produce the exquisite beauties and peacefulness of the Connecticut Valley, were but forerunners of those tragedies and struggles through which the first settlers passed, in a lesser degree, to produce an almost perfect type of American manhood.

After these great forces of Nature had subsided — how long only the most profound students of such subjects can guess — the tender and beautiful side of the Grand Dame began to show itself and, in time, one of the most beautiful valleys of the Earth resulted. While there is little doubt that the Rhine and the Hudson, with their immediate scenery, are far more romantic, there is absolutely no doubt that the Connecticut Valley, as a valley (with its forests and mountains in the far north; its vast fertile meadows; broken by occasional ranges and individual mountains of rock, with precipitous faces; and lovely tumbled up hills in the midst of its length; and at the far south, near the Sound, bits of dainty scenery here and there, little known, perhaps, but nevertheless worth a journey to see), is much more lovely. When Nature produced New England she was a philanthropist for she was

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bountiful in her beneficence. When she produced the valley through which the Connecticut flows for three hundred and fifty miles, she was an artist — The Artist — and gave to man almost every conceivable variety of valley scenery from the salt water, at its southern extremity, to the sparkling sweet water of Connecticut Lake, at its northern extremity. So, with all these beauties of scene: the great fertility of the meadows and the unlimited supply of fish in the river and game on its shores, it was eminently proper that the Indian, who lived close to Nature, should have chosen the most charming portion of this valley for his home. And when the white men came to Massachusetts the Indians told them of this wonderful valley, given by Kiehtan as a mark of his especial favor toward men. And when the white men saw it they loved it and made it what it is to-day, the center of all that is best, in men and women; in homes; in morals; and in cultivation. And so, from the first awful birth-agony, of which Professor Pynchon has told, was born from Mother Nature, The Connecticut Valley.

NEW ENGLAND INDIANS.

Directly north of the Pequots was the Mohegan Tribe, closely allied to, and probably a portion of, the Pequots. On the Connecticut River were the Nehantic Tribe, at Lyme; the Machi-moodus Tribe, in East Haddam, then called by the name of the tribe; the Wongung Tribe, in Chatham; the Mattabesett Tribe, at Middletown; the Podunk Tribe, at East Hartford; the Quinni-piacks extended from New Haven along the shore to Milford, Derby, Stratford, Norwalk, Stamford, and Greenwich. There were, in addition, numerous other smaller tribes located all over the southern portion of Connecticut, which were probably nothing more than a collection of a few families of one or another of the great Tribes, which had settled in favorable spots within the limits of the great Tribe's bounds.

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Of the five principal Indian Nations, the Pequots were the most powerful, because the most savage and cruel. There was a tradition among the other Indians, that the Pequots came down from somewhere in the interior, not so very long before the arrival of white men, and conquered all tribes with which they came in contact and finally settled upon the south-western portion of Connecticut. When the English arrived they found the Great Sachem Sassacus strongly fortified upon a hill in Groton, which he made his headquarters, whence he made raids upon his enemies — and all other Indian Tribes were his enemies except the Mohawks of New York — and to which he returned on such rare occasions as when the enemy were too numerous for him and his band. It is rather odd, that while the Mohawks, the dominating tribe of the Five Nations, or Iroquois, claimed and collected tribute from all tribes within four or five hundred miles of their principal castle in New York State, the Pequots were exempt from paying tribute to them. This fact causes some persons, who have made a study of the subject, to believe that the Pequots were either a branch of the Mohawks, or were closely allied to them, before they came into Connecticut.

The number of Indians in New England, at the time of the first white settlements, has been variously estimated at from five to twenty thousand (Trumbull estimated that there were, in Connecticut alone, twenty thousand) but it is doubtful if there was, at any one time since the formation of the North American Continent, as many as twenty thousand Indians in the territory east of the Hudson river. Bancroft estimated the entire Algonquin race at but ninety thousand. When it is remembered that the Algonquins extended from Maine south to Virginia and northwest to Great Slave Lake, it is even less probable that New England had as many as twenty thousand at one time. Vermont was without aboriginal inhabitants and so were portions of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. In fact the Indians inhabited only the sea-coast regions and the shores of the great rivers, not many miles from their mouths. All that vast territory east of the Hudson River, from the St. Lawrence down to the northern boundary of Connecticut, was uninhabited by natives because of their dread of the Mohawks.

The politics of the New England Indians was simple and

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primitive. A hereditary sachemdom was the only authority recognized by them. The power of the sachem was absolute, but when a matter of more than ordinary importance arose, he consulted with the Pansies, who were braves chosen for their prominence in war, cunning and speechmaking. The real power of the sachem depended much upon his personal character and magnetism.

Their religion gave them many gods but they believed in one great spirit, called Kiehtan, the creator of the world and the spirit into whose presence the souls of good Indians went after death. He was the spirit of the " happy hunting ground ". Hobbamock, their devil, was the source of all evil. As fear was more powerful with them than love, Hobbamock received the majority of their prayers and offerings. Besides these two chief gods, there were many of a local nature, that is, whose powers or dominion were local, who were known by the collective name of Manitou. The spirits known as Manitou controlled thought, the sentiments of love and hate and the different functions of the body; they were spirits of the woods and fields, of the hunt. In fact, whenever anything took place which they could not understand they would say, " Manitou ", meaning- it is a god. Especially fine qualities of character or of personal appearance in men, beasts, birds and fish they regarded as a god. The ships, clothing, arms, agricultural implements, books and writing of the first white men they called Manitouwock, meaning they are gods. The worship of the good-god, Kiehtan, was by thanksgiving for favors received; the worship of the devil, Hobbamock, was of a flattering nature in the hope that the evil he could do would not be done, so it was to him that all their prayers and sacrifices were offered. In their sacrifices to the god, the Indians differed strikingly from many Christians; who drop a nickel into the contribution plate so that it will have the rattle of a silver quarter; for they gave their most valued and cherished belongings and gave them cheerfully. They believed that when thieves, liars and murderers applied to Kiehtan for admission he would turn them away as there was no room for them and so they were obliged to wander forever in misery, hunger and poverty. This was the Indian's hell.

The New England Indians placed their heaven — the abode of Kiehtan — in the south-west, and what could have been more natural? They knew that the bitter wind and the freezing cold

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came from the north; the damp, chilly, piercing wind from the east, but from the south-west came a sweet-scented, warm, life-giving breeze that could only originate in a blessed country. That there were earnest, faithful Indians as honestly devoted to the only religion of which they had any knowledge as were the Puritans to the religion of Christ, the early white settlers knew. Old Mamoosun, of the Mattabesetts, was a striking example of the just Indian. He surely deserved to journey to that fair country in the south-west, where all that was perfect for Indian happiness existed.

As a rule the " River Indians " as they were called by the settlers, and the settlers lived in peace and neighborliness. It was not unusual for an Indian and a settler to hunt together, nor for the Indian to share his food and shelter with the white man who had neither. And on their part, the settlers of the Connecticut Valley dealt honestly with the Indians. Their lands were bought and paid for. If the religion of the English did not appeal to the Indian, the lives and example of the former had their influence upon him. One thing the people of the Connecticut Valley and in fact, all New England, can boast of is, that their ancestors, the early settlers, did not deliberately debase the Indians to a lower level than that upon which Nature placed them, by forcing rum upon them in trade for pelts so that the half drunken savage would sell his stock for more rum, at an infinitesimal portion of its real value, as did the Dutch of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys.

INDIAN CHARACTER.

The first settlers, as a class, regarded the Indians as heathen;

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barbarians, without the germ of virtue. That there were very many of them who were devout and faithful followers of the only religion of which they possessed any knowledge, did not appeal to the early settlers. They were not Christians and above all, they cared nothing for Congregationalism and would have none of it. Forgetting that they, themselves, had been more than thirteen hundred years in arriving at the somewhat primitive ideas of the simple principles taught by the founder of Christianity, they regarded the Indians as hopeless heathen because they refused to give up, at command, the picturesque, symbolical religion they had inherited for more centuries than Christianity was centuries old. Their tenacity in regard to their ancient faith; their unwillingness to resign it, the moment that one or another Congregational minister told them they should; did not seem to the early settlers an admirable quality.

They had left Great Britain and had come to a wilderness because they would not submit to being told by men how they should or should not worship God. They were proud of their courage and determination in this respect and the world is even more proud of them and that which they accomplished, but they condemned the Indians to walk for eternity through the streets of that hell which Jonathan Edwards paved with infants' skulls, because they would not submit to being told by men how they should or should not worship Kiehtan, " The Great Spirit ". So the Indian was damned by the early religious writers.

If the early writer, who gave an opinion of the Indians, was a hunter and trapper, he had no use for them, for they were skilful rivals; if he happened to be a military man, he had no use for them, because of the trouble they caused and because they presumed to fight for what they believed to be their rights; for their hunting grounds; their children and their wigwams. If the writer happened to be an official of the colony, or a man of law, he had no use for the Indians, because they refused to acknowledge any man-made regulation which interfered with their inherent rights. So, when the poor Indian died he found himself so thoroughly damned by all classes and conditions of his white Christian brothers, that even Kiehtan was powerless to guide his weary feet off from that pavement made of the smooth, polished skulls of his white, Christian brothers' infants.

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About two hundred years after the first settlements were made, a small class of champions of the Red-man came into existence, whose mawkish sentimentality was great. Their writings were as far from the truth as were the unjust, general condemnation of the earlier writers. The result is, that not only has the Indian been robbed of his home and his very existence, by civilization, but of his character — good or bad — as well, by his would-be civilizers.

Two examples are given. One by a writer who condemns and the other by one who makes a saint of the Indian. The individual must decide for himself whether the souls of dead Indians are treading for eternity on white infants' skulls, or if they are walking through the lovely valleys and over the beautiful hills, in the abode of Kiehtan: that fair country in the " South-West", where all that is perfect for Indian happiness exists; where the Red infants, with their skulls where Kiehtan placed them, wander about in joyous, delightful abandon, to add to the unspeakable happiness of their parents and be but another evidence of the Great Spirit's love for man.

A point of special interest, connected with our early annals and the incipient fortunes of the settlement, is the character and conduct of the natives of the soil. Most of the recent historical writers push us to the unwelcome opinion that, after all, our high notions about the New England Indians must be a good deal lowered and many of our admirations sacrificed. I is hard for hero worshippers to hear the blows of the iconoclast's hammer upon their idol, and it is hard for everybody to see an ideal vision of honor, courage or genius dispelled. With a pain of this sort we are shown too many reasons to believe that these wild children of the forest, instead of being magnanimous, intrepid, enterprising, intellectual, and reverential, were, to a miserable degree, mean, cowardly, cruel, lazy, filthy, and easily sunk in some disgusting forms of sensuality. Their braves very often turn out to have no other courage than a brutal and revengeful ferocity. The men tyrannized over the women, which is always one of the surest signs of a low nature. Their intelligence was little else than a small species of cunning. The propensities to thieving, treachery and falsehood were a continual disappointment to those who trusted them. Philip himself was wily and cautious rather than heroic, and was not often seen in bold engagements. Instances of cannibalism occurred, at least among the Mohawks (Mohawk means man-eater), for twenty-seven Frenchmen appear to have been roasted and devoured.

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This suggests the query; are the tens of thousands of white Christians who fill the prisons of the world, for wife-beating, theft, treachery, lying, perjury, cruelty and lust, really Indians? It would seem that they must be, or else that the Indians did not have a patent right on the characteristics attributed to them.

Time has shown that the longer their residence in the vicinity of the white man continued, the more vicious and corrupt they became, and that they almost invariably were the object, or subjects of his fraud and imposition. From the first settlement of the whites among them, they have constantly been dwindling in numbers; they continue to be driven farther and still farther toward the setting sun, by the restless flow of emigration and the cupidity of white men; their habits are unsocial and altogether averse to civilized life. An Indian wants no splended mansion, nor elegant furniture, nor bed of down; he will not learn to manufacture a button or a jewsharp, or to drive a team; he wants no workshop, he can "catch no beaver there ". The forest is his home and his delight is in the chase and by the riverside. Nature has so taught him, and before he became contaminated by proximity to, and dealing with the white man, he lived according to his dictates. * * * the besom of destruction is fast sweeping him away from the home of his youth and the grave of his fathers. The white man wants his land, and will have it. Our ancestors denounced the natives as savage barbarians. They committed no offences without provocation, and in the long black catalogue of crimes committed in Christian nations, but few, comparatively, are found to occur among this uncivilized race. Is ingratitude among the number of their sins? The most eminent and glorious examples of the opposite are upon record. Was an Indian ever guilty of suicide, seduction, fraud, scandal, and innumerable other sins ? Did an Indian ever sell wooden nutmegs, cucumber seeds, horn and flints, or powder, under pretence that by planting it would produce its like? While he may take your life in war or torture you as his victim, he would disdain to persecute you for opposing his favorite opinions, to take away your reputation for revenge, to defraud you of your property, which you might value equally with life. The civilized man will exert all the power over you which the law will give him, oftentimes more; and if you stand in his way or incur his resentment, his tender mercies are often cruel compared with the tomahawk, which destroys at a blow and all is over. Subjected as many are to obloquy and the persecutions of society, their death is slow and lingering, while the Indian tortures the body only. There can be little doubt that more acts of cruelty have been committed on this continent by French, Spanish and English or by their instigation, than by the natives. In war or peace; in the midst of change and revolution, near or remote, they have remained, like the Jews, a distinct people and it requires wiser heads than ours to see the justice

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of that policy, which, while it offers home and protection to foreigners of all nations, seems to pursue a system any other than protective of the natives, the rightful inhabitants of the soil. The weak, the defenceless and the poor have ever suffered from the encroachments of the strong, the powerful and the rich, and always will, as poverty is taken as presumptive evidence of want of merit; almost of actual guilt.

The obverse was by the Rev. Dr. F. D. Huntington, professor at Harvard, in 1859. The reverse was by David Willard, the historian of Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1838. It is as difficult to answer the question, which is the truer picture, as it was to guess, was it the lady or the tiger.

HE Rev. Dr. A. B. Chapin gives the following interesting and valuable information in regard to Indian names of persons and places, in and near the Connecticut Valley, in his history of Glastenbury.

The Indians living on the river were called Quinitikoock, or Qunihtitukqut, signifying those who lived on the Great or Long-river. The word Connecticut, is generally translated Long-river and is derived from Quinih, long; took, or tuk, water, and ut, ock, on, upon, place of. The usage of the Indians in this vicinity, however, seems to imply that they supposed the first part of the compound to be, Quiniqui, great, the name by which it is described in all of our early records. " Great river ", therefore, is simply a translation of the Indian word Connecticut. The original Indian word was spelled in several different ways but all of them giving the same general sound.

The Tribe of Indians called Nipmucks, were those living away from the river. Nip, meaning water or river, and muck, away from.

The Mohegans were the Wolf-tribe. The Rev. Dr. Edwards, who spoke their language with as great fluency as he did English, spelled the word Muhhekaneew, and the name was also spelled, Mohicans and Mahingans.

The Mohawks were Men-eaters, the proper spelling of the word being Mohowaug, moho meaning to eat.

The Pequttoog, or Pequots were the Gray-fox tribe, Pequawus

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meaning Gray-fox. The name of the Indian Wopigwoot, and of his father, Woipeguana, as given by Uncas, in 1679, are evidently from the same root. The Woi seems to be an Indian prefix equivalent to the article the, and Pequana and Pigwoot, are simply different spellings of Pequot. So the name signifies The Gray Fox, or the chief who bore the Gray-fox totem.

The Wonggum Indians, or Wonggunks, were those Indians who lived at the bend of the river, wonkun, meaning to bend and referring to the bend just below Glastenbury, in Portland.

A very common Indian word along the Connecticut River is Hoccanum and a variation of it, Higganurn, the latter being a different way of spelling the word, which means the fishing-place. Higganum is in the north-western corner of Haddam, and Hoccanum ferry crosses the river from the foot of Mount Holyoke to the Northampton meadows.

The meaning of Pyquag, the Indian name for Wethersfield, is uncertain, but it is supposed to mean the place where the Indians held their public games, or possibly the dancing-place. Other ways of spelling the word are found at different places. At Hadley it is, Paquayyag; near Hudson, Paquayag or Paqtiiag. Pauochauog, means, they are playing, or dancing.

The Mattabesick, or Mattabesetts, or Black-hill Indians inhabited Middletown and neighborhood. This word, which was written by Roger Williams, Metewemesick, is derived from Mete-wis, meaning black earth. It is generally supposed that the great chief of the Mattabesetts was named Sowheag, but in fact, this was the name of the sachemdom and not of the sachem, Sowheag meaning, South-country, or kingdom. This great Sachem, whom the white settlers feared, was named Sequasson (or lengthened to Sunckquasson and sometimes shortened to Sequin, or Sequeen) and Dr. Chapin thought this word might be a modification of Sachem. Sequasson means, hard-stone, Sunckquasson, cold-stone, from siokke, hard, and hussum, stone. Giving Sachem its English equivalent, the Indian's full title—Sequasson-Sequin-Sowheag, means, Hard-stone, King-of-the-South-country. Sequasson's son took the name of Manittowese, or Mantowese (from which Montowese, near New Haven, is probably derived) meaning Little-god and his totem was a large bow with arrow, its nock fitted to the string ready for shooting.

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According to Barber, the Indian name for Hartford was Sue- kiag, meaning black-earth, but Dr. Chapin gives other spelling and another name and meaning and says, that there is no positive knowledge as to what the Indian name was. According to this other definition of Dr. Chapin's, the Siccaog Indians lived on a river called Siccanum, but in the absence of all history it is impossible to say what the meaning of the word is. Siccanum may be but a variation of Higganum. Or it may have been made from the compound Siokke, hard, and Namas, fish, meaning hard-fish or clams, the word for clams being Sickissoug. It may have been compounded from Sequi, black, and ake, earth and hence Se-qui-ak, black or rich earth and so Suckiag would be but another way of spelling this latter word given by Dr. Chapin.

The Tunxis Indians were the Crane Indians and they lived on Tunxis Sepus, or Little-Crane-river; Taunck meaning crane, and Sepeose, little-river.

The Poquonnuc, Peconnuc, Pughquonnuc and Pocatonnttc, were those who lived at a battle-field and each of these names is seemingly derived from Pauqua, meaning to destroy, kill, slaughter. The Podunks, were those Indians who lived at the place of fire, or burning; Potaw, meaning fire, and unck, place of. Hence, Potaunck, Potunk, or Podunk.

The word Scantic describes a low, watery country.

Up in the north-east corner of Portland is Mesomersic Mountain, sometimes called, locally, Somersic. This word is from Mishom, meaning great, and sesek and assek, meaning rattlesnake, hence, Mesomersic Mountain is a mountain that is the home of great numbers of rattlesnakes, as indeed it is.

In the eastern portion of Glastenbury, near Diamond Lake, is a hill locally known as Skunkscut, but in early records it was known as Kongscut and was probably derived from Honcksit meaning goose-country, from Honck, meaning a goose (which is the word for the call the wild goose makes while in flight, from which is the old saying, when matters are going well, "everything is lovely and the goose honcks high", not hangs high) and ausit or sit, place or country.

North and west of Diamond Lake is Minnechaug Mountain,

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which means the berry-land, from Minne, berry, and uk, or awk, place. The Pool at Neipseic, as Barber calls it, or Nipsic, near the center of Glastenbury, sometimes locally called " Red-spring", means the place of water, from Nip, water, and sic, place.

The meaning of Uncas in English is Bold, and of Aramamet, who was a son of Uncas', is Dog's-tongue.

The Indians did not have individual names for fixed places. If there were a dozen fishing-places, on as many different rivers, there were a dozen Hoccanums. All places, or natural features, that could be designated by a word or words in their descriptive language, were called by that word or those words. As an instance : the sites of the cities of Albany and Schenectady, New York, were called by the Mohawks, Schenectady. In the days of the Indians the sixteen miles between those cities was a vast pine-plain covered with pine trees. An Indian trail crossed these great pine-plains and the first opening at the east and west ends of the trail was Schenectady which meant " Beyond the Pine-plains ". Thus it is seen, that the Mohawks called two places, but sixteen miles apart, by the same name, as the one word described them both.

AFTER THE SETTLEMENT.

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scarce. The trading posts of New Amsterdam and Fort Orange became permanent settlements when the British superceded the Dutch, and the names of those posts were changed to New York and Albany.

The first white settlement in the Connecticut Valley was made in Wethersfield in 1634, for, when Captain William Holmes, when he sailed up the Connecticut, past the dumb Dutch cannon at Hartford, to Windsor and set up his frame trading house, he did no more than to establish a trading post which, however, became a settlement later.

The Dutch purchased their right to the land from the chiefs of the Pequot Indians. It was but a small area immediately about Dutch Point. The English purchased their right to the land from the Sachems of the Indians who were generally spoken of by the settlers as the River Indians. It was a vast territory. The English claimed the stronger title from the fact that they had purchased from the original owners of the land while the Dutch had purchased from a usurping nation.

The Pequots were a powerful, savage and cruel tribe which had come to the Connecticut from the north-west, in the neighborhood of the Mohawks, of New York, to which tribe it is not improbable that they were related, or at least allied, in times long past. The Pequots became the terror of the southern New England Indians and were regarded as their conquerors. They drove the River Indians from their long-time homes in the valley.

The law-loving, law-making, and law-abiding English, wishing to base their claim to the land upon a deed that would be sustained in law, sent with Captain William Holmes, in his little vessel, to Windsor the Sachems who had been driven out by the Pequots. The English restored the River Indians to their ancient birth-right and then purchased it from them. There was probably no wish to be just in this transaction. It was a matter of shrewd business on the part of the English. The superficial friendship of the River Indians for the English was almost as good business since, without the support of the irresistible wills of the English and their straight shooting firearms, the River Indians would soon again have been reduced to their former abject, homeless state. On the part of the settlers, their intense desire to save the souls of the heathen was gratified to a certain extent

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by the closeness of the Indian village to the white settlement. They felt, that although the Indians generally refused Christianity, some good was accomplished through the example of the whites. And besides this, so long as they maintained a nominal friendship for the settlers, the number of Indian enemies, against whom they must be constantly on the watch, was lessened. But the people were greatly annoyed by these same friendly Indians for they were habitual thieves and once in a while would-be murderers.

OLD SAYBROOK.

The Earl of Warwick, having obtained title to the lands from the Plymouth Company in 1631, granted the same territory, extending from the Narragansett river to the Pacific Ocean (including the lower valley of the Connecticut river and consequently the site of Saybrook), to Lord Say-and-Sele, Lord Brooke, Lord Rich, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Pym, John Hampden and several other men of birth and position.

This is the generally accepted historical fact as given in the school histories. Professor Alexander Johnston, of Princeton, in his " Connecticut ", one of the American Commonwealth Series, questions the grant from the Plymouth Company to the Earl of Warwick, on the ground that Warwick never exhibited or referred to such grant. He regards it as nothing more than " a quitclaim deed which warrants nothing and does not even assert title to the soil transferred." The actual area of Saybrook was ten miles east and west and about eight north and south.

However that may be, John Winthrop, son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, was appointed Governor of the Connecticut River and the harbor and places adjoining by the company composed of the noblemen to whom Warwick made his grant, on July 7, 1635. His appointment was for one year from the time he arrived there. On his part, Winthrop agreed to build

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a fort and effect a settlement; to build a fort within the bounds of which should be houses for " men of quality." He was directed to reserve 1,000 or 1,500 acres of fertile land for the maintenance of the fort and its garrison.

Winthrop arrived in Boston in October, 1635, and sent a vessel with twenty men to the mouth of the Connecticut River, where they arrived on November 24, of the same year. The Dutch already had possession, up the river on the site of Hartford,, and were intending to take possession of the month of the river, but the arrival of Winthrop's ship and men prevented it. The territory was taken possession of in the name of Lord Say-and-Sele and the other members of the company, to whom the Earl of Warwick had made the grant. John Winthrop, the Governor, arrived not long after the ship. That the titled proprietors intended their American possessions should be in keeping with their high estate, is shown by the employment of Lion Gardiner, a skilled English engineer, to take charge of the building of the fort and the laying out of the town. And then, later in the year, 300 men were to go to Saybrook from the Old Country; 200 to garrison the fortifications; 50 to make the soil produce food for the community; and 50 to build houses.

That was a bitter winter with intense cold and deep snow, and in the midst of it, in the first week of December, 1635, a number of families; including in all seventy men, women and children; arrived from up the river in the hope of finding at its mouth the long expected and greatly needed provisions that were to come for them from Boston. The provision ship did not arrive, so the needy families were taken on board a vessel, called " Rebecca ", which managed to work its way out of the ice, and carry them back to Boston.

George Fenwick, an English gentleman who was one of the men composing the company and the agent of the company of noblemen to whom the Earl of Warwick granted the property, was the only member of the company to see Saybrook. Lion Gardiner's son David, born 011 November 6, 1636, was the first white child born in the territory now the State of Connecticut. Gardiner was discouraged with the conditions, so, in 1639, he moved to an island at the eastern end of Long Island — which he called Isle of Wight — since known as Gardiner's Island.

The idea in the building of Saybrook seems to have been, a

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considerable area inclosed by fortifications which should contain the residences of the titled proprietors, and that the settlement should be outside of the fortifications. This plan was probably as much to draw the line between " gentle " and " simple ", as for the greater safety of the proprietors. Before the twenty men composing the garrison of the fort had been there a year the Pequot war was upon them. Some of them were killed instantly and others were tortured to death by the Indians. The fort was in charge of Lieutenant Lion Gardiner.

Fenwick, the agent of the company, had returned to England

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only resident member of the Company, Fenwick took upon himself the rights and authority of governor. Saybrook remained alone and independent till December, 1644, when Mr. Fenwick sold to the Hartford Colony the fort at Saybrook, by agreement in December, 1644, with the General Court. Fenwick was elected a magistrate. Lady Fenwick died in 1646, after the birth of their daughter Dorothy. Fenwick became discouraged and disheartened in regard to the Colony and believing that assistance was needed from home, he sailed for England. There he was commissioned a colonel in the army of Parliament; was elected a member of that body but was excluded, as Cromwell was not satisfied with him. George Fenwick's death occurred in 1657.

The fort was destroyed by fire in 1647, and the new one was built nearer the river. How Andross came to this fort, which was in command of Captain Thomas Bull, with a demand that it be delivered to him, and how Captain Bull prevented it, diplomatically and without violence, are matters of Colonial politics which really have no place here.

The founding of Yale College was not an afterthought to the original colonists, since it may be traced back with a certain degree of confidence to the leaders of the New Haven Colony, among whom John Davenport was conspicuous * * *. It is true in fact that a little before the beginning of the last century (before 1700) there was a movement in Connecticut toward the establishment of a college, in which were conspicuous five clergymen whose parishes were all on the coast from New Haven to Stratford. These clergymen counseled freely with certain Massachusetts gentlemen, probably for the purpose of ascertaining what was the best method to secure a trustworthy act of incorporation or organization. Very soon after, as we know, there was a meeting of seven clergymen, as it is supposed, in Branford, each of whom, as the tradition goes, and we trust the tradition in this case, made a gift of books saying: " With these books I lay the foundation of a college in this colony ". By their deed of gift these persons invested something in the enterprise, and thereby qualified themselves to appear as petitioners for the assurance of certain corporate rights. In response to their petition a charter was obtained, sometimes called the old charter of Yale College, and on the 9nth of

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November, 1701, seven of the trustees who were constituted by this act a corporate body, met at Saybrook and the organization took place at Say-brook on the 22d of November, 1701. The fact cannot be questioned that Yale College was founded under its charter in Saybrook * * *. Now, why was Saybrook selected? I think it was in part accidental; and can be, perhaps, more or less satisfactorily explained. In the first place it may be supposed that possibly the pastor of the church in Saybrook may have had some influence in locating the college here. Perhaps it was because the place was thought to be very easy of access, by the river from the north and by the shore from the east and west. Perhaps it was owing to the fact that the future rector had probably been fixed on, who lived near

this place * * *. It may be, also, that some who were active behind the scenes thought that it would not do to designate New Haven as the place lest they might awaken the somewhat sensitive feelings of the people at Weathersfield and Hartford. As between the claims of all these rivals, it is not surprising that Saybrook was selected. At the time of the founding the college owned no property and had no endowment, but Nathaniel Lynde, of Saybrook, gave to the institution the use of a house and land, so long as the col-

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lege remained In Saybrook. After its removal to New Haven the property reverted to him. The Rev. Abraham Pierson, of Killingworth, was chosen as the rector of the new institution.

The first work of the new college was the granting of degrees and although the college had no students, the first commencement was held in 1702, and degrees were conferred upon five graduates of Harvard College. Thus, Yale at the beginning was an examining body, with right and power to confer degrees in very much the same way the universities of the " Old Country "were doing. Daniel Hooker, son of the Rev. Samuel Hooker, of Farmington, was the first tutor appointed and the first graduate was John Hart, also of Farmington, who became the minister of the Church in East Guilford. He entered, at what corresponded to the beginning of the junior year, and received his degree in 1703.

In 1714, there were large contributions of books sent to Say-

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brook and Jeremiah Dummer, the agent of the Colony in England, secured 700 volumes in England from eminent writers there. The last commencement held in Saybrook was that of 1716, as a result of a desire on the part of the trustees to move the college further west, to be nearer the center of the much larger population in that direction, which included the settlements, towns and cities in New York and New Jersey. The trustees voted in the proportion of five to two, that if the college was moved at all, it should be located in New Haven, but before any definite steps were taken the trustees decided to ascertain which of the three places, wishing to be the home of the college, would give the largest sum of money to it. New Haven raised £2,000; Say-brook, £1,400 and Hartford, notwithstanding its wealth, gave little or nothing. The trustees met in adjourned session in New Haven, on October 17, and argued the matter for a week. The arguments in favor of New Haven were, that it had promised

the greatest sum of money; that its location was such that it would attract more students and that it was nearer the more populous districts in the west. The final vote resulted in the residents of Wethersfield and Hartford voting against New Haven and the five other trustees voting for New Haven.

Two years were then spent in wire-pulling by representatives of other places which wanted the college, but the trustees remained steadfast to their decision. The matter was finally determined by the approval of the people at large, a small appro priation from the State and by the holding of a commencement in New Haven. The trustees then fixed the matter by proceeding to the erection of a building.

The Hon. Elihu Yale, the patron and friend of the University bearing his name, was born in New Haven Colony on April 5, 1648. He was descended from an ancient and wealthy Welsh family, which possessed for many generations the Manor of Plas Grannow and considerable other real estate near the city of Wrexham. His father, Thomas Yale, Esq., came to America with the first settlers of the New Haven Colony, in 1638.

At the age of ten, Elihu was sent back to England to be educated in one of the great public schools (Eaton?) and Oxford University. At the age of thirty he went to the East Indies, where he accumulated a great estate. He was appointed Governor of St. George and married the wealthy widow 'of his predecessor, Governor Hinmers. They had three daughters. Katherine married Dudley North, commonly called Lord North; Ann married Lord Jarnes Cavendish, uncle of the Duke of Devonshire; Ursula died a spinster. After his return to London he was made Governor of the powerful East India Company, when he began his donations to the College, or the Collegiate School, as it was then called.

His particular interest in the Collegiate School was brought about by the son of a cousin. The paternal estate in Wales being entailed by the law of primo geniture, he, having only daughters, sent a request to his counsin John Yale, of New Haven, that he send one of his sons that he, Elihu, might make him his heir. John sent his son David to London and later, when David returned to New Haven, he entered Yale and was graduated in the class of 1724. This occasioned a correspondence

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between Governor Yale, Governor Saltonstall and the Rev. James Pierpont, of New Haven.

Forty of the volumes obtained in England by Mr. Dummer in 1714 were the gift of Governor Yale. This was two years before the School was moved from Saybrook. Forty books do not seem like a very valuable gift in these days, but it must be remembered that in those days, books were very expensive; that books were what the School was greatly in need of and had not the money to purchase. The next donation was of three hundred volumes, which, with the forty, were valued by President Clapp at £100 Sterling. Then followed a gift of goods valued at £200, and the King's picture and arms and three years later more goods were sent, which, with the previous lot, were sold by the College authorities for L400. To quote from President Clapp's history of Yale, published in 1766:

On September 12, 1718, there was a splendid commencement (that important event in undergraduate life being held in the autumn then) held at New Haven, where were present, besides the trustees, the Honorable Gurdon Saltonstall, Esq., Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, the Honorable William Taylor, Esq., representing Governor Yale, the Honorable Nathan Gold, Esq., Deputy Governor, sundry of the worshipful assistants, the Judges of the Circuit, a great number of reverend ministers, and a great concourse of spectators. The trustees, in commemoration of Governor Yale's great generosity, called the collegiate school after his name, Yale College; and entered a memorial thereof upon record, which was as follows:

The trustees of the Collegiate School, constituted in the splendid town of New Haven, in Connecticut, being enabled by the most generous donation of the Honorable Elihu Yale, Esq., to finish the college house already begun arid erected, gratefully considering the honor due to such and so great a benefactor and patron, and being desirous, in the best manner, to perpetuate to all ages the memory of so great a benefit, conferred chiefly on this colony: We, the trustees, having the honor of being entrusted with an affair of so great importance to the common good of the people, especially of this province, do with one consent agree, determine and ordain, that our college house shall be called by the name of its munificent patron, and shall be named Yale College; that this province may keep and preserve a lasting monument of such a generous gentleman, who by so great a benevolence and generosity, has provided for their greatest good, and the peculiar advantage of the inhabitants, both in the present and future.

(It is a matter for congratulation that this "college house", Yale's first building, was not standing when the twentieth cen-

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tury began for, had it been, there would have been Vandals who would have torn it down to make room for another architectural excrescence, similar to the one which deprived old Yale-men of one of their happiest memories, by crowding the " Fence " off the face of the earth.)

It does not require an unusually vivid imagination to produce a mental picture of the joyousness of that famous Commencement Day of 187 years ago, which was the birthday of " Old Eli," nor of the devout thankfulness to the Giver of all Good, on the part of the earnest, self-sacrificing trustees and friends of the College, that at last their " college house " could be finished and the College placed upon a firm financial foundation.

The memorial quoted above was read in Latin and then in English and then the procession left college hall and marched to the meeting-house where the public exercises of the day were to take place. The Rev. John Davenport delivered an oration, which became a panegyric, with Governor Elihu Yale as its subject. He was followed by Governor Saltonstall who delivered an oration in Latin, or, as President Clapp floridly and quaintly said:

And the Honorable Governor Saltonstall was pleased to grace and crown the whole solemnity with an elegant Latin oration, wherein he congratulated the present happy state of the College, in being fixed at New Haven, and enriched with so many noble benefactions; and particularly celebrated the great generosity of Governor Yale, with much respect and honor.

It was understood that Governor Yale had drawn a will leaving another donation of £500 to the College; that he finally decided it would be better to give that sum rather than leave it by will, so he packed goods to the value of £500 to be sent to New Haven, but his death occurring before they were shipped the College was the loser. Although Governor Saltonstall tried all means to have the will probated he was unsuccessful.

Elihu Yale died on July 8, 1721, and was buried in the church yard in Wrexham. The epitaph on his tombstone is as follows:

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Under this tomb lyes interred Elihu Yale, of Plas Gronow, Esq.: born 5th of April, 1648, and dyed the 8th of July, 1721, aged 73 years.

Up to 1708, the system of Church government in Connecticut was based upon the Cambridge Platform, which was adopted by the Churches of New England at the start, but later the Connecticut Churches adopted a system of government at Saybrook, known as the Saybrook Platform.

In 1668, the General Court authorized the Revs. James Fitch, of Norwich; Gershom Bulkley, of Wethersfield; Jared Eliot, of Guilford; and Samuel Wakeman, of Fairfield, each of them representing the four counties of the Colony respectively, to meet in Saybrook to fix upon a general plan of church government and discipline for the Churches of Connecticut. In 1703, the Collegiate School authorities issued a circular requesting the Churches and their ministers to meet. They did so and gave consent to the Westminster and Savoy Confessions and also formulated rules for ecclesiastical union and discipline.

For the third time, on September 20, 1708, a solemn meeting of twelve of the foremost Congregational ministers and four of the most prominent laymen, was held in Saybrook to take action in regard to Church government and other church matters. This meeting was held at a commencement of the Collegiate School, as Yale was then called, at least half of the delegates being- trustees of that institution. These delegates were:

From New Haven County — the Rev. Samuel Andrew, minister of the Milford Church; the Rev. James Pierpoint, minister of the First Church of New Haven; and the Rev. Samuel Russell, minister of the Branford Church.

From Hartford County — the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, minister of the First Church in Hartford; the Rev. Noadiah Russell,

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minister of the First Church in Middletown; the Rev. Stephen Mix, minister of the Wethersfield Church; and John Haynes, of Hartford, messenger.

From New London County — the Rev. James Noyes, minister of the Stonington Church; the Rev. Thomas Buckingham, minister of the Saybrook Church; the Rev. Moses Noyes, minister of the First Church of Lyme; the Rev. John Woodward, minister of the First Church of Norwich; Robert Chapman and Deacon William Parker, of Saybrook, messengers.

In 1708, there were no wheeled vehicles for traveling — that was all done on horseback — and these men made the long journey from their homes to Saybrook on horseback through the wilder

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ness, or by canoe from Hartford, Wethersfield and Middletown. Neither this Council, nor the Saybrook Platform, had anything to do with settling points of doctrine, but both had to do with devising a general plan of Church government and discipline. That, in fact, was the Saybrook Platform. There were, in 1708, forty-one Congregational Churches in the Colony of Connecticut, with but two Churches of any other denomination — a Baptist Church in Groton and an Episcopal Church in Stratford, both of which came into existence in 1707. The next denomination to have a Church was the Presbyterian, in 1723, and the next was the Methodist, in 1789, after the formation of the State. Therefore, the Council represented the sentiment of almost the entire population of the Colony of Connecticut.

That the Congregational Church in Connecticut was in perfect doctrinal harmony with the reformed Churches of Great Britain and the Continent, was shown in the eighth article of agreement. This is:

As to what appertains to soundness of judgment in matters of faith, we esteem it sufficient that a Church acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Word of God, the perfect and only rule of faith and practice, and we own either the doctrinal part of those commonly called the Articles of the Church of England, or the Confession or Catechism, shorter or larger, compiled by the Assembly at Westminster, or the Confession agreed on at Savoy, to be agreeable to this rule.

Each of the four counties represented in the convention drew up a model for the articles of discipline. The model, principally draughted by the Rev. James Pierpoint, of New Haven, was amended and passed. The articles provided for one or more consociations of Churches in each county, which were tribunals with appellate and final jurisdiction. To these individual Churches referred matters considered to be too serious for one Church to decide; also for associations in each county, composed of teaching elders or ministers, who had the general welfare of the Churches in mind; examined candidates for the ministry; investigated charges of scandal or heresy; recommended ministers to Churches without them. The associations met at least twice a year.

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A General association composed of one or more delegates from each county association; this was an advisory body, whose duties were not fixed by the Platform.

The result of the deliberations of the Convention was reported to the General Court and that body made the Congregational Church, the Established Church of the Colony of Connecticut, all other denominations being considered as dissenters. It is a significant fact of great interest, that the first book ever printed in Connecticut was The Saybrook Platform. This was printed in 1710, in New London, by Thomas Short, on a printing press given to the Colony by Governor Saltonstall. It was significant in that it showed how closely the first literature of the Colony, as well as the Colonial Government, was interwoven with Congregationalism.

While the Government of the Colony, through its Established Church, did not attempt to dictate to the people of the Colony in what manner they should worship — the law being the same in the New England Colony of Connecticut, as it was in Old England, in regard to Dissenters, under the act of William and Mary in 1689 — it did require all citizens to help support the Established Congregational Church. There was no other punishment for not being a Congregationalist than this. In 1727, Episcopalians and in 1729, Baptists, were exempted from being taxed for the support of the Congregational Churches, provided they attended a Church of their own denomination.

The way in which individuals could avoid the Established Church tax was accomplished by what was called, " signing off ".

According to tradition, an influential citizen becoming somewhat tired of paying the tax to the Church, went to the proper official to sign the required paper which would release him from further paying the Church tax, but the clerk refused to draw the paper on account of the prominence of the citizen and his value to the Church. So he drew the document himself and being somewhat heated by the refusal, mixed a bit of biting sarcasm in his declaration that:

I hereby renounce the Christian religion that I may join the Episcopal Church.

But even this " signing off " was not permitted to Congrega-

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tionalists and Presbyterians. If members of those churches wished to withdraw and worship by themselves, they were still required to pay the tax for the support.of the Church from which they withdrew. Freedom of worship for the Strict Congregationalists, or " Separatists ", as they were also called, was a rather expensive luxury for they were obliged by law to continue to pay the Church tax and, of course, they were obliged to help support their own Churches. Many of the Strict Congregationalists became Baptists as a result of the law.

While the New World was settled by those who desired " Freedom-of-Worship ", the weakness of human nature was frequently shown in those early days, by the persecution of individuals whose freedom of worship was outside of the Congregational Church. A particular case illustrates this.

Two students at Yale College, in 1744, John Cleveland and his brother Ebenezer Cleveland, were charged with the heinous offence of attending another Church than the Congregational, while at home in vacation time. When they returned to College they were suspended till they had confessed. As they refused to do so, they were expelled and their fellow students were forbidden from associating with them, or even speaking to them, for fear they too should become corrupted.

In the Revolution, Saybrook did its full share with the other towns of the Colony. But more than this, Saybrook will go down to the end of time, historically, as being the place where the first attempt to produce a submarine torpedo boat was made. Although the attempt was not an entire success, the fact still remains, that the Adam of the successful submarine war vessels of the twentieth century was the turtle-like torpedo boat invented by David Bushnell, of Saybrook.

In the autumn of 1776, the ship " Oliver Cromwell " was built in Saybrook and successfully launched and ably commanded by Azariah Whittlesey. In that year Captain Seth Warner, who stood second in command to that other grand patriot, Ethan Alien, the commander of the feared Green Mountain Boys, was authorized to raise no men for duty on the northern lakes, and was provided with money and given a commission.

In April, 1777, David Bushnell, who was born in the Parish,

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now the Town of Westbrook, informed the Governor and Council that he had a plan for blowing the entire British Navy on the American coast, out of water. The Governor and Council provided every necessity for the construction and trial of the great invention. Building operations were begun at the " Ferry ", Mr. Bushnell having first proved that gun powder could be exploded under water.

The Connecticut coast was more or less troubled with Tories, who gave comfort and assistance to the British ships on Long Island Sound, by furnishing- them with supplies. This was particularly true of the settlements and villages on the lower Connecticut and especially at its mouth, where the Tories tried to run contraband out to the ships in the sound. But Saybrook slept with one eye open and the other eye on the watch. The Rev. John Edward Bushnell, minister of the Fairfield Congregational Church — but a native of Old Saybrook — gave so delightfully

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humorous an account of, " Saybrook's only sanguinary battle of the Revolution ", in his address at the Quadrimillenial celebration of Saybrook, that it is quoted here:

A mass of contraband articles, had been taken from the Tories, and a young man —William Tully —was set to watch it, in the house formerly owned by Captain John Whittelsey, still standing at the Point. On a certain night, eight Tories came to the house and demanded entrance. Tully begged to be excused from opening the door. They broke in without further parley and rushed forward. Tully's flint was faithful to the trip of the hammer and struck fire. The musket ball passed through the first man, and to Tully's surprise he still advanced, but the man directly back of him dropped dead. Tully then surrounded the other six men and would have incontinently put them all to the bayonet (and did wound one of them) had they not contrived to escape by the windows. The first man whom Tully shot finally found that the ball had passed through him, for he dropped dead, with one hand on the window and the other grasping a chest of tea. The retreating forces left a quarter of their number dead on the field — or floor — and a quarter of the remaining were carried

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away wounded in their friends' arms. It is, perhaps, noteworthy that the continental army did not lose a man.

The Tories were at another time routed by one man, this time Charles Williams. He was on the watch for Tories at the Point. One night he heard the grating of boats on the beach and suspecting them to be filled with Tories, he ran out and in a loud voice, ordered the guards to turn out. The Tories, not knowing that the guard consisted of but one man, pushed off and escaped from " that wretched Rebel ".

Of the many somewhat visionary, or entirely imaginative accounts of treasure possessed by Kidd, the famous, or infamous pirate, the following is reliable for its accuracy. It was told to John W. Barber, author of Connecticut Historical Collections, by John G. Gardiner, of Gardiner's Island, about 1837. Mr. Gar-diner obtained his information from a letter belonging to Mrs. Wetmore, who was the mother-in-law of Captain Mather, of New London, commander of a revenue cutter. Mrs. Wetmore says in her letter:

I remember when very young, hearing my mother say that her grandmother was wife to Lord Gardiner when the pirate came to Gardiner's Island. The Captain wanted Mrs. Gardiner to roast him a pig; she being afraid to refuse him, cooked it very nice, and he was much pleased with it; he then made her a present of this silk (cloth of gold) which she gave to her two daughters. The following is an extract from an account of property belonging to Kidd and captured from him in 1699, by order of the Earl of Bellmont, captain general and governor in chief over the province of Massachusetts Bay:

Gold dust . ................................................. 145 ozs.
Gold bars . . ................................................ 591.75 ozs.
Gold coin . . ............................................... 11.75 ozs.
Silver, broken . ............................................. 173.75 ozs.
Silver coin . ................................................ 124 ozs.
Silver bars . ................................................ 309 ozs.
Silver lamps and buttons, silver rings and a bag of gems. Mrs. Wet-more's letter continues:

Captain William Kidd was commander of the sloop Antonio; received a commission to cruise as a privateer, turned pirate, was guilty of murder — was taken, and carried into Boston; was tried, condemned and exe-

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cuted —not as a privateer — but as a murderer. He was here with his accomplices a short time before he was taken; how long he remained on this Island I know not. While here, he told Mr. Ga.rdiner where he had deposited the iron chests, which contained the treasure above described and left it in his care, with the injunction, that he must answer for it with his head. The chests were buried in a swamp on the west side of the island. There has been much digging here upon this island for Kidd's money, all along the coast. But I think it is doubtful whether there was ever any buried except that which was buried here.

NTIL its incorporation in 1840, Westbrook was a parish in the Town of Saybrook. It was incorporated as a distinct parish in 1724. From the great quantity of clam and oyster shells as well as stone implements, it is evident that the neighborhood of the village was for centuries a permanent village of Indians. The large number of half finished, and fragments, of arrow and spear heads that are still being found, to the east of the river near what is locally known as Round Hill, causes the belief that it was an Indian village for centuries. These fragments and partially finished specimens suggest, that they were made there and it is thought by some authorities on Indian archaeology, that arrow heads were made only at permanent settlements. The operation was of a semi-religious nature and the arrow head makers were nearly equal to the medicineman in the estimation of the tribe. The Indians who lived on the shore at Westbrook, when the first settlements by the English were made, were subject to, or a part of the Pequot Tribe. After the extermination of that tribe by the settlers, in 1637, they disappeared from West-brook. The Indians living at Westbrook, after that place was settled, were a small branch of the Nehantic Tribe, from Rhode Island. They disappeared some time during King Philip's War, in 1675 or '76. The Indian names for the territory now included in Westbrook were Menunketeset (a word that was spelled in every conceivable way in the old records) and Pochoug, which are still retained in Patchogue River and Menunketesuck Point and River.

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According to Barber, Westbrook was settled in 1664. Among the earlier settlers of Saybrook who had received grants of land, or had made purchases in Westbrook, where the Chapmans, Fitches, Bulls, Jacksons, Duncks and Chalkers. Olin Chalker and two brothers built three houses on the little hill at the foot of which is a brook crossing the road, which is the dividing line between Saybrook and Westbrook. The oldest of three houses Is on the south side of the road, but it has been so modernized that it has no appearance of age. Directly opposite, is another house that has been abandoned for many years, and it is in a most picturesque state of ruin. It is almost impossible to look at it without regret for it suggests " home " and happiness and hospitality, surrounded as it is with a wild, tangled growth of old-time flowers, shrubs and trees, and its well-sweep going to decay, while the other two are simply commonplace farmhouse of the present-time.

In 1648, Saybrook divided the out-lying lands into quarters and that designated in the records as Oyster River Quarter included nearly all of Westbrook (and much more), so the record of this division of the wild lands is the first definite reference to the territory that is now Westbrook.

Mr. James A. Pratt, in his history of Westbrook, says that a few individual pioneers settled on the flats along the shore as early as 1650.

In the distribution of the land to the original proprietors, there were nooks and corners having no value then, because of lack of fertility or remoteness. That there was no particular claim to them, or dispute as to ownership, resulted eventually in their being regarded as a sort of no-man's-land. But as time passed and these pieces of land were occupied by outsiders, they beeran to have a value in the estimation of their actual owners. The first and second school-houses, and the first church and the parsonage, were built upon such land. This appropriation of their land alarmed the proprietors. The result was, that a Proprietors' Committee came into existence in 1723, and the General Court passed an act that common or undivided land, not disposed of by the free consent of the original proprietors, could be claimed by them as a part of their estate. The same act

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authorized the proprietors to appoint a committee and clerk to act as their agents, with power to dispose of common or undivided land. This committee continued till 1838, when Jonathan Lay was the last surviving member and Jared Platt the last clerk.

Like the other shore and river towns, Westbrook had its active and prosperous ship-building days, which continued for many years after the industry had ceased in the river towns.

The first grist-mill was built by Lieutenant Samuel Jones sometime before 1690. A few years later the Grinells put up a windmill, not far from where the Congregational Church now stands. It was moved to the hill behind the church, where it could get more wind, and it remained there till 1800. There was a sawmill, in 1748, on Falls River on Samuel Wright's land. It was jointly owned by Wright, Benjamin Jones, Thomas Bushnell, and Nathaniel Chapman, who took turns in using it for their own sawing, three days in each year. Before 1700, there was an ironworks at Pond Meadow, where ore obtained in Mine Swamp was smelted and made into about everything necessary to the settlers, from anchors down to nails.

For sixty years the earnest, noble men and women traveled on foot, on horseback and later, in rude carts, all the way to Old Saybrook to worship and hear the Divine commands and promises explained by their minister. In summer the journey was hard enough, but in winter, through deep snows, with an all-day service in a cold church, it was a very different matter.

In 1724, Westbrook had a population of 225 persons divided among 38 families. Their number and the distance necessary to go to attend Church, determined them to apply for permission to separate themselves from the Saybrook society. A public meeting was held on April 13, 1724, when the people of Old Saybrook agreed, not to oppose the desire of the Westbrook portion of the society, for a separation, with a society of their own. It was agreed, that until the Westbrook people had a minister of their own, they should continue to pay their portion of the expense in maintaining a minister over the Old Saybrook society.

On May 13, 1724, a petition was sent to the Legislature, in Hartford, asking that Westbrook be made a separate society.

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This petition was signed by Samuel Chapman, James Post, and William Stannard. The petition was granted, and on May 28, 1724, the First Society of Westbrook was formed with Captain Samuel Chapman, as moderator.

Immediate action was taken to secure a minister and in August, of the same year, the Rev. William Worthington was engaged at a salary of £50 and fire wood. In December, of the same year, the society voted to build a parsonage, but the minister was required to provide the glass and nails. The little community had already been at considerable expense, so the proposal to build a church seemed beyond their means. In order that money for this purpose might be obtained, they asked the Legislature to free them from paying the Colony tax for a period of three or four years. This was in the spring of 1725. Their request was refused and a similar request, made in October of that year, was also refused, but the Legislature granted them permission to form a Church and to settle an orthodox minister, with the consent of the neighboring Churches. On June 29, 1726, the Church was organized with the following members; Captain Samuel Chapman, Abraham, James and John Post; Jared and Thomas Spencer ; Margaret Chapman, Lydia Grenil, Sarah Spencer, Mary Lay, Mary Denison, Sarah P>rooker, and Mary Waterhouse.

Captain Chapman was a grandson of the settler, Robert Chapman, and the son of Robert, Junior, who was one of the messengers from New London County to the convention which drew and adopted the Saybrook Platform. Abraham Post was a grandson of Stephen Post the settler, and Lydia (Peabody) Grenil was a granddaughter of John Alden and the charming Priscilla, whom he courted for another man and won for himself.

In January, 1726, the people voted to build a meeting-house, but it was several years before the church was completed. This delay was, seemingly, not the result of indifference or procrastination, but of lack of money. The slow progress of the steps taken toward the building show this. On Christmas, 1727, a committee was appointed to secure sleepers and underpinning; in May, 1728, another committee was appointed to place the sleepers, and still another for procuring glass and lead, and so on for a year or two longer. In 1730, the pulpit was built and

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the lower seats put in place; in 1733, the pulpit was provided with cushions; the plastering was finished; steps were made and placed in front of the door and the doors were hung on hinges and provided with means of fastening. In 1738, the galleries were finished and nothing more, in the way of work, was done till 1763, when one side and two ends were covered with oak clapboards, which were painted a sky-blue, and window frames, with sashes furnished with glass, were put in. In 1794, the queer old square pews, with seats around the four sides, were replaced with straight pews. This church, begun in 1727, and standing for so much sacrifice, hope and determination, was taken down one hundred years later, in 1828, and a new church was built -upon its site. In 1860, the second church was removed and the third built on the same site and being burnt in 1892, a fourth church was built upon the same site around which were so many precious memories.

The great number of years in which the first two ministers were in charge was quite typical of early New England. The Rev. William Worthington was born in Colchester, was graduated from Yale in the class of 1716, and was minister of the Westbrook Church for thirty-two years. The Rev. John Devotion was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1754, and minister of the Church for forty-five years.

Westbrook was the home of the inventor of that most feared naval weapon of the twentieth century, the sub-marine torpedo boat and the fact that David Bushnell, the inventor, was born in Westbrook, will make that town notable for all time.

It is an odd fact that that notorious appropriator of other men's ideas, Robert Fulton, who robbed John Fitch of the credit which he earned and deserved, also appropriated the ideas of David

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Bushnell, but did not succeed in robbing him of the credit and honor due him and his memory.

David Bushnell was born in 1742, on his father's farm which was located away from the more thickly settled portion of West-brook. At the age of twenty-seven, David's father died and while his loss was great, the death of his father proved to be a great gain to the world, for David's sense of duty was such that had his father lived, he probably never would have left the farm where his services were needed, to obtain the education he so much craved and so, doubtless, would not have thought out sub-marine navigation.

After his father's death, David disposed of the farm. At a time when boys of but fourteen were entering Yale, David, at the age of twenty-seven, prepared for Yale under the instruction of the Rev. John Devotion, the minister of Westbrook, in two years. It is probable that the idea of sub-marine explosions occurred to him while an undergraduate for, when he was graduated in 1775, he began his experiments.

The first step was to prove that gunpowder would explode under water. This was demonstrated with a wooden receptacle filled with powder. The bottle-like receptacle was submerged, with a heavy plank on top and on the plank a hogshead filled with stones, till its top was just above water. The explosion threw stones and bits of wood into the air and demonstrated just what Bushnell believed that it would. He continued his experiments till all possibility of doubt of their success was eliminated, and then began to work out plans for the "American Turtle", as the Adam of sub-marine torpedo boats was called by him.

In April, 1777, Mr. Bushnell informed the Governor and Council that he had a plan by which the entire British navy in American waters could be blown out of water. Governor Trum-bull — Washington's " Brother Jonathan ", who is to-day depicted, with a coat of stars and " pants " of stripes, as the human emblem of Yankee Land — and General Israel Putnam, immediately appreciated, that if Mr. Bushnell's ideas would work the war would soon be a matter of history. They gave him every necessary encouragement and assistance. The construction of the "American Turtle " was begun at the Ferry. The hull was

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in the form of two upper shells of a turtle, one above and the other below inverted. It was seven and a half feet long and probably about the same width and was only large enough to contain the courageous man who was to work it. The supply of air for the " crew " was sufficient to last thirty minutes. The greater portion of the ballast was under the keel and was so arranged that it could be lowered to act as an anchor. The motor was the man inside the boat, who worked the paddles with his feet. It was equipped with a compass, light and barometer, the latter for determining the depth below the surface. The kind of light to be used was a most troublesome matter to determine. With but a limited supply of air a flame could not be considered, for the air would soon be burnt up and the man would be suffocated. Mr. Bushnell's first experiment was with a kind of luminous wood which was satisfactory only if the atmospheric conditions were favorable. As a last resort he wrote to Benjamin Franklin for advice and for information in regard to the use of phosphorus. This was finally decided upon and used with success. In the bottom of the boat was a valve to admit water when it desired to descend below the surface. For returning to the surface, two brass force-pumps were provided for expelling the water. There were windows of heavy glass and ventilators with air pipes reaching to the surface of the water. At the stern, above the rudder, was the magazine. It consisted of two pieces of oak, hollowed, in which were 150 pounds of powder. This magazine was lighter than water so that it would rise against the bottom of the ship to which it was to be fixed. Inside the magazine was a mechanism, arranged to be set to run for any period of time up to twelve hours. When it stopped, a lock resembling a gun lock was sprung and the 150 pounds of powder was exploded.

A brother of David Bushnell was to make the first experiment, but illness prevented, so a sergeant of one of the line regiments was given the hazardous honor. The " Eagle ", one of Lord Howe's ships, of 64 guns, was chosen for the first trial, where she was lying in New York harbor, and General Putnam was on the wharf to witness the attempt. The sergeant tried to fix the screw to the bottom of the ship but did not succeed, as the screw

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came in contact with some iron. The sergeant's lack of experience was the cause of failure. When returning to land he thought he had been sighted by the British, so he cast off the magazine, which was timed to explode in an hour. The mechanism worked and the explosion filled the British with consternation and fear and the atmosphere with flying water. In 1777, Mr. Bushnell, himself, tried to blow up the " Cerberus ", at anchor off New London. The attempt was made from a whale boat and although he did not blow up the man o'war he did destroy a schooner, just astern, that the British had captured. The sailors on the schooner seeing the line attached to the magazine, drew it inboard thinking it was a fishing line. When they

drew on board the contrivance at the end of the line their interest was great, but before they could satisfy their curiosity it exploded and killed three men besides destroying the schooner. It seems that Mr. Bushnell had provided for just such an occurrence by placing wheels with iron points, on the outside of the magazine which would be revolved when the magazine was raised from the sea up the side to the deck of the vessel. The revolution of these wheels set the mechanism so that the explosion would take place in five minutes after they began to revolve. Just why the " Turtle " was abandoned, after demonstrating that it would destroy vessels, is uncertain. It had accomplished a great good for the Colonies for the British were terrified. They feared that every object seen floating on the surface was one of those Yankee infernal-machines and, as a

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result, they were not so bold in their naval operations near the coast. Nearly every one is familiar with the historic " Battle of the Kegs " on the Delaware River, and how those same kegs filled the hearts of the bravest Britons with dread; dread of the unknown, which unmans the bravest; dread of what those wretched Yankees might do next by means of BushneH's devilish-inventive genius.

The kegs were arranged with an interior mechanism similar to .that in the magazine of the " Turtle " only, instead of exploding at the end of a fixed time, they were exploded upon coming in contact with a hard object. These kegs were set afloat on the Delaware at night, that they might float down to the British ships and blow them up. It so happened that they first came in contact with the ice floating on the river and were exploded with great violence and noise, blowing up the ice and one British schooner. The explosion sent the British, like hens seeking shelter from hail, wild with terror to every place of safety to be found. They imagined every impossible thing. One of their wildest ideas being that each keg was occupied by a Yankee and that the Rebels were attempting an aqueous version of the Wooden Horse of Troy.

The British were so greatly mortified by their fright, that they offered a reward for David Bushnell, and they did not care whether he should be presented to them in the form of a man or a cadaver. The British did actually obtain possession of Mr. Bushnell without paying the reward, but the same genius which produced the "American Turtle ", helped him to make his escape. After the " Battle of the Kegs ", he joined the Patriot army as a private and was captured in an engagment with the British, and placed on board one of the British frigates, in Boston Harbor. Mr. Bushnell acted the part of a person of weak mind. He was seen, one day, hacking at the rigging with a hatchet and when an officer asked what he was doing, Bushnell replied that he always had to cut the brush and clear the land in the spring. When this was reported to the commander of the ship, he directed that " the fool" should be put ashore. Bushnell and the officer who had him in charge stopped at a

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tavern. While the officer had a drink. Busline!! wrote a note to the commander of the ship telling- him who " the fool " was. The pitiful remnants of the " Turtle " are now in a barn on the Bushnell farm in Westbrook, in possession of one of his descendants. It was all there not so long ago, but parts of it have been stolen or lost.

Tradition gives Jonah Dibble, of Haddam, the credit of being the first settler of Chester, just before 1692, then followed Andrew Warner, of Hadley, in 1696. In the succeeding fifty years families of the names of Parker, Shipman, Waterhouse, Webb, Willard and Southworth, from Saybrook, settled there as did the Canfields and Eetts, from Durham.

Chester was much concerned in the boundary dispute between Saybrook and Haddam, which is mentioned under the caption of Haddam. The Indians too, were much concerned for by the adjustment of the boundary their forty-acre reservation was found to be in Saybrook, instead of Haddam, and the inhabitants of Saybrook were not willing to recognize their rights.

The first record of a transfer of property, within the present bounds of Chester, was a deed given by John and Elizabeth Cullick to John Leverett of Boston, dated 1660. Mrs. Cullick received the property by will from her brother, George Fenwick, the proprietor of Saybrook. The land disposed of by this deed was a part of the Twelve-mile Island Farm. Grants, or sales of land, including 700 acres, were recorded in 1672, to a number of persons, but there is no evidence that any of them settled upon their property.

The gift of Cedar Swamp and its fine water-power to Governor Winthrop, for the benefit of the Colony, in 1663, was the cause

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of more trouble within the bounds of Chester, for Saybrook denied the right of the proprietors to make the grant. John Chapman and John Clark represented Saybrook in the negotiations with Governor Winthrop regarding the property. The Governor relinquished the property to Saybrook, in 1688, with the stipulation, that the timber and land should be sold only to inhabitants of Saybrook. The swamp was divided into lots, running east and west through the swamp, that were from one and a half to twelve rods wide. These were disposed of by sale or gift to inhabitants of Saybrook.

In 1734, the individuals who owned property about Cedar Swamp Pond gave a deed of a narrow strip of land, surrounding the pond, for a nominal sum to Samuel Willard, in appreciation of his services as a surveyor. Mr. Willard already owned considerable land there, which included the outlet of the pond and so, of course, the valuable water-power. His son, George Willard, built the first saw and grist-mills of Chester, on this site. The property was owned by the Willard family for a great many years.

Up to 1729, the inhabitants of Chester attended Church, and paid their portion for the support of the minister of the Church, near Centerbrook, in the present Town of Essex, but in October of that year, they obtained permission to worship at home in the winter months, for four years. This was known as " winter privilege". Two years after the parish was incorporated, on September 15, 1742, the Church was organized, with a membership of twenty-two men and forty-one women and the Rev. Jared Harrison its first minister. The first meeting-house was built in 1743, but it was not finished till 1750 (although it was worshipped in) and even then, the church was never ceiled or plastered, the timbers being left exposed to view. Under the church was an open space where sheep congregated and made such a racket with their bleating that the service was frequently interrupted, till one of the men drove the woolly disturbers away. At different times, beginning with 1773, there was a lack of harmony in the congregation because of a presence of harmony in the choir that was objectionable. This was a " newfangled " style of singing that had been introduced by the

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younger members of the congregation, and was disapproved by the older members. This contest over the harmony of sound, which had caused a discord in the harmony of interests, was anally arranged by permitting the young people to have charge of the singing at one service, each Sunday, for a brief period of time.

The first permanent school was started in 1755. It was under the control of the Church till the school-system was established.

The building of vessels and trade with the West Indies occupied the time of many individuals profitably for a period of about sixty years, which began some twenty years before the Revolution. The principal builders of boats and ships were members of the Leet, Colt, Buck, Stevens, Lord, and Denison families. In the West India trade were Gideon Leet, Jonathan Warner and William Mitchell, they being the merchants doing the greater part of the trade with those islands.

HAT portion of Saybrook which became Essex was called by the Indians Potapaug. It was a very old Indian settlement that occupied the point, that juts into the Connecticut just north of Thatchbed Island, and like all Indian villages it was delightfully situated, in the midst of charming scenery, as well in the midst of a district where game and other animals, valuable for their pelts, were plentiful and where the high nobility of the finny tribe— salmon and shad — could be had almost without effort.

It was on the Potapaug Point where the first English settlers built their houses, and where the business of the place was transacted for many generations. As Essex grew in population the village crept up the steep hill, to the west of the lowland, and the homes that were built upon the face and top of the hill are approached by gently sloping, terraced streets. A walk along these streets more than compensates for the effort, for the view is constantly changing and each new view of the river, the coves, the islands and the Lyme shore, to the east of the river, seems more charming than those just enjoyed. The natural beauties of Essex and neighborhood are great, and the native refinment and hospitality of the people are in keeping.

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Some of the early settlers of Potapaug, between 1690, and 1710, were John Denison, of Stonington; John Starkey, of New London; Charles Williams, of Rhode Island; the Lay and Pratt families from the mouth of the river; the Hayden family, from Dorchester; and the Ay res family, which settled at Ayre's Point about 1710. In 1702, the Rev. Thomas Buckingham settled at Beaver Pond. Fie was one of the incorporators of Yale, and was reputed to be a successful trapper of the valuable beaver, which were found in great numbers on the shores of the pond.

The growth in population of Essex was slow till just before the Revolution, when its ship yards and ropewalk were very busy as were the few merchants, whose storehouses were filled to the eaves. John Tucker began the ship building industry about 1720. From this small beginning there grew up a business so great, that there was a time when thirty vessels of various kinds and tonnage were on the stocks at once in the different yards. One of the ship and schooner builders, who did the most business, was Nehemiah Hayden, in 1742. Uriah Hayden, in 1750.

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was the builder of some of the most famous ships of the Connecticut River, among them being the " Oliver Cromwell ", which is said to be the first man o'war ever owned by the United States. She carried 24 guns and was launched in 1775, for the Colony of Connecticut, but was soon after transferred to the National Government. Richard Tucker and Ebenezer Hayden, also in 1750; Samuel Williams just before the year 1800; Ashabel Pratt, Judea Pratt, Captain Noah Scovill, Amasa Hayden, just after the year 1800; Noah Starkey, Austin Starkey, and David Williams, 1815; Charles Tiley, 1825; R. P. Williams, and David Mack, 1830; and Captain Frank West, and Nehemiah Hayden, 1835. The last named builder launched the " Middlesex ", 1,400 tons, in 1851, the largest ship built at Essex. The Elizabeth Denison, 1,000, was launched by Noah Starkey in 1839. The embargo of 1812 to '14 caused a falling- off in the business, but it increased again and was at the height of its prosperity about 1840. About 1800, the rope walk began operations and did a

large business in making cables, and material for rigging the vessels built in Essex. The old warehouse, shown in the picture, was built by Abner Parker in 1753, but soon after was owned by the Haydens and is still owned by Mr. James Hayden, the grandson of Uriah Hayden. Trade with the West Indies began at about the same time as ship building and continued for more than a century. When the West India trade was the greatest this old warehouse was never empty. It was frequently filled from ground to roof with rum, sugar, molasses and tobacco, to be shipped in small boats up the river, or transported inland in carts. The products of the river settlements and large towns were stored in this building till loaded upon ships and schooners outward bound. Just south of this warehouse is Hayden's wharf, upon which stands an old sail-loft, in which smaller boats were

The Hayden residence is just behind the sail-loft. It is on a slightly lower part of the bluff upon which the Lay house is situated, and directly across the street from it. The front yard of the Hayden house abuts upon Hayden's wharf. This charmingly situated, old-time residence was built by Uriah Hayden in 1766, and is now occupied by his grandson, James Hayden. The interior of the house is quaint and eminently home-like and contains many rooms, some of them of unusual size. The house is filled with fine specimens of Colonial furniture, which have come down through succeeding generations of Haydens,

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and of many rare and costly articles that were picked up in Europe by the different members of the family, who not only built ships, but commanded them, or sailed in them for recreation and travel. The Hayden residence was a tavern from the year it was built down to about 1800. The old sign, painted in England, bears the letters and numerals " U. and A. 1766 ", the U, standing for Uriah Hayden and the A, for Ann his wife. A very long, low room on the south side of the house has a door with an elaborately carved George the Third brass knocker, and hanging on the walls are pictures of George the Third and his Queen, which have hung there since 1766. Mr. James Hayden has a flint-lock pistol of great size, bearing the date of 1730, and a flint-lock musket, of 1756. Both weapons are in perfect condition and the present Mr. Hayden has shot ducks with the musket many times in his youth. The musket has a barrel five feet and four inches long. It was originally four inches longer, and was bell-mouthed. This four inches was cut off many years ago, as the wide muzzle caused the shot to scatter too much. That the boat-building art has been inherited by the family is evidenced by a fine sloop yacht, and one or two smaller pleasure boats, that were built by Mr. James Hayden, in the lower portion of the old sail-loft.

Other taverns in the old days were the present Griswold House, an excellent country hotel, that has been a hotel for more than a hundred years. It was first kept by Ethan Bushnell. At Centerbrook, a village near the center of the Town of Essex, was a tavern kept by Dan forth Clark, about 1800. It was on the site of the home where Chapman Gladding lived in 1883. Clark was a popular proprietor and his tavern was notable in its day for its hospitality and good living.

The first saw-mill of Essex was built in 1705, by Ensign William Pratt and Sergeant Nathaniel Pratt, on Falls River. In 1715, Charles Williams and John Clark, Jr., built a grist-mill on the same stream. The first machine in the United States for cutting the teeth of combs, was invented by Phineas Pratt and Abel Pratt, father and son, and the making of combs was first

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begun by them in Essex, just before the year 1800. In 1802, William's ivory-comb works was started at the mouth of Falls River, but little business was done by them till five years later, in 1807, when it increased greatly and was profitable. In 1816, this works was united with a comb works at Deep River, in Saybrook.

HARMING old Lyme, mother of lawyers, judges, statesmen, diplomats, and multi-millionaire-financiers; separated from Saybrook only by the width of the Connecticut River, but how differently situated! On higher and more fertile soil; shut in from the storms of the north and the piercing winds of the east; exposed only on the south-west (that mysterious quarter in which the Indians placed their " happy hunting grounds ", because only from heaven could come the sweet, life-giving south-west breeze) and settled by men and women of gentle-birth who, with their descendants, have helped to make America notable in the world! Never disturbed by the noise and turmoil of factories, nor hampered (and prospered) by commercialism. Unattractive to the emigrating refuse of Europe, it remains an old-fashioned gem in an old-fashioned setting.

It is, perhaps, the only river town in the State of Connecticut, that has remained a place of residence, where mental wealth and breeding are more highly regarded than dollars and cents. Its only occupation in the old days was the building, and sailing of ships to the great markets of the world. An occupation at once dignified and broadening.

When Old Lyme was settled in 1664, it was known as East Saybrook, it being a part of that town. The original township covered an area of about eighty square miles. Lyme was incorporated in 1667.

Matthew Griswold was the first settler. He received a grant of land from George Fenwick in 1645, and moved from Say-brook to Lyme, calling his place Black Hall. He was soon followed by the DeWolf, Champion, Noyes, Lay, Ely, Lord, and Lee families, who took up the greater part of the town. Up to 1667, the place was known as East Saybrook, but in that year it was set off and incorporated as the town of Lyme.

---

The Rev. Moses Noyes, of Newbury, Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard, was the first minister. His pastorate of sixty-three years began in 1666, and ended in 1729. The Rev. Samuel Pierpoint, of New Haven, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1718, became assistant to Mr. Noyes in 1722. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker. Mr. Noyes was accidentally drowned in the Connecticut in 1733. The third minister, the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, of Springfield, a graduate of Yale, was ordained in 1731. The fourth, was the Rev. Stephen Johnson, of Newark, New Jersey, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1743, who was in charge of the church for forty years. The fifth, was Rev. Edward Porter of Farmington. The sixth, was the Rev. Lathrop Rockwell, of Lebanon, a graduate of Dartmouth. He was pastor from 1794 to 1828. He had a successful school of youths. Judge Matthew Griswold had a law school that turned out many notable lawyers.

John MacCurdy, a gentleman of Ireland with Scottish blood in his veins, purchased the residence known as the MacCurdy house in 1750. Instinctively opposed to the British government, he became a strong partisan of the Colonists in their opposition to British injustice. Tradition has it, that he and his friend, the Rev. Stephen Johnson, minister of the Lyme Church, spent many hours together in the MacCurdy home discussing the Stamp Act and other equally offensive acts, and that the first published article definitely suggesting resistance of the enforcement of the Stamp Act, even to actual rebellion, was written by Mr. Johnson in this house. The article was printed in the Connecticut Gazette, through the influence of Mr. MacCurdy. Other articles and pamphlets followed, undoubtedly from the same pen, but no one seemed to know their source.

The Sons of Liberty in New York had manuscripts of a treasonable nature, but no one was willing, or possessed of enough courage to print them. John MacCurdy, of Lyme, being in New York heard of them and Anally obtained permission to copy them. He took them back to New England with him where they were printed and sent out over the country. This was in 1765. Nearly every able-bodied man of Lyme joined the 500 who went en horseback to Wethersfield to demand the resignation of the much hated Ingersoll, the Stamp Commissioner. And so mat-

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ters progressed in Lyme to the beginning of the Revolution, the patriotism of the people keeping pace with the times always, and frequently running ahead of the times, through the aggressive patriotism of the people. In 1774, a peddler entered Lyme with his saddle-bags filled with the delicious and longed-for but obnoxious tea. It was taken from him and burnt while the mouths of the patriotic matrons and maids watered at the thought of the comforting beverage it would have made. The home of the Griswolds was at Black Hall where the fine

Governor Matthew Griswold is described as being grave, shy and some what awkward. His first love affair took him to Durham—on horseback and a long journey it was—where the young woman lived. She had two strings to her bow — Matthew Gris-

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wold and a certain physician whom she preferred of the two — but she was unwilling to loose the first string till she was sure of the other. This kept Matthew busy riding the long distance between his home in Lyme to her home in Durham. As he had a suspicion that he was being kept for a " forlorne hope " he, one day, brought matters to a head by demanding an immediate reply to his oft repeated proposal, only to be again told that she would like a little more time, to which he replied : " Madam, I will give you a lifetime ". The physician did not declare the love she hoped he had for her, so she lived and died a spinster.

Finally, his charming cousin, Ursula Wolcott, was a guest at Black Hall. Matthew was smitten with her, but his experience had made him shy of her sex. But Miss Wolcott had a mind as well as beauty. She loved Matthew and suspected that he loved her, although he failed to declare it. One day when they met on the stairs, Miss Wolcott asked:

" What did you say, Cousin Matthew ".

" I did not say anything ", was his reply.

The question and reply were repeated at other meetings several times till, meeting on the beach, Miss Wolcott asked her question for the last time, for she added after his answer:

" It is time that you did ".

So, Miss Ursula Wolcott became Mrs. Matthew Griswold. Her family was notable for the number of governors it contained. Besides her husband who became governor, there were her father, Governor Roger Wolcott, her brother, Governor Oliver Wolcott, her nephew, the second Governor Oliver, and her son became the second Governor Roger Griswold.

Black Hall was famous for its fine hospitality and other attractions, not the least of them being, in the days of " What did you say, Cousin Matthew," Cousin Matthew's eight handsome sisters who were known as " the Black Hall Boys " because of their high spirits, their success in athletic sports and exercise, and their good fellowship with the world. New England has just such girls in this century, but in that century, when the people were rather strait-laced, such joyous, healthy, spirited girls were more noticeable than they are now.

Phcebe married the Rev. Jonathan Parsons and so became the mother of that daring and successful Revolutionary soldier,

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General Samuel Holden Parsons. The Rev. Jonathan Parsons was a good man and a dandy. He had a passion for ornament, jewels and fine clothing and was very particular about his personal appearance. This was something of a shock to his parishoners, and a source of fun for his fun-loving wife Phoebe, who was one of " the Black Hall Boys". One night, just as Mr. Parsons was starting for prayer-meeting, after looking in the mirror to see that his hair was right and his neck-cloth well arranged, Mrs. Phoebe hugged him,

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About 1671, there was a territorial dispute between Lyme and New London, of a nature similar to that between Saybrook and Haddam, but it was very differently settled. A strip of land four miles wide was in dispute, both towns claiming it. Both towns proposed to let the other have one mile of the strip and, of course, both refused. As the land was not considered to be of sufficient value for a long and expensive law-suit, the people of the two towns decided " to leave it to the Lord ". As they expressed it, their pious determination was misleading, for their method of leaving it to the Lord was a bare-knuckle fight, between two champions from each town. The champions of Lyme were William Ely and Matthew Griswold, not " What-did-you-say-cousin-Matthew," but a Matthew of two generations earlier than his day. The result was most satisfactory. The fight went to the Lord and the land in dispute to Lyme.

Roger Lake, about four miles north of Lyme Village, was a favorite resort for Indians and for many years they had a permanent village on its shore. It is tradition, that the cave, near Lion Rock, was a hiding place for Kidd and other pirates and that they buried treasure on the shores of the lake.

General Samuel Holden Parsons was born in Lyme. With the intention of becoming a lawyer, Samuel Parsons prepared for Llarvard College, entered and was graduated from that institution with the class of 1756. He then entered the law office of his uncle, the Hon. Matthew Griswold, who was Governor of Connecticut, and applied himself diligently to the study of his chosen profession.

He began to practice for himself in Lyme and almost immediately took an active part in the affairs of the community, as the representative of Lyme in the Legislature, where he was continuously for twelve years. In 1774, he received an appointment as King's Attorney for New London County. He attained an eminent place in the legal fraternity of the Colony and his law practice was a very profitable, but neither ambition nor wealth caused him to hesitate a moment when his country needed every patriot it could obtain. At the breaking out of the Revolution he resigned the King's Attorneyship.

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In April, 1775, he was one of the few daring men who planned the surprise and capture of Ticonderoga. For this purpose the patriots took £810 from the treasury of the Colony, without the knowledge of the Assembly, for which they gave their personal notes and receipts (presumably with the agreement, that should the enterprise fail, they would return the money to the treasury from their own pockets) which were later cancelled by the Assembly. This affair did more toward giving the people of Connecticut the moral courage which they needed, in their contest with Great

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one of the judges who tried that fine gentleman and brilliant soldier, Major Andre, whose necessary death as a British spy caused the great-hearted Washington such keen sorrow. General Parsons' brilliant and successful attack, in 1781, upon the British at Morrisania, caused Congress to direct Washington to express the thanks of that body to General Parsons. Toward the end of 1781, the Governor, and Council of Safety, turned the command of the state troops and the Coast-guards over to General Parsons, with full power to do with them as he thought necessary in protecting the people of Connecticut against attack by the British.

When peace was declared, General Parsons opened a law office in Middletown. He represented Middletown in the Legislature and was the life of the bill for the formation of Middlesex County, in 1785. That same year he went to Ohio and in January, 1786, he, with General George R. Clark and General Richard Butler, represented the Government in a treaty with the Indians, near the mouth of the Great Miami river, that resulted in the ceding of a large tract of territory by the Indians to the United States. General Parsons returned to his home early in 1787, and in October of that year, Congress appointed him Governor of the North West Territory, but he delayed his going so that he could take part in the State Convention for the endorsement and adoption of a National Constitution, in January, 1788. In 1789, he served with Oliver Wolcott, of Litchfield, (who was later Governor of Connecticut) and James Davenport, Jr., of Stamford, on a committee for a treaty with the Indians who claimed lands in Ohio. While returning to his home in Marietta, Ohio, he was drowned in the Rapids of Great Beaver Creek, on November 17, 1789, in the fifty-third year of his age.

CLINTON

They shall settle an able, orthodox, godly minister free from scandal etc. etc.

There is a suggestiveness about the last three words which is somewhat misleading, since it implies that ministers were frequently— not free from scandal. It is more than probable that the word scandal, does not refer in any way to the personal, private lives of those heroic priests of God, who did even more than their full share to make New England what it is, but to their faithfulness to the Congregational Church, or to the Say-brook platform. Too great liberality, or too little strenuousness in adhering to the platform, being considered scandalous.

The other of the two prominent provisions was, that the plantation on the east side of the Hammonassett River, still so called, should consist of at least thirty families. The plantation began its existence with but twenty planters, or heads of families, and not long after their settlement, ten of the twenty left for other parts. So the plantation continued to exist with but ten families, till two years later, in December, 1665, when the required number was actually present as settlers.

To the Yankee of 250 years ago, the same as it is to the Yankee of to-day, the next most important matter to the Church and worship was the School and education. As early as November 15, 1703, the little Town voted to build a schoolhouse to be sixteen feet square —"with room for a chimnie "— and to be situated upon meeting-house hill. The school was in session for one half of the time in the winter and the other half in the summer as required by law. Atenry Crane, Sr., was chosen for the schoolmaster for one year, at a salary of eleven shillings weekly.

The early history of religious worship in Clinton is meagre

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and indefinite. According to the Rev. J. D. Moore's Historical Sketches, John Colton preached to the people before the Church was organized, but where John Colton came from or where he went, seems not to be known.

As was frequently the case in those very early days, the people were called to worship by the drum. In 1666, the Town agreed with Nathan Parmlee to beat the drum on Sundays for the sum of forty shillings a year, and he was to maintain the drum at his own expense. Two years later, Samuel Griswold was the Sunday-drummer, with a salary increased to one pound and ten shillings a year, and eight months later the Town voted to buy

The little settlement was known as Hammonassett till May, 1667, when it was called after the famous Warwickshire town, Kenilworth, whence a number of the settlers came to the Colony. Through a lack of education, or carelessness, or both, the spelling was changed to Kenelwort and Kenelmeworth to Killingworth, as a portion of the town is still called.

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The Rev. John Woodbridge, the first of that fine family to be born in America, was called as the first pastor of the Church, in his twenty-third year, in 1667. This young divine's grandfather, the Rev. John Woodbridge, was a distinguished dissenting minister in England, and his grandmother was the daughter of the Rev. Robert Parker, a writer of note on religious subjects and a friend of non-conformity. His father, also John Wood-bridge, was born in Stanton, Wiltshire in 1613. He went to-Oxford University but when the oath of conformity was required of him, he refused and so had to obtain his education elsewhere. Being a strong and consistent dissenter, he came to the Colonies, with his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Parker, in 1634, and in 1641, he married a daughter of the Hon. Thomas Dudley. Mr. Wood-bridge was ordained and became the first minister of the Church, in Andover, Massachusetts. It was in Andover that the John Woodbridge who became the first minister of the Killingworth Church, was born, in 1644. He was graduated from Harvard at the age of twentv, in 1664, andspent the following three years in the study of theology and, in 1667, became the minister of the Killingworth Church. His home lot, of eight acres, was on Main and South streets. Early in the second year of his pastorate he was given, by vote of the Town, £60 toward the building of a parsonage. His salary, the usual combination salary, was £60 and fifty loads of fire wood. The Rev. John Wood-bridge's first home was near the Elias Wellman place and later he lived on the corner known as the " Stanton place ".. Mr. Woodbridge resigned after twelve years of faithful service, much against the wishes of his parish, and went to the Church in Wethersfield, where he remained as minister till his death, in 1690, in the forty-sixth year of his age. Woodbridge, the charming hill town a few miles northwest of New Haven, was named in honor of the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, of the same

family, the first minister of the Church in that place, where his faithful service extended over forty-three years. The Rev. Benjamin was a grandson of the Rev. John of Killingworth.

After Mr. Woodbridge left Killingworth for Wethersfield, the Church in Killingworth was in a state of discord and disagreement for fifteen years, and no successor to Mr. Woodbridge was secured till 1694, when the Rev. Abraham Pierson, who will be famous in America for all time as being one of the original founding-trustees of Yale and its first Rector, was called as the second minister. He was a son of the Rev. Abraham and was born, some authorities say, in Southampton, Long Island, and others in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1646, and was graduated from Harvard in the class of 1668. Mr. Pierson succeeded in restoring the old harmony and peace that obtained under the pastorate of Mr. Woodbridge.

It was at about the time Mr. Pierson became minister of the Killingworth Church, that the people of Connecticut recognized the need of a college in which the youth of the Colony could be educated for the Church and for public office in the Colony. In 1700, Mr. Pierson was one of the several ministers chosen by the people to found the Collegiate School at Saybrook, by g