TO THE BELOVED MEMORIES 
 
 OF MY 
 
 FATHER AND MOTHER 
 THESE SIMPLE RECORDS OF THEIR 
 
 ANCESTORS 
 ARE LOVINGLY INSCRIBED 
 
COLONIAL 
 DAYS &W1XS 
 
 As GATHERED 
 FAMILY 
 
 Of SHAR.ON, CONNECTICUT 
 
 "With Decorations by 
 T.Guernsey Moore 
 
 NEW VORK 
 
 Publiftied by <fh* CENTUKT Co. 
 M C M 
 
 0)00 
 

 
 (o 
 
 Copyright, 1900, by 
 HELEN EVERTSON SMITH. 
 
 Copyright, 1900, by 
 NEW YORK EVENING POST Co. 
 
 Copyright, 1900, by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 THE DEVINNE PRESS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 II 
 
 IV 
 
 THE ALPHABET OF COLONIAL STUDY ix 
 
 ( Sources of Information^ (Superiority _of JLetters 
 and Diaries over other Records} Pilgrim, Puri 
 tan, and Cavalier; Dutchman, Huguenot, and 
 Palatine. Rapidity of Colonial Growth. 
 
 THE CONTENTS OF AN ANCIENT 
 GARRET .......... 17 
 
 Sharon, Connecticut. When and how the 
 Township was Settled. The Old House: how 
 it was Constructed; who Lived in it; the Papers 
 
 it Contained. 
 
 A PIONEER PASTOR ....... 33 
 
 Rev. Henry Smith of Wethersfield, Connecticut. 
 
 Troubles of a Wilderness Church. Letter from 
 Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts, in 
 1698, describing Early Days in Wethersfield. 
 The Minister s Will. 
 
 59 
 
 A PIONEER HOME IN CONNECTICUT 
 
 ( The Coming of Mrs. Margaret Lake and the 
 Family of Captain John Gallupy Voyage of the 
 Abigail. The First Homesteads of the Second 
 Generation. Household Labor. A Bride s 
 Furnishings. 
 
 TWO HOUSES IN OLD NEW AMSTER 
 DAM 89 
 
 The Long Step from Connecticut to New York. 
 Comforts of the Dutch. Mr. David Codwise 
 
VI 
 
 Tells of the Houses of his Grandfather and of 
 Niclaes Evertsen, Grandson of Lieutenant-Ad 
 miral Jan Evertsen. 
 
 ^1 THE CARES OF THE HUYSVROUW . 107 
 Every Homestead a Manufactory. Slavery. 
 Good Providers. Spinning and Weaving. Soap 
 and Candle Making. Washing. Bread and 
 Yeast. Butter Making. Nursery Lore. 
 
 VII THE ESCAPE OF A HUGUENOT FAMILY 123 
 
 Edict of Nantes and its Revocation. The Hu 
 guenot Exodus. (Arts Carried Abroad^ Daniel 
 L Estrange. A Huguenot " Lady in Waiting." 
 An Effectual Disguise. To New Rochelle by 
 Way of England. 
 
 VIII HUGUENOT HOMES IN NEW RO 
 CHELLE 139 
 
 Life less Toilsome than with Most of the Colo 
 nists. Attachment to the Services of their 
 Church. Refugees not Colonists. Loyalty to 
 the Land of their Adoption. Little Daintinesses 
 of House Furnishing. 
 
 IX HUGUENOT WAYS IN AMERICA . .153 
 
 Alterations in Names. Resentment toward their 
 Native Land. Differences between French and 
 English Calvinists. (Schools Established by the 
 Huguenots. Amusements, and Games of Courtesy A 
 
 X A COLONIAL WEDDING 167 
 
 Gallup and Chesebrough. Rev. William Worth- 
 ington of Saybrook, Connecticut. Wedding 
 Customs. Quality and Commonalty. The 
 Uninvited Guests. A Valiant Supper. 
 
 XI LIFE ON AN EARLY COLONIAL 
 
 MANOR ,83 
 
 Terms of Grant. The First Lady of the Liv 
 ingston Manor. Extent of the Manor. 
 
Vll 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XII PROSPEROUS DAYS ON A LATER 
 
 MANOR 197 
 
 ^Increase of the Clan in Numbers and Wealth. 
 Education.^ Margaret Beeckman Livingston, 
 Last Lady of the Manor of Clermont. 
 
 v XIII A COUNTRY PARSON S WIFE . . . 205 
 
 Lake, Gallup, Chesebrough, and Worthington; 
 Elliott, Chauncey, Hopkins, Ely, and Good 
 rich. The Parsonage and its Furnishings. Fire 
 and Flint. 
 
 XIV HOME CARES IN A PARSONAGE . .221 
 ( Madam Smith s Multiplied Employments. Small 
 Incomes and Many Out-goes. J Extracts from 
 Madam Smith s Reminiscences. The Small 
 pox. Hospitality. The Preaching of Whitefield. 
 
 XV SUNDAYS AND OTHER DAYS IN THE 
 
 PARSONAGE 233 
 
 From Sunset to Sunset. ( The Weekly Ablution^ 
 Care of the Teeth. Long Services. Catechiz 
 ing. Sunday Night. Fashions and Clothes. 
 An Evening of Sacrifice. 
 
 /XVI MANOR LADIES AS REFUGEES ... 247 
 Flight of the Livingstons from Kingston and 
 Clermont to Litchfield County, Connecticut. The 
 Young Van Rensselaer. Westerlo. Vaughan s 
 Raid. Ladies as Hostlers. Husking Bees. 
 
 XVII A LITERARY CLUB IN 1779^81 ... 267 
 ("The "Clio.}* /Two Diaries.) ^The Sharon 
 Literary ClubX Canfield. Spencer. News of 
 Victory. Tailors and Clothes. Chancellor 
 Kent. Noah Webster. ( Holmes the Historian.^ 
 
 XVIII NEW ENGLAND S FESTIVE DAY . . 289 
 
 Thanksgiving in 1779. Expedients. Abun 
 dant Hospitality. Absence of Beef. Celery. 
 VAfter-dinner Entertainment. \ Two Oranges. 
 
Vlll 
 
 299 
 
 3 5 
 
 XIX A SNOW-SHOE JOURNEY . . . 
 
 A Blizzard in 1779. ^itchfield s Busy 
 Judge Tapping Reeve and Family. From Litch- 
 field to Woodbury on Snow-shoes. Parson Bene 
 dict. 
 
 XX A NEW YORK EVENING FROLIC . . 
 Mr. David Codwise Tells of an Evening at the 
 Rhinelander Homestead. Candles and Candle- 
 dipping. The Supper. The "Fire Dance." 
 The Parting Cup. 
 
 XXI A MAN OF ENTERPRISE 3j 9 
 
 Medical Man and Merchant. (An Early Medical 
 ConventionJ A Captain of Volunteers. Ad 
 vancing Money and Supplies. A Solvent Debtor. 
 Comparative Prices. Removal to Vermont. 
 
 XXII A COUNTRY PARSON S USEFUL LIFE 347 
 
 Ancestors. Personal Characteristics. Small 
 pox in Sharon. "Old Jack" and "Billy 
 
 G . " A Lesson in Kindliness. Influence 
 
 with Indians. The Sabbath Made for Man. 
 
 XXIII "WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITH 
 
 FUL" 365 
 
 (The Meeting-house as a News Depot. | A Season 
 of Discouragement. A Meeting-house of the 
 Eighteenth Century. The News of Burgoyne s 
 Surrender. /A Half-century Sermon. \ De 
 scendants. 
 
UNIVEH- 
 
 ITH the gathering of relicVtb 
 suitable exhibits at the centennial 
 celebration of our national inde 
 pendence, there came a general 
 awakening of interest in all things 
 pertaining to the history of our Revolutionary War 
 and of the few years preceding it. Beginning with 
 an interest only in this special period, the slow fire 
 spread backward until now there are few persons 
 at least, of English, Dutch, Huguenot, or even of 
 the late-coming Palatine descent who are not 
 increasingly interested in all that pertains to the 
 earliest colonists. Especially is this true proba 
 bly because reliable information concerning it is so 
 difficult of access in whatever pertains to the 
 home life, the employments, the enjoyments, the 
 hardships, and the habits of our ancestors in those 
 far-away days when the comforts and conveniences 
 which they possessed were, as compared with 
 our own, proportionately as those of the Indians 
 when compared with those of the English in 1620. 
 So far, it must be confessed that, while the 
 amount of information painfully gathered from 
 
town records, wills, inventories, letters, traditions, 
 and relics is not inconsiderable, we are not as greatly 
 the gainers by it all as we should be. We have the 
 alphabet, but we do not yet know how to make 
 words, still less how to construct the sentences, 
 ii:tell us the true story of the most in- 
 beginning which any people has ever 
 
 Our national life has not been one of growth 
 from savagery up, through many wars, through 
 centuries of depression and oppression, of slow 
 disintegrations and slower constructions, but is 
 the result of deliberate purpose on the part of the 
 majority of the first colonists, of no matter what 
 creed or nationality, to occupy this wide, wild, 
 new land, free to the first comer, and bring to it 
 all the best of the institutions of the Old World, 
 while leaving behind all that was worn out, all 
 that had served its day. 
 
 For this reason, if for no other, the smallest 
 traces of our national beginnings should be sought 
 for; but not as one gathers pebbles on the sea 
 shore, to bring them home, turn them over, and 
 throw them away. Every old record, every homely 
 detail, every scrap of old furniture, every bit of 
 home handicraft, above all, every familiar old let 
 ter or diary or expense-book, should be treasured ; 
 not always each for its own sake, but because each 
 thing, however valueless by itself, is a letter in our 
 alphabet, and, when read in connection with 
 
something else, may help in the formation of a 
 word hitherto unknown to us. 
 
 In forming pictures of home life in the colonies, 
 dates, places, and social classes must all be most 
 carefully considered. Slow-moving as those pre- 
 electric days now seem to us, there yet was a con 
 stant and, when rationally considered, a rapid 
 progression, from the moment of the first landing 
 at Jamestown onward. 
 
 The life conditions which prevailed in the New 
 England colonies from 1620 to 1640 were by no 
 means the same as those which prevailed in the 
 same colonies during the next- two decades, and in 
 the other colonies they were at no time quite the 
 same as in New England. The settlers of Vir 
 ginia, Delaware, and Maryland were not of the 
 same creeds, either political or religious, as those 
 which prevailed in New England. They had 
 more money, not having been obliged to make 
 their flitting under such adverse circumstances, and 
 climate had also its influence. 
 
 The Dutch held very similar religious and politi 
 cal views to those of the New England colonists, 
 but their commercial instincts were stronger, their 
 aggressiveness was less vehement, and their love 
 of home comforts and knowledge of how to obtain 
 them were much greater, for during the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries Holland was at the head 
 of the commerce and manufactures of the world. 
 Besides this, many of the immigrant Hollanders 
 
were either wealthy themselves, or were the well- 
 provided offshoots from wealthy families who 
 were disposed to enlarge their estates by commerce 
 in the new lands. 
 
 The first three sets of colonists had passed through 
 their pioneer stages, and gathered around them 
 selves a fair degree of all the accompaniments of 
 civilization before the advent of the fourth dis 
 tinct and considerable body of settlers. These were 
 the refugee Huguenots. In religion the Hugue 
 nots were as Calvinistic in their creed as were 
 the Puritans and the Dutch, and were fully as 
 earnest and steadfast in their belief, while the per 
 secutions which the Puritans had suffered in Eng 
 land could no more be compared with those which 
 had been endured for nearly two centuries by the 
 Huguenots than the privations of one of our late 
 Spanish captives could be compared with the suf 
 ferings of the colonists harried by the Indians in 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
 
 Whether they had been rich or poor in, France, 
 there were very few of the Huguenot refugees 
 who were not in the depths of poverty when they 
 reached here. But they were gentle (in both 
 senses of the word), they were trained in many 
 arts, and they had the keen perceptions, the cour 
 tesy, and the easy adaptability of their race. Home 
 life among them was different from that of any of 
 the other colonists, partly because they had the 
 advantage of coming to a land which had already 
 
been occupied for more than threescore years by 
 laborious, progressive, and intelligent settlers, and 
 partly because they came from a land which was 
 in some things more advanced than either Holland 
 or England. Politically the Huguenots had little 
 sympathy with either English or Dutch. Their race 
 was strongly monarchical by instinct; the rights of 
 the individual man had never assumed their proper 
 proportions in the eyes of Frenchmen. 
 
 The last of the great immigrations was that of 
 the Palatines. In modern times there never has 
 been such wholesale abandonment of home and 
 fatherland as that by these unfortunate members 
 of a home-loving race, driven by scores of thou 
 sands forth from the land of their birth by unen 
 durable misery. Their home had been the battle 
 ground of Europe. Great kings and petty princes, 
 Catholics and Protestants, had alike fought over it, 
 burned its villages, destroyed its crops, leveled its 
 strongholds, and harried its people until they had 
 no hope remaining. In sheer desperation they 
 begged from the compassion of England a passage 
 to and a home in the wilds of the new land. 
 Theirs is a history as yet inadequately written, but 
 it is worthy of the pen of a really good historian, 
 and when one shall arise from among their descen 
 dants theirs will prove to be a worthy and in some 
 respects an unexampled record. 
 
 In studying the lives of the early colonists these 
 different origins should always be considered, 
 
The one colony must not be judged by another. 
 The Puritan, a political as well as a religious 
 exile, persecuted for his political views even 
 more than his religious tenets, came here to 
 found an empire where all his views should have 
 room and liberty to expand. He was keen-witted, 
 and, for his day, be it ever understood, in spite 
 of his rigid notions of morality, and of all modern 
 assertions to the contrary, he was no narrower in 
 his strictness than was the roistering Cavalier in his 
 laxity of morals. The harshness of the Puritan 
 toward those who disagreed with him was tender 
 ness and mercy compared to the "justice " meted 
 out to either religious or political dissidents in old 
 England, or, for that matter, in any other country 
 in Europe, with the possible exception of Holland, 
 at that period. Neither man nor nation should be 
 judged by other than the standards of his time. 
 
 The conditions of the Puritan s life were hard, 
 but full of mental, moral, and physical health. 
 Whether gentle or simple, he despised no handi 
 craft, neglected no means of cultivation, shirked 
 no duty (nor did he permit any other to do so, if 
 he could help it), and he fought his way upward, 
 unhasting, unresting. 
 
 The settlers of the fertile Southlands were also 
 principally of English blood, yet they differed 
 widely from those of the sterile North. They 
 were courageous, of course. A minority came 
 under compulsion, but the majority came of their 
 
own free will, and cowards did not cross the ocean 
 in those days, when the sea and the wilderness had 
 real terrors for even the boldest. The love of lib 
 erty was in their blood, and both the traditions of 
 their past and the comparatively genial conditions 
 by which they were surrounded gave them easy 
 and comfortable views. If the Englishman of the 
 North were strenuous, energetic, a warm friend and 
 a stern foe, he of the South was strong, generous, 
 and joyous. If each were disposed to look a lit 
 tle askance at the other when the world went well 
 with both, when trouble threatened either the fra 
 ternal blood flowed warm and true. We are all 
 proud of them both stern Puritan, gay Cavalier. 
 
 The Dutchman was milder than the Puritan, 
 but every way as stiff-necked, and was an inborn 
 republican as well as an educated Calvinist. 
 Slower in his perceptions, narrower in his concep 
 tions, and more prejudiced than even the Puritan, 
 his faults were not so glaring because less aggres 
 sive, and the strength of his friendships and family 
 affections hid them from the view of those who 
 lived nearest him. As a mariner and as a trader, 
 as well as in the arts which tend to make life easier 
 and more comfortable, he had few equals, and our 
 country owes much of its subsequent prosperity to 
 the Dutchman s commercial and industrial instincts. 
 We are ever grateful to him. 
 
 The Huguenot was devout, unambitious, affec 
 tionate of heart, artistic, cultivated, adaptable. He 
 
8 
 
 brought to us the arts, accomplishments, and graces 
 of the highest civilization then known, together 
 with a sweet cheerfulness all his own. Not a colony 
 or a class but was ameliorated by his influence, 
 and, consciously or unconsciously, we all love 
 him. 
 
 The Palatine came to our shores desperate with 
 misery. Although Protestant, his faith was not 
 Calvinistic, neither did it fill so large a place in his 
 thoughts. To the older colonists he seemed to be 
 material, almost sordid, in his aims ; but they un 
 derstood neither his language nor his desperation. 
 Perhaps they did not sufficiently try to do so. So 
 he was left to himself, and so difficult was he of 
 assimilation that even to-day those of his descen 
 dants who live a little off from the highways of com 
 merce may still be found speaking but very im 
 perfect English, if any, and living in self-centered 
 communities, with little heed of the outside world, 
 shut off from its influence. Industrious, frugal, un- 
 progressive, living for himself alone, we still do not 
 comprehend him. 
 
 Now, it is certain, from the nature of things, that 
 the home lives of all these different bands of colo 
 nists must have differed widely. None had luxuries 
 and few had comforts, as we now understand these 
 terms, but each had some possessions, some ways, 
 some deficiencies, and some attainments which be 
 longed to none of the others; hence it is that a 
 knowledge of the home life and personal character- 
 
istics prevalent in one colony does not imply a 
 knowledge of those of another. 
 
 Even the details of domestic life differed some 
 what in all the colonies, and a thing sometimes 
 forgotten is that the house furnishings and personal 
 habits, as well as the degrees of mental culture, 
 differ with every advancing decade. Improved 
 conditions came with a rapidity that was unexam 
 pled until that time. Because the first New Eng 
 land immigrants were obliged to live in moss- 
 chinked and mud-plastered log huts, it does not 
 follow that they long continued to live in them. 
 In fact, it was but a few years before very substan 
 tial and comfortable dwellings were erected by the 
 better class in all the colonies. The " Old Stone 
 House" of Guilford, Connecticut, erected in 1639, 
 is still an exceedingly comfortable and even hand 
 some residence, though it has been damaged by 
 some ill-judged alterations for which there was no 
 excuse, because they have in no way added to the 
 convenience or comfort of the inmates. 
 
 Two or three years later than the building of the 
 Guilford house, there was erected in Hartford, 
 Connecticut, a two-story house of squared timbers, 
 covered with overlapping shingles on the sides, for 
 the Rev. Thomas Hooker. Of this house a cut is 
 given in Barbour s " Historical Collections of Con 
 necticut," which shows it to have been not only a 
 substantial, but, though a simple, yet a noticeable 
 mansion for that period in the old England as 
 
10 
 
 well as in the New. The house erected for Mr. 
 William Whiting about the same time is said to 
 have been still better. The house furnishings of 
 Mr. Hooker and Mr. Whiting, as inventoried after 
 their deaths, would not seem very plentiful or lux 
 urious to-day, but, read in connection with the 
 similar inventories of the same date belonging to 
 the yeoman or petty gentry classes in England, do 
 not show many marked differences. Even when 
 compared with the inventories of the larger landed 
 proprietors in England, there is not much to choose 
 in the way of comforts, though undoubtedly there 
 is in that of articles of luxury and display. In 
 these there is as much difference between the pos 
 sessions of Mr. Hooker and Mr. William Whit 
 ing of Hartford and those of an English gentleman 
 of high social grade, as there is between an English 
 nobleman s belongings and those of a Frenchman 
 of similar rank, or those of a Hollander of the rich 
 merchant class at the same period. To the French 
 nobleman or the untitled but wealthy Dutchman, 
 the interior of the English nobleman s castle must 
 have seemed to the full as barren of beauty and of 
 comfort as the homes of the Hartford settlers 
 would have seemed to all of them. 
 
 A few years later than the deaths of Mr. Hooker 
 and Mr. Whiting, the recorded inventories grow 
 longer and fuller. Stools gradually disappear from 
 them and chairs are increasingly in evidence. 
 Forks are not named until well on to the opening 
 
11 
 
 of the seventeenth century, and then they are of 
 silver, and are first mentioned in the will of a citi 
 zen of Boston in the last quarter of the seventeenth 
 century, at about which time they seem to have 
 come into use among the upper classes in England, 
 having been introduced there from France and 
 Holland. 
 
 It may be taken for granted that the wealthiest 
 settlers of New England in 1630 were a little better 
 off in comforts than the poorest of 1650, and so on. 
 The advance was continuous. So much industry, 
 intelligence, energy, and invention were applied to 
 the work that the progress was marvelous. 
 
 The same process was going on in all the col 
 onies. The Dutchman, when he became an Eng 
 lish subject, did not change his character or his 
 ways, but his growth was steady, if, perhaps, a trifle 
 slower than that of his English neighbor. It 
 must be remembered that he started from a higher 
 plane of comfort (Holland being much in advance 
 of England in this regard), so that by the middle 
 of the eighteenth century both stood upon about 
 the same level in these things. In the meanwhile, 
 both had been greatly helped by the incoming of 
 the artistic, polished, and thrifty French element. 
 The latter brought but few articles of luxury or 
 even of utility, for, like the persecuted Armenians 
 who lately sought our shores, the dangers and dif 
 ficulties of their escape made such importations 
 impossible; but they brought the manufacturing 
 
12 
 
 and decorative skill to supply all deficiencies, and 
 also the power and the will to impart their skill, 
 and a few of them, like the Jays of Bedford, had 
 been able to send some of their wealth to this 
 country in advance of their own emigration. Very 
 little of all that was left behind was ever regained. 
 As sources of knowledge concerning household 
 possessions of the colonists, wills and the inventories 
 accompanying them have been too much relied 
 upon not because they are not accurate, for this, 
 of course, they are, but because they do not cover 
 ground enough. As a rule, the larger the estate 
 the less likely was there to be an inventory of 
 household possessions, their appraisement and divi 
 sion among heirs being usually made by agreement. 
 In several distinct lines of colonial families which 
 I have traced back through seven and eight genera 
 tions to the years beginning with 1630, I have dis 
 covered comparatively few wills, and, after about 
 1650, these were seldom accompanied by inven 
 tories of household possessions,, Even when an 
 estate had been administered upon, in ordinary 
 cases the more purely personal property had appa 
 rently been divided by lot or private agreement, 
 without public appraisal. Especially is this found 
 to be the case in families numbering lawyers among 
 its members. In such families, when wills were 
 made, some person was nearly always named as 
 residuary legatee, in order, probably, to prevent 
 the necessity for giving detailed information of 
 

 such purely private matters to a curious local 
 public. 
 
 From the extent and variety of my researches in 
 this line, I have come to have little doubt that this 
 aversion to recorded inventories of household pos 
 sessions was stronger in proportion to the wealth 
 of the deceased. Hence it is unfair to suppose 
 that the inventories which remain give accurate 
 ideas of the kinds and qualities of the household 
 furnishings of all the classes in a colony. 
 
 Perhaps it is due to too great a reliance upon 
 such sources of information that many persons are 
 in the habit of thinking that our ancestors possessed 
 only the plainest, most uncouth, and most comfort 
 less of furnishings. This was quite true of even 
 the wealthy among the first comers, but it speedily 
 ceased to be true even of those who were not 
 wealthy. The first immigrants among the Puri 
 tans had not a floor carpet among their possessions ; 
 but the number used in England in the first half 
 of the seventeenth century was small, and they 
 were considered quite in the light of effeminate 
 luxuries. By 1660, or a little later, the always 
 ugly and hard-to-be-swept, but all-enduring (and 
 much-inflicting) rag carpet came into use, while 
 those of the better class were usually provided with 
 several of the excellent and easily swept but equally 
 ugly yarn carpets, which could be and were made 
 in those private families who were rich enough to 
 provide the material, own the looms, and pay for 
 
H 
 
 the weaving. A few fine carpets were imported 
 from the Netherlands, but only by the wealthiest 
 colonists. By the middle of the eighteenth cen 
 tury, the yarn carpets were made and sold by vil 
 lage weavers, and had thus become comparatively 
 plentiful. I find no evidence that rag carpets 
 were used in the better sort of houses, except in 
 rear passages and inferior rooms. Not long ago it 
 was desired to restore one of the living-rooms in 
 the most venerated house in North America to its 
 condition in the years between 1776 and 1800, and 
 preparations were made by one of our patriotic 
 societies to cover its floor with a rag carpet. This 
 seems an error in judgment. As Washington im 
 ported most of the finer clothes for himself and his 
 immediate family, as well as their rich bed-hang 
 ings, their handsomest articles of furniture, and the 
 best of wines for his family consumption, it is hardly 
 likely that he did not follow the fashion of other 
 gentlemen of his social rank, and import carpets for 
 his best rooms, while using those of woven yarn 
 for all inferior purposes. 
 
 At one time there was a general impression that 
 all the immigrant families of good standing had 
 brought over with them many rich articles of 
 furniture, much silver plate, and even many articles 
 of porcelain. Later on it had to be acknowledged 
 that nothing but the most essential of household 
 furnishings could have been permitted on vessels 
 which were already entirely overcrowded with pas- 
 
sengers and the animals which were essential to life 
 and agriculture in the new land, while " Mayflower 
 tea-pots " became a laughing-stock when it was re 
 membered that tea did not come into use in Great 
 Britain until many years after the landing of the 
 Pilgrims. 
 
 After this there set in a reaction, and now the 
 pendulum has swung almost as far the ofjser way. 
 While it is true that fine furnishings were the ex 
 ception in the colonies as lo.ng as they continued 
 to be such, it is untrue that there were not many 
 families, well supplied with all the comforts and 
 luxuries that were usual in families of similar rank 
 in old England. There is now in the possession 
 of a descendant of the original owner, and in perfect 
 preservation, a handsomely inlaid mahogany side 
 board of the sort known as Chippendale, which 
 was imported by a Connecticut farmer in 1 737, at a 
 cost, including that of transportation, of thirty-nine 
 pounds fifteen shillings sterling, as witnessed by 
 the time-yellowed receipted bill of the maker, 
 which is still preserved. This cannot have been 
 an isolated instance, yet we are now asked to believe 
 that the stern conditions in the first half-century in 
 the colonies prevailed until after the colonial period 
 had passed by. 
 
 The second error is as great as the first. The 
 colonial stage of our existence was one of continual 
 advancement. The colonists were of different 
 races, of different social grades, of differing stages 
 
i6 
 
 of intellectual growth, of varying degrees of wealth ; 
 hence they cannot be judged by inflexible stan 
 dards, and colonial life should be carefully studied, 
 almost as scholars study the history of ancient 
 Nineveh and Babylon. From the scanty fragments 
 of a long-neglected past we may gather our alpha 
 bet and learn to construct our sentences aright. 
 

 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CONTENTS OF AN ANCIENT GARRET 
 
THE CONTENTS OF AN 
 ANCIENT GARRET. 
 
 Sharon, Connecticut. 
 When and how the Town 
 
 ship was Settled. 
 
 The Old House: how it 
 
 was Constructed; who 
 
 Lived in it; the Papers 
 
 it Contained. 
 
beautiful village of Sharon, ly- 
 ing picturesquely along one of the 
 broad natural terraces which form 
 the western slopes of the southern 
 spurs of the Berkshire Hills, was 
 not one of the earliest settlements of Connecticut. 
 A few stragglers, mostly from the banks of the 
 Hudson River, had reared their temporary homes 
 in this vicinity from time to time, but these had for 
 the most part faded away when the township was 
 laid out, in 1 733, and it was not until several years 
 after this that there were enough inhabitants to 
 justify an application to the Assembly for an act of 
 incorporation. Hence it would hardly be expected 
 that papers relating to the very earliest colonial 
 periods should be found here. But the first settlers 
 of Sharon were not fresh immigrants from the Old 
 World; they were all, or nearly all, descended 
 from the pioneer colonists of New England, and 
 naturally brought with them some of the relics 
 and records that their parents and grandparents 
 had accumulated. 
 
 In Sharon, among several fine houses of late 
 
20 
 
 colonial dates, is one in which, during more than 
 a hundred and thirty years, six generations of 
 one family have lived quiet and happy but full 
 and not uninteresting lives. 
 
 In the wide and lofty garrets of this house are 
 stored many thousands of letters and other papers 
 such as generations of cultivated and undestructive 
 persons would naturally accumulate around them. 
 Some of these papers are packed in oaken chests 
 which had brought household plenishings "across 
 the water " in the early days of the seventeenth 
 century ; some are in other chests of cherry wood, 
 which were probably made in this country in the 
 first decades of the colonial period ; some are in 
 the hair-covered, brass-nailed, and round-topped 
 trunks of a later day ; some are discovered packed 
 in bandboxes which may once have contained 
 elaborate periwigs, or immense and costly Leghorn 
 bonnets; and again we find papers, valuable or 
 useless, as the case may be, tucked away under the 
 eaves in old baskets of Indian make, or in open 
 pine-wood boxes, and even in barrels. 
 
 Some years ago, Mrs. E. P. Terhune (Marion 
 Harland) visited this old house, and in her valuable 
 and altogether charming book concerning " Some 
 Colonial Homesteads and their Stories " has men 
 tioned the old garret and its papers. She says : 
 
 " We climb the stairs to the great garret. A 
 large, round window, like an eye, is set in a gable ; 
 the roof slopes above a vast space, where the towns- 
 
21 
 
 people used to congregate for dance and speech- 
 making and church entertainments before a pub 
 lic hall was built; . . . and in the middle of the 
 dusky spaciousness, a long, long table over which 
 is cast a white cloth. . . . Family papers ! . . . 
 Hampers, corded boxes, and trunks full of them ! 
 The hopes, the dreads, the loves, the lives of nine 
 generations of one blood and name/ But the last 
 clause is hardly correct. The nine generations 
 who are represented here are of several names and 
 even of differing nationalities; but the blood of 
 them all is mingled in the veins of their descen 
 dants, the present owners of the old house. 
 
 During all the years that these old papers were 
 accumulating they were carefully dusted once or 
 twice a year, but not always replaced in their va 
 rious receptacles with the reverential care which 
 they deserved. Indeed, it is known that during 
 the dozen years or so which succeeded 1845, ser " 
 vants who had neglected to provide kindlings for 
 the fires were occasionally permitted to use the 
 garret s store of papers for their purpose. Not 
 withstanding this culpable carelessness, great quan 
 tities still remained at the time that my interest in 
 them was first aroused, now a great many years 
 ago. From these papers the larger part of the 
 materials for the following chapters has been culled, 
 though some of the things that are here related are 
 on the authority of family traditions, notes of which 
 I began taking when I was eleven years old, as I 
 
22 
 
 heard them narrated by parents, grandparents, and 
 great-uncles and -aunts. These notes I continued 
 to take at intervals for about eighteen years, by the 
 end of which time many of the beloved narrators 
 had gone to rejoin those whom they had held 
 in such faithful and affectionate remembrance. 
 Whenever anything is told on the authority of 
 traditions only, it is thus expressly stated; but 
 most of the information is from the abundant store 
 of written sources. 
 
 The house in which the before-mentioned papers 
 had been preserved is a fine specimen of the best 
 period of our colonial architecture. The part which 
 is now a capacious wing, running back from the 
 main structure, was the first to be erected, and was 
 reared on the foundations of a still earlier building. 
 This first portion of the new home was completed 
 about 1 765 and was in itself a spacious dwelling. 
 The cellars and kitchen were in its basement, and 
 a very large dining-hall, with two other good-sized 
 rooms, were on its first floor. These were flanked 
 by piazzas (or rather stoefs) on the north and 
 south sides. The wing s bedrooms were on the 
 second floor, with windows in the long, sloping 
 roof, whose peak was filled by a garret of good 
 dimensions. 
 
 In this broad and comfortable dwelling, the 
 owner, Simeon Smith, M.D., lived with his family 
 while the very much larger main house was in the 
 process of construction. And a slow process it was 
 
in those laborious days ! Just when the wing was 
 begun we do not know, but as it is of the same 
 well-cut stone as the main house, which was not 
 finished until some time during the Revolutionary 
 War, we may hardly credit it with consuming 
 much less than three years. There were then no 
 steam-drills to assist in cutting the finely fitted 
 stones. Water-power sawmills existed in this 
 region at the time, and such planks as were used 
 in the building were mostly sawed by them ; but 
 all the heavy timbers and very heavy they are 
 - appear to have been hewn with the carpenter s 
 broadax, while the matchings of the floor-boards 
 were all cut by hand. 
 
 The walls of both the wing and the main house 
 were very solidly built of deftly fitted stones, laid 
 with a fine regard for shape and color, and are 
 from sixteen inches to two feet in thickness. The 
 windows are surrounded by ornamental settings of 
 red brick, which are of an unusually large size. 
 The rear wall of the main house was built up 
 against the exterior of the western gable of the 
 wing, and the two walls thus joined are fifty-two 
 inches thick where a large doorway connects the 
 two structures. It is said that the foundations of 
 the main house were begun before the completion 
 of the walls of the wing, and were allowed to stand 
 through the frosts of several successive winters " so 
 that they might be well settled." The whole 
 work was under the direction of a Genoese archi- 
 
24 
 
 tect, who is stated to have been a political exile, 
 and who brought some of his countrymen as assis 
 tants. The mortar he used is to-day as firm as the 
 stone it cements, and is the admiration of modern 
 architects and masons. I have often heard my 
 grandfather say that his great-uncle, for whom the 
 house was built, had told him that the Genoese 
 was so jealous lest some one should discover the 
 secret of this mortar that he set guards and took 
 other precautions to keep away all intruders while 
 he was mixing it. Probably the secret of its en 
 during quality is in the fact that very finely pow 
 dered stone and brick were used in the place of 
 sand. With the purely manual labor of those 
 days, this alone would have made the building a 
 slow affair. 
 
 The foundations being considered sufficiently 
 settled, the superstructure of the main building be 
 gan to rise in 1773, and w r as roofed and its walls 
 plastered by the opening of the campaign of 1775. 
 From this time onward there was little thought to 
 bestow upon so personal a matter as the building 
 of a dwelling-house. Country-building was a 
 much more important business. 
 
 In the early summer of 1775, the widowed Mrs. 
 Samuel Smith, formerly of Suffield, Connecticut, 
 and then living with her youngest son, Simeon, 
 saw her second son, the Rev. Cotton Mather 
 Smith, depart as chaplain to Colonel Hinman s 
 regiment, in General Schuyler s army at Ticon- 
 
deroga, where he remained until incapacitated 
 for further duty by the camp-fever. A year later 
 the old lady bade a Spartan mother s God-speed 
 to her son, Dr. Simeon Smith, who, as captain of 
 a company of Sharon men, equipped largely at his 
 own expense, joined the troops under General 
 Washington s immediate command, enduring all 
 the hardships and misfortunes of the Long Island 
 campaign. What was house-building compared 
 to such work as this even the erection of a 
 house originally intended to have been one of the 
 finest in New England ? Its owner worked for 
 and believed in better days to come, and did not 
 relinquish his plans ; but they were necessarily slow 
 in fulfilment, and the main house, though occupied 
 in 1777 and onward, was not fully finished until 
 after the peace, and even then not entirely in 
 consonance with the original designs. 
 
 From this date onward until about 1830 the 
 great garret, which spreads over the entire main 
 house, was frequently used as a substitute for a 
 public hall. In it school exhibitions and exami 
 nations were held twice yearly, and for every form 
 of village entertainment which was esteemed to be 
 too high in its aims to be fittingly placed in the 
 tavern, or too secular for the church, the lofty 
 and spacious garret was generously offered. Dec 
 orated with evergreens and home-made flags, it 
 made a pleasing and commodious place for social 
 gatherings. 
 
26 
 
 Probably even at this time papers had begun to 
 accumulate in the spaces under the steep slopes of 
 the hipped roof between the dormer-windows along 
 the sides and ends of the old garret; for, in 1788. 
 Dr. Smith, writing from Vermont, requests his 
 nephew to " Look in the big cedar chest which 
 Mother brought from Suffield, and which stands at 
 the very south end of my big Garret, and you will 
 find there the deeds of the Judge Badcock farm 
 which I wish to have sent to me by some safe 
 hand." 
 
 The mass of papers remaining here include 
 many thousands of letters, several diaries, a great 
 number of legal documents of both public and 
 private natures, as well as piles of antiquated led 
 gers, bound, for the most part, in a sort of undressed 
 leather, and big enough to have required an entire 
 sheepskin for each tome. This mass of unassorted 
 papers spreads over all the years, from the landings 
 of the earlier immigrants in Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut, down to near the middle of the pres 
 ent century. Naturally, the number of documents 
 that have survived from the hundred years begin 
 ning with 1636 is not as large as we would wish; 
 but from about 1730 the number began to increase, 
 and from 1754 onward the material though often 
 leaving gaps just where they are most unwelcome 
 is remarkably abundant. 
 
 From these sources I have drawn what I believe 
 to be, though incomplete, yet, as far as they ex- 
 
tend, faithful pictures of the home life of the better 
 class of persons in several places and periods of our 
 colonial existence. 
 
 Such information as we may gather from town 
 and church records is invaluable in its way; but 
 from such sources we need not expect to get any 
 but the scantiest glimpses of the home life. We 
 now have daily newspapers and society journals to 
 chronicle public and private events, and they cer 
 tainly tell a great deal about the daily life of all 
 classes among us ; yet if, two centuries hence, these 
 things should be the only testimony that had sur 
 vived, can we conceive that our homes might be 
 justly pictured from them ? Or should we fare 
 any better if judged by the records of the law- 
 courts? Yet these would be riches compared 
 with the meager sources which have come to us 
 from colonial days. Concerning the homes and 
 home life of the colonists our best materials must 
 come from the comparatively few traditions that 
 were committed to paper long enough ago to be 
 granted a measure of authenticity, and from the 
 relatively few contemporary family papers which 
 have escaped from the inevitable losses by fires, 
 removals, and worst of all the destruction by 
 the Gallios who " cared for none of these things," 
 until a tardily awakened interest in our ancestry 
 has caused many of the heedless transgressors to 
 remember and shudder at the bonfires fed by such 
 unprized but now priceless material. 
 
28 
 
 This little book relates what I have patiently 
 gleaned concerning the home life of a few fairly 
 representative families in the colonies of New 
 York and Connecticut. These families were ori 
 ginally of several nationalities English, Dutch, 
 Scotch, and French Huguenots ; yet, in the course 
 of generations, all became related. Papers once 
 belonging to or concerning each one of them, some 
 of them unknown to each other even by name 
 until long years after the papers were written, and 
 some of them never so known, have long been 
 lying side by side in the silent garret, and the 
 descendants of the writers of most of the diaries 
 and correspondence may now be found scattered 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada 
 to the Gulf. 
 
 In the earliest of these papers we find evidence 
 of great privations heroically endured not from 
 hope of worldly advantage, but from the highest 
 of motives. The gently born and bred, the con- 
 scientious laborer, the strictest Puritan, the Scotch 
 Presbyterian, the sturdy Dutch Calvinist, and the 
 patient Huguenot were all alike upheld by their 
 sturdy faith in God and righteousness. They 
 made mistakes enough, all of them the Puritan 
 perhaps more than the rest, because he was Anglo- 
 Saxon, and therefore could never imagine himself 
 to be in the wrong about any matter, and, in the 
 large generosity of his nature, was always ready to 
 instruct less gifted mortals, who did not always 
 
2 9 
 
 appreciate his unasked services at the value he set 
 upon them. But the errors of the Puritan, like 
 the errors of most well intentioned persons, are but 
 the defects of his qualities, and a vast deal too much 
 has been made of them. 
 
 It is a law of nature that those who have had 
 the hardest lives shall become the most rigid in 
 character, and the New-Englanders have always 
 had the fame of having fulfilled this natural law to 
 an undue, even to an unnatural, extent, being harsh 
 to cruelty to all who displeased them, including 
 their own sons and daughters; but in this garret 
 full of papers, mostly written by persons who were 
 Calvinists of Calvinists, Puritans of the straitest 
 sect, I am happy to state that I have found many 
 evidences of kindnesses most tenderly bestowed 
 and gratefully received, and of deeds of a large- 
 minded tolerance and charity, as well as of tender 
 and even demonstrative affection, including a good 
 deal of jocose familiarity between parents and chil 
 dren. On the other hand, I have found record of 
 but very few things that manifest intolerance or hard 
 feelings ; and these were all in the earlier years, 
 when the harshness engendered by the persecutions 
 from which the colonists had fled and by the ter 
 rors of the wilderness to which they had come had 
 not had time to mellow into patience and forbear 
 ance. Neither (except in the papers relating to 
 suits at law which had been conducted by or be 
 fore one of the ablest lawyers and judges of his 
 
3 
 
 time, and with which none of the families or per 
 sons connected with those whose lives we picture 
 had anything to do) is there aught to show malice, 
 trickery, or disgrace of any sort. These family 
 records are simple, but, thank God ! they are clean. 
 
 The material hardships of the new land were 
 very great, but most severely felt were the trials of 
 homesickness, the longing for a sight or a token 
 of those who had been left in the homes beyond 
 the sea, and the lack of facilities for the mental 
 culture of their children. The determination to 
 reduce the latter difficulty as soon as might be was 
 evidenced in the early establishment of the two 
 upper-grade schools which were ambitiously termed 
 the colleges of Harvard and Yale, so called not 
 because of what they were or could be at the start, 
 but because of the high standing to which it was 
 confidently hoped they would ultimately attain. 
 
 Rudimentary schools were defective in many 
 ways, but the teachers did their best to make zeal 
 atone for the lack of other essentials. The grand 
 children of the first immigrants appear to have 
 suffered much more from the want of proper in 
 struction than did the preceding and the next fol 
 lowing generation, but never, from first to last, did 
 they cease to set the highest value upon intellectual 
 cultivation or fail of using every means in their 
 power to secure for their children the advantages 
 of a "polite education," a phrase which is repeated 
 hundreds of times in these old letters. Spelling 
 
1L 
 
 was evidently considered as a matter of the slight 
 est consequence by the first settlers as well as their 
 successors. I have preserved the orthography of 
 the originals in the papers from which I have 
 quoted, in deference to the views of others rather 
 than my own, because it seems to me to convey a 
 wrong impression regarding the degree of cultiva 
 tion of the writers. English is even now the worst 
 spelled language in the world, and in days not so 
 very long past dictionaries were rare and costly, 
 besides which they differed widely between them 
 selves. 
 
 Partly because I have lived so long in the com 
 panionship of the old papers, and partly because 
 in my youth I listened with such an intense inter 
 est to the family traditions as they fell from the 
 lips of wonderfully gifted narrators, whose words 
 clothed the dead with life, bringing them before 
 the eye and making their voices distinct to the ear, 
 all the persons of whose simple ways of living I 
 have tried to give glimpses seem as familiarly 
 known to me as are the dear relatives through 
 whom so much that concerned their ancestry was 
 transmitted to me. 
 
 And why should it not be so ? The old letters 
 are still pulsing with the inner life of those who 
 have merely stepped beyond the curtain. Their 
 loves, their fears, their hopes, their aspirations, their 
 faiths, their daily occupations did not these things 
 form the real men and women? And all these 
 
3 2 
 
 have been faithfully preserved in the unaffected 
 chronicles of fathers and mothers, brothers and 
 sisters, friends and lovers, who wrote for the limited 
 circle of those whom they loved and who loved 
 them ; and prove them to be worthy of the love 
 of those who came after them. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A PIONEER PARSON 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A PIONEER PASTOR. 
 
 Rev. Henry Smith of 
 Wethersfield, Connecti 
 cut. 
 
 Troubles of a Wilderness 
 
 Church. 
 Letter from Samuel Smith 
 
 of Hadley, Massachu 
 setts, in 1698, describing 
 , Early Days in Wethers- 
 field. 
 The Minister s Will. 
 

 |N New England the life of family, 
 church, and town began together. 
 The immigrants mostly came in 
 families. Of bachelors there were a 
 few ; but these, by wise forethought, 
 were attached, at least temporarily, to some one of 
 the families very soon after the landing, if not 
 actually during the voyage. As the earliest colo 
 nists were almost wholly persons who came here 
 through religious motives, such heads of families 
 as were of the most social note were naturally 
 among the most active in church matters, and 
 therefore in those of the town; for during many 
 years the church was practically the town also, 
 the elders or deacons of the one usually being the 
 selectmen of the other. 
 
 The church edifice could not be erected at as 
 early a date as the houses ; but in many cases the 
 church had been organized even before the selec 
 tion of the town site, and the most commodious 
 of the dwellings was used as a meeting-house as 
 soon as it could afford a shelter from the weather. 
 By prescriptive rights the ministers were the lead- 
 
 35 
 
36 
 
 ing citizens in each town. They were often, per 
 haps generally, men of gentle birth, and usually 
 graduates of one of the leading universities most 
 frequently of Cambridge, that " nursery of Puritan 
 ism "; thus they were naturally the social as well 
 as the spiritual leaders of their people. As eccle 
 siastics they seem to have deemed themselves, and 
 to have been esteemed by their congregations, to 
 be divine-right priests and Levites, with authority 
 to declare and enforce the law of the Lord. Yet 
 it is said that the title of Reverend was not used in 
 New England until 1670; ministers before that 
 time being called Mister, Pastor, Teacher, or Elder, 
 save in a few instances where deceased ministers 
 were spoken of as Reverend Elders. To their 
 honor be it spoken that, notwithstanding their 
 conceded superiority, there were very few of these 
 ministers who did not bear themselves as servants 
 under authority and strictly accountable to the 
 Master whom they loyally served for the just ex 
 ercise of the power which he had delegated to 
 them. They ruled their people, but it was with a 
 father s despotism as loving and as gentle as it 
 was strong. 
 
 With a few exceptions, the rule of the pastors 
 was, for more than a century, almost unquestioned, 
 because it was in the main both wise and unselfish. 
 In the family life of the colonial pastors we find 
 the beginnings of all that is best in the history of 
 our country : the charity that begins at home, but 
 
37 
 
 is not confined to family, church, or township; the 
 warm affections, the sturdy honesty, the firm ad 
 herence to what is deemed to be right; the cou 
 rageous confession when a wrong is recognized, 
 and, as speedily as may be, a contrite atonement 
 made. It has been said of the half-century pastor 
 ate of a descendant of the pioneer pastor the faint 
 traces of whose footsteps we are now about to fol 
 low, and the words apply to many others, that 
 " The town s history from the day of the Pastor s 
 installation might almost be said to be his biogra 
 phy, with a few foot notes of other things. . . . He 
 was a kind of college in himself . . . sending out, 
 like class after class, the influences, the growths 
 and inspirations of his large nature upon the lives 
 of the men and women of his flock." 
 
 Trumbull, in his history of Connecticut, having 
 previously designated the chief settlers of Windsor 
 and Hartford, names those of Wethersfield, giving 
 Mr. Henry Smith as among the latter, and adds : 
 " These were the civil and religious Fathers of a 
 Colony that formed its free and happy constitution, 
 they were its legislators and some of the chief 
 pillars of the church and commonwealth, they . . . 
 employed their ability and their estates for the 
 prosperity of the Colony." 
 
 Nearly half, if not more than half, of the stanch 
 first settlers of Connecticut had left England after 
 the opening of the eleven years of terror which be 
 gan with the prorogation of Parliament in 1629. 
 
38 
 
 During these years Archbishop Laud and the Earl 
 of StrafFord were held by the loyal-hearted among 
 the people to be responsible for all the sins of their 
 master, and doubtless some of the odium that the 
 advisers received was richly merited ; but Laud, 
 at least, although a bigot and a fanatic, was both 
 able and honest, while Charles had all the bigotry 
 and the fanaticism, without the honesty, of him 
 whom he made his tool. 
 
 Very heavy fines, the loss of stipends justly due, 
 and imprisonment for too great freedom of speech, 
 were among the minor punishments inflicted upon 
 the clergy and laymen who did not acquiesce in the 
 doctrines inculcated by those in authority. These, 
 and the despair of better days coming in the old 
 England, were the considerations which drove the 
 great body of our Puritan settlers to take the 
 desperate step of emigrating to the New England. 
 Even this was not permitted without much oppo 
 sition from the officers of the crown. A few 
 persons would meet privately, agree upon one or 
 two men as leaders, and empower them to secure 
 and charter a suitable ship, shipmaster, and crew, 
 and to lay in the necessary stores for the voyage 
 and the subsequent plantation in the wilderness. 
 Those who wished to join the adventure were 
 obliged to sell their landed estates or other prop 
 erty, and also to purchase their personal supplies, 
 mostly at a great disadvantage on account of the 
 necessary secrecy. At all ports of possible depar- 
 
39 
 
 ture the government s spies were constantly on the 
 lookout to report tokens of intention to escape. 
 Detection made arrest certain, and imprisonment 
 and confiscation of property almost as certain. 
 
 The cost of transportation of human beings, cat 
 tle, or freight, in the miserable little vessels of 
 the time, was considering the difference in the 
 purchasing power of money enormous. The 
 company which went to Watertown, Massachu 
 setts, brought with them one hundred and eighty 
 servants, whose passage cost the company an ave 
 rage of something over eighty-three dollars each, 
 which was probably equivalent to about two hun 
 dred and fifty dollars of our present currency. At 
 this rate the transportation of a large family, with 
 servants and domestic animals, agricultural imple 
 ments, other essential tools and provisions, not 
 only for the voyage, but for twelve or more months 
 thereafter, and even the most modest outfits of per 
 sonal and household effects, must have gone far 
 toward exhausting the funds which the adventurers 
 might have derived from the necessarily disadvan 
 tageous sales of their property. 
 
 It was from Watertown that a great part of the 
 Connecticut Colony came. Some persons were 
 sent ahead, in the summer of 1635, to prepare 
 temporary quarters for the families. The latter, 
 numbering sixty persons in all, men, women, and 
 children, began to move in October of the same 
 yean The journey, which was necessarily on foot, 
 
4 
 
 - there being no paths save the Indian trails, and 
 very few, if any, beasts of burden, was so long 
 that winter came weeks before the poor creatures 
 were nearly ready for it. "By November 15th," 
 says Trumbull, " the Connecticut River was frozen 
 over and the snow upon it was so deep that a con 
 siderable number of the cattle that had been so 
 painfully driven from Massachusetts, could not be 
 got across the River. The sufferings of man and 
 beast were extreme. Their principal provisions 
 and household furniture had been sent around in 
 several small vessels to come up the River. Several 
 of these were wrecked. Great numbers of the 
 cattle perished." The following summer the Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker headed the second company com 
 ing from Watertown. It was a pleasanter coming, 
 owing to the more propitious season, and made 
 forever both picturesque and pathetic by the pres 
 ence of the litter bearing poor, patient Mrs. Hooker, 
 carried as tenderly as might be by the willing 
 hands of her husband s parishioners and fellow- 
 pioneers. 
 
 Although the Rev. Henry Smith is historically 
 called the " first settled pastor of the first settled 
 town in Connecticut," it is not probable that he 
 came with either of the first two bands from 
 Watertown, but with a later one. A few log 
 cabins were built in what subsequently became 
 known as the " town of Weathersfield " even 
 before the first settlers reached Windsor. Thus 
 
4* 
 
 Wethersfield claims to be the first settled town in 
 the State, and Mr. Smith was its first settled pastor, 
 though he was not installed as such until after Mr. 
 Hooker and Mr. Warham were officiating in 
 Hartford and in Windsor. It is not recorded just 
 when Mr. Smith came to Wethersfield, but he 
 was residing there and received his allotment at 
 the first apportionment of the town lands. 
 
 Mr. Smith had reached this country, going first 
 to Watertown, in 1636 or 1637. While the rule 
 in New England pastorates was that the pastor was 
 literally as well as figuratively the head of an obe 
 dient flock, which paid him all due deference, and 
 followed his lead as sheep follow the piping of 
 the shepherd, the pastors who successively essayed 
 the charge of the church in Wethersfield were the 
 unfortunate exceptions. In no sense could Mr. 
 Smith have found his new pastorate a bed of roses. 
 Besides the privations and hardships common to 
 all pioneer pastors, there seems to have been a 
 strong and most unusual element of turbulence in 
 the membership of this wilderness church, for two 
 preceding ministers had tried and failed to unite 
 the members of the congregation sufficiently to 
 secure a settlement, and the trouble did not im 
 mediately cease upon Mr. Smith s installation. 
 Previous to or about the time of his settlement in 
 Wethersfield the most prominent of the insurgents, 
 under advice of the Rev. John Davenport and others, 
 had removed to Stamford; yet the restless spirits 
 
who were left found enough to say against Mr. 
 Smith s ministry during the next few years. 
 There is evidence tending to show that he may 
 have been too liberal in his construction of doc 
 trinal views, and inclined to too great charity in 
 matters of personal conduct, to suit the more rigid 
 among the townsmen. In at least one instance 
 matters went so far that the pastor was brought 
 before the General Court on charges the nature of 
 which is not now apparent; but it is recorded that 
 fines which for that day were very heavy were 
 laid upon certain individuals " for preferring a list 
 of grievances against Mr. Smith and failing to 
 prove in the prosecution thereof." From references 
 to this, which appear in manuscript of about a cen 
 tury after this date, referring to this trial as a thing 
 still remembered, it would seem that Mr. Smith 
 was opposed to seventy in church discipline, 
 and also to the importation into the Connecticut 
 Colony of the bribe to hypocrisy which was offered 
 by the law restricting to church-members the right 
 of suffrage in town as well as church matters; 
 and that he also preferred to believe an accused 
 man to be innocent until he was proved guilty, 
 and even then did not believe in proceeding to 
 extremities until after every gentle means had been 
 tried in vain. 
 
 One cause of animadversion is said to have been 
 that Mr. Smith had advocated the separation of a 
 wife from a drunken husband who had frightfully 
 
43 
 
 abused her and her children. This seems to have 
 been thought by some members of the congrega 
 tion to indicate great laxity of moral principle on 
 the part of the pastor ; but evidently the majority 
 of the people were with him on these and other 
 disputed points, and so were his friends, Mr. 
 Thomas Hooker, the beloved pastor of the church 
 at Hartford, and Mr. Warham of Windsor. An 
 other complaint against Mr. Smith was that he 
 refused to listen to those who brought him reports 
 concerning alleged infractions of church discipline, 
 on the ground that many of these things were mat 
 ters which lay solely between a man and his 
 Maker. In the end Mr. Smith carried the church 
 with him, and when he died, in 1648, he was sin 
 cerely mourned even by those who at one time 
 had "despitefully used " him. 
 
 Mr. Smith is said to have been "a scholarly 
 man of gentle birth and breeding, a persuasive 
 preacher and a loyal friend." What his salary 
 may have been does not appear, but the stipends of 
 other pastors of his day rarely exceeded from seventy 
 to seventy-five pounds per annum. Much of this 
 nominal sum was paid " in kind," that is, in farm 
 produce or in peltries, which last were considered 
 as the equivalent of cash, always bringing their 
 fair price in the English markets. One hundred 
 pounds per annum, paid in very much the same 
 way, was an exceptionally good salary more than 
 one hundred and twenty-five years later. 
 
 
 
44 
 
 Indians were a very real and imminent danger 
 in the early days of Wethersfield. Their depre 
 dations were frequent, and the dread of them was 
 never-ceasing. We do not know whether the first 
 meeting-house of Wethersfield, which was prob 
 ably the only one erected during Mr. Smith s pas 
 torate, was built of logs or was a frame structure, 
 but we are certain that it was intended to serve 
 not only as a house of worship but for purposes 
 of defense in times of danger, and that, whatever 
 its form or substance, its builders worked in constant 
 fear for their wives and children, with muskets 
 ever at hand and sentinels always on duty. 
 
 Another thing we suppose that we know, only 
 because it is true of all other churches of the time, 
 is that it had no chimney. This lack of provision 
 for any means of ameliorating the cold of our 
 winters was not owing, as sometimes believed, to 
 any foolish prejudice or superstition, or, as some 
 seem to think, from mere love of hardships and 
 discomforts on the part of the Puritans, but to the 
 dread of conflagration. Fireless church edifices 
 were then universal, both in Europe and America. 
 Furnaces and even stoves were not, and open fires 
 are dangerous enough even in houses that are in 
 habited and watched. An open wood fire built 
 in a house that had been closed all the week could 
 scarcely have accomplished more than to thaw the 
 frost from the walls into visible streams of chilly 
 dampness, without greatly raising the temperature 
 
45 
 
 by the time that even the prolonged services of 
 the Puritan Sabbath were finished ; and the treach 
 erous beds of embers, even after copious waterings, 
 often proved to be unsafe. 
 
 Those who could afford such luxuries curtained 
 their square pews to keep currents of air from too 
 great familiarity, cushioned their otherwise com 
 fortless seats, and covered the floors with wolf 
 skins and even sometimes with those of the bear, 
 though the latter were generally too precious for 
 floors. 
 
 At as early a date as time and means permitted, 
 small " Sabbath Day Houses " were erected at a cer 
 tain distance from the sacred edifice. These little 
 buildings were furnished with forms and stools, 
 and here, during the service-time, care-takers were 
 left and fires maintained. From these the coals 
 were taken for the small foot-stoves of which 
 many are still found in old garrets, and which 
 afforded a degree of comfort to the half-frozen 
 church-goers, who at intervals between services 
 were wont to gather in the little houses to warm 
 themselves and exchange neighborly greetings and 
 news. Bitter indeed must sometimes have been 
 their sufferings in cold winter weather, but hardly 
 as great as the same state of things would cause 
 to-day, because no one had yet been rendered un 
 duly tender by furnace- or steam-heated houses. 
 There was not then in the colonies anything that 
 could be termed wealth, but had there been ever 
 
46 
 
 so much of it, the treasure of an equably warm 
 temperature could not have been purchased. 
 
 Probably the house of the pastor would have 
 been as well built and furnished as those of his 
 neighbors, but in the earliest days that is not say 
 ing much for either. Even in the stateliest dwell 
 ings of England, though there was sometimes a 
 good deal of luxury and display, there was then 
 very little of what we should esteem to be the 
 necessary comforts of life. In this country the in 
 ventories of the seventeenth century reveal the 
 poverty of the land in unmistakable ways. No 
 thing was too small to escape enumeration, so we 
 know that the poorest farm-laborer of to-day is 
 richer in comforts than the wealthiest of these 
 pioneers. 
 
 Few, if any, of the early houses were of more 
 than one story in height. They were built of logs, 
 and rarely contained more than four rooms. An 
 exception to this was the old stone house of Guil- 
 ford, Connecticut, built in 1639, which was in 
 tended to serve as a fortress as well as the minis 
 ter s residence. Exceptional also were the houses 
 of the Rev. Thomas Hooker and Mr. Whiting of 
 Hartford at the time of their erection. But it was 
 not long before well-constructed, durable, and even 
 handsome dwellings were reared in every colony. 
 
 In our own day the lives of pioneers are consid 
 ered of the hardest; yet now all are within com 
 paratively easy reach of the base of supplies. The 
 
47 
 
 Klondike is not now farther from us than old 
 England was from New England in those early 
 days. Probably but few of the settlers belonged 
 to the wealthy class at home, yet many were num 
 bered among the substantial landowners, the 
 upper-class yeoman and the lower gentry, accus 
 tomed in their own country to all the comforts 
 then known. Almost all who came between 
 1628 and 1640 had fled from the persecution 
 under Archbishop Laud which had done so much 
 to bring on the parliamentary wars and the reign 
 of Cromwell, and such refugees had neither 
 thought nor hope of returning. All must have 
 felt their privations keenly, but concerning this 
 we have little recorded complaint or testimony of 
 any sort. The difficulties of transmission were so 
 great that probably few letters were written, and 
 of these but a small number have descended to us. 
 
 In the diary of Juliana Smith, 1779-81, there 
 exists a copy of a fragment of a reminiscent let 
 ter, written in 1699 by the Rev. Henry Smith s 
 son, Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts, 
 to his son, Ichabod Smith, residing in Suffield, 
 Connecticut, apparently in reply to some inquiries 
 which the latter had made. 
 
 Juliana writes : 
 
 " Today my Grandmother Smith gave me to 
 read what is left unburnt of a Letter which was 
 written to my Great-Grandfather by his Father & 
 
48 
 
 has permitted me to copy it. The Letter itself 
 belongs to my Uncle Dan because he is my Grand 
 father s eldest son. A large part of it was burnt 
 when my Grandfather s house in Suffield took fire, 
 and was barely saved from destruction, with the 
 loss of many things, especially Books & Papers. 
 The Bible in which this Letter was kept was 
 found on the next day still smouldering, with 
 more than half of its leaves burnt away, including 
 a part of the Family Record & this Letter: 
 
 " 4 Hadley, Massachusetts Colony, 
 
 Jan. ye Firste, 16^ 
 
 " 4 My Dear & Dutiful Son : ... I was of so 
 tender an Age at the death of my beloved Father 
 that I am possessed of but little of the Information 
 for which you seek. My Revered Father was an 
 ordained Minister of ye Gospelle, educate at Cam 
 bridge in England & came to yis Land by reason 
 of ye Great Persecution by which ye infamous 
 Archibishop Laud and ye Black Tom Tyrante, (as 
 Mr. Russell was always wont to call ye Earl of 
 Strafforde,) did cause ye reign of his Majestic 
 Charles ye First to loose favour in ye sight of ye 
 people of England. My Father & Mother came 
 over in 16-^, firste to Watertown which is neare 
 Boston, & after a yeare or two to Weathersfield on 
 ye great River, where he became ye firste settled 
 Pastor. 
 
 " Concerning of ye earlie days I can remember 
 
49 
 
 but little save Hardship. My Parents had broughte 
 bothe Men Servants & Maid Servants from Eng 
 land, but ye Maids tarried not but till they got 
 Married, ye wch was shortly, for there was great 
 scarcity of Women in ye Colonies. Ye men did 
 abide better. Onne of em had married onne of 
 my Mother s Maids & they did come with us to 
 Weathersfield to our grate Comforte for some 
 Yeares, untill they had manny littel onnes of theire 
 Owne. I do well remember ye Face & Figure of 
 my Honoured Father. He was 5 foote, 10 inches 
 talle, & spare of builde, tho not leane. He was 
 as Active as ye Red Skin Men & sinewy. His 
 delighte was in sportes of strengthe & withe his 
 owne Hands he did helpe to rear bothe our owne 
 House & ye Firste Meetinge House of Weathers- 
 field, wherein he preacht yeares too fewe. He was 
 well Featured & Fresh favoured with faire Skin 
 & longe curling Hair (as neare all of us have 
 had) with a merrie eye & swete smilinge Mouthe, 
 tho he coulde frowne sternlie eno when need 
 was. 
 
 " Ye firste Meetinge House was solid mayde 
 to withstande ye wicked onsaults of ye Red Skins. 
 Its Foundations was laide in ye feare of ye Lord, 
 but its Walls was truly laide in ye feare of ye 
 Indians, for many & grate was ye Terrors of em. 
 I do mind me y t alle ye able-bodyed Men did 
 work thereat, & ye olde & feeble did watch in 
 turns to espte if any Salvages was in hidinge neare 
 
5 
 
 & every Man keept his Musket nighe to his 
 hande. I do not myself remember any of ye 
 Attacks mayde by large bodeys of Indians whilst 
 we did remayne in Weathersfield, but did ofttimes 
 hear of em. Several Families wch did live back 
 a ways from ye River was either Murderdt or 
 Captivated in my Boyhood & we all did live in 
 constant feare of ye like. My Father ever de- 
 clardt there would not be so much to feare iff ye 
 Red Skins was treated with suche mixture of Jus 
 tice & Authority as they eld understand, but iff he 
 was living now he must see that wee can do 
 naught butjigbt em & that right heavily. 
 
 " After ye Red Skins ye grate Terror of our 
 lives at Weathersfield & for many yeares after we 
 had moved to Hadley to live, was ye Wolves. 
 Catamounts was bad eno & so was ye Beares, but 
 it was ye Wolves yt was ye worst. The noyes of 
 theyre howlings was eno to curdle ye bloode of 
 ye stoutest & I have never seen ye Man yt did 
 not shiver at ye Sounde of a Packe of em. What 
 wth ye way we hated em & ye goode money yt 
 was offered for theyre Heads we do not heare em 
 now so much, but when I do I feel again ye 
 younge hatred rising in my Bloode, & it is not a 
 Sin because God mayde em to be hated. My 
 Mother & Sister did each of em kill more yan one 
 of ye gray Howlers & once my oldest Sister shot 
 a Beare yt came too neare ye House. He was a 
 goode Fatte onne & keept us all in meate for a 
 
good while. I guess one of her Daughters has 
 got ye skinne. 
 
 " As most of ye Weathersfield Settlers did 
 come afoot throu ye Wilderness & brought with 
 em such Things only as they did most neede at ye 
 firste, ye other Things was sent round from Boston 
 in Vessels to come up ye River to us. Some of 
 ye Shippes did come safe to Weathersfield, but 
 many was lost in a grate storm. Amongst em 
 was onne wch held alle our Beste Things. A 
 good many Yeares later, long after my Father had 
 died of ye grate Fever & my Mother had married 
 Mr. Russell & moved to Hadley, it was found yt 
 some of our Things had been saved & keept in 
 ye Fort wch is by ye River s Mouthe, & they was 
 brought to us. Most of em was spoilt with Sea 
 Water & Mould, especially ye Bookes [Foot-note 
 by Juliana: "My Father hath one of these 
 books The vision of Piers Plowman. It is so 
 ruinated with damp and mould yt no one can read 
 ye whole of it."] & ye Plate. Of this there was 
 no grate store, only ye Tankard, wch I have, and 
 some Spoones, divided amongst my Sisters wch 
 was alle so black it was long before any could 
 come to its owne colour agen, & Mr. Russell did 
 opine yt had it not been so it might not have 
 founde us agen, but he was sometimes a littel 
 shorte of ye Charity wch thinketh no Evil, at ye 
 least I was wont to think so when his Hand was 
 too heavy on my Shoulders & I remembered ye 
 
sweetnesse & ye Charity of my firste Father, but 
 on ye whole said he was a Goode Man & did well 
 by my Mother & her children, & no doubt we 
 did often try his wit & temper, but it was in his 
 house yt 
 
 "Here," writes the copyist, "there is a break" 
 probably where the sheets of the original had 
 been burned. 
 
 The silver tankard mentioned in the foregoing 
 letter of Samuel Smith of Hadley is in all proba 
 bility the one now belonging to my brother, Gil 
 bert Livingston Smith of Sharon, Connecticut, 
 though the earliest positive record which we have 
 concerning it is in a bill of sale, including various 
 things to the amount of nearly joo, made to the 
 Rev. Cotton Mather Smith by his brother, Simeon 
 Smith, M.D., when the latter was leaving Sharon 
 to take up his residence in Vermont in 1787. It 
 is there described as " One ancient Silver Tan 
 kard marked with our coat of arms & S. S., bought 
 by me from Brother Dan." The tankard now has 
 on the side opposite the handle a spout, which 
 was put on about 1820 that it might be used as a 
 water-pitcher. Family tradition has always held 
 that this tankard was brought from England in 
 1636 by the Rev. Henry Smith, and referred to in 
 the letter just quoted. 
 
 Poor and incomplete are these glimpses of a 
 New England pastorate, but they bring before us 
 
53 
 
 some of the privations suffered, and the courage 
 which so bravely met them because it was 
 grounded on an unbounded faith in an omnipotent 
 Father, and was cheered by family affection. Of 
 both of these the last will and testament of the Rev. 
 Henry Smith gives beautiful testimony. It is not 
 couched in legal phraseology, but was apparently 
 written by himself, and hence is more than usually 
 expressive of the testator s character. He had not 
 waited until the shadow of death had fallen upon 
 him before making his slender worldly prepara 
 tions for " departing hence to be no more," but, 
 " Being in health of body and soundness of mind," 
 and " wishing to leave no occasion of trouble for 
 my children," the will was made several months 
 before his decease. There was not much to be 
 disposed of, only a trifle over ^370, but that little 
 is so graciously bestowed that one feels as fully 
 persuaded of the testator s own loving heart as he 
 was persuaded of God s " unchangeable love and 
 good will both in life and death . . . according 
 to His covenant, viz : I am thy God and of thy 
 Seede after thee." 
 
 After this profession of faith, which evidently 
 comes from a simple and earnest heart, the will 
 proceeds : 
 
 " Then for my ovtward estate, wch, because it 
 is but littel, & I haue well proued the difficvlties 
 of this covntry, how hard a thing it will bee for a 
 
54 
 
 woman to manage the affairs of so great a family 
 as the Father of Mercyes hath blessed mee withall, 
 & haue allso experience of the prvdence & faith- 
 fvlness of my deare Wife, who shall, in parting 
 withe mee, part allso withe a great part of her liue- 
 lihood; I do therefore beqveath & giue to her, the 
 fvll power & disposal of alle that estate wch God 
 hath gieuen mee, in howses, lands, cattells & goods 
 whatsoeuer, within dores and withovt; only pro- 
 uiding that in case shee marry again, or otherwise 
 shee bee able comfortably to spare it from her own 
 necessary maintenance, that shee giue vnto my 
 Sonne Samvell that part of my hovse lott that was 
 intended for my Sonne Peregrine lyinge next to 
 the bvrying place, & the land I haue beyon the 
 great Riuer eastward; & allso, to him & my sec 
 ond Sonne, Noah, fiue acres apeece of meadow 
 with vplands proportionable therevnto, & to the 
 reste of my children vnmarried, 2o pounds apeece, 
 at the age of one & twenty yeares, or at the time 
 of her death, wch shall come the sooner. & for 
 my two Davghters that bee married, my desire is 
 that they haue 20 Shillings apeece and eueryonne 
 of their children fiue Shillings apeece, either in 
 bookes or such other things as my Wife shall best 
 please to part withall." 
 
 O* tne ^37 nearly one half was in houses and 
 lands, ^50 were in live stock, which did not 
 include any domestic fowls, the latter being still 
 
55 
 
 scarce in the colonies. Bees, number of hives not 
 stated, were valued at ^8, which seemingly dis 
 proportionately large valuation was probably due 
 to the scarcity of the cultivated variety. Probably 
 Mr. Smith was, as all the New England pastors of 
 his time were obliged to be, a farmer as well as a 
 preacher, but he could not have been enthusiasti 
 cally devoted to agriculture, for his "husbandry 
 tools" were only valued at 3 ios., while his 
 "armes & ammunition" were reckoned at <{. 
 
 "Bookes" are mentioned, but their value not 
 estimated, probably because at the time of his 
 death, during a prevailing " grate fever," proper 
 appraisers may not have been on hand. Min 
 isters were usually appointed to appraise books. 
 Out of thirty-seven inventories which were re 
 corded during the first ten years of the Connecticut 
 Colony, in only nine, including that of Mr. Smith, 
 do we find mention of books. The total value of 
 these in six of the nine is estimated at y) 13^. 
 Mr. Hooker s books were estimated at ^300, a 
 considerable item in an estate amounting to only 
 about ^1136. I say "only" when viewing this 
 subject from present conditions; under those 
 of 1648 in the colonies, Mr. Hooker was a 
 wealthy man. His friend and parishioner, Mr. 
 William Whiting, the plutocrat of the Connecti 
 cut Colony, left an estate of ^2854, including 
 debts due to him which are classed as "doubtful," 
 and "adventures wch are harserdous" to the 
 
56 
 
 amount of ^429. His " books & apparell " united 
 are appraised at ^25. 
 
 What would seem to be a disproportionately 
 costly item in Mr. Smith s house furnishings was 
 that of beds. Bedsteads are not named, perhaps 
 because there were none, for there were compara 
 tively few in the country, save the sleeping-bunks 
 built in with the houses, until fifteen or twenty 
 years later than this. " Three feather beds with 
 all things belonging to them " are valued at ^40, 
 which would seem to show that the "all things" 
 were of extra quality, or that the other usual fur 
 nishings of the bedrooms, and perhaps also that 
 of the parlor or living-room, as well as the beds 
 themselves, were included in that valuation. 
 
 Probably it was for the accommodation of fire 
 that the parlor was usually the guest bedroom, 
 and we find that the entire parlor furniture of the 
 wealthy Mr. Whiting, including "bed-stead, bed, 
 stools, a clock [perhaps the only one in the colony], 
 a safe [probably an iron or steel chest like those 
 preserved in some European museums], a cradle, 
 cob irons," etc., is altogether valued at only 
 
 ^17 3 J - 
 
 Mr. Smith s tables, chairs, stools, cushions, and 
 
 " other things belonging " are altogether valued 
 at ^3 15.5-., while "cob irons, trammels & other 
 fire irons" were valued at 2 8s., and "brasse, 
 iron potts, pewter & such like " were ap 
 praised at 1$. The two classes of goods last 
 
57 
 
 mentioned, which at that date must have been im 
 ported, would naturally cost more than the tables 
 and stools, which, however roughly, could be made 
 here. Probably there were not more than two or 
 three chairs, and these would have been brought 
 from England. Table and other linen and a " car- 
 pett" (that is, a table-cover) were valued at ^14 icxr. 
 
 After 1650 the variety and value of the personal 
 property mentioned in the inventories rapidly in 
 creased, while the number of inventories does not 
 keep pace with the number of wills probated or 
 of estates administered upon, the wealthier and 
 more intelligent members of the community pre 
 ferring probably to keep such information within 
 the privacy of the family circle, not having pre 
 vision of how eagerly all such information would be 
 welcomed by that posterity for which they prayed 
 and toiled and hoped, dimly feeling all the while 
 that this great new land had been set apart for great 
 uses in the days which were to follow their own. 
 
 A glimpse of the relation which then existed be 
 tween a Puritan pastor and his flock may be gained 
 from the following, which is the closing paragraph 
 of Mr. Smith s will: 
 
 "And I desire the Church whose seruant I now 
 am, to take the care and ouersight of my family 
 that they may be brovght vp in the trve feare of 
 God, and to see that this my Will be faithfvlly 
 prformed. In witnesse whereof I haue svbscribed 
 my name the 8th day of May, 1648." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 A PIONEER HOME IN CONNECTICUT 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A PIONEER HOME IN 
 CONNECTICUT. 
 
 The Coming of Mrs. Mar 
 
 garet Lake and the 
 Family of Captain John 
 
 Gallup. 
 
 Voyage of the Abigail. 
 
 The First Homesteads of 
 
 the Second Generation. 
 
 Household Labor. 
 A Bride s Furnishings. 
 
MONG the many slow-sailing craft 
 of petty tonnage which followed in 
 the wake of the Mayflower, there were 
 not a few which brought men and 
 women of high future importance to 
 the infant colonies of New England ; but probably 
 few had a more notable passenger list than that of 
 the little ship Abigail, which, after a ten weeks 
 voyage, reached Boston in November, 1635. Of 
 its two hundred and twenty passengers some bore 
 names which were already noted in old England, 
 and the names of others were afterward to become 
 distinguished in the New. Among the latter was 
 the second John Winthrop, the founder of Ips 
 wich, Massachusetts, and afterward the honored 
 governor of Connecticut Colony for many succes 
 sive terms. With him came his second wife, then 
 newly wed, and her elder sister, Mrs. Margaret 
 Lake, with her two young daughters. It is with 
 Mrs. Lake, rather than with any of the more dis 
 tinguished members of this notable ship s con> 
 pany, that our present chapter is concerned. 
 
 Not until twelve years after the arrival of the 
 61 
 
62 
 
 Abigail do we again hear of Mrs. Lake. This 
 time it is as the first white woman to set foot in 
 what is now New London County, where and a 
 very unusual thing it was at that time she is 
 named as one of the original grantees, sharing in 
 all the grants and divisions of land. Mrs. Lake 
 probably never took up her residence in New 
 London, appearing to have shared the home of 
 her sister, Mrs. Winthrop, until the latter s hus 
 band became the governor of Connecticut Colony, 
 after which period Mrs. Lake continued to reside 
 in Ipswich, perhaps in the house which had be 
 longed to the Winthrops. It was on the portion 
 of land which had been assigned to Mrs. Lake in 
 New London County that her daughter Hannah, 
 when, in 1643, sne nac ^ become the wife of the 
 second Captain John Gallup, lived for the first few 
 years of her wedded life. 
 
 Although the conditions of life were necessarily 
 of the hardest all through the early days in all the 
 colonies, and there is no doubt that they were 
 hardest of all in sterile New England, it must not 
 be imagined that there were no degrees in the 
 styles of living. In spite of the leveling effect of 
 common sentiments, circumstances, privations, and 
 dangers, and of the fact that men of gentle birth 
 and cultivated minds were forced by the first law 
 of nature to become measurably skilled in all 
 sorts of handicraft, class distinctions were for sev 
 eral generations as rigorously maintained in the 
 
63 
 
 New England as in the Old. It was said by 
 Daniel Neal, writing in 1720: "In their Dress, 
 Tables and Conversation, they [the colonists] 
 affect to be as English as possible. . . . The only 
 difference between an Old and a New English 
 Man is in his Religion." Hence it is plain that, 
 at least after the first two or three years in any 
 given settlement, to describe the home of a family 
 belonging to one social class is by no means to 
 describe that of a family belonging to another 
 _class at the same, much less at another, period. 
 
 The wills of the respective ancestors of John 
 and of Hannah Lake Gallup prove them to have 
 been men of considerable substance and local im 
 portance in old England. In the New World 
 their family alliances were equally respectable, so 
 it may be supposed that their dwelling and home 
 belongings were fairly representative of those of 
 the best of the pioneer families of their time. 
 
 But before the nest-building must have come 
 the mating, with all its preliminaries, as sweet 
 here in the wilderness as if the actors in the little 
 love-drama had been walking beneath the haw 
 thorn hedges on one of their ancestral manors 
 across the sea. Between the dust-dry lines of the 
 dim old records we imagine that we catch a 
 glimpse of what may have been a very charming 
 and beautiful romance; for John Gallup and 
 Hannah Lake, as boy and girl, probably about 
 fourteen and twelve years of age, were fellow-pas- 
 
64 
 
 sengers on the ship Abigail during the long cross 
 ing of the stormy Atlantic. When, as in this 
 case, more than two hundred passengers were 
 packed closely together for ten or more tedious 
 and sometimes fearful weeks, there is no doubt 
 that the foundations were laid for many long- 
 enduring friendships, and sometimes, alas ! for 
 equally durable dislikes; and if these, why may 
 not love also have been born in these confined 
 and tempestuous quarters ? At least, it js a pleas 
 ant thought, with some warrant of tradition and 
 probability, that the manly boy, tall, handsome, 
 and bold as he must have been, if in this case the 
 boy was the father of the man, and the bright- 
 faced girl who became a brave, high-spirited, and 
 loving matron, may have begun their mutual life 
 long trust and love upon this wave-tossed little 
 vessel, smaller than many a fishing-schooner of 
 to-day. There must certainly have been many 
 opportunities to make their respective faults and 
 virtues known to each other. 
 
 The conditions of such a voyage are vividly 
 painted in the elder Governor Winthrop s journal 
 of his own voyage five years preceding that of the 
 Abigail. He makes no complaints, but it is easy 
 to see that the noble spirit of the adventurer for 
 conscience sake had much to triumph over. On 
 the four vessels of which the bark which bore him 
 was one, he records that there were three deaths 
 and three births during the voyage. Surely those 
 
65 
 
 were brave women who accompanied their hus 
 bands, venturing so much at such a time ! One 
 advantage that the elder Winthrop s company had, 
 and which probably they of the younger did not 
 have, has a picnicky sound that is droll enough to 
 modern ears. 
 
 When "off the banks of New Foundland the 
 Arabella stopped to fish," and "all the passengers 
 who were so minded " seem to have enjoyed the 
 sport of replenishing their scanty larder. A little 
 later we find that they were picking strawberries 
 on Cape Ann. 
 
 The Abigail s weary voyage was not ended until 
 in November, much too late for any such diver 
 sions. It is at least to be hoped that her passen 
 gers did not, like those of a ship which immediately 
 followed the Arabella, "arrive nearly starved," 
 but it is certain that they had on board a most 
 unwelcome companion in the smallpox. At that 
 time even inoculation had not become known, and 
 we can now but faintly imagine the well-justified 
 terrors of those exposed to the disease. 
 
 Though the young couple were not married 
 until eight years after their arrival in this country, 
 it is probable that their earliest dwelling was built 
 of logs, as were most of the houses of this date and 
 vicinity. If so, it was soon superseded by the 
 permanent homestead, which was not taken down 
 until the latter part of the eighteenth century. I 
 have talked about this house with a man who had 
 
66 
 
 heard it described by his mother, the daughter of a 
 farm-laborer who had lived in it until her marriage 
 at the age of eighteen years. Soon after that time 
 it ceased to be used as a dwelling, and before this 
 it had long been occupied only as a tenement- 
 house for farm-laborers, a finer residence having 
 been erected for their own homestead by the de 
 scendants of the builders of the first. The second 
 permanent home of the Gallups was fine for its 
 days and must have been intended to fill, in a 
 degree, the place of one of the old manor-houses, 
 of which the builders of the first had probably 
 transmitted vivid memory-pictures ; but the dwell 
 ing which immediately succeeded the log house 
 was erected with a view to meeting the needs of 
 the new country. 
 
 That so few of the houses of the early settlers 
 were built of the excellent stone which is over 
 abundant in New England was not due to the 
 groundless prejudice against that material which 
 arose among their great-grandchildren, but to the 
 fact that haste such haste as was possible in 
 those slow days was of the utmost consequence. 
 No man wished to spend the best years of his life 
 in a cabin of logs and clay while waiting for a 
 stone house to grow, as ordinarily it must under 
 the tedious methods of the period, layer by layer, 
 the lower tiers almost having time to gather moss 
 before the roof-beams could be raised. 
 
 The larger part of the best of the early houses 
 
of New England were probably much like this 
 first permanent homestead of the Gallups. Both 
 the external walls and those of the partitions were 
 of heavy timbers, roughly squared by the ax, 
 chinked with moss, and lined with hewn planks 
 two inches in thickness. In later days coats of 
 plaster were put on over the planks, but during 
 the first years the walls were made warm as well as 
 picturesque by hangings of bear, deer, otter, wild 
 cat, and fox skins, whenever these could be spared 
 from more pressing uses. The exterior walls were 
 about two feet in thickness, which tells of the size 
 of the forest trees which had been cut down to 
 make them. The high-placed and deep-seated 
 windows were scant in number, heavily barred and 
 narrow. (The Pequots and Narragansetts were 
 near, numerous, and crafty.) It is doubtful if the 
 first of the windows were glazed. Even in old 
 England it was only the wealthy who at this time 
 could afford the luxury of glass. Oiled paper was 
 the usual substitute. To exclude the cold were 
 heavy and close wooden shutters both outside and 
 inside. During the coldest weather it must have 
 been necessary to depend for light, even in the 
 daytime, upon open fires, pine-knots, and candles, 
 for at least the first decade or two in each new 
 settlement. 
 
 In the center of the house rose the great stone 
 chimney, with wide-throated fireplaces opening 
 into three large rooms on the first story, and into 
 
68 
 
 four upon the second story. The unplastered 
 and paintless ceilings were low, but higher than 
 was usual, for John Gallup is said to have stood 
 six feet four inches in his gray knit hose, and had 
 to bow his stately head to enter any doorway save 
 his own. The second story on the two longer 
 sides projected considerably beyond the lower. In 
 view of the constant danger from Indians, it is 
 probable that this house was intended to be used 
 as a fortress in case of necessity, and this projection 
 may have been made for the sake of affording a 
 coign of vantage to its inmates if attacked by 
 savages, although, as this method of construction 
 was a common one in nearly all parts of Europe 
 at the time, this is not a necessary supposition. 
 The third story was but a big garret with windows 
 in each end. Beneath all were deep cellars for the 
 storage of winter supplies, and for the manufacture 
 and ripening of home-brewed beer, made after 
 recipes brought from the mother-countryo At 
 first cider had no place in those cellars, but after 
 the orchards had grown, there was found room for 
 the barrels of hard cider which were made from 
 them, and which finally quite displaced the hea 
 vier and perhaps more wholesome, certainly less 
 stimulating, beer. In the cellars were also 
 kept, even from the first, the casks of metheg- 
 lin, made from the plentiful honey of the wild bee, 
 which in the autumn filled the place with the 
 sound of its working like the swarming of armies 
 
69 
 
 of bees a sound which was said to be reproduced 
 in the befuddled heads of those who were not 
 extremely moderate in their draughts of this too 
 potent liquor. 
 
 In the broad and high-peaked garret were set 
 the heavy looms at which, during all the long 
 summer days, either men or women, as the case 
 might be, were diligently weaving the coarse stuff 
 which must serve young and old, master and man, 
 mistress and maid, for all the rougher occasions of 
 pioneer life. 
 
 Very different are the social standards of differ 
 ing times. In early New England, and in all the 
 colonies, for that matter, it was only a specially 
 wealthy family which could afford to own a loom, 
 at least until they could be made here. Weaving 
 was heavy work, and was mostly done by weavers 
 who went from house to house, or by the poorer 
 neighbors, who were paid in cloth or in other needed 
 supplies. It seems certain that, during the first 
 two or three decades at least, much of the spin 
 ning must have been done with the distaff, for 
 comparatively few wheels are mentioned in the 
 inventories of those years. Whether with distaff 
 or wheel, spinning was winter s lighter task, and 
 performed by both mistress and maids; but, as 
 with the weaving, it was only the well-to-do who 
 had the materials. It was many years before suffi 
 cient wool or flax could be grown in this country 
 to make them plentiful. 
 
7 
 
 Long before cloth-weaving factories were estab 
 lished here, yet not until the early part of the 
 eighteenth century, a few fulling-mills were set 
 up ; at these the woolen cloths were dyed, fulled, 
 sheared, and pressed. A web of cloth which had 
 passed through the fuller s processes was an object 
 of envy to those and they were in the majority 
 who could not afford to pay for his services. 
 
 The making of the plainest linens was probably 
 all done at home, either with or without the aid of 
 the itinerant weaver, whose services were some 
 times bespoken months in advance, so greatly was 
 he in demand. Even after his labors were done 
 the fabric was not ready for use. In my dear 
 mother s girlhood flax-spinning was still consid 
 ered as an essential accomplishment for young 
 ladies, at least among the descendants of the 
 Huguenots. I have heard her say that to bring 
 the fine linen for shirts to the required degree of 
 snowiness no less than thirty and sometimes even 
 forty bleachings were necessary. The first few 
 bleachings were of the thread. The colonists were 
 never sparing of their labor, yet it is probable that 
 they were not so dainty as to the shade of white 
 ness in the overfilled days of the seventeenth cen 
 tury. With their best diligence, the time required 
 from the sowing of the flax to the end of the last 
 bleaching could never be less than sixteen months. 
 
 Farm-laborers had come over in numbers, and 
 there was a fair proportion of mechanics, but of 
 
7 1 
 
 maid-servants there was oftentimes a great lack. 
 Though many a family, among the richer colo 
 nists, had brought several, the maid-servants were 
 always fewer in number than the men-servants, 
 and when they married, as most of them did very 
 soon, there wa^np way of supplying their places. 
 At the date when this old house was new there 
 were few negroes in New England, and the half- 
 tamed squaws who were sometimes employed 
 made very poor substitutes for trained house- 
 workers. As the Winthrops were sometimes most 
 unhappily forced to make use of this very unsat 
 isfactory form of household service, it is probable 
 that Mrs. Lake and her daughters were also com 
 pelled to accept of it in default of better. 
 
 Scanty enough, according to our standard, were 
 then the plenishings of the wealthy houses of old 
 England, and really pathetic was the scarcity here 
 of what were even then esteemed to be essential 
 comforts in the older land. 
 
 Not until well into the second half of the sev 
 enteenth century was furniture of any but the 
 roughest sorts made in New England, and it is 
 obviously impossible that much should have been 
 imported in the tiny vessels then dignified by the 
 name of ships. Their space was too important to 
 be filled with furniture, their petty holds being 
 always crowded with the literally indispensable 
 articles, such as provisions, arms, ammunition, 
 tools, seeds, and clothes, while their scanty deck- 
 
space was made still scantier by the presence of 
 the live stock of which the colonists were in such 
 pressing need. 
 
 In 1645 Mrs. Lake sent to a correspondent in 
 England a list of things which she desired for the 
 furnishing of the new house of her daughter, Mrs. 
 Gallup. She asked for : 
 
 " A peare of brasse Andirons, 
 
 A brasse Kittell, 
 
 2 grate Chestes well made, 
 
 2 armed Cheares with fine rushe bottums, 
 
 A carven Caisse for Bottels wch my Cuzzen 
 
 Cooke has of mine, 
 A Warmeing Pann, 
 A big iron Pott, 
 6 Pewter Plates, 
 
 2 Pewter Platters, 
 
 3 Pewter Porringeres, 
 
 A small stew Pann of Copper, 
 
 A peare of Brasse and a peare of Silver Candle 
 sticks (of goode Plate.) 
 
 A Drippe Panne, 
 
 A Bedsteede of carven Oake, (ye one in wch I 
 sleept in my Father s house, wth ye Val- 
 lances and Curtayns and Tapestry Cover 
 lid belongynge, & ye wch my Sister Bread- 
 cale [?] hath in charge for Mee.) 
 
 3 Duzzen Nappekins of fine linen damasque & 
 2 Tabel cloathes of ye same. Alsoe 8 
 
73 
 
 fine Holland Pillowe Beeres & 4 ditto 
 
 Sheetes, 
 A skellet, 
 
 A pestel & Mortar, 
 A few Needels of differnt sizes, 
 A Carpet [that is, a table-cover ; the name was 
 
 then universally thus applied], of goodley 
 
 stuffe and colour, aboute 2 Ell longe. 
 6 Tabel Knifes of ye beste Steal wth such han- 
 
 dels as may bee. 
 Alsoe, 3 large & 3 smal Silvern Spoones, & 6 
 
 of home." 
 
 And this is all. Yet for the time and place it 
 must have been considered a fine outfit, perhaps 
 too much so for the wife of the frontier farmer, 
 skipper, and fighter. At the same period in old 
 England, in the wills of wealthy titled families, 
 bedding, utensils of copper, and dishes of pewter 
 were constantly named as articles of considerable 
 value. The elder Governor Winthrop was known 
 as one of the wealthiest of the early colonists, yet 
 the inventory of his possessions, made in 1649, 
 does not present a proportionately finer showing. 
 Even a century later than this date a complete 
 outfit of pewter plates, dishes, and spoons made a 
 lordly wedding present, given by a grandson of 
 Major-General Humphrey Atherton to his daugh 
 ter a gift which, according to traditions, excited 
 some heartburnings among relatives who had not 
 
74 
 
 been so favored. In the absence of pewter, 
 wooden bowls, trenchers, and noggins were consid 
 ered rather fine, while the carefully dried gourds 
 and the deep, saucer-like shells of the immense 
 quahogs, which were then so abundant, but have 
 now left only degenerate descendants along the 
 New England coasts, served an ever-useful pur 
 pose when the supply of better things was short. 
 It is said that small clam-shells, set in split sticks 
 for handles, were used as teaspoons until the early 
 part of this century. The large a^nd thin shells of a 
 kind of scallop, which is still plentiful along the 
 shores of Maine and Massachusetts, are sometimes 
 used even now as skimmers a curious survival 
 of an old custom so long after the need for it has 
 passed by ! 
 
 Many years after the old Gallup house had been 
 torn down, the dining-table which had served the 
 family for at least one generation was preserved in 
 an out-house, where my informant had seen it in 
 his youth. It was simply what once had been 
 the cover of a large packing-box, of smooth oak 
 boards, supported by carefully squared legs. The 
 box might have been used to bring the bedding 
 and other things from Europe, for on the under 
 side of the table s top still remained the inscription : 
 " For Mrs. Margarette Lake, Ippsitch." 
 
 Chairs, when found at all in the houses of the 
 earliest colonists, were reserved for the heads of 
 families and their most honored guests, or for the 
 
75 
 
 infirm. When one remembers what uncomforta 
 ble things the most of those chairs were, one must 
 profoundly pity the infirm ! One may be per 
 mitted to hope that the comfortable " barrel chair," 
 still sometimes found in the country houses, was 
 the happy invention of this time, by some bene 
 factor of the ill and aged. Coopers were plentier 
 than cabinet-makers in those days, and the barrel 
 chair has an extremely primitive look. Even in 
 England, until after the Restoration, backless 
 benches and stools formed the usual seats, and we 
 must suppose that they did so for many years 
 later than that. 
 
 Closets or pantries were not often built in the 
 houses which first succeeded the log cabins of the 
 settlers, chests which might also be utilized as 
 seats, and a small room with shelves not always 
 overnicely smoothed, answering for the safe-keep 
 ing of most articles not in daily use. A cupboard 
 was a possession indicating a good degree of pros 
 perity, while a " court cup-board," or a sideboard, 
 was a mark of positive affluence, even at a much 
 later date than this. 
 
 Scanty as was the wedding house-plenishing of 
 Hannah Gallup, she was reasonably well provided 
 with fine clothes. Indeed, all of the better class 
 among the colonists seem to have had dispropor 
 tionately liberal supplies of " mantels " and " petty- 
 cotes " of velvet or brocade, with other " garments 
 to consort therewith " ; but this was not due so 
 
76 
 
 much to vanity as to thrift, the best being liter 
 ally the cheapest in the days when the finer 
 fabrics were so honestly made as to wear for 
 decades, and the cost of carriage was the same 
 for a coat of frieze as for one of velvet. 
 
 Of silverware there was some, but not frequent, 
 mention in wills and inventories, and to jewelry 
 still less reference is made, unless mourning-rings 
 may be thus classed. Mrs. Lake bequeathed to 
 one of her daughters an " enamailed " and to the 
 other a " gould " ring. An item of curious interest 
 in this will is the following : 
 
 " To my Daughter, Martha Harris, I give my 
 tapestry coverlid and all my other apparell, which 
 are not disposed of to others pticulerly, and I .give 
 unto her my mantel, and after her decease to all 
 her children as their need is" (The italics are 
 mine.) 
 
 Tradition runs that this " mantel " was of Russian 
 sable, even then as costly as it was rare, and that it 
 had been brought from the far East, perhaps China. 
 Such a bequest brings many things to mind : long, 
 tedious sledgings, when stalwart men took the 
 place of horses or oxen and drew their wives or 
 sisters through the windings of wintry forests, 
 where the only track was an Indian trail, and 
 where every step was shadowed by the ever-pres 
 ent dread of the approach of the stealthy foe. Or 
 we see visions of night campings, made fearful by 
 
77 
 
 the bowlings of the wolves; and, day or night, 
 always the same benumbing cold. Often must 
 the grandmother s fur " mantel " (worn, we may 
 be sure, until the last hair was gone) have proved 
 a veritable life-preserver in those bitter years. 
 
 In addition to the above-mentioned " mantel," 
 Mrs. Lake seems to have left a wardrobe of con 
 siderable extent and richness, besides a goodly list 
 of linens and other household treasures, with sev 
 eral carved chests to contain them ; but no books 
 are mentioned, save a " grate Byble " and " another 
 Bible." 
 
 Of such homely comforts as could be made 
 from the materials at hand the industrious and 
 ingenious colonist might possess a rude abun 
 dance. Le Grand Monarque of the most luxurious 
 country then existing might have a fine silken 
 instead of a coarse linen slip for his bed, but it 
 would be filled with feathers no better than those 
 plucked from the wild water-fowl of the New 
 England coast; while heavily lined curtains of 
 coarse homespun wool or linen shut out the bitter 
 winds as effectually as the bravest damask from 
 the looms of Flanders. The absence of many 
 things which we now deem to be essential was 
 not felt as a privation, because the things were 
 unknown, not only in this wilderness, but in the 
 old country. 
 
 Some one writing of the Lady Arbella John 
 son has said that "she came from a paradise of 
 
78 
 
 plenty and pleasure into a wilderness of wants." 
 This expression is especially correct as regards its 
 last clause. " A wilderness of wants " this cer 
 tainly must have seemed, not only to the sister of 
 the Earl of Lincoln, but also to the hardiest of the 
 colonists ; and these wants were actual, not imagi 
 nary, as evidenced by the frightful death-rates of 
 the early years. But even the tapestried halls the 
 delicate Lady Arbella had left would seem com 
 fortless enough to the daughter of any small farmer 
 of modern New England, however much she 
 might admire its splendor, could she now sud 
 denly find herself placed in the Lady Arbella s fine 
 abode of " pleasure and plenty " as the latter had 
 left it in 1630. 
 
 Floor-coverings were then a rarity even in 
 palaces, and the sand and rushes which polished 
 the boards or silenced the tread were as plentiful 
 here as elsewhere. Porcelain was a luxury in any 
 land ; even delft was uncommon ; and pewter was 
 considered too fine for the daily use of any save 
 the rich. Wooden dishes served on ordinary 
 occasions in old England as in the New, save 
 among the wealthiest. The sense of real priva 
 tion was felt in things much closer to the needs of 
 the primitive man. 
 
 Great, very great, must have been the suffering 
 from the cold and from the lack of suitable food. 
 If the colonists sometimes took undue quantities 
 of beer and the stronger liquors, not only the tra- 
 
79 
 
 ditions of the older land but the hard conditions 
 of the new must be remembered in extenuation. 
 They needed something besides cold water. Hot 
 water had not been dreamed of as a beverage, and 
 the milder stimulants of our day had not been 
 introduced. The earliest mention of chocolate in 
 Connecticut is said to have been in 1679. Five 
 years later coffee is first named, and tea not until 1695. 
 For many years raised bread was hardly known, 
 and this for several very good reasons. It was a 
 difficult matter to preserve the leaven from one 
 baking until the next. Either it would sour from 
 too great heat, or it would lose its vitality from 
 the severe cold weather. To bake bread in an 
 iron pot over the fire or under the same utensil 
 inverted before the blaze, was an undertaking very 
 doubtful in its results ; yet there was no other way, 
 for the brick or stone ovens of a later date did not 
 exist during the first decade, and, except in a few 
 instances, probably not for a score of years longer. 
 Until a sufficiency of bread-stuffs could be raised 
 here, which was not for several years, both wheat 
 flour and oatmeal were imported in considerable 
 quantities ; but the first was costly even in Eng 
 land, and as both often arrived here in an exceed 
 ingly damaged condition, the roughly pounded or 
 ground meal of Indian corn was for months at a 
 time the staff of life a staff which, for persons 
 of weak powers of digestion, has often proved an 
 insufficient support. 
 
8o 
 
 For grinding this the only mills were of the sim 
 ple Indian construction a large stone hollowed 
 by natural or by artificial means, and another stone 
 into which a wooden handle had been fitted. The 
 latter was sometimes tied to a young sapling grow 
 ing near, which, by its rebound, saved the grinder 
 the labor of lifting the pestle. In my childhood 
 near the ruins of an ancient house stood a very 
 large birch-tree ; beneath it was a hollow stone, 
 and still lingering amid the upper branches, which 
 had grown in such a way as to -hold and support 
 it, could be seen one of these ancient pestles. 
 
 After the first few seasons summer vegetables 
 were as fine and as plentiful as in old England, 
 but it was impossible to preserve for winter use 
 any that could not survive deep burial in trenches 
 out of doors or in the cellars, overlaid with piles 
 of earth mixed with dead leaves, so bitter was 
 the winter frost and so inadequate the means of 
 excluding it. 
 
 Poultry was more easily brought than larger 
 live stock, and multiplied more rapidly, but it was 
 a good many years after the landing at Plymouth 
 before cows and sheep became plenty. Even as 
 late as 1672, when Mrs. Lake made her will, a 
 "cow and heifer" were evidently esteemed to be 
 bequests of more than ordinary value ; indeed, the 
 same was then true in old England, where a man 
 whose estate went by entail to his eldest son, and 
 who bequeathed ,1000 each to four younger sons, 
 
8i 
 
 seems to have thought each of his daughters well 
 portioned with ^200, a cow, a heifer, ten sheep, 
 and a feather-bed. Trumbull, in his history of 
 Connecticut, gives the value of a good milch cow, 
 at about 1640, as ^30. At the same date car 
 penters and other mechanics were receiving from 
 fourteen to eighteen pence per day. The work of 
 a " paire of Oxen with tacklin " was held to be 
 worth two shillings and fivepence for " six howers " 
 in winter and " eight howers " the rest of the year, 
 these hours making the full day s work for cattle, 
 except in heavy upland plowing, when "six 
 howers " was considered enough. A man s work 
 ing hours were reckoned from sun to sun in sum 
 mer, and from six to six o clock in winter; but 
 cattle were much more precious than men. The 
 latter usually managed to survive the long and 
 arduous sea voyage, but of the cattle which formed 
 the deck-load of nearly all incoming ships in 
 summer, not more than twenty-five per cent, were 
 expected to survive, even under exceptionally fa 
 vorable conditions. 
 
 Some of the first of the colonists sent by nearly 
 every returning ship for seeds and young fruit- 
 trees, but comparatively few of the latter survived 
 the long voyage, and of course those that did so 
 required some years to come to maturity. This 
 led to the making large use of the delicious wild 
 berries in their seasons, but the best of these, as 
 the raspberries and the strawberries, which have 
 
82 
 
 sadly degenerated in size since Winthrop tanta 
 lized his home correspondents by describing indi 
 vidual berries as "two inches in length,"- -do not 
 take kindly to being dried, refusing to retain their 
 flavor under such treatment, and no other method 
 of preservation was then practicable. 
 
 Of such fruits as did endure the process great 
 quantities were gathered and dried, a labor which 
 added not a little to the toils of the women of the 
 families during the summer. Under these condi 
 tions, it is not wonderful that the useful, long-suffer 
 ing pumpkin came into such universal favor. 
 Preserving fruits by the only effectual method 
 then known, except drying, the boiling with the 
 solid pound of fruit for pound of sugar, was un 
 wholesome, very costly, and but little attempted. 
 Game and fish were abundant and delicious. Salt 
 meats were a staple import, and swine soon became 
 plenty ; but horned cattle, sheep, and even domestic 
 fowls were for a long time too valuable to be eaten. 
 
 For years there seems to have been little attempt 
 at butter-making; most of that which was used 
 here was imported from England, and often did 
 not keep well, in spite of being frequently made 
 unpalatable by the quantity of salt used to pre 
 serve it. On the occasion of the wedding of her 
 daughter Hannah, Mrs. Lake writes that she had 
 "made some very goode buttere although it 
 seemed almost Wicket to soe yuse ye milk yt is 
 so sore needet for ye sick ye littell ownes." 
 
83 
 
 Sheep were spared for their wool and poultry 
 for their eggs ; when the chickens were sacrificed 
 their feathers were carefully preserved, for in 
 those days of scarcity a bed of hen feathers would 
 not be despised, though those of the wild geese 
 and ducks would certainly be more highly 
 prized. 
 
 In later times there was no lack of material to 
 keep the hands of matrons and maids busily spin 
 ning, but at first there was neither flax nor wool to 
 spin. Woolen yarns were among the articles sent 
 for to England ; but threads from worn-out woolen 
 garments long supplied much of the material for 
 the stockings and mittens for working wear. 
 
 In these pioneer days the energies of the colo 
 nists were devoted to getting together the raw 
 materials for a civilized existence. In 1640 the 
 " Generall Court " of Connecticut Colony issued 
 the following recommendation : 
 
 " Whereas as yt is observed yt experience has 
 made appear that much ground within these lib- 
 ertyes may be well improved both in Hempe & 
 Flaxe & yt we myght in time have a supply of 
 lynnen cloath amongst o selves and for the more 
 speedy procuring of Hempe Seede It is Ordered 
 yt every family within these plantations shall 
 pr cure and plante this pr sent yeare at lest onne 
 spoonfull of English hempe seed in fruitful soyle 
 at lest a foot distant betwixt each seed, and the 
 
8 4 
 
 same so planted shall be pr served and kept in 
 husbandly manner for supply of seed another yeare." 
 
 The following year the same ordinance was 
 repeated ; after that it may be supposed that enough 
 seed had been secured for future planting. 
 
 At what an humble distance must we now admire 
 the indomitable and uncomplaining courage with 
 which these colonists bore their material as well as 
 their more than material privations. To one griev 
 ous privation I have seen no reference made as such. 
 Perhaps it bore so heavily upon loving hearts that 
 they feared to give expression to their feelings, and 
 so lift the flood-gates of their suppressed sorrows. 
 
 There is preserved a letter written by Mrs. Lake 
 when she had been living in this country twenty- 
 eight years. Her beloved brother-in-law, Win- 
 throp, had gone to England in the interests of the 
 colonists, and Mrs. Lake thus writes to him : 
 
 " I would desire you to inquire whether my sis 
 ter Breadcale bee livinge, you may hear of her if 
 livinge, at Iron Gate, where the boats weekly 
 come from Lee." 
 
 There is a world of silent and weary heartbreak 
 in this and similar inquiries in the same letter. 
 
 When Mrs. Lake had come to New England, 
 Charles I, Strafford, and Archbishop Laud were 
 carrying things with a high hand, driving the 
 Puritans out from the folds as if they had been 
 
_85_ 
 
 wolves. Between that time and the date of Mrs. 
 Lake s letter the commonwealth had risen, flour 
 ished, and, when the mighty man who gave it 
 form had passed from earth, had fallen, and the 
 Restoration, which all good subjects were bound to 
 call "happy," had dropped a veil over things 
 which it could not, and others which it would not, 
 undo. Amid all their own troubles and overturn- 
 ings, it is scarcely to be wondered at that the 
 relatives left at " home " should sometimes have 
 forgotten to write to their kin beyond the sea, from 
 whose thoughts they were never long absent. The 
 river of death could hardly have sundered chiefest 
 friends more effectually than did the turbulent 
 Atlantic then, but the hungry heart would still 
 hope and cry out for certainty. 
 
 When John and Hannah Gallup happily 
 planned and stoutly built their forest homestead 
 on the banks of the little Mystic River, it well 
 may be that they " laid its foundations in the feare 
 of God and reared its walls in the terror of the 
 Indians," as Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachu 
 setts, expressed it when writing in his old age in 
 regard to the erection of the first meeting-house in 
 Wethersfield, Connecticut, of which his father was 
 pastor; and Samuel could speak feelingly upon 
 the subject, having himself, in his young manhood 
 in Hadley, had frequent occasion to defend his own 
 house from savage attacks. Reverence for God 
 was a part of the inheritance of the Puritan settlers, 
 
86 
 
 and terror of the Indians was a very natural con 
 sequence of their situation. Whoever may have 
 been to blame in the first instance, there is no 
 doubt that by fifty years after the landing at 
 Plymouth, the question of proper treatment of the 
 Indians received but one answer from the colonists : 
 " We must extirpate them or they will exterminate 
 us." At our distance from all such apprehensions 
 it is easy to see the faults of the white men, and to 
 sympathize with the misused Indian he was dis 
 placing; but had we lived in that "time and under 
 the same circumstances, it is doubtful if we would 
 have been more altruistic than were our sorely 
 harassed ancestors. The red man may have been 
 as unjustly as he was unwisely treated by the white : 
 but he was savage ; he was untractable ; he was 
 cruel ; he was treacherous. If his provocations 
 were great, his vengeance was terrible. His vicinity 
 was an unending menace to the home of every settler. 
 The celebrated "Great Swamp Fight" of 1675 
 was so called to distinguish it from the smaller 
 Swamp Fight, which occurred at almost the 
 other extremity of Connecticut in 1637. In the 
 later of these battles the power of the truly great 
 chieftain, King Philip, and of the native tribes of 
 New England was forever broken. Perhaps, yes, 
 even probably, this decisive fight might have been 
 rendered unnecessary had gentler counsels pre 
 vailed thirty or forty years before, but by 1675 it 
 had become inevitable. 
 
8? 
 
 When the colonial forces assembled to attack 
 King Philip s fort the members of the opposing 
 parties were supposed to be about two to one in 
 favor of the Indians, full half of whom were sup 
 plied with muskets as well as with their native 
 weapons ; besides this, they fought behind defenses 
 which, as the assaulting party had no cannon, 
 must have seemed to be almost impregnable. The 
 Narragansetts were the most nearly civilized of all 
 the New England tribes. This fort was of their 
 construction and was well built, with a strong and 
 high palisade in the midst of a vast pine and cedar 
 swamp. As an additional protection, the palisade 
 was surrounded by a defensive hedge of interlacing 
 felled trees, several feet in height and about a rod 
 in thickness. Both parties to the conflict felt that 
 they were fighting for their families, their homes, 
 even their very existence as nations in these wilds. 
 
 The second John Gallup had always maintained 
 pleasant personal relations with the Indians of 
 whatever tribe, possessing those qualities of justice, 
 firmness, and kindness which win confidence ; but 
 the moment was not one for considerations of this 
 sort to have weight with either side. The husband 
 of Hannah Lake was no longer a young man, 
 having been married for thirty-two years ; but the 
 hardy pioneer was always in his prime between 
 fifty and sixty, and age had bowed neither the 
 back nor the spirit of Captain Gallup. At the 
 head of his company of eighty men, he led an 
 
88 
 
 assault upon the fort s only vulnerable point, which 
 was a reasonably well protected and gallantly de 
 fended gateway, where he fell with twenty of his 
 men. 
 
 Whether his body was brought home to the 
 woman who had loved him so long and so truly, I 
 do not know, but probably it was not. The De 
 cember weather was bitterly cold, the half-frozen 
 morass was extremely treacherous. The victorious 
 party had already marched twenty miles that day, 
 fought fiercely, sustained only by scant rations of 
 frozen food, and had the same distance to walk 
 back again, carrying more than one hundred and 
 fifty wounded men with them, so it is probable 
 that the bodies of the slain were hastily interred 
 on the spot where they fell. 
 
 Neither do I know how long the wife survived 
 her husband ; but I do know that the name of the 
 hero-sire who fell in defense of his wilderness home 
 was long held in reverent remembrance by his 
 descendants. In a journal letter kept by his great- 
 great-granddaughter, Juliana Smith of Sharon, 
 Connecticut, I find this entry : 
 
 " This evening my Mother has been telling me 
 about her great-grandfather, Captain John Gallup, 
 who was killed in King Philip s War. I thank 
 God to be descended from such a man. Truthful, 
 Kind and Brave ! " 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 TWO HOUSES IN OLD NEW AMSTERDAM 
 

 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TWO HOUSES IN OLD 
 NEW AMSTERDAM. 
 
 The Long Step from Con 
 
 necticut to New York. 
 
 Comforts of the Dutch. 
 
 Mr. David Codwise Tells 
 
 of the Houses of his 
 
 Grandfather and of Nic- 
 
 laes Evertsen, Grandson 
 
 of Lieutenant-Admiral 
 
 Jan Evertsen. 
 
ooo 
 
 OOO 
 
 is a long step both in time, in 
 ^ _, c^j distance, and in customs from the 
 pioneer home in New London, 
 
 ^J ^J Connecticut, started in 1644, to 
 
 0C/^D^ the homes of prosperous Dutch 
 citizens of New Amsterdam in 1698. 
 
 Material progress in all the colonies had been 
 enormous during the years that had intervened. 
 It has always been believed that the Dutch settlers 
 were at no time subjected to the hardships that had 
 been so grievous to the Pilgrims and their imme 
 diate successors, but that may have been a mis 
 taken notion. Early Dutch records not having been 
 so thoroughly searched, and letters, if any are in ex 
 istence, being in a foreign tongue, we have been con 
 tent to accept the conditions of later days as char 
 acteristic of the earlier ones as well. This much 
 we know, that times were comparatively easy when 
 Niclaes Evertsen, a recent immigrant from Holland, 
 perhaps by the way of the West Indies, married 
 Margrietye Van Baal, a native of the trading-post 
 which her father had known as Fort Orange, 
 but which, eight years before her birth, had 
 
 91 
 
been obliged to take the English name of Al 
 bany. 
 
 Yes ; times were not hard in the little city of 
 New York, notwithstanding that it had been cap 
 tured by the English, who were by no means as 
 gentle and careful nurses of their colonies as the 
 Dutch had been. The marriage just referred to 
 occurred in 1698, at which time there was a con 
 siderable degree of material prosperity. 
 
 The Hollanders were natural traders, industri 
 ous, thrifty, honest, and persevering: Probably no 
 nation had fewer vices or more virtues, and the 
 last were of the kind that bring prosperity in their 
 train. The English government paid them com 
 paratively little attention, and the shrewd Dutch 
 colonists took no pains to awaken the interest (or 
 cupidity) of their new and undesired masters. In 
 preserving a salutary obscurity they were undoubt 
 edly aided by their quiet ways and their language, 
 which few Englishmen cared to learn. 
 
 New York was now the little city s name upon 
 colonial maps; but New Amsterdam it still re 
 mained in the hearts of its citizens, as well as in its 
 customs and its people for many years to come. 
 The British had been in possession for about thirty- 
 five years when Niclaes Evertsen built his broad- 
 roofed stone and shingle house somewhere upon 
 the big farm which is said to have stretched from 
 what is now Fourth Avenue, between Union and 
 Madison squares, to the East River; but Dutch 
 
Q3 
 
 ^ nrl 
 
 was still the language of the people, in Dutch were 
 their records kept, and Dutch were all their tastes 
 and ways. 
 
 The very first comers among the Dutch settlers 
 must, like the New England and all other pioneers, 
 have lived in huts of rough, or at best of squared, 
 logs; but instead of being treated with biting 
 neglect like the colonies of England, the Dutch 
 received every possible aid and comfort from the 
 government of their mother-land, and stores and 
 supplies of all sorts were sent out to them as rap 
 idly as possible and with a liberal hand, so that 
 they were supplied with the comforts of those days 
 sooner than their neighbors. 
 
 Even had the English so desired, they could not 
 have given to their colonies as many comforts as 
 could the Dutch, for the latter were far in advance 
 of the former in all the peaceful and domestic arts. 
 In addition to the help which they received from 
 the home-land, the Dutch were fortunate in being 
 most advantageously placed for acting as " middle 
 men" between Holland and the native American 
 tribes, and thus they rapidly accumulated property ; 
 hence their dwellings speedily became seats of 
 comfort, or even of luxury, as those terms were 
 then used. 
 
 The late David Codwise, for many years a mas 
 ter in chancery in the city of New York, dying in 
 1864 at the age of eighty-four years, was the hus 
 band of a sister of my grandmother. Under their 
 
94 
 
 most hospitable roof many of my girlhood s happy 
 days were spent, and not the least happy were the 
 hours passed in listening to my dear great-uncle s 
 descriptions of the ways and things in old New 
 York. Of his many talks I took some notes, and 
 I am now extremely sorry that I did not take 
 more, though I have been able to glean supple 
 mentary information from the many letters, wills, 
 and expense-accounts now in my possession and 
 relating to the periods of which he told. 
 
 I do not now remember whether> the first of the 
 two houses which Mr. Codwise described to me in 
 considerable detail had belonged to his maternal 
 or paternal great-grandfather ; I think, to the latter. 
 Its date, set in small red tiles in the yellow brick 
 walls over its principal door, was A.D. 1700. This 
 house, my uncle said, was the duplicate of one 
 which was erected at or about the same time by 
 his ancestor s partner and most intimate friend, 
 Captain Niclaes Evertsen. The latter was the 
 grandson of the Lieutenant-Admiral Jan (or 
 Johan) Evertsen, a knight of the Order of St. 
 Michael, and one of the most famous officers of 
 old Holland s famous navy, to whose harvest of 
 heroes his family had, in the course of less than 
 a century, supplied, besides himself, no less than 
 three vice-admirals, one commodore, and five 
 scheepsbcvclhebbers (ship-commanders). At least 
 seven of the nine died in battle. Jacob de Liefde, 
 in his book on the "Great Dutch Admirals," says 
 
95 
 
 that fifteen of the Evertsens had borne the name 
 honorably in battle both on land and on sea, and 
 one must wonder that the immigrant Niclaes was 
 content to remain a merchant and captain of one 
 of his own ships, peacefully trading between New 
 Amsterdam and the West Indies. But times had 
 changed. Holland and England had become friends, 
 and the claws of Spain and Portugal had been too 
 closely clipped to be longer dangerous to their 
 enemies. So to Captain Evertsen in the new land 
 his title had acquired a purely peaceful signifi 
 cance. That his business was profitable is proved 
 by the estate which he left, and by the generous 
 plenishings and furnishings of his unusually large 
 and commodious house. 
 
 Among the notes which I took from Mr. Cod- 
 wise s conversations I am glad to find a description 
 and a rough plan of the ground floors of what 
 were in their day considered two of the finest 
 dwellings on the island of Manhattan. They 
 were built at about the same time after the same 
 design and probably by the same workmen for 
 two men who were partners in business and at 
 tached friends Captain Niclaes Evertsen, and 
 the ancestor of Mr. Codwise, whose surname 
 may have been either Codwise or Beeckman, as 
 that was the maiden name of my great-uncle s 
 mother. 
 
 The Codwise house stood on what is now Dey 
 Street, where it was still considered a handsome 
 
96 
 
 residence, until destroyed by fire not long before 
 my great-uncle s twentieth birthday. 
 
 Land on Manhattan Island was not then sold 
 by the inch, and these two houses were built with 
 a glorious contempt of economy of space. In the 
 center of each rose a great chimney-stack of stone, 
 having four immense fireplaces, each striding 
 across the corner of a wide, low-ceiled, broad-win 
 dowed room about twenty-two feet square. On 
 either side, beyond the four rooms thus grouped 
 around the chimney-stack, were ,two others of 
 about equal dimensions, each having its own fire 
 place, for two more chimneys rose, one in each 
 gable-end of the houses. The first story of the 
 Evertsen house was built of stone ; that of the Cod- 
 wise house was constructed of buff-colored brick 
 imported from Holland a needless expense, as 
 Mr. Codwise used to say, because brick-making 
 was one of the earliest and most successful indus 
 tries started in the new land. 
 
 In both houses the exterior walls of the upper 
 stories were covered by overlapping cedar shingles, 
 clipped at the corners to produce an octagonal 
 effect, as one may see them in certain cottages of 
 to-day. In front and at the gable-ends the second 
 stories projected a little beyond the lower. At the 
 rear there was but one story, the long roof sloping 
 from the peak by a slightly inward-curving sweep 
 till it terminated over the low, comfortable-looking 
 stoep, upon which opened the rear windows and 
 
97 
 
 doors of the first floor. All the first-floor rooms 
 were handsomely wainscoted, and these, as well as 
 the heavy ceiling beams, were, as Mr. Codwise re 
 membered them, cased and painted white. Each 
 fireplace was surrounded by borders of tiles, all 
 illustrating scriptural or naval scenes, save one set, 
 which, in reddish brown figures on a white ground, 
 portrayed the adventures of Don Quixote. One 
 of these last tiles I saw in Mr. Codwise s possession 
 in 1860. The walls of one room in each of the 
 houses were hung with embossed leather, which 
 had once been richly decorated in arabesque de 
 signs, and even in my great-uncle s remembrance 
 the gold tracings had not been badly tarnished. 
 Other walls in the best rooms of both houses were 
 hung with a very substantial sort of paper, pic 
 tured with sprawling landscapes in which wind 
 mills, square-rigged boats, and very chunky cows 
 figured prominently. This was said to have been 
 put on soon after the houses were built. Accord 
 ing to the custom of the time, the bedrooms were 
 always washed with lime. 
 
 On the second floor there were six rooms across 
 the front, extending to the center of the house. 
 The rest was left unceiled a big open garret 
 with square windows at each end and dormers 
 along the sides of the roof, which sloped from the 
 peak to the floor. In this great garret flax-hatchel- 
 ing, wool-carding, and weaving went on almost 
 without cessation, save in the very coldest weather, 
 
9 8 
 
 when the looms were abandoned to the compan 
 ionship of the rows of smoked hams hanging from 
 the huge beams, the long ropes of sausage-links, 
 the festoons of dried apples, and all the other 
 stores which could endure the winter frosts. Those 
 that could not do this were safely packed away in 
 the dim recesses of the deep cellars which ran 
 under the whole house. The latter was ventilated 
 during the summer by leaving open the low doors, 
 which formed a sort of sloping roof, covering the 
 stone steps leading from the outer air on all sides 
 of the house to the deeps below. In winter these 
 doorways were filled in with straw and dried 
 leaves, while earth and sods were laid over the 
 closed doors in order to effectually exclude the 
 frost. After this was done, late in the fall, the pitch- 
 dark cellars could only be entered by the interior 
 stairs. 
 
 The diamond-paned and leaded window-sashes 
 had originally been brought from Holland ; but 
 by the time Mr. Codwise could remember them, 
 all but a few had been replaced by other sashes 
 filled with nearly square panes, twelve to each 
 sash. This glass was so full of knots and streaks 
 that no object seen through it appeared to be 
 entire, but to be broken into disjointed parts. 
 The glass of the imported diamond-shaped panes 
 was much clearer. 
 
 At what time the Evertsen house was taken 
 down, or whether it was burned, I do not know, 
 
99 
 
 but believe it to have been burned a few years 
 before the Codwise mansion. After the destruc 
 tion of each of them Mr. Codwise said that in the 
 center of the central chimney-stack, which re 
 mained standing like a strong tower in the midst 
 of the ruins, was found a small, diamond-shaped 
 chamber, across the longest diameter of which two 
 men might have lain down side by side. The 
 floor of this chamber was of brick, and its side 
 walls were the stone backs of the four corner fire 
 places. Ceiling it had none, for the walls of the 
 flues sloped inward as they rose, until at the top of 
 the stack there was only a comparatively small 
 opening, through which the noonday sun might 
 send a blinking ray to cheer the floor beneath, or 
 rain or snow might pitilessly descend. The little 
 chamber was entered from opposite directions 
 by two strait doors which formed the backs of two 
 of the eight narrow closets flanking the four fire 
 places. Good and secure hiding-places these 
 chambers were, whether for men or for treasure. 
 My uncle said that his father had seen the one in 
 their house used for both purposes during our 
 Revolutionary War, and to oblige both Tories 
 and patriots; for his ancestors, whether the pater 
 nal Codwise or the maternal Beeckman, had main 
 tained a strict neutrality, and were able sometimes 
 to extend a measure of protection to personal 
 friends in either party in their times of need. It 
 is needless to say that the cautious heads of the 
 
100 
 
 families did not confide the secret of the chimney- 
 stack to many persons. In summer this hiding- 
 place must have been rather damp ; but in winter, 
 when the fires were burning in all four of the fire 
 places which surrounded it, it may not have been 
 an altogether uncomfortable refuge. 
 
 A long, covered passageway led from one end 
 of the stoepto a corner of the kitchen, which then, 
 as is still usual in our Southern States, was in a 
 detached building. Beyond it, again, stretched 
 away the negro quarters, built sometimes of logs 
 and sometimes of brick or stone, and mostly of 
 one story in height. At right angles with these 
 were the barns and stables, low, but exceedingly 
 broad ; also a blacksmithy, where horses and oxen 
 were shod and repairs made, and a carpenter s 
 shop. Taken together, the outbuildings made 
 three sides of a hollow square in which were the 
 milking- and feeding-yards. All this, of course, 
 was on the farmstead of the Evertsens. The 
 owners of the Dey Street house were merchants 
 only, and had no outbuildings save stables for a 
 pair of horses and a cow or two. It must be 
 remembered that nearly all well-to-do citizens kept 
 cows enough to supply at least all the milk for 
 family use until the very latter part of the eigh 
 teenth century. 
 
 Neither of these houses followed the common 
 Dutch custom of standing with gable-end to the 
 street. Both opened from the center of the two- 
 
101 
 
 story front almost directly upon the cantily trav 
 eled highway, but at the rear were surrounded by 
 fruit-orchards and large gardens,: wherein: : great 
 square beds of vegetables were edged by borders 
 of box or of flowers, as the case might be for 
 your true Dutchman is not confined to strict util 
 ity, but is a flower-lover and cultivator all his 
 days. 
 
 A peculiarity of both houses was that the only 
 closets were those which flanked the fireplaces or 
 surmounted the high and narrow mantels. Great 
 carved chests of hard woods and massive mahogany 
 structures of drawers, or combinations of shelves 
 and drawers, were to be found in nearly every 
 room occupied by the members of a wealthy 
 Dutch family. Apparently clothes were never 
 hung up, but always laid away at full length in 
 these and similar receptacles. 
 
 In a large old mahogany wardrobe which once 
 stood in the Evertsen house, the three drawers 
 which form the lower half are very deep. The 
 shelves which form the upper half are equally 
 deep, and shove in and out like drawers, only with 
 out fronts, while broad doors close over them. 
 The wood still shows its beautiful grain, though it 
 has turned almost black with age, while the artis 
 tically cut brass of the handles and escutcheons 
 responds to the labor of the polisher as brightly as 
 it could have done two centuries ago. 
 
 Among other articles which once stood in the 
 
102 
 
 old Eyert&en house is a tall mahogany structure 
 apparently designed for many uses, whose five 
 kng; and shallow drawers might have held its 
 owner s coats and breeches of satin or velvet, his 
 long silk stockings, his fine linen shirts frilled with 
 costly laces, and even his voluminous wig. In 
 the center, behind a leaf which turns down to 
 form a desk, is the little bank of pigeonholes for 
 holding filed papers, just as we see them in more 
 modern desks, only that among them are secret 
 receptacles for private papers, and two slides 
 which, when drawn out, were intended to support 
 candlesticks in such a way that the never too bril 
 liant candle-light should best fall upon the desk s 
 contents. Above the pigeonholes, behind the 
 doors of mahogany, rise broad, deep shelves which 
 may have been used to hold books or clothes or 
 bed- and table-linen. To my mind, the varied 
 divisions of the shelf-space are not so suggestive 
 of literature as they are both of the linen of the 
 housewife and of the tall ledgers of the prosper 
 ous merchant, with long accounts to keep between 
 the traders of the interior, his correspondents in 
 the West Indian islands of Tobago, St. Thomas, 
 and Santa Croix, and with the merchants and 
 manufacturers of Antwerp and Amsterdam. 
 
 Though few books have descended to us from 
 the ancestral homes of New Amsterdam, it does 
 not prove that their owners were any more illit 
 erate than the settlers of the other colonies. The 
 
103 
 
 change of language from Dutch to English would 
 account for the natural disappearance of many of 
 the Dutch books. I know of one sacrilegious 
 creature who admits that about thirty years ago 
 she destroyed some forty Dutch volumes which 
 she had found in a garret of a house which her 
 husband had inherited, " to get them out of the 
 way, though the bindings of some were so pretty 
 it was almost a pity." 
 
 A serpentine sideboard of mahogany finely 
 inlaid with satinwood, now in the possession of 
 one of the Evertsen descendants, is believed also 
 to have stood in this house. It is known to have 
 descended through six generations to its present 
 owner. Sideboards there must have been here, 
 for there was much silver and china, scattered pieces 
 of both of which still remain. It is said that there 
 was little of the latter sold in New York city 
 prior to 1730. However this may have been, it is 
 certain, from the quantities that were bequeathed, 
 that wealthy residents owned much china long 
 before that date. Canton china was privately 
 imported at a very early period. 
 
 Not far from the present abiding-place of the 
 curiously decorated and really beautiful escritoire 
 above described is a mirror in two parts, the 
 smaller about one quarter the size of the larger, 
 the whole, with its frame of mahogany and the 
 carved figures of gilded wood which surround it, 
 being about six and one half feet in height by two 
 
104 
 
 feet in width. The glass is said to be of Venetian 
 make, and is still remarkably clear. So is that of 
 two oval mirrors set in frames of beautifully cut 
 brass, bearing on each side girandoles for three 
 candles. The last two mirrors have been presented 
 to a historical society. 
 
 Dining-tables with many slender legs, bed 
 steads, both of mahogany and of black oak, each 
 with four high posts and deep side pieces, all 
 richly carved, but too thick to be graceful, and 
 cabinets curiously inlaid with ivory and tortoise- 
 shell, stood in both of these old houses, and some 
 of the fine pieces are still in existence. Tradition 
 associates all the things we have particularly men 
 tioned with the old Evertsen house; but they 
 may not have belonged to the first Niclaes and 
 Margrietye. Many of them were probably added 
 by their son, the second Niclaes and his wife, 
 Susanna Reuters, the great-granddaughter of the 
 famous Admiral De Ruyter, who had many a time 
 fought side by side with the Admiral Evertsen 
 who was her husband s great-grandfather. The 
 two old sea-kings had not always been agreed in 
 regard to the best way to serve their fatherland ; 
 but both of them were true patriots and grand 
 men, and did justice to each other s honesty and 
 capacity, so we may imagine that they would 
 have blessed the union of their descendants. 
 
 One possession which the first Niclaes must 
 have guarded with the most jealous care, perhaps 
 keeping it hidden in the secret strong room, was 
 
the silver-hiked sword presented by the state of 
 Zealand to his grandfather, the brave old Admiral 
 Jan Evertsen. The hilt of this sword, then broken 
 from its blade, was seen in Poughkeepsie, New 
 York, by my father when he was a boy of about 
 fifteen, that is, in 1825 or 1826. It was then in 
 the guardianship of a Mr. Richards, who had mar 
 ried a daughter of Nicholas Evertsen, the third of 
 his name in this country, and a great-grandson of 
 the first Niclaes. Upon the hilt was a handsomely 
 engraved inscription in the Dutch language, which, 
 unfortunately, the greatly interested boy could not 
 understand; but he well remembered the names 
 and date. The latter we do not now recall ; but 
 my brother, Gilbert Livingston Smith of Sharon, 
 Connecticut, my sister, Mrs. Robert Clinton Geer 
 of Brooklyn, New York, and I have all heard our 
 father relate the incident and describe the hilt and 
 inscription too often not to have them impressed 
 upon our memories. The date upon the sword- 
 hilt must have been previous to 1666, as that was 
 the year in which the old hero died, fighting 
 against England in a naval battle of four days 
 duration, on the first day of which his bmther Cor- 
 nelis, also an admiral, had perished. The hilt, 
 my father said, was very heavy, and the size such 
 that it could only have been wielded by an unusu 
 ally large hand. Almost all the men descended 
 from the first owner of this sword have been very 
 large and strong. 
 
 Mr. Codwise remembered having heard of this 
 
io6 
 
 weapon, and also had heard his father tell of a fine 
 gold medal which Captain Niclaes Evertsen had 
 shown to some friends in his presence when a boy 
 a medal which had been presented to Admiral 
 Evertsen by, as he believed, the States-General of 
 Holland. 
 
 What has become of these precious articles ? 
 Are they still in the possession of some branch of 
 a family which has become scattered through 
 several of the States of our Union? Or have 
 they, have they shameful thought ! shared 
 the fate of so many of what should have been cher 
 ished heirlooms, and lost their identity in the sil 
 versmith s hateful melting-pot? 
 
 As all old American families too well know, 
 there came a time when, old ideals having slipped 
 away like children s outgrown garments, it was 
 long esteemed a weakness to have a care for heir 
 looms as such. During this most deplorable in 
 terval, how many invaluable ancestral relics were 
 ignobly converted into spoons and forks ! An 
 uncle of my own a man, too, who had more than 
 usual regard for ancestral relics within my own 
 recollection caused five dinner-plates of beaten 
 silver, dating from between 1600 and 1650, to be 
 melted to make a large pitcher! The latter is 
 indeed much more beautiful than the plates, which 
 were as plain as pewter and not a bit handsomer, 
 but I never look at it without regretting its 
 existence. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CARES OF THE HUYSVROUW 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CARES OF THE 
 HUYSVROUW. 
 
 Every Homestead a 
 Manufactory. 
 
 Slavery. 
 
 Good Providers. 
 
 Spinning and Weaving. 
 
 Soap and Candle Making. 
 
 Washing. 
 
 Bread and Yeast. 
 
 Butter Making. 
 
 Nursery Lore. 
 
IT seems to have been the rule in all 
 the colonies that the wealthier the 
 settler the greater the amount of 
 labor constantly carried on under his 
 roof. There were no manufactories, 
 and almost everything needed for household con 
 sumption or service had necessarily to be either 
 imported or made at home. The huysvrouw s labors 
 were by no means confined to the wise dispensing 
 of the liberally provided stores. She and her 
 daughters were happy and contented producers, as 
 well as dispensers and consumers. If they did 
 not personally scrub the uncarpeted floors, or 
 build and feed the ever-devouring flames in the 
 enormous fireplaces, or hatchel the flax, or card 
 the wool, or weave the heavy stuffs for household 
 use, or make the soap, or chop the sausage-meat, 
 or dip the candles, or wash the linen they had to 
 know, as only experience can know, just how 
 each and all of these things should be done, and 
 also how to so marshal and direct their many 
 hand-men and -maidens that the most and best 
 work should be accomplished with the least fric- 
 
 109 
 
110 
 
 tion. When reading, as one occasionally does in 
 our day, of some " wonderful woman " who super 
 intends a factory, or carries on some other line of 
 equally active business, we should remember that 
 very likely her grandmother once had as much 
 responsibility, and fulfilled it as well, without hav 
 ing to go beyond the bounds of her own house to 
 do so. 
 
 The days of the huysvrouws were also those of 
 negro slavery, and they display all the best and 
 some of the worst features of the system. If, on 
 the one hand, the house-mistress were always sure 
 of retaining the services of a well-trained and 
 faithful servant, on the other hand it was by no 
 means easy to get rid of one who was sulky, 
 stupid, or careless. In fact, the servant question 
 was as general a topic among the interested two 
 centuries ago as it is now. Kings may go and 
 Presidents come, and institutions may change like 
 the weather, but human nature remains the same, 
 and the diaries of from ten to tenscore years ago 
 are found full of lamentations over the shortcom 
 ings of domestics. 
 
 Every farmstead of any pretension had to be, 
 at the same time, a manufactory of almost all the 
 things required for daily use. It is not probable 
 that at the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 there were many meat markets (or " fleshers ") to 
 be found, even in the cities, and supplies of fowls 
 and meat of all sorts save game were produced 
 
Ill 
 
 on the farms, where all that could not be economi 
 cally disposed of while fresh was preserved by 
 drying or spicing or salting or smoking for win 
 ter use. Several weeks of steady labor were re 
 quired in each autumn to prepare the barrels of 
 salted pork and of corned beef, to cure the scores 
 of hams and sides of bacon, to prepare the miles 
 of sausage-links, to try out and preserve the many 
 stone jars full of lard so nicely that it would keep 
 sweet the year round, to prepare the souse, the 
 headcheese, and the rollichies. These last were 
 made of chopped beef rolled in tripe and smoked. 
 When desired for the table the little rolls were 
 boiled and served cold, or fried and eaten hot. 
 Besides all these, each in its proper season, were 
 prepared stores of fish of various sorts, pickled, 
 dried, or spiced, and great quantities of winter 
 vegetables, as well as such fruits as could be kept 
 for winter use by drying, or by preserving with 
 sugar by the pound-for-pound method, so solidly 
 sweet that the descendants of those who ate them 
 must envy the grandparents powers of digestion. 
 
 Of all the colonies, the Dutch were the most 
 famous for these delicious (and indigestible) con 
 serves. More than the others also did they distil 
 and prepare an endless variety of cordials and 
 fragrant waters for drinks or for flavoring to dainty 
 dishes. Their mince-pies, fairly tipsy with their 
 liberal allowances of hard cider or brandy, or both, 
 their famous supplies of cookies, of crullers, of 
 
112 
 
 olekoeks (doughnuts), and of spiced cakes, were 
 regularly made once or twice a week. Waffles, 
 wafers, raised muffins, and griddle-cakes of various 
 sorts were in daily tea-table use. Supawn, made 
 of corn-meal boiled in water, salted and stirred the 
 while with a wooden spoon till thick and smooth, 
 took the place of modern cereals, and was served 
 on every breakfast-table the year round. It was 
 eaten either with butter and that good, old-fash 
 ioned West India molasses which no searching 
 can now discover, or with milk. Sometimes, when 
 the weather was too hot or too cold to make good 
 butter, there was cream used, but usually this had 
 to be saved to make butter ; at the same time, 
 skimmed milk would have been considered too 
 mean a portion to offer to the cats. Dried fruits 
 which had been previously soaked overnight 
 were often cooked with and stirred through the 
 supawn, giving an added flavor which was much 
 relished. 
 
 The poultry-yard was every huysvrouw s pride. 
 Even the wife of the importer, banker, or profes 
 sional man living in the city kept flocks of hens, 
 geese, ducks, and sometimes turkeys ; but as the 
 turkey was a notorious wanderer, and its eggs were 
 not prized for eating, nor its feathers for beds, it 
 was never very plentiful in the New Amsterdam 
 poultry-yards. 
 
 Oysters and clams were brought in large quan 
 tities in the late autumn, and buried in beds of 
 
"3 
 
 clean sea-sand, mixed with Indian meal, in the 
 cellars, where they were profusely watered twice a 
 week with water brought in tubs from the bay or 
 river. In this way they were said to keep fat 
 and good until the ice had broken up in the early 
 spring, and the vast beds of native shell-fish 
 which lay beneath the waters surrounding Man 
 hattan Island were again accessible. It must be 
 remembered that these waters were then frozen a 
 great part of the winter, there not being sufficient 
 traffic to keep the ice broken as now. 
 
 Game of all kinds, from deer to quails, was 
 abundant for many years, and for at least twenty 
 years subsequent to our Revolutionary War was 
 both plentiful and cheap in the markets. 
 
 For many years there were no public bakeries, 
 and the family bread-making was no inconsidera 
 ble toil. Even in the days of Margrietye Evert- 
 sen s granddaughters there was less yeast used 
 than leaven. The latter is a lump of the latest 
 baking buried in flour and kept in a cool, dry 
 place until needed for the next baking. Number 
 less were the accidents which might happen to 
 this. A degree too cold or a trifle too damp, and 
 the leaven would not rise, so the bread was heavy ; 
 or a degree too hot, and the leaven would ferment, 
 and so the bread was sour. If the sponge stood 
 too short or too long a time, or its tempera 
 ture was not just right, again there was trouble. 
 If the big brick oven was under-heated, the well- 
 
.Ill- 
 made loaves would over-rise and sour before they 
 were sufficiently baked, or they might be removed 
 too quickly from the oven, and the half-baked 
 dough would fall into flat and solid masses. If 
 the oven was over-heated, the loaves would again 
 be heavy, for the crust would form before the 
 bread had had time to take its last rising in the 
 oven as it should. The only wonder is that in 
 those days there was ever any good bread; but 
 the testimony is ample that among the Dutch 
 huysvrouws good bread was rather the rule than 
 the exception. 
 
 Probably the experienced cooks could never 
 have told how they did it ; but practice had made 
 them so perfect that they knew to a second and a 
 degree just the time and the heat required. A 
 relative of my mother had married a wife of 
 unbroken Dutch descent, and, with a tenacity 
 characteristic of her progenitors in clinging to all old 
 ways that had been proved to be good (and even, 
 it must be confessed, to some that had not), she 
 continued to use the old brick oven as long as she 
 lived, and everything baked in it seemed to my 
 childish taste to be perfection of its kind. She 
 superintended every step of the long opera 
 tion, from the setting of the sponge overnight 
 (with yeast, though, instead of leaven : she had 
 been induced to consent to this innovation) to the 
 removal of the sweet, light loaves from the oven 
 sometime during the next forenoon. Full, round 
 
"5 
 
 loaves of a brown so light as to be almost golden, I 
 can see them now, standing in rows slightly aslant 
 so that air could pass beneath, and covered loosely 
 with spotless cloths of coarse linen, which last 
 was as home-made as the bread, only not in her 
 own time, but in that of her mother. Poor 
 Auntie Aaltje (Aletta) would never have believed 
 it possible, but after her death it was discovered 
 that the dark-faced, white-turbaned old Chloe, who 
 for so many years had patiently called her mistress 
 to test the oven, and without a word (but some 
 times with a covert smile) had accepted the pa 
 tronizing verdict that " it would do," required no 
 " superintending." But the huysvrouw who did not 
 personally oversee all the important operations of 
 housekeeping would have seemed to herself and to 
 others to have failed in her vocation. 
 
 One of the most troublesome of all the house 
 wife s duties was the quarterly soap-making. I ^/ 
 can remember this function as performed at this 
 house. Ugh ! what a troublesome thing it was, 
 and unsavory! For several weeks the "leach-tubs" 
 stood in an outhouse filled with tightly packed 
 hard wood-ashes from the big fireplaces, where 
 wood was always burned during my kinswoman s 
 life. The tubs, or rather big barrels, being filled 
 to within about eight inches of the top with 
 the ashes, were supported upon frames, beneath 
 which stood small wooden tubs. Twice a day the 
 vacant space left above the ashes was filled with 
 
boiling water. This, after it had slowly filtered 
 through the ashes, became lye. Its strength was 
 tested by an egg or by a potato about the size of 
 an egg. If these would float about one third of 
 their size above the lye, it was deemed strong 
 enough ; if not, it was poured through the ashes 
 again ; if found too strong, water was added. 
 
 When enough lye of the right strength had 
 been collected, it was put into enormous iron pots 
 and hung from the cranes over the open fire ; and 
 though my relative had come to enchire a cook-stove 
 for ordinary things, she always used the fireplace 
 for making soap. The fragments of grease which 
 accumulate in every household had been tried out 
 while fresh, and reduced to cakes like tallow, only 
 not so hard. These were now cut up and put into 
 the kettles, apparently by guess. Then the boil 
 ing went on. If it was all right the soap would 
 " come " in half an hour. If not, it might be many 
 hours, or even days, during which water, or stronger 
 lye, or weaker lye, or more grease might be added, 
 also apparently by guess. The soap, when at last 
 successfully produced, was in substance like a good, 
 firm jelly; in color, a marbled brown; its odor 
 that of a clear, clean alkali. It was very good for 
 scrubbing and also for laundry purposes, though it 
 must not be used too freely or it would yellow the 
 clothes. It never made holes in them, as some of 
 the modern sorts do. The husband was of Hugue 
 not descent, and progressive in all things, so that 
 
the quarterly soap-making ended in his house after 
 his wife s death. 
 
 This Auntie Aaltje was as decidedly Dutch in 
 her ways as if she had been her own grandmother. 
 While she lived there must no chum be used save 
 the tall stoneware jar, perhaps the same one at any 
 rate, one probablyjust like it which her old grand 
 mother had caused her maids to fill to one half its 
 capacity with good, rich, yellow cream, and place, 
 according to the season, in a tub of ice-cold or of 
 hot water. One of the maids meanwhile stood 
 patiently beside the jar, plying the dasher up and 
 down with rapid, even strokes until the butter 
 "came." This also was done by guess; but if 
 the huysvrouw s " guessery " was good in other 
 words, if she were an expert the cream would 
 have been skimmed and put into the churn at pre 
 cisely the right moment and at the right tempera 
 ture; then, in from twenty minutes to half an 
 hour, the golden globules would have formed and 
 gathered, and the butter would be ready to be 
 skimmed out into a round tray of maple-wood, 
 beautifully white, and made cold with well-water 
 and " sweet with salt." Then with a water-soaked 
 ladle the buttermilk was pressed out and salt 
 added. This was the butter s first working. After 
 a few hours it was again worked, and the next 
 morning for the third time. The huysvrouw did 
 not wash her butter. To extract the buttermilk 
 she depended upon the conscientious muscular 
 
labor of her maids in pressing it all out. If this 
 were not successfully done the butter would soon 
 become rancid. The only wonder was that quan 
 tities did keep perfectly sweet and good, though 
 very salt, from one June until the next. June 
 and October were considered the best months for 
 packing winter butter, the conditions of tempera 
 ture and food for the cows being then nearest to 
 perfection. 
 
 The custom of quarterly clothes-washings had 
 J been brought from Holland, and was long con 
 tinued here among the Dutch settlers, notwith 
 standing that our summer heats, and the immense 
 quantities of clothes necessary to maintain the state 
 of cleanliness required by Dutch instincts and tra 
 ditions, must have rendered it exceedingly incon 
 venient. As lately as 1760, we find in an old letter 
 that " Grandmother Blum is so deep in her Quar 
 terly wash this Weeke that she has no time only 
 to send her love." The writer of the letter was a 
 New-Englander married to a citizen of New York 
 city, and the custom undoubtedly was strange to 
 her. The washing was usually done in an out 
 house called a bleeckeryen where the water was 
 heated over the fire in immense kettles, and all the 
 other processes of laundry work, conducted by the 
 most laborious methods, were carried on there. 
 This work usually required not less than a week, 
 and quite frequently two weeks. During the three 
 months intervening between these periods of cruelly 
 
"9 
 
 hard labor, the soiled clothes had been accumulat 
 ing from day to day in very large hampers of open 
 basketvvork, and stored in the bleeckeryen. It was 
 this system of quarterly washings that rendered 
 and in parts of Holland and of Germany still ren 
 ders necessary the great stores of household and 
 personal linens which are supposed to be brought 
 to her new home by every bride, and for which 
 the mothers begin to prepare almost from the birth 
 of the first daughter. This preparation continued 
 in the new land long after the custom of quarterly 
 washings had given place to the much more sen 
 sible and sanitary custom now prevailing. 
 
 As the Grand Opera House in Paris was lighted 
 with candles, affording certainly a dim if not a re 
 ligious light, until sometime during the Regency, it 
 is not to be supposed that lamps came into use in 
 the far-away little city of New Amsterdam until a 
 great many years later. In fact, there is little men 
 tion of the use of oil lamps in America before the 
 middle of the eighteenth century. Wax candles 
 were imported for festival occasions, but immense 
 quantities of tallow candles were yearly dipped or 
 molded for ordinary consumption. In all regions 
 where the waxy and deliciously fragrant bayberry 
 was plentiful, candles were made from it. When 
 well prepared the wax was slightly translucent and 
 of a light green in color. The snuff emitted so 
 delicate an odor that on festive occasions, where 
 many candles were burning, it was usual to blow 
 
120 
 
 some of them out at frequent intervals so that the 
 room might be kept pleasantly perfumed. 
 
 The great dependence for cheerful light as well 
 as for warmth in winter must have been upon the 
 blazing knots of resinous wood dexterously dis 
 tributed in among the slower burning logs of hick 
 ory, oak, and maple. By the blaze of these 
 friendly fires there was seen much domestic happi 
 ness and much social enjoyment of a homely sort. 
 The Dutch family relations were singularly close 
 and intimate. Parental affection was especially 
 strong and tender. 
 
 Among the descendants of old Dutch families 
 here there still remain so many fragments of the 
 nursery rhymes which used to charm the round- 
 faced little Dutch lads and lassies that there must 
 once have existed a copious literature of nursery 
 lore. Part of one such jingle I can remember as 
 my father sang it to my younger brother, who was 
 a remarkably beautiful, black-eyed little fellow, 
 then probably about two years old. I remember 
 his teasing my father to play " trip-trop " with him. 
 Then my father crossed his knees, and sat Willie 
 astride of the suspended foot, holding him in place 
 by the two hands. Then, swinging up and down 
 the foot holding the delighted child, the rich, 
 melodious barytone trolled out a catch of which I 
 could only recall the first and last lines until the 
 missing ones were supplied by Mrs. Vanderbilt in 
 
121 
 
 
 
 her most interesting " Social History of Flatbush." 
 The completed rhyme runs : 
 
 " Trip a trop a tronjes. 
 
 De vorkens in de boonjes, 
 De koejes in de klaver, 
 De paarden in de haver, 
 De eenjes in de waterplass, 
 So groot myn kleine [- -] was." 
 
 Mrs. Vanderbilt translates this as follows : 
 
 " The father s (or mother s) knee a throne is. 
 As the pigs are in the beans, 
 As the cows are in the clover, 
 As the horses are in the oats, 
 As the ducks are splashing in the water, 
 So great my little [- -] is." 
 
 When the child s name was of more than two 
 syllables poppetje was substituted, this meaning 
 poppet, doll, or baby, a term of endearment. Sev 
 eral of my relations of Dutch descent used to call 
 me their " kleine poppetje." At the close of the 
 last line of the foregoing jingle the singer is sup 
 posed to toss the child as high as he can reach. 
 My father s paternal grandmother, from whose lips 
 he had learned the little Dutch jingle when a boy, 
 was born Margaret Evertson, and was a great- 
 granddaughter of the first Niclaes Evertsen. 
 
122 
 
 To play " trip-trop " was always my little 
 brother Willie s bedtime entertainment by the open 
 nursery fire. So handsome and so happy were my 
 father and little brother, so impossible does it seem 
 to associate the idea of death with either, that even 
 now I cannot believe that they have joined the 
 other dear fathers and babies who played " trip- 
 trop " so many generations before them. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE ESCAPE OF A HUGUENOT FAMILY 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ESCAPE OF A HU 
 GUENOT FAMILY, 
 
 <> 
 Edict of Nantes and its 
 
 Revocation. 
 
 The Huguenot Exodus. 
 
 Arts Carried Abroad. 
 
 Daniel L Estrange. 
 
 A Huguenot "Lady in 
 
 Waiting." 
 
 An Effectual Disguise. 
 
 To New Rochelle by 
 
 Way of England. 
 
VERY one knows of the French reli 
 gious wars in the sixteenth century, 
 and of the terrible massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew, followed, after more 
 wars, by the accession of " Henry of 
 glorious memory," and by his promulgation, in 
 1598, of the celebrated Edict of Nantes. This 
 edict by no means made all men equal before the 
 law, but at least it granted toleration, as well as 
 the most important of civil rights, and a measure 
 of protection to the French Protestants. Almost 
 as well known, but not so often brought to mind, 
 is the long course of gradual encroachment on the 
 rights conferred upon the Protestants by that edict. 
 This encroachment never ceased until long after 
 the rights granted by the edict had been practically 
 withdrawn the edict itself was formally revoked, 
 in 1685, ^7 Louis XIV. 
 
 There is nothing in history more remarkable 
 than the patience with which these constantly 
 increasing and most odious persecutions were borne 
 by the persecuted, except the fatuity which led to 
 the final act of despotism, causing the expatriation 
 
 "5 
 
126 
 
 of hundreds of thousands of the best citizens of 
 France. If non-resistance to tyranny be a virtue, 
 the Huguenots, for nearly half a century, had been 
 the most virtuous of people. If adherence to their 
 principles under every form of ill-treatment be a 
 folly, their folly was unapproached. Either way 
 they suffered for conscience sake, and no people 
 in the history of the world have exceeded them in 
 this. Politically, the Protestant minority of the 
 nation had no differences with the Catholic major 
 ity. All were alike loyal to the monarchical form 
 of government and to the existing dynasty ; there 
 was no conflict of race or of province ; and those 
 of both the highest and the lowest social positions 
 were to be found alike in the ranks of both parties. 
 Religion was the sole ground of division. 
 
 In the decade preceding the Revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes, the exodus of the Huguenots 
 from all parts of France had been great and con 
 tinuous, in spite of the utmost vigilance on the 
 part of the authorities. The numbers of the escaped 
 have been variously estimated at from five hun 
 dred thousand to three millions. Some good 
 judges think that about eight hundred thousand 
 would be a conservative estimate. 
 
 In spite of his blind arrogance, Louis Quatorze 
 was not so stupid as to wish to deport the best- 
 behaved and most productive of all his subjects. 
 He only made the mistake of supposing that he 
 could command the minds and consciences as 
 
127 
 
 easily as he could the arms and purses of his sub 
 missive people. To this end he determined to 
 buy heaven for himself by "converting" the 
 Huguenots to his own faith, and at the same time 
 to maintain the material prosperity of his kingdom 
 by preventing the escape of the many gentlemen 
 of landed estates, the bankers, the wealthy manu 
 facturers, and the artisans who, at this time, com 
 posed the bulk of the detested party. Hence 
 every new act of persecution was accompanied by 
 additional precautions to prevent the escape of the 
 victims. 
 
 Most fortunate of all the Huguenots were those 
 who dwelt nearest the frontier. Under the terrible 
 and infamously effective system of the "drago- 
 nades," it is truly wonderful that such large num 
 bers of the persecuted should have succeeded in 
 reaching places of safety ; but the many are always 
 better than the few. Thousands of the refugees 
 long held in grateful remembrance the names of 
 their Roman Catholic neighbors who, often at the 
 risk of their own estates or even of their lives, 
 gave valuable assistance in the flight of their 
 Protestant friends. 
 
 No matter how fiercely might bum the anger 
 of the obstinate monarch at seeing the industries 
 of the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and 
 Great Britain built up by those who had there 
 sought refuge from his own tyranny, he still had 
 the chagrin of knowing his best subjects to be 
 
128 
 
 continually escaping from his clutches; and to 
 day the descendants of the Huguenots are among 
 the worthiest and most enterprising of all the 
 citizens of the countries which he most hated. 
 
 Many of those Huguenots who escaped to Eng 
 land subsequently came to her colonies. Although 
 most of the refugees had been prosperous in 
 France, and not a few had been wealthy citizens, 
 comparatively few had been able to take much 
 money away with them the circumstances of 
 their flight precluded that; but fhey all brought 
 energy, industry, thrift, and power of endurance, 
 as well as that truly delightful birthright of their 
 nation, an invincible lightness of heart, while many 
 of them also possessed skill in some hitherto pecu 
 liarly French handicraft, or in mechanical methods 
 of unusual scope. 
 
 Like the Plymouth Pilgrims, the Huguenots 
 came without any backing of national trade or 
 class interest ; but while the first came to preserve 
 civil and religious rights which they were fearful 
 of losing, the latter were involuntary exiles who, 
 having already lost all rights, were flying for their 
 lives, and were of all social grades, embracing a 
 few noblemen, a larger number of la petite noblesse 
 who would have been called "gentlemen com 
 moners " in England, and of professional men, 
 merchants, bankers, manufacturers, and artisans, 
 besides a comparatively small number of peasants. 
 Of the last-named there were fewer than of the other 
 
classes, partly, perhaps, because it was impossible 
 to escape from their enemies without the use of 
 a great deal of money. Those who came were 
 probably brought at the expense of the richer col 
 onists, who expected to be repaid in labor. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the difference of their pre 
 vious social conditions might have been supposed 
 to prevent a strong feeling of unity among the 
 Huguenot refugees, their " oneness of heart and 
 mind " was from the first an object of wonder to 
 the Dutch and English colonists, by whom they 
 had been kindly welcomed. The persecuted 
 were bound together by a common language, 
 common perils, and a common faith. In their 
 little settlement at New Rochelle there was for 
 many years as near an approach to apostolic 
 ways of living as has been seen since apostolic 
 days. They were received most kindly by the 
 earlier colonists, but they asked for no charity 
 for even the poorest among them. All who had 
 been successful enough in sending money out of 
 France in advance of themselves, or had been able 
 to bring any with them, placed their funds at the 
 disposal of their chief men, to be shared as necessity 
 required. It is said that they invariably cared for 
 their own poor, and that these did not remain long 
 in poverty, but were soon able to return all the 
 sums which had been advanced to them by the 
 wealthier members of the flock. 
 
 Some of the most flourishing of the hitherto 
 
purely French industrial arts, such as the fine linen, 
 silk, tapestry, and china manufactures, had been 
 gradually carried to England, Germany, and Hol 
 land by the escaping Huguenots during the long 
 years of persecution preceding the Revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes. Therefore to their brethren 
 in these older lands the refugees in the new land 
 sent for looms and other machines of better quali 
 ties than had hitherto been known here. 
 
 They did not have the capital to start their own 
 industries on a large scale ; neithe; did the British 
 Colonial Office offer anything but discouragement 
 for such undertakings; but every household be 
 came a little industrial colony, those who had 
 never labored before now learning to do so with 
 cheerful hearts. 
 
 The Huguenots were as sternly Calvinistic in 
 their principles as ever were the Plymouth Pil 
 grims ; but these principles did not seem to impart 
 any bitterness to their natures. The little settle 
 ment in the colony of New York which they 
 fondly called New Rochelle was from the first an 
 abode of poverty and hardships most cheerfully 
 borne. My dear mother s ancestry was very largely 
 Huguenot, and from a few records of the traditions 
 of her mother s family I have gleaned some frag 
 ments of interest which probably have a strong re 
 semblance to the family histories of many others 
 of similar descent. 
 
 In 1672 Daniel L Estrange of Orleans, France, 
 
was matriculated as a student of philosophy in the 
 Academy of Geneva, Switzerland, which at that 
 time was the only existing place where a French 
 Protestant could receive a liberal education in 
 his own language. The " pretended reformed " 
 were not allowed to have schools of their own in 
 France ; nor, on the other hand, was it permitted 
 to them to send their children to the Catholic 
 schools without previously renouncing their own 
 and professing the national faith. 
 
 A few years later we find that M. L Estrange 
 married Charlotte Le Mestre, also of Orleans. A 
 few years later still, the pair are residing in Paris, 
 where the husband is traditionally believed to 
 have been an officer of the Royal Guard a tra 
 dition which seems to derive some support from 
 the fact that after his arrival in England he is 
 known to have held a lieutenancy in the Royal 
 Guard of James II. Strange as it may seem, many 
 Huguenots filled positions in the personal guard 
 of Louis XIV, where they were comparatively 
 safe from persecution, as their places were held by 
 a certain unwritten law of inheritance from the 
 days when Henry IV had filled its ranks, from the 
 commander down to the privates, with those upon 
 whose fidelity he could best rely ; and these were 
 undoubtedly his old brethren in arms and in the 
 faith which political reasons had caused him to 
 forsake. 
 
 While her husband was in the Royal Guard, 
 
Mme. L Estrange was one of the ladies in wait 
 ing upon the dauphiness, Marie de Baviere, the 
 gracious, studious, retiring, and accomplished 
 daughter-in-law of Louis XIV. Thus the wife 
 of the Huguenot was often obliged to serve her 
 turn of duty at St. Germain and sometimes at 
 Versailles. Although Mme. L Estrange was 
 well known to be of the " pretended reformed " 
 faith, she was not molested, because she was a 
 recognized favorite of the dauphiness. Perhaps 
 the position ot his wife at court combined with 
 his own in the Royal Guard to save M. 
 L Estrange for a while from persecution, although 
 he was known to be a determined, if not an aggres 
 sive, Huguenot; but the time came when he was 
 obliged to seek safety in flight, and that, too, with 
 out seeing his wife. She was then performing her 
 tour de service at Versailles; and her husband could 
 only send her a verbal message, requesting that she 
 should join him, with their child, and as much of 
 their property as she could convert into ready 
 money, at some designated point on the coast, 
 where he would wait for her as long as possible, 
 and whence they could take ship for England. 
 
 The person who was intrusted with the message 
 either could not or did not convey it to the wife 
 until many days, if not some weeks, after her hus 
 band s flight from Paris. I relate the story as I 
 heard it from the lips of my maternal grandmother, 
 who had heard it from her paternal grandfather. 
 
Some of the particulars which she related are also 
 given in Baird s " History of the Huguenot Emi 
 gration to America." I believe that the parts 
 which rest only upon oral tradition are not less 
 trustworthy than those quoted by Mr. Baird, which 
 rest upon documentary evidence. 
 
 The husband s message was at last delivered, 
 not directly to the wife, but to some one who con 
 veyed it to the dauphiness. In spite of, or rather 
 perhaps because of, her high position, the dauphi 
 ness was herself so closely watched that she had 
 not the opportunity to transmit the husband s 
 message safely until the hour of the coucher, which 
 that night chanced to be particularly late. As the 
 Huguenot lady was slipping the night-robe over 
 the head of the dauphiness, the latter hastily 
 whispered : 
 
 " In the cabinet at the foot of the stairs leading 
 to my apartments, you will find one who will tell 
 you what you must do, and do without a moment s 
 delay." Aloud she added : " I am sorry you are 
 suffering so much. You are excused from duty 
 until I send for you." 
 
 A few moments later Mme. L Estrange was 
 in the designated cabinet. There she first heard 
 that her husband had left Paris, she having for 
 some time supposed him to be in hiding in that 
 city, and also learned that, his flight having become 
 known to the authorities, his property had been 
 confiscated. The kind dauphiness had thought- 
 
fully given a purse of money to the messenger, 
 but it was not large, as she was not highly favored 
 by her father-in-law, and had never very much 
 cash at her command. The messenger had also 
 two horses in readiness, and was ordered to accom 
 pany Mme. L Estrange until she should have 
 got safely started on her journey, under the care of 
 friends whom she was expected to meet. But the 
 dauphiness had apparently forgotten the existence 
 of the child. The infant of two years was under 
 the care of the married sister of Mme. L Estrange 
 in Paris, and thither the mother felt that she must 
 first proceed, though the delay was well-nigh fatal 
 to the success of her undertaking. 
 
 So well watched was every avenue of escape 
 from Paris that several days were lost before an 
 opportunity for leaving presented itself. One 
 morning, before daybreak, Mme. L Estrange dis 
 guised herself as a very poor woman seeking to 
 go beyond the walls to glean food from the over 
 laden market-wagons coming in. She carried her 
 sleeping child in her arms. Her twin sister, dressed 
 in all respects precisely like herself, followed at a 
 safe distance. Arrived at the city gate, the mother 
 begged to be allowed to take her child with her, 
 but was not permitted ; and it was only by address 
 ing the sentry in his native patois of the Orleans 
 country that he was induced to let the mother her 
 self pass out, while he retained the child as a hos 
 tage for her return. Two hours later, while the 
 
35 
 
 awakened child was crying lustily, and the half- 
 distracted sentry was busily looking for contraband 
 goods in the market-wagons of the peasants, the 
 aunt suddenly appeared, as if she had come in with 
 the wagons, and claimed the child, which was gladly 
 yielded to the supposed mother. Not for many 
 years after did the true mother again see her child ; 
 but when he was grown he came to America, and 
 married here. He it was who related the story to 
 his son, the father of my mother s mother. 
 
 During several weeks after Mme. L Estrange 
 had escaped from Paris her adventures were many. 
 When she finally reached the coast, it was only to 
 find that her husband had been obliged to fly some 
 time before. Her voyage to England was made 
 inside of one of the very large casks in which the 
 common kinds of wine were shipped to the whole 
 sale dealers in London. In similar casks more 
 than sixty persons are said to have been shipped, 
 at the same time, in the hold of the same small 
 trading-vessel, whose English captain was liberally 
 paid for running the risks attending such ship 
 ments. 
 
 During several years there were many hundreds, 
 if not thousands, of escapes made in the same man 
 ner ; and who can now imagine the horrors of such 
 a voyage? The trip across the English Channel 
 is not very welcome to the majority of travelers 
 to-day, when not more than two or three hours are 
 required, in vessels which, though bad enough 
 
136 
 
 according to our present standards, are princely 
 compared with those of two centuries ago. In 
 those days it frequently took a week to cross, and 
 sometimes as long a time, or longer, was spent 
 rocking at anchor, waiting for a favorable wind. 
 Of course, the casks holding human freight were 
 not hoisted on board until the latest moment ; 
 but whether waiting on shore in momentary peril 
 of detection, or confined in casks on board ship, 
 what an eternity must every hour have seemed ! 
 
 With a small store of wine in a> leather bottle, 
 and some bread, a pillow or two, and such cloth 
 ing as might be conveniently packed in with her, 
 the wretched refugee was placed in the great cask, 
 into the sides of which many small holes had been 
 bored to admit air without attracting notice. The 
 head of the cask was then secured in its place, and 
 carefully right side up it was placed in the 
 hold, where it was skilfully braced to prevent its 
 being rolled about when the vessel was under way. 
 My mother had seen, in the possession of one of 
 her mother s brothers, a small pillow, filled with 
 softly carded rolls of wool, covered with a stained 
 and faded slip of brocaded silk, which was sacredly 
 treasured because it had eased the buffeted head 
 of the revered great-grandmother, when she was 
 tossed about in her narrow prison in the hold of 
 the blockade-running vessel on the uneasy waves 
 of the English Channel. 
 
 Their " Red Sea " the refugees were wont to call 
 
137 
 
 this Channel, though they certainly did not cross it 
 in the triumphant fashion of the hosts whom Moses 
 led from bondage to freedom. Some of the " cask 
 refugees " were found suffocated when their " arks 
 of refuge " were unheaded. Many more were se 
 riously injured. The only wonder is that such great 
 numbers were taken from the French coast in this 
 way, and that so many escaped without more than 
 temporary injuries, before the persecuting authori 
 ties had discovered and put a stop to similar ship 
 ments. More fortunate than those who had to 
 cross the Channel were those who, like the ances 
 tors of my mother s father, Bolden (or Bauldoin) 
 by name, were able to cross the frontiers into the 
 Low Countries. They had trials enough and hair 
 breadth escapes by dozens, but their bodily suffer 
 ings were much less. 
 
 For the first few years after their escape M. 
 and Mme. L Estrange fared comparatively well in 
 England, because the friends of the former had 
 procured for him a lieutenancy in the Royal Guard 
 of James II. But this monarch was not himself a 
 Protestant, and not too well disposed toward the 
 Huguenots, though state policy forced him to 
 receive them well. It was probably for this rea 
 son that Lieutenant L Estrange, a few months 
 before James was forced to fly from his throne, 
 sold his commission, and, with the proceeds of this 
 sale and that of some jewels, came, with his wife, to 
 this country. Here he soon joined the settlement 
 
138 
 
 at New Rochelle, and there and in New York city 
 for many years he taught his own language to 
 those Americans who wished to learn it, as well as 
 gave instruction in the classical languages to boys 
 who wished to enter Yale or Columbia (then 
 King s) College. 
 
 At the same time, his wife, and later on their 
 daughters, all of whom were born here, applied 
 themselves to the new duties imposed by the new 
 circumstances, in the cheerful spirit common to all 
 persons who lead lives of faith and kindliness. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 HUGUENOT HOMES IN NEW ROCHELLE 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HUGUENOT HOMES IN 
 NEW ROCHELLE. 
 
 <$ 
 
 Life less Toilsome than 
 with Most of the Colonists. 
 
 Attachment to the 
 
 Services of their Church. 
 
 Refugees not Colonists. 
 
 Loyalty to the Land of 
 
 their Adoption. 
 
 Little Daintinesses of 
 
 House Furnishing. 
 
ao 1 
 
 life in the 
 
 holds was probably less toilsome 
 O tnan in almost any others in the 
 
 c l mes - The refugees were too 
 intelligent, industrious, and re 
 sourceful not to be able to escape many of the 
 hardships of the very poor among the other colo. 
 nists ; and they were too poor to be oppressed by 
 the multitude of anxieties and responsibilities 
 inevitable to the rich citizens who then had to 
 superintend the exercise of all sorts of labors under 
 their roof-trees. 
 
 All of the very poor colonists must have had 
 certain hardships to endure; but help of every sort 
 was scarce, and sober and industrious persons were 
 always sure of constant employment, while their 
 tasks, like their lives, were of the simplest. At 
 the same time, the home of every wealthy family 
 was an industrial center. Thus there were no 
 drones in either the richest or the poorest hives. 
 The Huguenots, belonging to neither class, were 
 in a sense cooperative. Neither the privations of 
 the poor nor the multiplied cares of the rich fell 
 
 141 
 
upon any with excessive weight; hence, notwith 
 standing the varying grades of original social posi 
 tion and culture, there was a great equality of 
 living and enjoyment among them. 
 
 It was twenty years after the first Huguenots 
 came to New Rochelle before the refugees could 
 spare the money to build a church or support a 
 pastor. The nearest place where religious services 
 were held in their own tongue was New York 
 city, twenty miles away; therefore, on every Sun 
 day during the year, in fair weather or in foul, all 
 who w T ere able to do so started very early in the 
 morning, that they might not miss the opening 
 prayer at 10.30 A.M. There were few horses 
 owned among the refugees, and fewer vehicles 
 of any kind. Such of both as they possessed were 
 devoted exclusively to the use of those who were 
 not strong enough to walk. 
 
 Many persons now living may still remember 
 Miss Isabella Donaldson, lately of Barrytown, 
 New York, as a person greatly interested in reli 
 gious matters. She kept a scrap-book composed 
 of original communications concerning the hard 
 ships and trials of those who had come to this 
 country under stress of persecution. In this book 
 was a copy of a letter which was written about 
 1704 or 1705. I give this letter as I copied it in 
 1860 from Miss Donaldson s scrap-book: 
 
 " Every week I see the Huguenots pass the 
 house in troops on their way to their church in the 
 
H3 
 
 City. As they pass here all have lunch bags or 
 baskets and also their shoes on their arms. Yet 
 they are not bare-footed, for they are all provided 
 with wooden shoes, such as the peasants wear in 
 France and in the Low Countries. When they reach 
 a stream not far from the church where they have 
 erected a shed, they all stop and such of them as 
 have other shoes change them before going on ; 
 the others wash their feet and their wooden shoes 
 and put them on again. They are all very plainly 
 dressed but some of them are very elegant looking 
 persons with most charming manners. As they 
 pass they are generally singing some of their 
 psalms, that is, the psalms of David, translated into 
 the French. Some of the airs are very grand and 
 spirit-stirring, but many of them are as sad as 
 dirges, and why should they not be ? For surely 
 this people have suffered much. Still they are 
 nearly always smiling and happy. But to think 
 of walking forty miles in going to and from church 
 every Lord s Day ! I am afraid my Christianity 
 would never be equal to that." 
 
 For many years the conditions of life in New 
 Rochelle, though not so bitterly hard as those of 
 the Plymouth Pilgrims threescore years earlier, 
 were very trying to those who had been gently 
 born and tenderly nurtured in " sunny France," at 
 that time the most advanced country in the world 
 in the arts and luxuries of civilization. Perhaps 
 that is not saying so very much, for luxury does 
 
not always, even now, include comforts, and at that 
 time scant enough were what we now deem the 
 most elementary comforts of life, even in the 
 palace of the " Sun King " himself. In this coun 
 try the French settlers, though originally among 
 the poorest, speedily became distinguished by the 
 amount of comforts, and even of luxuries, as these 
 were then esteemed, which they gathered around 
 them. 
 
 The homes of the earlier Huguenot settlers 
 were, if one may judge by the two specimens 
 which remain in New Rochelle, neither large nor 
 fine ; but they were substantial, and as comfortable 
 as was possible under the conditions of the time. 
 None in our country, save the families of high 
 colonial officials, and a few of the very wealthiest 
 of the colonists, possessed more of essential com 
 forts than the French settlers at a comparatively 
 early date were able to gather around themselves 
 by dint of the industry, skill, and taste character 
 istic of their nation. There is a tradition that the 
 first to utilize the remnants of worn-out garments 
 by cutting them into strips and weaving them into 
 floor-coverings were the French refugees. The 
 rag carpet, as still sometimes seen, is by no means 
 a thing of beauty, but in the days when the King 
 of England himself did not always have a rug on 
 which to rest his royal bare feet when stepping 
 out from his lofty bed upon his chill and pol 
 ished floor, the humble rag carpet would not have 
 
been esteemed an object of contempt even by his 
 Majesty. 
 
 Among the earliest importations of the French 
 settlers were spinning-wheels and looms of better 
 quality than were previously known here. Im 
 migrants from fruit-growing and wine-making 
 districts of France brought grafts and roots, and 
 succeeded in naturalizing most of the hardier va 
 rieties. A few were able to import hangings, mir 
 rors, china, and furniture of rare beauty; but in 
 general they possessed only those articles which 
 could be manufactured here. However humble 
 these might be in themselves, they w r ouid surely 
 be made decorative by little touches which only 
 the French hand could give. 
 
 Homespun linen yarn of heavy quality was by 
 the Dutch and English colonists dyed and then 
 woven into stripes and checks of varying degrees 
 of ugliness for bed- and window-curtains. The 
 French settlers used for the same purpose either 
 purely white linen of that which had but one 
 color. The preferred shades seem to have been a 
 light blue, a sort of dusky green, and a subdued 
 gold-color made by dyes of which they brought 
 the secret with them. These linens, when made 
 into hangings bordered by an embroidered vine or 
 arabesque design in white upon the gold, or in gold 
 and white upon the blue, or of varied colors upon 
 the all white, were delicately beautiful, and became 
 heirlooms in many a family, including that of my 
 
146 
 
 mother s mother. When this fashion was imitated 
 by their Dutch or English neighbors, the " em- 
 broiderments " grew heavier, and, instead of being 
 confined to simple designs, frequently became 
 perspectiveless " landscapes with figures," wherein 
 the yellow-faced shepherdess, clad in red and 
 green, was taller than the stiff blue-green trees, 
 and her black-and-white sheep were as tall as 
 herself. 
 
 The bedroom of my mother s grandmother 
 L Estrange has often been described to me. The 
 floor was painted as nearly as possible to match 
 the subdued gold of the linen hangings. The 
 ceilings and side walls were whitewashed with 
 lime. The windows and dressing-tables were 
 hung with tastefully arranged draperies, bordered 
 with a grape-vine pattern embroidered in white, 
 and further trimmed at the edge with a knitted 
 fringe of white linen yarn. 
 
 The tall four-posted bedstead of carved mahog 
 any was provided with a tester, with long draw- 
 curtains, over which valances about two feet and 
 a few inches deep, and cut into deep scallops on 
 the lower edge, hung in a full ruffle from the cor 
 nice. Foot-curtains and all were of the same 
 linen, all embroidered and edged with fringe in 
 the same manner. Over the high and downy bed 
 lay a fringed and embroidered coverlet of the 
 same linen, only that in this case the vine was em 
 broidered over the center part as well as the bor- 
 
H7 
 
 der. An immense stuffed chair, running easily on 
 wooden globes the size of billiard-balls," which 
 were the precursors of the modern caster, had a 
 very high back and side wings, against which the 
 head might rest. Such chairs were really comfor 
 table, and some may still be found. This one had 
 a neatly fitted slip-cover to match the draperies of 
 the room. 
 
 The linen yam for the draperies of this room 
 was all said to have been spun by the first Mme. 
 L Estrange and her daughters, and it was afterward 
 woven under their direction and embroidered by 
 themselves. Until a comparatively late date there 
 still existed other bits of their handicraft, in the 
 shape of fans of peacock feathers, and humbler 
 ones of goose and turkey feathers these last deco 
 rated with painted flowers. There were also some 
 hand-screens made by covering small hoops with 
 tightly drawn slips of white silk, the joinings hid 
 den by narrow fringe. One screen was embroi 
 dered with colored silks, others were daintily painted, 
 and all were supplied with handles of carved or 
 smoothly turned and polished wood. When a 
 child I saw one of the peacock-feather fans (un 
 fortunately, moth-eaten), and a pair of the prettily 
 painted hand-screens. The latter were used to 
 hold between the face and the blaze of the open 
 wood fires, which, genial and delightful as they are, 
 have a disagreeable way of scorching one s face 
 and eyes. 
 
H8 
 
 Very graceful and delicately executed embroi 
 deries upon the daintiest of muslins are still shown 
 which were made by members of this family, but 
 possibly by those of a later generation. They are 
 evidently from French designs. In the court of 
 Louis XIV lace-making was an art cultivated 
 almost as assiduously as that of embroidery. My 
 sister and I now have a few yards of two patterns 
 of lace made by Mme. L Estrange, which hap 
 pened to be trimming some part of her under-dress 
 at the time of her escape from Pans. She taught 
 the secret of its manufacture to her daughters, and 
 for three generations her descendants made similar 
 lace, though none was as filmy as that wrought in 
 the boudoirs of Versailles, because it was impossi 
 ble to get threads sufficiently fine. 
 
 The cultivated taste and the dainty arts brought 
 from France made the homes of the Huguenots 
 much more attractive in appearance than those of 
 other colonists, even though the latter might be 
 possessed of far greater wealth ; and the same dif 
 ference was manifest in their dress. The latter was 
 certainly no more costly than that of most of those 
 who had filled similar social positions in their re 
 spective mother-lands ; but the Frenchwoman s 
 fine eye for color, and her delicate skill with brush, 
 needle, and bobbin, united to produce more attrac 
 tive results. Similar touches of taste and skill ap 
 peared everywhere, and gave distinction to all the 
 Huguenot homes, whatever may have been the 
 
H9 
 
 owner s social standing in the mother-land. As 
 neat as their Dutch neighbors, they devised labor- 
 saving methods to maintain perfect cleanliness 
 without being slaves to it. As liberal as the 
 English, they were far more economical, and by 
 their skill in cooking they succeeded in rendering 
 palatable and digestible even the coarsest fare. 
 Their skill in preparing rich dishes, sweet cakes, 
 and preserves was not equal to that of the Dutch 
 huysvrouws, and they could not compare with the 
 English in roasts and pastries; but in wholesome 
 dishes for daily consumption they far exceeded 
 both, and particularly in bread-making. It is tra 
 ditionally related that the French were the first to 
 introduce the use of yeast in this country, the 
 larger part of all the colonists at that time, and 
 the Dutch for more than a century later, continu 
 ing to use leaven. 
 
 Perhaps the most keenly felt of the material 
 hardships which the French refugees had to meet 
 were caused by our stern winters and fierce sum 
 mers, and the learning to subsist on the coarser 
 meats and vegetables which formed so large a por 
 tion of the fare of the English and Dutch colo 
 nists. Very soon, however, the refugees taught 
 themselves to resist or endure the extremes of the 
 climate, and, with their readiness of adaptation, they 
 learned to prepare even the coarsest foods with a 
 culinary skill which puzzled while it pleased their 
 new-made friends. It is a little curious to note 
 
how long it was before the delicately flavored 
 soups, the light omelets, and the delicious entrees, 
 common to all Huguenot households, came to be 
 adopted by even those who were the loudest in 
 praise of these delicacies as made by the French 
 ladies. Some special forms of buns and rolls ex- 
 cepted, very few of the distinctively French dishes 
 appear to have been used in families not of French 
 descent, prior to our Revolutionary War. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the invincible light-hearted- 
 ness of his nation, the lot of the Pluguenot must 
 be felt to have been sad and lonely. The Puritan 
 was an emigrant from his native land for con 
 science sake, it is true, but his conscience was 
 set upon political as well as religious rights. He 
 came here of his own accord, that he might have 
 freedom to worship God and govern himself (and 
 others !) as he thought fit. The Dutchman, hav 
 ing achieved moral and political liberty for his 
 hardly won and overcrowded dike-lands, did not 
 feel that he was expatriating himself when he sailed 
 for the New Netherlands, but rather that he was 
 enlarging the Dutch domains. Even after he had 
 fallen under English rule he did not greatly repine. 
 
 The Huguenot, on the contrary, was not a colo 
 nist, but a refugee. In all the world there is not 
 a more truly patriotic nation than the French. 
 They love their people and their homes, their cus 
 toms, and their country s very soil with a passion 
 ate devotion. The Huguenot was no exception 
 
1 Cl 
 
 to the rule. For the privilege of continuing within 
 the beloved borders of France he had gradually 
 sacrificed his every political and almost all of his 
 civil rights. Not until the only alternatives left 
 were the denial of his religious faith, death, or 
 flight, did he resort to the latter. Then he felt 
 himself, not a voluntary emigrant from his native 
 land, but an exile, an outcast ; and his feeling 
 toward the government which had sent him so 
 harshly forth was of the bitterest description. 
 This was shown in many ways. The French 
 Canadian, a voluntary colonist, retains his language 
 even to-day, though long cheerfully submissive to 
 an alien rule. The Huguenot refugee ceased to 
 speak his own language as speedily as possible. 
 My grandmother and her many brothers and sisters 
 were only the fourth generation in this country. 
 As their own grandfather had been left behind in 
 France and educated there, they might well be 
 counted as the third generation here. Yet, with the 
 exception of some of Marot s psalms, two or three 
 childish rhymes, a proverb or two, and a few 
 chance expressions, their speech betrayed no traces 
 of their national origin. Though their great-grand 
 father, the refugee, taught his own language for 
 several years, the household use of his beautiful 
 mother-tongue was distinctly discouraged by him. 
 To the land of their adoption the Huguenots 
 transferred to the full all the inborn loyalty of their 
 characters. During Great Britain s long wars with 
 
France 1744 to 1763 the descendants of the 
 Huguenots, whether in England or the colonies, 
 bore their part in continental or provincial armies, 
 doing valiant and often highly distinguished ser 
 vice in both. Many of the best Huguenot families 
 in New Rochelle and Rye sent representatives to 
 fight the French and Indians. Among them were 
 my mother s grandfather and his brother. The 
 first was also, when the time came, an officer in our 
 Revolutionary army. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 HUGUENOT WAYS IN AMERICA 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HUGUENOT WAYS IN 
 AMERICA. 
 
 Alterations in Names. 
 Resentment toward their 
 
 Native Land. 
 
 Differences between 
 
 French and English 
 
 Calvinists. 
 
 Schools Established by 
 the Huguenots. 
 
 Amusements, and Games 
 of Courtesy. 
 
i 
 
 UN: Y } 
 
 and surnames. 
 
 [HE utter abandonment by the ex 
 patriated Huguenots of all con 
 nection with France is shown in 
 nothing more clearly than in the 
 change of both christened names 
 Henri and Pierre, Jeanne and Mar 
 guerite, became Anglicized almost immediately, 
 and, it must be confessed, not to their betterment. 
 The spelling of surnames was apt to follow the 
 pronunciation of their new friends and neighbors. 
 Even when the spelling was retained the sound 
 often became hopelessly altered. De la Vergne, 
 though retaining the accepted spelling, was soon 
 written as one word, and pronounced (think of it !) 
 Dillyvarje. Often the spelling also was changed 
 beyond recognition. Bonne Passe (Good Thrust ; 
 in the days when good swordsmen were valued 
 this was a name of honor) first became shortened 
 to Bon Pas, and then changed to Bunpas, followed 
 by Bumpus and finally contracted to Bump ! 
 L Estrange was first known as Streing, then as 
 Strange, afterward as Strang, and even, in a few 
 cases, was changed to Strong. 
 
156 
 
 In writing the name of this last-named family I 
 have followed the usage of at least some of its ear 
 lier members in this country, as well as a wide 
 spread belief among them all in its correctness. It 
 is a family tradition that when the young Daniel 
 - afterward the refugee was sent to Switzer 
 land to enter the academy there as a student of 
 philosophy, July 29, 1672, his surname was pur 
 posely misspelled as Streing to avoid giving a clue 
 by which his father s persecutors might discover 
 whither the son had been sent ; and that afterward, 
 upon the young student s return to France, and 
 during his stay there as a member of the Royal 
 Guard, he had resumed his rightful name. But 
 later, when he was obliged either to abandon his 
 principles or to fly for his life, he thought it wise 
 to again adopt the name of Streing for the sake of 
 members of his family still residing in France; for, 
 as is well known, the spies of Louis XIV were 
 almost as active in London as in Paris, and though 
 the refugees there could not themselves be reached 
 by the laws of France, the tyrant s wrath at their 
 immunity was often visited upon their relatives 
 still unable to escape from his clutches. The 
 change of name was considered of enough impor 
 tance to be kept up even in this country until 
 after the arrival here of the oldest son, whom his 
 heartbroken mother, as before related, had been 
 obliged to abandon at the gate of Paris. The son 
 did not come over until he was twenty-one or 
 
twenty-two years of age. By this time the habit 
 of the name had become fixed. This son seems to 
 have retained his name as L Estrange, and some 
 of the others also used it, at short and irregular 
 periods. Both L Estrange and Streing appear 
 to be names belonging to the numerous ranks of 
 the petty gentry. 
 
 Among the reminders of their native land to 
 which the refugees clung the longest was the ver 
 sion of the psalms of David by Marot that version 
 so hated by the persecutors that every copy dis 
 covered by them was immediately treated with as 
 much animosity as was the Bible itself. Even 
 after the descendants of the refugees had so far 
 forgotten their ancestral tongue that they preferred 
 to read the Bible in English, they yet sang, to the 
 old melodies which had so often thrilled their 
 fathers souls, the beloved psalms which were still 
 cheering the hearts of their persecuted brethren 
 hiding in the caverns of the Cevennes, where alone 
 the remnant remaining in France could worship as 
 conscience dictated. 
 
 I would give much if I could now recall the air 
 to which my mother s mother and one of her sisters, 
 both of them considerably over seventy years of 
 age at the time, tremulously sang the psalm in 
 which occur the words : 
 
 "Quiconque espere au Dieu vivant, 
 Jamais ne perira ! " 
 
58 
 
 But both the air and the rest of the words have 
 escaped my recollection. What has not forsaken 
 me is the memory of two petite but still remarkably 
 handsome women, one of them very erect, the other 
 a good deal bent, but both still vigorous of mind 
 and body, as, in the late twilight of a summer Sun 
 day evening, they sat together in a shadowy room 
 and crooned the old sacred song with a strong and 
 faith-inspired emphasis on jamais, stopping in a 
 startled, half-ashamed way as soon as they discovered 
 " Little Pitchers " trying to efface herself in a dark 
 corner, because she well knew that the entertain 
 ment would end as soon as her presence should be 
 known. 
 
 So far did some of the Huguenots carry their 
 resentment to the government which had so unjustly 
 expelled them that they did not like to be reminded 
 of the land from which they came. It is told of 
 one who lived for many years in Charleston, South 
 Carolina, that while he never thoroughly mastered 
 the English language, he would speak only in that 
 tongue even within his own family circle. He had 
 his name translated into its English equivalent, and 
 though his accent invariably betrayed him as not 
 of American or English birth, it was not definitely 
 known by his neighbors that he was born in France 
 until a short time before his death, when it became 
 necessary to declare his nativity in order that he 
 might obtain possession of some property willed to 
 him by a relative in Burgundy. 
 
Probably few of the refugees went quite as far 
 as this, but certainly for many years their descen 
 dants, while rejoicing in the name of Huguenot, 
 seemed to resent being called French. I remem 
 ber that for some time my own grandmother (of 
 the fourth generation in this country) opposed her 
 grandchildren s study of the French language. 
 One day I said to her, " But, grandmother, your 
 own ancestors were from France, so the language 
 is partly our own, and why should we not study it?" 
 
 Her large and brilliant black eyes flashed at me 
 over the tops of her spectacle-bows as she replied : 
 " Yes, they came from France. They did not re 
 main there. France is now the home only of per 
 secutors and atheists." And I fear that she was 
 never able to believe that any one who could not 
 be properly classed as either the one or the other 
 could continue to exist in the country which had 
 so pitilessly cast forth its most loving children. 
 
 This trace of resentment seems to have been the 
 only somber characteristic of the Huguenots and 
 their descendants in this country; and even this 
 had its good side, for it led to their more ready 
 adoption of the ideas and institutions of the new 
 land which welcomed so warmly and so helpfully 
 those who had " endured hardness " for the sake of 
 their common faith. 
 
 Doctrinally, the Huguenots and the Puritans 
 were the same. In practice there were many points 
 of difference. The Puritan was a very strict Sab- 
 
i6o 
 
 batarian, beginning at sunset of Saturday a twenty- 
 four hours of abstinence from any avoidable 
 work, as well as from any pleasure save that which 
 his devoutness found in religious services. The 
 Huguenot Sunday began and ended as now. Like 
 Calvin himself, the refugees did not think it essen 
 tial to avoid all pleasant things on Sunday more 
 than on other days, and all who had friends living 
 near the wayside stopped in to visit them as they 
 returned from church, for the Sunday time that 
 was not devoted to church services and to an hour 
 of catechizing at home was not considered as ill 
 spent in cheerful social intercourse. 
 
 In Calvinistic Switzerland it had been customary 
 to indulge after church hours in any form of 
 innocent amusement. The Huguenots seem to 
 have drawn the line just short of this. But on 
 week-days their national light-heartedness was 
 bound to display itself in as many ways as their 
 circumstances would permit. Tableaux and little 
 comedies were frequent, while dancing was the 
 expected amusement in most households at every 
 evening gathering, and these took place as often as 
 possible. Children were instructed with a degree 
 of gentleness and consideration qilite in contrast 
 with the sterner ways of their coreligionists of 
 English or even of Dutch descent. 
 
 Cheerfulness, even gaiety, was the rule. A 
 gloomy Huguenot was an anomaly to be pitied 
 and apologized for by his compeers only on the 
 
ground of exceptional misfortunes. Yet, when 
 one considers the horrible oppressions which they 
 and their ancestors had endured without relief for 
 almost a hundred years after the end of the tem 
 porary respite granted by the Edict of Nantes, one 
 must wonder at, while forced to admire, their 
 happy dispositions. 
 
 The " boarding and day schools for young 
 ladies " which were established in New Rochelle 
 were eagerly hailed by the elder English and 
 Dutch colonists. Hitherto their daughters had 
 had few educational advantages. The sons could 
 have private tutors or attend fairly good prepara 
 tory schools which fitted pupils for the colleges 
 so early established in the colonies ; or if his 
 parents were among the magnates of the land 
 an especially fortunate youth might be sent to one 
 of the great English universities. In general, the 
 girls had to be content with the crumbs of know 
 ledge which dropped from their brothers not over- 
 supplied tables, though, in some rare instances, 
 governesses were brought from over sea for their 
 benefit. So when these French Protestant schools 
 were opened by those who had enjoyed every then 
 prized advantage of social culture, they were well 
 patronized from the start. 
 
 In these schools were taught not only the lan 
 guage of the " politest of the nations," to employ 
 the words of Lord Chesterfield, written half a cen 
 tury later, but also all the "ladylike accomplish- 
 
162 
 
 ment s" of the period. English teachers were 
 engaged to instruct in the grammatical use of their 
 own tongue, both written and spoken; but it may 
 be imagined that this was not considered of nearly 
 as high importance as the more showy accomplish 
 ments, which could be acquired at these schools 
 only. Enough of music to enable a young woman 
 to play a little for dancing (although the fiddle of 
 some dance-inspired old African was usually pre 
 ferred by the dancers), or to warble a few songs in 
 her (presumably) fresh, sweet tones to the accom 
 paniment of the probably thready or wheezy 
 spinet ; enough of French to enable her to read it 
 easily, write it fairly well, and hold a not too mono 
 syllabic conversation in that language, were cer 
 tainly considered as very desirable accomplishments. 
 A still more serious business seems to have been 
 " Instruction in the Arts." A few of the flower- 
 pieces which were painted from nature in water- 
 colors by some of the pupils of these schools are 
 still preserved and are really beautiful. When on 
 a visit to Nova Scotia some years ago, I saw sev 
 eral which had been taken there by some of the 
 Royalist families exiled from here in 1783. They 
 bore the inscription, "Eleanora Morris, Pension de 
 Demoiselles de Madame De la Vergne, La Nouvelle 
 Rochelle, Province de New York, 1736." The 
 few still surviving landscapes which I have seen 
 were stiff things not evincing much of talent on 
 the part of the pupil, or skill on that of the in- 
 
163 
 
 structor. The embroideries, as might be expected, 
 were especially good. Occasionally a fine piece 
 of Rochelle tapestry or bed-hanging may yet be 
 found in the possession of fortunate descendants 
 of some who once were New Rochelle pupils, and 
 so may many specimens of exquisite embroideries 
 on the most delicate of muslins, as well as rem 
 nants of laces which are known to be the handi 
 work of some of Mme. De la Plaine s or Mme. 
 De la Mater s pupils. 
 
 But probably even more than all of these accom 
 plishments, the principal thing desired for their 
 daughters by the parents was instruction in "gentle 
 manners " the manners not only of persons who 
 were of gentle birth, but who also had been so 
 early taught by precept and example that their 
 graces seem to have been born with them, a part 
 of their very selves. The pupils were taught how 
 to avoid all awkwardness of movement or carriage; 
 how to bear themselves gracefully erect; how to 
 enter a drawing-room with a grave and gracious 
 inclination, seeming to include all who are present 
 while addressed only to the hostess, and to leave it 
 without turning the back, as one retires from the 
 presence of royalty; how to graduate their greet 
 ings from the pleasant deference due to elders or 
 social superiors to the sweetest condescension to 
 ward their juniors or social inferiors; how first to 
 arrange, and afterward how to preside at, a hand 
 somely spread dinner-table with dainty elegance 
 
164 
 
 and efficiency; and also how to dress themselves 
 with taste and effect in the fashion of the day. 
 Dancing was a matter of first importance. The 
 " stately steppings " of the courtly dances of the 
 period cost! time, thought, and much careful teach 
 ing on the one side, and submissive labor on the 
 other, before any pupil could be considered as a 
 perfected scholar. Incidentally with all these 
 things, a great deal of valuable instruction was 
 given in the finer graces of courteous speech, and 
 all that gentle consideration for others which is at 
 once the flower and the root of good breeding. 
 
 From the first, the Huguenots, of whatever de 
 gree, seemed to have endeavored to transmit to 
 their children the traditions of politeness which 
 they had brought with them from France. For a 
 long time perhaps even yet it may be the case 
 in some families of this descent the children 
 were taught some of the details of good manners 
 by little games. These may have been invented 
 in this country to supply a lack of more regular 
 instruction, or they may have been simply adapta 
 tions of similar games once played in the motherland. 
 
 The only one of these jeux de courtoisie of 
 which I have retained any distinct recollection 
 conveyed instruction in the arts of courtesying and 
 bowing, and was also a lesson in propriety. It 
 was called " La Loi des Baisers." In this game 
 only girls were allowed to play, One of them 
 stood in the center of a room, and round her passed 
 
a decorous procession of little women, each one 
 of whom bowed or courtesied low before the gra 
 cious " reigning lady," kissing her extended hand 
 and chanting : 
 
 " La main ! La main, Jolie ! Petite ! 
 Pour les amis. Pour les amis." 
 
 To each the small lady in the center courtesied 
 with more or less of grace, and responded, the 
 friends in this case being supposed to be of the 
 opposite sex : 
 
 " Merci, merci ; mes bons amis." 
 
 At the next round the " reigning lady " pre 
 sented her brow to be kissed by all in turn, while 
 the chant now ran : 
 
 " Le front ! Le front ! Le noble front ! 
 Pour les peres, et les freres." 
 
 To this the response was a lower courtesy and 
 the words : 
 
 44 Mon cher papa ! Mes freres cheris." 
 
 At the third turn of the procession the small 
 lady presented both her hands and her cheeks, 
 while the chanted words were : 
 
 44 La joue ! La joue ! La rougeante joue ! 
 Pour les douces sceurs, et les meres." 
 
i66 
 
 In this the kissing was mutual, and on both 
 cheeks, without further words. At the fourth 
 round the " reigning lady " was seated, demurely 
 placing one small finger on her archly pouting lips, 
 while the others passed by, each with half-averted 
 face and one hand raised as if prohibiting a nearer 
 approach, while chanting : 
 
 " La bouche ! La bouche, si ravissante ! 
 Pour les maris ! Mais seulement les maris ! " 
 
 The rounds generally continued until each little 
 girl had played the part of the reigning lady. 
 
 It was a very old lady who taught this little 
 game and its chanted words to several of us, little 
 girls of ages varying from five or six to eight or 
 ten years. At first we learned the words by rote 
 only, just as generations of children have learned 
 " Hickory, dickory, dock," but later on we grew 
 to know the meaning, whether by the interpreta 
 tion of older girls or not I do not now remember. 
 
 If any living descendants of Huguenots in 
 America retain traces of others of these jeux de 
 courtoisie, they should not fail to see that such 
 traces are recorded. Too precious to be allowed 
 to fade entirely away are these faint remains of the 
 efforts made by the Huguenots to retain for their 
 children, in the midst of the wilderness which had 
 welcomed them, the graces and proprieties which 
 had been birthrights in their old homes. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 A COLONIAL WEDDING 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A COLONIAL WEDDING. 
 
 Gallup and Chesebrough. 
 
 Rev. William Worthing- 
 
 ton of Saybrook, Con 
 
 necticut. 
 
 Wedding Customs. 
 
 Quality and Commonalty. 
 
 The Uninvited Guests. 
 
 A Valiant Supper. 
 
|HE year was 1726. The bride 
 groom was the Rev. William 
 Worthington, then pastor of the 
 church at Saybrook, Connecticut. 
 The bride was a former parishioner 
 in the town of Stonington, Connecticut, by name 
 Temperance, daughter of William Gallup and his 
 wife Sarah (Chesebrough), and granddaughter of 
 Captain John Gallup and his wife Hannah (Lake), 
 of whose "pioneer home" we have already read. 
 As known to all readers of colonial history, this 
 Captain John Gallup, the second of his name, had 
 been a man of much influence with the Mohegans, 
 or friendly Indians, many of whom had followed 
 his leadership in the Great Swamp Fight of 1675, 
 in which he bravely fell at the head of his com 
 pany. To his son, William Gallup, the Mohe 
 gans had transferred the allegiance they had given 
 his father, and, in his turn, he continued to exercise 
 over and for them the same sort of fatherly guar 
 dianship which they had received from Captain 
 Gallup. A knowledge of this fact is essential 
 to the comprehension of an incident of the wed 
 ding of Mr. William Gallup s daughter. 
 
 169 
 
 LIB 
 
 _>K TH) 
 
 UNIVER 
 
This family was among the most prominent and 
 highly connected in what is now known as New 
 London County, Connecticut, and in the theocrati- 
 cal regime of New England the minister always 
 held the first rank by right of his office, as well as 
 by the gentle birth and breeding which were 
 usually his. For both reasons all the neighbor 
 ing " people of quality " were naturally among 
 the invited guests. The pastor, being in spirit 
 as well as in name the father of his flock, could 
 not allow any member of his late parish to be 
 overlooked, though it probably embraced every 
 soul in the township. To be both just and gener 
 ous to all, it was decided to make a wedding-feast 
 of two days duration, and invite the guests in 
 relays, " according to age, list and quality," in the 
 same way that sittings were then assigned in many, 
 if not all, of the " meeting-houses " of New Eng 
 land. 
 
 The first day of the feast was that on which the 
 marriage ceremony was performed by the bride 
 groom s personal friend, the Rev. Ebenezer Rossi- 
 ter, and not by a civil magistrate, as was the 
 early custom in all the Puritan colonies. It is 
 almost certain that there was no wedding-ring. 
 Even as late as half a century ago these were 
 rarely used by descendants of the Puritans. 
 There were present on this day only the relatives 
 and intimate friends of the contracting parties. As 
 the bridegroom was a minister, no doubt all the 
 
neighboring clergy, and as many of their families 
 as could come, were numbered among the friends 
 on this day. So, also, were several of the highest 
 colonial dignitaries, as appears by the time-stained 
 chronicle, written nearly fifty years later, from the 
 relations of her grandmother, the bride of that day, 
 by Juliana Smith, a granddaughter of the Rev. and 
 Mrs. William Worthington. 
 , For the first day s feast long tables were spread 
 with much profusion, and with what to modern 
 eyes would seem like confusion as well. Soups 
 were then rarely, if ever, served on occasions of 
 ceremony, and all meats, fish, side-dishes, and vege 
 tables were placed on the table at the same time, 
 and served without change of plates. It was con. 
 sidered an " innovation " at this wedding-dinner 
 that " coffee, pies, puddings and sweetmeats 
 formed a second course." 
 
 The guests were seated with great regard to pre 
 cedence. Probably there were not many chairs, 
 for even in England " settles and forms " con 
 tinued to be more commonly used than chairs in 
 the best country houses at least as late as 1750. 
 Such as there were and probably every good 
 neighbor contributed such as he possessed for this 
 occasion were carefully reserved for "the most 
 infirm and the greatest dignitaries." 
 
 " Immediately after the asking of the blessing 
 by the oldest minister present, tankards filled with 
 spiced hard cider were passed from hand to hand 
 
JZ1 
 
 down the table, each person filling his own mug 
 or tumbler." A punch-bowl is not mentioned in 
 this chronicle as having formed a part of the table 
 furniture, and as it is expressly mentioned that the 
 drinks were poured from the tankards into mugs 
 or tumblers, it is probable that the custom, men 
 tioned by Mrs. Earle in her " Customs of Colonial 
 Life," of passing the punch-bowl from hand to 
 hand for each person to drink from, had already 
 become obsolete; indeed, it is not certain that 
 such a custom was ever habitual among the bet 
 ter sort of colonists. .Tankards were undoubt 
 edly so passed, not only here but in the rural 
 districts of England, as late as " in the days of 
 good Queen Anne." 
 
 A very few of the tankards and mugs at this wed 
 ding may have been of silver or of glass, and still 
 fewer of delft or of china, but where there were so 
 many the greater part must have been of pewter, 
 horn, or wood. Of these articles, as well of the 
 chairs, it is likely that all the well-to-do neighbors 
 contributed the best of such as they possessed, this 
 generous sort of neighborliness being a character 
 istic of the time and of all new settlements. Arti 
 cles of silver were not as plentiful in New England 
 as in the other colonies, but by this date nearly all 
 families of distinction possessed a few, and in spite 
 of the natural losses by fire and other calamities, 
 there are still existing some relics which orna 
 mented this long-ago wedding-dinner. 
 
*73 
 
 A curious dish, which may possibly, even proba 
 bly, have been used on that day, is still in posses 
 sion of a member of the family connection, a de 
 scendant of the Chesebroughs. This dish is here 
 described in the hope that some one may be able 
 to determine what use it was originally intended to 
 serve. It is circular, about nine or ten inches in 
 diameter, perhaps three inches deep, standing upon 
 a circular base ; it would hold from three to four 
 pints of liquid, and has a cover. So far there is 
 nothing to distinguish this piece of very ancient 
 red, yellow, and blue delft from many another 
 which we would not hesitate to call a vegetable-dish. 
 But, perched against one side of its interior, like a 
 swallow s nest under the eaves, is a pocket-like 
 thing that would hold three or four tablespoonfuls 
 of liquid were it not perforated like the strainers 
 of tea-pots. It has been stated on what author 
 ity I know not that when tea was first brought 
 to Holland it was served as a soup. Is it possible 
 that this queer old side-pocketed dish was made 
 for the infusion and serving of the new herb? 
 
 If there were not enough dishes of the better 
 sort to accommodate all the guests entitled to 
 them, preference was always, at such entertain 
 ments, given to the older persons present. The 
 juniors would be served on this first day, as all 
 would be on the next day, with dishes of brightly 
 polished pewter, or in trenchers of maple, tulip, or 
 poplar wood, scoured to an almost snowy whiteness. 
 
There would be few spoons of silver, but many 
 made of pewter or horn ; no silver forks, and 
 perhaps not an oversupply of steel ones. Among 
 the relics in the old house at Sharon are still pre 
 served half a dozen specimens of an implement 
 which preceded forks sharply pointed bits of 
 steel, about four inches long by an eighth of an 
 inch in diameter, set into handles of bone. When 
 I first found them and took them to my grand 
 mother with a " What are these ? " she laughingly 
 told me to " guess." I thought they looked more 
 like ice-picks than anything else, but she assured 
 me that they were the precursors of forks. They 
 must have performed their office but " indifferent 
 well," though, as an improvement upon fingers, 
 some of them may likely enough have been used 
 on this occasion. 
 
 Some of the pewter dishes now cherished by the 
 descendants of those who, as relatives or friends, 
 were present at this wedding, are marked with 
 the owner s initials as carefully as if they were of 
 silver. Indeed, a full set of pewter tableware was 
 considered a fine wedding-gift from a father to his 
 daughter. A pewter porringer, belonging to the 
 family which owns the dish of ancient delft men 
 tioned above, is a really pretty thing, graceful in 
 shape and having a fancifully cut flat handle pro 
 jecting from its side. It is recorded that in Queen 
 Elizabeth s time cocoanut-shells were used as 
 drinking-cups, being polished, and set sometimes 
 
in silver, and sometimes in pewter. In the colo 
 nies polished cocoanut-shells were also occasion 
 ally used as ladles, having long handles of polished 
 wood attached to them. At least one such ladle 
 still exists. It has a prettily fashioned handle of 
 maple wood. Its exact age is not known, but it 
 or its counterpart might well have been used at 
 this wedding-feast. 
 
 On the first day of the feast, besides the prelim 
 inary draught of spiced cider, there was brandy for 
 those who craved it, and much good Burgundy 
 and Madeira for the more temperately inclined. 
 Three casks of Madeira (size not mentioned) are 
 recorded as having been broached on that day. 
 
 On the second day the "commonalty" began to 
 assemble at about nine o clock in the morning. 
 (The " quality " on the previous day had waited 
 until eleven.) The tables were served to succes 
 sive guests during the day. Foreseeing the de 
 mand, all the good housewives in the vicinity, 
 with their servants, had been assisting Mrs. Gallup 
 and her servants in the preparations, and afterward, 
 with neighborly cooperation, they assisted in the 
 serving of the stores of good things. 
 
 On the first day, " after the removal of the sub 
 stantial part of the meal, the ladies left the table, 
 the table cloths were removed, and various strong 
 waters, together with pipes and tobacco, were 
 brought on, in company with trays filled high with 
 broken blocks of nut-sweet." This last was a highly 
 
prized candy made from maple sugar made soft 
 with water, placed in a shallow iron pan over the 
 coals, with a liberal allowance of unsalted butter, 
 and slightly scorched. While scorching, the 
 blanched meats of hickory-nuts and butternuts, 
 or sometimes almonds when this foreign dainty 
 could be procured, were added with a liberal hand. 
 When cooled this became firm, and was esteemed 
 " equal to anything in England." 
 
 On the second day this regular order of things, 
 with the customary toast-drinking, was manifestly 
 impossible. "As each relay of guests left the 
 tables they passed out of the front door near which 
 stood an immense Bowl, long ago hollowed out by 
 painstaking Indians from a bowlder, for the grind 
 ing of their corn. This was filled with Punch 
 which was ladled out freely to all who presented 
 anything from which to drink it, while great piles 
 of powdered Tobacco and a good bed of coals to 
 furnish light, were free to all who had pipes." 
 This punch, whatever liquor might have furnished 
 its body, was sure to have been well seasoned with 
 the best of West Indian sugar and lemons, for 
 there was already a brisk trade between the Con 
 necticut coast and the West Indies, and at this 
 time of the year the trading-vessels would have 
 been coming into the home ports. 
 
 This unique punch-bowl held many gallons, and 
 it speaks well both for the temperance of the 
 guests and the good quality of the liquor provided, 
 
that "no one became boisterous, though the big 
 Bowl was kept well and strongly replenished dur 
 ing the entire three days of this wedding feast." 
 For three days there were, though only two have 
 yet been mentioned here. 
 
 Early very early on the morning of the 
 second day, almost before the active men- and 
 women-servants had opened their eyes upon the 
 heavy day s work before them, a motley but 
 grave and decorous procession of apparently in 
 terminable length was seen coming over the hill 
 on the side of which, " overlooking the little 
 Mystic River, stood the large and, for its time, 
 the imposing mansion of Mr. Gallup." 
 
 For a moment the master stood in blank dis 
 may. The descendants of the friendly Mohegans 
 and a remnant of their Pequod enemies, so nearly 
 annihilated half a century before, were small in 
 number when compared with their former strength, 
 but they were still formidable as wedding-guests. 
 They had heard that all the country-side had been 
 invited to partake of Mr. Gallup s hospitality, and 
 perhaps had imagined that such an invitation must 
 include themselves. Such a conclusion would 
 have been natural enough, " considering that he 
 had always taken them, in a rhanner, under his pro 
 tection, and they had always turned to him for ad 
 vice and often for efficient help in time of need." 
 Or it may have been that some practical joker had 
 been at the pains to convey this impression, or, as 
 
178 
 
 Mrs. Gallup s great-granddaughter opined, that 
 " some slighted suitor had thought thus to cause 
 annoyance to the bride." Whatever might have 
 been the cause, the remnants of the tribes had 
 come in all the security of invited and welcome 
 guests brave, squaw, and papoose. 
 
 With the prompt decision which characterizes 
 most successful men, Mr. Gallup sprang upon the 
 stone horse-block and proceeded to make an im 
 promptu speech, " in the picturesque style in which 
 he was an adept, and with which an Indian audi 
 tory was always pleased. He assured his chil 
 dren that they were welcome, very welcome ; but 
 that they had mistaken the day for which they had 
 been invited; that their day was the morrow, and 
 that then he should set before them the best that 
 could be had, a feast that should be worthy of them 
 and of his friendship for them." In the slang of 
 our own day, this contract was a large one, for the 
 resources of the neighborhood had been already 
 heavily drawn upon, and the line of the morrow s 
 guests " as they wound their way back to their 
 wigwams in open Indian file, as their native man 
 ner was, extended from the Gallup house well on 
 to the head of the river, a mile or so away from 
 it." 
 
 On the following day the dignified but hungry 
 host came back again, " beplutned and blanketed 
 in their best, and none went hungry or thirsty 
 away." 
 
For various good reasons, including the natural 
 objections of a dainty housewife, this multitude 
 was served out of doors, where immense iron ket 
 tles of clam and of fish chowders had been started 
 to cook, over carefully tended fires, long before day 
 light. In other kettles numbers of the wild ducks, 
 which at that season had begun to be plentiful 
 along the coast, were slowly stewing with onions. 
 " Three young hogs, of about one hundred weight 
 each, were roasted whole, also out of doors. Hang 
 ing from the cranes in the great fire-places in the 
 house were boiling big bags of Indian meal pud 
 dings, thickly studded with dried plums." To be 
 served with the puddings were pailfuls of a sauce 
 made from West India molasses, butter, and vin 
 egar. Great baskets were filled with potatoes that 
 had been roasted in the ashes, and other baskets 
 were piled with well-baked loaves of rye and Indian 
 bread. All of these were dainties which the cop- 
 per-hued guests could duly appreciate, especially 
 with the addition of barrelfuls of hard cider and as 
 much West Indian rum as it was deemed wise to 
 set before them. 
 
 These particulars are all mentioned in the little 
 diary from which I have culled so much, but, with 
 the exception of the few things previously quoted, 
 it says nothing about the viands that were served 
 on the preceding days. By this period the colo 
 nists had acquired the art of cooking to the best ad 
 vantage most of the dishes which were peculiar to 
 
i8o 
 
 the country, and the wealthy among them had also 
 a good many imported dainties. 
 
 No amusements in which women took part, save 
 possibly as spectators, are mentioned, but we are 
 told that the young men engaged in "rastling, 
 quoits, running, leaping, archery and firing at a 
 mark, but on the last day no muskets were allowed 
 by reason of the Indians." Probably the women 
 were all too much engaged in hospitable cares to 
 indulge in any of the diversions considered suitable 
 for them. 
 
 No wedding-journey followed the simple cere 
 mony. On the afternoon of the first day many of 
 the invited guests probably all of them on horse 
 back, save a few who may have followed on foot 
 for a mile or so, for apparently there were no car 
 riages then in that region escorted the newly wed 
 ded pair, the bride riding on a pillion behind her 
 husband, to his house, the parsonage of the West 
 Parish of Saybrook, Connecticut. Any further 
 feasting might, even after a ride of twenty-five 
 miles or more, have seemed superfluous, but a 
 " valiant supper had been spread " by the care of 
 Mr. Worthington s parishioners, wishing to extend 
 a hearty welcome to his bride and the friends who 
 had accompanied her, and all "were plentifully 
 regaled with cold meats, roast and stewed oysters, 
 cakes, comfits, chocolate and coffee." 
 
 " After the supper a hymn was sung by all, fol 
 lowed by a prayer and benediction. . . . After 
 
which," adds the young chronicler, "the friends 
 all departed " (probably to the homes of Saybrook 
 friends hospitably opened to receive them), " and 
 my Grandfather and Grandmother, left alone to 
 gether in their new Home, knelt down and prayed 
 together for God s blessing." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 LIFE ON AN EARLY COLONIAL MANOR 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 LIFE ON AN EARLY 
 COLONIAL MANOR. 
 
 Terms of Grant. 
 The First Lady of the 
 
 Livingston Manor. 
 Extent of the Manor. 
 
o QoC o QoC> o o 
 ooo 
 
 holder of an American manor 
 in colonial days, though of the 
 highest social rank, was by no 
 means an idle aristocrat living on 
 an immense estate paying a pro 
 portionate revenue. In fact, if one of the wealthi 
 est, he was also one of the busiest men of his 
 generation. Both the conditions of the times and 
 those upon which the manors were conferred made 
 this a necessity. The manor granted to Robert 
 Livingston in 1686 was almost, if not quite, as 
 large as some of the German principalities of those 
 days, and its possession implied a certain amount 
 of extraneous wealth on the part of its owner to 
 enable him to sustain his manorial authority with 
 the fitting degree of power and prestige ; but it 
 was no sinecure. 
 
 Mr. Livingston s great domain, situated in what 
 are now Columbia and Dutchess counties, New 
 York, fronting for twelve miles along the Hud 
 son River, and enlarging to the length of twenty 
 miles on the Massachusetts border, thirty miles or 
 so back from the river, was still, for the most part, 
 
 185 
 
i86 
 
 a wilderness where Indians hunted the deer, or 
 sometimes fired the hut and took the scalp of a 
 too adventurous pioneer. 
 
 Robert Livingston was a far-seeing, politic man. 
 As much as might be, he made friends of the wild 
 tribes, paying them fairly for their lands, without 
 regard to the fact that the royal grants were sup 
 posed to preclude any such necessity, and himself 
 learning, and causing his sons to learn, the Indian 
 tongues, that they might be delivered from the 
 misunderstandings which were so frequent when 
 the several parties to any agreement were depen- 
 cjent upon the not always certain loyalty of the 
 interpreters. 
 
 Nothing in North America was then so plenti 
 ful as land, and under the conditions imposed by 
 the royal grants a poor man could not have af 
 forded to accept a gift of the lordliest manor of 
 them all. Within a specified time a certain num 
 ber of families had to be brought from Europe and 
 settled upon the granted territory, and their main 
 tenance for the first few years assured. It is true 
 that the settlers thus brought were expected to 
 pay back at least a part of the first expenditure, 
 but for the time the outlays were heavy, and com 
 paratively few of the settlers made the losses 
 good. 
 
 Farms were leased for long terms, usually for 
 two lives and a half, a period which at that time 
 was said to have averaged about fifty years. 
 
In his novel of " Satanstoe," one of the most re 
 liable of historical tales, Cooper says : " The first 
 ten years no rent at all was to be paid ; for the 
 next ten the land [five hundred acres] was to pay 
 sixpence currency per acre, the tenant having the 
 right to cut timber at pleasure ; for the remainder 
 of the lease sixpence sterling was to be paid for 
 the land and ^40 currency or about $100 per 
 year for the mill site. The mills to be taken by 
 the landlord, at 4 an appraisal made by men, at 
 the expiration of the lease ; the tenant to pay taxes." 
 The mill was evidently to be built by the tenant, 
 " who had the privilege of using, for his dams, 
 buildings, etc., all the materials that he could find 
 on the land." To the landlords belonged the duty 
 of constructing roads and bridges, and of making 
 all improvements of a public nature. The rents 
 were usually if not always paid in the produce of 
 the land, which the manor s lord was obliged to get 
 to market at his own expense in order to obtain 
 the necessary cash for his varied undertakings. 
 Such an arrangement would certainly seem to have 
 been very liberal toward the tenant, and was doubt 
 less so esteemed at the time, but in after years, 
 when the descendants of the first tenants had for 
 gotten the heavy advances which had been made 
 by the ancestors of their landlords, and saw how 
 easily the more recent settlers could make homes 
 for themselves in the West, they considered them 
 selves unjustly treated, and instituted the struggle 
 
i88 
 
 for possession which is known to history as the 
 " anti-rent war." 
 
 Of course, nothing of all this was foreseen at the 
 beginning. The first manor lords undoubtedly 
 thought that they were here founding immense 
 holdings after the fashions of the motherland, and 
 they proceeded in a thoroughly businesslike way 
 to make all things secure for the prosperity of 
 their heirs, who, when their time came, did not fail 
 to appreciate what had been done for them. 
 
 Governor William Livingston of New Jersey, 
 writing to his brother, the third lord of the Up 
 per Manor, in 1775, remarked: " Without a large 
 personal estate and their own uncommon industry 
 and capacity for business, instead of making out 
 of their extended tract of land a fortune for their 
 descendants, our grand-parents and parents would 
 have left us but a scant maintenance." 
 
 In this expression Governor Livingston seems 
 to have included the manor ladies as well as their 
 lords, and indeed it is plain that the very desirable 
 " capacity for business " was equally needed by 
 both, and the " hand of the diligent that maketh 
 rich " is not an exclusively masculine possession. 
 
 The first lady of the manor of Livingston was 
 Alida, the daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler, 
 and widow of the Rev. Nicholas Van Rensselaer. 
 Whatever dower in money or lands she may have 
 brought to the aid of her astute second husband, 
 she surely brought one still better in the sturdy 
 
Dutch qualities of fidelity, thrift, and management. 
 For warmth and strength of family affection, both 
 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Livingston were long remem 
 bered among their descendants. Mrs. Livingston 
 had come honestly by her executive and adminis 
 trative ability. Her father had been a man of 
 much influence in the colony, and her mother, nee 
 Van Slichtenhorst, survived her husband for twenty- 
 eight years, so managing his large estate, over 
 which she had full control, as to be reckoned the 
 foremost woman in a colony which numbered many 
 women of proved business ability. 
 
 The year of this marriage, 1683, was that in 
 which young Robert Livingston made his first pur 
 chase of land from the Indians a tract of two 
 thousand acres. Two years later more land was 
 added by purchase, and still one year later came 
 the grant from the crown, when the whole was 
 erected into a lordship or manor, conferring the 
 " Court-Leet," " Court-Baron," and other rights and 
 privileges which were for a long time more visible 
 on the parchments than elsewhere. 
 
 On this estate of more than one hundred and 
 sixty thousand acres, 1 on the banks of a small but 
 for a short distance navigable tributary of the Hud 
 son, was erected the first Livingston manor-house. 
 Its last vestige disappeared more than a hundred 
 
 1 Charles Carroll of Carrollton, writing in 1776, says that the Livingston 
 Manor then comprised over 300,000 acres. This must have included almost 
 150,000 acres which had been gradually added by purchase to the original 
 manorial grant. 
 
years ago, when the present family residence, known 
 as Oak Hill, was built, a mile or more from the 
 ancient site. 
 
 Of the first house we only know that it was 
 " thick walled, low browed and heavy raftered," af 
 ter the then prevailing Dutch farm-house type, only 
 much larger than was usual. We do not know 
 that it was constructed in any way for defense, al 
 though it well might have been. Probably its 
 builder trusted to keep the peace by his just and 
 friendly dealings with the Indians, and he may also 
 have been prepared for defense. He certainly had 
 good reason to trust somewhat to the number of 
 retainers gathered around him, a majority of whom, 
 like all frontiersmen, would pretty surely be well 
 armed against "big game," which would as surely 
 include aggressively inclined Indians, if any there 
 were; but this does not appear. From the rear 
 of the broad-roofed dwelling stretched away the 
 quarters of the slaves, the other outbuildings, and 
 several barns, some of which were larger than the 
 house itself. 
 
 There was much building of houses at various 
 suitable points for the use of the tenant farmers 
 and craftsmen brought from Great Britain, Hol 
 land, and Germany. To supply the timber for 
 these dwellings sawmill machinery was imported 
 and set up on the banks of the streams in the 
 midst of the forests. Near these mills little settle 
 ments grew up with a celerity that was remarkable 
 for the time, and spoke volumes for the executive 
 
and administrative ability of the manor s active 
 lord. In a long, semi-detached wing of the manor- 
 house carpenters and masons were fed and lodged 
 during the long winters, while they did such pre 
 paratory work as might be possible to forward 
 building operations in the various settlements in 
 such moments as the weather would permit. With 
 the adaptability of all true pioneers, these men 
 could turn their hands to many things, and they 
 manufactured in the manor s workshop and smithy 
 many of the tools which otherwise must have been 
 imported, as well as much of the rude furniture for 
 the pioneer houses. Near by was the grist-mill 
 which supplied flour and Indian meal to all the 
 near settlements, as well as to many outside the 
 manor for perhaps thirty miles up and down the 
 river. On the home farm hundreds of swine and 
 beef cattle were raised, slaughtered, and cured to 
 supply scores of resident families and also for ex 
 portation. Here the wool of many hundreds of 
 sheep was sheared, carded, spun into yarn, and 
 woven into blankets and cloths to be used for the 
 manor household and by those of the tenants not 
 sufficiently " forehanded " to do this work for 
 themselves. 
 
 In one room of the " great house " were held 
 courts where all the difficulties common to fron 
 tier populations were adjusted, and in the same 
 room were carried on the primitive banking opera 
 tions of the newly opened region. 
 
 Near by were the docks, whence, when the 
 
river was open, sloops were weekly departing, 
 laden with salted meats, grains, peltries, and lum 
 ber, or returning with cargoes of all the countless 
 things which could not yet be produced at home. 
 Among these were many articles of luxury and 
 rich household furnishings which must have 
 seemed a trifle incongruous with their new sur 
 roundings. 
 
 Not far away stood the big "store," where all 
 sorts of things, from wrought-iron nails to silks, 
 and from " West Indian sweetmeats " to Dutch 
 garden seeds, were sometimes sold for money, but 
 oftener bartered for country produce and peltries, 
 which would soon find their way to New York, 
 and some ultimately to England, in ships owned 
 by the enterprising Robert Livingston. 
 
 All these various branches of business implied 
 the coming and going of many persons, and en 
 tailed an open-handed hospitality of the widest 
 kind. For this the principal care and oversight 
 fell upon the capable shoulders of Mrs. Livingston. 
 It is traditionally related that the number of per 
 manent dwellers which the manor-house roof shel 
 tered during the first twenty years of the eighteenth 
 century averaged something over thirty persons 
 this being exclusive of slaves, of whom there were 
 more than a hundred having outside quarters, and 
 of white employees. As strangers were always 
 welcome, it was the custom to have beds of all sorts 
 in a state of complete readiness for at least ten 
 
*93 
 
 unexpected guests, while, at a pinch, a good many 
 more could be accommodated without great in 
 convenience. 
 
 Among the dwellers in the manor-house was 
 always the dominie, who, before the erection of 
 the manor church in 1721, held services every 
 winter Sunday in the great kitchen and adjoining 
 dining-room, and in summer on the threshing-floor 
 of the biggest bam. On each Sunday he preached 
 one sermon in Dutch and another in English, and 
 during the week he acted as tutor for Mr. Living 
 ston s children and young relatives, as well as exer 
 cised a pastoral care over the members of his 
 congregation. Other inmates were several more 
 or less distant relatives of both Mr. and Mrs. Liv 
 ingston, all of whom were probably expected to 
 make themselves more or less useful in one way 
 or another, for very few drones could have been 
 tolerated in such an industrious hive. 
 
 Robert Livingston was a man of unusual culti 
 vation for his time. It is said that he was a good 
 classical scholar, and there is proof that he spoke 
 and wrote the English, French, and Dutch lan 
 guages with fluency and clearness. Both he and 
 his wife had bright, quick, active minds, "were 
 witty and wise," and both were possessed of 
 much personal grace and charm, so that their 
 house was regarded as a delightful home where 
 all other attractions were added to the grace of 
 hospitality. 
 
194 
 
 The first manor of Livingston, with its many 
 activities, its profuse hospitalities, and its strong 
 contrasts, reminds one of Scott s descriptions of 
 the rude baronial halls in the remote Scotch dis 
 tricts a few scores of years earlier than this. In 
 the new land there was almost as much feudal 
 authority over more diverse retainers, a greater 
 display of costly plate, tapestries, and rich furni 
 ture, and the same lack of what were even then 
 considered essential comforts for* persons of like 
 social position in regions less remote. 
 
 The wide hall and the long drawing-room of the 
 big farm-house were wainscoted in panels. The 
 mantels above the tile-bordered fireplaces were fan 
 cifully carved, and the walls were hung with costly 
 Flemish tapestries; yet it is doubtful if, during 
 the first three or four decades, any of the floors 
 were carpeted, while that of the dining-room was 
 certainly sanded, and a row of sheepskins, dressed 
 with the wool on, was laid around the table in 
 winter for foot-warmers. At the same time the 
 table was laid with the finest naperies and much 
 solid silver, interspersed with pewter and wooden 
 dishes. During the earliest years there probably 
 was not a single fork, and it is almost certain 
 that there were few if any articles of china, and not 
 many of earthenware. A dozen silver porringers 
 bearing the original crest of the Livingstons, show 
 ing that they had been brought from Scotland by 
 the first Robert, and a dozen goblets, or tumblers, 
 
195 
 
 I am not sure which, bearing the same mark, were 
 inherited as their share of the original plate, which 
 was divided by weight, by two of my grandmother s 
 brothers, who were descendants of the fifth genera 
 tion, and who, it is grievous to know, had them 
 melted "to make handsomer but certainly less 
 precious articles. As these persons were but two 
 of the scores of Robert Livingston s descendants 
 among whom his plate had been successively 
 divided, some idea may be formed of its first 
 amount. 
 
 The life led by Lady Alida Livingston in 
 her wilderness manor-house was busy, bustling, 
 dominant. Her household was kept well in hand, 
 and so were her husband s business operations ; not 
 merely when he was present to guide them with 
 his own masterful hands, but also during his long 
 absence at his place in the colonial councils, or on 
 his several journeys to England. Mrs. Livingston s 
 family of six sons and daughters received every at 
 tainable advantage both in learning and accom 
 plishments. Both she and her husband felt their 
 responsibility as the founders of a family destined 
 to honor and power. They gazed far into the 
 future and builded wisely, yet they did not dream 
 of a result to which their labors were tending. 
 
 Their descendants of the third and fourth gener 
 ation, then grown to be a large, wealthy, keen-wit 
 ted, and " clannish clan," were, with very few ex 
 ceptions, found among the strongest opponents to 
 
196 
 
 British power during the struggle of the colonies 
 for independence, though well knowing that with 
 their success would perish all dreams of the new- 
 world baronies. The course of the three great 
 manor families of Van Rensselaer, Van Cortlandt, 
 and Livingston is alone a sufficient answer to the 
 calumny that "great estates always made active 
 Tories." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 PROSPEROUS DAYS ON A LATER MANOR 
 
PROSPEROUS DAYS ON A 
 LATER MANOR. 
 
 Increase of the Clan in 
 Numbers and Wealth. 
 
 Education. 
 
 Margaret Beeckman 
 
 Livingston, Last Lady of 
 
 the Manor of Clermont. 
 
|HE period from the founding of the 
 first manor in the colony of New 
 York to the beginning of the War 
 of the Revolution was not quite a 
 century, yet during the last third 
 of that time home life on all the manors had 
 greatly changed. What in the later time was held 
 to be vast wealth had resulted from the wise plans 
 and incessant labors of the founders, acting with 
 the natural growth of the country. To such pleas 
 ant features as had existed in the earlier days many 
 others had been added, while much of that which 
 was unpleasant had disappeared. For miles along 
 the eastern bank of the Hudson, above and below 
 what is now Rhinebeck, almost every sightly 
 eminence was capped with the fine residence of 
 one of the grandchildren of the first lord and lady 
 of the Livingston Manor. At all of these man 
 sions cordial hospitality, abundant cheer, and all 
 of what was then esteemed splendor, were to be 
 found. There were at this time two Livingston 
 manors, as a portion of the first (which was subse 
 quently called the Upper Manor) had been set off 
 
 199 
 
200 
 
 to the founder s third son Robert as a reward for 
 peculiarly important services. This segregated 
 portion was indifferently called the " Lower Manor 
 of Livingston " or " Clermont " until after the 
 colonies had become States, when it became 
 definitely known as Clermont, one of the most 
 celebrated country-seats in America. 
 
 The manor ladies of the third generation and 
 their successors of the fourth (though the title of 
 these last had become one of couAesy only) were 
 well-nigh queens on their own domains ; but, like 
 all queens who are not mere figureheads, they had 
 many cares, which they accepted as frankly as they 
 did the pleasures of their position. 
 
 Notions of political independence had for many 
 years been growing through all the colonies, but 
 of social equality there was scarcely a whisper. 
 Certainly it was far from the thoughts of those who 
 had belonged to good families in the old countries 
 and had here been held in honor and had pros 
 pered to the extent of founding families of wealth. 
 Perhaps no more frankly fervent aristocrats ever 
 lived than the owners of the great colonial estates, 
 whether these were situated on the banks of the 
 James and the Chesapeake or on those of the Hud 
 son. They were free from most of the restraints 
 and traditions which often hung like fetters on the 
 limbs of the kindred class in the motherland, and 
 thus they were at liberty to enjoy their rank, 
 wealth, and cultivation with an almost childish 
 
201 
 
 naivete. Of this happy liberty they took the fullest 
 advantage. 
 
 From the extreme limits of Van Rensselaer s 
 manor on the north to that of the Van Cortlandts 
 on the south, the eastern bank of the Hudson River 
 from Albany to New York, and for a distance of 
 from fifteen to thirty miles back from the river, was 
 dotted by the handsome residences of as care-free, 
 healthful, fine-looking, and happy a class as prob 
 ably the society of any country has ever known. 
 Its members were not driven by the fierce compe 
 tition which embitters so many lives to-day, yet 
 they had abundant and satisfying occupations. 
 They had intermarried so freely that they seemed 
 one great cousinry, all having a serene confidence 
 in the invulnerability of their social position, which 
 left them free to be jovial, hospitable, good-hu 
 mored, and withal public-spirited to an unusual de 
 gree. The men had their offices, and their business 
 hours in which to confer with their stewards and 
 tenants, or with the men who conducted large en 
 terprises of many sorts upon the strength of their 
 capital and under their guidance. Into their ca 
 pable and willing hands official positions naturally 
 fell and were faithfully filled ; but all these things 
 were done in an atmosphere of large leisureliness, 
 consequent upon the slow means of communica 
 tion between distant points, which is almost beyond 
 the conception of any in these electric days. 
 
 The men rode a great deal, or hunted after the 
 
202 
 
 manner of their English cousins, or they made 
 long expeditions into the unexplored regions of 
 northern and western New York, partly, no doubt, 
 with an eye to present profit or to future invest 
 ments, but largely to gratify their innate love of 
 adventure. Many of the sons were sent to the 
 English universities of Cambridge or Oxford ; but 
 even if his college training had been received at 
 King s (now Columbia) College, the education of 
 no young man belonging to a wealthy and cul 
 tivated family was considered complete until he 
 had made a tour of Europe, from one to three 
 years being frequently consumed in this way. 
 
 Probably owing to the many dangers and the 
 very serious discomforts which then beset an ocean 
 voyage under the most favorable conditions, the 
 sisters seldom accompanied their brothers, though 
 there are a few known instances of daughters who 
 went to England with their fathers, and there and 
 in Scotland were most hospitably entertained by 
 their more or less distant but ever " kindly kin." 
 I have had the pleasure of reading some remark 
 ably vivacious and charming letters from one such 
 fortunate maiden, as they were copied by my rela 
 tive, Mr. Livingston Rutherfurd, into his valuable 
 but privately printed volume concerning the 
 Rutherfurd family in America. 
 
 During the long absences of the male heads of 
 the manor families the administration of their 
 home affairs was left in the hands of capable stew- 
 
203 
 
 ards, who were always under the supervision of the 
 manor ladies Margaret Beeckman, the wife of 
 Judge Livingston, second (and last) lord of the 
 Lower Manor, was the mother of Chancellor Liv 
 ingston and of nine other goodly sons and daugh 
 ters, most of whom eventually became distin 
 guished persons. She displayed remarkable ability 
 not only in fulfilling the duties of her high position 
 during the lifetime of her husband, and in the 
 management of his great estate after his decease, 
 but also in the wise upbringing of her large family. 
 An account-book kept in her own hand, with 
 copious notes relating to crops and stock on her 
 many farms, and to contracts with dealers in lum 
 ber, wools, and furs, as well as to the more inti 
 mate matters of household economy, shows a mind 
 of much more than common business ability and 
 breadth of view. The household supplies of every 
 sort were on a scale commensurate with the family s 
 social position, and would in themselves make most 
 interesting reading for one who loves to make the 
 past seem present by recalling the homely details 
 of domestic life. 
 
 All the manor families had always encouraged 
 what were then " home industries " in a strictly 
 literal sense. But there were many things which 
 the largest private expenditure could not produce 
 in the new country, and Mrs. Livingston s old ac 
 count-book shows that persons of wealth did not, 
 for this reason, deprive themselves of much which 
 
204 
 
 they desired to possess. The things sent for from 
 England, France, and Holland were varied, nu 
 merous, and costly. Great treasures of tapestries, 
 pictures, inlaid cabinets, jewels, satins, velvets, and 
 laces, as well as old wines, delicate porcelains, 
 and expensive plate, must have been lost when 
 the Clermont manor-house was burned by the 
 British during our Revolutionary War. Among 
 the imported articles were " An eboney Cabinet 
 garnished out with Silver," which cost ,40, and 
 another of " Tortus Shell, garnished with Silver 
 Guilte," costing b$ 15^. " Two setts of bed cur- 
 tayns broidered, lined & fringed," were ^40 each. 
 " Thirty six yards of Broussells carpett with bor 
 der," ^36. These prices probably covered freight 
 charges as well as the original cost. All of these 
 were great treasures for their day, and many such 
 had been imported by Judge and Mrs. Livingston ; 
 but they exist no longer, save on the yellow but 
 strong paper and in the good black ink of the 
 leather-covered account-book kept for many years 
 by Mrs. Margaret B. Livingston. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A COUNTRY PARSON S WIFE 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 > 
 
 A COUNTRY PARSON S 
 WIFE. 
 
 Lake, Gallup, Chcse- 
 
 brough, and Worthington ; 
 
 Elliott, Chauncey, Hop 
 
 kins, Ely, and Goodrich. 
 
 The Parsonage and its 
 
 Furnishings. 
 Fire and Flint. 
 
|HE roots of a strong character draw 
 their nutriment from far beneath the 
 surface ; therefore it is less amiss 
 than it might seem that we begin 
 the simple story of this country 
 pastor s wife by referring to that of another woman, 
 who preceded her by more than a century. 
 
 During the twenty-five years which intervened 
 between the landing at Plymouth and the battle of 
 Naseby, New England had become the place of 
 refuge for many of those to whom the mother 
 land had ceased to be home save in fond remem 
 brance. Among these self-exiled were many who 
 fled from the choice which they must make, if they 
 remained in England, between their faith on the 
 one hand and an inborn and inbred loyalty to their 
 king on the other. 
 
 Of these was one Mrs. Margaret Lake, who is 
 mentioned in our chapter on " A Pioneer Home." 
 She was one of the original grantees of the town 
 ship of New London, Connecticut, "sharing in all 
 the grants and divisions of land made to the other 
 settlers." Beyond this fact, and that she was a sis- 
 
 207 
 
208 
 
 ter of the second Governor Winthrop s second 
 wife, little more than is told in that chapter is 
 known concerning her. The father of Mrs. Win- 
 throp and Mrs. Lake belonged to that class which 
 has ever furnished the backbone of old England 
 -the frequently gentle born though often far 
 from wealthy class of hereditary landowners, living 
 at a distance from courts and fashions, but availing 
 themselves of the best educational advantages 
 afforded in their time. Many of this class fought 
 and died for the worthless Stuarts, and to it also 
 belonged the most upright and humane portion of 
 Cromwell s ever-valiant forces. 
 
 The years from 1645 onward to 1675, the date of 
 the battle with the Pequots known as the Great 
 Swamp Fight, were full of danger to the New 
 England colonists. Whatever their tender-hearted 
 descendants may think about the matter in these 
 days of security, there is no doubt that to our an 
 cestors the Indian was a continual menace and ter 
 ror, and no man gained more of the admiration of 
 his fellows than he who best held in check this 
 formidable foe. Among such defenders none in 
 what is now known as New London County, Con 
 necticut, was held to be stronger of arm and more 
 dauntless of soul than Captain John Gallup, the 
 son of a father equally renowned in the same line. 
 The first Captain John Gallup was a grandson 
 of Thomas Gallup, owner of the manors of North 
 Bo wood and Strode in Dorsetshire, England. 
 
209 
 
 Being a younger son of a younger son, the emi 
 grating Gallup may reasonably be supposed not to 
 have possessed an unduly large share of this world s 
 gear, but it is certain that he speedily became a 
 man of some substance and much value in the 
 colonies. His son, the second Captain Gallup, 
 married Hannah, daughter of Mrs. Margaret Lake, 
 thus bringing together the gentle and the warlike, 
 and from their union sprang a race many of whose 
 descendants have made their mark by council-fires 
 and on the tented field, passing from one to the 
 other as the needs of their country required, but 
 flinching from no difficulty or danger when fol 
 lowing what appeared to them to be their duty. 
 
 William Gallup, a son of the second John Gal 
 lup and Hannah Lake, married Sarah, a daughter 
 of Samuel and granddaughter of William Chese- 
 brough of Stonington, Connecticut. The last- 
 named came from England in 1630 in Winthrop s 
 fleet. Of Mr. Chesebrough it has been written that 
 " he could frame a building or he could sit as 
 judge in a case at law. He could forge a chain 
 or draw up a plan for the organization of the 
 municipal government. He could survey a tract of 
 land or he could represent his town in the General 
 Court and adjust its disturbed relations with the 
 constituted [colonial] authorities." This shows 
 him to have been a typical Yankee of the best 
 sort a man who could successfully turn his 
 capable hands and brains to any useful thing. 
 
210 
 
 It is said that Mr. William Chesebrough was a 
 man of strong religious convictions, and certainly 
 he must have enjoyed religious services, for it is 
 recorded that in bad seasons, when the necessarily 
 ill-made roads of the time were rendered more than 
 usually impassable by heavy freshets and oozing 
 frosts, he had been " known to start for church at 
 a little after midnight in order to accomplish in 
 good time the fifteen miles that lay between his 
 home and the meeting house." It required both 
 strength of muscle and conviction to render the best 
 of men so zealous as that. But, with all his zeal, 
 Mr. Chesebrough had a fund of humor which 
 made his genial society sought by young and old 
 until his death in 1667, while his "judicious mild 
 ness smoothed many public and private difficulties 
 in the region where he was, in two senses, the first 
 settler." 
 
 It is this Mr. Chesebrough s granddaughter, 
 Temperance Gallup, whose marriage to the Rev. 
 William Worthington is related in our account 
 of" A Colonial Wedding," and it was one of the 
 daughters of this couple who, in 1756 or 1757, 
 became the wife of the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith 
 of Sharon, Connecticut. 
 
 The Rev. William Worthington was the first 
 settled pastor of the West Parish of Saybrook, Con 
 necticut, where he died in 1756. Family tra 
 ditions, coming down through several lines of 
 descendants, unite in ascribing to him "great 
 
211 
 
 blandness, urbanity and grace of manner com 
 bined with a keen and trenchant wit." He was 
 considered a learned man in his day, and as a 
 preacher " was distinguished for using the persua 
 sions of the Gospel rather than the terrors of the 
 law." Mr. Worthington left five daughters and 
 one son also William Worthington, a colonel 
 of patriotic troops during the Revolutionary War, 
 who died a bachelor. The youngest daughter 
 married Dr. Aaron Elliott, son of the Rev. Jared 
 Elliott of Killingworth, now Clinton, Connecticut. 
 Another married Colonel John Ely of Lyme, Con 
 necticut, whose noble record of high patriotism is 
 but too little known. A third daughter married 
 Elnathan Chauncey. A fourth daughter married 
 Mr. William Hopkins. All of the sons-in-law of 
 the Rev. William Worthington were prominent 
 men in their several places of residence, and from 
 all of them have descended many persons of social 
 and intellectual distinction. It was the second 
 daughter, Temperance, who became the wife of the 
 Rev. Cotton Mather Smith of Sharon, Connecticut. 
 All of the sisters bore a contemporary reputa 
 tion of being more accomplished than most of the 
 women of their time. Their father, being in ad 
 vance of his age in considering that girls had as 
 much brain and as much use for it as boys, had 
 given to his daughters every attainable advantage. 
 Comparatively few of the pastors of Parson Wor- 
 thington s generation paid visits to Europe, but 
 
212 
 
 Mrs. Smith and one of her sisters in their girl 
 hood accompanied their father on a visit which he 
 made to England. In the diary of Juliana Smith 
 we find this " long and arduous "journey referred 
 to several times, but with an exasperating brevity 
 and incompleteness, as : 
 
 " When Mamma was with Grandfather Wor- 
 thington in Boston, England, she heard a great 
 Organ the tones of which rolled like the Ocean, 
 and the whole soul melted to its music." 
 
 And again, writing in 1 779 : 
 
 " When my Mother and Aunt were in England, 
 thirty years ago, they were hospitably entertained 
 at the country seats of some of my Grandfather s 
 relatives there, and now we are told that one of 
 them, who was an officer of the King s troops, and 
 was an Ensign then, is now a Major, and is sick 
 and a Prisoner in the hands of the Continentals. 
 My Father will use every effort to have him brought 
 to us, and then it is possible we may secure an ex 
 change for my Uncle Ely, who holds the same rank 
 in our army, and is now a Prisoner in the hands 
 of the British in New York." 
 
 This exchange, so much desired, was not effected, 
 the doctor being found too useful as a physician 
 among the sick prisoners confined in the "Old Sugar 
 
213 
 
 House." It was nearly or quite at the close of the 
 war when Dr. Ely, much broken in health, but not 
 in spirit, was restored to his family. 
 
 Mr. S. G. Goodrich (Peter Parley), who was the 
 grandson of Mrs. Chauncey, says that Mrs. Smith 
 and her sisters were all " noted for their wide read 
 ing, their elegant manners, and their excellent 
 house-wifery." The last two accomplishments may 
 be taken without qualification, but in regard to the 
 first claim it is necessary to make allowance for 
 the conditions and times. Mr. Worthington s 
 daughters certainly read Shakspere and Milton, 
 for odd volumes of both of these classics still exist 
 bearing the name of " Temperance Worthington, 
 from her Father," written on fly-leaves. Both bear 
 evidence of having been well read, though care 
 fully used. (Books were far too costly and rare to 
 be treated slightingly.) It is said that all of Mr. 
 Worthington s daughters were good Latin scholars, 
 and it is certain that at least one of them, Mrs. 
 Smith, was a fairly good French scholar, speaking 
 the language sufficiently well to act as interpreter 
 when occasion required, as it sometimes did when 
 the French troops were here during our Revolu 
 tionary War. The same useful office was filled by 
 one of her sisters, Mrs. Ely, I think, at Newport, 
 Rhode Island. Mrs. Smith taught the language 
 of our allies to her own sons and daughters, giving 
 them such an interest in it that at least two of them 
 continued to read French and translate it with ease, 
 
even in their latest years. Where Mrs. Smith ac 
 quired her knowledge of the French tongue I do 
 not know. It was a most unusual accomplishment 
 in the New England of her time, and may have 
 been gained in one of the Huguenot schools in New 
 Rochelle. There is no proof that she attended 
 one of these, but several circumstances seem to 
 point that way; among them is the existence of 
 some delicate specimens, made by "Madame Smith" 
 and her daughters, of such needlework as was then 
 universally known as " French embroidery." 
 
 The house to which Mrs. Smith came as a bride, 
 in 1756 or 1757, was built a few years before that 
 date by her husband s predecessor, the Rev. Mr. 
 Searle. In spite of the fact that this dwelling was 
 still in an admirable state of preservation, it was 
 taken down in 1812 by my grandfather, who re 
 placed it by a house of the then fashionable 
 Grecian temple style of architecture. 
 
 The old house, as described to me, was large and 
 heavily timbered, with its sides covered with over 
 lapping cedar shingles. In front the hipped roof 
 began to rise from a little above the ceiling of the 
 first story, but sloped so little that the house was 
 practically two stories high on that side. At the 
 rear the roof slowly receded from the ridge-pole to 
 the long stoep which ran from north to south 
 across the back of the low-ceiled, many-windowed, 
 wide and comfortable old manse. On the first 
 floor four large rooms were grouped round the 
 
215 
 
 central chimney, against which, and directly op 
 posite to the outer door, was a square hall from 
 which a flight of stairs broken by a platform ran to 
 the second story. In accordance with the general 
 usage of the time, this outer door was divided into 
 upper and lower halves. It opened upon a stone 
 porch, provided with seats on the sides, and cov 
 ered with an overhanging shingled roof unsup 
 ported by pillars. At the time that my grand 
 father remembered it a portion of the stoep at the 
 rear had been inclosed to afford accommodations 
 for a summer kitchen, for washing clothes, and 
 a milk-room. At right angles with the house, 
 stretching eastward, there ran out from one corner 
 the immense woodshed, rendered necessary by the 
 incessantly devouring open fires ; and near the east 
 ern extremity of the shed were disposed the other 
 outbuildings. This was a great improvement upon 
 the common village usage of colonial days, which 
 was to cluster the woodshed and some of the 
 smaller outbuildings around the front door. 
 
 The village green, which is now so beautifully 
 elm-embowered, could then have been but a wide 
 and unkempt common, a pasture-ground where 
 scattered trees, the scant remains of ancient growths, 
 afforded shade to sheep, cows, calves, geese, and 
 sometimes even to swine. 
 
 Directly in front of the parsonage, shading its 
 porch, there stood an immense white-ash tree, be 
 lieved to have been the largest of its kind in New 
 
2l6 
 
 England, under whose giant branches the Wequag- 
 nock Indians had often built their council-fires. 
 This glorious tree lived and apparently flourished 
 until a great gale in August, 1893. My g ran d- 
 father, William Mather Smith (who was born in 
 1786), said that within his recollection this tree 
 had never increased in apparent size. From the 
 front door to the gate, passing by and under the 
 great ash, was a short and irregularly flagged walk, 
 edged with box. 
 
 That one of the four principal rooms on the first 
 floor which opened by four large windows to the 
 west and south was occupied by the parson, both 
 as his study and as the class-room for his pupils. 
 There were then no theological seminaries, and 
 the young men who wished to be fitted for the 
 ministry studied with such pastors as were held in 
 the highest estimation for learning and ability. 
 About the time of the Revolutionary War the 
 Rev. Dr. Bellamy of Bethlehem, and the Rev. Cot 
 ton Mather Smith of Sharon, seem to have divided 
 between themselves the greater number of divinity 
 students of western Connecticut. 
 
 The parsonage furnishings would not strike the 
 modem eye as either abundant or very comforta 
 ble, yet there were comparatively few dwellings 
 of the day so well supplied. The dark mahogany 
 desk at which the Rev. C. M. Smith wrote hun 
 dreds of the sermons preached during his fifty-two 
 years pastorate in Sharon is now in possession of 
 
217 
 
 / 
 
 his great-great-grandson. Some of the fine old 
 chairs and a sofa of the same unrivaled wood, the 
 latter handsomely carved, but of severe outlines 
 and unapproachable discomfort, are in the same 
 ownership. An inlaid sideboard of mahogany 
 and satinwood, which adorned the parsonage liv 
 ing-room, and which had belonged to the parson s 
 father, is now owned by a great-great-granddaugh 
 ter. These, with some small round mahogany 
 stands for candles, an ebony-framed mirror, and a 
 few other of the choice things which once stood in 
 the parsonage, are all that now remain of its fur 
 nishings, save the portraits of King George III 
 and Queen Charlotte. About these the only re 
 markable thing is that they exist at all, for they are 
 on glass, and could not have survived save by dint 
 of great care; and who could or would have be 
 stowed this care immediately after the War of the 
 Revolution ? The parson and his wife were both 
 very strong patriots, but it would seem that there 
 might have lingered some feeling of personal loy 
 alty to the old sovereigns, which, through it all, 
 preserved their frail presentments with faithful 
 care. 
 
 One of the comparatively few imported carpets 
 at that time in the country lay on the parson s 
 study floor. The living-room, across the hall from 
 the study, and communicating with the kitchen 
 behind it, had a carpet of heavy homespun woolen 
 yarn, woven in a pattern of broad, lengthwise 
 
218 
 
 stripes. Such carpets had two merits : being as 
 smooth of surface as the " Kensington art squares " 
 of our day, they were much more easily swept than 
 the ugly rag carpets; and being of wool, honestly 
 spun and woven, were practically indestructible, 
 save by moths. Some were still made in Connec 
 ticut well into this century. In the specimens 
 which I have seen the colors were a rich red, a 
 dark yellow, an indigo blue, a dingy purple, and a 
 dusky green. 
 
 The bedroom of the parson and his wife, com 
 municating directly with the study, and, through a 
 passage, with the kitchen also, was a fireless room 
 opening to the south. No wonder that in winter 
 its tall four-poster was sheltered with heavily woven 
 linen or wool curtains under the more decorative 
 hangings of picture chintz. Bitterly cold and 
 drafty, in zero weather, must have been the 
 rooms whose only warmth was that which could 
 escape from the adjacent rooms. No matter how 
 generous might be the blaze of the open wood fire, 
 far more of its heat made its way up the chimney- 
 throat than to the opposite wall upon which its 
 evening shadows gaily danced, and still smaller 
 was the portion which could be coaxed into an 
 adjoining room. 
 
 Heavy bed-hangings were a winter necessity be 
 fore steam-heat, furnaces, or even stoves had been 
 invented. My father and his brother, who well 
 remembered these days, which, in country places, 
 
2ig 
 
 continued until about the end of their college terms 
 in 1830 and 1832, have told me that on cold 
 nights, after the fires had been covered, the wind 
 often blew in great gusts down the wide-throated 
 chimney, and that then the bed-curtains, heavy as 
 they were, " blew like handkerchiefs in a gale," and 
 they were glad enough of the additional protection 
 for their ears and heads of warm nightcaps knitted 
 by grandmother, mother, or cousin from the yarn 
 even then still spun at home from the wool of 
 their own sheep. 
 
 As friction matches did not come into general 
 use until 1835 or thereabout, it was still the cus 
 tom to bank the fireplaces with ashes at night 
 until not an ember or spark of fire could be seen, 
 just as similar fires had been banked for untold 
 centuries before. If this precaution were not 
 thoroughly taken the fires were an ever-imminent 
 danger. On very cold and windy nights it was cus 
 tomary for some members of a family to take turns 
 in sitting up to watch the fires. 
 
 My father, when a boy of eight or nine years, 
 saw his father display to admiring neighbors " a 
 wonderfully handy new invention by which fires 
 could be readily kindled." Something like the 
 trigger of a flint-lock musket was pulled, and a 
 spark struck from the flint and steel, which ignited 
 a bit of punk; this, being judiciously blown upon, 
 set fire to splinters of resinous wood, and this, in 
 turn, to carefully reared piles of splintered kin- 
 
220 
 
 dlings and well-seasoned logs. Before the advent of 
 the "fire-sparker " of flint and steel, when the earliest 
 riser of a family was so unfortunate as to find that the 
 too slightly protected embers of the previous night s 
 fires had burned themselves out, or that the too 
 densely covered ones had been hopelessly smo 
 thered, it was his chilly task to wait and watch for the 
 nearest chimney which should show rising smoke, 
 and then to sally forth, with chafing-dish or foot- 
 stove in hand, to " borrow coals." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 HOME CARES IN A PARSONAGE 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HOME CARES IN A 
 PARSONAGE. 
 
 $ 
 
 Madam Smith s Multi 
 plied Employments. 
 
 Small Incomes and Many 
 Out-goes. 
 
 Extracts from Madam 
 Smith s Reminiscences. 
 
 The Small-pox. 
 Hospitality. 
 
 The Preaching of White- 
 field. 
 

 
 f 
 
 Madam Smith s time, and for 
 many a long year before and af- 
 ter there was never a matron so 
 
 Wea ^ tn 7 tnat sne na d not ner hands 
 full of Martha-like cares. In 
 general the richer the family the more arduous 
 were these cares; but, of them all, not even the 
 lady of a manor was so overburdened as was the 
 parson s wife the " madam," as she was generally 
 styled, so much was demanded of her, so multi 
 farious were her duties. Ministerial stipends were 
 then very small. Mr. Smith s salary at the time of 
 his settlement, in 1754, was "220 Spanish dollars 
 or an equivalent in old tenor bills." In addition 
 to this he was to receive, as what was then known 
 as a " settlement," " 140 ounces of silver or an 
 equivalent in old tenor bills, annually for three 
 years." I believe that the yearly salary was sub 
 sequently increased, but do not know to what 
 extent. 
 
 Salaries of four or even of three hundred dollars 
 a year were considered liberal in country places un 
 til years after the Revolution. On such small sums, 
 
 223 
 
224 
 
 eked out by the produce from a certain number of 
 acres of glebe-land, the minister was expected not 
 only to support his own family, but to bear an un 
 due share in the entertaining of strangers, as well as 
 in aiding the neighboring poor. When, as some 
 times happened, either the pastor or his wife had 
 private property, still more was expected of them, 
 and rarely indeed did they fail to respond to this 
 expectation. Parson Smith, in a letter to his son- 
 in-law, the Rev. Daniel Smith of Stamford, Con 
 necticut, written in 1804, states that in his family 
 there were maintained, in addition to his own six 
 children, "an average of four penniless orphans 
 during more than thirty years." These were not 
 only fed and clothed, but educated, at the parson s 
 sole expense. They, with his own children, the 
 divinity students, and some of the boys whom he 
 fitted for college and who resided with him, made 
 a household of unusual numbers even for those 
 days of large families, and entailed a great amount 
 of care and labor on his own part, while his wife 
 must have been very heavily burdened. 
 
 Long working hours were a necessity of the 
 period. Five o clock was the usual breakfast-hour 
 in summer, and from six to half-past six in winter. 
 Dinner was at noon, and tea at six in winter and 
 seven in summer. This was so that the many tasks 
 might be accomplished, for sufficient unto each day 
 was its own work ; it had no room for labors left 
 over from the day before. 
 
225 
 
 Wheat, rye, and corn were ground into flour and 
 meal at the local mills, and salted fish, sugar, 
 molasses, " West India Sweetmeats," and, except 
 ing in war-times, tea, coffee, and chocolate, could 
 be bought at the village stores; but aside from 
 these, with long volumes of a country store s ac 
 count-books, covering many years, open before me, 
 I can hardly find a trace of any kind of provisions 
 that did not have to be produced and prepared, 
 from start to finish, by manual labor on the farms 
 and in each individual household and all this 
 without the aid of any of the toil-saving devices 
 which we now deem matters of course. 
 
 Perhaps an idea of some of these daily labors 
 may be best conveyed by extracts from relations 
 which were found among the old papers some years 
 ago. Mrs. Smith in 1775 had made the week- 
 long and perilous journey from Sharon, Connecti 
 cut, to Fort Ticonderoga, where her husband was 
 dangerously ill of camp fever. All the way above 
 Saratoga was through an unbroken wilderness. In 
 after years Mrs. Smith told her story many times, 
 and at least three of her children made notes of her 
 narrations, from which the full story was compiled 
 and told in the first person. Some years ago this 
 was published, under the title of" Led by a Vision," 
 in the " Home-Maker," a magazine then most ably 
 edited by Mrs. E. P. Terhune " Marion Har- 
 land." From this sketch the following extracts 
 are taken : 
 
226 
 
 " Your dear Father was among the very first to 
 volunteer and received the honored post of Chap 
 lain to the Fourth Connecticut Regiment, com 
 manded by Colonel Hinman, and ordered to march 
 to Ticonderoga. In common with many other 
 well qualified Pastors my Husband had been in the 
 habit of receiving into his family from time to time 
 such young men as might wish, after leaving college, 
 to fit themselves for the Gospel Ministry. At this 
 time there were five such students in our house. 
 My Husband provided for them by engaging his 
 beloved friend,the Rev. Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem, 
 to come and reside in our house, prosecute the 
 education of the young theological students, supply 
 the Sharon pulpit and attend to pastoral duties ; 
 a young friend of Dr. Bellamy engaging to per 
 form like brotherly services for him in his parish. 
 As Dr. Bellamy had two students of his own he 
 brought them with him, which added to those 
 already in our house made my family to consist 
 of twenty-two persons besides servants. 
 
 " In our present state of peace and plenty [1795] 
 this does not seem so very great a burden ; but at 
 that time when the exactions of the Mother Coun 
 try had rendered it impossible for any but the 
 wealthiest to import anything to eat or wear, and 
 all had to be raised and manufactured at home, 
 from bread stuffs, sugar and rum to the linen and 
 woollen for our clothes and bedding, you may well 
 imagine that my duties were not light, though I 
 
can say for myself that I never complained even 
 in my inmost thoughts, for if I could even give up 
 for the honored cause of Liberty, the Husband 
 whom I loved so dearly that my constant fear was 
 lest I should sin to idolatry, it would assuredly 
 have ill become me to repine at any inconvenience 
 to myself. And besides, to tell the truth, I had no 
 leisure for murmuring. I rose with the sun and 
 all through the long day I had no time for aught 
 but my work. So much did it press upon me 
 that I could scarcely divert my thoughts from its 
 demands even during the family prayers, which 
 thing both amazed and displeased me, for during 
 that hour, at least, I should have been sending all 
 my thoughts to Heaven for the safety of my be 
 loved Husband and the salvation of our hapless 
 Country ; instead of which I was often wondering 
 whether Polly had remembered to set the sponge 
 for the bread, or to put water on the leach tub, or 
 to turn the cloth in the dying vat, or whether wool 
 had been carded for Betsey to start her spinning 
 wheel in the morning, or Billy had chopped light- 
 wood enough for the kindling, or dry hard wood 
 enough to heat the big oven, or whether some 
 other thing had not been forgotten of the thousand 
 that must be done without fail or else there would 
 be a disagreeable hitch in the house-keeping; so 
 you may be sure that when I went to bed at night, 
 I went to sleep and not to lie awake imagining all 
 sorts of disasters that might happen. There was 
 
 jggSE LIB* 
 OF run 
 
 UNIVERS 
 
228 
 
 generally enough that had happened to keep my 
 mind at work if I stayed awake, but that I very 
 seldom did. A perfectly healthy woman has good 
 powers of sleep. ... 
 
 "On the third Sabbath in September Dr. Bel 
 lamy gave us a sound and clear sermon in which 
 God s watchful Providence over his People was 
 most beautifully depicted and drew tears from the 
 eyes of those who were unused to weeping, and 
 during the prayer-meeting in the evening the same 
 thought was dwelt upon in a way showing that all 
 who spoke and prayed felt that our God is indeed 
 a Father to all who trust him; so that on that 
 night I went to bed in a calmer and more con 
 tented frame of mind than usual. I had, to be 
 sure, been much displeased to find that our supply 
 of bread (through some wasteful mismanagement 
 of Polly s) had grown so small that the baking 
 would have to be done on Monday morning, which 
 is not good house-keeping ; for the washing should 
 always be done on Monday and the bakings on 
 Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. But I had 
 caused Polly to set a large sponge and made Billy 
 provide plenty of firing so that by getting up be 
 times in the morning we could have the brick oven 
 heated and the baking out of the way by the time 
 Billy and Jack should have gotten the clothes 
 pounded out ready for boiling, so that the two 
 things should not interfere with each other. The 
 last thought on my mind after committing my 
 
22 9 
 
 dear Husband and Country into our Maker s care 
 for the night, was to charge my mind to rise even 
 before daylight that I might be able to execute 
 my plans. . . . 
 
 " As early as three o clock in the morning I 
 called Nancy and Judy, Jack and young Billy, 
 but would not allow old Billy to be disturbed ; 
 whereat the rest marvelled, seeing that I was not 
 used to be more tender of him than of any of the 
 other servants, but rather the less so in that he was 
 my own slave that my Father had given to me 
 upon my marriage. But I let them marvel, for 
 truly it was no concern of theirs, and by five 
 o clock the bread was ready to be moulded, the 
 hickory coals were lying in a great glowing mass 
 on the oven bottom, casting a brilliant light over 
 its vaulted top and sending such a heat into my 
 face when I passed by the oven mouth that it 
 caused me to think then, as it always does, of 
 Nebuchadnezzar s fiery furnace, seven times heated. 
 Young Billy was already pounding out the clothes 
 and over the fire Jack was hanging the great brass 
 kettles for the wash, while Nancy and Judy had 
 made ready the smoking hot piles of Johnny cake, 
 the boiler of wheat coffee (which was all we could 
 get in those days, and a poor substitute it was for 
 good Mocha) and the big platter of ham and eggs 
 and plenty of good potatoes roasted in the ashes, 
 which is the best way that potatoes can be cooked, 
 in my opinion." 
 
230 
 
 The diverse housewifely cares indicated in the 
 foregoing extracts show but a few of the many 
 which fell to the lot of all colonial women of the 
 better classes. Upon the minister s wife devolved 
 still other duties. She was expected to assist at all 
 the births, weddings, and funerals, not only in the 
 French sense, but as an active helper. It is related 
 of Madam Smith that for thirty years it was into 
 her hands that most of the new-born babies of her 
 husband s parish were committed for their first rob- 
 ings. And there being then, in country places at 
 least, no undertakers, as we now understand the 
 term, but in their stead only cabinet-makers who 
 made coffins as well as cradles, chairs, and tables, 
 Mrs. Smith shared with other ladies the last sad 
 offices for friends and neighbors. 
 
 In times of general sickness which were much 
 more frequent than now, owing to the ignorance of 
 sanitary precautions and all means for controlling 
 contagious disease both the pastor and his wife 
 were ever at the service of the flock. It is re 
 corded in Sedgwick s valuable history of Sharon 
 that in the winter of 1 784-85 there was " a three 
 months visitation of the town by the small-pox, 
 during which seven hundred persons out of a 
 population of about two thousand had the dreaded 
 disease, either naturally or by inoculation," and that 
 throughout this time of distress Parson Smith and 
 his wife "spent their entire time in close atten 
 dance upon the sick and dying." 
 
The entertainment of strangers was a duty which 
 perhaps devolved more frequently upon the family 
 of a country pastor than it should have been per 
 mitted to do, but there were occasions when the 
 hosts felt themselves much more than repaid. 
 
 Such an occasion came to Parson and Mrs. 
 Smith in the month of June in 1770. On the 
 i8th of this month came the Rev. George White- 
 field on his last and greatest preaching tour. He 
 had passed up the Hudson River, stopping to 
 preach at all towns which would give him a hear 
 ing, including Albany, w r hence he passed onward 
 to Schenectady. Turning at this point, he had 
 come southward again, visiting townships from 
 twenty to thirty or more miles back from the east 
 ern bank of the river, and preaching wherever al 
 lowed to do so in the churches, otherwise in the 
 open air, until he reached Sharon. Here, as had 
 happened in many other places, " there was," says 
 Mr. Sedgwick, " considerable opposition to his 
 being permitted to preach in the meeting-house," 
 but Parson Smith s influence, always inclined to the 
 liberal side on any question, prevailed, and the 
 church doors were opened, and, "that all the 
 hearers from this and the neighboring towns might 
 be well accommodated with seats, extensive scaf 
 folds were erected all around the house." 
 
 A few of the children and many of the grand 
 children of those who had heard Whitefield in 
 Sharon on this occasion were living in my girl- 
 
hood, and marvelous indeed must have been the 
 eloquence that was followed by such deep and far- 
 reaching results, and was remembered so long. 
 
 Most marvelous must the preacher s successful 
 efforts have seemed to one who, like Madam 
 Smith, had spent the entire previous night by 
 his bedside, burning dried stramonium-leaves that 
 he might inhale the smoke, and in various other 
 ways doing her utmost to enable the sufferer to 
 get his breath, under the violent attacks of asthma 
 which, three months later, ended his career. 
 
 Mrs. Smith and others had feared, all through 
 this anxious night, that their revered patient would 
 pass from earth before the morning s sun should 
 rise, yet as it rose his sufferings became gradually 
 less. He had two or three hours of refreshing 
 sleep, followed by draughts of strong coffee, and 
 before the noon came he was able to preach such a 
 sermon as even he could seldom do, while his 
 grand voice, " as soft as a flute and as piercing as 
 a fife," carried for almost incredible distances, not 
 only his text, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, 
 Ye must be born again," but all save the finer 
 shadings of his message. 
 
 The letter of thanks and farewell sent by Mr. 
 Whitefield from his dying bed at Newburyport, 
 Massachusetts, did not reach Parson and Mrs. 
 Smith until more than a month after its writer had 
 there drawn his last agonized breath ; but it was 
 long cherished as a token from an angel visitant. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SUNDAYS AND OTHER DAYS IN THE 
 PARSONAGE 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SUNDAYS AND OTHER 
 
 DAYS IN THE PAR 
 
 SONAGE. 
 
 From Sunset to Sunset. 
 
 The Weekly Ablution. 
 
 Care of the Teeth. 
 
 Long Services. 
 
 Catechizing. 
 
 Sunday Night. 
 
 Fashions and Clothes. 
 
 An Evening of Sacrifice 
 
I ROM the beginning of the New- 
 Englander s Sabbath, at sunset on 
 Saturday evening, the housewife 
 must have found that portion of 
 sacred time anything but a period 
 of rest. The Saturday evening meal must be 
 hastened, that the dishes might be washed in secu 
 lar time. Personal ablutions were held to be labor 
 not unbefitting the holy day, and from the earliest 
 times in the New England colonies, the Saturday 
 evenings were devoted, first to an hour s catechiz 
 ing, and then to the conscientious scrubbing (this 
 word sounds a little harsh, but it is probably the 
 correct one to describe the process) of each person 
 in the family, beginning with the youngest and con 
 cluding with the oldest members of the household., 
 As special rooms for bathing, with hot and cold 
 water to be had with the turning of the faucet, 
 were then undreamed-of luxuries, some have sup 
 posed that in the frequently excessive cold, and 
 under the lack of all conveniences, our ancestors 
 were neglectful of the grace of personal cleanliness. 
 This is, in all probability, a grave mistake. Both 
 
 235 
 
tradition and written contemporary evidence go to 
 prove that personal cleanliness was enjoined a s a 
 religious duty, and that it was a duty religioi isly 
 fulfilled, under whatever difficulties. 
 
 Hot water could only be procured by heating in 
 great iron pots over the open fires, and the t ubs 
 employed for bathing were in general the SL .me 
 which were used for the clothes-washings on M on- 
 days, but not always. Some tubs were made for 
 bathing purposes only, of cedar, and large enou{ jjh 
 for a tall man to lie in at full length. When th \e 
 mother of the Rev. C. M. Smith came to Sharoi i 
 from Suffield, Connecticut, about 1770, she brought 
 with her a tub of this sort. As there were no stated 
 rooms for bathing, the tubs were usually left in the 
 cellars through the week, that they might not be 
 come dry enough to leak. If a fire were not kept 
 in the best room all the rest of the week, one would 
 be lighted there on every Saturday during the cold 
 season, and maintained until late on Sunday night. 
 This left free the fires in the kitchens for the ser 
 vants, and those in the living-rooms for the family. 
 Here the carpets, if any, were protected, and the 
 tubs were set, each one shielded from view on all 
 sides, save that nearest the fire, by heavy woolen 
 coverlets or blankets hung over clothes-horses. 
 With the generous size of the fireplaces of those 
 days, as many as three or even more such curtained 
 cabinets might be made in front of each fire. As 
 much cold water as was desired was poured into 
 
237 
 
 each tub and was then brought to the required 
 temperature by the addition of boiling water from 
 the great iron or brass kettles. 
 
 The carrying out the water that had been used 
 by each bather, and emptying the tubs at a little 
 distance from the house, occasionally into a sub 
 surface drain, as at the parsonage, or, as in most 
 cases, into shallow ditches, and of refilling the tubs, 
 was severe labor, and would probably devolve 
 upon the strongest of the servants or members of 
 the family. 
 
 Certainly much, and probably all, of the soap 
 used in the colonies was of home manufacture, 
 and was so harsh in its quality that as little of it as 
 possible was used upon the person. Those who 
 were careful for their complexions rarely used any 
 soap about their faces, but instead softened the 
 water by a very little lye made from the ashes of 
 hard woods. Rose-water of home distillation and 
 various unguents were then applied to heal the 
 smart. In warm weather buttermilk was con 
 sidered excellent for the complexion, and in severe 
 winter weather cider brandy was used by some, 
 and an ointment of mutton tallow and lard by 
 others. 
 
 The house-mistress had not only to see that all 
 was in readiness for this great weekly ablution, but 
 that none for whom she was responsible should es 
 cape it. Nothing but a case of severe illness was 
 allowed to excuse any inmate of a self-respecting 
 
238 
 
 household. This state of things lasted until within 
 my mother s remembrance. She was born in 1810, 
 and one of her earliest recollections was of seeing 
 old "Kongo Sally," armed with a stout switch, 
 driving the young darkies, some of whom were 
 her own grandchildren, in from the outbuildings in 
 which they sought refuge, to undergo their weekly 
 scrubbing from her merciless hands and those of 
 one or two assistants. / 
 
 As dentistry was an art still in the future, de 
 cayed teeth were the rule rather than the excep 
 tion among adults until well into the present 
 century ; yet persons of refined instincts never omit 
 ted cleansing the teeth. Juliana Smith, writing to 
 her brother in 1782, says: "Peggy Evertson has 
 showed me a present her father brought her from 
 Albany. It is a brush for the teeth made of fine, 
 stiff, white bristles set in a back of mother of pearl. 
 It is better than the sassafras twigs which Tite 
 Caesar fringes out for us, because with the brush 
 you can better cleanse the backs of the teeth. You 
 wanted to know what you should bring me from 
 New Haven when you come back, so I write about 
 this, if so be you might find me one. Only it need 
 not have so fine a back, one of wood or horn would 
 please me as well." Tooth-brushes are mentioned 
 in the Verney papers, about 1650, as J elegant tri 
 fles now used by the ladies of the French Capital." 
 But smoothly rounded bits of wood, sharpened at 
 one end, and at the other finely splintered and then 
 
2V) 
 
 
 pounded into the semblance of a round paint 
 brush, were in use in England long before that, and 
 washes for " cleanseing the teeth and sweetning the 
 breath " are mentioned in the outfit of the child- 
 bride of Richard II. 
 
 The Sharon parsonage was distinguished above 
 many others of its time in that the best of water for 
 all purposes was brought into the house from a dis 
 tant spring by a primitive aqueduct of cedar logs, 
 bored through their length to form tubes, then 
 tightly fitted together, and laid at a depth of several 
 feet beneath the surface to protect them from the 
 frost, while the refuse water was discharged in a 
 similar way in the opposite direction at a distance 
 from any dwelling. Within a few years some of 
 these logs have been dug up, still in a state of fair 
 preservation, while the decaying remains of others 
 lay near by. From the same spring which supplied 
 the parsonage the delicious water was similarly 
 conducted into the stone mansion of Dr. Simeon 
 Smith. There still remains the basin which once 
 received and discharged the water in this house. 
 It is of smooth and finely grained limestone, about 
 fourteen inches in diameter at the top, and of equal 
 depth. Since the introduction of modern plumb 
 ing this basin has been used as a pot to hold 
 growing plants out of doors. 
 
 Of course the Puritan parson s wife was expected 
 to attend every Sabbath service as strictly as him 
 self, and perhaps it was not always either pleasant 
 
240 
 
 or convenient for her to do so; but it is not neces 
 sary to dwell upon that part. Quite enough has 
 been said by the last generation or two of persons 
 who, judging others by themselves, fancy that two 
 long sermons and a prayer-meeting must have 
 wearied both the souls and the bodies of our an 
 cestors, as they would our own. This is not at all 
 probable. They really liked the long preachments, 
 the endless prayers, the unmusical singing. Nay, 
 more, they loved all of them. They saw and 
 heard with spiritual eyes and ears, with an inner 
 uplifting which imparted light, perfume, and har 
 mony to their barren surroundings. I do not say that 
 there were not many who inwardly and some who 
 openly rebelled at these things, but they were in a 
 minority. There is every proof that the majority 
 really enjoyed what we should now consider as very 
 tiresome Sundays. 
 
 To walk, to ride on horseback, or to drive in 
 springless wagons over miles of often intolerable 
 roads, and then spend two hours in a tireless church 
 on a winter day, and, after an hour s interval, to spend 
 another two hours in the same way, does not seem 
 very inviting to us; but, in addition to the strong 
 religious motives to sustain them, these people 
 had social motives as well. The Sunday services 
 were pleasures all the more valuable because they 
 were shared in common. The noon intermission 
 was a season of social communion most keenly en 
 joyed, and the still later adjournment of all to the 
 
catechizing at the parsonage was made interesting 
 by the permitted freedom of discussion, and the 
 subsequent interchange of views and friendly greet 
 ings. Books were scarce; newspapers, in our 
 sense, were non-existent ; and of such periodicals as 
 there were, but few would be taken in a small 
 township. Any new books or papers would first 
 find their way to the parson, and every intelligent 
 stranger passing through the place would call at 
 the parsonage, paying for his entertainment by 
 bringing as much news from the outside world as 
 he had been able to collect on his journey, and re 
 ceiving as much local information as he could get 
 to carry away with him and distribute as he pro 
 ceeded on his travels. The parsonage was an in 
 telligence exchange, and the parson was expected 
 to give from the pulpit any new religious or politi 
 cal information that he had gained through the 
 week, and, after the Sunday afternoon catechizing, 
 his family shared with him the pleasure and duty 
 oflimparting any bits of more personal interest that 
 had come to their knowledge. 
 
 It was fortunate for the madam that Puritan 
 usage required that as little cooking as might be 
 should be done on the Sabbath, for otherwise time 
 and strength would both have failed her; but the 
 sacred hours ended with the setting of the sun, 
 and after this there was cooked and served the best 
 meal of the week, which was made an occasion of 
 real festivity, and enjoyed with the keen zest im- 
 
 16 
 
parted by long anticipation, by the easy assurance 
 that it had been well earned, and by the certainty 
 that, though the morrow s toils were lying in wait, 
 they could not spoil the pleasures of this hour. > 
 
 During this privileged time after the " Sunday 
 night supper," the young folks separated into 
 groups, unrebuked by their elders. The children 
 played games, elderly men talked of theological 
 dogmas, politics, and crops, and women of their 
 household employments and clothes. 
 
 Fashions, like materials, were then much more 
 durable than now. As there were no fashion- 
 papers, intelligence on this subject could only be 
 transmitted from mouth to mouth. A new paper 
 or cloth pattern was a treasure indeed. It must 
 not be supposed that these notable women talked 
 only about their own clothes, and exchanged only 
 the patterns of women s and infants apparel. The 
 attire of husbands and brothers was a matter of 
 equally practical concern to them. The parson s 
 preaching-suit black cloth knee-breeches and 
 straight-cut coat might be made by some itine 
 rant tailor, passing from house to house during the 
 winter, as was the custom of the day, or might in 
 a few instances have been bought in distant New 
 York or New Haven; and the sheer linen for his 
 bands was probably imported from Holland : but 
 all his other garments (and those of most of the 
 men in his parish), including the long, knitted silk 
 stockings (worn over woolen ones in winter), were 
 
HI 
 
 necessarily of home manufacture. Besides the 
 linen for the minister s bands, the silk for his stock 
 ings was imported ; but every thread of the rest of 
 his apparel, from the finest linen for his handker 
 chiefs and shirts, to the woolen yarn for his under 
 clothes, was grown or raised upon his own ground, 
 tilled and cared for, harvested and cured if it were 
 flax, or sheared and carded if it were wool, by his 
 own hands or those of his employees, at least some of 
 whom must have been slaves; and their clothing also 
 had to be provided for by his labor and foresight. 
 All New England ministers were to a certain 
 extent farmers as well as pastors, and where the 
 parson s labors ceased those of the madam and her 
 daughters and women began. Men hatcheled the 
 flax, and both men and women carded wool. The 
 spinning was always the work of women, while 
 weaving was done principally by men. Between 
 them they spun, knitted, wove, fulled and dyed, 
 cut, fitted, and adorned all the textile fabrics worn. 
 Carpets were seldom woven at home, and damask 
 table-linen, if not imported, was usually the work 
 of a professional weaver. So, too, were the blue- 
 and-white or green-and-white all wool or cotton- 
 and-wool coverlets of elaborate patterns of which 
 so many still remain; but the yarn or thread for 
 them all, whether linen, cotton, or wool, was spun 
 at home. Sheets, blankets, and all simply striped 
 or checked table-linen and bed-hangings were 
 woven as well as spun at home. / 
 
244 
 
 The summers were especially busy, neither men 
 nor women, bond nor free, those in the prime of 
 life nor the aged, nor children, could idle away the 
 long summer days. The great grain-fields of the 
 West were still unawakened from their ages of 
 slumber. Wheat, rye, buckwheat, corn, oats, must 
 all be raised here. 
 
 With agricultural implements so imperfect that 
 no modern farmer would condescend to use them, 
 the labors of planting, sowing, haying, and harvest 
 ing were great. In these days we know the evils 
 of competition and the nervous strain from the 
 perpetual unrest of our lives, but we know neither 
 the disadvantages of severe manual labor nor much 
 about the ceaseless toil necessary in summer to 
 provide for winter s daily physical needs. These 
 labors were healthful in their nature, but pitiless 
 in their exactions. 
 
 Winter s toils were sufficiently arduous. Pro 
 viding the fuel for the indispensable and endlessly 
 craving open wood fires was alone a heavy task, 
 and there were many others, such as the daily care 
 of the horses, sheep, swine, and fowls; yet in 
 winter it was possible to find time to read, write, 
 and study, as well as to enjoy such social gather 
 ings as might combine amusement with work. 
 What some of these pleasures were may be seen 
 in other chapters. Here we will only glance at 
 one which was peculiar to the Revolutionary 
 period. 
 
245 
 
 Bullets had become very scarce. Madam Smith, 
 like most well-to-do matrons of her time, possessed 
 a goodly store of pewter plates, platters, cups, bowls, 
 and porringers. Several of the neighboring ladies 
 were equally well supplied. On a certain early 
 spring evening in 1777 Madam Smith invited all 
 to come and bring with them every pewter dish 
 which they could spare. Before the time for 
 separation came many gallons of good bullets had 
 been made from the cherished pewter articles, which 
 had been melted and merrily run through bullet 
 molds, and a good supper had been heartily en 
 joyed. For many evenings after this one of cheer 
 ful sacrifice, there were held from house to house 
 so-called " trencher bees," whereat the young men 
 cut and shaped maple and poplar wood into dishes, 
 which the women made smooth by scraping with 
 broken glass, and polished with the clean white 
 sand of powdered limestone. Madam Smith, and 
 probably most of the other contributors to the bul 
 let fund, possessed a good deal of pretty Lowestoft 
 and Delft, as well as Canton blue china, but the 
 every-day use of such fragile dishes was not to be 
 thought of, especially in war-time, when they could 
 in nowise be replaced ; hence the necessity for the 
 return to the primitive wooden dishes of the sev 
 enteenth century. 
 
 All existing records of Madam Smith and they 
 are many prove her to have been one of those 
 noble women, a few of whom are to be found in all 
 
246 
 
 countries and in every age, who are so cheerfully 
 brave that they face suffering and danger in all 
 forms, unconscious that they are doing anything 
 more than any other would do, yet so lovable and 
 so gracious in their strength that they are mourned 
 until the last one who knew them has himself 
 passed from earthly scenes. Madam Smith died in 
 1800, and for all the years after her decease until 
 her husband and the latest lingerer of her children 
 had departed to join her, the letters which passed 
 between the survivors are filled with touching 
 references to the beloved wife and revered mother. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 MANOR LADIES AS REFUGEES 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MANOR LADIES AS 
 REFUGEES. 
 
 * 
 
 Flight of the Livingstons 
 from Kingston and Cler- 
 
 mont to Litchfield 
 
 County, Connecticut. 
 
 The Young Van Rens- 
 
 selaer. 
 
 Westerlo. 
 
 Vaughan s Raid. 
 
 Ladies as Hostlers. 
 
 Husking Bees. 
 
URING the War of the Revolu 
 tion those manors which were 
 situated on or near the Hudson 
 River were exposed to the ravages 
 of both parties in the struggle 
 some from the British forces and some from the 
 Continental armies, according to the side which 
 had been espoused by the respective owners of 
 the manors. The De Lanceys were not techni 
 cally manor-holders, but their estates were so large 
 that they were popularly reckoned , as such, and 
 they, with the family from the Phillipse Patent, 
 sought refuge within the British lines, while the 
 patriotic Van Rensselaers, Van Cortlandts, and 
 Livingstons retired to regions that were so far 
 from the harassed territory as to promise compara 
 tive safety. 
 
 First, the Van Cortlandts fled from the Neutral 
 Ground, carrying as many of their household pos 
 sessions as they could by sloops, and having their 
 flocks and herds driven up through the country in 
 patriarchal fashion, to seek refuge among Mrs. 
 Van Cortlandt s relatives, the Livingstons, in Co- 
 
 249 
 
25 
 
 lumbia and Dutchess counties. But by the autumn 
 of 1777 this neighborhood had become almost as 
 full of danger as the lower counties, and all promi 
 nent persons, both refugees and natives, were 
 obliged to strike their tents and seek shelter in 
 happier regions. 
 
 For many of them the new haven of refuge ex 
 isted in the northwestern corner of the State of Con 
 necticut, about midway between the Hudson and 
 Connecticut rivers, and from eighty to one hundred 
 miles from salt water. Here, at a safe distance 
 from water-highways, in one of the healthfulest and 
 most placidly beautiful of highlands, the horrors of 
 war never penetrated, though its terrors were 
 abundantly known to those and they were a 
 majority of the inhabitants who had sent their 
 best beloved to battle for the cause which they 
 held dearer than life or estates. 
 
 The earliest of the manor families to take ad 
 vantage of this haven of rest among the hills ap 
 pears to have been that of Mrs. Van Rensselaer, 
 widow of the sixth patroon, and mother of the deli 
 cate boy who afterward became the honored General 
 Van Rensselaer, and who, even after the new state 
 of things had relegated such titles to the realm of 
 the past, was by courtesy styled the seventh pa 
 troon. The lad s mother was a daughter of Philip 
 Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence, and upon this grandfather the general 
 care of the promising boy s education devolved 
 
until Mr. Livingston s death in June of 1778. 
 Singularly enough, there appears to be no published 
 reference to the sojourn of young Van Rensselaer in 
 Connecticut, it being stated that he went directly 
 from Kingston, New York, to Harvard College. 
 Yet the proof is positive that during the summer 
 of 1777 the young patroon and his mother, who 
 had first retired to Philip Livingston s temporary 
 residence at Kingston, finding the dangers to which 
 the young heir was there exposed, retreated to Con 
 necticut in the safer recesses of the Litchfield 
 County hills. Here they continued to reside dur 
 ing much, if not all, of the following year. Prob 
 ably they were led to the beautiful village of Sharon 
 by the previous friendship of Mrs. Van Rensselaer 
 with the wife of the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, 
 who was pastor there. When the first of these 
 ladies was Catherine Livingston of New York 
 city, and the second was Temperance Worthing- 
 ton of Saybrook, Connecticut, the two had some 
 where become intimate friends possibly at school 
 in New Rochelle, where there were at that time 
 several rather noted private schools conducted 
 by the refugee Huguenots or their immediate 
 descendants. 
 
 Sometime during 1775 the widowed Mrs. Van 
 Rensselaer had married her second husband, the 
 Rev. Eilardus Westerlo of the Reformed Dutch 
 Church. In the papers at my command she is 
 never called Mrs. Westerlo, but, probably from 
 
habit, is indifferently referred to as " Mrs. Van R." 
 or as the " Mother of the young Patroon " or as 
 44 Catherine Livingston," though there is little doubt 
 that Mr.Westerlo was of the party, for I find that one 
 of that name occupied Mr. Smith s pulpit twice in 
 November of 1777; but I find no other mention 
 of him, while it is recorded that " young Van R. 
 and his mother," and a little later the Rev. John 
 Rodgers of the Brick Church of New York city, 
 were received into the family of the Rev. C. M. 
 Smith, under whose direction young Stephen Van 
 Rensselaer and the " Parson s son," afterward Gov 
 ernor John Cotton Smith of Connecticut, prosecuted 
 their studies for college as diligently as if such a 
 thing as war was never heard of. The first inten 
 tion of young Van Rensselaer s guardians had been 
 that he should enter Yale College, of which his 
 grandfather and the latter s four brothers had been 
 graduates, but eventually Harvard was chosen as 
 being safer from the raids of the enemy. 
 
 The arrival of this little company in advance of 
 the main body of the refugees is traditionally said 
 to have been due to repeated attempts on the part 
 of armed bands of Tories to abduct the wealthy 
 young patroon in the hope of extorting a heavy 
 ransom. The later flight of the family of Philip 
 Livingston and the other families that had been 
 sheltered under his roof at Kingston was extremely 
 hurried, but probably not quite unpremeditated ; 
 otherwise there could not have been so much 
 
253 
 
 household furniture and stuff brought across the 
 river and over the forty or more miles of intervening 
 hills and dales. 
 
 On the day of the departure from Kingston a 
 " mounted runner " had been sent ahead to secure 
 in Sharon such accommodations as might be avail 
 able. The women and children were therefore im 
 mediately provided with shelter, but for several 
 nights their male companions were obliged to sleep 
 in haymows. Refugees from places farther down 
 the Hudson River had been for days, and even 
 weeks, straggling into the little village, and many 
 of them were without money or goods, so that the 
 resources of the hospitable inhabitants had been 
 already severely taxed. 
 
 Next door to the parsonage, where the first of 
 the manor parties had been received, was a hand 
 some but not very large brick cottage, owned by 
 Robert G. Livingston, which, during this season of 
 fear, must have been more than sufficiently filled. 
 Mr. Robert G. Livingston s family was numerous 
 enough to crowd it without counting servants, and 
 to this number was now added the family of his 
 relative Philip Livingston, and that of the latter s 
 daughter Sarah and her husband, the Rev. John 
 Henry Livingston. The house which, by succes 
 sive additions, all of them fortunately in keeping 
 with the architecture of the original structure, is 
 now a truly beautiful as well as spacious cot 
 tage belonging to the Rev. C. C. Tiffany then 
 
254 
 
 contained but three rooms on the ground floor and 
 three on the second, with two tolerably spacious 
 attics over all; and, like the five loaves and two small 
 fishes, what were they among so many? The 
 united families probably did not consist of less than 
 twenty persons, exclusive of slaves. It is true that 
 * the boys " seem to have found lodgings in neigh 
 boring houses, though all were already crowded 
 with the patriot refugees from the Neutral Ground 
 and the upper river counties refugees of every 
 age and rank, and in great numbers. Probably this 
 quiet little village will never again be so densely 
 populated as it was during the eventful months 
 of the last third of the year of Burgoyne s surrender. 
 In September of that year all things were looking 
 dark enough for the patriot cause. Burgoyne and 
 his dreaded Indian allies were threatening from the 
 north. Sir Henry Clinton, working up toward 
 Burgoyne from New York, had intended to form a 
 juncture with him. Sir Henry had sent up the 
 Hudson a band of one thousand men under Gen 
 eral Vaughan a name long afterward held in 
 abhorrence from New York to Albany. This 
 band did some gallant fighting in the capture of 
 Forts Montgomery and Clinton, and some good 
 work for their side in removing the chains and 
 booms which General Putnam had caused to be 
 stretched across the river to impede navigation; 
 but beyond these things it " accomplished nothing 
 save a good deal of safe and cautious marauding." 
 
This included the burning, pillaging, and in far 
 too many cases the murder of the defenseless. 
 
 In those days war was never undertaken as a 
 philanthropic enterprise, and that boats and other 
 means of transportation, as well as mills and stores 
 of all sorts, should be destroyed was to be expected : 
 but when village after village, however small, stra 
 tegically unimportant, or utterly incapable of resis 
 tance each might be, was given up to relentless 
 pillage and then burned, great was the crop of bit 
 ter feelings sown, to be reaped by the loyalists 
 when the fortunes of war eventually turned against 
 them, especially as it was well known that to 
 many a retired farm-house sheltering only women 
 and children, as well as to more pretentious but 
 still equally unprotected residences, the torch had 
 been applied by the hands of neighboring Tories 
 who once had been friendly to their owners. After 
 the war, whenever there was found to exist the bit 
 ter spirit which cast the loyalists forth by thousands 
 to take an unwilling refuge in the wilds of Nova 
 Scotia and New Brunswick, it was discovered, upon 
 investigation, that acts of gratuitous cruelty had 
 many times been committed by them, or at least 
 by those whose cause they had espoused, for in 
 this case, as in all others, the innocent suffered with 
 the guilty. 
 
 On the Manor of Clermont, or the Livingston 
 Lower Manor, as it was indifferently called, near 
 Rhinebeck and Red Hook, on the eastern bank of 
 
256 
 
 the Hudson, stood the fine residences of the widow 
 of Judge Robert R. Livingston and of her son, 
 Robert R., afterward known as the first and very 
 able Chancellor Livingston of the State of New 
 York. Both of these mansions had long been 
 marked for destruction, and their inmates had re 
 ceived repeated warnings to that effect, even before 
 the general raid of Vaughan s troops had advanced 
 from the Neutral Ground in the early October of 
 1777; yet the families had not left their homes 
 until sure that the enemy was within a few hours 1 
 distance. 
 
 At this very time two British officers, a wounded 
 Captain Montgomery and his surgeon, prisoners on 
 parole, were being most hospitably entertained and 
 cared for in the family of the elder Mrs. Living 
 ston. Tradition holds that this Captain Mont 
 gomery was a relative of Mrs. Livingston s late 
 son-in-law, General Montgomery, who at an early 
 period of the war had fallen while leading the Con 
 gressional troops to the assault of Quebec. How 
 ever this might be, both of the British officers 
 begged their hostess not to forsake her home, 
 promising that their presence should be a sure pro 
 tection to all under the roof that had so kindly 
 sheltered them. It is stated that Mrs. Livingston 
 refused to take advantage of the offer on the 
 ground that she could not accept any favors shown 
 to herself unless the same should be extended to 
 her neighbors. But it may also have been that 
 
257 
 
 she did not have sufficient confidence in the power 
 of her two friends to accomplish all that their hearts 
 prompted. It would certainly seem that even if 
 the owners of the house did not choose to remain 
 and run the risk of personal violence, the presence 
 in it of the invalid British officer and his physician 
 might have protected the dwelling from fire and 
 pillage. As this did not prove to be the case, the 
 supposition is that their intercessions were of no 
 avail. 
 
 Mrs. Livingston s flight was barely in time. 
 The news of the pillagings lower down the river 
 was not confirmed soon enough to enable the fugi 
 tives to make many preparations. Wagons which 
 for some weeks had been held in readiness for any 
 such emergency were hastily laden with pictures, 
 silver, and other of the most precious possessions, 
 and with the most necessary articles of furniture, 
 clothing, and bedding. Of the rest, as much as 
 possible was hidden in a deep ravine but a short 
 distance from the rear of the house, underneath 
 trees which had been felled across it some months 
 before. Above the furniture in the cave thus 
 formed was scattered a thick covering of hay. The 
 entrance was on the lower end of the ravine and 
 escaped the notice of the marauders. The books 
 forming the fine library of the late Judge Livingston 
 were laid in the dry basin of a large fountain in 
 the front of the house, which had been allowed to 
 get dry from the difficulty and expense attending 
 
repairs at this time. In this basin the books were 
 covered first with old sloop sails, and then with 
 barn-yard refuse. A number of these volumes 
 were afterward found in fairly good condition, 
 and some are still preserved in the families of rela 
 tives and friends to whom they were given as 
 mementos. 
 
 Mrs. Livingston was the daughter of Colonel 
 Henry Beeckman, and her mother was either a 
 daughter or a granddaughter of Robert Livingston, 
 Jr., nephew of the first lord of the manor. From 
 all lines she inherited a sound body and an active 
 mind. Both mentally and physically she was of 
 heroic mold. While not in any way foolhardy, it 
 is related that she knew not fear, and she certainly 
 was possessed of one of the most valuable gifts in 
 the world, a keen sense of humor, which is in 
 itself no small aid to courage. It is a tradition 
 among all branches of the family that on the morn 
 ing of this memorable flight, just as one of the first 
 wagons was leaving the door, " Mother Margaret " 
 burst into a hearty laugh, which broke out again 
 at intervals all during the day the exciting cause 
 being the figure made by her cook, a ponderous 
 old negro woman, perched in anxious and perilous 
 importance on the top of a hastily packed load 
 of provisions and kitchen utensils, and pointing 
 her orders to her grandson, who was the acting 
 charioteer, by wild thrusts of a long-handled toast 
 ing-fork, which by good fortune rarely hit its 
 
259 
 
 mark. The situation was, of course, funny enough, 
 but most of us wait until after all danger is past 
 before taking a proper sense of the ludicrous. 
 
 Mr. Charles H. Hunt, in his generally so accu 
 rate as well as interesting memoir of this Mrs. 
 Livingston s youngest son, in later years the cele 
 brated Governor Livingston of Louisiana, states 
 that the destination of the party was " Salisbury, 
 in Berkshire County, Massachusetts." Salisbury 
 is in Connecticut, being the northwesternmost 
 corner of that little State, where the blue Berk 
 shire Hills smilingly refuse to acknowledge that 
 they ever have borne allegiance to any other 
 commonwealth. 
 
 The house in which the fugitive family was to 
 take up its temporary abode stood very close to 
 the boundary line of Sharon township, and was 
 still capable of being made into a fine residence 
 thirty-five years ago. It is melancholy to think that 
 after remaining unoccupied for many years, being 
 used in the meantime as a barn for hay, it has been 
 neglected and despoiled until it is now but a disman 
 tled ruin. As I remember it in my girlhood, the old 
 mansion was a remarkably fine specimen of the best 
 sort of our colonial architecture. It was built of 
 stone and brick, of two stories and an attic above a 
 spacious basement, a part of which probably served 
 as a cellar, and the rest for slave quarters, as was the 
 case in other houses of similar construction and 
 date. At the front and rear of the second story 
 
260 
 
 dormer windows were set in the sides of the pic 
 turesque hipped roof. On each side of the cen 
 ter of a wide hall, which traversed the house from 
 front to rear, massive chimneys ran up above the 
 peak of the roof. The fireplaces did not open into 
 the hall, but into the two big square rooms on the 
 south side and the one long room on the north, 
 which is still called the ball-room. The broad hall 
 was beautifully wainscoted, and wa adorned by a 
 staircase which in its proportions was once a de 
 light to the artistic eye. The ceilings of the first 
 floor were high for that day, between ten and eleven 
 feet, if my memory serves. All the rooms were 
 large, finely proportioned, and admirably lighted 
 by broad and deep windows. The ample fireplaces 
 were surmounted by carefully finished mantel 
 pieces of wood. I think that all the principal 
 rooms were wainscoted, and I am sure that the 
 window- and door-casings were of finely simple 
 designs. The doors themselves were well paneled, 
 thick, and strong, hung by the long-reaching hinges 
 of wrought-iron which add so much to picturesque 
 effect. When I saw them these had all been dis 
 figured with paint, but my father has told me that 
 in his youth the woodwork, of the parlor at least, 
 was of some polished hard wood, he thought that 
 of the cherry. 
 
 Probably not even the house she had left, though 
 that was held to be fine in its day, was either finer 
 or more spacious than this mansion in which Mrs. 
 
26 1 
 
 R. R. Livingston and her family now found shel 
 ter. The house had been built by a Mr. Swift, by 
 whom it had been sold to one of the Livingstons not 
 very long before the opening of the war. It is not 
 known precisely why Mr. Swift had abandoned the 
 locality, but it is believed that he was a Royalist 
 who had taken refuge in Boston in 1775, whence 
 he had fled when the British abandoned that city, 
 in company with those Tory families who sought 
 refuge in Nova Scotia. 
 
 Just how the house came to be unoccupied at 
 this time is not quite certain. In 1777 it belonged 
 to Mr. Robert Livingston, the third and, save by 
 courtesy, the last lord of the Upper Manor. He 
 appears to have loaned the house to the Clermont 
 party at this juncture, and at a later date he occu 
 pied it himself at intervals for short periods. Some 
 things lead one to suppose that he and his family 
 may have been here at the same time with the 
 Clermont party. It is uncertain whether or not all 
 of the last-named party stayed here through the 
 entire winter, though some of them are known to 
 have done so. In the following spring we find that 
 Mrs. R. R. Livingston, with a fine confidence in the 
 bright destinies of the struggling colonies, began to 
 rebuild her house at Clermont. After the beginning 
 of the summer of 1778 the house in Salisbury was 
 occupied, more or less steadily, until after the close 
 of the war, by the family of Robert Cambridge 
 Livingston, the son of Robert of the Upper Manor. 
 
262 
 
 I am here reminded that to readers not familiar 
 with the subject, so many Roberts among the 
 Livingstons may be confusing. Besides the five 
 Robert Livingstons mentioned in this chapter, 
 there were probably not less than a dozen more (of 
 all ages), only to be distinguished from one another 
 by their middle names, residences, and titles. The 
 same was true of the Gilberts, and to nearly the 
 same extent of the Johns and Henrys. 
 
 The life led by the refugees was both sad and 
 joyous. On the one hand, all of them had suffered 
 from loss and grief, and were never free from anxi 
 ety in regard to the possible fate of the dear ones 
 in more exposed situations than their own. On 
 the other hand, the lives of all were necessarily too 
 laborious to leave room for idle repinings. Save 
 for boys and old men, there were few white males 
 left in this peaceful region. It is on record that 
 the stated business meetings of the Congregational 
 Society in Sharon were adjourned all through the 
 autumn of this year, "by reason yt ye great num 
 ber of men in ye service of ye Country left too few 
 Members at home." Yet the daily needs of a large 
 family, accustomed to every luxury of the time, 
 were not less pressing than if there were no stress 
 of war. 
 
 It is traditionally related of Mrs. Livingston and 
 her daughter, Mrs. Montgomery, that they, with 
 the aid of some of the female slaves, acted as their 
 own coachmen and hostlers during their stay in 
 
263 
 
 this region, in order that their men-servants might 
 have more time to spend in grinding meal for daily 
 use, and in keeping the fireplaces supplied with 
 wood. Besides this, the Clermont party joined in 
 all the patriotic labors in which the Sharon ladies 
 were constantly engaged. Be it remembered that 
 stockings for the army could not be purchased in 
 sufficient quantities, and love must be trusted to 
 supply the want. Spinning yarn and knitting 
 stockings, preparing bandages and scraping lint, 
 filled every patriotic woman s every moment that 
 could be spared from the daily cares of her family 
 multitudinous cares of which we now know little. 
 Yet pleasure was mingled with them all. Our 
 great-grandmothers were as genial and as lovable 
 as the least burdened of their granddaughters. 
 
 Early in November, 1777, began the husking 
 bees. A series of them was held in the biggest 
 bam which had then been erected in Sharon or its 
 vicinity. It belonged to Captain Simeon Smith, 
 M.D., a physician whose military title was due to 
 service in the campaign of 1776, on Long Island, 
 and in the country around New York, under 
 General Washington. This barn was taken down 
 in my childhood, and I can just remember its wide 
 threshing-floor, upon which horses had in the 
 olden days been used to tread out the grain, and 
 which was so long that five loaded hay-wagons, 
 with horses attached, could stand in line without 
 difficulty. 
 
264 
 
 It was on this capacious threshing-floor that 
 many of the husking frolics were held. As soon 
 as the early November darkness had fallen, the 
 huskers gathered from far and near. To-night it 
 might be for Colonel Canfield s corn which had 
 been brought here to be husked. He was with 
 the army of Gates, and his neighbors would help 
 both the colonel s family and their country in this 
 humble way. Another night it might be that of 
 some other patriot who was absent in the service 
 of his country. It was a rule, unwritten but inflex 
 ible, that the planting and the harvests of the ab 
 sent soldiers must take the precedence of those 
 who remained at home. 
 
 Before leaving their houses all the huskers, 
 many of whom had considerable distance to come, 
 had partaken of as good a meal as their circum 
 stances would permit, and all were very warmly 
 wrapped. Good fires were kept burning in the 
 wide fireplaces of Dr. Smith s large stone mansion, 
 and to them the huskers often resorted, each in 
 turn, and the work itself was warming when briskly 
 done ; but the nights were cold. The toil was 
 made as pleasurable as possible by songs and story 
 telling, but the needs were too urgent to permit of 
 loitering over it. Men and women, bond and free, 
 boys and girls, " quality " and " commonalty," 
 natives and refugees, all toiled together and with 
 equal cheer and earnestness. 
 
 After the evening s task was done and all had 
 
265 
 
 ^^UFOt 
 
 adjourned to the house, the different social grades 
 sorted themselves apart and each " went to his own 
 place." In the broad and high basement were the 
 slave quarters, where, in front of blazing logs in 
 wide fireplaces, they roasted potatoes in the ashes, 
 and partook of apples, nuts, and cider, and after 
 ward were allowed to dance until their masters 
 summoned them to start for home. In the great 
 kitchen, in whose fireplace an ox might have been 
 roasted whole, another set enjoyed themselves in a 
 similar manner; and in the generous dining-room, 
 where a big fireplace piled high with logs of cord- 
 wood length filled the room with fragrance, 
 warmth, and cheer, still another and probably more 
 sumptuous repast was served. 
 
 After the supper, reels and contra-dances, where 
 the feet beat merrily to the entrancing strains of 
 the still traditionally remembered " Caius Tite s " 
 fiddle, gave a sportive finish to an evening which, 
 after all was done, had not been a long one, for all 
 must be up and toiling again by daybreak or be 
 fore. All the manor ladies and boys, as well as 
 their servants, took a part as often as possible in 
 these pleasurable toils. So did the city divines 
 who shared their retreat, as well as the resident 
 parson, though it was thought to be etiquette for 
 them to retire to the parlors immediately after the 
 feast, that the dance might the more speedily be 
 gin without the restraint of their presence. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 A LITERARY CLUB IN 1779-81 
 
v 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A LITERARY CLUB 
 IN 1779-81. 
 
 The " Clio." 
 
 Two Diaries. 
 
 The Sharon Literary 
 
 Club. 
 
 Canfield. Spencer. 
 
 News of Victory. 
 
 Tailors and Clothes. 
 
 Chancellor Kent. 
 
 Noah Webster. 
 
 Holmes the Historian. 
 
o QoO a QoO o 
 ooo 
 
 ^>C}o} WHETHER Iiterai 7 clubs were 
 c^ w*w*r O mon thing 5 during our Revolu- 
 tionary War, there are small 
 
 means of knowing. The mere 
 fact that but few traces exist 
 does not prove that there may not have been at 
 least one in every township, both then and for 
 many years before, though the supposition would 
 be against such a conclusion. So great has been 
 the loss of old papers from fires, removals, and even 
 wanton destruction on the part of heirs who should 
 have known better, that the wonder is rather that 
 we know anything of the private and social life of 
 the colonial and Revolutionary periods than that 
 we know so little. 
 
 In our old garret, filling a portmanteau, and 
 perhaps left just as they were hastily stuffed into 
 it by a young Yale College graduate in 1784, when 
 he was quitting the college dormitory for the last 
 time, was found a motley collection of letters, es 
 says, translations, notes of lectures, and accounts of 
 expenditures. Most interesting of all, for our pres 
 ent purpose, are two diaries and three odd copies 
 
 269 
 
of a manuscript publication edited by the young 
 collegian s sister, Juliana Smith. 
 
 " The Clio, a Literary Miscellany," was legibly 
 written in the script of different hands. The ink 
 is still of an excellent black. The large, coarse- 
 textured sheets of foolscap are ruled down the 
 center of each page to form two columns, and the 
 several sheets are tied together by cords of braided, 
 homespun, unbleached linen thread. The three 
 numbers are respectively dated: "December loth, 
 1780," "January 30th, 1781," and " October, 1781." 
 They contain odes, essays, proverbs, puzzles, 
 sketches, and jokes many of the latter being of a 
 local coloring that has not stood the test of age. 
 Most of the contents, particularly the sketches, 
 would compare favorably with the larger part of 
 the printed literary matter of the periodicals of the 
 day. It is especially notable, considering the inter 
 est in polemics which characterized the period, 
 that we find no reference to theological opinions. 
 
 In the same package with these manuscript 
 magazines were several small books of a diary kept 
 by the brother in college for the benefit of the 
 home circle, and a larger number of little books 
 of the same sort kept by Juliana, that her "Bro 
 ther Jack " might be informed from time to time, 
 as opportunity for transmission should serve, of 
 the small happenings of home life. From both of 
 these simple diaiies I hate gleaned many most in 
 teresting details of family and of college life, but it 
 
271 
 
 is principally from Juliana s lively pages that 
 have been gathered the particulars of the literary 
 club. 
 
 Juliana seems to have had an especially strong 
 love both for hearing the ancestral traditions and 
 for committing them to paper. Within the last 
 eight or nine years my mother has told me that 
 she had often heard her husband s grandfather 
 the " Brother Jack " of the diary state that his 
 mother and his sister Juliana were the most intel 
 lectual and the wittiest women whom he had ever 
 known during a long life of social intercourse with 
 the best society which our Union then afforded. 
 They were considered especially good as narrators, 
 and " to have coaxed either of them into telling a 
 tale was to have provided the finest sort of an en 
 tertainment for a winter s evening." Of the cor 
 rectness of this filial and fraternal judgment there 
 is abundant evidence in the pages of both Juli 
 ana s diary and of the " Clio." The introduction, 
 " Mamma says," is rarely prefixed to anything that 
 is unworthy of perusal both for its own sake and 
 for the way in which it is told, and our Julian s 
 signature is always something equally good. 
 
 From the diaries we learn that the " Clio " was 
 issued bimonthly with a praiseworthy regularity, 
 though often the numbers could not be sent to 
 New Haven until several had accumulated. A 
 " post-rider " was supposed to traverse the distance 
 between Poughkeepsie and Hartford one week, and 
 
return the next, taking in the towns of Pleasant 
 Valley and Amenia in the State of New York, and 
 of Sharon and Salisbury and perhaps others in Con 
 necticut on his way; but very often, for one reason 
 or another, he skipped a week or two, or more. The 
 deep snows of the winters do not seem to have so 
 frequently interfered with his progress as did the 
 heavy freshets and fathomless mud of the springs and 
 autumns. Probably from Hartford to New Haven 
 the highways were kept in better order, for be 
 tween these points the "Post " was much more reli 
 able. There was also a regular post from Litchfield 
 to New Haven, but the former place was twenty 
 miles of bleak hill riding from Sharon. For all 
 these reasons advantage was always taken of every 
 private means of conveying letters. In the many 
 thousands of letters dated prior to 1820, which I 
 have examined, there may be found almost as many 
 references to the unreliability of the post and the 
 superior trustworthiness of private hands. Indeed, 
 important letters were retained for weeks awaiting 
 the convenience of some traveling friend " rather 
 than to trust the Post." 
 
 Perhaps the disappearance of so many copies of 
 the " Clio " is due to the precarious means of trans 
 portation, but, in view of the scarcity of printed 
 periodicals, it is more likely that when the little 
 papers were received by " brother Jack " they were 
 passed from hand to hand until they were worn out 
 or K t. The three surviving numbers " One," 
 
273 
 
 "Four," and "Nineteen" had been carefully 
 mended to prevent them from falling to pieces. 
 
 From the " Exordium " on the first page of " No. 
 One " it appears that " The Sharon Literary Club 
 was founded in January, 1779, the Rev. Cotton M. 
 Smith being Chairman and Mr. John C. Smith 
 ["brother Jack "] being Secretary." The design 
 of the club was " to promote a taste for the study of 
 Belles Lettres and of Logick, and to gain some skill 
 in the useful Freeman s Art of Debate." The 
 stated meetings of the club were to be " held on 
 every Monday evening through the Year, save from 
 May first to October first," during which months it 
 may be supposed that time for such pursuits could 
 not be well spared from the pressing duties of 
 an agriculture conducted without steam-plows, 
 wheeled harrows, corn-planters, cultivators, mow 
 ing-machines, horse-rakes, reapers and binders, 
 tedders and threshing-machines, to say nothing of 
 the numberless other implements to which we are 
 now so accustomed that we forget that Noah did 
 not find them waiting for him when he emerged 
 from the ark. 
 
 From the first the "Sharon Literary Club" 
 seems to have found favor in the little township of 
 its birth, and had continued its regular meetings 
 from January, 1779, to May, 1780, with so much 
 advantage that by the time for their resumption, 
 the first Monday in the following October, it was 
 "determined to establish The Clio so that the 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 talents of the Club s members might be cultivated 
 in writing as well as in speech." To its columns 
 each club-member was " expected to make at least 
 one contribution in every second or third number." 
 A lawyer named Canneld (first name illegible), 
 Mr. Ambrose Spencer, and Miss Juliana Smith 
 were named as those " to whom all essays intended 
 for insertion in these columns should be submitted 
 for due consideration"; but by the time that the 
 next surviving paper was issued, Juliana s name 
 appears alone, although the two others continued to 
 contribute. " Mr. Spencer," at this time a lad of 
 about fifteen years, afterward married a daughter of 
 Judge Canfield, and became a justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the State of New York. 
 
 Each issue of the " Miscellany " was read aloud 
 at the meeting of the club next after the paper s 
 date, and as " there was much lively comment on 
 each article," it is probable that the contents of the 
 "Clio" formed the chief topic of the evening, after 
 the stated reading of selected portions from certain 
 books which the club s members were supposed to 
 have been perusing in their own homes during the 
 intervening days. It is interesting to know that 
 some of these selections were translations from 
 Caesar s " Commentaries," made by Juliana s 
 brother ; from Plutarch s Life of Hannibal, made 
 by the parson and the schoolmaster; and from 
 Fenelon s " Telernaque," made by Mrs. Smith and 
 Juliana. These translations were subject to criti- 
 
cism from the club s members, and on one 
 occasion, when the learned Dr. Bellamy of Bethle 
 hem, Connecticut, was visiting at the parsonage, 
 there would seem to have been a good-natured 
 but rather lively sort of a discussion between the 
 two divines and the schoolmaster concerning the 
 proper rendering of certain disputed passages in 
 Plutarch. At least, Juliana reports that " they 
 became as heated over a Greek word as if it were 
 a forge fire." 
 
 The alternate meetings of the club were mainly 
 debating societies, in which old and young men 
 took part as debaters, and old and young women 
 as listeners, while, in accordance with a resolution 
 unanimously passed at one of the club s earliest 
 meetings, " all of the women and such of the men 
 as were not engaged in speaking or reading " were 
 " expected to knit stockings or do some other work 
 to help our brave and suffering soldiers in their 
 desperate struggle to gain the Liberty of our Na 
 tive Land." Whether shoemaking formed one of 
 the patriotic industries pursued during these literary 
 evenings I do not know, but presume so, for, from 
 another source, I have found that, beginning with 
 the winter of 1777, and onward during the war, 
 the men of many Connecticut villages, including 
 Sharon, " had learned to make shoes so that they 
 might help the soldiers in the field. The State 
 furnished the materials, and almost all the men in 
 each township, from the Ministers down to the 
 
slaves, spent their winter evenings in making shoes 
 for the Soldiers." It must be remembered that 
 shoe factories were then unknown. 
 
 In spite of her silent tongue and busy fingers, at 
 least one of the young women who were privileged 
 to listen to the wisdom of the superior sex availed 
 herself of her opportunities to extract abundant 
 amusement from the readings and discussions, 
 Which she reported for the benefit -of her brother 
 and his classmates, always good-naturedly, but 
 sometimes keenly criticizing, and in a few instances 
 even caricaturing the speakers with an untrained 
 but clever pencil. 
 
 It is a singular fact that neither in Juliana s 
 diary, nor in that of her brother, nor in the surviv 
 ing numbers of the " Clio," is there much mention 
 of the war then so actively progressing. Yet 
 Sharon was intensely patriotic, and had furnished 
 what was, proportionately, a large contingent to 
 the Continental forces, while the club s president 
 had been a chaplain in the Northern army until 
 disabled by a camp fever, and several of the most 
 active of the club s members had been officers and 
 privates in the patriotic armies for longer or shorter 
 terms before 1780, and after that date still others 
 took their places. The chief exception to this 
 ignoring of what must have been the subject of 
 first interest in the hearts of all is Juliana s exulta 
 tion, in April, 1780, over the "sure news," which 
 then had but just reached the little inland town, 
 
2 77 
 
 of the victory gained the preceding September 
 " by Captain Paul Jones in the little Bon Homme 
 Richard over the big British ship Serapis. A GLO 
 RIOUS VICTORY for which GOD be praised ! " Per 
 haps the reason for the silence on the most vital 
 of all the topics of the time may be found in this 
 very thing. With the slow means of communi 
 cation, suspense, long and harrowing, was inevi 
 table. Was it not, therefore, wise to divert the 
 mind as much as might be while working, praying, 
 and hoping without cessation ? 
 
 The club s meetings were " always punctually 
 opened at half-past seven o clock in the evening 
 with a short prayer for the Divine blessing," and 
 they seem to have been, with equal punctuality, 
 closed at nine. After this refreshments were served. 
 If the meetings took place in almost any other 
 house than the parsonage, the refreshments were 
 followed by an hour of dancing. The sprightly 
 Juliana several times expresses her regret that, as 
 the parson s daughter, she was always obliged to 
 leave before the dancing began, " tho , as you 
 know," she once naively adds, " Papa does not 
 think dancing to be wrong in itself, but only that 
 it may be a cause of offending to some." 
 
 From tradition and the materials at hand we 
 may paint a reasonably correct picture of one of 
 the meetings of this long ago literary club. We 
 will suppose that it is held at the parsonage. Here 
 three rooms are opened to the company the 
 
parson s study, the family living-room, and the 
 kitchen. In all three great blazing logs of wood 
 are sending their cheerful heat and light princi 
 pally up the broad-throated chimneys. The night 
 is very cold, but the guests do not feel its chill too 
 acutely, for the air of the rooms is so fresh that the 
 blood is well oxygenated. The curtains, too, are 
 closely drawn, and they are not flimsy things, but 
 thick and heavy, made to keep the wind out, and 
 they are drawn over doors as well as windows. 
 Such curtains are usually made of a mixture of 
 linen and wool, homespun, home-dyed, and home- 
 woven, and were sometimes lined and quilted. 
 In the wealthiest families curtains of flowered red 
 chintz were often hung on the roomward side of 
 the heavier curtains, and sometimes, but probably 
 very seldom, they were all displaced by imported 
 satin-damask or damask-moreen, lined with wadded 
 and quilted silk. 
 
 Even at this late period there would not be 
 enough chairs to seat all the guests, for these, in 
 Juliana s reports to her brother, are often said to 
 number more than one hundred; so the forms 
 were brought from the schoolhouse, and were some 
 times supplemented by long planks laid from one 
 stool or block of wood to another. 
 
 As both the study and the living-room commu 
 nicated with the kitchen, which extended along 
 the house at the rear of both of them, and a 
 speaker or reader standing midway of the kitchen 
 
2 79 
 
 could easily be heard in both of the other rooms, it 
 is probable that here would be the chosen position. 
 There would be some finely dressed persons 
 present, for at this time there were gentlemen 
 and ladies of fortune and position in this retired 
 spot, safe from war s alarms, and they would be 
 attired as became their station ; but the most would 
 be arrayed in clothes of home manufacture, from 
 pocket-handkerchief to shoe-tie. Tailors were so 
 few that well-fitting coats and breeches must have 
 been rare. One unfortunate college student from 
 this neighborhood had placed the cloth for a suit 
 of clothes with the local tailor in the spring, and 
 by the time that potentate had seen fit to finish 
 them, the garments had been so far outgrown 
 that they had to be passed over to a younger 
 brother; and the same thing was repeated twice, 
 so that the poor student must have been agonizing 
 in out-grown or out-worn clothes for the greater 
 part of his college course. For this state of things 
 there was no help. The tailor, having no com 
 petitor within thirty miles in any direction, was 
 monarch of his customers. Storm and threaten 
 they never so sternly, they were obliged to wait 
 his pleasure, for they could get no better served 
 even by journeying long distances. The trade of 
 the tailor, however profitable, was despised in the 
 colonies, and few would engage in it. Conse 
 quently, during the years preceding the war, the 
 larger part of the wearing apparel of even wealthy 
 
280 
 
 men was either imported from England, as made 
 to order from more or less accurate measurements, 
 or was of household manufacture. The same was 
 true of much of the dress of the women; but in 
 their case it would not so greatly matter, as the 
 materials were so much more pliable, and the cus 
 tom of wearing an abundance of lace trimmings 
 on the gowns of the young, and of covering the 
 neck and shoulders of the elderry with crossed 
 kerchiefs or small shawls, concealed a multitude 
 of defects. During the war such imported clothes 
 as existed must have been decidedly old in style, 
 but that would have been too universal to have 
 been noticeable. 
 
 Gaiety there must have been in plenty. There 
 could have been little dullness where such mirthful 
 spirits as Juliana, her sister Elizabeth, and their 
 mother were the leaders, and this they plainly 
 were, notwithstanding that they " maintained a 
 seemly silence while the slower half of creation was 
 laying down the law." 
 
 Both from the pages of the "Clio " itself and from 
 those of Juliana s diary, which, with comparatively 
 few breaks, was continued all through her " brother 
 Jack s " four years in Yale, there is abundant 
 evidence that the literary instinct in that quiet 
 village, then so very remote from all the centers 
 of activity, was by no means confined to the family 
 in the parsonage, though its manifestations were 
 led from there. 
 
28l 
 
 The club s meetings were held in various houses, 
 from the stately " Montgomery House " on the hill 
 dividing Salisbury from Sharon, which was occupied 
 by one or another of the numerous branches of the 
 Livingston families during nearly the entire war, 
 to the brick cottage occupied by the families of 
 Robert G. Livingston and the lately deceased Philip 
 Livingston, which was on one side of the parsonage, 
 and to the broadly spreading house of Judge Can- 
 field on its other side. In all, seventeen dwellings 
 are mentioned as having at one time or another been 
 meeting-places for the club. Several of these still 
 exist, but only three of them are now occupied by 
 the heirs of the then owners. These three are the 
 "Gay House," more than a mile above the village, 
 the " King House," at the head of the beautiful 
 village street, and the " Smith House," in whose 
 garret are the papers from which we quote. All 
 are in good preservation and are fine specimens of 
 colonial architecture. 
 
 Juliana evidently possessed a good degree of 
 literary and editorial instinct. From the lips of 
 her two grandmothers and from her mother her 
 self too busy to spend much time in writing - 
 the young lady obtained many narratives of early 
 days in the colonies. To several of these she in 
 cidentally refers, and some of them she wrote at 
 considerable length in her diary for Jack s benefit. 
 From these narratives she sometimes made such 
 extracts as she deemed suitable for the " Clio," 
 
282 
 
 though not as often as she (and we) would have 
 liked, because, as she writes to Jack : " Judge Can- 
 field seems to think that such things foster pride 
 and vanity, albeit, Nota Bene, I think I do observe 
 now and then a morsel of those sinful emotions in 
 himself. Dost remember him, dear Jack ? " 
 
 From her brother and his classmates Juliana was 
 indefatigable in begging contributions, whether in 
 prose or in verse, declaring that she * cared less for 
 moral reflections than for new thoughts," and that 
 "most of all" she desired "news and narratives of 
 things that one has not already heard or read a 
 thousand times. Of course," she adds, " Odes and 
 Sonnets would be very fine IF they were poetical, 
 but, Oh, my dear Jack, I fear me there is very lit 
 tle promise that any of your Friends will prove to 
 be Shakespeares or Miltons." 
 
 It must be confessed that the most of the sur 
 viving contributions of the young collegians are 
 decidedly sophmoric in tone, and we cannot blame 
 the editress, who does not hesitate to inform Jack, 
 by way of consolation after some sharp criticisms, 
 that she " hopes, nay, believes, that he will be wiser 
 by-and-bye " ; and, after reading a certain halting 
 " Ode " by A. H., we are ready to confirm the 
 editorial opinion that " your chum " (Abiel Holmes, 
 afterward author of the laborious " Annals of Amer 
 ican History," but better known as the father of 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes) " is no doubt, as you 
 say, a Man of Parts, but the Pegasus he rides is a 
 
283 
 
 sorry steed that has lost his wings and is badly 
 shod." Of James Kent, afterward the justly cele 
 brated Chancellor Kent of the State of New York, 
 she says : " Mr. Kent does well, always well. He 
 has thoughts and does not hide them under a rub 
 bish heap of words as H s and S. B. do. . . . 
 I wish that your friend Daggett " (David Daggett, 
 afterward United States senator from Connecticut 
 for several terms, and a judge of high standing) 
 " would be so obliging as to be a more frequent 
 contributor; he writes wittily and without affecta 
 tion." 
 
 One contribution in a surviving number of the 
 " Clio " is signed " Noah Webster." The future 
 lexicographer was then teaching a district school 
 in Sharon, and " boarding round," receiving the ex 
 travagant salary of three dollars a month. This I 
 find from the private account-book of the acting 
 town clerk, through whom the stipend was paid. 
 The somewhat hackneyed moral lesson which Mr. 
 Webster wished to convey was cast in the dream 
 form which seems to have appealed so strongly 
 to the fancy of the age, and is a stilted, disjointed 
 sort of thing ; yet it hardly deserved the little fling 
 of the young editress herself, it will be remem 
 bered, only nineteen : 
 
 " Mr. Webster has not the excuse of youth, (I 
 think he must be fully twenty two or three), but 
 his essays don t be angry, Jack, are as young 
 
284 
 
 as yours or brother Tommy s, while his reflections 
 are as prosy as those of our horse, your namesake, 
 would be if they were written out. Perhaps more 
 so, for I truly believe, judging from the way Jack 
 Horse looks round at me sometimes, when I am on 
 his back, that his thoughts of the human race and 
 their conduct towards his own, might be well 
 worth reading. At least they would be all his own, 
 and that is more than can be said of N. W. s. . . . 
 In conversation he is even duller than in writing, 
 if that be possible, but he is a painstaking man 
 and a hard student. Papa says he will make his 
 mark; but then, you know that our dear Papa is 
 always inclined to think the best of every one s 
 abilities, except his own and MINE, of which last, I 
 grieve to say, his opinion seems to be sadly low. 
 Perhaps that is because every one says I am so 
 like him ; you know he is ever repeating that self- 
 praise is no credit ! I wish you were at home, dear 
 Jack, so that I might get a word of flattery now 
 and then. I would pay you back in your own 
 
 coin ! 
 
 A club-member whose contributions pleased the 
 critical Juliana much better than those of the 
 future lexicographer was a Mr. Beecher, who was 
 in some way related to the subsequently celebrated 
 Rev. Lyman Beecher. He was perhaps a brother 
 of the latter s father. None of his papers appear 
 in the still-existing numbers of the " Clio," and 
 
285 
 
 perhaps he did not write many, but he was always 
 an active member of the club. "Mr. Beecher is," 
 says Juliana, tk the life of our Debates. Every 
 thing he utters is to the point, forcible, pungent, 
 and often so witty that we are in convulsions of 
 laughter. Papa says he is one who would become 
 great, an he had the opportunity. As it is, though 
 he is not great, he well fills his lot in life and is 
 somewhat of a power in our little community." 
 In another place she writes : " Mr. Beecher was 
 on what I conceive to be the wrong side of the 
 question last night, but I must concede that his 
 remarks were full of force, fire and persuasion. 
 What a pity that he could not receive the advan 
 tages which are now being, as it seems to me, 
 wasted on P. L. Jr ! I believe that Mr. B. would 
 make a preacher of extraordinary eloquence." 
 
 On at least one occasion there was present a 
 young surgeon of the Continental troops, probably 
 home on leave of absence. Dr. Wheeler, after 
 ward of Redhook on the Hudson, may have been 
 drawn to Sharon by the charms of Elizabeth, 
 Juliana s sister, whom he subsequently married, 
 but where they first met does not appear. In 1782 
 we find in Juliana s diary the first mention of one 
 who not long after became the controlling influence 
 in her life. " This evening," she says, " our de 
 bates were enlivened by the presence of a young 
 gentleman who came in with Judge Canfield and 
 his daughters. He is very handsome in person and 
 
286 
 
 courtly in manners. His remarks were received 
 with much favor, even the carping P. L. being 
 heard to say that Mr. RadclifFs speech l was not 
 intolerable. I fear me he would not have con 
 ceded as much to one of ourselves. Mr. L. never 
 has any faith in home born prophets." 
 
 After this, Mr. Radcliff s name is mentioned a 
 good many times, but or at least so it seems in 
 the light of future events with an ever-increas 
 ing reticence. Whatever may have been the oc 
 casion which first drew the young gentleman to 
 Sharon, there is no doubt that the reason for sub 
 sequent visits was to be found in the attractions of 
 the handsome and quick-witted Juliana. Until 
 after the peace the time was not propitious for 
 members of the legal profession, and the betrothed 
 couple had to spend two and perhaps more years 
 of happy, hopeful waiting. Almost immediately 
 after the peace young Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Rad- 
 cliff began to live in Albany, New York, where in 
 time he became one of the judges of the Supreme 
 Court of Judicature. At a later period they re 
 moved to New York city, of which Mr. RadclifF 
 was mayor for three terms between 1810 and 1818. 
 
 Apparently from about 1790 the RadclifFs had a 
 summer home on the banks of the Hudson. "Chest 
 nut Hill " was not far from Poughkeepsie. At 
 this home Mr. and Mrs. RadclifF entertained largely 
 and handsomely, and the name of the hostess is 
 often mentioned in domestic chronicles of that date 
 as that of one of the most charming members of 
 
the notedly charming society which gathered along 
 the banks of what used then to be so affectionately 
 termed " the River." The " literary evenings at 
 the Radcliffs of Chestnut Hill " are mentioned in 
 published and in unpublished letters written by 
 Chancellor Kent, Edward Livingston, Chancellor 
 Livingston, and Mrs. Janet Montgomery, as stated 
 and delightful gatherings where youth and age, 
 fashion and wit, met for pleasure and improvement. 
 It is not too much to assume that the idea for these 
 gatherings was taken from the literary club which 
 had been so great a social and mental resource to 
 the members of an inland country parson s parish 
 at an earlier date. 
 
 Tradition tells us that after the marriage of the 
 young editress the " Clio " ceased to appear, but 
 that the club continued in active operation for 
 twenty or more years later. I have found no rec 
 ord of this, but in a few instances certain allusions 
 in private correspondence countenance tradition. 
 
 It has several times been affirmed that the first 
 purely literary club in the United States was the one 
 which was started by Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney in 
 Hartford, Connecticut, in the early years of the 
 present century. Our records prove that the one 
 in Sharon was very much earlier, and it is probable 
 that others had preceded it; but until some other 
 claimant shall arise we may continue to give to 
 the beautiful little village of Sharon, Connecticut, 
 the honor of being the mother of literary clubs in 
 the United States. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 NEW ENGLAND S FESTIVE DAY 
 
CHAPTER XVIII, 
 
 NEW ENGLAND S 
 FESTIVE DAY. 
 
 Thanksgiving in 1779. 
 
 Expedients. 
 
 Abundant Hospitality. 
 
 Absence of Beef. 
 
 Celery. 
 
 After-dinner Entertain 
 ment. 
 Two Oranges. 
 
I HE following account of a Thanks 
 giving dinner in 1779 is given in 
 a letter of Juliana Smith s, copied 
 by her into her diary a praise 
 worthy practice not uncommon 
 when letters were written with care and might 
 easily be lost in transmission. This letter was 
 addressed to its writer s "Dear Cousin Betsey." 
 Who the latter may have been I do not know, 
 but presume that she was a daughter of the Rev 
 C. M. Smith s elder brother Dan. 
 
 After the usual number of apologies for delay in 
 writing, Juliana proceeds : 
 
 "When Thanksgiving Day was approaching 
 our dear Grandmother Smith [nee Jerusha 
 Mather, great-granddaughter of the Rev. Richard 
 Mather of Dorchester, Massachusetts], who is 
 sometimes a little desponding of Spirit as you well 
 know, did her best to persuade us that it would be 
 better to make it a Day of Fasting & Prayer in 
 view of the Wickedness of our Friends & the J^ileness 
 of our Enemies, I am sure you can hear Grandmo- 
 
 291 
 
ther say that and see her shake her cap border. 
 But indeed there was some occasion for her re 
 marks, for our resistance to an unjust Authority has 
 cost our beautiful Coast Towns very dear the last 
 year & all of us have had much to suffer. But 
 my dear Father brought her to a more proper 
 frame of Mind, so that by the time the Day came 
 she was ready to enjoy it almost as well as Grand 
 mother Worthington did, & she, you will remem 
 ber, always sees the bright side. In the mean 
 while we had all of us been working hard to get 
 all things in readiness to do honour to the Day. 
 
 " This year it was Uncle Simeon s turn to have 
 the dinner at his house, but of course we all helped 
 them as they help us when it is our turn, & there 
 is always enough for us all to do. All the baking 
 of pies & cakes was done at our house & we had 
 the big oven heated & filled twice each day for 
 three days before it was all done. & everything was 
 GOOD, though we did have to do without some 
 things that ought to be used. Neither Love nor 
 (paper) Money could buy Raisins, but our good red 
 cherries dried without the pits, did almost as well 
 & happily Uncle Simeon still had some spices in 
 store. The tables were set in the Dining Hall and 
 even that big room had no space to spare when we 
 were all seated. The Servants had enough ado 
 to get around the Tables & serve us all without 
 over-setting things. There were our two Grand 
 mothers side by side. They are always handsome 
 
293 
 
 old Ladies, but now, many thought, they were 
 handsomer than ever, & happy they were to look 
 around upon so many of their descendants. Uncle 
 & Aunt Simeon presided at one Table, & Father & 
 Mother at the other. Besides us five boys & girls 
 there were two of the Gales & three Elmers, be 
 sides James Browne & Ephraim Cowles. [Five 
 of the last-named seven were orphans taught and 
 in all ways provided for by Parson & Mrs. Smith.] 
 We had them at our table because they could be 
 best supervised there. Most of the students had 
 gone to their own homes for the week, but Mr. 
 
 Skiff & Mr. [name illegible] were too far 
 
 away from their homes. They sat at Uncle 
 Simeon s table & so did Uncle Paul & his 
 family, five of them in all, & Cousins Phin 
 & Poll [probably Phineas and Apollos Smith, 
 sons of Dan]. Then there were six of the Liv 
 ingston family next door. They had never seen 
 a Thanksgiving Dinner before, having been used 
 to keep Christmas Day instead, as is the wont 
 in New York Province. Then there were four 
 Old Ladies who have no longer Homes or Chil 
 dren of their own & so came to us. They were 
 invited by my Mother, but Uncle and Aunt 
 Simeon wished it so. 
 
 " Of course we could have no Roast Beef. 
 None of us have tasted Beef this three years back 
 as it all must go to the Army, & too little they 
 get, poor fellows. But, Nayquittymaw s Hunters 
 
2 94 
 
 were able to get us a fine red Deer, so that we had 
 a good haunch of Venisson on each Table. These 
 were balanced by huge Chines of Roast Pork at 
 the other ends of the Tables. Then there was on 
 one a big Roast Turkey & on the other a Goose, 
 & two big Pigeon Pasties. Then there was an 
 abundance of good Vegetables of all the old Sorts 
 & one which I do not believe you have yet seen. 
 Uncle Simeon had imported the Seede from Eng 
 land just before the War began & only this Year 
 was there enough for Table use. It is called Sel- 
 lery & you eat it without cooking. It is very 
 good served with meats. Next year Uncle Sim 
 eon says he will be able to raise enough to give us 
 all some. It has to be taken up, roots & all & 
 buried in earth in the cellar through the winter & 
 only pulling up some when you want it to use. 
 
 " Our Mince Pies were good although we had 
 to use dried Cherries as I told you, & the meat 
 was shoulder of Venisson, instead of Beef. The 
 Pumpkin Pies, Apple Tarts & big Indian Pud 
 dings lacked for nothing save Appetite by the time 
 we had got round to them. 
 
 " Of course we had no Wine. Uncle Simeon 
 has still a cask or two, but it must all be saved for 
 the sick, & indeed, for those who are well, good 
 Cider is a sufficient Substitute. There was no 
 Plumb Pudding, but a boiled Suet Pudding, 
 stirred thick with dried Plumbs & Cherries, was 
 called by the old Name & answered the purpose. 
 
295 
 
 All the other spice had been used in the Mince 
 Pies, so for this Pudding we used a jar of West 
 India preserved Ginger which chanced to be left 
 of the last shipment which Uncle Simeon had from 
 there, we chopped the Ginger small and stirred it 
 through with the Plumbs & Cherries. It was 
 extraordinary good. The Day was bitter cold & 
 when we got home from Meeting, which Father 
 did not keep over long by reason of the cold, we 
 were glad eno of the fire in Uncle s Dining Hall, 
 but by the time the dinner was one half over 
 those of us who were on the fire side of one Table 
 was forced to get up & carry our plates with us 
 around to the far side of the other Table, while those 
 who had sat there were as glad to bring their plates 
 around to the fire side to get warm. All but the 
 Old Ladies who had a screen put behind their 
 chairs." 
 
 Here it may be allowed to break in upon Juli 
 ana s narrative to explain that the hall in which 
 this dinner was laid, now long used as a kitchen, 
 is a room about thirty feet long from north to 
 south and twenty-two feet wide. A glazed door 
 and a window open upon piazzas from each 
 end. On the western side a broadly hospitable 
 door opens into the staircase hall of the main 
 building, while in the dining-room itself another 
 flight of stairs ascended from the same side to the 
 wing s chambers. On the eastern side is the im- 
 
296 
 
 mense chimney, where once yawned a fireplace that 
 " would comfortably hold a full sled load of eight 
 foot logs." With such a fire it is no wonder that 
 the guests seated near it were glad to exchange 
 places with the others, who probably half freez 
 ing were on the other side of the room. When 
 I was about seven or eight years old the heavy 
 ceiling beams, darkened with age and smoke, were 
 hidden away from view by a plaster ceiling. I 
 pleaded in vain for the " pretty brown beams " to 
 be left in sight, but my grandmother was inflexible, 
 and no doubt, in the interest of comfort for her 
 servants, she was quite right to close the drafty 
 fireplace and lower the lofty ceiling. Nevertheless 
 it was a pity, and I have never ceased to regret it. 
 
 " Uncle Simeon," proceeds Juliana, " was in 
 his best mood, and you know how good that is ! 
 He kept both Tables in a roar of laughter with his 
 droll stories of the days when he was studying 
 medicine in Edinborough, & afterwards he & 
 Father & Uncle Paul joined in singing Hymns & 
 Ballads. You know how fine their voices go 
 together. Then we all sang a Hymn & after 
 wards my dear Father led us in prayer, remember 
 ing all Absent Friends before the Throne of Grace, 
 & much I wished that my dear Betsey was here as 
 one of us, as she has been of yore. 
 
 " We did not rise from the Table until it was 
 quite dark, & then when the dishes had been 
 
2 97 
 
 cleared away we all got round the fire as close as 
 we could, & cracked nuts, & sang songs & told 
 stories. At least some told & others listened. 
 Ton know nobody can exceed the two Grandmothers 
 at telling tales of all the things they have seen 
 themselves, & repeating those of the early years 
 in New England, & even some in the Old Eng 
 land, which they had heard in their youth from 
 their Elders. My Father says it is a goodly cus 
 tom to hand down all worthy deeds & traditions 
 from Father to Son, as the Israelites were com 
 manded to do about the Passover & as the In 
 dians here have always done, because the Word 
 that is spoken is remembered longer than the one 
 that is written. . . . Brother Jack, who did 
 not reach here until late on Wednesday though he 
 had left College very early on Monday Morning 
 & rode with all due diligence considering the snow, 
 brought an orange to each of the Grand-Mothers, 
 but, Alas ! they were frozen in his saddle bags. 
 We soaked the frost out in cold water, but I guess 
 they was n t as good as they should have been." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 A SNOW-SHOE JOURNEY 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A SNOW-SHOE JOURNEY. 
 
 A Blizzard in 1779. 
 Litchfield s Busy Days. 
 
 Judge Tapping Reeve 
 and Family. 
 
 FromLitchfield to Wood- 
 bury on Snow-shoes. 
 Parson Benedict. 
 
ROTHER JACK " has left among 
 his papers a relation, written in 
 1844, for the benefit of his grand 
 children, in which he refers to the 
 same Thanksgiving day of which 
 Juliana wrote, but dwells more particularly upon 
 the return journey to New Haven, on which his 
 father accompanied him. He writes : 
 
 "After the day of praise and feasting came two 
 days of visiting pleasantly among our neighbors, 
 all of whom made themselves very agreeable to 
 me as one who had come from a far country. On 
 Sunday there were two services, which, I suppose 
 would now be called very long, though my Father 
 would never allow himself to preach as long ser 
 mons as were then customary, unless carried away 
 by his feelings, which sometimes happened when 
 the news from the posts of danger was recent and 
 exciting. There was no hesitation about preach 
 ing political sermons in those days. Ministers 
 would have deemed themselves to have entirely 
 failed of their duty, had they not expressed their 
 
 301 
 
302 
 
 views in regard to what was right and wrong on pub 
 lic questions as well as on any other. My Father 
 had served one campaign as Chaplain to Colonel 
 Hinman s regiment of Connecticut troops and re 
 turned invalided ; but perhaps he served his Coun 
 try best by staying at his post. He worked hard 
 both in his own harvest fields and in those of his 
 parishoners to raise grain for the armies ; he 
 cared for the families of those who were at the 
 front, and he helped to keep the fires of patriot 
 ism glowing by his exhortations from the pulpit. 
 
 u Although early in the season the sleighing had 
 already been good for a fortnight, and the snow 
 was again falling when we set out very early on 
 Monday morning, my Father and I, in our big 
 box sleigh, well wrapped in robes of long wooled 
 sheep-skins, and drawn by two old farm horses, 
 not the best because the best had gone to the 
 army. Fine as the sleighing was in the immediate 
 neighborhood of Sharon, we found the roads badly 
 drifted long before we reached what is now Ells 
 worth. At that point, only about five miles from 
 home, we had to leave our sleigh in the care of one 
 of my Father s parishoners, while we pursued our 
 journey on horseback. In those days no one trav 
 elled in any sort of a vehicle without taking along 
 saddles for use in emergency. It was dark before 
 we reached Litchfield and the snow-laden wind 
 was piercingly cold. 
 
 " Judge Tapping Reeve, though much younger 
 
33 
 
 than my Father, was one of the latter s choice 
 friends, and it was at his home that by previous 
 arrangement we were to pass the night. Judge 
 Reeve was both a good and a great man as well as 
 one of the most eloquent speakers who ever 
 adorned the Bar of his own or any other State. 
 Five years later than this I was one of the earliest 
 students in his law-school, started in 1784, and 
 since become so famous. From it have been 
 graduated upwards of one hundred lawyers, among 
 them being some of our most distinguished 
 statesmen. 
 
 " It was on this delightful evening, when we 
 were all sitting round the roaring fire in the broad 
 fire-place of Mrs. Reeve s pleasant sitting room, 
 and while we were listening to the elevating con 
 versation between Judge Reeve and my Father, 
 that I made up my mind that the Law should be 
 my profession. Before this time I had hesitated, 
 but now I felt sure that an honest man could do 
 as much good in this profession as in any other. 
 My Father and the Judge fully coincided in senti 
 ment, especially in wishing to supercede by a bet 
 ter that portion of the old English Common Law 
 which takes away all property rights from married 
 women. Both of them had shown their faith by 
 their works. Both my Mother and Mrs. Reeve 
 had inherited small fortunes and had been allowed 
 by their husbands to retain the control of their own 
 property ; a thing almost unheard of at that time in 
 
_34_ 
 
 cases where no ante-nuptial settlements had been 
 made. The views of both men as I heard them 
 stated at this time were afterwards clearly set forth 
 by Judge Reeve in his celebrated pamphlet on 
 4 The Domestic Relations. This was the first 
 voice ever publicly raised in our country, and per 
 haps in any other, in behalf of the property rights 
 of married women, and attracted much attention 
 both favourable and unfavourable. Judge Reeve 
 stood almost alone on this point among the law 
 yers of his day ; but in his school he made many 
 disciples. 
 
 " Mrs. Reeve also took a part in this discussion 
 and fully vindicated her right to do so by the 
 intellectual ability she manifested as might be 
 expected from a person of her lineage. Judge 
 Reeve was always noted as a model husband and 
 it was no wonder with such a wife as his. Mrs. 
 Reeve was sister to Colonel Aaron Burr, and pos 
 sessed all the latter s great intellectual powers and 
 wonderful personal attractions without one of his 
 faults. She was nearly always in delicate health 
 which forced her to lead a very secluded life, but 
 she had every qualification to have placed her 
 among those women who have been most noted 
 for goodness, grace, beauty and wit. 
 
 " I seem to myself to see her now as she ap 
 peared that night. She was still but a young 
 matron and in the full flush of a beauty that was 
 less of feature than of expression. I thought then 
 
and I think now, that Mrs. Reeve was one of those 
 women to whom it is an honour to any man to 
 bow in deference. She had inherited the faculty 
 of close logic which distinguished her Grandfather, 
 the great Dr. Jonathan Edwards, and the persua 
 sive grace of her Father, the Rev. Dr. Burr, of 
 Princeton. She was small and slight, with a daz 
 zling complexion, clear cut features and deep gray 
 eyes that under any intellectual excitement be 
 came brilliant. Her smile was irresistible. At 
 least it so seemed to me on that first interview 
 when I was but fourteen years of age. After 
 wards, during the years that I studied in Judge 
 Reeve s office and had my home in his household, 
 the impression became fixed, and I believe it 
 was the same with every succeeding student who 
 had the privilege of being admitted into that 
 family circle. 
 
 " During the night the storm increased in vio 
 lence and in the morning it was impossible to see 
 many feet from the door on account of the whirling 
 masses of a snow so hard, dry and powdery that 
 it cut into the face like fine iron filings. To pro 
 ceed on our journey was clearly impossible. Nei 
 ther man nor beast could long have endured the 
 intense cold and the friction of the icy snow, even 
 if it had been possible for any one to keep the di 
 rection in the blinding storm. In traversing the 
 short distance from the house to the barn to attend 
 to the wants of our animals, over a path hardly 
 
306 
 
 more than twenty yards long and partly sheltered 
 by the wood-shed, we were almost blinded and 
 bewildered. 
 
 " All that day and far into the night of Tuesday 
 we piled logs upon the kitchen fire, for in that 
 room alone was it possible to maintain a comforta 
 ble degree of warmth. Fortunately there was 
 space enough for us all to sit without disturbing 
 the labours of the servants in preparing our meals. 
 As no one could be allowed to remain idle in such 
 times of pressing need, my Father and I helped to 
 mould bullets for the soldiers muskets, while gen 
 tle Mrs. Reeve sat busily knitting on yarn stock 
 ings for their feet. The wind blew so fiercely 
 down through all the other chimneys in the house 
 that it was impossible to light the fires in them. 
 It is under such circumstances that characters are 
 displayed without disguise, and Judge and Mrs. 
 Reeve then seemed, what I afterwards proved 
 them to be, genial, courteous and kind : making 
 light of every difficulty, and by their hearty 
 warmth of welcome and their sparkling wit mak 
 ing that day and evening among the happiest rec 
 ollections of a lifetime which has held as many 
 joys and as few sorrows as may fall to the lot of 
 mortals. 
 
 " On Wednesday the sun rose bright and clear 
 over a dazzling desert of snow. The lower win 
 dows of most of the houses were hidden beneath 
 great piles of drift. In some cases even the second 
 
37 
 
 story windows were hidden, or only visible through 
 openings in the drift like the hooded bastions of 
 some icy fort. Looking from the garret windows 
 of Judge Reeve s house as far as the eye could 
 reach we could see no trace of road or path. 
 Fences and shrubs were obliterated. Trees, some 
 looking like mountains of snow and some like 
 naked and broken skeletons, arose here and there. 
 And in the village only rising wreaths of smoke 
 told that life existed in the half buried houses. 
 The Meeting House spire was on one side decked 
 by the icy snow with fantastic semblances of marble 
 statuary over which the new long, black lightning 
 rod (the first one I had ever seen) had been twisted 
 by the wind until it looked like a Chinese char 
 acter. The Meeting House, where on Sunday the 
 Rev. Judah Champion thundered his rousing ap 
 peals to the patriotism of his congregation; the 
 great house for the reception of military stores on 
 North Street, and the Army Work-Shop, where 
 blacksmiths, gunsmiths and the makers of saddles 
 and harness were constantly working for the troops, 
 were the only buildings which were large enough 
 to serve as land-marks to any but the natives of the 
 place under this bewildering confusion of snow. 
 The military guard which was always stationed to 
 protect these valuable buildings, on this day omit 
 ted their customary drills to take their places in 
 the Shovel Brigade which was organized to dig 
 out the beleagured inhabitants. One might sup- 
 
pose that we were in Lapland or Iceland, so strange 
 and frozen did everything look; so vast seemed 
 the desert of snow which even on a level was found 
 to be several feet in depth and was everywhere 
 covered with a frozen crust. 
 
 " Now we shall have the pleasure of keeping 
 you for a week at least, said Judge Reeve, heartily 
 clasping my Father s hand. 
 
 " 4 Yes, said dear Mrs. Reeve, giving me a kindly 
 look, yes, my dear boy, you will not get back to 
 your classes this week/ 
 
 " I was both enchanted and miserable. To stay 
 in this beautiful home would be most delightful. 
 To lose the time from my classes would be almost 
 unendurable. My Father settled the matter by 
 asking quietly if our host could not get us each 
 a pair of snow shoes. 
 
 " At first our hosts treated this request as a pleas 
 antry, but when they perceived that my Father 
 was quite in earnest their dismay was amusing. 
 The general habit of using snow shoes, which at a 
 very early period had been adopted from the In 
 dians, had already nearly disappeared, but down to 
 a comparatively recent period there had been a 
 few persons who continued to use them in places 
 where there were no interruptions from fences. 
 My Father, a slight but sinewy and most athletic 
 man, had spent two or three years of his early life 
 as teacher in a school which had been recently 
 established for the instruction of Indians in Stock- 
 
39 
 
 bridge, Massachusetts, and there he had joined in 
 all the athletic sports of the natives, gaining a great 
 influence among them by his prowess in running, 
 leaping and wrestling. (It has nothing to do with 
 our present purpose, but my descendants may like 
 to know that the marks reached by my Father, 
 when a student at Yale, for running and standing 
 leaps, were kept as the highest attained by any 
 student on the college Campus. No one else had 
 been able to reach the same until I did so in my 
 Senior year.) 
 
 " It was among the Indians that my Father had 
 learned to use the snow shoes with great skill and 
 as much grace as the unwieldy things would 
 permit, but I could never see him or any 
 one else on them without an inclination to laugh 
 which was sometimes stronger than my filial 
 reverence. But, as my Father had a strong vein 
 of humour, he always rather joined in my mirth 
 than rebuked me for it. Fore-seeing that there 
 might be some occasion on which this somewhat 
 unusual accomplishment might prove of service, 
 my Father had taught me also to become moder 
 ately expert in the use of snow shoes. 
 
 " Fortunately Judge Reeve had stored away in 
 his garret, more as a curiosity than for any use that 
 he expected to be made of them, two pairs of 
 snow shoes of the finest Indian manufacture, so 
 that we had not to spend any time in searching for 
 them, and by nine o clock on Wednesday mom- 
 
3 10 
 
 ing we climbed out of an upper story window upon 
 the hard crust of frozen snow and started off with 
 no other burden than the light, but cumbersome 
 snow shoes attached to our feet, and a small roll 
 like a knapsack, fastened to each of our backs. 
 
 " I was a boy of unusual strength for my years, 
 and my Father, although a Parson, was remarkable 
 for his vigor, but I can assure you that we were 
 both of us thankful when at nightfall we reached 
 the little town of Bethlehem and the hospitable 
 abode of my Father s very dear friend, the Rev. 
 Dr. Joseph Bellamy. Although the distance is a 
 little more than ten miles as the crow flies, it had 
 seemed a long journey and I had never been so 
 tired before. 
 
 " On Thursday the roads continuing impassable 
 we could not abandon our snow shoes, though they 
 made our ankles ache so that we could hardly 
 stand upon them. The air was of a clear, still 
 cold that would have been severe if we had not 
 been exercising ourselves so greatly. Even as it 
 was our dread-naughts [these were caped coats of 
 exceedingly thick homespun cloth, belted around 
 the waist and descending well below the knees] 
 were none too warm. 
 
 " Our second day s journey on the snow shoes 
 was much like the first, and of about the same 
 length, bringing us to Woodbury and the house 
 of the Rev. Noah Benedict where we were enter 
 tained with warm hospitality. Mr. Benedict was 
 
Ill 
 
 a peace making man in his congregation, and his 
 gentle spirit long influenced the manners and the 
 actions of the people of his flock. But in public 
 matters he was as war-like as any of us. Wood- 
 bury, like Litchfield, was a place for the collection 
 and storage of the supplies for the patriot armies. 
 Here we found the streets, running each way from 
 the Meeting House, piled high on either side for 
 a hundred yards or more with barrels and hogs 
 heads of pork, beef, lard and flour, besides great 
 quantities of bales of blankets, tents and clothing 
 for the troops. All these now made miniature 
 mountains under the snow. Almost all the able 
 bodied male inhabitants more than seventeen years 
 of age were enrolled in the armies, and the work 
 pertaining to the stores was carried on by the 
 women and children under the direction of a few 
 old men. Many shoes were made in this place for 
 the troops. Parson Benedict had himself been 
 taught to make them that he might assist in the 
 work. On this evening the women of the family 
 were paring apples to dry for the army use and as 
 my Father and I could not assist Mr. Benedict and 
 the men servants in shoemaking we took our part 
 in the apple paring. And a very merry and de 
 lightful evening we all had together, for to work 
 with a good will is a sure road to happiness, let our 
 circumstances be as untoward as they may. 
 
 " Friday morning found the temperature greatly 
 modified, and, by the time we had accomplished 
 
the first five or six miles of our journey toward 
 New Haven we found ourselves in an evil case, 
 for the snow was beginning to get wet and soft 
 and held down the four foot length of snow shoe 
 so that at every step it became harder to lift our 
 feet. Glad enough were we when at last we 
 reached an inn where the accommodations were 
 poor enough, but where we could at least get a lit 
 tle refreshment for ourselves and wei;e able to leave 
 the snow shoes to await some later opportunity to 
 be returned to Judge Reeve, and to hire horses to 
 ride upon to New Haven. From this point the 
 snow was not nearly so deep and we had but little 
 trouble in making, by eight in the evening, the 
 eighteen miles to the house of the Rev. Dr. 
 Daggett, the venerable ex-President of Yale 
 College ; which house was almost a second home 
 to us. 
 
 " Tired as I had been the day before, I found 
 myself still more so to-night ; but my Father 
 would not allow me to complain, saying that I 
 should never make a soldier who could serve his 
 country, as our soldiers were now doing, if I gave 
 out so easily. Never-the-less, I observed that my 
 Father was himself very lame for the next few 
 days and by no means in haste to depart for home 
 again as he would otherwise have been. I have 
 never regretted the experience, since no harm 
 save a few days of stiff joints and sore bones 
 came of it, but I think that my Mother s re- 
 
3*3 
 
 mark when she heard of it showed much com 
 mon sense : 
 
 " A week or two more or less would not have 
 spoiled our Johnny s prospects, and lung fevers 
 might have destroyed both your lives. / say, 
 leave Indian ways to Indian folk. 
 
 " Never-the-less, answered my Father, with a 
 merry twinkle in the eye, never-the-less, my dear, 
 I observe that when you have anything to do 
 you brook no delays and you shirk no labour. 
 Your wisdom seems rather to be for others than 
 for yourself. 
 
 "My Mother shook her head slightly and 
 walked away, turning to say over her shoulder, 
 * And would you have the Great-granddaughter 
 of Captain John Gallup any more timorsome than 
 her husband? " 
 
 V* OK THK 
 
 UNIVERS: 
 
 CAI 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 A NEW YORK EVENING FROLIC 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A NEW YORK 
 EVENING FROLIC. 
 
 Mr. David Codwise Tells 
 
 of an Evening at the 
 
 Rhinelander Homestead. 
 
 Candles and Candle- 
 
 dipping. 
 
 The Supper. 
 
 The " Fire Dance." 
 
 The Parting Cup. 
 
David Codwise, my 
 great-uncle by his marriage with 
 my paternal grandmother s sister, 
 Martha Livingston, was a boy of 
 sixteen and a student in Columbia 
 College. When he gave me the following story 
 of an evening s frolic he was about eighty-two, in 
 an " anecdotage " which rendered him very in 
 teresting to at least one of his frequent listeners. 
 He was a lifelong resident of his native city, 
 and knew the history of every important build 
 ing and person in it, but among all his narra 
 tives few interested me more than that of the 
 "candle-dip frolic." 
 
 Among the masses of old papers in my posses 
 sion I find no trace of the use of lamps for burn 
 ing any sort of oil previous to 1760. This, of 
 course, does not prove that they did not exist, but 
 only that probably candles were the chief illuminat 
 ing power. In bills of household supplies I find 
 always a certain quantity of wax candles, but the 
 imported article at four English shillings the pound 
 (in 1762) must obviously have been kept for fes- 
 
 317 
 
tive occasions only. It is probable that the wax 
 from the combs of both the wild and the domestic 
 bees was used for home-made mold candles, as in 
 New England was also the wax from the green 
 and fragrant bayberries ; but the main dependence 
 must have been the tallow dips, and even these 
 could not have been very freely used by any but 
 the well-to-do. Tallow candles were not super 
 seded by wax even in the Grand Opera House of 
 Paris until during the Regency, 1715-23. 
 
 Candle-dipping was one of the employments of 
 every winter, and sometimes became an enjoyment 
 also. The special candle-dipping of which my 
 uncle told was at the home of a certain Miss 
 Rhinelander, for whom he ever retained a tender 
 memory. 
 
 The scene was an immense kitchen. Between 
 the heavy ceiling beams, darkened and polished 
 by the years of kindly smoke, hung bunches of 
 dried herbs and of ears of corn for popping. A 
 large portion of one side of the room was taken 
 up by a fireplace so big that there was space for a 
 seat at each end after piles of logs four or five feet 
 in length had begun to send their blaze up the 
 wide chimney throat. These seats were stone 
 slabs set in the side walls of the fireplace, and- 
 as seats were only used by persons who came 
 in literally dripping with rain or melting snow. 
 Usually the slabs were employed as resting-places 
 for things to be kept hot without burning. Ad- 
 
3*9 
 
 joining the fireplace was the great brick oven. 
 Over the blaze swung long-armed cranes support 
 ing immense brass kettles, their outsides already 
 blackening with smoke, although only a few hours 
 earlier they had been scoured to a dazzling bright 
 ness. The floor, " as white as a wooden trencher," 
 was sprinkled with shining sand. Mr. Codwise 
 did not remember that there was any light be 
 yond that supplied by the blazing logs. The 
 whitewashed walls were decorated with evergreen 
 boughs. 
 
 Down the center, the longest way of the room, 
 were two long ladders lying side by side, sup 
 ported at either end upon blocks of wood about 
 44 chair-seat high." Under each ladder, at intervals 
 of a foot or so apart, stood a row of big three- 
 footed iron pots and of footless brass kettles like 
 those over the fire. On the floor, between the 
 pots and the kettles, were placed dripping-pans 
 and other vessels, both to protect the floor from 
 grease and to prevent waste of tallow. On either 
 side of each recumbent ladder was a row of chairs, 
 placed as closely together as possible. Before the 
 merrymakers were seated John by Molly and 
 Peter by Sally big and jolly black Castor and 
 Pollux had lifted from the fire the brass kettles 
 full of melted tallow, and deftly poured their con 
 tents to the depth of two or three inches more than a 
 long candle s length upon the water with which the 
 similar vessels on the floor were already half filled. 
 
320 
 
 As soon as the young folks were seated, black 
 Phyllis and Chloe, dressed in butternut homespun 
 with white kerchiefs over the shoulders, and wear 
 ing red-and-yellow plaided turbans, deftly handed 
 the candle rods, four or five to each person. From 
 each rod were suspended the wicks of twisted cot 
 ton yarn which it had been the task of the young 
 lady hostess and her friends to prepare during the 
 previous afternoon. 
 
 The first dippings were rather solemn affairs. 
 Much depended upon starting right. The least 
 crook in the wick, if not straightened, insured a 
 crooked candle; and crooked candles were 
 drippy things, burning unevenly, and guttering in 
 a way most vexatious to the good housewife. 
 About six wicks were upon each rod. They must 
 not hang too closely together, or, like too thickly 
 planted trees, they would interfere with each other 
 as they grew. They must not be too far apart, or 
 there would not be room enough for all to be 
 plunged evenly in the kettles. The wicks on each 
 rod were dipped carefully their entire length in 
 the kettle nearest to the right hand of the person 
 dipping, the wicks necessarily passing through the 
 melted tallow resting on top of the water, and 
 acquiring with each dip a thin layer of the tallow. 
 The tallow in the kettles was frequently replen 
 ished, that the wicks might never be allowed to 
 touch the water, lest a spluttering candle should 
 result. Candle-dipping must not be retarded, and 
 
3 21 
 
 it could not be hurried. Slowly the wicks were 
 immersed in the tallow, and then the loaded rods 
 were hung in the spaces between the kettles and 
 over the empty pans to allow the growing candles 
 to harden before being dipped again and again 
 until the proper circumference had been attained. 
 
 Probably two pairs of industrious hands, having 
 six kettles between them, could easily have com 
 pleted as many candles in three hours as six pairs 
 could have done under the merrymakingconditions; 
 but then, where would have been the fun of the 
 thing *? There is an old Dutch proverb to the effect 
 that "life s employments are life s enjoyments," and 
 there is abundant proof that our happily constituted 
 Dutch ancestors made enjoyments of the most pro 
 saic employments. Certainly there was pleasure 
 enough at this candle-dipping frolic, in the house 
 of a wealthy citizen, and attended by the youthful 
 elite of the little city only one century ago. Their 
 present-day successors can get no more at no 
 matter what may be the chosen amusement of 
 the hour. 
 
 It is not probable that candle-dipping bees were 
 by any means a usual festivity in or very near New 
 York city as late as the latter part of the eigh 
 teenth century. Rather should it be supposed that 
 the evening at the Rhinelander mansion was a 
 revival of an ancient custom, just as one occasion 
 ally hears in our day of some fashionable group of 
 merrymakers holding a corn-husking bee in a barn 
 
3 22 
 
 which may be finer than the dwellings of their 
 ancestors. Even so, it is a proof that when big 
 New York was little New Amsterdam, candle- 
 dipping had been one of its recognized festivities ; 
 and it is for this reason that it is here introduced. 
 
 On this occasion each swain, as well as maiden, 
 was provided with a huge apron of checked linen, 
 and had full over-sleeves of the same material, 
 closed at the wrists and above the elbows by draw 
 ing-strings, in order that no traces of soil might 
 afterward be found upon the silken hose and the 
 fine cloth knee-breeches of the young men, or on 
 the soft hanging, somewhat scanty folds of the 
 stuff gowns of the young women, or on the linen 
 ruffles and delicate laces which were worn alike by 
 both. At such industrial gatherings as this vel 
 vets and silks were worn by neither sex, but laces, 
 being washable, were permitted. 
 
 Thirty-two couples took part in that evening s 
 candle-dipping ; and if my great-uncle s opinion 
 was trustworthy, all the girls Avere beautiful and 
 graceful, and all the youths were gallant and hand 
 some. A portrait of Mr. Codwise when a young 
 man (taken by Earle) shows him as a very hand 
 some, dark-eyed youth. I used often to look up 
 from the dear old face under an ugly wig, regard 
 ing me with such kindly eyes, to the bright-eyed, 
 curly-headed portrait on the wall, and could find 
 a trace of resemblance only in the lines of the 
 brow and the aquiline nose with its strong sug- 
 
3^3 
 
 gestion of a terminating hook. In the eyes of 
 youth there is something incredible in so great a 
 change. To the dear old man, as he dwelt upon 
 the pleasures and companions of his youth, all of 
 them bore the same charms as in those happy 
 days. Unfortunately, I did not record their names, 
 but remember that there were Rutherfords, Mor 
 rises, Lawrences, Livingstons, Gracies, Stevenses, 
 Stuyvesants, Schuylers, Evertsons, Beeckmans, 
 Polhemuses, and Starrs among them, these names 
 being impressed by associations of one sort or an 
 other, while others have escaped my memory. 
 
 Of all who were present at this particular festi 
 val, " Gitty " (Gertrude) Rhinelander, the young 
 hostess, seemed to have been the sweetest and the 
 prettiest; and while the old gentleman always 
 smiled as he spoke of her, there was often a tear 
 in his faded eye while he sighed, " Poor Gitty ! " 
 Why she was thus pitied as well as admired I ever 
 wondered, but had not the courage to inquire, 
 fancying always that she had met an early death, 
 and that a part of my good great-uncle s loyal 
 heart had been buried with her. 
 
 An evening of this sort of combined work and 
 fun began as early as six o clock ; and even so the 
 aprons and over-sleeves could not be doffed and 
 the supper begin much before ten o clock. Sub 
 stantial things were those Knickerbocker suppers ! 
 Besides almost every seasonable variety of cold 
 fowl and game, there were cold roasts of beef and 
 
3 2 4 
 
 spare-rib, and platters piled high with hot sausages 
 and rollichies, while there was a great variety of 
 pasties and boundless stores of sweetmeats and 
 cake, placed all at once upon the big mahogany 
 tables supported by many slender legs. Tea was 
 never seen at late suppers, and coffee but rarely. 
 Wines, principally Madeira, were plentifully 
 served, though punch and egg-nog were the main 
 reliance. General testimony seems, to favor the 
 tradition that while the Dutch were very generous 
 providers of the wherewithal to make merry the 
 hearts of the friends within their gates, neither 
 they nor their guests of Dutch descent often be 
 came more than agreeably exhilarated. Mr. Cod- 
 wise maintained that the same could not always be 
 said of those of English, Scotch, or Irish birth or 
 parentage. 
 
 After the supper came the dancing. There 
 was no music save the fiddles of Castor and Pol 
 lux ; but was that not enough ? Have ever feet 
 tripped more merrily than to the rollicking scrape 
 of some inspired old wool-thatched fiddler, sway 
 ing to his own strains, and calling out the figures 
 in clear, rich tones that harmonized with his wild 
 dance measure as only his could do? 
 
 The closing dance, which always began at mid 
 night, was perhaps brought from Holland by 
 the first settlers. Mr. Codwise said that it was 
 thought to be very old in his time, and considered 
 to be the proper termination of festivities on all 
 
3 2 5 
 
 evening occasions. I am not aware of any exist 
 ing description of it save his own, as I took it 
 from his lips. It was called the "Fire Dance," 
 and, if possible, was always " danced around a 
 chimney." 
 
 In the Rhinelander house which I imagine 
 may have been the farmstead near the East River 
 and the present Eighty-sixth Street and Second 
 Avenue there was then a central chimney-stack, 
 which, on the ground floor, was triangular in shape. 
 On one side of it the great kitchen and its pantries 
 extended through the entire width of the house, 
 the fireplace occupying the center of the inner 
 wall. On the other side of the chimney the space 
 was divided into two large connecting rooms, each 
 having a fireplace across one corner. Any num 
 ber of couples, from four upward, might engage 
 in this dance, according to the capacity of the 
 room. On this occasion there were sixteen couples 
 in the kitchen and eight couples in each of the 
 other rooms. The partners were arranged in rows 
 opposite to each other in alternating vis-a-vis, so 
 that when the gentleman of one couple faced his 
 partner on the north, he of the next couple would 
 face his partner on the south. The leading couple 
 of each room advanced between the other dancers, 
 bowing or courtesying, and swinging alternately 
 each other and every other gentleman and lady in 
 turn as they went on between the files of dancers, 
 with many stately steps and flourishes the while. 
 
The clasped right hands of the swinging couples 
 were held as high as possible, the gentleman s left 
 arm akimbo, and the lady s left hand holding her 
 petticoats a little up, that her graceful steps and 
 pretty ankles might be the better seen, until they 
 reached the next room, where they became the 
 "foot couple." 
 
 The dance lasted until each of the thirty-two 
 couples had led in dancing round the chimney. 
 
 As each leading couple came opposite the fire 
 place in the room farthest from that in which 
 they started, they courtesied and bowed and swung 
 each other, reciting in Dutch some verses which 
 were a sort of invocation to the spirit of friendship 
 and good cheer. By this fireplace stood a tall and 
 grinning Ganymede holding a very large tray filled 
 with glasses of spiced punch a beverage deemed 
 to be a suitable preparation for a walk or a drive 
 home over the snowy highways. After the invo 
 cation each lady was expected to taste and hand 
 one of the glasses to her partner, while he with 
 out tasting handed her a smaller glass from the 
 same tray. 
 
 All this while the steps and flourishes must not 
 cease, and to succeed in draining the glasses with 
 out breaking the time-beat of the steps or spilling 
 a drop of the liquor was the aim of each, a thing 
 which could hardly have been achieved without 
 sobriety and much previous practice. This practice 
 all might easily attain, for traditions tell us that fami- 
 
3 2 7 
 
 lies of the better class among our Knickerbocker 
 ancestors met at each other s houses almost every 
 evening, save during the very longest days, for 
 purposes of amusement, and that among amuse 
 ments dancing held the first place. Children were 
 allowed to take part during the first hour or two. 
 A healthy, hearty, happy people they seem to 
 have been, doing as much good and as little harm 
 as may be in an imperfect world, leaving to their 
 fortunate descendants fine examples of family af 
 fection, productive industry, broad charity, and 
 placid content. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A MAN OF ENTERPRISE 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A MAN OF ENTERPRISE. 
 
 Medical Man and 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 An Early Medical Con 
 vention. 
 A Captain of Volunteers. 
 Advancing Money and 
 
 Supplies. 
 
 A Solvent Debtor. 
 
 Comparative Prices. 
 
 Removal to Vermont. 
 
IYING in files in the old garret, 
 carefully docketed, were several 
 hundreds, perhaps more than a 
 thousand, letters, all written in the 
 same rather orderly-looking but 
 very deceptive script; for it certainly is the most 
 illegible hand I have ever undertaken to decipher, 
 and my experience has not been small. In a prize 
 contest it could no doubt hold its own against the 
 worst chirography of Horace Greeley, or even that 
 of Napoleon Bonaparte, which is usually conceded 
 to be about on a par, for legibility, with the cunei 
 form characters of the Ninevites, in the eyes of the 
 unlearned. 
 
 All these hundreds of old letters, stretching over 
 a period of about fourteen years, were written by 
 Simeon Smith, M.D., once of Sharon, Connecti 
 cut, but at the time that these were penned resid 
 ing at Westhaven, Vermont. 
 
 Had the word been then invented, Dr. Smith 
 would certainly have been known as a " hustler," 
 for he was a man of boundless energy, versatility, 
 and resource. As a physician he practically mo- 
 
 33 1 
 
33 2 
 
 nopolized his immediate field, and was constantly 
 called in consultation throughout a stretch of coun 
 try ranging from the Hudson on the west to the 
 Connecticut on the east, and for about twenty 
 miles each way north and south from Sharon. 
 Besides this, he was a soldier, a wholesale and retail 
 merchant, a heavy dealer in real estate, and ever 
 engaged in every local enterprise demanding 
 energy, courage, capital, and public spirit. 
 
 Simeon Smith was a younger brother of the Rev. 
 C. M. Smith, and, like the latter, was born in 
 Suffield, Connecticut. He came to practise in 
 Sharon about 1759, when he was twenty-three 
 or twenty-four years old. At that period the 
 colonies afforded little opportunity for gaining 
 a thorough medical education, the usual way be 
 ing for a young man to study with some elderly 
 practitioner, whom he accompanied on his rounds, 
 and for whom he ground, baked, and brewed the 
 sometimes very queer decoctions which were pre 
 scribed for the unfortunate patients. How such a 
 student got his degree I do not know. It is cer 
 tain that comparatively few of those who then 
 practised medicine in country places, and were 
 styled " doctor," appear to have been entitled to 
 write the consequential M.D. after their names. 
 
 It is probable that Dr. Smith received his medi 
 cal education abroad ; at least, his niece, our oft- 
 quoted diarist Juliana, speaks of her " Uncle 
 Simeon " as entertaining a Thanksgiving party 
 
333 
 
 with anecdotes of "his student days in 
 borough." Writing in 1802, Dr. Smith refers to 
 a certain family event as having occurred when he 
 " was in Edinborough in 1757," and there are traces 
 extending through many years of a regular and 
 for that day a frequent correspondence (that is to 
 say, an exchange of letters as often as once or 
 twice in two or three years) between Dr. Smith 
 and two business firms, one in Edinburgh and one 
 in London. From the first of these he received 
 most of the new medical treatises as they appeared, 
 and other books as well, for the doctor was evi 
 dently a lover of good literature ; and from the 
 second came surgical instruments, drugs, and all 
 imaginable articles, from firearms to pins. In the 
 letters from both of these parties there are references 
 which would seem to prove the existence of a per 
 sonal acquaintance, while there is no evidence to 
 show that either of the foreign correspondents had 
 ever been in America. 
 
 Almost as soon as Dr. Smith arrived in Sharon 
 he established there a drug store which is believed 
 to have been one of the largest and best of its kind 
 in the " Old Thirteen." All the more important 
 drugs were imported by Dr. Smith directly from 
 London and Amsterdam, and were by him sup 
 plied to smaller dealers in many places, including 
 New Haven, Hartford, Albany, and Poughkeep- 
 sie. The goods, of whatever sort, were first de 
 livered in the original packages at the latter place, 
 
334 
 
 and from thence were distributed by Dr. Smith s 
 agent. Each year preceding 1775 the number 
 and variety of the country doctor s orders in 
 creased, still importing directly from London, 
 Amsterdam, and various ports in the West Indies, 
 until almost every salable thing that could be 
 found anywhere in the colonies could be obtained 
 from this quaint, old-fashioned country store, situ 
 ated at such a distance from the centers of trade. 
 
 As a medical practitioner Dr. Smith was highly 
 esteemed, though he did not prescribe as powerful 
 doses as were then customary, and did not apply 
 the lancet with the appalling frequency that was 
 then habitual. 
 
 A subject which occupied much of Dr. Smith s 
 thought for many years, though he was unable to 
 carry out his plans, was the establishment of a 
 school of medicine in his native State, which 
 should be the equal of any in the New World. This 
 project was not forgotten even during the stress of 
 the War of the Revolution. In February, 1780, 
 what was proudly announced as the " First Medi 
 cal Society in The Thirteen United States of 
 America since Their Independence " held a con 
 vention at Sharon by the invitation of Dr. Smith, 
 the members being entertained principally at his 
 house and those of his two brothers, the parson 
 and " Deacon Paul." The establishment of such 
 a school was a prominent topic before the conven 
 tion, but nothing could be done to forward the 
 
335 
 
 execution of the plan, either then or for many 
 years later, on account of the disturbed condition 
 of finances all through the country. 
 
 In the old garret remains a copy of " AN ORA 
 TION ON THE RISE and PROGRESS of PHYSIC 
 IN AMERICA, pronounced before the FIRST 
 MEDICAL SOCIETY in the THIRTEEN UNITED STATES 
 of AMERICA, since their INDEPENDENCE, 
 At their CONVENTION held at SHARON, on the last 
 Day of February, 1780." This was printed in 
 Hartford, by Hudson & Goodwin, in 1781, in ac 
 cordance with a vote of the aforesaid society. 
 
 In real estate Dr. Smith s transactions were, for 
 his day, extensive, embracing large tracts in Dutch- 
 ess and Columbia counties in New York, in Litch- 
 field County, Connecticut, in Berkshire County, 
 Massachusetts, in almost the whole line of western 
 Vermont, and also in Canada. At the outbreak 
 of the Revolution Dr. Smith s many pecuniary 
 interests might be supposed to have rendered 
 him likely to adopt the conservative side that 
 is, if there had been any truth in the allegation of 
 the Tory party that the Whigs numbered in their 
 ranks " only those who had nothing to lose." But 
 the doctor was as active in politics as he was in 
 everything else, and in 1776 he headed a company 
 of Sharon men, who were with General Wash 
 ington throughout his unfortunate Long Island cam 
 paign. This company was, with the exception of 
 a few men who furnished their own outfits, equipped 
 
33 6 
 
 at Dr. Smith s expense. In 1777 he raised and 
 partly equipped another company of volunteers 
 to resist the advance of Burgoyne, but breaking 
 his leg by an untimely accident, he was not able 
 to head his company this time as he had done the 
 previous year. 
 
 Dr. Smith never for one instant despaired of the 
 ultimate success of our arms, and never hesitated 
 to fill any orders for provisions, clothing, or medi 
 cal stores sent to him from the State government, 
 buying on his own personal security, which in his 
 own region was more potent than that of the State, 
 and taking the promissory notes of the State in 
 compensation. 
 
 Dr. Smith s readiness to manifest his abiding 
 faith in the eventual triumph of the revolting col 
 onies had one result which, at the time and for a 
 good many years afterward, caused him no little 
 embarrassment. 
 
 In the struggling colony of Connecticut five 
 thousand pounds had meant a very large sum of 
 money even before the war; and during the war, 
 before the Dutch loans and the French assistance 
 had come to our financial aid, the value of such a 
 sum was greater than ever. The State of Connec 
 ticut had voted to issue State bonds to what was 
 then considered by many to be a rash amount. It 
 is quite possible that the doctor had been one of 
 those who had voted for this bond issue, for he 
 represented his town in the Connecticut legislature 
 
337 
 
 for a good many sessions. If so, he was willing to 
 give practical support to his vote, and had signi 
 fied his readiness to take five thousand pounds, pro 
 posing to pay for the bonds in neat cattle or 
 in other provision supplies for the troops. Gold 
 and silver being at a premium, and Continental 
 currency being at a very low valuation, this was 
 but an extension of the prevailing system of 
 barter. 
 
 His proposal to this effect was despatched by 
 a messenger, who was expected to reach Hart 
 ford and return in about forty-eight hours, if no 
 thing went amiss. But so much usually went 
 amiss in even so short a journey as thirty or forty 
 miles that no surprise would have been felt had 
 the time been twice as long. The surprise came 
 when, early in the morning of the second day, 
 not the messenger, but two other men on horse 
 back presented themselves at the wrought-iron 
 gate before the big stone house, bringing a letter 
 from Governor Trumbull to the effect that the 
 horse of Dr. Smith s messenger having fallen lame, 
 the governor had thought best to keep the man 
 over for a day or two in Hartford, while, as the 
 matter was urgent, he sent two confidential offi 
 cials who were empowered to negotiate the whole 
 affair with his friend the doctor. 
 
 The "confidential friends" explained that cash 
 in hand solid cash, golden guineas, or Spanish 
 silver dollars was the pressing need of the State, 
 
338 
 
 and to get this they were empowered to offer a 
 considerable premium. Now, it so happened that 
 the doctor had a neighbor as neighbors were 
 then counted ; this one lived about five miles 
 away who had just inherited the accumulated 
 stockingfuls of a miserly uncle. To this neigh 
 bor the doctor forthwith betook himself, and upon 
 his personal note borrowed ^3330, for which sum 
 the governor s "friends" delivered a handsomely 
 executed and duly signed State bond for ^5000. 
 
 On the afternoon of the third day after his de 
 parture the doctor s own messenger returned with 
 a sorry horse and a sorrier tale. To avoid the 
 inconvenience of leaving this messenger without 
 a designation we will call him X. 
 
 When X had reached Hartford he proceeded 
 directly to the governor s office, where he was re 
 ceived by two men, who, after closely question 
 ing him and reading the letter, as they said they 
 had a right to do, being the governor s deputies, 
 explained that the governor was out of town for 
 a few days, but they could attend to everything 
 during his absence. Meanwhile they treated X 
 with a pleasing cordiality. Taking him to a cer 
 tain tavern, which they assured him was the best 
 in the country, they saw that he had a good supper 
 and left him there to wait. This he did very will 
 ingly, waits of three or four days being the cus 
 tomary thing in the days when an absent person 
 could only be summoned by a messenger on horse- 
 
339 
 
 back. Poor X did not remember how or when 
 he went to bed that night, but he was certain that 
 he did not awake till a very late hour the next 
 afternoon. When his head was finally clear enough 
 to enable him to think about it, he went out to the 
 stables, only to find that his fine horse had gone very 
 lame. Taking him to a farrier was impossible, so 
 the farrier was brought to the horse, and discovered 
 that a long and rusty nail had been driven up into 
 the horse s foot, causing a severe if not permanent 
 injury. In the course of their talk X asked the 
 farrier if he knew when the governor might be 
 expected to return. 
 
 It then appeared that the governor had not been 
 out of town at all. The farrier knew, because he 
 had seen him every day, and sometimes three or 
 four times a day, as he had to pass the governor s 
 house on his way to and from his own. 
 
 Petty frauds were frequent enough in colonial 
 and Revolutionary days, but frauds which might 
 involve those who were nearly connected with af 
 fairs of state were not often heard of^ and to the 
 bucolic mind were almost inconceivable ; yet some 
 thing flickered through the poor messenger s brain. 
 The lateness of the hour, his own condition, that 
 of his horse, and the obvious lie told by the two 
 so friendly clerks perhaps all these things taken 
 together might mean something? If so, that mean 
 ing could bode no good to his errand, though what 
 shape the evil might take he could not guess. 
 
34Q 
 
 Proceeding to the governor s house as speedily 
 as he might, X found his Excellency already in 
 a greatly perturbed state of mind. Two men who 
 had long been employed by him in confidential 
 business, and especially in business relating to the 
 State bonds, had suddenly disappeared. They 
 had been seen late on the previous evening, well 
 mounted and carrying full saddle-bags, going west 
 ward. With them had also disappeared the entire 
 issue of State bonds, lacking the governor s signa 
 ture, but otherwise quite correct. Constables had 
 been sent in pursuit, but the forgers had about 
 sixteen hours the start of them, and in preelectric 
 days that was usually equivalent to an escape, es 
 pecially as the constables had started on the theory 
 that if the men were seen going westward they 
 must have intended going in the opposite direc 
 tion, and some of the pursuers had gone down 
 the Connecticut River, and some had turned 
 northward. 
 
 After many a long day not until about 1794, 
 in fact one of the forgers was apprehended and 
 brought back to Connecticut for trial, but what 
 the result was the old letters do not inform us. 
 Two other would-be supporters of the State s fi 
 nances, in addition to Dr. Smith, had been vic 
 timized before the forgeries had become known, 
 but neither of the two rendered any aid to the 
 doctor or the State in their persistent pursuit of 
 the criminals. In the end only one was appre- 
 
bended. He was discovered among the refugee 
 Tories in New Brunswick by Dr. Smith himself, 
 while on a prospecting tour he was making, on 
 the outlook for mines of coal or of iron ore. 
 
 The forgeries were said to have been singularly 
 perfect. Dr. Smith was well acquainted with the 
 handwriting of Governor Trumbull, and the forged 
 letter, when compared with the undoubted letters 
 of the governor which Dr. Smith had received 
 at various times, though it might have excited 
 the suspicions of a modern chirographic expert, 
 was acknowledged by the governor to be perfect 
 enough to have deceived himself. For a time the 
 existence of these forged bonds caused much per 
 plexity to the State government, and would have 
 caused still more had intelligence concerning them 
 been published through the length and breadth of 
 the land, as it would now be. There were a few 
 advantages to be derived from the slow methods 
 of the time. 
 
 In mines of every description Dr. Smith was 
 always interested. When buying real estate he 
 always had a clause inserted granting to his owner 
 ship all the mines thereon, "whether opened or yet 
 to be discovered," and whenever he sold any land, 
 let the same be much or little, all such rights were 
 expressly reserved by him. His Edinburgh corre 
 spondent had standing orders always to send him 
 any new book of importance concerning mines and 
 their workings. Some of these, both in Latin and 
 
342 
 
 in English, still remain in the old home, and prob 
 ably there are others at his fine Vermont residence. 
 But I do not know that any appreciable part of 
 the two fortunes which the doctor made came from 
 his mining ventures. 
 
 By the close of the Revolutionary War, when 
 he had time to think about it, Dr. Smith found 
 that, to use a modernism, he had " expanded too 
 much." The times were hard, very, ve i y hard, for 
 all. The Continental money had fallen so low as 
 to be practically worthless. Gold and silver had 
 almost disappeared. Barter took the place of coin, 
 and when a debt could not be paid in produce or 
 in goods, then there was the debtors prison; and 
 into that most illogical of all legal devices must the 
 honestest of debtors helplessly fall if his creditors 
 were pressing. 
 
 The illiberal, unjust, and unwise system of im 
 prisonment for debt was about as disastrous in its 
 results upon the creditors as upon the debtors, but 
 it was an astonishing number of years before any 
 appreciable number of the former seem to have 
 perceived this fact. 
 
 To show the operation of the generally de 
 pressed state of finances, it may be well to quote 
 some of the prices brought by imported articles, 
 and the proportionately small rates received for ar 
 ticles of home production, as shown by Dr. Smith s 
 account-books for 1785-90, the items being taken 
 at random. 
 
343 
 
 Beef, by the quarter, brought one cent per 
 pound ; sewing-silk was sold at " six pence fer 
 yard" A pound of sugar was " two shillings 
 thripence " ; a bushel of oats was " two shillings 
 sixpence." Five hundred feet of pine boards 
 brought one pound two shillings and sixpence, 
 and two " Bandanna " handkerchiefs were worth as 
 much. But the worst state of things is shown by 
 the price, or rather the no-price, of the Continental 
 currency, six hundred and sixty-nine Continental 
 dollars being exchanged (in 1785) for only five 
 pounds and four cents of what was known in Con 
 necticut as " York State money," which was rated 
 at about half the value of the pound sterling. As 
 paper money was so nearly valueless, the gold and 
 silver coins of foreign nations were employed when 
 barter would not suffice. This must have added 
 greatly to the difficulties of business. In 1794 
 the sum of one hundred and thirty pounds and 
 some shillings was paid in " pistoles," " pieces jo- 
 hannis," Spanish dollars, guineas, and three New 
 York bank bills, the latter at a considerable dis 
 count. Each piece of the gold was weighed sepa 
 rately and no two of the same nominal value were 
 rated alike. 
 
 The demands made against Dr. Smith grew 
 more and more urgent, but, full of resources as 
 he was, he kept on satisfying them until at last, 
 four years after the close of the war, he was obliged 
 to realize that there was no relief in the near future, 
 
344 
 
 anci that without putting himself beyond the juris 
 diction of his State he would eventually find him 
 self at the mercy of some narrow-minded creditor 
 who could put his debtor in a place where the 
 most resourceful of living men would find himself 
 as helpless as the dead Julius Caesar. 
 
 Summoning his brother, the Rev. C. M. Smith, 
 and the latter s son (the "brother Jack " of the 
 diary), then a stripling lawyer of twenty-two years, 
 the doctor laid his case before them, and also his 
 plans to retrieve his fortunes. He made over to 
 his brother the larger and more valuable parts of 
 his property in and about Sharon, on the condition 
 that his brother should satisfy all the most pressing 
 of his debts. By realizing upon the more imme 
 diately salable portions of the doctor s property, as 
 well as of his own and that of his wife, the parson, 
 after a time, was able to accomplish this. As usual, 
 the biggest creditors were the least pressing. The 
 man who had furnished the ^3330 to buy the 
 forged note, having always received his interest 
 with regularity, was present at this interview of 
 the brothers, and would not accept of any security 
 for the amount which was still due him ; but this 
 was eventually paid, together with all the other 
 debts, in full. 
 
 Besides a good many farms and other odd bits 
 of real estate scattered through three States, the 
 doctor still possessed about twenty-five thousand 
 acres of land in Vermont; and to this youngest of 
 
345 
 
 the thirteen States he and his wife wended their 
 toilsome way. It is at this point that his many 
 letters begin. The new State needed countless 
 things, and the doctor was the man to supply 
 them. In every letter there is a demand for this, 
 that, or the other thing that is " absolutely neces 
 sary and must be sent forthwith." Herds of cattle, 
 unnumbered yokes of oxen, " because they can 
 travel these trackless wilds better than horses,"- 
 wagons, cart wheels, sleds, " tools for a wheelright 
 and a man to use them," a "farrier and all the 
 tools for his trade," "machinery for a sawmill of 
 the biggest kind," a " linnen and a woollen loom 
 and a weaver for each of them, good ones who 
 understand their trade," were among the things 
 sent for, while his old correspondents in Great 
 Britain, Holland, and the West Indies forwarded 
 to his new abode and his new store all the things 
 which they had been wont to supply to his first. 
 
 In Vermont all of the doctor s enterprises pros 
 pered, and as rapidly as possible both principal 
 and interest of all the debts which he had left 
 behind were repaid; and when he wrote his last 
 letter to " Dear Johnny," a month or two before 
 his death, in 1804, he was able to say: 
 
 " At last I owe no man on earth a penny that 
 cannot be paid at a moment s notice, and I now 
 have leisure to devote to my favorite project, 
 the establishment in my native State of as fine a 
 
346 
 
 Medical College and Hospital connected therewith 
 as may be in any Country. I am not yet seventy, 
 my health is good. I hope to live to see it started. 
 In my time Great things have happened and 
 greater are to come. I wish I could live a Thou 
 sand Years ! I suppose your Father will shake 
 his head over this, but I believe the Lord has a 
 great work for this Country to do, and / want to 
 see it!" 
 
 In spite of this desire and his good health, the 
 brave old doctor had not reached seventy years 
 when he calmly fell asleep. All his worldly affairs 
 were in good condition, and he left to his widow 
 and to his favorite nephew what, for his day, was 
 considered the large fortune of something over one 
 hundred thousand dollars. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A COUNTRY PARSON S USEFUL LIFE 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A COUNTRY PARSON S 
 USEFUL LIFE. 
 
 Ancestors. 
 Personal Characteristics. 
 
 Small-pox in Sharon. 
 
 "Old Jack" and "Billy 
 
 G- -. 
 
 A Lesson in Kindliness. 
 
 Influence with Indians. 
 
 The Sabbath Made for 
 
 Man. 
 
HE Rev. Cotton Mather Smith was 
 a member of what the "Auto 
 crat of the Breakfast Table" and 
 Richard Grant White used to de 
 light in calling the Brahman class 
 of New England, meaning the descendants of the 
 early ministers and magistrates of the Plymouth, 
 Massachusetts, and Connecticut colonies. 
 
 The ministers from whom he was descended 
 were the Rev. Henry Smith of Wethersfield, and 
 the Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, while he 
 was collaterally related to all the " preaching Ma 
 thers," and to the Rev. John Cotton of Boston. 
 Mr. Smith s father, grandfather, and great-grand 
 father of his own surname all fought in the numer 
 ous colonial wars. A colonial governor and a 
 major-general were numbered among his ancestors, 
 besides many magistrates and officers of lesser 
 rank. Hence it is not wonderful that while Mr. 
 Smith was a man of peace he was also in favor of 
 fighting in a good cause. 
 
 The Rev. A. R. Robbins of Norfolk, Connecti 
 cut, who was for many years the beloved pastor of 
 
 349 
 
35 
 
 the Congregational church in that place, was a 
 lifelong friend of Mr. Smith s, never allowing a 
 year to pass without an exchange of visits, though 
 this was not an easy matter with the twenty miles 
 of steep hills intervening. A son of the former, 
 the Rev. Thomas Robbins of Hartford, Connecti 
 cut, well remembered his father s friend, and writing 
 in 1850 said : 
 
 * 
 
 "The Rev. Cotton Mather Smith was min 
 ister of a parish in the immediate neighborhood 
 of my father s (Norfolk, Connecticut), and was 
 often a visitor at our house in my early years. 
 My personal acquaintance with him was chiefly 
 in that period. . . . Mr. Smith was rather 
 tall . . . and united great benignity and acute 
 intelligence in his expression. His manners were 
 remarkably polished, so that he might have ap 
 peared to advantage even in a Court ; they were a 
 delightful compound of simplicity, grace and dig 
 nity ; while on the other hand they were entirely 
 free from hauteur or ostentation, and he could 
 make the humblest man in the community feel at 
 home in his company. . . . He never performed 
 an act or uttered a word that was fitted needlessly 
 to wound others or to lessen the influence of his 
 own fine character. . . . He had a good deal of 
 unction in the pulpit, but his manner was simple, 
 natural and graceful." 
 
 The sermons of that time were usually written 
 
3? 1 
 
 out in full, and read in a more or less pleasing 
 manner; but though the outlines of Mr. Smith s 
 sermons were carefully thought out in the study, 
 he trusted to the inspiration of the moment for the 
 dress in which he offered them to his congregation. 
 Many instances of his eloquence are still tradition 
 ally related. As it is a matter of record that the 
 church of the Sharon pastor was twice enlarged 
 during his ministry to accommodate the increasing 
 numbers of his hearers, and that persons residing 
 in parishes from ten to twenty-five miles distant 
 from his own were among the frequent attendants 
 at his ministrations, it is probable that his confi 
 dence in the inspiration of the moment was well 
 founded. 
 
 Though Mr. Smith s fame as an eloquent 
 preacher was locally great, it was as a pastor that 
 he was longest remembered. 
 
 In my girlhood there were still many old per 
 sons who had known him, and the mingled feel 
 ing of reverence and affection with which they 
 mentioned his name was pleasant to know. The 
 anecdotes were many, showing him in many lights. 
 Some persons told how, " during the awful small 
 pox winter, when the weather was as cold as was 
 ever known in New England, he and his heroic 
 wife banished themselves for three months from 
 their own house, taking refuge in an outbuilding, 
 where their indispensable wants were supplied by 
 an old slave who had had the dreaded disease, that 
 
35 2 
 
 they might be free to come and go while minister 
 ing to the sick and dying, without endangering 
 the neighbors or their own household." This was 
 related to me by a very old lady Mrs. Deming, 
 mother of the late Dr. Ralph Deming, a " beloved 
 physician" of Sharon, who died in 1877. " ^ 
 was no wonder that all loved Parson Smith," said 
 the old lady. " He was the good shepherd who 
 was always ready to lay down his life for his flock." 
 
 Another has recorded that "this visitation of the 
 smallpox put all Mr. Smith s benevolence, con 
 trivance, activity and fortitude in requisition. . . . 
 For nineteen successive days and nights the hum 
 ble imitator of Him who went about healing all 
 manner of sickness and all manner of disease 
 among the people, put not off his clothes for rest." 
 Mr. Smith was possessed of no little medical skill, 
 and it was always freely at the service of any who 
 required it. 
 
 An instance which shows the parson s sense of 
 humor, combined with a gentle and kindly dig 
 nity, was told by my grandfather, who himself 
 strongly resembled his grandfather in these and 
 other qualities. Among the orphans, several of 
 whom were always sheltered and cared for in the 
 parsonage, was one young incorrigible who, by 
 way of punishment for some fault, was one fine 
 Sunday in June forbidden to attend morning ser 
 vice. This might not, nowadays, be deemed a 
 severe chastisement, but then the Sundays gave 
 
353 
 
 the one opportunity of the week for social inter 
 course. 
 
 While the sermon was in progress, presumably 
 to the satisfaction of all present in the old meeting 
 house, there was a movement among the boys 
 who filled the first gallery, and an irresistible but 
 half-smothered chuckle ran around among them, 
 as fire runs through stubble. The second or top 
 most gallery, where the slaves sat, was in a still 
 more visible and audible commotion. Even the 
 decorous tenants of the big square pews on the 
 ground floor seemed to find some difficulty in fol 
 lowing the thread of the parson s discourse. The 
 parson redoubled his efforts, and at the same time 
 the commotion in the auditory was increasing. 
 
 The preacher stopped and looked around with 
 some displeasure, but more wonder. Every one 
 was looking in his direction, and yet no one was 
 looking at him. His wife was biting her lips with 
 a vexation belied by her laughing eyes. 
 
 The old slave Jack could stand it no longer. 
 Making his way behind the seats crowded by his 
 brethren, whose ivories were unusually exposed, to 
 the end of the topmost gallery, which was that in 
 which he presided as the self-constituted main- 
 tainer of discipline among hisown race, Jack stepped 
 forth upon the flat top of the massive sounding- 
 board, which was on a level with this gallery floor 
 and hung like a threatening extinguisher above 
 the pulpit. Here he was for a moment in full 
 
 2 3 
 
354 
 
 view of the congregation, but hidden from the 
 parson s sight, until he reappeared returning to his 
 own seat, and bearing in his arms a very happy and 
 complacent black-and-tan dog, which had been 
 decorated by a pair of the parson s best bands, and 
 then released from the durance in which he always 
 had to be kept on Sunday to prevent him from fol 
 lowing his master to church. The eager Carlo had 
 found that he could not get in by the dqors from 
 the vestibule into the body of the meeting-house, 
 or even by those of the first gallery, so he had as 
 cended the stairs leading to the top gallery, and 
 then had reached the sounding-board, on which he 
 had been gravely seated, apparently well pleased 
 with himself and his ministerial garb, and, to those 
 who had perceptions of the ludicrous, seemed to 
 be mocking his unconscious master in the pulpit 
 beneath. 
 
 As Jack reappeared bearing the unresisting dog, 
 - for Carlo was a faithful friend, and cultivated no 
 color prejudices, the aggrieved old slave turned 
 toward his master, breaking all meeting-house rules 
 by exclaiming, with irrepressible indignation : 
 " Massa, massa ! Dis some mo o dat Bill G s 
 debiltry. He got o be stop somehow I " 
 
 This was too much. From the pulpit along the 
 crowded seats of the two galleries even to the de 
 corous depths of the deacons pew on the main 
 floor, a laughter that was more than rippling was 
 both seen and heard, clearly to the scandal of the 
 
355 
 
 frowning and belligerent Jack, and perhaps to that of 
 some of the severer magnates of the pews. But what 
 would you *? The pranks as well as the misfortunes 
 
 of the mischievous Billy G were well known 
 
 but always unexpected to the little community ; and 
 the sense of humor is one which has seldom been 
 denied to kindly natured folk. The parson was 
 never troubled about his own dignity, probably 
 feeling it too firm to need protection, so he laughed 
 with the rest, while gently bidding Jack to relieve 
 the dog of his offending finery and take him home. 
 Then, turning to the congregation, he said that the 
 little boy s jest had been made without any mali 
 cious intent, and without a sense of the disrespect it 
 would be showing to the Lord s house. The child, 
 he said, was too young to realize this, and " as we 
 would have our own sins of either wilfulness or 
 ignorance pardoned by our Heavenly Father, so 
 must we pardon the offenses of children, and espe 
 cially those of the fatherless." From this he talked 
 on, dwelling upon the duties of all members of 
 Christ s church toward the younger and weaker of 
 the flock, until, after the benediction, " his hearers 
 could only greet each other silently for the tender 
 emotions which filled their hearts." 
 
 Neither public nor private admonition was given 
 to the delinquent Billy (save possibly by old Jack 
 in the barn), and the flow of his jokes did not 
 cease, though after this they were of a less public 
 character. In later years he went to South Caro- 
 
35 6 
 
 lina, and there became a physician of some local 
 reputation, though dying before reaching the prime 
 of life. Recognizing his approaching end, he left 
 to Parson Smith the care of his two motherless 
 children and their little inheritance a sure proot 
 of the confidence he had retained in the faithful 
 kindness of the friend who had pardoned so many 
 of his own boyish offenses. 
 
 Indeed, Mr. Smith ever possessed a certain boy 
 ishness of heart which, from his earliest years to 
 his latest, gave him great influence over the young 
 of all classes. While still a college student he was 
 associated with Dr. Jonathan Edwards in the charge 
 of a school which had been established among the 
 Indians at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Here were 
 early brought into play the same powers of intel 
 lect and the generous qualities of heart which dis 
 tinguished him through life. 
 
 His influence over his wild pupils, which was 
 great, was first gained by his agility, strength, and 
 skill in all athletic sports, especially in marksman 
 ship, in leaping and in running, in which things 
 it is stated that he easily excelled all his white 
 competitors and most Indians. The Indians could 
 well appreciate the young minister s superiority in 
 a line so peculiarly their own, and the influence it 
 gained over them was increased and retained by the 
 unfailing justice and perfect courtesy which charac 
 terized all his dealings with them. "At the same 
 time," says Dr. Sprague, in his " Annals of the 
 American Pulpit," " he labored for and with them 
 
357 
 
 with untiring diligence and corresponding success, 
 and became a proficient in their language while im 
 parting to them his own." 
 
 Twenty years after Mr. Smith s labors in Stock- 
 bridge had ended, two of his former Indian pupils 
 accompanied Colonel Hinman s regiment on its 
 trying march through the wilderness to Fort Ti- 
 conderoga. During the dangerous illness there of 
 their former teacher and then chaplain, these In 
 dians devoted themselves to his service, and that 
 of his wife after her arrival, with a touching assi 
 duity. On his return to Sharon they helped to bear 
 his litter for the journey, which consumed nearly 
 two weeks, although burdens of any kind were usu 
 ally despised by their race ; and for many years 
 thereafter they paid him an annual visit. They 
 always spoke with great pride of their quondam 
 teacher s youthful athletic accomplishments, al 
 though similar gifts were not then so unusual in 
 the clerical profession as they afterward became. 
 
 In Mr. Smith s time all country ministers were, 
 by force of circumstances rather than choice, both 
 farmers and huntsmen; and sometimes they were 
 carpenters and smiths as well, and saw nothing in 
 congruous in their diverse employments. Certainly 
 their congregations must have been the gainers by 
 the exercise which made their spiritual head so 
 physically robust, the health of the mind depend 
 ing so much upon that of the body. 
 
 As an army chaplain Mr. Smith seems to have 
 been very successful in a more than usually difficult 
 
situation. General Schuyler, one of the best officers 
 and most honorable men of our Revolutionary War, 
 highly esteemed by General Washington and other 
 officers whose good opinions were medals of honor, 
 was heartily disliked by the New England troops. 
 The reason for this dislike is well explained by Mrs. 
 Smith in her account of her journey to join her hus 
 band at Ticonderoga. She says : 
 
 " My Husband, as Chaplain, had used his influ 
 ence with the men to soften the bitterness of feeling 
 which so many of them entertained toward the 
 4 Dutchman, as they were wont somewhat con 
 temptuously to style General Schuyler. The latter 
 is a man of the purest patriotism and of much 
 ability, but he was then unused to the state of 
 things in our Colonies of New England, whereby 
 a man of the best birth and breeding may yet be a 
 mechanic or a tradesman by reason of the poverty 
 of the land, and the fact that so many of our fore 
 fathers had been obliged to give up all their es 
 tates when for conscience sake they left the Mother 
 Country. On the contrary such of the settlers from 
 Holland as were of good family were able to bring 
 their worldly goods with them to the new land and 
 by reason of the fertility of the soil and their advan 
 tageous trade with the Indians were never obliged 
 to resort to handicrafts for a livelihood. 
 
 " My Husband has many times told me of the 
 surprise of General Schuyler to find that one of our 
 
 
359 
 
 Trained Band Men whom he knew to be but a 
 carpenter, was at the same time a man of much 
 influence and an office holder in his native town, 
 being the son of a magistrate appointed by the 
 Crown. He could never be brought to see that 
 while we in Connecticut were all so much on a 
 social equality, it was yet an equality on a high 
 plane ; while on the other hand it was difficult for 
 our men (so many of whom, though poor, had re 
 ceived the best education the country afforded) 
 not to feel themselves superior to a parcel of 
 stupid Dutchmen , (thus discourteously, I grieve 
 to say, were they often referred to), many of whom 
 spoke but imperfect English and almost none of 
 whom had received a college training. My Hus 
 band had always been striving to bring about a 
 better understanding between the troops of Con 
 necticut and those of New York, and had thus 
 gained and still retains the active friendship of 
 General Schuyler, while he was always much liked 
 as well as reverenced by all the soldiers in the 
 command." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. McEwing of New London, Con 
 necticut, writing in 1855, wnen there were still 
 living many old people who remembered Mr. 
 Smith, says : 
 
 " The American Revolution found Mr. Smith 
 in the maturity of his powers, wielding, within 
 
360 
 
 his sphere, a great influence. He had dedi 
 cated himself to the Christian ministry, but this 
 did not make him too sacred to give himself 
 to his country. His brethren, the Congregational 
 clergymen of New England, were, at large, distin 
 guished patriots in the struggle for independence. 
 None of them in the incipient movements of the 
 Revolution, or in providing for the hardships and 
 conflicts of the War, brought the people of their 
 charges up to a higher tone of action than did the 
 Pastor of Sharon. His sermons, his prayers, the 
 hymns he gave to the choir, were impulsive to 
 patriotism, . . . but domestic action did not satisfy 
 him. Into the momentous campaign of 1775 he 
 entered as chaplain to a regiment in the Northern 
 Army. His influence in producing good order 
 and cultivating morals in the carnp, in consoling 
 the sick " (and, it might be added, in taking 
 care of them), "and in inspiring the army with 
 firmness and intrepidity attracted the admiration 
 of all." 
 
 In Sedgwick s " History of Sharon " it is stated : 
 
 " Parson Smith, like the other clergymen of 
 the day, was a most ardent and decided Whig, and 
 his personal influence contributed not a little to 
 lead the public mind in the right channel. . . . 
 The intelligence of the battle of Lexington was 
 brought to Sharon on the Sabbath, and Mr. Smith 
 
 
361 
 
 at the close of the morning exercises, announced it 
 from the pulpit and made some remarks tending to 
 arouse the spirit of the people to firmness and re 
 sistance. Immediately after the congregation was 
 dismissed, the militia and volunteers, to the num 
 ber of one hundred men, paraded on the west 
 side of the street, south of the meeting-house 
 and prepared to march immediately to the scene 
 of action." 
 
 After Mr. Smith s enforced return from the 
 fighting field he still continued his active work 
 of inspiring the soldiers, keeping the home-stay 
 ers up to their duty as providers for those in the 
 field, and comforting those who had sent, and 
 sometimes those who had lost, their best be 
 loved. 
 
 In still more practical ways was manifested the 
 parson s earnestness in the cause. During this war 
 the only sources of food-supply were to be found 
 in the unharassed portions of the thirteen States, 
 and it was as essential that every possible spear of 
 grain or hill of corn should be raised to supply 
 provisions for the army as it was to furnish the men 
 and ammunition. 
 
 During the early part of one week in the sum 
 mer of 1779 a very large quantity of wheat had 
 been cut by the Sharon farmers, and bound into 
 sheaves, and these, in view of threatening rain, not 
 being sufficiently cured to put into the barns, had 
 
362 
 
 been piled into shocks in such a way as to shed 
 the rain if it did not prove to be of too pene 
 trating a quality. But this it proved to be, and 
 the hearts of all grew heavier and heavier, for 
 the continued wet was a menace of " sprouted 
 wheat," from which wholesome flour could not 
 be made. 
 
 Thursday, Friday, Saturday, the rain poured 
 down upon the wheat-fields, of which more had 
 been sown than ever before in the history of the 
 township, owing to the country s pressing needs, 
 and the crops per acre were greater than ever 
 before, as the early part of the season had been 
 favorable in that vicinity. 
 
 On Saturday, at sunset, the rain was still steadily 
 descending, but on the Sunday morning the sun 
 rose brilliantly. According to the creed of the 
 weather-wise, any change in the weather that could 
 be depended upon to last for more than twenty- 
 four hours must take place in the daytime. It 
 was plain to the dullest that another rain upon 
 the wheat would leave it in a hopeless condition. 
 
 Yet, with few exceptions, the farmers all assem 
 bled at the meeting-house on the Sabbath morning, 
 filled with gravest apprehensions concerning the 
 fate of the precious wheat, and at the same time 
 showing a grim determination to lose it, if needs 
 must, rather than to do wrong. 
 
 The people usually mustered at the church a 
 good while before the stated service time, while 
 
3 6 3 
 
 the parson was always punctual at the moment. 
 On this day he was descried approaching the meet 
 ing-house at an even more rapid pace than usual, 
 and a full half-hour earlier, and not accompanied 
 by his family or near neighbors. 
 
 Hastily mounting the southern flight of exterior 
 steps, and standing there, the parson announced that 
 there would be no sermons preached by him that 
 day. The wheat was in danger, and, in the great 
 struggle in which they were engaged, wheat meant 
 human lives. As the Sabbath was made for man, 
 it was plain that to save lives on that day was a 
 proper Sabbatical labor. He then, still standing at 
 the top of the steps, offered a very short prayer, 
 and dismissed the congregation with a benediction, 
 and an exhortation to all who had no endangered 
 wheat of their own to give their services to those 
 who needed them most. 
 
 So numerous were the laborers, so well and 
 rapidly did they all work, so briskly blew the dry 
 ing wind, and so hotly shone the harvest sun, that 
 by the time the night dews had begun to gather 
 the crop had been saved. 
 
 In this labor the women and even the children 
 had borne their share ; for they could toss up the 
 wet wheat-spears by forkfuls to catch the wind and 
 sun as well as could the men. Very early in the morn 
 ing the parson had sent his household into his own 
 fields, and had advised all of his near-by neighbors 
 of his opinion in regard to the duty of the moment. 
 
3 6 4 
 
 His daughter Juliana, writing of this unwonted 
 Sabbath-day employment, says : 
 
 " Papa, Mamma, Sister Betsey, Brothers Jack 
 and Tommy and I all worked as hard as we could 
 all day, not only in our wheat, but in that of Uncle 
 Simeon and Uncle Paul after ours was all done." 
 
 Such an instance is worth recording, because it 
 is by no means likely that it was the only one of 
 its kind, though so much has been said about the 
 ultra-strictness of the Puritans. They certainly 
 did not approve of " needless labors or vain recre 
 ations on the Lord s Day," but I think it will be 
 found that they believed in doing whatever was 
 necessary to forward the undertakings which seemed 
 righteous in their eyes on any day of the week. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 -WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL" 
 
\f 
 
 ? 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 " WELL DONE, GOOD AND 
 FAITHFUL." 
 
 The Meeting-house as a 
 News Depot. 
 
 A Season of Discourage 
 ment. 
 
 A Meeting-house of the 
 Eighteenth Century. 
 
 The News of Burgoyne s 
 Surrender. 
 
 A Half-century Sermon. 
 Descendants. 
 
the earliest days the meet- 
 "W-^ v ing-house was the place to hear, 
 W^ an d tne minister was the person 
 to announce a ^ political news of 
 importance. During the Revo 
 lutionary War there was an ever-growing anx 
 iety to hear from the distant " front," so very 
 distant it was in those days of toilsome com 
 munication ! and on Sunday mornings, fully 
 an hour before service time, people would begin 
 to gather around the meeting-house from every 
 direction; for it was here, if anywhere, that private 
 news from the army might be met. Opportunities 
 for sending letters home were few ; but sometimes 
 a packet might be received that had passed from 
 hand to hand. A might have happened to be 
 coming from the Army of the North down as far 
 as Albany, and there have given the packet to B, 
 who chanced to have business in Red Hook, at 
 which place he found that C was going to Pough- 
 keepsie, whence the latter s friend D might be 
 called to go to Pleasant Valley, and there find E 
 ready to convey the precious missive to the wait- 
 
368 
 
 ing friends in Sharon, who considered intelligence 
 less than a fortnight old as fresh news. 
 
 In the autumn of 1777 it was many weeks since 
 one of these rare bundles of letters from the North 
 ern army had reached Sharon. Sad to sternness were 
 the faces which gathered about the high steps of the 
 meeting-house on a certain bright October morning. 
 
 For a long time everything had seerned to be 
 going against the revolting colonies. They had 
 lost New York, Newport, Ticonderoga, and Phila 
 delphia, had suffered wasting defeats on Long 
 Island and at Fort Washington, and been badly 
 beaten at Brandywine and Germantown. To off 
 set these losses were only the victory at Trenton 
 and the partial success at Princeton. The British 
 controlled the Lower Hudson, and made destructive 
 raids upon southern Connecticut, marking their 
 course by the ashes of defenseless towns and the 
 blood of non-combatants. 
 
 On the north the advance of Burgoyne had been 
 nearly unchecked. On the west, in the State of 
 New York, lay the notoriously Royalist county of 
 Dutchess. Thus this part of western Connecticut 
 seemed to lie between three fires, and, unprotected 
 as it was left because nearly all its able-bodied men 
 were in Gates s army, it had many and grave rea 
 sons for apprehension. When the eyes of one met 
 those of another, there was an unuttered question 
 in every glance. 
 
 While the near-by members of the congregation 
 
3 6 9 
 
 came on foot, probably most of those from a dis 
 tance arrived on horseback. The meeting-house 
 itself I can delineate from the descriptions given 
 me by my father, Robert Worthington Smith, who 
 remembered it well, as it was not taken down until 
 1824, having been used for sixty-one years. The 
 house was about eighty feet by sixty in dimensions, 
 and stood about midway in the broad street, and 
 nearly in front of the present edifice, upon a some 
 what steep pitch of rocks which has since been 
 blasted away and filled in, so that only a gentle 
 green slope remains. 
 
 The house had three doors of entrance, each 
 reached by long flights of stairs on the north, east, 
 and south sides. The greatest length of the 
 meeting-house was from north to south, but the 
 three main aisles, one quite broad and the other 
 two narrower, ran from east to west, while short 
 cross-aisles connected the north and south doors 
 with the main side aisles. On the west side, 
 reached by a flight of steps some sixteen feet in 
 height, was the lofty pulpit, overhung by the 
 cumbrous extinguisher-like sounding-board. The 
 square pews were divided into three groups, the 
 middle group being for families, that on the south 
 side for maidens who had no family ties and did 
 not belong to the choir, and for widows ; that on 
 the north side was reserved for single men who did 
 not sing. The front pews of the central group 
 were considered the posts of honor. 
 
37 
 
 Around three sides of the building ran high gal 
 leries, the lower one opposite the pulpit containing 
 the choir. Starting from the center of the choir, 
 the bass and counter-singers tapered off toward the 
 north side gallery, where sat the taller boys nearest 
 the choir, and after them the smaller boys nearer 
 to the pulpit. Starting again from the middle of 
 the choir and going south, the " air " and "second " 
 singers (wearing funny little close, white caps in 
 stead of the big bonnets, which were supposed to, 
 and probably did, break the volume of the wearers 
 voices) shaded off by soft gradations to young 
 girls who held hymn-books and tried to appear 
 unconscious of the fact that there were boys (with 
 eyes) in the opposite gallery. Over the first ran a 
 second but narrower gallery, set apart, the one side 
 for the male and the other for the female slaves. 
 
 Into the church which was built in 1824, near 
 to the old one, stoves were immediately placed ; but 
 in that in which Parson Smith preached no such 
 comfort was known. This building was finished 
 in 1768, and though there were no fireplaces, the 
 danger of setting fire to their new church by means 
 of the foot-stoves began immediately to exercise 
 the minds of the church-members, and a fine of 
 ten shillings was exacted for each foot-stove that 
 might be carelessly left within the church after the 
 hours of service. 
 
 At the last stroke of the bell, on a certain Sun 
 day of late October in 1777, a quick, emphatic 
 
37 1 
 
 footfall rang on the stone step leading from the 
 ground to the southern entrance, and all in the 
 building rose, not so much to show their deference 
 to the pastor whom they all loved as to manifest 
 their reverence to the ordained servant of their 
 common Master. As the preacher came down the 
 aisle he gravely and graciously acknowledged the 
 bows and courtesies of the people in the pews. 
 After ascending the stairs to the pulpit, he paused 
 a moment to bow to the front, then to the right, 
 and then to the left. This was the signal that all 
 might now be seated, and in the general soft rustle 
 that ensued the pastor waited with bowed head. 
 
 On this day both prayers and hymns seemed 
 prophetic at least, every person who told of it 
 long after always said so. When the text was 
 announced, "Watchman, what of the night? The 
 watchman saith, The morning cometh," its last 
 three words rang out with such a clarion tone that 
 all present felt that this was to be "a field day with 
 the Parson." Earnest sometimes to vehemence, 
 gifted with a melodious and powerful voice, and 
 glowing with natural eloquence, Mr. Smith s ser 
 mons never lacked originality and force, and on 
 this day his flock thought him inspired as with 
 faithful stroke he drew the picture of an oppressed 
 people struggling for liberty against fearful odds. 
 Tears coursed unrestrained down cheeks better 
 accustomed to the touch of snow and wind, as 
 the late reverses were recounted, until some of the 
 
37 2 
 
 older members began to wonder "what Parson 
 could be thinking of, to discourage the people 
 so 2 " Then suddenly his tone changed. " Our 
 weakness," he said, " is the Lord s opportunity. 
 He has permitted our past humiliation that our 
 sins might be punished and that He might show 
 us that He is mighty to save. He has promised 
 to succor those who look to Him for their help, 
 and He is faithful who has promised." Then, 
 kindling as with prophetic fire, his face glowing, 
 his lithe form dilating and quivering with feel 
 ing, he triumphantly exclaimed : 
 
 " Behold ! the morning NOW cometh. I see 
 its beams already gilding the mountain tops. Its 
 brightness is already bursting over all the land." 
 He closed his Bible and stood with uplifted hand, 
 while a silence, as of expectation, fell alike upon the 
 preacher and his hearers. Then, during the solemn 
 hush which preceded the benediction, could be dis 
 tinguished from afar the hasty clatter of a horseman 
 dashing into the village from the north. Faces turn 
 toward the doors, but not a whisper breaks the hush. 
 All know that the sacred stillness of a New Eng 
 land Sabbath would not be thus broken without 
 good reason. The eager horseman makes directly 
 for the church. Hope is triumphant over fear, but 
 with hope is mingled terror, and anxious eyes blaze 
 out from blanched faces as the rider, springing from 
 his horse, enters the church, his spurs clanking 
 along the uncarpeted floor and up the pulpit stairs. 
 
373 
 
 The parson, his face flushing with the joy of 
 a hope fulfilled, read only the three words, 
 " Burgoyne has surrendered," and then burst 
 into honorable tears. The next moment, calmed 
 and solemn, he said, " Let us thank God for this 
 great mercy." And moved by a common impulse, 
 the whole congregation rose to the Puritan posture 
 of prayer the erect posture of the Ironsides, who 
 prayed and fought and kept their powder dry ; and 
 stern and self-contained as they were, they thought 
 it no shame to shed tears of thankfulness. 
 
 I have heard this story so often, not from those 
 who had been present, of course, but from those 
 whose parents had related it to them, that I can 
 hardly realize that I, too, was not there to feel 
 the haunting anxiety, the thrilling hope, the over 
 whelming joy of that glorious news. 
 
 The country parson s duties in colonial days 
 embraced all that a similar charge now implies, 
 and some that the modern minister knows nothing 
 of. He was in all things expected to be the leader 
 of his people. They looked to him for example 
 in things political, social, and educational as well 
 as in things theological, and it must in common 
 justice be said that the pastor who failed to fulfil 
 these expectations to the best of his ability was 
 rarely found. 
 
 His duties were so many and so diverse that it 
 was well that he had not also to contend with the 
 rush, hurry, and consequent pressure of our own 
 
374 
 
 time. He had to work with hands as well as 
 head, but he had not to compete with brilliant 
 minds all over the continent whose Sunday utter 
 ances could be read at the Monday morning break 
 fast-tables of his deacons and elders, and compared 
 with his own. Each pastor had the sick, the poor, 
 the vicious, and the uncultured of his own small 
 field to care for and struggle to bring fo better 
 circumstances and to higher ideals ; but he did not 
 have to concern himself about similar conditions 
 and responsibilities all over the world ; and if he 
 did not seem to accomplish all that the same man 
 would do in these days, he perhaps left a deeper 
 impression on the minds of those among whom he 
 lived and labored. The very long pastorates of that 
 time would be almost a physical impossibility now. 
 
 There then existed no prejudice to long periods 
 of candidacy. It was felt that the relation between 
 pastor and flock should be, as it generally was, 
 permanent, and should not be entered upon with 
 out due deliberation. Mr. Smith preached in 
 Sharon as a candidate for more than a year, and 
 was finally ordained pastor in August, 1755. In 
 1805 he preached his half-century sermon from the 
 text: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
 peace : . . . for mine eyes have seen thy salvation" 
 (Luke ii. 29, 30). 
 
 After this Mr. Smith survived but little more 
 than a year, dying in November, 1806. His 
 greatly lamented wife had died six years before 
 
375 
 
 while in Albany, visiting her daughter, Mrs. 
 Radcliff. 
 
 Thomas, the elder son of the Rev. and Mrs. 
 Cotton Mather Smith, died at the age of nineteen. 
 Elizabeth, their eldest daughter, married Dr. Lem 
 uel Wheeler, a surgeon at one time attached to 
 General Washington s command, and afterward 
 practising at Red Hook, now Tivoli, New York. 
 Mrs. Wheeler left two daughters, one of whom 
 became the wife of the Hon. John Davenport of 
 New Haven, Connecticut, and the other was mar 
 ried to Mr. Hubert Van Waganen of Poughkeep- 
 sie, New York. 
 
 The youngest daughter, Mary, married the Rev. 
 Daniel Smith, for many years the pastor of the 
 Congregational Church of Stamford, Connecticut. 
 Years after the latter s decease it was discovered 
 that he also was descended from the Rev. Henry 
 Smith of Wethersfield. She left a son and daugh 
 ter. The first became the Rev. Thomas Mather 
 Smith, for many years the head of the Theological 
 Seminary at Gambier, Ohio. He was father of 
 the Rev. John Cotton Smith, D.D., for more than 
 twenty years the much-loved rector of the Church 
 of the Ascension in New York city, dying in 1882. 
 The sister of the Rev. T. M. Smith married Milo 
 L. North, M.D., an eminent physician of Hartford, 
 Connecticut, and Saratoga, New York. 
 
 Juliana, the diarist to whom we are so much in 
 debted, married, as before stated, the Hon. Jacob 
 
RadclifF, a member of the Supreme Court of Judi 
 cature of the State of New York, and for three 
 terms mayor of New York city. Mrs. RadclifF 
 died in 1823, leaving two daughters. The elder of 
 these, Maria, married Mr. W.Tillman of Troy, New 
 York, while the younger, Julia, married an English 
 gentleman named Spencer, who settled in Eliza 
 beth, New Jersey. 
 
 From all of Parson Smith s three daughters 
 have descended noble, strong, and sweet men and 
 women. The only one of his sons who survived 
 to an adult age was John Cotton Smith, who early 
 entered political life and left it only with the 
 disruption of the Federal party, to which he was 
 attached. He was the last Federal governor of 
 his State, retiring in 1817 "the most popular 
 man of an unpopular party," says S. G. Goodrich, 
 in his " Recollections." The correspondence be 
 tween Parson Smith and this son, extending at 
 intervals from 1779 to 1806, is a beautiful record 
 of paternal and filial affection. From those closely 
 written foolscap sheets of coarse but excellent linen 
 paper have been gleaned many of the facts relating 
 to domestic life which have been inserted in these 
 pages. 
 
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