UC-NRLF iMlllllUlllllllll ^<^ It? bT? eu/ eLLeN strong barjLett mEWf^xmMm GIFT OF THOMAS RUTHtRFORD BACON Historical Sketches OF NEW HAVEN BY ELLEN STRONG BARTLETT New Haven : Printed by Tutti,e, Morehouse & Tayi^or. 1897 ^s# Copyright 1897 by Ei^i.EN Strong BARTtETT To MY DEAR SCHOI,ARS WHEREVER THEY MAY BE (Jilis JBook IS AFFECTIONATEI,Y INSCRIBED. E. S. B. 267905 PREFATORY NOTE. These papers have appeared by request, from time to time, in The Connediait Quarterh and the New Englmid Magazine ; and as some of them are out of print, it has seemed best to bring them together in this volume. Although they are a humble contribution to the literature that is accumulating with reference to New Haven, they are the result of loving and careful research in the most trustworthy sources of information, and it is earnestly hoped that everything therein stated as a fact rests on undoubted testimony. We cannot too often recount the efforts made in planting the tree, if thereby those who eat the fruit are incited to till the soil about the roots. E. S. B. CONTENTS. The New Haven Green, ---... g A New Haven Church, --..-. 21 The Grove Street Cemetery, - - - - - 42 H11.LHOXJSE Avenue, ---... ^5 John Trumbull, The Patriot Painter, • - - - 77 Historical Sketches of New Haven. When the forefathers marked out their famous nine squares, with that in the middle set apart as a "public market-place," they fixed the center of the life of the city of Elms. The Green has been called the heart of New Haven. In absence, the name calls up stirring memories ; on return, the sight of it stirs thrills of recognition. It is only a simple grassy square, surrounded and dotted by trees, divided by Temple street, crossed by many paths for the convenience of busy people ; and enshrining three old churches. But the square has been there since Davenport and Eaton laid out the town in 1638 ; the trees have stood a hundred years ; and around the churches are entwined the historic associations of the colony and the city. The changes have been many. The alders and willows that over-hung pools of water, have gone; so, too, have the "market-house," the whipping- post, the buildings which one after another graced or disgraced its surface. The area is sixteen acres ; it is not exactly square, because the surveyor who meas- ured it in the midst of primeval wildness, was unable to be stridlly accurate, but to the ej^e this is not apparent. The surveyor was John Brockett, son of Sir John Brockett of Brockett's Hall, Herefordshire ; and perhaps a little inexacftness may be understood, if we believe the tradition that he had left all in England and had crossed the sea in pursuit of a charming girl among the Puritan band. Around the Green were placed the houses of the leaders of the colony, which was the most opulent of those that left England, and thus the Green has always been before the eyes of the citizens, and has been the short-cut from one " quarter " to another. It is itself a token that the colonists came, not to seek lo The New Haven Green. adventure or to avoid the restraints of civilized life, but with a definite purpose to found a state, with a city at its head, that they intended to be graced by order and beauty. May the good intentions of good men always be thus carried out. The building of the meeting-house, identified in New Haven so pre- eminently with the state, came foremost in their plans. The first Sabbath, April 1 8, 1638, has been often described ; and artists have been inspired by the chronicle to show us the spreading oak and the reverent company of English- men, women and children, assembled there for the worship they had crossed the ocean to maintain. This oak, under which John Davenport, the favorite lyondon THE GKEEN, SHOWING BRICK CHURCH AND CHURCH-YARD. Frotn a Painting in the rooms 0/ the Neiv Haven Colony tlistorical Society, minister, preached on " the temptation in the wilderness," was near the present corner of George and College streets, but the first house of God was as nearly as possible, in the center of the Green. This was in 1639, and on this historic spot have been placed the successive buildings of the church, so appropriately known as the " Center." Even more than in other colonies was this a fitting situation, for the founders made the law that "the Church Members only shall be free Burgesses ; and that they only shall chuse magistrates and officers among them- selves to have the power of transacfling all publique civil aSairs of this planta- tion." The New Haven Green. II The "meeting-house " was a modest little shelter for sentiments like these. It was only fifty feet square, perfe(5tly plain, with roof like a truncated pyramid, but on Sabbaths it must haye been furnished nobly with keen intelledl and high principle. We know all about the Sabbath then, the beating of the drum, the decorous walk through the Green to the meeting-house, the careful ranking of seats, the stationing of the guard to keep watch on lurking Indians. Those who go up now to worship may feel that they are literally following the foot- steps of the fathers. Through the Green was the special path allowed to the first pastor, John Davenport, so that he might walk on Sundays from his house to the pulpit in the complete seclusion befitting his dignity. Here, later, was the first school-house, a little back of the church, and alas ! in spite of all these privileges of religious and political liberty, before long a jail was necessary, that made a blot on the Green. The whipping-post was moved about until 1831, THE GREKN. From a Drawing; owned by the New Haven Colony Historical Society, when it was exchanged for the less appalling sign-post for legal notices. And the public square was not too good in early days for a pound. The old alms- house stood on the northwest corner, near College street. For its convenience was a well of excellent water, which, it is thought, has never been filled up. In 1639, Ne-pau-puck, a persistent enemy, was beheaded here, and perhaps this ghastly yielding of savage ferocity to Anglo-Saxon law is the darkest picfture the Green has offered. After the English custom, the burying-ground adjoined the church, and there were laid the wise and the good, the young and the old, of the infant settlement. Martha Townsend was the first woman buried in this ground. Sometimes, at dead of night, apart from others, the victims of small-pox were fearfully laid here. The ground was filled with graves between the church and College street ; sixteen bodies having been found within sixteen square feet, when in 1821, the stones were removed to the Grove Street Cemetery, and the ground was leveled. A few stones are left in their original places, while in the •a w « PS c K The New Haven Green. 13 crypt of the church may be seen, as they stood, the monuments of more than a hundred and thirty of the early inhabitants. Back of the church are some small, dark stones, decidedly gnawed by time. Tradition used to ascribe two of these to the resting-places of GofFe and Whalley, the hunted regicides ; and elaborate interpretations were given of the purposely brief and misleading inscriptions. Opinion now discredits this, and assigns the stone formerly called Whalley's to Martin Gilbert, Assistant Deputy. But there is no mistake about the grave of Dixwell, the third of the regicides, and the original stone, simply inscribed, "J. D. 1688-9," etc., is plainly seen, while in the same enclosure is the monu- ment erected in 1847, by the descendants of Dixwell. He had concealed his name under that of Davis. An inscription on the church-wall tells us that THE GREEN. From a Draifiing otvneii by the New Haven Colony Historical Society. Theophilus Eaton, the noted founder of the town, lies near. Over the entrance of the church are the main dates and fadls of the settlement of the town, and many a passer through the Green stops under the shade of the trees to read, and get a lesson in history. As time passed, the Green was graded and cleared. Around it lived the Pierponts, the Trowbridges, the Ingersolls, and facing its upper side were the buildings of the infant Yale. They were very simple, and afford a great contrast to the elaborate and imposing array of to-day, but the forty boys were proud of their college. The three churches on Temple street, in the very middle of the Green, are an unusual and striking feature of a public square. The North Church, now called the United Church, and Trinity Church, were built in 1814, as well as w D O The New Haven Green. 15 the present building of the Center Church, so that the three buildings were rising at the same time, during the troubled period of our second war with Eng- land. It is said that the ship which was bringing in material for Trinity Church was overhauled by a British cruiser, but that the enemy was persuaded to relin- quish that part of the booty when its sacred destination was disclosed. Besides these, no buildings now stand within the enclosure, and no further encroachment is allowed. One after another, the various strudlures which a too accommodating public allowed, have been removed. The last to go was the "old State House," in 1887. Built in 1829, by Ithiel Towne, it was the successor of several State Houses which stood in different parts of the Green. Its removal was long discussed, and the friends and the opponents of the measure were aroused to couch their argu- ments in decidedly vigorous language. Without the State House steps, classes and associations g o hunting for a place for photographic groups. The classic columns of this copy of the The- seum, mxist figure in many a pi<5ture belong- ing to by-gone days. In the latter part of the last century, the Green began to put on its present appearance. The county-house and jail were taken away in 1784. In that year, a market-house was placed near the corner of Church and Chapel streets, but in 1798, it was taken down. At that time, the square was fenced, under the diredlion of James Hillhouse, David Austin, and Isaac Beers. In 1799, permission was obtained to level the surface at private expense. Evidently public spirit was stronger in individuals than in common councils. About that time the great planting of elms began. The two famous trees, which may have set the fashion which caused Mrs. Tuthill to call New Haven the "City of Elms," were brought to town in 1686, by William Cooper, as a gift to the pastor, and were planted in front of the Pierpout house, where the Bristol house now is. There they flourished for more than one hundred and fifty years. They shaded the windows of Sarah Pierpont, that rare maiden who was " of a wonderful sweetness, calmness and unusual benev- olence," who "sometimes went about singing sweetly, and seemed to be always full of joy and pleasure," who " loved to be alone, walking in the fields and THK GREEN, FROM THE REAR OF CENTER CHURCH. TEMPI,E STREET. The Neiv Haven Green. 17 groves," and whose charms of beauty, intelleA, and good sense subjugated even Jonathan Edwards, the intelledlual giant of America. Some one has said that in the shade of those trees, these famous lovers must have often hngered. Twenty-three years after their marriage, a platform was built under the pen- dent boughs and the ' 'sil- ver tongued ' ' Whitefield preached to the listening crowd on the Green. The Pierpont elms lived for more than a century and a half. The last was cut down in 1840, having at- tained a circumference of eighteen feet. Two mag- nificent elms were also in front of the house and school of the Rev. Clau- dius Herrick, where Bat- tell Chapel now is. They too, were a century and a half old, in 1879, when cut down. At the corner of Church and Chapel streets, is the most noted of New Haven elms, the " Franklin Elm." Jerry Allen, a "poet and pedagogue," brought it on his back from Hamden Plains, and sold it to Thaddeus Beecher for a pint of rum and some trifles. It was planted on the day of Franklin's death, April 17, 1790. Its girth, two feet from the ground, is sixteen feet ; its height is eighty feet. This noble tree spreads its graceful branches as a welcome and a shelter to all who make pilgrimage to. New Haven. It seems a fitting gateway to the arcades that stretch athwart the turf beyond. In the shade of the Franklin elm is the "Town pump," one of the old landmarks which thirsty people would regret to see removed. It was given to the city long ago by Mr. Douglass, of Middletown. In 1784, the Common Council ordered the extension of Temple street to Grove street, and in 1792, Hillhouse Avenue was laid out. Col. James Hillhouse, ever enthusiastic in public works, besought the citizens to subscribe for beautifying the Green by planting trees. This was in 1787, and most of the trees were set between then and 1796. Most of them were brought from the Hillhouse farm in THE DIXWEI,I< MONUMENT. i8 The Neiv Haven Green. Meriden, and by the testimony of eye-witnesses, they varied from the size of whipstocks to a foot in thickness. The zeal of Col. Hillhouse, who often took the spade in his own hands, inspired others. The Rev. David Austin was moved to plant the inner rows on the east and west sides of the Green, and many stories are told of the enthusiasm of boys in holding trees, of girls in watering and tending them, all to help on the good work. The cool and shady streets of New Haven are a memorial of this widespread interest in Hillhouse' s plan. Such men as Ogden Edwards, United States Judge Henry Baldwin, and President Day, were proud, in mature life, to look back on their boyish participation in the work. A con.stant and varied succession of foot-passengers may be seen on the diagonal paths. There is no " age, sex, or condition " which is not to be found EI,M STREET. there during the day. Babies in summer, boys skating in winter, wise professors and students with book in hand, at all times, are surely there. Many times, thousands of children have been massed there, to add to the festivity of Fourth of July, Sunday-school, and centennial celebrations, and their choruses have carried the swelling voices of vast choirs to the cathedral arch of Temple street. Probably no famous man has ever visited New Haven without contributing his presence to the personal associations of this simple square. Nobles, scholars, poets, divines, statesmen, from all countries, have been there. Washington decorously attended church at Trinity. Lafayette reviewed troops here, and both were sometimes visitors of Roger Sherman, who lived just above the Green. After the Revolutionary heroes, the place felt the tread of Madi.son and Monroe, of John Quincy Adams, of Andrew Jackson, of Van Buren. Then came the The New Haven Green. 19 great men of the civil war ; Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Hancock, McDowell, and many more, have bowed to the cheers of thousands crowded on the Green. Training days and county fairs must have caused the Green to smile, and even to laugh aloud, and whenever the feeling of the town has been stirred to its depths, the Green has been the spot to which every one hied to show his share in that feeling. Here the loyal subjedts of George III. cele- brated his majority, and some years later, made public re- joicing over the repeal of the Stamp A(5l. Here Benedicft Arnold, after Lexington, assembled the Governor's Guard, to lead them to Cam- bridge, to swell the patriot army ; here the citizens of a new republic crowded, to shout over the surrender of Cornwallis, and two years later, the gunners in long green gowns boomed the salutes for the treaty of peace with England. Here passed, in 185 1, the barouche which contained all the survivors of the Revolution who could be mustered for the Fourth of July parade. The year before that dirges were played here after President Taylor's death, and, ten years later, the Green was whitened by the recruiting tents of the Townsend Rifles ; and the boys of the three months' regiments made their first bivouac here ; too many, alas ! after- ward finding the "bivouac of death" on Southern fields. Here the New Haven branch of the Sanitary Commission was organized, and its chairman, Mr. Alfred Walker, sent out two hundred and eighty-seven boxes in the first month. In the State House, the New Haven Soldiers' Aid Association met for three years. Under the trees, collations were given to returning soldiers, and sad crowds assembled to witness the funeral honors paid to New Haven's sons : to Theodore Winthrop, so early sacrificed ; to General Terry and Commodore Foote, lost when ripened by experience. Great was the rejoicing when " the cruel war was over." Thousands assembled to cheer the news of the fall of Petersburg and Richmond. Then in the midst of joy came the blow of L,incoln's assassina- IHl': IKANKIJN Ki.^r. io The New Haven Greeri. tion, and a greater and a sadder crowd hurried back to the old Green than it has ever seen gathered for any other occasion. Then, on the steps of the State House, Dr. Leonard Bacon voiced the lamentation of a city bereaved of its national head, and the elms sighed over a horror-stricken multitude. It seems safe to feel that, after such a history, as long as life remains in the city, the ' ' heart of New Haven ' ' will beat on in its old place. A NEW HAVEN CHURCH. The Center Church in New Haven has been fitly called a ' ' time-piece of the centuries," and the stranger who worships there may well find his eyes roving over the dial marks on its venerable walls. In mediaeval times the church walls displayed the pidlured Bible story to all who entered ; this church in the New World bears a syn- opsis of a colony's history. Over the entrance is a concise statement of the main facts of the founding of the town. This tablet was prepared by the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon before he retired from his a(5live ministry, and, in a small space, it is significant with the story of the ' ' coeval beginning of the church and town." On a corner of the building is a tablet bearing the dates of the four suc- cessive buildings which have sheltered an unbroken suc- cession of worshippers from the organization until now — 1640, 1670, 1757, 1814. Thus this spot is hal- lowed by the continuous public worship of more than two centuries and a half. I'liK CHURCH, NEW HAVKN. The first simple strudlure, a few yards in front of the present building, was the center to which all turned to hear the illustrious London divines, or CENTKR CHURCH KNTRANCK. A New Haven Church. 23 for discussion of the questions, theological, political and social, which agitated that miniature world. THE MEMORIAL WINDOW. Hither came up the Sabbath worshippers at the first and second beating of the drum ; and woe to the careless or irreverent wight who was late, or 24 A New Haven Church. THE • VOICE ■ OF ■ ONE • CRYmS IN THE ■ WILDERNESS . O O C JOHN • DAVENPORT- BD(0X0N I62S) BORN IN ■ COVENTRY • WARWICKSHIRE APRIL- 1597, VICAR ■ OF 5 STEPHENS ■ COLEMAN ■ STREET LONDON ■ 1624. FLED ■ TO • AMERICA FOR ■ REU6T0US -FREEDOM ■ 1637. LAID THE • FOUNDATIONS • OF - NEW - HAVEN ■ APRIL - 1655. PASTOR ■ OF ■ THIS CHURCH FROM ITS FORMATION 1639. UNTIL- HIS -REMOVAL TO THE FIRST • CHURCH ■ BOSTON • 1663. DIED ■ IN BOSTON MARCH • 1670 O O c absent from the service. He was promptly rebuked and fined, even when pro- vided with excuses such as clothes wet in Saturday's rain, and no fire by which to dry them ! Here paced the sentinels armed against Indian attack, and here resounded Sternhold and Hop- kins's version of the Psalms, "lined off." Alas ! we learn that not the force of exhortation and ex- ample, nor the solemnity of danger, could altogether counteract the evil suggestions lurkingin " water myllions."* Here it was that the children were huddled on the pulpit stairs during the service. Not even the thunders of pulpit eloquence nor the chill of a fireless house sufficed to restrain the irrepressible spirit of childhood ; after divers long-continued public efforts to stop the disturbance, the children were wisely sent back to their parents. Here it was that the Sabbath offerings in wampum and the fruits of their fields were taken to the deacons' seat. Here it was that Davenport, when it was known that the messengers of the King would soon be at hand, eager to search for the regicides. Col. Whalley and Col. Goffe, uttered his brave words of exhor- tation to "entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." The preacher afterward proved the sincerity of his words by sheltering the fugitives in his own house for a month. What coolness, and sagacity, and courage were exhibited by that tiny colony in that crisis ! Here it was that, somewhat later, the messengers of the King were edified in the midst of their search for the judges by another Sabbath discourse by Davenport on the text: " Hide the outcasts ; bewray not him that wandereth ; let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab ; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler. ' ' t See Foot Note. * " Wm. Pert was warned to the Court for taking water myllions one Lords day out of Mr. Hooks lot his answere was that his Mr sent him to see whether there were any hoggs within the fence and to bring home a watter milion with him he being bidd to goe through Mr. Hooks lott after the Saboth he tooke 2 watter milions he said it was the first act of his in this kind and hoped it would be the last. For his unrighteousnesse & profanesse of his sperit & way so soone thus to doe after the Saboth he was to be publiquely corrected although moderatly because his repentance did appeare." — Early Records of New Haven. t This and the nine following cuts are fac-similes of the memorial tablets on the walls of the audience room. A New Haven Church. 25 Fearlessness so magnificent as that must have made the home government quite willing to act against New Haven when the charter struggle came up. Among the worshippers in the 8orn in ■Soui-tompton €iiglm(li60) A Winitp CoUfge Otfort-teso Ccacljer of tl)is Cburfl; 1644-1656 CDapliim I'O'OliMer CTomuielland- /naai'etofl-bf SaxioyTiospihal- (■ill- tlje-clos? of'H)e Comroonuiealtl;- He-died lllaTfl) 21 -167* Iii8 Ttmaing-rtst-ir -8unl)ill 5iPli ^ -nonclon ^^^^^^Ar^l t. second house of God was that "James Davids ' ' around whom lingered a halo of mystery ; for his dignity, his reserve, his evident culture and means made the curious surmise, what was disclosed after his death, that he was John Dixwell, one of the three judges. His grave is immediately back of the church, and there may be seen what is left of the origi- nal headstone. The inscription was : "J. D., Esqr. Deceased March y'= i8th in y" 82" year of his age, 1688-9." The monument erected in 1847 by the descendants of Dixwell, commemo- rates their appreciation of the kindness shown to their distinguished ancestor by the inhabitants of New Haven, and sets forth the main fadts of his career. On the rear wall is a tablet in memory of a man second to Eaton only, Stephen Goodyear, the first deputy governor, who is buried in London ; and another which explains that until 1796 the first churchyard was here, extending from the church to College street. The third building, known as the "brick meeting-house," seems to have been removed, not on account of age or decay, but because increasing prosper- ity demanded something larger and better. The present one on the same spot", claims one's inter- est more for its associations than for pretensions to architedlural beauty. True to the London origin of the early settlement, this church was built with St. Martin' s-in-the-Fields, on Trafalgar Square, as its model. At the rear of the church are more tablets ; one in memory of Theophilus Eaton, the first governor of the colony, who died in 1657, and is buried near the church wall, outside of the pulpit window. This was the successful Lon- ir W Ricbolas Street. ^ 5ecot)d Pastor of tbis Cburct) Bono 19 Son)erset5l)ire^Ei>glai)cl.ii) l603 a graduate of Oxford UpWersitY ir) l625 Pastor of the Q)urcY) 19 Taur)tor),An5s. 1637 to 1657 Associated with) ReVjotjr) Da'^epport asleacljerip tt)5 Q)urch).5ept26«l» I659. to April. I668. aod tbep F^5tor mrtil 1^15 Apnl 22i* l674 He wa5 a Godly. Modest apdj udicious Aap, apd tbe first Pastor w^)0 died ip ^ tbe5CT\/iceof tbi5Q)urcFj (^ ^_ 26 A Neiv Haven Church. JAMES PIERPONT Born at Roitbury Moss. Jan^ 4th l639 a g'raduatt* of Harvard College m 1^81 w»« ordnined pastor of this church July 2nd l68 5 • nd having ministered-faithfully here 30 years died Nov*' 22nd IJII ■ nd is buried beneath ihis edifice He was one of the Tuunders of Yale College Hij gracious ^ifls of fervent piety persuasive eloquence and winning tnaoneps were devoutly- spent in the service of his Lord and Master ^)v^/^^^•^/WV"W^v^M^ don "merchant of great credit and fashion," who, in company with Davenport, the friend of his childhood, led the company of pioneers from London to Quin- nipiack. He was the son of a famous minister of Coventry, had been in business, had trav- eled extensively, and had repre- sented Charles I at the court of Denmark. He had with good advan- tage more than once stood before kings; his "princely face and port," his judgment and aston- ishing equanimity, his sincere religion, made such an impres- sion on his generation that only death ended his governorship of eighteen years. His was one of the houses " better than those of Boston," which astonished visitors by their size and comfort ; his ' ' Turkey carpets, and tapestry carpets and rugs," his servants, and generally opulent style of living are matters of record. The loss of property, the trials caused by a phenomenally ill-tempered wife, by disappointed hopes, and by the death of his loved ones, were all met with the fortitude ex- pressed in his lofty maxim, " Some count it a great matter to die well, but I am sure it is a greater matter to live well." The monument which showed the honor in which Eaton was held by his townsmen has been re- moved to the Grove Street Cemetery. In the vestibule of the church may be seen the names of the one hundred and twenty who sleep below. On entering, one is taken to the past by memorial brasses, and the light streams T-0 THC MEMORV Qf- JOSEPH NOYES, O BORN IN STONtNGTON OCT. 16,1688. * DIED JUNE 14,1761. GRADUATE OFAND AN INSTRUCTOR IN YALE COLLBfiE PASTOR OF THIS FIRST CHURCH 1716 1761 His Ministry was marked by ecclesiasttc&l controversies, and by social and political changes, which led to the formation of a second Church, the establishment of a separate worship in. Yale College and the organization of an Episcopal Church. By his sag-acity and prudence he retained to old age the confidence and affection of those who remained faithful to this, the Mother Church. O HfS REMAINS REST BENEATH THIS EOiriCE. o A New Haven Church. 27 Chauncey Whittelsey A gratliiate of and instructor in Yale College a member of the CoJonial Assembly and in other Public Trusts from 1738 to 1756. Fifth Pastor o f this Church frpm 1758 to 1787. His Piety and Eloquence made him dear lo his people.and with his rirmness and DDCisJon enabled him to discharge the duties of (he pastoral office vnth fiaolity and dignity during the struggle of the Revolution He died July 24th VTBl, in the 70rh year of his a^e and the 30th of his thintstry. o o in His remains rest in the crypt of this Church D through the window which tells in color the story of the first sermon ' ' in the wilderness ' ' of New Haven. The "colonial" set- ting frames the historic scene. John Davenport, under the cross-vaulting of the noble oak, dressed as befitted the dignity of his position, in velvet, with cloak hanging on his shoulder, seems to point with uplifted hand to that continuing city which his hearers knew they had not yet found. The white-haired but sturdy Eaton leaning on his gun while reverently bowing to the preacher's words, the armed men, and the women and children ready to share the peril and the enthusiasm of the new enterprise, give the whole story of the mingled devotion and warfare which characterized the New England settler's life. At the base, the seven-branched candle- stick and the seven columns symbolize the famous "seven pillars ' ' who were chosen in the meeting in Robert Newman's barn in 1639, thus beginning the church in New Haven. They were Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jeremiah Dixon.* On the right is the record of the life of the leader of the colony, John Davenport, B. D. (Oxon, 1625). * This beautiful window is the gift of Mr. E. Hayes Trowbridge, in memory of his father, Ezekiel Hayes Trowbridge, a descendant of one of the founders of the church. The design, so happy in conception and execution, was made l)y Lauber, and the work was personally superintended by Louis Tiffany. The two thousand three hundred and twenty pieces which compose it melt in the sunlight into a rich picture, and modern art once more unites with filial respect to perpetuate the memory of the past. 1786 - 1858 Pastor of this churrh t8l2 - 1822 Professor of ThtoloQv in Tate Collrgr 1822- IB^ja J\s Pastor faithful to hii Hastfr anit briourd by his propit ^s Prfarhtrof tlif riifrlflsrinfl Goaprl bold frninit and surtfssful .As Studtnt anilTVarhfr of Christian Thfolojy Pnrpminfnt in his Gfnpration ^ iaYYYYVYvyyyyvxxDtriQOQOQgi- 28 A New Haven Church. There comes to the minds' eye the early home in leafy Warwickshire, in the days when Shakespeare was alive, the scholar's haunts at Oxford, the crowds listening to the brilliant young preacher at St. Stephen's, the stress of parting with home and friends, the weary voyage, the high hopes of a model commonwealth, the disappointments, the end of all in another home. He seems to have liked to have his own way ; perhaps his dis- appointments were as deep as his hopes were high ; but he was lofty in nature, high-bred and scholarly. His unabated love of study won for him from the Indians the name of "big study man." That in those times he left more than a thousand dollars' worth of books shows how large a place they held in his esteem. He was one of the most learned of the seventy English divines who migrated hither ; and, more than that, was in advance of his fellow emigrants, for he was ready to cast off alle- giance to the King and Parliament, and so to establish an independent state. His work was not in vain, we can see now, and the impress of his character has not yet faded from the city that he founded. On the south side of the church is the tablet to William Hooke, the friend and chaplain of Cromwell. He was in the church in the wilder- ness for twelve years as ' ' teacher, ' ' an office for some time co-existent with that of preacher, a token of the thoroughness of the religious training of the colonists. He was a gentle, scholarly man, who must have been also fervid in his pulpit oratory. His sermons may still be read ; they had such ear-catching titles as "New England's Teares for Old England's Feares." Cromwell was his wife's cousin, and Whalley was her brother. The learned Hooke, driven from England on account of religious opinion, was led by his intimate friendship with the Great Protector to return during the Commonwealth to that land which he called " Old England, dear England still in divers respects, left indeed by us in our Lt>onard Baron asfrioanl of Jfiii'j CJirisI nnd of all mfn for His siihf.lifrr prrarhdl Ihf Go!>ppl for fifty ^fiifii Ufar<;. Vrarmg Cod nntt iDiuina no ftarHf'.ldr.louiTiij rlonlroii'irit'i':. nnd halinj ininultv.fririitl of Librrty and laio. hflprr ofChrislian mi«ioii'i,lrarhfr of (fachrrs.pcomotfr of pu?ry good morh. hf bipsoffl thf City and thp Nation bv rfasrifss lahor^ and a holy life, and dc- Oanrd pfarpfullv into rtsl.bftrmbfr 24. issi.irauing inp morld bdlpr for his hauing hi'Pd in it. _UOOOOCXXX)0(XXjOUO(-)UOOUOUOOOO(:g^?^ A New Haven Church. 29 persons, but never yet forsaken in our affections." There he was domestic chaplain to Cromwell in his palace of Whitehall, and was master of the Savoy- Hospital, an institution noted for its connecflion with the "Savoy Confession" of the Congregationalists, and as having been the episcopal palace of lyondon. But the sun of his prosperity sank with the Commonwealth. After a few years the Commonwealth was a thing of the past, and Hooke spent the rest of his life in more or less danger, resting at last in Bunhill Fields, the " Westminster Abbey of the Puritans." His parting gift to the church which he loved was his "home lot, " on the southwest corner of College and Chapel streets, " to be a standing maintenance either towards a teaching officer, schoolmaster, or the benefit of the poor in fellowship." This was one of the inducements which influenced the choice of the abiding place of the struggling, peri- patetic college. The church finally leased it to the college for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. It was the plan of Davenport that the " rector's house " should stand there ; and there lived all the rectors and presidents of Yale, from Cutler to the elder Dwight. Near by is the tablet for Nicholas Street, the third Oxonian on the list. His early history was for a long time uncertain, but we now know that he was matriculated at Oxford when eighteen (2 Nov., 162 1 ?), and that he was the son of "Nicholas Streate of Bridgewater, gent," who owned "the ancient estate in Rowbarton near Taunton," according to a will dated Nov. i, 1616. This estate had formed part of the manor of Canon Street, which belonged to the Priory of Taunton before the dissolution of the monasteries, and it is now absorbed in the city of Taunton, a name which must have been pleasant in his ears in the New World. He it was who said, in time of perplexing negotiations, ' ' The answer should be of faith, and not of fear." His son was for nearly forty-five years pastor in Wallingford, and the Augustus Street who gave the building to the Yale Art School was a lineal descendant, another instance of the momentum given by the desire of the founders to make New Haven a collegiate town. Around Mr. Pierpont's name associations cluster thickly. He was the first American-born pastor, he passed nearly all his public life here, and harmony and success attended him. To be sure, he was early and often a widower, but he was fortunate in seledling all three wives from the highest families of the little land, as became one who is said to have been nearly connedled with the Earls of Kingston. n j 1 |je:;f^jifXg^t*>®sS5?g2 ::^' . ■ ::■-/■ : -.. .-.■: -^h'-..-.- :' -■. -■ ■■■ -9. ^^ R^ 1 m. ^ ^ ^ ■SaS ^^2 ^ ss m % \ ■ \ •r*! ^ mL 3 ^ ■% ^^^^^^^^HV^^^ ~^^59l ^Kt^^mtt w^ ^^hEi ■ HCii3*H:.-„^i;^t.™4. --. ;--,i5£- — -- '^" ^^ M ■ii ■ ■1 ■■ BAPTISM.\L BOWI, AND COMMUNION CUPS. the renowned Rev. Thomas Hooker, the pastor and leader of the Connecticut col- ony. She survived Mr. Pierpont many years. For him was built, by the contribu- tions of the people, that spacious house which stood for a hundred years on the corner of Temple and Elm streets, and it was as a gift to the young pastor that the " Pierpont Elms," long the oldest in the city, were brought from Hamden. Mr. Pierpont' s surest title to remembrance is that he was " one of the founders of Yale College." He was one of the famous ten ministers who made the memorable contribution of volumes from their own scanty stock to found a college library. He was indefatigable in building up that which he had begun, and it was on account of his persuasions, exercised through Mr. Dummer, Con- necticut agent in London, that Elihu Yale sent the gift which made his name a household word. But his influence on the college world did not stop there. The alliance of the Hooker and the Pierpont families was notable in itself, but was made still more illustrious in their descendants. The daughter of James Pierpont and A New Haven Church. 31 Mary Hooker, the beautiful and saintly Sarah, married the great Jonathan Edwards. Thus Mr. Pierpont was the ancestor of the second President Jonathan Edwards, of the elder President Dwight, of President Woolsey, of the present honored President Dwight, of Theodore Winthrop, and of a brilliant array of distinguished members of the families bearing those names. The name of Mr. Noyes brings up the religious disputes in which party feeling ran high and divisions, literal and figurative, were the result. Of him it has been wittily said that his force seemed to be chiefly centrifugal ; but who could have been a determining center for so erratic an outburst of ' ' new lights ' ' and " old " as disturbed the theological-political firmament in his time ? Mr. Noyes was the son and grandson of ministers in New England, and he iJ '^ a portion of ,h.„,i5i„.,B,„,i' place of New Have- u.tdfr™^ 1638 tin IS21. The earliest date oj a burial m-cribed on these old stones is 1687 the l«ie,t 1812. In 1S21 the graves outside olthf««3ll> were levelled, the monuments ind headstones removed to the Cme St. . . Cemetery. Thi. Cryp. - ,,pstored . Hou*' i-,.f Mee""-""" ifiSS. J in 166S- Tlx- ^^a.dicai'-''- .\T THIC KNTRA.NCK ()!■' THE CRVPT. had ofiiciated with great success as instructor in the young college for five years before becoming pastor. All these men were scholars, easily and frequently reading the Bible in its original languages for greater clearness in explanation. Their salaries were delivered to them in such fruits of the earth, or houses and lands, as their parishioners could muster in that age of barter. The benign Mr. Whittelsey came with tranquilizing effedl on the distraught people ; but instead of church controversies, he had to guide his flock through the momentous conflicfl with the mother state, and "old lights" and "new lights" burned together in one steady flame of patriotism. It was to the ' ' brick meeting-house ' ' that Wooster marched his men for a final ministerial 32 A Neiv Haven Church. benedidtion ; and there, after waiting outside until informed of the absence of Mr. Whittelsey, he led them into the church, ascended the pulpit, and himself expounded to his soldiers those holy words which he deemed would fortify them best ; then, in unbroken order, they marched out across the Green, and so away to war. Mr. Whittelsey belonged to the "Brahmin caste," being the son of an able minister and the great-grandson of the noted President Chauncey of Harvard. He was " well acquainted with Latin, Greek and Hebrew — — and with the general cyclopaedia of literature, and amassed, by laborious reading, a great treasure of wisdom." " For literature he was in his day oracular at col- lege, for he taught with facility and success in every branch of knowledge." ONE OF THK AI.I.JCVS. (Showing the oldest stone, the one marked 1687). Through all the troubles of the Revolution, the Sabbath service failed not here. Dr. Dana's ministry looked backward to the eighteenth century, forward to the nineteenth ; and struggles were in view on either side. To quote Dr. Smyth, ' ' Mr. Dana was a recognized champion of the old divinity, and behold ! a new divinity was already on the threshold of the century upon which he had entered." The newcomer was Moses Stuart, whose brilliant talents made him a power, whether in New Haven or Andover. Dr. Taylor, so remarkable an expounder of theology that the church had to surrender him to the college, was one more of the long list of learned and A New Havett Church. 33 profoundly moving divines whose memorials are here. In his pastorate, these present walls were reared. And of Dr. Bacon, born for leadership, what words can be more descriptive than the concise and beautiful lines that keep his memory fresh ? He explored the perishing records of the past and brought to our view those ancient divines, his predecessors, who live and move again in his pages. His energetic, enthusiastic nature communicated itself to all around him. From that pulpit he delivered his message to his people, and from it, after he had ceased to preside in it, he looked forth on the congregation, the fire not dimmed in his eye, wrapped in his fur-lined mantle, reminding one of the prophets of old. The communion silver belonging to this Church, and in present use, is itself worthy of a place in a collection of an- tiques, and it would be hard to find its equal in this country. All of the cups are the gifts of individuals, and eight of them are of historic interest and have been in use for many years. Probably the first gift of this kind to this church was the cup marked, " Given by Mr. Jno. Potler to N. haven chh." Records were not very complete then, but we know that John Potter, was at the famous meeting in Mr. Newman's barn, in 1639, and that he died in 1646, leaving an estate valued at £2^. Of this amount, nearly a sixth, £^, was diredled to the purchase of this cup. A pair of cups was probably given in a similar way by Henry Glover and his wife, Ellen. He died in 1689. The inscription is "The Gift of H. & E- Glover to y"^ chh. in N. hav." Another was given a little later by "Mrs. Ab. Mansfield," daughter of Thomas Yale. She bequeathed "four pounds in cash to be laid out by the deacons of said church to buy a cup for the use of the Lord's Table." m ■) TOMBSTONE OF MAROARKT ARNOIvD. 34 A New Haven Church. Again we see, " The Gift of Jn" Hodson to N. Hav'n chh. 1690." John Hodshon, or Hudson, or Hodson, was a rich Barbadoes trader, who bequeathed to the church ^5 in silver to buy this cup. He is buried in the crypt below the church. One is "The Gift of Mrs. Abigail Davenport to the first chh. in New Haven. 1718." Mrs. Davenport was the daughter of the Rev. Abraham Pier- son, of Branford, sister of Abraham Pierson, the first rector of Yale, and wife of John Davenport, the only son of the Rev. John Davenport. She died in 1 717, and bequeathed " unto the church of new haven, my silver caudle cup, desiring a cup to be made thereof for the service of the church." Very for- tunately, the last wish was not carried out, and the cup remains as it was in the days of the first rector of Yale. One inscription is decidedly abridged : " Abr. ') & VBroadley." Han. ) Abraham and Hannah Bradley were the givers. He was a deacon, and he died in 1718, bequeathing, with consideration for both church and wife, his silver cup to the former after the latter should have ceased to need it. About 1670, Captain John Prout came to New Haven from Devonshire, and there married Mrs. Mary Hall, daughter of Henry and Sarah Rutherford. In her will, in 1723, she left to the church "my two-handled silver cup marked ^ ^l',, That mark indicates that the cup once belonged to her father and mother. Lovers of the antique regret that several other cups presented in a similar manner were " made over " in 1833. Three of those now in use appear to have been made from two tankards given by Mr. Francis Brown and Mrs. Sarah Diodati, in 1762. Another old cup thus subjedled to the refining influences of the melting-pot was given earlier by Mrs. Lydia Rosewell, a daughter of Thomas Trowbridge. They are all two-handled cups, of graceful design and varying size, and many of them are delicately ornamented. Some of them have adorned the corner cupboards and have been used on the tables of the first " colonial dames. ' ' There is an enticing story that one of them was brought hither in the Hector as part of the household furniture of John Davenport himself ; but the spirit of research is relentless, and the mark tells a different tale. But that very mark, while it takes away, adds historic interest ; for that and five other pieces were made by John Dixwell, the regicide's son, who was a silversmith in Boston, and they bear his initials, " I. D.," in an oval or heart-shaped die. A curious tale hangs by the christening basin, of solid beaten silver. In the last century, Jeremiah Atwater, a worshipper in the old church, wished to repair his house, and for that purpose bought a keg of nails of a Boston dealer. On opening it, something more than iron nails was found, even a large quantity of silver dollars. Jeremiah Atwater was honest, and tried to return the dollars to the seller, but he in his turn disclaimed any right to that which he had neither bought nor sold, and so the treasure-trove was unclaimed and unused until 1735, when Mr. Atwater felt his end approaching and bequeathed the coin A Neiv Haven Church. 35 to the church. From it was made this capacious basin, twelve inches in diameter, three inches deep, and more than two pounds in weight. Imagination revels in the mystery which wraps the former state of those silver dollars. Were they the hoard of a miser, the birthright of an orphan, or the booty of a robber ? Surely, if there were any original stain of guilt con- ne<5ted with this baptismal bowl, it has long ago been purified by the presence of innocent little ones and the prayers of holy men. And yet one more bit of romantic history clings to this ancient communion service. A certain Deacon Ball was its custodian at the time of the British raid on the town, in 1779. Everyone was trying to secure his most valued goods from destru(5lion, and Deacon Ball, loyal to his trust, racked his brain to find a hiding- place for the church silver. At last, the chimney was thought of, and his little girl was lifted up to secrete the precious charge in the sooty recesses. The house was searched, Mrs. Ball's gold beads were taken, but the silver was not discovered — and was brought forth afterwards for its continued sacred use. And thus, enriched by the hallowed use of many generations, those tokens of the devotion of the forefathers and the foremothers towards the worship they struggled to establish and to maintain, are still here, and help us to people the past with living figures. In one respect, the Center Church is unique among American churches ; it has a crypt. It is not like the vault of the Stuyvesant family under St. Mark's, in New York, which is so remote in the ground that a long and com- plicated process of removing flagstones is necessary before one of the Stuyve- sants can rest with his ancestors. This simply means that when the present building was planned to stand on the site of its predecessor, its greater size made it necessary to extend it over some of the graves of the old, adjacent church-yard, or to obliterate such tokens of the early days. Fortunately, the former course was adopted, and consequently, when we have descended to this strange place, we find ourselves transported to colonial times. The light of a nineteenth century sun streams through the low windows over grave-stones which were wept over before the Anglo-Saxon race had achieved its supremacy on this continent ; before the struggle for life had abated sufficiently to allow thoughts of a struggle for independence ; over dust which had been animated by the docftrinal quarrels, the political ambitions, the religious hesitation and daring which make the men and women of that time so interesting to us. The stones are thickly set, as if all had desired to sleep close under the protedlion of the church they had loved in life. Slabs and tablets of native stone, and in many cases of the finer foreign stones, stand in close array, but in a strange, diagonal fashion, at variance with all the lines of the building. There is a " method in the madness," and one is almost tempted to feel that those sturdy souls disdained to lay their bodies in conformity to any supersti- tious ideas as to the points of compass. Owing to the generosity and zeal of Mr. Thomas R. Trowbridge, who has also promoted the placing of the tablets on the walls above, and who is a lineal 36 A Neiv Haven Church. descendant of many buried here, all has been put in order ; the roughened ground has been smoothed and covered with cement, and the inscriptions have been made legible where time has taken off their first sharpness. One wanders among these stone memorials with the feeling that they are secure now from wind and storm for many a year. In such places, one seeks the oldest stone. In this case, it is a low, time- eaten slab, marking the death of "Mrs. Sarah Trowbridge, Deceased January the 5th, Aged 46, 1687." Not far away lie the grandfather and grandmother of President Hayes, and here is the first wife of Benedidt Arnold, of whom it is said that her influence might have kept him from his dastardly a6t. Still it was probably a happy fate that carried her away early, before the world had seen those traits which were undoubtedly quite too evident to her. The early members of the Trowbridge family were clustered close in death. Of the one hundred and thirty-nine persons buried here, twenty-five are Trow- bridges. He whose gravestone reads thus : " Here Lyeth Intere'' The Body of Thomas Trowbridge Esquire • Aged 70 Years Deceased The 22'' of August Anno Domini 1702." was the son of the Thomas Trowbridge who, born in Taunton, England, was one of the original settlers of New England, and his name is perpetuated to this day in his lineal descendants. He married Sarah Rutherford in 1657. Near him is the Thomas Trowbridge of the next generation. He ' ' departed this life" in 171 1, and his wife, Mary, did not rest beside him until thirty-one years later. And here is "Mr. Caleb Trowbridge who departed this life Septem' y*^ loth Anno Do. 1704." At a little distance is a curious stone, repeating in the warning " sic transit gloria mundi," the lesson of a faintly sculptured sun-dial. Beneath lies " Capt. Joseph Trowbridge," who died in 1749. A very plump and happy cherub smiles from the stone over Mrs. Sarah Whiting, the daughter of Jonathan Ingersoll, of Milford ; and it seems to show the glad contrast between her "wearisome pilgrimage" and her "joyful hope of a glorious immortality." Everyone who examines old gravestone inscriptions must be struck by the evidence that the next world seemed very near to the people of those times, that its joys grew real in proportion as the discomforts of the present life were pressing. A New Haven Church. 37 Several of the monuments are in the table form and bear long inscriptions. One commemorates the a(5tive career of Jared Ingersoll, a man of distinguished position and ability, who died in 1781, " having been judge of the Court of Vice- Admiralty, twice Agent for Connedticut at the Court of Great Britain. He was a Man of uncommon Genius, which was cultivated by a liberal education at Yale College and improved by the Study of mankind." Of these means of men- tal and spiritual advancement, certainly the third, perhaps demanding the least outlay of money and yet often the most costly, is open to us all. Here is another table, with delicately carved legs, bearing an inserted plate of finer stone on which are the names of James Abraham Hillhouse and his wife, "Madam " Hillhouse, the uncle and aunt of Senator James Hillhouse. In this quiet place is the dust of three of the early, historic pastors of the church ; Pierpont, " an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, who being fervent in spirit ceased not for y'' space of 30 years to warn every one day and night w"' tears," the whole ending quaintly with " Anag. Pie repone te ;" Noyes, "patient in tribulation & abundant in labors;" and Whittelsey, who, like Goldsmith's parson, " exemplified the more excellent way." It is interesting to note the difference between the inscriptions on these tables of stone which breathe the feelings of the contemporary friends and recount those adls and qualities which were important in their eyes ; and those words in the church above, where, on tablets of brass, is recorded the calm judgment of the men of to-day. In the first, we feel the sense of present and personal loss, caused by the removal from the community of an acknowledged power ; in the second, we read the verdicfl of time on what each has done for the world's progress. 38 A Nezv Haven Church. Below the lines in memory of Mr. Pierpont are the following : " Also Mrs. Mary the 3rd wife of the above Rev. Mr. James Pierpont, who died November ist, 1740 ^tatisSuse 68." She was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker and the mother of Mrs. Jonathan Edwards. Although Madam Noyes was buried in Wethersfield, she has an epitaph beneath that of Mr. Noyes. She was a rare woman. The daughter of the Rev. James Pierpont and Sarah Haynes, she had many advantages of inherited respedt and of education, and she was, withal, so wise and gracious, so absorbed in well-doing, that she was revered throughout her life, even by those who dis- liked Mr. Noyes. She was so much interested in the education of the young that she opened a free school in her own house, and left, by her will, a sum for the future instrudion of children. She gave a farm of three hundred and fifty acres in Farmington, Conn., to the church, and the money derived therefrom forms part of the Ministerial Fund. There are children here, too ; three little baby Sybyl Trowbridges ; and there is a singular group of four Sarah I^ymans — one seventy-five years old, one twenty-seven years, one one year, and one one month — and all dying within two years. Next to the Trowbridges, the Whittelseys were brought here in greatest number, eight in all, while there are many Allings and IngersoUs, and members of the family of Hays, or Hayz. Two sisters, daughters of Samuel Broome, rest beneath one table-stone, which bears twin epitaphs ; and near by is the stone of Mrs. Katherine Dana, the wife of the Rev. Dr. Dana, marked by a slab of fine slate with a relief of an urn with drooping handles, all very delicately carved, and as fresh as if placed here yesterday instead of more than a hundred years ago. It is hard to find poor spelling, and the epitaphs are almost without excep- tion refined and dignified. The last burial was in 1812, that of Mrs. Whittelsey, widow of the Rev. Chauncey Whittelsey. One unobtrusive stone brings to mind a woman whose expressed wish has been felt in ever deepening and widening circles — Hester Coster, who is so curiously connedted with the establishment of Yale in New Haven. It was Davenport's original intention to devote the land at the corner of Chapel, and College streets to the college which they wished to have speedily. In the vicissitudes of the seventeenth century, it was sold and used for a building lot ; Joshua Atwater, a merchant from London, and one of the first settlers, had it ; then William Tuttle bought it ; and after his death it was sold to the widow Hester Coster. She died in 1691, and, by her will, left the property to the ' ' First Church of Christ, New Haven, to be improved toward the maintaining of A New Haven Church. 39 a lecture in New Haven in the spring and fall of the year." For a few years, the church leased the property, but in 1717, under a power given by her will, sold it to the "trustees, partners, and undertakers for the Collegiate School." For, in 17 16, a decision was made as to the situation of the college which had such a struggle for its infant existence ; in choosing New Haven, a condition was made that the ' ' Coster lot ' ' and the ' ' Hooke lot ' ' should be acquired by the college ; the condition was granted, and that inducement prevailed over those held out by other aspirants for the honor, and thus Yale was placed in the City of Elms rather than in Wethersfield or Saybrook. Thus did the wishes of the English divine and the country dame unite in producing results greater than they could have even dared to hope for. One wonders how Hester Coster looked, talked, and lived, whether she was a forerunner of the strong-minded woman, wishing to enforce herself on the coming generations, or one of the gentle ones who become inspired with the desire of throwing their all into the treasury of the pressing public need. Just this one flash-light is thrown on her, and then all is dark. The inscription is : M" Hester Coster Aged 67 Deceased April y'= 6'" 1691. It would be hard to speak of this church without referring to its intimate connedlion with Yale University. Among their grand plans for the future was always the darling hope of the pastors and people that the colony should be a college town. A college lot was set aside from the first, and in spite of many vicissitudes and disappointments, it was that which was finally used. Davenport was full of zeal for education, wishing "all children in his colony to be brought up in learning." He would have rejoiced to know that Connedticut was to have the first school fund. For a long time the projedl seemed doomed to disappoint- ment for reasons both external and internal, but Davenport never gave up hope or effort. In the fifth year of the colony the settlers began to send contributions of corn to Harvard, and Eaton gave money toward the buildings required at Cambridge. In 1647, the attempt was made to start the college in the house oifered by Deputy-Governor Goodyear, who is commemorated by the tablet on the rear of the church, but a remonstrance came from the Cambridge people, who said that they could not support their young institution if the New Haven assistance should be withdrawn. New Haven yielded for a time, but the matter was annually discussed in public meetings, and was always near the heart of the people. The impulse given by Davenport's fixed purpose was felt long after his removal and death, and well has it been said, " As long as the college stands, the name of John Davenport, that pioneer in the promotion of the higher education, should be remembered by its alumni with reverence and gratitude." When, after all the discussions with other towns, the efforts of Davenport and Hooke and Street and Pierpont resulted in the three-story building on the Coster lot, facing the redlor's house on the Hooke lot, it was natural that the 40 A New Haveyi Church. little band of students should form part of the pastor's flock, that the meeting- house should be the scene of all public occasions for the college, and that the growth and prosperity of one institution should be linked with those of the other. Since the removal of the college to New Haven, until 1895, ^11 commence- ments, all inauguration of presidents, besides many other ceremonies, have been celebrated within the First Church walls. So, for nearly a century and three- quarters, the Center Church and its predecessors "have been like college build- ings in the memory of the alumni." Before even the venerable elms began to cast their shade over the scene, successive processions have marched to the same place, each class to be, in its turn, the absorbing interest, and each to take one step farther on in the world's progress, each to add one more to the accumulat- ing associations of the college. Commencement days have swung from September through August and July to June, the speakers have run the .scale of the learned languages, there have been classes small and large, but until two years ago the tide of diploma-seekers has never failed to flow in and out of those church doors. Hither came the proud parents, and hither flocked the pretty girls of suc- ceeding generations, decked in all the summer finery of each passing fashion, and here for more than a hundred years these descendants of the boys and girls who giggled on the pulpit stairs of the old first church, whispered composedly and outrageously straight through the long seasons of oratoric display, until the disturbance became so intolerable that the fiat went forth that men and women should sit on opposite sides of the church. Thus, and thus only, was the irre- pressible loquacity, aroused by listening to so much eloquence, repressed. Music was not introduced to relieve the proceedings until 1819, and it was not until 1846 that it ceased to be sacred in its character. What would the fathers have said to the sound of opera airs within those walls ! Great has been the change, too, in the intelledtual part of the programme. We hear of an early commencement called ' ' splendid ' ' by President Clap, and from that time on, the desire to secure places in the audience has been such that spurious tickets have been sometimes offered. To obviate fraud of that kind, the mysterious characfters since seen on commencement tickets were adopted. For a long time, until 1868, these eager spe<5lators and listeners patiently sat through two sessions in one day. In 1781, the walls of the predecessor of this building echoed to a Greek oration, an English colloquy, a forensic disputation, and an oration by President Stiles, in which he announced his opinions in Hebrew, Chaldaic and Arabic, followed by an English oration, all in the morn- ing. In the afternoon, the indefatigable and polyglot Dr. Stiles pronounced a " Eatin discourse," and a syllogistic dispute, a dissertation, a poem, and an oration gave the finishing touches to these learned feats. These syllogistic dis- putes, which had their day for sixty years, do not appear on the records after 1787. They must have afforded something of that excitement which modern students find in the ball games. We learn that in 1730, they were given from the side galleries of the church, the disputants hurling the polished missiles of A New Haven Church. 41 their logic from side to side with all the ardor of a struggle for life. The orators stood in the front gallery, and the " audience huddled below them to catch their Latin eloquence as it fell." Just forty years ago, in 1857, there were twenty-three speakers in the morn- ing and nineteen in the afternoon. All this speech-making proved a weariness to the flesh, and the male portion of the audience was often seen reclining on the grass outside in the shade of the elms, until such time as the sergeant-at-arms of the city should muster his forces on the Green, ready for the supreme moment of taking the degrees. Then all the hundreds from the different departments of the university into which the " collegiate school " has grown marched into the time-honored build- ing, up the steep steps of the temporary platform, each squad to decorously receive the sheepskins with the Latin speech, and each to divide and descend the side steps, at great risk of collision between heads and gallery beams, all to be instantly replaced by the next oncoming squad, until all were transformed from "seniors" to " educated gentlemen." All that has yielded to the varied array of caps and gowns. Long may the old church stand on the Green, to remind us of its part in history, to symbolize the character of New England, inspired by the pa.st, stand- ing firmly in the present, and ready to go forward to the future ! ^TIOYE S'TRETT " Cemetery, "newhavek. One hundred years ago, in July, 1796, that public-spirited citizen, James Hillhouse, caused the purchase and preparation of the burial ground known as the Grove Street Cemetery. His own body was laid there when his work was over ; and before him and after him have come to keep him company so many gifted and noble ones that with truth we read that " it is the resting-place of more persons of varied eminence than any other cemetery on this continent." The roll of honored names on its stones represents brain-power that has stirred the world and has done much to make the nineteenth century what it has been. The place seems dedicated to the fame of learning and of noble lives, and as it is still in use by the descendants of the original owners, the crumbling Pa.st and the well-kept Present meet there very strikingly. It was the first burial ground in the world to be divided into " family lots," and every visitor must notice the prominence of the family feeling. Parents, children, and grandchildren are together ; those whose lives have been spent elsewhere have sought burial with their kindred, while the families that enjoyed sweet intercourse in scholarly pursuits and social courtesies are still neighbors in death. The Grove Street Cemetery. 43 The wall and gates are severely Egyptian in style, but over the massive pylons at the entrance, the words, " The dead shall be raised," testify that to the ancient yearning for a life beyond the grave has succeeded the triumphant faith of Christianity. Within is the mortuary chapel, and the golden butterfly on its front again points every passer to the soul's release from the burden of the body. The cemetery is a quiet little square of seventeen acres, separating college halls on the one hand from the stir of business on the other. It is a cheerful city of the dead, with tall trees, high-trimmed, and with evidences of scrupulous care. Thoughtful visitors are always wandering along its avenues, peering here and there for tokens of the olden time, or for memorials of revered instructors and loved classmates. Let us walk down Cedar avenue, the " famous row." Here are pioneers of American scholarship, such as Benjamin Silliman, the elder, a man whose priv- ilege it was to be indeed a Nestor in science, to open the way to the wide fields we traverse freely. The little, low, gray laboratory has disappeared from the face of the Yale campus, but does not every one who sends a telegram owe thanks to Silliman and Morse that within its humble walls they persisted in the experi- ments which resulted in the great invention ? Professor Silliman was a keen observer, a delightful writer, a noble man ; his name honors the stone on which it is inscribed. His son and successor, Benjamin Silliman the younger, is in THE HILI.HOUSE I^OT. another part of the ground ; but in the same inclosure rests a Revolutionary dame, Mrs. Eunice Trumbull, " relict of Jonathan Trumbull, late Governor of Connecticut." She was the widow of the second governor of that illustrious family which contributed so much to the success of our war for independence, 44 The Grove Street Cemetery. and she was the mother of Harriet Trumbull, who was the wife of Professor Silliman, and who lies here, too. Thus two families bearing the American patent of nobility, valor and learning, were united. The mantle fell on no less a man than James Dwight Dana, the great geolo- gist, who searched the secrets of the coral groves. His slight form and pure face, a presence seeming more spiritual than material, were a part of New Haven for many years. Now he rests here. Next is the grave of Jedidiah Morse, the " Father of American Geography." A shaft bears aloft a globe, commemorating the service that Morse did in placing geography in the realm of systematic knowledge. Any one who has seen a copy of Morse's first edition, two stout octavo volumes bound in calf, will be apt to deem it at least as far removed as a great-grandfather from its modern descend- ant, the floridly embellished and tersely written school geography. His work, which may have been called for by the needs of the girls' school which he had in New Haven the year after his own graduation in 1783, is many TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, BENJAMIN SIWMAN, AND JAMES DWIGHT DANA. The Grove Street Cemetery. 45 times amusing when the author least intends to afford diversion. The title page runs thus — "The American Universal Geography or a View of the Present State of all the Empires, Kingdoms, States, and Republics in the known WORLD and of the United States of America in Particular." Some of the "particulars " are not un- pleasing reading for Connecticut people ; as for instance — " Connecticut is the most populous in proportion to its extent, of any of the thirteen states. A traveler, even in the most unsettled part of the state, will sel- dom pass more than two or three miles with- out finding a house or cottage and a farm under such improvement as to afford the necessaries for the support of a family." Again, " In no part of the world is the education of all ranks of the people more attended to than in Connecticut." The high regard in which the legal pro- fession has always been held here finds an explanation in its pages. "The people of Connecticut are remarkably fond of having all their disputes settled according to law. The prevalence of this litigious spirit affords employment and support for a numerous body of lawyers." But the lawyers were not to be left in undisputed possession of legal mysteries, for Morse says that, "In 1672 the laws of the colony were revised, and the general court ordered them to be printed, and also that every family should buy one of the law, books ; such as pay in silver to have a book for twelve pence, such as pay in wheat to pay a peck and a half a book, and such as pay in peas, to pay two shillings a book, the peas at three shillings the bushel." How intimately the pursuit of agriculture and the book trade were associ- ated in those days ! Morse sagely remarks, " Perhaps it is owing to the early and universal spread of law books that the people of Connecticut are to this day so fond of the law." This is his testimony for the state which had the first school fund: "A TO THEODORE WINTHROP. 46 The Grove Street Cemetery. To KI-I WHITNKV. thrift for learning prevails among all ranks of people in the state. In no part of the world is the education of all ranks of people more attended to than in Connecticut." Now, in 1896, there comes a voice from a son of Connecticut, who has spent nearly half a century in the sunny land of cotton : "As I grow older, my opinion is stronger than ever that the ancient state has done more for the education and general advancement of all the people of this vast coun- try than any other." Con- necticut educators have a great past to live up to. The salutary influence of the clergy, described as "very respectable," is noted as having preserved a kind of aristocratic balance in the very democratic government of the state. What do the members of the medical profession, and tobacco-raisers think of this " act of the general assembly at Hartford in 1647, wherein it was ordered, ' That no person under the age of twenty years, nor any other that hath already accustomed himself to the use thereof, shall take any tobacco until he shall have brought a certificate from under the hand of some who are ap- proved for knowledge and skill in physic, that it is fit for him, and also that he hath received a license from the court for the same.' All others who had addicted themselves to the use of tobacco, were, by the same court, prohibited tak- ing it in any company, or at their labors, or on their travels, unless they were ten miles at least from any house, or more than once a day, though not in com- pany, on pain of a fine of sixpence for each time ; to be proved by one substantial evidence " ? Oh ! the vicissitudes of time ! But the laws of Connecticut were again revised in 1750, and of them Dr. TO I.YMAN BEECHER AXL> .NOAH PORTER. 77/1? Grove Street Ceynetery. 47 Douglass observed, " That they were the most natural, equitable, plain, and con- cise code of laws for plantations hitherto extant." Morse died in 1826, after a varied life, which brought him honors, among them a degree from the University of Edinburgh, and the office of U. S. Com- missioner to the Indian tribes. Here also is his wife, Elizabeth Anne Breese, granddaughter of President Finley of Princeton. So there is a family history in the names of Samuel Finley Breese Morse, Morse's illustrious son, whose first wife, Lucretia Pickering, took her place here at the age of twenty-five, not knowing what fame was in store for her husband. See this cross which bears the name of Theodore Winthrop — a name that summons the tragedy of the civil war, the blighting of a promising literary career, all too soon for achieving fame in battle. In that gifted man met the inheritance of the families that New England counts among her proudest possessions in the past, the Woolseys, the Dwights, the Winthrops. The call of Sumter roused the patriotism in the .scholar's heart, and in three months promise and yH«-H performance were alike ended. Much can be read V> H between the terse lines, "Born in New Haven, % B| vSept. 22, 1828. C * ♦ Fell in Battle at j | ,y m Great Bethel, Va., June 11, 1861." College honors, travel in lands, old and new, the love of friends, the unfolding of fame in letters, the glow of patriotism, all led to that supreme moment, when, leap- ing up to urge on his men, he fell. The pathos of his death casts a spell over us when we turn the pages of ' ' Cecil Dreeme" and "Edwin Brothertoft," of " L,ove and Skates," and of those descrip- tions in the Atlantic of that memorable first "^^ J"«^' ^^^ ^.ovf.i.^.. march to Washington, which made him speak to the whole nation after his pen and sword were laid aside forever. Next is a name no less famous, that of Eli Whitney, ' ' the inventor of the cotton-gin, 1765-1825. TO NOAH WEBSTER. 48 The Grove Street Cemetery. the kind-hearted, swift-footed, We all know what Horace Greeley has so strikingly set forth, that the United States and the civilized world are richer because the inventive genius and courteous helpfulness of that young Yale man offered a friendl}^ hand to southern labor. What modern commerce would be without the cotton-gin, it is hard to say. Lyman Beecher, great father of great chil- dren, lies near, beneath a block of stone bearing a cross in relief; and next are the Taylors, Dr. Taylor of theological renown, and his daughter, Marj', the wife of Noah Porter. She is beside clear-headed, eleventh president of Yale. And in this neighbor- h o o d of death is the grave of Noah Web- ster, 1758- 1842. Veri- ly, he "be- ing dead, yet speak- eth," for do not millions of us im- plicitly obey TO mary ci.ap wooster. his orders given in the famous spelling-book, and in the "Unabridged," inspired by him with a life which keeps it in vigorous growth while generations pass away ? The speller attained a sale of sixty-two million copies long ago ; and although his royaltj' was only a cent a copy, that supported his family for years. Webster was a typical son of Connecti- cut in his versatility. Of Hartford birth, a graduate of Yale, he was teacher, lawyer, judge, politician, magazine editor, author of text-books, one of the founders of Amherst, and lexicographer, as occasion de- manded. The renown of his dictionary perhaps causes us to forget that his words were a prime mover for the call for the convention which gave to the TO TIMOTHY DWIGHT. The Grove Street Cemetery. 49 United States their revered constitution. He lived in sight of his final resting- place. On the opposite side is the grave of Joel Root, the model of high-bred integrity, whose adventures in a business voyage of three years around the world in the first years of the century read like a second Robinson Crusoe. . Turning to another avenue, we find an educator of a later generation, but of wide influence, John Epy Lovell, ' ' founder and teacher of the I,ancasterian school." He was born in 1795, and lacked but three years ot a century of life when he died in 1893. For years he carried out in New Haven his peculiar ideas of methods of instruction, and although the "monitor system" is an educa- To THEODORE DwiGHT WOOI3EY. tioual fashiou long since laid aside, the memory of the genial and talented teacher is still green. In 1889, Mr. Lovell appeared in the procession which celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the town. Every eye was turned on the veteran, who, in his ninety-fourth year, was already in the halo of the past. He sleeps beneath granite blocks picturesquely piled, a monument given by an associa- tion of his pupils. These stones commemorate the Clap family, "The Reverend and learned Mr. Thomas Clap, late President of Yale College," in days so far away (1740-1765), thathe could show his enterprise by caus- ing the first cata- logue to be prepared for the library, that library so asssociated with the foundation and continued life of the college, by compiling the college laws (in Latin), the first book printed in New Haven, and by securing the new charter with the style, " the President and Fellows of Yale College in New Haven ; " Mrs. Clap, and their daughter, Mary Clap Wooster, "widow of Gen. David Wooster, of the Revo- lutionary Army." To PROFESSORS I,OOMIS, TWINING, AND HADI _ John Tncmbnll, the Patriot Painter, 81 poses with uplifted hand to save the dying man. nam, the last loath to hind. At one side, evidently a hasty figure and dress, while his negro ser- a backward gaze of fright. Dimly in the fighting and retreat- while the ships below of smoke tell the tale town. Surely the his theme and his of that memorable lost the battle, but The faces with their are nearly all por- tion is fine, the crowded nor theatri- their own story of GOVKRNOR JON-.. ...>-. iKUMBOIJv, JR In the I 'ale A rt School. Howe and Clinton, and Put- retreat, are seen be- a young American, volunteer, of elegant turns away in horror, vant rolls his eyes in mingled curiosity and background are seen ing lines of troops ; and the lurid clouds of burning Charles- artist was inspired by glowing recollections combat, where we we "kept the hill." varied expression, traits, the composi- figures are neither cally posed, and tell the thrilling moment. This, and the " Death of Montgomery, " a piece somewhat similar in spirit, with the light streaming on the central figures, are justly called the finest examples of American historical painting.. To return to 1775. After Washington's arrival, a plan of the enemy's fortifications, stealthily made by Trum- bull, attracted the notice of the com- mander-in-chief, and procured him an appointment as second aid, Mifilin being first. After a time, Trumbull became major of brigade, and in the spring went to New York under Gates, who, on receiving his own appointment to the charge of the northern depart- ment, made Trumbull his deputy adju- tant-general. Then came the varied scenes of army life, during the campaign around Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Trumbull speaks of a voyage by sloops up the North River as occupying seven or eight days. The young adjutant was busy in preparing and submitting plans for the defence of strategic points ; and it seems now as if much time and blood might , , ,,,,.., , GENERAI, DAVID HUMPHREYS. have been saved had his ideas been m the vaie An school. 82 John Trumbull, the Patriot Painter. accepted by Congress. He perceived and proved that Mt. Defiance commanded Mt. Independence, and urged that it be occupied instead of the latter. John Fiske says that he then showed himself superior in military sagacity to all the older officers who were around him. Sad duties there were, too ; for small-pox and a kind of yellow fever broke out among the troops, and Trumbull had to make careful examinations and returns. He says : — "I found them dispersed, some few in tents, some in sheds, and more under the shelter of miserable bush huts, so totally disorganized by the death or sickness of officers that the distin(5lion of regiments and corps was in a great degree lost, so that I was driven to the necessity of great personal examination ; and I can truly say that I did not look into tent or hut in which I did not find either a dead or dying man." After the defeat of General Waterbury, Trumbull met the prisoners returned by Sir Guy Carleton, and with unusual acuteness for so young a man he per- ceived the policy of the British commander's too propitiatory kindness. He hastened with his forebodings to Gates, who ordered that the returned men should be forwarded to their destination without communicating with their former comrades and therebj' reviving any latent affection for the mother country. Trumbull had been serving for months as deputj' adjutant-general under the appointment of General Gates, who was instrudled by Congress to make such selection for the office as he saw fit ; but that whimsical assembly delayed send- ing the commission, and when the delay had become almost inexcusable, sent the commission dated three months late. This affront was too much for Trum- bull's sensitive spirit ; he declined the commission. Conscious of having served with disinterested zeal, and of having gained the approval of his general, he perceived the tokens of jealousies among tho.se in high places. While Trumbull, for instance, was aid to Washington in 1775, Hancock had remarked that "that family was well provided for," — two brothers of John being in high position ; to which John dryly rejoined: "We are secure of four halters, if we do not suc- ceed." There was a long correspondence about the commission ; but Trumbull was firm in his refusal, and, full of disappointed patriotism, rettirned to Lebanon in the spring of 1777. His first love, art, claimed him then, and he went to Boston to study. There Smybert, most wooden of painters, but deserving lasting remembrance as the first man who made pidtures in America, and as one who stimulated Copley and Trumbull, had left a studio. Trumbull hired it, and found there several of Smybert' s copies of celebrated paintings. Among these, Vandyck's head of Cardinal Bentivoglio, and Raphael's Madonna della Sedia aroused his ad- miration. Nevertheless, he says, " the sound of a drum frequently called an involun- tary tear to my eye." Naturally, when General Sullivan and Count d'Estaing combined to rescue Rhode Island from the enemy, Trumbull vohinteered to give his services as aid to Sullivan. The offer was accepted, and he took an adtive part in the short and stirring campaign, which failed in its principal objedl because the French fleet departed. Jolm Trumbull, the Patriot Painter. 83 Then it was that Trumbull, arrayed in a nankeen suit and mounted on a powerful baj' horse, rode about in full view during the long summer day, with a white handkerchief tied around his head, because the wind had taken off his hat in the morning and, as he says, "it was no time to dismount for a hat !" He was sent by General Sullivan to the top of Butts's Hill, with an order to Colonel Wigglesworth. He had to climb a continuous ascent of a mile in full view of the enemj^, and for the last half mile amid a hailstorm of bullets. He met one friend with an arm shot off, another shot through the back, a third borne away to have his leg amputated. On went the volunteer aid, to receive from Colonel Wigglesworth the charac- teristic greeting: "Don't say a word, Trumbull ! I know your errand, but • don't speak, — we will beat them in a moment." Oh ! what stuff was in those .r ^OMyCr^ — - */'