i699 Plainfield jg Bicentennial ^v_y 1 v^ GEN. JOHN DOUGLASS. From an old painting. Plainfield Bicentennial AlOyXI^lR VOLUME — COMPRISING THE — SPEECHES, HISTORICAL PAPERS, POEMS AND GENERAL EXERCISES — AT THE — OBSERVANCE OF THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN OF PLAINFIELD, CONN., AUG. 31st, 1899 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS PUBLISHED BY THE BICENTENNIAL COMMITTEE Press of Thb Bulletin Company, Norwich, Conn. PLAINFIELD'S BICENTENNIAL. The project of celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of Plainfield's existence as a town was discussed early in the present year, and in May an informal meeting was held at the Central Village library, and steps were taken towards having the matter introduced in town-meeting. On June 5th the town unanimously voted to have a bicentennial celebration and appointed a general committee of fifteen tO' take the whole matter in charge, with power to appoint subcommittees. From that date the enterprise was pushed energetically, the committees working harmoniously and with commendable zeal. This resulted in the celebration on Thurs- day, August 31st, one of the most pleasing and successful occasions Windham County has ever witnessed. The weather was delightful, and all the details were carried out in an excellent manner. From a stand erected for the occasion on the hotel lawn, Governor Lo'Unsbury and staff reviewed the parade, following which were music and addresses in the order elsewhere given. A notable feature of the celebration was the colonial exhibit in the vestry of the First Church, a rare collection of articles, antique and valuable, from Plainfield and Canterbury. Of the people on 4 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Plainfield street that day — about seven thousand — a large number visited the exhibition with great interest and pleasure. This cannoi be reproduced upon these pages, but will long be remembered. The historical papers following were prepared by individual members of the Historical Committee, and with a poem by Rev. John Troland, of Norwich, and the other proceedings at the celebration, are here presented tO' the citizens and friends of Plainfield by the editors appointed by the town committee. Charles F. Burgess. Henry T. Arnold. Plainfield, Sept. 21, 1899. COMMITTEES. Members of the Town Committee of Fifteen. HON. JOSEPH HUTCHINS, Chairman. FRED T. JOHNSON, Clerk. F. H. TILLINGHAST, Treasurer. Joel M. Hunt, Floyd Cranska, Judge Waldo Tillinghast, M. A. Linnell, Charles E. Barber, James L. Gardner, M. D., Henry C. Starkweather, Jerry Doyle, Jason P. Lathrop, A. B. Mathewson, W. H. Browning, Frank Miller, Rev. John Oldham. Subcommittees. INVITATION AND RECEPTION.— Hon. Joseph Hutchins, Frank H. Tilling-hast, Floyd Cranska, Fred T. Johnson, George Torrey. HISTORICAL AND PRINTING.— James L,. Gardner, M. D., Rev. S. H. Fellows, Rev. H. T. Arnold, Frank H. Tillinghast, Charles F. Burgess. COLONIAL EXHIBIT.— Arnold B. Mathewson, Charles E. Barber, Judge Waldo Tillinghast, Rev. H. T. Arnold, Rev. Elisha Sanderson, Commit- tee of the D. A. R. and the Lucy Webb Hayes Circle, G. A. R. MUSIC— Floyd Cranska, John T. Leach, L. W. Cleveland, E. W. Mathewson, John E. Vaughn. Fred W. Lester, Norwich, Choral Director. Mrs. W. W. Adams, Accompanist. POLICE AND CONSTABULARY.— George R. Bliven, Joel M. Hunt, Charles F. Burgess, S. A. Clarke, George G. Chipman. SPEAKERS' STAND AND SEATING.— H. C. Starkweather, William Shepard, Jason P. Lathrop, Walter Kingsley, Henry B. Lester. STREET PARADE.— Joel M. Hunt, Chas. E. Barber, F. H. Edgarton, Marcele Jette, A. H. Mathewson. 6 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Auxiliary Committees. COLONIAL EXHIBIT.— Miss Martha S. Eaton, Miss Isabella B. Pratt, Lemuel W. Cleveland, Miss Annie L. Tillinghast, Mrs. Luther S. Eaton, Walter Kingsley, Miss Susie Witter, Mrs. Julia M. Andrews, Miss Bertha Spragrue, John Gallup, Mrs. Henry Young, Mrs. George Loring, Mrs. W. D. Rouse, Mrs. E. H. Lillibridge, Sessions L. Adams, Miss Bessie Parker, Timothy Parker, Miss Nellie Shepard; Canterbury — Rev. Wilbur Johnson, Miss Lucy Baldwin. PARADE. — Henry Dorrance, Charles O. Dodge, Simon Sullivan, Earl Davis, Miss Martha S. Eaton, Miss Annie L. Tillinghast, Plainfield; S. L. Adams, Miss Emily Torrey, Mrs. Jennie Tillinghast, Central Village; H. N. Wood, Miss Cora N. Wood, Miss Bessie Parker, Wauregan; Irving Taber, Miss Belle Cray, Mrs. Geo. Chipman, Moosup. ORDER OF PARADE. JOEL, M. HUNT, Marshal. AIDES.— Chas. C. Barber, F. H. Edgarton, Marcel Jette, A. H. Mathewson, S. Li. Adams, I. A. Taber, Joseph Fournier, Joseph Bodo, Joseph Perecia. GOVERl^OR'S ESCORT. Reeves' American Band of Providence. G. A. R., Veteran Division, Geo. R. Bliven, Commander. The parade divisions formed at Moosup and Wauregan, march- ing to Central Village, arriving at 9.00 a. m. FIRST DIVISION. Bicyclists — Ladies and Gentlemen. First, Moosup. Second, Canterbury. Third, Plainfield. Fourth, Central Village. Fifth, Wauregan. SECOND DIVISION. Platoon, Police. Reeves' American Band. St. Jean Baptist Society, Wauregan. President, Leo Pratte. Vice-President, Lewis Messier. St. Jean Baptist Society, Moosup. Peter Burke, President. Moosup Cornet Band, F. W. Vassar, Leader. St. Louis Society, Moosup. General, Joseph Piche. Adjutant General, Hormidas Couture. Mystic Rose Council, K. of C, Wauregan. Grand Knight, Jerry Doyle. Deputy G. K., Julian Martin. Wauregan Cornet Band, John T. Leach, Leader. Atwood Hose Company, Wauregan. Foreman, W. W. Wheatley. First Assistant, F. S. Downer. Second Assistant, J. T. Leach. Hill Hose Company, No. 1, Moosup. Foreman, T. Morrissey. Assistant, G. W. Gifford. a PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. THIRD DIVISION. Floats, Barges, Representative of Organizations, Corporate and Private Enterprises. CENTRAL, VILLAGE. Torrey Brothers, Manufacturers. M. S. Nichols, Dentifrice. A. J. Ladd, Printer. Ancient Order United Workmen. Quinebaug Lodge No. 22. Scene— "Charity, Hope and Protection." Protection Lodge No. 19, I. O. O. F. Scene — "David and Jonathan." Unity Encampment No. 21, I. O. O. F. Scene — "Abraham and Isaac." Sarah Rebekah Lodge No. 34, I. O. O. F. Scene— "Rebekah at the Well." WAUREGAN. Wauregan Mill Company. Scene — "A Representation of the Cotton Industry." Wauregan Village. First, "Young America." Second, "A Nosegay, from Grandma's Garden." PLAINFIELD. Plainfleld Grange Floats — First, "Log Cabin Scene, 1799." Second, "Uncle Sam on John Bull." Third, "The Farmer Feeds Us All." J. P. Kingsley & Sons, Merchants. Packerville Float. MOOSUP. Order of the Eastern Star. American Mechanics, Men and Float. American Woolen Co. Mill. Scene — "An Industrial Representation." Plainfleld Journal, The Press. Bodo Brothers, Merchants. A. B. Sprague^ Carriages. Goldberg Brothers, Merchants. E. E. Dupuis, Merchant. Henry E. Elliot, Merchant. C. D. Salisbury, Merchant. C. A. Sander- son, Merchant. FOURTH DIVISION. Cavalry, Indians, Etc. Review of the procession from the stand on the hotel lawn, by His Excellency, George E. Lounsbury, Governor of the State. March of the parade to Kingsley's store, near the depot, and counter- march, repassing the reviewing stand to the old brick school-house, where it disbanded. ORDER OF EXERCISES. ELEVEN A. M. Invocation — Rev. Wilbur Johnson, Canterbury. Opening Address — Rev. s. H. Fellows, President of the Day. Historical Address — "Plainfield Beginnings," Miss Ellen D. Larned, Thompson. Selection — Reeves' American Band. Poem — Henry M. Witter, Worcester, Mass. Read by his granddaughter. Miss Mary Witter Flint. Solo — "The Breaking Waves Dashed High," . _ . . . Brown Mrs. W. W. Adams. Oration — Judge Daniel W. Bond, Waltham, Mass. Selection — Overture, "William Tell," ------- Rossini Reeves' American Band. 1 TO 2— COLLATION. Selections during intermission by Wauregan and Moosup Bands. TWO P. M. Chorus — "Heaven and the Earth Display," - - _ - Mendelssohn Address — His Excellency, George E. Lounsbury, Governor of Connecticut. Music — "II Trovature," ---------- Ycrdi Reeves' American Band. Address — Congressman Charles A. Russell. Chorus — "To Thee, O Country," -.-_-_- Eichberff Poem — George S. Burleigh, Providence, R. I. Read by his grandniece. Miss Agnes Burleigh Allen. Music, Solo — "Barbara Frietchie," ------ Jules Jordan Mrs. N. G. Ladd. Address — Rev. J. P. Brown, New London. lO PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Address — Mr. C. E. Tillinghast, New York. Chorus— "Let the Hills and Vales Resound," _ - - - Richards Address — Judge E. M. Warner, Putnam. Music — Selection, "Bohemian Girl," _.----- Balle Reeves' American Band. Address— Rev. Charles H. Spalding, D. D., Boston. Singing — "America," Chorus, Band and Audience. CONCERT BY AMERICAN BAND.— 5.15 P. M. D. W. REEVES, Director. 1. March— "Demming," - --------- Reeves To H. C. Demming, Esq., President of Park Commissioners. 2. Overture — "Zampa," ---------- Herold 3. (fl) March— "Hands Across the Sea," ------ Sousa (b) Rag Time— "A Warm Reception," ----- Anthony 4. Medley of Popular Songs, --------- Mackie 6. Tone Picture — "Germans before Paris," ------ Trenkler EVENING CONCERT.— 7.30 P. M. 1. March— "Stars and Stripes," _-__---- 8ousa 2. Overture — "Semeramis," --------- Rossini 3. (a) March — "Convention," --------- Reeves (h) Irish Rag Time — "McAlheeney's Cake Walk," - - Balfmore A. Solo for Cornet— By Mr. B. R. Church. 5. Grand Selection — "Tannhauser," - __---- Wagner 6. Solo for Trombone — Mr. C. W. Sparg. 7. (a) American Patrol, -----.__- Mcacham (b) Salvation Army, ----------- Orth 8. Grand Fantasie — "Lohengrin," ------- Wagner 9. "Star Spangled Banner." HON. JOSEPH HUTCHINS, Chairman of General Comnnittee. REV. S. H. FELLOWS. President of the Day. ADDRESSES. WELCOMING ADDRESS. Rev. S. H. Fellows. Plainfield makes no boast of having been the birthplace of presidents, commodores or generals, or of having occupied a con- spicuous place in the history of the state or nation. She has a right to claim that the granite she has built into her church and academy, indicates the kind of men she has sent out to fill important positions in church and state. We consider ourselves honored to-day in the presence of our governor and his staff, and all others who have kindly accepted our invitation, to join in this celebration, and contribute to its success. In behalf of the citizens of the town and the committee of ar- rangements, I bid you one and all a cordial welcome. As I cannot, like Joshua of old, command the sun to stand still in his course, to lengthen out the day which will, I fear, be too short, pardon me, if I suggest to all who have a part, that they give us the cream of their thoughts, and leave the newspapers to gather •up the rest. There are few who have the patience to pore over and attempt to decipher the musty records o'f the past, still less who have the ability to make these instinct with life ; but both these faculties are the gift of the noted historian of Windham County, whose name is a household word. She has patiently gathered up for us the salient points in the 200 years of the history of this town that we may see its beginnings and its growth. I take pleasure in presenting to you the historian of the day. Miss Ellen D. Larned. If you have your handkerchiefs, give her a good Chautauqua salute. 12 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. Ellen D, Larned. Two- hundred years ago this summer, May 31, 1699, the resi- dents of the land both sides of the Quinebaug river, now included in the towns of Plainfield and Canterbury, met together to organize town government. Some thirty families then comprised this Quine- baug plantation, the larger proportion having their homes in the south part of the eastern section, and we may assume that the place of meeting for this purpose was in some rude dwelling not far from this present, pleasant Plainfield street. Rude, I say, for how could it be otherwise. If ever a people had to battle for existence and for every square inch of territory, it was the early settlers of the Quinebaug plantation. This beautiful Quinebaug Country, a tract twelve to fourteen miles square with its broad valleys, rich planting fields and rolling hills on either side, has been the object of envy and dissension as far back as we can penetrate into its history. Its aboriginal inhabitants, spiritless Quinebaugs as they were called, without head chief or tribal organization, were trampled under foot by their stronger neighbors, the warlike Narragansetts and fiercer Pequots, paying tribute to each by turns. The Narragansett Moosup gained such a foothold as to affix his name forever to the largest branch of the Quinebaug. White settlers venturing within this stormbelt were driven away by threats of violence, and after English settlement, the conquest of the Pequots. and the withdrawal of the Narragansetts. the "white man's burden" w^as but slightly alleviated. The Quinebaug Country was then claimed and battled over by two of the strongest men in Connecticut, each with his following of partisans and fellow claimants. First in the field was John Winthrop, son of Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts, himself governor of Connecticut, to whom Connecticut is indebted for its first charter, with its wonder- fully broad and gracious privileges, a man whose memory we de- light to honor. Plaving founded a colony and set up a saw mill PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. I3 at Pequot, now New London, he naturally soug-ht to gain adjacent territory, and in 1653 secured a deed of the Quinebaug Country from certain Indians who exercised temporary authority and claimed right of disposal. The bounds extended from ''the Indian planting- ground at Quinebaug, where James his fort is" (now Danielson), on both sides the river that runneth down towards Mohegan, and the plantation upon the sea, and included all the swamps of cedar, pine, spruce and other timber, suitable for the supply of the Winthrop saw mill. The whole tract 01 country now included in Plainfield and Canterbury was made over to Winthrop for "a coat" at once donned by the savage chieftain, with "a roll of trucking cloth, two rolls of red cotton, wampum, stockings, tobacco pipes and tobacco." The General Court under the circumstances could do no less than "'allow the Governor his Indian purchase at Quinebaug," with liberty to erect thereon a plantation. The disturbed condition of public afifairs delayed settlement till after King Philip's war and the deposition of Sir Edmond Andrus ; and by that time our second claimant had appeared upon the field, the worshipful Major James Fitch of Norwich, a man who by his masterful character and influence over the Indians exercised more power at that date than any man in Connecticut. Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, laid claim to a vast tract of country by virtue of Pequot descent and conquest, and had given the Quinebaug Coun- try and other tracts to his son Owaneco, who in 1680 made over all his right and title to any and all of his lands and meadows unto his loving friend, James Fitch, Jun., who' was made by General Court legal guardian of this drunken and flexible Owaneco. Tlie Win- throp claim was now maintained by Gov. Winthrop's sons, Fitz John and Wait, and bc^th factions essayed to encourage settlement and plantation work. This land embroilment makes it difficult to trace the order of settlement as deeds of land received from either claimant were after- wards set aside. A number of respectable families from Massa- chusetts towns purchased land of the Winthrops and entered upon possession about 1689. Major Fitch is said to have been more careless in the admission of settlers, allowing privateers and even 14 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. some from Rhode Island to gain a footing. All classes alike labored under very great diffictdties arising from absolute insecurity of title. Land broken up, crops toilfully raised could be seized and harried off by opposing claimants. Other claims besides those of the honorable governor and worshipful major made confusion more confounded. The same land had been granted to different persons v^ho battled for possession. The early records of New London county courts are filled with complaints of high-handed violence ; fences are torn down, bounds obliterated ; youngsters from Norwich seize and carry off corn from the Indians' planting ground ; names still honored in both towns figure in report as clinching with clubs and hatchets ; the major himself is arraigned as a "Land Pirate." Your honored townsman, Judge Gallup, reports that his ancestor — one of six brothers concerned in these squabbles — was actually driven off into Voluntown as a specially obnoxious "land-grabber." Details of this stormy period may but be left to Carlyle's "wise oblivion." Under the circumstances it could scarce have been otherwise, and enough has been given to show under what great difficulties Plainfield was founded. One gleam of romance illumines this dark picture. Among the settlers are two young brothers from Concord, not included among the belligerents and holding their land on an independent footing. Tradition reports them as coming in advance of others. There were no dime novels in those days, but they may have heard of John Smith and sea-faring adventurers. Other settlers trudged over the old Connecticut path leading from Boston tO' New York, or followed Indian trails, Greenwich and Nipmuck paths, but these adventurous youth boarded a sloop at Boston which brought them round to Pequot harbor, and there they encountered Indians who told them of goodly land in the Ouinebaug's Country and brought them up stream in their canoes until they had passed the Great Bend, Wanungatuck, where they landed and made their home. We cannot vouch for the truth of this picturesque voyage of discovery with all its romantic details, but we know as a positive fact that these two young men from Concord — Isaac and Samuel Shepard — either by sea or land "got there all the same," that they recorded at PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. I5 Norwich a deed of land from Owaneco; that their names do not appear among raiders or defenders ; that they hved in peace and harmony with their Indian friends and neighbors ; brought their old mother and her second husband tO' share in their purchase and prosperity; and that old Shepard Hill and a goodly line of descendants bear witness of them unto this day. But for them we should hardly know of the Indians, occupying their old haunts and hunting fields, keeping Black Hill burned over to furnish grazing for deer, bringing gifts of game and fish and acquiring a taste for cider and spirits that carried them ofif by scores to the ancient Sagamore burying ground. Feared at first by the whites, they soon recognized their harmless character and no Indian disturbances are recorded in Plainfield annals. In other respects our settlers were wholly at disadvantage, debarred, as they forcibly present in their petitions, from regular orderly settlements, no roads but those "trod out" as occasion de- manded, no schools, no church privileges, no town officials, and the very delicate question at issue between such prominent men as the Winthrops and Major Fitch made such settlement impossible until this matter of title was thoroughly investigated, and with that the General Court was as yet unable to grapple. Even county priv- ileges were not granted until 1697, when the Quinebaug Country was included in New London County. Still the settlement was growing, for that same year Major Fitch took personal possession of his farm at Peagscomsuck, west side of the river. Other sub- stantial settlers, Adams, Paine, the Clevelands, founded homes west of the river. The Puritan spirit assisted itself in attempts at "law and order" and religious services; a minister was procured and in May, 1699, a petition was presented the general assembly for town privileges, and a specified committee tO' lay out allotments and arrange a "peaceable, honorable, speedy and righteous laying out of lots and divisions of land and meadows." This petition was signed by fifteen east side settlers, viz., Isaac and Samuel Shepard, John, Edward and Joseph Spalding, Thomas and Timothy Pierce, Richard Pellett, Benjamin Rood, John Fellows, James Ringsbury, Thomas Harris, Matthias Button, Jacob Warren, Nathaniel Jewell. Nine l6 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Others signed who were west side residents : Robert Green, Richard Adams, Samuel and Joseph Cleveland, Obadiah and William John- son, Thomas Brooks. B)^ act of assembly town privileges were granted, provided it did not prejudice any particular person's property. Bounds were ten miles east and west, eight miles north and south, abutting southerly on Norwich and Preston bounds, westerly on Windham, and his honor Gov. Fitz John Winthrop named the town Plainfield, and so after this long period of debate and strife our Plainfield ancestors met together that last day of May, 1699, ^^^^ organized towai govern- ment. It was not a very full or enthusiastic meeting. Major Fitch and his brother land-grabbers were conspicuously absent. There were breakers ahead, but this handful of men did the best they could. They put in for town clerk a good man, James Deane. We know he was good for he kept the best records of any town clerk in Windham County; well written, well spelt (for the times), full and accurate ; moreover he was a pillar of the church and left by will to his oldest son, James, that precious "great bible" still cherished by western descendants. Jacob Warren, Joseph Spalding, Stephen Hall, William Johnson and Samuel Adams were chosen selectmen; John Fellows, constable; Thomas Williams, surveyor. Many things were needful for this new town, but the one thing they thought most needful was a minister, and the only additional vote at this first Plainfield town meeting was : "To give the Rev. Mr. Coit a call for one-quarter of a year for ten pounds ; Stephen Hall, Nathaniel Jewell, Joseph Spalding and Thomas Williams to go and treat with him, receive his answer and return it to the town." Mr. Coit came and preached for the summer, holding service on either side of the Quinebaug by turns, and by autumn affairs were so quieted that all agreed, whether or not their land disputes were settled, they must have a settled orthodox ministry and regular Sabbath worship. Nov. 13, 1699, a meeting was held at which thirty-eight inhabitants signed an agreement to maintain "an able, faithful, orthodox gospel minister, so as that the sure worship of God may be at all times upheld and maintained amongst us ;" the townsmen to take special care of his maintenance and accommoda- PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. 17 tions. James Fitch heads the hst of subscribers to this agreement, followed by eleven other west side settlers. Other signatures are those of Thomas Stevens, William Douglas, Henry Walbridge, Daniel Woodward, William Marsh, Joshua Whitney, Tixhall Ens- worth, John Smith, Edward Baldwin, Joseph Parkhurst, John Dean, Samuel Howe, Peter Crary. Jacob Warren was chosen east side collector, Richard Adams west side. Further arrangements were made at the February town meeting, held "at the house of Isaac Shepard's present aboad," and Mr. Coit was retained in charge. This agreement though made in good faith was found greatly inconvenient. The Ouinebogus river was the chief obstacle. This "tedious" and turbulent "stream involved our settlers in a long labarynth of diliticulties." It is hard to recognize our tractable and friendly Quinebaug in this fierce and ferocious torrent, not to be paralleled in the colony for depth and untimely freshets. All our residents, whites and Indians, had canoes, and the Shepard brothers rigged up something like a ferry boat for the accommodation of travelers, but the passage to and fro at certain seasons was extremely difficult and even hazardous, and in 1702, in another formal agree- ment, east and west side settlers agreed to join in application to the General Court for the grant of a separate town-ship on the west side. The dividing bound to be the Quinebaug to the centre of Peagscomsuck Island, thence a straight line to south bound of town. This agreement was signed by twenty-four east side and ten west side inhabitants, with three worthy ministers for witnesses. The joint petition was accepted by the General Court, and the wxst side incorporated in 1703 is the town-ship of Canterbury. Previous to this corporation attempts had been made to settle that still more formidable land dispute. First a committee appointed by the General Court met at the Peagscomsuck plantation. May 21, lyoi, tO: take testimony, find out and renew the bounds of the Quinebaug Country, purchased by John Winthrop. It was a re- markable o-athering. J\lajor General Wait Winthrop was there to represent the claim in behalf of himself and his brother, the present Governor; Tracy, Leffingwell, Bushnell and other Norwich mag- nates. Major Fitch with his following of counsellors and fellow 2 l8 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. claimants, all the residents of both sides the Quinebaug, and all the Indians that could be mustered of every clan and tribelet — Mohe- gans, Narragansetts, Shetuckets, Ouinebaugs. A Pequot had been exhumed from that defunct tribe. They had even brought down old John Aquatimang from Woodstock, who seventy years before had carried corn to needy Boston settlers. What would we not give for one snap shot of this varied and picturesque assembly. Our timid Quinebaug residents so quailed before the presence of Owaneco that they had to be taken aside before they dared to. give their testimony. After a full examination of all these witnesses, the committee with a long train of guides. Indians and interested spectators proceeded to search for the bounds thus indicated. They went first to the point designated as Hyem's fort and the Indian Planting Ground and affixed the northern boundary from Aquid- neck to Uhquanchaug; next to the Little Falls, Lowontuck, about three miles south of Major Fitch's house, which they adjudged to- be the south bound of the purchase. Thence on the east and west "to hills, meadows,, sv/amps, plains, rivers and brooks," identifying- and giving Indian names to these several points and formally as- signing bounds for this ancient Quinebaug Country. The General Court received the report of committee and allowed a record thereof, and there the matter rested for five years. Finding it impossible- under existing circumstances tO' carry forward that much desired "peaceable, honorable, righteous" settlement of lands and meadows,; and difficulties, contentions and law suits continually increasing, the General Court was forced again to take the matter in hand and in 1706 with the consent of Gov. Winthrop and Major Fitch appointed six honorable gentlemen as commissioners to inform themselves of the true source of these unhappy dififerences and endeavor an am- icable compromise, if "the cause of all these actions and suits with the whole of these troubles and vexations be not previously re- moved." In point of fact a compromise was effected before recep- tion of commissioners' report. The point at issue as to the Indian title was one of great difficulty. In that period when it was so difficult to obtain accurate report and surveys of this new far-ofif" land, it was the policy of the British government not to disturb PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. I9 bounds and titles once admitted, especially when influential parties were concerned and large interests at stake ; and the fact that Con- necticut government had confirmed both Winthrop purchase and Mohegan claim, made decision in favor of either claimant practically impossible. And so the Winthrops yielded their claim, receiving a thousand acres of land in each town ; and Plainfield was granted a patent confirming tO' its inhabitants the remainder of her territory. We leave the legal points of this famous land case for our friend, Judge Bond, to elucidate. Personally I may say that I do not see how those renegade Narragansetts could convey a legal title to land, which according to one of their own people they did not possess. Roger Williams in 1668 reports that the Narragansetts had for a long time given up their claim tO' the Nipmuck Country. Our Indian authority, the late J. Hammond Trumbull, was of opinion that the Winthrop claim was not tenable. You must not be surprised, however, if our judge reverses this verdict. No twO' people are ex- pected to agree upon this Quinebaug land muddle. And as both Great Britain and Connecticut shirked decision, we cannot be ex- pected to settle it. The views of Major Fitch upon this compromise we leave for Canterbury's bicentennial in 1903. With patent in hand Plainfield could now accomplish that long delayed division of lands and meadows. Inhabitants under previous irregular purchases and grants now relinquished their rights to the town, receiving in return a formal allotment, and promise of share in future divisions. Each land holder retained his original home- stead and care was taken to- make additional allotments accessible. Our good James Deane gave to the town his land east side Mill Brook, "hoping that it might tend to the speedy and quiet settle- ment of the town, though much to his loss." A similar spirit of accommodation and self-sacrifice was manifest by others. Matthias Button received his hundred acres in two^ parts to prevent any hindrance to the setting up a corn mill on Moosup's river. John Gallup, Jun.. was granted the lot he now lives on, John Gallup, Sen., "the lot adjoining his son's." William Gallup was allowed a lot, provided "he bring his family to- it in some reasonable time and there settle with his family." Peter Crary, "provided he do speedily settle 20 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. his family upon it." New inhabitants gained title to all these privileges by paying three pounds money, into the town treasury. The broad valley of the Quinebaug, Plainfield's corn belt, was re- served as a general field, a committee proportioning the enclosing fence to the proprietors. To record these rules and divisions our faithful town clerk was empowered, to provide three suitable books for the town and to make suitable alphabets to them ; one book to record town acts ; one for births, marriages and deaths ; and one to record the laws. Indian disturbances called out attention from the town. In- habitants were forbidden to leave without permission ; guard-houses and scouts were ordered ; equipments and ammunition provided ; Plainfield's first military company was formed in 1707, Thomas Williams, ensign. With all Plainfield's difificulties and obstructions it should be noted that her meeting-house was the first ready for service within Windham Co. territory, six months even in advance of that of Windham. Other improvements were now in progress ; saw and corn mills on Mill Brook and Moosup's river and ways laid out to them and laws passed restraining cattle and horses from the general field under penalty of five pence a head from the owner of such trespassers. In 1707 the land division was completed — the whole territory exclusive of meadows and General Field being included in five sections called "eighth." The very clear description of these sec- tions and individual allotments enables descendents of these old settlers to identify these home lots in the several divisions. "Snake," "Appletree" and "Half" meadows were laid out in five and one- fourth acres to each proprietor. Forty twelve-acre divisions were laid out in the General Field, being the third twelve-acre division within this Field. Interval land was laid out in sixty proportions, each man making his pitch according to his draft. This work being accomplished Plainfield was expected to bear her part of the public charges. The list of estates in 1707 were valued at £1,265; ^^~ habitants, fifty ; and John Fellows was sent to represent the town at General Court. A bit of land was now allowed for the encourage- ment of a school, and Lieut. Williams, Joseph Spalding and Dea. PLAINPIELD BEGINNINGS. Douglas enjoined to take care that there be one. Our ever ready town clerk agreed to take that office for half a year "for what the county allows, and what parents and masters of children shall agree with me for." In 1709 Plainfield was called to bear her part in the expedition against Canada, sending five men to the field. A grant of twenty acres of land was allowed Thomas Kingsbury, "providentially cast onto Plainfield after long captivity, having lost all that he had by the enemy." It was not till 171 1 that the town attained the dignity of a full military company — Thomas Williams, captain; Timothy Pierce, lieut. ; William Douglass, ensign. Tempting rewards were needed to keep certain small enemies from damage. A penny a head for blackbirds and six pence a crow's head was allowed during the month of May ; two pence for a rattlesnake's tail "with some of the flesh on it." Indians Jeremy and David having killed two wolves "were each allowed ten shillings for the encouragement of such work." Among other needful regulations it was now ordered that "the place which has been improved by the inhabitants for the burial of the dead shall abide and remain for that use," and a con- venient way was staked out to go unto the same. A place was also designated for especial Indian use — that "Old Sagamore Burying Ground," destined to receive the fading generations of Plainfield's first inhabitants. The road question was then, as now, one of perennial agitation. Reference is made in 1710 to "a new bridge over the Quinebaug," built apparently by private enterprise and not of long continuance. Business interests demanded better facilities for transportation. Providence was the most convenient market town. The Rhode Island legislature ordered in 171 1— that a highway should be laid out from Providence, through Warwick and West Greenwich to Plainfield. Connecticut was roused to action by representations of the great difficulties and dangers to which travelers were exposed for want of a suitable public road through Plainfield from the centre and south parts of the town to the eastern bound. The selectmen of the town were ordered to lay out the needed roads, continuing the same a mile and a half eastward of the bounds of the town. 22 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. William Marsh, John Fellows and Thomas Stevens had charg-e of the important work. The needful land was given by the owners in consideration of the convenience and necessity, being the nearest and best w^ay to and from Boston, Providence, Narragansett and other places. It was laid out four rods wide throughout and eight rods at certain places for convenience of loaded carts. A miry slough near Daniel Lawrence's was transformed into a good and suf^cient causeway by the labor of some of the inhabitants. At the Moosup fordway east of the town a safe and sufficient bridge was constructed at the expense of the colony. The opening of the first regularly laid out road from Providence to Connecticut was a great advantage to the public and a source of profit and pleasant inter- change of intercourse to Plainfield. The road to Boston through Killingly's rough domain was as yet hardly passable. With land confirmed, schools and military company established, convenient roads laid out and, above all, a suitable meeting-house and acceptable minister, we might hope that Plainfield would enjoy a season of quiet and healthy growth ; but the winds were contrary. The loss of half her territory, however essential to early settlement, was a perpetual grievance. To be reduced from a 12x14 to a 6x8 town-ship was a sore humiliation not to be borne with vacant land lying on every side. A number of Plainfield's substantial citizens managed to secure and retain a tract of land on the north, long known as the "Owaneco Purchase." The annexation of this strip, it was pleaded, would be a great convenience, allowing the sons of Plainfield fathers to enjoy the privilege of their own town govern- ment and house of worship. On the south Preston had encroached beyond specified bounds, necessitating complaints and committees. Their great fight, however, was for the vacant land eastward, north of the Volunteer's land, but "a small part of it good for improvement, generally a barren pine land," and yet apparently essential to Plain- field's maintenance of public charges and even existence. Still more harrowing was the government's persistence in allow- ing Canterbury to retain that valley land east of the Quinebaug, ac- cording to the solemn agreement made at the time of separation. By an unfortunate blunder the original Act of Assembly made the PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. 23 'Qtiinebaiig the dividing- line between the towns and though the «rror was quickly recognized and rectified Plainfield never ceased to bewail or resent her loss. Plainfield's petitions for enlargement upon these several lines show not only great ingenuity but literary merit. Some wise head, rare there, understood "the art of putting things." Here, a plaintive appeal :— "Unto whom shall the op- pressed apply themselves? In the first place, they sigh, they groan and send up their cry unto the Lord God, who in his holy word •directs in such cases to apply ourselves unto the earthly judges, our rulers and fathers. Thence it is, we, with deepest humility as on our bended knees, lay before you our miserable, deplorable, undone condition ; unless God or our King or your compassionate selves will relieve us." Then, a wheedling argument with reference to that change m the Canterbury bound— "We do look upon it that the grants of our Honorable Court are like the laws of the Medes and Persians, un- alterable, and we dare not entertain such diminutive thoughts of •our honorable rulers that they will act like children to grant a thing one Court and then to take it away the next (if they were able)." But there w^ere wise heads in the General Assembly as well as in Plainfield and with all her pleas and argun;ents she failed to carry her point. The Owaneco purchase was included within Killingly bounds. The vacant land east, so earnestly desired and sought, was annexed by Act of Assembly to the Volunteer's land, forming the north part of Voluntown (now Sterling). This land was given by Con- necticut to her soldiers who had fought in King Philip's war, an old- time substitute for pension list, and it is to be feared that the land- grabbers got a larger share of it than the soldiers. To these several failures the town submitted with more or less grumbling, but that land west of the Quinebaug once assigned to her she positively re- fused to yield, laying out divisions and ordering fences at pleasure, while Canterbury retaliated by tearing down fences and carrying off liay and grain. A state of chronic Border Ruffianism existed for many years. The Cedar swamp, which by terms of agreement was left free to 24 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. both towns, became a bone of contention. Major Fitch, Elisha Paine and other prominent Canterbury citizens were indicted for steaHng loads of hay and other misdemeanors. Innumerable law- suits were carried O'U between contending parties. Plainfield's ar- raignment of Canterbury's ofifences in her final plea before the General Court in 1721 surpassed all her previous efforts in that line, and called out some concessions that modified the situation. In justice to Plainfield we must consider that land-grabbing was the peculiar vice of the age, in point of fact there was nothing else to grab. There was no public treasury to draw upon ; no fat jobs or offices to secure. Then, too, in the nature of the case all their at- tempted grabs and squabblings were open to public view. They could not get the land without petition or overt seizure, nor skip oft to Rhode Island with their loads of grain and cedar rails. We may be confident that we know all the bad things about them and that under the peculiar circumstances they did no worse than others of their generation. These prolonged difificulties interfered with public benefits, and especially with the erection of a second meeting-house as until the land east was assigned to Voluntown, the projected site was intended to accommodate their "ppor neighbors." After much dissension the house was ready for occupation in 1720, about half a mile north of the present edifice 011 Plainfield street. School districts north and south of the meeting-house were set off the same year, each to order its own schools. JoJm Stoyell had previously conducted a public school for the whole town, the cost to each child being four pence a. week beside the public money. In 1721 Mr. Walton maintained perambulatory schools in different sections, the town paying him twelve pounds, finding him board and keeping a horse for him. lu 1725 three school-houses had been provided. The Ouinebaug river still objecting to bridges, in 1722, Samuel Shepard was authorized by Assembly to maintain" a ferry over the same for five years ; fee, four pence for man and horse, he to keep good and suitable vessels for transportation and attend the service.. Taverns were allowed to accommodate public travel, the needful town officials kept in service. A special office required in Plainfield PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. 25 for the protection of its general field were "field-drivers," of whom some twenty-odd were appointed to repair rails and drive off intruders. Thus at the date of the incorporation of Windham County in 1726, Plainfield was able to take a good position among sister towns, with a goodly number of inhabitants and a rate-list of nearly £ 7,000. In any historic retrospect we are always impressed with the limita- tion of our knowledge. We see so little way beneath the surface. These formal town acts, these public doings, tell so little of the real, everyday life of the people. One text of scripture tells all that we know of myriads of generations of human beings, "They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, they married, they were given in marriage." Connecticut's first most faithful historian, Benjamin Trumbull, took pains to collect personal details and local incidents from every town, and a Letter from Plainfield throws additional light upon some of her older settlers. First in position and influence he places Timothy Pierce from Wobum as "greatly useful in his day, executed all military offices as high as colonel ; justice of the peace for many years, judge of probate several years, chief judge of the superior court of Windham county and one of the Governors' council, all which offices he executed with such diligence and care as to be un- blamable. He was a father of the town and a promoter of the com- mon welfare of all when he had opportunity, of an extraordinary soul, pious and Christian conversation." His kinsman, Thomas Pierce, was another good citizen, "who was the first married man that died in town." Another useful, prominent citizen was Thomas Williams, first captain of the train- band, justice of peace, town clerk, tavern keeper, who left many children to represent an honored name. The Rev. Joseph Coit is reported as a gentleman of good conversation, an ornament to his profession. Of the first deacons, William Douglas, Jacob Warren, Joshua Whitney, and many other of Plainfield's first settlers, we learn little more than name and service. And yet we know all the same that the whole life of the period was not expressed in land-fights and town-meetings. There were a 26 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. hundred homes scattered throughout this fair Quinebaug Country, •each with its own family Hfe, its social and neighborhood interests. Of the wives and mothers who ordered these homes, we indeed, catch no glimpses except by dates of birth, death and marriages. Their voices were not heard in public nor even in church meetings but we may well believe that they bore their share in maintaining these homes and forwarding the growth of the town. Of the children growing up in these homes we catch one snap- shot from the town records — we see Joseph Lawrence perched up in the gallery of that new meeting-house — for what? To keep a sharp lookout upon the boys and girls sitting in the rear of the body seats below — ^^the girls on the women's side ; the boys on the men's side. And if any of these naughty young people did damage to the meet- ing-house "by opening the windows, or anywise damnifying the ^lass, and if any (him or her) did profane the Sabbath by laughing or behaving unseemly, he should call him or her by name and so re- prove them therefor." 'And sO' we know that these first boys and girls growing up in Plainfield were as bright, merry and saucy as these of 1899. And in the very hindmost seat back of the boys and girls sat the negroes — "male negroes behind the boys ; female negroes behind the girls." There were social distinctions in those days. Such worthies as our Reverend minister and Justices Pierce and Williams lived in colonial style and owned slaves for body and house servants. These light-hearted, chatty Africans contrasted oddly with the sur- viving Aborigines — ^those somber Quinebaugs, stalking in single file from house to house, demanding food and cider — wandering Mohe- gans, still claiming rights in woods and streams, adding a picturesque element ; dwelling for months in the hunting season in boats beside the rivers. And there was feasting and frolicing, huskings and trainings in which these young people took a part, and much skurrying to and fro over those public roads maintained at such cost and care, and over the Quinebaug in canoe and ferry boat. A constant stream of travel passed through the town from Norwich and New London to Providence and Boston. A brisk trade was carried on with Provi- PLAINFIELD BEGINNINGS. 27 dence, surplus produce finding- there a market ; and Plainfield youth finding employment and sometimes wives there. And hard as it was for the townsmen to carry on their own institutions, they were ready to assist in "carrying on the ministry of the Gospel" in that destitute town and in building an orthodox house of worship there. During the early years of settlement we hear no complaint of •sickness but between 1720-25, severe epidemics carried away many of the town fathers. With county organization a new generation came upon the stage, sons of the first planters with some older ones still to guide them. After all her contests and difficulties Plainfield was able to take a good position among her sister towns, furnishing -a colonel for its regiment, a judge for the bench and probate office ■and competent assistants for council and assembly. In one brief day it is impossible to give even an abstract of twO' hundred years' ex- istence. Other phases of its life will be brought to you by others. Enough will come before us tO' show how heartily we can all join on this commemorative occasion in thankfulness for the past and hope •for the future. PLAINFIELD IN 1830. From an old print. 28 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. PLAINFIELD, CONNECTICUT. 1699 Bicentennial Celebration 1899 August 31, 1899. No great event of world-wide fame We celebrate to-day ; No proud, historic field can claim The honors that we pay. The fact we here commemorate Will scarce detain us long, Or much afiford of good or great For eulogy or song. Within this wilderness there came, TwO' hundred years ago, Some settlers, all of humble name. To lay the forest low. Inspired by no ambitious praise. Averse to blood and strife, They left the scenes of early days To' seek a quiet life. To find, perchance, amid these hills, With all their peaceful charms, A safe retreat from worldly ills. Secure from War's alarms ; With little thought their poor retreat Would be a scene ol fame, Where eager pilgrim throngs would meet. And bless their humble name. But yet, how often we observe. In Heaven's eternal plan. That humblest means are made to serve God's purposes to man. POEM BV HENRV M. WITTER. Attracted here a noble race Of men innnred to toil, Who braved the hardships of the place And tilled the fertile soil. The early fathers of the town Were of that sturdy stock Which took its prestige and renown From grand old Plymouth Rock. And with them to this wilderness, In manly hearts they bore ' The same religious earnestness The pilgrims did of yore. The same grand love of Liberty ; The same respect for Law; The same broad Christian charity And reverential awe. And, lest this ardor should abate, And faith itself grow cool, They bro agreed that a suitable allotment be layed out for the minister, to remain for the ORATION BY JUDGE DANIEL W. BOND. 45 minister forever ; and they also agreed that the townsmen (selectmen, we call them now,) shall take especial care in the matter of the ■education of the children. In 1 701 the general court added two men to the committee to iind out and renew the bounds of the Winthrop purchase, but it was expressly provided that what the committee shall do in the premises shall not confirm or invalidate the title of any Indian sachem. The committee, now composed of six persons, met at Plainfield, May 21, 1701. Miss Larned, the faithful and painstaking Iiistorian of Windham County, has given an account of the meeting : ■*'It was an investigation ol great interest and importance, involving the title to a large tract of land, and the present and future peace •and well-being of many individuals and families. A large con- -course of people had gathered at the New Plantation — Maj. Gen. Wait Winthrop from New London, with counsellors and followers ; Judge Tracy, Lieut. Leffingwell, Richard Bushnell, and other Nor- wich proprietors, together with Maj. Fitch and all the Quinebaug inhabitants from both sides of the river, were present at this memor- able meeting. Owaneco was there in royal state with a great •company of his Mohegans. There were the Quinebaugs, the origi- nal proprietors of this disputed territory, still numbering some hundreds, and representatives of the Nipmucks, Pequots, Shetuck- •ets, and Narragansetts. . . . The testimony of various Indians as to the reputed boundaries of the Quinebaug lands was first taken — Joseph Morgan and John Gallup serving as interpreters. The presence of Owaneco, drunken and degraded as he was, so terrified the craven Quinebaugs that they were obliged to be examined apart. Having taken the testimony, the committee set out with guides, divers Plainfield inhabitants, and a long train of Indians, to search for the bounds thus described to them." It is sufficient here to state that the committee reported the northern boundary as far north as the falls at Danielson, giving the northeast and northwest bonnds, and the southern boundary as far :south as the falls at Jewett City, the old Nipmuck Path as the western boundary, and the present Plainfield east line as the eastern bound- ^6 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. ary, and made out a plot of the land, which accompanied their report. The committee also reported that "said Indians did testify that Hyems was sachem of all those lands comprised within the boundaries." The general court received the report of the committee, ordered it filed and recorded, but no further action was taken upon it, and nothing was done to determine the rights of the different claimants. Here again, the general court allowed another opportunity to pass when this controversy might have been settled. It is true that at this time suits were pending in the courts involving the question of the title of the land, in which appeals had been taken to the general court ; but the people were left with no certainty that they could hold even the homesteads they occupied. "They had neither roads, bridges, mills, schools, meeting-house, or record book, and even the agreement for religious services had not been carried out faithfully." Soon after this report of the committee, the people of Plainfield attempted to do something to settle the controversy ; they appointed a committee of some of the oldest and most respected inhabitants of the town (James Deane, William Marsh, Joseph Spaulding, Nathaniel Jewell, Thomas Williams, William and Obediah Johnson, Samuel Adams, and Samuel and Joseph Cleveland), "to consider all that may tend to the zvelfare of the tozun." The committee reported in June, 1701, making recommendations as to holding religious meetings, levying taxes, and the number and size of allotments of land, and, if there were several "claimers" for the same land, they were to appear on notice before another committee appointed by the town, and "clear up their rights." The plan proposed by the town committee did not have the force of law; nO' one was obliged to act under it, and no one was bound by the action of the town except as he consented to it. Still some progress was made under it. In May, 1702, a few of the leading citizens applied to the general court for the appointment of three disinterested persons, "to view and give advice as to where to set their meeting-house as may be most suitable for the whole town, and in hopes such a ORATION BY JUDGE DANIEL W. BOND. 47, means may prevent future trouble." A committee was appointed and they selected a site on Black Hill near a common crossing place of the Qninebaug. A frame for the meeting-house was set up during the summer of 1702, and in the fall of that year it was so the town could meet in it. During the same year, the inhabitants made another attempt tO' bring about a settlement of their difficulties ; they invited, to advise with them, Rev. James Noyes, the minister at Stonington, who was a distinguished preacher and a man of great wisdom and usefulness; Rev. Gordon Salstonstall, the minister at New London,, where he was highly esteemed and who was afterwards (1707) elected governor of the colony ; and Rev. Salmon Treat, who' was. the minister at Preston for over forty years and a descendent of Robert Treat, the governor of the colony in 1683. These gentle- men came to^ Plainfield and after considering the disturbed condi- tion of affairs, the various quarrels that were pending, and the formidable Quinebaug in winter and high water, advised the people to organize two distinct societies or townships. This suggestion was acted upon at once, and the reverend gentlemen drew up an agreement as to the dividing line between the towns, which was to be the Quinebaug from the north as far as Peagscomsuck Island ; from the center of that island the line was to run one-quarter of a mile due east, and from thence to the south bounds of the town, one mile east of the Quinebaug. The agreement was signed by twenty- four east side settlers and ten on the west side. In May, 1703, a petition was presented to the general court signed by some of the inhabitants on both sides of the river, setting forth that "the in- habitants of the west side of Plainfield, having been in a long laby- rinth of difficulties by reason of a tedious river that is between us and them, and we have modeled and begun to get timber for a meeting-house and purchased and set out a lot for our minister, and ask tO' be confirmed as a town." The petition was granted in May, 1703, and it was ordered that the name of the new town should be Canterbury, with the river as the dividing line between them. At the same session of the general court it was enacted that •48 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. all the townships in the colony to which the assembly had given patents should remain a full and clear estate, with all the privileges and immunities granted therein, in fee simple to the proprietors, their heirs, and assigns forever. Under this act and the order as tO' the boundary line between the two towns, it w^as feared by the west side inhabitants that they would lose their lands on the east side of the river, comprising about •one thousand acres of plain land valuable for tillage. The Canter- bury inhabitants procured an order from the general court in Octo- ber of the same year by which the line between the towns was -established as agreed upon in the instrument prepared by Messrs. Noyes, Salstonstall, and Treat, in 1702. Plainfield went on again under the new arrangement and gave Rev. Mr. Coit a call to settle with them and be their constant minis- ter. They offered him a lot and £80 to carry on his building, with forty pounds salary, which call he accepted and desired that some of the salary be in money, which desire at the present day would not be considered unreasonable. A committee was appointed \>y the town to see the town acts that are in the clerk's custody and have such as they think fit entered in a suitable book and the rest presented to the town as there might be occasion. In 1704 Plainfield arranged as to a general distribution of its lands among its inhabitants ; each person wdio received an allotment gave up his land and took his share in the distribution. Twenty- four came intO' the distribution and others followed soon after. It commenced to build roads and bridges, mills were erected, and in many ways the settlement was improved. In 1704, for some purpose not material here to state, the Mohe- gan Indians were induced to complain tO' the Queen of their treat- ment by the English, by whom they claimed they had been unjustly deprived of their land. By the aid of Nicholas Hallam, they pre- sented a petition asking to have their land restored to them. A commission of twelve persons was appointed to inquire into the matter, and if their complaint was well founded, to restore their land to them. Gov. Dudley of Massachusetts was President of the ORATION BY JUDGE DANIEL W. BOND. 49 commission, and there were several other interested parties members of the commission. It is not necessary at this time to follow the proceedings of the various commissions upon this petition ; it was a disturbing element as tO' the land titles in Eastern Connecticut, until the case was finally determined in 1771 in favor of the Connecticut Colony. It is sufficient now to state that a hearing was had by the first commission, at Stonington, in August, 1705, at which the colonists refused to appear, and the committee appointed by the general court to attend the hearing filed a protest against the course of the hearing adopted by the commission, alleging that the colony held its lands by virtue of a charter from the Crown, and that the pro- ceedings were contrary to the charter and the rights of her Majesty's subjects. The general court had forbidden any of the colonists to appear before the commission. The hearing proceeded with such evidence as was brought forward in support of the petition and the commission reported in February, 1706, in favor of the Indians and ordered the lands restored to them and forbade all other persons occupying the lands. The decision related to about 60,000 acres of land in what is now New London County, and immediately petitions were presented for the restoration to the Indians of the land in the southern two-thirds of Tolland and Windham Counties. It was at the next session of the general court in April that the government began to show an interest in the troubles of the inhabitants over the land titles in the Quinebaug Country. An order was passed in which it was recited that "whereas there hath arisen an unhappy difference respecting the lands at Quinebaug between the Honorable Governor and Maj. James Fitch and sundry other persons interested in those lands, which difference this court is desirous to appease and bring to a good issue," and for this purpose a committee was appointed to repair to the locality and there inform themselves as to the true state of the matter, and en- deavor to amicably compromise the difference, and if this cannot be done, then to report to the court in October next how they find the true state of those matters of difference relating to the titles and interests of the parties concerned in those lands, that the court 4 50 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. may see their way clear in October tO' bring this unhappy difference to a final issue. It was also ordered that no suits should be com- menced as to such lands, and all pending suits stayed, until October next. This proceeding was consented to by Gov. Winthrop and Maj. Fitch. The committee came to Plainfield, took the testimony of the Quinebaugs, Mohegans, Narragansetts, Pequots and Nipmucks^ and after duly considering the same, adjudged that Allumps' deed tO' Winthrop was invalid — first, because it was without valuable con- sideration, and second, because the description of the land conveyed was too indefinite and uncertain ; the co^mmittee claim to have given due weight to the fact that the general court had allowed the Gover- nor's purchase in 1671, but they also found that Uncas' east bounds as settled by the committee in 1684, took in this same land, and that the court had granted leave to Uncas tO' dispose of this land toi Owaneco and had confirmed his sales of land to Maj. Fitch and others. A coimpromise was effected with the governor and his brother before the report of the committee was made, whereby they were to release all their claim tO' the land, with certain exceptions, in consideration of each receiving a farm of one thousand acres — one north of Plainfield and the other north of Canterbury. Gov. Win- throp died in 1707, before this compromise was fully perfected, and the agreement was completed with Wait Winthrop. The deed given to the Plainfield proprietors evidently intended to limit the grant of land to that within the town of Plainfield, and by some misunderstanding, it was assumed that the Quinebaug River was the dividing line between the towns. Attention was called to this error by Maj. Fitch and others, and in May, 1707, the general court made an order noting the fact that there was an error in the grant to Plainfield whereby some of the lands granted to the town of Canterbury were included in the patent to the pro- prietors of Plainfield, and that having been informed of said error,, and tO' prevent any trouble or damage that may happen tO' the town of Canterbury or to any person, declared the patent to Plainfield ORATION BY JUDGE DANIEL W. BOND. 5 1 void, and ordered a new patent to be granted, if desired, according to the usual form. There was some difference between the east and west side pro- prietors after this, but it does not appear that the general court took any further action in the matter, and in a few years all controversy ceased. In the latter part of the period during which the inhabitants were having trouble over their land titles, their petitions to the general court seem somewhat extravagant in their form of ex- pression as we read them now. One of the petitions by the Can- terbury people begins as follows : "Unto whom shall the oppressed apply themselves? In the first place they sigh, they groan, they send up their cries unto the Lord God, who in His Holy word directs in such cases to apply ourselves unto the earthly judges, our . rulers and fathers. Thence it is, we. with deepest humility as on our bended knees, lay before you our miserable, deplorable, undone, condition ; unless God, our King, or your compassionate selves will relieve us. The case is this :" Then follows a statement of what Plainfield people had done. In one of the Plainfield petitions it is stated : "We are sorry to be obliged to expose the nakedness of our neighbors of Canterbury, which otherwise we should have covered with a mantle of love, as far as we could with a good con- science, but they, without giving any notice for the establishyig of a line according to the first agreement, and the general court not so well considering what they had done before, granted a line ac- cording to the first agreement. And whence oiir Canterbury neighbors, not sufficiently checked for their first fault, as contrary to law, but too much countenanced, took encouragement, as it is the nature of sin to grow from bad to worse, and blinded the eyes of the Honorable Assembly with a most abominable falsehood — all which is greatly to our hurt, especially in the use Canterbury is making of the same, as may be evident:" Then follows a full statement of what Canterbury people have done to the injury of Plainfield people. These extravagant expressions would be laughable if we did not know they proceeded from a people who had been contending 52 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. for years over their land titles, and had found it difficult to get the general court to assist them. They may have intended the general court to understand that it was "no boy's play." I do not know that the Mohegan land claim and the report of the first commission to hear and determine their claim, in any way influenced the general court to take the steps necessary to settle the controversy in the Quinebaug Country. But the fact that for sixteen years efforts had been made by the parties interested to induce the court to take some action in the matter, during which time nothing was done, and the further fact that action was taken at the same time by the general court to arrange with the Mohegans, leads me to conclude that "the Mohegan land controversy" was what led to the settlement of the land titles in Plainfield. It will be observed that the general court did not proceed by determining where the title was by virtue of the Indian deeds ; it gave a good title to the Plainfield proprietors by deeding the land to them by name, and prevented all further claims to the land by the Winthops by obtaining a release of all their interests in the same. It was the custom of the colony, on account of the expense to be incurred by a new town in building a meeting-house and the payment of a minister, to exempt the inhabitants from colonial taxes for a time. In the act of incorporation, Plainfield was exempted from 'the payment of colonial taxes for three years. Until the town paid taxes, it was not entitled to send a deputy to the general court. I infer that Plainfield was not taxed until the settlement of the controversy as to its land title, for the first deputy, John Fellows, was sent in 1708. The situation of Plainfield was such with reference to other settlements that as soon as the cloud upon its title to its real estate was removed, there was a demand upon the town for new and better roads to accommodate the travel through the town. The meeting- house on Black Hill was not as conveniently located for the Plain- field inhabitants as one further east, and another site had to be selected and a new meeting-house built. Schools had not been as well provided as the people desired, and provision was made for ORATION BY JUDGE DANIEL W. BOND. 53 the education of the young people of the town, first, by employing a person to teach in dififerent parts of the town, and soon after by dividing the town into school districts and building school-houses. New settlers came intO' the town, and the circumstances of the in- habitants rapidly improved. The wars between England and France already referred to, and the last war between those two countries (1744- 1 763) whereby France ceded her North American possessions to Great Britain, were a heavy burden on the Connecticut Colony. In this last war the Connecticut Colony raised 5,000 men. It was this almost continuous warfare, maintained by the colonists, in be- half of the mother country which disciplined them for the struggle for the independence of the colonies which was fast approaching. The organization of the militia during the colonial period (the first company in Plainfield was organized in 1704), for the purpose of carrying on the wars between England and France, composed of men educated in the church, the school, and the town meeting, is an element of colonial life which must be considered in studying the progress of New England people. We are celebrating the granting of tOAvn privileges to Plainfield in 1699. We shall fail in our observance of the day if we do' not consider the significance of town governments as established throughout New England. A distinguished French writer (De Tocqueville), in his study of "Democracy in America," says : "In New England, political life had its origin in the township, and it can almost be said that each of them originally formed an independent nation Municipal institutions constitute the strength of free nations. Town meetings are to^ liberty what primary schools are to science ; they bring it within the people's reach ; they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a free government, but without municipal institutions, it cannot have the spirit of liberty. . The native of New England is attached to his township because he is independent and free ; his co-operation in its affairs insures his attachment tO' its interests ; the well-being it afifords him secures his afifections ; and its welfare is the aim of his ambition and of his future exertions. He takes part in every occurrence in 54 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. the place ; he practices the art of government in the small sphere within his reach ; he accustoms himself to those forms without which liberty can only advance by revolutions ; he imbibes their spirit, he acquires a taste for order, he comprehends the balance ol power, and collects clear, practical notions on the nature of his duties and the extent of his rights." The people at this time might well celebrate the day if for no other reason than because it was the day when the school of liberty was established here — the school where the rights of free-men were to be taught and exercised ; while the acts of the mother country tended to create a spirit of independence in the colonists, the town- ship was the school which taught the colonists to demand their independence and to secure and maintain a government by the people. The early settlers of the New England towns not only removed from the soil some obstructions to^ its cultivation, but they removed from society some of the hindrances to human progress. It was demonstrated in the townships that it was not necessary to- have any order of nobility established by law from which to select certain oiBcers of the government ; it was demonstrated that the only order of nobility necessary was that founded on nobility of character and conduct. By the maintainance of public schools and the means of education within the reach of all, it was made possible for a young man by industry and perseverance to acquire a knowledge and discipline sufificient to enable him to fill any position — made it possible for a young man from the humblest walks of life to become the wisest and best chief magistrate of our nation. The more I learn of the early history of New England towns, the more I learn of the people who took part in the early settlement of New England, and of their trials and self-denial, the better I understand how much of what the people of this generation are and enjoy is due to the character and exertions of the early settlers. I know it can be said of them, as we look back now, after a period of two hundred years, that some of their beliefs were erroneous and that some of their conduct, based on such beliefs, was wrong. I hope that two hundred years hence the people of that time will be able ORATION BY JUDGE DANIEL W. BOND, 55 to see wherein some of our beliefs are erroneous and that some of our conduct, based on such beHefs, is wrong; not because I want the people of our day to be in the wrong, but because I believe in human progress, because I do not believe that mankind has reached perfection, and because I hope that the people two> hundred years hence will be wiser than we are to-day. If it can be said of this generation, as we can say of the generation of two hundred years ago, making all due allowance for their education and sur- roundings, they endeavored to^ do right as they understood what was right, it is as favorable a judgment as we can hope to have •any future generation pass upon our beliefs and our conduct. Cherish and keep green the memory of each and all of the -early settlers ; not merely the memory of those whose names appear in history, or who occupied public positions ; all could not be g'overnors, assistants, or deputies, or the descendents of such men ; all could not be generals, colonels, or captains ; in every well organized army, there must be men in the ranks, and the faithful conduct of the men in the ranks is entitled to recognition ; every humble man or woman of toil is entitled to be remembered — to that much at least from us. We should remember that "The men who did their work faithfully on the hillside or the plain, "Will not go unrewarded, or their labors be in vain. "While the wisest and the greatest get the glorious honors due, The men who stood the brunt of toil will be remembered too; The men who did the pioneer work will surely be repaid Por the acres which they cleared and the miles of wall they laid; For all the good they accomplished in the church, the school, and the state; For the love of learning they fostered, in the poor as well as the great. If the hairs of our head are numbered, and He notes the sparrow's fall, Then He knows about the efforts of the pioneers, each and all." 5^ PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. ADDRESS. His Excellency, George E. Lounsbury, Governor. You celebrate to-day the founding of a town, and you have asked me to be here simply because for the time being I happen to be the representative of the state. It would be fitting, then, that I should treat somewhat of the prerogatives of the towns and of their relations to the government and the destiny of the state. The prerogative of representatiou has come down to you through the law of inheritance, and even its enemies do not blame you for its possession. Your forefathers came to these shores and settled on some New England plain or hill, not merely that they might find freedom to worship God, but rather because they were impelled by a heavenborn purpose to better their material, their social and their political conditions. They reared their one church because they were a God-fearing people, and around it, on everv side, as far as the convenience of distance woiild permit, they built their homes. The area which covered each one of these little circles was called a town, and it had its own laws for the protection of its people. In the words of Jefterson, it became a "small elemental republic," and it had a correspoiiding dignity and power. For the purpose of defense against the savage and all foreign foes, and for other reasons a number of these little republics were formed into the colony of Connecticut, and this colony, in 1776, by the successful Declaration of Independence, became the state of Connecticut, and its towns retain, unchanged, this prerogative of representation which I have mentioned. A dozen years later a union of all the states was formed, a;id the Connecticut plan was considered sO' wise and so beneficent that the constitution of the United States was in large degree framed after the pattern of our own state constitution ; and the Congress of the United States was planned, in principle and form, the same as our General Assembly. The prerogative of the Connecticut towns in the one case was the same as that of the states of the Union in the other. Plainfield has two representatives in the Legislature and New Haven has two ; the little state of Delaware has two senators in the national Congresri ADDRESS BY GEORGE E. LOUNSBURY, GOVERNOR. 57 and New York, the empire state, has two. There is no more reason for the cry of "rotten borough" in the one case than there is in the other. We hear no widespread criticism of the prerogative of even the smallest state in the matter of the number of its United States senators. It is true that there is agitation in favor of their election by the people, and there would seem to be no valid objection to this. The towns of Connecticut exercise their prerogative through the popular vote and there can be nO' wrong if the states of the union do the same. This prerogative of the town has come tO' you as a heritage from the past, but its power has been given to you as a trust to be used for the benefit of all the people of this state. If you frown upon all special legislation which helps the few at the expense of the many, which favors one locality and wrongs all the rest of the state ; if you use your power wisely, unselfishly, and for the good of all, it will never be taken away from you and you can ignore the cry of the demagO'gue. But abuse this power and it will be swept away in some storm and flood of public indignation. I hope that our Connecticut House of Representatives will never be made up of men who are members from a district. I trust that our town representation, as a principle and as a system, will stand forever. But from time to time there will be need of some constitutional amendment to mitigate those inequalities which change in locality and in population brings. You will recognize this need and act upon it, but you will see that every such amend- ment is adopted in the manner provided by the constitution itself. We need the gentle rains of heaven, but we want no flood. You want no constitutional convention which antedates the day of the millenium. National issues will always divide the honest people of the land into great parties, but these parties will always harmonize in the sentiment of one country, one flag, and the preservation of its power. The honest people of a town may properly divide upon national questions, but, ever jealous of their rights and their privi- leges, they should stand together in the defense of the honor, the dignity and the prerogative of the town. 58 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. ADDRESS. Hon. Charles A. Russell. Fellozv Citisens: It seems strange to us that Plainfield, with to-day its large and thrifty industries and with its cultured and cultivated homes of peace and farms of plenty, was once the frontier town of civiliza- tion. But such is the record of history. Right here among these busy manufactories and on these fertile and blossoming fields was an outpost, the skirmish line between American progress and native barbarism. Nearly two hundred years ago the General Court of the Con- necticut Colony posted its sentinels on the march northward and westward into the wilderness, into the fastnesses of savagery. Full communities and whole towns were made the sentinels and the ■outposts. It is interesting to trace the line of defense and advance which was thrown around the then small but ambitious area of a new civilization. Danbury held the right of the line and Plainfield held the left. Simsbury was in the center. Waterbury and Wood- bury held the right centre. Mansfield and Colchester and Windham were strung on the left centre. Thus was formed this bulwark of frontier towns, this van-guard of the ever growing army of civiliza- tion, this skirmish line of Puritan peace and western prosperity, this beginning of a brighter freedom, a fuller liberty and a better govern- ment. It was at a court of election, holden at Hartford, May 11, 1704, that the deputies assembled from the different towns of the Con- necticut Colony, and after due deliberation adopted the act, estab- lishing the frontier towns and providing for the military protection of the frontier. Wlnthrop was Governor, and first in the list of assistants "present and sworn" at this assembly is the name of Major James Fitch. This same Major Fitch appears to have been a promi- nent and aggressive man in the early life and settlement of Plainfield. The protective frontier act of this early court of colonial Connecti- cut declared its purpose and necessity in these words of preamble: ^'Forasmuch as the maintaining and defending of the frontiers in ADDRESS r,Y HON. CHARLES A. RUSSELL. 59 time of war is of very great importance, and in regard it would greatly prejudice her Majesty's interest and encourage the enemy if any of the outposts should be quitted, or exposed by lessening the strength thereof." In these days the positive disavowal of the sturdy forefather of any notion of quitting the position which he had taken is noteworthy and perchance instructive and suggestive. The act which follows this plain spoken preamble, reads as follows : "It is therefor ordered by this Court, That the frontier towns hereafter named are to be so accounted, that is to say, Symsbury, Waterbury, Woodbury, Danbury, Colchester, Windham, Mansfield and Plainfield, and shall not be broken up or voluntarily deserted without application first made by the inhabitants and allowance had and obtained from this Court ; nor shall any inhabitant of the frontiers mentioned, having an estate of freehold in lands and tenements within the same, at the time of any insurrection or break- ing forth of war remove from thence with intent to sojourn else- where without liberty aforesaid, on pain of forfeiting all his estate in lands and tenements lying within such townships, to be recovered by information of and proof made by the selectmen of such town. "And it is further enacted : That no male person of sixteen years old and upwards, that shall be an inhabitant of or belonging to any of the towns afore mentioned at the time of such war or insurrection, shall presume to leave such place on penalty of ten pounds, to be recovered as aforesaid ; all which penalties to be im- proved towards the defence of such place or places whereof such person or persons were inhabitants." So Plainfield became a frontier town. Soi its situation gave it an opportunity. And there is nothing in the record or in the tradi- tion to indicate that the Plainfield folks of nearly two hundred years ago were unequal to their opportunity. They were not "quitters." They appear to have been wide-awake sentinels. They never were surprised on the outposts and they kept pushing fonvard, little by little, the skirmish line into the barbarians' country and they never seem to have dallied long or parleyed much as tO' the enemy's consent. A frontier town ! It is difficult for us in the quiet, peace and 6o PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. comfort of present New England to realize what it meant two hundred years ago to be a frontier town and a garrison thereof. Dangers and difficulties beset the existence of such towns and the life of such garrisons. Wilderness of beasts, untamed soil and even greater savagery of man were ever present foes and constantly lurking enemies. Nature perhaps was more easily overcome than the man, who in the freedom of his nativity recognized and desired neither enlightenment nor progress. A frontiersman ! We can admire but not fully realize the courage and nerve and sturdy manhood which must clothe the gar- rison on the frontier. The guardsman on the outpost is a character which in all periods of American life has symbolized the genius of American institutions. Sometimes severe ; always watchful. Some- times aggressive ; always progressive. Sometimes cleaving the pathway with the sword ; always following with the torch of en- lightenment of the church and the school. Thus has stood and marched our frontiersman, who had his early type in the ancestry of Plainfield. Frontiership has constantly been on the move. The outposts, have steadily advanced. The world's contest and humanity's con- quest have been battles with the frontier as the skirmish line. Amer- ican civilization has travelled and travelled and the frontier town has moved and moved, ever onward and onward, following the sun until now what was begun on the Danbury and Plainfield line has reached the western point of the sun's setting and is ready to- rise again with the rising of the sun tO' subdue and regenerate the un- civilized East in a second cycle of the world's evolution from bar- barism tO' enlightenment. In 1704 Plainfield was the frontier. In 1899 Manila is the frontier. The beginning of the twentieth century sees the outpost of civilization advanced twelve thousand miles. Can we to-day in celebrating the anniversary of Plainfield regret the progress? Is there any occasion tO' become doleful or uncertain over the spread of the ideas and the purposes which are buttressed on the Plainfield outpost? Wonderful, as with Divine fruition, has grown the civili- zation, the blessing of humanity, which was set up and advanced POEM BV GEORGE SHEPARD BURLEIGH, 6l from the frontier line of colonial Connecticut! God speed the further progress! What might have happened if the Plainfield people had quitted the outposts in 1704 can happen if the United States' men quit the outpost in 1899. Plainfield was not in a "quitting" business two hundred years ago. The United States is not less courageous, not less progressive, not less mindful of duties to civilization than her ancestral towns. TO PLAINFIELD, CONN. On Her Two-Hundredth anniversary. Two hundred years of storm and calm, In winter's snow and summer's sun, Along thy hills and vales have run The varied notes of nature's psalm. The red men were thy primal flock, Free wanderers of the solemn woods. Who made their ancient solitudes The heaven of their Manitowock. Rude types of their barbaric skill, On intervale and sandy plain Flint axe and arrow points remain, In childhood sought, and treasured still. On yonder hill-side looking down To where the iron "fire-steed" neighs, Began my life and childish lays That grew despite the muses' frown. Behind the stately plough I learned The lore that made thy sturdy sons The elect of freedom's champions, By whom the tyrant's yoke was spurned. I roved thy wooded hills as free As the lithe Indian, and made love To rock and stream and chestnut grove, And there was peace 'twixt thee and me. 62 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. And there is peace in all thy bounds, O land of wood-crowned hill and plain, Of billowy fields of golden grain, And labor with its myriad sounds. The hum of spindles and the roar Of rushing engines fill the air. Once rent by Indian war-whoops where The river laves Wauregan's shore. And looking down your elm-arcades, In fancy ye may see, below, The glittering hosts of Rochambeau, Our struggling nation's gallant aids. With two broad centuries on thy brow, thou whose green hills saw my birth, 1 bless thy children, and the earth, Their foster-nurse of old as now. Not cradles only, but their peers — Low graves, love-haunted, bind me still, Liege-man, to every vale and hill, That even affection's self endears. In mounds that shield from sun and storm. Thy green "God's Acre" holds in trust A sainted mother's sacred dust, A father's venerated form ; And ]3urer than of orient pearl, An angel's flesh, — resigned with tears That will not dry for all these years — The earth-robe 'of our baby girl. Yet other kindred in thy care Have left, anear, their mortal clay ; And haply at no distant day Thy alien son may join them there ! George Shepard Burleigh. REMINISCENCES BY REV. J. P. BROWN. 6^ REMINISCENCES OF TWENTY-TWO YEARS' RESIDENCE IN PLAINFIELD. Rev. J. P. Brown. I want at the opening of my remarks to drop a word of caution to my hearers. My bald head and white whiskers may suggest the thought that something rich in historic memories will be brought to your notice in this brief address. 'But you will allow me to say that in my best days I did not excel in this line of study, and it seems that the few bright thoughts that I once cherished have all faded out with my whiskers or gone off with my hair, but if any can be found way back in the cells of memory, though they have lost their brilliancy by the wear of time, I will do what I can to bring them out. I came to^ this honored town that had an enviable reputation ar the time extending beyond its own limits, beyond the limits of the county in which it was located, beyond the limits of the state even^ in 1849. This desirable reputation was largely due to her honored seat of learning, and to- the distinguished men and women who' did so much to sustain it. You will see that in some sense I was a forty-niner. While many of my friends were starting for the Pacific coasts, some across the isthmus, others around the cape, charmed by the almost fabulous reports that came to them concern- ing rich mines that offered wealth to the early comer, I came to this town with little prospect of worldly gain, certainly with nO' golden dreams ; but my coming was more to me, whatever it might have been to others, than the fortunes of the most successful adventurers of that day. While attention has been called to the Academy on this classic hill, it may be well to say here and now, without an attempt to give anything like a history of the institution, that her influence was ap- parent in all this section. There was an air of culture and refine- ment in these homes and places of business that indicated that good work had been done along the lines of education. I have within a few blocks of my residence, more than one, and out of the state know another, who now close upon eighty years of age, were in •64 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. this school when in their teens. They carry with them now marks of their early training after more than six decades. It was my good fortune while here to be on the board of educa- tion, and some of the time acting visitor in the schools, and while in this service I learned more of the characteristics of childhood and 3'outh than from all other sources put together. Children are creatures of imitation. We sometimes say, "young men follow young men," and this is no more true of young men than of chil- dren. If the tendency of the majority is in the right, the minority will imitate that majority, with few exceptions ; but if the tendency of the majority is in the wrong the minority will imitate the majority in the wrong. Here is a pleasant little illustration that came to my notice while acting visitor in the schools of this town, which though somewhat amusing, may not be entirely irrelevant in this case. On entering one of the more rural schools in the summer on my official visits, I found, if my memory is correct, that every scholar, with one exception, was there with uncovered feet. This one forming the exception, was a beautiful little girl from a home of cultivated taste and refinement. Her dainty feet were not allowed to touch the soil over which she walked, but in this instance, the custom which prevailed in that school was stronger, for the time being, than her careful home training. Feeling that there was an incon- gruity here that should not exist, she quietly, and unobserved, re- moved the covering from her feet that she might be in harmony with her schoolmates. It was not in good form, as we now say, in that school to have shoes on the feet of scholars. This shows how hard it is to breast prevailing custom — to be out of fashion, if you please — as well as the importance of cultivating a correct taste in dress, and a proper regard for the habits of life. Weddings. This is a feature of my subject that will have to be touched hghtly. More than two hundred couples were joined in wedlock — most of them in happy wedlock I am pleased to say — by me, while on this field. Some of them are here to-day. They, their children, and grandchildren, are a source of pleasure to me. I am happy to REMINISCENCES BY REV. J. P. BROWN. 65 know that so many of them are worthy citizens and that some of them are in important and responsible positions and are filhng them with honor to themselves and to their friends. The times have changed somewhat along this line of action as well as in almost all others since I came on to this field. The pre- liminary movements towards matrimony may be the same now as then, possibly. Who can tell? The uninitiated certainly know nothing about it, and I question the ability of anyone who has passed the ordeal successfully tO' write out an order that could be followed by a novice. The parties have met somehow and so'mewhere, apart from all others, and after some small talk — "beating around the bush" — they in some way reach the important question, and that which has caused so much trepidation is settled. The next thing in order is on other hands. The doting parents of the bride-elect must now furnish an entertainment, more or less elaborate, tO' which a few, choice friends of the parties are invited, and then the fact of the engagement is announced, but, of course, not the steps by which this happy conclusion was reached. "Coming events now cast their shadow before them." But when I began my ministry here nothing of this kind was known. When the preliminaries had all been at- tended to by the interested parties, in secret session, the fact was made known to the pastor, who, as required by law, announced that fact from the pulpit. In many cases nothing was known of the afTair, out of the immediate families, till it was "Published" — often to the great surprise and merriment of the young people. Did this legal custoim have a tendency to increase congregations? Has the abolishment of it had anything tO' do with diminished church at- tendance? Who will answer? In speaking of publishing marriage intentions you will allov/ me to give an item of my experience in this matter. The law re- quired that all publishments of this kind should be read in a religious meeting, and all meetings opened by prayer were called religions. In such meetings, however small, a publishment might be read and thus meet all the requirements of the law. It seemed that a couple had applied to a gentleman of the legal profession to be united in wedlock, but the parties had not been published. It was evident 5 66 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. from some cause, that never came to my knowledge, that the party- were anxious that the rite should receive immediate attention. But how could the question of publishment be settled? There was no religious meeting in session, nor would there be till the coming Sabbath. In order to meet the emergency, the legal gentleman joined by one of our leading business men came to^ my door with the request that a i>rayer meeting be inaugurated at once in my parlor, at the close of which the publishment might be read. But who would come to such a meeting? I had never seen them in a prayer meeting. They replied that they were sufficient tO' make the audience, but would take no part in the service. I, with a mental protest, went through the farce, at the close of which I read the publishment and gave a certificate, and they retired, after saying it was right — that it answered the requirements of the law. I then knew what they thought of the matter, but the question with me was what does the Lord think of such mummery? I received as a fee one dollar for my first wedding, and then walked three miles to the office of the town clerk to- have it recorded and paid a nine-pence, or twelve and half cents for the service. Do not think they were all like this. Politics. I was never a politician, according to the general use of that term. I was well up in my thirties when made an elector, when I cast my first vote, and then it was reluctantly done. Indeed it was not a very common sight tO' see a clergyman at the polls. In the early history of our country it might have been different ; if so, the custom had then fallen into disuse. The calling was considered too high, if not toO' sacred, to enter the political arena. But the time had now come when great moral questions had been thrust into politics and then the whole thing was changed. The minister could no longer be non-committal without being recreant to his high calling. From the early fifties to 1865 there were no "soft places" in the North for clergymen, nor was there any chief captain, as in Paul's case, fearing lest they should be pulled in pieces, to command the soldiers to take them to a place of safety. The passage of the REMINISCENCES BY REV. J. P. BROWN. 67 "Fugitive Slave Bill" by Congress, the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, and the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise, had thrown all the free states into the wildest frenzy. Not even the bombardment of Sumter could essentially increase the excitement that had existed at an earlier date. Ministers whirled from their positions, as if caught in a cyclone, allowed themselves to say what in their calmer moments would have been considered profane. And what made the matter still more alarming was the demand made for this, by the leading men in our churches on one side, and the bitter opposition to it on the other. This was more particularly true during the decade immediately preceding the open- ing of the Civil War. This was a period of great anxiety to every American citizen, but to none more than to the clergymen then in active life. From the very nature of his calling, he was under the necessity of speaking often to the people, when they were in their most critical moods. One living now who was not then upon the stage of action can have no conception of the state of the public mind at that time. The people were religious, not to say pious, beyond measure. On one side they would say to the minister, this is the cause of God ; we are engaged in a holy crusade, and if you do not join us in the struggle — join us publicly — you lose the op- portunity of your life, and what is more, you prove false to your profession. If they did not say this in so many words to him, they would say it in public places, knowing that their sayings would come to his ears. On the other hand, his people looking at the same question, from another point of observation, would become suddenly unusually religious too, and be deeply pained at the thought of their beloved pastor's coming down from the work to which he had been set apart by the imposition of holy hands to enter the arena of politics. These pious souls were scandalized when churches were opened for political crowds and pulpits were used for the discussion of the burning questions of the day. Thus you see that ministers were suspended between these two con- tending forces. It is a wonder that any of them escaped destruction while in the storm of shot and shell of those perilous times. In some way I came out of the fiery contest unharmed and was 68 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. honored by this good old town at the very close of the war in 1865 with a seat in the Legislature of this state. I never knew why. I might speak of my visits in these homes in times of afflictions ; of the more than five hundred funerals attended in these families, and of the wonderful works of grace seen on this field, but time will not permit. I will therefore close by expressing the hope that the sons and daughters of those honored fathers and mothers, whose memory we so tenderly cherish, may prove themselves worthy of their noble ancestry. ADDRESS. C. E. TiLLINGHAST. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Citiaens of Grand Old Plainfield: I thank you for this kind introduction and cordial reception. I accept it as a compliment to the name I bear and which you have been pleased to honor* so highly during a large portion of the time since the township's organization, rather than as personal to myself. I need not assure you I am delighted tO' be honored as your guest to-day, for next to a blue-eyed, blue-grass Nightingale of Yankee extraction, I always did give my whole heart to governors, congressmen, judges and clergymen. The Tillinghast family con- sider all clergymen near relatives, with an extra shake for Baptists. My father — God bless his memory — was a Baptist clergyman, with a heart and sympathy that yearned to grasp the human race in his arms and present them spotless before his Maker. He had a brother John and a son Jared, both clergymen, and we have descended through seven generations, many of whom were minis- ters, from Elder Pardon Tillinghast, the first, whO' came from the south of England, near Brighton, and settled with Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1656, being forty-three years prior ♦Judge Waldo Tillinghast ; Fred W. Tillinghast, Probate Clerk ; Frank H. Tillinghast, Esq., Hon. Caleb Tillinghast. C. E. T. ADDRESS BY C. E. TILLINGHAST. 69 to the organization of this town. As some of you may be aware Elder Pardon built the first Baptist Church in the United States and gave it by deed to his congregation, which is still the First Baptist Church of Providence. He also built the first wharf in that city, being a merchant as well as a preacher. He now sleeps in the rear of the church with a suitable monument to mark his resting place. Although I have only visited Plainfield occasionally during the last thirty years, I am one of its true and loyal admirers, and have abundant reasons for my admiration. I was born and edu- cated here and count among the very best friends I ever had some of your most estimable citizens with whom I could always find a welcome and a home. My first visit to Plainfield was to attend a birthday party held in my honor at my father's house on Shepherd Hill, located across the street near where Gen. Atwood's house now stands. Old Dr. Burgess was master of ceremonies, and Hon. Caleb Tillinghast, and your honorable judge of probate were among the guests. I was dressed in the only bran-new birthday suit I remember ever having had, and although very young I succeeded in attracting attention and making myself heard, notwithstanding the prophecies that I was tongue-tied. Wauregan was not built until years after, and there were only four houses on Shepherd Hill at that time. I will briefly refer to a few incidents of my early life that we may be able to draw a comparison with the present, and thus discover what remarkable progress the town has made. The first home I remember was near Glen Falls, the old Backus place, which included an old-time saw and grist mill and which the poet has most minutely described in the "Old Oaken Bucket," as all who remember the place will recognize. "How dear tO' my heart are the scenes of my childhood When fond recollection recalls them to view; The orchard, the meadow, the deep tang-led wildwood, And every loved spot my infancy knew; The wide-spreading- pond and the mill that stood by it, The bridge, and the rock where the cataract fell; The home of the loved ones, the elm that stood nigh it, The old oaken bucket that hung in the well." 7° PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. All were there, the deep tangled wildwood, the mill, the bridge, the rock and the cataract, the old oaken bucket, well-curb, old- fashioned well-sweep and all. Wheeled vehicles were not common at that time, and the farmers brought grain to market on horse- back, rye which was cut with a sickle and threshed by hand. Hay was cut with a hand-scythe and gathered with a hand-rake, not even a grain cradle or a drag-rake having been invented, so far as I am aware. Much of the wearing apparel was made from home-spun and home-woven wool or flax ; boots and shoes were also largely home-made. 'The first school I attended was at the old Goshen school- house ; the seats and writing desks running around three sides of the room ; the larger boys and girls pivoting themselves upon the bench as they turned to write and cypher and back again to read and spell. My first teacher was required to teach the entire list from Acr Be Ce to "Readin','' " 'Ritin' " and " 'Rithmetic," and also to make the goose-quill pens for writing purposes, the scholars furnishing their own quills and home-made ink and copy-books. I completed my ''college" course at the old academy on yonder hill under Professor Lucian Burleigh. Among the foremost of those who attended at the same time was one of your distinguished speakers, now Rev. Chas. C. Spaulding, of Boston. Your chair- man of committee on speakers, Hon. Joseph Hutchins, was one of the leading, reliable citizens of the town then, as now. From the corner where he lives to* the depot there was not a single habitation. The population of the town was less than one-half what it is to-day. You will thus see what rapid changes and material advancement Plainfield has made during my short life. It has been well said that "he who causes two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before" is a public benefactor. What shall be said then of our patient, brave and able forefathers and foremothers who converted this township from a wilderness, the lurking place of savages and wild beasts, under circumstances as related by your able historian, into the joyous homes, perfumed gardens, and fruitful fields we now behold, who planted the orchards and shade trees, erected the churches and schools, the ADDRESS BY C. E. TILLINGHAST. 7I busy mills and manufactories, and, better than all, seeded its broad acres with conscience and with God. "All power and pelf that ends in self, Is naught but vanity: They crown themselves with immortelles Who serve humanity." We meet to-day to re-crown the several generations who so well laid the foundation and perseveringly developed this township's prosperity and happiness, and thus rendered a most important and lasting service to humanity for all time. "They did what they had to do, and builded better than they knew." Most have been car- ried by loving hands and tearful hearts to their final rest beneath the solemn pines and weeping willows — not dead, for to live in the liearts of those we leave behind is not to die. The result oi their toil and efforts remains as a permanent inheritance to you ; and Avho shall measure the sum of human happiness thus bequeathed to generations yet unborn? Heroes every one — "verily peace hath Tier victories more renowned than war." The casual reader of general history would conclude that the leader of great armies was the only hero, and the magnitude of his ■fame dependent upon the multitude of devastated cities, ruined homes, agonized mothers, despairing wives, homeless orphans and bleaching skeletons, chargeable to his account — how extensive the zone of fire and pillage and tears and blood he could leave as an inheritance to mankind, "the monument of his glory." Behold these majestic elms* — giant Sentinels of the town, guarding alike from summer's scorching ray and winter's chilling "blast— the storm king's fury and tornado's wrath — ancient Patriarchs with arms extended in perpetual benediction, invoking heaven's richest blessings ; every branch and twig and leaf an uplifting, ele- vating inspiration, ever wooing mortals to a higher and better life. Who would not consider that the author of a single one of *Plainfield is noted for the numerous large, fine elms, skirting each side of the street for a con- ■siderable distance, the boughs intermingling overhead, shutting out the sun and forming a complete arch. The boughs of the largest extend 63 feet, either way from the trunk being nearly S}i rods across or about 1-12 of a mile around the extreme ends. The trunk is 18 feet in circumference. C. E. T. 72 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL, these has rendered a better service to humanity than the renowned home-wrecker of Lodi, and AusterHtz and Waterloo, and prefer it as a monument to such a record, notwithstanding all that has been said of the latter in song and story? I am glad to^ believe that our own Grant and Dewey are among the last great military heroes the world will know, and fittingly so, because both battled for the rights of the oppressed and defenceless, and even those they vanquished are victors, as all are who are vanquished by the right. Already the Archangel of Arbi- tration hovers above every throne and every earthly potentate, and soon, with uplifted hand by virtue of the power and authority of a community of nations, and in the name of the God of justice, mercy and peace, shall declare that might is no longer the measure of right, that the divine authority of kings is with a limitation, as the interests of the weakest shall be protected equally with the strong, that the arbitrament of an international tribuna! of justice shall succeed the arbitrament of the sword, and war be- tween nations forever cease from the earth. Then shall the dove of peace nest in every household, a perpetual assurance tO' mother, wife and child that their loved ones shall no longer be sacrificed upon the gory field of battle, but henceforth shall be dedicated to. the peacable pursuits of prosperity and happiness. If the cause of arbitration shall fail to fully accomplish the desired end, wireless telegraphy and high explosives added to the present implements of destruction will unquestionably do' so ; as it will mean annihilation to attack any considerable well-equipped force. The heroes of the future then wall of necessity be those of peace,, and a more crying need or greater opportunity for them to dis- tinguish themselves never before existed, especially for young men. Wireless telegraphy, the substitution of aluminum in great measure for iron and steel, and electricity for steam, in turn perhaps to be succeeded by compressed and liquefied air ; horseless vehicles and farm implements, and the thousand improvements attendant upon them, furnish an opportunity for victories of peace never before pre- sented. The same is true in national problems, which are quite as ADDRESS BY HON. E. M. WARNER. 73 difficult and important as any that confronted our ancestors. I refer to international arbitration, the Panama Canal, the control of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines, the race question of the South, the reconciliation of labor and capital, the money question, the ratio that should be maintained being at least sixteen heroes to one block- head. As you stand upon the threshold of the third century of your township's organization, do not fail to remember That eternal vigilance is the price of safety ; That the ballot box is the ark of the covenant to be guarded well and neglected never; That the home is the unit and bulwark of our liberty ; That the white lilies of family afifection and neighborly kindness, which grow around the hearthstone and sickbed, are century plants which blossom not once in a hundred years only, but every hour of every day of every year throughout all the centuries ; That true friendship to God and man is a fountain of joy, a river of pure delight which shall flow on forever. ADDRESS. Hon. E. M. Warner. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am reminded, by my position at the end of the program, of the old colored parson who was called upon to invoke Divine blessing on the ''orator of the day." There were four of them, and he exhausted most of his adjectives on the first two, had few left for the third, and none at all for the fourth "orator of de day." Absolutely at a loss what to ask for him, he finally burst out with "de Lord hab mercy on his soul." I do not mean by this story that you or I need commisseration,, for, surely, the day so far has been one of unalloyed pleasure. Nobly have your bicentennial committee performed the duties assigned them. A splendid parade, exhibiting all the varied industries and 74 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. interests of the tOAvn — a most masterly, or rather womanly, review •of the early days by Miss Larned — a judicial and profound con- sideration of the legal aspects of the same period by Judge Bond — poetry and prose have beguiled the hours — Congressman Russell has advanced the frontier of these United States to its proper posi- tion — and Brother Brown has told us how the old lawyer induced him to prevent a clandestine marriage, by holding a prayer-meeting, publishing the bans and marrying the couple in orthodox fashion — the chorus have given us splendid music, and Reeves' famous band, only a little lower than the angels, have opened the gates of heaven ■and given us a foretaste of celestial music. My residence in this town covers a period of twelve years, and I shall always look back upon those years, and their varied ex- periences, with the greatest pleasure. Some of the best friends I have ever had lived and now live in this town. What is the thought of the hour? Poor, indeed, is that people who have no memorial days. Birthdays of towns, as well as birth- days of individuals, are honored, because of the goodness of the life. Washington's natal day will be increasingly honored centuries after he is gathered to his fathers. Nobody knows or cares when Benedict Arnold was born or when he was buried. Christmas will never cease to bring joy and kindliness to the world as the birthday of the Divine man. We don't hear much of the celebration of the birthday of Judas or Pilate. This town was founded on the church and school-house. The first vote or one of the first votes ol the town was to hire a minister ■and the churches and school-houses have stood together, witnesses of the devotion and intelligence of this people from that day to this. You have as a town a noble record in the War of the Revolution and the War of the Rebellion and in the late war. Patriotic on all ■occasions. The record of the past is made up. The books are closed. Two centuries is a long period, and the years are full of events of .great interest. To-day is not like other days. None of us will be quite the same to-morrow as we are now. These celebrations are ADDRESS BY HON. E. M. WARNER. 75 times of reckoning. Every anniversary is a slice of the day of judgment. What will posterity say of us 200 years from now? The old frontiersman of early Plainfield knew how to fight and was eager for the fray. You have heard from our honored gover- nor, of the power and grandeur of towns ; the majesty of the people exercising governmental rights in town meeting assembled. Well, how is it? Do you send men to Hartford, who know their duty and can do it, or are they wheedled and managed by the experienced member who has been there before? Just so long as the country towns send men to Hartford, simply because their section or district of the town thinks it is their "turn," without regard to personal qualification of the candidate, just so long will the country town fail to have its proper influence in the Legislature. In the matter of improved roads I know you are in the front rank. I doubt if there is another town in the county with as fine roads as you have, and I know your schools are equal to the best. There is another matter. My wife tells me I'm not here to lay down the law, but to praise you. Probably she is right. She usually is. But I must say to you that of all the questions which will demand your attention none begins to be of the personal importance, to you and your homes, of the "Drink" question. You have, however, always kept the town on the no license side, and I predict you will not change the record this year. Early Plainfield maintained itself by the integrity and courage of the individual citizen. Do as they did. "Think and decide for yourself." So shall the future be secure. I will not detain you further, for I know you are eager to hear the next "orator of the day," and I will say, with due deference to all, who have preceded me, and also to myself, you will now be permitted to listen to the best speech of the day. 76 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. ADDRESS. Rev. C. H. Spalding, D. D. Two hundred years is a very respectable bit of history. Eight generations ago one of my ancestors was active in beginning the- history we are this day celebrating. No^ town in the wide world wears such a halo around it, to me, as "Beautiful Plainfield." The scenes of my childhood are among the most beautiful pictures ever hung in the chambers of memory. The over-arching elms ol this street always impressed my fancy like a vast cathedral, and with as great sacredness, too. How naturally we are all affected by the- institutions and personages which gave tone and shape to- our earliest ideas : often these are the mould in which our whole life is run. When I read Hood's striking couplet, "I am farther away from Heaven new Than -when I was a boy," I think of my days of play and pleasure here. But I have no- sympathy with that other lamentation, "I remember, I remember the house where I was born, The window where the sun came creeping in at morn. It did not come a wink too soon, nor bring- too long a day. But now I often wish the night had borne my breath away." I did not look at Westminster Abbey with a greater reverence- than I always look at this old stone church. Its old interior with, the high pulpit to which the minister ascended by circular stairs, with the square, high-backed pews, is a thing of tender recollection to me. Very few of the congregations of that time are among the living to enter its portals now. I stand at this parting of the ways,, and the song of the "Ferryman" comes to- me. "Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee, For spirits twain have crossed with me." Plainfield may have no tradition like the "Frogs of Windham,"" no fascinating story like "Putnam and the wolf den," but it has its ADDRESS I!Y REV. C. H. SPALDING, D. D. 77 unwritten idyls of noble men and women in all the walks of life. In the autobiography of Dr. John G. Paton, the great missionary, he says, "The only aristocracy worth anything is the aristocracy of brains and character. The people of my village were keen de- baters in all matters of church and state. On the way to the smithy or to the kiln, in knots on the green, and coming from the kirk, the great questions which were shaking the outside world were fought over again with amazing passion and a bright intelligence." When I read that sentence, O what a burst of memory rolled in upon me, a memory of dear old Plainfield ! The first political shibboleth I ever remember was "Tippe- canoe and Tyler, Too!" The old Plainfield Glee Club, with Harry Wilson as a leader, has sung more politics into my life than has come into it through all the open avenues of later years. To my ■childish fancy this was the town which made and unmade presidents. I used to imagine that Windham County was the arch upon which rested the fabric of the republic, and the keystone in that arch was Plainfield. Celia Thaxter says she used to look out from her light- house home on Appledore Island and see the main land, and ask her little brother if he "supposed the land so near them was as big as Appledore." I am looking at Plainfield to-day through the -eyes of childhood, and instead of making me feel less like a man it makes me feel more like a man. The orator of the day, who was my schoolmate in the academy and whom it is my pleasure to^ greet in Boston day by day. Judge Bond, who has so faithfully drawn the picture of our earlier history, knows well whereof he speaks in the personages he cites and the principles for which they stood. Prof. George Shepard, D. D., for so many years the president of Bangor Theological Seminary, has left his exalted and enduring impression upon the religious thought of the century just closing. It was a pride to his townspeople to have him come home occasional- ly and preach in the old church. In literature the name of William H. Burleigh is written on the scroll of eminence. In the heroic chapter of anti-slavery reform, whose annals are sO' brilliant with notable achievements, no two figures stand out with more unique and conspicuous purpose and power than our own Charles and 78 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL, George Burleigh. We felt the tingle of just pride in our veins when Connecticut made Hon. David Gallup Lieut. Governor, who dignified his official life with rare good sense and practical virtues.. It was my pleasure a year ago to be passing a quiet Sunday at Baden-Baden. At our hotel was a group of people, and one of the ladies, I was told, was the wife of our United States Consul at Amsterdam. Before the day closed I was introduced to her, and. it was our mutual pleasure to find that we were both from Plainfield, and that her husband was G. I. Corey, a boy of this town. Thus, strange and happy are the coincidences of foreign travel ! Rev. Andrew Dunning was the first minister I remember, and his beautiful bearing and pulpit attitude are an ineffaceable portrait on my heart. To my teacher, Lucian Burleigh, I owe a debt of gratitude which I should be recreant not to pay this day. When I read Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' charming book, "The Madonna of the Tubs," I thought of old Aunt Pendar, the quiet and faithful, the patient and gentle negro washerwoman and nurse, whose house was on the lonely hillside tO' the northeast of our village, and among others of notability and renown, it does my heart good to mention her, and I know some of you will say. Amen. I could not miss this day. It will sanctify the shorter period of my pilgrimage yet to run. I stand with you trembling between the "Pleasures of Memory" and the "Pleasures of Hope." HISTORICAL PAPER BY REV. S. H. FELLOWS. 79, AGRICULTURAL, INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF PLAINFIELD— A GLIMPSE AT THE PAST AND PRESENT. Rev. S. H. Fellows. Agricultural. It is difficult at this day to determine what could have attracted the early settlers of Plainfield. They could not have considered it an El Dorado for farming. Its surface is diversified with stones, swamps and sand, though there is some good land along the margin of its streams. The plains — from which probably the township took its name — being less heavily wooded than the more elevated portions, might have seemed to offer the quickest returns for their labor. The early settlers were men who were not afraid of work, and they ex- pected tO' wring their support from the sod "in the sweat of their face." After providing a temporary shelter for their families, they bent all their energies to securing a crop of corn for which this, section was famous under Indian cultivation. They well knew that they must depend almost wholly upon themselves for their support, for there were no markets within reach and no money with which to buy. With such rude imple- ments as they brought with them, such as the axe and hoe, the plow and scythe, they must raise their own provisions, make their own clothes, and live as best they could upon what was within their reach. Life in such a new country is a struggle for existence, and under such conditions we can well believe in the theory of "the survival of the strongest." Few grew rich among them, yet there were none who expected to live on the hard earned pittance of their neighbors. To-day one of the foremost granges of Connecti- cut, is that of Plainfield, No. 140, instituted February 16, 1894. Its charter member list comprised 51 names, which has been grad- ually increased. The farmers earlv turned their attention to wool growing and So PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL, stock raising' as affording an easier way of getting a living than by the cultivation of the sod. There were no markets and so little inducement to raise more than sufficient for the support of their own families. Roads were but tracks from one point to another, bridges were unknown, and it was not always possible to ford the streams. The spirit of emigration if not of adventure, possessed these €arly settlers, and they sooii began to- seek homes in the southern and western parts of the state; in Vermont, and especially in far distant New York, reports of whose rich land had reached their •ears. It was thought possible at one time to make the Quinebaug River navigable from Danielson's falls to Norwich, and the General Assembly was petitioned for authority to operate a lottery to^ raise the necessary funds ; but the request was not granted and the scheme was abandoned. Industrial. In 1768 a weekly stage coach was run from Providence to Norwich through this town, and a house for the accommodation of travelers was built upon the green, and communication with the outside world stimulated a spirit of enterprise and improvement. Stores were opened in the latter part of the century, and an apothecary's shop ; also a hat manufactory was started, a post office was secured, the third in Windham County. iFishing in the Quine- baug was protected by town enactment, which prevented the use of the water privileges, but this restriction was afterward removed. Small mills for grinding corn and sawing lumber were early built, but for years the extensive water power of the town was unused. Early in this century small manufacturing interests began to develop, and from this change in the business of the town, dates its rapid and healthy growth and prosperity. About 1807 several manufacturing companies embarked in the work of cotton spinning thus utilizing the power of its streams. The American Cotton Manufacturing Company composed of Thomas Rhodes, of Providence, and others living out of town, HISTORICAL PAPER BY REV. S. H. FELLOWS, 8l secured a "privilege" on Quandank River. The Plainfield Union Manufacturing- Company was organized for the purpose of carrying on the manufacture of cotton and bought valuable privileges and land in Moosup. This company was composed of men in Providence, Newport. Plainfield and Sterling, and commenced work in 1809, and others soon after. The Andrus factory began operations in 1811, at Packersville. Woolen factories were set in operation, and carding machirtes and fulling mills were run in Kennedy Village. The War of 181 2 caused much depression in business, and several companies were obliged to suspend operations. The Central Manufacturing Company in 1827, passed into the hands of Richard and Arnold Fenner and Holden Borden. In 1826 the woolen manufactory oi Joseph Eaton fell into the hands of a Rhode Island Quaker, Wm. Almy, and a new factory building with improved machinery was built and soon one of the largest woolen manufactories of Connecticut was under full headway. Joseph Gladding started another factory soon after on Moosup river, which with enlargement and improvements has for many years been owned and run for the manufacture of thread, by Floyd Cranska. The original of the Union mills in Moosup. which was for many years a carding factory, was built about 1805 and afterward enlarged twice. This mill continued w^ith varying success till about 1875, when it was bought by D. L. Aldrich and S. G. Gray, who commenced operations in 1879. Additions were made in 1880, 1881 and 1882. In 1883 the old mill was torn down and a new one built, and within the last few years, under the control of the Aldrich Brothers, ex- tensive additions have been made, till at present it is one of the largest and most prosperous cotton manufactories of the town. The old w^ooden mill of the Central Manufacturing Company, of Central Village, was built about 1790, and a grist mill about the same time ; these have only recently been torn down. 6 82 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Allen Harris and Arnold Fenner build the upper brick mill in 1828, and the lower one in 1845. In 1 881 this property was bought by J. Leavens' sons, who gave it the name of the Kirk mills. For the last two years the ma- chinery has been idle. In 1856 a woolen mill was built in what was known as Almy- ville, and was run till it was burned in 1875. The property was. bought by Aldrich & Milner, and a stone mill was built which has received several additions. Since the death of Mr. Aldrich the property has been controlled by Mr. Milner, and in 1891 the Glen Falls worsted mill was built for the manufacture of the finest worsted yarns. The property has within a few months passed into the control of a syndicate. About 1850 Mr. A. D. Lockwood bought a privilege on the Quinebaug river near the Brooklyn bridge in the northwest corner of the town, and in 1853 3. company was formed, which obtained a charter from the Legislature under the corporate name of "Wauregan Mills," taking the old Indian name, which means "Pleasant Valley."' In 1853 3^d 1854 a dam was thrown across the river, a build- ing 250 feet in length was erected, and the manufacture of cotton cloth was commenced. In 1858 the length of the mill was doubled. In 1868 and 1869 another building 500 feet in length was built on the opposite side of the ditch, and the two connected in the middle by a building 250 feet in length, making a total length of 1,250 feet, four and five stories in height. This mill was for a time one of the largest manufactories in Connecticut. Except for a few days at a time to make needed repairs, this mill has been con- tinuously in active operation. It was under the management of Mr. J. S. Atwood from its. beginning till his death in 1885; since that time, under that of his sons, J. A. & J. W. Atwood. The first number of the Plainfield Journal appeared September 3, 1881, as a six-column folio, published by Charles F. Burgess, The plant has prospered, and the paper, now comprising ten pages» HISTORICAL PAPER BY REV. S. H. FELLOWS. 83 has grown steadily in circulation and influence, and is published from the Masonic building, Moosup. A beautiful souvenir volume of the tOAvn of Plainfield was issued from the Journal office in 1895, comprising historical, descriptive and biographical sketches, and nearly two hundred fine illustrations, making a book of great value and one that will long be highly prized. Educational. Early in the history of the town the attention of the people was turned to the matter of education. In 1707 public provision was made for the instruction of the children, when it was ordered, "That part of the country land be allowed for the encouragement of a school," and Lorin Williams, Joseph Spaulding and (Dea.) William Douglas were directed "to take care that there be one." A year later the town voted "to send to Mr. James Deane to come and be their school-master," and he agreed to undertake it for six months, for what he could make out of it. He did not probably find it a very lucrative position. In 1716 John W^atson was "improved," tO' keep school, what- ever that might mean, and the deacons and selectmen were tO' order the school and receive the money. It was next ordered that a school should be kept in three places ; that a place be provided for the school-master to be quartered at, and a house suitable for the school ; the expense to be borne by the inhabitants of the section ; the same school-master to go from one place to another. In 1 71 7 and 1718 several persons in the middle of the town employed John Stoyell tO' instruct their children for a year, and the town made this a public school, and ordered the school money to be delivered to these persons, and that each child should be charged four pence a week besides. In 1719 Henry Wake was school-master, receiving for his serv- ices his "diet" and five pounds. In 1 72 1 Mr. Walton was employed to maintain perambulatory 84 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. schools, in the different neighborhoods, the town paying him twelve pounds, finding board and keeping a horse for him. In 1720 the town was divided into school districts, north and south of the meeting-house, each to order its own schools. In 1722 the first school-house w-as ordered built forty or fifty rods from the meeting-house, and in 1725 two others were ordered built. In 1740 ten shillings a week was deemed a reasonable recom- pense for the master's "diet" and horse keeping. In 1769 a committee was appointed to lay out school districts, and the town was divided into ten districts. The people w^ere not yet satisfied with the opportunities which their children enjoyed; and in 1770 an association was formed "For the purpose of providing improved facilities for the more complete education of the youth of the vicinity." They erected a brick building, procured teachers of a higher grade, and established a more thorough system of instruction in common English branches, but were unable to organize a classical department. A legacy being left them by Isaac Coit, Esq., the interest of which was to be applied for the maintenance of a Latin or grammar school, in 1778 a classical department was organized and Mr, Ebenezer Pemberton of Newport, a gentleman of high scholarship and accomplishments, was employed as teacher. His reputation and the favorable location of the school in those troublous times, attracted a large number of pupils from other places, even from Providence, New London and New York. In 1784 "the trustees of the Academick school in Plainfield," were incorporated and for more than half a century this academy maintained its place at the fore-front of the academies of New England, and until the advent of high schools in many places caused it to decline. Many men of national reputation who have held high places in church and state, received their preparation for college in this old academy, and a still larger number of teachers were here fitted for their responsible positions. Plainfield academy was the third incorporated school in Con- HISTORICAL PAPER BY REV. S. H. FELLOWS. 85 necticiit. The first two were Union in New London, and Staples in Weston. The following are some of the by-laws of the academy, which in these days would be called tyrannical : "That no scholar shall go to the tavern for purpose of enter- tainment without leave from his father, guardian or rector. "No scholar from abroad and boarding in any family, shall remove to any other family unless so directed by his or her parents, or guardian, or with liberty from the rector. "No scholar shall keep a gun, or go on a shooting party, or ride out, or leave town, or absent himself from the school without leave from the rector. "No scholar shall purchase anything at any store on credit, without a written order from parent, or guardian, or leave from the rector. "No scholar shall appear in the academy, or in public, in ex- travagant, slovenly, or indecent dress. "No immoral, indecent, or profane language, or improper con- duct, shall be allowed in any scholar, at any time; but all such breaches of good morals shall be exemplarily punished. "No- scholar shall be allowed tO' stroll the street, or fields on Sunday, but it shall be required of everyone to attend on public worship, and tO' behave with becoming dignity and propriety. "No member of the academy shall attend a dancing school in the town during- the time he is a member of the academy." There were no changes in the boundaries of the twelve districts into which the town was divided for a number of years ; the out- lying districts decreasing in the number of scholars, while the num- ber at the centers increased. The first union of districts was that of Central Village and Kennedy, approved by the board November 26, 1873. April 10, 1881, the board approved the plan of the school-house in Moosup, a district formed by the consolidation of Almyville, Moosup (or Union) and Goshen. Plainfield has always been liberal in the appropriation of money for the education of her children, and her schools have compared 86 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. favorably with those of other towns having- a similar grade of scholars. A vote for the town management of schools was carried at the last annual town meeting in October, 1898, and the town will com- mence her third century abreast of the times, prepared not only to sustain her reputation, but to keep pace with modern ideas for the best practical education of all the children within her borders. SKETCH OF MEMBERS OF THE BAR AND OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION, WITH LISTS OF SOME ELECTED OFFICERS. James L. Gardner, M. D. Great changes have come to the former lands of the Nipmuck Indians, Gov. John Winthrop bought two- hundred fifty years ago of Allumps and Massashowett, and which twenty-five or thirty years after, Owaneco, the Mohegan, sold to Capt. James Fitch. And meantime great strides of progress have been made in the medical profession and in the legal. The narrow Indian trail is no more followed, but the macadam road has taken its place ; for the pony express and the sailing packet, the lawyer and the doctor, now have the fast mail, the telephone, and even wireless telegraphy. The old-time doctor was a potent factor in making this part of the country what it is to-day. He stood with the lawyer and the statesman for freedom and liberty, always at his post of duty in war and in peace, ready to relieve human suffering and prolong human life. On battle-field and ship, Plainfield has ever been represented with ability by her surgeons. When the river too ran high it was Dr. Joseph Williams and Judge Timothy Pierce who petitioned the assembly, May 9, 1728, for a bridge over the Quinebaug. This, however, did not prevent the drowning of Nathaniel Kinne in the flood of 1807, when the ferryboat, still running, was swamped there. The doctors were busy in those early years; for about 1728 a dis- HISTORICAL PAPER BV JAMES L. GARDNER, M. D. 87 tressing sickness came upon the people of the town with great mortahty. Twenty persons died in a few months. The Indians too were dying off, partly from bad habits and partly from the efifect of the white man's fire-water. Owaneco- himself followed his cups closely and died in 1715. Dr. Joseph Williams, one of the early doctors of Plainfield, died in 1752. He owned real estate and his will was probated that year before Judge Avery. Dr. James Girauld, of Central Village, affirms, in 1769, to the miraculous cure, through faith and prayer, of Mercy Wheeler, who had been a sufiferer from nervous prostration for many months. During the revolution the sick and wounded were sent home and cared for by physicians and kind women who volunteered as nurses. The town did nobly, though its population in 1775 was only — whites, 1,479; blacks, 83; the grand list being £14,216 i6s. Dr. Josiah Fuller was surgeon of the cavalry regiment. Drs. Adams and Lord enlisted as surgeons. In Col. Arnold's regiment we find Dr. John Spalding as surgeon with Rev. John Fuller as chaplain, his successor in the First Church in Plainfield, Rev. Joel Benedict, D.D., being chaplain of the Twenty-first regiment ; and in the Eighth infantry with Lieut. Douglass (afterwards General Douglass), we find Dr. Elisha Perkins as surgeon. Dr. Perkins was a most es- teemed physician. He was one of the first trustees of Plainfield Academy. His electric tractors spread his fame throughout the world. They were at first a success and thousands were sold.' He discovered an anti-septic preparation for the prevention of disease, his daughter, Mrs. Merwin, having died of yellow fever at Phila- delphia. He went toi New York to test his preventative medicine and for four weeks faithfully nursed the fever stricken patients, but fell a martyr tO' his convictions and in the cause of humanity. He died in New York in 1799. Dr. Perkins was undoubtedly one of the first to experiment with yellow fever preventatives. Alone and single handed he thought out the problem, the same that army sur- geons and bacteriological students are now struggling with a century later, and struck the keynote of germ theories and modern aseptics. Connecticut and New York can both deservedly pay homage tO' his 88 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. name. When there was an opportunity to* give a number of Quaker children a higher education, Dr. Rowland Green assisted by his brother, Dr. Benjamin Green, opened a school on Black Hill. Among the graduates from this institution of learning were Susan Anthony, Phebe Jackson, Samuel S. Toby, and Elisha Dyer who became governor of Rhode Island. The physicians were of help in other ways. In 1775 Samurf " Fiitnam wrote Governor Trumbull, "another cargo of tea, nothing but a non-consumption agreement can save America." The tea tax and other hardships inflicted by the Crown put the colonists in no friendly mood towards Great Britain. Tea was a contraband article with the patriots, and so when Betsey Devotion, daughter of Rev. James Cogswell, D. D., of Scotland, in the Quinebaug Country, died with fever, and the parents worn with watching and nursing, were advised to take a cup of tea as "a soothing stimulus," they did so to- their peril. Many tories had already been treated to a coat of tar and feathers for selling tea and for similar deeds. Mr. Cogswell disavowed any allegiance to- the Crown and asserted his sympathy with the sons of freedom, and the physicians certified that the tea was "taken as a medical prescription." This saved him. though some women re- quired a confession and apology from the pulpit and threatened to print his misdemeanor in the Norwich Packet and New London Ga::ette. Dr. Josiah Fuller had an extensive practice in Plainfield, about 1811. He and John Lester owned and profited by herding large flocks of sheep in Plainfield. Dr. Pierce practiced medicine in Plainfield about 1826. He afterwards moved to Westerly, R. I. Dr. Morey Burgess was a prominent physician in Moosup from 1816 toi 1856. His two sons, Horace and Frank, both studied for the medical profession and became practitioners. Dr. William Henry Cogswell had an extensive practice in Plain- field for about fifty years. He was born in Griswold, December 3, 1798. Educated at Plainfield Academy, he taught a few years, and then studied for his profession with Dr. Josiah Fuller and at New Haven, where he graduated in 1823 as doctor of medicine. He HISTORICAL PAPER BY JAMES L. GARDNER, M. D. 89 became president of the Medical Association of Connecticut and a member of the Board of M. V. at the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford. He rendered valuable professional aid to the federal government in the Civil War. He died November 22. 1876. Dr. William A. Lewis, born in West Greenwich, R. I., August 25, 1829, studied medicine with Dr. Nathan S. Pike, of Sterlings Hill, and took lectures at the Harvard medical school, where he graduated in 185 1. After practicing in Sterling, he came to this town in 1862 and practiced in Moosup to the time of his death, April 20, 1895. Dr. Horace E. Balcom, of Windham, Ct.. came to Plainfield about 1870, and was in practice with Dr. Burgess for a few years. He then went to Central Village where he opened an office in the brick house now used as a parsonage. He was surgeon of a Con- necticut regiment in the Civil War. He died at the age of 42 years. Dr. Charles Henry Rogers, born in Pomfret, Ct., February 6. 1818, was the oldest medical practitioner in Plainfield at the time of his death, May 23, 1897. He entered Yale College in 1840, graduated in 1844, and took his medical degree from Yale, in 1847. He began practice in West Woodstock, and came to Central Village in 1856. He volunteered as assistant surgeon in the army in 1861, but because of failing health remained in service but one year. On his return home he resumed practice in Central Village. The Windham County medical society met in Canterbury,. October i, 1786. Dr. Waldo of Pomfret, was clerk, the same who spoke at the funeral of General Putnam and eulogized the patriot. Semi-annual meetings wxre continued till 1791, when the county society was formally organized. The State medical society was instituted in 1792. The following physicians are at present practicing in Plainfield : W. W. Adams, Charles N. Allen, Emery H. Davis, A. Fontaine, James L. Gardner, Samuel P. Ladd. The following dentists are in town : H. Dryhurst, M. S. Nichols, Dwight Tracy. The druggists are C. H. Lewis, Dr. William H. Sargent, J. W.. Tuckerman. 9° PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Among- the earlier students at Plainfielcl Academy were Rev. Parker Adams, Capt. Francis Allen, Rev. Jason Allen, Hon. Sylvanus Backus, Hon. E. A. Bradford, LL. D., Nicholas Brown, Rinaldo Burleigh, Judge John P. Cushman, Hon. Nathan F. Dixon, U. S. S., Hon. Joseph Eaton, Adam Frink, Gov. James Hamilton, Judge Samuel Hubbard, LL. D., Gen. Jedidiah Johnson, Prof. James L. Kingsley, William Kinne, Judge James Lanman, Dr. Morgan, Rev. Elijah Parish, D. D., John Pellet, Henry Perkins, Rev. John D. Perkins, Prof. Geo. Shepard, D. D., John Shepard, Samuel Stephens, Alexander Stephens, M. D., LL. D., Hon. Henry R. Storrs, M. C., George Sumner, M. D., Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D. D,, Hon. Wilkins Updyke, Hon. Henry Wheaton, Walter Wheaton, M. D., Hon. Thomas W. Williams, Gen. William Williams, Col. Increase I. Wilson, John Witter. Young ladies also were educated at this academy. Among the more prominent were Miss Catherine Putnam, granddaughter of General Putnam ; Miss Nancy Allen, afterwards wife of Hon. Thomas W. Williams of New London ; Miss Harriet Brown, of Providence, R. L, afterwards the wife of Commodore Morris, U. S. N. ; the Misses Lester of Preston, Miss Betsy Sheldon. The first rectors of the academy were Ebenezer Pemberton, LL. D., afterwards principal of Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass. ; Miles Merwin, Hon. Timothy Pitkin ; Hon. Calvin Goddard, who afterwards practiced law in Plainfield ; Hon. Sylvanus Backus, Rev. Lynde Huntington; Rev. Eliphalet Nott, D. D., afterwards presi- dent of Union College, New York ; Dr. Benjamin Allen, Dr. Zechariah Eddy. The early lawyers in Plainfield had considerable practice from the land deals and complications. The nearest high court was the Court of Common Pleas of New London County. There Major Fitch and Gov. Winthrop often met to have decision on some land dispute. While Major Fitch and Winthrop Were grasping lands and deeds, The faithful, old-time doctor. Was tending- human needs. HISTORICAL PAPER BY JAMES L. GARDNER, M. D. QI The following persons appear to have come and bought land of Fitch and Winthrop in the Quinebaug Country (1690) : Philip Bump, Matthias Button and James Kingsbury from Haverhill ; Peter Crery, James and John Dean, Wm. Marsh and Edward Yeomans, and sons of Capt. John Gallup from Stonington ; Wm. Douglass from New London ; John Fellows and Ebenezer Harris froni Ipswich ; Nathaniel Jewell, Isaac and Samuel Shepard, and Isaac Wheeler froiii Concord ; Joseph Parkhurst, Benjamin, Edward •and Joseph Spalding, and Jacob Warren from Chelmsford ; Timothy ■and Thomas Pierce from Woburn ; Thomas Williams from Stow. In the summer of 1695 some representative men of that time "vvere haled to court. Benn Spalding, Thomas Brooks, Obediah Johnson, John Smith, and Daniel Edwards were fined los. and costs of ye court for cartin' away hay from ye land ol Major Fitch. John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Massachusetts, bought land on the east bank of the Quinebaug, the deed being recorded in 1786 by Wm. Robinson, town clerk. A list of the Town Clerks is here given : James Dean 1695. John Dunlap 1839. Jacob Warren, 1697. Geo. Cady, 1843. •James Dean, 1712. Nathaniel Medbery 1849. John Hall 1721. Joseph C. Spalding', 1852. Timothy Pierce, 1725. John J. Penrose, 1853. Ezekiel Pierce 1748. Reuben Weaver, 2nd, .... 1853. John Peirce 1755. Joseph C. Spalding, . .' . . . 1854. Ezekiel Pierce 1756. Nathaniel Medbery, 1855. William Robinson, 1771. Reuben Weaver, 2nd 1856. •Squire Cady, 1805. Joseph C. Spalding 1858. W"illiam Robinson, 1806. Nathaniel Medbery, .... 1859. 'Squire Cady, 1807. Lyman Spaulding 1860. T. Hmckley, 1817. John S. French, 1863. Squire Cady 1821. Reuben Weaver 1875. F. B. Johnson, 1835. *Sessions Li. Adams, .... 1886. •Geo. Cady 1837. Timothy Pierce, of Plainfield, was the first judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Windham County, first held at Windham, *Mr. Adams also holds office as Town Treasurer and Registrar. 92 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. June 26, 1726. The first lawyer in Plainfield was William Dixon, of Volimtown, who engaged in practice in 1790. He was justice of the peace in 1806, as were Anthony Bradford, John Douglass, Joshua Dunlap, Calvin Goddard, Ephraim Wheeler. David Gallup, afterwards Lieut. Governor, was probate judge for 25 years. He was a native of Plainfield, and a descendant of the earlier families of that name in the Quinebaug Country. A list of Probate Judges, District of Plainfield, is here given : Timothy Peirce 1747—1748. Joseph Eaton 1829—1845. John Crery 1748—1759. David Gallup, 1845—1870. Jabez Fitch, 1759—1783. Jeremiah Starkweather, 1870—1871. John Felch 1783—1784. Waldo Tillinghast, . . . 1871— 1872'. John Douglass, .... 1784—1795. Chas. Hinckley, .... 1872—1874. James Gordon 1795—1812. Walter Palmer 1874—1875. Rufus Adams 1812—1819. John S. French 1875—1876. Sessions Lester 1819-1821. Walter Palmer (July to Dec), 1876. Ebenezer Young-, . . . 1821—1829. Waldo Tillinghast, 1877. Judge Tillinghast, born in Killingly, June 10, 1833, is the oldest in service of any office holder in town. John Alpin is mentioned as a lawyer who moved to Plainfield from Providence, where he had made a fortune. Ebenezer Fitch went from the schools here to Yale and became the first president of Williams College. Hezekiah Spaulding, another of Plainfield's sons, moved to Maine and became a member of the bar and of the bench in that state. Asa Spaulding went to Norwich and practiced law ; others have gone forth from the tow^i in the law and other professions. In 1765 Elisha Paine, son of the famous Separatist, practiced law in Plainfield. His father had been thrust into Windham jail for conscience sake, with Benajah Douglass, tried and sentenced by Justice Huntington for "exhorting and preaching." About 1790 Rufus Adams, Asa Backus, Moses Cleveland, and Wm. Pitt Cleveland were admitted to the bar and practiced in Plainfield. Joseph Eaton and Job Monroe were practicing in 1809. In 1830 Lawyer Francis B. Johnson had an office in Plainfield where it still is standing on Main street on the land of Benjamin A. HISTORICAL PAPER BY JAMES L. GARDNER, M. D. 93 Walker. Preceding- him Ira Case, admitted tO' bar of Windham Coimty, had practiced in Plainfield. WilHam Dyer, of Canterbury, born October 25, 1802, studied at Plainfield Academy and with Hon. Calvin Goddard, and also with Lawyer Frost, and began practice in Central Village, in 1831. He served in the Legislature as representative and was chairman of the judiciary committee. He died in 1875. Under him Judge Daniel W. Bond, of Canterbury, studied law, having been educated at Plainfield Academy. Lawyer Boiid entered intoi practice in Massachusetts. He is now judge of the superior court for Eastern Massachusetts, residing at Waltham in that state, but came back to Plainfield to deliver the bicentennial oration. John J. Penrose, born in New York, December, 1822, studied law with Gov. Chauncy Cleveland, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. After practicing two years in Hampton he came to Central Village, and continued in practice there till his health caused him to relinquish all business cares in 1892. He died in New York, July 29, 1899, and was buried in Central Village. Edgar M. Warner, now judge of the city court in Putnam, was a practicing attorney in Plainfield from 1875 to 1885. The first town-meeting in Plainfield was held May 31, 1699, and the following men were chosen selectmen : Jacob Warren, Joseph Spalding, Stephen Hall, William Johnson, Samuel Adams; Town Clerk [or recorder], James Dean; Constable, John Fellows; Surveyor, Thos. Williams. The present board of selectmen of Plainfield is comprised of three Republicans and two Democrats, the latter elected under the law of minority representation. Their names are as follows : S. A. Clark, George G. Chipman, Albert E. Shoales, Daniel F. Green, Charles H. Gray. The town has been represented in the Legislature as follows : Senators from Plainfield. Judge Joseph Eaton, . . . 1840—1. ♦Judge David Gallup, . . 1869. Dr. Mowry Burgess, . . 1844. Dr. William A. Lewis, . 1880—1. Archibald Pry 1853. Joseph Hutchins, . . . . 1887—8. Dr. Wm. H. Cogswell, . . 1860. Edwin Milner 1892. ♦Speaker of House, 1866 ; Treaident pro tem., of Senate, 1869 ; Lieut. Governor, 1879. 94 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Representatives from Plainfield. Compiled by George S. Goddard, of Hartford. 1708— May, Jno. Fellows. Oct., John Fellows, Jacob Warren. 1709— May, John Fellows. June, Thomas Williams. Oct., Thomas Williams. 1710 — May, Thomas Williams. Aug., Thomas Williams. Oct., Jacob Warren. 1711 — May, Thomas Williams, John Smith. June, Thomas Will- iams. Oct., Joshua Whitney. 1712 — May, .Joseph Spalding-, Joseph Fellows. Oct., Joshua Whit- ney (absent), John Smith (absent.) 1713— May, Capt. Thomas Williams, John Smith. Oct., Joseph Parkhurst, John Crary. 1714 — May, Joseph Parkhurst, John Smith. Oct., John Fellowes, John Crary. 1715 — May, Joshua Whitney, John Smith. Oct., Capt. Thomas Williams, John Smith. 1716 — May, Capt, Thomas Williams, John Smith. Oct., Capt. Thomas Williams, John Smith. 1717 — May, Capt. Thomas Williams, Joshua Whitney. Oct., John Fellowes, Lt. Timothy Peirce. 1718— May, Lt. Timothy Peirce, John Fellows, Oct., Timothy Peirce, Joseph Fellows. 1719 — May, Lt. Timothy Peirce, John Fellows. Oct., Lt. Timothy Peirce, John Hall. 1720 — May, Timothy Peirce, John Fellows. Oct., Timo. Peirce, Eph. Kingsbury. 1721 — May, Timo. Peirce, John Fel- lows. Oct., Timo. Pierce, Eph. Kingsbury. 1722— May, Timo. Peirce, Danll. Lawrence. Oct., Lt. Timo. Pierce, Danll. Lawrence. 1723— May, Lt. Timo. Pierce, Danll. Lawrence. Oct., Capt. Timo. Pierce, Ephraim Wheeler. 1724— May, Capt. Timo. Peirce, John Crery. Oct., John Crery, Wm. Marsh. 1725— May, Capt. Timo. Peirce, Tho. Stephens. Oct., Capt. Timo. Pierce, John Fellows. 1726— May, Capt. Timo. Peirce, Danll. Lawrence. Oct., Capt. Timo. Peirce, Edwd. Spaulding. 1727— May, Capt. Timo. Peirce, Eph. Kingsbury. Oct., Capt. Timo. Pierce, Daniel Lawrance. 1728— May, Capt. Timo. Pierce, Eph. Kingsbury. Oct., John Crery^ Joseph Williams. 1729 — May, Danll. Lawrence, Joseph Lawrence. Oct., John Creei-y, William Dean. 1730 — May, John Crery, Thomas Stephens. Oct., Daniel Law- rence, William Marsh. 1731 — May, John Crerey, William. Marsh. Oct., Ephraim Kings- bury, Daniel Lawrence. 1732 — May, Ephm. Kingsbury, David Whitney. Oct., John Creerey, Ephraim Kingsbury. 1733— Feb. 15. John Creerey, Eph- raim Kingsbury. May, John Creery, William Marsh. Oct. Ephraim Kingsbury, Daniel Lawrence. 1734 — May, Ephraim Kingsbui'y, Will- iam Marsh. Oct., Ephraim Kingsbury, Saml. Spaulding. 1735 — May, Ephraim Kingsbury, Will- iam Marsh. Oct., Ephraim Kingsbury, Joseph Warren. 1736 — May, Ephraim Kingsbury, Will- Marsh. Oct., Ephraim Kings- bury, William Marsh. 1737— May, William Marsh, Thomas; Peirce. Oct., John Creery, Daniel Lawrence. 1738 — May, William Marsh, Thomas; Stephens. Oct., Ephraim Kingsbury, Thomas Stephens. 1739 — May, Thomas Stephens, Isaac Shepard. Oct., Thomas Ste- phens, John Douglass. 1740 — May, Thomas Stephens, Thom- as Pierce. July 8, Thomas Stephens, Thomas Pierce. Oct., William Marsh, Thomas Stephens. Nov., William Marsh, Thomas Stephens. HISTORICAL PAPER BY JAMES L. GARDNER, M. D. 95 1741 — May, Thomas Stephens, John Douglass. Oct., Ephraim Kingsbury, Capt. Danl. Law- rence. 1742 — May, Capt. Thomas Stephens, William Marsh. Oct., Capt. Thomas Stephens, John Doug- lass. 1743— May, Capt. Thomas Stephens, William Marsh. Oct., Capt. Thomas Stephens, Thomas Pierce. 1744 — May, John Crary, Capt. Thom- as Stephens. Oct., William Marsh, Joseph Parkhirst. 1745— Feb. 26, William Marsh, Joseph Parkhirst. Mar. 14, William Marsh, Joseph Parkhirst, May, William Marsh, Joseph Parkhirst. July 2, William Marsh, Joseph Parkhirst. Aug. 16, William Marsh, Jo- seph Parkhirst. Oct., John ' Crary, William Marsh. 1746 — May, John Crery, William Marsh. June 19, William Marsh. Oct., John Creerey, Benjamin Wheeler. 1747— Jan. 28, John Carery, Benja. Wheeler. May, John Crarey, William Marsh. Oct., John Creere5% Benja. Wheeler. 174S— May, Capt. John Crerey, Capt. Thomas Stephens. Oct., John Crarey, Ezekiel Pierce. 1749 — May, John Crery, Benjamin Wheeler. 17.5() — May, John Creary, Benjamin Wheeler. Oct., Jonathan Dean, Ezekiel Pierce. 1751 — May, Benjamin Wheeler, Jon- athan Dean. Oct., Capt. Ben- jamin Wheeler, Ezekiel Pierce. 1752— May, Capt. Benja. Wheeler, Ezekiel Pierce. Oct., Capt. Benjamin Wheeler, Francis Dean. 1753— May, Capt. Benjn. Wheeler, Ezekiel Pierce. Oct., Jona- than Dean, James Bradford. 1754— May, Capt. John Douglass, Capt. Thos. Stevens. Oct., Capt. John Douglass, Thomas Pierce. 1755 — Jan. 8, Capt. John Douglas^ Thomas Pierce. Mar. 13, Capt. John Douglass, Thomas. Pierce. May, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler, Capt. John Douglas. Aug. 27, Benjamin Wheeler^ Capt. John Douglass. Oct., Capt. Thomas Stevens, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler. 175G— Jan.21, Capt. Thomas Stephens, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler. Feb. 12, Capt. Thomas Stev- ens, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler. Mar. 17, Capt. Thomas Stev- ens, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler. May, James Bradford, Capt. Benja. Wheeler. Sept. 8, James Bradford. Oct., Thom- as Pierce, Capt. Thomas. Stevens. 1757 — Jan. 20, Thomas Pierce, Capt.. Thomas Stevens. Feb. 9, Thomas Pierce, Capt. Thomas Stevens. May, Thomas Pierce, James Bradford. Oct., Capt. Ezekiel Pierce, Capt. Isaac Coit. 175S— Mar. 8, Capt. Ezekiel Pierce^ Capt. Isaac Coit. May, Capt. Ezekiel Pierce, Capt. Isaac Coit. Oct., James Bradford, Capt. Isaac Coit. 1759 — Feb. 7, Capt. Isaac Coit. Mar. 8, James Bradford, Capt. Is- aac Coit. May, Major Eze- kiel Pierce, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler. Oct., Major Ezekiel Pierce, Capt. Thomas Ste- phens. 1760 — Mar. 13, Major Ezekiel Pierce^ Capt. Thomas Stephens. May, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler, Capt. Thomas Stevens. Oct., Capt. Thomas Stevens, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler. 1761— March 26, Capt. Thomas Stev- ens. May, Capt. Benjamin Wheeler, Thomas Gates. Oct.. Capt. Benjamin Wheeler, Capt. Thomas Stevens. 1762— Mar. 4, May, Capt. Thomas Stevens, Capt. John Douglas. Oct., Capt. John Douglas, Jamest Bradford. 1763— May, Capt. Isaac Coit, Capt. John Douglas. Oct., Capt. John Douglass, Capt. Isaac Coit. 96 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. 1764 — Mar. 8, Capt. John Douglass, Capt. Isaac Coit. May, Maj. Ezekiel Pierce, Capt. James Bradford. Oct., Capt. James Bradford, Capt. Isaac Coit. 1765 — May, Capt. James Bradford, Capt. Isaac Coit. Sept. 19, Oct., Majr. Ezekiel Pierce, Elisha Payne. 1766— May, Elisha Payne, Majr. Eze- kiel Pierce. Oct., Elisha Payne, Majr. Ezekiel Pierce. 1767 — Jan. 29, Majr. Ezekiel Pierce, May, Elisha Payne, Maj. Eze- kiel Pierce. Oct., Maj. Eze- kiel Pierce, Elisha Payne. 1768— May, Elisha Payne, Majr. Eze- kiel Pierce. Oct., Capt. John Douglas, Hezh. Spalding. 1769— Jan. 5, Capt. John Douglas, Hezh. Spalding. May, Capt. Benjamin Douglass, Andrew Backus. Oct., Capt. John Douglass, Gideon Welles. 1770— May, Capt. John Douglass, John Pierce. Oct., Capt. John Douglass, John Pierce. 1771— May, Capt. John Douglass, John Pierce. Oct., Capt. John Douglas, John Pierce. 1772— May, Capt. John Douglas, Jesse Spaulding. Oct., Capt. John Douglass, Capt. Isaac Coit. 1773— May, Capt. John Douglass, Capt. Isaac Coit. Oct., Capt. John Douglas, Jesse Spalding. 1774— Jan. 12, Capt. John Douglas. May, Capt. Isaac Coit, Capt. James Bradford. Oct., Capt. Isaac Coit, Majr. John Doug- las. 1775— Mar. 2, Capt. Isaac Coit, Colo. John Douglas. Apr. 26, Capt. Isaac Coit, Capt. John Doug- lass. May, Capt. James Brad- ford, William Robinson. Oct., William Robinson, Joshua Dunlap. Dec. 14, Joshua Dunlap. 1776 — May, Capt. Andrew Backus, Joshua Dunlap. Oct., Elisha Perkins, Joshua Dunlap. 1777— May, Capt. James Bradford, Capt. Andrew Backus. Oct., Capt. James Bradford, Joseph Shepard. 1778— May, Capt. John Cady, William Robinson. Oct., Gen'l John Douglas, John Cady. 1779 — May, Joseph Shepard, Elisha Perkins. Oct., Majr. Andrew Backus, Isaac Knight. 17S0 — May, Capt. Ab'm. Waterman, John Pierce. Oct., Gen'l John Douglas, Doct. Elisha Per- kins. 1781 — May, Capt. John Douglass, Abraham Sheppard. Oct., Capt. James Bradford, Majr, Andrew Backus. 1782 — May, Gen'l John Douglas, Capt. William Dixon. Oct., Samuel Fox, Capt. William Dixon. 1783 — May, Gen'l John Douglass, Majr. Andrew Backus. Oct., Gen'l John Douglass, Capt. James Bradford. 1784 — May, Gen'l John Douglas, Eb- enezer Eaton. Oct., Joseph Shepard, Capt. Joshua Dun- lap. 1785 — May, Majr. Andrew Backus, Capt. Joshua Dunlap. Oct., Capt. Joshua Dunlap, Capt. William Dixon. 1786— May, Capt. Joshua Dunlap, Joseph Shepard. Oct., Gen'l John Douglas, Stephen Hall, Jr. 1787— May, Gen'l John Douglas, Joseph Shepard. Oct., Eph- raim Wheeler, Anthony Brad- ford. 1788 — May, Joseph Shepard, Ephraim Wheeler. Oct., Capt. Stephen Hall, Capt. Ebenezer Eaton. 1789 — May, Gen'l John Douglas, Capt. Stephen Hall, Jr. Oct., Jos- eph Shepard, Capt. William Dixon. 1790— May, Gen'l James Gordon, Joseph Shepard. Oct., Jona- than Hammet, Ebenezep Eaton. 1791 — May, Josiah Shepard, John Douglas. Oct., Joseph Shep- ard, Ebenezer Eaton. 1792— May, Joseph Shepard, John Pierce. Oct., James Bradford, Ebenezer Eaton. 1793— May, William Pierce, Timothy Lester. Oct., Jona. Hammet, William Pierce. 1794 — May, William Pierce, Jona- Hammett. Oct., Joshua Dun- lap, William Pierce. HISTORICAL PAPER BV JAMES L. GARDNER, M. D. 97 ndn—Miiy, William Pierce, Phineas Pierce. Oct., Stephen Hall, Jr., Calvin Goddard. 1796— May, Stephen Hall, Jr., Joshua Dunlap. Oct., Joshua Dun- lap, William Dixson. 1797— May, William Dixon, Ephrairn Wheeler. Oct., Calvin God- dard, Stephen Hall. 179S— May, Calvin Goddard, Stephen Hall, Jr. Oct., Calvin God- dard, Anthony Bradford. 1799— May, Calvin Goddard, Anthony Bradford. Oct., Joshua Dun- lap, William Dixson. ISOO— May, Calvin Goddard, Joshua Dunlap. Oct., Joshua Dunlap, Calvin Goddard. 1801— May, Calvin Goddard, Joshua Dunlap. Oct., Joshua Dunlap, William Dixson. 1802- May, Anthony Bradford, Eph- rairn Wheeler. Oct., Joshua Dunlap, Joseph Eaton. 1803- May, Joseph Shepard, Joseph Eaton. Oct., Jonathan Ham- mil, Joseph Eaton. 1804— May, William Pierce, Luther Smith. Oct., John Lester, Jer'h Kinsman. 1805— May, John Lester, Jeremiah Kinsman. Oct., Calvin God- dard, Joseph Eaton. 180&— May, Anthony Bradford, Joseph Eaton. Oct., Anthony Brad- ford, William Wheeler. 1S07— May, Calvin Goddard, John Douglass, Jr. Oct., William Harris, John Gallup. ISOS— May, John Gallup, Sessions Lester. Oct., Sessions Lestei-, Aaron Crary. 1809— May, Anthony Bradford, Ben- jamin Bacon. Oct., Joseph Eaton, Timothy Parkes. 1810- May, Joseph Eaton, Benjamin Bacon. Oct., John Gallup, Tim. Parkhurst. 1811— May, Sessions Lester, Luther Smith. Oct., William Hall, Elias Parkhurst. 1812— May, Joseph Eaton, Anthony Bradford. Oct., Joseph Eaton, Anthony Bradford. 1813— May, Joseph Eaton, Anthony Bradford. Oct., Joseph Eaton, Benjamin Bacon. 1814- May, Joseph Eaton, John Dun- lap. Oct., Siah Fuller, Ed- ward Clarke. 1815— May, Siah Fuller, Joseph Eaton, Oct., John Douglass, Sessions Lester. 1816— May, John Lester, Levi Robin- son. Oct., Philip Kinyon, Job Angell. ISir— May, John Lester, Lemuel Woodward. Oct., Sessions Lester, Philip Kenyon. ISIS— May, Sessions Lester, Oliver Coates. Oct., Oliver Coates, Erastus Lester. 1S19— May, Erastus Lester, Vincent Hinkley. 1820— Sessions Lester, Aaron Crary. 1821 — John Dunlap, Joseph Eaton. 1822— Joseph Eaton, Sessions Lester. 1823— John Dunlap, Isaac Knight. 1S24— Sessions Lester, Isaac Knight. 1825-— Sessions Lester, William Kinne. 1826— Joseph Eaton, John Dunlap. 1827 — Jeremiah Kinsman, Erastus Lester. 1828— Jonathan Goff, Joseph Eaton. 1829— Mowry Burgess, Vincent Hinkley. 1830— Joseph S. Gladding, Jonathan Goff. 1831— Joseph S. Gladding, Wm. H. Cogswell. 1S32— Lovell Cady, Amos Witter. 1833— Henry Angell. Joseph Eaton. 1834— Jonathan Goff, Isaac Knight. 1835 — Amos Witter, Erastus Lester. 1836— Francis B. Johnson, Jonathan Goff. 1837 — Sessions Lester, Benjamin Bacon. 1838- Arnold Penner, Nathaniel French. 1839— Luther Smith, William Dyer. 1840- Arnold Fenner, Elisha L. Fuller. 1S41— David Gallup, Cornell Monroe. 1842— Daniel Hill, Samuel Crary. 1843— John Gardner, James Miller. 1844— Jonathan Goff, Joseph C. Spaulding. 1845— Joseph Hutchins, George Ken- yon. 184C— George Cady. Mowry B. Spald- m.i 1847 •Amos Witter, Jr., Andrew C. Lester. 98 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. 1848— Augustus Prior, John S. French. 1819— Amos Witter, Jr., Elijah W. Curtis. 1850— David Gallup, Sanford Boyden. 1851- Hezekiah French, Caleb P. Wilson. 1852— Elisha L. Fuller, Samuel Humes. 1853— Albert Gordon, Thomas J. Gates. 1854 — William B. Ames, William Kenyon. 1855— W. C. Marple, Simon W. Millar. 1856— Archibald Fry, Frank S. Bur- gess. 1857— Job H. Cutter, Samuel D. Millett. 1S5S — Joseph Hutchins, Jr., Henry L. Wilson. 1859- Darius Wood, Elisha P. Hale. I860— William Shepard, Caleb Till- inghast. 1861— Charles Hinckley, Caleb Ben- nett. 1862— J. S. Atwood, David Gallup. 1863— David Gallup, J. M. Shepard. 1864— Jos. H. Gladding, David Gallup. 1865- David Gallup, J. P. Brown. 1866— David Gallup, Albert Austin. 1867 — Frank S. Burgess, Arnold Fen- ner. 1868- J. S. Atwood, Math. Olin. 1869— Isaac K. Cutler, David Geer. 1870— Henry S. Newton, John D. Rood. 1871— John L. Chapman, William S. Babcock. 1872 — Asher R. Herrick, Jr., Ephraim Browning. 1873- William A. Lewis, E. A. Atkine. 1874— H. C. Starkweather, Elisha P.. Hale. 1875 — Joseph Hutchins, George A.. Rouse. 1876 — Albert C. Greene, GurdonCady.. 1877 — David Gallup, Richard H.. Ward. 1878— Reuben Weaver, Silenus H.. Fellows. 1873- Walter Palmer, Merrill A. Ladd. 1880 — George Loring, John S.French,. 1881 — William S. Simmons, Roswell Ensworth. 1882 — Henry F. Newton, Havilah,. M. Prior. 1883— Albert B. Sprague, Willis D,. Rouse. 1884 — David Emerson, Edward E. Hill. 1885 — Philip Mathewson, Joseph. Hutchins. 1886— James M. Wilcox, Walter L. Palmer. 1887— Edwin Milner, Edward G^ Bugbee. 1889 — Sessions L. Adams, Milton J. Kingsley. 1891— Edwin Milner, George T. San- ger. 1893- Frank H. Tillinghast, George- T. Sanger. 1895— Amasa B. Taber, Lucius B. Morgan. 1897— Charles E. Barber, Walter- Kingsley. 1899— John W. Atwood, Moses A.. Linnell. THE CHURCHES OF PLAINFIELD. Rev. Henry T. Arnold. The ecclesiastical history of the town of Plainfield is the history of the organized religious effort of the Church of Christ within its. bounds. The history of religion here has been written, not with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of God upon the hearts of the many good men and women who have lived in the town. It lies behind the ecclesiastical history in which it has found more or less imperfect. C/J H O c: o X a " E THE CHURCHES OF PLAINFIELD. 99 expression. The records of church life are sometimes meagre, if not altogether wanting, and are devoted to matters which are often of little account for the historian. It is possible, however, to follow the course of ecclesiastical history from the origin of the town ; to see the early settlers assembling in the house of worship, the centre of their common life; to witness the forming of a second church towards the close of the first half century and after about twenty- five years its union with the old church ; to note the forming of a third church about the end of the century; and to greet the other churches of the town as they have come forward and taken their place within the present century. The First Church of Christ in Plainfield, then Quinebaug plan- tations, was organized January 3, 1705. The people of the town, which included Canterbury and Plainfield, had held religious serv- ices from time to time since the first settlers came, about 1650, some- times meeting on the east of the Quinebaug, sometimes on the west. There were few families — about thirty — and not all of them were religious ; but at the first town-meeting, May 31, 1699, provision was made for the regular ministration of the gospel, while as yet there was no church and no meeting-house. It was then voted "to give Rev. Mr. Coit a call for one-quarter of a year for ten pounds." He accepted the invitation, and remained tO' see a meet- ing-house built and a church organized and he served as its pastor for a period of forty-nine years. The spirit and purpose of the set- tlers will be seen in an agreement, which was adopted by them at a meeting held November 13, 1699, and was signed by 37 names, many of which are still borne here by their descendents : "Whereas we, the inhabitants living on the east and west sides of Quinebaug river, did last Alay petition the General Court of this colony that we might be according to law incorporate and have town powers and privileges granted to us, the which the General Court were pleased to grant unto us, and now that we might rightly and truly improve the loyal and reasonable privileges granted to us, so that it may be for the honor and glory of the Lord. our God and for the good and comfort of us and our children's children, we, the subscribers, do by these presents formally oblige ourselves, our lOO PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, to maintain an able, faithful, orthodox gospel minister, so that the same worship of God may be at all times upheld and maintained amongst us, and, as to the way of raising this and all other just and necessary town charges, that it be done justly and equally according to each one's just proportion, in such a way and manner as the major part of us, the subscribers, agree on, or according to the law of the colony — always provided that a suitable and honorable maintenance be taken care of for the minister. "We do agree that a suitable allotment and accommodations be laid out for the minister that God in his holy providence shall settle among us ; that there shall be an allotment or accommoda- tions laid out in some suitable place to be and remain for the minister forever.' "Though duty to God and the wholesome laws of the colony would oblige to a thorough care in the education of our children, yet it being found by experience that there is some too great re- missness in parents and others, and also difficulty in sending so re- mote one from another, but that we might be truly endeavoring to do in this matter as God shall enable, we do agree that the townsmen do yearly take special care in this matter. "In testimony of the premises, witness our hands, November 13, 1699. "James Fitch. Joseph Spalding. * Stephen Hall. Thomas Stephens. Nathaniel Jewell. William Douglass. Thomas Williams. Thomas Pierce. Jacob Warren. Henry Walbridge. John Spalding. Obadiah Johnson. Robert Green. Josiah Cleveland. Matthias Button. Samuel Adams. Thomas Brooks. Tixhall Ensworth. Benjamin Rood. Isaac Shepard. James Deane. Samuel Shepard, Daniel Woodward. John Fellows. Richard Adams. John Smith. William Marsh. Edward Baldwin. Joshua Whitney. Joseph Parkhurst, William Johnson. John Deane. Benjamin Spalding. Samuel Howe. James Kingsbury. Peter Crary." Samuel Cleveland. THE CHURCHES OF PLAINFIELD. lOi A meeting-house was build in 1702 on the top of Black Hill; and after seven years of what we should call frontier life, guards being placed of a Sunday about the meeting-house to protect the people from a sudden attack of the Indians, the house was "finished," and every householder in town was required to give to the widow Samans "one peck of Indian corn a year in consideration for her to sweep the meeting-house; so long as she doth it, the corn to be carried to her." Meantime, in 1705, the church had begun its existence which now for nearly 200 years has been as a pillar and ground of the truth in this town. There were ten members when the church was organized, January 3, 1705; there are now eighty- four. In the history of the First Church of Christ in Plainfield there have been times of depression and seasons of revival and steady progress. In 1820 seventy-one persons were received into the church and several years have marked the admission of a score or more. With the gift to other churches and other places of many valued members, the first church has never been very large. A progress of the church in doctrinal statements may be traced from the Saybrook platform of 1708 of the Established Colonial Church to the creed of 1768, in accord with the older and more Con- gregational Cambridge platform as advocated by the Separatists, and then to the 22 articles of the creed of 181 1, and the 13 articles of ^^33> and, finally, in the present simple and comprehensive confes- sion in accord with Congregational standards. In 1720 the church moved from Black Hill to a more central position on the turnpike, "a. few miles north of the house where Blodget dwells," says the record, "by the country road that goes from north to south end of the town." Blodget dwelt where Henry Dorrance now lives. But that church, after 60 years of use, became old and was abandoned, services being temporarily held in the brick school-house on the corner near Evergreen cemetery. In 1784, December 22, the very year in which the academy was chartered in the noble pursuit of learning, the church entered into a new meeting-house half a mile south of the former, built by free contributions, and used during the ministry of Rev. Joel Benedict, D. D. This building was blown down in the September gale of 181 5 on the 23d day of the I02 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. month. But at once a beautiful stone church was built by the society and completed early in 1819, upon the same spot, that generations to come might there worship the God of their fathers. It has this year been enriched with an elegant organ, the gift of Charles W. and Isabella B. Pratt, in memory of their mother, Mrs. Sarah B. Pratt. The venerable old place called the Wing house, built in 1720, or soon after, was the parsonage occupied by Dr. Bene- dict, who was a learned divine, an able teacher and beloved pastor. The present pastor's home, a short distant south of the church, was made into a parsonage in 1867. To this has now been joined a hand- some library building, opened July i, 1899, a memorial of Dr. Benedict, on whose stone, in the old burying ground not far away may be read the words, "The good man needs no eulogy ; his memorial is in heaven." He left certain books for the use of the pastor and the church. These have been largely augmented by the gift of the late Prof. William Kinne of this place and church, who gave to its representatives, both his library and the building in which the books are placed, together with a fund for maintaining the library in time to come. Among these books is the Hebrew Bible of Samson Occom, the famous Indian preacher, thus linking together the early history of the Colony in which the Indians played so important a part and received so eagerly from the mis- sionary, the gospel of salvation, and our present life when we may take from the shelves of a fine library the Bible of Occom, or with the antiquary may trace out the old stones in yonder Indian burying ground. The pastors of the church have been : Joseph Coit, 1699-1748; David Rowland, 1748-1761 ; John Fuller, 1769-1777; Joel Benedict, 1784-1816; Orrin Fowler, 1820-1831 ; Samuel Rockwell, 1832-1841 ; Andrew Dunning, 1842-1847; Henry Robinson, 1847-1856; William A. Benedict, 1857-1863; Joshua L. Maynard, 1 864-1 865 ; James D. Moore, 1867-1868; William Phipps, 1869-1876; Asher H. Wilcox, 1876-1883; Abram J. Quick, 1883-1887; Henry T. Arnold, 1887 t^ the present time. By the laws of the Colony every citizen, with few exceptions, was bound to pay taxes for the support of the church, and it was THE CHURCHES OF PLAINI'IELL). I03 largely through the controversies of the Separatists or Dissenters, that sucli taxation was finally abolished. The Separatists, who were branded as New Lights, were partly the fruit of the religious awakening of 1741, and subsequent years, and partly the promoters of religious excitement and revival as well as the advocates of the earlier Congregational order. Their preachers or evangelists, going from church to church, became unacceptable to many oi the churches and to the government of the Colony, and were often excluded from the pulpits. The result was that new churches were formed. There sprang up in Plainfield a Separate Church, organ- ized in 1746. They ordained one of their own number, Thomas Stephens, as their first pastor, and built a meeting-house, the foun- dations of which may still be seen in a strawberry patch on the right on the Corey Bridge road, a little north of the railroad crossing, near the home now occupied by James S. Miller, not far from Evergreen cemetery. Probably the house referred to is the oldest in town. Alexander Miller succeeded as pastor about 1758. Their numbers grew until the greater part of the people of the town favored their views. In 1760 two ecclesiastical societies were authorized, the old one to have two-thirds of the yearly rate, the Separate to have one-third. But in 1766 they returned to the old church near Blodget's with new light for all, and in 1769 the parish tax was abolished, and all were united in the First Church. The First Baptist Church in Plainfield was organized October 16, 1792. The original articles of faith are similar to those of the Congregational Church, excepting article 10, which relates to im- mersion. These were signed by the nineteen members : John Burgess. Luranah Burges. Josiah Corey. Leuranah Moredock. George Moredock. Dorcas Burgees. Ezra Bennet. Bathsheba Price. William Lewen. Triphenah Shepard. John Miller. Susanna Hall. Robert Taylor. Alice Hall. Nathan Burges. Peggy Warren. William Pierce. Elisabeth Brown. Gideon Burges. 104 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. The first pastor was Nathaniel Cole, pastor from 1792 to 1833, a period of 41 years. He was the contemporary of Dr. Benedict, for nearly a quarter of a century. For six years the church seem, to have met at Pond Hill school-house, and it is not till September,. 1798, that a church meeting at the meeting-house is recorded. Tliat historic structure was on the corner west of the pond, on the Corey Bridge road near John Smith's, and came to be known as Elder Cole's meeting--house, a place of many precious associations in Christian experience. After the lapse of thirty or forty years we find the people sometimes meeting at Elder Cole's house, or with one of the brethren, or at Pond Hill school-house. But September 7, 1840, it was voted, "that the meetings on the Sabbath be held at the meeting-house in Union Village the ensuing year. That was. just south of what is now Moosup, in a neighborhood called Union. The church was the old Separate meeting-house moved from the corner near Evergreen cemetery, and known as the South meeting- house, or the Union meeting-house, and sometimes called Union Factory meeting-house. A new and commodious house of wor- ship, the present meeting-house, on the street west of the river was dedicated, January 5, 1843, notwithstanding the fact that at a church meeting held at Pond Hill school-house, June 18, 1840, it was voted "That this church is hereby dissolved." The church had been re-organized as the Union Plainfield Baptist Church. In 1867 the house was raised up and a vestry was put under it; and in 1882, after further improvements, it was re-dedicated to the serv- ice of God. The church has grown in numbers to about 200, and in usefulness. During the pastorate of 22 years of Rev. J. P. Brown, one of the speakers at the bicentennial, 305 persons were added to the church. The pastors have been Nathaniel Cole, C. S. Weaver, Chester Tilden, Thomas Barber, John Read, James Smither, Frederick Carlton, J. P. Brown, G. F. Raymond, M. J. Goff, F. B. Joy, C. B. Rockwell, L. W. Frink, J. N. Shipman,, Robert Pegrum, George Kinne, S. W. Delzell, and at present, Elisha Sanderson. In the early history of the town there were one or two. Quakers, or friends, who were released from the ecclesiastical tax„ THE CHURCHES OF PLAINFIELD. I05 by reason of a certificate of membership from a society of their own order. About 1807 a number of Quakers came into town^ among" them enterprising men engaged in manufacturing. They longed for the quiet meeting to which they were accustomed, and soon after 1805 organized a Society of Friends, and built a meet- ing-house on Black Hill, near the top, on the road leading ta Lucius B. Morgan's. With the passag'e of time and its changes the building, brown with age, with its quaint hopper roof, has dis- appeared, and nothing remains but the old gate to tell of the good people who once went up to that hallowed spot. No one presided over them after the manner of the assemblies of other people ;^^ "Christ only," in the language of William Penn, "being their pres- ident, as he was pleased to appear in life and wisdom to anyone or more of them." The Methodist Episcopal Church in Plainfield began its history in 1825, when it was included in the Norwich circuit, though, before 1800, preachers were sent here and occasional services were- held. At first, the church met in the old Separate meeting-house on the corner near Evergreen cemetery for occasional services under the joint pastorate of Benjamin Hazelton and Onesiphorus Robbins. The first class was formed June 16, 1826, by Benjamin Hazelton. In 1829 the church was united to the Thompson circuit. Three years later there were 13 members. There are now about 150 After the great revival of 1842 the church gave up to Danielson- ville 65 members, the beginning of a large church there. That same year they purchased of the Separatists, or their successors,, the old meeting-house which had been removed to Union Village. A new church was built in 1871, a little further up the river and' was dedicated, February i, 1872, during the pastorate of Rev Lewis E. Dunham. A few years after, in 1877, a commodious parsonage was built adjacent to the church. The occasional de- pression in business in Moosup has affected the life of the church.. But seasons of refreshing from the Lord have frequently been en- joyed, and in 1875, during a powerful revival, 87 joined the class. In 1832, when Plainfield circuit was formed, there were 23 in the class. The pastors of the church have been numerous since tlie lo6 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. time of Hazelton and Robbins. It was under the pastorate of Rev. A. B. Wheeler that the first meeting--house was bought, March 24, 1842, the old Separate church. The new church, at present occupied, was dedicated a few weeks before the close of the pastorate of Mr. Dunham. Subsequent pastors have been : E. M. Anthony, W. W. Ellis, George W. Hunt, E. J. Avers. R. D. Dyson, F. A. Crafts, John McVay, George H. Butler, Edward P. Phraener, Frederick C. Baker, and John Oldham, now pastor. The Packerville Baptist Church was organized in October, 1828, with 21 members, and Rev. Levi Kneeland was ordained pastor. During his pastorate of about six years the church re- ■ceived 316 members. The people were ready for a church. Daniel Packer, who had settled in the place in 1825 and was engaged in manufacturing, greatly promoted the cause of religion. In the summer of 1829 a suitable meeting-house was built, a fine lot for church buildings and a cemetery having been given by Joseph Farnum. Mr. Packer also built a good parsonage and before his death gave the property to the church. His son, Elisha Packer, has been a friend and helper to the church. In 1875 a fine chapel was built near the meeting-house. An interesting account of the church is to be found in the Plainfield Souvenir, written by Rev. A. A. Robinson, who has ministered to the church for the past twelve years, a venerable and beloved pastor. The pastors have l)een : Tubal Wakefield, Martin Byrne, Daniel D. Lyon, Silas Hall, John B. Guild, Alfred Gates, John Paine, Percival Mathew- son, George B. Northrup, Warren N. W^alden, O. B. Rawson, J. F. Temple, A. A. Robinson. In June, 1865, the church ordained as an evangelist, Lucian Burleigh, a life-long school-master, and for a time preceptor of Plainfield Academy. The Central Village Congregational Church was organized, April 15, 1846, the North Plainfield Ecclesiastical Society having been formed in 1845. Forty-five persons were dismissed from the first church to constitute the new plant. These people had for sometime been meeting in the old brick school-house, a little south of the village, but were preparing a house of their own, and dedi- cated their church in January, 1846, Rev. Orrin Fowler, then of THE CHURCHES OF PLAINFIELD. IO7 Fall River, Mass., coming- to preach the sermon. The church has walked in fellowship with the old church from which it sprung and has proved itself a planting of the Lord. In 1896 it observed the semi-centennial anniversary under the pastorate of Rev. C. M. Lord, who has given a graphic account of the church in a pamph- let devoted to the anniversary occasion. The pastors of the church, which now numbers about 80 members, have been: Jared O. Knapp, James Bates, William E. Barrett, George Hall, Paul Couch, George Huntington, J. R. Barnes, J. D. Moore, G. J. Tillotson, John Avery, John Marsland, W. B. Clark, Asher H. Wilcox, Dighton Moses, George H. Morss, Orlando M. Lord, Henry C. Crane. The Congregational Church in Wauregan was organized June 17, 1856. For two or three years meetings for prayer had been held from house to house, and a Sabbath school had been formed in 1854, which has met continuously since that hopeful beginning. A hall was built in 1855 for public worship, the first sermon being preached by Rev. G. J. Tillotson, of Brooklyn, Conn., and January i, 1856, Rev. Charles L. Ayer was engaged by the Wau- regan Mills to minister statedly to the people. At the organiza- tion of the church there were 10 members. The sermon was preached by Rev. George Soaile, of Hampton, from the text, i Tim. 3:15, "The church of the living God." The church in Wauregan, the Pleasant Valley of the Indians, has grown to about 76 members. The way in which God has led his people there is told in valuable historic discourses preached by the present pastor, Silenus H. Fellows, in the centennial year of our land and on occasion of the 25th and the 38th anniversary of the church. In 1872 the Wauregan Company appropriated $10,000 for a church building. The corner stone was laid May 10, 1873, and the beautiful church was dedicated, January 29, 1874, Rev. Daniel Merriman preaching the sermon from Acts 4:32. About five years ago a handsome parsonage was built near the church. In a place where the popula- tion is continually changing, this church has exerted a most bene- iicent influence. The pastors have been: C. L. Ayer, 1856-1858; Io8 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. E. F. Brooks, 1858-1859; S. H. Fellows, December 19, 1859 to the present. The Roman Catholic Church in AIoosup, All Hallows Church, w^as formed in 1859. In common with other manufacturing towns- of Eastern Connecticut, the passage of years has brought to the town of Plainfield a steady and rapid increase in its Catholic popula- tion. The first Catholic residents of whom there are any record were two Irish families who settled in Almyville where the old mill was built about sixty years ago. Their mumber was slowly in- creased by the coming of others, until about 1840, when the first mass was said in a dwelling house at Almyville by a priest who had come from Worcester for that purpose: occasional services were held during the following years. In 1859 the Bishop of the Dio- cese commissioned the Rev. Michael McCabe, of Danielsonville,. to found a permanent parish at Moosup. Land was at once purchased, a church was built and in the spring of i860 was dedi- cated to the service of God. The first resident pastor was the Rev, P. B. Daley, who then had within his jurisdiction not only the town of Plainfield, but also Sterling and other neighboring towns. In 1870 the number of Catholics had so increased in the Waure- gan section of the town that a church was built in that village in West Wauregan, in Brooklyn. It was attended from the Moosup Church until 1889, when it was made an independent parish. The old parochial residence at Moosup was destroyed bv fire in May, 1893, and the present handsome residence was erected in its stead. The number of Catholics has growm from the thirty who- attended the first service to about 2.700 souls, 1.500 at Moosup, and 1,200 at Wauregan. The church has prospered, says the Rev. Father Broderick, both spiritually and materially ; the old church has been renovated, the grounds beautified, and additional land bought in the rear of the church ; and this spring a fine tract of ten acres was bought on the Danielson road to be used for ceme- tery purposes. The Catholics of Plainfield look forv^^ard to the time when a new and larger edifice shall replace the present in- adequate structure. The Wauregan mission improved and beautified its church building during Father Creedon's pastorate, at Moosup, and since it became an independent parish, a parochial residence has been built, a good water supply put in, a new cemetery opened and THE CHURCHES OF PLAIx\FIELD. 109 the entire property of Sacred Heart Church improved. The history •of Cathohcity in Watireg-an has been given in the Plainfield Sou- venir by Rev. A. O'Keefe. Since the organization of the Moosup Churcli, the following clergymen have had successive charge of the parish : P. B. Daley, J. J. McCabe, James Quinn, F. Belanger, J. F. Quinn, D. Des- mond, P. M. Kennedy, J. A. Creedon, J. H. Broderick, the present incumbent to whom this sketch is largely due. Rev. A. O'Keefe was the first resident pastor of the Wauregan parish, and continues in that office, his pastorate dating from May 20, 1889. Thus these churches have taken their place and part in the history of the town, each worshipping God after its own order, and all striving for one and the same thing — the promotion of the kingdorft of God, which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The ninety-two or more pastors named here who have tended these several flocks under the one Shepherd, have most of them passed to their account, but their work continues and the churches •continue. Among them were men eminent for devoted piety and sound scholarship. The history of Plainfield Academy, which is yet to be written, records their frequent services as rectors and teachers, their unwearied efforts in the cause of education, and their just pride in the noble influence of that school to which ■every speaker and every paper here has made reference. The military history ol the town recounts the services of these pastors in times of peril and of war, and tells us that some of them went to the field of bloody strife, to the sick and the wounded, bearing the message of comfort and salvation. The following have been named as ministers raised up in Plain- field, but doubtless there are others : Thomas Stephens. ' John D. Perkins. Josiah Whitney, D. D. George Perkins. Josiah Spalding. Richard H. Benedict. Elijah Parish, D. D. Evan M. Johnson. Alfred Johnson. George Shepard, D. D. Jonathan Kinne. Edward J. Fuller. Thomas Andros. Lucian Burleigh. William F. Rowland. Cyrus Marsh. Ariel Parish. no PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. PLAINFIELD'S MILITARY RECORD. Charles F. Burgess and Frank H. Tillinghast. In the stirring series of events which have marked the growth and advancement of New England, the town of Plainfield has^ during her two hundred years of existence, well and honorably borne her part. Of the early struggles and conflicts with the aborigines the records partake largely of tradition, and even when we come to later times and more authentic sources of informa- tion only a passing glance can be given at the principal events, in the limited space allotted to this chapter. In the Indian War of 1704 the inhabitants of Plainfield bravely so'Ug'ht to defend their homes, and pains were taken to keep favor with the friendly Quinebaugs. A train band was formed with Thos. Williams for ensign and Samuel Howe for sergeant, and guard-houses and scouts were maintained, equipped, and supplied with ammunition. Guards were stationed about the meeting-house on Sunday and watch-houses were maintained in exposed parts of the town. In 1756 certain French prisoners of war were billeted upon the town. These were some of the neutral inhabi- tants of Acadia who had been torn from their homes and native country after the conquest of Nova Scotia by the English and were now distributed among the towns of New England. Forty- three of these unhappy Acadians were assigned to^ Windham Coun- ty, but Plainfield was the only town that officially and publicly made provisions for them. In 1769 Timothy Pierce, of Plainfield, is named as among the "heroic forty" adventurous Yankees who descended upon the "Pennymites" at Wyoming. Among Plainfield men, prominent in the French and Indian War, were Ezekiel Pierce, Benjamin Lee and Isaac Coit, wha was given the rank of captain. The latter led a volunteer com- pany from Windham County directly after the capture of Fort William Henry by Montcalm. Captain Israel Putnam's second company was largely made up of Plainfield men. In the great struggle of the American Revolution, Plainfield PLAINFIELD S MILITARY RECORD. Ill was a prominent and honored participant. A brigade training at Plainfield in 1773 is especially memorable for inciting the first spark of military enthusiasm in Nathaniel Greene, who after- wards won high rank among revolutionary commanders. On the passage of the Boston Port Bill, in June, 1774, the people were aflame with indignation, and sympathetic words for the suffering inhabitants of Boston were followed by helpful gifts, Plainfield sending her flocks of fine sheep and appointing a committee to receive subscriptions for the common cause. In 1775, April 19th, the historic Lexington alarm found the people of this town in a way prepared and they needed but little stimulus tO' move to the relief of Boston. The contribution of Plainfield for the first alarm consisted of' 54 men, under Captain Andrew Backus, Ensign Abraham Shepard and Joshua Bottom ; many of the men who went out on the first alarm were mustered into the Third regiment, of which Israel Putnam was colonel. Associations were formed in many places throughout the colonies under the title of Sons of Liberty, and such an association was formed at Plainfield. Beacon lights, on many of the lofty hills, served as signals by which they communicated with each other. On the evening of June 6th, the beacon light on Shepard's. hill was seen streaming heavenward, a signal for the Sons of Liberty to assemble at Simon Shepard's residence, their headquar- ters, located where the Plainfield almshouse now stands. On the following day a horseman drove up to the assembly headquarters at breakneck speed. The man, says J. S. McGregor,, in his "Reminiscences of Ancient Plainfield," was greatly exhausted and was taken from his horse and carried into the house. The dispatch was directed to John McGregor and read as follows : "Boston, June 6th, 1775. "Captain John McGregor, "Dear Sir :— "Forward your men to Boston as soon as possible. They will be needed soon. "Your Friend, "Israel Putnam." '112 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. The following night was a sleepless one for Plainfield, and ■early the next morning the Sons of Liberty left home and wound their way over hills and through valleys until they reached Boston. On the 9th this little band of patriots filed into one of the redoubts where Putnam was waiting to receive them. On the 17th they took an active part in the battle of Bunker Hill and some of these men served until Washington disbanded his army. The old sword which Capt. John McGregor had pre'sented to him by the Sons of Liberty is in possession of J. S. McGregor. Upon the first authorized call for troops the Sixth regiment, Col. Parson's, recruited from New London, Hartford and Middle- sex Counties. The sixth company of this regiment was formed from Plainfield. Captain, Waterman Clifts ; First Lieutenant, Wm. Edwards ; Second Lieutenant, John McGregor ; Ensign, Nathaniel Morgan ; five sergeants, four corporals, eighty-one privates, one drummer, two fifers. This company remained on duty at New Lon- don until June 17th, when it was ordered by the Governor's Council, to Boston Camps, where it took post at Roxbury and remained until •expiration of term of service, December loth, 1775. We find the following Plainfield men : In Tenth Continentals, First Lieutenant John McGregor and Ensign Lemuel Clifts; in Seventeenth Continentals, Ensign Anthony Bradford ; in Twen- tieth Continentals, Col. Durkee and Capt. Wills Clifts. In the Eighth regiment, of which Jedidiah Huntington, of Nor- wich, was colonel, John Douglass, of Plainfield, was lieutenant colo- nel, and was also captain of the second company. In June, i777' he was promoted to general, which position he held, being on active ■duty during the war. In the Third and Fourth regiments. Continental Line, we find the following Plainfield men : Wills Clift, major Third regiment ; Fourth regiment, Captain John McGregor, commissioned January 1st, 1777; retired January ist, 1781. The latter regiment was recruited mainly from Windham and -New London Counties. It went into camp at Peekskill in the spring plainfield's military record. 113 of 1777, engag-ed in the battle of Germantown, and wintered at Valley Forge, '77- 7^- In the formation of the Third and Fourth regiments, in 1781, this town was represented by Major Wills Clift, Capt. Simon Spald- ing, and Capt. Lemuel Clifts, whose company helped form a bat- talion and was attached to Lafayette Light division at the siege of Yorktown. In the famous Connecticut Cincinnati Society, Capt. Simon Spalding was the only original member from this town. The system of enrollment throughout the war was very imper- fect, but there is every reason to believe that the town of Plainfield fulfilled every requisition. Of fifteen hundred men raised by Con- necticut, in May, 1780, for the Southern Campaign, Plainfield furnished sixteen. It was resolved at the special session of the Legislature, in April, 1775, that three thousand stand of arms be procured for the colony of the following dimensions, to wit : "The length of the barrel three feet and ten inches ; the diameter of the bore from inside to inside three-quarters of an inch ; the length of the bayonet fourteen inches, the length of the socket four inches and one-quarter, that the barrels be of suitable thickness with iron ramrods and a spring in the lowest loop to secure the ramrods ; a good substantial lock and a good stock well mounted with brass and marked with the name or initial letters of the makers' name." Col. Records, Vol. XIV., p. 420. At the May session, the rations of the troops was fixed as follows : "Three-fourths of a pound of pork or one pound of beef; one pound of bread or fiour ; three pints of beer to each man per day ; beef to be fresh two days in a week ; also a half pint of rice or a pint of Indian meal ; six ounces of butter and three pints of peas or beans each man per week. Soldiers on fatigue duty were to be allowed one gill of rum each per day and at no other time. Milk, candles, soap, molasses, vinegar, coffee, chocolate, sugar, tobacco and vegetables in season, were to be provided, subject to the order of general and field officers." The ranks of officers in 1775 was distinguished by different 114 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. colored ribbons, which they were directed to wear. Troops were generally without uniform. The regimental colors, in 1775, of the Sixth regiment, was azure ; Eighth regiment, orange. In the regular army — War of 1812 — Square Cady and Stephen Bennett went from this town. Mr. Bennett's widow living on Black Hill is still a pensioner of this war. Her husband entered the war at 19 years of age ; was drafted into the service at first and after- wards went as a substitute for Emerson Kinne. Martin Herrick and Leonard Pickett also- were engaged in this war, from Plain- field, with many others, whose names are difficult to obtain. In the Mexican War, in 1846, the following Plainfield men went out in the regular army : Silas Bailey, John H. Roadman, Nelson Viall, Justus K. Watson, Nathan Weaver and William H. Whitford. In the Third company. Second regiment, George Middleton was captain and Elkanah Eaton first lieutenant. In the Civil War this town bore her part of the burden nobly and well. Space does not permit us to go further into details than to give the following names of Plainfield men whO' sacrificed the comforts of home in the hour of their country's need : SECOND REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Rifle Co. A— Charles Wheatley. THIRD REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. D — Ambrose B. Rice. FIRST SQUADRON, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, CAVALRY. Co. A— William Card, Henry S. Tillinghast. FIRST REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, CAVALRY. Co. A — Corporals: Henry Lester, James Case. Private: Chas. K. Har- graves. Co. D— Serg-eant: Edwin A. Atkins. Co. E— Corporal: Washing^ton J. Gadbois. Co. H— Nicholas Boiselle, Lawrence Gilich. Co. I— Sergeant: Francis J. Perkins. Quartermaster Sergeant: Andrew R. Tracy. Co. K— Wallace L. Slater. FIRST LIGHT BATTERY, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS. Private: Welcome E. Watson. plainfield's military record. 115 first regiment, connecticut volunteers, HEAVY ARTILLERY. Co. A— John Branan. Co. D— Sergeant: Henry Hall. Musician: Chas. A. Potter. Privates: Luther L. Denison, Chas. West. Co. E— Henry C. Mathewson, Joseph Medbury. Co. F— Jeremiah Sullivan. Co. G— Henry Burlingame, Wm. H. Burlingame, Samuel H. Donovan, Patrick Mulgrove, Edward Sweet, Calvin A. Bowers. Co. I— George Gardner. Co. K — James Fanning, Frank Potter, Henry E. Rouse. FIFTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. B— Eleazer Bordaux. Co. C— Peter Farrell, Hugh McGahey, Wm. McLaughlin. Co. E— Edwin C. Hargraves. Corporals: Edward Keene, Daniel H. Matteson. Co. G— Musician: John H. Scran ton. Privates: Lucius Place, Samuel Place, Henry Arnt. Co. H— Musician: John H. Bennett. Privates: Henry Kochler, William Holt, Benjamin A. Hyde, Perry A. Hyde, Henry Stafford, James H. McCaffrey, Henry J. Parkhurst, George A. Rouse, Alonzo Pierce, Barnum S. Rouse, Frank Sweiked, Albert Stafford, Hiram Sweet, Geo. E. Weaver, John Young, 1st, John Young, 2d. Co. I— Henry Lester. Co. K— Sergeant: Henry E. Hollo way. Privates: Lorenzo Church, Henry Fitzgerald. SIXTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. A— Musician: Albert Kenyon. First Sergeant: Patrick Dillin. Hugh McChine, Hugh McChine, Jr., James Mycue, John Reynolds, Michael O'Brien. Co. B — John Munroe. SEVENTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. H— George Shay, John Sullivan, Daniel Sullivan, Daniel Shay, Miles Shay. Co. K— Daniel J. Phillips. EIGHTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. A— Ellas F. Wilson. Co. C— Wm. Montgomery. Co. F— Captain: Elijah Y. Smith. Second Lieutenant: Jeremiah M. Shepard. Sergeants: Wm. S. Simmons, Albert Austin, George A. Rouse, Joseph D. Lewis. Cor- porals: Frank Trask, Samuel Lewis, Fred K. Stanton, Edgar G. Tillottson. Privates: George M. Dean, Barnett Duffey, George Fisk, John Foley, Michael Fenton, David H. Kennedy, George W. Cook, William W. Clark, Henry McDaniels, Wm. Moffitt, Asil Mann, John O'Neil, Adelbert Perkins, Jeremiah Pierce, Chas. A. Potter, Horace G. Rouse, Davenport Simmons, Abraham Tillottson, George H. Young, Gilbert T. Perkins. Co. I— Reuben S. Matterson. ELEVENTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Field and Staff— Colonel: Randall H. Rice. Quartermaster: AJbert Austin. Assistant Surgeon: Charles H. Rogers. Co. B— Second Lieutenant: Il6 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Albert Austin. Co. C — Sergeant: Waldo F. Raynsford. Co. D — Corporal: Lyman W. Armstrong. Privates: Adford Bates, Henry Button, Wm. H. Cole, John Peckham, Stephen Peckham. Co. F — Russel C. Andrews, Henry N. Collins, David Tillottson. Co. G — Captains: Wm. J. Hyde, Randall H. Rice. Sergeants: John H. Irish, Alfred West. Co. G — Corporals: William Ames, Chas. A. Douglass, Welcome Montgomery, Chas. Newton, Richard B. Nickerson, Frederick A. Read. Privates: Calvin A. Bowen, William H. Cole, James Conners, Erastus Dean, Barnett Duffey, Willis A. Hall, Henry Hemmick, George H. Heflin, John Hilton, Albert H. Kennedy, John McBay, Daniel Millikin, Thomas Mullan, Isaac B. Simmons, Emery H. Tyler. Co. H — Davis Battey, John Ferguson. Co. I — George T. Barnsted. TWELFTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. A — Corporal: John Burdick. Co. D — Wm. Campbell, Jared F. Weaver. Co. H — Patrick Rogers. Co. K — Corporals: Wm. Harney, 2d, Wm. Harney, 1st. THIRTEENTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. E — Sergeants: Stephen R. Peavey, Manchester Fuller, Wm. F. Roberts, Fernandez H. Tyler, Thomas Wilde. FOURTEENTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. A — Henry Brown, Frederick Tanner. Co. E — Corporal: Sanford Bugbee. Co. F — Jeremiah Sullivan. EIGHTEENTH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS. INFANTRY. Co. B — Sergeant: William A. Trask. Privates: Chas. Campbell, Hugh McLaughlin, William H. Pike, Adelbert Trask, James Watson. Co. D — Mitchell Bradley. Co. F— Russel M. Brown. Co. I — Corporals: Livi C. Bliss, Henry Frink, Wm. H. Bliss, Miner Robbins, Solomon Stanton. Co. K — Sergeants: Reuben W. Scott, Walter S. Young, Jerome B. Cahoone, James L. Adams. Corporals: Oliver W. Champlin, Charles Reynolds. Musician: Daniel Pray. Co. K— Privates: John Hughes, Denison P. Jordon, Wm. H. H. Leavens, Reuben A. Pike, John Pike, Wm W. Sweet, Albert D. Trask, George R. Hall, William J. Hyde, Michael Hopkins, Albert F. Shepardson, James A. Taylor, Edward Brady. TWENTIETH REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. F — James Kelley. PLAINFIELD S MILITARY RECORD. 117 TWENTY-FIRST REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Field and Staff— First Assistant Surg-eon: Lewis E. Dixon. Non-Com- Wiissioned Staff— Principal Musicians: Albert B. Scranton, Elijah J. Scranton. Co. E— Alexander Bliss, George E. Bliss. Co. H— Captain: George W. Shepard. Co. I— Second Lieutenant: George Walker. Privates: Hobert H. Rood,, Charles T. Green, Frank Hawkins. Co. K— Captain: Jeremiah M. Shepard. First Lieutenant: John F. French. Second Lieu- tenants: Harry L. Wilson, John L. Shepard. Sergeants: Henry S. Call, Ag-ustus Shepardson, George W. Shepard, William F. Walker. Corporals: Rufus S. Dixon, George Preston, Willis D. Rouse, James K. Watson, John A. Wells. Musicians: Albert B. Scranton, Elijah J. Scranton. Privates: Christopher Lyon, Thomas Maryott, Adam Thatcher, Edward G. Bennett, Xiucius H. Bushnell, Chas. C. Card, Chas. H. Chapman, Wm. H. Cole, Daniel Danforth, Aaron W. Eldredge, John W. Fisk, John M. Freeman, James Galvin, James Ireland, Erastus Kinne, George Leary, Andrew Morraty, Henry F. Newton, Benjamin Nye, James W. Phillips, Ephraim Pickett, William Pickett, Nehemiah Potter, John F. Rix, Edwin G. Shepard- son, Amos Shippee, Reuben Spalding, Benjamin Starkweather, Wilcott Strong, Edward Sweet, Nathaniel P. Thompson, Clovis Wakefield, Isaac Whitaker, Zachariah Whitehead, George E. Young. TWENTY'-SIXTH regiment, CONNECTICUT A^OLUNTEERS, INFANTRY. Co. G — Albert J. Burlingame. TWENTY-NINTH (COLORED) REGIMENT. Co. A— Henry McKeney. Co. H— Wm. H. Brown, 1st. Co. I— Joseph P, iBrown. PLAINFIELD MEN IN REGULAR ARMY. Lawton N. Brown, U. S. Signal Corps. William C. Foster, Eighth Infantry, U. S. A. THE FOLLOWING MEN FROM THIS TOWN ENLISTED IN OTHER STATES: Tenth Rhode Island, Light Battery— William Almy, Alphonso Bennett, Henry A. Boss, Elijah D. Collins, James Ci'ook, James Curran, Michael J. Fagan, Patrick Kelley, Francis Perkins, Oliver A. Potter. First Rhode Island, Light Artillery. Battery A— Henry F. Clark. Fourth Rhode Island, Artillery. Co. A— Daniel H. Cobb. First Rhode Island, Light Artillery. Co. B— Michael Kean. Co. E— Edward McCaffi'ey. Co. C— Prank E. Montgomery, Henry A. Preston. Third Rhode Island, Heavy Artillery— Joseph R. Hall. First Rhode Island, Cavalry. Co. F— Russel Madison. Fourth Rhode Island, Infantry. Co. A— Samuel Ames, Benjamin Jordon. Co. D — James Rigney. First Rhode Island, Infantry. Co. G— Justus K. Watson. Twelfth Rhode Island, Infantry. Co. A— Alexander Cole. Co. H— Aaron 'W. Eldrich. Co. K— Edward Macomber. Il8 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. IN THE AMERICAN-SPANISH WAR Plainfield was represented in Co. F, Third Regiment, C. N. G. — Captain: Wm. H. Hamilton, of Danielson. Corporals: Louis F. Roberts, Samuel N, Fring, John Lofgren, John E. Dillon. Privates: Adolph Boivin, George Burke, Fred J. Dargnault, Medas Gregaire, Francis Johnson, George May- nard, George McDonald, Albert H. Morse, Felix Ohben, Napoleon Roberts, Gurdon F. Tracy, John Wood, James Monohan, Patrick Monohan. James B. Kilborn Post, G. A. R., was organized at Central Village, March 4, 1886, with thirty members. The Post was named after James B. Kilborn, who served in the Third Connecticut regi- ment, and re-enlisted in the Eighth Connecticut ; was wounded at the battle of Antietam ; was promoted to lieutenant of Co. E and was killed in the attack on Fort Harrison, September 29, 1864. He resided in Wauregan, in 1859 and i860, but enlisted at Hartford. One object for which the Post was organized was to secure more general observance of Memorial Day, and each year the com- rades have visited all the cemeteries of the town, accompanied by a band of music and often assisted by the Sabbath schools, Sons of Veterans, and organizations of the town. The closing exercises have been held in rotation at Central Village, Plainfield and Moosup, and the attendance upon these occasions has been large. At the first meeting in May, 1887, they were presented with a beautiful silk banner, the Stars and Stripes on one side and the Post flag on the other. The donors were : Hon. Joseph Hutchins,. Hon. Edwin Milner, J. Arthur Atwood, Commander Chas B. Wheatley. In the spring of 1890 another beautiful banner was presented to them by the citizens of the town, through Mr. Ernest L. French. A part of the work of the Post has been to assist the families of comrades in destitute circumstances and to secure headstones for unmarked graves, and to give aid to widows and the fatherless, in their hour of need. The following comrades have served as commanders : George R. Bliven, 1886 and 1891 ; Chas. B. Wheatley, 1887 and 1888; George Torrey, 1889; James Pellett, 1890; Wm. S. Simmons, 1892; H. C. Torrey, 1893 and 1894; William Deane, 1895. THE CHARTER OF PLAINFIELD ACADEMY. II9 THE CHARTER OF PLAINFIELD ACADEMY. "At a General Assembly of the Government and Company of the State of Connecticut in America hoklen at Hartford on the second Thursday of May Anno Dom 1784. "UPON THE MEx\IORL\L of Genl John Douglass, Ebenezer Pemberton, William Dixon, and Elisha Perkins, Esq'rs, Mr. Joseph Eaton, and Mr. Samuel Fox, and other Proprietors of the New School in Plainfield, shewing to this Assembly that they have at ^reat expense erected three valuable buildings in Plainfield, in the County of Windham for the use of said School and for the Promo- tion of Learning in said Plainfield in its various branches. "Praying that they may be established and made a body Cor- porate and Politick and be known in Law as p'r Memorial on File. "RESOLVED by this Assembly, that Mr. Ebenezer Pember- ton, Gen'l John Douglass, Major Andrew Backus, Elisha Perkins, Esq'r, Mr. William Robinsoii, Mr. Samuel Fox, Capt. Joshua Dun- lap, Mr. Ebenezer Eaton, & Mr. Hezekiah Spalding all of Plain- field, and such other Persons as the Proprietors of s'd school shall elect, not exceeding thirteen in the whole, be, and they are hereby appointed, constituted, and declared, to be a body Corporate, and Politick, by the name of the Trustees of the Academick School in Plainfield. "And by that name they and their Successors in said Corpora- tion shall forever be persons known and capable in Law to acquire and receive by all Lawful ways and means and to hold, occupy, and possess all kinds of estate both Real and Personal. "And to dispose of the same by Deed or other proper Convey- ance for the use of said School, provided the Rents and Profits of such estate shall not exceed five hundred pounds Lawful money p'r annum in the whole at any time. "And said Corporation shall by the name aforesaid be capable in Law of sueing or being sued, and to plead or be impleaded, in any Court of Law or equity as a body Corporate, to all intents and 120 PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. purposes, and shall from time to time oversee, conduct, manage, and direct the afifairs and Interest of said School, and make and establish all necessary orders, Laws, and regulations, for the Gov- ernment thereof, and to alter the same at discretion. "Provided that no such Laws and regulations shall be incon- sistant with the Laws of this state, nor with the rights of Yale College. "And said Corporation may and shall from time to time by their major vote appoint a Clerk, Treasurer, and other officers and Instructors, proper for conducting the afifairs of said Corporation, and for the Government of said School. "And in case of the death or removal of any member, or mem- bers of said Corporation, the surviving, or remaining members, may elect others to supply the vacancies. "Provided always that seven of s'd Corporation shall be resident Freeholders in Plainfield. And no Person shall act as a member of said Corporation untill he hath taken the oath of fidelity to this, or some one of the United States. And any seven of said Corpora- tion shall be a Quorum with full power to transact any business proper to said Corporation, the whole being notified. "And said Corporation may have a common seal, of such de- vice as they shall adopt, and may alter the same at pleasure. "And all officers and persons appointed or employed in any office or trust by or under said Corporation shall be accountable to their Constituants for their doings in such office and may be superceeded or displaced at discretion. "A true Copy of Record, "Examin'd "By George Wyllys, Secret." POEM BY JOHN TROLAND. 121 PLAINFIELD'S BICENTENNIAL. August 31, 1899. Two hundred years ! What queries, starting hence, Traverse the bound where memory's verge grows dim As when, betimes, from some proud eminence The eye would pierce beyond horizon's rim ! What vision comes to us from that dim age? What answering message from that pilgrim band? — We read not all of it from history's page — W^e sec it in the works they wrought and planned. Here came they, — not as prowling victors come A fabled El Dorado's wealth to find. But, loving freedom, here to found a home And gain the greater conquests of the mind. Not flowering meads, with fruits on every side, That pampered ease might paint or fain possess, Open on their gaze, but tarn and forest wide. With rock-strewn vistas in a wilderness. A wilderness wherein no manna fell At prophet's word, nor bright shechinah's flame Flashed on the way, but in their hearts full well They knew, the Hand that led them was the same. Anon, the forest yielded to their toil ; The rocky hillsides and primeval mould Beneath their stroke became productive soil. And flowed with milk and honey, as of old. Prodigious powers evolved from frugal fare ! Those stalwart sires and sons, — well-nourished, all — Ready with axe to lay a forest bare Or quick to muster at the Country's call. PLAINFIELD BICENTENNIAL. Matrons and maids — whose virtues stood the test- Throve mid the hardships of that ruder time, Endured the stress of new-made homes and blest Them with the comforts of a faith subhme. It meets not, that a race new-born — new-bred — • That reaps the vantage over which tJiey toiled. Withholding praise, should toss its loftier head Or grasp reluctant with its hand unsoiled. Nay, nay ! with deeper pride, from hearts elate, Full tribute to the past we yield, and pray, Such grace be shed forever on our state As made old Plainlield what it is to-day ! John Troland. Fims. V-3» \ \^ \ VO^