/f/S irna 2RefoU>, (Emutrffintf Bl-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION July 6th and fth t 1908 Report of the proceedings, together with the papers presented and the addresses made PUBLISHED BY THE BI-CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE HARTFORD, CONN. THE CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD COMPANY 1908 Page Illustrations, . . . . . . . . . 5-6 Historical Paper by Mrs. Mary Everest Rockwell, ..... 9-18 Bi-centennial Committees and Program, . . . . . 19-22 The First Church, by Rev. A. W. Gerrie, Pastor, . . . . . 23-28 St. Stephen's Protestant-Episcopal Church, Rev. John H. Chapman, Rector, . 28-31 Rev. Foster Ely, Rector Emeritus, . 31-33 History of Ridgebury Church, Rev. Louis F. Burgess, Pastor, . . . 33-36 Jesse Lee Memorial Church, Rev. Harvey E. Burns, D.D., Pastor, . . . 36-39 St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Rev. R. E. Shortell, Pastor, . . . 40-43 Program for July 7, 1908, . . . ... . . . 44-45 Introductory Historical Statement, Wm. O. Seymour, Chairman, . . . 46-53 Town and Probate Records, Col. Hiram K. Scott, ..... 53-56 Reminiscences, by Charles B. Northrop, ....... 56-59 Address by Ex-Governor Phineas C. Lounsbury, ... . . . 59-64 " " Ex-Lieut.-Governor Edwin O. Keeler, . . . . . 64-65 " Judge Howard B. Scott, . . . . . . 65-68 " " Judge James F. Walsh, . . . . . . . 69-71 " " Cyrus Northrop, LL.D., ....... 71-76 History of Ridgefield, Margaret Kennedy, . . . . . . 76-79 Marion Northrop, . . . . . 79-8o Katherine Whelan, . . . . . 80-81 Lettie Ritch, . . . . . . . . 81-82 Martha Wilkins, . . . . . . . 82-84 Alexander Mavin, ...... 84-86 Ruth Wilson 86-88 Address, Hon. E. J. Hill, . . . 88-95 Concluding Remarks of the Chairman, ....... 06 ILLUSTRATIONS VIEW OF MAIN STREET, RIDGEFIELD, ...... ESTATE OF REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOT, . . . , . .-. Homestead of Thomas Hawley, who fought for American Independence in Ridgefield, enlarged, rebuilt, and now summer home of granddaughter, Mrs. David S. Egleston MODERN RIDGEFIELD, . . . . . . Residence of A. Newbold Morris MODERN RIDGEFIELD, ........ Estate of Mrs. VV. S. Hawk, one of the charming manor places in this community of country-seats The hills of Ridgefield, Connecticut, are crowned with many beautiful country residences REVOLUTIONARY HOMESTEAD, ....... Homestead of Colonel Philip Burr Bradley at Ridgefield, a justice of the peace under George III, and first marshal of the District of Con- necticut Remodeled summer home of L. H. Biglow HOMESTEAD OF A SOLDIER IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, . . , The Old Deacon Hawley house at Ridgefield where many of the patriots gathered in the first days of the nation The host was a cabinet-maker, choir leader, church deacon and a warrior HOMESTEAD OF A WORLD-FAMED AUTHOR IN EARLY PART OF LAST CENTURY, . . . . . . . " Peter Parley" House in Ridgefield Built in 1797 by Reverend Samuel Goodrich when his son " Peter Parley " was four years old Home of John Alsop King HISTORIC ESTATE OF MRS. J. HOWARD KING AT RIDGEFIELD, On site of the Homestead of General Joshua King, who accompanied Major Andre to his execution in the American Revolution ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, ..... Sarah Bishop's Cave in Ridgefield where a mysterious woman lived and died shortly after the War Tradition claims that she was an American girl who fell in love with a British army officer during the conflict AN OLD INN KEEPER OF STAGE-COACH AND TAVERN DAYS, . Abijah Ressequie, the hospitable proprietor of old Keeler Tavern, known as the old Ressequie Inn in its latter days Many distinguished guests sat about his glowing hearth RIDGEFIELD GOLF CLUB RIDGEFIELD ARCHERY CLUB, RESIDENCE OF CHARLES LEE ROCKWELL IN RIDGEFIELD, MEMORIAL LIBRARY AT RIDGEFIELD, ...... Erected by James Morris in Memory of His Wife Elizabeth W. Morris Engraving loaned by " The Ridgefield Press " " WILD FARMS," ...... . Ridgefield Manor of the Honorable Melbert B. Cary, Nominee in 1902 for Governor of Connecticut RESIDENCE OF HONORABLE WILLIAM O. SEYMOUR AT RIDGEFIELD, . " ASHTON CROFT," ....... Estate of late Henry E. Hawley, grandson of Deacon Elisha Hawley, the Revolutionary Patriot in Ridgefield between pages 8-9 " IO-II IO-II " IO-II " IO-II 12-13 12-13 " 12-13 14-15 14-15 14-15 14-15 16-17 16-17 18-19 18-19 List of Illustrations MODERN RIDGEFIELD, ........ between pages 18-19 Estate of George G. Haven, junior COUNTRY RESIDENCE OF ALBERT H. WIGGIN, . . . . . - " " 20-21 Winter Scene in the Ridgefield Hills, mantled with snow INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF THE TOWN HALL IN WHICH THE BI-CEN- TENNIAL EXERCISES WERE HELD, ... " 20-21 AN EARLY MEETING-HOUSE IN FIRST YEARS OF AMERICAN REPUBLIC, . " " 22-23 Ancient " white " Congregational Church at Kidgeneld where Reverend Samuel Goodrich, father of " Peter Parley," preached First Pastor in Ridgefield was Thomas Hawley MODERN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN RIDGEFIELD, . . . . " " 22-23 Replacing old " white meeting-house " Clock and chimes are memorial to late J. Howard King, great-grandson of its second pastor, Reverend Jonathan Ingersoll Near it stands the Ridgefield Club ST. STEPHEN'S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ...."" 28-29 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, RIDGEBURY, ....."" 32-33 JESSE LEE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ....."" 36-37 ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, ....."" 40-41 WM. O. SEYMOUR, . . . . ... . " " 46-47 GENERAL BENEDICT ARNOLD, . . . , ... " " 48-49 who led the Patriots against the British in the bloody conflict in the streets of Ridgefield in April, 1777 Arnold narrowly escaped as his horse was shot under him The enemy marched through Ridgefield, firing the Episcopal Church, Keeler's Tavern, and dwellings GENERAL JOSHUA KING, .;'..... . " " 50-51 of Ridgefield, the guard who accompanied Major Andre to the gallows in the Revolution GENERAL DAVID WOOSTER, ......."" 50-51 Hero of the American Revolution Killed by a musket ball fired by a Tory during an engagement two miles north of Ridgefield post office COL. HIRAM K. SCOTT, . . . . . ' " " 52-53 CHARLES B. NORTHROP, . . . . . . . " " 56-57 PHINEAS C. LOUNSBURY, ......."" 58-59 Portrait of Ridgefleld's distinguished citizen while he was Governor of Connecticut "THE HICKORIES," ........"" 60-61 Ancestral estate of Honorable George Edward Lounsbury at Ridgefield, Governor of Connecticut 1899-1901 " CASAGMO," . . . . . . . . " " 60-61 Estate of George M. Olcott, known as the Stebbins Place during American Revolution and occupied by historic house where Benedict Arnold sent his wounded soldiers after Battle of Ridgefield "GROVE LAWN," .....,..."" 60-61 Colonial Mansion in Historic Ridgefield of Honorable Phineas Chapman Lounsbury, former Governor of Connecticut GEORGE E. LOUNSBURY, ........"" 62-63 Portraiture of the second Lounsbury of Ridgefield to become Governor of Connecticut LIEUT.-GOVERNOR E. O. KEELER, ...... " 64-65 JUDGE HOWARD B. SCOTT, ......."" 64-65 JUDGE JAMES F. WALSH. . . . . . . " " 68-69 RIDGEFIELD AND AMERICAN EDUCATION, . " " 70-71 Dr. Cyrus Northrop, born in Ridgefield in 1834 Twenty-one years professor of English Literature at Yale Twenty-two years President of University of Minnesota HON. E. J. HILL, . . " 88-89 RIDGEFIELD BI-CENTENNIAL NOTE. The following article by Mrs. Mary Everest Rockwell, wife of Mr. Charles L. Rockwell, president of the First National Bank of Meriden, Conn., whose ancestors were among the original settlers of the town of Ridgefield, was published in The Connecticut Magazine in its first number of this year and by its kind permission is reproduced here introductory to the account of the bi-centennial exercises. RIDGEFIELD BI-CENTENNIAL 1708-1908 ANNIVERSARY OF BEAUTIFUL CONNECTICUT COUNTRY-SEAT OVERLOOKING LONG ISLAND SOUND AND HIGHLANDS OF THE HUDSON. PURCHASED FROM RAMAPOO INDIANS TWO HUN- DRED YEARS AGO BY PIONEERS FROM NORWALK AND MILFORD FOR ONE HUNDRED POUNDS STERLING AND HOME-LOTS AP- PORTIONED BY LOTTERY. MEMORIAL BY MARY EVEREST ROCKWELL THERE is no fairer scene in fair Connecticut than Ridgefield's Main Street, a mile or more of fine houses and velvety lawns, shaded by giant elms and maples. Cool, restful shadows, songs of birds, glimpses of sunny fields, attract and charm the visitor, beguiling him into a fancy that this is some lovely old-world park rather than the thoroughfare of a New England village. In the year 1708, Catoonah, sachem of the Ramapoo Indians, sold, for one hundred pounds sterling, a tract of land, bounded north and east by Danbury, south by Xorwalk, and west by New York State, to twenty-nine men from Nor- walk and three from Milford. That year, the General Assembly appointed Major Peter Burr of Fairfield, John Copp of Norwalk, and Josiah Starr of Danbury to survey and lay out a new settlement. These surveyors, with a keen sense of beauty, selected, for the town site, the central of three high ridges commanding views of Long Island Sound on the south and the Highlands of the Hudson toward the west. A street, six rods wide, was planned from north to south. On either side were home lots of two and one-half acres ; in the center a " Green " for the meeting, town and school- houses, and on the east and west ridges, five acres of pasture to each home lot. Then the place, appropriately named Ridgefield, was ready for the new inhabitants to move in and go to housekeeping. At the north end of the town is a great boulder, called " Settler's Rock," supposed to have been the camping place of the first comers to Ridgefield. November, 1708, was the date of the lottery by means of which the land was apportioned and twenty-five home-sites were drawn as follows : the first lot on the southeast for a burying-ground and twelve lots northward, falling to Samuel St. John, Samuel Keeler, junior, Jonathan Rockwell, Thomas Canfield of io 1708 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 Milford, Proprietors' Reserve, Matthias St. John, Joseph Whitney, Samuel Smith of Milford, James Brown, John Belden, Richard Olmstead, and Thomas Smith of Milford. The opposite plots from south to north fell to Samuel Keeler, senior, Daniel Olmstead, Samuel Smith, Joseph Crampton, James Benedict, Matthew Seamore, Joseph Keeler, Matthew St. John, Benjamin Hickok, Benjamin Wilson, Thomas Hyatt, John Sturdevant and Jonathan Stevens. Ebenezer Smith of Mil- ford, Joseph Benedict of Nor walk, Benjamin Burt, a blacksmith of Nor walk, Daniel Sherwood, a miller from Fairfield, and Reverend Thomas Hawley of Northampton, Massachusetts, were added to the list of early proprietors. Many other families came to the new settlement, industries were established, markets found for their products and slowly too slowly, however, to have satisfied the impatient ambition of the day the village grew till it was one of the important hill towns of the state. In the year 1714, Benjamin Stebbins fol- lowed the Reverend Thomas Hawley from Northampton, and built, at the north end of Main Street, a shingled, two and one-half storied house, then the costliest mansion of Ridgefield. This house survived all the contemporaries and was the home of the Stebbins family till 1892, when it was removed to make room for the handsome modern residence of George M. Olcott. Religion and politics walked hand-in-hand in colonial days, and upon the choice of a spiritual leader depended much of the temporal success of the new venture. Ridgefield was fortunate, for its first pastor, Reverend Thomas Hawley, was a young man, frank, sociable, energetic, and, from his arrival in 1713, till his death, 1738, kept all the town records, writing them in handsome script, the admiration of this generation. Mr. Hawley was born in Northampton, graduated at Harvard College, and married a daughter of the distinguished Major Nathan Gold of Fairfield. When Reverend Mr. Hawley died, aged forty- nine, the church secured as its pastor Reverend Jonathan Ingersoll, a native of Milford, a graduate of Yale College and a young man of brilliant intellect. He was also public-spirited, interesting himself in everything pertaining to the wel- fare of town and state. In 1758, Mr. Ingersoll went to Lake Champlain as chaplain in the Colonial Army. His home was on Main Street, on the southern corner of the J. Howard King estate, and S. G. Goodrich describes it as " a brown, gable-roofed house with two venerable, but still green and flourishing button- wood trees in front." In this house was made the first cup of tea in Ridgefield. The tradition is that the tea was placed in a copper kettle, brought over in the " Mayflower," water was added and the mixture boiled ; then the water was thrown away and the tea-leaves eaten. Reverend Jonathan Ingersoll died October 2, 1778, aged sixty-five years. He and his predecessor, Mr. Hawley, are buried in Titicus Cemetery, so called because of its location near the Titicus River in the northern part of the town. The burial-ground was selected by a vote of the proprietors in 1735, and, enlarged and beautified, has been the resting-place of Ridgefield's dead since that date. During the Revolution, Ridgefield, intensely patriotic, raised two companies of soldiers, one under Captain Gamaliel Northrop of Ridgebury, a northeastern ESTATE OF REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOT Homestead of Thomas Hawley, who fought for American Independence in Ridgefield, enlarged, rebuilt, and now summer home of granddaughter, Mrs. David S. Egleston, MODERN RIDGEFIELD Residence of A. Newbold Morris MODERN RIDGEFIELD Estate of Mrs. W. S. Hawk, one of the charming manor places in this community of country-seats The hills of Ridgefield, Connecticut, are crowned with many beautiful country residences REVOLUTIONARY HOMESTEAD of Colonel Philip Burr Bradley at Ridgefield, a justice of the peace under George III, and first marshal of the District of Connecticut Remodeled summer home of L. H. Biglow Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises n parish; the other under Captain David Olmstead. The added excitement of a battle on Main Street incited many of the youth to enter the army. April 25, 1777, General Tryon made his celebrated Danbury Raid, burning the town. On the morning of the twenty-seventh, he marched toward Long Island Sound and about three miles north of Ridgefield was overtaken by General Wooster, with two hundred Americans. In an engagement the intrepid Wooster was killed. Five hundred patriots, under General Benedict Arnold, reached Ridgefield in the morning and built a hasty barricade of earth and rocks across the north end of the street. Here the British routed the Americans. During this skirmish, sixteen royalists and eight patriots were killed, and General Arnold narrowly escaped, as his horse was shot under him. The Stebbins homestead was used as a temporary hospital, and the dead were buried in an adjoining field. A tamarack tree marks the spot where Arnold's horse fell, and stands close to the masonry supporting the bank of earth fortifications, the site of George H. Newton's country home. Some years ago The Ridgefield Press announced the discovery, near this tree, of the skeleton of this famous horse, and offered it to the local Historical Society, adding that the horns and hoofs, found at the same time, had been re-interred. The enemy marched through the village without further resistance, encamp- ing for the night on a high hill, south of the town, and burning a house as a signal to their ships on the Sound. The Episcopal Church was used for storage of sup- plies, during the Revolution, and was fired by General Tryon in addition to six dwellings. Among these houses was the Keeler Tavern, kept by Timothy Keeler, a patriot. The English heard that cartridges were being made in the tavern and discharged several cannon-balls into the house (one is still visible), dislodging the inmates, who took refuge in the woods. Mr. Keeler's neighbor was a loyalist who, finding the sparks a menace to his own house,* received Tryon's permission to quench the flames. When Mr. Keeler returned from his hiding-place, the Tory met him, saying : " You may thank me that your house is safe." " No, sir," roared the sturdy patriot, " I will not thank a Tory for anything. I thank the Lord for the north wind." The most prominent citizen of Ridgefield, in Revolutionary times, was Philip Burr Bradley, born in Fairfield, March 26, 1738, the son of Captain Daniel Bradley and Esther Burr, sister of Reverend Aaron Burr, first president of Princeton College. Captain Bradley moved with his family to Ridgefield in 1759, the year after his famous son, Philip Burr Bradley, graduated from Yale College. King George III appointed the younger Bradley justice of the peace in 1770 and January I, 1777, he was commissioned colonel of the Fifth Connecti- cut Regiment by John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress. Colonel Bradley served to the end of the war, and then was appointed the first marshal of the District of Connecticut by George Washington. The colonel was a Federalist in politics and a tall, dark-haired, black-eyed man of great dignity and much influence throughout the state, although he seems to have lacked the brilliant social qualities of his first cousin, Vice-President Aaron Burr. Presi- dent Washington was a personal friend of Colonel Bradley, and treasured with Residence of George H. Smillie, the artist. 12 1708 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 the Colonel's commissions and sword, are a chair, a china bowl and pitcher used by the great statesman when visiting at the Bradley house, which is still standing on Main Street, the summer home of L. H. Biglow of New York. Two of Colonel Bradley 's descendants have particularly distinguished themselves : the late William Henry Bradley of Chicago, Illinois, was clerk of the United States Circuit Court of that district for many years and an able and influential lawyer. Judge Bradley's son, William Harrison Bradley, is United States Consul at Manchester, England, and has built a fine summer home, " Felsenberg," on West Mountain, Ridgefield. A notable Revolutionary soldier, Jeremiah Keeler, enlisted in the regular army and served through the war, most of the time an orderly sergeant under Marquis de Lafayette. Keeler was often selected for services where quick wit and sound judgment were essential, and after one such occasion General Lafayette presented him with a sword in recognition of his bravery and fidelity. Sergeant Keeler was in the Battles of Monmouth and Jamestown, and at the Battle of Yorktown was among the first to scale the enemy's breastworks. A niece relates that it was always the sergeant's regretful lament that he missed seeing his loved French commander when Marquis Lafayette made his second visit to America. Sergeant Keeler drove with his wife to South Norwalk when General Lafayette was to pass through that town, but unanticipated delays in the great man's arrival obliged the Ridgefield soldier to return disappointed. Jeremiah Keeler's house, on the New York state line, in South Salem, is the farm- house of the beautiful estate of Professor J. M. Crafts of Boston. When, in 1783, the army was disbanded in Virginia, Sergeant Keeler received a gold medal for his long service, and using his sword as a cane, walked back to his Ridgefield home. Lieutenant Thaddeus Keeler shared his brother Jeremiah's renown as a soldier. He first enlisted July 13, 1775, as sergeant in Captain Joseph Hait's Company, Colonel Parsons' Regiment; was commissioned second lieutenant in 1777, first lieutenant, 1778, quartermaster of the regiment, 1780, and served to the close of the war. One of the treasured keepsakes of Lieutenant Keeler is his " Memorandum Book Journal Wise." Among the entries are the following brief notes at the time his home and the village of Ridgefield were in imminent peril. " April 1 6th, 1777, March from Danbury to Ridgebury in a Detachment commanded by Capt. Hait. " 1 8th. Marched to Crompond and put up. " I9th. Took our Quarters at Peekskill. Till the 26th nothing remarkable. " 27th. Heard the enemy were in possession of Danbury stores. " 28th. Marched down to Bedford. " 2Qth and 3Oth. Returned back to Peekskill by the way of Ridgefield." A few miles away, in South Salem, Major Andre lodged, a prisoner under the guard of Lieutenant Joshua King of Colonel Sheldon's Light Dragoons. Lieutenant King wrote to a friend in 1817 about the capture of Andre, saying: " I was the first and only officer who had charge of him while at the headquarters Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 13 of the Second Regiment of Light Dragoons. He was under the name of John Anderson and looked somewhat like a reduced gentleman ; his small-clothes were nankeen, with handsome white-top boots ; in part his dress was military, his coat purple with gold lace, worn somewhat threadbare; he wore a small-brimmed tarnished beaver on his head; he wore his hair in a queue with a long black band." Lieutenant Joshua King did not then know the name and rank of his captive, but judging him a gentleman by his conversation and manner, offered him the services of an attendant and a change of linen. When Major Andre's hair was brushed, the powder flew out, betraying him as a person of importance. The young American officer became much attached to his charge, whom he accom- panied to the gallows. The armchair used by Andre while in South Salem is now in the possession of Lieutenant King's descendants. At the close of the war, Lieutenant, or General King, as he was always called, in partnership with a fellow officer, Lieutenant Doyle, opened a store in Ridgefield in the building now used as a dwelling and called " Old Hundred." Young King married the pretty daughter of Reverend Jonathan Ingersoll and built a fine home next to that of his father-in-law, on Main Street. This house, destroyed by fire in 1889, has been reproduced by the general's grandson, the late J. Howard King of Albany. General King, like Colonel Bradley, was a leading spirit in all public affairs, and in 1818, a member of the Convention at Hartford which framed the Con- stitution of Connecticut. It is related of General King that he was the best rider in town, and that when he was eighty years old, he sat upon his white-faced bay horse as straight as a boy. Colonel Bradley, on the contrary, rode in a chaise, the only one in Ridgefield in 1800. Upon the organization of the Society of the Cincinnati, Lieutenant Joshua King, Lieutenant Doyle, Captain David Olmstead, Captain Thaddeus Keeler, Colonel Philip Burr Bradley, and Lieutenant Elijah James, all of Ridgefield, enrolled as members. Just after the Revolution, the eminent Reverend Samual Goodrich of Durham came to Ridgefield as the third pastor of the Congregational Church, and on August 19, 1793, was born his illustrious son, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, familiarly known as " Peter Parley." When this boy was four years old, his father built the " Peter Parley " house on High Ridge, the property of John Alsop King of New York. Here the famous writer passed his boyhood, attending school in the little old building on West Lane, and as he grew older, receiving instructions from " Master Stebbins " in the " Up Town School." Master Stebbins was town clerk as well, and the records of the village corroborate Mr. Goodrich's statement that his teacher excelled in penmanship. Chapman Lee, a schoolboy of that day, wrote to a relative that " Old Doctor Goodrich was our school examiner a sharp old blade to keep the boys straight, and insistant that the boys write original compositions, instead of compilations of facts gleaned from almanacs, histories, etc." In that fascinating autobiography, " Recollections of a Lifetime," " Peter 14 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 Parley " draws a vivid picture of the Ridgefield of his day. There was but one Irishman, one negro, one Indian, one " professional beggar " and one " settled pauper." The beggar, named " Jagger, had served in the armies of more than one of the Georges, and insisted upon crying : ' God save the King ! ' even on the fourth of July, and was openly threatened by the boys with a gratuitous ride on a rail. Nearly all the inhabitants of Ridgefield were farmers, with the few mechanics necessary to carry on society in a somewhat primeval state. Even the persons not professionally devoted to agriculture had each his farm. My father carried on his farm of forty acres, besides preaching two sermons a week and attending to other parochial duties visiting the sick, attending funerals, solemnizing marriages, etc. There were, I think, four newspapers, all weekly, published in the state : one at Hartford, one at New London, one at New Haven and one at Litchfield. There were, however, not more than three subscribers to all these in our village. We had a public library of some two hundred volumes and what was of equal consequence the town was on the road which was then the great thoroughfare, connecting Boston with New York, and hence, it had means of intelligence from travelers constantly passing through the place, which kept it up with the march of events." Mr. Goodrich tells also that when he was eleven years of age a coach with four horses dashed up to Keeler Tavern and the hospitable landlord ushered into the keeping-room a tall, sallow young man and a beautiful girl none others than Jerome Bonaparte journeying from New York to Boston, with his American bride, Elizabeth Patterson, of Baltimore. Their presence in Ridgefield caused a tremendous stir, and in the crowd which peered curiously through the tavern windows that summer night was young Goodrich. What interesting tales the old tavern walls could tell ! Here lodged all the dignitaries of the state and many great men of the nation. Oliver Wolcott, Timothy Pickering and Lieu- tenant-Governor Treadwell are among the distinguished men mentioned by " Peter Parley " as sojourners at the cheery Keeler Tavern. Tradition tells us this was one of the many resting places of George Wash- ington and of Marquis Lafayette. There seems to be no authority for this belief, but when the army of de Rochambeau encamped at Ridgefield, in 1781, it is certain that Count de Rochambeau and Due de Lauzun-Biron were entertained at the Ridgefield hostelry. The building is little changed and the partitions in the second story, which were hooked up to the ceiling to make a long ball-room, are today just as they were over a hundred years ago. Many strangers necessitated the opening of another tavern in Ridgefield, and in 1797, Amos Smith built the inn which was sold by his descendants for a library site. That travelers were entertained at the Smith home before the large new house was built, is shown by an account-book dating back to 1719. The first Masonic Lodge of Ridgefield was organized in an upper room of Smith Tavern, an "Assembly Room," in which were held, as chance might be, courts of justice, balls, and church affairs. Shortly after the Revolution there appeared in Ridgefield a half demented woman called Sarah Bishop. Her abode was a small cave on the mountain side, ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Sarah Bishop's Cave in Ridgefield where a mysterious woman lived and died shortly after the War- Tradition claims that she was an American girl who fell in love with a British army officer during conflict AN OLD INN KEEPER OF STAGE-COACH AND TAVERN DAYS Abijah Ressequie, the hospitable proprietor of old Keeler Tavern, known as the old Ressequie Inn in its latter days Many distinguished guests sat about his glowing hearth RIDGEFIELD GOLF CLUB RIDGEFIELD ARCHERY CLUB RESIDENCE OF CHARLES LEE ROCKWELL IN RIDGEFIELD Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 15 overlooking Long Pond, and on what is now the Rippowam estate, owned by Jonathan Bulkley of Brooklyn. Whence she came was never fully known, but rumor said she had been jilted by a British officer, and her home on Long Island burned by the enemy. Half crazed, she wandered to this lonely cave, where on pleasant days, she could see the blue waters of the Sound and the dim out- lines of the shore beyond. The kind-hearted Yankee house-wives were very generous to the poor creature and at the farmhouse of Captain David Smith " Sarah Bishop's loaf " was regularly baked and as regularly taken away. Her costume was of the period of the Revolution, and over one arm she carried a long white silk stocking, in which was her fine muslin wedding-gown. Sarah planted a few beans and cucumbers near her vine-clad hovel, and some rags and a pewter basin furnished the housekeeping equipment. In summer she lived on berries, vegetables and the gifts of the villagers, but during the winter, shut in by storms, she was obliged to depend on the stock of roots and nuts gathered in the autumn. She had a Bible, which she read and re-read many times. One winter day, in 1810, Sarah Bishop was found frozen near her spring, dying, as she had lived, alone on the mountain. In 1800, Reverend Mr. Goodrich wrote a brief history of the town, speaking of several manufacturing interests. All these have disappeared. The cabinet shop of Thomas Hawley Rockwell has become a cottage, north of his house, built one hundred and eight years ago, and both are now known as " The Elm Shade Cottages." The store kept by Abner Gilbert at the north end of the street has been moved back and changed into the stable of George H. Newton. Five years ago, a couple of white-haired women made a pilgrimage to Ridgefield, visiting this old store, in which their father, David Lee, began his business life. Little did that ambitious Connecticut boy dream that his daughters would come back to his native place as Her Excellency Baroness von Waechter-Lautenbach, widow of a prominent Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Court of Wiirttemberg, and Her Excellency Countess von Waldersee, wife of the famous Field Marshal who commanded the Allied Armies in China ! The saw-mills, grist-mills, hat and shoe factories have all gone; also the cabinet and carriage shops as well as the factory where candlesticks and bed- clothes clasps were made. On Main Street is the home of Deacon Elisha Hawley, grandson of Reverend Thomas Hawley, a Revolutionary soldier, and, to quote " Peter Parley," " a cabinet-maker by trade, a chorister by choice, a deacon by the vote of the church, a Christian by the grace of God, and in each vocation finding his place as if designed for it by nature and Providence." His grandson, the late Henry E. Hawley of New York, built "Ashton Croft," opposite the " Homestead " which is now the summer residence of another grandson, D. Edwin Hawley. Thomas Hawley, brother of Elisha, was also a Revolutionary soldier, and his house, enlarged and rebuilt by his son William, is the summer abode of his granddaughter, Mrs. David S. Egleston. About twenty years ago the Congregational Society replaced the carriage 1 6 1708 Ridge field Si-Centennial 1908 factory with a fine stone church on the corner of Main Street, south of the old Green, which was divided by the straightening of the road. The clock and chimes in the tower are a memorial to the late J. Howard King, great-grandson of the second pastor, Reverend Jonathan Ingersoll. The removal of the old white church, and subsequent cutting up of the " Green " completely changed the character of Main Street, and the Episcopal Church, built in 1841, the third house of worship of that society, is the oldest in the village. Reverend Samuel Johnson of Stratford organized the Episcopal Church in Ridgefield in 1725, and in 1740 the first building was erected on land granted by the proprietors of the town. Two other donations of land have been made by Lieutenant Benjamin Smith, in 1785, and Isaac Jones in 1841. The second house of worship was consecrated by Right Reverend Bishop Brownell in 1831, by the name of St. Stephen's Church. During the pastorate of Reverend Samuel Goodrich, many of the members of the Congregational Church were so impressed by the teachings of Lorenzo Dow, Francis Asbury and Jesse Lee, that they withdrew from the church and held meetings in the great kitchen of Doctor Amos Baker's house. Those early gatherings in " Baker's Kitchen " have grown into a prosperous organization called the " Jesse Lee Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church " with a com- modious edifice built on the corner of Main and Catoonah Streets. It is related of an early Ridgefield Methodist, " Uncle " Mix Gilbert, that, one Sabbath, in a neighboring town, he entered church just as the pastor was announcing his text, "What think ye of Christ?" "Think well of Him, glory to God!" heartily responded the visitor, proceeding up the aisle to a seat. St. Mary's Roman Catholic Parish has, by rapid growth, amply repaid the devotion of its members and priests, and today there is no finer public build- ing in the village than the large brick church occupying a commanding corner of Catoonah Street. That the character of the population has changed since the construction of the railroad from Branchville, in 1870, is shown by the fact that the candle- stick factory has been superseded by the " Bailey House " and the erection of the " Inn " at the southern end of Main Street. The dry, bracing air and picturesque surroundings of this town, eight hundred feet above sea level, have brought a large summer population, the influence of which is felt in the social, educational and religious life of the place. There are two clubs: the Ridgefield Club, with its Casino where billiards, bowling, tennis, dancing and entertainments may be enjoyed, and the Country Club, with its charming club-house, extensive golf links, and tennis courts. South Lake is owned by the Ridgefield Club, and here are boats in plenty for the use of the members. Education is well supported, there being both public and private schools. The beautiful library, Ridgefield's pride, is a memorial to Mrs. Elizabeth Morris, erected by her husband, the late James N. Morris of New York, and is stocked with standard reference books as well as works of fiction. In the modern Town Hall is located the First National Bank and the Ridge- t* ." bo i I fe & < g i w Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 17 field Savings Bank. Stores, markets and livery stables are all well equipped for the demands of the townspeople and summer visitors. It was a New England boy who replied to a stranger's sneering question, " What is raised in this place ? " " We raise men, sir." This anecdote can be aptly applied to any town in the state of Connecticut, but especially to Ridgefield. Many men, influential in the world's progress, have gone from this quiet spot. The town is frequently called the home of governors, two Ridgefield boys having served their state as chief executives. The Honorable Phineas C. Lounsbury, governor of Connecticut from 1887 to 1889, is president of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank of New York, and occupies a stately colonial mansion, " Grove Lawn." Governor Lounsbury 's brother, the Honorable George E. Lounsbury, was state senator from 1897 to I 899> governor from 1899 to 1901, president of the First National Bank and president of the Lounsbury-Mathewson Company of South Norwalk. He died August 16, 1904, at " The Hickories," his life-long home. This ancestral farm was one of the dearest belongings of the late governor, and he gave away all the produce not needed by his own household. Governor Lounsbury gave utterance to a guiding principle of his life in his Thanksgiving proclamation, November n, 1899, when he wrote: " On that day let the hand of charity spread a feast in every home of poverty, for it is more blessed to give than to receive, and no sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving can be more acceptable to God than deeds of charity done for the poor and unfortunate." Many a poor family mourns the untimely death of a generous benefactor, and the town laments the passing of an honored and useful citizen. The Honorable Melbert B. Gary, whose home is " Wildfarms," on West Lane, was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1902. The Honorable Jonathan Ingersoll, son of Reverend Jonathan Ingersoll, was a judge of the Supreme Court and lieutenant-governor of the state. His son was the Honorable Ralph I. Ingersoll, member of Congress and United States Minister to Russia, and his grandsons were Governor Charles R. Ingersoll and the Honorable Colin M. Ingersoll, member of Congress. Alphonso D. Rockwell, M.D., of New York, a son of David S. Rockwell, has won distinction in the medical world as one of the first physicians to dis- cover the remedial uses of electricity. Adna R. Chaffee, lieutenant-general of the United States Army, and Com- mander of the United States troops in China, married Anna, daughter of Colonel George Rockwell, a native of Ridgefield, an officer during the Civil War, and a leader in the ejection of Mormons from Illinois. Reverend Thomas Burr Rockwell was a prominent clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a pioneer of that denomination in the Western states. His daughter Minerva was one of the early missionaries to India and married first, Reverend James R. Downey, who died the year following, and second, the Right Reverend James M. Thoburn, M. E. Bishop of India. Reverend Charles Augustus Goodrich, son of Reverend Samuel Goodrich, and elder brother of " Peter Parley," was born in Ridgefield, 1790. He was 1 8 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centenmal 1908 associated with S. G. Goodrich in writing juvenile educational books, and the first school history of the United States was from his pen. Harvey Smith was a civil engineer and for some time connected with the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad. Later he located and constructed the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad, of which he was superintendent until his death, about 1865. Doctor Nehemiah Perry, who has recently retired from many years of practice in Ridgefield, is the son of Doctor Nehemiah Perry, and grandson of David Perry, M.D., who was also the first settled rector of St. Stephen's Church. Cyrus Northrop, LL.D., son of Cyrus and Polly B. Northrop, was born September 30, 1834; graduated from Yale College in 1857, and for twenty-one years was Professor of English literature at his Alma Mater. For the past twenty-four years he has been president of Minnesota University. Austin Scott, LL.D., son of J. Austin Scott of Toledo, Ohio, and grandson of Deacon Jere Scott of Ridgefield, has. for the past eighteen years, been presi- dent of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Of the same family is Colonel Hiram K. Scott, one of the oldest Masons and the oldest Odd Fellow in the state; town clerk for forty-six years, judge of the Probate Court for thirty-six years ; in short, the village " Squire," a type now, alas, almost extinct. Nearly half a century Colonel Scott has drawn the wills, solved the legal prob- lems, and recorded the outgoings and incomings sometimes the shortcomings of the township. No other resident knows so thoroughly the " ancient land- marks," or is so often sought as a counsellor. The Honorable William Oscar Seymour, a civil engineer, one of the rail- road commissioners of the state, and vice-president of the First National Bank, is prominent in all affairs of church and town. He has ever been one whom his townspeople delighted to honor. Lack of space forbids mention of the many others whose lives of usful influence have reflected credit upon their native town. The ancestral lines of many strong American families are traced from Ridgefield and its records are rich in genealogical and historical information. On this anniversary year the hills of the ancient village are crowned with beautiful estates and country-seats that have given it distinction far and wide as the " Lenox of Connecticut." " A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid," and the splendid record of many of its distinguished sons and daughters has extended the fame of the old town far and wide over our own country and even beyond the sea. "ASHTON CROFT" Estate of late Henry E. Hawley, grandson of Deacon Elisha Hawley, the Revolutionary Patriot in Ridgerield MODERN RIDGEFIELD Estate of George G. Haven, junior ANNIVERSARY EXERCISES IN the early part of the year 1908 a committee was appointed to make arrange- ments for a modest, unpretentious observance of the two hundredth anni- versary of the settlement of the town of Ridgefield and to prepare an order of exercises suitable for the occasion. The persons appointed on the var- ious committees were as follows: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Active Members WM. O. SEYMOUR, Chairman COL. H. K. SCOTT, Vice-chairman GEO. E. BENEDICT, Treasurer GEO. L. ROCKWELL, Secretary GEO. H. WHITLOCK, ist Selectman of Ridgefield A. H. STOKER, Warden of the Borough of Ridgefield MICHAEL T. MCGLYNN, Chairman Town School Board SAMUEL KEELER CHARLES B. NORTHROP GILBERT B. BURR GEO. G. SCOTT WM. R. KEELER RICHARD W. OSBORN Honorary and Advisory Committee Ex-Gov. P. C. LOUNSBURY CHARLES L. ROCKWELL GEO. M. OLCOTT DR. A. L. NORTHROP GEO. P. INGERSOLL GEO. G. HAVEN, JR. WM. HARRISON BRADLEY JOHN W. ROCKWELL HON. MELBERT B. GARY DR. GEO. G. SHELTON WM. H. BEERS JACOB LEGRAND DANCHY D. EDWIN HAWLEY BENJAMIN K. NORTHROP CYRUS NORTHROP, LL.D. REV. S. MCNEILL KEELER AUSTIN SCOTT, Ex-President Rutgers College, N. Y. Honorary Daughters of Ridgefield Families MRS. D. S. EGLESTON Miss MARY A. KING MRS. GEO. G. HAVEN, JR. Miss ANNA M. RESSEGUIE Miss SARAH NORTHROP MRS. H. ELIZABETH DANCHY Miss MARION BRADLEY MRS. D. L. JONES Miss MARGARET HAWLEY Miss PHEBE M. GRUMMAN Miss SARAH L. HAWLEY MRS. GRACE KING INGERSOLL MRS. GEO. P. INGERSOLL Miss SARAH A. KEELER Miss MARY EVELINE SMITH MRS. MARY JENNINGS WHEELER Miss MARY BRADLEY MRS. H. D. SMITH Miss JENNIE SMITH MRS. DR. A. L. NORTHROP 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 Committee of the Churches of the Town First Congregational Church REV. A. W. GERRIE, Pastor HOWARD P. NASH St. Stephen's Episcopal Church REV. JOHN H. CHAPMAN, Rector REV. FOSTER ELY, Rector Emeritus WM. ANDREW BENEDICT Ridgebury Congregational Church REV. Louis F. BURGESS, Pastor MR. GILBERT B. BURR Jesse Lee Memorial M. E. Church REV. HARVEY E. BURNES, D.D., Pastor JOHN W. ROCKWELL St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church REV. FATHER R. E. SHORTELL JOHN BROPHY Committee of the Business Men's Association, and other local organisations of the town to arrange for a public parade RICHARD W. OSBORN JAMES F. KENNEDY JAMES E. RYAN SAMUEL S. DENTON GEORGE G. KNAPP The active members of the executive committee met from time to time and finally decided upon an order of exercises that should begin on the even- ing of July 6th with a union service of all the churches in the Town Hall, conducted by the pastors, giving a brief account of the organization and history of each church, and of those prominently identified therewith, and an estimate of the important influence exerted by all of them combined upon the life and character of the people of the town, interspersed with the singing by a trained chorus of thirty-five voices of the familiar tunes of " ye olden time." For the information of those not present the evening program is herewith presented, together with the addresses made by the pastors of the various churches. Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 21 iroa , (Emuu * Hf- 'JS O & Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 61 preservation of this Union, a government which has proved to be the best ever formed by the hand of man, giving life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all within its borders, and an asylum for the oppressed and downtrodden the wide world over. They may not have possessed the courtly manners of the Cavaliers of Virginia, or the sweet, gentle, submissive spirit of the Friends of Pennsylvania; they may not have been loyal to the King, but in their apprecia- tion of individual destiny they created a State in which they and every other citizen could be at once a subject and a king. They were loyal to Liberty itself, and to no one in a greater degree than to them is this country indebted for the teaching of those great principles of right which have been alike the source of her glory and the means of her progress. Again I say when you consider these and their other achievements, you have no reason to be ashamed, but rather to be proud, of your noble lineage. So honor them that your days and those of your sons and daughters may be long in this God given land which they have bequeathed you. Love for one's country, love for one's home is inherent in the human breast, but love for the scenes of one's childhood, for the place of one's nativity, is not only inborn but it grows with advancing years until it takes possession of the whole being and there comes into the soul an almost uncontrollable desire to re- turn to the place of life's sweetest memories, life's most hallowed recollections the childhood home, the long ago home. I read not long since in some paper or periodical an incident that seemed to illustrate this truth: A Missioner or Evangelist it matters little which who was holding a revival service in one of our large Western towns, after a most fervent exhortation, after a most earnest appeal, asked all those in the congregation that wanted to go to Heaven to manifest it by rising. All not rising he asked all those who wanted to go to Hades to signify it in the same manner. All not rising he then said : " Where in the universe would you like to go ?" A man arose in the congregation and said : " As for me, from what I have read and heard about Heaven I feel as though I would be a stranger in a strange land, and from your description of what you call Hades I certainly do not want to go there, but there is a place on earth where Mother lived, where I was born, in old Ridgefield, Connecticut, and Mr. Minister, if I can have my choice I'll go there." Doubtless all over this land today hundreds and thousands of people are turning their thoughts toward Ridgefield with a longing desire to be with us and join in this celebration; to join with us in our thanksgiving to Almighty God, not only for this beautiful world in which we live, not only for this, the most favored of all lands, not only for this State with its schools and colleges, the land of steady habits and the traditional nutmegs, but for this beautiful town, equalled by few excelled by none. I must hasten, for my time is limited. I know that I have digressed some- what from that theme that was given me by our honored Chairman, i. e. : a few words about my boyhood town, about my boyhood recollections; a few words about my experiences. 62 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 I was born, as some of you may know, in one of the rural districts of this town, but of the time and place I have no personal recollection, but I do remem- ber, as the days went by, the love and tender care and the careful training of one of the best of New England mothers, and I do remember the judicious tan- nings that I received, when I needed them, from one of the best of Puritan Fathers. Thus I was brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I went to church with my mother at an early date, as was the custom then, but about which I remember little. Later on, as the years went by I do re- member, with my brother George, (God bless him!) One of the best brothers that ever lived ; one of God's noblemen, as many of you here know. We trudged over the three miles from the old homestead to the preaching service at half past ten in the Methodist church on yonder corner, Sunday school at noon, preaching service again at 1.30 in the afternoon, after which we walked back and spent the balance of the day with father in reading, meditation and prayer. " Bring up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," was early impressed upon me by my father. I know this is not the teaching of the so-called Liberalists of the present day, but it is God's teaching and God's truth will never fail, and if there is any one thing that I have reason to be thankful for more than another it is that I received this old style New England training. Whatever success has come to me in life, what- ever I have achieved or accomplished, I owe largely to the teachings of the home, the church and the schools of that day. At four years of age I was sent to the district school and sat for several years at the feet of the Gamaliels of the town, two of whom are here today, one our honored, distinguished fellow townsman, Col. Hiram K. Scott, who has just addressed us, more mellow today than he was then, as many a boy could testify were he present upon this occasion. He doubtless believed in the proverb of the Wise Man of the East that to spare the rod was to spoil the child, and few there were under his tuition or instruction that did not early learn to dance the two-step to the tune of the tingling birch. Later on I went to school at the brick schoolhouse in the Florida district and had for my in- structor there our honored, esteemed friend and neighbor, Benjamin K. North- rop. Whether I had profited by my early experience or whether I had become more discreet in later years I do not pretend to say, but I did escape his correct- ing rod and was only sent over now and then across the schoolhouse to sit with the girls, which he thought was a punishment, but which you can readily be- lieve was a pleasure and a delight. At twelve years of age I began a four years' course of study at a private school then kept by the Rev. David H. Short, an Episcopal clergyman, Dean of Trinity College, a most competent instructor and a strict disciplinarian. Few graduated from that school without being pre- pared to enter any college in the land, or fitted, as far as schools can prepare the scholar, for life's work. It was a blessing to the boys and girls of Ridge- field and the surrounding towns in more ways than one. A strict disciplinarian he was, but I doubt whether he was aware of all the little attentions going on outside, which I will not mention today as I see many of the young ladies here r Portraiture of the second Lounsbury of Ridgefield to become Governor of Connecticut From late photograph taken by Randall of Hartford Painting by Charles Noel Flagg, from this photograph, has since been placed in the collection of paintings in the State Library at Hartford Record of the Bi-Centennlal Exercises 63 who attended school with me there. Finishing my course and graduating at the age of sixteen I left for the first time my parental roof and the only girl that I thought worth knowing and went to New York to make my fortune, which I had fixed at $10,000, then I was to come back and take this girl as my wife and settle down in Ridgefield to a life of usefulness and ease. But the boy's dream of sixteen years, like the dream of the night, is soon over, seldom realized and generally forgotten. I was not permitted to return home, because of my busi- ness engagements and business matters, more than once or twice in a year. Year after year I came back to the old homestead during the time of my vacations only to return to the solution of greater business problems and ever increasing responsibilities. During all this time I was cheered and inspired by the letters from home that came as regularly as the week came round; letters that told me the boy was not forgotten; letters of love and inspiration; letters of solici- tude and encouragement; letters that as I read them gripped the throat many and many a time. I will not further detain you in words of my own of the loving gratitude and tender affection that ever filled my heart for those that gave me life and taught me its mission, as I have in my possession some verses written about a boy from another New England town, a business associate of mine for the past twenty-five years, that are more expressive than any words at my command. WITH LOVE FROM MOTHER There's a letter on the bottom of the pile, Its envelope a faded, sallow brown; It has traveled to the city many a mile, And the postmark names a 'way up country town. But the hurried man of business pushes all the others by, And on the scrawly characters he turns a glistening eye; He forgets the cares of commerce and his well laid plans for gain, The while he reads what Mother writes from up in Maine. There are quirks and scratchy quavers of the pen, Where it struggled in the fingers old and bent; There are places where he has to read again, And think a bit to find what Mother meant. There are letters on his table that enclose some bouncing checks; There are letters giving promise of profits on his " specs " ; But he tosses all the litter by, forgets the golden rain, Until he reads what Mother writes from up in Maine. At last he finds " With love we all are well," And softly lays the homely letter down; Then dashes at his business tasks pell mell, Once more the busy business man of town. But whenever in his duties, as the rushing moments fly, That faded little envelope smiles up to meet his eye, He turns again to labor with a stronger, truer brain, From thinking of what Mother wrote from up in Maine. 64 1708 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 And then at dusk when all are gone, He drops his worldly mask, And takes his pen and lovingly performs A welcome task; For never shall the clicking type Or shorthand scrawl profane The message to the dear old home, Up there in Maine. The penmanship is rounded, schoolboy style, For Mother's eyes are getting dim, she wrote; And as he sits and writes there, all the while A bit of homesick feeling grips his throat. For all the business friendships here with John and Joe and Jim, And all the ties of later years grow very, very dim, While boyhood's loves in manhood's heart rise deep and pure and plain, Called forth by Mother's homely words from Maine. BY Ex-LiEUT.-Gov. E. O. KEELER Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: To follow the eloquent address that has been made by Governor Lounsbury places me in a very hard position. I remember well the day that he left Ridgefield to go to New York. I was at- tending the same school at that time that he was. I was so elated to think that I had got a place in a store that I could hardly wait for the day to come to go away. Then I remember very well crying two nights all night, for I was so awfully homesick to go back again. I came here today on a steam railroad. I very well remember when a boy of almost everyone saying that Ridgefield was one of the places in the country where they never could build a railroad to it, as it was all up hill. I wish that the people who lived in those days could be here today, and not only see the steam railroad, but the horseless carriages rushing through the streets, and the flying machines going through the air. They would soon come to the conclusion that nothing was impossible in this world, and that great changes have taken place in the last fifty years, even in the good old staid and conservative town of Ridgefield. I must be very careful what I say, as I see by referring to your program I am to be followed by three judges. Now, any person that has one judge after them is badly enough off, but to have three judges coming after you would seem to be almost the limit. Therefore you can see what an embarrassing position I am placed in. I do want to say that all honor should be given to the founders of the good old town of Ridgefield, for they most certainly laid the foundation deep and strong, and we behold today the grand and beautiful town of Ridgefield that has been built on this foundation. While this town may not be as large as some other towns in the state, I am sure that what it lacks in quantity it most certainly has made up in quality. Like the man out West who owned a railroad just two miles long, who told the president of an eastern road which was over 6,000 miles in length : " Well, your road may be a little longer than mine, but I LIEUT.-GOVERNOR E. O. KEELER JUDGE HOWARD B. SCOTT Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 65 want you to understand that mine is just as wide as yours." Where will you find another town in this state, or any other for that matter, that has furnished two governors out of one family and two judges out of another, and I don't know how many lieutenant-governors? I have not looked that up. Right here I desire to pay my respects and honor to the memory of one of the governors of the state, Hon. George E. Lounsbury. I was very intimately associated with him during his political life, and I had not a truer or better friend in the whole State of Connecticut than he was, and in his death I know Ridge- field suffered a great loss. A woman was met a few days ago by a book agent, who wanted to sell her a book that would tell her how to take care of a good husband. She informed him that she didn't need any such book at all, but if he had a book to tell her how she could get a good husband, she would buy one. Now it seems to me that Ridgefield has not only had a book that told them how to get a good town, but they most certainly had a book that has told them how to take care of it, for there is no more beautiful place than this town of Ridgefield. In closing, I would say that if I was going to propose a toast today it would be this : " Here's to the good old town of Ridgefield, as it has been for two hundred years, and it certainly has had God's blessing with it in the past-; here's to the town of Ridgefield as it is today, and I am sure that God's bless- ing is with it now; here's to the town of Ridgefield that will be in the future, and may it have God's blessing with it as long as time shall last. May you all live as long as you want to, and have health, wealth and happiness." BY JUDGE H. B. SCOTT Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: As I seem to be about the only one situated to drink the toast of the preceding speaker, I will drink it for you all. I don't like to have much to do with men that are afraid of changes. As a general thing you will find that the men who are afraid of changes, are the men that you had better be afraid of. However, I drink to the lieutenant-gov- ernor. In the good old times when all of the children used to come back to the family homestead upon anniversary occasions, there was a place also for all the grandchildren. I am not making any claim of having been born in the town of Ridgefield, but as my father had his birth-place here and my ancestors for many generations, I may at least claim Ridgefield as my grandmother. And as almost all of my boyhood days were spent here, I may claim her as my nurse; and as all the education which I received in schools, except at college, was re- ceived here, I claim Ridgefield as my teacher. So I come back to it upon this anniversary occasion to pay my respects to the good old town of Ridgefield in the three-fold capacity of my grandmother, my nurse and my teacher, three of the dearest relationships that exist in life. Speaking of ancestors, I think that the chairman of this committee had better stop talking about my ancestors. I was quite shocked when I heard him read so glibly from what he claimed to be a record, on account of some Scott 66 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 having been a slaveholder. Now I am out of politics at the present time; so of course it doesn't harm me as it might otherwise, but out of respect for my ancestors I deny the allegation. We don't know what to do always when an allegation is made all of a sudden and we haven't had time to look it up. The chairman is a pretty accurate sort of a man generally and I hate to dispute him, but having no other way of meeting it at the present time, I have concluded to deny the allegation and to appoint a time for a hearing, which if the lieutenant- governor will allow me I will set at the next centennial, when proof may be pro- duced of the truth or falsity of the charge. At present I deny it. The hand- writing isn't first-rate anyway in some of these old books, and Scott and Sey- mour begin with the same letter; so I am not at all sure it would not be found that man was Seymour instead of Scott, and he is trying to put it off on us. It is more than forty years ago since I ceased to live in Ridgefield and went over the northern borders to find a new home. It makes me feel pretty old when I think of the forty years that have passed since then. That is not the only thing connected with Ridgefield that makes me feel old either, because I have always taken the Ridgefield Press, with a desire to find out what is hap- pening to those I once knew ; and as I read my paper from week to week I every once in a while find an item which refers to somebody as our venerable fellow citizen, but of whom I think as some one that I knew in the very bloom of youth and the strength of manhood. I suppose, however, that we must all expect to grow old, the only notable exceptions that I know being those who are at the head of this program, and the gentleman who is advertised to close the exercises. They seem to be ever young. As my mind goes back through the decades since I left here, I remember very well the day when I said farewell to my boyhood friends, and started for the town of Danbury. I remember well that I formed certain firm and strong resolutions, very much of the same character that Governor Lounsbury did, although he has been able to carry them out in some respects better than I. They were very firm and strong, but fortunately for me they were not advertised, I kept them to myself. Still they were strong, and as I went over the hills, I remember thinking to myself that I would ac- cumulate a large fortune, a process by the way which seems very much easier and more expeditious to the youth than it afterwards turns out to be in the ac- complishment ; that I would come back to Ridgefield and marry a Ridgefield girl and I had the very girl picked out in my mind at the time, although she did not know anything about it, fortunately; and that I would come back here and buy one of the finest residences to be found in Ridgefield, and make this my home. But alas ! for the dreams of youth, notwithstanding the many flatter- ing examples which are set out so enticingly in juvenile literature, I must con- fess that I have been unable to make good in any of the respects that I have mentioned. The fortune still eludes me; the girl escaped, and she never even knew the danger that she escaped; and as for coming back to live in the town of Ridgefield, a short time after my departure, though not, I trust, entirely on account of my departure, the price of real estate began to soar so high in the town of Ridgefield that it has always since then been quite beyond my reach, so I have given up all of those dreams of my youth. Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 67 When your enterprising chairman here corralled the gentlemen who sit around me upon the stage, he told us that we were expected to make a speech of only ten minutes; that the people of Ridgefield wanted to see our faces and hear our voices once more, and here we are. I am willing to concede to these gentlemen who are sitting around me all the beauty which they or their wives may claim. For myself alone, so far as looking at us is concerned, I should consider any one quite accurate who should go away and say that he thought he had seen better. So far as reminiscences of boyhood are concerned, I don't think I could give you any which would be of interest to you. There are some things that I re- member in connection with the boys and girls who were my friends at that time, which I remember with interest, but they would not be of interest to you. My years in Ridgefield were all school boy days, and my recollections cluster almost entirely about the school at High Ridge, which was then the leading institution of this town. Although the chairman has seen fit to cast an aspersion upon my family, upon by ancestors, nevertheless I cannot forbear saying that I have had considerable experience since that time in educational matters, and I am fully satisfied that there were very few schools at that time, and that there are very few schools at the present time, which afforded better education to the youth than the school at High Ridge under the guidance of Mr. Seymour and Dr. Todd, who was one of our most esteemed teachers. And in any commemoration of the achievements at Ridgefield during the last two hundred years, I think high prominence should be given to that school at High Ridge, from which so many boys have gone out to success. As far as my own experience goes, I owe it a very great debt of gratitude, because although I left school before I was four- teen years old, and then spent several years in forgetting as far as I could what I had learned while I was trying to sell dry goods, when I at last made up my mind to enter college, so thorough was the instruction given me here, that with the aid of another teacher after a few months I was able to enter college with only one condition, which speaks well for the thoroughness of the teaching of that school. I congratulate the citizens of Ridgefield today upon the termination of the second centennial in the life of this town, and also upon the spirit of patriotism which induced you not to allow so important an occasion in the history of the town to pass unnoticed. During these present years there are many bi-centen- nials of our New England towns being held, and I think it is very commendable and proper that notice should be taken of these years, which are stepping-stones in the lives of the communities which are represented. It is proper that flags should be unfurled, that bands should play and processions march, and all the other indications of gala days should be shown upon a day like this; but after all the real importance of this day does not lie in any of these things. They are soon to pass away, but the importance of the day really lies in the fact that it is a very excellent time for us to stop and think. For the most part we drift along through life doing with more or less efficiency what our hands find to do for the time, but thinking little of the past over which we have come, or the future 68 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centenmal 1908 towards which we shall go. When some day like this comes, which by its im- portance leads us to throw our memories back upon the past, the most important celebration which we can have is the exercise of that power of reminiscence; and the few serious words that I say to you today are an admonition that after the noise and excitement of the day have passed away, that each of us spend a few hours in considering what it was in the characters of our ancestors which enabled them to perform the miracle of building the towns and cities which are now scattered all over this state. The achievements of our ancestors are told in history and song and story, and I need not, if I would, repeat them to you now, neither do I need to catalogue or enlarge upon the qualities of our ancestors which enabled them to accomplish this great task. Times have changed as the centuries have rolled on, and there may be some characteristics of our ancestors that it would not be well for us to follow. Shall I say their bigotry in relation to the conscientious opinions of those who opposed them, while it may have had its justification in the times in which they lived, it may be that, having left their homes and all the culture and pleasures of life, and settling in a wilderness, having done this for the very purpose of finding a place where those who believed alike could live together, it may be they had the justification of saying to those who came there that did not think as they did: " If you do not think as we do, go off and make a settlement." I don't say they were justified. If they were, that is not the spirit of the present day. But there were certain traits in them which are known to you all, which enabled them to make this country what it is today, and without the development of those traits this country cannot progress, in my judgment, satisfactorily; we cannot leave to the generations that follow us that which we have received from those who preceded us. A conscientious action, a belief in something, a will- ingness to sacrifice something for principle, those were traits which in those days were predominant, and which in these days I fear are becoming less and less prominent. If all of the citizens and all in all of the country towns as these bi-centen- nials come along, looking back at the traits in their ancestors and selecting that which was good from them, could in the future imitate what they had done; if candidates proposed for office were examined to see whether they were proper persons to fill offices of trust; if measures were proposed which seem to them wrong and oppressive would not wait to see how their people felt about it, but would immediately themselves take a stand against it ; if we believe and act upon something besides that which seems to be for our own ease and interest, then I think that the safety of the state will be continued. But if we do not follow in the thoughts and ways of our ancestors in that respect, then I think there is danger ahead for this country. Let us not only sing the songs our fathers sang, but let us do the deeds our fathers did in the days of " Auld Lang Syne." JUDGE JAMES F. WALSH Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 69 JUDGE JAMES F. WALSH, OF GREENWICH Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : Your president has well said that I am a former Ridgefield boy, but I feel a good deal like the Irishman who was delivering an oration on St. Patrick's Day, when in a burst of enthusiasm he said to the boys : " Boys, it is your duty to stand up for your native country even if you wasn't born there." It is about the way I feel, because I wasn't born in Ridgefield, but I came here at a very early day, being, I believe, four weeks old, so that my entire boyhood days were spent in Ridgefield, and for years after leaving here, and up to this very day, I always speak of going to Ridgefield as going home. The fact that Ridgefield was my home has never gotten out of my mind. I hate to say it after so many have said it, after Governor Lounsbury and Judge Scott have said that it was their ambition to accumulate money and return to Ridgefield and live the re- mainder of their days, but such was my ambition. I certainly had looked for- ward to that time when I might, just as Governor Lounsbury said, accumulate enough to return to Ridgefield and live. But times have changed, and what was sufficient to live on years ago, we do not think now is sufficient. As we grow older our needs become greater; we want more, we look for more, and I pre- sume we are entitled to more. What used to be an ordinary competency is now considered substantially nothing. What we used to consider was good, fair wages when I was a boy, now is considered nothing, and you couldn't hire any- body to work for the same price that you could when I was a boy. It reminds me of the story of the man who had in his employ a young man who was about to be married. The young man went to his employer and said : " Mr. Brown, I am going to get married; consequently I will need a larger income. I can't possibly think of getting married and supporting a wife and family on ten dollars a week, which I now receive, and I think I ought to be raised." Mr. Brown looked at the young man and said : " I don't see why you should have a raise simply because you are going to get married; I don't know why you can't live on ten dollars a week. When I was a boy and clerk in a store, I worked for eight dollars a week, and I got married and raised a family of four." " But," the boy said, " that was before the day of the cash register." I was informed by the letter from your president that I was to spend ten minutes in relating my boyhood reminiscences. It was all very well for the gen- tlemen who preceded me to relate their boyhood reminiscences they are all much older than I am. They each and every one of them knew that the statute of limitations had run against anything which they had done when they were boys. I am fearful if I should relate some of mine, that somebody would say they were not outlawed and I might get into trouble. I know you will believe me when I say to you with Governor Lounsbury, Lieut-Governor Keeler, Judge Scott and everybody who has spoken before me, each and every one of them knew where the peach orchard was, where the watermelon patch was, and I don't see why they didn't tell you all about it, as long as they knew it was out- lawed they couldn't be prosecuted. 70 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 It would seem to me that the early settlers of Ridgefield had built far better than they knew when they located this town, with its magnificent streets, right at the foot of those mountains, where you get that breeze; but I don't think that the inhabitants of Ridgefield built any better than they knew, for I think they built exactly as they knew when they selected this committee to get up this entertainment at this bi-centennial. Mr. Seymour, the chairman of this committee, I can remember looking up to him as I did to others like the Lounsburys, E. H. Smith, Dr. Todd and several others, and now as I look back I can very plainly see why Ridgefield is known throughout the country as it is. These men were all men of character. Mr. Seymour, quiet, unassuming, unpre- tentious, yet known as he is from one end of this state to the other as an honest, just, upright man, who knows when to say no, and who knows when to say yes. I was very much impressed when I heard Col. Scott speaking of the early records of Ridgefield. When I asked him his age and he told me he was eighty- six, I could not help thinking that England had her Gladstone, the United States her Washington, Lincoln, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt; that Connecticut had her Trumbulls, Marshalls and McLeans; that Ridgefield had her grand young man, Col. H. K. Scott. I presume that I could spend more than my allotted ten minutes in telling some of my boyhood experiences in Ridgefield. They were pleasant ones, look- ing back on them now. I always thought, as I said before, that I should like to return and spend my old age here, but that I have long since given up, because new associations, new ties, make our lives different from what we had planned. I was amused when the president said in his opening address that one Samuel Olmstead represented the town of Ridgefield in the legislature for twenty-nine years. I turned to my friend, Judge Scott, and said : " I don't believe any place on the face of the earth would stand for that except Ridgefield. Down my way they would say he was a post long before twenty-nine years." Judge Scott re- plied that possibly that was so, but it was the proper thing when a man repre- sented a town faithfully, to keep him there, because then he was of some use to the community he represented. That fact brought to my mind very clearly an illustration in this congressional district. When I saw upon the platform Congressman Hill, who is to deliver an address tonight, and when I realized what a big man he has become at Washington, I can see that Judge Scott was right when he said it was proper to keep a good man in a position, because then he was of some use to the community. When I speak of Congressman Hill, because he is your congressman the same as mine, I can see that by keeping him at Washington, as the people of the fourth congressional district have done term after term, they have placed a man there who is of use, not only to himself, not only to the fourth congressional district, but to the United States, because Congressman Hill has certainly become one of the big men of Washington. Ridgefield has a lot to be proud of. Tell me where on the face of the earth there is any town the size of Ridgefield that has furnished two governors to the state? Think of it! The small town of Ridgefield supplies two governors to the State of Connecticut, the highest office to which any man in the state can RIDGEFIELD AND AMERICAN EDUCATION Dr. Cyrus Northrop, born in Ridgefield in 1834 Twenty-one years professor of English Literature at Yale Twenty-two years President of University of Minnesota From a recent photograph Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 71 be elected, out of the same family. I never can forget one of those governors. It was Mr. George Lounsbury whom I knew much better than I did his brother, who said to me while coming out of the train some eight years ago : " Walsh, why don't you go to the senate next year?" I said to him: "Why, Governor, I would love to go to the senate." I had just previously served one term in the house. I said : " I would like to go to the senate. How can I get there ? It is promised to somebody else." He said : " You can go if you want to ; Ridgefield is for you, and so is Wilton." " Well," I said, " I think Greenwich is;" and so on that tip I went in and got the nomination for the senate, and it was put in my head by one of the best men that ever drew the breath of life, and that was Governor George E. Lounsbury. My brother said to me when I was coming up here, " Please remember that Mr. Seymour said you was allowed ten minutes." I said, " I will." He said, " If you do, it will be the first time in your life." So, bearing in mind what my brother said to me, I say to you one and all, I thank you, and I hope some day to return to Ridgefield and stay longer than just for the day. MR. SEYMOUR, Chairman : I think I am not mistaken this time, when I in- troduce to you the next and last speaker, as to the fact that he was born in Ridgefield. Some of these who have spoken have not been born here, although we claim them, having spent most of their boyhood days here. I have now great pleasure in introducing to you President Cyrus Northrop of Minnesota University, who presides over an institution where about 4,400 young students are being educated for usefulness in life, and has presided over that institution with great honor and credit to himself for twenty-three years, if I am not mistaken. BY CYRUS NORTHROP, LL.D., President Minnesota University. Mr. President, I am exceedingly glad that Judge Walsh has saved me the necessity of paying to you personally the tribute which it would have afforded me great pleasure to give you. I am glad because it gives me time to say other things which are perhaps as necessary as to repeat a tribute to you, who by this time must be quite aware of the honor in which you are held by the residents of Ridgefield, as well as by those who have gone away from the town. I am here simply for the purpose of enjoying this celebration and of partici- pating in it as a former son of Ridgefield. I haven't come here for the purpose of making an extended address, or of being a part of the celebration. I have been to a great many celebrations in a great many places, some larger than this, and I have enjoyed them in some measure, but I want to congratulate you all upon the success of this celebration. It is modest, it is sincere, it is unique, and it meets the requirements of the occasion; and I have very heartily enjoyed everything that has happened since the exercises began last evening. The music was delightful, and I felt as we listened to the music last night, what an atmosphere of religious purity breathes over this celebration with these songs by the people who live here ! And it was a delightful thing to find on the plat- 72 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 form last night men representing the most extreme differences of religious be- lief, the extreme Puritan, if you please, and the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Methodist. There were times when I was a boy when nothing like that would have been possible in Ridgefield, and when even among the Protestant denominations there were violent contentions. I was delighted, Sir, to see the representatives of all these religious faiths unite here upon the platform, recog- nizing for the time at least that there is only one God for them all, only one Re- deemer for them all, only one Heaven for them all, and that it is well for them that they should live in concord here on earth, emphasizing the things in which they agree, trying to unite on doing the things that are good, that they may enjoy some things of God when they meet in the beyond. I have lived long enough to know that the great thing in this world after all is not fighting and contention, but it is love. Now abide these three, faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love. The power that is going to make this nation what it ought to be is not contention and fighting, though we may have to fight for principles that we love, but it is love that shall bind us all to- gether in a common impulse to make our country what it ought to be, and to maintain the things that are good and right. It is more than fifty years since I went away from Ridgefield, and I have been here often enough to keep in touch with the town and know what was go- ing on, but I haven't been here often enough to keep up my acquaintance with the people as a whole. How many people there are in Ridgefield that know me or ever saw me, I haven't any idea. Some old friends I meet and am glad to meet. In this fifty years the town has been transformed. It was always beauti- ful God made it beautiful no man could make it anything but beautiful. The great wide street, with its noble trees and its green lawn and its comfortable houses no man could degrade that street and make it anything but beautiful. It is more beautiful today than it ever was with the old white church crown- ing the spot where it stood, the most beautiful spot in the whole town. What a street it was ! I was born in West Lane, and I knew the West Lane district. There were thirty-nine families in that district when I was a boy, and to my knowledge there are only five families of the thirty-nine that have any repre- sentatives now living in that district. I knew the southern part of the Main street better than I did the upper. I can name the people in the order in which they lived up to the Episcopal church. Beginning at the lower end of the street there was Burr Keeler, and then Captain Ben Keeler, Abraham Holmes, Chaun- cey Olmstead, Platt Brush, Harvey Smith, Thaddeus Keeler, Isaac Lewis, Abijah Resseguie, Smith Keeler, George Keeler, Eli Foot, Czar Jones, William Hawley, Elijah Hawley, Nathan Smith, Deacon Elisha Hawley, Samuel Hawley, Joshua King, David Hurlburt, Rufus Pickett and Dr. Nehemiah Perry. Now a singular thing about it is that these men stand before me today with an individuality that has not been dimmed one particle in the course of years. Every man has an individuality about him. There were no men in that whole crowd that were alike in any respect whatever. There were few men that had the same occupation. Go into a great city today I live in a city of 300,000 Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 73 people, where sixty years ago there were no people at all. Go there or into any great city, especially Chicago or New York, and see the great crowds of people that pour into the city in the morning and go out of the city at night. I stand and look at them they don't look like men having individuality. They are simply cogs in the multitude of wheels of industry that are driven by a force somewhere out of themselves titanic and unseen. Some power keeps the elec- tricity or the water working, and these men are simply cogs in the wheels that roll around until their work is done. These men here in Ridgefield, every man of them, was a power within himself, working at something, one a blacksmith, one a harness maker, one a carriage maker. There was Deacon Harvey Smith, one of the strongest intellects that ever existed in the town of Ridgefield, a noble man, a man whom I remember in the prayer meeting. When Deacon Smith rose to pray I tell you the Almighty was going to give attention. He bowed his head and shook it as if he would shake out of it all the worldliness that ever existed. He began : " O, Thou, eternal, omniscient, ever-living God," and I tell you that prayer meant something. We all knew there was going to be a prayer when Deacon Smith got up. None of your weak, simpering, lackadaisical, hope-for- nothing sort of prayers that you sometines hear. I tell you he was a great man ; he ought to have had a mission a great deal wider and larger than that old corner store. There was Joshua King, an aristocratic man of noble bearing. He was a representative man of wealth of that day, the John D. Rockefeller of the day. To be as rich as Joshua King meant untold wealth. I don't think he was a tremendously wealthy man, as things are today. I think every man in Ridge- field thoroughly respected Joshua King as a gentleman who was affable, courte- ous and kind. There was old Dr. Perry, who had a mixture of medical knowl- edge and a polite affability that supplied whatever lack of medical knowledge he may have had, I do not mean that he lacked knowledge, and the two went together in such a charming way that people would send for him thirty or forty miles away to cure them of diseases that no ordinary doctor could cure. He was a delightful old doctor. So I might speak of other men. The point I make is, there was a wonderful individuality about them all, and they stand up today as conspicuous as the statues in the Capitol at Washington. Look at your two representatives from Connecticut, noble specimens of men. As I look round upon my Connecticut brethren of today, I feel they are but imperfectly maintaining the standard of such men as Jonathan Trumbull and other noble specimens of men that Connecticut had in the olden time. These are some of the men, and the characteristic was the delightful in- dividuality that they had. Every one of them thought for himself, every one of them stood for a certain kind of character, and every man in town knew what' the character of every other man was. The delightful thing about a coun- try place is that every man knows his neighbor, and every man stands as an ex- ample to his neighbor, and so things are kept as they ought to be. The great city with thousands and thousands hidden away at night, God knows where, and coming out like rats in the morning to earn a living, working all day in a mechanical, unindividual way, and then going back again what is such a life 74 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 as that compared with the beauty, the sweetness, the joy, the peace of a life in a country town like this ! I went to that famous school on High Ridge, in the Peter Parley house. It was rather a remarkable group of boys up there. I remember William Smith, son of Deacon Smith, and Walter Jones. They were older than I. There was James H. Olmstead who afterwards was prominent as a lawyer in Stamford. There was Timothy K. Wilcox who took the valedictory at Yale, and died a few years later. There was William Henry Northrop, brother of your Dr. A. L. Northrop. He died when a school boy. He was remarkably bright and I have often wondered what his career would have been if he had lived. There was Rufus S. Pickett, who later studied law and became a judge in New Haven. There was Ira S. Keeler whom most of you knew for years as an active citizen of Ridgefield and who died in Florida. There was Frank Hawley, son of Eben Hawley, a very dear friend of mine. He died when he was a Junior in Amherst College. He and I used to study the newspapers to learn all we could about the Mexican war and especially what was happening to his cousin, a young lieutenant, just out of West Point, Darius N. Couch. A few years ago I met in Minneapolis that same Darius N. Couch, no longer lieutenant, but major- general of the United States Army. The only men in the whole group living today are the Rev. S. McNeill Keeler of Danbury and myself. The rest are all gone. Now I am not here to say a word about myself or my life. I have been twenty-four years in Minneapolis ; I have seen great changes, great growth in every respect ; I have had a delightful time there ; it is a delightful place ; I love it and love to live there, but I am always glad to see my native town; I am always glad to feel that it is as clean and delightful and as noble in character as it ever was ; I am glad to feel that what God made so beautiful, these rocks, such as you can ride from Minneapolis to Branchville without seeing, and as you start from Branchville to Ridgefield you get the first vision of the hard black rocks partially covered with vines and leaves; these rocks that God made so beautiful and are so beautiful all over the town, the same things that land- scape architects like to put into their landscapes in an artificial way to make things beautiful; these are all here even when wealth and art have not touched them. But there has come into this town great wealth ; there have come people from outside, in New York; they have with exquisite taste and great liberality built residences and made the town more beautiful than it was; and with your new roads, new lighting apparatus, new water works, new dwelling houses, with the glorious places that are spread out in beauty on almost every hill, united with all the beauty that nature originally gave you and that nothing can rob you of, Ridgefield is in my estimation today as beautiful a place as there is anywhere on the face of the earth. A little hill town what does it amount to ? What is it worth in the country as compared with the great city? Oh, the little hill towns are the places from which have come the men who have given glory to the country, and have assured prosperity to our institutions. Whence came Abraham Lincoln? From the great city? Whence came Ulysses S. Grant Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 75 from the great city ? Whence came the founder of our faith, the great teacher from the great city? They all came from the little places, the places in which men have time to think, to meditate, to think of themselves, to think of their future, to think of their life ; places where life is not one almighty Niagara roar of avarice in the accumulation of wealth, that a man can pile up and drop when he dies. Sir, if there is anything ignoble, it is a passion for wealth for wealth's sake. Men that accumulate wealth, but use it as a blessing for their fellowmen, are God's agents in doing good, and I believe that great blessing has come to Ridgefield from the distribution of wealth. But if there are any young men here in Ridgefield who are thinking for themselves that their object in life shall be to go out and accumulate wealth, and then come back here to live, I tell you, don't do it, don't do it. It is a mighty sight more important what you are, than what you get. It is a mighty sight more important what kind of a man you are going to be, than how much wealth you are going to have; and if you are going to be a power in this country for good, you have got to be a man who thinks, who thinks correctly, who stands for the things that are right, knowing what is right. You can do a multitude of things that will tell for the country's honor and glory, even though you never acquire wealth enough to come back to live in Ridgefield. Mr. President, I suppose I have more than fulfilled any obligation that you inadvertently placed me under. I knew perfectly well that these people did not know me, that it did not make very much difference to them whether I came or not, or whether I spoke, but I knew you did know me. There was a time when you knew me and you never have forgotten the day; you have loved me and I would come for your sake, and I am here today. I don't know as many of you as I should know if I were facing a Minneapolis audience, where twenty- four years have made me known to the people and it is always delightful to speak to friends but I am perfectly sure that I am speaking now to an audience as friendly as any I could gather in the city where I do my work, and if you haven't anything else to make you rejoice in seeing me, you must certainly re- joice to see me because I am the last speaker of the morning. I said in the beginning that I had been pleased with everything that has oc- curred. I have been. I thank the gentlemen and the singers, and the clergymen last evening for the words that they have spoken. I thank the committee for the delightful preparations they have made and carried out. I thank the citizens of Ridgefield for giving me an assurance that there is in this town the same high-toned character that has always existed here, and I congratulate you that the second hundredth anniversary closes under circumstances that inspire the fullest confidence and hope that this beautiful, beautiful place, which God has so abundantly blessed by spreading out all His colors as an artist and making it a place for men to grow strong, and women to grow beautiful in, and children to grow up pure and strong, will in the centuries to come maintain the high character of the past, maintain its historical excellence for right principles and noble men, and that the generations that shall be raised here will be a credit to the great ancestors who brought from England a love of freedom and in Ply- 76 1708 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 mouth established a system of government that was honorable and just to man- kind. Let me say in conclusion that whatever may be said by anybody of the Puritan, the Pilgrim never persecuted and was never unjust. Let us love one another, let us remember the things in which we agree and join hands for mak- ing them powerful and permanent, and let us make as little of the things in which we disagree as possible, that there may be union and harmony among us, and that the great work of life may move forward successfully at our hands. I thank you for having given me the opportunity once more of meeting you all. There are men and women in this audience whose hands I want to shake, and who must not leave this house until they have come to me and shaken hands. Some of them know me very well ; some of them I know very well, and if there are any that do not know me and that I do not know, let them not go away in haste, leaving me in solitude after these exercises are closed. MR. SEYMOUR: We will now close by singing two verses of Julia Ward Howe's Hymn of the Republic, and the audience is invited to join in the chorus. I wish to say before closing that this afternoon at three o'clock it is ex- pected that the children of the various schools of the town will assemble in this place and read papers which they have prepared, concerning the history of Ridgefield, to be conducted under the auspices of the town board of education. And at four o'clock this afternoon the business men of the town expect to have a parade on the main street. Thank you all very much for being here on this occasion, and sitting so quietly on such an uncomfortable day. I know you have been interested in the remarks of the speakers who have addressed you. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of July 7th the school children of the town as- sembled in the town hall, under the auspices of the town school board, and after listening to some patriotic music furnished by the Ridgefield band, read the fol- lowing historical papers concerning the early settlement of the town, which had been prepared by them for the occasion. They are published in order to give a complete record of the proceedings of the day. THE HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD BY MARGARET KENNEDY In the year, 1708, Catoonah, sachem of the Ramapoo Indians, sold for one hundred pounds sterling a tract of land bounded north and east by Danbury, south by Norwalk and west by New York State, to twenty-nine men from Nor- walk and three from Mil ford. That year the General Assembly appointed Major Peter Burr of Fairfield, John Copp of Norwalk, and Josiah Starr of Dan- bury, to survey and lay out the new settlement. A street six rods wide was planned from north to south. On either side were home lots of two and one-half acres ; in the center a " Green " for the meeting, town and school houses, and on the east and west ridges, five acres of pasture to each home lot. Then the place, Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 77 appropriately named Ridgefield, was ready for the new inhabitants to move in and go to housekeeping. At the north end of the town is a great boulder called " Settlers' Rock," supposed to have been the camping place of the first comers to Ridgefield. November, 1708, was the date of the lottery by means of which the land was apportioned and twenty-five home-sites were drawn. It will not be necessary here to relate doings of the early settlers. Not until the year of 1775 does the history of Ridgefield take a prominent part. In 1775 a number of patriots had gathered at Ridgefield Inn to discuss the chief topics that were agitating the minds of the colonists. Many of the colonists felt that the time for resisting the unjust measures was close at hand and circumstances were fast approaching a crisis. On March 10, 1775, Governor Tryon issued the follow- ing proclamation : Know ye all men by these presents ! That I, William Tryon, a servant and governor of his most gracious majesty, our worthy sovereign, do hereby decree that those misguided persons, who perhaps tempted and harnessed by scheming and rebellious friends being led away from their several duties by misrepre- sentation, if, upon returning to the allegiance to their king, immediately, with sworn declaration that they will not again become estranged from the path of duty, do hereby grant them pardon and all rights that they have formerly possessed. But those who fail to renew their allegiance, to his most gracious majesty, King George Third, are to be known as rebels and traitors, and upon such they will be imprisoned and their property confiscated. Your obedient servant, WILLIAM TRYON, Governor of New York. Major General of Troops. In the spring of 1777 the following message was brought to General Bene- dict Arnold and Colonel Oswald : " Governor Tryon, with Brigadier-General Agnew and Sir William Erskine have just landed at Campo Hill, near the mouth of the Saugatuck River, with 2,000 men, and think their object is to destroy stores at Danbury some twenty or thirty miles away. Gather every available man to march in pursuit, to intercept or give battle." When Lord Howe pro- ceeded against Peekskill to destroy the stores that were known to have been accumulated there, by some good fortune the patriots learned of his intention in advance, giving them sufficient time to remove them to Danbury, Connecticut, a distance of twenty or thirty miles eastward. Learning of this some time later, he secretly determined to make that point the seat of his future operations at some opportune time when the place was poorly guarded and most of the militia were engaged elsewhere. It was therefore at one of these times early in the spring of 1777 when it was determined upon to attack this point. Colonel Joseph P. Cook, with a small number to guard these stores, was in constant com- munication with many points to gain reinforcements at short notice, if occasion required it. Expresses were constantly sent out to keep him informed of all that was going on within the surrounding country. Lieutenant Lockwood was 78 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 instructed to mount and ride to Wooster or Silliman at Fairfield. He was to tell them of the forces at Danbury, and if possible to give their assistance. The enemy came upon Lockwood and tried to capture him, but he evaded them and delivered his message. They advanced steadily and reached Danbury. After taking possession of the town, destroying the stores and setting fire to the houses, there began a scene of the wildest excess, cruelty and devastation that could characterize an unprincipled and exasperated enemy. Liquors were stored in quantities and the British soldiers fell on these until their beastly natures were satisfied. Most of the stores of pork and flour were stored in the Episcopal church, and that edifice was the only church spared, with the exception of the homes of the Tories. Provisions were rolled out into the streets and set on fire. After the conflagration pork fat was deep in the streets. Leaving Dan- bury after their night of cruelty and debauchery, General Tryon brought his men through the Sugar Hollow Road. They had but left this road a few miles in the rear before they were surprised by the Americans. Tryon knew his men were in no condition to resist an attack by the Americans and urged one of his officers to do his best to put the men in a position to return the attack. General Wooster was the leader of the Yankees, as the British called the Americans. Wooster urged his men forward and attacked the rear guard of the enemy and to harass them in flank and rear so as to retard their progress until he should be strength- ened by Arnold and Silliman. In regard to numbers, the Americans were but a handful compared to the British. After an onslaught on the British in which a large number were killed and wounded, the British general brought three field pieces into position and charged on the Americans from cannon. This brought great confusion in the colonists' lines, which were about to retreat in disorder when General Wooster rode up and encouraged his men to make an- other charge. Just at this moment a stray ball hit the general and he fell from his horse mortally wounded. He was taken to Danbury and only lived a few days. The British now steadily advanced, discharging their artillery to dis- lodge the Americans, who had greatly increased in number and who were harass- ing the enemy unmercifully. The American officers Arnold, Oswold, Johnson, and Taunt strengthened the American army to a surprising degree, more so than the British believed. After the first attack the British were startled and overwhelmed by the superior forces with which they had to deal. Soon rally- ing and retaining their position they advanced up the hill an invisible foe, from behind trees, rocks and buildings, until they worked around to the rear of the patriots' right flank. The cause of this drawback on the American's side was that they did not have enough field pieces to cope with the British. The en- gagement lasted about an hour and our men behaved with great spirit and courage. At last they were forced to give way because the enemy had raised a breastwork across the road directly in front of where Arnold was entrenched. Arnold ordered a retreat and was bringing off his rear guard when his horse was shot from under him. At last Arnold had to command his men to retreat to save themselves, that the British were upon them. General Tryon and his men did not seek shelter in the village because he knew how he was hated by Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 79 the village people, so he encamped about a mile south of the main street over- looking the sound. Early the next morning just at dawn Tryon burned one of the houses near at hand as a signal to the ships in the sound. During the whole march to the sound they were harassed by the colonists. They reached their ships by making a longer journey to evade the Americans. BY MARION NORTHROP Ridgefield, a small town in the western part of Connecticut, had at first only a few settlers. It consisted of hills on the west and woods sloped down to Long Island Sound. The people that settled in Ridgefield came from Nor- walk and Milford. They consisted mostly of Northrops, Keelers, Nashes and Hawleys. This town was settled by a sturdy race of men. Nearly all the people were farmers, and there was a butcher who went from house to house killing the people's hogs and cattle, but he had no market. There was a tanner who tanned skins for people. There was a clothier who made clothes for the people but went to the house to make them and did not have a tailor shop as we have now. Sap was gathered from the maple trees in March, boiled down in the woods and made into sugar or syrup. The men of those times wore knee breeches, long tailed coats, and hats with low crowns and wide brims. The stockings of the parson were silk in summer and worsted in winter. The women had bonnets of silk or straw, gowns of gingham, silk or muslin, short waisted and close. The dress of the people in those days was very different from what it is now. The people had farms of their own and neat cottages with large fireplaces and a backlog from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter and about five feet long, imbedded in ashes. Marriages took place in the evening and all the people came without any invitation. At funerals there were long processions and when the procession got to the cemetery the parson gave a talk suited to the occasion. Dances were given at different houses quite often. The West Lane school is probably the oldest in Ridgefield. It is built on the triangle where four roads meet, as was then common, because it was handier for the pupils from all directions. It was rough and unpainted and consisted of two apartments, the entry and the schoolroom. The benches were made around three sides of the room and the scholars sat at low desks. There was a huge fireplace at one side of the room and the chimney was so straight that the snow and rain came down on the hearth. This was the only means of heat- ing the room. In winter when the wood was too green to burn and the ther- mometer ten or twenty degrees below zero, the teacher would let the scholars go home, for which they were very glad. In summer the teacher was a woman and the scholars were the younger ones, and in winter the teacher was a man and the boys and girls from the youngest up to sixteen or twenty at- 8o 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 tended, and in a small schoolroom there would be perhaps forty children un- der one teacher. The scholars were called up to the teacher's desk and there they recited instead of reciting in a class as we do now. In those days they studied reading, arithmetic and grammar and some other studies that we study now but not in the same way. The meeting house or church was covered with shingles and clapboards but it had no stoves and no carpet on the floor. For heating they had little foot-stoves in which they put live coals. The pulpit was like a little balcony up above the people at one end of the church. The seats were square and the people sat on three sides. BY KATHERINE WHELAN The citizens of every village are more or less proud of their village and its history. The citizens of Ridgefield are privileged to be proud of the history of their town. It is one of the oldest of New England's towns. When in possession of the Indians Ridgefield was known by the Indian name of Cauda- towa, meaning " high land " ; and indeed the name was well given, for beautiful High Ridge rises to an altitude of eight hundred feet above sea level and the beautiful homes that adorn it command a view that has become famous. The first settlement was started by a small number of enterprising inhabi- tants of the town of Norwalk in 1708. Those early pioneers had indeed set themselves to a severe task to come with their families to this place, which was then a wilderness, and to build homes and clear and cultivate the land. It is said that the first white men who set foot in this town passed their first night on the large rock about opposite the schoolhouse at Titicus. Among the early settlers there were no wealthy men, they were all of moderate means. As money was not very plentiful in those days the settlers traded among them- selves, and the minister was paid for his services in rye, wheat and Indian corn. When the Revolutionary War broke out a company of sixty-four men was formed in the village and commanded by Captain Northrop. Colonel Philip Bradley and General Joshua King were also conspicuous in the war. The list of Ridgefield's noted sons does not end here, for men of literary note are added to it. Among them is S. G. Goodrich, whose works were published under the nom de plume of " Peter Parley." The house on the Ridge, now the residence of Mr. John A. King, was once the home of Peter Parley. Another was Ezekiel Sanford, who edited the Eclectic Magazine and wrote a pre-Revolutionary History of the United States. At the present time Ridge- field's sons may be found in the various walks of life as doctors, lawyers, etc. And one of them, Professor Cyrus Northrup, is president of one of our Western universities. At one time Ridgefield had hat and shoe factories and tanneries. Iron and sulphur have also been found in the town. But at the present time it is more particularly noted as a town of summer homes of many of the wealthy families from New York and other large cities. Few towns can boast so many Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 81 beautiful drives, and the views and scenery are unsurpassed. There is an ex- cellent public library, and the Village Improvement Society has done much to beautify the town. Few, if any, villages in New England have so beautiful a main street. It is over a mile in length and about a hundred feet wide and is lined on either side with an unbroken row of noble trees. The beautiful homes with their broad lawns and beautiful trees are extremely attractive. BY LETTIE RITCH In 1708, Catoonah, sachem of the Ramapoo Indians, sold for one hundred pounds sterling, a tract of land bounded north and east by Danbury, south by Norwalk, and west by New York State, to twenty-nine men from Norwalk and three from Milford. This tract of land included Ridgefield one of the most historic and beautiful country seats in Connecticut, a battle ground of the American Revo- lution, and the home of patriots. During the Revolution, Ridgefield, intensely patriotic, raised two companies of soldiers, one under Captain Northrop, one under Captain Olmstead. Five hundred patriots under General Benedict Arnold reached Ridgefield, April 27, 1777, in the morning and built a hasty barricade of earth and rocks, across the north end of the street. Here the British routed the Americans during this skirmish, and sixteen royalists and eight patriots were killed. General Arnold narrowly escaped, for his horse was shot under him. Stebbins homestead was used as a temporary hospital and the dead were buried in the adjoining field. In South Salem, Maj. Andre lodged a prisoner under the guard of Lieut. Joshua King. King became attached to Andre (his charge) whom he accom- panied to the gallows. The arm chair used by Andre while in South Salem is now in possession of Lieut. King's descendants. During the Revolution the Episcopal church was used to store away sup- plies. This building and six others were fired by Gen. Tryon among these buildings was the Keeler Tavern, kept by Timothy Keeler, a patriot. The Eng- lish heard that cartridges were being made in the tavern and they (the English) discharged several cannon balls into the house (one is still visible). The in- mates of the tavern took refuge in the woods. Mr. Keeler's neighbor was a Tory who finding the sparks were a menace to his own house received Tryon's permission to quench the flames. When Mr. Keeler returned from his hiding place, the Tory met him say- ing, " You may thank me that your house is safe." " No sir," roared the patriot, " I will not thank a Tory for anything. I thank the Lord for the north wind." In journeying from New York to Boston, many leading Revolutionists and others stopped at Keeler Tavern. Among these was Rochambeau. Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, and his American bride, Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore, also stopped here while on their wedding trip, ii 82 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 About this time there were but four newspapers, all weekly, published in the state. Hartford published one, New London one, New Haven one, and Litchfield one. There were but three subscribers to all these in our village. Ridgefield, however, being on the road between New York and Boston, kept in touch with the world. Shortly after the Revolution, there appeared in Ridgefield a half-demented woman, Sarah Bishop. Her abode was a small cave on the mountain side, overlooking Long Pond and on what is now the Rippowam estate. The rumor was that she was in love with a British officer and that her home on Long Island had been burned by the British. On pleasant days the blue waters of the sound can be seen from the cave now called Sarah Bishop's cave. In 1810 Sarah Bishop was found frozen near her spring. Her cave still remains. Many men influential in the world's progress have gone from this quiet spot. It is the home of two governors, Hon. Phineas C. Lounsbury, who was governor from 1887 to 1889 and Hon. Geo. E. Lounsbury, who was governor from 1899 to 1901. Many people had cause to bless Hon. Geo. E. Lounsbury as he was very charitable and he did much for his village. He died in 1904 at " The Hickories," his lifelong home. BY MARTHA WILKINS In the month of May, 1708, a number of the inhabitants of the town of Norwalk petitioned General Assembly, then in session at Hartford, to grant them liberty to purchase of the Indians a certain tract of land bounded on the south by Norwalk, northeast by Danbury, and west by New York. Such liberty was granted and the purchase was made Sept. 30, 1708. After purchasing the town tract, the next thing was to settle it. This the petitioners proceeded at once to do. The Indians had called this tract Cauda- towa, or highland, a name suggested probably by a north and south ridge situated nearly in the center of the town. This ridge rises to the height of eight hundred feet above the level of the sea, the same ridge which gave the town its name. The proprietors decided upon the ridge as the most desirable point of set- tlement. A street six rods wide was surveyed to run north and south, and on either side home lots of two and one-half acres were laid out. After the original twenty-nine families had actually located in the town, other families began at once to come in and purchase lands, erect dwellings, shops, and stores. The settlement grew rapidly and soon they could boast of a church and town house. The land was not in a condition to yield much, nor could a convenient market be found for what was produced. Hence, the inhabitants practiced the strictest economy and traded among themselves, their minister being paid in wheat, rye and Indian corn. About sixty-seven years had passed when the great Revolutionary strug- Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 83 gle faced the country. This town, with many others, was slow to take the one step which should decide its future destiny, but having once reached this decision it stood firm and unyielding through all the days of darkness which preceded the birth of liberty in America. General Howe, being informed that the Americans had military stores in Danbury and its neighborhood, sent Governor Tryon of New York to destroy them. A detachment of two thousand men were placed under Tryon's com- mand. They embarked at New York, passed over the waters of Long Island Sound, and cast anchor in Saugatuck harbor. Upon reaching the shore they began their march, destroying everything in sight. After burning Danbury, Tryon led his troops toward Ridgefield. In the meantime the news of Tryon's arrival flew along the whole coast. General Sillman with about five hundred militia pursued the enemy. He was joined later by the venerable Wooster and Arnold. It was late when they reached Bethel and decided to attack the enemy on their return. General Sillman and Arnold with five hundred men were to attack the enemy in front while General Wooster with two hundred half-armed militia was to attack them in the rear. The following morning Wooster overtook Tryon's army about three miles above Ridgefield. Taking advantage of the uneven condition of the ground Wooster fell upon the whole regiment with such force as to throw them into confusion and break their ranks. A few miles from Ridgefield he again charged furiously upon them and during the encounter fell, pierced by a Tory musket ball. His faithful friends stripped his sash from his person and bore him upon it from the field. The British followed Sillman and Arnold to Ridgefield and having the better position compelled the Americans to retreat. General Tryon set fire to the Congregational church, but to his sorrow the work was a failure. He was more fortunate with four dwelling-houses which he soon had the satis- faction to see wrapped in flames. He now resumed his march, followed by the Americans. They followed him to the coast where he and his army set sail. Situated in the northern part of the town and separated from the village of Ridgefield by a gorge, and a range of hills, is the parish of Ridgebury. After the burning of Danbury many of the people fled to a hill about a mile from the present Congregational church. In September, 1780, General Washington while on his way from the Hudson River to Hartford, Conn., spent the night in Ridgebury, at the hotel of Ensign Samuel Keeler. A year later the French army under Rochambeau was encamped on the ridge near the Ridgebury schoolhouse. At this point the army was about equally distant from Long Island Sound and the Hudson River. In July, 1781, they joined General Washington at Dobb's Ferry. The Congregational church was the first Christian organization of the town, being formed in 1712. The foundation of the Episcopal church was laid by the Rev. Samuel Johnson of Stratford in 1725. A short time prior to 1731 the Protestant Episcopal church of Ridgebury was organized and situated about a mile south of the present Congregational church which was established m 1769. In 1784 was formed the Methodist Episcopal church of Ridgefield. 84 I78 Ridgefield Hi-Centennial 1908 St. Mary's Roman Catholic church was erected in 1869, but previous to that time services were held in the homes of the various parishioners. The church and the schoolhouse have always stood side by side. Scarcely had the emigrant settled, before the log schoolhouse indicated the purpose and plan of the settler. The first reference made to the schools of the town was in the year 1721, when the town voted that eight pounds shall be raised for the support of a school. The first school was nearly opposite Mr. Abner Gilbert's residence and later school was taught in the town house. The wages given to the masters was from fifteen to eighteen dollars a month, ac- cording to the number of scholars and the ability of the teachers. Reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and a little manners were the subjects taught. In 1761, schools were opened at West Lane, Titicus, Limestone and Florida. Since then other districts were formed, making fourteen in all. The progress of the town between 1800 and 1860 compares favorably with other towns of the same size. When the roar of the first gun fired on Fort Sumter seemed to awaken echoes in every village and hamlet, Ridgefield was among the first towns in the State to take decisive action in the matter. It was voted that an appropria- tion be made from the treasury of the Town of Ridgefield for the support of the families of the residents of the town who volunteered their services to the call of the President of the United States. The two hundred years of its history have wrought many changes in Ridgefield. Its growth has been gradual, being built mostly by the dollars earned by its own people and in most part by the dollars obtained from its own soil. Ridgefield Street is situated in the same spot where the first settlers located. Embowered in trees of a century's growth, with walks and lawns well kept, it is one of the prettiest streets in Connecticut. The best " water view " to be had in town, aside from that of Long Island Sound, is from the western side of West Mountain, three beautiful lakes lying almost at your feet. Ridgebury, in the northern part of the town, has changed but little for many years. A cluster of neat farmhouses surround a church equally neat. It is pleasantly located and is healthful and retired. The elevated position of the town, the beauty of its scenery, the purity and healthfulness of climate, the easy access by rail to New York, have attracted many wealthy people whose homes add greatly to the beauty of Ridgefield whose attractions few towns can surpass. BY ALEXANDER MAVEN Today we are celebrating the bi-centennial of one of the most beautiful little towns in Connecticut, namely, Ridgefield. Two hundred years ago Ridgefield was a wilderness, today we can well boast of its beautiful streets and magnificent houses. Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 85 To begin with, take our Main street, over a mile long, with its fine houses and beautiful shade trees of elms and maples. In the year 1708 Ridgefield was bought from the Ramapoo Indians for two hundred pounds sterling by 29 men from Norwalk and Milford. It was bounded on the north and east by Danbury, on the south by Norwalk and on the west by New York State. These men selected for a town site the center of three ridges overlooking Long Island Sound on the south and the highlands of the Hudson on the west. A street was planned six rods wide from north and south. On either sides were lots of 2^2 acres and in the center a green for the meeting house and schoolhouse. Then the town of Ridgefield was ready for the new settlers to move in. Among the first to settle Ridgefield were Samuel St. John, Samuel Keeler, Jonathan Rockwell, Daniel Olmstead, Matthew Seamore and Joseph Benedict. Many other families came to the new settlement, industries were established, markets found for their products and so the little village grew until it was one of the most important towns of the State. During the Revolutionary War Ridgefield raised two companies of soldiers, one under Captain Northrop of Ridgebury and the other under Captain Olm- stead. On April 25, 1777, General Tryon after burning Danbury marched south toward Long Island. About three miles north of Ridgefield he was met by General Wooster with two hundred Americans. In the engagement which followed Wooster was killed and a small stone near Mr. Hunt's house marks the place where he fell. Later Benedict Arnold reached Ridgefield with 500 patriots and built a hasty barricade of earth near the north end of the street. Here the British routed the Americans and General Arnold narrowly escaped death as his horse was shot from under him. The wounded and dying soldiers were carried into the Stebbins home, now in the possession of George M. Olcott. The Episcopal church which was used for storing supplies during the war was fired by General Tryon on his march through the town. The English hearing that cartridges were being made in the Keeler tavern which is still standing fired several cannon balls into the house, one of which is still visible. Ridgefield can recall with pride the name of Philip Burr Bradley whom King George III appointed justice of peace in 1770 and 1777 was appointed colonel of the 5th Connecticut regiment by John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. President Washington was a personal friend of Colonel Bradley's and among the colonel's keepsakes are a chair, a china bowl and a pitcher used by Washington, when visiting at the Bradley house which is still standing on Main street, now the home of L. H. Biglow. Another of Ridgefield's prominent citizens who should not be forgotten is Jeremiah Keeler, who while serving under Lafayette took part in the battles 86 1708 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 of Monmouth, Jamestown and Yorktown and was presented with a sword by Lafayette. Another incident in the history of Ridgefield was the imprisonment of Major Andre, the British spy, at South Salem under the guard of Lieutenant Joshua King. The arm chair used by Major Andre while a prisoner in South Salem is now in possession of the King descendants. After the Revolutionary War Rev. Goodrich came to Ridgefield as the pastor of the Congregational church. His son was familiarly known as Peter Parley. In 1797 there were two taverns in Ridgefield; the Keeler tavern was one owned by Amos Smith, which was later sold for the present site of our library. In these taverns were held courts of justice, balls and church fairs. At one time Ridgefield had several factories, among which were the saw mills, grist mills, hat and shoe factories and a candlestick factory, all of which have disappeared. It will be well to mention here a few of Ridgefield's men who have made a mark in the world. Two Ridgefield boys have served their state as governors, the Hon. Phineas E. Lounsbury and his brother, George E. Lounsbury. Among others of note may be mentioned Melbert B. Carey, who was nominee for governor in 1902, Hon. Jonathan Ingersoll, judge of the Supreme Court and Lieutenant-governor, and William O. Seymour, one of the railroad commis- sioners of the state. These are only a few out of many whose influence and intellect has made Ridgefield what it is today. It is useless for me to try and describe to you the modern Ridgefield, with its churches, beautiful residences and clubs. I can only repeat what some one else has said " that it has won distinction far and wide as the ' Lenox of Connecticut !' " BY RUTH WILSON This is the bi-centennial of one of the most historic and beautiful country seats in Connecticut, Ridgefield, a battle ground of the American Revolution and the home of patriots. Two hundred years ago Ridgefield arose from a wilderness, threw off the aeons' shackles and entered the work of civilization, until on this anniversary of its natal day its hills are crowned with a magnificent estate, a manor town with many strong American families, in whose ancestral line flows the blood of the founders and the saviors of this great nation. There is no fairer scene in fair Connecticut than Ridgefield Main street, a mile or more of fine houses and velvety lawns, shaded by giant elms and maples. Cool, restful shadows, songs of birds, and glimpses of sunny field attract and charm the visitor, beguiling him into a fancy that this is some lovely old-world park rather than the thoroughfare of a New England village. In the year 1708 the Catoonah, sachem of the Ramapoo Indians, sold for one hundred pounds sterling a tract of land bounded on the east and north by Danbury, south by Norwalk and on the west by New York State, to twenty- nine men from Norwalk and three from Milford. That year the General As- Record of the El-Centennial Exercises 87 sembly appointed Major Peter Burr of Fairfield, John Copp of Norwalk, and Josiah Starr of Danbury to survey and lay out a new settlement. These sur- veyors, with a keen sense of beauty, selected for a town site the central of three high ridges commanding views of Long Island on the south and the high- lands of the Hudson toward the west. A street six rods wide was planned from north to south. On either side were home lots of two and one-half acres, in the center a green for a meeting house which at that time was where the cemetery is now, and a schoolhouse which stood where the fire house is being built. On the east and west ridges were five acres of pasture to each home lot. Then the place appropriately named Ridgefield was ready for the new inhabitants to move in and to go to housekeeping. At the northern end of the town is a great boulder called Settler's Rock supposed to have been the camping place of the first comer to Ridgefield. During the Revolution Ridge- field, intensely patriotic, raised two companies of soldiers, one under Captain Gamaliel Northrop of Ridgebury, a northeastern parish, the other under Cap- tain David Olmstead. This added to the excitement of the battle on Main street and invited many of the youth to enter the army. April 25, 1778, General Tryon made his celebrated trip to Danbury, burning the town. On the morning of the 25th he marched toward Long Island, and about three miles north of Ridgefield was overtaken by General Wooster with two hundred Americans. In an engagement the intrepid Wooster was killed. Five hundred patriots under General Benedict Arnold reached Ridgefield in the morning and built a hasty barricade of earth, that looked across the north end of the street. Here the British routed the Americans. During this skir- mish sixteen royalists and eight patriots were killed, and General Arnold narrowly escaped, as his horse was shot under him. The Stebbins homestead was used as a temporary hospital and the dead were buried in an adjoining field. A tamarack tree marks the spot where Arnold's horse fell and stands close to the masonry supporting the bank of earth fortification, the site of George H. Newton's country home. Some years ago the Ridgefield Press announced the discovery near this tree of the skeleton of this famous horse and offered it to the local Historical Society, adding that the bones and hoofs found at the same time have been re-interred. The enemy marched through the village without further resistance, encamping for the night on a high hill south of the town and burning a house as a signal to the ships on the sound. The Episcopal church was used for storage of supplies during the Revolution and was fired by General Tryon in addition to six dwellings, among these houses the Keeler tavern, kept by Timothy Keeler, a patriot. The English heard that cartridges were being made in the tavern and discharged several cannon balls into the house (one is still visible), dislodging the enemy, who took refuge in the woods. Mr. Keeler's neighbor was a royalist, who, finding the sparks a menace to his own house, received Tryon's permission to quench the flames. When Mr. Keeler returned from his hiding place the Tory met him, saying, " You may thank me that your house is safe." " No, sir," roared the sturdy patriot," I will not thank a Tory for anything. I thank the Lord for the north wind." 88 1708 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 Ridgefield for the past quarter of a century has become one of the modern New England towns with its lodges, club, automobiles, electric lights, water and fire apparatus and all the modern improvements in the homesteads, and amusements of different kinds. This is the Ridgefield of today. At the conclusion of the meeting of the school children, about 4 o'clock p. m. they were taken in carryalls, forming part of a parade organized by the Business Men's Association and other organizations of the town, preceded by the Ridgefield band, constituting quite an imposing procession and passing through the principal streets of the town. At 8 p. m. on July 7th, an audience assembled in the Town Hall taxing its seating capacity to listen to a concluding address by the Hon. E. J. Hill, congressman, as indicated on the foregoing program. HON. E. J. HILL Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: As a son of the neighboring town of Redding and a resident for fifty years of your parent town of Norwalk, I greet you tonight and congratulate Norwalk's oldest child not only on its splendid youth but also on the vigorous way in which it is now stepping out into the third century of its career. As one looks over the Colonial records of Connecticut and sees the names of the men who founded Norwalk in 1651 and fifty-seven years later the names of those who bought the territory bounded by Norwalk, Danbury and New York, now constituting the town of Ridgefield, he is forced to conclude that in its making, though Ridgefield did not take from Norwalk land, as Westport and Wilton subsequently did, she did take men, the sons of heroic fathers and mothers who for a half a century or more had been fighting savages, subdu- ing the soil and building on these bleak New England shores a commonwealth which has stamped its impress on this nation and on the progress of civilization throughout the world as no other of equal size has ever done. For the men who founded Ridgefield were the descendants of those who, landing in Boston Bay, had marched through the wilderness of Massachusetts and making for themselves homes on the banks of the Long River, had given to the world the first written constitution ever made by which men should gov- ern themselves, and yield to no mandate but " to fear God and keep his com- mandments." Even the compact made in the cabin of the Mayflower on the nth day of November, 1620, proclaimed as it has ever since been, as the foundation of Democracy in this land, began as follows, " We whose names are under writ- ten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, etc.," and proceeded to declare that the voyage had been undertaken not only for Ky permission " Men of Mark.''' 1 Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 89 the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, but for the honor of their King and country. But the men of Connecticut nineteen years later immortalized themselves by giving to the world a plan of government in which no king or prince or potentate is mentioned, but which looked to Almighty God for guidance and control, and to themselves to make the laws. In that Constitution they declared that the word of God required, that to maintain the peace and union of the people, there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people as occasion should require. They therefore associated and joined themselves together as a Public State or Commonwealth, and for themselves and their successors entered into con- federation to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus and the discipline of the church : And in civil affairs to be guided and governed by laws, rules, orders and decrees, the mode of enacting which was therein provided. They then proceeded to combine the principles of pure democracy, as ex- emplified in the town meeting, with the practical work of a representative gov- ernment in the form of the General Assembly, substantially as we have it to- day in our present State Government. Indeed the fundamental principles of that Constitution were embodied in the Charter given by Charles 2d in 1662, and it is reasonably certain that this document was prepared and written by the colonists themselves and submitted ready-made for the King's approval, which it subsequently received. So that the system of government originating in 1639 was in full force and effect straight on down for 179 years until the adoption of the present Con- stitution in 1818. It was said by the enemies of the Colony that not a single law of the Eng- lish parliament was ever put in force in the Colony of Connecticut until it had first received the approval of its own General Assembly. It was literally a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Parties, committees, bosses, and conventions were unknown. The direct primary of modern times was in full force and effect, for all nominations of candidates were made at open elections where each elector voted for whom he pleased, and the number of persons required to fill the respective offices, re- ceiving the plurality of votes, with such others as the General Court saw fit to add, were entitled to be candidates at the General election which followed, some months later, after full consideration had been given to all their qualifications, by the whole people. It is a curious fact that among the founders of Ridgefield, not a single family name corresponds with that of any of the signers of the Mayflower com- pact, but that eighteen out of the twenty-one who left Norwalk to become origi- nal proprietors here, bore the family names of planters of the Colonies of Con- necticut and New Haven prior to their union in 1665. It was from such stock that the settlers of Ridgefield came, and what is 13 90 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 true of Ridgefield is equally true of all Connecticut towns organized before the i8th Century began, and those which came later could not escape its in- fluence. The men of Connecticut were trained in a school of hard experience. Its hillside farms and gravelly soil were not the nurseries of sluggards and idlers. A rigid economy was essential to bare subsistence. Every man had an occupation and worked at it. The mothers kept the homes and made the family clothing. The boys, when not at school, were doing chores or learning trades, the girls were teaching others and not ashamed to support themselves. The modern factory was then unknown and domestic service was honorably done. It was no disgrace to work, but idleness was almost a crime. I have in my library an abridgement of the laws in force and used in the plantations of New England or the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1704, during the reign of Queen Anne when Ridgefield was settled. A brief statement of some of them will give you an insight into the social conditions of the time. No person worth less than 200 could wear gold or silver lace or buttons, or bone lace costing more than 2 s. per yard, or silk hoods or scarfs, under penalty of 10 s. for each offence. Burglary and highway robbery were punished by branding on the forehead with the letter B for the first offence, branding and whipping for the second, and death for the third. If done on the Lord's day an ear was cut off, besides each of the first two punishments. Cursing God or his holy religion and worship, or any other form of blasphemy was punishable by death. Parents were required to cause their children to read perfectly the English tongue, to teach them a knowledge of the capital laws, and to catechise them once a week in the grounds and principles of religion. The selectmen could examine the children in the families and if they found them rude and ignorant could take them away from their parents and put them in charge of other persons. Any child above sixteen years of age of sound understanding who should smite with his hand or curse with his mouth his father or mother was liable to be put to death, unless it was shown that the parents had been unchristianly negligent in their education. Any stubborn or rebellious son over sixteen years of age, upon accusation of his parents, should suffer death. Every person was required to pay taxes to support the church and the state, except ministers regularly ordained, and these were exempt both in per- son and property. All cattle had to be branded. In 1714 the General Assembly of Connecti- cut passed an act as follows : " This Assembly grants liberty unto the inhabi- tants of the town of Ridgefield to imbody into church estate and settle an or- Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 91 thodox minister amongst them. And also the brand for the town of Ridgefield to brand their horses be this figure I do not quite understand the connection between the two parts of the law. The pure food laws of today are feeble imitations of those at that time when all packages and their contents had to be inspected both as to quality and quantity and branded by the gauger or packer, or else forfeited one-half to the informer and the other half to the state. No attorney in an inferior court could sit as a deputy in the General Court, nor could any other man who was unsound in judgment concerning the main points of the Christian Religion or scandalous in his conversation, and any free- man who knowingly voted for such a one should forfeit 5. What would be the effect of such a law upon the elections and legislative bodies of today? Playing shuffle board or bowls or other games of sport for money, or danc- ing, in any public house, or celebrating feasts or festivals such as Christmas, or Easter, either by merry-making or forbearing labor, or playing at cards or dice, were forbidden under penalty of 5 s. for each offence, or whipping, in the discretion of the court. Bringing cards or dice into the country or keeping them in one's custody was subject to a penalty of 5 or whipping. Bridge whist was not popular in those days. Heresy, which meant a disbelief in any of the tenets of the church, was punishable by banishment, and denial by a professing Christian of the infalli- bility of any of the scriptures, by a fine of 50, for the first offence, and banish- ment or death for the second. All women and children not otherwise employed were required to spin, and it was the duty of the selectmen to apportion to each family the work to be done and to impose fines for shortages. Lying and swearing were punished by fines and the stocks. Idolatry and witchcraft were punishable by death. These are but a few of the great mass of laws which touched every side of the lives of the men and women of that day. Nothing in this world or the next escaped the scrutiny and control of the state. The conscience of the individual was harnessed and driven, by statute, and personal convictions shaped and fashioned by grievous penalties. The soul and body, the food and clothing, the work and play, the family relations and public duties were all considered and cared for as a public instead of a personal responsibility. It was a slavery of the law. And yet, while undoubtedly it made some hypocrites and time-servers, out of it came a strong and self-reliant race of men and women who have not only achieved success at home, but have sent out sons and daughters all over this broad land to shape and mold the destinies of other states. I have often wondered why this should have been, for the mental and so- 92 1708 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 cial and spiritual tyranny of that day would not be tolerated now, but I in- variably come back to the conclusion that the New England town meeting and pulpit, the open Bible and the little red schoolhouse have been the mightiest factors in the development of American civilization, and that the persuading ex- ample of a Christian home is irresistible, transplant it where you will. By the last census, among the forty-six states in the Union, although Con- necticut stands forty-fourth in area, she is thirtieth in population, I5th in wealth, 7th in capital employed in manufacturing, ist among the New England States and 7th in the whole Union in the education of her children and ist of all in the inventive genius of her people and the variety and diversification of her industries. And so tonight as a son of Connecticut with 273 years of honorable ancestry buried beneath her soil, I join with young Ridgefield in celebrating her 2OOth anniversary and am proud not only of what Connecticut has been but of what she is today, in this splendid galaxy of states which constitute this great Re- public. Upon the incorporation of Ridgefield, the Colony of Connecticut then con- sisted of forty-five settled towns. The state now has 168. Its population then was about seventeen thousand, now probably over one million. The grand list of the Colony was then 281,083. In 1906 the state grand list was $791,769,979 and its indebtedness less than one million, all of which will be due and paid in two years. I congratulate your native sons and daughters upon the wonderful changes which have come to their much loved town within their lifetime, upon the de- lightful homes and splendid mansions which have brought prosperity and added beauty to the old time surroundings, and I commend the wisdom, judgment, and good taste of those who by their coming have made life here even more enjoy- able than it was before. We may not all share in the gladness of this celebration so far as local asso- ciations and memories are concerned, but as Americans all, we can rejoice alike in the marvelous growth and prosperity of our beloved country and be united in a common purpose to work for its highest good. The life of a nation is not measured by years but by its achievements. Three years ago when in Japan I was told that the present dynasty had been continuously in power for twenty-six hundred years, and yet Japan only began to live when an American sailor knocked at its door fifty years ago and told her people that they were an integral part of a larger world, and that they must accept the responsibility of their being so, whether they would or not. When that door opened, it was creation's dawn for them, and it made a new field of work for those who are truly living in other lands. " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature " means something more than sending missionaries to the heathen, for we cannot all go, and yet the call is to all of us. It also means so living at home that our example as a nation shall be an in- Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 93 spiration and an encouragement to the down-trodden and oppressed, to the hope- less and helpless everywhere. It means continual struggle and work among our own people for a higher and still higher civilization, that all men may profit by it and that humanity everywhere may be blessed. John F. Stevens, the chief engineer on the Panama Canal, said " I take off my hat to Colonel Gorgas who made it possible to dig the Panama Canal." But great as is that work and helpful as it will be to the material advancement of the world, it is not to be compared to the blessings which will come to the in- habitants of the tropics from the complete demonstration which Colonel Gorgas is giving that yellow fever and bubonic plague and malaria can be driven from the Isthmus of Panama. It is a common expression at celebrations of this kind, that this town, this state and this nation will be just what you and I make it. In one sense it is true, in another not, for it ignores a higher power. In either case we cannot avoid our individual responsibility and the duty that rests upon us, to give to the community in which we live a little more than we take from it. A few months ago I visited a dead city, Ephesus in Asia Minor. It is being excavated now by the Austrian Government. It was a magnificent, great city, filled with all that could make life luxurious. It was captured by the Romans and rebuilt, adorned and beautified still more. It must have been a city of marble palaces, marble streets, and splendid structures. Its Main street paved with marble, a broad mosaic sidewalk on each side, with a double row of marble columns on each walk, stretched from the inland gate for three miles to the port. Its theatre, seating 25,000 people, is superb in its beauty, even in its ruin. Its splendid public library, with marble mosaic, alabaster and gold, its im- mense gymnasium and baths, its churches and temples, all tell of a great and beautiful city, wealthy and powerful. And yet as I stood in the theatre where the " Uproar " occurred nineteen centuries ago and looked across to the rocky height where the Apostle Paul's prison still stands, as I saw the swamp hole where the temple of Diana once stood, one of the wonders of the world, I could not but think of the words of St. John the Divine in the Revelation, when he said, " I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Today the greatest interest that attaches to Ephesus is, that it was once the scene of Paul's labor and work. They lived unto themselves and received their reward. The little bands of men who came to Jamestown, New Amsterdam and Bos- ton Bay were inspired by different motives, some by hope of gain, some by love of adventure, and some seeking for freedom to worship God. But God twisted their purposes, welded their energies, and shaped a common destiny for them all, so that today a mighty nation of eighty-seven million souls is spanning a 94 I78 Ridgefield Bi-Centennial 1908 continent, and reaching out to the islands of two oceans, halfway around the world. Today, the little red schoolhouse on Ridgefield hill is reproduced in the Philippine Islands, and half a million brown boys and girls daily salute the American flag, and sing the " Star Spangled Banner " in our own tongue. They are the forerunners, the advance guard of the United States of Asia, which, perhaps sooner than we think, may give to the Orient the blessings of liberty and the free institutions which our fathers gave to us. As in the Pacific, so in the Atlantic seas, our duty to our Insular neigh- bors is clear and plain, and all the world admits it. Shall we do that duty when it is near by and gives promise of quick return, and shirk it when far away and at greater cost? We are too rich, too strong, too great to falter now, and may not if we would, for we cannot escape our destiny. As I have reviewed the history of this nation since the close of the Spanish War and have thought of the burdens assumed by us because of it, burdens assumed unwittingly and unsought at its beginning, the putting down of insur- rection in the Philippines, the sanitation of the Islands, and the establishment of civil government, the maintenance of peace in Cuba and the control of yellow fever there, the relief of distress from hurricanes and destruction of crops in Porto Rico, and in them all, the education of the children, and the elimination of graft in public service, the abolition of class distinctions by which the masses of the people were robbed and plundered for the benefit of the titled few, and all the cleaning up of the moral, political, and social filth which had been the result of three hundred years of Spanish despotism, I have wondered whether we have not already received our reward, in the reflex effect of this work abroad, by an awakening of the public conscience at home and a keener perception of the responsibility of the government to the people and of the people to each other. One thing I know that for some reason there has arisen during the past four years from all over this land a demand for higher social, political and business standards, and that this demand will not be satisfied till many radical changes are made in existing conditions. The difficulty is that much of the work belongs to the states themselves, and the general government has never been vested with power to do these things which the people want except within the territories and the District of Columbia. For example, on what theory of our government can congress legislate for the regulation of child labor in Connecticut or the sale of intoxicating liquor, or the local transportation of freight and passengers, or the construction and maintenance of highways, or the preparation and distribution of food products, or even the conservation of natural resources, all within the limits and under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. That is your work and mine as citizens of this state. It is needless for me to say that much of this avalanche of demand for re- form legislation by congress along these and kindred lines, has been started not Record of the Bi-Centennial Exercises 95 only because the changes sought possessed great merit in themselves, but be- cause the entering of the general government on the work, would thereby transfer the expense from local or state taxation and throw it upon the Federal treasury. But this is by no means true in all cases, and it is a serious question whether the time is not rapidly approaching, when either the powers of the general gov- ernment must be greatly enlarged, or the citizens of the municipalities and states come to a higher appreciation of their individual responsibility. I think all of us must admit that since the Civil War at least, with rare exceptions, the general drift and tendency of American life has not measured up to the ethical standard of the men who laid the foundations of this Republic, but that the hope of immediate gain and the possibility of speedy wealth which the marvelous resources of this country afford, have caused us to do many things and leave many things undone for which our children and our children's children will needlessly suffer and justly condemn us. God has been wonderfully good to us as a nation and a people, for we are the heirs of the struggles and devotion and sacrifices of three centuries, and are in full possession of their fruits today. Not once in a century only, therefore, but every day of our lives, should be an anniversary on which we should pledge ourselves anew to so act while we are the recipients of this bounty that this nation, this state, this town, and each of our individual homes, will be a blessing and a help to those who shall come after us. I know of no better way to do this than to follow the scriptural injunction, " Bear ye one another's burdens " and so fulfill the law of Christ. And what a country it is for which to strive! For it, to make it a refuge for the oppressed of every people, the men of 1620 labored and toiled. For it, to give it independence, the men of 1776 pledged life and fortune and sacred honor. For it, to save the Union and take from its statute books the dark blot of human slavery, the men of 1861 laid down their lives, or are waiting still to receive their crown. What less can you and I do for it now, than to strive as best we may to en- noble its citizenship and glorify its mission ? And now as we close the 2OOth anniversary of the founding of Ridgefield I know that I but voice the thought that is in the heart of each one of you, as I say of our beloved country in the words of an old song, I love every inch of her prairie land, Each stone on her mountain's side; I love every drop of the water clear That flows in her rivers wide. I love ev'ry tree, ev'ry blade of grass, Within Columbia's gates! The queen of the earth is the land of my birth, My own United States. 96 1708 Ridge field Bi-Centennial 1908 At the conclusion of Mr. Hill's address the Chairman, Mr. Seymour, said: " The Bi-Centennial observances being over, we turn from rehearsing the his- tory of the past to the making of the history of the future. I desire to ex- tend the thanks of the community to all who in any way have contributed to the success of this occasion to the committees who assisted in planning and carrying out the scheme in all its details, to Mrs. Wm. S. Hawk, who, without solicitation, volunteered to furnish and arrange in such a neat and attractive manner the interior decorations of the hall; to the clergymen of the various churches for preparing and presenting the very interesting program of the in- troductory exercises on Monday evening; to the various speakers, both local and from out of town, for the able and instructive addresses and papers pre- sented; to the children for the interesting historical papers which they pre- sented, showing an unexpected familiarity with the early history of the town; to all the local organizations of the town for the very creditable and imposing demonstration which they made in the parade of the afternoon, under peculiarly trying temperature conditions; to the chorus and the Ridgefield band for their inspiring music; to Mr. Geo. B. Clark for the gratuitous use of the piano on this occasion; to Mr. D. F. Bedient for the gratuitous use of the camp stools; to the ushers for their services and to the Ridgefield Press for the use of its columns in bringing the occasion to the attention of the public. The chorus and audience will now unite in singing " My Country, 'Tis of Thee." UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000107317 o