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Historic Groton;

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HISTORIC GROTON

COMPRISING

Historic and Descriptive Sketches

PERTAINING TO

GROTON Heights, Center Groton. Poquonnoc Bridge, Noank, Mystic and Old Mystic, Conn.

By Local Writers

FULLY AND BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED

Charles F. Burgess

Editor and Publisher

Moosup. Conn

COPYRIGHT. I909 BY C F. BURGESS

Groton Heights, or the Borough of Groton

By MARY E. DENISON

K(JTuX heights or Borough is beautifully situated on the river Thames, directl}' opposite New London, Connecticut, with which it is connected by a ferry and also by a drawbridge over which go many trains daily.

One crossing the river to Groton sees the village spread out before him along the banks of the ri\'er and upon the hills above. There upon the summit, is the tall shaft of the monu- ment which commemorates that memorable day, Sept. 6, 1781, on which the bra\'e men of Groton and vicinity fought for home and country in the old fort, whose ramparts lie just at the south. Close to the monument is the house used for their meetings, and recent- ly enlarged by the Anna ^Varner Bailey Chap- ter of the Daughters of the .\merican Revolu- tion, full of interesting relics. Xear by stands the school house, where the children should early learn love of honor and of country as they liear about the heroic Leflyard antl hi'; '^■aliant followers who, caring more for honor than for life, pierced with man\ a wound, fell "Dead on the Field of Glorv."

Xorth of the school house is our beautiful library to which the sclntol bo\s. more often than not of foreign Ijirth. come to see the sword of Col. Ledyard or to get a "Storv of the Revolution." Here is a fine collection of about five thousand books free to any who may care to read. A little distance no'-tli rf the library may be seen the tower of the fine new Congregational cliurch, which ancient or- ganization suffered so at the time of the nin<;- sacre. Still farther to the north is the Bap tist church, the second edifice of the society.

Just at the foot of the hill on which the Bap- tist church is set is the old house in which lived the famous "Mother Bailey" after whom the local chapter of the D. A. R. is named. A few rods north of the "Mother Bailey" house stands what is left of the old Congregational church built in 1834, the third building of that societ}', to which "Mother Bailey" would never come, preferring to walk out to the old "black meeting house," about a mile away, where she would listen to the robins as they sang and hear the frogs croak.

The pilgrim upon reaching Groton finds himself in the business part of the village, near the stores and post office. lie probablv sees the trolley, for this is the termiiuis of the Groton and Westerly line. Turning to the south he goes but a short distance before reaching the Ebenezer Avery house, now marked by a tablet, to which the wounded were taken after the battle. At the foot of Fort street is the Episcopal church. By this street one can go directly into the fort and then visit the points of interest which he has alread}' seen from the river.

The town of Groton of which the borough is a part lies between the Thames and Mystic rivers and originally extended from Groton Long Point to the Preston line, until North Groton, now Ledyard, separated in 1836. mak- ing a large town by itself. Groton now in- cludes the Borough, Center Groton, Poquon- nock Bridge, Noank and Mystic. The town is diversified by high hills, deep valleys, and wide plains. Over these once roamed the red man, the fierce Pequot, until Capt. Mason and his followers on May 26, 1637 "in order to have justice on the Indian," took and destroyed the

HISTORIC GROTON

stronghold of their Chief Sassacus on Pequol Hiil and ended the Peqnot power in the colo- ny. This slaughter of the Pequots, who were so hostile to the English, took place before there were any settlements nearer than the Connecticut ri\er. In 1644 the General Couit of Massachusetts ga\e John ^\'inthrop, the younger, a grant of land in the Pequot coun- try and in 1646 he founded New London, of which Groton was a part, being called the "East Side."

posite the eastern spur of ^^"inthrop's Neck, where was his home lot." With the advice and consent of Mr. Winthrop a grant of land lying north of his was gi\-en in 1655 or '56 to Thomas Bayley, who soon settled here and became a farmer. Other early settlers in that vicinity were the Starrs. Colvers, Lesters and P)Uddingtons. It is not easy to find who had land at that early date in what is now our borough, but Capt. Samuel Chester, who lo- cated in New London about 1663, had a grant

GROTUX, LOOKING NOHTH FROM THE MONUMENT

The land on the west of the river was first portioned out to the settlers for their hnnie lots, then that on the east for farming. The broad plains of Poquonnock were early taken for this purpose. W'inthro]) had a farm there, and among those who had farms and settled there as early as 1656 were James Morgan and James .\\-ery. both men of note in the community. The house of the latter, the original "Hive of the .\\'erys," stood until July. i8i;4. when it was burned bv a spark from a locomotive.

A\'inthrop's grant on Groton Bank was "op-

of land given him in (iroton where Fort Gris- wold and the monument now stand.

The first house on (iroton liank was that beU)nging to Cary Latham, wlui had leased the ferry for fifty years from March 25, 1655. .\t his death in 1^185 he was succeeded by his son-in-law, John Williams, of whom Joshua Hempstead's diary says: "He kept the ferry when Groton and New London were one town, had but one minister and one cap- tain's company." The ferryboat then was a scow with both sails and oars.

HISTORIC GROTON

THE (iROTON MONUMENT

HISTORIC GROTON

Grants of land had early been taken in Po- quonnock and Mystic and in order to connect the scattered farms on the east side with Xew London a highway following the old Indian trail from Groton Bank to Mystic River was laid out in 1652, but beyond Fort Hill, it was a mere pentway until 1709. When King Phil- ip's war broke out in 1675 the men of Groton \'olunteered to fight against the foe. They with a remnant of the Pequots. were led by Capt. James Avery.

The settlers upon the east side crossed the

travelled to Hartford to the General Coiirt to bring this about. In 1702 permission was given them to build a meeting house thirty- hve feet square, to organize a church and to h.ire a minister at the joint expense of the east and west sides of the town. In 1703 the house was built at Center Groton, the most central location. Rev. Ephraim \\'oodbridge was the first pastor. Two years later the East Side became a separate township and was called Groton, in honor of Gov. Winthrop's home in Enarland.

THE EBEXEZER AVERV HOISE Where wounded Americans were left at the Battle of Groton Heights

river to attend church and were taxed for its support. Many of them had long distances to go and in 1687 it was ordered that for the fu- ture they might invite the minister of the town to preach on their side of the river every third Sunday during the four most disagreea- ble months of the year. About the year 1700 the people began to ask first for a church or- ganization of their own and then for a separate township. Capt. James Avery, who was a loyal supporter of the church in New London,

In the division of Groton, children were to have the privilege of the schools on the west side ; the public ministerial lands were to be in common, while New Lon- don was to be allowed to cut masts for ships from the Pine Swamp of Groton. The story of our first town clerk, John Da^•ie, reads like a romance. He, like his neighbors, was a farmer, but a well educated man, a graduate of Harvard, and of a good old family. One day in 1707 while hoeing in his field a messen-

HISTORIC GROTON

came to Groton Bank and obtained a grant of land upon the river. Here he built two large ships, one of these being as large for her day as the big steamers lately built here. It was the largest ship that had then been constructed

ger appeared who saluted him as "Sir John

Davie." Upon his departure for England to

enter into possession of his vast estates, he

left uKiney for a handsome communion cup

for Air. W'oodbridge's church. The cup bears

this inscription: "The gift of Sir John Davie this side the Atlantic. This great ship of seven

to the Church of Christ at (jroton." hundred tons was launched Oct. I2, 1725. A

One of the early deacons of the church was crowd of people came to the launching. The

John Seabury, whose grandson, born in North other ship of five hundred and seventy tons

Groton, was that Samuel Seabury who was

the first bishop of Connecticut and of the

Episcopal church in the United State.--. When

\\ hitetield came tn New England, Rev. Jona- than Liarbcr, who was then pastor of the

church, Ijeing his tlevoted friend, invited him

to \'isit Center (iroton. He came first in Feb.,

1763, and preached in the old meeting house

and again in June of that year he preached to

a multitutle in front of Mr. Barber's house. In about I7')5 a new meeting house was

built on Grotiin Hank on the old highway a "" -

mile from the ferry. This house is sometimes -':^J/'

spoken of as the old "black meeting house,"

from the fact that it was never painted and lkcitun i kki;\

then again as the "Knme meeting house," ,,.3, ^jjH^.i 4,,^ ^Jon Carlos and sailed for Lis-

from the Rev. .\aron Kinne, the ])astor at the \)o\\

tmie it was built, and during the Revolution. Jeffrey was the builder of smaller ships as

well; Oct. 26, 1738, John Ledyard, the father of John Ledyard "the tra\'eler," sailed for England in a new Snow built by Capt. Jeft'rey. John Led\-ard, called "the traveler," was one of Groton's noted men. He sailed with Capt. Cook on his second voyage around the world, of which he pulilished an account. Later he penetrated into the heart of Russia. Lie next became one of a party to explore the Xile, but was taken sick and died at Cairo in 1788, aged thirty-seven.

The inhabitants, who were at first farmers, were now to a great extent a seafaring people, carrying on trade along the coast and with the West Indies and European ports until the Revolution put an end to all such traffic. Some of Groton's adventurous ones, as well as the men of New London, fitted out privateers and sent them out to damage the British ships which were 'harrying our coasts. They re- turned often with great prizes. Eight hun- dred and three recorded prizes were brought

TKOLLEV TKRJIIM'S

Slii])l_niilding was one of the town's earliest industries. Thomas Starr of Groton Bank, a shipwright, in 1710 sold a sloop called the "Sea Flower" which he describes as "a square- sterned vessel of sixty-seven tons and si.x- sevenths of a ton, Iniilt by me in Groton." Our village became famous fur the building of immense ships way back in 1725. About that time a ship builder, Capt. John Jeffrey,

HISTORIC GKOTOX

Z. Z

HISTORIC GKOTON

into this harbor duriny; the war. It is little wonder that the British were anxious to get possession of this stronghold of rebels.

Groton was settled by men and women who took an interest in education, believed in civil and religious freedom, and those who succeed- ed them were filled with the same spirit. They were justly indignant at e\'ery measure adopted b}- Cireat Britain to curtail indepen- dence of thought and action among the colo- nies. This town, like many another, declared war for itself against George III of England. .■\. bold and ])atriotic spirit animated their town meetings. Foremost in their ])lans was Silas Deane of North Groton, until the Colonial Legislature sent him to the Continental Con- gress, by which he was later ap])ointed am- bassador to h'rance. Other leading men were the Averys. the .Starrs, the C'hesters, the Led- yards — William. Ebenezer and ^Hungs — and Thos. Alumford, who was one of the most effi- cient of the ".S(Tns of Liberty."

Afr. Mumfnrd. with eleven other men of Connecticut in .\pril, 1775, formed the project

in other places, a man whom (iow Trumbull trusted. In 1775 Mr. Mumford was one of a committee of the General Assembly to exam- ine the points of defence and report on the best

THK (.HKSTEK HUl SE This house, the oldest dwelling in Groton, was l>uilt in 1V^2 1\\' Tlioinas C'liester. P^roiii it on Sept. (ith. i;si. four of his sons niai'clieti to tiie delenee of Foi-t Griswuld and two of tliein wei'e niortaliy wounded tliat day. The iioiise was in the Cliester family over a fentur.\'. In the war t)f IHTi a eompaiiy of sokliers were quai'tered there who were on iialrol duty on the foast. A British siiip fired a bhot one tiay whioli hit the (■hiiune.v, mailing a large hole and upsetting a pan of haiu wliieh was frying over the coals in the large lireiilace, thus, to the dismay of Madam, making a big gi'ease spot on her spotless white Hour. Tlie house is ill a good state of preserva- tion and the e.Kteriui- reuiaiiis the same as a century ago. Ihe farm is now owneil liy L'apt. John o. Splcer of Eastern I'oiut

col

KBKNKZKR .\AKRV HOUSE

Tliis house was built about 172(5 by Col. I'^benezer Aver.\' who was born March 2:1. ITOt, and died in May, 1780. He re- ceived a commission as Lieut, of 1st Co. Sth Regiment of Colo- ny of Connecticut, .Ma.\'. 1728. b.v order of King (ieorge 11. He was made Caiitain in 17:^:?, Colonel in 17.'i9, and remained in of- fice under (.Veorge 11 and George III until the colonies declared their independence. .Vfter that he held his place as Colonel under the Flag of the Free. Col. .Vver.v's son Ebenezer lived at the homestead. On Sept. ti, 1781, when the alarm was given of the landing of the British, lie left his plow in the furrow and hastened to the defence of tlie fort where he met his death

of taking Ticonderoga, which plan was suc- cessfully carried out. He was the first select- man during the early years of the war and was the financial manager of the affairs of Groton. He was in communication with fellow patriots

means of securing the country from invasion. Groton Heights was one of the places selected ftir a fortification. The Groton patriots, ac- cording to Miss Caulkins, "With a spirit of en- thusiasm that did not wait for Iegislati\'e aid, \-oluntarily threw up intrenchments, excavated ditches, and erected breastworks and though Uiey had no ordnance, except a few pieces at the battery at the Heights, resolved to defend the position to the last extremity." Later the fort was finished and given the name of the Lieutenant Governor. Ledyard was the first actual commander, being appointed July, 1776. He later had charge of the forts on both sides of the river and at Stonington.

A large number of men from Groton en- listed in the Continental army, the town car- ing for their families, Many of them were under Putnam at the battle of Bunker Hill. l'"ew were left at home to gather in the har- \ ests and defend the town which seemed of- ten in danger of an immediate attack, as many times British men-of-war were seen in the of- fing. At last on Sept. 6, 1781, came the dread-

10

HISTORIC GROTON

til attack and a small garrison, aided by a few volunteers, were all who were left to meet the enemy.

Bravely they fought and well, until, being obliged to surrender because of the over- whelming number of the enemy, the hero Led- yard was killed in the act of surrendering his sword, and such a massacre (followed that even the British officers could not endure the

(JHOTON HEIIiH'rS (iliAMMAK S('HOIIL

sight, one of them calling out to his men, ■"Stop, stop, in the name of heaven ! My soul cannot bear it." Many of those in the fight that day were very young men, several merely boys. Little Wm. Latham, called the "Powder Monkey," because he brought ammunition from the magazine to the soldiers, escaped in- jury and, being but twelve years old. was al- lowed to go free. Daniel Williams of Saybrook, a boy of fifteen, who was substituting for a neighbor belonging to the garrison, was killed, as was also Thomas .\very, aged seven- teen years, son of Park Avery, fighting bravely by his father's side.

Belton Allyn died for his country at seven- teen and Thomas Starr at nineteen. Others might be mentioned as young, or but a little older. Sixteen of the defenders of the fort bore the name of .\very. Nine of them were killed, three were wounded and four taken prisoners. Fourteen of the brave men who died that day and three of the wounded were captains, having either belonged to the Conti- nental army or militia, or were captains of ships. In a letter written after the battle by Thomas Mumford to Gov. Trumbull, he says:

"We have Lost the flower of this Town, both ir. oiiticers and respectable inhabitants. My house with the Chief of the others on the Bank are Burnt and many families Left desti- tute of food and Raiment."

The village at this time had but one street, along by the ri\er, and when fourteen dwell- ing houses, four barns, two shops, two stores and one school house were burned, but few buildings would be left. The house of Ebene- zer Avery, to which the wounded were taken after being cruelly jolted down the hill, was set on fire, but the flames were extinguished in time to sa\-e it and the sufferers within. There were more than forty women of the Congregational church in Groton who that day were made widows, and no man was left at the ne.xt c(3mniunion to pass the bread and wine.

.Notwithstanding all that the town had suf- fered, at the town meeting in November fol- lowing the battle it was voted to provide clothing for soldiers still in the field, and the ne.xt spring they voted again to send out more men, 1)ut the war soon closed making further

(iKoTON HOUOl <;H hi :iLI(lN(i, TH.\MES STREET

sacrifice unnecessary. Business of any kind was now at a low ebb, schools were poor, the church fell into a decadent state; some of its members not willing to be taxed to support religion, became Separatists, and held meet- ings in the historic Avery house. The Con- gregational church for thirteen years was without a settled pastor, when in 1811 Mr. Timothy Tuttle was installed over the two churches of Groton and North Groton.

HISTORIC GKOTON

i-!

'A (5

C3 eC r- 0)

12 HISTORIC GROrON

In 1812 followed a second war with Great Railej^ who promptly dropped her flannel pet- Britain because of the impressing of seamen. ticoat and gave it to him with the wish that This town being the home of so many seafar- "the aim might be sure and the execution thor- ing men suffered in consequence. Again tho ough on the English." For this and other pa-

P().ST UKKICE

lrarl)or was l)]ocke(l ])y llritish men-of-war triotic deeds '"jMother Baile_v" was much

and our own shipping went up the river. Fort lauded. Presidents and statesmen visited her

Griswold was again manned. Rumors of an to do her honor. attack filled the air when one day Maj. Smith, From time to time after the wars with (ireat

1111; iiLli Ndirni LANK .SCIKIOLHOLSE

who commanded the furt, found he lacked flannel for wadding for the guns, so sent out lor some. The stores and dwellings were for the most part closed, as the women and chil- dren had fled to places of safety, so none could be found until tlie messenger met Mrs. .\nna

llritain had ceased scrs'ices were held, as in these da_\'s, on Sept. 6, in memor}' of the Bat- tle of (iroton Heights. .A noteworthy meeting was held in il~<J5, when eigliteen survivors of the massacre, disfigured with scars of battle and one wearing a vest perforated with bullet

HISTORIC GROTON

•3

l:l>l |i|'.\( I-, I II Ml:> \\ll,l.l\\l II \l I \ I.K. I II AMES STItKKT

KESIDEM'E (IK Ml{. THOMAS MINEK. ,M<lM .MENT STREET

14

HISTORIC GROTON

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holes, took part in the celeljration. At this meeting it was resolved that a monument be erected in honor of the brave men who fell in Fort (^riswold. In 1826, with proper cere- monv. the cornerstone was laid, and in 1830 the monument was finished. The funds for building were raised by a lottery which was granted by the legislature.

Groton Monument Association, which is still in existence, had charge of the building. To this organization money was given by Congress in 1881 to carry up the shaft to a svmmetrical height.- repair the column and beautifv the grounds. On the centennial of the battle, Sept. 6, 1881, a great celebration was held which lasted two days, to which thousands of people came. .\ large fleet of warships was in the harbor; all the military of the state were here with the governor and his staf?, also Gen. Sherman and his staff of the United States army. A sham fight tuok place in imitation of the original battle. Orations were delivered by Gen. Hawley and Hon. Edward Everett Hale : remarks were made by other famous men. and original poems were read, all making a very notable occasion.

.\t the time of the Civil war, Groton again responded nobly, sending many men to the front and spending about $80,000 for bounties, premiums and support of families, which was more than any other town in the county with the exception of Norwich.

In 1862 our government felt the need of greater facilities for the building, repair and dockage of its vessels. A board of officers was sent to examine New London harbor. After examinatiun they reported. "The harbor of New London possesses greater advantages for a navv yard than any other location examined by this board."

In 1864 a naval committee of the house also visited tlie site and reported in its favor. No immediate action, however, was taken. In the vear 1867 Air. John R. Bolles gave to the state a tract of land lying on the rover to be given by the state to the government "for na\-al purposes." In 1868 the gift was made and accepted by the government. After a time a wharf was built. Storehouses, quarters

HISTORIC GROTON

•5

DWKLLINCJS IIF MRS. ANNIE C MAVLKS. MOXIMENT SIKEET

THE BILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY

i6

HISTORIC GROTON

HISTORIC GROTON

17

\ I '

RESIDENCE OF MK. WILLIS L fHRLSTIE, BROAD STREET

IJESIDKM'K (IK Ml! I!V1!(IN M. (riSKIKN. THAMES .STREET

HISTORIC GROTON

for officers and other liuihlinys were erected, among them a drill ronm une hundred and cight_\'-t\vo by forty feet, tn be used in connec- tion with a training schnol fur marines which our government then planned to establish here. Nothing more, however, came of it, the yard being used merely as a c<ialing station.

During the time that the whaling interest was at its heiglit, many men from Groton went to the polar regions. In 1855 (luring one of Ills voyages Cajit. Jas. M. Buddington res- cued the "Resolute," sent by the English gnv- ernment in scarcli nf Sir bihn I'ranklin, and brought her in tn mir harbdr. The United States rewarded the rescuers and. Inning ])ut the "Resolute" in good cnndilinn. restored her to the I'.ritish goxernmcnt.

Ca]it. .S. .\. Iluddingtiin was (ine of the " I'o- laris" e.\])edition under Capt. I". .\. Hall. The best whaling \'oyage e\er made was by Capt. Ebenezer Morgan in the first steam whaler the "Pioneer."

Sailing for Il.ydsou"s Ra}" June 4, 18(14, she returned Sept." 18, 1865, with 1.31M barrels of whale oil and 22,650 pnunds nf whalebone, a cargo worth $150,000. Later Capt. Morgan, as soon as .Vlaska was ceded to the I'nited States, in behalf of the .\laska Commercial Co. of New London, made the first landing on St. PauLs Island, the sealing ground, and raised the first .\nierican flag.

Our beautiful summer resort. Eastern f-'oint, owes its existence to Mr. .\lbert L. .\v- ery, wdio owned the land and conceived the idea of making it a summer watering place. .Streets were opened under Mr. .Xverv's su- pervision and mainly at his e.\])ense and cot- tages began to be built by wealthy gentlemen from various places, until now a fine summer resort is the result, with many beautiful cot- tages and a fine hotel. "The Criswold."

In 1900 the Eastern Shipbuilding Co. lo- cated in Groton and began the building of the mammoth steamships "Minnesota" and "Da- kota." These were l)uilt and in due time latmched, great crowds coming t(T the launch- ing. The "Minnesota" first and then ihe "l)a- kota" sailed away for serxice on the I^acific ocean. Then happened wdiat had been proph-

esied, the Eastern Shipljuilding Co. took its departure, leaving but the buildings of the idant and the empty tenement houses which had been built by our speculators. Since the shipbuilding company left us, very little busi- ness has been carried on in (iroton. Mowex'er, manv of Groton's professional and business men ha\ing offices and places of Ijusiness in .New London find Groton a good place in \> hich to live.

In Dec, 1900, a petition was sent to the ( leneral Assembly of the state of Connecticut to create Groton Heights a borough, and a charter at the same time was asked by other |iarties for a Irolkw between (iriiton and W'est- erly.

In ii;03 the borough was incorporated and about that time the trolle_\' was put through. The borough now owns its own water su])- ply and lighting facilities, the Groton Electric Light and Water Company ha\ ing sold its jilants to the borough.

Mr. I'Tederic Bill has conferred a great gift upon Groton in establishing, building and maintaining a free public library, the "llill .Memorial Library." The beautiful building stands on a rise of ground under the shadow of the monument. The original building, wliich was dedicated in 1890, has lately been much enlarged. The book room was extended some eighteen or tw-enty feet and a large room intended for a museum was built at the north. In this room is now installed a large and rare collection of butterflies, another gift from Mr. ISill. who is much interestedin all nature stud- ies, also a fine collection of birds, the gift of his brother. Mr. Gnrdon Bill of Springfield. Mass. Beautiful jiaintings loaned liy Mr. Bill hang upon the walls. The building is lieauti- fully furnished and well lighted. The care- full_\- chosen books are by standard authors, new ones being added from time to time. Gro- ton people cannot too highly estimate the \alue to them of such a library.

The .\nna Warner llailey Chapter, D. A. R.. l'a\e (lone much for the improvement of the \ illage in the \icinity of the fort and monu- ment. They have added a fine annex to the eld monument house.

niSTOJilC GROTON

19

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HISTORIC GKOTON

UllKiE llnlSE, 1;KS11)EN('K (IF MK. MciKTON 1' ri.ANI

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m I'tffliiiiVi '■''■' Vir'!'''^AV.I.!,' """ »"»i8 «S8S3 ssaiit

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liKSIDKXrE OF MR. MORTON F. PLANT. KASTKUN IMJINT Foruial <;;irden in the ForcjiTumul

HJSTORIC GROTON

Air. .ATni-ton F. Plant, wlin dwiis a fine es- tate here, e\'er since he came In (iroton has taken great interest in the place and done much for it. He has aided the D. A. R. in tiicir schemes for imprn\-inL;- the village. He

hnilding' of colonial architecture, made of red lirick with stone trimmings, having offices in it for town clerk, judge of probate and the lioard of selectmen, and an auditorium for large gatherings.

llol'Kl. (;l!l^^\V^l,l). K.\STKUN I'OINI'. KHKCTED I'.UIII-I'.KIT

has done much fnr i mr highways, lately gix'ing On the day of the dedication a handsome

$10,000 toward ilieir imprnxcment. His great- loving cup was presented to ]\[r. Plant by the

est gift to the town is that nf the fine new townspeople as a token of their appreciation

town hall at Poquonnock I'.ridge, erccte(i of his gift and their esteem and regard for the

there l)ccansc that was the most central loca- d(-)nor. tion. It is a han(ls(imc and commodious

HISTORIC GROTOX

A Brief Sketch of the First Congregational Church of Groton

By M. ADELAIDE RANDALL

T is fitting that a liistory of the tiiwn ijf Groton should inckide a sketch of its h^irst Congregational Church, since that church had be- gun its work before Ciroton became legally distinct from New London, and for more than two hundred year^; has enriched the life of the community. \ church so ancient must ha\-e much in common with the history of the town which has grown up around it and a complete account of its pastors, its branches of work and forms of activity, its various houses of worship, and its members would in- clude a large part of the town history. Such an account would be very attractive, but in this short article much of interest must neces- sarily be omitted, and we must confine our- selves to a description of the formation and early history of that cliurch, and its three earliest meeting houses, and attempt to give only partial accounts of the lives of its pas- tors up to the year 1880.

In 1687, while Groton was still a part of New London, it was voted in town meeting that the people on the east side should have, "liberty to invite the minister of the town to preach for them on every third Sabbath, dur- ing the most inclement months." In 1702 a separate organization was granted with the privilege of building a meeting house, thirty fi"^'e (35) feet square, of organizing a church and of hiring a minister whose salary should be 70 ])ounds a year. The year 1703 sn.v the erection of this meeting house at Center Gro- tiin near the juncture nf four roads, and to pay the expense of building, 300 acres of town land were sold. No pictures or descriptions of this church ha\e come down to us, but \vc know that it was in use until I7f>7, and that here the first four ministers preached.

The first ])aslor. who wa^^ ordained on the eightli of NoN'ember, 1704, was Rev. Kiihraim

W'ootlbridge, a graduate of Harvard college, lie appears to have been greatly respected and beloved by his people who made up practi- cally the entire population of the town. We find that within ten years his salary was in- creased to 100 pounds instead of the 70 pounds allotted to him, and that he was presented with a farm of one hundred acres, and it is fur- ther recorded that the town volunteered "to cut and cart his yearly firewood," substantial proofs of the esteem in which he was held by his flock. The church still cherishes one relic of his pastorate. In 1707, John Davie, a farmer and the first town clerk of Groton, came into possession of a vast English estate and baronetcy. Upon his departure for Eng- land he left a gift of six pounds to purchase |ilate for Wx. W'oodbridge's church. This gift has been preser\ed in the form of a handsome silver communion cup wdiich was used reg- ularly in our worship for nearly two hundred \cars. It bears this inscription: "The Gift of Sr John Da\ie to the Church of Clirist in Groton."

On account of ill health Mr. \\'oodbridge ivas dismissed in 1724 after a pastorate of twenty years. .\t that time the church had eighty-four members.

The second pastor was Rev. John Owen, also a graduate of Harvard. He was zealous ill ]>ronioting re\i\'als, and in the church rec- ords we find that during revival meetings as many as eight}' people w'ere received into the church in six months, the entries being ac- coni])anied b\' such ferxent phrases as: "Deus laudetur," "(iratia tihi Domine." and "Christu:^ triumphans." h'rom these same records, we are led to beliex'e that ]\Ir. Owen thought it fully as im|)ortant that his converts should continue in grace, for of March twenty-fourth. 1752. we find this entry: "At a meeting of the I'irst Cliureh of Christ in (Irolon, after prayer.

HISTORIC GROTON

23

it was vulcd b)- the Cluircli that such members of this church, whom the church thought Delinquent and walked Disorderly, should be called to an account before the church." Then they voted particularly concerning eight mem- bers (whose names are givenj "that they be notified to appear before the church and give their reasons wh)- they had separated from the public worship and communion of the church." At a meeting in April, when the delincpients had reported, the record continues: "This church having heard all the reasons they of- fered, and considered and weighed them, voted that they looked ujion the reasons as altogether insufficient to justify them, and that their conduct herein was disorderly, sinful and very olTensi\-e, and that therefore they lie suspended from coniniuninn until they are convinced thcrenf and make (ii)S|iel satisfac- tion."

This j)crsi)nal supervision 1)y the jiastor seemed to agree with the church, fur during his twenty-si.x years of ministry, two hundred and three members were added to this cungre- gation. Mr. Owen was tlistinguished for his lil)crality toward those who differed from him in points of doctrine, and he advocated relig- ii us tolerance to such a degree that in 1744 he was summoned before the .■\sseml)l\- for heresy. He was dismissed on the gnuuid that his fault was not due to contempt of law. Init rather to a misguided conscience and oxer- heated zeal. Mr. Owen died in 1753, and his tombstone graphically states:

"Mail of God. H faithful seer, Husband, kind, a father dear .'\nd indeed a neighbor near Was he, whose clay is lodged here."

The third pastor was Rev. Daniel Kirkland

who remained here only four years, and of

whose pastorate there are but slight records.

lie was followed i)y Rev. Jonathan F.ar1)er, the

last pastor who preached in the Center ( iroton

meeting house. He was graduated from ^'alc

in 17,^0, and for awhile lal)ored among the

Afohegan Indians. AMien George ^^'hitefield

first came to New England in 1740. Mr. Rar-

ber was among the first to ofifer sympath\- and

co-operation, and NMiiteficld believed him

sent as an answer to [irayer: henceforth their

friendship was mutual ami perpetual. After Mr. Rarber was settled in Groton, W'hitefield visited him on February sixth, 1763, and preached in the old meeting house. In the fol- lowing June he came again and preached from a scaffolding erected from the second story window of the liarber house. The area around was thronged with people who had come from miles about to hear him. So inter- ested were they, that large numbers followed liis carriage when he drove to Xew London. That was a great day for Groton !

After a pastorate of ten years, JMr. Rarber died and was buried in the Starr cemeter}-. At his simple funeral, there was neither hearse, nor coaches for the mourners. The honored re- mains were borne upon the shoulders of many

TUK KINNK .MEf;TIN<: mUSK

chosen pall-bearers, each taking his turn, while a long procession followed, walking. No dis- I'day of any sort was indulged in, but genuine were all the expressions of reverential sorrow and lo\e.

.\t this time, 1767, the second meeting house came into being. The first that had been used lor si.xty- three years had fallen into disrepair and as Groton Rank was evidently increasing in |iopulation. it was decided to move in that direction. The situation chosen was the cross- road running north to l^leasant ^'alley, where it joins the village road that runs np the hill to the Miner homestead. The new building- was quadrangular in form, a substantial structure of white oak, well clap-boarded, vhich for seating capacity compared well with our present church. .\s it was painted

24

HISTORIC GKOrON

but once during its existence of sixty-seven years, it grew black, and that name clung to it although it is known in history as "the Kinne meeting-house." It had doors on three sides, the east, west and south, and as one entered the south door he faced the quaint old pulpit, perched high above the congregation, with its huge sounding board. .K straight wooden bench at the back of the pulpit provided the minister's seat, and over his head was a small window. On each side of the center aisle were the high-backed pews; a boy's chin would just come to the top of (.>ne. l^\ery part of the inside work was of clear nati\c ])ine and none of its rich coloring was e\'er ilimnied b)' paint.

Around the walls of the room, was a row of pews interrupted l)y the aisles from the side doors. A galler_y ran around three sides of the house, and in the front sat the singers under the leadership of five choristers. lUit all these leaders were sometimes unable to hold the congregation to the tune as lined : it would persist in singing the most familiar one. On such occasions the singing would sometimes be interrupted, "to get a fresh start," and sometimes it would be allowed to proceed with somewhat inharmonious results. At first there were no cushions, carpets or fire in this church, but about 1818, in the face of much op- position, a bo-x stove was placed in front of the pulpit. Oftentimes staunch opposers of this luxury would complain of the "intense" heat and of the discomfort caused by it, only to be told that there was not one bit of fire in the stove.

Into this new church, in ij'x), came Rev. .\aron Kinne, "tlie pastor of the Uexcilution." It is a matter c>f deep regret that we ha\e very slight church records of his pastorate, but from other sources we can judge of the trials through which he and his people passed. In those stirring days religion was somewhat tinged with ])olitics, and on the Sabbath, the minister's sermon was very apt to deal with the wrongs which the American patriots were

endurnu

and to suggest some remedx' tor

them. Hut ibis congregation was not to be contented with mcrch' discussing the matter;

it was to have an acti\e part in the new-born nation's struggle. On September sixth, 1781, in the Battle of Groton Heights, every male member of the church, except Deacon Solo- mon ]^Iorg'an, who was then a very old man, was killed. To Mr. Kinne came the sad duty of consoling and ministering to sixt_\' widows and three times as man_\- orphans, all made such in one da}-. It was due to his faith and energy that the church survi\ed this stunning l)low. But his conflicts did not close with the war. in 1783, for the people made an effort to rid themseh'es of the English custom of sup- porting religion by taxation, and when they found Mr. Kinne opposed to the abolishment of that custom, many of the influential persons set up another religious meeting. For awhile, Mr. Kinne preached as a missionary in Xew \ ork state, hiring a supply for his pulpit at home, but soon amicable relations with the (Iroton church were restored and he completed his pastorate of twenty-nine years, the long- est in the history of the church.

After the dismissal of Mr. Kinne, this church v,-as without a settled pastor for thirteen years, and during that period moral depravity ruled. "The village was a mciral waste." In 181 1, Rev. Timothy Tattle's ordination took place in the Kinne meeting house, and a new order of things began to prevail. He was made pastor of two churches, the one in Xorth Groton, now Ledyard, which had only five members ; and the one at (iroton Bank wdrich had twenty- seven. Mr. Tuttle preached to each congre- gation on alternate Sundaws, hut chose his home in Ledyard. He was exceedingly faith- ful to his charges, and on many a stormy .Sunday, he made his eight mile trip to the Lord's luiuse. \\ hen he was settleil, the country was preparing for its second great war with England, in behalf of free commerce and sailors' rights. This town suffered es- pecially, since it has always been the h<)me of so many sea-faring men, and while the river was blockaded by British war \essels, both pastor and people were sorel\' tried. During his pastorate of twenty-three }'ears, sixty-nine niemi)ers were added to the church and the first Sal)bath school was o]ienerl. so the church

HISTORIC GROTON

25

appears to have been flourisliing. Un the sixth of September, 1821, ^Ir. Tuttle dehvered in the Old Fort the "anniversary sermon" which by request was published and is still extant, so that if any reader feels so inclined he may come into touch with this interestiuL; man, through his own writings. In 1834, at his nvvn recjucst, Air. Tuttle was dismissed from this church, in order that he might gi\c his time wholly to the North Church. ( )n Jiuie si.xth, 1864, he was called to his (lod, and from his monument in Ledyard, he ever says to his |)eo]ile in both towns, "Remember the words which 1 spoke unto you while 1 was }-et with

\'OU."

call on one of his parishioners and was to take tea with the cordial lady. We can imagine that for the occasion, "Grandmother's" flow- ing blue china had been brought out, her verv best preserves and cake placed on the table and possibly some very choice tea came down from its shelf in the ckjset, since it was an open secret that Elder Tuttle was x'cry fond of tea. During the dainty meal she in(iuircd siilicit- ously of her guest :

"Elder Tuttle, is your tea right?" "There's no bad taste to it," replied the Elder simply.

This seemed rather nnappreciati\e mitil the hostess peeked into her tea-]iot an<l found it

.Mr. Tuttle, or l'",Ider Tuttle, as he was al- ways called, was a \ery tall, strongly built man whose countenance mirrored forth the dignity and solidity of his character. E\-ery one felt great reverence for him which ap- proached awe, not that he was austere, for he was truly kind, but that his whole mind was absorbed with the' thought of the solemnitx- of a Christian's life. Around this straight- forward, outs])oken man have gathered many stories. ( )ne of the most familiar runs some- thing like this :

One winter afternoon Elder Tuttle came to

THK OLD CHIKCM ON THAMES STREET

contained merely hot water. And even to this day in Groton, a forgetful hostess is likely to laugh and say, "Well, I declare, I've luadc

some of Elder Tuttle's tea.''

It is reported that this same hostess once tried to pry from Elder Tuttle a secret con- cerning a wedding fee which he had received. .After she had fpiestioned him awhile, he kaned forward and said very encouragingly,

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes, of course I can."

"Well, so can I."

In 1830, the people began to discuss the mat-

26

HISTORIC GROTON

ter of repairing their meeting house, which had now been used sixt}-three 3ears, just as long as their first house of worship. Dur- ing that time, Groton had grown to be a fair- sized village, and as this church now minis- tered to this district particularly it was de- cided to locate a new building within the village of Groton. Accordingly it was built in 1833 on upper Thames street not far below the present draw-bridge on property given b\- the iJarber family. At that time the situation was very desirable and pleasant, overlooking as it does, the beautiful Thames river. This building was of course built according to mod- ern ideas, although it received two additions before it became the buililing we now know. This l:)uilding is still standing, although the graceful Gothic spire was removed, and in- terior alterations made, when it ceased to be used as a place of religious worship. For foiu" years after Mr. Tuttle's dismissal the church vv'as without a regular pastor, during which time four able substitutes filled the pulpit.

The Rev. Jared .\ver\-, a descendant of one of the founders of the town of Groton, who v;as installed in 1839, was the seventh pastor. The Ijeginning of Mr. Avery"s ministry here was the opening of a new era of prosperity for the church. After an interval of forty years, the townspeople now had a minister living among them and could listen to preach- ing every Sunday. In 1842, a revival of great power was felt in this community, and the nc-xt year, many members were received into tlie church. One of the results was the forma- tion of the Baptist church of this \illage. and another was tlie marked increase in the spirit of giving among the people. .\t this time, a schedule of benevolent gi\'ing was for the first time ado])ted. This ministry, which lasted twelve years, terminated at Mr. .Vvery's re- quest in 185 1. Mr. .\very was known among his people for his enigmatic sayings and his puns, and many of his bright remarks are still current.

The eighth ])astor (if this church was Rev. ( ''eorge .A. \\'()odward, who was installed in 1851. His family had liecii associated espec- ially with educational work, his great-grand-

lather being the founder and first president of Dartmouth college, and he himself established a high school at Shrewsbury, New Jersey, of which he was the principal for four years. His ministry in Groton was marked with suc- cessful progress and continued for four years and a half. During that time our Articles of haith and our Covenant were revised, printed and circtilated among the members of the church, and a decided improvement was mani- fested in the charitable contributions. His res- ignation came unexpectedly in 1856 and was rcluctantl}' accepted by the people.

For the following eight years, sulxstitutes again supplied the pulpii so that the next reg- ular minister. Rev. Samuel iSrown, was not in- stalled until 1864. Mr. Hrown was a graduate cf Yale and previous to his conversion had been a lawyer and a teacher. Groton was his second pastorate and for two years and a half he was '"a burning and shining light" here. He was especially interested in missionary work and during his pastorate a great impetus was given to the church benevolences. The formation of The Groton Bank Temperance Union stands as a monument to his enter- prise. When this project met with deter- mined opposition, the Baptist pastor, Elder Dewhurst, supported Mr. Brown loyally. It is said that never had there been more Chris- tian union in the church, and among the churches of the village than there was during Mr. Brown's ministry. His early death, in i86fi. cut short his many plans for doing gocid. During his brief term of service, thirty-fi\e mem])ers were added to the church.

The tenth pastor was Rev. Joseph E. Swal- low, a graduate of Dartmouth college. Dur- ing his ministry, about $10,000 was expended in enlarging and improving the house of wor- ship and the congregation was largely in- creased. Mr. Swallow was also active in Irv- ing to promote public education in the town, and largely through his efYorts, the nucleus if the school building we now use was erect- ed. The story is told, that one Sunday when -Mr. Swallow was occnp3-iiig the pulpit of a \ew London minister, he was annoyed by the conduct of the church m-ganist, who sat with

HISTORIC GROTON

27

the choir. He stopped in the midst of his dis- course and gazed with his piercing eyes at the oft'ender. Naturally all eyes were turned toward the culprit who felt very uncomfort- able. At the close of the service, the organist, who was somewhat of a wag, took his revenge by playing, "\Mien the Swallows Homeward Fly."

Mr. Swallow's dismissal took place July first, 1870, and until 187 1 the church was with- out a pastor. Rev. James 1!. Tyler was or- dained in September of that year. His death occurred on A'lay twenty-eighth, 1872, after he had been here onlv eight nmnths. He was a

heartily for every good interest of the com- munity'. During several successive winters he held revival meetings in his church con- ducted by well-known evangelists of the time. He did not content himself with simply hold- iiig such meetings, but often took the visiting evangelist around from house to house, so that the people might come into intimate, friendly relations with him. As a result of his zeal, many members were recei\'ed into the church. In 1877 after much labor and [)ains- taking research he published a "Review of the L'cingregational Church" from 1704 to his ])a^- l^rate, with sketches of the ministers. That

NKW ( ONCIM'.C

ivian of strong intellectuality and much cul- ture, and if he had been s])ared it is evident that he would ha\'e accomplished much good The memoirs of Mr. Tyler have been writ- ten at length by Rev. J. H. DeForest and the following (|UOtation is from that \'olunie : "As a pastor, he was pious, sincere, faithful, un- tiring. He loved his people with an unchang- ing love, and almost his last words were, 'You are ver}- kind to me, I love you all.' "

After Mr. Tyler's death, the church was without a pastor until November of 1872, when Rev. John A. ^^'oodhull was ordained. He was a \ery spiritual man and worked

Al'KlNAI. (Ill Kc II

b(jok contains all that can be gleaned from records concerning the church, and is \'ery ac- curate in its information. Jt is l)y far the best authority on the subject and to it we are indebted for many of the facts embodied in this article. Mr. \\"oo(lhull was dismissed in 1880, after serving eight }ears.

Since 1880, three jJastors have minislercd in this church: the Rev. A. j. .McLeod for twelve years. Rev. Edward C. \\'illiams for two years, and Rev. Frederick .S. Hyde for thirteen years. It is not our ]3urpose to chron- icle in detail the events of those pastorates; that privilege we leave for some future writer.

28

HISTORIC GROTON

We shall niciUiun but one iniportant event, the building of a new church structure.

In 1900, the question of making repairs to the old church arose, but when it was found that they would of necessity be very exten- si\ e, the church people decided to build a new structure instead. The site chosen was the lot on the corner of Monument and ^^leridian streets, and here, in Kpi, just si.xty-eight years after the dedication of the former church, the curner stone of the new structure was laid. This beautiful edifice is in the Old I£nglish style of architecture, and is construct- ed of field stones laid in cement. The front nf its tower, over the western entrance, was built of stones taken from localities con- nected with the history of the church and town. There are some from the old church lot at Center Ciroton. some from the "old black meeting house," and many from the home lots of the early pastors. Each of the deacons had a memorial stone and many of the old families of the town are here repre- sented.

The church treasures three beautiful mem- orial windows. A very large one represent- ing the ()aral:)le of The Ten Talents, occupies the western end. This was presented bv the Avery famil}-. whose members ha\e always occupied a \ery prominent position in the town and church. ( )n the north side is a win- dow from the TitTany stiudios re])resenting Christ as the Shepherd of I lis Sheej), a fitting memorial to Rev. John A. W'oodhull. The third, of con\-cntioiial design, is a memorial to

Deacon and .Mrs. \> ilson Alhn. The dedica- tion exercises were held on October sixteenth, 1902, the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the church, the dedicatory ser- mon being preached by Rev. S. H. Howe, D. D., of Norwich from the text, "What mean ye by these stones."

In June, 1908, Rew James R. Danforth, D. 1)., was installed as our sixteenth pastor and we sincerely hope tliat for many years he may li\e among us "that good, diffused, may more abundant grow."

One can not study the history of this church without feeling that in many ways, it has lieen especially blest. It had a most noble ances- try of men antl women who were children of the best early settlers upon the shores of Mass- achusetts bay, and in whose veins flowed the best blood of the mother country. Sturdy in body, keen in mind and fervent in sjiirit. the}' gave to this church a splendid birthright. It has been enriched by an educated ministry. Its pastors have all been graduates of col- leges ; men of intellectuality and culture who have done much toward maintaining a high standard of living here in Groton. It has also noble descendants. From it have gone forth half a score of ministers, among thciu the first Episcopal bishop in this countr}- ; and man_v useful men and women in all walks of life have received their religious training from this church. \\ ith one of her pastors we sav, ■ \\'ith a past so full of blessing and attain- ment, may the future of this religions house- hold be grand in hol\- usefulness."

HISTORIC GROTON

29

Groton Heights Baptist Church

By REV. GEORGE R. ATHA

CHURCH that was organized in 1843 t-annot boast of "hoary walls and ancient halls," especially if it is worshipping in the second building it has occupied since that (hilf. \\l the writer of this brief record being l'ri\ile,L;ecl from time to time to hold the cups and plates of the old pewter conininnion set, has thus been led to think of the brethren who ].artook of the elements of the sacrament therefrom, and he cannot but rejoice in their history.

The stor\' is brief, covering but si.\ty-six years, and it begins thus: "A council called by certain brethren and sisters residing in the lijwns of (iroton, New London and Jewett City, f(_ir the purpose of giving them fellow- slii]) as a church, to be called "The Haptist Church at (iroton Hank,' convened at the house of Deacon Robert A. .\very on Thurs- day, March 16, 1843, 'I'ld organized at 11 o'clock a. m. After due inquiry into the cir- cumstances under wliich the church came into existence, the council voted 'That when the church shall adopt the articles and the cove- nant, we extend to it the hand of fellowslii]> as a church in ( lospel order."

h'ollowing this action the council adjourned to meet in the meeting house for the public exercises, the Congregational church having kindly ofifered their house for the occasion. The church came together and in the presence of the congregation adopted their articles of faitli and covenant, after which the serxices proceeded as folows :

Reading of Scriptures and prayer by Rex-. ]!. V . ITedden ; Sermon by Rev. Pi. Cook, text, Kphesians 2: 19-20; Prayer of Recognition by Rev. I.. Coxill : Hand of Fellowship by Rev. IT. R. Kna])]) : Charge to the Chtn-ch by Re\'. T. R. .Stoward : concluding prayer by Rev. E.

Denison. Such is the story of the beginning of the church.

At the time of the organization there were 51 enrolleil as mendjers of the church. Ser- \ ices were held either at the North Lane school house or in the school house of District No. I, But temporary cpiarters did not long satisfy this little company, whose buoyant, optimistic and progressive spirit is borne wit- ness to in the following paragraphs taken \-er- hatim from the church records:

I. .\t a meeting held un Mareh J5th, 1843 (nine days after the organization was effected) it was voted: "That we circulate a subscription to build a meeting liouse for the church."

_'. On the i8th of July, 1844, it was voted; "That the building committee be instructed to accept proposals and build a meeting house for the Groton Bank Baptist Clnn-ch, according to their best judgment."

T,. In May, 1845, it was voted: "That our meeting house be dedicated 10 the service of Almighty God on the 4th of June, 1845. and that Elder Jabez S. Swan be invited to preach tlic dedication sermon."

This first meeting house ser\-ed the church as its place of worshi]) from 1843 until 1872. It still stands on Thames .St., just where }'ou make the turn in going to the railroad station. It was remodelled and has been used for some years now as a dwelling.

In 1871, during the second pastorate of El- der Allen, the church building was found too small to accommodate the cinigregation, so the subscription list was again circulated with the result that $4,500 was raised, which with the value of the church property made a work- ing capital of o\-er $6,000. .\ building commit- tee was appointed and the work pushed for- ward \-igorously so that on the nth of July. 1872, the building was finished and dedicated, the sermon on this occasion being preached l;y Rev. John Davies of Norwich. The church edifice has been well ke])t and is in a good state of preserxatiim. In 1S74 it was freed

3°

HISTORIC GROTOX

in nil (k'l)l Ml far as the building fund was concerned, and during that year also a hell was placed in the tower by eight of the breth- ren (if the clinrch. Tn-day the growth of the Bible school and the desire for a more conven- ient arrangement for classes is leading the trustees and other officers to think seriously as to how they can best rearrange the ves- trys to facilitate and make more efficient this N'igorous dejiartnicnt of the church's work.

Counting the ]iresciit iiicuiiibcnt, it may be interesting to note that the church has had (luring these sixty-six years thirteen jiastors, while (Ml three different occasions there have

in frame and in heart he gave a splendid proof (if his ministry. Two hundred and forty-three were added tn the church during his pastorates and his name will ever be honored in this com- munity.

Re\-. E. T. Miller's pastorate was next in kngtli, covering a period of eight years and seven months, and next again in point of time was the pastorate of Rev. L. R. Sears, who rounded out six years with this people. Elder I'.alleiitine would come next with fi.nir and a third years of sjilendid achievement in both material and spiritual things, ^\"hile many of the pastorates were brief, (iod's blessing was

(iHorox UKKiirrs u.vrrisT (Hi i{( ii

been so-called supply pastors. The pastors were, in order, as follows: Reverends Ruther- ford Russell. .\. T. .Mien, (first jiastorate"). Isaac Cheeseborough, Edgar Hewitt, George ^Fatthew-s, Elihu Dewhurst, X. T. .\llen (sec- ond pastorate"). Xoyes W". Miner, D. D.. ( leorge R. Darrow, George N. Ballenlinc. E T. Miller. I.. R. Sears and George R. .\tha. The suppl\- pastors were E. Andrews, M. M. llaveii. and William .\. Smith.

Of this group none can compare, of course, cither in length (^f service, or in their grip upon the clinrch and community, with Elder .\llen. who for a period of almost twentv vears guided the affairs of the church. Earge

not wanting in them as the records attest. Es- pecially is this to be noted in the brief minis- tries of Revs. Rutherford Russell. Elihu Dew- hurst and Dr. X. W. Miner, who though here for but brief periods, respectively, saw eighty- four, thirty-two and sixty-one added to the church. Re\-. W. .\. Smith who served as su])- I'ly-pastor. gratuitously. t(->o. be it said, had his service of love honored by twent\'-eight Iieing added to the church while it was under his care. God has indeed honored his servants here, in that over six hundred altogether dur- ing these years ha\e been brought into the fel- lowship of the church, and all have been jirixi- leged to share, not only in the sowing of the

HISTORIC GROTON

31

seed, but alsu in the reaping ot tlie harvest, 'i'he years 1845, 1848, 1872-73 and 1882 were \ oars marked by special nianifcstatiuns of s]jirilual puwer in the eonxersiun uf men.

It would be a difficult thing to determine just where one ouglit to stoj) if he attempted to make mention of the men and women, who during these sixty-si.x years have sought by Inving and painstaking service in this church li' honor ( lod and ad\ance the interests of His king(l(ini. ilut there are two names that no one writing of the church would be able to omit, so indelibly ha\e they been written in the church's histor}'. The first of these names is that of Deacon Robert Austin Avery, through "whose untiring and self-den_\ing ef- forts this church had its birth." For nineteen years he served as senior deacon, seldom be- ing absent from the services though he li\'ed some distance from the church. He died De- cember 20, 1862. The church records during those nineteen years indicate that the heart and hand of Deacon Avery were ever mindful of the church, and that he abounded in evcr_\- good word and work. JJesides him was Dea- con Charles 11. Starr, who also was with the church at the beginning even though his name does not appear as a constituent member, lie was elected deacon in November, 1843, and served the church in that office for a period of sixty-two years. A quiet, simple, straight-

forward, good man, his sincerity and virtue impressed his brethren in the church and also his neighbors and fellow townsmen. This record is all too brief to indicate what the ear- nest faith and piety of these brethren meant in the way of blessing to the church, but without such mention of them any record would have lo be marked incomplete.

Of the allied and auxiliary organizations to the church, the Sunday school of course stands first in the hearts of the people. It has an en- rolled membership of about two hundred and fifty, with an average attendance of one hun- dred and forty. Its nineteen classes give op- portunity for students of all ages to share in L'lible-study, and it manifests an actixe inter- est in all the varied missionary and philan- thropic enterprises espoused by the church.

Other organizations arc the Ladies' Mis- sionary Society, the Ladies' Benevolent So- ciety, and the Baptist Young People's LInion. These give ample opportunity for expression and participation in the varied lines of work, and all are proving helpful to the work of the church at large in practical ways and in pray- erful ways, in studious paths and in ])aths where time and talent must be sacrificed that the church may be sustained, and the blessed gospel preached both here at home and yonder across the sea.

HISTORIC GEO TON

The Bishop Seabury Memorial Church

By REV. C. S. M. STEWART

HE Rev. R. M. Duff of St. James' Cluirch, Xew I.<jiuUui, held the first Epi.scopaHan services mi \\ ednesday evenings in Lent, 1S74, wliich resulted in the fouiid- le Alissiiin in (n'Otnii. .\ Sundav af-

>i-: \i;i i:n \ii:mi ii;i \i 1 11 \i'i,i.

It mix m scr\ice was conducted hv him during tlie following June and continued until ( )c- toher of that vear, when the Re\ . .Millidt^e

Walker, the regular appointed missionary, assumed charge of the work. Success crowned the labor of the missionary and soon sufiticient funds had been obtained for the construction of the present church edifice. The Rev. Mr. Walker submitted plans drawn liy himself to a committee appointed liy the board of directors of the the missionary society of the diocese which were found to be satisfactory ami ground was broken on the 20th of July, 1873. The first service held in the church was on Christmas ex'ening of the same year, and there the congregation continued to worship until the following Whitsunda}", June 4th, 1876. The church building being still in an unfinished condition, the services were held for a brief period of time in Mechanics' Hall, where pre\iousl}- the congregation had met for worship.

.\ completed and churchly structure awaited the return of the congregation on .Sunday. Au- gust 13th, 1876, and the Rev. J. F. Taunt was the officiating clergyman. The Rev. Mr. Taunt having lieen appointed priest-in-charge by the bishop of the diocese, entered ujion his duties September 3d, 1876. The last mentioned clergyman was followed by the Rev. H. T. Gregory wliose ministration began Afarcli (ith. 1878. The Rev. ^\v. Gregory rendered the important service of lifting a debt of $1,750.00 wliicli had |irevcnted the consecration of the church. On Tnesdav, September 13th, i88t. the church was consecrated and set apart for- ever for holy worship under the title of Sea- liur\- Memorial Church, in reverential respect to the niemorv of the Risht Reverend Samuel .'^eabur>'. D. D . the first bishop of the .\meri- can church ;in(l of the diocese of Connecticut, who was born in Groton. Xovembcr 30th. 1720.

HISTORIC GROTON

33

The Missionaries in cliar,L;c have heen :

1. The Kev. K. ^[. Duft— Lent. 1874. to iStli

Siuulav after Trinity.

2. The Rev. .MilHdge \\ alker— 18th Sunday

after Trinity to Lent, 1876.

(The Rev. C. H. B. Tremaine — .\sh \\ ethies- day. 1876. to Whitsunday.)

3. The Rev. J. Ferdinand Taunt — utii Sun-

day after Trinity. 1876. to Lent. 1878.

4. The Rev. Henry T. Gregory — Ash Wed-

nesday, 1878, to Holy Innocents. 1882.

5. Rev. t)rIando P. Starkey — Easter Day.

1883. to Lent, 1885.

(The Rev. Peter L. Shepard — Lent. 1S85, to iitli Sundax after Trinitv.)

6. The Rev. James O. Ticknor — k\\\ connec-

tion with St. Marks Parish. Mystic) — ttth Sunday after Trinity. 1885. to 8tii Sunday after Trinity, i88(>.

7. The Rev. William L. Peck — 17th Sunday

after Trinity. 188(1, to 0th Sunday after Trinity, 18*^4.

8. The Rev. X. Alanson Weltou — 181)4 to

i8<,K>. <> The Rev. Theodore M. Peck — i8o() to

1898. 10. The Rev. Paul F. Hoffman — ist Sunday

after Trinity. i8t)8 to n;o2. 1902-1904 — The Rev. Millidge Walker. 1 904- 1906 — Sup])lies. 1906-1907 — The Rev. F. H. Stedman. 1907-1908 — The Rev. .\delhert McGinnis. 1908— The Rev. C. S. M. Stewart.

34

HISTORIC GROTON

The Work of the Anna Warner Bailey Chapter, D. A. R.

of Groton and Stonington

By GRACE D. WHEELER

IliOUT fifty years ago, tlicrc lived on the old Gershoni Lambert estate, near the borough of Stonington, Conn., a family 1)y the name of Day. Some years before they had left their home in Xew London, Conn., for New Orleans, La., where Mr. Day aceumnlated in business a handsouie fortune and upon returnnig north, for a summer home, saw and purchased this beauti- ful estate, later known as Walnut Grove or the Day Place. It is situated off the public road, but reached by passing through the gate at the lodge, where wending your way in a green meadow, under arching trees and over bridges, you reach at last, the handsome mansion budt there by Mr. James I. Day and beautified during his ownership, through the summer months and later, when he occupied it for the season. Here his family lived in luxury, entertaining friends and bringing not a little social distinction to Stonington.

.\mong this family of several l)eautitul daugh- ters, was Abby, wdio married Cuthbert Harrison Slocomb, the wedding occurring amid nuich hap- piness in this house and later they went to live in Xew Orleans. After travelling much abroad and at home and experiencing many eventful e])i- sodes in social life, bearing w'ith fortitude the loss of her husband and with equal equanimity, the happy marriage of her daughter, to Count Di. Brazza Savorgnan of Italy, Mrs. Slocomb came back in later years, to her early home in Stonington and visited friends, while seeking a beautiful location for a home, which she found at Groton, Conn., where, after combining two or- dinary houses into the one modern and unique design, which stands there today, on Monument street, she named it "Daisy Crest over Groton." Perhaps living in the very shadow of Groton Heights' towering granite monument and conse-

(|uently nearby Old F(.)rt Griswold, with its glo- rious and patriotic, but ghastly historic memory of Revolutionary days, was the cause of imbuing Mrs. Slocomb with zeal in the service of those Revolutionary descendants, who formed October nth, i8yo, in Washington, D. C, the National Society of The Daughters of the American Rev- olutiini. Certain it was, that she responded promptly to the call for help, which came to her from Mrs. H. \'. Boynton, \'ice-President Gen- eral, in charge of the organization of chapters, who desired that daughters of the heroes of the Revolution should assist in forming chapters in every city, town and county of Connecticut, which should foster patriotism and education in the principles of our government and also preserve the unwritten history of the struggle for inde- pendence that our ancestors endured.

?klrs. Slocomb came at once to Stonington seek- ing members for this new society and called at my home to secure help in tracing those eligible to membership. Thus my name stands first after the Regent, as the second charter member. In August, i8<J3, Mrs. Slocomb sent out letters of invitation to ladies to form a chapter in Groton antl Stonington, and later in the month held an informal meeting at her house, of those eligi- ble and desirous of forming a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which or- ganization was later named .\nna Warner Bailey, in honor of Groton"s most distinguished patriotic woman of Revolutionary days.

The first regular meeting of this chapter was held September 13th, 1893, ^^ Mrs. Slocomb's home, she having been appointed Regent by the National Board at Washington. There were fourteen ladies present and other officers were chosen, viz.: Mrs. Eugene Baker, registrar; Miss Grace D. Wheeler, vice-registrar ; Miss Julia Avery, secretary ; and Miss Sarah H. Mor-

HISTORIC GROTON

3S

gan, treasurer. The Board of Management was Mrs. Daniel Morgan, Mrs. Frederic Bill, since deceased, and Mrs. Belton A. Copp, while the sixteen charter members were Mrs. C. H. Slo- comb. Miss Grace D. \Mieeier, Mrs. Isaac P. liouse. Miss Sarah H. Alorgan, Mrs. J. O. Spi- cer, Mrs. Eugene L. Baker, Mrs. Henry H.

MRS. .\NNA W.\KXi;i; H.VUJ'.V Known as "Mother Ii:iilc-y"'

Stoddard, Mrs. Elisha Thomas, Mrs. Frederic Bill, Miss Mary J. Avery, Mrs. Belton A. Copp, Mrs. Daniel ^lorgan. Miss Julia (_) Avery, Miss Cora Avery, Miss I'.eulah Star- key. Mrs. X. S. Fish.

in April, 1894, the first meeting in Stonington was held at Mrs. F. B. Noyes' home. The K--- gent used a gavel, presented to her by the chap- ter, and made of oak from a rafter in Alother Bailey's liouse highly iiolished and with an in- scription on a silver plate. There were twentv- five present. ^Vithin the }ear. there were 103 members, making with one exception the largest chapter in the state. Three years later there were 150 members and seven real daughters of Revo- lutionary heroes had been found and presented with the gold spoon from the national society at Washington. About this time Mrs. Sloconib was re(|uested to allow her name to be used for State Regent, but dechned the honor, saying, she "felt convinced that the Daughters of Connecti- cut would be best served by remaining where she was." We see now how wise her decision, as we glance along the various lines of work, car-

ried successfully to a grand finish, for in less than three months after her appointment as Regent, she had begun consulting with Congressman Charles Russell as approaching the United States authorities in regard to the wall and grounds of I-'ort Griswold and the Monument House, so that it should be a fitting reception hall for the patri- otic public, who visit it in such multitudes every year, 1,200 names being inscribed on the visi- tors' book in two months. She was successful in her good work and the General Assembly made us custodians of the house, later granting three hundred dollars a year for care and repass.

Right upon this, the chapter sent those num- erous petitions, 150 or \(yo. to Congress, asking for the consecrated soil which rightfullv be- longed to Fort Griswold's battle ground, lying directly east, which was later incorporated into the grounds of the old redoubt 'by the United States government. These [printed words can scarcely convey the amount of thought, work and time needed to accomplish this purchase, but the sincere thanks of all patriotic people are given this chapter for preventing the building of houses, which was fast encroaching upon this historic ground.

(^ur ineetings were generally held at the Bill Library, but as the Fairie Masque, a cliarniing pla\-, written by Mrs. Slocomb and held in the

::S'«»gi.i., 1^.^-

THE MOTHKR B.\ILEV HOTSK

New London Theatre, by our societv in June, 1895, proved so successful, the proceeds, four hundred dollars, were used to fit up the little stone monument house, which had been voted by the Monument .\ssociation for their use and granted to us by the State, so that on the sixth of September, 1894, the 113th anniversary of

36

HISTORIC GROTON

the massacre at Groton Heights, the keys were given over to the Regent and the house was formally opened to the public. The chapter was present with their invited guests, repre- senting church, state, army, navy, art, literature, wealth and fashion, who all listened attentively to a speech by Hon. C. A. Russell, and a poem written by our life poetess. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, was read by ^Irs. Clara B. \\'hitman, which with music and refreshments filled the programme.

At sunset, Chinese lanterns flashed out from the monument and house, while fireworks and

Ledyard, where he paid triljute money of a York shilling to a tidy, little woman, living in the stone building, from whom he received the key to the monument, and so this house has been occupied by different people till the Anna \\'ar- ner Bailey Chapter took charge in 1894.

The next meeting after the formal opening was held at Mrs. Slocomb's and the society, through the treasurer, Miss ?iIorgan, presented our Regent with a jewelled badge, representing the symbolical spinning wheel, made of blue en- amel with a diamond in the center and in the end of each of the thirteen spokes. It is need-

vmrm.fi'- '-'Ttf^

MONUMENT AND M()NT"MENT HOUSE

bonfires lighted the I'ld fort. This was indeed a gala day long to be reniembercd. ^^'e scarcely thought the day was so near when tliis house would be enlarged and rededicated to accom- modate the growth and gifts of the patriotic ]niblic. The early history of this stone house is interesting as we note it was built from stone un- fit for the monument and has been usetl as a janitor's home since 1831, first by John Benhani, who later purchased the large I'.enham farm of today. In 184'^, the hislnrian Lossing, relates, "That he crossed the Thames and visited ?ilt.

less to say that Mrs. Slocomb responded feel- ingly and fittingly and then mentioned in her yearl\- report that she had secured seven nation- al members for a Louisiana chapter and nominat- etl a friend as Regent, to represent them in Congress.

In the glorious month of (October our Regent, at her home, gave a reception to the State Re- gent, Mrs. DeB. Randolph Keim. She was as- sisted in receiving by onr officers and members. Slierry of New York catered, serving refresh- ments emblematic of the occasion. Ices in the

HISTORIC GROTON

37

form of cannon and bombs, and cakes and tiny United States flags were in abundance. A short time after Airs. William D. Aloss entertained our Kegent at her home in Westerly, where she met a number of Rhode Island ladies, who later be- came members of our chapter, and ever since, one meeting yearly is held at Westerly and Stonington, always well sustained by the meni- uers at home and from Groton.

In June, i8y5. Airs. Slocomb was chosen ciiairman of the chapter committee and pro- moter of the national society ^^{ the Chihlren of the American Revolution and formed six local societies in \'ew London County, and one in Louisiana, viz. : 1 honias Starr at East- ern Point, Thomas Avery at Poquonnock, Jonathan Brooks at New London, Col. Led- yard at Groton, William Latham (or Powder Alonkeyj at Stonington, Samuel Ward at Westerly, and Old Glory at New Orleans. It would require pages to tell of all the work d.one by these children and their leaders, of tablets placed upon historic houses and ob- jects, one upon the Whitefield tree in Stoning- ton in front of the home of Air. and Airs. h\'r- nanck) W heeler, and again honoring White- field by placing another tablet on the old brown Barber house at Center Groton, now ( wned by Percy Colver, where Whitefield preached in 1764. Tablets on the Ebenezer Avery and .\nna \\ arner Bailey houses in Groton, a stone placed with ceremonies at the grave of Hulda Hall and a boulder erected at Daniel Stanton's grave in Stonington, testify to their patriotic ardor.

I'.ut to return to our work in the Anna War- ner Bailey chapter, of which there is enough to fill a good-sized book. \\'e find at the regu- lar meetings, much business concerning by- laws and amendments, committees named for souvenir china, armorial shields, and souvenir siher bells, representing the flannel petticoat which AI other Bailey gave to our patriotic an- ce.stors to make wadding for their guns to fire upon the English. The numerous meetings of the Groton Tea Club and Xew London Reading Club are often mentioned. Clothing and money are reported sent to Airs. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop for her hospital work

among the poor in Xew York city, which was very gratefully appreciated. Improvement of the well on the monument grounds was made i)y securing the old well curb on the new post office site in Xew London, which was origi- nally owned l:)y Airs. Slocomb's great grand- father, Capt. Elisha Hinman.

In 1896 Airs. Slocomb was chairman of the national hymn committee and made an ad- dress at the Continental Congress in Wash- ington on this subject. Later Airs. Clara B. W hitman of Groton was elected regent, and Airs. Slocomb was appointed chairman of the monument house connuittee.

When Airs. Slocomb found need of a flag for decorative purposes, she was informed that there never was a Connecticut state flag es- tablished by law. Xone of the flags carried by Connecticut troops, from Colonial days to the present time, was ever adopted by the (ieneral Assembly, though there were thirty- fi\e difi'erent designs e.xtant, while red, blue _\ellow, and once green flags were used to dis- tmguish Connecticut troops. (Jur chapter submitted several designs to the General As- sembly for a legalized state flag. Une was ap- 1 roved, which is made of blue bunting 12 by 18 feet. It has the state shield in white, bor- dered in silver and gold, and the old colonial seal of three clinging grape vines, of strength and beauty, wreathing themselves upward, freighted with full fruitage, and said to be .symbolical of religion, liberty and knowledge. Beneath the shield, on a silvery streamer, in blue letters, bordered with brown and gold, we read our state motto. Qui, transtulet, sus- tinet. Translated, He who hath transplanted, will sustain. On the staff was attached an ex- quisite silver presentation plate, suitably in- scribed.

This flag became the Connecticut oflicial state flag, and on .Aug. 12th, 18(77, was pre- sented by our chapter to Governor Lorrin A. ("ooke at the capitol in Hartford, and shortly after it was hoisted on the stafif to the peak of the Capitol's dome, where it was saluted by the firing of thirteen guns.

On .Aug. iTith, tihe governoir received at Camp Cooke the silk flag for the governors of

38

HISTORIC GROTON

the state, from our chapter. Senator Lee spoke of the thirteen stripes, representing the thir- teen original states, saying, if the names should be written upon them, Connecticut ought to have her name at the head of the list, becavise of her nol:)le history ; for during the Revolutionary war. more troops were raised from Connecticut than from any other state, with one exception, and durinL;- the Ci\il war she sent about 55.000 soldiers to the front.

at least 10.000 persons were present and it was difficult to get passage across the Thames. A company called "The Ledyard Volunteers," manned the fort, and in the line of march were 18 survivors of the massacre, some showing scars and others with bullet rent garments. One \'eteran had Iwd holes in his \'est which were made nn that memorable day in i7(Si when he escaped death fmm the bullets In' ha\'ing a British oflicer stufl" his nii^lit ca]i into

r()\NK( Ticrr statk kl.\(;

In June. 1898, Mrs. Slocomb was one of eight Daughters from Connecticut who peti- tioned Congress against the misuse of the na- tional t^ag, and in July she was one of the New London and W indham County D. .\. K. relief committee for collecting and forwarding contributions to our LTnited States hospital at Jacksonville, Pda., during the Spanish-.\niericaii war. Our chapter gave in money and mate- rials $135. On the 6th of September, as usual, a fitting celebration was observel at Groton, it Ijeing the 117th anniversary of the Ijattle, which since 1825, 44 years after the massacre, had been commemorated in some proper- man- ner.

Subscriptions were taken at the taverns in Stonington, Groton, Preston and Xew London to defray exijenses. and when the dav arrived

the orifice nf the wound. These men nf Rcvo- lutiiinar\' (h'ns inarched with ilignity to Fort (iriswokl, where 1000 women were assembled, and listened tn the oration 1)\- lion William llrainerd. Later ( io\-. W'olcott was placed at the head of a committee to erect a monument to the honored heroes who fell there in 1781. The money was secured by a lottery, and so this monument was built which stands there in all its grandeur to-day.

.\nd SI I on. down the }'ears. each succeeding Se]it. 6th lirings with it some fitting celebra- tion, and patriotic hearts take up willingly the Work of keeping green the memory of these brave men who fell at this spot. ( )n the 6th of .^e])t., 1808, Hon. r.enjamin .Stark read a paper, which had been compiled by Miss Mary Ben- jamin, relative to the laying of the corner-

HISTORIC GROTON

39

stone of the Grotoii nionunient. Airs. Sara Kinney made an address and Mrs. Slocomb presented a water color painting of the new. state flag to Battery B, First Connecticut liea\'y Artillery \'olunteers.

Jn October, 1898, Mrs. Whitman, on account of ill health, resigned, and Mrs. Slocomb once more became our leader. In this same month, the monument house, which had been closed several weeks undergoing repairs, amounting in cost to over $800, was reopened amid interesting ceremonies. A sealed bo.\ of records was buried under the main entrance, and after addresses and songs, the flagging was placed over it.

The photographs of the little stone house sold well to its many \'isitors. It scarcely seems possible, but in the summer months of two years 10,000 persons viewed this historic place. The chapter has distributed many val- uable, large water colors and artistic coli>red photographs of the flags to the military and various libraries and societies at a cost of $250. We also published a booklet by Miss Benjamin on local histor}'.

I'ixe large volumes, given by Mrs. Slocomb, were filled with a cartoon history of the Span- ish-.American war, prepared 1)_\' (lur historian, .Mrs. Ira Hart Palmer of Stonington, and sometime after Aliss Emma W. Palmer of Stonington completed a numjjer of volumes of cartoon history of the same war. The C. A. R. did a large amount of relief work during this war and two of their number became sol- diers of Uncle Sam.

Our chapter was honored by d request from Washington to have its work, the state flag and monument house, forwarded as a report to the Smithsonian Institution, this being the first report including D. A. R. work, published at the expense of the government. It contained thirty plates, one of which was the monument house.

In 1899, two of our silk flags were presented to the Third Regiment at Camp Lounsbur\' and in this year, plans were made to add to the monument house, a large hall, 47 by ij feet and one-third higher than the present building, to be called the Memorial .\nnc\ in memory

of our heroic dead of the Spanish-American war, the first monument to be raised in the state to that cause.

At this time, news of the assassination of King Humbert was learned with feelings of sorrow by the world. Our chapter, through the kind thought of Mrs. Slocomb, had Tiffa- ny prepare a most exquisite and appropriate memorial album, with the arms of Italy and illuminated lettering, on delicate white vellum, with siher and gold mountings, containing parchment leaves to be inscribed bv the offi- cers and mend^ers of each Connecticut chap- ter, and with the national officers also, ex- pressing to Queen Margherita, of Italy, the love and support of the patriotic American women. The volume was presented by the Countess Di Brazza, who was granted a long and delightful audience at the Queen's court.

Before the Queen's reply had reached us our own jjeloved President had been shot and was l_ving wounded unto death. ( )ur chapter sent a letter of sympathy to Airs. AIcKinley, and later upon the President's death extended ap- propriate resolutions.

Mrs. Slocomb made many appeals to Con- gress to secure the protection and adornment of the old forts, those important relics of the .American Revolution, and at last the point was gained. Instead of selling off the guns, ordnance and buildings of Fort Criswold, and then dismantling the fort, the old battleground was converted into a memorial park owned Ijy the State of Connecticut and in care of our chapter. All the guns, eleven cannon and pro- jectiles and 2000 cannon balls were donated to this chapter by the secretary of war, to deco- rate the park.

Through the hearty co-operation of Miss May \\'illiams of Xew London our chapter be- came the custodians of one of Cncle Sam's Spanish-American war trophies, a gun from the Admiral Cervera's flagship, the "Alarie Theresa," which fired the first shot in the na- val battle of Santiago. So on the western slope of Groton Monument grounds the trophy can- non was mounted on its carriage on a substan- tial stone foundation, even the shield which protected it on the flagship being sent l)y the

40

HISTORIC GROTON

goveninient. On June 17th, 1902, a great cel- ebration was held in Groton by the Anna Warner Bailey chapter and their friends. Capt. Richard P. Hobson, the orator of the day, was escorted by detachments of the va- rious local national organizations to Groton Heights, where the day proved an unqualified success, from the planting of the Constitution- al Oak, by little Cassie X. Bailey, to the un- veiling of the gun which Capt. Hobson des- ignated as an old friend, he having helped to raise it from the deck of the Theresa after the Ijattle of Santiago. He also said that he

Revolution for the purpose of raising money to purchase land for a monument park. Later ^Ir. Morton Plant placed there a fountain, as a memorial to Capt. ^^'illiam Latham, who once owned the land, and was in the Revolu- tionary war at Groton Heights.

At the un\eiling of the fountain a most in- teresting historical paper on the subject was written and read by Master Joseph A. Copp.

Some months after work for the Colonial Dames, relative to descril)ing the old Colonial houses, was taken up by Miss Emma \V. Palmer. Miss Julia Copp and myself.

THK MONIMKNT HOISK

would "rather lie horn a citizen nf the I'nited States than a crown ])rince nf the proudest country in the world."

President Roosevelt also having taken mucli personal interest in sa\-ing the old forts to our cha])ter, a \-ote of thanks was tendered him with a gift of a large and beautiful basket of red peonies. Mother r>ailey's favorite flower.

Shortly after this our regent was appointed a member of the site committee, regarding the ])roposed Continental Hall to be built at Washington, D. C, and she had the honor of selecting the accepted location, an ideal spot in e\-er}' respect for this "Home of the Daugh- ters," on 17th St.. near the White House.

In .\ugust a concert was gi\-en under the auspices of the Daughters and Children of the

Our chapter was authorized to erect a me- morial annex on the east side of the present monument house, and a committee of six la- dies was appointed to supervise Fort Gris- wold's memorial park. The necessary $8,000 lo accom]ilish this task, seemed an almost im- possible amount to raise. The building was designed to harmonize with the old house and carried on to successful completion with eye- l>row windows and a Jonathan Brooks me- morial window at the east. Alcoves and fire- jiroof rooms, with a janitor's room, and cases to hold and protect loaned and donated an- ti(|ues, were designed for this museum, and much of the furniture was given.

In Xoveniber, 1903, l^irt Griswold which was built by the slate, during the Re\-olution-

HISTORIC GROTON 41

ary war and transferred to the United States Sentiment cnlniinated in a grand fair, which

in 1813, now again became the property of netted $260. This, though a great lielp, was in-

the state. Fort Griswold was no more. Shortly adequate, and when in October Mrs. \\'hitman

after the C. A. R. and the school children of announced to the chapter that the remaining

Groton raised a flag in Fort Griswold Memo- $2,000 had been given by Mr. Morton F.

rial Park, the exercises being attended by our Plant, great was our rejoicing, as the gift was

chapter, .\fterward, as Mrs. Slocomb's health entirely spontaneous and unsolicited. A trib-

niade it necessary for her to lay aside many "t*^ o^ thanks to him should be here recorded

duties, she tendered her resignation as regent ''>' ^^'^ ^"'^a Warner Bailey chapter, for his

and Mrs. Clara B. Whitman was elected to tl'""8httul aid, prompted by his generous

the position, which she tilled most acceptably. Mrs. Whitman began her work by asking

heart in this patriotic work. We also record another gift of a memorial plate of l)lue and

white china, designed bv John Tolcott .Vdams,

the war department to turn over to the rort . ,• ^ ^ , ' ,

representmg Col. Ledvard.

Griswold Commission, fiye gun carriages, \i/.. : w -.i .1 ■ 1 1 r,- ' ■ ,

^ ^ \\ ith this load oft our minds, attention was

Four barbette carriages for 8-inch Rodman ,i;r„„,„,i ^^ ,-o;-;„,, „ , , r ^1 1 r

f directed to raising money for the purchase of

gun, front pindle, and one barbette carriage .i,„ tr,,-»o i.f~ „„ ^i, .. -1 r .1 r .

" ' ' ■ '=' tne tluee lots on the east side of the fort,

for 20-pounder rifle, front pindle. They were „.i,;„i, ,.„„,,,■,-.. 1 - » • 1 .. \ i

^ •• ■ wliicli lequired as our regent said, .\ long

already on the grounds and sodn became mir ,,,,11 ,, ..t,.„,,„ .^,,11 .,„ , ",, n ^ ^1 •• »"

•^ pi"l, A strong pull and a pull all together. At

property. 1^^,^ ^\^^ annex was entirely completed and the

In 1904 we note the presentation to the ,„„„. anticipated opening day, June 28th 1907

State of Connecticut of a turnstile supported arriyed, bringing sunshine and blue skies for

l)y cobble pillars, placed in the north wall of the manv guests, who came to d<^ honor not

the lower fort, near the new highway, for file ,,„,,. j,, t,,^, patriotic dead, but to the patriotic

perpetual continuance of a footpath through ,i,.i„j,._ ,,.,„, ,^.^,1 ^^,,,^,.^,1 ^,_, assiduously for he

the forts, from north to south. A handsomely consummation of this work.

painte.l sign was also placed at the foot of , ,„ _,,.,,^, j^^^.^ „^^.^^ ^^,^,,^ j,^^, ,,,,^,^^,^ j^^ ^^^^

School street, pointing the wa\ to the monu- ,„i| ,.,,,, .],„. .i,„ ;„f,,.- r ,1 1 -i ,•

' '^ • leii \ou, mat tlie interior of the building is

'"^"'■' \vcll adapted to showing the relics. The roof

Mrs. Whitman had now an ardu.ms task j, i,;^,^ ^,,,1 j,,^ ^,,,-,„^ ^^.^„ ji„.,^j^^, ^,^^ ^^.^,,_^

upon her heart and hands, to raise the neces- are <lecorated with heraldic shields and pic-

sary $8,000 and to bring to completion the tures of liistoric meaning, while swor.ls niili-

work of the new annex, together with many j^ry clothing and apparel of ye olden time

other calls for m.mey, among which was the „iav be clearly seen in their Jases. As you

Connecticut column in Continental Hall at enter this building, you see our state motto

Washington, our chapter raising about $50 for and seal on the eastern wall in gilt letters be-

this object. The annual Together Meeting of tween American flags, "He who transplanted

the Daughters in the state was held at Groton ^till sustains," and on the western wall is the

on Oct. nth, 1905, this day being memorable seal of the Daughters, in the blue and silver

as the birthday of the national society and the colors of the chapter against the backoround

birthday ..f our patron saint, Anna Warner of two state flags. With the room full of in-

''^''''-^'- teresting objects wdiere shall we look first?" Be

Our members gave and solicited, while the sure and .see the three pictures of Afother l!ai-

C. A. R. presented nearly $1,000. besides the ley at different ages and the portrait of .\bi-

Jonathan Brooks window, which was given gail Hinman. Gaze at the old Averv house and

l.y the New London C. A. R. society. The lit- Fbenezer Avery's historic home.' In one of

tie state button was sold to those who wanted the brick fireplaces, see the andirons and crane

it and to those who ,lid not want it. yielding a which once belonged to Mrs. P.ailev, and, lest

large return.

I weary you. go am! look for yourself.

42

HISTORIC GROTON

Our regent, Airs. Clara B. \Miitman, pre- sented the house to the state, which was ac- cepted in an address by Gov. Woodruff. Af- terward Hon. Jonathan Trumbull of Norwich, "a Son of the Revolution," made the historical speech of the day, and the memorial window was unveiled. America was sung with entlui- siasm and Groton's place in history was again repeated. Mrs. Whitman has since resigned as regent and the position is now very capabh' tilled by Airs. Ida Baker.

All you who read this book should hunt the newspaper files of the last fifteen years and read of Groton's patriotic days, in- cluding the anni\-crsaries of the battle of Gro-

ton Heights, when our chapter keeps open house, at the new memorial annex and enter- tains hospitably several hundreds, who view the new room and the many interest- ing relics with admiring eyes. These are in- creasing daily as our citizens realize that here is a safe deposit for their treasures, so that the remark has even been ventured that "oui memorial house is not yet large enough."

We see in mind the younger generation, fol- lowing in the footsteps of their predecessors, by rebuilding and rededicating in patriotic fervor, as members of the Anna \\'arner Bai- ley chapter of Groton and Stonington.

HISTORIC GROTON

43

Center Groton

By DAVID A. DABOLL

[broken and narrow valley, split into two sections by a central for- est covered ridge, sloping irregu- larly from tiie southern Ijoriler nf tlie present town of Ledyard to the Ijrcjad and open plains upon the sound, forms what may be called the middle section of the Groton of to-da\'. Its western half is the basin of a river, originally much greater in volume than now, whose waters long fur- nished power for mills of various kinds, the wheels of which have mostly ceased to turn, or have already crumbled back to dust. In the upper part of the valley, in the shadow of the rocky ridges of Candle wood Hill, which here forms its eastern boundary, lies tiie little village whose story it is ours to tell. X'alley and plains, river and village, all once bore the quaint aboriginal name of Poquonnock, but the river, from its sources to tide water, became known in early settlement days as "The Great Brook," a title which has been perpetuated in deed and record, and the village, after hav- ing for a century and a quarter fulfilled the conditions which entitled it to its later name of Center Groton, received its belated christening as such, in the fine irony of circumstance, at a date when the reasons for it were passing or had already passed away.

The twentieth centurj' tourist, consulting his road map as he rolls in his automobile along its quiet street, sees little in its relative posi- tion and still less in its appearance to justify its name. He does not know and he does not stop to find out. that when the town of Groton comprised an area more than twice as large as it does at present, this spot was, approxi- mately speaking, its geographical center: and tliat as a corallary thereto it became its eccle- siastical, corporate, and educational center. Two highways running east and west and

n<irth and sduth respectivel}, here cross one another at right angles. The first and more im])(irtant one of the two was, long before the vvhite invasion, an aboriginal trail worn by the feet of generations of savage warriors, anti leading from the Xarragansett country to the shores of the Pequot river, now the Thames. The second, similar in its origin, led from the open plain around the sound to the Alohegar. country at the north. Into each of these at various distances, branching trails, now high- ways, converged.

"Once churches had towns : now, towns liave churches." In this brief sentence, from some forgotten essayist, is to be found an epi-

OLIl T.WEKN

tome of the reasons for the rise and the de- cline of man}- a Xew England village, which, like this one, still holds its place on the map, although in the expressixe phrase of Renan it may have long "less lixed than lasted." Here at the crossing of the highways, then hardly more than bridle paths, -by means of which the scattered farmers maintained a neighborlv intercourse with one another, the founders of Groton, who l)elie\-e(l that the (inly safe path- wa}^ to heaven was through the portals of the Established Church, reared the first meet- ing house in the town, where it could lie most con\cnientl}' reached ])\- the majoritv. Close

44

HISTORIC GROTON

hy it thev built the ruder sclidnl house, within disturl) the ecclesiastical monopoly and monot-

whose walls no matter how limited the curri- ony, and vex the souls of those who believed in

culum might be, the discipline, like that of an enduring democratic theocracy. The bonds the church, was complete. \\'ithin a stone's

throw of the two was the dwelling of the min- ister, whose rates, fixed by law, were to be collected from beliex'ers and nul)elievers alike, peaceabl}', if possible, forcibly if necessary.

which held church and state together grew weaker and weaker and finally snapped asun- der.

Then came a time when the center of ortho- doxy in the town, like the "Star of Empire,"

Thus thev established an ecclesiastical, ed- moved westward, and the church at Poquon-

ucational and intellectual center which was nock, no longer sustained by unwilling tax-

Hkewise to be a corporate center, since the payers, moved west with the tide. The hope

meeting house was to serve as town Imuse of the founders was a vanished dream before

also. Doubtless, viewing the situation under the generation that succeeded them had passed

fading seventeenth century lights, they ex- over to the silent majority. The town had

pected it long to endure, and in time to draw churches in plenty, but the church no longer

unto itself the elements which should make it had the town.

business and social center as well. Under

l).\Ii(ll,l, IKl.MKSTKAl)

ift'erent conditions, with a dil^'erent environ-

That the site of the place was a clearing somewhat greater in area than now, and culti- \'ated in savage fashion at the time of the white invasion is a matter of tradition forti- fied b_\- the silent testimony of relics exhumed fiom time to time even down to the last cen- tury. It is probable that the few wigwams scattered along the principal trail went uj) in liame during the morning of the 2(jth of May, 1637, a few hours after the storming of the I'equot fortress on M}-stic llill.

I'he story of that memorable fight is told elsewhere, but a reference to the dramatic march of the victors from the scene of slaugh- ter and victory to their rendezvous on the Thames is permissible here, as in the opinion (■f the writer, the tacit assumption by historians

ment, all this might have been. Here and there that the route taken by Captain Mason and his

in Kew England such an one still lives in some- party was in an almost direct course to the

tiling more than name, with its stately "Eirst western river is an erroneous one. Of the

L'hurch" gracing the spot where the first meet- tl'ree contemporaneous accounts of the expedi-

ing house stood in Colonial times; with its tion, l)ut one, that of Mason himself, gives

school house grown to academic or e\en col- even a hint upon the subject, and the hint so

legiate proportions; connected liy UK^dern liiglnvays of iron with the bustling, hustling outer world, still a center nf intellectual, social and even of business life.

I'lUt nut in tiiwns like Groton, whose growth e\en in its earlier days, was largely along

far as it goes helps to negative the popular assumption. He had marched, in jjarts of two days, a distance of nearly f(.irt\'-five miles over the Narragansett trail already mentioned, and had cmly turned aside from it when uitliin striking distance of his objective. To return

other than agricultural lines, and three-fourths to it when his work was done, and, leaving the

of whose boundaries were washed by the ocean remaining fortress of the enem_\' on the farther

tides. The spirit of commercialism arose and side of a deep valley, to efl^ect his retreat (fur

throve by the shore. "Dissenters" came in to ii was luithing else) along the line of least

HISTORIC GEO TON

4S

resistance to his base of supplies, would have been the dictate of militar_\- reasoning and common sense. Crippled in numbers, encum- bered with his wounded, his provisions ex- hausted, and his ammunition nearly so, he was obviously in no condition for further ofifensive operations. He was guided by nati\'e allies whose loyalty was of proof and to wdiom the whole region was a familiar one. Giving him credit for those qualities of leadership which had won for him "golden opinions' from his .-■"uperiors in other campaigns, the writer long ago came to the conclusion that his line of re- treat that morning took him directly past the spot where, sixty-seven years later, the first church in Groton was erected.

It is probable that the valley again resound- ed to the tramp of armed men about one month later, when the last collected force of the Pe- quots which then remained in the \'icinity was surrounded and captured in the Pine Swamp a few miles to the north by Captain Stoughton and his Massachusetts troops. Then followed a long silence, one of desolation and death. The region was a part of a conquered coun- try, over which two colonies were to contend for the right of eminent domain, and the con- ciucred for the most part belonged to that quiet class which a later authority has defined as being "the only good Indians." Eight vears were to elapse before John W'inthrop the younger, was to appear w'ith his few follow- ers on the western shore of the Thames.

The surviving seventeenth century records of Groton are to be found in the archixes of Xew London, of which it remained a part for sixty years. In the early division of lands east of the Thames those lying in and around Center Groton are unnoticed. They mostly re- mained in commons until Groton attained her corporate independence. So far as we know no settler made his home there until near the end of the century. Xor is it easy to discrim- inate chronologically lietwcen the \erv few who came before its status as a town center was fixed, as we have outlined in our intro- duction, and those who followed soon after. The precise date at which \\'alter Pjodington reared his cabin one-third of a mile north of the

cross roads remains to be defined. The same may be said of Thomas Dunbar, land trader, l;:\ern keeper, and builder and operator of Dunbar's mill on the Great Brook at the west, whose "Big House" just to the east of Boding- ton's place punctuates the later records here and there. But in the decades between 1660 and i6go the more easily accessible and more easily tilled if not more fertile lands of the town were not being neglected. The Smiths, the A\-erys and the Morgans had early made tl'cir homes at the lower end of the Pocjuon- nuck valley, and the time was to come wdien the descendants of the first two were to be th.e principal citizens and land holders in the locality with which we are especially con- cerned.

Along the banks of the Mystic and the Thames and in the more distant "Poquetan- nock Grants," groups of sturdy pioneers, \shose names are of familiar memory had cleared and were cultivating their homestead acres. They were town builders all ; it was an era when race suicide was unknown, and r.tw settlers were continually coming in to inis'h farther into the interior of the tract whose periphery only was as }-et dotted with their scattered farms.

It is not to be forgotten that "the church liad the town," that the absence of anv one from the sanctuary at the tap of the sabbath drum furnished a proper subject for judicial i'lquiry; and that in extreme cases, even the v.diipping post and the stocks were esteemed appliances with which to persuade men into ways of pleasantness and paths of peace.

Small wonder that as the century drew to a close the desire for a separate and more con- \'enient church establishment, fanned by un- reasonable and e\'en minatory opposition, should at last, like the "Spirit of Cathmor" be "stalking large, a gleaming form." There is a touch of grim humor in the petition to tlie Creneral Court, ignored, denied, and renewed, for the prix-ilege to "imbodye themselves into church estate, in order to the comfortable en- joyment of the ordinances of God." The meas- ure of discomfort involved in winter trips bv Inul roads antl worse ferries to the fireless

46

HISTORIC GROTON

sanctuary on the farther side of the Thames we can easily comprehend; and to many of those independent farmers there was an added element of discomfort in the autocratic minis- trations of the Reverend Gurdon Saltonstall. A stately Puritan of the Puritans, an aristo- crat to his finger tips, "who felt in himself few of the infirmities of humanity and was in- tolerent of them in others;" the most forceful character of his day and generation, he was im fortunately the champion of the worst as well as the best elements of a dying ecclesias- tical S}-stem. To his potent influence with the General Court was largely due the failure of the various prayers for a separate church es- tablishment in Groton which were laid before

CEN'TEU CIKIII'IIN CHAPKI,

it between 1696 and 1703. In 1700 the lash of discipline was applied to sundry recalcitrants, who dared to sign their names, first to a "Complaint" and then to a "Remonstrance" against him and his methods. But even his eyes must have discerned at last the physical if WQiX the spiritual necessity of the case.

In 1702 the town "consented" by vote "that the inhabitants that "dwell on the east side of the river should organize a church and have a minister of their own at an annual salary of JQ pounds ;" and they were further authorized 111 build a meeting house thirty-five feet square at the joint expense of both sections.

Large bodies move slowly, arid Ijefore the more ponderous one at New IIa\'en had regis- tered its conclusion in the matter, the town had voted that three hundred acres of the

common lands should be sold or otherwise used for church purposes, and the dwellers east of the river had called as their minister the Reverend Ephraim Woodbridge of Kil- Hngworth, a recent Harvard graduate, and born of an unbroken line of clergymen from the days of Wyckliffe down. In the early spring of 1703, a committee appointed for the purpose reported a sale to Thomas Dunbar (alread)' mentioned) of nineteen acres of the public lands for church purposes. The lo- cation of the Meeting House was determined as we have seen, and the clearing at Center Groton soon rang with the sound of axe and hammer where there were few to be cheered or disturbed by the echoes.

At its October session the General Court was pleased to ratify these proceedings, and at tiie May session of 1704, also solemnly ap- proved of an addition of 20 pounds per annum to ^'Ir. \\'oodbridge's salary, he having agreed to build his own house without further call upon the taxpayers. The foundations of the house were probably already laid, as the young tlivine had given hostage to fortune on the fourth day of the same month by marrying Miss Hannah Morgan, daughter of one of the "complainants" previously disciplined by Sal- tonstall. His formal ordination in the new Meeting House took place on the eighth day of Xovendjer following, and the Church at Poquonnock was ofificially launched upon the ecclesiastical sea. Its history belongs to an- other pen than ours, as well as that of the rival sect whose apostle was soon to apjjear upon the field, and whose proselytes were ere long to outnumber the friends of the Standing Order and overturn the system upon which the latter leaned for support : but the storv of Center Groton with both eliminated would be but a repetition of that of Hamlet with Hamlet left out.

( )f the building, which for more than sixty \ears was to serve the community as church and town house, no detailed description has been handed down to us, and even its exact site has been a matter of some question. It prob- ably stood a few feet to the east of the now unused store, which last was built long after

HISTORIC GROTON

47

the demolition of the church in early Revolu- tionary time. Its dimensions have already been alluded to. It is safe to assume that in its construction few of the graces of archi- tecture were involved either in exterior or in- terior fittings. It was a square, and doubtless rather ugly looking building, without chim- neys, with entrances on its southern and east- ern sides, and crowned by the pyramidal or hipped roof then much in ^■ogue. The scanty floor space within was reinforced by galleries upon three sides, the pulpit overhung by the inevitable sounding board occupying the fourth.

The dignitaries, civil, military or religioiis, who could afford the luxury, were, l)y s]iecial vote, accorded space, presumably near the puljHt in which to build pews for them- selves and families. The first to be thus hon- ored was John Davie, the first town clerk of (Jroton. The allotment of seats was a task re- C|uiring both nerve and judgment on the part of the committee appointed for the purpose, calling as it did for an appraisal of the relative social claims of the worshippers. I'.ut the power of the town was behind the committee, and "being so seated" the claimants wleTe warned to "remain silent." .\ like divinity no doubt hedged about the committee of one, who was charged to "take care of the youthe on the Lord's day, that they may not play."

If the maxim propounded by the great I'"rench philosoj^her as to "the nations that have no history" can be applied to churches, the twenty years pastorate of the Reverend E])h- ri.im W'oodbridge was doubtless a happy one, as no records of it are known to exist. The occasional reference to him in the civil records touch mostly upon the very worldly matters of life, and as such are not of material inter- est. He seems to have been popular always, tolerant at a time when intolerance was the rule with the Standing Order to which he be- longed, in short, a worthy represcntati\e of a class which has been denominated "the moral and religious aristocracy of the town." ITn- like his successor he was untroubled bv scru- ples concerning the minister's rates, nor was he hesitant in his requisitions for what at this

day would be accounted unwarrantable favors. The house to which he conveyed his bride, in which his six children were born, and in which in the prime of his years he died, was constructed by him of materials more enduring than those of the Sa\'brook Platform, to whose harsh provisions he is believed to have accord- ed but a tacit assent.

After his death in 1725, the house became the property of his successor in the minis- terial office, the Rexerend John ()wen who was like himself a Harvard graduate; a character beloved of all, whose epitaph, "God's faithful seer" seems to have been but a just recogni- tion of the merits of an unusually worthy man. Mr. Owen was ordained in 1727 and died in 1753- The Reverend Jonathan Barber the third and last minister at Center Groton be- came its purchaser in 1762. four years after his ordination. .\ Yale graduate, a man not iMily of liberal education but <.)f liberal ten- dencies as well, widely known in the land as missionary and reformer, and the close friend and ally of W'hitefield. the traditions of more than half a century were pro])erly sustained when he took up his abode under its generous roof tree.

Whitefield visited the ])lace in the summer of 1763, and the spacious grounds of the par- sonage were thronged by a congregation which no church in the colony could ha\'e accom- modated, who came from far and near to listen to the greatest pulpit orator of the century. Mr. r.arber was, in the melanchol_\- words of the church records, "taken from his usefulness" in 1765. but dwelt under its roof until his death in 1783, and it remained in possession of his descendants for nearly half a century longer. A parsonage for over sixty years, it has since been b)^ turns inn and farm house, and in the third century of its usefulness it serves in the latter capacity to-da}-, a visible link between the old times and the new.

Groton became an independent township in the year 1705, and the first town meeting was held at the center in December of that year. ( )n May 28th, 1706, at a similar gathering the crude foundations of an educational .system were laid by the appointment of '\\x. John

48

HISTORIC GROTON

Harnard to be "town schoolmaster." A tract cf t*n acres of land "northward of the j\Ieet- ing House" was ordered to be laid out for school purposes, and a "convenient dwelling house sixteen feet square" to be built thereon ; "the house and land to be the town's, the ben- efit to be for the school." Subsidies might be, and were freely voted to clergymen, but ni.it to schoolmasters. On the nth day of Septem- l)er following, as the result of a deal with the ubiquitous Thomas Dunbar, the vote was re- scinded and ten acres "south of the Meeting House" substituted. Yet the traditions are to the effect that the house and lot soon after occupied and improved by Mr. Barnard, as well as the school house later erected, were located in accordance with the original vote.

SCHUOLHOrSK

and so far as the school house is concerned the tradition is certainly correct.

The school master served the town in a peripatetic capacity, for as then cinistituted it covered an area of more than seventy square miles, and to Iniild a schoolhouse in each of the five sections into which it was divided for educational purposes would have been an un- heard of extravagance. The sessions in the central section were held either at "the con- venient dwelling sixteen feet square" or at the Meeting House for a time, and the others at the houses of well to dn citizens elsewhere. r. six months sessinn being in turn allotted to each locality. Mr. Barnard retained his posi- tion until 1712. when his name disappears from tlie records. Little is known of him. Init lie was probabl}' a descendant of the Barnards of Andover, and it is a fair inference that the

minister was his friend and sponsor. During his incumbency "Mistress Barnard" swept the Meeting House and kept the key, receiving for her services the sum of 20 shillings per annum. It is difficult to estimate even approximately the compensation received by this educational pioneer for his weary round of services, but it was undLiubtedly a meager one, in keeping with the times. A comparison with the lil:)eral allowances made to the minister is naturally suggested, but we forbear.

The date of the erection of the first school- house which was situated a short distance to the north of the Meeting House is uncer- tain, as is that of its demolition. It lasted iiowever till the beginning of the nineteenth century. The last to teach within its walls was the grandfather of the writer, who dis- missed his class rather al:)ruptly one morning, when he found that the big stone chimney had tdllapsed during the night, completely wreck- ing the alread}- dilapidated building. So far as known there is no reference in the records to the construction of its successor, which was placed at the foot of the gentle eminence known as Schoolhouse Hill on the west. It did ilutv for at least three quarters of a century, and as late as 1820 the attendance there was as great as in any district in town. A new and modern building placed near the chapel at tlie east, succeeiled it in 1883. but the old one. converted into a dwelling, still survi\-es.

Save in the periods of excitement which stirred the religious field, the histnr_\- of Center ( Iroton from its settlement down to the Rev- olution epoch is an uneventful one. Another pen not less sympathetic than ours has else- wiiere traced the rise and progress of the move- ment tending to church reform, which was be- gun in 1705, by the Reverend \'alentine \\ightman, and we pass on with the remark that the leaven of religious liberty was so thor- oughly disseminated by the great e\angelist that when, long after, the new constitution (if C'onnecticut. which formally divorced church and state, and buried out of sight an a!read\- defunct system of ]iari>^h desi)otism, v\as submitted to the people, (Iroton cast a unanimous vote in its favor. Of the ultimate

HISTORIC GROrON

49

elTect of the movement on the fortunes of the village we have spoken in our introduction.

The division of the town, in 1725, into two ecclesiastical societies, the northern one corre- sponding to the present town of Ledyard was another blow at its prestige as a town center. In the tempestuous revival period, historically known as the Great Awakening, and continued in an intermittent way from 1741 to 1744, the two great leaders of the movement Parsons and Da\enport, preached there to open air con- gregations great in numbers, considering the widely distributed population from which they were drawn.

Between 1720 and 1740 there was brisk land trading in which the Avery family, moving up from the lower Poquonnock valley along the Great Brook on the west, and the Smiths from the eastern shore of Poquonnock Lake, large- ly participated. Conspicuous in these deals were Thomas Dunbar and Samuel Cunning- ham who were among the earliest residents in the place. Samuel Daboll from East Hamp- ton, Long Island, became a resident in 1715. Joseph Belton came from Xew^port about 1725 and commenced buying upon a liberal scale, establishing his home near the foot of Candle- wood Hill on the northern side of the post road. Scarcely a trace of its site now remains. Later his son, Jonas Belton, erected the Belton Tavern in the clearing a half mile west of the corners, a building which was one of the land marks of the region for generations, and finally jierished 1)_\- the torch of an incendiary in 1852.

Houses, mostly of small dimensions, arose on every hand in the suburbs, of which none are left and the names of the occupants even are no longer familiar. At the time of great- est expansion the smoke of nearlv a dozen chimneys ascended from as manv clearings amid the woods of Candlewood Hill. The for- est lias for the most part reclaimed its own, and even the deer has returned to browse by the springs whose once generous flow was the ]M-ime attraction to the sturd}- pioneer.

The Meeting House ceased to be used for church purposes in the year 1768. It was taken down at the beginning of the Revolution, and

a few of its interior panels used in the con- struction of the dwelling of Charles Smith, now the Daboll homestead, are all that reiiiain of it to-day. With the exception of the vener- able parsonage, whose history we have al- ready traced, the latter is now the oldest house ill the place. It was purchased in 1805 by "Master Nathan" Daboll of Sergeant Rufus Avery of Fort Griswold fame, and is a house of many memories.

"blaster Daboll" whose name is linked in the educational annals of the country with those of Xoah Webster and Lindley ]\Iurray, was born a few hundred yards to the north and had received a part of his early education at the hands of the Reverend Jonathan Barber, but in the mathematical field in which his rep- utation was acquired, was a self taught man. He was fifty-five years of age when he settled down in the home wdiich was to shelter him in his later blindness, but his famous Navigation School was continued under its roof by himself and his son Nathan, and in an intermittent fashion by his grandson also. The Almanac issues, begun by him in 1773, have regularly gone forth from its office now for one hundred and four years. Of other associations we may later speak.

The opening of the Revolutionary period found the place shorn of the most of the promi- nence thrust upon it at the beginning. Equi- distant between the church departed on the west, and the already veneraljle Eiaptist Meet- ing House on the east, it was an ecclesiastical center no longer. Nor was it a political center unless the occasional meetings of the town fathers at Belton's tavern had served to keep its title clear. The town had been formally divided into school districts in 1770, of which it was the first in number. In point of attend- ance it was also the first, but there was no edu- cational center now. It was, in appearance, as 'X ahva\s has been, a straggling village, but the many suburban homes of wdiich we have spoken probably swelled its po]nilation to a number greatly in excess of the present one.

No post office was established anywdiere in the town until the }ear 1812. Correspondence was a luxur}- indulged in by few. The post-

5°

HISTORIC G HO TON

man rode, and the lumbering stages jolted at long intervals over what was now the King's Highway, and tired travellers refreshed them- selves at the tavern where "Xews much older than the ale went round."

Some of the young men were early at the front in the battle for lifierty. one or two of them to remain there until the last gun was fired, but it was not till near the end of the strife that its blii(i(l\- spray was dashed into the \erv midst nf the hamlet. In the battle ami massacre at I'ort (iri>\\(ild on the si-xth of Septend)er, 1 781, the town of droton l(_)St more of her sons in one day than in all the other vears of the war put Ingcther: and to the list of \iclims Center (initnii contributed her full share. C)f seven persons who an- swered to the alarm i>uns on that fateful morn-

l^'^^^r Eh	i^i^^	W^lk
/j	■H^nQ^ k -'V '■F^SnT^' «# jmH	Mz*>(^R ^^^^1
■H	^Ei	HH^Bf "MaT^^^^H
^	fli:-	■^^^^-^■-

THK OLD HARBKl; HOTSE WIuTo AN'hitftield I'veaclieil

irig, but one escaped unhurt, and that one was carried away to face the dangers of disease and star\-ation on a prisi>n ship at New York.

The oldest victim of the butchery, James Comstock. seventy-five years of age. was a \isitor at the home of his son-in-law. Xathan- iel Adams. Jr.. at the foot nf Candlewood Hill. The two went forth together, died together, and in the bitter chaos which followed were burietl in a common gra\e U])i)n the farther side of the Thames. The laurels belonging to the younger of the two have been for genera- tions mistakenly laiil upmi the grave of Na- thaniel .\dams, ."^eniur. who took no part in the battle, and who was buried years after- wards among the (iungywamp hills.

Corporal Edward Mills answered the sum- mons from what is now known as the "Brown [■"arm" in the woods beyond the Great Brook northwest of Belton's tavern. Brave Anna Warner, his foster daughter, (the Mother Bailc}' of later stiir}- ) . hurraing tn the fort the ne.xt morning, found him still living, and re- turning to their stricken hume, 1)rought his wife to his side to see him die. Peter .\\-ery. aged seventeen, sallied forth frmn Belton's la\ern, jirobably accompan_\-ing Lieutenant larkc .\\ery, Jr.. who took with him aNd his son. Thomas, another boy of se\enleen from their home at Dunbar's Mill on (Ireat llrook at the west. The son earl\- in the acliim was slain at hi.s father's side^ the lieutenant horri- bly mangled and disfigured b\' British bayo- nets, sur\i\-ed his wounds for forty years to die finalK' in the original .\.\ery home on l'o(|uon- ncick I'lains. The boy I'eter, taken prisoner re- turned frnm the hell of the ])rison ship, lived lung at the lielton place an active farmer and trader, and ended his days in 1S45 in the fam- ous old house east of Candlewnod Ilill long known as the "llarry Xiles Tavern" and cele- brated as the scene of later "training" and barbecue.

John l)alioll. Jr. (whose naiue is more or less confounded with that of another John, a brother of Master Nathan, who served in the Continental army from 1776 until it was final- ly disbanded), resided a few hundred yards^ west of the Great Brook. \\'ounded in the l.)at- tle he was saved from death in the massacre through the humane intervention of a Tiritish officer whom he was wont to describe in his old age as "The handsomest man I ever saw." "Squire John" was a familiar figure in churcli and town aft'airs for forty-four years after- wards.

Our sketch, already too extended, must has- ten to its close. I'rom the Revolution down to the present, occasional happenings, not at all exciting in their character, attract the atten- tion of the annalist. The principal, and fir a time the only pli_\sician of any note in the town, made Center Groton his home earl_\- in the nineteenth centur\-. and the house 1)uilt by him at the junction of the Ledvard and (iale's

HISTORIC GROTON 51

r'erry roads is still one of its landmarks, changed its title only after the elder Poqiion-

though no one of his name has dwelt in it f(ir nock had had a dozen years in which to get

more than half a century. Dr. John Owen accustomed to the modern name, which for

Miner, grandson of the Ive\-. John Owen of be- convenience we have applied to it from the

linked memory, was a well known figure in his beginning of this narrative,

clay and generation. The opening of the Providence and New

About the beginning nf the century the London turnpike, begun in 1818, made Center

llale_\- homestead at the corners was built by (iroton a way station upon a busy stage thor-

Kussell Smith. It was long an inn before it oughfare, and the building in the same rear of

was purchased liy the Hon. Elisha Haley, an- the first woolen mill in the town on the site of

other i)rominent citizen, wlm was bnth pdli- Dunbar's Mill, by the corporation kmiwn as

tician and man of affairs for forty odd years. the Groton Manufacturing Co., attracted nu-

"Master Xathan" Daboll died at the home- merous operatives, who recruited its d win- stead in iSiS. Three years later his son Xa- dling suburban population and revived to than, uhii was all his life a man of aft'airs. was some extent its waning trade. The mill diil elected town clerk of (iroton. From 1821 to a thriving business for many \-ears, Init shut 1837, the town records were kept in his office down in the aftermath of the panic of 1837, and and frcim 1839 tn 1843 the probate records as v.as destroyed by fire a few months later, well, during his incundiency, first as clerk and The post office, after nearlv seventy vears l;;ter as judge. lie also served in both of varying activity, was finally discontinued Ijranclies of the legislature as did his son, on the first day of Xo\-ember, 1902. Two in- David A. Daboll of honored memory. "Scpiire tersecting rural free delivery routes serve to Xathan" died in the old homestead in 1863, keep the inhabitants of the village in touch and his son in 1895. with the outside world. The telephone like-

I'"or a time the lost prestige of Center Gro- wise cheers its solitude, but the troUev has

ton as a political center seemed likely to be jia.ssed it by. The state is doing its best for

renewed. I'.ut an attempt in 1831) to secure it it by making of the long defunct turnpike,

through the erection of a town honse near the whose traffic was diverted l)v railroad and

site of the meeting house of colonial days, steamboat more than fift^' \'ears ago, a finer

was unsuccessful, and the setting ofl: of the highwa_\- than the original projectors e\er

Second Society as the town of Ledyard in the dreamed of. Its neat and commodious chapel

hamc year left it no longer e\-en a geographi- suggests that the sjiiritual interests in wdiose

cal center. This was three years after it had behalf it was foiuided over two hundred years

recei\-ed its belated christening l)y the estab- ago, are in nowise neglected. It is not, like

lishment of its post office on the thirtieth of the "Sweet Auburn" of ( ioldsmith's melodious

January, 1833. with tiilbert A. Smith as its numbers, a "Deserted Village:" but one of

first [jostmaster. ^iiuilar memories, born upon the threshold of

Incidentally we remark that the post office a \anishing era; which for obxious reasons

i!ow known as Poquonnock riridge. dating has been unable to keep ])ace with an e\er

Irom 1841, was first called "Peciuot," and hurrying procession.

HISTORIC GKOTON

Poquonnoc Bridge

By MRS. CYRUS AVERY and REV. O. G. BUDDINGTON

111"', \illa,L;c' I if roquunnuck IJridge is \ery pleasantly situated in the southern part of the town of (Pro- ton, about two miles east of the Groton and New Lnndmi ferry, at the head of the river bearing its name. The river connects it with the waters of I'isher's Island Siiund, ahuul twci miles distant. This siream with its natural beaut}-, and with ils facilitv for transportation, makes a UK.ist de- sirable location fnr the xilla.^e. .Vdded to this the (Irdtdii and .Su iiiinj;tnn Trolley Co.'s line running directly through the village, and the station of the Xew York, New Haven & Hart- ford railroad lea^"e nothing mure to be desired

St'HOOLHorSE Oldest in Town

for transportation facilities. The population consists of about one hundred families, for the most part consisting of resident, English speaking people, there being but an exceeding- ly small per cent of foreign element, ofifering a most favorable contrast to the modern Xew England village.

.\s far as can be ascertained the first settlers ii; what is now the village of Poquonnock came from New London in the year about 1652-53. About this time Mr. James Morgan occupied a grant of land and built a house

on a site near the ^-illage and near a house built later which has successively passed tlirough si.x generations of James ^Morgans. .\l)(_)Ut the same date Nehemiah Smith came fi'iim Xew I.I null in, and built on what is now known as the Smith homestead, near Smith's lake. This house was destroyed by fire dur- irig the Rexolntionary war, and a great grauil- son at a later date built over the cellar of the former building, and this house is standing at the present time and is occupied by descend- ants of the family. Smith's Lake, and Smith's cemetery are familiar sites and date back to those days of long ago.

About the same date of 1652-53 James .\very was granted land situated west of the village and built what has been known as "The Hive of The Averys." The central portion of the house with later additions stood for above 250 years, being destroyed by fire Jul\- ,^oth, 1894. This interesting building was a land mark for generations, and its accidental destruction was greatly and generally regretted. The beauti- ful Avery Memorial Park and shaft now mark the site of the ancient building. These early settlers were men of sterling character, and occupied prominent places in shapin.g local and colonial affairs not onh- in their own locali- ties but in the colonies as well.

Farming, railroading, and sea food produc- tion, are among the leading industries. Many large and fertile farms are found in the out- Iving districts, whose owners maintain them in high efificiency through moilern and up to date methods. Probably, what is known as the Gardner farm lying along the east bank of the river extending from its head to the sound, is the largest in the county, if not in the state.

Railroading is a more recent industry, hav- ing been introduced with locating the exten- sive freight vards of the New York, New

HISTORIC GROTON

S3

Haven and Hartford railroad about the station which has been changed from Poquonnock to Midway as it is about half way between New York and Boston. In addition to the freight yards, the erection of a round house, coal pocket, ice house, and hotel has furnisucd employment for hundreds of men many of whom make their homes in the village.

I'^rom time immemorial Poquonnock ri\-er and the adjacent waters of the sound have loeen

reaches back to its earliest settlement. Here Elder Park Avery established a "New Light Congregational Church" in the days of White- field and his zealous coadjutors. The church declined as he grew old, but religious efforts were contimied.

After a time a Sunday school was estab- lished and maintained which has continued to this day. The church which grew out of the Sunday school was constituted .\ugust i8th,

I'di^l (l.\N(>( KKlIx

noted for their abundant supply of sea food, both scale and crustacean. This has furnished occupation fur many, and members of certain families have followed it through successive generations until the highest skill and success has been attained. C)f more recent date the culture of oysters has been intrciduccd by pri- vate enterprise through the laying DUt and stocking of beds in the ri\cr.

The history of Pocpionmick P.ridge P>aptist Church as such begins with the year 1856, l)ut the history of the Christian work on this field

K AMI (HI i;< H

1856, witli twenty-five members. Rev. S. B. Pailex- was the first pastor, and continued with tlieni a]:)Out eighteen months. The next was Rev. George Mixter followed by Revs. Alfred Gates and John E. Wood who raised a com- ]iany of volunteers and went with them to the >>ar. Xext comes Re\'. Thomas Dowling fol- lowed liv Pevs. Curtis Keeney and William .\. Smith.

Through the earnest faithful work of mem- bers, with the help of outside friends, the mone}' was raised for a new and larger church

54

HISTORIC GKOTON

edifice, dedicated November 8th, 1871, with The church has a handsome Avery memo- Rev. Louis Sands as pastor. He \vas succeed- rial window presented by Jeremiah Harris of ed by Elders William A. Smith, Stephen Per- (iroton. whose mother was Alary Averv Har- kins, E. C. Miller, George \\'. Pendleton, C. E. ris. The fiftieth anniversary of the organiza-

11,1 > A\ l-.l: \ llciMhM I.AM

Tullar, X. T. Allen, and F. H. Cooper. Re\'. lion nf the church was approjiriatelv celebrat-

( ). ("i. I'.uddingtnn the ]5rcsent pastor was a cd .\ugust njtli, igoO.

(iroton boy, a graduate nf the Mystic \'alle}' I'he jiresent number nf mendiers is \ii. The

A\'KU\ Mi:.M(ii:i Ai. I- \i;k

Institute in 1S77. He ^upi.jjied the chr.rch from 1904 tn 11)07. \\hen he acce])ted a call to the pastnrate.

nrticers are as fnlloAs: Clerk, l)aniel .Morgan; deacons. C\ru> .\\ery, William T. I'.urrows. (diaries C. Palmer: treasurer, C\rus .\\er\-.

HISTORIC GROTON

il

A good graded school, well filled with pupils, j^robate judge, selectmen, with a large hall with a building centrally located is one of the for public meetings, and is thoroughly up to indispensal)le accessories to the intellectual date in its construction, and appointments.

KKSIDKNCK <IK THK I.ATK KI.ISHA SKAHri;\ lllll.M AS

Called "Uigli liock I'laci-" Miiil siliiMti'il :il \\\y lic-iiil .if tin- K;l>tiTli I'.iilil Jiiil I.umt l'.ic|iiiiiiiiiic r.i:iil, jMt. 'riiciiiwiB pmiliiisiMl this Ijinl in isi;:. ol IMik \\ illi;iiii Avirv, lu-iiiK

the snntliiTii purtiiin of llir (Mini kiinwii :is ■■ I'.inli I'hiins," niiil ii I'll il linni lln- Inl".'

i>ii till' risi' III' fjiiiiiiiil :it tlw nmlli nl tin- Inriii

■■ On wliirh Hinli HcM'k likr ;i \^\'m\ j;iant stanils CovelL-il \ulll liiiiss :iii<t si-aincd liy jjlacial scai-s, As it liatli stciiiil thronfili all the centuries"

Till' land lias always liepii iiwiicil liy a ilrsci'nilant nf ('a]>taiii .lanii's A vii v. lo » 1 il

was y;rantr(l in IGfvJ

lilc nf the \illagc. The erection nf a new A race track wiih all necessary accompani-

schiiiil hnusc al iiresciu is an agilalcd (|ues- incnts for athletic spurts and a riHe range es- tiiin. tablished l)y the state, for the iiractice of the

A bcanlifiil and ciMiiiiindious tmvn hall has State militia, are ainnn"- th

e many acquisi-

GKOTON TOWN HALL

recently been erected at a cost of above $25,- tions, pointing to a desirable and central loca-

000, thriiugh the generosity of Mr. Morton tion, and to an extensi\-e outlying domain, bv

F. riant, a resident of the town. This mag- m. means }et exhaustetl, but invitingly open

rificent building contains offices for town clerk, to future enterprise and growth.

S6

HISTORIC GROTON

Picturesque Noank

By MARY E. BURROWS

h)A.\K lies on the X. Y., N. H. & II. railroad, sex-en miles east Lif Xew London, on the point reach- ing;- out to the waters of Long Is- land siiund, where the Alystic river en-ipties into them. The scenery is son-ie of the most picturesque on the Atlantic coast. At the south lies the broad expanse of blue water of Long Island sound, bmken at the southern horizon by Fisher's Island as a sky line for the in-m-iense picture. Between that and the main land are dropped here and there

Noank, or "Xauyang," has no hazy history, but clear cut and defined from the da\-s of 1614, si.x years before the landing of the I'il- grims. This was the sun-imer camping ground where the Pequots can-ie from their interior winter quarters above Mystic and Fort Hill (then Pequot Hill). Their nets, made of wild hemp, set across the north cove, gathered in the plentiful suppl}- of fish, or from their ca- noes they speared them, and caught the other game of the waters. The whole long sun-m-ier they ro\-ed independent and happy, gorging

>i().\NK CENEKAI. \-IKW

smaller islands of variiius shapes and forma- tions, some like round, green dumplings, some of solid rock, barren but grand, and some with rank vegetation with dwelling houses showing their bright colored roofs an-iongst the ver- dure. The widened n-iouth of the river forms a broad, safe harbor, and with the deep chan- nel makes Xoank's ship|)ing- facilities of great \alue. This is the "Xauyang" of old Indian cays, meaning according to Prof. Eno of Yale, "a point of land."

themselves with the good things of the salt waters provided l^y nature in such bountiful cjuantities. Then, when the autumn came, Itack again inland where their corn had been growing all this while, back to business again, like other summer sojourners of modern tin-ies. to their idling, hunting, their intriguing, and preving on their brother neighbors. And Xau- yang was left to its fall beauty, its stillness and solitude, with only nature's own noises. The trees whispered softly, the sn-iall game

HISTORIC G HO TON

57

scuttled here and there in search of food ; the squirrels chattered or scolded at each other as the case warranted, while they cunningly tucked their winter stores in the trunks of trees or the ground. The birds called each other together for their winter migration, and took their southward flight, and Xauyang was so still, so calm, so beautiful, while the blue waters of the great ocean rolled in through "Wiccopesette and broke with a swish — swish — lap — laj) on the east shore. And mi the west shore of "the point of land." it gurgled in and out among the rocks, then ran laughing out

come down from Ledyard with their baskets for sale.

In the lottery, the point where the light- house stands was drawn by James Morgan, hence its name. Alorgan Point light. The land where the little old house stands, the home of Rev. A. J. Potter, and owned by his grand- father, Thomas Potter, in Revulutionary times, v,as drawn by John Davie first town clerk of Groton. who afterwards succeeded to his ti- tle. Sir John Davie, and returned to England tr his title and estates.

.\s the arri\-al bv water is much more beau-

'!*^i''.

STKEKT SCKXK.

again to the cove, and found its way to the sound. Xauyang, ever beautiful, whether in the year 1614 or Xoank of the 1900s.

;\fter the raid of John Mason on the Pe- quots, and their dispersion, some of them finally wandered back to Nauyang, where they settled with "Cassasimamon" as their chief, until lb(^y. when they were sent to a reservation in the town of Ledyard. The land, in 1712, was drawn by the whites b_\- lottery, allowed and sanctioned by the Hartford as- sembly. The Indians were granted the right of hunting and fishing at .Xauyang as before, and as late as 1857 would make summer camp there for a short time, and in the early 60s

tiful than the prosaic way by railroad or bv Irolle}-, let us trim the sail, ])Ut up the tiller, and rounil lighthouse ])oint. the extremity of "the point of land," and take a general view of the coast line of the town, which is Iniilt on both sides of a hilly ridge running nurthward about one mile. The shore line furnishes the best view of the industries of the place, so we will sail to the north dock and begin our ob- servations from there. As we swing slowdy to the wharf, we find that all is bustle and hurry, for some of the most hustling captains (if tlie community ha\e just arri\-ed with large cargoes of fish to be iced and prepared for shipment to Xew York. The wharf presents

HISTORIC GROTON

a grand mix-up of rubber boots, squirming and flopping fish, ice, barrels, liig strong hands and jokes. Every moment now must count that they may catch tb.e not train out. In a few hours time }'ou may see these same men lounging like Inrds of leisure, or slowly spin- ning some sea yarn, as though there was no liurry in the world ; but now it means get their fish to market, the Sdoner the better, the more money to them.

The cargoes of these vessels, with things fa\-orable, represent a financial value of $5,000 or $6,000, while their running e\])enses will amount ti > $200 a week, a good reason for hus- tling. Slime of their largest cargoes are taken

there, too, all are intensely busy. \\'e will step over there and see what enterprise they are piiimiiting. We can just run across lots at the erid of the wharf here, for e\eryone in Xoank goes across lots when they choose. Here we find a small marine railway fur the use of smaller vessels to haul out on for painting, scrubbing the bottoms, caulking or any slight repairs. .\ minute more we are at that "other wharf." '1 he man in the "seven league" boots, with a long-handled scoop net, is taking the tureen, snapping, fighting lobsters frnni a great car al the head of the dock, where they ha\-e been stored until they disgorged the bait they so greedily devoured, wdiolly indifferent to tlie

SHORE SCENE

directly tn Xcw \'i;rk in their vessels, others .-■■hipped as described. Cnuld we turn our gaze backward from thirty tn si-\t_\- years and view tlie shores, wharf and harbnr, we would see ;;. small city of masts, which belonged to the fi.'hing fleet, then flourishing, h'rom seventy- five to one hundred \'essels went out and came ii,, making their tri|)s to Xew \'ork for their market. .Many of those old captains have made their last port, and cast their anchors in the long haven of rest, and iinl\- their cosey little homes, so lovingly built by them, remain as their memorial. The younger generation ha\'e taken up other business, and the present numbers of the fleet are much less, iliough the l.'usiness is ^•ery jirofitablc.

I'rom here the next wharf can lie seen and

state of freshness or putridness it might have been in, or waiting until the proper time for Xew York shipment. These are scooped into large baskets, swung on to a set of immense scales til be weighed, then packed into barrels with ice, still fighting, grabbing at anything or any one. .\. fellow lobster cauglit in the great claw is relentlessly snap]ied, his claw crushed to atoms, or a careless handler will ha\e as nearlv the same treatment as said carelessness will allow. Mere are agents of Xew ^'ork firms l)uying from the lobstermen, such as wish to dispose of their catch in that wa\', while others send directly to dealers in the metro|jolis, or in near by cities.

The amount of capital invested in the lob- ster business each \ear in Xoank is \-er\- con-

HISTORIC GROTON

59

66

HISTORIC GROTON

servatively placed at $40,000. In early years those in the business depended entirely on sail to reach the lobster ground, subject to the freaks of wind and tide. In 1893, A. V. and liis brother, W'ayland Morgan, made a depart- ure l)y introtlucing steam in their sail boats, r.sing a hollow mast, which served as a smoke- stack. This prn\-ed a success, as the pots cuuld be hauled l)y steam. Later, gasolene motors were installed, and now are the uni- \'ersal custom, and in the "wee sma' " hours of morning, from two a. m. and (in. according to the time of tide, one may sleepily hear the ]iop- pop of the motors, as they start upon their day's business, and we turn o\-er in bed to fin- ish our comfortable morning sleep, .\fter the lobster season, these boats fish until about l.^ec. 1st, shipping to the cities.

.\ short walk to the south, or. if \ou prefer, a row boat, as the distance is hardh' worth getting the sail boat under way again, we come to the beginning of those fighting, grab- bing, disgusting looking, but delicious tasting, lobsters, the Connecticut state hatcher}', pre- sided over b}' Capt. Latham Rathbun, estab- lished for the purpose of artificially supplying the waters of the sound, so rapidly being de- pleted by the immense demand and consump- tion of the crustacean. It is intensely inter- esting to note the process. The work begins in May and lasts until about the third week in July. A tank is built in the upper story of the house, and the sea water from the east end oi the building ( which is built with a door opening directly on to the water), is pumped by gasolene or electricity into this tank. A large pipe leads from the tank down to the ground floor, connecting with small pipes run- ning the water into ,t;lass jars holding about two gallons, standing on a long table for that purpose, also to a recei\ing tank from tliere, and out again to the ocean waters from whence they came. The mother lobster, which is bought by the state superintendent, and is protected !)}• law for its spawn, is now relieved of the eggs by the hand and carefully separated from a lum|) that the water mav re- \olve each separately. These are now jilaced in glass jars, one-half million of them to a jar,

and the water turned on, the force being regu- lated by a small valve at the bottom of the jar, that the eggs may revolve at a certain speed. The water running in forces that already there over into the receiving tank, causing a never ceasing rotary mo\'ement to the eggs that hatches the small lobster, which rises at once to the top and is floated over into the tank. These are about one-third of an inch long at that time, and immediately begin their life work of eating. They are taken away al- most immediate!}- and emptied into the waters tif Long Island sound.

Un experimenting as to keeping them until larger and better able to care for themseh'es, it was found that in about three weeks they were in the fourth stage, that is, about three- (juarters of an inch in length, beginning to form shell, and perfect in shape. It is impera- tive at this stage that they should be turned out to provide for themselves, as they will die if they are kept longer. The forming of their shells gi\-cs them weight, wdiich sinks them to the bottom, and they naturally require heavier food. I'our to five years complete the growth to the lawful market size — nine inches. ()ne season's hatchery brings out fifty million }oung lobsters, which would seem on a fair way to restock the waters, but their minute size at time of ])utting them overboard causes great loss, as many are eaten by larger fish, and only a very small proportion mature.

( )n our way here from the lobster wharf, we passed by the firm of J. H. Paine & Sons, Inc., builders and repairers of steam and gaso- kne engines, marine and stationary, also their galvanizing plant, the whole with a capacity of twenty men. The sail loft of Mrs. J. Pal- mer Williams does a steady, lucrati\-e business each }ear.

There are four firms for building small boats, of which Jeremiah Davis is the veteran liiilder of them all. Late }'ears, these are about thirty to thirty-two feet long, with twelve to fourteen feet beam. From that size they vary to skiffs of ten or twelve feet, also to motor launches. This enterprise of the villatre amounts in financial results to over $12,000 a }ear, running to about $15,000 some years,

HISTORIC GROrON

6i

The shipyard of R. Pahiier & Son Co. is in the lower part of the village, towards the "Light- house" point and extending well on to the "Narrows." This is one of the largest wood shipbuilding plants on the Atlantic coast, and employs about four hundred men. The ship- yard was opened in 1851 by John Palmer, who was ordained deacon of old Fort Hill church i.i 1821. and later served the Xoank church in the same capacity, when it was formed in 1843, till the time of his death. After his death, his two sons, John and Robert, succeeded to the Ijusiness under the name of R. & J. Palmer.

at the expiration of seven years' service in that capacity, the records show he had cradled five hundred vessels safely without a mishap or error attributed to liis work. .\s the years ad- \'anced and his son, Robert, Jr., came to ma- turity, he became a member of the firm antl it became Robert Palmer & Son Co., each Rob- ert having his special department, but making ;i united whole. New methods of doing work called for modern machinery, which was in- stalled as the occasions demanded until at the ]>resent date it is one of the finest equipped \'ards in the countrv.

	-	.^-	"'r.Z-'. --""""^
	1	1	^	wm	'-r^fflB|Hfe|^ ' j^tt|^H^^^^^H^a^^|
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A	^		ivfe	k:^ ■
M	r	«	i^'"'	^r	1^- "
^*N#	ii' •'	J			^^^RSE>Tm,iinsea>ca
■iiiti;i	r	n	^KiTVMCH^nal	K^^^^^^>^TWI	HJIr «.»•»»» «w«K-

Nothine seemed too difficult foi

THE SHIl'VARU

these two Suppose we take a walk round the yard and

men to attempt t<-i haul out on their marine see many things new to us and immensely in- railways and they always ended in success. teresting. This long red shop is the oldest The work enlarged until the death ni the older building. In the upper story we find the floor

brother John, a man (if sterling worth and loyal Christian character, when it became the business of Robert Palmer. I'nder his man- agement the e\'er increasing l)usines called out tlie natural abilities and executive (pialities he possessed. The marine railways have been under the direction and superintendence, for a numl)er of years of Charles R. Palmer, only sur\i\ing son of John Palmer, the former member of the firm. His record does honor to the older members and their training when,

coA'ered with strange lines, which to us seem onl\' a confused mass, meaning nothing at all ; but there stands a short hea\ily built, oldish man with short, gra}- hair — ?\Ir. Led- yard Daboll, who tells us. "that is the draft- nig of some new vessel," and he certainly ought to know, for he has drafted ou these same floors for man}' a long _\'ear, he says over fifty, and the years ha\'e used and touched him kindly.

Xow here in this room, begin those vessels

62

HISTORIC GROTON

nil tlic Stocks which we can see from the win- dows, looking toward the north, south and west. \'essels of various kinds and in differ- ent stages of prog^ress meet the eve. Tiiere

SlIIOOMIor.SK

is the staunch httle aggressive tug boat, JiuiU ti. l)reast all kinds of weather and hardshiji of life, its iinl}- object to get there with its tow. There is the dapper, s|)ick-span, dand\- yacht, like a society l)elle, designed onlv for pleasure and will sail the world over to find it; also the steamljoat of a passenger or freight Inie ciunltining some of the elements of both the iilhers. Then the just useful, without beauty, the railroad floats and coal barges. But tile wiinder of their construction and their great clumsy dignity of usefulness, strongh- ai:)peal to one as he goes from one to another watching the different stages and workman- ship.

Here is one just begun by laying the keel : then comes the square body frame which is set up beginning at the middle of the craft and worked towards either end; then the kilson, cants, stem and stern post, next the ceiling or inside planking and the deck. .\ large iron band, six inches by three-quarters inch in thickness, is then lidund round the to]), and iron bamls, three and one-half inches by one- half inch in thickness run down the sides diag- onally and cross diagonally, thus forming a slay (if iron in form of diamonds over the en- tire bndy <if the vessel. The frame is cut away fur these so when they gd into place the\' are flush. This is one of the most interestimj

stages, such provisions of strength, and re- sistance for weight, weather and endurance.

As the outside planking begins, the salting Ijcgins. Usually at this announcement a smile c'f incredulit}- creeps over the countenance of the uninitiated, thinking they are being guyed, but a great quantity of salt is pour-^d iu as the planking proceeds. This is to preserve the wood. The outside planking is of planks of 4 til 7 inches, which are spiked with galvanized spikes 8 and 10 inches long, also trenails ilri\-en thrnugh fri mi nuter to inner planks fas- tened at both ends with wedges driven in, butt bolts ri\-eted at the end, and every condition fur strength attended t'l. The caulking is jNd iriteresting. \\'e see the men npen the seams with an iron, and (lakum, which is slightly twisted, similar tn candlewick but the size of a man's wrist, is forced into the opened seam and driven in until the oakum is as solid as the plank itself and thoroughly water tight. The planers follow the caulkers as tliev work.

ll.M-nsT (HI K<H

The searchers look things all o\er for holes, rents, bail jilaces in planks and -search out anv imperfection. They must l>e thorough, honest, inistw |)erfect in their knowledge of their bus-

HISTORIC GROTON

(^Z

iness. Now conic ihc painters and the gen- eral finishing'. The boats are then thoroughly watered to test or find any leak. This may last three or four hours, going up one side, tlien the other.

It is now time to prepare to launch by put- ling ways under, which are slightly inclined ]jlanes slushed with tallow nii.vcd with oil, on which the vessel slides to her future element. This ]ilant for sex'eral successive }'ears has av-

Down below are great knees of 8 and 9 inches in thickness carefull}- marked in the shape desired. These are placed on the table and a saw so small and slemler it looks incon- gruous is poised above the depth of clumsy wood bulk under it, but a hand regulates the force, and hands guide the clumsy piece with its marks exactl}- to the saw, and with another little shrill shout the saw ploughs its wav e.xact to the line, and a knee is turned out

.Sr.MMKK RESIDEXCK OK Til

eraged a vessel constructed and launched every ten days. The gross income in ]ianic year was $741,000.

While we are waiting for the tide to touch the highvfater mark, just strull round to the different houses where the various parts are prepared and made ready for their respecti\e places. Here is the sawmill where the im- mense logs are sent on the great carnage to be trimmed into shape. They roll along to the saw' wdiich strikes them with an angrv. exult- ant scream, as it buries itself in the huge bulk, and with a \-ell runs its entire length.

K \.KXV. MR. EI.IHT SPICER

as neatl}- as the shears would cut a pastebnard curd. That one there, iv where the trenails are sywed. .K s(|uare stick of locust about 22 inches in length by one and one-eighth inches square, is fed to the huiigr}' brute, llehuld! he grabs it, the Ijelt swings round and one schnist ! and a smooth, round trenail is the result wdiich goes to fasten that ]5lanking. One man turns 1800 of these trenails a day. So the numerous saws do each its own work.

Over there is the blacksmith shop. The r(.)ar of the flames and the clank! clank! (if the amil is turning out those irini bands with which the

64

HISTORIC GROTON

vessels are strapped and the other iron work required. There is a funny looking box thing and the}' are steaming planks to make them pliable to bend into place over a bulging frame. There is a most picturesque frescoed little building near the shore, the most artistic of them all. A few panes of glass missing from the window in the peak and daubs of all colored paints forming a rich dado as high as a man can reach without a ladder, red, yellow, etc. That is the paint shop. Then we visit the power house, that furnishes all the force that performs these wonderful things.

The tide is now about full and the click-et- click of the men at work under the bottom warn you to get your place for viewing the kiunch. The rapping of th(ise men tightening up the wedges is very exciting to an onlooker, and causes them to wish they could do some- tiiing, too. A little lull in the click-et-click, then it comes again, "Did you see her move?" Xo, not yet. Click-ct-click ! "There she goes!" Some boy has noticed a slight advance from the marked line. "There she goes!!" from the older ones, and "Hurrah!!!" from the specta- tors and workmen. E\-ery whistle in the yard and e\ery saucy little nidtdr boat in sight (like the proverbial small Ijoy, always around ready to scream at the chance) send out their three times three. Hurrah ! Amidst the great jargon of good cheer, she slides over the tallow and oil, ploughs down into the water, and as the water buoys up the full length of her, she makes a graceful bow to the audience and the firm that has caused her being, and floats out for the mission for which she was built. The shipyard is certainly worth}- a visit, and the time is well spent in gaining much information as well as pleasure.

On the brow of "Store Hill," (for in old days the general variety and grocery stores were at the foot of this hill, nearly at the head of the town dock, that they might conveniently sup- ply the vessels as they came in), turning to the right and walking through the deep lawn, we approach the P.aptist church, the oldest re- ligious bod}- in the ])lace. It is of verv plain architecture, painted white, l)ut its tapering spire with its situation on the hill, give it a

picturesque effect. Far out on the waters of the sound, or l)ack into the distant country hills, that slim white spire can be seen, pointing- upward, seeming to pierce the blue skies and Clouds. This church is a daughter of the old Fort Hill meeting house, and grand-daughter ol Old Mystic church, the first Baptist church formed in this part of Connecticut. The Noank ISaptist church was formed in 1843, though it is so intertwined with the old Fort Hill church as to ha\-e actually begun its existence eighty years previous. Its independent existence be- gan with two hundred and twenty-three mem- l>ers, of which one hundred were converts of the meetings held by Elder Jabez Swan in Mystic a short time before. There are nine of those niembers still living.

Its history has been at times almost dramat- ic, and at all times has it been as salt savoring tlie community. \\'e can here hardly touch on its power for good. There has never been in the history of Noank the open sale of liquors, ir into.xicants allowed. Public opinion, so im- )iregnated with the influence of that church's teachings to the young, and their parent^' in- lieritance before then-|, is such that they rise up nauseated and alarmed at such sales in their midst. Many times it has been attempted, and some times carried on surreptitiously for awhile, Init as soon as proof could be obtained, it was stopped. The present house of worshi]) was built in 1867, at a cost of $iJ,ooo, having a seating capacity of about four hundred. Since that time, improvements have been n-iade as times and conveniences have denianded, and at present it is lighted by electricity, has a fine modern pipe organ installed at the cost of $2,500, is heated with hot air, has a ba])tistry with water supply, a well equipped kitchen, and a large Sunday school room.

The ^lethodist church was formed as a chapel, partially dependent on the conference for support, in the year 1878. .After years of using what was known as the chapel, it became athisable to build a better and larger house, which was done in 1903. They have now an auditorium with a seating capacity of two hun- dred and fifty to three hundred, fitted with modern impro\'ements. A well e(iui])ped kitch-

HISTORIC GROTON

65

66

HISTORIC GROTON

er., and Sunday schoul rooms are below the main auditorium. The total value of house and furnishings is about $7,000. The same year was built a Protestant Episcopal and also a Roman Catholic church.

1843, 't was used for meetings when occasion called, funerals being held there, as well as prayer and preaching ser\'ices. Many now liv- ing ha\'e a reverential feeling for the school house which now stands with its modern front

BY THE WATER SIDE

The schools, both District No. 11 in the cen- and l)ack added to the "big and little" jiarts of tre of the village, and District No. 6 in upper other days, which interpreted meant the rooms Noank, are so closely allied to the Baptist of the liig and little children, or the senior and

L

-nifr-'

fitfb

•AX EXQUISITE RETREAT.' ON THE G. ,lt S.

church history as to be part and parcel with primary grades. The school house has now

it in interesting reminiscences and personal five rooms with grades and classes up to date,

spiritual experiences. The school house of No. presided over by teachers who efficiently hold

]i was built in 1837, and from that time until them up to the required standard, and when

HISTORIC G HO TON

67

students are admitted to the high schools of other towns they take an advanced place, some 01 them nearl}- ready for the sophomore year.

District \o. 6, upper \oank, carries the re- ligious remembrances still further back to nearly a century. It has always been called "the old school house." Before District No. II was formed and the house built, those who have passed to the great beyond, but would have long" passed the century mark at this time, wearily plodded over the hills with their little dinner pails from lower Noank on the shores, to that school, for their meagre advantages of learning to read and write. Our great grand- mothers, at four or five years of age climbe^l those hills, more than a mile, to school, and stopped to rest at the same house one of them

old habit of "lining oE" from the one red hymn book held by the minister, while he gave them line b\' line to sing. The old house has

METHODIST CHURCH . ,

went to live in afterwards with her }dung hus- band, which was her home until she died at nearly ninety-one years of age. She could tell of seasons of great religious blessings in the old school house, of prayer meetings and searching sermons. A musically inclined member discoursed on the singing schools, when the singing began to improve from the

IJOUTHOI SK

l.'een renuned, and a modern one takes its place, with modern methods of teaching and an up-to-date teacher. Though it is a mi.xed school it arrives at a good grade of scho'arship and has no reason to be ashamed.

\\'e will return over the hills our great grandmothers trudged as they went and canie from school. The view horn hill to ocean is just as beautiful. Init the world has moved strangely and wonderfully the last century, and now we see from those hills the conven- ient trolley car gliding along the highway each half hour, connecting Groton with Westerly, R. I., and sounding its triumphant little whis- tle as it slips out of sight around some curve.

A visit to the railroad station next. The telegraph operator is ticking at his machine, the freight agent is booking freight ; fish, lob- sters and general freight are going out. Flat cars are coming in loaded with lumber from the south, lumber from Oregon ordered months ago, knees from Sault St. Marie, Mich., floor timber from Nicollette, West Va., tre- nails from Canada, and lumber from other points near by. Immense anchors, their mam- moth chains, coils of hempen hawsers that call out an exclamation of wonder at the size, cav- ernous iron water tanks, etc., all for Palmer & Son Co., shipbuilders. Then there is the freight for the numerous grocery stores, markets and other stores. We find the amount received for freight in one month to be $7,000, at others

68

HISTORIC GROTON

^^&M&h:^WM.

•\::m^^^^..

TROLLEY St'ENE

$5,000 and $6,000. Amount received for pas- senger tickets to have been $1,500 a month be- There are two well equipped hotels for summer visitors. The Ashby house in the lower part of the village accommodates about fifty guests, and The Palmer in the upper part of the village entertains from sixty to seventy- five visitors. Artists from the large cities find abundant material in the beautiful scenic sur- roundings for their winter art exhibitions, which bring them fame and golden shekels, or gold certificates of Uncle Sam's, meaning" pros- perity in the world's goods.

Quiet, unassuming Noank, making but lit- tle pretentions of its benevolent deeds and char- itable acts, though always ready to answer the call for sympathy of the great outside world, in its poverty and the distress of its poor. From the beginning, alert to answer the call of its country in the conflicts of the Revolution and the war of 1812, while the call of the Civil war to save the unity of the nation rallied the young men to its defence in enthu- siastic numbers, and gave their native village an honorable mention among men by their noble service to and for their countrv.

HISTORIC GROTON

69

The Work of Fanny Ledyard Chapter, D. A. R.

By MARY E. BURROWS

KHI'l pioneer chapter of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution in the town of Groton was the Fanny Ledyard Chapter of Mystic, ( )I(1 Mystic and Xoank. Tt was formed June 8, 1893. the chapter number being 10. ft was also the second chapter in the I'nited States to appoint a chaplain among its cfficers, who opens each meeing witli relig- ious exercises.

To Mrs. Eliza A. (Miner) Dennison be- longs the honor of the first membership and the early promotion of the chapter. She was ac- cepted by the national board as a member and appointed regent of "A" chapter .April i, 1893. endorsed by Mrs. DeB. Randolph Keim state regent of Connecticut, her national number being 2966. As regent of "A" chapter the responsibility was placed on her of forming that chapter, and she immediately began her work of securing eligible members. The first member of the chapter was Mrs. Eliza (Deni- son) Brown of Xoank whose name comes on the charter following the regents as numljcr two. In a short time she had the required number for the charter (thirteen) and three more for good measure, making a roll call of sixteen for the beginning. These papers were sent to Washington the middle of .\pril ami accepted by the national board June i, 1893.

The first regular meeting was held June 8, 1893, at which time came the choosing of a name. Several names were proposed when from one corner came a whisper, from as cjuiet and unassuming a gentlewoman as our chapter I'.eroine herself, to one of the ladies nearer the front row, "Why don't you name it Fanny Ledyard? She was the first to give aid to the suffering victims of F'ort Griswold?" The front row lady, Mrs. Sarah (Burrows) Buck- ley, audibly voiced that whisper and the name thus proposed was unanimously adopted.

Fann}- Led\'ard was reincarnated and lives again to d(i deeds of mercy and kindness in the chapter which bears her name, and the

D. A. R. CABINET

Cabinet and frame of diartpr. made of wood from Fanny Ledyard's liousr : npi»L*i- shelf, picture of ••White Hall" gates; second slielf, iiicture of Hart- ford bridge; third .shelf, Fanny lAnlyard's plate, old hand woven lini'n and bundle of tlax ; fourth shelf, books of I). A. K.

name was chosen for us by the honored school- teacher whom so many have risen up from her ministrations to call blessed — Miss Ann Au- gusta Murphy.

yd^

HISTORIC GROrON

ihe first taking up of the practical work uf the chapter was on September 6th, to com- memorate tne massacre of Groton Heights at the old tort, with invited guests from the chapters of New London and Aorwich. Ever since that date as the year rolls round, the day has been observed, and "the memory of the spirit ' of those heroes and heroines ot that dreadful day is perpetuated and newly aroused in each heart which attends these anniversa- ries. February 22 has always been celebrated with but one exception in the fifteen years — a perpetuation of the spirit of that great leader— the magnanimous Lhristian gentleman and the Moses of our country. Patriotic and literary exercises and colonial teas bring to mind the habits and costumes of "ye olden times," and each time arouse a new interest in historical research as to what and how our grandsires did and lived.

Une early call to the chapter was not to pro- tect historical soil but to help make such. In the far state of California where no Revolu- tionary soil can be found, the Sequia Chapter planted a Liberty tree and sighed for histor- ical soil for its growth; a call was made for contributions from each chapter and that from Lexington was the first trowel full placed round its roots ; then across the broad Atlantic came that from the grave of Lafayette, and so on, from the various and far aways came the soil which gives growth to that tree. The Fanny Ledyard chapter sent hers from the grave of their patron saint in Southold, L. L, and so historic and revolutionary soil like the spirit has spread, and found a rich abiding place in the beautiful, bountiful Golden State.

Soon after this a fund was started for a tab- let to commemorate the loving deeds of Fan- ny Ledyard in ministering to the wounded and suffering of the battle of September 6th, 1781. In June, 1895, the tablet was finished and placed on her grave. A delegation of the chap- ter with several Sons of the American Revo- lution accompanied by others not of either or- ganization visited Southold and held dedica- tory services appropriate for the occasion and its presentation to the village. The tablet was accepted by Rev. Dr. \\hittaker in behalf

of the village. Visits are frequently made to the spot to pay respect and to keep an over- sight as fo its condition. When the house vvhere our heroine had always lived was re- moved, Dr. \\'hittaker saved some of its time stained oak and forwarded it to the chapter, from which was made a carved frame for the charter, and a cabinet in which to preserve relics.

Another historical monument is the pair of gates at the old Whitehall burying ground just above Mystic, where Revolutionary patri- ots rest with the families of old Colonial sires. The grounds were cared for and ])ut in order, stones righted and work finished by placing fine iron gates at the entrance.

Markers for the graves of Revolutionary ]iatriots were obtained from the generous Sons of the American Revolution, and one lone hero of Groton Heights sleeping about a mile from Noank was tenderly remembered, his grave made orderly and a marker placed there for David I'alniLT.

.A. contrilmtion was made towards the pur- chase of Putnam's wolf den at Pomfret, Connecticut.

April 7, 1897, the chapter became a mem- ber of the Mary Washington Association, the badge of membership to be worn by each re- gent while holding that office. To encourage Instorical research socials were organized for such study, papers were written, original poems composed, and so mind and heart were opened to the work before them. .\s the work of the chapter grew and so much was done for the country's good by its women, this work assumed other forms and the literary work came in at regular meetings and special anni- versaries. Among their cherished members have been three real daughters, Mrs. Nancy Lord Stanton, Miss Hilary Ann \\'hceler, Mrs. .-Mibyline Starr. These were each presented with the gold spoon given to real daughters.

Miss Abigail Ledyard of Southold, L. T., great grand niece of Fanny Ledyard. is an honorary member of our chapter.

Many historical spots have been visited. One trip which stands out in bold relief is that to Lebanon, Conn.. June 17, 1896. by invita-

HISTORIC GROTON

71

tioii of the S. A. R. to dedicate the bronze tab- let in the Httle old war otifice in Jonathan 'rrunibuH's grocery store.

Article 2nd of the constitution reads : "To promote as an object of priniar_\- importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowl- edge," a quotation from Washington's will. Under this heading we place first, as homage to the distinguished author, a contribution to the "National Universit}-" fund of Washing- ton. Contributions to the Southern i'lduca- tiunal Association for the education of the mountain whites; for a scholarship of the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suffield, and two prizes to the Mystic high schools for the best historical essays on the battle of Groton Heights, have been given.

The insignia of the Daughters is a seal of American womanhood. It immediately es- tablishes a bond between the wearers reach- ing out to sociability and good fellowship; consequently this chapter has always extended most cordial welcome to any visiting Daugh- ter m tnis cummunit)' and is always pleased to be addressed by her on the work of her home chapter, i' roni time to time they have given to some prominent official to whom the) wished to pay tlieir respects, receptions reach- ing througfi the state to each chapter regent or her representati\e. Such honor was paid Airs. DeLl. Randolph kiem, stale regent, on two occasions, to Airs. Sarah T. Kinney, state regent; to Airs. Agnes (_Martin) Dennison, vice-president general of national societ} and previously registrar general; to Airs. Donald AIcLean, regent of New York City chapter and later to her as president general of the national society.

These were one and all brilliant functions made so by artistic decorations of flags, the insignia, flowers, roses and ferns, gorgeous foliage, music, beautiful gowns, gentle women, their husbands and sons, with entertainment of wit, wisdom, and dainty refreshments.

Then there have been the many calls for gen- erous thinking of others less fortunate. The "Alargaret" fund is put aside for the yearly dues of any one temporarily unfortunate, so

making her mem])ershi]') a Imrden. From this fund is quietly handed the amount required and no publicity attends its payment. The flower fund is a penny collection each month to furnish flowers to the sick of their number. There was the call in "98 for hospital shirts for sick and wounded soldiers and sailors of the Spanish-American war. The response was the forwarding of eighty shirts, and a quantity of comfort bags so much needed.

Alarch 17, 1899, came a call for contributions towards a monument for Aliss Rulinia \\ al- worth, daughter of one of the founders of the D. A. R. This heroine contracted disease while nursing the sick of the Spanish war for whom she laid down her young life. Aloney has frequently been given to elderly needy members. A donation was made loward a loving cup to our state regent, Airs. Sarah Kinney, for long and loving service. She most generously turned the sum at once into tue continental Hall fund.

An appeal came from a Alemphis, Tenn., chapter, asking tor a doll for a bazaar to be held to raise money lor a monument to the daughter of i'atrick ilenry. I his call was also listened to and Aiiss i'anny Ledyard by name, beautifully garbed m lyth century costume of blue silk gown, black satin coat trimmed with dainty lace, and white CainsDoro hat of white chiffon and velvet started on her mission to Alemphis escorted by Air. Adams Express. Utlier contriljutions are to the New London County Historical Society towards the Shaw Alansion, New London; Groton Annex; Aa- than Hale school house; Franco Alemorial fund; Young Mens Christian Association; jellies for Boston Hospital; Ellsworth Home- stead, Windsor; Hartford Bridge celebration; Fanny Crosby's birthday present; and mem- bership and dues of an invalid S. A. R. Two successive years general literature, periodicals and games were given for the soldiers at Fort Terry, Plumb Island, and Fort A'lansfield, Watch Hill, R. I. An apportionment for the C^onnecticut column in Continental Hall was given, making the whole amount contributed

72 HISTORIC GROTON

for the Continental Hall fund to date two hun- And with before us, the womanly kindness

dred and fifty-one dollars. A heartfelt tribute of our patron saint whose deeds have raised

to our martyred and lamented president, Wm. the most enduring memorial, the Fanny Led-

McKinley, was written by ^liss Mary E. Bur- yard chapter, D. A. R., strives by her work and

rows, and forwarded by the chapter to his deeds to do her honor, and also the country

sorrowing widow. which she pledges to sustain.

HISTORIC GEO TON

73

West Mystic

By HORACE CLIFT

■.ST MYSTIC in the town of ( Iroton has an area of about two miles s<iuare. It extends from the river on the east to Fort Hill on the west. ( )n the east side it extends from ISeebe's cove at the foot of Devil's Foot Hill to near Porter's Rocks on the north ; aiifl on the west side from the Burrows' cemetery on Fort Hill, north along the Flanders road to the old post road.

This section was the home of the Pequot Indians when Xew England began to l)e set- tled b}- the white race. Fort Hill and Pequot Hill are noted as l^eing their strongliolds.

The rugged crags near the river on the north known as Porter's Rocks are historic as being the resting place of the allied forces under Capt. John Mason the night before the attack on the Pequot fort in May, 1637.

A few years after that decisive battle the settlement of the section began. Robert Bur- rows, John Packer, John Fish, and Robert Park are named as first settlers, 1652-5. The Park family located at first on the east side of the ri\er. From that time until near the year 1800 this territory was occupied and owned chiefly by the Burrows, Packer, Fish, and Park families. Descendants of these, from time to time have ])een honored with the chief offices in the town of Groton and they have in turn proved an honor to the town. Some of the descendants have become men of high repute in the nation.

In 1800, and for a number of years later tliere were no public highways in ^^'est Mys- tic excepting the route from the ferry to Fort Hill, through Poquonnock to Groton liank, which was laid out very early to facilitate in- tercourse: and the Flanders road opened in 1748, running from Fort Hill north to the old post road and Stark's Hill. With these two exceptions the travelled routes were pent ways with gates or bars.

The ferry was estal)lished not long after the first settlements, with Robert Burrows ferry- man. At one time there appears to have been

MASON MOM .MKNl

a ferry from the half way house (so called) at the narrows, over to where the Elm Grove cemetery \vw\ is : but the chief route was from the west side of tlie river across to Pistol Point on the Stonington side from whence the road continued through that town. This old route

74

HISTORIC GROTON

througli from New London is said to have been called the King's Highway.

In 1805, Silas Beebe a native of Waterford purchased a tract of land and located at Devil's Foot Hill. This title had been given because of the natural imprint of a foot in a rock on the hill. The piece of rock as blasted some vears ago is now in the rooms of the Countv

STREET Sf'EXE

Historical Society. Mr. LSeebe married Han- nah Rathbun, sister of Capt. Elisha Rathbun then living east near the river. Later on he made purchases until his land holdings amounted to nearly three hundred acres, reaching west to the foot of Fort Hill. He was a sea captain and was engaged in the coasting trade from 1799 to 1830 when he became connected with Jedediah Randall in the whaling business. The cove next south of Capt. Beebe's residence by common con- sent bears his name. His first wife had died and in 1813 he married Nancy Breed. He died May, 1863, at the age of 83.

Jedediah Randall was born in Norwich, .\pril. 1773, and moved to Mystic in 1807. His wife was Mary Burrows, daughter of Rev. Silas Burrows, who owned the Fort Hill farm. He located at the ferry landing with Capt. Edward Packer whose wife was Prudence Crarv a con- nection i)f Air. Randall. .\ general provision store was kept here, and sea going vessels were Iniilt a little south from the residence. The trolley power buildings stand on , these grounds. Air. Randall purchased from Capt. Packer, besides the buildings, a number of

acres, extending up the hill where the Alystic and Noank library building is, to where his son, Isaac, some years afterwards built his res- idence. He continued the store business and in 1810 began building vessels. Mr. Randall also engaged extensively in the whaling busi- ness until he retired in 1834, his sons succeed- ing him. At the time of his retirement from business he was the wealthiest resident of Alvstic. He died in January, 1851.

In 1805, Amos Clift, a sea ca])tain who was b'orn in Preston, purchased the farm of Na- than Burrows. He had married as second wife in I7i;8, Thankful Denison, daughter of Isaac and Eunice Williams Denison across the river in Stonington, who was also a cousin of his first wife Esther Williams, both being con- nections of \\vi\ and Sarah Williams the suc- cessive wives of Nathan Burrows. The farm extended frnm the west end of the present trolley and draw Ijridge, north along the river tc land of Capt. George Eldredge, a noted river and coast pilot, whose wife was Hannah Burrows, a niece of Nathan, and west up Pe- quot Hill, to near where the monument now other tract of land next west of this of George stands. A little later Capt. Clift bought an-

LOOKIXU EA.ST FHUM THE BRIlXiE

Fish, reaching to the brook west of Pequot Hill. The Burrows house was taken down and a new one 1>uilt around the chimney which was left standing. In those days a well built chim- ney with the large fireplaces, and baking oven was an important feature. The house still stands. The building which was taken down

HISTORIC GROrON

75

i.- thought to have been built by the grand- father of Nathan, who was John 2d, grandson of Robert Burrows, a first settler.

At the time the chimney was built the Bur- rows farm extended from the trolle_\- draw- bridge north to the top of Great Hill by the Peace Meeting grove, and west from these points to top of Pequot Hill, the house being quite near the center. It is a tradition in the liurr(_i\vs and Packer families, which the writer also heard his grandmother relate as fact, that after the great snowstorm in the winter ut 1740-41. the valley east of the house being filled with snow and banked against the ledge and house. Desire Packer Burrows, mother of .\athan, slid from the chamber window of the residence in a huge chopping tray over the river to near the Den- ison mansion.

.\nother episode related by the same per- son perhaps it may be pardonable to relate. In one of his voyages, 1807-08, her husband had been gone so long without Ijeing heard from, it was thought by some that he was lost at sea, but she had believed he would return. Her father Isaac Denison was with her. A dog which Capt. L'lift had left at home com- menced barking in an unusual manner one morning, continually looking up the hill. It kept acting so strangely that her father said to her: "I believe Amos is coming home," and before noon they saw him riding horseback down the old bridle path. He had taken a cargo of oil and fish to Bordeaux, and then taken a freight for Caracas. Then as in more recent years Venezuela was in a revolutionary state, his vessel was seized antl he and his crew were detained. He succeeded in clear- ing himself and crew and reaching New Lon- don. It proved to be an unjust seizure and after some delay they were indemnified.

Nathan Burrows liad made two trips to Bos- ton with his oxen during the Re\'olution with provisions for the patriot army. His brother John was an officer in the war. He moved to Chenango Co., New York, where he died in 1808. at the age of sixty-four. He has de- scendants in New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut, one of them being the present

prosecuting attorney for the town of Groton. Amos Clift died in 1818 at the age of fifty, the same year that the first bridge across the river was being built, and High street from the New London road to Burnett's Corners opened.

RESIDENTS IN 1800.

Xorth of the Burrows farm, mentioned, was that of Elam Burrows, whose wife was Sarah, a daughter of Isaac Denison. Next north and extending west over Pequot Hill were the farms of Sands Fish, and wife Bridget GaUup, and Roswell Fish, and wife Isabel Phelps. North from them were Joseph Park, Jr., wife Abigail Ecclestone; Beriah Grant, wife Nancy Burrows; and William Smith, w-ife Abigail Willes. whose mother vvas .Abigail Park. Joseph Park erected a grist mill on the brook near his residence. North of the Smith farm was land of Wait and Thomas Wells in the Old Mystic section, with Rose Mason (colored) living near the line.

West from the Smith farm were the farms of Paul Burrows, wife Catherine Haley; Samuel Park, wife Dolly Chappell ; Nathaniel Park, wife Phebe Burrows. West from these, and extending over to the north end of the Flanders road, were Shepherd Cottrell, wife Mar>- Wilcox; John Branian, wife Polly Park; Den- nis Burnett, wife Polly Noyes ; Peter Reed (colored), wife Irene, on land of Thomas Wells; and Nathaniel Xilcs; besides Elisha Nilcs, and wife Sarah.

South from the Niles land was the farm of Holmes, Sylvester, and Philena Walworth (not married) whose father. Sylvester Walworth, was killed in the battle at Fort Grisw^old 1781. East, and between their farm and Pequot Hill, was Thomas Fish and also the saw and grist mill with dwelling house then owned by him and later by Edward McGuire until abandoned. South from the Walworth farm was that of Dea. Simeon Smith, wife Eunice ; east and also south of him the farm of George Fish, wife Sarah Hinckley; and on tlie west side of the highway, the farm with lanyard of Zobediah Gates, wife Eunice Packer; second wife Mercy Denison.

South from the Gates and Smith farms were Charles Card, wife Bethany; Benjamin Hall, wife Huldah ; Nathan Mix, wife Phebe; Baker family ; Joseph Crumb, wife Eunice Tift, daughter of Solomon Tift; William Middleton, wife Lucy Walworth, daughter of Sylves- ter Walworth ; Cheet family ; Moses Latham, wife Leonora Smith ; William Latham, wife Sabra Ash- bey; he was wounded in the battle at Fort Griswold.

On the Fort Hill farm, living south of the present town house, was Rev. Silas Burrows, wife Mary Smith, second wife Phebe (Denison) Smith. .\ little v/est of Fort Hill lived Samuel Edgcomb, wife Rachel Copp ; and also Solomon Tift, wife Eunice Burrows. Both of these men were in the battle in 1781. East from the Flanders district, along the New London road were Charles Packer, wife Abigail Latham; John Fish, wife Hannah Brush ; Elisha Packer, wife Lucy Smith ; Lodowick Packer, wife Delight ."Kshbey ; Ma- son Packer, wife Amy Burrow-s ; Joseph Packer, wife Hannah Packer; George Ashbey, wife Cathe- rine Packer; Edward Packer, (land sold to Jedediah Randall) ; and Daniel Burrows, wife Kesia Rhodes.

East of Fort Hill and south of the New London road, Sylvester Clark, wife Abby Gates; Ebenezer Fish, wife Lydia Fish; (one of the name of Ebenezer Fish was in the battle of September, 1781, .Allen's History); Chester Fitch, wife Deborah Packer; Sam-

76

HISTORIC G HO TON

uel Burrows, Lemuel Burrows, wife \ancy ; Daniel Eldredge, wife Pliebe ; he was in tlie battle at Fort Griswold; Joseph Ashbey, wife Mary Burrows; El- dredge Packer, wife Sabrina Packer; Guy E. Burrows, wife Fanny Eldredge; John Packer, wife Hannah Gal- lup; he was in war of the Revolution; Joshua Packer, wife Phebe Packer; and on the Noank line, Levi Spi- cer, wife Prudence Palmer.

At the south part of Goat Point was Latham Fitch, wife Waity Burrows ; Elisha Rathbun, wife Lucre- tia Parker; next north, Nathan Ligham, wife Experience Fish. North of that section was Isaac Park, wife Mary Billinghaas ; Benjamin Packer, wife Mary Middleton ; David Lewis, wife Lydia Tift; Ca- leb Tufts, wife Rebecca Burrows ; William Murphy, wife Mary Park ; William Douglass, wife Ann ; Jo- seph Park, wife Lucy Packer; Asa Willis, wife Debo- rah Burrows ; Daniel Packer, wife Hannah Burrows ; he lived where his great grandson, Charles C. Packer, now lives. South from the residence, vessels had been built. Next north was Elani Packer, wife Catherine Fidias.

North of the ferry landing was the residence of An- thony Wolfe, wife Mary Eldredge. He was in the war of the Revolution. In the house east of the Na- tional Bank building was Jonathan Wheeler, wife Nancy Thompson. His father, Lester Wheeler, was in the war of the Revolution and also her fatlier, Wm. 1 hompson. When the bridge was built in 1818 this house was owned by Ambrose H. Grant, wife Philura Brown : east of the residence was an open cove run- ning up to where the Episcopal church building now stands. The cove was mostly tilled tliirty years ago with gravel floated in on scows of Capt. Thos. Wil- liams, worked by Daniel Fisher.

Tliis list of re.sidences at that period is be- lieved to be fairly accurate ; there may be a few iinintentionally left out. Assistance has been given by some wlio have knowledge of their ancestors.

With the bridge across the river and the opening of High street, \\'est Mystic began to grow as a village. Being directly connected with the east side of the river there was also a corresponding growth of population on each side. The building of vessels of different grades and sizes which engaged in fishery and merchant trade with nearby and distant ports, owned and manned by residents, together with the whaling business caused a raj^id growth for a time.

The highway from the west end of the bridge around by the machine works to the New London ruad was opened when the bridge was built. The road between Mystic and Noank was opened in 1833. The ri\-er road from West Mystic to Old ;\Iystic was opened in 1853. The road on the east side of the river to Old Mystic is older. The higli- way Ircim High street towards Centre Groton

known as the Alden Fish road, the \\'est Mystic avenue, Pequot Hill avenue and then the Roswell Brown road from the Alden Fish road through to the Noank road followed in succession. Besides these there are a ntimber I'f short routes and cross streets which have been opened. The post office on the west side was called Portersville for a number of years iintil about 1844. it was changed to Mystic River.

In 1848 the three Ijrothers Isaac, William, and Silas B. Randall with Wm. W Smith, -Xathan Chapman and Leonard W . Morse formed and started the '" Reliance .Machine Company," the first of dimensions in the town of (iroton. They built up a large business which nourished until the Ci\il war came on. The business was largely in cotton gins and machinery for the southern states. Slow pay- ments for their goods at that time embarrassed them, and the company was obliged to suc- cumb. Machine business has been continued here and the extensive fire proof btiildings t)f the Standard AFachinery Company imw doing a large business occupy the same grounds. 'I'he tract of land east of West Mystic depot being connected with both depot and river, has rare business facilities, liefore and dur- ing the war, ship building was carried on here by the firm of Maxson, Fish and Co. which included vessels for the government.

The Holmes Motor Works now located near the former shi])yard are doing an exten- sive business in building fine yachts e<|uipped with engines of their own manufacture. .\ new' firm has recently started business here east of the depot, under the name of \\'est .Mystic Manufacturing Co. They are build- ing boats and motors. The Ciilbert Transpor- tation Co. with large shipping interests, which located in M_\-stic within a few years, have a yard for building and repairing south of Main street, by the west end of the bridge. They are also now occupying the former shi|)yard on the south side of Pistol Point, east of the river, where they are fniilding vessels. They have furnished employment for manv jiersons. The large four-story lilock for stores and offices erected by them is a decided ornament to the village.

HISTORIC GKOTON

n

On the west side of I'earl street b.\- the ledge there was formerly located a manufactory for wagons, carriages, etc., by Charles Johnson and Elisha Denison. Hcsides the local trade, business wagons were shipped through agents to California during the gnld discovery period. Later the buildings burned down. The Mystic (n-anite and Marl)le Co.. of AlcGaughey Bros., anil alsi) the .McKin blacksmith works, are now located on the grounds. A little north of this is the carriage shoji of Charles 11. Johnsi.in,

business from before California times until af- ter the war period. East from the shop was the Randall store managed by Dwight Ashbey, south from the blacksmith was the store of Simeon Fish and Son for many years, and then |. T. llattv. County Commissii:)ner, south of the store the coal yards of Benjamin Burrows, and further along by the river where now is the Kelsy Coal Co., there had been for some \-ears a store kept by Joseph S. A\ery. West from the Burrows coal yard, by the Xoank

THE ITHLU LIKK.\RV

a son of the former builder. \\'est of this K. Marston formerl}- worked the cpiarry and also had monumental works.

Near the north end of Pearl street liefore the Civil war, was a shipyard where a num- ber of vessels were built b}' John A. Forsyth and E. ATorgan. This is now occupied bv res- idences and by the Cheney Cdobe Works. On tlic location where now stands the office build- ing of the drotou anrl Stonington Trolley Co., L)-man Dudley- did an extensive blacksmith

road is Lhainnan's l)lacksmith and repair shop. South from this on the corner across the street in 1850 was the store of .Albert G. Stark, in which was the Mystic River post office. .\ little to the rear of the blacksmith shop at that time was an hotel, since burneil down.

Main street, from the bridge west, is now the chief thoroughfare for stores and offices. ( hi the north side next to the bridge is River- side Ijlcjck, Central Hall building with stores

78

HISTORIC GEO TON

and dffices. the drug store which Dr. F. M. ?\Ianning occupied a half-century ago, and in the next building at that time was the hat and cap furnishing store of Chesebro and Davis. Then the I. W. Denison & Co. lilock, where had been A. G. Wolf, blacksmith ; the Ketch- um block, Buckley's block with hall, at the east end of which stood the shop and office of the spar and block contractors, ^\"illiam, John and Oliver Ratty, who kept the cove which then extended from their building nearly to where the Episcopal church building now stands, — well filled with spars for masts, etc., of various sizes. It was in their shop building, then vacated, that S. H. I'.ucklev was supplying meats fifty years ago. At that time, next west was A. C. Tift's dry goods store and the present Kretser store building. Further west is the National Bank building, established over a half-century. \\'est of this is \N. E. Wheeler's block, where then was Roswell Brown's livery stal)le, north of which was the village bakery.

On the south side of the street, where now is the bakery, a half-century ago D. A. Hall had a grocery store. East is Brown's block, the Braman block, Avery's block, Watrous' block, Edgcomb's block, and the store build- ing where D. N. Prentice then had a grocery store with L. A. ]\Iorgan, now an owner in Cen- tral Hall block and other interests, as clerk. Xe.xt comes the Gilbert block with stores, offices, and a public hall, their building extending to the river. Besides these there is also the P'earl street grocerv, farther north in the y\\- lage.

In 1850 the only stores on Main St. west of the bridge were : On the north side, Elam Eldredge and Eldredge Wolfe's market, F. M. Manning's drug store, O. D. Xoj-es' fur- nishing store and .A. C. Tift's dry goods store; on the south side were Thomas Williams' paint shop, Martin Lawson, tin shop, and D. X. Prentice, groceries. In the present G. A. R. building on Pearl St. was the undertaking and repair shop of D. D. Edgcomb and Gil- bert ]\Iorgan. A short distance north were Thomas and Jesse Lamphere, dealers in fish and oysters. At the same period the Messrs. Gallup brothers, James, John and Benadam, car-

]ienters, had a sliijp and lumljcr yard on the east side of Gravel St. Previous to 1850, Amos Clift, then in California, had been a builder with a shop on the hill where his father had built his resi- dence in 1805. At this time and later, Henry Latham, an old resident was also in the carpen- ter business, his shop being south of the Xew London road. Also there were Gurdnn S. Al- len and Reuben and Roswell Chapman. .\ lit- tle later were C. E. Tufts, J. R. Stark and J. S. Heath, with Calvin Cromwell, all of whom l.ave passed away. Connected with these builders, who still remain, were F. B. Mayo, .\ustin Gallup and E. R. Wiliams, Civil war veterans. On the east side some younger and still active, there remain \\'illiam Murphy and Hiram Clift. Soon after 1850 and for many years Asa A. Avery and son Allen conducted an undertaker's and furniture business on Main St. It should be remembered that in those days there were master mechanics in mason work, Lanman, Denison anil Xelson Lamb, Xathan Lamb and Edwin and William Slack.

The village is so connected that business on either side afifects the other. ( )n the east side a half-century ago and earlier the shipyards of George, Clark and Thomas Greennian : of Charles Alallory with Mason C. Hill, foreman ; and of Dexter Irons and (leorge Grinnell. \\'ere each driving business. At the time when ship building was prosperous there were two sail lofts ; one on the east side of the ri\-er con- ducted by Isaac D. Clift, David \\'eems and Ebenezer Beebe ; and on the west side by Gro\er G. King and Griswold Beebe. D. O. Richmond and Charles Eldredge were boat builders. Edwin R. Gallup, tailor, was post- master. The lumber yards of Joseph Cottrell, and coal yards of Isaac D. Holmes were the Lhief sources of sup])ly for those necessities. The stores were those of 1. W. Hcnisun & Co. where Thomas C. Forsyth, since master of merchant vessels, was clerk. This store had lieen that of Hoxsie and Palmer ; Asa Fish, who was probate judge for Stonington, and D. D. Mallory & Co. Besides these there was a con- fectionery store kept by the bridge tender at the east end of the bridge, also one under the old hotel. The bridge was freed from toll

HISTORIC GROTON

79

rates in 1855. T. E. Packer and Charles Den- i^on were insurance agents.

On the east side in Greenmanville section, there is a large woiilen factory, the Mystic Manufacturing Co., which has been doing business man}- years; and also the extensive Rossie Velvet Mill works. A little to the north of these are monumental works, and Drown's twine and rope factory. Not far north of the bridge, by the river side, is the manufactory of James W. Lathrop Co.. doing a large business in motor engines for all spe- cies of power. On Pistol Point is the spool factory. East from the depot is Packer's tar soap factory and storehouse; and a little be- yond, across the cove, is the large, new building of the Industrial Co.'s Ninigret Mills. .South from them is the \\'ilcox Fertilizer Works, now well established. There are two grain stores on the east side of the river. The G. E. Tripp's block, the Gates and X'cwbury block, and the Hotel Hoxie building contain stores and offices. The hotel was built by Messrs. Tufts and Stark about i860 for Mr. B. F. Hoxie. It stands on the site of a former hotel, which was owned by Capt. Nathaniel Clift. The Shore Line hotel is south of this, and across the street, west from tlie Shore Line, is the auto repair shop. The Cottrell Lumber Co. occupies the old lund^er yards,. 'There was formerly a sash and blind factory near the yard. There was also a large machine shop built on Pistol Point, which was unsuc- cessful and was changed to a woolen mill, but finally was liurned down.

On the east side there are now three church buildings. The Methodist Episcopal church v,-as organized in 1835. The first pastor was Rev. William S. Simmons. The present pastor if Rev. C. T. Hatch. The Congregational church was organized in 1852. The first pastor was Rev. \\alter R. Long. The present pastor i; Rev. F. A. Earnshaw. St. Patrick's Ro- man Catholic church was organized with Rev. P. P. Lalor first pastor in 1870. The present pastor is Rev. C. A. Leddy. This church has recently dedicated a new temple of worship. A Seventh Day Baptist church was organized at Greenmanville, on the east side, in 1850 with Rev. Sherman S. Griswold, pastor for a

number of years. He was a popular clergyman in the village, although quite outspoken on po- litical subjects, but that was an era of decided opinions. The church ceased as a public or- ganization three years since. The last pastor was Re\". ( ). D. Sherman.

The first organized church within the lim- its of West Mystic, was the Second Baptist church ci{ Grottin. It was under the