Part 7
Such an incursion was never known before nor since; and yet the people of Windham have been ridiculed for their timidity on this occasion. I verily believe an army under the Duke of Marlborough would, under like circumstances, have acted no better than they did.
In 1768 the inhabitants of Connecticut River were as much alarmed by an army of caterpillars as those of Windham were at the frogs; and no one found reason to jest at their fears. Those worms came in one night and covered the earth, on both sides of the river, to an extent of three miles in front and two in depth. They marched with great speed, and eat up everything green for the space of one hundred miles, in spite of rivers, ditches, fires, and the united efforts of 1,000 men. They were, in general, two inches long, had white bodies covered with thorns, and red throats. When they had finished their work they went down to the river Connecticut, where they died, poisoning the waters, until they were washed into the sea. This calamity was imputed by some to the vast number of logs and trees lying in the creeks, and to cinders, smoke, and fires, made to consume the waste wood for three or four hundred miles up the Connecticut River; while others thought it augurated future evils, similar to those of Egypt. The inhabitants of the Verdmonts would unavoidably have perished with famine, in consequence of the devastation of these worms, had not a remarkable Providence filled the wilderness with wild pigeons, which were killed by sticks as they sat upon the branches of the trees, in such multitudes that 30,000 people lived on them for three weeks. If a natural cause may be assigned for the coming of the frogs and caterpillars, yet the visit of the pigeons to the wilderness in August has been necessarily ascribed to the interposition of infinite Power and Goodness. Happy will it be for America, if the smiling providence of Heaven produces gratitude, repentance, and obedience, amongst her children!
_Lebanon_ lies on the west side of Winnomantic River. The best street, which has good houses on both sides, is one mile long and one hundred yards wide. An elegant meeting-house, with steeple and bell, stands in the centre. The township is ten miles square, and forms four parishes. This town was formerly famous for an Indian school, under the conduct of Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, whose great zeal for the spiritual good of the savages in the wilderness induced him to solicit a collection from England. Having met with success, his school at Lebanon became a college in the province of Newhampshire, where he has converted his godliness into gain, and promises fair to excuse government from the expense of a superintendent of Indian affairs.
_Coventry_ lies on the same river; the houses are straggling. The township is ten miles square, and consists of two parishes. Here are two ponds, the one three and the other four miles long, and half as wide, well filled with mackerel and other fish.
_Mansfield_ lies east of Coventry, on Winnomantic and Fundy Rivers; the houses are scattered. The township is eight miles square, and divided into two parishes.
_Union_ and _Wilmington_ lie on Winnomantic River, forming two parishes. Each township is six miles square.
_Ashford_ lies on the Fundy, in a township ten miles square, and forms three parishes. The people of the town have distinguished themselves by a strict enforcement of the colony-laws against heretics and episcopalians, for not attending their meeting on the Sabbath.
_Woodstock_ lies on Quinnibaug, and resembles Finchley. The township is ten miles square, and divided into three parishes. Woodstock had the honour of giving birth to the Rev. Thomas Bradbury Chandler, D. D., a learned divine of the Church of England, and well known in the literary world.
_Killingsley_ lies east of Woodstock. The township, twenty miles long and six wide, forms three parishes.
_Pomfret_ stands on Quinnibaug River, and resembles Battersea. The township is twelve miles square, and forms four parishes, one of which is episcopal. Fanaticism had always prevailed in the county of Windham over christian moderation: where, about the year 1770, after many abuses, the episcopalians found a friend in Godfree Malebone, Esq. who built on his own estate an elegant church, which was patronized by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, who appointed a clergyman.
We read that David slew a lion and a bear, and afterwards that Saul trusted him to fight Goliath. In Pomfret lives Colonel Israel Putnam, who slew a she-bear and her two cubs with a billet of wood. The bravery of this action brought him into public notice; and it seems he is one of fortune’s favourites. The story is as follows: In 1754 a large she-bear came in the night from her den, which was three miles from Mr. Putnam’s house, and took a sow out of his pen. The sow, by squeaking, awoke Mr. Putnam, who hastily ran to the poor creature’s relief; but, before he could reach the pen, the bear had left it, and was trotting away with the sow in her mouth. Mr. Putnam took up a billet of wood and followed the screaming of the sow, till he came to the foot of the mountain where the den was. Dauntless he entered the horrid cavern, and, after walking and crawling on his hands and knees for fifty yards, came to a roomy cell, where the bear met him with great fury. He saw nothing but the fire of her eyes, but that was sufficient for our hero; he accordingly directed his blow, which at once proved fatal to the bear, and saved his own life at a most critical moment. Putnam then discovered and killed the two cubs; and having, though in Egyptian darkness, dragged them and the dead sow, one by one, out of the cave, he went home, and calmly reported to his family what had happened. The neighbors declared, on viewing the place by torchlight, that his exploit exceeded those of Samson or David. Soon after, the General Assembly appointed Mr. Putnam a lieutenant in the army marching against Canada. His courage and good conduct raised him to the rank of Captain the next year. The third year he was made a Major, and the fourth a Colonel. Putnam and Rogers were the heroes through the last war. Putnam was so hardy, at a time when the Indians had killed all his men and completely hemmed him in upon a river, as to leap into the stream, which in a minute carried him down a stupendous falls, where no tree could pass without being torn to pieces. The Indians reasonably concluded that Putnam, their terrible enemy, was dead, and made their report accordingly at Ticonderoga; but soon after a scouting party found their sad mistake in a bloody rencontre. Some few that got off declared that Putnam was yet living, and that he was the first son of Hobbomockow, and therefore immortal. However, at length the Indians took this terrible warrior prisoner, and tied him to a tree, where he hung three days without food or drink. They did not attempt to kill him, for fear of offending Hobbomockow; but they sold him to the French at a great price. The name of Putnam was more alarming to the Indians than cannon, and they never would fight him after his escape from the falls. He was afterwards redeemed by the English.
_Plainfield_ and _Canterbury_ lie on Quinnibaug River, opposite to one another, and have much the appearance of Lewisham. Each township is eight miles square, and forms two parishes.
_Voluntown_ lies on a small river, and resembles Finchley Common. The township is fifteen miles long and five wide, and forms three parishes, one of which is Presbyterian. This sect has met with as little christian charity and humanity in this hair-brained country as the Anabaptists, Quakers, and Churchmen. The _Sober Dissenters_ of this town, as they style themselves, will not attend the funeral of a Presbyterian.
The KINGDOM OF CONNECTICOTE forms two counties, viz. Hertford and Litchfield, which contain about 15,000 houses and 120,000 inhabitants. The county of Hertford excels the rest in tobacco, onions, grain of all sorts, hay, and cider. It contains twenty-one towns, the chief of which I shall describe, comparing the rest to the towns near London.
_Hertford_ town is deemed the capital of the province; it stands forty miles from Saybrook, and the same distance from Newhaven, on the west bank of Connecticut River, and is formed into squares. The township is twenty miles from east to west, and six in breadth, comprising six parishes, one of which is episcopal.
The houses are partly of brick and partly of wood, well built, but, as I have observed in general of the towns in Connecticut, do not join. King’s Street is two miles long and thirty yards wide, well paved, and cut in two by a small river, over which is a high bridge. The town is half a mile wide. A grand court-house, and two elegant meetings, with steeples, bells, and clocks, adorn it. In 1760 a foundation of quarry-stone was laid for an Episcopal church in this town, at the expense of nearly 300_l._, on which occasion the episcopalians had a mortifying proof that the present inhabitants inherit the spirit of their ancestors. Samuel Talcott, Esq. one of the Judges of the County Court, with the assistance of a mob, took away the stones, and with them built a house for his son. What added to so meritorious an action, was its being justified by the General Assembly and the Consociation. In 1652 this town had the honour of executing Mrs. Greensmith, the first witch ever heard of in America. She was accused, in the indictment, of practising evil things on the body of Ann Cole, which did not appear to be true; but the Rev. Mr. Stone, and other ministers, swore that Greensmith had confessed to them that the devil had had carnal knowledge of her. The Court then ordered her to be hanged upon the indictment. Surely none of the learned divines and statesmen studied in the Temple or Lincoln’s Inn! It should seem that every Dominion or township was possessed of an ambition to make itself famous in history. The same year Springfield, not to be outdone by Hertford, brought Hugh Parsons to trial for witchcraft, and the jury found him guilty. Mr. Pincheon, the Judge, had some understanding, and prevented his execution till the matter was laid before the General Court in Boston, who determined that he was not guilty of witchcraft. The truth was, Parsons was blessed with a fine person and genteel address, insomuch that the women could not help admiring him above every other man in Springfield, and the men could not help hating him; so that there were witnesses enough to swear that Parsons was a wizzard, because he made the females love and the men hate him.
In Hertford are the following curiosities: 1. A house built of American oak in 1640, the timbers of which are yet sound, nay, almost petrified; in it was born John Belcher, Esq. Governor of Massachusets-Bay, and New-Jersey. 2. An elm, esteemed sacred, for being the tree in which their Charter was concealed. 3. A wonderful well, which was dug sixty feet deep without any appearance of water, when a large rock was met with. The miners, boring this rock in order to blast it with powder, drove the auger through it, upon which the water spouted up with such great velocity that it was with difficulty the well was stoned. It soon filled and ran over, and has supported, or rather made, a brook for above one hundred years.
The tomb of Mr. Hooker is viewed with great reverence by his disciples. Nathaniel, his great-grandson, a minister in Hertford, inherits more than all his virtues, without any of his vices.[34]
_Weathersfield_ is four miles from Hertford, and more compact than any town in the colony. The meeting-house is of brick, with a steeple, bell, and clock. The inhabitants say it is much larger than Solomon’s Temple. The township is ten miles square; parishes four. The people are more gay than polite, and more superstitious than religious. This town raises more onions than are consumed in all New-England. It is a rule with parents to buy annually a silk gown for each daughter above seven years old, till she is married. The young beauty is obliged, in return, to weed a patch of onions with her own hands; which she performs in the cool of the morning, before she dresses her beefsteak. This laudable and healthy custom is ridiculed by the ladies of other towns, who idle away their mornings in bed, or in gathering the pink, or catching the butterfly, to ornament their toilets; while the gentlemen, far and near, forget not the Weathersfield ladies’ silken industry.
Weathersfield was settled in 1637 by the Rev. Mr. Smith and his followers, who left Watertown, near Boston, in order to get out of the power of Mr. Cotton, whose severity in New-England exceeded that of the bishops in Old-England. But Mr. Smith did not discard the spirit of persecution as the sole property of Mr. Cotton, but carried with him a sufficient quantity of it to distress and divide his little flock.
_Middletown_ is ten miles below Weathersfield, and beautifully situated upon the Connecticut, between two small rivers one mile asunder, which is the length of the town and grand street. Here is an elegant church, with steeple, bell, clock, and organ; and a large meeting without a steeple. The people are polite, and not much troubled with that fanatic zeal which pervades the rest of the colony. The township is ten miles square, and forms four parishes, one episcopalian. This and the two preceding towns may be compared to Chelsea.
The following towns, which lie on the Connecticut River, are so much alike that a description of one will serve for the whole, viz. _Windsor_, _East Windsor_, _Glastenbury_, _Endfield_, _Suffield_, _Chatham_, _Haddam_, and _East Haddam_. Windsor, the best, is cut in two by the river Ett, which wanders from the northward 100 miles, through various meadows, towns, and villages, and resembles Bedford. Township ten miles square, forming three parishes. It was settled in 1637 by the Rev. Mr. Huet and his associates, who fled from religious slavery in Boston, to enjoy the power of depriving others of liberty.
The following towns, lying back of the river towns, being similar in most respects, I shall join also in one class, viz. _Hebron_, _Colchester_, _Bolton_, _Tolland_, _Stafford_, and _Sommers_.
_Hebron_ is the centre of the province, and it is remarkable that there are thirty-six towns larger and thirty-six less. It is situated between two ponds, about two miles in length and one in breadth, and is intersected by two small rivers, one of which falls into the Connecticut, the other into the Thames. A large meeting stands on the square, where four roads meet. The town resembles Finchley. The township is eight miles square; five parishes, one is episcopal. The number of houses is 400; of inhabitants, 3,200. It pays one part out of seventy-three of the governmental taxes, and is a bed of farmers on their own estates. Frequent suits about the Indian titles have rendered them famous for their knowledge in law and self-preservation. In 1740 Mr. George Whitefield gave them this laconic character: “Hebron,” says he, “is the stronghold of Satan; for its people mightily oppose the work of the Lord, being more fond of earth than heaven.” This town is honoured by the residence of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Pomeroy, an excellent scholar, an exemplary gentleman, and a most thundering preacher of the New-Light order. His great abilities procured him the favour and honour of being the instructor of Abimeleck, the present king of Mohegin. He is of a very persevering, sovereign disposition, but just, polite, generous, charitable, and without dissimulation. _Avis alba._ Here also reside some of the descendants of William Peters, Esq. already spoken of, among whom is the Rev. Samuel Peters,[35] an episcopal clergyman, who, by his generosity and zeal for the Church of England, rendered himself famous both in New and Old-England, and in some degree made an atonement for the fanaticism and treason of his uncle Hugh, and of his ancestor on his mother’s side, Major-General Thomas Harrison, both hanged at Charing-Cross in the last century.
_Colchester_ has to boast of the Rev. John Buckley for its first minister, whose grandfather was the Rev. Peter Buckley, of Woodhill, in Bedfordshire in Old-England; who, after being silenced by the bishop for his misconduct, went to New-England in 1635, and died at Concord in 1658.
John Buckley was a great scholar, and, suffering prudence to govern his hard temper, he conciliated the esteem of all parties, and became the ornament of the _Sober Dissenters_ in Connecticut. He was a lawyer, a physician, and divine. He published an ingenious pamphlet to prove that the title of the people to their lands was good, because they had taken them out of the state of nature. His argument satisfied many who thought their titles were neither legal, just, nor scriptural; indeed, it may seem conclusive, if his major proposition be granted, that the English found Connecticut in a state of nature. His son John was a lawyer and physician of great reputation, and was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court very young. He and his father were suspected to be not sound in faith, because they used in their prayers, “From battle and murder, and from sudden death, good Lord deliver us, for the sake of thine only Son, who commands us thus to pray, Our Father,” &c., &c. Peter Buckley was possessed of a gentleman’s estate in Bedfordshire, which he sold, and spent the produce among his servants in Massachusets-Bay. His posterity in Colchester, in Connecticut, are very rich, and, till lately, were held in great esteem, which, however, they lost by conforming to the Church of England.
There is nothing remarkable to be observed of any of the other towns I have classed with Hebron, except _Stafford_, which possesses a mineral spring that has the reputation of curing the gout, sterility, pulmony, hysterics, &c., &c., and therefore is the New-England “Bath,” where the sick and rich resort to prolong life and acquire the polite accomplishments.
_Herrington_, _Farmington_, and _Symsbury_, lying on the west of Hertford, and on the river Ett, will finish the county of Hertford.
_Herrington_ is ten miles square, and forms two parishes.
_Farmington_ resembles Corydon. The township is fifteen miles square, and forms eight parishes, three of which are episcopal. Here the meadow-land is sold at 50_l._ per acre.
_Symsbury_, with its meadows and surrounding hills, forms a beautiful landscape, much like Maidstone, in Kent. The township is twenty miles square, and consists of nine parishes, four of which are episcopal. Here are copper mines. In working one, many years ago, the miners bored half a mile through a mountain, making large cells, forty yards below the surface, which now serve as a prison, by order of the General Assembly, for such offenders as they choose not to hang. The prisoners are let down on a windlass into this dismal cavern, through a hole which answers the triple purpose of conveying them food, air, and--I was going to say--light, but that scarcely reaches them. In a few months the prisoners are released by death, and the colony rejoices in her great humanity and the mildness of her laws. This conclave of spirits imprisoned may be called with great propriety the Catacomb of Connecticut. The light of the sun and the light of the Gospel are alike shut out from the martyrs, whose resurrection-state will eclipse the wonder of that of Lazarus. It has been remarked by the candid part of this religious colony, that the General Assembly and Consociation have never allowed any prisoners in the whole province a chaplain, though they have spent much of their time and public money in spreading the gospel in the neighbouring colonies among the Indians, Quakers, and episcopalians, and though, at the same time, those religionists preach damnation to all people who neglect to attend public worship twice every Sabbath, fasting, and thanksgiving days, provided they are appointed by themselves, and not by the King and Parliament of Great Britain. This well-founded remark has been treated by the zealots as springing more from malice than policy.
I beg leave to give the following instances of the humanity and mildness the province has always manifested for the episcopal clergy.
About 1746, the Rev. Mr. Gibbs, of Symsbury, refusing to pay a rate imposed for the salary of Mr. Mills, a dissenting minister in the same town, was, by the collector, thrown across a horse, lashed hands and feet under the creature’s belly, and carried many miles in that humane manner to gaol. Mr. Gibbs was half dead when he got there; and though he was released by his church wardens, who, to save his life, paid the assessment, yet, having taken cold in addition to his bruises, he became delirious, and has remained in a state of insanity ever since.
In 1772 the Rev. Mr. Moyley, a missionary from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, at Litchfield, was presented by the Grand Jury for marrying a couple belonging to his parish, after the banns had been duly published, and consent of parents obtained. The Court mildly fined Mr. Moyley 20_l._ because he could not show any other license to officiate as a clergyman than what he had received from the Bishop of London, whose authority the Court determined did not extend to Connecticut, which was a chartered government. One of the Judges said: “It is high time to put a stop to the usurpations of the Bishop of London, and to let him know that, though his license be lawful, and may empower one of his curates to marry in England, yet it is not so in America; and if fines would not curb them in this point, imprisonment should.”
The second county in the Kingdom of Connecticote, and the most mountainous in the whole province, is _Litchfield_, which produces abundance of wheat, butter, cheese, iron ore, &c., and has many iron works, foundries, and furnaces. It contains the following fourteen towns:
_Litchfield_ is watered by two small rivers. An elegant meeting-house and decent court-house, with steeple and bells, ornament the square, where three roads meet. The best street is one mile long. It resembles Dartford. The township is twelve miles square, and forms five parishes, one of which is episcopal.
Though Litchfield is the youngest county of Connecticut, yet in 1766 it set an example to the rest worthy of imitation. The province had always been greatly pestered by a generation of men called “quacks,” who, with a few Indian nostrums, a lancet, a glister-pipe, rhubarb, treacle-water mixed with Roman bombast of _vena cava_ and _vena porta_, attacked fevers, nervous disorders, and broken bones, and, by the grace of perseverance, subdued Nature, and helped their patients to a passage to the world of spirits before they were ready. The surgeons and physicians who were not quacks formed themselves into a society for the encouragement of literature and a regular and wholesome practice. But their laudable endeavours were discountenanced by the General Assembly, who refused to comply with their solicitations for a charter; because the quacks and the people said, “If the charter were granted, the learned men would become too rich by an monopoly, as they did in England.” The answer to this question was, “Would it not be better to permit a monopoly to preserve the health and lives of the people, than to suffer quacks to kill them and ruin the province?” The reply proved decisive in that fanatical Assembly, viz. “No medicine can be serviceable without the blessing of God. The quacks never administer any physic without the prayers of the minister.” One doctor proposed the trial of a dose of arsenic--whether it would not kill any one who would take it, though twenty ministers should pray against it. He was called a profane man, the petition was rejected, and quackery remains triumphant.[36]