David Nelson Camp, recollections of a long and active life

Front matter

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG AND ACTIVE LIFE

Class Jj^/t2.j BookJ.,^-5_iX-

Extra copies of this book have been printed and will be presented to any who would value them. Request should be sent to D. C. Rogers, 319 Elm Street, Northampton, Mass., or P. K. Rogers, 21 Camp Street, New Britain, Conn.

Preface

Mr. Camp was already a very old man when he began to put together on paper the reminiscences which are collected in this little volume. His strength failed before his undertaking was completed. Of some portions of his life there are parallel accounts in his manuscript. Some prominent topics are left quite unmentioned.

In the preparation of these memoirs for publication brief statements on the subjects which are omitted from his own account have been inserted in bracketed paragraphs. It is the desire of his grandchildren to add here a brief mention of some of the distinctive impressions which his life has made on them.

As small children they found him warm-hearted, generous to their faults, interested in their thoughts and wishes, skillful at tempting them into interest in serious pursuits, courteous to every one including themselves, an unfailing example of industry and sagacity and of religious devotion and reverence. In later years they found the same characteristics continued. It was typical that each time as they returned for college vacations he would question them as if they were his equals and as if the details of their affairs were matters of large importance.

Having received the beginnings of his education and religious training with a much earlier generation, he had kept through his life the habits of reading and of observation of people which are indicated in his own account of his youth. The result was an unusual progressiveness of spirit, openmindedness for new points of view, and generosity for the opinions of those who differed from him. In him these traits proved to be thoroughly consistent with clear convictions and ideals, and with unswerving loyalty to them. Paragraphs from Mr. Camp's own pen, in the pages that follow, give evidence of a deep religious experience. It is for us to record the fact that long years of active living realized the religion of aspiration with singular completeness.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I Parents and Early Life 1

II Teaching in Public Schools 11

Chapter I Parents And Early Life

In compliance with the requests of my sisters and others, the following recollections of a long and busy life have been placed on paper. While the account necessarily includes much of personal history, much has been omitted. As the narrative is designed merely for the members of my own family and my nearest friends, I have not hesitated to include personal experiences which may have an interest for them, though they would not be expected to interest the general public.

My life has been a varied one, partly because I have been affected by circumstances beyond my control, — a frail constitution, disease, disappointments, trials, lack of intimate friends in early life, — and partly through my own mistakes, but at all times and in all circumstances I have seen the leadings of a kind Providence, for which I have reason to be supremely grateful.

My father was Elah Camp, son of Nathan Ozias Camp, and a descendant of Nicholas Camp of Nasing, Essex County, England. My mother was Orit Lee Camp, daughter of Eber Lee, of Guilford, Connecticut. On her mother's side, she was a descendant of Theophilus Eaton, the first governor of New Haven Colony.

My grandfathers were both farmers, each living some two miles from church, post-office, stores, and principal places of business of his native town. The home of my grandfather Camp was in the South West District of Durham, Connecticut, and that of grandfather Lee in the north part of the Nutplains District of Guilford. The farms of both were diversified, consisting partly of land suitable for tillage and partly of hilly and stony land used only for pasturage or woodland.

My parents, thus, were both reared in farming communities, enjoying such privileges and subject to such privations and limitations as were connected with agricultural life in the latter part of the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth centuries.

My grandfather Lee was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and after his return from the war, opened a free evening school where the boys and young men of the vicinity could study arithmetic and geography, studies which at that time were not allowed in the public schools. My father was in the army for a time during the War of 1812. Both had many interesting stories of events in the wars for their children and grandchildren.

My parents received such education as the public schools of that time afforded, with a little help from short terms in private schools. Both were teachers in the public schools of Guilford, and my father taught in a public school in Durham. His principal occupation was farming and stock raising. His teams, which were mainly employed on the farm and in taking produce to market, were sometimes engaged in transporting the goods of others.

I was born at Durham, October third, 1820. The home of my parents and my own home for the first eighteen years of my life was in the South West School District of Durham.

This district included a cluster of about twenty-five homesteads, chiefly farmhouses with farms adjoining them, situated in the extreme southwest corner of the town, and extending for more than a mile and a half on the New Haven Turnpike and nearly as far on an old road partly parallel to the turnpike. The hamlet was separated from the center or business portion of the place by more than a mile of vacant land, some of it swampy, on which was no building of any kind.

Most of the proprietors were farmers with small hold-

PARENTS AND EARLY LIFE 3

ings. Hay, grain, and apples were the principal products. On some of the farms were a few cattle, horses, and sheep. In this hamlet there dwelt two or three carpenters, two shoe-makers, and a blacksmith. The produce of the farms not used by the families was exchanged at the stores two miles distant for groceries and other goods, or sold to workmen in the shoe shops, or marketed at New Haven and Middletown. Nearly all the houses were occupied by the persons who owned them, or by those employed in service by the owners.

My father's farm was the largest in this hamlet and he ■employed the greatest number of "hired help." Adjoining the farm was a mountain lot from which wood was obtained and on which his flocks were pastured in suminer. He also owned in Great Swamp more than a mile from home a meadow lot where the young cattle were pastured in the spring and from which several tons of hay were obtained in the summer.

It has been my fortune to see many changes in society and in manners and habits. In my childhood there were no railways, telegraphs, telephones, or electric lights. The public travel was by stage-coach, steamboat, or canal-boat. Houses were lighted with tallow candles, and a few rooms were warmed by wood fires in open fire-places, but usually the chambers and many of the lower rooms had no artificial heat, having to depend on the sun's rays for whatever heat was obtained.

In farmers' families the meat supply for the year consisted chiefly of beef and pork salted down in barrels in the autumn, with perhaps a few hams cured at home and sausages made at home. The killing of hogs or cattle on the larger farms in the autumn or early winter provided fresh meat for the neighborhood for a few weeks, and in most families the occasional killing of a fowl varied the meat supply at all seasons of the year.

Bread and cakes made from rye and buckwheat raised on the farm, with corn-meal cooked in a variety of ways,, constituted the principal articles of cereal food. A few pounds of wheat flour bought for some special occasion varied the diet.

The clothing was chiefly made in the family, and in my early home, largely from wool sheared from my father's flock or from flax raised on the farm. In winter, boys wore woolen caps made by their mothers, and in summer, hats braided from the straw from which the grain had been threshed.

The household work in our home was generally done by my mother, or if help was employed in the family it was usually some American girl.

There were few books in my early home, except the Bible, Scott's Commentaries, a few hymn or psalm books, a few religious books, and a few old school books. A weekly newspaper was received part of the time. Postage on letters depended on distance carried as well as on weight.

In the hamlet was a one-room schoolhouse located on the highway. There was a similar school in the Union District a mile distant. Both of the district schoolhouses in which the first eight years of my school life were passed were one-room buildings with long writing desks against the walls on two sides of the room. In front of these desks were long benches made of plank or slabs. When writing or using slates and pencils, the pupils turned around with backs to the room and feet under the desks. Near the center of the room were lower narrow benches without backs for the younger pupils. A small boxstove for wood supplied warmth for the room. The writing was with pens made of goose-quills, in homemade books formed by folding sheets of foolscap and placing them in brown paper covers.

The principal thoroughfare in Durham was a turnpike extending from New Haven to Middletown through

PARENTS AND EARLY LIFE 5

Durham and past my parents' and my own home. Stagecoaches and other vehicles were seen passing on this road with frequency. There were toll-gates in Northford and Durham.

Besides agriculture and the breeding and raising of live stock, the principal business in Durham for twenty or thirty years after the War of 1812, was the manufacture of shoes. The leather and other materials were brought from New Haven or Middletown by ox or horse teams, and the finished products were transported to these ports for shipment in the same way. The distance of the shops from Middletown was about six miles, and from New Haven three times as far, but the greater part of the traffic was with New Haven. My father's teams were employed a part of the year in this transportation and in taking the products of his own and other farms to market.

One winter when the harbor of New Haven was frozen, and ships could not come to the wharves, there was a scarcity of sugar in the city. My father, learning that there was an abundant supply at Middletown, bought several loads in hogsheads and barrels, and had it carted by teams to New Haven, selling it at a good profit. The gun barrels for the firearms manufactured at Whitneyville, Connecticut, were formed at Higganum, and transported from that place through Durham to the factory at Whitneyville where the guns were finished. My father's teams were used in this transfer.

At some seasons of the year considerable freight passed between Hartford, Middletown, and New Haven over the turnpike. Mail stages passed over the road every day, — sometimes as many as four or six four-horse stages might be seen in a line, all going in the same direction and all filled with passengers. A home on such a thoroughfare though far removed from the excitements of city life was by no means a lonely place.

My mother taught me to read, and I was sent to the district school quite young. At first I attended the school a quarter of a mile from our home for four months in the year, but when eight years old I also attended the same school when open in the Union District, more than a mile away, for another four months. The latter school was reached by a lonesome route which for most of the way was by a footpath across the fields.

The teachers in the public schools seldom remained more than one term, the schools being taught by a man in the winter and by a woman in the summer, a change being made each spring and autumn. There were few classes in the public schools except in reading and spelling and sometimes in grammar. In arithmetic, geography, and some of the sciences, each pupil studied by himself, and recited when the teacher could find time to hear a lesson. The winter schools would sometimes have as many as seventy or eighty pupils of different ages from four years to eighteen. There was of course very little of thorough teaching.

At about twelve years of age I was sent to a small private school taught by Mrs. Goodwin, widow of Dr. Goodwin, and by her niece. Miss Urania Stone. These teachers were cultivated women, thoroughly educated, and their influence over their pupils was great and highly beneficial.

After a few terms in this school I was transferred to the Academy, the sessions being held sometimes in the Academy building on Durham Green, and part of the time in a building on Durham Street. The former place was two and a half miles, and the latter three miles from my home. The teachers were Benjamin Coe and Gaylord Newton.

The vacations and a portion of the summer months were passed in labor on the farm, — tending the sheep on the mountain lot, driving young cattle to the swamp

PARENTS AND EARLY LIFE 7

meadow and watching them there, or assisting in cultivating the fields or in gathering the crops.

While attending school I was accustomed to give several hours daily, both before and after school, to the care of the stock or to other work on the farm. I was expected to rise at four o'clock, or half-past four, both winter and summer. In winter the feeding of horses, cattle, and sheep had to be done before breakfast, and in summer, work in the garden, grinding scythes for the mowers, driving the cows to pasture, and other farm work, all had to be performed before I started on my walk of two and a half or three miles to school.

As my mother's parents resided in Guilford, we often went there on visits to her father's home. The numerous incidents which her father recalled from the Revolutionary War were very interesting to me. He was at Greenwich, Connecticut, at the time of the British attack, and though he did not see Putnam's escape, he was at the place a few hours afterward, and he saw distinctly the impress left by the feet of Putnam's horse, as he rode down a steep bank, — not down stone steps as represented in the school books.

The route to Guilford was usually through "the farms," a series of pastures and wood lots separated by fences with gates at the road crossings. We would sometimes see foxes, squirrels, rabbits, or partridges as we drove by the woods. The road passed Quonepaug Lake where we frequently stopped to fish. A little distance from my grandfather's farm was a large lot in which were large quantities of huckleberry bushes with plenty of berries at the proper season, and my sisters and I picked many baskets full in berry time.

I attended school for several weeks in Guilford, in the Clapboard Hill District, with a pleasant teacher, and in the Nutplains District, with one who seemed to me to be ill-natured. We often visited with cousins at the

Bishops' and Dudleys', three miles from my grandfather's home.

My father believed in teaching his children self-reliance early, and in placing upon them responsibilities which would tend to develop that trait of character. Perhaps because I was the eldest of the family, or because the next two children were girls, a large share of responsibility rested upon me, more than upon any of my sisters or brothers. This was the case not only in matters relating to the care of the stock, and the work on the farm, but in business transactions. Thus before I was fifteen years of age I was entrusted with buying horses, cattle, and sheep, and was frequently sent to market at New Haven and Middletown, with wood, meat, and other produce of the farm.

Through such a trip made while I was a mere boy, my first knowledge of New Britain was obtained. I was sent from Durham to White Oak, in Plainville, on a business matter, and thus drove through New Britain village. I little thought then that my home would ever be in that place, or that it would ever become a flourishing manufacturing city. My mother did not think that I was old enough to go far from home alone and among strangers, and many anxious hours she had while I was away.

On one occasion, I was sent from Durham to Westbrook for a load of shad. An uncle, my father's brother, had an interest in the fishing company and provided a place for my horse and gave me a bunk in a fish-house with the fishermen. I enjoyed my stay, also the special dishes of the place, which were fish taken fresh from the water, nailed to a plank, and broiled before an open fire, and chowder such as is found nowhere but in a fishing station. The weather was unfavorable for catching fish, and I was detained several days before I could get the quantity wanted. My mother became so anxious about me that

PARENTS AND EARLY LIFE 9

she had a messenger sent to find me. He met me on my way back some distance from home.

I intended to have a college course, and my purpose was encouraged by my mother who gladly did all that she could to further my plans for a liberal education; but the income from a farm, much of which was rough and stony, was barely sufficient to furnish comfortable support for a growing family, and I could expect little help from my father. During the years from 1836 to 1838 I was a part of the time in the Academy taking some special studies, and part of the time at home. My health was not good. A part of the time I was at work on the farm. Sometimes I took business trips for my father to Middletown, New Haven, and elsewhere. Finally my father had a severe and protracted illness, and my continuous presence at home in the care of his business and of the family became for a time necessary. I studied some, read more, and became especially interested in the revival of educational enthusiasm which occurred in these years. However occupied, I still held to my purpose to go to college.

While I was still engaged in studies preparatory for college, a serious illness occurred which weakened my constitution, left me nearly blind, and necessitated a change in my plans of life. All books and papers were forbidden, and I was kept in a darkened room for what seemed to me a long time. When able to bear the light, I found employment on the farm and in driving to New Haven, Middletown, and elsewhere on business. As soon as possible I resumed my studies, taking Latin, book-keeping, surveying, and higher mathematics, in preparation for a business life. I had at different times taken the place of an absent teacher for a day, and had heard some recitations in the Academy. At the age of eighteen I was requested to teach the school at the center of North

Guilford. My plans of life had been frustrated, and my studies had been interrupted. Two sisters and two brothers had become helpful in the family at home, so my services were not so much needed as before. My health was not yet fully restored and I seemed to be ready for some change. I knew nothing of the place or the school, but it seemed an opportunity for some good to others and perhaps to myself. I accepted the proposition and became a teacher.

Chapter II Teaching In Public Schools

The school was to commence the Monday after Thanksgiving, the examination to be on the previous Sunday evening. My father took me to the home of the clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Whitemore, where were gathered the school visitors, consisting of the pastor, two deacons, a doctor, and a justice of the peace. The visitors, with the school text-books in their hands, proceeded to question me from them. The examination seemed to be satisfactory, and a certificate was given. I was to "board around."

On going to the schoolhouse on Monday morning, I found a low unpainted building with one room and a small entry. On three sides of the room were desks against the wall, with long slab seats in front of them. When the pupils wrote they turned their feet over the benches and faced the wall. There were a few small benches in the middle of the room for the younger pupils. These benches had no backs, and were so high that the smaller children sitting on them could not put their feet on the floor when sitting upright.

There was a small wood stove in the room, but no wood had been provided. It was a cold morning, so with some of the older boys I went to the neighboring woods and picked up fallen limbs sufficient to maintain fire for the day. Before night wood was supplied by the committee.

At my boarding place my room was cold, and the only warm room was the living room where the cooking was done, the meals eaten, young children dressed and undressed, and the ordinary domestic work of a farmer's family performed. As I had taken no books with me except what were at the schoolhouse, I asked for a book to occupy my time. The only one that could be found was an old edition of Murray's Grammar.

I passed the three months of that winter in this farming town, boardiVig in many homes and gainjng some valuable lessons in the study of human nature.

There was little excitement in this community, but the ordinary routine of a farming village had its interests. A debating society was organized, and some of the debates exhibited the results of careful reading and much general knowledge. As my school was in the center district of the society, the meetings were near and convenient to attend. I formed some pleasant acquaintances, became much interested in the work of teaching, and began to see its opportunities of usefulness. My sister Elizabeth taught the school the following summer.

At the close of the term I returned home with thirtynine dollars, the reward for three months' work in a district school. As I was under legal age the money was given to my father, and I was at work on the farm the following summer, giving my spare time to reading and study.

Frustrated in my plans for a complete college course, and pleased with my success in teaching, I now determined to prepare myself for the business of a teacher. The State Board of Education had been organized in 1838, and Henry Barnard, who had been appointed Secretary, conceived the idea of having a temporary normal school in Hartford for a few weeks in the autumn of 1839, designed especially for the benefit of teachers of winter schools. My father was persuaded to allow me to attend, and he and my mother went to Hartford to establish me in a suitable boarding place. This was found in a family hotel at the corner of Main and Asylum Streets.

The school, or institute, was held in connection with the Hartford Grammar School, and Mr. T. L. Wright, the principal of that school, and John D. Post, teacher of

TEACHING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 13

mathematics, were two of the instructors of the normal class. Among the other teachers and lecturers, were Charles Davies, Professor of Mathematics at West Point, Professor Barton of Andover, Massachusetts, Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, principal of the Asylum for Deaf Mutes, Mr. Snow, principal of the Center School, Hartford, Henry Barnard, and others. The instructions and lectures were all practical and very helpful. I formed at that time a personal acquaintance with some of these teachers and lecturers, especially with Professor Davies, Mr. Gallaudet, and Mr. Barnard, which, with some of them, was continued until the time of their death.

The next winter I was invited to teach the upper department and have oversight of the primary department for five months in a school in the Northwest District of Cromwell. There was a manufactory in the district, and the population consisted of farmers and factory owners and employees. The teacher was expected to board with all the families except a few that were quite poor and not in circumstances to entertain company. The rule was to remain with each family a number of days proportioned to the number of pupils enrolled from the family. Consequently, while the time with some families might be two weeks or more, with others, it would be only a few days. The habits of the people were so different, and the manner of living so varied, that there was a great opportunity to study social conditions.

The farmers in the place were generally owners of good farms, and were living in comfortable homes, well provided with the requisites of comfortable living. Their houses were warm and usually well furnished. The few factory owners were living in a little more of style, and had some luxuries not found in farmers' homes. In the houses of the operatives there was a great variety in furnishings and in style of living. The families with which I boarded were chiefly American with a few Scotch and

French. There were some very interesting experiences during this winter.

The time for calling at each place was intended to be that most agreeable to the householder. From one family word came by one of the children that her mother did not wish the teacher to come to her house until after her father had killed the hogs. From another the message was that the teacher would please not come until the new carpet was put down. With one family the table equipment was evidently to a considerable extent borrowed while the teacher boarded there, and at other places certain articles of furniture were the result of temporary loans.

At one house, the residence of a prosperous but eccentric farmer, I was met at the door by the head of the family with a shake of the hand and with these words, "I am glad to have you come to board with us, but shall be gladder when you leave !" As I had been informed of his peculiarities and habit of frightening teachers who came to board with him, my reply was, "The pleasure of parting may be mutual." I found him a genial, well-informed man, fond of reading and anecdotes. We had many pleasant evenings together. He was a good mathematician, and had many curious and interesting problems to propose to the teacher. When the time for my leaving came he expressed deep regret at parting. I, moreover, had gained much from him.

Later in the season when the sleighing was good, I conceived the idea of driving home some twelve or fifteen miles. I learned that my late host had the best horse and sleigh in the place, but allowed no one to drive the horse but himself. I called upon him and asked him if I could hire his team to drive to Durham. His reply was that he allowed no one to drive the horse but himself. After some further conversation, but without gaining his consent to have the team go, I left him, telling him I would come for the team Friday after school.

TEACHING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 15

I went according to appointment, having a friend with me. The man was as curt as ever. I asked him about the team. His answer was, "I have told you that I let no one drive that horse but myself." I did not leave him, but followed him as he went to the barn, ostensibly to feed his stock. When the barn door was opened I saw the sleigh with blankets and buffalo robes apparently all ready for me. The horse, which appeared to have been recently groomed, was led out and watered. Soon a nice harness was put on. No one said anything about the use to which he was to be put, and I had no direct answer, but the horse was soon attached to the sleigh and taken to the street. I watched the proceeding with interest, and noticing no whip in the sleigh, I inquired if the owner did not take a whip with him. The answer was, "No whip goes with that horse." I was asked to take a seat in the sleigh, and did so with my friend. Then came a long line of instructions as how to drive, turn out, blanket the horse, how to feed him, and many other directions, but closing with, "Don't let any one run by you." It was a beautiful evening. The moon was nearly full, the weather clear, and the air crisp and pure. The ride of some fifteen miles was much enjoyed.

The school was composed of young people from twelve to twenty years of age and of both sexes, desiring lessons from the elementary branches to the higher mathematics, commercial book-keeping, and the natural sciences. One young sailor, just returned from a sea voyage where he had been mate of the ship, wished to study navigation. I found that my previous study of surveying, with some practice, enabled me to explain the science of navigation to the satisfaction of the student, and I hope to his benefit. There were also special classes in natural philosophy, chemistry, ancient and modern history, and other branches.