A modern history of New London County, Connecticut

Foreword

The early history of New London County has been well covered by Miss Caulkins' histories of Norwich, and of New London, in various local addresses on special occasions, and in more formal articles prepared for the 20oth anniversary of the founding of Norwich. Notable amongst these was the historical address of Daniel Coit Gilman, delivered at Norwich on September 7, 1859. To enumerate the special papers delivered at the meetings of the New London County Historical Society, at the dedication of monuments and public buildings of the county, on patriotic occasions, on the 250th anniversary of the town of Norwich (1909). and in almost countless addresses on special topics given before interested audiences in churches and halls, not to mention the many excellent contributions of the press, would in itself be an arduous task, interesting though it might be.

Very few parts of our country are more filled with historical associations. Indian legends, mingled with a vast amount of verifiable Indian history; Revolutionary stories, with a record of honorable action surpassed nowhere ; loyal patriotism in the days of the Civil War, under the leadership of Governor Buckingham, himself a resident of Norwich, all these offer a wealth of material to the investigator. Out of the great mass of historical writings inspired by such a splendid past there looms up a background, a heritage of memories, that should urge on every citizen of New London County today to better citizenship, to more devoted public service.

From some of these records and addresses we have quoted— they were written bv men and women who were near the events described— for we believe that true patriotism is a deep sentiment toward one's native land, not simply a series of outward acts. This abiding sentiment of affection and unselfishness in a people, as in an individual, is rooted in memory. By the memory of earlier days, by knowledge of the sacrifices of earlier patriots who made liberty possible for us, will the true spirit of Americanism be best nourished. Nor is the Indian history without value. Even if, in the light of history, "the noble red man" of Cooper's novels seems a somewhat idealized figure, surely nowhere else in America may be found a better typical picture of the early' relations of the white settler and the aborigine. We see them both at their best and at their worst. We have the grim picture of John Mason as he leads his resolute forces on to the utter destruction of the Pequots, and we have the picture of Uncas in all things, "Wauregan," living in unbroken amity with the Norwich colonists ; we learn of Samson Occum, the Mohican who visited England and brought back ten thousand pounds to Dartmouth College. The present work, then, aims to emphasize only such features of the early history of our country as are helpful to the modern reader in visualizing the days of occupation, of settlement, and colonial development, the essential background by which to emphasize modern conditions. Our history for the last fifty years, inasmuch as this has not been printed in any one volume, will be described with greater minuteness. It is hoped thit this portion of the work may be helpful for some years to come as x storehouse of information.

Among the well informed persons who have labored in this undertaking, the principal place is to be given to Professor Henry A. Tirrell, Principal of the Norwich Free Academy, as the author of the exhaustive chapter on Education, and writer on other topics. Other more important papers and of enduring value arc those on "Church History," by Rev. Henry W. Hulbcrt, D.D., Pastor of the First Church of Christ, Groton ; on "Medicine, Physicians and Surgeons," by Charles B. Graves, M.D., former President Connecticut State Medical Society ; on "Insurance," by Walter F. Lester, President New London County Mutual Fire Insurance Company; on "Volunteer and Paid Fire Departments," by Howard L. Stanton, Chief Norwich Fire Department, and on "Old Families and Old Homes of Norwich" and kindred topics," by Mrs. Edna Miner Rogers, Regent of Faith Trumbull Chapter, D. A. R.

The publishers of the History, The Lewis Historical Publishing Company, through its agents, editors and official staff, has secured and arranged all the genealogical and biographical matter proper, which appears in the work, and for this material the Editor-in-Chief bears no responsibility.

Contents

Chapter I— General Facts About New London County— Naming and Earliest Settlement of the Twenty-one Towns— Scenery— Geography —The Aborigines— Uncas and the Mohegans— John Mason— Miantonomah— Early Government— Customs of Settlers— Journal of Madam Sarah Knight— Religious Conditions . - - - i Chapter II— The Beginnings of Education— General Definition of Education—Outline of Educational Development in Connecticut— Early Schools in Norwich— Early Schools in New London— The "Norwich Tests"— The District System— Supervision— Trade Schools— Model Schools— Normal Schools— Education of Indians in Early Days- Founding of Dartmouth— Samson Occum— Dr. Nott's Sermon- Music Vale Seminary ---------31

Chapter III— An Era of Unrest— Revolutionary War— Nathan Hale- Battle of Groton Heights— Rathbun's Narrative— Account of Rufus Avery — Of Stephen Hempstead— AUyn's Account of Death of Col, Ledyard— The War of 181 2— Early New London Whalers— Early

Manufactures— Life of Daniel W. Coit " 5'

Chapter I General Facts About New London County

The Early Towns— Natural Features of the Region— The Indian Occupants— First White Settlers — Illuminating Documents from the Past.

New London County, occupying the southeastern part of Connecticut, is bounded on the east by the State of Rhode Island, on the south by Long Island Sound, on the west by Middlesex and Tolland counties, and on the north by Hartford, Tolland and Windham counties.

The county, with an area of approximately seven hundred square miles, is composed of twenty-one towns, Bozrah, Colchester, East Lyme, Franklin, Griswold, Groton, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Lyme, Montville, New London, North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Preston, Salem, Sprague, Stonington, Voluntown, Waterford ; and has a population (census of 1920) of 155,311.

This county was one of the first four counties of the State, organized in 1666, and originally included a considerable part of the present Middlesex county, extending as far west as Clinton. Of the five first cities of Connecticut chartered in 1784, New London county had two. New London and Norwich. Of the twenty-one towns of the county:

New London was settled as "Pequot" in 1646; named from London, England, and authorized as a town in 1658.

Stonington was settled in 1649 ^"d named Stonington in 1666.

Norwich, named from Norwich, England, in 1659, was settled by a Saybrook colony in 1660.

Lyme, named from Lyme Regis, England, in 1667, was set ofT from Saybrook in 1665.

Colchester was settled and named from Colchester, England, in 1699.

Preston was named in 1687 from Preston, England.

Lebanon, named from Lebanon in Sxria, was incorporated in 1700.

Groton, set off from New London in 1704. was named from the English home of Governor John Winthrop in 1705.

Voluntown, "Volunteers Town," named in 1708, was settled in 1719.

Bozrah, with Biblical name, was set off from Norwich in 1786.

Franklin, set off from Norwich, in 1786, was named for Benjamin Franklin.

Lisbon, set off from Norwich in 1786, was named from Lisbon, Portugal.

Montville, set off from New London in 1786, took the French name of "Mount Ville."

Waterford, set off from New London in 1801, took a name descriptive of its nature.

North Stonington was set off from Stonington in 1807.

Griswold, named from Governor Roger Griswold, was set off from Preston in 1815.

N.L.— 1-1

Salem, named from Salem, Massachusetts, was set off from Colchester, Lyme, and Montville in 1879.

Ledyard, named from Colonel William Ledyard of Fort Griswold fame, was set off from Groton in 1836.

East Lyme was set off from Lyme and Waterford in 1839.

Old Lyme was set off from Lyme in 1855, and named Old Lyme in 1857.

Sprague, named from its founder, William Sprague, was set off from Lisbon and Franklin in 1861.

The following note is prefixed to the list of Connecticut towns printed in the Connecticut Register and Manual (1920).

Until 1700, almost the only official action of the colonial government (General Court) in regard to town organization, was to authorize the town name, usually chosen by its leading man, from his home in England. In October, 1700, we find implied or quasi incorporation, such as exists to this day, in the records: "This assembly doth grant to the inhabitants of the town of Lebanon all such immunities, priviledges and powers, as generally other townes within this Colonie have and doe enjoy." The authoritative legal definition of a town in England, contemporary with the earliest Connecticut settlements, is given in the first edition of "Coke's Commentaries upon Littleton," published 1628; "It can not be a town in law, unless it hath, or in past time hath had, a church, and celebration of Divine services, sacraments and burials." The church bodies which moved bodily with their pastors from Massachusetts to Connecticut, proceeded to exercise the secular powers which we regard as those of the town, but the English township is known by its ecclesiastical name of parish. Several of our towns were first set ofT as parishes, from great town tracts; yet the town in Connecticut colony essentially separated church and state in government, in that it never restricted political suffrage to church-members. As to dates, the official colonial records are followed, as soon as they begin, 163C.

For the beauty and variety of its natural scenery. New London county is excelled by very few regions of equal area. Its southern shore, from the broad sweep of the Connecticut river eastward along a coast of singular charm, with its jutting points and its alluring inlets; by Niantic bay, which Governor Winthrop, as he looked off from the heights above, called one of the most beautiful spots he had ever seen, outward to the majestic estuary of the Thames with its noble harbor; still eastward by the beautiful islets of Noank and Mystic till that point is reached where the States of Rhode Island, New York and Connecticut meet near the harbor of Stonington, is as wonderful today as when the Indians gazed upon its beauties.

And the scenery of the coast is matched by the wooded hills, the rushing streams, the placid lakes, the rich valleys, farther inland. The summer visitor today is found in all parts of the county, not only in the summer colonies built up near the coast, but in many a broad estate whose owner is content to preserve the forest, the rockbound glens, the rich verdure that Nature has so generously supplied.

The chief waters of the county besides its large ponds and lakes are the Connecticut, Thames, Shetucket, Quinnebaug, Yantic, Pawcatuck, Mystic, Poquonock, and Niantic rivers, all flowing in a general southerly course to the Sound. Its navigable waters and its abounding water power have contributed largely to its economic development, from the early days when extensive commerce sprang up with all quarters of the globe, to the later times when manufacturing founded the fortunes of many of its citizens. With such natural advantages Connecticut enterprise and ingenuity have made possible a growth far beyond the expectations of the men of even fifty years ago. One part of this history will be devoted to this remarkable expansion of recent years.

No true conception of the growth of the county is possible without an understanding of the character and customs of the early settlers, the difficulties they had to overcome, their relations with the Indians, their participation in the broader colonial interests, in the Revolutionary War, in the affairs of the State and Nation.

The first settlers, many of them of Pilgrim stock and practically all of them of Puritan origin, had the same deep religious convictions and the same stamina that other New England colonists had. They had inherited from their Anglo-Saxon ancestors a genius for self-government, which, checked by the Stuart despotism in England, burst into bloom in the new life of a New World. Hardships were endured and overcome. Yet in the midst of a severe struggle for existence, they never lost sight of the great things of life. Religion, education, and morality were the strong supports of local governments founded on law and order. Difficulties strengthened their characters both individually and collectively. It may well be said that the menace of hostile Indians was one of the main incentives to cooperation amongst the early settlers of New England.

The Pequot War was undoubtedly the first step toward the settlement of New London county, for it was not until that tribe had been virtually annihilated that it was safe for colonists to settle in this region. Of the many anecdotes connected with the war, some will be given in the histories of separate towns. We print a general survey from Kurd's "History of New London County":

The territory was preoccupied by the Pequots. a powerful tribe of Indians belonging to the widespread Algonquin or Delaware race. This powerful tribe had by their cruelty become the dread of the whites far and near. Rendered bold by numbers, and jealous of every encroachment, they had resolved upon nothing less than the utter extermination of the whites, and shrank from no means, however appalling, which might conduce to the accomplishment of their bloody purpose. Massachusetts had in 1634, with much effort, induced them to allow the peaceable settlement of certain portions of their domain, and to offer satisfaction for former outrages. But the natives were slow to fulfill the conditions of this treaty, and Captain Endicott was sent out by the Massachusetts colony, at the head of ninety men, to enforce the treaty and to chastise them for their past offenses.

This ill-advised expedition failed utterly of its objects, and only tended to exasperate the Pequots, who during the succeeding fall and winter were untiring in their attempts to league the other Indians with them in a war of extermination against the whites, and redoubled their own efforts to rid themselves of the noxious strangers. Savages lurked in every covert, and there was no safety for life or property. The colonists could not travel abroad, or even cultivate their fields, but at the peril of their lives. Their cattle were driven ofif, their houses burned, the navigation of the river was seriously impeded, and even the fort at Saybrook was in a state of constant siege. By spring the situation had become critical in the extreme. Nearly thirty murders had been committed, and utter ruin threatened the colony unless decisive measures should at once be taken. In this emergency a General Court was convened at Hartford on the nth of May, 1637, at which it was decided to proceed at once to an offensive war against the Pequots, and for the first campaign to send out a force of ninety men under Capt. John Mason, then in command of the fort at Saybrook.

About this time. Mason and the warrior Uncas met and formed a temporary alliance, which was, however, destined to continue without serious interruption for a long series of years, and prove of great and lasting benefit to the settlements. Uncas was related both by birth and marriage to the Pequot royal family, but .soon after his marriage he became involved in difficulties, the nature of which is not exactly known, which resulted in his banishment to the Narragansett country. He was afterwards permitted to return, but a recurrence of the same troubles led to his banishment for a second and even a third time. He thus at length became permanently exiled from his own people, and we find him upon the Connecticut river, near the infant settlements of Hartford and Windsor, in the spring of 1637, at the head of about seventy warriors. Both Mason and Uncas were eminently fitted to be military leaders, each of his own race. Mason possessed marked military tastes which had been developed and trained in the wars of the Netherland under Lord Fairfax; while Uncas, by nature brave and shrewd, had, as a member of the royal family of a strong and warlike nation, abundant opportunity to acquire a thorough knowledge of the methods of Indian warfare. An alliance of two such representative men of the two races then competing upon American soil could not fail to make an impress upon their peculiar surroundings. Uncas agreed to join the expedition with his warriors, and the united forces embarked at Hartford on the 20th of May of the same year and proceeded to drop down the river. In the course of the voyage the Indians had opportunity to demonstrate their fidelity, which had been unjustly suspected by some. As the water in the river was low and the passage tedious, the Indians were at their own request allowed to disembark and proceed along the bank. When near Saybrook, they met and defeated a party of Pequots, killing seven and taking one prisoner. After their arrival at Saybrook, the commandant of the fort, still distrustful of Uncas. addressed the sachem as follows: "You say you will help Captain Mason, but I will first see it ; therefore send twenty men to Bass river, for there went last night six Indians there in a canoe; fetch them, dead or alive, and you shall go with Mason, or you shall not." Uncas did as he was required. His warriors found the enemy, killed four of them, and took another prisoner. This exploit of the sachem was regarded by Lieutenant Gardiner as a sure pledge of his fidelity.

Captain Mason had received instructions to land at Pequot Harbor, but his military judgment led him to sail direct to the Narragansett country and make his attack upon the enemy from a point whence they would least expect it. He accordingly proceeded thither, and on Saturday, May 30th, towards evening, dropped anchor off the shores of the Narragansett. As there was a strong northwest wind, they remained on shipboard until Tuesday, when Mason landed and marched directly to the residence of Canonicus, the Narragansett chief, and informed him of his design of attacking the Pequots in their strongholds, and demanded a free passage through the Narragansett country. The request was readily granted, and Miantonomoh, nephew of Canonicus, suggested that the numbers of the English and Mohegans were too small for an invasion of the Pequot country, and volunteered to send two hundred of his braves with the expedition, though he did not himself ofTer to accompany them.

On the following morning the vessels were manned with a small force, as a larger could not be spared, and were ordered to sail for the mouth of Pequot river. The land force, consisting of seventy Englishmen, and sixty Mohegan warriors under Uncas, with tlie addition of two hundred Narragansett volunteers, commenced its march westward. After proceeding about twenty miles through a rough country, with only a narrow Indian foot-path for their passageway, they arrived at a place called Nehantic, where they remained overnight. When the English resumed their march on the following morning they were overtaken by others of the Narragansett people, so that they were followed, as they supposed, by near five hundred warriors. As the day was warm and the way rough, several of the men fainted from exposure and want of food. After a march of about twelve miles they reached a ford in the Pawcatuck river, where a halt was made for rest and refreshment. It had been ascertained that the majority of the Pequot warriors were in two forts or inclosures of palisades, one of which was commanded by Sassacus in person, and both regarded by the Indians as within and without impregnable. Mason had originall}- designed to divide his forces and attack both places simultaneously, but from information received during the halt upon the Pawcatuck he learned that the forts were situated at too great a distance apart to allow of a division of his force, and he decided to advance at once upon the fort on Pequot Hill. The Narragansetts, on learning of his design to attack Sassacus in his stronghold, were smitten with deadly fear. "Sassacus," they said, "was all one god, and could not be killed." So great was their trepidation that a hundred of their number beat a precipitate retreat, and reported in the Providence plantation that the English had all fallen.

At this time ^lason called Uncas to him, and asked him what he thought the Indians would do. "The Narragansetts," replied this brave sachem, "will all leave us," "but as for himself 'he would never leave us'; and so it proved, for which expression I shall never forget him. Indeed, he was a great friend, and did great service." The Pawcatuck was the last boundary before the country of the Pequots, and as the Narragansetts found themselves nearing the strongholds of their dreaded rivals, their timidity increased and all but a handful turned back. The Mohegans, however, encouraged by their chief, mustered the courage to proceed. The small army advanced cautiously till towards evening, when they came to a little swamp between two hills, near what are now called Porter's Rocks, where they halted for the night. Rising at an early hour on the following morning, they reached the fortress a little before daybreak. The plan of attack had been so arranged that Mason was to approach the enemy through the main entrance on the northeast side with one division, while Underbill was to make an attack on the southwestern entrance with his division. Uncas with his force was to form an outer line to act as circumstances might indicate. When within a rod or two of the fort a dog barked, and the alarm was given. The troops rushed on, discharging their muskets through the palisades, and then forced an entrance. Mason, with his part3^ drove the Indians along the main avenue of their fortress towards the west till they were met by Underbill and his division, \vho had effected an entrance upon that side, when, finding themselves between two fires, they were forced to retreat to their wigwams, where a desperate resistance was made. For a few moments the conflict seemed doubtful, when Mason, realizing the gravity of the situation, hit upon the expedient of burning out the foe, and snatching a brand from the fire applied it to the dry matting of a wigwam. The fire spread with great rapidity, and the whole seventy wigwams were soon in flames. The English retired without the wigwams, and Uncas and his followers formed a circular line close in the rear of the English. The consternation of the Pequots was so great that but few attempted to escape. About six or seven were made prisoners by the English, eighteen were captured by the Mohegans, and seven only made their escape. It so happened that one hundred and fifty warriors from the other fortress were this night in the fort upon Pequot Hill, which made the victory still more complete.

This famous encounter occurred on Friday, June 5th. The same day. at an early hour, the small fleet entered Pequot Harbor. As Mason's force was about to move in the direction of the vessels, a party of Indian warriors approached them from the other fort, but one or two volleys from their trusty weapons served to keep them at a safe distance. The few Narragansetts that hung upon the rear of the little column as it moved steadily up the hill were not slow in making their appearance when the contest was decided, evincing all the courage of tried veterans. They finally accompanied Captain Mason to the harbor, and afiforded some assistance to those who conveyed the wounded. The total loss on the part of the English was two killed and twenty wounded.

Sassacus at this critical period was in the fortress on Fort Hill, where he was loudly denounced by his warriors as the procuring cause of their late disaster at the other fort. The Pequots at this fort were also greatly exasperated at the course of Uncas and his followers, and caused all of their near relatives to be slain, except seven who made their escape.

On the day after the battle, a council of the Pequot nation was held to decide upon their future course of action, and after a hasty deliberation they resolved to leave their country, but not till they had destroyed their fortress and wigwams and such remaining property as could not be carried away. The principal band, headed by Sassacus in person, fled westward and did not make any considerable halt till they had reached a large swamp in Saco, the present township of Fairfield. Thither they were pursued by Captain Mason and his faithful ally Uncas. Captain Stoughton also accompanied the expedition in command of a company from Massachusetts. The fugitives were discovered in their new quarters, and were without difficulty routed and utterly dispersed. Sassacus did not risk a halt at the swamp, but with a few of his followers fled directly to the Mohawk country for a safe retreat, but was there slain by the nation, and his scalp was sent to Connecticut as a trophy. As a result of the swamp fight and the death of their late chieftain, the Pequot nation became nearly extinct. Although powerless for harm, the few remaining fugitives were i)ursued with unrelenting malignitv by the English. Even the surrounding tribes were not permitted to harbor them with impunity, but were required by treaty and otherwise to effect, if possible, their utter annihilation. The Pequots were not allowed to dwell in their old homes, to visit the graves of their fathers, or to be called Pequots any more. Lastly, the conquered territory was not to be claimed by the sachems, but to be considered as the propert}-' of the English of Connecticut, as their own by right of conquest.

The expedition against the Pequots is the most remarkable recorded in

American history, and one which for boldness of plan and brilliancy of execution may well claim a place among the most daring exploits of universal history. The Pequots outnumbered Mason's forces ten to one, and the day might have been lost had it not been for the faithful service of Uncas and his followers.

Uncas, as lineal descendant of the royal family, laid claim to the sovereignty of the conquered territory, and while by the terms of the treaty the portion upon the Sound was given up, his claim to the remainder of the Pequot country was admitted by the English, and he was acknowledged as the lawful sachem of a territory embracing the northern half of New London and the southern half of Windham and Tolland counties. Some of the surviving Pequots had been assigned him by the terms of the treaty, and many former tributaries of the vanquished tribe yielded their allegiance to him, and added to his power, but his greatest source of strength lay in the favor of the English, which he had fairly won.

His rapid rise and growing favor greatly excited the envy of surrounding chieftains, especially of those of the Narragansetts and their allies, the Connecticut River Indians, and they were untiring in their efforts to effect his overthrow. At first they endeavored to cause a rupture between Uncas and the English, but failing in this scheme they next attempted to take his life by assassination. Several fruitless endeavors of this kind were made, but in these diabolic attempts upon his life he was more than a match for them; their calumnies and their murderous designs were made to recoil upon their own heads. Failing in their secret plotting, their enmity ripened into open warfare. In the summer of 1643, only six years after the rout at Mystic Fort, Miantonomoh, at the head of six or seven hundred warriors, suddenly appeared in the very heart of the Mohegan country by a succession of rapid marches. He moved proudly to the contest, doubtless with the assurance that his numerical superiority and the suddenness of his irruption would secure for him an easy victory over his foe and rival. But Uncas was not to be overcome by a surprise. He hastily collected a band of about three hundred warriors and met the invaders upon his own territory, on the Great Plain, probably in the vicinity of the present Fair Grounds in Norwich. He felt the necessity, however, of resorting to strategy in his present emergency, and hence proposed a parley, which was accepted, and the two chieftains met on the plain between their respective armies. Uncas then proposed that the fortunes of the day should be decided by themselves in a single combat, and the lives of their warriors spared, saying, "If you kill me, my men shall be yours : but if I kill you, your men shall be mine."

Miantonomoh disdainfully replied, "My men came to fight, and they shall fight." Uncas on this immediately gave a preconcerted signal to his followers by falling flat upon the ground. At that instant a shower of arrows were discharged upon the enemy, and, raising the war-cry, the Mohegans rushed forward with Uncas at their head, dashing so unexpectedly upon the invading column of warriors that a widespread panic ensued, resulting in their precipitous and headlong flight without even a show of resistance. The retreating force was pursued in its flight to Sachem's Plain, in the direction of the fords of the Shetucket, at which place Miantonomoh became the prisoner of Uncas. About thirty of the Narragansetts were slain, and among the prisoners were a brother of Miantonomoh and two sons of Canonicus. Uncas kindly treated his royal prisoner, and without any unnecessary delay took him to Hartford and surrendered him into the hands of the English. His case was laid before commissioners of the United Colonies at their meeting in Boston in September, and the question was there debated whether it was right and proper to put the prisoner to death. As the commissioners were unable to agree, the question was by them referred to an ecclesiastical council, which gave its verdict in favor of his execution. It was further decided that the sentence should be carried into effect by Uncas, but without torture. After furnishing a sufficient force to prevent the recapture of the prisoner, Miantonomoh was surrendered into the hands of Uncas, who took him to the place of capture, where he was stricken down by Waweequa, a brother of Uncas. A monument now marks the site of this tragical event. The Narragansetts at several different times invaded the Mohegan country, impatient to avenge the death of their late chief, but Uncas and his followers were uninjured on account of the aid of the English, which was always extended.