The Romance of Norwalk

He was a well educated, well bred man, broadminded, in¬ telligent, industrious. He brought with him to this city his treasured London library of books. The town, in a burst of FIRST INN— FIRST SCHOOL 87 generosity, in quick succession, voted a lot for the minister, ten acres of plowing land and a very modern house : “two story high, or two lofts and double chimneys; and a comely porch to syd house; and a seller under one end of the syd house; and stone the syd seller; the sayed house is allso to have a comly gett at each end of the same; and all to be decently finished upon the towne’s cost.’’ Note the magnifi¬ cence of the home with its two stories, double chimneys, pretty porch, gate at each end of the property and stone cellar. In addition, the town decided to give free fire wood to the minister and eighty pounds a year in salary. It was the new “seller”, one of the first in Norwalk, provided by the town in order that the Rev. Buckingham might have the best house in town, that later proved the good minister’s undoing. But more of the Rev. Buckingham later. FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE The last act of the Town of Norwalk in 1699, on Novem¬ ber 27, before the century closed, was to vote for the erec¬ tion of the first schoolhouse in the settlement. Picture the first schoolhouse, on East ave., 18 by 20 feet, a door at one end, a fire place at the other; hard wooden benches without backs; a wide-boarded floor. There were a few books in the colony by this time al¬ though the Bible was still the main text book, Sundays and week-days alike. The children wrote on slate slabs for the most part, even as did their English cousins. When rough paper was available, an ink of soot and vinegar was used which was carefully doled out from a leather bottle. But paper was scarce, for up to the year 1690, when the first paper mill was opened in Philadelphia, all writing and wrap¬ ping material had to be imported from England. The boys and girls had to go to school five full days in the week and a half a day Saturday. During the latter session, the Bible was religiously studied, there being no Sunday schools at the time. The three main school books were the above mentioned 88 ROMANCE OF NORWALK Good Book, the dictionary and the Latin grammar. Writ¬ ing was the most important subject of all; a scholar who could not write a fair hand by the time he left school was a recognized failure. Certain it is that little attention was given to spelling, judging by some of the early records, wherein even the proper names of the residents themselves were put together with different combinations of letters on every other page. Girls were taught to cook, to sew, to embroider, to knit, to make initials, to quilt, to brew, to weave, and sometimes even to make paper flowers and paint on velvet squares. A good heavy walnut stick, a birch rod or a leather strap usually kept the students in order. Norwalk boys and girls who consider their lot in life to be hard, should look for a moment at the lives of the early sons and daughters here. They commenced by being bap¬ tized in church on the first Sunday after birth, regardless of weather, and even if the ice had to be broken in the baptismal bowl in order to complete the ceremony! Worms, rickets and fits were the chief curses of early childhood and for these the colonists used remedies of “Snail water or Snail Pottage” and frightful doses of senna and rhubarb. Mothers strove of course to keep their children as healthy as possible. There is no record of what hap¬ pened if the parents followed the advice given in one old 1 8th century almanac where it was said that children should be toughened by allowing them only thin soled shoes, “that the wet may freely come in.” It was also advised that young children should always have their beer a little heated, that they should drink said beer only after having eaten a piece of brown bread, and that the remainder of the meal should consist of “milk, pottage, flummery and cheese.” Of toys there were few and of books less. Can you imagine the Norwalk boys and girls of today enjoying such volumes as: “Some Examples of Children in Whom the fear of God was remarkably budding before they died, in several parts of New England,” by Cotton Mather, Puritan pastor and FIRST INN— FIRST SCHOOL 89 author, and ancestor of the Norwalk Mathers; or “A Token for Children. Being the exact account of the Conversion and Holy and Exemplary Lives of several Young Children.” Of course all was not dark and dreary in the life of the child in the early history of this town; all was not school, church, “chores” and disagreeable medicines. There was fishing and rabbit hunting, quoit pitching and playing ball for the boys. The little girls, after they had completed their duties around the house, were free to turn their attention to “samplar marking,” of which they seemed abnormally fond, to embroidery work, or even to making doll clothes. In the summer there were husking parties, haying parties, apple paring and quilting parties for old and young. There were social evenings too, although when the nine o’clock curfew rang, the young people had to scurry to their homes. Picture one of these winter social evenings. Outside deep snow and bitter cold. In the little clapboard house, the neighborhood group clustered around the roaring hearth where logs, as much as five feet in length, blazed. To the young people were allotted the stiff backed wains¬ cot settles on each side of the hearth. There they sat, blis¬ tering their faces and freezing their backs, as they bent over copybooks or embroidery threads. Those whose hands were idle, occupied themselves with roasting nuts gathered the autumn before. The older folks sat facing the hearth, the man of the house with finger on place in the Bible, the good- wife winding her yarn or rocking the baby’s cradle. The cheery crackling of the fire; the low friendly hum of voices; the subdued giggles of the boys and girls glancing warily ever and anon at the sleeping baby; the soft light of candles shedding a warm glow over all, somehow gave one a feeling of peace and contentment; an impression of family and group solidity. TOWN PROSPERS 0 The close of the 17th century, which marked the end of the first fifty years of Norwalk’s existence, found the little settlement in quite a prosperous condition. The Indians were 90 ROMANCE OF NORWALK peaceful; the danger and annoyance from the wolves had practically abated; the wilderness had proved fruitful. The little group of log cabins down around old Fort Point had spread out and widened until now there were new homes all along East avenue up into what is now Norwalk. Over the river in Old Well, now South Norwalk, there were also a number of houses, not log cabins, but up to date frame clap¬ board structures. Like a growing group the original little settlement stretched its legs until it covered, in scattered man¬ ner, parts of East Norwalk, South Norwalk, Norwalk, Saugatuck, Wilton and New Canaan. In other ways had the town progressed: forks had come into style; tea and coffee were used on special occasions; real silver and cut glass began to appear on the sideboards; em¬ broidery and lace were introduced on the “best clothes” of the colonists; gates and fences were placed around the homes and gardens took form and flower. The town now boasted a fine meeting house, a bridge across its river, two “ordi¬ naries”, a fine minister’s house with “seller”, a corn mill, a saw mill, an ash house, and a school. That the hard life during the first half century of the town’s existence agreed with the pioneers is evidenced by their longevity. In 1 694, or 43 years after the settlement began, the names of most of the original settlers were still on the town records. For eighty years there was no general sickness and from 1715 to 1719 but 12 deaths occurred in the whole town. Of the 12 deacons of the first church, the average age at time of decease was 74.6 years. Mrs. Hanford, widow of the Rev. Thomas Hanford, who died at the age of 73, did not pass on to her heavenly reward until September 12, 1730, when she was just 100 years old. One cannot help but mar¬ vel over this unusual record, especially in view of the lack of medical aid of any authority. In the early Norwalk days, there were no drug stores where prescriptions might be filled. Careful housewives grew their own herbs and drugs right in the back yard. Those who had not the time to grow the necessary ingredients for the medicine, or who had not FIRST INN— FIRST SCHOOL 9i the necessary talent for mixing said ingredients might buy prepared concoctions from the traveling doctors. These “doctors” were not licensed physicians, nor were they products of any particular training. In fact, as late as the year 1721, there was but one regularly graduated physi¬ cian in New England, Dr. Samuel Douglas of Boston. Never could it be said that the physicians profiteered at the expense of their patients’ misfortunes, because in 1730, in Massa¬ chusetts for example, a visit only cost 12 cents. By Revolu¬ tionary times the doctor’s attendance fee had risen to 16 cents. Bloodletting cost 16 cents extra, which may have been one of the secret reasons why bleeding was so popular with the country’s earliest physicians. “Cold Stomack” seemed a common complaint in early times. One would wonder, with so much liquor on hand all the time, why the colonists should be troubled with such an affliction. OFFSHOOTS OF NORWALK Chapter IX Town Branches Out — Influence of Blue Laws Here — Rev. Buckingham In Trouble — Settlements In Danbury, Ridgefield, Greens Farms, Redding, Newtozvn, Darien, New Canaan, JVilton, Saugatuck. The first quarter of the eighteenth century found Nor¬ walk branching out in many directions: in 1702 the town took possession of many of the harbor islands; in 1725 Wil¬ ton became a separate parish; by 1750 Danbury, Ridgefield, Greens Farms, Redding, Newtown, Darien, New Canaan, Wilton and Saugatuck all bore healthy settlements.