History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

5. The Home oj the late Ji/hnthan Sturr/es. — This is located in the part of Fairfield known a.s Mill Plain. The name of "Sturges" is a historic one. The earliest account of the family is tliat of Peter Stur- ges, who settled in Fairfield in 1(>S0. When Fair- field was burned, .Judge .Tonatlian Sturges and his family were among the fugitives, leaving all their ancestral records, of date prior to and following their emigration from England, to destruction. Jonathan Sturges (1st) left a will, bearing date 1711, in which he devised property to his three sons, Jonatlian, Peter, and David. For his eldest son, Jonathan, he had already built upon the site of the old homestead. From conformity of dates and cir- cumstantial evidence, it appears that his son Samuel graduated from Yale College in 1732. He married Ann Burr, and was the father of Judge Jonathan Sturges. Tiie latter was a successful lawyer; for several years a member of Congress while that body held its sessions in Philadeljjhia, and was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of this State until his infirmities compelled his resignation. He was greatly valued and respected by his fellow-citizens. He mar- ried in early life I)el)orah Lewis, born in 1742, daugh- ter of Lotlirop Lewis, who came to this town from Barnstab'.e, Mass., and married, in 1727, Sarah, daugh- ter of Jonathan Sturges (another branch of the Sturges family). (See "Colonial," No. 9.) Judge Jonathan Sturges ke|>t up the English style of going to Circuit Court on horseback witli his sad- dle-bags, and would be gone a niontli at a time. His life ij well stated on Jiis tombstone in the old ground thus : " III nu'lnnry i>f tlio Ilunonililu Juiiiitlmii SlnrgcH, LL.D., who wiw iH^rii .\tig. Zi, 1740, uild dioil Oct. 4, 1811), ag<Ml 70 years. " \\« siHtnino I with higli ropiitutioii from nn OArly period ii nuinltor uf tin' DiiMt iiii|>orUiiit ofllros fii tlic gift of liifl nntlvo Stiiti', and wai« an utHcicnt ni<-nibt>r of Citiigrttiit under Itie confodi-ititiuti wliicli vindicatiil Iho rii;)it« and llir inde)M'ndL-nL-i> of llu- I'nited States. Wide and jintdent a» a klateMHun, ilillexilil)' lipri),'lit n» judge, a faithful friend, an atfec- lionate parent, and. al^ve all, an exeinplary Chi i-tian, tiis fitendR have an alwiireil hope that In )il-< sudden deiith he imtued into glory and re- ceived the welcome of liiit divine Mitster." The following is found in the " Life of Benjamin Silliman," vol. i. p. 24: ••Judge Jonathan Sturges, n noble gcntleniaii, wa« an ornninent to the town, lie waa a gnulnato of Vale |ill Iho clow of 17AII), and, although Mvon yam later than my fatttrV cUim of 17S2, lliey woiv IrieuOa aud • Gen. G. 8. Silliman. contemporaries at the liar, at which both were eminent practitioners. Mr. Sturges was a member of tlic House of Representatives of the I'niteil States when conveneil in Xew York tu 17H9, in the first year of the Prcsideney of Gen. Wasliiiiglon, and the evening years of liis life were devoted to the beneli uf the Supreme Court of Connerticiit. " Witli a fine person, he had the superior manners of that day, dignity softened byaltind and winning courtesy, with the stamp of benevolence. Judge Sturges Iiad a large family, sons and daughters; the sons were gentlemen in senlimentit and manners, and the daughters refined ladies, partaking of the Mended traits of both parents. They wore all amiable and intelligent and i)lea.s;int: some of them were lieantifiit. It was a delightful female cirvle." The eldest son of Judge Sturges was Lewis Burr Sturges, wiio resided in Fairfield during tlie early part of his active life. He wa-s member of Congress for several consecutive years. He resided in the house now occui)ied by Mrs. Catharine Beers, whose hus- band lies in the East burying-ground under this in- : scription : "The Grave of Angustin Prevost Beers, M.D., Surgeon of the United States Navy, who died on the Sth of June, 1831, aged 28 years." The Hon. Lewis Burr Sturges moved to Ohio, where he died at an advanced age. Ca])t. B. Lothrop Sturges, another son of Judge Jonathan Sturges, lived in Southport. In 18(M> he built tlie house at present occupied by David Banks. He was a farmer and a merdiant. He built a large schooner, which when it went out of Soutliport har- bor was prophesied to bring back a fortune; but the first voyage proved the only one for Mr. Sturges, as the French took the vessel as a tropliy in tlie war known as the French war, which occurred about tliat time. Mr. B. ij. Sturges died in 1831 at the old homestead, leaving one son, the late Jonathan Sturges, the " mil- lionaire merchant," and three daughters. He mar- ried Jlary Sturges, who belonged to the family on Mill Plain. Her lirother, Dimon Sturges, owned the jiroperty on wliich tlie late Jonatlian Sturges built his house in 1S41. He purchased these premises from Hezekiah Sturges, a son of Dimon Sturges, in 1835, for the use of his mother and sisters, the (brmer of whom died in 1840. .Vlioiit 1841) there were many changes in tlic Imild- ings aroun<) the green. The old cliureh (E|iiscopal) wa.s entirely obliterated, the society building in South- ])ort. Many of the old himses were repaired or re- placed by new ones, which called out some excellent poetic cfi'usions; one was by the late Mrs. Julia M. (Beers) Burr, ami another was introduced to the pub- lic by the widow of the Rev. 1). H. Short, D.D. Ilutli were copied through the jiapers. Mr. Sturges did not spend all his time on Mill Plain, as this was only his country-seat, he having been engaged in commercial interests in New York, whither he went in 1823 with such intent. He was eminently successf^J. FAIKFIELD. J'jL Having obtained a situation with Mr. Liiman Reed, he rose by successive grades to lie tlie liead of the firm. He also l)uilt the present stores, and after leav- ing busiuess oecujiied the office in the store wliich liis sons now hold. He married an aceonijdished lady. Miss Mary Pemberton Cady, a descendant of the fam- ily who gave the name to "IVndierton Hill," lioston. She was the mainspring in his prosperous career. She was trained in a literary atmosphere, her father being editor for nniny years of T/ir Virr/inin //ini/il, one of a few papers published in the whole of that State. He died in 1874. The late family interments, marked liy l>eautiful and appropriate monuments, — viz., the late Mr. .1. Sturges, his son, Arthur P. Sturges, a Princeton stu- dent, and daughter, Amelia, wife of Mr. Pierpont Blorgan, and grandchildren, — are in Fairfield East burying-ground. The homestead and city mansion are alternately occupied by Mrs. Sturges (who is largely assoeiate<l with benevoletit institutions) and her son, Henry C. Her other sons, Frederic and Edward, have also hand- some estates in Fairfield. Herdanghter, Mrs.William H. Osborne, and husband, are largely identified with the artistic, benevolent, and best interests of New York City. 6. Wah-l-friii, tin; JLiincnf the Oxijaait luunlhi. — About thirty-one years ago the Eev. Samuel Osgood came to Fairfield to find a boarding-]ilace, and possildy to locate for himself a h<ime. Jle purchased a tract, not far from Fairliehl tlepot, that no one would hardly accept as a gift, it scarcely being a sheep pasture for quality, overrun with cedars and cundjered with plenty of stones. This property he rescued fnnn the wilils and made it to blossom as a rose, and there he built a residence after the modern cottage style nf architec- ture surrounded by smiling and joyous nature. The apparently worthless natural incumbrances upon the place he converted into ornaments. The stones and rocks made fences, recesses, grottoes, monuments, trellises, and landscape-finishings. On a beautiful lawn near the liouse is a life-size figure of Dante, brought from Italy. It stands on a pedestal bearing this inscription : " Your own Poets have saiil, For wo are also Ilis oflWpiiiig." In the rear (if Daiitc is a h-dge of rocks which ap- pear as if Nature had some intention in arranging expressly tor the purpose for which they were used, —to commemorate tlie poets. The names of Emerson, Longfellow, Bryant, Chaucer, Tasso, Dante (1265), Alfieri, Petrarch, Shakspearc (1504), Ooethe, Schil- ler, Corneille, Milton (the day this name was en- graved an English oak was set out over the rock braring it), Wordsworth^ Kel)le, Scott, Homer, and Virgil are carved in individual rocks at various angles, about and over which graceful ferns and shrubbery throw a charm. The whole combination is beautiful and poetic. The inscription, "The groves were (Jod's first temples," is very befitting. On a solitary rock nut far from the wayside is thi; text and injuneticm, " Know thyself," uliich was written over the dour of the temple of Apidlo, and originated witli the jioct ^Menander. Dr. Osgoiid gave this special pronunence, as he felt it should be the foundation of every num's character. In another direction is the ecclesiastical ])art of the ground, in which the beauties of the place are ascriljcd on one rock to " God;" on the next to " ( )ur Fatlier;" and lastly, " In Christ." " ( Jod our Father in Clirist" is the thought that pervades this place. Three stones form a complete and natural pulpit. (.)n the rock forming the right side is engraved " ( lod is Love ;" on the one forming the lelt side is " tilad Tidings." The scriptural (juotations in view are: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall .see Cod;" "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty ;" " Honor thy father and thy mother." Again, one sees "The Comforter," "The Holy Spirit," engraved on other rocks.