History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

is at hand, to make room for our successors in the the- wdiich capacity lie has served until the pre-cnt time. atreoflife. It may lie that our jiostcrity will assemble In bSij.S the New Canaan Kailroad was organized, here to review their ]iast. Shall it be amid joy or nml in tlie following year he was chosen one of its sorrow? The answer is in jiart left to us. May he directors, and served continuously until, in 1.^7ii, he who, at the di.stancc of anotlier century, shall stand was chosen to fill the vacancy made by the death of here to celebrate this day, still look around uiioii a Professor Samuel St. Jidin (who had been president free, happy, and virtuous [jeople ; and may the God I from its organization ), and continues in that capacity of our fathers give us grace to so administer the trust to the present time. committed to us that our record shall enable the his- i The New Canaan Cemetery Association was organ- torian to rank us with theiii as having been faithful ized in 1S('>7, of which he was chosen one of its direc- to the principles which they established I" tors, in which he has served continuously to the pres- j ent; and upon the death of Capt. Stephen Hoyt, its first and only president until liis death, which oc- SELLECIC Y. ST. JOIIX. : ^.^^^y^,^\ ;„ February, 1S7.S, Mr. St. John was chosen Selleck Y. St. John, the oldest child of Zadock I Lis successor, and still act* in that c.iiiacity. and Mary W. St. John, was born at South Salem, ' In December, 1840, Mr. St. John was married to Westchester Co., and State of New York, on the ' JIary A., daughter of Holly Seymour, of New Ca- 10th day of Febrliary, 1819. His father was the | naan, who died in 188:!, leaving a widow and five third son of Samuel St. John, of Ridgebury, Conn., j children. His widow dieil in I.S49. leaving tiie two where he was born in 17'J3, and died at Lewisboro' youngest children, a son and daughter. It was the (formerly South Salem ), 'Westchester Co., N. Y., in nuither's dying rec|uest that lh\ St. Jidin and wife 1865. should give up their own home and come back to tlic His mother was the (dilcst child of Fbenezer Sel- old homestead, whicli had been in the family from the leek, of Lewisboro', where she was born in 1801, and : earliest settlement of the town, where her (diildrcn where she died in 187ti. His parents were married had been born and reared, ami make a home for llie Jan. 8, 1818; they liveil together fiirty-seven years, | young brotlier and sister. The promise was made and had four sons. The fatlier's death was the lirst I and sacredly kejit, and from that time until the in the family. j present, a period of over thirty years, there has Until thirteen years of age the subject of our scarcely been a time, however short, but that they sketch had only the ordinary advantages of a common have had tliis brother and sister or their children, as school ; then for the best part of two years he was ! well as other nieces and ne|diews of himself and wife, lavored with the advantages of an excellent practical | as members of their fiimily, and in which they have academy, eondnefcd l>y his cousin, Samud S.St.. fohn, | always been treated with love and kindness, as if Esq., at Kidgefield, Conn. ' their own. .- At sixteen years of age he entered as a clerk the They had only two children id' their own, and both ^tore of Seymour Couistoek, Esq., of New Canaan, are nowdeceased,— Amanda, born in lS44,died March, 448 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. 1879, leaving one little girl, Josie May Martin, to the care and affection of her <rrandparents ; Hannah, born in 1854, and died in 1800. During the last thirty yearpi of his life Mr. St. John has often been chosen to act as e.xeeutor, ad- ministrator, assignee, or trustee of estates and guar- dian of minor children. Perhajjs no man in the town has ever been intrusted with tlie care and cus- tody of other people's money to such an extent and such large amounts, and up to this day he has never failed at the proper time to account for every dollar of the millions thus confided to him. Another feature of his l)usincss life in which he has great reason to congratulate liimself is the fact tliat, while acting so prominently in a fiduciary capacity, and especially during the late war and just after, when so many had money to invest, and there were so many schemes to answer this great demand, some of which were worthy, and an innumerable number of unworthy ones, its was natural, his advice was often sought by men and women as to what or where they should in- vest their money. And he has the proud satisfaction of knowing that no person, and no estate of which he had charge of the investments, but that have already or can now realize one hundred cents on the dollar. And it was not because he was not thoroughly tempted, as thousands of other men were, constantly besieged and im))lored' to take the agency of this, that, or the other thing, with large and tempting com- missions offered as the price of his advice and influ- ence. Happy man ! A million dollars would be poor ]>ay for the blotting of .such a record and memory as that. On the temperance question Mr. St. .fohn lias been a " radical" from early boyhood, having signed the pledge when only fourteen years old ; that was the "old pledge," which covered alcoholic beverages only. .\ year or two later, alone and by himself, without per- sua.sion or influence of any sort, never having heard a discussion or lecture on the subject, but simply read- ing an article in a newspaper that accidentally came into his hands, he resolved to abstain from everything that could intoxicate, and from that time until 187fi, a period of over forty years, no intoxicating liquors passed his lips, and then only as he took other poisons, from the hands and l>y the ailvice of a trusty friend and iihysician. Forty-three years ago this summer ho and and six other young men — all under or about twenty years of age — organized the New Canaan Young Men's Total Abstinence Society, and circu- lated the first |tle<lge of that kind in the town, which lias borne good fruit. .\nd, what is a remarkable fact, six of lliose men are still living, one only liaviiig fallen from grace, wiio died several years ago. During the winter of 1840-41 he was induced to attend and listen to a lecture on slavery. He went to the meeting with a«trong ])rejudice against aboli- tion and abolition lecturers; but what he heard made a profound impression upon his mind, as it was well I calculated to do, the argument being principally moral and biblical. When leaving the house an intimate friend said to him, "What do you think of that?" meaning the lecture. The answer was, " I hardly know what to think, but it xwms to be God's truth." " Well," said the friend, " what are you going to do about it ?" " I don't know ; try to do right. If I be- come convinced that slavery is contrary to right and justice and cannot be reconciled with the 'Golden Rule,' then I shall be an abolitionist. I must be!" And yet hoping, almost praying, that he might see his way clear to " do right" and yet not be obliged to be- come an abolitionist. It soon became known that he was on the anxious seat, and his friends became as anxious to save him from wliat they thought would be utter ruin and disgrace ; those that were real friends labored in season and out of season, kindly, calmly, and ]5rayerfully ; pretended friends sneered and proph- esied and even threatened, and this only added fuel to the fire, for his w:t.s a nature that might be won, but could not be bullied or bribed. It is impossible in these d.iys to comprehend or hardly believe the strife and struggles that the abolitionists of forty years ago had to endure and surmount. It produced alienation of long-time friends, broke up the aflections and har- mony of churches and families. His experience was only that of thousands of others. Friends tried to persuade, dear relations, with blood-connected ties, begged and prayed that he would listen to reason and save himself and them from disgrace, irnmten of the Gofpel of Jesus of Nazareth interfered with advice and remonstrance. And finally the culmination came one evening, when calling U])on the one minister who of all others had his love, confidence, and veneration. When, with a kind and loving seriousness and prayer- ful earnestness befitting the attempt to "snatch a brand from the burning," his reverend friend (and he knew and felt it was a rent friend) pictured and set before him, as only a master hand can do, the grand and glowing prospects that were opening before him as a young man, in business relalion.s, in society, a:id in the church, everything a1mo.st that an intelligcMt, ambitious yimng man might be supposed to asjiirc to, wits apparently almost ready to fall into his hands, the interview enrlcd. Mr. St. John had expected to attend an anti-slavery meeting that evening and had stopped on his way. He was staggered for a while; he saw and felt the deep and sincere earnestness of his friend ; knew he was a good, esteemed, and earnest minister of the Gospel, and that he ought to know a great deal better about such a question of morals than himself; knew and admitted that many and most of the consequences so dreaded by his friends would come upon him, and yet he did not half know the consequences that would follow him as an open and avoweil abolitionist, and well he did not, for he thought he had all he could bear. He piL-ssed out of his friend's door into the darkness of night with a heart full almast of agony and eyes raining tears -'--»\<§-V ^ r,/^^. NEW CANAAN. 449