Norwalk

-'The children of W. A. Raymond were: William T. and Willamette, died young; Alexander Bunker; Lillie Marion and Mary A., who married Allen Grant of Michigan, and has one child. Herbert. tSamuel Henry Orton came to South Norwalk as principal of its old established academy, ile was a man of fine culture and found agreeable environments in the family of Capt. Daniel K. Nash. An acquaint- ance was here formed that ripened into intimacy and eventual affection, the happy sequel of which was the union of two kindred spirits by the marriage, on Aug. 4, 1853, of himself and Mary Hallock Nash, the daughter of the Norwalk home of which be was a temporary member. Dr. Orton'- nature-benevol- ence found an ample Held for its exercise at the Government Hospital at Fort Schuyler on the Sound. Here he was a power. Warm acknowledgment was made by the ladies of the Fort Schuyler association, of the " untiring skill, devotion and sympathy, extend- ed at all times and under all circumstances'' by him. After this professional connection he established a delightful home in South Norwalk where he died April 26.1892. His wife survived him about four years, and was interred in Riverside Cemetery, Nor- walk, in 1896, beside him. tin olden times, before "licenses" were issued, it was the custom to make declaration of matrimony- intention, during public worship, oti the Sunday or so preceding the solemnization of the rite. Through delicacy parties interested sometimes remained awav from service at such particular times, while others felt it proper not alone to be present hut to rise and stand when announcement was made. When, on the Sunday that members were set off from the First Congregational church to the second society in "Old Well." the family of Capt I>. K. Nash was called, the I 10 NORWALK. Joshua Jennings, whose wife is a neice of said S. B. Warren. Passing the old home, now- supplanted bv a handsome lawn-fronted structure, pressed Paul Revere on one of his courier commissions to the authority-representatives, and John Parke Custis,1 after his mar- seaman with his wife and two daughters rose, digni- fiedly, in their pew in the " Meeting House on the Green,'' and by this expressive act regardfully said adieu to the old, and manfully confessed allegiance to the new relation. Capt. Daniel K, Sash commanded for many rears the favorite schooner " Minerva."' A Catskill, N . Y correspondent of the "Hudson Daily Star," thus describes a trip, made over fifty years since, on this vessel. Catskill, N. Y., Aug. £1, t&t£. Editor Daily Star: " I noticed the return of the party of Hudsonians who went east a few weeks ago, in the Schooner Minerva, on a pleasure excursion. This called up in the mind of the writer, incidents which occurred in connection with the vessel, more than thirty years ago. If I mistake not, this craft has had an existence of nearly 36 years. She was built and rigged as a sloop prior to the year 1838 by Capt. D. K. Na.sh of Nurwalk, Conn., who was owner and commander. He named this vessel after his daughter Minerva. Tlii* sloop was large and stronglv built, and used exclusively for the coasting trade. The voyages ex- tended from Arnl.ov. N . J. and Long Island, with Potter's Clay to Albany, and in return lumber to eastern ports. Many times these trips would extend around Cape Cod to Boston, when the cargo would he exchanged for various commodities — viz. ; ashes, marble, etc., often loading with huge blocks of hewn granite cut ready to use in the rebuilding of the Merchant's Exchange In New York City ; these voyages usually occupied from three to four weeks, and were often attended with considerable danger. It wib on one of these return trips, in the summer of 1K40, that the writer was a passenger from Boston to \ru York. We left Uoston with a large cargo of hewnblocksof quincey granite, weighing several tons each, and these on deck. When we left Boston Bay, the wind was blowing strong from the east, and as a consequence a heavy >ea la y along our quarter all down the coast till night closed in upon us near the inlet to Chatham harbor. Here the captain decided to anchor and ride out the gale through the night. Accordinglv, the vessel was "hove to" and the anchor let go in about -i>; fathoms of water. Here we lav all night gradual!* dragging our anchors as we drifted towards the di-tant shore, from which the roar of the breakin" surf could be distinctly heard. There was no sleep on that craft that night; all realized the perilous position in which we were placed, with a lading that, bad we sprung a leak, would have carried us down like so much lead. Lying off, with the broad Atlantic on the one side and uncertain, treacherous shoals on the other — in the teeth of a fierce easterly gale — a high running sea would occasionally break over us from stem to stern. Our position was anything but agreeable. Keen eyes were peering through the darkness, watching as best they could, the sturdy, straining chain cables that were holding us so securely. All that dismal night we watched and waited for the morning, till at last, far to the seaward, over the broad ocean burst a gleam of light, which rose higher and higher, till the full morning burst upon us, clear and beautiful. The wind had abated, but the sea was breaking wildly about us, and as day-light revealed our position, we found ourselves much nearer the shoals than we supposed, over which the sea was now breaking at a fearful height. "All hands on deck," was the order from our commander, and right gladly tfirf all hands work at the windlass till those trusty anchors, with their now bright flukes, were securely "catted " and we were fully underway. Nol the least anxious person on board that dismal night, was our worthy captain, for two of his daughters, Minerva and an older sister were our fellow-passengers. The last trip of the "Minerva" as a sloop, was in the early part of the winter of the same vear, 1K40. She left Boston for Norwalk; encountered a snow storn when a few hours out; put into Provincetown harbor, hack side of Cape Cod, where she rode out the gale with the loss of her mast. She was rigged as a schooner at Provincetown during that w inter, and in the spring of 1841, resumed her regular trips. During the summer of this year, the writer made a trip around the Cape to Boston on the schooner and found her sailing qualities much improved. She was a staunch old craft in those days, and is probably good for many years ser\ ice yet to come." 'The following Custis facts contributed by the family of Major-Gen. Robert E. Lee of Virginia, are Norwalk-retained. John Parke Custis, the son of a wealthy planter and heir to fifteen hundred acres, and between two and three hundred slaves, was an amiable youth. His step-father and guardian, Gen. Washington, greatly loved him and his sister Martha, and brought the hoy up in the thorough habits of a Colonial Virginia gentleman. When he was eight years old, Washington ordered from his London agents the lad's supplies, to wit, "a hat; four pairs of strong shoes; silver shoe and kneebuckles; small bible and prayer book bound in Turkey." He was placed under NORWALK. riage, and accompanied by his new bride and his mother, Mrs. Geo. Washington, on the way to meet the commander at Boston. Here the squire, as justice of the peace, pronounced his candidates for matrimony man and wife, while little eyes and ears in the corner intently looked and listened. In that same Flax Hill home was brought up an "old well" boy whose selfless future is an example to all on-coming Norwalk youth. The child Hezekiah (the squire's son), brother of Mrs. Nash, grew to become Hezekiah R. Warren, M. D., of Medina, N. Y., whose heroism during the cholera visitation of 1832, adds a rich lustre to his name. Dr. Warren had already lost a wife and daughter by the plague when a citizen's committee waited upon him and urged him to rest from his incessant ministrations to the stricken. He nobly declined only to himself fall, a few days afterward, a victim to the scourge. He was a descendant of Edmond Warren, the Norwalk Warren settler and the great-grand-son of Joseph Warren of Norwalk, whose New England and Ohio represent- atives to-day insist upon their progenitor's relationship to Major-General Joseph Warren, of Bunker Hill.' Francis H, son of Capt. Daniel K. and Sally Nash, was born beneath the towering elms under the predecessors of which Rev. John Bishop, the first minister of Stamford passed, as bible in hand he, nearly two hundred years before, trudged from Boston to and through this town. This son, Francis, was a valuable citizen of South Norwalk. Educated at the old academy in that place, his career conferred honor upon an institution that had long been a credit to that section of the town. Of coveted reputation he died suddenly on Feb. 12, r887, leaving the following children : Lewis Hallock, b. Apr. 16, 1852; mar. Anna M. Archer. Emily Cornelia, b. Aug. 7, 1854; d. Mar. 27, 1855. Fannie Clarence, b. Feb. 28, 1856 ; d. May 28, i860. Frank, b. Feb. 13, 1858. Horace Raymond, b. March 24, i860. Clarence Charles, b. Aug. 15. 1863. Willimetta Orton, b. Sept., 1867. Theodorus Burr Nash, son of Capt. Daniel K., now resides in Bayview avenue, South Norw alk. He has no children. Clarence, the youngest child of Capt. Daniel K. Nash, has two children, one of