Norwalk

The students of Dr. Sherwood's School were privileged with the superintendence of Mrs. Sher- wood, a lady of dignity of presence, and who was greatly esteemed. The household responsibilities were shared with a member of the family of one of the most widely known pilots of Long Island Sound, Capt. Abraham Benson, who built (house standing to- the Diocese of New York, and came, in 1816, to Nor- walk, as rector of St. Paul's Church. Here for four- teen years he was admired and beloved, conducting, in addition to his pastoral obligations, a successful boys' and girls' academy and seminary. His marriage gave him influence and his institution had prominent home and abroad patronage. The professional work was done, mainly, by masters, the building used for the purpose being the academy (now John F. Bennett home) which stood on the northeast corner of the present St. Paul's property and opposite the Heze- Jciah Jarvis residence. There were two departments, male and female, the girls occupying the second story and the boys the first floor, and when "school was out" there was a cheery commingling of the students. The Dr.'s bright and manly boys came from sections far and near. The late E. E. Beardsley, D.D., histo- riographer and rector, belonged to the school, as did the Middletown MacDonough (sons of the Commo- dore) brothers. Here were educated Lawrence and John Vaux of Philadelphia; the present Col. LeGrand Cannon of New York; the whilom- Broadway merchant, Albert Journeay ; Ebenezer Tall- man of the city; Frank Perry of Fairfield; the two English Sellons; the admired young James King, and the Winthrop brothers and cousins, including Henry R., whose fine manners and handsome face are to this hour Norwalk mind pictures. Mary Ellis, daughter of Capt. Isaac Bell of New York, was under Dr. Sherwood's care, while her brother, since a metropol- itan figure, here unwittingly left behind him evidence- testimony to the lad's nice propriety-intuition. He had been down the river and was salt water soiled. Upon landing he hastened to school to re-make his toilet, and chancing to meet, on the way thither, a particular young friend, a compelling courtly convic- tion restrained him, in his plight, from barely a fugi- tive recognition of his acquaintance. Arrived at his student quarters he at once gallantly addressed a note apologetic of his appearance and action, which note, as a Sherwood School reminder, is to-day prized by one of Norwalk's most cherished citizens. Dr. Sherwood came, a recently ordained presby- ter, to Norwalk, and was consequently in touch with the ardent parish element. He was dignified but cor- dial and approachable. At one of his Christmas-eve services, his junior flock having elaborately pine and day) on the corner of the ancient Ludlow farm-lot, opposite the Ludlow Fairfield residence. The situation of the Sherwood School at the head of Norwalk Green and beneath the exceptionally large and spreading elms which, in the Sherwood days, were about twenty-five years old, was truly dt-lightful, while the parsonage grounds enlivened by the sight, here and there, of the Sherwood boys and the driving up the lawn-way of the Stamford Roger relatives, made the spot inviting to townsman and stranger. The St. Paul's elms (fast fading in 1896) were handsome objects down fifty years later than Dr. Sherwood's time, soon after the rectorship of whom the cure fell to Jackson Kemper, D.D., who held it until called in 1835 to the bishopric of the North West. During Dr. Kemper's incumbency, Rev. Wm. A. Muhlenburg, D.D., of New York, was a welcome visitor to Norwalk, and subsequently Rev. Wm. F. Morgan, D.D., studied beneath the same shade. Rector and Principal Sherwood resigned the Nor- walk parish in order to- assume duty at Washington College. After this he removed to Ulster County, N. Y., accepting, finally, the rectorship of St. James Church, Hyde Park-on-the-Hudson. Here he ended his faithful life on Whitsunday, 1856. His daughter, Catharine, from early days the friend of Miss Julia A. Lockwood of Norwalk, now resides at Hyde Park. 'Sarah Elizabeth, who bore her mother Woolsey NOR \V A L K . grandmother Fitch, married David ** son of David and Laurany Lambert of Nonvalk; had : Elizabeth ; died young. David Rogers; born Dec. 8, 1772. Laurany ; died young. Henry B.; Esther; died young. Sarah S.; married Hon. George Cruikshank of Canada. Samuel F.; John J. ; died young. Julia Maria ; died young. The first David Lambert, born 1700, who came to Nonvalk, w as the son of Jesse and Deborah (Howler) Lambert of Milford. Deborah, daughter of Capt. William and grand-daughter of Magistrate William Fowler, belonged to one of the chief planter families of Milford. David Lambert had a sister, Sarah, who married John Dunning of Nonvalk, and another sister, Elizabeth, who married John Birchard of this town. Mr. Lambert reached maturer years and married Feb. 1 , 1726-7, Laurana, daughter of "Mr. John Bill of Lebanon." These had (see Lambert lineage) David2'1-. David Lambert"*, married Dec. 27, 1769, Susanna, daughter of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Fitch ) Rogers, and had Samuel F., born Dec. 25, 1784, who late in life married a Rockwell, the only issue being the present David R. Lambert4'1"-, who married Eva, daughter of Captain Edw. S. Ogden, formerly of New Canaan, but later of Wilton, Conn., which David R. Lambert tth- occupies, in 1896, the original Wilton home. ' Church does not commence until the Lambert's come," was a common saying in and her grandmother Fitch names, oldest child of Moses Rogers, married a Connecticut born lawyer who belonged to the honored Hopkins family of Waterbury, a city the soil of which holds many of the Hopkins dead. Hon. Samuel Miles Hopkins was horn May 9, 1773. and the young lawyer, in the autumn {Oct. 5} of 1800, wedded his Rogers bride w ho was not quite two years younger than himself. These had seven children two of whom are at present known in Nonvalk. Theelderof the two, Prof. Sarrt- iu-1 M. Hopkins, D.D , of Auburn, N. Y., was, in his student days, a friend of the late Rev. s. B. S. Bissell of Nonvalk, and the meeting, in this town, of the two a little before Mr. Hissell's death was delightfully cor- dial. Professor Hopkins fills a chair in the same in- stitution with which Rev. Edwin Hall, D.D., a for- mer pastor of the First Congregational Church in Nonvalk, was, until his death prominentlv connected. The professor s brother, Col . Woolsev Rogers Hop- kins, now of Shippan Point, and a thorough gentle- man of the olden school, is held in high admiration in his grandfather's (Moses Rogers) birthplace. The Colonel's impressive allusion to the Rogers' birth- hearth duringhis address at the planting in 1895 by the 1). A. R., of the "Father's Stone" in East Nonvalk (confluence of Fitch Street and Fort Point Avenue) is unforgotten in Nonvalk. Two grand army sons. Col. W. R. Hopkins and Gen. I). N. Couch greatly dignified that occasion by their presence. Julia A. (Mrs. Francis B, Winthrop, Jr.) sister of Sarah E. (Mrs. Samuel M. Hopkins) died at the age of twenty-six, and her husband married, second, Eliza- beth Woolsev, neice of Mrs. Moses Rogers. On.- of the children by this union, Edward, born Dee. 19, 'fill w:ls t!ie Nonvalk school lad who has interesting mention in this town to day. The Winthrops, who spent happy hours at the head of the Nonvalk Green, left pleasing memories behind them. The lad, Ed- ward, occupant as a youth of the primitive pew in St. Paul's Church, Nonvalk, became, afterward, the rec- tor of Si. Paul's Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, lie died in Vermont, Oct. 31, ISfij, NOR VV A L K . '73 the parish in the days of David and Susannah i Fitch) Lambert, and the saying correctly- expressed the local conviction Lambert-wards. The family was a power and entertained on a generous scale. Its members and their guests rode around the country in state. The visits of Mrs. Lambert's mother, Mrs. Nehemiah Rogers, who occasionally bade adieu to the Gracie city mansion and indulged in a country trip, were rare occasions, and when mother and daughter occupied the vehicle, drawn by handsomely caparisoned horses, and served by a quota of liverymen, people would run to their windows and doors to witness the spectacle. The family members were particularly intimate with the Beldens of Pim- pewaugh Vale. They visited and received visits, and their general "style" was cordiality and hospitality. The old premises are to-day faded and parts of the same, through age, fallen, nev- ertheless an ancient interest so pervades the once attractive and animated spot that the an- tiquarian reluctantly pronounces "go to sleep" over it. Henry, son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth Rogers, married, first, Catharine Van Raust and had : Catharine; died unmarried. Henry F. ; married, first, a cousin, Emily S. Rogers, married, second, a Maxwell. Mrs. Catharine iVan Raust) Rogers died Nov. 5, 1792, and Henry Rogers married, second, Frances, daughter of Charles Moore of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and had : John S., M. D. ; married Augusta, daughter of Gov. Thomas L. Winthrop. Susan ; married Daniel Remsen, and had Simeon Henry Remsen, who married a daughter of Bishop Wainwright of New York. Emma; married Rev. Smith Pyne, D.D., graduate of Columbia College, 1823, and rector of Calvary Church, New York, and St. John's, Washington, D. C. Nehemiah'*, son of Nehemiah'-' and Elizabeth Rogers, married Katharine, daugh- ter of Isaac Bell of Stamford by his second tt ife, and had : Samuel ; died unmarried. Edward N. ; died unmarried. George I. ; died unmarried. Archibald Gracie; died unmarried. Henry;' married Matilda, daughter of John S. Livingston. Caroline; married, (2d wife) Rev. John Crathorne Montgomery of Pennsylvania, who was father of Rev. Henry E. Montgomery, D.D., of New York, and grand- father of Mrs. Woodbury G. Langdon of Norwalk. Mosen Rogers had 11 daughter, Esther, horn 1778, j Germany, and Hen (7 L., a member of the New \ nrk who died at the ^ of fifteen. ! St.,.* Exchange and intelligently interested in the • Henry and Matilda (Living..,,) Rogers had two Rogers family affinity. He is unmarried, and resides children, Matilda, who married Albert Speycrs of I in New- York. 74