Address at the Centenary of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, Conn.

On the site of the Henry Fitch place (quite a model of the unpainted, shingle-sided, low-running, back-roof style of building, which succeeded to the log structures of the settlers), dwelt the ancestors of the Norwalk, and Wilton, and New Haven Olmsteads, and immediately south, where the Indians of yore hid, and afterward some of the Rogerses lived, and Mrs. Clark now inhabits, is the spot where the first of all of the name of Eli, or Ely, abode. In front of the Fitch property, which stretched to the river, occurred the wreck of the first steam craft which navigated the Norwalk waters ; an experiment, on a smaller scale, perhaps, but an improvement, nevertheless, upon the celebrated John Fitch experiment, a hundred years ago, next year, in the same line. Mr. Fitch’s steam yawl, the first steamboat the world ever saw, had an iron kettle for a boiler, with lid secured by bolts, and all went to pieces upon the banks of the pond, (not fifty miles from this town) upon which the bark was launched ; but a portion of the Norwalk vessel, which was preserved until a few years since, evidenced advance over Fitch, at least, in the construction of the boiler. In this district was erected the first school house known in these parts; twenty by sixteen, and “six feet between the joists.” Here, on one of the lower East avenue corners, the depression of land still indicating it, was the swamp, filled thickly writh bushes, which the red man was wont to take to after his depredations upon the fathers’ premises. Here is the gentle dale, a mere “scoop” in the land, in which the founders, with their one cook, inaugurated the settlement. Here, near the mighty iron highway of to-day, was the “old parade ground,” all alive on “Training days,” where, in all probability, was mustered the small, but heroic quota, who, under the command of the lamented Seeley, shouldered the musket and went, in 1675, to the Narraganset Country, to meet King Phillip, in an engage- ment in which a thousand Indian warriors were killed and wounded, and many helpless women and children burned alive. Here stood the enclosure, constructed for the protection of the settlers’ cattle from the wolves. Here, some few rods north of the Tide Mill, was built the cottage of one who came over when he was eleven years old, in the ship “Francis,” and was employed long before the war, and for a beneficent purpose, to beat the drum in the morning, and sound the horn “about twelve of the clock.” Here was the fathers’ “green,” a little distance from the east end of the South Norwalk carriage bridge, and along the new shore drive of 1886. Here was the “Old Fort Point” and its line of log houses. Here Norwalk was planted. Here 49 Hitchcock, Jr., if figures can be relied upon, was zealous. John Betts, Jr., and Samuel Fitch, Jr., and Elias Scribner were chosen in 1757. The vestrymen from 1779 to 1786 were: David Lambert, Thomas Hanford, James Bescou, Barnabas Marvin, Matthew Beed, James Fillow, John Saunders,* David Boult, Daniel Nash, Daniel Church, Samuel Hanford, Jacob Selleck. David Lambert resided remotely from the parish church, but its welfare was dear to his family, and children’s children have given expression of a perpetuated interest in it. James Bescou was of the family of Bescous, or Buscoes, or as sometimes spelled, Besiquees. f Near Five Mile Biver, stood, the house of Barnabas Marvin, He was were reared homes — homes completely unfurnished with the convenient ap- pliances of modern cleverness, and totally unembelished by the fertility and felicity of modern tastefulness, but homes, nevertheless, of happiness, and noteworthy and praiseworthy for truth and tenderness; homes within which were probably heard similarly to what has in these times been heard in one of the oldest and most storied of them, the softly blended voices of the ven- erable grandparent, between ninety and one hundred years of age, and the son in life’s prime, and the daughter-in-law, and several grandchildren, all reverently calling, at the day’s threshold, upon Our Father. Bless- ings upon such homes! They are, and they were, privileged homes, even if primitive and plain. Benediction upon them ! The secret of the Lord there tarries, and, like the patriarch’s tenement, thousand of years back, they are filled with angels. And here, finally (Down Town), we may, as taught by Col- umbia’s cherished laureate, salute the departed, who after their labors “by danger dignified, ’’ and their “hopes of cheerful old age, and a quiet grave, and grandchildren’s love forepitaph,’’ are embalmed, in the spot which they, themselves selected for their last resting ground. It was an ancient custom “to beat the parish bounds.” It had not exactly this for its object it is true, but lessons of devotion to God and country might possibly be impressed upon the minds of the young by occasionally taking them over our old ecclesiastical and civil sites. One of New England’s “Historic homes on Golden hills” (that of Dr. Rogers, “a distinguished physician, of strong and vigorous mind, and enjoying an extensive practice” — see note, page thirty-seven) stood on Town House Hill. Two prized articles were saved at the burning of the house, in 1779; a silver headed cane, the gift of Governor Fitch, and the Rogers coat of arms. Chan- cellor Kent, in a letter dated June 1st., 1846, and addressed to John C. Van- Rensselaer, Esq., says, “When I rode from Noi’walk (frogn his grandfather, Dr. Rogers, to Westport probably,— see note as before) on Sunday evening, December 30th, 1770, my aunt (Mr. VanRenssalears mother) came out to the street, and took me in her arms off the horse, for my blessed mother was dying, and did die in half an hour.” Another aunt of the distinguished young Norwalk visitor was ancestress of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane the Arctic Explorer. The Chancellor dying at his residence, in Union Square, New York, in 1847, was interred in Fishkill, N. Y. ; his father was buried in Wall street, New York City, and his grandfather on Town House Hill. In the Belden family bible, (Thomas Baskett, London, A. D., 1761), is this record, in the wife’s hand: “Elnathan Hanford departed this life, August, 1764, August 24th, at two o’clock of the afternoon, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and born January 23d.” Mrs. Elnathan (Hannah Bartlett) Hanford’s sister (daughter of John Bartlett,) manned John Belden, Jr., the brother of Thomas, and Hezekiah, and Samuel, and father of Isaac, and Henry, and Mary Esther Belden (Mrs. William St. John.) This bible, the property in late years of Miss Margaret and Miss Amelia Belden, has fallen to a descendant, now in life’s rosy dawn, to whom has been given, as a part of her name, the name of Belden. ^“Society’s agent,” see p. 81. His two grandsons, (sons of Holmes Saunders) are now physicians in the central or western part of the state of New York. fThe first Ruscou (John) came over, in 1635, in the ship “Increase,” a fellow- passenger with the Marvins. 50 devoted to this church, and here his family was brought up. His son practiced medicine in Norwalk many years ago, and became later a successful physician in Brooklyn, New York. From a vol- ume entitled “New York and New England Families,” which was published in Albany, New York, in 1883, we quote as follows: “Matthew Reed and wife were members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Norwalk, of which, at that time, the Rev. Dr. Learning was rector. It is to the honor of our ancestors in this parish that, although reduced by the destruction of their property, yet they rallied in a year’s time and commenced anew for the Master.” Matthew Reed’s grave is to the right, not far from the front door of this church. James Fillio was elected to the vestry, in 1781, and John Saunders, in 1784, and Daniel Church and Samuel Hanford, Jr., in 1785; Jacob Selleck was the owner, on Carter street, New Canaan, of property near to what is now known as the Hoyt Brothers’ nursery, and came from thence hither to church. The vestrymen from 1786 to 1886, are Eliakim Warren, Samuel Hanford, 2nd., Captain Stephen Betts, Asa Hoyt, Esaias Bouton, Joseph Fitch, Samuel Bouton, James Beatty, Holmes Saunders, Paul Taylor, Josiah Thatcher, 2nd., Henry Belden, Jonathan Camp, 2nd., Samuel Cannon, Nathaniel J. Street, Dennis Nash, Isaac Church, Richard Camp, Jr., Ebenezer D. Hoyt, Stephen Kellogg, Eseck Kellogg, Lewis Taylor, Isaac Belden, William J. Street, LeGrand Cannon, Nathan Jarvis, Isaac Church, David St. John, Jr., Noah Nash, William Cornwall, Isaac Adams, Josiah Church, Abraham Camp, Jonathan Camp, Jr., Joseph St. John, Lemuel Camp, Ebenezer Church, Jr., Richard S. Bryan, Jr., Stephen Smith, Stephen B. St. John, John A. McLean, M. D., Stephen Mott, Charles Isaacs, William Nash, Joseph W. Hubbell, Asa E. Smith, William St. John, William Daskam, Daniel Nash, Samuel Church, John Partrick, William May bury, John B. Starr, Moses Gregory, Samuel Jarvis, Thomas L. Peck, Gould D. Jennings, James Finney, Timothy T. Merwin, Carmi Lockwood, L. L. Beebe, Charles N. Clock, William C. Street, William K. James, George G. Bishop, L. M. Stevens, James M. Hoyt, Samuel Lynes, John Smith, Ira Ford, Thomas Warner, Jr., Allen Betts, David H. Webb, Davis Hatch, Winfield S. Hanford, Josiah Kellogg, Lemuel A. Austin, Edgar B. Hoyt, Samuel Lynes, M. D. , Samuel E. Olmstead, Edward K. Lockwood, Alfred Jackson, James C. Newkirk, Theodore E. Smith, Charles F. Osborn, James W. Pinckney, George Ward Selleck, Asa Smith. LeGrand Jackson, Homer Merrill, William H. Smith, and Daniel C. Nash. A long, but honored roll. 51