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

Mr. Hugh Knox died, in 1858, and left one son, the late John LeGrand Knox, who married Miss Elizabeth Sigourney, of Hartford. Mrs. John LeGrand Knox visited Norwalk several times after her husband’s death, and down to her own lamented decease, in 1885. t But one of Mrs. Craft’s children (Mrs. Hannibal Green) survives. Mr. Green was one of the foremost business men of Troy. He was founder of one of the heaviest hardware establishments north of the city of New York, and built the Hannibal Green steel and iron warehouse, Broadway, Troy. He was from Vermont. He died several years ago, and his widow (who was born in one of the Norwalk ancestral dwellings about which still linger the ancient celebrity-look) resides in First street, Troy. t The late LeGrand Cannon, and Captain Hall Fitch. § Jonathan Abbott was a strong churchman. His house still stands, about a half mile above Smith Ridge, New Canaan. His son Charles has been sup- erintendent of public instruction, in Brooklyn, New York. Jonathan Abbott’s nephew, Jonathan Beers, was a churchman of like type. His son, bent upon witnessing a confirmation service, left home alone, and on foot, and albeit twenty miles must be trudged ere he reached and returned from Norwalk, yet he accomplished it. The persevering lad became the greatly respected Alfred Beers, Esq. of Housatonic Railroad connection, and senior warden of one of Bridgeport’s flourishing parishes. He died last spring. II The grandparents of Mrs. Albert Hyatt. 55 daughters, Mrs. Ira Ford and Miss Mary Ann Bouton from Flax Hill,* and Paul Taylorf from near White Oak Shade; and the Reeds from West Norwalk; and also the Streets, (parents of Edward Street, the first organist of the parish) ; and Daniel, and Dennis, £ and Noah Nash from Westport; and Noah’s children, the gentle one who died some years since, Mrs. William Cornwall; and the active other one, Miss Sally Nash, who lingered until last Lent; and the third sister, Mrs. Lemuel Camp, who still survives, the tender charge of her daughter; and the youngest, William, a former ves- tryman, but who now resides in Stratford; these from just above the old pike gate, this side Saugatuck;§ and Richard Camp, Jr., * The Boutons are buried in the plot on the hill, some little distance north of Belden’s Point. The inscriptions on their tomb stones read thus : ESAIAS BOUTON, died May 28th, 18 2 1, aged 90 years and 6 months. PHEBE, wife of Esaias Bouton, died March 15th, 18 10, in the 76th year of her age. SAMUEL BOUTON, born July 14th, 1 7 6 3, died April 4th, 1 8 3 3. EUNICE, wife of Samuel Bouton, died August 3d, 18 18, aged 50 years, 8 months and 1£ days. tThe uncle of the venerable Alfred Taylor, who resided in his “care-free sunset days” in Poplar Plains, until Tuesday, March 22d, 1887, when he died. tSix generations of his family (Charles Adams’ family is the sixth) have been members of St. Paul’s church and parish. Mr. Adams followed Bishop Kemper to the west, and was one of the original settlers, in 1836, of the city of Chicago. He has in his possession several rectory chairs — Dr. Learning’s, of 1779. § “Call it Saugatuck,” said Dr. Kemper, who, apparently had no prejudice against the red man’s expressive designation. The first occupants of Nor- walk were Indians, and when the town was settled there appear to have been not two tribes, but two clans, who had possession of the place. One clan occupied the territory on the east side of the river, and the other that on the west side, and along this latter side ran the ancient “Ponassus path named after Ponus, Sagamore of the Rippowams. This sachem’s realm embraced from the sparkling waters of Rowalton (Five Mile River) on the west towards the Pequonnocke Indians, “Gold Hill,” land on the east, and as far north as the Mohawk forests. Our fathers of 1686 paid the old Indian patriarch the compliment of naming one of their walks for him, but later “plains and places” have fared worse. The story of Naramake (Indian south-western Norwalk), antedates that of the Europeans’ occupancy of the same territory. It may be impossible to in- fallibly determine concerning our pre-historic predecessors, but the evidence is abundant that stray representatives of the five nations were in possession of the place anterior to the arrival of the white settlers; and a rational in- ference is, that the red rangers were attracted to the locality by the natural beauty of the spot. They seem to have had a strong relish for the romantic, and to have loved the outer world, the green grass, the fresh air, and the sun- and-moon-light, with remarkable ardor and our brakes and books, our fields 56 from Winnipauk, and Isaac and Abraham Camp, from Silver Mine; and Asa Hoyt, lieutenant of the old guard from below Old Well, f and forests, our inlets and islands, our rivulets and rocks, the cove, the cliff, the glen, and “fruitful spring,” unquestionably wooed them; and although the thunder-burst over “Canoe Hill” might have terrorized them, still the sleeping deep beyond “Mamachimons” beach was calculated to tranquilize them. They ranged our woods and paddled upon our waters, and turned our huge boulders into grain-grinding mortars ; while it has been shown that there were among them some who were skillful, and many, perhaps the majority, who were disposed to be peaceful.* Let the day be tardy in arriving, when, by dropping the already too few aboriginal names bequeathed us — Winnepauke, Rhoton, Cachenoes and Mahackem, we ignobly discard all recognition of these primal lords of the soil, and thereby deaden a deserved memory of the past, as well as destroy a veritable touch of the antique, which last, is not the least of the charms which conjure this old plantation, namesake, in the days of Pemenate,t of the pensive-countenanced, conquered chieftain Naramake. * There exists cause for believing, that with some exceptions, the Norwalk Indians were, as a class, singularly amiable. tPemenate was one of Naramake’s partners at the time of the “Partrick purchase.” tThe following interesting schedule is here presented. It is true that “deeds, not names, are what tell;” but names in this instance have a voice. Just three of the accompanying roll of sixty-five, remain, after the lapse of forty- seven years, as pew holders in St. Paul’s Church to-day. It was the last rental of pews in the church of 1779, previous to its removal to make room for the erection of the new church. SALE Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No.. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. Pew No. OF PEWS AT ST. PAUL’S CHURCH, APRIL, ad,, 1839, TERMS SIXTY DAYS. 1, Bates. 2, Dr. McLean. 3, MRS. Maybury. 4, William Daskam. 5, J. B. Starr. 6, 7, William St. John. 8, Lewis O. Wilson. 9, Ira Ford. 10, Stephen Mott. 11, Wm. A. Barlow. 12, Moses Gregory. 13, William St. John. 14, Benjamin Isaacs. 15, Wm. J. Street. 16, abby Hoyt, 17, Maltby Betts. 18, James Finney. 19, Mr. Cornwall. 20, s a rah Jarvis. 21, MR. Cornwall. 22, Charlotte St. John. 23, William Mallory. 24, Mr. Sherry. 25, Esther Belden. 26, MR. HUBBELL. 27, Samuel Daskam. 28, william K. James. 29, Abel Beebe. 30, Marvin Raymond. 31, Banks Smith. 32, Munson Hoyt. 33, Mrs Barnitm. 34, Gould D. Jennings. 35, Lewis Taylor. 36, \ Pew No. 37, Pew No. 38, Munson Hoyt. Pew No, 39, Pew No. 40, Abraham Camp. Pew No. 41, Mr. Bennett. Pew No. 42, Henry Bennett. Pew No. 43, wm. Daskam. Pew No. 44, Richard Camp. Pew No. 45, TALMADGE STEVENS. Pew No. 46, Pew No. 47, William K. James. Pew No. 48, A. W. STREET. Pew No. 49, Charles N. Clock. Pew No. 5o, George Hoyt. Pew No. 51, Mr. Mills Pew No. 52, Henry Parsons. Pew No. 53, John Partrick. Pew No. 54, Jonathan Camp. Pew No. 55, Eseck Kellogg. Pew No. 56, Richard Pennoyer. Pew No. 57, Pew No. 58, James Scribner. Pew No. 59, Pew No. 60, Israel Lockwood. Pew No. 61, Edwin Lockwood. Pew No. 62, Chas. VanDuzer, Pew No. 63, Frederick Jarvis. Pew No. 64, H. W. Smith. Pew No. 65, James Stevens. Pew No. 66, Charles Stevens. Pew No. 67, laavrence Stevens. Pew No. 68, Mr Elwood. Pew No. 69, Lawrence Stevens. Pew No. 70, Mr. Grumman. Pew No. 71, N. Jarvis. Pew No. 72, Samuel Street. Some of these, as may be seen, took two pews each, and three of them, viz : James Finney, Charles N. Clock, (vestryman forty-two years ago,) and Israel Lockwood, are occupants of pews in St. Paul’s to-day. Mr. Finney was grand- son of Isaac Camp; Mr. Clock came from Darien; and Mr. Lockwood from Greenwich. The former was active in Dr. Kemper’s day. These, with others who have been named, and several who have not perchance been named, helped make up the congregation which the observance to-day calls up. The names of such as took two pews each, as referred to in foot note on the opposite page, are: William Daskam, William St.John, Mr. Cornwall, and Lawrence Stevens. W’illiam Daskam was brother of Samuel, of Norwalk, and James, of Stam- ford. He married Ruah, daughter of David Boult, and built in Main street, near the south corner of the present Hoyt street, and but a short distance above the old Lockwood house, which stood in, and took up quite a portion of what is now the roadway. The stores at that time, on the west side of the street, extended, towards the north, about as far as the store of Messrs G. & S. H. Holmes, between which point and the Daskam residence was the dwelling of the widow Jabez Gregory, which, being at “The Bridge,’’ and near “The Spring,” and on “the principal street,” was one of the best known places in Norwalk. The house, in shape and size, was somewhat like the Isaacs house and it was occupied by “grandmother Gregory” until she had rounded out a century of years. Two of William Daskam’s children survive: Mrs. Judge Sidney B. Beardsley, of Bridgeport, and Miss Harriett F., of Norwalk.