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

William St. John, of Pews Nos. 7 and 13, was son of William, Sr., and Mary Esther (Belden) St. John. The belief which has obtained in Norwalk is, that three Sensions (St. Johns) came at first to this land. One of this country’s genealogists appears to disclaim this, affirming, “I have read too many records to tolerate” the belief, nevertheless, there was evidently a father and son (Matthias, Sr. and Jr.), in Norwalk, in 1655, and Dr. Hall, in his valuable compilation from the ancient records, mentions the name of Matthew, also, while it seems that there was a St. John in Dorchester, in 1634. William, of St. Paul’s Church, married Esther, daughter of James and Rebecca (Goold) Cannon. His house was a fine old style structure, and stood at the lower end of High street. Other than Esther (Mrs. William St. John), James Cannon’s children were Sarah (Mrs. Jonathan Fitch), Amelia (Mrs. Garrett Harson Newkirk) and Mary (Mrs. George Lockwood). The children of Mrs. Jonathan Fitch were Mrs. Stephen Raymond, and Mrs. James Mallory ; and the children of Garrett H. Newkirk were Mrs. Jonathan Camp, Mrs. Reuben A. Williams, Margaret Bennett, Mrs. Adelaide Quigley, and the late James Newkirk ; and the children of Mrs. George Lockwood were Sarah, Mary, and James, who is one of the solid men (financially), of Ohio; and the children of Mrs. William St. John were Mrs. Munson Hoyt, Mrs. Charles Sherry, Mrs. Francis Skiddy, Mrs. J. A. VanZandt, and William and Frederick St. John. Mrs. Charlotte St. John, of Pew 22, was the second wife of Stephen Buck- ingham St. John, brother of William, of Pew 7. Stephen B. St. John’s first wife was a daughter of John Cannon. His second wife, Charlotte (Bush) St. John, was the mother of Mrs. James A. Hoyt, who has succeeded to the owner- ship of the historic Grumman’s Hill property. Mr. Cornwall was another who rented two pews. Thomas, the father of William Cornwall, came from Middletown. His wife was a Miss Mary Beers, from Stratford. They lived near Mr. Thomas Benedict, Down Town, and had four sons, William, Grove, Josiali, and George. Grove and George took up their homes in Milford, and Josiah and William resided in Norwalk. Josiah married in this town, but died in earlier life. William married Lucinda, daughter of Noah Nash, of Westport, and his children were Lorinda (Mrs. John B. Hunter), Mary Ann (Mrs. Samuel Gor- ham), Esther (Mrs. Eli K. Street), Eliza (Mrs. William D. Haight), Catharine (Mrs. Charles S. Lockwood), Sarah (Mrs. Charles C. Brooks). Thomas, William, John, Robert, and Louisa (Mrs. George F. Belden). Mrs. William Cornwall’s uncle and aunt, Luke and Jemima Keeler, of Norwalk, removed, probably in the “Prairie Schooner” (a large traveling vehicle), to the West, and were among the founders of St. Paul’s parish, in Norwalk, Ohio. The Cornwalls adhered to their church, and of William, at his death, Dr. Kemper said : “He was to me a brother, a counsellor, and a helper.” His services as lay reader and chorister, were of no trifling importance to the parish ; and albeit he has gone, and his old choir has disappeared, and other choirs have been formed, to be in their turn displaced, yet such ministrations are not lost forever. The blessings, which those who lead in our praises bequeath, are abiding. Lawrence Stevens was the last of the four, who in 1839, took two pews each. He was son of Ebenezer Stevens by his first wife. Before coming to Norwalk, Ebenezer Stevens resided in Bethel. His first wife was Miss Chloe Fairchild, 58 It is to the credit of the men in this parish, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, that they so promptly took up the challenge of New Fairfield, Connecticut. Himself and boys, (Lawrence M. and Talmadge) and one daughter, Harriet, came to Norwalk, and he here married Susan, the daughter of .Richard Camp, Sr. The children of this marriage were Mary, Emily (Mrs. Ebenzer Ayres, of New Canaan), and Augusta (Mrs. Alexander Grey, of Madison, Wisconsin.) Lawrence M. Stevens married Catharine, daughter of Stephen St. John, of Norwalk. He died over thirty years ago, and left a donation to St. Paul’s church. Talmadge, the brother of Lawrence, married, first, Louisa Humphreys, and for his second wife, Rebecca Bigelow. The two Mrs. Talmadge Stevens were cousins, and both were from Concord, Michigan. The children of Talmadge are Mary (Mrs. Charles Tucker), Sarah Louise (Mrs. Thomas Moores), and Josephine. Others of the pew list of 1839 not before alluded to are Walter Bates, of Darien ; Mrs. Maybury, (mother of Grace, Lucy and Mary, and of Charles, who married Harriet, daughter of Stephen Smith, whose office it often was to preside at parish meetings); John B. Starr, an educator of Norwalk, who was efficient in St. Paul’s parish and in its Sunday school ; Ira Ford, of Flax Hill ; Abby Hoyt (Mrs. Walter Hoyt, a daughter of Samuel Bouton, and whose son Walter married a daughter of Mr. Charles F. Raymond); Maltby Betts, (son of Hon. Thad- deus Betts, and brother of Charles C. and Frederick T.) ; William Mallory, (son of John Mallory), who married a member of St. Paul’s, and granddaughter of Samuel M. Fitch; Abel Beebe, (father of Linus L. Beebe, a former vestryman). Banks Smith, whose children and grandchildren belong to St. Paul’s; Mrs. Barnum (Mrs. Henrietta Barnum). Her father (Samuel Collins), was of noble family, and a cousin of Sir Garnet Wolseley. Her sister was the late Mrs. Dorinda Lockwood, and her brother Samuel was father of Mrs. Dr. Wakeman, and of Mrs. Mary Read, of Redding, Connecticut. Mrs. Barnum taught in the old church academy and elsewhere, and some of the present communicants of St. Paul’s were her pupils. Lord Wolseley, after his return to England from his military campaign in the east, gave courteous evidence of his regard for his Norwalk and Redding cousins. The town of Redding — anciently Reading — took its name from the family of Mrs. Read’s husband. The “Goodale sis- ters,” authoresses and poetesses, who, some years since, wrote from “Skye- farm,” and who drew their inspiration so largely from nature, are neices of Mr. and Mrs. Read. Elaine, one of the sisters, was a recent contributor, to the Churchman, of an article upon the Indian Question, she being, at the present time, an active ally, under the direction of a western bishop, of the Indian Commission. Lewis Taylor, of Pew No. 35, was son of Paul Taylor, and uncle of Alfred Taylor, of Poplar Plains. He was brother to the grandmother of Mrs. Charles T. Leonard, and of a family of established church repute. Mr. Bennett (John F.) and Henry Bennett, of Pews Nos. 41 and 42, were both of the old Norwalk families. A. W. Street (Alonzo Warren Street), was from West Norwalk. George Hoyt, of Pew No. 50, was a communicant of, and a constant attend- ant at St. Paul’s. He married Miss Lucy Allen, of Westport, and was father of Ann Eliza, Catharine (Mrs. Hart Denton), and Jane M. (Mrs. James W. Hyatt,) and Edwin and Gould. Mr. Mills (Stephen F. Mills), of Pew No. 51, resided in South Norwalk. Mr. Mills was from Flushing, L. I., and his wife was a daughter of Captain Curtis Peck, Sr., and sister of Captains Curtis Peck, Jr., Galatian Peck, and William Henry Peck. Captain Curtis Peck, Jr., who resided for some time on the Timothy T. Merwin place, commanded the Norwalk and New York steamer CATALINE, which was named after his wife, who was Miss Catalina Meserole, of Brooklyn. Thomas L. Peck, vestryman of St. Paul’s, was son of Jonathan Peck (son of Jonathan Richard), and his children were Mary, wife of the Rev. Joshua Kimber ; Thomas L., Jr., who married Anna, daughter of the late Asa E. Smith; and Anna, deceased. Stephen F. Mills’ children were Henrietta, who is buried in St. Paul’s yard, and Mary. Parish clerk Charles T. Leonard is cousin to Thomas L. Peck, Sr. Jonathan, the father of Thomas L. Peck, Sr., had four brothers, viz. ; Curtis, Sr., Elijah, Charles, and William, two of whom, Jonathan and Elijah, married sisters of Mr. C. T. Leonard’s mother, who was a Cornell. Henry Parsons, of Pew No. 52, was a young man, known in Norwalk society. John Partrick, of Pew No. 53, and brother of Lewis, was from the north- eastern portion of the parish. 59 which then- predecessors, at the close of the century before, had thrown down. The subscription paper of 1792 was followed, a few Richard Pennoyer, of Pew No. 56, was from Westport, and married a sister of Charles Adams. The name of James H. Scribner, of Pew No. 58, recalls the fact that upon the roll of the last century members of St. Paul’s, occurs mention of Uriah Scribner. The first (Skribner in 1680, but Scribner thereafter) was Benjamin. He married a soldier’s daughter, in 1678-80, and had four sons, one of whom appears to have been the grandparent of Uriah Roger Scribner, son of Dr. Uriah Rogers, Sr’s daughter Abigail, who married a Scribner. Said son was born in 1779, and if he be the Uriah Scribner of St. Paul’s, he was later the New York city merchant of that name. James H. Scribner, of 1839, was a descendant, it is probable, of one of the four brothers (Thomas, John, Abra- ham, and Matthew), sons of the original Benjamin and Hannah (Crampton) Scribner. Edwin Lockwood, of Pew No. 61, son of Ebenezer, and father of the present Charles, owned the house and grounds upon “the Green” which are now the property of Morgan T. Smith. Charles VanDuzer, of Pew No. 62, was son of Mrs. Nancy VanDuzer, after- ward Mrs. Lewis Bennett. Mrs. VanDuzer’s children were Charles, Whitlock, Mary (Mrs. Isaac V. Brower, of New Jersey; Mr. I. V. Brower is a cousin of Mr. Charles DeHart Brower, who married Miss Mary H. Bailey, of Norwalk); and Ann Eliza (Mrs. Eli S. Quintard, of New Haven). Mrs. Bennett had but one child. Miss Nancy Elizabeth Bennett, afterward Mrs. Jonathan R. Peck, and now Mrs. David Demarest.