Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years

18 Cannon Home — Here ''Commodore" John Cannon lived. 19 Site of Third Meeting House — Old glass has here been found, the remains of window glazing. Tryon burnt the church. 20 Parsonage — Belonging to First Congregational Church. The earliest. 21 Colonel Thomas Fitch's Home Cottage — Bought by Governor Thomas Fitch while his son, Colonel Thomas, was absent to the Northern wars. 22 "Yankee Doodle" House — The grounds — not house — of Colonel Thomas Fitch, in derision of whose scantily and varied kind of uniform the verses of "Yankee Doodle" were composed by the British. 23 Gov. Thomas Fitch's Home — Lived and died here. He was one of the first Governors of Connecticut. 24 Site of Second Meeting — On "Meeting House Hill," now site of residence of Rev. Dr. Augustus F. Beard, on East Avenue. 25 Hon. Samuel Fitch's Home Cottage — The timbers of the old house are still in existence, it is believed, and retained. 26 Site of First Meeting House — One window — sup- posed to have been inclosed by a palisade for the protection against the Indians. 27 Rev. Thomas Hanford's Home — Where first minis- ter lived — the old well is still standing. 28 Old Cemetery — Where the town settlers were buried — now in charge of the Norwalks' Historical and Memorial Library Association, by authority of the Legislature. 185 29 Site of Old Blacksmith Shop — Remnants of iron have been found here. 30 Site of First School House — Here the children of perhaps the second generation of settlers were taught. ' 31 Fort Point — An Indian fortification against the Dutch and Indians. A ferry at this point connected the two sides of Norwalk river, near the Railroad bridge. 32 The Roger Ludlow Monument — Marks the vicinity of the spot where the purchase of the site was ar- ranged by Roger Ludlow in 1640. 33 Landing of Tryon on the shore — Now marked by a stone with proper inscription. The British landed here in July 1779- 34 Opening shot at Garth's Men — Fired by a Raymond, it is supposed, from this spot, which it is believed embittered the British against the Americans. 35 General Sherman's Ancestors' Flome — The Hoyt house, where Mary Hoyt, mother of General Wil- liam T. and Hon. John Sherman was born and lived until her marriage. The ride was devised by Mrs. Weed, Regent of the Norwalk Chapter, in response to a call from the Execu- tive Committee of the celebration, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants. It is proper to add that if the limit had been extended and carriages had been substituted for trolley cars, the number of historic spots, including several which have been marked by the Nor- walk Chapter, D. A. R., could easily have been doubled. AFTERNOON EXERCISES, SEPT. nth. In the Armory on the afternoon there was a large audience. Hon. E. J. Hill presided. MUSIC, Band NATIONAL HYMN, : To Thee, O Country PRAYER, Rev. Charles A. Downs. MUSIC, Band HISTORICAL ADDRESS, "The Building of Norwalk." Rev. Augustus Field Beard, D.D. MUSIC, . ... Star Spangled Baner POEM, "A Sweet and Hallowed Time." Rev. John Gaylord Davenport, D.D. 126 ADDRESS, Hon. Orville H. Pratt, United States Senator, Connecticut. ANTHEM, Composed by Mr. Alexander S. Gibson. BENEDICTION. HISTORICAL ADDRESS. (By Augustus Field Beard, D. D.) THE BUILDING OF NORWALK. The founders of Norwalk were not an aesthetic people, but they must have recognized and rejoiced in the natural beauty of their location. There was enough to excite the admiration of the pioneers in the landscapes which greeted them — the outlook on the beautiful inland sea, with the islands like pearls on its bosom, the in- dented shores beckoning the crested waves and setting the bounds to their welcome. But the delightful land- scapes of to-day were to them not altogether gladsome. Wild nature at once made a sharp challenge upon their courage and patience. Great tracts of unbroken wooded country confronted them. In the openings of the forest, weeds and thorns, decaying and decayed wood from fallen trees — the debris of centuries — swamps from un- drained land, like one vast sponge, hoarding the rains of summer and treasuring the snows of winter, asked for something other than pleasant emotions from these rugged men and brave women, heroic together in their faun and enterprise. Here, where since creation no man ever built a home — unless the wigwam of the rest- less Indian might be called a home — came thirty families to put smiles and laughter in our landscapes as they reclaimed the wilderness. Let us look at these, our ancestors. To do so we must remember that their settlement here was not impro- vised when they came from Hartford and Windsor. The events which both formed their characters and shaped their history, had their roots extending quite as widely into times before their day as the branches have stretched out since they came. Great influences had been work- ing in patient continuity through centuries, never halting in God's purpose and never abrupt in their movements, by which their minds were met, directed and prepared 187 for the events which asked for their choices and their decisions. Like other settlements of this period, the story of Norwalk has a great background of history. To interrogate it no further back than when our ancestors were children, we find a wonderful age of men- tal activity in England, which had its far beginnings in the renaissance — the revival of learning — in Europe. With this quickening of intellectual life came a new intel- ligence, with a remarkable succession of inventions and discoveries, and, better yet, with new conceptions of life and of the religious freedom and responsibility of man, which began to change the whole order of society and to widen the whole domain of thought and inquiry. Eng- land especially felt this new mental energy. But with this quickening of popular thought came conflict be- tween the old tyrannies over the minds of men and the new forces of intelligence: a growing demand for per- sonal, religious and political liberty, and a determined and cruel resistance to this demand, which in the time of our ancestors made the pages of England a crimson history. The chariot wheels of God do not turn back- ward, and when people had come to realize that the divine right of many not only is better but also has bet- ter foundations than the divine right of any one, though he may be seated on a throne, no penalties could con- vince them to the contrary, and exile in a wilderness in- habited only by savage men and savage beasts seemed happiness in comparison with the surrender of their con- victions. It was this spirit which peopled the rocky coasts of Plymouth in 1620, and later in 1630 sent the succeeding colonies to Salem, Charlestown, Boston. Watertown, Mystic, Dorchester and Lynn, in the Mas- sachusetts Bay Company, with its seventeen ships, and John Winthrop, Governor, and Roger Ludlow, one of the Magistrates. The leaders of this Company were remarkable men. Roger Ludlow, now forty years of age, was one of these leaders. The followers were not quite ordinarv men. They were men of strong character, picked men, though most of them had ordinary attainments. They had taken on the healthy discontent at home. They had been in- oculated with the ideas of religious freedom and politi- cal liberty. They saw no future for themselves or their descendants at home. They came here for a future. Their thoughts went beyond the present. Nor is it necessary to believe that in their heavenly considerations 4~ ■ they were altogether oblivious of earthly advantages. Not a few of those who hungered and thirsted after righteousness had the land hunger also, and were willing to work for both together in the wilderness. They could only look at the land in England ; they could get it here. This is not to say that no mere adventurers worked them- selves in. The river which starts from the pure streams of the everlasting hills, on its onward sweep to the sea, always bears upon it not only the rich freights of com- merce, but also the logs and rubbish which have fallen in. This colonization, however, was comparatively free from restless and unstable elements. This Bay Colony settled mainly in Dorchester, and here Roger Ludlow lived four years. He was honored in Dorchester, but not enough for his ambitions. Dis- appointed, he turned his thoughts to the formation of a Colony on the Connecticut River, and finally gained per- mission for this. Many followed him in this new emi- gration, and after a fourteen days' journey — for they did not take the express trains, which now make it in four hours — they came to their destinations. The party divided, some choosing Hartford, some Wethersfield, and others going with Ludlow to Windsor. Here he was again recognized by the Connecticut colony for his masterly ability, and became Deputy Governor; but feeling that he was not recognized enough, after four years at Windsor, as at Dorchester, he sought new con- ditions. The General Court at Hartford granted him a commission to begin a plantation at Pequannocke, now Bridgeport. Instead of doing this he settled at what is now Fairfield, giving its name. For exceeding his com- mission he was reprimanded by the General Court, but his purchase was confirmed, and, though irregular, was sagacious. On February 26, 1640, he was residing in Fairfield, for it was then — apparently on his own personal respon- sibility, also — that he purchased from the Indians of Nor- walk the territory which now constitutes the eastern part of it, viz.: "the grounds between the Twoe Rivers, the one called Norwalke, the other Soakatuck to the middle of saved Rivers a day's walke into the country." As the name of Roger Ludlow is inseparably con- nected with the beginnings of Norwalk, it may be well to follow his history. He was either Assistant or Deputy Governor of Connecticut every year for nineteen years. In 1639 it was he who drew the Constitution of Connec- ts