Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years

ticut under which our fathers lived, which continued in force, with scarcely any alterations, for one hundred and eighty years, and which historians unite to say is "the first written Constitution known to history which created a Government," and which made Connecticut absolutely a State. "It embodied all the essential fea- tures of subsequent States, and gave to Connecticut a pre-eminent place in Constitutional history." This Con- stitution received its chief inspiration from the greatest mind in Connecticut at this time, the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford ; but it called for the first legal mind in New England to give this Constitution form and ex- pression, and justly ranks him as the greatest lawyer in the Colonies and among the leading statesmen of his age. On the 20th of April following Ludlow's purchase Capt. Daniel Patrick secured a deed from the Indians "from the middle of the river to a western bound called Noewanton," including two islands, and '"as farr up in the country as an Indian can goe in a day, from sun risinge to sun settinge." This Patrick, a soldier by pro- fession and a soldier of fortune by nature and character was one of the drifts into the Bay Colony and had drifted here. He came to a violent death, the record reading: "He was killed by a Dutchman, who shot him dead with a pistol." Ludlow held his purchase for ten years, when he sold it to the founders of Norwalk for the sum of £15, which included interest, with the principal for his ori- ginal outlay. History does not tell us who may have projected the settlement of Norwalk. We only know that Ludlow, having reserved a lot for his sons, young lads at this date, to the value of £200, made over the deed to the territory here, stipulating that the plantation should be begun within a given time, to be taken up by no less than thirty families, and that, once here, they should invite an orthodox and approved minister "with all convenient speed." Moreover, that "they will not receive in any that they be obnoxious to the publique good of the Commonwealth of Connecticut." These con- ditions were inserted in Ludlow's deed in accordance with a Connecticut law at that time, which was that be- fore a company should be allowed to enter upon the work of a new settlement, the General Court required that they should prove themselves capable of colonizing a town and of maintaining a minister. Nathaniel Ely and Richard Olmstead, in behalf of 130 themselves and others, at a session of the General Court of Connecticut, obtained "approbation of the Court for the planting of Norwalk," having made the previous arrangement with Roger Ludlow for his interests on the east side of the river. Ludlow continued to live in Fairfield until 1654, when for raising a little home-made army on his own account, to make war on the Dutch — a rash act but in- spired by patriotism — he again incurred the displeasure of the General Court at Hartford and again received a reprimand. This, and the fact that he had just been fined at New Haven for telling a woman she lied — which was probably correct — and for suggesting that she was a witch — and she was queer — made him particularly sore. Feeling that he was unjustly humiliated and had lost his prestige, he determined to return to England, which he did. Roger Ludlow possessed many elements of great- ness. He was a man of political sagacity and prophetic vision, and was a sound exponent of political and re- ligious liberty. The fact that he was mentally arbitrary, and indisposed to allow authority to stand in the way of his personal wishes, stood in his way, and in the way of his highest ambitions. When he left the colony under a sense of injury and disappointment, he also left it under lasting obligations for the twenty-four- years of his event- ful and fruitful life in it, which merit and will have the acknowledgments of candid history. I would be glad if I could, to claim so famous a man as Roger Ludlow as the founder of Norwalk. All that history says is, that Ludlow purchased of the Indians the eastern part' of Norwalk and resold it to the planters. Whatever this transaction makes him in relation to Nor- walk, that he was. There is nothing easier to believe than that we would like to believe. He certainly is en- titled to be called the Founder of Fairfield. For one I am not gifted with sufficient creative, or at least, interpre- tative imagination to enable me to call him the founder of Norwalk. These planters also obtained a confirmation to themselves of Capt. Patrick's purchase, and on the February following, secured a deed from Ruckineage and other Indians for an additional tract west of Pat- rick's purchase at Routon. The spring of 165 1 found the planters on their way here, with their slim household effects and their cattle. 181 The women rode on horses, the men tramped, and all encamped where night overtook them, until they reached this promised land. Tradition — which ds doubt- less well founded — has it, that they were welcomed by some who had spent the previous winter here, anticipat- ing the necessities of the company. They were as to age mostly in middle life. They were families. Of those fearless women who bore their husbands' names history is silent. It were fairer history had it told us something of the fairer part of that company who bore their full share in the sacrifices of those early days, and without whom the settlement here would have been impossible. These Nor walk planters did not have among them eminent men. They were simply honest, earnest Eng- lishmen and women, who in their early years had shown character and resolution enough to break with hostile conditions, and to leave a land that was unkind. Hol- lister — the historian of Connecticut — finds, however, that "more than four-fifths of the early landed proprietors of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor" — whence came our ancestors — "belonged to families which had arms granted to them in Great Britain." Whatever their ancestry, they were here battling with nature, making for them- selves not the records of family pedigree, but the patents of extraordinary history. Their home discontent was quickened, no doubt, by the instinct of colonization, which is natural to many, and which enables us to under- stand in part, why it was, that after previous settlements had become comfortable, so many were moved to leave them and to penetrate anew into the deeper wilderness west. It was the stirring of that same instinct which has ever since been whispering of boundless possibilities fur- ther on, in the magic words "go west," and which begin- ning with the Pilgrims, has belted the continent with their descendants and their ideas. Our ancestors read in their Bibles — their one book, which they literally ac- cepted— "The earth is the Lord's." They had the assur- ance that they were the Lord's people. They read, "The meek shall inherit the earth," and they appropriated both the text and the territory. The names of Norwalk's founders are in the ancient records. Among them are some very familiar now: Fitch, Marvin, Gregory, Hoyt, Bouton, Ely, Holmes. Keeler, Morgan, Olmstead, Richards, St. John, Seymour, and, a little later, Benedict, Betts, Belden, Church, Com- 183 stock, Ketcham, Lockwood, Nash, Raymond, Stewart and Taylor. Once here and organized, the "Towne Street" was staked out, that part of East avenue which extends from the ancient burial ground to the top of Earl Hill. Home lots were assigned, other land being held in common. The limitation of about four acres was for the sake of compactness and common safety. It is pleasant for us to be able accurately to locate these early homes. The building of their shelters was the first necessity. ^ This meant the beginning of the end of the forests. The trees swayed and fell, but with their departed pride came their usefulness. Log upon log the little cabin struc- tures arose. The floors, when not of the solid earth, were of split logs as smooth as their axes could hew them. The seed for the next season must be got into the ground as soon as the patches could be made ready. These were busy days. Meanwhile the women were not meeting in their respective clubs. They were "stepping lively" at home. These men did not convert trees into habitations living on faith only. The inner man could have faith, but it took the outer man to swing an axe and to dig the soil that never had been disturbed since it was created; and the outer man called for his break- fast, dinner and supper. Besides, everyone knows that eating is one of the English traits. It was already a characteristic before 1651. Their meals were not served in course, but they were served of course, and if not elaborate, yet were substantial that iron might be in the blood of these hungry English pioneers. The next door neighbor of this new settlement was Stamford, ten years old. New Haven, also, where Davenport had led his followers thirteen years before this settlement, was ac- cessible. There could, therefore, be some trading from the first. We read, for example, in our town records, that a corn mill, which had been erected almost immediately, did not prove satisfactory, and that in 1654 it was voted to discontinue it. There had been a grist mill in Stam- ford for nearly ten years. The planters were thus tided over the bars until three years later a second corn mill was erected, which answered until a third one was pro- vided. After the dwellings and the absolute and immediate provisions for life were assured, they turned their first attention to the erection of a "meeting house." Their ) 133