Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years

United States minister to the empire of Russia, such rearing is entitled to remark if nothing more than in the interests of ethnology. Why was such a perceptible percentage of Norwalk's second and third generation men of consideration. Joseph Piatt and his son were over fifty years in the colonial legislature. Thomas Fitch was year after year lieutenant governor and sev- eral years governor. Matthew Campfield had such high repute abroad that the King of England nominated him a charter member of Connecticut's royal patent, and Samuel Fitch was constituted a commonwealth gover- nor's adviser. Had character nothing to do with promo- tion in these cases? Were strong religious scruples noth- ing of a leverage in these instances; or, if a modern il- lustration be asked, was it a miserable ideal which gave to this place in the person of Eli B. Bennett one whose half century's Norwalk debtor and credit treasury ac- counts balanced to a single cent. Something ruled Henry Whitney or he could have hardly ruled the settles as he did in 1664, and his descen- dant, Stephen Whitney, followed quite naturally on. Still to trace descendants down from an old glory line, the heroic Daniel Ketchum from Joseph Ketchum and his Taylor wife ; or the Master in Israel, Dr. Joel Ben- edict from Thomas and Bridget Benedict, or the wife of the distinguished president, Charles King, from Ne- hemiah and Elizabeth Rogers, or the hardy and intrepid younger and older Rear Admiral Francis H. Gregory from a Norwalk pillar in the great John Davenport's New Haven church, all this would be lawful were Sun- day the day and this the hour for the same. The seed which Thomas Hanford planted bore fruit, which fruit is fact to-day. , The church and secular histories of early Norwalk are so closely coetaneous that to pursue the one is al- most necessarily to indicate the other. Stephen Buckingham was the successor of Thomas Hanford and the town at the former's advent had con- siderably changed in the poulation particular at least. The first generation had about disappeared and those who were young at Norwalk's planting were, fifty years later, aged, while the children of Mr. Hanford's junior years were the middle-aged subjects of his successor's ministrations. The tide of progress was setting gradu- ally in. The new second meeting house was still further improved, and the first tide mill erected. Samuel Car- 82 ter had arrived and Benjamin Lynes and Ralph Isaacs and soon plans for a third fine church discussed and two school districts provided for and quite an oyster plant already proposed. Mr. Buckingham was not a narrow gauge man. His London-purchased library adorned a minister's home which was presided over by Mary Willet's daughter Sarah, a grandchild of the first mayor of New York and one of the most refined ladies of the colony, a home which after ward formed the birth spot of some of the merchant princes of the continent. It is true that after years of diligence and devotion a little cloud arose in Mr. Buckingham's horizon, but who can declare its exact why and wherefore. The great- grandson of Thomas Buckingham, of Saybrook, and the Yale-honored Harvard young man, was of no mean status. Following Mr. Buckingham came, in 1727, a New Jersey man of thirty-five in whose brother's dwelling Princeton college was born. Moses Dickinson, the son of a trader, and whose mother was of the Stratford Blake- man family, a descendant of which has erected the stone library in Stratford which so adorns the main street of that place, was one of the finest appearing men in the colony. His tomb and that of his parishioner, Col. Ste- phen St. John, lie in proximity and the earth, in both in- stances, covers the dust of the accredited two handsomest people in pre-Revolutionary Norwalk. Mr. Dickinson's manners as he walked up the new stone steps which had been laid at the east door of his East avenue church, (now site of Thomas residence), were striking. He was of exceptional parts and a typical best citizen of New England. His advent to Norwalk was marked by the parting with some of his choicest wheat wherewith to sow New Canaan and Wilton. A number of his flock identified themselves with the former place which in June last dignifiedly and delightfully kept its anniversary and which has given to science and humanity a Samuel St. John and to the service of the state a Samuel Raymond, and as late as this day and in the flower of his faculties a John H. Light. Of Wilton it is honor enough for the moth- er town and church now to recall the names of her Moses Stuart and Dr. David Benjamin Belden and Prof. Hawley Olmstead,. St. Paul's church was organized soon after Mr. Dick- inson arrived which Dickinson and the son of the builder of the first structure used by Yale after its establishment in New Haven, the first rector of St. Paul, cared, spirit- ually, for the Norvvalk fold. Mr. Dickinson and Drs. Judd and Learning, the last two of St. Paul's, lived neighbors for many years. The stormy period of the Revolution set in and the clergy of the two churches held opposite views but both were remarkable men. Dr. Learning was Mr. Dickinson's contemporary until with- in one year of the burning of both these men's churches, Mr. Dickinson dying, beloved and lamented, on May day, 1778 and Mr. Learning removing from the town to be thereafter buried in New Haven. Governor Thom- as Fitch was of Mr. Dickinson's flock and Dr. Uriah Rogers, and the future Chancellor Kent was a school boy in one of his families, while next door to his house was born the afterward godly, gifted and widely cele- brated Bishop Abraham Jarvis, the successor of Sea- bury in the American Episcopate. The town in Pastor Dickinson's day fast grew, its directory embracing such noticeable names as Capt. John Thatcher, Col. Eliphalet Lockwood, Samuel Jarvis, Asa Hoyt, Nathaniel Bouton, Dr. Thaddeus Betts, John Belden, John Piatt, Nathan Nash, Dennis Wright, Ebenezer Church and Nathan Mallory. Mr. Dickinson was assisted by Rev. William Tennent and followed by Dr. Matthias Burnet, who, coming in this place in 1785, was the first occupant of the pulpit, so remembered for its neatness, in the reverently recalled structure that stood on the Green almost facing the site of this edifice. Our old people were wont to speak with feeling regard of Dr. Burnet after whom came Roswell R. Swan, of Eastern Connecticut and memory dear to the generation just past. The day of his funeral saw the town in mourning and the cortege from the par- sonage to the Town Hill cemetery was a sorrowing one. During Dr. Burnet and Mr. Swan's incumbences St. Paul enjoyed the charge of the scholarly John Bowden, the well fitted Dr. William Smith, the interesting Ogilvie, the endeared Henry Wrhitlock and the energetic Dr. Reuben Sherwood. Both societies prospered under the oversight of these different men and were an influence in the history town. During the ministrations of Dr. Burnet and the temporary supply of Mr. Foot at St. Paul's, Methodism was planted, in Norwalk. The few whom Cornelius Cook in 1787 and Jesse Lee in 1789 impressed grew, ul- timately, to a vigorous body; and when a score or two years later a zealous elder visited the spot and hinted to 24 Absalom Day with reference to a subscription for an abiding home for the faithful of that persuasion, Mr. Day at once acted upon the suggestion and himself headed a column, the footing up of which exhibited a handsome sum total. Holmes Saunders, of the present Elm crest became deeply interested and with two or three others secured the lot on lower West avenue which is now beau- tified by one of the most commodious and attractive tem- ples of worship in the commonwealth. The Methodist body is entitled to high praise. It has built five churches in Middle Xorwalk and several chapels outside, and since the days that a few of its mem- bers were accustomed to sing and pray in the little almost rock overhung cottage slightly to the west of what was then known as the "old well road," has accomplished a great work for the Master. Absolom Day and Matthew Wilcox will live in Xorwalk Christian annals and the name of Hill is one wherewith to exaltedly incite the mem- bers of that earnest and influential communion. While the Methodist clergy on account of their distinctive sys- tem have not remained in Xorwalk as long as their brethren of other names, still their ardent promulgation of evangelical truth and their warm support of whatever is of good report entitle them to distinguished mention. After Mr. Swan came Rev. Sylvester Eaton, who was introduced to his people by Eliza Susan, daughter of Capt. Hezekiah Betts. Miss Betts was an instructress and benefactress whose merits deserve monumental memory perpetuation. Two of her brothers became ministers of Christ while another brother, Henry, was the actual originator of the Rotary Printing press. Mr. Ea- ton remained some six years, when the ministriesful Henry Benedict, in 1828, filled a brief pastoral term. Then succeeded, in 1832, Edwin Hall, whose claim upon this community's deep and lasting esteem is most valid. He was a thinker. His talent was due to reflection. He was not an orator but, rather, a calm, impassioned advo- cate of revealed truth whose expositions of the same were extraordinarily clear and convincing. He was a stranger to speculation. Such strong men of the strong Fairfield County Bar as Clark Bissell, Thaddeus Betts, Thomas B. Butler and Mason Carter were drawn to him because, not of gesture, nor of cadence, but because of Edwin Hall's soundness and incomptibility. Like Theo- philus Smith, of X'ew Canaan, with whose doctrinal views he was in entire accord and who was one of his most in- timate friends he had a mind and a heart for his work. Norwalk to the end of its history will remain his insolvent debtor. He loved the town and did a valuable work in compiling" and preserving its ancient records. Rev. C. M. Selleck's Address — Continued.