Chapter XIII: Introduction: By George Perry Morris (11)

The Theological Department may be said to have existed from the beginning, theology having been one of the chief studies for a hundred years. It has existed as a separate department since 1822, and the Law Department was established the same year. The Medical Department was organized in 1812. The Scientific Department originated in 1846 in a professorship in agricultural chemistry and another in analytical chemistry, and since 1859 has occupied separate buildings as a distinct department.

Yale has always been progressive in respect to the Fine Arts. On receiving the collection of Colonel Trumbull, embracing many pictures of scenes and participators in the Revolutionary War, a building was erected for their exhibition on the campus. Lecture courses were given and interest so far developed that later a large and beautiful building was erected for the purposes of an art school, which has attained great success.

Yale shows that she well deserves her reputation by more than doubling the number of her students within twenty years. The present attendance is upwards of twenty-five hundred, drawn from all parts of the world. The only aristocracy at Yale is that of brains and character, and it is a significant comment on this state of affairs to note that the sons of millionaires frequently do without the luxuries to which they are accustomed, to avoid being classed merely as rich men’s sons. The Yale spirit recognizes manliness and industry as paramount qualities, and none stands higher among his fellows than the poor boy who courageously works his way through college, overcoming the obstacles that lie in his way, and maintaining an honorable rank in his class.

New Haven has sought to preserve memories and mementoes of her historic existence, and the Historical Society building, at the foot of Hillhouse Avenue, never fails to quicken the pulses of the antiquary. Here he finds one of Benjamin Franklin’s Leyden jars; Benedict Arnold’s badly punctuated sign, his account-book, medicine chest, mortar and pestle; the table on which Noah Webster wrote the Dictionary; a silver spoon that once belonged to Commodore Isaac Hull (said to have been in his mouth when he was born); and an almost endless collection of relics, rare portraits and books.

Of famous houses, many are still standing: two of Benedict Arnold’s; the dwelling of Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, the city’s first mayor and a United States Senator; the Trowbridge house, built in 1642 by an original settler; the Noah Webster house and others of less interest. One of the “famous spots” is the northwest corner of Union and Fair Streets, where once stood the house of Isaac Allerton, a Pilgrim of the _Mayflower_. A tablet has been placed on the present building bearing the following inscription:

“Isaac Allerton, a Pilgrim of the _Mayflower_, and
the Father of New England Commerce, lived
on this Ground from 1646 till 1659.”

Across the way, on the southeast corner, stands an old house bearing the announcement that this was the birthplace of Andrew Hull Foote, Rear Admiral of the United States Navy.

Center Church, near the centre of the Green on Temple Street, stands over what was formerly a portion of the original burying-ground, and but a few feet from the site of the first meeting-house. From its historic associations it is one of the most interesting churches in the country. Over the principal entrance are these inscriptions:

QUINNIPIAC CHOSEN FOR SETTLEMENT, A.D. 1637.

* * * * *

THE WILDERNESS AND THE SOLITARY PLACE SHALL BE MADE GLAD FOR THEM.

* * * * *

O GOD OF HOSTS LOOK DOWN FROM HEAVEN AND BEHOLD AND VISIT THIS
VINE.

* * * * *

A.D. 1638, A COMPANY OF ENGLISH CHRISTIANS LED BY JOHN DAVENPORT
AND THEOPHILUS EATON WERE THE FOUNDERS OF THIS
CITY. HERE THEIR EARLIEST HOUSE OF WORSHIP WAS
BUILT A.D. 1639.

* * * * *

THE FIRST CHURCH BEGINNING WITH WORSHIP IN THE OPEN AIR APRIL 15
(O. S.), WAS THE BEGINNING OF NEW HAVEN, AND WAS ORGANIZED AUG. 22
(O. S.), 1639. THIS HOUSE WAS DEDICATED TO THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN
CHRIST DEC. 27, 1814.

Dr. Leonard Bacon was for many years pastor of this church. Underneath is a crypt containing the remains and tombstones of many of the Puritan fathers and their families; and here lies the body of Abigail Pierson, sister of the first president of Yale, and wife of John Davenport, Jr.

While around and beneath Center Church “the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,” the oldest cemetery now existing is that on Grove Street. Many distinguished sons of New Haven are buried there, among them Rear-Admiral Andrew H. Foote, General Amos B. Eaton, Admiral Francis H. Gregory, General Alfred H. Terry, Noah Webster, Lyman Beecher, Benjamin Silliman, Theodore Winthrop, Jedediah Morse (father of American geography), the elder President Dwight and President Day, Colonel David Humphreys, aide on the staff of General Washington, Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton-gin, Jehudi Ashmun, first colonial agent at Liberia, Governors Ingersoll, Baldwin, Edwards, and many others eminent in business and professional life.

Tottering old men sometimes point to places where Nathan Hale made his great leap, where

John C. Calhoun got his boots made, where Joel Barlow ate his hasty pudding, the porch where Commodore Hull liked to sit; and tell no end of stories about visits of Lafayette, James Monroe and “Old Hickory.” These are innocent chroniclers, forgetting the present in the glorious past, and we must allow a little for the play of the imagination; but when they aver that Noah Webster, as a lieutenant commanding a company of Yale students, once escorted General Washington through the town and received a compliment therefor, an approving nod is in order, for the great lexicographer recorded the incident in his diary “at the day and time of it.”

Visitors frequently refer to the city as an overgrown village. It is hard for a New York man to realize as he strolls through the ample grounds of his New Haven friends, that he is in a city of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants. The value put upon breathing-places is shown in the large tracts of land devoted to public purposes. One walks hardly ten minutes in any direction without coming upon a square shaded by graceful elms and carpeted by a cleanly shaven lawn; while the margins of the city by river and sound

abound in tastefully arranged parks. The transformation of the two great wooded ridges beyond the dwelling-line into well-graded drives, art vying with nature to please the eye and win the soul to beauty, completes the impression sometimes expressed, that New Haven is an immense village encircled by gardens.

But while all this may suggest a condition of dreamy repose, the city is by no means given over to _dolce far niente_. The University with its manifold departments is a veritable hive of industry; the scales of Justice at the County Court House are tipping endlessly in favor of right against wrong; while the busy hum of the Winchester Arms and a hundred other mills, makes a music that dies not out.

Altogether, historic New Haven is a pleasant place in which to live, and its hospitality is as generous as are its gardens and its parks.

INDEX

A

Acton, Mass., 262, 266, 272, 294

Adams, John, 49, 187, 228, 524, 526

Adams, Samuel, 12, 180, 200, 202, 228, 259, 261, 264, 265

Agassiz, Louis, 176, 242

Akers, Paul, 78

Albany, 532

Alcott, A. Bronson, 279, 292, 293, 294

Alcott, Louisa, 294

Alden, John, 328, 334

Alden, Priscilla, 328

Alden, Rear-Admiral, 66

Aldrich, Thomas B., 50, 176

Allen, Samuel, 429

Allerton, Isaac, 578

Allston, Washington, 236

Alsop, Richard, 527

Amherst College, 82

Amsden, John, 429

Amsterdam, 310

Andover, Mass., 144

Andrew, Gov. John, 265

Andros, Sir Edmund, 334, 419, 420, 518, 519, 566, 567

Ann, Cape, 126, 127

Anne, Queen, 420, 449, 523

Appleton, Capt. Samuel, 412

Apponaug, R. I., 486

Aquidneck, 444

Arlington, Mass., 219

Arnold, Benedict, 578

Arnold, Fred. A., 206

Arnold, Matthew, 50

Arnold, Thomas, 482

Ashley, Rev. Jonathan, 428, 438

Ashmun, Jehudi, 582

Austerfield, 304, 306, 332

Austin, Jane Goodwin, 50, 330

B

Bacon, Dr. Leonard, 510, 582

Bacon, Francis, 140

Bacon, John, 407

Baker, Miss C. Alice, 426

Baldwin, R. S., 582

Bancroft, George, 50, 89, 276, 514

Bardwell, John, 436

Bardwell, Thomas, 435

Barlow, Joel, 525, 526, 527, 584

Barnard, Henry, 30, 544

Barnard, Rev. Mr., 154

Barnstable, Mass., 376, 381, 388, 389, 393, 394, 397, 400

Barnstable County, Mass., 361, 393

Barre, Mass., 106

Barrett, Col. James, 273, 276

Bartholomew, E. S., 550

Bartol, Cyrus, 78

Bates, Katharine Lee, 345

Bedford, Mass., 219, 266

Bedfordshire, 244, 246, 247

Beecher, Catherine, 8, 546

Beecher, Henry Ward, 8, 11

Beecher, Lyman, 8, 556, 582

Beers, Capt. Richard, 410, 412

Bellingham, Gov. Richard, 141

Bennington, Vt., 265, 436

Bentham, Jeremy, 279

Bentzon, Th., 33

Berkeley, George, 450, 451, 452, 454, 455, 458, 505

Berkeley, Lucia, 455

Berkeley, Mrs. George, 451

Beverly, Mass., 92

Billerica, Mass., 219

Billington, John, 377

Blackstone, Sir William, 140

Blaine, James G., 78

Blanchard, Claude, 460, 461, 462

Block, Adrian, 515

Block Island, 446

Borgeaud, Charles, 17

Boston, 23, 58, 64, 81, 82, 84,
86, 94, 96, 98, 102, 106, 111,
113, 141, 143, 144, 149, 159,
167-210, 230, 234, 248, 256, 259,
262, 271, 277, 278, 289, 294, 329,
364, 374, 377, 388, 392, 419, 434,
441, 451, 484, 486, 494, 497, 498,
505, 507, 518, 519, 524, 525, 526,
532, 534, 553, 556, 564

Boston, England, 207, 250

Boston College, 180

Boston University, 180

Bourne, Mass., 380, 381

Bourne, Richard, 379

Bowditch, Nathaniel, 159

Bowdoin College, 76

Brackett, Thomas, 56

Brackett, Mrs. Thomas, 56

Bradford, Gov. William, 49, 124, 131, 132, 134, 299, 303, 304, 306,
308, 309, 311, 314, 315, 316, 317, 319, 324, 326, 329, 334, 346, 351,
352, 353, 354, 377

Bradley, Rev. Caleb, 75

Bradstreet, Simon, 124, 125, 140, 216, 217, 219

Braintree, Eng., 217, 218

Branford, Conn., 574

Brewster, Mass., 380, 381, 384

Brewster, Nathaniel, 340

Brewster, William, 299, 304, 308, 309, 311, 317, 322, 328, 329, 334, 336

Bridgham, Samuel W., 498

Brighton, Mass., 219

Brimfield, Conn., 532

Brindley, Deborah, 110

Bristol, R. I., 492

Brockett, John, 558

Brookfield, Mass., 20, 105, 117

Brookline, Mass., 204, 550

Brooks, Phillips, 10, 11, 26, 184

Brown, Alice, 50

Brown, Chad, 478, 480, 485, 492

Brown, Charles Farrar, 78

Brown, H. B., 79

Brown, James, 491

Brown, John, 492, 494, 497, 502

Brown, Joseph, 492

Brown, Moses, 492, 495

Brown, Nicholas, 492

Brown University, 491, 499

Browne, Nathaniel, 486

Browne, Rev. Robert, 113

Brownell, Thomas C., 538

Brunswick, Me., 75

Bryce, James, 12, 15, 33

Buchanan, James, 551

Bucks County, Eng., 247

Bulkeley, Rev. Peter, 243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 249, 251, 253, 268, 270

Bunce, William G., 550

Bunker Hill, 58, 109, 204, 206, 232, 260, 261, 300, 435, 492

Bunyan, John, 246, 281

Burgoyne, Gen. John, 112, 210, 234, 238, 436

Burnet, Jacob, 96

Burns, Anthony, 173

Burr, Aaron, 112, 570

Burroughs, Rev. George, 57, 144

Burton, Richard, 550

Bushnell, Dr. Horace, 9, 11, 542, 544

Buzzard’s Bay, 345, 402