Chapter XII: Part II: The Bi-Centennial Exercises (6)

“The first houses constructed here by the settlers were of the rudest description. They were built of logs fastened by notching at the corners. They were usually from fifteen to eighteen feet square, and about seven feet in height, or high enough for a tall man to enter. At first they had no floors. The fireplace was erected at one end by making a back of stones laid in mud, and not in mortar, and a hole was left in the bark or slab roof for the escape of the smoke. A chimney of sticks plastered with mud was afterwards erected in this opening. A space, of width suitable for a door, was cut in one side, and this was closed, at first, by hanging in it a blanket, and afterwards by a door made from split planks and hung on wooden hinges. This door was fastened by a wooden latch on the inside, which could be raised from the outside by a string. When the string was pulled in the door was effectually fastened. A hole was cut in each side of the house to let in light, and, as glass was difficult to obtain, greased paper was used to keep out the storms and cold of autumn and winter. Holes were bored at the proper height in the logs at one corner of the room, and into these the ends of poles were fitted, the opposite ends, where they crossed, being supported by a crotch or a block of the proper height. Across these poles others were laid, and these were covered by a thick mattress of hemlock boughs, over which blankets were spread. On such beds as these the first inhabitants of this town slept and their first children were born. For want of chairs, rude seats were made with ax and auger by boring holes and inserting legs in planks split from basswood logs, hewn smooth on one side. Tables were made in the same way, and, after a time, the floor, a bare space being left about the fireplace instead of a hearthstone.

“No sooner had the first settlers taken up their abode here than they were called upon to defend the title to their lands in the courts of the Colony. About thirty-seven years before, the General Court had granted permission to certain Stratford parties to buy land from the Indians and settle a plantation at this place, and they had bought over twenty-six thousand acres hereabouts. Apparently, however, no attempt was made towards a settlement of the same until after the purchase of the same tract from the Indians by the Milford parties in 1702, and the grant for a patent for the same to them by the General Court in 1703. Soon after the settlers first broke ground here, in 1707, a suit was begun against them by the Stratford people in the County Court at New Haven in May, 1708, and it was carried thence to the General Court. It was tried sixteen times. The first fifteen times the plaintiffs won on the strength of their Indian title. The sixteenth, the defendants won on the strength of their Indian title, the patent from the General Court, and occupation. This incident is particularly interesting, because one of the plaintiffs and the lawyer in this great case was the famous John Read, one of the ablest men and most remarkable characters which New England has produced. Some notice of him will not be inappropriate here, as he was one of the earliest inhabitants of this place.

“He was born at Fairfield, June 29, 1679, and was a brother-in-law of Governor Talcott. He graduated at Harvard in 1697, and became a minister, preached in Woodbury as a candidate, and in various towns in Hartford and Fairfield counties, and preached the first sermon ever delivered in this place. He studied law, and when, in 1708, the General Assembly first provided for the appointment of attorneys as officers of the court, he was one of the first admitted. He held the offices of Colony Queen’s Attorney, 1712-16; Deputy for Norwalk, 1715-17; Commissioner to settle the boundary with New York, 1719; and he was Connecticut’s representative in the Inter-Colonial Commission in regard to Bills of Credit, in 1720. He removed to Boston in 1722 and became the Attorney General and a member of the Council of Massachusetts. He was by far the most eminent lawyer of New England, and was called ‘The Pride of the Bar, Light of the Law, and Chief among the Wise, Witty, and Eloquent.’ It was he who prepared the instructions to Lord Mansfield, the counsel for Connecticut in the great case of Clark vs. Tousey, in which was discussed the question whether the Common Law of England had any force in Connecticut other than as it was adopted by the people of Connecticut. His exposition of the principles involved was most masterly, and it was the great authority upon which in a later generation the people of Connecticut relied to sustain them in their opposition to the measures of the crown in 1775.

“In a centenary sermon delivered at Danbury in January, 1801, the Rev. Thomas Robbins had this to say of him:

“‘One of the early inhabitants of Danbury was John Read, a man of great talents and thoroughly skilled in the knowledge and practice of the law. He possessed naturally many peculiarities and affected still more. He is known to this day through the country by many singular anecdotes and characteristics under the appellation of “John Read, the lawyer.”’

“In 1712 the town was incorporated, which gave it the power to tax the inhabitants to support a minister, and the place became thereby an ecclesiastical society. In March, 1712, the Rev. Daniel Boardman was called to preach to the settlers. In May, 1715, the settlers petitioned the General Assembly that they might obtain liberty for the settlement of the worship and ordinances of God among them, and the Legislature granted them liberty to embody in church estate as soon as God in his providence should make way therefor. On November 21, 1716, Mr. Boardman was duly ordained as the pastor of the Church of Christ in New Milford, the total number of the inhabitants of the town then being one hundred and twenty-five. The first vote of the town to build a meeting-house was passed in 1716, but work was not commenced upon it until 1719, and it was not completed until 1731, after infinite struggling. It was forty feet long, thirty wide, and twenty feet in height between joints, and was provided with galleries, pews, and a pulpit. Long before completion, when it was first used for religious purposes, the congregation was accustomed to sit upon its outer sills, which were able to accommodate every man, woman, and child in the town with a little squeezing. In 1713, the town voted to build for the minister a dwelling house forty feet between joints. In 1726, thirteen years later, the house was still unfinished. The first Sabbath Day house was not built until 1745.

“In 1721, when there were but thirty-five families residing here, a public school was ordered by the town to be kept for four months the winter following, one-half of the expense to be borne by the town. The children were taught reading, spelling after a phonetic fashion, writing, and the first four rules of arithmetic. In 1725 it was voted to build a schoolhouse twenty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and seven feet in height between the joints.

“The first settlers crossed the Housatonic to their lands on the west side by fording it at a point near the mouth of Rocky River, about a mile above the settlement, or at Waunupee Island in times of very low water. In 1720 the town built a boat for the purpose, which was used until 1737, when the first bridge ever built across the Housatonic from its source to its mouth was constructed at what is now the foot of Bennett Street.

“The settlers for many years crushed their grain by hand in mortars or carried it to mill at Danbury, Woodbury, or Derby, and brought back the flour and meal. In 1717 John Griswold, under an arrangement with the town, built a grist and saw mill on Still River, at what is now Lanesville.

“It is said that in 1713 there was but one clothier in the colony. The most that he could do was to full the cloth which was made in the homes. A great proportion of it was worn without shearing or pressing. He lived at Woodbury, and thither the early inhabitants of this town resorted to have their cloth fulled. People, to a very large extent, wore clothing made from the skins of animals. They also wore wooden shoes and moccasins, or went barefoot, although leather boots and shoes were sometimes used.

“The implements which they used in subduing the wilderness, their axes, saws, plows, hoes, and scythes, were of the rudest description. Their horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, we should now regard as of very inferior quality. The same was true of the few vegetables they cultivated and of their fruits, especially their apples. Turnips, squashes, and beans were the principal vegetables. Potatoes were not as yet cultivated in New England, onions were not generally, and tomatoes were looked upon as poisonous. Some of them owned negro slaves, but worked the harder themselves to make them work.

“They had little or no currency, taxes and debts being paid in produce. What they ate, what they wore, what they coaxed from the reluctant soil of these hillsides, cost them infinite labor. As was to be expected, a stingy avarice was their besetting sin, which manifested itself in all the relations of life. They were without newspapers, none being published in the Colony until 1755. They had few books, the first printing press in the Colony not having been set up at New London until 1709. They suffered greatly from malaria and other forms of sickness, as did all the early settlers in the State. Medical treatment was poor and difficult to obtain. The women went to the limit in childbearing, and the burden of rearing their large families was awful. The art of cooking was little understood. They had no stoves nor table forks. The food was served in a very unsavory fashion, and was very indigestible. The people therefore had frightful dreams, and dyspepsia was very prevalent. No carpet was seen here for a hundred years after the settlement. Communication with the outer world was slow, difficult, and rare. On several occasions, owing to the failure of their crops and the difficulty in getting relief from distant places little better off, they nearly starved to death.

“Truly the task which they had undertaken to subdue this wilderness, to plant here the civil, religious, and educational institutions of Connecticut, and to prepare this beautiful heritage for their children and children’s children, was no holiday pastime, no gainful speculation, no romantic adventure. It was grim, persistent, weary toil and danger, continued through many years, with the wolf at the door and the savage in the neighboring thicket.

“Besides the physical evils with which they were beset, they had spiritual troubles also. They fully believed in witchcraft, as did all their contemporaries, in a personal Devil who was busily plotting the ruin of their souls, in an everlasting hell of literal fire and brimstone, and in a divine election, by which most of them had been irrevocably doomed from before the creation of the world to eternal perdition, from which nothing which they could do, or were willing to do, could help to rescue them. The great object of life to them, therefore, was to try to find out what their future state would be. Said one of their preachers: ‘It is tough work and a wonderful hard matter to be saved. ’Tis a thousand to one, if ever thou be one of that small number whom God hath picked out to escape this wrath to come.’ That we may get a touch of reality from those far-off days, let me quote to you a few lines from the saintly Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut and long the model for her preachers:

“‘Suppose any soul here present were to behold the damned in hell, and if the Lord should give thee a peephole into hell, that thou didst see the horror of those damned souls, and thy heart begins to shake in consideration thereof; then propound this to thy own heart, what pains the damned in hell do endure for sin, and thy heart will shake and quake at it. The least sin that thou ever didst commit, though thou makest a light matter of it, is a greater evil than the pains of the damned in hell, setting aside their sins. All the torments in hell are not so great an evil as the least sin is; men begin to shrink at this, and loathe to go down to hell and be in endless torment.’

“The only test which they were taught to apply to ascertain whether they were predestined to suffer or escape this fearful doom was in their ability and willingness to conform their wills to the will of God as revealed in the Bible. According as they succeeded in this, they had a reasonable assurance as to their fate, though no wile of the Devil was more frequent than to falsely persuade men that their prospects were favorable. To study the Scriptures day and night to ascertain the will of God, and to struggle without ceasing to conform their wills to his as therein revealed, was therefore the great object of existence for them, not that they could thereby alter in the least their future state, but that they might, if possible, find out what it was likely to be.

“Should this recital of their beliefs provoke a smile, our amusement will soon be checked by the thought of the little progress which has been made in the last two hundred years towards solving the same problems. The origin of evil, the ineradicable tendency of the human heart to sin and do evil, the mournful spectacle of ruin and desolation in the moral world, and the future life are the same inscrutable mysteries to us as to them. If we have constructed or adopted a more comfortable theology, it is probably because we are less logical than they. It is perhaps because we have forgotten or refused to look at some things at which they did not blink.

“Then, too, the Lord was abroad in those days. Their thoughts were deeply tinged by the semi-pagan views with which the authors of both the Old and New Testaments were imbued. When the thunder crashed, it was the voice of an angry God that spoke. When the lightning flashed, it was the gleam of His angry eye. Benjamin Franklin was then but a year old, and electricity had not become the packhorse of the world. The smiles and frowns of nature in all her varying moods through all the days and seasons, which we ascribe to the operations of law, were to them the visible tokens of the wrath or favor of the Almighty. On December 11, 1719, for the first time in the history of the Colony, the northern lights were seen here. They shone with the greatest brilliancy. The consternation they caused was fearful. The people had never heard of such a phenomenon. They considered it the opening scene of the Day of Judgment. All amusement was given up, all business was forsaken, and sleep itself was interrupted for days. Again, on the twenty-ninth of October, 1727, a mighty earthquake occurred, which shook with tremendous violence the whole Atlantic seaboard. The people here believed that the Lord was about to swallow them up in His fierce anger. The women throughout New England immediately discontinued the wearing of hoop skirts, then recently come into fashion, believing that the earthquake was the sign of the Lord’s displeasure at the sinful innovation.

“Hardly had the first settlers here begun to build permanent homes for the living when they were called upon to provide resting places for the dead. The first person to be buried in yonder burying ground was a child, a girl, Mary, the daughter of Benjamin Bostwick. The next was John Noble, the first settler and the first Town Clerk. He died August 17, 1714. The town formally laid out the burying ground in 1716. Within fifty years three hundred had gone to rest there.

“There were no religious exercises at the funerals, neither singing, praying, preaching, nor reading of the Scriptures. This was by way of revolt from former superstitious practices. The friends gathered, condoled with the afflicted ones, sat around a while, and then the corpse was taken to the burying ground. After that the party returned to the house of the deceased, where much eating and drinking was indulged in, and, if the weather permitted, outdoor games and horse races were in order. The next Sabbath an appropriate funeral sermon was preached. A bereaved husband or wife usually soon married again.

“The meeting-house was never heated, but the people, summoned by drum beat, attended it every Sabbath, morning and afternoon, even in the severest weather, although no Sabbath Day house was erected here until 1745.

“The sacramental bread often froze upon the communion plate, as did the ink in the minister’s study. The people worked their minister very hard, as was the case in all early New England communities. They went to church not so much because they had to as because they wanted to. Church-going was their principal recreation. They demanded long prayers and two long sermons each Sabbath from their minister, usually on doctrinal points, which they acutely criticised. Services began at nine o’clock in the forenoon and continued until five in the afternoon, with an hour’s intermission. Soldiers, fully armed, were always in attendance throughout the services ready to repel any attack upon the settlement. It should be added, however, that with all their strictness in Sabbath-keeping and catechising, in family and church discipline, there was great license in those days in speech and manner, much hard drinking, and rude merry-making, due to their rough form of living. They were not what they wanted to be, nor what a loyal posterity perhaps longs to believe them. They had red blood in their veins. They were among the most enterprising men of their generation. They were backwoodsmen, the vanguard of that wonderful race which in two hundred years pushed westward the frontier from this place to the Pacific, fighting with man and beast the whole way, and sowed the land with vigorous sons and daughters.

“The congregational singing in those days must have been an interesting performance. When the first settlers came to New England from the old country, they brought with them a few tunes, to which they sang all the psalms and hymns.

“The proper mode of rendering these was through the nose. With the lapse of time and the advent of a new generation, these tunes became jangled together in inextricable confusion. The practice was for a deacon as leader to read a line of the psalm or hymn, and the congregation then sang at it as best they could, each one using such tune as he chose, and often sliding from one tune to another in the same line or improvising as he went on. Finally, in 1721, the Rev. Thomas Walter of Roxbury, Mass., published a treatise upon the grounds or rules of music, or an introduction to the art of singing by rote, containing twenty-four tunes harmonized into three parts. The attempt to supersede the old Puritan tunes and restrict the liberty of the individual singers met with the greatest opposition and was long successfully resisted in all the churches in New England, so tenacious were they of the rights of the individual singer. It caused great dissension in the church at this place. Finally, in February, 1740, the church voted to halve the time for the next year, singing the old way one Sabbath and the new way the next, and in 1741, at a meeting specially called to settle the matter, it was voted thirty to sixteen to sing thereafter after the new way.

“No musical instruments were allowed in the meeting-house. They had never seen or heard a church organ. But they knew that their fathers likened its sound to the bellowing of a bull, the grunting of a pig, and the barking of a dog, and had resisted its use in religious services even to the shedding of blood. Nor were flowers allowed in the church.

“In those days in New England women were not thought to have minds worth educating, and they were brought up in extreme illiteracy. Nevertheless, their natural wit, brightness, and good sense made them very agreeable companions of the superior sex. And their influence over their husbands, sons, and brothers was quite as great as that of their more cultivated daughters of the present day. The refining, educating, stimulating influence of the women had much to do in withstanding that tendency back to barbarism which life in an isolated and new community led to. The debt which is owed to them is incalculable.

“As the descendants of these people assemble here to-day, after the lapse of two hundred years, to commemorate their work and rejoice in all the strength, beauty, and order, now smiling around us in peace and plenty, which have grown out of what they began, and as we look back upon their condition, trials, and experiences, we are apt to imagine that their lot, contrasted with our own, was an unhappy one. Nothing could be further from the truth. They were a brave, hardy, thrifty, frugal, industrious, and most capable people. Man for man, and woman for woman, they were probably superior to those here to-day in faculty, and in the capacity for healthy enjoyment. Their whole previous lives had inured them to their experiences. They were the sons and grandsons of the original pioneers of New England, and they had been born and reared in rude settlements. They never indulged the delusion that this region was a land flowing with milk and honey. Before they came they knew that they were to wrest their living from an uncongenial soil, to struggle with penury, and to conquer only by constant toil and by self-denying thrift. The forest would supply them with the materials for shelter and fuel and to some extent with food and clothing. All the rest must depend upon their own exertions. There was a pleasure in facing and overcoming the perils and difficulties which they encountered which those, more delicately reared, who live here now can never know. Their individual helplessness in the face of appalling obstacles to be met but bound them closer together in mutual helpfulness. Accordingly we find that their social faculties were highly developed. It may well be doubted whether the sum total of human pleasure among the whole five thousand inhabitants of the town to-day is any greater than it was among the few hundred who settled it. Probably our own superabundance of good things has actually lessened our capacity to enjoy, in comparison with theirs. Their simple tastes and homely joys amid their rude surroundings were probably more productive of positive pleasure and real happiness than all the refinement and culture of our twentieth century civilization.

“It would be a pleasing and instructive task to trace the progress of this old town from those rude beginnings to its present strength and wealth. But the limits of the time and subject allotted to me on this occasion forbid. It is the product of the labors of eight generations, who now sleep beneath its soil. They never could have foreseen the present. They never knew or thought of us. Each generation was busy with its own problems, tasks, and experiences.

“As we look back upon them our hearts are filled with gratitude for the results of their work. A clean-blooded, land-loving, thrifty race, through their activities they escaped from the poverty of their beginnings and attained unto an almost ideal abundance of the primal needs of civilization. Their physical condition became probably as good as that of any other village community in the world. Their experiences stimulated their intellectual life into full activity, and they bore their full share in the wonderful work which Connecticut has done in the world. In all critical times in both State and nation, the sons of New Milford, both native and adopted, have been very active and influential, and one of them, Roger Sherman, performed a work which will last as long as this nation shall continue to be free and independent, or as long as the Constitution of the United States shall endure.

“We know that the past two hundred years are but the beginning of a long history of this town. We believe that as the years roll by, at the close of each century of its life, the events of this day will be repeated here. What will be the lot of those who shall stand here, one two, three, and four hundred years hence, to recall the origin and history of this town, we cannot conceive. Our hope is that it will be as peaceful, as prosperous, and as contented as our own.

“Whatever it shall be, we expect that their desire to know what can be known of that long-vanished world, in which both present and future have their roots, will lead them to examine the memorial of what is said and done here to-day. We are not more sure that the Housatonic will then be flowing than that they will share with us in affectionate interest in what has gone before.”

The rendering of the “Star Spangled Banner” and several other selections by Prof. Clemence’s Bi-Centennial Chorus was an inspiring feature of the Historical Meeting.

THE COLONIAL RECEPTION

Soon after the close of the Historical Meeting, the booming of cannon announced the arrival in New Milford of Governor Woodruff, his staff and a detail of the Governor’s Foot Guard. They were met at the railroad station by a train of automobiles, in which they were taken, after a short ride about the village, to Ingleside School, where they dined in the company of a number of prominent citizens.

Promptly at 8:30 o’clock, the gubernatorial party arrived at Roger Sherman Hall, where it was arranged that they should meet the people of the town, and entered it by a side door. Before the main door was opened for the admission of the general public, seats were given upon the stage and on the floor of the hall in front of the wings on either side to the members of the Colonial Reception Committee and of the Invitation, Reception, and Entertainment Committee; also to the following persons, who had been requested by these committees to assist them in receiving:

Mr. and Mrs. John F. Addis, Mrs. F. E. Baldwin, Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Barker, Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Barnes, Miss Mary Barton, Miss Hattie Bassett, Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Beach, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Beach, Miss Charlotte B. Bennett, Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Bennett, Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Bentley, Miss Helen M. Boardman, Miss Kate T. Boardman, Miss Ruth Booth, Miss Lena Botsford, Miss Bessie Brown, Miss Adaline Buck, Miss Alice Buck, Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Donnelly, Miss Susie C. Erwin, Miss Minnie A. Ferriss, Miss Jeannette Gaylord, Mr. and Mrs. Minot S. Giddings, W. G. Green, Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Green, Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Hall, Miss Elsie Hall, Mr. and Mrs. H. D. Hine, Mrs. J. S. Halpine, Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Jackson, Rev. and Mrs. F. A. Johnson, Dr. and Mrs. F. E. King, Mrs. W. F. Kinney, Mr. and Mrs. David Kyle, Miss Carrie Marsh, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Marsh, A. H. McMahon, Miss Grace Merwin, Mr. Perry Green, Mr. C. H. Noble and sister, Miss Lizzie Noble, W. B. Pell, Mrs. Pettibone, Mrs. J. F. Plumb, Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Randall, Miss Juliette Rogers, Mrs. Wm. Schoverling, Miss Harriet V. Sherman, Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Starr, Miss Minnie Toussaint, F. M. Williams, Dr. and Mrs. G. H. Wright.

The New Milford Cadets (Captain Gifford Noble) were drawn up as guard of honor about the hall, forming an aisle around an open square, through which the people walked as they advanced to greet the Governor and passed out again after shaking his hand. The members of the staff, in full uniform, were in front of the stage and back of the Governor, while, to the right and left of them, the detail from the Foot Guard were stationed as a special guard. By the side of his Excellency stood W. Frank Kinney, the chairman of the Bi-Centennial Invitation, Reception and Entertainment Committee, who presented every one by name. There were many Colonial costumes, many gay uniforms, and many elaborate evening toilettes. In the exquisite setting provided by the pale blue, white and yellow colonial draperies and festoons with which the hall was most artistically decorated, the reception offered an exceptionally brilliant spectacle. In fact, it was probably the most striking affair of its kind New Milford has ever witnessed.

Dancing was begun, to the music of Gartland’s Band, when the handshaking was over, and was kept up for two or three hours after the Governor and his party had retired.

Governor Woodruff was also entertained in the rooms of the Commercial Club; in Odd Fellows’ and Masonic Hall, where he was formally welcomed by Henry O. Warner, Past Master of the New Milford Masonic lodge; and by the New Milford Fire Department, in their quarters, where he was welcomed by Chief John F. Addis, who presented him with an engrossed certificate of honorary membership in Water Witch Hose Company, No. 2.

GOVERNOR’S DAY

On Tuesday, the culminating day of the Bi-Centennial Celebration, New Milford possessed a population variously estimated at from ten to fifteen thousand--the largest, probably, of any moment in its history. The heat was intense, and some were so tactless as to prophesy showers. Others--and these were right--scoffed at such a possibility, basing their optimism on the fact that the new uniforms of the Governor’s staff had never yet been wet and that New Milford was not going to be ungracious enough to be instrumental in wetting them.

The forenoon was devoted to the preparation of the Civic and Military Parade, which was scheduled to begin at noon. Only a few minutes after the time appointed, the column began to move in the following order:

FORMATION OF PARADE

CHIEF MARSHAL SAMUEL R. HILL IN CHARGE.

_First Division_

Platoon of Police, Capt. David Bradley of Danbury
Chief Marshal and Staff (Perry Green, Noble Booth, Charles
Pomeroy, Madeline Dodd, Louise Beeman.)
Gartland’s Tenth Regiment Band
Second Company, Governor’s Foot Guards, Major Weed
Governor Rollin S. Woodruff and Staff
Bugle Corps
Company G, Third Infantry, C. N. G., Captain Ryder
Upton Post, G. A. R., John F. Williams
New Milford Cadets, Captain Gifford Noble
Official Guests in Carriages

_Second Division_

Marshal David E. Soule and Staff (Dr. C. B. Blackman,
George Dean, Louis Wilton)
Second Regiment Band
Water Witch Hose Company, No. 2, of New Milford
Danbury Military Band
Litchfield Fire Department
American Brass Band of Waterbury
Fountain Hose Company, No. 1, of Ansonia
Holt’s American Band of New Haven
Echo Hose, Hook and Ladder Company of Shelton
Ansonia Brass Band
Eagle Hose, Hook and Ladder Company, No. 6, of Ansonia
Bethel Drum Corps
Danbury Volunteer Fire Department

_Third Division_

Marshal George E. Ackley and Staff (Granville Breinig,
W. M. Keeler, Clifford A. Trowbridge)
Boys of Center High School, Marching in Costume
School Children in Floats in District Order

_Fourth Division_

Marshal Henry O. Warner and Staff (James Marsh, W. C.
Beeman, Clifford Marsh)
Wheeler & Wilson Band of Bridgeport (by courtesy of
Roger Sherman Chapter, D. A. R.)
Colonial Features
Industrial Floats

There were more military organizations, fire companies, drum corps, and brass bands in line, probably, than had ever been seen at one time in New Milford, and they elicited by their brilliant uniforms, stirring music, and fine marching the admiration and the hearty applause of the crowds massed along the line of march; but the features which differentiated this parade from all previous ones, which lent it special distinction, and

which will make it memorable as long as the youngest persons who witnessed it shall survive, were the school floats, the Colonial floats, and industrial floats of the Third and Fourth divisions.

The school features were as follows:

Boys of the Center School costumed as Indians and farmers--the Indians emitting blood-curdling war-whoops from time to time.

Pony cart trimmed with pink and white containing members of “Miss Treat’s class” representing butterflies.

Float of “Room 1” (Center School), trimmed with white and yellow, carrying under a canopy twenty girls dressed in white. It was drawn by two sorrel horses also trimmed with white and yellow.

Another float of “Room 1” trimmed with flags and bunting. It contained twenty-three girls and was drawn by four horses.

Flower girls dressed in pink and green--to represent the petals and sepals of flowers--on a “Cinderella” float provided with a pink canopy. It was drawn by a pair of black horses.

Float of “Rooms 5 and 6” (Center School), trimmed mostly with green and white and carrying twenty-four girls. It was drawn by black horses which were decorated with flags.

Float of “Rooms 7 and 8” (Center School), green and white--stars of green laurel against white bunting--carrying twenty children in white wearing white wreaths.

Float of “Rooms 3 and 4” (Center School), yellow and white, carrying forty children under a canopy.

Park Lane Float, pink and white, carrying thirty-one children--the girls wearing white gowns with pink sashes. It was drawn by iron-gray horses wearing pink and white harnesses. David Rothe’s dog, trimmed with white, blue, and pink, rode proudly on the driver’s seat beside the driver.

Hill and Plain Float, decorated with evergreens, bunting, and flags.

Second Hill Float, representing an open trolley car, bearing the legends--“Second Hill Traction Co.,” “Cross Town,” and “Fireworks To-night”--and, in the advertising spaces, cards provided by the village merchants. The conductor amused the spectators greatly by the tireless energy he displaying in collecting and ringing up the fares. This float, which was trimmed with patriotic bunting, was drawn by three horses and carried thirty-five children, each holding a flag. It was designed by Mrs. Andrew Clark.

Upper Merryall Float, decorated with red, white and blue bunting. It was drawn by black horses and carried twenty-two children.

Chestnut Land Float, white and green--ground pine and laurel against white bunting--carrying forty children. It was drawn by four horses decorated with greenery.

Aspetuck Float, representing a sixteen-foot flower-bordered birch-bark canoe. It was trimmed with garnet and gold and was provided with a garnet banner. It carried sixteen children (gaily adorned “braves” and maidens) and the teacher.

Boardman Float, decorated with flags and patriotic bunting, bearing the device, “1707-1907” in green letters on a white ground. It carried twenty-eight children.

Lower Merryall Float, trimmed with Colonial yellow, white, and blue bunting and flying a big flag. The children, who were seated under a canopy, wore rosettes of the same colors. Four footmen in yellow walked beside it.

Gaylordsville and Waller Float, decorated with bunting and flags. The children, fifteen in number, sat on raised seats, one row above another, and held flags and baskets of flowers. It was drawn by four horses, whose driver was disguised as Uncle Sam.

Northville and Hunt Float, a “little red schoolhouse,” trimmed with evergreens. It was drawn by two yoke of Nelson Kenney’s steers. Children leaning out of the front windows held red, white, and blue ribbons, which were attached to the horns of the steers.

Long Mountain Float, decorated with white bunting, flags, and ground pine. It carried twenty-two children.

Still River Float, trimmed with flags, plumes, and bunting, and provided with a white canopy and a bell. It was drawn

by four horses and carried thirty-five children (the girls in white dresses, the boys in shirt waists) wearing flag sashes. The teacher sat upon a throne.

The Colonial features of the parade were preceded by a man carrying a beautiful blue and gold banner of Roger Sherman Chapter, D. A. R., Charles G. Peck of Newtown in Colonial costume on his famous high-stepping horse, and the Wheeler & Wilson Band of Bridgeport--the first and last named, by courtesy of and at the expense of Roger Sherman Chapter, D. A. R.

Next came Mr. Williams and Mr. Lee of the Brookfield Drum Corps in Colonial costumes with drum and fife; and Joseph Cowan, Fred Kinbloe, and William Cogswell in Indian costume on horseback, the last named being a descendant of the Schaghticoke tribe of Indians.

Next, a float with a log cabin representing the one built by John Noble, the first white settler in New Milford. Chauncey B. Marsh and his little daughter, Esther Noble Marsh, seven years old, rode on this float, in the doorway of the cabin, impersonating John Noble and his little daughter. A watch-dog was chained beside the door, a musket hung over the door, and, during the early part of the parade, smoke issued from the cabin chimney. The float was drawn by oxen.

Back of this was started Jim Harris, better known as “Jim Pan,” the last of the Pequots, and the only full-blooded Indian left in the Schaghticoke Reservation. Having filled up with firewater before the parade started, he soon left the Colonial section, marched most of the route with the fire companies, and ended up among the Governor’s Foot Guards. He lost only his wig in the shuffle, the rest of his Indian suit being securely strapped upon him.

Next came Mrs. R. S. Todd and her daughter, Parthenia, in an old-fashioned chaise, with a dignified colored footman on the rumble--all attired in Colonial costume, the ladies wearing sun-bonnets and dimity gowns.

Next, Andrew Humeston, on horseback, with his sister, Athalia, on a pillion, attired as a Quaker and Quakeress. Mr. Humeston’s real white fur Quaker hat, which he went far afield to get for this occasion, was a relic well worth seeing.

Next, Samuel Porter and Charles Donnelly, also on horseback, as a bride and groom of Colonial times. The saddle and pillion used by this happy pair were very interesting.

Next, a float with six young ladies in old-time costume operating different spinning and flax wheels. This float was decorated with dark green and bore the inscription, “HOMESPUN DAYS.” The young ladies were Miss Florence Merwin, Miss Elsie Hall, Miss Julie Barker, Virginia Stevens (Miss Barker’s little niece, three years old), Miss Flora Stilson, and Miss Minnie Toussaint. The float was drawn by oxen.

Dr. Griswold Bragaw, in Colonial costume, rode a horse following this float.

Next came a carriage, said to be one hundred years old, brought from Merryall and driven by two boys in Indian costume.

The last float represented the different styles of dress of periods fifty years apart in New Milford history. Mr. Frederick N. Fowler and Mrs. William Percy wore the costume of 1707; Willis Barton and Miss Hattie Bassett, that of 1757; Merrit Merwin and Miss Grace Merwin, that of 1807; Mr. and Mrs. Frederick E. Starr, that of 1857, and Arthur Brown and Miss Bessie Brown, that of 1907. This float was canopied with yellow and bore the inscription, “TIMES AND COSTUMES CHANGE.”

Wm. W. Stilson impersonated the “Town Crier” and, ringing a huge bell, was typical in every way of that old-time character.

The yellow and dark green draperies which concealed the base of all these Colonial floats gave them a highly finished appearance.

The industrial features of the Parade were:

Float of the Bridgeport Wood Finishing Company, decorated with the national colors and displaying the signs, “Wheeler’s Patent Wood Filler,” “Paint That Lasts,” etc. It carried boxes and cans of the company’s products and pieces of silex in its natural state.

Float of G. B. Shiappacassee, the Bank Street fruit dealer,--a brand new wagon decorated with the national colors and carrying oranges, bananas and pineapples, arranged with a fine consideration for color and form.

Float of the New Milford Hat Company, decorated with the national colors and carrying a group of hat-makers, who gave a practical illustration, along the line of march, of the different processes of hat-making.

A tobacco float displaying the firm names--S. Rossin & Son, J. Lichtenstein, C. F. Schoverling & Co., Staubb & Mallett, J. Marquesee--and the legend, “NEW MILFORD SUPPLIES THE WORLD WITH TOBACCO,” and carrying a large number of tobacco boxes.

Float of W. H. Coleman, a new milk wagon decorated with the national colors and bearing the inscription, “Conetia Farm Dairy.”

Float of Chauncey B. Marsh, proprietor of a New Milford saw-mill, decorated with white and green and carrying wedge, ax, saw and chain, and an enormous artificial log, which two dummies sawed persistently with a cross-cut saw.

Float of the Aspetuck Valley Grange, decorated with green and white, roofed over with grain, and displaying the principal implements of husbandry and the principal products thereof.

Float of the ice dealer, Samuel J. Ferriss--a capital, white cotton imitation of a snow-bank between snow-laden “Christmas trees.” Upon this float rode two small boys (S. Boynton and Charles J., sons of Mr. Ferriss), offering dippers of ice.

After passing through the principal streets of the village, the parading column was reviewed from the reviewing stand on the village “Green” by Governor Woodruff and his staff and other distinguished visitors. The paraders were then disbanded and provided by the Committee on Refreshments with abundant good cheer in a colossal dining tent back of the Knapp building.

After dinner, at two o’clock, the last formal exercises of the Bi-Centennial were held on “The Green,” Charles M. Beach presiding. In introducing the first speaker, Rev. Timothy J. Lee, Mr. Beach said:

“There is much cause for regret that, on account of ill health, our President, Mr. Henry S. Mygatt, has been unable to be present or to take any part in the exercises of this Celebration. It was at his suggestion that the movement was inaugurated bringing about this event, and we all know that he worked most heartily and earnestly for its success. I am sure that there is a universal feeling of sympathy for him in the keen disappointment which is his. Because of his absence, the duty devolves on me to take charge of the exercises of the day.

“The first address will be words of greeting by the Rev. T. J. Lee, a former pastor of the Congregational Church. Mr. Lee comes to us as a representative of two of the oldest families in New Milford, Mrs. Lee being a lineal descendant of the Rev. Daniel Boardman, who was the first pastor of the old Congregational Church, and also of the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, who was inaugurated its second pastor in the year 1748, and continued the pastorate for a period of fifty years.

Among other things, Mr. Lee said:

“The other day I met one of our recently adopted sons whose home is in the great West. In the course of our conversation I referred to this Bi-Centenary; but he pushed the subject aside as trivial, and began to boast of his own great State. ‘Why,’ said he, ‘you can put twenty-two Connecticuts into our Nebraska.’ Then he added that the time has come in the history of our country when we can cut out New England and not feel it. Cut New England out from the great life of this nation! Yes, you may, when you can cut out a thread of gold woven in and out in a beautiful fabric without ruining the entire piece. Cut New England out! Yes, you may, when you can cut out from the loaf the leaven that has made it sweet and light. Cut New England out! Yes, you may, when, without disfigurement, you can cut out the features of a mother from the face of her child. There may come a time in some far-off age when this great American people may become so afflicted with some strange, new form of insanity as to desire to cut out from its vast domain that sharp northeastern angle which was alike its birthplace and its cradle and the seminary of the best elements of its greatness. If that time ever comes, New England, true to her ancestral pride (I speak as one who knows and loves his mother), New England will say to you: ‘I am ready to go; I desire to stay no longer where I am no longer wanted. But first--first, in all justice and fairness, give me back some of the contributions I have made to your greatness. Give me back the free, forceful words which from my pulpit, my press, and my platform have kindled the fires of religion and of patriotism, and quickened the intellectual life of generations. Give me back my millions of capital that have stretched across the broad land the iron bands of travel and of trade, changed the Western wilderness into a smiling garden, the desert into a fruitful field. Give me back some of the descendants of those loyal sons and daughters of mine, who, under the canvas covers of those old emigrant wagons, carried with them not merely their humble household goods, but the very principles of their nurture--give me back these, I say, and then, if you do not feel so utterly impoverished, so stripped of everything that can make a nation great and strong and enduring as to repent of your rashness and folly, I will go.’

“It is true that henceforth New England’s influence in the nation will not be that of numbers, nor of territorial greatness, but she will still rule by the force of ideas and convictions, by the sovereignty of principles that can never be discrowned.”

Mr. Beach next presented Governor Woodruff in these words:

“During my business experience, it has been my privilege to make many congenial acquaintances, one of which stands out most prominently to-day. A number of years ago, a young man called upon us representing a firm with which we had established relations. He has risen step by step in his business career, until he now occupies a position at the head of the firm which he then represented. A few years ago his name became mentioned in political circles, and he has risen so rapidly in this sphere that he comes to us to-day as the Chief Executive of the State.

“For integrity of character, for honesty of purpose, for having the courage of his convictions, he is a Governor whom the people of the State of Connecticut will do well to honor. Roosevelt at Washington, Hughes at Albany, Woodruff at Hartford, are the type of public officials which the people want.

“It is my very great pleasure, as well as honor, to present not only to the people of New Milford, but also to the guests whom we are entertaining to-day, his Excellency, Rollin S. Woodruff, of New Haven, Governor of Connecticut.

Governor Woodruff said:

“My friends, I am very glad to join with you in celebrating the two hundredth birthday of the settlement of New Milford. This commemoration will become an interesting experience in your lives, and your children will never forget the history that is taught them by this event. They will learn of the early struggles of those who laid the solid foundation of Connecticut, in the establishment of her towns, in the making of her laws, and building of a great commonwealth out of the materials of industry, education, and patriotism.

“It was no easy task your forefathers set out to perform, when they determined to have a government as nearly democratic in its intention as it was possible to conceive. The scheme of the founders of our State was to insure happiness for all by making all the people independent and free to govern themselves, and to advance themselves in a way that had never before been dreamed of by any race of men. The wisdom of those early settlers in organizing society upon a liberal plane seems to us almost marvelous. What they hoped for has been realized.

“The people who founded New Milford and the other Connecticut towns were unselfish. They planned not only for themselves and their time, but they planned for those that were to come after them. They saw through the years what might be

Governor of Connecticut]

ours, if their plans prevailed. They saw the human race rising to its highest perfection in an atmosphere of liberty and of opportunity. Yet their most daring fancy could not have pictured this surprising scene of to-day. They were rough and rude men two hundred years ago. And they were determined men, and their lives were the serious lives of hardship and peril. What they wanted was freedom and a government that would keep them free. They wanted to do what was right--justice to all men was the motive that inspired them. They had faith in themselves and believed that the real government was that which came from the people; and they made their laws to last for all time, trusting to the people the responsibility of taking care of themselves. They were the fathers of freedom in its truest sense, and intended to leave their children a house that was built upon a rock.

“In all this, they gave evidence of the very noblest patriotism, and they have set for us an example which we have followed for two hundred years--an example which must continue to guide us in our government, if this grand development of Connecticut is to go forward to its highest possibilities. We must keep our foundations solid and build for the future. We must grow better as we grow older. Our lawmakers must be sincere and serious men. They must be representative in the deepest meaning of the word, for the whole happiness of our people depends upon the making and the administration of laws that are enacted in the interest of all the people of our State, and our representatives should be held responsible for their acts at the polls. The rights of the people are sacred and must be kept inviolate, and no law should be placed upon the statute book that will be a burden to the people, or that takes from the people any right that belongs to them all. Let there be no hasty, inconsiderate, or careless legislation that robs them of their own. Great privileges should never be given away to private interests, and every man’s property should be protected throughout the State. We frequently learn what we have lost, when it is too late. I do not mean to alarm you, but I do mean to warn you that you may keep guard over your right against oppression, which is sure to come when the people lose interest in their own affairs.

“What an advancement you have made in two hundred years! The country towns of to-day share with the large cities all modern advantages. Your children have matchless chances for education, and your commercial conditions offer every opportunity for success in life. The farmer of to-day is a prince among farmers and lives in the surroundings of comfort and luxury: with vast systems of water supply; a high sanitary arrangement protecting health; gas and electricity for light, heat, and power; the telegraph in every village, and the telephone in every home where it is required; the best facilities for travel at your doors--a prosperity in business never known in the history of mankind. All men are educated by the affairs of the hour, and all men think. You are better equipped to govern yourselves than any people in the world. Contrast all these comforts with the inconveniences of your ancestors, and tell me have we not reason to rejoice at this Bi-Centennial of New Milford?

“In my position as Governor of this State I have kept steadily in view the general prosperity of all the people, and I have always believed in an educated public sentiment as the safeguard of law and order in our Commonwealth. I believe in the people of Connecticut and in the future of the State; and I believe that the more interest you take in public matters the better your government will become. I want to congratulate you upon the growth of New Milford, and thank you sincerely for the privilege of joining in this triumphant Celebration.”

Mr. Beach next presented Rev. Watson L. Phillips, D. D., saying:

“At this time it is in my power to speak a word of welcome to my comrades of the Foot Guard. They have been connected with the history of Connecticut since 1775, when the Company marched out to Lexington and Concord. It has not been my privilege to be as close to the armory as I should have liked, but I am proud to belong to that old organization which has done so much for the honor of Connecticut, and I will simply ask the Chaplain of the Company to speak to you more fluently than I can.”

Chaplain Phillips delivered an eloquent eulogy of the Foot Guard. Among other things, he said: