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Hartford in History

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Hartford in History mm'' mm ' ' iillill •ii illm''' oo' '^^ .<^^ o 'C ^^' ^.^C:^/ % A'' .V •/>, V -^ .-o- ^''' v.^'' ... '"^//^ ^tA^f "., > -^p. x^^ ..s^ ^% '/', •-^'"' 't. s*' HARTrORD IN HiSTOPY, A SCRIES or PAPERS RESIDENT 7\UTHOR5. EDITED BY V WILLIS I. TWITCH ELL, PRINCIPAL OF THE ARSENAL SCHOOL, HARTEORD, CONN. 26851 Copyrighted, 1899, by Willis I. Twitchell. TWO OOPIKS RECSIVBD, HARTFORD: Press of The Plimpton Mfg. Co. ':^ ^ of flDr- ifrebedch f. Barrowe, wbo for fort^stwo isears wag tbe iprincipal of tbe 3Brown Scbool, Ibarttorb, tbis book is 2lfEcctionateli2 2)ct)tcatcD. ^/^ ^ CONTENTS. ^ PAGE Introduction 9 Table of Anniversary Dates 12 The Geographj^ and Geology of Hartford 13 By W. H. C. Pynchon. The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity 23 By Willis I. Twitchell. The Dutch in Hartford 39 By Charles F. Johnson. Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford 49 By WiLLisTON Walker. Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution... 66 By Joseph H. Twichell. Social Lifie and Customs 82 By Edwin P. Parker. Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut's Charter 99 By W. DeLoss Love. Hartford the Capital 117 By Henry C. Robinson. Hartford in Literature 134 By Annie Eliot Trumbull. The Public Buildings of Hartford ; 156 By Caroline M. Hkwins. Manufactures in Hartford 170 By P. Henry Woodward. Historic Places in Hartford 184 B3' Arthur L. Shipman. (See Map of Hartford, 1639-1798, facing page 9, prepared especially for the above article, by A. L. Washburn, , Del.) The Influence of Hartford in Public Affairs 197 By Charles Hopkins Clark. Hartford in the Revolution 207 By Mary K. Talcott. Hartford in the Civil War 221 By Ira E. Forbes. Our City Government 235 By William Waldo Hyde. The Duties of Citizenship 250 By Charles Dudley Warner. Index 259 INTRODUCTION. HARTFORD is rich in a history profitable for study. This is fully recognized in the an- nals of our county, state and nation, and in the writings of our best historians. If the material found in these larger works were adapted to the use of schools, there would be little excuse for this book. But it is not, and the purpose of the authors of '' Hartford in His- tory " has been to tell the story of our city's life in a way to interest and instruct the young. Primarily it is intended as a reading book for the school room, but that will make it none the less valuable in the family circle. The chil- ' ' ^ dren of to-day are reading to learn ' as well as learning to read, and whatever is profitable for them will be of interest and value to the adult. To him, the teacher, and the advanced pupils of the class, the bibliography given ^11 be suggestive of a broader course of reading. Local history, as one of the studies of a pub- lic school curriculum, has a double value. It forms a logical basis for the study of the broad- F< QOHMl 1639 - I Or/yifta/ tiifhwo/s art shewn in HCAVY LINCS ana /ti^hy^ays /»ta out since /S39, nvith aofc ef /oyot/f, /n OOTTCD U/^eS. >.z,. wasihbum, pel. £as«il upon, suruei/ of Hartford's Anniversary Days* November 9, 1635—Arrival of the Adventurers. May 10, 1637—Departure of Troops for Pequot War. Janttary J4, J639—Framing of the First Written Constitu- tion. April 23, 1662—Charter granted by Charles II. October % J662—Charter received and Hartford made Capital by Legislative Act. October 31, J687—Charter hidden in the Oak. June 29, J775—Washington's First Visit to Hartford, com- memorated by Tablet on Wadsworth Elm. September 2t, J 780—Meeting of Washington and Rocham- beau. May 29, J 784—City Charter granted by the State Legisla- ture. December IJ, J 844—Anaesthesia discovered by Dr. Horace Wells. September J7, J879—Battle-Flag Day. The Geography and Geology of Hartford. By W. H. C. Pynchon. THE eastern and the western portions of the State of Connecticut contain little that is of great geographical or geological interest the re- as compared with the central portion— gion in which Hartford hes. The rugged hills which compose the western, and, in a lesser de- rocks re- gree, the eastern area, are formed of which sembling in many respects the group to granite belongs—rocks which are very ancient, of the dating far back into the early history world. The riyers which flow among these hills of haye open yalleys, showing that the portion un- the land above sea-level has been practically portion of changed for ages. But in the central down the State these ancient highlands sink Island into a broad trough running from Long this Sound far up into Massachusetts, and later date— trough is filled with rocks of much interesting to whose history is one of the most be found in the great book of nature. Long ago, before man lived upon the earth, —when huge reptile forms, long since utterly 13 ' 14 Hartford in History. passed away, clambered over the hills or roamed along the muddy shores,— this trough was filled by a great lake or an arm of the sea. Into its quiet Avaters ran streams from the sur- rounding hills, bringing down into the lake mud and sand from the land over which the^^ flowed. These sank to the bottom and formed there beds of sand and clay. Then a strange thing happened. Some- where in this region, which is now so peaceful, a volcano burst forth and rolled floods of molten lava over the whole area. This lava turned much of the water of the lake into steam, and, spreading itself over the beds of land-waste at the bottom, there cooled and hardened into rock. Three times and more has the lake lain in the trough, its bottom covered by beds of cla^^ and sand, and three times has the lava overflowed the region, for we find now in cen- tral Connecticut three great sheets of volcanic "trap"—as the rock is called—lying one above another, each one resting on beds of clay, sand or pebbles, now hardened into rocks known respectively as "shale," "sandstone" and ' ' ' conglomerate. Now, how^ can we see these three layers of lava, if they lie one above another? How is it — The Geography and Geolog}' of Hartford. 15 that we can see more than the top one, even if we should find that there is no land-waste on top of that? It is in some such way as this: Long after the last lava had hardened, the re- gion w^as greatly disturbed and everything w^as tilted, so that the sheets of lava and the rocks lying between them, instead of hang horizontal, sloped strongly to the east. Since then there has been great wearing away of the land b^^ the w^eathering of the rocks, and the streams have carried away the land-waste to the sea. But the trap is much harder than the sandstone and shale, so that it stands up above the coun- try in high ridges running north and south. At the time that the rocks were tilted, thej^ were also greatly broken, so that vast fragments miles in length—have beefi separated from each other in different' parts of central Connecticut. But for all this, the geologist finds plainly that these fragments belong to three different sheets of lava, w^hich mark three different periods of volcanic action. And now it may be justh^ asked, where in the vicinity of Hartford can be found any of these things which have been described? The eastern side of the trough is to be seen in the range of hills that forms the eastern horizon as 16 Hartford in History far as the e^^e can see. They are perhaps the nearest at South Glastonbtir3^, and the visitor will quickly see that their rocks are very differ- ent from any to be found in the city of Hart- ford. The western edo^e is to be recognized in the great range of hills which runs on the west of Southington, Plainville and Simsbury, and ^which ma3' be plainly seen from Talcott Moun- tain. The second volcanic eruption v^as apparent- h^ the greatest, for it left a sheet of lava which is in some places 500 feet thick. It is the up- turned edge of this great sheet which forms the various "mountains" of central Connecticut. Good examples of these are Newgate Mountain, where ''Old Newgate" prison is located; Tal- cott Mountain; Farmington Mountain; the ''Hanging Hills" of Meriden ; Lamentation Mountain, northeast of Meriden; Durham range, including Higby and Beseck Mountains and "Three Notches;" Totoket Mountain, in North Guilford, and Pond Rock, which is cut by the Shore Line Railroad at Lake Saltonstall. East and West Rocks, at New Haven, cannot be reckoned among these, as their history seems to be somewhat different from that of any of the mountains mentioned. The Geography and Geology of Hartford. 17 Excellent examples for study may be found within the city limits. Cedar Mountain, or Newington Mountain, as it is sometimes called, is probably a part of the second sheet of lava, like the other mountains mentioned, while the ridge on w^hich Trinit3^ College stands probably belongs to the lava sheet formed by the third eruption. At this place the city stone quarries have laid bare the rocks, so that a careful study can be made of both the trap and the shale which lies under it. The floor of the quarry is composed of the shale which was once mud or clay, but has long since been hardened into rock.
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