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STONINGTON
BY THE SEA
BY
HENRY ROBINSON PALMER
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
STONINGTON, CONNECTICUT
PALMER PRESS
1913
Fio4-
COPYRIGHT BY HENRY ROBINSON PALMER, 1913
PUBLISHED JANUARY, 1913
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE COUNTRY BY THE SEA
A BOOK OF VERSE
ONE DOLLAR POSTPAID
PALMER PRESS, STONINGTON, CONN.
/, o
(£:C' A330979
ILLUSTRATIONS
Water Street in Summer
FACING PAGE 1 ^
Town Clock .
PAGE 6 y
Custom House
. 8 ^
Pequot Country, (map) .
. FACING PAGE 9 '
Point from Breakwater .
. 9-
SOUTHERTOWN, (mAp) .
PAGE 15 !/
Main Street in Summer .
. FACING PAGE 24 >^
Stonington Lighthouse .
. 32^
Stonington Free Library
. 32
Cannons of 1814 ,
. 40
British Bombshells
. 40
Little Narragansett Bay
. 48
Harbor
. 48
Stonington Borough in 1837
. 56
PoMEROY House
. 64
Doorway of John F. Trumbuli
. House . .64
Two Old Houses on Main Stri
:et . . . 72
Ephraim Williams Homestead
. 72
Congregational Parsonage
. 80
Home of Miss C. A. Smith
. 80
"The Hill".
. 88
Lower Main Street
. 88
Broad Street in October
. 96
Home of C. N. Wayland
. 104
Wadawanuck House
. 104
Railroad Docks and Yard
. 108
1 - ,^.
rO
^kw^^^Mk^
The Custom House
H 77 78
PREFACE
This little volume has been compiled for the purpose
of providing a convenient and inexpensive history of
Stonington — particularly that part of the town that is
within or adjacent to the boundaries of Stonington
Borough.
No attempt has been made to rival the larger works
that deal with the history of the town. Anyone who
wishes to know more of the subject than could be com-
pressed within the restricted pages of this book will
find it extensively treated in the late Judge Richard
A. Wheeler's excellent history and genealogy, and in
the attractive volume, "Homes of Our Ancestors, " by
his daughter, Miss Grace D. Wheeler.
I make grateful acknowledgments to these two books,
as well as to Judge Wheeler's earlier article on Ston-
ington in the History of New London County, the late
J. Hammond Trumbull's brochure on the Battle of
Stonington (a rare book, a copy of which is in the pos-
session of the Stonington Free Library), and various
other sources too many to mention.
I wish also to record my obligations to the late Hon-
orable Ephraim Williams of Stonington and William
C. Stanton of Westerly, who furnished me with many
interesting facts concerning the early history of the
4 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
community, and to the writers under whose names the
four chapters in this volume on "Whaling and Seal-
ing," "In the 'Fifties,'" "Society 'Before the
War,' " and "Whistler in Stonington" are printed.
Much of the earlier part of the book is based upon
an article I contributed to the New England Magazine
in 1899, just two hundred and fifty years after the first
settlement of the town at the head waters of Wequete-
quock Cove.
If any special merit may be claimed for the
work it is that of conciseness and the bringing together,
in handy form, of many facts about Stonington by
the Sea that cannot be found elsewhere within a
single volume.
H. R. P.
January, 1913
CONTENTS
I. The Beginnings of the Town . . 9
II. The Settlement of Long Point . ,18
III. A Meeting House Lottery . . .24
IV. The First British Attack . . .29
V. The Second British Attack . . .34
VI. Notes on the Second Attack . . 45
VII. Stonington in 1819 . . . .50
VIII. Whaling and Sealing . . . .53
James H. Weeks
IX. In the "Fifties" . , . . .64
George D. Stanton
X. Society "Before the War" . . 69
Emma W. Palmer
XI. Whistler in Stonington . . .75
RiETA B. Palmer
XII. Three Disastrous Fires . . .80
XIII. Stonington Newspapers . . .85
XIV. The Discovery of Antarctica . . 88
XV. Fanning' s Voyages . . . .92
XVI. Tales and Traditions . . . .96
XVII. Stonington To-Day . . . .102
The Town Clock
The Pequot Country
(From an old Dutch map)
SioMNcMox Point iro.m the Breakwater
STONINGTON BY THE SEA
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN
Before the white man established himself in New
England, the warlike tribe of Pequots dominated the
region between the Thames and Pawcatuck rivers.
They had come from the headwaters of the Hudson,
sweeping aci'oss Connecticut despite the opposition of
the local Indians, and cutting in two the mild Niantics,
who occupied the shores of Fisher's Island sound.
One division of the Niantics was pressed to the east,
the other to the west, and comfortably between them
down sat the Pequots to enjoy the well-stocked hunt-
ing and fishing grounds the dispossessed tribe had
loved.
The Pequots could muster nearly four thousand war-
riors if need arose. They added Fisher's Island to
their undisputed domain, and went on hostile enter-
prises as far as Block Island and Montauk. In 1 632
— five years before their own tragic overthrow — they
met the Narragansetts of Rhode Island in battle and
drove them to the eastward, extending their land-
ed claims ten miles beyond the Pawcatuck. It was
partly in revenge for this that the Narragansetts in
10 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
1637 rallied to the call of the colonies and assisted
Captain John Mason in the overthrow of the Pequots
at their lofty fort on the west bank of the Mystic riv-
er. The slaughter was complete — scarcely any of the
savage Pequots survived the indiscriminate musket fire
and ruthless burning of their palisaded tents and huts.
Against the ball and powder of the whites the redskins
could make no effective stand, though thirty years lat-
er, when the Narragansetts were cornered in the Great
Swamp Fight at Kingston, they were able, because of
the muskets the}" had managed to acquire, to inflict a
loss of thirty or fort}' slain upon the colonial troops.
The Pequots, in pushing their boundaries ten miles
east of the Pawcatuck in 1632, laid the foundations
for a border dispute that disturbed the relations of the
settlers of Connecticut and Rhode Island for eighty
years. The traces of this dispute and the prejudices
to which it gave rise are perhaps observable to the
present day.
The Dutch explored the southern coast of New Eng-
land before the English came. Adrian Block set sail
from New Amsterdam in the year 1614 in the Rest-
less, a vessel forty-four feet in length which had been
built on the shores of the Hudson, and voyaged leis-
urely along the Connecticut coast, taking time to ex-
amine the rivers and harbors, and giving them names
that have long since disappeared and been forgotten.
The English came a few years later and gave a new
set of names to the region, and these names, like the
English language and theory of govei*nment, have sur-
BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN 11
vived. Captain Block, however, left Dutch names on
two islands that still bear them — his own he gave to
Manisses or Block Island, which however has the Eng-
lish name of New Shoreham as its corporate designa-
tion, and upon the beautiful nearer island, now unfor-
tunately part of the state of New York, which stretch-
es its graceful hills and beaches within three miles of
Stonington he bestowed the name of Visscher, or Fish-
er, one of his crew.
Captain Block sailed past Stonington, and possibly
anchored in Stonington harbor. He cruised through
Little Narragansett bay and up the Pawcatuck river,
to which he gave the name of Oester riviertjen — East
river. "Within the Great Bay "(Long Island sound),
a Dutch historian of the time wrote, "there lies a
point in the shape of a sickle, behind which there is a
small stream or inlet, which was called by our people
East river, since it extends toward the east."
Fate, however, had reserved this region for the
English. Eight years after the destruction of the Pe-
quot power, the younger John Winthrop came from
Boston and began the settlement of Faire Harbour or
New London, on the west bank of the Thames ; and
among those whom he invited to join him in the en-
terprise was William Chesebrough of Rehoboth in the
colony of Plymouth. Chesebrough visited the site,
did not care for it, and set out across country for
home. At Wequetequock, in the present town of
Stonington, he found a pleasant valley, with a pictur-
esque salt-water cove, and here he determined to set-
12 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
tie. In the spring of 16-19 he brought his family
from Rehoboth, and thus the white settlement of the
town was begun. Chesebrough had come to America
with the elder Winthrop in 1630, from Boston in Eng-
land, where he had been born in 1591. In the Amer-
ican Boston he was a responsible citizen. By trade a
gunsmith, he had not been long at Wequetequock be-
fore he was summoned b}' the General Court of Con-
necticut on suspicion of breaking or intending to break
the law that forbade the sale of firearms and ammuni-
tion to the Indians. At first Chesebrough declined to
heed the summons, as he believed he was within the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts, but in 1651, on the ad-
vice of Winthrop and others at New London, he pre-
sented himself at Hartford and declared his innocence
of the charges made against him. He insisted that he
was not engaged in any unlawful trafiic with the nat-
ives, and that his theology was orthodox — he had been
a member of the First Congi-egational Church of Bos-
ton. He agreed to give a bond not to furnish the In-
dians with munitions of war, and there appears to have
been no further controversy between him and the au-
thorities.
Thomas Stanton established himself within the pres-
ent bounds of the town of Stonington in 1650, setting
up a trading post at what is now Pawcatuck. He
was a native of England or AVales, and emigrated to
Virginia in 1636 — the year of the founding of Harvard
College and Providence Plantations ; he was nineteen
or twenty at the time. He made a study of the Indi-
BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN 13
an tongues, and won such a reputation that he was
later appointed interpreter general of the New England
Colonies. It was not until 1658 that he settled his
family at Pawcatuck, and meanwhile, in 1652, Thom-
as Miner came to Wequetequock and built a house on
the east shore of the cove, just across from the Chese-
brough house, which was on the west bank. Miner
had come to America in 1630, and lived by turns in
Charlestown, Hingham and New London. Only a few
months after his settlement at Wequetequock, he sold
his house to Walter Palmer, a former neighbor of
Chesebrough, and moved to Quiambaug, two miles
west of the present borough of Stonington. There he
built himself a house on land that remains in the pos-
session of the Miners to this day.
Walter Palmer came to America from Nottingham-
shire, England, in 1 629, only nine years after the land-
ing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and in advance of
the other founders of Stonington. Palmer came to
Stonington from Rehoboth in 1653, and acquired a
tract of three hundred acres on the east side of We-
quetequock cove. It was in his house, purchased of
Thomas Miner, that the first Christian service in all
the territory between the Thames river and Narragan-
sett bay was held.
Two other of the earliest comers to Stonington were
Captain George Denison, famous as an Indian fighter,
who settled near what is now Mystic in 1654, and
Captain John Gallup and Robert Park, who brought
their families to that part of the town in the same year.
14 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
Massachusetts and Connecticut laid rival claim to
the lands of the Pequots — each had had a share in the
overthrow of the tribe. The settlers of Stonington,
(Mystic and Pawcatuck the region was locally called),
applied to the General Court at Hartford to be set off
as a separate town, but the opposition of New London,
which claimed the territory as far east as the Pawca-
tuck, led to the refusal of the application. In 1657
they made application to Massachusetts, which colony,
the petitioners said, had, as they thought, a just claim
to the area in dispute — but Massachusetts likewise re-
fused the request of the little settlement on the edge
of the wilderness. Thereupon a republic in miniature
was set up under the name of "The Asotiation of Po-
quatuck Peple, ' ' whose articles of agreement said :
"Whereas thear is a difference betwene the 2 Cullonyes of the
Matachusetts and Conecticoate about the government of this
plac, whearby we are deprived of Expectation of protection from
either, . . . we hose names are hereunto subscribed do hearby
promis, testify & declare to maintain and defFend with our per-
sons and estait the peac of the plac and to aid and assist one an-
other acoarding to law & rules of righteousness acoarding to the
true intent and meaning of our asociation till such other provi-
tion be maide ffor us as may atain our end. . . . And we do not
this out of anny disrespec unto ether of the afoarsaid govern-
ments which we are bound ever to honnor, but in the vacancy of
any other aforesaid."
From this declaration of independence in 1658 it
will be seen how the Anglo-Saxon in the New World
was being trained for that self-confidence and efficiency
that flowered in the great Declaration of 1776.
In this same vear, however — 1658 — the commiss-
SOUTHERTOWN
The faintly dotted line shows the extent of the old Massachusetts
township of 1658. The first settlement in the town was at Wequetequock in
1649. The jurisdiction of Connecticut was acknowledged in 1662, and the
name of the town was changed to Stonington in 1666
16 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
ioners appointed to settle the dispute between Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut gave in their decision, find-
ing the claims of the two colonies to the Pequot lands,
based on their triumph in the fight at Mystic, practi-
cally equal. Accordingly they divided the territory
between the two, with the Mystic river as the bound-
ary. Eastward to Weekapaug, well within the
present town of "Westerly, Rhode Island, Massa-
chusetts was to control ; westward, Connecticut. The
local name of "Mystic and Pawcatuck" was changed
to Southertown, the limits of which therefore included
the later town of Stonington and much of Westerly.
A committee of the town appointed to fix the lines
reported in March, 1659:
"We did as followeth ffirst we began at Misticke
Rivers mouth, and fFrom thence we run six miles to
the north, northeast to the pond lying by Lanthome
Hill, where we marked a chestnut tree with six noches
right against the middle of the pond, which pond we
fFound to be seuen chains and one pole wide, and from
thence we run two miles due north to an ash tree
which we marked ffouer ways and set eight noches for
the eight miles. ' '
From Lantern Hill the commissioners carried the
line eastward into what is now the town of Hopkinton
until they reached a point north of the present summer
resort known as Weekapaug, thus overlapping Rhode
Island's territorial claims. The result of this confu-
sion of colonial boundaries was a prolonged controversy
between the Rhode Islanders and their neighbors west
BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN 17
of the Pawcatuck. Within the memory of men whose
lives were lived entirely within the nineteenth century,
indeed, the rivalry of the youth of Westerly and
Stonington was keen and vigorous. Westerly gave
the opprobrious name of "fishtails" to the boys of
Stonington, and Stonington impolitely responded with
"buckies." The surest way to start trouble in the
public highway was to raise the cry that a lad from
the other town had put in his appearance on hostile
ground.
In 1662 the town was surrendered to Massachusetts
by virtue of the charter granted to Connecticut,
Three years later it was officially called Mystic, and in
1666 the name of Stonington was given to it, probably
because of the character of the soil. So far as is known
the town was never represented in the General Court
of Massachusetts, and it was not until 1664 that
William Chesebrough was elected as its first represen-
tative at Hartford.
Other early settlers were John Shaw, Josiah Witter,
John Searles, Edmund Fanning and James York. In
1667 a committee was appointed by the town to lay
out "home lots" of twelve acres each, near the present
*'Road" Church. The next year there were forty-three
heads of families in town.
CHAPTER II
THE SEITLEMENT OF LONG POINT
Before the settlement of what is now Stonington
Borough was undertaken, an elaborate scheme was
broached for a townsite on the west side of the harbor,
at Wamphasset. A plan was exhibited to the public
showing thirtj'-two house lots, with streets apparently
on a rectangular pattern; and for some years the
project seems to have promised success. Houses were
erected and at least one warehouse and one wharf were
built. It is said that the settlement was given up
because the depth of water was not sufficient on the
west side of the harbor. At any rate, the growth of
the communit}' on the east side of the harbor, at
Long Point, was so rapid from 1753 onward that the
earlier settlement was soon overshadowed.
The town records show a number of instances of
sales of lots and buildings at Wamphasset, one of
which ma}' be cited verbatim as an illustration of the
legal phraseolog}' of the day :
"To all People to whom these Presents shall come, I
John Whiting of Stonington in the County of
New London and Colony of Connecticott in New Eng-
land &c Yeoman, send Greeting, Know ye that I
the John Whiting for and in consideration of the sum
SETTLEMENT OF LONG POINT 19
of Eight Hundred and Sevent}" pounds current money
of New England to me in hand before the Ensealing
hereof, well and truly paid by Thomas Noyes of
Westerly in Kings County and Colony of Rhode
Island &c Yeoman, the Receipt wherefor I do hereby
acknowledge, and my Self therewith fully Satisfied,
contented and paid, and thereof, and of every part
and Parcel thereof. Do Exonerate acquit, and Dis-
charge the Said Thomas Noyes his heirs. Executors, &
Administrators forever by these Presents : Haue given
granted bargained, Sold, aliened, enfeoffed conveyed
and confirmed, and by these Presents Do freely, fully,
and absolutely give grant bargain Sell, alien enfeofFe,
convey and confirm unto him the the Sd. Thomas
Noyes his heirs and assigns forever one certain parsel ;
Tract or Lott of Land ; Lying and being within the
ToAvnship of Stonington aforesaid, containing one half
acre be same more or Less, being bounded as followeth :
VIZ : Beginning at a Rock Standing about Seven
feet North or Northwest from the Northwest corner
of the Dwelling house the said Whiting now dwellethin,
and from Said Rock Running Southeast and by East
to the Harbour or Salt water ; which is the Noi'th side
of Said Lott ; and from said Rock Running South-
west and by South four Rods, and then Southwest and
by East to the Salt water or harbour Parilell with the
first mentioned line ; & So bounded on the Southeast
or East with the harbour: together with all the
Housing & buildings and wharf, and warehouse Stand-
ing thereon ; To haue and to Hold, the said Granted
20 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
and bargained Premises, witli all the appurtenances
Privileges and Commodities to the Same belonging or
in my wife appertaining to him the Said Thomas
Noyes his heirs and assigns forever. ' '
On September 26, 1751, John and Abigail Hallam
conveyed to Isaac Worden, mariner, of Stonington,
for the sum of one hundred and ten pounds current
money, lot number six on the Wamphasset plan,
"which plan is a projection of more than Thirty lots
of land . . . together with main & cross Streets,
and Intended by Sd. Hallam as a Settlement for a
Town."
The beginning of the settlement of Long Point
(Stonington Borough) was made shortly after 1750.
Miss Emma W. Palmer in her interesting chapter on the
old houses of the borough, in Miss Grace D. Wheeler's
volume on the "Homes of Our Ancestors" (1903),
says that Edward and John Denison, son and grand-
son of the shipbuilder George Denison of Westerly,
built the first house in 1752; but it was not till 1753
that Elihu Chesebrough, of the family to which the
point had originally belonged, a hundred years before,
sold to Edward Denison two tracts at the point. As
early as October 26, 1750, however, Humphrey Avery,
county surveyor, reports that he has completed
with the assistance of chainmen the task intrusted to
him by Captain Nathan Chesebrough, Captain
Uliomas Wheeler and several other inhabitants of the
town of Stonington, "to Survey boundout and
Describe a highway across their farmes from said
SETTLEMENT OF LONG POINT 21
Stonington Harbour, to the North meeting House in
Sd. Town. ' ' He says :
"I began at a meerstone marked Avith the Letter
— : R : Standing South, Eight Rods and Sixteen Links
from said Capt. Chesebrough's warehouse on the
East Side of Sd. Harboure, & at highwater mark
on Sd. Capt. Chesebrough's Land."
From this point he proceeded to the "Post Road
186: Rods to a meerstone at the North Side of Sd.
Post Road, Standing west 22 North ten Rod: 20:
Links from the N, W. corner of the Meeting House
in the East Society in Sd. Town, at Mr. EHhu
Chesebrow's Land;" and finally to the road in "the
North Parrish in Sd. Town, which the Meeting House
Stands on. ' ' The road thus described was two rods and
a half wide, "which afforesd. Road, Now Laved &
Discribed is in the Place where it is, and hath
been used for many years as a way from Sd. Harbour
to Said North Meeting House."
On November 24, 1750, the land for this "Publick
Highway" was granted to John Williams, Joseph
Denison and John Holmes and the rest of the in-
habitants of Connecticut by Nathan Chesebrough,
Elihu Chesebrough, Clement Minor, Samuel Minor,
2d, Samuel Frink, Joseph Hewit, Samuel Plumb, John
Macdowell, Samuel Miner and Joseph Babcock, who
reserved to themselves, however "the Previledge of
feeding the land."
Under date of August 7, 1753, Elihu Chesebrough,
with the assent of Esther his wife, who waived her
22 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
dower rights in the property, conveyed to Edward
Denison of Stonington, in consideration of one thou-
sand pounds "in bills of credit old tenor" a two-
acre tract on Long Point. This land as described
in the town records began "at the South East corner
of a highway Laid out by a Jury on Said point".
On the same day also Mr. Chesebrough conveyed to
him a tract of one acre and ten rods, also on Long
Point, for the sum of six hundred and thirty-four
pounds ; and to Samuel Stanton of Stonington one
tract of half an acre adjoining the land sold to
Denison and a second tract of half an acre for two
hundred and forty-four pounds. To Edward Hancox,
Jr. , of Stonington, on the same day, he conveyed two
half-acre lots, one for two hundred and the other for
one hundred and seventy pounds. The first is de-
scribed as being adjacent to "a Rode Lately Layed
out from Sd. Stonington harbour on the East Side
of Sd. Harbour."
Thus in a single day six parcels of land were con-
vej^ed to Messrs Denison, Stanton and Hancox at
Long Point ; each of these family names has since been
intimately connected with the history of the place.
Edward Denison 's house was a large structure of two
and a half stories, with a great central chimney. It
stood on what was first called Town square, but is
now known as Cannon square, because it is the rest-
ing place of the two eighteen pound guns used in the
defence of the town against the British in 1814.
The Denison house was built for the farmers
SETTLEMENT OF LONG POINT 23
*'who came to sell their stock and produce to those en-
gaged in the West India trade, which was quite
profitable at that time, before the Revolution."
According to Miss Palmer Mr. Denison built the first
wharf at the foot of the street in 1752 (or 1753?)
"and continued the West India trade in which he had
been engaged in Westerly. The house was after-
wards occupied by Mr. Giles Hallam, and was burnt
in the great fire of 1837, the family hardly escaping
with their lives."
Under date of September 24, 1754, Samuel Griffing
of Stonington conveyed to his brother Thomas Griffing
for the sum of nine hundred pounds "in bills of credit
old Tenor" about one-sixteenth of an acre on the east
side of Stonington Harbor, on the ' 'Main Street. ' '
Samuel and Thomas Griffing at this time jointly
owned a dwelling house on this street, the premises of
which house ran from the street westerly to the harbor.
It may be added that Main Street was laid out from
the harbor to the town of Preston in 1752, and that
in the same year the first town landing was built north
of the present main tracks of the New Haven railroad.
CHAPTER III
A MEETING HOUSE LOTTERY
Meeting houses built by lottery were no rarity in
Colonial New England. In the early days of Long
Point the " proffessors of the established religion" in
the village felt the need of a church edifice but, being
unable to raise the necessary money by voluntary
contributions, applied to the General Assembly for per-
mission to conduct a lottery for the purpose.
There were already two meeting houses within four
miles of Long Point, one erected by the West, the
other by the East, Society. These two Societies
united in 1765 and were ministered to for several years
by Rev. Nathaniel Eells, who preached six months in
one meeting house and six months in the other.
Afterwards Mr. Eells was secured for the afternoon
service at the Point, eighty-three residents of which in
1774 set forth in a persuasive petition to Hartford
their wants and wishes. They said that they were
nearly four miles distant from any meeting house,
that the inhabitants of the village were generally poor,
making their living chiefly in the whale and cod fish-
eries, that the community had increased to upwards
of eighty families, comprising nearly five hundred per-
sons, "among which are twenty widows, seventeen of
MAIN Streei in Summer
A MEETING HOUSE LOTTERY 25
which have children as famihes," and that there was
not one horse to ten families in the place — a lamentable
situation indeed. For lack of a proper meet-
ing place they were wont to assemble in a small
schoolhouse or in private houses, the attendant in-
conveniences of which practice were so great that
Sunday was misspent by many persons who would
otherwise not profane it ; in short, the cause of religion
greatly suffered, and an increase of vice and irreligion
was feared. The petition continued:
"That the town of which your memorialists are a
part have lately paid and are liable to pay upwards of
one thousand pounds for the deficiency of several
collectors that have lately failed ; that your memorial-
ists from gi'eat necessity, by their being remote from
any constant grist mill, have lately contributed about
seventy pounds as an encouragement to an undertaker to
build a windmill at said point, which with about the
same sum lately subscribed by said inhabitants for a
schoolhouse, with the great labor and expense they
have been at to make roads and causeways to said
point, all which with the poor success that attended
the last year's fishery, and the lowness of markets and
the various and different sentiments in the religious
denominations of Christians among them, viz. : First
day Baptists, Seven day Baptists and the Quakers or
those called Friends, are such real grief and dis-
couragements to your memorialists, who are of the
established Religion of this Colony, that they can no
longer think of obtaining a meeting house by subscrip-
tion or an}^ other way among themselves."
26 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
To many readers of the present generation it would
be interesting to mark the names attached to this peti-
tion. Some of the families represented still survive in
Stonington ; others have not a single descendant within
the borders of the borough. There are no longer any
members of the Morgan, Rathbun, Tripp, Champlin,
Lamb, Hillard, Tenny, Grafton, Buddington, Beebe,
Littlefield, Niles, Cobb, Elliot, Borden, Crary,
Seabury, Satterlee, Ashcroft, Irish, Chester, Gallaway,
Sparhawk, Fellows, Coleman or Fanning families on
' 'Long Point, ' ' and probably several other names have
disappeared. What a change has been wrought in a
century and a third in this small corner of the world,
where it is customary to think of life going on placid-
1}' and without much ebb and flow of population. Of
Stonington Borough it is recorded that Rufus Choate
once said it was the only place he had ever seen that
was entirely finished. Possibly the tale is apochry-
phal ; possibly it is a standard story, applied impartially
to scores of New England towns. But how inaccurate
its characterization of even the most sluggish commu-
nity must be is indicated in the radical changes that
have occurred since 1774 in Stonington. Doubtless
Mr. Choate, if he made the remark attributed to him,
referred to the lack of material growth in the community ;
yet even so, his facile verdict fell short. When these
memorialists for a lottery sent their petition to the
General Assembly, Stonington was a scanty village of
three or four score houses, many or most of them a
A MEETING HOUSE LOTTERY 27
story and a half in height under their quaint gambrel
roofs ; with one broad highway — Main street — and a
primitive series of lanes where the cross streets now
are. No doubt the grass flourished jealously
beside the narrow paths that served for sidewalks, and
it is a well authenticated tradition that only a hundred
years ago Water street was so crude a thorough-
fare that an agile lad might leap from rock to rock
throughout its entire length without once putting his
feet on the ground. But to return to the meeting
house. The General Assembly granted the petition
of the Long Pointers, whose monetary and other dis-
tresses, however real, lost nothing in the formal recital ;
but it was not until 1777 that the lottery was drawn
and the desired funds were secured. Fate willed,
however, that there should be no meeting house at the
Point for the time being. The Revolutionary War
opened, much of the money was used for the defence
of the village, and the rest of it, being invested in
Continental bills, was lost by I'eason of their utter
depreciation. Again in 1785, two years after the
Peace with Great Britain, another petition for a
lotteiy was granted by the Assembly, (the amount
being limited as before to four hundred pounds), and
the money was raised ; but as the meeting house of the
East Society at Putnam's Corners, near the present
residence of Fernando Wheeler and the "Whitefield
Elm," was in the market, this was taken down and
re-erected at the Point in 1785-86. The lot on which
it stood is occupied by the house of Mrs. Lucius N.
28 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
Palmer, on the east side of Wadawanuck square. It
was set back from the street and survived until 1860,
though in its later years it was unused and in a
dilapidated condition. Immediate^ in front of it,
between it and the street, was the house of Samuel
Trumbull, the first publisher of Stonington, who
printed the "Journal of the Times" and many books.
The Trumbull house was torn down about the same
time as the meeting house.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST BRITISH ATTACK
What other town in Connecticut was ever the scene
of an American victory over the British ! New London
and Groton were ravaged by the redcoats under Arnold,
who, returning to his native county after the treacherous
episode of West Point, wreaked his vengeance for his
self-inflicted misfortunes on the hapless communities
at the mouth of the Thames ; General Tryon, erstwhile
colonial governor of New York, led a British expedi-
tion into the state in 1779 and burned Danbury.
But Stonington twice repulsed the forces of His
Britannic Majesty — once in 1775 and again in 1814.
Is it not fitting that the General Assembly should in
some way provide for the enduring recognition of this
unique and dual triumph?
The first British attack upon Stonington occurred
on the thirtieth of August, in the year of Lexington
and Concord, more than ten months previous to the
signing of the Declaration of Independence. The
British troops were at the time besieged in Boston,
with the Yankee net so tight about them that provi-
sions had to be sought by sea rather than by land.
Admiral Graves despatched Captain Sir James Wallace,
accordingly, to the coasts of southern New England to
30 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
forage for fat cattle. Captain Wallace was then
forty-four years of age, a naval veteran of nearly
thirty years service, who had been appointed in Nov-
ember, 1771, to the command of the Rose, a twenty-
gun frigate. It would be interesting to have an
exact description of this vessel ; very likel}^ she was a
three-masted ship with a double bank of guns — one
bank on the main or gun deck and a lighter battery on
the upper or spar deck. The Dictionary of National
(British) Biography says of Captain Wallace that
"during 1775 and the first part of 1776 he was
actively engaged in those desultory operations against
the coast towns which were calculated to produce the
greatest possible irritation with the least possible
advantage. ' ' So far as Stonington was concerned, how-
ever, this maximum of irritation and minimum of
advantage were both experienced by Wallace himself.
He had burned a score of houses and barns on the
island of Conanicut in Narragansett bay and made off
with a cargo of live stock. At Bristol, on the east .
side of Narragansett, he ordered the magistrates
to come on board and hear his demands, and when
they declined this peremptory invitation he opened fire
upon the place with disastrous results. Thereupon the
town fathers yielded and promised him cattle and
provisions. Naturally the isolated inhabitants of
Block Island, ten miles south of the main shore of
Rhode Island, waxed apprehensive as they heard of
these raids so near their own doors. So they shipped
their cattle to Stonington,. twenty miles distant, where
FIRST BRITISH ATTACK 31
they hoped the beasts could be sustained in safety
until the dread marauder had passed. The sequel
showed that their hope was not in vain, though what
actually happened could hardly have been foreseen by
them.
Sir James was promptly made aware of this prudent
action of the Block Islanders, and determined to have
the cattle nevertheless. Perhaps the very fact of their
withdrawal to the mainland spurred him on. They
had been put prosperously to pasture on the plains of
Quonaduc, just above the village of Stonington, when
he arrived off the port and sent a boat ashore to
demand their delivery under penalty of terrible re-
prisals. The Long Point patriots, however, were in
no mood to acquiesce in his requirements. They
abruptly declined to surrender the cattle and assem-
bled a defensive force with all possible speed. Captain
Oliver Smith gathered his expert Long Point musket-
eers and Captain William Stanton came down from
the Road District double haste with his company of
militia. The troops rendezvoused in the Robinson
pasture, on the present property of Mrs. Courtlandt
G. Babcock, just north of Wadawanuck squai'e, and
marched thence to Brown's wharf to repel a landing
party sent in small boats from the Rose, which remained
in the offing. To beat back the invaders they had no
cannon, but their Queen Anne muskets were trusty
weapons, reputed of high effect at long range. They
proved so distasteful to the unwelcome visitors from
the Rose that the discomfited tenders beat a retreat
32 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
to the frigate with heavy losses. Captain Wallace
concluded not to venture ashore again with small
boats but began a bombardment of the place, and for
several hours kept it up, so that nearly every house
suffered more or less. But no white flag was raised,
no proposition of surrender was made. Some of the
inhabitants of the to%vn took to their cellars for safety,
others retired temporarily northward; still others
found a shelter behind the abundant rocks of the
Point, one of which, a great boulder at the southwest
corner of Wadawanuck square, was struck by one of
the frigate's shots. The onl}^ man wounded among
the gallant forces of defence was Jonathan Weaver, Jr. ,
a musician in Captain Smith's company, who was
compensated by the next General Assembly for his
injuries to the extent of twelve pounds, four shillings
and fourpence. Sir James, whose expedition thus
proved a failure, except for the shingles and chimneys
he displaced, sailed off no doubt in a huff, and the
Block Island kine continued to feed, prosperous and
unwitting, at Quonaduc. As for Captain Smith of
the Long Point sharpshooters, the Assembly made
him a major, as he deserved.
When the Long Pointers learned that Stephen
Peckham, a Tor}", had piloted the Rose to their
harbor they were wroth against him. After a
time fate overtook him and brought him, a captive,
to Stonington. A large button wood tree then stood
near the corner of Water and Wall streets ; it was
known as the Liberty tree, because the Sons of Liberty
Stoningtox Liohtholse, Built 1S42
Stonixgtox Free Library, wadawanuck Park
FIRST BRITISH ATTACK 33
were wont to meet within its shade. The Tory pilot
was taken to this tree and forced to mount a platform
that had been set up there. Patriots of the neighbor-
hood gathered in large numbers to witness the discomfi-
ture and punishment of Peckham, who had previously
given his assent to a written confession. Esquire
Nathaniel Miner read the document to the crowd. It
was in essence as follows: "I, Stephen Peckham,
do hereby acknowledge that, being instigated by the
devil, I did great injury to the inhabitants of this
place, for which I profess my hearty sorrow, and do
humbly ask their forgiveness." As the confession
was written in the first person, 'Squire Miner would
occasionally interrupt himself to remark, "Not I, but
that fellow on the platform." Peckham was let off
with this lenient penalty, but Stonington no doubt took
as much satisfaction from it as if he had been hanged,
drawn and quartered. The gentle art of punishing
Tories was never better exemplified.
CHAPTER V
THE SECOND BlUTISH ATTACK
Thirty-nine years after the successful repulse of
Captain Wallace and the frigate Rose, the inhabitants
of Stonington were called upon to meet once more a
British assault. This time the attack was more serious
but the result was much the same: the attacking
party Avas beaten off with grave losses, while the
defenders of the place suffered hardly at all.
At the opening of the Second War with Great
Britain, in 1812, Stonington Point, as the village had
come to be known, comprised about a hundred houses,
most of them clustered on the southern portion of the
little peninsula. Occupying as it did an exposed
position, the community naturally apprehended a
British visitation, though it thought that New London
and Newport, much more important places, were
more likely to suffer. But in August, 1814, the
blow descended ; Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy,
in command of a British squadron, appeared off the
place, and sent the authorities this truly emergent
message: "Not wishing to destro}^ the unoffending in-
habitants residing in the town of Stonington, one hour
is given them from the receipt of this to remove out
of the town." Sixty minutes to escape !
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 35
Captain Hardy was born in 1769, entered the
British navy in 1781, and served with Nelson in the
last years of the eighteenth century. On the tenth
of February, 1797, at Gibraltar, he jumped into a
jolly-boat to save a dro^vning man. The little craft
was borne b}^ the tide toward the leading Spanish vessel.
"By God," cried Nelson, "I'll not lose Hardy!
Back the mizzen topsail!" This quick manoeuvre
enabled the jolh'-boat to return in safety to the
British frigate. For Hardy his great friend cherished
a lively affection to the end. In the battle of Trafalgar
in 1805, he was in command of the Admiral's flagship
Victory, and acting captain of the fleet. When
Nelson received his fatal wound. Hardy was walking
with him on the quarterdeck ; and it was to him that
the Admiral addressed his last request, "Kiss me.
Hardy, before I die. ' ' When a committee of Stoning-
ton citizens visited Captain Hardy's ship under a flag
of truce, to protest against what appeared to them an
unprovoked and brutal attack, the commander of
the squadron received them courteously, and said,
pointing to a lounge or settee in the cabin of the ship,
"It may interest you, gentlemen, to know that on that
couch Lord Nelson lay in his death, after I had given him
my parting embrace. ' ' Hardy was forty-five at the
time of the attack on Stonington and a naval veteran
of thirty-three years service. He had been appointed
to the command of the Ramillies in August, 1812,
and that vessel was among those that made this
sudden assault on Stonington, though Hardy sent
36 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
his peremptory message from his temporary head-
quarters as commander of the squadron on board the
Pactolus. In 1815 he was nominated as a K. C. B. ;
in 1837 he became a vice-admiral, and in 1839 he
died at the age of seventy. His portrait given by
Lady Hardy is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich,
England ; there is a monument to his memory in the
hospital chapel, and a memorial pillar, visible from
the sea, has been set up in his honor on the crest of
the Black Down above Portisham.
It was thus a distinguished naval commander who
brought his squadron of four hostile vessels to Stoning-
ton on the ninth of August, 1814, and sent so sharp
and ruthless a communication to the borough officers.
The squadron consisted of the Ramillies, carrying
seventy-four guns; the Pactolus, with forty-four; the
Despatch, a brig of twenty-two guns, and the bomb-
ship Terror. At five o'clock in the afternoon they
dropped anchor off shore, and at eight o'clock in the
evening the Terror began casting its whistling shells
in the direction of the town. Promptly in return one
of two Revolutionary eighteen-pounders that had been
sent to Stonington by the Government some time
previously roared its defiance. Hardy prepared to
follow his preliminary bombardment with sterner
measures, and accordingly several small boats were
sent in shore for the purpose of capturing the place.
One account says there were four barges and three
launches, another says there were five barges and one
launch. The flotilla, at any rate six or seven strong.
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 37
took position off the point and poured a rain of
Congreve rockets into the village, at first to the
grievous apprehension of the inhabitants, who soon
discovered, however, that no great damage was being
done to their houses and nobody was being killed.
As soon as they grasped these essential facts they
utilized the flare of the rockets to direct their own fire.
The bombardment continued till midnight, and at
dawn of the tenth was renewed.
By this time a formidable force of militia was
assembled in the town in response to the hurried call
of the inhabitants for assistance. Several of the
enemy's launches and barges had taken position near
the east side of the point and had renewed their rain of
rockets. The battery of the defenders consisted of
three guns only, the two eighteen-pounders to which
reference has been made and a four- (or six-) pounder.
These occupied a four-foot earthwork near the present
entrance to the old breakwater on Water street.
The earthwork was the only fortification the village
could boast, but above it floated the stars and stripes
for a reminder and inspiration. Once the flag fell,
levelled by a shot from the fleet, but a gallant
patriot nailed it to the mast again, and there it
floated, torn by ball and shell, till the battle ended.
The British demonstration on the east side of the
point called for immediate attention, so the smaller
cannon was dragged from the battery to the
threatened locality, and a party of volunteers estab-
lished themselves there, anticipating an attempt at
38 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
landing. But meanwhile one of the eighteen-pounders
had been run to the extreme end of the point, whence
it maintained so galling a fire that the landing party
retreated, with one barge thoroughly shattered.
Captain Amos Palmer, writing to the Secretary of
War a little more than a year later, thus described
the incident: "The next morning (August tenth) at
seven o'clock the brig Despatch anchored within
pistol shot of our battery, and they sent five barges
to land under cover of their whole fire (being joined
by the "Nimrod," twenty -gun brig.) When the
boats approached within grape distance, we opened
our fire on them with round- and grape-shot. They re-
treated and came round the east side of the town.
We checked them with our six-pounder and muskets
till we dragged over one of our eighteen-pounders.
We put in it a round shot and about forty or fifty
pounds of grape, and placed it in the centre of their
boats as they were rowing up in a line and firing on
us. We tore one of their barges all in pieces, so that
two, one on each side, had to lash her up to keep her
from sinking."
Captain Palmer continues his recital in vigorous but
modest English; the account has the special merit of
being that of a participant in the battle, written
within a few months of its occurrence. He says :
' 'They retreated out of grape distance, and we turned
our fire upon the brig, and expended all our cartridges
but five, which we reserved for the boats if they made
another attempt to land. We then lay four hours,
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 39
being unable to annoy the enemy in the least, except
from muskets on the brig, while the fire from the
whole fleet was directed against our buildings. After
the third express from New London, some fixed
ammunition arrived. We then turned our cannon on
the brig, and she soon cut her cable and drifted out.
The whole fleet then weighed and anchored nearly out of
reach of our shot, and continued this and the next day to
bombard the town. They set the buildings on fire in
more than twenty places, and we as often put them out.
In the three days' bombardment they sent on shore
sixty tons of metal, and, strange to say, wounded only
one man, since dead. We have picked up fifteen tons,
including some that was taken up out of the water
and the two anchors that we got. We took up and
buried four poor fellows that were hove overboard out
of the sinking barge.
"Since peace, the officers of the 'Despatch' brig
have been on shore here. They acknowledge they
had twenty-one killed and fifty badly wounded, and
further say, had we continued our fire any longer they
should have struck, for they were in a sinking condi-
tion ; for the wind then blew at southwest, directly
into the harbor. Before the ammunition arrived it
shifted to the north, and blew out of the harbor.
All the shot suitable for the cannon we have reserved.
We have now more eighteen-pound shot than was sent
us by government. We have put the two cannons
in the arsenal and housed all the munitions of war."
At one o'clock in the afternoon of August tenth.
40 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
the Ramillies and Pactolus took up their station two
and a half miles from the point and the defenders of the
town saw that matters were getting very serious. They
therefore sent a deputation under a flag of truce to
Captain Hardy to ask the reason for his attack. So
far as known the only reph^ he gave was that the
people of Stonington had fitted out torpedoes for use
against the British fleet and that the wife of Vice
Consul Stewart, recently resident at New London,
was detained on shore and must be sent on shipboard
within an hour. Both charges were denied; of
Mrs. Stewart the Stoningtonians knew nothing what-
ever.
Meanwhile the army of defence was steadily increas-
ing, and it was no longer practicable for the British
to consider forcing a landing. Having failed against
the little body of militia and unorganized volunteers
on the night of the ninth, they could not hope for
success against the host that was now swarming in from
the neighboring country. The bombardment contin-
ued, however, in a desultory way until the twelfth of
August, when the squadron retired, with the Despatch
so badly injured that she was in imminent danger of
foundering.
The more the story of this Battle of Stonington is
studied, the more remarkable does it become. Against
five British ships, equipped with a hundred and sixty
guns and commanded by a veteran of long experience
on both sides of the world, the scant defenders of the
town, with three cannons and little ammunition, won
The Eighteen Pound Defenders of 1814
British Bombshells at Wadawanuck Park
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 41
decisive. The village suffered little from the attack,
one explanation being that the spire of the White Meet-
ing House, east of what is now Wadawanuck square,
deceived the enemy into thinking that most of the town
lay far back from the sea. This does not altogether
account, however, for the comparative immunity of
the hundred houses of the place from injur3\ Nor
will it do to argue that the attack was not made in
earnest. Everything goes to show that the British,
for some reason, greatly desired to take the town.
Probably they thought they would meet with little
resistance, but the event undeceived them. Nowhere
in all the War of 1812 was a more gallant defence of
American territory made. Perhaps no more specific
reason for the assault need be sought than the fact
that the British, previous to this time, had extended
their blockade very generally along the coast
of the new republic, and were under orders to
"destroy and lay waste all towns and districts of the
United States found accessive to the attack of the
British armaments." In accordance with these orders,
town after town was bombarded and burned.
Philip Freneau, the famous balladist of the day,
wrote a song about the battle that is worth setting
down here entire :
THE BATTLE OF STONINGTON
ON THE SEABOARD OF CONNECTICUT
Four gallant ships from England came
Freighted deep with fire and flame.
42 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
r
[/■
And other things we need not name,
To have a dash at Stonington.
Now safely moor'd, their work begun :
They thought to make the Yankees run,
And have a mighty deal of fun
In stealing sheep at Stonington.
A deacon then popp'd up his head,
And Parson Jones's sermon read,
In which the reverend doctor said
That they must fight for Stonington.
A townsman bade them next attend
To sundry resolutions penn'd,
By which they promised to defend
With sword and gun old Stonington.
The ships advancing different ways,
The Britons soon began to blaze.
And put th' old women in amaze,
Who feared the loss of Stonington.
The Yankees to their fort repair'd.
And made as though they little cared
For all that came — though very hard
The cannon play'd on Stonington.
The Ramillies began the attack.
Despatch came forward — bold and black-
And none can tell what kept them back
From setting fire to Stonington.
SECOND BRITISH AITACK 43
The bombardiers with bomb and ball
Soon made a farmer's barrack fall,
And did a cow-house sadly maul
That stood a mile from Stonington.
They kill'd a goose, they kill'd a hen,
Three hogs they wounded in a pen —
They dashed away and pray what then?
This was not taking Stonington.
The shells were thrown, the rockets flew.
But not a shell of all they threw,
Though every house was in full view,
Could burn a house in Stonington.
To have their turn they thought but fair ; —
The Yankees brought tw^o guns to bear.
And, sir, it would have made you stare,
This smoke of smoke at Stonington.
They bored Pactolus through and through.
And kill'd and wounded of her crew
So many, that she bade adieu
T' the gallant sons of Stonington.
The brig Despatch was hull'd and torn —
So crippled, riddled, so forlorn,
No more she cast an eye of scorn
On the little fort at Stonington.
The Ramillies gave up the affray,
/ And with her comrades sneak 'd away.
Such was the valor, on that day.
Of British tars near Stonington.
44 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
But some assert, on certain grounds,
(Besides the damage and the wounds),
It cost the king ten thousand pounds
To have a dash at Stonington.
It is said that one of the youths of the neighborhood,
Langworthy by name, was present at the point when
the British vessels slunk away amid the great rejoic-
ing of the triumphant defenders. The American
officer in command, according to a story handed down
in Langworthy' s family, was so exultant that he called
for cheers and at the conclusion threw his cap in the
air. The brisk wind carried it overboard, young
Langworthy jumped in and brought it ashore, and the
commandant gave him a shilling for reward. The
tale is slight, but it helps to give us a vivid picture
of the moment of victor}' — the vessels making off
through Fisher's Island sound, the soldiers on shore
relieved of their anxiety and justly happy in their
success, and even the chief officer so exuberant that
he had to cast his cap into the air to express his feel-
ings.
CHAPTER VI
NOTES ON THE SECOND ATTACK
An account of the bombardment of Stonington in
1814 written by Rev. Frederic Denison and printed
in the Mystic Pioneer, July 2, 1859, contains interest-
ing particulars "gathered from the lips of prominent
actors in the battle. ' ' The first men, so far as remem-
bered, "that took stations in the battery" (on August
ninth), it says, " were four, William Lord, Asa Lee,
George Fellows and Amos Denison. Just before six
o'clock, six volunteers from Mystic, Jeremiah Holmes,
Ebenezer Denison, Isaac Denison and Nathaniel Clift,
reached the place, on foot, and ran immediately to
help operate the gun in the battery The
battery being small, but few men could work in it."
Later, on the morningof the tenth, it was operated,
"as nearly as remembered, by Jeremiah Holmes, Simeon
Haley, Isaac Denison, Isaac Miner, George Fellows
and Asa Lee," This list is not complete.
The one defender wounded during the bombardment
was Frederick Denison, who was struck in the knee by
a flying fragment of rock or by a direct shot from the
brig. The wound was not considered dangerous, but he
died on the first of the following November. A mon-
ument was erected to his memory in Elm Grove ceme-
46 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
tery at Mystic by the State of Connecticut. John
Miner was badly burnt in the face b}' the premature
discharge of one of the guns.
The damage done to buildings was estimated a few
days after the battle at four thousand dollars.
"We have made some estimate of the number of
shells and fire carcasses thrown into the village, and we
find there have been about three hundred," says an
account written for publication by the borough au-
thorities, August 29. "Some respectable citizens from
motives of curiosity weighed several shells, and found
their weight to be as follows : One of the largest car-
casses, partly full of the combustible, 216 lbs. One of
the smallest sort ditto, 103 lbs. One of the largest
kind empty, 189 lbs. One of the largest bomb shells,
189 lbs. One of the smallest bomb shells, 90 lbs. One,
marked on it 'fire 16 lbs.', 16 lbs. One of the largest
carcasses partly full was set on fire, which burnt half
an hour, emitting a horrid stench ; in a calm the flame
would rise ten feet."
The National Intelligencer shorth' after the battle
said : "The defence of Stonington by a handful of brave
citizens was more like an effusion of feeling, warm from
the heart, than a concerted military movement. ' '
Niles's Weekly Register of September 10, 1814,
said: "Mr. Chalmers, late master of the Terror, bomb
vessel, employed in the attack on Stonington, has been
captured in a British barge and sent to Providence.
He says 170 bombs were discharged from that ship in
the attack on Stonington, which were found to weigh
NOTES ON SECOND ATTACK 47
eighty pounds each ; the charge of powder for the mor-
tar was nine pounds ; adding to this the wadding, that
vessel must have disgorged eight tons weight." But
the bombshells weighed at Stonington tipped the beam
at 189 pounds, just one hundred pounds more than
their weight as Mr. Chalmers is quoted as reporting it.
This would make the total weight discharged from the
Terror more than thirteen tons, exclusive of the wad-
ding.
Niles's Weekly Register stated on June 3, 1815,
that "the iron mine is not yet exhausted, for certain
persons in the diving machine have raised no less than
11,209 lbs. of shot, which was thrown overboard from
the Pactolus, when she was in such a hurr}' to get away
from the guns of Stonington."
The long accepted story is that George Howe Fel-
lows "nailed the colors to the mast" when a British
shot had laid them low, but in a paper before the
Stonington Historical and Genealogical Society in
1909, Miss Emma W. Palmer said: "When Captain
Jeremiah Holmes's ammunition gave out, Stonington
was at the mercy of the invaders, and a timid citizen
who was at the batter}^ proposed a formal surrender by
lowering the colors that wei'e floating over their heads.
'No,' shouted Captain Holmes indignantly, 'that flag
shall never come down while I am alive. ' And it did
not in submission to the foe. When the wind died a-
way and it hung drooping by the side of the staff", the
captain held out the flag on the point of a bayonet,
that the British might see it, and while in that posi-
48 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
tion several shots passed through it. To prevent its
being struck by some coward, Captain Hohiies held a
companion (J. Dean Gallup or George H. Fellows, a
mooted question,) upon his shoulders while the latter
nailed it to the staff.
"In 1860 Mr. Benson J. Lossing came to Stonington
to look up material for his book, 'The Field Book of
the War of 1812,' and was the guest of my father.
Dr. George E. Palmer, who took him to see the vener-
able hero. Captain Jeremiah Holmes, at Mystic, He
was in good health of mind and body, and told the
story of his part of the fight as above, emphasizing the
fact of its being J. Dean Gallup who stood on his
shoulders, instead of George Howe Fellows. Miss
Palmer added, "My father always said that George H.
Fellows was not even here at the time of the attack."
A list of the volunteers who participated in the de-
fence of the town was printed as follows in the Connect-
icut Gazette of August 17, 1814: Of Stonington —
Captain George Fellows, Captain William Potter, Dr.
William Lord, Lieutenant H. G. Lewis, Ensign D.
Frink, Gurdon Trumbull, Alex. G. Smith, Amos Den-
ison Jr., Stanton Gallup, Ebenezer Morgan, John
Miner. Of Mystic — Jesse Dean, Dean Gallup, Fred
Haley, Jeremiah Holmes, N. Clift, Jedediah Reed. Of
Groton — Alfred White, Ebenezer Morgan, Frank Dan-
iels, Giles Morgan. Of New London — Major Simeon
Smith, Captain Noah Lester, Major N. Frink, Lambert
Williams. From Massachusetts — Captain Leonard and
Mr. Dunham. The same paper on August 31 added
Little Narragansett Bay
Stonington Harbor
NOTES ON SECOND ATTACK 49
the following names which had been omitted from the
first list " by an error of the compositor:" Simeon
Haley, Jeremiah Haley, Frederick Denison, John Min-
er, Asa Lee, Thomas Wilcox, Luke Palmer, George
Palmer, William G. Bush. "There were probably
others," said the Gazette, "whom we have not learnt. "
There were also forty-two drafted militiamen from the
northern part of the state, under Lieutenant Samuel
Hough, whose service on guard at Stonington extended
from June 29 to August 29, 1814. The Eighth Com-
pany of the Thirtieth Regiment under Captain William
Potter assembled on the evening of August ninth. At-
tracted by the signal fires that had been lighted to a-
rouse the countryside, a large part of the Thirtieth
Regiment hastened to the borough, so that by day-
break the defenders numbered 290, not including Col-
onel Randall's staff. Brigadier General Isham arrived
with his staff from New London about noon on August
tenth, and took command.
CHAPTER VII
STONINGTON IN 1819
In a quaint old volume bearing the title, "A Gaz-
etteer of the States of Connecticut and Rhode-Island.
Written with Care and Impartiality, from Original
and Authentic Materials," by John M. Niles, and pub-
lished at Hartford by William S. Marsh in 1819, the
following description of the town and borough of Ston-
ington five years after the repulse of Hardy's squadron
is taken :
The town is uneven, being hilly and rocky, but the
soil, which is a gravelly loam, is rich and fertile, and
admirably adapted to grazing ; the dairy business, or
making of cheese and butter, being the leading agri-
cultural interest. Barley, corn and oats are cultivated.
There are no rivers within the town deserving no-
tice; the Paucatuck, which runs upon its eastern bor-
der, and separates it from Rhode-Island, and the Mys-
tic, that forms its western boundar}^, and separates it
from Groton, are short but considerable streams.
There is an arm of the sea extending from Stoning-
ton harbour northeasterly, over which is Quanaduck
stone bridge. A turnpike runs from New-London
through Groton and Stonington and intersects the turn-
STONINGTON IN 1819 51
pike road from Providence to Westerly, in the state of
Rhode-Island.
There are 1 1 00 tons of shipping owned in this town,
which are employed either in the business of fishing, or
in the coasting and West India trade, and which furn-
ish employment to a portion of the inhabitants. The
maritime situation and interests of the town have given
a direction to the pursuits and habits of its citizens ;
and Stonington has become conspicuous as a nursery
of seamen, distinguished for their enterprise, persever-
ance and courage.
But although principally engaged in the pursuits of
agriculture, fishing and navigation, other important
interests have not been neglected. There are few
towns in the state that have done more in certain
branches of manufactures; there being two Woolen
Factories and one Cotton P'actory upon an extensive
scale in the town.
The civil divisions of Stonington are 1 Ecclesiastical
Society, 8 School Districts, and an incorporated bor-
ough.
Stonington Borough, incorporated by the Legislat-
ure in 1801, is situated on a narrow point of land of
about half a mile in length, at the eastern extremity
of Long Island sound. On its east side lies Paucatuck
bay, and on its west the harbour, terminating in Lam-
bert's Cove. It has four streets running north and
south, intersected at right angles by nine cross streets,
and contains about 120 Dwelling houses and Stores. It
also has 2 Houses for public worship, an Academy,
where the languages are taught, and 2 common schools,
52 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
2 Rope walks, commodious wharves and ware-houses
for storage.
The fisheries have for a long time been prosecuted
with industry and success by the inhabitants, who em-
ploy from 10 to 15 vessels in this business; which an-
nually bring in about 7000 quintals of codfish, & 1000
bbls. of mackerel, besides most other species of fish
which are taken by smaller vessels and boats. There
is also a brig engaged in the sealing business, in the
Pacific ocean ; three packets which ply regularly be-
tween this port and New-York ; a pilot boat to cruise
for vessels on the coast bound in ; and a number of
vessels employed in the coasting trade, which carry to
the southern market their fish, with the cheese, barley
&c. of the adjacent country. Many fine ships and
brigs are built here for the New- York market.
In the census of 1810, the town contained 3043 in-
habitants ; and there are now 335 qualified Electors.
There are 20 Mercantile Stores, 4 Grain Mills, 3 Card-
ing Machines, 1 Pottery & 1 Tannery. There is a
Public Arsenal belonging to the United States, which
is a substantial brick building ; 2 Churches, one for
Congregationalists and one for Baptists ; 1 Academy or
Grammar School ; 8 district or common Schools ; 3 At-
tornies, and 3 practising Physicians.
The general hst of the town, in 1817, was $45,991.
CHAPTER VIII
WHALING AND SEALING (bY JAMES H. WEEKs)
Any history of Stonington would be incomplete
which failed to contain a chapter on whaling and seal-
ing, for in the early years of the nineteenth century,
and even for many 3^ears before, this place had her
fleet on the high seas and in the cold climate of the far
southern islands in search of whales, seals and sea ele-
phants. The builders of Stonington took from the
depths of old ocean that which was readily turned into
the hard shekels which went to sustain life. From all
oceans came her ships which hunted the several species
of whales for their baleen and oil — staple articles that
found a ready market in all ports of the world. The
oil was the illuminating fluid of the long winter even-
ings when our grandmothers did so much of the work
of which we know nothing to-day. The whale bone was
put to various commercial uses and served its purposes
so well that nothing has yet been found adequately to
take its place.
Mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts all longed
for the return of the men from the voyage which
perhaps covered a period of two, three or even four
years. It was before the days of the fast mail, and
word from both home and ship was anxiously awaited.
54 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
On the high seas in the old bluntnose whale ship men
learned that hardy life and discipline which served
them so well when they went to war against England
in 1812, and later in our civil war. They learned to
fight life as it came to them, to live on the most com-
mon of food and to enjoy every day ; and the sea al-
ways retained its lure for them. The ships fitted for
their long voyages at the breakwater, after it was built
(about 1827), and at the several wharves of the town ;
and those Avere busy times along the water front. In
fact the industry became so great that the United
States Government established our custom house and
made Stonington a port of entry in 1842. The ships
were repaired here by being hauled down first on one
side, then on the other, and the sound of the hammer
as the caulking was put in the seams and the heavy
copper put on the ships' bottoms made the borough a
busy place. The warp, sails, bread and other needed
articles were made here and some of our older residents
remember when our wharves and breakwater were cov-
ered with the huge casks and shooks filled with oil ready
for the market. Only scattered facts come to us of the
industry before our second war with England. Ston-
ington being on the coast, it is more than likely that
our early settlers hunted the whales that must have
spouted and gambolled in Long Island and Fisher's
Island sounds. Yet almost every shred of evidence
which would connect us with such facts is lost forever.
There is the rumor here and there, but the earliest
fact which the writer can find comes from some notes
WHALING AND SEALING 55
made by the late David S. Hart in a book, and copied
from a paper of the early da3's : "Samuel Trumbull, the
first printer of a newspaper in the borough (Stoning-
ton), commenced the Journal of the Times Oct. 2nd,
1798.
"The 52d number was changed to the Impartial
Journal. This says in 1799 : 'A large school of whales of
various sizes and to the number, it is supposed, of 200
appeared in Long Island sound 8 miles from this place.
A number of citizens went out to take one, but being
without suitable warp, met with no success, although
one whale was harpooned. Returning however with
the proper gear they succeeded in killing one, which was
towed in the same day, to the admiration of a great
number of people. It measured 40 feet in length and
30 in circumference. ' Sealing was carried on extensive-
ly at this early date and the paper had an advertise-
ment as follows — 'For Sale. Seal skins from the
Little Sarah, by Capt. George Howe;' and this note:
'Capt. Edmund Fanning returned from a successful
sealing voyage by way of Canton,' as well as this —
'Extract from a letter from Mr. Joseph Copp of this
port, dated Crow's Nest Harbor, South Georgia, on
board ship Aspasia, Jan. 31, 1801: Capt. George
Howe scoured the whole coast of Patagonia last sea-
son, thence he sailed to the Falkland Islands and win-
tered, thence took his departure in November last, sup-
posedly for Staten Land ; when he left the former he
had 5,000 skins.' "
These extracts show how the two industries went
56 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
hand in hand, in ships from Stonington. The papers,
logs and all data from then up to the driving of the
ships from the sea by the English have been lost.
Most have been consumed by the flames.
When peace was resumed there were 20,000 barrels
of oil on hand in the United States, and in 1815 it was
quoted at $1.40 per gallon. In 1823 it fell to 48
cents and in 1825 it rose again to 81 cents. In the
latter year 89,218 barrels were brought into the United
States. Stonington commenced again to feel the ef-
fects of the re-established industry and in 1820 three
ships came in, the brig Mary, James Davis master, 194
tons, with 78 barrels of sperm and 744 of whale oil ;
the brig Mary Ann, Isaac English master, 183 tons,
59 barrels of whale oil; ship Carrier, A. Douglass
master, 928 barrels of whale oil and 2040 pounds of
bone. Each year there was an increase, and local men
commenced to command the ships.
The Thomas Williams was built at Westerly, the
Charles Phelps at the same place, while the Betsy
Williams was built at the ' 'kiln dock, ' ' so called, at
the foot of Wall street in Stonington Borough. Own-
ers commenced to buy ships from other ports, and be-
tween the years 1841 and 1845 twenty crafts went in
search of whales from the port of Stonington. (See
the end of this chapter for names and dates. )
Stonington men were among the first to petition
Congress to establish a postal line on ships which sailed
from New England on whaling voyages and the far is-
lands in the Pacific Ocean. Some of our ships became
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WHALING AND SEALING 57
famous. There was the old "Herald," which left
Stonington in charge of Capt. Samuel Barker, and
which was owned by Charles P. Williams of Stoning-
ton. Starbuck in his pamphlet announced : "Sold at
Rio Janeiro (?) 1848, by Captain. Also 600 sperm."
This means that the craft was stolen b}' her master,
sold and converted into a slaver to carry negroes from
Africa to South America. AVhat became of her cap-
tain was never known. The craft was seized at the
Brazilian port in 1850 and Mr. Edward Kent, repre-
senting the LTnited States, tried to sell her for the insur-
ance company which held the risk. She was in poor
condition and her ultimate fate is not known. She
was sold into the slave trade about May 10, 1848.
The ship Cynosure was also stolen from her owiier,
John F. Trumbull, and sold into the slave trade. The
Betsey Williams was built at Stonington on what is now
the property of C. N. Wayland at the foot of Wall
street. She was built for Charles P. Williams and was
a well-fitted craft. She sailed on her first trip Nov.
11, 1846, in command of Captain Palmer Hall
of Avondale, R. I., and returned in April, 1849. She
made sevei'al voyages and was sold. The ship Charles
Phelps was built at Westerly in 1841-1842 by Silas
Greenman, and had a career as interesting as that of a
human being. She was built on honor, of native oak
taken from the woods of our region ; into her frame
went the finest of metals to hold her together. Her
spars and rigging were tried and true, for they came
from the old barque Beaver of Hudson, once owned by
58 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
John Jacob Astor and used by him in trips to the far
north. She made five voyages from Stonington, was
sold to New London parties and was used till the Civil
War. She found a place in the "old stone fleet" to
be sunk in Charleston, S. C, but was in such good
condition that she was reserved for a supply ship and
the Government used her all through the war as such.
She was then sold to New Bedford parties, refitted, and
renamed the Progress and went on several trips to the
Arctic in search of whales. Her last service was in
connection with the great World's Fair at Chicago,
in 1893, where she was used as an exhibit and
thousands saw in her, for the first time, how the
whale was caught and treated for commercial use. She
was left to rot in a creek at the last named city. Her
figurehead may be seen at the Library at Westerly,
R. 1.
The last ship to be seen at Stonington was the Cincin-
nati and she remained idle here for a long time. The
war of 1861-1865 put an end to the whaling industry
as far as our port was concerned. Our vessels went to
other ports and among the number in the "old stone
fleet" to be sunk to blockade southern harbors were
several which had brought thousands of dollars to their
owners. An idea of the value of a cargo may be had
by the following manifest as entered at the Stonington
custom house by the owner of the Phelps on her
return from her third voyage in 1850: "275 barrels
of sperm oil at $36 a barrel, $9,900; 2,600 barrels
of whale oil at $15 a barrel, $39,000; 35,000 pounds
WHALING AND SEALING 59
of whalebone at 35 cents a pound, S12,250; total
S61,150. This cargo sold in the market for nearly
$120,000 and it will be seen what a profit the owner
obtained. During this voyage the catch was — sperm
whales, 9, right whales, 24, steeple-tops, 6, blackfish,
39, total 78, The crew had a living while on the voyage
and on the return got little cash and so were ready to
sign for another trip on the high seas. Some of the
men in fact found themselves in debt to the ship and
after a few days on shore started out in life anew. The
captain had as his "lay" 1-15 or 1-16 of the voyage,
while some of the hands would get 1-175 and very
likely the green youth in the capacity of cabin boy re-
ceived 1-200 as his munificent share. The men
who were taken from here were only enough to man
the ship till the Western or Azore islands were reached.
They were in many instances young, hardy fellows
and anxious to try life on the main. Many Indians
from the north came and shipped. At the Azores
men were shipped for the remainder of the trip. Then
down around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope
the old ship would pound her way ; stops would be
made at various islands for wood, potatoes and other arti-
cles. On for many days and the Sandwich islands
would be reached. Here the men would have shore
leave and other hands would be taken on if wanted.
The ship would refit and proceed to the northwest
coast to battle with wind, waves, ice and whales.
Sometimes two seasons would be required to fill the
ship and then the long run for home would begin.
60 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
In all this there was much excitement, and the men
loved the sea. But there was work to be done, the
many thousand pounds of whalebone had to be
cleaned and carefully packed, leaking casks had to
be recoopered and sails, rigging and spars repaired and
cleaned and the whole ship painted. It was a happy
day when the crown of Lantern Hill came in sight as
the first land to be made. "Watch Point" was left
behind and the "old whaler" came to anchor in the
"Deep Hole" and the master came ashore to report
his success or failure.
As previously shown, the sealing industry was car-
ried on extensively in the early years of the nineteenth
century. Small sloops were fitted out at Stonington
to go to the Patagonia coast and islands south of
there. Large and valuable catches were made. About
1820 fleets commenced to go to engage in this fishery, and
it was on such a trip that Nathaniel B. Palmer took
his sloop Hero to the edge of the vast Antarctic conti-
nent and discovered that section known as Palmer
Land. Edmund Fanning, Benjamin Pendleton and Na-
thaniel B. and Alexander S. Palmer took crafts to
these faraway rookeries to get the fur seal for clothing
and the hair seal which was used in harness and the
trunk making trade.
The schooner Betsey Elucid came in May 7, 1834.
She had 1390 prime and 500 pup fur seal skins, 38
salted bullock skins and 36 dried bullock skins. The
schooner Henrietta came in May 11, 1834, with this
cargo: 203 prime fur seal skins, 2317 hair seal skins.
WHALING AND SEALING 61
122 sea otter (prime) skins, 80 tortoise shells, 629
hair pup skins, 220 fur pup skins and 102 goat skins.
In 1835 several crafts ari-ived; one the Penguin, B. F.
Ash captain, 82 33-45 tons, had 1215 fur skins for
C. P. Williams, 800 fur skins for F. Pendleton, 350
hair skins for C. P. Williams, and 890 fur skins and
350 hair skins consigned to S. Lawrence from the Bet-
sey Tahua and Ann Howard. In later days the
schooners Express, Thomas Hunt and Charles Shearer
and the brig Henry Trowbridge went on sealing voy-
ages from Stonington.
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CHAPTER IX
IN THE "fifties" (bY GEORGE D. STAXTOx)
To give a historical sketch of the borough of Ston-
ington and its inhabitants in the "Fifties" as it may
have appeared to a looker-on from Venice is a difficult
task. To begin this sketch, perhaps it will be best to
consider first the business pursuits conducted by the
wide-awake and enterprising men of that period.
The principal interest then centred in whale fish-
eries. There were at that time seventeen ships and
barks sent from this port, with a total tonnage of five
thousand, three hundred and twenty tons — an average
of about three hundred tons for each vessel. Of these
Charles P. Williams and John F. Trumbull owned
each, or represented, eight vessels, and F. Pendleton
& Co. owned one. This list comprises only those ves-
sels hailing and sailing from this port. There were,
however, thirty-one whaling ships, brigs and schooners
sailing from Mystic, which was in the Stonington
marine district. The officers and men who manned
the ships belonging to this port were not all natives or
residents of the borough. Many of these were obtained
from other ports, and quite a large proportion of
the crews were shipped at the Western islands, many
of whom on their return from sea made their perma-
"Squire" Pomeroy House
Built three-quarters of a century ago. Now the home of
Frank Trumbull and sisters
Doorway of John F. Trumbull Homestead
Main Street
IN THE "FIFTIES" 65
nent abode here. Quite a number of Indians were
secured from the Indian reservations in North Ston-
ington and Ledyard who shipped as seamen. In fact
it may be truthfully stated in this connection that the
tribes in those reservations were decimated and be-
came nearly extinguished through having been so gen-
erally employed in whaling. They were reported to
have made excellent seamen ; but their contact with the
white sailors and their proneness to indulgence in the
white man's fire water and vices have nearly obliterated
their race. In alluding to the men employed as sail-
ors in the whale fisheries, it may not be out of place to
refer to the lamentable fact of the alleged practice of
some shipping agents in those days of securing men for
the whaling voyages by inveigling young men into liq-
uor saloons and plying them with liquor until they
were stupefied under the influence of drink, and per-
suading them to sign shipping articles, after which
they were immediately carried on board a ship, and
when they aroused from their stupor they would find
themselves many miles at sea. Many stories, too true,
are told of how poor Jack was thus kidnapped and
hustled on board ship, and how on his return he was
cheated out of a large portion of his hard earned share
of the proceeds of the voyage. This is the way a set-
tlement with Jack is reputed to have been made in
many cases. The cost was exorbitantly charged
against him by the shipping agents for his outfit — "slop
chest," containing clothing, needles, thread etc. This
was about the way accounts would be finally settled
66 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
with him, as related by one who knew: "Ought is an
ought and two is a two — six cents coming to me and
nought coming to A'ou."
In the way of manufacturing estabhshments there
was the stone factory building erected by Hon. John
F. Trumbull in 1851. It was first used for the man-
ufacture of horseshoe nails, which was continued but
for a short time as it was claimed that there were too
many imperfect nails, and that the best of them were
inferior to those made by hand.
There was a rope walk on Main street for the man-
ufacture of cordage and fish lines. As to mer-
chants, the borough was well supplied with enterpris-
ing business men who carried a large stock of dry
goods and groceries to meet the demands not onh^ of
the local community but of the surrounding country
as well.
In those days the merchant's only way of obtaining
and replenishing his stock of goods from New York or
Providence was by sailing packet. Among the lead-
ing merchants here in that period there were Samuel
Chesebrough, Peleg Hancox, F. Pendleton & Co.,
J. E. Smith & Co. , Enoch Chesebrough, Simon Carew,
John C. Hayes and Hewitt & Hull. Elisha Faxon, Jr. ,
kept stationer}' and newspapers at his store on Main
street. Simon Carew had quite a considerable trade
with the Block Islanders, and a story is told of a resident
of the island who had purchased a bill of goods of
Simon, and gave his note for the amount and was
heard to remark as he left the store "Well, thank
IN THE "FIFTIES" 67
God, that bill is paid." History has not recorded
whether or no the note was ever converted into cash.
This includes about all of the mercantile establishments
that occur to me, with the exception that I may men-
tion that Russell A. Denison had a cabinet shop
and kept a limited stock of furniture.
Of the practising physicians here there were Drs.
George E. Palmer and his son Amos, and the Drs.
William Hyde, Senior and Junior. Benjamin Pomeroy
and Franklin A. Palmer, Esq., represented the legal
fraternity, William Woodbridge kept a high school,
and Dr. David S. Hart taught a limited number of
pupils in the higher branches, preparing young men for
entrance to college. The old Wadawanuck Hotel
was for a short time converted into a seminary for
young ladies under the management of Rev. Harvey
D. Sackett, assisted by a corps of accomplished young
lady teachers. Miss Lucy Ann Sheffield also kept a
select school for younger misses and bo^'s. Miss Ellen
Kirby kept a school for small children, on Main street.
Freeman Wallace kept clocks, watches and jewelry
on Gold street, which gave that street its name, Fred-
erick Moser kept watches and jewelr}' in a stoi-e in the
south end of the old "Arcade," so called, and the
north end of the building was utilized for a post office
for several years by Gen. Franklin Williams. Wil-
liam Higgins also had a bake shop in the rear part of
the same building, and he delivered his cakes, bread
and pies around the borough from a large basket car-
ried on his arm. There were two hotels, one called
68 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
the Steamboat Hotel, kept by C. B. Capron, and the
other called the American House, kept by R. R.
Barker, both hotels being on Gold street, facing the
railroad square, the steamboat landing and the Ston-
ington and Providence railroad depot.
CHAPTER X
SOCIETY BEFORE THE WAR
(In a paper read by request a few years ago before the Stonington
Historical and Genealogical Society, Miss Emma W. Palmer gave
a pleasant account of the social life of Stonington in the years
just preceding the Civil War. It is unfortunate that there is not
space in this volume for the entire paper, but as much of it as
possible is comprised in the following chapter.)
The generation now growing up can hardly realize
as they look around them what the dear old place was
in those days of fair women and brave men, who either
lived here or were attracted hither by a good hotel,
such as the old Wadawanuck then was. Even before my
day I remember the glorious times the young people
had, led by Henry Clay Trumbull, Ephraim Williams,
Amos and William Palmer, Edward Denison and
others. There were hops, clambakes, tableaux and
sleighing parties. And then riding parties, with Bes-
sie Williams at the head. Few could excel her, or
keep up with her, in this her favorite amusement.
These were the daj^s of fine saddle horses, and those
who did not own them could always be supplied from
the hotel stable then kept by Horace Lewis on the
ground now occupied by the house of Mr. and Mrs.
Henry R. Palmer.
70 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
Many were the runaway couples that were helped on
their way rejoicing by the fast horses from this stable,
the terminus generally being Norwich, as otherwise
they had to cross the Thames. Sometimes would come
the avenging Nemesis in the shape of the angry father,
close at their heels, and then all, even to the servants,
conspired to detain him as long as they could, to give
the pursued a chance. At one time there were so many
runaway marriages, owing to the stringent laws in
Rhode Island, that Stonington was called Gretna
Green.
These were the days of the Pattons, the Reverend
Doctor and his two handsome daughters ; the Misses
Dwight of Norwich, the Warings, the Van Rensselaers
and others. The MacNeills and Whistlers also lived
here and always had more or less company. Mary
Trumbull, afterwards Mrs. William C. Prime, was a
great favorite, and Bessie Williams was the head-centre
of all the fun. Once she arranged with Henry Trum-
bull that he should go for her early to take her to ride
in a wheelbarrow. He was there promptly, and I
think she went.
The Wadawanuck Hotel, so well kept, was filled
with the creme de la creme of many cities ; all seeking
then, as now, the pure air and cool breezes of the sea-
shore. Time would fail me to tell of the Vintons,
Slaters, Wilmerdings, Palmers, Dixons, Burnhams and
others who year after year came to this little place and
not only enjoyed it themselves but included the many
gay young people of the village in their enjoyments ;
SOCIETY "BEFORE THE WAR" 71
and I am proud to say that none of all the bright as-
semblage could eclipse the handsome girls of Stoning-
ton, noted for their beauty and also for their wit.
There were Bessie Williams, Emmeline Williams, Eliza
Trumbull, Abby and Helen and Sallie Day, Carrie
Champlin and many others. In those days Walnut
Grove, the lovely home of the Days, was always full of
gay young people, and so were the Williams and
Champlin houses, and our own home, all filled with a
gay and happy crowd eager to enter into any fun or
pleasure that came our way.
The Wadawanuck bath-house, situated just a little
way west of the hotel and reached by a long wooden
wharf, was popular in those days. It had a large open
space in the middle for bathers, with dressing-rooms a-
round and opening on it ; and at high tide every day
down would troop the gay crowd, each paying a small
fee for the bathing privilege. I remember my cousin
Eliza MacNeill was considered the best swimmer at that
time, although at an earlier date Miss Sarah Fanning
carried off the palm. The bath-house gradually got
out of repair, and out of vogue as well, as Watch Hill
bathing became the rage ; and at last it ended its days
in smoke. Having drifted from its moorings it was
beached at .Nat's Point and set on fire.
It was not only in summer that we had good times.
There were the famous sewing societies of the Congre-
gational and Episcopal Churches, when the ladies met
in the afternoon and sewed, and stayed to tea, and the
young people came after, and had such a good time !
72 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
The very recollection of those teas even now makes my
mouth water. Such piles of delicious rusk, cut very
thin and buttered, baked in a pan peculiar to itself,
something like the present brownbread tin ; why I can
see them now as if it were yesterday ! And the cake —
well, I can only say you don't see such cake now: al-
mond and citron and cocoanut and rich composition and
raised cake, every kind you could think of. Even the
sponge cake was better somehow than it is now, and
each housekeeper had her own specialty that she was
proud to make when it was her turn to entertain the
society. There were so many hospitable homes in those
days that seldom was more than one meeting held in a
winter at any one house.
At last they got to be regular parties, much to the
distress of the older members. Some of the 3'ounger
ones often went off in a room by themselves and indulged
in ghost and robber stories in the twilight, or
blind-man's holiday, until they really were frightened
and were glad to come back to the lights and the elder
ones. Old Mrs. Dawes was a favorite character, and
we used to love to crowd around her and hear her talk
of her experiences, of her success as a matchmaker — dear,
dear, what good old times those were when there was
no fuss and feathers, but good old-fashioned hospital-
ity ! If strangers were visiting you you were invited to
bring them, for there was always plenty and the tables
fairl}^ groaned with the good things. The coffee was
so good, real old-fashioned boiled coffee, with plenty of
Two Old Houses on Main Street
At the left, the Eells House, about 1785; at the right, the Col. Joseph
Smith House, 1800
Ephraim Williams Homestead, 1840
Now the Home of Dr. Charles M. Williams
SOCIETY "BEFORE THE WAR" 73
cream in it. as clear as amber and as strong as it was
possible to make it without having it bitter.
There used to be grand occasions when we could
wear our best bib and tucker, and how well and be-
comingly all were dressed, even the old ladies, so dif-
ferent from the present style. Mrs. McEwen was
Mary Da}^ then, and I often laugh over one of her
experiences. It was the style to wear the hair plastered
down over the ears as smooth as it could be made,
and, to keep it in place, we sometimes used the black
pomade that comes in sticks. I had plastered mine
down well with it and so had she, each of course un-
known to the other, and in the course of the evening,
it being warm, in each case the hair had been pushed
aside and there was a strongly defined line of black on
each of our faces that occasioned much merriment.
Another laughable thing I remember, that struck me
so forcibly that even after the lapse of so many years it
comes back to me just as funny as ever. A very nice
but prim old lady quietly put a doughnut in her ca-
pacious pocket with her ball of yarn, and in the course
of the evening, just when all was quiet and she was
placidly knitting, out flew the doughnut, rolling over
to the other side of the room, where, thinking it was
her ball, one of the young gallants rushed to pick it
up, much to his own and the poor old lady's discomfit-
ure. Her face I can see now as he presented the
doughnut to her.
Miss Palmer describes the church fairs, held some-
times in the old sail loft, which stands west of Mr.
74 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
Jerome S. Anderson's house. At these fairs as much
as eight hundred or a thousand dollars was some-
times netted. She tells also of entertainments for the
benefit of the Book Club, at one of which a charming
feature was a series of tableaux, with attractive
young women of the village impersonating famous char-
acters or works of art. She says ' 'there were Hannah
Stanton, and Dina and Kate Stanton, Mary and Lucy
Babcock, Jennie Burnham, Julia Palmer and many
others whose names I cannot now recall. Each and
all of the tableaux were so beautiful and so well done
that the audience scarcely breathed until the curtain
dropped. . Hops at the hotel and balls and parties at
the different houses were frequent and most enjoyable,
with plenty of beaux, if not at hand, then imported ;
and many a man of wealth, fame and rank has figured
in these scenes and has looked back upon these days as
the happiest in his life. James van Alen the elder,
Colonel Vose, James and Will Whistler, Daniel Ulh-
man. Colonel Slocomb and Count de Choiseul all have
figured more or less in these gay scenes or added their
share to the general fund of enjoyment."
Miss Palmer closes her paper with the description of
an oldtime party given at her home in 1859, one of the
pleasantest gatherings ever held in the historic old
house. She says, "I have tried several times to get up
another like it during the long winter evenings, but
have met with very little encouragement. "It's too
much trouble ; we would rather play cards, ' ' is the gen-
eral verdict.
CHAPTER XI
WHISTLER IN STONINGTON (bY RIETA B. PALMEr)
Although the artist James Adams MacNeill Whist-
ler spent but a few years of his childhood and boyhood
in Stonington, there are people living here to-day who
well remember the slight figure, brown curly hair and
alert face of the eccentric and lovable young man.
Whistler's mother was Anna MacNeill, a sister of
Mrs. Dr. George E. Palmer, (mother of Mrs. Dr. George
D. Stanton), and a southerner by birth. She married
Major George Washington Whistler, a graduate of
West Point and a civil engineer, who was a widower
with three children, George, Joseph, (who died in
childhood), and Deborah, who became Lady Seymour
Haden. Major AVhistler was employed on the Balti-
more and Ohio and other railroads, and was engineer of
locks and canals at Lowell, Mass., in 1834, when his
son James was born. Two years later the second son,
William Gibbs, was born and the family moved to
Stonington in 1837 and established their home in a
pleasant house on Main street.
Major Whistler had previously built the railroad
from Stonington to Providence, (in 1835-37), and
old residents of Stonington not many years ago recalled
the carriage, fitted with car wheels and drawn by a
76 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
horse, which took the family by rail to the Episcopal
church in Westerly on Sundays, there'^being no church
of that communion in Stonington at the time.
The Whistlers lived here until 1840, when they
moved to Springfield, Mass., where Major Whistler was
engaged in building the Boston, Springfield and Al-
bany Railroad.
In 1842, Czar Nicholas I. of Russia sent commission-
ers through Europe and America to find the best
method and best man for the construction of a railroad
from St. Petersburg to Moscow. They chose Major
Whistler for the work.
This was a great honor, and the salary excellent.
He started for Russia at once, leaving his family in
Stonington with Dr. Palmer, whose wife, as stated,
was Mrs. Whistler's sister. The next year the family
followed him to Russia, where they remained until
Major Whistler's death in 1849. The widow and her
two sons, James and William, returned to Stonington,
and Major Whistler was buried from the little Epis-
copal church he had so generously helped to build.
Miss Emma W. Palmer says in a paper written for
the Historical Society that "James at this time was
tall and slight (he was fifteen years old) with a pen-
sive, delicate face, shaded b}^ soft brown curls, one lock
of which even then fell over his forehead. In later
years he was very proud of this lock, which turned grey
while yet young, and this gave him a striking appear-
ance. ' '
In the years of increasing fame and eccentricity
WHISTLER IN STONINGTON 77
he was inordinately proud of his curly hair, and the
one white lock, which he said should be the first thing
seen upon his entrance in a drawing room.
Mrs. Whistler soon took her boys to Pomfret to
place them in the excellent school at that place man-
aged by a West Point man. And there they remained
until James, or "Jamie," "Jim" or "Jimmy," as he
was variously called, was old enough to enter West
Point, following the example of his father. At both
schools he was very popular. No one could resist his
mirth, though he was frequently thoughtless and al-
ways "getting into scrapes" and being helped out of
them by his devoted friends.
His fondness for drawing evinced itself at four years
of age, and he was always making sketches in his school
books, mostly caricatures. He was asked to do some
pictures for a fair in Stonington, and though he made
them very absurd they sold well. He was habitually
obliging, his answer to all requests being, "Oh! any-
thing for a quiet life. ' ' It seems a pity that this gen-
ial kindness did not continue into his later years.
He was thoroughly unsuited to the life at West
Point. He could never be induced to exert himself, to
hurry or to conform to what seemed to him foolish dis-
cipline, so he quitted the academy, leaving many
stories of his pranks and witty sayings behind him. He
was always exceedingly proud of having been a West
Point man and spoke often of his experience at the
school.
From West Point he went to Baltimore, where he
78 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
stayed only a short time in the locomotive works owned
by a relative ; then he had a position in the United
States Coast Surve}^ where he made Government maps
with infinite care. This was a little more to his liking,
and the preparing and etching of plates was good
training for his later work. From here he went to
Paris, where his real life as an artist begins.
We will not attempt to follow his subsequent career,
well known to all and having no further connection
with Stouington. His fame did not come at once.
He struggled hard, making a name for himself slowly
and painfully. Though there are varying opinions
about the value of his art, he is generally acknowledged
a great painter and etcher. Some of his early paint-
ings and etchings have been owned by people in Ston-
ington, where it is pleasant to picture him as a gay,
happy boy, showing promise of genius, and with noth-
ing of that attitude of the poseur which afterward qual-
ified his charm, and giving no evidence of that bitter
tongue which so easily made him enemies in later life.
William M. Chase says that it was impossible for any
man to live long in harmony with him, and that he had
two distinct personalities. In public he was "the fop,
the cynic, the brilliant, vain and careless idler;" but
the Whistler of the studio was ' 'the earnest, tireless,
sombre worker, a very slave to his art, a bitter foe to
all pretence and sham, an embodiment of simplicity al-
most to the point of diffidence, an incarnation of earn-
estness and sincerity of purpose. ' '
We have heard so much of his affectations that it is
WHISTLER IN STONINGTON 79
a relief to think of his less complex years of youth,
watched over and loved by a saint-like mother, whose
portrait, so beautifully painted by an always devoted
son, now hangs in the Luxembourg galleries at Paris.
CHAPTER XII
THREE DISASTROUS FIRES
Within a period of seven years — 1836-1843 — three
disastrous fires occurred in Stonington Borough, all of
them in the same general locality.
The first broke out in December, 1836, (according
to information given the writer b}^ Henry Clay Trum-
bull in August, 1902), starting in a cooper shop on
the wharf southwest of what is now Cannon square.
It swept the hotel on Water street, where Captain
Samuel B. Pendleton's house now stands, and also the
tavern (the "Swan Hotel") which occupied the site
of the house now owned by Mrs. Benjamin C. Brown,
on the south side of the square. The hotel on the
west side of Water street was kept by Ezra Chesebro,
who in November of the next year became the first
landlord of the new Wadawanuck Hotel.
The second fire, the largest in the history of the
borough, occurred on April 2, 1837. The Providence
Journal of April 6, 1837, said: "Afire occurred at
Stonington on Sunday morning last, (supposed to be
the work of an incendiary), which destroyed nineteen
buildings, most of them stores, and injured two others. "
This disastrous blaze started in a cooper shop on the
"Union Store" wharf, and spread with irresistible speed
House of
Miss Carolinp:
A. Smith
Congrega-
tional
Parsonage
THREE DISASTROUS FIRES 81
and fury eastward to Pel eg Hancox's store, which
occupied the site of the present store of James H.
Stivers, Captain Charles P. Williams's house just op-
posite, and a row of stores to the south, on the site of
the present Arcade. None of the buildings named
could be saved. The flames for a time isolated upon
the wharf five residents of the borough, one of whom
was Dr. David S. Hart.
When the fire broke out there was no fire engine
with which to combat it ; the men of the place formed
a long line with their leather buckets and wooden pails,
and hurried water from the harbor to the burning build-
ings. The old Colonial house on the southeast corner
of Water and Wall streets with its high steps and iron
railing was saved, after a desperate and gallant effort,
by the spreading of wet blankets on the roof and the
constant dampening of these. Steam fire engines were
unheard of at the time ; hydrants also were unknown.
It was after this fire that the old Wadawanuck engine
was purchased by the borough.
There is now in the possession of the Stonington
Historical and Genealogical Society a letter (the gift
of Mr. Stivers) written on the day succeeding the fire
by Zebulon Hancox, Jr., in which the writer, then a
clerk in the store of Peleg Hancox, described to his
employer, who was temporarily in New York, the de-
vastation wrought and the measures he had taken on
his own responsibility to provide for the future conduct
of the business. It shows the young clerk as a bright,
efficient business man, quite in accord with the tradi-
82 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
tions that have come down to us of his earlier and
happier days, before he became a picturesque recluse
in his cottage by the shore.
The letter reads as follows :
Stonington, April 3, 1837
Mr. Peleg Hancox,
Sir : A fire broke out on Saturday night about
4 o'clock in Charles P. Williams's cooper shop, which
consumed your store and all the stores between the old
Doctor Lording store, your house, Mrs. Carew's on
the north and Frank Pendleton's store and Captain
Amy's on the south. I have saved most all of the
goods in the front store and they are safe in my house.
I don't believe there will be more than a hundred dol-
lars worth of goods missing from the front store. The
fire was so rapid we had not time to save more. Your
house was cleared of furniture, but we saved that and
the old store on the wharf and A^our family is all returned
and comfortable. Your books and notes are all safe.
I have engaged Mr. Nathan Wheeler not to let Ben
Wright's store until you return. Mr. Charles P. Wil-
liams's house and barn are burnt, but he has saved most
of his furniture. The bank (the present custom house)
is saved and the rope walk. (This stood on the east
side of Main street. )
We have found most of the articles taken from your
house and they are returned. Your family are in good
spirits, but want you here.
Yours in haste,
Zebulon Hancox, Jr.
THREE DISASTROUS FIRES 83
At that time Mr. Peleg Hancox lived in the home-
stead just north of his store, and so fierce was the heat
in the neighborhood during the fire that most of his
household goods, as stated in the above letter, were
removed from the house. When the fire was extin-
guished the infant son of the family was nowhere to be
found. His mother had entrusted the eleven-month
child to somebody at the height of the excitement, but
to whom she could not remember. Some time after-
ward he was discovered wrapped up safe and sound, in
the little yard in front of the Hyde house just south
of Dr. C. O. Maine's present residence at the corner
of Water and Harmony streets. The helpless infant
was Nathaniel Hancox, justly beloved in Stonington
for his keen wit and jovial companionship to the day
of his death a few years ago.
Four or five merchants, among them "Uncle Peleg,"
afterward opened shop in the sail-loft building on the
Union Store wharf. Mr. Hancox's stock included
some fine velvets and laces, strange goods for such a
rough environment.
The third fire to which reference has been made oc-
curred in the winter of 1842-43 and destroyed the
stores of A. S. Prentice, (irreverently nicknamed
"Apple Sass" by reason of his initials), Elisha Faxon
and Captain Francis Pendleton. These stores stood, in
the order given, from north to south, on the space now
occupied by Mr. Bindloss's coal office and Oscar F.
Pendleton's "Brick Store."
It may be added here that the Eagle Hotel, which
84 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
stood at the northwest corner of Water and Church
streets, was burnt in 1862. On April 20th of that
year, the freemen of the borough voted to compensate
Horace Lewis "for damage to his onion patch by the
fire engines and people at the recent Eagle Hotel fire. ' '
From January 1, 1883, to October 6, 1894, during
the term of Erastus S. Chesebro as chief engineer of the
Stonington Fire Department, twenty-five fires were re-
ported in Stonington. The assessed valuation of the
buildings involved was $64,850; the fire loss was only
$4310.
From October 22, 1894, to July 1, 1902, during
the term of George A. Slade as chief engineer, fifty-two
fires occurred. The valuation of the threatened build-
ings and contents was $323,300; the fire loss was only
$20,338 or six per cent.
From November 19, 1903, to December 25, 1912,
during the term of Edward P. Teed as chief engineer,
thirty-two fires for which alarms were sounded threat-
ened buildings valued, with their contents, at $138,-
450. The fire loss was only $11,950, or less than
nine per cent.
These figures speak volumes for the efficiency of the
Stonington Fire Department.
CHAPTER XIII
STONINGTON NEWSPAPERS
The first Stonington newspaper was published
in the eighteenth century by Samuel Trumbull, son of
John Trumbull, a newspaper publisher and printer of
Norwich. Mr. Trumbull came to this place in 1798
and on October 2d of that year issued the first number
of the Journal of the Times, a diminutive sheet with
the motto:
" Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide,
Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide."
Mr. Trumbull was an elder brother of John F. Trum-
bull and lived on the site of the house now owned and
occupied by Mrs. Lucius N. Palmer on the east side of
Wadawanuck square. In 1800 the title of the paper
was changed to the Impartial Journal. The Journal
supported Thomas Jefferson and was continued until
1805, when Mr. Trumbull abandoned journalism for
other business.
The next newspaper was "America's Friend," pub-
lished by John Munson, who came to Stonington from
New Haven. It is thought that it was not continued
for more than a year or two.
In March, 1824, Samuel A. Seabury came to the
borough from Long Island and issued one number of
the Stonington Chronicle. This first issue was the last.
86 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
for the editor died almost immediately afterward.
Within a few months, however, on July 28, 1824,
William Storer, Jr., who had been a newspaper pub-
lisher at Caldwell, New York, put out Vol. I. No. 1
of the Yankee, which had for its motto this unimpeach-
able legend : ' Where liberty dwells there is my country. '
Three years later the Yankee became the Stonington
Telegraph, under which name it continued till July 22,
1829. Nearly complete files of these two papers are
in the possession of the writer, having descended to him
from Dr. David S. Hart, who had carefully preserved
them through many years.
The Stonington Phenix and the Stonington Chronicle
had brief successive existences in 1832-34. Their pub-
lishers were Charles W. Denison and William H, Bur-
leigh. Immediately following them, the Stonington
Spectator, issued by Thomas H. Peabody, continued
for six months. Franklin A. Palmer published the
Stonington Advertiser for a time in the fifties, and
Henry Clay Trumbull and others were associated, about
the same period, in the ephemeral publication of
"LuxMundi."
On November 27, 1869, Jerome S. Anderson issued
the first number of the Stonington Mirror, with which
was later consolidated the Mystic Journal (established
in 1859). These papers, identical except for their
headings, have had a continuous existence to the pres-
ent day and are now issued by the Stonington Pub-
lishing Company with Jerome S. Anderson, Jr., as the
editor.
STONINGTON NEWSPAPERS 87
This list of Stonington newspapers is not absolutely
complete, but it comprises all the sheets that have
had more than a brief or inconsequent career.
CHAPTER XIV
THE DISCOVERY OF ANTARCTICA
To Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer of Stonington be-
longs the honor of discovering the Antarctic Continent.
He was a mere boy at the time, only twenty-one or
twenty-two years of age, but nevertheless the com-
mand of the sloop Hero had been entrusted to him.
The Hero was one of a little squadron of Stonington
vessels sent out to the sealing grounds in the South
Shetlands in 1820. The fleet consisted of the brig
Frederick, Capt. Benjamin Pendleton, the senior com-
mander; brig Hersilia, Capt. James P. Sheffield;
schooner Express, Capt. E. Williams ; schooner Free Gift,
Capt. F. Dunbar, and sloop Hero, Captain Palmer.
The vessels reached Yankee harbor. Deception Island,
during the season of 1820-1821, and from that place a
lookout on a day of unusually clear atmosphere discov-
ered from his post aloft a volcano in operation. The
fiery mountain was many miles distant to the south-
ward, but Captain Palmer, despite his youth, was dis-
patched in the Hero, a mere shallop, to examine the
region.
This adventurous voyage into the southern seas is
worth the attention of the poets, and indeed one poet,
the late Rev. Frederic Denison, has sung the episode in
" The Hill," the Denisox Homestead
Built by Rev. Hezekiah Woodruff, about 1795, and Remodelled by
Edward P. York, 1912
THE Lower End oi Main Street
DISCOVERY OF ANTARCTICA 89
rhythmic verse. Here was a boy hardly out of his teens,
in command of a 45-ton sloop, starting on a voyage of
discovery across an uncharted ocean, with only a smok-
ing volcano to guide him forward. In one way the
voyage was not productive of great results, for Captain
Palmer found little except rocks and ice in the volcanic
countr3\ There was hardly any animal life and no
vegetation. But as a matter of geographical interest
the voyage was of first importance, because it brought
a new continent to light.
Only within a few years has it been absolutely de-
termined that there is a mass of land of truly continental
proportions around the South Pole, but the credit
for the discovery of Antarctica belongs to 'Cap'n Nat. '
Columbus discovered America, even though he thought
he had landed in India, and although he never set foot
on the North American Continent.
There is some uncertainty as to whether the land
visited by the Stonington sailor was part of the central
continental mass or separated from it by what is now
called Belgica Strait, but the question is of little real
importance. The Belgian expedition of a few years
ago determined to perpetuate the name of Captain
Palmer in the region by attaching it to the archipelago
west of the strait, whereas for many years ' 'Palmer
Land" was the accepted designation of a part at least
of what is now called "Graham Land" on British
charts.
Captain Palmer found the region sterile and moun-
tainous, and difficult to land upon. It was almost cov-
90 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
ered with snow and ice, although it was midsummer
when he visited it.
On his way back to the little squadron at Deception
Island the Hero was becalmed not far from the Antarc-
tic shore, and when the fog that had enshrouded the
sloop cleared away, Captain Palmer was surprised to
find that he had run between a Russian frigate and
sloop-of-war. Thereupon he hoisted the Stars and
Stripes and awaited developments.
The Russians set their own colors and sent a boat to
the Hero, inviting Captain Palmer to come aboard.
He accepted the invitation and was told that the com-
mander, Captain Bellingshausen, had been sent by the
Emperor of Russia on a voyage of discovery around
the world. Captain Palmer reported to him his own
prior discovery of Antarctica, and the Russian com-
mander was so impressed with the sight of a youth in
command of a slight vessel far from home and on such
a mission that he named the new-found country Pal-
mer Land.
Captain Palmer's own account, as recited by Hon.
Frederic Bush, United States consul at Hong Kong,
includes the following interesting note :
"I gave him (the Russian commander) an account
of my voyage, tonnage of sloop, number of men, and
general details, when he said: 'How far south have
you been.?' I gave him the latitude and longitude of
my lowest point, and told him what I had discovered.
He, rose, much agitated, begging I would produce my
log book and chart, with which request I complied,
DISCOVERY OF ANTARCTICA 91
and a boat was sent for it. . . When the log book
and chart were laid upon the table he examined them
carefully without comment, then rose from his seat,
asking : 'What do I see and what do I hear from a
boy in his teens — that he is commander of a tiny boat
of the size of a launch of my frigate, has pushed his
way to the pole through the storm and ice and sought
the point I, in command of one of the best appointed
fleets at the disposal of my august master, have for
three long, weary, anxious years searched day and
night for?' With his hand on my head, he added:
'What shall I say to my master? What will he think
of me? Be that as it may, my grief is your joy. Wear
your laurels, with my sincere prayers for your welfare. ' "
CHAPTER XV
FANNING S VOYAGES
Although the discovery of the Antarctic Continent
by Nathaniel B. Palmer was the most spectacular geo-
graphical achievement of any Stonington sailor,
Edmund Fanning sailed several long voyages that
brought him a great reputation as a navigator, made
many interesting discoveries and shed a brilliant lustre
on his native place. He was born at Stonington on
the 16th of July, 1769.
Fanning came of a prominent Stonington family,
though unfortunately the name long since disappeared
from the town. At the age of fourteen he first went
to sea, as a cabin boy; at eighteen, in June, 1797,
he was put in command of a merchant vessel, the brig
Betsey, and set forth on a journey around the world.
Although the brig started from New York, Stonington
was visited for the purpose of obtaining a New Eng-
land crew. In his famous book, "Voyages Round the
World, (1833), Captain Fanning says:
"When off Watch Hill point, she was brought to,
in order to discharge the pilot, and the occasion was
embraced as the best suited to ascertain the minds
and inclinations of the seamen. All hands were there-
fore mustered on deck, aft, and liberty was given all
FANNING'S VOYAGES 93
such as were disinclined to proceed on the voyage, to
all those who were unwilling to encounter the dangers,
privations and sufferings usually attendant on similar
expeditions, now to return with the pilot. Notwith-
standing this, no one seemed so inclined, but all to a
man answered, their desire was to proceed on the voy-
age, confirming the same by three hearty cheers. And
here it may be remarked, that a more orderly and
cheerful crew never sailed round the world in any ves-
sel. The pilot accordingly returned by himself."
This is a significant picture of the sturdy class of sea-
faring men that Stonington produced more than a hun-
dred years ago.
It would be impossible in the brief space that can be
given in this volume to the achievements of Fanning
to follow him in his several voyages through the seven
seas. In the mid-Pacific he discovered many islands,
however, of which some mention must be made.
The New International Encyclopedia says of the
* 'Fanning Islands" that they were named for the Ston-
ington sailor, who discovered them in 1798; and it
describes them as being ' 'a group of small islands in
the Pacific, scattered about a segment of the equator,
lying between longitudes 157 degrees and 163 degrees
W. ' ' The area of the group it places at about 260
square miles, the chief islands being Christmas, Fan-
ning, Jarvis, Washington and Palmyra. "Since
1888," says the cyclopedia, "they have belonged to
Great Britain. The population is estimated at 200."
Concerning the last-named, Palmyra Island, much
94 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
international interest has recent!}' been aroused, owing
to its annexation by the United States, in which fact
we may take a sentimental pleasure, for surely at least
one of the many islands discovered by Fanning ought
to be under the Stars and Stripes.
A glance at the map of the Pacific Ocean will show
that Palmyra Island lies almost directh^ west Tof the
Panama Canal. Its strategic importance is therefore
obvious, and the action of the United States in pro-
claiming sovereignty over it at this time is easily com-
prehensible.
In connection with his discovery of Palm3U'a, Cap-
tain Fanning says he turned in, at nine o'clock in the
evening of June ] 4, 1798, but in less than an hour found
himself, "without being sensible of any movement or
exertion in getting there, on the upper steps of the
companion-way." Suddenly he awoke, exchanged a
few words with the officer of the deck and returned to
his berth, meditating on the strangeness of the incident,
as he never walked in his sleep. A second and a third
time he found himself mysteriously on deck, but the
last time he had unconsciously put on his outer gar-
ments and hat. "It was then, " he says, "I conceived
some danger was nigh at hand, and determined upon
laying the ship to for the night ; she was at this time
going at the rate of five or six miles per hour." The
officer of the deck was clearly surprised at his com-
mander's perturbation, but Captain Fanning assured
him that he was well and possessed of his senses ; only
"something, what it was I could not tell, required
TANNING'S VOYAGES 95
that these precautionary measures should be studiously
observed." When day dawned the breakers of Pal-
myra Island were discerned due ahead, only half an
hour from the spot where the ship was laid to for the
night. The commander saw in the incident "an evi-
dence of the Divine superintendence."
Captain Fanning describes Palmyra as a coral reef,
or shoal shaped like a crescent, eighteen miles in length
from north to south. He did not find a foot of ground,
rock or sand, above water where a boat might be hauled
up. A later visitor put its length at nine miles and
credited it with two lagoons, in one of which there
was water twenty fathoms deep, while on the northwest
side of the island he found ' 'anchorage three-quarters
of a mile from the reef, in eighteen fathoms."
Hawaii proclaimed its ownership of Palmyra in 1882,
but six years later Great Britain annexed it, together
with various other islands that Fanning discovered.
Palmyra now reverts to us by virtue of our annexation
of Hawaii.
It is a pity we ever abandoned our claim to these
mid-Pacific islands. They were ours in the beginning
by right of discovery. They bear the name of our
Stonington world-voyager and are his best monument,
but except for Palmyra they are under the British flag.
If we possessed them now, we would not lightly let
them go; but they are England's and their value to
our transatlantic cousins is indicated in the news that
the Admiralty intends to fortify them.
CHAPTER XVI
TALES AND TRADITIONS
Now that the concluding pages of this book are
at hand, it seems as if many important or enhvening
matters had been neglected, although of course it would
be impossible in so small a volume to set down every
salient incident in the history of the place or relate any
considerable number of the tales and traditions that
are interwoven with its more serious record. A few
of the latter, however, should be preserved for the
sake of their mild and pleasant oldtime flavor.
One of these tales comes to mind at the moment. It
was told by the late William C. Stanton of Westerly :
A certain citizen of Stonington laid a wager that
a man could not walk backward to Westerly in a given
time. The amount wagered was, perhaps, ten dollars.
The party of the second part — the man who took
the bet — selected Andrew Stanton (father of William
C.) to make the journey, because for years he had
worked in a rope walk and had become toughened to
reverse pedestrianism. The course was from the liberty
pole at the head of the breakwater to the middle of the
bridge over the Pawcatuck river, and Horace Niles ac-
companied the walker on horseback with a watch. It
is perhaps superfluous to say that the well-trained rope-
TALES AND TRADITIONS 97
maker finished the five miles and a half within the time
allotted him.
Thomas Ash died in Stonington of cholera about
1849-50, at which time there was a cholera scare
throughout this part of the country. Mr. Samuel H.
Chesebro, whose father opened a grocery store on Water
street in 1837, says the people of the town were so
fearful of the disease they would buy no vegetables,
while the demand for soda crackers was greater than
the supply.
As a boy Mr. Stanton saw the first train start from
Stonington for Providence in 1837. He climbed the
fence at the south side of the Congregational church to
see it go by. It was drawn by horses, the borough
authorities being fearful lest the new fire-machines —
locomotives, that is to say, should set the town ablaze
with their spark-belching chimneys. To this day the
foundations laid for the railroad's first roundhouse may
be seen near Orchard street, outside of what was then
the settled portion of the place.
At a meeting of the borough freemen at the Con-
gregational conference room, August 9, 1837, there
was read and accepted a report of a committee ap-
pointed some months previous (before the great fire of
April) to ascertain the intentions of the railroad com-
pany "as to the location of their road within the limits
of this borough. " It was voted that the warden and bur-
gesses be requested "to frame a Bye Law to prevent
the passing within the limits of the Borough of Loco-
98 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
motive Engines propell'd by Steam and to affix penal-
ties."
The warden and burgesses on August 21st gave no-
tice to the railroad company through Mr. Whistler
not to lay its rails in or across any of the streets or
highways of the borough.
On November 18th a meeting of the freemen of the
borough passed a by-law forbidding any vehicle to be
drawn in or across any highway at a rate of more than
five miles an hour ; and a penalty of two dollars for each
offence was fixed.
Thus early the citizens of Stonington realized the
annoyance and danger of the branch track that bisects
our principal streets at grade. Yet in 1837 trains
were infrequent of movement and insignificant in size.
As an illustration of the possible survival of colonial
prejudices spoken of in a previous chapter, the story
may be told of the Stonington man who painted his
house red. "Regular Rhode Island taste," was the
contemptuous comment of a relative.
A few years ago the oldest Congregational clergyman
in Connecticut, Rev. Amos S. Chesebrough, a native
of the borough, wrote a series of reminiscences which
were published in the Stonington Mirror. In the course
of these he recalls many amusing tales of his boy-
hood days, for instance one concerning the excellent
daughter of a pious deacon of the place: "His daughter
was as good as her father and a story is told of one of
the neighboring deacons who, having lost his wife, after
a long and distressing illness, came to see Miss Fellows
the very evening after her funeral and proposed mar-
TALES AND TRADITIONS 99
riage. She was of course shocked and said to him,
'Wh}^, Deacon, is not this too sudden?' 'Oh, no,'
he replied, 'I picked you out some time ago ;' and she
made him a good wife and nurse in his declining years. ' '
The Rev. Mr. Chesebrough also tells in his
reminiscences of an old-time training day, when the
local military organization, the First Company, Eighth
Connecticut Militia, paraded through the borough.
Francis Amy was captain, Charles H. Smith lieutenant,
Peleg Hancox ensign, Giles C. Smith sergeant, and
Azariah Stanton second sergeant.
Marching down Main street, the trig militiamen
passed the house of Captain William Potter, whose
daughter was engaged to the drummer of the company.
' 'As they came marching past, ' ' says Mr. Chesebrough,
'he espied his fiancee at the window, and, wishing to
do his best and make all the music at his command, as
a salute, he beat the drum with so much spirit that he
pounded the drumhead in and spoiled the music for the
day, which was not very well pleasing to the captain."
Mr. Chesebrough says of the Rev. Ira Hart, (who
died in 1829), "I remember his looks distinctly; rather
stocky in build, with large, round full face and double
chin and a dignified gait, always carrying a gold-headed
cane. He had the reputation of being a good preacher
and an excellent pastor of his flock, but we boys were
afraid of him and did not like to meet him face to face.
For one thing he was noted — his high Calvinistic the-
ology. I remember once, as the congregation was
coming out of the audience room of the church in the
100 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
borough, hearing Samuel Denison say something like
this: 'I don't believe that doctrine.' Election, perhaps
it was. It seems strange that although the people of
that day were strict in their views of the right training
of children, they did not believe in child piety ; child-
ren were to be brought up to be converted after they
arrived at maturity. ' '
The old fort from which the British attack was re-
pelled in 1814 "became a favorite place for the boys
to gather for play. It went by the name of the Grass-
hopper Fort, and it was a matter of general regret to
see it levelled down so that the space occupied by it
might be used for a shipyard. Eliakim Cannon, who
lived in the old Oliver York place, built a number of
vessels in that yard."
Mr. Chesebrough says that in his boyhood a great
gate "faced the head of Water street (at about the
present southwest corner of Wadawanuck Park), but
there was then no road connecting it with the road
running north to the bridge and cove, but just south
of the salt works (near the present site of the railroad
station) was a crossroad so that teams moving out of
the village by way of Front (Main) street could cross
over to the road which leads north by the Grandison
barn and to the Mystics. I well remember the interest
of all when Water street was extended through the
Robinson pasture to the Mystic road. This gate then
opened into a large lot of unoccupied land called the
Robinson pasture, where later stood the Wadawanuck
Hotel and where now stand the (colored) Third Baptist
TALES AND TRADITIONS 101
Church and many other buildings. ' ' The pasture was
rocky, as most Stonington pastures are, and much of
the material for the breakwater was taken from it by
Captain Charles E. Smith, the contractor who built the
famous old stone pier.
The Robinson family, for whom the pasture was
named, have no survivors in Stonington who bear the
family name. But the Robinson burying-ground on
Broad street still bears its solemn witness to their half-
forgotten connection with the borough.
One more story, of later date, may serve to close this
rambling chapter. Not many years ago on election
day the writer met a well-known veteran of the Civil
War coming from the polls. It was in the time of the
former ballot law, when each voter had to place the
small white ballot of his own particular party in an
envelope and seal it while sacredly isolate within the
voting booth. "Good afternoon. Major," I said.
"How goes the world with you?" "Begorra, I'm in
bad luck to-day, " was his melanchoh' response, "I live
in the city now, you know, and every year when I come
home to vote the Doctor gives me a little prescription
for m' stomach's sake. And faith ! I've made a mis-
take and voted m' prescription."
CHAPTER XVII
STONINGTON TO-DAY
The township to-day stretches from the Pawcatuck
River on the east to the Mystic River on the west —
as varied and charming a reach of country as may be
found in many a day's journey.
Other towns of Connecticut are as beautiful in their
alternations of hill and valley, but no other town in the
state borders upon the Atlantic Ocean. The neigh-
boring shore towns of Rhode Island front upon the
ocean but lack the thick forests that canopy the country
roads within a mile of Stonington by the Sea.
The census of 1910 gave the town a population of
9154 ; it has somewhat in excess of that to-day. The
borough, with its immediate environs, contains 2500
inhabitants, while Pawcatuck has 4000 and Mystic
and Old Mystic have, within the town, 2000 or more.
For many years after the settlement of the town in
1649 the people were Congregationalists ; Church
and State were almost synonymous ; but two centuries
and a half have wrought, chiefly through immigration,
a great religious change. The writer is indebted to
Mr. William B. Snow of Willimantic for the results
of a religious census of the town taken by Mr. E. N.
Seelye and himself for the Connecticut Bible Society in
STONINGTON TO-DAY 103
1907. There was found within the town a population
of 9419, (mark the excess over the Federal census of
three years later), divided into 2290 families. The
leading branches of the Church were represented by the
following number of persons : Roman Catholic 3747,
Baptist 1939, Congregational 1178, Episcopal 1126,
Methodist 586, Christian 264, Seventh Day Baptist
186, Lutheran 146, Hebrew 23, Presbyterian 16, Uni-
tarian 1 1 . Even the Latter Day Saints had 7 adherents
and the Greek Catholic Church 6.
By nationality the division was in part : Americans,
5568, Irish 1147, EngHsh 619, Germans 613, Portu-
guese 425, Italians 320, Scotch 216, French Canadians
128, Canadians 127, Austrians 42, Poles 41, Russians
23, and scattering representations of several other
peoples. It need hardly be said that this diversity of
races is common throughout southern New England in
these opening years of the twentieth century.
Not many years ago Stonington was said to be, in
proportion to population, the richest town in Con-
necticut. A law was passed, however, by the provi-
sions of which stocks, bonds and mortgages, formerly
assessable in each town, might be taxed at a low rate
at Hartford. This caused an immediate shrinkage in
the "grand list" of Stonington. In recent years,
nevertheless, the town's valuation has made a sub-
stantial advance, the figures for 1912 being S5,929,-
321, again of $130,384 over 1911.
So much for bare statistics. How little they tell of
the real development of the town, its picturesque his-
104 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
tory, the individual character and charm of Stonington
by the Sea !
The special flavor and dignity that Stonington unques-
tionably possesses — we are speaking now of the borough
— may be said to be the composite effect of many and
diverse causes.
First among these is its natural situation. The
ocean has had much to do with making Stonington
what it is. The going down of generations of men
and youth to the sea in ships ; the alternate spectacle of
blue waves and silver fog ; the smell of the salt ; the
sound of the harbor bell on misty nights ; the boom of
the surf, subdued by distance to a pleasant melody,
beyond Napatree; the sunset glow that wraps the sea
and land in Roman scarves of fascinating tints; the
ultramarine of the wintry harbor against Wamphasset's
shining snows ; the sentiment of breadth, the feeling of
freedom, that come from contact and friendship with
the Atlantic — these ai'e some of the elements of beauty
and strength with which nature has wrought upon the
place an inescapable spell.
Another reason for the differentiation of Stonington
from its neighbors may be found in the early establish-
ment of its borough form of government. This has
given it separate shape and direction, emphasized its
individuality, contributed to its proper pride and com-
munity of purpose. It is the oldest borough in the
State, and therefore in New England. Since 1801 it
has been a small imperium in imperio, a semi-inde-
pendent government within the larger government of
The Wadawanuck House
Built 1837; a fashionable hotel for several decades; torn down in the '90s. Th
rare photograph shows it in its later years
HOUSE OI' CHANDLER X. WAYI.AND
Originally the home of Charles P. \\illiams
STONINGTON TO-DAY 105
the town. It has been administered not in the lax
fashion of the unincorporated village but by a board
of warden and burgesses analogous to the characteristic
mayor and council of a city. It has provided itself
with many public improvements — notably street lights,
h3^drants, and side and cross walks. Is there another
Connecticut community of the same size, or of double
the size, in which one may go dry-shod everywhere in
wet weather.? A recent visitor said, "Stonington is
not so much a village as it is a little town." The dis-
tinction is just.
The old whaling days brought large wealth to Ston-
ington by the Sea. Great houses were built, preten-
tious mansions erected by lavish owners in the midst of
pleasant lawns and trees. A charming society grew
up recruited from the cities and fostered by the pres-
ence of the fashionable Wadawanuck Hotel. The
"Day place" and other hospitable homes flung
wide their doors to house pai'ties of clever wom-
en and accomplished men. Some of the finest boats
of the New York Yacht Club rendezvoused in the har-
bor.
It is needless to say that openhearted hospitality,
the interchange of gentle courtesies, the assemblage of
trained minds and keen wits, the liberal outpouring of
the good things of the world — a society, in short, based
on experience, culture and intelligence — exert an influ-
ence that lasts and is easily recognizable when the era
that produced them has become little more than a tra-
dition.
106 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
Among the other influences that have contributed to
impress on Stonington a quality of its own should be
mentioned its long career as a railroad and steamboat
terminal. In 1837 it became the western end of the
New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, which
extended eastward to Providence and connected here
with the Stonington Line of steamers for New York.
On the evening of the day of the opening of the road,
November tenth, 1837, the official party of inspection
having traversed the distance to Providence and re-
turned in safety (despite the breakdown of the train
at East Greenwich), an elaborate celebration took place
at the Wadawanuck Hotel, which had just been built
for the express purpose of providing a convenient
stopping place for travellers between New York and
Boston.
From that time forward with the exception of some
three years, the Stonington Line maintained its night-
ly service to New York, until 1904, when it was
merged in the Norwich (now the New London) Line.
Stonington is no longer a transportation terminal,
except for the summer ferry to Watch Hill. Its high-
Ways are no longer blocked by the switching trains
that for so many years puff*ed and clanged up and
down the grade from the steamboat dock to Main
street. It finds it hard to realize that it is no
more a railroad and steamboat town, but the deserted
switching yard and the silent wharves nearby bear un-
mistakable testimony to the fact.
One more factor in the individualization of Stoning-
STONINGTON TO-DAY 107
ton by the Sea may be said to be its proximity to
Rhode Island. It is not quite a Connecticut commu-
nity in the accepted sense of the term. Sandy Point,
the extreme tip of Rhode Island territor}', approaches
within a mile of it, while with Westerly its relations
have long been industrially and commercially intimate.
The first President Dwight of Yale College in his
famous book of travels bemoans the condition of relig-
ion in Stonington, which he blames upon the
heretic sects of its neighboring State. Be this as it
may, there can be no doubt that its contact with lib-
erty-loving Rhode Island — a strongly individualized
commonwealth to this day — ^has reacted upon it and
given it a certain variety — one may say a certain pi-
quancy and tinge — it would not otherwise possess.
At the present time, 1913, Stonington by the Sea, in-
cluding the thickly-settled district just beyond the bor-
ough boundaries, contains by estimate between seven
and eight hundred buildings — dwelling houses, shops
and stores. It is built on a severe rectangular pat-
tern, with two chief streets running north and south
for practically the entire length of the "Long Point"
of other days. Main street, as its name indicates, was
once the principal business thoroughfare ; now it is es-
sentially a residential street and a majority of the stores
are on Water street, nearer the harbor. The harbor
is commodious and safe, having been dredged to a great
depth and hedged in by three stone breakwaters. The
custom house on Main street is a profitable Govern-
ment institution, exceeding the New London custom
108 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
house in amount of collections and requiring a far less
expenditure in proportion to these. Established
in 1842, it has survived the rise and fall of the whaling
and sealing business, the transfer of the New York
boats to another terminus and the vicissitudes of a once
large shipbuilding industry.
There is, to-day, an important lumber trade be-
tween Stonington and the Canadian provinces, and the
Stonington custom district comprises within its borders
portions of three States, Rhode Island, Connecticut
and New York. In other words, it includes Westerly,
Mystic, Noank and Fisher's Island.
Stonington Borough has two large manufacturing
corporations, the elder of which, the Atwood Machine
Company, is the largest maker of silk machinery in the
world ; while the other, the American Velvet Company,
ranks among the leaders in its line. There is also an
important coastwise fishing business which centres at
this port.
As a place of residence Stonington has many attrac-
tions. It is unusually cool in summer and mild in win-
ter. It is but three hours and a half from New York,
two hours and twenty minutes from Boston and an hour
and a quarter from Providence. It is the seat of the
new Stonington union high school, the fine resultant
of a merging of the four scattered high schools of the
town; an institution numbering 176 students in the
current year, of whom 88, exactly half, are in the
freshman class. The Stonington Free Library, estab-
lished in 1888, occupies a fine building of its own, the
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STONINGTON TO-DAY 109
gift of the late Samuel D. Babcock and Erskine M.
Phelps, on Wadawanuck Park, is endowed with a fund
of twenty thousand dollars bequeathed it by Mr.
Phelps, and has between six and seven thousand vol-
umes on its shelves.
A Travel Club, with an average attendance of fifty
at its weekly sessions, is now in its sixth year and study-
ing France. A Men's Club meets twice a month in
the winter to listen to speakers, usually from out of
town, on interesting and important subjects, and has
one hundred and forty members on its roll. An an-
nual lecture course is maintained at a high level of ex-
cellence, the speakers for the present year including
Dean Charles R. Brown and Professor William Lyon
Phelps of Yale.
Under the important new conditions wrought by the
twentieth century in American life, the village and
small town, like everything else, have changed. The
oldtime isolation of Stonington, as of many other
communities, has been substantially done awa}- with.
We are now in close contact with the city, share in
its advantages and measurably mould our thought in
accordance with it. Our favorite New York morning
paper lies beside our plate at the breakfast table; the
telephone puts us with marvellous promptness in touch
with many a distant friend; the parcel post has en-
larged our shopping district a hundredfold ; the trolley
has bound us with its shining steel and incomprehensible
current to all our neighboring towns — has produced in
southeastern Connecticut and southwestern Rhode
110 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
Island what is practically a consolidated community,
so that we are, in the phrase of the Apostle, the inhab-
itants of no mean city. Old divisions, old prejudices,
are minimized by reason of our new facilities for trans-
portation and communication. We think across larger
radii — the innumerable little circles of community in-
terests everywhere in America are expanding and over-
lapping. The process is one of the most fascinating
and significant of modern social phenomena in the
United States.
For reasons like these life in the country and the
smaller towns has assumed new attractiveness to many
city people.
The drift to the centres of population has met
a reverse tide that is setting back to the open
fields, the village squares, the old New England streets
with their white Colonial houses bowered in maples,
elms and lilacs. If we lack the dramatic and musical
attractions of the great town, its restless social quest
and adventure, we have pure air and unimpeded sun-
shine, the brisk friendliness of the ocean winds and the
faithful companionship of the hills. We know the
year in all its moods and whimsies ; the Procession
of the Months becomes to us a colorful and charming
pageant, and in the rival show of the successive seasons
Winter reveals herself the subtlest artist of them all.
To those, however, who may be interested in Ston-
ington for what it has to offer in the summer months
the assurance can be given of an invigorating at-
mosphere throughout the heated term, of days tempered
STONINGTON TO-DAY 111
by the wind from the sea and nights of refreshing
coolness and silence. A generation ago Stonington
was a famous summer resort; the Wadawanuck drew
many guests from distant States long before Watch
Hill had loomed upon the social horizon. In recent
years there has been a marked tendency toward the
permanent acquisition of summer homes in the borough
and its vicinity by people from the cities. In some
instances elaborate new houses have been built ; in
others old houses have been remodelled and modernized.
Thus, to name some of them at random, we have Stone-
ridge, Brookdale, Farmholme, Shawandasee, The Pop-
lars, The Hill, The Homestead, Rocky Ledge, Bythe-
sea. Shore Meadows, Covelawn and Grey Knoll. We
have also the "Day place," with its ninety acres of
surrounding meadows and wooded hills, converted into
the Stonington Manor Inn, a thoroughly inviting hotel,
mainly for motorists but open to us all. As in the
"sixties" the Wadawanuck sometimes registered a
hundred new guests in a day, so the Inn in its initial
summer of 1912 became the objective point for scores
of automobile parties on many a pleasant afternoon.
As I write these closing words of this little volume,
it is eleven o'clock of a January night and the wind is
blowing a hurricane outside. There has not been such
a storm in years along the New England coast — and
only yesterday we were basking in the bright sunshine
of an exceptionally genial winter. The barometer
has fallen below 29 and the southwest tempest is howl-
ing like a hungry wolf at the corner of the house. Yet
112 STONINGTON BY THE SEA
this grim weather has a charm of its own in Stonington
by the Sea. It is full of mystery and the suggestion
of power, and one feels close to elemental nature as the
gale sweeps by, singing like a cataract in the tops of
the trees. It is an invisible spirit pla3'ing upon a vis-
ible world, the symbol of the Unseen and the Eternal.
And here by my shaded lamp I listen to its melody
and fury, and see in my mind's eye the flooded marshes
beyond the town, the rocky beaches where the great
waves roll in, and the turbulent open ocean from Wic-
opeset to Napatree unsheltered by any land this side
of Spain.
A wild night it is, but with something in it kindred
to the restlessness of the human heart and will. And,
listening to the wind as it surges and breaks, roars and
whispers and roars again, who could fail to be
touched anew with the beauty and dignity of the varied
year in Stonington by the Sea !
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