ley was one of these, and others who had inlisted during the war, together with the most of those that went south with La Fayette. The eyes of these survivors of a ruthless warfare beheld a glad sight on the morn of the 19th of October, when in solemn silence-not amid the smoke and carnage of the battle-field-they saw the brave Gen. Lincoln receive the sword of Lord Cornwallis-the strength and glory of the British army on this side of the water, broken and destroyed. Well might the news of this auspicious event spread universal joy, as it did, throughout the country. Well might all hearts unite in praise and thanksgiving to God for this signal blessing, which was to terminate our struggle for independence. It was not inappropriate that Washington ordered divine service to be performed throughout the army; and that Congress proceeded in solemn procession to the house of God, to acknowledge their grateful sense of this special favor. It was, indeed, the final blow, the immediate precursor of peace. The voice of the whole British people called in earnest tones for an immediate termination of the war; so earnest indeed, that it penetrated even to an unrelenting throne. Early next year, just eight years after the battle of Lexington, Great Britain proposed peace, and hostilities terminated. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens, were appointed agents by the United States to conclude the terms of peace. Preliminary articles were signed at Paris, Nov. 30, 1782, and on the 19th day of April, 1783, a formal proclamation of the cessation of hostilities announced the glad tidings to a disenthralled nation.

It would be a pleasing occupation to linger for a moment and gather up the personal incidents scattered thickly throughout the whole of this long and eventful period; but the limits of our work will not allow us that gratification. They will be found, however, in the biographical and genealogical history, which will occupy the major portion of the remainder of this volume, and also in the list of revolutionary soldiers from this town, among the statistics, at its close.

1 On the west side of the Pomperaug River, three-fourths of a mile from the main street in Southbury, lived three brothers, sturdy young men. Their names were Justus, Amos and Moses Asa Johnson. When the news of the surrender of Cornwallis reached town, the people assembled at the meeting-house, and the greatest enthusiasm prevailed. The bell pealed forth in merry, violent tones, and every heart was full of joy. The Johnsons supposed the bell was ringing for an alarm, as it scarcely rung for any thing else except on Sundays. In an hour or two, two of them appeared at the alarm post, fully armed and equipped, their knapsacks filled with provisions for an immediate march. Such was a specimen of the patriotism of those days.

"The colonies must be taxed!" What a world of interests was affected by that stern and unjust decision. Little dreamed he who spake it, that it would inflame a continent, and rend from Old England her fairest possession, her gem of greatest value. But the word was spoken-the decree gone forth! "Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." With a fated madness, an unaccountable folly, the mother country took her furious course. Her children, driven by her cruelty into the savage wilds of a distant continent, were pursued with ruthless barbarity. She little knew and little cared, if far away over the mighty Atlantic, her arbitrary acts was creating the "land of the free and the home of the brave." Then came the war of the Revolution to blast the dearest hopes of the people of the new world, yet from its gloomy shades gleamed forth the light of liberty, which now shines with such dazzling splendor. But it was to be obtained by blood and toil and miseries with scarcely an equal in the annals of mankind. The blood of the dwellers in these fair vales, and in each town and hamlet of our land, was shed like water on every glorious battle field of our country, from the skirmish at Lexington to the ever memorable seige of Yorktownfrom the sad massacre of the fair and poetic vale of Wyoming to the field of honor on the heights of Saratoga! Their hardly earned worldly goods were freely offered on the altar of their country's good. Hunger, cold and privation of every sort were cheerfully endured. Every tie which nature holds dear, and which binds the hearts of men in conjugal, paternal, or fraternal bands to the well-known hearthstone, were sundered at the call of our suffering country in her hour of need and of peril. They went forth with bounding hearts, and athletic, manly forms. Many of them found honored graves in various parts of our land, and many more returned with dire diseases, mutilated frames and shattered health-the merest wreck of what they were to the firesides which had missed their presence for months and years.

But the result of their labors was glorious beyond the expectation, or even the dreams of the most hopeful. They wrought well-a redeemed and widely extended people now rejoices in the results of their toils and sufferings. If there be a "recompense of reward" for those that do well, surely our patriot sires have long since entered on a bright fruition. Great indeed have been the results of the Revolution, not only to our own favored land, but to the world. Since that hour of "deadly peril was overpast," our nation has gone prosperously on, and we are almost miraculously increased from three to more than twenty millions of freemen. Liberty and equality are in

terwoven with every fibre of our institutions. Freedom of thought and of conscience is the pole-star of our existence. Knowledge infinitely more varied and extended than was ever before known, has embraced all classes, and it will have its "perfect work," till the humblest operative shall become a man of science. Literature, art, science, a brilliant triad, is the proud possession of our country, and she will continue to enjoy it till the "last of earth" shall have been experienced by the last of the race. The universal diffusion of knowledge is the grand characteristic of our country. By means of this the most distant member of our population, which surges to and fro like the waves of the ocean, is visited in his home on the broad prairie, or among the everlasting hills, and prepared to act his part in the great system of republican institutions. The active and enterprising spirit of the age has given us a vigorous and original literature. The useful, the practical, in science, in art, in every thing, is the grand desideratum. Improvements are made in every thing. Even news, which has in all ages been noted for its agility, no longer takes its slow course by stage, or by railroad; nor yet, in the poetical language of Scripture, does it "take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;" but it seizes on the "firey bolt of Jove," and outstrips the "swift wind." The time is not far distant, when the far dweller in Oregon shall whisper words of affection "by telegraph," to an Atlantic lady-love, all too impatient to wait the slow delay of the "lumbering mail."

"A destiny for us may be predicted far more glorious than ever the most illustrious days of Greece or Rome, or even the bright British Isles have gloried in. The day may not be distant, when America, compared with England, shall be as a fair and blooming daughter beside an old and decrepid mother." In the spirit of liberty lies the secret of the present aspect of mankind. Exalted indeed is the position of the men of the nineteenth century. They stand amid the mighty ruins of the past, while the clear light of liberty has just dawned in full effulgence upon the world. Every thing proceeds with the utmost velocity, and one must cast himself upon the rolling flood, and rule and direct the storm, or be overwhelmed by it. "For them has been reserved the glorious yet perilous task of remodelling society for them a vital share in the final regeneration of mankind." Their trust is in the lofty patriotism and intelligence of the people, and they are cheered on by the hope that the perfection of humanity, having sought in vain throughout the whole world for a permanent resting place, may here, in this western land, take up its final abode.

CHAPTER XI.

HISTORY OF SOUTHBURY AND SOUTH BRITAIN ECCLESIASTICAL SOCIETIES, AND THE TOWN OF SOUTHBURY.

1731 To 1853; PETITION FOR A SOCIETY, 1730; INCORPORATED IN MAY, 1731; 63 REMONSTRATE AT THE NEXT SESSION; FIRST MEETING HOUSE IN WHITE OAK, 1735; REV. JOHN GRAHAM SETTLED, 1732; LIST OF FIRST CHURCH MEMBERS; CHARACTER OF MR. GRAHAM; METHOD OF SINGING; REV. BenJAMIN WILDMAN SETTLED IN 1766; SECOND Church finisHED, 1772; CHURCH BELL OBTAINED IN 1775; MR. WILDMAN'S CHARACTER AND DEATH; REV. ELIJAH WOOD SETTLED, 1813; Rev. DANIEL A. CLARK SETTLED, 1816; Rev. THOMAS L. SHIPMAN, 1826; REV. WILLIAMS H. WHITTEMORE SEttled, 1836; PULPIT NOW SUPPLIED BY REV. GEORGE P. PRUDDEN; LIST OF DEACONS; SOUTH BRITAIN PETITIONS FOR WINTER PRIVILEGES, 1761, WHICH ARE GRANTED; INCORPORATED AS A SOCIETY, MAY, 1766; FIRST MEETING HOUSE, 1770; REV. JEHU MINOR SETTLED AND CHURCH GATHERED, 1769; SETtleMENT OF MINIsters-RemarKS; LIST OF FIRST CHURCH MEMBERS; REV MATTHIAS CAZIER SETTLED, 1799; REV. DR. TYLER SETTLED, 1808, AND DISMISSED, 1822; REV. NOAH SMITH SETTLED, 1822; REV. OLIVER B. BUTTERFIELD SETTLED, 1837; REV. AMOS E. LAWRENCE SETTLED, 1851; LIST OF DEACONS; TOWN OF SOUTHBURY INCORPORATED, 1787; PRESENT STATE OF THE TOWN; CENSUS.

FOR a period of more than fifty-seven years after the first settlement of Pomperaug, the inhabitants had formed but one ecclesiastical society. On the day of sacred rest and on other occasions, our fathers, the hardy pioneers in this forest town, had assembled at the old meeting-house of the "ancient society" in this lovely valley, and offered up their devotions to the ever-living God as an "undivided whole." For six or eight miles in all directions, these men of God descended from the breezy, life-invigorating hills, and emerged from their rural homes in the sweet vallies, hastening "to the temple" to worship the benign Ruler of the universe. In storm and in sunshine, in summer's heat and winter's cold, they paid this "debt of duty," and forgot not the "assembling of themselves together." Amidst the wilds they sung the high praises of the Great Creator, and the stars

heard and the lea! Their affections during this long period had entwined themselves around the "old sanctuary." They loved their aged pastor, and scarcely the great inconveniences of the remote parts of their town could induce them to think of forming new societies, and new church relations.

But the time at length came, when it seemed necessary to many to separate from the "ancient society," and attempt the formation of a new one, so that a place of worship might be obtained in a location which would better accommodate them. By a petition sent to the May session of the General Assembly, 1730, we learn that early in 1718, upon the question arising whether the first meeting-house "should be added to, or a new one built," it was agreed after considerable discussion, that all should unite in repairing the old house, and that at the end of twelve years, the inhabitants of the south part of the town should have liberty with the consent of the legislature, to become a distinct ecclesiastical society, and the inhabitants of the north part by a previous agreement, were to have a like liberty in twelve years from 1716. They therefore say that having complied with the terms of the agreement on their side, and the time having expired they wish to be incorporated into a society accordingly, especially "the old meeting-house being gone to decay and now not big enough to accommodate the inhabitants of sd Town." desire "that the line to divide them may be the same that divides their Train Bands." This petition was signed by "Titus Hinman, Sen, Benjamin Hicock, and Andrew Hinman in behalf of the Rest." A committee was appointed to "view the circumstances and report." This committee having attended to the duties of their appointment, reported favorably, and the second ecclesiastical society in Woodbury was incorporated and called Southbury, May, 1731.

They also

This act was displeasing to many in both societies. Accordingly a petition signed by thirty-three persons in the north, or "ancient soci-. ety," and thirty in Southbury society, was preferred to the October session of the Assembly, in 1731, asking for a reconsideration of the vote incorporating the new society. They assign as reasons,

1. The north society is left very narrow.

2. Mr. Toucey, one of the committee, is interested, "having a large farm near the center of the new society."

3. They allege, among other things, that those of the south society who must bear half of the burden and expenses, are averse to the

1 State Archives, Ecclesiastical, vol. 5, p. 193, et seq.