The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-07-25
THE NATIONAL ERA.
WASHINGTON, JULY %, 1850.
BY MARTHA RUSSELL.


To follow the custom OF certain wise and learn
ed historians, reader, we ought to begin at the
beginning, 1--WE had well nigh put that in French
but after all, old English is the best and speak Of
the geographical position Of village aefine its
boundaries and area, describe its geological form
atoms, its rivers, lakes, and mountains, for il
has at least, what we dignity by these names,)
the number of its inhabitants &C.. but we dis.
selves, having never been quite able to oompre-
bend why the sun, which always rises in the east
as seen from our home, should, from the other
side of TotOket, seem to rise in a directly oppo-
site direction.
Moreover, the country round about us is so
broken, the roads full of crooks and turns that
uNlsss you HAYES Mscgysgsr's sssssira ~ ps.>>sSs
you will not care to seek us out. Passing by,
therefore, these particulars we will proceed to
speak of the wars, foreign andr UlvM, that Xave
at various times caused dire commotion within
our precincts-for in this respect, our experience
somewhat resembles that of Hector Homespun,
the renowned tailor, in Cooper's tale of the Red
Rover.n
We begin with the Pequod war, when those
redoubted Captains, Mason of Connecticut and
Stoughton Of Massachusetts, pursued the royal
Sassacus and his routed tribe along our borders,
hating at the adjoining settlement Of Menunk-
atuck, to behead two captive sachems who nobly
refused to betray their chief The name of the
spot still bears witness to the deed. 1t is now
the site of fashionable watering-place, but we
never pace the broad piazzas of the "Sachem
Head House" without recalling this scene, and
it requires little aid from fancy to picture forth
the spot as 1t was at that time-the rocky point,
covered with the primeval growth Of the forest (;
the white-crested waves of the Sound, sweeping
toward the beach like q train Of white-cowled
solemn masses for the souls Of the waiting vic
TINS; the handful of soldiers, resting on their
arms-worn, weary, emaciated by their harassing
march through the wilderness-gazing with stern
countensnces, not untouched by admiration, on
those stately stoics Of the woods, "a they calmly,
and somewhat contemptuously, await the order
which shall send them to the happy hunting
ground while in the foreground stood the Eng
lisb csptsins-grm, gaunt, and undismayed-
very personi6caiion of Puritan courage.
We shall not stay to describe the dour resist
ance which our village made to the union of the
New Haven colony with that of Connecticut,
seeing that it is duly set forth in that famous re-
monstrance called the New Haven case stated, "
nor dwell on the zeal with which our fathers sped
the regcides on their way towards that settle
ment, while the Kings commissioners sat slipping
their "fipD with good old Governor Leete
at Menunkatuck-for before us lies the days Of
g Seventy-Sixn
All, reader, could you just sit down by our sim
gle side, we would have long chat about those
perilous times, and we would get the sncients Of
our village to tell us of the spirit with which
their fathers and brothers responded to Washing.
toms requsition for more sroops; Of Governor
Tryons piratical expedition to New Haven; Of
the hustle and confusion in our quiet farm houses
as the echo of his cannon leaped from hill to hill
and of the stern faces and resoute tones of the mat
rons, as they packed their valuables, and gave
their orders to their superannuated slaves boys
safety for themselves and their little ones amid
the thick forests of Totoket. Then, if you are
not one of those who deem the Chinese plant a
nuisance, you should sip your evening beverage
from one of those tiny China cups which date far
back in the Colony times, and If 1t chance to be
asummer evening, we would place the round tea
table IA part of the wedding portion Of one of those
same mstrons) under the great hickory in front Of
the house-a meet spot to remember the days Of
old;' for, rough and massive as IL looks now
seventy five years ago it's smooth 1.-THE stem served
as target for certain relatives Of ours when with
their young comrades they exchanged, for few
days the hard service of the camp for the joy
of home. Some rods to the east where the smooth
green knoll slopes down to the spring brook
stood the old farmhouse Nothing remains I,
mark its site, save slight hollow in the greer
turf; and those brave-hearted boys sleep wher,
they fell, with scores Of their comrades, on tn,
held OF White Plains. Another generation ha
passed away, but the old hickory, with the bullet
SUI In its heart, lives on, rejoicing in the sun
hgnt and dew, blessing us with It's shade IL
summer, and rafting down it's burden of nut
every autumn, to gladden. the hearts of tn,
children
But we forget that we have taken upon our
selves the office Of veritable historian therefore
leaving this household shade. wa shsl, note I'M
slightly here the great domestic feud that dividet
'ne village Ia Montague Ct Capulet, somewhsr,
ABOUT the year 1882, as to the proper method o
pitching thetunes in meeting,n it being sufic Glen
70 say that, In the great society meeting calle,
upon That occasion, it was then and there voted
oy large majority, to the great dismay of Ger
'a'n musical critics, that hepceforth the clerk b.
permitted to pitch the tune after which metho,
ne p'eased' Neither shall we enter into the de
tails OF the bitter ecclesiastical schism. durip
Nh'ch several influential families seeded fror
'he established Congregational order and tool
upon themselves the forms Of the Episcopa
church, being duly denounced by their forme
D,e'0fen, as those whom Satan doth desire b
~. as wheat Though the prejudice swsksne'
~ mat time still continues, In some degree, I
"nge the fair current Of life, We shall not stay
race It's effects at present-for our interest lie
enieny In the grand pitchsd-battie which occur
req In the Centre school district about the begin
ming Of the present century.
The old school-house, the FIRST erected in tn
district, In which the village fathers had learns
'he'r catechism and counsd over DilwortA's Spell
'ns-book, had become rsprosch, even to con
sciences usually dormant to svsrythins like con-
'0' or csnvenisnes 10 sohosl-housss, and, are
years OF delibsration and much sAnvsasing, the
determined to erect asw building gone wAic