Litchfield enquirer., 1874-01-15
ELoIsE H. THATCHER,
 New London, Conn,
AARON BURR.

We extract the following from a letter of considerable length published, last week, in the N. Y. Evening Post The writer has evidently been at some time a resident of this place:
 In the village of Litchfeld, in north- western Connecticut, there is still stand ing, ill South street, the house which was the home of Aaron Burr at the time of the opening ofthe Revolution. This house, now the residence of United States Judge Lewis B. Woodruff, of New York, was then the dwelling of Tapping Reeve, the husband of Sarah Burr.
 Tapping Reeve, the son of the Rev. Ab- ner Reeve, of Southold, Long Island, was graduated at the College of New Jersey ill 1763. The two orphan children of President Burr, Aaron and Sarah, were then living at Elizabethtown, with the1r uncle, Timothy Edwards, the son of Jon athan Edwards. MT. Reeve remained at Princeton as tutor several years after graduation, and became in time private tutor to the Burr children. Intimacy with his fair pupil ripened into love, and resulted in their marriage, June 25,. 1772, when Sarah Burr was eighteen years of age. MT. Reeve had opened an office for the practice of law in Litchfeld, and he at once took his wife to his new home.
 Aaron Burr was graduated at the same college in 1772. After a year spent in desultory reading and amusement in Princeton and Elizabethtown, he became interested in the discussion of religious topics. and repaired in the autumn of 1773 to Dr. Joseph Bellamy's, in the town of Woodbury, Conn.,, with half-formed purpose of studying theology. This part of Woodbury, which was incorporated as a separate town in 17S6 under the name of Bethlem, IS about seven and half miles south of Litchfeld; and Burr was influenced in his choice, perhaps, by its nearness to his sister He remained here but short time, a few months study suficing to satisfy him that he could not accede to the Gospel according to Jona- than Edwards. He renounced theology in favor of law, and in May, 1774, remov- ed to his brother-in-law's in Litchfield, with the intention of entering upon Q course of study under his direction.
 The life led by Burr during his sojourn in Litchfeld has been detailed sufficient ly by his biographers, Davis and Parton Although he had decided to study law, the few months after his arrival seem to have been devoted to general reading rather than to work. The country ar- round the village is rich in romantic scen- cry. The woods at that time offered good sport to the hunter, and the beautiful lake and the streams in it's neighborhood af- emancipated from the restraints of col lege life, Burr gave free rein to his incli- nations. and rode, hunted and fished to his hearts content Women occupied no inconsiderable portion of his leisure hours if We may judge from his letters. He had an intimate friend in Elizabethtown. Matthias Ogden, afterwards Colonel Og- den of the Revolution, with whom he maintained a constant correspondence. He probably con6ded to him his youth full love affairs, for we find Ogden writ ing to him in the spring of 1775: 'I read with pleasure your love intrigues." Burr seems, however, to have distributed his attention very evenly. for no traditions of an attachment to any particular person finger about this scene of his early gal lantries.
 But his active mind requied stronger stimulant than that afforded by the mere pursuit of pleasure, and he soon found it in the exciting questions then agitating the country. Mir. Reeve was an ardent whig, and although in after though in af- ter years supporter of the HamiltoHian school of politics, and bitter opponent of the party with which Burr cast his for tunes, at this time he and his brother-in- law were Tn full accord. Burr's sympa- thies, which were strengthened by his conviction of the justness of the popular cause, where wholly with patriots, and he watched the premonitions of the coming struggle between the crown and the colo nies with an absorbing interest. He was but little more than eighteen years of age but the precocity of his intellect made him already a man.
 In the spring 1775 the news from Lex ington aroused the country. Burr, full of youthful ardor, was anxious to join the army at once. He wrote to his friend Ogden, in Elizabethtown, to come to Litchfeld to make arrangements with him to set out for Massachusetts, where the patriot forces were gathering. But Og- den was detained, and time passed on un- | til the first month of summer brought the tidlngs from Bunker Hill. Burr, chafing under delay, could wait no longer. He rode to EliZabethtown, aided his friend in making preparation for departure, and l in July the two reached Cambridge where Washington had just taken command of his raw and undisciplined army.
 | Burr, who was devotedly attached to his sister, wrote to her regularly, but in those days letters were by no means sure of reaching their destinations. Those that were received were treasured up, to beread and re-read, and oftentimes were transmit ted elsewhere for the perusal of relatives and friends equally interested in the writer That Burr's letters were preserved with care is evident from the number of them now extant. Davis has given in his gos.