Litchfield enquirer., 1877-02-22


 Gould's office, which also stood near his
 dwelling, is now a cottage without the
 village. -
 During the half century of the schools existence more than one thousand stu.
 them the flower of the youth of the time. South Carolina, Woodbury of New Hamp. shire. Seymour of Vermont, Ellsworth and Hubbard of Connecticut, Clayton oi
 Delaware, Mason of Virginia, Morton and Metcalf of Massachusetts, Cuthbert
 and Dawson of Georgia, Ashley and Hunt
 of New York, Woodbridge of Ohio, and
 many another whose name has become a part of the country's history. Of the graduates from 1798 to 1883, whose names
 alone appear .in the printed catalogue, no register having been kept for the first fourteen years, sixteen became United States Senators, fifty members of Con. gress, forty judges of highes State courts, eight Chief Justices of States, two jus tices of the United States Supreme Court, ten Governors of States, five cabinet ministers, and several foreign ministers, while very many distinguished at the bar.a
 Like the law school, Miss Sarah Pierce female seminary was the first institution of It's kind in the United States, and, like it also, it was for many years pre-eminent in it's sphere. It was begun in in 1792. and during the nearly forty years of it's existence more than fifteen hundred young ladies were educated in it's halls. and fitted for the elevated positions which so many of them attained. It's fame still lives nrthe memory of many who shared its benefits; but the visitor ouffousin regard Co its site is now point ed only to the great elms which once shaded it's roof. - .... ....-
 To those who have the time and incli- nation to look them up, the Hill has many interesting local associations, and there are few American villages which possess more centenary houses. $ Yet Litchfeld is comparatively new town, even when measured in the scale of Amer ican antiquity, for it can boast of only a century and half of civilization. Per haps this may partly account for it's fa- vor Of the past. Its wooden dwellings, which in many of the older towns have succumbed to the tooth of time, have not yet reached their proper limit of decay. But it is also due in a measure to the con- servatism of it's people, who have guard ed these relics of their forefathers with sacred care.
 When so much has been preserved, it is soraewhat singular that none of the old time churches remain. The building made famous by the minIstration of LY- man Beecher long ago crumbled into dust, and the village iberty-pole now marks it's site. The dwelling of Dr. Beecher, the birth.plac of. the most dis tingnished of his children, still exists: but. alasl torn trom its ancient site, it now constitutes wing of a private lunatic asylum. The church which succeeded Dr. Beecher's, diverted from sacred uses, is now public hall, and thepresent Con- church, beautiful structure, but unfortunately of wood, is the growth of the present decade. The Episcopal church, St. Michaers, and those of the other denominations, are also of the pres- ent century.
 Among the more interesting of the dwellings is the Wolcott house, on South Street, built in 1753 by Oliver Wolcott, afterward signer of the Declaration of h. major-general of the forces of Connecticut, and in his old age Cover nor of the State. Oliver Wolcott belong ed to race of statesmen. His father, Roger Wolcott. and his son, Oliver Vol colt, Jun, were also Governors of Con- calls attention to the singular fact that his sister, Ursula Woleott. married Gov ernor Matthew Griswold, and became the mother of Governor Roger Griswold; so that her father, brother. husband, son, and nephew were all Governors of Con- .
 The Wolcott house has witnessed many a notable gathering beneath it's roof Thitner often came Brother Jonathan-as loved to call Governor Trum- bull-to talk over public affairs with its hospitable owner, and the father of his country was himself once it's guest. Thith- er, too, were brought the remains of the leaden statue of King George III which the Sons of Liberty pulled down from it's pedestal in Bowling Green in New York, and which the daughters of the Governor, assisted by divers of the village ladies, into bulletts for the use of the army. Some of the cartridges made from it were sent to General Put nam on the Hudson, and some distribu- ted to the troops who opposed Tryon's invasion; and so 1t came to pass, in the words of facetious writer of the day, that the kings troops had melted majesty fired at them. South of the Wolcott house stands the former residence of Reynold Marvin, king's attorney in the reign of George III. 1t was built in l773, but it now occupies new site, and is altered beyond recognition. On the opposite side of the street is the home of Tapping Reeve. built in the same year, and in which the great lawyer lived and died. This, too. was the home of Aaron Burr at the outbreak of the Revolution. Burr, who was graduated at Princeton in TYP, went in the autumn of the following year to Dr. Joseph Bellamy's, in what is now the town of Bethlehem, about seven and q half miles south of Litchfield, with 3 slf-formed purpose of studying theol- ogy. A few months, study -sufioed to satisfy him that he could not accede to the Gospel according to Jonathan Ed wards, and in May, 1774, he removed to his brother-in-law's in Litchfeld, with the intention of studying law. But if we may judge from hls letters, written principally to his friend Matthias Ogden, of Eliza bethtown. New Jersey, -afterward Colonel Ogden of the Revolution. his tune here was principally spent in desultory read Ing. hunting. and flirting. He makes frequent mention in his letters of the la- dies, and in the spring of 1775 we find Og- den writing: .'I read with pleasure your love intrigues" But no traditions of an attachment to any particular person lin- ger about this scene of his early gallant ries. Y 8
 But his active mind required stronger stinnulant than that afforded by the mere pursuit of pleasure, and he soon found it in the exciting question thenagitating the country. Mir. Reeve was an ardent Whig, and although in after years supporter of the Hamiltonian school of politics. and 2 bitter opponent of the party with which Burr cast his, fortunes, at this time he and his brother-in-law were in full accord. Burr watched the premonitions of the coming struggle with an absorbing inter- est, and when the tidings came from Bun- ker. Hill, he hastened to join Washing ton ns forces at Cambridge, whence he soon after went as volunteer with Ar nolda daexpedition to Canada. A few years ago some interesting letters to his sister, descriptive of the march through the %l,