The daily gazette., 1878-07-26
Letter from Hartford, Conn
VOTresPUHuence OF The Uazette.
HARTFORD, Coun, July "a, 1878.
EDITOR OF GAZETTE:

Correspondence OF the Gazette.
HARTFORD, Coun, July "a, 1873.
EDITOR OF GAZETTE
Dear ST:-lf the commonplace notes
of hasty journey to one of our most i'm
portant New England cities are of any
interest to your readers you are welcome
to them. Indeed,t myself the following
up of any great institution to its shady
source among the rugged rocks wherein
1t took its rise is not unpleasant, even
in this heated season.
| When stand upon the highest point
of the ridge that bounds the city of
Hartford on the north and west, some
thing like that to the north and west of
Wilmington, only more elevated, and
view the beautiful valley of the Connec-
ticut downward toward the sea, and up
ward till our finite vision fails before the
simplest index OF the infinite that wells
Mt Tom and Mt. Holyoke in the dis
tance, nature seems to chain me to the
spot until drink in all its kindness, and
rs from memory's scanty store of things
learned in childhood, the little picture
OF people going to settle in Conn, comes
again TO view. | cannot help thinking
how sensible they were TO seek out ma.
lures gift in valley so rich and fair.
The All is pure and free and calls to
mind what the pious Cowper said of
England:
"slaves cannot breathein England; If their
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country and their schack-
les fall.'
And again by slight prosh,esis we
may justly say,
Ne,O "England, with all thy faults,
love thee still, my country"
And blessed be that spirit evermore
that views our fathers, Inheritance as
one, whose liberty shall be preserved by
virtue, whose independence maintained
only by dependence upon God.
Before us in the broad rich valley lies
the city of Hartford. 1t was settled in
1855 by emigranIs from NEWTON now
Cambridge, Mass, many of whom had
| originally come from Braintree, Essex
England. They first called it Newtown
but In the following year it was formally
called Hartford, after what is now cor
ruptly called Hertford, of Hertfordshire,
England, which was the birth place of the
Rev. Samuel Stone Shepherd, of tue little
flock who came into this wilderness to
make il blossom as the rose, and who in
connection with WIN. Goodwin, an an
cestor of the late Major Goodwin, Presi-
dent of Com. Mutual Life Insurance
Company, received the first deed for the
land from the Indians. By the kindness
of the State Librarian who opened for
Inc many old treasures, / saw one of
those old deeds in which the Indian
mark was not a simple cross such as our
unle tered citizens make; but an attempt
ed delinea ion of a whole Indian. L like
the fulness of heart expressed in such a
lsymbol; sometimes people put down q
stroke of the hand, but alienate the heart;
here is the whole Indian, soul and body,
to the contract. Somewhat similar to
our own history, we find that 1858 the
Dutch had put up fort Mt the confluence
of the Park river with the Connecticut.
A place very much like the confluence of
our Brandy winewith the Christinaj ju>t let
the EDglish settlers come in, but were
legislated out in 1856 by the General
Court of Connecticut.
The first church came here organized
from Cambridge, they worshippsd IN a
barn until 1868 when the first house of
worship was erected being sixty-one
wears older than our Old Sweeds; but it
has disappeared not being of brick or
stone. Tie school came with the church
and then began the training of that in
, tellectual life for which their posterity is
SO justly noted.
A house of correction was established
in l640-.just one hundred years before
e our old First Presbyterian Church and
' through all those years iG has had salu-
tary effect upon that class of people who
/ | in New Castle are simply incarcerated
to grow physically weak and morally de-
A, based while our authorities might so en-
gage th,m as to punish crime and yet
9 increase their physical andmoral strength
d Hartford in population but a few thou
sand larger than Wilmington is the pro
) duct OF IL large line of industry and re-
"a finement. Her streets are wide and clean
q and away from the business section
= shady. You see little or no intoxication
| have seen none. 1t is remarkably free
from profanity 1t has numerous church
es and schools of the highest order;it pos
sesses much fine architecture. TheStatt
| House is beautiful structure of Medic
: val Secular Gothic, commanding {
situation / think not less elevated, bu
mere beautiful than the United States
s Capitol. The buildings ofndttpe brick art
4 inferior to ours, ami a marked contras
in external.appearanc is made where ou
Philadelphia, Wilmington or Baltimore
pressed brick are used, but where New
= England granite, marble or Portland
brown stone are used the public building'
are grand and the private mansions are
elegant Out of the business center nearly
U every house has its large grounds tol
: shrubs and flowers. We have one Dell
ware Avenue Hartford has dozen.-
q Her museum of history will afford us al
= another time some interesting thoughts.
II DUVAL