The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-02-25
STRATFORD'S ROMANCE
4 Tale Of Colonial Days.

New HAVEN, Conn.,, Nov. 15.-Some
days ago gentleman made thorough
search among the mounds and broken
down tombs of the old cemetery at
Str afford for the grave of John Ruggles.
He found one beneath which he vas
firmly convinced the bones of Ruggles
lay, but his confidence was greatly shak-
en- by the discovery of two others whose
appearance and position so nearly cores
pended with the description of the spot
where Ruggles was buried, that he was
obliged to 60 away in great doubt about
the place. There is reason to believe he
would have caused to be rut up small
shaft, with such an inscription as would
have shown that Rugsles played part
in one Of the romances of the revolution.
Had Benjamin Beach-who died when
he was 97-been alive, the grave would
probably been easily located. For Ben
iamin Beach-Uncle Ben the boys for a
generation and a half called him-by
reason of his own remembrance and es-
pecially because he had father who suf-
fered no matter Of revolutionary times to
fail OF becoming traditional, had good
deal to say first and last in his lifetime
about John Ruggles. 1t was from I'm.
Gle Ben that his neighbors, fifty years
ago, learned that Lady Stirling, of Stir
ling Castle, England, had sent matter
of $50 to America for a suitable tomb
for John Ruggles, and Uncle Ben always
insisted, with a mysterious expression in
his eyes, that the man who got that
twenty and failedIto fulfill his trust came
to just the bad end that might have been
expected.
Now the tale that the old man
used to tell about John Ruggles and Alb
by Folsom of Stratford is so we'll corro-
borated by history in some of it's details,
that gentlemen of a studlous and anti
quarian turn have not hesltated to accept
the whole of il. This is the story, which
has never before been in print, and which
have been only able to gather through
putting together traditions, and from
what l heard out of the mouth of old
Benjamin himself before he died:
John Folsom of Stratford was respect
ed by the old men of that village because
there was not man from Dickerman's
forge, on the New London turnplke, be-
meath the great East Rock in New Haven,
to Ephraim Lang's elm shade smithy in
South NOrwalk, who could begin to shoe
horse or mend a pillow like HIM. He
was also we'll esteemed us we'll as feared,
because he was the most pronounced hater
of King George the Third in all Haven
colony. But in the eyes of the young
men of that elm shaded village, and along
the coast for ten miles each way from the
Stratford tavern, there was no man better
worth while to be friendly with than
John Folsom, for he was the father of a
girl who was so fair as to have fame on
account of it, and who was so brave and
so true to the cause that the Continental
army was fighting for, that the young
men, for sheer modesty and debasement
Of their own worth, stood aloof from her
and admired her with the mutual admi-
ration that men can snare when none of
them is preferred above the other.
BY common consent, however, it was
. settled that the dark-eyed Abby would
come some time to marry young Slll1man
whose father was so brave that he had
been appointed by Gov. Trumbull, other
wise "BrOther Jonathan and the Coun-
Gil of Safety Major General and the
Superintendent of the coast of the county
of Fairfield.
They had seen young Silliman peeping
over the high backed pews of the Congre-
gational church in Stratford at Miss Alb
by in a manner that the young men ana
young women of that day did not mis-
understand the meaning of. So although
the blacksmith's daughter never looked
to the right nor lett-as she must have
done to have seen anything except the
Rev. Mr.. Osgood, who was directly in
front of her-still the young men felt
that the son of Major Gen. Silliman, who
gave promise himself of becoming with
years as brave fighter as his father, and,
moreover, had favorable antecedents. and
promise of future good fortune, barring
the accidents of war, might not cast such
eyes over the high backed pcws in vain.
One merning, when the Gins were Just
''feathering," and John Folsom was beat
ing fllnt-lock muskets into shape on his
anvil-without charges, they being de.
signed for the militia-John' Ruggles
rushed into the shop, and, with no
thought of his buckskin small clothes,
leaped upon the forge, so near to the Gin
ders that it was wonder that he did not
feel the sting, and said:
They've got the General of the armies
and the lad"
"What is it now that you mean, Johna"