Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-04
SouruaI ano Gourisr.
Monday, Dee. 4. 1882.
Bean Hill.

It's Nev-Found Dignity and its Old-Ttme
 Glory.
 From the Troy Tinesl
 Gov. Cleveland denies the truth of the | story that he was born in Bean Hill. Conn.,, but Bean Hill, nevertheless, looms. Not on the maps of the State of blue laws, wooden nutmegs, wooden clocks and wooden pump kin seeds; not in the postoffice directory, 1 where you may find Bean, Bean Blossom, >San Rock, and sundry other Beans, but no Beaa Hill Evidently :hh0ss -ffewsmongers ! are no great geographers who speak of ''Bean 1 Hill, Conn., as they would speak of Hart 1 ford, Conn.,, the seat of the famous Fedora. 1 list convention in 1872; New Haven. the home of the notorious blue laws; Norwich, the birthplace of Benedict Arnold Saybrook, where the celebrated Calvinistic platform was formulated {; or Pomfret, where Putnam hauled a wolf out of 8 cave by the ears, as he himself was hauled out by the heels or l Windham, where an army of bullfrogs, mi I grating from dry pond basin to the river on summer night in old colonial war times, alarmed the whole town, who mistook the | frogs for Frenchmen, not unnaturally. | Where then and what then is Bean Hill, and l why has Bean Hill thus suddenly become I famous Bean Hill then, oh reader, is the western suburb of rocky Norwich, New Lon 1 don County, Conn.,, situate on the Yantlc river, three crooked miles from the city, l lying at the head of the Thames, the junction of the Yantic and Shetucket, settled in 1860 ! by 35 families from Saybrook and New Lon don, on plat nine miles square, purchased from the celebrated Nohegan chief Uncas, 1 whose grave and monument, the base laid by Andrew Jackson in 1883, may still be seen in the heart of the town. How this rocky emi- | hence, with its three cornered public square crowded with monarch elm century old, l came to be called Bean Hill, is 8 question | archalogists have not yet settled. Sentlmen- tai young misses thought it i'll to head their I scented 6iLlet-doup with an alluslon to the pet 1 diet of the inhabitants, and wanted it chang l ed to Westville enthusiastic Democrats l would name it Jacksonville but for l2O years ! it has been Bean Hill, and now the name has suddenly became famous, and for why ? Though the prospective Governor of the Empire State never made boy pilgrimage to the shrines of his ancestral penates, were | they not all Bean Hillers Is he not the re- puted son of Richard the cleric, Bean Hill CT? whose father was Deacon William, the l silversmith, Bean Hitler? whose father 1 was Aaron poet, preacher and natter, (con temporary with Benedict Arnold.) and 1 Bean Hitler? Were not Gov. Clevelands l ancestors fed like other Yankees of early da, on bean soup, succotash, and baked beans
 Did not prudent hostesses in those days - with shrewd eye to profit, make the DOT ridge so thin that it is reported of one board
 CT that he stripped off his coat and mounted
 his chair at dinner, to the horror of the land | lady, who asked: ''What is the matter, Mir
 Smith ?'' s'I thought a bean." sai
 Smith, land was going to dive for it.' Wa
 not one of the good danes of those time
 famous throughout the colony for the thick ! ness and richness of her bean soup, who's
 husband, it is reported, invited a Governo
 or some other dignitary home to dine witt
 him, promising him rare luxury? It wa
 late, the family had dined, and the mistres had gone out for an afternoon visit ''Neve ! mind {" said the host, 'here is the porridg pot, still on the in the chimney" an ! forthwith bowls of steaming liquid wer l spread upon the table, 'Wife's soups no
 as good as usual to o-day,'' but by erumblin
 bread into it they managed to make meal At tea the husband said: My, dear, seem
 to me your bean soup not as good a common.'' Where did you get it ?" "Ou of the pot in the chimney corner" "Bles
 me-" says the horror stricken wife, 'that wa
 my dish water"
 Indian bread were the luxuries of Bean Hill
 Beans every Saturday night the oven top
 would fall in. Why on Saturday night ?
 was said to be commemorative. In India
 war times an alarm sent the settlers scurry ing through the woods to the block house
 It was Saturday and provisions were short
 One lady said she left an oven full of goo
 things, and two adventurous men stol
 through the alder swamps and returned wit ! whole scalps, and the garrisoned communit ! made supper of baked beans and brow
 bread, and thenceforward the custom pre- I vailed till it had spread over the Union alon
 with nasty pudding, to which Barlow dedics | ted an ode and succotash, which the Pilgrim learned to make of the red Cape Codites Thanksgiving was regarded as sacred time
 century ago. A negro slave of Governo
 Huntington, of Norwich. thoughtlessl
 chopping wood on Thursday, Ehanksgivin 1day, in late November. -96e of the youn
 ladies called to him ssambo, you mustn
 cut wood to day, ,>f is Sunday" Sunday, 1 said Sambo, collectively, i've no hab bake
 beans last flight" A traveller in prairiedol
 rode 9Pfo log house on Saturday night { A he>family were sitting down to supper. H SSe lfrst salutation was, ''When did you hes e. from Bean Hill last ?" s'How did you kno ea, we were from Bean Hill?" "By your bea naf a pot, of course"
 nd And now Bean Hill is famous The 192 srr GOO majority had its roots in the bean patel ssi, ' es of Bean Hill. A bean pot will be the en n. | blem on the Governors seal and baked bear u ' will be the royal dish at Democratic triun a, phal banquets.