Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-02

TIN TWENTY FIVE CHAPTERs-CHAPTER III.
 Ago Of che EIna-SubGcript1On Paper o1
 James Hillhouse for Beautifying the
 Green by Planting Films, Etc.-Sketch
 Of H1IlhOuse-IIfs Personal Appearance,
 Etc.-Hfs Founding of Grove Street
 Cemetery-City Order for Opening Tenn
 pie stroet-Its Elm PIanttng-EIilIhouse
 Avenue Opened by a Young Enn by
 she Name of Day-E1ms tn Front of the
 PterepOAt Edwards Mansion,
 We have tha authority of Professor Brew CT for stating that the elm under favorable three hundred years. As many of our clti- zens are aware, on the subject of trees there is among us no higher authority. He had at one time in his possession the original paper drawn up by Colonel James HiIlhouse, to which various citizens had subscribed, sta ting the amount each would pay for beauti- flying the Green by planting elms and pre- venting the washing of the sand. The date of shis was in the spring of 17s7. The amounts subscribed were not in Federal cur rency, but in pounds, shillings and pence. It was at this era that Hillhouse planted the elms in Temple street. The trees were brought from the big swamp in Meriden. Rev. David Austin set out the row on the inner side of the lower Green parallel with Temple street, as well as those upon the east side. Hillhouse was at this date thirty three years of age, one of the greatest benefactors our city ever had, and man of unusual force of character. He commanded the Governors Guard July 5 1779, on the occasion of the invasion of New Haven and at one period represented Connecticut in the United States Senate. He was from Norwich and was a tall, dark -complexioned, swarthy looking man. An excellent portrait of him hangs in the treasurer's office of Yale college-a fit ting place, as he was for fifty years, from 1782 to the period of his decease, the treas urer. It comports with our recollection of him. He died in 1882 in his seventy ninth year. He lies buried in the Grove street cemetery, which burial place owes it's exist ence to him, for he in July, 1796, got up subscription for the purpose. It has the em- inent distinction of being, 1t is said, the first cemetery in the United States that was laid out into family lots, and was at an early pe- riod regarded as the most beautiful. The cemetery contains seventeen and two third acres, about the size of our Green, including half of it's bounding streets It Is the rest ing place of more eminent characters and of persons of more varied eminence than any other on our continent. Obliterate the deeds of those who lie there-Whitney, Morse, Goodyear-With those of many others of distinguished merit and fame, and the prog ress of the entire world would be set back for several decades.
 The planting of the elms by Hillhouse and Austin had it's inception in an order issued by the Common Council September 22, 17S4, and approved in city meeting June 5, 17S7, for the laying out of Temple street to Grove street. The elm planting probably ran through series of years. This year, 1883, an elm was cut down on Temple street along side of the Bristol mansion which showed by counting the concentric rings that 1t was ninety-two years old. It therefore started from the seed in 1791 and was probably a Hillhouse plant. The avenue through the then Hillhouse farm, 1O5 feet wide (noW Hill house avenue), was surveyed and laid out in 1792, and the elms planted and the guiding stakes driven by young man by the name of Day, in the employment ot MT. Hlllhouse Our informant is gentleman who had it di. rect from Mr. Day himself, who at the time he told him was a venerable old gentleman oc, cupying the position of president of Yale college.
 We presume the elms on Elm street below Church street were all planted at this era. Those in front of the Pierepont Edwards mansion-the large white house standing back in a yard on the south side of the street just below Orange street-we know were. AAo A1bc 0uABC 0AAA9O AA NOA A September 25, 1784, died December IA, 1852 told friend of ours that the fence and the trees in front of his fathers mansion were put there when he was about three years of age, that is about 17S7. The fence Is of red cedar and looks as though it might last 8 second hundred years-indeed, outlasi the trees which must suffer from the depri- vation of important roots caused by sinking the grade of the street at that point.
 From the foregoing it will be seen that our elms are none of them much more than a hundred years old. The size of an elm is an uncertain indication of It's age. In front of the residence No. 8 College street, near George street, are two elms standing bJ measurement seventeen feet apart on the outer edge of the pavement. MT. Horace Day, who has long resided in the next house north, informs us that both were planted on the same day, yet the girth of one at the height of the eye is s3 feet, the other feet and g inches.
 It was many years after the opening o1 Temple street before 1t was to any extent built upon. In 181s Dr. Ell Ives-father oi Dr. Levi Ives-built the house on the corner of Wall street. lately adorned by Architect Russell for Mir. Alden. At that time there was but one other house on the entire square It was SO far out of town, the bulk of popu lation being southerIy from the Green, tha his friends told him he would lose his prac tice, and one joeossly asked him, 'How thu world moved with him since he had taken uI his residence in Hamden ?"