The Penn's Grove record., 1884-08-02
Benedict ArnoId's House.

Mrs. Nichols. the rrte"i lessee Of
Benedict Arnold's -0usc la New Haven
is an intelligent lady, aud shows much
interest in the history connected with
the house. "Ileased the house." she
SAID, five years ago, just before the
celebration of the invasion of the Brit
ish. AT that time and even since l
have had a great many people come and
look over the house. ] think | have
had people from every State In the
union. A great many OHIO people have
beer here, and they seem to take more
interest in the historical incidents con-
nected with the house than any other
class. Soon after we came here, five
years ago, my son, in digging in the
'front.' yards. found a silver spoon. 1t
had the initials J.. and Z. on it.
Thomas r. Trowbridge claimed that
the spoon belonged to his ancestors, as
Joseph Trowbridge once lived here;but
a family by the name of Thomas lived
here later, and it may be that the spoon
belonged to that family. MI. rrow-
bridge wanted the spoon, and promised
my son a good position if he should
ever want one, and my son gave it to
him. Soon after that an agent of the
Philadelphia Historical society was here
and said that he would gladly have
given 500 for the old spoon, as he
thought it belonged TO AInold's fam
lily"
The house has been owned and occu-
pied by some distinguished people.
Benedict Arnold built it ial771 After
it was confscated on account of his
~treachery it was bought by a Mr.. Sloan,
and Noah Webster bought 1t of HIM.
Webster lived there about ten years,
and the west parlOr was used as the
great photographers study. Mr. Sloan
had a daughter who married in Phila-
delphia, and she visited the house 1t
year or so ago, so she stated, for the
first time in 80 years. Noah Webster
had a daughter Emma who married
Professor Fowler of Durham, and Miss
Sloan was quite intimate with her.
Mr.. Sloan's daughter and her hus
band, at the time Of their recent visit,
wanted to see the parlor where they did
their counting many years ago. They
sat down in the window seat and re-
manned nearly two hours, during which
the lady alternately laughed and cried.
She inquired whether Mrs. Nichols had
seen in the hall chamber a pane of glass
upon which Miss Webster's name had
been cut with Il diamond ring. The
windows had been changed about, but
the glass with Emma Webster on it
was found i'll the east parlor. Mrs.
Nichols recently pointed to the glass,
which had been accidentiy broken di-
rectly across the name. Il am very
sorry 1t is broken" she said, for | had
promised it to Professor Fowler's son."
Mrs. Nichols visitor made a brief
inspection of the house. The main hall
is divided into trent and rear halls,ea c
one broad and spacious enough for a
room. In the paTlors, Il on each side
of the hall, are deep window seats, so
frequent in well-appointed houses of a
century ago. In the kitchen was a
broad fireplace which might take in
half a cord of wood. On opening the
attic door, by turning a big key which
certainly is suggestive of secrecy and
excluslveness, the hardwood stairs were
assembled. The attic IS the same size
as the whole ground surface OF the
house, two immense chimneys being
the only breaks. Here and there in
four different places the flour timbers
were visible where the boards have
been removed. The flooring of the
attic, as well as JLat in all the other
rooms of the house, are of oak. Near
the east chimney, on the west side, two
vaults, formed by the projection of the
fireplace, were discovered a few days
ago on removal of the flooring. They
are partially filled with straw and
broken glass, and upon close inspection
seem to have had some special purpose.
Some people have suggested that they
were built by Arnold for the purpose
of secreting himself when a traitor to
his country, but the house was built
many years before the treachery of the
builder.