The Press., 1888-12-27
STAFFORD SPRINGS, CONN. DECEMBER a7 1888

aud honored names in the subsequent his
 tory of the town. They had seen hills be-
 fore in the green native Isle, but not such
 hills, rocky, ledgy, covered with intermln.
 able thickets instead of the velvet sod of
 IrelAn0's pasture grounds.
 John Burleigh was originally from Eng } land. Messrs. sEnos, Strong and Daniel ) Loomis came from the old town of Wind
 sor, situate on the long river, where a
 century of cultivation had wrought fertile > fields and pleasant homes to the inhabit-
 ants. The Abbot and the Sessions fami-
 lies, with Messrs. Dlke, Coy and Houghton,
 emlgrated hither from Pomfret, still an in- : fant town, to which IsraelP Putnam came from , Salem the year after the church was form- ) ed, ani to which thGt she wolf clme also, that five years after roamed all the region around, and for 40 miles to the Connech- cut and back, and is said to have destroy ed 70 sheep and goats from Putnam's flock iu one night. Fit type was she and the
 other vermin of which the early settlers
 complained, of the moral wolves that vast
 ed the early and later flocks with dssen-
 tions or strong drink.
 William Ward and Deacon Ward, his
 son, were from Ashford, on the south, a town still younger than Pomfret, where Rev. Nathan Hale dispensed the gospel,
 whose epitaph closes thus:
 ''Let all who loved the man these lines present Follow his faith in Christ, and of all sins re- {; pent."
 These men who followed up the back bone of the country could not have been so much surprised at what they found in
 the wilderness of Union.
 The Bascom and Sprague families, with Dea Caleb Loomis, Aaron Clark and Amos , Woodworth, were from Lebanon, whose church life began with the beginning of . the century, where Rev. Joseph Parsons , preached, where Gov. TrumbuIl was boru
 Tn 1710. Messrs. Larnerd and Peake came from Thompson, then parish in Killing ly, where church was organized in 1730, , with Rev. Manton Cabot from Salem for l minister, descendant of the renowned - Sc )astian Cabot, s1id 10 hav3 been a man 3 of great piety and engaging manners. Dea. Ebenezer Wales was from Wind e ham, that began to be settled in 1889 by l. Lieut.. John Gates, one of Cromwell's off + cers and refugee from Charles II. of 0 England. When Dea. Ward came to '- Union, R.v. Thomas Clarp, afterwards president of Yale, was preaching at Wind. 'I ham. It was then a peculiarly godly
 place. 1t is said in those days there were ). scarce any that were not professors of re- 't ligion no families that were prayerless The Badger and Hendrick families were t from Norwich. What 8 change into the Il wilderness of these northern hills it must 'e have been for them from the busy waters
 of the Thames. And perhaps it was ever e more of change for Rev. Samuel Terry l. who was from Mendon, Mass, but who ]. seems to have taken Hebron, Conn.,, or the way, and who for small recompenst o and with great hardships preached tho
 gospel to the inhabitants of this place be fe fore they were town. And like hard 9I ships must have met Lieutenant Pau 3, Langdon, who came from Boston via Sa 'h lem and Hopkinton.
 No houses, fruit trees or vineyards built D, or planted by some original Canaanites ls met the eyes of the first settlers every ni thing was in the rough and of the roughes 70 kind. It is possible that the wood thrust a' sang in the Blgelow foresta at early morI J. and dewy eve, or the brown thrasher T. perched on some high tree, from lowe al told them in loud and musical notes, a lg he had told the Indians, when to plan
 corn. Possibly the cheewink looked 8 :" them with his bright eye, and then, with le whisk and jump and coquettish sauc, D. note skipped into the concealment of tn D. laurel bushes. Possibly the handsom 'h and noisy jay impertinently inquired wha they wanted there? And, it may be, tn 4, black crows flew and cawed and built thei lg nests in the pines.
 But the probability is that, for the mos @, part, Sabbath stiffness reigned when the ln first arrived, and that they missed tn 1e tuneful notes of the merry songsters 0 Id the air that make all nature glad Il cy spring time, for the song birds hover nea D. human habitation.
 w It was hard time of it those early sci d, tiers had. They were from good an
 honorable families, but they were not ric as in this worlds goods. There is somethin es touching in the way that they memorializ es the general assembly, once and again ask e- ing the privilege of paying their taxes fc Ve building the meeting house in labor ID "Many of..us," their selectmen say (May 1t. 1735, ''are in low circumstance ;" an ar again, October, 1735, "For we are pool h, and it would be difficult for us to pay n' (the tax) in money"
 WInto what straits they sometimes tcam le- is..illustrated by the incident with whic sr- Rev. Dr. Hammond has made! us all ft ne miliar, of Capt. Badger and his little chi o1 dren who cried to him for bread when Ii lls was digging we'll Their diet must hay UT been very simple and their clothing plait ne Their larder, however, was replenished 1 le- the fall with game of various sor;s. Wil h. duck must have been found on the pond oi squirrels and rabbits and ruffied grous 'et frequented the woods, and sometime 1e, focks of wild pigeons darkened the ail ne and various berries and nuts furnishe Ks; some variety 10 their diet ed But, though poor. these fathers were il He telligent and independent. Each man { i'll them had mind of his own. One thin they resolved onto make the great lan' 'us holders who resided in Boston, Salem an
 other parts do their share toward paying 'en minister and building meeting -hous sll- which they held would be not only for tt me good of the town butssfor the proprietor nd interest. The people gained their poill Vas Their petition for an act of incorporation nd ''that they might build decent house he house of worship, settle Gods word au ng ordinances, and honorably maintain il led same, was granted by the honorable gene
 al a. esembly,a d a tax of three pence on Il
 acre ordered 10 be levied. Then bega
 the tug of war, an,l 'winter of dI~co
 tent and division" . The facts were these: There were tV Ter parties in town, the one including the s pm iectmen. All the communicants, save on or as the town fathers said, wished to e