Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-06-08
IsrasI Putnam,s status.

At last Gen. Israel Putnam OF Wolf
den" and revolutionary fame, says a
correspondent of the New York Sun,
has got a memorial from the Connect
cut legislature, a spirited equestrian
statue of granite, which Artist Paul
Gerhardt of Hartford chiseled, and
which was set up some months ago on a
public square In front of the MOrtlake
house in beautiful Brooklyn village,
among the hills of Windham county.
1t has not been dedicated vet. On June
Il, with the aid of the @O1d guard" and
the Seventh regiment band, and per
haps GilmOre's big band, with the his
tOric Putnam phalanX of Hartford, the
Providence light infantry, the Third
regiment of Connecticut, National
guard, and companies from New Haven
and Boston; In all about two thousand
gallant soldiers. the state VIII perform
the dedicatOry offices. Passage for
more than six hundred New York sol
diers has already been secured on the
sound boats. The visiting soldiery
Will have to leave the railroad IN the
village of DanielsOnville, and march
thence three miles over the swelling
great day for Windham county. Dis
tinguished statesmen and generals from
all parts of the country are expected to
attend the exercises, and it is believed
that the crowd Will exceed ten thou
sand, perhaps fifteen thousand persons.
Brooklyn is not a large place. but it
is an antique and historical One-a typ
ical New England village, with great old
fashioned houses, a wide green, and
Swallowed by branching century old
elms. 1t is a favOrite country home
for fashionable New York people. Not
many miles away, In a wild spot among
the ragged hills, Is the famed den-a
deep cavern with choked entrance, in
the recesses of which Old Put shot the
wolf, and from which he was yanked
out of means of a rope around his foot
at the hands of his startled neighbOrs.
Although Brooklyn is the county seat,
it is so sequestered, being three miles
from the nearest railroad station, that
its choice for the site Of the statue was
generally objected to in all parts of the
state. 1t had been the intention of the
legislature that the memorial should be
erected on the Brooklyn green, but the
site selected was on the property of the
Brooklyn Unitarian church, who IN
generously opposed the project. Ac-
cOrdingly the statue was set up on a
contracted little square in front of the
MOrtlake house, almost under its ears,
so that the general on his lofty steed,
his face averted seems to be disdainfully
looking away and shaking his drawn
sword down the street toward the green
where he ought to be. Not many feet
away is the hotel livery stable, a cir
cumstance which also may assist in in
terpreting his naughty look. The eff
feet of the position is to inspire in the
beholder the ribald notion that man
and horse belong to the hotel, and are
taken in at night. But it required years
of hard pounding on the Connecticut
legislature and many vocal and printed
appeals to the hard listed farmers to
get Putnam a statue, and he viii have
to be content with his testimonial and
its environment. "But it's lucky Old
Put ant alive, commented a Windham
county man the other day; "he'd swear
Brooklyn plum full of birthstone"