Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-08


 [Read before the New Haven Colony Historical
 society March SC. 1891. by Sheldon B. E e&sssS X Thorpe.1 &4& ,T; [coNCLUDED.l Now having the church and the school well organized, the settlers turned their attention to the formation of military company. This movement, like the oth- CTS, was taken under the wings of that prolific and great mother and brooder in the colony, the Ecclesiastical society. sst It first materialized in 171S with Joseph Ives captain and Samuel Ives ensign. I mention these gentlemen because they came from New Haven and We're of a fam fly made illustrious in both city and coun- try by enterprise, wealth and integrity.
 Verify, in wandering about the military reservation of our colonist fathers one needs to tread with considerable care. There are divers warnings all along it's his tory-cautionary signals-"keep off the grass. 7" tfdo not handle"-lest some unre. unwittingly discover the weak joint in the old Puritans' harness. We rejoice together that no one as yet has had the hardihood to charge that any shadow of vanity, any trace of giddiness, any flavor of worldliness, rests on the saintly escutcheon of our torefathers, but should such an event happen, should it happen, predict it will be found tangled up with their fondness for military titles Nor does it appear in these doys that some of l their descendants are free from the same suspicion. We have no roster of the rank and file l of tha North ri ch Mi1;torx, I, from various sources are enabled to gather list considerably upwards of 8 hundred in number of such as were provided with military rank in the first sixty years of it's existence. Few of these empty honors ap- pear to have been won by service, but were granted by grateful colony to remark ably unselfish generation, unselfish in that promotion once obtained, the recipient gracefully resigned the position Out held the title) that his neighbor might come into the same estate
 | may, surrounding our old military com pany it accomplished the service asked of it and had long and eventful career of one hundred and thirty years, being called upon by the state to give up the ghost in 1S47. It was the nucleus of half score volunteers for the French and Indian war of over one hundred men for the war of the Revolution-and by blood descent most of the eightythree heroes in the war of the Rebellion
 The fourth step in the founding of the parish was the establishing of their bury ing ground. By the conditions of the grant of the Rev. James Pierpont, this was to be laid out within the-plot devised. It was so done by vote of the society in 1720. Previous to this time all interments had been made at New Haven except in the case of the Buddy River settlers. They, it seems, antedated their brethern on the north by score of years or more in this provision. The oldest recorded date in the Upper Yard" is 1723, while on stone in the ''Lower Yard," of the very rudest make is distinctly cut the figures 1700.
 But burials in the Muddy River ground were very few in the early years. It is supposed that even long after the opening of both these places for burial, many of the settlers preferred resting place in New Haven.
 This ancient burying place at North Ha- ven, like so many others in New England, contains locked within it's grim lips of stone so much, so much that we wish we knew.
 Here the 'trude forefathers of the ham, let sleep" Blakeslee, Futile, Thorp, ,Hum- aston, Ives, Crockett, Barnes, Cooper, Jacobs.
 Here rests the Rev. Isaac Stiles, second preacher of the parish.
 Here is Joel Blakeslee, who manumitted the first slave in the parish, 1795. Here ia Jacob Thorpe, killed at the invasion of New Haven, 1779, and others of his con- rades who died that the republic might live. Betsy Stacey is here, the dear sweet faced old schoolmistress, who for almost half century nodded children's minds and to whom more than any one else the town tice of the Peace Samuel Sacket, stern, grand old lawgiver and saint, sleeps quiet ly here.
 Yes, and an almost inrumerable multi tude dwell there too who never had me- morial stone raised to their memory which latter class, I am fain to believe, numbers half of all ever buried there
 The Pierponts, the Mansfelds, the Bish- ops and the Bradleys of the eighteenth in church and state, all descendants of the old colonial stock, and on whom rests no shadow of reproach. And latest and grandest of all, forever hallowing the en- closure that holds his dust, came the saint ly Trumbull, with his sixty years of ser vice and the honors he had won.
 These all "died in the faith" and though their deeds were not national yet l they obediently accomplished the divine l purpose, and that is Gods measure of a man.
 The period has now been reached in which it may be said that in parish build | ing the chief aggressive work has been | done. Communities, like children, are | !mpressionable. Says Livermore in his | Republic of New Haven: 'The city at the | Red Hills has never lost the calm, con- servative habit of Eaton, or the scholastic l zeal of Davenport" Not only was the | North parish benefited by these men, but l in addition North Haven has never lost | the t1 unff.inching steadfastness of Yale or the godliness of Stiles
 Benjamin Trumbull of Hebron, Conn. succeeded the Rev. MT. Stiles in 176O. It | IS not intended to speak of his life. This has been partially presented to you by an abler hand than mine, and the stirring record will be completed in thenear future. Mr. Trumbnll carried forward the colors MT. Stiles dropped. He rounded up and emphasized the work begun. He saw the colony merge into the state, the parish merge into the town. He saw the church strengthened, the grand list increased, the morality of the town raised. He died in 1920 full of years and honors.
 have thus endavored to set before YOU 'ome of the events connected with the ounding of the North Parish
 I am conscious of having added nothing o your already ample fnnd of informa- ion only hope have succeeded, in be- laif of my townspeople, in thus publicly the debt of gratitude we 'we to the old mother colony of New Ha- zen for sending up two centuries ago so 'taunch and God-fearing company of 'ouls to give us birth.
 SHELDON B. THORPE.
 March, 1891.
 FIFTH ANNUAL BANQUET. Sons of St. George and British. |
 American Society. The above named society will hold their