The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-24
THE OLDEST IN THE STATE.
In tho Connecticut Vaiiey-Hev. M
 Huits Memorial Stone at Windsor, Ct.

 Tn tho Connecticut vaiIey-Rev. MT.
 Huits Memorial Stone at Windsor, Ct.
 c. l.. s. writes from Astoria, N. Y, to the Springfield, Mass, Republican as follows:
 During a recent joureney southward I passed two hours of pleasant after noon in Windsor, Ct Leaving the rail- wayway station I directed my step towards the old burying-ground which rising high above the curving rivulet, had attracted my attention on the train Approaching an old fashioned meeting house which guards this hallowed ground I entered the church yard and wandered among the stones which mark the graves of the earliest settlers. Forming a part of one of these ancient tombs Is @ slab of red sandstone, which Is said to be "the oldest original monu- ment in the Connecticut valley" This famous slab found still bearing the following quaint lnScription'
 Heere Lyeth Ephraim
 Huit sometimes Teacher
 to ye church of Windsor
 who dyed Sept 4th, 1644. who when hee Lived
 We drew our vitall Breath Who when hee Dyed
 his dying was our death
 Who was ye stay of State ye Churches stair,
 Alas, the times Forbid an Epitaph. The reader will doubtless inquire what was the character of the man whom our stern Puritan ancestors so deeply lamented. A few facts gleaned from the history of Windsor will show that their praise was not undeserved. One of the Puritan ministers who suffered persecution in the reign of Charles l., says the historian, was the Rev. Ephraim Huit, of Wroxhall, in Warwickshire. Refusing to make the changes in ritual demanded by Arch bishop Land, he was persecuted for non-comformity by the bishop or Worcester, who declared that he would either reform or punish the recusant clergyman. Determined not to suffer either of the threatened alternatives, MT. Huit escaped out of the jurisdic- tion of the hostile bishop, and came to New England. The exile brought with him his nephew, Daniel Clarke, from whom American Clarkes are proud to claim descent. The two kinsmen ap- pear to have reached Windsor in the summer of 1639; for in August of that year the uncle preached his first ser mon there on the text, And yet show unto you more excellent way In the exposition of this text MT. Huit, no doubt, displayed unusual knowledge or engineering, for the men of Windsor immediately asked him to superintend the building of a. bridge across the Rivulet. He was engaged in this work when the famous ministers of Hart ford, Stone and Hooker, came to pay him their first visit. Finding that the busy bridge-builder could give them but little attention, these guests soon went away, concealing their d1sap- pointment under an attempt at pleas antry:s "Ephraim," said one of them, lis joined tof his idols: let him alone" " One cannot help wondering what would have been the effect on the bystander who recorded this saying as a. remark able jest of a perusal of the works of two present ,humorists of Hartford, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley War ner. Distinguished both for ability and for piety, MT. Huit appears to have en- joyed great popularity during his brief pastorate Our sermon-loving ances- tors must have been delighted with his discourses, which combined excellen- cies rarely discovered, even in this boasted age of progress by church-fre- ouenting sons of tue Puritans The gc d people of Windsor, we may be sure, all kept wide awake while, as the historian tells us, "Huit had his ar guings strong and bright"
 Not far from MT. Huit's grave l. saw the wolcott monuments and other stones equally interesting to the anti ouary. My visit, however, was too brief for careful examination of them all, and reluctantly turned away from this burial-place so beautiful in situa- tion and so rich in historic associa- tions. V. L. D. Astoria, N. Y, Oct. 15.