The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-07-02
WALLINGFoRD REMINTsCENCEs.
At the Old Home Again--Judge Choate's
 Silver Wedding Anniversary.

Silver Wedding Anniversary. Modern craft has so changed this an- cient town that few of the once familiar names are associated with homesteads of earlier times. A sign long bearing the name Washington House" marked the site of the old home of Captain Jer- emfah Darlington. where Washington was entertained on his visit to New England after the Revolutionary war.
 The writer of this sketch remembers when "Old Cato,'' the last slave in Con- necticut, used to drive his donkey cart from the John Barker house at Pond Hill to play the fiddle for young and old at the assembly room of the celebrated tavern of colonial times. The few old houses that remain have been readjust- ed to modern conditions, where furnace, steam, gas, hydrant and similar inven- tions have displaced the well-sweeps, fireplaces, dipped candles, foot stoves, warming pans and other domestic con- trivances of their day.
 At the corner of Elm and Christian streets was once the house and store of x SetPNrtAl1 sNIlCp <ACWdlGi, WIlO UlGu III 1S3l at the age of ninety-one With his son Joshua he planned the street now known as Elm street, and had trees hauled from Cheshire, twenty-three to a load, which make that street so beau tiful. He was also "a pioneer in the set clement of New Connecticut" as the "Western Reserve" in Ohio was once designated, and several fiourlshing towns still perpetuate the name of the family and it's branches.
 One great-granddaugh the widow of Rev. Edwin R. Gilbert, still occupies the house, upon one of the corners in which he died, and Judge William G. Cheate of New York, who married an- other at-granddaughter of Captain Atwater, Mary daughter of the late Ga leb Atwater, occupies the old family homestead itself
 Seventy years ago. when Dr. John Andrews, who also married a daughter of Captain Atwater, occupied the house afterwards known as the Curtis prop erty, it was not unusual for Thanks giving reunion to entertain fully three score guests. Even now the old store, which had patrons from Cheshire, Mer- iden, Durham and Northford, retains it's gable roof, modified by modern ideas. Of the twelve children of MT. Joshua Atwater, MT. John AtWater alone resides in Wallingford near to the ancestral home. The fourth and fifth generations are now representatives of the old stock.
 On Saturday evening last was cele- brated the silver wedding anniversary of Judge Choate and wife. It is seldom that such an event, even in New Eng land, commentaries a continuous oc- cupation of an old home so far back into colonial times.
 Hon. Joseph H. Choate, brother of Judge Choate, and other family friends were among the invited guests, as well as the four groomsmen and the four bridesmaids who officiated twenty-five years ago.
 The old home, somewhat modified il both external and interior adjustments, stills retains an elaborately wainscotted parlor, a spacious fireplace, an ancient clock and such curious relics of spin ming and other ancient domestic indus tries as keep old associa tions alive and perpetuate their history. All these, so suggestive in their character, added gest to the occasion and pleasantly blended the socia iities of the hour with precious memories of the long. long ago.
 HENRY B. HARRINGTON.
 'Wallingford, Conn.,, July l.