The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-18
"CHRONICLES OF NEW HAVEN
 GREEN.v

Henry T, Blakes "Chronicles of New Haven Green" from 16SS to 1862,
 It is fortunate for New Haven that its entire municipal history, from the day that the feet of white men first trod its soil iu pursuit of flying Pe- quods to the present hour, is to be found either in it's official records, in local histories, in maps and pictorial representations, in traditional stories and in the newspaper press. These materials for a coherent local history, ample though they are, are widely scattered and require laborious re- search before a connected story can be told. This record of the New Haven green under its modest title of "Chron- icles" consists of eight papers read during the last four years by MT Blake before the society of which he is the accomplished secretary. "
 Should an intelligent stranger view ing the green from the steps of the New Haven house or the Tuntine express his wonder that beautifully kept lawn of some eighteen acres, whose softly undulating expanse is only broken by three ecclesiastical structures, several concreted paths, ore solitary tomb- stone, and the town pump, could furn- ish material for an octave volume of some three hundred pages his wonder would be dissipated when he learned from MT. Blalle's researches what a story these acres tell.
 The fathers of the New Haven plan two h,,p dred and sixty years ago partly a morass and partly a field overgrown with scrub oaks. Early in it's history it became a market place, church yard, and a field for military drill. On it's rugged surface a church, a court house, a school house and jail were soon erected. The whipping post and the stocks were mot forgotten.
 In following MT. Blake's graphic mar rations it requires no very vivid imag- ination to picture to ones self the solemn burial service over Governor Eaton and his associates in the earlier days of the town, or over Roger Sher- man and his compatriots in later times as they were laid to their rest in the commorI burial place of the town for nearly two generations, nor to clothe with present reality Benedict Arnold drilling his company on the green, or Talleyrand lounging on it's grass. or Kossuth describing from the state house steps the atrocities of Austrian rule.
 The story of the green is the story of colonial and state legislation, of judi cial decisions, of ecclesiastical service, of public school instruction, of mili- tary organizations, and of civic dis plays of every kind. What MT. Blake here presents as his personal contribu- tion toward better knowledge of our local history is second in value only to the service he is rendering as member of the Park commission. The steps preparatory to the action of the gen. eral assembly in authorizing such commission were taken by him. From the first he has been one of it's most efficient members, and is now it's presi- dent, yet it may be doubted whether any of our public officials are less ap- preciated than those who are devotinS so much thought and time to these parks, which when completed and viewed from seaside or from mountain cliffs. will do much in fostering a prop CT civic pride and an unselfish public spirit