The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-13

until called to seat Tn the council or
 the Governor, and the next year there
 after, at the age of 32. he was elected to
 the second Congress of the United States.
 | He was reelected to the 9rd and 4th Congress; then chosen to complete the
 unexpired term of Oliver Ellsworth,
 who had resigned his seat in the Senate for the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was returned to the Senate for the End, 3rd and 4th time, making continuous ser
 vice of nearly 20 years in Congress.
 Upon the election of Thomas Jefferson
 as president, he was chosen as presid- ing officer of Congress.
 In Congress he was called the. "Sa- chem" from his strong Indian complex ion and features, and his favorite toast was: Let us bury the hatchet," and
 he was jokingly accused of always hav ing a hatchet concealed under his pa pers. From this title of "Sachem' was derived the name of Sachem street and
 Sachem's words, which cross and fin ish that beautiful avenue, CHillhouse ! avenue), the pride of our city, crowned with the dignified Hillhouse mansion on
 the elevation, (where the latter days of
 Hillhouse were spenD, and at the foot
 of which stands our masterpiece of sim
 pie and refined art, the New Haven
 Historical Society edifice, so appropri-
 ately set on the site of the old Robert
 Newman Barn, where was held the first
 formal and official gathering of the
 members of the Davenport Eaton col-' nd x,I, fha f,,r do, to1
 ment was discussed, adopted and signed
 in November, 163S This avenue was
 laid out by Hillhouse in 1792, 105 feet
 wide through the Hillhouse farm; af-
 forwards it became lined on either side by the homes of wealth and learning of
 this collegiate city; and with its ma jestic elms and tree-arched aisles of worldwide fame. No one contributed more than James Hillhouse to making thls, a City of Films, and he originated the idea and devoted of his life to bringing small trees from off his farm between this city and Meriden, and planting them in rows along our streets, setting out many of the trees with his own hands, assisted by boy who held the trees, or drove the stakes, while Hillhouse shoveled in the dirt. That boy afterwards lent additional lustre to the name of Yale College and the City of Elms;;" he became Yale's president, Jeremiah Day.
 Hillhouse's first efforts in this direc- ton, it is said, were directed to Temple street, and when Senator Wade Hamp- ton of South Carolina visited New Ha- ven, arriving before he was anticipated he found Senator Hillhouse working the road with well trained oxen. Hamp- ton was much interested in the work that was in process and spoke to the negro Tom, who was driving the oxen, | remarking: "See, Tom, how those oxen | work They know more than you do." "Oh, Mas'r," said the negro in reply, | Dem oxen has had Yankee bringin' | up."
 His endeavobs in planting the trees were discouraged by his neighbors and | ridicued. as philanthropic efforts of l good citizens are, and frequently have | been, ane man remarking to him: | "Hillhouse, you will never live long | enough to see those trees amount to l anything. His reply was: If I don't | some one else will" This was char | act eristic of his whole life: He lived | for others"
 He had q voice in getting names to | the new streets laid out after the defin- ing of the original nine squares. It was | always regret with him that he did | not insist in carrying the streets through to Mill river.
 Through his efforts and under his di- ! t,s a,,,{o point Edwards, the public square, or New Haven Green, was leveled and en- closed with a fence at cost of two | thousand dollars. which was paid for by | private subscription and without ex- pense to the city; and the fence, al- though of wood remained for the first half of the nineteenth century, and then was sold to the town of Milford to be utilized around their square. The pres ent fence was erected in 1S46 to take it's place.
 The inviting and encouraging of strangers to locate at New Haven was not overlooked; this endeavor corres- bonded to the work now undertaken by the committee on new enterprises of the New Haven chamber of commerce, though the work to-day is somewhat wider in it's scope. As far back as 17S4, after the charter of the ,ity was secured at a city meeting held in the state house. Hillhouse was appointed chairman of a committee on hospitality "To welcome and assist all strangers coming to reside in New Ha- yen, and cultivate their acquaintance, 50 that their residence may be rendered IS agreeable and eligible as possible" A few years later he advocated the of graves from the back of Center church, and the purchase of the ract on Grove street for a cemetery, TO be laid out in family lots with arger and better arrangement for the of families; and by it's 'etired situation calculated to impress he mind with the solemnty becoming he repository of the dead" Previous o this time it had been the custom to )ury the dead in the rear of the church l IT the church-yard. Mainly through lis efforts he interested thirty others md purchased the plot on Grove street md established the Grove street cem- tery, the wisrom and judgment of | which work is recognized and appreci- ted by a grateful community to-day. l This is said to have been the first pub