New Britain herald., 1916-01-27
CLUB OBSERVES NEW BRITAIN NIGHT;
 SPLENDID PAPERS DEALING WITH HISTORY OF CITY; n MEETING AT Y. M. A. IS LARGELY ATTEND


 them distributed at their discretion to ! those who are incapacitated, to pro- l cure a necessary subsistence, etc. l It seems at this distance of time like audacity or childs play, but l Pennington in those days was a power l 70 reckon with, either as an ally or 1 an enemy It was the most populous l town in the county and about this | period owned to seven hundred in- | habitants over our capitol city, her street became the center of military l operations and after the defeat Of 1 Burgoyne, a considerable portion Of the captured artillery was brought to 1 Farmin gton for safe keeping, where | it remained until needed by the American army. Prisoners of war were sent there to rusticate We can hardly call even an enforced resi- dence in beautiful Pennington by a | harsher name.
 Dr. Smalley, the pastor of the l church in the parish of New Britain was at the beginning of the war loyal 1 to king and parliament. Though well-night infallible concerning doc , Urine, eighteen years of his preaching 1 had not sufficed to turn his people from devotion to liberty, and an incl dent shows a clash between Puritan | and rOyaliSt One Sunday during ! service a messenger arrived with the 1 news that two British ships of war ! had appeared off New London. Cap ! tain Cad Stanley hardly waited for the i benediction before he was giving notice right and left to his men to meet next ] morning on the parade ground, 8 , small patch of reclaimed forest before the church. As pr. Smalley stepped I< frnn hn n1n along the"broad aisle" a term not de- scriptive, he exclaimed to the excited
 group of people about the door:
 What! Will you fight your king?'' One bolder than the rest not stopping 1 10 choose his words, or to remember that he stood before the chosen ser want of the Most High, replied with 8 thrust of his arm: "Yes and l would shoot him as though he were | black snaSe.' These careless words of stripling well nigh produced tempest, but Colonel Isaac Lee, with prudence and sagacity" quelled the rising storm.
 Captain, afterward Colonel Cad | Stanley, proceeded with his military i company to the seat of war and the manner of his going was after this ] cY shion.
 | During the past week the copy oI a letter has been placed in my hands by a descendant of Cad Stanley and a part of it I will read you It is dated Litchfield, Sept. 23, l7T1 and is addressed to Cad Stanley Esq, and major commanding officer of 18th Regiment of Ye Militia of State of Connecticut. Sir: When mer- i ciless foe in connection with savages, ] are spreading devastation and hor- ! TOT over the community, once the seat | of grace and happiness but now 1 suffering all the cruelty which an ex- ] asperated tyranny can inf1ict, little 1 need be said to cause the virtuous 1 and the brave and vindicate by the most strenuous exertions, the rights i of humanity and eXpel brutal enemy whose conduct has been distinguished only by extortiony rapene and mur- der thereforo''-the follows direc- tons to arm volunteers from Stan ley's 18th Regiment and provision | them for the march to Albany, where they would join the regular army. This tattered and yellow letter was signed by no less a parsonage than 1 Oliver Walcott, Brig. General.
 We know that the young man ! made good for we read that he was
 
 at Washington's retreat is said to 1 have led a regiment safely past the i British forces.' He was said to 1 have been a man of few words and 1 while at the front receiving word of l the birth of son sent back only this: If he should prove a likely lad it might be well to call him Gad.' When he returned home at the close of his term of service he rode up to the door and beating together, the holsters of his saddle bag announced to his surprised family his arrival.
 During the second period of the Revolution from 1776-177S, when the main operations were in the north," according to our historian, "a large number proportionally of the citizens of New Britain and Berlin were in the army; and at White Plains, on the Hudson, in Connecticut New York, New Jersey and elsewhere fought to secure the Independence of | the nation
 Col. Selah Hart of Kensington was [ appointed by the General Court one 1 of a committee to provide stores of l lead for the use of the colony and in l '76 was in command of a regiment i at New York where he was captured ! by the British and held two years l a prisoner. He was afterward ap- l pointed to the command of a brigade 1 and held this position until the close ! of the war" Then was Major Jon- | athan Hart also of Kensington final i ly slain by the Indians in General 1 St 'Clairs defeat in 1791.
 Nathanial Churchill and Benjamin Wright of New Britain were both 1 D
 Dr. Josiah Hart was an army sur geon. William Steele and Elias Brown were fifers, the latter a fife ior coma he1opooJ to 1t-LA