Norwich bulletin., 1917-04-14

Ff- f lWri.ten Specially for The Bulletin.) The old town of Norwich has weathered war four times during It's existence so has learned to stand up against shocks and trials and hard ships and surprises, just as 1t IS do- l ing today, when the nation is entering the most tremendous and momentous of all wars.
 Tradition tells As that, on the Sun day in June which succeeded the Bat had assembled in the ancient meeting house at Norwich Town and had heard a sermon in which the pastor mingIing it with the exercise of reli-, zion, and justified resistance to ops pression by arguments from scrip ture."
 Scarcely was the sermon finished
 when loud shout was heard upon
 the plain, the tramphng of a hurry
 ing horse. an outcry of alarm, which
 brought the church audience to their
 bell is rung violently. several persons rush into the body of the edifce, and amid the confusion nothing can be taken place on Bunker Hill! The British are beat. Hurrah! Hurraai"
 The meeting is broken up amid noisy shouts of ."Huzza for Boston, Huzza for Libertyt" 7 
 The audience rus1es out upon the plain, gathering round the panting coulter. His dispatches are read aloud; rejoicing and Indignation; pa triotism and military fire, hatred of the tyrrany of the oppressor, and de- fance of British power take the place of the quiet, devotional sentiments with which the people had assembled such a short time earlier.
 That night bells were rung. cannon fired, bonfires blazed from every nil1 about the town, and the Tree of Lib erty was decked with patriotic devices. Enlistments, too, were begun, arms were furnished. addresses of stirring quality made. and tories came in for scorn and insult.
 For, as might be expected, there were some among She gathering who did not cordially syTnpathize with the patriotic proceedings consequently were hotly stigma tized as tories and grumbletonians. The brothers Rob ertson, who were printers of the Nor wict Packet, were of this number, it is recorded. Miss Caulkins says: We may join with them Mir. Thomas Lemngwell and MT. Benjamin Butler, both men of talent and respectabiIity during the whole contest. They were exposed of course to many insults. pubic and private. were prosecutedy threatened with the skim
 
 pressed
 MT. Butler was arrested and inn prisoned in 1766, on charge of de flaming the honorable Continental Congress" His trial came on before the superior court at New London and the fact being proved, he was pfohib- | ted from wearing arms and declared incapable of holding office.
 Mir Butler regarded his sentence If strong sense and original humor and his company was much sought on that ac- count. He died, in 17S7, after lin- serlng disease. A few years before, while in good health. he had selected ! sapling, to have his coffin made of 1t when it should have grown large but finding that it increascc i too slowly. he had the coffin con 1 ! long time this affecting niemento of | he end of his earthly career carefully | md safely put away in his bed cham
 As he pined away lie would ire 1 Iuently put his hands upon his knees 1 md say, See how the mallets grow!"
 He is sleeping in the ancient Nor sieh burying ground, his two daugh- | CTS, Rosamund and Minerva, by bis idle. Alas, poor human naturet" is he expressive. note engraved by his wn direction upon his head stone. 1
 Although MT. Butler appeared to | lave no taste for fighting for Colonial liberty, this did not descend to l-s hidren or grandchildren. His daugh- ! CT, Minerva, married Commodore 1 ohm Rodgers. She was born in Nor Tich in 1IS4. Her son was the brave Commodore John Rodgers, U. $. N. 1.
 Col. EIeazer Fitch, whose home was n Lebanon, but who was intimately onnected socially and in the way of usiness with Norwich, was also ! oted loyalist. He had served in the 'rench war under British officers, and Ias devotedly attached to the kings ervice. He therefore resisted the up- lsing in favor of liberty. going into Xile and ultimately settling in St. ohn's, New Brunswick. The wives of our prominent citizens of Norwich. ! ,benezer Backus, Erastus Backus, 'benezer Whiting and Hezekiah Per ins, were his daughters.
 A little later in the same season, [ ,orwich Green witnessed another ex-