Putnam patriot., 1920-08-20

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and deer, and by digging under the
snow for acorns and along the river
banks for ground nuts. 1t was long,
sad winter, but when the warm days
of spring finally appeared hope and
courage returned to the hearts of
these lonely settlers. Their friends
who had returned to Massachusetts
during the winter came to join them
again and they were followed by 9TH
ers from Dorchester, Newtown Cam
bridge). and WATERFOWL. So many
new settlers came to Windsor. Hart
ford and Wethersfeld during the sum-
mer that this year 1880 was called
the year of the Great Migration.
The Reverend John Warham and
his congregation came from Dorches-
sor 1t was common custom among
these early settlers for a church con-
gregation to move and settle in a
body In the warm days of June,
Thomas Hooker and his assistant,
Samuel Stone, started out from Cam
bridge with their congregation of one
hundred men, women and children.
Before them was journey of hun
dled miles and they must find their
way by the aid of a compass, cutting a
path through the woods and building
bridges over the streams as they went.
Their herd of one hundred and sixty
cows supplied them with milk, while
berries picked by the way added va
riety to their food. At night they
| found shelter in their tents and wa
CONS. Mrs. Hooker, the wife of the
pastor, was i'll during the entire jour
ney and had to be carried on horse
/ litter.
/ How their hearts throbbed with JOY
when at last they reached the east
bank of the Connecticut opposite
Hartford
They saw before them the beautiful
midst of the loneliness of June, the
log huts OF their friends who We're
waiting to receive them. A raf1 was
soon provided and they crossed over
to their new home.
About forty-hve miles below Hart
ford at the mouth Of the Connecticut
River another settlement was made
during the same year. This settle
ment was called Saybrook.
How did it come TO receive such a
name?
When the English began making
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necticut thu King of England SAID that
he owned all the land along the At
lantic coast for many hundreds of
miles because John Cabot discovered
it in 1897 while sailing in an English
ship. The king gradually assumed au-
fhority for selling and deciding this
land TO companies Of men who wished
to come and make settlements In
TINS way Kink Charles ! decided Con
neetieut to the Earl Of Warwick IN
1881 The Earl of Warwick then
gave a deed to Lord Say, Lord Brook,
and several other Englishmen- These
men decided to make a Sc ttlement and
it was named Saybrook in honor of
their readers.
John Winthrop, son of the Gov
ernor of Massachusetts, accompanied
them as governor In Boston he
learned that the Dutch were preparing
! to make settlement at the very place
where he had planned to build fort,
and as quickly as possible he sent a
ship with twenty men to the mouth of
the Connecticut. By the first of De
cember they had selected site for a
settlement and placed their cannon
where they could defend it. They
were none too quick, for Dutch ship
was soon discovered entering the riv-
err. For time it looked as if there
would be a fight, but the Dutch be-
came frightened and sailed away and
the English had no more trouble with
them A few days afterward Gov
ernor Winthrop himself arrived and
with him an engineer named Lyon
Gardner who was 10 have charge OF
the building of fort and the laying
out of a large city to accommodate
hundreds of people from England IN
Guiding many men of quality who
were expected 10 come either the next
Year or in the years to follow They
built fort, and established small
settlement but only a few Of the men
expected from England ever came.
Accordingly the great city was never
built.
The next location selected for a set
clement was New Haven. Here an
ether pastor and his Congregation
we're the settlers They came from
England. where most Of them had
been men Of wealth. John Davenport
was the pastor of this company and
4 Theophilus Eaton its most influential
member.
In the summer Of 1887 the ship
Hector brought this new company
from London to Boston. On account
of their wealth and good character the
Boston people wished them to remain
and settle in Massachusetts,. but there
was no location near Boston that suit