of the Litchfield girls by one of the law students parents were even
more careful as to any attentions paid to their daughters. Sometimes
they even went so far that if a young man called three times on one of
them they would ask his “intentions.” Mr. Lord built a bowling alley on
the west side of the Prospect Hill road for the benefit of the pupils of
both schools.
Miss Pierce used to say to one of the girls, “Mary Goodwin, I see inbred
sin on your back,” and said it so often that on entering the school room
one morning there was a charcoal sketch fastened up on the wall of Miss
Pierce herself with “inbred sin on _her_ back!”
This same Mary Goodwin laughed one day during prayers when Miss Pierce
exclaimed “Mary Goodwin, Mary Goodwin you will be cast into outer
darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth!” To which Mary
replied, “Then I suppose those who have no teeth will have to gum it!”
Miss Pierce’s house was built for six hundred dollars.
Mr. John P. Brace’s father was the writing master and was always called
“Daddy Brace.”
LETTER FROM MRS. ANNA M. RICHARDS.
ORANGE, N. J.
March 18, 1902
I received your letter last evening and hasten to comply with your
request that I should write down some of my “personal memories” of Miss
Mary Pierce. The remembrance of our intercourse with her is so fresh and
so delightful that it is hard for me to realize that it continued less
than three years, and that nearly forty years have passed since that
time. I well remember the charming circles she used to gather round her
tea-table—the repast very simple—a plate of shaved, smoked beef, some
preserves and a basket of cake—but the conversation, a veritable “feast
of reason.” One of her pupils, Mrs. Whiting (the mother of Miss Lizzie
Whiting,) once said to me that she thought Miss Pierce was a marked
instance of the mellowing power of age, for the girls used to be very
much afraid of Miss Mary’s black eyes. She dined with us one
Thanksgiving, her last Thanksgiving day on earth. Her conversation was
most interesting, dealing largely with the past. I wish I had taken it
down at the time. One thing I distinctly recall. At one time she said
her sister, the principal of the school, was so discouraged with their
prospects, that she felt they must probably go elsewhere—but opening her
Bible, the first words that met her eye were, “Trust in the Lord, and do
good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”
This she accepted as a word of promise to them, and a direction to them
to remain in Litchfield. It was Miss Pierce’s custom to close her house
in the Fall for the winter, but at the time of which I speak, she was
staying at home, busily engaged she told me looking over old papers. She
died in New Haven I think the following June. I remember her speaking
once of Dr. Beecher’s preaching, that when he came to Litchfield from
Easthampton, the images in his sermons were drawn largely from the sea,
but that soon the everlasting hills furnished them, and that after he
went to Boston, she heard him talk, almost with a shock, about getting
up steam. As you doubtless know, the lot on which the Parsonage stands
was given to the Society by Miss Pierce. I remember thinking at the time
how hard it must be for her to give up the beautiful clump of trees,
standing upon it almost a little grove, as I picture them, which it was
necessary to cut down. I fear these few reminiscences will be very
unsatisfactory to you, as they certainly are to me, but they seem to be
all which I can recall with sufficient distinctness to justify
repetition. All success to you in your “labor of love,” which, when
completed, will be an enduring monument to some of the noble workers
whose memories the world should “not willingly let die.”
RECOLLECTIONS OF SUSAN SPENCER.
I often heard my mother refer to having been with Sarah Kingsbury, at
the school of Miss Sallie Pierce. I think they boarded with a distant
relative of the Clarks, whom my mother called “Aunt Bull.” (on Prospect
street.) During their stay there Major Kingsbury then a cadet at West
Point, visited them, and created quite a little stir and interest among
the young ladies, partly due to his uniform and military bearing.
I was impressed with the simplicity of the janitor service of those
days. The young ladies, in turn, swept the school room, performing that
duty before breakfast.
FROM LETTER FROM MRS. CAROLINE SEDGWICK KNIGHT.
SHARON, CONN.
March 31^{st}, 1902
... My mother, Betsey Swan, was the eldest child of Cyrus Swan, a lawyer
in Sharon, Conn. who practiced at the Litchfield Bar. She was born Feb.
6^{th} 1807, and I have heard her say that at the age of twelve years
she was placed by her Father in this school. It was her first experience
away from home, and of course she suffered from homesickness. She made
the acquaintance of a day pupil, Henrietta Jones,[71] the daughter of
the Rector. As my mother had left a little baby sister at home it was a
great delight to go to the Rectory and rock the cradle of Henrietta’s
baby brother.
I do not know how long she was a member of the school. She married at
the age of fifteen Charles Sedgwick who was twelve years her senior, a
lawyer in Sharon who died in 1882 and who had been state’s attorney for
Litchfield County about twenty years. My mother died at the age of 87 in
the home in which she was born, married and had given birth to ten
children.
* * * * *
DR. JOSIAH G. BECKWITH—REMINISCENCES.
BEGINNING OF THE WILLARD ACADEMY.
In the winter of 1885 I made a trip to Montreal and returning by the
Vermont Central made the discovery that the winter was a pretty dull
season for business in Vermont, and that the railroad was in no haste to
carry its passengers out of the state! We stopped for breakfast at St.
Albans, and at Burlington were informed that we would have ample time to
take a toboggan slide down the hill on which the town is built, and out
a mile or so on the ice of lake Champlain, where sleighs were in
attendance to return us to the hotel with our lungs well filled with
Vermont oxygen: and at Middlebury which was reached when the short day
was drawing to its close, we were informed that the stop was for the
night. I found accommodations at the Addison House, whose long wind
swept piazzas looked uninviting to the approaching stranger: but the
section kept open for winter guests was comfortable and homelike. I
improved the remaining daylight to make calls on relatives in the branch
of the Seymours settled in that place—at the old Horatio Seymour
homestead I found Mr. Philip Battell who was a brother of our Mr.
Robbins Battell of Norfolk—while a law student at the old Litchfield
School he became engaged to Emma Seymour, who was in Litchfield
attending Miss Pierce’s School—after their marriage they made a part of
Mr. Seymour’s household, who was then a widower and they lived and died
at the homestead in Middlebury.
Mr. Battell was very glad to see a Litchfield representative, and said
that I had struck them at just the right time—that there was to be held
at his house that evening a meeting of the Middlebury Historical Society
to observe the Centennial Anniversary of the Addison County Court—whose
first session was held one hundred years ago, that day, with the Hon.
John Strong as the presiding Justice. Mr. Battell informed me that he
had filled the office of Secretary of the Society since its
organization, and that to warn the meetings and provide the banquet were
among his duties.
[Illustration:
PL. LVI.—THE LITCHFIELD ACADEMY
From original water-color, probably by Mr. Gimbrede, afterwards
engraver in New York
]
I found the members were largely made up of the faculty of Middlebury
College, with a number of professional and business men of the city:
Governor Stewart, Mr. Battell’s son in law, was the presiding officer,
and he insisted in spite of my modest remonstrances upon my taking the
seat of honor at the head of the table, as the living representative of
the presiding Justice of one hundred years ago. The conversation, after
reading the minutes of the Court by Gov. Stewart, was largely taken up
with a discussion of the Strong family. John Strong settled the county
in 1765: he drove up with his wife and three children on the ice of Lake
Champlain from Salisbury, Ct., and took possession of a log cabin, which
he had built the preceding winter, in an abandoned French settlement,
while out on a hunting excursion. For a time bears and wolves were their
only neighbors, but other settlers soon followed, and he lived to see
the wilderness blossom like the rose. When the revolution broke out, Mr.
Strong took the part of the colonists, although the British garrison at
Crown Point had long been good customers and had filled his chests with
British gold: And when Gen. Burgoyne and his Indian Allies approached,
he rode down through the State, and warned the settlers to fly from the
approaching army, and to take their flocks and herds with them—and it
was doubtless due to this timely warning, and sagacious advise, that
Gen. Burgoyne brought his army to Saratoga in an absolutely starving
condition: the country over which he had been obliged to so slowly pass,
had yielded no supplies, and at Saratoga he could do nothing but
surrender.
John Strong expected to return in time to remove his family to a place
of safety, but he was captured by Indian scouts, who bound him for
torture in their usual manner. He told them however that they must
release him, and take him before Gen. Burgoyne, for whom he bore a
message—the Indians were impressed by his coolness and imposing
presence, and complied with his request; when brought to Gen. Burgoyne
he asked for his parole—which was granted until the “Army returned.”
“But suppose General that the Army does not return”—“In that event;”
replied General Burgoyne, “you are released.” Had he known what
especially good work Strong had done that the Army should not return, he
might have returned him to the care of the Indians. Mr. Strong hastened
to his home, which he found had been burned by the Indians—he raked the
ashes for the bones of his family, and not finding them, concluded that
they had escaped to the South, and looked for them in Salisbury, Ct.;
they had found refuge in Dorset, Vt. where they remained until the close
of the war. Mabel, my Grandmother, was born there in 1782.
John Strong was born in Coventry this State and was the fourth in
descent from Elder John Strong of Dorchester, Mass. He married Agnes,
the daughter of John M^cCan a refugee from the Scotch rebellion of 1715:
he was a wealthy landowner and received income from property which he
had deeded to a friend to avoid confiscation, as long as he lived—but
after his decease the remittances stopped—his only other child John, was
killed in a naval engagement. In 1797 Mabel Strong, Lucy Case and a Miss
Dwight, all of Addison, Vt., made a start for Litchfield, Ct., to attend
Miss Pierce’s School—They made the journey to Bennington on horseback,
and from thence the Rev. Mr. Dwight drove them to Litchfield—the latter
part of the journey was made in a wagon.
Mabel Strong made her home during the years of her stay in Litchfield,
with Mrs. Brace, a sister of Miss Pierce, and the mother of John P.
Brace—her wardrobe was made up after her arrival. The Brace house stood
on the site now occupied by the Congregational parsonage—it was painted
red when I remember it, and had a long roof on the rear reaching nearly
to the first story. Many of Miss Pierce’s young ladies found their
future husbands in Litchfield: Lucy Case, married Horatio Seymour, who
had removed from Litchfield, and was a practicing lawyer in Middlebury,
Vt., afterwards U. S. Senator from that state.
He was very much interested in having a school for young ladies
established in Middlebury similar to that of Miss Pierce’s of
Litchfield—My grandfather Moses Seymour Jr. drove from Litchfield, with
a sleigh and pair of horses in Feb. 1800, to bring home Mabel Strong as
his bride; Miss Pierce and Idea, daughter of Hon. Jedediah Strong, whose
house stood where the M^cNeils[72] now live, and whose name, then as
now, was graven on the white mile stone, accompanied him as far
Middlebury; where a School was established for Miss Strong, and
countenanced and encouraged by the presence of Miss Pierce. This School
had an existence for several years; Miss Strong fell a victim to the
rigors of the Vermont climate, and was succeeded by Miss Emma Willard,
who eventually removed it to Troy, N. Y. Miss Pierce returned with the
wedding party.
General Samuel Strong was a brother of Mabel and was a frequent visitor
at Litchfield: he commanded a military force at the battle of
Plattsburgh, which he raised by his individual exertions—and was thanked
for his services by the Legislatures of the states of Vermont and New
York.
He also received from the state of New York a sword of honor, which is
now in possession of the Vermont Historical Society.
The General was wounded at the battle, and feared consumption. He
visited Litchfield on his way to the South, to spend the winter, and
called in Dr. Sheldon for advice. The Doctor told him to spend all the
time on horseback, that the weather would permit—The advice was
followed, and the General lived to be old. This Doctor was wise beyond
his generation.
In 1817 the General had a coach built by Ambrose Norton, whose wagon
shop stood on the ground now occupied by the Echo Farm creamery: All the
material were produced in Litchfield, and the work was also done
here—separate bills were rendered for wood work, ironing, leather,
broadcloth, silver plating &c. with hours of labor on each, and the
aggregate was $350. I found these bills among my grandfather’s old
papers and consider them worth preserving as evidence of the industries
which made the old Litchfield a thriving and important town. We can no
longer produce iron, silver plating, leather and broadcloth, nor do we
build coaches for the magnates of Vermont.
Moses Seymour Jr., and his bride commenced housekeeping in what was then
known as the Skinner house, now occupied by the Bissells next the United
States Hotel; they afterwards removed to the Marsh house on the corner,
where the Library building stands, where they remained until 1817, when
the house which I now occupy, was completed for my grandfather and they
took possession of it in that year. Moses Seymour Jr. was for many years
high Sheriff of the County. The office was at that time in the hands of
the Governor of the State—Mr. Seymour was appointed by Governor Oliver
Wolcott; he died in 1826. Mrs. Mabel Seymour survived him until 1839—she
died at Litchfield—Mrs. Mabel Seymour had three daughters who were
graduated from Miss Pierce’s Academy—Louisa married Mr. Stanly Lockwood
of Painsville Ohio, where she lived, and where she died in 1878, leaving
surviving children, John Seymour Lockwood, and Mrs. Louisa Malin, both
living in that city. Delia Storrs Seymour was a teacher, and died in
Litchfield in 1887: she was unmarried.
Jane Seymour married Dr. Josiah G. Beckwith who was for forty years in
active practice in this town; she lived, until her death, which occurred
in 1868, in her father’s homestead; she left surviving issue, Dr. J. G.
Beckwith of this town, Dr. George S. Beckwith of Pine Plains, New York,
and two daughters, unmarried, Elizabeth Gale and Sarah Hunt. Dr. George
S. Beckwith and Elizabeth G. Beckwith are deceased. I have the diplomas
of Delia S. Seymour and Jane Seymour—They are printed on small pieces of
silk, and give the studies in which the graduate had been instructed:
each bears the name of the graduate; but they are neither dated nor
signed.
FROM A LETTER FROM MISS SARAH D. GARDINER.
Both my grandmothers were pupils of Miss Pierce.
Sarah D. Gardiner and her sister Mary B. were the daughters of John Lyon
Gardiner of Gardiner’s Island. The former became the wife of David
Thompson, Esq., of New York, and the latter on leaving Miss Pierce’s
went to Miss Willard’s school[73] in Troy, N. Y., and at the early age
of twenty-three, died in Columbia, South Carolina, where she had gone in
search of health.
Mrs. Thompson often spoke of Miss Pierce and Mr. Brace. She was very
young when she entered the school and must have been quite homesick at
first. After she had been there sometime she was one day surprised to
find her room mate engaged in making the bed, and on learning that the
pupils were expected to keep their rooms in order exclaimed: “Why didn’t
you tell me?” “Because,” replied her kind-hearted companion, who was an
older girl, “I knew that you were not accustomed to it!”
She must have boarded later at Dr. Sheldon’s, for she spoke of learning
her lessons with Miss Julia Gould, and in the darkening twilight
returning across the street to Dr. Sheldon’s (or Miss Lucy Sheldon’s?)
while the good Judge, standing in his doorway watched the little figure
safely over. Juliana MacLachlan, my father’s mother, had been a pupil in
the school at an earlier date. She was a beautiful girl and a belle with
the law students. When but fifteen years old she married David Gardiner
of East Hampton, Long Island.
REMINISCENCES OF MRS. A. S. FARNAM.
[Illustration:
PL. LVII.—LITCHFIELD COSTUME OF ABOUT 1827
Black crape bonnet made for his widow to wear at the funeral of Mr.
Cheney
]
I went to Litchfield in the Spring of 1830. Mr. Brace was at the head of
the school, but Miss Pierce came into the school every morning and
taught the class in Universal History which was a book of her own
compiling, and she used often to give the girls talks.... I think of her
as a little old lady active and bright; somehow I have a more distinct
recollection of her half-brother and sister who lived with her; I think
Miss Mary kept the house; I don’t remember any assistant teachers at
all; I do remember three or four boys who attended the school because
there was no boys’ school in town; one was Willie Jones, the son of
Parson Jones as he was called; another was son of Dr. Buel on North
Street, the same who had the sanitarium at a later day; another was
George Seymour, a nephew of Origen Seymour; I think his father was dead;
there was a young lad by the name of Hull that I did not know as well; a
sister of young Buel’s mother, Miss Wadhams from Goshen, was in school
for quite a time; Hannah Beach also was from Goshen; her father married
Miss Lucy Sheldon.... I think most of the families took a few boarders;
there were four sisters named Rankin from Newark. It seems strange, but
I cannot recall the names of the girls who boarded at Mrs. Lord’s with
me excepting a Miss Clark; we all occupied the rooms in the third story,
the best rooms of the house were rented to young gentlemen who were law
students.... There were two or three girls who boarded at the Parmalees’
on South Street; one was a Miss Larned from Maryland; another was from
New London....
REMINISCENCES OF MISS ESTHER H. THOMPSON.
LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT,
December 12, 1896.
Aunt Anna Thompson used to mention with much amusement the feuds between
Miss Pierce’s scholars and the farmers’ daughters—more especially that
peculiar class of young American girls who were “living out”—the
“help”—in village families. It would never have answered to call them
_servants_, nor were they such in the modern sense! These girls, usually
the most ambitious of their family, made more independent by self
support, gaining influence in proportion to the polish acquired by
intercourse with village people, easily dominated all of their set, and
together were a strong band. The school girls were supercilious, the
help aggressively arrogant—and both classes equally proud and
uncompromising. Many a battle was fought on Sunday as well as on week
day. All around the gallery walls of the old church on the green was a
row of square pews fenced in with the conventional high lattice work,
while in front were two rows of benches. Many of the young people of the
congregation chose to sit there where they were more free from the
restraining presence of their seniors. Sometimes one part of the gallery
would be considered the special choice, sometimes another, but “_out
girls_” and _school girls_ would never freely mingle! When one pew was
monopolized by school girls for a noticeable length of time the “out
girls” would come early some Sunday and “pack” the seats. Then would
follow pin pricking, pinching and punching through the lattice—and the
incensed school girls would bide their time to preempt the “out girls’”
places.
The worst possible indignity that the school girls could heap
upon the “help” was to give them the stinging epithet of
“_Potwrastlers_”—probably meaning _dish-washers_!!
Aunt Anna could judge of these stormy scenes from neutral ground as she
belonged to neither faction. She said that the class spirit mentioned in
“Poganuc People” was specially well depicted.
“Nabby” of “Poganuc People” was for a long time the “help” in Miss
Pierce’s family, so I think the old scholars would remember her—the
“Aunt” Emily Addis who lived and died in the little house at the foot of
Gallows Hill. When her mother died leaving to her care her little sister
Mary—afterwards Mrs. Churchill—Miss Pierce kindly let her bring the
child with her to her house—I think taking her into the school. “Nabby”
is a composite character being in part Emily Addis and in part an older
sister who married Hiram Barnes,—the “Hiel Jones” of the story—and left
town.
Dinah Atwell, a strange half-crazed character, may be remembered by the
old scholars. She spent her time between the Pierce family here and
another Pierce sister in Rhinebeck. Memories of her are centered in the
old church on the green where she reigned a selfappointed
tithing-mistress watching the children from her seat high up on the
pulpit stairs.
Mr. Norton told me that the Central Park was the thought of Miss Mary
Pierce. She contributed money to have it graded and fenced.
It would seem to me that no tribute to Miss Pierce and her school could
be complete without a mention of her “_door-yard_” with its odd
assortment of flowers. The many wild plants scattered here and there,
Mr. Norton told me were transplanted by the pupils,—perhaps while
studying Botany. There were Solomon’s Seal, White Baneberry with its
creamy flowers in early summer followed in autumn by a stiff cluster of
oval white berries with black dots on thickened ink stems, the wandlike
wreathy stem of Carrion Flower with its greenish blossoms and dark
slate-colored berries, Trilliums of more than one species, Violets,
Anemones, Bloodroot, Celandine, Adder tongues and two-leafed Solomon’s
Seal and others. I have often tried to think how the flower beds were
originally laid out. There must have been one following the front
fence—all well kept yards had that—possibly one by the north yard fence
and another following the circular walks to the front door. But all
traces are now obliterated! I can’t quite feel that these woodsy plants
that had so long outlived the young girls who planted them _belonged_ to
the _present_ generation to uproot and destroy. I miss them and always
shall whenever I pass the place. There certainly could have been no
sweeter “keep sake” left by the scholars to the town than these flowers.
The girls may not have had far to carry the roots for the woods were
nearer the village then than now. Mr. Norton told me that when Miss
Sarah and Miss Mary Pierce were little children they were sent across
the street to Parson Champion’s and _lost their way in the bushes_ and
men were called out to find them! At that time the road was near the
west side walk and the rest of the street was a tangle of bushes.