Coming out of New York on the northern shore of Long Island Sound, the
land is found to be profusely sprinkled with outcropping rocks, a
development so universal that to one place the Indians gave the name
of Mamaroneck, meaning "the place of rolling-stones." These rocks are
gathered into piles for fences, which cross the surface in all
directions, and it requires serious effort to till the stony land.
About twenty-five miles from New York is the Byram River, the
Connecticut boundary, the old saying being that New England stretches
"from Quoddy Head to Byram River." This original Yankee land, though
the smallest section of the United States, has made the deepest
impress upon the American character. They have not enjoyed the
agricultural advantages of other sections, the bleak climate, poor
soil and lavish distribution of rocks and sterility making farming
hard work with meagre results, so that the chief Yankee energy has
been devoted to the development of manufactures, literature, commerce
and the fisheries; this wonderful race who have had to practically
live by their wits having admirably succeeded. Crossing Byram River
brings us into the "Land of Steady Habits," Connecticut, the
"Wooden-Nutmeg State," the special home of "Yankee Notions," which
gave the country the original personation of "Brother Jonathan" in
Governor Jonathan Trumbull, who was so useful to General Washington.
Consulting him in many emergencies, Washington was wont to remark,
"Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says," a phrase finally popularly
adopted by making him the national impersonation.
Connecticut has the great Puritan College of the country--Yale--ruled
by the Congregationalists. It has varied manufactures, to which its
abundant water-powers contribute, and in which nearly all its people
are engaged, its methods being largely the inventions of its own
sons, of whom three are prominent--Eli Whitney of the cotton-gin,
Samuel Colt of the revolver, and Charles Goodyear of india-rubber
fame. When De Tocqueville was in America, he was much impressed by the
development of the inventive genius, education and political force of
the State, which he described as a little yellow spot on the map, and
at a dinner he proposed a toast, saying, in his quaint, broken
English: "And now for my grand sentiment: Connect-de-coot--de leetle
yellow spot dat make de clock-peddler, de school-master and de
Senator; de first give you time, de second tell you what to do with
him, and de third make your law and civilization." Connecticut gets
more patents proportionately than any other State, one to eight
hundred inhabitants being annually granted; it makes clocks for all
the world, and leads in india-rubber and elastic goods, in hardware
and myriads of "Yankee notions," besides being well in the front for
sewing-machines, arms and war material. It is named after the chief
New England river, and its rugged surface is diversified by long
ridges of hills and deep valleys, running generally from north to
south, being the prolongation of mountain ranges and intervales that
are beyond the northern border. The picturesque Housatonic comes from
the Massachusetts Berkshire hills down through the western counties;
the centre is crossed by the Connecticut Valley, which has great
fertility and beautiful scenery, while in the eastern section the
Quinnebaug River makes a deep valley, and, flowing into the Thames,
seeks the Sound at New London. These many hills make many streams, all
having water-powers, around which cluster numerous busy factories.
The southwestern town of Connecticut is Greenwich, and in front
Greenwich Point is thrust out into the Sound, while, as the Yankee
land is entered by railway, on a high hill stands the Puritan outpost,
seen from afar--a stately graystone Congregational Church with its
tall spire. The ancient Greenwich village was built on the hillside at
Horse Neck, and it was here, in 1779, that General Putnam swiftly
galloped down the rude rocky stairway leading from the old church, to
get away from the British dragoons, on what has since been known as
"Old Put's Hill," and they were too much astonished either to chase or
shoot him. Beyond is Stamford, a busy factory town, where lived in the
eighteenth century Colonel Abraham Davenport, described as "a man of
stern integrity and generous benevolence." He was a legislator, and
when, on May 19, 1780, the memorable "Dark Day" came in New England,
some one, fearing it was the day of judgment, proposed that the House
adjourn. Davenport opposed it, saying, "The day of judgment is either
approaching, or it is not; if it is, I choose to be found doing my
duty; I wish therefore that candles may be brought." This scene has
been immortalized by Whittier. The town of Norwalk is beyond, another
nest of busy mills, spreading upward on the hill-slopes from the
Sound. The original settlers bought from the Indians in 1640 a tract
extending "one day's north walk" from the Sound, and hence the name.
Fine oysters are gathered in the spacious bay, and the people make
shoes and hats, locks and door-knobs. On the lowlands to the eastward
the Pequot Indian nation, once ruling all this part of New England,
the name meaning "the destroyers," was finally overpowered in 1637 by
the Colonial troops in the Sasco Swamp, now a cultivated farm, with
almost the only highly fertile land seen in the immediate region. Most
of the Pequots were captured and sold as slaves in the West Indies.
Beyond is tranquil Fairfield, embowered in trees and introduced by a
rubber-factory, its green-bordered streets lined with cottages, and
church-spires rising among the groves, while along the shore it has
the finest beach on Long Island Sound.