t'he

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years (1722-1776). He was a graduate of Harvard College, a student as well as a pastor, accustomed to read in connection with his family devotions and translate from either the Greek or Hebrew Scriptures, and doing much to provide for the town the means of a higher education. For a long course of years Lebanon was distinguished for the best grammar school in any country town in Connecticut-the one taught by Mr. Nathan Tisdale, a Harvard graduate. This school was established chiefly by the efforts of Dr. Williams, and the consequence was that for many years the town was not only remarkable for its intelligence, but furnished more ministers of the Gospel than perhaps any other town of its size in the State. And not alone ministers were educated here, but men for every profession and pursuit in life, and "this school was so extensively and favorably known that it numbered among its pupils youth from almost every part of the country." Such intellectual and religious influences created a public sentiment there, and gave a character to society which has never been lost. The town can show a list of one hundred and fifty liberally `educated men who were born there, and mostly educated at Yale College. To this day the town is not regarded as keeping up to its standard, unless two or three of its sons are in that university.

Here was the home of the Trumbull family, who not only honored the gubernatorial office, but filled so many public Positions with distinguished credit and usefulness. The father, "the War Governor of the Revolution," who held "that office fifteen years, was Washington's "Brother Jonathan," his friend and counselor; his son Joseph, commissary general of Washington's army; Jonathan, Jr., paymaster in Washington's army, Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress, Senator in Congress and for eleven years Governor of the State; David, assistant commissary general and father of Governor Joseph; and John, the painter,

whose historical works enrich our national capitol; his daughter Faith, the wife of General Jedediah Huntington of the Revolutionary army, and his daughter Mary, the wife of William Williams, "signer of the Declaration of Independence." This last was a son of the old minister, and as true a patriot as the country saw. He sleeps with the rest in that "Trumbull tomb," in the old burying ground at Lebanon, which we venture to say contains as much patriotic and sacred dust as is garnered in any other.

The place, too, had its history. Events have occurred there important enough to inspire the noblest thoughts and prompt to heroic lives, while mixed with them was romance enough to stir the dullest natures. There is the governor's "War Office," still preserved, and in charge of the "Connecticut Sons of the American Revolution," where the State Committee of Safety held its meetings all through the war, ten or fifteen hundred of them, and where Washington came to consult with the governor, and where our statesmen and officers of the army and the commanders of the French troops and fleet planned with him some of the important expeditions of the war, like that of Yorktown, which ended the war, and secured to us our independence. Here is where a squadron of French cavalry, under Count de Lauzun, encamped for the winter and held their levees at the headquarters of their gay commander, and where Washington reviewed five regiments of Count Rochambeau's army before they set out on their last and most distinguished campaign.

Such things have their influence upon a community, and the subject of this memoir must have felt it. Indeed, we cannot help thinking, when he stood with the rest of us boys before that tomb in the old burying ground, where the dust of the Trumbulls and the Williamses was resting so quietly, that he was drinking in his best lessons of patriotism and noble living. And sure we are, that next to the fear of God

ernor

and anxiety to please him, Connecticut's last "War Govwas trying to be to the state and to the nation something like the first "War Governor." It was in such a community and amid such surroundings that Governor Buckingham had his birth and early training.

The Governor was born into a pleasant home and came under good influences. The house is one that his father built, and is among the best in the town, standing under lofty shade trees, with a plenty of fruit trees about it, and a good farm attached. Just beyond is "the Brick Meeting House," a remarkably fine country church, with its beautiful spire and noble, recessed entrance, the design having been furnished, it is said, by Trumbull, the painter. It is located at the south end of a common, a mile long and more than one-eighth of a mile wide, with a street and well-shaded houses on each side of it. It is not cleared of stone and graded, except at the two ends, and particularly about the church, for such a work completed was too much for the means of such a population. But such a building in such a setting is a striking feature in the landscape. After seeing it, and remembering the attractions and advantages which such a place would hold out to settlers, we are not surprised that his parents located there, for they appreciated good society, valued the means of education, and prized religious privileges. As the father said in giving his reasons for his selection: "I wanted a good farm, and then to be near the church, near the school, near the mill, and near the doctor."

"Captain" Buckingham, as he was called in early life, having commanded a military company, or "Deacon" Buckingham, by which title he was known in after life, was an enterprising and thrifty farmer. He had one source of income, however, besides his farm, for when a young man, and before he left Saybrook, he and two or three others built the first two fishing piers at the mouth of the Connecticut to take shad, and retained all his life his interest in these