On the 10th of October, 1860, the descendants of this good man held a family re-union at the house of Mr. Erastus Minor, who occupied the homestead of his father, Deacon Minor, which is situated a few rods north of the location of the house occupied by Capt. John Minor, at the founding of the town, long since demolished. The deacon's descendants, by blood and marriage, numbered, at this time, 125. The occasion was one of great interest and enjoyment to the family. There was an address of welcome, a historical family address, reading of the Scriptures from the old Bible read so many years by the deacon, a sermon, refreshments," after dinner" speeches, songs, closing with the following ode, written by one of the grand-daughters :

It was an occasion reverent in its honor of the dead, and long to be remembered with pleasant thoughts by all who were present. It will be seen, on page 306, that Hon. Noah B. Benedict bequeathed certain property to the society, now occupied as a parsonage on certain peculiar conditions, among which was the following:

"Nor shall said Society take benefit of this bequest, if it shall hereafter cease to maintain the pure doctrines of the Gospel, as now held, preached and under stood by our Pastor (Mr. Andrews) and his people."

After a few more years shall have rolled away into eternity, it might be difficult to prove in a court of law how Mr. Andrew's "people" actually did "believe and understand the pure principles of the gospel." But it was thought it could be determined how Mr Andrew "held, preached and understood" these doctrines, and accordingly, the society, on the 2d of April, 1868, in legal meeting,

66

Voted, That the Clerk of the Society be requested to procure from the widow of our former Pastor, the late Rev. S. R. Andrew, one or more of his sermons, formerly delivered by him from our pulpit, and covering doctrinal points, and of a character to show in any Court, if needed, the doctrines which he preached, the same to be preserved with the records, and other documents of the Society."

In accordance with this vote, his farewell sermon, which covered the whole field of his doctrinal belief, was procured, and is now preserved in the archives of 'ye ancient Society."

Thus have we minutely traced the "dealings of the Lord" with this branch of the "Church universal," from its stormy founda. tion in 1670, to the present time, a period of 202 years. Our zion has been greatly favored of Heaven, and peace and prosperity prevail in all our borders.

CHAPTER VIII.

CIVIL HISTORY-CONTINUED FROM PAGE 342.

MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS FROM 1853 TO 1872; TORIES; LOCAL SCHOOL FUND; REMEMBER BAKER; COLONEL SETH WARNER; PARSON STODDARD AND THE GUNLOCK; EPIDEMICS; ANCIENT BURIRIAL-GROUND; NEW BURIAL-GROUNDS; NEW COUNTY PROPOSITION; ANCIENT TEA-PARTY; MOLL CRAMER, THE WITCH; BREAK NECK HILL; NATURAL CURIOSITIES; WALKER HEADSTONE; RAMPIT HILL; PARSON WILDMAN'S DONATION VISIT; PARKER ACADEMY; BETHEL ROCK LODGE; WOODBURY BANK; BUILDING ASSOCIATION; KING SOLOMON'S LODGE, No. 7.

ONTINUING our account of the miscellaneous events that have occurred since 1853, we note a few of the most important. For the purpose of clearness and perspicuity, we have already noticed, in the other divisions of this work, many of the most interesting of them. We repeat, in a slightly varied form, a few of the topics introduced into the former edition, for the purpose of allowing the artist to give his interpretation of them. Very few items of the ancient history of the town have been discovered, after the thorough gleaning of facts from every source that was employed on a for

Wm. Cothren's residence.

mer occasion. A few additional names of revolutionary soldiers have been recorded, and will appear in the chapter of statistics at the end of this volume.

During the war of the Revolution, Woodbury was remarkably free from effective tories. While other towns had bitter and se vere conflicts among their own inhabitants, and even among mem. bers of the same families, resulting in enormities and bloodshed, our town, thanks to its standing Committee of Vigilance and Observation, consisting of as many as thirty of the leading and most reliable citizens, was practically free from trouble. The laws against the enemies of the patriotic cause were very severe and comprehensive. The spirit of the people was at fever heat, and although, from the sensitive jealousy of all our people, even the ap appearance of any unpatriotic conduct, caused prosecutions to be somewhat frequent, convictions were very rare. But twelve cases of successful confiscation of the estates of individuals appear upon our Probate records, the district at that time embracing a territory including Waterbury and Litchfield on the East, New Fairfield on the South, and all the territory within these towns, to Massachusetts on the North, and New York on the West. Four of these were in Ancient Woodbury, four were residents of New Milford, and four were of Waterbury. If there were other convicted tories, they must have been destitute of estates, or they would have been recorded. This is not a bad record, surely, for our ancient town, containing, at that period, some 6,000 inhabitants, or at least treble the present population.

Among the resources from which our public schools are sup. ported, is one of £100, old tenor-$333.33-which is kept at interest, and the interest only applied to the support of schools. It has always been reported, that this sum was a bequest for this purpose by one of the Shermans; but the writer has not been able to verify the correctness of the story. It is believed that it is the remainder of the money arising from the sale of Woodbury's share of the school lands,. set apart for the support of schools, under the "Fundamental Articles" of 1673. This opinion gains strength from a vote passed by the First Ecclesiastical Society, Dec. 6th, 1784, viz: "Voted, That Doct. Orton and Nathan Preston be a committee to take care of all the public moneys belonging to the school in this society." This was 111 years after the land had been "sequestered" for this use, and the tenor of that appropriation seemed to be, that the principal should never

be expended. It is plausible, therefore, to suppose that this was the origin of our present "Local School Fund."

It is interesting to note the transmission of warlike and other traits of character down to remote generations. An instance of this kind may be instanced in the case of the late Brig. Gen. LaFayette C. Baker, Provost Marshal of the War Department, and Chief Detective officer of the United States Army. He was son of Remember Baker, of Stafford, N. Y., afterwards of Lansing, Mich., and grandson of Capt. Remember Baker, of Woodbury, who was one of the Green Mountain Boys, and cousin of Co!. Ethan Allen, and Col. Seth Warner. Capt. Remember Baker, the elder, was killed by the Indians. His head, right hand and toes were cut off, and carried as trophies to Quebec, where they were exposed to public gaze on a stake, placed on the walls. His slayers also took the gold brooches which he wore, and delivered them, with the head, to the Commandant at Quebec, who after wards, having discovered on them some Masonic emblems, caused the head and hand to be taken away and buried. A reward of £50 had been offered for his head, and the reason for carrying the head to Quebec was, to claim the reward.

During the Revolutionary War, it became frequently necessary to send prisoners of war into the interior towns for safe keeping. Neither party had then become so civilized as to impale prisoners.

On the 28th of October, 1776, Major Lockwood reported to the New York Committee of Safety, that he had sent the following prisoners of war from Pound Ridge, N. Y., to Woodbury, Conn., for safe keeping, in charge of Lieut. Samuel Bowten, viz:-James Wilson, John Murry, Samuel Coppin, Jeremiah Reerdor, Henry Kilgrove, Michael Cowney, and his child. '

In the spring of 1865, Ex-Gov. Hilard Hall, of Bennington, Vt., called the writer's attention to the following matter,-desiring an examination into the facts stated, and a reply:

"In Harper's Magazine for December last, there appeared an article entitled 'a new anecdote of Washington,' to the effect that while he was making the tour of the Northern States, in the fall of 1789, he made an unexpected call at the residence of the widow of Col. Seth Warner, in Woodbury, Conn., informed her that he had ascertained that her homestead had been left by her patriotic husband encumbered by a heavy mortgage, and then took from

13 Am. Archives, 273.