by many who had attended the services. Monday, at five o'clock, the
distinguished guest of the city visited the carriage factory of
Brewster c^- Collis and the axe factory of Alexander Harrison. At
6.30 he left for Hartford, stopping on the way at Eli Whitney's gun
factory. Charles H. Pond was marshal on the reception day and
Jones & Allis, of the Tontine, were praised for their ample provision
for the comfort of the visitors. A tall hickory tree, with green leaves
at its top and a handsome standard of the Union, were in front of the
place of Knight Read, near the Tontine. General Jackson rode a
handsome white horse. There were strong feelings for and against
Jackson. Samuel Miles, a tailor, spent the 15th in West Haven, to
avoid seeing him, while Timothy Potter was so rejoiced that he ran
around the State House three times to shake his hand.

The Legislature of the same year, for the special accommodation of
the village of Canterbury, passed what was called the "Black law,"
which declared that " no colored person sh^ll receive an education



H. AXJSTIIV. F» I>. ^XJSTIIV.



HENRY AUSTIN & SON,



ARCHITECTS.



OFFICE, HOADLEY BUILDING ROOM NO. 31,



49 dhhFch St., Me^ MeL^em,



C O Pif PSf ,



THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE. 47

who is not an inhabitant of this State, in any academy, school or lit
erary institution of this State, without the consent in writing of a
majority of the civil authority of the town in which such school is
situated." Regarding this law, the New York Daily Advertiser
said :

" The spirit that gave rise to this act is highly discreditable to the
character of the Legislature and of the people whom they represent.
Such a measure might have been looked for in a Slave State, but to
find it adopted in a State where slavery does not exist, where the
institutions are free and the universality of education is its most
striking characteristic, is truly surprising."

In the basement of the third State House (and hereafter in this
history it will be the one always meant unless one of the others is
specified) were held those meetings of the freemen of the town, which
in the past have been the very bulwarks of our liberty, much
esteemed since the power of the city to locally legislate has been, by
an amendment to the city charter, taken from the people and vested
in the Common Council. In a print of that day, on the 26th of No-
vember, 1833, is to be found more than a hint of the crude and often-
times unjust methods by which the will of the people was controlled.
Says the record : "The election of town officers terminated yesterday
as all popular elections in this town will ever terminate as long as
anarchy and confusion are permitted to predominate over sober
republicanism and good order, and a few demagogues are allowed to
overawe and repress the wishes and voice of a majority of the
voters. Voting by nomination instead of by ballot, everything was
carried by acclamation. In order to get the vote truly, it was
decided that those in favor of the first selectman, should pass
through the hall and be counted. In this way the opponents were
kept waiting and impatient at the unfair way, and got disgusted and
went away. Some passed into the hall, not knowing what was going
on and were counted on the wrong side. William Mix was again
chosen first selectman." On occasions of making appropriations
of money or voting upon any question of special interest, the State



48 THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE.

House basement was thronged with excited townsmen and there was
usually displayed considerable finesse by both parties on each side
of a matter, as to which should secure the moderator or chair-
man. For the rulings of the chairman and his tact in excluding
from the discussion such men of influence as were on the other side,
were very potent in these town meetings. Shouting and cries of
'' order " and colloquial disputes in the different parts of the large
room where the meetings were held, characterized nearly all meet-
ings. The commanding talent and shrewdness of William W. Board-
man, as a chairman, was frequently recognized. Stephen D. Pardee
made a most reliable chairman. It was rarely that a chairman
could catch the eye or hear the call of a citizen who desired to
speak adversely to the views of his backers, and the rage of dis-
appointed patriots at what they considered unfairness, often led to
exciting personalities.

There are still a number of citizens who recollect the mild, noble-
looking Joseph Lancaster who in December of 1833 lectured on his
system of economical instruction of youth by making use of moni
tors. His system had been adopted by the Turks and their approval
was quoted as an argument in its favor. He lectured in the Center
Church as early as June 21, 1827, for he twice visited New Haven,
and as a result of his efforts the first Lancasterian school was kept in
the basement of the Methodist Church on the Green soon after the
erection of the building. This church had a frontage toward College
street of 68 feet and extended eastwardly 80 feet. The State had
lately established a constitution which granted equal rights to all
denominations, and had abolished what was called "the Standing
Order." It was a turn of the scale in favor of relijjious libertv and
resulted in a vote of the New Haven people giving a site on the
northeast corner of the upper section of the Green, for the building
of the church. The permission designated its north angle, with a
line parallel with the North Church and a line twenty feet southerly
of the College street line. It was specified in the permit that "said
house be built of brick or stone and of a size suitable to the hon-



THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE.



49



orable place that it will occupy." The vote was passed in the
spring of 1820. Many interesting facts in connection with the Meth-
odist organization in New Haven are to be found in a paper in pos-
session of Mr. Sylvester Smith, of College street, written in 1840 at
the request of Elias Gilbert.




THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH.

The corner-Stone of the building was laid May 15, 182 1, about
one thousand persons being present. The New York Conference
had appointed Rev. William Thatcher pastor, and be took charge in
June, 1820. He was called the Father of the Methodist New Haven
meeting-house. The building had been so far completed that the
roof was in position the 3d of September, 1821, when occurred what
4



50 THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE.

has been frequently spoken of as " the great September gale," which
damaged property on Long Wharf and elsewhere, and in New York
leveled three hundred chimneys. The windows had not been put
into the church building, and the wind lifted the roof a few times as
if it were dancing on the walls, when presently there was a crash of
falling bricks and timber, and the structure was in ruins. Eight
months after the gale, Rev. John Summerfield preached a sermon at
the dedication of the building which had been rebuilt. This was
May 23, 1822. The Methodists worshipped in a building on the east
side of Temple, between Crown and George streets, from 1807 until
they moved into the new church. During the pastorate of Rev.
John Floy the building was taken down in 1848. A lot had been
secured on the northeast corner of Elm and College streets, where
had once stood a small wood building in which George Gabriel, and
later Chester Goodyear, had kept store. The city gave the society
$5,000 and \'ale College contributed $500 toward defraying the
expenses attendant upon the removal of the building from the Green,
the purchase of the lot and erection of the new building. Mr.
Henry G. Lewis, afterward New Haven's honored chief magistrate,
also raised a considerable sum from the subscriptions of citizens.
The dedication of the new building, which has a high steeple and is
in its interior very convenient for class meetings and the needs of a
flourishing Sunday-school, took place April 12, 1849.

John E. Lovell, an Englishman, came to New Haven in 1822 and
taught the youth of the town the rudiments of a sound education,
under the Lancasterian system. His school room was in the base-
ment of the Methodist Church on the Green, from the year of its
dedication until its removal. At the semi-centennial celebration of
the settlement of New Haven, April 25, 1888, Mr. Lovell, then in
his ninety-fourth year of age, met about 350 of his former pupils in
a complimentary re-union. There was a collation served in a build-
ing on Orange, below Chapel street, and it was a very memorable
occasion. Hon. Henry B. Harrison, ex-governor of the State, pre-
sided, and paid a noble tribute to the character and successful work



THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE. 51

of Mr. Lovell. In 1827 a new school house was built on a lot, the
gift to the school district of Titus Street, on the northeast corner of
Orange and Wall streets, where Mr. Lovell taught for many years.
In the published transactions of Founders' Day, 1888, will be
found a most interesting account of the meeting of the Lancasterian
boys. Ex-Governor James E. English, the late Judge Henry E.
Pardee, Prof. George E. Day, of the Yale Divinity school, Horace
Mansfield, Henry Mattoon, besides a number of men past middle
age, who were distinguished for wealth and their respectable
achie\ements, were at the gathering. In his address on the occa-
sion mentioned, ex-Governor Harrison said among other things :
" In looking back to the opening of the school at which it was m)-
lot to be present, I am impressed with certain leading ideas of Mr.
Lovell which were made prominent in its semi-military organization,
viz.: the importance of order, neatness, obedience and reverence.
The inspection of hands in the long line extending from the old
Methodist Church to the corner of the North or United Church, the
orderly march into the cellar-like school room, the reverential read-
ing of the Scriptures by the instructor, the inscription in large letters
'a place for everything and everything in its place,' and the prompt
obedience required and enforced were an education in themselves.
Combined with the personal activity of the teacher, his genius for
organization and his courtly manners, they contributed largely to the
success of the school."

Standing near the Methodist Church one pleasant day in 1825,
Mr. Lovell was thrown into a state of great anxiety as he watched
the perilous performance of one of his pupils, John Beers. This lad
had climbed the lightning rod of the Center Church and was
engaged in turning the weather vane at its top. The teacher showed
much solicitude at the risk of life, and was greatly relieved when
young Beers made a safe descent to the ground. The following day
the performance was repeated, the boy sitting astride the vane.
The church officers and other citizens, to prevent a further and
similar jeopardy of life, bent the rod to follow the conformation of



£STABL.ISHEI> FKB'Il 1st, 1851.



JOHJ* G. MlhE^,



-^■x- mtm Tim «



14 CENTER ST., HEW HAVEN.



A LARGE Al m-SELECTED STOCK OF

Foreign Fabrics,



ALSO



THE FINEST GRADES OF
AMERICAN WOOLENS.



WORK AND STYLE FIRST-CLASS.

PRICES MODERATE.



THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE. 53

the cornice, and the rod was spiked to the wall, as it is seen to-
day.

During a part of the time while the State House was building, the
courts, afterward held in that building, were held in the Methodist
Church building. From the basement of the old church were often
heard by people walking that way, the energetic songs of praise and
the shouts of the joyfully converted. In those days the enthusiastic
amens and exclamations denoting exaltation in worship, were more
abundantly heard than in these days of greater cult in religious
exercises. When in 1842 the interpretation by William iSIiller, of
the prophecies of the book of Daniel and the other sacred writings
were arousing people in various parts of the country to expectations
of the near approach of the end of the \vorld and the almost imme-
diate appearance again on earth of the Son of God, many devout
Christians were deeply impressed by the hopes and fears sequent
upon the new belief. A goodly number of Methodists, in common
with persons of other denominations, after a perusal of Mr. Miller's
arguments, were persuaded that the time w'as close at hand when
without suffering the pains of death, they should be taken away from
earth to heaven. These believers, by the irreverent denominated
" Millerites," met sometimes in the basement of the Methodist
Church, and enlightened each other's minds and warmed each other's
hearts, by rehearsing the evidences of the speedy coming of the
great day. Some believers had, it was said, prepared ascension
robes. Others were so absorbed with the thought of the great move-
ment, that they were accused by their less convinced and more
indifferent friends, with being crazed. Rev. Smith Dayton, a Meth-
odist minister, became satisfied with the evidences which had con-
vinced so many earnest and good people. In the winter a paper
mill in Westville was burned. It was in the night season and snow-
was falling. The air vvas filled with lurid light as the city's fire
apparatus was rolling through the streets. *' Stop, stop ! " said Mr.
Dayton, to the men who were pulling along a fire engine. "This is
a fire which no earthly engines can extinguish." William Miller, the



54 THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE.

founder of this faith, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1781,
and he died at Low Hampton, Washington County, New York, in
1849, He was a farmer and had been a captain of a company in
1812. He began to lecture on the speedy coming of Christ in 1833,
and he then interpreted the Scriptures to mean that the world was to
be destroyed in 1843. He had at that time about 50,000 followers.
From the doctrines then'preached were evolved others, and different
dates were afterward fixed upon for the day of destruction. The
first date had been October, 1842 ; then 1843, 1847, 1848, 1857 and
1861. Believers, to some extent, gave away their material pos-
sessions. A number of pious persons w^ho had faith in Miller's
doctrines, were afterward associated in a church of Primitive Chris-
tians, who held meetings in a wood building on York and facing
down Grove street, and which afterward became the property of the
New Haven Wheel Company. There is now a church of second
adventists on Beers street.

Intelligence of the death of the Marquis, General La Fayette, was
published in New Haven, June 21, 1834. He died May 20, at five
o'clock in the morning, at which date he would have been seventy-
seven years of age in about three months. The city • authorities
directed the flag to be displayed on the Green, and requested
masters of vessels in port to display their flags also. Minute guns
were fired and an orator to speak aj^pointed. The Common Council
passed resolutions and James A. Hillhouse was chosen to make the
oration. The visit of this friend of American liberty to New Haven,
in 1824, is recorded at length in the '* History and Antiquities of
New Haven," by the late John W. Barber, and there are elderly
persons who recall the interesting mcidents connected therewith.
New Haven sent a deleiration to New York to meet the distinjruished
man and in the evening of the 20th of August, the people illuminated
their houses. In front of Morse's Hotel, corner of Crown and Church
streets, was displayed a large transparency with the legend " Welcome,
La Payette." This was surrounded with French and American flasfs.
Smaller transparencies with similar words were seen above the doors



THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE. 55

of many houses. Contrary to expectation, the General did not reach
New Haven until lo o'clock in the forenoon of the next day, when
his arrival was announced by a salute of twenty-four guns. He was
addressed by the Mayor, at the room of the Common Council. The
Governor of the State, those officers of the revolutionary war who
were in New Haven, the civil and military authorities, the Faculty of
Yale College, the clergy and hundreds of citizens paid their respects
to him. A procession of college students, wearing their respective
society badges, were in line with the troops reviewed by the city's
guest, who made an address. He had passed through the town in
1778. In the forenoon he breakfasted with the Common Council,
and among those present were Governor Wolcott and all the civil
and military authorities, the Yale Faculty, the clergy, the New York
committee of escort and surviving officers of the revolutionary war.
Three hundred ladies, with their children, were presented to the
General. At noon. General La Fayette went upon the Green and
reviewed the military, consisting of the Horse Guards, Major Hug-
gins ; a squadron of cavalry under Adjutant Harrison ; the Foot
Guards, Lieutenant Boardman ; Artillery, Lieutenant Redfield; Iron
Grays, Lieutenant Nicholl, and a battalion of infantry. Captain
Bills ; the whole under Major Grannis. The General walked down
the whole line, shaking hands with the officers and bowing to the
soldiers. He received a marchins: salute while in the doorwav of
the house of Nathan Smith. He rode to the College campus, and
was received by the president at the head of the Faculty, and was
conducted between a double line of students, to the lyceum, mineral-
ogical cabinet, and library. At the new burying ground there were
pointed out to him the graves of Humphreys, the aide to General
Washington ; and Dwight, who had been a chaplain in the Revolu-
tion. He received attentions at the house of Prof. Benjamin Silli-
man, where he met the widow of Governor Trumbull. He was met
by the students at the foot of Prospect Hill, and by way of Temple
street, went to the Green and was shown the graves, then supposed
to be those of Whalley and Goffe, the regicide judges of King



EXPLANATION OF DIAGRAMS OF THE STATE HOUSE,
FROM ORIGINAL PLANS.



BASEMENT.

A ......... . Town Hall

A A Arches under the Porticoes

jB B B Committee Rooms

C C Entry

D Clerk of Court

E Probate C'ourt

F Town Clerk

The iigures show the size of the rooms.

PRINCIPAL FLOOR. -

G ......... . County Court

H Committee Room

1 Commissioner of School Fund

J .......... Treasurer

K . Comptroller

L M X O Committee Rooms

P ......... Room for Jurors

For many years the Governor's room was on this floor and in the southeast
corner of the building.

UPPER FLOOR.

R Representatives' Hall

S . Senate Chamber

T Secretary's Room

U V . . . . . . . Governor's Rooms

P P Rooms partitioned off from the Representatives' Hall at the time when
the flat ceiling was hung under the original arched one, shown in the picture of
the south end ruins.

56




57



58 THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE.

Charles [neither of thein were buried there, in rear of the Center
Church, as then supposed], and of Dixwell. His departure from the
city was announced by tiring fifteen guns, the city authorities accom-
panying him on his way as far as East Haven Green.

The people having consented to allow^ the Methodists to build
their church on the Green, voted at a town meeting held October,
1821 :

" That the town consents that the Baptist Society in New Haven may erect a
meeting-house on the southwest corner of the west section of the public square, to
stand in a line with the Methodist Church, the south line of said building to be in
a line with the south line of the Episcopal Church, and to be of dimensions at
least equal to the Methodist Church, provided the same be built of brick or stone,
and be completed on or before the first day of January, 1S24."

The Baptists did not, however, build on the site generously allotted
them. This voting of church sites was no evidence that the city did
not fully appreciate the value of the Green, for in August, 1821, the
Common Council voted, " that the Mayor and Alderman Bishop be a
committee to confer with the contractor or contractors for the feed
and pasturage of the east section of the public square in regard to
rescindins: the contract with them and to rescind the contract on such
terms as they shall see best."

An old horse belonging to a man named Gorham, had been getting
pasturage on the Green at night, without cost to his owner. One
night, some students painted the horse green, and in some way got
him into the bell-tower of the College Chapel, where he was found
in the morning.

Inside the south wall of the hall of the Representatives there once
stood two handsome wood columns with an entablature connecting
them, but they were taken down some years before the destruction of
the building, the idea being that the acoustic properties of the hall
would be improved. On the roof of the building, for a few years
after it was built, there was a framework supporting a bell, pur-
chased from a merchant vessel at this port, and the bell was rung
on court days. It proved too small to be of service, and a contract



06




1

||i

\



t: CO



r 03




K ^




z 5



\



\-



o ^




9 .-bG



J




59



6o THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE.

was made with the se;cton of the Center Church, to ring the bell in
the steeple of that bLiilding. It was rung on days when the Legisla-
ture was in session as well as on court days. Diagrams showing the
plans of the State House are here given.

However uninteresting to the reader may be a collocation of dates,
they appear to be necessary in giving an account of the structures
which were once or are now standing on the Green.

First meeting-house commenced in 1639. Built of wood. Fifty
feet square. Situated near the centre of the eastern section of the
Green. It had a turret in which a sentinel was staiioned, Sabbath
days, to give the alarm in case of a raid by the Indians. This
house was occupied about thirty years.

First school house located in the rear of the first church, and a
little toward the north.

Second meeting-house, buili in 1668, near the location of the first
one. It had a pyramidal roof, and in the top was a bell, placed
theie in 1680.

November 14, 1670, the old meeting-house was ordered to be sold,
to the town's best advantage.

Third meeting-house, built in 1670, during the ministry of Rev.
Nicholas Street.

Rev. Joseph Noyes ordained July 4, 17 16. The brick meeting-
house erected in his lime, was 72 feet 6 inches long, and 50 feet
wide ; built in 1757. It stood a little east of where its successor was
erected in 1812. Its pulpit was on its west side; its turret or
steeple was at its north end. There were three entrances — one
through the tower, one at the south ^\\(\. and one on the east side,
where the steps encroached upon Temple street.

The present Center Church cost about $34,000, and was dedicated
December 27, 1814. Similar objections to building were made that
were made to building the State House in 1829 ; namely, on account
of the desecration of the graves of our forefathers. A glance into the
Crypt of the Center Church, will show that the graves have been bet-
ter preserved probably, than if the improvement had not been made.




• •



6i



62 THE HISTORY OF THE STATE HOUSE.

The Fair Haven Church building, located near the site of the
present United, formerly called the* North Church, was built in 1772.

In 1814-15 was built the United (North) Church, and an addition
was made in the rear in 1850.

Trinity Church was built in 1814-15. Added to in the rear, within
the past five years.

Second, or new brick State House, erected in 1763, the whipping
post being in rear of the building. The post afterward stood nearer
Temple street, and its successor, the town post, now stands outside
the southeast corner of the Green. It is used for posting legal
notices and orders of court.

The public square fenced 1798, under direction of James Hillhouse,
David Austin and Isaac Beers.

July, 1799, permission was given to have the Green levelled, under
supervision of Pierpont Edwards, James Hillhouse and Isaac Beers,
provided the work cost the city nothing.

The division fences were removed from the Green, which was
enclosed by an iron fence supported by granite posts in 1843. The
money to defray the cost of the improvement was donated by the
State, and in consideration of the fact that the New Haven banks
had been heavily taxed for their charters.

The first county house and jail were removed from the western
part of the west section of the Green in 1784. They stood between
the old cemetery and College street, not far from Elm street.

The market house, for which permission to build on the Green was