On May 4, 1852, the spring term closed and the spring
vacation of two weeks began. James traveled
to Windsor, Connecticut, by way of Hartford, to visit the son of his
mother's aunt, Dr. William Seward Pierson -- a respected physician in Windsor.
Dr. Pierson was in his 64th year when James visited him and his family and wrote
the following letter to Augusta:
Windsor
[Connecticut]
May 12, 1852
[Dear
Augusta]
It is too bad that I left my portfolio at
Middletown as there are a good many things that I wished to write this vacation.
And now you are ready to ask, "Why do you so soon write?"
"What can you have to say that I should care the least about
hearing?" Well to these interrogatories, I can give no very good answer,
only [that] I like to converse with you. And although I am confident that I can
not make my conversations very interesting, yet so long as they fall upon an ear
whose patience will be willing to bear with my garrulity, I take pleasure in
writing. My pen seems to wish to have its own way in writing. Consequently, if
it should not write as usual, please attribute it to being among strangers where
it may feel a restraint upon its freedom.
You know what a most delightful day followed
me away from your [Uncle's] house [in Hartford]. Yet it added very much to the pleasure of my journey here.
The country was all new to me above Hartford and presented a somewhat different
phase from what I anticipated. I expected, as everywhere in Connecticut to see
stone fences and boulders, scraggly white oaks, and blackberry swamps. But these
seemed to have all given way to some fine rolling meadows or thrifty
timbered land.
Windsor, instead of being [a] small huddle of
houses surrounding a tavern, grocery, and variety store, is a long row of farm
houses stretching for miles along a delightful valley, having all the neighbors
within speaking distance of each other. I found my Uncle's people at home
enjoying a good degree of health. [1] I think he has improved much since I [last]
saw him. His son-in-law [2] was at his house that day upon a visit. He is not pastor
over the church here as I supposed, but at Windsor Locks five miles above here.
I am very much pleased with the whole family. They appeared quite glad to see me
and have been making it as much like home to me as possible. They live in a
large white house [3] on land that was formerly embraced in the old "palezade
plot" parcel of quite a large tract that in an early day was surrounded by
a deep ditch upon which the early settlers would gather themselves at night to
prevent molestation from any enemy. Some remains of the ditch are still visible.
It is not very far from here that the first house by the whites was erected in
the state. I have not been upon the ground, but we have been talking about
[going there]. But it is raining so hard today, we shall be obliged to postpone
for awhile.
Dr. William Seward Pierson and wife, Nancy Sargeant
of Windsor, Connecticut
Yesterday I visited the old cemetery
[4] and was
often, very often, reminded of primitive times. Several of the inscriptions were
so rudely executed in course granite that I could not decipher them. Some,
however, I will give verbatim.
HERE UNDER LYETH THE BODY OF
HENRY WOLCOT
SOMETIMES A MAIESTRATE OF THIS JURISDICTION
WHO DYED YE 30TH DAY OF MAY, ANNI SALVIS 1665" [5]
HERE LYETH THE BODY OF THE HON.
ROGER WOLCOT
SOME TIMES A GOVERNOR OF THE COLONIES.
DIED MAY 17 AGED 89. DIED 1767. [6]
But the most interesting of all
is the following. And if you will have solved the meaning of the poetry against
my return, I shall be glad. It is said to be the oldest monument in the [grave]yard
and perhaps in the state.
HERE UNDER LYETH EPHRAIM
HUIT
SOMETIMES TEACHER
TO YE CHURCH OF WINDSOR WHO DYED
SEPTEMBER 4TH 1644
WHO WHEN HEE LIVED WEE DREW OUR VITALL BREATH
WHO WHEN HEE DYED HIS DYING WAS OUR DEATH
WHO WAS YE STAY OF STATE YE CHURCHES STAFF
ALAS THE TIMES FORBID AN EPITAPH [7]
The printing was a little better executed than
mine, [but] perhaps not executed so speedily. I noticed that one of Uncle
Pierson's ancestors, [Abraham
Pierson] was the first President of Yale college when the building was
located at Killingworth.
Have been very busy ever since I came until the rain has compelled me to
keep still...[Uncle Pierson's] daughters [8], two of them, are at home [and] are excessively
fond of flowers and have a fine variety of them. One of their lemon bushes, I
noticed, had on it a fine lemon almost ready to be made into lemonade. I [also]
notice they [have] a fine bunch of those double fragrant violets of which we
were speaking and I shall solicit some roots and bring [them to] you when I come
if I think of it. The old Gentleman thinks much of his family and seems very
fond of visiting with them in anything that will tend to divert the mind,
furnish recreation, and cheerily push along life's fast fleeting hours. Yet I
should be far better pleased to see his attention occupied with weightier
matters and eagerly seeking after pleasures more durable. You would have smiled
to see with what interest he would enter last evening into the game of the
Pivoli and rolling the [dice] over the battle ground of the American
revolution. And don't you think I allowed myself to be drawn into the games.
However, I could see at least one benefit, it tended to quicken one's
mathematical powers. But you know its easy to work up an excuse for almost any
foolish waste of time. I will tell you about the family personally when I see
you and consequently, will not attempt a description.
An afflicting death occurred here yesterday at
a neighbors on the opposite side of the street named Bolles, [9] formerly a member
of Rev. Dr. Turnbull's church at Hartford. One week ago, he was the very picture of health and busily
employed in laboring for the comfort of his family, his happy beloved family. He
was honest and industrious and possessed but little more of earthly goods than
his daily earnings furnished. As they naturally would, his family loved him
dearly. Especially the choice of his heart, who bent over him with all that deep
anxiety that no other earthly being could, who seemed to forget entirely the
mortality of her own woman's nature and sleeplessly endeavored to comfort his
aching, inquiring bosom and soothe his burning, fevered brow. Yet she found that
the arm of flesh was [useless] in endeavoring to arrest disease when the appointed
time had come. Yesterday at eleven, he peacefully fell asleep leaving five
blooming children and a beloved wife to weep his departure. Yet what has made it
seem so strange to me is that one so healthy and placed over a charge, whose
happiness and comfort seemed to demand his life, should be so soon taken from
them. Whilst a poor unworthy being like myself are suffered to live whom the
world could so easily miss without feeling the stroke, whose resting place might
be easily made in a land of strangers and never be moistened by the tears of
those so dear. Yet it should not be ours to attempt to fathom the unsearchable
ways of Jehovah, but feel the assurance that he doeth all things well.
I am
really ashamed to send this scrawl. I have been obliged to hold my pen at just
such an angle to keep it from spattering. Let us know that no other than yourself will see it. I
venture to do so. If there is anything you cannot interpret, I will try and
explain when I come. Until which time, I remain Yours most sincerely,
-- James
[1]
"William S. Pierson, M.D., a descendant of Rev. Abraham Pierson, the first
Rector of Yale College (1701-1707), was born at Killingworth, Connecticut, 17
Nov 1787; graduated at Yale College, 1808; graduated M.D. from Dartmouth
College, 1813. He practiced a few years at his native place, and the removed to
Durham, Connecticut, whence, after four years, he removed to Windsor. Here,
after a long and eminently successful professional career, he died 16 July 1860,
widely esteemed and lamented. His residence, on Palisado Green, afterwards the
home of his son, the late General William S. Pierson, whose widow now occupies
it, still keeps alive the memory of "the beloved physician" in many
Windsor hearts." Source: History & Genealogies of Ancient Windsor,
Connecticut 1635-1891, by Stiles. Dr. Seward was undoubtedly named after Rev.
William Seward who served as pastor of the first Congregational Church in
Killingworth from 1738 to 1782.
Dr.
Pierson's wife was the daughter of Captain Jacob Sargeant who
worked in
nearby Hartford CN as a silversmith and watchmaker from 1795 to 1838. Prior to
taking up residence in Hartford, Jacob worked as a gold- and silversmith in
Springfield MA from 1790 to 1795, and as a gold- and silversmith in Mansfield CT
from 1784 to 1789.
[2]
Dr. William S. Pierson's son-in-law was Rev. Samuel H. Allen. He married Julia
A. Pierson on 16 February 1847.
An early photograph of Rev. Samuel H. Allen's
residence in Windsor Locks
[3]
The William Seward Pierson residence was constructed about 1807 by
Oliver Ellsworth for his son. Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) was one of the framers of the United
States Constitution, the first senator from Connecticut, and author of the
Judiciary Act, which forms the basis of our present day federal judicial system. His son did not live long and so
the house was purchased by Dr. Pierson when he moved to Windsor about 1818 or
1819. The
large flower garden adjoining the house described by James was originally to the
left (or south) side of the residence.
The Dr. William S. Pierson residence in early 1900's (b&w) and 2002 (color)
[4]
The Palisado Cemetery is on Palisado Avenue, in Windsor, behind First Church
(constructed in 1794) &
across from the Windsor Historical Society. The cemetery is a stone's throw from
Dr. Pierson's house.
[5]
Henry Wolcot is recorded in 1640 among the 56 settlers who removed from
Dorchester, then to Windsor, Oct. 1635. He was married at the age of 28 to
Elisabeth Saunders, of Tolland, England. He was a magistrate in England and left
that country in the 1630's and settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1635, at the
age of 57 years, he removed to Windsor, CT, where he died 30 May 1655, Æ 77.
A tomb stone erected by his son-in-law, Matthew Griswold, (ancestor to Gov.
Matthew) is now standing. His children, viz: Anna, Henry, George, Christopher,
Mary, Simon, were born in England. Anna married Matthew Griswold, ancestor of
Matthew & Roger Griswold, of Lyme, both Governors of Connecticut. Simon married
Martha Pitkin, sister of Gov. Wm. Pitkin, and had five sons and five daughters.
A 2002 Photograph of Henry Wolcot's sarcophagus with the inscription.
[6]
Roger
Wolcot,
son of Henry Wolcot, was Governor of Connecticut and was the
father of Oliver 1st, and grandfather of Oliver 2d, both Governors of
Connecticut. His daughter Ursula married Matthew Griswold, the first Governor of
that name in Connecticut, and father of Governor Roger Griswold.
A 2002 Photograph of Roger Wolcot's sarcophagus with the inscription.
[7]
The Rev. Ephraim Huit settled in Windsor in 1639 as the colleague of the Rev.
Mr. Warham, and died in 1644. Cotton Mather mentions him among the ministers
that left the mother country after having entered the sacred office. His will is
recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, of Connecticut, by which it
appears that he left four daughters - Susanna, Mercy, Lydia, & Mary, to
whom, with his widow, he left a handsome estate, real and personal. He had one
son who died before his father.
A 2002 Photograph of Ephraim Huit's
sarcophagus with the inscription.
[8]
Dr. William Seward Pierson and Nancy Sargeant had four daughters; Viz:
Nancy (born 1817), Lydia (born 1819), Olivia (born 1820), and Julia (born 1827).
Julia, who married Rev. Allen, was probably one of the two daughters visiting
the Pierson home at the time of James' visit. The other daughter present is
presumed to be Nancy, who did not marry until 1859.
The Pierson daughters -- Lydia, Nancy, Julia, and Olivia
Circa 1860's
[9]
The "honest and industrious" neighbor of Dr. Pierson's whose death was
described in James' letter was undoubtedly Henry W. Bowles. According to the
book, "Cemetery Records in Windsor, Connecticut" published in 1929,
Henry W. Bowles died on May 11, 1852 -- the day before James penned his letter
to Augusta. The cemetery record indicates that Henry was age 37 at the time of
his death in 1852.
Henry
W. Bowles was born on 9 February 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut. He married Mary
A. Lavake, a native of Massachusetts and is found living in Springfield,
Massachusetts in the 1840 census. Mary Lavake was born on 18 August 1818, the
daughter of Thomas Lavake and Lucinda Tower. By 1850, Henry and his family were living in
Hartford where the census record reveals that he earned a living as a butcher. In
the 1850 census, four children, viz: Mary, Roslin, Charles, and George, as well
as Francis Lavake (possibly a sister or cousin of Mrs. Bowles) and Samuel Loomis were living
in the same household. Shortly after the census taker visited
the household in 1850, a fifth child named Henry was added to the Bowles family.
Samuel Loomis was probably Samuel Collins Loomis who was born 20 April 1831, the
son of Collins Loomis and Sarah Caper of Windsor. He was a descendant of the
Loomis family who settled on the banks of the Farmington River in Windsor as
early as 1640. In 1859, Samuel Loomis married Lucy A. Sheldon of Windsor.
The
following records were found for the children of Henry and Mary Bowles:
