Once Upon A Time In Connecticut

Once Upon A Time In
Connecticut
by Caroline
Clifford Newton

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Once Upon A Time In Connecticut
by Caroline Clifford Newton Copyright laws are changing all over the
world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before
downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg
eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: Once Upon A Time In Connecticut

Author: Caroline Clifford Newton
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6697] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 16,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ONCE
UPON A TIME IN CONNECTICUT ***

Curtis A. Weyant, David Maddock, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN CONNECTICUT
BY CAROLINE CLIFFORD NEWTON
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE SCHOOL CHILDREN OF
THE STATE BY THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY OF THE
COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Colonial Dames of Connecticut, under whose auspices this book is
published, desire to express their indebtedness to Professor Charles M.
Andrews, of Yale University, who generously offered to supervise the
work on its historical side. They also gratefully acknowledge help from
many friends in the preparation of the volume. Thanks are due to Mrs.
Charles G. Morris for criticism of the manuscript and to Mr. George

Dudley Seymour for advice in the selection of the illustrations.
Courtesies have been extended by the officials of the New Haven Free
Public Library, of the Connecticut Historical Society, and of the
Library of Yale University.

INTRODUCTION
It is a pleasure to write a few words of introduction to this collection of
stories dealing with the early history of Connecticut, a state that can
justly point with pride to a past rich in features of life and government
that have been influential in the making of the nation. Yet the history of
the colony was not dramatic, for its people lived quiet lives, little
disturbed by quarrels among themselves or by serious difficulties with
the world outside. The land was never thickly settled; few foreigners
came into the colony; the towns were scattered rural communities
largely independent of each other; the inhabitants, belonging to much
the same class, were neither very rich nor very poor, their activities
were mainly agricultural, and their habits of thought and ways of living
were everywhere uniform throughout the colonial period. The colony
was in a measure isolated, not only from England and English control,
but also from the large colonial centers such as Boston and New York,
through which it communicated with the older civilization.
Connections with other colonies were neither frequent nor important.
Roads were poor, ferries dangerous, bridges few, and transportation
even from town to town was difficult and slow.
The importance of Connecticut lay in the men that it nurtured and the
forms of government that it established and preserved. Few institutions
from the Old World had root in its soil. In their town meetings the
people looked after local affairs; and matters of larger import they
managed by means of the general assembly to which the towns sent
representatives. They made, their own laws, which they administered in
their own courts. Their rules of justice, though sometimes peculiar,
were the same for all. They did what they could to educate their
children, to uphold good morals, to help the poor, and to increase the
prosperity of the colony. Though they could not entirely prevent

England from interfering in their affairs, they succeeded in reducing her
interference to a minimum and were well content to be let alone. Yet
when called upon to furnish men in time of war, they did so generously
and, in the main, promptly. They became a vigorous, strong,
determined community, and though unprogressive in agriculture, they
were enterprising in trade and commerce, and in the opening up of new
opportunities prepared the way for the later career of a progressive,
highly organized manufacturing state. To the larger colonial world they
furnished men and ideas that, during the period of revolution and
constitution-making, played prominent parts in shaping