1836, when a majority of the North Parish, being dissatisfied with Rev. Mr. Peckham, the pastor of the church at that time, voted to withdraw the fund from his support. This led to litigation between Mr. Peckham and the parish, which resulted in Mr. Peckham's obtaining his full claims upon the parish. Tired, however, of the controversy, he asked a dismission, and retired from the pastorate among that people.

During these troubles, a Baptist society (Calvinistic) was organized in Plaistow, and the town voted to relinquish its claims upon the ministerial fund of the North Parish, to individuals of the town, who chose still to be united with individuals of the North Parish, and some few families of the town of Atkinson, who lived nearer to the Congregational place of worship in Plaistow, than to that in their own town. The institutions of religion have, since the dismission of Mr. Peckham, been regularly sustained by individuals from these several towns, by voluntary subscription.

Just before Mr. Peckham's dismission, a new meeting-house was built by proprietors, near the site of the old house, covering, indeed, some small portion of the land on which the old one stood. The North Parish claimed the new house, and commenced a suit in law to obtain possession, which lasted several years, and was expensive to both parties. It was finally decided by the Supreme Court of New Hampshire that neither party could claim exclusive right, and that all of each, who chose to avail themselves of the privileges of worship in it, could do it.

The fund has never been, as yet, restored to its original intended use, but has been employed, in part at least, to pay for occasional Universalist preaching in a school-house of the parish. Most of those composing the

parish, however, have availed themselves of the privilege of worship in the new house, paying a trifle towards the support of the minister. The funds, it may here be stated, in all the parishes of Haverhill, except the East Parish, have been diverted, by majorities, from their original intention, and now support religious opinions entirely the reverse of those of the proprietors of the town who donated them. This is clear, in respect to the North Parish certainly, from the fact that money was early voted by the town expressly for the purpose of supporting an orthodox minister." If to support such a ministry in this parish, then unquestionably in all of them.

66

In 1818, a parsonage house was built, by subscription, for the use of the minister. Recognizing the right of the people of Plaistow, as well as of the North Parish, to an interest in the house, it was placed upon the line dividing the two States, one part of the house being in New Hampshire, the other in Massachusetts. This location, however, was partly for the accommodation of the minister, that he might be able legally to marry people from both States at the parsonage. The New Hampshire weddings were in the north, and the Massachusetts in the south part of the house.

This parsonage, thus built by subscription, was also claimed by the North Parish, after the dismission of Mr. Peckham, as exclusively parish property. Rent was demanded of him by the parish, for the short period that he occupied it after his dismission. When he left it, each party put in a tenant. The parish's tenant, however, was ejected without violence, and the house was held by an armed protector, till Mr. Peckham's successor - the author of this article, and family- obtained possession. No further effort, after this, was made in any way by the parish to regain possession, and it has ever

and forty-five; by letter nineteen. Rev. Moses Welch was hired in March, 1824, as a regular supply. He continued to do this till about 1826, when he was installed. During his ministry, from 1824 to 1831, thirty-seven were added to the church by profession, and three by letter. Rev. Samuel H. Peckham succeeded him, and was installed in 1831, and remained till 1837. In this time, thirty-five were added to the church by profession, and three by letter. Since Mr. Peckham's dismission, this church and society have not had a settled minister. Rev. David Oliphant supplied the pulpit from 1838 to 1852, fourteen years, with no obligations on his part, or that of the people, to continue the connection a single day; and with only the guaranty of a few individuals, by word of mouth, for the payment of the salary; yet it was always promptly paid. During his ministry thirty-three were added to the church,― twenty-eight by profession, and five by letter.

Mr. Oliphant was succeeded by Rev. Charles Tenney from March, 1853, to October, 1860. Under his ministry thirty-three were added by profession, and thirteen by letter. Mr. Tenney was followed by Rev. Homer Barrows, as stated supply,' and he still ministers to that people at this date.

Both the meeting-house and the parsonage, by the commendable liberality of the people, are now in an excellent state of repair, and, for a minister who can be satisfied with a small and quiet country parish, it affords one of the pleasantest fields of labor that can be found in New England.

From 1827 to 1859 there were one hundred and fourteen infant, and fiftytwo adult baptisms. During the period that Mr. Oliphant supplied the pulpit, every child of professing parents belonging to the church of suitable age was baptized. And all children of suitable age, of parents connected with the churches to which he has ministered, numbering some more than four hundred and fifty, with the exception of those of a single family, have been baptized. It is his belief that a chief reason of the neglect of professing parents, in our pedobaptist churches, to have their children baptized, is the omission of pastors to instruct on this subject, and to urge the duty. The Congregational ministry is, undoubtedly, to a great extent, at fault here. While some oppose Infant Baptism, many regard it with indifference. It is a divine institution, or it is not. If it is, it should be observed. If it is not, let it be repudiated.

1 History of Norwich, Connecticut, from its possession by the Indians to the year 1866. By Frances Manwaring Calkins. Published by the author, 1866.

Miss Calkins began her historical publications in 1845. And the contrast between this and her former history of Norwich shows how such a work grows upon one engaged in it.

We have here the history of a township settled by a few proprietors under Major John Mason, who came from Saybrook, Conn., in 1660, with their

pastor, the Rev. James Fitch, and laid out their town-plot on a tract of land nine miles square, purchased for seventy pounds from the Mohegan Indians. By the researches of the author among public and private records, she has gathered most interesting details concerning the early customs of the inhabitants in respect to worship, education, domestic matters, and civil concerns; the assignment of lands for homesteads and for pasture; the intercourse of the people with the Indians, both in war and peace; the family history of the first proprietors and their descendants; and the gradual growth of the settlement.

After sixty years the sheep pastures which extended down to the tide-water became desirable for other purposes, and grants of land were made which led to a new settlement at the "Landing," a mile or more from the original center, and in process of time municipal changes have carved out several other towns from the original tract of nine miles square, and have made a business city of the Landing, while the town has ceased to be a place of trade and enjoys its tranquillity and ease. A cordon of thriving factory villages encircles the town, turning to good account the extensive water-privileges afforded by the Yantic and Shetucket, at whose confluence the city lies.

By the descriptions here given of the history of the town, we are led to look upon it as one of quiet development and progress. The people have always been ready for the defense of the country in times of peril and of war, but their town has escaped invasion by domestic and foreign foes; they have had their "great fires," but the city has never been burned to ashes; they have suffered from disasters and panics in common with the whole country, and yet the prosperity of the town has never been dependent upon a single line of business; and in its growth it has

flourished without government patronage, and without any State institution for education, charity, or reform.

But with this quiet development there has been true New England enterprise and activity, and we doubt whether many towns can show such a record of energy, promptness, and success. Miss Calkins notes the priority of Norwich in various matters of public interest, and might have done much more if she had been willing to draw comparisons between her native place and other towns in New England.

The first druggist in Norwich, and probably the first in Connecticut, who kept any general assortment of medicines for sale, was Dr. Daniel Lathrop. He furnished a part of the surgical stores to the northern army in the French war. He imported his stock from England, and often received orders from New York. His was the only apothecary's shop between New York and Boston, and orders frequently came from the distance of a hundred miles in various directions. In 1749, Rev. Mr. Leavenworth, of Waterbury, came to Norwich on horseback for a supply of medicines for his people, which could not be obtained any nearer home.

The

The first turnpike in the United States was that opened between Norwich and New London in 1792. first step toward medical organization in the State was made in Norwich in 1774. The first paper-mill in Connecticut was erected on the Yantic in 1776, and gave employment to ten or twelve hands, who turned out thirteen hundred reams a year; and that of the Chelsea Manufacturing Co., at Greenville, was said, in 1860, to be the largest papermaking establishment, not in the United States only, but in the world, its annual product being then estimated at nearly half a million of dollars. Norwich had two printing-presses and a weekly newspaper as early as 1773. The paper

used was manufactured in the town, and school-books, hymn-books, and pamphlets in great variety were published there. The next year there were two book-stores, besides these printing establishments. About the same time the manufacture of clocks and watches began. Another important enterprise, at that early day, was the manufacture of cut shingle nails from old iron hoops, a branch of industry which was revived with improved machinery in 1816. In 1790, a cotton-factory was established on the town plot, the forerunner of the large and improved mills of the present day, and in numerous other methods the enterprise and ingenuity of the inhabitants were displayed.

The citizens were also early interested in navigation, ship-building, and commerce, sending out privateers during the Revolutionary war, and subsequently having a considerable trade with the West Indies. In 1817 a line of steam-packets commenced running to New York, and a small steamer was built at Norwich by one of its citizens. The first banking institutions in Connecticut were chartered by the legislature in 1792, one of them located at Hartford, and the other at New London.

Norwich applied for a charter the same year; but the legislature, declining to authorize more than one bank for the county, persuaded the applicants from the two towns to unite in one institution, to be located at New London. Four years later, the Norwich Bank was organized. The Norwich Savings Society, established in 1824, is the oldest in the State, with a single exception, and has invested in the bonds of the State and of the United States more than two and a quarter millions of dollars.

The presence of the Mohegan Indians in the neighborhood gave opportunity for the development of pious care for their spiritual welfare on the

part of the first settlers, and for two hundred years this spirit has been kept alive, while a missionary zeal has also flourished, which has led many of the sons and daughters of Norwich to devote themselves to evangelical labors in remote parts of the world.

This volume is creditable to the patience, earnestness, and impartiality of the compiler, who has evidently toiled and written it as a work of love, and has treasured up a large collection of facts which would otherwise soon have been irrecoverably lost. We notice that since her previous volume she has changed her opinion concerning the place of Miantonomoh's death, abandoning the traditional belief that he was slain by Uncas at the place of his capture near the banks of the Shetucket.

It is not a dry work, but readable. and popular, abounding in matters of interest, not to the inhabitants of Norwich only, but to all the natives of the town and their descendants.

It will be news to some of the present generation that, in 1774,,when various towns in Connecticut were making subscriptions for the poor in Boston, Norwich sent on a donation of two hundred and ninety-one sheep, and afterwards a second installment of cash, wheat, corn, and a flock of one hundred sheep. In 1779, "a contribution was made at Dr. Lord's meeting for the distressed inhabitants of Newport, which have lately arrived from Providence, when the sum of three hundred dollars was collected for their relief." In 1775, many persons removed their families from Boston to Norwich, and remained till after the evacuation of Boston by the British, and in one of these families was the late Josiah Quincy, then a child of three years, and afterwards President of Harvard College.

Many interesting facts of church history are recorded in the volume, and Miss Calkins betrays no partizan