Monthly Archives: May 2011

Travel and Transportation Month

Did you ever wonder how a station wagon got its name?  This is a plan for a model manufactured by Litchfield’s own carriage makers, Flynn & Doyle.  The wagons were designed to transport train travelers to and from their final destination or place of departure.

Earlier in the 19th Century, travelers and mail were transported via stagecoach.

This photo of a stagecoach notes that it was sold in Danbury in the early 20th Century for $800.

This advertisement from 1827 describes the Aerial Phaeton.  It sounds like an early amusement park ride.

Camp Dutton Commemoration

This past Saturday, the 2nd CT Heavy Artillery re-enactment group partnered with the Litchfield Historical Society to commemorated the Litchfield County Regiment’s formation and encampment at Camp Dutton which was located on Camp Dutton Road in Litchfield, Connecticut.

The re-enactors were able to spend Friday night camping on the site of Camp Dutton and then marched into town, much as the Civil War soldiers did in 1863, to hear speeches from notable Litchfield citizens and receive their regimental flags.  In 1863, Julia Tallmadge Noyes (Mrs. William Curtis Noyes) ordered the regimental flags from Tiffany’s in New York City and presented the colors to the regiment from a band stand that was erected on the green for the occassion.  Thousands of onlookers cheered the troops on as they then proceeded to the train station in East Litchfield to begin their service to  the Union.

The above photo shows the presentation of the colors in August of 1863.

This weekend, the re-enactors commemorated this event with their own festivities.   The Historical Society estimated that over 300 people attended the event.  Adults and children alike, learned what Civil War soldiers ate, how they marched, and what it meant to enlist in the army.    The cooler temperatures did not dampen the spirits of those who attended this successful event.

The Historical Society would like to thank all of those who helped to make this event a success.

The Hawk-Hurst, 1906

This brochure, from the Hawk-Hurst hotel, continues to extol the virtues of Litchfield.  The next page reads as follows:

It is true, as a well known newspaper writer has recently said, that “all the poor wretch” has to do “who is languid with the luxuries of Lenox, stuffed with the satieties of Saratoga, nettled by the noodles of Newport, sick of the snobberies of Southampton, riled at the rigidities of Ridgefield, or piqued at the pretensions of Pittsfield,” all that this poor wretch has to do is to “come and bask for a while in the lithsome light of Litchfield.” He will leave a better and a happier man. But he will leave only to return the next season. It is an invariable rule that a person comes, sees, and is conquered. Once in Litchfield he is always a Litchfielder.

Special June rates for the season of nineteen hundred and six- $12.50 to $20 per week.

 

Western Reserve Addition

Judson Canfield by Ralph Earl, 1796

We’ve noted our available Western Reserve Collections before (see http://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/blog/?s=western+reserve) In addition to the Judson Canfield Papers and the Samuel Flewwelling Papers, the Benjamin Tallmadge Collection, the Seymour Family Papers, and several others all document the population of the Western Reserve. We are happy to add a new publication to our holdings related to this topic, The Peopling of New Connecticut: From the Land of Steady Habits to the Western Reserve, edited by Richard Buel, Jr. It includes an excerpt from the Litchfield Monitor, an article published by Uriel Holmes, a former Litchfield Law School student, in the Carlisle Gazette, and a speech by Oliver Wolcott to the legislature. Thanks to Chip Spencer for this new addition.

Law Day

Litchfield County Bar Association Journal

 

The Litchfield County Bar Association is celebrating Law Day today with a reception at the Litchfield History Museum.  The Society holds the Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1793-1886 in the Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library. This single volume record book contains various information pertaining to the Litchfield County Bar Association. The first entry is dated December 1796.  The volume includes entries by various secretaries documenting rules for admission to practice, resolves, and fees.  Adonijah Strong is the first party listed as Chairman, and Frederick Wolcott the first as Clerk of the Bar.  It establishes a fee schedule for the Court of Common Pleas and the Superior Court. It provides listings of students studying for the bar at the Litchfield Law School and reading law with various attorneys.  It also notes when particular students have completed their studies.  Several Litchfield Law School students held the Secretary’s position and kept the minutes.  The volume ends in 1886.  It has been a valuable resource for providing citations of attendance for many law school students.  Images of the pages will soon be available in The Ledger.