Norwalk, Connecticut

“ Frequently the petitions "to build a Sabbath Day House" or a "Housel for Shelter for Horss" were made in company by several farmers for their joint use and comfort, as shown by entries in the town and church records of Norwalk, New Milford, Durham, and Hartford.
Noon-houses were much more frequent in Connecticut than in Massachusetts, and in several small towns in the former State they were used weekly between Sunday services until within the memory of persons now living; and some of the buildings still exist, though changed into granaries or stables. ”

“ The inhabitants of Connecticut then numbered about fifteen thousand, settled in thirty towns, mostly along the shore of Long Island Sound, and upon the banks of the Connecticut and Thames Rivers. During the thirty years next before, a few families from Norwalk had settled at Danbury, from Stratford at Woodbury, from Milford at Derby, and from Farmington at Waterbury. ”

“ Schulte?" said Bucholz.
The old man nodded his head affirmatively, but made no audible reply.
"Which way are you going?" asked Bucholz, unabashed by the manner of the other.
"I am going down to South Norwalk, in Connecticut, to buy a farm which was advertised for sale there," answered Mr. Schulte.
"Where is Frank?" asked Bucholz, as though in ignorance of their separation. "Is he not going with you?"
"Frank is no longer in my employ. I have discharged him, and he must now look out for himself."
"Don't you want somebody to take his place?" said Bucholz, eagerly. ”

“ The city has a green with several old churches and some fine elms, a public library, a hospital, a state armoury and a county children's home. The Norwalk Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has erected here a drinking fountain in memory of Nathan Hale, who obtained in Norwalk his disguise as a Dutch school teacher and then started on his fatal errand to Long Island. Norwalk has some manufactures, including woollen goods and typewriting machines; and there is some coasting trade, oysters especially being shipped from Norwalk. ”

“ Three miles farther on we reach Norwalk,{214} a primitive landing place, where there seems nothing to land for, and nowhere to go to when you have landed. But the settlement, it seems, is laid more than a mile back from the river, and is rather an important little town, the neighbourhood producing a large amount of garden vegetables and fruits. Very few orange growers settle in that location; very few tourists visit it; it is a simple city of homes ”

“ North Liberty, Connecticut, never on any day a cheerful town, was always bleaker and more cheerless on the seventh, when the Sabbath sun, after vainly trying to coax a smile of reciprocal kindliness from the drawn curtains and half-closed shutters of the austere dwellings and the equally sealed and hard-set churchgoing faces of the people, at last settled down into a blank stare of stony astonishment. ”

“ In 1905 the factory products were valued at $6,022,391. With the city's growth in manufacturing there has been a large increase in the foreign element in the population. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks, and gas and electric lighting plants.
Norwich was settled in 1659 by colonists from Saybrook under the leadership of Captain John Mason (1600—1672) , who had crushed the power of the Pequot Indians in Connecticut in 1637, and the Rev. ”

“ This town was the residence of the valiant Sassacus, Sachem of the Pequod nation.
Stonington lies on Narraganset-Bay, is the east corner of Connecticut, and consists of three parishes. The township is 8 miles square.
[Pg 123] Preston, on Quinnibaug river, forms three parishes, one of which is episcopal. The township is 8 miles square.
Norwich, on the Thames, 14 miles from the sea, is an half-shire with New-London. The town stands on a plain, one mile from Chelsea, or the Landing. Its best street is two miles long, and has good houses on both sides, five yards asunder from each other. ”

“ The citizens, descended from good old revolutionary sires, possess the sturdy ambitions, the indomitable will and the undoubted honor of their ancestors, and, as is the case with all progressive American towns, South Norwalk boasts of its daily journal, which furnishes the latest intelligence of current events, proffers its opinions upon the important questions of the day, and, like the Sentinel of old, stands immovable and unimpeachable between the people and any attempted encroachment upon their rights. ”

“ There is no evidence of the existence of Norwich as a city for 400 years after the Christian era. The whole island was a howling wilderness, and Norfolk was a vast common, like Roudham Heath. The natives lived by hunting or fishing, and sheltered themselves in the woods, or in caves, or huts. Water covered nearly all the area in which the city is now built, and filled all the valley of the Yare. The aborigines, called the Iceni, probably lived in huts near the banks of the river, as it afforded a good supply of fish ”

“ Augustine’s parish, just outside the city walls, was probably founded by a bishop of Norwich, as an hospital for lepers, but is now occupied by ancient poor of both sexes, who are past labor, and not fit to be put into common workhouses; they are in wards from 8 to 12 in each ward, and have every necessary, both of food and raiment; the number entertained here is 103, and as soon as one dies, the vacancy is filled up by election of the committee of the court of guardians for the poor. ”

“ In 1574, Norwich exhibited on its muster roll 2120 able men, towards the general defence against the invincible Armada. In 1578, queen Elizabeth took up her abode for several days in the city. In 1688, the charter was confirmed p. 9to its full extent, by virtue of which, the government is vested in a mayor, recorder, steward, two sheriffs, twenty-four aldermen, of which the mayor is one, sixty common councilmen, a town clerk, chamberlain, sword bearer and other officers. ”

“ As toleration was more freely extended, oppression quickly ceased. The smaller and weaker sects [af] that appeared in Connecticut after 1770 received no such persecution as their predecessors. Among them the Sandemanians [ag] appeared about 1766, and from the first created considerable interest. The Shakers were permitted to form a settlement at Enfield in 1780. The Universalists began making converts among the Separatist churches of Norwich as early as 1772. The year 1784 saw the organization of the New London Seventh-day Baptist church, the first of its kind in Connecticut. ”

“ On April 26th, 1786, the Norwich and Norfolk Benevolent Medical Society was instituted. In May, an exact account of the inhabitants of Norwich was taken from house to house, and the population was ascertained to be 40,051 souls, exclusive of those living in the precincts of the Cathedral, being an increase of nearly 4000 since 1752. This entirely contradicts the statement of Mr. Arthur Young, in his Tour of England, published in 1770, to the effect that 72,000 persons were then employed in manufactures in this city. ”

“ Norwich has, indeed, a superiority in its tower, in regard to which, it may safely be put in competition with any edifice of the same style, in Normandy or in England. For beauty, richness, variety, and purity of ornament, there is nothing like it. On the other hand, Norwich has undergone various alterations, as well in its interior, as its exterior [5] , and it has no decoration of the same description comparable with the capitals in the church of St. Georges. ”

“ While the colonists were thus prosecuting the business of settlement in New England, the Right Honorable James, Marquis of Hamilton, obtained a grant from the Council of Plymouth April 20, 1635, of all that tract of country which lies between Connecticut River and Narraganset River and harbor, from the mouth of each of said rivers northward sixty miles into the country. ”

“ The water-side is the familiar dull red, above which glancing roofs and steeples among trees are seen retreating up the ascent. By night a ridged and chimneyed blackness bestrewed with lights rewards the curious gazer from the deck of a Sound steamboat. I admired in Norwich the broad avenues, the wealth of old trees, the luxurious spaciousness of the private grounds. Washington Street is one of the finest I have walked in. There is breathing-room everywhere, town and country seeming to meet [Pg 435] and clasp hands, each giving to the other of the best it had to offer. ”

“ No merely ecclesiastic settlement, the cold glories of its Cathedral are but one phase of Norwich. Prosperous and self-sufficing in the best sense; its citizens public-spirited, its situation beautiful, its highways imposing and byways quaint and curious, Norwich stands by itself, in its likeness to no other town or city in England. If one must seek a parallel, it is to Exeter one must look, for there is much in common between the two. Both are, very distinctly, the capitals of their respective 294provinces; Norwich still metropolitan to East Anglia, and Exeter to the West of England. ”

“ With the exception of Chapel Field, we have not a single open public space. There is not a spot where the lads can play at cricket or football, or where their seniors can lounge away an evening hour; while as to a public park, the chance of this appears to grow dimmer and dimmer as the population of the city spreads and increases. I have ventured on more than one occasion to call attention to the need of such places for Norwich, and I have pointed to Mousehold Heath as a place which should, at all costs, be preserved for the city. ”

“ In 1336, a great influx of Flemings in consequence of religious persecution, settled in Norwich, and introduced the worsted manufactory.
Henry IV. in the year 1403, granted the city a charter, which made Norwich a county of itself; and from this time it was governed by a mayor instead of bailiffs; and in 1406, another charter was obtained for regulating the mode of choosing the mayor, sheriffs, &c. ”

“ Norwich has experienced of late years, a number of improvements; the lighting is much more brilliant, and better regulated than formerly; the paving also, which is in great forwardness, and the alterations consequent thereon, have already much improved many parts, and will when finished, add greatly to the beauty of the city, and to the convenience and comfort of the inhabitants and occasional visitors. ”

“ IX. MRS. OPIE.
Norwich has been called "The City of Gardens;" for behind the large houses belonging to professional men, and business men, which front the narrow irregular streets, there are sweet lawns and well-cared-for flower borders, with trees and shrubs planted so thickly round the walls, or the walls themselves so covered with the trailing tendrils of fresh creepers, that imagination might fancy the scene one of pure country loveliness. ”

“ Proceeding eastward out of the Fenland and among the hills of Norfolk, the little river Wensum is found to have cut a broad, deep, and trench-like valley into the chalk and gravel plateau. Upon the elevated bank of the river is the irregularly picturesque town of Norwich, with the castle keep rising above the undulating mass of buildings, and the cathedral and its noble spire overtopping the lower portion of the city on the right hand. Norwich is an ancient town, but very little is known with certainty about it anterior to the Danish invasions. ”

“ He is a king to whom the people pay some respect,—because they made him so.
The people of this town have the credit of inventing tar and feathers as a proper punishment for heresy. They first inflicted it on quakers and anabaptists.
New-London has a printing press, much exercised in the business of pamphlets, sermons, and newspapers. It is employed by the Governor and Company, and is the oldest and best in the colony. Newhaven, Hertford, and Norwich, also, have each a printing press ”

“ Norwich, in its present state, is said to p. 2occupy more ground, comparatively with its population, than any city in the kingdom, being much interspersed with gardens, and it is frequently stiled, a city in an orchard; its shape is irregular, and may not unaptly be compared to a shoulder of mutton—it is full one mile and a half in length, and a mile and quarter broad. It contains thirty four churches and a number of chapels and meeting houses, besides the cathedral ”

“ Norwich is 108 miles from London by Newmarket, 110 by Colchester, 114 by Bury St. Edmunds, and it is a remarkable fact, that Norwich, Bury and Lynn, form an equilateral triangle, each side measuring 42 miles, it is also 43 miles from Ipswich, and 24 from Yarmouth. The soil of Norwich is mixed the upper stratum is light of sufficient depth for the plough upon chalk, gravel and sand; the air is remarkably salubrious, it is screened from the easterly wind by Moushold Heath, and abound in springs of water of the purest kind. ”

“ Norwich is the capital of all the county, and the centre of all the trade and manufactures which I have just mentioned; an ancient, large, rich, and populous city. If a stranger was only to ride through or view the city of Norwich for a day, he would have much more reason to think there was a town without inhabitants, than there is really to say so of Ipswich ”

“ Woodward regarded Norwich as the Venta Icenorum of the Romans for several reasons, and particularly because it was plain from the occurrence of these Ventas in Britain, and none in any other part of the Roman world, that this was the name of a British town, which its being called the Venta of the Iceni strongly confirmed—even, in fact, a British stronghold, constructed according to the custom of that people in parts of the country without hills. In hilly countries the strongholds were entrenchments round the summits of the hills, but then there were small tracts of land surrounded by marshes. ”