Читать книгу The Life of Henry Bradley Plant - G. Hutchinson Smyth - Страница 10

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The Blackstone Family—The Ancestor Came from England before 1630—His Name was William Blaxton—Settled First in Massachusetts, afterwards Went to Rhode Island—His Beautiful Character and Numerous Descendants—Origin of Yale College of Branford—The Blackstone Memorial Library.

FROM a pamphlet history of the Blackstone family, in which the name is spelled Blaxton, we gather the following interesting account:

“For several years before Winthrop came, in 1630, William Blaxton constituted the entire population of this peninsula [Massachusetts, of which the present Boston Common was then a part], at that time an unbroken wilderness of woods traversed by savages, by wolves, and other wild beasts almost as dangerous. Here he dwelt alone, exposed to dangers, many and great. He was a man of culture, refinement, and gentlemanly bearing, amiable and hospitable, liked by Indians, and indeed by everybody. These noble traits, this love of nature, his sacred calling, his trusting faith, invested whatever belonged to him with a romantic interest. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, born in 1595, graduated from Cambridge, England, in 1617, and died 1675, aged eighty years. Blaxton took orders in the Episcopal Church, but it seems that he never had a cure, though he still wore his canonical coat, which would indicate his attachment to the English Church, yet some have represented him as a non-conformist, ‘detesting Prelacy.’ He had in his library ten large volumes of manuscript books, presumably sermons, all of which were burned in his house during King Philip’s War. Blaxton came to America in 1623 with Robert Gorges.”

The father of Mr. Plant’s first wife was Captain James Blackstone. He lived to the ripe old age of ninety-seven. His son, Timothy B. Blackstone, is building a public library in Branford to the memory of his revered father. The following extract of a letter to the donor from one of the trustees of this library, Mr. Addison Van Name, will be of interest in this connection, showing, as it does, the origin of Yale College. The letter is dated from Yale University Library, and runs as follows:

“My fellow-trustees asked me to procure a design for a book-plate, and one is herewith submitted for your approval. It seemed to us that a memorable incident in the earlier library history of Branford might appropriately be commemorated here, and this has been attempted in the vignette, in the upper right-hand corner of the plate. You are no doubt familiar with the story, but President Clap’s Annals of Yale College is not a very common book, and I may be excused for quoting his exact language.

“In the year 1700, ‘The Ministers so nominated met at New Haven, and formed themselves into a body, or society, to consist of eleven ministers, including a rector, and agreed to found a college in the colony of Connecticut, which they did at their next meeting at Branford, in the following manner, viz.: Each member brought a number of books and presented them to the body, and laying them on the table said these words, or to this effect, “I give these books for the founding a college in this Colony.” Then the trustees, as a body, took possession of them, and appointed the Rev. Mr. Russel, of Branford, to be the Keeper of the Library, which then consisted of about forty volumes in folio.’”

The story is so good that, if there were not the best of reasons for believing it true, one might easily suspect it to have been invented. But in his preface President Clap says: “Several circumstances [and among them we may well suppose the incident in question] I received from sundry gentlemen who were contemporary with the facts related, among whom were some of the founders of the college with whom I was personally acquainted in the year 1726.”

The following account of Mr. Timothy B. Blackstone is taken from the New York Herald of April 12, 1896:

“Mr. Blackstone was born in a part of Branford known as Blackstoneville, on March 28, 1829. His father, Captain James Blackstone, in whose memory he erected this building, was a well-to-do farmer and stock-raiser. He derived his title of captain from being elected to that position in a company of local militia. He was elected to the Legislature in the sessions of 1825, 1826, and 1830, and was elected State Senator in 1840.

“Timothy attended the public schools here until he was eighteen years old, when he left, and obtained employment as assistant to a civil engineer, who was at that time surveying on the construction of the New York and New Haven, now the Consolidated, Railroad. After finishing this piece of work he became an engineer, and was appointed assistant engineer of the Stockbridge and Pittsfield Railroad, a short line constructed in 1849, and now a part of the Housatonic road. After this road was completed, Mr. Blackstone went west in 1851, and took charge of the construction of a portion of the Illinois Central Railroad. He settled at this time in La Salle, Ill., and was Mayor of the city for one year. In 1856, he became civil engineer of the Joliet and Chicago Railroad, which ran from Joliet via Lockport to Chicago. After this he was employed in surveying the land over which the Chicago and Alton Railroad now runs.

“Mr. Blackstone first began accumulating wealth while this road was being built. He purchased land ahead, and then sold it at a profit. He then invested in stock, and held several responsible offices until he attained his present position—president of the great system.”

On June 17, 1896, the magnificent library was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, and called forth much enthusiasm from the towns-people.

In the course of his speech on this occasion, as reported in the Daily Palladium of New Haven, Judge Harrison said:

“While the primary purpose of the generous donor of this building, and its endowment fund, is to benefit the people of the town of Branford, it will never be forgotten that it serves also as a memorial to Hon. James Blackstone, who spent his long life of ninety-three years in this town, where he was born, and to the welfare of which he devoted so much time during the years of his young and mature manhood. For nearly two centuries the Blackstone family has occupied a conspicuous place in this community, and for the same length of time representatives of the family have been tillers of the soil, the title to which has always been in a Blackstone.

“We cannot properly dedicate this building to the purpose for which it is intended without calling your attention briefly to James Blackstone, his life, his family, and his ancestors. He was born in Branford in 1793, in a house located nearly opposite that home which was during nearly his whole life his residence, and where he died on the 4th of February, 1886. His first ancestor in this country was the Rev. William Blackstone, a graduate, in 1617, of Emanuel College, Cambridge. He received Episcopal ordination in England after graduation, but, like John Davenport of New Haven, he soon became of the Puritan persuasion, left his native country on account of his non-conformity, and became the first white settler upon that famous neck of land opposite Charlestown, which is now the city of Boston. When the Massachusetts colony came to New England they found William Blackstone settled on that peninsula. He had been there long enough to have planted an orchard of apple trees. Upon his invitation, the principal part of the Massachusetts colony removed from Charlestown and founded the town of Boston, on land which Mr. Blackstone desired them to occupy. He was the first inhabitant of the town, and the colony records of May 18, 1631, show that he was the first person admitted a freeman of Boston. His house and orchard were located upon a spot about half-way between Boston Common and the Charles River. A few years passed by, and the peculiar notions of the Puritans of Boston on the subject of church organization and government, had satisfied William Blackstone that while he could not conform to the church of Archbishop Laud, neither could he conform to the Puritan Church of Boston, and when they invited him to join them he constantly declined, using this language: ‘I came from England because I did not like the lord-bishops; but I cannot join with you because I would not be under the lord-brethren.’

“In 1633, an agreement was entered into between himself and the other old settlers, in the division of the lands, that he should have fifty acres allotted to him near his house forever. In 1635, he sold forty-four of those acres to the company for £30, retaining the six acres upon which was his orchard, and soon afterwards he removed to Rhode Island, living near Providence until the time of his death, which occurred on the 26th of May, 1675. A few years after leaving Boston he sold the orchard of six acres to a man named Pepys. He was not in any manner driven away from Boston by the Puritan Fathers, but holding certain ideas which did not agree with those of his neighbors, he concluded to move to a new location, from similar motives to those which led John Davenport to leave New Haven and go to Boston after the union of the New Haven colony with the Connecticut colony at Hartford. All of the accounts and records of Rev. William Blackstone show him to have been a religious man, with literary tastes, of correct, industrious, thrifty habits, kind and philanthropic feelings, living for several years on Boston Neck, and demonstrating the ability of the white man to live in peace with only Indians for his neighbors. While living in Rhode Island he frequently went to Providence to preach the gospel, and was highly esteemed by all the settlers of that colony. In July, 1659, he married a widow named Sarah Stevenson, and by her he had one son, John Blackstone. The inventory of his estate after his death describes him as having a house and orchard, 260 acres of land, interests in the Providence meadows, and a library of 186 volumes of different languages. A river of Rhode Island and a town in Massachusetts were named Blackstone in his honor.

“His only son, John, married in 1692, and about 1713 moved to the town of Branford, where he took up his residence on lands southeast of the centre of the town, and bounded southerly by the sea.

“The son of this John Blackstone was born in 1669, and died in Branford, January 3, 1785, aged nearly eighty-six. His son, John Blackstone, was born in Branford in 1731, and died August 10, 1816, aged eighty-five. The son of this last John Blackstone, Timothy Blackstone, was born in Branford in 1776, and died in 1849, at the age of eighty-three. This Timothy Blackstone was the father of Hon. James Blackstone, who was born in Branford, in the old homestead of his father and grandfather, in 1793.

“Here were five generations of the Blackstones living and dying upon the old family farm in Branford. All of them seem to have possessed many of the traits of their first ancestor in this country. They were noted for their force of character, industry, modesty, and marked executive ability. James Blackstone, like his ancestors, was a farmer. At the age of twenty he was elected a captain in the Connecticut militia, and as such commanded his company for several months while serving as coastguard on Long Island Sound during the war of 1812-15. He held at one time or another during his life the important local offices of the town, such as assessor and first selectman. Before the separation of North Branford in 1831, the township of Branford, as one of the original towns, was entitled to two representatives in the General Assembly, and on several occasions Captain James Blackstone of Branford and Captain Jonathan Rose of North Branford were the representatives of the town at Hartford and New Haven. In 1842, James Blackstone represented the Sixth District in the State Senate. In politics he was a Federalist, a Whig, and a Republican. His advice and counsel were sought by people, not only of his own town, but of neighboring towns, when occasions arose concerning the settlement of estates or other matters, where the opinion and advice of a man of marked good judgment were needed. The first time I ever saw Captain James Blackstone, he was pointed out to me by a resident of the town, as he was driving past the old public square, with the remark: ‘That is Captain James Blackstone. When he rises in a town meeting and says, “Mr. Moderator, in my humble opinion it is better for this town that a certain course be taken,” the expression of his opinion always prevails with the majority of the voters in the meeting, so great is the confidence the people of the town have in his judgment.’ His character and remarkable ability can be easily read by any student of physiognomy who will look at the admirable life-size portrait of him now placed in this building. If his tastes had led him to a larger place for the exercise of his ability, no field would have been so large that he would not have been a leader among men.

“Yet here he chose to dwell, performing his part well through the whole of his long life....

“The donor of this library was the youngest son of James Blackstone. To many of you his history and life are well known. He left the east more than forty years ago to pursue his chosen profession. He married, in 1868, Miss Isabella Norton of Norwich, and since that time his home has been upon Michigan Avenue, in that great metropolis of the west, Chicago. There, for over thirty years he has managed with consummate skill the affairs of the most successful of all the great railroads of the west. Of him, his character, his generosity, and his remarkable modesty, but great ability, I am not at liberty to speak ... but this is not complete as a memorial of James Blackstone unless I mention briefly the other descendants. The eldest son of James Blackstone, George, died in 1861, never having been married. The eldest daughter, Mary, married Samuel O. Plant. One of her daughters, Ellen Plant, is with us to-day. Three grandchildren of Mrs. Mary Blackstone Plant, being the children of her daughter Sarah, are William L., Paul W., and Gertrude P. Harrison.

“The second son of James Blackstone, Lorenzo Blackstone, who lived for many years in Norwich, and died there in 1888, had five children. The eldest, De Trafford Blackstone, has one son, Lorenzo. The second child of Lorenzo is Mrs. Harriet Blackstone Camp of Norwich, who has three children, Walter Trumbull, Talcott Hale, and Elizabeth Norton Camp. The second daughter of Lorenzo is Mrs. Frances Ella Huntington of Norwich. The fourth child of Lorenzo Blackstone is William Norton Blackstone of Norwich; and his youngest son, Louis Lorenzo Blackstone, died in 1893.

“The second daughter of James Blackstone, Ellen Elizabeth, married Henry B. Plant, now of New York City. She died in 1861, leaving one son, Morton F. Plant, who is married and has one son, Henry B. Plant, Jr. James Blackstone’s third son was John Blackstone, who died several years ago, leaving three children, George and Adelaide Blackstone and Mrs. Emma Pond.

“Sir William Blackstone, the great authority upon the common law of England, was a cousin of the fifth degree to our James Blackstone, and the portraits of the two men bear a marked family resemblance.

“Ten years ago James Blackstone passed to his reward. His influence for good still exists in this community, where the old New England ideas are yet strong, though modified by the leaven of modern industry, education, and thought.”