The 2019 Guilford Preservation Alliance Newsletter is now available online. Read our president’s letter, news about the Harlan Griswold Award, preservation of the Moose Hill District School House, and the Witness Stones Project.
The ship named the Favorite, owned by Robert Johnston & Co, James Brown, and Richard and Abraham S. Hallett, and John G. Warren, all of New York, departed in 1800 with cargo owned by Frederic de Peyster and John Slidell. Bound for Cape Francis, the ship, commanded by Captain Charles Barnard, was captured on October 4, 1800, in lat. 20, long. 66, by the French privateer schooner the Patriot, and ordered to St. Pierre, Guadeloupe.
On December 4, 1800, a young man wrote a letter to his father in Guilford. The young man, who was in St. Kitts at the time, wrote “Honored Father – I embrace this opportunity to convey you a line, and inform you of my situation. I sailed from New York about the 12th of October, in the ship Favorite, Capt. Barnard, bound to Cape Francois. On the 4th of Nov. was taken by a French privateer, and carried into Guadaloupe, put into prison, and have just arrived here in a cartel. They took from me everything I had, both my venture and clothing, and scarcely left me a shirt to my back. Here I am destitute of a ship, money, or friends, and a stranger in a foreign land. Here are several vessels from northern ports, and one from New Haven, none of them will give me a passage. I am now bound to St. Bartholomew’s, in hopes that I shall get a vessel there bound to some part of America.”
Captain Barnard, of the ship the Favorite, in the previous year, had his sloop, the Cornelia, captured by the French, who condemned the vessel and cargo and sold that sloop at Guadeloupe.
The identity of the young man who wrote the letter to his father on December 4, 1800, is unknown.
Sources:
Mercantile Advertiser 22 Aug 1800 p3
Daily Advertiser 23 Dec 1800 p3
Litchfield Monitor 4 Feb 1801 p3
Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Advertiser 22 Jan 1800 p3
The French assault on American shipping, 1793-1813 : a history and comprehensive record of merchant marine losses. Greg H. Williams 2009
Compiled by Tracy Tomaselli 2020
In June 1917, a new fire alarm system was installed at Norton’s garage, 78 Boston Street, and connected with the local telephone exchange. When a fire broke out, callers were to notify the Central Telephone office on Whitfield Street, and the operator was to “pull” the alarm.
The borough officials arranged a system of signals for use when the fire whistle was put in commission to inform people of the location of the fire. The apparatus required seventy pounds of compressed air, to blow a signal three times, and was to be powerful and loud enough to be heard all over the borough in any kind of weather condition. [Read more…]
Bret Gagne (“Furniture Doctor”) and First Selectman Matt Hoey with Town Hall auditorium seats (circa 1895)
When Town Hall was first built in 1893, the rear of the ground floor included an auditorium with seating for 350 people, says Guilford town historian Joel Helander. Over the years the building was renovated and made bigger. The auditorium was eliminated circa 1947 and the ornate wooden seating was put into storage.
When the Town Hall was renovated again in 1974, the auditorium seating was “up for grabs,” and Helander, already in tune with the need for historic preservation, moved three sets of connected seats to his family home on Clapboard Hill Road. They have been there ever since.
Now, with the help of an $1100.00 preservation fund grant from the Guilford Preservation Alliance, [Read more…]
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. The game takes its name from the 17th Century whist (or wist) meaning quiet, silent or attentive.
The classic game of whist is a plain-trick game without bidding for 4 players in fixed partnerships. A standard 52 deck of cards is used. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest.
Each player is dealt 13 cards, the trump suit for each trick (or round) is indicated by the last card dealt (to the dealer). [Read more…]
On April 4, 2019 the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the Guilford Preservation Alliance the Harlan H. Griswold Award. Harlan H. Griswold was a founder of the CT Trust and longtime chair of the Connecticut Historical Commission. This award recognizes individuals, corporations, or organizations whose activities exemplify Mr. Griswold’s leadership, vision, and dedication to preserving Connecticut’s heritage and who by deed or example have made our state a better place to live. The GPA was chosen due to [Read more…]
The Ladies Auxiliary, Guilford Grange No. 81, assembled a “Favorite Recipes” book in 1955. The book, “dedicated to the Modern Home”, where “Life is centered around our kitchens”, included “treasured old family recipes.”
The United States did not officially join the allies, but acted as an independent power, supplying major contributions of raw material, money, and soldiers.
During the war, the U.S. mobilized over 4 million military personnel, more than 2 million of those fought in the battlefields in France under General John Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces.
During the first World War offensive weapons of mass destruction and defensive strategies and tactics, unlike anything seen in previous wars, were developed. Tanks were built and used in response to the stalemate of trench warfare. Modernized submarines armed with torpedoes and deck guns were used. Giant zeppelins and airplanes were used for surveillance, bombing raids, and aerial dogfight combat. Poisonous gas killed thousands before gas masks were distributed. Flamethrowers, machine guns, field artillery, and skin burning mustard gas unleashed horrific results. Carnage was huge. [Read more…]
An article in 1821 mentioned that a few had aided in missionary work “for the Heathen”, but encouraged more participation. [1]
Later that year, donations of clothing, bedding, goods and cash, were collected for the Elliot Mission. The Elliott mission attempted to bring the Indians of the Choctaw nation to salvation through making the Indians use the English language, civilizing their habits, and making them Christian in their religion. [2] [3] [4]
In 1823, the Ladies’ Society in North Guilford raised $332 and a couple articles of clothing for the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall. [Read more…]
The Guilford Preservation Alliance Newsletter Fall 2018 is now available online. Read our president’s letter, news about the historic Davis House, the formation of the Sustainable Guilford Task Force, the Witness Stones Project, among others.
