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satonic. It is a part of the orignal town | Indian chief who lived here, of whom I

of Derby. The sketch which I present was taken at the distance of about one mile and a half south of the village. It exhibits but a small portion of the buildings; the point of view was selected for the reason that it developed to the best advantage the singularly romantic and picturesque scenery by which the village is surrounded. On the left appears Castle Rock, and in the back ground" the Highlands" of the Naugatuck are seen at a distance, with the bold outline of Rock Rimmon. A small settlement was made here at an early period. The village has received, at different times, various names. "The place," says Barber," was originally called Nau-ko-tunk, which signifies, in the Indian language, one large tree, so named from a large tree which formerly stood near Rock Rimmon, about three fourths of a mile north of the village."

For a considerable period after its settlement, it was known as Chusetown, from an

have given some account in the November NATIONAL. It afterward received the name of Humphreysville, in honor of General David Humphreys, who, at an early period, established extensive manufactories here, and whose name is intimately associated with the history and growth of the place. It continued under the name of Humphreysville as a society of Derby, up to 1850, when it was incorporated under the name of Seymour. There are, at the present time, several extensive manufacturing establishments here. Nature seems to have designed Seymour as a manufacturing place. A ridge of rocks, some twenty feet in height, here crosses the river, forming a perfect dam two thirds of the distance. The remaining third is closed by an artificial dam.

General Humphreys established at this place the earliest and the most extensive wool, cotton, and paper manufactories in this country. President Dwight, of Yale

College, in his "Travels in New England and New-York," who visited Humphreysville in 1811, gives an account of the place, which is not without a certain degree of interest at this time, as a picture of an important manufacturing village in the infancy of American manufactures. It also shows the prejudice which the first pioneers in manufactures were obliged to contend with. From this work I make the following extracts:

"A strong current of water, in a channel cut through the rock on the eastern side, sets in motion all the machinery employed in these establishments. By this current are moved the grist-mill; two newly-invented shearing machines; a breaker and finisher for carding sheep's wool; a machine for making ravelings; two jennies for spinning sheep's wool, under the roof of the grist-mill; the works in the papermill; a picker; two more carding machines for sheep's wool; and billy with forty spindles in a third building; a fulling-mill, and a sawmill; two more fulling-mills on improved principles, immediately connected with the clothier's shop; and the various machinery in a cotton manufactory, a building about one hundred feet long, thirty-six wide, and of four stories, capable of containing two thousand spindles, with all their necessary apparatus. The houses can accommodate with a comfortable residence about one hundred and fifty persons. others in the neighborhood will furnish comfortable residences for upward of one hundred and fifty more. Gardens, on a beautiful plat

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in the rear of the manufactories, furnish all the vegetables necessary for the establishment.

"The principal part of the labor in attending the machinery in the cotton and woolen manufactories is done by women and children: the former hired at from fifty cents to one dollar per week; the latter, apprentices, who are regularly instructed in reading, writing, and arith

metic.

"The wages of the men are from five to twenty-one dollars per month.

"In Europe great complaints have been made of manufacturing establishments, as having been very commonly seats of vice and disease. General Humphreys began this with a determination either to prevent these evils, or, if this could not be done, to give up the design. With regard to the health of his people, it is sufficient to observe that, from the year 1804 to the year 1810, not an individual belonging to the institution died. . . . With respect to vice, it may be remarked, that every person who is discovered to be openly immoral, is discharged. "At the commencement of the institution, discreet parents were reluctant to place their children in it, from unfavorable apprehensions concerning the tendency of such establishments. Since that time they have been offered in more than sufficient numbers.

"In 1813 the Legislature, at the instance of General Humphreys, passed a law, constituting the select-men and magistracy of the several towns in which manufactories had been and should be established, visitors of these institu

tions. This law required the proprietors to control, in a manner specified, the morals of all other children in plain families throughout the the workmen, and to educate the children, as

state were educated. . . . The manufactures of Humphreysville are esteemed excellent. The best broad cloth made here is considered in

ferior to none which is imported.... None but Americans are employed in this institution. Americans make all the machinery..... The people of this country are, at least in my opinion, indebted not a little to General Humphreys, both for erecting this manufacturing establishment, and for introducing into the United States the invaluable breed of Spanish sheep, known by the name of Merinos....

"In this manufactory he has, I think, fairly established three points of great importance. One is, that these manufactures can be carried on with success; another, that the workmen can be preserved in as good health as that enjoyed by any other class of men in the country; and the third, that the deterioration of morals in such institutions, which is often complained of, is not necesary, but incidental; not inherent in the institution itself, but the fault of the proprietor."

David Humphreys was born at Derby in the year 1753. He was the son of the Rev. Daniel Humphreys, a Congregational clergyman at this place. He entered Yale College in 1767, and graduated in 1771. This was during the brief period of Dr. Daggett's presidency, an epoch which is acknowledged to present the most brilliant display of eminent names furnished by the catalogue of Yale College.

Trumbull, Dwight, and Humphreys were cotemporaries as academicians, and, soon after, Barlow. A recent writer says:

"While these young men maintained honorable rank as scholars, they brought the charms of poetry from their studies to grace the progress of freedom and strew flowers in the pathway of liberty. Excitements that influence teachers, who considered even clerical immunities and obligations as forming no just exemption from active personal service in opposition to tyranny and oppression, operated with wonderful effect on the minds of pupils. A love of letters became united with a love of country; scholarship and patriotism formed an alliance, and literature in all its branches lent its aid to the cause of freedom."

"The young bards of the college raised their animating strains, and with the caustic satire of Trumbull, the noble songs of Dwight, and the elaborate efforts of Barlow, were mingled the patriotic effusions of Humphreys."

After his collegiate course was completed Humphreys resided for a time in the family of Colonel Phillips, Westchester County, New York. He seems to have returned to his alma mater before entering into the service of his country.

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take order thereon." This resolution was carried into effect in 1786, and the sword presented by General Knox, Secretary of War, accompanied by a highly complimentary letter.

The engraving which we present on the following page represents Colonel Humphreys delivering the standards surrendered under the capitulation of Yorktown, at Congress Hall, in Philadelphia, November 3, 1781. It is from a painting

Mr. Humphreys entered the army as captain in 1778; he held the additional appointment of aid to Major General Put-in the Trumbull Gallery at New Haven, nam. His patriotic sentiments as well as his literary talents commended him to the early notice of many of the most efficient and discerning officers of the Revolution.

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At Yorktown Colonel Humphreys particularly distinguished himself when Lord Cornwallis with his army surrendered to the combined forces of America and France. “As a mark of the approbation of General Washington, Colonel Humphreys was dispatched to Congress with copies of the returns of prisoners, artillery, arms, ordnance, etc., which had been surrendered, and twenty-five stands of colors." General Washington, in his letter to the President of Congress, says that these returns and colors have been committed to the care of Colonel Humphreys, one of my aids-de-camp, whom, for his attention, fidelity, and good services, I beg leave to recommend to Con'gress and to your excellency."

In November, 1781, Congress "Resolved, That an elegant sword be presented, in the name of the United States in Congress assembled, to Colonel Humphreys, aid-de-camp of General Washington, to whose care the standards taken under the capitulation of Yorktown were consigned, as a testimony of their opinion of his fidelity and ability, and that the board of war VOL. XI.-37

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which was executed under Colonel Humphreys' direction, in Spain by a Spanish artist.

In November, 1782, Humphreys was, by resolution of Congress, commissioned as lieutenant-colonel, with order that his commission should bear date from June 23, 1780, when he received his appointment as aid-de-camp to the commanderin-chief.

Soon after the preliminaries of peace were agreed upon the operations of the army were suspended. The commanderin-chief, however, continued with the northern division until December, 1783, when he resigned his commission. that interesting occasion he was attended at Annapolis by Colonel Humphreys, who afterward returned with him to Mount Vernon.

On

In May, 1784, Colonel Humphreys was elected by Congress to the commission for negotiating treaties of commerce with foreign powers. The commissioners were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, who received his appointment as commissioner three days previous to the election of Colonel Humphreys as secretary.

Soon after this he accompanied Mr. Jefferson to Europe. General Kosciusko was a companion of this voyage. At the expiration of two years Colonel Humphreys returned to this country, and immediately visited Mount Vernon.

During that period known as the time of "Shay's Rebellion," Colonel Humphreys was appointed by the Legislature of Connecticut to the command of a regiment. He fixed his head quarters at Hartford, where he resumed his intimacy with some of his early literary associates. In connection with Trumbull, and Barlow, and Dr. Samuel Hopkins, he occupied himself in writing the "Anarchiad," a brilliant series of witty poetical essays.

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GENERAL HUMPHREY DELIVERING THE FLAGS TAKEN AT YORKTOWN.

Soon after the suppression of the insurrection he repaired by invitation to Mount Vernon, where he occupied himself in preparing his Life of Putnam. "A smooth and complimentary piece of biography," says a recent critic, "which certainly anticipates no modern doubts of the bravery of Old Put.""

In 1789 he was appointed by Congress

as one of a board of commissioners to

treat with the Southern Indians, and in 1790 he was appointed minister to the court of Portugal, where he resided as diplomatic representative of this country

until 1797. He was at this time transferred to the court of Madrid, where he continued until 1802, when he returned to the United States. One of his biographers says:

During his residence in Portugal he was authorized with special powers to open negotiations with several of the Barbary States, with a view as well to obtain the liberation of many American citizens held in captivity, as to secure our commerce by treaties from further spoliations, the act authorizing him to appoint agents. In furtherance of his duties, Colonel Humphreys (who had made a short visit to the United States in the early part of the year 1795, in order to render full personal representations on the subject of Barbary aggres

sions) returned to Europe in 1795, accompanied by Joseph Donaldson, consul for Tunis and Tripoli, who was to be employed to negotiate the treaty, while Colonel Humphreys himself went to France to obtain the aid of the French government."

Joel Barlow, then residing in France, was appointed to act in the negotiation. Mr. Donaldson, treaties were subsequently Through the agency of Mr. Barlow and formed with Algiers and Tripoli, and approved and concluded by Colonel Humphreys. The diplomatic communications of Colonel Humphreys have been highly praised, and they have been acknowledged

tor."

as creditable to him "both as a national jurist and a correct and lucid negotiaTrumbull, the author of " M'Fingal,” has Of his diplomatic affairs John some pleasant railery in a letter to Oliver Wolcott, dated Hartford, December 9, 1789:

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Pray congratulate Colonel Humphreys, in my name, on his late promotion in the diplo matic line. If I understand the matter rightly, he holds the same post which Crispe promised George in the Vicar of Wakefield. You remember Crispe told him there was an embassy talked of from the Synod of Pennsylvania to the Chicasaw Indians, and he would use his interest to get him appointed secretary. Tell

him not to be discouraged too much at his want of success. The president has tried him on M'Gillivray first, and he did not suit the skill of the savage, but we cannot argue from that circumstance that he could not fit as easy as a full-bottomed wig upon the fatheaded, sot-headed, and crazy-headed sovereigns of Europe. Tell him this story also for his comfort, and to encourage his hopes of speedy employment. A king being angry with an embassador, asked him whether his master had no wise men at court, and was, therefore, obliged to send him a fool. Sire, said the other, my master has many wise men about his court; but he conceived me the most proper embassador to your majesty. Upon this principle I am in daily expectation of hearing that he is appointed minister plenipo to George, Louis, or the Stadtholder."

This specimen of the humor of the author of M'Fingal reminds me of a story that is related of his father, the Rev. John Trumbull, which should have appeared in a former article. It was said of this gentleman, that if one of his people turned Episcopalian, he would buy his farm. Mr. Trumbull was not tall, but a stout, athletic man. He was sound, shrewd, and humorous. Horses he was fond of, and bought and sold them frequently with

success.

On this account he was sometimes irreverently called "jockey Trumbull." He loved innocent sports, and had once been a great wrestler. A story is told of him, which, though it may not be wholly true, is probably not a pure invention. At any rate, it illustrates the manners of the times. The Waterbury and Westbury people were in the habit of meeting at some half-way place, in the long autumnal evenings, to contend as wrestlers. They met around a fire, and the sport was commenced by two second-rate athletes. When one was thrown, the vanquished called in another from his own side, the object being to vanquish the victor. Thus the experts were called out in succession, and he who remained last on his legs was the bully of the night. In several contests, at the time of which I am speaking, Waterbury had proved too much for Westbury. Mr. Trumbull heard of the defeat of his boys, and partook of their mortification. On occasion of the next contest he disguised himself, and went down unknown, except to two or three, to give "material aid," if necessary. The

Gibbs's Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams.

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wrestlers were called in one after the other, until Westbury was again "thrown out," the Waterbury champion having grounded the last of the rival party. At this period, when the signs of exultation on one side and chagrin on the other were becoming manifest, a stranger was dragged in from the outer circle of the ring to contend for the Westbury boys. The parties placed themselves in position, and began by playing round" to find each other's qualities. After a little time the stranger, watching his opportunity, caught his antagonist's foot, and threw him upon the fire. Shouts filled the air, and the victor disappeared. Great was the exploit, and great the mystery of the affair; but the secret finally leaked out. The story reached the ears of the Rev. Mr. Leavenworth, (of Waterbury,) and the next time he met his brother Trumbull he rebuked him for his levity, and censured him, particularly, for throwing his rival upon the fire, by which his clothes and flesh were scorched. Trumbull agreed that he had been guilty of levity; but for the scorching, he thought it his duty to give his (Mr. Leavenworth's) parishioners a foretaste of what they might expect after sitting under his preaching!*

But to return, after this long digression, to Colonel Humphreys. During his residence in Europe he wrote several of his best compositions in verse; he corresponded at this time with his friend Dwight, in poetical epistles. He addressed a sonnet "To the Prince of Brazil," on his departure from Lisbon, which was translated into Portuguese verse. His correspondence with General Washington was of the most friendly and confiding character, and Washington expressed a strong desire that he would, after his return from Europe, make Mount Vernon his permanent residence as the companion of his declining years.

In his poem "On the industry of the United States," which was composed, he tells us," on the delightful banks of the Tagus, where his days were pleasantly passed in the enjoyment of health, happiness, and content," he says:

For the foregoing story the writer is indebted to "The History of Waterbury," by Henry Bronson, M. D., about to be issued by Messrs. Bronson Brothers, Waterbury, a work of sterling merit.

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