Historic Litchfield Address Delivered at the Bi-Centennial Celebration of the Town of Litchfield, August 1, 1920 _By_ Hon. Morris W. Seymour, LL.D [Illustration] PRIVATELY PRINTED 1920 “_Let us now Praise Famous Men―― Our Fathers that begat us._” ――_Ecclus: 44; 1._ * * * * * _Fellow Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen_: An attempt to epitomize the events of two hundred years in an hour’s time is no easy task in any circumstances. It becomes doubly difficult when those years are filled with the stirring events that have marked the history of this community. I do not hesitate to say that no town of an equal number of inhabitants in this or any other country has played so conspicuous a part in the affairs of a state or nation as has the town whose two hundredth birthday we celebrate. Its very conception originated in a historic tragedy. Years before the settlement of the town, our State officials became convinced of the hostility of the English Government and its determination to revoke our charter. To frustrate this design, in part, and to prevent the “Western Lands,” as they were called, which embraced the territory of this town――in the words of the enactment――“From falling into the grasp of Sir Edmund Andros and permitting him to enrich himself and his minions,” the Legislature, on January 26, 1686, ordered the sale of those lands to the Towns of Hartford and Windsor. A few years later, there dropped from our Royal Oak, in whose bosom safely lay concealed our hidden charter, an acorn, which by reason of this action of the legislature, sprouted and blossomed forth as the Patent of this Town. A company was organized in 1718, upon the petition of Lieutenant John Marsh and Deacon John Buel, and they, with others, were incorporated by the General Assembly at its May Session, 1719, to settle a town called Litchfield on the “Western Lands” at Bantam. These original settlers were residents of and men of affairs in the Towns of Wethersfield, Hartford, Windsor, Lebanon and Farmington. Among the list of settlers appear names that we hear uttered almost daily in our streets and today are fortunate to have some of their descendants still with us――Marsh, Buel, Woodruff, Webster, Griswold, Gibbs, Stoddard, Sanford and many others. The plan of the village has never been materially changed. The settlers who had the first choice selected the southern portion of the town along the Bantam River and Little Pond, presumably because of the natural meadows which gave them hay for their cattle without waiting the slow process of clearing the land,――the first pitch was the upper corner of South Street and Gallows Lane (then called Middle Street).