2018 Fall Newsletter

Fall Edition 2018

Fall Membership Meeting

A tribute to Alfred T. Lilliendahl — March 14, 1919-2018

West Hartland Library/Hall

2PM - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7

Gaylord House Open 2-4pm too!

THE ORIGIN OF HARTLAND’S NAME by Lester Taylor 1880

Lester who migrated to Ohio from Hartland, would visit and stay with W. Hartland residents Dwight L. and T. E. Williams, Esqrs. of Mt. Williams—this homestead still stands today on Center Street. (Mt. Williams photo above c1900) The following is part of a letter sent by Lester to the Winsted Herald where it was published.

In the early history of Britain and through the former part of English history the name is referred to as a place, subsequently also to individuals. A few years since a wealthy banker of that name, in Gloustershire was doing business there. One writer claims to have found satisfactory evidence from old inscriptions, and from tradition, that the name can be traced back to Herculus, a Tyrian mariner, who made a voyage to England and opened commerce with Cromwell and that coins of Tyre were struck to his honor, and an old altar in Corbride church yard had Greek inscriptions referring to him, and that changes in language from conqueror and colonist-Roman, Saxon, Dane and Norman changed it to Hartland. Much of Britains early history is shrouded in darkness and mystery, whether facts or fiction, truth or legendary tales from visionary minds in their records or tradition is difficult to determine, which are uncertain and unreliable in solving different versions of history.

There is more reliable evidence of the name originating from Hart, a stag or deer. An ancient work on heraldry defined a Hart to be a deer six years old, when the crowning antler appeared—that it was greater glory to kill such than younger ones, because it was so much more formidable. A victory over such was an achievement coveted by chivalrous nobility, chiefs and monarchs, as evidence of their strategy and gallantry.

The name in early times did not apply to corporate body, politic, but a tract of land where the Hart was found, thus Hartland, the land of the Hart. Hartland, Huron Co. Ohio, was named after Hartland in Connecticut. Elijah Bills, Esq., one of the first settlers in that place was raised in the north part of the town, in or near Hartland Hollow leaving there young.

There is a Hartland in each of the following states: Vermont, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota and New York

In This Issue

Fall Membership meeting &

Tribute to Alfred T. Lilliendahl

October 7, SUNDAY, 2PM, West Hartland Library

W. Hartland’s 121 year old Methodist Church to be sold!

1880 article on how Hartland got it’s name

Childs Taylor, Jr. His ancestors came to Hartland around 1771. He was born, raised, married and had his 11 children in Hartland. In 1830 they all migrated to Western Reserve Ohio but they didn’t all stay there. In lies the story of Childs Jr. and some of his notable descendants. The Hartland Taylor Family...Part 2

Diaspora of Prince, Childs, Childs Jr. and Horace Taylor: Four Generations in Hartland. Part 2

By Jan Heald Robinson. My husband, Roger Robinson, and his family are descendants of our first Taylor arrivals in Hartland, Prince and Hannah (Childs) Taylor. We reside in Washington State (2018).

This article chronicles some of the life and accomplishments of Childs Taylor’s son; Childs, Jr., and his children, all of whom were born in Hartland, migrated to Ohio and those that traveled afar with the call to serve.

Childs Taylor Jr. (1782-1847), eldest son of Childs and Rhoda Bates Taylor, was born in Hartland, CT. In 1810 when both were 28, he married Althea Beach (1782-1867) of Hartland, daughter of Deacon Edmund and Lusannah Stanley Beach. Child’s Jr died at age 65, Althea age 85. Together they raised 11 children, Lusannah Douglass (1811-1895); Edmund (1813-1918), Horace Sedgwick (1814-1871), Almira Douglass (1816-1890); Almeda(Treat)(1816-1896); Warren (1818-1893); Elisha (1819-1873); Elijah (1819-1891); Nancy(Kellogg) Wilmot (1823-1892); Lucretia (1825-1887); Augusta Wilmot (1827-1919), all born in Hartland, CT.

Hartland Days and beyond - Every morning Childs Jr’s family, who lived in the vicinity of the Second Church, W.H., gathered in the large living room and were seated on benches while the Bible was read and prayers offered. In the evening before they retired the same service was held. Childs Jr was a shoe-maker by trade. In his shop over the kitchen, shoes were made for the whole family. He worked out his own leather, taking the hides to the tannery and finishing them at home. The men wore leather boots and the women high-laced shoes. Junior did not like to raise geese, but he told his six daughters he would raise the geese until each had two feather beds. Augusta was the youngest daughter. When she chose the geese for her featherbeds, Junior told her to pluck all the down for he would not keep geese any longer and he disposed of them. He also told them he would raise the flax and they could have all the linen they could make up for sheets, tablecloths, etc. They raised their flax, pulled it by hand and spread it on the grass a month or two to let it decay. It was then taken to the barn and put through a machine called a brake to take out the wood fiber and leave the flax fiber or linen. It was then put on a machine called a hatchel which took out the tow and left the pure linen. This was run through the flax spinning wheel and made ready to be woven into cloth.

Childs Jr. and Althea were both age 48 when they followed the Taylor family’s journey to Claridon, Ohio in 1830. Their travel party included their eleven children, ages ranging from 3-19 years with two pairs of twins, and his widowed mother, Rhoda Bates Taylor. They traveled via the newly-opened Erie Canal to Buffalo where they took a sailing vessel for a trip of three days on Lake Erie to Fairport Harbor, OH. After buying milk from the lighthouse keeper for the baby and youngest child, they unloaded luggage from the ship, packed the wagons, and headed 17 miles overland to Claridon. The approach of their wagons broke up a church service being held at the schoolhouse at Kellogg's Corners. The entire journey took four weeks.

They settled on a tract of land on Middle Street, bounded on the west by the Cuyahoga River, on the east by a north and south line extending midway between Middle and Center Street and lying both north and south of the present B&O railway. The tract contained about 500 acres and was probably bought for about $3 per acre. In the orchard back of the house may be found apple trees known as the ‘Row Sweets’, sprouts of which were brought from Hartland.

Lusannah (1811-1895). At eight years old, she was the oldest of eight children in the family. She was sixteen when Augusta (the youngest) was born. Just before his death, Childs Jr gave Lusannah ten dollars because so much more care for the family had fallen upon her than upon the other children. He felt this would be just to her; ten dollars was a lot of money at the time. Lusannah married Samuel Douglass whose parents had left Hartland in 1811, also locating in Claridon.

Edmund (1813-1918), was 17 when the family moved to Ohio. He studied evenings with his younger brother, Horace Sedgwick Taylor. This required infinite dedication after the day’s farm work and chores on a rocky hillside in Hartland. When he was 21, Oberlin College was founded and he entered it, with its first students. He determined to study medicine and graduated in the class of 1837, as valedictorian from Willoughby Medical College, now Ohio State University College of Medicine.

Rev. Horace Sedgwick (1814-1871), second son of Childs Jr. and Althea. Even as a youth in Hartland, Horace Sedgwick Taylor (HST) felt the calling to serve. As noted earlier, prayer services occurred at least two hours daily in the family home and at church, as well. In the evening after prayer service, HST studied with his older brother Edmund who became a doctor. As noted this required infinite dedication after the day’s farm work and chores on a rocky hillside in Hartland. The family made the nearly 600 mile journey to Claridon when HST was age 15. In establishing his father’s and extended family members’ farms in the wild new territory, HST persevered and continued his night time studies as schools were limited in the new territory.

Western Reserve College, closely affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, had opened in Hudson OH in 1826 and was the first institution of higher education in what had been the Connecticut Western Reserve. Religious groups operated most early colleges in Ohio, hoping to instill their students with good moral values and to create missionaries who would help convert new members. HST attended the college with cousins Sherman Douglass Taylor and Horace Addison Taylor. HST graduated in the Class of 1840, was a member of Alpha Delta Phi and selected for Phi Beta Kappa. Continuing theological studies and preparing for missionary work overseas, HST graduated in Theology in 1844. Western Reserve College moved to Cleveland in 1882 and is now known as Case Western University. In 1844, at age 30, he married Martha Elizabeth Sturtevant (1825-1911) of Ohio, daughter of Bradford and Sarah Carter Sturtevant. HST died at age 56; Martha at 86.

Note of interest: A January, 1895 article in the Home Missionary in a history of the East First Society (East Hartland) describes: The church has furnished valuable helpers for missionary and ministerial Services, including among others, Miss Herrick. The article also lists other ministers all born in the East Hartland parish. In India HST served with the Herrick’s (see photos of Mr. & Mrs.), the Howland’s, the Eames and perhaps others from Hartland. A Jonathan Herrick was one of the leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Society in E. Hartland 1844-1860.

It is not known where HST met his future wife, Martha, whom he married when she was 18. However, she would have been a devoted and pious wife, one who was willing to sail immediately the 18,000 miles to the Tamil speaking Indians in the Madura district of South India. HST and Martha married 17 Apr 1844 and he was ordained that same day. On 6 May 1844, HST and Martha embarked on the journey of their lives together. First, they went by boat and overland to Boston where neither had ever been. They left Boston with other new missionary couples with whom they would share their experiences over their lifetime, including the Herrick’s. They arrived at Madura and were stationed at Tirapuvanum. They were assigned to Mandapasalai in May 1850. Their children Martha S., Horace Judson, Bradford C., Isaac W., Lucretia M. and Sarah A. were born in these two India locations, though they would always know Mandapasalai as their childhood home. Photo of Horace Sedgwick far left, Howland’s and unknowns in India

In Dec 1856 Mrs. Taylor sailed with their four surviving children back to Ohio to register the two older children to attend Western Reserve Academy. They sailed on the steamer, Queen of the South, from Southampton England arriving in New York in May 1857. The two younger children returned with Mrs. Taylor to India in 1858. The older two children lived with Mrs. Caroline Eames, a missionary’s widow. On 24 Jul 1865, Rev. and Mrs. Taylor both journeyed back to the US from India with the younger two children due to health reasons for HST and to inspire the home churches. It was at the port in India where they first learned of Lincoln’s assassination. After returning to India, Rev. Taylor remained in charge of the Mandapasalai station until his death in 1871. Mandapasalai was his life’s work, founding the mission and a girls school. His widow remained there until 1875 when she returned to this country. Photos: top Mandapasalai Mission; bottom Pulani Hills retreat where HST died.

Notables of Rev. Horace Sedgwick and Martha’s children.

Martha Sturtevant Taylor (1846-1922) graduated from Lake Erie Female Seminary in Ohio, Class of 1865, which only had 11 students and was one of the early women’s colleges. Martha was for many years a teacher in both India and Ohio. She was the Director of the women’s boarding school in Mandapasalai and returned to Ohio in 1887 to care for her mother until her death in 1911. Martha then resided at the Hollenbeck home in Los Angeles where she continued to serve with college and missionary friends until her death.

Horace Judson Taylor (1847-1931) (HJT) childhood memories in India included snakes in the cotton ceiling cloth and a handful of rice and a banana for dinner. Both HJT and his younger brother Isaac attended Western Reserve Academy and College. HJT was keenly tied to his Connecticut roots, traveling there several times during his life. He died in Anacortes, WA. Of interest is that his father, Horace Sedgwick Taylor, when submitting his passport application to US Secretary of State John Calhoun, still noted that he was a native of Hartland, having been born there. It might be noted here that the minister referring Horace for the passport was Rev. Everton Judson of Woodbury CT and Hudson OH. Horace named his first son Horace Judson Taylor.

HJT’s four marriages and births are intertwined with his missionary service.

Judson founded 2 and/or built 4 churches on Fidalgo Island, WA and served more:

1872, HJT married Julia Rudd (1853-1874), daughter of Home missionaries in Tennessee where their son Horace Seymour (1873-1947) was born and named after a Western colleague of HJT, Thomas D. Seymour, who later taught Greek at Yale.

An article in the Missionary Herald reported that Rev Taylor and his wife, Julia sailed with Rev Hiram Bingham and his wife from San Francisco to Honolulu where Mr. Taylor was ordained. They then sailed on the missionary ship, Morning Star, to the Gilbert Islands, where Julia died shortly thereafter. HJT and son returned to the US in 1876. The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii.

Item to the right is a receipt of .10 for a donation given by Hartland’s Polly Stevens for the Morning Star.

1876 HJT married Julia’s sister, Jennie Rudd (1858-1881)

HJT was a freedman’s missionary in Athens, Alabama, building a congregation at Trinity School. Daughter Julia Lillian was born in Alabama in 1878; son Frederick was born in the Gilbert Islands in 1881; Jennie died of cholera shortly thereafter. In 1882 HJT returned with his three children to Ohio where he preached in a small community church for three years near Marietta, Ohio.

1884, HJT married Louise Nixon (1861-1889)

In 1885 HJT was called to the wilds of Washington State by a college classmate and fellow Tennessee ‘freedman missionary’. Conditions in the Islands would have discouraged any but true pioneers. Deep woods covered most of the island. Rough trails usable only by oxen teams served the settlement and homesteads. There were no roads for wagons across the Fidalgo Islands, so people canoed to the church or school. There were only 165 residents on the island at the time. HJT next established a church at Fidalgo City (Dewey). When his wife died in 1889 HJT’s brother, Isaac Taylor and wife Belle cared for his three children. During this time, HJT founded the Rosario Congregational Church on a cliff above Rosario and held the first services there in 1893. On Sundays, he rowed through Canoe Pass to preach services at Rosario and Dewey. Photo: Rosario Church, Anacortes WA Horace Judson Taylor & members. See photo next page of area where Church and Taylor home stand.

1895 HJT married Retta Smith (1859-1939), a school teacher, daughter of a minister.

In 1897, HJT was called to Kelloggsville, Ohio, then returned to Fidalgo Island where they lived at Rosario beach in 1900 and bore a daughter Faith Elizabeth (1902-1990). HJT became full time pastor at the Anacortes congregation in 1902 and built the church at 26th & R. He led the Pilgrim Church until 1909 when he returned to pastorates in Ohio. After his mother died in 1911, he came back to Washington to live near his daughters. While not the founding pastor he was part of the planning and dedication of Pilgrim Church at 2802 Commercial built in 1926. Died at the home of his daughter in 1931.

Isaac W. Taylor (1853-1942), brother of Horace Judson, left India for the United States in 1865. Isaac attended the Western Reserve Academy and College. He traveled with Horace on a Freedman’s mission to Tennessee where he married Nora Fenn but later divorced. Isaac then married Isabella Egglefield, and lived in Montana where he fought in the American Indian Wars. Isaac and Isabella then went to Washington State where Isaac was the lighthouse keeper at Greater Portage in Deception Pass and helped build Rosario School (founding clerk), Rosario Church and the Taylor home at Rosario Beach. Isaac’s granddaughter remembers him as an intelligent man who could conjugate Latin verbs and read Sanskrit even until the end.

Photos above: Rosario Church on hill to left ; Taylor home behind barn near shore. 1940s photo of Taylor home remodeled in 1920

Here ends another story of Hartland’s early settlers sons and daughters who made their mark out west and beyond……

Interesting fact about Western Reserve College: “Western Reserve College, chartered in 1826, was modeled after Yale, both in its curriculum and in the organization of its governing board, the majority of which was to be composed of clergymen. Its first president was Dr. George E. Pierce, a graduate of Yale in 1816, who was said to have been thoroughly imbued with the Connecticut idea of a college. Most of the faculty were Yale men, and, from the first, there was an interchange of instructors, Yale graduates teaching at Western Reserve and the Western college sending its graduates to teach at New Haven.” Hartland’s first minister to accept the call was Reverend Sterling Graves, who arrived from Yale in 1768.

This work has been edited by the Hartland Historical Society. Original transcript available upon request.

121 Year Old Methodist Church Building to be Sold!

1795-1800s Methodism in West Hartland was begun with Circuit Riders out of the Beech Hill Church in Granville. Meetings were held at member homes.

1834-1892 The first Methodist Church building in West Hartland was built in 1834 on what we know today as the corner of Rt. 20 and Rt. 181. Land for the structure was donated by Rideout Moore who operated a Tavern on the opposite corner (LaCasse home now). There were intervals when there was no stationed minister and its doors were closed.

1894-1897 Efforts begin to build a new Methodist church on West & Center St., old church dismantled and used. Church dedication in 1897 (above photo prior to 1950). Brick house next door was used for services and many years as parsonage (Ransom home now).

1923 In 1923 Methodist Church is federated with the Second Ecclesiastical Society, building discontinued as a church and served as a community hall until now!!!!!

1960-1967 Second Ecclesiastical Society votes to terminate Society as of Nov. 21, 1960. New organization named The Second Congregational Church of Hartland, Inc. The 25 members of the Methodist Society maintained their individual identity until Nov. 5 1967 when they joined the Second Congregational Church during a morning service.

More Information can be found in the writings of Stanley Ransom “History of Hartland”.