WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. T HE summer tourist who journeys from New York to mid New England will, if he be wise, take the afternoon boat for Hartford. On awaking next morning, he finds himself passing up the Connecticut River between green banks that rise gently into rolling hills, sometimes lightly wooded, but mostly under luxuriant cultivation and dotted, here and there with quiet villages. As he proceeds farther up the river, the distant hills approach on either side, till, at a point about eighteen miles below Hartford, they seem to meet and thrust a dark and rugged barrier quite across the stream. A nearer view, however, shows a rocky gorge only a few rods in width, through which the river, taking here a sharp turn to the east, has forced a passage. Creeping through this gorge, within an arm's-length of the ragged side of Bodkin Rock, which forms its eastern wall, the steamer swings suddenly around and discloses to view, immediately in front, two miles away, the city of Middletown. The city, embowered in foliage, lies along a hillside on the western bank of the river. On the summit of the first terrace, somewhat more than one hundred and fifty feet above the river level, rises the line of buildings of Wesleyan University, the chapel spire, the observatory tower, and the heavy mass of Judd Hall being the most conspicuous objects in the landscape. Middletown is among the oldest of New England towns. It was in 1650 that a party of about a dozen from Hartford - itself then but fifteen years old settled in what is now the north part of the city. The next year the General Assembly ordered that "the settlement at Mattabesett should be a town," and the following year changed its name to Middletown, probably because it lay midway between Hartford and Saybrook. The history of the town during its first century is very uneventful. It seems to have nearly kept pace with its rivals, Hartford and New Haven; and the three towns all received city charters in the same year, 1784. During the twenty-five years preceding the Revolutionary War Middletown grew with considerable rapidity. Its merchants carried on a thriving trade with the West Indies; and, for a time, it promised to surpass in commercial importance every other town in the State. This early promise it has, however, never fulfilled. The Revolutionary War permanently crippled its commerce, and for about a century it maintained an almost stationary position. Its citizens seem to have been entirely resigned to this condition of things, and made little effort to attract to their city any manufacturing or commercial enterprises. It is said that the great Colt Arms Establishment of Hartford might originally have been located in Middletown, had reasonable inducements been offered; and it is certain that it was the sheer apathy of Middletown capitalists that permitted the Hartford and New Haven Railroad to leave their city a half-dozen miles to one side. Within the last ten years, however, there have been some signs of returning activity. Two new railroads passing through the city the one following the river-bank from Springfield to Saybrook, the other the New York and Boston Air-Line have considerably increased its facilities of communication with its neighbors, and have done something to quicken business within its own limits. Several large manufacturing enterprises have been introduced, and every one of the little streams in the vicinity is a-clatter with some industry or other. But this increased activity has not yet made much change in the external appearance of the old town, and Middletown still wears a look of ancient quiet which belies its new enterprise. A casual visitor who should stroll along its lonely wharves, or walk up its quaint Main Street on a summer afternoon, would probably conclude the temper of the place to be as calm and as impassive as the very severe Doric front of its century-old court-house. But such a conclusion would hardly do justice to the new Middletown. Middletown is not rich in historic incident or tradition, but its inhabitants cling the more fondly to what they do possess. They will tell you of the times when Washington honored the city with his presence; of the grand reception given to Lafayette in 1824; and of the visit of the elder Adams, who pronounced Middletown the most beautiful of New England cities. Nowhere in New England can be found more of the pardonable pride of birth; and nowhere is there better foundation for it. Most of the principal families can trace an honorable line of ancestry for more than two hundred years. Nor are the records of Middletown entirely without names of high distinction in our country's history. Among those of Revolutionary fame may be mentioned Return Jonathan Meigs and Samuel Holden Parsons,-the former a daring officer who did gallant service before Quebec, on Long Island, and at Stony Point; the latter one of Washington's most trusted generals, a judge at the trial of André, and during the last years of the war commander of all the Connecticut State Militia. Better known than either of these are the names of Commodore Thomas McDonough, the hero of Lake Champlain, and General Joseph K. F. Mansfield, who closed a brilliant career by a soldier's death on the field of Antietam. Both were residents of Middletown, and both are buried within its limits. Of the beauty of Middletown and its surroundings it is difficult to speak without superlatives. In this respect it is fully the peer of any college town in New England. |