CALIFORNIA

was not until the beginning of this century, that the father of the Governor left there and settled in Lebanon.

Deacon Samuel Buckingham, the Governor's father, the fifth (5) in descent from the "minister," and sixth from the first settler, was born at Saybrook in 1770, where he lived until after his marriage and the birth of his eldest daughter, when he removed to Lebanon in 1803. Here William Alfred Buckingham, "The War Governor" as he was termed, was born May 28, 1804.

10 VIMU AIMBOTLIAD

GOV. BUCKINGHAM'S HOME AND

TRAINING.

Lebanon, Ct., which lies on the old stage road from Norwich to Hartford, eleven miles from the former to the Brick Meeting House in Lebanon, is a typical New England town. The township is large, some six miles by eight in territory, and entirely devoted to farming. Its soil, a moist black loam, considerably stony, with plenty of mud in the spring, very green in the summer, and never so fresh as when there is drought elsewhere, makes it a good agricultural region. The principal street stretches along a ridge five or six miles, with the farms running down on each side into the valleys, and showing a substantial and thrifty population. The inhabitants are almost entirely of New England stock, proud of their town and of its history, and not unmindful of the number and character of the Governors they have furnished to the State, and their long term of service. This is no empty boast, for they have given the State five Governors, the three Trumbulls, Governor Bissell and Governor Buckingham together holding that office for a third of a century. The town never had a population of quite 4,000 still a century ago, when Hartford had barely 5,000, and Farmington, which was larger, had only 6,000, the leading characters of the State were quite as likely to be found in such a community as elsewhere. For such towns were pretty sure to have an able ministry, good schools and good society.

Dr. Solomon Williams, "among the most prominent of the New England clergy," was pastor there for fifty-four

years (1722-1776). He was a graduate of Harvard College, a student as well as a pastor, accustomed to read in connection with his family devotions and translate from either the Greek or Hebrew Scriptures, and doing much to provide for the town the means of a higher education. For a long course of years Lebanon was distinguished for the best grammar school in any country town in Connecticut-the one taught by Mr. Nathan Tisdale, a Harvard graduate. This school was established chiefly by the efforts of Dr. Williams, and the consequence was that for many years the town was not only remarkable for its intelligence, but furnished more ministers of the Gospel than perhaps any other town of its size in the State. And not alone ministers were educated here, but men for every profession and pursuit in life, and "this school was so extensively and favorably known that it numbered among its pupils youth from almost every part of the country." Such intellectual and religious influences created a public sentiment there, and gave a character to society which has never been lost. The town can show a list of one hundred and fifty liberally educated men who were born there, and mostly educated at Yale College. To this day the town is not regarded as keeping up to its standard, unless two or three of its sons are in that university.

Here was the home of the Trumbull family, who not only honored the gubernatorial office, but filled so many public positions with distinguished credit and usefulness. The father, "the War Governor of the Revolution," who held that office fifteen years, was Washington's "Brother Jonathan," his friend and counselor; his son Joseph, commissary general of Washington's army; Jonathan, Jr., paymaster in Washington's army, Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress, Senator in Congress and for eleven years Governor of the State; David, assistant commissary general and father of Governor Joseph; and John, the painter,