our towns, calling upon the people to prepare for the Sabbath, and be in the Sanctuary on the Lord's day.

As soon as the people began to neglect the place of worship on the Sabbath, iniquity increased a hundred fold.

This morning we met for prayer at Bethel Rock. My friends, my feelings and emotions were such as language cannot describe. We stood on sacred and holy ground. There our Pilgrim fathers and mothers worshiped on the Sabbath for about eight years, during the summer season. The overhanging rock, as you saw, is perhaps 300 feet long, and very high. Our fathers, seated by this rock, would to some extent be shielded from the storms. Sentinels were placed on the top of the rock, so as to give the alarm if the Indians approached. There was a stone pulpit, as you saw. O! what prayers were there offered by our fathers. Prayer meetings have been held there, more or less, ever since. In 1811, I attended a prayer meeting with Dr. Azel Backus, Dr. Bennet Tyler, Dr. Lyman Beecher, Rev. Messrs. Clark, Harrison, and others. It was one of uncommon interest and solemnity-we wrestled with God in prayer.

Are we now prepared to receive a blessing from the God of our fathers? And shall we now so look up to God by faith, that our souls shall be baptized anew with the Holy Ghost, the great principles of our fathers be revived, and all of us consecrate ourselves anew unto God? Do we not feel that God is now with us by his special presence and Spirit? We believe that numbers of you feel this. Let us carry from this place the fire of heaven, and the spirit of our Saviour.

Woodbury has produced more great and eminent men than any other town of equal size. Dr. Dwight of Yale College remarked, that Hon. Nathaniel Smith's native talent was superior to that of any man he ever met. He had not his equal in this State-some say, not his equal or superior in New England.

This has been a glorious celebration. Even our friend, Hon. Charles Chapman, of Hartford, comes here to share in the glory, trying to claim some relationship here. We had supposed he had popularity and glory enough in Hartford for any one man.

But he labored very hard, as you have seen, to make out that he was the great-grandson of somebody in Woodbury! I do not know but he made it out, because he will make out anything he undertakes.

But while listening to his spicy, eloquent, and able speech, I be

lieve we should have been willing to adopt him as a grandson. At the next centennial celebration, they will probably be willing to adopt him as a son!

The Historical Address by William Cothren, your able historian, was very learned, interesting, eloquent, and instructive. He is deserving of much credit, and has done immense service to the community in giving us the History of Woodbury. It is an able work, and must have required much persevering research. It is read with deep interest by those away from Woodbury. Many lay it on their tables, next to their Bibles. It is read by those that are not descendants, with great interest. It is a very popular work among intelligent and literary men. Its interest will increase as time passes on. In fifty or one hundred years from this time, it will be read with tenfold more interest than now, even in Woodbury. It will go down to generations yet unborn, and be considered as one of the Cothren's name will be immortalmost interesting of histories. remembered as long as time shall endure. Many will rise up, and call him blessed!

Philo M. Trowbridge is deserving of much credit for collecting and preserving facts, and assisting in the several historical works. He will receive a blessing, and the community will never forget him.

Woodbury has sent forth more ministers than any other town within my knowledge. Nearly eighty heralds of the cross have descended from the loins of the first William Judson. Many of them have borne his honored surname, and many others have borne the honorable names of the female alliances. They have preached the Gospel far and wide, and their labors have been greatly blessed. None can estimate the great and good results which have arisen from the labors of the ministers who have gone out from Ancient Woodbury. Eternity alone can unfold them.

We are now about to pronounce the blessing. The solemn moment has arrived, and we are now about to part, to meet no more in this world.

Are you all now prepared to receive the blessing of salvation, through the atoning blood of Christ? Will you now all go forth determined to carry out the great principles of your Pilgrim fathers, and make sacrifices to save souls and bless the world wherever you go? What is your response?

grace

Are you now ready to receive the blessing of Heaven?-And now, may the of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, be with all, now and ever. Amen and Amen.

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LETTERS, ODES, &c.

Previous to the close of the exercises at the Stand, William Cothren, Chairman of the General Committee, announced in its behalf, that a considerable number of letters, odes and toasts, were in the hands of the Committee, which could not be read for want of time, but that they would all appear in the book of the proceedings of the celebration. In accordance with this promise, they are here recorded with many thanks to their distinguished authors.

From Hon. John Lorimer Graham, of New York, a native of London, England, and grandson of Ancient Woodbury.

WILLIAM COTHREN, ESQ.,

NEW YORK, July 2, 1859.

Chairman of Committee, &c., Woodbury, Conn.

DEAR SIR,-I accepted with great pleasure your kind invitation to be present at the Historical Celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of the first exploration of the Town of Woodbury, &c., on the 4th and 5th inst., and it is now a source of deep regret that the sudden illness of one of my family prevents my attendance.

I highly approve of these demonstrations; they are just tributes to the memories of our patriotic and virtuous ancestors; they contribute to perpetuate the knowledge of their energy, enterprise and morals; distinguishing characteristics of the race of men who first peopled "the land of steady habits;" they teach to the rising generation a duty which should be constantly inculcated; veneration for our progenitors who, in their eventful lives, portrayed the highest attributes of man.

During fourteen years of my youth, I accompanied my revered father in an annual visit he made to his aged mother, in Southbury. It was my father's custom to take me on the morning after our arrival to the rural spot "where the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep," and there standing beside the tombs of his venerated father and grandfather, he would discourse of their virtues and piety, and, pointing to the tablets he had himself erected to their memories, he pathetically enjoined it upon me to imitate the example of these excellent sires, especially adverting to the holy life of that eminent man of God, his noble grandfather, "John Graham, D. D.," whose name he bore, and who for fifty-four years had been the spiritual teacher of the people of Southbury.

The impressions produced by these solemn scenes have not been and never can be effaced, and they had a powerful influence, as will your celebration, upon the hearts of all true sons of "Ancient Woodbury," in causing me ever to revere, through life, these departed worthies whom you assemble to honor.

It is nearly half a century since these scenes occurred. You can realize what an intense interest I have felt in again visiting that sacred spot, and how great is my disappointment in not being able to participate in your celebration. I should with pleasure have offered some extemporaneous remarks, as requested by your committee, and, to the extent of my ability, contributed to enliven the joyous occasion.

Let it be remembered that none who here attend your festive scene can be present at another similar celebration; all of us before that time will have passed away; but I trust that while we live we will cherish a fond and reverential recollection of our honored forefathers, and that their memories may be embalmed in the hearts of their latest posterity-who should emulate their noble example and hold it up for imitation to their children's children.

I beg to present to the committee the accompanying sentiment, which I should have offered had I been present at their festival. With best respects and thanks to your colleagues of the committee, and with renewed assurances of esteem,

I remain, Dear Sir,

Very sincerely your friend,

JOHN LORIMER GRAHAM.

WILLIAM COTHREN, ESQ.-The Historian of "Ancient Woodbury," whose industry, accuracy and impartiality, have produced a most interesting and faithful narrative and truthful history, entitling him to the lasting gratitude of all the descendants of the first settlers of the soil which is endeared to them by recollections as sacred as they are imperishable.

Given by John Lorimer Graham, of New York.

From Hon. CHARLES J. HILL, of Rochester, New York, a native of Woodbury.

ROCHESTER, June 28, 1859. GENTLEMEN :- -With gratitude I received your cordial invitation to attend your interesting celebration, and most sincerely regret that I am now obliged to relinquish the pleasing anticipation I had indulged of being present and responding in person.

I am a native of the present town of Woodbury, and trace my paternal and maternal ancestry, all residents of Ancient Woodbury, nearly back to its first settlement.

From twelve to sixteen years of age, I was a member of the family of one whose name was honored throughout the State, and whose memory, as my early patron, is embalmed in the deep recesses of my heart.

The lovely valley and grounds, skirted by "Bethel Rock" and the more distant hills, the pleasant streams, and all the delightful scenery of Central Woodbury, were entirely familiar to me, and constituted my play-ground,

But what made a more indelible impression on my mind, was the presence of the great and good men who then resided there and within the limits of Ancient Woodbury. Men of strong intellect, high cultivation, eminently pure morals, whose mission it was to honor the memory of as honorable and virtuous an ancestry as ever blessed any community; by cultivating their virtues, and fostering the institutions of religion and literature, and handing them down in their purity with their attendant blessings to the present generation.

It is a pleasing reflection, that in the picturesque valley of Woodbury, commenced the first settlement of Litchfield County, so celebrated for the large number of eminent men she has sent out to settle and adorn all our new states and territories, no less than for the preeminent position she maintains at home, in reference to all the institutions which enlighten and bless a people.

Is it strange that the present generation should delight to honor the memory of that noble band of emigrants who first traversed the wilderness to the site of Woodbury; men of indomitable enterprise, lofty patriotism, and devoted piety?

How could I fail to entertain a high veneration for the past generations of that locality, when it was my privilege near half a century ago, although but a lad, to be familiar with the faces, and forms, and characters of such men as the Rev. Messrs. Benedict, Wildman, Backus, Tyler, Porter, and others, in the ministry, and Messrs. Smith, Benedict, Minor, Strong, Phelps, and others, in the legal profession? If such were some of the professional men of those days, what was the character of others in the various professions which I cannot ennumerate,—and what kind of men were the laity among whom they lived? May I not say as a general remark, that they were the upright, intelligent, good men, who deserved the society and intercourse of the eminent men just alluded to?