LOOKING BACKWARD
Although they had no organ, they had a choir. The tune was pitched by a tuning fork, and the voices were accompanied by a violin and a bass-viol. Singing was considered important, and at a meeting held December 1, 1817, it was voted that ''fifty dollars be expended for the use of reviving and teaching singing, and that Samuel Buckingham, Alpheus Clark, Enoch R. Platt and Edmund R. Fowler be a committee to procure a teacher and set up said school and furnish all necessaries, and see that the same is paid for." The singing school was held in the Academy.
In 1804, a public library was established, which by 1816 had increased to 144 volumes, mostly on religious subjects, which is an index of the character of the citizens: they were sober, intelligent, and industrious. The choice of books obtainable for a library at that time was very limited, as religious books predominated.
From Timothy Dwight's ''Journeys in New England," September 17, 1811: ''After passing the western boundary of the township of New Haven, we entered the parish of North Milford. The surface of this parish is formed of easy undulations. The soil is rich and the inhabitants are industrious, sober, frugal and virtuous. The state of Connecticut is distinguished, perhaps from all other countries by a commanding regard to personal character.
'Here, in truth,
Not in pretense, man is esteemed as man
Not here how rich, of what peculiar blood,
Or office high; but of what genuine worth
What talents bright and useful, what good deeds,
What piety to God, what love to man
The question is. To this an answer fair
The general heart secures.'
'The people of North Milford, plain as they are, have built one of the handsomest churches in the county of New Haven; and have thus shown that they have a taste for the beautiful as well as a proper attachment to
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