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http://www.saybrookhistory.org/

Old Saybrook Historical Society, Inc., 350 Main Street, Old Saybrook, CT (2026)

06/15/2026

SAYBROOK’S SCHOONER BARGE PARADES, A MINI-HISTORY

In the late 1800s, Saybrook residents could watch the almost daily parade of schooner barges being towed up and down the Connecticut River by steam-powered tugs. Schooner barges were a unique maritime solution after the Civil War, serving as a functional bridge between the age of sail and the era of steam. They were essentially heavy-duty bulk carriers that maximized cargo space by sacrificing independent propulsion.

They originally evolved in the 1870s on the Great Lakes, where it was found that outdated wooden sailing ships could more profitably be towed from place to place than sailed. Schooner barges were often towed in long strings of as many as six or more vessels. Their use lasted through the 1930s, ending by World War II. Diesel-powered tugs replaced the steam tugs, and the wooden schooner barges were replaced with much larger steel barges.

As traditional sailing schooners aged or became less competitive against steamships, their tall masts were cut down (shortened to stumps) and their rigging simplified. This allowed them to carry more cargo with a much smaller crew. By the late 1800s, shipyards began building wooden barges that were never intended to sail alone. These featured massive hulls and short masts that could carry just enough sail to keep the vessel steady in a gale or provide limited maneuverability if the towline snapped.

The wooden schooner barges towed by steam tugs performed both import and export duty on the Connecticut River. In the 1800s, most of the river’s imported cargo was Pennsylvania anthracite coal, brought upriver for domestic and commercial fuel. The major river export was quarried Portland brownstone, shipped downriver and onward to New York and Boston for construction projects.

By the 1900s, Connecticut’s river cargoes of coal were replaced by far more toxic and dangerous heating oils, gasoline, and aviation fuels. Fears grew about potential toxic oil spilling into the river. This led to new mandates for safer and more expensive double-hulled steel barges. Ultimately, railroad tanker cars and additional pipelines replaced the delivery of all this petroleum cargo. Commercial barge traffic on the Connecticut River essentially ended by the late 1980s. By then, the common parades of schooner barges filled with coal, passing Old Saybrook’s waterfront, were long forgotten.

06/12/2026

Run—don’t walk—to the Hart House Heritage Garden to see our roses in bloom. It’s an all-too brief but stunning display. In the di**le (the sunken area) next to the Stevenson Archives are two beds of heritage and old-style roses that bloom once and then are done for the year. Above on the south side of the Hart House are our modern roses which repeat bloom. A David Austin Alnwick (Ausgrab) rose has been added in memory of Margaret “Bucky” Bock (1919 - 1925), a longtime volunteer for the historical society, who died last year at age 106.

The Marchesa Bocella is a fragrant rose and repeat bloomer. It was originally introduced in 1842. Several roses are Hart House cultivated, including a pink repeat button eye and a semi-double pink. We’re still working on the exact variety of this fuchsia pink tree rose near the back porch of the Hart House. It’s spectacular right now and also a repeat bloomer. We’re consulting with the Rose Society of America to make a positive ID. The Maiden’s Blush Alba shrub rose originally appears in the 14th century either in France or England—garden historians disagree, but it’s beautiful either way!

The Hart House Heritage Garden is open daily, dawn to dusk at 350 Main Street, Old Saybrook. Please note the garden is closed Sunday, 6/14, for a private event.

06/08/2026

PRIVATEER ELISHA HART, A MINI-HISTORY

During the Revolutionary War, there were two navies. The newly established Continental Navy was under the central command of Gen. George Washington. But there were several discrete navies of civilian privateers, under the separate commands of each colonial governor.

Privateers commanded by colonial governors represented a situation of naval military objectives overlapping with private enterprise, and it was not always a well-organized endeavor. Privateers were licensed by the governors who issued commissions or letters of marque. Cash bonds of $5,000 or $10,000 (depending on the size of the vessel) were required, and the division of prizes was left to the individual states to decide. In Connecticut, the state took half the prize, and the privateer divided the other half between owners, officers, and crew.

Some privateers sailed well-armed, ocean-going ships, and crossed the Atlantic to harass the enemy and capture prize vessels and their cargo. But Connecticut privateers mostly patrolled Long Island Sound and the nearby coasts off Rhode Island and New York City. In fact, Connecticut was most famous for its “whaleboat navy” consisting of small sailboats and row boats which harassed English strongholds across the sound on Long Island.

Elisha Hart was not a small whaleboat privateer. He built and sailed larger sloop-rigged, coastal traders, manned with rail guns and cannon and upwards of 20 to 40 men. These vessels were not well-suited for trans-Atlantic privateering or trade. They were the type of vessel ordinarily engaged in the merchant trade with the Caribbean islands, Cuba, and the Bahamas.

How he financed his vessels is not clear. They undoubtedly consumed a fair portion of the Hart family finances to build them, bond them in cash, and then provision them with food, armament, men and supplies. Perhaps he and his brother John, who had resigned from the Continental Army and returned to Saybrook, had already ordered these merchant traders to be built as part of a pre-war business venture, and then decided to turn them into privateers. Or perhaps the brothers partnered with other wealthy merchants or patriotic investors to build these vessels for the sole purpose of harassing the British as privateers. Regardless of how and why the vessels were originally financed and built, they were apparently the first of what would become the Hart’s post-war fleet of merchant sailing vessels.

Elisha Hart was the youngest of the five Saybrook Hart children, Elisha (1758-1812, 53yrs.) and was only 17-years old when the war began. He decided to join the Connecticut Navy as a privateer under the command of Governor Jonathan Trumbull. While his four other brothers were on horseback in the militia, he was on the deck of his ships. He was captured three times by the British but managed to return home unharmed each time. Historians relate that Elisha Hart “established for himself a brilliant reputation as a dauntless seafarer and courageous privateersman.” Like many privateers, he did not become wealthy from this wartime pursuit. But his fleet of ships became part of his post war family enterprise ---- a fleet that would bring the five Hart brothers their substantial wealth in the decades following the war.

06/01/2026

FENWICK GOLF, A MINI-HISTORY
The first official golf club was founded in Scotland in 1744, but golf was played hundreds of years before in various forms. By the mid-1800s, Scottish players began using the newly invented gutta-percha ball, a ball of compressed latex. It replaced the feathery, a compressed boiled-feather mixture covered in leather and painted white. Unfortunately, featheries were very expensive and easily damaged by exposure to water and the impact of the golf club. When gutties replaced featheries, the cost of equipment was greatly reduced and golf’s popularity increased dramatically. The sport quickly spread to America where numerous clubs were being established in the 1880s and 90s.

At that time, golf was already a summer sport in Fenwick. It started with summer vacationers playing on the large, treeless grass fields which were the unsold lots surrounding the aging Fenwick Hall Hotel. By 1896, the number of golf holes had expanded to nine, with the help of Morgan Gardner Bulkeley and his neighbors. It is now the oldest public golf course in the state. In the late 1890s, Morgan G. Bulkeley was building his seaside Fenwick summer cottage. He was the former mayor of Hartford, former governor of Connecticut and soon to be the US senator from Connecticut. He was also the president of Hartford’s Aetna Life Insurance Company, and the architect of the Borough of Fenwick, incorporated in 1899. Luckily for Fenwick, he was also an enthusiastic golfer.

Until his death this year in 2026, his grandson Peter Bulkeley was the de facto Fenwick golf historian. His book, The Morgan Cup, chronicles the history of both the Fenwick golf course and The Morgan Cup, Fenwick’s annual 125-year-old golf tournament. The book is filled with Peter’s rich Fenwick golf memories. Here are just a few.

“It was Dr. William D. Morgan, a prominent physician in Hartford, and the first cousin of the legendary J.P. Morgan, who in 1900, offered a trophy (Now the Morgan Cup) to be played for by his Fenwick friends.”

“The Goodwin family were Protestant Episcopalians and the Bulkeley-Brainard family were strong Congregationalists. One reason that over time most Protestant Fenwick families moved closer to the Episcopalian church may have been because of their wish to enjoy a social drink. Congregationalists of the 1890s opposed any drinking of alcoholic beverages and the playing of golf on the sabbath. Celebratory drinking became part of the Morgan Cup tradition and at the September 1900 invitational it was not hard to imagine that the bar at Fenwick Hall was doing a very brisk business.”

“On the hotel road (Today’s 5th hole) where the road crossed the fairway there was an old Fenwick lamppost right in the middle of the fairway. The long hitters always tried to knock out the glass globe on the light. No one ever did.”

“Until the late 1970s the course was still primitive because we had no watering system. In 1972, as the Park Commissioner, I recommended a watering system be put on the tees and greens. The recommendation was turned down so I resigned. But my resignation so shocked the Board that the next year the watering system was installed. In 1995 the system was upgraded to include the approach and fringe areas of the greens.”

“In 1979 the golf holes were renumbered, and a new parking lot was built next to the Borough buildings across Maple Avenue. That eliminated 25 to 75 cars a day from entering and leaving Fenwick. Previously, the cars caused a dust bowl by parking at the old first tee.” (Next to the Fenwick Hall Hotel)

“Prior to 1962 golf carts were unknown in Fenwick. But in 1962 the Borough Warden, Houghton Bulkeley, (Peter Bulkeley’s father) developed a bad hip. He bought a bright red Cushman golf cart and was needled mercilessly by his playing partners. But then Clayton Gengras bought one, and that took the heat off. Golf carts were added.”

“There are those that suggest the origin of the word GOLF comes from Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. But this was never so in Fenwick. The growing popularity of golf among men did restrict the access of women but women were also severely constricted by the fashions of the time. They mandated women be properly attired in graceful ankle-length skirts, tightly fitted corsets, wide brimmed straw hats, and starched blouses with long sleeves. Full-fingered gloves were also worn on both hands. Shoes were of leather high-button design which further restricted movement required to hit the ball properly. Nevertheless, Fenwick women’s golf grew and grew rapidly.”

“In the 1940s caddies were available to tote bags. They were mostly from Saybrook Point but also Fenwick. The caddies hung around the old pump house of the Fenwick Hall hotel which was just 30 yards north of the old first tee. Residents would pay an Old Saybrook caddie 40 cents for 9 holes, but a Fenwick boy usually only got 25 cents, more if he was really good.”

“In 1945, at a 7PM news conference, President Truman announced the war was over. I had been the bell ringer at St.-Mary’s-by-the Sea during the war years so it was my assignment to then unlock the chapel and toll the bells, which I did very enthusiastically for about 10 minutes. Everyone in Fenwick came to the chapel to pray and give thanks to their god that the war was over. The younger generation that summer evening went over to town to celebrate at the carnival which had come to town.”

Peter Bukeley played in 75 consecutive Morgan Cups, a record. On his 39th try in 1983, Peter won. His son Jonathan won in 1984, the first time a son won the year after his father. In 2021, his 9th decade playing for the cup, he was 90 years old and shot an 84!

Peter died in March of this year, he was 94. He was a lifetime member of the Old Saybrook Historical Society and a good friend who is genuinely missed.

05/29/2026

This week’s “What’s Blooming in the Hart House Heritage Garden” takes you to all four corners of the garden. On the street front by the driveway entrance is a deutzia, a small shrub that is in full flower right now. A low-maintenance, deciduous shrub from the hydrangea family, it is a native of China and Japan and was introduced in the US in 1822.This bed is easy to over look so come give the deutzia some love while it is really shining.

Then head towards the Hart House where this lanceleaf coreopsis—a pollinator magnet—is filling in between the spring bloomers and the summer perennials. Next, walk down the steps to the heritage rose beds for the Blue star amsonia which is just about the come into full bloom. You’ll get a peek at the roses just starting to bloom, but it’ll be another week or so before they’re in full flower.

Last, circle round to the grass walk between the di**le and the woodland garden for this false Solomon seal. It’s so named because it’s very similar to Solomon’s seal, but its stem is zig-zagged and the flowers are quite different—a burst of white off the end of the stems versus Solomon seal’s small bells hanging under the leaves and stem.

We hope you’ll notice the garden is in great shape due to the hard work of our volunteer gardeners who would love to have you visit and see what’s coming up. The Hart House Heritage Garden is open daily, dawn to dusk, 350 Main Street, Old Saybrook.

05/25/2026

MEMORIAL DAY, A MINI-HISTORY

Today, Monday May 25th is Memorial Day. Originally known as Decoration Day, it emerged from the devastation of the Civil War, which claimed over 620,000 military lives. This staggering loss led communities, both north and south, to establish traditions of honoring the fallen by decorating their graves with flowers. While various locales lay claim to the earliest observance, one of the first large-scale commemorations was organized by formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1865. They paid tribute to the Union dead buried at a former racecourse.

The formal, national observance was proclaimed in 1868 by General John A. (Black Jack) Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Union veterans). He designated May 30th as a nationwide "Decoration Day" to strew flowers on the graves of Union soldiers. The first major national ceremony took place that year at Arlington National Cemetery, where participants decorated the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers.

Decoration Day quickly became a cherished tradition, and by 1890, all Northern states recognized it as an official holiday. The holiday's meaning broadened significantly after World War I, evolving to honor all American military personnel who died in any U.S. war. Following this expansion, it gradually became known as Memorial Day.

In 1971, Congress officially declared Memorial Day a national holiday and, as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, established its observance on the last Monday in May to create a three-day weekend. Today, Memorial Day serves as a solemn day of remembrance to honor all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States.

Many people confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day. The simplest way to remember is Memorial Day is for those who died while serving --- the day honors those who made the “ultimate sacrifice.” Veterans Day, on the other hand, honors everyone who served in any branch. While Veterans Day honors the deceased as well, the primary focus is on thanking living veterans for their service and sacrifice. Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11 (the anniversary of the end of World War I)

05/22/2026

May is for flowering trees and shrubs and for irises, clematis, and hardy geraniums. Our new hawthorn trees flanking the front of the Hart House are coming into bloom. This one was planted and dedicated last year to long-time garden keeper Linda Kinsella who retired in 2024 but continues to volunteer and lend her expertise in the garden.

Come quick to see the first of our heritage roses in bloom: Father Hugo blooms and goes by quickly but is spectacular with its lemon yellow flowers. Plan to visit in early June for our other heritage and modern roses. We’ll keep you posted!

The Hart House Heritage Garden at the Old Saybrook Historical Society, behind the Gen. William Hart House, is open daily, dawn to dusk.

05/21/2026

THIS SUNDAY, UPPER CEMETERY LECTURE TOUR, 4 PM

UPPER CEMETERY TOUR: 4 PM on Sunday May 24, Memorial Day weekend, the public is invited to join Scott Carson, historian and member of the town’s Municipal Cemetery Committee, for a lecture tour of the Upper Cemetery.

The cemetery, established in 1750, is located at the north end of Main Street near the train station. Scott has researched the individuals and families buried there, especially the veterans, from the American Revolutionary War through the Korean conflict. The tour costs $5 per person and benefits the Old Saybrook Historical Society.

05/18/2026

SAYBROOK’S COLONIAL NEWSPAPERS, A MINI-HISTORY

Historians assert that the first English-language newspaper was the London Gazette, published in 1665. It would be almost 100 years later until Saybrook residents could read a local newspaper. Before then, news, gossip and rumors were transmitted among the very small population by word of mouth. Formal legal notices, marriage, birth and death announcements plus the crimes and punishments of local offenders were always posted on the doors of the church. News from afar occasionally came from ship captains returning from their travels to Europe, or up and down the American coast, bringing local news from port to port. (It took two to four weeks for European news just to reach London and another four to six weeks for the same news to get across the Atlantic.)

Reading the colonial newspaper was a different experience in the 1700s. Local Saybrook farmers and merchants did not start their day sitting down with their morning coffee and favorite newspaper. Instead, they most likely visited their local tavern to read --- or listen to someone read to them --- the current monthly or weekly edition. Most newspaper subscribers were taverns, since the price per copy might run from a few pence to over a shilling, and two shillings equaled a laborer's daily wage.

The newspapers were one very large paper sheet, folded in half, allowing four pages of newsprint. The heavy paper stock had a high rag content (keeping local rag-pickers employed taking discarded rags to paper mills), making for a nearly indestructible page that could endure vigorous weekly or sometimes monthly usage. Printers relied on correspondents for the news they published. What appeared in the paper depended on what letters were received by the printer that week. Printers also copied articles from other newspapers and commonly sent their newspapers to each other, to get news from other colonies.

The first page would be devoted mainly to "foreign" news, usually lifted from English newspapers which the printers received eight weeks or so after publication in London. The rest of the newspaper would have official proclamations, short one paragraph or one-line news blurbs, ship sailings, letters to the editor (usually composed by the editor himself), sermons, treatises on agronomy (lifted again from English magazines and almanacs), and the current prices of many commodities, and more rumor or opinion. There was little to no crime or local news reported because that had already been locally passed by word of mouth. The scarce ads usually mentioned only the general type of goods being sold, rather than any specifics. The prominent part of the ad was not what was being sold but rather the name of the merchant.

Connecticut’s first three newspapers were not established until the mid-1700s. Two were on the shoreline, the Connecticut Gazette in 1755 at New Haven,
and the New London Summary in 1758. In 1764 the Connecticut Courant in Hartford became the first inland paper and is now the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. These three papers were instrumental in providing political “news and opinion” to Saybrook residents prior to Paul Revere’s famous ride in 1775 and the start of the American Revolution.

Connecticut had six newspapers by the start of the war, and they contributed to the spread of “American unity” among the colonists. But in big cities like Boston and New York, competing newspapers unified the loyalists in opposition. This contributed to the growing political polarization among the colonists prior to the Revolutionary War.

In these increasingly polarizing times, publishers were mindful of the strict (English) laws against libel and seditious writings. For their own protection, colonial publishers often disguised the names of authors with pseudonyms. That is why Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison used Publius for their Federalist articles. In 1765 Benjamin Frankin opposed the hated Stamp Act, but he took the precaution of keeping his name out of his newspaper.

By the mid-1700s it was clear that newspapers, like other inventions, had a double edge; they could legitimize governments, but they could also weaken or destroy them. This is why many governments have been reluctant to guarantee the freedom of the press.

Source material: 1975 address at Yale by history professor G. B. Warden.

Old Saybrook Historical Society, Inc.

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