For those of you not in the know, October is American Archives Month.\u00a0 It’s time to celebrate the value of historic records.\u00a0 Every week this month, I will post tidbits from the Historical Society’s Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.\u00a0 If you have requests for specific topics, please let me know.<\/p>\n
The Society is fortunate to have a small conservation fund, and every so often we are able to have a few things treated.\u00a0 Last week three letters written by Augustus Cincinnatus Hand were returned by the conservator who was treating them.\u00a0 Hand was a student at the Litchfield Law School between 1827-1828.\u00a0 He came to Litchfield from Vermont, and settled in New York after completing his course of study.\u00a0 He served in the United States Congress from 1839-1841.\u00a0 He later became a State Senator in 1844 followed by the position of Associate Judge of the Supreme Court (NY) 1847-1855.\u00a0 The home he built in 1849 in Elizabethtown, NY is part of the Hand-Hale Historic District.\u00a0 His three sons became lawyers, and two of his grandsons became U.S. Circuit Court judges.<\/p>\n
Here are a few things he had to say:<\/p>\n
Letter to his father, Samuel Hand, 1827 Nov 12<\/p>\n
In the morning I called upon & introduced myself to his honor Judge Gould being ushered into the presence of an old grey headed sinner of between 50 & 60 who received me with the greatest cordiality took & interest in my affairs introduced me to his wife (who did the same by procuring me a washer woman sent his son to reconnoitre the boarding houses etc. etc.<\/em><\/p>\n In explaining his boarding situation to his father (the students often roomed in one house and boarded in another), Hand says of his host:<\/p>\n E. Harrison Esquire Town Clerk Litchfield is the gentleman_ The only house under 2.75_ Our table is set for Mr. & Mrs. H. _ A Doctor_ A Lawyer_ Editor & fellow student who has been here about a year_ The only mar to our society is that I am unfortunately the only Jacksonian<\/span> in the family all besides being warm Adamsites_<\/em><\/p>\n He goes on to say,<\/p>\n This is indeed the place for Law_ It is all Law_<\/em><\/p>\n The following January, Hand wrote to his father again.\u00a0 This time he had a different motivation than reporting on his arrival.\u00a0 He says,<\/p>\n My dear Father_<\/em><\/p>\n I set down to write you a long letter I hope a good one_ But as Shakespeare says, “there is<\/span> a rub<\/span>” & this shall come first that when it is disposed<\/span> of you may read the other part with better appetite_ is to say My dear father I have no notion of giving you a ‘pill’ in molasses but the pill & then the molasses.\u00a0 “Tis about cash!” Without letters like this, we would not have such a good idea of what Litchfield looked like during the early republic, or what a law student experienced upon arriving here. Hand gives further explanations of the costs involved in attending the school, the actual work involved, and the personalities in town at the time.<\/p>\n Thanks to the Web site findagrave.com, I can tell you the inscription on Hand’s tomb:<\/p>\n Here rests all that is mortal of Augustus C. Hand, born September 4, 1803, died March 8, 1878.\u00a0 A learned lawyer, a faithful representative of the people in state and nation,\u00a0 a just judge, a blameless citizen, a loving husband and father.<\/em><\/p>\n
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