Haddam, Connecticut
One of the county towns of Middlesex county. Incorporated, 1668. This town lies on both sides of Connecticut river. Haddam Society, on the W. side, is the largest part of the town, and the seat of justice. That part of Haddam on the E. side is called Haddam Neck. There is but little alluvial land in Haddam. The principal part of the township is hilly and stony, with considerable forests. There are valuable quarries of granite on both sides of the river. About 150 men are annually employed in quarrying it, and about $70,000 worth of stone is annually exported. There are many vessels built in Haddam. The timber in this quarter of the county is well adapted for that purpose. The village of Haddam is pleasant, and has a good prospect of the river. It lies 23 miles S. from Hartford and 8 S.E. from Middletown. Population, 1830, 2,830.
David Brainerd, the devoted missionary among the Indians, first drew his breath in Haddam.
"If the greatness of a character is to be estimated by the object it pursues, the danger it braves, the difficulties it encounters, and the purity and energy of its motives, David Brainerd is one of the greatest characters that ever appeared in the world. Compared with this standard of greatness, what little things are the Alexanders, the Cæsars, the conquerors of the whole earth. A nobler object no human or angelic mind could ever propose to itself than to promote the glory of the great Governor of the Universe, in studying and laboring to diffuse purity and happiness among his unholy and miserable creatures.
"'His life and diary among the Indians,' says a celebrated English divine, 'exhibits a perfect pattern of the qualities which should distinguish the instructor of rude and barbarous tribes; the most invincible patience and self denial, the profoundest humility, exquisite prudence, indefatigable industry, and such a devotedness to God, or rather such an absorption of the whole soul in zeal for the divine glory and the salvation of men, as is scarcely paralleled since the age of the apostles.'"
This faithful servant of Christ died at the house of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton, Mass., October 10, 1747, aged 30.
