Getting to know the Wolcotts
20 November—Today Litchfield must be celebrating the 298th birthday of Oliver Wolcott Sr. As everyone is taught upon arriving in Litchfield by birth or less drastic means, Wolcott Sr., born in Windsor, moved here in his 20s, after a year in Goshen, and died in his manse in inner-city Litchfield (affectionately known as the Borough) in 1797. What had been his land holding is about 30 yards from Miserly Meadow and he’s buried in East Cemetery, a short downhill walk from The Monitor’s editorial offices. Easy to get there, not so easy to get back. (Well nigh impossible to get unburied.)
For the benefit of the great undereducated, Oliver Wolcott Sr. was a Founding Father, being a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, as well as a general officer in the Connecticut militia, serving under George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Ollie Sr. was in fact the second Wolcott to be a Connecticut governor, his father, Roger, having been a colonial governor during the reign of Britain’s King George II. Ollie Sr. served as Samuel Huntington’s lieutenant governor for a decade and became governor when Huntington died in office on 5 January 1796. Gov. Oliver Wolcott Sr. himself died in office on 1 December 1797.
Oliver Wolcott Jr. governed Connecticut from 1817 to 1827, after serving as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and a judge on the old Circuit Court for the Second Circuit.
Ollie Jr. was actually born in Litchfield but died in New York City. He was known and (of course) not infrequently reviled for his moderate views, subordinating politics to the good of the state. Shame on him.
Ollie Jr. also chaired Connecticut’s constitutional convention in 1818 that, among other awful things, lowered taxes and disestablished the Congregational Church. Sure, established churches had been proscribed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1791, but religions have always been able to get away with all manner of crap. Connecticut was the last state to officially disestablish a church, by the way.
Today also marks the final ride of the Pony Express in 1861, thus saving generations of horses from torture and death.
And, lest we forget, today President Joe Biden turns 82. We wish him all the best and many, many happy, nonpolitical returns. Really . . .