The Cogswells in America - citizen hylbom blog

Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, who had preceded him in the pastorate of Scotland
Parish. Her daughter became the wife of Hon. Samuel Huntington, who, in
1784, was made Chief Justice of the State of Connecticut, and in 1786 chosen
Governor, being re-elected each year until his death. Dr. Cogswell's sons and
Mrs. Cogswell's daughters were all highly educated and accomplished, so that
the Scotland parsonage was the centre of much social attraction. Among
the celebrities who were frequent visitors were Gen. Putnam, of Revolutionary
fame. Gov. Huntington and his brilliant brothers, and others prominent in the
State and country.
Dr. Cogswell experienced heavy bereavements in his family. Soon after
his settlement in Scotland Parish, his wife, Mrs. Alice Cogswell, died, and a
few weeks later his only daughter, at the age of twenty-three years, and spoken
of as " a young lady highly educated and accomplished in the useful as well as
ornamental parts of female learning," and there was engraved this inscription
to her memory : "She departed this vain and transitory life in firm hope of a
glorious immortality." Then followed, soon after, the death of his little son,
Septimus, and not long after his second marriage, the death of Mrs. Martha
Cogswell's youngest daughter, Betsey Devotion, a very beautiful and interesting
young lady. Her death occurred suddenly in March, 1775. In 17S5 his son,
Samuel Cogswell, a young lawyer of great promise, was accidentally shot dead.
In 1792 his oldest son, Dr. James Cogswell, of Xew Votk, died from disease
contracted by fidelity in his profession. Then, in 1795, his second wife died
suddenly of paralysis, and so his life seemed to be filled with personal bereave-
ments. And, added to all, in his later years of gospel ministrations there
arose some differences between him and his parish. His salary was poorly
paid and his people dissatisfied, showing that " length of days " was not alto-
gether desirable when one was settled in the pastorate for life. In his old age
there was provided for him a most delightful home in the family of his son in
Hartford, a seeming compensation to him for the provision he had made for
his own aged parents many years before, at his home in Canterbury. Conn.
In his last illness Rev. Dr. Cogswell seemed to lose all knowledge even of
his nearest friends. He forgot, indeed, his own name. When asked if he
remembered his son, Mason Fitch, he replied : " I do not recollect that I ever
had a son." But when asked whether he remembered the Lord Jesus Christ,
he replied at once by exclaiming, " Oh, yes, I do remember ffitn .' He is my
Lord axd Redef.mer!"
It is said that Mrs. Sigourney has touchingly described the scene of Rev.
Dr. Cogswell's death-bed.
Jttctnorauliai.
Some incidents are told of Rev. Dr. Cogswell. On one occasion he publicly protested
against sending a certain man, Ze])haniah -Switt, as deputy to the General Assembly of the
.State, declaring himself "grieved and displeased that men should have so little regard for
religion as to choose a man for deputy who has none." At the time of the death of his adopted
daughter. Mi.ss Ketsey Hevotion, it is narrated that "The bereaved parents, greatly overcnna