THE FIELD FAMILY.
     No history of Middlesex county, and especially no history of Haddam would be complete without some account of Rev. David D. Field, D. D., who, though some account of Rev. David D. Field, D. D. who, though not born in that town or county, has inseparably connected his name with both by his contribution to their early history.  Dr. Field was the son of Timothy Field, a captain in the Revolutionary war, from the town of Guilford, or that portion of it which subsequently became the town of Madison, and was born on the 20th of May 1781.  After the usual preparatory studies he entered Yale College in the class of 1798, and graduated in due course in 1802, in a class which embraced Isaac C. Bates, United States Senator from Massachusetts, Jeremiah Evarts, Governors Tomlinson and Pond, of Connecticut, and others of equal eminence.  He studied theology with Dr. Backus, at Somers, and while there made the acquaintance of Submit Dickinson, a daughter of Capt. Noah Dickinson, a soldier under Putnam in the French war, and afterward in the Revolutionary war, who he married, and who was the mother of his ten children.
     Dr. Field was settled over the Congregational church in Haddam on the 11th of April 1804; here he remained in charge of this church until the 11th day of April 1818.  After his dismission he made a missionary tour, on horse back, into what was then a wilderness, as far as Buffalo, and returning passed through the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which he reached on Saturday night.
     At the request of the people he remained there and preached the next day.  Subsequently receiving a call from that church on the 25th of August 1818, he settled as its pastor and remained there for 18 years.  While in Haddam, Dr. Field, in addition to the faithful performance of his duties in a very large parish, embracing the whole of the town lying west of the Connecticut River, became much interested in historical investigations, especially in gathering up local histories of towns and churches and in studying the memorials of the worthies of New England.  He became an active member, and at one time vice-president of the Historical Society of Connecticut, and the corresponding member of the Historical Societies of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and made many valuable contributions to the stock of local historical knowledge.  In 1819, he published a very important history of Middlesex county, and about the same time a history of the town of Haddam, which are the foundations for the histories which have been subsequently written of that county and that town.
     Upon the termination of Mr. Field's pastorate in Stockbridge, he was again called to the pastorate of the church in Haddam where he was installed over the people of his early care on the 11th of  April 1836.  In 1844, a division in the large church took place and a new church was organized at Higganum, and over this Dr. Field was settled, and continued pastor of that church until July 1850; making a service over a Congregational church in the one town for more than 28 years.
     Doctor Field also prepared an elaborate historical discourse for the town and cit of Middletown which was delivered on the 13trh day of November 1850.  Doctor Field also prepared, as a labor of love, a genealogy of the Brainerd Family, of something more than 300 pages, which was published after he had ceased statedly to occupy any pulpit.  He gives his reasons for this work in the preface, as follows:  " The Rev. Israel Brainerd, from Haddam, a class-mate of my only brother, in Yale College, was for some years the pastor of the first church in Guilford.  One of the prominent members of my own class was William Fowler Brainerd, who for many years was an able and eloquent lawyer in Connecticut. *   *  *  Soon after I began to preach, I was settled as pastor of the church in Haddam, where Daniel Brainerd lived, the ancestor of all the Brainerds in the United States.  *  *  *  In my walks I often passed the spot where his youngest son, the Hon. Hezekiah Brainerd, lived and reared a large and very remarkable family of children; among these were the missionaries David and John Brainerd. *  *  *  *  *  *  *  In passing the spot I could hardly refrain from pausing and meditating on the piety which existed there a hundred years before, and especially upon the extraordinary lives and characters of the two missionaries."
     Doctor Field was famous the country round as a hard working and faithful pastor, and was called by the hardheaded people of his early time, whose chief enjoyment was the reading of the sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Nathaniel Emmons, and Doctor Bellamy, "a great sermonizer."  He often, like all the preachers of those days, delivered what were called "all day discourses" - that is, a consecutive and logical discussion of the topic, quite too long for a single church service.
     Few of the people of to-day have very much conception of the kind of service which the New England pastor performed seventy-five years ago.  It was preaching in the morning, preaching in the afternooon, the meeting in the evening - which was called the "third service" - and then the evening prayer meeting, held night after night in one or the other of the outlying school districts of the town, so that those who remember the announcement for the week in the old Haddam church, can recall the sturdy physique of Dr. Field in the pulpit, stuck like the nest of the bar swallow far up on the side of the church, appointing a meeting for every evening of the week in one or the other of these far-off school districts, to begin, and the phrase was, "by early candle light."
     Two brothers, members of the Brainerd family, were, during Dr. Field's last pastorate in Haddam, led by him to erect an academy in the town, and for those times to endow it handsomely.
     The last days of Dr. Field were spent in Stockbridge, and there he died April 15th 18667, almost 87 years old.
     Of Dr. Field's ten children, seven were born in Haddam, one of whom died in infancy.
     The eldest, David Dudley Field, was born February  13th 1805, at Haddam, in what is known as the old Parmelee House, now standing.  At the age of nine he was taken from the village school into his father's study and there taught Latin, Greek, and mathematics.  At fourteen he entered an academy at Stockbridge, under a famous teacher, Jared Curtis in 1821, he entered Williams College, where he distinguished himself as a scholar; graduated in 1825, and went to Albany to study law.  When he left home his father took him into his study, gave him a Bible to be his guide through life - a book which he keeps to this day - and kneeling down  commended his first born son to the care and protection of Almighty God.  He remained a few months at Albany in the office of Harmanus Bleeker, and then removed to New York and entered the office of the Sedgwick Brothers, who were also from Stockbridge; lawyers of distinction, culture, and liberal practice.  Upon the death of one of them Mr. Field became the partner of the survivor.  He was admitted an attorney and solicitor in 1828, and counsellor in 1830, and he is at this writing, November 1884, still in full practice at the bars of the State and Federal Courts.  Mr. Field has never held office, except for a few months in 1877, when he was elected to Congress to fill a vacancy.  His practice as a lawyer has been various, extensive, and of the most important character.  Litigations involving large sums of money, large personal interests, and great and disputed legal principles have occupied his office, almost form the commencement of his practice.  For years he has stood in the front rank of the lawyers of the United States, and has probably argued more causes involving questions of Constitutional law in the highest court of his own State, and of the United States, than any living lawyer.  His services in the cause of law reform, beginning with pamphlets written in 1839, have been continuous and important, resulting in the general agitation of that subject in this country, and finally in the adoption of Codes, either framed by himself, or modelled upon those framed substantially by him, in the State of New York, and in various other States of the Union.  The Code of Civil Procedure was adopted in at least 24 States and Territories, and the Code of Criminal Procedure in some nineteen States and Territories; while in one, California, the five codes which Mr. Field was so largely instrumental in preparing were adopted.   In the efforts to secure a codification of international law, Mr. Field has borne a foremost part.  This topic was presented by him to the British Association for the promotion of Social Science, held at Manchester in 1866.  In 1877, he prepared and published "Draft Outlines of an international Code," which attracted great attention and discussion, and has been translated into French, Italian and Chinese.  Mr. Field is, and always was a democrat, but he belonged to the free soil wing of that party.  He supported Mr. Van Buren as candidate for the presidency against General Cass, and occupied a leading position in the republican party during the whole period of the Civil war, taking the strongest stand in favor of an indissoluble union and of its maintenance by all the means at the command of the nation.  He dissented from some of the reconstruction measures, but voted for Mr. Hayes for the presidency; he, however, believed that he was not elected, and took part with the democratic party in the struggle which followed that election.  Mr. Field, in the controversies of the profession, is a formidable, unrelenting antagonist, and presses with the utmost earnestness upon the court, all the considerations properly available for his client.  But to those who know him as a friend, he is genial, kindly, and beloved.   Perhaps to see him at his best is to see him walking or driving over the hills and along the pathways with which he was familiar in his boyhood, in the old town where he was born.  Quite recently there has been published a selection from the writings and forensic arguments of Mr. Field, in two volumes, which bring quite within the reach of all some of the best specimens of his remarkable power.
     Dr. Field's second child, Emilia, married Josiah Brewer, who became a missionary to Smyrna, and his history is well known.  Her eldest son, Fisk P. is an eminent Greek scholar; her second son, David J., after having been a justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas, is now the circuit judge of the United States for the district which embraces that State.
     Timothy, Dr. Field's third child, entered the United States navy, and died at an early age.
     Matthew D., the fourth child, born in Haddam, June 26th 1811, became a railroad engineer, and the latter part of his life dwelt in Southwick, Massachusetts, where he died, March 1870.  He was the means of bringing to the attention of his brother, Cyrus, the project of a telegraph across Newfoundland, and spent two years in its construction, and may be said to have suggested to his energetic and successful brother, Cyrus, the great enterprise with which his name is connected.
     Jonathan E., the fifth child, was born in Haddam, July 11th 1813, graduated at Williams College in 1832; studied law with his brother, David Dudley, in New York.  He was a scuccessful successful and prosperous lawyer in Stockbridge, and held an honorable place at Berkshire bar.  He was a democrat in politics, but united with the republicans on the breaking out of the Civil war.  He was elected to the State Senate of Massachusetts, and became and remained its president during three successive terms, and so long as he continued a member of the body.  He died on the 23d of April 1868.
     Stephen J. Field was born in Haddam on the 4th of November 1816.  In 1829, he went with his sister Emelia to the East, where he remained for two years and a half visiting Ephesus, Scio, and indeed all places of interest in the Levant.  He returned from the East in 1832, and in the fall of 1833, entered Williams College, where he graduated in 1837, taking the highest honors of his class.  He spent some time as a student at law in the office of John Van Buren, at Albany; subsequently entered his brother's office in new York, and being admitted to the bar in 1841, became his partner, a connection which was continued for seven years.  In 1848, he sailed for San Francisco via Panama, and landed at San Francisco on the 28th of December 1849, with $10 in his pocket.
     He was fortunate in his movements in California, and his capacity and powers were speedily recognized.  He possessed that firmness of character, that determination, and that moral and physical courage, which were essential to the holding of a position of real influence among the class of people who then occupied California, and the position which of right belonged to him was speedily recognized.  In a volume of reminiscences, printed by Mr. Field for his friends, he gives a most interesting account of his career in that new State, but the limits prescribed to us do not allow of quotations.  In 1851, Mr. Field became a member of the Legislature of California, and took the most active part in the framing of laws for that State; and he probably did more toward laying foundations for the legislation and legal system of California than any other one person.  The mining laws of that State came largely from his hands.  It is said, he was seldom absent from his seat; he carefully watched all measures proposed, and there were few debates in which he did not participate.  At the close of the session, Mr. Field resumed his practice as a lawyer, and devoted the next six years unremittingly to it; so that his practice became, perhaps, the largest and most remunerative of any lawyer in that State, and he was recognized by all as among the leaders of the bar.  In 1857, he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court, and on a vote of 93,000 he received a majority of 17,000 over both his opponents.  In September, 1859, he became chief justice, and occupied that position as long as he remained upon that bench.  With great industry and patience he addressed himself to his judicial duties, and established a reputation as a judge second to that of none occupying a State bench; so that when, in 1863, Congress decided to create a judicial district on the west coast, and have a judge represent it on the Supreme bench, the whole Pacific delegation, senators and representatives, democrats and republicans, went in a body to President Lincoln and urged the appointment of Judge Field.  No other name was presented by the bar of California in opposition.  He was once nominated by the president and unanimously confirmed.  His commission was dated on the 10th of March, but Judge Field did not take the oath of office until the 20th of May, and the reason the judge gave was that the 20th of May was his father's birthday, and that he would be delighted that his son should on that day assume such an exalted position.  Judge Field has now been 21 years on the bench of the Supreme Court, and is the senior justice, with the single exception of Mr. Justice Miller, who took his seat 10 months later.  Space does not permit a mention of the important opinions written by Mr. Justice Field; opinions by the court, and opinions dissenting from the judgment of the court; all of which are of great importance, all well reasoned and demanding from the student careful consideration.  An appreciative review of Mr. Field's career as a jurist was published some years ago by Prof. John Norton Pomeroy, to which those desiring familiarity with his official career must be referred.  This summery is well worth study, but far more worth the study is his judicial history as exhibited in the causes he has heard and decided, to be found in the reports of the Supreme Court of California, of the Circuit to which he is assigned on the west coast, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, In 1880, Mr. Justice Field was prominently before the country as a candidate for the presidency - he was not nominated.  The delegates from his own State, California, voted against him, and probably on the ground that he had rendered a decision - a most righteous decision - holding a city ordinance of San Francisco, aimed against the Chinese, unconstitutional.  Many republicans regretted that Mr. Justice Field did not receive the nomination, knowing the patriotic position which he held during our civil war, and his belief that law, while it remains law, should be reverenced and obeyed, and they would gladly have trusted him with the presidency, even though elected under the name democrat.
     The remaining children of Dr. Field, Cyrus W., Henry M. and Mary E., were born in Stockbridge.
Source:  History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, Published New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884 - Page 408