Madison

Known as East Guilford in 1824

Saturday, August 21^st, 1824, 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM

On Friday, August 20, 1824, an invitation from Ichabod L. Scranton was delivered to various members of the East Guilford community. The invitation read, “You are requested to appear in front of Captain Curtis Wilcox on Sat 2 0’clock PM for the purpose of saluting General Lay Fayette who will be passing here tomorrow afternoon.” The instructions included directions for the notice to be passed on to “captains” in other districts in town. 

The appointed place to gather and salute Lafayette as he passed through town was at the home of Curtis Wilcox, East Guilford’s postmaster. Wilcox operated the Post Office from his home on the Boston Post Road across from the town green and the meeting house in the center of the village. Clearly Ichabod Scranton, a prominent member of the East Guilford community had been in communication with the “Committee of Arrangements” for Lafayette’s travel through Connecticut and did his duty by passing along the word announcing the arrival time of the General. According to Madison’s Heritage, a local history, Ichabod Lee Scranton was “Captain of a Military Company of 100 men to honor General Lafayette when he was in town.”  

Newspaper reports gave only a brief glimpse of Lafayette’s time in East Guilford, merely stating that he was “anxious to press forward and to avoid delay while the horses were changing, he rode on half a mile in a one-horse wagon and then was overtaken by the carriage.” Obviously riding ahead in a one-horse wagon would not get the General to his destination any faster, but it might have saved some valuable time in greeting the crowd by being whisked out of town a little sooner.  

 Stories in Madison have been handed down through the years about events that supposedly took place during Lafayette’s short visit to East Guilford. One tale suggests that the General stopped at the home of Captain Frederick Lee, a War of 1812 hero of the Revenue Cutter Service, and even that a ball was held at his house for Lafayette. But given the short time Lafayette was in East Guilford, this story is unlikely. However, it is possible that a party took place in honor of Lafayette that day, even if the great man was not able to attend.

It has also been said that Lafayette stopped at the home of Abigail Meigs Bishop, the daughter of Phineas Meigs, reportedly the “last New England man killed in the Revolutionary War”, and the widow of Revolutionary War soldier, Captain Jehiel Meigs, who died of illness in camp at Trenton in 1776. As it was customary for Lafayette to be introduced to veterans and widows as he passed through towns on his United States tour, it is conceivable that eighty-two-year-old Abigail was brought to shake the hand of Lafayette when he visited East Guilford.