Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. PARENTAGE. The traveller on the Hartford and New Haven Railroad is presented with a fine view of the old town of Wallingford, in New Haven county. The main street lies along the summit of a gentle ridge, and is about half a mile east of, and nearly parallel with, the railroad. This street is adorned with many venerable old mansions, which are surrounded by gardens, abounding in fruit and ornamental trees. It also boasts of no less than two church-spires, visible from the great thoroughfare, which serve to remind the traveller that the inhabitants of the town are religiously inclined. The intervening slope and valley are dotted with beautiful dwellings, and with costly structures reared for mechanical purposes. The dwellings, exhibiting a variety of modern architecture, are, like those on the main street, mostly surrounded with highly-ornamented gardens; and, as seen from the railroad, in summer, the whole village presents a most inviting s aspect to the voluntary exiles from the crowded city, who seek a retreat in the country during the warm season. Among the earliest records of Wallingford are found the names of Cook and Hall. Both these names appearamong the original settlers of the town, who came from England; and both are enrolled among its inhabitants at the present day. My father, Lyman Cook, was a descendant of these two families. My paternal grandfather, Amos Cook, had ten children,— six sons and four daughters. Of the third wife my father was born, and was the favorite son of his old age. I have never been able to learn that my grandfather was much distinguished among his neighbors for anything, except for the ugliness of his person, the benevolence of his heart, and his devotion to the forms of the Episcopal church. He was a man of marked featu...