James Brainerd Taylor, boyhood home . . . "The Hill," Middle Haddam, Connecticut

Alas, after some 10 years of personal searching in libraries and online, a sketch of the boyhood home of James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829) is found!

Via Google Books' digitalization (February 11, 2010) of Columbia University Library's copy of A New Tribute to the Memory of James Brainerd Taylor (New York: John S. Taylor, 1838), the sketch appears in the book's frontispiece.

For some reason, every copy this J. B. Taylor researcher has come across thus far of this second 1830's memoir on the Second Great Awakening "uncommon Christian" evangelist did not contain this frontispiece sketch. That such a sketch existed is known from pages 263-64 of A New Tribute when the compiler Fitch W. Taylor (1803-1865, James' younger brother) wrote in a footnote:

[The Hill] is the name by which the family residence of Mr. Taylor was known among his friends. See the sketch on the Title page. The scenery at this point of the Connecticut [River] is considered to be very fine.

The footnote is included in a paragraph from a July 29, 1828, letter from J. B. Taylor to his family and friends in New York City and elsewhere. The paragraph reads,

When shall we see you at the Hill? You know how gladly we all would welcome you. The Hill looks finely. The trees are doing well, and grow luxuriantly. The lover of scenery will never tire here, but always find enough to feast his love of the beautiful amid so much enchantment of nature.

"The Hill" most likely refers to the Hog Hill section of the early 19th-century ship building town of Middle Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut (est. 1767). Located on a summit overlooking the Connecticut River, Hog Hill was so named because a hog was once stuck underneath the Hill's now non-existent Congregational Church (built 1744). Today's Hog Hill Road is adjacent to the Middle Haddam Historic District (part of East Hampton, Connecticut, click here for photos). Since 1984, the district has been listed on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places.

Independence Day 1826 with James Brainerd Taylor, uncommon American Christian . . . Nassau Hall, Princeton University. . . fireworks vs. God's light

From Granby, Connecticut, Uncommon Christian Ministries wishes all Americans a happy Independence Day (Fourth of July). Happy 234th birthday, America!

Appropriately, here is the Tuesday, July 4, 1826, diary entry of the "uncommon Christian" American James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1826) as recorded in Fitch W. Taylor's A New Tribute to the Memory of James Brainerd Taylor (1838, available online and for free via Google Books). At the time, the Middle Haddam, Connecticut native and aspiring evangelist was a graduating senior at Princeton University (est. 1746), and America was celebrating its 50th birthday. Taylor is the primary founder (February 1825) of what is now called Princeton Evangelical Fellowship.

The candles in the windows that Taylor mentions in his diary were in Nassau Hall, his place of residence (student dorms) that also housed classrooms and offices. Completed in 1757, Nassau Hall is the oldest building on the Princeton campus. It was one of the largest buildings in colonial New Jersey. (See modern-day photo above.)

Interestingly, on the same festive day the "father of American music" and writer of such classics as "Oh, Susanna," "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Hard Times Come Again No More," Stephen Foster, was born in Lawrence, Pennsylvania. Sadly, and along with the young nation, J. B. Taylor and his fellow Princetonians mourned that day as its country's second and third presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died.

This evening the bell rung, and summoned each man to his post. Another bell was the signal to illuminate the windows in front. I was on my knees and alone, conducting our stated prayer meeting. By and by I walked out and beheld the illumination and the crowd. Did some hand light up these tapers [candles]? "God said, let there be light, and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).

For a half hour the crowd gazed at the illumined windows. Had one of ten of them during their lives ever spent a half hour in looking at their hearts in the light of conscience—the grave—the bar of God—of heaven and hell? Who of them had solemnly and seriously and prayerfully retired, even once, to investigate their character?

"This is the condemnation, that Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:19-20)—or lest they should be brought under conviction. Happy they "into whose hearts God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Assist me, Holy Spirit, and thus fit me for that city [the new Jerusalem] whose "light is the Lamb" (Revelation 21:23).

James Brainerd Taylor memoirs available online . . . FREE viewing, download and searching

Just a reminder that both the Memoir of James Brainerd Taylor (1833) and A New Tribute to the Memory of James Brainerd Taylor (1838) are available online. Both books--which are in the public domain (all pre-1923 books)--are fully searchable and can be viewed and downloaded for free via Google Book Search. Click here for the online Memoir and here for A New Tribute.

Both books were digitalized by Google from copies in the Harvard University Library. The 441-page second edition Memoir was digitalized on February 22, 2008 (Google erroneously states this is the 330-page first edition). The 440-page A New Tribute was digitalized on May 9, 2007. Southern Presbyterian pastors John Holt Rice and Benjamin Holt Rice compiled the Memoir, and Fitch W. Taylor, a younger brother of James, compiled A New Tribute.

This is perfect timing as the first books on Taylor since 1833 and 1838 were released in January and June 2008 (University Press of America): An Uncommon Christian: James Brainerd Taylor, Forgotten Evangelist In America's Second Great Awakening and the edited anthology Of Intense Brightness: The Spirituality of Uncommon Christian James Brainerd Taylor. See Uncommon Christian Ministries' timeline on Taylor for other recent activity.

Relatedly, Harvard University Library's copy of the Sketches of The Religious Experience and Labors of A Layman: With An Appendix by Jeremiah Humphre Taylor was digitalized by Google on December 11, 2007. Written in 1860 by one of James Brainerd Taylor's two older brothers, the 171-page autobiographical account contains information about James's childhood in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, his leadership involvement with an African-American Sunday school in New York City, and his evangelistic efforts in various spiritual revivals.

Also, a copy of volume one and volume two of The Flagship; Or, A Voyage Round The World, and Visits to Various Foreign Countries, in the United States Frigate "Columbia"... by Fitch W. Taylor was digitalized by Google on May 3, 2007. The 1840, 1st edition volumes by James's U.S. Navy Chaplain brother are an eyewitness account of the first U.S. Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe. For the digitalization, Google used copies from the New York Public Library.

For more information on the history and current activity of Google Book Search (est. 2004), see here (wikipedia entry) and here (from Google). FYI: Google just signed a ground breaking legal agreement with U.S. authors and publishers, thus allowing Google Book Search to add even more books to their already 7,000,000-plus online books.

For more online resources on James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829), see here.