Many of his race and family have since become pioneers in various
parts of the world, and this country owes them much for blazing out the
way in which others might follow; but young Israel Putnam was the first
of them--the pioneer of pioneers, in the great American movement.
A second time he set himself to the building of a house and the
establishing of a home, and as he found much of the material ready at
hand--stone for foundations and timber for the building--it was not long
before the farmer and his family had another roof-tree of their own
above their heads. This structure has gone the way of the first, and
long since disappeared, traces of the cellar and foundations only being
visible; but the large dwelling-house which he later built, and in which
he died, still stands at a little distance away. After clearing a
portion of the land, and working the stones with which it was
plentifully bestrewed into dividing walls, he planted an apple-orchard,
sowed grain of various sorts, and increased as rapidly as possible his
flocks and herds of live stock. His chief, perhaps his only, assistant
in these earlier labors was a negro servant, who figures, though not
greatly to his credit, in the narration of an adventure in which his
master took part, about two years after his arrival in Connecticut.
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