25. WILLIAM WILSON BUILT A LOG HOUSE

Soon Polly Wilson's house was built

On the side of Ragged Mountain

And Wilson preached‘ gainst sin and guilt

In the meeting house in Colebrook.

Polly Chaugham married Wilson,

William Wilson, preacher, soldier

Wounded in the fray at Monmouth,

Fighting in the Revolution;,

Lying; wounded near the cannon,

Molly Pitcher gave him water,

Dressed his wounded side and ankle,

Knowing; not the Light House story,

Saw him only as a soldier,

Bravely fighting for his country.

For her deeds that day in battle,

Molly Pitcher's name was honored;

Soldiers called her “Major Molly,”

Congress made her “Sergeant Molly.”

William Wilson built a log house

On the side of Ragged Mountain,

In the Little Light House Village,

With a fireplace strong and ample —

Wood was plenty for the cutting.

Often‘ till the midnight hour

Gleamed the fire light through the side-walls

Of his airy mountain cabin,

Light House for the weary travelers

Toiling on the Tunxis pathway.

Held in high esteem was Wilson,

Many years he was a preacher,

Limping slowly to the service,

Where the people gathered weekly,

Eager for his righteous sermons

And the sight of Polly Wilson

With her dozen restless children,

Scrubbed and polished for the solemn

Sunday prayer and lengthy sermon

By their father in the pulpit,

In a meeting house in Colebrook,

Hemlock Meeting House in Colebrook.

Fallen now that house of worship,

Baptist Meeting House in Colebrook,

Built in five and eighteen hundred.

Gone the pulpit and the altar,

And the names of those who worshipped

Now are written on the tombstones

In the Hemlock Cemetery.

Buried, too, the Hemlock pastors,

Bellows, Talmage, Morse and Dory,

Atwell, Garvin, Wilson, Watrous.

All their toil and preaching ended;

All their sermons are forgotten,

But the good they did is living

On in present generations.