Reviews, Notes and Comments 329
shown as the Josh Billings house, on
August 8, 1845, from John
Tift, jr., for $1100 and resold it to
John Tift on January 3,
1848, for $1050.
That Josh Billings had always dreamed of
buying back the
old place in Norwalk is attested by a
correspondence, covering
a long number of years, between the
humorist and W. J. Alley,
of Norwalk, a lifelong friend of
Billings. The daughter of
Mr. Alley who is still living in
Norwalk, remembers as a little
girl when her father moved to the
residence on Monroe Street
just around the corner from Whittelsey
Street in November,
1857, that Shaw was in correspondence
with Alley about the
possibility of buying back the old place
if it should ever come
up for sale.
Reference is made to Shaw's pranks and
practical
jokes. We are told that--
On one occasion he played special havoc
with the Mill-
wright denomination who were preaching
the doctrine of per-
sonal ascension. One Sunday morning he
fired up an old boiler
which was on the opposite side of the
street from the meeting
house and he arranged it so that it
would blow up during the
process of the meeting. The explosion
was complete at the de-
sired time and caused great commotion.
The faithful believed
that their time had come and they would
soon be mounting
heavenward.
This bit of reminiscence by an aged
resident of
Norwalk may not be strictly historic.
The "Millwright"
denomination, of course, was the
Millerite Adventists
who in 1843 were expecting the second
coming of Christ
and the end of the former terrestrial
order of things.
DR. AUSTIN SCOTT
The New Jersey Historical Society of
October, 1922,
chronicles the death of Dr. Austin
Scott, formerly Presi-
dent of Rutgers College, who was born
near Toledo,
Ohio, August 10, 1848, and who died at
Granville Cen-
ter, Massachusetts, August 15, 1922.