Catch'd on Fire:: The Journals of Rufus Hawleyvon, Connecticut

Rufus Hawley was a man of extraordinary actions and little means. The Yale-educated pastor served Farmington's Parish of Northington, presently Avon, for forty-eight years through some of the most tumultuous periods in the town's history. Hawley prayed with the Continental army during the American Revolution, supported abolition, searched for lost children, performed surgeries, survived smallpox and floods and established a library. Although he was able to unite a congregation, Reverend Hawley was overcome by heartbreak as loved ones perished and allegations of arson were directed toward him after his meetinghouse burned to the ground in 1818. Join Avon town historian Nora Oakes Howard as she combs through fifty years of journal entries to tell the story of a deeply complex man and a devoted pastor of his community.

Nora Howard is town historian of Avon, Connecticut, and historian of the Avon Congregational Church. She is the author of Stories of Wethersfield and the photograph history Avon. Mrs. Howard was director of the historical societies of Avon and Wethersfield, Connecticut, worked at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and served as historian of First Church of Christ in Wethersfield. Her articles on local history have appeared in Wethersfield Life and Avon Life, and her writings have won awards from the American Association for State and Local History and the Connecticut League of Historical Societies. Ms. Howard earned degrees in American studies from Hampshire College (BA) and George Washington University (MA). As a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland, she helped annotate the Samuel Gompers Papers.