Jonathan Trumbull never failed
In his store on Lebanon Hill.
Jonathan Trumbull has well been called the Cedar of Lebanon. The story of his early life is that of one of nature’s independent noblemen, than which no title is higher. His own brains and hands caused him to be a powerful influence; he made character, and character made him; he became poor, but nothing lives but righteousness, and character is everything.
The origin of his family name is interesting.
A Scottish king was out hunting, and was attacked by a bull. A young peasant threw himself before the king, twisted the bull’s horns, and saved the king’s life. The king gave him the name of “Turnbull,” with a coat of arms and the motto, Fortuna favet audaci. Hence the name Trumbull.
The wife of Trumbull, as we have shown, came from a family equally noble. She was the great-granddaughter of Robinson of Leyden, the patriarch of the church of the Pilgrim Fathers in Holland. It was he who said to the Pilgrims on their departure: “Go ye forth into the wilderness, and new light shall break forth from the Word.”
He had intended to follow the Pilgrims to America, but died in Holland.
Jonathan Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Conn., 1710. He was a successful trader at sea for a time; he then lost his ships and property and became a poor man, when he was called into the public service, and from that time devoted himself to patriotic duties, without any thought of poverty or riches, but only to fulfil the duties into which he had been called. He lived not for himself, but for others; not for the present, but for the future; he forgot himself, and it was fame.
His son, John Trumbull, the famous historical painter, pictures by anecdotes some of the scenes of his early home. Among these incidents is the following story, which carries its own lesson: