THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION 5 
Dudley Field became noted as a local historian of towns and 
counties in Massachusetts and Connecticut. For example, he 
wrote histories of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and the 
city of Pittsfield. 
Such histories, as well as his sermons, were in the best New 
England tradition. A notable sermon of Parson Field was a 
“Warning Against Drunkenness,” which he delivered with 
stirring effect at the execution of a violent-tempered man who 
had murdered his own wife while drunk. In exhorting this 
unfortunate, who was about to be hanged, the eloquent 
preacher declaimed: “Before yonder sun shall set in the west 
your probationary state shall be closed forever. ‘This day you 
will either lift up your eyes in hell, being in torment, or, 
through the rich, overflowing, and sovereign grace of God, be 
carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.” 
The old parson’s New England conscience forced him to 
strict measures even when his natural kindness urged him 
otherwise. Thus a sense of duty forbade permitting member- 
ship in his church to the Unitarian followers of William E1- 
lery Channing. The Reverend David Dudley Field was never 
inclined to compromise with what seemed to him contrary to 
his duty. He was of the stern old stock that saw life in the 
light of strict moralities and unbending purpose. ‘The small 
villages throughout the western hills of New England re- 
mained conservative long after Harvard and the cities en- 
couraged new ideas. 
The mother of Cyrus was the former Submit Dickinson, 
called, as a girl “the Somers beauty.’ She was the daughter of 
Noah Dickinson, of the village of Somers, Connecticut, who, 
like Timothy Field, had served as captain in the Revolution. 
As was customary in those times, she married early and bore a 
large family. Curiously enough, her husband was accustomed 
to call her “Mrs. Field” instead of “Submit,” even in the 
privacy of their home. A picture of her in middle life shows 
a resigned woman with good features and kind eyes, wearing 
