The Reward of Merit
watercolor academic certificate on paper
presented to Freegift Coggeshall for excellence in his Class of Writing by his teacher Erastus Goodwin
dated Milford 20th Sept. 1809, lower register
7 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches.

According to the historical record, Freegift Coggeshall, Jr. was born in 1797 in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut. He married Sarah Isbell (1801-1879) in 1823 and the couple had two children together before his death in on August 4, 1828. Sarah remarried in 1834 in Milford, and shortly after the marriage, she and her new husband, Aaron Morriss, relocated to Tallmadge, Ohio.

Coggesshall's teacher, Captain Erastus D. Goodwin (1772-1853) was a native of Morris, Litchfield County, Connecticut. He was one of five children born to Revolutionary War veteran Nathaniel and Elizabeth Marsh Goodwin. There is no immediately apparent familial connection between Erastus and Argus Goodwin, but they are likely both descendants of Puritan immigrant Nathaniel Goodwin, a cobbler who came to the colonies in 1645 and whose family spread and settled throughout the Connecticut and Massachusetts areas.